Homemade

Everyone is blessed with talents.

Mine aren't in the kitchen.

Sure, I like to say I can make a good pie - and once in a while I get daring and try to make something else - like fudge that won't harden.

But my mom and sister have a talent. They can make birthday cakes.

(Yes, they have plenty of other talents - For instance, Lori makes great chocolate chip cookies and enchiladas and chocolate angel food cake.)

Mom has always been crafty. She made all my Halloween costumes. And, when I was little, my mom always made my birthday cakes.

It didn't seem to matter what I requested. Snoopy, Garfield, Smurfs, Batman, George Brett. She made it.

She and my sister, Lori, still do this for my kids. And I appreciate it.

My kids have requested some tough cakes, too - from Snoopy to Cat and the Hat and even a "Three Little Pigs" Cake complete with a house of sticks and house of straw.

Here's the latest - which, according to my sister, was one of the simplest. Jordie, for her fourth birthday, wanted a "Frozen" cake.

Mom took cardboard to make the ice mountains. She ordered the figures. She always makes a great red velvet cake.

Here's Jordie's cake from last year - they made it look like her favorite Hello Kitty.

Could I do this? Well, maybe sort of - but I'm sure my tracings would cause a bigger ear or the coloring would look like a giant glob.

Here's Brett and Kaci's birthday cakes from their eighth birthday in March. Mom somehow made the basketball out of cake for Kaci, who says basketball is her favorite sport. Meanwhile, Brett wanted the Batman cake.

Happy Birthday Kaci and Brett

Here's some close ups of the girls' cakes, made by my mother and sister and my mother-in-lawKaci and her jungle cake.

Brett and her three-little pig cake

My mom made the houses out of small food chopper boxes. The straw house is pampas grass, the stick house is pretzels and the brick house is Hershey bars.

Oh Christmas Tree ... We found you.

I like to call this story of the quest for the perfect tree.

Not a brown tree. Or a tree trunk.

Not a Charlie Brown tree. Or a hall tree

A big, pump, green tree is what we were after.

It was a dark and snowy night.

Ok, not really, but it was a cool, crisp day. And there was a perfect tree to be found amid a small clump of pines at Hullets Christmas Tree Farm near Hutchinson.

So we went traipsing. We ran. And we managed to secure a tree that would be deemed perfect by just about anyone, including Charlie Brown. 

By nightfall, that tree had lights. It had ornaments. It had class. It was a Bickel-perfect Christmas tree. And the girls were happy. 

But it's three weeks later. Christmas music is off the radio. The tree droops in the living room. And I am sad. 

I still have Charlie Brown Christmas on DVD. 

A successful deer season

Another year of successful deer hunting. I bagged an 8-pointer. John got a buck and a doe, and now we are in the middle of processing nearly 200 pounds of deer meat! The girls love it. So far, meals have included deer steak, deer breakfast sausage and deer brats!

Gypsum October Festival

The girls and I attended the 2008 Gypsum October Festival this year. I haven’t been back for the decades-old tradition since I graduated from high school, when our high school band director forced me to march with my trombone in the band (Yeah, he hated me :) ).

I grew up in the little Saline County town of Gypsum, population 400-something, if even that. I always loved the October Festival, included dressing up for the parade (I’ve been everything from Wonder Woman and Snoopy in a float, to the Red Baron and a pioneer on a covered wagon. I always won, too!).

Now, maybe the girls can enjoy it a little bit. At least, they liked the suckers all the politicians and others threw out.

Here are a few of the pictures from this year.

My dad, Gary Bickel, and his 1948 John Deere B.

We used to decorate it at Christmas. It was awesome. Now he doesn't do that as much. Probably because I'm not around to help and beg him to decorate it.

Dad, and the B.

OK, I'm not the best picture taker. But here is the backside of Rep. Josh Svaty, who was throwing candy. I doubt he'd read this, but if he did, I'd like to tell him I'm impressed with how long he stayed at the festival and mingled and hung around. Most politicans aren't that considerate. Anyway, he was there a good six or seven hours, and I don't think he was even hanging out with anyone.

My mom and Brett. Brett loves cows (one of her first words was cow and moo), and for some reason, kept calling the horses cows. At least she is a beef eater, like her mother.

Like I said, Brett loves the horses, or as she puts it, Cows. Aunt Lori needs to take her to her farm to see their stockers. She'd be ecstatic.

The girls sitting at the Gypsum gazebo. This is a rare moment of them sitting still.

Brett, my sister, Lori, Kaci, my nephew Jason and my brother-in-law Randy Hahn. They're watching the parade going down Main Street Gypsum.

Lori and Kaci watch the parade.

Grandma Karen and Brett.

Daddy's football team

The weather is colder. I love sweatshirt weather and watching football. Sadly, however, the football season is coming to an end.

I guess.

My husband coaches high school football. I usually go to the home games, at least for a little while.

With two girls, however, this proves to be a little difficult.

They won't sit in the stands. They won't stand on the sideline.

They want to run, run and run some more.

So, we walk. Around the track. For several miles.

We eat Fig Newtons and Cheerios and Teddy Grahams. And drink milk.

But when the food runs out, so do the girls.

They are home and in bed by half time.

I'm sure they like K-State ...

But they wouldn't sit still

Sometimes I wonder what I’m thinking.

I had visions of darling girls dressed in purple, cheering on the Kansas State University football team alongside dear old Mom.

What John and I got on that September venture was two toddlers, pissed off they couldn’t run, climb and everything else that 18-month-old girls would rather be doing.

Obviously, they wouldn’t like to sit at a football game.

We should have known it would be bad when they wouldn’t even sit still during tailgating. John and I chased them around an enclosed tennis court.

The game, however, was worse.

Brett would watch the jumbotron a little bit, but Kaci didn’t care about the music, the players on the field or the cheers from the stands. She wrestled to try to get out of my arms, wanting to climb the stairs and run, run, run.

I fed her those Goldfish crackers for a while, which seemed to appease her. When they ran out, we moved on to Teddy Grahams.

I gave her to John, who had to leave the stadium by the end of the first quarter.

My venture ended at half time. Brett was mad. Poo was running from her pants. She probably ate too many hot dogs.

My husband says he’ll never go to another K-State game again with the girls in tow.

Not that he cares. He’s a KU fan.

Future K-State graduates

At least, that's what Mom hopes! Dad, on the other hand ...

Kaci and Brett

Bickel and Kaci at the Kansas State football game.

A rare moment of her being good.

Uncle Scott, John and Brett

Uncle Scott teaches Brett to clap for K-State.

Pronto Pup, Pronto Pup, Yum Yum Yum

Kaci says "yummy."
Girls at the fair. They were having a blast.
Finishing the pup.

Little Brett loves food. And Pronto Pups.
Kaci and her first pup. I think she likes it.
Kaci tries to eat the stick

I know my girls are a little bit like me.

They had their first Pronto Pup at the Kansas State Fair. And they loved it.

If you don’t know what a Pronto Pup is, well, its one of the fair’s top stick foods. What it isn’t is a corn dog. Pronto Pups are made with a mixture of rice and wheat flour. They’re a state fair staple. As the sign says on the famous yellow buildings – Banquet on a Stick.

So the girls had lunch in their little red wagon while we meandered around the fairgrounds.

Unfortunately, bad batter this year caused the pups to fall apart, which, in turn meant the girls’ first dogs fell apart, which means that it was all over them.

We had to dump out the wagon and wipe it down. The girls were a mess.

But all in all, they had fun. They loved it. They take after dear old mom.

Pacifier advice

After my latest column on the girls regarding little Kaci and her pacifier, I received a ton of e-mails from readers with advice, which I plan to try soon. I'll let you know if anything works. Here's a few experts from the letters and e-mails.

They won't take it to college!

Just read your woes with weaning from the binky... The good news is my eldest didn’t go to wsu with his two weekends ago. :-) He was pretty attached to his, AND his blankie.What I finally did was start clipping the end off of them. It took about three clips, and there was little, if anything, for him to hold onto.Then I had to convince him we’d lost all three of them, and they no longer MADE binkies anymore. (all gone!)Good luck. :-)

Lose them for good

I raised a family of 4 children along with my husband. Obviously most of us do whatever we need to do to have peace and quiet and especially like you said when you are at restaurants, church, public outings etc..

Our son was the most addicted to his pacifier but as he approached 18 months of age I decided as he lost them they would not be replaced. He had lost the last one and had gone almost 6 weeks without one. We had come in late one night in June from harvesting wheat and I was on the phone when my 4 year old daughter came running down from her room waving a pacifier and shouting "I found one, I found one". I hurriedly got off the phone and grabbed that pacifier and proclaimed to her to absolutely not let her brother see that thing--he'd gone 6 weeks and we weren't starting in again.

Really I don't have any sure fire methods other than if she really seems not ready maybe wait another 3 months or so and try again. I have to chuckle now that I have daughters going through the same thing with their babies. My daughter weaned her son off his pacifier pretty much cold turkey and really didn't take very long--2-3 days and he was doing OK. Good luck and have fun.

A been there, done that mom and glad it's history. (I love my kids dearly but glad God made seasons of life for a reason) The season of grandparenting is wonderful.

Cut the nipple (the most popular advice from readers)

When I was breaking my twins of their "chewie" habit, I cut a little slit in the nipple, not enough that they could chew off a piece, just enough that it was deflated; they didn't like it and they just quit using them at that point. They made the decision which made it easier on me!!

They don't make new ones?

Just had to write and tell you how we weaned our twin girls from their pacifiers. Our girls are now 48 years old, but I remember it well.. I think your girls are a bit young for this. When our girls were 2 years old and their pacifiers were getting a bit chewed up and with a little help from me tearing them up a bit more. We told them the pacifiers were broken {at that age they don't realize you can buy new ones} Had no trouble during day but for a couple of nights they woke up with 'Where's my "pacifier?' I would go in and remind them it was broken and they would soon go back to sleep. It only took a couple of nights and they forgot all about their pacifiers. I do think your girls are a little young to have their pacifiers taken away. Wait till they are two.

Vinegar, Yum!

We broke our oldest daughter of her pacifier dependency by dipping it in vinegar before giving it to her. "Ki-Ki" (it was a pacifier with a kitty face on it and we had to buy several because those were the ONLY ones that would make her happy!) then tasted yucky and SHE made the decision not to put it in her mnouth. We praised her for being a "big girl" and this took about 3 days. She didn't have the anxiety of not having it (therefore we didn't have anxiety over a crying, panic stricken child), but she realized she didn't want the yucky taste in her mouth either.

No rush ...

What a struggle you are having!!! please don't hurry and pressure Kaci to give up something that is obviously so important to her. each child has special and distinct needs--even if they are twins. i had on daughter who sucked her thumb--the dentist told me to just leave her be--i could do more harm forcing her to quit than any harm to her health. i know that goes against the current thought, but she didn't go to kindergarten sucking her thumb, and Kaci will not go to kindergarten with her pacifier. these years are so fleeting--let her be--you will have much bigger battles to fight in the coming years--just wait until she is l3!!!! you will survive this, and so will she. enjoy while you can.

Real Mothers ...

Someone sent this to me ...

Real Mothers don't eat quiche; they don't have time to make it (who ever makes quiche ... I don't even know what that is. Does it have Macaroni in it? I can make that.)

Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox (is that why I found a teaspoon on the front porch this morning? Last night Kaci was chewing on an egg beater ... no idea.)

Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids (yup, yup and yup, although my husband promised to shampoo the carpets this weekend -- the twins love to throw food like Spaghetti, and milk and um, yeah).

Real Mothers know that dried play dough doesn't come out of carpets (I don't know about play dough. Just spaghetti)

Real Mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up (why vacuum? They just mess it up again. Actually, vacuuming in my house means John gets out the shop vac. It sucks up whole food better)

Help, please?

Little Kaci and her pacifier

Kaci and Brett

Breaking the binky addiction a tough task for parents

Tales from the crib

Amy Bickel

The Hutchinson News

abickel@hutchnews.com

She tears apart the house. Her eyes watering, she frantically searches the floor and under her bed. In desperation, she peers up on cabinets and dressers. She's like an addict trying to get a fix - a dieter trying to find some sweets hidden in the kitchen.

She is a 17-month-old in search of her pacifier.

I'm ashamed to say it. My youngest daughter, Kaci, has an addiction.

My husband, John, and I are the parents of twin daughters - Brett and Kaci. We've been on a journey for nearly 1 1/2 years, trying to learn the ins and outs of raising our firstborns.

We've been through the spitting-up-on-mommy-and-daddy stage and the let's-throw-solid-food-on-the-floor stage.

We're still in the everything-is-mine stage.

The latest feat, however, is the get-rid-of-the-pacifier-cold-turkey stage.

We have a lot to learn.

As soon as they were born, the nurse gave our girls pacifiers.

Since then, John and I have spent money making sure their little mouths are happy.

Pacis help get them to sleep. Pacis keep them calm during rides home from day care.

It keeps them from crying during outings to public places - like sporting events, restaurants or the grocery store.

Ultimately: A pacifier nips a screaming baby's tantrum quickly. And when a baby wakes up wailing at midnight, John and I have been known, in a frantic state, to scour the baby-room floor ourselves.

I think we're just as addicted to the little sucker as they are.

Now, we're trying to fight the binky battle. Progress is slow.

Little Brett has been a champ. She doesn't seem to mind the fact she doesn't get her pacifier anymore. She's too high on life.

Kaci, however, bursts into tears every time we take it away. She doesn't sleep without it. She even has a name for it - her ba-pa.

There's a statistic out there that says 40 percent of smokers try to quit each year but fail. I now can understand why.

I keep trying to get rid of it, but frankly, I don't have the guts.

I like my sleep. I like quietness.

Is there a pacifier's anonymous?

We are making progress - slowly but surely. And someday, John and I will be able to look back and say proudly: She's been clean for six weeks, six months, maybe even a year.

For now, pacifier anyone?

Any advice? E-mail Amy at abickel@hutchnews.com. Visit http://www.hutchcountry.com/talesfromthecrib/ to read more about the twins.
"Tales from the Crib" runs quarterly.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Hutchinson Publishing Co.

We got a grant!

Brett and Kaci in their wagon at our town's football field

where Daddy coaches high school football.

Thanks to our little girls, Brett and Kaci, the town I live in will have an outfield fence for the ball field.

This summer, I wrote a grant for the KC Royals Charities, which offers $5,000 matching grants. Besides telling them about the need for the town, I mentioned Brett and Kaci.


If you haven't guessed by now, little Brett is named after KC's great George Brett. Daddy, a die-hard Braves fan, picked out the name and spelling of Kaci without realizing the significance. I didn't tell him until after she was officially named, either.


How cool is that?


Anyway, the grant committee called this week to tell us we got the grant. They also said they loved the pictures we sent of the girls.


Of course they did!

Future duck caller

Little Brett learns how to blow on a duck call from Daddy.

Fourth of July fun

Sometimes I wonder if our children are more hyperactive.

This Fourth of July, while all the other kids in their clean little outfits ... khaki shorts and cute little tops, stayed clean for their parents, our twins were covered in dirt.

They didn't sit still. They ran around like little monsters. I knew the other parents at the party we attended were wondering if we had control of our children.

We do, but if we want to talk to anyone, we have to let them roam. After all, we are watching two, not one.

Brett and Kaci are cute. They are funny. They are a handful. But we love them dearly.

Still, the girls had a great Fourth of July. Grandma Vicki bought them some cute red and blue outfits. We spent most of the day at our city's July 4 celebration, which was a lot of fun. They picked ducks out of a pond, played in the dirt, watched a volleyball and basketball match and played in the dirt some more.

By the end of the day, they needed baths before heading to the annual fireworks display.

We drove up town to watch it. However, they were asleep before it even started.