Like an old friend coming for a visit...

Dear Grandma,
I guess I never realized how long it takes for bananas to turn brown. It seems like when I want them to be good to eat they turn really fast, and now when I wanted them to be brown they took a long time. Or perhaps my bananas were like you pot of water, the one that never boiled because someone was looking at it.

It seems like we've been really busy the last week or so, but when I look back on the time I'm just not sure exactly why. We didn't do anything unusual, but the days seem to be so much fuller. Maybe that's just because the summer will be ending soon.

That's right, school starts next week. Not for me unfortunately, but for April. Can you believe she's going to be in First grade?! She really enjoys school and is excited to be going back. I'm excited for her to go back to school but not for the 7:45 start time. Who decided that an elementary school should start so early? Someone who was crazy is my guess.  And I'm pretty sure you agree with me, though perhaps Grandpa thinks 7:45 is a bit on the late side?!

Elliot has started talking. I think it is so funny that we spend months trying to get our babies to say certain words and then the words they choose to speak are so random. April's first word was "baby" and to this day I have no idea why. Elliot's words are "yum", "doggie", "up" and "hi-ya", yeah, like he's doing Kung Fu. Now "yum" makes sense. I had to teach him that word because he had picked up the habit of screaming at the top of his lungs in between bites at meal time. That got old really quickly. So I taught him "yum" and he picked it up pretty quickly. Then he started screaming "YUM" at the top of his lungs. That got old even faster. This is definitely your son's grandson!! But even if "yum" can be understood where did all these other random words come from. Johnny is convinced that he picked up "hi-ya" from April watching The Muppets. Miss Piggy is actually very violent and karate chops her adversaries quite often. But I think it has little to do with any pigs.

Well yesterday the bananas were finally ready. Actually, that's a lie. The bananas were ready on Wednesday, but by the time we were ready to get started it was late and April had to go to bed. I just couldn't imagine making your banana bread without her. So we waited one day.

The whole thing started the way it always does when I make your banana bread: the search for something to mash the bananas with. I know, I know, I should just get a potato masher, it's what you always used, but I always forget. Except, of course, when I'm actually making the banana bread. April was very excited for she had the very important job of mashing the bananas:

Note her very appropriate rice scooper outer, spoon type took.  Hey, it worked!!

Once that was done the whole thing went pretty smoothly. I rarely ever sift the flour but since the recipe card called for that, I did it this time. I know there is less flour in it when you sift, but I'm just not sure how much of a difference it makes.

Here's a picture after we poured it in the pans, just so you can look at my spiffy new bread pans:

It was great to smell the banana bread as it was baking, and it made me think of you and your house. It always seemed to smell like something was in the oven, even when you weren't making anything. But time does funny things to our memory, something you know a lot about.

And another fan of your banana bread has been found:

 Honestly, how could he resist (though truthfully we have found very little that he can resist)!!

And while I couldn't share my grandma with my kids I can share the next best thing...

Love
E