Sentimental Seadragon

Cooking

I feel very lucky to have a child who loves to eat and will eat anything. If I want to make fancy mac and cheese with gorgonzola cheese with a side of brussel sprouts, my only concern is will I have enough for all of us? So my cooking really hasn't changed at all, except that I do even more of it now that we have one more deceptively sized mouth to feed. I've also been doing more of the cooking since the fall semester started and J and I worked out a schedule that has me coming home by 5 and him coming home by 7. Dinner usually isn't ready until at least 7, but by being home earlier, at least I can get it started.

I'm still the world's slowest cook, however. I've been cooking a lot from Martha Stewart's Great Fast Food cookbook lately because the recipes are designed to be doable in under an hour, including cooking time. But the prep times are totally unrealistic for me (especially if I have the tv on and I'm distracted).

(In case that cookbook sounds interesting to you, I should tell you that the recipes in it are hit or miss. I made a coconut curry noodle shrimp dish earlier this week that was really almost vile. And there's no way that the lime juice it turned out I didn't have on hand would have saved it. But then last night I followed a recipe to roast acorn squash, mushrooms, and onions with chicken rubbed with salt, pepper, and rosemary and it was delicious. So I'm making my way through the cookbook - which is organized by season and I love that - and trying to keep track of which recipes are worth repeating and which are never to be repeated again.)

I've also been making yogurt at home and I love that I have control over everything that goes in it. You do need some yogurt to make more yogurt, but one serving of yogurt turns into seven servings overnight. (Or in my case, six, now that I've lost one of the yogurt jars.) This is the yogurt I made last night:

From top to bottom: coffee, apple cinnamon, and raspberry

The two coffee yogurts are for me; I used low-fat milk, added sugar, and the coffee is caffeinated. (I need to buy some decaf coffee to use in future yogurt because I really don't need the extra dose of caffeine.) The other four yogurts are for Squeakles and were made with whole milk and have no sugar added. They're pretty tangy without sugar or honey, but I leave the sweetener out since so far he is happy with them this way.

Sometimes I want a break from cooking, from having to decide what to have to for dinner and making sure that we have everything on hand, and from having to take the time to prepare and cook everything. But most of the time I really enjoy planning out the week's recipes, picking out the vegetables at the farmer's markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays, taking the time to methodically cut up the vegetables, smelling onion, garlic, and roasted vegetables as they start to soften, and best of all, eating. :)

My Rain Bib

Last night when I was changing Squeakles' diaper before bed, he noticed the shirt I was wearing. "A bib!" he squealed with the same enthusiasm he usually shows for ceiling fans (which is to say, a lot). No, it's not a bib, it's a shirt, I told him, actually feeling a little embarrassed. I bought the shirt from Delia's once upon a time, so no it's not the most sophisticated shirt or anything. It's light purple and the graphic all over the front is raindrops and rain clouds. (And I love it.)

Look, these are clouds! And rain drops! "Wain dops" he repeated, and poked his little finger at the rain drops just as I had done. (Only he did it with a little less concern for the body underneath the shirt.)

So last night's main bedtime song ended up being "Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head". I sang it to him while finishing up changing his diaper and then when we laid down he requested it again - "wain dop!" I sang it again, and after the first line, "Rain drops keep falling on my head", he responded "ow!" I stifled a giggle and continued on.

Then he requested "Jack" several times, and each time I sang it he kicked his legs all around as if he were running, until it seemed that he'd run off the last bit of energy for the day.

He then went back to requesting "wain dop" over and over. I sang it quieter each time, ignoring him him when he pulled the pacifier out of his mouth and then brought it back slowly down to his mouth while doing the Jaws theme as we sometimes do to him, and also (mostly) ignoring him when he pointed out my nose, eyes, and mouth with a little jabbing finger.

Within just a couple of minutes more he grew too tired to make requests and finally drifted off to sleep.

Resemblance

Sometimes people say that they're not sure who Squeakles looks like. More often people insist that Squeakles looks exactly like J. But it's very rare that anyone thinks Squeakles looks like me.

Except me. I think it all the time. I see it mostly in his eyes and I feel like I'm looking at a baby version of myself. So why doesn't anyone else see it, even my parents??

Tonight I pulled out my old baby pictures to compare. What do you think?

In case you're wondering why it looks like someone stuffed my pants, it's because they did. Those are the cloth diapers of the mid-70's. (Squeakles also wears cloth diapers and they are a little bit bulky under his clothes, but they're never as bad as in that picture of me! But I am pretty sure he's wearing a disposable in the picture above.)

Okay, so the resemblance isn't 100% and I think that Squeakles is much cuter than I was, but I think it's there. Or do you think that I could have paired him up with any other baby in a similar pose and they would look the same?

Roasted

Tonight I did something I rarely manage - I made a healthy and yummy meal that hardly took any time! Well, actually it probably took me an hour and a half from start to finish, but some of that was coking time and some of it was getting Squeakles up from his nap, playing with him, and chatting with my neighbors who came by to pick up some stuff.

In between all of that I marinated some tofu in Trader Joe's gyoza dipping sauce, cut up and roasted Red Bliss potatoes, turnip, and asparagus tossed with olive oil, Kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper, and then added the tofu to roast for a bit. And it was delicious, as Squeakles can attest. (He kept saying "yummy, mmmm mmmm, yummy sushi, yummy bicasa, yummy...". Clearly he didn't have a clue what he was eating, but he loved it.)

("Bicasa" is how he pronounces "biscuit", which he had over the weekend when we stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken on our 1001 mile round trip excursion to Maine.)

Talking, Reading, Eating, and Sleeping

More gushing about Squeakles...

Talking

Basically, it's game over now. He knows everything! (Okay, not really, but wow, this is happening so incredibly fast.)

His vocabulary is too big for me to be able to write it all down, and he only has to hear a new word once before he starts using it himself. He knows most of the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 1 through 9, some shapes (cirle, oval, star, triangle), and a few colors (red, blue, green, and yellow). He comments on everything he's doing and he speaks in short sentences: "I sit", "I building", "I sleep", "I fix it", etc. He's starting to sing with me, though usually he repeats the song word-by-word after me or sometimes anticipates words ("diamond" in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star).

And he talks all. day. long.

Reading

No, he can't read. But he loves looking through his books, commenting on the pictures and repeating whatever words and phrases he can remember from when the book has been read to him. (Right this minute he's looking through "Where the Wild Things Are", saying "I dance!" (with arm upraised) and then "wati!" (water) and then on the last page "hot".)

Eating

Squeakles continues to have a big appetite and loves pretty much everything I give him. He wakes up asking for green beans ("been geen") and he sits and eats for at least 45 minutes at a time.

I no longer cook food just for him, but I do still cook sometimes from this excellent baby and toddler cookbook. Last night we had the Chili Con Carne, which was really nice. I don't usually love chili, but I figured I'd try this one since all the other recipes have been good. I added small white beans and cilantro and it turned out great. We also had an heirloom cherry tomato salad with fresh purple basil and corn on the cob, both from the farmer's market that afternoon. We had enough for three of us last night, plus three more servings for Squeakles to have for lunch when the babysitters are here.

Sleeping

Believe it or not, putting Squeakles to bed has suddenly become one of my favorite things! It used to be such an ordeal. It's not any faster now, necessarily, but it's a lot more enjoyable.

There were a couple of weeks recently when he was clearly tired and ready for sleep (both for naps and at night) but it was like he couldn't stop popping back up and trying to go get a book or to play with something. I tried telling him to lie back down, but that would only work for about a second before he would pop back up again. So I actually started holding him down - not super forcefully, but enough that he stopped pushing back against me. He'd cry just for a moment, but then - then! - his body would relax and he'd listen to my singing and, rather quickly, drift off to sleep. If I was feeling bad about this pinning-him-down approach before, I'm now thinking it was the greatest idea ever. This week he doesn't keep trying to get back up - it's like he knows that it's time for sleeping and what's expected of him. This week he stays lying down, requests various songs (Rock-a-baby, Twinkle Stars, and Jack), and the best part - he cuddles in as close as he can and picks up my arm to wrap it around him.

Last night I sang What a Wonderful World, and he just lay there with his back against me, listening. When it was over, he clapped his hands and said "Yay! Fun!" More clapping. "Yay! Fun!" Continued clapping. "Yay fun!" I almost took a bow. And then he rolled over so that his face was up against mine, his arms and legs curled into me, and he put my arm around his waist, closed his eyes and went to sleep.