Cat meets Boy

My almost 14 year old cat has basically been in a stand off with my son since the day I brought his wee infant self home. They have found ways to coexist though. For example, my son has made up an elaborate game and set it up on her favorite chair, rather than knock it off she has carefully settled in.

Luckiest Boy in the World wins giant Christmas Stocking!

We have a new little market, Freddy's, across the street.  I have to say, though they are on the to pricey side, the huge assortment of organic and healthy food and ease of dashing not even a block away has made life easier.

For the holidays they held a drawing for this giant stocking.  B went in everyday asking when they would be giving it away.  Finally, the 23rd came, and low and behold he WON! You have never seen a more delighted kid.  Look at that thing! It is taller than him!

Christmas came early for the kid.  Thanks new grocery store!

"This is better than jam on toast!"

Sesame Noodles with Scallions & Roasted Broccoli

That's what B said about tonight's dinner.  Sorry for the bad phone pic with a few bites already gone, but I had to do something to preserve the memory of this historic dinner.  It came about as a series of happy accidents and odd substitutions. Friday I made Chicken Satay or Chicken on a Stick as B likes to call it.  I used this recipe because it seemed simple.  I made some liberal changes.  I'm not so sure it can even be called "satay" since I really just grilled the chicken without marinating it (I wanted to make some avocado chicken salad for myself).  I also discovered that I didn't have any soy sauce, so I substituted Worcester sauce (dark brown, salty, anyone?) but stayed true to the other spices.  I haven't been keeping any sugar in the house, so I used honey, and they say not to use natural peanut butter (?) but I ignored that and it seemed to work just fine.  However, this recipe made a LOT of sauce!

B liked the chicken all right (and I liked the salad okay, not great, no crunch, next time I am trying Martha's version) but when I tried to pawn off the same meal on him the next day for lunch he said the sauce was way too sweet (which it really was after sitting in the fridge overnight) but I had all this sauce to get rid of!  I froze half of it and then picked up some soba noodles today and made another batch of the marinade (still with the Worcester), and added it to the left-over peanut sauce with a little water to thin it out.  I also tossed some broccoli that was starting to look a little wilt-y in the marinade and then roasted it while I cooked the noodles.  I chopped up some green onions, which B likes ever since the kids from his old school discovered them growing wild in the park.  The kids all munch on them like candy....not sure what is in the soil of that park, but it really can't be worse than what's in the pipes at the house......I digress, back to the meal.  B loved it, he said "Yum!" a few times, he asked for seconds (I don't remember when the last time that happened!), he ate all of the broccoli, and the ultimate compliment, I already mentioned.  What's more I loved it!  I think this is the first time in B's lifetime (or at least since he quit nursing) that we both enjoyed a meal equally.

We are definitely making this again....in fact I still have some sauce left over so another night this week.  I am still planning on the creamy avocado pasta for tomorrow though.

B-Boy lost his first baby tooth!

 

Unfortunately he seems to have lost it while eating peanut butter on a rice cake and I think it is now in his belly.  B seems unfazed by that, but was a little upset he wouldn't have a tooth for the tooth fairy.  I told him the tooth fairy would accept notes of explanation.  We have to write one ;-)

What I did today:

Do you think mid-February is to early to take down our Christmas tree?  I know this is so sad, but I just stopped noticing it was there.  I think this is earlier than I got it down last year.

B was sick all day.  I don't think he got out of his bed except to go to the bathroom, poor guy.  He seems to be feeling better, but I just read him books and tucked him in.  I had intended to do laundry, go to the grocery, clean house, but instead I sat around in bed with B and played on Pinterest. I did make these cookies.  Delicious, not too sweet.  They were inspired both by my sweet tooth and lack of butter (or just about any other groceries in the house).  This is one of the reasons I love the internet, anything you want, any question, any recipe, any ingredient, any product.....a well-worded google search and you have your answer!  This method of research suits my lazy, home-body ass perfectly.  Also, due to our lack of groceries, I made a very bland veggie soup with everything that was about to go bad, including some bib lettuce (probably part of why it was bland).  I'm going to freeze the rest to use for stock, but I served it over some quinoa, with a little bit of grated Romano and the last of some parsley pesto I made last week and it wasn't half bad.  On the other hand I am truly out of food, if we were for some reason trapped in our house for any long period of time, we would starve after the vegetable stock runs out.

I hope my wee son is all better tomorrow, but it was a rather nice day of cuddling with him in bed :-)

Poor B-Boy :(

B had a great time this weekend at his first sleep-over (without Mommy) play-date at BFF's place.  Unfortunately he is a little sick today so we are just hanging out with the bed folded out in our little living room watching netflix.  I'm still obsessing on pinterest.

Happy 5th Birthday my Beautiful Boy!

Today you turned 5.  The last year has been a crazy one for us my little one, your mama went back to work in earnest and I didn't get to spend as much time with you this year.  I feel every missed minute, but you are turning into an independant little soul (though you still want me to put on your clothes for you, and sit with you while you fall asleep, even if you sleep in your own bed)  There is no question about your talking or your charm, you talk to anyone who will listen and charm them as soon as they stop.  You like to use big words like cumbersome and despicable.  You make me laugh, even if most of your jokes are about poop.  You like to play video games with your daddy and do puzzles with me.  You are so good at memory, though I don't think you get the competitive nature of the game since you always tell me where my matches are.  We got to spend a lot of time with your grandparents this summer, and boy do you love your grandma and grandpa.  Your mama is a nervous nellie and sometimes you are to, but don't ever be afraid to do new things or jump into some amazing opportunity, because you think you might fail.  There is always failure, but you can't reach greatness without a few failures along the way.  You are as beautiful as ever, smarter then I could imagine, and kinder then I could wish for (even if you sometimes knock your friends to the ground)  You think of the ones littler than yourself, and do nice things for your friends.  You kiss your mama unasked and tell me you love me.  Baby boy you are my center, you bring me back to life when I fall into the depths, you teach me to be a better person and a better mama every day.  I can not imagine a life where you weren't born.  The last five years have been the best I have ever had.  Thank you.  I can't wait to see what the next year holds as you start kindergarten, a new chapter for both of us.  I love you, my Bowie.

Baby Boy's room at Ohdeedoh!

I entered baby boy's room at the big color contest on ohdeedoh, and they actually put it up. I am overly excited by this. Now I want to get to the finals, but my photography is pretty lacking I must say. Oh well.

First Day of School

Here is B dancing on his way to his first day of school last week. So far he loves it. There are 6 kids total, and they all seem to like one another, and they all love their teacher, Ms. C. I love her too. She teaches B new songs and games, and he comes home filled with news of tree exploring and games that I have never heard of. He has one friend that likes to be Batman, which is good because he likes to be Spiderman, so it all works out for crime-fighting and knocking down the robots.
I also must say that I enjoy the almost 6 hours of uninterrupted time I get to actually do work. I think, in my quest to overly record my child's life and please his grandparents with a steady supply of new pictures, that I am going to attempt to blog his outfit every day (so far he still lets me pick it out most of the time, we will see how long that lasts, lol) on his style blog.

Family Photo--On Vacation

This is the last picture I am posting in today's desktop clean-up. Last month we went to DC for a few days, before going down to Charlottesville to visit friends. We took Baby Boy to see the White House, and here is the obligatory photo. I think it was a bit of a disappointment for BB though. We told him we were going to see Obama's house and I think he thought we were going for a playdate with Obama. He was very upset when we couldn't go up to the house and spent the rest of the weekend asking when we could go see Obama.

Baby Boy and his Daddy

I love this picture.

A perfect rainy day we had:

We painted and baked banana muffins (an ongoing project to find the right proportions for sugarcane processed sugar free baking, note the Agave syrup).
At the end of the day I had a partly blue B covered in batter:

A great excuse for a splashy bath!

Love Letters

To my dearest Baby Boy,

You are sleeping now. We ran all over the house this morning, you helped me bake banana muffins and oatmeal cookies and then we did somersaults on Mommy's bed. I love the way you talk, so precisely, each word thought about and pronounced carefully. I love that you don't use k sounds and instead use t sounds; "otay, i toming" is a phrase that makes me feel as if my heart will burst. I love that you love to paint, no markers, no crayons, glue doesn't float your boat, but with a paintbrush in hand you are a master creator. I love how picky you are about food combinations; raisins in oatmeal, not bananas! Pears in pancakes, not blueberries! Broccoli in cous-cous and peas in mac & cheese. If these are what you desire, let me cook them everyday! I know that lately it seems as if your mama has been half-asleep, but you, my dearest lovely son, you always bring me back. I can not imagine not hearing your laugh, I live for your sweet little "I love you", I like you clean and fresh from the bath, streaking through the house, and dirty and snotty, climbing in my lap. You build towers for me to be amazed at, you make me wonder at the lives of squirrels.

Little boy, I love you too,

Your Mama

Sometimes it is the smallest things....

The crib yesterday:


The crib tonight: