As I was carrying the cat out of the kid's room, I offered to let her kiss the cat goodnight. She said yes for the first time, and I brought the cat over. The kid leaned in and the cat cooperated and touched her nose to the kid's cheek. All through story time the kid kept talking about kissing the cat.

The cats chased a fledgling bird into the house today.

Much excitement all around. I had to hold the cat back until R could shut him in another room, all the birds outside were loudly chirping, and the baby kept yelling "Baby! Bird! Baby! Bird!"

I scooped the poor thing up in a bowl. Seems like one of its legs was broken, and it had a moist patch of feathers on its chest. Once we left it alone outside its parents came by to check on it and it hopped right out of the bowl. Hopefully it will be okay, but I think I will be checking the back yard tomorrow before I let the cats out.

Learning through doing

In order to preserve a very cute shirt from the ravages of BBQ chicken and baked beans, the kid dined topless this evening. Little did I know that it would result in:

1. The kid painting her entire torso with sauce

and

2. The kid demanding a bath way too early in the evening.

You couldn't really fault her logic, as it was evening and she was already undressed. Clearly bathtime.

Neglect

Hmm... looks like the blog template I'm using is referencing something that no longer exists. Wonder how long that has been going on? Guess I need to do a little work...

In other news: more teeth. Not me, the kid. Four molars are emerging in one fell swoop. We were getting close to being weaned in December, but getting sick followed by vacation disruption followed by teething has taken us back a step. Hopefully once this is over we'll be able to get back to it. I'm ready, though I will miss being able to keep her in bed when she gets up too early through the use of boob.

Yup, definitely have a toddler now. The kid has learned "no." Whenever she's going to do something she knows is bad she'll even say "no no no no no" as she does it.

Happy Birthday!

The baby is now one year old, which officially makes her a toddler (though I think the walking precipitated the name change, as she's definitely been toddling around the place for a while now). She got to celebrate her birthday twice. Once with a cake, in a joint party with my dad. He's been doing his best to turn his home into a beach hut, so I thought it would be fun to make a tiki cake. I also made a little tiki cupcake.

Let's talk about the cake briefly. I got the tiki idea while looking at this monkey cake. I didn't really feel like randomly making a monkey-shaped cake, but the shades of brown also work nicely for a tiki. The cake itself... well, it was okay. Part of it was my fault. I put it in the oven, went upstairs, and totally forgot about it. The cupcake, which I removed from the oven on time, was nice and moist. The cake itself was denser, more like a banana bread. The other issue was the frosting. Very delicious, but I found it to be way too sweet for the cake.

Alright, back to the fun stuff. Celebration number two was just the three of us at home, on the baby's actual birthday. R's family would traditionally go to an ice cream parlor, but since there are no longer any within San Diego county (I checked), we decided to make sundaes.

When we gave her the sundae, the baby just dipped her finger in the whipped cream and ate the cherry off the top. We eventually dumped it out of the bowl onto her tray and broke it up a little bit so that she would have an easier time eating it. She doesn't really like getting her hands messy (sometimes), so she decided the best way would be to lick the ice cream off the tray.

Oh, and an update on the first word. Apparently it stands for any food, as a few nights ago I was getting ready to nurse her and she was making hungry noises then said "cheese" before latching on with relish. Silly baby.

All the excitement, in one run-on sentence

The baby has said her first word, "cheese," though it sounds like "chsss," and she thinks anything square on the chopping block is cheese, which was very funny when I was cutting up some tofu; with all the baby news flying through the internet via Facebook, R has finally got himself a page; also, we're buying a house!

Babies!

Dang. It is all babies down here at the moment. Good friend just had a baby nearly two weeks late. R's cousin just had her baby seven weeks early. Our baby is toddling around like a madwoman, especially now that we've moved the gate around upstairs so that she can go from the office to the nursery. She kept walking between the two rooms with the biggest grin on her face, hands flung in the air. Oh, and the new fun thing to do is take a big sip of water and then spit it out. Hilarious!

26

 Happy birthday to me... a few weeks ago. I had a lovely birthday. My good friend S came down for the weekend (can you believe we've known each other for 20 years?), and on my birthday we all went to the zoo. S took some rather adorable pictures of the baby.

It was the baby's first trip to the zoo, not that she'll remember it. She enjoyed the monkeys and the fish, and seemed to notice a few of the large animals, but mostly she enjoyed looking at the other babies. So many babies! So many strollers. I was totally getting a bit of stroller envy. Our Graco works well enough (and has a nice big basket underneath where I can carry the groceries), but it definitely isn't the lightest, most awesome thing around. We'll have to look for something lighter when we're shopping for a double stroller, as two times the weight of our current one would be a mighty heavy stroller indeed.

Being my birthday, I also made a couple of recipes that I probably wouldn't have made in my everyday cooking, as I knew R wouldn't have liked them. For my birthday dinner I made a zucchini and ricotta galette, which, I'm sorry to say, was definitely more work than it was worth. Mine also leaked butter like mad and make the oven very smokey. We ate it, and the baby snatched a chunk of it off my plate and stuffed it into her mouth, but I wouldn't deem it fantastic. I also made broken jellied wine with summer fruit, which, if you're looking for a mature version of jello shots, is right on the money. Of course, I forgot that anything gelatinous makes S gag, and R doesn't care for wine, so I was faced with the prospect of eating all the wine gelatin myself. Over the course of several nights I made it through about half, but one can only eat so much alcoholic Jello.

4th of July

Well, I know it's been a week since the 4th, but hey! It's only been a week. I feel like I'm practically writing about current events. We had a lovely holiday. We BBQed, had a bonfire (and I, being a large child, toasted many marshmallows), and watched fireworks. We got home later than ideal, as I was teaching the next day (yay!), but I think it was worth it.

When R and I decided to take a friend up on his invitation to celebrate the 4th at his family's beach front house (rather than, say, hanging out at home), I had one though: yakitori! Sure, yakitori probably isn't the most traditional food for the celebration of our nation's founding, but it had been on my mind recently thanks to my favorite food blogger.

This also meant that I got to try out a recipe that I probably wouldn't have otherwise made from one of my new cookbooks. I hadn't marked it when I did my initial pass though the book, due either to my lack of a BBQ or a feeling of "grilled chicken, so what?" and so nearly missed out on something delicious. The yakitori sauce, slowly caramelized on the grill into an umber glaze, really does something magical to the chunks of chicken thigh. It was delicious and everyone was much impressed.

As I wasn't going to make a giant mountain of yakitori, I wound up halving the recipe, which was the perfect amount for the eight chicken skewers (five or six thighs) and five vegetable skewers (plus a smidge left over that was subsequently brushed onto some grilled pineapple). I didn't have any kombu, but while I'm sure the kelp would have added some nice umami notes to the sauce, it's presence wasn't missed in the final product. I also substituted shichimi togarashi (Japanese 7 spice blend, including red pepper) for ichimi togarashi (Japanese red pepper flakes) and lime juice for lemon juice. Bonus: this can be made a day ahead of time.

Chicken Yakitori
Adapted from Takashi's Noodles
 

• 1 c soy sauce
• 1/6 c sake
• 1/6 c water
• 2 t ginger juice (grate ginger into plastic wrap, poke a hole in the bottom and squeeze out the juice)
• 1 T sesame oil
• 1/8 c lime juice
• 1 c sugar
• 1/2 t shichimi togarashi 

• chicken thighs, cut into 1" cubes
• scallions, cut into 1/2" pieces
• veggies, if you would like (I had red bell pepper, eggplant, and summer squash)
• bamboo skewers

Combine sauce ingredients in a saucepan over high heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and bring to a boil. Decrease heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Set aside.

Skewer chicken, threading on a piece of green onion every few pieces. Make sure to leave room at the end for use as a handle. Skewer veggies, if using (you can also mix them on the skewers, but I preferred having them separate).

Heat grill to medium. Place skewers on grill so that uncovered ends are hanging over the edge. Sear on each side (~2 minutes per side), then baste with sauce and flip skewers every minute or so until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is caramelized (8-10 min). Cook the veggies the same way.

Conditioning

When getting your child to bed, the experts say to make a bedtime routine. Do a certain set of activities to ready your child for sleep, so that they know what to expect and can mentally ready themselves for bed. What they don't say, though, is that the kids start picking up on the cues and may not be cooperative in this whole "getting to sleep" arrangement. In my case, Goodnight Moon, which has been the last book I've been reading to the baby before bed. Picking up the book now makes her cry. Other books are fine, but Goodnight Moon is a threat. Perhaps it is the psychology major in me talking, but I find it adorable and hilarious.

"Oh, hi, Mom. I'm up."

The baby has learned how to stand, which means that I've often open the door at the end of nap time to a little person standing up to greet me. Of course, I also get to come in during the middle of the night to a little person holding on to the edge of her crib rails and crying, because she's woken up and can't figure out how to get herself back to sleep. So, there's a trade-off. For a while there, she was napping for longer periods and getting up earlier, a nice trade-off, but now she's just getting up earlier.

Recent cooking
Mac and cheese - I declare a winner in my search for the best macaroni and cheese recipe. The roux-based recipe from The Pioneer Woman (made with the delightful cheese combination of Swiss, Parmesan, and blue from the CIA macaroni and cheese recipe) is creamy and cheesy, but not so rich that it makes you sick. The leftovers are also good, something I find important in family-sized recipes. The the copious quantities of butter in the CIA mac and cheese separated from the sauce when the dish cooled, leaving the leftovers greasy.
Red rice - I know red rice is an actual dish, but this just seems like a jambalaya hack. I only recently discovered They Draw and Cook, and while it is a very pretty format for displaying a recipe, the quality of instructions for actual cooking was not great with this particular recipe. It's hard to read and the rice needed several cups more water in order to cook properly (one can of tomato sauce and a half can of water just doesn't cut it for two cups of rice). Still, tasty.

Sally Hansen 02 - Green With Envy

After having sworn off nail polish a year or so ago, I found myself unable to resist a summery green bottle of the stuff last time I was in Target. I painted my nails today and the baby was fascinated by my foot for the rest of the afternoon.

Recent cooking
Rice noodles with chicken and oyster sauce - After so many mediocre or just acceptable recipes, it's so nice to finally find one that is really tasty. Here it is several hours later and I'm still thinking about it. Definitely going into the regular rotation.

I've entered that period in life that is defined by the omnipresence of Cheerios. They cover the floor under the high chair and there are a fair number in the kitchen, but they've also traveled into the living room and I've even found a few upstairs. Cheerios are so useful, though, that I'm willing to live with the mess. The fat cat eats a few off the floor, but he's nowhere near as useful as a dog.

The baby baby likes to eat Cheerios and will spend long periods of time happily feeding herself. She learned to recognize the box fairly quickly and jumps up and down in her high chair when she sees it, something that is adorable and also a little frightening. Brand recognition already?

Recent cooking
Apple-cinnamon upside-down cake - I was expecting something with a gooey, sugary syrup on top, but you wind up with just a moist sweetness. The cake not touched by the sauce is mild in flavor and somewhat dry. This could work as a breakfast cake, possibly with some yogurt, but it definitely wasn't the dessert I was looking for.
Red velvet cake - When R expressed interest in a red velvet cake, I turned first to smitten kitchen, as the recipes there are always so carefully vetted. I wound up reducing this recipe by a third, as I only have two round cake pans, and I think somewhere in the process the cake became a little dry. Maybe it was my oven, as I cooked it for the minimum time and it came out crispy around the edges. Still, good flavor. Also, best recipe for cream cheese frosting.

Distractions

We've finally finished the last cake made from a mix here at the A&R Household. Last, uh, spring we made a boxed carrot cake, and the carrot-flavored pieces drove us to swear off cake mixes. As I was making a batch of cookies this morning, I pondered the popularity of cake mixes. Cakes aren't any harder to make than cookies, but cake mixes are clearly much more popular (just look at the aisle space devoted to them). My mom would never have thought to use a cookie mix, but we never made cakes from scratch at home. R was able to make a cake from scratch when I was too busy dealing with a fussy baby, and he is inexperienced (but competent) in the kitchen, so clearly there is just a collective mental block against making cakes.

I just realized that, while I mentioned that my writing energy of late has been going towards writing articles, I never provided a link. Mind you, they're aimed at a slightly less technically-savvy crowd (unless you want to compare calendar applications. That article is... thorough), so the articles may seem a little basic to those of you here reading this. Still, people need to know. People like my mom. Actually, these articles are probably a bit above her computer skill level. Anyway, here:

"Cooking and the web"
"Game playing on Facebook"
"Calendars for everyday use"
"Steaming media on a home network"
"Putting your videos on YouTube"
"Building your own YouTube channel"

Of bikes and diapers

Recently got to go mountain biking for the first time in... oh, about a year and a half. The ascent totally kicked my ass, as I haven't done anything more vigorous than a brisk walk since my last bike ride, but the ride was so much fun! From the top of the hill we could see the ocean to the west and various hills to the southeast (some of which we've also ridden to the top of). The descent was long and rolling, which is definitely the best kind. Makes all the work to get to the top seem worth it when you've got a fun descent.

We followed that ride up with a second the following weekend. With all the gear we had to pack, for ourselves and for the baby, it was probably inevitable that we would forget something. This time, it was the diaper bag. D'oh! A quick run over to the grocery store for disposables solved that problem.

I think I felt slightly less silly buying the diapers since, just recently, we switched to disposables at night. We'd only used cloth since using up the initial pack of diapers the hospital gave us. It was amazing how the smell of the disposables brought back memories of that time. Back then, she was such a teeny little thing, a tiny baby burrito, who just ate and slept. Now she's this mobile, babbling creature. Who just removed two of my earrings.

TMI

I'd been noticing an oddly familiar smell coming from the trash bin in the nursery of late. After several days of thought, I realized that the smell was yogurt-like. Why would the baby's poop smell like yogurt? Oh, right. Brought her with me to Pinkberry and consequently had to share my frozen yogurt. I've colonized her intestines with probiotics.

We were all headed to bed a couple of night ago, when R got the hiccups. The baby was up having a meal, but she stopped and started laughing hysterically ever time R hiccuped. That, in turn, made us laugh and made it all the more difficult for R to control his hiccups.

Recent cooking
Honey oatmeal bread - Didn't rise nicely like the loaf in the picture. I don't know why I make whole wheat bread, as R isn't a fan. Still, I've been enjoying it for breakfast.
Moroccan chicken stew with sweet potatoes - R was expecting it to be worse, I was hoping it would be better. Not bad, but I was expecting a little stronger flavor.
Chipotle chocolate chunk brownie bites - Admittedly, I did substitute chocolate chips for unsweetened chocolate, but I was hoping these would be more chocolaty and spicy. They mostly tasted of cinnamon.
Chana masala - Tasty, easy to make, healthy, and inexpensive, so of course they make me smell bad. No luck!

April fools?

I suppose posting is practically an April Fools' Day prank, as it has been so long. Most of the writing energy (and procrastination) last month was spent writing an article for the familial computer magazine. The baby has also learned that the keyboard is a fun toy, which my mom insists is only fair, as she remembers me at 2 years old, reaching up my little hands over my head and pushing any keys I could find, yelling "'Puter! 'Puter!" Cute, but known to make one's computer do odd things.

Recent cooking
Chicken with forty cloves of garlic - Two things wrong with this recipe. One, the chicken winds up rather plain. Not at all garlicky. Two, it results in delicious roast garlic cloves, which I can't resist eating, causing me to stink for several days.
Braised pork with pears and chiles - I'm sorry to say, but the pork turns out kind of plain. The pears are delicious, so if I was feeling industrious perhaps I'd try tinkering with the recipe. Maybe a spice rub to get a little of that chili flavor into the pork.
Wasabi egg salad - Very nice. I haven't had too many egg salad sandwiches, so I hadn't realized that they're basically deviled egg sandwiches. Mmmm. Deviled eggs.
Yogurt-marinated chicken kebabs with Israeli couscous - We did the kebabs in the broiler, but they probably would have been better if we had a grill to grill them on. Still, they were tasy. The yogurt-feta sauce was too oniony for our taste.
Creamy dreamy clam chowder - Not as creamy as one would expect from the name (or the picture), this was still the tastiest homemade clam chowder I've had.
Magical butter sauce - We made ours with pepper jelly and it turned out quite nice over mahi-mahi.
Cara cara orange curd - I used a couple of exceptionally juicy tangerines and had to stop myself from eating the whole batch warm out of the pot. So good! Totally kicked the ass of the jarred lemon curd I inherited when my in-laws moved.

March 4th

March already? Madness.

How did that happen? The little one will be 5 months old on Saturday.

Ah, yes. That is how it happened. Babies, they are time consuming.

I'm dreaming about gardens, but there likely won't be much of that this year. We're looking for a place to buy. but since nearly everything is short sales the going is slow. Even putting in an offer now wouldn't get us an agreement for 4-6 months, plus then a month in escrow... Yeah. There goes the summer. I'm trying to satisfy my urges with FarmVille, but it really isn't the same.

Recent cooking:
Smokey beef stew with blue cheese and chives - Not bad, but very basic. The blue cheese is supposed to be the twist, but I wasn't impressed.
Tunisian lamb tagine with toasted almonds and couscous - Delicious. The baby ate some of the sauce and agrees with me.
Mini corn dogs - The batter for these was just lovely. Crisp on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside. We made a mountain of mini corn dogs with cheddar little smokies on the inside. We could not eat them all, but I doubt they will go to waste.
Cinnamon bun pancakes - As R put it, better than regular pancakes, not as good as actual cinnamon buns. Much easier to make, though.
Potato pancakes - Billed as dinner in the recipe, these are a nice alternative to hash browns.
Roast pear & banana puree - I know most of you aren't interested in baby food, but I have to tell you, roast bananas are delicious. I wound up making separate fruit purees of the two ingredients and I couldn't stop eating the banana one.

Squeak squeak

Wow. I'm not sure how people with new babies and jobs get anything done. I had substitute teacher training for the first three days of the week and we were pretty much in survival mode the whole time. Food was made, the little one was bathed regularly, and not quite enough sleep was had. The baby was so pissed off on Wednesday that she cried herself hoarse. My dad maintains she was a perfect angel Monday and Tuesday, with only a little squeaking, but we think he just has a greater tolerance for crying since he doesn't see his precious granddaughter every day.

As I made the appointment prior to finding this new subbing job, R wound up taking the little one to her 4 month checkup. She's still all well and healthy, but she's slipping down the growth charts. Previously she'd been in the 45th percentile for height, now she's in the 19th. I suppose, being an October baby, she'll probably wind up starting school the year after she's eligible (though that is only because they've pushed eligibility back so far) and so won't be quite so tiny compared to her classmates.

R has been doing that P90X workout, so I decided to pop in the pliometrics (jumping) DVD... and made it through the warm up. Yeah, I know I haven't done anything more strenuous than walking for the past year and the workout is particularly intense. Still, I feel like a total weakling.

Having been steadily moving east for the past several years in pursuit of better housing deals, we have all of the sudden turned our eyes north in our search for a permanent home. We'd been looking further and further away from R's work, only to realize that if he's going to have an hour commute, it might as well be on the train. We'd be closer to the beach, which would make R taking up surfing make a lot more sense. Plus, my family lives in that area, which would make babysitting much easier. As R so succinctly put it, "I've never been so excited about Oceanside."

Recent cooking:
Coconut braised beef - I thought it was nice, R thought it was so-so. R, however, suffers from PTSD (Post-Tequila Stress Disorder), so anything with too much lime gets a thumbs down from him.
Sweet potato ricotta gnocchi - I bought the ingredients for this and then found myself with too many leftovers for lunches (one of those embarrassing mishaps of cooking for two), so I wound up making them and freezing them. I'll report back once I actually eat them.