you might as well give up now...

...because Lydia Violet is going to win the Parents magazine cover-model search. But, if you must try, only to have your fragile hopes most certainly dashed, you can enter your cute (but surely not AS cute) and photogenic kid at www.parents.com.

Mother's Day Feats

Last Saturday, during a break in the rain, we had all the local mother's in our family over for a feast. What fun! It gave me an excuse to cook, which I love, and helped me meet a goal. For the first time in my life I hosted a party where I wasn't running around at the last second, frantic, and not nearly ready for anyone to arrive, let alone be entertained. The house was clean, the food was prepped and either finished or ready to be finished off for serving. Amazing!

As I'm writing this now I'm wishing I took pictures! Not just of the food but of the day. It was most excellent. So, I guess, though we weren't rushed or stressed we did fall down on the job there. (Aside from all the tender family moments, my food staging was superb and it's a shame we didn't capture it. Just kidding!)

We served:

• Crud d'ete
• Olives
• Various cheeses with Simply Enjoy brand Apricot & Jalapeño and Balsamic Onion jams. Simply delicious!
  
• A variation on the Barefoot Contessa's Curried Couscous that is becoming a cookout/party standard (Thanks, Nati!).
• Organic Simply Enjoy hot dogs for the boys and their dad, my brother.
  
• Latin Pork with Lime Marinade from this random medical Web site. No matter it's origin though, it was SCRUMPTIOUS, so we can feel good about it being good for us too. Dima grilled it to perfection, as always.
  
• Spice rubbed chicken (our secret: McCormick's Season All. Basic and tasty, it let's your sides be the star.) with avocado salsa (I actually forgot to put this out. Whoops!).

Now, for the rest of this and the avocado salsa above, I need to give props to The Domestic Goddess and her minions at Everyday Food. I got a subscription for Christmas from my aunt in-law and I love it, love it, love it! Every single recipe was delicious and easy. You can't beat that with a stick!

• Cucumber-Carrot Bites - yummy little bites of hollowed out English cucumber stuffed with grated carrots in a sour cream/vinegar sauce. They were billed as after-school snacks. Whatever! I ate them on the weekend and am still eating the leftover carrots as a side salad.
  
• Mini Corn Cakes with Scallions - these were super cute and tasty. A little cayenne pepper gave them a bite that was balanced nicely with... more sour cream.
  
• Two-pea Pasta with Ricotta and Tarragon - This was delish and easy to prepare. The key is not over cooking the peas so they stay nice and bright green. Next time I think I'll try basil instead of tarragon.
• Honey roasted baby carrots - again, quick, easy and divine.
  

For desert, we offered up a strawberry-orange ice cream (see recipe at the bottom of this post)—a variation on my constantly morphing ice cream recipe: avocado banana and ginger pumpkin—with my sister in-law, Carey's, fabulous fudge brownies. What an excellent way to finish off the meal and an excellent day. Yeah for moms! They rock! A point I especially appreciate now that I am one.

Strawberry-Orange Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart

1 1/2 cups of fresh strawberries
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cups light cream
1 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons orange extract
a dash of salt

Throw everything in the blender and process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready to freeze. Blend a few more seconds before pouring into the ice cream maker just to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Follow your ice cream maker's instructions for freezing.

Meme: Excerpt from a book I'm reading

I peaked in on twitter today to see a former colleague, Cara, at hack Artist, tag various blogger/twitter friends with a meme.

What you say? Twitter? Tagged? Meme? Never you mind. If you're extra curious you can check out those links but here's all you really need to know... Even though I wasn't officially invited by being tagged myself, I've decided to participate in the exercise. I'm supposed to:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

Well, I just started reading C.S. Lewis' Prince Caspian for the tenthish time. (I'm a HUGE fan of The Chronicles of Narnia—the first books I read without pictures.) And, I'm reading it aloud to my 10 month old. Yes, I'm interested in slowly losing my mind. Yes, I was totally influenced by Hollywood advertising. The good in this is that said advertising prompted me to stick my nose in a book rather than buy cheap plastic toys or a kiddie meal at a fast food restaurant. Which reminds me also: Who else hates the Hollywood versions of the latest made-into-a-movie literary classic? I believe their called movie tie-ins. For me they've always smacked of: the only way you can get people to read a book is to make a movie out of it. They steal people's imaginations by providing them with "characters" to focus on. (Kudos to J.K. Rowling for never allowing them to slap Daniel Radcliffe's face on any of her books.) And they make people think that you can get the same transporting experience that reading a book provides by watching the movie. I hate, hate, hate that. I like watching movies, I just hate that. It always prompts me to go to the library or the nearest used bookstore to get a version of the book from before it was ruined by Hollywood's PR machine. Hmmmm. So, there's good in that too. Uh, maybe I've got the wrong idea about Hollywood advertising.

Anyway. Where were we? Ah, page 123, where Susan says to Lucy:

I'm dead tired. Do let's get out of this wretched wood into the open as quick as we can. And none of us except you saw anything.

Now since I just started reading this again last night, at a 10 month old's pace at that, page 123 is about 121 pages ahead of where I am right now. So, I don't have much to say about the predicament that Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy have clearly gotten themselves into, AGAIN, in the wretched wood. What I can say is that I certainly know how Susan feels. And I ask, when will the older siblings learn? If they'd just listen to Lucy the first time around, pretty much every time, they'd save themselves a heap of trouble.

Now for step #5, like my friend Cara, I'm going to tag some of the people I enjoy on Twitter AND in other realms of the Internet:

chris_bailey also of BaileyWorkPlay.com (Whom is a testament to the smallness of this here Internet.)

writer.baker.musicmaker (Who is a master at all of her chosen endeavors.)

Scott Edward Anderson also of The Green Skeptic and another former colleague (Whom Cara already tagged, but I'm tagging him again. Am I breaking the rules? This is my first time.)

Dinosaur Mom (Whom I wish was on Twitter. Hmmm. Maybe she is.)

Expat with the Elephants (Because I know she'll appreciate this type of thing and give us an excellent post to boot.)

What are YOU reading? I last devoured The Time Traveler's Wife and am now looking for something I can finish quicker than reading Prince Caspian to a 10 month old.

If the shoe fits...

Well, mine doesn't anymore. I never believed it could be true but I think my left foot DID get bigger when I was pregnant. And is it possible? But I think my right foot got smaller.

I just bought a pair of Women's Converse® One Star® Skimmers in Glitter, which are ridiculously cute/cool. Normally a 10, I ended up buying a 9 1/2 because when trying them on in Target the 10 was flying off my right foot while the 9 1/2 on my left seemed to fit OK. But now my poor left foot is suffering. Out of the store, my big toe is smashed up against the end of the shoe and more than once I've checked to make sure I bought two shoes of the same size. (Yep. 9 ½. 9 ½.) The only explanation is that post-pregnancy my feet are two different sizes. (I really should go check on one of those foot-measuring devices to be sure.) I'm actually considering buying a second pair so I can have a good fit. 9 ½ for the right. 10 for the left. Crazy. But maybe worth it, because they're oh, so cute.

And the icing on the cake? Drumroll please...

Over the course of four days our little girl has made some major strides.

1. On Monday she got to a sitting position on entirely her own power.
2. On Tuesday she pulled herself to standing.
3. And, on Thursday she finally got around to crawling!

Now, I'm not saying she a little speed demon, crawling expert at this point, but she's doing it. She's a bit hindered by this weird yoga/pilates move she's been doing with her right leg. She stretches it out to the side and does a little spin. So it's often: spin, crawl, spin, spin, spin, crawl. And often her urge to backward army crawl still takes over. Then there's the frog hop she's been doing too, where she moves both knees forward at the same time instead of independently. But like I said, she's just getting it.

Go LoVE, go!

An Update to "By Jove, She's Done It!"

As a follow up to her stellar solo sitting-up maneuver last night, Lydia Violet chose this evening to pull herself to a full standing position while we were fixing dinner. She grabbed the handle on one of the kitchen cabinet drawers and sswwooop, up she went. Exhilarating and sobering all at once. She'll be walking soon. Man, do we have a ton of baby-proofing to do.

By Jove, She's Done It!

Lydia Violet sat up by herself today! It may be that she's been practicing this in her crib without our knowledge (or maybe at daycare) but we are happy to believe that she put on this show just for us. Way to go LoVE!

Styalin'!

Ah, Spring!

I just had to post this: a street-side view on my new walk to the Metro after work. (We moved to a new office and a new Metro stop in February.) What a beautiful day. What a beautiful little postage stamp of a front "yard." And for once in my life my allergies aren't even that bad, so I can actually enjoy a scene like this without the requsite sniffling/itching/runny nose that usually goes along with it.

So, I say it in full voice, "Ah, Spring!" and to all the things that go with it: flowers, green trees, outside time, campfires, grillin', longer days, sandles, etc. But I especially say, "ahhhhh," to new beginnings. We've had a rough couple of months 'round these parts, and all of it, at the very least, has kept me out of the blogosphere. I haven't even been updating Baby in a Carseat. (But that said, I will today. Check it out in an hour or so: http://babyinacarseat.blogspot.com)

So, long story short, I want to catch up. And I will. See you around here soon.

Lydia sporting a matching orange syosya and orange bandana.

Today we went to visit and meet Jake S. for the very first time in Annapolis, MD. Jake and his parent's had not had the pleasure of meeting Lydia until today as well. We had a great time catching up over lunch, talking about what seems like the inevitable downfall of our former employer A.I. As well as my new job prospects since I was laid off in January.

After spending some time with our friends and letting the kids get acquainted we hit the road, homeward bound. The directions home are pretty straight forward if you're paying attention. Needless to say, Jen and I were discussing my future when we zipped right passed our exit for MD Route 50. Not sure which route we had gotten on, I decided we'll turn around at the next exit and get back on the correct path. 8 miles down the road is our opportunity to make a u-turn. We took the exit for Route 32...but wait...it was an exit with no return to wherever we had just come from. An adventure begins.

I was under the impression that Route 32 intersected at least one maybe even two north/south bound roads near our house and we would be fine if we just continued on. At some point in our trip west Jen suggested we take I-95 home, but I suggested we just continue on, since it was a relaxing drive. Before I knew it, the sun had shifted from right in front of to our left, we had turned and were now headed north. Not good.

To make a long story short, we ended up on I-70 which connects Fredrick, MD to Baltimore. Oops. Jen quickly whipped out the map and told me to take Route 97 south. As it turns out, Route 97 took us south towards Olney. As we approached Olney we decided to stop at the Olney Ale House for dinner.

The photo shows Lydia gnawing on a carrot stick from our order of Old Bay seasoned wings. I guess two teeth is all you need to have a quick evening snack before bed.

Oh yah!

She's sitting up too! See below.

Zoom, Zoom!

Dima got a little remote control car from a friend for Christmas. It freaks the cat out and the baby doesn't quite know what to think about it.

Stranger Than Fiction?

The strange truth of this is that this book is actually one of my favorites... WAY before Oprah promoted the crap out of it. Everyone else LOVES Love in the Time of Cholera, which is nice for all sorts of reasons. But me, I am held spellbound by the saga of the Buendías and their hometown, Macondo. Now, whether I actually am One Hundred Years of Solitude as it is described below, that is up for debate. But I love that I took a random quiz and this is what came back at me.

You're One Hundred Years of Solitude!
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Lonely and struggling, you've been around for a very long time. Conflict has filled most of your life and torn apart nearly everyone you know. Yet there is something majestic and even epic about your presence in the world. You love life all the more for having seen its decimation. After all, it takes a village.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

dental update

Re: my last post about Lydia Violet's teeth... we discovered she actually has THREE teeth, not two!

almost a month

Sigh. I just looked at the date from my last posting. It's been almost a month since I last blogged. I wish I could say I've been suffering from withdrawal, but I can't. I've been too busy. And I wish I could say that you missed me, but I can't. Not a single desperate e-mail, wondering where I've been, has graced my inbox.

Since I last posted:

• We FINALLY got the sink and toilet back into the upstairs bathroom. (Pictures coming soon.) And I chose a shower curtain. Wait for it... after all that whining and moaning about how there are no good-looking shower curtains to be found, what did I buy? A plain white one. At first I felt like it was a cop out but now I think both Dima and I are pleased as punch. It really helps maintain the illusion of space in this tiny bathroom. And on the same shopping trip I picked up some really cool stark-white, patterned bath towels. Those, in combination with some large artic blue bath sheets that coordinate with the new paint color, are really helping me feel like the project is coming together. Now, the threshold and the door... well... not yet. The weather has been too unpredictable to finish prepping the door to be repainted. And we've discovered that the marble threshold we bought is too big for the application. So, hopefully we will tackle these last tasks soon. It's cold taking a shower in a bathroom with no door.
  
• I got a glass kiln for Christmas! We finally finished the bulk of the work in the garage studio and both Dima and I were able to get out there and start working on some projects. I've run two glass loads and turned out some interesting little stuff. I learned some lessons about glass incompatability and why you should plug the vent hole in a kiln. I've got big plans though. And practice makes perfect. Dima's got a painting going too. Giraffes and daisies.
  
  
  
• We've been trying to get Lydia Violet on a sleeping schedule. We thought we had it for a while and then she went into full rejection mode. Now it seems that we're back on track. The ratio of how much she cries before she falls asleep and if she sleeps through the night seems to have to do with how much she bounces in her Bumper Jumper beforehand. The more she bounces once she's home from daycare, the easier it is to get her to go down for the night.
• Lydia has gotten a second tooth. Right above the first one. Soon she's sure to resemble Baby Herman of Roger Rabbit fame (see above). Those cheeks, those eyes, that tooth!
  
• We're full on into solid foods. And I'm elbow deep in homemade baby food production. What we've learned: Lydia dislikes anything that isn't orange/yellow colored. She loves carrots, butternut squash, yellow squash and sweet potatoes. Other than that, I've tried giving her green peas and plain ol' potatoes. Bleck. You should have seen the look on her face. I might as well have given her wallpaper paste. (I actually think the consistency of the potatoes wasn't far from wallpaper paste. The food processing seemed to bring out the glutens and it WAS sort of sticky looking.) So, we'll try again at some point with those but for now, when we're seeking success, I think we'll stick to the yellows. Up next: zucchini. Perhaps its squash like nature will help her make a leap to the greens. Actually, I guess, once pealed, zucchini would be yellow too. So never mind.
  
• Lydia is taking big-girl baths and she loves it! Her Sassy Snap and Squirt Sea Creatures from Tia Carmen are her favorite! Tonight she learned how to make big splashes with her hands. It reminded us that we need to take her back to the pool and sign her up for swim lessons. Can't wait!
  

I've got a chopper

I have a tooth! It's itty bitty, and you obviously can't see it in this picture, but it is there!

mmmmmm carrots...

Lydia Violet rolls over for the first time...

So Dima came back from the neighbor's house last night and said, "Guess what? She rolled over!" What? I missed it? So of course we immediately put her on her activity mat and had her demonstrate again and again.

2nd feeding, most successful