October

October was a busy month, mom turned 60, we celebrated Halloween and Sadie was introduced to Finding Nemo on the big screen.

For my mom's birthday we celebrated by going to Sonoma to the Corner Stone Gardens. It was pretty neat, gardens as art and of course wine! Sadie really enjoyed it too. She loved the part with the plastic flower windmills the most.

For Halloween, I wanted to Sadie to be a chicken (of course) but the price of the costume was more than the laugh was worth I nixed that idea and decided to try something else. While at the store Sadie pointed to a hot dog costume and said "yeah yeah yeah." Unfortunately, it didn't come in her size so she had to be a lady bug fairy instead. It was cute and she liked the costume, but EVERYONE was either a ladybug or bumble bee for Halloween! Next year I'm going to have to get a little more creative.
We took Sadie down to Lakeshore Avenue to trick or treat during the day at the shops. She had a blast, eating candy and talking to other kids. We would stop at one place she'd say "tricky treat" "thank you, you welcome." Then shove the candy in my face and say "eat eat eat." Luckily this didn't last longer than a lollipop, sour rope and milky way.

That night because we didn't have anywhere to go we watched "Finding Nemo" on the projector. I was really excited about showing the movie to Sadie because I know how much she likes fish. I was also a little worried that it might be too scary for her.
She loved it and has seen a handful of times now.
Her new thing is at night she grabs all the pillows off our bed, sets them out on the floor and says "movie." She'll sit down get all ready and then we'll have to say "no movie tonight, it's only Monday."

Not long after our first screening of Nemo, we went to Berkeley Bagels for breakfast. While Peter was eating a bagel with lox and cream cheese Sadie asked "what's that?" pointing to the pink fish hanging out the side of the sandwich. What does Peter do?
"Well, Sades, that's, that's.......Nemo."
"OH" she says.

Next to the bagel shop is a book cart with books for a small donation. I picked up a few books I remember from my collection as a kid. "Julius the Gorilla," and "There's A Monster Under My Bed." Sadie enjoyed both of them except the other night we read "Monster" to her and she started waving her hand and babbling on and on about monsters and why doesn't' the boy just "go see mama?"
This might explain why Sadie comes into our room to sleep in the middle of the night, every night! WHOOOOPS!

We are trying to slowly potty train Sadie, we kind of have her on a routine. In the morning she tells me when she has to poop. Sometimes. She's supposed to say "mommy poo poo" when she has to go so we can go over to the potty. Usually she does it but sometimes she just comes over and hugs me so I can get a big whiff of doo doo.

One afternoon while trying to be a cool mom, Sadie and I went to lunch at the Merritt Bakery for a veggie burger, grilled cheese and french fries.
Turns out my kid doesn't like french fries. DOES"T LIKE FRENCH FRIES?????????????
Here I am trying to "fun mommy" and she doesn't even want it.
Her favorite food? Tofu, mushrooms and asparagus. !!!!!! I mean, I'm not complaining AT ALL but I really didn't see that one coming.

enjoy!
xoxo

october 2009

Fox In The Water

When Sadie first started talking, Peter taught her to say "cheers." He showed her how to "cheers" her water to ours and so on. Now, Sadie says "cheers" to everything and I mean EVERYTHING. If I am wearing socks and she is wearing socks, "cheers." If Peter is eating cereal and Sadie is eating cereal, "cheers." If I have a pen in my hand and Sadie is watching TV "cheers."
The other day we went to the zoo with my dad. Sadie was riding on his shoulders when up walked another little girl on her dad's shoulders......."cheers" says Sadie as she's waving to the girl.

I usually take at least one picture a day of Sadie to send to Peter while he's at work. Now, when I say "Sadie can I take a picture." She'll say "cheese daddy!" If she sees a camera she'll say "camra, ni picta fa dada."
When the home phone rings she says "hoppaaaaaa!" Hoppa is what she calls my dad.
If my cell rings, she says "daddeeeeeee."
When we ask if she has had fun today she says "gama hoppa." No idea why grandma/hoppa would be an answer to a yes or no question, but it is.
Sometimes she'll say "gama hoppa" so many times she starts to cry.
Seriously kid, if you want to just go live with them, it could be arranged I'm sure.

Our pediatrician asked me a few visits ago if Sadie was mimicking me yet. At the time she was just starting too. Now she does it with everything, brushing my hair, putting on makeup "Sadie makeup, mommy makeup" she says.
I made a little kitchen for Sadie to play with out of an old TV stand and some pots and pans so she could cook while I cook. "I maka something." "I maka din din" "I maka soup "she'll say.
From day one, while she would sleep in the sling, I would cook with her on my chest, talking her through the whole process. Now it's funny to hear and see what she has picked up over time.

At night sometimes we read Dr. Seuss. One of our favorites is "The Fox in Socks" or "fuckin sok." This makes us laugh so naturally we ask her to say other things.
Fox in the water = "fuckin water"
Fox in the bushes = "fuckin bushes"
We shouldn't laugh but sometimes, we just can't help it, you know?

I like to tickle Sadie. She's very ticklish and her laugh cracks me up. When we tickle her she giggles and then says "more tickee you" when we stop. Sometimes she even grabs our hands says "I tickee you" and makes us tickle her.

Now that Sadie is starting to repeat everything we say, one of my favorite things to do is play music for her and see what she does.
Kings of Leon's song "Use Somebody" is one her most favorite. Every time it comes on she'll scream "sombaya, sombaya I love this song." She giggles and sings along the best she can.
Another fave is Lady Gaga. Yes, I know, Lady Gaga. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I like to listen to pop radio stations, but I do when we are in the car. I just can't help myself.
When we walked into Trader Joes the other day Kings of Leon was on the stereo and Sadie screams "sombaya, sombaya, mommy sombaya I love this song."
Of course this brought the house down. I was just thankful it wasn't Lady Gaga and I'd be outed.

Almost every night we have a dance party, just the 3 of us. Sadie will make us do a group dance, then she does a few somersaults and then we get to do our own thing. Sort of how they do it on Yo Gabba Gabba, which by the way I am realizing is teaching my kid A LOT.
Sadie counts to 13 in English and Spanish, she says her ABCs and and can beat box almost as good as Biz Markie!

I try really hard to go to the park as much as we can so we can run around and have fun. It's hard though, sometimes I just don't want to and we end up sitting on the patio playing with sidewalk chalk listening to noises.
I mistakenly thought Sadie was saying something else when she was trying to say that she heard a bus. To my surprise girl said "no mommy, listen BUS." Seriously?

One night while we were hanging out at Gary and Dwain's, Sadie and Addie were playing princess with Addie's costumes. Sadie dressed up in tiara, heels and wand and pranced around the house like she had been wearing heels from day one.
This made Peter very uncomfortable, of course. :)

I'm still having a hard time getting Sadie to sleep in her bed all the way through the night. As it is, I have to lay down in her bed (which is way more comfortable than our bed) and wait for her to fall asleep. Then sometime in the wee hours of the morning this little bird appears, blankie and monkey in hand ready to take over "mama dada bed."
It's hard to lay down the law when she's standing there with a huge smile on her face waiting to snuggle up in between mommy and daddy. I hate being the enforcer.
She'll say things like "mommy ni ni too" or "mama sleepy, daddy sleepy, Sadie sleepy" while she's crawling up and into the bed.

I often worry that there isn't enough in the house to keep Sadie occupied. I always look for new toys and games to bring home to show her. One thing that never gets old for her is my crimping iron from 1985. She drags it around the house like a pet. "pink" she calls it. She lays on the floor and talks to it, wraps herself up in the cord (yeah, yeah, I'm watching her, don't worry) and tries all the time to bring it to bed with her. She'll even grab a few more of my curling irons from the cabinet, lay them out, roll around with them and talk to them for hours. If I had a video camera, and she didn't stop doing things once I tried to capture the moment, I would take a video for you to show you how funny it is.

We are trying really hard to make sure the foods Sadie eats are healthy and nutritious. We save sweets for weekends and/or special occasions. On more than one occasion, I have offered french fries to Sadie, thinking I am being the "cool" mom who lets her kid eat junk food. In one of the Hello Kitty books we have there is a picture of a pink cake.
Whenever I say "we are going to have a treat today Sadie." She says "pink happy birthday cake?"
And guess what? My kid hates french fries. Actually, I think she might hate potatoes all together, but definitely fries. She is happiest with tofu, mushrooms and broccoli.
She eats Indian food, Mexican food, Japanese food, cake and cookies, but no french fries????
I guess I shouldn't complain, but I mean REALLY!

enjoy,
xoxo

september 2009

Wha Hama?

Sadie is sleeping in a toddler bed. She climbs in and out on her own. In the morning the first couple of times she came out of her room and said "no, no, no." No idea why.

At her 18 month check yesterday the doctor said she's probably ready for potty training to really start happening. Sadie is in the 80Th percentile for height and head circumference and 10Th percentile for weight. So, essentially she is tall and thin with a big head. We have nicknamed her "lollipop chicken".

I started looking for Halloween costumes the other day (damn they are expensive). I can't decide if Sadie should be a chicken or a lollipop. A chicken on a lollipop? A chicken with a lollipop?
Maybe we'll just nix the whole thing and wait until she's old enough to ask for a costume.

August was a pretty busy month. We went to the Oakland Zoo. Sadie pet a goat and didn't' cry this time. She jumped and played all over the place. My mom was there so this meant that she really didn't want to have anything to do with me.

The weather here is still sort of weird, some days are hot and some aren't so hot. So we just continue to play on our patio with water and sidewalk chalk.
Sadie is really into "hap"-ing me clean, sweep and water the plants.
I've taught her how to take the water and scrub the chalk off the patio and to water the plants fairly well.
Usually it ends up being messier than when it started but who cares?

We also took a trip out to NYC and NJ. Lifetime played a few shows. Sadie and I went to the first show at Webster Hall. We sat in the dressing room and looked down on the stage. Sadie rocked it in her pink headphones and screamed "yay daddy, daddy, daddy!" almost the whole time Peter was on stage.
I wasn't sure about the headphones at first. We had been practicing at home with them and then during sound check she wouldn't keep them on and kept crying when the music went on. But true-to-form Sadie pulled out all the stops once the club got crowded and people started ooh-ing and aw-ing all over her.

I think Sadie really enjoyed the city. There were so many things for her to look at. Our hotel was next to Century 21. I couldn't' wait to get in there and do some shopping. When we walked through the doors there were so many people, Sadie started yelling at all of them. So I turned around and walked out.
Instead, we cruised Soho and ate some pretty tasty Japanese food for dinner.

The following day, Peter was off the entire day so we went over to visit a friend at his shop. He took Sadie on a scooter ride around the place. She really liked this and kept asking for more.
We spent almost the entire day shopping and came home with NOTHING! It was sort of unbelievable.
That night we went over to L'il Frankies Pizza in the east village. One of our most favorite places to eat. On the way over there all we could talk about what how great their pizzas and sauce are. What did we order?
Pasta of the day! Doyeeee, no sauce!
My pasta was taglioni with wild mushrooms and a huge dollop of marscapone cheese. Sadie ate half of it at least. It was so freaking good!

We came home and crashed in our big hotel bed.
The hotel had a terrific view of ground zero and Jersey City. We had so much fun looking out the window at everything.

Sunday morning we got up, packed and headed out to Penn Station. Peter went off to Philly for a show and Sadie and I took the train down to the Jersey Shore to stay with Matt and Jana.
We had so much fun, hanging out on the beach while everyone surfed. Sadie and I jumped in the water, played in the sand and squished the fish eggs that washed up on shore.
Sadie kept asking to talk to the fish in the water which made for some interesting explanations.

It was such a relaxing time, eating, drinking, hanging out. I'm still thinking about how badly I want to swim in the sauce from Vics. Seriously dude, this sauce, holy crap. We had fried raviolis with sauce, pizza with sauce (duh) and Jana had mussel moulinere with extra sauce. I'm not kidding when I say I want to bathe in it. It was THAT good.

Jana and I cooked up a bunch of stuff and of course didn't photograph most of it. But, if you're interested check out her blog. I"m sure she'll have something up there about our visit.

Of course, Sadie did many funny things while we were there. She kept saying "wha hama?" Which means "what happened?" She said this for EVERYTHING. So many times that we just started saying it too.
Sadie is slightly afraid of boys, mostly men. Which is a good and bad thing. She's kind of afraid of her daddy sometimes too, not a good thing.
When we first arrived at Matt and Jana's, there were a lot of boys around. Matt, his brother and their friend Brian. At first Sadie was scared and would hide behind me or Jana.
By the second or third day she was saying 'hi' them and then she started asking for "Matt." She even went into the tv room one night and asked him for ice cream. They sat in there eating chocolate ice cream and pretzels for quite a long time. So cute!

Flying with a toddler sucks. No matter how cool your kid is. We took a red-eye flight going out to NYC. Sadie slept, we didn't.
On the way back, Sadie and I flew in the afternoon. She whined and squirmed and kick and screamed the whole way. I was THAT mom. Humiliated and and too pooped to really do anything about it. When Sadie kicked the seat in front of us, the first few times I told her to stop. After that, anything to keep her from pulling at my shirt and swatting me in the face would have to do.
Of course, there was nothing on TV. I sort of banked on the thought that she would sleep. She usually does. Poor kid. It wasn't her fault at all. Even at home she doesn't sit still.

I suppose it could have been worse. Sadie didn't scream and cry and make a scene, she just drove me nuts. Maybe the lady in front of us too.

When we returned home, Peter and I went with some friends to Brassica Supperclub, an underground vegan dining experience. It was fantastic. The theme that night was mexican. We enjoyed every minute of it. Peter, enjoyed dessert and kept talking about it days after. He always seems to love every one's desserts except mine. It drives me nuts. At least he loves my savory cooking the most though...........
It was a really pleasant night, the whole thing lasts about 3 hours so you have time to really enjoy your food and talk with your friends and just relax. It's something we haven't done in a long time.
I look forward to the next time!

enjoy!
xoxo

august 2009

ooh-ooh

Just as our nightly bed time routine was settling into a holding pattern, Sadie decided to go and mix it up.
One night, after reading, or trying to read about a half dozen books or so, I started to rock Sadie to sleep like I usually do.
Normally, I sit and rock her for about 3 songs on the ipod and then put her in her crib. If she cries, she cries, if not, I consider my self lucky. After about 20 seconds of the first song she leans forward, points toward her crib and says "yeah, yeah, yeah."
I ask her if she wants to lay down and she says "yeah, yeah, yeah" again.
My little girl is all growns up! She doesn't even need mommy to rock her to sleep anymore.
It was kind of sad in a way. Even though I have a few extra minutes now at night where I don't have to rock her I kind of feel sad that she doesn't want to sit with me.
It's gotten to the point now where she just sits in the rocker with me long enough for me to get a kiss and then points to her crib and says "yeah, yeah, yeah" or "nigh, nigh."
Once she's in the crib, she gathers all her dolls and shoves them under her like a hen sitting on her eggs and reaches for her blankets.
I tuck her in and leave.
Later, before we go to bed, Peter will check on her. She's usually facing the opposite direction bum in the air, deep in sleep mode.

During nap time though, Sadie insists on sleeping in our bed. The only way she will fall asleep is if I lay there with her, listening to classical music and close my eyes. Sometimes we lay down together and I stroke her hair. Other times, I close my eyes, pretend to be sleeping while Sadie rolls around on the bed trying to fall asleep. Almost always I fall asleep for a while too. Almost always when I wake up Sadie is sleeping on me somehow. I love this and hope that it never changes.
Although, now that I have made it public knowledge, with my luck it will change.
I'm actually contemplating erasing this whole paragraph, but I guess I'll take my chances.

It's really exciting now that Sadie is starting to talk. She says things sometimes that completely catch us off guard, make us laugh and sometimes make us cry.
We were sitting in Zachary's the other day waiting for our pizza. Sadie was looking around at all the other tables yelling "pizza! pizza! pizza!" She just kept getting louder and louder until finally our pizza arrived and she was able to stuff her face with some deep dish spinach and mushroom pie.

Here's a little list of things she says:
oy you - I love you
peez - please
teeses - trees
teet teet - birds
sigh - sky
bot - belt
seet - sheet
tost- toast
oht - out
dada work - she says this a lot
hot
ding dong - belly button
eye bow - eye brow
neck, nose, eyes, ears, arm, knee, feet
moof - mouth
ahbow- elbow
shoe
tuck -truck
bus
pogo - pogo stick, sometimes comes out as "pogogogogo"
dude

It's always surprising how many words she has and how many things she knows the word for.
She mimics us all the time both verbally and physically.
When I put on my makeup, Sadie has her own makeup brushes that she uses to put on her makeup. When Peter does push ups at home, Sadie does them too. He always says to her "wanna get ripped?" Sadie points to his push up bar and says "wopped."
In the morning when we drive Peter to work we always say "shhhh" in the hallway so that Sadie doesn't scream her head off while running down the hall to garage.
Now when we go to drive Peter to work, she runs down the hall and stops every few feet and says "shhh, shhh" Then she squeals in delight and starts running again......

Something funny that we did one day was make fun of her for the way she would start backing up to sit down like a mile away from where she is about to sit.
We would say "beep, beep, beep." Like a truck backing up. What do you, a few days later, Sadie started copying us. Now every time she wants to sit in our laps, she says "beep, beep, beep" and backs up on us.

It makes me so happy when I see how much Sadie loves my old Cabbage Patch dolls. She drags them around, takes them for walks in her little stroller, feeds them and sleeps with them. "Seyee" is what she calls "Scotty" my original cabbie. I can still remember the day I got him. My mom, grandma and I went to Mervyn's to find him. There were 3 dolls left on the shelf. I had to have a boy doll, I remember this specifically and Mervyn's was the only one that had them.
The other day my mom came home from Salvation Army with a new Cabbage Patch kid for Sadie. Brand New with tags. $2.50 the price tag said. My mom even got a senior discount so the doll cost something like $1.25! Who would have thought!

On the hottest day of the summer so far, my mom and I took Sadie to the Alameda County Fair. It was $2 Tuesday and worth every penny. Except for the brutal heat, the fair was pretty cool. We went to the petting zoo, animal sale and barnyard play area where the kids could pretend they worked on a farm. Sadie wasn't real into the petting zoo. She didn't want to touch anything and when the misters came on to cool everything down, all she wanted to do was stand under them and get wet. My poor mom was almost soaked.
Sadie experienced her first ICEE and fell in love with a little courtyard full of flowers and low curbs for her to sit on. Girl loves to find things to sit on.
She struck up a conversation with an older lady sitting nearby and she was just happy as a clam.

About a week before we were to leave on a plane to Portland to see Mookie, Pop-Pop, Jif, Evan, Riley and Mallory, we started telling Sadie she was going to fly on a plane to see everyone.
One day, she pulled out a book that Mookie had made for her with everyone's pictures in it. She just started going through it and saying everyone's name. It was really cute to watch.
When we arrived in Portland on the way home from the airport she already had Mookie and Pop-pop's name's down "mook" and "pop-pop." She managed to get Mallory's "mayee" but didn't really show any signs of going for Jif, Evan or Riley. Next time, I guess.
We had a great time in Portland. It was really hot so we drove out to the beach and played in the sand. I was kind of worried about how Sadie would react to the beach since we hadn't been yet. She loved it, of course and now I can't wait until we hit up Bradley Beach, NJ next month!
On the way back from the beach we stopped off the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I love cheese, in case you didn't already know. :)
In fact, Tillamook is one of my faves. mmmmmm cheese!!! It was so cool to see all that cheese and eat some too!
What I really enjoyed was seeing that the cheese in Kosher and vegetarian!

I also got to visit Sweet Pea Baking Company for some vegan treats. I have to say, maybe I was just really excited about it because I have some of their recipes and really enjoy them, but it was just sort of "mehhh" for me. Nothing really jumped out and hit me like "wow this is good!" But, I'm glad I got to go because I've been obsessing over it for a long time.
After Sweet Pea we drove to The Enchanted Forest. If you have kids and are in the Portland area, YOU MUST GO HERE!!!! It was SO much fun. It put Fairyland here in Oaktown to shame a hundred and fifty times over. In fact I'm even embarrassed that Fairyland exists now. Sadie really enjoyed herself too. She ran around through tunnels, slid down some slides, rode on a train and ate some delicious amusement park french fries.


Now that we're back from Portland, life is all about drinking smoothies, eating udon noodles and saying "no" way too much. Sadie says it all the time and well, we try not to but seriously, how else do you get your point across?

enjoy!
xoxo

july 2009

ABC Chicken

The fact that Sadie is walking is old news by now. The fact that she's talking is pretty old news too. Everyday she just gets funnier and funnier with the words she's saying. She has this word "day-soo," we have no idea what it means. I assume she uses it when she wants to know what something is, or she knows but can't say it. She says it a lot and we say it back to her sometimes which brings the giggles.
When I brush her teeth I always sing the ABCs just to sort of distract her while I'm poking around in her mouth. Now, because I have done it so many times, she starts singing the song when I say "do you want to brush your teeth?"
She also sings the ABCs pretty much any chance she gets. It's really quite funny because she's saying the letters but not in any particular order. Sometimes, if you don't sing along with her, she'll just sing louder and louder until you start to pay attention.
We've made some friends in our building and have gone to story time at Barnes and Noble, played at the park and been swimming a bunch. Sadie is really funny around other kids. She gets real quiet and just sort of stares. It's always confusing to me. She's crazy loud at home and when we're out together but once someone her own size comes near she freezes!
I recently upgraded some of the toys in the house. I could tell Sadie was getting a little bored because she kept getting into everything. The house was a crazy mess, I was starting to drown in my chores.
I bought a little basketball hoop and basketball for her to play with. Each time she slams the ball into the basket, she jumps and claps and turns around so that we can clap and cheer for her. Sometimes, she even does a little dance when she makes it in the basket.
I also bought a baby stroller so Sadie could push her baby around. She doesn't really push baby around though. Mostly, she stacks our shoes in it and pushes those around.
Another thing we got for Sadie is sidewalk chalk. Not only is it more fun for mommy to play with it, it is really, really messy. It always starts out under control and then before we know it, chalk EVERYWHERE!
I tried giving Sadie some crayons. She's slowly coming around to them. At first she just pounded on the paper and broke a lot of them, but now she's starting to become more aware of what they can do.
People laugh at me because I ask Sadie a lot of questions. She says "yeah" and "no" really well so I usually trust that she knows what she's talking about. For instance when getting dressed, I hold things up and she she says "yeah" or "no" to them. This makes for some pretty awesome outfits, I must say. Sadie likes to rock the dress over the jeans look. One of my favorites for years. It looks better on Sadie than it does on me, but I don't care!
My dad took us to a plant show in SF a few weekends ago so that we could buy some succulents. There were so many cool things there. I scored a bunch of new plants. Our patio is looking so good! Now that the weather is getting nice, we spend a bit of time out there on the weekend. Peter and Sadie like to enjoy their coffee out there. In the mornings, Sadie and I water the plants together. Well, I water, she tears the leaves off. :(
Not having cable or a tv for that matter really hasn't been a problem for us. Until recently, we didn't let Sadie watch much tv. Occasionally, we would show her some Pocoyo on Netflix. Once that started to really grate on the nerves, I found a few Yo Gabba Gabba! episodes online that we could watch for free. Those too started to grate so we finally broke down and downloaded season 1 from Itunes.
At first, Sadie didn't seem to be that into them. She kind of only liked the episode with Jack Black from season 2. Then all of a sudden, she started singing the songs and going crazy when DJ Lance would come on the screen. Now anytime we say the words "shake" "jump" "wiggle" or "dance" she goes nuts and dances around in circles.
The other day my mom and I were in Toys R Us with Sadie and she was going crazy over the Yo Gabba Gabba toys they had there. Every time we pushed Brobee's foot and he started singing, she danced in a circle.
We even have a Yo Gabba Gabba book we read at night. Sometimes Sadie is so crazy for DJ Lance she refuses to put the book down and ends up sleeping with it!
Now that we've been watching a bit of tv (can I call it tv if it's on a computer screen?) with her it's just amazing to see how much she's absorbed. She says so much now and does even more!
My birthday was last weekend and Peter taught Sadie to say "happy birthday." They both came into the bedroom to wake me up and Sadie said "hap-pee buduh" then the rest of the day she just kept saying "hap-pee, hap-pee!"
Most of her words end in "ck" whether they have that sound in them or not. At times it can get a little tricky when out in public. Especially with the word "fork." It always sounds like something else...........

enjoy!
xoxo

june 2009

Springtime flowers and "for lovers only"

I just HAVE to share these photos with you. I forgot how beautiful the flowers around town are in the spring here in Emeryville. The entire perimeter of Pixar Studios is covered in pink roses. There are lemon trees, jasmine blooms, roses, snap dragons, peonies, poppies, you name it.
I of course, always forget to bring my camera with me when I go out for a walk with Sadie. Luckily, my phone takes pretty decent pics.
Here are some photos I took the other day while walking home from the dry cleaners. The colors were absolutely amazing. So bright and fragrant were the flowers, it just warmed my heart and put a big smile on my face. I just love flowers. In the ground and in my vases at home. I try to act tough and say that I don't care to be brought flowers but that's just a lie. I love them! I want them! I need them! Any old occasion will do too. Wednesday, Saturday, Mother's Day, Veteran's Day, pretty much any day, for any reason is just fine by me.


Now on to some food..........
When I was a kid, I used to think crepes were "for lovers only." Don't ask me why, I have no idea. It's just what I thought. I thought that crepes were something you made for your lover in the morning. Coffee, crepes, fresh squeezed OJ all eaten while in a silk negligee with matching robe. Where I got this idea I really couldn't say.
As I got older and went out into the world I realized crepes weren't just for lovers but for anyone who cared enough to eat one. I had no idea they could be savory either. In my mind they were always filled with fresh fruit, a sweet cheese and whipped cream. Maybe a little chocolate sauce drizzled over the top.
My first job out of culinary school we made chocolate crepes. It was there that my love for making crepes began.
I loved to put all the ingredients into the blender, buzz it up and let it chill in the fridge until ready to use.
Carefully, I would coat my pan with non-stick spray and gently ladle some batter into the pan, tilting it ever so slightly, keeping it just hot enough to cook but never letting it get too hot. Quickly, I would flip the crepe over, cook the other side and dump it out onto a piece of wax paper. On to the next and the next and the next.

There are so many things you can do with a crepe. Ham and Swiss, Brie and spinach, peanut butter and jelly, fresh fruit, whipped cream, or my personal fave Nutella and just about anything with it!

A few weeks ago, Tracy and Ian came over for vegan brunch. I love to experiment when they come over. Partly because they eat everything I put out and partly because I just like to experiment.
Usually, I just make plain crepes, ap flour maybe a little sugar if I'm doing a sweet one. This time I decided to step it up and make buckwheat crepes. Half of the crepes were made savory and the other half I added some sugar too so that we could fill them with fruit, chocolate ganache and Soyatoo whipped topping.
I was so overjoyed when everyone went crazy for my crepes! They were so easy and really tasty.
I have a crepe pan. I've used it for many years. I believe it was my mom's before I took it. I ahve since learned to use a small non-stick frying pan or skillet which I find is sometimes easier.

BUCKWHEAT CREPES WITH POTATO MUSHROOM SPINACH FILLING AND TAHINI-DILL SAUCE
makes about 10-15 crepes depending on the size of your pan
Adapted from Veganomicon, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
***the crepe batter has to chill overnight******
You will need:
1 1/2 +2 Tablespoons soy milk
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1 Tablespoon arrowroot flour
1/2 tsp salt
non stick cooking spray
softened non hydrogenated margarine
a silicone basting brush
small offset spatula or a butter knife
wax paper
baking sheet lined with foil and lightly sprayed

Filling (can be made the night before as well)
1/2 pound Yukon gold potatoes
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 small onion, diced finely
1 tsp carraway seeds (optional but really taste good!)
1/4 pound mushrooms, any variety, thinly sliced
1/2 pound spinach, cooked, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Tahini-dill sauce
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup water
1 glove garlic, minced
juice of one lemon
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp paprika, the spicy kind
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup light packed fresh dill
a blender or immersion blender
a sauce pot

First make the crepe batter
combine all the ingredients in a blender, scrape the sides and blend well
pour into an airtight container and chill overnight

when you are ready to make the crepes:
cut a bunch of squares of wax paper to place the crepes on in a stack
(this prevent sticking)
Heat your pan over medium-high heat.
lightly spray the pan and brush with margarine
pour about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the crepe batter into the pan and tilt in a circular direction until the batter has spread out.
as the batter is setting, hold the pan slightly off the flame so you don't burn the batter
once there are no wet spots and the edges begin to lift, take your spatula or knife and gently run it around the edge
carefully slide under the crepe and flip it over to the other side
*you can set the pan down and use two hands for this*
cook just a few seconds more
lay onto wax paper, continue

Make the filling:
peel and coarsely chop the potatoes
boil them in a pot for about 20-25 minutes, drain set aside
cook spinach, drain, set aside until cooled and chop
in a large skillet heat the oil over med-high heat
add the onion and saute until translucent
add the caraway seeds and mushroom
saute until very tender and most of the liquid has absorbed
add the potatoes and spinach
season with salt and pepper
remove from heat, set aside to assemble the crepes

Heat your oven to 250-300*F.
lightly spray a foil lined baking sheet
place one crepe down on the sheet and spoon about 3-4 Tablespoons of filling just off center of the crepe.
Gently fold over so the seam is on the bottom
continue until all crepes are made
place in the oven (if you have cooked the crepes so that they are a little crisp, brush with margarine or spray, so that they don't dry out)

Make the sauce
if using a blender-place all ingredients in a blender, puree and heat in a saucepan until warm
if using an immersion blender-place all ingredients in a sauce pan, heat and puree

Place crepes on a place and ladle sauce over the top.
serve warm.

*if you want to make sweet crepes - omit the salt, add 2 Tablespoons sugar and some vanilla extract if you like.

enjoy!!!
xoxo

Are you my chicken?

We went down to San Diego a couple of weeks ago to visit my family and to celebrate my granny's 80th birthday. Of course Sadie loved all the attention and was on her best behavior. She was also completely attached to my mom leaving Peter and I with a bit of time on our hands. We were able to go down the beach, walk around and have some lunch just like the old days. During that time Sadie really turned a corner in the walking department. She kept following my mom everywhere, walking behind her like a little duck.

Now that she's walking it seems like she's turned into a completely different person. She's talking a bit and mimicking what we say a lot which is just plain creepy. Over night, she went from starting to walk to going full speed ahead! We even had to buy the kid a pair of "real" shoes. Girl is into everything now, and I mean EVERYTHING.

The shoes that Sadie was wearing before she really started walking were this really cute pair of mary jane sneakers that I found at Target. Once she really started going we realized they were too small. We had two pairs of Vans waiting for her at home. One pair was a hand-me-down with pink flamingos on them. The other pair are black with red and white trim and a skull and crossbones on the ankle, they were a gift from Jana. Unfortunately, I think the poor kid has my skinny feet and the things wouldn't stay on. So we picked up a pair of red Converse with laces for her. My parents bought her a pair of light pink Salt Water Sandals. They are the cutest things ever. My mom still has my first pair. Sadie keeps pointing to her "soose" and saying "sigh". Which means "mom put on my damn shoes and take me outside!"

On Memorial Day we went to Children's Fairyland. I used to go there as a kid and have very fond memories of it. When Peter and I first lived together we lived on the other side of the lake from the park. I was very excited to take Sadie there. Sadie was really into the little plastic key they give you to put into the boxes. She wasn't that interested in the what came out of the box once the key was in, but she kept going up to each box and trying to put her key in. She was sort of overwhelmed by most of the things at the park and was too small for a lot of the rides. She did enjoy seeing the animals and didn't know what to do when the pony came over to her.
It was a nice day but Peter and I decided the park may have seen better days. The only way I could think to describe the place was like a drag queen the morning after. Once sparkling and beautiful now just tired, dirty and faded. The kids running around the place didn't seem to mind, so I guess that's all that matters.
That night we grilled some corn on the bbq. It was quite tasty. At least I think it was. Sadie ate my entire ear of corn and part of Peter's! She thought it was just the neatest thing.
BTW-if you want to know how fast your kid's digestive system works, let them eat corn-on-the-cob.

Sadie's started playing dress up with my clothes recently. While I'm in the shower I usually lay out some clothes for her to play with in the bathroom. This keeps her occupied and away from the toilet (which she can flush). She used to make a ton of noise in the bathroom, now she just babbles and tries to put all of the clothes on.
I never know what she's going to have on upside down and inside out when I step out from behind the steamy shower curtain.
The other day she had on my tank top. She even put it on correctly. Later, I gave her a belt, bracelet and purse. She thought this was just the funniest thing ever. Another time, she kept going into the closet to get my bra and put it around her neck.

Today, Sadie had her 15 month check-up. She is in the 75th percentile for both height and head circumferance, but only in the 15th percentile for weight. Skinny Minnie this kid is! What's funny about that is that she eats ALL THE TIME. When it's not mealtime, she's snacking on something. I don't know if it's because we don't feed her cow's milk or what. She definitely eats. During our visit to the doctor, Sadie was her usual self, flirty and giggly. She made everyone laugh and fawn all over her. Little ham.
The nurses kept saying, "oh I wish all the babies could be as happy as this one!" One of the nurses stood outside our door, while we were waiting for the doctor. She kept saying to any doctor or nurse passing by, "oh you gotta come in here and see this little girl, she's so happy!"

enjoy!
xoxo

may 2009