Cooking with Mama

Our friends Keren and Charlie posted about how they cook together...and it made me curious as to whether or not Xaris was ready for some serious adventures in the kitchen with me.

We decided to find out!

I only had my iPhone handy, and we don't have great kitchen lighting so the pictures aren't the best. But they serve their purpose in documenting the event, so we'll keep 'em!

We pulled up a chair to the butcher block and began the experiment.

Starting out...putting pears in the bowl...and then tasting them. I started to wonder if we'd have enough for the dessert! And then I started wondering what affect this would have in her diaper later if she continued to eat so many! We had to switch jobs for a little while :)

Next job: Emptying raisins into the bowl! She was so exuberant in her shaking the boxes that they also fell (flew?) into the bowl. No problem, we just pick them back up and begin again.

Next up: Smashing. Possibly the favorite of all the steps to this dessert! It was easier to just give her a baggie and the pestle, instead of dealing with the mortar (and keeping stuff inside). She's smashing granola, which I use instead of a nut mixture.

Stirring...maybe tied for favorite, or a close runner-up!

Finished product, ready for the oven! I've been experimenting with phyllo dough, making different pastries and baklavas :) This one was honey-pear. Yum.

We like cooking together! Plus, we are really really cute in our aprons. The one she is wearing was my grandma's--my mom made it for her, and it has outlines of my hands from when I was 21 months old.

penguino

I just uploaded all my iPhone pictures to the computer...I had trouble trying to hold Xaris, the penguino and the phone to shoot some video--I ended up cutting out half of X's face for part of it, but here's part of the process of learning to say "penguin"

stubborn?

Last post I mentioned how X won't identify the characters in her Buenas Noches Gorila book, even though I've been reading it to her and showing her each animal nightly for months now...well, today we found a book that we hadn't seen or read in a LONG while: La Oruga Muy Hambrienta (the Very Hungry Caterpillar). I was so excited that we found it, I plopped down to read it to her, open to the first page and point out the sun, the moon, the caterpillar (oruga) and what does she say? "O-U-Ga". And proceeds to flip through the rest of the book pointing out the "O-uu-gas" on every page, and then spends about 10 minutes looking out the screen door pointing out "pio-pio's" (birds) and asking for "O-uuu-ga?".

she's asleep...work or blog?

It's been so long--primarily because X thinks the computer is hers and anytime I'm on it she likes to come hit buttons. Her favorite is the power button (not dissimilar to her friend Nory), and the space bar is a close second. Most of my work needs to happen once she's asleep, which means I'm doing work when I'm ready to drop also. However, a quick update since the last post:

She has doubled (or more) her vocabulary...sometimes 5 or 6 new words a day this week, it's crazyfun having a conversation with her. Along with the new words, some of the old ones have gotten pushed out (or out of order). She's started calling Ricardo "mama", along with "papa"...which he doesn't mind at all, but for some reason I kind of do. :) I get to be mama.

Her animals and animal sounds have also gone a little helter-skelter. Puppies now say Meow, and everything is a "pio-pio" (the noise a bird makes). We read "Buenas Noches Gorila" multiple times a day, and while every time I point out all the animals repeatedly, she has yet to point to one and say it's name. Today though, she found the globo (balloon) on each page, even when it was tiny, halfway off the page and squealed "bobo!" every time. We've never hunted down the globos in that book...and she's never said it before today...such a fun learning curve to watch. She's starting to put more together in phrases too. A few nights ago she fell asleep saying "Amomama" (I love mama). The best night ever so far!

She's trying out new words all the time, my favorite for the moment is "penguino" (guess what that means). She says something that begins with "ben" and eventually ends with "no", but there is no consistency or limit to the amount of syllables might occur in between.

benbenbeeeeno

be NEEE no

ben ga na neee no

bebaben nee no

etc.

Not all her new developments are as exciting though. She has a toy teapot that she loves that just recently (a few days?) starts crying when one particular song plays on it. It plays 5 or so songs, and has lots of other sounds and words, and it's only this one song that makes her all sad-faced and she starts wailing. Familiar to anyone else out there? So random.

We went to play for a little bit at the arboretum today...they have their pumpkin houses and pumpkin patch out. Since she learned how to run and climb, it's harder to get her to hold still enough for a picture!

I love this picture--mostly because she was distracted by some "big kids" romping in the hay maze so she sat for more than 5 seconds.

Inside a pumpkin house

There are giant frogs that spit water into a fountain/play area. As soon as she saw they were on, she took off running for them. I caught her long enough to strip off her clothes and put on her sandals. Lest you think I'm a horrible mother, it was 89 degrees here today.

"OOOOOOOOH!" (She kept saying it. Water is so exciting)

Learning about giant toads

And ombligos (belly buttons)

Keeping up with X is of course the majority of life right now :)

She still goes with me to work, although hopefully soon the church I work at will be opening a preschool so I can enroll her for a couple days a week. Those will be my "I-have-to-be-super-efficient" days. Ric's job got all crazy on him, so poor guy has a lot on his plate. We're training for some 5Ks (me) and half marathons (him), but get to do that together (because I can walk 3.1 miles in the time he can run 14 or so...) Turkey Trot, here we come!

And hopefully another post soon(er) rather than later!