Two in October

With Elijah's second birthday around the corner, I am starting to garner odd looks when I report his age in months. As any parent of a toddler can tell you, the diffence between 1 1/2 and 2 is a big one. That said, I suppose it is just as well to say "he'll be two in October." It seems to limit the confusion and it's fun to start thinking about his upcoming birthday! I've yet to make party plans, but I'm considering a Halloween theme this year. October 30th is a perfect birthday. His birthday bashes won't be perpetually interupted by tricker-treaters, but he'll always have an excuse to throw a kick-ass costume party.

Now that Elijah is almost two, he is starting to use two (and three!) word sentences. The first and third word are invariably "more" and "please." Our days are peppered with sweet requests. "More cheese please?" and "More book please?" His earnest "thank you" makes me melt. He recently started to repeat me when I say, "I love you." Just precious. Elijah's mastery of multisyllabic words is also coming along. Some of my favorites include "underdog," "bicycle" and "butterfly."

Elijah and Sabba

Elijah loves to sing and some of his favorite songs include "B-I-N-G-O," "Twinkle-twinkle" and the "Sha-na-na-na" goodbye song. He continues to enjoy the "Sh'ma" and doesn't hesitate to belt it out at random times throughout the day.

Elijah and Jacob make funny faces

Garbage is of particular interest to Elijah. He has always been the investigative type, searching about for small objects and presenting them to me with bright eyes. He has recently come to realize that some of his discoveries are fated for the nearest trash receptacle, and he is eager to help them achieve their destiny. I'm impressed at how accurately he is able to discern what is actually garbage. During a recent walk to the park, he recruited another little boy to pick up all the bottle-tops, paper-scraps and other unsavory objects in sight. Despite an abundance of rocks, sticks, bark and other plant-matter, he never did throw away something that belonged outside. Pretty clever little guy.

I don't know how this didn't come up before, but I must mention Elijah's love of stuffed animals. For his first year and half, they were of little (if any) interest, but Elijah is now very tight with his posse of fuzzy critters. It is not uncommon to see Elijah walking around the house with 4+ animals somehow stuffed between his little arms. His favorites are Blue Doggy aka Doggy (pictured above with Elijah and Karen) and Blue Hippo aka Hop-oh. If they aren't in his crib at bed/naptime, he is sure to request them. He then gives them a big hug before curling up to sleep. I love to peek into his room and watch him snuggled up with a stuffy to his chest. So far, he has been very cooperative about letting them "take a nap" in his crib whenever we leave the house. Am hoping he'll continue to go along with this; otherwise I'll have to consider embedding them with some sort of GPS device.

Zucchini bread

The abundance of fabulous summer produce has inspired me to spend much of my free time in the kitchen. I've been trying all sorts of new recipes and whipping up some old favorites like this zucchini bread recipe from Auntie Syl. Since it makes two loaves, there is always enough to share with a friend (or slice up and freeze).

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

2 cups grated zucchini

3 cups flour

{I use 2 cups regular and 1 cup whole wheat}

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

chopped nuts {optional}

Beat eggs and add in sugar, oil and zucchini. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix wet and dry ingredients. Pour into 2 greased pans and bake at 325 for one hour.

-

Do try it, you won't be sorry. I love simple recipes, but I occasionally attempt something complicated. A few nights ago, I made a sweet and spicy seasoning paste from one of my Rick Bayless texts. The recipe called for toasting dried ancho chiles, grinding whole spices and straining the whole mixture through a fine mesh sieve. It's a bit time consuming, but it felt like an exotic adventure to me. I mixed the paste with a bit of balsamic vinegar and slathered it on piece of salmon for broiling. Served alongside some cilantro rice and roasted veggies, the food looked and tasted pretty impressive. Pretty impressive, until dessert. I sliced a mango and plunked the happy yellow pieces onto a couple saucers. That was about it. The fruit was sweet, a tiny bit tart and slightly nutty. A perfect mango. There's just no competing with mango perfection.

Fourth of July

I love holiday weekends. Our Independence Day festivities started out with a trip to our neighborhood McDonald's. As always, it was quite amusing to watch Amiel place an order with the cashier. The numbered meal-deals don't fit our specific dining needs; Amiel and the poor kid behind the counter inevitably end up confused. Ronald has yet to start offering vegetarian sausage, so I brought my own and enjoyed a tasty Sausage McMuffin with egg. The hotcakes were pretty disappointing, so we made our own chocolate-chip banana pancakes the next morning.

They're lovin' it

"Sausage" McMuffin with Egg

After Elijah's nap, we headed to the beach for a picnic with friends Mike, Marina and Max.

Happy Fourth of July!

Short but sweet

Elijah and I just returned from visiting my Grandma Doris in Boca Raton. My sister, Deborah, joined us, and I must admit that having her there was a huge bonus. In addition to her entertainingly crude company, she was a huge help with Elijah and a fun people watching companion at the airport. Though shy at first, Elijah quickly warmed up to his great-grandma and was soon running around the house exclaiming "Gigi! Gigi!" Other trip highlights included: seeing Cousin Sheryl and meeting her darling baby, piling into Grandma's bed with Deb and Elijah every morning, eating at Aunt Susan's house where the food always rocks, splashing in the pool with Deb and Elijah, and staying up late to eat pie and watch movies with Grandma.

Deborah, Hannah, Elijah and Sheryl
Grandma Doris on the patio
Elijah and Deb snuggle poolside

I once read that swaddling your toddler is a sign you are ready for more children. Don't know about that, but there is something very cozy about wrapping up Elijah in a big, fluffy beach towel.