the transfer terror

B. and I went to the Getty this morning with B. & G. and their kids. It was our first visit and we had an awesome time running around the grounds and playing in the family room. Art? Nope, didn't see any. And given the gorgeous outdoor setting, it seemed somewhat beside the point, especially with three kids. Then we all had lunch. Thank god they had mac and cheese at the cafeteria. I had these visions of B. just rejecting any and all other options while his eat-anything little friends wolfed down their chicken and zucchini. He ended up with 3 bites of pasta and then some of G.'s chicken (why does other people's food always taste better than what your mom sets in front of you?!) Then B. passed out as I drove the fifteen minute ride home and wouldn't go back down once we got home. Not with two bottles of milk or an episode of Gabba. It's crazy how much I rely on his naps to get work done (during the week), cook 'n' clean or on weekends just zone out in front of the TV. So now he's running around the house tossing anything he can get his hands on because being tired always makes his feisty. I will remind him of this when he's a famous pitcher and suggest he skip a night's sleep to improve his game.

birthday joy

This year's cupcakes paled in comparison to last year's but at least the birthday boy enjoyed them enough to lick the frosting off two cakes and all the grownups loved the breakfast pastries and sandwiches from Thyme Cafe (prosciutto/brie/arugula, turkey/brie and caprese). The twos are in full effect but it was an awesome day celebrating an awesome kid.

that kind of day

Breakfast: Cheerios. Lunch: Cheerios. Dinner: 1 meatball. Temper tantrums all day. Welcomes to the twos.

crab cupcake toppers

Argh. Ben just got a look at the marzipan cupcake toppers I was gonna make for this birthday this weekend and freaked out. And not in a good way. Crabs are sort of a joke between us. We have a lot of ocean life books and little plastic crabs he plays with and at least once a day we'll snap our fingers like crab pincers. But he wigged out when I showed him these candies. Blerg. Five days to go and I need some new ideas!

big growth spurt

Nothing food related today (though I did manage to feed B. some scrambled eggs with cheese for breakfast, which is a major score for mommy) but he's having a major cognitive surge this week. He literally just started adding articles to his sentences yesterday. (Something like "Foofa likes to grow flowers.") Every other sentence is "What's that?" And he's watched "Tangled" twice this week (his first full length movie) and keeps asking to watch it again. It's so weird. He's becoming even easier to understand but he's growing up so fast that it's freaking me out. The good news is watching a little TV and eating A LOT of carbs doesn't seem to be affecting his intelligence.

tonight's dinner

I grilled some marinated beef satays I got from Whole Foods in Venice (for the guys in the house). I'm no meat eater but that store takes its meat seriously. There are more sausages, brochettes, smoked meats, etc. than I've ever seen outside a butcher shop. The marinade was a honey terriyaki so I figure some sort of Asian noodle might work. I grated fresh ginger (via microplane) with a little oil, soy sauce, garlic and miso then steamed some edamame and tossed the whole thing with pasta. (It's just getting too boring to point out that I'm the only one who actually ate anything.) This is the first time I've used ginger and it made the sauce so zingy. I wish I had started using sooner. The Australian side of my family uses it all the time but I tend more toward Mediterranean style food which doesn't call for so much ginger. But consider me a convert.

breakfast for dinner

Yesterday started with a turkey meatball and ended with scrambled eggs. And then there was one day when B. asked for oatmeal for dinner. This kid loves breakfast for dinner. I'm not super pleased about making him something different for dinner but, for purely selfish reasons, I also don't want him waking up hungry in the middle of the night. The things we will do for sleep...

when we go grocery shopping

I feel the need to write this down because I know I'll forget and soon I won't even be able to bribe B. to come to Whole Foods with me but for now I can get him there with the promise of watching Yo Gabba Gabba when we get home. Obviously I could wrestle him into the car but it's so much easier when he's compliant. And then there's the snacking. Usually he asks for pizza when we pass the brick oven and most employees are happy to give a sample slice. You get the odd stink eye but since passing out pizza will give me more time to shop it's in the store's best interest to keep my kid fed and happy. But today he wanted a banana (Yay! Bananas have been on the "no like" list for about a week now) and a slice of pita bread. And then some woman in line was praising B. for how well he ate and talking about how it's a challenge to get her kids to eat anything. Which was nice but I also knew this meant B. probably wouldn't eat the pasta dinner I was planning for tonight so there was no smug joy in seeing him stuff his face at four o'clock in the afternoon.

second birthday rolling around

I can't believe I'm planning B.'s second birthday. Where did this year go? We're doing the beach again but a morning party so I'm trying to think of breakfasty foods that'll make the grownups and the kids happy. This is gonna make me seem so out of touch but I just discovered you can buy kid-friendly yogurt in tubes. Wild stuff, I know. B. is obviously refusing to try it but I think if I stick the tubes in a pail with some crushed ice it would be a fun snack for the little ones. I also decided to cut down on the manual labor required and swap out fruit salad for buying those pureed fruit pouches. I already know I'm gonna be icing cupcakes into the wee hours the night before his party, no need to be chopping fruit as well. Frankly I'm just happy there's a really good excuse to serve a couple of those traveler boxes of coffee, 'cause what parent doesn't need a little extra caffeine on a Saturday morning?