shut up, i'm eating

it is not often in life when there is a food item that i will ask one of my friends to make. cookie & pops' (as ella calls them) strawberry pie is the exception. a couple of weeks ago i asked cookie & pops for a pie for my birthday sweet.

after a particularly long day with ella, i was really looking forward to dinner at my new favorite tex-mex place, (tribeca). unfortunately, they are not open on mondays. go figure. so i chose somewhere else. ella was difficult when we picked her up at chris' parents. go figure. we stop to get a gallon of milk for breakfast in the morning. chris chooses the short line. the person in front had check issues. go figure. (get a debit card woman!) just like any normal monday, but birthdays should be easier and more fun.

when my phone rang and it was cookie, the pie did not cross my mind. i thought that she was trying to reach chris. (chris is leaving thursday before the butt-crack of dawn for mission trip to russia. cookie & pops' daughter is one of the students going.) it is not unheard of for people to dial the wrong number (only our last digit is different) when trying to reach chris. last minute questions for trips are normal. i expect them.

but the call was for me. cookie was trying to find me to tell me she had a goodie for me. a huge smile smeared across my face. we went by their house and picked up my pie. it was gorgeous. yummy strawberries in a luscious red glaze with a golden crust sticking up around the sides. my mouth is still watering. i could not begin to thank her. honestly, i don't think blogging does the thanks justice, but alas, i try.

{when getting out of the car at home with the pie, i thought what if i drop it? i determined that this pie was so good, i would just bring a fork and the cool whip outside and eat it off the ground. (sad, but true). thankfully the pie made it to the kitchen safely.}

i was nice enough to share a strawberry with ella before her shower. she loved it a asked for more. we will enjoy it tomorrow when it is cool, i tell her, fully intending on waiting. that pie with the bright red berries in the handmade crust called my name from inside the fridge. i had to have a piece. stuffed from dinner or not, it is my birthday, and i am going to eat this pie. (maybe not the whole thing...)

i cut a small sliver, put it in a bowl, topped it with the cool whip, and sat down for the best darn strawberry pie around. the berries were perfectly ripe. with just the slightest crunch, the juice of the berries filled my mouth. the soft smooth glaze added the perfect amount of sweetness to the tart berries. then, after i had savored the flavor of the filling, i moved to the crust. (the crust of any pastry has always been my favorite part). i scooped up a generous amount of cool whip and laid the crust in my mouth. it was as perfect as a crust could be. buttery, flaky, crisp, with just the right amount of sugar. if i thought it would not make me burst, i would go back for more.

the ultimate complement i have ever received when feeding someone is "shut up, i'm eating." so to cookie - shut up, i'm eating and thanks for the outstanding birthday treat.

bribery doesn't work

We have mastered the potty. Our next challenge with Ella is thumb sucking. She never liked pacifiers. The benefits of a thumb sucker are great; no getting up in the middle of the night to find a paci caught in the bedding, no losing the paci while out, no other children using her paci, or her trying to use others paci’s.

Unfortunately, the one big draw back to thumb sucking is what makes pacis so great. I cannot cut off her thumb and tell it is broken, I cannot throw it away, the paci fairy cannot come and exchange it for a special present. So the bribery begins.

Saturday night before bed I told Ella that when she stopped sucking her thumb she could pick anything she wanted (mom and dad approved) and we would get it for her. She has been on a trampoline before and loved it. I thought that might be a good bribe. We had her going for a couple of minutes. She responded to the words “big special treat” with wide eyes and a big smile. Then I repeated that she could have her big special treat when she stopped sucking her thumb. Her reply was:

“I don’t want a big special treat, I want to still suck my thumb.”

For those of you that know Callie, this reminded me of her “they’re not my friends anymore” when her daddy told her all of her friends had stopped using a paci and were wearing big girl panties.

It sucks being out-smarted by a nearly 3-year-old.

ella in the kitchen

when she not yet two, i would sometimes come home to find ella and her father watching foodtv, which he HATES (chris, unlike me eats to live, instead of lives to eat). i am especially fond of rachael ray & alton brown. they are both a bit off and quirky, that entertains me. i also enjoy rachael's fast-paced cooking; alton, because of the science he brings to food. (i am not a scientist. biology grossed me out, i failed chemistry, and did not attempt physics.)

in the mind of alton brown, i, and millions like me, am a baking cheat. (too much chemistry involved.) i do the box thing when baking cakes and muffins. ella is thrilled by this. it means that she gets to help in the kitchen. she is allowed to sit on the counter and get dirty. not just watch me at the stove from a safe distance. it means cracking eggs, stirring batter, and most of all, licking the beaters.

yesterday, she graduated to power buttons on small kitchen appliances. the first was the blender. we were making a poppy seed vinaigrette. (she loved the sound and watching the dressing spray up the sides of the pitcher.) while we are putting things in the blender i explain to her what we are doing. her teachers will be very surprised to hear her playing in the "housekeeping" center at school and using the word emulsion. big word for a two year old. i find out next time we make dressing if she remembers what it means.

the other small appliance that she discovered was the kitchenaid stand mixer. we dumped the cake mix into the bowl, added an instant pudding pack, then the wet ingredients. (totally the wrong order, but...) she turned the mixer on, played with the speeds and helped me scrape the bowl sides, asking the entire time, "lick it?" who among us has not loved licking the beater? good thing it was bath night.

my proudest moment of our day in the kitchen together was when she patted the mixer and said "alton has dis". either she is overly observant or she is watching entirely too much foodtv. my husband would claim the latter.

bedtime rituals

ella's bedtime ritual consists of a bath, running thru the house to find dad in a towel, getting dried, putting on the star pull-up (ella reminds us that "stars are for night"), putting on pj's, combing hair, cleaning ears, putting on the sleep sack, kissing us good night, and climbing into bed.

several nights ago i forgot step seven, cleaning ears. - which i wouldn't have known were it not for the two year old with an outstanding memory - while ella went into the bathroom with dad for the q-tips, i put my face on the floor to wait. upon ella's return she said "get up mommy," thrusts the q-tips into to my face and says, "mommy, kean out my ears."

shame on us when we forget a step.

my child, the dog

ella has always enjoyed wrigley's (our rat terrier) kennel. (wrigley's house is one of the airplane approved plastic kennels.) she has crawled in and closed the door behind her. we have always figured that this was not an issue with child protective services; our thoughts being that locking the door would constitute abuse, but her getting in was acceptable play & investigation for a toddler.

while at our friend erin's house today, ella decided to go for a "test drive" in shiloh's(the 20 week black lab puppy) kennel.

after closing the gate behind her ella looks up at erin and says "lock me in". (refusal by the adults in the room produced a sound only dogs are supposed to be able to hear.) ella just continued to whine and beg to be locked inside the crate. we locked the gate, knowing that when she asked to be let out, we would comply immediately. after several minutes, erin goes to unlock the gate, ella was not at all happy. she stayed in the kennel for about 30 minutes before she finally let us unlock the door. she did not want out, she wanted shiloh with her. at least she has learned to share:)