Lucy

raising little bear

January 17, 2011 by rainyd01 7 Comments

It’s been about a billion years since I last gave you an update on my mini-me, a.k.a. Lucy, a.k.a. Little Bear. She’s grown so much and developed so much personality that I fear we’ll be sending her off to either Harvard or clown school next fall.

As she approaches the big 0-2 I’m more amazed than ever that a) we haven’t irreversibly screwed her up yet, b) all of her digits seem to be intact, and c) how much more I love her every single day.

You hear the parenting cliche all the time, but it’s true: there is no love like the love you have for your children, and it only gets bigger and more unimaginable day by day.

Of course there are days when you’d rather jump out the window than hear a Caspar Babypants song one more time. And there are times when you must accept that they have inherited your more charming qualities (or those of your husband…see above).

But when then they emerge from underneath the Christmas tree with a shit-eating grin and proclaim, “Mommy give Lucy tacos for Christmas!” all is quickly forgiven. Especially since all she asked for was tacos. And a Chapstick.

She’s so independent, so stubborn (like me), so curious (like her dad), so fierce, and so funny. She knows how to crack a joke, command the attention of a room, get exactly what she wants by outsmarting her opponent (me), bribe, bargain, and push every button in the book.

But she is also incredibly kind and sensitive. Every stuffed animal must be kissed and tucked in at bedtime. She shares toys with her friends (most of the time). She adores me (unless I’m walking her past Trophy Cupcake, instead of inside). She needs her dad like she needs oxygen. She has buckets of love for her grandparents (in the pic above she’s “helping” Papa put together a storage system for her room).

A friend asked us the other day what we think she’ll be when she grows up. Dave and I were a bit puzzled—we hadn’t really thought about it.

I answered, “anything she wants to be.” And that’s the truth. I know that wherever her life takes her she will be successful. Whatever she chooses to do, she will do it because it makes her happy. And when she’s not happy I’ll stand by her and hold her hand until she is.

And whoever she turns out to be—gay or straight, democrat or republican, astrophysicist or barista—I will be so incredibly proud of my little girl. And I will continue to love her more every single day, not just for who she is but for all of the joy and love and laughter that she brings to my life.

As she continues to grow and change she’ll only burn brighter, bringing that joy and love and laughter to other lives as she breezes through this world with that contagious grin. And I hope that every Christmas, no matter what else is on her list, she will always ask me for tacos.

-RDG

Filed Under: tiny people Tagged With: little bear, love of a parent, loving your kids, Lucy, raising kids, toddlers

an announcement…and a list

August 25, 2010 by rainyd01 16 Comments

I’ve given hints aroused suspicions here and there, but here it is quite officially: this family is expanding. And so is my waistline. But not from eating this or this.

I’ve gone and gotten myself knocked up again. We wanted our kids to be close together in age, and that they will be: Lucy will have just turned 2 when new baby arrives. I would be terribly excited and jumping up and down if I were able to muster more than a smile. This pregnancy has been wicked from the get-go and I’m just hoping to survive the next several months and make it to the good part. All those women who say that they love pregnancy, that they feel beautiful for the miracle that is growing inside of them, that their hair is shinier and their teeth are whiter, well….those women can kiss my expanding booty. I’m the type that prefers babies on the outside.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m incredibly grateful to be pregnant at all—so many women never have the opportunity. I have excellent prenatal care. I’m healthy. The baby is healthy. We are so very blessed.

But for a quick moment I’m allowing myself a pity party and complaining about my cankles and never-ending sleepiness. So I’ve come up with a list to share with you all about my condition and how it has hindered this little blog o’ mine.

10 reasons why it sucks to be pregnant as a food blogger:

1. I don’t feel like eating. Which, when you write a food blog, is sort of an essential part of the blogging experience. Take away cocaine, hallucinogenics and the Hell’s Angels, and you’ve left Hunter S. Thompson with very little to write about.

2. When I do feel like eating, I crave something weird and complex that I don’t have the ingredients for.

3. By the time I gather the ingredients, prep them, make the dish, photograph it, and sit down to eat it, the thought of eating it makes me want to hurl.

4. Then I hurl.

5. You can’t blog about hurling.

6. Going through the photos of what I cooked, and trying to blog about it, makes me want to hurl.

7. See #4.

8. The time I would usually spend blogging I now need to spend napping, trying to nap, hurling, or trying to nap while hurling (which is never very successful).

9. I miss spending quiet time inventing recipes and chatting with you all on this lovely blog of mine. You’re one of the best parts of my day. I’m serious.

10. My jeans don’t fit. This is unrelated to blogging. Just saying.

I have to keep reminding myself of the light at the end of the tunnel.

First snuggles.

First personality.

First gap teeth and first peanut butter smiles.

Lots more snuggles.

And first “how the hell did you get so dirty?”s.

Thanks for listening to my down-in-the-dumps rant. I promise I’ll get better. And once the morning sickness subsides I’ll be back to a few recipes a week. In the meantime, I’ll be elegantly dining on Saltines and Gatorade. And that, my friends, is not worth blogging about.

-RDG

Filed Under: tiny people Tagged With: announcing pregnancy, expanding family, food blogging problems, Lucy, morning sickness, morning sickness and food blogging, pregnancy announcement, second pregnancy

independence day

July 5, 2010 by rainyd01 8 Comments

On the 4th day of July, and my 4th day without an iPhone, the family and I embarked on an epic journey. It would be fun. It would be fate. And we would meet many, many interesting characters along the way.

Like a founding father on a tiny, tiny motorcycle.

And the world’s largest dog, aptly named Maximus.

But what brought us there in the first place? Why did we venture far out of the big city and wind up in the tiniest of towns?

Because I wasn’t carrying my iPhone.

Tolt, Washington. Population: 1,814. Home to….well, something, probably. We had no intention of landing here when the day began. We had instead embarked in search of a berry farm from which to pick juicy, succulent red morsels for pie.

We took one quick glance at the directions on the farm’s website and then set off to stain our fingers red. Close to the farm, or what we figured was close to the farm, we were detoured. The road was blocked for an event, and by the time we finally reached the berry farm, we found it was closed for the day. We should have predicted this. We should have known that nary a berry farm (I rhymed!) would be open for our picking pleasure on this day. Our goal hopelessly out of reach, miles between us and home, and no digital device to help decide our next move, we parked and puttered into town in search of lunch.

What we found instead was the kind of small town parade you only see in the movies. We were in love. It was red, white and blue bliss. And we stayed all afternoon.

There was dancing and twirling…

…and shiny red tractors. I tried to convince the man in the Mt. Si jacket to let me take it for a spin. He didn’t succumb to my womanly wiles.

There was also a man on a horse holding a puppy. Why he was holding a puppy while riding a horse, I have no idea. But it was the cutest damn thing I’ve seen in a while.

And our favorite animal of all—Maximus. Lucy is about the size of his head, and yet she wasn’t afraid in the least.

She was as overjoyed to be in Tolt as we were.

A day without GPS, without the help of the internet, without Urban Spoon, and without a clue what we were doing placed us in the most amazing place of all. Husband and I talked all day, introduced our daughter to the joys of strawberry shortcake and horse poop. We went where the wild wind blew us, and weren’t once looking for someplace better to be.

-RDG

Filed Under: et cetera Tagged With: 4th of july, berry picking, carnation washington, giving up technology, great dane, horse pictures, horse puppy, independence day, life without an iphone, Lucy, my month without an iphone, tolt washington

things you never thought you would do…until you became a parent

June 4, 2010 by rainyd01 5 Comments

-RDG

(Thank you Josh!)

Filed Under: et cetera, tiny people Tagged With: chocolate chip cookies, cookies, Dave, funny, Lucy, messy, parenting, photos

normalcy, or something like it

April 12, 2010 by rainyd01 6 Comments

Because it’s monday, and because I am so worn out that I can’t even muster the energy to hunt for my slippers to warm my freezing feet, and because the coffee just won’t seem to make itself, today’s post is not about food. And I’m sorry. Sorting through hundreds of pictures, cropping them, making them look like they were taken in a kitchen whose light does not resemble a catacomb’s, and trying to describe to you how to make a pasta dish or braised short ribs just seems like an insurmountable task. So instead, because I love ya and because you’re the only person reading this, I thought I’d share a little about what’s going on in the RDG household.

If you’ve been around lately, you know that Husband went under the knife. He’s now on the mend and feeling fine. But the surgery and the week that followed left me a little off-kilter, a little exhausted, and a little overwhelmed. I couldn’t catch my breath even for a moment, and I wasn’t even the one who had just been cut open. As soon as I was beginning to regain my emotional balance toward the end of the week, a family situation arose that completely surprised me and left me feeling sucker-punched. I’m still reeling, not quite sure what to make of the whole thing. Let’s just say, without going into the gory details, that it has not been a quality week for RDG. I’m one sob-fest away from packing up this joint and moving to Bermuda. If I don’t post anything tomorrow, Husband, Lucy and I have legally changed our names and are hiding out east of Florida.

Okay, now onto the happy stuff. Several things are not crappy about life right now. Let’s make a list.

1. My daughter has decided that this is her most photogenic expression. I’m okay with it.

2. Braised short ribs. I dreamed about them last night. Literally.

This is one of the recipes I couldn’t bring myself to write about today. I’m a tease and I’m sorry. But I’ll have it ready later this week, I swear.

3. I planted a gazillion herbs. Lemon thyme, dill, lavender, chives—anything I like to cook with, I planted. Now if my brown thumb will step aside so I can keep these suckers alive, I would greatly appreciate it.

Oh, and my hand is not sweaty in this picture. It’s wet from washing the thyme. I promise.

4. Little Bear pushes around her little bee all day long. Sometimes I strip her down and watch her do it in her diaper because diaper butts (and half-naked babies) are the cutest thing in the world.

Moms? Am I right, or am I right?

5. I made this pasta dish with turkey and spinach meatballs that I thought Lucy would love—sort of a grownup Spaghettios. She didn’t dig it as much as I did. But I really, really, really dug it. So the bar was set high. I’ll post the recipe this week so you too can make your “kids” a healthy pasta dish. And if it’s for you, that’s okay too.

6. My daughter and my husband have the same hair. And it makes me smile.

These two are my saving grace. When everything goes pear-shaped, they’re right there to make it apple-shaped again. Or banana-shaped. Or whatever fruit is very, very symmetrical.

Happy monday!

-RDG

Filed Under: et cetera Tagged With: braised short ribs, husband, Lucy, pasta, random, ranting

and there was a party…

March 3, 2010 by rainyd01 2 Comments

My baby girl turned one yesterday.

And she’s growing a curly mullet.

But that’s beside the point. The point is that we had a party, and a delicious one at that.

Since I had just feted husband a few weeks ago, I was party-pooped. So my dear Ma, being the gracious lady that she is, offered to host and put together a gorgeous table.

Oven roasted wings with a blue cheese remoulade, herbed parmesan cheese straws…

…a fruit tray that only my mother could make look pretty (if I had made it, it would more closely resemble something that the Chiquita banana lady would wear)…

…and a cheese platter with a fig spread that I could have eaten gallons of.

My contribution?

My favorite shredded cuban pork…

…served with lime, cilantro, sour cream, and…

…tiny, tiny tortillas. I cut them out of their parent tortillas using a doughnut cutter. They made the cutest dang mini-tacos I’ve ever seen.

But what about the little lady of the hour? What did she eat?

Celery. Lots and lots of celery.

She also tried a slice of Ma’s carrot cake…

…and then got pissed that we tried to make her wear a paper hat.

…and then really pissed that we tried to make her wear a purple hat. Do I look a little too delighted in the torture of my firstborn?

Yeah, probably. But for 40 hours of labor, she can afford me a little laugh.

She melted Grandma’s heart wearing the same sailor dress that I wore on my first birthday.

And I, once again, laughed.

It was a lovely party and a lovely day. Probably more fun for us than for Lucy.

That dynamic will change when she wants to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for her 6th birthday and we’re forced to chaperone. Then it will be her turn to laugh at me look like an idiot playing DDR.

Thank you to my wonderful daughter for keeping me laughing, even when it’s at her, and my lovely Ma for throwing such a fabulous first birthday.

Happy March!

-RDG

Filed Under: food, tiny people Tagged With: birthday, Lucy, party food

the case of the peanut butter cracker

February 12, 2010 by rainyd01 3 Comments

In an effort to find new snacks that include some protein, and since Lucy is of the age where she can now eat such delicious treats, I smeared some peanut butter between two crackers.