Isadora: Daddy has a penis. We have vulvas together.

Upon learning she was covered in skin: Isadora: Take it off mama! Take it off!

She’s been weaned for a while but still asks to nurse every once in a while. When I explain that boobles don’t work any more Isadora said: I’ll kiss them and make them better.

Mitch: Are you a movie star?
Izzy: No. I’m painting.

Mitch: You’re the best.
Izzy: I am?

Wendy: What are you doing at Daddy’s desk?
Isadora: I’m checking my email.

Wendy: Lay down on your changing pad so we can put your pajamas on.
Isadora: No, I gotta check my email first.

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken breasts/thighs, cut into 1 inch cubes
3/4 cup yoghurt (full/lowfat)
1 tbsp ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
pinch (or more) of red chilli powder (optional)
pinch of red food coloring (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Marinate chicken in all the ingredients for at least 2 hours or overnight (longer is better)
Preheat oven to 350F
Bake for 30-35 minutes and if you like it charred you can leave it under the broiler for 5-10 minutes
Serve on skewers for fun presentation if you desire (no need to bake on skewers – the skewers just make the chicken little fingers friendly)

Sunday: Today was supposed to be lasagna day, but I didn’t realize I was out of lasagna noodles. Luckily, I had a bag of whole wheat penne, so we’re having baked penne instead with a salad of mixed greens and edible flowers. I’m hoping Izzy gets excited about that.

Monday: Chicken sausage with wild rice and kale. I’m making it up as I go along. I already cooked the rice tonight, so everything else will be easy to slap together when I get home from work. I’ll also cook up a bunch of corn on the cob. We’ll have leftovers for Izzy to snack on throughout the week.

Tuesday: I’m going to Heavy Metal Aerobics with Patricia on Tuesday night, so we’ll have leftover baked penne before I go.

Wednesday: Soyaki chicken and roasted summer squash with caper gremolata.

Thursday: I have my photography class, so Mitch and Izzy are on their own. good luck!

Friday: It’s poker night for Mitch. I want to do something easy so we don’t have a bunch of dishes at the end. Shrimp tacos and black beans. I hope to recreate the tacos we had with the Watanabe family in Placerville. Yummy!

Saturday: We’ll have something light since I will be going to French Laundry on Sunday to celebrate my birthday.

1/4 chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon capers
2 teaspoons EVOO
1 garlic clove, minced

Squash:
4 cups pattypan (flying saucer) squash, halved lengthwise
3 cups baby zucchini, trimmed
2 teaspoons EVOO
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. Preheat ovento 475 degrees. 2. To prepare gremolata, combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl. Set gremolata aside. 3. To prepare squash, combine pattypan squash, zucchini, and 2 teaspoons oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange squash, cut side down, in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan. Bake at 475 for 15 minutes or until squash is tender and lightly browned, stirring
after 7 minutes. Sprinkle gremolata over the squash. Serve immediately. Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 1/4 cup).

Source: Cooking Light 2010 Summer Cookbook

In a medium sauce pan, melt butter and add carrots, green onions and garlic. Cook until soft. Add flour and slowly add milk, chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce and spices.

Bring to a low boil and let thicken. Stir in cheese until melted. Stir in yogurt and add chicken, potato and broccoli. Heat until all ingredients are warmed. Serve immediately.

I still can’t understand why people pin self-centered and over-privileged labels on only children. Do people who use those labels honestly think that kids with siblings are more inclined to put others needs before their own? What is it about having brothers and sisters that automatically makes you less selfish than an only kid? Isn’t it also the classic Psychology 101 assumption that the oldest kid is forced to take care of the younger kids and is resentful about it, the middle kid is invisible and trying desperately to get someone’s, anyone’s attention, and the youngest kid is coddled and grows up a spoiled rotten brat.

Labels suck, don’t they?

From what I’ve seen there is more competition to get mom and dad’s attention when there are multiple kids around and some go to great lengths to try and stand out from the pack of siblings, whether it is excelling in school or acting out criminal behavior. Also, if you’re the type of person who is drawn to new shiny trinkets and loads of scheduled activities, you’re going to buy them whether you have one or ten kids. Over-indulgence is a parenting choice regardless of how many kids you have.

Our budget is stretched with just one. We moved from a one-bedroom rent controlled apartment that we lived in for 10 years to a two-bedroom apartment priced at market rates shortly after our daughter was born. We had tons of hand-me-downs and she was breast-fed. As soon as the hand-me-downs dried up and she was eating solids, our food and clothing expenses soared. There is just no way we can afford a third bedroom and another mouth to feed as long as we stay in the City (and we have no intentions of leaving).

I’m an older mom and I was very active before I had my daughter, but there are days when I just can’t keep up with her. I see other parents (and nannies) at the park who are taking care of more than one, and I’m exhausted just watching them. Some make it look really easy, but most look and act completely frazzled and just about to loose what little composure they have left.

Also, my daughter started sleeping through the night about six months ago, and I’m finally starting to feel rested. The idea of starting all over again brings tears to my eyes. I don’t think I can take another year and a half of sleepless nights.

Mitch and I are able to have me time. He has his weekly poker game, and has a beer with friends at least once a week. I’ve just started enrolling in classes again and making plans to see my friends. We also have time for us. We’ll get a sitter so we can go out for dinner or to see a band. I don’t know many parents with more than one kid who says the same thing. They spit out very acidic comments about how they *used* to be able to do stuff before the second or third kid came around and now they just couldn’t possibly do stuff like that. That kind of self-imposed martyrdom is not appealing to me.

Siblings aren’t always great friends, and you just never know how things are going to work out with your set until they exist. It’s another reason why we stopped at one. Many people told me that they didn’t really start liking their brothers or sisters until they were adults well into their 20s and 30s. There was a lot of strife and bad blood between them and their siblings, and it took years to get over that. Some were close in age and most would assume that everything would work perfectly, but it didn’t in their cases.

From my experience, only children can’t rely on the convenience of a live-in playmate, and they learn how to develop friendships with other kids a lot easier than I think siblings are able to do. I’m an only child, and I grew up okay with not having a brother or sister. Of course, there were occasions when I wished I had a sibling, but it’s natural to think you want what you don’t have. In general, I was very happy growing up as an only child and I have several very close childhood friends who, to this day, are like family to me.

So far, our daughter warms to people easily, and she’s never been shy around others. She has a BFF that she sees several times a week (another only child) and they are developing a great friendship. It’s hard to predict whether our daughter’s experience is going to be like mine in the long run, but we’ve made our decision and we’ll just have to see how it turns out in the end.

Placerville photos

Fifty hours off the grid. No cell phone, no email, no internet, no television, no radio. You might wonder how we survived.

We prepared and ate lots of delicious food. Grilled chicken three ways: on a kabob, in a pita and on a salad. Grilled veggies, noodle salad, watermelon, shrimp tacos with crispy fried taco shells. Ice cream. Yummy yum yum.

We played Pictionary and gossiped and shared parenting tips. We swam, then dried off, then swam some more. Several naps were had by all. And then I took some pictures.

I had a lot of fun playing with my Canon Rebel that Mitch gave me a couple of years ago. I’m taking a photography class now and I’m re-learning how to shoot with manual setting. I didn’t take any shots of the landscape. Being that it is high summer, everything is kind of dead looking. I’ll focus on landscapes next time we’re up there. It will be so beautiful in the fall when all the leaves on the oak trees turn colors.

I wanted to do some night photography, using a technique I learned in my photo class, but we happened to have a full moon that weekend, and the sky was too bright. Hopefully, next time I’ll have a little less light so I can play around.

I did portraits, both posed and candid. I’m really happy with how everything turned out. It also helped that I had beautiful subjects to shoot. I’m really getting the depth of field thing down, but still need some practice.

On Sunday, we woke to an overcast sky and a break in the heat. After breakfast, we decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and go for a walk on the property. As we were walking back to the house, there was a loud crack and then the sky lit up with lightening. It was awesome. Izzy didn’t think so though. She ran back to me and hugged my leg because she was scared. She wanted me to pick her up, but just then, the rain started. The drops were huge and I had my camera with me. I had to protect the camera from the rain, so I shoved it down the front of my dress and covered it with my arms. Mas was so sweet; he came running out with a plastic bag for the camera, but didn’t find us on the lower trail.

Izzy definitely didn’t like the thunder and lightening, and I was getting a little nervous about being in the forest while lightening was striking, so we high-tailed it back to the house. While I protected the camera, Sarah comforted Izzy and helped her walk back home. On our way back, a couple of young bucks crossed our path. It was so great to see them that close up!

We saw lots of wild life while we were there: a flock of turkeys, a doe and her fawn, quail, vultures, lizards, spiders. And we heard lots and lots of braying hound dogs.

I think one of the best parts about being in Placerville was the freedom the kids had to come and go from the house. Izzy went to the front yard, came back in the house and then headed out to the back yard, playing her little made up games or sitting in the dirt having her daily dust bath. It was the first time I’ve ever allowed her to be out of my sight. It felt really weird at first, but Sarah assured me that everything would be allright. It also helped knowing that there were three other adults and Bella helping to keep an eye on the kids. It was so nice to sit down, drink my coffee and have a conversation without being on constant alert. The country life ain’t so bad afterall.

Sarah, Mas, Ethan and Bella make a beautiful family and are a wonderful set of friends. They bring out the best in all who know them. We are so grateful to know them and have them in our lives. It was a magical weekend and I’m looking forward to our next trip up to their house.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked chicken (good use of leftover store bought rotisserie chicken)/2 cups sauteed chopped frozen or baby spinach (I added peas and mushrooms as well on my second attempt)
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 cloves garlic minced
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin (optional)
pinch chilli powder (optional)
1/2 8-oz. package cream cheese
1 10-oz. can refrigerated crescent roll dough (you can use the regular size or the bigger crescents depending on if you want mini or larger puffs)
salt & pepper to taste
Note: You might have leftover filling depending on how much you fill each puff. The leftovers work great on their own or in grilled cheese sandwiches

Method

Preheat oven to 350F
Saute onion and garlic in olive oil till onion is tender and slightly browned.
Add cumin, chilli powder (if using) and salt and pepper. After a minute or two, add cooked chicken or spinach or anything else you are using as a filling and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Transfer mixture to a bowl and allow to cool for 8-10 minutes and then add cream cheese to incorporate.
Unroll crescent dough and divide to create triangles. Place 1-2 tablespoons of filling in each triangle. (Amount of filing depends on “size” of dough you are using). Fold sides over to create a free form pinwheel. Mine look different each time.
Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.