Sunday, January 30, 2005

Sandwich

Gogo ate a sandwich in the conventional fashion for the first time today. Previously, her methods involved removing the top piece of bread, eating the filling slice by slice or pinch by pinch, and then eating the bread, if she felt like it.

Grilled cheese sandwiches were eaten this way, too, even the one she had at Alice’s Tea Cup. You wouldn’t think a person could disassemble a grilled cheese sandwich, but Gogo had no problem.

Lately she has been requesting peanut butter & jelly (aka “kinga butter delly”), but I have been reluctant to provide it, as I could only imagine the mess that would ensue. Today I decided to take the plunge, and she rewarded me by eating the sandwich the way one would expect a sandwich to be eaten: she picked up the sandwich in one piece and took bite after bite.

She had already finished the first half and was halfway through the second half before I realized what I was witnessing. I made sure to get photographic evidence of this latest development, since Daddy was working and not there to see it himself. There was still a mess, but it was nothing more than I’d expect from pizza or spaghetti. After all, she’s only two.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Hive Mind

Yesterday we got some snow, and today it’s cold and windy. The dinner plan for tonight was to have lentil soup…a nice, warm soup for a chilly, blustery day. But this afternoon I was craving blondies and needed butter to make them. (BTW, whatever happened to borrowing a stick of butter or cup of sugar from the neighbor? Do people still do that? It’s for the best that I bought my own, though, since I messed up my recipe and had to start over. I’m sure it wouldn’t go over well with the neighbor if I borrowed butter and then headed out to the store an hour later to buy some of my own, as if hers wasn’t good enough.) Since I was already going to the store, I decided to improve upon the dinner plan and upgrade to a pot of chili. So I bundled up the toddler, and off we went.

The store was not nearly as crowded as it usually is on a Sunday, which I took to be a good sign. It’s typically hard to find what you want on a Sunday because everybody is doing weekly shopping; however, with the store nearly empty, the shelves were all neatly stocked. I had a short list: butter (for the blondies), a can of biscuits, cheddar cheese, kidney beans, and ground beef. After cruising through the dairy aisle, I turned into the aisle for the beans and, imagine my horror, found that the bean shelves were almost completely empty. There were plenty of black-eyed peas, but there wasn’t a can of kidney beans to be found anywhere in the store. Eventually, I found a few cans of Goya pintos and settled for those. (FYI, I don’t have anything against pintos or Goya. I’ve just always used kidney beans for chili, and so did my mom. As for the beans being Goya, I just thought it was funny that everybody went for Progresso and Bush’s before resorting to Goya, as if they thought the Goya beans weren’t good enough.)

I know there are things that are well-known comfort foods (pot roast, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, chicken noodle soup, etc.), but I had no clue that the idea of chili on a cold winter night was so universally appealing as to leave a grocery store without beans. I also know that the Super Bowl is approaching and that chili is advertised in conjunction with Super Bowl parties, but the “big game” is still 2 weeks away, and let’s face it, not many people plan that far in advance.

I’ve checked the store’s ad, and they weren’t pushing chili, in fact, they were pushing “Italian Favorites.” Besides, if they were pushing chili, they would have been prepared for the onslaught of bean buyers. I suspect that the bean rush occurred on Friday, when everyone was mobbing the store for bread and milk in preparation for the big snowstorm (a whopping 3 inches or so). Speaking of preparedness, if there is such a hive-mind mentality that chili is a staple for the cold weather, why doesn’t the store stock up on beans in the winter in the same way that they stock up on stuffing mix and cranberries for Thanksgiving and Christmas?

In the meantime, the chili is simmering on the stove. I’ll let you know how it turns out with the pintos.

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Resolution

Every year I make the same resolution to lose weight, and then I never really do anything about it. I'll clip some coupons for Slim Fast or Lean Cuisines that may or may not get used. I'll buy produce like it's going out of style and then let it sit in the fridge for weeks. This year is different. I’m forgetting about the whole weight issue. It’s really quite easy, actually, I’m pregnant, so I’m not supposed to be losing weight right now.

Instead, this year I’m resolving to do something I’ve been meaning to do for, oh, I don’t know, about a year and half now. I’m starting a blog. I know, this is a pretty lame first entry, but you’ve got to start somewhere. It’s already January 21st, and I thought I’d better get something written down before January ended and I lost the nerve.

I’ll be back soon. And hopefully I’ll have something more interesting to say. I’m not making any promises, though.

Here's to a new year and resolutions kept (for once)!