Adventures in Tofuland

I have to admit that when it comes to food, I'm a little ADD. I love food and the cooking process to a fault. I tend to get bored with it quickly, which leaves me to experiment on my poor, unsuspecting husband. But honestly, he's a human garbage disposal, so I guess it's a win-win.

Of all the things that I have tried for the first time, there is one ingredient that never ceases to make me crinkle my nose.

Tofu.

Just writing the word makes me scowl. But in the interest of cooking science, I set my reluctance aside and bought a package of firm tofu. In all fairness it was 99 cents. If things didn't work out, then I wouldn't be out a ton of money. Now if they would only bottle time and put IT on sale so I could stock up . . .

Anyway, I'm headed on a tangent, sorry.

I have this great stir-fry book which obviously features tofu dishes. I decided on a citrus pineapple entree. Now, I know that tofu absorbs the flavors of any dish it's cooked in, but as we sat down to eat our first bit, I was overwhelmingly . . . disappointed.

marinating tofu watches half the batch get golden

everyone getting crispy

Not that I expected much, but man was it bland. And it felt like there was no substance to it. I think I ate two heaping bowls and still had this feeling of being hungry. I honestly don't know how vegetarians and vegans eat tofu and survive. Perhaps I'm did something wrong (like not make rice to go with it), but more power to those people. I'm not about to give up my carnivore status for soy products.

And so our adventure in Tofuland was quite disenchanting I think I will make this dish again, but definitely substitute the tofu for shrimp.

tada!

The Little One Stopped for Toothy Ten (months not teeth)

As per lack of further postings or emails, I am sad to report that Ariel did not make the semi-finals for Live! with Regis and Kelly's Beautiful Baby Search. It was a crap shoot anyway, but it was fun to dream about it anyhow. To see who won, click on the link in the "One Beautiful Baby" posting.

It’s hard to believe that in two months, Ariel will be a year old. Unreal.
Her first bottom tooth erupted on March 14th. We're still waiting on the second one to come in. You can see the white bud trying to push through. She’s taking it all in stride. Tylenol only makes an occasionally visit.

She has expanded her vocabulary to “Dadee”, “ba-ba”, “ma”, and “ny-ny-ny-ny.” The last word is a series of this “ny” sound. Honestly it sounds like she’s saying nein, which is “no” in German. But who’s been teaching her German? Hmmmm…

A couple days before she turned ten months, Ariel started crawling on her hands and knees. While she is much faster now, she prefers to “walk” (and I use the word very loosely). She would rather hold onto your hands and walk, than crawl under her own power. Go fig.
At this age, Ariel is fascinated with looking out of the window. She really enjoyed watching me shovel snow. If the curtains are closed, she tugs at them until someone comes to move them out of her way.

We are also having some issues with separation anxiety. We went to a family gathering to celebrated Eric’s grandmother’s 91st birthday and Ariel fussed and cried when anyone other than me, held her. Sad thing is, she didn’t even want Eric. She usually is a very happy baby and will go to anyone, but Ariel is her own person with a strong willed attitude.

I attempted a photo shoot this month, but patience apparently does not come with increased mobility. So I got a handful of shots before she had a meltdown. Oh well.

Another update in a couple weeks. Until then....

here I am!

arguing with froggy Tianna

a kiss from Yzzie

play that funky music

One Wild Child

The Denver Zoo has four free days a year. And back in February, we embarked into the madness for Ariel’s first outing to the zoo.

There was a big group of us that ventured out: my friend Mina with son Haylen and her family, our family, and both of our godchildren with their mommies. Now free days sound great in theory, but in all practicality, the zoo seems to have been placed on the outside of the gates. It took us at least twenty minutes to find parking (at least we didn’t have to pay).

And once we finally got inside the zoo, it was moving through a sea of humanity to view most of the exhibits. Since Ariel enjoys her “Mercedes” so much, we rented a wagon for her to ride it. I really didn’t want to be bothered with the running stroller. And as much as we took her in and out of it, I was glad for the wagon.

Yzzie rode in the wagon with Ariel and they made the cutest pair ever. Yzzie made sure to keep a good grip on the baby so she wouldn’t fall out. Phoenix was enthralled with the elephants. As we walked into the elephant pen, his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and pointing his finger, he exclaimed, “Mama, Mama Mama.” I hope he wasn’t calling his mother an elephant, cause that’s just plain rude. :0)

It was hard to tell what Ariel really got out of the experience. Most of the time she spent staring at the people and not the animals. We pointed out a bunch of stuff, but perhaps it was all too overwhelming. But we’ll go back as it gets warmer. I won’t even mind paying to get in.

This One Time At Band Camp...

Eric and I had an afternoon date today. The Colorado Army National Guard was celebrating their 150th anniversary. And what better way to do that than with a free concert.
As you all know, Eric and I are reformed band geeks and so we were jumping at the chance to go.
Believe me when I say you can take the kid out of the music but good luck taking the music out of the kid.

Anyway, as we were searching for a place to park, I realized how much I dislike LoDo (lower downtown) and its one-way streets and its ridiculous parking, when you can find it. We shelled out $10 to park and were about 10 minutes late.

We were treated to four different branches of the main concert band: wind ensemble, Dixieland, rock, and country. Everyone was great and we even knew two of the service men from our days in ASC showband.

After intermission, the main concert band reassembled and reminded us of the beautiful, moving qualities of music. They played “America the Beautiful” and I hade once played this exact arrangement. I found myself cuing the chimes (as I had this part) during the course of the song. Seriously, who does that? And why do I remember something that I did over fifteen years ago when I can’t remember the details of a phone call just yesterday?

Man did I enjoy my years as a band geek. There was the music, the camaraderie, the joy of being apart of something so beautiful. Then there was night rehearsal, the feelings of inadequacy and cutthroat competition for first chair. There are some days I missing playing the marimba, to hear that classic woody sound of the instrument, to feel so completely absorbed by the notes, that I don’t remember playing half the song.
Ahh, the power of music.

The Little One Stopped for Busy Nine

As Ariel reached her nine month birthday, I seemed to have lost the energy for her monthly photo shoot. I don't know if recovering from illness has just zapped my creative energy, but there are no photo shoot pics to display. I know, big boo.


But that doesn't mean that Ariel has not been busy. At the end of January, she went to her first friend birthday party. She did great, except when it came to playing with toys. My friend's son wanted a drumstick Ariel was playing with, so he tried to take it from her. Christopher is two and a half. Well, being her father's daughter, Ariel was not relenting and held fast to her treasure. After some forceful tugging, Christopher fell back and started to cry. Eric said, "That's my girl. You make those boys cry." Nice.


This month she also said her first word. Of all the millions of words in the world, she chose "Dada." Really? What happened to "Mama?" I mean, I only spend 24/7 with her. A little recognition would have been nice *sniff*. Ok, so I'm a little jealous, but I shouldn't be surprised, she is such a daddy's girl.


Ariel is trying to crawl and has adopted this frog-hop/inch worm move. She can make forward progress and that 's great, but man is she hilarious.


Auntie Vicki provided Ariel with her first car, albeit a shoe box we call the "Mercedes." Ariel loves to sit in it and have us pull her around the house. Vicki goes for the tour guide approach, pointing out the major points of interest in the house. Eric is more of a whistle while you work and sings songs as he pulls her along. I run things more like a race track, we do a few laps and spin some donuts in the living room while we're out.

But if we stop and Ariel is not done, she'll pull the chain link rope to let us know that our role as her pack mule is not yet complete.


Ariel enjoys eating much better, which is exciting for all of us. She loves sweet potatoes, applesauce with rice cereal (in jar only), and sweet corn casserole. She had a strong opinion on peas, green beans, and rice cereal out of the box. Oh yeah, did I mention that she is Gerber's Puffs junkie?

Of all the things she has accomplished this month, Ariel truly loves the fact that while Pazu is begging for food, she can creep up on him and touch his furry, doggy toes. It really makes him move!

Enjoy the pics and the video about Ariel's big month. FYI: the video is 3:30, a file this big, may take some time. Hope you get to view it. Let me know if you run into problems.

having bday lunch
i see you
tunnel of smiles
say cheese!
looking studious

Tick Tock

I want to take this time to apologize to all of our faithful followers/readers. I have totally slacked off the past 30 days and have neglected our poor, little blog.
Never fear.
I'll be posting a handful of entries in the next week or so.
Don't give up on me.
Come back and visit soon.

Love ya'll

One Beautiful Baby

After two days of blinding Ariel with camera flashes, we finally got "the money shot" for the Beautiful Baby contest on Live! with Regis and Kelly.

In hindsight, I should have planned ahead and took pictures earlier, so you all could have a say and vote (don't worry, I'm sure you'll be doing this later, March 1, wink, wink). Anyway, we'll find out if we made the semi-finals the week of February 22. Should we make finals, we'll be flying out to New York March 1 to be on the show. That's when the public at large will get to vote on the 5 finalists. I'll keep you posted.

Although I'm severely biased, I think Ariel has a good shot. You can visit http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/regisandkelly/contests/beautifulbaby10/index.htmlto check out the competition, I mean galleries for the 2010 baby contest. Wish us luck!