A few more words

More (he signed it, too)!
Baby (sounded like "ba ba").
Buzzy bee
Octopus (he TRIED to say this).  It wasn't even close, but it was three syllables and started with "ahc", so I'm counting it.
Puppy

And unfortunately, the word "NO" is being uttered yelled WAYYYYYY more often than I would like it to.  Leave it to your child to mirror your behavior right back in your face.  While it is totally an impulse reaction to yell "No!!" when he is getting into something we don't want him to, we really need to work on this.  My hope is that we can reserve the N word for when he is about to do something dangerous, and not to use it constantly when we just don't want him to do something. 

This is what I'm dealing with:

Meal Planning: Week of May 13th

Whoops, I skipped a week!  I need to get back on track here before Greg's family comes out to visit next month and I lose control of my kitchen for a couple weeks.  (NOT COMPLAINING)! :)

Monday: Chicken and black bean enchiladas.  This is a simple recipe I have stolen from Rachel - chicken, (rotisserie to make it even easier) black beans, corn, enchilada sauce, cheese - all rolled up in a tortilla, topped with more cheese and sauce.  Bake at 375 until it looks done.  (20-25 minutes).

Tuesday: Thin crust Boboli pizza (chicken sausage, basil/alfredo) and arugula salad.  Totally one of our go-to dinners these days.  I like to put mushrooms on my side of the pizza :)

Wednesday: Orange chicken over brown rice and roasted brussels sprouts.

Thursday: Left overs

Friday: Cola-Marinated Flank Steak with Frito Chilaquiles.  This was in the June issue (the Grilling Issue) of Food & Wine Magazine and Greg wanted to try it.  Who am I to stop him?  Hope to have this with roasted asparagus.

Saturday: We are having a fiesta!  Blackened cod and carne asada tacos (and plenty of margaritas)!  The Broady's are coming over for dinner. :)

Best Cookie Ever

Right after Christmas, I discovered this recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  Since that time, I have probably made at least 15 batches of them for various occasions - and some for no occasion at all :)

I was just thinking about them again....(post-lunch sugar craving) and decided to blog about them here.  I'll probably be making another batch of these this week!

Nutella-Stuffed Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

2¼ cup all-purpose flour

1¼ teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter

1¼ cup packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

½ cup milk chocolate chips

1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

1. In a large bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt until combined. In a saucepan over medium heat, brown butter and set aside to cool.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

3. Place cookie dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours to let the flavors meld together.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Roll 1½ tablespoons of dough and flatten the dough to make a flat circle. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled Nutella in the middle then place another flat circle of cookie dough on top. Crimp edges to seal.

5. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.

6. Sprinkle with sea salt and let cool on wire racks.

Sunshine, never leave us

We are having the nicest weather of the year, with another week of sunshine in the forecast!  It has made for spending the majority of our days outside, which has also meant that we get to explore new and fun things....

Things like snow cones:

Fire truck exploration at the Edmonds Farmer's Market:

 

Playing on Rachel and Peter's swing set:

 

Slip and slide rides:

Cute new tank tops (or if you are Laryd, astronaut suits):

 

Bagel breakfast sandwiches on a terrace down on Capital Hill (and a "cheers" any chance he gets):

Blowing dandelions:

Walks through the arboretum:

This is what usually goes into getting 1 good shot with a toddler (and sometimes, you just give up because it's not going to happen):

 

Cinco de Mayo dinner on the deck:

Movie night in the front yard:

And you better believe I will be figuring out a way to make this happen sometime soon. If not this summer, then next summer for sure.  (As seen in the Summer 2013 Crate and Barrel catalog):

 

 



Ben: Likes and Dislikes at 19 Months (in video)

Likes:

I snagged a big, new yellow ball for Ben at Target the other day.  He was SUPER excited about it...for about 15 seconds.  He then was excited about a plastic bag, and then the garbage can.  #ToddlerA.D.D:

At every playground that has one, Ben will often spend most of his time running across this type of bridge.  Here he is playing at the Greeklake Park.  (He walked across this bridge, with small breaks to walk up and down stairs, for about 20 minutes):

Dislikes:

Sharing his bath time experience:

More words!

MAN - my child is selective about when and when he will not speak!  Sometimes, I cannot understand a thing he is saying.  His baby babble language is off the charts - he often sounds like he is talking about Abu Dhabi :)  I often think he is saying something specific, (as he says it with the same enthusiasm as when we speak to him about things) but I just cannot connect his babble to an object.

Other days, he seems to be making a really strong effort to say (in more clear English) a word we are repeating for him.

Here is what we have heard him say lately:

Kitty-kitty
Bye Bye (Often says this when we are getting ready to get shoes on or going to the car).
Dot (I point to a picture we have and point out each dot - "dot, dot, dot, dot". He will now randomly point to dots and say "da, da, da, da").
Picture
Car
Shovel
Callie

This morning, in the car on our way to Callie's house, he was looking at a Thomas the Train book that has buttons with sounds on it.  There are several trains and a tugboat, but there is also a cat, fish and bird.  When I asked him to push the buttons for each animal, he will push them immediately!  But when I asked him to say "kitty", "bird", or "fish", he gave me a blank stare.  So then I tried running through "where are your eyes....nose....ears...?" and he looked at me and simply said, "no, ma".

We have this photo framed and on the table in our entryway.  I will often take it down and show Ben, while pointing and saying, "Mama, Dada, Baby Ben!".  I remember soon after the first time I showed him, he took the same photo and did the same thing!  I was so impressed!  And then another day the same week, with a magazine in front of him, he pointed to it and in the same voice I used said, "Mama, Dada...".  Apparently he picked up on my action, but not quite the concept :)  Still cute!

Out of Hibernation

 

 

 

Also, we turned Ben's car seat around!  I had kind of been planning on waiting until he was 2 years old, but he is pushing 27 pounds and has such long legs and we decided that now was a good time.  (Also, our cars were in desperate need of vacuuming - you cannot imagine how many crumbs can accumulate behind a car seat - so the timing was good to make the switch).

 

I really think Ben is enjoying his new view!