random news

First, and most important, my brother asked his girlfriend to marry him on our anniversary (last Saturday) while they were in southern France visiting my father who is still not home -- August 4th is supposed to be his arrival date. I'm thrilled for my little brother and can't believe he's growing up even though he's only two years younger than me. Congratulations, little brother.

Second, we bought a full share of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that we are splitting with friends of ours. The way it works is we paid an established amount for 10 items every week for 22 weeks, June through November. We don't have a say in what we get, what ever is being harvested that week is what we get. The farmer brings our share to the farmer's market at City Hall every Wednesday and one of us picks it up. Then we divide it and start cooking so as not to waste any of our organic and thus quickly wilting greens.

The first two weeks our share included garlic scapes, which are amazing. Sometimes they're called green garlic. I should have taken a picture of them, but I didn't so if you're really interested in their unique shape you should Image Google garlic scape and see for yourself. I made pesto with it the first two weeks. I was incredibly tasty. I could eat it all day long. The recipe has four ingredients: scape, olive oil, parmesan cheese, lime juice. We didn't get any this week.

This week our share consisted of: red mustard greens, kale, bok choy, zucchini, arugula, baby greens, a head of leafy lettuce, a lemon basil plant, radishes and two different kinds of cherries (light and dark red). I sauteed the kale, mustard greens, radishes and their greens, onions and garlic. Then made a fritatta with half of the mixture and saved the other half for something else later in the week. I stir fried the bok choy and zucchini with tofu, onion and some sesame ginger sauce and served it over rice last night for dinner. I also made arugula pesto (I'm big into the food processor this summer) for spreading on crackers or putting on pasta. The baby greens have been the bulk of salads I've eaten for lunch yesterday and today.

I guess that's all the news, an engagement and way too many details about our CSA produce.

Five years of marriage

Saturday was Mr. Doodlebug and my fifth anniversary. We spent Friday night at Mr. D's parents' house and then left baby Doodle there while we took the train to New York for a brief anniversary trip. We arrived and went straight to TKTS to buy half price tickets to Avenue Q on Broadway. Then we went to our hotel, changed our clothes and checked our bags (our room wasn't ready yet it was still morning when we arrived). I mentioned that it was our fifth anniversary and the clerk said they'd put something nice in our room for us.

Then we had some of the best pizza I've ever tasted. I've always been a huge fan of thin crust, greasy, cheesy New York pizza so we stopped at a small pizza shop and ate three gigantic slices between us. My favorite of the three had portabello mushrooms, large thin slices of tomotoes and globs of fresh pesto. The other two had a mix of vegetables (peppers, onions, tomatoes, olives) and spinach. Because it was our anniversary I thought we should have some wine with lunch. We shared an airplane size bottle of Bolla white wine in clear plastic cups -- all class.

We went to the show, which was hilarious, well worth the half price tickets. We walked over to the Waldorf because my friend's uncle works there and we thought we'd say hello and maybe get a tour, but he got off at 3:00 and we were there around 4:45. We went to the hotel to check into our room and there was a complimentary happy hour going on. While Mr. D checked us in I grabbed a glass of white wine and started enjoying the perks of this awesome hotel -- 70 Park Avenue. We went up to our room (wine in tow) and there was a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice and a plate with fresh fruit (thinly sliced apples, pears and strawberries), cheeses (brie, goat and gouda) and crackers. Though we had dinner reservations at 6:45 we decided to pop the champagne and gorge on the food.

We walked the twenty blocks to the restuarant where we shared another bottle of white wine -- an Argentinian Sauvignon Blanc, better than the Bolla at the pizza shop. We walked back to the hotel (we had to go back instead of out to a bar or for coffee because I felt extremely full and quite drunk -- not that being drunk would stop me from going out for more drinks). I had to lay down promptly upon entering the hotel room. I was asleep by 9:45, sorry Mr. D.

The next morning was relaxing despite my slight hang over. I took an Advil, layed in the tub for a while, then got ready to meet our friend for breakfast at a nearby restaurant. Our friend was the third person in our trianglular friendship when we lived in DC. It was great to catch up with her, especially over poached eggs wrapped in smoked salmon and drizzled with a chive cream sauce. Can you tell I like to eat?

We boarded our train to Spring Lake, NJ and had a bittersweet reunion with our little boy who is, today, making me pay the price for leaving him overnight. He was happy to see me yesterday and ran into my arms, but today he's been throwing temper tantrums over just about everything. Right now he's in his crib. Whether he's sleeping or not I have no idea. I did miss him when we were away and he was the topic of a lot of conversation.

There are a lot of wonderful things that have come out of being married to Mr. Doodlebug -- he calms me, he comforts me, he knows when to ignore me, he supports me without question, he loves me unconditionally -- but the greatest gift he has (half) given me is baby Doodle. So thank you, Mr. Doodlebug, for all you do for me.

more on toddlerhood

I know it's my own fault for giving in to baby Doodle's delaying tactics, but I am so frustrated by the time I leave his room after putting him down for a nap or at night. Baby Doodle has figured out, in no time at all, that if he says he has to go to the potty I will bring him no matter what we're doing, even singing songs -- the last ritual in a long routine toward the crib. Today was no exception. After I had given him lunch, let him wash his own dishes in the sink with the help of a step stool, let him drag the vacuum cleaner to its designated spot in the guest room, brushed his teeth, let him brush Mr. Potato Head's teeth, let him turn on the air conditioner in his room and sang two songs to him, baby Doodle decided he had to go to the potty. Here's how it happened:

"I have to go potty."

"You have to pee or poop?"

"I have to go potty." (He only rarely says yes, sometimes he says uh huh affirmatively, but usually he just repeats what he wants.)

"Okay. Let's go."

I take his diaper and shorts off.

"I want to stand up to pee like Daddy."

He stands in front of his potty, within seconds he starts playing with the toy duck that is suctioned to the side of his bathtub.

I say, "Do you have to pee, or not?"

"I have to pee standing up."

"Okay, stand in front of the potty then."

He stands for a few seconds then loses interest, because he doesn't actually have to go. I put a new diaper on him, let him throw the old one in the diaper pail, and warn him that I'm only going to sing two verses of Old MacDonald before he has to go into his crib.

I let him climb the side of the crib and jump down into it. He started jumping around. I told him he had to lay down if he wanted me to put the blankets on him (yes, he insists on having not one, but two blankets placed over him even in the 90 degree heat (today is only in the 80s)). He protested. I insisted. He layed down and I covered him. Then he cried and whined. I don't know for how long because I left the room and came downstairs to prep the dinner I'm making tonight for a friend of ours who's coming to town from Michigan, and is a good cook himself.

There you have it. More evidence of the terrible twos.

I feel that I must add how wonderful BD is most of the time. He laughs a lot, plays by himself for long periods, speaks in complete sentences which is so adorable, gets really and truly excited by simple things like watching the Phillies with his dad, or going into his tiny baby pool. One night this week Mr. Doodlebug was home a little later than normal and I had made dinner already and portioned out some for BD so that it would start cooling right away. BD took it upon himself to climb into his chair and start eating so I sat down with him (my dinner still on the stove waiting for Mr. D to make his long awaited entrance). We were sitting at the table for a few minutes and BD said, "So, Mommy, what did you do today?" I chuckled a little then answered with a long winded account of all the major things I had done, almost all of which included him. Then I turned the question back to him. He said, "I played ball." He got such a kick out of it that we went around a few times with the same question. He is a lot of fun and watching him grow up every day is a wonderful experience that I cherish, even on days like this.

BD keeping us amazed

A few weeks ago Grandad (Mr. D's father) taught baby Doodle to point to his nose and say, the nose knows. I think it came about because BD had pooped and was trying to deny it to Grandad who said, "the nose knows." BD goes around saying it at irrelevant times, until yesterday when we were eating green beans for dinner (that's not all we had) and he said, "green beans are green like the nose knows."

In other happenings worth mentioning on this blog -- Obama is finally the presumptive nominee!! YEA!!!!!! It was a big night for him and Mr. D and I are thrilled.