Food Meme

I stole this from Oro at Birch and Maple who got it from the Very Good Taste Blog. I can never resist food fun. I didn't want to strike out ones I'd never consider though. I'm a rule breaker I am!
Disclaimer: Some of these things I don't eat anymore and some I HATE even though I've tasted them.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear (yum!)
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle (oh my PA Dutch heritage.. mmmmmmmm)
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (Yum again. With a Canadian Hub, how could I have NOT had it?)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (the Filipino relatives would disown me otherwise. :)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (as in rabbit?? then rabbit yes, hare no. If it's something else, then no. :)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Bits

• My baby has learned to choose which book he wants to read. Friggin adorable.
• Hub finally went to an allergy specialist! HURRAY! Turns out he's really allergic to lots of stuff. Who knew. :p
• Dear Starbucks - Please put more pumpkin and less coffee in your lattes. Thank you.
• I do believe being tired is a large part of my problem. Another large factor is that there was so much change in my life right when the huge change that was becoming a mother occurred. Now I feel a bit lost and without much of a nearby support system.
• Speaking of tired - E has decided to start waking up a lot at night again. bleh.
• E has started patting us a lot when he's happy. The other day he was patting around my head and face - patting quite excitedly. His finger when up my nostril. There was blood.
• Thank you for all the advice! Goodwill near rich people sounds perfect. All I've seen near me are ghetto ones... hmmm....
  

Thank You Hub

Thank you for...

• Refilling the hand soap all the time.
• Trying to replace and fix things around the house with a positive spirit.
• Lending a hand every time you see me embroiled in a hard task.
• Putting the food away after dinner so many times when I'm just beat and ignore it.
• Making sure the boys are taken care of.
• Loving that baby and me so well and making sure we know it.
• Doing most of your laundry.
• Straightening up sometimes.
• Keeping an eye on me and helping me keep track of important things like my keys and checkbook. (I notice that you put my keys in the right spot when I've forgotten. :)
• Basically just helping to keep my spirits up and my head screwed on right.
• Telling me what a good Mommy I am all the time and reinforcing E for loving on me.
  
• Writing me the sweetest note I've ever gotten from anyone.
  

I'm sure there are some I missed, but see, I do notice.

Love you,
B

When I was Normal

In an attempt to remember who I am and what is possible, I read through my "happy times" tag. It made me misty eyed for that confident girl who wrote well thought out posts. I want her back. Wouldn't it be wonderful to couple that attitude with this amazing new joy? That's why I'm in therapy.

This is a good representation of what I want to have again.

Birth

Mel had a post up recently talking about how John Le Carre compared writing a book to having a baby. I agree that it was a stupid statement.

However, what I want to share and have in my blog forever are her poignant words on how she actually felt birthing her children.

I had my heart literally explode to the outside of my body, as if she was pulling out my internal organs with her -- both figuratively and literally. I cried and screamed and the incessant worrying began -- never pausing even though she is now 6-years-old -- twisting my body to see her, to hear her Apgar scores, to fret about where she was in relation to my throbbing body, still prone on the table, waiting for her twin brother to join her.

YES Mel. Thank you for putting it into the words I could not.

Mothering and Daily Life Suggestions Please

1. For those of you who have a baby and work, but have very little in the way of non-work related friends and family around you, what do you do when the baby can't go to daycare for whatever reason? I'm currently stuck on the having to call in train.

2. When you can smell that your kiddo took a little poo during the night, do you wake them up to change them or just wait until they awaken?

3. Thrift store shopping pointers please? Not a lot of money can be spared for the new wardrobe I need. Though the poundage is back to normal, the shapage is not.

4. In the same vein - suggestions on good post baby jeans? I did buy a decent pair of Mossimo ones on clearance at Target for $8 (woot!), but they are more of a bought-them-because-of-the-price-and-they-actually-fit pair than a really good investment. Incidentally, I also bought a shirt for $2. Due to the aforementioned rearrangement of my fatty bits, I look like a middle aged woman trying to play sexy teenager in most of my old shirts.

5. For those of you who became stay at home or part-time working Moms... could you please tell me how you did it and managed? Our hugely looming problem by far is health care, so I'm particularly interested in those of you who bought your own policies etc.

First Words!

OK, so aside from the debatable Mum, Mama and Dada, E just said his first word! Remember that he loves the Elephant Song, and that the rooster is one of his favorite animals in it. Now picture us reading The Very Busy Spider. I'll have you know he chose that one specifically of the two I held up. (Thank you Auntie Jen!). He is helping to turn the pages as always and keeps going back to certain pages he loves. One of those pages has a rooster on it. It reads, "Cock a doodle doo! says the rooster. Want to catch a pesty fly?" I always say Cock a doodle doo in the same sing song, high pitched tone. Ewan started whispering, "Doooo, dooo!" in the same tone. I kept repeating myself. Soon he was saying, "Kuh doo dooooo, Kuh doo doooo!" The "kuh" was more of a breath with a k sound at the beginning, but the doooos were unmistakable.

It's completely friggin adorable. Who woulda thunk that Cock a doodle doo would be the first "word" going in his baby book.