Ice Cream Hater!!!

My son hates ice cream! Is this not the saddest phrase ever? He does not like it for a very simple and considering his age, I suppose to be a legitimate reason, because it is cold! Well you would think that “duh” it’s supposed to be. But at almost 3 my son is still stuck on food being at the perfect temperature of slightly warmer than room temp. I would think he would have grown out of this by now since he has a palate that allows me to fix almost anything. For him, nothing beats green beans cooled off. By now, seems he should understand and enjoy just how good certain foods can be when they are just cooler than hot.

Tonight we had our “Mommy and Me” time which consists of a special dinner we make together (chicken thighs, green beans and French fries were on the menu). It is always on an evening when our husband/Papa is at an away game so we are just one on one. We cook, we play and we get to stay up later than usual, well not that much later. Plus there is Mommy’s favorite part of the meal, dessert, and normally a treat we don’t eat very often. Ice cream sundaes were added to the menu, as today while grocery shopping I found chocolate sauce resembling Hershey’s for the first time. Just to confirm it tastes just as close as it resembles it. To go back to my introduction, my son hates ice cream. He was so excited to be able to squeeze some chocolate sauce on his scoop of vanilla. He scarfed the chocolate right off then pushed the dish to the side and said, “all done”! This has got to be, I don’t know, the 20^th time he has had ice cream, same story each time, one bite and then done. As an extreme ice cream lover, this is painful news for me and as it has taken me 20 times of him rejecting it to accept the fact he just isn’t in to it! My excuses for eating ice cream have just gotten slightly phonier.

I am going to try to blog more often now, but probably won’t be as often as before. I prefer to write when the inspiration and motivation hits me, like tonight with the ice cream!

Blog Comeback

A blogging comeback is on its way...expect it next week sometime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update

For a quick pox update: my son resembles a bag of red hots! Besides the obvious annoyingness of this childhood disease, it’s the first time I have seen him, well for not finding a better word, deformed, the poor guy just breaks my heart and makes me laugh at the same time. Between the itchy sensation while having to wear jammies and pox bursting we all had a very sleepless night. Its got to be hard on the little guy, who would have ever thought just laying in bed would be so painful and uncomfortable. Knock on wood that tonight will be better than the last, as I am rather exhausted and I have a big day tomorrow.

I have yet to figure out if my disease of being anal retentively clean and organized when people come to my house is genetically inherited or if it is an influenced learned behavior. In either case my Mom should be very proud, since she is the one who passed along this trait to me. Since the moment I left my parents house, I have been “aware” the state my dwelling is in when people come for a visit. Little did I ever imagine I would be this way. I think at times my husband must wonder if I have gone off the deep end, as he is rather opposite of me in this subject. He tells me “Who cares? Whoever isn’t going to notice.”, and I think to myself, I care and why don’t you care and how could someone not notice whatever it is (except him maybe). Tomorrow is like spring cleaning, the house and then some will be will be scrubbed from top to bottom. Here is my checklist:

• Vacuum
• Clean the tile and wood floors
• Dust (including the hanging light fixtures…ugg)
• Clean the mirrors (in the entire house)
• Clean the bathroom
• Wipe down the WC door and Fridge door
• Organize our bar (and not the bottles…unfortunately)
• Some loads of laundry
• Clean the car (inside and out if I will ever get it back from the shop)
• Makeup the guest room bed
• Pick up the randomly scattered toys throughout the entire house
• Find a place for any objects that don’t need to be seen by others!

Well, wish me luck, do you think it is thorough enough?

PS Most likely won’t be blogging for the next 2 weeks!

Pox Pox Go Away

Wow, I am finally back, sorry for being MIA for the last week. Life has been, well, very busy and time consuming you could say between incessant invitations and a death in the family. Plus to my added fatigue of Halloween a little boy who came down with the chicken pox. This is one of my worst childhood memories, probably since I had it when I was 11 and able to remember every single detail. The itchy, painful bursting pox, the smell of Calamine lotion and the oatmeal baths, have got to be the most horrible way to pass a week. So far, as of last count before his nap, he had about 65 poxes. The poor guy is a trooper, they are spreading like wild fire and are probably going to hurt like heck when they burst since they are no longer the tiny things they were yesterday. So tonight he is going to experience the cloudy depths of an oatmeal bath. The oatmeal bath mix, being homemade, since I have never seen or heard of it in France. Which I had assumed was more complicated then just throwing a couple of cups of oats in the blender to make it into a powder! I hope this cloudy bath will not scare him to death, as he doesn’t enjoy new things like this. At least since I am sequestered at home this week I will have, hopefully, plenty of time to prepare for some very anticipated visitors arriving next week! Although if only I don’t sprain my back or have one of my arms fall off since all he says is “up Mommy up”.

Now to change the subject of this post, a quick little brag section about my son. I am required since I was so surprised to find what I did. The other day we went into town to pick up a preschool activity book with dry erase pages I had ordered for him at a local bookstore. On the drive home he was able to unwrap the pen from its cellophane packaging and start doodling while in his car seat. Later that night when he was finally cozy in his bed fast asleep I was running around picking up the remnants of the day and started looking through his book to see what he had done or had scribbled on and to my amazement this is what I found:

I find this to be amazing that my son was able to do this at his age, the eyes, nose and mouth are all in the correct places on the face, plus they are all in the right proportion to each other (except maybe the right eye). Perhaps, since I am his mother, I believe that this little farmer has the artistic eye or at least a very keen sense of observation and analysis.  

French Fry Hat

The other day while driving home from daycare my son said the funniest thing to me: “Mommy I am wearing my French Fry hat!” (Well not exactly in all those words, but in his language this is what he communicated.) I was dumb founded for a few seconds because I was trying to analyze the relation to French Fries (a favorite food) and his winter hat. Then –ding- the light went on, his hat has a bunch of tassels on top, which an imagination could think of as skinny French Fries I guess. After a laugh out loud I wondered where or who had told him this. I asked around me, the usual suspects who have the tendency to influence my son, but no one seemed to know what I was talking about, even though a couple of them wish they had come up with it. So this one is 100% a clever 2 ½ year old comment! I was so proud to see that my son’s imagination is working great and obviously developing well. Till now I have only observed him laying his stuffed animals out, covering them with a blanket and instructing them to do “dodo” (go to sleep) in a tone which seemed to be mimicking me when he tries to fight the sandman’s arrival. Since that day, he has asked to wear his “French Fry hat” everyday. Yet it hasn’t been necessary till this morning since the wind gusts outside on this sunny but freezing day are making the temperature probably not much more than 35°F. Thank goodness we are fully equipped for this colder than normal Fall time with a French Fry hat. 

Voila the famous French Fry Hat!!!!

Why is buying food so complicated?

Today I am recovering from a whirl wind Thursday. Yesterday was an exhausting day if I ever had one. It’s not so much that I had non stop errands to run or crazy people all around me, no just my son and I. From the moment when the fog cleared, after my first café au lait, to the time I finally sat down with my dinner plate on the couch, seemed like no matter what I did, things just kept being dumped upside down. I hate mornings when from the time you are standing up, you feel like you are running late. After a rather long preparation to get ready for the day, which included a few laps running around the living room and a toothbrush incident we were off to do the one regularly required activity I hate most in France. Grocery shopping!!! I wonder if there is any other American in France who hates grocery shopping as much as I do? I find everything about it incredibly inconvenient. I miss it in the US, it’s so easy. You pull in the parking lot, and drivers are considerate, if you were waiting for a spot, they don’t go take it just because they are faster than you. Plus the parking spaces are large enough for you to open your car door to get your child out of their car seat, without touching the neighboring car. You don’t need a token or a 1€ piece to even be able to get a cart. I understand the reasoning for this, to avoid more carts from being stolen, but really who steals grocery carts besides stupid teenagers and the homeless? Probably more than I think, but that is beside the point. I hate when you either forget your token in the car, which is not that close to the cart parking area due to the millions of people at the store, or when you don’t have a 1€ piece. Then you have to go into the store, ask at the “accueil” or the customer service desk, ha that is a joke, but then you have to wait at least a minute or two for anyone to ask you if you need to help, and all that for a token.  Once you have obtained your new token, you must then walk back out to the parking lot, because who would have ever thought of parking carts inside the store, oh ya the Americans. Once you get your cart, you must be sure to not forget your bags in the car, which I am totally ok with. For those of us with kids, we must be careful which grocery store we shop at if our child isn’t able to walk next to the cart, some places have carts with no child seats in them. Made that mistake once, and now am a loyal shopper at the place where every cart has a seat in it. Grocery shopping with toddlers, is the same anywhere, their patience only last so long, so you must be quick or buy what they want. Eventually when the cart is full a check out line must be selected. This being a rather difficult task, many variables go in to play here. Is the checker quick, is the person going to bag fast, are they going to pay buy check are just a few questions that should be posed. These are valid questions to pose in the US too, but they don’t have the same strategic power as in France. Once your items are on the belt they are scanned through either as quickly as possible, so that a grocery mound forms before you can barely get your bag open to start bagging yourself, because never would a checker help you put something in a bag, or they are almost completely forgotten about while the checker kisses her newly arrived colleague or chats it up with the checker at the next line about their plans for the weekend. From start to finish, you better “pen in” at least an hour or more. So after a morning of grocery shopping chaos, getting home, putting everything away, making lunch, pipi breaks since we are officially trying to potty train I then could even start to think about the incredible mess around me! So my day went…but who cares, today is new and now that I am done writing this I am off to do something fun, like nothing!

Flambé

A picture is worth a thousand words goes the common saying…

My Guinea Fowl was a success!!! For all the amateur chef anxiety I had about trying to cook this strange bird it was a relative easy feat to accomplish. I found it almost easier than a chicken, since the meat is less dense. I followed the recipe, step by step, till the grand finale of the “flambé.” The meat pieces nice and hot in the pan, the 80 proof Calvados lit up quicker than expected, enough to make my camera girl jump back but in time for no missing eyebrows.  The flames, seen above in the picture, shot up a good three feet. The best part of this was the smell, the aroma of, let’s say, burned alcohol caramelized on meat, makes your mouth water. Besides the new cooking technique mastered the first Fall meal seem to make everyone happy and not just us adults. My son and our friend’s daughter have known each other since birth. They are finally reaching the age of becoming one of each others first good friends. The excitement on my son’s face when I told him they were coming for lunch was pure joy. He waited patiently all morning long until I heard a car drive up and confirmed it was them. He ran to the front door and started yelling his little friend’s name.  It is so funny to watch them play, somewhat, together or at least next to each other while they are not screaming because the other took the toy they were playing with or they just have to have that toy the other is playing with. Like for all first time parents, time flies and you don’t realize it until you have a moment when you really notice your kid is getting to the next step, this for me being hello little boy goodbye toddler. My son has a friend, someone I think he cares about, because his gestures (as much as 2 ½ year old can) shows it. Once she fell while running around the corner to go down the hallway. Obviously crying pursued, my son being very concerned for her, he went to go find her “doudou.” This is what the French call kid’s cuddly toy, like a teddy bear or a blanket. She saw him running to her with her found doudou and instantly stopped crying and wanted down from her Dad’s arms. Real friendships are precious, at any age!

A Daily Discovery

This morning I am sitting here on the couch with my laptop and a nice hot cup of coffee wondering what I am going to write about this morning. As a rookie blogger still, yet to have the consistent writing rhythm down my mind keeps wondering off to the other activities I have planned for the day. For one, I need to go grocery shopping for this weekend; we are having friends for lunch on Sunday and planning my first official Fall themed meal.  When brainstorming ideas for this I was exploring my fridge, freezer and cupboards to see what I already had. In the back depths of my freezer I pulled out a clear plastic bag containing a butcher paper wrapped bundle. If I remember correctly this was offered to me by my mother-in-law a while back. She said it was like a chicken, so not thinking much of it, I stuck it in the freezer to make some chicken soup when it got cold. Although on the frosty label it said “Pintade.”  Not being sure what that was I quickly found the translation. In English it is known as a Guinea Fowl. What the heck it that?  Who has ever heard of that?  Has anyone ever ate that outside of France?  Well at least not me! No negative connotation applied, I promptly called my mother-in-law to question her about this guinea fowl she had given me. After a laugh she explained that I had already ate it, at her house of all places, which she has a reputation to make things and happen to forget to mention an ingredient. Usually it’s nothing bad, just there is some lamb mixed in with the beef sort of thing. The internet informed me that it is I who is ill-informed on the existence of this blue and grey feathered bird. So to sum it up, I have discovered the guinea fowl. Now let’s see if I am going to be successful at cooking it. The recipe I planning on is called “Pintade au Cidre” or Guinea Fowl cooked in Cider (and not the normal hot spiced or sometimes spiked cider, but the classic Breton version.)  This recipe requires me to flambé the guinea fowl with Calvados (cider fermented longer), a technique I have never undertook as the amateur chef I am. Besides the guinea fowl the rest of the meal will be of ingredients that are commonly known, except maybe the creamy squash soup which I am unable to find the correct translation for. Well I better be off to the grocery store. Will write of my culinary experiences on Monday!!!! Bon Weekend!

Photo by Scotch Macaskill via www.wild-facts.com

Sweet and Sour

It is Monday and the start of a new week, which I am hoping is going to be more efficient and productive than the last one. The later ended on a sour note, maybe even worse than sour. It was a day of fried patience and serious questioning of karma. It all started on Friday, the daycare called me because my son had a 103°F temperature. So off I went to get him and then to the doctor to confirm my suspicions of an ear infection. Antibiotics for 10 days, business as usual since they always seem to occur on Friday or Saturday, great fun for the weekend. But this time he was prescribed cortisone, for all those parents out there who have ever given their kids cortisone you know what I am talking about, this is the anti-sleep drug of all time. So by Sunday he was lacking 3 days of naps, which is probably more important than eating if I was required to make a list. Between all of our fatigue Mommy had no patience and neither did the little man. What else then can you expect than a winey, can’t remember what listening is, don’t know what they want to do, master of the time outs. Plus the joys of antibiotics not only kill the infection but clean the bowels as well. I will say diarrhea and diapers not a good combo, got to be one of the most disgusting things without exception. Enough said!

We were able to take a break from our amounting chaos a few hours on Saturday to go to a local Pumpkin Festival, plus it was the most beautiful Fall day ever nothing but short sleeves needed, a little shout out to a friend of mine, she’ll know what I mean. We were able to do the time old American tradition of picking out our jack-o-lantern to be. My son was so enthralled with all the funny shaped gourds and squashes. He is becoming an expert on saying pumpkin, only repeats it 100 times a day now. If only Halloween would get here, our house is ready. A French woman came up to me and asked about the large pumpkin which was sitting in my son’s stroller (it was a toss up on the weight of the pumpkin or my son who was gonna ride). She wanted to know if you could eat it. That was the first time someone asked me about eating a jack-o-lantern type pumpkin. I can’t imagine eating it, well besides the seeds of course. Can you imagine eating the typical carved pumpkin with the soot stains from the candle and the mold that seems to appear quicker than on bread. You just don’t eat it! I simply told her I didn’t know, didn’t want to get into a long explanation on why you shouldn’t eat them, even if they are edible since the French will eat anything that is. 

Lost Time?

I am finally starting to get this blog thing down; well at least I am feeling slightly more knowledgeable about it than a couple of weeks ago. This week I have had a lot more time on my hands than usual, I only spent one full day with my son and that not even at home. It being my first taste of what a working Mom feels like (rushed kisses in the morning, dinner, baths and a very short playtime together). This week was an exceptional one, but none the less a long one for me. I have many projects around the house (yard work, painting all the bedroom doors, etc), but doesn’t seem like I got anything done. With all this time, I don’t know what to do, I am lost. I am so used to being in the rhythm of daily stuff with my to do list with at least 8 things on it that when I don’t have a 3 feet tall little guy under my feet or following me around, I seem to linger for hours doing really nothing at all. I am convinced this is my subconscious giving me some well-deserved personal down time or just pure laziness. Doesn’t matter though, today I am going to get stuff done, or at least head to party store to get the accessories for my son’s Halloween costume, try to find a craft store (if only Micheal’s could come to France) that has a 6 inch styrofoam ball.  So today will not be a complete loss of time I hope. I received my Halloween care package this week from my family in the US, nothing better (except if it would have had candy in it).  Lots of Halloweeny things inside, this weekend my son and I will make up for lost time with the pumpkin and haunted house craft kits. Pictures to come!