Morning ramblings.

I have discovered that during a weekend, when the entire family is home (so we have Mama K, Daddy, Daddy C, Uncle Ap, the Visionary, me, and baby boy), extended family is visiting (Mamu, Uncle Cat, and Auntie Bug), and we've picked up between 1 and 3 strays, this household goes through 10 cooked cups of rice, which means running the rice cooker twice a day, and never having it available to make, say, brown rice, or rice pudding, or sweet rice. I suddenly desperately want a second rice cooker... a 10 cup, that only makes white rice. Hmmm... note to self: Start saving up.

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It's 8:23am. I can hear the Elijah playing in his room, babbling to himself and moving his furniture around. He'll happily play in there by himself for two hours before he fusses at the door for me to get out of bed and get breakfast for him.

He'll say, "Hi Mom! Change?"

He is starting to put together sentences. "Walk this way!" when he wants to show someone something or try to get them to do something for him (which he generally doesn't have the words for; he'll take your hands and try to make you do it, physically).

He's 28 months old, it's time to move on to the next Gymboree class, but watching him in his class, he hasn't really reached any of the milestones the rest of the kids have. He can't jump, he doesn't really interact, he's all over the place, off in his own world. I'm trying not to compare kids but I also don't want to drop him in over his head if the next class is going to be too much.

Although I did have the wonderful moment of him walking away from a dancing circle to come try to get me to dance. "Up mom!" And when I said I hurt and couldn't dance, he climbed into my lap and gave me a hug :)

He has an appointment with ChildFind on January 4. He had an appointment this past Friday, but when we got there, the office was closed. Probably due to weather. They didn't tell us they'd be closed if the weather was bad and they din't call to cancel the appointment. It was very annoying.

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In other news, I have a cat! He is sleek and black and talks a lot and plays a lot and his name is Kyle or Sanctuary or Get-off-the-computer, or "Oh, tit-ten!"

Elijah loves him and the cat lets him pick him up and carry him around. The cat does not look happy, but just waits until he's rescued. He's the most amazing cat ever.

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Yesterday, one of Elijah's Winnie the Pooh toys said, "A kiss on the cheek might be nice."

He got scared and threw the toy and hasn't touched it since.

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Everyone with food allergies should check out annaB's gluten free. Completely by chance I was able to try their products yesterday, and they're amazing!

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I've learned to cook dried black beans. I'm rather inordinately proud of that accomplishment ;)

My current favorite CFGF snack:
-cooked rice
-cooked black beans
-bacon grease for fat/flavor
-steamed broccoli
-adobo (either with cumin or with saffron)

I'm pretty sure eventually someone's going to yell at me for how much I use bacon grease and mayonnaise and other sources of fat. I'd like to give a little explanation here:

The body needs fat. My body's sources of fat used to be butter, cheese, and heavy cream. I used to walk 12 miles a day for my job; I drank po cha (tea with butter and milk) for the same reasons mountain climbers might carry whole sticks of butter.

All of those sources of fat have been cut from my diet. I don't even eat massive amounts of beef fat anymore. Rice milk, soy creamer and coconut-based creamer are extremely low in fat. Beans and rice are also low in fat, and most of the meats we have now are low in fat as well. So... bacon grease goes into my beans and rice to provide not only umami, but some dietary fat.

There we go. That's my explanation.

Now I need tea and breakfast.

I do so miss po cha.