Cora turns Two

I know I am not going to win any decorating awards with this. My free-hand pen sketches didn't have quite the "shell shocked" blank expressions on them as this poor rabbit does. There is no ctrl-z command when you are piping pink icing on a cake. With that said, I am happy that it was close enough to a bunny that Cora was able to recognize it as such.
Mary baked the chocolate cake and it tasted wonderful. She is batting 1000 with chocolate cakes this month.

We came to the realization that two-year-old girls are seriously neglected by toy executives. Boys are easy: dump trucks, Lego, dinosaurs, any form of inflatable ball, nerf, action figures, the list goes on...
Girls: pink hula hoops, my little pony, dolls in hundreds of different forms, and domestic indoctrination (Shopping trolleys, play kitchens and other such nonsense)

I think grocery shopping and cooking is great fun, but I don't think my daughter needs toys to help her imagine doing these things. Where are the mini lawyer brief cases for her? Why don't I see commercials on Saturday morning television pimping a pink socket set for barbie's corvette or a little girl's formula-one racing suit and helmet? The obvious answer is that most grandmothers, mothers and aunts wouldn't buy it. I say there is an entire population of fathers and uncles who shop for presents and are yearning for a choice in gift giving. We are an untapped market.

Back to Cora. She doesn't know she is two. She just floats around the house making happy squeeling sounds that are reminiscent of a tea kettle boiling. It is actually sort of musical when compared to the noises she makes when she is angry. She also does a little dance when she is happy where she bounces from foot to foot, while bobbling her head from side to side and forms the letter 'W' with her arms--with jazz hands just to complete the effect. we can never get it on camera. It is like lighting in its unpredictability and fleeting presence. So many things like that we can never capture, and we know we will forget about.

At this stage she still doesn't say much unless she wants to. If she thinks she can get you to do something or provide something through brute vocal force, then she will scream to get it. But if it is something interesting or thoughtful (like shoe, bunny, water, bird...) then she will use the word, but only if you haven't asked her a direct question about it. Everything is on her terms; deal with it. and I still haven't come to terms with that. I still have this delusion that I can get her to see that I am the boss.

Mary likes to point out that the stubbornness and insane mood swings come from me. And she is probably right, but I have to say Cora's ability to get me to stop what I am doing and come to realize that I am going to have to do what she wants definitely comes from Mary.

Lawn Pirates

I dug some bandannas out of my sock drawer--and Cole insists on referring to them as 'pirate hats'. Cole has wanted an eye patch for a few months and I have failed to get him one. This was the only way I could think of to assuage his need to look like a pirate. If only I could get him this excited about ninjas.

Nasal Napalm

We have been conducting a little research in our house and I think we have found a new weapon of mass destruction.

I just changed my daughter's diaper. I think the government would like to have a chat with me if they had any idea what my daughter unleashed on our house. They don't need to enrich uranium any more. They don't need to sink money into chemical weapons. They just need to recruit toddlers with a high diet of pineapple and offer free diaper pick-up.

Birthday ruminations

This is what a slice of heaven looks like.

Normally, I would opt for angel food cake for my birthday because that is what my mom always made me (I think we can all read the obvious subtext of why she never made it for my other siblings, so lets move on.) As it happens, they do not have angel food cake mix here in the lonely south pacific. My lovely wife made it from scratch last year, which was a real treat. This year, however, I thought I would branch out a bit and asked her to make me a chocolate cake. She delivered.

What you see above is something like a mud cake with a layer of chocolate truffle through the middle, just to prove she could transcend any chocolate craving I could throw down before her. And if that wasn't enough, she slathered on chocolate frosting just to throw all subtlety and caution to the wind. I think my body started pumping out insulin just from smelling it.


Cora thoughtfully contemplating chocolate yummyness



It was a good day. I was able to talk with my mom and sister on the phone. I received some lovely cards, a few books and a new cast iron pan that I can't wait to try out.



A few years ago, my friend O'Steven told me to take stock in my life and see what was important to me. I wrote him a list and I look back on it every once in a while. Most years, on my birthday, I write another list (trying not to look at previous lists) to see what was important to me through the past year. They usually have common themes - food, pop culture...

What do I need in life?

time with my wife
smiling kids
a good game of Scrabulous
hot cocoa and Tim Tams
warm bread
acceleration
quality wool socks
sunglasses
packing tape
a hammer, a socket set and a phillips screw driver
e-mail
6-inch subway sub, medium drink and 2 cookies
butter
a good book
witty banter
a thesaurus
time to reflect
pocket knife
family photos
international phone cards
saturday morning with my family
blueberry pancakes
100 cuts with my bokken each night
work mentors and life mentors
black 0.4 mm felt tip pen and grid paper
IT support
grace
old friends
pain pills
mixed cd's
staying centered

Yeah, I know it reads like one of those lame "everything I learned in kindergarten" books. Once I go down the road of writing about sentimental things it always looks like that. This list isn't that comprehensive. I may add to it in the next few days. I think it is one of those things that may not mean much to anyone else but the person who wrote it.

Another trip around the sun.