chatter box

Our little Miss Kya is a chatter box.

Her two favorite words right now are "dada" and "light" (light sounds more like "yite" when she says it). She is obsessed with lights. At the doctor's office this week, she saw the florescent lights with cloud covers - she was frantically pointing and saying "yite, yite, yite." Like she was trying to say, "look mom, I found a new kind of light."

Off the top of my head, her words are:
- dada
- mama
- light (yite)
- doggie
- duckie
- choo choo (we have a twice-daily train pass by our house, so this is also a popular one)
- cat
- baby
- hi
... I know I am forgetting a few, so I will add more when Corey reminds me of the ones I am missing :)

She signs "more"
She waves hi/bye and blows kisses


No, Kya is not potty trained (I wish!).
I use this casually. I just sit her down on it when I change her diaper and when she gets up from her nap. She usually "goes" so I figure it is one less diaper I am throwing away. Sweet.

By the way, she claps when she is done "going" ... ahhh the things that warm a mother's heart.


New this week: Kya's discovery of dunking food.
Today she dunked bread pieces into veggie puree. As you can see, this skill takes lots of concentration. She also like to place small bits of crunchy food onto a spoonful of food, as it goes into her mouth (like one Cheerio onto a spoonful of applesauce). This kid cracks me up.


Kya loves her bib and she is very excited when we give her the fork. So excited in fact, that sometimes she shakes it and then it goes flying. Sharp objects flying around the house are not in my list of likes. This skill will take some practice ... with a spoon.

Makin' Baby Food

Kya is quickly expanding the variety of food she likes. And as a result, I've been making baby food like a crazy woman. I'm 100% thrilled to make baby food - it's just so very bitter sweet to see her growing up.

This selection of frozen food includes: center - apple, from left - squash, zucchini, pear, carrot, broccoli. Next up: rutabaga. I freeze each batch in small amounts (in fun shaped Ikea ice cube trays) and then I freeze the cubes in labeled freezer-safe bags. Wehn Kya is ready to eat, I thaw a few cubes (both the same or mix-and-match two or more flavors), sometimes I add a bit of baby cereal.

I get my instructions and recipes from the book: Top 100 Baby Purees (above)

I think this book is great. It is the inly baby food book I own, so I don;t have much to compare it to, but I do like this one. The illustrations are beautiful and the recipes incorporate the usual (carrots) and the unusual (rutabaga).

Pillows and food: a lovely pair

There's a designer (Orla Kiely) who just so happens to make some great fabrics (and clothes and dishes and purses) and just so happens to have a beautiful line of dishtowels at Target that (just so conveniently) can be sewn together to make beautiful throw pillow covers. 

Just my kind of project.

So ... I bought the dish towels (one pair makes one 14x14 inch pillow). And followed this pattern (pdf).

And viola!

The front is the green/white/brown pear fabric, the back is the solid green pear fabric.

Orla Kiely makes other dish towel designs but these matched our living room the best.

The pattern is very easy and very fast - I made two covers in about an hour.

While I was sewing, my mom called and told me about a great article in the May 2o09 issue of Bon Appétit magazine. 

I just so happen to have a subscription to that magazine (pure luck - I only get three magazines - two about quilting and this one). 

Anyway ... there's a great article in it about the best things to eat and drink in each state. 

Let's check out North Dakota.

This is so exciting!

It says "what to buy: chocolate covered potato chips from Carol Wideman's Candy Co." I have to agree with this. I've had them and they are good. And I don't even like chocolate. It continues with "what to eat: knoephla soup at Fried's Family Restaurant." The sky is falling! Fried's! Little old Fried's - in a real live MAGAZINE! What is this world coming to?!

I love eating at Fried's. If you've been to Fried's, you know. Fried's is a very hometown type of diner with a super casual trucker/farmer like client base. The "ambience" (if you can call it that) is country crafty and the food ... oh the food. Let's just say I really like this place. This is the prime example of a locals hangout - except that many of the locals don't even know about it. I guess it's more of a neighborhood thing? I only know about it because my grandparents live about a block away. And yes, the review is right - the knoephla soup is excellent. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Unfortunately, this fall Fried's had a pipe break and the restaurant flooded. They've been closed ever since - but word on the street is that they will be opening soon. I can hardly wait. Yippee Fried's!

Oh, and it's pronounced free'd not fry'd :)

Milk ... it does a body good

I despise milk. I'll drink chocolate milk every now and then but I avoid white milk at all costs. I'll consume it if it's in food but I've never been the type to sit down and drink a tall glass of milk. I have milk in my cereal every morning ... but I use the spoon to strain the milk out of each bite. Yep, that's how much I avoid milk. ack. yuck.

So it was pure luck that the sample dude in the grocery store lured me to try a small taste of chocolate milk. I was pleasantly surprised at at the tastyness of it. I was even more impressed when he said the milk was from his farm, from his cows just a few miles east of town. How cool is that?! I was gosh darn impressed, I even sampled the white milk. I got it down without gagging - I was impressed with myself ... and the milk. It actually tasted good. 

The packaging is quite charming too. "Bessy's Best - Milked and bottled fresh at Bessy's family farm in Sterling, ND"

Have you seen this milk in your local grocery store? I'm curious ... let me know.

I should also mention that it is a "Pride of Dakota" product - made in North Dakota.