She Will RAWR You

Everything that needs to be said about Mila's emerging personality can be summed up with one short story.

First, though, I need to once again make note of the fact that she is OBSESSED with wearing necklaces. She hunts for precious treasures that she can wear around her neck for hours every day. She prefers shiny things, but yarn or shoe strings will do the trick. So will electrical cords, for what it's worth. There's nothing that says great parenting like a baby crawling around with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck.

Ahem.

(At least she usually unplugs the cords before she takes off with them.)

Fortunately, Mila's favorite necklace is the one that she's actually allowed to wear -- her teething necklace. She doesn't seem to be terribly bothered by teeth, but we have the little amber necklace, so whatever. Sometimes I'm nice enough to put it on her. Most of the time it sits on a shelf, though. That is in part because she can't wear it at night or to daycare. It's just a narrow opening in between, you know? It's not worth the trouble.

But sometimes Mila decides it's worth the trouble.

Like yesterday. Yesterday Miss Mila encountered her teething necklace, clutched it in her chubby little hand, and proceeded to yell at the husband until he put it on her. When you're picturing what that looked like, you should know that this child really does yell at people. The 1:50 mark isn't that far from Mila's reality.

THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE IS WHY SHE IS SO CUTE. It's to offset the strong-willed bossiness.

Fortunately, the husband understood what she wanted and was happy to oblige. Mila was a content little creature for the rest of the evening as she proudly flaunted her little necklace.

And then it was time for bed.

I still have all of my fingers after trying to take the necklace off of her before I put her to bed. That's the good news. The bad news is that I think maybe the fact that she did in fact end up wearing the necklace to bed shows just how "fun" the toddler years are going to be with She Who Gets Her Way Or RAWR.

Beans with Corn and Cilantro

It's been a few minutes since I've peeked through any of them, but Alexis recently has become obsessed with studying my cookbooks. I don't have that many and most of the ones I have are lame (these things happen when you're cheap), but she is still managing to come across some things she wants to try.

Which, bring it on, kid. I'm ready for some fun new ideas. (Pasta salad, for example. I need a new pasta salad recipe. Anybody have one they love?)

Anyway, the only bad thing about her going through the cookbooks and trying to find things she wants to make is that she keeps getting frustrated when we don't have all of the necessary ingredients for her to be able to follow a recipe. There have been some mini meltdowns over the issue.

Which means I ended up throwing kidney beans and corn together and showing her that it's okay to not follow a recipe.

It made for a good lesson. I showed her how to start with less than the amount you think you need of something and then add a bit more until it's right. You can add, but you can't take things back out once you've thrown them in the pan. I think she now understands the role of the crockpot in this world and how it's not really that different from cooking on the stove. We also talked about using fresh foods that will spoil first, and then checking the canned goods and frozen and such.

Something tells me we are going to have a bunch more of these sorts of lessons in the coming weeks. It's really super bothering her that there are unused vegetables still in the fridge. Well, that, and CILANTRO. I have all of the CILANTRO (caps lock necessary because HOLY CRAP THERE IS SO MUCH OF IT) growing in our yard, and now Alexis is acutely aware that we need to be trying to use it as often as possible.

If I'm eating Cilantro Zucchini Rhubarb Oatmeal next week, now you know why.

Beans with Corn and CILANTRO

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red pepper, chopped
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups frozen corn
1 can petite diced tomatoes
A giant handful cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Grab a really big skillet and toss the olive oil in it. Add the red pepper and turn the heat to medium-high. Let it cook for a minute or two and then stir. Now add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally for about five minutes, or until the onion begins to turn clear.

2. Throw everything else in the pan. Stir. Simmer. Stir some more. It's done when the kidney beans are warm all the way through and are as soft as you like them. It took about 20 minutes for me to consider things all done.

3. Serve with colby jack cheese and extra CILANTRO.

Oh, wait. You probably don't have any CILANTRO since I have it all in my yard. Sorry about that.

Criminally Adorable