Someone Little Enjoys His Food

My Matthew who sometimes looks like a little man in the baby clothes is definitely growing. Not just physically but mentally too. His little brain is processing everything he sees, and everything he sees he wants to do - one of them - eat like we eat.

You Are Getting Your Own Dinner Plate. It was time to give Matthew big dinner plate, and let me tell you why. Every breakfast, lunch or dinner Matthew would reach out for our fork or spoon, and dish full of food. He wanted to eat what we eat. It was fun for while, but us eating spaghetti with the spoon did it. 'Matthew you are getting your own plate' - we said. He absolutely loves it now as he can choose from three different foods I put on his dish. To our surprise Matthew started to pick his own food with his fork right into his mouth. The nice thing is that he knows when he does something new, and he is so proud of himself - the big smile on his face tells it all.

Spaghetti Time. Matthew is now almost 15 months, and he got total of four teeth - two on the bottom and two on the top. We thought that eating spaghetti would be tough, but we were wrong. Matthew would grab this long pasta and grind into pieces with his four teeth, and then with more shredding on the back and then its all gone. The best of all is to watch him how sometimes he would try to put long pasta onto the fork and then into his mouth. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work, and this is when his face looks like tomato smugged in the ground beef.

Let Me Clean Your Face. No not Matthew's face. In fact my face needed to be clean one day. With few sneezes around food, and with Matthew sometimes eating from my dish and then grabbing my face for a small hug and kiss, it is hard for me to keep my face clean. In addition, Matthew likes to pick small crumbs around him with his little fingers and eat them. So one day Matthew finds a small bread crumb attached to my face, picks it and eats it. This time I laughed.

Chocolate. Did I mention the chocolate yet?... Yes Matthew loves apple cinnamon chocolate loaf !!!

As life goes on, we continue our messy breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners. One day when I am old and washing my floor around the table, the greasy stains will remind me how wonderful and precious eating times we had together.

Apple Cinnamon Chocolate Loaf from Heaven

'Okay, are you ready for my baking again?' - I asked.

'Looked at me, do I look like I need another cake?' - he said.

'Yes you do look like you need another cake to eat, and I need one too.' - I said.

'Then lets bake it.' - he said.

With touch of love and good ingredients I finally I got a recipe for a chocolate cake that all three of us like. It goes like that.

Take one stick of the unsalted butter - yes unsalted because love is not salty. Or is? Okay sometimes we get angry on each other, but hey its better to release that pressure than store it. So take that one stick of unsalted butter, that is 175 grams of butter fat and mix until fluffy with 2/3 of a cup of golden cane sugar. Yes this sounds very prestige, but by all means you can use granulated white sugar too. Better not discriminate against sugars - sweet stuff is needed. So by the time I finish this paragraph, the butter and sugar mixture should be fluffy by now. And if not just get closer to the oven - the heat does wonders, but do and do not melt the mixture.

Two ingredients down. Now let the woman get the apple. Yes we need apple. Ironic that apple in the bible was a bate. But love can conquer everything, so apple will not stand in our way. Peel one large size apple, dice it into 1 cm cubes and coat with cinnamon. Let it wait its turn.

Now visit your pantry and find that aging flour like I do. God only knows how old my flour is. Okay not only God, but me too. This time do not take my advice, just get some fresh whole wheat flour, or if you live in Canada, Robinhood got special nutri blend flour of white flour and bran. You will need 1 and 3/4 cup of this fine powder. Yes, Robinhood, but bet he doesn't have the 2 tea spoons of the baking powder. Use any brand, and just mix it with the flour.

Now, we need hen. No not for the cake, but for the eggs. Ask hen for four eggs, and if not available, just go to the store and get some. Once cracked, beat them lightly. And remember to take out that white disgusting amoeba floating stuff around. I don't know what is going on with those eggs but they have more of that stuff in them lately. Next thing we will be able to hatch those eggs. But don't take my word for it - think the fertilization process is necessary for the chic to be produced.

And now the best part, 1 and 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

The rest is easy, throw beaten eggs into the sugar butter mixture. Mix it. Throw flour and baking powder mixture. Mix it. Throw cinnamon coated apple cubes, Mix it. And lastly dump the chocolate, and mix that baby.

Take a loaf pan, coat with butter, and put strip of parchment paper on the bottom. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan, and bake this loaf of love for 1 hour at 325 F.

Three days later.

'Should I make another loaf?' - I asked.

'Looked at me, do I look like I need another cake?' - he said.

'No you do not need another cake honey.' - I said.

'But make sure you take a note of this recipe, okay?' - he said.

'Yes I will write it down.' - I said.

A day later....

'Not to the whole world, ouch.' - he said.

'Honey we need to share.' - I said.

My Baby is Showing Affection - Unforgettable Moments

My reflections - unforgettable moments with Matthew.

'The first touch,
The first smile,
The first eye to eye contact,
The first hickey, a hunger call,
The first lick on the face, a wet one,
The first hug, for the bear,
Very shy every time,
Then snuggles to me,
- its all my baby.'

I was sitting on the sofa and watching Matthew playing. He is now 11 months plus. With his little hands he takes the white Easter bunny and hugs him on the left, then on the right side, and playing shy at the same time. That was so so cute, and I wish I had the video camera, but I knew soon as I get one all will be over. I continued to watch, to my surprise, Matthew is now talking to his prayer duck, of course in his own language. Then I get up and get the camera, but the unforgettable moments are now over. Truly unforgettable.

Earlier today we went to church for Ukrainian Easter Good Friday. It was his third visit to the church. Unfortunately we were not able to take him on regular basis on Sunday before, because of his eating and sleeping schedule, especially that he likes to eat and sleep at the same times as all the church masses. Well on the parking lot we ran into two priests who knew my father and came up to greet him. One of the priests immediately ignored my dad and dived to play with Matthew. Matthew responded by pointing and reaching out to him - next thing the priest is kissing his little hands. Another unforgettable moment.

Matthew started to show true affection around nine months but earlier around six months Matthew had these interesting ways to express hunger. When hungry he would latch to my chin and give me a hickeys. He would also make suction motions with his lips where we though it was hunger, but no he was massaging his gums. But try to explain this to his uncle who insisted that I feed him - I guess he got paranoid when Matthew made a move on him with his lips. Another unforgettable moment to share.

The true affection surfaced when Matthew started to hug his blue plush bear and a big brown bear. It was and still is so cute to watch him as he embraces the big brown Bear's head with his little hands. And then it is nice to watch him when he embraces the small plush bear with his little hands and brings close to his body to hug him. Many many unforgettable moments.

'Matthew can I have kiss kiss' - we would ask. 'Matthew I love you' - we would say all the time. 'Matthew eeee eeee eeee' - we would squeak. And there he goes with his mouth wide open and tongue across my face, a wet wet lick. Unforgettable feeling.

Can I Schedule An Appointment To Have My Nails Done – Call to The Body Shop

I am sure we have done stupid things in life that are worth laughing at. I had many and this is one of them. Back in 1998 me and my husband were planning a wedding. We were very conservative trying to negotiate every item we needed as we just spend all our money on the house. We tried to prepay as much as possible – that was important item on our list of all. At that time I was working at the large corporation, had some flexibility to do some of my planning.

Needles to say, I am not very big on make up, pedicures, manicures – but looks like every bride was doing so was I. Bottom line is - I hated it. I remember I came home once from a trial makeover, oh God, I looked like a scare crow. May be it was nice, I just wasn’t too comfortable, so I guess my face was looking not very happy. But that is not the story, however, the make up was scrapped from my list – a lipstick and some powder did the job.

If not make up, then may be I just will have my nails done. Where do I start I thought – yellow pages sounds good. I flipped through and I got to the section, body shop. Have you ever shopped at The Body Shop, I did. Got some creams once. To your surprise, they have cream for every part of your body – may be that is why it is called The Body Shop. I guess calling body shop was a good start. During a lunch time I took yellow pages and got the phone number of my first contender.
- ‘Hello’ – a man answered on the other side of the phone.
- ‘Aha’ – I thought, now man are in this business too, that must be one darn good business then.
With quiet voice, not to disturb co-workers I said:
- ‘I will be getting married in 2 weeks and I would like to have my nails done’. Sudden silence.
- ‘You would like to have your nails done Miss?’ – man repeated.
- ‘Yes, yes’ – thinking he understood me.
Suddenly there is honest laugh on the other side of the phone, and the man replied:
- ‘But Miss, we don’t do nails here, we are a body shop and we fix cars, but Miss if you would like you can drop by and see what we can do’.
He had to rubbed it in.
With embarrassment and trying not to start a further conversation, I apologized and hanged up the phone. For the rest of the day I sat in front of the computer laughing to myself and having trouble concentrating. Hopefully no body saw me laughing, they probably would think I was going insane. After all we had a very busy year at work and almost every one was going insane at the same time.

That night I told my husband-to-be this eventful story, and later in the week I broke the news at the office – we had one good chuckle.

No Child Should Ever Be a Victim of the War

Every day I look at my baby, I look into his eyes, and I wish that every child in this world received same love as I give my baby every day, every hour, every minute, every second. No censorship anymore, media is telling us all. Everywhere we turn and look, everywhere we hear, children die - accidents, sickness, diseases, murders, abuse, hunger, poverty and war.

'A little girl playing outside her home in the dirty sand. Assembling a small structure from small pebbles and dry sticks, and a leaf, and some dirty sand. Her golden hair is getting in the way. With little hand she moves her hair off her eyes, with the other hand she is trying to keep the pebble wall to stand. Her face is getting dirty, her blue eyes are full of tears, she is struggling to put her little farm together. A boy near by runs around with a stick and a string attached to it. It is his homemade fishing rod. Suddenly dark flying machines are flying over the girl's and boy's head. They look up. Oh, not again - they know. Bombing starts. Noise is unbearable. More wind with dirty sand. The boy somehow escapes in the potato fields. Lays there half covered in the sand and scattered around potatoes. He is scared. He follows asleep. As he opens his eyes, he looks around. He is safe. People are talking. The little girl stands in the middle of the field, dirty sand is hitting her small gentle body, but she stands there like a little trooper. She is not moving. She is looking at her little farm falling now apart. She wants to reach out for the falling pebble wall, but she cannot. A man grabs her small body. Pulls her to his chest. He holds her tight. He is protecting her. Its too late. Her eyes never opened again. Next morning she dies. She dies from shock. People are crying.'

The little girl is a victim of the WWII. This little girl in the above story is also my dad's sister, she was only 5 years old. She died of shock. Even though the story is dramatized a bit by me and enhanced, I am sure that in the real time, it was even more dramatic then I could ever describe. At later time, my dad's another, only month old sister also dies. Result of local bombing, falling off the bed, trauma and shock to the little fragile body.

WWII indirectly killed many innocent children, unrecorded, never mentioned. Unmarked small wooden crosses deteriorated over time. Burial grounds became empty fields filled with tall green grass swaying left and right. The little lost souls dance forever in the wind.

This Christmas as we celebrate this glorious day, let us remember those little souls that never got to enjoy the small presents, home baked cookies, warmth of the fire place, Santa Clause, and love.

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen. "
~ Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby

Love Is In the Air

Since today is the Valentine's Day, I thought I spread a bit of love around my blog to my blogger friends, and the rest of the world. I am not sure if everyone celebrates the Valentine's Day, but I don't think you can reject a free love, lol. It does not have to be Valentine's Day to love someone extra special, it should be every day; however, that day is the day to emphasize how important love is. I know we are being bombarded with marketing schemes to buy diamonds for love ones (my birth stone is diamond), buy chocolates, buy flowers, and some go to extent to buy material gifts. It this all necessary? In my opinion not, but don't get me wrong if you like to celebrate this day and surprise your love one with special appreciation gift, yes by all means; however, my point is you cannot buy love from the store. So I like my Valentine's Day simple - I don't need extra gifts to love my husband extra special on that day, may be today I will blob to my husband, wow its been 15 years together, and soon 10 years being married. Sometimes I just look at him, and I feel like we just met, all brand new, yet inside it feels like we been together all our lives. So since we work together, this time hubby cannot hide any special gift for me. Well on the way home he is taking me to the local supermarket to purchase flowers, it will be fun - we both laughed at the idea - however, the biggest surprise is that from year to year he is so consistent no matter what, and never forgets, and that is what makes me happy! Happy Valentines Day to you. Let me close this post with this favorite quote of mine: 'My love for you is a journey; starting at forever, and ending at never.' - by Anonymous. BTW I love giving credits to the Anonymous individuals, lol.

Cooking With Love

Today I am going to BBQ chicken breasts - lets add lots of salt, black pepper and fine ground hot chili pepper, and baste it with olive oil. Salt give us high blood pressure, black pepper is hard for digestion, and fine ground hot chili pepper - like Germans say put lots of toilet paper in the fridge because you will need it for next day. Is this what we call cooking with love - yes I added some olive oil.

[MY THOUGHTS]