Chowdah

It was 3:30 and I had nothing planned for dinner.  Hell, I hadn't even given it a thought until just then.  Jordan had the car and I was not in the mood to hoof it 1.5 miles each way with Ez to the grocery store.

I went to TastyKitchen and the first Featured Recipe was this Santa Fe Corn Chowder.  I checked the ingredients and I had everything.  Right down to the giant bag of organic frozen sweet corn in my freezer.  Yeah, it was a good price at Costco.  Shut up.

So I made it.  It was about the fastest soup I've ever made.  And it was really great.  I used vegetable broth, obviously, and cayenne pepper instead of chili powder.  Remember when I said I had all the ingredients?  I forgot about that one.  Turned out awesome with the cayenne.  Do it.
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I mentioned at some point that we'd mostly settled on Grandma El's Diaper Cream as our (re: Ezra's) butt cream.  Then I found CJ's BUTTter.  I love this.  It has no petroleum in it, which is nasty stuff & I have a hard time understanding why it's even used anymore.  It's soft and smooth and awesome for his sensitive little tush.  I got him the unscented, obviously, but I'm thinking of getting myself one of the scented ones -- because they sound so great and I've been using this stuff on my own hands/elbows/etc.  So, if you're in the market for something like this, give it a shot.
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Here's Mister Man today.  He's been fighting sleep for the past few days, so this face on that I've come to see a lot.

But eventually, he succumbed to the power of milk & snuggles.

Apples & Ezras

Guess who likes apples??

Blended up with some of Ezra's favorite beverage, the kid seems to enjoy it!  He likes to guide the spoon to his mouth himself, which leads to a lot of apple all over him, in his hands, etc - but since this is really just for fun anyway, I'm all for him learning :)

He's also started to scoot backwards...on his belly.  Not quite the reverse-crawl, as he's still not up on his knees.  Just kind of a new way to get to something he wants.  It goes well with the belly-spin, which he's had mastered for awhile now.

Today he rolled and spun himself over to Brodie, who was sitting next to Jordan wagging his tail on the ground.  Ez wanted some of that awesomely furry tail, so he took his little tushy right over and had a ball trying to catch it as Brodie tried his hardest to wag it away from Ez.  Yeah, good luck with that.  One day, they'll be best friends.  Until then, I think it's Ez's mission in life to terrorize them with his gorilla-like grip ;-)  Oh, and laugh hysterically at them when they play.

Here's a couple pics of Mini-Man from the past couple days.

Frank, it was ON the cart-path.  Why don't you try reading the rules, shankapotomous.  (Remember that E*trade commercial with the baby and his investor-friend, Frank?  No?  Well here's the link so you know what I'm talking about.)

Here's evidence that Ez has the fastest hands in the west...

And once again, Happy-Scream-Time!

Then it was time to read eat a book.

And here he is after he fell over and had no desire to get up.  At least he was surrounded by a hundred of his most favorite toys.

And this is something that you may find gross.  I thought it was pretty cool, hence the pictures.

Up close, it's even cooler.

I went to use some bell peppers I'd stored in the fridge 2 days ago.  Turns out, I didn't properly seal the lid to the pyrex and some icy, spiky, awesome mold grew on them.  Seriously, it was really pretty - so I took a couple quick pics before I tossed them.

Watch This / Dogpark Day!

Because I like to have something on while Ez is napping & I'm folding laundry, etc, I have been known to seek out the help of Netflix.  I've recently come across some great stuff that, if you aren't already a fan, you ought to check out ASAP.  Like, now.

Parking Wars -- This one follows the Philadelphia Parking Authority's 3 main parts - Ticketing, Booting & Impound.  I know what you're thinking...The PPA?  What is is interesting about the PPA?  Well, for starters, it's hilarious.  Second, the people are awesome...Garfield and Sherry are my favorite.  And third, it makes you realize just how stupid and ignorant some people can be.

Glee -- I tried watching a bit of this show on/off since it started.  I just couldn't get into it.  Then I got bored and decided to start from Episode 1 and really give it a shot.  I'm so happy I did!  Great show, super cute, and the actors are perfect.  I've loved Jane Lynch for awhile now and even if you have a tough time getting into the musical aspect of the show, she's worth it.  Every scene with her in it is gold.

The Pyramid Code -- Excellent show.  Kind of documentary-style, it's all about the secrets and marvels of the Egyptian pyramids.  It's got some really cool info on just how crazy-advanced the ancient Egyptians really were.

Freakonomics -- Not a show, it's a movie, but still worth the quick discussion.  It's got a really interesting look at the world through the eyes of an economist.  Doesn't sound that great, I know, but trust me.  It's definitely worth your time.

Exit Through the Gift Shop -- Again, not a show, it's a documentary.  And it may or may not have been a hoax.  Taken at face value, originally, it was meant to follow some street artists and ultimately, the elusive Banksy.  Throughout the filming process, it became a documentary about the man behind the camera --Thierry Guetta, his obsession with video taping everything, and his overnight rise to fame as the new artist known as MBW (Mister Brainwash).  I think it was also nominated for an Academy Award, as well.  So there.  Check it out.
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I know that even my own mother just skimmed through that.  I'm not operating under any delusions here.

So, today we went to the OB dogpark again.  Brodie likes it there, there's benches, and a fence.  Done.

Here's some pictures we snapped...

Ezra really enjoyed chewing on his hoodie.

But he was all smiles when he saw Brodie playing with his doggie-friends.  Seriously.  Laughing, squealing...this kid loves dogs.

Here's Brodie, taking a rest.

Ezra liked posing for pictures under (and on) this awesomely shady tree.

Dad's hoodie strings were SUPER interesting, too.  And tasty.

After all that excitement, it was time for a nap on the drive home :)

A Day at the Park

Jordan had a free Saturday - the first in a long while.  Unfortunately, it's unseasonably cool and the weatherman is threatening rain today.  Boo.  I was really hoping to hit the dog beach this weekend.  My fingers are crossed for more compliant weather tomorrow.  Brodie's paws are crossed, too ;-)
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We finally watched Avatar and Happy Feet this past week.  I know, I'm a tad late to the party.  We were only minorly interested in seeing Avatar when it was in theaters, with that glimmer of interest fading until the Netflix fairy delivered it to our door.  Turns out, it was quite good.  I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.  Made me want to watch I Am Legend for the 89th time.

Happy Feet was put off for so long because I'm a huge wuss.  I'd heard that some people got a bit teary-eyed, which means I'm liable to full-on ugly cry.  While some parts were pretty sad and managed to tug at those heartstrings, it was wasn't quite near Lion King/Bambi/Old Yeller - type sad.  Good movie.  Super cute (I mean, who doesn't love penguins??) and funny at times... I think I gave it 4/5 stars.
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We decided to hit the Japanese Friendship Gardens at Balboa Park today.  It turned out to be beautiful out, even if it was a tad windy.

Here's me and Ez making our way to the park.

The small koi pond.

The bonsai deck.

Some koi.  It seems they save the prettiest ones for the Friendship Gardens - they were gorgeous.

Some shots of the gardens

Here's Jordan and Ez, watching some of the street performers.  Our favorite armless guitar-playing guy was there today -- so awesome!

Me and Ezra in the Botanical Room, checking out the flowers.

Ez and Jordan had fun looking at the colors

Ez really liked this one a lot

He LOVED touching it -- it's got thousands of glass pieces/marbles on it - lots of neat things to feel :)

No, we didn't adopt the pretty little girl in the photo.  I was calling Ez's name to get him to look at me for the picture and she kept posing each time.

Quick Pics

I've got a random selection of pictures that have accumulated this week.  I've been blog-lazy.  

Really, I've been trying to tackle some much needed deep-cleaning around the house, so I've had little time to do much of anything.  And lets be honest, I take full advantage of happy-Ezra time for some serious play & fun time :)

Ez has an obsession with grabbing at the camera lately...

And also grabbing at Lucy.  Man, he loves this dog.

Don't let the look on Lucy's face fool you.  She keeps coming back for more.  She seems to really like it.

Aaaand he's taken to trying to taste the chihuahua.  Seriously, he just lunges, mouth agape, at her.  Sometimes he's going for a particular part - like her ear, here - but other times, it's just an all-out, generalized attack at her body :)

If you look really close, you can see his first 2 teeth!

Some days were just made for lounging.

This kid knows how to relax.

And I just thought this one looked cute in black & white.

Mmm, Cookies.

I made Pioneer Woman's Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies on Saturday night.  I've got, what I like to think, is a pretty great basic chocolate chip cookie recipe - but I had some malted milk and this recipe was taunting me in my Tasty Kitchen recipe box, on the Pioneer Woman sidebars and on the Tasty Kitchen blog -- it was everywhere!...so it had to happen.

The verdict?  They're pretty good.  The malted milk makes them pretty chewy, they spread out rather thin, and have a really great flavor.  I'll make 'em again.  They're certainly not taking over as my go-to recipe, but they're in the mix now.
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We offered Ezra some smashed up avocado last night.  He wasn't thrilled.  He did reach for the spoon though - much in the way that he grasped the apple we offered him a few days ago.  I had a feeling we might be tending toward the Baby-Led-Weaning side of things.  I've got a bunch of different veggies all pureed and ready to go from our baby food-making party, so I'm going to try offering them in the mix of whole veggies & fruits.  We'll see.  I'm in no hurry to get him actually eating foods.  It's just fun to start offering him some different tastes and textures to see how he reacts :)

Here's some videos of our little food adventures so far...
Up first is Ez trying some apple -

And here's the avocado -

Southpark Sunday

The sun was hiding all morning, so we decided to just head over to the dogpark.  On our way there, the clouds parted and out came the sun!  Turned out to be a beautiful day.  

I'd never been to this dogpark before, but Jordan took Brodie while Ez and I were in MD.  I'm a big fan.  The lack of a secure, fenced area was a little unnerving at first, but Bro never even looked like he wanted to escape - even with a driving range and a deep canyon to lure him.  He was far too interested in violating (re: humping) a friendly black lab.  To be fair, the dog didn't seem to mind and was getting it from several other dogs as well ;-) 

Ezra was mostly just interested in chewing on his cow book.

Jordan & Ez posed for a quick shot together.

Brodie even took a break from humping his new best friend to have his picture taken

After eating a little, Ez fell asleep.  We plopped him in his stroller and took a nice, leisurely stroll around Southpark.

Back at home, Ezra pulled out his favorite book for storytime.  Okay, so it's really my favorite...but he does enjoy trying to eat the pages.

Cuteness happens when you're hanging out with this kid :)

 Gah.  I love this kid.  SO.MUCH.