Wait, that's not an apple!

Today, I asked Anna if she wanted a tomato. She said yes. I was going to cut it up into pieces (like I do with most of her food) when I thought to myself, "Self, you're making too much work for yourself." (I think the word "self" a lot.)

So I put the tomato down on her tray and said, "Here you go."






She finished the whole thing (don't worry, I pulled that stem part off after taking these photos).

As she shoved the last bite into her mouth she pointed to the other three tomatoes we have sitting on the counter and said, "uh!" Which, if she didn't have a mouth full of food, would have sounded like, "more!"

My Little Commie

Last week, Anna was saying this word over and over again and we couldn't figure out what it was. It sounded like "soviet". We still don't know for sure what she was saying. Maybe she was dabbling in Communism. She does wear a lot of red. We may never know what she was saying, since the rate at which she says it has declined drastically.

So maybe she's not a Communist after all. Or maybe it was just a phase. And if that's the case, I'm a little dissapointed at how quickly she gave it up.

But then today, I found this:


Yes, she spelled Mao.

Song currently strolling languidly though my brain: Revolution by the Beatles "But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao, You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow!" (at least it's not a kid's song!)

Veggie Nugget #12

"I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. It is so distinctly a matter of feeling with me, and is so strong and so deeply-rooted in my make and constitution, that I am sure I could not even see a vivisector vivisected with anything more than a sort of qualified satisfaction. I do not say I should not go and look on; I only mean that I should almost surely fail to get out of it the degree of contentment which it ought, of course, to be expected to furnish."

-Mark Twain in a letter to the London Anti-Vivisection Society, May 26, 1899

See this Vegan Soapbox article for more information and links to anti-vivisection sites.

Feb. Photo Dump

I have a bunch of photos I want to put up, so here goes:

Anna is a flower girl in a friends' wedding in May. This is her dress (and curls) from the back:


And here's her with a hand on her cousin Zach's butt.


She loves hugging her cousins, in addition to touching their butts.


And here are the first photos of Anna with my new flash. I'm still getting used to it, but I'd say these are considerably better than what I could do without it.






Bustin' a move:


She still loves her bear, Buddy.




Here's a photo that was taken in Decmber 2006 of Anna and Buddy:


And finally, some outdoor photos. We made a couple mini snowmen. Anna loves saying "snowman," so I thought it was time to actually build one. We built a big one a couple days ago too, but a lot of it melted right away and now it looks like a creepy alien in our back yard. Like Mr. Burns did in that one episode of the Simpsons with Mulder and Scully. You know the one.






And if that wasn't enough photos for you, our friend Britta just posted some photos of Anna on her blog here. They are approximately 100 times better than the photos you just saw.

Punjabi Chhole in 17 Seconds

Here's me making Punjabi Chhole in 17 seconds. It actually took me closer to 45 minutes. If making Punjabi Chhole took 17 seconds in real life, I probably wouldn't enjoy eating it as much.



For those curious about such things, the video was made using Gawker.

And the video quality was way better before I uploaded it to You Tube. I don't get it. If anyone reading this understands why a high quality Quicktime file looks like crap after it's uploaded to You Tube, let me know.

Song currently causing my temples to throb: Little Red Caboose (behind the train, train, train).

Uh-Oh...

Anna and I were on the freeway last night and I had to abruptly stop to avoid rear-ending someone. I glanced in my rearview and could see the person behind me swerve into the left lane to avoid smashing into me.

It was tense. I let loose a couple expletives (the "f" and "s" word, if you must know). I cringed, waiting for Anna to utter her first swear. Instead, she corrected me and said, "Uh-oh spaghettios!"

"Yes," I told her, "that's exactly what I said. Uh. Oh. Spaghettios."

Yeah, I know. Spaghettios aren't vegan. But she sounds damn cute when she says it.

Song currently stuck in my head: John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt (la da da da da da da!).

Grab Bag o' Food

So, we've been on an Indian kick here in the Piggy household. Here are a few things we've made in the last couple weeks.

Gobi:


Seitan Tikka Masala:




Potato Curry thing with onions, bok choy and carrots (and rice, of course):


And here's something that definitely isn't Indian - Tofu-Piggies in a Blanket.


Guess which one of the above dishes is Anna's favorite. Yep, it's the Tofu-Piggies In a Blanket. I think of the three Indian dishes she liked the Seitan Tikka Masala the best. It had a nice mellow back-of-your-throat spiciness to it.

How about a photo of Anna to round out the post? We rarely give her chocolate, but we did give her just a little bit of a chocolate covered pretzel from Liz Lovely. It may not look it from this photo, but she loved it.

"Pleased to Meet You"

Yay! It's another video of Anna!

The first two and a half minutes or so are her dancing to the Toddlers Sing CD. She is obsessed with this CD. We listen to the thing at least a few times a day and she always goes crazy when we turn it on (I challenge you to not laugh out loud at the first minute of this video).

When I'm out on the town, sitting in a bar with a friend, driving down the street, cooking dinner, trying to get to sleep (you get the idea) songs from this CD are running through my head. I was humming "The More We Stick Together" at my Senate District Convention today. Odd. And oddly appropriate.

And yes, she actually says, "Pleased to meet you," in the video.