Things we find out how?

Cole loves the harmonica. It need not be played well. Case in point:



It stops him in his tracks totally if he's fussing - he stops, stares and starts to laugh. Sometimes he looks mildly concerned too. Jamie teases me for bringing the harmonica with us lately, but hey - if there's something that works I am more than willing to look a little crazy. Thank you cheap harmonica that we had in the house for some reason.

Want to depress your child?

Had enough of inspiring, interesting or enjoyable books for kids? Then why not embrace the most depressing and negative storybook ever? Presenting the ever-so-generically titled Stories for Children by Galley Press. Sadly, I can't find any information about it online. It's like the Internet is denying this book exists!

Originally published in Slovakia in the '80s, it's definitely chock full of Eastern European charm. Or is that doom and gloom? The collection definitely seems like the product of breadlines and bleak winter mornings. The stories - 25 of them, all doozies - feature a heck of a lot of depressing tragedy, even for fairy tales...

Take the tale The Musicans of Bremen (please!) for example... Based on the Grimm Brothers tale, it features a donkey that is about the be sent to the butcher, a dog lying in a ditch proclaiming he's not ready to die, an old cat who was nearly drowned and a rooster who barely dodged being made into soup. They eventually bust up a gang of robbers and end up living happily every after in an abandoned house. The concept of the story is good, but it's the overwhelming number of references to violent deaths that seem out of place for a children's tale. I can only imagine Cole asking "what does it mean when the rooster says the cook is going to wring his neck?"

All the stories are like that - even Little Red Riding Hood seemed exceedingly morose - the girl and her grandmother are both eaten and then ripped from the wolf's jaws, right before the woodsman stuffs stones down his throat! Intense... I thought I remembered Grandma getting hidden in a closet and then everyone scaring the wolf away?

I picked up this little gem at the Vancouver Public Library sale earlier in October, because it was $2 and because it looked somewhat promising. It's translated, so it reads a little oddly, and it's inscribed with crazy handwriting, 'Merry Christmas, from Babka." Jamie and I get a good laugh out of it, but it's pretty bleak. And it smells kind of dank.

International shopping...

I've been on a real bender lately for homemade international foods. I think I'm a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself, but it's too complicated and exhausting to make exciting dinners after Cole goes to sleep. We've been trying to eat healthfully, but I do get very bored of the two easiest dinners that fall under that category: grilled chicken & veg or stir-fry. That's when I resort to extra spicy homemade pizza or take-out, because my taste buds are sitting around, tapping their feet and rolling their eyes. I was noticing that when we eat out, we enjoy a wide variety of savoury and spicy international meals, so of course at home we'd be bored of mungie cake cuisine - fond as I am of good WASPy comfort food... :-)

So I've been trying to vary things up a bit with sauces, spices, marinades and such. I used to be more adventurous, when I had more time for cooking! So far this week we've had a red thai curry, butter chicken (my non-spicy inaugural Indian dish for Jamie, who has had a few bad experiences before) and Korean bbq beef stir fry last night. All have been delicious, and they've all been given two thumbs up from the resident (former) picky eater. Cole's only eating mush, so that would be Jamie. The only problem so far has been the butter chicken - it was amazingly good, but it took days to get the smell out of the house. It practically had to be exorcised. I have some udon bowls in mind next, some madras and satay marinades for grilling, and a few different Thai meals as well.

Part of the fun of making more interesting meals is revisiting some of my favourite international stores... I buy a lot of ingredients at our regular places - mainly Urban Fare and Whole Foods, just because they're on our daily paths, but for authenticity, I like to branch out... If you like Japanese snack foods, visit Konbiniya Japan Centre on Robson - there are about a million kinds of Pocky there, and they're open until 2 AM in case you're desperate...

I've been in love with H Mart, the Korean grocery store on Seymour, since my first trip there last year. They have the best selection of all your favourite Asian food items - and the most hilarious sweets & candy selection, including my new favourite - Hi Chew. Kind of like Starburst, if you replaced it's waxy oilyness with a more spongy, gelatinous texture. Really good, actually! Their website graphics are enough to make me buy a plane ticket. Oh, the glorious wackiness... The graphic designer in me loves the whole hearted commitment these products make to be enticing.

I also found some amazing glass food storage containers there yesterday - Glass Lock. They are glass on the bottom with an air-tight plastic lid. I'm not yet militant about plastic for food storage, but I really like the idea of not using it whenever I can. Old Pyrex dishes with the glass lids don't exactly seal well, so these are great! They simultaneously promise to be "almost unbreakable" and "semi-durable", so we'll see how they go.

I am sometimes a little overwhelmed by inability to read what I'm buying though... I nearly bought some rice crackers that promised "sea taste" which I thought sounded good, but alas, that meant cuttlefish flavour - aka squid -and that is a little too international for me. And I got a kitchen sponge because I thought it was cute and we needed a new one. It had a grouchy looking man on the front that looked as though he meant real business, but when I opened it I realized that it was some kind of magic eraser style cleaning product. It did remove the stroller scuff marks from our wall, and although I thought it might also be removing the paint, in the light of day all looks well...

I'm still on the hunt for some appropriate bento trays. Not boxes, but the open-top tray that you get at a medium-quality sushi place. I think they'd be fun to eat snacks out of at home - I am not adventurous enough to bother making my own sushi... I think they'd make good divided dishes for kids too - lightweight and unbreakable. No luck so far at Daiso or any of the other places I've tried, so I might just order some off the internet. Daiso - the 100 Yen ($2) store in Richmond - did yield some other delights though, including a few adorable bowls for Cole and some tea towels and baskets, all made in Japan.

Fun finger puppets

We found a set of these awesome Great Revolutionaries finger puppets last weekend in Victoria. Ghandi, Trotsky, Mandela and Che Guevara. I'm sure they will be lots of fun. At least as much fun as they all were (or are, in the case of Mandela) in real life, I suppose? :-)

Overheard - a stream of consciousness

I find that when walking with a sleeping baby many other sounds become more apparent, including the stray pieces of conversation that you overhear while walking through a crowd. Sometimes it's just a word or two, others it's a little more. For some reason today -actually, because I overheard a great opening line - I decided to pause and jot down whatever snippets I heard clearly above the din while walking 3 blocks on West Georgia. Each snippet from one person ends with ... and then the next begins.

So then he says... we cannot... to catch the bus... {Indian}... might go for a walk to get some fresh air... really can't blame 'em... yeah, yeah, that's what we keep telling ya... unless he's the one leaking sort of... {Korean}... and then I guess we all heard the same news... she's connecting and he's getting on the same flight... after... in the bar... one eighteen... oh, thanks... you are maturing and your skin is asking for a bit more. it's not that you're not a young lady... code eighty nine, level one... cancel eighty nine.

What I was struck by was the fact that this hangs together fairly well! It's exactly what I heard, in the order I heard it. Strange...

Cinqo de Coco

I just noticed, as I was about to post a completely irrelevant photo, that today Cole is 5 months and 5 days old. Cinqo de Coco! We should really celebrate for him with some sort of fiesta. Although if by fiesta you mean Mexican food and beer, well, we really did that last weekend for no reason.

This reminds me of Cinqo de Mayo back in 2005 - quite a lucky day indeed. Not only was it 5/05/05, but I found $5 on the sidewalk! I have kept that $5 longer than such a sum would normally remain in my wallet. In fact, it's tucked away behind a funny picture in our house, from a Good Luck card a friend gave us a long time ago, of a cat about to eat a mouse who is surrounded by four-leaved clovers. Oddly, this picture is in our bathroom, so you look at it while, um... meditating. It makes me laugh all the time.

Anyway, I was starting out intending to post this funny photo of Cole taking the driver's seat in the car the other day. He has such a long way to go, but it makes me think how someday he'll reach the pedals hesitantly for the first time, for a lurching trip around the block. Unless we have jet-packs by then. And how eventualy he'll drive the car effortlessly, dashing off to do what teenaged boys must do - drive in a manner that gives their Mother new wrinkles. I'll have this photo of him from before his little legs even reached the edge of the seat to make me smile, and maybe I'll put it on a t-shirt for him to wear to his driving test.

Jamie loves how Cole looks concerned, as though he is aware that this is a rather odd place for him to sit... :-)

Interesting tidbit

John Cleese has had a species of lemur, Avahi Cleesei, also known as the Bemaraha or Cleese's Woolly Lemur, named after him. [more...]

Hiding in plain sight in Japan

Interesting article in the fridge on a growing trend in Japan - camouflage clothing and accessories that allow the wearer to hide in plain sight in the hopes of avoiding street crime. What happens when someone wants a Coke? And the shoes kind of give it away, as well as the unpacking time... You can see how it works (along with some other things from the article) in this quick slideshow.

I love the innovative spirit in Japan! Some crazy inventions for sure, but lots of interesting ideas.