Theo(logic)

We have been busy trying to soak up what I experienced as a short-lived summer.

(Yes, Kayla and Linnea, I suppose that exposes my non-nativeness to feel this way about the summer we had!)

At least, that is my excuse for why I haven't blogged in a while about anything, and it's certainly been ages since I've shared what Theo and Emilyn are saying lately.

As usual, I've tried to jot down things in my Notes app, so here is a collection since the last time I wrote about him in February. It's in chronological order so you can keep in mind the context of growing from 3yr1mo to 3yr9mo and through the seasons of winter, spring, summer and now fall. He started preschool last week!

Lol, I suppose I could have cropped this, and then captioned, "Is Theo wearing pants?"

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After I muttered to myself, "When will it stop raining?" Theo said, "It will stop raining when you go to your nap, in your dreams."

To David, regarding some privilege: "Will you talk it over with Umma?"

"Don't cry Emi, we're almost home."

"Don't laugh; it's not a laughing game."

"Breathe in and out" to himself.

Earlier this year, he asked if he could use sidewalk chalk. Since it was raining a lot, I said, "when it's Spring, we can bring out the sidewalk chalk." One day probably in March, he noticed the pink camilias blooming on the side of the house, and so he said to me, "The camilias are blooming; can we have sidewalk chalk?"

To me, "You don't need shoes on; just your feet." He knows I'm a Berkeley girl.

"I took a picture with my eyes."

When he wasn't ready for me to kiss him goodnight, he told me "Go control your computer" because he knows I usual check my email between putting Emilyn to bed and then saying goodnight to him.

"Nuna is quite the baker."

One day when David was mowing the lawn, David asked him what he wanted to do, since he dislikes the loud noise of the mower. Theo asked, "Can I stay inside and dance?" Kathy, Emilyn, and I were out at that time, so when we came home, we just saw Theo dancing by himself in the living room, and we found out the rest of the story from David.

"Can I come to your house?" He started saying this a couple of months ago, to grandparents whenever we FaceTimed them. Of course they loved this.

Back in April when it was David's birthday, I asked Theo what we should get for his birthday. Without any hesitance, he offered, "Moss killer."

And first thing in the morning on that birthday, he said, "Can we have cake today because it's your birthday?"

Again, earlier in the summer, to one of my friends: "I'm ready for preschool. I go to preschool three times a week for an hour. I start in the fall." (Actually he goes twice a week for two hours.)

Referring to packaged seaweed, "No, don't throw away the silica gel, or else it won't be crispy!"

He started buckling himself into the carseat in April, at 3 years and 3 months. So nice that he can climb in and get buckled himself.

Sometimes before bed, David has all of Theo's monkeys warm up their singing voices for bedtime songs. When they say "mi mi mi mi mi", Theo sometimes says "me me me me mini mini me."

I love watching Emilyn copy Theo's dance moves.

Because Kathy calls Theo her "Chicken Heart" or "Chicken Thigh" etc., Theo started saying "chop chop chop" while he pretends to chop his arm into bite-sized pieces for her to eat.

"Appa, statch me." By which he meant, can you pray that prayer where you ask God to let me grow in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man?

"I'm going to preach school."

Without prompting, he began a letter to Emilyn, which read, "I love you, I like to climb, I love playing with you."

There's a Vietnamese sticky rice coconut dessert which Theo calls squishy dessert, but the way he says it, it sounds like "kwishy dirt."

"I'm not a baby, I'm a Theo. Don't talk about babies; let's talk about big boys."

One day, I said, "I'm looking for the one who loves Jack Jack (Emilyn)" when I was trying to get Kathy's attention. Theo intervened saying "I love Jack Jack!"

One day he said "The storms of Jesus Christ" maybe because we told him that God controls nature?

"Don't cry Emilyn, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere."

"I want to trick Umma."

"Wake up so I can bother you!"

On a drive, "If I see a tractor, I will tell you."

"We can go on a date? What the??? Tractor??!!"

When I mentioned I needed to go to the pharmacy, he asked if there would be any tractors. At the Farm-acy, duh.

"I don't want cat cookies, there's sugar bugs."

"I'm organizing over there." He has started to "organize" things. Am I really happy about this? YAS.

"I'm sitting on this rice sock so that I don't cough or bless you."

"We have an appleseed tree and two maple trees."

He often mashes together two thoughts into one sentence: "I don't know how to do this?"

"I'm thirsty for salt. Savory."

When I started loosely and slowly weaning Emilyn I had to tell her once, "I'm not going to nurse you right now." Theo overheard and he asked, "Is it because you're growing, and you're a big umma?"

Theo wanted more Milo (an Asian chocolate malted drink), so I told him I would pick up more of it when I went to Evergreen. A week after I had told him that, I mentioned to David that I needed to go to Evergreen. Immediately, Theo said in a robotic voice, "Can-you-pick-up-my-Milo."

One time when David was merging on to the freeway and a car sped up at the last minute to overtake him, Theo yelled out, "Share the road!" (We honestly have never said that out loud so it was really funny.)

David likes to use the speaker/amplifier in the mini-van to imitate airplane pilot monologues (e.g., ":::ssssshhhhhhhhhh::: This is your captain speaking...") so Theo has started doing it as well, only he says, "This is your speaking captain..."

"If I can watch a show with front loaders and a backhoe, then I'll get my hair cut!" Talk about sentence construction.

"Mama, did you make grits for me? I'm hungry for grits."

"My tummy loves warm."

"Look at what happened to my waffle." (It's gone.)

One day when Emilyn was crying in the back of the van, Theo told me, "She wants everything. She wants a nap, she wants to go to the park, she wants her friends." I love how he asked himself a question in his head and then answered it for all of us.

"I know her full name. Ro Ro Ro Ro Emilyn Ro."

He took care of Emilyn's stuffed bunny and treated it like a baby.

When we got in the car one day, he asked for the "joy joy podcast", by which he meant the song "Down In My Heart."

In the middle of summer, "Don't wake me up to preschool!"

When I mentioned that I might pull him out of school to go to Richmond for a few weeks in late winter, he said, "I need my daddy and my nunu. That will be too much. Or I will go with just Emilyn." When I asked, "Then what will Mama do?", he said, "Mama will get a date."

One day Theo was arranging logs on the deck and he called it Silver Lake. I did not comprehend what he was saying until later that week we went to Silver Lake and the parking lake had logs arranged to mark off the parking spaces.

He uses the word "cantilever" and pronounces it "cant-a-leave-er." It's too much.

One morning when David was home during breakfast (it means either the weekend or a weekday he's working late), Theo could tell Emilyn was starting to feel anxious that I'd be leaving to take a walk. All of this was unspoken, until Theo asked me, "You can just walk laps around the kitchen, right?" He knew that she didn't want me to leave.

As soon as Theo gets home from school, he pulls his pants off and yells, "Free!"

And then just yesterday, when I pulled out grapes for dessert during dinner, he said "I want g-r-..." and proceeded to spell a couple of other (wrong) letters. "I want icecream for dessert. G-r-..." because we always spell out the good things.

We met one of Kathy's new floormates this year and her name is Erica. Theo later commented that her name is like "the America flag." Indeed, "Erica" is in America.

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Alright, now I'm up to speed with Theo. Up next, Emilyn!

P.S. For my own record (since I'm no longer logging everything obsessively in an Excel file, ha! Although, Elizabeth, aren't you glad that I had? ;p), it appears that Theo is dropping his nap. I can't be totally sure, and I think he may still need it on school days, but I'm 90% sure this is happening right now. :'(

P.P.S. Marla, I am totally channeling the "and because it's due, this is what I will write."

Cilantro turmeric salmon patties

I mentioned that we would be doing an elimination diet (no gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, shellfish, or corn) to see if it could help my (and Emilyn's) eczema. We officially started on January 10, after the kids' birthdays and grandparents' visits, so today marks the first day of Phase 2, where we challenge the allergens, one at a time, to determine which we may have intolerances to.

True story: when David told Theo we'd be eating toast for breakfast, he quickly retorted, "No, Emilyn can't have gluten! Just like she can't have marbles!"

The diet has been hard because, as you know, I do like my food. And these allergens are in a lot of things. Basically we've been eating meat (and I'm not a huge meat eater so that was different), vegetables, and rice. The saving grace of this diet is that we've not been asked to give up rice. Also, we've treated ourselves to a never-ending supply of avocados (which are great for turkey avocado roll ups).

Though weight loss wasn't one of the goals for me personally, I did lose almost six pounds because it was just too much effort to snack. (It also didn't help/hurt that we got sick with the stomach flu on Day 3.)

I think my skin is better, but I never achieved complete relief. We'll see what happens over the course of the new few weeks of the challenge phase.

In the meantime, I wanted to share one recipe that we really loved. It's inspired by my friend Kayla's salmon patties which she serves over salad with her incredible Greek dressing.

David jumped on making these one night for dinner and they turned out so well. He tweaked it with turmeric and it is amazing. Turmeric goes so well with fish.



Cilantro-turmeric salmon patties
Inspired by Kayla Dunbar and Nourishing Meals

gluten-, dairy-, and egg-free!

1 cup cooked quinoa
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1 thin slice of lemon, including rind (remove any seeds)
1/2 medium yellow onion, minced
2 (6 oz) cans of wild salmon, drained
1 t ground turmeric
1 t salt
freshly ground black pepper

In a food processor, blend together quinoa, garlic, cilantro, and lemon slice. Add in onion, salmon, turmeric, salt and pepper and blend until combined.

Heat up a skillet on medium to medium high, add 1 T olive oil, and fry patties in batches, adding oil as needed. We made ours about 2-2.5" in diameter.

Serve with baby greens, or with rice. I also think it'd be awesome with oven fries, another thing we've been eating a lot on this diet.

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Post-script: David and I were talking after about how we are so snobby and had never had salmon from a can before. Without missing a beat, he slipped into Fred Armisen's Portlandia character, reassuring me to not worry, he had gone and met the fish before (Fred and Teddy), they were wild and free-range, etc., etc.

Theo says

Theo is just at that age where some days are super aggravating but that interspersed are these transcendent moments in which I am bewildered that I birthed this person.

Sidebar: I am happy to report that I found a good counselor and that hopefully that will help me keep afloat of my own junk.

And I think she's in her 60s so that makes all this even more perfect.

Theo is not quite yet three but I've heard from other moms that three can be way harder than two (though two wasn't too bad for us), that 3.5 is the pits, that threenagers give you moments that are the best of the best and the worst of the worst.

One of his latest monster truck drawings.

I try to keep notes (on my phone, in random notebooks) of the super funny things that he says, and I think it will be important for me in the next few months to pay attention to these occurrences that make motherhood worth it.

We think he's pretty smart and a decently verbal kid (for a boy). He absolutely cracks me up with the things he makes connections between.

• Sometimes under his breath he'll say "I'm a big boy" when he's doing something he knows he is supposed to be doing, without being asked.
• "We need to get more money, lots more money, to get a tractor." (He wants a *real* John Deere tractor, not a toy one, and he keeps hoping Santa will bring him one. Any time we go out to the store - even the grocery store - he thinks we might consider buying one.)

• When we tuck him in at night, he usually says, "love you, mama" and "love you, appa." Recently he has begun to add, "I love my gray house. It's gray, and white, and there are windows, and wood, and a chimney. I love my gray house."
• This week his internal clock told him it was Tuesday and time to go to the library, even though nothing was mentioned, and David even worked on Sunday which totally throws off the schedule, at least for me. 
• Theo has been out of a toddler bed for more than six months now so it was funny when he randomly brought it up with David the other day. "Appa, do you remember my toddler bed? Where there was a short rail on one side and I could get in and out?"
• He can sing so many Christmas carols by himself and especially loves the Pentatonix version of Drummer Boy; he can even do some beatboxing, and his rhythm is spot on.
• The other day David was trying to get Theo to give him a wall charger he was holding onto, and Theo said, "No, Appa. I need that for my WiFis."

Shakshuka baby

I have not a single picture of the shakshuka we made last night because it was all devoured.

However, allow me to present to you Shakshuka Baby:

After my new friend Kayla and I decided to make shakshuka for dinner, her girls couldn't stop saying "shakshuka" over and over (who could blame them?) and then all of a sudden, Emilyn became "Shakshuka Baby." 

We think their future band could be named Rosie, Eleanor and the Shakshuka Baby. Pretty catchy, eh?

Shakshuka is pretty easy to make, especially when you have a baby to hold and then you can make your friend do all the work. I first made it from Smitten Kitchen's recipe but yesterday we followed the NYTimes. I hardly think it matters which you do as long as there's feta involved. Yesterday we used red bell peppers in place of chile peppers, which definitely makes it more kid friendly. And unlike Deb we are not cilantro-adverse, so we used that and I think it pairs so wonderfully with the feta so I like that change from parsley. 

Kayla brought everything for an awesome salad so between that and her practically making the main dish I was set. I was already into our growing friendship but that pretty much sealed the deal.

But, if you don't have a Kayla (slash momcrush), here's how you can make it for yourself:

Shakshuka Baby, hold the baby

inspired by Smitten Kitchen and The NYTimes

Saute 1 onion, sliced with 1-2 red bell peppers, sliced, about 10 minutes. Add 3 cloves garlic, sliced. Add 1 t each of cumin and paprika and 1/8 t cayenne (possibly omit for kids). Dump 28 oz can of diced tomatoes and some salt and pepper. Simmer until thickened. Gently crack 6 eggs spread across the surface of the sauce. Cover the pan and let eggs cook until they are soft-set, maybe about 5 minutes. Gently spoon some sauce over eggs. Sprinkle crumbled feta and minced cilantro over all and serve.

Need more shakshuka, baby? 

Emilyn is:

• 5 months. Can't believe it. (22 weeks and 1 day to be exact.)
• still only rolling back to tummy, over her left side.
• most definitely teething. 
• on two naps (seemed early to me but it's really working) and bedtime is slowly and more consistently becoming around 7:15 p.m. 

Theo:

• surprised us with how well he transitioned to the toddler bed this past week. This toddler clock helps a ton, which we put in his crib well before the transition.
• loves a new book we picked up at Half Price the other day called Digger, Dozer, Dumper. I love seeing him bring books into his bed during IP. 
• came up to us and told us "I go nap" when some friends were over after church and it actually was getting close to his naptime. Our extroverted guy telling us he needed to be excused from the party. Heart melted. 

This is how he looked at me when I said, "Theo, sit there so I can take more pictures of you in this glorious light."

And today's closing randomness is brought to you by Chinese American potlucks of the 1990s. Almond jello for the win!

The life-changing magic of Vietnamese noodle bowls

It's Wednesday again and I can't think of anything we ate this week that was really noteworthy.



I blame KonMari, which has been slowly but surely taking over our house. Giggle all you want but I (and David!) have been delightfully surprised by how addicting it is to follow her method. (There's lots of stuff on the web about it but this was a favorite essay.)

Yes, I really need three mustard yellow scarves.

So far we've done clothes, books (gasp!), papers, and some komono.

In light of that, there hasn't been that much time for cooking, so I'll just share a regular standby that serves us well whenever we need a quick dinner. Sometime in our first year of marriage, we discovered our favorite Vietnamese noodle bowl at The Backdoor Kitchen on San Juan Island. We loved the bright, lime-y dressing (dressing is really too heavy of a word to describe what this is though) and we spent most of the meal (as we often do when we are out) dissecting the rest of the dish.



Normally I don't like places that do fusion, but I think that Northwest restaurants often do a good job of it. In fact despite the PNW being full of great Viet restaurants, the Backdoor's bún has been the best I've tasted, since most of the aforementioned Viet restaurants - though they serve a rockin' bowl of phó - often sweeten their nuoc cham to the point of cloying.

We love that this dish works well with any kind of leftover meat - rotisserie chicken from Costco or leftover steak - or even no meat at all.

Tofu works great, obvs, and in a pinch even hard-boiled eggs will do.

It can be simple or fancy but what we think makes it really special is when you make the effort to buy the herbs (especially mint) and roast peanuts fresh to serve on top. Here's an outline of a recipe.

Vietnamese Noodle Bowl

• For the dressing: Squeeze one lime into a bowl. Add 1-2 T of brown sugar and about 6-8 T of water. Stir and taste. You're looking for it to taste like a very dilute limeade. Then add one medium garlic clove, minced, and 1 fresh Thai chile, also minced, if you have it. Finally, add 2-3 T fish sauce. 
• Bring to boil a pot of water and cook 8 oz rice noodles (you want the cylindrical noodles often labeled "bun gao"). When they are tender (take one out and taste it, they can be deceptive), drain them and rinse them cold. If you want to be super fancy, you can lay them out on a dishtowel and get them really dry. David likes this method because it makes the dressing even more concentrated. I still go the lazy way and think it tastes just fine.
• Prep all your desired veggies. We usually do romaine, sliced thin. Cucumbers are a must. Carrots are great but I can feel lazy about making them pretty (the best would be to julienne them on a mandoline). Any other vegetables would be great; radish would be especially pretty. 
• For herbs, pick your favorite few from this list: green onions, cilantro, Thai basil, mint, dill
• Prep meat in bite-sized servings.
• Roast 1/2 cup peanuts and crush in a mortar and pestle.
• Let everyone make their own salad at the table and dress as they see fit.

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And now for the reason you even read this blog at all.

Theo

• is still 2 years old.
• replied, upon being asked by David if he wanted to go out with him on some errands, "No. Stay home. Eat food. Watch show." Boy after my own heart.
• used the word "combine" as a noun. I seriously did not know that word until high school when we had to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I'm still not sure I even know what they are now. 

How did my baby become a boy?

 Emilyn

• turns 20 weeks today.
• still loves to roll.
• has started to giggle more.
• is most definitely teething. There is lots of drool and she was even cranky this week. 
• slept before 9pm six out of seven nights this past weekend. W00t.

David and Lisa

• are still super enamored by The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up. Want your life transformed? Apply: (1) the gospel, (2) Dave Ramsey, (3) KonMari. No joke.