Spam is not awesome

My email got hacked, so if you got some ridiculous spam sent from my email account, I apologize. You know what would make you feel better? Watching that video of Evelyn and the camel again. :)

Camels are awesome

It is so rare to capture Evelyn's smile on camera, that when I get her laughing AND smiling, I have to post it.

Here you will enjoy Evelyn playing with a toy camel we found at the dog park. (Camel on the ceiling...c...C...C!) She thought it was so funny when I was marching the camel around the table pretending to eat and drink. Once she got the hang of it she was absolutely giddy with delight.



I love that baby.

What did people do before...[fill in the blank]?

Remember when you were a kid and your friends would call your house, your mom would answer, they would have to be polite to her and ask if you were home. You would talk to them on the phone for a short, set amount of time before your parents needed the phone or told you to get off. Your mom knew who you were talking to and how often. You learned how to take a message. It was a BIG deal to finally get a phone in your bedroom (I still remember the pink phone I got in my room when I was about 12...it was like freedom!), and the really spoiled kids got their own phone lines.

What will be Evelyn's equivalent of that story? What will be her right-of-passage? Her own cell phone? An extended calling plan? Unlimited something-or-other? Will I ever know who her friends are, who she is talking to, how often she is talking? Or will she even talk? Will text messaging completely take over?

And what about having a HOME phone number? The one the school has on file or the doctor or the babysitter? Right now I pretty much put my cell phone number down for all those forms, but doesn't that somehow imply that I am more in-charge of Evelyn and her well-being than Jon? If he never gets the call about whatever crisis, will the person doing the calling ever get to know him as Evelyn's parent?

In a few years when Evelyn starts having her own friends and wants to call them to come play, will she use my cell phone? Will I have to teach her how to unlock it, how to use the touch-screen to push the buttons, how she shouldn't go to the other areas of the phonea where she could mess up mama's settings? Something about having a cell phone and that level of independence removes some of the childness of childhood. She shouldn't have her own phone until well after it will become annoying for her to use mine.

Maybe I'm just feeling nostaligic for a time when texting at the table wasn't a social faux pas because it didn't exist. When kids and parents fought over the radio in the car instead of being buried in their cell phones. When cyber-bullying and sexting and whatever new Child! Danger! buzzword on Dateline wasn't an issue.

My real question is this: At what point are we so connected that we become isolated? I think we crossed that line a long time ago.

Jon and I text each other more than we talk to each other on the phone. We text other people when we are sitting together in the house. (Ugh, I hate that. When did I start doing that?) Evelyn doesn't even know what a landline telephone looks like. Will she know how to use it? If she had to call 911 before she knows her address, would a landline make it easier for the police to find us? So many questions.

For some reason, today I feel like dumping my cell phone entirely, dropping the frequent Tweets and Facebook updates, getting some really minimal cell phone plan that I can have on hand for emergencies or text messages to coordinate plans on the fly. (Of course, at the same time, I totally want an iPad.) I want to get a landline, maybe even with a CORD, maybe even mounted to the wall in the kitchen with the really long cord that always gets tangled and stretches around the house. Perhaps I feel like I want to live in the world of Family Ties.

Wow

Jon has a little motorbike that he rides to and from work. It isn't a full-on motorcycle, in that it can't go over 45 mph and would never make it on the freeway, or even some of the faster roads (I'm looking at you, Santa Fe Dr.), but it is more than a scooter. It makes life much easier when he has to squeeze into the alley behind his shop, and it is saving him money in parking and ticket fees.

Anyway, he filled up the tank this morning and he got 119 miles to the gallon.

119 MPG

And that is why we bought it.

Fortune Cookie Tattoo (in pictures)

Cooking

I find myself in a place I promised I would never be: a three-dinner family. Since starting Atkins, I am eating different foods than Evelyn and Jon. Jon and I rarely eat dinner together because of work schedules, and Evelyn is very much a picky toddler. So I make myself something low-carb with a salad or whatever, Evelyn eats a banana or some Pirate Booty (dinner is her smallest meal of the day), and Jon eats something different when he comes home. Sometimes we all eat the same breakfast, since everyone likes cheesy scrambled eggs. Sometimes Jon eats the same dinner I had, just with some bread or rice on the side. But more often than I would like to admit, the three people in my house and eating three different dinners. Sigh.

I think everyone in my house should eat what I am eating! Why? Because I have had some excellent success with low-carb eating (down 15 pounds and feeling great) and I am finding more ways to make low-carb versions of everyday foods. Like...

• No-Noodle Lasagna. Replace the noodles with blanched strips of thinly-sliced zucchini or eggplant. I thought it tasted great. Jon said he missed the noodle, but if you go in with an open mind and don't expect it to taste exactly the same, I think you'll like it.
• Cheesy Biscuits. Using soy flour instead of white flour, and many eggs for stabilization, these biscuits were a pretty good substitute for a real biscuit. Not the same at all, but decent in their own right.
• Key Lime "Pie." By mixing sugar-free lime jello with cream cheese and unsweetened whipped cream, this was a real treat. I think I could make a crust using almond flour or ground pecans, but I haven't tried it yet.
• Cauliflour Pizza Crusts. I think I wrote about these before, but they warrant a second mention.
• Fritata. Not a low-carb re-do, but a low-carb staple. I love that I can throw whatever miscellaneous meats and vegetables I have leftover in the fridge and have a really good breakfast, lunch or dinner. Our CSA vegetables and eggs are starting this week so I know fritatas will be in high rotation.

So of course everyone in my house is not going to eat a low-carb diet, and Evelyn definitely should NOT eat a low-carb diet, but I hope that as I stick with Atkins for more time and try some experimentation with different recipes, I can find a few "family favorites" that get everyone eating the same meal at least a few times a week.

Also, it would be nice if Evelyn liked a single vegetable...

It's the little things

Another two reasons Evelyn is so awesome:

For her, the universal sign of "shh...someone/something is sleeping" is putting one finger up her nose. I will be truly sad when she figures out the finger doesn't actually have to be up her nose to say "shhh." It is my favorite thing ever.

Also, this morning when I was leaving for work, Evelyn was getting sad and looked at me and said, "Mama, kiss!" It is the first time she has ever said Kiss. So I crouched down and said, "Give mama kisses" and we air kissed (she doesn't like to get up close). Then she said "No!" and ran away. It was perfect.