Out of the Mouths of Babes

Well, dinnertime came again here at Chez Necessity. It seems to have the annoying habit of doing that every day, and 'round about 6:00 everybody keeps expecting to be fed. Go figure! Now, I like to cook, but meals are an unrelenting part of being a parent. Before we had kids, The Professor and I were perfectly happy to grab a sandwich, plop ourselves down in front of the television, and call it good. And then those kids came along. Not only do they expect dinner, but breakfast and lunch too! Maddening - I've tried to actually cancel lunch a few times, but this has promptly been met with eye rolls, and the ever popular, "Oh, Mommy!"

Summertime is good, though, because our farm co-op kicks in, so rather than cooking the same 5 things every week, I'm forced to branch out a little bit and use what comes in our farm share. We are vegetarian (though we do eat fish) so I'm always on the lookout for something that not only appeals to me, but to the youngest members of this household (and the oldest - he can be unhappy with the best of them).

Thus, tonight I made tortilla and black bean pie from Everyday Food. I find most of their recipes are really great - they use what I have in the kitchen, aren't too fussy, and are usually pretty yummy. This was no exception. I did have some misgivings about the kids, however. I never know what will be a hit and what will cause them to create faces as if I just placed a severed foot on their plates. These misgivings were dispelled, however, when Big Trouble looked at his plate and happily said, "Oooh - nacho cake!"

His speech was a tad on the lispy side, as he lost his first tooth today. This tooth, mind you, has been loose for about 2 months, and as you can see in the picture the adult tooth had not only broken the surface but was about halfway in. We've been working on it all week, and today it finally dislodged itself (with a little help from The Professor and a length of cotton sock yarn. I love it when someone in the house asks me, "Do we have any string?" Ummm, yeah!).

I'm glad we were able to save him from having a double set of teeth, and hopefully the tooth fairy will get not fall prey to some of the previous difficulties she has had in this house and will visit him tonight.

One can only hope.