Sometimes, apropos of nothing, Lucia will break into an impersonation of a beloved figure from the movies. The other night at dinner she whipped out her dead-on take of Sloth from the Goonies. One of our favorite impressions is when she did Tugg Speedman from Tropic Thunder
A few weeks ago I needed a quick and painless lunch while I was out running errands with this Noodle, so I decided on Killer Burger. It’s a burger and fries for 7.95 in a loud-ish, totally laid back setting, and I thought that even if she did start to freak out here it wouldn’t matter because you wouldn’t be able to hear her over the Ozzy or Van Halen anyway. I would at least have enough time to scarf a burger. Luck would have it she was a complete angel, as she always is when it’s just me and her out to lunch. We generally can not go out to eat as a whole family. I have not been able to grasp the complexities of why that is, but for some reason Momma throws a monkey wrench into the dynamics. I don’t think she approves of the baby having lunch at Killer Burger, though, so it’s probably best we snuck it in on our own time.
Before Lucia was born, I would say idiotic things to myself, and sometimes out loud, about how I would never feed her anything so unhealthy as a french fry, but it turns out that I willingly do so for the simple reason that she eats them! The first time she had one we were hanging out downtown, and I stopped for an early dinner (and to feed her) at Violetta, another burger spot with great outdoor seating in Director’s Park. At the time she was around six months old, and still eating baby food from the jars. I was refraining the best I could from giving in, no matter how adamantly she was demanding one with her beady little eyes, and desperate moans, when some lady shouted over from three tables away She wants a french fry! Yes, that much was clear. So I gave her one (and then 5 or 6 more) but made her promise not to tell her mom. To my delight, she has yet to bring it up! The point is, she frickin’ loves french fries! And once the burger basket arrived it was all over, she stayed occupied the whole way through lunch just devouring those french fries!
Even though she’s shameless when it comes to fries, Lucia still has sophisticated tastes and follows the food trends. I whipped her up a Killer Burger slider between two cheerios. Unfortunately, we discovered that she requires a bit better dexterity to keep the burger between the buns!
Incidentally, I devised a totally arbitrary restaurant rating system during our visit to Killer Burger. It revolves entirely around how many people acknowledge how super-cute the Noodle is. On deeper examination it might not be totally arbitrary, because any one who has ever gone out to eat with a baby will tell you, the most important thing when at a restaurant is that you don’t feel like you are being a burden to the staff. Some places are fantastic about kids, others not so much. To be clear, I’m talking specifically about restaurants that fall into the casual dining sphere here. I wouldn’t try to take Lucia to the French Laundry (or would I!?) With this in mind, I am awarding Killer Burger a score of ‘7 Super-Cutes!‘
Currently, this is the score to beat.
This year we made this insane Family Christmas Card and sent it to almost everyone we know. Most have been kind, and have not, as yet, judged us openly.
In honor of the family tradition on my side (the Dadda’s) we decided to make bouillabaisse for our Xmas Eve dinner. Along with a wealth of other shellfish and whitefish, I brought home a couple of Dungeness Crabs from the market. I introduced one of them to Lucia, and she was keen on getting to know this fated little crustacean! It is not clear whether or not she was aware that it had indeed already suffered the boil, but she was pleasant and gentle, never-the-less. It should be noted that she does spend a good portion of her day in conversation with a plastic Papa Smurf, and therefore has a fair deal of experience with unresponsive creatures.
In the meantime, I set up this table (which looked much smaller in the store) for her to play at during the evening. Shockingly, it turns out that my daughter is much shorter than I had envisioned her as being when gauging the height of the table. If she stands on her tippy toes, she can rest her chin on the tables edge. Lucia had no problem, though, pulling up a crate to one side, and getting down to serious business!
As the evening progressed, Momma and Dadda and our good friend Crystal imbibed a bit of Christmas joy, eventually embarking on a culinary oceanic adventure! Yes, we ate too much. We always do!!
We suspected it would take Lucia a while to catch on to the idea of opening presents, and it did indeed.
She tramped around the house with this one in particular for a good 10 minutes.
But, she finally got down to business!
However, we realized that if someone didn’t step in we would have spent our entire day waiting for Lucia to break through the wrapping and into her second gift!
We concluded our Christmas morning with fresh cardamom doughnuts, with a maple-lemon glaze. You just can’t go wrong with fried dough. Later, we rounded these out with a bit more bouillabaisse.
Finally, we leave you this holiday season with some outtakes of Gabrielle and I as Santa’s Elves:
I’d say the oddest thing about this picture is not that Lucia is trying to rip the beak off of a rubber chicken, but rather that Bert is bustin’ a move out the Michael Jackson dance book. He’s usually so conservative, after all.
This Noodle celebrated her 1st Birthday with a Pink Lady cake. At first it was very overwhelming for her, and she wasnt’t sure what to do with it.
But, then she stuck her hand in the frosting, and then stuck her hand into momma’s mouth!
We cut her a slice, and she quickly realized the Pink Lady’s purpose.
In this photo, you can see the steely determination she exhibited when we attempted to presume she had had enough. She would not relinquish a single crumb!
This is Lucia’s standard ‘Yeah, I can’t be faded’ look. She breaks this out every time we try to play her, but, Oh No! She’s not having it! She will have some more of that cake, though. . .
Almost every single Friday, the Noodle and I take an afternoon nap together. Today we didn’t get to because I had an excruciatingly long day at work. This is what I missed out on—the best thing ever!!
Over the summer we took our first family trip to Crater Lake in southern Oregon. We drove a straight shot down I-5 with just a stop-off in Eugene for a doughnut.
Even though we all knew it was a bad idea, Dadda let me drive most of the way. It was scary and fun! He had to push the pedals and I took the wheel. We swerved a lot! But, I got us to the Dunes Hotel in decent shape, where we spent the night on Friday, before driving into the park early Saturday morning. Momma and Dadda played the Grateful Dead station the whole way.
Dadda had the good sense to not let me drive once we got to the park. Momma was freaking out enough with Dadda behind the wheel! Anybody who has ever been knows why, I suppose, but if not, it’s mainly because of the lack of side-rails, and the steep, steep drop offs. Dadda told me that swervy and curvy aren’t a good mix. We made it to Rim Village in due time, despite Momma’s insistence that we go 15mph the whole way. Once there, we gained our barings and decided to tackle Mt. Scott, the highest point in the park. In hindsight, Dadda probably wished he didn’t pick up that backpack baby carrier off Craigslist, even if he did get it for a song.
The Whitebark Pines were pretty cool looking trees. This is a picture of one of their trunks. The tops were all mangled and windswept from being at such a high elevation.
Dadda held me up in the air against the background of Crater Lake. I guess this is as high as a Noodle can get at Crater Lake without being in the Fire Look-Out Cabin. Momma thought this picture would scare her momma. I don’t think she’s seen it yet.
This is a picture of a petrified Whitebark Pine.
I slept the whole way down Mt. Scott. It is exhausting being carried up a mountain! Afterwards, we set up the grill at a picnic site a little ways down the road, and I helped Dadda cooked the kebabs! It started to get pretty chilly after dinner, so we headed out of the park and up to the Diamond Lake Resort where we had booked a room for the weekend. Momma got a real kick out some of the Yelp reviews for this place. She kept going on about how ridiculous they were. We thought it was a great bargain at $30/night. We’re not too hoity-toity, though.
The next day we took it easy and did some sight-seeing around the rim of Crater Lake. We hoped to take the boat tour, but unfortunately, it was all sold out. If you go, reserve a ticket early! After a few hours, we headed back to the resort and hung out lakeside playing Scrabble and other lazy summer things.
Momma took me down, and dipped my toes in the water.
Just in case you thought you had a silly Dad, mine brings his Microplane with him on vacation. ‘It’s essential’, he says.
Before we left I went into ‘crazy-monkey mode’! I’m a super-silly Noodle Time! I wonder where I get it from?
This is from approx. June/July 2011. @40sec. just kills me.
Earlier in the week, we took this Noodle out to a mid-scale restaurant here in Portland called The Screen Door. I had dined here with her without having her Mom with us a few months prior, and it was the joy of joys. It was in fact the first time we ever ate out together, and it was a lot of fun to eat dinner with her, and have all the grandma’s in the place come over and pinch her cheeks. This last time went a little different. She was fussy, and uncooperative, and we had to keep passing her back and forth over the table to keep her from becoming too agitated. We ended up boxing up our Mains, after we trudged through the salads, and took her home along with our half-eaten meal dismayed at the realization that our dining-out days were coming to an extended hiatus. I belligerently showed her the car seat, taunting her with the fact that I was going to put her in it before unceremoniously prying her into the straps and buckling her in amidst an ocean of wailing.
Happily, I was able to make it through a nacho lunch with her at Los Gorditos today. In fact, we had a great time! There was no pressure because it has kind of a laid back atmosphere, casual to the max, actually. There was already a bunch of shit on the floor, so I didn’t have to worry about her throwing anything down (which she did not). Having made the precaution of ordering my food in a to-go container, I kept her in her stroller and gave her a couple of tortilla chips while I housed my al pastor nachos. They do make some tasty food here, which is a definite bonus. Most places that court families with young kids serve food that’s mediocre at best. The food at Los Gorditos is pretty solid. If I am ever in the area and I am with this Noodle, i would definitely return with her.
