Mr. Dave and Facepainting and Mexican Food

Our preschool hosts dinners at a local restaurant called El Gulfo.  The food is pretty good and they are really nice to kids.  Also: there's always a performer for the kiddos.  Moxie (seen above) loves to be in the front of the crowd. 

Keen and Grandma watch the other folks.  Keen is terrified.

Mox got her face painted like an elephant.  She now uses toothbrushes, sticks, and food to "paint her eyebrows."  This is where she got it from. 

Chop stinking.

Recently we got Moxie (and Strider) a pair of trainer chop sticks. She is already a pro. I actually think she ate more of her dinner because of how proud she was of her success.  She can actually do it better than her dad.

Wednesday

We had a great time in Wednesday with our friends Betsy and Faye. 

We went to Gymboree playtime and then destroyed Austin Grill. Usually our meals include food (duh), stuffed animals, books and sippy cups. All very exciting stuff. 

Ethiopian food

Moxie is eating a more diverse diet than I did until grad school. Who knows that that means in terms of her eating habits later but it is fun to see her try new things. 

She really enjoyed dipping the njera in the food. She's a huge fan of njera--which is really half the battle. 

First Chore

Moxie loves feeding the dogs. She first got to feed Montana while we were visiting grandma and grandpa and now she's obsessed. Any time we give the dog treats she is right there to hand one to Gy and then tease Pili with the other one. Lately she's been more interested in dog food. For the last couple nights she's been filling the dogs' bowls. She does it with a scoop, a few kibble at a time with about 50% on the floor. She then picks up the bowl and yells the dog's name. Gy finds it amusing and Pili is absolutely terrified. Sounds about right. 

Spoon!

Peanut, peanut butter and JELLY

Like father like daughter. Moxie is a HUGE fan of PB&J. She had her first one while visiting grandma and grandpa over thanksgiving. She's had a few between. Tonight we grabbed dinner at the mall before hitting the indoor play place (livin' last vida loca) for some shoe free fun time. 

I ordered her a grilled cheese so she and I could split tomato soup and the sammy. They mixed up and Mox scored: white bread, peanut butter and grape jelly. The fact it was grape jelly instead of strawberry is the only reason Strider didn't punch Mox and steal her dinner. 

Anyway, homegirl loves it! She got special water (seltzer) in a cup with a straw, a tube of yogurt (strawberry flavor instead of the plain she usually gets, and her own sandwich. 

You know, we do have a really good life. 

Black Bean Beard

Eating is an adventure.  Usually REALLY messy.  Here's an example:

Yellow Face

This is what happens when someone eats Annies Shells and Cheese

Dinner at Roscoe's

Bibi and Babu came to town to visit.  We had a great time and lots of great food.  Moxie was particularly into the dates.

Seasons 52

We went out for a nice dinner to celebrate having family in town and all the excitement of life.  Food was amazing and Moxie won the crowd.  The waitress offered us a Seasons 52 onsie--she was too big but that was still cool.

Lunch with Faye

We went to the Mini Maker Fair in Silver Spring a couple weeks ago.  We saw a bunch of cool stuff including 3D printers (mind: blown).  We also saw our friends Betsy, Bob, and Faye.  Moxie and Faye are super best friends (see earlier post).  We had lunch all together.  Highlights include Moxie feeding Faye some bread, Faye chewing a bit, taking it out of her mouth and feeding it back to Moxie, and Moxie returning the favor.  They stole each other's sippy cups and shared a delicious Mum Mum for dessert.  So. Cute.

Kale Baby

Our CSA is handing us A LOT of kale.  Luckily Moxie is wild about it.  Here's proof:

You will notice a wide range of other finger foods on her plate: noodles, cucumber, and beets.  She's a great eater so far (knock on wood).

View from the table

We went to Qdoba the other night because no one wanted to cook and Moxie wanted to chew on someone else's table for a while.  So we did.  This is our local Qdoba and the kind of know us.  Moxie got free black beans (you can see them on her mouth).

Ethiopian!

It took Jess 22 years and Strider 26 years to eat Ethiopian food. It only took Moxie 9 months! She only ate the injera and carrots but still! So proud!

Thanks to Mark for putting up with us. 

CSA: Silver Spring (episode 6)

Well. We got a great haul this week. Things I recognize even! Last week our friends Mary-Gray and Andrew taught us to cook chard. Whole new world friends. Whole new world. 

Moxie is going to have asparagus tonight!

Baby Brunch

Yay!!  This month Moxie and I were hosts to all our favorite babies and mamas for brunch.  We busted out our fabulous foam floor (thanks to the Riccis) and all Moxie's best toys.  Our brunches are once a month (as all of you know) but this one was special because Steph and Rory are moving to Nairobi and we wanted to send them off in style.  We busted out some kangas and kitenges as table cloths, drank Fanta from a bottle, and had an oddly decorated cake that said, "Safari Njema." (*see below for story*)

The babies at mum-mums and played piano.  There was also a baby pile up in the hallway because everyone wanted to play with the Ikea push walked Strider bought for Moxie about 8 months ago.

I have to say, again, how important this group of moms is for us.  We appreciate being a part of the community so much.  Now if some of the babies could just talk Moxie into crawling...

Big thanks to Strider for helping with all the set up, clean up, and taking the dogs on an epic trip to the dog park so they wouldn't be too jealous of all the absolutely cuteness happening at Lombardy.

We put up all the pictures on our flickr page.

Here are some of our favorites:

*The cake has a story: I go to the Grumpy Bakery to order a cake.  Here's the conversation:

Jessica Chantelle Lee (JCL): Hi, I'd like to order a cake.  May I see a list of the kinds of cakes you offer?

Grumpy Baker Lady (GBL): We don't have a list.

JCL: Ok.  I'd like a cake for about 15 people.

GBL: What flavor?

JCL: What flavors do you have?

GBL: What do you like? (here-you might think she is being helpful--she's not.  she's annoyed)

JCL: Chocolate?

GBL: Fine.

JCL: With buttercream frosting--do you have that?

GBL: look at all the cakes.  that's what they have on them.

JCL: Oh ok.  I'd like to use the colors of the Kenyan flag (I show her a picture on my phone).

GBL: Why?

JCL: it's a going away party for a friend.  They are moving to Kenya.

GBL: Well, black frosting tastes terrible.

JCL: Ok.  Well please use green, red, and black--but try to make sure it doesn't look like a christmas cake.

GBL: fine.  What color flowers do you want.

JCL: I don't want flowers.  How about stripes and lines?  

GBL: You have to have flowers.

JCL: Really?  I don't really want flowers.

GBL: There have to be flowers.

JCL: Um. Ok.  Can you do something besides roses?  Like those flowers there (pointing at another cake) can you do those in red and green?

GBL: No. Those are pansies.  They don't come in red and green.  How about roses or daisies.

JCL:  I don't think roses work.

GBL: Why not?

JCL: They don't really look African.

GBL: WELL THE WOMAN IS MOVING FROM AMERICA!!  Why are you so against roses?!  

JCL: Whoa.  How about balloons?

GBL: Fine.