Hey baby, wanna take a ride in my love machine?

I'll take you for a wild ride!!

Mommy, may I have my finger bowl please?

I'm really starting to get worried. 

I really haven't worried much when it comes to developmental milestones. All babies develop on their own time and each next step will come when he is naturally ready.

But then I read, "When you should start to be concerned regarding language development. Your baby should say 4-6 words by 15 months, such as Mama and Dada" on the Baby Center website, I thought, should I be doing something different? 

He's over 15 months, and we've got almost nothing. "Ba" for ball and that's it. 

Don't get me wrong, he knows how to communicate in his own special way. Usually a point, with a "hmmm?".

Here's a good example when he does the "hmmm?" and I know exactly what he means:

Preface:

We can't drink directly out of the tap. It looks safe but likely has bacteria in it. We have a distiller to process all of the water that we drink and wash vegetables with. So, when you want to wash your baby's hands in water, when he is likely to immediately put that wet hand in his mouth, you realize that you can't use the tap water but must use the distilled.

So, to wipe his hands and face (and anywhere else that food happens to fall) after each meal, we put a little distilled water in a ramekin, then bring it to the table with a washcloth while he's still strapped into the highchair. 

Now little boys love to play with water. So for the last few weeks, after he's finished, he does the "hmmm" sound and points to the kitchen. Here's the routine after each meal:

"Hmmm?" 

"Do you want the finger bowl?"

Big smile, followed by another "Hmmm?" fingerpoint towards the kitchen.

I proceed to retrieve said "finger bowl" and put the half-filled with water ramekin in front of him in the palm of my hand.

He makes little motions with his fingers. Sometimes he is a bit tentative, looking up to make sure it's okay to put his fingers in there. He then puts fingers from one hand in the bowl and wiggles them around. 

"Put the other hand in the bowl. Wash both hands."

He looks up with an impish grin, tentative, then puts the other hand in so that both fingers from both hands are splashing around in the little bowl.

Then he gets excited, giggles, yelps, splashes those little fingers around in the water with all of his might until the water is all over him and me.

I take the bowl away and get the washcloth. 

He points down on his highchair to his legs and feet with a "hmmm?". 

"Yes sweetheart, you spilled the water from the finger bowl all over yourself, just like you do every night."

We finish dipping the washcloth into the rest of the water and wash off his hands and face.

What have we learned? I think my child is having a unique experience first of all. How many kids use a finger bowl these days after dinner? I decided to look up finger bowls to try to find some history. Wikipedia hardly has anything, so then I googled it. I found this:

Finger Bowls

The finger bowl has hovered on the brink of obsolescence for over a century without entirely disappearing. This is probably why it provides the critical obstacle in the story of the man, either a foreigner or a bumpkin (depending on the teller), who is a guest at a formal dinner party. When a servant offers him a bowl of water at the end of the meal, he drinks it. The hostess presiding at the event is so poised and utterly well-mannered that, without skipping a beat, she drinks her bowl down, too, thus saving him the embarrassment of realizing the extent of his faux pas. This tale has reached almost the status of urban legend, and it is told in many variations. The hostess may be a family matriarch or someone very well-known, say Eleanor Roosevelt or Queen Victoria, but the finger bowl seems to be a constant.

Fortunately, the main difficulty lies in recognizing the finger bowl when you see it, which, at formal events, will be either before or after the dessert course. Often there is a slice of lemon floating in the water. Once you are presented with one, all you need to know is that you should delicately dip your fingertips in the water (no scrubbing), dry them off with your napkin (equally delicately), and set the bowl to the side of your plate.

So, he's mastered the finger bowl, well, not the delicate part, but he'll get it sooner or later. I think some people might think his knowledge of a finger bowl at such an early age makes us a bit pretentious. But I tend to believe his knowledge only adds to his world view and will make him a good host (I'll be sure to tell him all about the urban legend at some point - maybe when he reads this blog!). After all, we use it for purely practical reasons, not because I'm trying to teach him how to host a formal dinner party.

And I have to admit that I have come to enjoy the finger bowl myself. Before he became so enthused with splashing his hands around in the bowl, I was able to put the finger bowl on the table at the beginning of the meal without him being distracted and refusing to eat with constant "hmmm?" points. I used it myself. A little dip, then dry on the napkin. Particularly when I was trying to get him to eat a little more by feeding him bites directly from my fingers. 

After all this talk about finger bowls, I think the real question for this post is the following:

What will be his first words, first phrase? Not, mama, dada, but:

"Mommy, may I have my finger bowl please?"

p.s. I started a draft of this post 10 days ago. Aidan is now consistently saying "bye", "hi", "da" for Daddy, "ba" for ball, "ma" for maggie, and the cutest little soft spoken "yes". 

What's next? I'm betting on "mama" (please?) and "no" (can we wait a little longer for "no"?).

Mommy, I have these holes in my nose!

Update: Aidan has discovered his nostrils. 

I imagine the thought process, "Hmmm, let's see, this finger fits in this nostril quite nicely. And then this finger fits in the other nostril. So now I have one finger in one nostril and one in the other. This is really cool! Maybe I can shove more fingers up there. Hey, wait, what else can I find to shove up there? Peas? Corn? Giggle giggle."

He hasn't put anything up his nose besides his fingers, but I have no doubt that it's coming.

And don't ask me for a photo demonstration. I'm not putting a photo of my little one up on the internet with his fingers in his nose.

Nicer, gentler photos will come soon!

Officially Obsessed

Can't stop, can't stop....reading political OpEds and blogs. I've spent the last 2 hours doing nothing else (baby's taking an extra long nap). A click here, a click there, ...read, ponder, laugh (very funny photo "Face of the Day" and YouTube from the debate last night on The Daily Dish). I think I'm officially obsessed. 

Shower? What's a shower?

The Huffington Post is updated with new blog posts from different writers every few seconds. It's making me crazy because I have to keep checking back to see what else has been posted. Click click.

And I'm not the only one who's obsessed. See: Election Consuming the Lives of Everyone I Know

I send Richard links, he sends different ones to me. Can we just get to the election already so I can stop this and get back to cooking and all of the other things on the increasingly long to-do list??? It's not like any of it is going to change my mind. I voted three weeks ago!

The question is: Will I be able to stop after the election or has this become a habit that won't go away as I track OpEds/blogs on the global financial crisis, corruption (sad, sad front page news about Bulgarian corruption), climate change, etc.??

And I wonder what I did before I had a wireless connection and could carry around my beautiful little Mac (yes, computer love) and click every few moments, even while chasing the child??

Must pull away, must attend to development of child, must close computer...

When in a foreign country, crave what you can't have

I'm starting to crave things. We put a lot in our consumables, meaning non-perishable bottled and dry goods such as wine, the all essential peanut butter, dressings, tahini, olives, mustard, artichokes, pasta, wheat flour, etc. A limited supply, so we try to conserve to some extent, although the stuff is there to be eaten I like to say. I would love some fresh mushrooms, but we do have a very small amount of dried mushrooms that we save for special occasions. This is something we could order too, which I just haven't done yet.

But I'm starting to crave the things I know I can't get anytime soon. Fresh things that just aren't here, that I'm used to having. 

1. Zucchini: Are you surprised that that is the first on my list? For some reason, every time I open a cookbook, zucchini screams from the pages, saying "cook me, cook me", seemingly in EVERY recipe that I happen to look at. Given what's available here, I can't think of a suitable substitute. I substituted okra in a layered vegetable recipe with eggplant, tomato, potato and many cheeses. It was okay, but not quite the same. Aidan was very curious about the little "beads" in the okra. It's a look up to Mommy, with a point at the "beads", and a "hmmm??"

2. Strawberries (or any type of berry): Who wouldn't want them? I can't even get frozen. We saw frozen blueberries in a couple of stores at $9.00 a pop! What would that be in the States? $3.00? I refuse. Maybe when I'm really desperate. But you have to be careful. A couple of the stores are known for turning off the freezers at night (all electricity) to save money. I know, you're thinking, the meat too? Yes, the meat too. Remember what you take for granted.

3. Ice cream: Aaah, good, creamy ice cream (not to mention good dairy products in general). If you remember, I wanted to add a sorbet/ice cream maker to my collection of culinary "stuff". After seeing my post, my sweet husband surprised me with a nice sorbet /ice cream maker for our anniversary that he ordered online (online ordering is my savior). And oh, I know, for everyone thinking about the sweet husband, let's all do say: aaahh! It makes great sorbet, but I tried ice cream with boxed french cream that we found. Well, if you've ever tried to make ice cream, you may know that the churning process actually intensifies the sweetness of the cream. So, it intensified the "boxed" cream taste. Not exactly what I was going for. But I'm not complaining. There is a "hamburger joint" that sells pretty good milkshakes. And that ice cream maker will be making some creamy goodies on other tours.

I think those are the highlights. Not a lot really. And nothing that I can't live without. We have cheap avocados weekly, as well as pineapple, papaya, mango....many yummies. But I am really starting to look forward to our trip home in February. I know, I know, please don't give me a reality check and say that zucchini and strawberries won't be in season when I come home. I'll be able to find something I'm sure. And asparagus? Can I have some of that too?

You never know what you might miss by living in different parts of the world. Or what you might be willing to pay for at exorbitant prices to satisfy your cravings. A pint of Haagen Dazs for $12? Haven't done that one yet. 24 ounces of President brand feta (Do you know that we are feta snobs after living in Bulgaria? Bulgaria has THE BEST feta, called sirene) for $12. Yes, that one had to happen. Feta has been a staple in my house for the last 7 years for gods sake.

I'm not quite a foodie, but I do enjoy good food...making good food...the pleasure of eating deliciousness that I made (thank god we brought all the spices). But I think that I may just be in a situation where I'm craving the things I can't have. Just because I can't have them. 

Ooops, it's debate time, meaning the presidential debate. Gotta go. Let's debate this food thing more later.

My blog

Well, it looks like this is my blog and my blog alone. Me, myself and I, except of course, for you, my few readers out there. So I've decided to change the photo and profile. Look for unannounced changes to the photo in the weeks ahead.

The name goes back to our time in Bulgaria, when Richard was more fond of calling me by the name of my town -- Montana -- than my given name. Of course, it rhymes with my given name, which was always fun and natural, and WAY before little miss Hannah Montana entered the scene. 

Richard still calls me Montana once in a while, making me smile. It makes me think about how we met, how much fun we had in Bulgaria...the carefree days of first dates, rendevous, with not a care in the world....

Enough reminiscing and on to more posts...if Richard is anxious to post, I might allow a guest post now and again...but I think it's up to me to be earnest :)

Kick-ass sistron

You thought I was going to blather on about politics again, right?

Sorry to disappoint, but I simply want to give a BIG shout out to my sister, Maura.

Not only is she a NYC rock-star working at Self magazine, but she is now a BLACK BELT!

How cool is that?! Can I be cool by association? Big sister inspired little sister to go out there and be all that she can be? Okay, you're right, our parents had more to do with that than I alone.

All I want to say is - you rock! You inspire me!