I've been having this same conversation with myself almost every night for the past 3 or 4 weeks. It's getting to the point where I think I may need to take away my own computer privileges or put myself in time out or something. This is ridiculous.
But actually I haven't been sleeping well the last 3 or 4 weeks because Eleni's been teething again. Poor little thing never gets just one at a time. This is our second round of teething, so far 3 have popped out this time around bringing us to a total of 9 teeth (finally) and they're all big molars. We'll see if there are still more to follow.
Not a fun time for our little munchkin.
Also not such a fun time for Mommy, but only because Eleni's decided she really likes sleeping in bed with us lately.
I'm not a big fan of this arrangement. She's a wiggler. And a furnace.
It think it's already crap that I have to share the bed with her father who is also a furnace, and a snorer....snoring? No this is more like the sound of a dull chainsaw hacking through a thousand year old tree....
So yeah, a wiggler, a chainsaw and all at the comfy, cozy temperature of 10,000 degrees. Good times!
I'm really hoping this is a temporary situation and she's just doing this because she's wanting some extra cuddles while all these massive teeth make their appearance. But I guess we'll see.....
And not only do we have some new teeth but we also have some new words! Actually, not just some. She says over 30 words now!! Here's the list:
Baba
Daddy
Mama
Mom
Mommy
Papa (for Grandpa)
Yiayia ('Grandma' in Greek)
Papou (Grandpa in Greek)
Nonos ('Godfather in Greek)
Nonai (also 'Godfather' in Greek)
Yianni (the name of a lot of men)
Baby
Babi (a friend's name)
Hi
Bye bye
Ya (for 'hi' and 'bye' in Greek)
Yeah
Yes
Nai ('yes' in Greek)
No
Uh-oh
Cheese
Cookie
Tickle tickle
Tick tock
Shoes
Ball
Happy
Ti ('what' in Greek)
Pou ('where' in Greek)
Kako ('bad' in Greek)
Kaka ('poo' in Greek...yep)
Poo (yep, thanks for that Katrine)
Pee
Kitty
Cat
Mooo (for a cow noise)
She's chatty! And Mommy is SO proud because this is just amazing considering she's only 14 months old and she's learning 2 languages at the same time. Oh, she also said her first sentence last week....."Mommy NO!" Good girl!
And now after all this bragging I'm realizing that I don't actually have any news about anything other than my child......and that's probably why my parents are the only people that bother reading this blog....
Anyway, I'll try to be a bit more social in the next few days so I have some non-baby-related material to entertain you with. Until then, I'm not quite done with the bragging....she's also learning how to use a fork and a spoon!
Today I was thinking
about children’s toys. Do you remember that one where you pull the handle and
an arrow spins around in a circle, in the circle are a bunch of animals and
when the arrow lands on one it makes the animal noise for that animal? I don’t
remember what it was called, a Speak and Say or something like that? Anyway I
had one of these as a kid and I loved it. But then I got to thinking….what’s
the Greek one like?
Yes even though it's clear that animals within the same species speak the same language, us humans have taken it upon ourselves to butt in and mess everything up with our own culturally specific interpretations. In other words: animals in Canada speak English while animals in Greece speak Greek. There are a few exceptions where an animal noise is the same in both of our countries....but I'm sure if you ask a Greek they'll tell you that's because that animal noise originated in Greece and we stole it from them...
Now I don’t even know if
this toy exists in Greece but if it did, it would sound like this:
Cat: Niaou-niaou
Dog: Guv-guv
Bird: this depends on
the size of the bird, a small one: tsiou tsiou; a big one: kra kra
Rooster: Kikiriku (get
a Greek person to make this noise…it’ll make your day)
Cow: Moo (yay, we agree on this one!! But I guess this means "moo" isn't technically an English word???)
Horse: they don’t
imitate the horse apparently…yeah I’m skeptical too so I’m still looking into
it
Sheep: Mae-eee
Pig: I couldn't get a straight answer about this one either but that might be because they were thrown by my oinking....
Frog: Quak-quak (I’m
serious)
Duck: Pa-pa-pa
Turkey: Glou-glou
So apparently Greek cows can carry on conversation with English speaking cows no problem, and Greek frogs can chat up Canadian ducks.... I know. This is important stuff. You're welcome. But before we go ahead and roll our eyes at how weird the Greeks are, remember that we think a rooster says "cock-a-doodle-doo"......
Antonis took Eleni for a walk the other morning so I could get some things done around the house.
So after 30 minutes of completely uninterrupted house cleaning
...which was bliss by the way...
Eleni brought me this
The most beautiful flower I've ever gotten!
I also made pizza buns this week
Both my taste testers approved so they'll be making a regular appearance in the Mallis house
I realize I put a lot of pictures on here of Eleni eating. Why do I do this? Because I love watching her eat! For one I know I'm giving her healthy foods that will keep her healthy and make her grow, so when she's really enjoying the food I make for her I just get a warm fuzzy feeling all over. But also....she's just so funny! She gets it everywhere! And she doesn't care. I'm a bit envious of that actually....imagine sitting down to eat and just enjoying your food so much that you rub it all over your face and in your hair, maybe you throw a little around, and to have no one judge you or think it's weird in any way? How awesome that would be!
I promise if you invite me over for dinner I will absolutely follow protocol and use my manners at all times.
Eleni however....not gonna happen. You're just going to have to find a way to enjoy the show, like I do.
I made her tortellini with
SUPER VEGGIE SAUCE
The tortellini was store bought and white, which I don't normally like to give her but once in a while we can break the rules a bit.
The sauce is homemade though and really easy, I just sauteed a tomato, bit of onion,
garlic, spinach, carrot and some peas until everything was really soft, added some basil and oregano, a little bit of feta cheese, and then whizzed the whole thing up with a hand blender. Done!
That's my Super Veggie Sauce.
I never use tomato sauce from a jar anymore. Eleni's not really a picky eater but there are a few vegetables that are not really her favourite so if I can hide them in something, like a sauce, she'll eat them.
The hidden veggie here was spinach. You probably guessed that though.
I like to make it really thick, I just use a bit olive oil for sauteing. Sometimes I'll add some water if it's come out too thick and chunky but usually I spoon feed her the left over sauce anyway so it's better if it has some texture....she's not a big fan of runny 'baby' food since she's a big girl now.
You can use whatever vegetables you want, it really doesn't matter. Eleni's eaten every version of Super Veggie Sauce I've ever put in front of her, with or without the cheese, and she's always happy.
She also has some apple and banana juice in her sippy cup (homemade again, she rarely gets store bought juice), normally if I give her the juice I have to wait until the end of the meal or else she won't bother with eating, she just wants the juice. Not when there's pasta on the menu though!
Last Saturday we went for a walk in the morning. We had some gifts to buy (2 weddings, a baptism and a birthday...I think we're going to have to drop some of our friends, they're getting too expensive). We also bought some bubbles for Eleni so we stopped to have a break and blow some bubbles.
She thought they were magical
So here are some pictures from the wedding/baptism from last Saturday.
Our friends Tsaki and Kasia were married and their daughter Danae was baptized at the same time.
We were too late to see the wedding unfortunately...I've been dying to get some video of the old ladies whipping rice at the married couple, it's hysterical. They're hysterical. It's painful, trust me I've been there, but so funny to watch them wind up like pro baseball players and double over laughing when they smoke the poor couple. When Antonis and I were married it took me 2 days to get all the rice out of my hair and we didn't even have a church wedding. They get even more into it when it's a church wedding.
Anyway. Next time.
We made it for the whole baptism though, so this is little Danae with her beautiful mommy Kasia
Stavros is her Godfather.
He's so serious right now. A rare moment for our Stavro.
A little video of the baptism.
Danae started to cry and it made me want to cry so I decided to go on a little adventure.
I found a secret door.
Behind that secret door was a secret staircase.
I went up the secret staircase and what did I find?
A secret balcony!
There was a beautiful after party arranged at Panselianos Hotel. We were working that night though so we missed the dinner and dancing unfortunately.
Actually what's even more unfortunate is that we had a group of 40 Turkish people booked to come into the taverna that night at 8:30.
They arrived at 9:30.
We didn't have live Greek music.
They were told by the travel agent that we would have live Greek music even though we told the travel agent we couldn't book musicians because there were none available that night.
The travel agent told us the group was fine with that.
But they were not.
They were never even given that message.
So they left.
We had food ready for 40 people but because the travel agent told everyone what they wanted to hear about the live music situation, all 40 people got back on the bus and left.
It was devastating.
To the travel agent: Katerina Whoeveryouare in Petra....bad karma is coming your way.
Anyway, since we didn't have 40 Turkish people to feed and clean up after, we were out of the restaurant early enough to catch the tail end of the wedding reception...the very tail end of it. Actually we were there in time to get the message that everyone was ready to go into Molyvos for a drink.
So off we went to Manta Bar
Joseph and Joseph
Lefteris and Joseph
(sorry some of these are dark and/or blurry...I over indulged in the wine that night and couldn't figure out how to use my camera like a normal person)
Cute seating area outside Manta.
There's a few tables under the tree, and also pillows on the steps for seating as well.
Very laid back and cozy.
My dates for the night.
Antonis, Vangelis, Joseph, Joseph and Lefteris.
Vangelis and I dancing to Spanish music, at a Polish/Greek wedding in Greece
Joseph and Antonis...I really don't know what's going on here.
I hope everyone's having a great week! I, for some unknown reason, have been on a rampage this week.
The target: MY HOUSE!
I don't know what's got into me but I've been cooking and cleaning like a mad woman over here. And unfortunately I decided to do the cleaning first which means that after all this cooking the place went immediately back to looking like a back alley dumpster site in a matter of minutes. Brilliant Tara! Now I have to clean it all again! But actually I'm feeling pretty over this Extreme Housewife business so I don't think I'll bother.
As for for the cleaning...blah, that's not a very interesting story so we'll skip that part and just talk about the cooking.
So first I made apple sauce which isn't a big deal but it's a favourite in our house. Even if you're completely useless in the kitchen you can make apple sauce....cut the apples, bake them in the oven with some water and cinnamon, blend the heck of them and then do a little happy dance because apple sauce is awesome and you just made enough to feed a small village for all eternity.
'
Next I made some potato gnocchi.
I'm not sure that I'm ready to talk about the gnocchi yet.
We had some issues.
Well actually I don't really think the gnocchi failure was my fault because I got the recipe off of Pinterest and I'm pretty sure that everything on that site has never been tested by anyone BEFORE it's put on the site. I can't tell you how many times I've taken a recipe from there, channeled my inner June Cleaver, only to have everything turn out like something you'd scrape off the floor of Courtney Love's hotel room. Not just bad, but something really horrendously bad! And I'm not usually that bad of cook so ergo, something must be up with Pinterest.
Anyway, so I made the dough and immediately I thought something has to be wrong because it was way too sticky. The recipe said all you need is mashed potato, flour and egg. There were measurements, I can't remember what they were but I promise you, I followed them. So I keep adding more flour and more flour to try to get it to a proper consistency...in the end I ended up adding nearly an entire bag of flour, killed my back bending over the table trying to roll these tiny balls of hell spawn, downed an entire bottle of wine in the process (ok ok, I probably would have done that anyway) and ended up with sticky potato mess all over my freshly cleaned floor. THEN....yes there's more.....THEN I put half the dough in the freezer because I can't be bothered rolling the damn things anymore, the other half....the half that I've now spent 2 1/2 hours rolling into stupid little useless balls...I put in a container and in the fridge to cook up the next day. The next day, I take out the container and what do I find.....MOLD! Yes, freaking mold all over them! How is that even possible??? They were only in the fridge for 24 hours!
So yeah, that's my gnocchi story. I'm still feeling a bit miffed about that. And I guess this is a To Be Continued story since I still have gnocchi dough in the freezer.....but I'm just not ready to go down that road yet....
Next I made a chick pea stew and that turned out fabulous!
I don't have a recipe because I just threw a bunch of stuff in the pot but here's what I used:
chick peas (duh)
aubergine (or eggplant as us Canadians call them)
red pepper
onion
garlic
tomato
olive oil
tomato paste
chicken stock
cumin
cinnamon
cloves
cardamom
orange juice
That was it. And it was amazing.
I also made oatmeal banana pancakes, a breakfast recipe I found for Eleni on.....you guessed it, PINTEREST!
Why do I just keep going back again and again? That site is like an ex-boyfriend....you go back thinking "well maybe this time it's going to work out" only to have everything blow up in your face.
Here's what oatmeal banana pancakes are supposed to look like:
Here's what mine looked like:
But surprisingly, these actually tasted good! Not the burnt ones of course, but the rest were pretty good. I put peanut butter on them and Eleni loved them. I'm not sure I'll be making them again anytime soon because it took all day to get the burnt oatmeal smell out of the house, but anyway they were kind of a success I guess. Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
1 cup/80g old-fashioned or quick cooking oats
1 banana
1 cup/200g cottage cheese
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
butter for cooking
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until batter is quite runny.
Lightly coat a nonstick skillet or griddle with butter and heat over medium low heat.
Drop about a tablespoon of batter onto skillet and cook until bubbles appear on top. Flip cakes and cook until golden brown on underside. Wipe skillet clean and repeat with more butter and remaining batter.
I don't know if this is what went wrong but I used Greek yogurt instead of cottage cheese, and olive oil instead of butter....next time I'll use butter but I'll be sticking with the yogurt because it's cheap here (obviously) and you can get it anywhere. I don't think I've even seen cottage cheese in this country. Weird. But I guess why bother when you have so much yogurt hanging around? I don't know. Anyway....
So that's what I've been up to the last few days.
I'll leave you with a little video of Eleni and I playing this afternoon. We had to stop kind of suddenly because...well lets just say she ate a lot of chick pea stew.
So it's 1am and it's been a super long day...Eleni had a doctor's appointment today in Kalloni, her 1 year check-up, and lucky us we get all the way there only to find out the doctor's not in.
Why?
Because it's Greece.
But not all was lost, we got some errands done and we bought a memory card reader so I can FINALLY upload pictures again YAY!!!!! So thanks to the incredibly low price of 12 euros and 94 cents, in combination with the fact that we're now near the end of September and things seem to be slowing down a bit around here, I think it may be safe to say that we can now begin to have fairly regular blog updates again.
Did I just hear a WOOP WOOP?? I think I did. It was somewhere far off in the distance but I swear I heard it....
Anyway, here's what's been hiding on my camera since April. Enjoy!
I can't remember what she's eating here but I think the point was more that she was having a better time playing with it than eating it.
This was in April so she was 8 months.
5 month later....we're still playing with our food more often than eating it
Blurry but the cuteness still comes through
This is the morning of her baptism, May 9th.
This was her first 'look' of the day...bright polka dot dress with matching headband from Grandma and Papa McClure
This was the first and last time we've managed to get her to wear a headband for more than 10 seconds
Glad I got more than one photo of it
How do you get Eleni to sit still so you can get photographic proof of how adorable she is in a flowery headband?
Put her in a cage and give her a lip gloss
Ok so it's not actually a cage, it's her crib, but she is a huge fan of lip gloss
...yeah that trick had a pretty quick shelf life
This is in June, so she's 10 months now.
Spinach mashed potatoes, a surprisingly huge hit
"Mom seriously, are you kidding me right now...."
"THAT WAS NO AIRPLANE, THAT WAS A SPOON! I AIN'T NO FOOL!!"
Bath time in the garden
This is sometime in July, so now she's 11 months here
This about the time her hair started to grow like crazy
After the garden bath
Look at my teeth!
Later on that month...we have our first piggy tails!
Did you know that biscuits taste even better when you have pigtails?
Eleni and Daddy Cool
This is August 16th, Apostolis and Michaela's birthday party
There were a lot of big kids there and Eleni wasn't really sure what to make of that whole situation
So we had ourselves a little private tea party under the table.
She makes a great cup of tea
We had a marvelous time down there
Another blurry one but this was the end of the party.
Eleni was too pooped to stay for cake so we went home to sleep
August 27th, ELENI'S 1ST BIRTHDAY!!!
Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of this because I was running around doing a million things the whole time. Lesson learned for next year. Anyway, this is the end of the party when Eleni got to have her very first piece of cake!! This is of course after she had to be changed out of her pretty party dress because she pooped on her chair while we all sang happy birthday to her....
"How interesting. This is fun AND delicious!"
"Actually this might be the best thing I've ever tasted in my life!!"
"Oh my god this is amazing"
"Mommy you gotta get over here and try somma this"
"Anyone else want to try some? Seriously, you have to try this"
"Ok well this plate is just a waste of space really"
"Lets just get this plate out of here and make room for some more cake!"
So that's a bit of everything that's been stuck on my camera since April. There are a few videos too but I'll have a look through those later and see if there's anything interesting. But even if there isn't I'll be taking some more videos of her soon because she's walking like a pro, running...not really like a pro but running anyway...she's talking more. Anyway, there's been big changes in her development over the last few months which has been really exciting so it's definitely time to dust off the camera and use it a little more often.
How is it that I'm completely unable to own any kind of electronics that work properly? Or is it just asking too much to have them do exactly what they are meant to do exactly when you want them to do it? Nevermind, the next time I even consider spending hundreds of dollars on some stupid gadget I'll be sure to just take that money and stuff it into a paper shredder to save myself the frustration later on.....but then of course we all know I probably won't be able to get the bleeping shredder to work either.........
Hi, by the way.
You may not have noticed, but I'm feeling slightly annoyed today. The reason is that for 2 weeks now I have had a ton of photos on my camera that I would love to show you BUT, every time I plug the memory card into my laptop, the laptop doesn't recognize the memory card. I thought maybe if I left it for a few days and then tried again, it would probably work since that's how all of these stupid things seem to sort themselves out around here. But sadly, that hasn't happened. I do have a USB thingy for the memory card which should work perfectly....but of course I can't find the damn thing anywhere.
Excuse me for a minute while I shove my head into my pillow and scream at the top of my lungs......
Anyway, while I rip my house apart looking for the USB...all the while trying the memory card in the laptop every now and then just to see if they've decided to get a long finally....check this out:
Eleni turned 1 on August 27th!! We had a party!!! So go to Torsten's blog once again so you can get a peak at what happened that day. And after that, cross your fingers or say a little prayer or something to help me get my technological shizz together so I can finally show you our photos from that day, as well as a bunch of other random fun stuff that we've been doing lately.
Actually Torsten's most recent blog posts have been a 3 part dedication to my brother in law Lefteris. Last time I checked part 3 wasn't up yet but anyway, the first two are really nice and there's also another photo of Eleni in one of them. Anyway, he's at torstenimprints.blogspot.gr so you can have a scroll through and see what he has going on over there.
Now I'm off to look at Pinterest to figure out what I'm making us for lunch tomorrow. Yep. Wild night in the Mallis house!
I know I've been a bit lazy in the past about updating this blog on a regular basis, but wow....I seriously dropped the ball this time! 3 months??? Has it really been 3 months since the last time I wrote anything?
I hang my head in shame.
....actually, I better stay upright because there's a very good chance I'll fall into a deep and drooling sleep if I put my head down, and then we'll experience yet another day of bloglessness (yes, I did just make that word up).
Where do I even start?!
Well first of all, in order to redeem myself somewhat (or maybe just ease my own conscience?) I'll tell you the boring details as to why I've neglected the blog for so long. Actually, it's not all boring. The non-boring reasons: we've had LOTS of visitors keeping us company! My lovely and amazing cousin Kora was here for a month. My bestie and our koumbara (maid of honour) Jen came for 2 weeks (so not long enough Jenny-poo...next year I'm requesting your presence for at least a week more). Miltos and Valerie, the other Greek/Canadian couple and very good friends of ours, were here for a few crazy weeks for their Big Fat Greek Wedding which was so much fun. And my gorgeous blond bombshells are here as we speak, Melina (Holland) and Johanna (Sweden). Actually Johanna was also here in May for Eleni's baptism, and she is the person to thank for all the stunning photos from that day that I'll share with you later. I can't believe we were so lucky to have her as our photographer. I won't go on about her talent because it embarrasses her, but you'll see for yourself anyway so there's really no need for words.
Other than that I've been taking care of Eleni of course, who is growing up into a little toddler right before my eyes. And I've been working in our restaurant 2 nights a week when we have live Greek music. It might not sound like much but WHEW! MOMMA IS POOPED YALL!....did I just say that??? Yeah I did, and I'm not even going to erase it because it's a good example as to how tired I am. Weird things are coming out of my mouth and I have absolutely no control over it. Is there such a thing as insomnia induced Turrets?
Anyway.....
As for an update on Eleni.............are you ready for this?????
SHE'S WALKING!!!!
Actually here's where I do hang my head in shame (although ever so slightly so as not to fall asleep) because she turned 11 months 3 days ago, but she started walking at 9 1/2 months. Yes I do feel bad for not telling you all right away but I have to admit, my sense of Mommy-Pride might be helping me ignore that guilt a little because MY BABY STARTED WALKING AT 9 1/2 MONTHS! That's so crazy! She must be a genius!
She's talking a lot more now too which is very cool. She now says Mama and Baba very clearly. She says Cat, Go, Ti (Greek for 'What') and Poo.
Yes. She says Poo. And until this morning she was using it 2 ways and neither of them had to do with what we say in English as poo. Pou in Greek means 'Where', so if she's looking for something she says this. But also grandpa in Greek is Papous, which is a little difficult for her because it's a two syllable word where each syllable has a different sound.........does that make sense? Anyway, she drops the Pa and just calls Yorgos Pou. It's very cute. But as I said, this is what's been going on UNTIL this morning when I asked her if she was pooping and she excitedly screamed "POOP!" So there's really no denying it now. She knows what it means, she can say it and I'm sure she'll be using it all the time from now on. Lovely.
Anyway, I'm going to leave it at that for now because I really can't wait to show you these amazing photos from the baptism. Next time I write....which I promise will be much sooner than 3 months from now....I'll tell you what happened at the baptism and I'll also share a really good white cake recipe I just tried today. Why a cake recipe? Because I've never made a cake from scratch so I thought I better practice a bit since our little monkey will be turning 1 year old in a month, and good mommy's bake birthday cakes from scratch. Right?
On our way to the church
Olympia
Proud papous Yorgos
He appears to be patiently waiting, but we were REALLY late....
Looking slightly bored...like I said, we were so late
These are the clothes Eleni was put in after her 'bath'
Nonos (God father) Lefteris asking his niece/God daughter if she's ready for her bath
And much to relief of all our guests, we finally begin...about an hour late...Greek style!
Thea Stratoula. One of my favourites!
Peek-a-boo Johanna! I see you over there with the camera!
Greeting the guests inside the church.
The priest greeting Papou
And now, we get ready for the bath
She's in...
And she's out....crying and wondering what the heck just happened
The priest cuts the hair...I don't know why but anyway...
Papous, and cousins Katerina and Donna behind
Still crying.
She wasn't all that impressed with the 'bath' everyone kept telling her about, but it was also nap time so it's a little hard to enjoy anything when you're late for nap time
She calmed down quickly though
She doesn't seem too angry with him
Getting the fancy clothes ready to put on her now that she's been baptized
Proud Baba
My handsome father in law
Some family pictures.
This is Antonis' aunt. She lived in Australia for a long time with her husband and children
They're so much fun...and they speak English!
And we're done! Let's eat!
We came back to the restaurant with just a few close family members and friends for lunch
Olympia in all her glory.
"EAT!"
And after we eat, it's play time
Now these pictures are a little out of order but I can't be bothered to move things around, so...
This is after the ceremony is over and a very proud Papou has some snuggles
The beautiful Katrine. She's one of our favourites as well
This is the uncle that lived in Australia.
I told you they're fun!
Baba stealing some kisses but I think Eleni might have her eye on someone else.....
