Ava plays the name game

At one year and nine months (21 months), having heard many conversations among the adults in her life, my daughter Ava has figured out that grownups have different names, as evidenced by the video.

It's a neat developmental milestone, but a little disconcerting to have this tiny being who seven months ago couldn't even propel her own body across the room unassisted turn to me and say, "Tasha? Tasha? Juice?"

Yeeeaaah... um, no. It's still 'Mommy' to you little bean. Or as Jason put it, "I'm not on a first name basis with 21 month olds."

I have friends whose two year old already follows yes and no with sir or ma'am. We're pretty informal out here on the West Coast so I don't think we'll be going that route with Ava, but I do want her to talk respectfully to adults.

I remember visiting relatives in the south when I was a teen. After answering some question with "Yes," an elder demanded, "Yes what?"

"Indeed?" I suggested, more to be humorously meddlesome than disrespectful.

We'll fine tune the respectful language as Ava begins to use more of it, but in the meantime, I'm just happy she articulates well enunciated and appropriately used yeses and nos (rather than yeah and uh-uh) and that she's figured out if she says "Mommy?" six times in a row and doesn't get my attention, saying "Tasha?" certainly will.

Maximus-minimus lunch

Ran out for lunch to try this BBQ truck, which sets up shop weekdays at 2nd & Pike in downtown Seattle.

I spotted it from a block away by the giant silver pig-shaped truck and the line doubled back on itself with salivating customers-to-be.

The owner was out schmoozing the line and answering questions. Nice guy, interesting concept.

I opted for the pulled pork sandwich with sweeter minimus sauce (maximus is apparently like two stars in Thai cuisine. The minimus is like one), no slaw, with a side of vegetable chips, which appear to be deep fried potato slices, green beans, beets, and sweet potato.

I also had a ginger lemonade, which struck me as just right, despite the owner's warning that some people found it too tart, others found the hibiscus nectar too sweet, and he advised that both just need vodka.

It was all delish and well worth the trek and line, although to be honest, they had me at deep fried vegetables. Menu, hours, locations and more at their site: www.maximus-minimus.com

China makes it even harder to be informed

Crazy! From Www.informationweek.com: China To Require Filtering Software On PCs http://tinyurl.com/l5y4tw

NPR had an eye-opening story related to this last week about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprisings. There were young Chinese who either did not believe it really happened or didn't believe their government would have committed acts of violence against its own people unprovoked.

This was attributed to the lack of accurate, information inside China about the event that hadn't been "sanitized" by government censors. It's not even mentioned in history classes! Amazing.

Ava grooves after her bath

I usually play music on my phone while we do Ava's bath. This night, we finally had a camera closeby to catch her shaking her groove thing. Perhaps I should introduce her to Shakira's Hips Don't Lie.

Critics: Michelle Obama should cook more too

A friend sent me a link to this Slate magazine article "Organic Panic" about how agribusiness and others are carping about the organic garden Michelle Obama had installed on the White House lawn and "the message it sends" that organic is better than conventionally raised foods. Right. Head. Throbbing.

Michelle Obama and school kids plant the organic garden at the White House

From the official White House Flickr stream

Anywho, according to Slate, in addition to their issue with whether touting organically grown food is good (like that 'complaint' passes the stink test), there are also those who are bothered that since she's pushing fresh, local food, she's not also pushing home cooking. "The main criticism: She should cook, too."

Seriously?! I don't even run a household for the leader of the free world and I would drop cooking nightly dinner in a heartbeat if I could, as I did tonight (Thanks J.!).

Are these critics for real? What's she supposed to do? After visiting schools, giving speeches, and hosting dignitaries all day, then prepping for the next day's work on behalf of the country and underserved constituencies, she should head to the White House kitchen and elbow the trained chefs aside so she can work a little Rachael Ray action, all before the girls are home from school? Puh-leeze. Has this been a big complaint of previous first ladies too? I'd bet the closest Nancy Reagan ever came to the kitchen was the tour on move-in day.

And I'm not even going to get into how this harkens back to time worn stereotypes and realities of Black women as household cooks in homes that weren't even their own.

As one of my aunts told me when I said J. does his own laundry, "Good chile. And let him keep doin' it. We've done enough laundry for men in our lifetimes to cover you and everybody else for a while." I'd say the same goes for women (of any race) and cooking, if they are so inclined.