Tiger Mom ate my daughter and the Cinderella Battle Hymn

You may wonder about my title! Well it's the clash of civilizations in parenting literature always fun for all. Two great books on parenting but different views. Very different.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom. I love the book! A Yale law professor that will make time to teach and be home with her children and in a some what crazy style. Makes motherhood look real and wonderful. She is there with and for her children every step of the way and giving notes. The debate in the news is she crazy? ...Ahh, most definitely, but I don't think one should judge her solely on that! Which Mom is not crazy in one form or another, though? It's a different style of parenting, look at it as such and if you want to change your style do it. She has a clear vision of where she wants her girls to go with music, and school. She wants her daughters to succeed. Great example of hard work.

Cinderella Ate my Daughter I found in the section of Barnes and Noble women's study. Which was odd considering its brand new and in parenting books. It is an informative view on the princess movement. Though the author lacks a clear picture of what she wants her daughter to be. Clearly she does not want them to be princesses entitled and only with beauty and charm. She leaves that realm open to the child, but is shockingly horrified to find out that her daughter wants to be a Disney princess. Still I'm reading it so maybe she will tell us as mothers how to teach our daughters a better way. I don't think so considering her feminist view never takes in consideration that boys and girls may think differently. Though I'm enjoying the Cinderella Battle Hymn which does terrorify me. The Tiger Mom would eat her daughter for lunch while beating that princess out of her because she has a clear vision of what they should do even at a young age. Though that is a debate of the West vs the rest in parenting style. I like the history and education of the book though. Parenting here in the USA is relative.

Gym Rat

Yes, that is me! I love the gym. Swimming, zumba, bikes, weights, yoga you name it. I saw the general manager of gym at chick-fila and you could tell he was scared that I was going to mob him like the masses of women did last week when they heard zumba classes were going to a sign up sheet. My take is this. Ladies and/or gentleman if you only come to the gym for zumba go to a studio that specializes in just that (our latin teacher teaches at one).

Psycho Beast sequel

In college I was called psycho beast while I displayed my cutlery skills on a piece of innocent cheese. Since then, I have continued to utilize my cutlery skills to their max. Last week as I was making braised radishes with these extremely huge watermelon radishes that weighed half a pound each. The recipe clearly was using small radishes. So I thought that cooking them first would soften them so I let them cook. Then took then out and proceeded to attempt a clean slice of them. Well I took out my extreme large knife and started to cut as I did there were loud banging on the counter and the pieces of radishes were flying in many directions. I didn't think about it until I finished cutting and had placed the radishes back in the pot.

Knock, knock on the door I went to it, my upstairs neighbor was there, he was wondering if I was banging on the ceiling to quiet them down. I assured him they were not loud and awkwardly tried to tell me that all the banging was from me cooking. Well my smooth talk came out like this... " the noise was me ....I was cutting... veggies." He was extremely perplexed by his look but was to gentleman like to say anything but " thanks bye."

Celery Root Soup

Love NY fashion week with Jason Wu collection. Siriano's models falling all over the runway which was coined as bloodbath by some. Mr. Increditible was off to his warrior thing this weekend. So I thought perfect time to use my celery root. Celery Root is ugly to look at. It looked like it has something sprouting from it. I wanted to find a great recipe, I found one from a vegan chef off Oprah. It was Celery Root soup with Granny Smith Apples. Because I did not have cashew cream I used half and half instead. I'm not vegan as you can tell.

So, I took on the daunting task of peeling the root, took me forever. Peels of earth were flying in every direction. Peanut was sad because Mommy was in the kitchen for along time wrestling with roots. I'm extremely slow at cutting veggies you can imagine a hard root was just plain painful. Finally done chopping the roots and other ingredients were cooking on the stove.

As we wait for the soup to finish cooking. Peanut was delighted that Mommy read books to him and we played games of running, which inevitable ended in Peanut giggling hysterically on the floor. I was relieved that the roots were peeled and happy with the aroma of the soup. That soup did not disappoint. It was unbelievable good and next time I want to try it with the cashew cream, because of the fat content in it and creamier taste it would bring.

Moving and Winning

Last weekend, we helped some of our dear friends move their storage unit to go to AZ We will miss them alot. With Peanut strapped onto my back in the snow he does not like it as he used too. Which saddens me greatly, probably due to the fact that he wants to walk around on ice.

Peanut and I were sitting in car my friend's car warming up with my friend and her kiddo. Once their little eyes caught hold of their Daddies moving boxes out the window all cries broke loose. Wailing for Daddy was a long cry until my friend's sister came in with doughnuts, Peanut was happy to get the one with sprinkles he devoured that doughnut with vigor and was sad when Mommy throwout the mashed up mess after. We said our goodbyes to our friends with exchange promises of visiting and bluebell ice cream.

We went to Eco-politian one of the greatest eco-friendly children's store in the area. It was their 1st birthday celebration and they were giving away loads of stuff. Mr. Incredible won a package of Charlie's Soap with a bag, laundry powder and all-purpose cleaner bonus is it's made in a USA. Perfect timing because we had just ran out of all-purpose cleaner. So far I like it, it claims to clean up anything. Peanut will put that to the test!

Amyst potatoes

I'm a foodie I must admit! I love natural blues and purples in my food for antioxidants. Well, I've been fortunate enough to find a place that allows me those opportunities without leaving my house. I got purple potatoes that were grown in CO.

After a perfect meal of spinach potato cakes drizzled with tomato sauce and mozzarella it was a very polish infused dish. I had some potatoes left over so I made mashed potatoes. Oh, it is so beautiful to see Amyst color in starch. I felt decent as mashed the gem tots. Wanting to see more beauty in the bowl I decided to add sour cream to make it a lavender color. It made me happy and it delicious too! A must to bring for a spring party!

Teething

Parents have had to deal with the doom that inevitable affects every child....teething. I used to think it was painful only for the little babies, you know the crankiness, fever, unpleasant liquids coming out etc. Wrong I was, indeed.

One day about a week ago Peanut clamped down on Daddy's knee then numbed on his nose, that night he decided to take a bite at my thigh, instead of the numerous teething toys that we have for him. He does not stop at human flesh though. The crib will never be the same, it looks like a shark attacked it. I had to clean his face from all the paint chips. The texas armadillo stuff animal nose was eaten off. Be aware of the teething Peanut he may take a chomp out of you!