Sit! Sit there!
That is something I say now.
I try to be an excellent host when possible.
I even make sushi for my farm animals.
Mrs. Pigglesworth gets cranky if she doesn't get her futomaki.
That dog can eat more wasabi than I can.
After sushi-slopping the pigs, I like to go outside and play with bubbles.
BUBBLES!
Then I wander around the neighborhood and steal rocks.
Dad tells me not to, but I pretend I don't understand him.
This is Grace, my friend down the block. She has the only kitty who doesn't run away from me. (Hi, Simone!)
We went back to Kangaroo Kingdom for my two-year Happy Day!
(Don't call it a "birthday." That bugs me for some reason.)
Grandma Marianne made an amazing potamus cake for me, Riley Potamus.
Mom set it on fire, which I found to be in questionable taste.
Nobody else really gave it a second thought, though.
We blew out the candles. Only you can prevent hippo fires!.
We also played a lot. Dad says there's just one group photo. "Period."
He gets like that. Dad takes the photos that dad wants to take.
He wanted to take this photo of my friend William.
And here is my friend Noah.
Connor helped me out on the slide. (Grandma Marianne made tutus for all the girls and capes for all the boys. I'm in no mood to hear your theories about "heteronormativity," regardless of whether you're a grad student or a barista. )
And Zack ran around a lot.
Ba ha ha ha ha!
Here's Noah again.
Here's my buddy Izzie.
You all know Clara, of course.
We took a break to eat some Happy-Day sushi.
It's all the rage among the toddlers of highly educated middle-class paper-pushers.
What?
This is what was left after a swarm of toddlers (and some paper-pushers) got to it.
Better snag a carrot one before they're all gone.
Here's Walker.
And here's Rosie. I was at Rosie's second Happy Day party a few weeks ago.
Celia goes to daycare with me.
And here's Izzie again.
Here's Isabella. I think I'll call her Bella so I don't confuse her with Izzie.
Oh yeah--my kid sister, Zoe, showed up.
She slept the whole time.
This is Megan.
And here's Rosie again. I was going to make a joke about Dad using color film for this one, but I have no idea what that is.
Ridley goes to daycare with me too. (No, there is no Ripley there.)
Here's Megan again.
At one point, she found herself trapped under the Parachute of Terror. I thought she handled it pretty stoically.
Emily gave me lots of airplane rides.
This is the kind of thing that happens on your Happy Day.
Do you know what else happens on your Happy Day?
It's a really good thing. I was waiting all day for it.
BUBBLES!
Let's give a hand to the good people at Kangaroo Kingdom for making all of this possible. See you again next year on my Happy Day!
I'm often asked what a vegan toddler in Boulder eats.
So I thought I'd give you a tour of one of my favorite lunches, so you could see that we're not so different after all.
Today we're having avocado sushi, soy macaroni and cheese, and pickles. (I already ate the avocado.)
Om nom nom nom!
Dad said this wasn't sufficiently nutritious, so we added breakfast cereal. Here's the closeup. You'll note there's ketchup too. There's a perfectly good explanation for that.
Mom says that because I'm a vegan toddler, I don't put cow milk on my cereal. It would anger the god of vegan food.
Instead of using cow milk, vegans dip their cereal in ketchup, which is totally vegan--so it makes perfect sense.
Let's see about this.
Hmm ...
Yep--delicious!