Mateo has his own very cool dancing style. Check it out.

Mateo Dance from Mateo Aguero on Vimeo.

I made this cake for Matilda’s birthday! Its a savory cake containing smoked salmon and other goodies. She didn’t eat it, but she enjoyed helping me decorate it.

Recipe:

1 load of white sliced bread
smoked salmon
4 boiled eggs
sour cream
cream cheese
capers
honey dijon mustard
mayonaise
carrots
cucumber
parsely

Make stacks of 5 slices of bread and trim off crusts. Ideally, all of the bread will be the same size.
Put 3 slices of bread in a row. Put some mayo on the bread.
Put a layer of smoked salmon and then top with honey mustard.
Add a layer of bread with some mayo.
Add a layer of sliced/mashed boiled egg and capers.
Add another layer of bread slices with mayo.
Put a layer of sliced cucumbers (I cut mine into semi-circles)
Put mayo on both slides of the next layer (to protect bread from cucumber moisture).
Add another layer of smoked salmon and honey mustard.
Top off with final layer of bread.

Get an electric mixer and mix and equal quantity of sour cream and cream cheese. Beat till smooth.
“Ice” the “cake” with the “frosting”.

Decorate with capers, carrots, cucumbers, eggs cut into shapes. You can also use radish, boiled shrimp, more smoked salmon. Be creative!

Slice and serve!

Mateo is 3! 2011 was a busy year! He started a new preschool and we are amazed by all the things he has learned. He knows the names of 10 kinds of dinosaurs, his colors, he knows a lot of numbers by sight and can sing so many songs.

He loves cars, dinosaurs, animals and horses and idolizes his sister. He hates to eat. Its a constant struggle to get food in him, but he keeps growing. He is one of the tallest kids in his class.

2011 was a great year for Matilda! Her art continues to amaze us. She has developed a love of cooking (and eating) and takes great care of her little brother.

She continues to question the world around her and is very exited to turn 5! Her favorite color is still pink. She likes to listen to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. Her dancing is amazing as ever. Her favorite book at the moment is “Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe”.

Here is a pic of her from New Year’s Day looking all grown up.

I highly recommend the book Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein. In it, she explains why manufacturers of toy and baby gear make stuff in pink and blue. And the answer (no surprise) is that it causes us to buy more stuff.

For instance, my daughter got a gift of blocks in pink. The regular, multicolor set, has a picture of a boy on the package. This is cearly a ploy to get you to buy one set of blocks for boys and another for girls.

If you must buy things in pink, do it for things that are for use by one kid only, like pacifiers. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and buy things in neutral colors that work for boys AND girls. If the package is too girly, remove the toy from the box and repackage it in a neutral box.

We finally got Mateo to wear his Halloween costume this year! He was superman and had a great time trick or treating!

For Halloween this year, Matilda was a superhero called “Superstar”. She loved this costume!

Trick or treating was brief. It was freezing and there was snow everywhere. Half of the homes in our area had no power!

Mateo is an amazing swimmer. He is a complete natural — unafraid to put his face in the water. He bravely would hold onto the side of the pool until he could do it and he basically taught himself to swim. Here is a video from the summer of his swimming.

Swimming from Mateo Aguero on Vimeo.