Eddie at 36 Months

I think we've hit a milestone in parenting: we definitely have a kid because now we (and the medical community) changed from referring to his age in months to years.  Three years old.  Wow.  Three years!

This birthday was special to me for the obvious reasons: we got to celebrate having Eddie in our lives for 3 years, we got to celebrate in Gualala with his Grammy and Papa, we got to have his first big kid themed party, etc.  It was also special to me (in a bitter sweet sort of way actually) because it meant that I've been a "single" parent graduate student now for as long as I was a childless graduate student.  Crazy.  I got pregnant in my third year of school, only a month or so after Dave left home to work for his dad.  Thankfully, my tenures as a "single" parent and a gradate student are both nearly complete.  (Not soon enough!)

I didn't take any pictures of Eddie during his 36 month well child appointment because it was a quick, no shots visit.  It was particularly short because he's absolutely perfect in every way and there were no concerns at all.

Here are his stats:

Height: 40" (4" taller than last year)
Weight: 33 pounds (only 3 pounds more than last year!)
Body mass index: 9th percentile (who knew they ranked that?)
Blood pressure: 92/52

Clearly, he's a tall, thin kid for his age.

This kid loves dirt.

At 3 years old Eddie:

• Has a basic understanding of time. He says "last day" for yesterday or any day that isn't today or tomorrow when recalling things that happened. He says "morrow" for tomorrow. And nearly every morning he asks me if it's the weekend since he knows that Daddy's only home on weekends.  When I talk to him about things that are going to happen I rattle off the next days until a particular event using my fingers so he can see how many days I'm talking about.  And if it is weeks or months away I'll use major events as markers ("It will be your birthday soon buddy...we'll celebrate when it is hot summer time when we go swimming a lot. And then after your birthday when we're not going swimming anymore it will be Leila's birthday.")
• Still eats 1-2 eggs every morning for breakfast and only 1/2 of whatever carb I serve (oatmeal, toast with jam, banana or zucchini bread, bagel).
• Would love to be eating a snack every single moment of the day.
• Still can't or won't sit through a whole meal.  Lately I've been bribing him with getting to go out to eat at fun new restaurants with Mama and Daddy--but first he needs to practice sitting down in his chair on his bottom during the whole meal.  He can chew with his mouth closed and not speak with food in his mouth but darnit the kid won't sit still.  It drives me crazy.
• Can reliably draw a circle (and I mean circle-ish shape) and sometimes can do a triangle and a square.  His drawings are more and more realistic--meaning that I can tell what they are (cat vs. truck vs. monster).
• Has lost interest in riding his pedal-less bike and only wants to ride my old trike around.  I think this is because our 3 and 5 year old neighbors ride pedal bikes around the court and park and Eddie wants to go fast with them.
• Has learned to express his feelings with the (nearly) appropriate words: I'm feeling shy, I'm feeling mad, I'm feeling sad.
• Whines a lot when he's over tired (or just being annoying...at least that's how it seems).  I've started giving him 2 M&Ms each night if he didn't whine at school and 2 more if he doesn't whine too much for me at home.  So far, it's totally working!
• Can accurately identify any type of heavy equipment (grader, scraper, loader, fork lift, skid steer loader, excavator, etc.).  Hearing him say "skid steer loader" and "excavator" so precisely is hilarious.  Every single time he sees any type of heavy equipment he tells me, "I want to drive that one with my Dadda.  Not with Mama cause Mama only drives the backhoe tractor."  Heehee!  I don't know how to operate the excavator up in Gualala so I only take him on rides in the backhoe.  I'm sure I could figure out any of the equipment but I like "not knowing how" so I don't have to take him on endless rides.  Shhhh, don't give away my secret!  I don't think he knows what the number 8 really means, but I told him he can drive all the equipment by himself when he's that age (since that's the age when Dave started doing it alone).  He tells me often, "I can do it all by myself when I'm 8, right Mama?"
• Alternates sleeping between the top and bottom bunks of his bed.
• Takes a bath or a shower every single night before putting on jammies (always unmatched top and bottoms because he insists on choosing a shirt and pants that never match), "brushes" his teeth using a dab of fluoride toothpaste, lets me actually brush his teeth, and then listens to me read him 2-4 books before getting into bed.  
• Gives me (or Dave) a zillion hugs and kisses on the cheek throughout the day, and especially before bed when we're tucking him in.  
• Refers to everyone he loves as "my friend so-and-so."  As in, "that's my friend Mama."
• Loves monster trucks. Dave let him have an old RC Hummer he got in college and Eddie pushes it around the house really fast.  The sound of the motor turning drives me bonkers and I try to make him play with it in the opposite end of the house from where I am.  Ruby hates it too and tries to herd (and nip) him so I usually put her in my room with the door closed to keep us all sane.  A couple of weeks ago Eddie was running that stupid truck into chairs, my feet, his toys, etc. and I kept telling him to knock it off or he was going to lose it for a day.  He says in a serious voice, "I'm DESTRUCTION!  Cause....cause...cause I'm a MAN!"  It was probably the funniest thing he's ever said.  What a boy.
• Favorite colors are blue and pink.
• Doesn't wear underpants.  This started as a potty training tactic since the sensation of the briefs confused him and he'd have poop accidents since it felt like he was wearing a diaper.  So let him go commando and he trained in a snap.  I figured he'd wear them eventually since I got him super cool Spiderman and Thomas ones.  But he found out that his friend Seth (and his dad...) don't wear underpants so he decided he didn't want to wear them either.  Fine with us, less laundry!
• Is day trained for the most part.  He still pees his pants when he's too busy to stop play but I don't care so in my book, he's trained.  
• Takes a nap from 12:30-2:30pm at school but rarely on weekends since it sort of messes up our plans and he fights it too much.  
• Sleeps from about 8pm-8am.  
• Enjoys going to the library with me every 3rd Tuesday after nap so we can check out a few books.  We read them every night until they are due and then we start with a new set.
• Hasn't been on an airplane since November of 2010.
• Has been to 8 states (CA, OR, WA, PA, NY, GA, TN, NV) and 2 countries (USA and France).
• Is able to undo all my baby proofing devices (cabinet and drawer locks and my favorite front door flip lock) but doesn't most of the time.
• Can cut food with a chef's or serrated knife but still needs practice using a table knife while eating.
• Has been in parent-participation gymnastics classes for the last 6 months and loves it.  In a week he'll start his first no-parent-participation classes.
• Finally started blowing boogers "out" his nose instead of just breathing in deeper when I wipe his nose.
• Tells me and Dave, "I really, really, really, really missed you a lot" at random times ever since he spent a week up in Gualala with Dave in August.  That's what I told him when I arrived after being away from him for 6 days.  It's sooooooooooooooooo cute.
• Finally smiles for the camera--except it's one of those exaggerated squinty smiles.  But I'll take whatever I can get after putting up with him dodging the camera for so long.
• Loves playing with my canning jar lifter/tong things. And normal tongs for BBQing.
• Has never had soda but gets to drink 1/2 cup of vanilla soy milk every day and the occasional cup of chocolate milk, orange juice, or homemade apple cider.
• Wears 5T jammies, 4T everything else, and size 9 shoes. 
• Uses the phrase "That's my favorite" or "That's not my favorite" to tell you if he likes/dislikes something.
• Has a hairy back and legs.  I commented on his newly furry legs yesterday and he said, "Yeah, like Daddy! I'm gonna be hairy like Daddy but not like Mama because you only have hair up on your head."  

Labor Day Weekend 2012

This weekend was fantastic: full of new friends, family, and fun.  

Jennifer's parents came out for a visit around the Bay and Sacramento areas.  We met up with them in Old Sac for the Underground Tour on Saturday morning.  Afterward we wandered around the Gold Rush Days festival until our lunch reservation at Joe's Crab Shack.  I haven't been to that restaurant much, but it was craaaaaaaazy loud, with random bouts of the wait staff doing choreographed dancing.  It was great fun for Eddie since the "cowboy" waiters would shoot all the "Indian" waiters at the end of the songs.  And since I'd just purchased him two water guns at the military history museum, he would also shoot the waiters (they shot him back).  It was weird and loud, but Eddie had fun and us adults got to eat our buckets of seafood in relative peace.

Eddie found the best (and I mean loudest) part of the military history museum gift shop. "Mama, you need by me a gum, a pewpew."  Sorry little man, you're still too young for a battery powered, light up pretend machine gun.  

Dave made a run to Starbucks for everyone on our way to the Capital building, where we went on a leisurely walk, sipped iced coffees, and chatted with Jennifer's parents, Bob and Barb.  It was a nice, cool time to wind down.

Since we were all still pretty full from our late lunch, we all went back to our house for wine, Bower hard cider, cheese, fruits, gluten free crackers, pesto, jam, chocolate, and more conversation.  It was really nice.  Eddie loved having "snacks" for dinner around the living room coffee table, too.

Dave, Eddie, Edward, Jennifer, Bob, and Barb

That night the Whitney parents went to their hotel and we put Eddie down for bed.  Edward offered to stay at the house with sleeping Eddie so Jennifer, Dave, and I could go downtown to see The Campaign.  We all used our half priced Fandango movie ticket vouchers and a free popcorn coupon I had from my Regal Rewards Card.  Woo!

Sunday morning the Whitneys came back to our house and we all headed downtown for a gluten free breakfast at Cafe Bernardos (huevos rancheros, yum!).  Then we walked (veeeeeeeeeery slowly since we had Eddie walking with us...) to campus and I showed them around my building and labs.  I'd forgotten my key but a nice professor who I sort-of-know let me inside when she arrived.  And of course I ran a sample since I was there anyway!

After that it was getting hot and the Whitney-Levie's wanted to take off for Napa for wine tasting.  So we said goodbye and wished them a fun rest of their trip.

I did a bunch of yard work in the front while Eddie and the neighbor kids kept me company.  Our yard looks so much better with all the dead flower stems removed from the spring's bounty.  Plus I hacked back a rosemary and potato shrubs so the walkway to the driveway is much more open now.  It was super hot while I worked but at least it got done.

Until Friday, I'd forgotten that it was a holiday today so we didn't have anything planned.  We decided to go to Lake Berryessa for a picnic and some swimming.  First we picked up some sandwiches, crackers, and cookies at Nugget Market.  While I ordered the food, Eddie and Dave went to look at the fire trucks responding to an ill lady at CVS next door.  The firemen gave Eddie a cool plastic hat, which I thought was awesome considering they were there for an emergency.

The lake was great--just hot enough that you wanted to be in the water some of the time and it wasn't windy at all (great since our umbrella wouldn't anchor very well in the soil).  

Our picnic site.

We ate lunch, played with the dogs, and I read and took a quick nap.

Eddie woke me up from my nap for a cookie...so I had one, too.

Dave and I took turns playing with/keeping an eye on Eddie.

At about 4pm we decided to pack up and go home.  I never got around to changing Eddie into his swim suit and rash guard shirt so he just played in his normal clothes.  As you can tell from the pictures they were FILTHY with stinky mud and soaked through.  So I stripped him down so I could rinse him off in the deeper water.  He took the opportunity to run around like a crazy man.  In fact, he ran after Taters who had gone over the rocks to investigate another family's delicious BBQ smells.  Since I didn't have shoes on to run on the rocks, Dave jogged up and over the hill to get the boys.  The family over there was cracking up as they watched naked Eddie run around after the dog, with no parent in sight.  

There he goes!

At one point in the afternoon while eating cookies, we spent a good deal of time and camera memory trying to get Eddie to pose for a family picture.  He was acting silly and didn't want to cooperate.  We used "burst mode" on the camera and got some funny shots.  It'd be fun to have them in a slideshow or a flip book.

This was one of the first ones and he wouldn't smile.

So instead we attacked him with kisses.

Worst Weekend Ever

Ug. This past weekend was the worst ever.  Dave was sick with a cold when he arrived at home so I spent all day Friday and most of Saturday preparing for Eddie's party all by myself.

My family was here and they shuttled Eddie off to Fair Oaks to swim in my uncle's pool so I could get last minute things done for the party.

I had rented the picnic area at the park next to our house, and good thing I did because another family was setting up a HUGE fiesta there.  Out of nowhere, I had to use what little Spanish I remembered in order to get them to move out (and I showed them my permit, paid in full).

Eddie and crew arrived just in time for the party and from the start, Eddie was "off."  He wasn't as rambunctious as he usually is and I kept telling myself it was just that he was overwhelmed by the attention and all the kids running around (we were having a pirate themed party, complete with dress up garb and inflatable swords and a treasure hunt).  After about an hour, he started to feel really lowsy but he wanted to open presents, so we suffered through all the other kids wanting to open his gifts.  I mostly let them since he didn't seem too interested in anything.

I decided to take him home when he told me he was "feeling shy" and wanted to go home to lie down--I knew he wasn't feeling good.  So he and I ditched the party and not a moment after I laid him on the couch did he barf.  Poor baby boy.  He did it a few more times throughout the rest of the evening, between boughts of guzzling (too much) water and sleeping.

Hoping it was physcosomatic, I started to feel a little queasy, too.  Unfortunately it was real and got really awful in the middle of the night (I'll spare you the details).  When I get nauseous and/or spike a fever, my body's response to the agony seems to be fainting.  And this time was no different.  I even have a bruise on my side to prove it.  Ug. UG, I said!

Clearly, this picture is upside down, but you can see the bruising from where I fell down onto the bathroom floor. Ouch.

Sunday was spent sleeping and watching Netflix in the living room.  Dave still had a cold but Eddie seemed fine.  Why do kids bounce back so fast from illness?  I'm jealous.

Monday was a bit better, but I still felt icky and super achy/tired.  I knew my back would feel better if I walked around and stood up a lot since lying down too long makes me ache like an 80 year old.  So I cleaned the house, did laundry and dishes, tended to Eddie in order to let Dave rest more to get over his cold, and we went on a walk in the afternoon with the dogs.  Bless their souls, they didn't get much attention all weekend, other than snuggling me on the bed and couch.

Complaining on Facebook last night set me straight: a nurse family friend pointed out that I probably needed potassium (I hadn't eaten much and didn't drink anything other than coke and water).  So Dave went to the store and got me the least nasty flavor of Pedialyte he could find.  Over ice, it was barely tolerable, but I guzzled it down and within 30 minutes I was feeling sooooooooooooooooo much better.  Boy, howdy.    

Eddie and I were back on our regular routine this morning, other than having bagels and OJ at Nugget market instead of a homemade breakfast.  I still couldn't handle cooking anything this morning.  Dave stayed home to get just a touch less boogery before going back to work tonight after dinner with us.

And now I'm feeling needlessly guilty about how horrible Eddie's birthday party weekend turned out.  It was the shittiest weekend (seriously) ever.  Ug.  I hated everything about it.  I didn't get to hardly even speak to my parents between the party and sickness, Eddie didn't get to have his friends sing happy birthday to him over the cupcakes Jennifer and I spent a couple of hours making (they were treasure boxes with gold coins and jewels and everything!), he didn't get to experience the joy of opening gifts at his first "big kid" party, we were all sick the whole freaking time.  UG.  Worst. Weekend. Ever.

Edward went to a warehouse in the south bay to buy those chocolate gold coins. I ate a cupcake on Saturday evening...and given what happened that night, I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to eat another chocolate cupcake ever again.  

Rumor has it that the stomach bug is all over one of the elementary schools in town (someone at Eddie's daycare goes there).  All of the teachers at daycare got sick and enough of the kids were ill that the daycare was closed on Monday.  And of course it was no one's fault we got sick when we did but I still feel tremendous guilt and sadness about Eddie's party.  I really want a do-over party for him so he can experience it the way it was supposed to happen (minus more presents).  Dave keeps pointing out that Eddie won't remember the party or the illness anyway, but that's not good enough for me: I want to make sure I do my best for my Eddie Pie.

Okay, I'm sure you've heard enough.  Once I get pictures of the party from my friend Kelly I'll write a proper post about the good things about the party (because, yes, there were some...like all our friends who came!).  Until then...

PS. I love my washing machine and Lysol. And Pedialyte.

PPS. I'm forever grateful that Dave didn't get the stomach flu, too.  Soooooooooo grateful.

Sleeping Valet

Yep.

Overworked, Underpaid

This blog has been neglected because I've been working like crazy.  I'll do a proper update later, but here's what's happened over the last couple of weeks:

1. Two weeks ago I sent Eddie up to Gualala with Dave so I could work super long hours and get DONE with my isotope experiment. While I didn't get completely done (that's happening today), I did get loads done.

2. The following weekend the dogs and I fled 105F Davis for a few days in Gualala with the boys. We stayed in a small apartment of a rental house to lower the stress level on my MIL.  It was a nice retreat.

3. I learned that organizing/packing up a child to stay in a different house for a week with his Dadda is a lot of freaking work.  And unpacking them when they get back home is also a lot of work.  Especially when there was no laundry facility at the apartment so you have to pack up TONS of clothes and then wash it all afterward. Plus, I had to plan all their meals and pack all the required food.  Like, whoa.

4. Eddie turned THREE on the 13th. WHOA.  I can't believe I have a kid.  Especially a kid who is ranked at 9th percentile for BMI and gained only 3.6 pounds since last year. He seems to have inherited his Uncle Edward's body type (which is good news!).  We were in Gualala that day, so we got to celebrate with his Grammy and Papa and we dined on wild Gualala salmon and blue cake.

I put the fish head is in my freezer to make soup later.

Enjoying his third birthday cake in the same kitchen where his daddy and uncle celebrated theirs.

5. Due poor communication between Cassie and me, I didn't have childcare for Eddie on Friday so he came to work with me.  Between his desire to color/climb up and down the stairs/play in the fountains at the CoffeeHouse/visit with my labmates instead of letting me run samples, I was only able to run 1/3 of the samples I needed to. So around noon I gave up on doing real work that day and we went home. We had a great afternoon playing with the neighbors, making lots of zucchini bread, etc.  Oh, and I gave us pedicures.

6. We went to the Yolo County Fair last night, the last night for the year. We ate crappy food and went on some lame rides. But then we bumped into some friends and some of the lameness of the fair lifted a bit.

Super slide!

8. What used to be my favorite season of the year (summer) is now my least favorite. I hate that Dave has to work more than usual, cutting down on our family time. He's so tired after logging all day that we often don't text, gchat, or talk on the phone.

9. I'm only 1/3 of the way through my stint wearing a heart monitor 24/7. I already hate it--largely because it makes me look sick and I get all these sympathetic looks when I go out. (Thankfully, no one at work looks at me or treats me any differently.)  I also dislike it because it dictates what I can wear--only pants or shorts or skirts with rigid waistbands since it clips onto the waistband like a giant pager. So I haven't been able to wear sundresses or anything fun.  Plus, it makes it hard to sleep.

8. Two of my closest grad school friends are in the midst of writing their manuscripts/chapters for their dissertations. Their stress is rubbing off on me...I've started having dreams about the awful work that writing MY dissertation will be. Weight gain, weight loss, lack of sleep, grumpy moods, no time off for family time...all of these things are in my future and I'm soooooooooooo not looking forward to it.  There are no two ways about it: graduate school is hard. Working on something so detailed, so specific, on a self-regulated timeline is hard. The worst part of grad school is realizing that YOU brought all this work on YOURSELF so there's no one to blame but YOURSELF.  Ug.  But like a really difficult backpacking trip, the view from the top can never be beat and at the end you can say "yep, I did that all on my own." And with a PhD, you also get to stay "I added to the knowledge base of the world." And that's pretty cool.

And now I'm back to work...running samples, figuring out how to cut/integrate data in R, reprocessing my isotope data with the newly-acquired correct delta value. Eddie's birthday party is coming up and I have lots of preparing to do for it--food, goodie bags, decorating the cupcakes, etc.

For the Record: Edward Can Be Domestic

Last year I posted a picture of my brother, a self-proclaimed non-helper, pushing a stroller during downtown trick-or-treating.  I really posted it for my dad, who I knew would get a kick out of seeing his youngest doing something domestic or fatherly.  

Of course, there's no kid in that stroller, but it still gets the idea across.

He was dressed up as Sherlock Holmes but ditched his coat into the bottom of the stroller because it was too hot outside.

Edward and Jennifer now live in an apartment, which has no garden or washing machine.  So they go to Livermore to use both of those suburban amenities at my parents' house...often.  Like, every couple of weeks, if not more often.  

Jennifer sent me the following picture in an email this past weekend.

Good job, Edward.

At first I chuckled at the notion of Edward doing laundry.  And then I noticed what piece of clothing he was hanging up...ahem.  No wonder he didn't mind helping!

In all seriousness, Edward does a lot of domestic chores these days.  He just prefers that someone else do them instead (who doesn't, really?).  Since he works from home, he's the one who gets dinner prepared, so it's ready when Jennifer arrives in the evening.  I have no evidence of him ever cleaning a bathroom, though, but I bet it does happen on occasion.   

Edward usually prefers to "help" in his own way:

Edward is "helping" Eddie do the dishes...

...by sitting on the chair to stabilize it.

Summer Produce: Eggplant and Zucchini

Eddie and Dave have been gone this week, allowing me to work much longer hours in the lab than usual.  The goal is to power through the remaining samples for my thermal-isotope method so I can move on to the next method (which incidentally, I actually started fiddling with this morning).  

I had a hankering for some veggie-full meals this week since it is hothothot outside.  Plus, I'm childless, so I am free to make what I want to eat without regard for what a little person might prefer.  I don't normally tailor our meals around Eddie's preferences, but if he had been here I would have also made some sort of grain/carbohydrate side because I know  he'd never eat a bowl full of 100% veggies.  

A few weeks ago in Livermore, my dad made a huge batch of ratatouille.  He made this a lot when we were kids and I remember not liking it until I was in middle school.  His version isn't the traditional layered style, but it is easy and so tasty.

As I was chopping up all the veggies (well, fruits, really), I realized I had maybe overestimated how much I could actually consume by myself in a week.  Especially since I didn't want to eat it three times a day.

Eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, onion, and garlic.

First I decided to make the whole batch and freeze half for later.  Then I decided to add some seasonings to half and then freeze it for later.  "Mmmm, Indian seasonings would be good.  Maybe just a dash of garam masala and some cumin seeds in with the sauteing onions?  Oh, and some fresh ginger. And maybe a splash of tomato sauce or yogurt to make it more soupy to soak into rice or naan."  Wait...that's pretty close to that one Indian Brinjal recipe I made last year from Allrecipes.com...

So I finally decided to make ratatouille and brinjal.

Oh man, the kitchen smelled amazing!

Here are the recipes in case you find yourself inundated with produce and want an hour in the kitchen to yield some delicious, freezer-friendly meals.  Both are gluten and dairy free (and vegan/vegetarian).  I think in each recipe, you can use any combination of eggplant and zucchini for the combined quantities stated (for example, I had tons of zucchini in my garden and hadn't bought enough eggplant so I used a lot more zucchini in each recipe to make up for the eggplant deficit).

Daddy's Easy Ratatouille with Olives

• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 bell peppers, julienned or chopped
• 2 medium eggplants (about 6 cups), prepared as below
• 3 cups zucchini, chopped
• 6 medium tomatoes (about 3 cups), peeled/seeded/chopped (I just chop because I'm lazy)
• 1 can black olives, cut in half
• Olive oil for cooking
• Good olive oil for finishing

1. Peel and cube the eggplant. Put into a colander in the sink and sprinkle with salt (be generous).  Let sit while you prepare all other ingredients.  
2. In a deep casserole or pan over medium heat, saute onions until golden in 2 T olive oil. 
3. Rinse eggplant under cold water.  (Optional: spread eggplant cubes on a dishtowel and roll it up to remove extra moisture).  
4. Add garlic to pot and stir for only 30 seconds to prevent scorching.  
5. Stir in all other vegetables. 
6. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring on occasion.  
7. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a good, flavorful olive oil  before serving (cold or warm).  

Ratatouille!

Indian Brinjal

Based on Exotic Brinjal (Spicy Eggplant) from Allrecipes.com

• 2 T olive oil
• 2 bell peppers, julienned or chopped
• 2 medium eggplants (about 6 cups), prepared as below
• 3 cups zucchini, chopped
• 6 T olive oil
• 1.5 t cumin seeds
• 1 t fenugreek seeds, crushed
• 1 t nigella seeds
• 1 t sesame seeds
• 3 T fresh ginger, minced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 onions, minced
• 2 hot peppers (optional; seeds and membranes removed if you don't want it too hot)
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce (pasta sauce is fine)
• 1 t chili powder
• 1 t coriander powder
• 1 t turmeric powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 cup coconut milk (or the whole can if you want it more soupy)
• 1 T cilantro leaves for garnish (optional)

1. Peel and cube the eggplant. Put into a colander in the sink and sprinkle with salt (be generous).  Let sit while you prepare all other ingredients.
2. Heat the 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet, and fry eggplant pieces until golden, about 5 minutes. Remove the eggplant from the skillet and set aside; wipe out the skillet with a paper towel.
3. Heat the 6 tablespoons oil in the same skillet over medium heat. Stir in the cumin, fenugreek, kalonji, and sesame seeds, and cook until the cumin turns golden, about 2 minutes. 
4. Reduce the heat; stir in the ginger and garlic, and cook for a few seconds. 
5. Stir in the onions and green chile pepper, and continue to cook and stir until the onion is golden, about 10 minutes.
6. Stir the tomato puree, chili powder, coriander, turmeric, and salt into the onions. Cook and stir over medium heat for 2 minutes, or until the oil separates. 
7. Rinse eggplant under cold water.  (Optional: spread eggplant cubes on a dishtowel and roll it up to remove extra moisture).  
8. Stir in the cooked eggplant; cover and simmer until eggplant is tender, about 5 minutes. 
9. Pour in the coconut milk; stir until blended and heated through. 
10. Sprinkle with cilantro leaves. Serve with rice or naan.

Brinjal!

I've eaten all the ratatouille so far but I hid the brinjal away in the deep freeze so Dave and I can eat it together (he loves Indian food).  I ate my ratatouille with buttered sourdough.

As an aside, I bought an Indian spice kit on Amazon last year so I could try lots of recipes without having to run to the store constantly for a small amount of some random seasoning.  I like this one because it has at least a teaspoon of each spice--enough to try a recipe once, at least, so it gives you enough to decide if you will want to buy a whole bottle of something like fenugreek or amchur powder (HECK YES).