Silas is cute, but I am spoiled.

Just when I was beginning to be proud of myself for accomplishing so much without even getting out of my pajamas, I was forced to get dressed to go to the grocery store. Stupid ginger. I was making salmon cakes from the fish we bought at the Cork market on Saturday. I could substitute onions for scallions, and leave out the cilantro and jalapeno. But the ginger! The ginger is a must.

So my beloved pj pants, with the bleach holes in the legs, which Silas has begun the poke at and say "dickle, dickle, dickle," were finally replaced by jeans at 5 pm. Silas was strapped in the stroller, and we all walked up to the Super Valu. Oh, the perils of the grocery store when you are hungry. Never has a packet of dried oxtail soup looked so tempting. Somehow we managed to buy only what was on the list, plus one small hazelnut chocolate bar for the walk home.

Upon our return we grilled the sea bream fish from the market with a tomato basil salsa. The salsa was good, but I still can't quite get the hang of cooking a whole fish. No, the cooking is ok, the serving of it is where everything gets a little mangled. Bones and skin and fish falling all over the place. You can't just pick the fish up and gnaw on it like you would a piece of fried chicken or ribs, or other tricky to eat foods. So we'll keep trying, I guess. But I won't be serving it for guests anytime soon.

Silas has been really discovering more and more about his body and the world around him. It's really fun to watch. He's been trying to climb into everything. Last night he kept trying to climb into Orrin's big bowl of popcorn. This morning, he kept trying to put his foot into little tupperware containers and slide around the kitchen. While we finished making the fish cakes, he climbed into the bottom drawer in the kitchen and sat among the rolling pin, pastry blender, wire whisks, and spatulas. In the drawer, he discovered the paintbrush I use for basting, and proceeded to "paint" the cabinets and floor. He's so cute when he tilts his head to look at things upside down.

So, I should tell you a little bit about the market. It's an open air, European style, market with fresh fruit and veggies, butchers, fish mongers, olive stand, chocolatiers, and bakers. Coming to Ireland as a vacation, I would have been completely in love with this place. "Look organic figs! Oh, fresh prawns and scallops! Let's get some chocolate truffles!" The smells, the sights, the crowds of people, the accents, I would have been charmed. I should have been charmed, yesterday. But instead, I said, "Well, that was underwhelming." Yes. I am a complete brat.

Before we went to the market, we stopped at Ballymaloe Restaurant for lunch. It was a splurge, but it was really, really, good. Part of the draw for the restaurant is that he vegetables come from the Ballymaloe Farm itself, and the remainder of herbs, meats, and cheeses are sourced locally from family farms. Silas was even well behaved through the two and half hour long lunch. He did try to poke holes in the Irish linen table cloth with a dessert fork, and ate several spoonfuls of chocolate ice cream, but I can actually say that lunch was fairly relaxing. Who would have thunk, relaxing! in a restaurant! with a one year old!