Saturday, June 30, 2012

How quickly I fall out of the habit.

Its been a fairly typical busy week around here. Work meetings, yoga classes, morning spent in court, take-out burritos...

The munchkin had his first swimming lesson on Tuesday... which mostly consisted of him holding on to me for dear life while I walked him around the pool and sang silly songs.

Today is being spent organizing the basement, which has meant pulling everything out and sorting it into piles on the driveway and lawn in such a way that it appears we are having a yard sale (as numerous people have asked us... we even ended up selling a lamp.

Right now the munchkin and I are taking a break for a snack.  He is nursing and I am having some much needed coffee.

And because every post should have a picture of a cute kid... I give you the munchkin practicing downward facing dog!


Sunday, June 24, 2012

Lazy Weekends

I love lazy weekends.  I don't get nearly enough of them. Our family is normally on the go-go-go, but this weekend was very laid back and refreshing.

Saturday I slept in... until 9am.  It felt amazing. The munchkin may not be the best sleeper, but one thing he does do great with is sleeping in the mornings.  Normally I get out of bed while he is still asleep so that I can complete all those tasks that I can't do with him running around, and at least a couple times I week I take a yoga class while Micah stays in bed with him... but I Saturday I slept until he woke up.  It felt decadent.

Michelle and I went to the fabric store on Saturday afternoon because I had a coupon that was about to expire. I picked up some lining to make a dress with a pretty poplin I had in the closet, some rainbow variegated bulky nylon for my serger, and some cute soft drapey jersey fabric to make another comfy little dress.

Saturday evening we headed out to diner with some friends and hung out at their house watching the Muppet show and the Glee project and let the baby run amok in their living room. 




Sunday I got up early and left the munchkin sleeping next to Micah while I took that drapey black fabric and made a super comfy little black dress with rainbow rolled hems.  I forgot to take a picture and the munchkin just smeared guacamole all over me... so it is going to have to wait until I do another load of laundry.

We spent some time at the lake in the state park this afternoon.  This time we brought toys for the sand and the muchkin loved digging.  He is still not so sure about the water.  He does ok if I'm holding him but he gets nervous easily.  He wanted to nursing constantly.  I eventually sat on the edge of the water and let him nurse, and he splashed with his free hand while he nursed.  He started to get a little chilled from the water so we headed home and he crashed asleep in the car.  I was able to transfer him to the bed without him waking up (yes!) and while he took a nap Michelle and I went to a movie with Laurel and Ian stayed home getting some work done while the baby slept. 



We went to see Brave, which was cute, but not pixsar's best.   After the movie we all took a walk in the park.  The munchkin explored the playground and we put him on the swings for the first time.  He was all smile for about to minutes and then he looked at me and started to sign milk over and over so it was time to get moving.

Speaking of signing over the last few days he's picked up the sign for food and the sign of please and is stringing signs together to make sentences.  more please, milk please, food please.  It is so adorable.  He may not say many words but this kid is certainly learning how to communicate.

I am now relaxing with a glass of wine while the baby plays his storybook with his nana and pepere's voices over and over and over.

Good night!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

summer sizzles

I meant to post when I got home from our adventures yesterday but I ended up going right to bed.  So here goes... Hooray for Fridays.

I snuck out of bed early to do actual work that I can get paid for yesterday instead of doing something more interesting like yoga or sewing, but it actually felt nice to be productive. 

Once the muchkin was up my productivity dropped but I still managed to find time to do a little sewing yesterday.  A few weeks ago I bought this wonderful dress at the Paradise City Arts Festival.  I justified its rather pricy tag by telling myself I could copy it to make more cute summer-y dresses.  I had a ton of this really cute cherry fabric I found for $1.25 a yard at Osgood's Textiles a couple months ago.   This came together so quick- 4 seams and rolled hems on all the exposed edged.  Super cute and super easy.  I think the shape is really flattering. 


Modeled by my adorable wifey

Friday evening, we went to Tanglewood to see Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. One of the best things about living in Western Mass is that we have such easy access to wonderful art, music, and dance. Tanglewood is one of my favorite parts of the summer.  I love that they are kid friendly. It was awesome to see so many kids there last night.  The munchkin had a blast- playing in the grass, enjoying our picnic, and dancing to the music. The concert was amazing and thankfully the rain held off and it was a beautiful evening. 





A reporter for a local newspaper interviewed us about what had brought us to Tanglewood that night and she asked if it was the Munchkin's first time to which we replied "nope we had him here at about 4 months."  Here's proof.

Today is mountains of laundry and then going out to dinner with friends.

Off for more adventure.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Scramble

It is still ZOMG hot.  I didn't have to be in court this morning, so I carefully snuck myself out from under the baby at 6am and headed to Heartsong Yoga for their awesome 7am Morning YogaFlow class.

When I got home the munchkin was still sleeping in bed next to Micah, but when I started moving around the bedroom he began to stir so I got him up and ready for the day.  Micah had a work meeting this morning so it was the Munchkin and I for the morning.  Once Micah came home from his meeting we headed to the mall on a quest for a kiddie pool and a few other things.  We found a decent sized, not-to- expensive pool but didn't get much else on our list.

The baby napped in the car, so instead of waking him we drove around a little longer and picked up some burritos to go from a local place, Bueno y Sano before heading home. Rice, beans, and guacamole... how can you go wrong?

After some debate about where to put it, Micah and I set up the kiddie pool on the lawn and got the munchkin in it to try and cool off.  He wasn't so sure what to make of it, and was only really interested in it if he was able to sit on my lap.  He did start to splash the water which eventually led to being a little more daring and walking around and splashing with both hands.  Tomorrow is also supposed to be pretty hot so I think we will try again and see if he gets even more adventurous.

This evening was the first of this year's Hartford Marathon Foundation's X-Treme Scramble 5ks.   I did it with our friend Laurel, while Ian and Connor cheered us on.  It was a billion degrees but the race crew was super prepared to keep everyone safe.  They altered the course slightly to keep it in the shade as much as possible, they had plenty of water stops, and had a wonderfully refreshing water misting tent at the finish line.  We took it slow, not going for any records, but had a great time.  I just love races, and HMF always does a great job.  There is something about the energy of a road race that always puts me in a good mood... especially road races that end in free beer!

 Enjoying a post-race snack.  I never eat without sharing anymore. 

Relaxing 
Hanging with Dad-E



 
Munchkin's turn to run!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Too darn hot!

I've been meaning to start blogging again for quite some time now.  I had been waiting for the right moment, or the right idea, but I decided that today was as good a day as any... so here goes!

It is a billion gazillon degrees here in Western Mass (ok... more like 98... but that is still really hot) Hooray for summer.  When I got home from court this morning I decided it was too sticky to do any more work and the munchkin and I needed to go swimming.  So Munchkin, Micah, and I packed up some towels and headed to the state park.

The munchkin wouldn't let go of me for very long but did seem to enjoy splashing and playing in the sand.  I think next time we need to go prepared with snacks and toys for the sand.  The lake was full of people enjoying the water.  We even bumped into another crunchy mama who recognized the munchkin's swim diaper as a cloth diaper and talked about breastfeeding her 3 year old. 







Unfortunately we couldn't stay very long today, since Micah had a work meeting.  Once we got home the baby crashed asleep and I was able to get him to nap in his room, which is a minor miracle.


I took advantage of my baby free time by making some tasty cucumber dill soup.  We got dill in our farm share on Tuesday and I thought chilled cucumber soup would be perfect for dinner.  It came out quite yummy and uses my newest favorite way to make food creamy and rich- cashew cream! yum.



Vegan Cucumber Dill Soup:

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion diced
5 garlic scapes diced (regular garlic would be fine, but we had so many scapes from the farmshare)
5 large cucumbers chopped
8 cups veggie broth
1/2 cup fresh dill
1/2 cup of cashews
salt to taste

Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until soft, then add the cucumber and saute a few minutes until it starts to soften, add the dill.  Add the veggie brother and simmer until the cucumber is soft.  Take about a half cup of the liquid and use it to puree the cashews.  I do this with an immersion blender but you can use a regular blender as well.  Add the cashew cream and stir.  Then blend it all up and salt to taste.  Refrigerate and serve chilled.



The Munchkin loves anything he can spoon feed himself!

Once I was done making the soup, I got some granola bars ready for the dehydrator.  They are still going as I type this and the smell of oats and chocolate is totally taunting me.

Once the baby was up from his nap we attempted to go for a walk with the dog but it was just too darn hot, so we headed inside and played blocks and read about diggers.   I failed at this weeks attempt to score a Twinkie Tush Cloth Diaper which is always sad but probably good for my wallet.  Micah came home and we enjoyed our chilled cucumber soup and now were are watching one of our favorite guilty pleasure tv shows... so you think you can dance.

Goodnight!