Quick Update

I don't know if you all are aware, but Fall is here my friends!!! It's finally cold enough for me to rightfully wear my hoodies and for my little bird to wear his footie pajamas! Score! I've been waiting for this time of year to roll around since Harvey was born. And he will be old enough to rip open presents! Does it get any better than a baby smile?

Harvey has become very very mobile in the last few weeks. He is getting really brave when it comes to walking. He stands very well on his own and is slowly but surely seeking out ways to walk. I'm not coming to terms with this yet. He's only 8 months old. He's too small to be walking, it looks silly!

We are nearing our first Halloween and I am hand making all of our costumes this year. We will be a family of owls. Owls! It's quick and easy. Cape of feathers, owl hat, and sweat pants. Quick and Easy is our way of life now. If I can't accomplish it in one hour it just isn't worth doing yet.

We took Harvey to a pumpkin patch, he's very much into slapping things, pumpkins included. So he got to sit in a pile of pumpkins and slap away! Can we say ON TOP OF THE WORLD!?!??!

I will have to upload pictures of said events later on. I'm currently speed writing this as my dough rises for our Stromboli! Yummm right? All thanks to our friends AJ and Sam for giving us the idea :) Veggie filled dough???? What in the world could go wrong?

And in closing- I'm finally back down to my pre-pregnancy weight and then even less than that! It took me every part of these last 8 months, but it feels amazing to put some of these clothes on and have them fall off.

Victory.

Life is for Learning

I feel like I've been missing a giant pot of information for the better part of my life. Having Harvey has meant a change in every part of my life. It's meant that I have really begun to realize what times are precious and what aren't.
Let me start with saying that I've never in my life been as thankful for a 10 minute shower as I am now. How many of you fellow moms have gone for at least two days without showering? I used to shower every day. I used to shave, every day. I used to just stand under the water and let every precious minute squeak by. Oh my oh my have things changed.
Now, maybe I'm a big softy and I should let him scream it out- but I can't handle it. I've tried putting him in the pack and play. He cries that "I'm being murdered" cry. I tried putting him in his walker. He stood beside of the bathroom and cried the same cry. I tried putting him in his high chair next to the shower with snacks and toys. Nothing works.
So, I resort to either taking him into the shower with me or waiting until there is another adult handy. Showering with a baby boy that refuses to be set down is interesting to say the least. I've become the master of the one handed scrub. I suppose the double shower is handy because we BOTH get clean and I get to forgo the side bend over our super tall bathtub later in the day.
It surely keeps my heart all in one piece. He thinks mommy's soapy head is hilarious and he enjoys slapping the water coming out of the shower head.  He just likes to be held. He loves his mom- some day he won't want to show it as much. So I  will be eating up every slobbery kiss, every cuddle, every hug and every single tear he sheds that is from wanting me close.

Shower? No thanks, I'll smell like I've rolled around in trash and ran a marathon before I let a moment of happiness for him slip by.

Picture Day!

J and Little Bird

 So last weekend we got to steal Darek away for a little while. Most of the time when we get to have Darek, we like to take a lot of pictures! And if it isn't pictures it is crafts. For all of you lucky readers though, we decided on a few hours of soccer and an "old time" photo shoot in our modest garden out back.

I'm currently trying to use Photoshop. For anyone out there who has gone into this program as blind as I am- you'll understand why none of these images have been enhanced. I have no idea what I'm doing in there. I just click on random things until the picture is nearly unrecognizable.















Every person on earth that has learned how to master this is incredibly impressive in my book!

Someday in the near future, more pictures will be taken. More pictures that perhaps will be edited. But in the meantime, you can enjoy my novice attempts :)

Please note Harvey's look of terror in the picture above. He did NOT like mommy jumping. It may have been the worst 30 seconds of his life as I attempted to take a picture of the four of us all together.

Note to self- wishing you had grace and the leg power to jump more than an inch of the ground does not actually give you either of those things.



Just another thought that has come in more clearly as of late. I know that I've talked before about the benefits of our family now being substantially less fortunate when it comes to money, and how many wonderful things have come from that. I just want to share a few more things. I've been walking to most every store that I need to go to.  Do you know why? To save on gas, especially now that it is almost 4 dollars a gallon. But, since I have started doing this, I weigh less than I did when I got pregnant with Harvey.

On a related note, I make dinner, lunch and breakfast every day. I do NOT go out anywhere any more to get an entire meal. ( We did splurge a little last night and go to a local cupcakery that has a date night special on Friday and Saturday. Six dollars for two coffees and two cupcakes!!) Making dinner every night leaves us both with left overs for lunch the next day.

We also can't afford to buy much outside of the fruit and vegetable department, which means we aren't eating a lot of processed anything anymore! Less money = more FRUITful life.

We are so much happier now that we don't eat garbage, we can not afford to be lazy and have a pizza night. It is glorious. I no longer have to wake up the morning after a "lazy" day and continue to feel terrible because I ate my weight in processed and grease covered food.

Here's to poverty. It's treating us well!

More of what I've learned...

Peas explosion

It seems to me that the farther into this journey I get the more knowledge I am unknowingly acquiring. Such is the case with most journeys right?

What I've learned about my six month old in the past two weeks alone is enough to blow my mind. He's starting to crawl, crawl. How did we go from a little tiny blob of love to a moving and shaking infant? In only 6 months? He's learning to walk and I can't even convince myself to go on a run...

He is so vocal, there is a lot of babbling happening these days. When he discovers a new sound he can make, he uses it all day! Today, he realized he too could sound like donald duck and has been quacking every other breathe!

He's realized how fun his bath can be, and is quickly outgrowing his little tub and now reaching for the sides of the big tub his little one is resting in. I was just bathing him and realized that some day in the not so far future he's going to be an adult himself. Can  I confess that just the thought brought me to tears? I love him so much and the thought of him being an adult tears my little heart out. I'm sure this will ease with time, but I'm not eager to let any minute slip away!

I've also realized that I have NO modesty when it comes to feeding my precious little chunk in public. I was a little weary about breastfeeding in public, but it has since become second nature. Whats it to ya if I pop out my milk maker?

He's gotta eat right?

Speaking of....I better run! He's ready to munch!

New Discoveries

Enjoying a late lunch

As we start venturing out a little more with our little bundle of joy I've noticed something that has bothered me quite a bit. Nine times out of ten there isn't a changing station in mens restrooms.
What the heck society??? Fortunately for Jason I'm almost always with him. But what about the unfortunate fellow that has wandered out to give his wonderful partner a rest and is now faced with a baby that needs a serious diaper change and has no where to go?!?!
Yes, he could go out to the car and do it in there, but why should he have to do that when women can just waltz on into the bathroom, quickly change their baby and be on with their shopping?
The only place that had a satisfactory bathroom situation was IKEA. (Of course they did, they suck you in with everything) IKEA had an entire family ROOM. So both mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, granny and pappy could come in!
All I'm saying is to toss another fold down station into the men's room. They need it just as badly as the women do.

Another new discovery? Feeding Harvey real food. WHAT?!?! How is he already 6 months old? I thought that by the time he got to this point I would feel like he was old enough to not survive on breast milk alone. I WAS WRONG! He is very preferential to his breast milk, and only occasionally will tolerate eating something that isn't that.  We've had a successful run with bananas, apples and frozen strawberries that he can suck on. Outside of that he mostly just likes to rub it all over his face. 

Who am I to keep him from utter happiness? He obviously loves to wear it! We'll see what the next 6 months brings on the food front. 

The perfect toast

I'm sitting here at 6:47 this morning feeling incredibly accomplished. I peed alone this morning- that in itself is a serious treat! I did all of the dishes in the sink that have been screaming at me for well over a week. I made a pot of coffee and poured all of its dark deliciousness into my favorite mug.

Side note on my mug- I recently purchased this mug on our trip across America. If you've read my previous blog you will note that I visited a little diner in Fort Collins by the name of Silver Grill. Again I will remind you of how much you are missing out on by not eating their cinnamon rolls- spend the 1,000 dollars it takes to get out there just to eat one. You will not be disappointed. You may never come back home. You may decide that that is the only cinnamon roll you'll ever eat again. And you know what? Not one person would blame you. You're family may throw you a giant party because of it!

Okay- back to the mug. Have you ever been to one of these "older" diners and had a mug that just keeps and keeps your coffee warm? It's this perfect thickness, it's a solid mug. Much unlike the free, yard sale, or clearance mugs that currently inhabit my cabinets. It's a dream come true mug. It's a mug that makes me think I'm living a real life novel. I am sitting at my kitchen table, though I should be showering,  and I'm drinking this amazing coffee out of a mug that will keep it warm until next tuesday!

Before I got to drinking my delicious coffee this morning I had to eat. I'm not one of those people that can just nurse a beverage in the morning and "feel full". I need food. I need food as soon as I wake up. I try and tell myself that it is because I'm still nursing and requiring the extra 500 calories a day. Who am I kidding? As long as I can remember I have always been all about food. My day is planned around when my next meal is. I have long been in love with food. So I make toast this morning.

Sunday morning at The Coffee Pot

For 24 years, I've been doing it wrong. A few months ago- with the help of our great friends AJ and Sam, we found The Coffee Pot. It is another local place that makes me feel like I'm living the dream. The place is tiny. I mean tiny. It's run by a mother and daughter and a cook. Period. That's it. No more, no less. The dining area consists of a little bar butted up against the coffee station, four tables, and three booths. The walls are a Thomas Kincaid green and everything looks lived in. You feel at home when you walk in. We go there mostly for the home fries because they sprinkle magic into them. MAGIC. I don't know what it is they do that make them crispy and soft at the same time. I don't know what kind of onion they use that gives it this amazing flavor.  But they do it, and they do it all with finesse. We occasionally order toast, and thanks to Jason I now know the secret.

How many of you just toss that toast in on a medium setting, eagerly await that terrible pop that sends you through the roof, spread on your solid of choice and go on with your day? All of you? I thought so. I too used to be a one pop kind of girl. And then I ate toast at The Coffee Pot. You'll smack yourself for not knowing this. Crank that toaster to a lower setting- let's say a two or light depending on your toaster. Push that lever down and let her rip, but when it pops- TURN THE TOAST AND DO IT AGAIN!

That's it?!?!?! That is the BIG secret that all of these diners have been doing to make their toast better than mine??! You better believe it.

Now- go forth and make toast. I've got a trip to IKEA calling my name.

What America Taught Us

The Rockies and My Family

I'm alive!! Believe it or not! And two teeth later I'm finding the few precious moments in the day to write a post. We recently got back from our trip across america- Yes thats right. Trip across America. We drove our little selves from Cleveland to Denver. Six days total of driving.

I think we all learned a little something about ourselves this trip. 

Harvey learned that he reaches his breaking point at 12 hours in a vehicle. He also learned that no matter what mommy and daddy are trying to do- he always wins. We thought that going to visit the wildlife park would be an excellent idea. A one mile walkway with nothing on it- you just get to enjoy the animals from above. I don't think Harvey enjoyed much of it at all. We made it about 100 ft in when he started whimpering. Around the half mile mark we had gone from soft screams to a full on breakdown. You'd have thought Jason and myself were escaping from one of the animals. Our legs moved so quickly that I'm almost positive they were a blur beneath our feet. We bobbed and weaved through the crowds with such fluidity- I felt like a super hero. Here we are, zooming past these animals at light speed- and do you know what? Jason still has the where with all to snap some pictures! JOB WELL DONE!

Jason learned about the glories of IKEA. I'm not sure how great or terrible this is. It's opened up our wallets to another one of those "but it's so fairly priced" splurges. We spent a total of four glorious hours roaming the gargantuan building. As my aunt says "I"m almost positive their parking garage is bigger than the airports". Harvey was in baby heaven, I wore him in the moby and he slept blissfully for almost the entirety. We filled our cart to the max almost as soon as we walked in- of course we did? Have you been to an IKEA? Have you had your eyeballs just overloaded and you automatically think you need everything you see???? WE SURE DID! Thank goodness we always re-evaluate our cart before we head to the checkout. What was I going to do with a decorative salad bowl? How many dinner parties do I really have? Do I really need 5 tea light lanterns? In the first three hours you need everything, the fourth hour you try and convince yourself whether or not these are things you NEED or things you just WANT SO BADLY YOU COULD DIE?

It was tough- but we even left under budget. We're going to the one in Pittsburgh sometime this week to get more things.

Silver Grill Cafe in Fort Collins, CO

And lastly- myself. What did I learn while on vacation? I learned that I love to feel at home wherever I am. I'm not one of those people that like to go to all of the swanky restaurants while vacationing. I like to find the diner that has been rocking out since the 1930's and sit down with the locals. Stick me where no one else thinks to go. That is where I'm happiest. I want to talk to people. I met so many people, heard so many stories. I also got to hear stories from Jason. We spent nearly 90 hours on the road the past week- and the majority of that time we got to talk to one another. When was the last time you sat down with your spouse and just enjoyed one another? Not the television, not the radio, just one another. It was glorious. I got to fall in love with him all over again. Lucky lucky me.  

I'm normally not one to boast- but I will be boastful about my boys. I have such beautiful men in my life! How did I ever get this lucky? 

So all in all- I learned I love to feel like I've always been someplace. Harvey learned that his parents love him more than anything they ever thought they'd do. Jason learned that IKEA really is what it's all about.








PS: One thing we all learned- Silver Grill has the most amazing cinnamon rolls on earth.

You will never find another one like it.