baby's birthday checklist

Balloons: Check!

Pumpkin cupcakes: Check!

Sweet baby girl on the verge of being a year old: Check!

Tomorrow is Audrey's first birthday.  A year ago exactly, I was already in bed, trying unsuccessfully to get a good night's sleep, knowing I would meet my daughter the next day.  A year ago exactly, this little person didn't exist outside of my body.  I'm so proud that we made it through this first year; it has definitely been monumental.

Robert's family will be here with us tomorrow, celebrating Thanksgiving and Audrey's birthday! 

Note: that last picture is actually a few weeks old... Our big tree has lost most of its leaves now, and Audrey has outgrown that shirt!  Things change so quickly.

Father's Day, a little late

Just as I'd expected, Robert is turning out to be pretty much the cutest dad ever.  KNEW IT.  You can read about his first Father's Day here!  We tried to make the day special for him and had a really good time doing some major relaxing at home.

Audrey will be 7 months old on Friday!  As far as babies go, I think she's.... a jock.  I don't even know how it happened, but she is so crazy physically advanced.  Part of me loves it, because she is basically already a toddler.  Part of me is terrified, because she is an almost-7 month old who can almost walk.  Which means LOTS of accidents, because she doesn't understand gravity at all.  She takes her falls pretty well, but this morning she launched herself over the side of our bed before I could grab her, and it was scary seeing her little body crumple between the wall and bed.  So scary.  But luckily she seems to be fine!  And I spent the rest of the day with at least one hand on her at all time.  Really; I couldn't even get out of my pajamas until noon.  She has a little bump on her head but has been acting completely normal... 

Audrey is a little wild thing.  I feel so happy when I see bits of her personality emerging.  Even if I'm imagining them -- like this morning when I asked her for a kiss and she sort of licked my cheek so I cheered YAY for her and it looked like she was clapping.  She totally doesn't know how to give kisses or clap yet, but I know she will soon and I am so excited about everything that's ahead for her!!

Happy Mother's Day!

BABY HUUUUUGS!

It's my first Mother's Day!  So far, it's a pretty good day.  Robert has been 100% on board with making things easy and fun for me.  Audrey didn't get the memo.  But I suppose I can forgive her.... She is awfully cute.

Mother's Day was always one of those holidays that I didn't appreciate as a kid.  What's in it for me?  Seemed like a waste!  HAHA.  It wasn't until I had a baby that I suddenly realized how hard mothers work.  It actually overwhelmed me, in the early days, to think about all the mothers before me having to go through such hardships.  Babies are HARD WORK.  It sounds obvious, but I never really quite understood until I was dealing with one 24/7.  She is a total treasure, but man.... I deserve presents.  And treats!  And pampering!

I'm totally on board with Mother's Day now.  Happy Mama's Day to all of you out there with little ones!  And those of you who aren't moms... don't forget to appreciate your own!  She worked hard to take care of you.

my, what a fancy hat you have

This is what our Easter looked like, for about 15 minutes.  I think Audrey could be mistaken for a hobbit... 

Not pictured: thinking we'd be clever and go buy discounted Easter candy at Target, only to get there and realize it was CLOSED.  We made the same mistake last year.  I told my sister about it, and it turns out she and her husband did the same exact thing (yesterday AND last year).  Must run in the family.

valentine's day, realistically

coffee and valentines

Did you have a nice Valentine's Day?  We ended up having quite a lovely day!  By some stroke of luck, Audrey woke up to eat just before 6 (as opposed to 4 or 5) and then went back to sleep.  So I was up in time to have coffee and breakfast with Robert before he went to work!  Normally I'm trying to catch up on a little bit more sleep after being up at some ridiculous hour.  We exchanged the valentines we'd made for each other a couple of days before.  It was a really good way to start the morning. 

the essential heart shaped pizza, burnt bits and all

The day went quickly: I cleaned a ton during Audrey's morning nap, and then we had a couple of new friends over to play.  (Well.. Audrey ended up napping during the play date too!  Ha!)  Robert headed home from work just a little bit early so we could hang out.  And then, best of all, he entertained Audrey while I went to Target for some essentials as well as a mini shopping spree!!  Oh yeah, my idea of a spree is a $3 clearance shirt and a new purse.  Fancy times!  When I got home, Robert had already spread out the pizza dough in a heart shape, and we had a delicious margherita pizza for dinner.  Of course, Audrey got fussy during dinner and that was a bit of a fiasco, but it was still nice.

chocolate beet cupcakes... oh yes.

After she went to bed we topped off the night with some AMAZING chocolate beet cupcakes, from this recipe.  (Oh how I love Joy the Baker!)  Robert made them on Sunday and I iced them, while we were watching Groundhog Day.  (Told you I wanted to catch up on my holiday celebrations!!) 

I think it went as well as it could have!  How did you celebrate?  I love silly holiday celebrations.  Any excuse for tasty food and sweet gestures is a winner with me.

valentine inspiration

Valentine's Day is coming up fast!  This is the first holiday I feel like I might have time to catch since having a baby -- the last few have just whizzed by without much fanfare.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, Groundhog's Day... not much time to stop and savor the festivities!  Of course, I still don't have too much free time, but I sure have spent quite a few (like, 3) moments daydreaming about making valentines.  Robert and I have made valentines for each other for the past few years.  Hopefully we'll find time this weekend to do it again! 

Here are some pictures from last year.  Since I wasn't blogging at the time, I get to recycle them.  Goody!! 

I made these decorated sugar cookies for a crafting party.

I made little heart banners from card stock!  One for myself and a few for some friends.

I made a fantastic valentine for Robert... it said You're So Wizard!

I got fancy with the table decorations!

Oh man, I wish I had the free time to do completely silly things like this now!!  Generally I find myself so busy with Audrey that I don't even have time to THINK anymore.  But I know that eventually life will slow down again.  In a few years she'll be able to do these sorts of things with me.  For now, all I can do is hang on for the ride and take plenty of pictures to help me remember these hectic days.

My Valentine!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and a sweet Valentine's Day!  Get all the hugs you can from your best friend, your boy/girlfriend, your wife/husband, a baby, a puppy... anybody!  Hold what you've got.

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday weekend!  We're having a quiet Christmas at home this year, and filling our weekend with cinnamon rolls, Harry Potter reading parties, humble little gifts, and hugs.

Dreamy Thanksgiving Foods

Startling fact: In just a couple of days, a baby will live in my house. I’m being induced tomorrow morning!  We are beyond excited. While we get settled and adjusted, it might be quiet here for a little while. I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Thursday is Thanksgiving, and hopefully we'll be coming home from the hospital that morning. My parents will be in town, so we’re going to throw together an impromptu meal.

Have you tried kabocha or delicata squash before? I like winter squash!

For those of you who have Thanksgiving plans, what’s on the menu? Look, my plans are a bit up in the air right now so I have to settle with some food fantasizing! I’ll be honest and tell you that I’ve never really enjoyed traditional Thanksgiving food. That’s not actually a secret; it’s been a joke in my family for years. While everyone else would pile up their plates with food, I usually just had a few bites of turkey and one or two dinner rolls. Dessert was the only part I cared about. But last year Robert and I hosted Thanksgiving for his family, and we came up with a menu that everyone really enjoyed!!

We ordered a country ham from Benton’s and then made a bunch of neat side dishes. [If you are a carnivore, you have to try Benton’s bacon at some point in your life. It’s made of magic.] For sides we had honey wheat rolls (so good with butter!), these awesome sweet potatoes with pecans and goat cheese, some kind of stuffed mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and a salad made with broccolini and sun dried tomatoes. And dessert? Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake. Need I say more? (Wait, I will: it has a crust made of ginger snaps!) It was awesome!

This year we’re going to keep it easy for ourselves. I’m sure I’ll be in a daze and everything will be crazy, so we might just have to wing it. But as of now Robert is planning to make a pizza… Yes, pizza! Butternut squash pizza, of course. We have to keep it autumnal around here. This is one of our go-to recipes, though we usually skip the sage and replace the gorgonzola with feta or chevre.  We’re REALLY hoping to have time to make this salted caramel cheesecake pie (just look at it!), but just to be on the safe side we bought a frozen pie for backup. Pie is pretty much the only staple for a Thanksgiving meal, in my opinion.

So what’s on your menu? Whether you go the traditional turkey route or do something a little different, I hope everyone has a lovely day and gets some quality time with family! We’ll be focused on a new little family member over here, so the food will just be a side note.

I feel like I have so much to be thankful for this year!  You know, aside from food.  Happy Early Thanksgiving!

mother's day: a dinosaur story

Today is Mother's Day here in America! Perhaps in some other places, too: it's hard to keep up with all of the different holidays. Anyhow, if it's Mother's Day where you live, remember to show your mom some appreciation! Here is my post from last year, complete with some cute photos of my mom from the '70s. This year I'm going to do something a little different. Honestly, I just want to show you some dinosaur pictures. And I figured this could somehow fall under the category of motherly things.

During the weekend of the great flood, Robert and I spent our indoors time hatching a dinosaur egg that some friends gave to us. What follows is the photo log we made so we could keep everyone updated with the latest happenings of the baby dino. Robert took about half of these pictures. Enjoy!

The experiment began Friday night. Dino egg went into the water.

This is how it looked when we woke up Saturday.

Things began happening fairly quickly.

We ate some scrambled eggs. A little pink dinosaur looked on in wonder.

Around 10 a.m., something began to emerge!

An eye appeared around noon.

Around 3 p.m. we saw what it's head sort of looked like!

Just an hour later we saw a smile!

5 p.m. - nothing much was happening, but Robert started picking at the egg.

We had strawberry pancakes for dinner. YUM! I could eat breakfast foods for every meal. Sometimes I do.

Just before we went to bed Saturday night... we'd been chipping at the egg again. Impatient!

Next morning: you can see his neck grew longer!

Sunday, 2 p.m.: A little more peeling away at the egg revealed his lumpy legs.

2 hours later: we finally took him out of the egg shell and let him just soak some more, hoping his tail and legs would get longer.

His legs got a little chunkier, but never longer! And the tail stayed stubby. After a couple days of extra soaking, we decided he was done growing. He's all dried out now!

In other news, I began working on Friday! It's just a 2-week temporary position, but already it feels so nice to keep busy all day. A little hectic after not working full-time in almost a year and a half... but I'm enjoying it! I'm still adjusting to the time constraints and not being online all day, so I may be a little scarce around here. Just a warning-- If you don't hear from me for a bit, you know what I'm up to: getting paper cuts!

As far as post-flood updates, things are going fine around our house. Still may need some roof repairs, and we're still under water restrictions [which is still driving me crazy because it means cutting back on doing dishes and laundry], but things are otherwise fine! That's just my case, however. Can't forget that there are still people in the Nashville area (and other places) who are without homes because of the flood!

spring is really really here!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! Despite the fact that our water heater has been busted since Friday (and will not be replaced until tomorrow...), this weekend actually turned out to be quite nice.

I found this duck in our front yard a couple of weeks ago. I like him, even though he needs a bath.

This is as close as we got to Easter eggs: naturally green & blue eggs from Araucana chickens!

Can I tell you a secret? I met some more baby goats yesterday. Robert got to meet them too! Oh... I guess one picture won't hurt! Any more and I might need to change the name of this blog to "baby goat."

I love you, baby goat.

I have baby goat fever. You can probably tell.

I have a big backlog of photos that I've been meaning to post here for a couple of weeks - all sorts of things! I'm going to try to get them posted this week. Sometimes my priorities just get messed up, you know? House pictures are overshadowed by the urgency to show you baby goats...