trying to get a few more minutes of sleep

for the past month or so henny has been waking up around 5 or so. sometimes earlier, sometimes a very few minutes later. this wouldn't be so bad if we didn't feel like we had gotten comfortably past the whole baby-being-up-in-the-night thing. i guess we had gotten used to sleeping until a luxurious 6am. 

the new sleep routine coincided with henny's new found ability to crawl and the sun rising around 5. i guess it's a combination of his room (which faces the sunrise) being very bright and his new love of life and movement. so on the worst days i have found myself nursing him before 5am. not back to sleep, mind you, just to quiet him for a few minutes before we begin the day! 

we just went with the flow for a bit but recently decided that we need to do something. D had a brilliant idea: curtains! we already had blinds on the windows but they were useless against the sunrise. but of course we can't just go out and buy curtains because i have the delusion that i should make them. but first, we decided that we must test the theory. so, up went the quilt. the room was instantly dark dark dark. 

and guess what? we have actually snuck out about 3 extra minutes of sleep, each day, for the past week and today i got henny up to nurse at a wonderful, extravagant 5:48 am. how about that?

obviously the later sleep is the best part of this saga, but a close second is the absolute beauty of the quilt on the window. the way the light shines through, i'm sure it's better than any curtain we will get.

spring happenings

we have just finished up a wonderful long and relaxing weekend. it seemed that each day stretched on longer than the last and we not only got more things done, but amazingly felt more relaxed. it didn't hurt that our weekend included a child-free dinner which was heaven.

it is always our goal to have our vegetable garden planted by memorial day weekend. we have had quite successful gardens for maybe 7 years. dating back to the runned down apartment where the little garden was the nicest thing within a hundred yards. now we have three nice raised beds filled with all the essential salsa ingredients, plus tons of other favorites. this year we added a new little box, the "kid garden" (this name is to soften the blow when it comes time for the big sister to begin to share it with the little brother- brilliant!) bee chose what she wanted to plant. she has a very interesting variety including red cabbage, broccoli, onions, carrots, nasturtium, watermelon, cantaloupe and snapdragons (sunflower seeds were almost planted today but then we had a bit of a tantrum that stopped our planing session). it is going to be insane soon, it's so tightly planted. but it will look so beautiful.

in other growing news, the pea castle we built a while back is really booming. we built a teepee-like frame with some grapevines woven in and then planted peas at the bottom to grow up. the peas are supposed to grow 15' so the idea is that it will be a castle of peas by the end of june. so far, so good:

the other big spring news is our new neighbors. we had been watching some robin eggs in a nest, on our neighbors steps (yes, right on the steps, weird.). and last week they finally hatched. in the last week we have probably been to visit the babies about 15 times. it is so exciting and amazing, although i do have to admit that the babies are a little hard on the eyes.

the mom, keeping the freshly hatched babies warm

the babies.

little shutterbug

lately bee has taken an interest in the camera. i have let her take a few pictures here and there but in the last few weeks she has been asking more and more to take pictures. she goes around looking for things that look interesting. the things she decides to shoot are usually things that i would never think of. and sometimes the pictures come out pretty cool. and most other times they are a little crazy and out of focus. the best part is that no matter how they come out they are undeniably her perspective and at her height. 

all this camera enthusiasm has led us to decide to fix up our old digital camera for bee's fourth birthday. all it needed was a battery (thanks ebay!). it's nice and sturdy, but pretty simple and small. pop a few stickers on it and i think it will be the best present ever! now we just have to keep it a secret for the next 3 months while we hear endless begging for "my own camera"!

here are some of bee's pictures that i like best:

baby's first pizza

another week, another crazy weight loss plan. since henny was born i have had a revolving list of ideas on what will get be down to my ideal weight. no dairy, serious calorie counting, mountain climbing.... i am consumed with the idea that i need to get down to a certain weight/size/look. i know that i have a long way to go, but i also have a strong belief that i can get there. that's why i always have a new plan! it's my positive attitude!

so, this week my plan is eating dinner earlier. ever since bee was a baby we have eaten dinner after bedtime. it is so pleasurable to cook a meal together and eat it uninterrupted. we have always been quite lucky to have from 7 o'clock on, most nights. it is our special time and the meal was a big part of it.

but i had a brain storm the other day that maybe we could drop a few pounds if we ate dinner at a normal time. on the average night we would eat around 7:30 or so, but sometimes later. now i have seen enough weight loss articles in magazines and segments on the today show to know that this is a big diet mistake. so, now we eat earlier, all together, at 6. 

that brings me to the point of this post.

baby pizza.

last night we had pizza (healthy pizza for me and D). bee made her own and we decided to make one for henny. it was about the cutest thing i had ever seen. bee stretched the dough to about a 3" circle. i topped it with some pureed spinach and cheese. it looked just like pizza! and of course henny gobbled it up. i know he probably doesn't know but he did look so proud eating a big kid food!

*this post is brought to you by the box of wine in the fridge. note: this is the first box of wine that we have had in at least 4 years.*

taking the whole band-aid obsession to a new level

today bee got herself deep into a project that was entirely self motivated and created. as i scurried about in the kitchen unloading grocery bags, making lunch and simultaneously tossing o's at a screaming baby dinosaur, bee busied herself with making her own band-aids. 

this project is directly rooted in bee's passion for all things medical, especially band-aids. not a day goes by when she doesn't ask, beg, even cry for a band-aid for all sorts of injuries, real and pretend. today's project is the type of thing that i love to see bee do. it's so creative and she is so invested in it because it is all her idea. she didn't ask me for a bit of help. in fact i had no idea what she was doing and when she was done she came out to the kitchen to show off her nice, big band-aids. 
one has a self portrait of bee, and the first initial of her middle name. she said she thought of the design because she once had a barbie band-aid and so "i liked that one with a girl on it and i decided to make one with a girl, so i made a picture of me." i find that unbelievably cute on so many levels. i'm not ashamed to admit that the main reason i like that statement is that i'm proud that bee doesn't know barbie's name. yet.

the back of the band-aids have tape to hold them on and a nice soft piece of tissue in the center for the boo boo part. to me, it's genius.

we are officially old

the big news here is we got a new vacuum today. before today we had a vacuum that was purchased over 5 years ago from a salesman at sears who was clipping his fingernails the whole time we talked to him. that's all i really remember about the experience. i'm pretty sure we bought the vacuum because it was a cool color and a brand that we had heard of. not too smart. from the instant we bought that vacuum home we hated it. i mean really hated it. it sucked in ways that we could never imagine. (*insert vacuum "sucking" pun*)

so it was no sad day when the thing finally blew up. i inadvertently got the string to my sweatshirt sucked up into the thing and something started smoking a bit and it made a horrendous sound. and the vacuum is history. D took it apart and gave it a very brief once over because we all knew that nobody wanted it fixed.

mere hours later we came home with this beauty. and life is good.

first morels 2008!

i arrived home late tonight to find these little beauties. 17 morels. this is big and exciting news around here. i am currently frying them up with some asparagus "borrowed" from the neighbor's garden (they're in canada, so it's not so bad). horray for a dinner grown within miles of our home!

our new little guy

in these last few weeks henny has had all sorts of new developments. sometimes it seems as if he does something new each day. i looked back at bee's baby book and it seems that she was the same way around nine months (nine months??!). she crawled, clapped, waved, cruised and pulled up. so, i guess it shouldn't be a surprise, seeing as though we have done this before. even so all these things seem to have snuck up on us. maybe it's henny laid back attitude and his second child status. whatever it is, he is suddenly a new type of baby. and we are loving watching him blossom.

of course the most obvious and life changing development is the crawling. henny is everywhere and anywhere now. he officially has the crawling thing down and there is no stopping him, much to his sisters dismay. 

in other news. henny's hair is officially out of control. i will hold out longer, but it's becoming more clear that a haircut is going to be in his future. i mean, seriously, look at it.

in the last few weeks henny has popped out a bunch of teeth. he had just the bottom two for months, but now the count is up to five. most shockingly, his front top teeth are really shooting in fast. he already looks different, check out those chompers!

and the final development is the one that i love most, the one that has my brain all mushy and my heart bursting. the wave. often accompanied with a sweet "baaa" (bye). currently i cannot carry on a conversation while holding henny because he will at some time wave at something, someone or nothing at all. and when he waves i dissolve into a ball of mushy gushing. i try to maintain a good front but inside i am dying to interrupt with, "oh my god. do you see that? henny waves now. look! isn't it the cutest thing you ever heard? and he waves at shoes and plants and his sister. and sometimes he says 'baaa', and that means 'bye', i'm sure of it. i think that's his first word. oh my god. isn't it cute? look! he's still doing it!" of course i don't say all that. except to D, who feels the same. but really, isn't it the cutest thing?

red lentil love and how i won at life today.

some days i am a winner at this domestic goddess role, some days not. i am happy to report that today i'm on top! it was one of those days where everything falls together, good naps, good attitudes, and the right mix of ideas and motivation. 

the real key in my self satisfaction today was our meals. i had a good portion of alone time this morning where i actually made good use of the time (read: didn't browse the internets). i made a big batch of rice for the week and a big pot of red lentils. this is always a good thing. i'm never that good at the whole big meals/leftovers thing but every time i do it right, i wonder why i don't do it more. 

anyhow, lunch ended up being a healthy and delicious plate of brown rice topped with fresh local asparagus and veggie italian sausage. i sauteed the asparagus with sea salt and walnut oil. fabulous.

so then i saved the lentils for dinner. i may have overcooked them, or maybe they are just mushy. i don't know because this is the first time i cooked them. they were pretty much a pile of mush, delicious mush, but mush nonetheless. so i decided they would be perfect for veggie burgers. no mashing required!

we threw in a few things: some vidalia onion, soy sauce, veggie juice, a clove of garlic, egg and enough flour to make it seem like it would hold together. we fried them up and they ended up being a bit more pancakey than burgery, but they tasted great. 

i put them on top of some lettuce with seasoned rice vinegar on it (i love you sushi su!) and topped them with some avocado and a blob of pesto. healthy hippy goodness.

now, after that low cal, low fat, high fiber dinner, i think i'll treat myself to a bedtime bowl of bee's cocoa crispies. 

mother's day

we're just wrapping up a great mother's day here. it is my first as a mother of two and it was a great day. it started out with a couple of extra hours of sleep, which was nice since henny was up a lot of the night. i woke up to an amazing breakfast, better than any restaurant. D prepared an omelet with brie, lox, caramelized onion and mushrooms, oven roasted potatoes, roasted tomatoes with pesto and feta and toast. it was devine. D took care of everything today, every diaper, every tantrum, every dish. it was such a treat.

certainly one of the highlights was the card that bee made for me. she is very into writing and "reading" right now. she loves practicing her letters and trying to spell. this card is a perfect example of where she is at right now. and the words are right out of her mouth. i love it.

"mom it's mother's day to you. thank you for each day. i love you."

and here it the inside:

that's a picture of me, in case you could tell by the hat and crazy hair!

in bloom

what was almost as exciting as five days on a foreign island was coming home to a new land. when we left everything was coming up, new growth everywhere. but five days later everything is just so green and so full of blossoms and buds and color. the first morning we woke up at home (which was actually a few hours after really arriving home) we popped our boots on and headed out to the yard first thing. we didn't even eat breakfast, just went out to see what the yard had done.

there were dandelions everywhere the apple and pear trees were in full bloom, the peas were inches taller, the roses had started spinning around the fence, the black-eyed susans were peeking some green feathers out of the ground, the lettuce greens were almost ready to eat and the grass was sure high!

bee spent quite some time gathering ingredients and preparing the most beautiful soup:

and after lunch we went for a walk down to the dingle where bee picked every dandelion there and back. i think they make the most beautiful centerpiece we have had in a while!
and finally, in nature news, the hunt for morels is officially on. the calendar states that last year's crop peeked out on the thirteenth, so it will be any day now. this is big excitement around here!

return from paradise

i'm still in that loose muscle, fuzzy brain kind of feeling that comes from several days on a tropical island. it goes without saying that it was an amazing experience. our family has never felt so pampered and special. we ate, we drank. and in the end we paid a whopping $62. thank you saab. seriously, thank you saab.

i don't really know how to recap this trip. it was the first time we have flown with children, D's first time in the tropics, and our only experience with truly being waited on hand and foot since being adults. but here are a few observations that will hopefully help us remember in the future. 

• in aruba they don't recycle. this may seem alarming (which it is) but in some sick way it was a nice break from trying to single handedly save the environment.
• if you bring a three and and half year old to a butterfly farm, don't be surprised if you are disappointed with the reaction. she may hold her arm out for the first fifteen minutes begging butterflies to land on her. and then when one does, she may cry and scream until she is shaking to leave. "i just don't like the butterflies landing on me." typical.
• if you are out of the country, be sure that your baby will finally learn to crawl. he obviously didn't receive a memo somewhere along the way.
• somewhere along the way, in our travels, i began referring to our second born as "the baby". i am puzzled and alarmed by this discovery. ex: at a restaurant, "it will be four, three and 'the baby'", etc.
• there is nothing like an american-magnet resort in the caribbean to bring all sorts of body image issues bubbling to the surface. on one hand, you will feel very fit and sexy. on another, much darker and sadder hand, you will feel very pale and saggy and uncool.
•  swimming at night with your young family is about as wonderful as life gets.
• never underestimate the power of some swans, a few lizards and a couple of parrots. this is instant wonderment to a young child, and even the parents.

finally, i don't even know where to begin in adding a picture to this post. there are so many to choose from. i think that in the sake of simplicity, i will leave it at this:

we got there!

bringing that valley, hippy, baby-wearing family style to what may as well be south america!

and loving it.

we just have to get there.

this past week has been full, overrun, with planning, packing and general insanity leading up to our first international trip as a family. there has been much excitement and some nervousness. and through it all, i have had my own personal mantra, "we just have to get there". my thinking has been that the trip itself would be great, once we were there. the driving, lines, waiting, flying, more driving, it all had me a bit frazzled. 

we just have to get there.

turns out that truer words have never been said.

here are the kids, troopers, at 3am. we were just leaving our house. excitement abounded. giggles and squeals all the way to the airport. 

here are the same kids, still troopers, six hours later. notice they are back in their car seats (asleep), and back home after learning that "our plane is broken. trip cancelled" (-bee).


and here are the parents, waiting for the kids to wake up so we can go out to breakfast. notice we aren't too psyched.


so, we are going to do it all again tomorrow. and the kind people on the other end of our journey have extended our trip an extra day and the shitty airline has changed our return flight to allow for the extra day. at no charge. aren't they lovely.

that sun and sand is going to feel good and hard earned tomorrow.

we just have to get there.