Scott and Nemmie's Amazing Adventures

Weekly Update

2010-08-22T20:35:00.000-05:00

This picture, it looks much better on our new blog.

Follow us there! No more posting on this one, so if you want to keep up on our mundane lives you better update your bookmarks and RSS feeds, folks...

http://scottnemmiefamily.wordpress.com/

FIN.

Weekly Update 8.15.10

2010-08-17T09:35:00.002-05:00

Be prepared, ladies and gents: I have started building a WordPress blog; the picture sizes are a vast improvement and the publishing software is DIVINE. We shall move later this month, probably. Once I tidy it up a bit and get it to my liking. So get ready to change your feeds...

Okay back to the good stuff.

This past week was busy, as usual. Lots of errands, lots of cleaning. Peter and I met up with friends for Happy Hour one evening.

Friday we served as test subjects for a new business venture some dear friends of ours are trying out :) We hope all turns out well, will be sure to display the goodness on the blog once we get word back on things.

The weekend was spent in Scott's hometown - they were having their annual town festival, and we arrived just in time to watch the parade. It was the first one that Peter was able to participate in, hanging out near the street. He had fun collecting candy.

He also loved watching all the vintage cars cruise down the street.

Assessing his loot pile.

...And then a Blue Bell ice cream truck showed up after the tractors, and was handing out ice cream sandwiches to the crowd. ICE CREAM SANDWICHES, PEOPLE. Peter was in heaven.

After the parade we chatted with Grandma Mueller and Great-Uncle Bus for awhile. Peter also found an abandoned balloon, and adopted it as his own (I mean, of course).

It was pretty hot and humid.

Great Uncle Bus gave Peter's hat a try.

We headed to the park and grabbed some burgers at the Boy Scout tent (manned by Grandpa Mueller and his crew), then headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house to have lunch - the heat was a bit much to eat at the park. After lunch Peter was able to watch a train going by out the window.

Saturday we played around, then Scott and I had a nice dinner and met back up with our friends Cody and Kirsten at the park. We watched fireworks and chatted for awhile before heading back to hit the sack.

Sunday was a lovely, lovely day weather-wise. At first it was mild and sunny, so Peter and I headed outside to check out the farm. He had a blast.

Dad joined us at one point, and the boys poked around together.

Sunday afternoon we headed to Hutchinson, met up with Eric for a little bit to chat, then had some lunch. It was pouring rain, which cooled things even more. It was soooo nice. We headed back to the house to hang out a little longer, then said our good-byes and headed home. It was a great visit and as usual, much too short.

That is it for this week! Will catch back up with you soon.

Hiya

2010-08-15T21:53:00.001-05:00

No update tonight, my pets. Tiiiiiired. Tomorrow, I promise :)

Lemon Cake

2010-08-12T17:07:00.001-05:00

So. Lemon cake. Yay.

Sorry to be so ‘meh’ about it, I’ve meant to blog about this for days but it’s been an interesting week. Thunderstorms knocking out our power all day/half the night, cleaning furiously, working desperately to get Peter’s room in some sort of order, working on a seemingly never-ending list of errands that all seem to appear out of nowhere and need immediate assistance… And we had the Pancake Incident of 2010.

Let me backtrack a little bit. See, nowadays when I do any baking or cooking in the kitchen, I have a midget-sized dictator who demands that he be right in the middle of the action, who screams and carries on to such a degree that I have decided that I will not fight it any longer, let the darn kid participate. So every time I make anything in the kitchen, I prep the counter first with a small bowl, some measuring cups and spoons, and something innocent to dip/”measure”/pour – water, some flour maybe, some fruit or veggies. You get the idea, keep him close so he can watch and follow along on his own, like a cooking show. This all works perfectly about 99% of the time.

Tuesday was not one of those times.

Tuesday I was tired when we got home from work/daycare, I didn’t have any meat thawed out for dinner, and there was a container of chopped strawberries in the fridge that probably needed to be eaten within a day. Perfect evening for pancakes for dinner, yes? So I gathered all the necessary ingredients, keeping all the dry stuff on Peter’s side for playing – flour, salt, baking soda. I whipped up the wet ingredients, then pulled over Peter’s stool so he could help. He rushed right over and got to work. This should be fairly easy.

I carefully measure my flour, my salt. Before I can do anything else, Peter casually leans over and dumps, oh – probably a ¼-cup of baking soda in my bowl. Er. Great. I fished out as much as I could, but the batter was super-salty. Ew. In an attempt to salvage the batter, I get busy doubling all the other ingredients, grabbed some Greek yogurt out of the fridge to counteract the fizzy salty madness, and then I heard it. That distinctive noise you recognize all too well when you have a toddler: Peter is choking. He is choking on… baking soda. So I reach over to grab him so I can whap him on the back – my signature choking-toddler move – and in that split second, I see that he’s clutching my favorite mixing bowl, the one I set out for him for playing. Muzzy got it for me, it’s a sunny yellow hue with a delicate pattern stamped into the clay, and has a little handle and a spout. My batter bowl. So anyway: as I snatch him that bowl goes sailing through the air, smashing to the floor and shattering into a million smithereens. My mouth agape. Good bye, my beloved batter bowl.

But back to the choking baby! So I drag him to the garbage can, whack him on the back and (begrudgingly) get him to drink water and whew, then I check the baking soda box – yeah, he ate a decent amount. Maybe a third of the box? I couldn’t remember how full it was to begin with, and there’s quite a bit dusting the floor as well, but still. GROSS.

I shoo him out of the room, then sweep up the clay shards and powder. Twice. Then I mop. Then dump the pancake batter down the garbage disposal, because there’s no saving it. Hopefully we have enough leftovers for us to eat for dinner. And hey, but the kid sure is making a funny noise...

I got suspicious about the baking soda, so decided to google it. And hey whaddaya know – baking soda can be fatal to small children. It messes up their electrolyte levels, causing vomiting and seizures and ultimately organ failure... So then I had the pleasure of a nice long chat with a lovely woman at poison control. He farted and burped his way through the night, and I had to keep checking to make sure he didn’t bust out into seizures. IT WAS AS FUN AS IT SOUNDS. I told daycare all about it the next day, just to warn her in case his back-end starts erupting like a grade-school volcano diorama.

I will be shocked if this kid lives to see his 2nd birthday, I swear.

But anyway! All that talk, let me get to the point: my son, he helps out in the kitchen a lot. It’s messy but fun and I might overlook an instruction or two while I keep Doots from seriously maiming himself with a whisk. And so, even though I have made this cake a million times (and always to many thanks for bringing the FANTASTIC LEMON CAKE OMG), I missed the important notation to make sure you bake it in something you can line with parchment. I tried to make this cake in a bundt pan this time. It, uh – didn’t quite come out of the pan as I had hoped. Great fluffy mounds of cake kind of plopped out when I flipped it onto a cooling rack, but no matter. I still lovingly poured warm lemon syrup on them and then iced them when cooled. And ate them for breakfast, as a snack, and dessert. This cake, it is ahhh-mazing. Ina Garten has never let me down, this is true, but this is in all truth my most favorite recipe of hers.

Try it. I would recommend using a pan you can line with parchment, though. The results will be much prettier.

Ina Garten's Lemon Cake

(from Barefoot Contessa Parties!)

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. unsalted butter
2 1/2 c. granulated sugar
4 extra-large eggs (at room temperature)
1/3 c. grated lemon zest (6 to 8 large lemons)
3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 c. buttermilk at room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 c. confectioners' sugar
3 1/2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 -inch loaf pans. Cream the butter and 2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, and the lemon zest.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves and makes a syrup. When the cakes are done, let them cool for 10 minutes, then invert them onto a rack set over a tray, and spoon the lemon syrup over the cakes. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a bowl, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Pour over the top of the cakes and allow the glaze to drizzle down the sides.

Weekly Update 08.08.10

2010-08-08T19:35:00.013-05:00

So: Blogger had this thing, where you could update the Posting Editor? I updated and it SUCKS, it won't let me do any of the things that I used to be able to do, that were actually you know, HELPFUL, so yeah I dunno. I have heard people complain and, being the 5-year Blogger veteran that I am, I was all "heh, amateurs". But now I GET IT, oh man I get it, and I apologize to anyone I read who complained for secretly judging you. Maybe it's time to start shopping around, for somewhere new for the blog...

My point: please ignore all the weird formatting, I tried to fix it I swear. And while you're at it, try not to dwell on the fact that all the photos are (annoyingly) in backwards order.

So anyway! What's been going on this week, right? Well, it's been hot. Insanely, August-ly hot. Blah. I am ready for fall, but then again I was ready for that back in June. Not a fan of heat/humidity.

We have been hitting the pool... rarely. Yes. It is even too hot to break out the baby pool stuff! We got it out on Sunday but I gotta say, pool time is no fun when Mommy and Daddy can't fit in there as well.

Clearly however Peter feels differently.

Since we didn't have any big plan this weekend (bliss! Not like I don't love visitors or visiting people or other fun activities, but you know - time just to ourselves as a family is so so nice. And necessary), I did two things: (1) cleaned the house and (2) started to finally work on Peter's room. I packed up the baby birdie theme weeks ago when I had some free time, pulled the decals off the wall and packed up all the bedding/pillows and mobile. Now, it's time to focus on the Robot room. I framed up some new art for the room, band posters (robot-related of course).

Oooookay, here is a random photo of Peter playing in his room, Blogger wouldn't let me move it. Moving on...

Also I ordered these cool space decals, and got them up on Sunday. Pretty spiffy! Now we're just waiting on fabric so I can start the bedding.

Since we had some blessed free time, I decided to indulge in some baking, my totally famous lemon cake. Then I came to the realization - I never blogged the recipe before. Not on Cast Sugar, not anywhere. Never. My goodness! So, that will make an appearance here soon-ish.

Mmm, lemon cake batter.

This is a shot of Peter post-County Fair, which was more hysterical when it came at the end of all the pictures. Also considering that he almost choked to death trying to eat his socks earlier this week (yeah don't ask). It's a bit reminiscent of the Hasselhoff Hamburger video, yes?

So yeah: we went to the Fair. On Friday evening - we've never been to the Douglas County Fair so thought we'd give it a shot. Peter had a BLAST.

He could not stop staring at all the rides.

This will probably be the best (read: cheapest) trip to the county fair for us. Peter's too small for all the rides and even if he was tall enough, he really didn't need to ride any of them. He was just so excited to see all the flashing lights and hear the music and see them move. Ah, to be a toddler again.

We did pay a buck at the petting zoo portion, so we could feed all the animals. That was a dollar well spent, as he loved feeding all the animals. When he wasn't trying to sneak bites of the feed himself, that is.

Amongst all the hens, roosters, and ducks in the poultry "barn", there was also a random peacock.

Okay and now all the other random events of this weekend should be noted, before I forget (random photo order is messing with my braaaaaaaain!):

I also went to Hobby Lobby this weekend and picked up upholstery foam and black fake-leather fabric (from the remnants bin, on the cheap). Time to start Doots' Halloween costume...
I hit up some yard sales way-early-in-the-morn on Saturday, all by my lonesome. I should do that more often, I was able to hit up twice as many sales as usual (when I have Scott and Peter in tow), and found some great stuff. Where else would I find an awesome modern-style wooden toy house, brought to the US via a trip to Portugal, and in brand-new condition, for a freaking DOLLAR? And sold by my favorite local newscaster to boot (took me a sec to realize who I was chatting up when I was buying it)... Yeah. Not at the local toy store, that's for sure.
Had a lovely, leisurely lunch in KC with some girlfriends, it was nice to have a little something to myself in the afternoon. And the next time I see Julie, she will probably have a babe in her arms (not her tummy region). Come on Shyrleigh, I'm ready to meet ya.
Saturday night we rented movies, including Julie&Julia. Super cute! Loved it! Scott and I especially appreciated the Julie scenes (food bloggers, unite!), I think you have to live in the world of food-blogging to get some of her mania. At one point I looked at Scott and said "I was never that way..." and he cracked up. And reminded me of the time when I was freaking out about how if I don't post at least 3 times a week, my readership goes below 1K a day... Oh yeah. That.
I started running. I get up at 5am to do so and it's killlllllllling me, but I shall persevere. Signed up for a 5K next month, to keep myself on track with this whole running thing.
I am doing my best to finish the book club book for this month, but I only have a few weeks left to read and I have about 400 pages to finish up. I try to read every evening at bedtime, but lately I have been zonking out as soon as I start...
This is the face my kid makes when I deny him any of the earthly pleasures he demands at any given moment:

Luckily I get to see this face a little more often than the last one:

Peace out.

And oh yeah, just one more time: Blogger you suck. For reals.

Weekly Update 08.01.10

2010-08-01T20:19:00.013-05:00

We are going to come full circle today, begin and end with a picture of the kid eating vegetables. Random, I know. He's got a weird thing for insisting on eating them whole these days, so there are pictures galore on the hard drive.

Speaking of the little guy, he is starting to look so much bigger. When he was a baby and I dressed him like a little man, he looked funny and cute and still like a baby. Now when I dress him that way, with all the walking and getting leaner stuff, the baby has entirely disappeared.

We had a nice cheese tray to welcome Mad Men back from their hiatus. I also made these delish tomato-and-eggplant stacks. Ah, Sunday nights are so much nicer again.

Peter has discovered our bed as a whole new playground, he likes to burrow under the blankets and make tunnels, toss pillows around, flop around and jump with glee. Oh, hurray. Just waiting for the day we take him to UrgentCare for stitches.

Because that time is not too far, I predict. Already he is fearless, climbing and jumping on the couch and on the club chair and on his own little chair. He gets lots of shiners to prove it. Here's the latest one, AN HOUR after he bumped his head he still kind looked like sloth in the forehead region:

Friday work was dead, I was in between deadlines, so my boss told me just to head home. Woohoo! Scott has off work on Fridays so we had a "date afternoon", had a long lunch and saw a movie. Inception. It was (1) well written, (2) well acted, and most of all (3) whoa, but the men were well dressed. Good tailoring goes a long way, I was almost distracted by the sharp suits.
Not in a bad way.

Scott also hit a major milestone while we were at lunch, hold on to your hats - he finished his World Beer Tour, that's 110 beers for the uninformed. It took many years and many many trips (I mean, come on - we've been here since 1999) but he finally did it. He gets his name engraved on the Hall of Fame plaque on the wall. Fist pump! And I must say, we've had many fond memories at this particular restaurant as Scott worked to his new title, it's our go-to spot when we head to the movies on that side of town. I think we'll probably be back, even though the prize has been won.

Saturday was devoted to my friend Julie's baby shower. Jules and I co-hosted at her house, and it was a blast. Just a few pictures from the day - first off the cake, Jules ordered it and it was adorable. The baker matched it to Julie's nursery bedding. We did all the colors for the shower around her nursery.

We made onesies for part of the decoration - I had trouble making these the first time and had to buy all new supplies to give it a second shot. Luckily, second time was the charm for me...

Our Baby Shower Bingo was a little more tongue-in-cheek than the usual ;)

Our other tongue-in-cheek, the favors - everybody got our own version of those girl baby flower-headband thingies.

Yeah I don't know why Stacey is throwing gang-signs here, either.

The mother-to-be is a dip-lover, so we made several different dips, lots of dippers, and also made 10 homemade pizzas. We got pizzas as we figured everybody needed to carb-load, because...

We had a nice citrus-y cocktail (and sodas for the non-drinkers).

Got home a little late from that one, yep. Good times!

The next morning Peter was up nice and early, we made a special breakfast of real cinnamon toast and fruit salsa. Fruit salsa leftover from the baby shower. I have a lot of onion dip too. Just sayin'. Anyway, from our breakfast baking, Peter liked licking the cinnamon-sugar-vanilla butter the best.

We spent Sunday cleaning and catching up on chores and laundry, but found some time to head to campus for our regular Chi O fountain dip (which we missed on Friday). Unfortunately: they are doing a lot of work over there, on the drainage system on Jayhawk Boulevard, so the fountain is off. Drained. Kaput. That didn't stop Peter from running at it at full tilt, arms out ready for an embrace, his beloved fountain. Unfortunately he had to comfort himself with just a campus walk instead.

I don't think he really minded. He ran around all over the place, and made us walk all the way down (and then Scott had to carry him back up, hiking those bajillion stairs the entire way up) the Hill.

Okay, so he has gone up a shoe size officially. It is kind of a bummer but, also means that (1) he finally fits those cute Reefs well and walks confidently in them, and (2) I can go shoe shopping. So far there are three pairs on their way via UPS.

And so we are back to the veggies, so you know it is the end. Hope that everyone had as lovely a weekend as we did - see you again soon :)

Weekly Update 7.25.10

2010-07-25T20:37:00.020-05:00

Things to note since we last updated (what, three days ago?):

Scott and I each in turn got the sucky cold that Doots was spreading around. Yay.

Only: Doots still has a rattling chest, and it's been a week, so we're probably off to see the doctor tomorrow. Double yay.

We spent some quality time outside (even with the insanely hot temps; we were able to sneak it in before the thunderstorms on Saturday evening). The activity sprinkle-mat-thingie did just the trick.

For both of the guys.

I did approximately a dozen loads of laundry.

We hit up yard sales and I got maybe 4 yards of this vintage 1980-something Star Wars fabric. Hysterical! Now what to do with it...

We also hit up the Farmers Market, and got these lovely blackberries. All three of us ate about a third of the pint, in the car, on the drive home...

I did two separate craft projects for an upcoming baby shower I'm cohosting: one successful, one not really too successful. Tomorrow is another day, so try try again on the second one...

We enjoyed some bubble time in the yard.

If you click on the image and zoom in on the next one, you can see me in the bubble...

We made cookies, just got the itch to bake. They were fantastic.

I got my hairs did and in a moment of weakness, I got bangs. I've been swiping distractedly at my forehead ever since because OMG THERE'S HAIR TOUCHING TOUCHING TOUCHING AND ITCHY AAAAAAAAH. I'll get used to it soon. I hope.

Our tomatoes are almost, almost ready for picking.

I want these shoes. In blue. Badly.

Our boy has developed a deep fondess for The Sads. He utilizes The Sads whenever he doesn't get what he wants, it involves (1) making Sad Face, (2) calling the Waaaaah-mbulance, and (3) holding his hand to his eye in a sad manner while clutching his blanket. In a pinch, any household blanket within reach will do.

See ya next week.

Korova Cookies

2010-07-24T21:58:00.009-05:00

I've been meaning to make these for awhile, and on Saturday I had free time so just went for it. They have been floating around on the Internet for awhile (also under the name "World Peace Cookies", as they are named in Dorie's Baking book). They've gotten so many accolades that really, how could I not give them a shot.

The recipe is basically for a sable cookie, but a very chocolatey one - this recipe calls for not only cocoa powder, but bits of bittersweet chocolate as well. Can't go wrong with chocolate in any cookie, and I decided that even if they didn't turn out too well for me - you can't beat a baked good with chocolate in it, I mean someone in this house will certainly eat it.

Well, I am happy to report that they did, indeed, turn out well (thanks to the easy-to-understand recipe, something Dorie is known for in the baking world). And I am going to put it out there and just say it: I think this is one of my favorite cookies I've ever made. Like a sable cookie, they are crumbly yet soft-ish, and buttery, with a sandy texture in your mouth. But unlike your normal sable, these have a deep chocolate flavor (almost like a brownie), with a great salty kick to boot, taking them up a notch.

Now, when I had my food blog I used to blog about recipes that had potential, that could use a little tweaking, in short - not always the best recipe I've ever tried. But on this blog I'm only going for the good stuff, so as always - I highly suggest you give this one a try :)

Korova Cookies
(From Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 stick + 3 Tbsp. (11 Tbsp. total) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 c. (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. fleur de sel (or 1/4 tsp. fine sea salt)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chip (or 3/4 c. store-bought mini chocolate chips)

Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours.

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Working with a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2-inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about one inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Estes Park: Day 4

2010-07-22T08:45:00.016-05:00

Day 4.

We got up early, finished packing, then headed to breakfast. After a lot of good-byes as various groups left, we headed out - Peter and I headed to the park near our lodge for one last playtime, and Scott went to the room to finish packing/loading the car/checking us out.

We weren't able to do any of the planned activities with Peter this trip - he's just still too small to go on the children adventure hikes or bug hunting or that sort of thing. He was old enough, however, for Bubble Hour, and by god - we had missed it all week, but we were not missing it today. Doots was not disappointed, in fact we had to pry the wands out of his hands and drag him shrieking back to the car. He got over it quickly, and zonked out in the car for our drive to Denver. We had a long day in the city ahead.

We didn't fly out until dinnertime (more on that later...), so we decided to goof around Denver for the day. We ended up in the Highlands area near downtown, it's a great little neighborhood with sweet boutique shopping, restaurants, and wine bars. Love it. There were a lot of newer lofts and it's definitely part of Denver - tons of bike shops and bikes abound in that area. Paulo would love it.

We had lunch at Proto's Pizzeria, we had a prosciutto/capers/mozzarella pizza it was sooooo gooooood.

Then we walked back to the car, did some window shopping.

What brought us to the neighborhood is that it was near the one planned stop we had while in Denver - The Children's Museum of Denver. This place did not disappoint, we spent a long time in here and would definitely go back. The Denver Aquarium was right next to it and I wish we had more time in the city, as I would have loved to go there as well. Ah well, next visit.

Our first stop in the Children's Museum was in the Center for the Small Child. It had several rooms catering to the younger set (newborn through toddler). We spent a good hour in this area alone. The best part is that shoes are not allowed, but neither are bare feet. They had freshly-laundered socks in kids and adult sizes as needed - Scott and Peter had socks. I did not. So I got to wear the weirdo socks, yay.

Oh my gosh, he kept going back to this little treehouse with the stirring pot. He must have run back to it half a dozen times - apparently he really really really liked stirring that pot.

They had kid-sized bathrooms, with really low toilets/sinks/everything. We went in there to change the diaper and he was so excited with the low bathroom facilities, that it took forever to coax him out of there.

Next we went up to the 2nd floor - dudes, they have a Bubble Room. BUBBLE ROOM. He was in heaven in there. Our favorite bubble machine created these smoke bubbles, that fell down from the machine on the ceiling and turned into a poof of smoke when you popped them.

Next we tried out the train room. We didn't spend too much time in here, because Peter spied another room down the hall...

OMG A GROCERY STORE AND KITCHEN!!! He put on his apron and got right to work filling a cart. Apparently there was a pretend massive blizzard hitting the pretend grocery store in Denver, because the workers could not even keep the shelves stocked and the kids looked like they were playing Supermarket Sweep. Insanity!

Clearly he missed the good sale on organic black beans, because the shelves were empty.

This one kid there was rockin' the cashier counter.

We filled up our cart twice before heading out. We were going to play in the kitchen but even Peter seemed too hesitant to play in that area - a pack of wild children had taken over the kitchen and let's just say they definitely were future-chefs-in-training - they were Anthony-Bourdain's sort of crazy-story chef.

Next we hit the forest room. They had costumes hanging on a hook by the door, squirrels and rabbits and mice and... worms. Then the room was full of underground tunnels and foresty-areas and it was really meant for the bigger kids. Scott helped Doots climb around though and he had a blast.

Next we found a dancing room. Peter busted out his inner Patrick Swayze, put on a Pilot's hat, and grabbed some ribbon-rings to go dance-dance crazy.

It was all fun until he fell down and whacked his head.

Lastly we hit up the Firehouse. Again, for the older kids mostly so Peter mostly watched and walked around a little bit. By this time we had been there for several hours, so he was getting kinda tired.

We checked out the gift shop and were getting ready to buy a bottled water at the snack bar before leaving... And we realized it was raining. Boo. We booked it to the car and headed to the airport a little early. There's a lot of shopping and restaurants in DIA so we knew it wouldn't be so bad to get there a little earlier than planned.

We had an early dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery in the airport, then did some shopping in the stores and headed to our gate. I changed Peter into PJs for our flight (it was supposed to leave
at 6:30p), made him a bottle, was ready to put in to sleep on the dark quiet plane. Now, I should probably mention at this point...

When we got to Estes Park, Peter was a little snotty, a little feverish, so I chalked it up to teeth (as he was also extra-drooly). Then he got a cough, but I figured that was just due to altitude. And he was very snuggly and needed lots of holding-time, but I thought to myself hey he's just away from home and needs more hugs than normal. Yeah, no.

He was sick. Sick sick sick and we really didn't put it all together until we hit the airport. We hoped for the best for the flight home, but between a sick baby and a turbulent (and very delayed, and longer than expected, and the lights were never turned off) flight - we had quite a bit of fussing and writhing. He finally collapsed onto my lap and passed out during landing, but then woke up in the car and cried the entire drive back home. Poor little darling.

He was still so so good the entire trip though, and even with the rough trip home I was so glad we went.

We had a great time, and it was kinda sad to come home.

Estes Park: Day 3

2010-07-20T21:58:00.001-05:00

Day 3.

I am sad to report that yet again - a pretty rainy day. We didn't get to spend a ton of time outside, but we did make the most of what we had.

The day started out pretty nice, very sunny and just a tad chilly. No bother, Peter's grandpa bought him a sweatshirt the day before, so we were ready for the morning. After breakfast we hit up the playground near our lodge, we spent quite a bit of time there.

We are still trying to figure out the slide. It isn't pretty, but he does make it down without seriously maiming himself.

Sah-weet: sidewalk chalk.

After that we checked out the sand " box" area, there was a little sand-house there.

After much contemplation, we decided to move into the sand-house permanently. You can see all the action from here.

And dad will bring cold beverages on demand.

I will miss that curly baby hair so much when it's gone.

Practicing for his career in modeling.

Mom and Doots - best chums to the end.

On second thought, mommies are embarrassing get off of me.

Wait nevermind I changed my mind. Hoooooooold me.

After park time, we headed back to the room for a quick nap and then met up with the Chaneys downtown for some lunch at El Cherino's. We also did a little more shopping afterwards.

After denying the poor thing yesterday, Scott broke down today and bought Peter a toy snake. He showed his appreciation by gnawing on it all afternoon. Did I mention he's teething?

We got bing cherry ice cream from a little shop downtown and stepped outside only to discover: it had started raining. Woohoo. So we made a mad dash for the car and Peter enjoyed his ice cream from the comfort of his carseat while we headed home.

You know what's super fun? Running up and down the hallway, trying to fit the keys into random doors on our hall. I bet our neighbors all appreciate that.

We spent A LOT of quality time in our room while it rained. Ah well, vacations are about relaxing right? We got some quality naps and playtime in, so it wasn't a big loss.

Peter likes to play with my rolling luggage. That's what he's been doing most of the afternoon.

PS - the balloon died days ago but Peter still plays with it.

Um. And I bought Peter the most awesome shirt evah when we were shopping downtown today: Ta Da! Isn't it just the best? No wardrobe is complete without a shirt emblazoned with wolves howling at the moon, right? I mean, I know there are only 2 wolves, but he is only a toddler.

Around the time we hit the dining hall it was STILL RAINING, but soon after we finished it stopped. We took advantage and spent the early evening walking around some of the campus, checking out the main lodge and all the sport courts/fields.

Peter really wanted to join the b-ballers.

That's it kids. We had another family evening get-together (picked the next reunion spot: San Diego) and Scott's off playing poker with his cousins (or 2nd cousins, or something...). Anyhoo. We'll check back in sometime tomorrow.

Estes Park: Day 2

2010-07-19T21:55:00.004-05:00

Day Two... came much too fast. We are starting to refer to our rooms as "dorms" rather than lodge rooms, because woooo. Not too fancy, on top of all the other luxuries the beds are hard as rocks and the pillows are as flat as pancakes. So no one really slept too well. But, we shall persevere. We're not here for the air conditioning, or the TV, or Perfect Bed systems. It's a place to sleep in between all the fun. So anyway, on to Day Two.

We headed to the dining lodge and enjoyed sweet, sweet coffee along with all the breakfast goodies. Afterwards were family photos, and wouldn't you know it - a storm blew in just as we were all finishing up in the dining hall. Huge drops and cold winds, which while welcome for a moment were also quickly turned to chilly! We got a few good shots off, then everyone broke off for the day's activities. Most of the family was headed to Grand Lake for the day, but we decided to stick around (figured Peter wouldn't last too long). All the other family members with small babies stuck around as well, so we weren't alone.

Right after pictures we headed over to the Activity lodge to participate in Bubble Hour, but sadly due to the weather it was cancelled. We walked around the lodge a little bit and checked things out. Like this awesome stuffed beaver.

Then we headed out. Here's a shot of one of the classes that was just gearing up, they were studying... bones? Or something?

We made a quick dash through the rain back to our dorm, and got to our room just in time to watch the family members leaving for Grand Lake (from our window).

We waited for the rain to let up a little bit, then headed back to town to do a little shopping. Peter played with the DVR player in the back seat - he doesn't watch it so much as he pretends to type on it, as if it is his personal laptop.

We had fun shopping. Now, I know you are asking yourself, "when are they going to stop trying stupid hats on that poor kid when they're shopping?". And the answer is: when he is old enough to run away.

Poor little baby is teething again, and is such a trooper - has a low fever and is drooling buckets, but the whining is to a minimum. He looooved my smoothie, I think it helped cool down those gums.

He found a few must-haves at the toy store.

One store had a funhouse mirror. Family portrait time!

We had lunch at Poppy's - mmm, good pizza. And a discriminating beer selection, which Scott enjoyed.

Peter fed his Muppet chunks of his appetizer. I've caught him also lovingly feeding his blanket bits of his dinner, and giving it sips from his sippy cup. Er, yeah.

We ordered the Rocky Mountain pie - olive oil, cream cheese, smoked trout, capers, and onion. YUM.

Peter really enjoyed it as well.

After dinner we headed back to the room, and Peter took a long nap. He woke up just in time for yet another rain storm to blow in, boo. So we waited it out before heading to the playground on the campus.

Finally some sun, so off we went.

We were there about half an hour when OH GUESS WHAT - yeah, more rain clouds. So we headed inside the nearby Crafts lodge to check things out before going back to our room.

I kinda wish Peter was a little older on this trip, because they have really cool crafts - painting/firing clay items, tie-dye station, jewelry-making, mosiacs, you name it.

We played in the room for a little while before meeting up with the rest of the family for dinner, and then some quality family time afterwards. All the wee ones had a fun time playing together.

Here are Peter's cousins, trying to be polite and not laugh at the dork in his PJs.

Peter was able to hang in there until 8:30p, then we headed back to the room to go to bed.
Another update to come tomorrow.

Estes Park: Day 1

2010-07-18T21:17:00.005-05:00

I'm stealing a page from the Solars and am blogging our trip - and while my photos will never be even a tenth as lovely as theirs, I still love the idea of blogging your vacation day by day, like a travel diary. Write it down while it's still fresh in the mind, right?

So here we go, our first day traveling.

We left the house about 5:30a to head to the airport. This was our first time flying with Peter and I was kinda nervous about it, but we took our friends' tips to heart and it turned out great, I'd say almost perfect - he fussed a little a few times, when we tried to shift him from lap to lap (when he wasn't exactly in the mood to switch) but quieted down quickly each time. No screaming, no tantrums, no squirming or crying - the only issues were that he kept trying to touch the guy's hair in the seat in front of me, but frankly I can't blame him. I mean, who doesn't want to touch some white dude's blonde curly Afro? That's just unusual, when will we ever see one of those again.

So anyhoo, all in all, a good good baby. Now we shall see if we have the same luck on the trip back...

We got our rental car without a hitch, and Peter zonked as soon as we started moving. Poor thing, he was so off his schedule today.

We stopped at Walmart to grab supplies (diapers, wipes, sunglasses because we both forgot ours at home...). Then we hit up Oskar Blues for lunch - good food and good beer. And Peter got a balloon. OMG, a balloon! He played with that darn thing through the entire meal, he adores it.

Mmm, good stuff.

After the restaurant we headed to Estes Park.

Peter was less than impressed with this part of the drive, I think he was just tired of traveling at this point. He ended up falling asleep in the car yet again, so we just drove around town checking things out, then made a stop at Safeway for milk and snacks for our room.

We also hit up the park (um, before Safeway and the kid falling asleep in the car; I'm a little out of order here). Anyhoo, here's our rental car! A Ford Focus, we just can't seem to get away from them.

Peter was not a huge fan of the merry-go-round. Ah well, he'll grow into it someday.

Playground equipment, that's more his style.

He was also fascinated with the chat on the ground. And the bits of sticks that he found there. We just played in the chat for a good ten minutes.

There were a bunch of cool rock formations so we decided to do some "rock climbing". Which he loved, go figure.

Finally he had a good run in the grass before we headed back to the car to leave. No wonder he passed out so quickly once he was strapped in.

Finally we headed to the Lodge - we are staying at the YMCA of the Rockies, they kind of specialize in family camps and family reunions. Now, I just want to say that this place has a sprawling campus of cabins, lodges, activity buildings, tennis courts, pool, private dining halls and playgrounds, on and on and on. But our lodge? It is the oldest one on the campus, hands down, and also appears to be the only one with no air-conditioning (see: ugly building on the right, not the pretty one with balconies and such on the left).

Also no TVs.

And the decor looks out of the 80s. However! We do have stellar WiFi service in our room, so I'll take it.

We opened the two windows, put a window fan in one, and enjoyed it. I mean, it's in the high 80s but with virtually no humidity, so it doesn't feel too terribly bad (I will admit though for the first few hours while we waited to cool down a bit, no one in our room was wearing pants).

That didn't deter the Doots from more quality balloon time. That balloon, it has been his constant companion.

Funny thing to note: once we got in the room I got busy unpacking all our bags. Peter toddled around after me while I unfolded clothes, and put toiletries in the bathroom. He really dug the bathroom. So I kept unpacking, shuffling things to new drawers, etc. And then I realized: Peter was going in and out of that bathroom a whole lot... Fearing the worst I ran in there, to discover that he had taken all the toys and books out of his bags, and "put them away" in the tub.

We met up with family for dinner, then Pete and I headed back to the room so he could hit the hay (Scott is still gone, attending the first night family meeting). Hence the available time to download pictures, sort through them, and write a blog post...

So off to bed we go. And I am kinda dreading waking up in the morning, as I can only imagine Peter's response when he sees that helium balloon lifeless on the floor.

Well My Bags Are Packed...

2010-07-18T05:33:00.002-05:00

(...and in the car, boarding passes printed, housesitter settled, and snacks are tucked away in the carry-on, soooo) we're ready to go.

See you upon our return!

Weekly Update

2010-07-17T16:56:00.001-05:00

It has been a hot July in Kansas, my friends. All week the heat index hovered around 105-110F, and the air's just thick thick thick with humidity. We've treated ourselves to many a trip to the baby pool in the evenings, slathered in sunscreen, followed by ice cream chasers on the front porch. Take that, nasty heat. You're not going to ruin our summer.

We also spent a lot of quality time in the air-conditioned darkness of our home.

Peter has developed a deep love for fresh peaches in the past few weeks. We took a trip to the organic market earlier this week, for the first time I let him push around the tot-sized shopping carts they have there. He was so happy to push it around, picking up random veggies that were at his height, pretend to examine them, then toss them in his cart and wander to the next display. Oh my gosh, if they are nothing else, toddlers are Watchers, and Mimics. It is bizarre.

However, when he spied the display of peaches all playtime was over - he toddled right over, grabbed one, and immediately sank his teeth into it. And screamed if I tried to take it away. So I picked up Peter and the contents of his cart, grabbed a half gallon of milk (and a container of our favorite fig yogurt), and by the time we hit the register the peach was half gone. I just had them weigh another to pay for the darn thing. By the time we pulled into the driveway there was nothing left but the pit, and I am glad I was smart enough to pick up a few more for when his next craving hits.

We did our usual Friday-at-the-fountain, this Friday however was also KU Orientation so Peter had to share the fountain with several KU kiddos (some future, some giving the tour). They were happy to share with him though, as Peter was already a pro at spraying everything in sight with the fountain spouts.

We headed down to Sylas and Maddys for ice cream afterwards, and when we stepped in the door half the room started laughing. Erm... Then we realized the huge pack of kids that were at the fountain also wandered there for ice cream afterwards. Heh. They told us we didn't have to follow them around, that we were more than welcome to join their crew anytime ;)

We left and headed to the car to be greeted by dark clouds that seemed to come out of nowhere. They ended up blowing over town, only causing things to get even more humid. Joy!

After Peter went to bed we printed maps for our trip to Estes Park, as well as compiled packing lists and made to-do lists for Saturday. We enjoyed Jade Garden and cold beer for dinner while we did this - Jade Garden is a special, lovely little Chinese restaurant that also makes (and delivers!) pretty darn good sushi. Somewhere that delivers not only crab rangoons but also spicy tuna handrolls?? Needless to say, it's our go-to spot when we order delivery.

Saturday was spent packing, playing, and relaxing before our big day of travel tomorrow. It's Peter's first ever time on a plane, so everyone cross their fingers. We could have driven (about 9 hours) but considering our kid starts the non-stop screeching at about 2 hours into any drive in the car, we thought the 1-hour flight (followed by maybe an hour in the car) sounded oh-so-much nicer.

We had lunch at the Burger Stand again; this time they were blaring CCR and Peter rocked out the entire meal, flapping his arms and weaving side to side. It was pretty much as awesome as it sounds.

Rock on, ladies and gents.

We head to a BBQ at a friend's house outside of town soon, in about an hour, but only plan on staying for a few hours before heading back to get the child to bed and finish packing (then turn in early to get a good night's sleep).

And that's all she wrote. This week, anyway. Will probably check back in with a bajillion pictures later in the week :)

Weekly Update 7.11.10

2010-07-11T21:04:00.009-05:00

Busy week, trying to make this quick.

I (me, Nemmie) had a business trip this week, to Providence. It was surprisingly hot, and humid, not like they usually have in that area, so the "heat wave" of the low 90s was Breaking News. Like, seriously, they broke in regularly to talk about it. Heh. Several years in Kansas has led me to respond by saying: y'all are a bunch of amateurs.

The most interesting non-working portion of my trip is that even though I was at the Westin, there was a skywalk connecting the hotel to a mall? It meant that the first evening there (all alone because none of my coworkers were getting in until late at night) I headed that way when taking a break from working in my room, just needed a good head-clearing. And I returned to my hotel room with several goodies from JCrew and Childrens Place and H&M. Hey, they were running good sales.

So anyhoo! Got home in the wee early hours of Friday, so I worked from home that day. While I was busy working in the office, Scott kept busy in the yard, bricking-in the lilac bush out front and then planting/mulching around it. Turned out pretty darn nice if you ask me. Next project: brick-in around the oak out front. Our yard doesn't get much sun thanks to that oak (and our neighbors told us no one has ever been able to grow grass around it in front), so we're mapping out a plan. Our front yard needs some curb appeal, so that's our goal for this summer.

Also I just want to include a quick shot of my pots on the front porch - the squirrels ate all the coleus, so I had sad empty pots alternating my begonias. Scott was kind and put more begonias in them this weekend, but I still have a personal beef with those darn squirrels. I shall get my revenge, mark my words.

Friday as usual we made a stop on campus for a quick dip. Peter is getting more comfortable with the fountain, and now insists on climbing it. Lovely.

Then we headed home and had some ice cream on the porch - homemade ice-cream drumsticks, I'll post the recipe another time. Apparently they were pretty good.

Saturdy was gorgeous. Gorgeous! Sunny and not-too-humid and highs in the low 80s. We went out to the Farmers Market in the morning (PS on how that ended: Scott lost Peter's awesome helium balloon. Yeah. Good thing Peter wasn't looking) and, after the morning watering of the plants, we blew some bubbles on the front porch.

We have this giant bubble wand that makes those huge-ole bubbles, and we use it by waving the huge-ole wand around. Peter now thinks that this is how you make all bubbles, so he just waves his wand around, flinging bubble solution everywhere. Needless to say, we didn't have a lot of bubbles this session.

A random note: I can tell that our kid is growing, because I can see the top of his head when he's digging around in my kitchen cabinets.

After Pete's late-morning nap, we headed to the baby pool at South Park, downtown. Now: there is another nice little waterpark-ish children's pool downtown, but there's an admission fee for that one. This one is for little kids only but is free Free FREE so we obviously like it a lot. It's small but is cute, with fountain sprays and a wading area and lots of comfy seating and umbrellas. And clean. So we will definitely be visiting it a lot this summer.

Peter really enjoys it too.

I love shooting water pictures.

Peter likes to strike up conversations with the beautiful babies when we are there. These are not the only girls he chatted up this visit.

After a swim Peter changed back into regular clothes, and we took a long walk on Mass St. We stopped for a quick snack at The Burger Stand - truffle fries and Ad Astra, mmm. They just opened their Mass St. location, so we were excited to check it out for the first time.

Peter loves their fries. Loves them. He took over the guajillo-chile dip. He ate it all.

Then he bogarted the cherry-pepper ketchup, and he got that Hulk-Smash-Garrrrr look on his face if we motioned as if we were going to take it away. So we let him have that one as well.

We headed home and screwed around in the front yard some more, watering plants and such. Peter and I played with the huge-ole bubble maker.

I call this one, "Bubble Monocle".

For the most part in typical Peter fashion: he ignored me and the giant bubbles in favor of holding the hose for his father. Because clearly: yardwork is freaking awesome fun. Yeah, check back with us in approx. 15 years for the final verdict on that one.

Sunday was the polar opposite of Saturday: muggy, hot, and very very wet. Lots of storms all day. We did a lot of the usual chores, plus I took care of a lot of things I've been meaning to do for a long long time. I cleaned out Peter's drawers, I organized closets.

I did a lot of cooking to re-stock our deep freezer, batches of marinara and soups and pizza sauce. I also made chili oil and roasted garlic vinaigrette, and oh yeah the best part I forgot to mention: cinnamon-berry pancakes for breakfast. Mmmmm, pancakes. It has been much too long since we savored some pancakes.

We made it outside for a walk after dinner, and I tried out my paparazzi skills by taking covert pictures of our favorite front yards. Someday when we have more time, maybe we can copy some of the favorite parts of our neighborhood when we work on our own front yard.

Now back to the Madness of Summer, bring it on. Oh, yeah, parting comment: our son thinks he's an underwear model. I figure this is the only time he'll be able to run around in his skivvies without it being awkward, so we let him go at it.

Later gator.

Fourth O' Jooooo-Lie

2010-07-05T20:18:00.013-05:00

So it's been a long week and our cable provider is (SHOCKINGLY) not quite working correctly and you know what, I have to head out early tomorrow so this update will be mostly pictures, little bit of words.

I am sure you are disappointed.

So! Friday we took a quick dip in the Chi O fountain after daycare, as is becoming our summer ritual.

Then a quick dinner at 23rd Street Brewery, where our son proved that he is pretty much officially a todder (translation: odd). He tossed all toys aside, because, oh. He would much rather play with the KU-themed complimentary after-dinner mints the entire time we are at the restaurant.

We headed to the 'burg for the holiday weekend, Coco and Steve made a visit from Appleton and that, my friends, cannot be missed. Doots and Bear napped on the way down.

One of the first things we all did was play a rousing game of Hide And Seek, headed by the Queen of Hiding - Miss Tinnie the Toots. She hid under the (very open, clear to anyone nearby) computer table in the den.

Mahni was on Doots like white on rice.

I am totally not exaggerating. This is how most of their time together this weekend was spent.

When not stalking Peter, Mahni was working on hair (with her loyal assistant Dylan at her side).

Tin and I caught up on our Glee episodes, rocking through the first two CDs of Season 1.

While Mahni was obsessed with Doots, he had an obsession of his own - Mr. Mo-Mo, AKA "dee-dee!".

Peter had a good time. This included watching the washing machine work (with the aid of a flashlight).

And swinging in the backyard.

He helped hang laundry on the line (no rain on the 4th where we were, don't be jealous).

Speaking of the 4th! I have no photographic evidence, but we also stopped by Nik and Rick's for a few hours, enjoyed some time on the trampoline and also flying the millenium falcon. Kinda sorta (that kite, it did not want to fly).

Also! Peter zonked out in the late afternoon, and woke back up about 9pm. Totally off schedule, but it meant he was able to check out the city fireworks display with us. He hooted and clapped with the best of them, that's our boy.

Played in the dirt...

Spazzed out.

Off topic: Oh man, I took a shot of the grossest bug ever in Muzzy's garden.

Helped water the gardens (speaking of gardens).

Begged food off of Paulo.

Played some more with dear Dee-Dee (more to come at a later time on that whole friendship).

Fruit-salad-makin' time (with a fresh watermelon from the Jims-Steakhouse-parking-lot-"Sweet Corn"-guy).

Peter snacking on a peach that came from the same gentleman's garden.

Doots and Beah really bonded this weekend.

Paulo put together a (small) grill.

Okay: so before we left to head back home, we decided to do family pictures. Mahni was totally excited, she was wearing her first-ever bikini (was heading to the water park later that day). But, um. I felt a little weird posting pictures of my dear little niece in a bikini? So I used my mad editing skillz to cover her up a bit. Sorry pedophiles, better move along to a different site.

She asked me to take a picture of her sitting on a yard-art mushroom in the yard. This picture is way more hysterical in the original form.

Trouble-makers.

The fam!

More fam!

And then we left, boo.

When we got home Peter dumped all the decorative stems out of a vase in protest of having to go back to our boring home. Then we went luggage-shopping and out for dinner at a Mexican joint. Afterwards he acted as if he was some freshman sorority sister who drank too many margaritas, and passed out in the car the second we buckled him in. He never woke up, not even when we spent 5 minutes talking to the neighbors when we got home, nor when we took him up and changed him into PJs, or put him to bed...

Oh and PS - loooove my new luggage. Hard-side, rolly style, with a bright blue interior (with little apples all over it!) and a cute navy exterior with little stars all over. No way am I losing sight of that at baggage claim.

Okay okay, time to hit the hay so I can head to the airport in the early morning. Rhode Island, here I come...

Pooltime

2010-07-01T20:28:00.015-05:00

Peter loves to play in the spray. Hose him down, toss him in a fountain, shove him in front of sprinklers and activity pools, push him down the slip and slide (well, okay not that but you get my point) - he loves to play in running water. Showers, people. My kid even loves the shower over baths.

Which gets me to my point.

He most certainly does not like the pool. Ooooooooh, don't try to get him in the pool, no no no no. He is terrified of them. I have bought inflatable pools, shallow pools, plastic pools, it doesn't matter the response is always the same. Screaming, stiff body, total heebie-jeebies, the whole nine yards - he hates 'em.

I should have known that all it would take was his daddy and plenty of hand-holding to convert him.

Weekly Update 06.28.10

2010-06-28T21:16:00.010-05:00

Hiya peeps.

We went to the Zoo on Saturday. We almost died of heatstroke. Actually no really, we were fine, but it was ungodly hot and humid. I learned that the peacock is royalty. And I had the best of intentions when I brought with me a spray bottle of cool water (to spray down our hot babies), but instead looked like I was punishing a bad kitty every time I busted that sucker out ("I said get out of the plant! Squirt squirt!"). So I learned that next time maybe I leave the spray bottle at home, the zoo has those misting spray things for a reason.

Also Peter is not good at sharing his snacks; after sweetly offering to feed some strawberries to his life-long friend Jayson, he pulled the classic “Psyche!” move and yanked them away right before putting them in Jayson’s mouth. Then gobbled them up right in front of him. Nice. He didn’t learn that move from me I swear.

Also also: my son is afraid of carousels. He’s even afraid of the lame chairs that they set up on the thing for the ‘fraidy-cats.

So not afraid of the train, however. So we rode it twice.

We also hit up St. John’s Annual Mexican Fiesta. Unlike the Fiesta of last year, the weather did not cool down for us. Boo. We still enjoyed our food and the sights, oppressive heat be damned.

So we were standing in the (loooooong) food line and I looked down at my kid happily playing with his sunscreen bottle (because, you know, fake lotion woooo everybody hold out your hands!) and anyway I had a total internal freak-out about OH MY GOD PETER'S AWESOME HAT, IT’S NOT ON HIS HEAD WHERE DID IT GO OMG. I scanned the ground and the crowd around us and then, I asked Scott twice if he knew where the hat went. Twice. He looked at me strangely both times and then ignored me. And only then did I remember that I put it on my own head when Peter threw it on the ground earlier OH YEAH HA I KNEW THAT. Except not really.

Scott and placed our order, and then we performed a dazzling piece of spontaneous performance art portraying new-ish parents in today’s society - trying to find a place to sit while simultaneously juggling two plates full of food, two beers, plastic-ware, a stroller, a kid, a diaper bag, giant purse, sippy cup, the camera - and me also balancing a teeny hat on my head.

Once we got ourselves seated in the grass Peter made a break for it, but Scott caught him before he could find himself a new, normal set of parents.

Sunday my cousin Mike from Wisconsin came by for a visit. He’s traveling around the plains enjoying several sporting events (off to the College World Series after us) and even though I packed my camera in my bag, I did not take even one measly little image. Clearly I suck. Mike took off this morning, continuing on his adventures, and we wish him the best. Thanks for stopping by to hang out!

Doose. Doose. This is the word that is heard the most these days, Pete’s combination of “this/those”. It involves several emphatic points at the “doose” - generally a snack or treat, something food related, although it is used for most anything he wants really. Mainly snacks though, because let’s be honest, our kid is a bottomless pit.

“Doose?” he’ll ask sort-of hopefully, pointing, even after being told that no, you just had approximately 15 snacks in a row, you’re done. There may be a body flopping to the floor in anguish at this point or maybe a shriek in response, but undoubtedly more pointed requests for “Doose” will continue, all responses of ‘no’ ignored. And then, just when you think he’s given up, JUST TO CLARIFY ONE MORE TIME, THE VERDICT ON THE SNACKS: “…Doose?”. Sigh.

PSA of the Week: I don’t recommend ever letting your toddler see you watering the plants. Because you’ll never be able to do it yourself again. The best part is when your kid grabs the EMPTY watering can and so he jabs the pot repeatedly with it, in an effort to eek out some water. Effectively stabbing your plants to death.

FIN. See you next week.

Hot Hot Summer

2010-06-25T20:48:00.020-05:00

This Monday marked the official first day of summer and oh boy, but did the weather feel like it as well - heat indices in the low 100s, just humid and sticky and hot hot hot (even the breeze, when it hits you, feels like a furnace).

Now, generally I am of the disposition to say "yeah forget all that" and then hole up in the comfort of my cool cozy home, enjoying the hum of our central air unit. But we've had a lot of rain lately as well, and having a sunny and pretty Friday (sweltering, yes, but still pretty) is not something to be wasted. So after work we sprung the child from daycare, and headed up to campus and downtown to enjoy a few hours together.

We parked on the northeast side of campus and hit up the Union first, played around in the Bookstore. Translation: we tried several different items on Doots like he was our personal toy doll. Sorry darling: you're still small though so these things happen. And besides, we decided for sure that you need that winter-mohawk-hat thing. So it wasn't all in vain.

After that we strolled our way over to Greek row.

. . . where we decided to hang out at the Chi O Fountain for awhile. It's tradition to go for a dip on your birthday (or anytime, really, but my point) - he may be a few weeks out, but Peter finally made it official today. At first, as usual, he was pretty cautious so he sat on my lap and we talked about all the cool water sprays in the fountain.

Then we went closer to investigate.

And after that, it took him maybe another 30 seconds to take the plunge and run amok in there.

We pulled him out after awhile and let me just say: I wish I had photographic evidence of the meltdown we witnessed. He got over it in about a minute though (thank goodness for 1-year-olds), and happily serenaded us the rest of our walk back to the car.

At that point it was getting a little late, so we made one last stop to Sylas and Maddy's, for some homemade ice cream. For the first time in years, I was the one to get a peanut-butter flavor (with sweet cream and Oreos and chocolate-covered nuts, pretty darn good) and Scott got a non-peanut-butter flavor (fresh cherries and chocolate chunks, Cherry Garcia has nothing on this stuff). It's safe to say that we all enjoyed ourselves while there.

Then sadly back to the car, to head home.

Or maybe, not so sadly to be honest. It was air-conditioned, after all.

It's summer and we're busy, but will see you soon! Have a weekend full of time in KC, the Zoo, St. John's Fiesta, a visit from family. . .

Father's Day 2010

2010-06-22T22:34:00.009-05:00

Time to blog about Father's Day! Here is a link to last year, when the Doots was pretty new and while we played it cool, we were a little overwhelmed and still trying to figure out how in the heck to work this little wormy thing into our lifestyle. Also, Scott got pewped on. Bad. That didn't happen this year, thank goodness...

This year was pretty low key - I got up with Peter at his usual ungodly hour of waking, and we were two happy buds hanging out together. We spent some time chilling at home, in the basement office, far enough away as to let dad get some much needed rest. Please note: that mess on the floor was created in approximately 30 seconds.

After breakfast and play time, Peter and I headed out to run some errands. We picked up a new Father's Day card for Scott (I bought one like WAY EARLY, stuck it in my desk drawer at work for safe keeping so Scott wouldn't find it, then - shockingly - left it at work). We had other stuff to check out too though, like baskets for Peter's toy organization and some recycling containers, so off to Wal-Mart we went.

So as a side note, we bought one of those recordable cards for daddy for Father's Day? And I swear, Peter yells and babbles and carries on in the car like a crazy person. I thought it would be dead easy to record a personal baby-babble message in the car. Only: every darn time I got the card set up and shoved it in Pete's face (at every single red light while we toodled around town), he'd completely clam up and just stare at it. Great. I think I was able to record something but it was rather weak. Better luck later, I say. Plenty of time for a re-do.

While out we also picked up some donuts from our most favorite local bakery, Muncher's. We got to the front and Peter absolutely lost it at the donut counter, he squealed and hooted and pointed happily at all the donuts in the case, while bopping around all dancey-style. Only: I was busy giving our order to the woman behind the counter and paying. Peter thought I was ignoring him and he would not get donuts, so he did his "performance art" version of temper tantrum: he silently laid down in front of the donut case, looking at me forlornly. Much preferred to a Classic Tantrum, and also hilarious. I turned around to see several college kids and a family casually stepping over Doots while he played dead on the floor. Awesome.

We made a pot of the "good" coffee (i.e., the good stuff, real had-to-be-ground-at-the-roastery stuff, not the everyday Folgers we keep in the cabinet) and then got dad up and gave him his gifts. He is going to pick out a burner for brewing on his own (I do not have the skillz for that sort of purchase myself), and Peter made him a board book with pictures of them together. Scott usually does the bedtime routine which includes reading time, so it was a good gift. Peter then went on to read the book in the car, as we drove off to do some shopping and have a nice dinner out.

PS - I put a sweet pair of driving mocs on Peter for the occasion. I suspect they are girl shoes, but I make him wear them anyway.

We ordered a new fridge (uh, again), then headed to Target and the Legends. We took Scott out to Yard House for some food, his most favorite spot there.

Peter colored and hit on waitresses while we enjoyed a beer and some good food. The boys posed for what will undoubtedly be the Annual Father's Day Restaurant Photo.

Before we headed home, Scott showed Pete the awesome keg system at the restaurant. We spotted a Free State keg back there...

Then we headed home for the day. Also of note: Peter barrelled into the bedroom that day, squealing and calling out "Daddy!". Maybe no more 'dada' from here on out? At any rate, he picked a perfect day to start with the daddy talk :)

Weekly Update 06.20.10

2010-06-20T20:23:00.006-05:00

The next Top Chef Master.

Long couple of weeks, folks. I was gone for a week on a business trip, then got back with a few days to catch my breath before heading to Wichita to help with a wedding. So no update from last week, instead here are a few highlights to catch you up:

Laramie is in a valley, between two mountain ranges. Gorgeous. And um, cold - it was raining and the daytime high temps hovered around 45 degrees. While a wee bit too chilly for the summer for my tastes, I must say it was still preferable to the Kansas heat and humidity.

Coal Creek Coffee in Laramie makes a mean cappuccino. And latte. And mocha bianca. And the baristas are truly gifted - the pretty decorations they made with the foam were still visible after I FINISHED my coffee. Uh, sold.

We are cursed with bad refrigerators. Ours died, the evening after Peter's birthday party. Not terribly shocking, it wasn't the newest fridge by a long shot. We had it serviced last year and knew that a new fridge would need to be bought in the next two or three years. Thankfully we still have the deep freezer in the basement and a (also ancient) mini fridge down there as well, so we can kinda sorta make it. In a "this is super awkward and not fun and let's hurry up with that new fridge, delivery place" kind of way.

We bought a brand-spanking new LG with a bottom freezer. Almost fridge-less for two weeks and finally it's delivered. And... it only blows hot air. Niiiiiice. It is being picked up on Wednesday and, fingers crossed, our new one will also be on that truck. On the bright side: after fiddling with the bottom freezer for the past few days, I've decided it is overrated and we went back and ordered a side-by-side this time. It was much more expensive but - given our issues with the first fridge, Nebraska Furniture Mart gave us a substantial discount on this one so the price was not much more. Score!

The new-yet-useless fridge.

Speaking of meals out: our son has developed a Thing for waitresses. Maybe because they coo at him and bring him milk and his most favorite thing in the world (i.e. food), I can't be sure on the reason but I can say that - his fawning and cooing back and smiling and oh, but the creeper stare he gives them whenever they are within 12 feet of him and the yelling at them every time they walk past... Yeah. At first endearing, now a little weird.

Creeper.

Speaking of the child! He is no longer quiet in public. I used to worry as he was just shy and quiet and was content to hang out on my lap with his mouth firmly closed. Now I can't even step into the grocery store without Peter happily yelping and singing his way through the store, at the top of his lungs.

And also! He's getting cuter by the day, true story. I love this age, how they learn a few new random things every day. Today, he learned to stay out of the garbage cans (er, hopefully) and also: how to apply hand lotion. He toddled around all day clutching a bottle of my hand lotion, carefully pretend-applying a dime-sized amount to his palm (as well as our own), then we all rub our hands together to incorporate it well. It is important to take care of your skin, yo.

He always drags his blanket between his legs, smart guy - less likely to trip up on it that way.

Chocolate-covered sour cherry candies are a kinda weird flavor combination of candied treat, not sure why the candy shop I visited ever thought that one up. That didn't stop me from snarfing down so many that I had a slight tummy ache, however.

Friday and Saturday were spent in the Wichita area, I headed down early (Thursday night). Helped with the flowers for a friend's wedding, they had calla lilies and hydrangeas so it doesn't get much easier. All turned out pretty darn spiffy, if I do say so myself! The wedding too was just perfect, the bride was beautiful, and everything was gorgeous. So much fun!

The bouquets and corsages, done and soaking up some water. Wish I had good pictures of centerpieces and bouts...

I, however, was not gorgeous at the wedding - I left my overnight bag in the sister of the groom's car, figured I'd spring it out of valet once we were done prepping flowers. Only: the valet office closed for random hours, so I could never get out there at the right time. Then finally I found someone (half an hour before the wedding), and they had misplaced her keys...

The keys were found eventually and all turned out well, so no worries, but I wasn't able to get dressed for the wedding. Now: luckily I was already in a decent sundress and my cute Reef flip flops, but still! No sweet little Banana Republic dress, no cute flats, no makeup or hair properly styled or nice jewelry. So: sorry for looking like total crap at your wedding, Chris and Stephanie! I swear I'm not a meth head.

Look how pretty I am! And that was before I was really booking it and working on centerpieces, sweating like a hog. Ugh.

Father's Day - another post to come for that one. The day included donuts, Yard House, and shopping for (our soon-to-be) new fridge. Fun times!

My devilishly handsome men.

I am sooooooo looking forward to some time to relax, stay home, maybe clean my house and get some rest. At least until the weekend...

Peter's One Year Portraits

2010-06-08T19:34:00.005-05:00

I'm off for a business trip shortly so things are kinda busy, but wanted to do a quick post for those not hooked up to Facebook...

Peter's One-Year portrait teasers are up on our photographer's blog, and as usual they did a phenomenal job. Thanks so much Josh and Jenny: you do such a perfect job of capturing his personality.

Linky link is here. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday

2010-06-07T07:13:00.006-05:00

Dear Peter,

Congratulations on your first year, my son. You are officially no longer a baby, but instead well on your way to manhood. So let me take this moment to share with you (to the best of my womanly ability), the Man Rules:

Keep the safety on until you pull the trigger.

At the ballpark, never start the wave. But never let it die, either.

You can people watch, but don’t stare.

Walk it off.

Don’t linger in a doorway: it’s in or out. (Your father has yet to master this one.)

Offer your date the seat with the better view in the restaurant.

Never swing at the first pitch.

Go barefoot. It toughens the feet.

It’s not enough to be proud of your ancestry. Live up to it.

And the pleats on a cummerbund face up.

There now, you’re all set. Your father can cover the few things I overlooked. And if you need anything else, please know I’m here for ya.

Much love,
Mamma

Peter, Year 1 from Emily Mueller on Vimeo.

PS: And you’re still my baby. Always.

Weekly Update 06.06.10

2010-06-06T21:50:00.004-05:00

Hi. Busy week, so let's bullet-point that update. I am in a bullet-pointy mood. Mostly party pics this week, too, because I was really bad about breaking out the camera (and all Sunday pics are still on said camera, which I accidentally left in Pete's room).

- Hi, I have another sinus infection. This one is strange and only on one side, making it especially nice. They gave me the super-strong antibiotics this time, and a Rx nasal spray, so that should knock it right out.

- Peter was also pretty sick at the beginning of the week, high fever: it hit 105F a few times so we were a bit worried, and Motrin/Tylenol didn't seem to do anything for it. Monday afternoon I went to get him from one of his (many) naps and his fever had broken - his sheets, clothes, and hair were soaked in sweat, but the fever was completely gone. Hurrah!

- With Memorial Day, Pete's sickness, my sickness, and taking a vacation day on Friday - I didn't exactly get much office-time in this week. Next week should be nice and hectic...

- Beah sent Doots a Cozy Coupe for his birthday. I assembled it all by myself, took over 2 hours: those things look deceptively easy to put together, but dudes there are a LOT of small parts involved.

- Friday morning we had family pictures with the Solars! Fun as always, and I was able to pull together some last-minute outfits (I bought Pete this awesome hipster button-up shirt, to wear with dark-wash jeans and his fedora and Vans. Only, I didn't try the shirt on him until 7pm Thursday night, and it turns out the shirt landed below his knees. Oops. And another outfit's shorts were too big. So we had some last minute wardrobe changes...). Anyhoo, can't wait to see the pics, should be up soon :)

- Nikki came and stayed with us late in the week; she had school + work stuff to take care of, and then helped out with party planning/prepping/decorating. She. Was. A. Godsend.

- Party went really well! It was insanely hot (KS summers SUCK, it was 100F with the heat index and humid humid humid) but everybody still seemed to have a good time! All the kiddos helped Peter with his smash cake, which was perfect: he's quiet and I think being alone with the thing would have been a disaster of hiding his face and crying. Instead it was a good time had by all the babies/toddlers.

- Oh my gosh, but the party, it is over! It's really over! I love party planning and setting up and all of that, but I must admit that I always feel like an awkward, sweaty hostess; I love my family/friends and yet I still get a case of the nerves just hoping everyone has a good time. Which it seems like they all did, so now I am a little sad it is all over, I must admit. And now I'll turn my attention to planning a baby shower that I'm co-hosting later this summer...

- One of Peter's gifts was a gift certificate to one of our favorite shops downtown, The Toy Store. We decided that since we really won't have another chance to head up there for a long time, that we would just go ahead and spend it on Sunday. Peter was super-happy to pick out his own little toys, and finally settled on a pretend-food set, a little basketball, and the best thing of all: a broom and dustpan set. I mean, he freaked. He grabbed it and held it until we went to drop it off at the car, he was so pumped. He has spent a good chunk of time happily sweeping the floors ever since our return home.

- Pete loves Juice Stop. In a way that he has never shown affection for anything before. It was blazing hot on Sunday, so at the end of a leisurely walk of Mass St. we decided to grab a smoothie. From the first sip he had a death grip on the cup, screaming it when I took it away and "hid" it (and ladies and gents, he screamed for SEVERAL BLOCKS down Mass St., until I caved and gave it back to him in the car). He drank more than half of a 20-oz. cup, shrieking anytime I even moved my hand, as if I was going to snatch it away again at any second. I have a friend whose daughter who is also obsessed with their smoothies, so I can only determine that it is Toddler Crack.

- While we were downtown (thankfully before the Juice Stop Fiasco) I bought myself these awesome sparkly Reefs at Shark's. I also almost bought a dashboard hula lady, but was able to restrain myself.

- The rest of Sunday included us just chilling, relaxing after a busy few weeks, gearing up for the next week ahead. I leave for a business trip mid-week and am gone for 7 days, I'm trying not to think too much about it... At least this meeting is full of fun, interesting folks and has a lot of evening functions, so I should be so busy and entertained that time goes by quickly.

- A year ago today I was just getting home from a long walk with a friend, pretty much hit the sack immediately afterwards (to wake up to contractions). My goodness, how time flies.

Weekly Update 05.31.10

2010-05-31T21:37:00.012-05:00

Our rose bush is a-blooming, yay!

Quick update, as we are a little busy around these parts:

Last week during the week we all kept pretty darn busy: I made treats for both book club and a coworker's birthday. At work I had a lot of meetings and a lot of proofs to work on at work and I realized, about mid-week (in the middle of a somewhat-boringish meeting in fact, as my mind wandered a little), that oh yeah hey I guess I didn't realize: his birthday party is at the end of next week - now this week. And there's a holiday stuck in there and I still haven't figured out outfits for pictures and still need to order cakes and party decorations and get my hair/brows done... Yikes. So I did some serious frenzy-like shopping and appt. booking, I think my bases are kinda covered now. Still need to nail down a party menu...

Um, here is my stash of party crap. Kinda finished. Er, something.

We spent the holiday weekend in Scott's hometown - he had a class reunion to attend on Saturday night, a pig roast at one of the parks. We also spent quality time with Scott's parents, they got a lot of personal time with Peter. Lots of fun all around.

Sunday night Scott and I did a lovely, looooong date night in Wichita - we went shopping for Peter for his birthday, spent a long time goofing around and checking out the goods at Toys R Us. I realized it has been many, many years since I had stepped foot in one of those stores. Next we hit up Towne East mall. We decided to end our day with dinner and a movie in Old Town... and it started pouring when we hit the area. Monsoon-style downpour, no joke.

Monsoooooon! Glad we parked in the parking garage...

We bought our tickets at the theater to Ironman 2 (be jealous Alaina), hoping to just dine there, but realized the theater had closed their restaurant/bar inside so we sprinted through the rain to the nearest restaurant. Had a lovely long meal at Old Chicago, and the rain slowed in time for our trip back to the theater. We got to the ticket line, only to realize: while the bar/restaurant was gone, all of their theaters now have seat-side dining and cocktails. Sweet! The Old Town Wichita Warren is now officially my second-favorite movie theater of all time. So I had a nice Ad Astra while I watched our movie. Which was quite good, in case you were wondering. (a summer blockbuster full of highly respected actors? Rock on)...

Mmm, movie Ad Astra (bonus: I took this picture just as a waitress lady walked past, she probably thought I was one of those black-market movie people).

We got back to Scott's parents' house late that night only to discover that Peter was sick. He was feverish and not sleeping well, so we all had a long night. The next day we left at nap time in the late morning, and I'm glad we did. His fever broke for a few hours when we got home, but then veered right back into lethargy and high temps again. Boo. I guess at least he is getting this out of his system now instead of at the end of the week...

Yes. He's wearing shorts. Not pants. Even better: they are size 6 Months. He has the Kemmeter shorty disease.

I promise there will be many updates in the coming week: we have family pictures, the birthday party, the Official Birthday date, I have a work trip... No rest for the wicked, right?

PS: This picture was taken in his moment of healthiness when we got home: we broke down and gave him one of his birthday gifts early. And he loved it. You can't really see it, but his "baby" Jay is not the only rider. He also included his Matchbox Escalade with the custom black-cherry paint job and 24-inch custom gold rims. He has good taste. And also: Matchbox makes some awesome cars these days.

Toddlerisms

2010-05-29T07:24:00.006-05:00

Whether coworkers or my fellow book clubbers or clients or acquaintances of all times - people are asking how much longer until Doots turns a year old. "So close! Oh, but your baby is almost gone!" Then imagine them making Sad Face for me at the very idea of OMG NO LONGER A BABY WAAAAAAAH.

Pfffffft.

Ladies and gents: the baby, he disappeared a long time ago. The birthday may still be a week or so away, but that doesn't matter. We are well into Toddlerdom. My baby, he sat nicely and smiled up at me sweetly and babbled oh-so-softly. Yeah, this current child is not a baby.

My baby most certainly did not:

Insist on taking his toothbrush into the bath, then repeatedly dip it into his bathwater and back into his mouth, sucking loudly and grinning widely. He knows that totally grosses me out.

Signal that he was finished eating at his meals by throwing his plate and any remaining food on the floor.
Enjoy pulling tissue paper out of the box. Like, in a doing-it-in-slow-mo-to-fully-savor-the-moment kind of way.

Stand under the pantry and demand all the boxes of Rice A Roni. Then drag them all to his mat and ceremoniously shake every box while he dances.

Walk around the house singing at the top of his lungs.

Insist that he does all the sweeping whenever I'm cleaning the house.

Freak out when we're in the car and are driving behind a huge ole' truck. Point! Point! Hooty noise! PointPointPoint!

Decide that pushing a "baby" (stuffed monkey) in a doll stroller, all around the daycare living room, is the Best Time Ever. (Actually: he alternates between throwing it in front of the stroller, running it over with the stroller, and then picking it up by its ear and plopping it back into the stroller seat.)

Have moments of what I like to refer to as "Fits of Thunder", epic temper tantrums of crying, tears, hands-over-mouth-in-horror, then throwing himself prone on the floor while moaning. And then in 2 seconds it's all over and he's off to a new adventure.

Stand motionless at the door, watching his father mow the lawn in complete and utter awe.

Require approximately 15 stuffed animals as well as his beloved blanket to be in his crib at all times.

Come at me full-tilt, screaming all the way, and give me big sloppy kisses.

Take pleasure in pulling off his socks at every opportunity, shoving them both in his mouth.

Try to nonchalantly sneak into a free chair at the "preschooler" table at daycare, where the big kids have their lessons and coloring sessions.

Yank on my skirt excitedly whenever he spies my cell phone, so I will play the "Funky" ringtone so he can jam out.

Jump on our bed every chance he can get.

Know when to work the "mama" and the "dada" calls in his favor - for snacks and lemonade and things out of reach and when tired or bummed out or can't find his blanket...

Walk. Oh boy, well: at least, attempt to walk. Drunken zombie-style.

Drunken Zombie! from Emily Mueller on Vimeo.

Lime Meltaways

2010-05-28T17:33:00.001-05:00

When I was pregnant with Peter I loved lime desserts. I mean, I really really really loved them. Could not get enough of them. The more tart, the better. My husband has always had a Thing for the tart as well, so when it comes to Peter’s palate - it was no surprise to us that he will happily nosh on lemons and limes when they are offered to him. Not even so much as a scrunchy face, y’all. This boy loves his tart fruits.

Anyway, I find myself cooking and baking a lot more with limes these days, and especially now with summer approaching. There are usually at least 3-4 limes in our fridge at all times (erm, this might also have to do with the fact that we sometimes imbibe in a nice Gin and Tonic in the summer. But anyway!). I needed a dessert to bring for book club this week, but didn’t feel like running out to the grocery store for supplies, so when I opened the fridge and my eyes landed on the limes, I decided that was the route I was going. My Cookie book had a great recipe for meltaways I had wanted to try for awhile now.

This is my first time making meltaways. These are sharp, almost bitter cookies that would probably edge into the “savory” category as far as taste, if it weren’t for that thick coating of sweet, powdery sugar. Quite good, like a very lime-flavored buttery shortbread. Peter would have loved them, but I didn’t have the guts to deal with the crumbly, powdery, sticky mess that would ensue. He had to just make do with the rinds/pulp after I got done using the limes for my cookies.

Needless to say he was not really disappointed.

Lime Meltaways
(from the Martha Stewart Cookie book)

Ingredients:
3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. confectioners' sugar, divided
Zest of 2 limes
3 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. coarse salt

Put butter and 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add lime zest and juice and vanilla, and mix until fluffy.

Whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. Add to butter mixture, and mix on low speed until just combined.

Divide dough in half. Place each half on an 8-by-12-inch sheet of parchment paper. Roll in parchment to form a log 1 1/4 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Refrigerate logs until cold and firm, at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Remove parchment from logs; cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Space rounds 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until barely golden, about 13 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool slightly, 8 to 10 minutes. While still warm, toss cookies with remaining 2/3 cup sugar in a resealable plastic bag. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 weeks.

For the love of Cars

2010-05-24T20:29:00.007-05:00

Peter loooooves his cars. Loves them. His cousin Dylan started his obsession with the movie Cars (and all things Cars-movie related) at about the age Peter is now. He knows every car in that film, all the names and their back stories and he has a million of the movie-related cars and books and other assorted toys. He's obsessed, but in an endearing, adorable kind of way.

My parents have their own copy of the movie. And we had a few free hours before dinner and Peter's bedtime. I was kinda excited and hopeful that this would be the start of Peter's own beautiful relationship with the film. What follows is a synopsis of how his first-ever viewing of the film went.

At the beginning of the movie he watched intently.

Then he took a moment to check on some of Muzzy's cats in the sun room.

Then he played some hide-and-seek with the kitty.

Then he came over to smile sweetly at me, trying to get a piece of my candy.

He went back to the movie watching from dad's lap. Sideways. While waving around his Cars van thingie (help me out on the name, Dyl).

Thwarted from checking out Muzzy's sewing desk.

Oh, yeah. The movie. Back to cheering for the cars.

Contemplating how long it would take to scale the back of the couch to the other side.

Coming back to do a quick booty-dance to the movie's music.

Tear off to the other side of the family room.

Think about playing with the marble eggs.

Find a hobby horse, woohoo!

And then the Cars viewing was officially over, as Scott spied the hobby horse and had to give it a go himself. The end.

Hrmmph. Maybe he'll be interested in watching it for more than 2 minutes the next time we visit.

Weekly Update 05.23.10

2010-05-23T19:12:00.006-05:00

Stealing a page from some other blogs I follow, and doing the update this week with a bulleted list...

What I learned this week:

Pete's Hair + Humidity = Whooooooa, Nelly.

If you can't find candles in your wedding color, just spray-paint white ones.

Jeannie really likes having her picture taken (she asked me about half a dozen times this weekend).

While trying to paint the pinata, I learned that foam does not like spray paint. At all.

I thought the days of Peter sleeping in our bed ended at about age 5 months - at that point, he was just too excited to be in our bed to do any sort of sleeping there. That is until this week, when after an apparently-exhausting day at daycare, he curled up with his blanket and zonked out. I had to take a picture, because that could easily have been the last time.

Ants, sigh - after all the rain we've been having, all of NE KS has had ant issues. However: thanks to Fox4, I learned that ants can't digest cornmeal and if you leave it out for them, they take it back to their colony and everybody croaks. We left some out before our trip to Pittsburg and have seen hardly an ant since our return.

All it takes is 3 days in a row with his daddy to get Peter to say "da-da". A lot. Like, annoyingly a lot. I think he forgot how to say "ma-ma".

My Mahni girl gets prettier every day.

Broccoli and button mushrooms that are sauteed with a touch of balsamic vinegar are yum yum yum.

Nothing makes my boy's afternoon like a blankie in one hand and an apple slice in the other.

Free State Beer from a bottle tastes mighty fine. And means a quick 3-block trip rather than heading downtown, circling the blocks to find some parking, finally hitting the brewery, and fighting the thick crowd at the bar for 15 minutes - just to get my growler filled.

And as a PS - my favorite picture of the week. His face may be all blurred out from the flash and I cut off the lower part of his body, but I love it because this is my Doots, stumbling several steps to me, with such a lovely look on his face. Bliss.

Weekly Update 05.16.10

2010-05-16T21:04:00.005-05:00

Four baby pictures, with a non-baby picture tossed in there for some variety.

First and foremost: I am going to make this quick, and I mean it this time: I am sick. Siiiiiiiick, like the embarrassing sick where you kinda mope around and look like a giant wuss. But um. Everything hurts, my throat my ears my whole damn body. Wimper wimper wimper. However I am not even HALF as whiney as Pete was when he had this.

I mean, just look at him. See what you have to put up with when your child is miserable?

Peter's a-growing! He can take a few steps in a row, but still wipes out. Totally prefers crawling. He's picking up all sorts of fun new things - Scott showed him how to use his toy tools, so he keeps busy attempting to nail things (sideways) and use the screwdriver (upside down). Eh whatever. He says "bye bye" to go with his waving, and will randomly throw out a "yeah" in response when you are talking to him (I have come to the realization that perhaps I say "yeah" a bit too much).

He suddenly loooooves pictures of babies, so going through his baby album with him has been fun. The best part, though, is when he sees the family pictures, the smile goes away and he looks super concerned when he sees that baby WITH HIS PARENTS WHAT THE HECK STEP OFF, BABY. Hee! Also we flipped his car seat today. Uh, he thought it was the funniest thing ever to be able to face forward and see everything. Also he is totally going to be a seat-kicker. Yay.

I did the Crawl for Cancer on Saturday. Totally fun! And I didn't die like I was worried I was going to, which is a nice bonus.

So, there you go. Not kidding: that's about it.

Have a good week ladies and gents. See you again soon, hopefully in less discomfort. Off to refresh my 7-Up and turn in early.

Things I Love... Friday

2010-05-14T20:12:00.003-05:00

Okay in all honesty, do you want to know what happened to me on Thursdays? I had a “get together” night with a friend move from Tuesday evenings to Thursday evenings, and it kinda took over the time I probably spent pulling this together. And sometimes we don’t meet up, but that’s when we’re both too busy to fit it in (like, you know, when I’m too busy watching Fringe). So –I think we are moving this to Fridays instead. Sorry Thursdays! You just don’t quite fit the bill any longer.

Blah! Life! So complicated-ish. So anyway here are my thoughts on the awesome for this week:

Lauren Dress
This little black dress is just so gorgeous. Black is always awesome and classic (and slimming!) but this one bumps into the Love category with the great lines and that adorable collar.

Pirate’s Booty
For anyone with a little baby who is just learning how to eat, you are probably contemplating those Gerber Puffs, Wagon Wheels, and Crunchies (we lovingly refer to them as Baby Cheetos). Anyway: while they are great, they also have lots o’ sodium and other yucks in them. We started buying Pirate’s Booty instead – it’s organic/natural, it’s yummy, it dissolves in the mouth just like those Gerber products, and it’s much lower in sodium to boot. In fact, we still give him this treat from time to time. Whenever I don’t eat the entire bag myself, that is.

Jim’s Pancakes
Pancakes: hamburger edition? The pancake necklace? The Bay Bridge recreation? I would probably never eat any of these creations (let alone even ATTEMPT to make them, I mean hee! No.), but it’s a fun blog to check every once in awhile and marvel at Jim’s pancake madness.

The Solar Family Route 66 Road Trip

The Solar family drove the entire stretch of Route 66 as part of their family vacation, and photo-blogged the entire thing. Between the gorgeous shots and the descriptions of their stops along the way, I seriously daydream about doing the same trip. If only I didn’t have a kid who detests the car to the point that he screams until he makes himself sick...

Robot Party of Awesome
I am in full-on party planning mode for the Doot’s robot party, which is in 3 short weeks (gulp). Although if I were to be honest, I would admit that I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I was always a whiz in my high school 3D art class (took Best of Show for my basketweaving skillz at the regional art fair, holla!). I really like DIYing stuff. For our wedding alone, I created the invites and all stationery and embroidered totes for my bridesmaids and made candle holders and pew decorations and and and… Yes, it was insane. So anyway! This little birthday party has allowed me to yet again unleash my inner Crafter, I’ve made banners and cupcake toppers and favor tags and yeah. Just yeah, it is fun and I must really thank the Interwebs personally for all the inspiration provided for my DIY projects. Now I’m off to finish the robot piñata…

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T17:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother’s Day to my Muzzy, who is enjoying the lovely SoCal weather as I type this. And to my dear mother-in-law Kris, too! And to all the other mommies out there: I hope that your day was amazing.

I was treated like a queen this mother’s day – I was able to sleep in, and not once would Scott let me change a diaper. Bliss. Scott even made coffee for me when I got up, just how I like it on the weekends (I drink it black all week at work but weekends I need some sugar and cream, pretty please). I got flowers, I looooove flowers. I pulled out a few stems and put them in small vases in other parts of the house, so I can enjoy them everywhere I go.

First the boys took me out for brunch, at Esquina, our new favorite little Latin American spot. Three fantastic courses - fruit with fresh cinnamon doughnuts to start, then our entrees (I had pulled pork with runner beans, cornbread, and fritter; Scott had flank steak with huevos rancheros), then a trio of desserts. YUM. Peter was lucky and got to eat a bit of everything from our plates, plus his own sopapilla/fruit cup. We had brunch cocktails as well. I had their exotic-fruit mimosa, and Scott ordered the other special of the morning: an iced yerba-maté tea infusion with a splash of cucumber rum. Not bad, just kinda… different.

We headed out to the Legends so I could get some spring/summer apparel. It has been a long time, sadly, since I had last gone shopping for myself – aside from a few quick dashes into Old Navy to get a few shirts/pants for the winter, I have pretty much neglected my wardrobe since I found out I was pregnant. Yeah, that long. So off to Ann Taylor and the like, where I scored a pair of pants, 2 skirts, 2 sundresses, 5 shirts, and the crowning achievement of my shopping excursion: the sweetest lightweight summer sweater from Banana. Very delicate and fits like a dream, with pretty crocheted buttons; I can’t wait to wear it over sundresses. Scott and Peter did their duty and accompanied me to the stores without so much as a peep.

My big request for Mother’s Day is that I wanted to go on a picnic, unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating (chilly and cloudy and a little rainy). So rather than heading to campus as originally planned, we had our picnic on the mat on the kitchen floor. And it was perfect.

I took over bath and bedtime for Peter that night, so Scott did house clean up. Peter was worn out after our long day, so he curled into me and fell asleep before he could finish his bottle (a rarity). I sat upstairs for awhile, just held him and rocked him. He is the sweetest, happy little guy, I don’t know why I got so lucky. This world is such a better place with his little soul in it.

I am so proud to be his mother.

Weekly Update 05.09.10

2010-05-09T20:35:00.005-05:00

Seriously, it's May already??

Peter and I spent Cinco de Mayo at a BBQ joint, for my coworker's going away party. A bunch of us brought our babies so it was like a daycare on one end - with the young singles/marrieds on the other side, giving the babies the side eye. Heh. All was well and we had a great time, then when we went to leave Peter decided to go out with a bang. As in, bang his head against the side of the table. He was a trooper though and was able to recover in time to give High Fives all around on his way out the door.

Sometimes Scott has to mow when Pete's getting ready to go to bed, so I let him watch "baba" from the window for awhile before hitting the bottle and zonking out.

In other klutzy baby news: Saturday night Peter took a nose-dive into his dresser, whacking his right eye on one of the shiny pretty brushed METAL knobs. His eyelid immediately got a bit purple and his eye swelled half shut. Yeesh. Needless to say he's got quite the shiner now. And I probably checked on him half a dozen times in the middle of the night to make sure he didn't die of I don't know, eyeball-to-brain swelling or something.

Begging for bites of poppyseed roll.

This week I started work on a pinata for Peter's party. God help us all - I haven't made one since I was a little kid and I forgot how messy and sloppy and all-around Yucky the paper-maché part is. I was able to plow through that portion by the end of the weekend. Thank goodness for cold beer (through a straw, because my hands were goopy), I'm not sure I would have survived it otherwise.

Scott and I both headed to the Salon over lunch on Friday to get our hair cut. I am sure you are like, "wow. That is fascinating" but seriously - Scott went to an actual salon. A Real Stylist in a Real Salon. Not a barbershop, not some random woman at Great Clips. He was actually growing it out just for me so he could impress me with his adult hair cut. Looks great too, by the way.

Scott also got started on the Festivus Ale for next winter. This will guarantee that it is not as... strong... as last year's.

Doots says: hmm, needs more hops.

Saturday was pretty relaxing. We hit up some yard sales and scored Peter some sweet toys. Including a parking garage for his ever-growing collection of cars, be still his little heart. Okay and a word to the wise for all future yard sale people reading my blog: dudes. You are trying to get rid of things, remember? I know those are PediPed shoes (retail: $30-ish) but: they are also scuffed and the sides are worn down. I'm not paying $9 for them. That goes for the lovely woman peddling her kid's used Robeez (also retail: $30-ish) for $15 a pair, and the washed-too-many-times Gap clothes for $3 a pop. Just FYI. And I wasn't the only "shopper" trying to hide my giggles at your prices, either.

Cars carefully parked in a row.

The boys treated me well on Mother's Day, but I'm going to do a separate post for that. A fun-filled day of brunch and shopping and a picnic. Kinda. It was a little cold and drizzly so we picnic-ed on the kitchen floor. It was perfect.

And as a big finale! The baby has learned all sorts of new fun tricks this week - oh my gosh, it's mind blowing how quickly they start picking things up - but probably the most exciting was the beginning of teeny, tiny, baby steps. Granted, those attempted steps are nothing if not ugly (needs more polish. And actual knee bending), and without fail he falls flat on his face after one tiny step. But still! 'A' for effort, little man.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta

2010-05-06T18:03:00.003-05:00

This is a great recipe so I thought I would share. Even in the summer, with a hot kitchen and the several steps it takes to make, I think I would make this. It's sweet thanks to the squash, gets a slightly nutty flavor from the cheese, and is nice and salty-smoky from the bacon. Deee-lish.

Scott and I love it, and Peter loves it too - we started him on this dish when he was still small and eating purees, and he even loved it then. A great dish all around.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta
(from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:
3/4 tsp. salt, divided
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 c. (1-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash
Cooking spray
6 sweet hickory-smoked bacon slices (raw)
1 c. thinly sliced shallots
12 oz. uncooked mini penne (or other small-shaped pasta)
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. 2% reduced-fat milk
1.5 c. grated fresh Parmesan cheese
*FYI - you'll notice chicken in there too; if we want more protein I just toss in a few cups of cooked chicken.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Combine 1/4 tsp. salt, rosemary, and pepper. Place squash on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with salt mixture. Bake at 425 F for 45 minutes or until tender and lightly browned. Increase oven temperature to 450 F.

Cook the bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 1 1/2 teaspoons drippings in pan; crumble bacon. Increase heat to medium-high. Add shallots to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until tender. Combine squash mixture, bacon, and shallots; set aside.

Cook pasta according to the package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain well.

Combine flour and 1/2 tsp. salt in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add 1 c. Parm, stirring until cheese melts. Add pasta to cheese mixture, tossing well to combine. Spoon pasta mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish lightly coated with cooking spray; top with squash mixture. Sprinkle evenly with remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake at 450 F for 10 minutes or until cheese melts and begins to brown.

Male Twirler Alert

2010-05-03T20:45:00.004-05:00

Wow, kudos to Vimeo for taking TWENTY THREE HOURS to upload my 50-second video. Goodness. They must have been having an off day...

Anyhoo! It's been a day since my posting of the weekly update, so I thought I'd post Peter's baton-twirling routine separately. I mean, it's totally deserving of a separate post anyway for that intricate move he does where he twirls the duster between his legs.

Prepare to be amazed my friends.

Mr. Doots shows off his mad twirling skillz. from Emily Mueller on Vimeo.

Weekly Update 05.02.10

2010-05-02T22:28:00.006-05:00

Oh, weekends - where do you go, seriously?? Actually no wait, I can answer that - they go to house upkeep, and cleaning, and laundry, and errands. That's where they go. Being a grown up is so exhausting, for real. A few snippets from the week:

My book club was cancelled and rescheduled for next month. Which is probably a good thing, considering I still have not read the book. Er, yeah.

Friday we grilled some pizza for the first time (yeah I know we're approximately two years behind that trend, and man why did we wait because seriously: YUM), and cleaned the house. And I learned that our son has mad baton-twirling skillz. That's the Muzzy in him coming out.

[this is where I'll eventually link to a vimeo video, if vimeo will ever get their crap together because WTF, it has been over 2 hours since I uploaded the video and I still get "saving to the server will give you a time soon blah blah blah" messages. You almost make me want to go over to nasty youtube, vimeo people. I mean, actually not really. But still: seriously.]

Scott's parents came for a visit on Saturday. We stayed around the house and had some lunch at Jade. Fun visit!

That night Scott and I rented District 9 (it's mindblowing to me that this movie got an Oscar nom) and I worked on some party stuff. I had a bunch of different projects started for Peter's birthday but nothing really finished; well - now I officially have finished the cupcake toppers, favor tags, centerpieces, pennants, birthday banner, and have finished addressing/prepping the invites. And that means it's time to start on even more DIY party stuff. I think if I were honest I would admit I'm doing about 75% of these things just because I secretly enjoy doing crafty projects...

Sunday we stayed busy as well - met up with Nikki and Rick for an afternoon hanging out at Art in the Park and tootling around downtown. Peter decided to end his day downtown by wetting through his diaper. Like, his jeans were soaked. As was the stroller. So we bid farewell to our friends and hurried to the car, where we stripped our kid down in the trunk of the car (the mess that his clothes/diaper contained did not need to see the back seat of the car). He seemed to enjoy his time in the trunk, standing up sans diaper/pants and waving at the Art in the Park crowds hanging around. That's our boy.

back home Scott ran out with grocery list in hand, and bought all the groceries for the week. I gave him a very short list (going to use up some deep freezer stuff this week) and it didn't even include formula or diapers, and yet somehow he managed to spend just as much as I usually do in a week. Men. Meanwhile Peter and I had some time together, played and took a Sunday drive in his push-car. Then it was dinner/bath/bedtime for doots.

And finally, blessedly, I got my front-porch plants planted. I bought them a few weeks ago, and planned to get them in containers last week but time got away from me. I was determined to get them all planted this weekend, as they were starting to look a bit droopy. Um, some of the coleus are a little shrively. Sooo, anyhoo, Scott and I got everything together in the back to get to work, and I just got a few shovel-fuls of potting soil in pots, when there was a knock at the front door. It was the nice little neighbors Gary and Julia from next door.

Julia was standing there with a shoe box, she wanted to know my shoe size, as she bought a pair of shoes but it turned out they were too small on her so she was hoping I could maybe fit them (okay and the hysterical part is that Julia is an elderly lady, so they weren't exactly my style of shoe if you catch my drift, I'm a little less orthopedic in my tastes). Anyway, we chatted away for awhile and next thing you know, it's pretty darn dark out. Oopsies, especially since we also had some chicken on the grill... They let us finish up and while it may have been dark, I got those suckers finished up, darn it.

The good thing about our stroller: the interior zips out for easy cleaning...

Also because I know you are dying to know, our chicken was a little dry, but still edible. Win!

That's about it for this week. Next week's update should be nice and eventful, we have Cinco de Mayo (um, Pete and I actually have plans! Clearly we are social butterflies! Dance card full!) and Mother's Day, and all that other fun stuff. Everybody cross your fingers that my front-porch plants all make it okay, poor droopy things. I also have dreams of a porch swing and new welcome mat and some decorative whatevers, but Scott says those are for another day. Party Pooper.

His Top Chef Dreams, Dashed.

2010-05-01T10:27:00.006-05:00

Doots is our little budding chef. He loves to help in the kitchen. He'll play happily on the floor while I make dinner, stirring his toys into wonderful plastic meals in our old pots and saute pans, but soon he's crawling up my legs and squawking for me to pick him up. He's not content to watch from a highchair or the floor, oh no - he needs to be right in the action.

I have held him on my hip to watch me stir, sometimes carefully letting him help, ever since he was old enough to be interested in it. He loves it. He points and squeals and lunges in for a closer look. He also tries to touch. For the past six months I've been able to keep him away from the pans, telling him "Hot!", catching those lightening-quick chubby hands in time. Still, what happened a few days ago was probably inevitable.

Nice burn right? And this means no more watching from my hip. He is not happy to say the least. Woe is the doots!

Watch as he throws himself prone upon the ground!

You don't understand, his dreams of chefdom are smashed.

It makes him try to wring his own neck over it all.

Young life is now meaningless.

Dramatically wiping away (invisible) tears.

Throwing himself upon the ground once again.

The humanity!

Hey wait, this is a toy.

All is well once again! We have discovered a new game. It is called: let's balance things on Peter's head.

I call this: Balacing on Baby's Head, Kitchen Addition. A weird ducky toy thing.

Cooling rack.

Potato masher.

As a finale: ring toy. Yeah a lame finale I agree, but eh. That's all I could get out of him.

Weekly Update 04.25.10

2010-04-25T20:47:00.005-05:00

FYI - don't call it an infant rattle. That's actually Peter's wristwatch. He loves mine and always fiddles with it, and when his dad gave him his own today he proudly wore it all day long.

So let's see, let's see. You already saw more than enough from the visit with the B-ster and kids. Wanna hear about other fun things going on around here?

I know that I *said* that Pete's birthday invites were almost finished, but alas - when you attempt your own graphic designing (with no prior training), there are bound to be a few... hiccups. Let's just say that Scott took it all in stride and after many many alterations, re-sizing, and several times exporting in different formats: we were able to finish the design successfully. Invitations have now been ordered and should be finished up (and in the mail!) in a week or two. Probably more like two.

Saturday was productive: I embarrassed myself in front of Scott by sobbing uncontrollably while simultaneously doing crafts, learned that I'm on the Liberty Hall Wall of Shame, and tortured my child with guacamole.

Maybe I should start at the beginning.

Early Saturday afternoon Doots and I headed back to KC to pick up Scott... and it started raining as I pulled into a parking space at Paulo's apartment. Blah. We planned on doing some lunch and then shopping at either the Legends or Town Center, but considering both are outdoor malls? Not so much. We just headed back home instead, where later in the day I decided I wanted to rent a couple of movies that evening.

Off we went to find movies. Only, I wanted two in particular (Afghan Star and Dear Zachary), and couldn't find them at any normal rental-type places. We ended up running around high and low looking for them, every time I was denied at another place the more determined I was to find them. I mean hello, this is Lawrence. Independent, critically-acclaimed crap is just up this town's alley. We finally ended up downtown at Liberty Hall's video section. We probably should have headed there first: I used to rent there ALL THE TIME, in fact could not fathom why we stopped going there.

I found the movies in like 2 seconds, then wandered up to the counter wondering just how long, exactly, it had been since I rented there... Well, after much investigation it turns out it had been about 6 years. And the reason was because I had a nice little fine built up, totalling forty-five bucks. Yes. FORTY-FIVE DOLLARS. How does one do that, you may ask? Well, by renting 5 movies, and returning them 3 days late. At $3 per movie per day. Yeah. So needless to say, we opened a new account in Scott's name. And I'm banned from renting on that account. Heh. The nice little hipster at the counter (who probably pitied me because I was tragically unhip and approximately 10 years older than him) told me that if I come in to rent a movie on my birthday, they'll erase all late fees as a birthday gift. I now have a reminder on my calendar to get my butt up there on my birthday.

By the time we found the movies it was too late to start dinner at home. So we headed to a Mexican joint downtown to have dinner. We got margaritas. Margaritas! I forgot how delicious they are, oh yum. For dinner Scott got a pulled pork thing and I, trying to be a good mother, got chicken enchiladas with a guacamole-only topping and rice. Their guac is super-mild, I've had it a thousand times so it would be perfect - I didn't want anything too spicy to share with the babe. He loves all kinds of food, but spicy stuff really gets to him. Kind of a bummer, some babies looooove it, but hey what can you do.

Well, it turns out the chicken in the enchiladas was full of black pepper. While I enjoyed it, it was also a pain to keep wiping the pepper off the chicken to put on Peter's plate for him to eat. So, instead, I fed him a lot of rice and the enchilada-tortilla and a lot a lot A LOT of the guacamole. I know he loves avocados so it was a brainless decision.

At first he was a trooper, he kept eating like there was no problem, but after a bit he started grunting with every bite he jammed in his little mouth. The next thing I knew, his eyes got huge and his mouth was flapping open and closed and arms pumping... The huge group of girls at the table next to us started laughing and very nicely flagged down a waiter for us. I mean, I couldn't exactly give him some margarita, and he already drank his milk... Poor guy was in a bad way, the only thing missing were flames coming out of his mouth and steam out of his ears. The guacamole, it turns out, was chock-ful of jalapeno and was pretty spicy. Oops. Peter drank a whole lotta water the rest of the meal.

So we headed home kinda late, got the baby to bed and settled in to watch our rentals. Both were great, highly recommended. Dear Zachary was so well edited, a fantastic documentary and it really honors a great couple, Kate and David Bagby, who were dealt a couple of heavy blows in life and instead of losing it, worked to make a change. It was also probably the saddest thing I've ever watched, I was pretty much a snotty, ugly-crying mess while I watched it, sitting on the floor and simultaneously worked on some craft stuff for Peter's birthday (I'm a multitasker, what can I say). Awow, I mean every time I thought I was going to be okay and got calmed down, something else happened that made me start sobbing again. I am almost embarrassed at how much it affected me. If you are one of those people like me, you only like to be sad in private, I suggest you still give this film a shot but maybe think about watching it while you are alone...

Mr. Doots is practically a full-blown toddler, minus the walking and talking - he says a few things, and very specifically ('mama' for me and 'om-nom' for food), but he only uses them a few times a day, so yeah take that as you will. It's insane - I've seen all the changes happening and know it's all going on, but when you put them all together, it is crazy how grown your kid suddenly seems.

He understands a lot of what we say, and he'll actually react appropriately to a few learned responses to commands. I know it's very Pavlov's dog-like and not that he has higher learning, but still fun to goof around with it. He'll give kisses when asked, he waves good-bye on command. When you have a child, you learn really quickly what you apparently say a lot: he'll grab on tight when I say "hold on to mama" (as I try to drag 3 bags, my lunch, and a mug of coffee as well as baby out to the car in the mornings). He'll look for people or things when I ask him where they are. So we're cruising right along on schedule to be a toddler soon :)

He's a bit of a tease too. He knows when things bother me, and he'll do them then looks at me just to make sure I just saw that OMG I TOUCHED THE OVEN MOM HAHAHAHAHAHA. Also he knows it grosses me out when he puts my hairbands in his mouth (because I mean, hello. Gross). So when he finds one on the floor, he crawls into the room where I am, plops himself right in my field of vision, and then gives me a grin while shoving about half of it in his mouth. Then he will very loudly start SUCKING ON IT. Sick. He dissolves into giggles when I scold him and pull it out of his mouth.

Also he has a play cell phone (one of my old ones that I still charge up for him). He likes to find the ring tones and play them, then jam out. He's very serious when he does this, no smiling or screwing around I mean hello dancing is serious business yo. It is awesome.

And he crawls. On everything. Drawers, cabinets, furniture, whatever he can reach he tries to scale it. That? Not so awesome.

Finally too, he is starting to grow a bit. His 6-month clothes are starting to get tight, but he's swimming in all the 12-month stuff (he will literally crawl out of those big pants). I think he'll be rocking the onesies and BabyLegs for the next several weeks. But the best part! He's up a shoe size. Or maybe only half a size? He has outgrown is Target and Old Navy size 3s (and the Janie and Jack, but that's no surprise). He's finally into his size 3 Reef and Puma and Gap shoes, however. YAY! He hasn't gone up a (half?) shoe size in like 6 months, so this is a big deal. To me. Yeah. I mean because I've been sitting on those rare gold/black All Stars like, for-evah.

That's pretty much where we stand with everything this week. Hopefully I find enough time in the evenings this week to get a Thursday post up, but can't promise anything. Have a lovely week everyone! See you again soon :)

And then we got kicked out of the farmstead. The end.

2010-04-24T15:27:00.001-05:00

Photo time!

Beah and the kids came up for a quick visit yesterday; she had the kids' pictures taken (Peter made a cameo too), then we did some bumming around the city. We met up with the Solars on their turf, near their studio in the River Market. Because we were in the neighborhood we made a quick stop at Babycakes as well, mmmmm. Lemon babycake + Shatto's root beer milk, can't beat it. I did not have my camera so there are no pictures, but rest assured. It was lovely.

After that we headed to Crown Center to have some lunch at Fritz's. As you can imagine, Dyl was in heaven. He declared it his most favorite place in all the world. Um, yeah he loved it. LOVED IT.

The trains deliver your orders (via a track that runs all around the building, over all the booths). It's a very efficient process :)

Beah did her best to distract the boys, but nothing would take their gaze away from the trains running the track.

Here comes our food!

Dyl could contain himself no longer, and had to check out the rest of the place. Beah went with him, the rest of us entertained ourselves just fine at our table.

After that we visited the fountains before leaving.

Escalator lover. The last time we were here, you couldn't keep Mahni off of 'em.

We dropped Scott off at Paulo's in Olathe (they had a man date to see Jack White that evening). Then we headed off to Deanna Rose Farmstead to spend the rest of our day.

First stop: dairy barn.

They had a milking station. Mahni was a natural.

Peter was not so sure of the calves.

Mahni had to run back and do some more milking before we left. She, ah. Well. Is our Mahni, that's for sure.

Next we visited the petting zoo. Mahni and Dylan loved the little goats. Until they started eating Mahni's dress, that is. They swarmed her, man.

Tractor track!

Authentic Kanza home.

Then to check out the wigwams.

We stopped to spend some time at the playground. Mahni and Peter were best chums at the playground.

We visited the old schoolhouse, the teacher was really helpful in explaining everything.

We took a sec to have an ice cream before finishing up. Peter loooooves ice cream sandwiches (ice cream anything really).

Then he had a quick snack of Bunnies while the other kids checked out the bunny barn and giant slide.

Mahni is the queen slider. And sadly most of the pictures of her going down the slides are not appropriate for posting, because her facial expressions are hysterical.

At about this point, we hear some guy on his cell phone talking about how they had to get out of there, because they were closing in mere minutes. And then we looked around and realized, huh. No one else seems to be here... Sure enough, they were closing. So we left.

Beah and I followed each other to our respective turn-offs, then went our separate ways. Sniff. As usual, the visit was much too short.

Peter and I headed back to Lawrence for an evening to ourselves (Scott was staying the night at Paulo's), we did some grocery shopping before heading home and calling it a night. Peter, as usual, rode the car while I did the shopping. He adores that thing.

Update will come tomorrow. Have a great rest of your weekend, see you soon.

Weekly Update 04.18.10

2010-04-18T21:19:00.007-05:00

Doots would like to know: would you like your salmon with a Bearnaise sauce? Or perhaps a Hollandaise? Because he could whip up either equally well, your preference.

Anyhoo.

Happy 'nother week to everybody! I could write and write and write, but instead I will use bullet points. Just to be different for once. Behold, the Bulleted List of Week in Review:

It got kinda hot. I got kinda bummed. But! Then! It rained and cooled back to normal for this time of year, so no more complaining from me.

I still have not read my book club book for this month, I may be a wee bit in danger of not finishing. I still have hope, though. Tomorrow, I try to track down a copy of that darn novel...

I got a bunch of first-birthday-party stuff done: Scott pretty much finished the invite design, we just have to have it printed and start addressing. Guest list is pretty much settled. The park shelter is paid for and reserved for the day. Also some DIY is finished or mostly finished up: I made four 4-yard pennant/flag banners to hang, for about $7 in supplies I made about $60 worth of banners. Sweet. I almost finished with the cupcake toppers, and am about half-way done with favor tags. And am using old glass bottles for flower vases, they are all decoupaged and be-ribboned and stuffed full of that green stuff to add flower stems... Next step is to get a cupcake and baby-cake baker set up. And my goodness, but this first birthday planning is like planning a mini-wedding.

We went downtown for a nice long walk this weekend. We poked around in a few stores, where Peter worked on his "charming the beautiful ladies" routine. I think he's got it down pat, from the responses from his fellow downtown walkers and store owners and shoppers. I found this sweet hat for him at one of the Jayhawk stores downtown.

Stopped at Sylas and Maddy's for some ice cream before heading back home. And they had Blue Moon, be still my Northern-girl heart. Peter and I shared a scoop.

He also begged some Peanut-butter Freak off of his dad.

Checked out a rummage sale on Saturday morning, and hit up the Farmer's Market. Bought some yummeh-yummeh oyster mushrooms at said Farmer's Market. Totally going back and buying more next week.

I bought some goodies for my front-porch container gardens at Sunrise, just a start to see where we stand. Only, it is still kinda cold in the evenings, so I still pack them up and bring them in at night. Thought it would be best to maybe wait to plant them until next weekend maybe.

And how's the baby? Well, he started screaming this week, mixing it into his baby babble repertoire. Yay. Daycare loves it about as much as we do. I try to ignore him for the most part...

He has a new obsession with putting things away. I will open a random drawer, only to discover that he replaced the towels with his cars, for example.

Also, I am sad to announce: he's gotten a little bit... independent. Opinionated. Straight up mad if you take away something he was clearly enjoying (like, oh, when he's pounding on the laptop. Or trying to eat a popcorn kernel he found under the couch. Or attempting to scale the kitchen drawers). Yeeeah. Nowhere near tantrums yet, thankfully. It's his chubby little baby thighs that get slapped by his chubby little hands when he's mad, along with what I imagine is some foul baby language from the sound of things.

And he makes this... face? I can't explain it really, and he'll do it at random moments when he's thinking really hard. He kinda scrunches his lips into his nose and breathes loudly through his nose.... Yeah here's a shot to prove it:

No, really. Here's another one.

What's he doing, other than weird faces and such? Well, he's crazy for cereal. In the mornings he has his morning bottle and we get dressed/ready for the day, then head downstairs. He goes to his mat and waits patiently, playing while I get his breakfast ready. And if it happens to be a cereal day? And I get that cup out and shake the cereal box? He. Loses. His. Mind. OMG. His arms flap and his face gets contorted and he gets all screamy. It's like a teenage girl seeing Justin Bieber in the flesh.

He really takes his morning cereal seriously. And his firetruck pajamas are a bit too big. I put them on him anyway (obviously).

We also got a bunch of yard work done this weekend, by the way. Yay, yardwork! You forget how daunting that task is until you get started.

Okay random note: I love Lawrence. Downtown we came across this dude. Not asking for spare change, not making a political message, not assaulting my eardrums with his "art". No, he's just giving out free hugs.

What happens when a klutz has a baby who inherits the klutz gene? A lot of boo-boos, that's what. This weekend alone, the child has accumulated the following: another black eye. A small bruise on his forehead. A bruise on his cheek. Two huge, red, gaping mosquito welts on his side (that he inherited from his mommy too, a wicked reaction to mosquito bites). Multiple bangs to the back of the head while trying to stand in precarious places. And the coup de grace: out of the corner of my eye, I saw him taking a backwards trust fall INTO THE DIRECTION OF THE SHARP, SHARP COFFEE TABLE. So, still out of the corner of my eye, I reach out to grab him. Only, I end up jamming my fingernail into his eye. Yes, INTO his eye, which on top of things only propelled him into the coffee table even harder. So he has a nice set of broken blood vessels in his eye to boot. You can kinda see them in the corner of his left eye in the pic below, they got a bit more prominent after that. I was waiting for his eyeball to deflate or something. Mommy of the year, that's me.

How about some ravioli-eating pictures! I mean, I know it's kinda overdone and all, everybody has that spaghetti or ravioli chaos shot of their kids. But this isn't that boring, is it?

Er. Or maybe it is? Well what if we added a baby sipping out of a teeny Starbucks cup?

Not even when he dumps the remainder in his lap and simultaneously does the "Ta Da!" at the end?

Oh, okay then. No more ravioli pictures.

One last thing on the kid! His hair is getting longer and I don't think we can fight the curl much longer. C'est la vie. Hopefully he ends up being one of those kids with angelic curls, not crazy curls.

Also it has been, like, unbearably hot in our kitchen. ALREADY. And it's only April! I already had a game plan for meals for the week, but decided about mid-week that dude: heating up a kitchen in the evenings when it is already 79 F when I start, is just not the way to go. So: I hit the grill. For the first time, like, ever. In my life, like ever. And I decided, of all things, to take a oven-roasted chicken recipe and switch it to the grill. But! It was great! All went well, no one caught on fire or even got a burn (Peter watched me from the safety of the swing set), and the chicken turned out fabulously. In my humble opinion. It's grilling for me from here on out.

Peace out homies. See you next week.

To the park we go.

2010-04-16T19:33:00.012-05:00

I'm never complaining about wintertime again. We basically went right from winter (with a few lovely days in the lower 70s) straight to Kinda On The Warm Side, temps near or in the 80s and sun beating down... Blech.

Last night some storms came through, and today was nice and cool-ish again, perfect park weather in my opinion. So after I got off of work, we took Peter down to the park near our house.

There is a DQ on the route back home, how fortuitous. Doots had a cup of vanilla, then we headed home for the night. Good start to the weekend.

Weekly Update 04.11.10

2010-04-11T22:08:00.007-05:00

He looks like he just won a ton o' cash at the race tracks, right? But no. Instead he found two dollars in his father's wallet and was so incredibly jazzed, we couldn't help but let him carry on for awhile.

Later he tried to reach some of his beautiful babies to see if they maybe wanted to go out for an ice cream, but no one answered his calls. Bummer. And PS hello! You mom is RIGHT HERE and she is more than happy for an ice cream date. Sheesh, 10 months into this motherhood thing and I'm already too uncool for a mom/son date.

You know that awesome, relax-y feeling you get on a Sunday evening when the baby's in bed, dinner has been enjoyed and the kitchen is shiny spotless, and the last load of laundry is finished and folded, the bags are packed for tomorrow, and your house is clean and quiet and cozy-dark and you can just sit down and breathe, and enjoy a glass of wine, and maybe write a blog post? Yeah. I'm there. Sadly at 9:30pm, but hey, I'll take it. Anyhoo. This week in summary:

Busy as usual (never a bad thing). I've been taking my antibiotics and hey, whadda ya know - I feel about 8 thousand times better. Funny how that works.

I also spent one evening filling in our future engagements in our shared Google Calendar and tried my best not to cry. This little family is busy every weekend until May 22nd, then busy again until August something. Eeps. How did two very hermit-like individuals get themselves into this kind of mess?? Aw hell, and I have a baby birthday to plan on top of things.

Fun times ahead!

In weekend news, I will just type out some random snippets because otherwise I'm not sure how to collect all my wayward thoughts on an eventful-yet-homey-weekend-o'-stuff:

Friday Scott and I went out on a real life date, it was lovely! Many many thanks to my dear brother Paul, who pretended to be excited to make a 30-minute drive each way to sit in our house and stare at the wall for 3.5 hours while our child snoozed and we ran amok downtown. But hey man - I fed him, like, leftovers. Not just any leftovers! A lovely tuna and marinara with capers and lemon over rotini kind of leftovers. And we also forced him to eat (like in a, "man you have to eat this! No really, eat it!!" kind of way) the last surviving slice of key lime pie that was floating around in the fridge. So, uh. Yeah. We probably still owe him Big Time.

Anyhoo though! We had a nice long evening of sashimi and drinks at the Yokohama sushi bar, and then lingered over a nightcap at Free State. Then just to ensure we were Responsible Adults Who Drive Sober, we decided to blow some time at Borders. Just like the old days when we lived near downtown! Only: now our Borders closes at 10pm, so we basically walked in the door and heard the "Borders is now closing, please bring your purchases to the nearest counter.." message. Oh, yay. I mean, lame, right? They used to stay open until like midnight. So instead we tromped around downtown a bit before heading back home.

You ever have one of those moments where you think you are just sooooo smart, like "hey why install the baby drawer locks when we have a yard stick the baby can't get into them that way, har har har"? Yeah. We had one of those moments. And clearly we should have less of them.

Saturday we had a first birthday party for a dear friend's son. Cowboy themed, oh yeah! Julie and I were pregnant at the same time, our kids are a mere 8 weeks apart, so we bonded over "so-yeah-this-weird...-thing?-happened-and-yo-man-what-IS-that-all-about-pregnancy-is-bizarre!!!" moments. A lot. Plus we both happened to have towheaded baby boys with bright blue eyes and fair skin and when they were really small they could have been twins. You know, like the kind of twins where one twin looks 2 months older than the other.

Anyway.

The party was like a training session for where we'll be in a few short months - wow, almost a year. How did this happen already? Feels like I was just trying to figure out how to do this darn swaddling thing, now I'm researching potty chairs. Future mommies take note: it really truly does go by in the blink of an eye. So enjoy every little moment.

Also, Julie: rad party. Clearly I have a lot to live up to :)

Let's see. Other than that we did a lot of spring-and-summerizing. Scott was a dream and went around and sprayed and sealed and did all sorts of fun things to ensure that the buggies and hot blasts of air don't sneak into the house this summer. He also mowed and did some upkeep in the yard and oh my gosh, I just realized that now with the baby upkeep in the yard will be about a thousand times more complicated. Peter and I decided to spend some quality time together by shopping. And shopping. And shopping. We stopped for a quick lunch at Culvers, where our boy may or may not have shared a Cheeseburger Butterburger Value Meal with his mother. And man, but he inhaled the meat, would squawk angrily for more in-between bites. They must have some quality beef in their burgers (or so I tell myself).

See now: Paulo is not the only one forced to eat our tuna marinara and lemon caper pasta leftovers.

This weekend while grocery shopping the Starbucks lady was walking around giving samples of an iced green tea, and we took one and Peter was Super Excited to share it. I think the teeny sample cup made for easy baby sipping (and totally resembles a shot glass, which is also slighty funny to see a baby hit it). So he enjoyed the beverage. Then he insisted on eating the ice. And then! He played with the cup, pretending to drink out of it the rest of our time in the store (he would also make an over-exaggerated slurping noise, oh the humanity you're killing me kid). So god help me, but I couldn't throw that stupid cup away. I took it home and washed it and he now uses it at meals, happy as a clam to drink like the Big People.

It kinda makes me sad. But it also kinda cracks me up, because he now is obsessed with cups and will play with them all the live long day, pretending to mix drinks and feed them to you or drink them himself. Future bartender-in-training.

He looks like a drunk frat boy here, right? Or maybe that's just me.

Weekly Update 4.05.10

2010-04-05T22:10:00.006-05:00

Hai.

I am tired and still sick (oh, guess what! A wicked sinus infection, yeah. Maybe I should have went to the doctor weeks ago instead of letting it linger into what will soon be remembered as The Month Long Headache of Suck). So, it will be mostly pictures this week. I am sure you are super upset (not really).

So - the weather, it went from chilly and gross to really really really nice. We took advantage and spent some time outside as much as we possibly could.

Okay a quick side note: this shirt in the picture below was a split-second grab on my way to check out at Old Navy a few months ago, it was on clearance for like 97 cents. And it is one of my favorite Mr. Doots shirts.

Swinging.

We love swinging.

The new swing set looks nice in the yard, eh? Now we need to start working on spring-i-fying our yard...

Cupcakes are best enjoyed outside.

Um, if you missed the secret posted the first time - Peter actually has pretty curly hair. We just brush it out a lot (while wet most certainly) to keep those curls under control.

So on Good Friday Scott was off work, I was off work, and Peter didn't have daycare. No pictures, but we spent the day shopping. Got a bunch of presents for summer birthdays and weddings, I finally got a pair of sunglasses, and we had a long lunch at Free State. It was lovely.

Then Saturday we headed to the 'Burg for Easter. Peter and Miss Mahni got re-acquainted (didn't take long).

My brother was goofing with my camera and I showed him where I felt the Pain of Sinus Infectionism.

Doots doots and Doot's Dad.

He learned to make that "pfffffft" car noise that little boys make when they play with toy cars? I think his cousin Dylan taught him. So we have been enjoying the spitty, noisy sounds ever since.

Hey - I may have grown up with a bunch of women, but I can still figure out how to play with cars, okay?

Later Saturday evening I spied the Easter Bunnies filling baskets. Uh, yeah. Us "kids" still get baskets. Needless to say there is a lot of candy at our house right now.

Scott stole my camera and took a picture of his beer.

Then it was Easter! Peter was rockin' it Mad Men 1960-style and wore a romper. Even pulled it off while sitting on the floor, helping Muzzy and grandpa make Easter brunch. He has mad cooking skillz.

Easter Basket Time.

The boys devouring their candy.

Doots changed into something more comfortable, then "played" with Tinnie. And by "played", I mean "played hard to get"...

For dessert we made cupcakes! Actually my dad baked them. I helped to decorate.

The crown pork roast!

Later we had some Peep-role-play fun. Tinnie gave it a shot first.

I promised her I wouldn't put this picture on Facebook. And for the record: I didn't.

Then she saw the video with Peter and the Duckie Tub, and she went to wish him sweet dreams during naptime.

Later Peter tried out the Peep costume. He was not as excited as Tinnie.

And that was about it for the weekend - we visited Nikki and Rick and momma Bev before heading back to Lawrence, where we hit a standstill on Hwy 10. There was an accident that put things back a bit. Got home, then off to bed for everyone.

And yeah, then today. We had some morning thunderstorms, then a sunny (and kinda humid) afternoon. Peter went for a ride in the coupe but kinda zonked out about halfway through. How in the world sleeping in such a position is comfortable to small children is beyond me.

So there you go, in a nutshell. I'm off to do some lines of antibiotics, then to bed with me. Have a good week my dears, hope that you all had a lovely Easter...