7 months {a little late}

{between 2 business trips this month and big family events, i'm a little behind on this update!}

baby is growing up.

at 7 months, he's just about sitting up without any tumbles. he's getting a little more hair. he is getting so smiley, which mark and i appreciate as positive feedback. hoorah!

i found his tickle spots, too - you have to bite the sides of his tummy or tickle the bottoms of his little feet. he loves it and squeals with glee.

he wants to P-L-A-Y. this boy has always done things his own way, and i'm just now realizing that it's his personality! he is focused, interested, smart, and gets easily frustrated when he's bored. i'm so glad i realized this now, because i'm trying to tailor his activities to keep that in mind. he found a little activity board at his pop-pop and tooties house and he was OBSESSED. the kid just wants to work! takes after his father in that way, certainly not his mother. and another thing he gets from his dad we sadly found out this month - henry hates the sun! we took him to the pool and he kind of fussed the whole time because the sun was too bright (and of course he wouldn't keep him sunglasses on, no sir!), and anytime we go into the sun he buries his head in my shoulder. darn it. all those dreams of us living on a tropical island one day are dashed. i'm beat 2 - 1! mark must be thrilled. :)

henry just babbles all day long. mamamadadadabababa, and he started whispering. "ahh-da!", he whispers. it's so adorable. turns me into a melty mama puddle.

he does not think very much of solids, i'll tell you that much. we've tried avocados, carrots, bananas, apple...he throws it all up. i just don't think he's ready for it. he eats rice cereal every couple nights, but even that - he'll only eat a few bites then he's done.

we still like to sit on the front porch together (the only place he'll let me cut his fingernails - white trash?), and take walks in the stroller and baby bjorn. i stopped fighting the early saturday morning wakeup, and started walking over to eastern market (about a 15-20minute walk) to get crepes and fruit samples. he tried a peach a few weeks ago and seemed to enjoy licking it. yay! progress.

at 7 months, henry boy just gets more fun every day. so blessed to be his mother!

Eating the Farm: Our CSA

In an attempt to document and catalog the food we make with our new CSA share, I'm going to try to do a weekly post of "what we did with our CSA".

After many years of wanting to, this is the first summer we've actually participated in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). We signed up with McCleaf's Orchard, a local farm near Gettysburg, PA. The primary reason for choosing this farm was because the pick up is 2 blocks from our house! It was a large upfront cost, so we really wanted to make sure we were committed to using all this produce every week. Every Tuesday, for the whole summer, we get fresh fruit and veggies for about $30 bucks a week, and I'm already getting introduced to new wonderful foods and being challenged to find ways to incorporate it into our menus.

This week, we received:
garlic scapes
green onions
fuji apples (stored from Fall 2011)
asparagus
sweet rainier cherries
summer squash
butterhead lettuce
sugar snap peas
swiss chard

What we made:
garlic scape pesto (incredible! pesto with a kick!)
roasted asparagus
pan fried white beans and chard w/ spring onions and garlic scapes
pasta with grilled asparagus and squash, with fresh ricotta and shaved parmesan
pasta with garlic scape pesto, with tomatoes and avocado
creamed swiss chard with whole grain dijon mustard (really good - adapted from here)
pasta with squash matchsticks, toasted walnuts, and grated parmesan

and we snacked on the (delicious!) cherries, apples, and peas

Goals for this week: take pictures! and try to find alternatives to pasta. (oops!)

rambling.

This week (and last weekend), I've been a single mom. Bless all those single parents out there, because that gig is NO JOKE. Mark's out of town for work, and even though it's a lot of work and completely exhausting, it's much more fun this time around, compared to before Hen (BH) and it would be just me at home, fending for myself. I love me some baby Henry. We've been co-sleeping like champs and I'm afraid when Mark comes back, he will come back to a new bedmate (oops!). At least he doesn't take up that much room, right? I pray he does not become an H sleeper.
Been filling up my nights with long walks, house projects, craft nights, family visits, and hulu. It's been fulfilling to be the one person completely aware of this little baby's needs, and responsible for meeting those needs. Whether that's a middle of the night party, double bathtime, cry session in the backseat, or rice cereal appreciation day, I'm the one in charge of it.
I'm also helping plan a baby shower, and it's been entertaining to delve into my side business as a party planner. I've been looking for ideas/inspiration on pinterest, and the best is when I come across my own baby shower that Naomi threw for me last year. Well done, Naomi. I think we can all agree those cinnamon rolls changed my life. But seriously, we are jokingly considering starting our own little party planning gig because we love doing it and our talents really complement each others. As in, my friends are genius crafters and I'm good with a hot glue gun; or I can develop a good menu, and my friends are genius bakers. See how this all works out?

I think the point of this blog post is that when Mark leaves town, I try to turn into superwoman and thusly become more empowered to remain this superwoman after he returns. I'm sure he would appreciate that, anyway, rather than me asking to sleep in every Sunday.

Fin.

Friday I'm in love.

June is an important month of reflection because it marks the month I finished grad school and started my career. So I always take a moment to figure out how my life has progressed since those three years ago, and you know what? It really has. In all the ways I didn't think it would. But life is rich, blessed, happy, complicated, exhausting, and completely perfect. I find frustrations in the day to day, but overall I feel like I'm living a good life. And I'm thankful for the people in it who make it so much more fulfilling and happy. Especially my two boys Mark and Henny pen. Those guys make my life.

Henry has really taken to hugging me lately. He loves to wrap his arms around my neck and squeeze and I find it so endearingly sweet I nearly melt into a puddle every time. In the wee hours of this morning, after he finished his midnight snack, I just sat with him for a long time. His chest on mine, his short, tiny breaths on my neck, his little hands softly brushing against my arm. I DIE. I wanted to stay there all night, but instead I just took him to our bed to snuggle. Sometimes it hits me how quickly time is passing, and how fleeting these late night moments are, and I just do all I can to appreciate my life right now, and how much love there is flowing around all the time.

I guess that what I'm basically saying is I'm in love and I don't care who knows it.

ps I was singing him some good solid opera the other night and he burst into tears. And not tears of joy, people. What henny? You no like-a mah voice?