sisters and babies.

Ok, so this is just the first of many, I'm sure, group pictures of my sisters and the baby cousins. Can you believe four of us sisters/sister-in-laws had babies within 8 months of each other? I cannot. I was begging my sisters to get pregnant when I found out I was...and well...it just took them a little bit longer than I wanted, but I got my wish! I'm so spoiled.

Without further delay, I present to you...the sisters and the cousins! (We are missing Jodi and Jake who recently moved to Oklahoma. We miss you guys!)

Mary and Ronan, me and Henny, and Jen and Lincoln

Yes!!
Doesn't Hen look HUGE? Geez.

ps paci magic going on with Henry
pps remind me to stop taking pictures where we're sitting on couches. so unflattering.

One way ticket to somewhere, please.

Hello from a sad little office in DC, with a forlorn-constantly sighing me sitting and dreaming of a far off place called Oregon, staring at this $130 ticket we received this morning for being a day late on changing our zone sticker (burn in hell, street parking).
We just returned from a week away in Portland and the Oregon coast where it was sweater weather and Henry waved for the first time and the night we got home started "scooching" as we're calling it. He literally uses his strongman arms to pull his entire body across the floor. If his goal is to impress his mom and dad, job well done.

Henry learns to wave. from julie rowlett on Vimeo.


Anyway, I'm just dreaming of being back in cooler weather, doing different things, hanging out with my guys all day long, and watching Henry grow up. Sometimes being a working mom is the exact opposite of the life I want. But it does inspire me to reflect on my life and try to figure out what it is that I do want.

all the babies are here!

My sister had her baby early this morning (10 pounds 3 oz! stick that in your pipe!), which brings the Year of Babies to a close.

Henry George - November 2011
Jacob Matthew - December 2011
Lincoln Richard - June 2012
Ronan Joseph - July 2012

(notice a trend in middle names as grandparent names...)

I just keep imagining all those little boy cousins growing up together, digging in the dirt together, going off to kindergarten that first year, growing up and sharing experiences and being best buds. I picked a good year to have little Henny boy.

This is a pretty busy year for my parents, to be sure. 

8 months.

Love my little 8 month chunk of a baby.

Baby boy is doing all sorts of things these days - a master of sitting, flapping his arms, smiling in the morning, walking with mom and dads help, drumming, babbling, playing the piano, whispering, mimicking sounds, splashing in the bath, smiling at himself in the mirror, turning in a circle on the floor, and snuggling. Oh this boy loves to snuggle. He has mastered the intense Henry stare. He's such a thoughtful little guy.
We haven't been too pushy with the solids. Henry's never loved mushy purees, but he loves to gum and suck on peaches, plums, cucumbers, bananas, and avocado. I've been researching baby led weaning and that is really making sense to me and what Henry needs. So we continue to offer rice cereal and other purees around breakfast, but we're not worried if he doesn't eat any of it. Food before 1 is just for fun, as the saying goes. We're also working with him every day to help him learn to crawl. One thing I'm learning about Henry is he gets frustrated pretty quickly, and needs a lot of encouragement to try to do something hard. So we get down on the floor with him, clap and cheer, march around singing and clapping, and other things to help him learn how to move his little round belly off the ground. Although, to be honest I feel like we'll want to hit ourselves when he starts crawling and we have to really keep a close eye on him and not to mention BABY proof this old house of ours.
He's about 50/50 on sleeping through the night these days. He did it last night, and woke up around 5am this morning. Bleary eyed, I went to pick him up and he just wrapped himself around my hips, like "mom, do not even THINK about putting me back in my crib!" So off to mom and dads bed he went, to snuggle with mom (ahhhh my favorite thing is the one hour of snuggling we typically have in the mornings). When he wakes up from that little snuggle session around 6:30am, he gives me the sweetest smile. We rub noses, which makes him laugh every time, and I sit him up so he can start playing with dad - time to wake up dad - grab the beard, pull on the shirt, bite the nose, whatever it takes! Dad wakes up and pulls up the blinds, letting the morning sun in. We're all awake and smiling (ok Henry is smiling...some of us are a little grumpy sometimes, ha.). It's good to be all together. Having this family of mine brings me more joy than I've ever known before.

Henry studies the classics.

Henry has really taken to literature these days. He studies the pages, reading silently to himself, turning the pages back and forth to ensure each page is captured in his mind. A true scholar, ladies and gentleman, I give you Henry George.

[I had nothing to do with this pose, I promise! He was reading and put his little hand on his chubby leg all by himself! Swoon!]

CSA week 4.

This week in our CSA, we received:

Yellow Peaches, Yellow and Purple Plums

Fennel, Summer Squash, Red/White/Blue Potatoes, Provider Green Beans, Red Onions, Hardneck Garlic, Crisp Lettuce

It reached over 100 4 days this week, so I have committed to leaving the oven off. This week, we made:

Raw Zucchini Salad with parmesan and pine nuts (adapted from this recipe)

Red, White, and Blue Potato Salad (family recipe with egg and celery seed)

Omelet with Red Onion and Squash
Green Beans with red onion and bacon (recipe - make this now. seriously.)

We peeled, diced, and froze the peaches to make peach hand pies when it cools down enough to use the oven. And the lettuce we received went bad before we used it. Oops. And the fennel is still sitting in the fridge patiently waiting to be turned into a kale and fennel salad.

pictures coming in the next CSA post!

CSA week 3.

Week 3 was a bit of a throwaway week for us. We were tired from our Hershey trip and got a bit lazy in the kitchen.

In our CSA, we received:
Yellow Peaches, Blueberries, Yellow Plums

Summer Squash, Napa Cabbage, “Provider” Green Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, “Candy” Onions, Red New Potatoes 


We snacked a LOT on that yummy fruit (even Henry had a few licks of the peach and plum)
We made a stir fry and the only other thing we made was green beans and potatoes with pesto, tossed with rotini pasta (recipe)

CSA week 2.

Week 2 of our CSA brought us some interesting stuff, some of which cause us to scratch our heads in our 100 degree kitchen. I was hell bent on leaving the oven OFF, so we had fun experimenting in the kitchen that week.

The CSA had:
sweet cherries, blueberries, apples
fingerling potatoes, beets, head lettuce, sugar snap peas, summer squash, garlic

We made:
oven fries with rosemary, garlic and thyme (ok, i turned the oven on once. i couldn't help it). - toss in olive oil and bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes
orzo pasta with julienne squash and shaved parmesan, with cherry tomatoes and basil
salad with snap peas, oranges and toasted almonds with asian vinaigrette (adapted from Mark Bittman)
red coconut vegetarian curry (101 Cookbooks - from her recipe book, Super Natural Every Day)
shaved carrot and beet salad with chopped apples on CSA lettuce (Oh She Glows)


and we snacked on most everything else. it was a good week!

we spent half of that week in hershey, PA most definitely NOT eating good healthy foods. but i also took a few chomps out of this guy, so not all was lost.