6 months/ 3 1/2 years

The children's half birthdays are today.

Will I ever get over the fact that they were born on the same day? Probably not.

Henry told everyone all day that he was 3 1/2 years old. I sang Happy half birthday to you, happy half birth---
NO, says henry. Just sing Happy Birthday.

Marnie's day started off lovely, but by the end of the day she had a slight fever, runny nose, and slept a lot, and only wanted to be held. Teething.

We went to the Science museum to meet friends, which in hindsight was a bad idea, but I can never say no to a good outing. Marnie screamed all the way to the bus stop, and all the way from the bus stop home. She was asleep and tolerating the outing in between the screaming. She never screams or fusses really, so I got flustered and stressed out. But now I'm sitting here writing this and realizing how lucky I am to have a baby that hardly screams or fusses. She's mostly just pleasant as can be, and curious about everything, and always looking around for someone to smile at. What a dear.

I thought of making a little cake for their half birthdays but then I realized I haven't slept in 6 months and who am I trying to kid. Instead I bought a box of ritz crackers and cut up some pineapple to share. Nothing says party time like American crackers and tropical fruit, right? ;)

I love my babies. Love their friendship. Love the way they can't wait to see each other every morning. Love how Henry gets mad at Marnie when she grabs a toy he puts in front of her or pulls his hair if he lays next to her (she just loves you, Henry, I always say). Love how Marnie's arms and legs flail wildly every time Henry comes into the room. Love how they understand each other. And I LOVE when they both let me snuggle them at the same time. Basically mom heaven.

Henry is two.

Well, it happened. Somehow that little baby of ours grew up into a funny, opinionated, sweet little toddler. 90% of me is thrilled, the other 10% can't help but think back on his little squishy knee rolls days. If I squint, I still can see some elbow and wrist chub, but that's pushing it, folks.

We took Henry to Rome for his second birthday, because we couldn't think of a better reason to finally get ourselves on a vacation, and also we are awesome parents. Though, the bar has been set a little high. I mean, where does a person go for the 3rd birthday when they spent the last in Rome, for goodness sakes!

But when we got back home and presents were all accounted for, we held a proper birthday party for the squirmy car-obsessed two year old. While he napped, I whipped up some carrot cake, hung paper garlands, and wrapped all his presents. I'd never been so excited for him to wake up from a nap, ever! It was so fun, and just a reminder of why we love Henry. He's the best.

So a quick round up of Henry. The best of.

He recently started insisting on helping me cook everything and anything. Whenever I go into the kitchen, or go to the cupboards, he runs over and asks, "Watch?" or his recent favorite request, "Dump it?!" We have been baking our bread the last few weeks and he helps everytime. He always asks for a taste of the dough, never likes it, and ends up eating flour instead. But his favorite part is "dump it" aka, putting the cups, teaspoons and tablespoons of ingredients into the bowl.

He loves anything train, race car, bus, cool car (what he calls MINIs, VW bugs, and other old cars he sees on the street), and of course any construction vehicles.

He really gravitates toward older kids, between 5-9. He made a new friend recently at church and followed her around when we visited, asking her, "Hold hands?" and charming them into getting him anything he asks for. He's smart.

He recently acquired a secondhand scooter, and asks every time we leave, "bring scooter?", and I'm like Henry, do you have a death wish? He's not very surefooted on it, so we practice inside. Of course, he's getting better and I just need to come to terms with the fact that he's a daredevil. He only wants to ride it when we come to the top of a big hill.

His eating habits are finicky, but he does ok for a toddler. Mostly he eats scrambled eggies for breakfast or toast or yogurt or sometimes all three. Dinner is a mixed bag, but the other night we sat down to dinner with salmon and broccoli and he just picked up the broccoli to eat it like it was no biggie. I was like, Mark, don't breathe.

He's still a pro sleeper. Sleeps 12 hours most nights (8:30 - 8:30) and takes a 3 hour nap most days (1:30 - 4:30). It's awesome. I think it might be time soon to get him into a toddler bed, but I'm waiting to pull the trigger until I'm ok being woken up by a wriggly little boy climbing in my bed. :)

We turn on some music most mornings and have a dance party, and I swear it's one of our favorite parts of the day. He bobs up and down, usually with a snack in his hand, and more often than not, pants-less. I die over it all.

We realized the other day he knows and can sing along with most of our favorite bedtime songs. He can sing along to about half of the words to Edelweiss, Moon River, If I Only Had a Brain, Twinkle Twinkle, and probably more that I don't know about.

He loves music and will help me play the piano, help Mark play clarinet/saxaphone, and has just in the past few days started singing to himself while he plays. It's soul crushingly adorable.

His favorite words/phrases:
Iht ummy! (It's yummy)
Iht hot (It's hot)
Peeea? Dee doo. Bo Belpum (Please? Thank you. You're Welcome.) *He combines them all, it's effective.
Mama, sit down, sit down, mama.
Iht fends! (It's friends!) *He says this at the playground or church when seeing other kids.
Hide mama woom? (Hide in mama's room?)
Wah Pop Pop choo choo! (Watch Pop Pop's choo choo video)
Call Mary
Call Jejy (Call Jenny)
How bow...tutee/toach/shoes/pezle (How about cookie/toast/juice/pretzel)

We feel blessed every day to be parents to Mr. Henry. Even on the hard days, he is still a peach and we still laugh and quote him while we go to sleep every night.

Rome part 2

The rest of our trip was entirely sunny and beautiful. 70 degrees, sunshine pouring down on our shoulders, and we loved it. All the Italians were wearing their heavy coats because this was cold weather for them, but we were running around in tshirts.

Saturday we spent all day at the Vatican - St Peters, Vatican museum, and seeing the Sistine Chapel. Incredible, amazing, beautiful. Henry fell asleep on our way to the Sistine chapel, but woke up right as we were leaving, so we explained to him why we were all craning our necks to stare at the ceiling. He didn't care too much. ;) The most interesting part of visiting Rome was learning that the Papacy took lots of materials from other buildings (the Colosseum, the Pantheon, etc.) to make their cathedrals, their altars, etc. The Colosseum used to be covered in marble, but the Pope stripped the marble off to use it for St Peters square. Isn't that crazy?

We found a tasty little restaurant across the river at O' Pazzariello, amazing pizza with the fluffiest and chewiest crust, yum, and my first cacio e pepe - really tasty.

Sunday, our last day, we headed to the Colosseum, checked out the Roman Forum, and ate lunch by the Spanish Steps at Il Gusto's, which had the most amazing pizza, the best al fresco dining, and most delicious pasta I've ever had. Il Gusto's was it for me. I was so happy to have found it, just in the nick of time before we left! We found the Spanish steps after finding more gelato after lunch, and sat there for awhile people watching. Little known fact: Mark proposed to me on the Spanish steps in DC (an homage to the original Spanish steps), and I had always wanted to go to the real Spanish steps with him, but never imagined we'd actually make it there. But there we were. I was so happy to be there with him and with our little baby Hen.

Finally, we headed to the Villa Borghese gardens (Rome's biggest park - sort of like Central Park, but also with some incredible museums within the park), and rented a rickety - rickety - rickshaw to ride around the park. It was so fun, and Henry couldn't believe his luck to be on that bike. Perfect last memory of Rome for us.

We had a great trip and hope to return some day, but next time, we'll tack on a trip to Venice and Florence! Italy had never been on my list of must-see places, but now it's right there at the top to return. It's such a beautiful country, the people are so warm and friendly (Henry got more head pats and kisses than I can remember), and the food. THE FOOD. That's enough right there to get me to come back.

Henrys Roman birthday party

I was feeling a little sad about being far away from family this year for Henry's birthday, so on a whim we decided to go to Rome. We bought plane tickets, rented an airbnb apartment and 4 days later, we were off! After all, you only turn two once, so why not celebrate in style, right? ;) Considering his favorite things right now are fountains, pizza, ice cream, motorcycles, and cool cars (seriously, he points at little cars and says, "cool car!"), it was sort of a no brainer to go to Rome, a 2 year olds paradise.

We stayed in a beautiful modern loft apartment right next to Rome's Termini station, the main train station, so travel in and out was very easy. The apartment also had an amazing roof terrace with views of the city which we thought would be nice to enjoy during Henry's naps or at night after he went to bed, but we ended up being quite the night owls exploring the city so we didn't use it too much. Rome is a late city - most restaurants don't open for dinner until 7:30 or 8:00p, so we mostly tried to get Hen to nap late, then we would wake up around 6, explore Rome at night and eat dinner at 8, and put him down to sleep around 10:30/11 (which is RIDICULOUS, but he was such a good sport about it).

We arrived in Rome the day before Henny's birthday, so after he took a nice long nap, we woke up and walked to the famous Trevi fountains, got some gelato, and threw all the coins we had into the fountain. Henry was over the moon.

On Henry's birthday, he woke up to some yummy Italian pastries, then we checked out our loft rooftop to gauge the weather. It was going to be a cloudy/rainy day, but we made the best of it. We spent the morning exploring the Roman forum and searching for the Capitoline museum, which we never found, but we did happen upon the Altare della Patria, or the Alter of Fatherland, which commemorates Italian unification, and is an eyesore to local Romans apparently - it was built in the 1800s and destroyed some of a medieval neighborhood - but we went inside to escape the rain and found a museum dedicated to recent wars, which was sort of interesting. On top of the building, we ate lunch at a nice cafe with good views over the city, which was a good place to be during some heavy rain. After the rain, we retreated back to our apartment so Hen could enjoy a nap and we could regroup and rest. Round two was much better - we walked to the Pantheon, which completely took my breath away, gave me chills, and was our absolute favorite thing we saw in Rome. We spent some time walking around the Piazza and then found dinner at a nearby restaurant. I tried Pasta Carbonara and it lived up to the creamy hype. Then we walked through a few narrow crooked streets to land the best gelato we've had in our lives, at Giolittos.  Yes, that is fresh whipped cream on top of the cone! They gave Henry a free little cone with a bit of vanilla gelato. He loved it - his first ice cream cone, too. Not a bad place to have your first ice cream, Henny!

I'll share the rest of our trip from Rome tomorrow - more beautiful Rome, Vatican City, and Spanish Steps. 

1 year old.

This is the last of my monthly updates for Mr. Henry. Goodness gracious, how exactly did we get here?

About a week before he turned one, he started talking and really taking steps on his own. As of today, he can walk about half the room by himself, but when he's not practicing walking by himself, he is walking around everywhere, holding on to every single thing and trying to figure everything out. He says ball, mama, dada, go, dog, more, and bubble. He can tell you what a dog, kitty, cow, and monkey say. He flirts with all kinds of people (mostly women) by cocking his head back and forth and being all cute or just practicing his royal wave. It kills me. He's eating pretty good - he loves avocados and cheese and bread and likes sweet potatoes, apples, broccoli, lentils, yogurt, and occasionally pears. He still takes 2 naps, and I'm in the process of trying to give him whole milk which he thinks is crazy. He takes a sip, stops, and looks at the cup/bottle like "ummm nice try lady."

Henry lights up our life so bright and brings us so much joy. He has turned into a little charmer and makes me laugh all day long. I'm so proud of the little guy he is and grateful to be his mother. Sometimes I just sit and watch him reading a little book or dancing around or singing a little song and I try to soak it in because I'm realizing how quickly these little ones change. This week, with Mark out of town, I tried to teach him the art of snuggling. And today I can proudly say I have a cuddler on my hands. As long as he has his bear - his true love - and his paci, he will sit with me and let me snuggle him. IT MELTS MY COLD HEART. I miss baby Henry, but I am totally in love with little Henry. He's a riot and has the keen ability to endear almost anyone to him, including yours truly (obviously).

Happy birthday, Henry.

 Henry.

It's been a year since that day you changed our lives forever, made our hearts triple in size, and left us a little bleary-eyed and absent-minded for a while.

You made me a mother. You're growing up every single day and I am so proud of you and I hate it all at the same time. It doesn't seem fair that I carry you for 9 months in my belly and then you are only a snuggly sweet smelling baby for 2 seconds.

But oh, to live in those 2 seconds was like a dream. Everyone told me - enjoy these moments they pass so quickly, but I couldn't comprehend it until it happened. Even though those first few months are a complete whirlwind, I look back and think of the peace and gentle kindness you brought into our home.  How lucky we are to have you in our lives. Happy birthday, little Henry.

Cakes for Mark.

I do not shy away from cake baking. After a few incidents years ago left me with dry, tasteless cakes, I set out on a mission to learn the craft. I slowly purchased the requisite cake bakery supplies, stocked up on ingredients, cookbooks, recipes, and watched countless youtube videos to learn technique. Now I bake a cake every couple of months - some good, some so-so, but I save the truly deliciously fattening cakes for marks birthday. It is an exciting time for all of us when his birthday rolls around. I am a huge Smitten Kitchen nerd and I get most of my winning recipes from her these days. She really speaks my language. 

First birthday cake (year 30): Classic yellow cake with chocolate sour cream frosting. Recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Second birthday cake (year 31): Banana split cake: Banana cake with chocolate ganache, sliced bananas, whipped cream, walnuts and maraschino cherries. Recipe from Epicurious.



Third birthday cake (year 32): Apple cake with caramel drizzle. Recipe for cake from Smitten Kitchen. For the caramel drizzle: 1 part butter, 1 part brown sugar, 1/4 part milk, heat in saucepan for 3-5 minutes, let thicken, then drizzle onto cake. The best part about this cake so far is that it is even better the second day, which happens to be today. Win!

And just for good measure, another Smitten Kitchen cakes I made for my sisters birthday:

Dobos Torte (this one was so good!)

birthday weekend = success.

brunch at granville moores. solid brunch menu, the good doctor was amazing.



dinner at toki underground (totally worth the 2 hour wait). oh, i am already craving that ramen.






naps and relaxing all day sunday. a long walk through The Yards Park in southwest waterfront.

tour of the pope leighy house in virginia, one of the few frank lloyd wright houses in the area. amazing and inspiring use of 1200 square feet. also, it was super hot and i almost passed out, but hey, tough it out for my mans bday.


lunch at willards (duh. perfection.)

banana split cake with friends. used this recipe for the banana cake, and added some sliced bananas, chocolate ganache, whipped cream, chopped walnuts and cherries!


and that my friends is how you usher in year 31 for TH. i'm finding he likes low key much better, after comparing it to the montreal birthday trip from last year, he was much more contented to stay at home and hang out with his buds. i really love him a lot. we are lucky to have found each other and lucky to be in love with a little one on the way. hooray for birthdays that remind you of the need to celebrate the life of the ones you love so much.