Sunday, November 29, 2009

A Cure for the Sunday Blues

Everyone knows that dreaded feeling that comes around on Sunday afternoon... the groan that bubbles up from your tummy when you think about having to go back to work tomorrow. It's an especially loud groan that comes from our house after having such a nice long weekend home together.


How lucky we were to get a gorgeous sunny SUNday afternoon to help us push our blues away. Check out these beautiful sun worshipers!




Thanksgiving with The Turkeys

Our big, official Thanksgiving celebration was delicious, of course. Elliot, his two Mamas, and Annika, his SG (Spiritual Guardian, aka Monkey, or in this post, Turkey) all spent the day cooking, playing and eating. What more is there to be thankful for?!?!


I started the day early getting the pumpkins ready for baking. They made a delicious pumpkin pie, dinner for Elliot (not the pie, just the pumpkin!), and left over puree to be turned into pumpkin bread and muffins.

Once Annika arrived it was all turkey all day. We are very thankful for her premium turkey skills.

But we all know these are the real Turkeys...



After all of the turkeying-around, we sat down to a wonderful meal: turkey, mashed potatoes, rustic stuffing, gravy, green beans, cranberries, and homemade rolls.

And to really enjoy the celebration, we enjoyed a bottle of Uncle Mikey's Dashe 2007 Zinfandel. By far, some of the best wine I've ever had.

Elliot, too, enjoyed a thankful dinner of local, seasonal, homemade pumpkin. He loved it!

And, of course, the celebration wouldn't be complete without some yummy pies. Even Elliot's giraffe got in on some (shout out to Emily, who joined us for pie but never got any pictures taken of her).

So this officially ends Thanksgiving 2009. May all our holidays stretch out as long as this one has. And may all our days be as thankful as the last three have been.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanks for The Vegans

Thanksgiving dinner at The Vegans' house was wonderful. The food was delicious--seitan cutlets, chickpea gravy, roasted carrots, onions, garlic and cauliflower, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberries, and cornbread. Plus apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. They outdid themselves, as usual.
One of the best parts of our monthly dinners with The Vegans is when HeVegan and I have a beer tasting. Whoever is not hosting brings a new beer for the two of us to try. We both like really hoppy IPAs, but there are no rules to the beer tasting. Since they were hosting I brought the local and seasonal Bridgeport Brewery Hop Harvest Ale, a very middle-of-the-road, classically solid Bridgeport IPA. Not a bad beer at all. I also brought a Deschutes Inversion IPA. This is one I'd never had before and, being a lover of the Deschutes Brewery, thought this was a perfect beer for me. But after not being able to finish even one of them at home, I brought one along to get HeVegan's opinion. Both of us agree--it's just a bad tasting beer. Luckily, we had his contribution to the evening to still try. The oh-so-delicious New Belgium Trippel Ale. Both He and SheVegan (who is NOT a beer drinker but loves this beer) were excited for me to try it, and it didn't disappoint. A great beer indeed!
Of course SheVegan and Elliot had a wonderful time together. They are great friends.
But the real surprise of the night was how much Elliot took to HeVegan. As if he was in love!
Thanksgiving seems like the perfect holiday to share with The Vegans, because we are truly thankful to have them in our lives. It was a wonderful evening, thank you both so much!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Giving Thanks

This year, more than ever, we have so much to give thanks for. We are thankful for Elliot's health, his sparkly eyes, and his gorgeous chubby dimpled cheeks. We are thankful for his singing and his giggling. We are thankful everyday that he is our baby.

He, too, has things to be thankful for today. Most especially that he has Mamas who give him new experiences. Yay, oatmeal and prunes!
We are also thankful that our holiday will stretch throughout the weekend. Today is just the three of us, cozied up at home together. Then we get a thankful dinner with The Vegans tomorrow and a full Thanksgiving celebration with Annika on Saturday. So much to be thankful for!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Sick Babies Make me Sad

First Andrea was sick. Then we found out our childcare-share friend's Dad was sick. Both sore throats, congested heads, super yuckiness. Then Elliot got it. And now I'm feeling it.

The saddest by far is this runny nose, congested nursing, coughing baby. There's just no fairness in that. Rest assured, as far as we can tell it's not swine flu. Nobody's had a fever yet. Phew.



Tuesday, November 24, 2009

PASTRYGIRL!!! Who are you?

We went out for an evening walk and strolled down to our little neighborhood commercial area, and look what we saw!!!! Right down the street from my house! PASTRYGIRL! I don't know who you are, but I sure am glad you're bringing your cakes and pastries to my neighborhood!


Snow Day!

No, not really. It's actually sunny and mild here today. But you know when you go to sleep at night expecting to wake up to your normal day but instead you wake up to snow and school's cancelled?!! Well, that's kind of what happened for me and Elliot today. We were expecting our childcare-share friend to come at his regular time to spend the day with us, but instead got a call that his Dad is sick again, so we got a second day together for just the two of us. Yesterday was planned (I had called in on Sunday night saying I needed to stay home with Elliot), but today was a surprise... a snow day!

To add to the fun of the day, we dropped Andrea off at work so that we could use the car. Our destination: Book Babies story time at the public library!
Elliot loved all of the new books to read. And Book Babies hadn't even started yet. Then, when it did, my camera ran out of batteries! I was so disappointed. You should have seen Elliot taking it all in. There were bubbles being blown like this:
And we shook a parachute like this:
(which Elliot did not like nearly as much as the bubbles). We sang lots of songs and listened to a story, then the leader dumped out a bucket of toys in a big pile on the floor. More plastic toys than Elliot had ever seen at once! It was a lot to take in.

What started as fussing at this point quickly became crying. By the time we were back in the car he was in full wail. Start the car... lullabies on... asleep before we were out of the parking lot. Phew. There seems to be a theme to these posts!Overall, I think Elliot's first snow day was a blast, but we do hope our little friend's Dad gets well soon.


Monday, November 23, 2009

The Wheels on the Bus

Today was a big day for Elliot... his first bus ride!

The best part of our 10 minute wait for the bus was watching the cars and trucks zoom by. He was completely silent and motionless the whole time.

There are so many things to see out the window!

So many, in fact, that it can tire a baby right out. Asleep before we even got home. It was so much fun to be out in the world together. Just a simple trip to the bank and Target can make for a very exciting day when you're only 6 months old!