g, g, g what begins with G? Goodies from the Garden, g, g, g!

On Saturday we had friends over for dinner. I made seafood chowder and salad with pears, blue cheese, candied walnuts & grapes. Today my mother in law arrived at our house and we had poached salmon, oven roasted potatoes, and broccoli & cheese. Good stuff. I'm always excited when we harvest potatoes from the garden. I love to dig them up, it's like digging for treasure. And they're so fresh and firm and beautiful. This year we grew Yukon gold and a purple variety. Can you believe how beautiful these purple potatoes are?

Seared silver salmon and Yukon gold potatoes before they went into the seafood chowder. We ate a lot of salmon & potatoes this weekend, but it was all tasty.

Rich started a batch of wine, a Zinfandel I think, and a batch of mead this weekend.

More potato pictures because they were just so pretty. This was right before I roasted them in the oven.

The sun came out this afternoon and we enjoyed a beautiful fall day. We had to get some of those pre-winter season chores taken care of. We split the bleeding heart that should have been split about four years ago. Raked a few leaves. Cut back some perennials. Scooped some dog poop. Went for a short walk. Short because Teagan's stomach started hurting and she actually threw up in the middle of the road. It was really strange, and not even a full-blown barf fest (not like the time she threw up into my cupped hands in the grocery store, anyway). She doesn't seem sick, so hopefully it was just some random weird thing.... (On another, less revolting note, don't you love my pink fence? It's one of the remnants from our little pink house. You'd think we'd have painted it when we painted the house, but no.)

In response to the comment and questions about versatility: first of all, how fun that we're knitting the same color versatility! I'm finding the dimensions to be really strange as well. I'm knitting mine on size 11 needles, and it still seems fewer than 19 inches wide, but easily stretches to that and beyond, so I'm not too worried about it. What's bothering me more is that I started on my third skein two rows before I reached the halfway point! The whole thing is only supposed to take three skeins!! At this rate, I'll have to start a fifth skein to finish it according to the pattern! If I'm consistent, I'll be four rows short of making it with four skeins, so I'm considering shortening it a little. I REALLY don't want to go buy another ball, though it would be fun to knit some matching gloves or a hat or something with the leftover yarn.

Happy knitting!

F is for Forks (or lack thereof), Flips, and (halfway) Finished objects

Lots of good F stuff today! Aidan is practicing with dishes and silverware. As you can see, the fork isn't getting much use. But the spaghetti was good enough to slurp right out of the bowl. This was a meal we followed immediately with bathtime!


Teagan just learned to do a real cartwheel. I didn't get the best shots ever, but here she is showing off her moves. She's such an active kid!



Finally, I thought I'd proudly show off my progress on Versatility. Exactly one-half is complete. Here's Teagan modeling the first half for me. It looks sort of afghan-ish in this picture, hopefully just because Teagan's wearing it like a blanket.


So do any of my devoted readers (ha ha) watch Project Runway? Is Kenley just about as annoying as can be? I like her designs, but she's driving me so crazy!! She's always so smug. And what was that crap about her getting the "pretty" girl for the last challenge? Ugh. I'm ready for her to go. I wish Blaine was back, though, I loved him and his tanorexia. He made me think of my friend Slade. Anyway, I had to dish a little about the show. I just love it; even Heidi is growing on me.

Sayonara!

Ah, fall must be here

Because the knitting bug has bit!! The turning leaves, chilly days, and lengthening nights always make me crave knitting or other crafty goodness. They also make me excited for the new fall lineup, primarily Grey's Anatomy, but I can save my television obsessions for later. This post is about my current knitting obsession. This post is for Rhiannon. She called me the other night to look at the new Knitty patterns; one pattern in particular, called Versatility. She loves it. She caused me to love it. And now I am knitting it. I'm so excited about it for so many reasons:

1. I haven't done anything crafty in SO long!
2. I love knitting, or at least thinking about knitting, accessories, such as leg warmers, hats, gloves, scarves, arm bands, etc., and this is sort of an accessory, but more!!
3. I have never knitted a lace pattern, bobbles, or cables, and this has all of them. I can't believe how long I've avoided cables; they are SO easy! And the pattern is really fun to knit.
4. The yarn I'm using is called cafe au lait. Yummy. It is the most beautiful variegated brown ever. More than anything, I'm a freak for yummy fiber (not the edible variety).
5. I love to tease Rhiannon that I'm knitting it because she wants to knit it but wants to finish her other projects first. Finish a project? What's the big deal? I rarely finish anything, as Rhiannon and my husband have been pointing out to me all weekend. But I do hope to finish this, as I really want to wear it.

Ciao for now...I have some knitting to do (oh yeah, and Teagan to put to bed, and laundry, and, well, knitting...).

E is for Exhausted

Why am I still up? This is why I don't get on the computer at home. I'm not getting enough sleep right now because everyone in my house has been sick over the past week, and Aidan's teething is driving him, and subsequently me, to distraction. He's been needy and cranky during the day and waking up a lot at night. Sigh. That's just life with kids.

So I love this little sequence. I would put it in a collage like Rhiannon if I only knew how. One day I will learn.They were so cute I wanted a picture of them together, but Aidan was having none of it.

He just wanted me to hold him, which is par for the course these days. So is this face.

But how cute is my big kindergartener? She is so big I am amazed whenever I look at her. School suits her well, and she is doing great in the Japanese immersion program. It is an amazing program; she has already learned so much! (I've been so out of touch on this blog I don't think I've mentioned any of this. But there it is: Teagan just started kindergarten in a Japanese immersion program!)

Well, sayonara for now!

D is for...Don't know what

What the heck is wrong with me. I've been thinking about D for a week and couldn't come up with anything. I'm D-challenged. Or maybe I just wasn't really looking for a great D word. Hmmm. I just decided (there's a d) to move on. So here's a picture of Aidan and Teagan playing with the alphabet in the tub. It's sort of related, right?



Aidan's 1st birthday was Thursday. He's such a sweet baby. He was 21.5 pounds and nearly 30 inches long. He hasn't walked yet but he's close. He says mama and dada and that's about it. But he can throw a ball like no 1 year old should. And he's a fast crawler. He crawls like a bulldog with his elbows poking out and he slaps his hands on the wood floor as loudly as possible. He loves to eat. I can't believe a year ago I'd just barely kicked this latest (and last) resident out of my womb.

Aidan eating a birthday "cupcake" (ie, muffin)

This picture was taken in our camper on a camping trip a few weeks ago. I just liked it.

C is for CAKE...birthday cake, that is

Teagan's birthday was June 30. Five years old! She's made this transition from toddler to child in the past year, and sometimes I just can't believe it when I look at her. She starts school in just a few weeks, and I am both so scared and so excited for her I can barely stand to think about it for too long. She is a beautiful, smart, sassy girl who gets her feelings hurt easily. I know she'll be great in school, but I worry that all the other kids will be more savvy than she is. Isn't that silly? She spent the night away at a friend's house the other night and I could barely sleep for worry that she might wake up scared in the middle of the night.

How hard, this parenting thing. We have to instill confidence and independence in our babies but when they run off on their own we just wish we could carry them so they don't fall and skin their knees.

Well the birthday party was fun. We had it at Valley of the Moon park, and although the turnout was low, the kids had a blast! We also had pinatas, which was so fun!

Race ya!!!


Teagan and big brother Austin

I wasn't going to do it, but...

It was a little internet diversion Rhiannon had on her blog. She has the instructions on her post. I'm too lazy to copy them over. I'm fascinated by all the blue in the photos I chose. The colors didn't vary much. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have picked green as my favorite color?

A is for Aidan & B is for Blueberries

It's Aidan eating blueberries...yum!

I had to think of a way to make myself blog more often, if only with a picture and a few words. This adorable picture made me think of the alphabet, so that is my new theme for awhile.

They look so much alike!

I love their near-identical, two-tooth smiles. They are both just shy of 10 months in these pics.

So sick...

We have been so sick this entire month. We just had our fifth doctor appt in just over a week. Teagan's got a stomach virus now. I can't wait until we're healthy! I'm worn out from all the laundry I've been doing this weekend. Sigh. But just look how sweet when they're sleeping. Aidan can't sleep without that little teddy bear blankie thing he has in his hands. We call it "dancing teddy" because Teagan likes to make it dance and sing a little song, then throw it onto Aidan's face, all of which makes him squeal in delight. Then he snatches it off of his face and Teagan takes it from him and starts all over. It's the cutest.


Here's Teagan working on a Father's Day surprise. I'm pretty sure Rich doesn't read this blog, so I went ahead and put it up. They're made from that salt/flour/water "clay" and we are going to glue them to a wood picture frame. We also did an outline of her hand.


Teagan's new roller skates. I have to mention that I also got a pair. The funnest part is skating in the house.


He was just so cute I had to add it!

Travel trailer joy

My family has become quite the travel trailer family. Rhiannon and Kyle bought their own retro travel trailer recently, we're getting ready to get ours prepared for summer camping, and I just talked to my dad who dreams of building his own. So I happened across this blog. The trailer featured here is similar to ours. Ours is smaller, doesn't have a bathroom, but is a 1960s Aloha travel trailer. I want to renovate it to look like this...how gorgeous! Here's Teagan in our trailer. She and Rich slept in it last night in the driveway.


So anyway, happy Mother's Day to all. And happy birthday to me. I had a lovely weekend. The kids spent the night with some friends Friday night, so I had dinner with my hubbie, and an early night in, if you know what I mean. Tonight I'm headed to my friend's house for bday dinner, not cooked by me (the best kind). I'd better get going now before I get yelled at...

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails

I must admit I was scared to have a baby boy. I'd already had a girl and thought I would understand a girl better than a boy. But I stand corrected. I adore my baby boy! He is worlds apart from his sister and he amazes me every day. The strangest thing about having two kids is how much you expect them to be alike and then how surprising it is when they are so very different.

Aidan is 8 months old this month. He is so very active. He has been able to roll across the floor for a couple of months, and he gets closer to crawling every day. He gets around just fine with his little army crawl on his belly, although he loses some momentum once he gets off the rug and onto the hard, smooth floor. He's like a race car spinning its wheels on slick pavement: just not enough traction. He loves to play with toys that make noise, the louder the better!

Aidan loves to eat. He loves cheerios (a baby requirement, no?). When I put him in his high chair and start to get them down, he starts waving his hands and feet in excitement. He eats his vegetables with an enthusiasm equivalent to when he eats bread and fruits. The only thing he hasn't been too thrilled about is the hard boiled egg yolk I mixed into his homemade rice cereal. It is a point of pride with me that I've never fed my babies baby food from a jar, except when we're traveling. I believe it is one more thing companies have convinced us we must have for our babies, when in fact we've been feeding them from our own plates for many hundreds of years longer than Gerber has been around. (Of course, I say this, but I sure do love my jogging stroller/bike trailer.)

I don't think Aidan's breastmilk intake has decreased much despite all the food he eats. He drinks it expressed from a bottle at daycare, and from the source the rest of the time. He looks up into my eyes when he's nursing, and I just love that time with him. I've recently started reprimanding him (verbally when I yell "OW!") for biting. His first tooth just came in, so it won't be long and the biting will soon be REALLY painful.

On the sleeping front, Aidan has been awesome! Teagan was hard to get to sleep from the very beginning, and even now she's the one to wake me up in the middle of the night rather than him. I am still so surprised that I can lay him down in his crib when he is wide awake and he will fall asleep without even crying once. I like to hear him talking and playing while he gets sleepy.

Last night I discovered he won't sleep in his crib without his blanket. It was in the dryer so I'd used a different blanket, but he just kept crying and crying even after both Rich and I went in separately to rock him for awhile. He still was fussing. He also has a little teddy bear/blanket for holding onto, which he likes to mash his face into, but this wasn't helping last night. So I got his big blanket from the dryer, went in, and covered him up. He immediately stopped crying, snuggled up under his blanket, sort of patted it with his chubby little hands, and then rolled over and went to sleep. I guess we're bringing it with us on our trip tonight!

Aidan is just such a happy baby. His laughs are infectious. I'm so glad we have him in our lives now!

Laundry and cleaning and packing oh my

We're getting ready for a trip to California. A whirlwind trip. We fly to Fresno on Sunday, then we're driving to the Bay Area on Friday where we'll participate in as much Portuguese partying as possible till Monday. I wish we were staying longer. Of course, Murphy's law says if you're going to get sick, it will happen right before a big trip with the whole family. So I'm sick, and last night Aidan woke up with the croup AGAIN! WTF? He's doing well today, but that meant missing the last day I had at work to wrap everything up for my week-long absence, plus being terrified that he'll have respiratory distress on the plane and there won't be anything anyone can do about it. Oy vay.

On a positive note, I can't wait to meet Lowan, and Teagan is beside herself about going. The weather is expected to be nice and warm, well, hot, actually, in the upper 80s. Rich's dad is Portuguese, which explains our Portuguese partying. It is the Holy Ghost festa, and Rich and Teagan get to be in some big parade. Plus all the eating and drinking that goes along with being Catholic and Portuguese! Good times!

I have lots of things I'd love to ramble on about, but as you may have noted from the title of this post, I also have lots of laundry and cleaning and packing to do. So I should get to it while Aidan is napping. Here are some pictures from last month.

Me attempting to take a picture of Aidan and myself on a sunny day outside. I have a feeling I make this face rather frequently.


Teagan climbed the crabapple tree in our front yard. She got all the way up by herself, and then needed some assistance getting down.


Every boy needs a magic wand. Especially a purple, sparkly, beribboned magic wand. Can you see Aidan's naturally full and fluffy mohawk? I love it! Actually, his hair is ultra straight and not at all fluffy, like his dad's. Teagan got all the wave and body (frizz), like her mom.

Well, too late to get stuff done during Aidan's nap. Darn.

My new nephew!!

My nephew Lowan Thomas Oakes arrived this morning at around 6:00 am. He's a beautiful baby! Congratulations Rhiannon & Kyle.

Happy (Belated) Easter!

Happy (Belated) St. Paddy's Day!

Austin was here for spring break; we had a great time, but it's been very busy! We missed him a lot this winter!