4th Festivities

Normally we spend the 4th at the Maidenames BBQing but since they are currently in Spain we had to make other arrangements. Fortunately my dear auntie was throwing a mega BBQ at her shiny new house. It happened to be in the flight path of some biplanes flying in formation.

 They had an expansive Italian soda bar with this handsome barristo.

We met up with my sister and her progeny, Benji has become quite the smiler.

I took pictures of everyone who was sitting at the table with us, but they didn't all turn out well and I try not to post awkward looking photos. Matt's looked good though.

 And this dessert face was priceless.

Speaking of dessert, what is the 4th without a pinterest inspired dessert?

The kids had a great time in this giant water park for the backyard.

There was the most amazing array of meat, expertly grilled by my extraordinary uncle.

They even provided glow necklaces and cemented a place in my daughter's heart forever.

We stayed for the after party too where Benji showed off his crawling skills and the ability to replace his own pacifier. These skills are game changers.

I was hoping M was not taking notes.

Meanwhile, the girls explored the impressive collection of toys currently being saved for future grandbabies.

Tongue-tied

M was born tongue-tied. That means his frenulum, or that stringing part under your tongue keeping you from swallowing it, was attached closer to the tip of his tongue than normal. It made it so he couldn't stick his tongue out as far as typical babies do. He had a little procedure three days after he was born where they essentially just snipped it. You can see a little of it in these fabulous pictures of him crying. I kind of love crying baby pictures. Weird, I know.

Here's another view

And here's the sweetness he was before I tried to get pictures of his tongue. He is so much bigger since May when I took these. It's crazy how fast they grow.

Then I tried to take some one handed after I picked him up and called him down.

It only worked for a minute.

Now even the fleshy lump is gone. All the nurses and doctors said is was genetic and assumed my first had had it too. Nope. Then me or my husband must have been. Nope. We are apparently genetic anomaly.

2 months

There was part of me that planned on taking those cute monthly pictures with the signs and the same backdrop for baby #2

That part of me ran away a few weeks ago when I decided a daily shower was an accomplishment. Keeping track of the date just seems like too much work.

Yet when I was uploading pictures I realized I did happen to take some photos of M on his 2 month milestone.

He was born 20th percentile for weight and 80th for length. A few days later when they took care of his tongue and checked the circumcision he had made his way up to 25th percentile for weight. At 8 weeks he is now 60th percentile for weight and 90th for height.

Since J had to have so many tests and weekly weight checks because of her weight, that 60th percentile has me doing a fist pump or two. Not that I really have anything to do with it but I'm proud all the same. It's a bit of pain not being able to predict his clothing size though.

Olive Oil Smack Down

So my beloved bzzagent sent me some Filippio Berio olive oil to try out for free. They were mostly touting how it is much better for you than butter and how to substitute it. I'm already an olive oil convert and use it a bunch when it is cost effective (my occasional deep frying of tortillas doesn't warrant a whole bottle of olive oil and gets the vegetable. I also don't care for it in cake and brownie mix as much either). It's my go to for sauteing though. My favorite way to consume it is with bread along with balsamic vinegar.

Which brings us to Thursday's event. I wanted to know if this brand really held any distinction compared to other brands so we did every scientist would do, a single blind study.

Really I just bought a bunch of fancy bread from Kneaders (which divine confections deserve a post all their own) and invited some friends over. I was having so much fun that I forgot to snap pictures until the party was breaking up. My apologies to those friends not shown. But here is my cousin next to our exciting bread. Rosemary focaccia,  paesano, and fresh baguettes are enough to make everyone excited.

Even my nephew, and he doesn't even have teeth.

The proscuttio and salami in the bottom corner were an important part of the experience

Here were some of our ingredients. We also had some costco brand (not shown)

I also made some bruschetta with basil from my garden (the tomatoes were store bought and part of me died inside. My tomato plants have pretty much stopped producing by now). 

I put the olive oils in small trays with the vinegar and had people vote. It was about half for the Bertolli's and half for the Filippio Berio. Costco lost. To me they just tasted different, not better or worse. If I had a less busy day, we would have voted on specific variables like taste, texture, and overall experience. Then we all had at it and mixed in sauteed garlic and the different salts and pepper.

That little cherry tomato is from my garden. A friend gave me a transplant that I completely forgot about until I saw a mini on it last week. The garden surprises keep coming.

We also had some Italian sodas to complete the experience. Of course I didn't snag a picture of them and their whipped cream glory, but here is Justin and the club soda.

It was a great time and I can recommend Filippio Berio as delicious.

Jammas

Husband went to San Francisco for a week for a big programming conference called Microsoft Build. He came home with three new tablets. All free. Just in case the number of computing devices in our house wasn't ridiculous already. However, I will say Freshpaint on the Surface Pro is really fun. J and I spent quite a bit of time messing with it.

Anyways, he visited Chinatown and brought home special pajamas for J and a bag of kettlecorn. It's hard to figure out which she liked more, but I'm going to go with the pjs because she refers to them as her "special jammas" and prefers to wear them all day long.

Happy 4th!

"Look! A Rock!"

5 Possible Reasons Why I Am Running 20 minutes Late

1) I was actually on time in the parking lot, but between the car and where I was supposed to be, the following might have happened: J found a flower, rock, piece of trash, bike, motorcycle, pole, hole, brightly colored sign, and bird she had to stop and investigate. This is often accompanied by happy exclamations of, "Mommy! Look! A ___!" and me backtracking however many paces I gained during her during her stop. We will usually get about 5-10 steps before the next thing that catches her fancy. It's endearing when we have no time constraints, but infinitely irritating when my baby carrier arm is fatiguing.

2) I underestimated the time it would take to force clothes and shoes on my toddler, feed and change my infant, collect water bottles, sippy cups, diapers, and changes of clothes, find my phone and keys, get blankey and whatever toy or book that needs to come with us to prevent a total meltdown, and a run to the bathroom. Sometimes all of this goes smoothly and we are punctual. Sometimes getting the shoes on takes 10 times longer than necessary because only the sparkly shoes would do and one was missing and J had to put them on herself without help. Perhaps when I tried to intervene she became a hot, snot-covered mess, requiring an elbow to the gut in order to reverse the back arching and get her strapped into the car seat. Or she put her shoes on all by herself the first time I asked in 10 seconds flat. Or the cup of milk wouldn't do because she wanted juice so she managed to soak herself, the car seat, and her brother in her toddler fury. Or she hopped in on her own with that glorious gap-toothed smile on her face. There is no way to accurately predict how much time any of these tasks will take. All of these steps are necessary for optimal happiness during our excursion. I really try to prevent my kids peeing on the property or unleashing raptor shrieks on your ears and proper preparation is key.

3) Our last activity ended too soon. We finished swimming, showering, eating, exercising, playing or napping ahead of schedule. You would think this would lead to being 15 or 20 minutes early, but you are mistaken. If everyone has been cleaned, changed, fed, shod, and collected before the optimal time, all the prior productivity becomes moot. That means the shoes will have come off again, the diaper will have been filled again, the potty requires pit stop again, M needs to eat again, and inevitably my phone will have disappeared again. I often think maybe we should just arrive 30 minutes early and save the repeats, but that isn't usually practical. If we get to church 20 minutes early, that is 20 more minutes I have to enforce proper church behavior. It is rude to show up 30 minutes early to a play date or the babysitter's. The gym only allows me 60 minutes of kids care for the infant so I can't just hop on the treadmill for a bit before the class starts. Being ahead of schedule is just as bad as being behind schedule.

4) The naps went long and I wanted to squeeze in every minute of shut eye possible. The disposition of my children (and me for that matter) is directly proportional to the amount of sleep they get. I'm pretty sure you would rather us inconvenience you by being 20 minutes late than deal with the gremlins that emerge when naps are cut short.

5) Some how an hour disappeared without me knowing it. In my sleep deprivation-induced haze, the clock hands move suddenly and stealthily. I had every intention of starting the loading process at half past the hour, but time evaporated and now it is on the hour and even a best case scenario won't get us there on time. Then comes the decision on whether or not to pursue our original plans at all. If we are an half hour late, then that only gives us 45 minutes of play time until we start losing the nap time window. If we push back naps then we won't be able to go grocery shopping until 4pm. That means we might not be done before hunger-induced tantrums ensue in the check out line over candy, always viciously placed in toddler reach. And that means dinner prep will be done to the backdrop of crying unless I provide snacks, snacks that defeat any chances of consuming more than a bite of dinner. Sorry friend, because I was 30 minutes behind at 9:30 this morning, we aren't going to make it because it will literally ruin our entire day.

So next time you see me show up only 5 or 10 minutes late, give me a pat on the back and say, "Well done!" because punctuality is just not feasible.

Bday lunch

For my bday my lovely friends came and brought lunch along with their beautiful babes! The pictures are all fuzzy since I accidentally had it on manual focus, but at least the pictures exist!

Not sure where Gunner and J were during these pictures, but the babies are cute!