The Post In Which I Practice My Hyperlinks

I'm super excited because I just got my reusable produce bags from Etsy. Megan inspired me to try them after Erin's post on being green. Basically the idea is that instead of using the little plastic bags to gather your fruits and veggies at the grocery store, you bring your own reusable nylon bags, just like so many of us are now bringing our own shopping bags. And even though I don't do the "big" grocery run each week anymore, I still go at least once a week to re-stock on produce (holy cats, Caroline eats a lot of fruit) so these will be perfect!

On a related note, have you visited Etsy yet? It is an incredible website devoted to buying and selling handmade items, and I'm obsessed. I think J.J. is the one who discovered it for us. If you go, be sure to visit Meghan (Erin's sister, and very talented fashion designer) and Liz's stores.

P.S. I FINALLY got J.J.'s blog to link on my sidebar! Hooray! Everyone who doesn't already know her go say hi.

Our Tiny Stalker

Here's how Caroline spends a major portion of her days:

Sitting on the front steps, waiting for "the big girls," our first and sixth grade neighbors, to come outside. Oh, how she loves them. And bless their hearts, they are so sweet and friendly to her. They always say hi, and frequently come over and play with her. Those are her happiest days. She is sooooo ready for preschool.

Mr. Destructor

Guess who is 5 months old today? Guess who thinks knocking down his playmat is great fun? Every time I put him down to play, he manages to wiggle himself around until he can aim his little feet at the bars, and then he kicks and kicks until it collapses on him. And he's real proud of himself for it, too.



Happy 5 months, baby. Next month you get what you really want: food.

The Pink Paradise

Caroline's big girl room is pretty cute. We spent a lot of time working on it, and I think it turned out as a perfect little girl haven, filled with pink, flowers, dolls, and all things girlie. But here's the secret: William is the kid who likes it best. In fact, he likes anything and everything to do with his big sister these days. Put him on the rug in her room, even when he's crabby, and you are guaranteed at least 10 minutes of happy, content baby. I think it's because he knows it's her space, and there's a better than average chance of big sister giving him some attention. Here they are, playing together this morning. I think William looks good in pink, don't you?

Playgroup BBQ

Right before we went home, I was feeling great about living in Boston. I like my friends, my town, our routine. Some of the annoying, er charming, things about New England had even started to grow on me. And then I went home and spent gobs of time with my family and the homesickness started right back up again. The drive-thru Starbucks and Targets on every block alone made me want to move home. Fortunately, we had our playgroup family BBQ to look forward to on Saturday afternoon, and it was a wonderful reminder of everything that we have here. Caroline and I joined this group about 2 weeks before William was born, and we are so lucky to have these moms and kids in our lives. They are just about the nicest, most fun, easy-to-get-along-with group ever. We had so much fun meeting many of the daddies for the first time on Saturday. Not surprisingly, they were just as nice as their wives and children, and it was so much fun having all the families together. Thanks for hosting, Sara, Jeff, and Leo!

Once again, I forgot my camera and Lisa came to my rescue by sharing her shots. She's threatening to start charging. I think she should just start her own blog!

In case anybody is wondering, William is a taken man. That little girl in the above shot is completely in love with him - the minute she sees him, she insists that I put him down so she can cover him in kisses. Lucky little man.

PS: We love you, Sarah, Leah, and Noah. Nothing could replace the memories of our "original" playgroup.

Morton Arboretum

The highlight of our trip home, other than seeing our family of course, was our visit to the Morton Arboretum's Children's Garden. It's one of my absolute favorite places to take kids - it is 4 acres of gorgeous gardens, climbing equipment, and water features built to encourage children to explore and learn about nature. I truly think it is one of the best (and most beautiful) facilities for children I've ever seen. If you are in the Chicago area I think it would be totally worth your time to schedule a visit - and the rest of the Arboretum is pretty phenomenal, too.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite shots from the day:

Throwing rocks into the frog fountain was a favorite activity.

Quenny in the tunnel.

Cousin love.

Melisa and William hanging out in the shade.

And lastly, 5 of my very favorite people in the world.

Sweet Home Chicago

So a few of my friends thought I was C-R-A-Z-Y to fly halfway across the country by myself with 2 kids. But I had a pretty good reason:


My nephew, Quentin. And oh, he was worth it. We hadn't seen him since Christmas and I desperately wanted to see him, and to have my kids spend time with their cousin. It didn't hurt that my mom, my sister, and my in-laws all live within 10 minutes of each other.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from our trip. First Caroline and Quenny playing that perennial favorite Grandma game, "driving Grandma's car:"





My "wicked awesome" brother-in-law, Jay, with Quenny:

My mom and I watched Quentin a couple of times while I was home, and we took all 3 kids on walks downtown and to the park. I think we both felt like a circus with all those itty bitty kids and those strollers. It didn't help that Caroline insisted on pushing a doll in the doll stroller, but then decided she was too tired to walk home. Fun times.

You probably get the sense from these pictures what the main attraction of our activities was: Grandma. Both older kids gave their moms looks of absolute disgust if we tried to get in the way of the fun.

Lastly, although I know this isn't a great photograph, I absolutely love it. It is Quentin meeting William for the first time, and it gets me so excited for the fun times these two little boys are going to have when they are bigger. They are just under a year a part, and I can just imagine the trouble they will get into together. William absolutely lit up every time Quenny gave him attention, and Quenny was so sweet and gentle with his younger cousin. He's going to be a great big brother.

Buddies

I spend a lot of my days doing 2-year-old activities. Going to the park. Playing doctor. Coloring pictures. I love doing these things; I chose to stay home because I'd rather be with my kids than be at work, and I know I'm very, very fortunate that I had that choice. At the same time, if I had a couple of free hours, I wouldn't choose to, you know, watch Curious George or play little people. I do those things because they are what Caroline enjoys, and I enjoy being with her. Today, however, we did something together that we both enjoyed - we watched last night's gymnastics. I can't tell you how satisfying it was to sit on the couch with my best girl doing something that I genuinely wanted to do, and knowing that she was enjoying it as much as I did. I had so much fun explaining the Olympics in a very basic way, and watching how absorbed she was in learning. It was like this tiny little peek into what our relationship will be like as she grows and we have more in common, and I get to share the things that I enjoy with her. There are so many books I want her to read, so many places I want to take her, so many things I want to show her. I know Caroline will probably have interests that are completely different from mine, and I'm comfortable with that. I don't need her to be a mini-me. However, I also know there are going to be things that we both love and love to do together. And I can't wait for that. She's my little buddy, and I am so grateful that she is in my life.

P.S., I know that I will have tons of fun with William, too, but today I was just having these feelings about Caroline, so this post gets to be all about her. I love them both equally, blah, blah, blah. :)

(Sorry for another post without pictures. I'm working on editing our pics from Chicago, and I'll have a post up about our trip soon.)

Dear Internets,

We are having a lovely time home in G.E. despite the fact that the airline lost our stroller and we all caught nasty colds from the man coughing, sneezing, and blowing his nose incessantly on the airplane. I've got some photos to share when I get back, but in the meantime I thought I'd use this picture-less post to get you to solve some of my blogger problems. First, why can't I get J.J.'s blog to link on my bloglist? When I try to add her, NOTHING happens. Second, when I put up my posts, why does blogger constantly add or delete spaces between paragraphs and pictures? I can't get it to work the way I want most of the time.

Anyway, I'll have great stories to share when we get home! We miss all of our Mass friends!

Massachusetts Horticultural Society

On Monday morning we visited the children's garden at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society with Caroline's buddies, Allie and Jack. If you are in the area, be sure to visit: it is a beautiful facility and a fun outing for kiddos.

Lisa was nice enough to share her pictures with me since I forgot my camera (hey, you try to remember everything when you are getting 2 kids out the door!). Here are the kids in a huge red chair.

And me and my man hanging out in the shade:

I met Allie and Jack's moms, Lisa and Emily, about a month before William was born. I liked them both so much, but was really worried that with having a newborn I would lose touch with them. Boy was I ever wrong - these girls have been such great friends to us over the past few months. Even though they barely knew me when William was born, they were always calling to see if they could bring over dinner, or take Caroline to the park, or grab some groceries for us at the store. They invited me to join their playgroup and introduced me to all their friends. These are two really fun ladies with great kids - they have a wonderful group of friends, and are always doing something fun. I marvel at my luck that I met them, and that they have included us in everything. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. Thanks for "adopting" us, Lisa and Emily!

Chipmunk Trouble

And no, despite the cheeks, not this kind of chipmunk...

DISCLAIMER: Not to disappoint, but this is actually the da-da writing today. After making fun of my dear wife (it's hard to resist) for succombing to the blogosphere after years of countless hours reading everyone else's blogs, I thought it was time to finally give in myself and make a short guest appearance.

now back to the chipmunk problem...

Since Samantha's post a few weeks ago, I know everyone has probably been anxiously waiting for an update on my garden. Just to get this out up front so no one is worried--the pickles are okay. They are actually growing quite well. No actual pickles yet, but I don't think it will be long.

The same can't be said, though for the lettuce. Boo and I were looking out the window the other day and noticed this little guy digging and nibbling away at our hard work.

I was horrified. Boo was horrified. We always thought it would be the bunnies that turned on us. What made it worse was that he really couldn't have cared less that we were banging on the window to scare him away. In fact, he has made several appearances since that first day just to continue to taunt us and munch on our delicious Black-Seeded Simpson lettuce. Luckily, I don't think he has mentioned his find to the rest of his friends so we haven't lost too much. Hey, when you only have enough lettuce for one salad every two weeks, there isn't much room for charity.

Turns out Boo is also quite the little tomato picker. She loves to head to the garden with me (granted, sometimes without pants) and scour the bushes for anything that has the slightest bit of red showing to take inside for a snack. The kid loves her some cherry tomatoes with dip.




Well, thanks to the Mrs. for allowing the guest appearance. Hopefully I didn't taint the quality of her product too much. Maybe if I'm good she'll even let me back again some day. That, and if I actually get a life and have more to write about besides chipmunks and pickles (don't judge) :)

I *heart* Peapod

Here's the view out front at least once a week these days:



I'm completely addicted to grocery delivery. It started about a month after William was born, on a rainy Friday when we had absolutely no food in the house. William was napping, and then as soon as he woke up Caroline needed a nap, and then as soon as she woke up he needed another nap, and so-on. The last thing I wanted to do was wake up my kids to drag them, in the rain, to the grocery store. And then, suddenly, I got a great idea: what about peapod? I felt kind of guilty and indulgent having my groceries delivered - after all, as a stay-at-home-mom, it's my job to get groceries - but it just seemed like such a perfect solution. And I was amazed by how cheap the delivery really is, and how easy it was to place my order. And now, with gas prices so high, I hardly even feel bad about the delivery fee. So we're addicted. I highly recommend it to any moms with multiple little ones running around the house.

I do think there is lots of great learning to be had at the grocery store, and I definitely plan on getting back to taking the kids to the store someday. But right now, with an unpredictable schedule, it is an absolute lifesaver.

P.S., I just placed my first order from diapers.com, and I'm pretty excited about that, too. They deliver way more than just diapers (think baby food, nursing supplies, etc.) and shipping is free for orders over $50. Prices looked comparable or even cheaper to the big chain stores. Plus it only takes 2 days to have an order delivered! I'll let you know what I think of it after I get my shipment. . . . Now what else can I do to contract out my household work? :)