*A rare quiet Wednesday morning moment. Does my side of the bed seem a little crowded to you? No wonder I am out of bed slurping down coffee instead of snoozing away with them.
*I'm reading One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by BJ Novak. It's cracking me up! It's a collection of pretty much ridiculous stories that somehow you seem to relate to. The short story format has been great too since I don't have too many extended periods of time to read these days.
*Wyndsor is growing like a little weed. She is a sweet little baby that likes to cry every single freakin' night when Daddy and I are ready for bed. Barely makes a peep all day (of course). She is starting to "wake up" more and more; smiling and making adorable little faces.
*I'm sure it is true of everyone's 2nd child but I have significantly less pictures of the poor kid already. I tried this week to make an conscious effort to take more and ended up with about a dozen. Riesling probably has about 100. Let the younger sibling complex begin.
*It's Friday. My goals for the weekend include: a trip to BJ's, making a final decision and purchasing a double stroller, and remembering to buy more dark chocolate. If I'm really feeling ambitious I will vacuum out my car.
*Someone has a bit of an attitude this morning....
We had an action packed month of March with tons of opportunities for cute photos, but these days I either forget my camera all together or am too busy chasing Riesling around to use it. I did get a few good shots and Jim managed to get a bunch of kinda crappy, blurry iPhone pictures too. My favorite on the overalls. I found them just before Easter on the clearance rack at Target (less than $5!) and have been obsessed with them every since. Her big ghetto cloth diaper booty is just too darn cute.
March 2nd-3rd: Overnight trip to Conneticut for a weekend with the Levin family. It was our goddaughter, Chloe's 2nd birthday party and Sarah and Rob's 10 year wedding anniversary and vow renewal ceremony. We were honored to be invited to such a intimidate family weekend. They are the kind of true friends that distance never alters.
Yes Sarah made that cake!
Riesling discovering girlie toys
Friends and their sweet baby girls
March 4th: Mommy makes her first attempt at pig tails. Combined with an obsession over leg hugs, it was just about the sweetest thing ever.
March 10th: Daddy puts Riesling's shirt on backwards thinking she is some kind of Italian guido. These pictures don't do it justice but I couldn't stop laughing long enough to get a good shot.
March 18: Riesling gets her first grilled cheese sandwich...with kale
and flax seed on gluten free millet chia bread. That's what all the
kids are eating these days, right? More please!
March 23rd: Dinner and playtime with the Crookers. They recently had a wall taken down opening up their kitchen and dining room. This pretty much meant lots of room for running, mainly Riesling chasing Cameron. She hugged him no less than 50 times. She also found one of Lorraine's apron and insisted on wearing it. She has been into capes and scarves lately as well. I guess we're entering 'dress up' stage. And yes that picture in the corner is her licking Auntie Raine's oven. I think she might have been try to kiss her reflection. She's all about the love.
March 29th-31st: Stidd family invasion. My brother and his crew made the long journey from Ohio to spend Easter weekend with us. It was so much fun to see the kids playing together. Riesling is at a fun age where she is pretty entertaining even though there is a huge age gap between her and her cousins (Jevin is 9 and Elliona). Elliona has been waiting for this since Riesling was born. She just wanted so bad to be able to hold her, carrying her around, push her in the stroller and play with her. She got to do all of it and more over the weekend.
We ventured into Philadelphia so they could experience the big city complete with skyscapers and a subway ride. Family in town is a good reason to do some of the tourist stuff we wouldn't normally do on our own.
Back at the Robinson ranch we had pizza, colored Easter eggs and watched movies after Riesling went to bed. We even had a little indoor Easter egg hunt. I really dropped the ball on picture taking over the whole weekend. I got NONE of the kids together and hardly any of Riesling and her little egg hunt. Jim did get some video action....
March 31st. We ended the month with Easter dinner at Aunt Kathleen's in New Jersey. Where Riesling received 3 more baskets of goodies! Look at all those shovels...and a camp chair!
Farmer Jim has been hard at working preparing for Spring planting. He upgraded to a larger grow light hung from the ceiling in our laundry room (last year he used a small old fish tank light and some rigged up set up on buckets or something) and from what I can gather, is trying some different fertilizing methods. He's also giving a try at starting some larger plants from seed, like tomatoes and squash instead of buying them from our local garden center. After Riesling is is in bed he heads down to his little work bench, puts on some soft tunes, and gets his garden on. Seriously sh*t is start to get crazy over here...
That big guy in the back is a fig tree. We bought it last year at our local orchard. It was looking mighty sad at the end of last year, pretty much it looked dead. Jim and I both thought it might not make it through the winter but it made a killer comeback and is thriving now.
Honestly, i lost track of everything but i know there is plenty of kale, swiss chard, spinach and few varieties of squash? not to mention the tons of lettuce. I think we're almost ready for salad?
Its my daytime job to transport certain trays outside to the mini greenhouse when the temperature is warm enough. I have found this to be easiest during Riesling's nap. Once everything is in the ground i think it will be easier to incorporate her in the gardening tasks. I know she is going to be all about it. Even last summer she was trying to pick her own peas.
I can't wait for garden fresh dinners all week long. For now I will jut have to enjoy he process and these adorable little baby bok choy. They are my favorite right now.
It just feel sooo good to say that word. Spring is here! Last year we were enjoying really mild weather with warm temperatures and lots of outdoor time with our sweet lil newborn.
We even had her out in only a onesie on her 1 month birthday. Jim saw
these pictures and said, "What kind of parents do that?" It was
seriously so warm last year at this time (and I don't think she was
really outside for much longer then it took to take these pictures)
This year it's still pretty darn chilly and we had snow
just 2 days ago but I guess I should stay positive and focus on the
fact that it is in fact officially SPRING! Even bundled up a bit,
Riesling is loving spending time outside again. She is so interested in
exploring every leaf, stick and speck of dirt. She will just plop her
butt down in the biggest pile of mud in the yard and not even blink. I
think we might have a little tomboy in our future.
Did the Easter bunny stop by your house? Are you heading out to for special church services? Have you already consumed way too many jellybeans and chocolate treats?
We're heading across the bridge to New Jersey for an afternoon with Jim's family. A few years ago I made an amazing sweet potato dish that everyone loved. But, it's a lot of work so I decided on an easier recipe for butternut squash. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Even though Riesling doesn't have a clue what's going on, I decided it just didn't seem right not to get her an Easter basket this year. It's not much but I got her a fun little chicken garden/lawn ornament and a wind twirler and tossed in a few fake eggs to spruce it up.
I seem to have a lot of fond memories of Easter growing up: getting dressed up for church, spending time with family outdoors, brightly colored eggs, sidewalk chalk and new jump ropes. It was also the last holiday I spent with my mom and coloring eggs was one of our last activities together. I remember she was so, so excited about the beautiful bright colors, just like a little kid would be. I can't wait to make it a tradition for our family.
I read this little summary of how a lot of Easter traditions started, from bonnets to chocolates to egg filled baskets. "Eggs have long been associated with birth and fertility. Their abundance at Easter symbolizes the renewal of both a religious savior and the natural world. In addition, several Christian sects used to forbid (and some still do) eating eggs during Lent. After spending over a month egg-free, observers celebrated by eating the no-longer-forbidden food." I also found the bit about bunnies to be interesting. Apparently the white hare started as folklore and was brought to Pennsylvania in the 18th by Germans settlers. And by the way Jim, hot cross buns are a real thing.....
