30 is Sweet

Carvel cakes, sticky kisses from my boys, fried plantains, Midori sours, friends driving looong distances to help me celebrate, my husband singing a karaoke song for me... all of these things made my 30th birthday sweet and memorable. A big thank you to all of my friends and family.

Doesn't feel much different than 29 ;)

We met up at Bistro Ole in Asbury Park.

Although they do not take reservations, and we were prepared to wait, we didn't expect to be out there for TWO HOURS!

The food was delicious (Spanish/Portugese cuisine) and they allowed us to enjoy our wine outside (plastic glasses-ha!) as we waited.

By the time dinner was over, it was almost 11:00! A few of us headed over to Casey's in Neptue City for some karaoke. "You know you're in Jersey when"... the songs include "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Born to Run". (Had to include the one of Andrea and Adam making out and Jim singing "Will You Go With Me")

Really missed you, Amanda, as no one other than Jim was particularly thrilled to come up and sing.

Ollie Time

Look closely! Yes! Right there, on the bottom. You can see the new one breaking through on the left and the "established" one on the right. I got this picture when he was yawning-- sneaky!

So this probably explains the crazy sleep schedule the past few days. Three nights ago: good sleeping. Two nights ago: hell. Last night: holy cow he slept for five and a half hours straight!
I experimented with keeping him awake and holding off on his last feeding until 7:30 (usually he is ready to sleep at 7) and I think it worked well. He didn't rouse AT ALL until 1 AM. I swear, my body didn't know what to do with itself, having so many (3?) straight hours of sleep. And after eating, he didn't wake again until 4! And he spent all the sleeping time in his crib. Good boy, as I'm trying to wean him off of the bassinet. And the co-sleeping. But it is nice to have him in bed with us for those last few hours...

"Mom, PUHLEASE give me SOMETHING to gnaw on!"

"MUCH better... your hand will do."
Jim stayed home this morning and took T to the aquarium in Pt. Pleasant. Nice trip on a rainy day. That gave me some nice quality time with the little man. I always think he'll miss Trenton when he goes away (like last week at Grandma's) but he really doesn't. Or at least he doesn't seem to mind all the one-on-one time with Mommy. :)

"Ahhh.... Life is GUUUUUD."

And with "all" of my spare time this morning? That's right: I got out the baby cookbook and started trying out some recipes. If you could call it that. Basically, it is "steam/bake food, scrape it out, blend it with water, freeze". The best thing about it was I got to try out my NEW Baby Cubes. That's right, who needs an ice cube tray when you can pay top dollar for a GLORIFIED ice cube tray? No, seriously, I'm hoping they are worth it. They stack nicely, hold up to 2 oz. of food, and have lock-top lids. And they're BPA free, dishwasher and microwave safe, stackable, yadda, yadda.
Today, I made applesauce the right way (oops-- forgot to bake the apples with the last batch) as well as sweet potatoes. Nice to cook with organic ingredients and know that it will be waaay cheaper than those jars.

I know what you are thinking. Stop that. This is a family blog.

As he watched me cook, he was salivating. And I thought, why not try out the baby-safe feeder bag? I totally remember using it with Trenton, but totally didn't remember how young you could start them with it. But it seemed OK to put some baked apples and a banana in it and hold it there for him. Anyway, he loved it. Sucked it like crazy. A fruity teether!
Enjoy, Ollie.

Easter Sunday, 2009

Man, oh man... I went to take the pictures off the camera tonight to blog and there were 139 on it! That is a little excessive... Thank goodness for SlideShows... Don't worry, I'll make it go fast. And here are a few of the best:

Trenton insisted on calling it a "bonnet" until I got him used to saying "cap". Guess we read/sang Berlin's Easter Parade a few too many times!
The Easter Bunny left him a note asking him to keep the hat on all day. He listened!

Indoor Egg Hunt

Arugh.
We've all been passing a cold around this week and the damp, soggy weather has not helped much.
This Saturday, the plans were to take the kids to Ocean Grove for the egg hunt on the beach and then to the Blueclaws game in the afternoon. But when we woke up to downpouring rain, we figured all was off.
But no.

I got a call from my friend Debbi (that's her, looking at her camera in the pic here) saying that the church was still having their egg hunt inside. So I had time to quick get to the gym, elipticalize my time for about 20 minutes, get a shower, and get us all to the hunt (that explains my wet hair-style in these pics). We got there just as they were about to let the kids loose. Ha! The egg hunt took place in the room where Trenton will be attending pre-school in the fall, FYI.




What kind of egg hunt is it when the eggs are everywhere in plain view? I don't know. I guess for little kids, it is OK. But seriously... I had a video that I was going to post that Jim took, but it was really just T walking left to right picking up eggs while some other dad in the background is going, "Look over here! Ooooh... check out the fridge! What about the laundry?" Like the kid wouldn't have found it on her own...
Later, pictures show me ripping into Trenton's candy. I decided that Lent was over (because it is, right?) and that it was time to indulge. Mmmmmm....

It continued to rain right up until 3:30ish... we all took naps, which felt GREAT. We figured the game was off (it wasn't) and ended up hanging out at home the rest of the day. Real nice. First time in a long time that Jim was home ALL DAY-- no run, no grading papers, no going to work... Didn't help that he was sick, though :( But I did get him to put up several frames on the walls!

Sittin' In My Perch

Like a little bird... complete with the tuft of hair on top and all...

After a few more days of spotty-wanting-to-eat-solid-foods, I kinda gave up... He wasn't really pooping it out and I was afraid that I was constipating him. And then, this morning, he awakes with tooth number two!

And then it was back to squash, bananas, and apples. Going to introduce sweet potatoes later this week. And he only likes cereal if it is made with mommamilk ;)

Double Take

Not too many new pics to post, as T was at Grandma Lacina's for three days this week and I've been trying to finish a paper for class.










I was about to put this picture of Ollie into a frame when I realized that T's birth announcement picture had a similar look to it... It is very easy for me to see all the differences (eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, hairline). But you can still tell they are brothers!

Mommy Can't Wait to Have Her Chocolate Back

I have had something very interesting in my hair all day today. Tried to get it out with some water before, but to no avail. I thought it was leftover spit-up from the little man, but as I look at it more closely, it is blue.
Oh wait, I've got it... Toothpaste.
Blue, Oral-B, Little Einstein's toothpaste, to be exact. He's learning how to spit in the middle of the sink rather than all over the edge. And I must have been a little too close to the splash zone...

Here's a few pictures of Trenton playing with some neat foam stuff he got from Uncle Jay for Christmas. We spelled out his name and were working to build a spaceship. Then I took a few using the sepia and blue-colored hue on my camera (didn't know it could do that-- thanks, Jen, for the idea!)





















Finally, we went to see Seussical the Musical yesterday at the Algonquin Arts Theater in Manasquan. Not bad for an hour long performance, with a reasonable price ($8/ticket). Ollie loved the lights and teethed on his hand and a toy I'd brought the entire time. Trenton had his fingers in his ears ("Too noisy!") the entire time, too. He only took them out to clap exactly three times after each musical number. Ha!