Maybe they were Right

We went to the beach a couple days ago with my family. My mom brought dinner down, and we had a early evening ocean outing. It was a lovely day. Gillian had a blast playing in the sand. Peyton - not so much. He now has bug bites all over his body. I should have had more clothing coverage on him. But, he did look cute in his shorts...

Scott & my Dad both have a severe dislike of eating at the beach. I was making fun of Scott before we went, for being so tidy. But, once we started eating, I switched teams. I am on their side now. I think they are right. We had to scare off Seagulls, all the time. If we let up for even a moment, they were squawking & hovering only several inches from my baby boy's head. Ah! Because of the seagulls, and the wind, you can not set your plate down, at all. Don't even think about it. So, serving yourself anything is a challenge, since you have to have a firm grip on your plate, utensil, serving bowl, serving bowl lid, serving utensil... If you accidentally drop anything, it is covered in sand... You need about 4 hands.
Now I believe the guys were right. I prefer not to bring a meal to the beach. Next time, let's eat before we go...

update - Peyton didn't have bug bites. We took him to the doctor after his spots kept multiplying. He had hives, most likely from the sunscreen...

Cloth

Now that Gillian is pretty much diaper free, I have been motivated to go back to cloth diapering Peyton. It is wonderful! I love my Proraps! I wish I hadn't waited so long to go back to them. I feel so good about not buying the disposable diapers all the time. Peyton just wears them to bed at night now. And, Gillian is still wearing them to bed at night, too. I tried a diaper free night for her 2 nights ago. And, the panties didn't stay dry, like the diapers had been the few nights prior. Oops. I'll give her a little more time in the diapers for overnight...

Green Living

In the past, I always thought I did not like house plants. Scott does.

I like fresh cut flowers. Scott used to not be too fond of that idea. A bit of a waste, in his mind.

Now we have each converted each other. Here is some of the green about our house.

What a Pair!

We had been waiting for our CSA produce box to come with leeks & potatoes at the same time.
Last week, it happened. And, last night, we had this marvelous Leek, Potato & Tarragon Soup. It was SO good.
The Tarragon was a fantastic component. And I, for the first time in my life, have a gorgeous tarragon plant happily growing in my yard. Prior to this year, my tarragon generally remained a little twig with 10 or so little leaves. If I ever wanted to use some of it, I would be harvesting the entire plant... But, now I have an abundance. My husband has a green thumb. What can I say? He's great.
If you want some for your Leek & Potato Soup, let me know!

Bubbly

I was reading this post about champagne & celebrations today on Orangette, and was in full agreement. I always look for a reason to celebrate. I threw a bottle of pink sparkly in the fridge immediately.

Today, we had a reason to celebrate. One reason was - we were eating the highly sought after fresh shelling cranberry beans. We did have the Shelling Bean, Haricots Verts & Zucchini Salad that I mentioned the other day. (We added fresh corn & did not exercise our option of including anchovies.)
The BIG reason to celebrate is that we have had success with potty training Gillian! We started again this Thursday. Before 8 am on Friday, she was going to the potty chair herself, whenever she needed to go! Hooray! A reason for mom & dad to have champagne!

Fresh is Special

We got these beauties in our CSA farm box today. I didn't have a clue what to do with them. So, I googled it. They are Cranberry shelling beans. I came across this article & started to get really excited! I think we'll try the Shelling Bean, Haricots Verts & Zucchini Salad with Anchovies. Most likely omitting the anchovies... Scott will be disappointed. But, I don't think I am strong enough...

Gillian loved the chore of shelling beans. She was so into it! She tried a bean at the beginning of the project. After giving it a good munch, decided it was yucky. But, something about the beans remained alluring to her. As she was shelling, she would try a bean again, about every tenth one. Each beautiful bean was still just as yucky!

Practicing

Peyton is getting so big! He is finally strong enough to enjoy tummy time. Here he is, working out, getting ready for learning to crawl. He knows that you have to practice, in order to get good at anything!

Etsy Appreciation Photo Shoot

I have been shopping for gifts & such on Etsy quite a bit lately. I have been finding some good finds. The only hard thing is that there is SO much stuff on there.

A cool thing about Etsy is, that when you leave feedback after a transaction, you can give the artist a customer appreciation photo. WestByron knitted matching do-rags for Gillian & I. Here is our photo shoot from this morning. I chose this first one to give to her.

Good News, Bad News

I'll give the bad news first...

As I was sitting down on the couch to feed Peyton this morning, I knocked my full, fresh cup of coffee off the above counter. And.... it was (and still is) a mess.

Then Gillian repeatedly was spilling her oatmeal on the ground. It never quite looked accidental, even though she would say "oh no!" each time. Perhaps she just thinks her mom is so cool, she was trying to be like her...

The good news is good news indeed, though. Both of my kids are sleeping right now. Peyton is a total sleepy head. So, that is not too amazing. But, it has been a long time since Gillian has had a morning nap. That also means it has been a long time since I have had a complete shower on a weekday morning. It felt good.

I think Gillian must be worn out from our big outing yesterday. We drove all the way out to Oakley, to enjoy the scorching heat of the valley. We made a few visits, with a couple friends out that way, and it was a long day. But, it is good to see friends, old & new!

We got some little white eggplants in our farm box this week. We have been waiting for this! We will have Eggplant Parmesan tonight. It is a favorite.

Why does organic produce have to be so dirty & bruised. Are we not supposed to care about aesthetics anymore?

The fly is just a plastic toy. But, he demonstrates the other problem with organics - totally bug infested. I nearly gagged several times last night, as I had to scrub millions of bugs off of our Kale.

Oh well. You can't have it all, right? I guess there are benefits to organics, too.

Flowers for Baby

I got hired to make up a few bouquets for baby shower on Saturday. I had so much fun! I was supposed to use lavender. Other than that, I got to make the design choices. Fun!

Flying High

I finally completed & hung the mobile I made for Peyton!

He is so excited about it!