Sammy and I heralded the unofficial start of summer with a lovely barbecue at my friend Meghan's house. It was a pretty steamy day, but fortunately Meghan had just the thing to keep everyone nice and cool--a kiddie pool! Sammy changed into his oh-so-stylish baby speedo and spent most of the afternoon splashing around, which in turn kept all of us adults entertained.
After a delicious dinner of grilled steak, eggplant and other goodies, we all relaxed outside and enjoyed some summer-appropriate drinks, like Pimm's cups and a yummy bourbon slushy that Gretchen made. It was so nice to enjoy an evening of adult conversation...not too mention the many pairs of hands ready and willing to take over on Sammy duty so I could sit back, relax, and really enjoy myself.
The afternoon soon faded to evening and we were still having a great time, so I put Sammy to bed and made plans to spend the night there; fortunately, I had thought ahead and packed a "just in case" bag, so Sammy and I had everything we needed for an impromptu slumber party. I can't think of a better way to mark the beginning of the summer than a fun-filled night of good food, delicious drinks, and fabulous friends.
Sammy and I would like to offer our most heartfelt thanks to all of the American service members and their families for all they have done in the defense of our nation; your sacrifices will not be forgotten.
This week's theme over at Foto Friday is on and on...so I'm cheating a little bit and using a photo from this week's visit to Longwood Gardens that I showed all of you yesterday:
The bee was flying on and on to each and every flower, while I was shooting on and on with my camera, desperate to get just one capture of the fast little bugger in motion. That should work, right?
Be sure to check out the other lovely photos this week by clicking below;
Before we headed over to take in all of the beautiful flowers at Longwood Gardens, Pat, Sammy and I stopped in to visit Sammy's great-grandmother, the original Nany, for a little bit. The weather was sunny and warm, so we spent the bulk of our visit outside in the community garden, while Sammy kept us all entertained.
Before we headed to our next destination, I convinced everyone that we needed to take a group picture:
I love how Nany's expression basically says, "Oh great, here she goes with that dang camera again." Four generations of love in one shot--not too shabby.
Be sure to check out the other lovely photos this week by clicking below:
Sammy and I spent the past couple of days in southeastern Pennsylvania with my mother-in-law, Pat. She lives about a half an hour away from Longwood Gardens, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather forecast and headed over there on Wednesday to take in the sights. It was a photographer's paradise (and I don't even know what I'm doing half of the time):
{I'm linking this one up with Texture Thursday}
{I still can't believe I managed to capture this little guy in flight}
We made our way to the conservancy after taking in all of the gardens outside, and were greeted by the heady and intoxicating scent of thousands upon thousands of lilies in the new exhibit aptly named Lilytopia. It was simply gorgeous--I had no idea that there were so many different types of lilies, each one more beautiful than the next.
{Nestled amongst all of the tents at the Lucketts Spring Market was a vintage Serro Scotty Sportsman trailer; when I peeked inside, I was delighted to see that the interior had been fully outfitted with all sorts of lovely vintage goodies. Maybe when Captain Husband retires, we could get something similar, outfit it with all sorts of retro-kitsch fun stuff, and travel around the country in it. Then again, I don't know if CH and I could live in such a small space for any extended period of time without eventually resorting to violence. I may have to rethink this plan.}
{Sammy and I are visiting my mother-in-law in Pennsylvania for a few days, which makes vlogging difficult, but I hope to be back with a Vloggin' Vednesday video next week.}
Sammy turned eleven months old yesterday and I totally didn't realize that until today. Oops. Let's get down to the nitty gritty: Sammy is now the proud owner of seven teeth (four on top, three on bottom), weighs approximately 24 pounds, and is about 30 1/2" tall. He's wearing 18-24 month clothing for the most part, but has started wearing pjs in the 2T range (this is mostly due to his, ahem, generously-sized cloth-diapered rear end).
It's amazing how independent Sammy's become in the past month; he wants to hold his own bottle most of the time, which is awesome--especially if we're out and about and he's due for a bottle. All I have to do is recline the stroller and he's good to go. Of course, this has it's drawbacks from time to time, as Sammy often seems more intent on making a mess than finishing his bottle:
Speaking of messes, Sammy's much happier feeding himself than when I do it. He continues to eat just about whatever I put in front of him from veggies to pasta, which he likes. A lot. I'm actually struggling to come up with meals that he and I will both enjoy and have pretty much exhausted my repertoire of simple yet tasty dishes at this point. I'm open to all suggestions!
Let's see, what else? Still not walking, but Sammy is standing up unassisted a lot these days. It's kind of crazy to look up and see him just standing in the middle of the room like he's been doing it for a long time.
Some of Sammy's favorite things:
Sandy
Head butts as a sign of affection
Bath time
Pushing things around on the floor, like books, toy cars, shoes, etc.
Drinking out of my glass
Waving indiscriminately
Yodelling
Eating the rocks from the fireplace
Banging things loudly
Some of Sammy's least favorite things:
Being told no
Having things taken away from him
Diaper changes
Waiting for lunch/breakfast/dinner
* * * * *
And before I completely forget, the article about Sammy's nursery was posted on Baby Lifestyles and I think it turned out really well. Click below to check it out:
I received a postcard a few weeks ago informing me of the Lucketts Spring Market that would be taking place the weekend of the 21st and 22nd; I planned to go and check it out on Sunday with Sammy in tow, especially as I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket. The weather was gorgeous for a day spent outside--upper 70s with some clouds and a nice breeze. I packed Sammy a lunch, slathered on the sunscreen and headed on our way. We arrived to find row after row of tents and booths filled with all sorts of eye candy.
I'll be honest--the booths were overwhelmingly geared towards an aesthetic more suited to decorators than my personal taste (a lot of burlap-upholstered things and newly-painted/fabricated finishes). But don't worry--I didn't go home empty-handed:
I am now the proud owner of a vintage, never-been-used, four-quart ice cream maker (it came with the original box and recipe booklet). I'm actually pretty excited to try my hand at making my own ice cream; my friend Kate makes her own from time to time and has always maintained that it's more fun than work, so maybe making our own ice cream will become an enjoyable summer family tradition. Also, it's in my color. There was no way it wasn't coming home with me.
Sammy and Sandy have some serious competition in the cute department now that this mama cat and her kittens are in the house. I honestly don't know what it is about vintage lawn ornaments/anthropomorphic animals, but I simply can not get enough of them. I actually squealed out loud when I saw them. So much for my poker face when it comes to negotiating prices.
And last but not least is a vintage 1960s table top fan in my color and in working condition! This is important, because I actually own another table top fan in my color that "works," as in, it starts, sputters and then dies; it's basically a really interesting-looking paperweight at this point. This one will be going in my bedroom where I will likely spend countless hours perfecting my Darth Vader impression while talking into its spinning blades.
I have to admit that this whole solo-parenting thing is starting to get a bit old. I'm actually beginning to see the toll that this past year has taken on me physically:
Blood-shot eyes? Check. Under-eye circles? Check. Stress-induced grey hair? Check--my eyebrows and eyelashes are starting to go grey (I'm also in desperate need of some serious eyebrow taming). Sometimes I feel like I've aged a decade since last June; before you know it, I'll be yelling at those darn kids to get off of my lawn and eating dinner at 4 pm.
Be sure to check out the other lovely photos this week by clicking below;
I can't begin to express just how glad I am that Casey came up with this weekly link-up; it's probably the main reason why there will be any photos of me and Sammy during our first year together. That said, it's getting more and more difficult for me to come up with new and/or different ways to stage our photo every week. I'm kind of at a disadvantage in that there's no one else around to capture the candid moments that take place, so I feel as though I keep having to reinvent the wheel every week or so. The worst part is that I have all of these great ideas but they're pretty hard to execute on my own. For example, I thought it would be pretty cool to get a shot of me and Sammy playing our new flying game:
Have you ever tried to balance your kid while simultaneously working your camera remote? Yeah, it's not as easy as I thought it would be. I swear he actually enjoys "flying" even though the expression on his face could easily make you think otherwise. (And don't get me started on the focusing issue, sigh.)
So that brings us to take two; another one of our favorite fun activities is turning up the music on the big band channel and dancing to the tunes. We bounce and and spin in time to the music while we both laugh hysterically. I figured this would be a good opportunity to capture some fun shots, so I set up the tripod, turned up the volume and started shooting. Yeah. The results were pretty much horrible. This is the best one, which isn't even all that good:
Well, at least his outfit is fun, right? (Dear surly teenager Sammy, I apologize for taking you out in public dressed like this, but honestly, you didn't really seem to mind at the time.) Be sure to check out the other lovely photos this week by clicking below--and don't forget to show Casey some love.
Thanks to everyone for all of your well wishes; I'm feeling a lot better today, which I attribute to all of the lovely naps that I took yesterday. Well, I suppose I should say I was feeling better until I took a look in the guest room and saw this:
Ugh. Tubs and tubs of baby clothing and other miscellaneous stuff, like boppies, baby bottles and a bumbo. Here's my dilemma: Captain Husband and I plan to have more kids at some point in the future so I was planning on saving as much of Sammy's things as possible to use with the next kid(s). However, now that we're faced with a cross-country move, I'm feeling an urge to keep just a few things and get rid of the rest. (It also helps that my brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first child this fall, so I plan to offload a lot of the basics to them). I keep telling myself that I can easily build a wardrobe for another child on the cheap thanks to thrift stores and consignment sales, which is how I acquired much of Sammy's stuff to begin with, but then I start to second guess myself. For those of you with multiple children (or planning on multiple kids), how did you decide what to keep and what to get rid of? I'm all ears--seriously, I need to figure something out soon because I have a friend coming in for the weekend and she'd probably prefer a bed to sleep in rather than being crammed in amongst all of the baby stuff.
{This is my haul from Target yesterday. Drugs, more drugs and multiple boxes of kleenex. Good times. You know you're having fun when the pressure from your sinuses is so extreme that your teeth actually hurt. Since I'm a snotty mess, I felt it would be a good idea to abstain from Vloggin' Vednesday...no one needs to see/hear that. I'm off to take a nap.}
I hosted my first Cloth 101 session for Abby's Lane this past Saturday; it was a pretty low-key event with five people in attendance (not including toddlers and babies), but I think it went rather well. Everyone seemed to enjoy getting their hands on the various different kinds of diapers and inserts that I had available--I definitely wish I had been able to attend something similar back when I was first looking into going the cloth route!
One of the hot topics during the session was night-time diapering and the different systems out there to keep your baby dry throughout the night, which gave me the perfect opportunity to show off the new diapers that Sammy's been wearing at night (he just recently outgrew his adorable Gen-Y covers from a few months back). I purchased this set-up about a week ago and I am totally in love with it--no more leaks and Sammy's back to sleeping until 8 am or later because of the increased absorbency.
Here's how it all breaks down: the first layer is a Knickernappies fleece stay-dry liner, which does exactly what it says (how novel!). The second layer is a Sustainable Babyish organic cotton fitted with a heavy-duty three-layer snap-in soaker. This is then followed by the third layer composed of a Joey Bunz hemp insert placed on top of the fitted. Last but certainly not least is a Bummis Super Brite cover to keep everything nice and leak-proof. The best part about this new system? Sammy shouldn't size out of this for quite some time; he's currently wearing a large fitted and cover on their smallest settings; and when he does outgrow them, these brands all come in an extra-large size so Sammy should be covered in that department until he's potty-trained, thank goodness. Seriously--if you have a heavy night-wetter (and/or a giant baby), you should give this combination a try.
My friend, Gretchen, put together an impromptu birthday picnic for me last Thursday in Fredericksburg; joining us was our friend Elizabeth and her baby girl, Nessa. It was a beautiful day, perfect for just lounging in the grass, nibbling on the yummy pasta salad that Gretchen made, and indulging in some public alcohol consumption (we definitely got some weird looks from the other moms in the park, but I swear we weren't misbehaving--I think they were just jealous that they hadn't thought to do it first). It was such a lovely afternoon; I think we need to make a regular habit out of these little get-togethers.
