Summer Lovin’

Posted on by Amy
I love the smell of my babies in the summer. Sunscreen mixed with chlorine, a little bit of dirt and little girl sweat. . . Heaven. We have been busy here living summer. That’s what people do here in the North Country. After such a long winter this year we are trying to wring every last drop of summer-ness out of the few days of beautiful weather we have had so far. This weekend has been packed with the farmer’s market, two trips to the pool, and making the most of life outside – grilling and eating and lots of playing.
Tonight we had a jam session on the front stoop.

Miss had been collecting rocks from our front landscaping and asking my husband and I which ones were our “faybwits” (favorites). We were sorting and admiring rocks so much my hubby decided to grab his guitar and make up a song about Miss and her favorite rock. Notice in the photo above, his favorite rock sitting on his knee. She requested the song over and over, even after he had moved on to more well-known tunes.
These days are magical. Funny sayings from Miss. First assisted steps from Lass using the lion walker (featured here). Getting soaked at the water table. Miss dancing the most adorable wiggle to her daddy’s guitar music. Exchanging glances and laughs with my husband as we watch our amazing girls. When I stop and soak it in it makes my nose tickle and my eyes tingle and my heart squeeze with happiness. I love summer and the opportunities it brings for moments like these with my girls and their Daddy.
Note – My computer is “in the shop” again, because I am having trouble accessing all the photos I restored after my hard drive was replaced. Hence, my lack of blogging. Hopefully I will be back in full swing again very soon.
And I’d like to note that the recent lack of posts about our “Chopped” adventures has been due to my husband’s work in creating a list of ingredients to draw from, as I will now be doing two surprise ingredients each week. The list is now completed enough to pick from it (though it is a work in progress), the ingredients have been drawn, and my next challenge is to use shrimp and cheddar cheese. Immediately what came to my mind was Shrimp and Grits, so I’m going with that. I’ll post the recipe and let you know how it goes later this week. What would you make??

Grab Bag

Posted on by Amy
Tonight for dinner, I tried deep frying for the first time. It was totally easy and delish. Picture it: warm tortillas smeared with chipotle mayo and topped with shredded cabbage, diced tomatoes and deep-fried beer-battered fish. Fish tacos baby. Yum.
I have always shied away from deep frying. For some reason I thought it was difficult. Today my Southern roots came through, and I deep fried that beer-battered fish like I’d been doing it my whole life. I love it when I make a yummy dinner that my hubby loves. Usually I try to make a bit more healthful food, but everyone needs a little bit of deep fat frying from time to time, right?
This time of year is when I feel the need to pull out the macro lens for my camera. I am a sucker for a good, close up flower photo.


I have a lot to learn about photography and editing, but I love these photos.
So simple.
I also love listening to Miss speak. From her adorable two-year-old pronunciations (like “Faiwy Godmuddah”) to her funny little play conversations, I could listen to her all day. Her imagination is really taking off, and one thing she is really into these days is acting out conversations between “characters.” Sometimes she uses her special “fwiends,” which are the toys she sleeps with, Elmo, Bear, Teddy Bear, Big Baby, Big Momma Bear, Owl Pillow, Bear Pillow, and Ariel. Sometimes she takes totally random objects, like a bunch of gourds (or “vegetables” as she calls them) in a bowl at The Farm or a few empty shaving cream cans in my shower, and turns them into a complete family, acting out all sorts of different family dramas between them.
She will have entire conversations between these characters, changing her voice inflection just slightly to indicate that she is doing the voice of a different one. It is so fun while getting ready for the day to listen to her and quietly giggle and smile to myself at the funny things she says.

Randomness for a Tuesday. Hope you’re having a great week.

Fun at the Farm, a Few Firsts, and Father’s Day

Posted on by Amy

Last week was full of the fresh air and beauty of the place we call The Farm.


I love how this place seems to seep into our souls and revive us. Miss is in her element here. She would spend all day every day outside if she could, and comes close when at The Farm. Upon waking, while still drowsy with sleep, she will look up through her crazy bed-head hair at her Daddy and say, “Go outside?”

She had so much opportunity in the past week to play with her “kids”, which is what she calls her cousins. And they seem to adore her and Lass. They dote on my girls, especially the older cousins. It warms my heart to see how much Miss loves being with her kids and how wonderful they are to her and her sister.


The Farm is all about the simple things. Watching my girls thrive here is so satisfying. No fancy toys needed. Just the imagination and innocence of a two year old. One of her favorite things last week was going out with her Daddy to throw rocks into the pond over and over.




She and Lass had a blast on the swing set, as usual.
Lass went down the slide, with assistance of course, for the first time and loved it. She has turned out to be quite a little climber, trying repeatedly to climb up the slide, climbing up the stairs for the first time, on top of suit cases, etc. Oh boy.

My girls just love playing with their Daddy.

Miss refused to take off this life jacket, except when she went on the swing.



A day outside would not be complete without some sidewalk chalk. Miss has started showing her artistic talents.

Lass got to try out the chalk for the first time.




Miss had her first popsicle.


Miss asked me to draw our family. Yes, I drew this. No, I am not embarrassed. Much.
As much as we love The Farm, we are happy to be home today. Here’s a real family photo after we went out for brunch to celebrate the most important man in our world.
Husband, Daddy. He is amazing and does so much for us. I am thankful every day to have such a wonderful husband and Daddy for our girls.
Happy Father’s Day.

Fishing

Posted on by Amy
Once upon a time, back before my husband and I had little ones, we used to go fishing together a lot. My husband is quite the fisherman, and in the early years of our relationship it was a fun way for us to spend time together. A lot of time. We would go out on the boat at the crack of dawn and stay out all day. Sometimes talking, sometimes not. Sometimes freezing our butts off. Sometimes sweating half to death. Sometimes catching fish. Sometimes not.
I started out as a complete klutz with a fishing rod. I frequently got my lure hung up on something under the water. Once in a while even in a tree. Above the water. Sometimes I managed to swing the rod wildly and nearly take my husband’s head off. Frequently my line got hopelessly tangled. I didn’t have the right technique for reeling in a fish on the rare occasion that I caught one. I couldn’t operate a trolling motor. I didn’t know how to take a fish off a hook. Basically, I was a disaster with a fishing rod when he started taking me fishing. I won’t even go into my early attempts to assist with getting the boat in and out of the water.
Now, I could spin this into a lovely romantic tale where I tell you all about how patient and kind my husband was with me when teaching me the art of fishing. How gentle and tolerant he was when I made my very frequent mistakes. When he had to back the boat up because I had cast behind us and my lure was caught on a rock. When I broke one of his fishing rods. When I nearly ran the boat into a bunch of rocks because he was in the back struggling to get my lure unstuck from some unknown underwater vise and I was totally clueless about running the trolling motor. I could tell a beautiful fishing love story. Except that wasn’t how it went. Not. Even. Close. My wonderful hubby is a hard core fisherman. He yelled. He swore. A lot. At first.

He caught this walleye last night
He yelled and swore a lot at first. See, those early days of fishing together were a great way for us to strengthen our relationship. Fortunately we had quite a strong relationship to begin with. So, when he yelled, I (essentially) told him to cut it out. And to his credit, he did. Most of the time. If I did something stupid, I apologized. If he lost his temper, he apologized. And miraculously, he kept asking me to go with him. And I kept going. I learned a ton and eventually became quite a competent fisherwoman. Some of my best memories are of the times we spent fishing together. And I think I softened him up a little bit for our daughters. Okay, who am I kidding? They don’t need any help from me to melt their Dad. It’s a good thing too, because I think they’re going to spend a lot of time fishing with him.
Today Miss saw her cousins fishing and was very into it.
She quite enjoyed checking out the bait, both the bucket of minnows and the box of worms.

She requested her own fishing rod so she could give it a try. Her Baba rigged up a rod for her and got her going.
Within a few seconds they got a bite.

Miss was so excited to “catch” her first fish. It was a bluegill.
But then she wasn’t so sure that she wanted to get very close to it. This is her, “I’m-not-sure-what-to-do-that-thing-is-kind-of-freaking-me-out” face.
She wouldn’t touch the fish, but we did manage to get her to stand close enough for it to get a few photos.

To top off our day of fishing, Miss’s cousins caught 13 huge crappies that my brother-in-law and father-in-law cleaned and my mother-in-law fried up for dinner. It was delicious, and Miss gobbled it up. I think we’re going to be doing a lot of fishing this week.

My Favorite Time of Day

Posted on by Amy
After dinner and before bedtime. That’s when we have the best times as a family. My hubby is home. The girls are content. I can leave the dinner dishes and spend some quality time with the loves of my life.
Sometimes we get a little crazy. Tonight we had another dance party. You might remember the last time I posted about a Family Dance Party. We have them fairly regularly. My girls love to dance.






Miss has some moves, and my big girl can be graceful too.


Naturally I spent some time jumping and swaying and flipping with Miss too.





I just love the joy on their faces when we get the music playing and our bodies bopping and spinning and dipping to the beat.

My girls’ laughter is contagious.

A Visit with my Auntie

Posted on by Amy
Last week we took the girls for a quick visit with my Auntie and Unka. Lass had never met them and Miss hadn’t seen them since she was about Lass’s age. My Auntie is my mom’s sister, and is very dear to me. We also got to see my cousin and her husband. It was a wonderful day. The morning started with Miss calling my Auntie “Grandma?” since Auntie is so similar to my mom. This tickled me, and I think it helped her get over her initial shyness pretty quickly. Naturally, my outdoor girl wanted to get outside and play right away.

The day was laid back and hot. The cool concrete felt great so we just camped out, visiting and playing.



The girls had lots of fun exploring a new place and playing in the yard.


The dog’s water dish was like a magnet for Miss. She made “soup” again.
Unka captured a snake that Miss got to take a look at. Ew.
Auntie and Unka have a great tree for hanging “from the bar” as Miss said.



Auntie tried to spoil Miss a little with some yummy snacks Miss doesn’t usually get, like colorful goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, and frosted animal cookies. I told her that Miss would say the same thing about her that I once did when I was about 10 and visited her, “You’re just like my mom, except you have dessert!”
I was thrilled that Lass seems to be getting past her stranger anxiety and got to bond with Auntie a bit.


It was like magic for me to watch my girls with my Auntie. It was a short visit, but I loved every minute.

Exerise!

Posted on by Amy
We try to emphasize being healthy and exercising our bodies in our household. My husband is great at getting in regular workouts, even if he sometimes has to do them at 9 at night. Miss goes to gymnastics and we do lots of dancing and running (“chase me!” is her new favorite) and jumping and good physical playing that makes for great exercise for a two-year-old. The other day she and her Daddy were “exercising” in the family room.



Even Lass is working on her squats…
Now I need to get my rear in gear. I used to be good about exercising regularly, often quite vigorously. I have been lazy. I’ve been losing my “baby weight” without exercising, and have been usually watching what I eat. But I’ve been terribly lazy about exercising (if you don’t count lugging around two little girls and literally chasing a 2 year old, which I don’t). I have about 5 more pounds to lose from my pregnancy with Lass, and it probably isn’t going to come off without adding some exercise into the mix. Plus, exercising isn’t just about losing weight. It’s about being strong and healthy. It helps me to have more energy and probably even an improved mood. So, I’m putting it out there. This month, I will exercise more. I just need to get started and the momentum will build. I’ll say I’m going to exercise at least 15 out of the 30 days this month. That’s not a lot, but it’s a start. As my brother (who is in fantastic shape and trains others, you can check his blog here) would say, “3,2,1 – Go!”

Weekend Fun

Posted on by Amy

We had a wonderful long weekend here. We had a visit from a long-time friend of mine (a former college roommate!). She met my girls for the first time and became fast friends with Miss.


Lass is experiencing some stranger/separation anxiety right now, so she wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy with our guest, but she did lots of smiling from a distance.



It seems that the weather has finally cooperated with the calendar (though not until yesterday, which was 90 degrees!) and summer has arrived. We spent the morning yesterday at the pool. My husband had to work all weekend, so I took the girls by myself and therefore have no pictures of our first pool outing of the year. I was doing good to keep track of Miss while holding Lass constantly, so photo time wasn’t really going to happen. I tried to set Lass down in a tiny bit of water in the zero entry area of the pool, but she didn’t want anything to do with that. Then I tried to put her in our portable exersaucer thing. I should have known better. She didn’t like it the first time I put her in it at home.
But on that first day she eventually got a bit used to being in the thing, so I thought maybe she would do better at the pool. When I put her in it she immediately started screaming and trying to climb out. So she spent the entire pool time in the Ergo, which was okay too.

During nap time I finally got out our water and sand table, which has been in the box for a few weeks since it has been too cold to play with it. We didn’t have any sand but the girls didn’t know the difference when I filled up both sides with water.

Lass felt like such a big deal being able to stand and play with her sister.




There was tons of splashing.


Miss was just scooping the water onto herself!
And she was very diligent about watering the landscaping.
Including the rocks.
Then she realized how wet she was and begged me to get a towel and dry her off.
I wiped the front of her clothes with the towel and dried her feet. I thought she might be upset about her wet clothes and ask to get dry clothes on. But she just went right back to splashing herself and pouring water everywhere. It’s going to be a fun summer.

A Bath Time Conversation

Posted on by Amy
A bath time conversation:
Miss: “Wook! I make sanwishes!”
Me: “Mmmm! Those sandwiches look delicious!”
Miss nods head, “You eat it Momma?”
Me: “What flavor are they?”
Miss: Blinks…

Me: “What flavor is the blue one?”

Miss: “Hmm, bwuebewy!”
(Naturally.)
Me: “What flavor is the green one?”
Miss: “Maybeee, appasauce, punkin, aaaand kiwi!”
Me: “Ooo, that sounds delicious. What flavor is the orange one?”
Miss: “Hmm, maybeee appasauce, punkin, aaaand banaaana!”
(That morning I had given Lass some babyfood that was a mixture of apples, pumpkin, banana, and sweet potato, or something like that.)
Me: “Wow. What about the yellow one?”
Miss: “Mm, maybeee appasauce, punkin, aaaand… Grandma!!!!”
Me: “Grandma?!”
Miss: Cracks up laughing.

Lass at 9 months

Posted on by Amy
Lass is 9 months old today. Can you believe it? She has recently hit this little spurt where she just seems to be doing so many new things all at once. She is trying so hard to get moving and is getting better and faster at her army crawling.


She now has six teeth and has eaten lots and lots of new foods, including most fruits and vegetables, chicken, and yogurt. Her favorites seem to be fresh mashed bananas and sweet potatoes. She still nurses four times per day.
I think she said her first word last week. What was it? “Da-Da!” Go figure! She has recently learned to wave too.

She loves to be outside and to watch her big sister.
She is pulling up on everything and has started cruising a little bit (like her momma, she sticks her tongue out when she’s working hard on something). She is already working on standing on her own, though hasn’t been too successful with this so far.

She is such a sweet little baby with the most wonderful disposition. I’m cherishing each new phase with her. And by the way, her hair has started to lie flat! So cute.