snow day!

Every year I hope that we get at least one good snowfall here in North Carolina, and I am happy to report that last weekend I got my wish.  The storm that slammed the east coast with record snowfall of over 30" in some places, started out here as a pretty nasty ice storm.  We knew it was coming and were prepared to stay home for a few days if needed.  Friday was the day of the ice, and Erik had to do a little work from home.  He set up a makeshift office in the bonus room upstairs, and periodically Arlo and I would pop in for a visit.  Here he is listening to some Grateful Dead through dad's giant headphones.  Erik asked him afterwards if he enjoyed the music and Arlo said "yes!"  Another deadhead in the making...

The day after all the ice, we woke up to a fresh blanket of snow, and couldn't wait to get out and play in it.  We bundled up, walked up to the nature park that backs up to our neighborhood, and let Lucy and Arlo run around and burn off all the energy they had saved up sitting around the house for the past day and a half.  Here are a few of my favorite pics:

Arlo had such a blast and got pretty sad when we told him it was time to head home.  I think he would have stayed out for the entire day if we had let him!  To get to and from the park, Erik thought it best to pull Arlo in a spare bike trailer we have, instead of trying to push our jogging stroller through the snow.  Arlo loved it and happily rode in the little cart, which turned out to be a great little snow wagon.

Later in the day we had some indoor fun and made a caterpillar out of empty TP tubes.  Arlo painted the sections with watercolor paints and I attached the body segments with yarn.

The next day the snow started to melt and Erik and Arlo braved the weather to took their weekly trip to Starbucks - via the bike & bike trailer!  Erik had no problem navigating the roads that were still pretty snowy, and Arlo was just happy to get out of the house and ride in his little trailer.  Here he is before they left looking all grown up.  He was putting a sticker in his shirt pocket and somehow I think that contributes to the grown-up factor of this photo!

The snow is now all melted and the temps the next three days are back to the high 60's!  But part of me still hopes for one or two more snowfalls this year.  They are just so pretty and such a good excuse to stay in and be super lazy, which is my most favorite part of winter...

to the mountains and other ramblings.

A few weeks ago I published a whole bunch of posts all at once.  Several had been written for a long while, and the others at the time that I posted them.  It helped me cross something off my mental "to-do" list - finish all those posts in my draft folder, and it felt good to accomplish it.  Then, I started a "currently" post a week later, and never finished it.  It felt forced, and kind of boring even to me.  At the same time, I started going through something of an existentialist crisis (ok maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration) and got all anti-screen time for a couple of weeks, not turning on my laptop once.  I have come around to finding more of a balance with my electronic devices, and while I still plan to keep the blog going, I am trying to figure out which direction to take it.  For a while, I was hoping it would be like the popular blogs that I read regularly, with hundreds (thousands?) of followers.  But then I got all nervous about trying to "promote" it.  Who are these people reading about my private life and seeing all my pictures of Arlo?  Likely harmless moms like me who just enjoy reading about other parents day to day adventures, with an occasional recipe or craft idea mixed in.  But there will always be the worry that it might not be a harmless person, as well as the nagging feeling that maybe when he is old enough, Arlo won't want his photos and such shared with so many people.  Case in point - I have this pin I put up a while back on Pinterest.  It's a picture I took of leggings that I crocheted, and I just happen to be modeling them.  The picture only shows me from my knees down, and my feet are bare.  It has been pinned something like 1,300 times.  This means that thousands of people have seen this pin of my feet, and it kind of weirds me out.  And these are just my feet. 

I am not planning to change the settings of the blog to private, as I think anyone reading this found their way here through me or someone who directly knows me.  And luckily I have never received any negative comments on my posts, something else that I fear would change my relationship with this space.  When I started this blog it was strictly for me.  I wanted to document our first pregnancy so I could always look back and read about the little details.  Then, it kind of grew into what it is today.  I expect that this blog will continue on something of the same path it has been on, perhaps with fewer posts but more meaningful content.  If there is a recipe I want to document, I will post about it.  Arlo's growth and development updates will continue.  There will also probably be random life updates here and there as well.  But as for the posts that were more geared towards capturing more followers, those are probably done.  If you are here reading this, I am so glad you are.  And I don't mind if you share the blog with people you know personally if you think it's something they might enjoy reading.  My posts going forward will be things that I want to remember and read again.  Which brings me to why I sat down to write this today.  We took a little family trip to the mountains this past weekend, and it's definitely worth remembering...


The mountains are my happy place, and one of the main reasons that I fell in love with North Carolina and decided to move here.  Every fall since we moved down south, Erik and I have taken a trip to Asheville or a nearby city.  In light of the fact that this year has been an extremely expensive one for us, and our previous house still hasn't sold or rented, we almost scrapped our mountain trip this year.  I am so glad we decided not to.  I look forward to this trip so much, and always come home feeling happy and recharged.  This year was no exception, we all had a wonderful time.  This was Arlo's third trip to the mountains - last year he was not even walking yet and the year before he was still in my belly!  We always stay in a place that is dog friendly so Lucy can come along.  I like to think she enjoys the mountains as much as I do, but I think she is just happy to be going anywhere with "her people."

yay family wagon!

Photo above taken on the drive out.  If you look closely, you can actually see all of us (Erik is in the reflection of my sunglasses!)

We stayed in a little cottage up in Mars Hill, about 25 minutes north of downtown Asheville.  It was somewhat slim pickins for lodging because we waited so long to book the trip, needed something in our limited budget and wanted a house that would allow dogs.  So it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, and the pictures online made it look a bit run down.  So, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did.  There were two bedrooms, so Arlo had his own room.  The living room windows offered the most beautiful mountain view.  There was a full kitchen, bathroom, sunroom, and laundry.  So maybe the floors were a little slanted and the heat was this weird underground propane blower that came up through a big grate in the floor.  I think it just added to the character, and was just right for a weekend away. 

We headed west on Friday morning, I would say early but that is only ever a pipedream when it comes to getting out of the house with a dog and a toddler.  So we didn't actually arrive to the mountains until mid-afternoon, and we were starving when we finally got there.  We had lunch at this adorable little restaurant in Boone called the Hob Knob Farm Cafe.  Afterwards we found a neaby park where Arlo could run and stretch his legs after the drive.  After picking up some groceries for the weekend at the local natural grocery store, we finished our drive to Mars Hill, and it was already getting dark by the time we arrived.  Arlo of course was wired after sitting in the car for so long, but we managed to get him to sleep quite easily at a reasonable time.

The next morning we headed into Asheville for the day.  We started in the west side of town, which is a destination itself.  We did some shopping at the cutest kids consignment store, where we totally scored on winter clothes, boots, and a Halloween costume for Arlo.  We had lunch and then headed over to a hard cider brewery that a friend had recommended to me.  I felt a little weird drinking while having Arlo with us, but we ordered a flight (tray of small cider samples) and Erik and I split it.  So we basically just tasted some different ciders, not really drinking enough to feel the effects.  And Arlo didn't care, we were sitting outside where he could run around in their greenspace and use their corn hole game as a ramp for his trucks  :)

After the cider we headed towards downtown Asheville, and stopped at Votex Doughnuts on the way.  It has been something like eight years since I had eaten a doughnut, so I was well overdue.  And oh man, was it worth it.  We split two doughnuts, taking one for later, and I could have easily eaten all three myself.  So. freaking. good.

We burned off the doughnuts by walking around downtown, doing a little shopping and enjoying all the things that makes Asheville what it is.  For example, live music playing in front of the giant yarn-bombed iron. 

It was late in the day by the time we left downtown, so we made our way back to the house, picking up stuff for dinner on the way.  We might have also bought potato chips and ice cream that we later enjoyed with a side of doughnuts.  Hey, it's called vacation for a reason!

On our way home the next day, we stopped at a pumpkin patch a bit south of Asheville.  They had a corn maze and hayrides but we opted to keep it simple and just pick up some apples and cider, and take some photos in the pumpkin patch.  Here are a few of my favorites:

 See you next fall, Asheville.

snow day

Two nights ago we had a snowstorm here in NC which brought nearly six inches of fluffy, white precipitation.  If you live anywhere in the south, you know that anything over an inch (and sometimes less in some cases) is enough to cause mass chaos and shut down schools, government buildings, and cancel any plans you thought you had.  Luckily, Erik's work closed down for the day, and I called in not wanting to risk driving in the crazy weather.  So we found ourselves with a nice relaxing day to do whatever the heck we wanted.  Wait, did I say that?!  I forgot that we have an energetic toddler on our hands.  Let me rephrase - we had the whole day off to try and keep a very wild, just-getting-over-a-cold-and-we-already-have-cabin-fever, nearly 14 month old boy entertained and happy.  Yea, that sounds about right.

We woke up early and had breakfast together, and then Erik took Lucy for a walk in the woods.  By the time they returned home, Arlo and I were bundled up and ready to head out to check out the snow.  It snowed a few inches here last week while my parents were watching Arlo during our Jamaica trip, but they didn't take him out in the snow as he was starting to come down with a pretty nasty cold.  So we were pretty excited to see what he would think of the snow!

At first, he seemed to like it...

and then when he realized he couldn't walk around because of the deep snow, he grew frustrated...

obviously Lucy hated it...

we measured around 5 1/4" of snow in the front yard.

and then Arlo face-planted.  I had to quickly snap this shot before helping him back up.  Mom of the year, I know.

but then I gave him lots of snuggles and he forgave me.

After our fun in the snow we headed back in and Arlo watched Erik shovel the sidewalk.

how cute is this little baby booty?!  I know I won't be able to get away with baby-ish pants like this for much longer, so when I saw these last week in his size I just couldn't resist...

Wearing his crazy zebra hat from Grandma and Grandpa:

Earlier this week, in anticipation of the impending storm, I stopped by the store to pick up a few essentials and other items to entertain Arlo for the day.  There is a toddler activity idea floating around on pinterest where you take pipe cleaners and a colander and teach your child to stick the pipe cleaners in the holes of the colander.  It is good for building fine motor skills, and teaching them their colors as they get a little older.  I thought Arlo would really like it, as he is really involved in putting things "in their places" these days (to him everything belongs in the diaper pail) but he didn't quite figure out what I wanted him to do.  He did however, love playing with the pipe cleaners and waving them around like magic wands.  He also liked taking apart my pipe cleaner creation after I tried to show him what to do!

Later in the day I attempted our first arts & crafts project.  Perhaps he isn't quite ready for the crayons yet, but we had fun trying.  Don't let his smiling face fool you, the whole activity lasted about five minutes before he ripped up his coloring page and started launching crayons onto the floor. 

Although we moved to NC to get away from the brutal winters of the Midwest, every year I still wish for one good snowfall.  Just a day or two where everything shuts down, work is cancelled, and we get to stay home and lounge in our PJ's all day.  Now that I got it out of my system, I am looking forward to warm spring days where we can go outside and play.  I may get that wish soon too, they are predicting a big warm up next week, and we may even get back into the 70's, hot diggity dog!

meeting Santa

Arlo and Lyra got to meet Santa for the first time today.  I predicted there would be some tears, as not very many (nearly) one year olds will happily sit on a strange man's lap, especially one who is wearing a big red suit and has a face covered in puffy, white hair!  Overall I think they did pretty well for their first visit.  I know that Arlo asked Santa for his own car and I am pretty sure I heard Lyra whisper to him that she wants 17 more dogs.  Here are a few pictures of the kiddos meeting Santa:

And Lucy even got to meet Santa too!  She asked for a big rawhide.  And for the cats to go away.  But you didn't hear that from me  ;)

A day in the life with a nine month old

I had planned on writing a "day in the life" post every three months or so, but somehow I skipped the six month mark. So, here is a typical day with Arlo at nine months old. I am working two days a week right now, so this is a day that I would spend at home with Arlo.

Monday, October 13, 2014 

6:00 AM: most days you could almost set an alarm clock to this kid, and today was no exception. He literally started calling for us from his room at 6 o'clock on the dot. Erik gets up with Arlo, changes him, and gives him the first bottle of the day. This is our little agreement, Erik takes the early morning routine, but if Arlo wakes up in the middle of the night, then I am the one to get up with him. I think I have the sweet end of the deal on this one, as it's pretty rare for Arlo to not sleep through the night.  On the weekends, I get up early with Arlo and let Erik sleep in. Periodically, we both get up together, but our system of taking turns allows us to both feel well rested most days of the week.

6:45 AM: Erik brings Arlo upstairs and puts him in bed with me to wake me up. Half-asleep, I find myself suddenly covered in baby drool, and being whacked in the face with tiny hands. There is no going back to sleep after this!

7:00 AM: I take Lucy for a 30 minute walk while Erik has his breakfast and gets ready for work.  Arlo will usually play in his playroom during this time, or cruise around in his walker or doorway jumper.

7:30 AM: I am home and take over baby duty so Erik can finish getting ready for work. Arlo and I will hang out upstairs, and I start a load of his laundry at this time. As I am tidying upstairs and getting the laundry going, I am simultaneously chasing after Arlo, and keeping him from climbing on the bathtub, the washing machine, furniture in his room, and anything else he is trying to get into.

8:00 AM: Back downstairs now, I put Arlo in his highchair and either let him play with the bead maze I have suction cupped to his tray or give him a handful of puffs to occupy him while I make his breakfast, and a cup of decaf coffee for myself. I then feed him breakfast while I enjoy my coffee. Today his breakfast is blueberries, bananas, kale, and oatmeal cereal, as well as some leftover banana pieces that he will feed to himself.

8:30 AM: back upstairs to change Arlo, and clean him up after his messy breakfast. He crawls around a little bit while I do some more chores upstairs and chase after him at the same time.

9:00 AM: Time for his morning nap, so I put him in the ergo and he falls asleep within five minutes. After he has been asleep for a few, I put him in his crib and head downstairs.

9:15 AM: Time for me to have breakfast, today is simply toast with peanut butter and a glass of soymilk. After breakfast, I clean up the kitchen, make bottles for the day, and tidy up the downstairs. If there is time, I will also check email, and see what is happening in the world of social media.

10:10 AM: I hear the first noises coming through the baby monitor. I am still cleaning up the kitchen, and Arlo sounds happy, so I will let him play in his crib until I am done or he starts to sound upset, which ever comes first. Now that he can pull himself up in his crib, he is pretty content to hang out in there for a good 15 to 20 minutes after his nap, and play with his toys. He has also recently started to reach through the bars at the end of the crib, into the baskets which contain his cloth diapers.  One by one he picks them up and throws them on the floor.

10:25 AM: I am done in the kitchen so I had upstairs to get Arlo. He is starting to sound a little fussy at this time so I assume he has run out of diapers to throw (note to self: find new storage place for cloth diapers.)  I change him and get him dressed for the day. After his morning nap is usually the best time of the day to go out and run errands, and we try to be home in time for his second nap which occurs mid afternoon. (We try and get out nearly everyday, either to run errands, meet up with friends for lunch or a walk, or go to the library for story time.)  I let Arlo play with his toys we have in our bedroom while I get dressed and ready for the day. I throw the laundry in the dryer before we go downstairs.

10:50 AM: Arlo gets another bottle before we head out the door. Today is Monday, and the day that I do our weekly grocery shopping, so we are headed off to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods to buy food for the week.

11:00 AM: I wear Arlo in the ergo while I do the grocery shopping. I also make a quick stop at the thrift store since it is right next to Whole Foods.  I often walk away empty handed but today I find a cute blue and grey striped fleece that will fit Arlo this winter.  It costs just $1!

1:15 PM: I arrived home to a very excited dog, a dryer that has been beeping for at least an hour, and a baby who has decided he is done with his car seat. I let out Lucy and stick Arlo in the highchair with a teething biscuit and his sippy cup, which buys me about 15 minutes to finish unloading the car and putting away the groceries.

1:30 PM: I feed Arlo his lunch, which today is broccoli, tricolored lentils, and sweet potato. I premade this food yesterday, froze around 12 meals, and saved a few jars worth in the fridge that he could eat fresh. He also eats half of a kiwi for dessert. Normally I would sit and eat lunch at the table while I fed Arlo, but today I unintentionally snacked my way through lunch at whole foods. It wasn't my fault that they put out vegan sushi, garlic bread, and delicious tortilla chips as samples. I might have made two trips around the sample area. And then requested to sample the vegan gelato for dessert. Twice.  #noshame. Hey, we spend enough at whole foods each week that I think I can sneak in a free lunch once in a while ;)

2:00 PM: I clean up the lunch mess and then take Arlo upstairs to change his diaper and get him ready for his nap.

2:15 PM: I wear Arlo to sleep in the ergo, and then put him down in his crib. Now I can finally give attention to the still beeping dryer and fold the load of clothes that has been waiting for me.

This much laundry.  Three times a week.  And this is all for Arlo!

3:00 PM: As soon as I get downstairs and realize that I have a few minutes to sit down and take a little break, I hear Arlo waking up on the baby monitor. The last few days his afternoon nap has been less than an hour long, and I am wondering if this is our new normal. His naps used to be closer to 90 minutes, and I would use this afternoon break to have a little "me time" but with the shortened nap I find myself without much of that these days.

3:10 PM: Arlo crawls around upstairs while I stuff diapers and put away the clothes that I just folded.

3:40 PM: head downstairs to get Arlo a bottle, and then let him play on the floor while I lay next to him and relax for a little while.

4:30 PM: I text Erik to find out when he is going to be home for dinner. I hear Arlo crawl towards the front door so I walk over to see what he is getting into. I am shocked to see him climbing the stairs and already climbing onto the third stair. We recently installed a gate at the top of the stairs, but it looks like we are going to need one at the bottom as well!

4:45 PM: upstairs for a diaper change, and then I stick Arlo in the doorway jumper in the kitchen so I can cook dinner and not have to chase him around the house at the same time.  Tonight we are having vegetable curry over white jasmine rice. Yum!

5:45 PM: Erik arrives home from work just as I am finishing up dinner. Since our meal is spicy, we wont be able to share any with Arlo, but if we were having something plain he would eat some of what were eating. I defrosted some premade sweet potato last night and heat that up while I plate up dinner for Erik and I. I also mix in some rice cereal with Arlo's sweet potato to thicken it up a bit.

6:00  PM: We all sit together in the dining room and eat. I give Arlo a teething biscuit while I eat and then feed him his dinner when he is done with the biscuit. Arlo also taught himself to stand up in his highchair today so he attempts to do that several times as we are finishing dinner. Looks like I need to get a new high chair pad/safety strap in addition to the stair gate...

6:30 PM:  Erik and I clean up the kitchen together while Arlo sits in his high chair and bangs his sippy cup on the tray, finishes his teething biscuit, and babbles to Lucy who is laying close by, hoping he will drop something on the floor for her.

7:00 PM:  Before it started getting dark out so early, we would often take a family walk after we finished dinner and the kitchen got cleaned up.  It is already getting dark at this time though, and Erik and I are both feeling tired so we decide to make it a lazy evening and all lay together on the living room floor, classical music playing on Pandora.  Arlo, of course, seems to have acquired more energy as the day progressed (I think they should rename teething biscuits to "energy cakes") so we take turns chasing after the little man and returning him to the safety of the living room rug.  Tonight we make up a new game of playing catch with one of Arlo's toy balls while laying on our backs on the floor.  Mindless entertainment that we get more enjoyment out of than Arlo does watching our whole silly game!

7:45 PM:  This is usually the time where we start getting Arlo ready for bed.  Arlo typically gets a bath every other night, sometimes more often depending on how messy of an eater he decides to be that day, and tonight happens to be a bath night.  We have a loose schedule of taking turns giving Arlo his bath, and tonight Erik says he would like to take on the task.  I heat up the last bottle of the day (he gets a large one at bedtime - nearly 7 oz) and when I hear bath time coming to an end I head upstairs with the bottle. 

8:00 PM:  Since Erik gave Arlo his bath I will be the one to feed him, we usually switch off so we both get to spend time with him before bed and Arlo doesn't get used to one parent always doing the same routine.  This is unless it happens to be a working day for me - then I always want to be the one to feed him and put him to bed since I have been away most of the day and miss him so much when I get home.  While I feed Arlo his bottle in the nursery rocker, Erik reads us a bedtime story - tonight we learn about "Lindy the Lobster," one of the many educational kids books that Papa bought for Arlo on our recent trip to the OBX.

8:20 PM:  Arlo falls asleep taking his bottle, and I let him sleep on my chest for 5-10 minutes, both to enjoy the peaceful baby cuddles and to make sure he is in a deep sleep before laying him down in his crib.

8:30 PM:  Now it's time for Erik and I to take our showers, finish laundry, tidy the living room, and any other chores we couldn't get done while Arlo was still up.

9:15 PM:  With the baby monitor nearby so we can hear Arlo if he wakes up, we finally are able to settle onto the couch together and watch a bit of TV before bed.  Sometimes we lay in bed and watch a TV show on DVD but tonight we find that Shark Tank is on and we decide to watch that.

10:00 PM: Time for bed, as our little six o'clock alarm is going to go off before we know it and it will be time to repeat the whole process one more time...

* please excuse typos, I dictated these events on my iPod so I could quickly document our day as it happened. I do my best to proofread, but I am sure a few mistakes will slip by!