chocolate chip cookies and 5:03 am

Tags

baby, chocolate chip cookies, family, kitchen

When wakeup calls are at 5:03 am,

and someone small doesn’t understand that 5:03 am wakeups mean a SEVEN-HOUR stretch until afternoon naptime,

sometimes, all you can do, short of grumbling back at the toddler (though, trust me, that doesn’t work, and never will), is bake and eat chocolate chip cookies.

I use America’s Test Kitchen’s Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. I’ll NEVER need another one, never not ever. (It alone is probably worth subscribing to their site, or buying the America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking book.) I eat one, freeze the rest, and then eat the rest of them all straight out of the freezer. The only acceptable chip is Ghirardelli 60%. Please, do yourself, your spouse, and your toddler a big favor and eat yourself a batch today.

father’s day

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baby, father's day, hiking, old town hill, photos

Nate isn’t much for making a big deal out of…ANYTHING. Father’s Day is pretty much a bother for him. I could make a big deal out of any made-up ridiculous holiday, i.e., “the sixth anniversary of the night you came to my dorm room because you forgot your mug and I had it in my purse and I thought OMG you  might like me.” Not Nate. Nope. So, I’ve learned to ask him what he’d like to do to celebrate his occasions. Often the answer is, “Pie.” More often, the answer is “Nothing.”

For Father’s Day 2012, the answer was, “Hiking.” We bought a Trustees of the Reservations sticker this year, and have been exploring the reservations near us. Today we checked out Old Town Hill in Newbury, and it was amazing. Didn’t hurt that the temperature was about 60 degrees while we hiked. Plenty of woods, plenty of low land marshy flats, and a view of the ocean, too. Happy Father’s Day to my wonderful husband who always carries the baby backpack. (And who doesn’t mind when the baby pokes at the back of his head during the hike.)

the best thing about having a toddler

Tags

baby, family, photos, toddler

is that now she can wear dresses gracefully. No more looking ridiculous. No more anger or crab-crawling when she can’t get around because of her cursed skirt.

Or is it that she’s finally developing a sense of humor? You’ve never seen a kid who loves Chicken Butt like she loves Chicken Butt. Dogs? Swings? HILARIOUS. And the facial expressions that are coming with her budding personality crack me up. 

In all seriousness, my number one favorite thing about my new toddler is that she is so independent, all day long, but when she feels like she needs some love, or has some to give, she simply swings by me on her path through the apartment (gotta do those laps), wraps her little skinny arms around my legs, and buries her face in my knees. Baby hugs! The best. Of course, I swoop down and grab her and probably hug her too hard, and kiss and smell that little place on the back of her neck that smells like soap and, because it’s summer, sunscreen, and spicy-warm baby smell.

Says Nate, “Well, you CAN’T eat her.” Oh, yeah? 🙂

scenes from a friday

Tags

baby, pizza dough, she only smiles quilt

After running all over town all week long, Lucy and I (well, especially I) are glad to spend a Friday at home.

There are crappy flash-auto indoor shots in our apartment’s low morning light. OR, *ahem*, toddling around with blocks making weird eyebrow-raising faces? This eyebrow thing is Lucy’s new aren’t-I-just-ridiculous-with-cuteness look. She loves to stand in front of the mirror and do it. Funny because she doesn’t really have eyebrows, amirite?

There are bowls of yeasty bubbly pizza dough wonderfulness. You don’t think that photo is appetizing? No? I think to love this stuff you gotta smell it all in its warm boozy glory. It’s Jim Lahey’s no-knead pizza dough, and it is for serious pizza lovers, and for winners. We don’t have many family traditions but Pizza Friday is serious and sacred, and it is brought to you by Jim Lahey and his miraculous pizza dough. Thank you.

And dining room tables COVERED in quilt mess. I’m making slow progress on the She Only Smiles quilt. It’ll be a signature quilt, and I whipped out the name blocks in about 30 minutes while Lucy slept too long the other afternoon. I really need this thing to turn out nice, and I’m having minor-to-moderate doubts. We’ll see. Back to my quilt pile before Lucy gets up for her second outdoor jaunt of our lazy Friday!

 

beach tuesday

Tags

baby, beach, family, photos

Girl, you better work.

Because it’s Tuesday-impromptu-beach-day. Where else can you live that you can do the park in the morning, the beach in the afternoon, and it’s not 107 degrees and a million bazillion people? Lucy loves the beach. She loves the (frigid, oh my gosh) water, she loves the waves, she loves the sand. She also loves to people-watch and seagull-chase. She’d stay all day. Or, until she gets so tired and hungry that she ends up face-down on the beach blanket tantruming, NOT that we know anything about tantrums.

When he looked at the pictures, Nate said, “Were you the only people there?” Pretty much, yes. There were enough people that we didn’t feel weird. But we had a plenty big patch of sand and shore all to ourselves. This beach sticker is going to be the best $60 we ever. spent. No lie.