… Just wanted to make an announcement that much to our surprise and Sophia’s incredible pleasure, she’s mastered to walk backwards. We usually wouldn’t make such a fuss, but you have no idea how much pleasure it has given her. No picture to accompany as no picture can truly describe her careful stride and over the top joy.
Growing Up Savvy Posts
Sleeping in is a thing of the past as are long coffee dates and lounging over a latte. That being said, the present is just as good if not better. This Sunday in particular marks a new, a season of being out and about, meeting people and spending time as a family. My parents aren’t the only ones who work multiple jobs to maintain a household. I am very proud of my husband for taking on three jobs for the past 7-8 months. He has his regular day job, owns his own business and took on a teaching gig at his alma mater. At last … , the teaching gig has come to an end and he’s blissfully basking in the freedom afforded by two jobs :-). This also means more family time. That, and the coming spring enabled us to make an excursion to Meridian Hill Park in D.C. to spend a lovely morning with a former co-worker of his and some friends … just … cavorting oh and slack-lining.
We all have our priorities … and Sophia’s are to pick dandelions!
… I am sure you haven’t heard of the term Nap Date before. Fear not… it is not a new concept. In fact, I now realize that nap dates are the reason parents stay sane … and have more children. Maybe, maybe not. It is the reason hubby and I stay sane. We put Sophia down for a nap and have a date — sometimes. Other times, we catch up on house/yard work. We try to leave the weekend to be as free and relaxing as possible so that we can maximise our time with Sophia and minimize our time out running errands. This weekend, we managed to squeeze a healthy lunch and a less than healthy drink to follow (yin and yang). First up is our kale and other hearty green salad with hothouse cucumber, carrot and red pepper with an avocado dressing.
Then there were the blood orange margaritas.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, made for a lovely Saturday. The weather was great, the food and drink oh so delicious and seeing my husband and child spend quality time together — well, that is just about as good as life gets.
… and equally hard to keep. You know, like that little cafe/restaurant/mom-n-pop place in your neighborhood you would never tell anyone about for the fear of it being spoiled. That is how I feel about my current list of blog reads. That said, some of them are too good to keep to myself and I’ve decided to share.
My mission is of course to raise Sophia such that she knows about travel, food, style, etc., and I figure it would be best if she were surrounded by likeminded people… So… a portion of my short food list is below. It is incomplete and I also have a style list, events, home decoration, remodeling, traveling and parenting lists. I figure I wouldn’t need to overwhelm my readers with everything. Feel free to ask me privately about my short lists on anything and I may just share :-).
Food-related blogs: Living the Sweet Life in Paris and The Kitchn.
You’re welcome 🙂
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Let me guess: you couldn’t even imagine that I could pull out a blog entry about nothing other then ketchup. Oh but I can and I did :-).
Before I delve into the actual blog, I’ll refresh your mind with the fact that ketchup (the likes of Heinz and those other brands) originated in China and was made from pickled fish bones and spices. If you don’t believe me, look here. What did we do before Wikipedia anyway?
I am not ashamed to say that dinner-time has evolved quite a bit in our house and now involves the use of an old iPhone and YouTube. My pediatrician will probably lecture me about how that will lead to adolescent obesity, but as right now we’re hovering on toddler emaciation, I am going to ignore his advice.
Anyway… I offered Sophia ketchup with some grilled chicken kabobs courtesy of the Friday night dinner. To my surprise, I didn’t have to show her how to work her ketchup. She just grabbed her little chicken piece and dipped it. She also had pieces of pear on her plate and decided to try that too. She seemed to like ketchup with pear… I am now going to guess she likes ketchup much like her daddy with anything.
Seeing as how I only tasted ketchup at around 11, I never acquired an irrational love for said condiment much like my dear husband. As such, I almost never use it unless dipping french fries or roasted potatoes in it. Even then… I don’t neeeed it. Hubby eats eggs with ketchup and so I shouldn’t have been too surprised when she dipped her little pear chunks. Oh well… she also eats salmon roe so HA!
Me: Sophia, what’s your name?
Sophia: Dzudi (Judi — the name of her grammie)
Me: Sophia, what’s this?
Sophia: Aegggg (egg)
Me: Sophia, do you want to watch Elmo?
Sophia: Elmo time!!!
Sophia to Hubby: Piggy [extending her hand]
Hubby: [grabs her hand and starts] this little piggy went to the market, this little piggy …
As you have read my history, here are some core values and beliefs that have defined me as a result of living my life. And of these, I have many. I’ll trickle them out to you share them — slowly — one at a time.
I believe in mermaids. And that magic takes place in the most unlikely circumstances like across the dining table, with family and good friends sharing uncomplicated food and great wine. I believe that these kinds of treasures will stand the test of time, always dazzling.
June 1st is coming up … that would be hubby’s and mine fifth wedding anniversary. Seems just like yesterday and also so long ago. Just like yesterday because I remember the day quite well and so long ago because I can see quite a few more wrinkles on my face now. We are likely going to make it a low-key celebration again given that we aren’t planning to leave Sophia and have had bigger celebrations in the past.
For our first anniversary, we went to Rome, the Positano Coast and Sicily. For our second, we went to Japan. Charleston and its glory welcomed the pregnant us for our third anniversary and I am pretty sure our fourth was spent at home trying to get sleep since we never do anymore.
But this post is really about what led to all these anniversaries. This post is about how we met in the summer of 2001 (12 years ago… wowza). Hubby was about to enter Drexel University as a Freshman. He had secured a research position in the same lab I had been working in. I had already been at Drexel a year at that point. Anyway… it just so happened that our research advisor at the time decided to send us and a few other students to a conference in Bologna, Italy for a week. Now, I ask you, who wouldn’t jump at that opportunity and take another week or two to sightsee? I know I did.
I remember arriving at the Philadelphia International Airport with my parents in tow. They insisted on dropping me off AND taking a look at these other students that were going. My parents are fairly protective and I like that. My mom takes a look at hubby, walks over to me and asks me who he is. I admit that its just another student and I don’t know much about him. She declares that he seems like a nice guy and that I should go out with him. Jewish mothers have some sort of a jew-[ra]dar — especially when their daughters are unmarried. Keep in mind now, that I was at that time seeing someone else. Thanks, MOM! That suggestion sped into my one ear and was kicked out instantaneously. Dating one person is hard enough… I never aspired to multitask in that department.
We ended up traveling to Florence and Venice and riding around in the hills of Tuscany together. Our trip was plutonic (hubby was seeing someone, too) but plenty of fun. I learned a lot about him and then our trip came to an end. That was that… until a few months later when he asked me out when neither of us were seeing anyone. The rest is … well as they say, History.
I’ll always have a warm place for Bologna not just because it shows old Westerns on an enormous screen in the evenings at the main plaza, but because it was a place where I found a new friend who eventually became my partner for life.
Who doesn’t have them? I have little regrets all the time… “I shouldn’t have eaten that piece of chocolate yesterday” or “I should have purchased that top, but I still think it was too busy…”. These are the every day, matter of fact regrets. Then there are the big regrets and of that type, I only have one. I decided to share it now because being 30 and all, I woke up and realized that I have hindsight :-). My sole regret is that I spend too much time trying my best to please even if it isn’t convenient for me. My new outlook on life is that within reason I will always place my family first. When I say within reason, I mean that I will absolutely observe proper etiquette and social conventions.
In all honesty, it probably wasn’t my new old age that gave me hindsight but rather that I’m a mom and it just so happens that wisdom rains pours on moms (and dads) all day and every day. As they say “Live and learn”.