big boy bed

since oscar's previous bed was a crib that was declared a death trap (in TWO recalls), we thought it was time to upgrade. since we've already got another kiddo on the way, we decided to go with bunk beds that can be taken apart into two beds. by the time the next baby is out of our bed, oscar should be old enough to sleep on the top bunk. oscar was very excited about his new bed, even though he's not old enough to sleep on top. he asked me every day for about a week if he was old enough yet. i'm doing a bit more sprucing up of his bedroom and perhaps i'll show pictures sometime when it feels finished (which probably means never).

also, the other day when oscar was off adventuring with his nana i did some major rearranging of our bedroom to make room for the changing table and a co-sleeper. when jeremy got home he scolded me for moving furniture and then said he wasn't leaving me home without kids anymore because who knows what kind of trouble i'll get into next.

guac please!

so saturday jeremy canned some yummy yummy salsa because we were being overrun with tomatoes and we thought maybe some guacamole and tacos would be good to have as well. i was so bummed when i got to the store and there were only very green avocados.. but then i found some of this. which looked scary, but would still let us have some guac while our avocados got ripe. so i bought it. when i got it home i realized it was supposed to be refrigerated (it wasnt at the store) and it had expired at the beginning of the month. i was crushed! no guacamole! what a catastrophe! but anyway.. the tacos and salsa were fabulous.

when our avocados finally got ready i mashed them up in this recipe and it was heavenly! since we'd already eaten our tacos, i changed our beef and broccoli dinner into a steak fajita dinner and we gladly glopped some guac on our fajitas! (isn't my paper towel backdrop in that photo classy?)

mei tai carriers

well, our walmart has decided it hates me. which means they have gotten rid of the fabric department. i'm positive that i was not the only one upset by this, since it'll now be quite a drive for anyone in the area to buy fabric. but anyway- they had fabric on sale - so i bought lots.

i figured it was the perfect time to stock up on fleece for a few no-sew mei tai carriers. now i'm really not a huge fan of fleece, and i'm usually amazed at the amount of ugly fleece patterns that are available, but these carriers are too easy and awesome to resist. plus, some of the solid colors really aren't so bad. i also got some auburn fleece to make a special carrier for jeremy.



and here he is being a lovely model! the first picture is with aiden, the breastfeeding babydoll. and the second one is with oscar - who is now a tiny bit too heavy for the carrier. (actually, i wore him sort of to the side the whole time i cooked pancakes because he wanted to see what was going on in the pan and it wasn't so bad).


here jeremy's running around like a horsey for oscar. i used the pattern and directions from the fabulous hobo mama. she's completely amazing and always has great, honest, well written blog posts.

since the pattern leaves a LOT of extra fabric, she also did a tutorial (which is hilarious) for a doll carrier mei tai. so i went ahead and made one for oscar to try out. he was upset that i hurt the baby's eyes with my flash when i took the pictures. and now he just saw the pictures and i had to go help him put the carrier on - so cute!

i probably dont need 5 though....

13 weeks

i didn't think i'd be posting a belly shot this soon, but i guess it's true that they start showing up earlier the second time around. i'm sure this is just part baby and part pancakes, but figured i'd share anyway. am already enjoying my maternity pants. my skinny pants got too tight and my fat pants are still too big, but the maternity pants are working.

best ever.

so.. i think tonight i made the best pancakes EVER. ok, well, maybe not EVER, but they're the best pancakes i've ever made. it probably didn't hurt that i'd splurged and spent $6+ on pure maple syrup. i dont know that i've ever actually had real maple syrup before, but it tastes just like maple sugar candy - yum.

whole grain banana walnut pancakes

• 2 cups flour (i use mostly whole wheat with some wheat germ and some milled flax seed)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar (i'll be leaving this out next time)
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 3 bananas
• 1/2 cup walnuts

in your batter bowl, measure 1 cup whole wheat flour. then pour a bit of ground flax seed and some wheat germ in the 1 cup measure (maybe a heaping 1/8c of each - i really have no idea) and fill the rest of the way with whole wheat flour. you could leave those out and do 2 cups whole wheat, but then you have to change the name of the pancake - and that complicates matters.

next add 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tablespoon sugar (this is probably completely unnecessary) and stir until combined. at this point your dry stuffs are set to go - unless you're using powdered buttermilk stuffs. if you're using powdered buttermilk stuffs add 4 tablespoons - which will be a cup of buttermilk after adding the water.

next combine 1 cup skim milk, 1 cup water (or buttermilk), 2 eggs and an overflowing tablespoon of olive oil and stir that up in a bowl.

next get your bananas ready. i used 3 bananas and cut them up into itty bitty pieces and then did a bit of smashing into a very very heaping one cup measure (it was probably a cup and a half or so). i also smashed up about a 1/2 cup walnuts - maybe a bit less, i didn't measure.

then dump the wet into the dry and stir and then fold in the bananas and walnuts. cook in a skillet on medium sprayed with olive oil. serve hot with bananas and walnuts and maple syrup.

oscar's pancake

goodbye pancake

some of oscar's mmming. i missed some of the best ones, but it went on the whole time he was eating. he also told me i'm a good cook, but he usually tells me that every day (have i mentioned how lucky i am?) i hope you can hear this.. we barely can on this computer..

for sammy

since sammy is oscar's #1 fan, we thought oscar could teach him how to make a s'more. (or a snore as he seems to call it half the time)

and he just bought more jars.....

so the garden has been very very busy making cucumbers.... and jeremy has been busy turning them into pickles. he brought home another pack of quart jars today, so i think he'll be making more tonight. actually, a few of these are pickled peppers.. but that's a lot of pickles!

we've also had plenty of squash. lots of yellow and zucchini squash as well. a few of these got turned into butternut squash and spicy sausage soup last night.