Daily outings

We've tried to leave the house at least once daily. It's been a little hard with scheduling around Kendrick's sleeping and feeding schedule, but we've been otherwise pretty successful. Most of our outings involve food (of course) and other times they involve household chores (like getting our snow tires changed out-  finally!).

Today, we didn't fully get up and out of bed until noon- yikes. K can really mess with our mornings. Well, and nights too for that matter (someone became fussy for a whole hour between 6 and 7 a.m. this morning). 

Our outing today was centered around finding a good bakery that we have never been to before. We found Bread and Chocolate Bakery in Newton and I'm glad we did! K slept through the entire lunch, in his baby carrier. 

After lunch, we walked around the little stretch of shops in Newton Highlands. Apparently it was Newton-Taiwan day (though we're not entirely sure what this meant). We also found the smallest farmer's market inside a gym. It was cute, but we were so stuffed from lunch that we didn't get a thing. The farm fresh eggs seemed very appealing, though.

Here are some snaps from other outings we've been on this past week:

A very chilly day at Volante Farms for baked goods and vegetable seeds for the garden

A baby in the flower nursery at Volante Farms

Selfie with baby (though you can't see him) on our walk to the local bakery, Quebrada. 

Welcome, baby!

Our baby, Kendrick, was born on April 12, 2015. One day, I'd like to write down his birth story because I don't want to forget all the details of the day before and the day that he actually arrived. Today is exactly his two week birthday and I just happened to look up at the clock and saw that it was exactly, to the minute, 2 weeks after his birth. He is a very sweet baby and we loved him immensely from the first moment.  It makes me a little wistful/sad to think that two whole weeks have past. They really do grow up so fast!

First selfie as a family of three

Here are some things we noticed about him really love about him:

• From birth, he will occasionally look at us with only one eye open- typically his left eye. Not sure where he gets this from, but it's darn cute. 
• Loves to stretch. He makes huge yawns and stretches his arms out wide. Definitely gets this from C.
• Mighty baby. From birth, this guy loves to flex his muscles. He can hold his head up for a surprisingly long time for being so young and C even had troubles cutting the umbilical cord because he was kicking so much!
• Baby acne. I don't think acne could be any cuter on anyone else
• "Eh? Eh, eh, eh?" This is how K communicates when he's awake and in a good mood. The sweetest baby noises

Of course there are so many other things and I'm sure I will document them from time to time. 

We've tried to take him on an outing every day since we've been home. However, this has proved difficult on certain days where we just get started late in the day, or if the weather is just not as cooperative. During the nine months of pregnancy, I dreamed about taking him out on Marathon Monday to watch the marathon around the corner. There's something about Marathon Monday where typically, you feel that spring is really in the air and the sun is shining and people are excited and happy. This year was the complete opposite. It was cold, rainy, and windy. We did attempt to go out, but it started drizzling as soon as we stepped outside and despite our efforts, we had to duck back inside before even leaving our driveway, to avoid getting too cold. It was a a major bummer.  

However, we did successfully take K to a restaurant that evening and he slept through the entire dinner. What a good boy!

First dinner out on Marathon Monday. He did great!

Running bucket list for Spring and Summer 2015

Once the weather finally warms up, we'll have to make the most of our time together with baby. I came across someone's summer bucket list today while blog-surfing and thought that this was a wonderful idea. Here is mine for these upcoming months! And several photos from last spring/summer to get us revved up for the upcoming season!

• Starting up the vegetable garden
• Make homemade popsicles (I'm thinking we need one of these)
• Stroll to the local farmer's market on Saturdays starting in May! (I am SO excited about our local farmer's market. I just got wind of it today! They were such a staple for us in NYC and we miss them quite a bit)
• Morning walks around the neighborhood with dogs and baby
• Bookbabies time at the local library for story-time and songs (I just found out this is a weekly event!)
• Read (and finish) a book for leisure- anything! (We used to go to the Harvard Coop often and I would take photos of books I'm interested in reading, so I think I've got a few options)
• Splashing away downtown
• Make more fruit and vegetable shakes with our Vitamix
• Bike rides with baby and dogs (we need this when baby can sit up himself, so it may be several more months! Likely in the fall, perhaps)
• Bake a fresh berry pie from scratch
• Dog park time in Boston and the surrounds
• Shucking and enjoying our own raw oysters
• Going to free Friday Flicks at the Hatch Shell. (This would have been so much easier when we still lived in Beacon Hill!)
• Make fresh lemonade from scratch (like we used to do in college!)

That's a sizable list for now, but I'll think of some more to add in as the weeks go by!

Back when the backyard was lush and green. Not demolished by hills of snow.

Looking forward to watermelon season!

Life lately: waiting around

We haven't had anything too exciting going on these past few months. The snow is FINALLY disappearing these past couple of weeks and I hear it's the last cold day of the year until it starts to become quite pleasantly warm! It's about crunch time for baby's arrival so when we've had the chance, we've tried to combine getting everything in order for his arrival and also enjoying/treating ourselves to meals out or sleeping in.

We had a delicious lunch at Toro a few weeks ago (above photos- tuna toast!), thanks to a birthday certificate from my brother from last year. We've always wanted to go, but it's quite the hip place at night even after all these years, and reservations are impossible. So, lunch was perfect. We were so intent on eating that we didn't really take too many pictures. The corn was my favorite part of the meal. I could go again and order just the corn and be completely satisfied. The best corn of all time!

A few weeks ago, we planned a last minute lunch reservation at the Capital Grille during Restaurant Week. We each got our favorite desserts! It doesn't get better than that. Creme brûlée for me and chocolate cake for C. 

Crema Cafe. The best English muffin in town.

This week marks the start of my maternity leave from work and we had the good fortune of C having the day off on Monday. We had a grand time walking around Harvard Square, going to our favorite cafe there, Crema Cafe and enjoying our favorite breakfast/snack, their English muffin with butter and jam (why can't we ever find raspberry jam this good?! Believe me, I've tried. C even gave me grief about always buying strawberry jam after tasting again how delicious the raspberry jam on the muffin is!) I ordered something new that I should try at home: an Almond Earl Gray, which is EG tea with steamed and frothed almond milk. 

We've done a little baking. Or rather, I should say C did a little baking. Bless his little heart- I haven't had much energy or patience these days for cooking, much less baking, but he loves it so it works out quite well. We tried an Asian Milk Bread recipe that I came across. It was delicious! And preservative free!

We've otherwise just been relaxing at home, on the couch, catching up on all our shows (and new ones) and waiting…

Life pretty much any day of the week: napping on the couch with comfortable blankies

Baby's Afternoon Tea

We had an afternoon tea party last weekend at L'Espalier (my favorite restaurant in Boston) to celebrate baby's upcoming arrival. It was a cloudy and snowy day, but it was toasty inside and we were so happy that so many of our friends were able to attend. It made everything feel very special.

The Library Room was perfect for the occasion- cozy, warm, and BLUE! There must have been the largest collection of blue books I've ever seen. Every single one of those books was a shade of blue, though you might not know it from the photos.  E confirmed that they were real books, too. 

There were delicious tea sandwiches and quite the selection of sweets- almost too many sweets for my taste, but who can complain about afternoon tea?! Not even the Queen (though as Chris kept reminding me, she would not be there).

just the most delightful selection of tea sandwiches!

These mugs will become veeeery familiar to you, Baby!

And these ones too- your aunts and uncles!

There's quite a bit to get together before baby's arrival, but week by week I feel like we're making some progress. Nine weeks left to go!

New Year Blizzard

We had the first snow day of the year yesterday due to a major blizzard- winter storm Juno.  I wish we had more photos to capture how truly snowy it was/it is, but it was just so cold, windy, and wet out there yesterday! Too cold to even think about photos. There was that fact and the fact that we were truly trapped inside the house! We would have had to dig ourselves out of our front door and down the long driveway!

It was a lazy day for us- we woke up quite late. Chris did a little shoveling by the back door to let the dogs out, we did some chores, watched a movie and snacked all day. Boy, were the dogs surprised to see all the snow outside! Needless to say, they didn't want to stay out there long either. Good thing they had their snow gear on!

Typically the holiday and New Year season is when most of my blogging occurs. This year, things got just so busy. The year rolled on and on and before I could even pause and reflect, 2015 was already here!

Here is a quick recap on our end of the year:

Our first Thanksgiving in the new house came and went. We ate so much food that day, we could hardly move. In fact, we had two Thanksgiving day dinners. TWO. As with tradition, we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and the dog show following it. However, we first started our day off with a run-  a 5K Thanksgiving Turkey Trot in town!. E & A joined in on the day's festivities. We weren't certain whether the run was even on since the first big snow storm of the year occurred the night before. Chris joked that he might need his snow boots since we weren't sure how much snow was going to be on the ground and if he was going to be "running" with me…Of course if he were to be running by himself and leave me behind, then he would make sure to put on adequate running shoes… Oh, we ran. Well, as much as a 4-5 month pregnant person runs. We made it, though. And with minimal walking!

Pre-race photo

The best part after a run is always the snacks, and this run did not disappoint. Hot chocolate, granola bars, bananas and bagels. We were freezing, but stuck around to enjoy the goodies.

Post-race goodies in hand!

Our first of two Thanksgiving dinners. We took turns slaving away in the kitchen all day!

We also celebrated Chris' birthday at the beginning of December, just the two of us. We were quite lucky in that his birthday fell on a Tuesday, so we were able to spend the afternoon together to enjoy a leisurely lunch. Of course, the Birthday Boy chooses the meals for the day and for lunch we had good ol' Rod Dee. For dinner, we ventured to a steakhouse around the South Shore called Stockholders. It was delicious and we were just completely stuffed. Actually, we were significantly stuffed after the appetizers, but still ate our way to dessert. You can't have a birthday dinner and skip dessert!

Basil-fried rice with CRISPY chicken, don't you know

As with holiday tradition, we sought out our Christmas tree. It was a terribly treacherous, rainy evening the day that we decided to pick it out, but we ended up with a good one at Volante Farms. 

Not the best photo, but you can see how cold and terrible of a night it was that
we brought our tree home on the top of the car. 

Harry loved the Christmas tree. When we brought it in for the first time, all he wanted to do was lick the sap from the trunk. That really did not help with maneuvering this big and bulky tree. It was also a terribly snowy day when we had to get rid of our poor tree at the end of the season. I (half) joked to Chris that no other pregnant wife would help him haul this tree in/out of the house and hoist and tie it to the car. Lucky guy, that one.

Gregory taking in the sight of the tree…or is he keeping an eye on the Nutcracker?

Lovely at night

Somewhere in this timeline, we added Clementine to the mix...

We've also got great use out of our fireplace! Harry adores the fires.

fire crackling and keeping warm

We spent the week of Christmas in San Diego. There was a lot of sleeping in, sun, family-time, burrito eating, boba drinking, and a little beach. 

nephews zipping around on their brand new scooters on Christmas Day

Uncle Chris' tower of super heroes 

Short day trip to the Mission at San Luis Obispo

so many cacti and succulents! I've decided we need an indoor succulent garden

mission bells

Chris' belated birthday cake. His favorite of all time: Black forest cake from Champagne Bakery
It doesn't get better than this!

Beach strolling in La Jolla

our shadows in the sand

When we returned to Boston, we had more family time...and family feuds playing board games.

First photo: taken by Chris on his iPhone. Snowflakes and frost on our bedroom window one morning. 

Fall is really happening

This is the view out our front door last week. Well, a ground view. We have so many leaves- to my pleasure (so colorful and festive), but to Chris' chagrin (raking and cleaning out gutters!). 

We spent last weekend moseying around town. We visited the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. It was very peaceful and made for a very pleasant, fall walk. Surprisingly, we ran into a 5 minute downpour on our way out.  I don't think I've walked that much since we've moved- honestly, I was  exhausted by the end of the day and I may still be feeling it in my legs!

resting in peace

a perfect, New England fall day

memorializing the family pup

We are looking forward to all the holidays coming up. Starting with Halloween! We are prepared this year for some potential trick-or-treaters. I've also started sizing up our Thanksgiving serveware and dinnerware to make sure we have enough of what we need. Since we have always had such limited space, we'd make do with all the everyday cookware and serving-ware that we had. Now that we have a tad more room, we can have things like say, a true roasting pan!  I think we lament the fact that we need a gravy boat each and every year and when space is tight, there is no room for extraneous items that see use once a year. You know my obsession with vintage china- specifically toile/transferware. The search is on and this year, we shall be prepared!