Home Sweet Home!

We'll be changing addresses shortly. We finally bought a house!

Hooray!!! Yep, we're heading back to Santa Cruz.

Too cute. Had to share.

Sometimes crafting is a challenge.

Kai takes my most important tools.

Sometimes Kai is a fearless cowboy,

wrangling animals from distant places.

Most of the time, Kai thinks he is a puppy,

rolling around on the ground and barking.

The view from here...

This time last year it was a kitty and puppy waiting by the door, with a grouchy pregnant lady taking the picture. This year it's a little boy and a puppy waiting for daddy to get home. Kitty is hiding under the bed from a baby he doesn't know what to make of yet, and last year's pregnant lady is ecstatic to no longer be pregnant during the scorching summer months!

Baked Ziti

The mood struck me and I felt the need to cook for my family. Believe me, it's a rare occurrence. James had a rough night before. It was a full moon, something my husband swears brings out the less usual, more bizarre and challenging calls as a firefighter/paramedic, if you catch my drift. Plus, I was super craving something carby, cheesy and bad for you - voila! Baked Ziti! And of course one pitcher of white wine sangria to get me through this whole hair-brained endeavor...

What a hit! I'll add this recipe to my slowly growing list of dishes I can cook.

Mini-man update...

Our little man is standing and wobbling, and he's just so proud of himself. He's eating well and moving around like a rock star. My only worry is that he's such a fussy napper. Some days I'm lucky to get him down for 15 minutes. As I type, I'm trapped in the kitchen while daddy, baby and dog nap on the couch together. One false move and they could all be up! It's a real shame too considering my sewing machine sits about 15 feet from the couch and I have a peasant skirt dying to be finished!

One thing I've learned as a parent is to let a napping baby nap. We had all these pre-baby dreams of how we were going to parent. We were going to run the vacuum and the dishwasher so Kai could sleep through anything. We were going to go on about our lives, we thought. So Kai's just shy of 9 months and from what I've learned, and I think my husband will agree: you do what it takes to keep a baby down. We've mastered the art of whisper yelling and walking on tiptoes (though somehow James actually manages to make more noise when tiptoeing around). All life is on hold while our baby naps or there will be a price to pay later in the day, and that price is worth being stuck in a mute bubble for 1-2 hours a day. Happy Summer!

Happy Bday to Me!

A fabulous Bday weekend, followed up with one special UPS delivery. While James stood outside and yapped with our UPS guy about fishing and other various nonsense, I greedily ran outside, snatched up my new bag, and then ran back in to see my purchase in person! Yes, I ordered a new handbag this past week as a Bday gift to myself. It's perfect in size, shape & color: slightly oversized, satchel, in a stunning pewter metallic (which is actually more bronzy to me - even better). Just because you make handbags for sale, doesn't mean you don't love a great purchase now and again too! Isn't it lovely?

And on the fishing front (I know you've been waiting on pins and needles to hear if I've caught myself that whopper I've been hoping for), I caught my first fish a week ago. Unfortunately, there isn't a fisher person in me dying to get out, because I didn't feel the "thrill of the catch" my sister-in-law Veronica always talks about. Pretty much I just felt like a fish murderer, and that was that.

Bigboy's a crawlin'!

Yes, he's doing his little army crawl all around our completely UN-baby proofed home. One day he managed to squirm himself about 2 feet and the next day he was mopping his little self around the whole house. We just lowered his crib because we've been catching him peeking over the sides and banging on the top of his bumpers too!

Bigboy's been sick this week which has put a minor kink in any quality mommy alone time. The funny thing is, I look forward to some quiet knitting time around 8 pm every night after I put him down, and then I get lonely for my little guy around 8:45. Go figure. But I still get to wake up to this cutie pie face every day. Am I lucky or what?