Road trip to Mystic

At the last minute on Sunday, we decided to take a little road trip to Mystic.  It was around lunch time when we left. Jack had already eaten and we hoped he'd sleep most of the hour drive. We wanted to stroll through the downtown area and hit some of the cute shops. Lunch was a must do as well. We were imagining ourselves having a nice lunch outside, under an umbrella, with some wine, enjoying the view with our toddler, who would be his usual, mellow, and happy self. We weren't really thinking about the fact that it was a weekend, or the fact that it was HOT. Jack only napped for about 20 minutes and all the restaurants were packed, so we decided to throw in the towel and give up our hope of eating outside. Instead, we went to Mystic Pizza where it was air conditioned and Jack could color on the placemat. I really can't complain...The pizza was tasty and Jack was a little angel toddler once he was in the air conditioning!  :)

This is where we were hoping to have lunch...right under that umbrella...

I am linking to Sailor and Company for the Raw(e) photo challenge where the theme this week is yellow.

You Capture: Outside (at the park)

After dinner the other night, Rob, Jack and I took a walk to the nearby park.  There was no one there, so Jack had it all to himself...we let him roam free, and once he realized that we were letting him explore, he really took off...and he's fast.  It was so fun watching him discover and play. When he had gone far enough, he would look back and we could tell he was thinking hard about whether to keep going.  He usually did; putting even more distance between us.  I guess now that he's been walking for a while, his brave switch has been turned on and I'm afraid there's no going back.

Going down the slide...

Family portrait at sunset.

Once we had enough of chasing him around the park, we went to the baseball field which is completely fenced in.  I think he could have spent hours chasing after that ball!

 Here is our little pitcher on the mound...

I am linking up to I Should be Folding Laundry for this week's you capture challenge: Outside

California Trees

I stumbled upon another fun photo challenge site, where this weeks theme is trees.  I took a look back at my archives and found a few shots that were all taken pre-baby when Rob and I were living in California...I couldn't find any pictures of trees after Jack was born, since 99% of the shots I take now are of Jack. It was fun looking through these albums and reminiscing about our California adventures...

Quintessential LA...Santa Monica blvd

Santa Barbara from the pier.

Somewhere in Redwood Forest, Northern California at dusk (I wish I could remember where)

(my entry)

The Lone Cypress on the 17 Mile Drive

Driving through Redwood National Park on a rainy day

A Joshua Tree somewhere in Death Valley on the way to Las Vegas.  

My Boys

Rob and Jack had some fun a few nights ago hamming it up for the camera...

Lobsters and pizza...

Happy Monday!  It's rainy here and for the first time in months, I actually have socks on my feet!  I hope that summer has a few more warm days in store, I'm not quite ready to give those up completely.
We did have a fantastic, summery weekend though!  Rob was finally able to get out and dive for lobster which we enjoyed the next night for dinner, bibs and all, with corn on the cob, littleneck clams, wine (of course), and good friends!

Yesterday we headed up to Boston for dinner with some friends who we haven't seen in almost a year!  Jack came with us and was such a trooper...We had dinner at the Flatbread Company in Somerville which is the PERFECT place to go with a toddler, especially since we didn't get there until after 7!  It's loud and there so much to look at (including a bowling alley in the restaurant!) Rob and I were a little worried how he would handle a latish night out, but our friends took turns entertaining him and walking him around the restaurant to check out the pizza oven and the bowlers once the highchair was old news. Jack has never been a melt-down kind of kid, in fact, I really can't think of a time that he's had one...and with all of that entertainment, he was completely happy...even once the clock struck 10. We were even able to order dessert (home made chocolate chip banana bread with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream!) and enjoy it. We put him in his PJs for the ride home and he slept the whole way.

Jack: Same PJs, different night...

UPDATE:  Jack did great last night, but today, since he missed a few hours of sleep, he's a little rough around the edges...I'm sure he'll be back to normal tomorrow!

You Capture: In the Kitchen (with a toddler)

Don't worry Mom, I'm fine. I'll just step over it...

50/50 chance that these will actually end up in my mouth...

Did I get them all??

Clean sippy cups...

I am linking up to I Should be Folding Laundry for this week's you capture challenge: In the Kitchen.

Favorite shots: 7 month old Jack at the beach

Here's another found phone picture....this one was taken by Rob.  Look at those chunky arms!   

Favorite shots: 9 month old Jack

I was going through the pictures on my phone the other day and came across this one. It was taken a year ago today on a very hot August 17th...Jack could spend hours just sitting and splashing in that pool.

And it leaves me wondering...at what point over the last year did he lose his chubby baby features and turn into a little boy?

One Word

Writing has never been one of my favorite things to do. To put it in perspective, dread is a actually a word that comes to mind when I think about my freshman english class in college. Before this blog, the only writing that I ever came close to enjoying were lab reports or papers for work (which were 100% not creative). I've actually gotten a lot of enjoyment from writing my posts and I think it's been helping me to get my thoughts down. Today, I came across a website via Design Mom, called One Word that might just might help get rid of that uh-oh, I don't want to, feeling about writing. It works like this: you press the go button, a word pops up, and you have 60 seconds to write whatever that word inspires. I can't believe that I'm saying this, but it's actually sort of fun!  What?  Did I say that about writing??

Here's a shot of Jack, because this would be a boring post without it! :)

I hope you're all enjoying the weekend!  

You Capture: Everyday Things

I have always known, even before Jack was in the picture at all, that I wanted to at least try out cloth diapering on whatever future kids I might have. Well, when the time came for me to actually decide for real, I happily discovered that there were endless options of practical, adorable, easy-to-use cloth diapers out there. Yes, as everyone knows by now, real diapers have evolved big time from the days of pins and rubber pants that my Mom used on both my sister and me! And thanks to my sister, who was cloth diapering her daughter at the time, I had an awesome resource for information since the options are so overwhelming. And I am proud to say that Jack has been in cloth diapers for a good chunk of the 21 months that he's been around so this stack of diapers is definitely an everyday thing around here.  :)

I am linking up to I Should be Folding Laundry for this week's you capture challenge: Everyday things.

Wordless Wednesday with Watermelon

You Capture: Summer

Some of my favorite things and the reason that summer is my favorite time of year:

The beach 

Long days

The sound of cicadas

Flip flops

Sundresses

Jack in just a diaper

The smell after a good rain

Thunderstorms

And zinnias 

Well, today, Jack and I headed over the to the local farm stand where they have pick your own flowers and of course I made a b-line to the zinnias.  There were endless amounts of gorgeous blooms in all different shades ready to be taken home.  

My flower picking went a little like this:  cut a stem, run after Jack before he makes it to the corn rows and gets lost; cut a stem, run after Jack before he reaches the road; and on and on like this until I picked him up and finished my flower picking with a heavy toddler in my arms. :)

Not only was it a fun way to spend a little time outside, I think it's one of the very best bargains around...I filled a whole bucket for under $4.  This makes me very happy and I know that Jack and I will be back many times.  

Today, I am linking up, for the first time, to the You Capture challenge hosted by I Should be Folding Laundry.  This weeks challenge was Summer.  :)

21 Months!

Today, Jack is 21 months old.  That is only 3 months away from 2 whole years!  And I guess once he reaches that two year mark, I'll have to stop saying his age in months.  (Or not, and you all can just do the math.)  I think I will, however, continue my monthly photo session tradition with monkey. I'm not sure how that will work once he's 14 or 15, but we'll cross that bridge once we get there.  :)

Jack is really starting to up his vocabulary.  He pretty much repeats anything we say (or at least tries in his very cute, Jack way.)  I think his favorite two words to say right now are lemonade and ice. It sounds like:  yemonade iccccce repeated over and over, until of course he gets some lemonade with ice in his sippy cup.  My favorite word that he says at the moment is turtle, pronounced tur-tl-oe, in a high pitched, happy voice.