Historic Oakwood

The photography club that I'm a member of recently took a trip to the Historic Oakwood Neighborhood and Cemetery in Raleigh. The Governor's Mansion is located in this district, along with many other gorgeous homes. The cemetery was my favorite part. It is the second oldest cemetery in North Carolina.

Paxton to the rescue

The best thing just happened, so I thought I’d share.
I am home sick today and have been lucky enough to sleep most of the day away. Baby Caleb went to daycare and I miss him and hubby terribly, but it’s for the best. They don’t need to catch whatever virus it is that I have.
Anyway, so despite my sick state, I have a wonderful story to share.
All day today I’ve taken naps every 3 hours, only to awaken to pump, drink water, and let the dog out. During one of those awake moments as I was chugging my water while sitting by the window, Paxton was sitting in the front yard enjoying the sun. I saw a salesman approaching the driveway with fliers in hand. He looked to see that a car was in the driveway and then looked toward the house. He obviously saw Paxton, stared for a moment, considered his options, and then decided he was too frightened to approach the front door. I smiled for the first time today as I watched him walk away.
Thank you Paxton the dog for rescuing me from 5 minutes of a horrible sales pitch. I guess if Paxton hadn’t scared the salesman away my appearance probably would have.
I’m dressed in mismatched jammies, no feminine support, unbrushed hair and teeth, and my face looks like pale, splotchy death. Sorry for the horrible mental image.

Play baby play

Now that Caleb is crawling and pulling himself up on furniture and toys, life is seen from a new perspective for him. Toys all seem new and exciting and EVERYTHING must be touched and played with. And Caleb is just like the other babies I know in that things that aren't meant to be played with intrigue him more than safe toys. Things like paper shredders, mommy's expensive sunglasses, the dirty diaper pail, and our wine cooler. We have slowly begun to babyproof.
The relief when we drop him off a daycare every day is that those facilities are guaranteed babyproofed. Caleb is surrounded by a full day of padded, cushiony, colorful fun. For 8 hours a day, he gets to play with toys we don't have at home. He gets to play with other babies that we don't have at home either.

I like to visit him at lunch and watch him play.

I am always happy to get down on the babies' level and play with all of them.

Caleb's girlfriend Ellie doesn't always like to share the spotlight, as we can see above.

It makes Josiah a little hesitant to go after the toy car, especially after seeing how Caleb was just treated by the beautiful little Ellie.

Josiah opted for the rainbow tunnel instead.

Caleb then followed.

It is really sweet to see all the babies playing together, sharing (or not) their toys, and mimicking one another. Every day there is something new for me as a parent to experience as well.

When the wife cooks

When the wife cooks, it is a much different experience than when the hubby cooks. There is no knowledge, planning, or experience involved. Each step is a guess and sometimes those guesses lead to disaster.
For Father's Day I decided it might be nice of me to not make hubby cook his own meal. Though I wasn't so nice as to ask him what he might like for dinner; I simply followed my own selfish cravings. But hey, you can't have it all, can you?
I wanted fried plantains, or tostones. I paired them with mint, jalapeño, and garlic roasted shrimp and black beans. This combo proved very yummy.

I peeled two ripe plantains and sliced them into 1-inch thick pieces. I put oil in one of our cast-iron skillets and turn the temp on high. That's where I went wrong. After only about 5 minutes the air in the house was thick with smoke. Hubby was busy bathing the baby when I mentioned the smoke and the question, "What temperature should the stove be set on?"
Hubby calmly asked me to watch the bathing baby as he made his way into the kitchen to correct my potentially disastrous mistake. I easily could've burned the house down. Who knew that hot oil can get too hot very quickly? Chefs know. Hubby knows. Thank you hubby for saving us all.

Anyway, crisis averted. Fresh oil in a cooled down skillet and dinner was on its way. This time the hot oil was set at the proper 375 degrees. I fried the plantain slices for 5 minutes, took them out and flattened them, adding a little salt, and placed them back in the skillet for another 2-3 minutes. As soon as I pulled them off the skillet and blotted some oil off I brushed them with an orange juice/pressed garlic/salt mixture. They were lovely.

Here's our final Father's Day dinner. A success because of my will to experiment and hubby's will to not burn our house to the ground. I love my hubby for still allowing me to set foot in our kitchen.

A week well spent

Caleb has been spoiled rotten for the past three weeks. First his Grammie from Orlando came to visit for two weeks, then his Mimi from Morganton came to visit for all of last week.
This little baby boy loves when the grandmothers are in town. He gets double playtime, double bath time, and double the hugs and kisses.

Singing and dancing with Mimi before naptime

Fun on the front porch

Afternoon garden walk with Mimi

Sitting on Mimi's lap, learning about the garden

Tender hugs on the front porch by the wind chime

Thank you for making the long drive to come see us, Mimi. We miss you already.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the love of my life, my hubby.

The men of the house are shown above on their way to bath time. Mommies aren't usually invited – just daddies. And for good reason. Mommies tend to take photos.

Elvis Lip

I'm not exactly sure how his lip does this, but baby Caleb is a master of the Elvis Lip.

The big 2-8

One of the best parts about turning a year older is the birthday cake. I eat the same exact cake every year, always lovingly prepared by my mom. It is chocolate/yellow swirl cake topped with rainbow chip icing. It is the best cake that $4 can buy.

Whoa that's a lot of candles!

Whoa that's not a very attractive birthday girl!

Whoa that's one delicious cake!
Thank you marmie for your hard work on another wonderful birthday cake.

Rinse, lather, repeat

You probably just assume by looking at this photo that I've recently devoured a fresh box of decadent fudge, or perhaps it was a chocolate covered brownie. You might assume I'm now lounging lazily in my family room with a full and satisfied belly, licking each individual finger of any sweet remnants.
Guess what? For the first time ever, you are wrong.

While I am sitting satisfied in my family room and it is partially because of what was in this box, there was no chocolate to be found.
This box was given to me by my friend Bridget for my upcoming bday and it housed a bath product called Heavenly Bodies Buttercream, a soap made by Lush. The soap is made with cocoa butter to soften your skin, cleansing rhassoul mud and a hint of fresh orange juice. There was real flaked chocolate to top of the cocoa-colored bar.
When I used it last night, I felt like I was taking a mud bath – but a mud bath that smelled like chocolate truffles. AWESOME.

I'm a meat eater

I credit my hubby with the growing love I have for eating meat. I grew up a chicken eater and didn't really stray outside of that box for much of my younger days. Hubby has greatly influenced my meat intake with his cooking. His love of BBQ has made its mark on my life. Pork is probably his favorite ingredient in the whole world.

Hubby spent his day off this week both building a new storage shed and slow roasting Memphis dry-rubbed pork spare ribs. He's a saint.

I prepared the homemade macaroni & cheese and salad to go along with this tender, meaty treat.
Ohhhh, hubby's ribs are devine and I am a lucky girl.

Moving at a crawl

When my godson Ian first began crawling, he did this glorious little move called "The Crab Crawl." I was fascinated at his creativity with this new form of movement. All babies have a crawling style. Some implement more than one crawling style, while others skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking. I secretly hoped that my own child might one day try crab crawling when it came his turn.
Well yesterday evening we were able to capture baby Caleb on video doing his impression of the Crab Crawl. This is only his second day of attempting crawling, and we are ever so proud of his hard work.

Baby steps

I betcha' thought by the title of this blog that Caleb would be walking! Not quite the case. But alas, Grammie (Debbie) has arrived for a summer visit and is practicing baby steps with this boy.

He really thinks he's moving now.

Caleb has become quite the mover these past few weeks and hubby and I now recognize the need to baby proof the homefront.