He's not amused.

Mamma's not amused, either. This kid turned 9 months old today. 

Someone hold me. 

*Sniffle, sniffle*

A Post-Dinner Walk

Lately, we've FINALLY been blessed with nice enough weather to go for a walk after dinner each day. 

Sometimes, this also results in a trip to either A) the frozen yogurt shop, or B) the ice cream shop. 

Which totally defeats the purpose of the walk, but let's not go there. 

Peanut is obvs on solids now (in addition to his normal quota of nursing), so he's gotten hip to the fact that we're eating in front of him. And he doesn't approve. 

Luckily, a train went by and provided a distraction so I didn't have to share any of my blueberry ice cream (side note - how have I never had blueberry ice cream before?! It's flipping delish!). I did, however, fork over some pieces of waffle cone. 

Ah, well, it's only the beginning I'm sure. The kid will be downing cones of Blue Moon and running at me with sticky neon blue hands in no time. 

Girl's Night: The Host

I think it goes without saying that I don't get out nearly as much as I used to. Priorities have shifted, and sometimes I need to kick myself in the you-know-what to just go out and do something different.

Naturally, I can always count on Mrs. Chen to provide company on said outings. We decided to go see The Host at our local theatre that serves food and DRINKS (hhhaayyyyy!!!) for a ridiculously reasonable price.



Bonus: we were (almost) the only ones in the theatre. I guess that's what happens when you go on a Thursday night to a movie that's been out for weeks. #WINNING



Another bonus? $5 martini night! I was all excited about this and the fact that I had already fed Luke for the night so I could have more than one drink until Mrs. Chen in all her pregnant wisdom pointed out that, hello, I still have to drive home. Oh, yeah. That.

But considering that it was dark in the theatre, I have no more pics to show you aside from the last one I insisted on taking in the bathroom after the movie..."like teenagers!"


Thank goodness she indulges me. I don't get out much, like I said.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Snapshots of the Weekend | April 12-14

Holy crap, Chicago. Can you get your act together? 35 and snowing on Saturday, then 75 and sunny today? If I end up with a sinus infection, you'll have you-know-what to pay.

Moving on.

We've reached the time of the year when hubs starts going absolutely batty about starting the garden. At the beginning of March, I'm forced to look up old pictures of when we started our garden the previous year because he's absolutely convinced that we started it at least 2 months earlier than we actually did. This year, he thought we should be starting it in late February. And that we were late starting it, to boot. And every year, I repeat what my mother always told me, "Wait until Mother's Day. That's supposed to be the last chance of frost for this zone." And every year he ignores me, leaving us hauling in 95 planters of vegetables and herbs from the impending early spring blizzard that inevitably happens in Chicago.

But I digress.

So, this weekend consisted of garden prep. And had it not been for an unfortunate event, it would have been 100x worse.

Friday right before the end of work - my little man sported my old cowboy boots.



I mean, come on! Could he be any cuter?!

He's also a huge fan of taking selfies nowadays. (Selfies = self portraits with a cell phone for those of you who aren't down with the lingo cough cough mom and dad).


Which is how I end up with 35 pics like this on my phone as he tries to eat it:



(That's his tongue and toothless gums)

So, Saturday morning, we got a nice 6:15am wake up call. (Seriously, how does he know it's the weekend?!)



Uh, yeah, kid, that's because you WOKE UP TOO EARLY.



Two mini naps later, we have this.

Next, it was off to Omega for the return of PANCAKE DAY! (A tradition from my preggo days...which my waistline does not need to repeat but ohmygosh PANCAKES!)






Then, it was off to our local garden store to check out the selection. Which, hello, there was none considering it was SNOWING OUTSIDE.

Next stop: Home Depot. Where we shopped for plants in the snow but didn't actually buy any.


...but hubs spent some quality time in the tubing aisle trying to figure out what kind of tubes he needed for our fancy schmancy watering pump he's trying to rig up. Which meant that Luke and I headed off to the patio furniture section to people watch.








I kiss him entirely too much. But he's mine so I will kiss him as much as I want!



Also? Luke's idea of people watching is to YELL at them as they pass by and not stop staring at them until they are completely out of his sight.


Then it was BACK to the other garden store for some other misting parts or some mumbo jumbo. ( I leave the hard work to hubs while I walk around with the baby, you see. And I take pictures of the flowers I desperately want.)


Then...disaster struck. Hubs threw out his back while unloading huge bags of soil from the car. Which left me to roll them upstairs. Except the wheel fell off the cart, so I looked like a drunken sailor running into walls with a palette of potting soil. I'm so lucky no neighbors saw me.

With hubs unable to even walk, and therefore unable to take care of the baby, we called it a night (after a quick trip to Target with my little tagalong.).

Crabby selfies before bedtime ensued.


Sunday - hubs wanted to go BACK to the garden store to see if any new plants were in. (I've learned to not try to understand his thoughts...it just causes my head to hurt.) So I loaded up the baby (since hubs could still barely walk) and drove us to the store, where - shocker! - no new plants were in. So we drove to another store in another town and - shocker! - no plants there, either. Could it be because it's TOO EARLY IN THE SEASON?

Back home, we decided to go for Luke's first walk in his big boy stroller (someone please stop time!!!!)


Then a quick nap at home because someone's leg got stuck in the crib slats (hey crib bumper, you're doing it wrong.)


(Before his entire leg ended up through it.)

Then the kid ate TWO pears all by himself.



(Yes, that's just pear carcass all over his tray.)

And we sat outside for a bit considering it was 75 (!!!) and my legs are whiter than a Edward Cullen's hairless chest.


(I apologize if you just went blind)

All the while, hubs laid on the couch. My poor little crack back.

And here we are. This took me approximately 30 minutes to type out on my phone, so if you read this far, I'm pretty impressed.

For the record - I hate Mondays.

It's Better than Christmas

The scene:  A random Thursday night.  Baby is in bed, Hubs and I are sitting on the couch.

Hubs:  Huh.  I have almost 80,000 frequent flyer miles.

Me:  Uhhhhh...can we go back to Hawaii?!

Hubs:  Well, it's definitely not enough for that.  There's nothing good in this rewards catalog.  Why don't you look and just get whatever you want.

OKAY.  (Side note - my husband rocks.  There were definitely at least 10 things in that catalog that I know he wanted for himself, but he gave them all to me.)

So I look, and what do I see?  The camera lens I had been lusting over for years (ok, to keep it real, this isn't L-series glass or anything.  But it's a lot nicer than my $100 plastic "nifty fifty" lens I currently have.).  AND we had enough points to get it. (And maybe even a Michael Kors watch with what was left!)

So on Friday, they finally came.  And ya'll?  This was way better than Christmas for me.

Just check out these pictures.

Yes, he's "eating" lamb off the bone.  Like father, like son!

I can't wait to see everything I can capture through this nice piece of glass (that's photography speak, yo.).

Gone Fishing: Starting Him Young

Well, Aunt Louise, you'll be happy to know that one of your shower presents is a total hit with our little peanut.


He loves "going fishing" with the wooden fish set.

...Even if going fishing means slobbering over every single fish he can get his hands on.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

6 Ingredient Butternut Squash Soup

There's one Butternut Squash Soup recipe that I keep going back to, and it just so happens to have only 6 ingredients (well, 7 if you include salt, but whatevs).


Despite its minuscule  list of ingredients, it tastes like it was made in some fancy restaurant served in tiny cups. And since the main ingredients are simply squash and water, it’s pretty healthy (we’ll just ignore that 1/2 cup of cream for the whole pot of soup, mmmkkaayy?).

The best part? With all ingredients included, the whole pot of soup only cost $5 (I am not kidding here!) to make.

Butternut Squash Soup
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter 
• 2 medium shallots , minced (about 4 tablespoons) - I've used onions in a pinch
• 3 pounds butternut squash (about 1 large), peeled, squash halved lengthwise, seeds and stringy fibers scraped with spoon and reserved (about 1/4 cup), and then cut into large-ish chunks (1-2 inches so iy won't take forever to steam) 
• 6 cups water
• 1/2 cup heavy cream 
• 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar 
• Salt, to taste

1. Heat butter in large Dutch oven over medium-low heat until foaming; add shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add squash scrapings and seeds and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and butter turns saffron color, about 4 minutes. Add 6 cups water and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt to Dutch oven and bring to boil over high heat; reduce heat to medium-low, place squash cut-side down in steamer basket, and lower basket into pot. Cover and steam until squash is completely tender, about 30 minutes. Off heat, use tongs to transfer squash to a separate bowl; reserve steaming liquid.

2. Pour reserved steaming liquid through mesh strainer into second bowl; discard solids in strainer. Rinse and dry Dutch oven.

3. In blender, puree squash and reserved liquid in batches, pulsing on low until smooth (or use an immersion blender, but a regular blender gets the soup much more creamy). Transfer puree to Dutch oven; stir in cream and brown sugar and heat over medium-low heat until hot. Add salt to taste; serve immediately.

The soup also freezes really well, so if you have leftovers, don't hesitate to throw them in the freezer for a night when you don't feel like making dinner.