Tasty Treats

Yes, it's that time again where we get to enjoy our delicious local produce in our Basket-A-Month. We picked it up this evening and are so excited for its contents: spring mix greens, lettuce, onions (they even have the stems on; it's so cool), garlic, lemon basil (smells divine), oregano, free-range grain-fed eggs, strawberries, milk, sweet potatoes, mung bean sprouts (we ate them tonight in our salad and they're so tasty), cheddar cheese, jalapeno jack cheese, colby cheese, sugar snap peas, shiitake mushrooms, sesame shiitake mushroom dressing, and beefalo (which is now in the freezer until Travis figures out how he's going to cook it). It's so exciting each month to see what's in season and to eat all the fresh produce. Jealous, anyone?

you can even try it daily if you want :)

104 words

Speed test

in case you were bored...

try this:
97 words

Speed test

Don't Mess

We're heading down to Texas this weekend. I'm excited to see what all the pride is about. It's the only state I know of whose residents are uber proud. They fly Texas flags instead of American flags, and are obsessed with making sure everyone knows they're from Texas. Is it that great of a state? I'll soon find out...
A few great things about Texas:
1) IKEA!
2) Nordstrom (And how convenient that it's Women's and Children's Half Yearly Sale!)
3) Nordstrom Rack
4) staying at a hotel with a pool
5) Northpark (at least it looks fab from the website... TBD if it actually is)
6) Club Monaco (Does anyone else sense a shopping theme? Hopefully Charlie Boy is as big of a fan of shopping as his parents.)

And this list doesn't only pertain to Texas, but it's the closest state to Arkansas that has Ikea and Nordy Rack so it deserves a trip. What would make it phenomenal is if it had an H&M. But sadly, no love.
P.S. If anyone's been to the Dallas area and has any tips of fun things to do, let me know.

Yum

Don't these pictures make your mouth water? Delish. And how awesome is this? Now that I'm home more, I love to cook even more. I got a fab wheat bread recipe from a friend and now we don't buy bread anymore. We're homemade-only snobs. Now, whenever we go to restaurants (which is VERY rare), I always compare the food to different recipes I've tried and picture it could be better. The key to good cooking is good recipes. That's it. Some of my personal faves are Ina Garten, Cooking Light, Ellie Krieger, and sometimes Dave Lieberman. I like to combine ideas and for example: use Dave Lieberman's cheap recipes with Ellie Krieger's healthy tips. Yum.

Storage Probs

So any of you that have seen our house know that for 2 peeps and a baby, it's plenty big and has ample storage. But the problem is the storage space is not conducive to our stroller and jogger, both of which I use daily. I guess some store them in the garage but I don't want to have to thoroughly inspect it for bugs and spiders every time I want to go for a run. So they both always end up living either in the kitchen or in my trunk, neither of which is very convenient. I've thought about getting some sort of cover so they can be in the garage without the risk of accumulating spider webs, etc. but I found this awesome thing that will solve all my probs and is a much better solution. I can just use it on the back of our laundry room door. I'm stoked. And I picture any similar sturdy hook would work, so maybe I'll try to find a cheaper one.
Here's CB's first ride in the sweet stroller when he was 1-week old. I'm pretty sure he's been on at least 75+ rides since then.

Sleepytime Success!

Wow. I can't believe what just happened. I wanted to really try the whole if-you-soothe-the-baby, -they-will-fall-asleep-on-their-own idea. I've been reading this book that my sister recommended and her kids go to sleep very easily, so I wanted to try it now that he's almost 4 months old.

So I tried it a few nights when T was working late and it worked pretty well. He woke up a few times and I'm not into the cry-it-out philosophy, so after about half an hour of me going in there, rubbing his tummy, singing, etc... he fell asleep. So I wanted to try it for naptime and in his own crib upstairs in the nursery. I figured it'll work better because I can do everything downstairs without worrying that it'll be too noisy. So we rocked in the rocker on the porch upstairs while I read him some books. Then I swaddled him up in the world's best swaddle blankets (thanks, Di!), gave him his paci, and sang him some songs. I looked down at him and he kept smiling at me, but he looked peaceful. So I laid him in his crib (he looks so tiny in it since I'm used to seeing him in the mini crib) and walked away. When I went back upstairs like 10 minutes later, he was sound asleep. And he must have just put himself right to sleep because I never heard a peep. Success! Maybe it's just a fluke, but I hope he's learning to fall asleep and hopefully it'll continue. We'll see tonight...
Man, look how small he used to be...

How on earth do they do it?

When Travis got hired by Alltel, he was hired into a program called Advanced Development Program. This is a program to "fast-track" them into upper-level management by exposing them monthly to workshops and seminars by different executives. The program is a 1-year program and for the grand finale, they had to solve 2 of Alltel's problems they've had for years and years. They thought young, new-to-the-business-world minds could offer new suggestions that they hadn't yet thought of. So for months and months, Travis has had a meeting with his team from 4-5pm which always ended up more like 4-6 or so.

The past week he was gone until 8 pm most of the nights and Thursday night he didn't come home until 1 am! So I took the chance to work on Charlie's sleeping routine and it went pretty well. But by Saturday/Sunday I was completely exhausted, overwhelmed, and just dead. And it didn't help that CB woke up 3+ times/night. I don't understand how single moms do it. I mean, I only work like 9 hours a week and I was spent. And Travis did come home at night, it was just usually after CB was already in bed. It's just amazing to me how much time and energy this little baby takes.

It's been an amazing week of growth for CB. He learned to hold his head up and enjoy tummy time, roll over, play with toys, make new sounds with his mouth, look and listen as I read him books, etc... So I would feel exhausted and then he would smile up at me and start laughing and it gave me more strength. I'm still trying to focus on my goal of living in the moment and enjoying him. Each day we have our Swedish time where I only speak Swedish to him and I name all his body parts and we play on the floor for an hour or so. And during that hour I really try to just savor the time I have with him at this stage. What a roller coaster ride...


What a sweetie.