What Can I Reach for Today?

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Our Little Fish

Yes, that is a bottle of sunblock you see rubbed into his blonde little head.

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Friday Photo Dump

Most of these are unedited images from the last week. Several are phone photos. I'm determined to finish my grocery analysis before doing more serious photography!! Enjoy... :)

Sunday morning with Dad.

Visiting Clair.

One of his 100 chew toys.

We have a fruit overload this week.

We went the the FREE Butterfly Exhibit at the Natural History Museum on Tuesday. Getting the free tickets was somewhat like this.

Isaac wasn't nearly as into the butterflies as his cousins.

But he LOVED the wood chips. He HAD to have his feet on them at all times. HAD TO.

Lucy was the only one to have any butterflies land on her. Other people had her hold still so they could get photos. She was proud of herself.

It was H-O-T in there! Climate Control: 80 degrees, 80 percent humidity. Which brings up another subject: I need to do something with my hair. It's getting too heavy to style. It just lays flat all the time, especially in this hot, humid weather! I may get a concave bob. What a change that would be...

Fast forward to Wednesday. We're on a grocery money saving mission (I am!). I went to our store on Wednesday afternoon because that is the day after deliveries are made and new sales are listed. This week I actually read through the receipt afterward and compared prices with other local grocers. It was a good decision because we were overcharged for our pork tenderloin by more than $4.00. I wish I stayed more on top of this. I'm confident that our weekly grocery bill could be under $100 if I worked at it more. As it stands, we are closer to $135. I've found that the weekly savings I get by shopping at one store are outweighed by it's gouging us for other items which aren't on sale. This is true for all of the stores I've looked at so far. I'm thinking about using two stores a week. We'll see if that's a realistic approach to saving money...

A favorite of mine: Whole wheat toast, olive oil, fresh roma tomatoes, ground pepper and salt.

Isaac wants some.

Maple-Soy Chicken Thighs, another Cooking Light recipe win this week.

Open-Faced Sandwiches with Fried Eggs, Fresh tomatoes, Onions Sauteed in White Wine, Pesto, and Parmesan -- Yummy! (Cooking Light)

Maybe I should stop getting flowers to cut the budget, but they add so much. And I only buy them on sale... This one will last two weeks.

Aren't these pretty? Beautiful things inspire me.

Of course, Isaac is into this game. I don't let him in the bathroom much, but when I do, he's INCREDIBLY FAST. He can make it to the toilet paper roll and do this in less than 7 seconds.

Yes the kid can make a mess. He has all of the stereotypical attributes of a small boy. I console myself that we've never reached this level.

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Tender Chicken At Last!

Thanks to the suggestion of a Facebook friend, I tried these kabobs a couple of nights ago. They were super-light (175 cals. each), filling, and tasty! Rich told me that they might be the best thing I've made since we got married. And he gives a serious critique. Yes, compliments do get you everywhere! We felt full, but not stuffed or guilty, when finished.

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A Good Year to Be a National's Fan

We have such great friends! Just when we told each other that we needed to cut back on our discretionary (date night) spending, we received a gift card for dinner and two tickets to the third home game between the Washington Nationals and the Atlanta Braves.

Game three was on Sunday. Since they have been doing so well this year, the place was much more full than the last time I saw them play. It was also much more fun!

Perhaps it was the overcast, slightly cooler weather. Perhaps it was all of the country music "at bat" songs I heard. Or perhaps it was that I wasn't seven-months pregnant. Whatever it was, I had a hundred times more fun! We called the babysitter and took the afternoon off.

I love the way games begin!

A few stars during the National Anthem.

National Anthem. I just realized that people audition for this! The Nationals certainly know how to make and save money.

Rich kept score for what was truly an exciting game for Nationals fans. Before the 5th inning, Zimmerman hit two home runs with a couple of players on bases. The crowd went wild!

I get such a kick out of the "main event," the Presidents' Race. At first it was simply a cute gimmick, apropos for this political town. Now, it's somewhat legendary. The runners have fun with it too. Teddy has never won in seven years, for example, even though he pushed down (!) Tom at the game on Sunday. Perhaps if the Nationals ever make it to the World Series, then Teddy will win.

Besides enjoying a home team 9-2 victory, we discovered a country song that Rich liked. Thank you, Adam LaRoche! I've played many for him with no success. (Detroit Rock City doesn't produce a large number of country music fans as you might imagine.) But baseball is a great unifier. There's  something for both of us. And together we had a wonderful time!

Me and my BFF.

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Watch Me Grow

Much time this week was dedicated to playing with shadows.

 

This was very interesting to Isaac. He spent a long time making different motions in the light and watching how his shadow responded. At one point he touched his index finger to his shadow. He's in awe of the abilities of his limbs and appendages. I love watching his sense of wonder and process of discovery!

He's becoming much more confident in his mobility. Six times this week he took two steps unassisted from the coffee table to the couch. It gave him a little rush. He looked around for high praise (which he promptly received) and shook his whole body in excitement. Each of these news steps is such a big deal for these small people. I'm amazed at the virtues they so naturally possess: courage, ambition, wonder, trust. There's no wonder why the Lord wants us all to become like them!

New abilities have led to the need to baby proof more places. We need to do something with our books. He's now too tall for the toy box bookshelf blockade. He can reach inside our printer and plug cabinet again. And he can escape from his high chair. So, we are forever re-baby proofing our home!

I don't want to keep everything off limits, especially because small children learn by feeling with their hands at this age. I think he simply wants to learn. So, we're working on having the right balance between encouraging exploration and teaching him that some things are off limits.

He had a blast in the sand this weekend! He filled up cups and molds and dumped them out. And filled them up and dumped them out.

He saw some friends in the park.

And chilled with Michael, who is just six weeks older.

Michael calmed him down during a pre-nap meltdown. What a great kid!

Friday afternoon he got to visit with Aunt Julie. He circled her many times and played with her crocs.

This made him very happy.

Pasta also makes him very happy. After a big jar of spaghetti with cheese, he wanted more pasta! That makes TWO pasta lovers under our roof.

I'm not going to argue with that. Pasta is easy-peasy!

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Meatless Pasta Win!

Thanks to Cooking Light, we enjoyed this excellent pasta dish for dinner last night! I was pleased to discover a method of emulsification, which made the fresh sauce (olive oil and boiled pasta water reserve) cling to the pasta -- no sauce puddle on the plate when finished! It was outstanding. Rich gave it a 9.5.

Thin Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Roasted Tomatoes and Garlic, Topped with Fresh Basil and Parmesan.

I've been in a meal rut for a while. So when I saw Cooking Light magazine's "25 Secrets of Super Simple Cooking" with delicious-looking recipes, I had to buy it. Two tips that stood out to me were: 1) Season simply and 2) Build meals around one star dish, not several. I'm going to try to implement those this summer. So far, I like these approaches! Last night's dinner was much better than many dinners I've made recently. Sometimes less is more.

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