kona, hi with a big baby bump and a bee

(originally posted March 10, 2014)

the last time my belly reached these proportions, we found ourselves enjoying the most luxurious of all vacations on the amalfi coast. we were certain that this was the last vacation of our lives. and in a way, it was. we now have a little bit more responsibility, a bit more weighing on our minds, and a little nugget of energy to entertain.

so lucky are we portlanders to be a direct flight away from the paradise of hawaii. it was the perfect prescription to a portland february.

there were flamingos, dolphins, and waterslides at the hilton waikoloa. it was a kiddie-paradise and the closest bee has come to disneyland. it was too much. so we headed north to…

mauna lani, where we found a retreat the whole family could enjoy. still had a pool and beach for bee without the chaos that you’d expect to find in the mega-resorts catering to kids.

bee and i had a wonderful rhythm to each day starting with a nature hike in the adjacent waipuhi and hopeaia fishponds while daddy braved the hot highway pavement clocking mileage like a true athlete.

we’re athletes, too. we walked and we stretched.

and we’d snack break to watch the fishies jump.

then it was serious sand time. i never got a picture of her smiling on the beach, because she was far too busy with very important tasks to be bothered with smiles.

post-afternoon nap, we’d slather bee in sunscreen (a new favorite activity of hers) and head to the pool with hopes that bee hadn’t slept through the afternoon popsicle hand-out. she made a new best-friend, stella, who taught her how to play make-believe and lose at a bunch of games.

the valets let bee feed the koi a couple times.

dining with a toddler is so easy when this is your view. we absolutely loved the canoehouse on the mauna lani property. not cheap, but nothing seems to be when you’re surrounded by resorts. storing yogurts and pb+j supplies in our room made us feel a bit less bad about the cost of dinners.

i was thrilled to see some healthy kids options on the canoehouse menu. not-so-much can be said for the rest of our outings. maybe she was having a growth spurt or all the play burned excessive calories, but i’ve never seen this girl chow down so much food in her life. we also discovered that bee loves poke from da poke shack (rated the top restaurant in america by yelp reviewers).

our second favorite dining spot was the lava lava beach club. probably bee’s number one choice, for obvious reasons.

her first hula lesson. mesmerized, but not sure how to contribute.

the days filled with sun, sand, nature hikes, shelling, swimming, and chicken nuggets exhausted her. a nice postprandial brother cuddle.

new words mastered during this trip include pool, hi, and tiki(!!!)

lighting of the tikis was our nightly cue that bee’s day was over and it was time to put her to bed in her crib in the bathroom. she loved her room and the little crib they had there. possibly even more than her own at home.

nightly music and hula dancing on our way to bed.

she’s truly never been happier in her little life. and dad and i were pretty darn happy, too. looks like we’re not done vacationing after all.

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home video: kona, hawaii

March 5, 2014

our little bee can now add hula dancing and pool jumper to her college application. every time we told her to jump in, she’d try to jump by bending her knees on the edge of the pool, followed by just stepping in.

i was far too busy doing nothing to remember to take enough pictures, but i did manage to capture these beauties for our first little home video. and while we’re thinking about her resume, might as well add sand-eater, too.

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puddling lately

February 21, 2014

bee’s recipe for an ideal day, leading to a peaceful evening and a restful night for mama:

• no less than two doses of outside time which can include a walk, a search for those helicopter things (bee calls them ‘seeds’) that you can throw and spin around in the backyard, puddle stomping, or playground play
• physical activity in the form of the above or dancing in a big open space like our basement or the grocery store
• protein-filled snacks like hummus and cheeses
• friends – be it a play date, kiddie event, or a chance encounter with neighborhood kids (bee calls them ‘babies’ despite the fact that they are all quite older than her)

if we miss any of these things, there’s a chorus to our evenings of ‘mama, mimi, mommy’ with arms outreached and legs collapsing underneath. and if we fill our day with too many stimulating experiences, the chorus is amplified. the simpler the day, the better. so basically, i cannot wait for the sun to come back.

life lately has been all muck and no sunshine. and yet, bee still insists on at least twice-daily adventures in fresh air. one of her first words to master was ‘go’ and it is the mantra for our days, rainy or not. if she merely sees the great outdoors, she wants to go to there. but a recent discovery of puddles means we don’t have to leave the backyard. an hour or more can be spent examining the lack of proper drainage on our pavers.

i’ve also gotten in the habit of walking bee to sleep in the afternoon, which is not necessarily enjoyable for me now that my belly is protruding in the front nearly as much as bee on my back. then add a downpour and the fact that i can only find a child-size umbrella, and it makes for a particularly wet situation. still hasn’t held us back though. the fear of her skipping a nap or crying is much greater than the fear of lower back pain these days.

because crying. eye puddles, man. they have been coming to me more often than my life calls for. particularly moving ice dance in sochi? puddle. athlete falls down during ski cross race? puddle. realizing i accidentally deleted a year’s worth of iphone videos and cannot complete my family movie montage? big puddle. is it the time of year? pregnancy hormones? the insomnia i’ve had for days? probably option d. all of the above.

but oh yes, we are leaving for kona on sunday. so i expect these puddles will all dry up.

oh ya, that fancy gold-sequined collar? we were playing dress up with bee’s tutus and headbands right before the little ones spotted the pool in the backyard.

someone loves to put her hair in a ponytail – even though there is hardly enough hair to call it that.

10 things nobody told me about the second pregnancy

January 13, 2014

1. the importance of easy-to-remove winter shoes

tell me, do these even exist? because turns out they are a necessity that i have yet to embrace. remember how hard it was to tie your shoes toward the end of the first pregnancy? and then remember how impossible it is to carry a sleeping baby from her happy sleepy slumber in the car to her crib on the second floor while keeping the floor clean? combine the two now. impossible.

if you’ve managed to turn off the rockabye baby pandora station, haul in two loads of groceries, let the dog outside so she doesn’t bark or do that horrendous collar scritch-scratch ‘i’m going to wake up the baby with fun jingling sounds because i can’, and then slide baby out – ever – so – very – gently without waking her, you’ll already be patting yourself on the back. but then, flash forward to: you’re at the door and realize there is mud all over your paige tall frye boots. is it worth the labor of busting out the mop for the wooden stairs and putting the baby at risk of toxic chemical fumes from the resolve triple oxi advanced carpet stain remover you’ll have to use? no, you decide. so you bend over, grab your ankle. baby’s head thrashes back. you hop several times. that’s soothing to the baby, right? you finally walk over to the couch even though it means a few steps on your white living room rug (because that was ever a good idea) and sit down. baby immediately starts crying. no longer in motion, she knows she must be in great danger. baby opens eyes; sees toys still scattered about the living room because you don’t bother to pick them up before a quick errand to fred meyer that turned into a two-hour let baby roam the toy, baby clothes, and beer (this i surprisingly find to be the safest of the grocery sections for a toddler who refuses to sit in a shopping cart like every single other good toddler i see in the store – nothing’s reachable) aisles while you check your pinterest for machine-washable stylish winter sweaters because spit up and your closet full of cashmere, it turns out, do not mix; and she’s ready to play.

so, baby’s up. a 10-minute nap seems to have done the trick until about three hours later when it’s too late for a second nap and too soon for bed-time and you are left with a monster for two more hours, including dinner-prep time. so it’s time to call husband and order him pick up pizza, again. because life is just too hard to bear. and those ever-so-well-intentioned collard greens, kale, and chioggia beets will spend yet another day in the fridge…probably to their demise.

so, not to go on complaining too much about my leather boot collection (i know, fwp), but there must be another way. tell me if you’ve found it. i refuse to sit in the car listening to hours of kiddie music just so bee can finish her sleeps uninterrupted. and if i can use this to justify a shoe purchase, well then, i will.

and on a totally unrelated note, this is a series i like to call, ‘torture’.

oh ya, and if you’re counting, that was only one. bee woke up. so it goes.

so close she can taste it

veggies veggies veggies: baby-friendly salad

January 13, 2014

this takes veggies for babies or toddlers to a whole new level in my book. bee started eating this around eleven months with such gusto that i’ve been making it as often as possible ever since. which is to say, about twice. it’s not your every day throw-together lunch. it’s more like one of those time-consuming, pricey, not-even-totally-filling appetizer/snack dishes that are so hard to convince myself to make on a regular basis. until i remember my baby is eating raw beets. and sprouts. without ranch dressing. and i don’t have to put them in the shape of a monkey smiley face either.

the recipe is from my most favorite cookbook right now, the sprouted kitchen. a gift from my wonderful sister-in-law last christmas, it’s the only cookbook i’ve used in the past year. other bee-approved and i’d even say loved recipes from the blog by the same name include kale pesto (she prefers it on toast to arugula) and lentil meatballs in lemon pesto. all of which require a food processor. perhaps that’s the key to getting babies to eat their veggies.

someone else did the work of transcribing the recipe from print to online (and if you want to really challenge yourself, she even wrote it up in french), so i won’t bother. all i do is skip the collards for bee and i always make her an extra bowl for the following day’s lunch. even with as much tahini-covered quinoa as you can stuff in this thing, you’ll still be hungry after. perhaps something from a different blog so you don’t have to do so much chopping and food processing.

i highly recommend trying it whether you have kids or not. and if you’re in the market for a new cookbook for not simple, but oh-so-satisfying meals, i’ve attempted close to half of the book’s 100 recipes and they have been the only meals husband father has praised all year.

happy tuesday + it’s a…

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January 7, 2014

…BOY! we had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday and are over the moon with the news. little bee is all ready to play dress up with her new baby brother – lucky little man. tutus for all!

truth be told, i was already certain of it. when i was pregnant with bee i went to an acupuncturist who ‘confirmed’ it was a girl by comparing my pulse on both wrists. i was tempted to do that again, but with this pregnancy i’ve had no excuse to go to an acupuncturist. no migraines, no terrible body aches, no queasiness. which is exactly what made me confident that i’m having a little boy. everything’s just the complete opposite from before.

all i am is tired. all the time. so now that i’ve totally worn out bee from all our morning dress up games, time for mama’s naptime, too. or some baby boy online shopping. equally restorative, no?

latest and greatest: green smoothie

(originally posted January 3, 2014)

our family has gone through phases with smoothies. we had the most beautiful piece of garbage blender that husband father and i used almost daily last summer to grind kale into frozen fruit. it would take minutes (that’s a lot in the blender world) and lots of beating the kale to submission, but the effort always seemed worth it. enter: the vitamix. my world has changed due to this thoughtful christmas present from husband father. and even though he has decidedly sworn off smoothies, even of the green variety, i have found the ease of use totally worth the excess calories contained in a beverage that has no belly-filling qualities. also, if we start the day with one of these, i don’t feel as much guilt when lunch-time devolves to goldfish crackers and mini babybels in the car. i can also legitimize the expense since i’ve got a baby in me which otherwise limits my liquid-drinking expenditures.

i usually just throw in what we have around for smoothies, but i’ve made the same one three days in a row without change, so something must be right about it. i find it best to hide the ingredients from bee until it’s done. she just dies if i don’t give her an entire kiwi if she sees one and she’s appeared to realize that i put kale and spinach in smoothies which she ‘knows’ she’s not into. so this is usually when i resort to her 2 minutes of tv time if she isn’t otherwise engaged.

so there’s a handful of iron from spinach,  sweetness from a kiwi, and a perfect tart pop (rather than starting the day with a pop tart) from double the lime you’d throw in your dos equis. perfection. just ask little bee.

daily green smoothie

i find this makes the perfect 8-10 ounce serving for me and bee to share. i don’t understand all these beaker and ball-jar portions of smoothies people are apparently chugging. seems like way too many liquid calories to me. but, you can always double or triple the proportions if it suits you.

• 1/3 of an english cucumber
• 1 kiwi, peeled
• 1/2 cup frozen mango chunks
• 2 slices of lime, squeezed
• handful of spinach
• 1/3 cup coconut milk (from the can is best, but the drink-product works, too)
• drizzle agave syrup
• 2 ice cubes

blend and drink.

sixteen months young

January 3, 2014

today marks 16 months in bee’s little life.

new loves :: sleeping in past 5am. horray! // playing dress up. ribbons, mouse ears, tutus. she’ll take it all // shopping at the mall. she signs ‘more’ every time we leave a store. hey, i’ll take it

new words :: bup-eeze (up please) // bubatzie (betsy) // no (90 percent of the time directed at poor bubatzie)

favorite books :: flo & wendell by william wegman. can you guess why? // the belly book by the dr. suess. she’s obsessed with the page where the kids get sick from eating too many sweets. it’s bizarre

we don’t mark every month gone by with fanfare, but today i decided would be a day all about her. so, we did some misty-morning backpacking. someone’s gotta carry the diapers…

we collected rocks, peered out at the misty willamette on the eastbank esplanade and made our way to omsi‘s science playground. once she had fully exhausted herself, we dined with husband father at boke bowl. when the day isn’t even half over and you’ve got this to carry inside, you know it was a good day.

a baby girl’s first snow day (or…minutes)

December 19, 2013

the other day, portland had it’s first blast of snow. of course, the entire city shut down – schools closed, everyone huddled indoors for warmth. but not little bee. she wanted to go outside immediately to discover what this snow was that we kept reading about. here’s how it went down.

 

to my ever-loving-outdoors-girl, this powdery dusting of snow looks ever-so-inviting

yes, we wear boy pajamas sometimes. no shame

it was a magical first encounter

followed immediately by frozen fingers and tears

never has she ever been excited to come back indoors until now

lucky for mom, bee finally appreciates an indoor day

so i guess the moral of the story is, buy some mittens if you want to play in freezing degrees. or do as i did to tame the beast of an always-begging-to-play-outside-toddler. she hasn’t been the same since. we’ve finally been able to have days without leaving the house a single time with no breakdowns, which before the snow-incident was inconceivable.

new year. new blog. new other stuff.

making 2014 count

originally posted sometime in the early 2014’s

so, i’m undeniably in the sweet spot. between kid one and kid two. i’ve got a nice long nap time in the afternoon (hers, but sometimes mine, too). i’m getting a reasonable amount of sleep every night. my second trimester is bestowing all the energy needed to finish the mundane – laundry, cooking, diaper change, mopping, dishes, diaper change – and even a little extra to prepare mid-morning kale smoothies, shop for all the appropriate ingredients for a balanced dinner while little bee pushes the cart into a display of wine bottles, and get out of the house for daily on-the-cheap kid-centric entertainment. at 16 months now, little bee is finally able to entertain herself for brief stints so i can get a lot more done while she’s awake, too. i really truly thought this day would never come. and while i’m not in a position to go back to my former life as an editor right now (see: baby on the way), i do have time to practice my chosen craft of stringing words together and increase my abilities with my fujifilm x10.

i often catch myself composing blog posts in my head throughout the day – most often when i’m trying to fall asleep. do you do that, too? perhaps i spend too much of my down-time reading other blogs, but i’m just one of those people who gets so sucked in when i can relate my own life to perfect strangers. and i find it inspiring to read about parents travelling for a month in bali with their toddler and i’m so happy to see i’m not the only one who would wake up at 4:45 am for a cronut. from the every day to the not-so-typically, i think we can all inspire, humble, and support each other so much. this is a great space to do it.

since today marks a new year, here’s a snippet of my resolutions:

start writing again. ergo, blog.

get photos organized. ergo, blog again!

unplug and get outside more. somewhere between the crisp autumn days of september and the holidays i gave up my daily runs to the park with bee. i think it has to do with a few instances of carrying her a mile home from the park while pushing the bob when numb hands became too much to bear without a constant hug from mom. toddlers everywhere, there is a solution – mittens! why won’t you keep them on? there are other ways to get outside, of course. bee loves a nice walk as my backpack in the ergo. so that’s what we’ll do. can you possibly think of a more lovely way to fall asleep than snuggled close to mom, bouncing slowly up and down, with the crisp air pinching your cheeks rosy? i can’t. more of that.

more veggies. self-explanatory and hopefully on everyone’s list. i’m planning to regularly feature ways on this blog that bee and i share veggies that aren’t already covered when you google ‘how on earth can i get my toddler to eat veggies?’. seriously people, do we really have to cover everything in ranch dressing and mac and cheese to make it edible to a young pallet?

get more done. this might be a catch-all. but you know that sense of accomplishment when you print and bind that 100-page proposal or when you discover a trend on that pivot table you created? no? you’re a stay-at-home-mom like me? there is no end-point to being a mother. there is no report to print. and though sometimes you get a glorious a-ha moment like ‘so that’s where i put the poopy diaper’, that sense of accomplishment you may have reveled in during a previous life is quite seldom found. so, what’s a mother to do? projects! knit a cowl for your cold puppy, start gluing felt together for next year’s advent calendar, and maybe even finish composing and post a very first blog post.

done and done.