Alligator!

This morning I checked out a consignment shop, Labels (they have nice women's clothing and shoes too), up on Greenwood. For you locals, way better prices than Me and Mom's. I snagged a cute alligator costume for Max for Halloween, $13. Some cute pictures will follow!

We've been enjoying cool mornings and afternoons in the 70's. This afternoon's plan is a stop at the playground, and a walk down the hill to our local health food store for some of their lovely roasted chicken. It's a steal at $9, the organic chicken is so well marinated that you can make an excellent chicken soup out of the leftovers.

I'm looking forward to a night out with Shawn on Thursday, we're celebrating our 6th anniversary and will be going on a date longer than 2 hours for the first time! We're going out for a drink, dinner, and a show at On The Boards while Alicia and Loren watch Max...I hope he'll go to sleep for them, if he doesn't he'll have a fun late night, he loves his Aunt and Uncle!

Friday

Friday is finally here after a long week. Max's teeth must be bothering him again, I wish those bicuspids would hurry up and finish their descent. He hasn't slept through the night in over a week. We didn't realize how good we had it for awhile there.

I just got him down for a nap after a 2 hour stint at the playground north of the zoo. He had a fantastic time cruising the whole place, and I've learned it's wise to bring a spare pair of pants. With these damp mornings he gets absolutely soaked going down slides, and covered with dirt in the sandbox. This morning he ate his first full handful of sand, with a surprised look on his face as he tasted it all. I managed to get most of it out of his mouth and then he ate a snack. I wish he had a better way of letting me know he wants food.

We are looking forward to the weekend, tomorrow I'm probably going to the Seattle Public Library booksale, a gigantic crazy event. It's a great place to score books on the cheap, but not a place for kids. Book dealers swarm the place and they will mow you down to grab a good book. Sunday afternoon our friends are having a birthday party for their son who is turning three, and Sunday evening Alicia, Loren, and Katherine are coming over for Alicia's second birthday dinner. Fun!

I'm relishing life's simple pleasures today. Good friends, a beautiful fall morning at the park with my happy son, and a cup of hot tea and some tasty beef stew (Mark Bittman's Classic Beef Stew recipe) on the stove.

My Macaroni

I've come up with an easy, tasty, and quick macaroni recipe that can be made with gluten free rice pasta (this one is for you, Susie!)

Melt 3-4 Tablespoons of butter in a large sauce pan on medium low heat.
Add 2 cloves of chopped garlic and a chopped medium onion or a thinly sliced leek.
Optional at this point, 4 or 5 slices of chopped bacon or turkey bacon.
Season with salt and pepper.
Saute for 5 minutes, uncovered

Add 1 cup of chicken broth, bring to a boil, then lower heat and cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

In a small pan heat over low, stirring for 5 minutes, 1/4 cup of flour or rice flour.

Slowly whisk in flour or rice flour into large pan until mixture thickens. Add 2 cups of milk. Stir over low medium heat until thickened. Stir in 1/2 cup of crumbled goat cheese or 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

While in the first cooking stage, boil up some pasta, about 2 cups dry, and steam some veggies. I usually steam cut up green beans and cauliflower. I've also used frozen peas and broccoli. When the sauce is done, combine with pasta and veggies. This makes a really good one pot meal.

Condos

Condos have been sprouting up like weeds in Seattle. I had to link to this hilarious site.
Hee hee.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was a full one. Saturday, I got together with my Dad and siblings at my brother's house in Lynnwood (North of Seattle) for a sibling reunion. This is the first time we'd been in the same place at the same time in about 6 years. It was fun to bbq (albeit in the rain), hang out, and play Simpson's trivia. Max had a fabulous time running around with his 5 year old cousin Bryce, and I enjoyed holding baby Caden (4 months). Teresa prepared some delicious salmon, lightly marinated in soy sauce and then grilled on kabobs. I am looking forward to making it on the grill next summer.

Ruth left for San Jose this morning. We really enjoyed her visit and hope she comes back soon. We got to spend some time with Ruth and Grace this morning and then Grace took off with Pete and Bryce to go bowling.

The sun made a brief appearance this afternoon and we hopped on the bus and went into Ballard for a bbq at a friend's house. Max enjoyed pilfering through the garden for the last of summer's strawberries (he found one half ripe berry) and picked and ate several cherry tomatoes.

This evening Alicia and Loren came over and we had pizza on the roof to celebrate Alicia's birthday. Happy 31st, Alicia!

Rainy Saturday

Fall is really here, it's been grey for a few days, and we awoke to rain this morning. I am a little bummed about the weather as we'll have to spend most of our time at my brother's inside, we had planned an outside bbq.

Mostly I'm blogging this morning to gloat that Max said "My Mama" yesterday for the first time as he patted me. It's thrilling to hear him put two words together. He's also said: "Bye-bye, Daddy" a few times when Shawn's left for work.

We're enjoying our visit with Aunt Ruth, she's been reading a lot of books to Max. He had fun this morning at Playmatters, a cool drop-in playroom about 30 blocks north of us. He's napping now and I'm enjoying some quiet while Shawn and Ruth are picking up Grace from the train station.

Side note, Shawn and I are really enjoying the HBO series Mad Men, an interesting, entertaining drama. Check it out!

Crashing a party

Our neighborhood is rapidly changing, beautiful old houses are being torn down to make way for boring townhouses, and recently a charming old apartment building was converted to condos. We've been watching and listening to the construction for months. The other day Max and I were on our way to our friend Jasper's house and noticed a sign out for an open house in the building. I also spotted caterers carrying in tasty looking morsels. Our friends live directly across the street from this building, so we decided to take our two 1 year old boys and crash the open house.

These 1 bedroom condos are 355-395k, well out of both our families price ranges (not that we're even considering purchasing a home at this time). Sauntering in with Max on my hip and my substantially pregnant friend with her 1 year old son, we obviously were not in the market for one of these condos. We oooed and aaahed at the slab granite counter tops and the restored crown molding and the sales representative told us we could go upstairs to one of the empty units and look around. The boys had the best time tearing around an empty condo chasing each other around, we enjoyed watching all the upscale urbanites rushing around setting the stage trying to sell these condos in a bad market, and we loaded up on free swanky appetizers. Fremont is going upscale!

Awaiting Aunt Ruth's Arrival

Aunt Ruth is arriving in a half hour or so. We're looking forward to her visit, and showing her around our part of Seattle. Max napped really late today, from 5-6pm so he'll be up to greet her. He probably planned this.

Big steps for Max today, literally, he learned to climb our apartment stairs standing on his own (not climbing on all fours anymore). He also led me by the hand from our apartment around the corner to our friend Jasper's house. And at dinner he had his first gnocchi and cabbage. Go Max!

Sunny Tuesday

I love this photo and just had to share it.

This morning Max and I were on our way to the playground at 8:15AM. I get up earlier now than when I worked outside the home. He woke at 6 this morning so he was beating on the door (no exaggeration) by 8:10. He loved seeing all the dogs out for their morning constitutionals with their owners (we live in a neighborhood with a plethora of dogs) and he also delighted in climbing all the way up the play structure and going down a tubular slide by himself. I discovered he didn't need me to hover the entire time. I actually got to drink my coffee. The big hit of the morning was a mud puddle, he jumped and splashed and had a smashing time. By the time we got home he realized his shoes were soaked and that he was cold and uncomfortable. The little guy fell asleep on my lap wrapped up in a flannel blanket and has been counting sheep for an hour now. I love my days at home with Max.

Sarah Palin

Interesting post copied from a friends blog.

Please read this outstanding piece by Rebecca Traister on the Palinesque bastardization of feminist rhetoric. And then weep for the future.

What Palin so seductively represents, not only to Donny Deutsch but to the general populace, is a form of feminine power that is utterly digestible to those who have no intellectual or political use for actual women. It's like some dystopian future ... feminism without any feminists.

Palin's femininity is one that is recognizable to most women: She's the kind of broad who speaks on behalf of other broads but appears not to like them very much. The kind of woman who, as Jessica Grose at Jezebel has eloquently noted, achieves her power by doing everything modern women believed they did not have to do: presenting herself as maternal and sexual, sucking up to men, evincing an absolute lack of native ambition, instead emphasizing her luck as the recipient of strong male support and approval. It works because these stances do not upset antiquated gender norms. So when the moment comes, when tolerance for and interest in female power have been forcibly expanded by Clinton, a woman more willing to throw elbows and defy gender expectations but who falls short of the goal, Palin is there, tapped as a supposedly perfect substitute by powerful men who appreciate her charms.

Friday!

We're all happy it's Friday, it has been a long week. I'm happy that Max and I have fended off our colds with an herbal wellness formula given to us by one of our generous neighbors. This stuff really works! Max is napping after waking early this morning, and he enjoyed our trip out to the airport to pick up friends who returned from a vacation in Hawaii. Several times on our drive he happily exclaimed "Guck!" -this is his word for all cars, trucks, and buses. We were borrowing our friends car while they were gone and I think Max will miss it. When we got home he sat in his car seat in the living room for awhile.

I'm looking forward to a mellow weekend, I think we are meeting friends for coffee and donuts at Top Pot Donuts tomorrow morning. They are the best donuts in Seattle, heavy and cakey, very satisfying, and not overly sweet like Krispy Kreme. Then Shawn will get some time to hang out with his friend Lion at Saturday House.

If I'm feeling energetic I'll take Max over to the "mud pit" (giant sand pit with running water) at the playground, he is so happy when he can play in the mud, he grins from ear to ear. Photos will follow if we make it over there.

It must be fall

Max and I are fighting off colds. We're going to beat them! He's already napping which means he must be feeling tired, and I'm self medicating with tea and buttered bread. I don't really want coffee today, so that really means something's up. You're going to have to go to a different apartment, cold...we've got too nice of weather and fun things to do with friends. That's right, too busy for a cold.

I'm thoughtful today, it was 2 years ago today that I found out I was pregnant. Even though Max was planned, it was still such a surprise to discover I was pregnant, Shawn wasn't, apparently he expected me to be knocked up. Those Kilburns sure do have lots of kids! And now 2 years later we've got a wonderful Max who is changing so much every day. This morning while lounging in bed with us he was pointing to his nose, feet, and hair. Smart boy.

Today being September 11 is making me thoughtful, too. I'm thinking of all of the families devastated by this tragedy, sending peaceful and healing vibes to them. Namaste.

Fall Happenings

We've got a busy fall coming up, next week Aunt Ruth is flying in from San Jose and next weekend Aunt Grace will take the train up from Portland. We'll spend some time out in Lynnwood with my brother's family and I think my Dad will drive up to Seattle. This will be the first time in about 6 years that all of my siblings and I will be together in the same place. I'm looking forward to hanging out and seeing how little nephew Caden has grown and changed. Max is really into babies right now and I'm sure he will enjoy watching his little cousin, as well as following Bryce around and imitating what he is up to. The first weekend in October is our 6 year anniversary (where does the time go?!), a good friend from Portland will be spending the weekend with us, I'm sure Max will love the company. Then, later in October Grandma Rose is coming for a weekend, we always enjoy her visits and Max loves spending time with his Grandma.

Shawn's in the fourth week of his job and it's going really well, he is really enjoying the challenge and variety of his work. I feel so fortunate in our life right now, with his new job, my great job that allows me to be home with Max, our great neighborhood full of friends (and 6 stay at home moms to hang with), our cozy little apartment, and Max is healthy and happy, life is good.

Max is sleeping in this morning after thoroughly wearing himself out at the playground yesterday afternoon with his cousins and Aunt Patty and showing off for his 2 year old friend who we babysat last night. I'm enjoying some quiet and coffee this morning and ruminating about how to get him to eat more vegetables, if the flavors are good, he'll go for it... meaning, if I do something interesting with brocolli, he'll eat it...so I'm wondering, if I stir steamed, chopped spinach into mac and cheese, will he go for it? Would he eat steamed carrots with olive oil and kosher salt? These are my deep thoughts these days... (and how am I going to get him to eat some of the metric ton of cabbage that showed up in our organic produce delivery yesterday?)

Wonderful early fall tuesday

The weather is bright and sunny and warm today, I love Seattle in September. I took Max over to a friends house in Queen Anne today to visit Isabella, we met her parents in our birth class and she and Max share a birthday. J. made me a delicious latte (we love Cafe Fiore beans) and the kids played while we tried to have a conversation over breaking up squabbles over toys. I crammed in a trip to the grocery store and Max was so tired on the way home I sang to him to keep him awake. He's napping now, but probably not for long as the landlord next door whom we've dubbed "the workhorse" has fired up his insanely loud lawnmower. I'm heating up some chicken and vegetable soup for Max and hopefully after lunch we will join Cousins Alicia and Isobel and Aunty Patty at the zoo! Tonight a friend's 2 year old daughter will be here for a few hours while her mom is at a little party...she's bringing us Tutta Bella pizza as our rewards. Yum. Skimming back over this my life is all about kids and food these days.

First post

I created this blog as a journal of sorts to keep track of our life and jot down daily happenings and special memories. I haven't put together a baby book for Max yet and although I've meant to I just haven't gotten around to it yet. So, this will be a virtual memory book. I also want to broaden our meals and think of more interesting things to cook and create so I'll be posting some recipes too.
Fall is here and we are loving the weather, cool mornings and wonderful warm afternoons. Today we ran apartment errands, had fun in the aisles of Uwajimaya, played at Fremont Peak Park with Katie P. and Phin, Max had a super long nap and then we hung out in a friends backyard. A fun day! Shawn's doing storytime now, reading Dr. Seuss books to him and I'm off to nurse him to sleep....more later.