A fun week

Ben, living the good life.  

On this particular trip to the park there was a family with FOUR boys.  Ben was having a blast running after them and I especially enjoyed when the littlest boy (probably 3.5 or 4) yelled to him, "Come on, Baby!!" inviting Ben to come with them.  It's times like this where I feel the urge to give Ben a sibling.  

(And then that urge quickly passes) :)

Stomping flowers in the back yard.

Since our garbage can reeked of fish and shit, I took it upon myself to hose it down and disinfect it.  Ben constantly yelled

"I TRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" until I finally handed over the hose.  It was hilarious.  Needless to say, he ended up soaked.

At the park.  Greg and I took turns running on the Burke Gilman Trail and playing with Ben.

Hugs for Violet!

Trying to get a group shot with three kiddos is always a fun challenge.  It took 30 pics but we managed to (sort of) get one.

Ben's new game.  No idea why he must remove ALL of the pillows off the couch before falling back onto the seat cushions, but that's his jam.

Lately, and all the time, I will walk into a room to find Ben lying flat on the floor to get eye-level with his trucks as he pushes them around him.  He will be yelling "garbage truck comingggggggggggggggg, dump truck cominggggggggggggggg" (from his book) and it's just about the cutest thing ever.

He also has been into kicking them down the hallway:

Lining them up nicely by the front window before ramming them all into one another :)

His other favorite game lately is to drive them up the yoga mat ramp and drop them onto the floor.  

Off the bottle

No, not me and Greg.  We obviously still partake...

...but BEN has finally kicked the habit.  Let's be clear, it's my own fault for allowing him to drink his milk from a bottle until the ripe old age of 2 2/3 - BUT he just loved it so much that it was super hard for me to take it away.  Combined with the fact that I assumed (correctly) that he would REFUSE to drink milk from any other type of cup, I worried that he wouldn't get enough dairy/calcium/fat, etc.

The first morning/evening was tough as he always requests milk at those times, and cried the minute I pulled out a regular cup from the drawer.  But after that, it's been a non issue.  We have managed to get him to drink warm, "chocolate" milk (carnation instant breakfast) a handful of times - and he has absolutely been an eating machine this past week (making up for those lost milk calories, I presume).  

I'm proud of my big boy.

Next up = getting rid of the binky.  He has exactly 3 left, and all of them are "broken" (i.e. he has chewed a hole in them and they don't "suck" appropriately).  I had assumed that he would just give them up once they stopped working, but he still enjoys having them near at night.  I've toyed with the idea of telling him we had to give them to his friend Baby Raleigh - but perhaps that might create resentment ;)

Next up following the binky - potty training.  Kind of hoping to have that complete before the end of summer - and DEFINITELY hoping to be done with diapers before our trip to Cabo in October.  

Stay tuned!  Growing up is hard (for mama).

Oh how I love you

Meal planning: Week of June 10th

Review from last week:

Dinner on Sunday - Halibut Veracruzana.  Definitely one of our top dishes these days.

I made the summer rolls and had them for lunch on Monday since Greg didn't seem very interested in them.  I was quite happy to have them to myself!  The best part is that Blue Apron sent more than enough of the rice paper, so I'm going to try to make this one again and add shrimp to it in the future (even though I thought they were pretty perfect as is).

The maple and ginger glazed salmon rocked my world.

Hilary, Violet, Rachel and Cooper came over for dinner on Wednesday evening since it was Hil's last night in town, so I picked up pizza for an easy dinner.

Tonight we had pork medallions with rhubarb chutney & sauteed freekah.  I had zero idea what freekah was before making it tonight, but after a little web search, I learned that it is a "young green wheat that has been toasted and cracked".  It's a healthy whole grain that apparently has an incredibly high fiber content and is an excellent source or protein.  Holla.

The best part was that Greg and I both LOVED this dish.  I swear, I'm so proud of Greg's new-found adventurous eating skills.

Plan for next week:

Friday: Having Lemon-Parsley Chicken Thighs (Blue Apron) since we didn't make it last week.

Saturday: Chicken wedge salad with apple, walnuts and lemon blue cheese dressing.  OR spinach and cheese raviolis from Costco.  Depends how much we feel like cooking that day.

Sunday: We have plans to go to my friend Susan's for a little reunion/BBQ with some of the people we did teacher training with.  I'm excited to see everyone!  I'll be bringing a salad.

Monday: Kale Caesar Salad (with chicken).

Tuesday: My uncle is in town visiting, so he and my parents are coming over for dinner and bringing Brier Pizza take out with them :)

Wednesday: Staff dinner for me that evening, so Greg gets to wing it at home.

Thursday: Grilled flank, (we bought a ton of it at Cash & Carry recently - can you tell?) prosciutto and scallops with an arugula salad.

Kristin's Bridal Shower

My friend Kristin (who I met back in my Starbucks days) is getting married next month in Hawaii!  Since we are not able to join them, I REALLY wanted to do something to celebrate with her.  It worked out perfectly that I could host a bridal shower brunch this weekend for some of her girlfriends! :)

I cannot wait to see photos of her and Craig's special day and I look forward to what the future holds for them!  XOXO

Greg's video archive of Ben

We finally figured out how to upload videos from Greg's phone to my YouTube account so that I can upload them to the blog!  

Recent Happenings

Food has been dominating my blog and Instagram lately.  What can I say?  It's clearly become a passion.  (Eating has always been a passion...but meal planning and cooking has almost become equally enjoyable for me)!

WE MADE A SANDBOX!  We are lucky to have planter boxes surrounding the yard, none of which I have taken the time to plant anything in yet.  Since this box is in the shade quite a bit, and close to the BBQ and our deck, we decided to convert it into a sandbox.  It's been so much fun having a place to contain him while we spend time outside.

With Violet and Hilary in town visiting, we decided to see if Ben was more willing to share his bath.

MUCH more enjoyable than their last shared bath experience.

Ben has been such a joy lately.  Both Greg and I have been noticing his using "please" and "thank you" quite regularly and often unprompted.  It's AMAZING.  

"Happy song, please mama".  "Turn it up, please".  "Snack, please".  "Thank you, mama".  "Park, dada, please"?

And his response to about 80% of my requests these days?  

"Okay, mama".

We recently spent some time watching videos from all the greats.

But then he just wanted to watch his favorite cut.

Book time!  Love how much he loves to read now.  His favorites are Little Blue Truck and Little Blue Truck Leads The Way.  We read them constantly and he knows every word.

After hearing about them from another mom, I purchased these Jelly BeadZ on Amazon for Ben.  You basically soak them in water and after 4 hours or so, they become these little squishy beads that you can throw around outside.  The fun part is that after they sit out for awhile, they shrink back down so there isn't much (or any) clean up required.

Hilary and I had a fun night out in Bellevue doing lots of wine sampling at Purple Cafe and Lot 3.  Yum!

And the following day, more wine (and nails) with these girls (plus Raleigh) :)

Benny got some new shoes (size 8!!) this weekend.  They make the coolest shoes for little dudes.

Our favorite time of day - JAMMIES

Playing outside and being destructive.