i think i can i think i can

i was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day and learned about NaBloPoMo - do i live under a rock? national blog posting month. who knew? maybe i'll try.

on one hand i feel like it's almost a certainty that i won't make it - every day for a month?

will i buckle under the pressure? do i have anything remotely interesting to post that anyone would be remotely interested in reading? am i the lamest?

but on the other hand, the whole point of doing this blog is to... well... do it.

so maybe this is the perfect kick in the pants i need... and who cares if the six people who know about this blog think i'm boring?

dudes, november starts monday!

on a totally unrelated note, i leave you with one of my favorite photos of all time.

no words can really do it justice so i won't even attempt:

me (left) and my big sister (right) circa 1980.

i am a bunny. my name is bonzo.

as i mentioned previously, the bonz is down with story time.

one of his all time favorites has always been "i am a bunny" which is illustrated by my all time favorite, richard scarry, in 1963.

nicholas the bunny is break-your-heart cute:

lately the bonz waves to him on this page and says "hiiiiii!"

just. dear.


bonz thinks the raccoons are kitties so he points to them and says "meee-owww!"

see what i mean about the cuteness?

it's insane, really.

okay - you get the picture.

so, of course bonzo was going to have to be nicholas for halloween.

enter: etsy.

i found a vintage simplicity pattern from 1965 that just happened to be in bonzo's size - perfect!

next i put in a call to choo choo's mom who's an incredible seamstress (and mother-in-law) to see if she'd help me out in the sewing department since i'm a little rusty...

but i would top off the overalls with a white pick-stitch and big buttons!

then it was back to etsy to find the perfect bunny ears.

i really wanted to make something myself then i got a grip and realized that, while i love to knit, a bunny shaped deadline wasn't the best idea since i haven't yet branched out beyond square and rectangle shapes.

maybe i'd just stick with making the pom pom tail!

and nicholas came to life:

getting ready for the PEP fundraiser on sunday.

dude. seriously with the cuteness?

later!

and here's bonz -wait- nicholas at our weekly music class.

nothing rules as much as a scooter ride does.

happy halloween!

xoxo

oh my muffins!

i have just recently introduced the bonz to wheat.

a couple weeks ago i gave him a piece of sprouted wheat toast... and i've given him a little here and there since then with no sign of reaction so it looks like we're good to go, even though i still plan to keep things low-wheat 'round here.

anyways, today i turned our over-ripe bananas into muffin radness!

here's how:

1/4 cup unrefined organic coconut oil

2 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup organic sucanat

1 organic egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 1/4 cups coconut milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 over-ripe organic bananas, mashed

2-ish tablespoons fresh ground chia seeds

2-ish tablespoons fresh ground flax seeds

2-ish tablespoons fresh ground organic raw sunflower seeds (to sprinkle on top)

preheat oven to 375 degrees.

in one bowl:

combine flour, sucanat, baking powder, salt, chia seeds, flax seeds and egg

in another bowl:

combine coconut milk, oil and vanilla

in a small bowl:

mash bananas

add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine... then add bananas... and stir a bit more.

spray muffin tin (i used a mini tin) with olive oil and fill the cups with batter.

(my mini tin makes 24 muffins and this made the exact amount of batter to fill it)

i sprinkled the tops with ground sunflower seeds because i forgot to add them to the batter...

which turned out to be a happy accident.

bake for about 25 minutes until they're golden brown and your entire house smells so good that you can't wait another minute to pull them out of the oven and sample the goods even though they're so piping hot that you burn the bejeebus out of your mouth - like me.

the bonz took a tiny bite but was too busy obsessing over drinking wa-wa from my glass to focus. i'm sure he'll like them once he slows his roll enough to taste them, though.

co-sleeping perfected

i knew i wanted to co-sleep with my baby... so i dutifully purchased a co-sleeper in preparation for bonzo's arrival.

chooch even sawed down its feet so it would be the perfect height for our platform bed.

i really loved our co-sleeper in the beginning... it was the ideal spot for phase one of sleepytime.

i could nurse bonz to sleep, transfer him eight inches to my right and we could both sleep soundly, inches away from each other, until the first time he'd wake to feed and/or snuggle.

then i'd just scoop him up, get him started nursing and we'd both fall asleep... and there he'd stay until morning (or the next feeding).

once he was more of a baby and less of a teensy newborn, and i felt more comfortable having him in bed next to me and not on a nursing pillow on my chest, i'd roll him down to my right and he'd sleep between the co-sleeper and me, nursing lying down.

pretty soon the co-sleeper became more of a nursing pillow storage unit.

i loved the extra real estate it gave me on my side of the bed but bonz was spending such a short amount of time in it. eight inches became way too far away... he much preferred (and still does) space that's more of the 1 -2 " variety.

plus the co-sleeper's only so big and it bugged how there was vast amounts of space at the head and foot of the bed without its safe landing spot.

so one day i had a little idea and laid it on the chooch.

he's one handy daddy so i figured i'd just throw it out there:

what if we (and by we, of course i mean you, choo-choo) built an extension platform that fills in the gap between my side of the bed and the wall?

i thought he'd have some sort of engineering reason why it wouldn't work that i hadn't considered but he didn't. it was green-lightsville.

i ordered a natural latex mattress topper and we cut it in half lengthwise and doubled it up so it'd be nice and cushy.

a series of measurements later, the chooch retreated to his workshop and out came a perfectly sized platform that fits - like a glove - in the 2 and a half feet between my side of the bed and the wall, both mattress tops totally level to each other without even the slightest gap... well, a very slight gap because they're two different entities but it's nothing, really.

we even took the bumper from bonzo's totally unused crib (jeez, if i knew then what i know now...) and secured it to the wall so it'd be extra cozy.

and there we have it.

the bonz has always been very accepting of sleepytime and co-sleeping really works for our family but, i have to say, the several months we've had this bed set-up have been extra heavenly.

plus me and bonz can really hog the bed without bumming the chooch out, too...

maybe that's why he was so into building it!

who me? cute, i know.

here's flapjack modeling the coziness.

an afternoon at the zoo

we took an impromptu family trip to the zoo the other day... we got there about 3:30 and zipped around a bit before they closed at 5 o'clock.

it was perfection.

it was cool and a little foggy - perfect animal viewing weather - and we felt like we practically had the place to ourselves... well, and the lions, elephants, penguins and giraffes.

the bonz was super pumped.

one of his favorite attractions is the small waterfall at the entry by the swan pond - so trips to the zoo always start out with a bang.

wa-wa!

wa-wa!

wa-wa!

he could proclaim his love for water all day long... it's that exciting.

we headed straight for the train and rode the perimeter of the zoo - only in santa barbara do you have the pacific ocean across the street to your left and three giraffes to your right.

our zoo is so charming and sweet... such a perfect place to spend the afternoon... if you've never been i would highly recommend visiting!

two cutest guys i know...

headed for the train... choo choo!

giraffes in real life...

... are huge!

on the loose.

the sheep says "baah-aaah-aaah!"

too loud and freaky for the bonz.

bonz calls elephants "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

how rad that we just happened upon them while they were... um... painting.

one blows through a short length of pipe with paint in it and the other holds a brush with its trunk.

bonzo couldn't get enough.

here he is signing elephant, squealing "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

little wisps.

words cannot even describe how much i love this tiny human.

almost famous

look who's in the new amelia jane ad in the oct/nov 2010 issue of santa barbara magazine!

this is the last issue that will have my name in the masthead after five and a half years (i've been working from home on a part-time/freelance basis since bonzo was born).

my new job title for my imaginary masthead is: stay at home mom.

yay!

story time

the bonz has been working on cutting a couple molars... so he's demanded extra cuddles and story time these past few days which is pretty awesome - for the most part.

i mean, the cuddles and sweetness completely rules but the bonz's stylings when it comes to story time can be a little intense:

he is totally game to read the same board book 25 times in a row. literally.

(i wish i had the same enthusiasm the twenty third time as i did the second.)

then sometimes he just wants me to hold the book while he just turns pages willy nilly.

other times he wants to start one book, switch to another before i can get the first two words out, repeat, repeat, repeat... and repeat some more.

i get it, he's 14 months old - this is pretty normal stuff... and i love every minute of him, intense or otherwise.

anyways, here's what's in heavy rotation:

ps: more on one of these titles coming soon... prepare for cuteness.

deliciousness

i'm so stoked on our fig tree.

i don't know why it took me so long to realize that fresh figs totally rule.

they're a good source of fiber, potassium and manganese, dudes.

and they're beautiful.

and bonzo likes them.

we're almost at the end of the season so i'm thoroughly enjoying what's left on the tree.

my goal for next year is to make preserves and such with all the fruit from our yard:

apricots, plums, peaches and my new faves: figs.

a quick google search for homemade fig jam brought me here.

and how yummy do these sound?

i'm totally excited.

first order of business

i ordered bonzo his first pair of cons - now that he's such a pro with the walking, i thought he deserved a pair of big boy shoes.

they're just a little harder for him to walk in but what they lack in practicality they more than make up for in cuteness.

behold:

we were pretty stoked to have a rainy day this week so we could bundle up and get a little muddy exploring the side yard.

bonzo was pretty pumped on the all the apricot tree's leaves covering the ground, the slimy water in the bird bath - and, of course, the old hose.

fun stuff.