thirty five

re-fresh-ing

chooch's mom always has this tea in her fridge and it's one of my favorites. well, pretty much anything that comes out of that kitchen instantly becomes a favorite but that's another story altogether.

it's super duper easy to make and it's super duper yummy to drink. it's just mandarin orange spice tea, brewed cold with a bit of lemon and sweet. it's perfect for this time of year – almost fall but not quite – the spice flavor feels like fall but the hint of sweet over ice still screams summer. i love it rain or shine.

fill a pitcher (mine's like 88 ounces, i think) with filtered (obviously, right?) water and four tea bags:


add one or two spoonfuls of lemonade concentrate – i like this one because the ingredient list doesn't make me cringe:


or the juice of a couple lemons and a bit of agave is also nice:


mix it all together and refrigerate. it'll be ready to pour in a couple hours but keep the bags in there and it'll just keep getting better.

it's best over lots of ice cubes. or ice creams as bonzo calls them.
(such adorable innocence: he's not tryin' to be cute, he just thinks they're called ice creams. the cuteness hurts my heart.)

oh, and as an aside, i'm pretty sugar-police over here. especially if it's something bonzo will want to share with me.  i think the lemonade concentrate version tastes the best and, really, the sugar is so dilute when all is said and done that i still sign off on this as being a totally okay for consumption.

however, if bonzo wants his own glass – to drink "all by my own self", as he says – i'll still do 1 part tea to 3 parts water. stoke extinguisher, i know.

but, dude. sugar. it's just no good.

goodness

our new thing is kneading and oooh-aaahs.
kneading is when i knead bonzo's bitty legs like dough. oooh-aaahs are when i give his legs light tickle strokes. and they're trance inducing, let me tell you. he loves it. who wouldn't?

a week or two ago, while kneading his legs, i told chooch how good it must feel on bonzo's growing body. since then bonzo requests "kneading on your growing body, mama."

and when i'm kneading and he's ready for oooh-aaahs? "just oooh-aaahs, mama. just oooh-aaahs... there you go!"

i love it because he's totally not being bossy about it, he's just sayin' what he wants. just matter of fact. but the kicker is the encouragement he gives me. the "there you go!" is the best. such juicy goodness.



i'll never get enough of kneading these little limbs.

around the house

being out and about is rad – bonzo and i sure love a good adventure – but nothing beats being at home, hanging out, quieting down and enjoying and appreciating the little things.



"i'm hosin' mama!"






the work of one very helpful helper:


bonzo's sucky-lents:








in the garage with daddy...


... with an impromtu art project to keep busy hands occupied.




at long last, our sunflowers have bloomed:






and now we have cheerful little bouquets throughout the house:


fresh picked sprigs of mint smell heavenly and look pretty on the kitchen windowsill:


there's something about seeing bonzo's bunz all in a row on the clothesline, swaying in the breeze and being bleached by the sun, that is so satisfying and cute:


in his own, sweet world playing 'struction site in the shade.
just a little boy, some trucks, sand and his imagination:




and that's the haps 'round here...

wordless/wednesday

old school/new school

since my vintage – scratch that: childhood – books have made it into our daily rotation, i've had a couple laughs about the differences between the 1978 printing of richard scarry's best word book ever and the 1991 printing that i bought for bonzo a few months ago.

bonz is pretty roll with the punches, though.
as long as he's devouring one or the other, he's a happy guy. in fact, he's just stoked on the extra copy so he can count on having one bedside and one to tote around the house willy nilly.

no matter which way you slice it, richard scarry rules.
the powers that be must have just felt like they needed to dial up the gender equality and dial down the stereotypes to make it more... well... modern maybe?

my vote's totally for the old school version. obviously.
but life moves on. daddy bunnies help in the kitchen and girl bears pave roads. it's just how it goes.


old on the left, new on the right:






they nixed the notion of being a cowboy when one grows up. along with being a commuter or train conductor in favor of being a reporter or photographer:





this spread – one of my childhood faves – doesn't even exist in the new school edition:

.







now we've got ma out there earning her keep:

this page fell by the wayside, too:

last words of the day didn't make the cut? tough crowd.

happy reading!
xo

can't wait

oh, and there's this. kinda can't wait to see it.
i like my movies light and feel-good these days. totally not looking to be freaked out, depressed, confused or bored, man!

just a fine and fancy ramble to the zoo

bonzo and i don't exactly lead a real deadline oriented lifestyle but somehow there's almost always something on the schedule – hanging out with pals, getting errands done and (trying to) stay on top of life's day-to-day stuff.

but it's always nice to have at least one or two days a week where we don't have anywhere to be or anything in particular to do. today was one of those days so we decided to spend the morning at the zoo, one of bonzo's very favorite places. and a place that's found its way out of our weekly rotation due to summer crowds and chaos. we much prefer our zoo when it's ours – on a quiet weekday morning!

i was laughing to myself as i was trying to get bonzo and i out of the house because we've fallen into a serious one-step-forward-two-steps-back routine trying to check the basics off the list so we can leave the house. it's like herding cats. only it's one cat, not a herd. actually it's like a chimpanzee not a cat. seriously.

either way, it's a song and a dance, dude.
sometimes just climbing into the driver's seat of the car with bonzo safely buckled in behind me feels like a momentary vacation!

and like i said, we're not exactly having to watch the clock, either. we're just shootin' to be at the zoo when they open at ten. but it's pretty loosey goosey, you know?

in spite of it all, i'd still totally classify me and bonzo as pretty dang punctual. it's just the lead up that's comical.

and so it goes. off to the zoo.

lucky for us, today's the first day all the otter babies went on exhibit.

it was a pretty big deal, let me tell you. it was a toss-up for bonzo: baby otters/zoo camp campers.
both very fun to watch.





in march of 2010 our zoo received a giraffe from the los angeles zoo who, unbeknownst to anyone, was five months pregnant. then in january of this year, a baby was born. they named him daniel. bonzo's obsessed. he named him – and every giraffe we own – baby daniel.












then there was a tumble. scraped knees, scraped hands, gravel in the mouth. tears. bonzo's first band-aid, or bando, as he called it. luckily baby daniel was there to kiss it better.


now this:

things

sometimes you realize that things just don't work the same way they'd been working all along. routines shift, rituals evolve, things change.

but one thing i think about (at minimum) every morning and evening is how happy and thankful i am that we co-sleep with the bonz. it's some of the juiciest time and it just continues to work so well for us – with very, very minimal changes or adjustments. it just works.

it won't always, though. it'll change at some point for sure. when the time's right things will evolve. isn't that the very best time for things to happen?

i know co-sleeping's not for everyone and i give hi-fives to all for doing what does work for their family but, to me, nothing is more scrumptious – and easy and natural and fulfilling and amazing and cozy – than sleeping next to, and waking up to this:

books for bonzo

a certain someone i know has settled into what appears to be an every-other-day nap schedule, making it a little more difficult for a certain someone else (hint: me) to keep up on... well... things.

gloriously no-nap days commence with an early, easy bedtime so you won't hear any complaints out of this mama.

anyhoo, at the moment bonzo is snugged up for some cozy time with a couple new-to-him books.

yesterday i unearthed three of my childhood richard scarry books at my mom's house and bonzo has been in hog heaven with them since the moment he laid eyes on them. they are some seriously well loved books so i spent a little time doing some crazy-makeshift book repair this morning despite last night's grand idea of having them properly/professionally repaired.

there was just no way these could be anywhere but in heavy, daily rotation so out came the clear packing tape and a pair of scissors.

we pretty much worship richard scarry around here and bonzo's one happy guy with his new old books – taped bindings, ripped pages and all.

the differences between my childhood (ahem: vintage) copies and the modern day versions are pretty funny – if not a little sad. there are certain omissions and changes to make them more politically correct and up to date, i guess. still cute, indeed. but the original content is just so much more rad.

either way, seeing bonzo's sweet nose buried in my old – or his new – richard scarry books is the best.