good morning

the typical morning around here goes something like this:
wake up, have nursies, go up front, have a pre-breakfast bite, get cozy, cuddle – probably have a few more nursies – then get down to it: books, play-doh, trucks, ball.

of course there are bonus points on tuesdays, garbage day.
the shades are pulled up by 7 o'clock and we're waving at our guys from the window by 7:03. living on a cul-de-sac means an extra pass-by complete with an extra dose of back-up beepin'.

it's good stuff.

looking forward

after over two and a half years of rear facing – with very few complaints i might add – bonzo's officially forward facing in the car as of a couple weeks ago and let me tell you, he's pretty sure his ship has sailed!

his seat can stay rear facing until 35 lbs – he's knocking on the door of 30 lbs but we decided the time was right. when the baby is born, they'll have to each be on the outer seats – that's giving me anxiety already. i like bonzo right smack dab in the middle of the back seats... but i digress.

i love being able to reach my arm around and pat his sweet little legs, though. and it's been so much fun talking about all the stuff we see because we're seeing it together in real time. he wants to know the name of every street we pass and he's also the official construction spotter – a job he takes quite seriously. he's on the lookout at all times.

(here's some good rear facing info if anyone's interested.)

when life gives you oranges

i was telling my mama that i wanted to get a good citrus juicer the other day. i have a little glass one which is great for little bits of juice here and there but i wanted to step up the OJ production around here a bit since fresh orange juice cannot be beat.
into the cupboards she went and out she came with the electric juicer we had when we were kids: the proctor silex "jucit", baby.
i'm so stoked on this thing. it's rad that it's still around and everything about it reminds me of being little. turns out the chooch had the same one growing up, too.

and now so does the bonz.


i had some help hauling our harvest from the tree to the kitchen.




"little oranges bowls!"


bottoms up, bonzo.

perfect early spring dinner

last night's dinner was a crowd pleaser. everyone had seconds and there were high-fives all around. it turned out to be the perfect way to wrap up the first day of spring: sitting at the table with my people, sharing a homemade meal.

i made gp's spaghetti limone parmeggiano, friends. she's not kidding when she says it's easy peasy. it is. but it's as delish as it is simple – so basically it's perfection.

i served it with a basic green salad. just butter lettuce, tomatoes and, also from gp, what is now my standby vinaigrette.

i'm certain this pasta would taste just as yummy leftover and cold but, since we ate every last bite, i can't speak from experience.

anyways, the whole lemony shebang just tasted like spring to me. yum yum.

spaghetti limone parmeggiano
• 3/4 lb. (3/4 box) spaghetti (i used rigatoni so it'd be easier for bonzo to eat)
• 1 lemon
• 1.5 cups finely grated fresh parmesan cheese – plus extra for serving (i got a super good wedge at whole foods and would definitely say that the better the cheese, the better the dish. obviously.)
• .5 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2.5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3-5 tablespoons pasta water, to thin
• handful fresh basil leaves (from 4 leafy stems)

boil the pasta in salted boiling water according to package directions.

meanwhile, using a microplane, grate the zest from the lemon into a large mixing bowl. cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into a the bowl. add the parmesan, pepper, pinch of salt and mix in the olive oil to form a wet paste.

when the pasta is perfectly cooked, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of the cooking water to the lemon and cheese mixture. add the pasta to the bowl and toss thoroughly, adding another tablespoon or two of pasta water if ncedssary so that the sauce coasts each strand.

add basil, serve with a sprinkle of coarse salt (which i skipped), a fresh grind of pepper, and a few gratings of extra parmesan. let's just say bonzo had a couple gratings of extra parmesan. he loooooves it.


ps: it's always something, right? sigh.

twenty seven

so this here's the second photo of this pregnancy. and it's from the iphone. again.
goal: use real camera more often. for this and everything else.
(oh that phone camera has made me lay-zee!)

as you can see bonz had some jammied excavating to do – no concern for me and my sad little self portrait.

things and stuff

oh, hi.
yeah. the past couple weeks sure went by in a hurry.
lots done, lots not done. you know how it goes.

for starters, i'm twenty-freaking-seven weeks along as of today. twenty seven.
the punchline, of course, being that i've taken a sum total of one photo of myself to document this pregnancy. dude. at this point in bonzo's pregnancy? let's just say i had a few more. like probably forty more. sigh.

but just when i'm being too hard on myself i remember a few small details:
1. i got up and properly (well, most days) dressed five out of seven days a week.
2. everything was a first.
3. life was just different. real different.

so these days i guess i can't blame myself for not wanting to take a self portrait on a regular basis. but i need to hop to it nonetheless. the book of ours baby will be a pamphlet if i don't.

anyhoo, onto the haps!

any local – present or past – knows a certain number by heart.
it's 564-1111. rusty's pizza. and they know that no pizza gets ordered without three sides of ranch. duh.
and bonz? he's on board alright. would you like some pizza to go with your ranch, bud?



the other morning he noticed a certain similarity between his name and bob's.
close inspection ensued...


... and later:


here he is spooning buns, his floppy bunny that obviously needed socks for our morning walk.


and yeah, this:

we've been buying berries from our local organic farmer like crazy. they're so good it's not even funny.
red, red, red the whole way through and juicy sweet. bonz could eat them all day.


a quick morning ride:


bonz needed to wear mittens for this morning's rainy car ride. the fact that he deems his socks as such makes my heart go pitter patter. it was a cozy trip. you know, all seven minutes of it.


and that's the report!

an evening with bonzo

oh, you know... just the typical goings-on at the dinner table:

bonz needed to wear the band-band-head for his meal. it just seemed like the right thing to wear and the right time to wear it. we were all in agreement.

i worship the fact that, despite having more (way, way more) than enough language to know it's called a headband and not a band-band-head, he still calls it as such.
i wouldn't dream of correcting him, either. even if i wanted to, i'd let him pick it up from hearing me call it by its actual name rather than point it out to him but i just can't bring myself to. so there are certain words (band-band-head included) that go by what bonz calls 'em around here.

in other cuteness, this was the night's post-dinner, pre-bedtime sight to behold:

bonzo and chooch do jammies, teeth-brushing and a story while i shower. then i step in for nursies and night-nights. our bedtime ritual is one of my favorite parts of the day. it's some juicy stuff.