end of summer garden.

I've finally done it.  I took a picture of the pepper that grew and ripened.  It's ready to pick and eat.  And when I did I saw that two more have grown.  And these two are big.

Also after having teeny tiny strawberries all summer, we have four that are big.  Big being relative.  But they are still candy delicious.

I have a few more tomatoes coming in.  The herbs are doing well.  We pick and throw something in almost every meal.  I think I won't do thyme or mint again.  The basil, oregano, and rosemary are great.  The parsley didn't grow so well, not sure why.  Oh, yeah, it's because once I had the baby I completely neglected my plants.  I'm glad I got a good start with them.  It's the only reason they are still alive.

Oh, how I love my little garden.

Wordless Wednesday: Parrot Face!

Cohort: Beer Garden

Saturday we met up with a couple of grad school friends at the "original" Beer Garden.  We took Simon.  And just to show how "baby friendly" this place is during the day, you should have seen the 15 strollers and all the kids running and dancing (there is a dance floor).  The photographic proof is in the party that was taking place one table over.  Look closely, it's a first birthday!  Am I getting an idea for next year? Maybe.

Svetlana and Marko had lots of fun with Simon.  At the end of the day we were wiped.  But oh, so much fun to hang out with friends and not think about school/work/the disaster area that was our apartment.

Marko testing that Simon really can stand - if you hold him up.

This may be my favorite.

Someone is very interested in the french fries...

Drool face.

It's pictures like this where I can see that I really do still have 10 lobs to go...

Big boy at the table.

Deep in thought.

Watching the big kids play.

Konked out.

After the Beer Garden, we stopped for a coffee to keep us going for the evening.  You know for all the work we didn't do all day.

Simon's starting to grasp things. :)

Next time, I will plan more in advance so everyone can make it...

Wow, you're really playing house today.

That's what Rob said when he saw that I actually SET THE TABLE, with the fancy dishes.  Our apartment has been a disaster area recently.  Simon was 11 weeks yesterday, so it's been approximately 12 weeks since we had a good deep clean.  I've slowly gotten back into a normal routine, one that includes menu planning.  Since we have so many CSA veggies and it's getting colder, I thought a roast would be nice.  So this morning before church, and after probably the crappiest night of sleep to date, I put the roast and potatoes, onions, and beans in the crock pot.  Even I can put together a meal that simple on almost no sleep.
After church Simon took a real nap and Rob and I cleaned.  Then Rob kept cleaning between naps, and Simon took a SECOND nap.  This is almost unheard of, but after reading a blog post on sleep, I thought that daytime swaddling may be in order, and it worked!  Once the house was clean I put on REAL CLOTHES (and clean ones!), as opposed to the yoga pants and tanks I usually wear when it's just us.  I asked Rob to put on a clean shirt.  He wanted to know if it had to be fancy.  Nope, but clean with no spit-up would be nice :)
Then I set the table, and "Wow, you're really playing house today."  What's really sad is tat I can't remember the last time I made a nice meal for just us.  I pull out the china a few times a year for just us, usually and I know that it's been a long time since that.  But I can't remember the last time we planned a meal beyond it being dinner time and throwing something together.
So here is our dinner.  Beef roast with potatoes, onions, and beans, crescent rolls, and a bottle of wine.

 Here we are in our clean clothes.

Simon napped (again!) during dinner.

And just to show how awesome I am I even made dessert.  Using the CSA pears.  Pear tarts, which are pears in brown sugar on biscuits with cream.  Rob did whip the cream.  And what I like about this dessert is even if you screw it up, it's just fruit and sugar, so still tastes good.

The best part - we have breakfast and lunch out of the leftovers.  Oh, and the clean living room, that's pretty awesome too.

Why we sleep in the crib now.

Just to hold you over til I finally get around to posting two month pics, and the baptism, and my garden update...
Can you believe how big he is.  This is why Simon now sleeps in the big boy crib and uses the seat in the stroller, he's too tall for the bassinet.

 For comparison here he is in his first week.

And also he's in the crib cause he loves his robot mobile.  Video to come...

US Open

Last weekend Alison, James, and Andrew came to visit and attend the US Open.  What I remembered about myself is that I really love watching sports.  It doesn't matter what so much as long as it's live and in person.  So the tennis was awesome.  The downside was that the rain caused some rescheduling that led to Alison and I taking Simon to a VERY late night match on Saturday.  We saw the women's semis and the men's doubles final.  The final started at 11:57 and because so few people stayed we got to go courtside.  That was cool.  And Simon did so great in his three days of attendance.

The boys got to meet their cousin for the first time and we did some touring of Manhattan.  A trip to Chinatown and Wo Hop, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, so shopping and more eating.  Rob and the boys even got to take in a show (Spiderman).  Overall a fun trip.

This picture is for Andrew who wanted to know what all the empty tracks were for.  Well they are only empty during the day.  At night it's where the 7 trains park until morning rush hours.

Anonymous

Today has been one of those days where I kind of wish I blogged anonymously.  Then I could tell the Internet all about it.  Instead Rob gets an earful of venting when I get home.  Since I don't want to publicly state it all, the short version is today I got to spend my afternoon dealing with the crap part of teaching that I really really hate.  The part that extinguishes any of the growing feeling of "OK, maybe I could stay in academics and teach" completely.  The part that reminds me why I stopped wanting to teach 10 years ago.  The thing is I don't actually disagree with the problem.  I disagree with being notified of it 3 weeks into a semester and the quick fix is to change the curriculum I've been working on for almost a year (and would affect almost 600 students).  We're working on a solution.  But seriously, I've cursed more today than I have in the past year.  Probably not really, but it feels like it.

Today I am STILL dealing with a paperwork issue that should have been resolved in JUNE when I made a special trip in while 37 weeks pregnant to find some documents were missing.  They were sent. I am now told they are missing again and the person who can fix it does not return email or phone calls.

Not anonymously, Simon was with me.  And it was the first day I was kind of glad he was.  BUT due to some miscommunication, the babysitter didn't show, so that was fun... And he went through 3 outfits by 2 o'clock.  His current onesie has both poo and pee stains and I just don't care.  Because he's not getting another outfit before pajama time.  Which is soon.

BUT Simon smiles now.  And he laughs.  And Ellen down the hall can get him to do almost a real belly laugh.  And it's so cute it makes me cry.  So despite all the stress, there is good.  And I'm kind of most excited that the fall TV season starts tonight.

Photo Essay: A Day in the Life

Last weeks rundown of my Monday went over well.  I got some laughs and a lot of how hectic my day was.  After I posted that, I saw this post on baby rabies with a challenge to record an ordinary day with a photo an hour.  She was going to do hers on Wednesday.  I was up to the challenge, but Tuesday we were out all day and the baby had his 2 month appointment, and I didn't have my camera.  Wednesday the rabbit broke his leg.  Thursday I was at CSI again sans baby.  Friday Simon and I went to a meeting at school for most of the day.  Saturday I realized that we just don't have an "ordinary" stay-at-home day.  EVER.  I am back to working and we are just constantly on the go.  So I picked today.  It's as ordinary a day as we get.  You can see Jill's day here, as well as links to mine and other ordinary days in photos.

4:45 am

This is my attempt to take a photo in low light with no flash so as not to wake Simon after he ate.  This was the end of a 6.5 hour stretch and I really wanted to go back to sleep.

7:35 am

When we're actually ready to get up for the day.  Look at Simon in his big boy crib.

 8:30 am

Well some of us were ready to get up. Simon laying with Rob while I take a shower and get dressed.  Don't worry Rob was awake enough to not drop or roll over Simon.

9:30 am

Simon napping in the swing.  Me in front of 4 of the 5 loads of laundry I did yesterday and did not fold. Oh, so much laundry.

10:20

On our way to church.

12:15 pm

I meant to take a picture during church, but Simon is on a new eat/wake/nap schedule (thank you 6.5 hours) and I haven't quite figured it out, thus missing the 11 o'clock hour. Here we are with friends after the service during snack time.

1:15 pm

 Time for lunch.

2:15pm

Stuy town to visit friends.

3:45 pm

Playing with friends.

4:45 pm

Walking to Union Square to catch the subway home.

5:25 pm

Waiting at Grand Central.  Weekend trains suck.

6:30

Love those baby smiles.  And checking email. Too many student emails that I don't want to deal with tonight.  This is why there is always tomorrow. I"ll stick with the baby smile tonight.

 7:15 pm

Dinner.  Nachos. Yum.

8:10 pm

Bath time.  It's becoming a more regular occurrence as Simon is getting smelly when I don't bathe him often enough. He's starting to tolerate his baths, I wouldn't say he likes them quite yet.

9:10 pm

Pretending to sleep while we watch some football and wait for Simon to wake up for his last feed before going down for the night.

9:30 pm

He's up.  And eating again while I blog.

10:15 pm

Ending the day much like we began.

And here's hoping it actually is the end of the day because tomorrow is Monday and we all learned what Monday is like last week...