Scene:  B and I are sitting on the couch, I'm checking my email, Junie is in between us, and B has the remote control (SYT is upstairs asleep)

Background music on the tv is Leona Lewis's "Keep Bleeding"

Me:  "What are we watching?"

Him:  "America's got Talent"

Me:  "Wow, we've sunken to a new low."

Him (after one minute of watching):  "Um, this is horrid.  I've got to switch over to Bourdain"

Moral of the Story?  Please, please fall television, come back soon.  This household can't watch any more awful tv!!!!

No sleep for the sick

My little buddy is sick for the first time.  It's heartbreaking, you guys!  He had a really awful runny nose yesterday, but I didn't think much of it.  Overnight however, he couldn't sleep because he had so much snot that was keeping him from breathing.  He also has his first fever (101.2), isn't nursing well, and is WAY overtired.  He pretty much would only sleep if laying on my chest or propped up next to me on the pillow.  He is now asleep in the boppy (it's been 1.5 hours- yea!) and I'm hoping he will nap well today to catch up a bit and get his little body better.  Oh, and allow me to take a nap as well! 

Kudos to the blue snot sucker.  It has worked it's magic over the course of the night.  Counting down the years until he can blow his nose!!

(Gap Curvy)

I bought these pants during the Gap Give and Get event.  I desperately needed new black pants as mine developed a hole near the back pockets at some point during my pregnancy (!?!?).  I'm not kidding when I say these pants were designed with me in mind.  I've never had a pair of pants fit so well in my entire life.  I have a feeling I'll end up back there getting the gray pair as well.  If you have time today and the 30% off coupon, head out my friends to try on the new line of black pants.  There are 7 different fits, and I have to imagine you'll find a pair that fits you as well as these fit me. 

While I normally don't love the skull and crossbones look (way to rock and roll/metalheadish for me), this outfit caught my eye when I was there today, and I think SYT might just have to have it.  I love that it's a navy  sweater knit with the intarsia design- just the right amount of preppy and rock and roll together.  Plus, it'll be perfect for the Halloween season.  I received a 40% off coupon yesterday when I bought my pants, so it'll be $20 rather than $34.  Totally justifiable, don't you think? 

Organizing blogger

I have a question for you all.  Hopefully one of you can give me some good suggestions for my insanely disorganized "Starred List" in blogger!

Okay, so many of you post wonderful ideas, recipes, books, decor photos, kids stuff, etc and if I like it, I star it and it heads over to that folder.  Great, except now my starred items folder is huge and for the life of me I cannot find a way to move things around or create subfolders within the starred items.  Is there a way to do this?  How do you all handle keeping track of things you like?  Do you transfer everything over to folders in your computer?  I have at least 10 folders I'd like to create, yet am struggling in figuring this out. 

Anyone out there have an answer for me?  I'd love, love, love some help with this :)

Gratzi!

Christmas gifts, anyone?

I know it's really early to start thinking about Christmas, but Totsy is having a great sale on Melissa and Doug toys today.  I love this line as they are wooden, most often educational, and don't make constant noise!! 

A few of my favorites are below................

(I think all families should have an easel.  It's a great gift if you have a family gift you need to give.  Great for creativity, playing school, learning, etc)

There are also kitchens, activity tables, and car tracks that would be awesome gifts for the 1-6 year old. 

Click here if you need an invite to Totsy.  I will say it's a lot of kids clothing, but they also have maternity wear, bedding, and toys on a regular basis.  Even if you are not a mom, it's a great site for gift giving!!

Thank you, Piperlime

My Piperlime email this morning made me drool over a few lustworthy items........

Thank you, Marc Jacobs!

Sooooo gorgeous!  Now, can it just come in diaper bag format?

Love this coat.  It also comes in black, but I think this color combo is much more stunning.  The bow at the waist is a perfect juxtaposition with the more military styling of the buttons.

This top would look great with dark jeans and puple, navy or black heels.  I can also see it paired well with a pencil skirt from J Crack.    I love the bow that cascades to ruffles, and the color, while bold, works nicely with many of the fall/winter items in my closet.

That's my lust list for today.  What's on yours??

Mini peppers

We have one plant in our garden growing mini peppers.  They are way too cute!  They taste just like regular peppers but are tiny.  B thinks they aren't worth it as they still have a ton of seeds, but the seeds are edible, so you can basically pop it all in your mouth and take in all the seeds or eat around the outsides like an apple which keeps most of the seeds out of your system.  I'm glad we're growing regular bell peppers as well, but these are just so cute and they make me so happy!

Here they are in comparison to a regular green bell pepper.

Anyone else growing these?  Or anything else that is a little more off the beaten path?  We're starting to think about what we are going to grow next spring as we already know we need to do a few thing differently, so I'd love to hear what is flourishing in your garden!!

Summer salad

A few weeks ago I mentioned that we had one of our dinner club dinners and the theme was "Farm Fresh".  We were in charge of the salad, so we headed down to the farmers market to see what was available.  We knew we needed a salad that would work with a homemade raspberry vinagrette as we have raspberry bushes in our backyard and we wanted to feature them in the salad somehow.

The farmer's market had TONS of peaches, and we decided grilling the peaches would take away enough of the sweetness to make the salad just perfect.  The purple strips you see are a purple pepper- tastes the same as a red or yellow, just a different color and perhaps a little less tender. 

We also added a cucumber scored with a fork to make it pretty, candied pecans (so easy!), green leaf lettuce, and feta. 

(close up of the grilled peach and pecans)

The salad received rave reviews and almost everyone went back for seconds.  We were really pleased with the taste and the presentation!

If you ever want to add grilled peaches to your salad, I would highly recommend getting freestone peaches.  Ours ended up being the clingstone variety, and it was NOT a fun experience trying to get them into decent looking slices.

Let me know if you want the recipe for the vinagrette.  It's muy delicioso!

SYT is 3 months old!

And I finally got him to smile for the camera!  Yep, a very, very happy boy showed up for his momma's photo shoot Sunday. 

(his playful, coy smile)

He definitely is getting bigger every day.  He's also "talking" more and more and went he wants our attention, he'll start babbling in order to make us look at him.  Normally once we're looking he'll just smile and smile and jabber away some more.  It's precious.  He's also belly laughing a lot and continuing to practice his rolling from front to back. 

He's a terrible napper at day care, but not too bad when he's home on the weekends.  He's "catching up", I think.  I'm sure the noise and all the commotion at daycare aren't the most conducive to sleep, plus he wants to be involved in everything and has a hard time winding down.  He is sleeping for 6-9.5 hours at a stretch each night which is great! 

(his best skill is drooling!)

He had to start on a medication twice a day for reflux because he was waking up in the middle of the night coughing, gagging, and choking on his own spit up.  As a nurse practitioner, I see this happen a lot, but it doesn't make it any less scary when it's your own kid and it wakes you out of a deep sleep!  He's still spitting up a lot, but he's a happy spitter, so I'm not too worried.  It does keep me busy with the laundry though!

So, that's my update on my little buddy.  Lovin' him, for sure!!

For the discerning diaperer....

Monogrammed diapers. 

At $1.50 each, they're pricey, but could be a darling addition to a baby gift.