Winter blooms

Some days it's easy to complain about Seattle weather. Today was NOT one of them.

Night Light

One of the best purchases we made on our last trip to Ikea, Punkin insists on having this eery blue light on for bedtime. He can also carry it around and turn it off and on himself.

Busted

Yesterday I was changing Auggie's diaper while Punkin scooted around on his little bike. I wasn't paying much attention to him, until suddenly I heard him say, "A decaf soy latte please. Thank you! Bye Bye!"
The bike was his pretend car, his little Ikea night light was his coffee cup, and the bureau was the drive-up window.

I swear I don't stop for coffee that often!

Love Thursdays

I came across this excellent website tonight that shares the exceptional photography of the exceptional and the everyday woman. Any woman can submit her photos through their daily, weekly, and monthly "challenges." And today just so happens to be Love Thursday, a day to capture love in its many shapes and sizes. For my first punch at Love, I'm going for a true classic.


Two days ago was my brother's birthday. I forgot. Sometimes I can be a little $h!t of a sister. So today, Love Thursday, is in honor of my big bro and his new wife. And maybe one day I'll get around to telling you all about this picture...

Baby Things

Mighty Girl has posted an excellent list of top baby things (useful ones, in fact!) and I had to second her recommendations. Out of her list, I couldn't have survived the first year without the My Breast Friend nursing pillow, a co-sleeper, universal car seat carrier, Happiest Baby on the Block, the kiddopotamus swaddling blanket, a Medela breast pump, and a video camera. I'm also a big fan of the American Apparel baby karate pants.

Check out the list (and the suggestions by other readers!).

Why I love my new camera

Hammin' it up for the camera...



Inspecting canine nose hairs...


Pretending to be Martha Stewart...

“Dyson, The Bachelor, and Cheating on Blogger”

I haven’t posted to the Daily Droool since late last week, and believe me, this procrastination has been weighing heavily on my conscience. So much so that I am delaying watching the big Bachelor showdown just to spend some time writing. The thing is, I haven’t had much interesting to write about. Ok, that’s a lie, as you’ll see whenever I get around to posting the 14th Monthly Punkin, A LOT has been going on. So perhaps it’s just writer’s block. That, and what comes to mind when I sit down to write are things like my recent fascination with the Dyson Animal - things I don’t think anyone is interested in reading about. But perhaps, just because, I’ll write about what’s going on in my busy little brain anyway, just to see if anyone out there is the least bit interested...

So, I’ve become rather obsessed with the Animal. I desperately want someone to give me one (because actually spending $600 of my own money on a vacuum cleaner would be absurd). I practically droooled over one at Lowe's yesterday. And when I read that another mom blogger had one, I immediately began to hate her...But here’s the thing...I’m beginning to think that my obsession is not actually based in reality, that there really is no good reason to want the Animal, but that I have been completely and utterly bamboozled by the advertising world and Dyson’s sleek but dorky ads (perhaps because I, too, am sleek and dorky....ok, maybe not so sleek...) Do I really want a Dyson Animal because it’s a Dyson and well, everyone knows Dysons are the best vacuum cleaners out there and if you really value a vacuum cleaner, then...Or is it because somehow my addled brain truly believes if I get the best vacuum cleaner out there that somehow I won’t have to vacuum as often - that the pure power of the Animal will suck up Kdog’s hair without me even having to leave the comfort of my big red couch? Just like a new and better kitchen will suddenly give me more energy to cook dinner every night and invite friends over for brunch on Sundays and actually change out of my pj’s before 10am?

To answer my question, I thought about doing what I normally do - read reviews online till I go cross-eyed - but that would be a waste of time considering I won’t actually be buying myself a $600 vacuum cleaner. So instead, I decided to leave it to you, my millions of readers, to tell me just how ridiculous my obsession is...

As for the cheating, well that’s not what you think, so sorry to get your gossip girl-esque hopes up. No, this cheating is strictly of the blogging type, and I’m referring to Blogger’s new tool that allows you to future-date your posts, i.e. write a post and tell Blogger to post it 2 weeks from now because you know you can’t, won’t, will forget to, etc. Ok, so I’ll admit this tool is one I’ve dreamed of on more than one occasion, and normally would be thrilled to use it. But somehow I got all ticked off at this announcement and the idea that bloggers might have ways to be even more lazy about blogging (lazier than me even!), and that they might actually be able to bend the space-time continuum and that suddenly blogging is no longer a true daily diary, a window into the brain of the real-life person behind the blog, because to post without actually physically being there, at your computer, on May 5, 2008, at 10:07pm would just be a lie. And no one likes lies in the blogosphere.

Am I a heretic?

“Portage Bay Cafe - our favorite so far”

I’ve let my “Over Easy” breakfast spot reviews fall by the wayside, so here’s another for all the Seattlites out there...

I discovered Portage Bay Cafe (PBC) on my first morning ever as a Seattle resident and I’ve been addicted ever since. I know I won’t do a good enough job describing it here, you’ll just have to see for yourself. But here are some of the high points.

The wait may be long, but that’s often the sign of greatness, and PBC is no exception. If you’re an early riser (or junior is) the wait is less than 15 minutes before 9 am. And while you wait, busy waitresses multi-task at the coffee bar filling double lattes and drips into hefty mugs, and they trust you to tell your server so you won’t have to get your wallet out twice. Once you’re seated, coffee is topped off, orders taken, and food delivered by the time your little one finishes his O cereal appetizer.

Food is generous and hot, and features local and organic produce. Pancakes and french toast come with an open invitation to the breakfast bar, a decent spread of fresh and previously frozen fruit and whipped cream. My favorites are the pancetta cake and saffron sauce Benedict, and the once a year pumpkin-filled french toast. Veggie likes the cinnamon twister french toast, and his only complaint is the scrambles tend to have dry eggs. But most of the time we go with the specials - they’re often the most interesting mix of local and delightful ingredients.

Tables in the banquet room are geared for large groups and families, with paper-topped tables and jars of crayons. The waiting area has a bin of toys, too. The staff is friendly and happy. And best of all it’s dependable - I have yet to have a bad experience at PBC. So for that, we compare nearly every other breakfast spot to Portage Bay.

A Bonus: about a month ago we dropped in at PBC just before 9am on our way to drop relatives at the airport. But the 25 minute wait was going to make us late for their flight. Luckily we’ve somehow become regulars, so the guy with the list just shuffled us right in to a table. Past 20 or so hungry, waiting, would-be diners. Just. Like. That. Now is that service, or what? Become a regular and you’ll get the rockstar treatment too ;)

Important Public Service Announcement

Ben and Jerry's has brought back from the dead Coffee Heath Bar Crunch! I'm treating myself to a cup...no, a bowl...slathered with hot fudge, and some Bachelor (one of my few...ok MANY...silly indulgences). Ahhhh.....I highly recommend treating yourself to something scrumptiously yummy chocolaty and some silly chick tv. It's a good night for it.

Fantastic Fisher Price

Wow, am I fishing for add revenue or what? No really, the point of this post is to share with you a surprising discovery I’ve made. One that thousands, if not millions, of mothers have made over the past 78 years, I’m sure. What surprises me is that I’m going to sit here and adamantly advocate to other parents to consider using, buying even, products made in China, probably out of toxic plastics painted with lead (not really, but who knows these days). (By the way, since I haven’t made it clear already, I strive to buy mostly all natural, wooden toys and all that. But sometimes plastic is just so goooooood).

So what is this discovery, you’re no doubt wondering. Well.....I’ve discovered the magical wonders of Fisher Price. Yes, it’s been around since our grandparents were first learning about cause and effect, music, and mirrors. And there’s a good reason it’s still one of the most popular and successful toy companies to date. Their toys are brightly colored, but often relatively simple (i.e. not ADHD-inducing madness). They are most geared at teaching infants and children important developmental skills and discoveries. But most importantly, they have truly saved my sleep-deprived, only remotely sane self on more than one occasion.

Here are my favorites - my life savers:

Rainforest Jumperoo - we really wanted some sort of activity center for Punkin, but most of them were so busy we were truly afraid of giving him ADD. This one was the most tame of the lot at Babies-R-Us, and he looooooved it! We ended up getting a lot of the "Rainforest" gear and Punkin really liked the monkey the best. But we liked that he might recognize the characters when he moved from the car to the changing table to the jumperoo.

Ocean Wonders Cradle Swing - ok this one truly did save my life. I could go on and on, but basically for a few months of Punkin’s early life, it was the only way we could get him to sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time. The most important part was that it swings side-to-side as well as front-to-back and the side-to-side motion is key in inducing happy baby snores ;)

Rainforest Peek-a-boo Leaves Musical Mobile - we mounted this over the changing table to distract Punkin during the dreaded diaper change and it worked! It was especially cool when he started tracking the animals going around above him.

Rainforest Monkey Auto Mirror - Punkin was like most babies and hated the carseat and the car. When we got this mirror he started “talking” to the monkey and they soon became best friends. Plus, like any mirror, it let me see what he was up to.

Healthy Care Booster Seat - this thing’s just awesome and it will last us forever (or at least until Punkin’s ready for a real chair). In our tiny kitchen it works much better than a full high chair, and we’ve taken it with us on long distance trips - it fits perfectly in the carseat bag.

Some other Fisher Price stuff we’ve been using:
Rock-a-Stack
Sound N’ Lights Monitor
Rainforest Delux High Chair Cover

So that's my spiel on Fisher Price. If I could only recommend one thing, it would be the swing. Even though we only used it for about 4 months, it was worth every single penny.

Wanna pee in yer pants?

By some random act of fate (or kindness, you choose) I stumbled upon one of the greatest blogs of all time and my only regret is that I don't have the time to read up on all seven years of hilarious, poignant, honest writing. She's entertaining and inspiring (to a newbie in the blogosphere) and apparently coming out with a book sometime soon (I can't wait!). She doesn't need any more followers (I think they already number in the thousands) so I'm only telling you about this blog to bring laughter and poopy polka dots into your life. Trust me, Vitamin D couldn't bring you out of the winter doldrums faster.

Check it out: www.dooce.com