mama to mama.

TOYS!

Before I had beetle, I used to joke that my kid would play with nothing but sticks and rocks...well, Lu has almost proven me right!  She loves nothing more than a wooden spoon or a crackly piece of plastic. She can be entertained for at least 40 minutes by a tube of A&D ointment and her baby shoes are oh-so-interesting during diaper changes.

That being said, I've been on the lookout for some fun, durable and cheap toys for those times when Lua does get bored with her "sticks and rocks".  Check out some of the suggestions I got from the Mamas!

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

one&two - THREE - 4,5,6,7,8 - nine (can be asked for at any restaurant, when bebe needs some fun) - 10 (was the most popular answer for 'must have' toys)!

Thanks Mamas!

City Oasis.

Lua spends many of her Saturdays with her guncles, Ryan and Jay, who live only two blocks from us and are AMAZING with her.  They also happen to have a HUGE balcony and one of my favorite things they're doing with it is creating a garden this year.  Jay writes an awesome food blog called Local Food Me and I am so excited for him to begin using his home grown produce in his recipes!

When I picked Lu up this Saturday, I noticed that his leeks and tomatoes were sprouting and it made me long for a garden of my own.  I grew up eating food picked straight out of my family garden and I so want to give Lua that experience if possible.  No TV dinners for this Beetle :)  I'm sure she'll have one or two ice cream cones in her life ;) but I'd like to balance that out with some real, fresh fruits and veggies...not only that, I'd like her to see a cow before she's two - and a chicken, and, of course a horse!

And then - I stumbled upon THIS!

Located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, on top of a warehouse, this 6000 square foot green roof organic vegetable farm is home to not only chickens, rabbits and fresh fresh veggies - but, wait for it...

BEES!

I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but I was once determined to find a way to be a beekeeper.  I am slightly obsessed with honey and cannot WAIT for Beetle to be old enough to have her first taste of it!  

I'm heading over (or up, rather) the first chance I get!

six6months.

There are just no words.

Here in NYC...

 *We are getting ready for some visits from uncles, aunts and cousin Eloise! 

in April :)  

*Andrew has some really exciting auditions coming up, so cross your fingers!  

*The animal shelter I work for is opening a new facility at the end of this month, so things are as crazy as ever at work.

*It's WARM.  Like, unseasonably warm.  I'm trying to just enjoy it and not think about the possibility of having an unbearably hot summer...

*Lua is starting to make the effort to crawl (slow down, baby!).  She is also eating some solid foods (hello, pears!)and cursing like a sailor ;)  She is still crazy tall for her age (27.5 inches long! 91st percentile), but slimming down a bit (15lbs, 8oz. 43rd percentile)

***OH!  and did I mention she has TEETH!  and did I mention that she USES THEM ON ME?!? yowch!

ps - mama to mama will return next monday :)  question for the Mamas:  what toy(s) would you suggest as a "must have"?  Feel free to answer, 'none'!  I certainly thought Lu would have a stick and a rock until she was 2 :)  email your answers to sophia.e.cao@gmail.com

snapshots.

So...we got food poisoning.  Ya.  It'll be awhile before we attempt pork chops again.  We were supposed to have this awesome day (celebrating my birthday a little early) where I ate at our favorite diner, went shopping all day, got a haircut and then Andrew surprised me with tickets to Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway.  And then we ate pork chops the night before :(  The entire next day (the celebration day) was spent in between a makeshift bed on the living room floor and the toilet.  

Thank goodness Lua is easily entertained.  By 6pm that night, we were still feeling very weak, but we decided to stuff our pockets full of plastic bags (for the accidental vomit) and head out to see the show that Andrew had paid a pretty penny for.  I'm so glad we did.  The cast is from Stratford, Ontario - where Andrew and I spent our first year of marriage - so we knew a number of them and they ROCKED.  It's too bad I felt the way I did because there were so many times that I wanted to stand up and screech like a tween at a Justin Bieber concert.

We're just getting back to our normal routines.  The house is a disaster zone.  We finally did two weeks worth of laundry.  Tank.  Poor Tank looks like one of Jim Henson's Muppets (he needs a good brushing).  And both of us are still taking multiple naps a day when we can.  But we are on the mend.

The above is meant as an excuse for why nothing has been posted recently :)  Please forgive me!  For my Mamas - mama to mama will be back up again next Monday, so if you've got any cool DIYs, email me!

Enjoy your week, everyone!  And these snapshots from our weekend :)