Six Months

I feel so overwhelmed with conflicting emotions--sadness regarding how quickly he's growing up, a sense of loss of his tiny days, pride at his new accomplishments, and overwhelming love. Mostly love. He is pure sweetness and I can't get enough.

Halloween Party Menu

I'm doing reverse trick-or-treating this year instead of having a real Halloween party, but the menu for my imaginary Halloween party is coming together nicely. I'm trying to keep it theme-y with as many orange and black foods as possible. Maybe next year.

Drinks: 

Bloody Marys

Some kind of Oktoberfest beer

Orange soda

Cola

Appetizers:

Roasted garlic (to keep away vampires)

Cheddar cheese (orange, not white cheddar)

Served on mini slices of pumpernickel (or any black bread)

Maybe Doritos too (depending on the crowd)

Main:

Jack O'Lantern stuffed peppers

Roasted carrots

Mashed sweet potatoes or the black rice I saw at the natural foods store

Dessert:

Pumpkin pie

Halloween candy

Drunken gummy bears

Are You Freaking Kidding Me: Keep Your Big Trap Shut Edition

When did people stop following the whole "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" rule? Today, the baby and I went to Target to get some more infant acetaminophen (side note: teething is kicking our butts and the amber necklace is not living up to the hype) and the checker kept talking to my baby and calling him "Butterball". She must have said it at least half a dozen times in the few minutes it takes to check out. At one point, she even reached out and pinched his thigh and said, "Look at those fat thighs!"

Dude, my baby's not fat! He's in the 97th percentile for height and only the 67th percentile for weight. Proportionally, he's a little slimmer than most babies. Do people just not realize that babies are supposed to be chubbier than adults? When did it become OK to comment on other's weight? How hard is it to just say, "What a cutie" so we can both continue along with our days without me imagining throwing discount boxes of generic Tylenol at your head while screeching like a banshee, "My baby's perfect THANKYOUVERYMUCH. Don't you dare touch him!"?

Really people, really. Let's all just keep our opinions to ourselves, shall we?

Western Maryland

Panorama of Deep Creek Lake

I always ask for a trip for my birthday. Plan A was a cheap cruise out of Baltimore, but that was deemed (by Chuk) not doable with a baby, too expensive, and too time consuming. Plan B was staying in a yurt at Deep Creek Lake State Park in Maryland. I have such a fascination with yurts. Unfortunately, when we arrived the yurt was already occupied. (They don't take reservations, so we knew it was a hit or miss plan.) Plan C was stay in a hotel but still check out the fall foliage in the area.

Chuk planned all the baby's outfits for the weekend. Notice the bear on his shirt. 

While I'd still love to stay in a yurt one day, Plan C worked out beautifully. I'd never been to that part of Maryland before and it was just gorgeous.

The weather was perfectly cool and crisp. We took some short hikes and were able to admire the changing leaves and check out some waterfalls.

Bundled up and ready to hike

Muddy Creek Falls, the highest in Maryland

I love living in the city, but weekends in the country are sometimes just the thing. We had a lovely, relaxing time.

And one the way home, we saw a double rainbow! They aren't very clear in this picture, but in real life the one on the left was so vibrant. I'm taking it as a good omen for my 33rd year.

How I Got Here

This week, twelve years ago, I was a senior in college. A friend of mine from high school came down from Smith to my college for the weekend and we went to a free Wycliff Jean concert sponsored by my school. Afterwards we went to another friend's dorm room and did Thin Mint shots (peppermint schnapps and chocolate syrup). I was thinking about breaking up with my on-again, off-again boyfriend, again.

This week, ten years ago, I was living in California, working at a job I hated and taking pottery and ballroom dance classes. I played badminton for exercise. I was single and went to happy hour with my girlfriend every Friday night.

This week nine years ago, I was living in China and baked a boxed yellow cake with canned chocolate frosting that I had brought with me all the way from the US. My apartment didn't have an oven, so I baked it in a borrowed toaster oven. It turned out terribly, but I ate it anyway.

This week, seven years ago, I was living in Washington DC with a roommate and nursing a broken heart. My boyfriend, the one I thought I had a future with, had just dumped me while we were on vacation in Boston. I worked all the time, often traveling more than three weeks a month, and had just started grad school at night.

This week, five years ago, my dad died. I had just finished grad school and gotten engaged. I was shell shocked from so many life changes occurring at once.

This week three years ago, I was vacationing in beautiful Quebec. I had just gotten married and started a little blog.

This week two years ago, I took a little trip to Chicago. I was dreaming of moving to Wicker Park and reconsidering my position on never having kids.

This week, this year, I'm eating Ethiopian food and going yurt camping in Maryland with my husband and five and a half month old baby. Today, I turn 33 and (in both a good way and a bad way) I still can't really believe this is my life.

Hooded Baby Towel Hack

I think hooded bath towels for babies are super cute, but they're expensive and can be too big for a wet, squirmy little body. Ages ago, someone had given me a microfiber hair towel as a stocking stuffer and it was sitting in the back of our linen closet. I never once used it for my hair but it works extremely well as a baby towel.

It's easy to cover the top of the baby's head quickly with the towel and it is the perfect length for a baby's body. (When we first started using it to dry him off, it reached almost to his feet and now it only covers a bit past his bottom. At both lengths it's long enough, without being too long.) Because it's microfiber, it dries him very quickly, which helps to keep him from getting too cold. We often use a hand towel to dry off the front of his body.

Turbie Towel or Turbie Twist are the brand name of the product to which I'm referring, and they sell for like $5, but I've seen generic versions at the dollar store as well for just a buck. Either way, they are much less expensive than actual hooded baby bath towels and I'd say slightly more effective since the baby doesn't get all tangled up in it.

Using a hair towel as a baby towel works for me.

A New Way to Celebrate Halloween

Is it lame to take a baby who is too young for solid foods trick-or-treating? I fear the answer is yes, but GAH, it's his first Halloween! In an attempt to balance my need for pictures of every one of my infant's "firsts" with my shame at knowing the neighbors are going to know his 30-something parents are going to literally be stealing candy from a baby, I think I've struck a Halloween compromise. I'm calling it "Reverse Trick or Treating". 

My plan is that we'll go to one or two of the houses on our street (minimizing the shame) for the trick-or-treating photo op and the authentic Halloween experience, but we'll spend most of the evening going door-to-door in our apartment building passing out mini loaves of pumpkin bread. Apartments never get trick-or-treaters (which is so sad because no one should be denied the cuteness which is small children in costume) so I don't think my neighbors will be prepared with candy, but if we do the treat-giving I think it will eliminate some of that awkwardness of an unexpected knock at the door and give us a chance to meet more of our neighbors. It's a win-win-win*: baby gets to trick-or-treat/I get more pictures, we get to meet more of our neighbors, and the neighbors get pumpkin bread and to see a baby otter.

Speaking of the baby otter, I bought this clearance costume online while I was still pregnant because it was brand new and less than $5. It's a size 6-12 months so I thought surely my very tall sixth month old (he'll be six months and one day old on Halloween) will fit into it. But no, it's about five sizes too big on him (except for the hat, which fits perfectly on his big noggin.) I was debating getting/making him another costume, but Chuk put the kibosh on that and suggested we stuff the costume with newspaper. I'm not going to stuff it, but he's probably going to be an otter next year too.

What are you doing (if anything) for Halloween? Do you know your neighbors?

*Win, win,win is from The Office. You can watch a clip from episode I'm referencing here.