Meandering in Maryland

Lula and I made our way to the DC area to visit my parents for a week. We survived two flights and arrived exhausted and napless. I posted about Traveling with a Toddler on my new blog Lovely Chaos. Lula crashed as soon as we got in the car for an almost 2 hour car ride home (due to major traffic delays!) Nana was there to welcome us and we had a relaxing evening at home.

The next day we headed to the National Zoo. Lula's never been to the zoo before. She was just happy to be free and on her feet after the car ride, then the metro ride, then the walk to the zoo. We let her loose and she ran all over the place playing in the dirt and climbing on the benches. Who cares about the animals! She was interested in the pandas and literally fell out of her stroller trying to get to one of the pictures of a panda strewn about the park! She also wanted to tell the little girls next to her about the pandas. And then decided to lay flat on the floor in the middle of crowd. Hmmm! It was a beautiful day and nice just to roam around with no agenda.
On Sunday Papa Jack agreed (very willingly) to watch Lula while Mom and I headed to the outlets in Leesburg. We hit some antique shops on the way and then spent the rest of the day at the outlets. Being pregnant I don't want to spend a lot of money on clothes. So I found some good deals that will get me through the rest of this stage fashionably and comfortably! By the time we got home, Lu was in bed. We found out the next day how much she'd fallen in love with Papa when she wouldn't let him go to work without a production!
Lu and I spent a quiet day at home while Dad and Mom worked. Tuesday morning Mom, Lula and I made smores in their fireplace on the deck. It was a gorgeous day, but cool enough for a fire. Dad had apparently confiscated the graham crackers. So we improvised with cinnamon sugar pita chips...an excellent alternative...very excellent! Lu was a little nervous around the fire. She's adventurous but cautious at the same time. A great combo I think!
Wednesday Mom prepared a tea for the ladies. We put on our hats and ate pastries and drank tea. It was lovely. Lula's first tea. Her favorite part was the Devonshire Cream which she was trying to lick off the plate! That afternoon after Lula's nap we went to Ikea. I'd never been before and it was overwhelmingly wonderful!
Thursday Papa Jack was able to stay home with us. So we played in the morning and headed back downtown in the evening with Nana to visit a celebrated vintage shop where I bought some great dresses and sunglasses. Then we went to Bethesda to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Lula was exhausted by this point, but she did OK.

Lu's favorite "game" was to buckle and unbuckle the little green seat she sat in for meals. She carried it all over the house all week!
View from my parents deck:

Friday we headed back home. I was dreading the flights, but we survived once again despite no nap and were picked up by Jay. Everyone was exhausted and happy to be home together. Jay had been traveling all week too for work. And that's it in a nutshell! We had a wonderful time but it went by too fast as usual.

Lula's First Castle and Harvest Fest

Yep, we bought Lula a castle! It was only $20 on Zulily.com and I just couldn't resist. It's made of cardboard and can be painted or colored if desired. Lula plays in it a little now, but I think she'll love it more and more the older and more imaginative she becomes. Now where to put this enormous contraption! Jay was pretty annoyed with me (not really, but he was rather sarcastic while putting it together). I found a place for it though, which will be revealed in a future blog.
Lula LOVES Mollie. I mean LOVES her. Unfortunately, Lula's a bit rough with her. So Mollie often runs instead of staying to "cuddle." Here was a sweet moment though. I asked Lula if she wanted to read to Mollie. She hopped up on the couch, opened her book so Mollie could see, and garbled some nonsense as if she were reading. I didn't catch that moment quick enough, but I did catch her snuggling beside Mollie showing her the front of the books. So sweet!
This morning we headed to Rutledge Farm to their Harvestfest. Pat went with us after surviving a flat tire on the way to our house. I've missed taking Lula to such events as it seems between my work schedule and her nap schedule, these things never work out. But now that she's down to one nap in the afternoon, we're a little more open for such outings. It was a gorgeous day, and we had fun just walking around. Here Lula attempted to ride the little tractors.
Lula loves animals and had no hesitation reaching out to pet the goats and ponies.
But the pumpkin patch was her favorite. What is it with kids and picking out a pumpkin?! She had so much fun running down the path and looking at all the pumpkins and other kids. Whenever we're in the store and we see a pumpkin, she always points and says, "apple!" So I think she was excited to finally get her hands on some of these "apples."
Yeah for pumpkins!
Finally one Lula's size!
Heading out with my dad and grandma and a very dirty bottom!
Content with my pumpkin. When she got up from her nap this afternoon, she pointed to her pumpkin which we put on her dresser. I asked if she wanted to kiss it, and she gave it a big wet one! She also kissed it before going to bed tonight along with her rubber duckies and all the little creatures on her dresser. Good night, Pumpkin!

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down...

Well, not really the walls, but definitely the wallpaper. Before we left for Seattle (yes, my blogs are terribly out of order) we were determined to finish taking down the wallpaper. Being in my first trimester, I was less than motivated to work on anything at all, much less steamy, dripping walls of gluey mess. But it got done. By the way, we bought a steamer which worked great if anyone ever wants to borrow it. Cause there will never be wallpaper in this house again!

Pat was brave enough to come over one day to help out.
Living room partially done:
We debated whether to take down the wallpaper in our bedroom or not. I thought it was really cute and it was actually really nice wallpaper. But in the end, it had to go. What we thought was a blessing...the fact that it peeled right off the wall with no prep...turned out to be a much longer process as I still had to spray and scrape all the leftover glue off the walls. This took me a couple of weeks to finish much to Jay's anxious dismay. But again, it got done, and those walls are smooth perfect!
Lula was extremely helpful as always! It looks like she's laughing at us with an evil laugh, "Ha. Ha. You have to take down wallpaper while I eat snacks and get in your way. Ha!"
Next step: painting.

Lula Update

I am so far behind on house and Lula updates I'll never catch up! I'll have to make some quick and concise recaps...if that's even possible for me! So, to appease my grandmother, who I'm sure is dying to see some pictures of Lula, we'll start with the baby. Lula is now 17 months old and a little spitfire. She's still the sweetest, quietest, happiest baby around, but she's definitely starting to show a little more spunk and sass. She jabbers ALL the time and I can't wait to hear what she's actually saying in her head. She's a funny little girl and the only real issue we have with her is when it comes to eating. The child is unbelievably finicky and would rather starve than eat something new and different. This was a serious point of stress for a while and was causing my overly-emotional pregnant self some major tears and frustration. But thanks to some advice from a friend and tweaking that advice to make it work for us, I think we're going to survive! Yes...I know it's a lot of pictures, but like I said, I'm rather behind...and she's just so stinkin' cute!

Lula also LOVES to help us with whatever we're doing. She will be an excellent helper...someday...right now, it's just frustrating as we try to work on the house. She grabs paint brushes and screw drivers out of our hands. And if we happen to be sitting on the floor, will plop down right in the middle of our laps to see what's going on. We've sent her to Grandma's several times so that we could get major projects like painting finished without interruption. Here she is checking out some outlets that were sitting on the table too close to her high chair!.
In her sweet vintage top I bought her in Seattle. I know she's mine, but she's just too adorable!

So, I've never been a big fan of the bright, loud, tacky kids' toys, but what can you do? I asked for some advice to keep Lula busy at her age and this Fisher Price house came highly recommended. It received 5 out of 5 stars based on over 600 reviews. So we splurged...and she loves it! She also received a little train for free from a wonderful friend. It has lots of activities on it and she absolutely loves it too.
Lula loves to put on hats and sunglasses now. She found one of my hats and was running all over the house with it on...which is why the picture is blurry! I guess she thought she was modeling.
Into everything...
One of favorite features of our new house is the windows. We have two very tall windows, one in the living room and one in Lula's room. They're perfect for her short little self to look out. Mollie likes them too! Some day when Jay has a table saw and a little extra time again, I want him to make a window seat in Lula's room. She would absolutely love that!

Last Day in Seattle

I'm going to skip our last day in Seattle because...well...it's time to move on. No, changed my mind. I'll keep it short. I spent the morning at the Mukilteo beach on the Puget Sound, which is very small but beautiful. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, causing many locals to come out as well. I read for a while and then picked Jay up for lunch. We went back to the beach and ate. Then I dropped him back off for his meetings while I went back to the room to take a nap and read for the rest of the afternoon. It was so nice to just veg for a while.


When Jay was done for the day, we headed back into Seattle for the evening. We grabbed some yummy pizza in the University District then headed to University Village for more browsing. It's an upper scale outdoor shopping area near the university. It was really beautiful. We browsed through stores including Anthropologie...which I can never pass up. That store is so amazing. I just want to move in. Then we found this interesting Japanese dessert stand, Tokyo Sweets, that makes fresh crepes and fills them with ice cream and other goodness. We both got the lemon one which had creamy vanilla ice cream, fresh lemon zest, granulated sugar, and homemade whipped cream in a lemon-soaked crepe. It was delicious! We were exhausted after this and headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for early morning flights...Jay headed to LA while I headed home. I was itching to see Lula though not looking forward to the humid weather!

Dolls Gone Wild

We began questioning Lula's parenting skills when, after watching a movie, Jay and I turned to find one of Lula's dolls passed out on the front doorstep of her play house completely naked and in a drunken milk coma. Lula has left her dolls unattended for the night so she can enjoy the pleasures of Grandma's house. Meanwhile we're left to tend to Lula's duties and take care of her responsibilities. Since the doll is currently intoxicated and unresponsive, we will wait until morning to provide discipline and guidance. We can only hope that we are training Lula better than she is training her dolls.

Monday in Seattle

(By the way, not all of the pictures on these Seattle posts were taken by me...just in case!)

Monday morning began Jay's work week, but I was determined to make every second count. So waking early we ate breakfast and headed out to hit Nordstrom's Rack when it opened at 9am. It was a major disappointment. I didn't try anything on. I don't really like the "garage sale" vibe in stores like this. I just don't enjoy picking through crumbs to find a piece of bread. So we didn't stay long.

Instead we headed back towards the market. I scoped out some shops I wanted to look in after Jay had been picked up, and we went back to Le Panier. Le Panier is just a small little cafe that sells coffee, sandwiches, and pastry, but oh my! It was still early. So we settled on some pastries. Jay got a croissont almondine and I got a vanilla eclair and a chocolate macaron. All I can say is I thought I was in heaven. I've never tasted anything so good in all my life. Everything was absolute perfection. Usually I'm not a big croissont fan...they're often dry and crumbly...but not this one. It was oh so buttery and sliced open to be filled very subtly with an almond filling. Nothing was overdone or too sweet, even the eclair. I felt sensual taking each bite and I savored every moment. The textures of the macaron were amazing. Crispy and light on the outside with just the right amount of rich, velvety chocolate in the middle. Need I say more? If you go to Seattle, you must get some pastry at Le Panier. But go early!
After our little indulgence, we went to the market so Jay could get lunch before leaving. A little backwards. Oh well! Unfortunately Jay likes a good sausage and we'd seen a German place the day before that sold only sausages. So we headed back and that's what he had for lunch while I played Angry Birds on my phone!

Then his coworker came to get him and I was on my own for the afternoon. I looked through several shops, just enjoying browsing. There was an amazing antique market nearby. They had great stuff, but again, nothing I could take home with me on a plane except a couple scraps of fabric.

After browsing for a while, it was time to eat again. Since I was in the same area, it seemed quite obvious to go back to Le Panier! I had brought my book with me that morning knowing I'd have some alone time, and arriving past the normal lunch crowd, I was able to find a little table where I enjoyed a Mocha, vanilla macaron, and Swiss Puff Pastry. Again, all delightful. I was looking forward to a croissont, but they were all gone! Thus the reason for arriving early!

After this I headed back to the car and met Jay in another shopping district in the University area. There was a clothing exchange I wanted to check out. It ended up being pretty amazing with lots of good brands for great prices. Alas, with my swelling belly, most of it did not fit! But it was fun looking around anyway. I found Lula a cute little vintage top and a couple of things for myself.

Then we headed to Mukilteo. Mukil...what? Exactly! This was the tiny town (population: 18,000 people) where Jay's conference was to be held. It's about 40 minutes north of Seattle. We went to our hotel, settled in, and then headed back south to another small coastal town where a restaurant had been recommended. We were a bit nervous upon entering as the decor boasted an 80s style that hadn't been updated in a while. However, we were pleasantly surprised with the rich gourmet flavors and freshness of the seafood. The view was beautiful and it was a pleasant experience. To top off the wonderful food, it was the height of peach season. So their boasted dessert was sort of a peach cobbler. It was huge and delicious and we didn't even get close to finishing it all! And that was our Monday in Seattle...and Mukilteo!