Spring has Sprung

Ollie and I just finished our breakfast of banana and pineapple smoothies and we figured our blogging is way overdue! I hope everyone had a marvelous Easter! We sure did! It was wonderful to have family in town! It was surprisingly chilly when the Foster's came to town. The 1st day we tried to go to the beach, but it was cold and about to rain :( The next day we had a little better luck and went to the tree beach! & that night Mark and I got to go on a sushi and Hunger Games date! It was wonderful! <3 

Mark, Baboo, & Katherine about to wade across the river. 

Ollie waiting patiently on dry land. 

Easter Sunday we went to church, dyed eggs, and had a fabulous feast! The Easter Bunny brought Ollie his first finger food- Puffs. At first he had no idea what to do with them. It was asparagus all over again. But he caught on quickly and started to chew. He's still practicing putting them in his mouth with those chubby little fingers! (No candy this year...)

Looking at his basket! 

So sweet! <3 

Mark, Katherine, & my eggs

Our feast- Chicken, dressing, & asparagus!

Baboo & Aunt K had to leave on Monday, but Granmom got to stay till Thursday! We mostly stuck to our normal routine- we showed gmom our downtown & park. It was so nice to have her here! On Wednesday she watched Ollie while Mark & I went to Hogwarts!!

Lets not forget Ollie turned 8 months!!! Still no crawling. He makes a swimming motion and basically gets mad and rolls wherever he wants to go. He likes to stand up, wether holding onto your fingers or the furniture (he doesn't get  there himself, we put him there). He loves to jabber and pull apart his foam ABC puzzle mat. He scratches surfaces constantly & listens to the different noises they make. Sometimes he tries to mimic you and eventually only gets out a scream! haha 

It's looking like an unexpected trip to Boston- for Mark- will put us in Memphis a week earlier than expected! Ollie and I will be intown for 3 weeks, so plenty of time to see everyone! <3 <3

DaDaDaDa

Hi everyone! Long time to blog. We have gotten into the same habits... Beach, Zoo, Target, Publix, Kindermusik, Downtown Bay. I've done my best to keep busy so I don't get too homesick. There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. 5 days till the Foster's visit & 39 days till our vacation in Memphis. haha. It'll be here before you know it. But then that means little O will be 3/4 of a year and I'm not ready for that! :( 


One new thing we've added to our agenda is swimming. Mika's Grandma has a heated pool. Which is great! The air is warm around here but the pools are still chilly, and the ocean- fagettaboutit! And OMG Ollie is a fish!! He is cute as he can be. He kicks and splashes. He really thinks he can do it all on his own! It gets hard holding his slippery fat body. Thankfully Mark came with us the last time & we also got O a baby float! Not only is the pool the highlight of our week but also the company. Mika's Grandparents always make us lunch and are so very sweet!!!

Ollie has changed so much over these last 2 weeks. It's usually a little more gradual making it harder for me to tell. But not this time. He has been babbling all day long! And, even though he doesn't know what he's saying, saying dadadadadada. I like to "sleep in" once a week, and it makes it easier to get Mark to get him. I just say, "he's calling you!" haha. Mr. O also seems to be getting 3 more teeth all at once :( He is weighing in at 22lbs. & I'm not sure how long he is but everyone always comments on how tall he looks?!  I think I've slacked off on telling you what new foods he's tried... if you even care... lol. But I like food so here we go: yogurt, peas, chicken, butternut squash, tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber, mint), watermelon, mango, eggplant, & apricot. Yummmm! He does a great job at standing (while you hold his hands). He also loves to jump! It's constant! Jumping and kicking. He doesn't seem at all interested in crawling yet... maybe he'll go straight to walking like his dad. 

TTFN. Check back to see what we do with the Foster's, how our Easter plays out, & how Mark and my ultimate date to the most magical place on earth goes! <3 <3 <3

#AuntKira

Hello Everyone!
This week was wonderful! I owe all my fun and exhaustion to Kira =) We ate & ate & ate, but we walked it all off with all our activities!

Day 1: Ollie's 7 months old. Can you believe it?! Isn't he the cutest? We took Auntie Kira downtown to celebrate. We ate our fav burgers at Tasty's and enjoyed the beautiful day! <3 For dinner I was inspired by Kira's go-to meal mac n' cheese. We had an amazing homemade grownup version with bread sticks and salad with sherry vin & apples.

Day 2: BEACH DAY! Ollie semi-cooperated. Taking a little snooze in his stroller. Per his daddy's request I let him play in the sand... Not the greatest idea, but he liked it. And being the tough boy he is he didn't mind getting all sandy. What he did mind was when I washed his hands in the ocean. Too cold! :( We packed a yummy lunch of quinoa, I had to let Kira experience it's yumminess. For dinner Kira requested enchilada casserole. 

 

Day 3: Jacksonville! Kira got to be Ollie's Kindermusik partner! They were so cute, and had so much fun! Afterwards we visited the mall, buying lots of goodies, mostly at Forever21! We had peach & raspberry lemonade & Greek pizza at California Pizza Kitchen! For dinner I made local creamy & spicy shrimp with rice. 

Day 4: Outlet Mall & St Augustine! The oldest settlement in the U.S. Today we left the baby behind with Mark and traveled to the cool old town. There were tons of people & some of the scenery made me feel like I wasn't in the U.S. After walking around and enjoying the sites we decided we didn't want to spend money on making candles or taking an old timey salon photo! Therefore dork swindled me in to taking her to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum... enough said. We ate dinner at a Greek restaurant. ;)  

I hope you enjoyed a look into our week! It's good to be a visitor of mine, if I do say so muyself. 18 days until our next visitors- THE FOSTER'S! =))) 

Hi! I hope everyone had a nice week! Ours went by pretty fast considering our built up anticipation for Aunt Kira's visit! Nothing too exciting going on at the Foster's, but the island had it's share of excitement. It hosted the annual Amelia Concours D'Elegance. This brought a lot of excitement in the form of private jets, yachts, & maseratis! It was pretty cool. Apparently a huge deal! Here's the link if you wanna check it out. http://www.ameliaconcours.org/ We didn't attend the actual event at the Ritz Carlton. But we woke up Saturday morning looked out the window and saw lots and lots of cars parked on the golf course. Haha, so we walked around and that's where we got Ollie's picture in front of the little yellow Fiat.    

Here are the pictures of what we did this week ;) 

WE: went to the zoo!

Had our weekly Kindermusik class!

Bought an umbrella  stroller!

Checked out some cars!

Went on a swamp walk.

Bought junk food for Kira.

Bye! Stay tuned for next week! A blog all about Aunt Kira, & where she puts all the food she eats <3

"So many activities!"

Hi Friends and Family! 
We have so many fun things to share. We've had a great time since our last post! Thankfully there are pictures of it all most of it: so here we go...

Mommy & Ollie had a beach day. It was so fun and relaxing. O did a great job, and we had such a special day: just the two of us! 

Cutie in his beach tent!

On to Kindermusik! This is a picture of the babes playing a drum! hehe. Cuties!

This week we decided to try the Ferry to Jacksonville it was nice =)

"Too windy Maaa!" 

Dr. Seuss had his 108th Birthday this weekend! We got to go to his party! It was at the nature center on our plantation. So So fun! Here are the pics...

O loves the turtle!

"I'm just going to open this up to let the snake out!"

"Don't be scared Dad get me closer!"

OMG PRESH! 

Haha

I think I'll take that watch!

Not pictured: Owie had his 6 month shots. :,( It was so sad. Mommy & Daddy had to hold him down. He's 19.5 lbs and the doc says he's doing great! I'm now trusting him more to sit up. He's getting really straight instead of doing the tripod sit! The only new food he tried this week was potatoes... I know slacking. Ollie bought Dad a basketball. We have a court on the plantation. So we went and played a little street ball yesterday evening! Miss you all but I'm so excited BECAUSEEEE 8 MORE DAYS TILL AUNT KIRA'S VISIT!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Got the grocery list fulla junk food, candy, and your fav dinner! EEEKKKKKK! 

Friends, Fun, & Lizards

Wowa! Sorry It has taken awhile since my last post... I though about writing a couple of times, but haven't had too much interesting things to say. Everything is about the same around here. It's getting to be more like regular life, and not a vacation. Boo!

But we did meet some sweet friends at a mommy and me workout; Song and her 8 month old Mika! They are so sweet and we've enjoyed spending time with them. I'm sure you have seen their cutie pics on Facebook!

In addition to the mommy & me workout, (the workout was hard for mommy, because my "weight" was 19lbs...) we decided to go back to Kindermusik! It's a little closer this time, but still in Jacksonville. Song & Mika signed up too, so we can carpool. Ollie loves the class so much! =) We also have had a couple of playdates. The babies play on the mat. They're so cute starring at each other, and grabbing each others faces. haha. Ollie loves watching her crawl, so maybe he'll get the idea ;) Song and I both love cooking so we've done a little of that =) trying out recipes on each other. It's been fun! I'm glad we found some friends with so much in common.

Now to the lizard! There are a million lizards here, to be expected. Mark's in heaven, apparently they are ::dork voice:: "green anoles". I wasn't expecting one to be IN THE HOUSE! I was taking Ollie into his room to get dressed, and I stopped in my tracks. OMG there's a lizard in his room! Ahhh. I had to get it because I had this horrible image of a lizard crawling on my babies face while he was sleeping. I put Ollie down on the floor, and grabbed a box from his closet. I tried throwing it onto of the lizard. This didn't work and surprisingly didn't scare him too far. So I went to the bathroom and got the soap dish. I had to get closer than I wanted, but I knew I had to do it! Phew it worked! I considered leaving it for Mark to get home, but the thought of a dead lizard bothered me more. Soooo I got my flimsy cutting board and slid it under him. Uhhhh it was so gross taking him downstairs and out the door... Any way we all survived to tell the story!

Since the last time I blogged Ollie has tried carrots, apples, asparagus, prunes, and even turkey! He also got to try a real strawberry. There's a little mesh pouch you put it in and it lets them eat the fruit through the holes. He LOVES it and makes loud sucking noises till it's all gone! He's also starting to practice with a sippy cup of water! I can't believe he's becoming such a little human!! He gets to sleep with a lovie now. It's a little blankey/ stuffed animal. He loves to snuggle it, and it's been helping him self sooth. We miss you all! Till next time!  

half way between 0 & 1!

This weekend we had a lot of fun family time! With Mark's work schedule the weekend lasted from Friday-Monday! Yahoo! On Friday we decided to try a new park and take a picnic lunch. About 10 minutes away there is a state park, it didn't seem like much, but when we got to the beach it was beautiful! I called it the "elephant graveyard" because it looked like the scene from Lion King. It was basically tons of beautiful trees, turned into driftwood. So cool! Ollie had a fun time spending most of his time singing in his stroller. I wanted to get some pictures of him by himself, found a safe place, and gave it a try. He ended up doing great and we got a few laughs in the process. I posted a lot of pictures on Facebook. So as not to repeat and bore everyone here is a picture of scenery. 

Saturday we decided to explore some more of Jacksonville. We went to the historic San Marco Square. It was a cute area with shops and restaurants. We ate lunch, walked around, and had fro-yo! =) We also went to part of Jacksonville's downtown. It was an "artsy" district. We went to a park, on the water, where we sat in the sunshine on a huge open lawn and watched the people. Ollie got to sit in the grass. He was very interested in every blade. 

Sunday, was somewhat a lazy day. We tried out a new church, watched a lot of TV, and Facetimed with our bff couple Amanda & Andrew Griffy. =( Mies you guys. Technology is great, but every time I 'see' someone instead of just 'hear' them, it makes me sad! 

Today: Monday February 13, 2012 OLIVER FINN FOSTER is 1/2!!!! I really can't believe how fast this monkey is growing. He is too cute in every way! He has been been so interested in the world around him, taking it all in. He is also fascinated with his feet! He can be very serious and very silly. His second tooth is making an appearance, so he's been a little fussy and drooly lately. He grabs anything in his reach, so you have to be extra careful. He is also a roly poly, shape and mobility wise. =)) From the time he wakes up (7:30) to the time he goes down (6:30) he's a complete joy. I know he has a lot of reasons to be so smiley, but I'm giving credit to his nap schedule. Which he is falling into quite nicely! Since I last posted he has tried pears, and avocado. <3 <3 <3  TTFN! 

Birthday Weekend!

I'm the only one in the family "fortunate" enough to get to spend my birthday in Florida. Better me than Ollie! But thanks to my sweet boys I had a wonderful weekend! When Mark got home from work Thursday night he brought me sunflowers and lilies! The lilies are just now blooming and the smell is to die for! Friday I got to have some mommy time by getting a massage and mani pedi! It was so relaxing and wonderful! Saturday the boys and I went to the zoo! We got a zoo membership and can't wait to go back. Ollie didn't notice every animal, but when he did he was fixated! The 1st animal he actually saw was the warthogs. haha. And probably his favorite were the giraffes. They were so close to us, and there was even a baby! <3

Finally Sunday, my actual Birthday, was filled with lots of yummy food and I didn't cook any of it! Mark made me banana pancakes in the morning, with homemade blueberry and strawberry syrup (maybe I made that;)). At lunch time we went for a stroll in historic downtown. We ate wood fired pizza and my personal fav fro-yo! And then to top off a wonderful day of eating Mark made me Ina's crab cakes! But we weren't the only ones enjoying food. Mr. O got to try roasted bananas! It was love at first bite! Since then I have mixed in spinach and he likes that too. He has also tried yellow squash, which he's not too fond of unless it comes with a side of sweet potatoes! 

Check back for this weekends activities! It's gonna be a good one! xoxo 

"terrible horrible no good very bad day"

Driving to Jacksonville for a 30 minute Kindermusik class, in a ladies house, with 2 other babies was not what I signed up for! Where should I begin?! Such a long story... but don't stop reading you'll get a laugh! I guess last you heard we loved Kindermusik and met new friends! This was on the "demo day" a free day to PREVIEW what you would be paying for! It was at a dance studio with about 8 other babies. The teacher was funny and quirky, what you would expect from a babies music teacher! She loved Ollie, saying he was "JUST AS CUTE AS HIS NAME" and "he reminds me of my son". I signed up right away and payed in full!

I got a call from the teacher the day of the 1st class and she told me she would have to push it back a week. I was disappointed, but though whatever.

Next week, I get an e-mail late at night (the night before) saying we would have class but it would need to be relocated to her home. When I looked on the map it was as far south as you could get making my commute 10-15 minutes longer!! From the way the e-mail read I thought it was just for this week, and didn't mind. We were the 1st ones to arrive and soon to follow were two cute ladies with equally as cute babies! I had to go to the bathroom so bad from my hour commute and asked if she minded. She lead me back to her bathroom and on the way I encountered the cutest dog! I said hi to him, and the teacher says, "guess what his name is?", "what?", "OLLIE! Isn't that funny?", "Oh ha small world!". So I'm thinking to myself why didn't she tell me this before?! I come back and join everyone in the dining room and she is telling the other girls how her last dog got ran over on Christmas. I felt so bad for her and could tell how much she was hurting from her loss. She said "that's why this NEW dog is barking, we haven't spent much time with him, we only got him 4 days ago!" I say "4 DAYS AGO?"!!! Omg this woman has named her dog after my baby! I'm dying! hahahahaha... Class continues and all is well, Ollie even has some laughs so naturally we have to go back! She says the class will be at her home until maybe mid February when she might relocate to the mall area! Hallelujah! That's what this mama is talkin about!

Now for the bad day...

I woke up looking forward to this pitiful excuse for a class because I have nothing else! So depressing. I tried to send a text message to Kira when I realized my phone wasn't working. It will only let me call at&t and my "house phone" won't let me call long distance. I'm still on my family plan so obviously my dad's phone wont work either. So even if I could figure it out how do I get in touch with him to fix it!? I e-mailed Mark, hoping he would answer my plea. Nothing. I got on Facebook to see if any of my friends were online. Nothing. I got on Skype to try and make a phone call, apparently you can't do that without Skype points... Then I realize I have neighbors! I will do this the old fashioned way. But they don't answer. So I look around for anyone... Ta-da! A pool man! I called my mom from his phone and asked her to figure it out. haha. Thanks pool man & mom!

I was still conflicted on what to do about Kindermusik because I found out there was a "Kinderstudio" close to us, only 10 minutes away! I didn't know if I could get a refund and was going this week to see how it was and talk to the teacher. I'm almost there when she calls to say... "There's no class!" She was very apologetic and offered me a full refund. I figured it was for the best: OBVIOUSLY! I was angry that I had went all the way there for nothing and recalculated the GPS to take us back. And what does that stupid thing do?! Take me to a dang Ferry out in the middle of no where!!!! Are you kidding me?! 2 hours later we get back to our island. Ollie has gotten a good nap out of this goose chase, so I figure there's no reason to go home! I take him to our favorite park and let him swing until his giggle box is worn out!

Additional horribleness. BABY TREND- NEVER BUY! Designs their strollers to fall apart at 6 months- after the warranty expires! So I am stuck without a stroller for the time being! A must have for all fun activities including- beach, mall, walking trails, zoo, etc... even the engineer can't fix it! UUUURGHHHH!

To wrap things up- The Kindermusik close to us doesn't have a class for babies right now. So we are without a class. But I have done some more research and found a mom & me group we're going to try out Thursday! I'll let you know how that goes! Sorry for the novel! Next time I'll post more on what the monkey is doing- besides eating that is! I'm sure the posts will be much more positive, considering I have Birthday weekend to look forward to ;) Love you all!

Eating for Sport

As you might know already from facebook, little monkey is a eater!! He even takes the unnecessary step of  chewing his food! Too cute! Thank God he likes it because I have been looking forward to the day he would eat for like a year now! I am making all his baby food from organic fruits and veggys! I hope to introduce him to all sorts of goodies so he will have an extensive palate. But this is where we have started: Steamed sweet potato puree, roasted blueberry oatmeal, and steamed green bean puree. It's so fun to see his reaction to a new food! He is absolutely precious! He also loved it when I mixed his blueberries and sweet potatoes! Once I introduce him to single purees I will be able to mix more often!  Stayed tuned to see what O eats next! <3

Sweet Potatoes- all gone!! 

Oatmeal with roasted blueberries! -yum!

Blueberries are sour by themselves! ha!

I ate all my green beans!! 

"Be Our Guest"

Wow! Finally I have some time to sit down and recall the time since I last blogged. Thankfully you haven't gotten too much Ollie withdrawals since I posted some pool side pictures on Facebook, and e-mailed most of you a hilarious cackling video! If you need some more one on one interaction feel free to e-mail, call, text, Skype, Face-time, or visit- like my dear friend Laura did, the beginning of this week! Laura and I are "foodies" so we had an amazing culinary visit! Not only did we cook up a storm, but we also went to an amazing local burger joint and THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY!! Thanks to Laura I posted a couple of pictures of my personal favorites! She has an amazing food blog: http://myediblebucketlist.com/ and will post in detail about our culinary adventure, so check it out!

garlic sauteed local shrimp with saffron zucchini quinoa 

my new favorite- I've been making multiple times a week- Kale Chips!

We also did a little beaching and a little shopping! Below are some shoes that I HAD to get Mr. O! Aren't they cute?! Teeny little loafers that fit in the palm of my hand! I sent the picture to Mark, and he said "WHY are you getting him shoes?! He can't walk!" I mean c'mon Mark they're cute! (Noticed I flipped over the price before I sent him a picture!) Also on the subject of shopping. While we were in Fossil a guy that worked there stopped in his tracks when he spotted my cute baby. He said "Owh Mye Gawwwsh he is tooo cute! Look at his little mohawk!!! Oh my Gawd is THAT natural?" Me: "haha yes, it just grows that way!" "ughr thats what I'm tryin to get goin with my hair!" Haha too cute! Until next time! Much Love! <3