brrr

taking the kids for a winter walk to the playground.
We have made this a daily activity since madeline loves to see the 'big kids' as they are dismissed from the elem school a block away. She says hi to all of her friends and likes to run around a little even when its 100 below. Here we are all bundled and ready to go i the wagon yesterday.


bennett is a good sport for all of this

maybe bc his big sister sings to him the whole way.

words words words

he is beginning to make some cool sounds that i think are words
we've gone from
dadadadada to what sounds distinctly like Dada and is usually directed at don
he says, and i quote "cok cok" which is baby for 'quack quack' and refers to a duck
truck came out a few times today as we looked at the recycling vehicle outside
and he has been saying 'ssista' for about a week- usually when he is looking for or waving at madeline or if he hears her in another room. he says 'duh' for madeline though...working on that
and of course
no Mama. in fact its quite the opposite.
check it out:

we are busy

so busy over here now that you put Bennett down and he is GONE!
At least it is winter so we are rarely outdoors. In 2 months or so I'm doomed bc this kid is going to be covered in mud and wandering about our neighborhood LOL. Oh and btw he'll be a 1 year old then. OMG

the kids playing before breakfast on monday. yes our house is a zoo.


if you take off the cute cupcake shirt, he really is just a baby chimpanzee...

food...

our family is going through a metamorphosis this year
one arena is food
http://www.freshthemovie.com/

we are rededicating ourselves, slowly to consuming much more fresh, local and organic food
slow food ( http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/mission.lasso )
real food

we began by buying an 1/8 of a steer from a local grass-fed organic farmer
http://www.discoverfrederickmd.com/farmersmarket/html/detail.htm?cat=125&store=1102
and YUM

next we switched to buying our dairy from
http://www.southmountaincreamery.com/home.php
It is delivered to our door and placed in glass jars into our cooler. In addition to milk and the best chocolate milk we have ever tasted- can you say milkshake? we get our organic, cage free eggs, fresh cheese, yogurt, and occassionally apple cider from them. We also have bought some chicken from them and plan to do so again once we have run out of our supply.

We have switched from shopping mostly at the local chains: safeway, giant and macgruders to mostly shopping at MOMS (My Organic Market link ) which is not only promoting local organic farms but the whole experience is so much nicer-

And we will continue using the CSA once it is running again (around here there are no winter CSAs so we have to buy all of our produce instead of getting it from the co-op. We will be using Sandy Spring CSA this spring/summer
http://sandyspringcsa.com/

And finally, when dining out, we have turned to Eatwild.com to steer us in the right direction. We have found some amazing eateries including this one we went to on Sunday to celebrate our anniversary. http://ricciutis.com/
This place has not only an amazing mission of eco-friendlieness and socially responsible practices, it has amazing food!

So this
doesnt mean we are not still junk food junkies, nor that we have given up bacon (in fact we are finalizing a purchase of an organically raised 1/4 wild pig this month)and ice cream. But it means that we are considering the effect of what we buy on not only our bodies but on our environment. We have a lot more to learn about all of this and we hope as the kids get older we will be able to grow more and more of our own herbs, veggies etc but for now this is what we can do. It means eating out less, cooking a lot more, and finding new ways to eat the same vegetables as we are eating mostly what is in season (though i dont sacrifice on frozen fruits and we eat blueberries year-round).
We dont buy all of our produce organic when the CSA is closed for the season and we have to shop retail. When this is the case, we tend to lean on the 'dirty dozen' list to guide us on what absorbs the most pesticide.And there are some things we buy that are simply not 'certified organic' but really are. And sometimes we opt for local over organic because the farmers use integrated pest management and we think the environmental toll is high to have things shipped in.

we are excited about diving into this adventure. We hope we can keep it up as we learn. It is not cheap- that is for certain, but we make sacrifices elsewhere for the consideration that in the long run, it is more expensive not to.

We'd love to hear what you think we can do to do even more.

birthday party

madeline attended her very good friend, eliana's 4th birthday last weekend.
It was a princess tea party
and we had a blast.



benjamin, my godson, joined in the fun of course. he loves his big sister. ... role model for bennett too im sure! LOL




Madeline got to eat pizza and birthday cake. seems like a trivial thing but for the mom of a child with a food allergy this is momentous. just took the cheese off and reapplied the pepperoni and she fit right in.

phases of crawling this month

Thought i'd show you a few action shots of how his crawling earlier this month that i never got to post. now he takes off but its fun to look at how quickly they go from almost crawling, to sort of crawling to 'get out the baby gates!'

"im the bride of all.. im the princess of all" as declared by the big sister playing dress up after the princess tea party birthday she attended this week.



excuse the nude preschooler please. all in a day...

being silly siblings

just playing together
so THIS is why people have siblings.








dont ask- she seems to be karate chopping him but he loved it. its an unwritten language.

lots more

i have a bunch of pics and vids from this weekend but here is a teaser:

cruising and crawling now- this kid can get anywhere he wants and into virtually anything. yikes!

Cruising

This kid is on the go
and couldnt be happier.

(except of course for the giant dent in his head- he doesnt really think through all of his moves...)

here's proof of his cruising prowess


in other news, he too is low-iron, like madeline. so bring on the red meat, steamed clams and dried peaches. plus we cook breakfast in an iron skillett
any other iron ideas- other than the obvious supplements?

Snuggle Bunnies

Getting geared up to head out the door this morning. Bennett is cruising now so the best i can do is let him go back and forth across the stair gates and while he traverses i can layer him up.  Madeline is a good sport and entertains him during the whole ordeal. She is an amazing big sister.

There is no denying that these kids are cuddlers! They so take after their dad :)

Here they are with some great friends who came over for brunch Sunday after the new year, the Sukiniks: Joe, Dan and David.  Ursula, (mom not pictured bc i think she was wii skiiing at the time) was our doula and we are so lucky to have maintained a friendship with them beyond. here’s to years more!

Madeline could not have been more excited to have had ‘the boys’ come over for a playdate- course they would maybe have interpreted it as a playdate with the wii but what she doesnt know wont hurt her in this case!

Seems like David and Ursula Both have a thing for babies :)