Day 31 | A Little Slice of the District

We visited our new house this morning. I wish it would have been more of a permanent trip, but we'll take a couple hours there for now.

The house is perfect and we couldn't be happier or more excited about this next step in our lives. We're lucky to be able to afford such an amazing house, in a city we love, with room for our boys to grow and explore. 

Day 30 | Wisconsin Adventure: The trek home

Well, we're back at the airport. Turns out a week goes by really fast.

The solo trip with two kiddos has gone smoothly thus far. We made the drive to the airport with less napping than I would have liked, but there was napping. We had no issues with security: one baby in the backpack, one baby in my arms. Robbe is enjoying our plane-viewing vantage point and both boys are having a quick snack while we watch our plane pull into the gate. Calm before the storm or a vision of how the rest of the trip will go? Only time will tell. Think happy thoughts! 

Thanks to all our family and friends for a lovely visit. We always leave wanting to stay longer and spend more time with all of you-just the way it should be!

Oh...and we're officially home owners!  Chris signed on the dotted lines this afternoon and we'll head to the house tomorrow to spend some time in our little slice of the District. Big day for our little family. 

Day 29 | Wisconsin Adventure: Cousins are the best

Cousin time!

Chase and Robbe are amazingly lucky to have the world's best cousins. Even luckier? They got to spend time with almost all of them while we've been in Wisconsin.

Chase has been especially spoiled by the attention from Isabelle, Ann, and Lane. Those girls can make him giggle just by looking at him and constantly help him discover new ways to play. 

Lucky, lucky boys.  

Day 28 | Wisconsin Adventure: Exploring Strum

This morning, we packed up the stroller, threw Chase in the backpack (didn't bring the double stroller on this trip), and headed out for a Strum adventure.

We played at the new playground (which consisted mostly of being entertained by the wood chips), waded in the water of Crystal Lake (ok, only one of us was willing to take our shoes off), walked down to admire the waterfall (ie the dam), and attempted to cross the rickety foot bridge before realizing it was a little unstable and turning around halfway across. The adventure wrapped up with a stop at the grocery store, of course. We needed to refuel after all that sightseeing!

Day 27 | Wisconsin Adventure: Grocery store shenanigans

Who knew a grocery store could be so much fun?

Chase is in love with Grandpa Paul and Uncle Brian's grocery store.  He walked the whole way down to the store this morning (.5 miles) and kept repeating, "Chase go grocery store, Chase go grocery store." Think he was excited?

It might be the tiny shopping cart or all the attention he gets, but my bet is that it's because Grandpa Paul stuffs him full of all the fruit and snacks a little boy could dream of. He did pay for his samples by helping Grandpa put out produce. I'm just not sure he worked quite hard enough to overcome his debt.

Day 26 | Wisconsin Adventure: Bye bye Daddy

A farewell hug.

Chris is on his way back to the District. As happy as I am to be staying in Wisconsin with the boys, it definitely won't be the same with part of our family so far away.

Chase asked that I pass this message along to Daddy: "Mama, Dada, Narwhale." And also, "Love you, Daddy."

Day 25 | Wisconsin Adventure: Robbe gets baptized

Robbe gets baptized.

Big day for Robbe.  Huge day.  He was welcomed into God's family at church this morning.  The little guy did great.  Slept for the beginning part of the service, woke up just in time for the blessing, and smiled as the Pastor held him up for the congregation.  Cooperative boy, that one.

It was a lovely morning all in all.  The service went perfectly and our family picnic at the park overlooking the lake could not have been a better celebration.

Feeling very blessed.

Day 24 | Wisconsin Adventure: Family time

Chase and Isabelle demonstrating their nose hats.

An entire day spent with lots of family? We'll take it. We met new kittens, toured the farm, frolicked in the backyard, and got lots of love and attention.

Maybe we'll just stay...

Day 23 | Wisconsin Adventure: Quality time

Lots of reading time with Grandma.

We've been loving this Wisconsin day. Lots of sunshine, small town activity, and quality family time. Happy, happy, happy.

Day 22 | Farewell DC

Family selfie on the way to the airport.

We're on our way! Wisconsin here we come. So far we've made it out the door (quite a feat in itself), to the Metro, onto and off of two trains, and are at the airport. Only a flight and car ride remain until we're relaxing in the wonderful company of family for the week. 

Woohoo!

Day 21 | Waking Up is Hard To Do

Robbe manages to sneak his leg out of the swaddle every time.
Now that it's warm enough, I find it very sweet.

Can you believe I had to wake up both boys this morning? We had a 10:30am doctor appointment which I thought would be no problem but both boys slept until after 8:30am. What?!? I finally went in to stir Chase at around 8:35am and after he was up and dressed we rustled Robbe...at that point it was almost 9:00am!

Why can't they do that when we don't have somewhere to be (i.e. 90% of our mornings)? Don't get me wrong, these boys aren't typically early risers (thank goodness) but I wouldn't mind sleeping until 9:00am once and awhile. 

Day 20 | Making Progress

Swallowed up by boxes.

A peek at our back toy room-turned packing staging ground. My goal was to get most of the non-essentials packed before our trip to Wisconsin. I have to say, I've made some good progress and I can officially add Master Packer to my resume.  I've been so proud of some of the puzzle-piecing involved with these boxes that I've left them open solely to show off my accomplishments to Chris.  :)

Day 19 | Meet the Dish Washer

Standard scene this week.

Not every day is a dream. 

I very strongly dislike doing dishes. Very strongly. So, it seems only appropriate for the best Mother's Day gift was for our dishwasher to break (please note the sarcastic tone). The beauty of being a renter for another few weeks is that we don't have to foot the bill. That doesn't make me feel much better, though, when I consider how I still have to be the one to coordinate the repair (it couldn't be fixed after last week's visit so they're coming back today) and do loads (and loads and loads) of dishes in my nonexistent free time. 

I will appreciate the dishwasher so much more after all this (as if it ever was a question).  To those of you who don't have a dishwasher and this is your every day life, I don't know how you do it. Seriously. 

Update: I received a phone call this morning and our life will remain sans dishwasher for another couple of days.  No repair today.  Urgh.

Day 18 | Banana Bread

Cute and a baker...such a great combination!

I've been trying out a lot of sugar-free, whole wheat recipes since being pregnant with Chase.  This desire increased when I ended up with a toddler in need of healthy snacks. It has dawned on me that a lot of baked goods really don't need the added sugar especially if there's fruit in them.

It's possible that my taste preferences have changed but so far I've successfully taken sugar out of recipes for pancakes, banana bread (which Chase helped me make this weekend), pumpkin muffins, oatmeal balls, fruit muffins, and more. I'm sure I'll share all these recipes (and hopefully a few new ones) as the days go on. Hope you can start to enjoy a few more sugar-free snacks in your life. 

*Sugar-free, Whole Wheat Banana Bread 

• 2 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease pan.
• Whisk together the flour and baking soda.
• Mix mashed bananas with yogurt, honey, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla.
• Add flour mixture and stir until just blended. Do not overmix.
• Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake large loaf for 40 – 50 minutes or until it comes clean with a knife.

*Recipe modified from this website.

Day 17 | The House: A blank slate

Posing in our new living room!

It seems likes it's been months in the making but really it's only been 3 weeks since we toured our amazing new house. Two and a half weeks of constant paperwork, negotiating, and waiting ensued. We're so close now! Just two weeks until closing and everything is falling into place. It feels like home already.

Can't wait to get the keys to our first house and start raising our family in this beautiful environment. 

Feeling very lucky. 

Day 16 | Nemo

Smooches for "Nemo"

After yesterday's *fairly* excessive post, we'll go short and sweet today. 

We finished Chase's first movie this week. Finding Nemo was a pretty successful introduction to the world of film and it only took us four weeks. Haha! 

What's amazing, though, is how quickly Nemo imprinted on Chase. Now every clown fish we see (fairly prevalent, actually) is immediately Nemo. How does that happen? It's like Disney knows how to market to children or something. 

Day 15 | Botanic Garden or Bust

United State Botanic Garden adventures.

Not every day is a dream.*

We set out this morning to have a lovely walk down to the Mall and meet some friends at the United States Botanic Garden.  As you can see from the photo collage, we had a good time and saw a lot of fun things.  However, the story behind the photos is a bit different.  Just a few of the details from our excursion:

1. We fought thousands (felt like millions) of people, ie tourists, on our walk to and from the Garden.  There was a police memorial going on at the Capitol and apparently every high school student group chose today to be wandering around the Hill.  Try navigating a double stroller and fiesty toddler through all that.  Not the most fun I've had.

2. Within five minutes of going inside, Chase got his t-shirt wet (and by wet, I mean a splash of water hit his left sleeve) when he was watering the flowers and he immediately needed his shirt removed.  He walked around the rest of the day wearing an "It's my birthday" tee (that he was wearing underneath) and, for those of you not certain, it is not his birthday.  For the record, the other little kiddos we were with got soaking wet and had no complaints.

3. We got kicked out of two areas of the garden.  One was a non-functioning fountain (pictured above) which would have been the best toddler play area ever.  Nope.  Two was a small secluded garden that was perfect for keeping the toddlers confined.  Would have been perfect, that is, except for the terribly cranky USBG worker that had no patience for the kids.  It's a public garden, for heaven's sake, how can you expect two year olds to not try to touch large blue balls in the middle of the plantings?  So much for teaching kids about plants.  And I swear they weren't actually causing any trouble!  Did I mention that as we were getting kicked out of these two places, Robbe was screaming because he was starving and Chase took the moves equally as well?

4. One of Chase's friends took a digger right before we were leaving and got a big goose egg on her forehead.  The perfect ending.

After all that, we did have a nice time.  I was glad to get out of the house and take advantage of our proximity to the Mall since we'll be leaving here soon.  It was fun chatting with the other moms and hearing Chase's giggles (although few and far between).  It was a lovely day with a nice breeze and comfortable temps.  And now both boys are sleeping and my blood pressure is finally evening out.  See?  I can see the bright side.

*Side note: This phrase, "Not every day is a dream", will begin the posts that don't have a particularly rosey tone.  If you're not interested in hearing me vent, feel free to skip these days.  :)

Day 14 | Green Oatmeal

Chase's green oatmeal.

To continue with the morning theme, here's what a typical breakfast looks like. Chase's green oatmeal (see recipe below) has recently started being doctored up with Cheerios and/or blueberries and he takes his banana "cut up" these days. Most mornings, Robbe is at the table with us but today he slept in. :)

I know the thought of veggies in oatmeal is not particularly appetizing for most of us but Chase has never known any different and I love that he gets a decent serving of veggies in with his first meal. If he doesn't fight it, I'm not mixing it up. And so far, since he was about 9 months old, he's gobbled it right up. 

Green oatmeal:

1/3 cup old fashioned oats

1/3 cup water 

1/3 cup almond milk 

1 cube broccoli (I freeze the blended veggies in ice cube trays)

1 cube kale

Sprinkle of Cheerios and/or blueberries

Heavy sprinkle of flax seed

Directions:

Microwave oats, water and milk for 2 minutes. Stir in frozen cubes. Add flax seed and any extras once cubes are dispersed.

If you end up trying the recipe, let me know how much you love it!

Day 13 | A Morning Routine

Our morning routine.

This is what life looks like around here. Both my beautiful boys set for some quality reading time first thing in the morning. Chase has his snack (just to tide him over) and Robbe eats his breakfast while we snuggle up together (with Big Bear, of course) with Chase's top book picks of the day. Could it get any better? It's really lovely not having anywhere to be or a set agenda most days. It makes for a much more peaceful, enjoyable start to the day. 

And after spending the snuggle time with these two, who could complain about the one million items on my to do list? Have I mentioned we're heading out to Wisconsin in just over a week and moving in 3.5 weeks? Overwhelmed? Just a smidge. 

Day 12 | Tots Yoga

Chase rocking his down-dog split.

Chase and I have been frequenting Tranquil Space's Tots and Tykes yoga class for the last few months. From the beginning when he was almost too scared to go into the studio to today when he rocked practically every pose/activity that was asked of him, it's been fun to see him blossoming into quite the yogi. 

I have to admit: these days his down-dog split is looking better than mine! (*note: That is not me in the photo with him. It's the teacher)

Day 11 | Happy Mother's Day!

The "boys" made this card for their grandmas.

It's beyond clear that Chris and I have the best moms any kids could ask for.

Everyday I strive to show my boys the same love, passion, independence, dedication and strength that our moms have shown us our whole lives. 

Thank you for being you and for creating us. 

Day 10 | National Train Day: Our version

My boys watching trains.

Instead of braving the crowds at Union Station, we decided to celebrate *National Train Day at our favorite train-viewing spot. And a good day for train-viewing it was (although not entirely evident from this photo). As Chase said, we saw "1,2,3,6,9,10" trains. Robbe was even awake long enough to join in on the festivities. A perfect morning overall. 

*Full disclosure: we did not know it was National Train Day when we decided to go train viewing. A nice man yelled from the tracks to let us know there were all kinds of festivities going on inside Union Station. We appreciated the heads up but were very content watching from our isolated perch. 

Day 9 | An Ode to Oatmeal Balls

Delicious!

When I was pregnant with Chase, a friend made delicious no-bake oatmeal balls and shared them with me. Unfortunately, one of the reasons they were so yummy was because they had a decent amount of brown sugar (so good!). I was on a no refined sugar diet as directed by my midwife practice so I went on a mission to find a sugar-free alternative to these yummy treats.

2.5 years later and I can count on one hand the times that my refrigerator has been without these balls. Seriously. They are an easy (one-handed!) snack that is really filling and full of pretty healthy ingredients.  Even better?  Chase now loves them, too.  A great toddler snack!

*Here's the recipe:

• 1 cup oatmeal
• 3/4 cup  unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup flax seed
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Mix everything together then pat firmly into bottom of bowl. Refrigerate for at least an hour (I've also done it overnight) then roll into one-inch balls or cut into squares. Patting it into the bowl first makes this process easier.  Refrigerate to store.

Enjoy!

*modified from this original recipe.

Day 8 | To the Doctor We will Go

The boys with Dr. McKnight.

Between the frequent newborn visits and recent sick visits attempting to get a handle on Chase's rash, play dates with Dr. McKnight are one of our most regular occurrences. Good thing we adore her.

Chase:
Highlight from today's (and every) visit: seeing the "fish" (fish stickers on the scale, that is...it's the little things). 

Weight: 27 lb 8 oz (40th percentile)

Goal: get rid of this darn rash 

Robbe:
Highlight from today's visit: getting five minutes of undivided attention...even if it did end in shots. 

Height: 25in  (99th percentile)

Weight: 14lb 5oz (88th percentile)

Goal: curb the whole "gain a pound a week" thing. 

Day 7 | CHLG Playgroup

Chase at CHLG.  This is his expression when I asked for his smile...something to work on.

Our one organized activity occurs every Wednesday. Chase has really grown to love our time at the Capitol Hill Learning Group. He looks forward to it the night before and knows exactly what he's going to do and who he's going to see when he's there. So glad we randomly stumbled upon this playgroup. 

And, to make it even more enjoyable, Robbe slept the whole time so Chase got some much needed mommy time. Hooray for cooperative babies! 

Day 6 | Wash Mon Park

Enjoying the sunshine at Wash Mon park.

The sun was calling our name this morning.  Chase's park of choice?  Wash Mon Park (short for Washington Monument), of course.

This amazing park has replicas of the big DC monuments for the kiddos to play in/on/through.  Pictured above from left to right (clockwise): Lincoln, MLK Jr., Washington Monument (you can see the Capitol in the background), White House.  Best park ever, right?  Even if Chase wasn't totally obsessed with the monuments, this park would be a huge hit.  Visiting the Wash Mon is just icing on the cake.

Day 5 | Morning Dance Party

Chase's morning dance party.

Now that all the introductions are complete, we'll get started on the normal posts that will be populating the blog: our daily shenanigans.

This was taken during Chase's morning dance party. Notice Elmo and Nemo are watching from a safe distance. 

Next on the agenda? Tots yoga. Fingers crossed Chase didn't use up all his energy on his dance moves. 

Day 4 | Meet the Team: The rest of the gang

Family portrait circa 2010.  Artist credit to our neice Ann.
 She nailed the head size difference between Chris and me.

Rounding out the rest of the family team:

Name: Sara (me!)
Age: 30 (how did that happen?)
Favorites: family (immediate and extended...love, love, love these people), crafting (I'll have time for this again someday, right?), eating Chase's leftover fruit (if there is any), listening to toddler belly laughs, unearthing baby smiles
Biggest hurdle to overcome: middle of the night feedings (I think that post-partum adrenaline has officially worn off)
Dreams for the future: enjoying a glass of wine after 9pm with my hubbie while both boys are in bed sleeping like angels. Someday, someday.

Name: Chris
Age: 31
Favorites: a toddler welcome at the end of a work day, movie trailers (although watching the full movies rarely happens), having every other Friday off, Wisconsin sports teams, Cadbury cream eggs (how can anyone eat those things?), gigantic ice cubes
Biggest hurdle to overcome: helping Chase understand the intricacies of Brewer baseball
Dreams for the future: finally being done with loan paper work for the new house (seriously, are 60+ signatures needed?)

Name: Miga the Cat
Age: 7.5 years
Favorites: being outside, sleeping on white surfaces (only makes sense since she's a black cat), head-butting for attention, showing off her snaggle-teeth (she has two, could we be any luckier?), keeping our feet and crooks of our knees warm at night (really helpful and not at all annoying)
Biggest hurdle to overcome: eating as much grass as desired without the consequences of not being able to digest it
Dreams for the future: a day when she can walk around in a state of bliss without having to be on high alert for toddler tail grabs (it's not as funny as Chase thinks it is...we're getting there)

Name: Moggy the Cat
Age: he was with us for 7 eventful years
Favorites: eating anything and everything (favorites over the years: cell phone chargers, q-tips, hair ties), getting attention from Chase (I swear he really did like it), rubbing up on Chris's work pants (he was a white cat so rubbing on black pants just makes sense), sitting in boxes (why is this fun for cats?)
Dreams for the future: our family challenge is coming to terms with the fact we'll never see that sweet, handsome kitty cat again. He'll always be with us in spirit...

Day 3 | Meet the Team: Chase

Chase | 2 years

I'd like to introduce you to our other little man...

• Name: Chase
• Age: 2 years (finally done counting by months!)
• Favorites: Blueberries, monuments (notice the t-shirt: only a DC toddler), balls, blueberries, trains (watching, playing with, reading about), mama/dada, ma and pas (grandparents: they are grouped into one entity), blueberries (noticing a trend?), books, saying no (a fun new pastime)
• Biggest hurdle to overcome: Reigning in the extreme emotions overtaking his little body
• Dreams for the future: Living really close to "tree park" (hold on, little man, that one's coming true!)

Day 2 | Meet the Team: Robbe

Robbe | 2 months

Chronological order makes sense for introducing the family but since it's Robbe's two month birthday today (such a grown up!), it seems only right to start with him.

• Name: Robbe (remember: we're going by middle names around here)
• Age: 2 months
• Favorites: his brother (and mom and dad, of course), his yellow chair, baths, eating, wearing stripes (I might be projecting)
• Biggest hurdle to overcome: recognizing that you can't always be the hungriest you've ever been with the intense reaction to follow
• Dreams for the future: sleeping longer stretches at night

We'll check back with the fam every now and then to update their profiles. Get excited.

Day 1 | Capitol Play Time

Life is a dream.

I'm doing it. This is it. Welcome to my journey into the world of blogging.

I'm a mom, crafter, soon-to-be homeowner and it's time to start documenting this fun, unpredictable, fast-paced life we're living in the District (Washington, DC, that is) with a photo a day. It's not always going to be about the kiddos (who go by their middle names around here: blog pseudo-personas are a must!). It's not always going to be about me (the horror!). It's not always going to be pretty (have you spent any time with a toddler?). But this is our life and what a dream it is.