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5.31.2011

HOORAY FOR HUSBANDS!


today it happened. it finally happened! today, my husband woke up, put on a real dapper outfit (do boys call them "outfits?") and took himself to his first day of work. 

it's over and we survived it! 

as if that weren't enough, huck let me sleep in until 9:30 this morning! oh glory!

when brandon came home we celebrated with deep dish pizza and gelato. 

and oh, this weather!

and i got to look at these chubby thighs while we walked around town.


oh today!

last week i attended a babybjorn event soho.
if you want to see little old me in the preview video,
you can check it out right here

5.27.2011

ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS


today we spent a grueling couple of hours at century 21, an awful discount department store across from ground zero that i hate i hate i hate. it's always crazy busy in there and it always puts me in the foulest mood. brandon needed to buy new shoes for his new job, and some doorknob told him that the century 21 was the best place to get shoes. i was dismayed to hear this news, since the century 21 fills me with such love for my fellow man (not really). it was one of those "gird up thy loins and put on yo big girl pants" kind of days. oh aren't we so proud.


now that we have that covered,
here are this week's babble posts:

baby's first tummy bug.
in which i make a fool of myself on video to catch huck's new smile
so far we've tried peas, carrots, avocados, pears and twizzlers. we like everything but the pears.
you've already seen this one but maybe you'll read it again?
about nicknames and the stress thereof.
(in high school my friends called me gonads. and now you know.)


also, there are still about 12 hours left in my fabric + handle giveaway (scroll down a bit!). so hurry up!

5.26.2011

THESE DAYS







and now i must be off. my poor manspouse is putting together a huge ikea wardrobe all by his lonesome, and i should probably help him by finishing off the last of the nutella . . .
it's the least i could do!

5.24.2011

WHAT WOULD MARY POPPINS DO?


Generally in my life I have found that any problem I have may be solved by simply asking myself one of three questions: 1. Is anybody looking? 2. Will I regret this later? and 3. Can I eat it?

No, no, that's not it. Let's start this over.

Generally in my life I have found that any problem I have may be solved by simply asking myself one of three questions. Allow me to elaborate.

Let's say I am having relationship troubles of some kind. I simply ask myself, "What would Meg Ryan do?" Usually, what Meg Ryan would do is terribly cute, requires the furrowing of one's brows, and involves either a. "Flying To Seattle," b. "Slapping Him At A Wedding," or c. "Going To The Mattresses."

See? Helpful.

Here's another example. Imagine per chance that your heroine (me) has just accomplished something tragically disastrous and/or is fraught with embarrassment, and showing one's face in public again is imminent. I simply ask myself, "What would Anne Shirley do?" I find that, typically, Anne Shirley would wallow in her misfortune in a grand fashion, and then by and by she would pick herself up by her bootstraps, face her fears head on, and in the process, courageously make an even bigger fool of herself as soon as the opportunity allowed. Delightful!

(Unsurprisingly, I get to ask myself what Anne Shirley would do an awful lot, and I wonder why that is?)

My last example is this: Say I am faced with a parenting quandary that is so overly daunting, so terribly difficult, that I have already called my mother, consulted my mom's group, and productively eaten everything carbohydrate-based in my pantry, and still no answer is presenting itself. What then? This is when I ask myself, "What would Mary Poppins do?"

Mary Poppins is my parenting ideal. She is quick, she is firm, she is exacting but forgiving, she accepts precisely no nonsense and says bizarre things like "Well-begun is half done." The children in her charge simply adore her.

I found during my time as a baby sitter (and as favorite aunt) that kids don't need a lot of B.S. They want to know where they stand with you and they don't like to be treated like babies. Furthermore, they do well when their imaginations and fantasies are indulged and yet they must know their place and how to behave politely. Sure sure, we can all pop in and out of chalk paintings all we like, but people who get their feet wet must learn to take their medicine.

What would Mary Poppins would do?

Whatever she darn well pleased.



This post was also posted on Babble
cause sometimes your brain stops working and you just have to do stuff like that.

5.23.2011

TO DO IN THE WEST VILLAGE






1-- eat cuban sandwiches at favela cubana on laguardia place in the west village with a real cute baby.



2-- get gelato bars from popbar on carmine street for dessert.



3-- eat them in father demo square in the sunshine while people watching.





optional-- share your almond topping with the pigeons.

peace out yo

5.20.2011

IF I WERE IN IDAHO RIGHT NOW . . .


right now idaho is probably chock a block full of lilacs.
(we have some here in new york, they are not the same.)


right now my back yard in moscow is probably real sunny.
(it's sunny in central park too, except it's not as easy to roll out there in your pajamas with a bowl of cereal.)


if i were in idaho, i probably wouldn't have just spent seven bucks on a twelve-pack of diet cokes
and then lugged them home using just mah guns.
but whatever.

ONLY VAGUELY RELATED: when i look at the empty can of diet coke next to me and wish it were full and then realize it IS full because at some point i went to the fridge and got myself a new one but i just didn't remember . . .  that is my favorite thing ever.

BUT SINCE WE ARE ENTIRELY OFF THE SUBJECT, this week's babble posts:

on spacing siblings and when to try for baby #2
huckles has a tooth and is cuter than string cheese
this one is about how i eat too much junk food
and this one is about poop! and not even baby poop either! 

and here are some fun things i'm enjoying around the internet lately:

(i have decided to live my life by this theory)
french-type things to do in nyc

5.19.2011

IF YOU WERE HENRY HOLBROOK


these would be your parents.


any questions?

5.18.2011

THIS IS HOW YOU CELEBRATE


For Brandon's graduation present he requested lunch at Junior's Cheesecake in Times Square, because that is just the kind of dude he is.

After we finished our cheesecake (their pickles and beets are also to dieeeeee) we saw both Ben Linus and Mr. Big on 53rd street. 

Cheers to my cute husband! No more school!

5.16.2011

SWEET LIKE HONEY


The other night Brandon came to me with a serious face.  "We are just about out of soap," he said somberly.

Don't ask me why but it has somehow fallen to Brandon to replace the soap in the shower. I never meant for it to happen, but there it is. It is one of his jobs, like walking the dogs, or putting the iron back where it belongs way up on the top shelf of the cupboard. Or cursing a million times while cutting Petey's hair. Jobs are important in a marriage, don't you think? For instance, one of my jobs is the procuring of household items. And now we are all caught up.

Later that night after everybody was in bed, I grabbed my midnight shower. And I realized he was right. Our soap situation was in distress. So I grabbed for Henrydiddle's baby wash instead.

As soon as that bottle was open and the honey smell escaped I started to miss my buddy. Oh, me and Hank, these days we are pals. He is hysterical lately, laughing at things that are actually funny and scrunching his face up at mashed bananas and tensing his entire body in delight when I put on the YouTubes so Mickey can invite us over to his clubhouse.

Some nights after he is asleep I go over the day we had and feel like I didn't have enough time to properly chew on Henry August's cheeks.

Standing there in the shower that night smelling my baby, I thought about how neat it was that--as it turns out--I like him as a person! I like him hard. Luckily, I am pretty sure he likes me back. And then I remembered what my dad told me one night over the phone when Henry was brand new and I was in a mess of tears because my baby was already three days old and time was going too fast and I was never going to get those first days back.

"Natalie!" he said, "Natalie, that boy is going to grow up! And talk! And he is going to be so much fun! The best part isn't even here yet!"

At the time it made me even sadder (hormones schmormones), but today I can say it: Dad, you were right.

This gets better every stinking day.

5.13.2011

JUST A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND


this week on babble:
the cutest pictures of huck everrrr at a disney baby launch,
mr henry august gets his first tooth (it's a really cute tooth too, but then i am partial),
science says mom brain is real (and by science i mean me),
and finally, a thoroughly exhaustive list of things you can do with baby wipes.



now, go forth and have a great weekend.

5.11.2011

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR ME . . .

i am most likely here:


doing this:


with this guy:



***

bonus special fun question: 
who are these children coming down?
coming down like gentle rain
through darkened skies?



p.s. nat the fat rat is accepting sponsors!
did you know?
i figured you maybe didn't know.
tell all your cousins!

5.09.2011

HELLO, OHDEEDOH

i was incredibly excited to see huck's little closet bedroom on ohdeedoh today! 
to celebrate, here are a few shots of the rest of our (teensy) place.


this place is tiny. but we make it work.
this is our back yard:


not half bad.