TEN DATES / 07

for our seventh date with HowAboutWe, we took the whole clan down to the lower east side to check out economy candy for a fun scavenger hunt. family date! (of all the dates we've been on, this was one of brandon's most favorite.) it happened to be the day before easter, so not only was the place jam packed, it was also kind of exciting in an added, magical, "kid in a candy store" kind of way, remembering all our past easter baskets as kids as we poked through all the old-school candy i could have sworn you couldn't find anymore... not to mention all the harry + the hendersons trading cards...

HowAboutWe has been sending us on ten dates this year to help us celebrate our tenth year of marriage (can you believe how old we are, crap). we have had the time of our lives with this project. we always look forward to the next date on the calendar, and browse through the date listings here and there on our own to boomark dates that look like fun. brandon will sometimes come home from work after a day where i've been poking around on the site and say, "hey, archery lessons in queens! yes!" shopping for the date has been half the fun. and i just love how it's gotten us out of our comfort zone and into new situations and neighborhoods. instead of asking a bunch of our friends for their recommendations and making phone calls and trying to piece together an activity, you just surf around and click "book this date." it's like having a good friend in the city who's been to all the fun stuff, knows how to set it up perfectly, and then does it for you. 

like.... economy candy! we got there and the owners of the shop were ready for us. it was fun to meet them, i had no idea what a family operation the place is. it's recently been handed off to their son, who has his work cut out for him, the place is crazy busy, and mom + pop were there that day just to help out with the holiday crowds. they handed us our baskets and rules, and off we went. basically we were just poking through the stuffed aisles of sugar looking for specific candies that we then got to take home free of charge. (we also bought a good six pounds of miscellaneous candy that we haven't gotten to the bottom of yet.) while we were there we bumped into a few of our friends out on an easter candy run, huck charmed the pants off the owner and got himself a free t-shirt, plus chocolate covered marshmallow peeps. what more could you want out of a family date? (HowAboutWe has an entire section of family-friendly dates!)

once our candy quota for the entire year had been hit we went down the street to the meatball shop for an early dinner. and on the way there i was surprised to see THIS! (felicity nerds, get ready...)

EPSTEIN'S BAR! 

it's real! 

so. 

for dates eight through ten we're doing something extra special, kind of an early 11th wedding anniversary, in the catskills. i already can't wait. 

this post was sponsored by HowAboutWe. want your own date night? it's free to browse the dates on HowAboutWe. and if you want to give it a whirl, click HERE for $50 off your first date (new members in active markets only: NYC, SF, LA, Chicago + Seattle)

on me: jeans / sweater / shoes / bag

PERSPECTIVE

would you look at that gray sky? it's pretty spectacular.

right, so i have been thinking about perspective. do you know what i think is the trick about spring? i think the trick is perspective. also realistic expectations. but mostly perspective. spring is the most erratic season. it's always rainy, and cold, and kind of awful. but where did i get the idea that spring is supposed to be all mid 70's and mild anyway? i'm hearing this a lot when we're out and about running errands and hitting all the important playgrounds on our to-do list. i hear it from strangers on the street, employees at the post office, my dry cleaner guy... they say, "it was such a long winter!" and "i can't wait for spring to get here!" meanwhile it's 55 and blustery outside, the trees are beginning to bud, and there are blossom petals littering the sidewalks like confetti. so hey, guess what. this is it! i mean, it's still cold and it sucks, but it must be spring if the trees are agreeing it's spring and the daffodils are on board and even the tulips are going along with it.

i'm just as guilty of this as everyone else is, i've said the same thing myself. when is spring going to get here? i hope we don't blow right past spring and go straight into summer! (summer in the city will melt your face off along with your will to live) (we're talking swamp city) (like, SWAMP CITY). but that greenish halo around increasingly less-naked trees, and weather that changes from sunny + warm to raining sideways with a single gust of wind, well, maybe that's what spring is supposed to be like? once i thought of it that way, suddenly i felt like, well yeah! this is spring and it's pretty great, now you mention it.

i typically feel hit and miss about spring. i'm much more of a fall girl, myself (says every girl on planet earth), but this year, i don't know, this year spring is really doing something for me. my benadryl-as-sleeping-aid bit has kept the allergies at bay (also minimizes the puffy eyes come morning--you should try it!), somehow my wardrobe has been supportive of things and i haven't felt over- or under-dressed for the weather just yet, i feel like i'm getting my fill of spring-appropriate blossoms, and the level of tulip in the city has been just about perfect... what more could you need, really? spring, i am satisfied with you. slow claps. maybe this is because i have developed for myself some startling low expectations about things, but also i think it mostly has to do with perspective.

like, here is some perspective for you: my two boys have the exact same hair color. but what's red on brandon's lovely head looks pretty darn blonde on huck most of the time. how does that work? 

some more perspective for you: my husband is going gray. it's really, really good. those gray temples make me exceedingly happy. isn't he devastatingly handsome? stop gushing. my point is, brandon is old. he is an old man. when my dad was brandon's age, i was.... 15. fifteeeeeeeen. that weirds me out if i think about it, so i won't.

but somewhere along those lines is this, too: i am still pretty infertile these days. i feel really behind on things. as far as the career quota of motherhood is concerned, i am a depressingly low-output employee. but when i was huck's age, my next sister amanda was only just barely here. so, i'm really only just slightly behind my mother in this manner, for now, anyway. and that's been really comforting. (though, at my age, my mom already had three kids, sooooo.)

how about that silly new-fangled skyscraper next to the monuments at columbus circle? those monuments are pretty old school, as far as monuments go. huck + brandon + i sat at those fountains a few weekends ago and invested about forty-five cents worth of wishes into it while people-watching. huck wished for a bicycle, three whole times.

or how about that this place exists at all in this city, just a few subway stops into brooklyn? drive ways and all!

so, perspective. age helps with perspective. parenthood adds a whole different level of perspective. and taking a step out of normalcy for a period of time to experience all sorts of new, odd emotions adds a ton of perspective. my thirties so far have been this weirdly amazing, wonderfully defining time. i've been accidentally but pretty consistently sorting through all the things and habits and beliefs of my first bit of life, deciding what should and shouldn't be kept, and reframing what stays for my next bit of life. it's been really neat to experience. things like faith, love, worth, value, and all the different roles i take on as life comes and goes, it's all changing. sometimes slowly, like a budding tree, unfurling gradually until one day the brown has become green, sometimes quickly, like a strong gust of wind, bringing in rain. 

i like spring. i think i get it.

related: you should watch this. serious.

OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.

CLOTHING SWAPS WITH SWAPDOM

one of my favorite things to do these days is whittle my closet. i get maybe a sick kind of satisfaction from seeing how much i can get rid of. i used to have the whole bedroom closet plus a dresser for my things. these days brandon + i share the closet and i have an entire drawer empty. it's dumb, but it makes me happy. 

i was recently introduced to swapdom, i'm really excited about it. it works like a giant, massive closet sale, except you're spending your old clothes instead of money. two birds, one stone. a big circle of closet sharing! such a neat concept. the service is free, you only pay for shipping. you tell them what you want and what you're able to part with, and swapdom takes care of the rest.

i used to hang on to things forever, things i hadn't worn in years and didn't feel excited about anymore, for weird emotional attachments that, looking back on it, kind of make me roll my eyes at myself. but this has been a fun new era for me, getting most of my "new" pieces second-hand and finding happy homes for clothes of mine i fell in love with but then broke up with heartlessly. isn't this the best case scenario for our clothes? especially in this time of fast fashion, giving our wardrobes a whole new life in a whole new closet to be styled in a whole new way is just really, really fun. cool use of the internet, says me. 

swapdom recently launched a kid's clothes + gear swap section, which is GENIUS for new moms who may not have a sister or friend close by to play the hand-me-down game. everybody wants a baby swing for six months, but not everybody wants a baby swing for always. 

hey if you wanna swap with me, i've made a few pieces available HERE, including the skirt above! i'd love to send it your way. :)

this post has been sponsored by swapdom. but all opinions are my own! aren't you lucky?

AROUND HERE

you know how every once in a while you keep intending to blog but don't, so you decide to do a massive photo dump to catch up? this is one of those times. 

my mom is in town! well, my mom was in town. she left last month. soo, just to give you an idea this is how far back we're starting. she was here to help with huck while i went for broke at my deadline. while she was here she had a birthday. 

we took her to aria, a small plate italian place that sydney and i happened upon once in the middle of a blizzard. i think aria might be on my short list of favorites. see also: huck continuing to master the art of eating like a gentleman.

speaking of italian! one afternoon while my mom was in town i ran downtown to meet brandon for a lunch date at eataly. he's been working in the flatiron area on a special project, which has been a total upgrade from his times square office let me tell you (holy crap). eataly is kind of a challenge to pull off with a kid in tow (packed, not many tables, totally seriously packed, many seating areas are actually standing areas... breakable groceries everywhere...), so it was an extra special treat on top of a perfect afternoon date with my red beard. we ordered a pizza to share. if you're looking for roberta's without the trek to bushwick, eataly's pizza is sort of in the same vein. i mean, it's not as good as roberta's. but then, nothing is.

  

we hit a milestone completely accidentally the other day and the holbrooks are now stroller-free! well, you know. we were trying it out tentatively, but it's stuck and we're going for it. it's freed up a million subway stations for one thing, and totally limited the amount of junk i can haul around with me for another thing, but so far it's been really great. hooray for legs! we'll use the stroller a million times more i'm sure for specific outings that require it, but it's not a part of our daily routine anymore. i'm sort of sad about it, sort of thrilled about it... exactly how i've felt about all of huck's big milestones. we've established hard and fast rules regarding street corner / crosswalk etiquette. huck knows exactly where to stop so i don't have a heart attack thinking he's about to run into traffic. so far so good! 

every day with huck is a total blast. he is hysterical. every day he likes to be something new. a bunny rabbit, a turtle, a polar bear, a pirate. every third block or so he decides to waddle like a penguin. he's just such a pal. in the mornings when he pops his head up from the pillow his first words are usually, "mom, can we make someping outta schtuff???" we've gotten pretty creative with our limited supply of craft paper and tape, huck's artwork is practically up to the ceiling these days. here we have some bunny ears a la his daddy. the other day i taped pasta noodles to his fingers to make polar bear claws. he's using up all of my eyeliner on whiskers, and one afternoon we went out to meet friends wearing full pirate gear, including eye patch. i think it's pretty fantastic.

at any given moment i have at least four completely bizarre toys in my bag, and probably two half-eaten sandwiches. and a pair of boy's undies. you know just in case.

heyyy, brandon makes the blog! over the weekend we helped celebrate our friend stanton's birthday (in his sick insane gorgeous brooklyn loft.. seriously...). we also helped take down this demon piñata that absolutely refused to die. huck had the time of his life. between the piñata, the yarn-bombed shopping cart he got to ride around in, the cake, the ice cream, the puppy, this party was his freaking neverland.

i've been so grateful for the crummy weather this week so we have an excuse to stay inside in our jams and fluff the nest. i've been moving this gorrrrrgeous weaving, made by the seriously talented maryanne moodie, all over the house. i love it in the bedroom, but i love it in the living room too, so the rooms are sharing custody until i make up my mind. 

i recently got to visit the show room at objects without meaning to collaborate on a fun little project. i love this brand! their line is entirely made in the US, which is really neat. i was also invited to the offices at rag & bone in the meatpacking district a few weeks ago, which was seriously a dream come true. i fell into a rabbit hole of amazingness when i found out the trim girl there used to work for forever 21 as a buyer. we could have talked for hours. (the things i learned!) getting to see a bit of the design process (as well as a preview of a few of next season's pieces!) of one of my favorite fashion houses was ridiculous. and next season looks good.

i declare it a good time to be a holbrook! good health, good friends, good things, good hormones...ish... (ladies, take your vitamin d!), we're counting our blessings with each rain drop. 

holbrook update over and out!

PICNIC SEASON

it's "take off ya coats" week in manhattan, hooray! well, i guess i wore a coat today, but only because i'm a wuss and it was windy. (on a scale of one to hell, wind is right up there with chalkboard screech.)

but tuesday! tuesday was stell-ar. gorgeous blue skies, sunny and warm, the air smelled amazing. not like those pear trees smell, those must not be blooming just yet. all the magnolias have gone off, it's just the time to be alive out there. i'm having the kind of week that might turn out to be THE WEEK OF MY LIFE, which is silly because nothing at all has happened this week, except that i started becoming a functioning human again. i was scribbling in my date book last night all the things i have going on and the deadlines i have to meet, and i realized, this is the easiest my schedule has been in all my life since precisely the day before i signed on with babble. juggling babble and a blog and a young baby = that made me crazy. i wanted to quit that junk for ages but couldn't justify the loss of income, until the book happened! and then i quit the babble for the book and then the book ate my face off. (but how lucky am i to have gotten my face eaten off by a book? i just want to put that out there in case anybody thinks i'm complaining, because yo.) and now that that's done, and i'm purposefully not putting anything in it's place, i just feel like my LUNGS are working! i know i've already said this but it's just continually lovely how humanely my life is treating me these days. 

anyway this is about picnics. we took one on tuesday. doesn't it seem you should say "take" a picnic rather than "have" a picnic? i had my camera with me, so that happened. i always feel a little self conscious when i haul out the camera and start snapping hideous amounts of photos while we're out and about, i hate looking like 'that person.' but then i remind myself that the photo albums i make at christmas time are worth it. and they are. and also, identifying thought distortion is my new favorite hobby (mind reading! emotional reasoning! generalization!) so.... picnics!

watch out, here come some blossoms!

guys, i'm abolishing the term "selfie." from now on it's called a "photo." let's change the world!

i got to lay on this here picnic blanket for a solid hour and think of absolutely nothing at all while huck accomplished all the things on his checklist. such as....

climb a tree: check.

play tag with a group of kids sitting nearby: check.

pick a few illegal flowers before mom notices and makes him stop: double check.

and then, without any encouraging from me whatsoever, huck up and handed out his illicit daffodils to the some of the ladies around us. no joking, i'm in real trouble with this one. 

not to brag, but he gave me two. i attempted to get a photo of them in my hat. 

nnnnnno dice. but!

how do you solve a problem like maria?

you can hear it in your head, can't you!

p.s. on huck: shirt from hugo loves tiki, pants from zara (girl's section, you guessed it), chucks, sweatshirt

on me: hat from forever 21 two years ago / tee / jeans / past season rag & bone sandals via ebay / denim shirt from walmart seven years ago (yikes). 

i found that picnic blanket at a swap meet when we were in arizona, it's a saddle blanket. but these are similar and look like fun!