Fresh Farm Food

Julia's meal the other day was all local food from either the East Nashville Farmer's Market (every Wed. from 3:30-6:30pm, located near Turnip Truck) or CSA share from Avalon Acres Farm.

YUMMY!

She had spelt pasta noodles, cucumber & tomatoes with basil & roast chicken.
Julia ate a whole plate all by herself too.
Mostly with her fingers, but sometimes using the small fork she has.

I love that Julia eats fresh, whole food, made here in Tennessee. I feel good about Julia living a healthy life; it starts with a positive relationship to food.

Note: today Julia ate beets from our CSA and loved them! Of course her fingers and bib and shirt are PINK! : )

My name is Julia's Mom

I've known this for awhile. Lots of time I'm greeted AFTER the person says hello to Julia - if I'm remembered! : ) Then I'm referred to as "Julia's mom."

I was buying groceries at the Turnip Truck today and I greeted an employee I hadn't seen in awhile. After saying hello, she asked "do you have a twin sister?" That's not always a surprising question. I thought Susie had been to TT before so not that unusual. I replied "yes" and the employee starts to say something, but then says "she's Julia's mom, right?" and then she says my name (I'm amazed she remembers it!).

I smile and chuckle - I should never expect to be surprised any more. Then I say "actually I'm Julia's mom" and laugh again. The employee responds with my favorite part: "Oh, you've lost so much weight!" To which I say "well, I was pregnant and then had a baby. Finally I've lost some of that weight!"

Good save! : ) HILARIOUS! : ) I love it!

The jars

I think we've mentioned Julia's obsession with glass jars.
We didn't buy baby food in jars very often, more than some might expect (my mom was really surprised), but less than most people who have babies. Somehow Julia fell in love with jars, in particular the baby food size. She likes other sizes, but we think she can carry the smaller ones easily in her hands. Julia likes to carry 3 as Jai previously referenced.

While traveling in New England, we brought a few jars of baby food as surplus in case we didn't have anything for her to eat. We also bought some jars once there, again for emergency situations. By the end of the trip I wanted to make sure she ate all of them because I was tired of carrying them. We had 2 with us when we went through security and I had to open them to be "checked." WHY?? They are sealed containers of baby food! UGH - I hate airport security.

I digress from this story of Julia being OCD about jars.

We really realized it when we were in a fish market in NH getting take out for lunch. While we waited for our food to be prepared, we walked around the market and looked at various items on the shelves. I noticed the Desert Essence brand of salsa which surprised me. I've never seen it in stores other than Turnip Truck or Whole Foods. Julia was walking with my cousin's daughter, she turns, sees the jar and SCREAMS ... so loud & perfect for a role in a horror movie. She ran up to me to get to the jar; we realized later that she thought it was the Desert Essence bean dip we used to buy and feed her. Now we make our own as it was killing our budget! Julia loves bean dip - made from pinto, garbanzo or black beans. She probably would like white bean dip too, but we never make that - maybe we will.

Once we got home, we recycled the glass jars and have not bought any more baby food. It was getting out of hand how obsessed Julia was with the jars. Actually it's not necessary anymore to have the baby food as Julia has progressed a lot feeding herself with the spoon and fork. She got some good practice when we stayed with my cousins Rick & Lori; I realized that we (I) need to encourage Julia to feed herself even when it's messy. : )

18 month Dr. visit

All of my stats increased.
weight - 11%tile (up 1 %)
length - 61%tile (up 0.5 %)
head - 61%tile (up 36 %)
I'm a lean, big headed tall kid. : )

I have about 25 words in my vocabulary.
Even some 2 syllable & double compound ones. I'm brilliant!
I have this slight obsession with jars - small ones, tall ones, fat ones, doesn't matter. They just have to be a jar!
I organize & stack them which apparently is what I'm supposed to be doing.

As always I am IMPRESSIVE!

BTW - I hope you all know that I'm not this conceited even though my head grew a lot! It's my parents. My mother is uber-competitive, you know!

New England Whirlwind!

I survived a LONG trip on the plane and driving all around RI, MA and NH from June 11-22 ... my parents are crazy!
Really it was my mother. She's the planner & she wants to fit in as much as possible when we're in the Northeast.
Basically we saw Mommy's Wellesley friends & their families (SO many kids!), lots of cousins and the fun people at Amherst College tennis camp.

It is GREAT to be home - I really missed my bed.

Next trip is short - only 3 days and 3 hours away. We're going to family reunion in Atlanta in July. ROAD TRIP! : )

June Holidays

Happy Anniversary!
On June 18 Jai & I celebrated 5 years of marriage!
It seems like we always are traveling on or around our anniversary.
This year we were in MA staying with my cousin Jeff & his family.
That afternoon we left Julia with Susie, Jeff, his wife, Leslie, & their 2 school-age children.
They had a great time playing in the pool, jumping on the trampoline, & riding the kid cars.
Jai & I drove to nearby Fitchburg and stayed at a lovely B&B.

The B&B is on a gorgeous piece of property with a pool, woods, green lawn & a friendly big dog.
I took a nap while Jai showered & watched some World Cup football.
Then we ate dinner at a local Indian restaurant.
The review states the food is delicious, but ambiance is lacking. We concur!
The next morning we breakfasted on the porch.
We ate fresh local strawberries picked by the owner, Greek yogurt (our new favorite food), oatmeal and omelets.

We returned to the family rested & full! : )

Gift: I got Jai a colorful hammock and for us as a couple/family an ice cream attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer. YUM! : )
Jai gave me bookshelves for the dining room - to be built within a month's time. YEAH!

Father's Day on June 20, 2010
World Cup soccer (or as the rest of the world calls it "football") is from June 1-July 11.
Jai was a good sport (haha) since we left Nashville to travel to New England on June 11 & basically missed MANY games. Then we're traveling back from Jai's family reunion in Atlanta on July 11 during the FINAL World Cup match. Therefore I decided to give Jai some time alone at Jeff & Leslie's house while the rest of us went to church. It was a nice old church, nice short service, friendly people. They really enjoyed cute Julia. They seemed really disappointed when we told them where we lived. Jeff said they asked if we were his neighbors. : )

Jai had a little break & watched some football alone. Later we traveled to New Hampshire to stay with my aunt & uncle Carol & Ray and cousin Julie, her husband, Evan and their 2 tween/teenage children. Carol is my uncle Bob's ex-wife (my mom's oldest brother), but she is Julie & her brothers' mom too & will always be my aunt. Ray is a great person too & we consider him an uncle.

Thanks for being a great dad to Julia. She is a lucky daughter to have you for a father.

We had lots of time spent with family - seems appropriate to spend these holidays with family too.

Gift: I got Jai a NICE camping French press so he can have delicious coffee in the great outdoors. He really likes it!