how to change a baby

well, what i mean is, how to change a baby, while traveling, when you are mostly walking and want to avoid using the public changing stations in the restrooms. luke and i came up with a great team system in chicago.

step 1: we find an alley or a plaza or anywhere we won't be knocked over by fast-walkers. 2: luke squats and makes his legs as flat as possible. 3: i lay mateo down and begin changing him while he looks up happily at luke. 4: i grab the camera mid-change while all the happy-gazing-at-papi is going on. 5: i finish changing him and taking photos hopefully before an accident happens directly on luke.

this system really worked for us!

chicago day 3

luke woke up early and took all of the korean teachers to the airport. mateo and i walked a few miles to find a local coffee shop (again, didn't find one). i finally caved and grabbed a scone and coffee somewhere and set mateo and i up on the bank of the river in the shade. we just sat and napped some and watched the boats and tourists pass by. no photos, but one of the trip highlights for me.

luke met back up with us there and we debated how to spend our last few hours in chicago. photography museum? north beach? cubs stadium? we finally settled on checking out another one of the top deep dish pizzerias, of course.

so we went this time to giordanos, where we waited and waited and later sat down to another salad and yummy deep dish. this one was definitely our favorite. next time we'll try the original unos.

this weekend, besides hearing mateo's first laughs (!), we also realized that he is starting to notice food. he still has a few more months to wait.

we took the amtrak home. it was my first time on a train in the usa, and mateo's first time ever, of course. after sitting down, i said to luke "this train is very spacious!" which for some reason made mateo laugh and laugh. which made me say it more and more. he played and slept and afterwards everyone told us how good he was. this must be the perfect age for easy traveling.

we were really impressed with all things train: only $24 to lansing, big roomy (spacious) seats, plug-ins for laptops, nice views, etc. we are totally hoping to take it again.

chicago day 2

on saturday, we had a slow morning and walked around our hotel's neighborhood looking for something local and yummy for breakfast. (it was pretty much just dunkin' donuts or starbucks, unfortunately). afterwards, we headed to union station to meet luke's mom & bill who took the train in to meet us!

we headed to the cultural center on michigan avenue which has a few great art exhibits and a big, gorgeous room with seating and a/c to regroup and catch up. ann hadn't seen mateo in awhile and it was bill's first time meeting him. he slept for most of our time together. :)

we walked around millenium park - through the gardens and past the new wing of the museum. then we had lunch at berghoff's. mateo finally woke up and showed his grandma and grandpa a few smiles and even a laugh! they were all super sweet together.

after lunch, ann and bill headed back home and luke and i went back to the park. this time, for the last night of their free grant park music festival concert series. they played beethoven's 9th. it was amazing!

we had a perfect view of the entire pavillion. we swayed to the music, people watched, and missed living in a city-city. what a great event.

afterwards, we walked around the city enjoying the nighttime views.

eventually we headed home. we had very tired and hungry bodies from walking all day. and since we were in chicago, we ordered pizza in.

chicago day 1

two few weeks ago (i'm a little behind) we spent the weekend in chicago. luke was taking a 2nd group of 40 korean teachers there for the weekend to enjoy the city and see them off to south korea. again, super blessed, that they invited me and mateo along.

part of the weekend included a boat tour on the river and lake. the lake part was super interesting - going through the locks and seeing the lake pour into the river as our boat rose up, and then of course, seeing that beautiful view of the city. we really enjoyed the river tour as well - going under those old, gorgeous bridges and taking in all the buildings. it was great.

after the tour we regrouped for iced coffee and headed to millennium park. we love millennium park! there is always something new there to see and something free and fun going on. and how great is the bean as a form of public art?

the art institute is free on friday evenings so we headed there next. great museums are probably one of the top ten things we miss about living in a big city. the art institute had changed a lot since the last time we'd been - they now have an incredible new modern wing with tons of space and great views of the city and park.

ok, and although a few weeks ago i read (and even passed along) the article from the new york times talking about all the people these days that run around museums like the louvre just to snap photos of the mona lisa and leave, i will confess: we totally posed mateo in front of our favorite pieces and artists. we've sort of been working on a collection of mateo in front of famous places/things... similar to the garden gnome i guess. anyways, these are just a few to document his first art museum visit. above, in front of a van gogh, and below, asleep for his first picasso.

we loved, loved, loved the museum. we were able to see most of it before closing. afterwards, in true tourism-chicago fashion, we visited one of the top 3 deep dish pizzerias: gino's east. it was my first official time having chicago deep dish, and luke's first time in years.

we only had to wait about 20 minutes to get in even though there was, as always, a line out the door. do any locals ever go to these places? anyways, the pizza was buttery/cheesy/greasy/delicious. it was a great experience and we had a great first day in the city.

free junk 2009

you might remember last year, how luke and i lived in the student neighborhood and totally cashed in on all the free junk they put on the street during the moving season.

this year, we don't live in the student neighborhood anymore (thank you, God!), but we set our calendars to patrol the old area around that time. well, we missed the maximum-junk-finding-time, but we managed to hit up the end of it. unfortunately, we didn't find as good of a variety as last year, or even anything very exciting, but we picked up a few things that we might be able to use/improve on/sell sometime.

hopefully the free junk patrol of 2010, (now marked a bit earlier on our calendars) will be more fruitful.

garden update

the good news: promising tomatoes,

giant hot peppers that are finally turning red,

swiss chard that is more resilient than the rest of the leafy greens,

and a bell pepper!

the bad news: several beautiful tomatoes with these holes at their bottoms. grandpa and grandma (or anyone), what is causing this and what can we do?

free time with mateo

we realized recently that, except for bathtime, mateo has had a diaper on his entire life. this can't be natural. or fun! so i took him in the backyard one morning for a little time to be free.

can you tell how much he enjoyed it?

oh how we love that big toothless smile.

(and everything else about that sweet little guy.)

our first tomato

we finally harvested our first tomato! it was as amazing as we'd hoped. it actually smelled like a tomato (instead of the non-smelling grocery store tomatoes around here). it was ripe and red and juicy and amazing with our basil in a caprese salad.

i think we might have many more tomatoes ready soon. let us know if you want some!

why i love filling the tank with gas

bits of our weekend

we discovered cardamom, a new (to us) spice. we made cardamom scones with chocolate chips, from (and inspired by) threaded basil.

two trips to two different farmers markets. we bought 3 beautiful bouquets of wildflowers (my favorite). we gave two away and kept one for ourselves.

we savored the late summer weather from our porch.

we made salsa.

mateo, unica, and i took a hike with friends. it was beautiful at the northern lansing trails - definitely the best trail i've walked since moving here. (thanks maren & alexis!)

mother/baby yoga

this week we had our last class of mother/baby yoga. we've been going once a week for 8 weeks now and have absolutely loved it.

each week we start by checking in with one another. concerns, ideas, advice. it's great for me since i don't have many friends with babies.

then the babies begin yoga. we are doing the superman pose above. we take them through stretches, rolls, little poses and sometimes mini back bends. mateo loves it. he smiles and laughs and loves looking at the other mamas and the other babies. a lot of the time he is in the position below, checking out the little baby girl next to us. i love that it's not just a time for me to be social, but for him as well.

after baby yoga, we do mama yoga. some downward dog, some warrior poses, some poses that involve our babies, etc. everything is slow and gentle and feels so good, especially after hunching over or lifting a baby all day long. i am always a good sore the next day.

after mama yoga, we do baby massage. (another thing i never would have known about without this class.) mateo is crazy about it. he smiles and coos and gets so peaceful. especially with the foot massage - i've tried it since when he's been crying and he's stopped immediately.

more than anything, taking this class has given us this quiet connected space and time each week. i've learned and discovered so much more about him and what he likes and dislikes. and i've been able to take it all with me to share with luke. he does little stretches and exercises with mateo every morning. it's more than that though - it's just a really special time between us. i look forward to it every week, and i hope he does too.

another session begins in september, and we are really hoping to join. i can't stress enough how great it's been for us. we really recommend it!

we go to the center for yoga in east lansing, and stephanie francisco is our instructor. (she's the one who also gave me that amazing prenatal massage, btw).

101 salads: #41

41. Halve avocados and scoop out some but not all of their flesh. Roughly chop and toss with black beans, queso fresco, cilantro, chopped tomatillos and lime juice. Serve in the meaty avocado shells.

so, again, another great and simple salad. tomatillos are one of our favorite things this summer (thanks, mom!) and how can anyone not love avocados, cilantro, queso, and lime? we had to try this one. i will confess: while throwing it together i was somewhat doubting mark bittman. i was planning on trying it first and then adding some tomatoes and red onion for color/flavor. but we made it as is and it was awesome. no additions needed. we had it with tortilla chips and salsa. one more confession: after the photo, i dumped it all into two regular bowls. a little easier, a little cleaner, a little less exciting. (sorry, bittman).

tummy time