at 13 months mateo

i considered not continuing with the monthly updates now that he's one, but this was such a big month! so we'll see. monthly updates may go on.

:: walks. with his arms out in the direction he wants to go. ::
:: and still sometimes crawls ::
:: understands so much more than we realized - heads up the stairs when we say "time for bed", brings us a book (or our shoes!) when we ask him for them, and knows that luke is "luke" and not just papi ::
:: still loves bananas more than any other food and screams when he sees them in the market ::
:: points to his head, eyes, ears, (in his) nose, mouth, belly, hands, feet, toes and dances on his bottom when we ask him where they are in english and spanish ::
:: squeals his version of unica's name when we pull onto our street ::
:: loves to have music playing and dances when he hears it ::
:: points to the closet for his bicycle helmet all day long, and his bike when we are outside, always wanting to go for a ride ::
:: sometimes helps me clean, by picking up his toys! ::
:: and now, at 13 months, says "mama". not sure it is for me yet, since he says it pointing at anything and everything he wants, but either way it is very, very lovely to hear. ::

they look alike

whoopie pies!

one of my absolute favorite treats growing up was my mama's homemade whoopie pies. have you heard of whoopie pies? apparently they aren't found much outside of pennsylvania, which is unfortunate, because they are lovely.

traditional whoopie pies are made of two chocolate cookies with a marshmallow creme filling, right? well, recently i found a beautiful book completely devoted to the whoopie pie. but instead of just the traditional recipe, it had a huge section of cookie flavors and a second huge section of filling flavors for mixing and matching. peanut butter cookies with chocolate or banana filling! vanilla cookies with tiramasu filling! gingerbread cookies with salted caramel! cornbread whoopies with a jalepeno filling! the whoopie possibilites are endless! so i bought two copies to send to my mama and grandma. but not before trying it out first, of course.

in honor of summer, and because they sounded so yummy, i attempted the s'mores whoopie: graham cookies with a marshmallow creme and a chocolate ganache filling. it took me awhile to find graham flour locally (thank you scarlett at the grain market!). and it took me a good part of the day to bake, then cool, then mix, then mix again, then fill. but it was fun and they turned out fairly good i think, and most importantly: they were super yummy. the recipe made enough for the three of us, plus some to share with our neighbors, a few to give to the people who sold me the graham flour, and enough to fill a box to send to my mom.

i think my only mistake was not buying a whoopie pie book for me.

first: bagels, then: sleep

brunch

we had brunch. with our across-the-street neighbors. under the tree, and next to the colorful bunting of diapers hanging on the line. more quiche, scones, watermelon, iced coffee and mimosas. it was nice.

it happened on tuesday, all of a sudden

traverse city and around

our weekend up north. it was a beautiful, sunny, relaxing weekend away. we stayed in a hotel (too cold for camping with mateo so we pricelined it again) in the city which ended up being perfect for walking and exploring around. here we are in front of some of the heart graffiti that was everywhere around town. graffiti isn't so bad when it is in the shape of a heart, i think.

we did a lot of driving - too much for mateo and unica - but the leleenau and old mission peninsulas are so beautiful that we couldn't help ourselves. we just kept wanting to see what was around the bend/down that dirt road/past that old vineyard.

at some point we had a picnic among the rocks and water under the old mission lighthouse. it was super nice. and free.

on saturday we went on the blossom days wine tasting tour. we toured all 7 wineries on the old mission peninsula in about 5 hours. i called weeks earlier to ask and explain our dilemma: this being possibly our last summer in michigan and how we've always wanted to go on a wine tour and how blossom days was the most affordable at $15 per person. also how we'd have a one year old on my back. they encouraged us to come on up and just plan to take breaks in between each stop.

so we did. and mateo was great. he loved all the people at each winery and got soooo much attention.

unica also did great and happily waited for us at each stop.

luke and i had fun touring around, tasting wines of grape, cherry, and blueberry and comparing each place by several criteria: vibe, wines, selection, food pairings, etc. luke liked 2 lads, which was the most modern and up on a hill overlooking the lake. but our most favorite was peninsula cellars: working out of an old schoolhouse with a low-key vibe and making yummy wines called homework and old school.

we had dinner at the most amazing brewpub called the jolly pumpkin. it came recommended by friends and we've been recommending it ever since. mateo made it clear at dinner that he will not use a sippy cup, and proceeded to drink out of regular cups all by himself with minimal spillage.

we spent our last day away lazily driving along the coast back home, stopping every so often to explore the lakeshore and little beach towns.

we had to stop at the sleeping bear dunes again and take a hike up to the top.

i guess this is what happens on road trips, when little ones get to feed themselves along the way...

these last photos are of the national lakeshore, where we walked out onto the overlooks. luke had the camera most of the time, so he didn't get in as many photos as mateo and i did.

i don't think i've ever seen lake michigan more beautiful. it was stunning to be up above it and see the blue, glittering water as far as we could see.

we made one last stop on our way home. our tradition is to find a random little town and get a pizza on the way home from a road trip. this time we picked hart, michigan which surprised us.

more hearts all over the town, spanish speakers, a yummy pizzeria directly across from an empty little grassy spot above a peaceful lake, and a tiny ice cream shop next door. we had a little picnic which was just what we all needed after a weekend of too much driving.

tomorrow we are headed up again, this time with luke's oldest brother who is here for the week. we've been making the most out of lansing with repeated trips to the farmer's and city markets, loads of bike riding, outdoor theater, a lugnuts game and a group effort to give unica a summer cut. now we look forward to more blue lakes and blue skies and camping for the next few days. have a great weekend friends!

for father's day

i just finished this great article on father's day gifts. the nyt author lists several links where you can donate to great organizations instead of donating to the commercialism of another hallmark holiday and buying things just for the sake of buying something. check it out by clicking here.

thank you tia debi! (and familia)

he loves the garden toys!
and maybe, just maybe, the distraction has saved a few of our flowers and vegetables!

community

i was talking with a gardenhouse friend of mine a few months ago about how our quality of life here in michigan has improved so, so much since moving into our new house and having mateo. she said "it's community. it makes all the difference." i think she was right.

as i was reading this card in a local bookstore down the street, i mentally checked off what we have and haven't done yet here. i brought it home for luke, since i owe all of our community building and strengthening to him. he's so good at that stuff and i am so lucky to have him as my hubby. last week he mowed an allergic neighbor's lawn, this week he is talking about making a "please drive slow" sign for the street in defense of all the cats and dogs and babies and squirrels running around. right now he is on a walk with unica, checking out the street-side yard sale leftovers for me from today's big neighborhood sale and chatting up the neighbors.

smoke free michigan

last month, michigan finally went smoke-free! we are sooo happy about this. no more avoiding restaurants because they are filled with smoke and no more coming home smelling like smoke!

the league of michigan bicyclists put on a community bike ride to celebrate the new smoking ban. luke, mateo and i went along, as well as a few of our neighbors. all in all, there were around 30-40 mountain bikers, BMXers, roadies, casual commuters and other bikers, including 1 baby (ours) and 1 dog traveling in a bike trailer (not ours). we rode 16 miles around the city and ended up at the capitol building. can't even begin to say what a fun time we had riding as a group.

some of my favorite moments include:
- a car pulling up alongside the group and the driver asking why we were riding. luke shouts "SMOKE FREE ARIZONA!" and continues riding along, apparently unaware that we now live in michigan.
- and me, attempting to ride up a steep hill on my already-very-hard-to-ride old bike, very slowly, at almost slower than walking speed. one by one, each biker passes me by, but to my surprise, when mateo and i finally make it over the hill, the group has stopped the ride and is waiting for us to catch up. the shot above is this moment, i think. nice. :)

all images via the league of michigan bicyclists
and even more images here

teo's thank yous

years ago i had a conversation with a few older (and wiser) women. we talked about thank you notes, and how writing them seems to be a habit of older generations. how these days, many people don't write them. some don't want them. and then they told me how much it meant to them when they receive one. for them, it meant so much that someone took the time to respond to their generosity and thank them. for me, i gained even more appreciation for sending a little letter of gratitude.

many, many thank you notes have been written in this house and we plan on continuing the tradition of writing them. i thought i'd start mateo early and had him help me create his birthday notes this year. the bad news: he made it very clear to me that he still does not like paint on his hands. the good news: he let me stamp out 25 cards with his handprint before losing it.

what do you think? do you write them or would you rather save paper? do you think they are going extinct?

mateo's birthday weekend

it's almost been a month since teo's birthday and i'm just now getting around to processing the photos. i have been slightly dreading it because we'd been so focused on the party and busy birthday weekend that both luke and i forgot to charge our cameras and external flashes. so, as you'll see, the photography here isn't the best. but the weekend was. :)

no theme: just simple white daisies, a few shots around the house of mateo, and some yellow balloons.

i'd been wanting to sew a birthday banner for the past year, so luke brought my sewing machine down from the attic and there it sat untouched on the dining room table for 3 months. then, the week before mateo's birthday, a friend came over and we sewed together. it was much easier to make than i'd imagined (we finished it in one evening) and i realized how much fun sewing is when you are doing it with a friend. i'm looking forward to breaking out this banner for future family birthdays.

the morning of his birthday, my sweet mama and papa had this beautiful bouquet delivered for mother's day. it smelled and looked wonderful.

we were hoping to break in our picnic table and sip mimosas in the sun, but a major thunderstorm prevented that from happening. the morning of the party i was sure no one would brave the heavy rain and thunder. but they did.

i made two batches of whole wheat scones: some cherry-walnut and some blueberry. we made two quiche as well: i think they were broccoli with sharp cheddar and carmelized onion, and tomato with garlic, parmesean, and oregano from our garden. we had fruit, cheerios (a little person crowd pleaser, just in case), coffee, tea and mimosas as well.

what we'd intended as a birthday playdate sort of morphed into a birthday open house. friends came in waves dictated by naptimes: some came early, some came later, and some came even later. the early group was the largest and there was sort of a good madness of babies everywhere and their parents chasing behind them. then later and later others came and we had more time to sit down and enjoy each other. unica, too, enjoyed herself.

mateo was napping into the first hour of his party but soon woke up and surprisingly wasn't upset at all to see 20 friends in his living room. he jumped right in and began to play. and eat.

one of my favorite parts of his party was realizing that friends had come from each of our daily activities: his gardenhouse girlfriend from monday evenings, some friends from our every tuesday volunteering, our wednesday mops meetings, our thursday library group, and our friday msu playgroup. others, too, like luke's friends from school, a friend who'd been in labor at the same time as me, and friends from the local meetup group. it felt good to look around and feel so far from our we're-new-to-michigan-and-so-lonely-days.

since i'd gotten the hand of sewing again, the night before i made mateo a little birthday shirt with a giant 1 and "uno" on it.

we don't have much seating in our living room, so i ran to goodwill and found some old pillows and cushions, washed them a few times, and sewed some cases around them with my scrap fabric for little seats. they look nice (if you don't look too closely - i sewed them together super quickly) and i think we'll use them for picnics as well. you can see a few in the corner below.

we gave mateo two gifts: a wheely bug, which he has been using to walk all over the house, and two egg shakers, like the ones he uses to sing his favorite song at the library group. he received a few things in the mail from family, and almost all his friends brought gifts to the party although the invitation clearly stated "no gifts". i feel like i totally learned a lesson on this one : if you put the word "birthday" in the invitation, people will bring gifts no matter what.

his last little friends left around 3pm and at 5pm a few other friends of ours came over with pizza for the evening. i made a golden layer cake with chocolate frosting from bittman's book. i think i may be a cake-from-scratch person for life now. it was just as easy as the box kind, but tasted better and made me happier. :)

we sang him the birthday song, i helped blow out his candle and we gave him a slice. he looked at it strangely, and then went crazy for it.

the rest of the weekend he screamed when he spotted the cake stand.

that night, after we'd put him to bed, his grandpa and grandma arrived by train from chicago. in the morning we feasted on party leftovers and prepared for another little family party. our michigan family came over and we grilled grass fed burgers and had homemade macaroni and cheese. and played scattergories. the next morning was mothers day, and bill, ann, luke, mateo & i went to our favorite local cafe for breakfast before b&a had to catch the train home. it was so good seeing them.

we didn't take many photos of the rest of the weekend, but we did keep the tradition of photographing our visitors in the backyard on their last day with us.

and they took some of us too.

so i think that is all the 1st birthday details that we will ever hope to remember (and way more than you ever wanted to know). oh, unless i include my special mother's day activity where luke forced me to watch his favorite childhood movie, robin hood, by insisting that it was a really good movie. half way in, he realized that his tastes had changed since 3rd grade, and he left me to finish it alone. love you, luke. and i hope you are excited for father's day. ;)