Thanksgiving pics

Since Thanksgiving was all about food, I thought I'd send a couple pictures of Ben enjoying his food (and water). Culminating with Ben sitting on Grandma Marsha's old fashion scale, weighing in at 20 lbs. Enjoy the pics!

Thanksgiving feast

I wish I were more technologically inclined. We have tons of great photos from Thanksgiving in Cleveland but for some reason they aren't registering when I try to upload to the blog. Apologies. I'll try again tomorrow.

We had an awesome few days. Not surprising, Ben was the center of attention and loved every minute of it. I don't think he sat idle for more than 30 seconds, more often was passed from one person to another to another.

He LOVED Thanksgiving, and ate two dinners as hubby and I celebrate with both our families on Thursday. Turkey has officially replaced avocado as his favorite food. He must have eaten 4 lbs of turkey the last few days. And stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, jello mold, cranberries, french silk pie. I kid you not. He opened wide and eagerly accepted everything put in front of him. Frankly, I was shocked at how much he put away. And woke up to waffles, eggs, Cheerios and yummy grape jam the next morning. Amazing.

And we even managed to squeeze in an H1N1 shot before dinner was served (thanks Dr. Bob), which was a big relief to us and didn't slow him down a bit.

Hope you all had a nice holiday. Pictures to follow!

Ben's menu

Ben's menu of real food options is expanding quickly and continues to be such a fun adventure.

Below is the list of real people foods we've tackled, mostly in order of his favorites:

1. avocado

2. mac & cheese (Kraft please - they are a client but not one of mine)

3. Cheerios

4. pancakes

5. turkey (lunch meat)

6. puffs, puffs, puffs

7. apple sauce

8. bananas

9. eggs

10. pears

11. grapes

12. sweet potatoes

13. hummus

14. noodles

I'm integrating things as fast as I can think of them. And he really seems to like everything. Though his favorites are obvious b/c he gets SO excited. Arms flapping, mouth open, squealing - so excited. Oh, and the second tooth is coming in on the bottom too.

He is also totally motoring around the house now. We're baby proofing as quickly as he is exploring, with gates coming this weekend from Cathy just in time.

Looking forward to catching up with the families this week for turkey day. It's been a while since anyone has seen him and certainly not since all of the excitement of November.

Enjoy!

New Moon Premiere

Quick update on the New Moon premiere in LA earlier this week...it was awesome. We hit the red carpet just as the celebs were arriving. A few photos included here, first RPat arriving and the crowds going wild. Then a couple (very bad) pictures from the after party. Sorry, flash wasn't working for some reason so my stalker photos look even more so with the bad lighting and weird angle. The first is Robert, the second Taylor (standing next to the heat lamp).

The movie itself was awesome, a big improvement from Twilight. And while I was and still am undoubtably Team Edward, the film did a great job making a case for Jacob. I can hardly wait for Eclipse.

Overall such a fun experience. We saw all the rest of the Cullens and Wolfpack at the afterparty and could have gotten a ton of pictures, with basically everyone but the big three, if we'd wanted to. I tried to keep cool since I was there for work :)

Enjoy the pictures and go see the movie!!

Technology upgrade

Mac is back, better than ever. Hubby also got new camera up and running. Still figuring out all the functionality but here are a couple pics from last weekend. Realize I owe some better posts, coming soon. In the meantime, I know most of you can be bribed with Ben pics.

Hope you had a great weekend :)

and yes, I do realize he has food all over his face. My type-A personality has not figured out how to overcome the mess that is meal time. It drives me insane.

We're Back!

Mac is back and better than ever. Lots to come this weekend but a pic to hold you over...from last weekend and if you look closely you'll see our little tooth coming through and causing lots of chaos. xo

Live from la-la land

Apologies...the Mac is in the shop for some repairs and that is primarily where I do all my posting, especially when it comes to pictures and video (I've been assured all my photos will be recovered).

And I'm in LA for a couple days to attend the New Moon premiere (!) for work - how great is that?

So no Ben updates for you, but promise to post any good celeb sightings or photos!!

Cheers.

teeth

November will go down as a very big month for us, I can tell already and we're not yet half way through. Food, crawling, button-pushing, and now...

Ben started to cut his first tooth today. Is that how you say it? I can feel the tooth on his bottom gums, sharp and pointy, coming through. How long does it take for the tooth to appear? When will the other one join (babies seem to always have two on the bottom in the beginning, right?)? Does it hurt him? He is doing all the things they say will happen, rubbing his ears, moving his tongue all around. But overall he doesn't seem too bothered by it.

Hubby's new camera came this week. We're celebrating with a trip to the zoo tomorrow. I can't wait.

And Ben is saying 'mom.' Not like 'good morning MOM,' more like da-da-da-grrr-grrr-mom but I'll take it.

So excited to be going to bed in 5 minutes, such a long party week. I'm old.

Happy Friday.

Schwa, schummy

If you talk to me about Chicago restuarants for more than 5 minutes, inevitably Schwa will come up. It is my favorite restaurant in the city. Maybe favorite ever.

Short story is that the chef has rediculous credentials, has worked for some of the most amazing world-reknowned professionals in the world, and opened this tiny dive of a space with about 15 tables on Ashland Ave. It is BYO. The chef and his 3-4 other sous chefs are the servers. They play alternative music in the kitchen loud enough to penetrate the dining room. The bathroom is in next to the refrigerator. There are two prefix menu options, three courses and nine.

And the food is to. die. for.

We're lucky enough to have been several times. It is impossible to get in to. On a whim I called a few weeks ago, got someone live on the phone (they typically have an answering machine and weeks can go by without a call back), and booked Tuesday night.

I didn't remember to start taking pictures until about half way through, my apologies. I just get so over stimluated when I get there. We always do the long menu, considered the short based on school night and lack of time for a 3-hour dinner. They convinced us to do the long, with expedited service. It was undescribably good. A few details below.

Call them now. And keep calling until you get someone. The food, have I mentioned the food? But it is also such a great vibe. Just a bunch of dudes, who love what they do, and the food speaks for itself. It is so creative, so unthinkable. The combinations of flavors. I wish I could do it justice with words but nothing can do it justice.

And BYO makes it accessible to the masses in my opinion.


Quail egg ravioli - to be eaten in one delicious, amazing bite. It's never on the menu, but always just shows up as part of the coursing. Previously the best thing I had ever put in my mouth.... until this little ditty showed up:

I don't even remember the ingredients of this but it was a miniature, constructed version of their beer cheese soup. It was like a pretzel roll, with big chunks of sea salt, an amazing cheese and somehow the foam made the whole thing orgasmic.

Sweetbreads. Yes, I know. But they were served with corn (my favorite food), popcorn and dollups of heaven. Out of this world.

This is tiger fish, with a watermelon reduction and some other forgotten amazing details.

Pork, zucchini ribbons, garlic and borage (I have no idea what borage is but it was delicious).

Not featured, peeky toe crab course, suncoke soup, and maki. OH, and dessert. Which was based off of peanut butter and jelly but was a concord grape soup, peanut butter shavings, oh my.

Again, this review is a sad state of retelling. Go. Now.

8-months

Ben celebrated 8 months on Monday with a big dinner of Kraft mac & cheese. I think it may have been hubby's proudest moment as a parent to date, given that this is his favorite meal of all times. I could almost see him envisioning the two of them sitting on the couch together for countless years to come, watching sports, eating the stuff straight from their own respective pots. Video is too large to load, so click here. Promise it is worth the extra step.

Ben is perhaps the most excited you've ever seen him in this video. It's hilarious.

He also learned how to push the button in his crib - not the island-saving button on Lost but equally important. This is the button that turns on his music machine, which he adores. I'm hoping this buys me a few more minutes in the morning when he wakes up.

Which, not to jinx myself, has improved significantly...today, Ben woke up at 6:20. Same as yesterday. Truth be told, he is on a 5-day streak. It has been glorious. I pray (I'm literally praying), he is back on schedule for good.

Cheers.

Bubbles in November

Hubby got some great giggles playing with the bubbles this weekend. Here is a little sample...

Stolen Weekend

70 degrees in November just doesn't happen in Chicago (or the midwest for that matter). And so we spent nearly every second outside, as hopefully was the case with all of you as well.

We've gotten much more savvy at the whole babysitter thing, found a couple we really like and now have regular nights out planned for the foreseeable future. Amazing what it does for us. It just feels SO GOOD to be out, and there is no guilt b/c the little guy is sleeping anyway so we aren't missing anything.

We tried Taxim on Friday night, yummy new Greek restaurant in Bucktown. We walked both ways, hit a bar on the way home, seriously just like the old days.

Parties both Sat and Sun -- little guy came with. It was nice to be out, see friends and still snuggle with my little bear throughout.

He is now both so busy he has no time for me, and yet when he is tired wants nothing but me (or hubby). He barely wants to be held b/c he wants to be on the ground, playing, exploring, independant. And yet when he is tired, he is SO clingy. He holds on tight, climbs up into you. He defines yummy.

Crawling continues with more ease, less frustration, fun all around. And this weekend we ate Cheerios, more eggs, apple, melon, it is so fun. Chewing remains hard and weird for him but we keep trying. He is eager, just not sure how it all works yet. But he gets the sippy cup, drinks water, and has also mastered the straw - kind of.

Today we took a big walk with Stella and he laughed the entire time we were out. It was pure bliss. Tonight we are eating burgers on the porch. Amazing.

Happy warm weekend. Hope you enjoyed every second.

Sitting on the patio tonite with hubby, drinking wine and listening to music. Is it really Nov? Glorious.

Little Buddy's Buddies

Ben loves the animals. Stella is so good with him and she makes him laugh every day. And Facker, who I've had to rename "kitty" for obvious reasons, joins us every morning for the first feeding of the day. She sits next to him on the glider and he has learned how to pet her gently, When he grabs on to her tail and pulls, she is actually pretty good.

Bisco remains out of the loop but she still spends most of her time outside so we'll deal with her when the time comes.

I think it is good for him to have furry friends in his life. They make our lives happier, why not him too?

Day Lights Savings Hangover

oh geez - I didn't realize how Day Light Savings was going to affect us. I guess the challenge with having Ben on his brilliantly rigid schedule is that change is a little bumpy. He was super fussy at dinner tonight, to the point that I had to pull him out of his highchair and feed him in my lap to get him to even swallow the food in his mouth. He was near hysterical.

We did manage to get our normal portion of food down, at least close to it. And PJs on without a meltdown, but he completely passed out in my arms at 6:30. Like pulse checking, breathing confirmations, no-amount-of-nudging-could-muster-a-burp passed out.

I called KJ just in case. You know I like to worry. She assured me it is DLS time and that her kids are totally out of whack as well. And I just logged on to Facebook for something else and see strings of updates from my other mom friends concurring. That brings some comfort. KJ says it lasts a week.

Poor little guy. He is seriously so good all the time, when he isn't himself my first response is panic. I'm working on it, promise. For now I'll just take comfort in the fact that he is sleeping peacefully.

Happy Monday from the Little Bear

Hubby says I have to put the costume away now...

When pressed, he said maybe it would be OK for him to wear it on Sundays for Bears games. I'll take that. We did wear it around town all weekend long and he looks soooo cute. We took a big family walk on Saturday afternoon to check out all the other trick-or-treaters (read: show off our little bear).

I've never been a fan of Halloween, but I think that has changed. Last night I brainstormed all kinds of ways we can blow out our house next year; and can you imagine how fun it will be when Ben actually gets it?? 

Ok, I'm saying goodbye to Halloween for this year. But I do reserve the right to put him in it for Thanksgiving. 

Ben's Crawling!

Without further ado, Ben's crawling! 

I had some technical difficulties so I didn't capture the first few times when he was moving with (relative) ease and enjoying it, he's pretty pooped out in this video but exciting nevertheless.

AND Ben ate scrambled eggs for breakfast, and loved them. I read later that he really isn't supposed to eat egg whites until he's a little older b/c of potential for allergies. Anyone have a baby react badly to them? He seems fine so I'm not too concerned. 

He also tried a little of hubby's juice today and ate some chicken. I can't contain my excitement. Thankfully this experimentation mainly happens on the weekends, otherwise I'd have him on lobster by Wednesday at this rate. 

The time change continued to confuse all of us throughout the day but the extra hour keeps on giving. 

Finally, a big huge THANK YOU to hubby who took me out last night to party like a rock star, then took monitor duty and woke up with the little camper this morning so I could recover (boy, it's much more fun while it's happening than it is the next day). We had such a great night out on the town!