Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Baby Food


Since Aubrey started on solids, I have been making all of her baby food (with the exception of rice cereal). It is so easy and became so second nature to me that when we were packing for a day on the road to a pig roast earlier this summer, I had a temporary freak out because there was no food for Aubrey. (our refrigerator hadn't been working correctly and we had spent the week eating it down so we could unplug it while we were away). For some reason I couldn't wrap my head around any alternative meal plan for Aubrey and was seriously concerned with what we would feed her. That's when Martin reminded me that we could probably just stop at the grocery store and pick up some baby food. Right. The Grocery Store. Baby Food. Of Course.


I initially started making Aubrey's food because I am cheap. But after purchasing a few baby food products the day of the pig roast, I am completely turned off by them. I am scared to eat them and if I can't eat them - why should Aubrey? Don't get me wrong. They serve their purpose. I mean, they were very beneficial the day we were headed to the pig roast and I used one I had left last week when I was out of town for a day and Martin had to take Aubrey to a babysitter (I didn't want him to forget food in the refrigerator). But for the most part, the food I make her is just seriously delicious!


Tell me that doesn't look delicious?

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Love


Martin, I'm so happy that three years ago today I decided to spend the rest of my life with you. You're loyalty to all those close to you continues to astound me on a daily basis. Your work ethic is unparalleled. You are such a helpful and amazing father. You can see the love Aubrey has for you in her eyes. And you never fail to make me laugh. When we got married and everyone asked us what is was that we loved about each other, I had a whole list of reasons about why I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Today, three years later, that list is three times as long. You are an amazing person and the love of my life. Thank you for everything.


"And when she stood near him she somehow did not feel the panic herself, though she couldn't explain it. Near him, it felt like she was stepping out of a harsh light and into someplace quiet and dark, like she was wrapping herself up in the heavy velvet of the stage curtains where no one could see her" Bel Canto, Ann Patchett


First Anniversary
 "There will always be people who say it does not exist because they cannot have it. But I tell you it is true and that you have it and that you are lucky even if you die tomorrow." For Whom The Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway

Second Anniversary
 "Their eyes met and they stared at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table" The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Aubrey just a few days old!
 "That he loved her in this twilight, which obscured all the physical details which he adored, seemed to him a guarantee that theirs was a changeless love which would persist if she were old or maimed or disfigured" The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West


"She had gone, there was no one like her, and what is that uniqueness but love?" A Passage to India, E.M. Forester


"I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough." The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks

Monday, August 29, 2011

RoboReader

Martin and I have a lot of ridiculous conversations. Based on this website, you might believe all of our conversations are ridiculous. That is not entirely true. The conversations grounded in intellect and seriousness just aren't really worth posting. The following conversation may be one of the most ridiculous conversations we have had to date.

Martin: If I wanted to create a chick flick, I would just take any word and put THE in front of it. Anything that starts with 'the' is a girl movie.
Me: Like what?
Martin: The Notebook.
Me: Ok. Like what else?
Martin: Well. You'll have to give me a second to think. Isn't there something about the sun rising?
Me: The Sun Also Rises? That's a book.
Martin: You can't put me on the spot like this. I can't think of one now.
Me: Seems like a pretty loose theory.
Martin: I'm just saying. I think I could create movies titles. I would create hit movie titiles and they would be hits just because the title started with 'the'. It sounds so much more sophisticated. I would just have a running list of titles. 'The Willow' or just 'The Book'. Forget 'The Notebook' just 'The Book'
Me: I read a book called 'The Reader' once. It was really good.
Martin: See! That would be a girl movie. If it was a movie for guys it would be called RoboReader.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Getting Ready For A Wedding

Me: How does my hair look?
Martin: It looks good.
Me: Which earrings do you like better?
Martin: You know, in movies you always see married couples having to answer questions like this. And I thought it was just a movie thing. But I've found out it's the real deal.

...

Me: Are you peeing in a suit? We just walked out of the apartment why didn't you go in there.
Martin: (continuing to pee by the side of his truck) I want to make sure I don't have to go at the wedding.
Me: Movies didn't prepare me for that type of married behavior.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Little Black Dress

Me: Oh. I know what I'm going to wear to my meeting tomorrow. I'm going to wear that wrap dress because I love it and you don't like it. But I won't be seeing you so it doesn't matter.
Martin: I don't know why you like that thing. You know what I bet you would look good in, a little black dress.
Me: That's very unspecific. What do you mean a little black dress?
Martin: A little black dress. You've never heard of a little black dress?!? I hear about them all the time.
Me: Well, yeah, I have. But it's basically any black dress qualifies. I mean, you're not really narrowing it down to a specific style.
Martin: Well, I just think it would be a lot better than that glorified bathrobe you like to wear.
Me: It's not a bathrobe. Everytime I wear it I end up getting compliments from pretty much everyone except for you.
Martin: Well those people obviously don't know fashion like I do.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Big Pimpin'


Last weekend we went out for pizza with my family. It was a little chilly at night so Aubrey wore pants (and clothes in general) for the first time in a while.  The tracksuit really made her look like a pimp.


I mean, look at those eyes. I swear she's saying, give me my money, bitch.


Oh, and another great conversation and exhibition of Martin's math skills.

Martin: Here's your change. It's five cents.
Uncle Andy: Five cents? That's it
Martin: Yep. That's it. But that sure is a shiny dime!
Me: That's a nickel. Man, you really are bad at math.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Walk


Aubrey and I really like going for walks. It's become one of our favorite things to do.


I've always been a big fan of walking, but now that I have a child who knows nothing about the world and it's my job to teach her everything walks are a lot of fun.


Especially when we pick pretty flowers for the kitchen table.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Binoculars


Last Wednesday, I had the day off. In the middle of the week. It was amazing! Aubrey and I hung out at the lake for the majority of the day. We got there in the morning and swung in the hammock while looking out onto the peaceful water.


Then my parents, grandparents, and youngest brother joined us for lunch. grilled corn on the cob. hamburgers. cucumber salad. mmmm.


There was a couple canoeing on the water. At first they were too far away and we couldn't really tell they were a couple.

Dad: I think that's two girls in that canoe. Garrett, get the binoculars.
Garrett: No. You get them. I don't really care.

My dad wanders off to go searching for the binoculars. After about five minutes of searching he comes back declaring that he has no idea where they are and they are not in the truck. My mom tells him she is pretty sure he put them back in the truck since he was the last person to use them. My dad is adamant that they are not in the truck. My mom walks over to the truck and finds the binoculars in less than a minute. At this point the canoe is much closer to our shore and it is clear that the couple rowing are a couple and not a couple of girls.

Dad: (standing very conspicously, looking through the binoculars) Oh. That's a guy and a girl. The guy has long hair though
Mom: We can see them from here; we don't need those binoculars.
Dad: They're looking right at me. They can see me watching them. (he makes no attempt to put down the binoculars.
Me: Dad! Put down the binoculars! They are probably thinking, 'who is this old pervert watching us'
Dad: (takes binoculars down from eyes, walks over and sits down in chair, picks binoculars up again)
Me: Are you still looking at them?
Dad: No, I'm watching these fishermen. But when they think the coast is clear I'm gonna turn back to them.


After lunch my family went back home. I took Aubrey for a walk to put her to bed.


My plan was to share a bottle of wine with Jennie Powell while Aubrey took a nap. Aubrey had other plans. She decided she didn't want to take a very long nap. Instead, I shared a bottle of wine with Jennie while Aubrey watching and laughed.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Snoring


Last Sunday, it was a rainy, sleepy day. When Aubrey went down for her nap, Martin went down for one also (ok, I'll be honest, I went down for one too). When Aubrey woke up, Martin was still sleeping and he was snoring. Because Aubrey is rarely awake when others are sleeping (with the exception of her nightly midnight snack) she has never heard snoring. Watching the look on her face as she tried to figure out the strange noise erupting from Martin's body was completely priceless!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Adoration

My youngest brother, Garrett, is quite a bit younger than me. So when I had Aubrey, he was a freshman in high school. Suffice it to say that he's always been the baby of the family. But now, with a real baby in the family, the attention is off of him and onto Aubrey. And he couldn't be happier. The love, generosity, patience, attention and kindness he shows toward Aubrey is really astounding. I don't think he could adore her any more. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of him showering her with affection because he absolutely refuses to take a picture. And I don't just mean refuses to pose for a picture, because that I could work with. If there is even a camera on within a zoom lenses radius this kid clams up and hides his face. It's really quite discouraging. You can't even begin to imagine how impressed with myself I was just for catching this shot.


But as you can see, the adoration goes both ways.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Foundation

Me: (relaying the day's events to Martin.) ...So Jennie was seting up her classroom today because she moved rooms this year so they could put all the grades next to each other.
Martin: It seems like I would rather just change the grade I teach than have to move all my stuff
Me: But then you'd have to come up with completely new lesson plans. You wouldn't be able to use anything from previous years
Martin: What do you mean lesson plans. I can't think of anything substantial I learned in elementary school.
Me: Reading. Basic Math. Well maybe you didn't learn basic math, but everyone else did.
Martin: I know basic math!
Me: Ok. What's 8 times 7?
Martin: 48!
Me: No! It's 56.
Martin: Oh, right. I did 8 times 6. Let's do best two out of three.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

An Invitation


On Saturday, Aubrey and I did what we do best - which is ride around the farm with other people who are doing work. We don't actually do work, we just ride with others. Mostly, we ride with Martin. On Saturday we rode in the truck with Martin for most of the day until he stopped hauling haylage and switched to packing the bunk silo.


As we rode around all day long together, Martin mentioned that he would really like to have someone come visit and take them to see Niagara Falls. You know, because it's a great landmark that we never visit. And, chances are, if we don't have someone to show the falls off to, we probably won't take the initiative to go on our own.



Anyway, I've been thinking about it and it sounds like a fantastic idea. Who wants to come visit??

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Baby Feet


I absolutely love baby feet. I've been trying to get a good picture of Aubrey's feet for, oh, the last 8 and a half months and finally I did this weekend. Now I've just got to figure out what to do with it.

Monday, August 15, 2011

I Love...


Going for walks with Aubrey. I've mentioned many times that Aubrey loves the cows (and all animals) but it's just so fun to go for walks with her and watch her utter fascination over all things living. It's amazing, inspiring, halarious and magical all at the same time.


Watching Aubrey play in a brand new tractor. Or really just watching Aubrey anywhere she is happy.


Fitting into jeans I wore freshman year of high school! These were my favorite jeans for a long time until I wore massive holes in the knees and had to retire them to farmwear. But, I've always loved them so much I was never able to take the plunge and make them cow manure jeans so they're still in wearable form. And, for the first time in a while, they fit! These jeans seriously helped my make my debut into high school. They were hand-me-downs from the girlfriend of a family friends brother (I know, long way back but they were just so cool at the time because they were from Hollister. In all honesty though, they really are the most comfortable jeans you'll ever wear.)


Riding shotgun in the truck with my daughter and my husband (not pictured)


This picture. It was the clouds in the sky over Martin packing the bunk that beaconed me to take a picture. I loved it before loading it on the computer. Then, when I bumped the saturation way up, I loved it even more.


A helper for doing laundry.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Magician

Yesterday I posted about different career paths Aubrey might take. Later that day the three of us were riding in the truck with Martin who was hauling haylage and I told him about  the blogpost.

Martin: Or...maybe she'll be a stripper because whenever I try to change her diaper she wants to run away naked.

Martin: Or....maybe she'll be an aborist or a landscaper because she always tries to eat grass

Martin: Or...maybe she'll be a magician because she always has her hands our with all her fingers extended. She'll be our own little GOB. The artist. The joker. The M..A..G..I..C..I..A..N...

disclaimer: the above reference is not the least bit funny if you haven't seen Arrested Development. In which case you should definitely go find some copies of that television series immediately and watch it because its the best entertainment you can ever imagine!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Oh What Oh What Will My Little Girl Be?

Most days I think Aubrey is going to grow up to be a vet, because she is so in love with any animal she encounters. She never gets scared by big cows or loud dogs or smelly animals or anything. She loves them all.


But she also really likes to be in the kitchen. She is fascinated by watching my cut up vegetables and really loves it when I run the food processor (of course that might have something to do with the fact that her food is made in the food processor. And also that she has a strange obsession with motors and is completely struck when she hears the skidsteer, a motocycle, a tractor trailer or any truck with a loud engine. Maybe she'll be a mechanic.)


But oh, those spices. She loves to play with the spices. Does that mean she loves to cook and is going to be a chef or she loves to take things apart and put them back and she's going to be an engineer?

Friday, August 12, 2011

Love


I love these two pictures taken last weekend. Aubrey's giant legs never fail to make me smile and Martin just looks like a male model using a baby as a prop. Ha! Lucky for him he got to use his own baby!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Weekend


I'm starting to get really addicted to Sunday's at The Property (and by property, I mean my parent's spot of land on the lake) It is the perfect ending to a perfect weekend. Even if I haven't had a perfect weekend, which I did, it would still have been the perfect ending. There's just something so relaxing about being by the water, hanging out with the family.



On Saturday, Martin and I went back to our old stomping grounds in the fingerlakes for a pig roast hosted by an old co-worker and friend of Martin's. Because we had some time to kill we didn't take any major highways to get there and instead drove the scenic route. I know this may possibly be the lamest hobby ever but I absolutely love driving with Martin. I love how we can talk and talk and never run out of things to say and even if we do its ok because there's so much to look at. I love looking at houses with him and driving through festivals with him and planning out our future with him. So, I had no problem when we turned a two hour car ride into a three and a half hour car ride (including a lunch stop) on the way to a fabulous pig roast.


And then on Sunday, The Property! Martin pulled me on the tub. He was not gracious at all and I'm too stubborn to let go. There were definitely points when my body was dragging across the water with the tub sliding cockayed next to me. The first time I fell off, I lost my bikini bottoms but luckily caught them with my ankles. However, this brush with exposure really scared Martin and he made sure to ask me if I still had my bottoms on each of the following three departures.


Martin and Gabe went on a jetski ride together. The two pictures above are taken before they left.


This picture was taken after they returned. Notice how wet they are. In an ATTEMPT to show off Martin tried to turn really sharp and motioned for Gabe to lean with him so they would make the turn without flipping the jetski. Unfortunately, they leaned a little too into the turn and flipped the jetski anyway.

Oh Sunday, I love you!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Elba Onion Festival


Martin: It smells like a dead animal over here.
Me: Yeah. I smell that too.
a few moments pass
Mom: It smells like a dead animal over here.
Me: We were just saying that.
A few minutes pass. We all look around.
Dad: Should we move somewhere else?
Martin: Well I think we'll still smell it there. I don't see a dead animal here. It'll still smell 30 feet down the street.
A few minutes pass. The parade is well under way now. The moment for moving has past.
Martin: Oh. look. There's the dead animal. It's right in front of us. It's just been run over so many times you can't even see it anymore.



Friday night was Aubrey's first parade. She really enjoyed it.



Unfortunately for my dad, she clearly wasn't old enough for candy. So all the paraders (is that the right word?) passed by her and threw candy to the kids sitting next to us. My dad didn't think it would be socially acceptable to jump up and steal their candy (although after giving them ample time to pick up some candy directly in front of us, he did scurry over there for himself!)


After the parade we all split a bloomin' onion. It's terrible on the diet, but oh so delicious and for once a year, it's definitely worth it!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Move. Eat. Learn.




Check out this amazing series of videos! I'm totally obsessed with them. The first is called MOVE. The second, EAT. And the third, LEARN. They are each only a minute long, edited with such amazing precision and completely motivate you to want to explore the world going as many places, eating as many different foods, and learning as much as you possibly can. Great Project!!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Teeth




Last Thursday, Aubrey got her first tooth. Since then it's been getting bigger and sticking further out and in a week it's gone from being a tooth that you could see under the gums to a real tooth. This is exciting for me for multiple reasons, the main one being that I am really excited to brush Aubrey's teeth. She loves watching me brush my teeth and I can't wait to start brushing hers!