Fun with Mimi and Big Pappa

We went to get horribly spoiled by see Mimi and Big Pappa for 5 days. Pictures are HERE. We took a two-leg flight each way, which we thought would be great to keep Little Miss from melting down. Except we forgot pacifiers AND her favorite blanket, so um, she HOWLED for a long time on the first flight (to Denver), and pointed to her mouth crying PACIE PACIE PACIE. I basically felt like the worst mother on the face of the earth. So. I went up to the front of the plane and begged BEGGED BEGGED another mother for a pacifier. She said several times she didn't think she had one, but I just kept standing there, watching her search her bag, confident she had an extra. I mean, what kind of mother doesn't have extra pacifiers? (or say, any??) So she had one in the bottom of her bag. I dipped it in boiling water and wiped it off. Lucia was too exhausted to fight the shape of it (not her normal pacie). Thank. God.

The other flight was great, thanks to THIS borrowed from a friend. Seriously, greatest thing EVER. Also, the flights were practically empty, so we were able to bring the carseat on the plane, as in FREE SEAT FOR THE KID! Awesome.

We had a great time seeing my parents. Lucia is just madly madly madly in love with their dog, Jasper. Madly. Wants to chase, follow, kiss, hug, feed Jasper just about everything. They shared pretzels and bread and all kinds of other things.

We got to go shopping, and I got some new jeans, boots and beauty stuff to make me feel more attractive and less dorky. Lucia enjoyed dancing with musical toys, going up and down the steps, and amazing my mom with her capacity to eat half a bag of frozen blueberries. We were really happy my cousins both came home from college to see us; we got together over the weekend for a party. It was great fun. We got to see Megan, Jon and Little Miss Finley and their new daughter Ryan who is a year old but I hadn't gotten a chance to meet.

The visit went really fast, which is always hard. It's hard not to cram in as much activity as possible. We're thankful for the trip still!

Ouch

One of Lucia's favorite things is me chasing her, then tickling/kissing her when I catch her. She wanted me to chase her on Thursday night, so I did. Unfortunately she fell into the kitchen table leg, and smacked her cheek pretty hard. Ow. This was Thursday night right after it happened. It's getting more colorful and the bruising is more pronounced now. Awesome.

Pigtails

Since about 5 minutes after I found out I was pregnant, I've wanted to do pigtails in Lucia's hair. That day came this week. But it was short-lived: while Lucia very much likes to play with the clips and bring them to me for her to do her hair, she enjoys taking them out even more. Sad face. Oh well.

Weekly Things

Rituals, traditions, whatever you want to call them. We have make-your-own pizza night every week. We've started making our own dough, courtesy of this recipe. We buy the nicer olive oil, and skip the marinara sauce. We don't do tons of cheese, just enought to cover the dough. Must haves: Penzeys pizza spice, fresh ground black pepper, freshly grated parmesan and lemon zest. My favorite pizzas thought have Norwegian chevre with fresh tomatoes.

Pete likes fresh basil, which we crush to bring out the best flavor. Sometimes we get prosciutto, which is heavenly with the lemon. He rolls out the dough, then we bake them in the oven, then top them, then grill them with this handy griller which apparently is very hard to find anymore.

The best part about the night is we set aside time for each other. Yay pizza night.

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

We "celebrated" our third wedding anniversary on Friday. Why is it in quotes? Well, I've got bronchitis, again, so I was down for the count and stayed home from work. We hugged and said Happy Anniversary to each other.

We had made reservations two months ago to go to Gary Danko on Saturday night. We went here the night we got married, so it has special memories for us. Our friends Chris and Mandy, who we love dearly, are chefs, and had never been there, so we were all really excited.

The food and dinner experience was to die for. The service is amaing, Here's the menu. You choose 3, 4 or 5 courses. The two times we've gone prior we both got 5 courses and were sorry. Last night I ordered four, but we split one of them. It was heavenly, heavenly food. Being sick made some things taste weird, but everyone loved their meals, and Pete branched out and asked for the wine pairing, which involved him actually drinking red wine. RED WINE. It was a big night!! The winner was the pork belly, followed by the blue cheese Mandy ordered. Here are some pictures.