Three Things.

Please note the following:

1. This girl rocks that bouncy seat. The other kids didn't get into their bouncy seats. This girl can go all day.

2. Um, the length of her tongue. Crazy.

3. How happy happy happy this baby is!

Bounce Baby Bounce. from domestic reflections on Vimeo.

Birth Story Junkie.

It's official. I am a birth story junkie. I can't get enough. I read them in Mothering Magazine, on Leigh's blog, on Design Mom. Anywhere I can get them. Looking forward to a few that are forthcoming (Kristina?? Update: Kristina posted her birth story yay!!).

But this one. This might just take the cake. My sister Molly emailed it to me this morning and told me to make time to read it TODAY. And when the kids were down for naps, that's just what I did. I believe a good birth story will change you. I hope this one does. I know it did me.

Please read it when you have the chance.

xoxo

p.s. A friend told me I should warn you that the story is very emotional, so be prepared....

Anthropologie for Your Garden.

For some time now, I've been wishing there was a good outdoor store with reasonably priced, super cool stuff. Garden stores usually don't have design in mind, only function. There are a couple of good boutiques in town, but they don't carry that much. For outdoor furniture, there is Crate and Barrel and some companies with cool modern stuff that's pretty outrageously expensive (just google some of the places that advertise in Dwell Magazine for an idea). Certainly there should be something else out there.

Enter Terrain. It's an online shop for all things outdoor (and more!) brought to you by the people of Anthropologie. So you know it's going to be good. Check it out.




Thanks to Design Mom for bringing this to our attention!

School Projects.

For a long time, I've been meaning to take pictures of all the cool things C-Man makes at school. I think I will officially start today. I don't want to forget this stuff.

This week, he brought home a paper basket that he made and decorated. It has wheatgrass growing out of it, as well as a cute little felted caterpillar -- it's so darn cute I should have taken a close-up! He also brought home several drawings, a "Happy Spring" card, a decorated egg that had been blown out (which we have hanging on a branch in a vase in the kitchen), and a smaller basket he made and filled with balls of beeswax. (The kids love playing with beeswax....they roll it in their palms to warm it up and then form it into different objects. He's actually been playing with the wax and "telling stories" to himself for about 20 minutes now!)

C-Man's Garden Bounty.

B has never, ever, not even once, told me to post anything on this blog. He stay pretty clear of that. Until now. This morning, he *ordered* me (in the way husbands sometimes do) to post this photo of our son. C-Man had just come up from the garden with B calling, "Mama, I have presents from the garden for you!" I looked out the kitchen window, and there he was beaming with his very own vegetable crate filled with chard, salad greens, kale, fava beans, broccoli and eggs. B and I have never seen him prouder. I can't imagine the look on his face when he shows me his first jar of honey!

Rickshaw For Big Girls Too!

By now you have probably seen the beyond cute baby stuff from Rickshaw Design. It's sort of all over blogland right now and rightly so. I'm not even going to tell you how sweet my little (boho) baby would look in this and this and this. Oh, and this too.

But maybe you haven't heard! They are going to get the kurtas in big girl sizes too! Take a look.


Perfect over a string bikini down at the pool or with white skinny jeans and strappy gold sandals? Yes, I thought so.

Sleeping Sisters.

Meal Planning Monday.

rancho gordo vaquero "pot beans"
freshly-baked bread

turkey ricotta meatballs
sauteed garden broccoli rabe with garlic and chiles
polenta

corned beef (what can i say? i am a week late with this but i had to have one)
potatoes and carrots
garden greens with balsamic vinaigrette

pizza with artichokes and leeks (thanks blake!)

corned beef hash with poached eggs
fresh fruit

Homeschooling and a Blog Crush.

I have a new blog crush. I don't even know the writer's name, but I am smitten. Childhood Magic...a Photojournal of Second-Generation Homeschooling. (For a further description of the writer and the blog go here.) The projects and activities she does with her children are so sweet and inspiring. Many are very similar (even identical!) to what C-Man and JuJu do at the Waldorf School, but I'm not the one there with them while they're being made. This mom is there and gets to participate in and witness all the magic that happens.

Check out this awesome gift basket she made with her son for one of his friends. There isn't a gift more heartfelt than that, no?
A handknitted gnome, a felted egg with a playsilk inside, two handmade wrist cuffs (one leather, one knitted). I'm in love.

A good friend of mine just started homeschooling her daughter, and ever since then I've been saying to myself "Could I?" "Should I?" "Nah." Even B agreed I'm probably not cut out for it. But the kids who get homeschooled (at least ones like the kids from Childhood Magic...with super dedicated and thoughtful parents) get the best of everything, I think.

What do you think? Would you homeschool your child?

I Really Think Little E Needs This, Don't You?

A perfect and sweet little "e." Just for her. Available here.

Baby Brady.

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time liking Gisele Bündchen. That face, that hair, those legs. I mean, come on.

Not to mention her husband:

Seriously.

But after reading the article in Vogue this month about her home birth, I've decided we might be able to be friends after all. Might.

via marvelous kiddo

The Family Crooner.

C-Man continues to be quite the singer around our house and I realized I haven't been documenting it enough. Hopefully he won't be "too cool" for it someday, but I realize that's a possibility. Especially with songs like this. This here is the new song they sing at school before they have snack and lunch. Two words: I DIE.

The Golden Corn and the Apples on the Trees..... from domestic reflections on Vimeo.

Meal Planning Monday.

eggplant, zucchini and tomato gratin with "melted onions"

spinach salad with strawberries and goat cheese

springtime frittata with garden peas and swiss chard

marinated garden chioggia beets

artichokes stuffed with breadcrumbs, pecorino and mint

tilapia "a la mira"

roasted new potatoes

chicken dumplings in broth

fresh bread

shrimp fajitas with mango salsa

photo by rita maas

The Many Faces of 5 Months.

Right now we're chewing on toes, playing with toys, rolling over and over as a means of transportation, grabbing at everything, blowing raspberries, drooling. You know, the usual.

Isn't she sweet?

My Favorite Look From the Other Night.

Rachel McAdams. Wow, just wow.

Who was your favorite?

photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images North America

The Dude Abides.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Jeff Bridges. Tonight, I shall have a single White Russian in his honor.

About the Bees.....

I don't believe I've mentioned that we are now beekeepers. I should clarify, B is now a beekeeper. I have nothing to do with it. You'd have to ask him to be sure, but we got the bees because, of course, we want our own honey. But also because they are good for the garden and fruit trees, and they are all-around really fascinating creatures. B likes to drill me with little "did you knows".... "Did you know a drone will live his whole life waiting for that one 8 minute mating episode he gets with the Queen? And then he dies?" (Talk about tragic love.) "Did you know a bee will fly everyday to work the same plant, sometimes up to two miles away?" (Talk about dedicated employees.)

Anyway, this whole thing has scared a few people (like B's friends who never expected this, um, side of B to exist....BTW, Hi! B's friends who lurk on this blog!!) The bee thing confuses others. My sister, for one, who came up the driveway one afternoon only to encounter B in his beesuit. She came in and said "Soooooo. You guys have bees now I take it?" But C-Man? He's not scared or confused at all. He doesn't go anywhere near the hive (which, don't worry, is tucked away on the hillside between some boulders), but he cannot wait to get his own mini-me beesuit. Which they sell. In his size. In catalogs like this. (Note the tagline: "Making beekeeing a family tradition since 1863." Uh, OK.) {And that would be, Yes. We have catalogs like this around the house now.}

{C-Man hanging in daddy's beesuit until he gets his own.}

{for a sweet little piece on beekeeping check out our friend Ian's blog and this article, also by Ian}

Little Mommy.

I have a Little Mommy that goes with me everywhere these days. She doesn't leave the house without her baby, her sling, snacks and her purse (sometimes two of them!).