The Fourth

4th of July felt very uneasy to celebrate this year what with our border “situation” but we got to spend some low-key time with great friends watching the kids play, throwing pop its, and enjoying time together. It feels like such an immense privilege to be able to do all that. To have a cozy house to come home to, regardless of its unfinished state. To be able to move freely to visit friends. To get to tuck my son in at night and read him stories and sing him bedtime songs. I know so many mothers out there would give anything to have that. Instead of spending money on frivolous 4th of July stuff (okay, other than that $1 flag— Jack wouldn’t let me leave Target without it, haha), I ended up donating to TogetherRising to help stop the child detainment and separation at the border (though RAICES is also an amazing organization too, if you’re looking to donate!).

Since Dan had the day off work we did some tiling and we’re in the home stretch now (well, for the kitchen. we still will have to do the bathroom and the laundry closet). Everything now is just edge cuts so I’m back on duty as resident tile cutter. If you’ve never cut tile with a tile saw, let me tell you… it’s pretty fun. But maybe my idea of fun is a little different than yours, haha.

Shake Shake Shake

It’s way more fun to go out to cool places with Jack now that he can enjoy them as a little kid. One of his new favorite spots is Shake Shake Shake in Tacoma’s stadium district. He doesn’t usually get much in the way of sweet treats so I think the milkshake may have blown his mind a little bit.

If you’re looking for a fun, family friendly spot to grab a classic burger, fries, and shake, Shake Shake Shake is definitely a perfect (and very instagrammable) spot that’s a must-try. It’s just a short walk from the historic Stadium High School which was featured in 10 Things I Hate About You, and there are tons of other great small businesses and restaurants to check out in the surrounding few blocks. I suspect I’ll find myself popping into Shake Shake Shake many more times this summer on the hot days when a shake sounds like the perfect antidote to the heat.

Photos by Amy Vaughn Photography

Jack's first Easter egg hunt!

We went to Jack’s first Easter Egg Hunt today! Last year we spent Easter weekend with my family out on the peninsula so we didn’t go to any egg hunts. This year we stayed in town and as I was playing with him in the park one day last week I saw a sign advertising an egg hunt in the park, so I took note and made a plan for us to go. I was excited because I knew he’d have a blast, two is a super fun age.

I got this super adorable bunny hat before Jack was born and have been waiting and waiting for it to fit him and this year it fit him perfectly! I didn’t have any “easter-y” baskets but I stole a basket from one of my house plants for him to fill with eggs and it worked just right! We’ve got a neighborhood egg hunt tomorrow so I’m debating going to that one too, but we might just chill for the rest of the weekend and enjoy the sunny weather! I hope your holiday weekend is wonderful!

Making messes and memories

Thank you Vanity Fair® Napkins for sponsoring this post. Take on everyday messes with Vanity Fair® Extra Absorbent Napkins!

Growing up, on special occasions like a birthday, my Dad would make “Daddy’s Special Pancakes” or DSP’s.  They were always Swedish Crepes, and he would fling them to us from the pan, across the island, and we’d try to catch them on our plates. I still love making DSP’s (though I guess if I make them, they’re MSP’s right?), but for Jack’s little birthday morning we just went with the old classic stack of fluffy buttermilk pancakes. I haven’t yet introduced him to the joys of chocolate chip pancakes, we’ll save that for a later birthday. The amount of sugar he got in the syrup alone was more than enough for a boy of only two.  But oooh boy, you’re gonna be excited about chocolate chip pancakes one day. And blueberry ones too (or booburies as he calls them right now).

Jack was a huge fan of pancakes, and he kept asking me to do “mo’ snow, mama!” with the powdered sugar.  Making a pancake breakfast with a toddler, though, holy cow, talk about a sticky mess. I think I used like ten Vanity Fair® Extra Absorbent Napkins just to clean up spilled syrup and pancake batter by the time the morning was over. Normal napkins die a horrible death at the hands of a toddler, so the paper-towel thickness and toughness of the Vanity Fair® Extra Absorbent Napkins is perfect for our mealtimes, and a welcome break from having to wash a bajillion dish towels a day.

Vanity Fair® Extra Absorbent Napkins  are “made for life’s unexpected mealtime surprises” but really, with a two year old, mealtime surprises and messes are anything but unexpected.  Even if my kid doesn’t eat his food, it’s still all over the place.  

Trying to avoid a messy life with a kid is a fool’s errand, and the antithesis to learning and fun in my opinion. Having lots of clean-up is the name of the game, but the memories and the joy will be the lasting impression, at least for them. I’ll probably remember all the cleaning up I did, though I’m sure the giggles will overshadow the cleaning when I look back on days like this.

I can’t believe my little baby is such a kid now.  He’s chattering up a storm all the time, loves reading books, and will sit and play creatively with legos while I drink my morning coffee now, which is a godsend.  Just watching him sit on the counter and nom on pancakes like a grown up boy was such a surprising moment. It’s so weird how the time flies by and also moves slower than molasses.  The first 18 months were the hardest of my life, but now that he’s playing and talking, I’ve found my groove in the mother role. I know there are a lot more messes to be made, a lot more tears to cry, a lot more tantrums to be thrown, but I’m looking forward to this next year as he grows into a bigger kid.  And hopefully those sticky messes like this one will come along with fun, happy memories that make the hard days worth it.

Jack(-o-lantern)'s First Halloween!

We didn’t do anything for last halloween, but this year Jack had a bunch of friends his age, and was the perfect age for his first trick-or-treating adventure! We all met up at one family’s house and walked to Proctor Treats where the kiddos got their buckets filled with candy. Afterwards we trekked back to the house, let the babes play in the living room and all us adults filled up on cheese, chili, and wine while trick-or-treaters came to the door.

Jack was pretty obsessed with pumpkins all fall, so naturally I figured a pumpkin costume would be apropos. It’s also a bit of a family tradition. My brother was a pumpkin one halloween when he was super young, and that same year I was a witch, so I decided to be a witch again, this time with Jack. I was pretty excited to find Jack’s entire costume at the thrift store one day, and my costume was entirely pulled from my own closet (though I did have to buy a $3 witch hat because I couldn’t find the one I got some years ago, probably got thrown out in our 2016 move). Having a library of wigs from my Burlesque dancing days does tend to come in handy now and then!