Tidbit

Last night, we took the boys to dinner at a restaurant that we've been wanting to check out for some time. Apparently, they're about to have their 2 year anniversary - time sure flies. It's called Tidbit. It is well liked on http://www.urbanspoon.com/ so we thought we'd give it a try. YUM!

Sunday nights, they have a special, 3 courses for $30. The first course is any of their tapas, soups or salads. The second course is any of their entree selections (primi or secondi), and the third course is any of their desserts. That's a lot of choices. And, you can even choose the special of the evening, except for whatever is at "market value." Most places that offer this kind of deal has specific items for you to choose from, so this felt like a great value.

What did we have? Me - mussels & clams, pappardelle pasta with porcinis, and chocolate tartufo. David - lamb albondigas (meatballs), grilled lamb, and tiramisu. My only complaint is that my pasta didn't taste of truffles (as stated) at all, and I didn't care for the porcinis in there. I think they were dried, and didn't taste very good/fresh. But the sauce in the pasta was great.

Vincent got his very first taste of alcohol. Yes, I'm a bad mom. I gave him the tiniest taste of my Lillet. Soon as he tasted it, he didn't say a word, but reached right for his milk. When I asked if he liked it, he simply shook his head as he continued to drink the milk.
Vincent shared everything with us rather than getting something from the kids' menu. After we finished our desserts, he proceeded to lick the plate that the tartufo was on until it was completely clean.
As for Tyler, he ate pureed English peas that I bought from the farmers' market earlier in the day. He quite enjoyed it.

Recently, Vincent's obsessed with "sleeping." It's a game he likes to play. He likes to get back into his bed and pretend to sleep while you read to him. Apparently, one of my friend's kids likes to do something similar, too. Is it a 2.5 year old thing?
POOP HAPPENS
Tyler is an infrequent pooper. He only poops every 2-3 days, sometimes up to 5-7 days. The complete opposite of Vincent, who pooped everytime he nursed the first few months. Since he has started to eat food, he's pooping a little more frequently, but more like every other day. Sometimes they're a bit thick (sorry), and I have wondered if he's constipated. I don't think he is, but today, he really strained to push a poop out, and after he did, he cried. Poor baby. It was pretty solid (sorry, again). When I went to change him, poop continued to come out, but no longer painful or solid (sorry, sorry, again).

Grandparents Gone Missing?

As I type this post, PopPop and Nana are on their way to the airport, leaving on a red-eye flight back to Cleveland. It was so nice having them here for a week.

During their trip, they went to Mt. Rainier and climbed to base camp. It was while they were there when we checked into the hotel, and had reserved a room for them as well, because we didn't know if the place they had in Seattle had air conditioning. We called to work out the details with them, but they didn't have reception on their cell phones. So, we called their hotel in Mt. Rainier, but they had checked out a day early. Where had they gone? We kept trying to call them, but got no answer. We were really worried, and about one step away from calling the park ranger to report them as missing when they got our message and called us back. They could only get one night at the first hotel so they had to book the second night somewhere else. We didn't know this, so it was all so weird to us that they had checked out a day before they said they were coming back to Seattle.

They did their climb and are totally fine, except Alice got badly sunburn on her neck. David and I now have a glimpse into what it will be like to have teenagers who don't call home to tell us they'll be late, or where they're at, etc. Here are Alice and Don at Mt. Rainier. We're proud of them for making the difficult climb.I got Tyler this mesh feeding thing recently, after a friend told me how great it is. Here he is feeding himself a piece of peach.

Tyler was laying on the floor today & when Vincent came into the room he took one look at Tyler and wanted to snuggle with him. They were both so happy. I can see this turning into future brothers wrestling, but for now, I enjoy seeing how loving and cute they are together.

Beat the heat

It has been really hot here the past few days. Record high heat on Wednesday of 102 degrees. Yikes! Our house was pretty unbearable, and worse if I cooked. We decided to check ourselves into a hotel for a few nights. It was so nice to hang out in an air conditioned room. The down side of it was that the kids didn't sleep so well because of the change of scenery. Our last night there, they both slept well, but Vincent fell of the bed once. He's fine.

We're back home now, and it's cooled off, and I even cooked dinner tonight.

The Buzz

Here's a picture from the baseball game. Look at that nice head of hair... Vincent wearing his free Ichiro jersey...a little big, but it fits me!

After the game, David went up to Walgreens and bought hair clippers & gave Vincent a buzz. He did really well during the cut, and here's the final result!

Yummy.

David's parents are in town. That means date night for us! We have been wanting to eat at Spinasse for quite some time now. So, we finally did. It was so yummy. We ate so much food and couldn't fit dessert, not even at Old School Frozen Custard. At least we walked there and back.

This is what we ate:
Round one - a salad with treviso radicchio, shaved parmesan, and braised rabbit; Fra'mani salami plate (two types of salami); crespalle (I think that's how it's spelled), which is like a little crepe stuffed with goat cheese and warmed, with a parsley hazelnut dressing & a knug of blackberry mustarda
Round two - very fine pasta with butter and sage; risotto with fava beans, basil and proscuitto. This was one of my favorite dishes of the night. SO GOOD.
Round three - braised rabbit leg with roasted baby turnips; sliced heirloom tomatoes with sea salt and olive oil; polenta with corn & chanterelle mushrooms. SUPER YUM.

I'm suddenly finding myself into turnips, as of yesterday. I roasted turnips & potatoes last night with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. They were so sweet and tasty. The baby turnips tonight were even more delicious. They're my root vegetable of the moment.

In other news, Vincent went to his very first major league baseball game today. It may have actually been his first professional sports game, now that I think of it. It was the Cleveland Indians vs Seattle Mariners. Sadly, Seattle lost, but happily, Cleveland won. Oh, who to root for? They took the bus down to the new light rail & rode the train (in the tunnel) to the game. They ate lots of food, and Vincent made it to the 7th inning stretch. Not bad, considering he didn't take a nap. He fell asleep on the two block walk home from the bus stop, and then was awake when David tried to put him into bed.

Tyler, Alice and I went to a baby shower this morning. I helped plan it. Tyler did really well there, nursed twice, and even took a nap. These are all big deals in the life of Tyler Hunt, especially nursing somewhere different than our bedroom.

Lastly, it's hot here in Seattle. It's supposed to get in the high 90s the next few days. David and Don are scrambling around trying to figure out how to make our house cooler. We are now owners of 4 fans, a storm door (which we may not keep), and a flimsy window screen. David almost bought an air conditioner as well. Thank goodness he didn't.

My Birthday Week

Yes, I had a birthday this week. It was really nice. David had a little, tiny party for me with the kids, one of my bestfriends and her husband, pizza from Hot Mama's, and red velvet cake. It was perfect. We hung out afterwards in the backyard.

Vincent has been potty training. It's going alright. He still wears a diaper about half the time, mostly during naps, bedtime and outings. But, when we're home and playing in the backyard, it's big boy pants time!

Pictures

Vincent plays guitar in his "big boy pants." Day Out With Thomas - we're on the train. They all look happy, but Vincent was upset he couldn't actually ride on Thomas and drive the engine himself.

Tyler's new favorite thing to do is jump in the Jumperoo. He loves it so much, he almost jumped himself to sleep (three times).

Practicing good oral hygiene.

The boys hanging out on the grass at the lake.