Monday, April 29, 2013

january: week 4

I've been busy lately. The other day, in the midst of the busyness, I remembered that I have a blog. And that blog is terribly behind—over 3 months behind, in fact.

The fourth weekly installment of 2013 begins with a picture from the early days of Evan playing with his hands. Now, at 6 months old, he's pretty comfortable picking up toys, turning them over, passing them from hand to hand, and getting them into his mouth. He also has a lot more hair.

21/365 hands for the win


That Tuesday's picture was taken outside of the crepe restaurant on Valencia, during a late-afternoon walk. If I remember correctly, it was somewhat chilly that day, so there was no one sitting in the parklet across from the restaurant.

22/365 beer list


For Wednesday's picture, I shot the flowers in Evan's room. They were part of a bunch that Carmen had put out when we came home from the hospital with Evan, and apparently this kind dries quite well. The rest of the flowers are long gone, but these are still doing their part to add a pop of color to the top of Evan's shelves. 

23/365 puff balls


Evan and I took a walk down Valencia once again on Thursday, with him in the stroller this time. We went to Craftsman & Wolves, where I got a croissant and some drinking chocolate with violet marshmallows. I had ordered the drinking chocolate back when they first opened, but they seem to have acquired more specialized servingware for it since then.

24/365 drinking chocolate


I guess I was less ambitious again on Friday, because my picture of the day was of the bunting above Evan's crib. He seemed to like it quite a bit back then, though. He would look at it and coo or gurgle when I put him in his crib for naps.

25/365 something to look at


It was time for another Evan picture on Saturday, which ended up being a tummy time shot. He was still working on holding himself up for longer periods of time then. He rolls out of it consistently now, but these sessions used to end one of two ways: with him spitting up or with him rubbing his face into the floor and whining. If we were especially unlucky, he'd spit up and then rub his face into the floor before I could turn him over. I had to clean off his face and suction spit-up out of his nose once or twice...

26/365 daily workout


Last is a food picture for Sunday. These have obviously gotten less frequent in the last year, as feeding the baby has been a little higher priority than feeding ourselves new and fun recipes. Hopefully, we'll get back into the habit a little more soon, now that spring and summer produce are coming up.

But back to the picture below. Steve made Black Spaghetti with Clams, Pancetta and Red Chili from Mike Isabella's Crazy Good Italian. It was a homemade squid ink pasta that went well with the ham, the clams, and the white wine sauce. It was good both times that we made it—half of the pasta went in the freezer for the second go-round—but it was the kind of meal that didn't stick with me for very long. I was hungry again an hour or two later.

27/365 black spaghetti

Friday, April 12, 2013

the baby at three months

The third week of 2013 started with a picture of some home decor in the window of the Aldea store on Valencia. It's one of those shops that always has interesting things, even if they're not always quite the right style for my house. Their stuff makes good pictures, though, so I always check the window displays when I walk by.

14/365 aldea


Continuing with Tuesday, we have another in the series of pictures of Evan's toys. I had the Fisher Price version of this stacking toy as a kid, but we got a wooden one for Evan. I think old school wooden toys are just more charming, especially when the colors are clean and bright. This toy actually has a red ball that goes on top, but I decided I liked the picture better without it.

15/365 stacked


Wednesday's shot was a bouncy seat portrait of the darling boy, who had just recently found his hands. As you may recall, he had been using them to pull up his bib (and lick it) since around the first of the year, but Tuesday was when they were suddenly in his mouth all the time.

His cradle cap was also pretty bad around then, making his scalp really scaly and flaky. I tried treating it with olive oil, brushing it, and picking off the loose flakes; however, I stopped doing that when I noticed that I was taking his hair along with the flakes. (Eek.) He was shedding his first crop of hair anyway, but it got kind of extra sparse on the sides for a while... oops. Thankfully, it looks much better now. He still has more hair in the middle than on the sides, but the subtle faux hawk it grew into is pretty cute.

16/365 hands: found


For Thursday, I took a picture of Evan's Dr. Seuss collection—plus a couple of non-Seuss books. We had gotten Dr. Seuss's ABC and Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? before Christmas, and I found myself reading those to Evan quite a bit. Clearly, I needed a few more options that were similar. So I bought Fox in Socks, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, and The Berenstains' B Book. I remembered all of those, aside from Fox in Socks, from when I was a kid. I was especially happy to find a decent used copy of the B Book on Amazon, because it was out of print. Evan seems to like that one too.

17/365 evan's growing library


Evan's three-month birthday was on Friday, so I didn't have to think of something else to shoot. I just had to put him in a white onesie and plunk him in the chair. For the first time, I was actually able to get a smile or two out of him while I was taking pictures. But it was still challenging, and in the end, I wasn't really happy enough with any of the smiley ones to use them. 

18/365 three months


Steve and I took Evan on his first BART ride on Saturday, to the Ferry Building for the farmers market. But we didn't have very good luck finding the ingredients we had in mind at the farmers market, and I wasn't very inspired to take pictures outside. I tend to forget how much less exciting it is in the winter, when all of my favorite summer produce isn't available. Therefore, like our purchases that day, my pictures were all from inside the Ferry Building. The shot below was of some cinnamon rolls on display at Mariposa Baking Company. I didn't get any, although they were tempting.

19/365 ferry building sweets


The final picture, from Sunday, was another flower shot from another walk to Noe Valley. I still find it surprising that I can spot something new to shoot when I've taken that same walk dozens of times. Flower pictures aren't exactly thrilling, but they do the job.

20/365 little flowers

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

the second week

And now, the second week of 2013:

Monday's subject was some baby socks, and I opted to shoot them with the baby attached. Evan was wearing his striped outfit from Thanksgiving, which was getting a little tight at size 0-3 mo. On a whim, I decided to put the matching socks on him, even though those were 6-12 mo. (He was about 2 1/2 months old at the time.) They ended up fitting surprisingly well, although there was certainly some extra room in the toes. Unlike most of the other socks he had been wearing, these stayed on his feet and I didn't have to constantly stretch them back over his heels. They still fit well now, which is good, because he's just getting big enough to start wearing the 6-12 mo. matching hoodie.

7/365 besocked


We have more baby for Tuesday's picture of the day. I took him out in his stroller (with the car seat) to Noe Valley, got some frozen yogurt, and stopped by Whole Foods. The shot below was taken while I was eating my fro-yo outside the shop.

8/365 out and about with baby bear


The next day was rather gloomy and gray. Evan was also taking long naps, so it felt like a good day to stay home and drink some tea. This was White Ambrosia from Tea Forte. It's pretty much my favorite, although I think I prefer my usual loose tea system to the single serving pyramids, cute as they are. I was out of practice at making single servings in tea cups, and I ended up making that first cup too strong.

9/365 a good day for tea


I think this was also around the time that I got the official word from the nutritionist's office that the results from my post-gestational diabetes glucose test had been normal. To celebrate, I thought a nice sugary donut would be just the thing. So I went to Dynamo for the first time in since last spring and got a vanilla bean donut. It was probably a slow afternoon, because the guy told me to pick another one for free... I chose Lemon Thyme and split it with Steve for breakfast the next morning.

10/365 dynamo


For Friday's picture, I took a portrait of one of Evan's toys. It was the beginning of a series, kind of inspired by the baby animal prints that are in his room. I liked the minimalist style of those pictures, and it seemed a good way to document some of his early toys—at least the ones that will stand by themselves on his dresser. Evan got this frog for Christmas from Bruce and Bonnie, but he's only developed the grabbing skills necessary to hold it in the last month or two. 

11/365 portrait of a frog


Saturday's shot comes from another walk to Noe Valley and back. Steve and I have ended up walking there with Evan almost every weekend, whether it's to get coffee at Bernie's or dinner ingredients at Whole Foods. That day, I took a picture of a flowering maple on the walk back.

12/365 flowering maple


And then, we went to Walgreens on Sunday. (Very exciting.) If I remember correctly, this was the first time we faced Evan out in the Baby Bjorn, which is why I took a picture of Steve wearing him.

13/365 this season's hottest accessory