Three's Company

There is nothing better than seeing these three together.

Finn is so doting on Tillie and she loves to watch him. He does a very good job of cracking her up.

Now that both her and Leo are a little older, they are able to all sit still in one place long enough for a picture or two. 

Frankie seemed to enjoy the Viroqua air and grass too.

 It was a great Mother's Day.....

....Right up until the part where we left to go back to MN and someone decided that it would be a good idea to gun it left out of the Wal-Mart (go figure) parking lot and nail our car.

It would be cliche to say it happened in a split second. But it did.

At the same time it felt like time stopped when I saw it happening, knowing we were going to get hit, spinning around and avoiding the sign-pole, and missing getting hit by another car.

The impact was on Matilda's car door and back tire.

Tillie didn't cry right away, which was more scary. We didn't know how bad it was. Once Nate pulled the car over and stopped it she started screaming, so it was almost a relief.

I have to say that my first instinct once Tillie was in my arms was to swear at the girl that hit us. It went something like this: "What the Hell" (girl shrugs shoulders like she has no idea how that happened) to which I say "I have a fucking BABY"....

Nate called my Dad, who beat the police to the scene and pretty much got it all taken care of. It was a huge relief to have him there. Nick came and rescued Matilda so she could get out of the sun and take a nap. After the adrenaline wore off, and my knees got less-wobbly I was able to reflect and really appreciate how lucky we are. It could have been a lot worse.

In the meantime, we are cruising around in some silver Chevy that smells like an ashtray, so if you smell smoke on any of us, know that we haven't taken up smoking. Oh, and Dad is helping his insured sort through their accident---Yup..that's right. He is the agent for the person that HIT US. Nice, huh?

Happy Mother's Day Greta

It's that time again, where I (Nate) have to hijack the blog to tell everyone how ahhhmazing my wife and mother of my child is!

This weekend was obviously Mother's Day, and for various reasons that I am sure Greta will fill you in about it was all together awesome and horrible.  On the horrible side was me leaving the laptop in Minneapolis so that I couldn't share my love earlier in the day.  But on the awesome side it was so great to get to spend time with everyone this weekend.  Ok ok, on to how great Greta is.

As I thought about Mother's Day gifts for Greta, I kept thinking back to how inspirational she truly is.  She has been sacrificing her body, sleep, time, and love for 20 months (including the pregnancy).  It truly amazes me when I see her from across the room how much love she pours into our daughter; it makes me want to be a better dad and a better husband. Greta, you are an amazing mother who keeps are our daughter happy, healthy, and not hungry (ever).  I wish I could give you an ounce of inspiration to help you manage through the days.  To help give you that extra little inspiration, I went back in time (circa late 1990's and early 2000's) to create some posters for your office to help get you through the day when you can't see your beautiful daughter. 24x36 inches posters should be arriving this week :)

Happy Mother's Days Honey!

Let The Garden Grow!!

The garden is planted.

And now we wait.

For green beans.

squash.

tomoatoes.

zucchini

beets.

kohlrabi.

carrots.

kale.

jalapenos.

banana peppers.

Matilda wasn't so much into the gardening as she was her bucket of toys, a fun new game that keeps her entertained for a good chunk of time.

Well, at least enough time to get the plants planted!

I have to say I am pretty stoked to get to actually get to partake in the garden feast this year and not worry about the food causing reflux for Matilda, for making Matilda gassy, or figuring out how to cook with it without using dairy or soy!!

Make This.

You won't be sorry.
Nate and I have been cooking new recipes like it is our job recently (more on that later), but I just could not do you all the injustice of keeping this recipe from you.

It was a big hit in this house. But we learned today, it does NOT make good leftovers. So make it up, and invite company over to help you enjoy it.

We pulled this recipe from a Rachel Ray Magazine.

Here is the recipe:
1 pound Spinach fettuccine
3/4 cup pistachios
1 pound thin asparagus, coursely choped
1 cup loosely packed mixed fresh parsley, mint, and tarragon or basil
1/4 cpu fresh grated parmigiano
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1) Toast Pistachios in a small skillet (or you can just buy toasted Pistachios at Costco like we did)
2) Using a food processor, puree the asparagus, herbs, cheese, nuts and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. With the machine still running, drizzle in the olive oil, and process until smooth.
*Note, we only used basil and parsley and it was delicious**
3) Cook pasta--making sure to keep 1 cup of pasta water when you drain off water.
4) Combine pasta water, pasta and pesto into bowl and toss to coat the noodles.
Cook the pasta. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Super duper easy. Super duper good. Which means it is a win win.

Next time, I would consider adding some chicken, but otherwise this is a dish that will be revisiting this household many nights to come.

Ready to Run

We decided that the Run of the Mills was the perfect opportunity for us to take our Group Baby out for her first race. 

Daycare has it in their head that Matilda now has to wear shoes (not sure why since she not crawling, but whatever). So we broke out the adorable kicks that Aunt Brenda and Uncle Mike sent when Tillie was born.

She looks like such a big girl with real jeans and shoes on.

As we pinned our race bibs on, I decided that TIllie also needed one so I quick whipped one up and managed to pin it on her without sticking her, and without her eating the paper.

Working out our pre-race jitters.

We nominated Nate to be the all-time stroller pusher. He accepted.

At the end of the race, we enjoyed a massive post-race spread. No joke--we had more and better food than the post-race debacle of the Las Vegas Rock N Roll Half.

Tillie did more snoozing than napping, but I'm pretty sure she is going to be right in there next year racing with the rest of the kidlets in the Cheerios Chase. :)

Peek!

I'm pretty sure we are at the beginning stages of making Matilda  a weirdo.

Most people play peek-a-boo by covering up their eyes.

We play it by creating a phantom severed head.

I can't even blame Nate. This little trick started way back in January and I would do it when Tillie was taking breaks while nursing. And I would drop my head way back and come up and say: PEEK! And Tillie would giggle.

Good times were had by all.

But NOW, Matilda thinks it is hilarious to do this herself to incite us to play a game with her.

And she likes to do it at the dinner table.

With food in her mouth.

Can anyone say choking hazard?

So it starts like this. Happy girl going about her business, eating her dinner.

Then the head drops back and she waits. And waits and waits.....

 until someone says "Where's Tillie?"

And then once you do, up comes the head...

And we yell: PEEK!

And she claps, and smiles, and puts more food in her mouth.

Safe, no.

Fun, yes.

And sometimes, having fun is what it is all about.

Translation Tuesday: Big Sleep

There are two kinds of sleeps in our house:

Naps and The Big Sleep.

While I realize the 'big sleep' could get confused with the equivalent to a 'dirt nap', they are not the same in this house.

Every night, right before I put Tillie in her crib, I hold her and tell her:

"This is the Big Sleep. The one where you sleep a long time and the Mama and Daddy come and get you when the sun is high up in the sky"

I think she gets it, because unlike her naps, she usually puts in a solid 12 hours.

Although this weekend, she put in some monster naps both days. So much so that I even went into her room while. she. was. sleeping. to check on her.

I realize this doesn't seem all that novel to most of you out there, but we simply do not go in there for fear of waking the sleeping baby. So we just make up images of how cute she probably looks while sleeping.

Well, no images in my head could have matched the true cuteness.

We had always assumed she sucked her two little fingers to get to sleep, but never realized that she actually just sucks her fingers all nap. No wonder they are little prunes when she gets up.

Pretty sure she doesn't suck them for the entire big sleep though...which is good or her fingers would probably mold right off of her hand.