A Walk in The Park

Pablo, Little Man and I got off to an early start this morning.  We ventured to Grant Park where the Atlanta Zoo was having a plant sale. We picked up some gardenias, a rosemary bush and some other plant I can’t pronounce to plant in our front yard around our mailbox.

Along the way, we stopped at Ria’s Bluebird for breakfast where Pablo feasted on a brisket benedict and Little Man helped me gobble up the delicious banana pancakes.

Then we were off to Grant Park to walk off a little of those breakfast calories. Little Man slept while we weaved him out of the sun and into the shade. Both of us were wishing someone was pushing us around while we slept. Life is good.

Garden Update and Heaven

How does your garden grow? Well ours is taking off like wild fire!

The blueberries we thought we weren’t going to get for another year, decided to surprise us and we’ll have a small harvest of blueberries in a couple of months.

The raspberries are looking lush and beautiful and any day now when they turn red, I’m going to nibble them off the bush.

And last but not least – our raised bed. I’m a little nervous that the beans and the cukes are going to duke it out for space. Look at those boys in the back, they're not playing nice.

We capped off the evening with a slice of heaven, two perfectly roasted marshmallows around a home grown fire. Ah…..

Off to see Willie B!

On Easter instead of hunting down chocolate eggs, we opted to visit the Atlanta Zoo and see Willie B.

We saw the Gorillas and their babes – while our babe was more interested in the birds flying overhead.

We stopped to pet the Billy Goats.

All in all – I think Little Man had a good time and with the annual pass we signed up for, we’ll be back to see those goats again. Maybe this time the kangaroos will want to jump for us.

My how you’re growing!

I can’t believe that I’m actually experiencing the month of April this year. It felt like April 2010 didn’t exist for me. I don’t think I looked at the calendar once last April. Why you ask? Well, Little Man was just a couple of weeks old and was all consuming – he being my first and not knowing how to structure my day. Now, I’m much more experienced… 

Little Man’s accomplishments are profound. From just barely walking a week before his birthday, he’s now walking as though he’s always known how to.  We’ve prepared himself should he all of a sudden start running too.

I understand that kids his age decide to focus on motor skills or talking and in his case – he’s opted for the motor skills. While I had the step stool out to put away the yamulkes for Passover, I watched as he climbed all three steps and stood there grinning at me as though he had just climbed Mt. Everest.  

His disposition is amazing – we’re truly blessed.  He’s the happiest kid on the block and is always giggling – makes me thinks he’s up to something, little Mister Mischievous.

We’ve experienced lots of babbling lately and try our best to verbalize every item he points to or we think he’s looking at.  He’s been mimicking us as well. The other night we sat down to read a book before bed and after I said “book”, I could have sworn he said “book.”  Bebe said that today she heard “Up,” which we all say when he wants us to pick him up.

Auntie M and Shaq came over and made us dinner Friday night.  Before we partook in their delicious Thai Lettuce Wraps, she snapped this precious picture of our Prince.

How does your Garden Grow?

Our garden is growing! Look how gorgeous these little green babes are!Now I just have to start cooking with them!

Box #1

From the back: Chives, Rosemary, Oregano, Basil

Middle: Red Peppers – yep, all 4!

Bottom Row: Cukes, Beans, Cukes, Beans

Box #2

Back Row: Onions, Carrot, Onions, Carrots

Middle: Chamomile, Marigold, Chamomile, Marigold (tea leaves!)

Front row (by my shoe): Watermelon, Lavender, Red Pepper and Red Pepper

It looks a little more full that when you last saw our garden.  Looks like we’re going to have a few raspberries to harvest – that is, if the birds don’t beat us to them!

These are my flower babes at the foot of the pine in the back yard. Grow babies grow! What are they? A mix n match of sunflowers, wildflowers and poppy. 

Passover 2011

We hosted Passover this year – albeit on the 2nd day of Passover versus the first.  It was a success and the kids had a great time at their kids table.

Our Seder Table. We opted to get a folding table, planning for many future events and dinners.  This works out well, since my family usually brings extra chairs.  Pablo joked that our Seder was the fastest Seder he’s ever experienced.  But not quite the Two Minute Seder.   Uncle Harley and Aunt Pattie were on their way to Florida for an interview, so they joined us for the festivities.

This year we had a great menu: Aunt Mary made our delicious Turkey, Auntie K cooked a phenomenal brisket, Auntie A brought her famous mashed potatoes and veggies and Mimi made her delicious matzoh ball soup.  Forgive me, as I left my camera in the other room and didn’t get to snap a picture of the food – as you know, I always like to.

Little Man enjoyed having his cousins over and didn’t get to sleep until close to 9pm.

Grammie Kay’s 90th Birthday Bash

We spent this past weekend celebrating with our Florida family Grammie Kay’s 90th birthday.

Little Man was a walking machine through the airport while we waited for our plane to board.   We arrived Thursday evening in the warmth of the sun and Little Man was all smiles. Cuz Iz and Nico were there to greet us and we snapped many a picture of them playing over the course of the weekend.

Friday morning we took the boys to the pool and Little Man was uber excited to walk around and didn’t mind the occasional slip to sip some pool water. If he’s going to be spending a lot of time in the pool this summer, I’m going to have to get him some lessons to learn to hold his breath and find the wall.

Friday night was Italian Night where Grammie J provided pizza dough and we all made our our pizzas. I think the boys’ pizza was the best and since they weren’t going to eat it all – Auntie J and I helped ourselves to the extras.  Friday night was a special showing of a video of pictures of Grammie Kay through the years, her adventures and the many people she’s met on her journey. I always enjoy seeing pictures of people through the years – and the video prepared was filled with many memories.

After we fed the boys, we took them back to the club so we could put them to bed. Little Man and his cuz Nico had a sitter stay with them so we could return to the house for the evenings festivities. We put a crib in each room and the sitter stayed in the living room. Needless to say, but if you were in the security booth at the club, you would have giggled at Pablo and I wheeling Little Man in the crib down to our room when we got home. It look like we were back in the nursery stealing a baby!

Saturday was a special luncheon for the lady of the hour – catered with all of her famous recipes.  The chicken was divine, as was the slightly undercooked Challah and the Red Velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Yum!

Before the food was served, we were able to get everyone to sit for a big family picture.

We had a sitter for Saturday night and put the boys to bed around 730pm so that we could enjoy garbage night with the family.  We didn’t quite make it to charades but I had a fun time learning how The Hills on MTV was a scripted show. Turns out that one of our cousin’s friends was paid to be on it and confirmed our initial suspicions.

And another night of wheeling Little Man down the hall – this time he woke up and saw his 6’3” Uncle J above him – he, as I would be, was a little scared.  We got him into our room and turned the lights off so he could go back to bed.  It’s going to be a little easier when we travel to Disney later in the year since we’ll have a 2nd room to put him to sleep in.

Sunday was Brunch at the club and the boys had a good time looking outside at the boats.  Aren’t they just the cutest together?

The Birthday Girl herself…what an amazing wardrobe she had picked out for this weekend. Electric blues and bright pinks! Love it!

Coming home wasn’t as easy a flight.  Now we know for next time not to book a flight at bedtime, while he wanted to sleep, he couldn’t get comfortable on our laps.  However, we agreed that we had the happiest sleepy child in the world. 

Walking the Hooch

Knowing that our dear Play 2 Grow class was coming to a close, we wanted to find a new activity to share with Little Man. Although he’s trapped inside this carrier, he did get to enjoy a lot of local scenery…at the Hooch.

We saw baby geese

And deer

And inch worms

We also saw a snake – but it was too quick for my trigger finger and slithered away before I could snap.

All in all – a great day for a walk.

Pablo–1, Grass - 0

Lately, our date nights are filled with Indian food from our favorite restaurant on Peachtree Industrial, Himalyas and stopping by Lowes or Home Depot.  This evening we popped into Lowes after feasting on Garlic na’an. No wonder we couldn’t find anyone to help us in the lawn mower section!

After much deliberation and considering electric cordless mowers, we opted to give the old-fashioned a try. It seemed to move pretty smoothly on Lowes concrete floors and prayed that it would be as easy to use at home. We figured if we didn’t like it we could bring it back.

So as soon as we got home, Pablo went to work fast. 930pm and he’s anxious to put this beast together so we can see what it’s capable of.

Promptly at 10pm - Pablo’s got just the right moves to make our grass eating machine hum.

Grass Beware

Pablo and I are now proud owners of this baby:



Grasses be forewarned. Your owners are green and your tips are going to get trimmed.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mom and Ash’s Birthday and Photos to boot

We had a wonderful time with Ashley and Mom for their birthday lunch. Of course, getting the family together means lots of photo ops, so we took this opportunity to take the kiddies outside for a couple of glamour shots. How cute do they look on this bench together? I love it!

After the photos, we headed back inside for some of Ashley’s delicious chocolate cake and sang Happy Birthday to the Ladies.

Our little man is getting so big! Look at this big toothy smile.

Our Garden is Growing

Our garden is growing. The raspberries and strawberries have been planted. Silly me, what I thought might be a great blueberry harvest has turned out to be the blueberries flowering. I thought it was too early to produce fruit – but then again Connie’s blueberries are magically and having survived the Weintraub backyard for 6 months, I can see it’s going to be a long lasting relationship.

On the left , what I thought were blueberries were actually soft delicate white flowers.  On the top right, a cool picture with the camera and on the bottom right, a close up on our raspberry leaves.  I’m uber excited about our berries. Eating berries off the bush, especially raspberries takes me back to the “county” (aka Catskills) where my Gampa, father, S and A would stop to nibble on some on the walk to Rosie’s house. 

Can you see the lone strawberry leaf in the center? It’s there, promise