Mommy-Logan Day!

As a full-time mommy and wife who also works full-time outside of the home, I rarely have the opportunity to spend an entire day with my sweet little Logan. His daycare was closed for Columbus Day and Ryan had to work so I took the day off and got to spend the whole day with him without having to share him with Ryan! I know, I know, it's selfish -- but Logan is such a sweetheart, it's hard to share his snuggles!

We started the day with breakfast at my favorite bagel place across the street from my office where two of my friends joined us before they had to share him with everyone else. A few of my colleagues have organized a fitness challenge and I am the official keeper of the weights, a.k.a. "The ScaleMaster," so we stopped by the office for our weekly weigh-in. Logan weighed-in at 24 pounds! He's totally winning. ;-P

After we left the office, we walked over to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for a play date with Rakelle and her 8-month old daughter, Mila. Seeing Logan and Mila together is hilarious. Logan is calm about 90% of the time and Mila is calm about 85% of the time; Logan totally notices that 5% difference. Whenever Mila would fuss, even slightly, he would just lean forward in his stroller, turn his full body to look at her, and just stare. I imagined him thinking, "damn, what is that girl doing? This place is cool, just look at the dinosaur and calm down, yo." We let them crawl around in one of the theaters for a little bit and Mila crawled all over him. The one time he half-heartedly attempted to crawl away, she held on to his sweater. I love this museum and can't wait until Logan is ready to learn about everything on display there.

Logan hadn't been on the National Mall in quite awhile and he looked to cute in his beanie on this chilly fall day, I had to snap a few pictures. He's so stinking cute. We also rode the carousel for the first time and Logan, like he is with most new experiences, was completely nonchalant about it. I love my kid!

I loved our special day. I wish we could have special days every day!

Apple Picking and Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

Pancakes have become a staple in our house. Our sweet little Logan is figuring out how to feed himself different types of food and is a mad man when it comes to pancakes. Imagine a full grown carnivore with a juicy burger in his hands -- that's Logan with a pancake. I make a batch on Monday morning, we eat it for breakfast, and I freeze the leftovers to reheat for Logan for breakfast throughout the week.

We went apple picking over the weekend with our sweet friend, Bryana, at a beautiful farm here in Maryland and ended up with 46 pounds of apples! We apparently suck at guessing weight because we thought we had less than 20. Whoops!





This little man clearly loves apples so we're happy we picked so much. I've been trolling Pinterest for apple recipes and stumbled upon this recipe from SmittenKitchen, one of my favorite food blogs, which I made some changes to for our breakfast this morning.

These pancakes are pretty frickin' delicious.

2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups vanilla soy milk
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 apples, coarsely grated (I used Braeburn, leave the peels on for extra fiber!)
Butter or vegetable oil for frying

Topping Options (Try 1 or several!):
Maple syrup
Crumbled bacon
Applesauce
Confectioner’s sugar

1. Mix the eggs with the soy milk in a large bowl.
2. In a smaller bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves together.
3. Combine the wet and the dry ingredients
4. Stir in the apples.
5. Heat a tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Drop batter by the 1/4 cup full onto the skillet and cook until the edges appear to be cooked. Flip the pancakes and cook them for an additional two minutes.
6. Serve with your favorite topping. Enjoy!

Makes about 16 pancakes.

Our Little Family

Last month, we were able to spend a week in our favorite vacation spot. We started the week by taking family photos the day before our anniversary at the same restaurant where we were married two years prior.

Here are some of my favorites:

 

I Zrbtt You!

Belly and Ears

Of course, I love every little thing about Logan, but two of the little things I love the most - his kissable tummy and his special ears - have not been treating him so well lately. He got his first ear infection a week and a half ago and I think it's still here; he's been scratching his ears all day today. To add to that, we have had a lovely day cleaning up projectile vomit! Naturally, it happens right after he finishes a whole bottle, so I was the target once and poor Ryan was the target twice. Oh yeah, and he's working on his second tooth! Oy! I hate to see my sweet little love under the weather.

Time

I am a bad blogger!! It turns out, as I suspected it might, that being full-time mommy, full-time wife, and full-time employee at a Monday to Friday, 8:30-5, job is time-consuming! I've been trying to do the math...

There are 168 hours in a week.

Subtract 43 for my job. That leaves 125.

Subtract 5 for my commute. That leaves 120.

Subtract 50 for sleeping (Logan sleeps through the night!). That leaves 80.

Subtract 15 for getting Logan and myself ready every morning. That leaves 65.

Subtract 10 for getting Logan and myself ready for bed. That leaves 55.

Subtract 10 for preparing meals. That leaves 45.

Subtract 5 for eating meals (breakfast and lunch are included in getting ready and work, respectively). That leaves 40.

Subtract 5 for softball and exercise. That leaves 35.

Subtract 10 for running errands. That leaves 25.

Subtract 10 for doing chores/keeping house. That leaves 15.

15 hours left... Only 15 hours (just over 2 hours a day/the length of a typical movie or one episode of So You Think You Can Dance) for being a present mom to Logan, being a present wife to Ryan, organizing coupons (my part-time job of saving us money!), going on walks/to the park/swimming/on play dates, talking with friends and family on the phone, watching TV, paying bills, checking Facebook/other websites, reading, socializing with friends face to face, shopping for fun, baking, doing arts and crafts, maintaining our blog, etc.

Geez! I'm exhausted! Anyone want to lend me an hour for a nap?

Swim and Play

Sunday, Logan celebrated his half birthday by having his first swim play date with his new friend Joshua (and Joshua's dads, Jeff and Eric). Logan and Joshua have the same birthday! It was so much fun to celebrate the day together and to see these two cutie pies in the pool.

How handsome is this little guy? He looks born to surf!

Nom nom nom

First food...

...satisfied.

Germany Vacation

All of my readers may not know this, but I'm half German! My Mom is from Germany, I was made in Germany (hehehe), and we moved to the US about a month before I was born. I speak a little German, just enough to get around and follow family conversation, and I lived and worked in Germany the summer before Ryan and I met. I returned to Germany with my Mom and sister, the summer after Ryan and I started dating but haven't been back since.

In April, my Mom turned 60; in May, I turned 30 and my Mom's godmother, Tante Ilse, turned 90. This was the perfect time for all of us to return to celebrate with our matriarch and to introduce Ryan, Logan, and my sister's husband, Kevin, to Germany and everything we love about it. Germany and my Mom's sweet little hometown have always been our second home and it was our hope that Ryan and Kevin would love it just as much as we do so we can stay connected with our family there.

Our trip was a deliciously delightful combination of wonderful family, fantastic food, and sightseeing. Our family is amazing, seriously. They should write a book on hospitality! I think Ryan and Kevin felt at home within 30 seconds of arriving. Part of that hospitality was the amazing food (and drink) "forced" into us at every opportunity both at our family's homes and while out and about. We also had a great time sightseeing in my Mom's little town, Frankfurt, Koln, Heidelberg, and the Rhine River Valley. Here are some, well, a lot of our favorite pictures from our trip.

 Delicious!

 An American in Frankfurt

 Quick ride to Heidelberg

 Riesling, of course

 My favorite part of the castle ruin in Heidelberg

 Tante Ilse and Onkel Helmut's house. We stayed in the upstairs apartment.

 Koln Cathedral

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