A Lovely Summer Day

I interrupt my baby posts to bring you something resembling my old blog content.  We had a nice day today so I thought I'd share.  The weather was in the low 80's in Charlotte and after a leisurely morning involving blueberry pancakes and playing the baby and dog for awhile, we ventured out to check out a place I've been wanting to try for a long time- Pinky's Westside Grill.

That is a VW bug on top of the restaurant :)

We arrived dead in the middle of lunchtime on a Saturday (not that smart) and actually brought Clyde with us too, not knowing if it was dog friendly or not, and figuring if we had to we'd get the food to go and find a park to eat at or something.  They have outdoor seating at Pinky's, and while technically, it's not dog friendly, they allowed us to have Clyde outside the fence next to our table.  We were also seated in less than five minutes, which was impressive.

This was one of the better lunches out Allie has had lately.  She hardly got fussy at all and was able to stay in her car seat the entire time, which rarely happens these days.  Pretty soon we'll probably be able to put her in a high chair, and maybe that will help.

Pinky's is a burger and hot dog joint, with some other stuff on the menu as well (I was actually tempted to get fish tacos), but what makes them extra exciting is that you can get veggie burgers and veggie dogs there, which is pretty much heaven for Greg, since he leans towards vegetarian much of the time.

We started with a small order of fried pickles, which was enormous.  

They were hot, salty, and tangy.

I opted for a cheeseburger, since let's face it, I still haven't lost my cheeseburger cravings since pregnancy.  I pretty much got the standard burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo and ketchup, except with pimento cheese.  It was delicious :)

 

I also got a side of sweet potato fries, which were good, but we ended up taking at least half home since we were so full from the fried pickles.

Greg had a veggie hot dog with chili and coleslaw and loved it.

We got a kick out the fact that when feeding Clyde bites of stuff, he immediately could tell the difference between the meat of my burger and the veggie dog.  Smart dog.

Allie took a little nap on the way home.

Back at the house, I thought about what to do for the rest of the afternoon and then decided to get out our outdoor blanket and do some playtime with Allie outside in the fresh air.

It was great to be outside for a while, and nice that it wasn't too hot today.  We stayed in the shade and I made sure to lather Allie up with sunscreen.  

The rest of the afternoon and evening was low key.  Allie tried acorn squash for the first time and seemed to like it.  I think it's funny, because she seemed to like that better than sweet potato, which we tried earlier this week.  Apple, prunes, and pears are her favorites so far.

After dinner we did the usual bedtime routine of a bath, jammies, a book, and one last nurse session for the day before Allie drifted off.  She's on her fourth or fifth night sleeping without the sleep suit now and it's going well.  She's been sleeping in a Halo sleep sack on her belly and seems to like it.

The night ended with a batch of chocolate chip cookies I made.  These have oatmeal and nutritional yeast in them, which is supposed to be good for lactating mamas.  I may have just eaten four...

Anyway, it was a great day.  I'm off to bed at a little after 9pm, because that's what mom's with six month old babies that are tired do.  Hope you guys are having a good weekend!

Early Christmas With My Family

For a while now, we have been celebrating Christmas early in December with my family.  My younger brother lives up in New Jersey and we find that's easier for him (especially now that he has a daughter) to travel during non-holiday weekends, and plus it allows him to spend the holidays with his wife's family, who live near them.

This year it happened really early- the very first weekend of December, which meant that only a week after Thanksgiving, Christmas was happening.  This caused a little bit of panic in me since everyone was coming to my house this year (we did it at my parent's house last year), and I had a week to get our tree up, clean the house, and make some Christmas cookies before their arrival.  Greg got crazy with house projects too- like working on our kitchen grout, installing under cabinet lighting, putting a child proof thingie on our chemical cabinet (my niece is now mobile), and putting the icicle lights on the front porch.  It all ended up going off with out a hitch though, and the visit was really fun.

The other good news was that we are way more equipped than ever before to host guests with a baby.  My niece, Avery, was able to sleep in our crib, use our crib, our convertible car seat (Greg's sister gave us one), toys that we have, our stroller, and all sorts of baby stuff.

Everyone arrived in Charlotte around lunchtime on Friday.  After briefly regrouping at the house, we decided to head to lunch.  Our weekend plan was to have lunches out and dinners at the house because it worked better with Avery's schedule.  Greg and I had recently tried out a restaurant that I actually heard about via Twitter.  It's called Local Dish.  I actually didn't take any pictures on this visit, because I was too busy chatting it up with my family, but last time we got the pimento cheese fondue, which was amazing, so we had to get an order for the table this time too.

Like many Southerners (in our case transplanted Southerners), we've become addicted to pimento cheese, and we have a hard time not ordering it when we see it on a menu.  Local Dish's is really yummy.  We think there's some garlic or something in there.  It was a hit with the table.  My mom and I split a spinach salad with chicken and the sweet potato gnocchi and both were really good.  I will say that the burger I had on my last visit, topped with MORE pimento cheese, bacon, and spinach, was also really amazing.

My brother got chicken and waffles, and the chicken was crazy delicious.  I might have to get that next time I go.  Anyway, Local Dish is on our radar as a great eatery now.  We'll definitely be back.

After lunch we headed back to the house for a bit, before venturing out again for a little holiday tree lighting happening in the area.

We heard there were pictures with Santa, and my sister-in-law really wanted to get one of Avery with Santa.  We were among the first in line and she did great- no crying or freaking out, which is more than I can say for the kids after her!

Avery liked the band music playing, so we hung out for a few minutes so she could dance around, but didn't stay for much of the festivities beyond that.  We headed home to have dinner instead.

My mom made her shrimp with pasta with Hilton Head shrimp for us shellfish eaters, and my dad and Greg split a frozen pizza.  Mom also made these cute festive little Santa hats for dessert.  You just take those round brownies you can buy at the grocery store, top with white icing, a strawberry, then a little blob of white icing on top.  So cute :)

By the end of the day we all pretty much looked like this...

Saturday morning we got up and decided to do our Christmas morning then.  My mom made waffles and I made a huge bowl of fruit.  Yum!

We all gathered in the living room and the present frenzy began.

The best part was watching Avery open presents.  I think it's true when they say Christmas is more magical around children.

I got Avery a couple outfits, a book, and these mini Ugg-like boots, which were a huge hit with my brother and sister-in-law.

My mom gave her this super cute purple fleece hat.

I got so many great things- new Asics, baby outfits, diaper bag, and our Ergo carrier.  I decided to try it out with Clyde.  He actually seemed to like it!

We all went to Cowfish for lunch.  My mom has seen me feature it on the blog a bunch of times and wanted to try it.  After my last visit, I'm hooked on the Neon Dion Roll.  I like that everything in it is cooked so I can have it while pregnant.  The tempura coconut shrimp is crazy good.

After lunch we quickly headed to meet my friend Lindsay, who is awesome and agreed to take some family pictures of all of us.  My mom really wanted some good family pictures. We don't have a lot of all of us other than at weddings.  Check out her work...

They came out so great!  Lindsay is really talented.  My mom is planning to use one for a Christmas card this year.

Saturday night we kept it low key and order pizza for dinner- a veggies and a pepperoni.

Sunday, unfortunately, Greg, my mom, and my Dad all got kind of sick with some kind of stomach bug or something.  Luckily, Mark, Ashley, Avery, and I didn't get it, but it was still a major downer in our weekend.  I can't figure out how they got it, because I pretty much ate all the same things they at the day before, so I don't think it was food poisoning.  It must of been some germ they picked up somewhere.

The non-sick kids stayed close to home, but went on a lot of walks and checked out the local playground.

  

We also went to lunch at a local pub to get out of the house a little.

Clyde provided Avery with a good deal of entertainment in the afternoon.  They played fetch for a while, and she laughed hysterically.

Around dinner time, the crew decided they felt a lot better and were up for cooking up a holiday feast.  We made a filet of beef, green beans, mac and cheese, and butternut squash/leek/apple gratin.

 
It was a delicious end to a great weekend with my family.  Next year should be even more exciting with our little girl in the mix!

The Hurricane and My Weekend Recap

Before I get into my weekend, I wanted to touch on Hurricane Sandy.  Charlotte was basically untouched by it, save for cold temperatures and a little drizzle last week, but I do have family members that were directly impacted.  My brother lives in Hoboken, NJ, and he, my sister-in-law, and one-year old niece were at their condo when the storm hit.  When I first checked in with him Monday, they were all just home together waiting it out, but by Tuesday, things had taken a more serious turn.  I didn't get the details til later Tuesday night, but eventually he was able to contact me to tell me how things were going.  Overnight, my brother was up almost every hour to check the water level in their lobby, which reached about four feet.  They are on the second level, and he was worried the water would reach their apartment.  Thankfully, it didn't.  Their parking garage also sits on the ground level of their place, so once the water level receded on Tuesday, they were able to check out the damage and see that their car is most likely totaled from water damage.  They, like so many others, lost power at their apartment.  They had a good amount of food and water, but with my one-year old niece they still worried and felt that getting to somewhere safer was a priority.  Word was that the water needed to be pumped out of Hoboken before the power could be turned back on, and this process might take about six days.  Luckily, my sister-in-law's family was able to come get them and take them to south Jersey for the rest of the week.  Last night I talked to my brother and power has been restored at their building, so he was on his way back to check everything out.  He also spoke of wanting to get back up there to help others in some way too- to try and donate clothing, water, or food if he could.  I spent a good amount of time in the past week watching all the news footage of the events.  I donated to the Red Cross, and also made a clothes donation to a friend's family in need.  It wasn't much, but it was something.  Anyway, my heart goes out to those impacted.  I really can't even imagine even what my brother and family have been through, let alone people who have lost love ones, homes, and even entire towns.  It's really terrible.

I have to say, about the marathon, I am conflicted and feel as many others do- it was probably the right decision, but made at the wrong time.  I can't even imagine traveling all the way to NY, picking up my race bib and getting excited at the expo, and then finding out a race I'd trained months for was called off.  That's terrible and heartbreaking in it's own way.  If you've trained for a marathon, you know the amount of time, suffering, and just general effort that goes into it.  For me it was kind of all I thought about for the months leading up to mine, and I just can't fathom throwing that away.  That's why despite the devastation and obvious need to cancel the race, I still really feel for the runners and think that people that haven't trained for a marathon don't quite understand what those runners are feeling right now and should not be angry with them for feeling the loss.  If it were me, I would definitely do as many NYCM runners have done and find an alternate marathon to run so that my training was used.  It's just a terrible situation all around though.

Anyway, speaking of races, Saturday morning I headed to the Rock and Read 5K, to spectate at a slew of my runner friends participated.

(There's a picture with me and Tanya in it as well if you check Kelly's blog).

I was able to spectate with Tanya, who I have not seen since summer and is now 38 weeks pregnant.  We had a good time discussing our pregnancies while the runners were out on their 3.1 mile loop.  Everyone did great!  Tanya's speedy husband was the first to come barreling through of our group.

Next up were Kelly and Michelle.

And then came Caitlin and Cindi.  This was Cindi's first 5k and she accomplished her goal of not walking at all, despite the reportedly hilly course.

I was proud of all my friends, and a little jealous.  I'll have to find a comeback 5K to do in the spring once I get my bearings after the baby is born :)

A bunch of us followed up the race with breakfast at Bad Daddy's.  Though I've been a bazillion times, breakfast is one meal I have never had there.  I got an omelet with cheddar, applewood bacon, tomato, and spinach, with potatoes, and OJ, which went unphotographed- sorry.

After breakfast I decided to check out a local maternity consignment shop I had heard about, called The Womb.  I scored a cute shirt.  I also did a mall run and found a maternity sweater at Gap Maternity, along with a few Christmas presents for some of my family.  We're doing Christmas early this year, so I need to get a jump on my Christmas shopping!

I was going to spend the afternoon with a little downtime, but then opted to check out a local festival with Sara, her husband, and little Elena.  I again neglected to take any pictures, but it was basically a little street fair with food, drinks, and assorted booths.  I scored some free dog food for Clyde, a Publix giftcard, and a chocolate covered strawberry.

Last but not least, I went to Cowfish for dinner with Jen, Michelle, and Dion, along with spouses, and some strategically placed "dates" for Jen, which kept us entertained all night.  We got the always delicious Crab Rangoon dip and some edame to start.  For dinner, I opted for cooked sushi.  I have only had it a couple times since I got pregnant and it seems to fix my cravings for sushi.  This was was particularly special because the roll is named after Dion (she's a TV news anchor).

A closer look at at the roll...  The Neon Dion Roll

Tempura coconut shrimp, kani and English cucumber roll coated in crispy tempura flakes. Topped with fresh papaya, avocado and Cajun marmalade, and dusted with coconut flakes to finish

So delicious!  We didn't stop there though, we ordered two desserts, which was cool because in my many trips to Cowfish, I have never had dessert there.

We got the Mousse is Loose, which was chocolate heaven...

And the Very Berry Tall Cake... which is lemon poundcake layered with berry and ice cream goodness.

The Mousse is Loose was my favorite of the two, but both were awesome.  The group I was with was truly hilarious.  That's the hardest I have laughed in a while.  Hope the baby didn't mind!

Anyway, I had a great weekend, and after all the action I partook in on Saturday, Sunday was definitely more leisurely.  Hope you had a good weekend too!

4th of July 2012

This year, for the 4th, my friends decided we would do the all American thing and go check out a new hot dog place that just opened in Charlotte.  JJ Red Hots had its grand opening on the 4th and boasts plenty of hot dogs, sausages, and fried sides to go with them.

I decided on the Joliet Jake, which is their Chicago style dog, minus raw onions.  I also got onion rings on the side.  See the distinction?  I like cooked onions, but not raw ;)

My friend Sarah and I shared a chocolate shake, which might have been my favorite thing, but everything was really good :)

After dinner we headed back to Brad and Kelly's house, as per usual.  Drinks were consumed, and we dove into desserts that Kelly and I made.

Kelly made a fruit tart that was definitely fitting for 4th of July, and I made my peach/cherry crisp (sans blueberries because I was out).

I had a little of each.

I'm not sure anyone else really cared about seeing fireworks as much as I did, but I rounded up the group and forced them to come with me to uptown to check out the display.

We had a decent vantage point from a parking garage roof and just as nice?  It wasn't that difficult to get in and out of with the crowds.  Bonus :)

Another 4th come and gone.  I don't think my neighborhood got the memo though, since every night this week they've been setting off fireworks, freaking poor Clyde out :(  I'm constantly rescuing him from a closet or the pantry where he's hiding from the noise.

Anyway, I for one, had a good time on the 4th, and hope you all did too!