Monday, July 22, 2013

EARLY MORNING CUDDLES


i love early morning cuddles together as a family. sometimes hudson curls up like this on the pillows and it just melts my heart.  

and p.s. where did my fat little baby go?! this kid is all shoulder blades and ribs.

CRAYON ADVENTURES

jeremy and i haven't encouraged hudson to color as much as we probably should have. and it's because all he wants to do is eat the crayons. we've mostly had this experience in restaurants where they provide the crayons and something to color on. as though eating out with a toddler isn't hard enough. now we add the drama of taking crayons away from this toddler because he doesn't want to use them properly. you can imagine how that usually plays out.

so, the other day i picked up some of the big fat crayons from Target. i thought their ample size would make them seem less edible. as you can see from the video above, i was wrong. the tips are the perfect bite sized snack. but even with the little nibbles here and there, this was a victory since there was some actual coloring that went on. the proof is now up on our refrigerator, hanging proudly. 

i thought this is where our crayon adventures ended for the weekend, until i came into hudson's room yesterday morning to find this.

i thought our house was fairly hudson proofed, but i failed to consider the bath crayons sitting on the edge of the tub. he doesn't even seem that interested in them when he's in the tub, let alone seeking them out for a renegade pouf coloring mission. rookie mistake on my part. one i don't plan to repeat. thankfully these marks came off with little more than a damp towel and some elbow grease. hopefully in the future we can keep the crayons off furniture and out of little curious mouths.

Friday, July 19, 2013

FLASHBACK FRIDAY

missing my sister right now. i love this old picture of us from one of our annual Yosemite trips. happy friday!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

VOWS

while sorting through some photos in my Dropbox account, trying to choose which to order and put up in our house, (the only photo we have hanging up of hudson was sent to us by a friend, embarrassing) i came across these vows that i didn't remember writing until i started reading them. i don't think i've looked at them since getting married. (these aren't the vows we said to each other during our ceremony, but a little exercise we did before to get warmed up.) they make me smile so big and i want to put them somewhere i won't lose track of them again. so here they are.


      What is the single greatest thing about the person you are going to marry?
It’s your curiosity and enthusiasm for life. You become interested in something and want to know everything about it. You feel passionate about your “Stuff You Should Know” podcast and your nightly Jeopardy. I love that!

     When did you know that you were in love/ know that this person was the one you wanted to marry?
I knew I was in love the instant I saw your Officer Dangle short shorts Halloween night. Not really. In all honesty I don’t think there was one instant that I knew. That idea is a bit too romantic for me. Over time, our love grew and evolved. I began to see more all the time that you are incredibly kind, silly, curious, intelligent, diverse in your interests and passions, and accepting of the person that I am. The more I got to know you, the greater my understanding was of what a loving best friend, husband and father you could be. I’m marrying the person that you are, but I’m also marrying the person I know you will be over time because I am wholly confident that I’ll always be able to count on you. When you asked me to marry you at the top of a mountain, feet buried in the snow, I had no doubts. 

     What does marriage mean to you? Why do you want to be a married person?
I have heard some people say that your spouse is actually just a glorified roommate. I’m sure many days that is true. But, to me marriage is about making a commitment to someone, vowing to be by their side forever no matter what. It means agreeing on the important things, while learning to compromise and be pliable about other things. It means having babies and raising those babies to be the best people they can be. It means laughing ‘til we cry, challenging each other and sometimes arguing. It means having a pal to explore with, a solid embrace to cry into, and a person to be strong when I cannot be. It means listening even when I don’t want to or when I want to interrupt. It means being able to be quiet when I don’t want to speak. It means the good, the bad and the ugly. But of course it also means those very special moments that we hold close to our hearts always.

     What will change about your relationship once you are married? What will stay the same?
To sum up what will be different is the idea that this is FOREVER. For me, it is incredibly comforting to know that NO MATTER WHAT, this is for always. We’ve lived together for over a year so some things will feel the same. We will share a name and a bank account, which is different. We will have new titles, husband and wife, and with that will come new responsibilities and challenges. I’ve been told that it’s hard to articulate, but things will feel different. We will feel different. I’m ready for that. I’m looking forward to more of the good stuff we already have. More cooking and baking together, dinner parties with friends, more camping trips and hikes, more years of Bay to Breakers silliness, more hugs and kisses, more costumes, more travel, more knitting, more love.


     What is your most favorite memory of your partner?
The proposal, our first real date when we strolled down to Solstice talking and learning about each other, sitting on the hill behind The Greek in our Viking helmets, many nights in the hot tub with friends making drunk person stew, cooking together, making our Hulse family Christmas video, our spontaneous trips to The Tempest after work for the special, you being SUCH an amazing cheerleader when I finished my triathlon, that night we watched Stop Making Sense over and over. There are so many, I can’t list them all here. But there are more and I know there will be TONS more to come! I love you more than anything!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

FOUNDER'S GREEN



hudson has become rather obsessed with slides. swings, he could take 'em or leave 'em. but slides, those are the ticket to complete happiness. we managed to each take a turn with him on the inflatable slide prior to the meltdown that resulted from having to wait in line. the patience required for such a task is not in an 18-month-old's makeup. this is documented below. 


but, problem solved. he found another slide, if you could call it that. with no line. this entertained him for a solid 30+ minutes while we sipped our pinot noir and stuffed ourselves with cured meats, cheese and bread. oh, and how could i forget the little tub of black truffle butter, spread onto all of the above. hudson favored the apples and pears, which i think were really just there for good measure anyway.

the rain arrived just as hudson was starting to tire out, our cue to head home. the point of the outing was to watch The Sandlot on the big inflatable screen and we didn't even make it to the opening credits. but it still felt like a success. as hudson gets older we'll be able to participate in more of these great events. for now, we're just getting our feet wet, and possibly a little muddy.









{WORDLESS WEDNESDAY}


rocky mountain national park, sprague lake

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

EMBARASSED || SPOKEN WORD BY HOLLIE MCNISH {BREASTFEEDING BADASS}


i am in love with this spoken word by Hollie McNish. i thankfully have never had any negative feedback from nursing in public, but i have heard horror stories of moms (and subsequently babies) getting kicked off planes, asked to leave retail stores and generally being shamed for doing something that couldn't be more natural. the entire animal kingdom does it for crying out loud. there are so many wonderful efforts being made to encourage breastfeeding from the get-go in the hospital. i hope the awareness of its benefits spread and that the trend toward more breastfeeding in this country continues. i hope that if more moms do it and more people talk about it, it will become so commonplace that nobody will bat an eye when your baby gets hungry and you're on a bus or in a store or on a plane and you whip out a boob. i'm glad there are nursing covers out there for moms who feel more comfortable with them, but i hope they are using them for their own sake and not to make those around them feel more at ease. i never use anything, which works for me and feels like less of a production. less like something that is drawing attention to me and my son. feeding our babies and toddlers with what our body can provide is an incredible gift and i look forward to a time when its not something any mom has to feel embarrassed about.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

BAKER BEACH AND OTHER SF ADVENTURES















H and I spent last weekend in San Francisco to celebrate the upcoming birth of little Gibb-Hardt. for the most part, I did a terrible job of photographing all the wonderful moments spent with so many of my favorite people. the 4th of july was spent talking and giggling in my sister's backyard, watching H play with his nana and papa, auntie eri and uncle ty, uncle jones. it was so special. it was also special to leave h with his grandparents while we walked to golden gate park for some proper 4th of july beer drinking. this feels like a rare moment of relaxation when you live somewhere with no family to take your children and never get a chance for a little time away. 

on friday, my dad, aka gramps grumps, arrived and was added to the mix. my sister, mom and i went to get our nails done, but my sister unintentionally roofied me with a Xanax since i had woken up with terrible lower back pain and she thought it would help. i barely remember that pedicure. the rest of the day was spent shopping and preparing food for the next day's baby shower. no matter how much you prepare for parties like this, i always feel like the day of proves to be crazy chaos. 

saturday proved to be no different. jones and i got up early and went for a five mile run in golden gate park. it was fun to have a buddy to run with and the weather was perfect and cool. we treated ourselves to a blue bottle coffee on the way home. we arrived back to a bustling house, everyone pitching in to get everything ready to take to the park later that morning. it wasn't quite crazy chaos yet, but we were approaching it. everyone was tackling various things from a list, there were lots of us in the kitchen, cooking, frosting, marinating. i seemingly no longer live by my culinary school's mantra, clean as you go. but i love these moments of everyone together, gettin' stuff done. it feels good. the shower went off without a hitch in spite of the gloomy weather. there was a perfect amount of food, which everyone really enjoyed. the kids had fun with the bubble machine and rubber balls. it was no matter that we came home to a disaster of a house from all the morning's frantic preparations.we did our best to tidy up and enjoyed a relaxing evening, all together. 

all the grandparents were ready to get out of there on sunday morning. me on the other hand, i wasn't going anywhere since my flight had been cancelled due to the tragic crash at sfo on saturday. but, i got an extra day to spend with my sister and jones! we decided to take H to Baker Beach. dressed in typical SF summer beach wear (a sweater, long pants and a hat), H tentatively explored the sand after a little coaxing from us. jones spent a large chunk of time retrieving cody after he ended up at the far end of the beach. H seemed content just sitting on the blanket with my sister, but he did venture out at one point to play with a couple little kids nearby. after our cold but satisfying adventure we picked up "world famous turkey sandwiches" from the Arguello market. it's a mystery how i lived a few blocks from this place for 6+ years and never managed to have one of these sandwiches. it really may have been the world's best. we rounded out the day with some delicious sushi and plenty of chit chat and giggles. it was a perfectly lovely foggy weekend in one of my favorite cities with some of my favorite people.