a date with my (little) boy

on saturday i got to go on two different dates — one with each of my boys! so it was the best kind of day in the world, and I'm not sure how i got so lucky! in the morning, before j and i went off on a bike-riding adventure (more on that later), i told wilder that his papa and i were going to go on a date and that after we came back i was going to take him on a date! he didn't quite understand, but i could tell he was pretty thrilled about it, because the first thing he said to me when we got back home was "i'm ready for my date now!" haha! then the whole time in the car he kept saying "are we on a date?" and then "where's my date?" ha! so then i explained to him that our date was going out to do something together. and i realized that he and i basically went on a date every day for almost two years before evie was born! i don't think he realizes that, which is good, and i don't think he minds too much having to share me with his sister. but i've been wanting to give him a little extra special attention because lately he seems to get the shorter end of the stick when i'm constantly chasing down evie and doing all the other housewifely things.

i was originally planning to take him into decatur to look at books and get some frozen yogurt, but then he suddenly declared he wanted to go to the fernbank museum of natural history instead. and since we have a yearly membership pass, i didn't have any reason to say no.

if you live in atlanta and have never been to fernbank, you should put it at the top of your things to do with kids list. it is our favorite place! i love that there are a few permanent exhibits, which are super interesting for older kids and adults, a bottom-floor exhibit that changes, and an upstairs "naturequest" which is this really cool play room for kids. there are some reptiles in tanks (salamander, alligators, turtles, lizards, snake), two bridges, a tree house thing, a ball shoot, an archaeology area, a sea-life area, a tunnel, etc. it really has everything, and the best part is that it's even good for little kids like evie's age. we actually went just the week before and evie got to explore it on her own for the first time, which was heaven for her. she just adores playing (climbing)! we usually spend the bulk of our time in the kids room and if we have time, we walk through the "a walk through time in georgia" exhibit which takes you through the natural history of georgia and the planet with lifelike recreations of many of the animals, including a room full of dinosaurs, which naturally is everyone's favorite part.

this time, after playing in naturequest, we went to see the dinosaur room and then decided to check out the new exhibit called wild music. wilder is totally his papa's son, because he loooooves music. most of it was a little over his head because it was showing how animals are nature's musicians, but he loved the jamming room where he got to make a little music of his own, and he especially loved the gift shop (ha). he didn't quite understand that the instruments there were for buying, not playing, but thankfully he was fine leaving it all there to go get a treat. ;)

papa took our picture before we left. my star-wars-obsessed, 3-yr-old. how did he get so big? i treasure this photo so hard. 

big dinosaur skeletons on the bottom floor!

tiny alligators!

im not sure what he's making this face about, but there is one tree "sculpture" thing which he does not like because of the animal sounds coming from it, so maybe that's it?

my constant gatherer/sorter. what a little mini-me he is, too!

held on to this ball for dear life, after some of the older kids tried to take it from him, haha. i did not make him give it up, because sometimes you have to let them win, you know?

my sweet sweet sweet sweet boy.

a lovely lady took this photo of us and i love it so much, just wish our faces were in focus! ah! oh well. :)

my little love.

an afternoon at the botanical garden

a few fridays ago a friend and i spent an afternoon at the atlanta botanical gardens. i've been pretty impressed with the amount of kid-friendly things there are to do here in atlanta, and the botanical garden is another amazing place. the flowers and little places to play in the kids' areas are amazing! i could probably go there every day and not get bored. wilder, as always, loved it because he got to walk around. he also experienced sand for the first time. basically any ol' place where you can walk around is a complete blast when you're one. :)

enough lunch! let me out!

all the flowers!

fun kids gardens

help me aunty jean, there's stuff sticking to me!

atlanta botanical gardens = i give it two thumbs up.

strawberry fields forever

over the weekend loverboy, wilder and i drove down to watkinsville to go strawberry picking. this has been on my yearly wishlist for forever, and it was so fun! wilder would have liked to have eaten all the strawberries right then and there, but we wanted to wash them first, so we had to keep hiding the bucket from him. he really enjoyed the hay ride, but the strawberry ice cream he was not really into (more for me;). the strawberries, though, he is all about. this will definitely have to be a new family tradition.

still small enough to wear!

random kid's playground = wilder's day made. 

these boys are my favorites.

we've almost finished this entire bucket.

he was totally giving the eye to all the ladies on the ride! 

hahaha. this face doesn't like the wind. 

it's everyone's favorite season!

can you believe yesterday was the first day of fall? in college i liked to send out emails on the equinox, wishing everyone i knew a happy season. there is just something delicious about the start of a season. especially the fall season. i mean, isn't fall everyone's favorite? i guess some people like spring (only people in london and new york city i think). and of course, summer is every kid's—and teacher's—favorite. but fall! fall is everyone's favorite.

hot cocoa and toasty knitted scarves and roaring fires and biscuits with stew and pumpkin pie? yes. yes, please.

fall is also my favorite because it's my birthday, and while i've lost interest in getting older, i just can't seem to lose interest in celebrating myself. ;)







it was at this time four years ago that we moved to atlanta (see photos above). i can't believe we are going on our fifth year here, already. it sometimes still feels like we're recent transplants.

last year when we got pregnant, i got a job and we started looking for a house, i realized that we would probably be here for at least a little while longer (okay, maybe i am still not completely convinced of that). then, i read this article and got more excited to get to know this city we now call home better.

at the start of every fall i kind of like to put together a list of things to accomplish—i set an intention, if you will (i'm very yoga right now;). last year's sort of list. a trip to montreal is still on loverboy and i's perennial trips-to-take list.

this fall, i'm dreaming of:

pumpkin festivals and the Georgia state fair,
daily walks in the park and weekend jogs around stone mountain
for sloshing in leaves and letting the lars-dog run free,
seeing my baby crawl, and hoping he doesn't start to walk yet,
cupcakes at the new sprinkles store (coming soon!),
many more donuts from donut king,
and this bourbon-caramel pumpkin tart,
chicken tortilla soup and maybe some beef stew,
finally decorating the nursery and some other projects,
introducing yoga to my favorite loverboy of all,
reading this and this and maybe this,
cooking our very first thanksgiving dinner,
going to the zoo, the atlanta botanical garden and the yellow river game ranch,
maybe catching a baseball game and another ballet,
and, most importantly, spending my days with the cutest baby (and sweetest papa) there ever was.

here's to a happy fall! 

p.s. look at those 2009 chickens! can you believe we were both in our 20s then? and can you believe loverboy is still wearing that grey shirt? just kidding, it's a different grey shirt. ;) and also, you can tell we had just moved from austin because a.) i was still wearing flipflops everywhere and b.) the in-laws took us to little five points to make us feel at home. so sweet:)

once on a sunday evening

we got back from my sister in law's fabulous wedding (seriously, it was aMAZing, i'll just have to tell you about it later because i only have about ten minutes till our movie downloads), and then guess what happened?

we went to the grocery store and saw this guy, who i only know from this (pretty funny), but who is also in this and other things according to imdb. anyways, he was just buying things. like a regular person. crazy, right? my second celebrity sighting (in my whole life!), in the past year. who knew so many famous peoples hung out in the a-town? i didn't! we are so starry eyed.

and so, then we went and got some of this:

oh yeah.
living the dream, baby.
living the dream.