Quick Fire

Speaking of Quick Fires, Top Chef is back! I always miss it when it's away. But here, the title is because I need to go to bed because my throat is hurting again (what is WITH me and my throat this season? very irritating) and I'm presenting a case to the Commission to approve a new action on Thursday (basically the pinnacle/purpose of my whole job) so I need to have a voice and not be sickly.

So, let's hit it!

I had a cup of Potato Leek soup at lunch on Sunday and it's all I've thought about since we left the restaurant. I looked up a recipe as I was leaving work and actually stopped - WITH CORA - on my way home, something I don't do except in life or death emergencies and maybe not even then, just to buy the requisite leeks and potatoes. It was delicious and everything I hoped it would be. I need to incorporate more leeks into my life.

This is the vigil Cora keeps on Monday and Wednesday nights when her big people are at swim practice and she is an only child for 60 whole minutes. She checks on them constantly and LOSES HER MIND when they walk in the door. The screams of joy are deafening. She hugs and hops and squeezes and SCREAMS and hugs some more. It is my favorite thing in the whole world and it happens every Monday and Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. As James and I remark to each other almost every day, "she just loves us SO MUCH." It's a wonder her body doesn't burst from it.

We took our long family walk in the gorgeous 60-degree weather yesterday. The Northeast is buried in snow and we're cruising for 3 miles in long sleeves and no jackets. Such a disconnect. Claire did the whole thing on her newly mastered 2-wheel bicycle (and in style, obviously, in her pink furry vest) and Landon ran because his bicycle has a flat. Though given his nonstop eating and energy lately, I think maybe sending him out on a few 3-mile runs throughout the day might just be proper maintenance. He's sweet and awesome, but omg he's a mini James and he is essentially impossible to make full or tired. Ever.

the original party pack

James and I went out on a date night Saturday. We didn't use our wonderful nanny for school pickup a couple days since Claire was sick and I was home, and since I try to keep her pay consistent, this means James and I get "free" date nights a few times a month to make up for missed days. We've probably gone out more in the last 4 months than the last 5 years combined and it is awesome. This time we headed to our favorite Mexican place and ordered everything on the menu.

There were no leftovers.

And then of course, we topped it off with some dessert at a new bakery down the street. A dessert that included maybe the best dessert I've ever had in my WHOLE lie - a oatmeal cream pie, with thick soft chewy cinnamony oatmeal cookies and a cinnamon cream cheese buttercream icing... oh. my. god. I was stuffed, but after I had a bite of James's, I needed my own. Then as we were leaving, we bought the last two, just because they were so good we couldn't bear the idea that any existed in the universe that weren't in our possession. Seriously, they were that good. Stir Crazy Bakery, my love, we will be back.

I went to hot yoga Sunday morning just to detox. And then I came home and ate the other oatmeal cream pie for breakfast with my tea. I have no regrets.

Cora woke up crying this morning around 3 a.m., which is highly unusual (no one loves sleep like Cora loves sleep). James tucked her back under her blanket and figured the matter was resolved, but then she was crying again at 4. I went in and for the first time ever, she communicated to me in a time of need (Cora is generally disinterested in learning English; she knows some, she just finds pointing more effective, plus she has two big sibling servants who coo over her and give her everything she wants before she wants it; it's a system that's working for her and she finds James and my insistence on words to be eye roll inducing at best). So amidst the wimpers she said "ear. hurts, mama." and after I snuggled her and said we could get some medicine she sighed and said "Shu shu mama." which is "thank you" and it was all beautifully and calmly resolved and she went back to sleep about 5 minutes later. Communication! The key to any relationship. I immediately woke James up when I got back in bed to tell him all about it.

James just got interviewed by a local business magazine to talk about his swim products company, his swim school, and his work on the Board of the Fort Worth Drowning Prevention Coalition non-profit. We realized he didn't have any pictures alone (except the few I've taken where he's mostly naked on the pool deck, but he nixed those), so he stopped by his warehouse this morning to get a few pics. How adorable is he with his baby?

Somewhat similarly, I am in the "teacher spotlight" for my studio and I also realized I didn't have many pictures of me without a child or husband in the frame, so I had to throw back to a pic from my 30th birthday when I had a Lili's burger with Gorgonzola fries for the very first time and my smile is the biggest its ever been. Except maybe at my wedding. Like James, Gorgonzola fries were love at first sight for me.

[I feel like a kissy face emoticon would be appropriate here, but I don't have one, so we'll have to xoxo the old fashioned way.]

Night!