playroom

i am loving this playroom and this blog

good morning

g

i've been thinking of the environment and responsibility a lot lately, mostly because i want to teach audrey the importance of such things in her everyday life. i finally bought some gdiapers today that i'd been wanting for awhile. they're hybrid pocket covers that can be used with cloth or biodegradable liners. i've been using cloth during the days at home with a bummis cover but found the cloth bunching too much from audrey's constant need to move. she really is moving, leaning, wiggling, wobbling, bouncing, crawling and kicking constantly these days.

we finally traded in my '96 suzuki last weekend and bought a new prius. we've been very happy with it :) my grandpa van corbach has a first generation prius and still loves to tell everyone about what all the on board computers can do. when i see the motor switch from gas to electric i smile and think of him. i'm off to hug some trees now :)

i also recycle my used plastic bottles as baby toys :) har har

it's beginning again and....

....i'm feeling like it's time to bake something. autumn. i love autumn. i love the cool evenings, the fog, the smells, the crunch of dying leaves and yes, even the familiar itch of needing to bake. i think i've posted an "i love all things autumn" post every year since this blog's infancy. it usually happens after i get a little taste of cooler weather. yesterday was cool and cloudy all day. audrey was having a bad day & refusing her naps but i was left swooning over the weather and my fussy clingy baby. i saw halloween candy in vons, oh man that made my day too.

this picture is of laurelhurst park in portland, my favorite city park. i even love the name, laurelhurst. michael proposed to me on that hill two days before thanksgiving in 2005. i think he made me love autumn and thanksgiving even more, if that were possible.

i'm thinking brownies, peanut butter brownies.

made my night

pat sajak was on celebrity jeopardy tonight, my mind was blown! he won, with over $55,000 for his charity. he has, my respect.

junebug

oh yes, we're fans

audrey and i went to target and bought her this sweet set of wheels. here she is enjoying herself at the mall. mama also picked up some sweet new slippers for herself. :)

it is my favorite and my best

thanks to lauren, hannah & phil and a trip to the downtown library, i'm really looking forward to when audrey starts showing interest in books. i know that's far down the road from now, but michael and i still plan on reading to audrey regularly and making it an important part of her early education.

a series i'm super excited about are the charlie and lola books by, possibly my favorite children's author, lauren child. not only are her illustrations adorable but i love that lola incredibly absolutely has a large vocabulary for a four year old. check out her other books at www.milkmonitor.com :)

there's also a television series that's shown on the disney channel. i'd rather buy it on dvd though to regulate audrey's tv time. enjoy!

let's have a picnic....

i have no clothes that fit! with the lil' one i'm more limited on budget than ever, which is unfortunate because i'm a different shape now after giving birth. my maternity clothes are too big and my pre-pregnancy shirts and jackets are too tight for my chest, even my beloved trench coat that i've been hoping to fit back into. oh well, i'm just going to have to get creatively thrifty. accessories can go a long way you know!

i love anthropologie. if budget weren't an issue, i'd love to go crazy in there. so, here's my dream outfit for today:

a cute dress.... (perfect for picnics i think!)

with a flowery bag....

little yellow sandals....

& a bright scarf.

don't forget the perfume! i love flowery/citrus scents :)

audrey lynn baker

born on april 15, 2010 at 11:35 at night. 7 lbs 2 oz & 21 inches.

i'll post our birth story soon, hopefully. we're completely devoted on learning how to breast feed right now. :)

oh, my cervix & i are still not on speaking terms, yet.

cuteness

baby benjamin at one month old :)

for me

from anthropologie :)

mojito

i have about 95 more days until i'm due to deliver. i don't know what it is, (the sunny pleasant weather, thoughts of soon starting another vegetable garden or lazy mornings spent reading on the porch?) but i've been craving a mojito for the past week. michael says we can stop by the yardhouse on the way home from the hospital and he'll buy me a crisp mojito. i love that man!

one sittin' & one kickin'

i like to sit. i like to sit, put my feet up and maybe slouch a little. that's the best position for baby kicks. i'm addicted to baby kicks. that's why i sit.

fresh & pudgy

today a fresh & easy opened a few blocks from our house and i am so excited! i love their heat & serve entrees and quick lunch items. mostly though i love their grapefruit juice, they actually leave in the pulp! i'm a great lover of pulp in my citrus juices and until now, i've never known grapefruit juice to be sold with pulp before. i know it's such a small thing, but i couldn't wait to stop by on my lunch break and get some. pregnant women are easy to please sometimes. sometimes. :) i'm looking forward to shop here soon with my wonderful mil, i'm sure she'd love it. hear that mil?! if anything, it's a great excuse to have you come visit again!



speaking of pregnancy, here's my personal POV of my feet. i can still see them. also, here are my new shoes i've been wearing every time i walk out the door for the last two weeks. no really, nearly every time. i watered my plants in these puppies today. anyway, i like them. they remind me of peonies.

i can feel it, see it & taste it.

even though the days are still averaging about 97 degrees, i can definitely notice the evenings getting cooler. school is starting. touches of halloween greet me in stores. high school football is around the corner. blossoms are fading. the nights are getting longer.

every mid-august i start to look for signs of autumn. i let myself think of hot apple cider, roasted pumpkin seeds and beautiful grey skies. autumn is my favorite season, i love everything about it. i love the smells, scarves and coats, the crunchy leaves, the promise of family gatherings and peppermint, hot chocolate with marsh mellows, and shades of reds, oranges and browns. i love love LOVE autumn! :)

i remember living on my own in my first apartment in seaside oregon, watching the rain drip off an evergreen out my living room window. the cool beachy fog clung to the hills as i watched joey's breath puff when we were outside. that first autumn on my own really made me appreciate how beautiful the season is. now i'm excited for my first fall season in my new house! i'm excited to light some pumpkin spice candles, decorate indoors and out, and carve some jack-o-lanterns.

as i type this, i'm sipping on some trader joe's spiced cider. :D easy fall prep tip: heat some spiced cider and some lemon and orange zest on the stove for some yummy hot apple cider. it makes your kitchen smell amazing too!

lil' bit of oregon

this is my little '96 suzuki esteem, i bought her when i was 19 years old while living in oregon. at the time, she was my largest purchase ever of $4,100!

i took this picture today after driving her for the first time in 8 months or so, (michael usually drives her to work when he's not riding his bike.) she's got squeaky upholstery and is starting to get that "old car" smell, but i've been missing oregon a lot lately and it was so nice to be reminded that i still have a little bit of oregon left. :)

i took this picture to show how dirty and forgotten she looked, but it actually makes her look cleaner than she really is. all that it shows is the cobweb on the bumper but she's actually pretty gross. so... use your imagination. :)

chicago pictures

to view our chicago pictures, go to www.flickr.com/photos/jennylynnbaker & click on the chicago & mobile upload sets on the left of the screen.. :)

summer treat

green tea mochis, so perfect on a hot day!

san francisco!

michael took me to san francisco for valentine's day, he's pretty wonderful. it was cold and rainy and exactly how i had hoped. we hit up the city lights bookstore (www.citylights.com) where michael bought a copy of 'san francisco noir' and a little something for sherry, and spent a few hours in SFMOMA looking at the exhibits. (you can check out the pictures from that on michael's blog.)

we had dinner at johnny foley's pub, which was loud and very americanized, but was wonderful anyway. (they had great curry fries!) michael saw the actual johnny foley walk by with a glass of guinness. we know this because there's a giant painted portrait of him in the entry holding a glass of guinness. hmmm... U2's bono also had a giant portrait in the pub as well. i tried to get a picture of him, but there was a nice family enjoying their conversation at the table in front and i didn't want to creep them out by taking a picture with my cell-o-phone.

on sunday we drove to sherry's house, who i was excited to meet for the first time! those of you who read sherry's blog may have no idea how fantastic her house is. (we share a mutual love of anthropologie!) for dinner we went out for pizza with pete & lucy, brandon & kim and played apples to apples after. sherry was nice enough to let us stay the night and it was hard to leave the next morning. :(

anyway, enough blabbing... here's some pictures.