The AB Tour Stands Alone.

When Mom and Tim visited over Valentine's Day weekend, we took them to a pretty popular place here in the St. Louis community - the Brewery. In St. Louis, there is only one Brewery (which isn't true, there are and were several other breweries, but ... apparently only one counts). The AB Brewery. They have a great tour, and there is a hospitality room at the end.

The tour winds through many of the original - and still in use buildings. Some are officially on the National Historic Register. Ooh. There is even a public school building on the campus. Many of the Busch children attended school there with other kids from the neighborhood. (No school is in session there now, something about small children in close proximity to many, many truckloads of alcohol.) There are Clydesdales, there is history, there is a bit of exercise, and there is beer.

Not at all a bad way to spend an afternoon!

Olive also enjoyed her time with Gigi and Poppie that weekend.

High Chair Confidential.

A slow Saturday morning is one of my favorite things. We wake up to the alarm in the next room, rather than the digital one that rings every other morning. We enjoy coffee and breakfast and some leisure time in our pj's before the rush of our day starts.

When Olive first joined our lives, she passed our meal times in her bouncy seat - on the table or the floor nearby. As she learned to sit up, she would sit in her little green seat, again on top of the table. But since she is now high chair ready, she has been sitting right next to us. Sweeping toys off of the table, and starting her own adventure with food.

I often pick up my camera, with the blinds open - if the light is right, and snap a few photos. Having the luxury of catching Olive's face without the wash of a flash is really wonderful.

A few other recent favorites:

Oops!

We are not in the habit of dressing Olive for 95-degree weather when it is not 95-degrees outside.

Olive 'blew' through two outfits on Friday and ended the day in day care clothes. No, not clothes for day care, but clothes belonging to day care.

And this day care outfit? Definitely not winter apparel.

We also had a lesson in less-is-more toys. Olive loves playing with (and chewing on) her day care report (a piece of paper). We took it away from her to snap this photo in her day care clothes:



And then we saw the error of our ways.

Three Cup Days.

A normal morning for me includes one large home-brewed 'cup-o-joe' and an office refill - after I've checked voicemail and email and right before hunkering into my first project of the day.

This week:

Olive hasn't been sleeping well. Although I KNOW I can't complain, she generally sleeps like a dream. A dream, I tell you.

I have been busy with obscure Code references and research. Hello, my new friend Section 4958.

We are recovering from visitors. Mom and Tim were in town last weekend. We had a wonderful time, but we are also worn out!

Kyle went back to Tennessee to watch the building materialize and negotiate disagreements among contractors.

And the best events of the Olympics air really LATE at NIGHT!

All told, there were several three cup days already this week. And today just might be another one!

- H

P.S. - I edited this post by removing a slew of parenthesis. Kyle thinks that I go a tid bit overboard on the internal monologue punctuation. I sure like a few ... and (Wow!), but today I took them out.

It has been too long.

Orange …

Although Olive has not yet eaten an orange (her digestive system isn’t quite ready for citrus), she (so far) loves every orange colored food we have given her … sweet potato, gobble. butternut squash, gobble. carrots, gobble gobble. (Apples, though not orange, also achieve the double gobble rating.) She is still not into rice cereal (I have been sneaking it into a few of her meals – gotta finish the rest of the container!) which doesn’t really surprise me. It smells yucky and resembles paste. (And we will surely encourage her NOT to eat paste when the time comes.)

TurDuckEn-O-Rama

How is it February already?!

Last month we had a dinner party. We called it 'Friend Thanksgiving.'

Yes, my calendar said January just like yours did. But, we recently came into possession of a Turducken and decided that Thanksgiving fare was appropriate.

We enjoyed the chicken wrapped in a duck wrapped in a turkey, and the stuffing and the yummy ducky gravy and stock. In hindsight, while tasty, it was more novelty than true finger-licking delicacy. The part we sliced for dinner? Mostly Tur with a tad of Duck and little to no En ... as our leftovers have ventured toward the, er, 'back' of the Franken-Bird there was more equitable distribution of fowl in each slice.

Still ... the true stars of the meal were the offerings our friends provided: salad with candied walnuts and tasty dressing, homemade cranberry sauce, twice baked potatoes with a healthy touch of horseradish and chocolate and lemon pies.

And - best of all - it was an evening full of friends (although sadly missing a few to illness and prior engagements), full of chatter, and full of laughter.

Friend Thanksgiving (even in January) Rocked.

- H

Windows!

This weekend we started the process of getting new windows for our third floor. Woo Hoo! AND ... the people-more-knowledgable-than-we came out yesterday afternoon to measure. Next, we will go to Lowe's and choose which windows (exactly) we want. Then, the windows will be officially 'on order' and, finally, someone-with-more-time-than-we (also, someone-whose-job-it-is) will come out and install them.

(Not to worry, we aren't farming out all of the home improvement chores. But delegating one that involves large pieces of glass, openings in our home and a three storey distance to the ground seems like a pretty reasonable idea. If you ask me. Which you didn't. But. Well. I'm just saying.)

We are also moving toward some significant changes in our backyard area. However, we still have a hot tub that is not on our list for long term ownership. Any takers?

Seriously.

No. Seriously.

Any takers?