Moving On

Swaptree: is a new site that I recently discovered. And what a find for someone like me who doesn't like buying books because they're ridiculously expensive (compared to borrowing from the library), but would still like to own some or read a few that the library (gasp!) doesn't have. And I don't mind if they're used, especially if I can get them for under $3! You can read more on their website (www.swaptree.com) if you're interested, but I'm really happy I came across it and have completed three trades already :)

Our Date Night: was perfect. Micah settled into his Grandma and Grandpa's house routine right away. Especially since Auntie Yana, Uncle Ryan, Cousin Ana, and Grandma Rita were all there, too. I said goodbye and I'm not sure that he even noticed since he was stuffing his face with Auntie Yana's food. So D and I, happy ourselves, headed out to P.F. Chang's at the local mall. It was such a beautiful night, perfect temperture, nice breeze, no humidty...all the makings for dinner on the patio. That's exactly what we did. Dinner was yummy (even more yummy since we had a gift card!) and when we were done, we decided to walk through the mall. I had to peek in Janie and Jack and D ever-so-tolerantly followed me in. They were having a great sale, but nothing appealed to me, so we went next door to Teavana. Mom had gotten D a gift card there for Christmas and we have been enjoying the tea he bought for a while. Impressed, we bought some Precious Peach White Tea. It's a bit pricey at face value, but the Teaologist (yes, that's what they're called) explained it to us: 2 ounces will make 30-40 cups of tea and white tea leaves can be reused 3-4 times in a 24-hour period. That's a whole lot of cups of tea! She also said that if you don't drink that much in a day (which we can), just make the tea and put it in the fridge for some cold tea or I suppose you can reheat it later for some hot tea. This tea will last a while, but I want to try the Silver Needle White Tea next. It's an interesting tea. If tea can be interesting... After Teavana, we went to Border's Express where I love looking at the Bargain Books for Little Man. We got a few books for him. He likes the hands-on/interactive type of books, so I'm always on the look-out for those. They also had two carts full of books at the front of the store with a big sign, "$1 This Week Only." We bought some of those, too (I listed a few on Swaptree). But the fun didn't end there...for dessert, we went across the way to Trader Joe's and bought some dark chocolate-covered almonds. I ate my portion on the way home. D, of course, waited until we got home and had some of our new (delish) tea. At home, we watched an hour of John Adams, you know that HBO mini-series. We started it last summer and for whatever reason never finished it. We still have two more hours to go (out of about 7 hours), which I'm sure we'll finish this week during D's vacation days :). The next morning, we went to see M around 10:30. The little stinker slept until 8:30am (usually gets up between 7:30 and 8:00) and Mom said that was because his foot hit a noisy toy she put in there for him to play with when he got up! She said she had to hold Dad off from waking him up (waking him up!?!?!?), so I'm thinking he probably snuck in and put the noisy toy in the crib! Thus ended our Date Night, but a very fun day ensued, so it felt like the party was still going :).

Madison Beach Hotel: has got to be in one of the most beautiful spots in Connecticut. It's where we went for D's residency program's Clambake. When we got there, we walked through the hotel and back outside to this thick green lawn covered with tables and chairs looking out over the water. To get to the beach, we first had to pass the hor devour table, so we stopped and partook. The beach came right up to the hotel, so we took but a minute's walk to get to the waves. Other kids were there, with toys, so Micah was happy. He resumed his fascination with the sand and this time started tossing handfuls up in the air, which made the sand land only on him. So we let him continue. For our entertainment...and his, too. The entire afternoon was so much fun. We didn't have any of the seafood that was offered (clams, shrimp, lobster) because it's not that good for you, but the chicken was so yummy. As were the roasted potatoes, salad (with cranberries), and corn on the cob. The kids got antsy halfway through lunch, including Micah, so I put him on the grass with some books and some stacking cups. Before we knew it, all the little kids were stacking, reading, making up games. It was cute. Dessert was freshly baked cookies and brownies. The whole setup, the atmosphere, the company, everything made it one for the history books. Well, at least a day that I'll always look back on very fondly. And a place hopefully we can visit again. I told D that that's where I wanted to have our wedding reception. Then he reminded me that we've been married for five years. And then Mom told me that she looked into it for my bridal luncheon those many years ago. Small world.






Perfect (for me) Diapering Solution: I've never been overly fond of disposable diapers, mainly because of all the chemicals that are packed in there and the closeness of these chemicals (some are banned in Europe) to Baby's skin. And because of that time the gel in the diaper exploded on Micah's bottom and the goo turned red so we thought something was wrong! I hadn't been able to find a good solution to my dilemma without converting cold to cloth (they're expensive--upfront), not to mention an entirely new way of diapering. Obviously there aren't places that you can try all the different kinds of cloth diapers before purchasing (believe me, there are a lot of options!), so I've just let it alone (another option I was going to try was putting a rice paper liner in the diaper, so there was at least a little barrier). Anyway, my problem was solved during my Whole Foods Research Expedition today (yeah, don't ask). During my walk up the Baby Aisle, I noticed these diapers: gDiapers. They had a sample there and everything. I was totally impressed and researched it when I got home. Amazingly, it looks like Whole Foods has the best price around for the Starter Kit, so I'll be picking up one of those next time I'm there. They have disposable inserts (flushable/biodeogradable) and they have cloth inserts. I'm going to start with the disposable and see how it all goes. Yay for solutions to annoying dilemmas!