27 is the New Thing

last time I received a birthday balloon?
Gisela and the purse and high healed shoe ...
how old were we?!

Happy Birthday to Me ..! And my Twin!  It's been a wonderful birthday ... and only the 2nd I've celebrated separate from my twin sis, Marge.  One for each of us ;-)

The day began with a phone call from my sweet little nephew, "Hannah. I have something to tell you. Happy Birthday. What are you doing right now??" His newest 'thing' is to talk on the phone - he insists on knowing my phone number each time I say, "Hey, call me tomorrow ok??" then he says, "I know it starts with 5 .." and won't pass the phone off to my sis until he knows the remaining 9 digits ... It's pretty cute!

Text Whales - Mine had
little ^ hats on ;-)

We were set on going to breakfast at my favorite spot - Uptown Kitchen - but by the time I was done on the phone and showered (man alive I took my time and it was glooorious!) ... T was ready for a nap ... so The Boys (yes, both of them) napped while I poked around downstairs, prepped for our giant road trip tomorrow, and chatted with my mom ... texting my sister whales, birthday whales, whales wearing birthday hats ... ;-)

By the time the boys awoke from their slumber it was time to head off to lunch because Uptown was closing in an hour ..!! After perusing the menu, Ry ordered the chicken sausage hash (yumm with Rye toast) and I chose the Nicoise Salad - tempted by how delicious it looked after a friend of ours ordered it when we met for lunch back in August .. YUMM - It had artichoke hearts and calmata olives - two of my favorites - baby tomatoes, hard boiled egg, seared ahi tuna ... all over mixed greens ... with a garlic-parsley-vinaigrette ... which was to DIE for ... the perfect lunch.  Ryan and I shared bites <3 hehe  Speaking of yesterday's post where I mentioned mastering the art of one handedness?  T was a gentleman at lunch, fussing only for his own bite to eat.  Had we been farther along on the solid food route, he'd have been munching on some peas .. but I was able to give him a bottle while continuing to eat my lunch.

Ry was great about choosing a slice of cake for us - after watching Iron Chef last night and drooling over Chef Faulkner's peppermint chocolate cake ... that is exactly what he chose after I told him to "surprise me"!  Thinking of Marge, 500 miles away, we made the following video at lunch .. err .. should i say .. dessert!

In addition to the best chocolate cake ... with peppermint bark between the layers ... I received the best birthday present, too - Little T took his evening nap - albeit brief - in my lap.  It was so sweet to watch him doze off. I just love when his little lips make that "w" shape ... he is too sweet for words.  I can't wait for our family to see how grown he's become since we were last home at the end of October.  He awoke because Ry and I were continuing to send goofy text message to Marge while she was at dinner with her Ryan and my jiggling belly laugh jiggled T right awake!

zonk ... out he went!

look ... at those lips ...

I love when his tiny bottom lip
curls under and makes a little 'w' shape
lord isn't he cute?

Considering it's only our second birthday apart from one another in 27 years .... it's been a fulfilling and relaxing day all around.  We are totally packed and ready to hit the road for Minnesota tomorrow ... All we have to do is load the car!

food galore!

C'mon mom, I'm ready!

This morning I was granted with a rare and glorious thing ... Ryan offered to take the baby so I could sleep in!! The angels smiled down on me from heaven as I listened to him change T's diaper and put together a bottle .. all from my cozy spot in bed .. mm .. but the longer I laid in bed the more excited I became .. to offer T his first meal ... and to capture said moment on the best birthday/Christmas gift yet - my Flip video camera! So following my reading, I nursed him, as usual, before prepping a small dish of rice cereal + breast milk for him and plopping him in the Bumbo seat on the kitchen table (yes, I know he shouldn't be in the Bumbo on the table ... we were nearby the entire time, and I promise this won't become a habit ...)!  The entire time I was gathering supplies - rice cereal, breast milk, spoon, Bumbo seat ... Thomas eagerly chewed on and gripped his rice cereal box ... I think he was just as excited as I was!  This was the best part of our post-six-month-vaccines day. And ...

Lucky for you - Ryan was able to use my gift to capture this monumental occasion <3

As you can see in our video, Thomas absolutely loved the rice cereal and sipping/slurping it off of the spoon.  It is so amazing watching this video just twelve hours later, because it captures the moment so thoroughly compared to pictures!  It's so nice to see knowing his little baby-first has been captured in video for ever, for us to revisit as we like, or to share with family and friends - you really get a feel for his little personality!  I can't wait to give him another taste tomorrow ;-)

.........


The remainder of the day was spent preparing for company.  It was a long, busy afternoon, in which Ryan manned the fort (and the little t) while I bustled about the house cleaning, cooking, and the like.  I can't stop thinking about how amazing our tamales were - seriously some of the best I've had!  That either speaks to where I've been eating my tamales or to the quality we've made in the past ... hahah  Perhaps it was the LARD?? Yes ... it was my first time cooking with lard ... and our double-batch of batter contained a half pound of the mystery fat ... however, I'd prefer to credit both my fabulous cooking, as well as the great group of women gathered around my tiny table working assembly-line-style to spread, fill and wrap these amazing little morsels ...

Together we crafted tamales filled with spicy poblano mushroom, mole + chicken and that crispy pork ... they were all fabulous, although I think the mushroom was my favorite .. he he he .. we have a mountain of the filling left in the fridge - it'll be great taco filler!

Phew. It's been a busy two days getting ready for a fabulous night with friends.  It was so nice to come together and enjoy preparing a meal together.  From glitter hands to tamales ... first foods and razzle dazzles!  hahah what a night ;-)  Time to go load the dishwasher ... again!