Airplane jammin

It was an early flight to Puerto Rico today, but O was finally sleeping soundly for a few hours (yes and I spent some of that time eating chocolate) so I really didn't want to wake her up to get her dressed, and she really really didn't want to be woken up! But we made it to the airport and boarded with no problem. Don't let that sweet smiling face fool you though, she was she was being Miss Fussyface most of the flight and driving me out of my sleep-deprived mind!

It's really the most logical choice

After working a 12 hour shift, packing, playing sleep seesaw (you know, the one where the baby is asleep when you hold her then is awake as soon as you put her down, up down up down), showering and then having to wake up in 45 minutes anyway, when deciding whether to sleep for a few minutes or have gelato and finally try the Butterfinger cups I've been carrying around all week...

Mangoatee

Olivia's first mangoes! She liked them, but that's not surprising since she is Filipino and Puerto Rican. Her first experience resulted in a mango flavored soul patch, a mango flavor-savor, a mango+goatee=mangoatee!

Go for the Gold!

This weekend we drove up to Lake Placid for more snowboarding/skiing and to fulfill Tita Rinne's winter Olympic dreams. Olivia did great during the car ride up Friday night, if only we could drive all night every night maybe I'd get a full nights sleep. Saturday morning Vince went snowboarding at Whiteface mountain while we hung out at the lodge, and a very nice lady told me about the "secret" baby room so that I wouldn't have to nurse O at a table in front of strangers (again).  As a nursing mom I've learned to not care about what anyone else around me thinks while I'm feeding my baby, but I truly appreciate establishments who provide such rooms to offer not only privacy but also less distractions.  After we left the mountain we walked on Lake Placid's Main Street as a light snow began to fall, it was very picturesque. We checked out the ice rink from both the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympic games, watched a little hockey, and I ice skated for the first time on the 400m speed skating rink! (Honestly I more wobble - skated than speed skated but that's neither here nor there) We had lunch at Lake Placid brewery then took Olivia across the street to walk on Mirror Lake.

Beer!

Completely unimpressed to be standing on a lake in the Adirondack Mountains

Sunday afternoon we rented ice skates and skated on the frozen lake. Finally my Little House on the Prairie dreams have come true! Even O went skating!

O photo bombing the Masana ice dancing pair



Ninong Gerry's photo bomb revenge



It was another great weekend snow trip with Tita Rinne and Ninong Gerry! 

Bananarama

Olivia had her first solid food today! The doctor told us at 4 months that we could start solids but I decided to wait until she turned 6 months so she'd be good and ready. She's been showing interest in food lately,  watching us as we ate and reaching for our food, so after putting it off all weekend we finally tried it. I chose banana as her first food because it's sweet like her milk, and it requires no prep (I like easy). So  here's what she had

And here's how it went

She did so great with her first food,  but being from our family that's to be expected!

Wild child

Olivia's hair is now long enough to tie into pigtails!

This very short post is dedicated to my tech Diana, who very frankly told me "You need to update your blog". Thanks to those of you who check in to see what kind of new adventures Olivia is up to, I'm sorry I've been so bad about updating the blog and I will try to do better!

Basketball and fish fry

We spent this Saturday morning watching Vince's students from PS 6 play basketball at St. Patrick's on Ocean Ave.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Jersey City, Ocean Ave is less than 10 minutes up the hill from Downtown but the two sections are so drastically different, they might as well be two different cities. By raising Olivia in the city I want her to grow up the same way I did. I want her to know more than Starbucks, boutiques and hipsters. I want her to always be aware of her surroundings and have street sense. Just because she'll be living Downtown doesn't mean she won't know the Heights, or how to take the bus, or that the ladies on Cornelison Ave aren't just outside because it's nice out (well maybe I won't tell her exactly what they're doing...)
The game itself was awesome: traveling, carrying, double dribbling, shooting without looking, it was adorable and hilarious. And being in the hood, they were selling fried fish diners instead of lame pretzels and popcorn. Fried fish! So I had fried fish at 10am and was thoroughly entertained, who could ask for a better Saturday morning?

AND they put holes in the container so that the fish stay crispy. Legit.