early mornings

This post is for anyone whose baby wakes them up crazy early in the morning.

Sunrise, Fort Greene Park, Isaac is almost as sleepy as me.  That's why he's blurry!

Morning = Spring
Daytime = Summer
Evening = Autumn
Night = Winter

Spring is the most lovely and fleeting time of the year, no?  And we get to be awake for it!
Thank you babies!

Milk Money!?

Jeremy brought home Wired magazine from work yesterday.  No biggie, he does that often.
But this time there was an article about breast-milk(!) inside!  Quite a biggie!
First of all, I have never known of Wired magazine, with its microscope focused on innovation and technology, to report on our boobs.  [Actually I'm wrong - there was an article about plastic surgery sometime ago, but that is certainly not my boobs!]
To summarize, breastmilk equals big money nowadays.  The wet-nurse of times gone by has been replaced by craigslist like websites where women can hock their rich and creamy milk, for a fee, or for the satisfaction of helping another momma in need.  The FDA is worried that mothers will make their babies sick with milk that has not been tested to be contagion free, and companies like Prolacta are spinning our milk in centrifuges to break it down and sell it concentrated.  Its a delicate and expensive balance to feed babies!
I shouldn't be surprised that breastmilk has hit its own marketable stride, which it appears to be doing, as fast as I can pump.  Or even faster.  But it still leaves me a little uneasy. 
Nevertheless, I couldn't wait to drink the article up.   Which I did while flossing, last night.  And which you can too, by clicking on the milk bottles below.

Photo: Mitchell Feinberg

Down By The Bay

For a while now I've been telling Jeremy that I've found where I want to live.

here!

In this book!
It's a story-song about a little boy who doesn't want to go home because his mom will make silly rhymes like, "Have you ever seen a whale with a polka-dotted tail, down by the bay?"
I personally have no idea why he wouldn't want to go home.  To me it looks positively, colorfully, water-ly delightful.  The bay is so blue, the grass so verdant, and his momma disheveled-ly charming.
Plus, as he complains to his friend about how he can't go home, he looks so darn happy. They're swinging from trees, spitting watermelon seeds (home is where watermelons grow), and hanging upside down.
What more could a kid (or me) want!?

That is why yesterday, when as usual, I should have been napping (I am very pro-nap), I was instead filling my mind and body with glorious daydreams of living in this house:

Down by the bay?

What huge windows!  Loads of grass!  A wooden bench!?  I see Adirondack chairs too...
The NY Times said the master bedroom sits "perch-like" overlooking the trees.  It has gardens: Where watermelons could grow?  Or is it too cold in Maine to grow watermelons?
I must find out.
My dream-house is cradled by 8 acres of land (near the bay!), and dotted with a studio, and a workshop.  Heaven, heaven, heaven.
More pics for you to drool (with me) over below:

That's the studio back there ~ oh, so cute! And functional!

No mosquitos gonna get you in here!

Not exactly my style, but I would not complain, promise.

Isaac could be a fan of orange, easy.

They had a few other houses to drive you nuts with in this slideshow, but I'm just going to keep on with my Maine-ia.

Beauteous Buns!!

Isaac's buns:  I find them so very irresistible!
His buns are why I stayed up too late the night before last (I'm still tired), immersed in cloth diapers from the website, Preston's Pants.   Please understand that a momma such as myself spends an unbelievable amount of time doing and undoing diaper-pants.  By online shopping late into the night, I was standing up for my artistic sense and state of mind!

Isaac's Pants

Preston's Pants is run by a delightful momma to 3 (Preston being one of them) named Colleen.  She lives in Pennsylvania (I imagine countryside?) and makes the best cloth diapers I have ever seen.  The one the wee Isaac is modelling above and below (on the nice green sort of grass/sort of clover of the Pratt Art Institute), I found at a consignment shop, thus beginning my lovely diaper obsession. 
Seriously, these bun-coverings are like fine little gems, works of art.

check out the gathers!

I am still not done bestowing the virtues of Preston's Pants!  Most of the pants are made custom, so you get to pick all the fabrics and snaps yourself!  Its like being a momma in a fabric shop.  Especially exciting since there has been no time for this momma to go to a fabric shop. 
My "fluffy", as she calls them (because their baby-buns look extra fluffy while wearing cloth!) will arrive in the next few weeks because custom takes a little longer, as I feel it should.
In the meanwhile I will make do (or Isaac will make doo! ha!) with the mass produced ones whose snaps don't even work.
I'm almost done, just one more thing:  Her diapers only cost 5 bucks more.  I'll stop proselytizing now.  The End.  Or really, the beginning!, of the cutest buns ever.

We look to the future...

Omi Buys the Best Presents

We would love her even if she did not, but we sure wouldn't look as cute.

mini elmer fudd

In case you want a hat for your little fashion forward sun protected babies, she got it @ REI
The little book in his big hands has also made for big smiles, and I like it too!
Its called Peek-a WHO? by Nina Laden

Yummiest, Oddest, Easiest (& Healthiest!) Dessert Ever

 This is my first ever recipe on my mommy-blog, and I am very proud of it for three reasons:

1. I made it up!
2. Its so crazy easy.
3. My god, its good.

My aunt Betty's little egg cup full of mousse!

Chocolate Coconut Milk Mousse

*1 can of coconut milk (not the light kind!), unsweetened
2 tablespoons more or less of unsweetened cocoa powder, depending on your desired chocolatey-ness
**Agave nectar, a big squirt, or a small squirt depending on your sweetitude.

Directions
Mix the coconut milk with the cocoa and agave nectar and stir really well.
If you are a perfectionist you can push the mixture through a sieve/ strainer so that there aren't any white little lumps left about.
Put the not yet thickened mousse in your refrigerator for a few hours until it gets cold - when the coconut milk chills, it will thicken resulting in a lovely mousse!
I like to serve it in little egg cups so that it looks as special as it tastes, but that is not a requirement.

*Cans of coconut milk seem to vary in how thick they are - you want to use mostly the white creamy part on top (the milk separates in the can), unless you want more of a thick chocolate soup, in which case use more of the water part underneath. 
**If you have no agave nectar, then you should buy some, but if you don't have time to do that, sugar, honey, or maple syrup works too!

This is Isaac, not letting me see his Fang(s)

I think he was telling me that no photographing of new teeth are allowed while on the potty.

No!  I will not show them to you!

I'm not giving up though. I promise I'll try again, perhaps in a different locale.