{Not} Living Vicariously

Project Life - Weeks 34 through 37

This would be *most* of October...

Week 34 and we did introduce meat to his diet, however it was smushed up baby food meat. Even now he struggles to eat real meat. Would that be due to a lack of teeth? He also sported some ginormous mosquito bites on his head. They sure did swell up! Doesn't matter, he is a happy baby anyway.

Puffs were introduced to his diet as well. He *loves* them even more than he *loves* feeding the dogs...

We went up to Kentucky during week 35 for the annual family Octoberfest reunion. We took advantage of being together to have photos taken in the family christening gown. We also went to Boyd's Orchard for some photos and fun. We do wish the other "littles" had made it up so we could have had some cousin playtime. As it is, all the cousins who were there are "big kids" and they went off to the corn maze while we stuck with the orchard. Maybe next year?

We took height and weight, and we also planted a tree at the farm. It was a great weekend!

Week 36 was fairly low key which was good after all the excitement of the previous week. Aaron had fun with some movie references...

Tadpole gets better at the eating thing, but we still have to watch out for spillage. I'm sure the Red was very tasty, whatever it was.

During week 37 we enjoyed more quiet times at home and on playdates. I love the photo of him "driving" Nana's brand new car. He thought he was so special. Tadpole also watched everything "big kid N" did so he could practice it as well. I love it when he gets to spend time with other kids about his age.

I had major indecisiveness when it came to which cookie to buy for this month's photo shoot so I bought all four options. Then we had a mini-photo session in our front yard. They all turned out fun (and tasty!) And that sums up almost all of October. The rest will get posted when I get November up.

Created by Becky Higgins, "Project Life provides an ultra-simple solution that helps us get those pictures into albums without draining our time, energy, and wallets." Learn more about it here.

Project Life - Weeks 30 through 33

This would also be known as the month of September...

During week 30 we decided to bust out the kiddie pool and a swimsuit in this beautiful September Saturday. Aaron had been mowing the lawn so everything smelt wonderful. Tadpole had a lot of fun and we took video as well.

Just some quick shots throughout the week, including the one where we suffered through our first cold...

Week 31 and it was time for our monthly measuring. Tadpole is no longer interested in staying still while laying down for his height so we are investigating new processes. He is definitely getting big!

We also found a new toy over at a friend's house and decided we needed to ask Santa for one as well.

During week 32 we went to our very first Maker Faire at the Adventure Science Center. Mommy and Daddy had lots of fun. Tadpole watched all the people. He also enjoyed his very first popsicle at Las Paletas. Yummy! Maker Faires are becoming very popular all over the place and I hope we can participate in more of them as Tadpole gets older.

Time for our monthly cookie and they had no fall leaves. We had to make due with the football cookie instead. It still tasted great!

Week 33 was Mom's favorite! She loves going to Walden Farm and the pictures we took turned out great. Next year will be even better!

Our pirate baby has started wearing diapers from The Honest Company. While I prefer to shop local, I love what this company is trying to achieve and decided their philosophy deserved my support. Besides, how cute are those diapers?!?!?

That closes out the month of September. I have October completely done and photographed and November done but not photographed. However naptime is over so I must go back to being Mom...

Created by Becky Higgins, "Project Life provides an ultra-simple solution that helps us get those pictures into albums without draining our time, energy, and wallets." Learn more about it here.

Eleven months old!

I'm still behind on so many posts...however I've made it to January in my "catch-up on Project Life" goal. Which means I'm really not far behind there. I just need to get the pages posted. However, that won't happen tonight. Instead, we're going to wish Tadpole "Happy Eleven Months" and I'm going to get back to cleaning up and getting ready for another work week.

We really don't have much to report in terms of changes. He still weighs 21 1/2 pounds and either he shrunk or we did a really bad job measuring his height last month (I'm guessing the latter...) as today he measured 28 1/2 inches again as he did in November.

my thoughts on Catbird Seat

So, the Catbird Seat. A rather unique for Nashville restaurant setup in which there are 32 seats around a U-shaped kitchen in which you watch chef Erik Anderson prepare your meal while you watch. Or so they claim. However with a party of five, we were in a booth off to the side between the "bar" and the "restroom" and with (albeit great taste in) loud music rocking the room we couldn't hear much of what the chefs had to say as they brought over our food. That was a disappointment. After all, I wanted to watch what the chefs were doing and hear why they were doing it. So if you are a foodie, I recommend going as a party of two, not more.

We chose to do two standard pairings, two reserve pairings and one non-alcoholic pairing. Then we shared. Which turned out to be pretty smart. Not once did I prefer the reserve pairing (sorry, I'm just not that sophisticated of a palate) and in some cases I actually prefered the non-alcoholic drink. I will say, those that could do the drink at Patterson House before or after have a much higher tolerance than I do. Even without drinking my entire pairing, I was still tipsy. So glad we had the designated driver!

Some people seem to be shocked by the expense while others compare it to what it would cost were you in New York or Los Angeles. My response to this is two-fold. One, they fairly clearly indicate how much it will cost on their website so if one had just bothered to do some math, one would not be surprised. Two, we aren't in NY or LA so things shouldn't cost that. Cost of living should still mean something...

A note on allergies - they truly do mean it when they say they will do their best to accomodate food allergies. It was one of the first questions asked when we sat down and without blinking an eye they were able to work around my own allergy. These guys are good!

My second (first was the seating) biggest disappointment would be that they obviously do *not* do a new menu each night. A review on Yelp from the week prior to our attendance references several dishes we also had. To the point that I'm not sure we had anything special or unique. I know that is minor, but it still made me sad.

To sum up: I am so very grateful we had the chance to experience this. It was one of three restaurants I have really wanted to try "someday" and to have someday be now was a present I will never forget. However it is definitely not for everyone as I totally left my own comfort zone tasting some of the dishes and I'm pretty brave these days. Will we try to go again? I'm not so sure. I might just keep aiming for those other two (French Laundry and Blackberry Farm).

Below, a pictorial tour of our plates. (Pictures were taken with an iPhone in a dark restaurant. Some are much better than others...)

"snacks" consisting of island creek oyster + sea flavors, smoked pate, and country ham + coffee

continuing with "snacks" this was our hot chicken.

Next up was "salad greens" in which we had a string tied bunch of lettuce with pecan butter, huckleberry jam, and pine dressing. Yes, it was tied in a string and you ate it with your fingers. No need for silverware here. Unbelieveably tasty!

Duck liver terrine with gingerbread, honey crisp apple, creme fraiche, and celery.

Pan roasted turbot with sea urchin, roe emulsion, and lemon.

Duck breast with turnips, pistachios, and cassis.

Beef ribye with onion, spinach, and mushroom.

We don't remember what this was - between beef ribeye and tete de moine in terms of photos taken, not on our menu...

Tete de moine (a type of cheese) with walnut, cranberry, endive, and honey.

Kartoffel cake with cocao powder and vanilla creme.

An egg shell (we couldn't understand the answer to how they cut it without breaking the shell) with maple bacon, custard, and thyme.

Bourbon beads with vanilla cake, cherry crisp, oak wood ice cream, and pineapple gelee.

There was also a meyer lemon madeleine - we did not get a picture of that.

All in all, a very lovely three hour dinner which I'm very happy we did. Now if it had just not taken 90 minutes to get home that night...

Christmas Eve and Day

We did have a lot of fun this year. Ten months is a pretty good age. We spent Christmas Eve out at my parents as my brother was flying back to the West Coast on Christmas Day.

When we got there, we walked in to see a big blowup Santa on a rocket. Tadpole promptly went over to investigate.

How sweet is that?

Then it was time for breakfast. We started off with creme brulee french toast inspired by the recipe at food52. Ours didn't quite look like his, but we didn't care! We all enjoyed it with scrambled eggs and minced ham, coffee, juice, etc.

After that we decided to go feed the donkeys...

And let someone open up his presents before naptime...

Nana doesn't want Aaron shooting deer on her property so she is trying to coerce Tadpole into being on her side.

Grandpa did say this could stay at his house.

And Uncle Ryan has held off on the Big Wheel until next year but did want to provide his nephew with some independence.

Then it was time to "help" build the grill that Aaron bought to keep at his in-laws house. He "needed" it to cook dinner. I agreed! We had Keeneland prime rib with horseradish sauce (check out the video on youtube for the secret to the best prime rib ever), Ree Drummond Brussels sprouts and Burgandy mushrooms, my mother's marinated carrots and rice pilaf, and Bitty's homemade french bread. For dessert, well let's just admit we brought home our slices of banana creme and caramel pies as there was no more room in our bellies!

We all slept well that night and Santa came! (Santa doesn't wrap gifts at our house.)

Hmm, what is in here? I must investigate.

Someone headed straight to his car and his eyes were as big as saucers.

Look at me! I can make it go beep beep and all sorts of things.

Oh. Mommy and Daddy got me presents also? Not too exciting...

For the record he got something he wants (a frog pull toy), something he needs (a new sippy cup to practice drinking NOT from a straw), something to wear (an 18 month outfit), and something to read (Don't Fidget a Feather in honor of his Heifer International gift - a flock of ducks and a flock of geese).

He was pretty fascinated by the snowglobes his G got him.

He drove his car All Day Long. We got a great 3 hour nap out of him. And then we went for a nice walk on a beautiful day and (insert sap here) knew that our greatest gift was being a family.

And that sums up Christmas 2013 for us.