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family reunion 2013, part 2 / july 2, 2013

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Here’s another picture-overload (and most aren’t great quality – we were passing around the camera!), but I feel like for posterity’s sake I should include these. It’s not very often so many of us get to be together all at once anymore.

My parents treated our family to lunch at The Brick Oven in Provo last Friday. It was loud and crazy, but fun to be all in one room together.

This was a fun picture because this was literally my dad’s life, 30 years ago, with a baby on each arm. My parent’s first babies were boy/girl twins, and then last year one of those twins – my sister Courtney – had boy/girl twins herself. And an extra-fun fact is that all four of them share the same birthday! Can I be next? :)

And now for pictures at the “family reunion” at the park later that day, all taken by my mom’s friend Karen (thanks!):

Doesn’t my mama have the best smile?

(This is my mom’s best friend Karen who stopped by to say hello.)

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family reunion 2013, part 1 / july 2, 2013

As you can see from the above picture, it’s an odd day indeed when my entire extended Miller family (my mom’s side) gets together. Between all of the children and grandchildren (and great-grand children!) we are definitely a large group. (We’re missing a little more than ten more people in the picture above, but we came awfully close to getting everyone there, didn’t we?)

Tyler went on a four-day backpacking trip near Tahoe with his dad and brother. Not exactly my cup of tea, so Jack and I trekked to Utah for my cousin’s wedding / three-hour family reunion in the park instead. (Sorry for the buttload of pictures!)

Jack was great on the plane rides. He doesn’t like taking off (neither do I) but we survived. Collectively we spent over 8 hours in airports, so I was grateful we borrowed the ipad mini to watch movies on. I also bought him a 5-pack of mini yellow construction vehicles at Target which were a big hit. Having FIVE of them to play with instead of just one or two really made his day, and they were the perfect size to throw in the backpack without taking up too much room.

Jack took great naps while we were there, and went to bed on time without any problems. But by day four he just got overwhelmed by our huge family and cried a lot.

Now that his speech is coming along better, something I’ve been really trying to focus on the past week is nurturing the sensitive side of Jack’s personality. In the past I have ignored and tried to change the fact that he is just like me in so many ways because I don’t want him to be perceived as wimpy and emotional! I feel like Tyler and I have tried to push him out of his comfort zone, and every time it just ends in tears for both of us. But I’m learning to embrace his naturally cautious and sensitive side and things have been a lot better. It’s OKAY that he’d rather have one-on-one time with Grandpa instead of playing frisbee with the kids. It’s FINE that sometimes he still climbs in my lap instead of being independent – it just means he’s anxious and concerned about something and I need to help him through it.

I’ve learned to be extra aware of situations that might be scary for him, and I’m not afraid anymore to just hold him extra close. I’m (slowly) learning to not care as much what other people think – if they think I am babying and coddling my child, I need to just brush that off because they are wrong. I am nurturing my child and his individual personality. And after all, he and I are virtually mirror images so I’m super-qualified to know what he needs. :)

It so turned out that we arrived over two hours early to the Oakland airport for our flight to Utah, but at least we had THE BEST plane-watching window. A toddler’s dream come true.

(There were lots of babies this past week and Jack LOVED it! It was his favorite thing to help cuddle and feed with bottles. He could sit there all day watching them!)

Of course I hit up Cafe Rio. And shoot me for saying this but my vegetarian-self believes it’s just as delicious without any meat. ;)

I saw one of my very dearest friends, Liz! She drove a long way to see us and it was so special. I may or may not have cried tears of joy and sadness when she drove away.

This is my sister Courtney and I at the new City Creek mall in Salt Lake City, sans twins (they were in the stroller.) So many kids! They were all so nice to Jack last week.

One morning Jack woke up really early (6:15am Utah time, which is 5:15am our California time) so to get a few extra minutes of shut eye I had him watch a movie. Worked like a charm! (His headphones are Sony – they’re the same price as the toddler ones, and bonus! they’re adult so they fit my head too!)

I swear we did lots of other things than watch The Lorax, but he just looked so darling when he wore those headphones I couldn’t help by snap a picture every time. ;)

My brother-in-law Brian was really a big help on Friday and Saturday. Being a single mom is HARD and he really helped us out and gave me a some breaks!

(And as a last word of advice, 3-hour layovers are not recommended.)

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food food food (& other things happening lately) / june 24, 2013

We’ve been a little indulgent with food lately. My birthday last week was fantastic. I chose a tiny (ten little tables!) pasta restaurant in Los Gatos that did not disappoint. Their fresh, handmade pasta and creamy sauces were divine.

And then! Tyler sort of surprised me by inviting some friends over for cheesecake. If he meant for it to be a true surprise, he failed. The entire dinner he was concerned about “making it home by seven”. Obvious, much? ;) But it was wonderful nonetheless. I need to train Tyler to grab our camera more often, because we don’t really have any pictures of any of us together.

Yesterday we broke the rules and made margherita pizza for dinner, with real cheese (haha, it’s funny the things that excite me now). I made a crushed tomato sauce using organic heirloom tomatoes, garlic, basil and oregano. Then we topped my homemade dough with fresh mozzarella and chopped basil from my garden. (I used this recipe for the dough). We might have weekly pizza night and try other fun combinations because it’s something that’s easy to include Jack in kitchen.

I also made these black bean brownies from chocolate covered katie, and I’m embarrassed to admit that we ate the entire 8×8 pan in about a day. At least they’re healthy and low-calorie, right? Jack and Tyler especially loved them, even after I told them what was in them. Seriously, go make yourself a pan right now because you can’t even tell. The texture and flavor is spot-on; it tastes just like a regular brownie.

Tonight we’re making these spring pot stickers from smitten kitchen. I hope they turn out well, because I’m really excited to try making them homemade for the first time. I think we’ll serve them over rice and broiled asparagus.

This next week Jack and I are headed to Utah (woo!) while Tyler goes backpacking in the mountains with his brother and dad, so I’ll be MIA for a bit. I get to see my entire family, and I’m really excited. It’s not every day that all five of us kids get together with our separate families. I’ll miss Tyler, but hopefully being around my family will help. I got Jack a pair of headphones for the airplane and downloaded a few apps for the ipad mini. It’s our first time flying without Tyler, but so far Jack has a really good track record of liking airplane travel so I think we’ll survive. ;) Wish us luck!

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twenty-five / june 20, 2013

Today is my birthday! Twenty-five is a big number for me.

I’m finally grown-up enough to rent a car without extra surcharges. I’ve lived an entire quarter of a century, birthed two children from my lady parts, and feel incredibly blessed to just be living.

I am healthy and strong. I eat my veggies and actually like them now. I still have (up to?) seventy-five years left of awesomeness to spend with my best friend Tyler and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it. (The kids are more than welcome to tag along on our adventures.)

I feel like I spent 24 in recovery. Grief + sadness + pain, with a little bit of joy mixed in there every now and again. An entire year, wasted. But I am wiser for it. And I am more capable of choosing to be happy than I ever thought possible.

It really is MAGICAL, this whole growing-up thing. The sun is shining, & I can already tell that twenty-five is going to be most excellent indeed.

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