Nuna IVVI Stroller...and what we love about it :)

With each passing day, I'm not only noticing my belly getting bigger and bigger, but it's been hitting me how much older my girl is getting. Long gone are the days where we would stay up watching her on the baby monitor as she would often randomly wake up and stare into her dark room without making a sound. Now I have a fully certified little girl with opinions of her own...opinions that she's definitely not afraid to share with us. 

Edamame: yes.

Dogs: no.

Peanut butter and jelly: only on occasion. 

Bunnies: can't get enough of them.

The same goes with J. Just last night, I was singing a song to him, and mentioned how he is still my baby. He quickly corrected me, and said, "But mama! I'm not a baby!" Lately, we've noticed that he's become more attached to his stuffed animals, and often will call them his "childs." Several times a week, he will go as far as put them down for naps; blinds drawn, sound machine on, and his piggy night light set on green. I think this is one of the ways he's getting ready for the new baby. 

We recently received a new stroller and baby cot from Nuna, and the second I put it together, he wanted to put his stuffed animals in! He waited anxiously in the room as I assembled it, which luckily took close to no time at all. I was a little unsure how I'd be able to handle it with the belly in the way, but really, a snap here, a snap there, and it was ready to go. For a second, I kinda felt like superwoman there with all my put-things-together powers :)  

Technically, J is still big enough for it, so he was more than happy to sit in it for its first test run to the playground. It was so chilly outside, that I actually had to convince him to get out of it! (S, of course, needed no convincing because she just loves being outdoors. He (and I) thought it was so fun that it could easily go from forward facing to backwards facing, and I'm already so excited for when we get to use it with the new little guy!

S actually was a big fan of the baby cot attachment. As soon as I took it out of the box, she quickly ran upstairs and said, "Don't go anywhere! I have the perrrrfect thing for it!" She came down with a little pillow for it and proudly said, "See! When the baby comes i'll give him the pillow and he can lay in there! It will be so great!!"

Right now, Nuna is running an awesome deal for Black Friday where they are including the cot for free (!!!) when you purchase an IVVI stroller from Nuna.eu! The deal starts tomorrow (11/25) and runs through Monday (11/30). There are so many little things about it that I keep finding. You know when you go, "Ohhh, that's awesome! Oohs I LOVE how it reclines! And the canopy!" Things that I never imagined saying ten years ago!

I tell ya. I really am already dreaming of those days when I can push this little baby along for walks. It goes by so quickly. Too much so.

Oh, and hey there feet! Glad you're still there!

*Thank you, Nuna, for partnering with us! 

Breaking the silence with muffins.

Breaking the silence over here. Feels like several times a year, I go on a bit of a blog hiatus. And I always feel like I have to do that "I'm sorry for being gone for so long" thing. But, I've had several friends tell me lately that I need to stop apologizing things for so much, so I'm not going to do that. C's Granny is a bit like that. During our college days, C and I would go over to her house for Sunday dinners. Her meals were always delicious and warm...not warm as in temperature (although, they were that) but also warm as in "this feels like home" warm. Without fail, every week she would apologize for her "meager" meals, and we had to reassure her that she needn't apologize, and that it was much a luxurious alternative to the Hamburger Helper that we'd probably be making for ourselves anyway. (Not that I'm dissing Hamburger Helper. I will proudly admit that C and I are secretly big fans of it on occasion. And I only feel a little guilt about that.) 

Anywho. In fact, I've had a very good reason for this break. Baby number three is on the way, and the first trimester really threw me for a loop. And by loop, I mean it feels like someone threw me into a washing machine on the heavy duty cycle. But, more about that later. 

So, since my last post, not only have we added to our family, but also moved all the way across the country. Philly is home for now, and we're really growing to love it. It has certainly been an adjustment from our life back in Williamsburg, and I'm pretty sure that as hard as I try, I'll never stop mourning the loss of having a Trader Joe's five minutes away from me. 

We are adjusting to our life here and finding our groove. I think we almost have it down now. It's certainly not fast paced or glamorous, but I doubt we'll ever have much of those options anyway. I love our mornings where we have nothing planned except to make breakfast together. The muffins pictured were ones S and I whipped up last week. Now, I'll admit, I've never actually made muffins from scratch. Scratch that. I've never made berry muffins from absolute scratch. I may never again because these were so delicious! I'll be adding the recipe at the bottom, lest you think I actually whipped these up in my brain. HA. Now that would be something. 

So, here's to more blog posts and more muffins!

Blackberry Muffins: from SimplyRecipes 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 large eggs

1 cup sour cream (I used vanilla yogurt instead) 

1 teaspoon milk

1 cup sugar

8 Tbsp warm melted butter (1 stick)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups (about 5-6 oz) of fresh blackberries, cut in half (often available at Trader Joe's, you can use frozen blackberries if fresh are not available, defrost and drain them first.) (I also threw in some fresh raspberries)

Method

* Position rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a standard 12 muffin pan or line with paper muffin cups. (Actually, with the berries you'll have more batter than just for 12 muffins. This batch made 18 muffins.)

* Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.

* In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, milk, sugar, butter and vanilla.

* Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix together with a few light strokes, just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add the berries. (If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, then drain the excess liquid, then coat them lightly in flour.) Do not overmix! Overmixing will cause the muffins to be dense, not fluffy. The batter should not be smooth.

* Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of 1 or 2 of the muffins comes out clean, 17-20 minutes (or longer). Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes before removing from the pan. If not serving hot, let cool on a rack.

Serve as soon as possible, preferably within a few hours of baking. (This wasn't a problem. We ate ALL of them within a few hours!)