P.52 photo challenge: week 25.

Fathers.  I am so incredibly lucky that my dad is my dad. He is the best dad ever.  And now Buddy is also incredibly lucky, because my husband is also the best dad ever. There can be more than one right? One is for me and one is for Buddy.   Here they are - the best dads.

(ps - My dad is also an incredible father in law to my hubs)














I took a wonderful picture of Buddy and Buddy's dada last week.  I definitely want to frame this for the house. So happy --- both of them. Happy daddy and happy little boy.

Think they look alike?

   

Weekly photo challenge: week 24.

Sunlight.

My photo (not surprisingly) is of little Buddy - my favorite subject! Not only does the photo depict him out in the courtyard on a bright and sunny day (and show his cute little shadow), but this boy, this face, this smile -- he is sunlight to my day - my sunshine, a ray of sun.

And, making it even sweeter is the reason for the giant smile on his face -- his daddy had just walked out of the house and was walking over to Buddy.

Toddler meal idea: a smorgasboard.

I've been trying to come up with new meal ideas for Buddy and on Monday, I remembered something I had pinned to my "good ideas" Pinterest board a few months back.

Toddler Buffet

The creator called it a "toddler buffet".  The idea - quite simple and quite fun.

1. Search your kitchen for a variety of healthy, fun and colorful foods

2. Fill each tray with the different food items 
     -make sure everything is bite sized!
     -if you can't think of (or don't have 18 different items, feel free to repeat!

 3. Present delightful meal to your child!

So, I thought I'd give it a try.  I named mine the "Smorgasboard".  Take a look:

My Smorgasboard

And here's a list of the items I included (I repeated some items a few times, as I could not come up with 18 bite sized items that are toddler friendly).

1. goldfish crackers
2. raspberries
3. blackberries
4. Joes O's from Trader Joe's
5. cheddar cheese
6. peas
7. tomatoes
Buddy liked it (see pic below)!

Buddy with his Smorgasboard

It was fun for both of us - a bit of a scavenger hunt for me to find food to fill the tray and fun for Buddy. 

(But I must be honest; he only ate three of the items - the raspberries, blackberries and tomatoes. But he's eaten and likes all of the items in there. Maybe he was just in the mood for fruit (tomato is technically a fruit I believe).

I definitely recommend this as a great option when you're out of options! Or just looking for a fun meal.

P.52 photo challenge: week 23.

This week's theme is water.  I must admit I've been a bit stumped - not because I can't think of anything to shoot - but because I cannot think of  a pic I can take easily and quickly.  And this week closes in one day, so I'll have to dig into my arsenal of pics.  I've not missed a week of this photo challenge, and I'm not about to do so!

A-ha - I've found a pic. And I think it's legit because I actually took it just two days ago with the intention of capturing a cute moment. SO - sounds good, right?

Buddy loves splashing water around. In the sink, in the bath - he's a big fan of the faucet.

He is happy. Pretty much always.

I love him so.

And I love his daddy too (the nice man standing behind him at the faucet. Who I did not mean to behead in the second picture).

Splish Splash little boy.

Happy 99th birthday Bubi.

An overdue post, but I have been sort of delinquent writing. It's been really busy and I've been trying to get to sleep earlier (previously late night was my blogging time).

So let's see - time to catch up. This post is going to be about my grandma's 99th birthday.  We had a party for her. She is incredible and until very recently was 100% taking care of herself. Now she has a lady for a couple of hours a day, which is hard because she's always been so independent.

Anyways, the party was great. Relatives from all over the world sent in some videos wishing her a happy birthday, and my brother and I, on behalf of the grandkids, made a sweatshirt for her.

The theme was The Bubi Bunch (a la The Brady Bunch) and we made a design that featured all of the immediate family surrounding a nice picture of my Grandma with the words "The Bubi Bunch". On the back we wrote "Bella's 99th".  Here's a pic of the shirt:

Front of shirt

Our Model

Wishing my grandma  many more healthy & happy years and many more celebrations! Much love.

Sweet Shot Tuesday.

My sweetie hanging out in the courtyard. Captured it using Instagram on my phone. I like the old fashioned look and I love buddy's little outfit. His shorts are almost to his ankles and his little white tee and hat add a vintage feel that goes with this instagram style.

P.52 photo challenge: week 22.

Boys and Baseball. They just go together, don't they?

In our house, they sure do. Buddy loves baseball. He's a big White Sox fan (we started him young)!  One of his favorite things to do is to run around the house chanting "hit the ball, catch the ball, throw the ball" and doing just that.  He has a mini glove, two mini-bats and an assortment of baseballs.

So for this week's "Playtime" theme, I captured Buddy doing what he loves - playing ball.

And even though, according to the Brady Bunch, "mom always said, don't play ball in the house", in our house, it's okay. It's welcome.

Let's Play Ball!

Hat, check. Bat, check. Ball, check. 

Warming Up & Stretching Out.

Power Swing.

Retrieving his hit ball.

Sure, I have time for a quick pic mid-game.

Curtain Call. Thank you fans.