A low-key week so far... Just what I've been needing. Labor Day was busy, but the last couple of days have been really mellow. A massive grocery shopping trip with hubby and baby, some baby food blending/freezing, some laundry... A few fun phone conversations. A walk or two in my neighborhood. Lots of "floor time" with Noah as he learns to scoot/cruise/crawl/explore...
Not much in the way of "BIG LIFE MOMENTS", but then again, all these little pieces are really what life IS, ya know?
Today is grey, grey, grey...Gustav (SUCH a dumb name for a hurricane) is reigning and raining here in STL, and it makes the whole house feel cloaked in quiet and stillness. Add to that the constant hum of the blow dryer CD in Noah's room as he works on getting himself to sleep, and the steady breathing of my sleeping-off-his-night-shift husband, and this morning here in the Mason Attic is a haven of peace.

I love it.

I don't have a point to this post... Just sharing randomness. Yesterday, Noah and I went in search of a STL bakery I'd read about, Veruca Bakeshop and Cafe.
{1831 Sidney St. St. Louis, MO 63104 314-664-4343}

Rumor was they have cupcakes. So we went, and found it tucked in the edges of the Soulard neighborhood area. And yes, there were cupcakes, but only one flavor. I guess they only feature one cupcake and then switch the flavor every month or so. While this was kinda disapointing, in a way it is also good because it'll keep me from popping by often to get a "fix". But for this visit, I picked up two of their peanut butter and jelly cupcakes (one for Joe), and a yummy-looking red velvet cakewich.

And the yummy stuff didn't disappoint. The red velvet cake was dense and heavy, but in a cake-y way, and the frosting was AMAZING and in perfect proportion to the cake. The cupcakes were lovely to eat as well, though a bit boring to look at (hence the lack of a photo).

And my friend Kate came by later in the evening yesterday with MORE cupcakes, these from my favorite The Cupcakery... so it was a double-y-yummy baked goods kind of day.

Um... Oh. And the other photos I took yesterday were of my little heart-melter... A little bathtime fun:

...yeah.

I was getting creative with that long hair of his. (Lots of the girl November babies have been sporting pigtails in their growing hair lately... Maybe that should be my next attempt with Noah. Wonder how Joe would react to his son in cute ponytails?)

Noah doesn't look like he'd mind...

And with Joe sleeping between shifts yesterday, I was on my own for dinner and bathtime with my baby. And I never mind the extra time with him-- he makes me smile a million times a day. And the post-bathtime Noah is irresistibly snuggly, so I grabbed my camera once again and tried to get a couple of self-portraits with baby...

(notice Noah looking at the camera like,"What is all THIS?"... and me looking at the area I'm TRYING to focus the camera on... So we both end up looking a bit silly...)

Anyhoo... Like I said: not much of a point to this post. Just feeling like checking in with myself and with the world... trying to stay connected when I spend so much of my time with just a baby...Feeling mellow, grey-weather meloncholy, unhurried, no plans or expectations for the day...
Just--enjoying the pieces of my day.

We Have a Winner!

I know, I know-- I'm way overdue with this announcement. Labor Day was really packed, then the day after Labor Day was spent recovering and pulling my life back to order... So last night was the soonest I could cut up all the comments I had printed out earlier...fold each one... and then place the bundle in the nearest recepticle:

Yeah. That's a dinosaur puppet. Noah LOVES that thing. Not scared of it at ALL. What can I say? It was the handiest thing nearby!

So then, after cramming the dino-head full of potential winners, then I had to find an impartial assistant to help me draw a name. And since this was at 10:00 p.m., Noah was out. So I had to go pester Joe, fresh from a pre-night-shift nap:

And ....Christy! You're my winner!

Christy, email me at southerlandgirl at yahoo dot com with a mailing address, and that cute lil apron and a couple of my mom's classic recipes are on their way to your home!

thanks, everyone else, for celebrating my blog-a-versary with me. I'm in the middle of "slurping" the first two years of my blog into a coffee table book from Blurb.com. It's been pretty intense work, and a crazy journey down memory lane. So even if this lil' blog fades into oblivion in everyone else's minds, I'll have i preserved for me, gathering dust on one of my bookshelves. Fun!

Hope your weeks are flying by!