Craigslist, how would I live without you?

What was our quality of life like before Craigslist existed? How did I purchase anything? These are things I shudder to contemplate. Those were the days when I bought things new without a thought about adding to the amount of crapola that exists on the planet. There are some people (but just Steve when he is teasing me. Ok, not just Steve, my siblings too) who might say I have an addiction, an addiction to Craigslisting. If there were an entry in Wikipedia it would read: "Craigslisting is the addicton to searching for some exact item in a used state at a bargain price." And while it is true that I can obsess about finding certain items, and will rage on occasion about those who don't follow Craigslist etiquette, I think I've got the addiction under control.

So here is my most recent acquisition, for free mind you. Samuel et al thought it was the best thing ever when I hosted lunch last Friday. And look at how it kept all of the children outside, so that Lillian was the only one who managed to track smashed fig all over the house, AND only one half of Samuel's toys were strewn throughout the house instead of 100% AND I didn't find any toys in the toilet. Miraculous I say.

Golden Gate Park

I have many fond memories of the Children's Playground in Golden Gate Park. Before we took Samuel there for the first time, these memories were pretty solid, and I could have drawn you a map of the playground and described in great detail each play structure.

It has changed a great deal in the last 25 years, but it is still a super cool park. My memories of what it used to be like are beginning to be replaced by what is now there, but the trademark cement slides are still there.

When we visited the park with Joe, Dhea and little Joey this last weekend Samuel enjoyed his first ride on the merry go round where I believe I also had my first ride and it hasn't changed a bit.

The Gang

As a mostly stay at home mom, in order to maintain my sanity, I belong to a number of different mom's groups. A few of us created a little sub group.

My original idea was that we would get a group of four of us together, and two people would watch the four babies while the other two moms would go do whatever they wanted. A great idea in theory, but one that we have yet to feel truly comfortable with.

What it morphed into was a Tuesday meetup at some fun place, and a Friday lunch hosted by one mom at her house. The host provides all the food for moms and babies, and we destroy the house. When it is your turn to host, it isn't the most relaxing, but the rest of the Fridays are fabulous.

The group has grown and it's pretty hard to get 6 toddlers to sit still for a group picture, but we did our best.

My losing battle with Plastic

I've always been a little freaked out about plastic and I've known about the BPA thing for awhile.

But just last week I decided I was done with any plastic food containers in our house. I obsessed over where I could find glass containers that would not cost me an arm and a leg and Steve made it all the more difficult by insisting that they must be a certain size and shape so that they would fit properly in his lunch bag.

After many hours of internet searching and an impromptu trip to Bed Bath and Beyond, Steve reminded me that we still had a little bit of money left to spend at Crate and Barrel (was our wedding really 3 years ago? How can we still have these gift cards? Oh yeah, because I'm cheap and I hate to accumulate things.) I recycled all of our fake tupperware like items (oh if only I had freecycled them!) and stocked up on a myriad of shapes and sizes of glass containers.

What happened next, of course is my mom came to take care of Samuel while we were on our Parental Getaway, and when we returned Samuel had a new favorite snack cup - in the exact plastic we had been avoiding all this time. Yah mom! Do you think she tortures me on purpose?

Anyway, this snack cup, which is the most ordinary thing on earth, and we have seen a million other kids with at the park, will only be pried from Samuel's cold tantruming hands.

How come I don't get that much joy from the ATM?

Parental Getaway Part 3

Did I mention how amazing it was of my Mom and Barry to come and take care of Samuel for a whole three days? Thanks Bubbie and Popsy, you go above and beyond!

Parental Getaway Part 2

As you can see, the raccoons followed us all the way to Canada and made themselves known when we took a little walk in between the ceremony and dinner, luckily they decided to take their dinner from the garbage can instead of crashing the wedding.

The toasts at the dinner were charming and amusing and I enjoyed the company of our table mates. Since I had only met Mary one time and knew not a single other soul at the wedding and Steve knew only two other people there, I was pleasantly surprised that we felt very comfortable and had an excellent time.

The centerpiece of each table was a cake, which I assumed must not be real - as you can see I was inappropriate as always. Best cake I've ever had at a wedding (well, ok, it was equal to our ice cream cake).