Archive | life lately

life lately

February 28, 2013 at 10:07 am

Wow, I took quite the blogging break here! Our internet went down on Friday morning and — after a million phone calls and several no-shows from the Telecom technician — I learned it was because a neighborhood fire took out the line. The whole neighborhood has been without internet for almost a week. Welcome to Sicily… or just welcome to life?! I’m sitting in the library on base now enjoying a sleeping baby as I type.

To catch us all up on life, here are some photos I took with Instagram since Gil came home. You can find me on Instagram for regular updates around our home. Thanks to my iPhone, I still have some internet access over 3G even when our wireless is kaput!

Gil in his car seat on the way home from the hospital
& Lena sees Gil at home for the first time. Snuggling with my baby after we brought him home
& family story time begins… for the rest of their childhoods! Elliott got called into work for several hours when Gil was 3 days old and I was on my own with two kids. Yikes! We survived… with a few tears and a bloody lip.
& reading a story to her brother. “Hi, Geeel,” Lena says excitedly every morning
& those tiny, precious little hands! Greeting him after she woke up from a nap
& “Hold it?” she asks and puts out her arms to cradle him. Dance party in the kitchen to Fun’s “We Are Young”
& giving Gil his pacifier while I change his diaper. Father and son
& wide awake at 3am! New family normal: holding a baby, playing games with a toddler, and folding laundry
& Gil’s first ride in the swing (ie. the lifesaver). Kiss!
& I enjoyed reading Wild by Cheryl Strayedwhile nursing Gil that first week.

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I’ve missed you all! What have you been up to this past week?

8 :: in family, Gil, Instagram, life lately

life lately

February 6, 2013 at 3:30 pm

Today is the last day to enter my Italian food giveaway! The competition closes at midnight EST. All the details are in this post!

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Oh the joys of having a newborn… and being the parents of two! There has been a lot of laughter and so much rejoicing these past 10 days, but there have also been some semi-sleepless nights and a realization that life will never quite be the same. Although I would never go back, I also am very tired and am not quite sure how I am going to survive once Elliott goes back to work on Friday! A blog reader shared this piece of wisdom with me today: “if the bums are clean and the bellies are full, it’s been a great day!” I’m going with that for now.

Here are a few other shots of life around our home these days:

We have been so blessed by some delicious meals from our friends after Gil was born. We told people that we like vegetarian and seafood dishes, and I’ve been amazed by our friends’ creativity and cookin’ skillz as they have put meal after meal on our table. Last week my friend Anna brought us a meal on our anniversary, and so she chose to bring one of our favorite meals of all time — chicken curry — and also brought a fancy tablecloth and long red candles. How sweet is that?!

I got this amazing package in the mail yesterday from a 16-year-old blog reader. She goes to my parents’ church and got my address so that she could send little baby boy Gil a hat she made for him! I was blown away. I love the colors and the style, don’t you? It’s going to get a lot of use over the years. Thank you so much, Kara!

I slipped out of the house for a few minutes today to do my weekly market shopping. The man at my favorite fruit and veggie truck broke into a huge smile when he saw me coming (sans gigantic belly) and gave me his enthusiastic best wishes for our new son. I loaded up on these blood oranges, which were just 40 cents a kilo!

To cloth diaper or not to cloth diaper… always the question. My friend Emily loaned me her newborn cloth diapers and covers so that we have all we need to get started whenever we’re ready. We cloth diapered Lena from 9 months until a few weeks ago (she has abruptly decided to potty train herself) and are enjoying a break from all the diaper laundry. I must say that these diapers are so stinkin’ cute compared to Pampers…

If you cloth diapered your baby, when did you start? Right away? After an adjustment period to a new baby? Any tips as I get started cloth diapering a newborn for the first time?

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If you’d like to see more pictures of life around here, you can find me on Instagram now. My username is beccagarber. See ya on the filtered side!

15 :: in Baby Numero Due, family, friends, Gil, giveaway, life lately

life lately

January 14, 2013 at 2:58 pm

I haven’t shared bits and pieces of our life for awhile as captured on Instagram. It’s always so much fun to go back through the images and remember all those random memories I captured spur-of-the-moment! Here some snapshots of the ordinary and the lovely in our home:

Enjoying her beautiful alphabet magnets from her grandparents.

I love the ferns and cyclamen in the window boxes in this beautiful house

& post-bath tickles

Everyone in this house loves our new blocks (thank you, Anthony and Laura!)

& goofy girl

Modeling a sweater knit by her Aunt Eden and a bonnet knit by me

& lovely afternoon light over our town

Hours of fun with this reusable sticker pad

& admiring our finished Advent calendar: a tree full of birds

at a restaurant in town, the chef working the stone pizza oven always lets kids make their own pizza

& tired wreath on a worn door in our town

our neighborhood (Vecchia Matrice) wishes you happy holidays

& putting baby Jesus in his manger from our nativity set

I’m trying to use this purse as much as possible before I need to go back to a diaper bag in a few weeks…

& got a little growing to do into the apron her Aunt Jess gave her

my big girl on a playground on base one morning after we took Daddy to work

stories and baby bumps in bed before naptime

& not sure what she thinks of Siena helping her color

first pair of big girl undies!

& her new favorite breakfast: Greek yogurt and Charlottesville Farmer’s Market granola from Aunt Jess

sleepy kitty

& isn’t she pretty when she smiles!

11 :: in family, Instagram, Lena, life lately

IKEA thru Instagram

December 20, 2012 at 12:05 pm

Around here it seems like people make their IKEA shopping lists over the course of a month or two before braving the store to stock up. My friend Becca and I were in that boat, needing storage bins, holiday wrapping paper, potted ivy plants, plastic kids’ dishes, etc. Earlier this week we joined forces and took off for the endless, winding halls of IKEA, kids in tow.