Hello and Happy Monday! I don’t know about you, but we had a good weekend. Little by little, life is starting to feel more normal and we are starting to find our new normal with a baby in tow now that we can leave the house more. It’s been so wonderful! He has folded into our life just how I always imagined. I love it (and him!) so much. Plus Joey and I got some much needed solo time and I’m hoping we can do that more often now too!

We keep lucking out with Friday weather that’s warm enough to walk to the coffee shop! We have a love/hate relationship with taking Demps out in the stroller because it’s nice for us but seems sort of boring/non-interactive for him. Oh well! I maybe popped into the kitchen later on to make some triple berry cheesecake muffins and wow, that streusel 😍 That night, Lori came over to watch the baby and we took ourselves on a dinner/Rockies game date! Dempsey had napped weird all day and gave Lori a ROUGH bedtime, but we are grateful for her taking that on. We hit up Maine Shack for dinner al fresco and even though the guy at the counter gave us just way way way too much explanation of the menu, we ended up with two amazing lobster rolls and WOW, THOSE FRIES! I wanna go back for sure. We left the game after the 7th inning stretch (guys, my bedtime is just embarrassingly early these days) but we won, yay! Anyway, it felt really good to leave the house just the two of us and know our son was being well taken care of back at home 😊

Do you even see that curlicue?? It’s my absolute favorite! We had leftover whipped cream from Mother’s Day and I told Joey I wanted a strawberry waffle to put it on, so he found a recipe and made them for us 🥰

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Post Dempsey Nap #1, we took a trip to Elliott Gardens for the first time! Our usual garden store closed, so we needed a replacement and I really liked it there! Demps was a hit with all the other customers and can you blame them?? He looked too cute in that bucket hat. We left with a ton of flowers and some seeds for the veggie garden. We decided to re-do the garden bed in our back yard and I’m soooo glad we did, because it looks so pretty. My mom got me a rose bush for Mother’s Day and we bought a peony and two Columbines, so wish me luck on growing all of those things for the first time! Hoping that ground cover spreads fast. Dempsey got a little time on the porch swing and he loves it as much as I do 😍

Steamed apples with cinnamon for baby dinner and Niçoise salads with Sazeracs for adult dinner. I think we were all pretty pleased! After we put Dempsey to bed, we queued up The Killing of a Sacred Deer and man are Yorgos Lanthimos films weird. I dig it! Colin Farrell is just so good at that line delivery and Barry Keoghan too. Watched the beginning of SNL afterward and I think I liked it but my brain is mush, so I can’t actually remember 😂

Please enjoy this edition of “Dempsey Goes to Stowaway” 😊 We ordered a donut as soon as we got seated and then… it just never came out… I love Stowaway, but sometimes that place drives me insane. They eventually boxed one up and gave it to us with our check. Anyway, baby smiles and that mushroom-polenta-romesco-egg dish made up for it.

While Dempsey was down for his nap, we got all our planters arranged. I love seeing how they turn out every year and this year is no exception. Meanwhile, Joey was pulling a million dandelions, which he has reminded me about a million times since then 😑 He also cleaned our bathrooms and Dempsey and I are very appreciative of all his hard work doing our chores. While he was off on a run, I ate salad leftovers, then later on, went for a run myself. I almost almost ran the entire way. Postpartum workout endurance is a work in progress for sure!

Would you look at those baby teeth?! I keep forgetting to mention that he has two, because he put up ZERO FUSS when they came in. As in, one morning, he put my hand in his mouth and I said “um, I feel a tooth in there!” We had no idea that was happening. A second one came in a couple of days later. Praying to every deity that the rest come in as painlessly! We fed him egg for the first time that night and, KNOCK ON WOOD, so far so good. Aka no allergic reaction! He was really into gnawing on those omelet strips and it was too cute. He’s been so good with everything we’ve fed him so far and it’s been so fun watching him feed himself. We fed ourselves some tomato-ricotta pizza and that was fun too. I can’t wait until he can eat a tomato-ricotta pizza with us! We put him to bed and watched two episodes of Ted Lasso and damn if that show doesn’t feel good and wholesome.

Please tell me what you did this weekend!

What a weekend!!! So much happened that when I just looked back over the photos, I had completely forgotten how it all started with warm weather and a walk to the coffee shop. What a moment that was and after that, a celebratory night with my family, seeing our best friends for the first time in a long time and, of course, my first Mother’s Day. Too good ❤

Remember last summer when we would walk to Downpours Coffee every week to get coffee and I was pregnant and dreaming of the sweet baby I was carrying?? Now I get to push that sweet baby in his stroller to that same coffee shop every week and it makes me deliriously happy. The weather is still here and there, so we had to plan this walk around that but I can’t wait until we can do this weekly. Demps and I took a peek into the Denver Cat Company and he was definitely not sure about cats, ha!

Wayne graduated from college!!! We celebrated by getting together for dinner al fresco — Demps showed everyone how he can spoon-feed himself and basically just suck on zucchini sticks 😂 — then a walk (yes, our second that day) to Tennyson, but this time for ice cream at High Point Creamery. Tennyson was straight bustling with people and it felt simultaneously weird and wonderful. That sweet baby was being so happy and smiley and gosh, six months has been SO FUN. He stayed up past his usual bedtime, but went to sleep real easy when we finally got him in his crib. Help, he’s too sweet!

Saturday was still warm, so I made us both yogurt bowls (I cannot wait until Demps can have his own mini yogurt bowl!) and we ate outside. After the baby went down for his first nap, we did a little bit of yard work and after he woke up, we took a family trip to REI. It was everyone’s first time there and man, it’s huge!!! Afterward, we walked over to look at the Platte and though Joey was trying to get a picture of Dempsey and I, he was too distracted by the water, ha! Back at home, Nap #2 lasted 30 minutes and then we did our normal nighttime activities — dinner and a bath — early because we had plans for later. Baby’s first banana! He ended up breaking off the peel-less piece and then it was super slippery so I basically held onto it while he gnawed away and it probably looked gross but he seemed to enjoy it! Do you see his little face in that towel pic??

Our long-awaited Saturday night plans!!!! Now that we’re all vaccinated, we got together with Hannah, Josh, Mason and Henry and gosh did it feel good to see them. When we first held the babies up to each other, Henry reached out and grabbed Dempsey’s hand and I about died! 😍😍😍 They actually interacted a lot more than I had expected. Henry is on the move and it’s so cool to see him army crawl all over the place. Mason had enough energy for all of us and Dempsey was especially vocal while we all ate pizza from Hops and Pie. Hannah snapped that super sweet picture of both happy babies right before that last picture of Mason perfectly posed and Henry giving Dempsey a face hug that he wasn’t too sure about 😂😂😂 I already can’t wait to see them all again!

Sunday was my first Mother’s Day! Even though I celebrated last Mother’s Day like it was my first Mother’s Day too 😂 I woke up to gifts and a card from a cute baby! He got me a rice maker (never making bad rice again!), a herb planter and a flower delivery subscription that I’m seriously so excited about. Joey showed me a picture of him outside Wordshop when they went to get my card 🥰

We had our families (minus my sister who was working and Wayne who was with his mom) over for brunch and I legit forgot to snap a picture of ANY of the food we made, but just know there were buttermilk waffles, bacon, fruit, mimosas and salted honey whipped cream. Not to get too sentimental on you, but being a mom is honestly the best feeling in the world. I’m my very happiest self when I am caring for that sweet son of mine and now that I’m a mom myself, I understand just how much moms do and how much they love their children. It’s truly amazing! I am so lucky to have the best mother and the best mother-in-law, who are also the best grandmothers to Dempsey!

My mom passed along this pin that my grandpa made for my grandma and I absolutely teared up over it ❤❤❤

After everyone left, we got to spend some time just the three of us and Dempsey was just so happy and sweet the entire day. He really gave me the best Mother’s Day. We made a quick dinner of Mediterranean eggplant bowls with halloumi and then put Dempsey to bed and watched an episode of Boardwalk Empire (we’re almost done!) before crashing into bed ourselves. I’m feeling like I need a few days to recover from that busy weekend, but it was all so good, so I can’t complain. Happy Monday!