Visit with Auntie Lydia

Lydia came to visit for the past few days. She had a wedding to go to on Saturday and she extended her stay to soak up the Austin sun. Visits from Lydia are always fun because they usually involve local Austin food. Yum!

On Wednesday, we went to Hyde Park Bar & Grill. We had really good tamales and their fries are always so yummy! Afterwards, we went over to Amy's, gotta love that Mexican vanilla! That evening, we went to the Triangle for the Farmer's Market and we had dinner at Mandola's. I'm seriously loving Mandola's. They have really good pizza. I think it's the freshly made mozzarella that really makes the difference. We also got Ryan a lion onesie from a local artist, Will Heron. He has super cute stuff!

On Thursday, we went to Hoover's for lunch. I don't think that I ever go to Hoover's unless Lydia is in town! We got manis and pedis done at the nail salon in Steiner. It's so close and convenient, how could we not? :) We had dinner at Trudy's. I had a few sips of her top shelf Mexican martini. I miss alcohol!!! My goal was to bf for 6 months and it's coming up. I may even go a little longer though, Ryan has been really good at eating lately. Weird, I know. Anyways, we ended up missing out on First Thursday though, which was a bummer. Maybe next time.

On Friday, we hung out on SoCo and had lunch at Homeslice. They have a really good white clam pizza.

Today, Sunday, we spent the morning getting pampered at milk + honey. Do you see a food theme here? We both got hour long massages. The last time that we went was back in December while I was still pregnant. I got a pregnancy massage and my masseuse was awesome because she was so strong. I really felt like she worked through all of the kinks in my back. I had another chick this time, but she might have even been a bit better. She was so good. She asked me about my preferences and when she massaged me, I didn't feel like she was going to push me off the table like the last chick! I am so incredibly sore, but I really really really needed a massage. Ryan is getting heavier and heavier! Thank you Mel and Al for your gift certificate! We went to brunch at Jo's afterwards and had their cracked egg sandwhich. It was so good. I can't wait to go back.

I miss you Lydia, come back soon!!!

Now for a Ryan Lion update. He was actually pretty good being out and about. There were a few times where he was super fussy, but overall, he was really good. Generally, if you feed him, he's a happy camper. He loves being in his Baby Bjorn! If I'm pushing the stroller at the same time, he likes to hold onto the handles and push too!

As of this past week, Ryan has been pushing his butt up in the air while he's tummy side down. Is butt up in the air a milestone? :) He's starting to push off of his feet a bit, so it looks like he's on his way to crawling. Yikes! I'm not looking forward to baby proofing!

He finished up eating green beans last Sunday, he started eating squash on Monday, which he really liked, and is now on applesauce. Surprisingly enough, he doesn't seem to like applesauce as much as squash. Odd, isn't it? We're going to do carrots next and probably prunes after. We also have peaches, but I don't want to give him two orange foods in a row because I'm afraid he'll turn orange!

Now that Ryan's almost six months old, getting heavier and staying awake more and more, I decided that it's time to get an umbrella stroller. We went with the Quinny Zapp in mandarin orange. Isn't it cool looking? It comes with a car seat adaptor for their car seat, the maxi-cosi infant seat. If I knew that earlier, I might have gotten this one instead of our current stroller frame and car seat. Oh well. Jessica, maybe you should look into this stroller?

Last Tuesday, we checked out The Little Gym. It was a lot of fun. It's very gymnastics oriented with some music and games. Ryan did really well. He did some tumbling, he hung out on the uneven bars and walked on the balance beam. I'm thinking about checking out the Austin Children's Museum's baby bloomers program and My-Gym. I still want to do an age appropriate class at Gymboree too. Hehe...sometimes I feel like I'm going a little overboard!

Ryan's scrapbook is coming along. I've been able to do a few pages here and there this past week. That's probably why I haven't done the laundry yet....oh well! I've been having so much fun scrapbooking, it's my latest addiction. It makes me wonder what's next!