Nine Months

16 pounds and 2 ounces of checked cuteness

9 months and an upside down onesie

pincer!

looking at pictures with daddy

Happy Fathers Day!

Mema's 90th (Reunion 2)

Our second reunion - less than a week after our trip to Colorado - was a reunion/birthday party for my Mema who turned 90 on May 31. To celebrate this major milestone, Mom invited all the cousins from Texas to come up for a Taylor family reunion. It was a wonderful time, and a very happy birthday for Mema.

Mema and her little brother Joe - two of the seven kids of Julia Wesson Taylor.

Mom with old pictures from old Taylor reunions.

Coconut Cream Pie - my grandfather's favorite - my aunt Joy made 7 pies, including this one and Mama Taylor's Chocolate Pie, Mema's favorite.

Mema and her girls

Mema and Julia giggling

Primos in Colorado (Reunion 1)

Sergio comes from a big family - 12 cousins on his dad's side. This year, for the first time ever, the primos decided to have a reunion. Cousin Ana hooked us up with a fantastic cabin in Cuchara, Colorado and 8 cousins plus their families gathered for a wonderful vacation over Memorial Day weekend.

8 of the 12 primos - we're hoping for all 12 next year!

With the families of the 8 primos, we ended up being a party of 19, which required two of these lovely cabins in Cuchara. We all had a blast - from the littlest, to the oldest - we played games, saw deer, savored the incredible weather and scenery, and ate a-plenty.

Primitos - L to R Sydney (18mos), Vaughn (4), Nina (4), Julia (8 mos), MiaBella (18 mos), and Emilio (18 mos)

Cuchara is in the southern part of Colorado, near La Veta - which, we learned, is pronounced "luh veetuh," not "lah vehtah," which is why the lady at the airport looked confused when we tried to tell her where we were headed. In this part of CO, there are, purportedly, bears. So I was a little nervous about our outdoor excursions. Fortunately, the only beers we saw were the decorative type, of which there were several.

The only bear we saw - phew!

The gorgeous locale was a perfect background for quality time together and lots of fun memories made. We are already looking forward to a 2012 Primos reunion!

the mountains

Solid Foods

tiny baby; big high chair

Julia has been eating solid foods (a strange name the first foods after breast milk because they really aren't solid at all) for about 2 months now. She has done so well so far.

(left to right, top to bottom: banana, carrot, green beans + acorn squash, rice cereal, green beans, carrots + spinach, spinach + sweet potato, acorn squash, spinach)

We started her on rice cereal. Well, we actually started her on quinoa - WAY too flavorful for a first taste. So back to rice cereal. Then made our way through the moderate selection of vegetables in the freezer, all local and organic, all steamed, Vita-Mixed, and sealed with the Food Saver. She likes the orange vegetables quite a bit and the green vegetables, if they're mixed with the orange ones (2:1 ratio, orange:green).

formerly carrots

She's also tried banana (a favorite), avocado (a sometimes favorite), and apple (too soon to tell). We did give her a solid - truly solid - hunk of apple to gnaw on the other day. She loved that.

nature's lipstick

And last week, I'm proud to report, she ate beets! After she handled that strong flavor so well, I'm pretty sure we can try the quinoa again. We're off and running now!

Rapturous Radish Sandwiches

A few weeks ago I was making cucumber sandwiches for a potluck. I had a lot of radishes on hand and remembered hearing tell of radish sandwiches, so I thought I'd make some of those, too. I found this recipe, which was a good starting point for my own, more local version (see recipe below). They turned out to be delicious; I was delighted when, at the end of the potluck, there were still some radish sandwiches left for me to enjoy.

bread, sheep's cheese, and radish from Badseed; pea shoots from Brookside

I took my radish sandwiches to the next potluck I went to, hoping again that I would have left overs to enjoy for myself. Finally I realized I should just make my own radish sandwiches without feeling obligated to share. So for the last three days I've had radish sandwiches for lunch and I am still totally enraptured by them.

the mandoline is my friend

Speaking of rapture, I finally decided to blog about these divine sandwiches after Sergio came up with a clever name in honor of today being the supposed judgment day - "Rapturous Radish Sandwiches."

left behind

I think it's easy to bypass the radish as a thing you just put on a salad or some other sideline. But putting them on center stage like this enables you to appreciate their differences - each shade of pink, differing levels of spice, etc. For today's version I used some Cherry Belle radishes from our CSA and some ... I think they were Easter Egg radishes from Badseed. I also used plain sheep's cheese from Green Dirt Farm and incredible Sicilian bread from The New Traditionalist - the incredible new bread vendor at Badseed this year - which I was able to slice (Thanks, Wusthof!) relatively thin, to make for a more delicate sandwich.

tender pea shoot tendril

My pea shoots from the market two weeks ago are still holding up well and tasting wonderful. And the sesame seeds on top of the bread added another layer of flavor, distinct and delicious.

If today really is the end of the world, then I say - what a way to go.

"Rapturous Radish Sandwiches"

serves 2

- some radishes sliced super thin (How many radishes? 3? 6? I don't know - it totally depends on the radish. And you.)

- plain, soft, spreadable Green Dirt Farm sheep's cheese (although the nettle variety would probably be good, too)

- mayonnaise

- pea shoots (which are harder and harder to find the later we get into May, but you could also use arugula if you want to kick it up a notch)

- bread (a nice big loaf, sliced thinly, or I used Bread of Life Multigrain for my lunch on Thursday and Friday - a totally serviceable option for days that aren't special occasions like Judgment Day.)

Do you really need instructions for how to put together a sandwich? Surely not. I'll just say this. Don't skimp on the radishes. They are, after all, the main attraction. I do about 4 layers. Feel free to go crazy if you'd like. I do a good bunch of pea shoots, too, so the flavor really comes out. Um ... what else. I should mention that the sheep's cheese is easier to spread the closer it is to room temp. You can do all mayonnaise or all sheep's cheese - or one on each side of the bread. Be liberal with the cheese, too. Especially if it's the end of the world. What have you got to lose?

If I'm lucky, the world won't end today and you know what that means, right? Radish sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.

Eight Months

8 months old, can you believe it? Me neither. The report is ...

... I have no idea how much she weighs. More than 15; less than 20?

She is a sitting-up pro, even teaching her friend Owl how to do it.

She continues with a high level of curiosity and is working on her fine motor skills, lifting up every blanket, mat, or Flor tile that you put her on...

She is this close to crawling - at least I think. She's way more wiggly and does the rocking back and forth thing.

And she is still - even more - the sweetest thing I have ever known.

So What by Miles Davis (by Emily)

I recently wrote a guest blog post on Sergio's blog, "Record Highs." My post is about one of my all-time favorite albums - Miles Davis' Kind of Blue - which we now enjoy on vinyl. Read all about it here!

Being a Mom

On Mother's Day, Sergio asked me if I enjoy being mom. Several people have asked me that and I always answer yes. But it's never just about "being a mom." It's never about the fundamentals of motherhood - the care-taking tasks, diaper-changing or feeding, the world of the baby - though I do enjoy all those things. It's never about just having a baby, even though I do enjoy having a baby. No, the thing I love about being a mom is, most simply... Julia.

Julia and her mommy on Mother's Day

She never ceases to surprise and delight. I love that we belong to each other, are attached to each other, and are totally changing each other's worlds with each day that passes.

So, yes - I enjoy being a mom. But more than anything, I enjoy being Julia's mom.

Easter

Easter seems late to me this year. But I kind of like that it came so close to Earth Day, so as to pack in the celebratory feel all in one weekend. And Saturday - in between Earth Day and Easter - was the opening of the Brookside Farmers Market, one of my favorite markets. That's a red letter day in my book. So we celebrated today - with Sergio's sister and her family - with fresh greens and mint and rhubarb and daffodils and little plastic eggs from the church Easter egg hunt ... and it was lovely.

bright spot

be-bob-a-re-bob rhubarb - which went in to a crisp (not a pie)

minty mint tea

salad mix with nasturtiums, cucumber, radish, mint and - drum roll - pea shoots!

los primos

A Visit from Mom and Dad (aka "Honey and Papa")

Everyday when I come home, Julia is so excited to see me - she pumps her arms and kicks her legs and squeals a little bit. It's a good feeling. Another good feeling is going to pick up my parents at the airport for a weekend visit. Upon finally spotting my dad through all the people, I waved a reserved but happy "Hello!" from a distance - but on the inside, make no mistake, I was pumping my arms and kicking my legs and squealing a little bit. It is good to see my folks.

"Hey everybody! It's Papa!"

The main purpose of the trip, of course is undefined and general quality time. And we had lots of that. But we did some specific things, too. We were at the Nelson-Atkins almost all day Saturday, which turned out to be Slow Art Day (who knew!?). I think we complied with the name of the day - if not the official rules of the event - by taking our sweet time traipsing through the place. The Original Rules of Basketball was our first destination, though an installation in progress, some Dutch paintings, and this English owl stopped us on our way.

Owl Jug, England, 1670-1710, lead-glazed slipware; I stopped to look at it on behalf of Ju

lia Minerva

Dad and James Naismith

We arrived at - and enjoyed - the Rules exhibit, then dined at the Rozelle Court. By this part of

our day, Sergio had rejoined us, having excused himself for the morning to participate in Record Store Day (so much to experience on April 16!). He told us all about his lucky finds. After lunch we slowly made our way to the simple but stunning Monet exhibit (together again for the first time in 30 years!) - a must see. Truly.

in the Bloch building, capturing the moment, just before entering the Monet exhibit, where no photography was allowed

April 15 was a notable day as well. Dad remembered that it was Tax Day of 1979 when he and mom, who was pregnant with me, moved into the house I was to grow up in. Then, fast forward 32 years and it's Tax Day 2011 and Mom, Dad, Julia and I are in the lobby of the Plaza library listening to Julia intentionally say "Mama" for the first time. A milestone! Granted, she doesn't know who "mama" is or that "mama" is even a person. But still - she mimicked my mom saying it and it was clearly a milestone moment - just one key step beyond the "muhmuhmuhmuh" that'd she mustered up on occasion before.

Julia saying "mama"

Nothing to celebrate or observe on April 17 (that we knew of) - it was just a leisurely Sunday and a comfortable lunch and quality time and nice weather and chatting and holding Julia - every moment worth savoring before having to send Mom/"Honey" and Dad/"Papa" off again to catch their plane. I can't wait to see them again.

"Hooray for Honey and Papa!"

Seven Months

Now she sits up and has teeth! And she keeps rolling and sucking her thumb. Sweet as can be.

Beto and Lindsey's Visit (a photo essay)

...and 100% cute at the Eat Local and Organic Expo in Shawnee

The last night of Sergio's beer project - we celebrated by welcoming his cousin and his wife - Beto and Lindsey - who came to KC for yet another wonderful visit.

We managed to eek into a tour at the Boulevard Brewery at the last minute - it was such a fun treat.

Beto and Lindsey are photographers and these are just some of the amazing pictures they took.

This one in particular is a personal favorite of mine.

A Study in Orange, 2011