Finn and I flew into Charlotte on a 6:30 a.m. flight this morning. It definitely gave me pause to fly on September 11. It’s a date that so many of us will never forget.
My heart is full of gratitude for a long weekend spent with my family in Florida. We spent a lot of time with toes in the sand and sun on our faces. I’m happy to report that Finn is now officially a fan of the ocean…and the pool!
We bought Finn and infant float with a canopy and he loved it. He leaned back and floated around for about 30 minutes with no fussing. He was super chill and relaxed.
Another moment that I won’t forget from our trip….FINN LAUGHED. He’s been doing this half laughs for a few weeks where it’s kind of like an “aha” noise but on the beach yesterday he full out laughed and giggled multiple times. My heart melted.
For today, some good things that I have been eating lately.
BREAKFAST
Homemade yogurt, homemade granola, bananas, raspberries, blueberries and almond butter.
Two eggs scrambled in butter, sourdough toast and fruit.
LUNCH
A grain bowl at Earl’s Grocery. It had wheat berries, faro and quinoa with kale slaw in carrot tahini, guacamole, roasted carrots and shaved radishes. This was really good.
Lots of turkey sandwich + chips beach lunches.
And a “doctored up” kale salad to which I added a whole avocado, roasted sweet potatoes and turkey.
DINNER
Viva Chicken leftovers just keep on giving.
Burger night.
Homemade chicken parmesan. I cooked this for my grandmother one night when my parents were out at another dinner. Here is my chicken parm recipe.
Dinner out. It was Finn’s second experience dining out and he did much better this time! Minus a diaper blowout (we really struggle with the Huggies brand), he was an angel.
We shared calamari to start and then I had blackened gulf grouper with hush puppies and cole slaw.
Finally, my dad’s homemade pizza. His dough is so fluffy and light. I need to perhaps make that the next tutorial I do with him for the blog next time I visit.
ETC
My dad baked me a carrot cake and I ate it three nights in a row. His carrot cake is DIVINE. What I love most about it is that the cake part is really caky and tender. I feel like sometimes carrot cake can get oily/heavy but his is just perfect.
And for whatever reason, I was craving milk with my cake at night. I can’t tell you the last time I drank a glass of milk although I have been having whole milk in my lattes lately.
Pizza, carrot cake, parm, burgers? How can I complain? The last week was definitely full of delicious food.
What should come first? Pizza dough tutorial or carrot cake? 🙂
Do you ever drink milk?
What a lovely time with your family! 🙂 YES to whole milk! Carrot cake tutorial first please :))
Yes!! Carrot cake recipe please!
All of these meals sound amazing! I’m always down for a great carrot cake recipe 😉 Also, I despise Huggies. The diapers did’t cut it for us, and the wipes tear so easily and weren’t sturdy enough to do any good level of wiping bottoms. Ugh.
Try new diapers:) honest works for us, but I hear good things about Target brand and 7th generation and Pampers!
I’m a second time mom, use Pampers, and blowouts still happen to us. I think that if a poo happens and my daughter is in her car seat it’s just going to be bad… the angle or the pressure of being in a seat just sends it up her back.
If blow out happen a lot sometimes I look to see if I should be going up a size in diapers-maybe see if that helps.
I can’t stand the thought of drinking a glass of milk, but I have it over cereal or on top of hot oatmeal.
I’d like to see the pizza dough tutorial please!
All of that definitely looks yummy! I would love the pizza dough tutorial. I’ve been working on homemade pizza dough for a while but am having trouble getting it just right.
I’m not sure if I just got lucky or it was the diapers but we used pampers swaddlers the entire baby phase with my daughter and we had zero blowouts. And we loved Costco wipes; they were so super sturdy and a great price for the bulk quantity. We still buy them to have on hand! I’m a milk drinker through and through, at least 2 glasses a day. And pizza tutorial first please!!
Carrot cake!!
Ugh I was forced to drink so much milk as a child that I still can’t stomach a glass!
I’m worried about you and Finn and the hurricane! Are you prepared?
Carrot cake, hands down! That icing looks amazing and light…and I’m not an icing person : P
Carrot cake!!! But ehhhh on the milk. Sometimes in coffee if there aren’t any other options. I didn’t grow up drinking it so it’s never really a craving for me and I really never buy it. But I have been using a coconut/almond milk blend by blue diamond that I actually really like!
Ever since breastfeeding my daughter, I have been more weirded out by straight cows milk. I guess the thought of drinking something meant for another animal’s baby is too weird now. I still eat cheese and yogurt and I’ll occasionally have whole milk in a latte, but otherwise I do almond milk.
I’ve heard Pampers tend to work better for longer, lankier kids (which mine was) and Huggies never really worked best for us so maybe there’s some truth to that. Target’s brand was somewhere in between.
Glad you could soak up some time in Florida!
Your happiness is so radiant and evident in your posts when you’re home! I’m so glad when you’re able to visit. Your whole mood seems to shift. Nothing better than family time!! I’m so glad you’re able to visit so often. Keeping you in my prayers.
I’m so glad you were able to get away!
I’d love to see a pizza dough tutorial.
Pizza dough, please!
For us, blowouts were usually helped by sizing up. <3
My son was always long with skinny little thighs as a baby and Huggies were awful for us. We switched to Luvs and and found they were more snug around the legs and middle. Huggies worked better for my daughter who was more roly poly with bigger legs. 🙂
Would love a carrot cake recipe!
Never a fan of Huggies. Always problems with them. Pampers are the best, and some others smaller brands are good also.
There was a stretch of 6-8 months where almost every single poop was a blowout for my baby. I tried all the brands, switched up sizes, nothing worked to contain the poo. What I did discover, was Carters side-snap bodysuits made it way easier to clean up afterwards. I didn’t have to wrestle the poopy onesie off over her head and smear it around more.
I think I’ve not drank straight white milk for so long now that I just can’t bring myself to do it. I’ll drink some almond milk though and my family all drinks whole milk so if I ever have cereal or make hot chocolate I’ll use that.
We had a lot of leaks with Huggies and switched to Pampers Swaddle – so much better but I’m sure it’s different for everyone. That was for our first baby and now I’m cloth diapering my second and haven’t had any issues with those either.
I typically use the Pampers Swaddles but bought the Huggies on sale one day…and realized they do not work great for us! I was really hoping to cloth diaper Finn but with all that’s been going on it has felt like an overwhelming undertaking!
I would love the homemade pizza dough tutorial!
As far as milk goes, I haven’t been able to stomach a glass of cows milk since elementary school!
I will let him know! 🙂
Carrot cake tutorial!!! I don’t drink milk unless you count the occasional latte or milk on cereal. I look at a glass of milk and I just want to gag, I find it so repulsive. Huggies worked fine for my daughter, but she was a very chunky baby and they seemed to fit her well. My brother had long, skinny kids and they could never use that brand as they didn’t fit snug enough. Not sure if that is the only difference regarding brands or not.
That seems to be the consensus with Huggies. So interesting!
Carrot Cake! Looks delicious!