Things We Are Loving This Week

• 3-day holiday weekends that allow us to do things like say, RELAX (oh and some much-needed housework like spreading mulch, cleaning gutters and starting the demo of the tile on the front stairs)
• Hunter's newest words and phrases: "the piccups" (translation: hiccups), 'livery truck's not here today!, calerpillar
• Being 6 weeks away from finally meeting our Baby Girl Peanut!
• H's discovery of toddler-favorite, the Bob the Builder cartoon on PBS Sprout
• The memories of our beloved lilacs growing alongside the fence this year
  
• My latest pregnancy cravings: chai creme frappuchinos from Starbucks and corn Chex cereal
• Our new favorite TV series, Party Down on STARZ (created by actor Paul Rudd and friends)
• Maternity undies (sorry to all male readers but they are just. so. damn. comfortable.)
• Clothes shopping for Baby Girl... and this dress that snuck its way into my shopping bag :)


• Hearing President Barack Obama give his regards to the University of Michigan graduating class of 2010 by declaring "It's great to be here in the Big House. And so may I say 'GO BLUE!'". You may read the entire speech here.
• This adorable pillow from Etsy seller OutonalimbDesign which will make an stinkin' cute addition to Baby Peanut's room

Things We Are Loving This Week

• Hearing car noises from HWB's room at 5 o'clock in the morning
• H's latest words and phrases: 'Blinky' truck (i.e. any truck with flashers on), iwannagoOUTside!, mommy, what you DOIN'?, caller-pitter (caterpillar)
• Being informed that every bridge we pass under is 'not a choo-choo bridge, that's a MACK TRUCK bridge!'
• Finding worms in the dirt in the backyard, picking them up and racing them across the lawn screaming 'LOOKIT! I FOUND A SNAKE!'
• Officially entering the 3rd trimester! Here's to being 28 weeks and 3 days preggers with Baby Peanut.
• Getting a weekend to just Brad and I (and special thanks to my mom for playing host to HWB for Friday and Saturday night this past weekend)
• Test driving new cars... and then realizing my Mazda lease is up in 2, not 3 months. Um, yikes! Ford Edge, here we come.
• Homemade yogurt parfaits and Pellegrino -- this week's baby food cravings
• My latest LPOTD sighting... and giggling at the fact that on any other vehicle, this would have been highly inappropriate:
  

• Enjoying a Saturday a.m. breakfast at what may be one of my favorite new restaurants: what crepe in Royal Oak was flawless, from the adorable menus fashioned from French record jackets to the delicious goodness that was my Sweet Cheese with Baked Apple Crepe

• Florence + The Machine and their 'Dog Days Are Over' tune. One of the best 99 cent purchases ever.
• Reading Paste Magazine's The 30 Best Beer Bars In America, and noticing one of our favorites on the list -- The Toronado in San Francisco
• DiorShow BlackOut Mascara, a personal splurge courtesy of Sephora's recent 15% off Makeup Madness Sale

Things We Are Loving This Week

• Little baby kicks and flutters, courtesy of Baby Peanut
• Being greeted at the end of a workday with MOMMY!!!! shouted from across the daycare
• H's latest words and phrases: lookitlookitTHAT!seethat?YOUSEETHAT?, (said with utter enthusiasm) 'um, OKAY!!'
• Planning for our 5-year anniversary trip: Savannah? Big Sur? Or Mexico?
• This week's random pregnancy cravings: raspberry sorbet and slices of challah
• The return of spring Mom2Mom sales, with the finest pickings starting at a mere 25 cents. I am LOVING this little gem for Baby Peanut's 2nd official Michigan football season (Ryann/Christian: Seriously ladies, try to contain your excitement!)




• The expectation of new music from She And Him: due out Tuesday, 3/23
• My new job and my new team. They're utterly fantastic!
• The anticipation of Baby Stropp's arrival to our dear friends, Heath and Dee
• Watching Brad embrace his new passion: running. I've never been more proud of someone accomplishing a 12-mile 'jog'
• The presence of Time Magazine in Detroit. Reading all they chronicle is enough for the people of southeast Michigan to realize action is needed in order to transform this great city.
• Cadbury Mini Eggs... and receiving a care package from my mom containing multiple packets of them
• Prepping the yard for spring... and finally purchasing these adorable herb garden markers from a faved Etsy seller

Things We Are Loving This Week

• Hunter asking 'what's that name???' for practically everything he sees
• H's insistence that he sleep with a box of Honey Nut Cheerios last night (and fortunately, the lid stayed shut tight due to the massive amounts of Scotch tape I affixed)
• The latest words/phrases in our house: amb-lance (replacing my much loved ah-nee-nah), dontwantthat!, 'ment' truck (a cement mixer), daddy - are you??? (said when trying to find Brad in the house: notice the absence of the 'where')
• That H has caught on to my nickname for Brad (Bub), but instead has revised it slightly and started calling him BOB
• My new, delicious-smelling, apricot-scented Henri Bendel candle: little pricey but soooo worth it
• Hitting the Bob The Builder exhibit at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum... and reliving my youth while standing in the bubble machine

• Stomping in puddles and kicking large snow drifts... and then having Mommy ring out our shoes
• Canned pears and chocolate milk (pregnancy thing)
• Feeling Baby Peanut flutter around ALOT
• Our newly-painted, freshly-decorated bathroom! Click photo to to enlargen.

• LOST has finally returned!
• The song Goin' Home by Dan Auerbach from the Up In The Air soundtrack (buy. it. now.)
• The partially-grey/partially-beige nail polish color that's all the rage in Hollywood right now (and currently donned on my 2 hands). Take a look at Essie's Chinchilly here. Don't believe me? Connect to the source of all things fashionable (InStyle) here and they'll tell you what's up.
• That Conan O'Brien has finally joined Twitter. And GD is he hilarious.
• Learning that even President Obama understands the power of social media and thusly is hiring a Royal Twitter
• Discussing baby names :)
• Prepping for our first Date Night in a long time. Roast @ Book-Cadillac, HERE WE COME!

Things We Are Loving This Week

• Hunter's latest words: 'Ahn-nee-nah' (ambulance), awesome, JUMP (as in, off the bottom stair in the basement), po-kin (pumpkin), 'Donn-nah-nah DUCK' (Donald Duck), and 'care-co' (scarecrow)
• Hitting the pumpkin patch last week with my boys and watching H's delight in roaming hills and hills in search of the perfect 'po-kin'
  
  
• Still recovering from the other weekend's 1st Annual Bobenmoyer Chili Cook-Off: 6 contestants + incredible flavor = Bo Pennell's first official victory. He looks so proud for cooking up his 'Michigan Chili'.

• Tate Forcier's incredible strength and poise on the football field -- hey, someone needs to offer this kid his due props! Did I mention he's a f.r.e.s.h.m.a.n?
• The resurgence of the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks.
• New Fall TV: Modern Family, FlashForward, Glee and Community are gracing our TiVo these days. Did anyone catch Wednesday's Glee rendition of Young MC's Busta Move?
• Digging out some oldie but goodie music: The Singles Soundtrack
• Hunter yelling GO BLUE at the TV whenever he sees football on... and the fact that his Daddy was actually the one who taught him that ;)
• The Jim and Pam wedding episode of The Office: That final takeaway of Jim glancing over at the camera in quiet contentment has stayed with me

Things We Are Loving This Week

Prepare yourself... there are a lot of mentions:

• Practically an entire week of bonding with my little bro who was visiting from California. My day off this past Tuesday consisted of breakfast with him at Cafe Muse, perusing Detroit's own Eastern Market, investigating an enormous warehouse of an antique store (and laughing at finding the world's oldest hand mixer that resembled the one mom had when we were kids), Slow's BBQ for lunch, stalking the cast and crew of the Red Dawn movie remake being made inches away from my house, exploring downtown Detroit, and hitting the Kings of Leon concert. As you can imagine, it was a blast.
• Hosting Ross and his girlfriend Ryann for the weekend, who instantly captured my heart upon entering our house and declaring "so I was reading your blog and saw..." Awesome lead-in. Seriously awesome gal (love ya Ryann!). Is it too forward to say I'm planning for her to be around for years and years to come?
• Spending time (although it flew by) with Butch and Susan who also came for a visit this weekend. And watching Butch's endless patience with a 2-year-old determined to outrun him.
• The former Washington Street Show Choir member in me is just smitten with Fox's Glee. If you spend your nights dreaming up choral renditions of Journey's Don't Stop Believin', this show is for you. I giggled my entire way through this week's scene of football players getting down to Beyonce's "Single Ladies."
• This. Adorable. Bow. Bag. Bequeathed to me by my lil bro's girlfriend Nicole (who is also the amazingly talented designer behind Omelle shoes. Have you visited the latest collection? If no, get thee here immediately. If the Fancy boots suddenly appeared on my feet, I wouldn't send them walking. I'm just sayin'.

• UofM football is 4-0. Enough said.
• This week's new dictionary of HWB words and phrases: hela-cop-ee (helicopter), 'it's fy-eehn' (in reference to seeing an airplane flying), bidge (bridge) and gas-hop-air (grasshopper) and of course, when searching for something [enter item here] ware ARRRRR you?
• The fact that when Hunter sees the moon in the daytime, he raises his finger to his lips and declares "shhh, the moon is sleeping!" :)
• My growing obsession with design blogs. Like this one, Design*Sponge.
• The new bedroom lamp, courtesy of a seriously fantastic Anthropologie Sale rack find:
• Our new church. There, I said it. We've been secretly going to church. And I think it's revolutionized a new type of spirituality between us. Check them out.
• The Black Keys. Specifically their song "I Got Mine". It makes for a great late-afternoon gotta-bang-out-this-final-report motivation.

Things We Are Loving This Week

• Prepping for our Little Man's 2nd birthday... and wondering where on earth the time has gone.
• "ACHOO MAMA!": Hunter's way of 'sneezing' (i.e. loudly declaring the words aloud) just so he can hear Bless You Hunter! in return
• H's latest words: Bu-er-fly, woof (wolf), ruh-coon and fog (frog)
• Being in the 100th percentile for height -- and finding out that Munchkin is in fact a Little Giant of 36 1/2 inches... that's over 3 feet tall for those of you calculating. As a side note, I am a mere 5 feet. Clearly I had nothing to do with the growth of this child.
• The return of Mad Men. Enough said.
• 10 days and counting until kickoff for Michigan Wolverine football... And Bradley loses his wife for 12 straight Saturdays. Go Blue!
• Modest Mouse's EP single releases, starting with King Rat. And the fact that the video was a pet project by the visionary Heath Ledger.
• Surprise Saturday visits from one of Hunter's favorite baby-sitters, Miss Lyssa, followed by impromptu trips for two (Brad and I that is) to Eastern Market and La Gloria in Mexicantown for empanadas
• Freshly cut sunflowers wrapped in crisp newspaper and carried home from the farmers market

Maybelline's Pulse Perfection Mascara. The wand vibrates to provide the right amount of mascara coverage and make my eyes look seriously supermodel-fly-me-to-Brazil-for-a-photoshoot-worthy. Yes the price tag is a bit steep ($13) but you'll look amazing

Reading at the park during lunch

Planning to take Hunter to the Chelsea Fair Parade this weekend -- and barely containing MY excitement knowing there will be fire trucks aplenty to entertain

Stacks of magazines to pour through, including Cooking Light, Elle, Gourmet, HOUR Detroit and US Weekly. It's a diverse selection I tell you.

Things We Are Loving This Week

• "It'sSTUCKinthere!": Hunter's latest phrase, which incidentally applies to more situations/things than you'd think
• H's latest 4-syllable words: mowercycle, hela-coper, and ahl-a-gayter
• Early morning runs with Becks
• An early write in from Brad: King-sized Reese's
• Grizzly Bear's Yellow House
• This wonderfully touching tribute to a masterful director, John Hughes
• Re-discovering HBO's Entourage and falling in love with Thomas Jane's Hung (based in Detroit no less!)... in our opinion, they're totally worth the $15 increase to our cable bill
• Planning Hunter's 2nd birthday bash (where has the time gone?)
• These beautiful earrings from Anthropologie


• Starting my re-collection of the now defunct Domino magazine (I say 're-collection' because at one time, before The Great Recycle Effort, I owned all of the 2005-2007 issues)
• Sleeping 8 hours a night. Every night. (Thanks HWB!)
• The countdown: 23 days until Michigan football season
• Celebrating Papa's birthday, rain be damned and all
• My new favorite blog: Dooce. Her Daily Chuck feature is worth the glance and is slightly inspirational for a Daily Becks knock-off on our own blog. :)
• Fresh, homegrown basil
• Rounding out the summer in style with lazy days spent at home in the backyard, long walks in the neighborhood and weekly stops for ice cream

Things We Are Loving This Week

It's been a long week already. For that elaboration, please stay tuned. Let's just say it makes our Things We Are Loving This Week all the more sweet. Things like:

• Our Little Man and that sly, "I'm up to no good" smirk (see above). I think he inherited this from his daddy. :)
• HWB's pronunciation of 'Laht-neen Mah-keen' for his favorite Cars character, Lightening McQueen
• Beckham's one brown eye and one blue eye stare. We will dearly miss it.
• The way Hunter's face lights up when he spots a fire truck... or police car... or bus... or motorcycle
• Indulging in Fat Tire beer in Chicago
• A new band: Golden Birds and their disk The Smart War
• The Conclusion of a fabulous Tour de France -- cannot wait for the 2010 Team Radio Shack appearance
• Jack White's open-handed drumming
• Knowing when it's time to throw in the towel on a book. Then We Came To The End and I, well, came to an end. Great Web site... but my sanity could not keep up with the book.
• This month's volunteer effort collecting cans for Gleaners Food Bank. (Never mind the cruising around screeching 'Mississippi Queen' with Pat and Katie. Wink.)

• My mom for again devoting hours on end to us and HWB during a jam-packed week of my Chicago travel, Brad's client dinners, concert-going and early-a.m. volunteering
• Digging up old issues of the now defunct Domino magazine. RIP.
• The absolute killer, kick-ass DEAD WEATHER show Friday night at the Fillmore. Thanks again to LiveNation for treating us like true VIPs! Here's the view from our box seats:

Things We Are Loving This Week

In all my sleepless nights over the past 12 days (but who's counting?), I could have transformed into an ultimate blogger. UB for short who wildly posts updates from her iPhone in the blink of an eye. But between the hours of 1-4am, whilst shush'ing Hunter into dreamland, there's no controlling the thoughts running through my head (and lord knows, there's plenty of time to cover lots of ground).

Case in point: I actually deliberated Monday night over what C-List celebrity run-ins I had between the years of 1998-2000. (Answer is Carson Daly but that's a whole story of itself).

Back to the focal point of today's post though -- there are lots of things we are loving this week so let me just kick-off the rundown:

• This year's rousing return of TdF. And no, it's not because I'm an Astana fan (because I am), but because I've fallen full-force into the Tour thanks to Twitter. Lance, Levi and George Hincapie have accented my Tour experience this year with their continuous Tweets throughout the stages and I'm loving the behind-the-scenes look at who's riding along in the bus, the anti-doping control craziness and everything TdF. Lots of love and luck to our Americans in the Tour!
• Hunter's latest obsession with fire trucks. And yes, he can positively identify the red fire chief car as well (chee car!).
• Catching up with my dad, Peg, Bryn, Holly, Colby and Charlotte in Elk Rapids last week
• Peppering my nieces Schuler and Brier with kisses :)
• Listening to Hunter exclaim the names of his family: MIMI! PAPA! SHOO-er! Byer!
• Hearing H's first go at "Alola!" (read: Aunt Laura)
• Remembering the taste of chocolate cherry fudge by Doug Murdick's Fudge in Traverse City. YUM!
• Catching up with our dear, old friends, Meredith and Jason. Here's a pick of "Aunt" Mer and a very un-amused looking HWB


• Reflecting on the few weeks we were able to spend with Jason before he shipped off to LA in pursuit of a new job. We miss him already.
• This blog: Great Full Day. It's simple yet sophisticate approach to accessory and design leaves my wallet aching and my inner craftiness yearning to explode.
• The Livestrong Chalkbot. If you don't know what I'm referring to, get thee to Google and type it in. Better yet, click here: CHALKBOT. Thanks to my bro PJ for the tip!
• Brad's uncle Mike, aunt Linda, cousin Vanessa and partner Katie's visit north to the D for some food, fun, and unfortunately a Tigers loss

• The bands Hockey and Grizzly Bear. Add "Too Fake" and "Knife" to your iTunes list. Now.
• The news that my beloved Odwalla is adding a Chai drink to their selection vest. I may never set foot in a coffee shop again.
• The fact that Little Man attends daycare with kids named Sevyn, Iniya, Chanel and Serenity.
• Our new masthead for Big Jet Plane, courtesy of hubs (Bradley D)

Things We Are Loving This Week

• Hunter's new love for anything mobile and/or with wheels. (As said in H language): itsaBIGtruck!, arpane, duh truck, mowercycle!, bussss.
• Still reliving our Portland vaca (and no, we haven't forgotten to post the pics), including the search for the Shanghai tunnels, watching the elation spread on our friend (the groom) Mike's face upon learning his beloved Penguins had won the Stanley Cup, visiting Vista House and the Columbia Gorge in a huge cloud of fog, running into the inaugural Banancon celebrants, a hotel room without a bathroom (but with a private balcony) and sleeping in. As long as we wanted.
• Hunter's Mimi and Papa for watching him while we were away. And helping him achieve a kick-ass pool tan.
• Rogue beer straight from the tap.
• A 2-hour Scrabble match while the sun sets over Portland.
• Remembering why I started dating my hubs to begin with = because he's so easy to talk to.
• H greeting Brad home from work with a big hug and declaring LalaYu (translation: I love you)
• My brand new, white, 32G, 3GS iPhone. It's beautiful. Moment of silence in respect for Apple's uncomparable wisdom and design.

• 
  Our new fence!!!


• The song "I Feel Like a Child" by Devendra Banhart
• The book "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides (a Detroit born and raised author no less)
• Prepping for the New Kids On The Block concert on Thursday night
• This baby owl taking up residency at my mom's house

• Spending time on Detroit's Riverfront courtesy of Detroit River Days
• Amici's Pizza and martinis in Berkley, MI with old friends (Jason is home!) and new friends (Anthony and Katie)

Things We Are Loving This Week

• That HWB has suddenly learned how to say 'truck' and 'bus' although I'm sad that they replace his former favorite of big carse


• It's a big truck: Hunter's new favorite phrase upon passing any vehicle larger than mine


• Catching up on the final 6 episodes from this past season of Lost. WOW!


• Discovering more new music: Devendra Banhart (try I Feel Like A Child), Ratatat and Patrick Wilson


• Planning for the September Kings of Leon concert at the Palace with E/L, P/K and Heath and Dee


• Twitter. I've become a fan. And never felt so close to Lance Armstrong before in all my life (he's also a fan).


• Odwalla's original Superfood. Was scared to try it originally but now can't get enough. My insides have never been so happy.


• The final countdown until the fence install (clock check: Less than 20 hours!)


• My mom for having come out at late notice to hang with HWB this weekend... and then letting both Brad and I catch up on some very. much. needed. sleep.


• All of the new iPhone details from this week's WWDC in San Fran (where my bro is currently holed up but lovin it). Cannot WAIT to buy it!


• Prepping for Thursday's journey to Portland (and grateful to Mimi and Papa for watching HWB while we're gone)


• And finally, this picture of a very happy little boy enjoying the playground with his Mommy and Gma (and donning nothing short of his first, official UofM t-shirt):
  

Things We Are Loving This Week

• "Big carse": Hunter's term for trucks/vans/campers
• "DOGGI-YAH": Hunter's word for 'doggy'
• "Un-ter shoo": One of HWB's first phrases ("Hunter's shoe")
• Playing the first hillbilly golf game of the season
• Having Mike Campbell travel out for one hockey game... and then fly home to Portland the very next day
• Plotting for our Portland getaway (note to self, send Dad our flight itinerary)
• Hunter's new book, courtesy of his 'Uncle Mike' titled The Dangerous Book for Boys, complete with treefort instructions, solar system education, bow and arrow creation, how to survive a pirate attack and other such 'boy' things
• Prepping for Dave Matthews Band's new album, Big Whiskey and The Groo Grux King
• OUR NEW COMPOSTER!!!!
• My new tomato plants that already have one small, Early Bird tomato blooming
• Awaiting the install of our new, PVC vinyl fence for the backyard
• Hunter's 2nd ever haircut (thank goodness his curls came out in force today -- Mommy was worried we'd cut them all off)


• 

Things We Love This Week

• "Choo-choo": Hunter's word for train
• "Mew": Hunter's word for cat
• The sitcom called Party Down from STARZ
• Angus and Julia Stone's album, A Book Like This
• Getting details together for our vaca to Portland, OR (6/11-6/15)
• Watching H run around on The Diag at UofM (and eating lunch at Amer's Deli)
• Reading in bed early in the night and turning out the light even earlier
• Arranging for the new fence (cannot wait!)
• Planting the garden: tomatoes and basil; and planning to plant the rest next weekend
• Seeing H take his first splash of the season at Mimi and Papa's new pool
• Drinking the first strawberry margarita of the new season alongside that same pool
• Reading on the back patio while H takes a nap
• That every white car Little Man sees is deemed 'Mamacar!'
• Hanging with Uncle Colby, Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Rourke
• Looking forward to more long, lazy days!