Hi friends!
Another Monday already?! This weekend went by way too quickly as they always do. We had a mostly fun one – lots of adventures and outings, although we’ve been dealing with some toddler attitude lately that is a bit tough (more on that at the end of the post… related to the second part of the blog post title)!
First up on the list of highs, though, was boating!
On Saturday afternoon, our friend Shane invited us and our other friend Shane out for a boating adventure! Last year we brought Riese out with us once on his boat, but this year with Riese walking we decided it made more sense for everyone if we got some childcare and came solo.
It was such a treat, you guys. Gorgeous weather and it was so fun to be out on the water!
We took the boat all the way to Mt. Vernon (pretty far south) and then hung out in the water with beers. It was pretty much the best afternoon ever.
We grabbed dinner in the marina area before heading home. They have a lobster roll stand – fun!
Another highlight from the weekend was dinner out on Friday with Matt and Riese. We headed to Del Ray Pizzeria and started with salad + wings (because… why not).
Plus pizza!
I was, unsurprisingly, pretty full from the salad and wings by this point (and from broccoli that we got for Riese – don’t worry, she got some pizza too), so I had one slice of pizza and we brought the leftovers home.
Riese is so much cooler than us already. (Shout out to my friends at Cabot Cheese – we still love the sunglasses… and your cheese!)
Another highlight: having friends over for brunch on Sunday!
We bought a ton of fruit, veggies, and other fun stuff at the farmers’ market on Saturday morning and I used some of it to throw together frittatas for the brunch party.
Farmers’ market produce haul!
Those peaches are sooo good.
Plus other fun farmers’ market finds:
For brunch, I followed my Smoked Salmon + Veggie Egg Casserole recipe as a guide, but mixed up the ingredients a bit – no salmon, and the veggies were zucchini, peppers, and onions (I pre-sauteed the onions and left the others raw).
I made two big pans of it so we’d have some leftovers and we could send our friends home with some, too! They have a baby so figured it would be helpful. 🙂
Plus bacon and farmers’ market zucchini bread!
Another weekend highlight was a fun run date: I met my buddies Mary and Sokphal, who I hadn’t run with in way too long!
We met bright and early out in Reston which was quite the haul from Del Ray, but worth it to see these guys.
They did a long run and I met up for the last 4, which felt really good!
I was distracted by telling them a long winded story and the miles flew.
Matt unfortunately had to work all of yesterday afternoon and evening, so my mom came over to keep me and Riese company post-nap.
We decided to take Riese to Old Town Alexandria – such a cute area and I love the waterfront. She refused to go in the stroller (new phase that is not my fave) so we pushed an empty stroller around all afternoon, but it was still really fun… she loved all the action – ducks, boats, people, airplanes, oh my!
We decided to grab dinner at Virtue Feed and Grain, one of my faves, before walking back to the car, but Riese was a hot mess – at first she was fine with going in the high chair, but then we realized it didn’t have a strap, so she climbed right out… and by the time they came back with a different high chair she refused to get into it.
I ended up having her in my lap for awhile, but I finally caved and bribed her with a YouTube video on my phone to get her to sit in her high chair. I felt like the world’s worst mom because a minute later a little girl at the table next to us was like “Daddy, how come SHE gets to watch TV and I don’t?!” I felt so much shame when they all looked over, you guys. #momfail
We are really starting to get into defiant toddler land over here and honestly we have no idea how to respond to it. I often resort to bribery (aka giving her a snack if she agrees to get in the stroller in the morning, because we have to walk the dog and I can’t handle walking the dog with Riese walking on her own – too dangerous because our dog gets crazy if another dog comes by and then I’d be scared Riese would run into the road or get knocked over while I was distracted).
The only time I normally bribe with a video on my phone is during poopy diaper changes – it’s just a complete hot mess otherwise with her flipping out and trying to climb off the table and run away while covered in poop. You’re welcome for that image. Seriously though, why do they always act like you are torturing them when you change their diaper?! Ugh.
If you have any advice for figuring out how to handle toddler attitude without bribery, I’m all ears. Thanks in advance. 😉
At least the dinner last night was tasty – I had my usual fave, the salmon with creamy quinoa. It’s so good.
I’m off to tackle the workday… have a good one, my friends!
