Raise your hand if you’re ready for fall weather! It was a tiiiiny bit cooler yesterday and it had me SO EXCITED for all things fall. But… we’re not quite there yet. And Saturday was full on summer and thick humidity… but my running buddies and I didn’t let that stop us. 🙂
I met up with my friends Diane and Josh for some miles early on Saturday a.m. It had been a couple months since I saw them – great to catch up! And great motivation for me to push it a little on the running, too – we finished out nearly 4 miles back at the cars but were having such a good time talking that they convinced me to do another mile. 😉 We made it just about 5 if you include a couple walk breaks!
Hot tip: when you are finishing a run, sprint (or run a little faster) for the last block or so – that way you end the run in an endorphin rush blaze of glory vs. just kind of slowly stopping/petering out. I know you’re tired because it’s the end of the run but there’s always a tiny bit of gas left in the tank if you challenge yourself, I promise. 🙂
Later in the day for lunch, Matt, Riese, and I visited our friends Ben and Taylor – they have a one month old that we have been dying to meet! We were originally supposed to go two weeks ago but I wasn’t feeling 100% and didn’t want to risk it with the baby being so little. We brought Chipotle for lunch per their request (Matt was pumped) – I had a burrito with chicken, pinto beans, cheese, fajita veggies, and salsa. Plus chips with queso and guac!
And we enjoyed some baby cuddles. Man, you guys – I seriously can hardly remember Riese being this tiny!! It’s insane to me that this phase already feels like a distant memory. I love that Riese is so interactive and fun to play with and have adventures with now, but sometimes I do miss the sleepy newborn cuddles – they are so sweet!
On Saturday evening, we had an early happy hour with Riese – we did some errands around Clarendon and then hit up our old fave Lyon Hall. It was cool enough to sit outside in the shade which was awesome – always easier with the little one in tow! Matt and I shared some appetizers (a really good salad x2 + ahi tuna + fried brussels) and had some unpictured cider, which was really refreshing.
We came home, got Riese to bed, and spent the rest of the night on the couch! I’ll be back tomorrow to share a recap from Sunday – we had a fun action-packed day so I have lots of photos. Here’s a sneak preview.
Before I go, though, for my readers with little ones – have you guys heard of Raised Real? It’s a baby and toddler food service that delivers pre-packaged whole foods ready to cook for your tiny human. They reached out to me about sending a box of food for us to test out for a sponsored review and I was really curious to try it, especially since I want to make sure Riese is trying a big variety of food, and their food options sounded really creative and nutrient-dense!
Here are the meals we received:
- Broccoli + green beans + chickpeas + flax seeds + avocado oil
- Peas + zucchini + hemp seeds + basil + avocado oil
- Beet + sweet potato + date + cinnamon + coconut butter
- Sweet potato + mango + coconut milk + lucuma powder + chia seeds
- Butternut squash + banana + white quinoa + cardamom + coconut butter
The way it works is every 2 weeks, you will receive 20 flash frozen, organically-sourced, baby-ready meals to your door. To serve, you simply empty one of the meals into a small pot, add three tablespoons of water, and cook for less than 10 minutes. Super easy! Then, you can either puree, mash or cool and serve as finger food. I love how versatile it is! We’ve done the finger food option so far since we are doing baby led weaning (<- more details in that blog post), and everything is cut into small enough pieces already and is soft enough once cooked that it has worked out really well. Riese really loved the beet, sweet potato, and coconut butter one – and the butternut squash and quinoa (I smushed it into little tiny balls for her to grab). We had some success with the broccoli, too – her first time having broccoli!
I highly recommend Raised Real if you are looking to simplify or add some variety to your baby feeding routine. Riese loves it and so do we – I’ll definitely be signing up for more on our own dime once our samples run out. It really reduces stress to have these on hand, ready to go! If you’re interested, use the code ANNE25 for $25 off your first order (first 50 people only, so don’t delay). Let me know how you and your little one(s) like it! 🙂
Have a good one, guys!
