Instastream: Life Lately

What We Doin’ via Instagram for iPhone:

Mother’s Day

Yesterday, our plan was to hike up Mt. Tam for the Mother’s Day pancake breakfast at West Point Inn. We met the Foxes at the starting point, which was completely fogged in, windy and 50ºF/10ºC. :( With a 27-weeks pregnant Mrs. Fox, me in shorts, and Theo and Noah in somewhat summery clothes, we quickly made a Plan B = brunch in Mill Valley with pancakes, hot coffee and live jazz! Better.

I had a lovely first Mother’s Day, spent with friends and my boys. I couldn’t ask for more!

To Be a Mother

Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. I love you, Mr. T, more than words can even begin to describe.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms I know, including my own. x

Starting Out Young

On the bike already! Guess we’d better get Theo his own Skuut soon…he rode his friend Ava’s last weekend, and loved it!

Oakland Zoo

Last weekend, we met Mindy, Gautam, Ashwin and Neela at the Oakland Zoo. We left in time for Theo to have his morning nap in the car, but of course he was too excited and didn’t fall asleep until 5 minutes before we pulled into the parking lot. 5-minute nap? Well, sometimes that’s how we roll on the weekends…

11 Months Old

Changes from last month:
- army crawls, in a kind of sideways motion because he uses his arms and his right leg
- has also figured out how to go from sitting to crawling - makes life more interesting
- points at EVERYTHING
- loves to share…I wonder how long that will last?
- generally knows when to wave “hello/goodbye” without any prompting from us
- top teeth are just about to pop…many sleepless nights
- loves pushing elevator buttons and light switches
- when he sees a dog, he says what sounds kind of like, “dog”
- speaking of dogs…he’s getting good at tormenting Eugene now that he can get to him
- sits, holding a book and “reads” it to himself
- pushes his toy car back and forth, and makes a “vrrroom” noise
- last time pumping milk was a couple weeks ago, so walking to work got a whole lot lighter!

Tyler Makes Pancakes

Today, we were in Mill Valley, at the Tyler Florence shop, for the launch of Tyler’s new kids’ book, Tyler Makes Pancakes. For those that don’t know him, he’s a celebrity chef on the Food Network. He lives in Mill Valley, has a shop there, and has also opened a few restaurants in San Francisco, Napa and Mill Valley. Mmmm, El Paseo.

He did a great talk about the importance of teaching our kids where food comes from (you know, the earth, not a package), and then he made pancakes…blueberry ones…and they were incredible!

After brunch, he and the book’s illustrator signed books for everyone. Theo was more interested in the balloons than meeting Tyler Florence, but someday maybe he’ll look back and be glad for the experience.

Barista Training

Today at work, Tim, a professional barista from Sight Glass, came in to train us on how to use our new espresso machine. He was incredibly knowledgeable about espresso beans, roasting and brewing. *Newfound respect for baristas*

Some interesting facts I learned:
- espresso beans are best brewed 5-14 days after being roasted
- beans typically go bad after 14 days
- Starbucks’ beans have a year expiration date because they basically burn their beans
- Sight Glass’ beans have a slightly fruitier flavor due to the terroir of where they’re grown
- there is a serious art form to frothing milk the proper way

I think I’m going to need a bit of practice with the milk frothing, but practice makes perfect! If all else fails, Blue Bottle is just a few blocks from the office ; )

My “Hood”lums

My boys in blue - at Plow

Instastream: LA