It’s been another really busy week around here. Elise just turned 3 months and is growing fast. She smiles a lot now and is showing more and more personality all the time. She enjoys sitting upright and has quickly taken to the Bumbo chair (see below). Ava continues to surprise me with new vocabulary and knowledge. Her new favorite thing to say is “Lets do it!” and says it when you ask her just about any question. Jessica has been working 3-4 nights a week and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t difficult not having her around. School is actually challenging now that I’m in my final year, and Elise simply doesn’t like giving me any time to get my assignments done. She’s generally fine as long as you’re holding her, but writing papers and computer programs while holding a baby is basically impossible, so I end up working in 3-5 minute stretches.
Luckily Ava is surprisingly self sufficient for being so young. She’s very aware of Elise and understands that she’s supposed to be quiet when the baby is sleeping. We’re still working on the actual application of that rule however. In other news, this is the busiest time of year at work so things have been crazy lately. I’ll be traveling to Southern California at the end of the month to help conduct a simulation of a new version of software I’m working on. I was very excited to see that there’s a new Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school opening one block from my office. I spoke to the owner and found out they’re hoping to open in the next month; just waiting on permits from the city. I’m definitely going to check it out. Hopefully I’ll have a situation like San Diego where I can go to a couple classes a week on my lunch break.
Last weekend I got a chance to meet Adam Carolla at the BevMo in Bellevue. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time and regularly listen to his podcast at work. It was just a quick photo but he was cool and I ended up making some friends in the line. Ava’s second birthday is only about a month away and we’re looking forward to having everyone out for a visit. That’s about it for now. Here’s a few recent pics.
Elise in her Bumbo
Elise at 3 months
Ava watching the flying pumpkins at Remlinger Farms
Its been a crazy last few weeks. We have all been keeping very busy with various activities. I started back to work two weeks ago and had 4 shifts back to back. It was a big adjustment for us all. I think Michael now has a better understanding of what life can be like trapped in a house with two small children. It was rough on us all but we survived and have had the past week at home together. It seems like we are all still trying to get back into our normal routine since everyone was sick. Ava’s sleep habits have improved the past few nights but we have been having frequent late night episodes with her. She either wants to get up and play or she just wakes up and cries. Either way it’s tough on everyone because we all have bedrooms so close to each other. Since she is normally such an awesome sleeper even a few nights with interrupted sleep feels like a lot.
We have been embracing fall by collecting leaves in the front yard, visiting the pumpkin patch and farm, making plans for Halloween and taking every opportunity we can to enjoy the beautiful fall colors of the Northwest. I have to admit I have already been finding myself preparing for the up coming holiday season. One thing at a time though. First we have Halloween to enjoy; both girls already have their costumes and Michael and I have decided that we are going to pass on costumes for ourselves this year. I figure we will have plenty of opportunities to dress up with the girls in the years to come.
This past Saturday we spent the morning with some family at Remlinger Farm. It’s about 30 minutes away from us out in Carnation, WA. They have a fall harvest all October long. Its a celebration with hundreds of pumpkins, scarecrow, fall foods and lots of fun rides and activities for all ages. The highlights of the day were the Flying Pumpkins ride and the mini train. Ava loved both. She rode the pumpkins with both Michael and I separately and both times she rode with a huge smile plastered across her face yelling “weee”, “so cool” and laughing. I thoroughly enjoyed riding with her. Her least favorite attraction was the mini pony. We tried to get her to go for a pony ride but she wanted no part in it. She also had a strange aversion to the hay maze. It was a fun trip for everyone. I’m sure we will visit again in the future. We may even try to check out another pumpkin patch this season since we never bought one at the farm.
Today, Elise turned 3 months old. We had a great day to mark the occasion. Both of the girls, myself and my friend Laurel went the the Woodland Park Zoo. It was pretty busy because it’s Columbus Day but that just made it more fun for Ava. More kids running around meant more excitement for her which was the whole point so I was happy. We walked around almost all of the zoo and stopped a few times to feed some animals and run off some energy. The zoo is having a pumpkin bash coming up the weekend of the 26th. We are entertaining the idea of checking that out and giving the girls another opportunity to dress up in their costumes.
I’m about to start another busy week of work for Seattle Restaurant Week. I’m sure it will be incredibly hectic and I’m totally looking forward to it. It’s so much easier to tackle that kind of craziness after juggling two kids. Work feels more like social time to me now than anything. Although it’s not always easy to leave Michael and the girls at home I am glad to be working again. I did cry a few tears when leaving the first week. I always feel like I am going to miss out on something hugely important while I’m gone. Or I feel like I need to be home to help make everyones’ night easier and therefore better. I’m sure all working parents feel like this to some extent. Ava did take her first steps while I was at work so my fears aren’t completely irrational.
Here are a few recent pictures of Ava and Elise. We will post more this week as well.
Today I’m excited to announce that our Family Recipes website/webapp is now live! It’s been a fun project that I’ve been obsessing over for the last few weeks. I must say that I have a very loving and understanding wife because she’s had to deal with me working on this constantly lately. I’m very appreciative of that because this has been a really cool project.
During the course of developing this project I’ve been thinking a lot about family, food, and the connection between the two. It’s brought a lot of good memories and stories to mind. Hopefully these recipes will re-kindle some nice memories for everyone that visits this site, as well as present some great new dishes for everyone to try.
The part of this app that I’m most proud of is the search functionality. For every recipe that I’ve added, I’ve created an extensive list of keywords associated with the dish. Everything from the list of ingredients, the title, and the person that submitted or created it is included. This means that you can search for names, titles, and ingredients. Want to know every dish on the site that contains garlic? Just search for garlic. Want to see every dish associated with Jessica? Type in Jessica and hit enter. The results are paginated by course type, just like they are on the home page.
I wanted the interface to be really clean, simple, colorful, and easy to use. Although I’m not a designer by trade, I work with several great designers and hear them talk about design all the time. One of the most popular new trends in graphic design is something called ‘flat design.’ What this means is that there is no concept of depth or dimension in the design. No shadows, no bubble or button textures, just flat clean shapes and colors. This style can be found most notably in the new iOS 7. Although my interest in iOS has been waning, I’m still a fan of flat design and wanted to incorporate it into this project.
This project also gave me an opportunity to get some experience with a web development framework called Backbone.js. I’m going to be starting a new project with Backbone at work next week so I’m glad to have some experience before it begins. I’m going to continue to work on the site in terms of features and coding, and I’ll always be adding new recipes to it. All recipe submissions are welcome so keep them coming. Also, if you see something on the site for a recipe that you submitted that you’d like to change, just let me know. Adding a photo, changing a description, updating an ingredients list, anything like that is no problem. Just email me and I’ll take care of it.
Hope everyone likes it and gets some use out of it. Any feedback or update requests are welcome. Be sure to check back regularly because new recipes will continue to be added. Enjoy!
Although Jessica has worked a couple private events for El Gaucho in the past month, tonight is her official first night back at work. It’s hard to believe her maternity leave with Elise is complete. Obviously her going back to work has certain benefits, but its more bitter than sweet. I’ve definitely gotten used to having her home every night over the past few months so its going to be a significant adjustment for the girls and I without her here. I’m equal parts happy and nervous; happy that Jess will be able to get out of the house and interact with adults, but nervous that I won’t have as much time for homework due to my Dad duties. I’m sure everything will be fine but right now I can’t help but worry a bit.
Luckily I’m on the tail end of a two week break from school as we transition into the Fall quarter. I just got my grades from Summer quarter and was pleased to see I pulled off straight A’s again. I figure if I can pull off those grades during the busiest summer of my life I should have no problem the rest of the year. Either way I’ve only got three quarters to go. New classes start up on Monday and I’m ready to jump back in.
I haven’t written many posts lately because I’ve been really busy working on the Family Recipes site. For those that don’t already know, my Uncle Jim recently had an idea about doing a Family Recipes website that we could use to share all of our favorite dishes. I immediately thought it was a cool idea, but then when I realized that this was the perfect excuse to develop a project using a JavaScript framework called Backbone.js, I was sold. I’ll spare you of the technical details, but we recently decided at work to use a popular web development framework called Backbone.js for an upcoming project that I’ll be working on. I didn’t want to go into that project with no experience working with Backbone, so I used this project as a way to learn the framework.
It’s been a really fun project that I’ve learned a lot from, and I’m actually almost done. My goal is to launch the site this weekend before I get back into school. I wouldn’t have been able to build the site this quickly if I was in school, but with this two week break I’ve been able to crank through just about everything. If you’re thinking about submitting a recipe, please do! This is a site that I’ll be managing for the long–term and there is no cutoff date for submitting recipes. Hopefully over the years it will become an ‘encyclopedia’ of our family’s cooking.
All else is well in our world. Ava is coming up on her second birthday and she’s doing great. I can’t believe how much her vocabulary continues to grow. She loves to count now and can usually count to ten with no problems. Elise is 2.5 months old and going strong. She smiles more and more everyday. I was holding her the other night and Ava came up to talk to her. She got so excited and had the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. It was funny because Ava kept saying “Good morning baby” even though it was 8:00 at night. I think it was their first real interaction and felt pretty special to see.
Keep an eye out for the official announcement of the launch of the recipes site. My goal is Sunday so we’ll see what happens. Keep the recipes coming!
It was kind of a rough week around here. We’ve all been a coughing, sneezing, cold sweaty mess this week. The whole house has been battling the common cold in one form or another. Fortunately for us, it only presented itself as stuffy nose for Elise. Michael and I had mild fevers, sinus headaches, stuffy and runny noses, the whole sha-bang. Poor little Ava, although she took it like a champ, she was down and out for over a week. We decided it was best for all of us that we played it easy all week and rested as much as possible. Plus, we didn’t want to spread our germs to anyone else. It was disappointing that we had to cancel dinner plans with family earlier in the week but it was the best for everyone. Yesterday was the first time that the girls and I had much activity all week.
Ava went shopping with Daddy at Costco in the morning while Elise and I stayed home and cleaned the house and did laundry. After Michael and Ava returned with a load of booty from Costco I headed out to the grocery store to fill in the gaps for our nights dinner and daily needs. We all spent the rest of the day either napping (the girls) or preparing for our evening. I finished cleaning and setting the table and Michael jumped into the kitchen and began his mise en place for dinner. We all hosted our first dinner party since moving back!
It was a “Girls Night In” with Chef MP. Included, by the handsome Chef, was an all night playlist from our favorite artists and a digital menu. Yes, a digital menu. Michael put together the menu that morning and then designed and coded it and sent a link out to each of our guests. It was so cool. Here’s a link if you want to see what we enjoyed: www.pellegrinipage.com/menu It was a delicious seafood feast that everyone loved. It was not an easy task to accommodate all of the dietary needs at the table. Michael did an awesome job making everyone happy.
Our guests for the evening were some old friends that we’ve been wanting to connect with for far too long now. It’s frustrating how easy it is to let life get in the way of making time for good friends. Julianne and Penny two ladies that we love and admire. These woman have been in our lives for longer than the two of us have been together. They are practically the reason that Michael and I became a couple. I could go on and on about both of them but I’ll just say that they are old (in time, not age), dear friends and it was a pleasure hosting them. Our beloved friend, Laurel joined us as well. She has known JJ and Penny for a long time but has not seen either of them since our wedding, more than 3 years ago.
Lucky Michael, spent the night with 4 women, 2 little girls and a female dog. He pretty much hosted the whole event on his own (he did all the hard work). We enjoyed a nice, long, leisurely 3 course dinner at the table. Sharing wine, good memories and stories of recent adventures. We ended the evening with the girls both asleep and all of the adults curled up on the couch enjoying dessert and laughs with Planet Earth playing in the background. It was an awesome night.
Today we are all at home relaxing like we love to do on Sundays. This week I start back to work on Wednesday and will be working 4 nights in a row. Its likely going to be a little rough to work that many nights consecutively after over 3 months off but I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’m not sure what my schedule is going to look like every week but my hope is that it’s usually only 3 nights a week with Sunday and Mondays off. We’ll see. I have mixed feelings about going back but am looking forward to a little time out of the house with some more consistent adult interaction. My reservations are only because I worry that Michael will struggle to get homework done on nights that I’m gone. I know that we will all figure things out and find a routine that works for us, I just find it hard not to worry in the interim.
Michael is off school for one more week. His classes start back up next weekend. I imagine that he will spend as much time as possible on his new project (the recipe site) this week. He is really enjoying putting it together and I love being able to be the middleman and help out a little. We’ve already had some great things sent to us. It will, no doubt, be a great site. Keep all the recipes and stories coming.
Here are a few pics of our friends getting a little snuggle time with Elise. I think that she loves to be held more than anything. It’s always a sweet, special moment to witness someone you care about meeting your child for the first time. Simple pleasures.
My good, old, sweet Bella turned 9 today. I can’t believe how much has changed in the 9 years for the two of us. She was only 6 weeks old when I met her at a home shelter near Woodinville called Lil Waif. The woman sheltering the litter called me first because she knew that I was thinking about getting another dog. I had recently lost a 6 month old puppy from one of her previous litters to an over aggressive monster trunk in downtown Kirkland (very tragic event that led to Bella). I met all 5 pups at one time and they were a strange looking mix of adorableness.
Bella’s mom was a Labrador Retriever and her Dad was a German Shepard/ Rottweiler mix. I chose Bella because she was to me the cutest, female, and strangely enough she was the only one that didn’t whine when I put her down, she just sat quietly looking at me like she knew she would eventually be coming home with me. It was a weird instant connection. Two weeks later just before Thanksgiving of 2004 I brought her home; my first true responsibility. At one point I would probably have phrased that as I brought home my first “baby” but now that seems strange to say. Bella was however the first living being that depended on only me. Because of this she has changed me in many ways, forced me to grow up and has given me a different perspective on unconditional love. It never fails to amaze me how excited she is to see me each and every time I come home.
Bella truly is a great dog. Not one without her annoying quirks but still a great, loyal, loving and most of the time mellow girl. She has moved from Kirkland to Woodinville to Queen Anne then Ballard next Pacific Beach, San Diego to La Mesa, CA and now Bellevue, WA! In 9 years that’s a lot of adjusting and each time she has proved to be an adaptable family member. She has lived with over 10 different roommates and was affectionately welcomed into the Pellegrini family by Michael when we moved in together in 2008. Although we still refer to her as Bella Rudd (it has a ring to it) she is definitely a Pellegrini. Her favorite thing to do at home is sleep, she loves chasing Ava around the front yard these days and can not resist the urge to swim if within 75 feet of almost any body of water no mater how big or small. Her nicknames include, Bellers, Belle, Bells, Bella Rudd, B, Old Maid and the Fun Hater. She has proved to be a great dog with kids and does not even flinch when Ava pokes and pulls at her. We all love Bella.
Happy Birthday, Bella! You’re a good girl.
The rest of the family is doing ok. Everyone has been a little under the weather the past few days. Thankfully Elise appears to be the only one with no symptoms of illness. She is doing wonderful and attended her first wedding with Michael and I this past weekend on Whidbey Island. She was an amazing wedding guest and didn’t do anything but enjoy herself all afternoon and well into the night.
Ava is continuing to get better every day but is still not her vibrant, unstoppable self these past few days. She has been enjoying a lot more down time than normal which I have to admit is kind of nice. She isn’t usually one to lay down and watch a movie with you but we have been doing a bit of that and enjoying it. She had a great weekend with Grandma while we were out of town and the 3 of us dropped her off at the airport yesterday. It was, of course, another awesome trip. So much so, that I think we are all a bit exhausted from it. Combine that and this little bug and we are all on a little bit of forced downtime.
We have a few dinner parties planned for the week. One with Dana, Brad, Kallan and Anna tomorrow night at their house here in Bellevue. Another planned for Saturday at our house with a few friends. Michael is off school for the week and it’s my last week off before I start back up part time on 10/1. We’ll make the most of it with a good mix of fun, family and down time.
Michael has been hard at work on a new project and we would love all of your help with it. He is putting together a family recipe website to share all of ours and hopefully your recipes with each other. It’s a site that is helping him learn a new skill and it’s something that we think will be really nice to expand on over the years. We want to include as much information about the dish as possible. Here’s what you can send us:
Title
About this dish (2-3 sentences about the dish, or the person the dish is inspired by)
Photo (Optional – can be a photo of the dish or the person the dish is inspired by)
List of ingredients
Cooking instructions
The categories of recipes on the site will be: Breakfast, Salads, Soups, Entrees, Sides & Deserts. We’d love any of your contributions as soon as you can, but you can continue to send us more over time as well. Once the site is up and running we will send out another email letting you all know about it. Please send all of your information to me at this email address: jesspelle@gmail.com
We look forward to seeing and trying all of your favorite foods. The more contributions we get the better. Thank you!
Yesterday I took the day off work so Jessica, Elise and I could go to Whidbey Island for Jessica’s friend Melissa’s wedding. Ava stayed home with Grandma for the weekend but we decided to bring Elise because there are going to be four other newborns at the wedding, three of which are girls whose names start with the letter ‘E’. We have Evelyn, Ellie, and Elise, all of whom are less than 6 months old. Pretty funny.
Friday was pretty much the perfect day. For those who aren’t familiar with Whidbey Island, you drive north from Seattle for about a half hour to a town called Mukilteo, then you catch a ferry ride about 20 minutes out into the Puget Sound. Whidbey Island is probably most well known for the mussels that come from Penn Cove, which is north in a small town called Coupeville. It’s got a nice laid back vibe with beautiful views all around of the water and neighboring islands.
After getting off the ferry we drove a few miles to the center of town on the island. Jessica and I were starving, but so was Elise, and that takes precedence. We walked down to the beach and sat on a picnic table while Elise ate. Once it was our turn to eat we went to a little French bistro we found on Yelp called ‘Prima.’ The ratings were good so we decided to check it out, and I’m so glad we did because the meal was excellent. We started off with cocktails, snails cooked in garlic butter, and the brochette du jour, which ended up being a beef skewer with grilled onions and a tomato compote. For our main course Jessica had wild prawns with truffle honey and I had a reuben sandwich with fries. We also shared a bowl of Penn Cove mussels cooked in lemon, white wine and shallots. Every single thing we had to eat was delicious! We sat outside so we could enjoy the nice weather and Elise was as perfect as can be. She was awake the whole time but never made a peep. This ended up being the highlight of the day. I would definitely recommend Prima to anyone on Whidbey Island looking for a nice meal with some French flair thrown in.
After lunch we checked into our cottage, which was about 3 miles north from where we had eaten. It’s on a section of the Island called Bells Beach, and it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s a small cottage owned by a local resident that has been remodeled and turned into a bed & breakfast. I took a couple short video clips giving a tour of the place that can be found at the bottom of this post. If you watch the video you’ll see that there’s a nice mix of old–world charm and modern amenities. You’ll also notice the incredible view we have! There’s a nice big deck out front, a huge lawn, and our own private tram that takes us down to the beach.
We were pretty tired after getting checked in so the three of us took a nap, then watched a little TV before getting ready for dinner. We went into town to pickup a few groceries and a pizza, then came back to the cottage to eat. After dinner we went up the road about a mile to the house where Melissa, her soon–to–be husband Jaime, and several of their family members were staying. They were having a pretty big party with deserts and drinks so we thought it would be fun to stop by and say hello. As usual, having a baby in your arms at any kind of social situation means you will quickly be engaged in conversations, mostly with mothers asking how old she is and whether or not she’s normally awake at this time of night. We weren’t there for too long but it was nice seeing everyone. I think the wedding later today is going to be a lot of fun. They seem like a great group of people.
After that we went back to the cottage and finally enjoyed a bottle of champagne that was given to us by Johnny, my old boss from the Tractor Room in San Diego, as a gift when Ava was born. It’s a nice bottle that we’ve been holding onto for a while now so it was good to finally get to enjoy it. We fell asleep watching a movie and had planned to sleep in today, but the bright beautiful view woke everyone up at 8:00 and we decided to stay up. We’ve got several hours before we head out to the wedding so I think we may take a walk on our private beach. We’ll be staying here again tonight then heading home tomorrow after breakfast. I’m hoping to be home by 1:00 to watch the Seahawks game but we’ll see how it goes.
We got a couple updates from Grandma yesterday and it sounds like they’re having a great time. Ava has been sick for the first time this week so it was hard to leave her, but she seemed almost 100% by the time we left. Earlier in the week she had a fever and stomach ache, which was a first for her, but she toughed it out like a champ. She really is a tough little kid. She takes all kinds of spills at home but always dusts herself off and keeps going. She’s definitely a lot tougher than I was as a kid. I’m sure my Mom could attest to that.
Looking forward to a nice afternoon/evening with everyone later today. Although we’re only an hour from home it definitely feels like we’re on vacation. I love little weekend getaways like this, especially considering how many fun places there are to visit in the vicinity of our home.
Happy in her car seat
Feeding Elise on the beach
Click here to watch part 1 of the tour of the Bells Beach cottage
Today was a big day. Started out with breakfast at home, then went out for a day of park–hopping. We picked the grandparents up and toured downtown Seattle on our way to the Ballard Locks. We spent lots of time watching the boats, talking to fellow tourists, chasing after Ava, and enjoying the typical Seattle weather. After almost 2 hours we decided it was time for a new park and headed over to Gasworks.
We got to Gasworks and planned to setup our picnic and enjoy the views for a bit, but instead it was more like sitting in goose poop, eating half our snacks while the other half remained forgotten at home in the fridge. We made the best of it and enjoyed some dried fruit, candied nuts and crackers, and sat looking out over Lake Union, reminiscing about the Grandparents last visit to Seattle, which was for our wedding. We worked in shifts chasing Ava all around the park and decided on getting ice cream at Molly Moon’s.
Again we packed everyone up in the car and drove a few blocks up the hill for what we had been told was some of the top rated ice cream in the country. We each got our own snack and sat inside the small creamery next to a nice family from Illinois with 3 small girls. There were plenty of sticky fingers at the table. After some outstanding ice cream everyone was ready for a little rest before dinner.
After relaxing and cleaning up at home the family went out for dinner in downtown Bellevue while Ava got to play at the drop–in. It was a very full and enjoyable day. Both girls were great the whole time and are happy to go anywhere you like. Elise is growing fast and doing very well. She’s such a good baby.
On a somewhat spur of the moment move, we both got new cell phones tonight. He text me this morning to see if I would be ready to update my phone, something we’ve been talking about for a while now. I happily agreed. We were both ready to turn in our iPhones and upgrade to something new. For me it was mostly for a better camera, nicer screen, and fresh style. Agreeing to the switch also means learning a completely new operating system, Android, and all new apps. Ugh.
Michael got a HTC One and I got a Samsung Galaxy S4. Speaking for myself, please excuse any delays in my responses. After having an iPhone for so many years this is going to take me a while to get used to. I actually had to have Michael show me where the home and power keys were. He gave me a nice little tutorial on the basics but it will probably take me a good day maybe two (depending on the willingness of the girls) to get used to it.
For now both of the girls are finally asleep and we can play with our phone for the rest of the night.
