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Can I tell you about our neighborhood? We live right down the street from a brilliant little park and each day after school we mosey on over to catch up with friends. Kids play with kids. Adults chat with adults. We have a sweet little community of friends and everyone chips in to watch all the kiddos and brush off knees and hold babies and sort out various squabbles.  When we lived in San Francisco and I had Oliver I did not have much in the way of a support group. Oliver and I did a lot by ourselves and I will be honest I struggled at times with feeling lonely and not knowing what or how to deal with a baby. Even though Huck is only a mere two weeks old I already feel more settled with him and I truly believe a lot of that has to do with the people with whom I am surrounded. I know that I can reach out and hand off Huck to watch Oliver ride his new bike (see video at the end of the post!) or tell Oliver to go find his buddies so I can sit in the shade with Huck. It's a great and reliable way to wrap up our days and let me tell you when it rains in the Summer we miss out on our park days! 

Mr. Henry Sylvan. On Tuesday, I took Huck to his two week appointment. So I figured I would share his stats. Weight: 8lbs 15oz (63%) Length: 21.5" (90%) Noggin 38.5cm (99%) He was a good baby and kindly did not pee on the scale. His Pediatrician said he was a healthy guy and that his coloring was fabulous. Huck continues to eat a ton and we are all getting used to his baby biorhythms. 

Keep reading for more on our adventures, including our first visit to the beach!


Legos lots and lots of Legos! Following instructions and building his own little space ships, Oliver has been loving on the Legos!

and perhaps Mama has been loving it, too! I fondly remember spending many Saturday mornings building Lego creations with my brother on his bedroom floor. 

More park antics. They were pretending to be a bobsled team. And they were doing an excellent job of taking turns being the driver! 

Beach, beach, beach. We headed to the Crane Beach on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Our first beach outing of the year! Oliver is such a beach bum. It was good to go to the beach with Matt as well because it will be a little more challenging when Oliver, Huck and I want to go but I am determined to make is happen! 

chilling in the pop up tent.

toes in the sand. 

Huck snoozed the entire time and rocked his UB2 clam sun hat from my friend Liz

love them.  

I build sand castles with Oliver so that he can smash them! It is a symbiotic relationship. 

After the beach we got lunch at an iconic clam shack on the North Shore; The Clam Box in Ipswich, MA. In my opinion they have the best fried native clams and it is well worth waiting in line for! 

taking a peek in on the kitchen.  

On the drive home we were about 15 mins from the house when Huck woke up and was mad mad mad because he was hungry. Rather than stop we just told Oliver that everyone was going to have to deal with it and in turn this is what Oliver did!  

About 6 months ago I purchased a playhouse on a sample sale and we hid the box in the basement, knowing that we would build it and give it to Oliver after the baby came. So over Memorial Day weekend, Oliver and Matt spent about two day putting this amazing KidKraft Modern Playhouse together! We still need to move it into the corner but it is so cool and Oliver loves it! 

it has a picnic table and a pretend grill on the other side and a sink inside plus a mailbox which Oliver checks every morning...I think I need to leave him a note. And last but not least. After researching the next step for bike riding for Oliver (he has mastered the Skuut Balance Bike for about 2 years) I found that the Specialized Hotrock 12" was the way to go and after a quick Craiglist search we found one. So yesterday we took Oliver and his new bike without training wheels to the park. After only a little frustration and a few false starts he was off and zooming around like a pro both on the grass and later on the basketball court. Mission accomplished. 

Oliver Bike Ride from Alice Lehrer on Vimeo.

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