Almost 2 Years Old!

Photography: Sarita Relis

Our son James turned 23 months, yesterday!

He was born on May 29, 2012.

In exactly one month, our sweet baby boy will be 2!

Photography: Sarita Relis

It has been such an exciting, fun and love-filled couple of years. Our son is the best thing that ever happened to my husband and to myself. 

Photography: Sarita Relis

Photography: Sarita Relis

I adore being a mum! It is the best, most wonderful and rewarding thing. 

Feeling this deepest, strongest, most tender love between my son and I, having this purest and most truthful connection with him is a true gift from Heaven. We could not love anyone more than we love our son.

Each day, he is turning more and more into a wonderful little boy.

Every day, he surprises us with the new things he does and the new things he says. 
James sure likes to talk a lot. He is learning French and English and last month, he starting using a lot of two-word sentences. 
He is obsessed with letters, numbers and colors. 
At 20 months, my husband and I realized that our son was learning his letters when one morning, at the breakfast table, he starting saying "O" as he was pointing at all the O's on his apple sauce pouch. We were really impressed. Now, he knows all the letters of the alphabet, can almost count to ten, knows and says his colors (all in both languages). 
He is learning it all by himself, we are not even teaching him. 

James has always been independent, playing with his toys and looking at his books. Yet, he has always been really sociable and outgoing.
Lat month, James started singing "Twinkle twinkle little star". 
He knows practically all the words. It sounds so beautiful (and in tune!). Sometimes in the morning, he wakes up singing it. 
How cute is that?
He also started jumping about a month ago. It is the most adorable sight!


Yesterday was also our very first morning, waking up in our new house!

It was so lovely having our morning cup of coffee on the deck.
It has been really hot here in LA, the last couple of days and so it felt like a summer morning. 
Actually, being here in our new house, really makes us feel like we are on holiday. 

There is still a lot of work ahead, settling in.
Like I told you before, we had movers on Monday. 
Those guys work so hard!

I have not yet planned anything for our son's 2nd birthday, 
but we will sure do something very special for our very special baby boy.

Photography: Sarita Relis

Thanks for dropping in!

Alexandra

Our Easter Sunday

I cannot believe it is already the weekend. Where did the time go?

Did you all have a happy Easter?

We certainly did!

I thought I would bake some pretty Easter cupcakes, but I really was too busy.

Remember, we are in the midst of moving to our new home. 

Last weekend my husband decided to rent a U-Haul pick up truck. Sunday morning, we made a couple more trips to the house with a truck load full of boxes. It is just amazing how much stuff you
 can accumulate, over the years!

Moving has certainly generated a lot of spring cleaning, which I am actually enjoying.


Then we headed out to  Good Microbrew and Grill  for a late lunch. We like this place. In fact, we discovered this restaurant after visiting the house for the first time. Below is the picture I took that day. We were so excited about the house, had both fallen in love with it and were really hoping to get it. 

We are so lucky we did!

Good is in the heart of Silver Lake's Sunset Junction. 
The weather was beautiful. We sat on the patio and while our son was taking his afternoon nap in the stroller, we savored delicious ceviche and fish tacos with a couple of glasses of chilled Pinot Grigio (beer for my husband).

It really was a gorgeous sunny afternoon.

Upon our return to the house, our son woke up. We turned on the bubble machine on our main deck and that is when we realized that the Easter bunny had come and hidden lots of small toys, eggs filled with little surprises and a solid chocolate bunny!

Yeah! A brand new set of play-Doh!

James, trying to eat the bubbles...

and munching on his first solid chocolate. 

We had a lot of fun until the sun came down.

James playing with daddy's guitar.

 Later on we drove back to our condo.

We hired a moving company for Monday, to move our furniture. 
Monday night will officially be our first night in our new home.
How exciting!

All week I boxed, cleaned and drove back and forth from the condo to the house. It has been a very busy week.
The condo will need to be immaculate, since we are either going to sell or rent it.

One of the things I had to do this week is to wash our chalkboard wall. 
When we moved here, I had painted a whole kitchen wall with black chalkboard paint. Over the past years we had kept some of our little messages and drawings.
I had to take a picture of it before I washed it, for memories.

Before

After

I have got to tell you, it was really painful erasing it all.
There was a message from my husband welcoming our son from the maternity ward and one to me, when I returned from a family visit in France, when I was 6 month pregnant.

Now it is the weekend again!


One fun thing we are going to do this afternoon, is looking for a new couch!
I pinned a few on Pinterest and cannot wait to see them in the store.


Have a great weekend!

Alexandra

Comfort Food Friday: Banana Bread

Did you know there was a National Banana Bread Day?

Yes, indeed there is. On February 23!

In my household, it is National Banana Bread Day many times a month. I always buy bananas and because they ripen so quickly, it is my favorite way to use them up. 

Here is a little bit of history for you.

Bananas appeared in the US in the 1870's and it took a while for them to appear as ingredient items for desserts. The actual banana bread recipe began being published in cookbooks around the great depression, as resourceful housewives did not wish to throw away overripe bananas (as they were still a costly item to purchase).

I found the following recipe from a little cookbook that I purchased in Barbados, on my travels.

I have used it for so many years, it is very simple and fast to make. The bread always turns out super moist and delicious.

By the way, a fully ripe bananas has spots. Some say that there should be absolutely no green, not even around the stem.

When the banana develops spots and easily peels, the starches will have fully developed into sugars. If you have the astringent puckering feel in your mouth after biting into one, you know that it was not ripe.

I personally like it the best when it has just turned completely yellow, no spots. How about you?

The popular curved yellow fruit is not only nutritious but has supposedly many health benefits. Some scientists believe that the banana may have even been the world's first fruit.

Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The fate of the fruit that changed the world, traces the banana back to the Garden of Eden, where he believes it was the banana, not the apple, that was the "forbidden fruit", that Eve offered to Adam. 

Interesting...

Why do we use the expression the best thing since sliced bread?

Because bread is beautiful, amazing, magnificent and it is perhaps the best food ever created. 

I love bread (too much!) and I am sure you love it, too.

Today is Friday. Why not having a little slice of comforting banana bread...

Banana bread

Ingredients:

3 medium bananas (ripe)
3 oz butter or margarine
6 oz white sugar
1 egg beaten
8 oz all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Liquidise or mash the bananas (liquidising is preferable as it will make the mixture lighter)
• Cream the butter (or margarine) and the sugar until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg.
• Beat in the sifted flour, baking powder and salt alternately with the liquidised bananas.
• Bake in a lightly greased loaf pan (or two small ones) at 350F for about 50 minutes. (If you are using two small pans, I find that the baking time goes down to 35 minutes.)

Enjoy and have a lovely Easter weekend!

Alexandra

Our New House. We're moving!

 Last weekend we got the keys to our new house and I am so excited to tell you

we are moving! 

We have bought this charming 3 bedroom, 2 bath home that sits up in the hills of Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA. 

It is a very private 50's style "treehouse" in a tranquil canyon setting. It was built in 1951.

Let me give you a tour!

Come in!

When you first walk in, you are greeted in a bright and light-filled living room. To the very right is the living room sheltered deck, with through-the-canyon view. On the left hand side is the kitchen, dining room and stairwell to the lower level. 

See the living room deck? (More pictures of the decks and yards to come.) The house has hardwood floors throughout.

If you walk through the living room, as you enter the house, you will find the guest room/playroom (on the right) next to a cute little vintage guest bathroom and you will have access to the dining room (on the left).

All photos were taken with my iPhone and so it all appears a bit smaller and darker than it really is.

There is a wood burning fireplace and a wall-mounted TV. On the right, you can see the kitchen.

This is the little vintage guest bathroom, I was talking about.

It is in a remarkably good condition. I love the baby blue tiles!

Check out the vintage wall heater!

 If you open the small storage compartment, you can see the living room. (But only if the cupboard door is opened on the other side.)

It has a jalousie window (or louvre window). Those can be found in various places throughout the house and I love them.

This will be the guest room/playroom. We will put a sofa bed in this room, to leave lots of space to play!

 It also has jalousie windows.

This room comes with built-in closets and you will find a lot of those throughout the home.

This is the small hall that connects the dining room, guest bathroom, guest room and living room.

They are lots of built-in storage cupboards like this, throughout the whole house.

Let's go to the kitchen!

One side of the kitchen...

I am in love with this kitchen! (and the rest of the house!)

It is accessible directly from the living room or through the dining room.

It features original cabinetry painted in olive green, white Ceasarstone countertops, stainless steel appliances and a dark grey stone floor. A door conveniently links the kitchen to a roomy, tree-shaded deck. 

and the other side.

Another jalousie window, over the kitchen sink! (what more can a woman ask for?)

It does not show well on this picture, but this sink is huge!

On this picture you can see the dining room and the stairwell. (Access to the living room on the right.)

Below is the dining room.

It has two huge swinging windows with gorgeous views. I love the way the breeze flows through that room. 

And here is our sweet baby boy.

Let me take you downstairs!

Straight down is the dining patio. To the left will be our son's bedroom and to the right, our en-suite master bedroom with a separate dressing room.

As you get to the bottom of the stairs, on the left you can see part of our son's room, which has sliding windows and sliding doors to the dining patio. (More play space!)

Here it is. Luminous and soon to be very cosy.
It has a small walking closet.

And to the right, the master bedroom.

To the left, is the dressing room and then across, the master bathroom.

It has a canyon view and another wall-mounted TV, which my husband is really happy about!

Our dressing room, which is much bigger than it looks. On the left, the bathroom.
But first, I want to show you the dining patio, my favorite part of the house!

One side of the patio...

the other side.

It is in the trees and completely screened-in.
We will put our farmhouse table and chairs and a small couch. This patio has a Southern feel to it. I just love this room!

Look at that cool vintage pinball!


Back to the master bathroom...

It is equipped with two sinks set in a floating cabinet and a tile-lined bathtub/shower combination.

 

Now, let me show you the outside!

This is the front yard.

I love the multi-level flower beds!

 

There is also a beautiful orange tree.

And to the left is the main deck...

On the right is the kitchen door.

You can see the gate to the lower levels: Basement storage/laundry room, dining patio and back yard.

Basement door

This is underneath the dining patio and where my husband will set up an outdoor gym.

Want to see the back yard?

It is a terraced yard on the hill and it needs a little bit of work done on it.

We love the trees!

Down the bottom is where my husband wants to build a fort, for our son. 

It is hard to believe we're in LA...

Now, let's go back upstairs!

Here are a few pictures of the living room patio.

Facing the front of the house.

Facing the canyon.

To the right, our view is the legendary Forest Lawn Memorial Park and the Santa Monica mountains. It is beautiful and we will see snow there in the winter.

This home is absolutely perfect for us. I cannot wait to be moved in and all settled in.

We really loved our West Hollywood condo, it was the first home we bought and where our son spent the first almost two years of his life.

But I know we are going to love this house (we already do!). 

This is a new journey!

Thanks for stopping by!

Alexandra