Oahu Bound

Holy cow, one month from today we will be touching down in Honolulu! I am super excited and can not wait to bury my toesies in warm, Hawaiian sand. However, no great adventure is complete without a few anxieties:

• 6 hour flight. Never done a 6 hour flight.
• Departing at 2 am. That is gonna feel AWESOME.
  
• Remy's usual ascent hysterics. Maybe he has outgrown that?
  
• Having a lanky, sweaty child sleeping on my lap for many hours.
  
• Arriving at 5am. Will the airport McDonald's be open? 'Cause I am gonna need a coffee.
  
• A big chunk of time to entertain a toddler before the rest of the family arrives and we can get into the cabin.

After that everything is gonna be easy and awesome!

Remy's Chair

We got Remy this Fisher Price rocking chair because his Aunt Steph told me it was a must-have and useful well into the toddler years. Remy taught himself to get in and out of it pretty early on and now he and his chair are one. When he gets tired of just sitting in it he can climb up on it and ride it like a surf board (terrifying) or tip it upside down and transform it into a Remy nest (from which he sometimes needs rescuing.) Good call, Aunt Steph!

Blanky Love

When you have such a supremely awesome child there can be some jostling over who may take credit for which bit of awesomeness - but he definitely gets the blanky love from his mama.

What's Up

• We had breakfast with our old friends, the Bodes, at Caesar's Palace on Sunday morning. Remy was fussy so adult conversation was difficult, but just to see their friendly faces again was wonderful. It was one of those times that you just wish you could convince everyone you care about to move to Vegas!
• About the breakfast, I just have to say - Nutella waffles. Oh. My. Gosh.
• Just three weeks until Mom and Dad head for NV! Anticipating their move has changed the way I see this town. Everywhere I go I wonder, what will they think of this view? would they like this restaurant? I can't wait to find out!
  
• Remy is teething again. He is somewhere up around 14 or 15 teeth at this point. Between his chompers and his height, he looks like a freaking kindergartener. Well, maybe a kindergartener with a binky problem.
  
• Remy and Ross got in a lot of quality play time this weekend. In case you've never seen it first hand, Ross brings his a-game to play time. Remy is a lucky little dude.
  

Photography Links: The Mysterious 'P' and Tilt-Shift

Mac World has an informative article that has taught me yet another bit of information about my camera that I might have known, had I bothered to read the manual. It explains what the P on the dslr's dial stands for and what it can do. I didn't even know there was a P. I actually got up and checked because I didn't believe it. I am very grateful to the men and women who have sacrificed their time to read the manual and explain it to the rest of us idiots.

Speaking of photography, there is a trick called tilt-shift (it makes normal sized things look miniature) that is kind of hot right now and it is pretty much the star of this local car dealership commercial. It happens to be one of Remy's favorite things ever so I am posting it below.

Here is a lovely example of tilt-shift from Miguel Yatco at his blog Living in the Stills.


Reminds me of the wonder I always feel when seeing the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute.

Miniature of a Virginia dining room as it may have appeared in 1752, by Mrs. James Ward Thorne.

Oahu Bound

Last time we flew, Remy was still using an infant car seat which clicked conveniently into his stroller, so we were able to just push the whole kit n caboodle around the airport without too much difficulty. Now, however, he is a big boy and he has a big boy car seat that is tall and wide and has innumerable confusing straps and buckles. The monstrosity most definitely is NOT stroller compatible. Solution (I hope!): JL Childress Ultimate Car Seat Travel Bag.

Doesn't this look insanely comfortable? Ross is gonna be SO lucky.

Or, if Ross is not feeling particularly heroic, we can just try this...

It should get here today. With "Ultimate" in the name, I have high hopes!

(photos from Amazon)

Remy and Thomas

Remy is a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine. We've probably watched Thomas and the Runaway Kite 10,000 times. Well, I haven't done the math or anything, but that sounds right.

Remy is bored.

Remy beholds the venetian blinds on the door to the balcony. He commences the I-want-that dance.

Mommy has a heart of stone, she does not lower the venetian blinds for Remy to play with.

If that is how it is going to be, Remy will open the balcony door and slam it! But Mommy has locked the door.

Daddy comes to the rescue. Remy and his beloved blinds are reunited. Noisely.

Iced Tea

As a child, one of the perks of summer in our house was the excellent sun-brewed iced tea that my parents would make. These days my Dad is the go-to man for iced tea, and though it is not the sun-brewed variety anymore, it still brings back great memories. In the Cangelosi household I am the iced tea maker, so I get to put as little sugar in it as I see fit...and that means more for me!



If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty. ~Japanese Proverb

If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you. ~Gladstone, 1865

Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. ~T'ien Yiheng

Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence. ~Samuel Johnson

Iced tea is too pure and natural a creation not to have been invented as soon as tea, ice, and hot weather crossed paths. ~John Egerton


Iced tea may not have as much wisdom as hot tea, but in the summer better a cool and refreshed dullard than a steamy sweat-drenched sage - leave sagacity to the autumn! ~Linda Solegato

Tea does our fancy aid,
Repress those vapours which the head invade
And keeps that palace of the soul serene.
~Edmund Waller, "Of Tea"

And finally, because today is the opening of the final installment of the Harry Potter film series:

Harry found the [tea]... seemed to burn away a little of the fear fluttering in his chest. ~J.K. Rowling

Quotes grabbed from the Quote Garden.

Remy Hears His Favorite Song

Soothes my Soul

This is the straight-out-of-the-camera gorgeousness that greets me from our balcony at the end of the day. With a view like this I think it wouldn't be a bad thing if Ross and I spent the rest of our lives renting this cozy, little apartment.



I also get to see hummingbirds on a regular basis, but so far they have all been brown. Maybe we don't have the spectacular jewel colored hummingbirds out here? I need a field guide to Nevada trees and birds...I never know what I am looking at!

The balcony garden is doing well. I have to water everything constantly, even the drought resistant plants, or they start to fail. Fortunately for my thirsty little plants, Mom will be here to take over watering duties when we go on vacation next month.

Next month! Wow, that feels good to say...next month, next month, next month! Okay, I'll stop now.

Bed Head

One of the best things about summer has to be sweaty baby hair - this is what Remy looked like when he woke up from his nap today:

Bellagio on the Fourth

Fourth of July Fireworks

Last year we watched the fireworks from the edge of the apartment complex, which looks east out over the city and is an amazing view. This year, though, we wanted to be a little closer to the action. We went over to Red Rock Resort and Casino, our favoritest place, and snagged a parking spot at the corner of the top deck of the parking garage. Then we went downstairs and put Remy in Kid's Quest while we had dinner and played slots until it was show time. We picked up a happy but groggy little buddy and went back up to the car. Our spot at the corner of the top level ended up being the best place to view the fireoworks from, but probably the worst place to exit from. We were stuck up on that parking deck for about a thousand years. Luckily we are home now and so I am able to post some pictures.

Remy wants to know what the heck we are doing here at this ungodly hour (approximately 8:45pm.)

Oh, this is why we are here.

Remy was a little freaked out by the fireworks but with his trusty blanky by his side he never really lost his cool.

Daddy stayed close by to reassure him during the extremely boomy finale.

Beautiful fireworks, way to go Red Rock, but if we come back next year we will probably park somewhere else, or just bring a sleeping bag and camp out on in the parking garage.

Oahu Bound

We bought our plane tickets to Honolulu over the weekend and today my one-size-fits-all vacation dress arrived in the mail! I think I love it. I look pregnant in it, but I look pregnant in almost everything so...whatevs! Less than two months to go!

Newest Flowers

My $1.99 Rose Moss plants are adjusting...not quite thriving yet but doing better than they were the first couple of days after I transplanted them, and handling the heat better than a lot of the other plants. Two of the six bloomed fir the first time on Thursday.

Wiping the perspiration off her brow.