fun weekend

mike had to work this weekend, and normally the weekends he works are long, long, LONG for jack and i. he leaves at 8:30am on saturday mornings and comes home about 6:30. by then jack is finishing up his bedtime routine and is sleeping by 7pm, so that means i've got him from waking till bedtime, all to myself. it's fine, but often feels quite long. this weekend, however, flew by since we had lots of fun things planned. on saturday my parents took me out to lunch to celebrate my upcoming birthday, and my brother came from iowa city to join us. we went to dos rios, a new restaurant downtown that i mentioned in a previous post (we went there for mike's birthday dinner). it was much more affordable at lunch. i'm still not completely blown away by the food for the price, but it's still good. the food looks and sounds great, but some of it is missing that incredible flavor punch you expect to get after reading the menu descriptions. nonetheless, it was a great lunch and fun to be out. afterward we headed back to our house, where they surprised me with a champagne cake from highland park bakery; this old hole in the wall place that has been around on the east side of des moines forever. not a place i frequent because of the location, but the champagne cakes can't be beat. we opened gifts, ate cake, and played a rousing game of cranium. my family is a gaming family :) here are some photos:

my parents at dos rios


jack's urgent need for cake




jack and "ba-pa"


jack and mama


looking at these photos shows me how much i have swollen up with pregnancy :) not that i would or could change anything; i know it's a natural part of the process. but it's strange seeing yourself through other people's eyes (or at least the eye of a camera), when you don't notice the daily changes in the mirror!

today was also fun, as jack and i went to the home of some friends for lunch. colleen made a SPREAD, and it was all delicious. jack had fun playing with caleb, who is 3 months younger than he. i got some cute items for baby ben, as well as a wonderful birthday gift-- my coveted bebe au lait nursing cover! i think outings will be much easier with a nursing baby knowing i have this little tool to make breastfeeding in public more comfortable (for everyone else). i have a feeling i'll be OUT more this time around, too, since i'll have a toddler who needs to get out and exercise and be entertained.

in other news, i was psyched to find out that des moines has a crepes cafe that i didn't know about. i miss all the places that served crepes in NYC, so i'm excited to try this one. it's mostly a coffeehouse and bar, with a few pizza and crepe offerings, but sounds delightful nonetheless: black cat cafe. mike and i are trying to get out and eat as much as possible before benjamin arrives. it's hard enough to do now, but we figure it will be even harder to feel okay with getting a sitter when we have two. so my parents have been coming out many fridays to take jack to dinner and to play, while we go out and eat dinner alone and then run errands without jack. it's a definite perk of having family nearby! we're going to try azalea, a relatively new restaurant downtown, for my birthday on tuesday. i'm pretty excited to try the artichoke and goat cheese spring rolls. are you catching on that the best part of a birthday, for me, is all the special food? :)

today i finally placed an online order for biobags, a brand of biodegradable trash liner. for a long time now i have made an effort to take canvas bags with me when i go grocery shopping (or to target, or any kind of shopping, really). i feel good not using plastic bags, knowing that they just fill landfills (working at the DNR taught me a lot). but we always buy cheap plastic can liners for our kitchen trash can, and often use any plastic bags we do receive as liners for our bathroom/bedroom trash cans. i've been wanting to look into biodegradable bags for some time now, but never had seen any at hy-vee or our local health/ecofriendly stores (oh how i miss the iowa city co-op. i didn't shop there much as a college student, but i think that at this point in my life i would REALLY appreciate it). it wasn't until last week when we reached an all-time low, with running out of spare plastic bags to line the upstairs trash cans (into which we scoop the litter box contents) and mike bringing home hy-vee plastic bags just for this purpose, that i decided i need to do a search online for the biodegradable kind. biobags seemed to be the most common and popular, so i made an order for the 13 gallon tall kitchen size, and for the 2 gallon small can size. it was $30 for 50 2 gallon bags and 36 kitchen bags (this includes the $8 shipping), which i didn't think was that bad. so hopefully they'll fit the cans well. if any of you have used eco-friendly trash liners, or have had experience with biobags, i'd love to hear about it.