Walking, Hiking, and Toddling Along

Happy Monday! (<-- is that a thing?) 

Hope you had a lovely weekend. Ours was low-key, which is exactly what we had hoped for these several weeks in a row with few plans. 

On Friday, our first Blue Apron shipment arrived! Thanks again to our friend Amanda who has been enjoying Blue Apron meals and gifted us with a free week!

We opted to wait until Marshall was asleep before digging into the box, mostly so we could turn the cooking experience into a mini-date night. We cooked together, and the whole meal took maybe 30 minutes, start to finish. This meal was cornmeal-crusted catfish, tomato-cucumber salad, and creamy potatoes (recipes are available on Blue Apron's website for free!). 

 We thought the catfish was really great. The salad and the potatoes were both super simple but tasty. I would have decreased the amount of onion in the salad and used a different mustard on the potatoes (I'm not a huge Dijon fan, and that taste really came through on the potatoes). I think my favorite part was improving my dredging technique (dip in the cornmeal, then in the mustard-water mix, then in the cornmeal again).

I was worried the portion size would be too small, but those are full-sized dinner plates, so it's plenty of food. Normally we would want a meal to make leftovers, but we did have leftovers of the cucumber salad. Overall a great first meal, and I'll be sure to share the other two as we make them this week!

Marshall has been practicing his walking everywhere. He seems to want to walk 85% of the time. I'm trying to bring him different places to let him explore and to feel different surfaces under his feet (we've been told it's best to avoid shoes until he's a really good walker so that he can improve his balance and coordination).

Saturday we took a long family walk to the park (about 3.3 miles round trip) and let the little guy walk around there. We're holding his hand in most of these photos, but he's actually really getting the hang of walking on his own! His record is about 20 steps without falling.

We also spent plenty of time at home this weekend, adding more art/photos to the walls and getting a few chores done. I'm baffled by Marshall's interest in hanging out on his own more and more as he gets older. My instinct is often to play with him, because that's fun for me, but I'm having so much fun stepping back and just observing. He will sit with a book for five or so minutes, just turning the pages and looking at pictures, occasionally pointing at something or exclaiming, "Oh!"

Today's adventure was a hike up at Mandeville Canyon, where tons of dogs join their owners on the trail. We knew Marshall would love seeing all the dogs, though we weren't sure how long he'd be happy in the Ergo (as he gets more active, you just never know!). Our plan was to strap him in the Ergo on Terry's back and let him out to walk once or twice along the road. 

He did really well and was only a little unhappy at the end. Nice job, buddy! Then we all got Chipotle and ate it at home and Marshall skipped his nap. Oh well. 

Oh, and I finished my book, The Husband's Secret! It was certainly captivating; three stories weaved together from three women's perspectives. I raced through it and thought it was a "fun" (although there are some heavy subjects), intriguing, thought-provoking read. Next up: My Life in France by Julia Child! (Thanks to my sister-in-law for lending me that one!)

Tonight we watched Big Hero 6 (a Red Box rental) and really enjoyed it. Of course everything reminds me of Marshall now so Baymax walking around made me think of Marshall toddling away. I laughed out loud when he said, "I am not fast," in his little robot voice. A fun movie overall!

Getting into bed before 10 sounds like the perfect way to start the week off right. Here's to a great weekend and a lovely week ahead!

Do you have a favorite Pixar movie? Mine's Ratatouille.