Pinhole Press vacation book

My darlings, we love taking vacation photos (who doesn't?) but then we never really look at them again. They're just stuck on our computers. So! We decided to make a Pinhole Press photo book with our England vacation snapshots, and I love love love the way it turned out. The paper is really soft, the photos look gorgeous, and it's amazing to have a little book of our vacation. Alex and I have read through it like fifty times. :) Here are a few of the pages...
Anyway, it was easy to make and it's so wonderful to have; now I'm dying to make litte photo books for all our vacations and events, including every Christmas break and our wedding and honeymoon. Thought I'd share! xoxo
P.S. Inspired, I also made some thank-you notes to have on hand at home, using a photo Amy Merrick emailed me of her flowers. :)

A new bike

My old bike got stolen a few weeks ago (even though it had the baby seat on it, harrumph!). It was a rusty Schwinn that I'd had for five years, and I figured it was now finally time to get a grown-up bike.

After researching online, I decided to get one of the PUBLIC bikes, which are incredible Dutch-inspired city bikes made in San Francisco. The best part is, they mail the bike right to your door, and you just have to put the final pieces together (they send you tools and easy instructions). I'm thrilled with the bike, which is cute, comfy and smooth to ride.

The models, above, look gorgeous, and here's me, below, during a recent date night with Alex. (We rode to Brooklyn for dinner.)
Riding in Manhattan...
Over the Brooklyn Bridge...
Fast...
But not as fast as Alex.

Do you have a bike? Which kind? I'd recommend a PUBLIC bike if you are in the market! They also have great bike gear. UPDATE! PUBLIC says they're happy to offer a 10% discount to Cup of Jo readers with the code CUPOFJO. Good until the end of August.

Coldy cold.

This summer has been recordbreakingly hot, but somehow I managed to come down with a terrible cold. I've been sick for a week, coughing, sneezing and waking up at night with a sore throat. I also lost my voice! The bright side? My friend sent me her recipe for a Hot Toddy, and Alex mixed one up last night. It was delicious. Have you ever had one?

Hot Toddy
½ shot Bourbon
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup hot water

What makes you feel better when you have a cold?

(Update: For readers who asked, my dress is Steven Alan, and my watch is a cheap Timex:)

Motherhood Mondays: On boobs. :)

My darlings, this may be a little intimate, but let's talk about breasts! After the jump, of course...

I've always been a pretty modest person (in high school gym class, I was one of the girls who would change in the bathroom) but now that I've had a baby, I'm much more open about certain body parts: namely, breasts. They just seem so functional and quotidian to me now. So, if you're game, I'd love to chat about all things breasty.

Seven things that surprised me about breastfeeding:

1. Breastfeeding burns a whopping 500 calories per day! Yowza! I was really surprised to hear that. Even if you sit perfectly still all day, you burn as many calories as if you'd run five miles. Needless to say, you get hungry like the wolf. I remember drinking an average of four glasses of whole milk every day, and once, I ate an entire tuna pasta salad in the middle of the night. The next morning, my mom, who was visiting, was like, "Where's the pasta salad?" I was like....In. My. Belly.

2. You get overwhelmingly thirsty. As soon as I'd start nursing Toby, I'd get hit with a wave of thirst like a Mack truck. All I would be able to think was, "Water, water, water...." until I was glugging down a huge glass. Alex actually bought me a giant water bottle, and honestly it was one of my favorite gifts I've ever gotten.

3. You can squirt milk across the room. (Is that TMI?) Before having a baby, I imagined that a nipple would function like a single straw, but actually they're more like this kitchen faucet. Milk sprays out a bunch of teeny holes, and, if you squeeze your breast, you can spray milk right across the room! It would be an awesome party trick if it were the least bit socially acceptable.

4. Nursing bras can be sexy. I dragged my feet when shopping for a nursing bra because I figured I'd be stuck wearing a hideous functional number for the next twelve months. But! I was thrilled to discover Elle MacPherson nursing bras. They're soft and pretty, and I love how the black lace peeks out from beneath tank tops and cardigans.

5. Babies are completely over-the-moon about milk. It's so, so, so adorable how much babies love milk. Toby would get so excited before feeding; he'd root around trying to find the boob. He'd frantically move his tiny head around, like, where is it, where is it...he'd find his fist and suck like crazy...and then be like, oh, wait, that's not it....where is it....YES, here it is!!!! And his eyes would basically roll back in his head, he was so happy. He would sometimes even hum when he drank! (And then he'd get his drunken sailor face:)

6. You can literally feel drained afterward. Sometimes I'd stumble out of the nursery after giving Toby his bedtime feed, and tell Alex, laughing, "I feel like the energy was just truly sucked out of me." It can be exhausting. I mean, you're fattening up a baby. Of course, it can be really wonderful, cozy and profound at the same time.

7. You get big boobs! Kind of embarrassing but one of my favorite parts of pregnancy/nursing was finally experiencing big boobs. I've always been a flat-chested girl (I even wore those chicken cutlets at my wedding), and I've long been curious about what it would be like to have big breasts even just for one day. Well, when I was pregnant, my breasts kept growing, and when Toby was born and I started nursing, they felt HUGE (at least to me). It was a thrill to have big boobs, including cleavage, for the first time ever! (Here are my small boobs; here are my big boobs:) Of course, now that Toby has stopped nursing, my boobs have shrunk down to their pre-baby size. But I'll never forget my one glorious well-endowed year.
Toby eating lunch in our hospital room when he was one day old.

Finally, the breastfeeding book I swear by: A few of my best friends found breastfeeding very difficult at first (one even said it was harder than labor, ouch!). I felt hugely grateful to have a relatively easy time with nursing, and, along with biology and luck, I credit The Nursing Mother's Companion for helping make breastfeeding easier. With a straightforward, reassuring tone, the book shows you how to help your baby latch on correctly and overcome obstacles. My friend Samantha gave me her dog-eared copy before Toby was born, and I'm so thankful she did. I'd highly recommend it to all mothers-to-be who plan to nurse. (And good luck to you! I know everyone's experience is different.)
I'm so curious: What was your experience with breastfeeding? Did you breastfeed or decide not to? What were those early days like for you? (I am so amazed by moms who handled sore breasts on top of everything else in new motherhood! What heros!) What surprised you? I would LOVE to hear...
(Heehee)

P.S. More on breastfeeding and more Motherhood Monday posts.

Simple pleasures

Toby and I spend a lot of time at playgrounds, and sometimes I'll get really low on the ground while he's swinging. At first, he's perplexed (every time)....
...and then he finds it hilarious (every time). Toby, I love hanging out with you.

Do or don't: Guys with beards

When Alex accidentally grew a beard three years ago (he had the flu), I told him he looked rugged and handsome. Surprised, he said I was the only women he'd ever known who actually liked beards. But doesn't everyone love a good scruff? I'm curious: Do you prefer guys with beards or definitely not?

Today Alex wrote an article about what it feels like for a guy to have a beard. It was funny to hear a man's perspective! Read it here, if you'd like.

P.S. Before and after.

Motherhood Mondays: Would you find out if you were having a boy or a girl, or keep it a surprise?

My darlings, if you were pregnant, would you want to find out if you were having a boy or a girl, or would you keep it a surprise?

When I was pregnant with Toby, I was on pins and needles; I would never have had the willpower to wait to find out the baby's sex. I'm a huge gossip by nature (never tell me a secret!), and I wouldn't have been able to wait patiently for nine whole months for the gender reveal. (Funnily enough, though, if we have another baby, I think I would want to wait, just to try it both ways! Can you imagine how exciting it would be while you were in labor?)

Here's a cute video of a couple finding out their baby's sex. They asked their doctor to write down "boy" or "girl," and without looking, they gave the piece of paper to a baker. Then the baker made a cake—with either blue cake for a boy, or pink cake for a girl—covered with white icing. Finally, that night, the couple invited friends and family over while they cut the cake...and revealed the cake color!

What about you, my lovelies? Would you prefer to wait, or would want to find out? If you have kids, did you know their sexes ahead of time? I'm so curious...

P.S. Do you secretly hope for either a boy or a girl? (I did!)

(Photo by Lazareva Valeria; video by Tupelo Honey)

Vacation photos: Cornwall, England

My darlings, I'd love to share a few photos from our vacation in England, if you'd like to see...

Our grandmother lives in a teeny tiny fishing village called Polruan. Our first evening there, we had a drinks party on her terrace. She invited her friends of all ages, and we ate smoked salmon and potato chips.
Toby loves a good party...
We toasted my cousin and her husband, who were celebrating their first wedding anniversary. (Aren't they cute?)
And this is the view! Crikey! It was so much fun.
During this trip, Toby met his new "cousins" (they are my cousins' daughters) for the first time ever. It was ridiculously endearing to see them all play together. My British aunts referred to them as "the littles," which I loved.
We had a few rainy days (not pictured:), but on a particularly sunny afternoon, we took a spectacular boat ride to Lantic Bay, a beach nearby. (That's when we took this family photo, too.)
My cousin's husband Nick brought along a bottle of Cornish scrumpy, which is a strong alcoholic cider that tastes just like apple juice.
Toby drank too much and passed out. (Kidding.)
The English ocean water was freeeeezing but my cousins are brave.
One day, we all hiked to visit my grandfather's grave, which is in a lovely countryside church overlooking fields of sheep. My grandmother always brings whiskey (his favorite) to sprinkle over his grave.
My awesome sister Lucy carried Toby all the way (uphill). Yay for aunts!
Have you ever had a Cornish pasty? It's dough filled with beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and lots of pepper, and you can eat them with one hand. (Originally, they were developed for miners and sailors.) Delish...
As with all great vacations, we ate way too much.
In the evenings, the yellow light is gorgeous, and we sometimes take walks and chat with sweet old ladies on the street.
At the end of each day, we'd just hang out, cook dinner, gossip, play games and drink gin & tonics. I remember how my grandfather used to sometimes call out, in his booming British voice, "Noise level too high!"
One evening, my brother made the mistake of dozing off in a chair, so naturally we decided to see how many items we could stack on him before he woke up. (I thought the bottle on his head was especially impressive:)
Our final morning, we got up early to leave. We were sad to go but the bright side was seeing the view from the terrace. The morning fog looked foggy and magical--right out of Peter Pan. Polruan, we miss you already! Thank you for having us, Milly! xoxo

P.S. English wedding hats, and ten tips for traveling with a baby...