Thankful Thursday - 93

With these gorgeous days it's not hard to find things to be thankful for. 
This week, I'm grateful for...

1. Weekends at the Cabin. I try hard as I get older not to take the fact that Opa & Oma have this cabin that they allow us/encourage us to make use of for granted. It is my favorite place, and I love that it's close enough to go for a weekend, but far enough that we're removed from every day life. Time slows down there. I wish we could have stayed up there for a week or more!

2. Starting Solids. Dominic is 6 months old now, and we've started solids. So far he's had baby oatmeal, butternut squash, chicken and broccoli. He is a fan of all the food (I think he just likes eating). I think the broccoli gave him gas though as he's been pretty uncomfortable since having that... Oops! We also bought the below high chair the other day. I had been intending to buy it, and finally went to bite the bullet and it was on sale! Regualr $150, on for $100. SCORE!

3. Relationships. As Dominic starts to recognize people, I can see relationships develop and I am so enjoying it. It's special to see his eyes light up when he sees one of his/our loved ones, and they are each creating their own special bond. 

Dominic - 6 Months Old

He is half a year old today... This last month absolutely flew. I am ready for time to slow down now! I am not ready to be half way to going back to work! That feels like a whole other life... 

Such a big boy sitting up all by himself

Weight: 17lb. 3.2 oz (45th percentile)
Height: 26.7 inches (54th percentile)

He seems leaner in the 6 month one than the 5 month. I wonder if that's just because he's sitting up so much straighter now. 

Likes:

• Bath time. Kicks his legs like crazy and splashes around. The bigger and scarier the splashes the better!
• Being busy. This boy will be on the move in no time I'm sure! I can tell he's getting frustrated with being stationary.
• Eating. He opens wide when he sees that spoon coming to his mouth!
• Playing with my hair. When he's tired he will rest his head on my left shoulder, suck his two fingers on his right hand, and reach around my neck with his left hand and play with my hair. This usually means pulling a rat-tail out of my ponytail... Nice. He does this to other people too. I think it's the sweetest thing. I love it.
• Chewing his toes during diaper changes.

Dislikes:

• Being tired and not being in his sleep environment. Cue screaming! He mostly only cries when he's tired, unless he's having a particularly bad day. 
• Beards. Okay... so he doesn't really care either way, but his skin dislikes them. Whenever someone with facial hair kisses or nuzzles him he gets a rash wherever the coarse hair touches. Kind of annoying when there are so many men in his life with facial hair! 

Notes:

• Sits up completely unassisted now. 
• Wearing 9 month clothing
• Hardly ever rolls over any more. I know he can, he's just not motivated to. 
• Coughs for attention. It's like an "ahem" noise. 
• Started solids (baby oatmeal & breastmilk mix) on June 7. He has also had butternut squash now and LOVES all of it. He gets really mad if he's hungry at all and we're eating in front of him and not sharing. 
• Teething and drooling like CRAZY. No teeth yet, but you can see they're going to be coming in soon. Not ready!
• On reflux meds still, but spits up much less due to starting solids. We will probably try taper off Zantac soon. 
• He reaches for people if he wants to be picked up.
• Definitely recognizes certain people he sees more often. 
• Learning to blow air. This mostly means oatmeal sprayed all over the counter, and him tickling me by blowing raspberries on my leg/shoulder/arm/boob... Whatever he finds in his way. 
• He is becoming much more independent playing with his toys. 
• We went on our first road trip and he was generally pretty great in the car. This goes along with playing independently I suppose! He was able to entertain himself the whole way too the cabin. He needed some extra help from me on the way home though.
• He pants with excitement when you go to pick him up from his crib or car seat. 
• He got his 6 month immunization today.  

If I try to wake Dom up from a nap he turns into a grumpy teenager. Looks at me, grunts and rolls back over to go back to sleep. 

Dad's 50th Birthday - Cabin & Chef's Table

Many pictures in this post!!

My Dad turned 50 on June 25. By some stroke of luck, all of us kids, our significant others, and Opa & Oma were available to go up to the cabin for his birthday weekend. 

Dave and I went up Thursday morning as we weren't sure how long our drive would be with Mr. Dominic. Turns out he traveled great that day, and we were pulling up to the cabin by 11:30 am! We had a whole day ahead of us!! We set up our room and put Dom down for a nap. Another sleep training win - he didn't even seem to notice he wasn't in his crib at home! Dom had zero issues sleeping the whole weekend! Yayy!!!!
My parents, Scott & Courtney, and Jeff & Marta arrived at the cabin later on Thursday night. Adam & Aly met us at the dinner the next day. 

Dominic's first time at the cabin. So fun!!

Friday morning all the guys except Opa went golfing, so the rest of us just hung around at the cabin enjoying the sunshine!

We didn't even have to bring the Bumbo because this boy is so strong now! Look at him sitting up all by himself! So proud :)

Friday evening my parents had arranged for us to have dinner at Backyard Farm - Chef's Table in Oliver. This was the main reason we came to the cabin for the weekend. What. An. Experience. The food was to DIE for, the area was absolutely beautiful, and what better people to enjoy it with?! We ate our many courses of exquisite food, drank some amazing wine and socialized the night away. 

I'll do a separate post on the specifics of the dishes Chef Chris made for us, but I'll include all the pictures here as well. 

Between the courses, Opa & the four of us kids prepared a little toast/speech for Dad. The four of our speeches were similar in many ways, but we also each had our own experiences with Dad growing up. I loved hearing what my brothers had to say! Such a great way to honour Dad. 

They really were excited to be there, I promise

Act candid, Jeff

Dominic was SO amazing during the dinner. He fussed for about three minutes total. It was WAY past his bedtime by the time the first course was served even. He was angel baby. I couldn't have asked for anything better <3

Up in the kitchen talking to Chef Chris before the food is served. 

All the eggs they use are from their own chickens, their honey is from their own bees, they grow their own vegetables and pickle/jar/preserve them... I love what this place stands for and how beautifully it is all executed.

The evening's menu. Um. YUM!

This photo doesn't show it off well, but Uncle Jeff & Dom have matching ears.

Chef Chris enjoying some of the wine we (my parents) provided. This guy knows his wine! I noticed under his cooking table he had a bottle of Latitude 50, which I would consider a pretty nice "every day" wine. Nope... that's his cooking wine, because he "only drinks the good stuff." Haha! Expensive taste!

Ah yes. Here comes the food! Backyard Farm Handcrafted Whole Weat Plum Sourdough Bread, Sweet Butter, Smoked Maldon Salt

Prepping our first dish.

First Course - Albacore Tuna Tartare, Dry Cured Chorizo-Burst Grape Tomato Confit, Backyard Rhubarb Emulsion, Forbidden Rice Crisp, Sunflower Sprout.

House Made Hummus was brought out between first and second courses to enjoy with some more sourdough bread.

Each course was paired with a different wine (or two). Now we're talking!

Second Course - Olive Oil Poached Long Line Halibut, Preserved Lemon Risotto Cake, Apricot Butter, House Cured Wild Boar Bacon.

We purchased these three loaves after the meal at $5 each. WELL worth the price!

Main Course prep. Chef Chris asks for dietary restrictions ahead of time, so he made all my dishes without dairy, and eliminated red meat from Aly's dishes. Here you can see her chicken instead of our flatiron steak (droooooool).

Great Opa, Opa and Dom!

Main Course - Grilled Cache Creek Beef Flatiron, Natural Chevre Fondant Potato, Garlic Scape-Parsley Puree, Wilted Baby Greens and "WTF" Local Oyster Mushrooms, Spiced Plum Reduction. (WTF = What the Fungus")

Dessert Prep!

Mom & Dad went to Europe years ago, and went to Gert at the Wijn Winkel. They were tasting all sorts of wines, and he brought out this bottle of port that was bottled in 1967. My parents exclaimed that was the year they were born. "Really? Well... Here! Take the bottle! Enjoy it on your 50th birthday!" Gert certainly went above and beyond. That said, they are both now 50 years old, and the port was opened! It far exceeded their (and our) expectations. So so delicious! What a special gift.

Dom was SO tired. I finally stuck him in his car seat and put him facing the window. He passed out hard, but was startled awake by us clapping and screamed (almost) the whole way back to the cabin :(. That was very sad, but I'm so grateful he was perfect baby at the dinner!

Dessert - Espelette Infused 55% Michel Cluizel Chocolate Pate, Hazelnut Praline, Star Anise Caramel, Coffee Meringue, Red Wine Spiced Backyard Cherries. 

Never have I ever enjoyed such amazing, high quality food. Everyone who loves food must experience this at some point in their lives! 

On Saturday 7 of us went out wine tasting in Oliver again! We made sure to pack every minute of this weekend apparently. We hit up three wineries together. Hester Creek for tasting and some snacks on the patio (par usual), and then Silver Sage because Courtney and Marta had never been there, and then Stoneboat to meet up with Adam & Aly who were in Penticton earlier that morning. David graciously offered to stay back at the cabin with Dominic. At first this freaked me out... I hadn't left Dom in a long time. However, he slept 75% of the time! Haha David got lucky :)

Live music on the patio at Hester Creek

Love this view

Silver Sage

Attempted selfie with the big camera...

Stoneboat. It was my first time here!

"Stone'd" Glasses. One of Stoneboat's feature Red & White wines!

Mom, Jeff & I headed back to the cabin at this point while the others continued to one final winery. The rest of Saturday as well as Sunday morning was taken to relax, swim, sun tan and pack up to go home! I think we all agreed we could have used another day or 10 at the cabin. It is still one of my favorite places ever. 

Sherlock spent most of the weekend in the water. If he wasn't fetching something, he was just standing in it peering over the hill at us. This picture was taken as he ran into the neighbour's yard begging for attention :)

The "kids" were in charge of Sunday's breakfast for Dad's actual birthday. Eggs Benedict it is! Amazing.

Dominic just waiting for us to finish up our game so we can pack up the car and go home!

He was a little less thrilled about the drive home. He slept about 30 minutes in the first hour of the drive, and then was fussy/awake the rest of the time, actually crying for two 20 minute stints or so. Over all though, it could have gone much worse!

Until next time cabin!