foam roller.

it all started friday around 11am. i was watching a friend of remie's that day. not a big deal! you just wear sam on your chest and put the two toddlers in the stroller (having a double stroller here is the equivalent of having a suburban... it's lifesaving). so after a little adventure to the library i decided to stop and pick up some bread for a friend who wasn't feeling well. once again, not a big deal.

so there i am in line with her bread and a few groceries for myself. but of course i don't have my credit card and i'm 2 long blocks away from home. BLAST! so i have to trudge back home with the 3 kids in the blazing hot and humid weather just to pick up my credit card on the kitchen table.

at this point you may be thinking, "amanda, you need an apple watch! you forgot your card?? no problem, just hold that sucker right up to the machine and BAM!!" well, i LOVE where your heads at, but you know what the cheaper option is... ? A FANNY PACK. i need one of those. then i will NEVER forget my phone, keys or cc. which happens A LOT.

there i go, hustling back home. by now i have serious swack, and sam and i are connecting on a whole other sweaty level (remember, he's on my chest?? he's been there for 2 hours now). i pull the stroller up the stoop steps (the stroller weighs about 100lbs with all the kids...) get the cc, run back out. get the bread, take it to my friends and she gives me a yoga mat and foam roller in return (she's moving and one woman trash is another woman treasure, right?!?). cool, let's go home and get everyone some lunch!

FALSE. i'm crossing the street thinking about getting home to the cool air conditioning, not even thinking about the foam roller in my stroller basket. by now it's like 12:30, it's SUPER hot and humid outside and i'm really hungry. so the hungry shakes are starting to come on (you know those?? you get them sometimes while fasting...). but i've got 2 blocks left before i'm home. well i look down and, OOPS no foam roller.

what the heck. where did it go?! i'm looking all around the area and can't find it anywhere. that's when i realize it fell out of the stroller way back.... back when i was crossing the street.

i look back and this awesome, giant foam roller is in the middle of the street. i turn the semi-stroller around to go and get it, just in time to see the light turn green and 20 cars PLOW OVER IT and completely mutilate the thing.

it must be my hormones. or the heat. or the hunger. or maybe the 3 H's all together. but i literally burst into tears. i watched it get run over for like 3 more minutes (just long enough for someone to stop and ask if i was okay; to which i could just nod), before heading back home. crying and dreading pulling the stroller up the steps of my building, we headed home.

but alas, i see a guy from the first floor of my building approaching at the same time! miracle. surely chivalry will prevail and he will help me.

we get to the stairs at the same time. he goes right up them, opens the door, enters the building and leaves me in the dust.

WHAT?!?!?!?!??!!?!??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!

and THAT, people, was my first "i-hate-new-york meltdown moment." that day i literally hated everything about this city. i hated the inconvenience of trying to get places. i hated that no one told me my neon green foam roller had fallen out of the stroller. i hated that in that moment chivalry was dead. i hated my neighbor (i even drafted a mental note "to: the idiot on the first floor"...). i hated that the cashier at the grocery store would't let me just tell her my card number (what do you mean it's "illegal?!?!") i hated the heat. i hated the humidity. i was just mad as mad can be.

i don't even know why i share this. especially mixed in with some of my favorite pictures of new york. but i guess on most days i just love this city so much and make it look like such a dreamy place to live (thanks, instagram), but reality is, it has it's bad days, too!

i was at a party yesterday and a mom asked me if this "blog was 'real.'" to which i replied "pretty much!" there are a lot of bloggers in NY who make it seem like such an easy and effortless place to live in... but any REAL new yorker will tell you differently. it's hard. life is a constant hustle and everyday you go to bed exhausted. but then again, isn't that part of what makes it a little bit fun?! sometimes the hustle can be slightly addicting.

but indulge me for just this weekend while i just totally hate new york. because monday i'll be out again at the park and totally in love with this place we somehow call home.

oh, heaven help us. we're crazy.

ramblings.

i blame my mother-in-law for his insatiable desire for homemade rolls. she makes a solid batch of homemade rolls (like she could work for the lion house [whose rolls are DOPE]). so therefore when aj and i make bets about stupid things he wants a batch of homemade rolls as his winnings (i want an apple watch).

i lost the last bet so here i am sitting in the kitchen looking at my last batch of homemade rolls. 

yes, sorry, world. i'm never making rolls ever again. i can't even count how many times i've attempted to make big, fluffy, buttery rolls; following EVERY single detail of the recipe, only to have them turn out like small flour poops. (imagine that.)

and i'm just irritated. WHY CAN'T I DO IT?! i know i shouldn't be this bothered. but i am. damn rolls. ruined my sunday.

there's a new store in my hood called flying tiger. have you heard of it? i frequent it almost every week because it's my new favorite. it's like copenhagen's ikea but for knick-knacks. i love it.           ^^^ remzers shades are from there and i love that she's insistent on wearing them whenever it's "bright" outside. (SO all the time.)

we have been reading so many good books lately, if you want to add a few new ones to your library check these out:

cockatoo, too
harvey potters balloon farm
mustache baby (& mustache baby meets his match) - this one will make the parents laugh more than the kids!
follow me!
where's waldo? - i LOVE that she loves this!
base case of stripes - another from my childhood that she loves to read and i'm tickled reading to her.

this week my mind wandered to the subject of immigration and immigrants coming to america. i got wondering and started googling some things and discovered this very interesting map and article. see for yourself:

it's hard to see here, so you can just look and read more in the link above, BUT i thought it was funny and i was tickled that so many people in utah (where i'm from) claimed ancestry from england. if you're a mormon you'll know that this is because many early converts to the church were from england, who then upon arrival to the u.s. went on to utah to be with the rest of the early saints of the church. 

when they got to the salt lake valley, it was just an empty, salty valley. 

>>>> now look at it. here's my wild child running around on the pristine, celestial grounds where these early pioneers walked. and to think they even built this temple??.... mind blowing. i need to get my act together and do something cool before i die. (now on my "to do" list: do something cool.)

remzer has already done many cool things this week. one of them: wearing her helmet for almost the entire day (nap time i forced her to take it off). that has to be a world record right??

("to do": look up what the world record is for wearing a helmet the longest.)

she really is a cool kid. way cooler than me. the fact that she can drink 2 16oz smoothies blows my mind. i also feel like this should be an ad for juice generation..... #collectingroyalties ???

we walked past this ivy beauty the other day and i was just smitten. i thought "i could really get down with living here permanently if we had a place like this..." 

then we went to this birthday party the other day in an apartment that was amazing. 2 stories, 3 REAL bedrooms, terrace, living room, dining, etc... the whole 9 yards. we were wildly impressed. the friends later mentioned that they were paying $7200 a month for the place. 

WHAT?!?! what a joke!!! there is no way we're staying here permanently, even if we did have that set up. sounds nice, but no way. i'd rather have a big old farm house and spend that money on the feed for my herd of fainting goats. but is that just as crazy?? idk, you can tell me in the comments.

question: has anyone ever shaved their kids's head? i've heard that if you do this while they're still a newborn/infant then it'll grow back with amazing thickness and beauty. is this true?? sam has a rad combover going on, but only on the top. like i love it. BUT i'm wondering if it could be even cooler if it was thicker....? i'm worried about shaving his head. how do you even do that? our albanian building maintenance guy did it to his daughter and she does have amazingly thick hair now. but i haven't asked how they shaved it and i'm sort of afraid of what the answer will be.....

and don't tell me "he's beautiful just the way he is...." i KNOW that.

we've gone to the zoo a lot this week because the weather is nice and it's close. but this whole cincinnati zoo gorilla story has me all creeped out! remie is a super good listener and i never let her out of my sight, but like what if one of those little capuchin monkeys jumps over the fence and snatches her? or last time, the snow leopards were playing right at her feet on the other side of the glass and i kept thinking "what if they break the glass with all that rough housing?!" i had myself positioned so i could grab her and run if needed. love the zoo, but is anyone else just totally freaked out by that gorilla story??

yesterday we're at the splash pad (seen below) and this kid walks up to his dad and says "hey, dad! look i found a bandaid!" seriously?? kids.... hahahahaha how lovely.

i took this picture, uploaded it and didn't even notice secret and sam standing there in the background until just now. c'est bon, guys. c'est bon.