Picnic in the Park

It was such a beautiful day today -- sunny and in the low 60s. Aunt Molly and Cousin Penny stopped by for a visit. Molly was able to fit both car seats in her car, and we went and picked up bhan mi sandwiches at An Xuyen Bakery on SE Foster and had a picnic lunch at Creston Park. After lunch, Penny played on the swings while Archer took a nap in the shade.

Sturgills visit Slappy Cakes

After hearing lots of talk and reading some not so great reviews on Yelp! we finally made it to Slappy Cakes. What is Slappy Cakes, you ask? Well after our first and only visit so far I can safely say it's one of the funnest dining experiences in Portland.

We went on a Friday morning as a pre-birthday celebration for me and going during the week is definitely recommended because part of the bad reviews we read were about the wait on weekends. We immediately got a table and were greeted by a friendly waitress with their huge menu.

The main idea behind Slappy Cakes is there's a griddle built into each table. You order your batter, they have a few different flavors. We stuck with the buttermilk although next time I might have to try the peanut butter. They also have lots of toppings you can order, from chocolate chips to bacon and goat cheese, etc. We decided to go with walnuts and apples which was perfect.

Some negative reviews we read were about making your own pancakes so we decided to go with one of their regular menu items as well and got this egg and hashbrown dish that was really good too.

Also, the atmosphere of the place is pretty great. From the vaulted ceilings with reclaimed wood to the orange color scheme, it's all really well done. My only gripe design wise is their terrible sign out front which we passed by because the type is so small.

We had a pretty much perfect dining experience at Slappy Cakes and will definitely be going again. Archer slept the whole time this round but it will be a fun place to take him when he's old enough to play along too! See below for pix and video!

The Case of the Missing Pacifier

Even before becoming parents, we'd witnessed the importance of always keeping a pacifier handy. Our niece Penny loves her binkies and they can often mean the difference between a meltdown and a happy baby.

I found some super cute pacifier clips on Etsy that just arrived in the mail this weekend. This seller, MyWoobyandMe, offers a ton of different ribbon styles for her pacifier clips, and she will customize them to fit whichever style pacifier you use. I had a hard time making my selection, so when I saw she had a special of 5 clips for $20 and a free pacifier, I went with that. (I'm not sure Archer really needs 5 pacifier clips, but hey, they're kind of like accessories and this way we can coordinate with his outfits!)

Upon receiving these, I can see how they would be very easy to make yourself if you had some cute ribbon or fabric. I would definitely recommend this seller -- her craftsmanship and attention to detail is great, and I really love the ribbons that she used on our clips -- but if you are up for it, here's a tutorial for a similar style clip that I found online.

Here are 4 of Archer's 5 new pacifier clips. I can't find a photo of the fifth one right now.

Threadless onesies sale

I just got an e-mail from Threadless about their anniversary sale over the next couple days and just realized it applies to their onesies too. There's a few on there I might have to get for the little man:

"Hi" by Ray Fenwick who was in our wurstminster show.

"Arcade Expressionism"

"Pet Sounds"

Archer in HD!

Watch in full screen mode here to fully blow your mind.








Sampler of more music by one of our favorite bands, Club 8.

21st Century Baby Photos

Some of you may have seen photos taken with the Hipstamatic iPhone app. At first I didn't give this app a second look as I thought it was trying to overtly market itself to the "hipster" crowd with it's name and it's add-on packs which were named after seemingly hipster cities including our very own Portland.

Turns out the Hipstamatic name actually comes from a real camera that was developed by two brothers in Wisconsin in the 80s that were killed by a drunk driver while they were developing the camera.

It was some iPhone developers that approached the family to revive the camera in a new format and add the "hipster" add-ons to it.

I have to hand it to them though, they've created a great app. Some people gripe that you can't import photos already taken on your camera but I would guess that their rationale is that takes away from creating spontaneously with the app.

The reason why I'm posting this on Archer's blog is I didn't download the app until we had Archer and it's been fun experimenting taking shots of him. It's interesting looking at these photos compared to the real vintage photos of our past, and trying to picture how Archer is going to perceive these digital retro things when he grows up...that is if we can get the digital images to last as long as our childhood photos.

More iPhone app reviews to come, including one from Sarah!

Japanese Burp Rag Bonanza

Last fall I went to Japan on a work trip and this was right after we found out we were having a boy. Going to Japan and knowing that you're about to have a baby can be both good and bad. Good in the sense that you are going to see the cutest baby stuff in the world but bad in the sense that you could go bankrupt buying so much of it.

I tried to limit myself to stuff that would actually be useful and that didn't cost a whole lot. Something that met both those criteria and I ended up seeing everywhere was burp rags. Below is a sample of some of the gems I found along the trip.

These first 3 were from one of our favorite Japanese illustrators, Shinzi Katoh. The first one is part of the Disney collaboration he did. His shop in Sunshine City is a must see and is cute overload, I bought some other items for the baby room from there that I might post later.

I saw this retro Astro Boy towel at the Airport just before I left for super cheap.

This one I got at an outside vendor when we went to see a Sumo match.

I can't remember what this character is from, I bought it at this amazing Theater building.

Swimmer is another Japanese brand that has an endless array of cute, with various shops in Tokyo.

Another must see place in Tokyo if you have kids or are a kid at heart like us is Kiddy Land. Six floors of the most amazing toys and things you won't find anywhere else. I found this James Jarvis, probably my favorite illustrator, "King Ken" burp towel there and couldn't resist.

What Looks Like Who?

One of the main questions every new parent gets asked is who they think their baby looks like. Right now I think Archer looks more like our friend's babies than us but you can see some similarities with a picture of him next to our baby photos.

Music to bounce to

Amazing how having a kid will add new meanings to phrases...a month ago if someone told me they had some new "music to bounce to" I would think they were going to tell me about the latest jam that I would be blaring in my car as I drove to Trader Joe's.

This month it's a whole different story. Now music to bounce to means the type of jams I can play on my iPhone while I bounce the little man to sleep on the yoga ball.

Here's a sampling of what's on Archer's playlist at the moment.

Archer's Library Review - Episode 1

For those of you that don't know, here in Portland we have what many believe to be the best county library in the country. The Multnomah County Library has an amazing selection of books, CDs and DVDs which include a huge selection of independent music, movies and even zines. All of these titles are easily accessible by doing a search on the library website and if it's not immediately available at your nearest branch you can put a hold on the item and they will transfer it to the library near you and notify you when it's ready to be picked up or they will mail it to your house for the cost of shipping!

Sarah and I have taken advantage of this resource for years but it wasn't until the arrival of Archer that we checked out another great feature of the MCL, the Title Wave Bookstore.

Title Wave is where all library books go to be saved, after they've had their run in the regular system and they sell them at a deep discount...of the books we've bought so far the most we paid was $2.75 all the way down to $.50. The great thing about buying books from the library is they are usually in really good condition and since they're mainly hard back the library puts a plastic wrapper around the paper book jacket so they look practically new when you remove it.

Just in our 2 trips since Archer's birth we've found 15 really great titles for the little man's growing library...most of which we hadn't heard of before and we'll be sharing with you in this space.

The first of which is called "Sumo Boy" illustrated by Yoshifumi Hasegawa. I choose kid's books just like I'm looking for artist's for the wurst gallery...it's all about the artwork. The story has to be there as well, but if the art sucks it won't be going home. This book has it in spades with some of the most original children's book illustration I've seen. Check out some samples below and stay tuned for next week's review.