Preston's Birthday

Last Sunday we were invited to our second baby birthday party. Patrick was so excited. We went to Peter Piper Pizza and got to see Sean's friend Jon's fiancee Stephanie's son turn 3. Whew, that was a mouthful. Sean and Jon used to go to Peter Piper quite a lot. This was before my time. I think they used to get the Chicago classic. Peter Piper has still got it, the pizza was super tasty and the Cars Movie cake was great too. We got tokens to play in the arcade and a lot of the machines ate our money but thank goodness Sean is good at video games; he was able to make up for it. We turned in our earned tickets for a hackeysack that looks like a baseball with a smooshed up face and a G.I. Joe type toy (we gave that one away - too many pointy parts).

Happy Birthday Preston!

Yippee Skippee

I am really in love with all these websites that do stuff for your life. Most of them for free too. I think I'd mentioned the photo editor www.picnik.com. I also really like mint.com - which is a money management site. So cool. But what I've been mentioning to Sean recently is that we need a way to make our blog into a printed book. Well, goshdarnit, someone's done that.

http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook

So, those of you with blogs, you should check this out so that all the time and effort can be archived...on the shelf.

Guess who loves veggies again

I'm having fun seeing what Patrick likes and doesn't like in terms of food. I need to make sure to not get too excited or too upset if he devours or refuses particular foods because I'm finding that his tastes change almost daily. In the past several weeks he's come to want to feed himself and the pureed foods can come from Mommy so long as they are fruit. Otherwise, he'll eat just about anything. I've been serving him the portions from Mommy and Daddy dinner that are baby friendly and I've been so impressed. He's happily eaten salmon with lentils, coconut rice and black beans, teeny tiny pieces of broccoli with brown rice and pintos. We've done a lot of legumes lately. He's going to be a bean lover just like his mommy.

Speaking of kid food. I have become obsessed with this blog called Lunch in a box about this mom who makes bento box lunches for her son whom she calls "Bug." There is (apparently) this huge world blogs of kid bento lunch boxes with recipes and pictures. It's kind of crazy but totally neat. Here are a few of my favorite pictures I've found:

Patrick's First Visit To The Zoo

I didn't realize it until we'd gotten him completely dressed that we'd dressed him like the Crocodile Hunter - we hadn't planned on that. So perfect for the zoo. :) We got to see Nana Cyndy, aunt Katy and cousins Jacob, Ryan and Emily. He had fun petting goats at the petting zoo, checking out some birds and following the ocelot. There was so much more to do but we coundn't pack it all in. Oh well, I guess that means we'll have to come back soon :). For more pictures from our visit check out our photo album.

Is it playing or learning, or both?

Here are some pictures from the Granada Park last week. We had fun watching the birds dunk their heads down to eat fish, quack to ask for food and just cruise around the "lake." I say "lake" because it's all man made. But, we get to see the animals in action. At first, I just thought it would be fun to watch the birds but I'm sure Patrick is learning about their habits, and it is fun. While we were leaving the park I was acting like a dork and saying "horsey" and putting his Wells Fargo Bank horsey on his lap and he squealed back, "HORSEY." Wow, that was pretty cool. Since then he's started repeating words back. Not that often but here and there. It think I heard him repeating "all done" while in his bed before his afternoon nap yesterday. That's what I say when we're done eating or bathing or whatever. We'd just finished lunch. So cute. I guess I need to start be careful about what I say around him. I'm usually pretty good but you never know what comes out sometimes.

His new favorite thing to do is read books. He whips his head around when I say the word "book." He loves, I mean loves, to turn the pages of books. He really could care less about the story at this point but man, those pages are fun to turn. We will repeat page turning on a single book maybe 8 or 9 times until Mommy gets a little bored and tries to find a new book.

We're off to the zoo today for some more fun and learning. I read about bringing the book that you read to your kid about animals to the zoo so that they can make the connection but I am not sure if our zoo has tree frogs and koalas. Oh well. :)

We adults could pack some more learning into our days too. I just found a cool link to free podcasts from college lectures. http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/skip-the-tuition:-100-free-podcasts-from-the-best-colleges-in-the-world. I especially like the one on Nintendo and Black Holes. Neat.

Playing in the "sand"

We broke out the corn meal and all-purpose flour this afternoon in some pans out in the backyard. At first, Patrick was a little freaked that he was getting "dirty" but once he felt the cool flour out in the warm backyard, I think he changed his mind. He definitely preferred the flour over the corn meal...it's softer. He didn't get as dirty as I thought he was going to get, though his hair got a dusting reminiscent of those English Lawyer wigs. His bath was very important to get the "glue" of his hair and drooly face. We had a great time and I'm sure we'll be doing it again soon.

Gastronomic Adventures

It has been so enjoyable to try out new foods with Patrick. Thus far, he's been pretty open to new foods and textures and flavors and tastes. This has made me so happy since I've had so much fun trying out new tastes myself. We have come to a screeching halt, it seems, on our journey. The one-time broccoli lover has now decided he will only eat things that are sweet or creamy or sweet and creamy, or crunchy.

Sean and I gave him his first bite of cream cheese yesterday and I swear his eyes rolled to the back of his head for a second. He must have thought he'd died and gone to heaven. Even better than cream cheese is sweetened Yo Baby yogurt. Any flavor, it doesn't matter. He especially likes the cream at the top of the package. This morning I alternated between the lentils and carrots I made last night and Sean and my oatmeal we'd made for ourselves and the yogurt. I alternated because he only wanted the yogurt. I keep thinking that he'll change his mind and love lentils, especially since I heated them up in butter. But no. Just yogurt. So, I gave him yogurt every three bites and that has seemed to work. I was thinking that I wouldn't have to break out the Deceptively Delicious cookbook for another several months. Looks like that won't be the case.

We went to the Town and Country Farmer's Market yesterday to stock up for the week and they had some awesome strawberries. They source them from somewhere in California and boy are they good. So good, in fact, that our cat Joule rubbed herself all over them between the time I brought them home and ate them after dinner. Gross. There was little white cat hair fuzz all over the top like it'd molded prematurely. Thank goodness that rinsing them off in cold water gets them bright and shiny again.

The tomatoes looked good on the outside but were a little mealy on the inside which tells me that it's not quite the season and they might have been a little old. Oh well.

Happy Birthday Wes and Ash!

Today was Wes Dinoffria's 2nd birthday party at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. We just got home (Patrick is sleeping) and I wanted to make sure to get the cute pictures posted before I got busy doing other things.

It is also my friend Ashleigh's birthday today and I wanted to wish her a happy 30th. Wow, we're turning 30 this year!!

Here we are on the choo-choo train ride. If you can see, the engineer has a cute outfit with overalls and the hat.

Here is Patrick riding on the carousel. He really enjoyed riding on the horsey.

After the carousel, Patrick needed a good clothing and diaper change. So we parked ourselves under a big shady tree. I was thinking it'd be nice and calm and quiet but he was just so wiggly. Not upset, just wiggly. I gave up trying to change his clothes and gave him to Sean who wrestled with him to get his little white short-sleeved onesie on. As soon as I was going to take a picture of his hilarious Tasmanian Devilishness, Patrick flashed me this happy smile. I think he was showing me how much fun he was having with Daddy. He really liked being naked under that tree. He wanted to stay there and play - with the breeze on his tush. What a fun day!

Community Supported Agriculture

Did you know I have an article published on the internet? I was just perusing information on the ol' farm, Crooked Sky Farms. I can't find much new but I did find that the article I wrote about Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) is still posted on the "Your Guide to Green" website. It's a website started by the same guy who has the Urban Farm here in North Central Phoenix.

If you're interested here is the article.

I am sad to say that I haven't been a part of the CSA since I left working there a year ago. A YEAR AGO? Wow, time flies when you're having fun. :)

He's finally discovered my moles

Patrick's friend Will used to try to pick off the mole (excuse me - "beauty mark") off my face when he was about 1 1/2 - 2 yrs old (he's turning 3 in May, wow, time flies). I figured it was just a matter of time that Patrick would try to "pick up/off" of Mommy's moles.

If you know me, I have several...everywhere. I have two, right at the crook of my shoulder and chest (just on the outside of my armpit) and Patrick spent about two minutes trying to scratch them off my skin yesterday. I tried to explain to him that I have lots and they are just a part of my skin. I don't think he understands it yet since he has such smooth, mole-free skin. He probably will not get it for a while. I just hope he doesn't change my name from Mama to Mole like Will did for a while :). Don't worry Will, I thought it was so cute!

He did it!

9 mo check up notes

We went to the doctor Monday for Patrick's 9 month check up. All is well with him. He cried a little bit more than usual when Dr. Padrez (nicely) pokes and shines lights places. I think it has to do with separation anxiety. He was a champ though. Here are his newest measurements:

Weight: 17lb 8oz - (8% - Dr. says this is normal around this age, to dip a bit lower than his usual 25-50%)
Height: 28" long (40%)
Head circumference: 18.25" (80% - WOW! He's gonna be smart)

He's eating more yummy foods. He's into broccoli (well, it needs a tiny bit of cheese and breadcrumbs) and still loves his apples. We've been making this apple omelet with shredded apple, cinnamon and egg yolks in butter (sounds weird but it's actually very good).

He's started bouncing up and down while in the sitting position to show he's happy or just to have fun. He's still teething too and will get new teeth (again!) pretty soon probably. Crawling might not happen. I have been doing research and as long as the baby can get places (either by scooting on their behinds, pulling with their arms or rolling - that's what Patrick does - then they should be fine). He's trying a little bit to pull himself up - mainly when he's in the bathtub ducky. So, we'll probably have a walker in a few months. Yikes! :)

The flowers are sooo pretty right now. Here is another picture. This is from our front porch area.