Random Happenings and More Pictures

Another week has flown by and it's almost September?  Wow.  In some ways this summer lasted for-ev-er with the stifling heat and humidity keeping us trapped inside, but in other ways I can't believe it's time for school buses and Halloween costumes.  Our little girl is just shy of walking on her own.  We are down from a two-handed assist to just holding on to one of Mommy's fingers.  Go baby go!  Consequently, we just received a shipment of various baby-proofing items:  toilet lid lock, oven lock and super-duper retractable baby gate for the top of our stairs.  Who knew you had to lock your toilet?  But sure enough, SB finds the bathroom an exotic locale full of forbidden excitement.  Toilet paper is ridiculously fun.  Just one tug and whooosh half the roll is unfurled at her feet.  She like to gleefully grab handfuls of the stuff and ball it up in her little fists.  If you try to take it away she'll attempt to shove it in her mouth.  Where'd she learn that from, an episode of Prison Break?  She also likes to go for the toilet brush (ick) and peek behind she shower curtain in case Daddy is hiding there, I guess.  All I see is one slip and a skull fracture from the cast iron bathtub, therefore I do my best to keep her out of there completely.  She's a fast little bugger though.

Pardon me while I get all domestic, but I cooked the most delicious meal the other night and must tell you about it:  Mini-meatballs and Polenta served with Hidden Veggie Tomato Sauce topped with a dollop of Ricotta Cheese.  All three of us devoured it and it was from the Williams Sonoma Cooking for Baby Cookbook that my Mom bought us as a baby shower gift.  You make the meatballs with oat bran instead of bread crumbs and add dill and nutmeg.  Delish!  The tomato sauce has pureed sweet potato and spinach in it so it's way healthy.  Sarah Beth loved it.  I highly recommend this cookbook if you have a little one or one on the way - the recipes go from first solid foods thru toddler meals and like I said, it was delicious for us big kids too.

So, in the category of unpleasant eating experiences, we had a stowaway in our bagged fresh arugula mix from Trader Joe's the other night.  I plated our salad and we sat down at the table.  I started eating but heard this weird hissing sound coming from Kurt's plate.  There was a HUGE striped beetle-looking thing sitting on his plate staring at Kurt.  It was apparently not pleased that it was about to be dinner and believe me, neither were we.  I, of course, being the borderline bug-phobic person that I am, flew across the room screaming EW EW EW EW as I spit out the salad I was chewing on.  Kurt thought it was all hysterically funny.  Baby did too.  Our little friend met his fate in the garbage disposal and I will never eat bagged salad again.  I am only thankful that it was not sitting on my plate because I probably would not have survived.

Since my theme here has turned to food, I may as well mention our luncheon with Daddy on Wednesday.  We went to the big city to meet Daddy at work.  We ended up at Lola's, a home cookin' cafeteria style place that possibly has the best mac n' cheese ever.  SB thought so.  She ate all of Mommy's serving save for one or two bites.  She also enjoyed the baked chicken, pinto beans and cornbread.  She is definitely a southern gal.  Oh for you Yankees, mac n' cheese is considered a vegetable in the South, so it was actually quite a healthy meal for her.  After lunch, we headed up to The Green for round two of frolicking in the fountain.  This time, no homeless people showering.  No one at all actually, SB had all 3 fish to herself and she took full advantage.   Again, iPhone video will be forthcoming.


As promised, here's the final round of photos from Avery and Sarah Beth's playdate at the park, post-haircut.

Here's BOB!

Avery was very eager to help push SB around.

Happy boy!

There's a water feature that is calling my name, Mommy!

Check this out!

Good times.

Little Man! Love this one.

SB's turn.  I have 1000 pictures of her on the swing.  

I'll spare you the masses and just pick a few.  But if I can get the video off of Kurt's iPhone you will be forced to watch it in a future post.

Here's a close up of the precious turtle hair clip Auntie Ouida bought her.  It's made of felt.  Too cute.

Wheee!  We've been to the swings several times since then and she loves it.  As soon as she sees the swing-set she gets all excited.    Even better when there are other kids to watch!