Progress

Gustin is making some slow progress with his eating these days. Every meal we sit him in his high chair and offer him something to eat. Usually he just plays with it, squishing the food between his fingers and throwing it on the floor. But, he has gotten to where he often will take a little nibble. It's like he is very carefully taking a little taste. Sometimes he'll take two or three nibbles.

He definitely eats the most if Daddy is holding him and then he offers Gustin some of what he is eating. He rejects anything that I offer, but if Eric offers, he will open up his little mouth and let some small bite of food go in. That's how we found out he likes ice cream as well as barbecue flavored potato chips and spinach artichoke dip. (Can you tell that Daddy was choosing what to feed him and not Mommy?)

Last night I made a pot roast with carrots and potatoes. We put some small pieces of the carrots and potatoes on the tray of Gustin's high chair and he pretty much immediately threw it all on the floor. But, after a few minutes Eric picked him up and set him on his lap and offered him a bite from his fork. He opened his little mouth, ate it, and ... (drum roll please!) ... liked it! He ate bite after bite and then he ate some carrot, too! Yay! I think he ate a total of 2 to 3 tablespoons of food. I know that that does not sound like much, but it's the biggest meal he's ever eaten.

After a big day like yesterday, I'm not expecting much eating to happen today. But, it's progress! And, I'm thankfully accepting any small steps forward we get.

Driving in the car the other day

Jonathan (singing): O Lamb of God...

Me (to myself): Oh! Listen to that. Isn't it sweet! He's singing the Lamb of God from mass.

Jonathan: ...who takes away...

Me: I love this! I could listen to it all day.

Jonathan: ...the sins of the world...

Me: He does listen at mass! Oh, isn't he such a precious gift. Thank you, Lord!

Jonathan: ...have mercy on our poo poo!

Me: No comment.

Oh my!

***UPDATED AT BOTTOM***

What an ordeal! I posted before about the wonderful new kitchen table that Eric got me for our anniversary. It's been on back order and I have been waiting so very patiently. Ordering it was kind of complicated. The table and some of the chairs were supposed to be delivered to the store via their distribution center and some of the tables were ordered through their website and would be delivered directly to our house. Almost every week I have been getting an email update saying that the delivery date for the internet chairs is being pushed back by another week. The last update said they should be here in mid-May.

On Tuesday, we got a call from the store saying that they cannot get the other chairs. Period. I don't understand why, but they are just not available even though when we ordered them they told us that 36 of them were sitting in the distribution center. So, Eric calls the store to figure out what was going on and as they are discussing the chair situation (canceling the internet order, finding a new style that we like, etc), he casually asks when the table will be available. The lady responds by asking, "Didn't you pick it up last week?" What? Uh, no! They gave our table away to someone else and they don't even know who! I couldn't help but just laugh about it all when Eric filled me in today. Such a comedy of errors!

So, at this moment we have no table and no side chairs, but we do have arm chairs on the way that won't match anything. Somehow we'll get this all sorted out and we'll get a new kitchen table and chairs, I just don't know when, what they will look like or what other craziness will happen in the mean time. I'll keep you all updated on the drama!

UPDATE:
I should finally have my table and chairs in about 2-3 weeks. We will be getting the table that was supposed to go to the people who got ours and I picked out a new style of chairs. I think I will be really happy with them even though they weren't my first choice. The chairs are slightly more expensive, but the store gave us a nice discount for our trouble and I think we ended up a couple hundred dollars ahead. Of course, that doesn't include the extra money we spent on gas for the hour and a half round trip drive nor the dinner that we ended up eating at the Cheesecake Factory since it was supper time by the time everything got sorted out. But, I have to say, I think the fantastic Godiva chocolate cheesecake that we brought home made it all worth it!

This little face makes it all better

Even when you're tired and drowning in a backlog of laundry and dishes, when this little face crawls up to you and holds his hands up, you just have to stop what you're doing, pick him up, and cuddle him.
In return he plants a big, sloppy, wet kiss on your face and giggles. Life is good.

Tired

I don't seem to be posting much lately and when I have it seems like it has taken a lot of effort to make it happen. I'm behind on reading my favorite blogs and so many great posts have deserved comments but I haven't left any. I think the reason is that I am just tired. There is no doubt, however, as to why I am so tired. My beautiful baby is also a rather difficult one. Not only is he not making much progress on the eating front, but he also isn't sleeping well. He used to sleep very well. At least he did until his long bout with illness in January and February. Since then he has been waking 3 or 4 times a night and is very difficult to get to sleep for naps. Usually I have to nurse him to sleep and then he'll only stay asleep if he continues to nurse through the entire nap. I feel like I have a newborn rather than an almost one year old and I don't know how to make it better.

So, please excuse my only sporadic appearances in the blogosphere these days. And, if you have a moment, offer a little prayer for me. Any prayers for patience, wisdom or fortitude would be greatly appreciated!

Out with the old, in with the new

It's time to say goodbye to our winter garden. Our little patch did pretty well this year, but here you see it all going to seed. The vegetable garden is not large because we have a smallish backyard and lots of tall, mature trees. This area in the back corner of our yard is the only area that receives enough direct sun to support growing vegetables. But, despite the limited sunshine, the cilantro, mesclun (mixed greens), dill and carrots did well. The spinach didn't grow so well. I think our soil might be deficient in something that spinach needs. I'll need to research that and amend the soil before we plant again next fall.
We had one thing left to harvest: the carrots. I think they are actually kind of pretty.
Here's our little haul. Not very impressive, but the kids liked pulling and eating them.
And, here's our new summer vegetable garden. You can see that by the time we were done, the shade was already encroaching on it. We tried to squeeze a lot into our little space. You can't really see them, but on the left are 4 or 5 tomato plants, a red bell pepper plant, onions, and some marigolds. The scent of the marigolds is supposed to help deter harmful bugs. On the right hand side is basil, more onions, and radishes. We also planted a few pots that can be moved to capture the most sun with yellow squash, zucchini and some cherry tomatoes. I hope our garden does well this year. My mouth is already watering for the things I can make with this great fresh produce!
Here's our littlest helper who turns eleven months old today. Yes, I know, he's playing on the bags of compost and manure. But, hey, at least it's organic! :)

Surprise!

This morning was pretty typical. We had our normal routine of waking up, eating breakfast and getting Jonathan ready for school. At some point, Eric headed out to the garage, probably to move the trash cans out to the curb since today is trash day. After a couple of minutes he came back inside, grabbed my camera and then went back outside. I didn't think much of it. The sun was just coming up, so he was probably snapping a few shots of the sunrise. He came back in later and set the camera down without saying anything. I continued to tend to the kids and a little while later he left for work.

It wasn't long after he left that I remembered the camera. I grabbed it, turned it on and hit the "review" button. This is what I saw...
Aaaaahhhhh! Ew! Ew! Ew! Don't you think a person needs to be warned before being surprised with a picture of a snake early in the morning?

After calling Eric I learned that it was a small snake, only 12-15 inches long (I guess I should have been able to tell that from the picture since it's right next to an oak leaf and a pine needle, but my mind was too busy with the reality of the snake to think about the facts in such a logical manner). He also said that it was in our driveway. Of course, I was just about to head out to the driveway to take Jonathan to school. Ugh! So, I lead the kids out there slowly and carefully, keeping my eyes peeled for the snake. I don't know what would have been worse, actually seeing the snake, but at least knowing what its current location was, or what did happen, not seeing the snake and remaining in a tense state of expectation of coming across it at any moment while I quickly got the kids in the car. So far, the rest of the morning has proceeded without any additional snake viewings.

But, now for the rest of the week I'll look twice before reaching down to pull a weed or retrieve a ball from my front flower beds. I'm sure that little suburban snake is not poisonous, but I'm also positive that that knowledge won't change the number of decibels that could be measured from the blood-curdling scream that will be issued from my general vicinity should I happen to come across this reptile unexpectedly!

A solution

Gustin is not allowed in the kids' playroom because of all the little legos and other small toys that the baby does not need to get a hold of. Of course, the playroom is where he wants to be since it is where his brother and sister are playing. We are constantly chasing down my surprisingly fast crawler whenever he makes a sprint for the playroom. Jonathan, my little problem solver, came up with a remedy to this problem.

"We just need to make a sign," he said, "and hang it next to the door to the playroom. The sign will say, 'No babies, just dogs.'"

Meme

Shannon tagged me for a meme. This looks like fun!

Rules of the meme:
1. Post these rules of the game first.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names. Then the tagger goes to the blogs of those who have been tagged & leaves a comment letting new players know they’ve been tagged. The tagger asks them to find the meme and instructions back at his/her blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago: Hmmm... April of 1998 I was a sophomore in college at Texas A&M. I was working on my degree in mechanical engineering and Eric and I had been dating for a few months. Both of us by this time were beginning to think that marriage could be a possibility, but Eric was definitely not planning on becoming Catholic. A couple of months after this he would go through a major conversion and chose to become Catholic and all the while I had no idea that he was even considering it! Wow, I can't believe that all happened ten years ago now.

Five things on my To Do List today:
1. Go to mass with Jonathan at his school.
2. Laundry, laundry, laundry!
3. Pick up a few things at the grocery store.
4. Read my Magnificat. Like Shannon I'm trying to start a new habit of praying with the Magnificat morning and night.
5. Purge Jonathan's closet of all those clothes that don't fit anymore.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Finance my husband beginning his own engineering company.
2. Buy at least a couple hundred acres out in the country.
3. Give money to charitable organization supporting women facing unexpected pregnancies and people who can't afford proper medical care.

Three of my bad habits:
1. I'm good at creating clutter but not so good at clearing it away.
2. I'm very easily distracted these days. I have barely started projects all over the house.
3. I only shave my legs when it's absolutely necessary!

Five places I have lived:

Omaha, Nebraska
Midland, Texas
College Station, Texas
Houston, Texas area

Five jobs I’ve had:

Babysitter
Calligrapher (I made signs for a grocery store)
Dish washer at a bakery
Snow cone stand attendant (my dad owned the stand)
Assisted an artist who made terra cotta clay jewelry and sculptures

I tag Christine, Jill, Emily (though with the baby on the way I doubt she'll get a chance to do it), newhousenewjob and Lael.

New Banner

My new banner is a picture taken at Eric's parent's house at Spring Break. That's Eric's dad with Gustin in the sandbox and I'm pushing Elizabeth on the swing. This picture shows my favorite kind of day. Slow paced, relaxed, with family, outside.

But, I seem to always pick banner pictures that have a mix of very light and very dark colors in the upper left hand corner where the title goes. It seems that a black font color makes the title show up the best, but it's not great. Does anyone know how to move the title so I could place it in a spot that is easier to read? I can't figure out how to do it in blogger.

Some pictures from our Spring Break

For our Spring Break, we headed to Eric's small hometown to spend a few days with his parents. Jonathan got up early each day to be able to go to work with his Paw for a few hours. Paw is a building contractor and Jonathan loves to "help" him. After getting his crews started in the morning, Paw took us all fishing.

Here's Eric and our dog. I don't think that I have really mentioned our dog on this blog before. I seem to forget that we have one. I'm not a dog person. I gave in and agreed to getting a dog two years ago because I love my husband and I think pets are good experiences for kids. Our dog is a female rat terrier named Britches. I make sure that the kids feed her and that she gets to the vet when she needs to, but otherwise I basically just try to put up with her. Some days I do better than others. Elizabeth is a serious fisherwoman. At least she is for about fifteen minutes, then she spends the rest of her time climbing on top of rocks and jumping off. Her fishing pole is a purple and pink Dora pole that comes with a fake fish on the end of the fishing line. She cast her fake fish into the water over and over again.
Here's Gustin in the sandbox back at Granny and Paw's house. My kids spent about 90% of their time there outside since we had absolutely fabulous weather. I loved it!
Elizabeth did come down with a fever on our second day. Don't feel too sorry for her, though. As you can see, she was very well taken care of by her Granny and it only lasted for about 36 hours.
And, who is this little boy? That's not my baby, is it? No, it can't be. He looks way to big to be my baby.
Happy April everyone!