I'm a super Mom, but I'm no Supermom!: May 2009

Growing up!

My BABY can play while KNEELING!

Scenes from my garden & yard

We've been working hard to get our garden under control. It's becoming addictive! I got my forget-me-nots (have always been one of my favorite flowers) - just moved them from one spot of my garden to another. The mulch you see here is dark brown but covered with yellow flowers from the maple tree above it.

The ajuga (mixed here with sedum/stonecrop) is
in full bloom right now!

Bleeding heart!

Lily of the Valley is SO fragrant!

One of the blueberry bushes we planted is blooming!
(So are the strawberries!)

Honey crisp apple tree!

Jonah made a "sorting machine". Here it is sorting dogs vs shuttlecocks. It also could tell the difference between frisbees and balls. Nice!

Bram threw the ball from the swing a few times!

Jonah did a great job digging up a chive-type plant
(possibly Chinese chive/leek) that we have
***WAY TOO MUCH OF***
He was proud to show off the roots and glad
to put the clump down - very heavy!

Bram tried to pitch in with the shovelling
but pretty much sucked at it.

Reminiscing about our 10th anniversary celebration

Today is our 11th anniversary! Spectacular! But we're not together and no big celebration today. The good news is that I have plenty of blogging material though. We spent our 10th anniversary last year in the Monterey Bay area of Northern California and I never did blog about it. It was absolutely wonderful. And we still miss it! [Those of you on facebook probably saw pics Glenn posted.]

Aren't these flowers absolutely beautiful? Since Glenn was already in California when I arrived there, he picked me up at the airport with these flowers in hand. Pink tulips, white freshia & waxflower - all the flowers that were in my wedding bouquet. And the best part is that the tulips were the RIGHT color this time. On my wedding day they were fushia - NOT the pink I was hoping for, but what can you do, just hours before your wedding, when the flowers show up and they're the wrong color?

Here we are, so cute, taking pics of ourselves on the beach. The weather was cool and of course the beach was windy. We loved it.

This pretty purple ice plant grows like crazy there

The famous 100+ year old Monterey Cypress.

Glenn took lots of nice pictures of me!

Really enjoyed our time at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Harbour seals!

On our way out of the Monterey Bay area we went shopping in Santa Cruz. We both bought shoes.

Water conservation is rather important there!

We took this picture because it looked like a neat book
and something we might want - but the eastern version.
Without knowing all of that, Glenn's parents ended up
buying it for Jonah a month later!

Glenn took me to the pizza chain, Pizza My Heart
and the garlic bread was AWESOME!

Big Basin Redwoods State Park was AWESOME! And I looked SUPER cute there, which is why Glenn took so many picture of me I suppose.

Stopped for one last scenic picture on our way out...

Still longing to go back! I love you Glenn! Happy Anniversary!

Bram = Eight Months Old!!

Yes, it has happened again. Bram is another month older.

He really has pretty much turned into what some would call a 'textbook' baby. Let's say it's because I'm such a great Mom! Here's the latest scoop on the little dude...

Solid food continues to go mostly well. He seems to prefer the baby food that Gerber, Heinz and PC make over mine. I think it's a grit/chunk issue. So sometimes, Bram randomly has a big puke while eating the food I have made him. It never happens with the stuff from jars though. I'm learning to just add more water and puree, puree, puree! His food repertoire now consists of mum-mums, Cheerios, Rice Krispies and small pieces of banana too. Those 'chunks' seem to be okay. We've still got a lot of things to try - barley, citris fruits, berries, beans, beef, etc.

Bram now has five teeth. One of the top front teeth (central incisor) has come in. When that happened I realized that what I thought were the dracula teeth (cuspids) were actually just his top lateral incisors. Those teeth are big and spaced out! The little guy fooled me!

Hmmmmm.... what else? He's CRAWLING! I'll try to get a video of that up this week. Still working on sitting really well and transitioning between sitting and other positions. He had his first bleeding injury recently while bashing his face off the kitchen floor. Bottom teeth into top lip = big tears!

Bram sleeps WELL! I've been getting a full night of sleep for at least a week now and honestly I feel happy. I hadn't realized how much it was bringing me down to be up once in the night. A typical day of sleep is now approximately:

7pm-7am night sleep
9am-11am nap sleep
1pm-3pm nap sleep

Sometimes if his naps are both a little earlier than that or if his afternoon nap is shorter than that, he needs a 1/2 hour nap around 5 or 5:30. And then he stays up until nearly 8pm. And sometimes, when he gets overtired, he gets hysterically fun, laughing like crazy about nothing. Eventually it goes bad, but it sure is fun at the time!

Bram definitely likes getting in on rough & tumble action with Daddy & Jonah. Super cute!

He is starting to give high fives! He can clap too and we thought he was starting to do the signs for more and milk but it's pretty inconsistent so far and we're just not sure. Waving too. It's occasional (coincidental?) and not consistent yet.

If I could stall Bram's growth and development right now, I would. Maybe just for a month or two. He's just at such a fun age. And so pleasant and happy and sleeping well. And not getting into too much trouble yet. It's lovely.

But alas, he must grow on. We're excited to see what's next!

outside time

Our yard has been keeping us very busy in the last couple of weeks. So busy, in fact, that THIS actually happened one day last week. For the first time since he was a child on Gravol (USA equivalent: Dramamine), Glenn fell asleep at the supper table. For real!

We found a baby swing in our shed and hung it up to give it a try. Bram LOVED it!

Bram spent most of his outside time either in the exersaucer or sitting on a blanket. Don't be confused. Yes, this is Bram. He's on Jonah's blanket.

In other big news, we bought some fruit trees. Here Jonah is filling this sandbox with water to soak the trees' roots before planting.

Here's Glenn digging the hole

Here's Jonah in the hole!

Come to think of it, it would have been fun to put Bram in the hole! I wish I had thought of that.

Anyway, tomorrow and Tuesday are going to be very busy days. We'll be attempting to prepare all of our flower beds and garden areas for a mulch delivery. I was looking back at my pictures from last year (see some of them here). I can't believe how many plants were out there... hoping we don't kill too much... a little worried about that... It just all looks so overgrown and mixed up together now... And of course half the stuff isn't even up yet...

Birds!

Jonah received this book as a birthday gift from Glenn's parents last year and really 'just got into it' in the last month. It's perfect timing. Spring has sprung! Birds are singing like crazy and Jonah is actually able to identify some of them now, thanks to this book. The batteries are finally konking out, a lot later than I expected. Bram enjoys the bird noises too and seems to try to imitate them as well.

Jonah's favorite bird is now the Northern Bobwhite, which sings "Oh Bob White!" We haven't actually seen one or heard one for real, but Jonah sings his song lots. Glenn and Jonah made a quick trip to PetSmart the other day to buy a couple of goldfish for our rain barrels (to eat mosquito larvae) and upon checking out the bird area Jonah reported, "Dad, they don't have any Bobwhites!" Dude, they don't stock Quail at PetSmart! He still has much to learn!

Earlier in the spring our neighbors had their pear tree trimmed and we ended up with a lot of sticks in our yard. Jonah and I collected them, intending to decorate our leafless tree with birds of some kind eventually. The dead branches sat in a crystal vase looking rather glum for quite some time. Glenn was rather patient about the whole thing but I could tell he was a little puzzled about the 'decor'.

Anyway, I finally thought of a great way to make birds! Modeling clay! Jonah and I had never really used it but we're definitely going to have to buy some more. We used every last bit of the stuff that Jonah had. Jonah and I both really enjoyed the experience and here, check out our final results!