All Boy

I was just thinking last night that I kind of miss how William would snuggle and hang out when he was a baby- he is ALL boy now. He loves to tackle things and to pull up and then release and fall...well he doesn't like to fall, but he does it and has even started to catch himself... We have these two fairly large stuffed animals I found at Pottery Barn Kids last spring on sale for like 6 dollars and they are two of his favorite toys right now. He wants to hang all over them, wrestle them, etc...and then when he's tired he just lays down..or is it lies down (I'm horrible at grammar)..and then gets back up 15 seconds later to do it again.... He is becoming such an independent little guy- he played by himself through our whole dinner last night...and slept all night too :-)




Speaking of dinner, I really don't cook, I bake. Here are my Valentine's cupcakes for homeroom...using my new piping chocolate technique... The students liked them.


But I did cook last night- Chad even liked it. It's spicy, but delicious...here goes...to make the salsa..or enchilada sauce...although it's yummy on it's own:
Boil 10 tomatillos and 6 serrano peppers for ten minutes. Take the tops off the peppers. Puree in blender. Add 1T garlic, 1 onion (chopped) and 1 avocado (chopped) and 1/2 bunch cilantro. Puree- YUM!!!! It won't keep for a long time because of the avocado.... (For those of you with kids you can add 1 pepper, puree, pull some out for them, then add the rest for you!)
Note resemblance to pureed baby food zucchini :-)
Enchiladas:
Finely chop 1 onion, saute. Brown 1 lb chicken, beef or turkey. Add a little cumin. Add 2 cans chopped green chilis. Turn heat down. Add 1 block/ pack of 1/3 less fat cream cheese. Stir till melty. Stir in some finely chopped cilantro- as much as you like...Put in flour or corn tortillas. Place in 13 x 9 pan. Top with enchilada sauce/ salsa and pepper jack cheese. Bake at 350 for 30ish minutes or until it looks melty and yummy.....
It makes a TON. I think next time I will freeze the inside stuff and then just defrost and assemble to make the meal go faster. Viola- I cooked! I hope Chad doesn't get used to me cooking :-)

Happy 7 Month Birthday!

Happy 7 Month Birthday to William!!!! Our little baby is getting so big! Compare the following two pictures....

He is such a happy baby...He is starting to sleep a little better at night which means happy parents. I took him out Friday to meet coworkers after work and even today they were saying how "good" he was...Not to brag, but I like having a happy baby! Here are a few pictures from last week of our "birthday boy." We're officially on the downhill slide to the big birthday...let the planning begin!

Happy Birthday William!!!

A real photo shoot

Ok, so I finally went and had pictures made.... a few things I learned:

1) Be more vocal about backgrounds. I hated the blue tyedyed one, but didn't want to hurt their feelings...next time I'll say "Let's just use white"

2) Do not take more than one set of clothes. They will rope you into buying WAY more pictures because you need one for each outfit...ugh
3) WDP is super cute...oh wait I already knew that :-)

Here are a few of the cute ones- this is before they were edited so my arms still in them :-)...like them? want one?- I have a million and don't know what to do with them...

We did go to the doctor this week...he's been fighting an awful cold and I thought maybe it was something else. It wasn't...but he has been making these funny noises- enjoy the video....

Lastly, WDP officially has a tooth! maybe two- he sticks his tongue out everytime I try to look at them, but it's super sweet....yeah William!

Here are a few more pictures from our fun park day last Sunday. We're expecting another weekend with sun and high 60s, so hopefully baby William can explore a little more outside this weekend. I've got to get a video of him pulling up- he's no longer content to just crawl- he wants to crawl and pull up on something, someone. He has no sense of fear. He'll pull up and then let go...fall, scream, repeat. It's funny.

please note the pot belly :-)

He has definitely regressed on the sleeping front...ugh. We had several good nights, and since Sunday he has woke up two or three times a night and screams hysterically- on, and on and on.... His voice is hoarse today. Maybe it's the teeth. He has two huge little bumps on his gums...poor little bunny! We tried Tylenol last night and that helped, but when he got up at 3 and needed more Tylenol that woke him up and Chad had to rock him for 30minutes because he couldn't settle down.....This is so hard for us! Any ideas on sleeping through the night with a teether who likes to pull up on his crib and scream...partly because he's tired, partly because of the teething, and partly because he doesn't know how to sit down from standing????? Hopefully after this tooth breaks free he'll get back in the routine...

Lastly, on the crafting front....
OK, don't make fun....I am trying to practice piping chocolate until I can do it really well because I have big dreams for a first birthday cake...I'm thinking a tiered Jungle theme....I am so far away from being able to do that, but here's my first attempt at bugs....

Funny that I despise snails, but like my chocolate snail.

Photo Shoot

OK, On short notice I decided I should make Valentine cards...which of course means a Valentine's onsie. My roommate from Furman, Mary Katherine (who needs a blog!), and I used to write on candy hearts with "mean" phrases like "U have ugly teeth" "Play in traffic" "U R Not nice" etc...(yeah, we were bored a lot)...anyway back to the onsie...I thought WDP should have a candy heart onsie- it's blue, says "TextMe" and of course it has his name on it. It's kind of hard to read. I should've done "text me" in blue....I'm sure this'll be the only year Chad'll let me put him in a heart onsie, so I thought I should get some pictures....

This is the one skill I really wish I had- I want to be a good photographer sooo badly! Well, he wanted to eat leaves and twigs...no posing, no smiles...ugh. He still looks like a cutie to me!

We found Granny White Park on Sunday- they've got great baby swings...it was almost 74 degrees- I love February weather...when it's like this. WDP was just figuring out the swing- I think he wanted to eat it :-)

Happy Day to you! I hope the weather is awesome where ever you are!

A big week

So it's been a big week for us....

Last Sunday was one of those amazing winter days- not the snow kind, but the kind when it's 65 degrees and you get a little Spring Fever. We took a long walk through the park, played on the deck...and went to the pool. First the deck....



We added the deck last Spring and need to add benches...that's another post, but for last Sunday he was loving it! We just spread out a blanket, hr crawled, he jumped, he basically just thought " I wish it was spring already." I think we're going to put in a sandbox for the summer- any ideas on building one????

The pool! WDP loves the bathtub and has started trying to lat back in the tub, so we thought we'd try the pool. I was so nervous about being all poochy and post-baby, but thought "Who's going to be at the rec center pool on Superbowl Sunday?" Well, right when we walk in I hear "Hey Mrs. Perry"- Ugh! A student....make that a male student was the lifeguard. I think he was kind of embarrassed too....After quickly escaping into the pool, William was a little unsure about it, he had the death grip for about 5 minutes, but quickly warmed up to the idea....
Ahhhhh, what's this????
Hey, this is kind of fun....

I'm looking forward to going back and getting him more accustomed to the water before the summer gets here. I just need to check the lifeguard schedule!

Our little baby is full on crawling- not all the time, but he understands when I'm in his room and he's in the den he can move to the bedroom too- it's more than adorable!

And our other big news is that he's pulling up on anything and everything- whoa- slow down buddy- you're getting too big too fast! We're also working on sleeping. We started Sunday and while it was not fun, the fact that he completely slept through the night last night- no diaper change, no whimper, just sweet sleep- Sunday night was worth it! So to all of you who encouraged it...Thank you!

Snow day!!!!

Today was our third snow day of the year. Of course there was no "snow"- it snowed fairly heavy, large flakes for all of three minutes and then it was gone. If you haven't been in school for a while, maybe you've forgotten the joy of waking up only to find out you get to go back to bed. Well double that joy and you have teacher happiness for snow days- all of the fun of staying home plus you get paid- does it get any better than working for the government???? It was great to have a mid week day off and to play with William.

Newsflash....he's almost mobile! Yep, that's right, he's soooo close to taking off! A short video (excuse the darkness, our den really isn't that dark, I just can't make good videos in there ) for your viewing pleasure....

I think it's the new food. I made peas for him this weekend. I think I'm going to try and make as much of his food as possible. For a girl who can't cook, I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. They're so pretty and green and actually quite tasty! Any tips from those of you who've done this before would be appreciated. I'm reading/using Cooking for Baby- honestly because it has pretty pictures, I can't lie :-) We're just going through the book. Our next food is zucchini. We'll try that this weekend.

We went to the doctor last Friday for the big 6mo check-up. Things I learned:

1) Never make an appointment on Friday afternoon at 4:00...we had to wait...for a long time.
2) I really like Dr. Leeper. He's so patient and kind. I feel lucky to really like him since I know

we'll probably see him a lot.
3) William is a trooper. he had all of the shots and didn't even cry. He looked at me like "Oh no" and then we were out the door and maybe he just forgot about it. I did take his paci and he was using that, but I was so proud of him for being such a big boy!
4) WDP is huge. He weighed 19lbs .3oz and was 28in long. No wonder all of his 12mo clothes hardly fit :-) Sweet baby!

this is brand new- sz 6-12mo- please note it's 4in above his ankles....

Dad and Betsy were here and got William a great highchair (Thanks!)...Well, we call it his astronaut seat. He seems to like it. I hate that they left right before he crawled! He loved having so much attention this weekend.

The novelty of somewhere new to sit is amazing!

pre- crawling. I like to think he's imitating a walrus....

Lastly, a snow day for me meant a sew day. Chad had some quality baby William time this afternoon and I made this dress (Lucy) and bubble (Taylor) for Anna and Katie. I'm really into cutting the center out of bubbles or the top off a dress with funky fabric and adding white with a monogram...I have lots of this fabric left over so my guess is baby Lilah and baby Louise will both be getting a Taylor out of this...you haven't seen the last of this fabric yet :-)

I hope your Wednesday was as fabulous as mine!!!!