Carrots are OK!

I like Carrots!! I ate a whole jar in 3 days and now I have ORANGE POOP!! And look, the mess on my face matches my HAT!!
How much better can a kid have it?
This picture makes me look like I'm sitting in a big chair, but actually I am in my Bumbo seat on top of the table.

Mom is so excited that I am trying real food.

Dad's birthday is today! And I am 7 months OLD TODAY!! Can you believe that!?
I made it to 7 months! Mom says I'm looking more and more like a little boy and less like a baby. I have no idea what that means, but whatever. Today I gave Daddy a picture of him and me at the zoo in a frame to take to work. He liked that. I forgot to wrap it but he was OK with that.

I wanted to make sure he saw a lot of me too so I woke up a lot last night so that he wouldn't feel lonely. Mom and Dad must sure miss me at night so I make sure they get to see a little of me every night. Last night they got to see me about every hour! I thought that was generous of me. They have no appreciation for my efforts just now, but over time I believe they will come to see what a beautiful thing I did for them.

I might be getting a cold, or I might be cutting another tooth. But I'm in a good mood and tonight Aunt Pat is going to babysit me while Mom and Dad go to dinner and to see 51 Birch Street. Aunt Pat is really great! She is fun, takes care of me super well and has really long hair for me to pull.

Yesterday and the day before, Mom and I went to Grandma's house for an overnight visit. Grandma gave me some new shirts and pants and a NEW TOY!! It makes noise and I think I have it figured out. I can make music with it and sometimes Mommy sings along with it to me. I was scared of it at first but once I got used to it, it was great! Mom let me play with it while she changed my 2 VERY ORANGE Poopy diapers this morning!! I didn't know I could make technicolor poop but now that I know I will be doing a lot of it.

Well, that's about it for now, I need to take a nap so I can be in a good mood for Aunt Pat tonight!

Happy Birthday Daddy! You Rock! So! Much! You play with me and you make me laugh and every night when you come home from work I get so excited to see you I can hardly stand it! You give me lots of whiskery kisses and hugs and you sing to me and read to me and tickle me and I think you are Super Man!

Lots of Orange LOVE,
Sam

Dis n Dat

We were supposed to be out camping this weekend. But no. It is rainy and that is no fun.

So yesterday Amazing Man gave me the afternoon off, where I ran off to the Library and checked out some Thomas Merton books. We are supposed to pick a Mystic to mentor us as we go through our Companioning class. I picked Mr. Merton. He rocks. So I've done some reading but I thought I'd read more of his autobiographical stuff. So I actually know more about him - not just what he thought.

I also checked out a Chip Davis CD. Anyone remember him? Yikes. I can't stand that stuff anymore. What happened?

Y'all have been doing some great posting. Making me think and stuff. And laugh.

so that's good. And Sam is beginning to wake from his nap now, but sounds as if he's fine entertaining himself for a few moments while I type out some more trivial sentences about my life.

Highlights of the morning: Cinnamon Rolls from Nantucket Bakery and STRONG COFFEE! We even squeezed in some porch time, as it's pretty warm out already.

It's time to pack up the summer clothes. I have also a bunch of old shoes to get rid of. Like, why do I keep these shoes even though I'll never wear them again? And no one ELSE would ever wear them because they're in such BAD shape so it's not like I'm going to take them to Good Will or anything! I must harden my heart like a pirate and get a trash bag and FILL IT with those old nasty shoes!!! GARR!

Also, JustPat and I are doing a review of the local Sushi Restaraunts. We've now tried 3 of them. So far Marado's downtown is still the best. ShoGun gets very low marks, and so does Minado's at Knapp Corner. But Minado's has a big buffet of chinese and japanese and korean food. Also, it's on the 2nd floor and you get to take an ELEVATOR to it! It feels so big city! But their sushi was loosely wrapped and the rolls were ALL so BIG you could barely fit them in your mouth. One expects with the big fancy rolls but not the smaller rolls with only one or two items in them. So there, that's the take so far. In two weeks we'll hit the one up on Alpine and we'll tell you all about it.

That's all for now, tonight it's bulgogi and hopefully campfire with frenz if it doesn't rain.

Hot or Not?

I keep trying to drink the candle sitting next to me where my coffee usually is.

Yesterday, made a trip to GB Russo's and you know I could go there every day I think. I bought some curry paste for real live Indian style curry. We had it on Rice last night. YUMMY!! HOT!!
I have a pet peeve about things that claim to be hot and are not. This package ain't lyin'!
I refrained from buying the whole rest of the store....

95 blog posts you guys have posted since I was here last... YIKES! So I skimmed/read/commented/pondered almost every one!

Little Dude is sleeping off his big breakfast and roll around on the floor and play in the busy seat and talk talk talk time. He was tired after all that! And so am I!! Sadly, I am running out of ideas as I'm not familiar with children.

Suggestions wanted: What to do with a 6.5 month old to keep them active/busy/having fun???? He wasn't so into GB Russo's with me. Why don't babies love to look at 29 different kinds of olives?!?
Ok I'm kidding, I do understand that much.... but really, leave me a suggestion if you've got any!!

Stuff floating around

Now reading: Touching the Holy by Robert J. Wicks.

In love with: Target Baby Night Time Bath with Chamomile and Lavender. Gee, it smells terrific! And for 99 cents, it makes great body soap for Mom, too!

Recently read funny quote: "I don't' know if there are more idiots in management than anywhere else, but I'm sure that's where they're easiest to spot." - Scott Adams

Currently addicted to: Grape flavored drinks. Had a grape float the other day even! Welch's Grape soda and Vanilla Ice Cream! YUM!!

No, I'm not pregnant!

Recently discovered: I'm more about control and risk management than I realized. I want my life to be hassle free and chaos free and I expend a great deal of energy toward that unattainable goal. Partly the reason the thought of having another kid is hard to wrap my mind around is for that reason. Introducing new elements of unpredictable-ness and risk and MORE CHAOS!! AAAAAAAGH! How do I get off THAT hamster wheel now that I have become aware of it?

Recently read quote from aforementioned book, Touching the Holy by Robert J. Wicks: "As is the case with the call to simply be ourselves, listening to God through our own deep experiences of self is a basic lesson of spiritual discernment. Yet most of us don't do this. Instead, we often answer the secular calls to be successful, unique, secure, perfect, or right. We try to accomplish another goal with we believe will protect us from facing our dependence on God or keep us from experiencing life as a mystery we can't fathom or control. Maybe that is why one of the most essential challenges we face is to truly accept our limits. When we do this,k the opportunity for personal growth and development is almost limitless. And, as we might expect, accepting our limits is not very popular. In fact, it is countercultural."

I think that's the phase of life I'm in right now, is embracing ordinariness. I don't have to be some big success or ride on any laurels of previous successes or work at being perfect. It's almost as if I've been thinking most of my life that if I was unique and special enough everyone would love me. If I'm right, then I don't have to worry about uncertainty or doubt. If I'm secure then I don't have to worry about risk and chaos! Ya. See, most people think I'm really laid back, but in some ways I'm really really NOT laid back.

So there, that's a bunch of stuff floating around in my mind. Any of it make you go hmm?

Has it really been that long!?

Thanks Little David for asking about me!
YUP I'm OK.

Good, in fact. We've been indeed paying attention to Sam and Blogging is more and more off the radar for me. I wasn't even aware I'd not blogged in the last two weeks!

But to fill you in, it turned out we were never meant to be referred to the Helmet Guy anyway - Sam's head will, according to a pediatrician, our doctor and a poll of her colleagues, round out more, even if not all the way. We are fine with this and will not be putting the poor kid in a helmet for 3-5 months!!
We're so relieved to have that decision made. Apparently the folks at the clinic referred us to the wrong place, our doctor didn't mean for us to see the Helmet Guy, she just meant for us to have some furthur input on repositioning ideas and so forth. She was very apologetic, which was very nice of her.

Thanks to all of your for your comments and well wishes and advice and prayers on that topic!! We're grateful to have so many folks on our side and in community with us as we make our way on down the road!

Here's a picture of Sam not liking the Rice Cereal very much. He did a little better with Squash last night but still weirded out by the feel of anything not Formula in his mouth!

In other news, Amazing Man and I have been on a roll and played Settlers every night for a good while now. Usually just with us, but sometimes with frenz. One more reason for not blogging. But it's great times spent playing together and warring for control of the island!!

On Monday I start the Spiritual Companioning Phase II at Marywood. Yeeehaw! I bought a big fat 3 ring binder at a back to school sale and it felt like being a little kid getting my school supplies! I wanted to go wild and buy pencils and paper and a Trapper Keeper and new Shoes and new PANTS and new GYM SHOES and ALL that FUN STUFF!! But I resisted and only bought what I needed, which was a big fat 3 ring binder.

On a Lighter Note

Got Googled last night for this post: http://ginnygin.blogspot.com/2004/04/fishy-business.html

So I re-read it and thought it was pretty cute. You might enjoy it too.

Welcome, new Googler!

Sam Loves His Bumbo Seat!

Happy September!

Whew, it's been a while since I've been on here, and frankly I must confess I haven't even been able to get around to many of YOUR blogs either, but it's been BIZZY BIZZY CRAZY BIZZY round here!

But good.

Sam's got two teeth now.

In other news, We are wrestling with a decision of putting him a cranial helmet. His head got flat in the back and at first we thought we'd leave it be. Conventional wisdom says that most babies' heads correct themselves. But we thought we should see the specialist anyway just in case we were way off base. The specialist says his head flatness in the back measures a 2 (out of 5) which in his experience does not correct itself....
We are struggling with this a lot. A LOT LOT LOT. My gut says NO NO NO NO NO!!!

But my head says maybe I can't trust my gut and maybe I'm wrong maybe I'll make it harder for him in the future and we both are having a very hard time with this.

This whole thing about embracing Mystery and the Unknown is terrific except for when it comes to being a parent. I'm really infuriated at times when there is no correct answer. I don't even bother to ask some questions sometimes because I know that people contradict each others' ideas, mothers I know don't even remember what they did in my situation - even when it was only a year ago. There aren't a lot of answers coming my way these days and I'm not super good at trusting myself when I don't know exactly what to do!!

This is good for me, and not at all anything new under the sun from what I understand about life, but DANG IT! I want a crystal BALL!

Maybe I can get one on ebay....