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Friday, August 22, 2008

Foodie

Guess who ate TWO servings of peaches yesterday?
Jo seems to be warming up to food! After yesterday's success we decided to mix peach with banana, the other food he hates least, to make a "Fuzzy Nana." (Oneofhismoms turned us on to the idea of making and naming baby food; when Jo warms up to avocado, we'll try the banana-avocado mixture OOHM dubbed "Tropical Fantasy.")

Jo seemed to enjoy his Fuzzy Nana; he ate the entire serving, four baby-spoons-full, which is more than he usually eats. Co wants to try Peachy Keeny (peach and zucchini) but from the look on his face when we tried zucchini, I think we might need to wait on that.

Here he is eating plain banana, which he doesn't even hate that much. Co calls this photo, "I'd like to speak to the chef."


Next up is green beans, which we're getting from the CSA tomorrow.

Other cute new skills include crawling with objects in both hands (no picture of that yet), and kissing the baby he sees in the mirror. Here he is doing it to his fish mirror, but he also does it with the full-length mirror in the bedroom, the wall-length mirrors at the Y, and on the last page of his favorite book, Peek-A-Who.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Jo's First Beach Vacation

Mommy and Mama loooove the beach, so we were hoping Jo would feel similarly. Score!! He's our little beach bum.

We stayed at our beloved B & B for the third year in a row, which was really wonderful. It's inexpensive (cheaper to stay there for a week than to rent an apartment), dog-friendly (hello, Maggie needs her beach vacation), and low stress. Plus, yummy breakfast. The 80+ year old woman who runs the place called herself Maggie's Grandmom last year, and would take Maggie out of our room to hang out with her during the day. This year, she fell madly in love with Jo and went out to get a disposable camera before we left so she could take his picture. He loved her back, giggling and asking to be held. So sweet.

I love going back to places -- I am a true creature of routine -- so I was in my glory knowing which restaurants we liked, which beaches to go to, other spots to hit (the local winery and the arcades for skee ball, though sadly we missed out on that this year).

Vacation with Jo was not as completely different as I had thought it would be. We spent long hours at the beach; we have a little beach tent for shade, and Jo was happy to play with his toys and nap in there.

He also loved playing with the sand -- to our relief, he mostly didn't try to eat it! - and playing with his various beach accessories. Of course, all the beach toys were very tasty.

He loves water -- in lakes, pools, and the bathtub -- and while he found the giant waves intimidating when not properly controlled by the mommies, he looooved sitting on the shore and being lifted up high when a big one approached. Here he is contemplating the mysteries of the sea.

And crawling on the beach -- he's cross-crawling for real now, no more tummy -- was just too cute. Here he is in action:


A neighbor suggested we bring a computer to watch DVDs, and we got some great media in while he was napping "at home." (We finished up season 4 of the Sop.ranos and watched a quirky Net.flix pick, The Last Supper.)

One of our favorite beach vacation activities is the dolphin watch. Last year, we threw superstition to the winds and bought a dolphin magnet with Jo's name on it in their gift shop (though I hid it until he was born), which makes the dolphin boat even dearer to our hearts. Because we only saw a few dolphins, and had to turn back early due to rough waters, the captain gave everyone a free pass that never expires. We love the dolphin boat! But despite the choppy waters Jo had a blast!

....and then he fell asleep.

We took him to a few restaurants, where he flirted with everyone in sight and repeatedly tested to see whether gravity works at the shore (yes, Jo, the toys fall to the ground here, too...).

Back at the B & B, Jo delighted in his new ability to pull up in the P n' P...

and helped us plan our vacation.


Of course, Maggie got her beach time, too. She did her usual: digging, wading, long walks on the beach.

Finally, here's some old school pix of Mommy and Mama as little beach bums, just for fun.
Baby Co at the Beach

Baby Lo at the Beach

Monday, August 18, 2008

Back from the Beach

We're home! A full photo-essay on Jo's first beach trip to come. Here's a preview....

Saturday, August 09, 2008

We're Off To The Beach!

So you won't hear from us for about a week (unless I can steal someone's wireless, that is....).

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Local Food & Local Babies

This summer we've gotten almost all of our produce from our CSA or the farmer's market. It's been absolutely amazing! First of all, it's delicious. Second of all, because of the CSA we always have lots of produce in the house, which has encouraged me to snack on more fruit, and to experiment with recipes and vegetables that I don't ordinarily eat. Finally, it's been an education to learn about which foods are actually in season in my neck of the woods at particular times. I'm such an urban girl, I'm usually completely out of touch with the natural world. I mean, did you know that everyone makes strawberry-rhubarb pie because those fruits are in season at the same time?? (I am sure you did...)

For his part, Jo seemed to enjoy the peaches, but turned down the zucchini outright. He's still not particularly into solids, though (which is not surprising given that he has no teeth, despite the constant teething).

This week the predicted CSA haul is corn, mesclun greens, cherry tomatoes, green peppers, lilac peppers (I've never heard of lilac peppers!), new potatoes, onions, zucchini, sage, plums, apricots, peaches. YUM!

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Last week Jo and Leo had a playdate. Jo just wants to crawl and Leo just wants to walk. Chaos ensued, but also much cuteness. Here they are plotting their escape:


Yesterday, Jo and I got to go hang out with oneofhismoms & wife, Cakie, and the newly hatched Trucker!! OOHM is amazing, doing more errands around our neighborhood than I do now with her 4 week old. And blogging about the meeting before I did, too. I can only echo her commentary about the concentrated cuteness. Trucker is just precious, an old soul with an expressive face and a beautiful shock of hair. Cakie is an excellent big brother. He gave Jo hugs and kisses, and even performed on his guitar (yes, the one in the header), to Jo's delight.

And Jo seems to be learning how to hug! He returned Cakie's hugs, and this morning in yoga class he hugged an 8 month old girl who was admiring his mad crawling skills. (At a few days shy of 8 months, Jo is about to graduate into the toddler class. Oy.) True, a few times his hugs involved grabbing her eyeballs, but he really does seem to have the idea. Too, too sweet.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Summer Slow-Down

The title refers to the neglect of the blog. It's been a while and now I feel the need to write something momentous, but it's not going to happen, so here's an update.

First of all, Casey got a BFP! That's pretty momentous!

In other news....as I believe I mentioned, I am a summer SAHM. It has been quite an adventure. I am not sure I'd be too good at this full-time. I'm disappointed in myself for not being more imaginative about how to spend time with Jo, and for getting bored and cranky sometimes. However, it's just as well, because I am the member of the family least likely to ever be a SAHM....I have the job with the non-flexible hours and I carry the family health insurance.

But we'll always have summers, and we have been having fun. Jo's taking music and swimming classes, and I've been taking him to the Y for Mommy/Baby Yoga & Pilates as often as I can. (Mama Baby, in our case.) We've met up with myriad baby groups in the area. This past weekend a friend and I had a stoop sale -- Jo joined us in his exersaucer and had a blast -- and I made $68 for vacation money. (We're off to the beach next week.) Not bad!

Jo keeps growing in leaps and bounds. He is pulling up constantly and his army crawl gives way to the real thing more and more often. Here he is booking down our hallway: