Happy Birthday!

The computer is barely hanging on and working so I thought I would start working on the huge backlog of photos I have to post. Let's start with the most important one!


Spenser is 11 months old! He's looking more and more like a little boy and less and less like a little baby. Today, he made the transition out of Small Wonders and into the Bouncing Bunnies classroom. At first I was a little hesitant, but he seems so much happier with the big kids and out of the room with the tiny babies. He gets to play on the playground twice a day and they do frequent art projects as well. I already have a tiny handprint that is painted to look like a turkey. He has started saying "mama" and "dada", but is not consistent about it. He is starting to be insistent that his food not be cut up into tiny little bites. He wants the whole piece of food to chew on. He drinks very well out of a cup if it is held from him and can drink by himself with a sippy cup. He is still a very joyful and happy baby. He is very interested in everything going on around him and he likes to go to the store because there is so much to see. He's a speed demon when he is crawling. He is cruising like crazy. As you can see, his favorite thing to walk with is a bar stool. He pushes them all over the place and prefers them to the little walker that we bought for him. He should be walking independently any day now.

We took a trip to the farm to pick out a pumpkin. It was a beautiful sunny day and Spenser really liked the outing.

Sorting though the baby pumpkins.

He's very interested in textures and likes to scratch at and feel everything. This warty pumpkin kept his fascination for a long time.


Hanging out on Daddy's shoulders.

Happy boy pushing his barstool around.

Taste testing C's great grandmother's oatmeal cookie recipe.

A friend of Spenser's recently turned one. We went to her birthday party where he got to try cupcakes and frosting for the first time. Despite the serious face here, he really, really liked it. I mean, really really really liked it. He wouldn't let us pinch off bites for him, but was shoving us out of the way to grab the whole thing and stuff it in his mouth.

He had such a good time playing with this ball at the party, that I had to get one for him to play with at home.

All the ladies love Spenser. I'm not sure who this girl is, but she climbed into the bounce house just to give him hugs and kisses.

Kinsley, the birthday girl, hugging on Spenser, as well.

It crashed, I'm behind.

My hard drive has taken a nose dive, so I've been without a computer for the past many weeks. Admittedly, we have at least 3 laptops floating around the house, but all my photographs are on the desktop so I've been putting off updating until I could get to our New York photos. I've given up just so I don't forget all the new things Spenser has been doing. He is cruising like crazy and is starting to let go of things to step to the next handhold. Last night, he was hanging on to his closet door for support with one hand. He let go, turned and grabbed the changing table with the other hand so he was completely unsupported for a split second there. C says that Spenser stood up, completely unassisted in the bathtub the other night. I think our little monkey is going to take off running soon.

Spenser has also been going to school every day this week. I have off a few days, but he's in the middle of a transition period where they are getting him used to a new classroom with new rules and schedules. I think it's more important for him to get through the transition smoothly. He continues to jabber and now has lots of hand gesticulating to go along with it. He has many important things to say, but we still haven't found that darn baby-English translation book!

Ten Months Old!

Spenser turned ten months old on the 28th! Our baby is getting bigger by the moment it seems. While I was lucky to get a smiling still shot....




...This is our usual view as he dashes off for new toys or to stir up more trouble about the house. He's starting take a few tentative steps and "cruise" around the edges of the couch. He is very busy and no longer wants to stop for naps as he might miss out on something exciting! He really likes fingerpainting at school. He loves to pull on the cat's whiskers.

We took him to New York City for the weekend, but I will save those details for the next post.

Meat Sauce Tutorial

C loves this meat sauce recipe. It's relatively quick and easy and very, very satisfying. Kudos to Giada de Laurentiis for the original recipe.

Finely dice 1 medium onion and 2 cloves of garlic.

Saute in 1/4 cup olive oil until soft and translucent, about 7 minutes.

Add 1-2 minced carrots...

and 1-2 minced stalks of celery.

Cook until soft and starting to turn golden

Add 1 lb lean ground beef. Turn heat up to medium high and cook until now longer pink, stirring occasionally to break up the meat.

Meat Sauce part 2

Add a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

8 basil leaves, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper and cook for 20 minutes until slightly thickened.

Add 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan ( I always add a smidge more)

Serve over pasta and enjoy!

Whirlwind of activity

Spenser has become a whirling dervish in these past few days. He's mastered crawling and is zooming all over the house. He's trying to open all the cabinet doors and drawers. He bangs on anything he sees with his wooden spoon. He's pulled up to standing a few times and has made a couple of unsuccessful attempts at going up the stairs. He has so much energy that just watching him makes me tired! He has started clapping his hands. Today, we noticed the outline of a little tooth starting to poke through on his upper gum. Yay! The drool rate will slow down a bit for a while.



This is his sneaky look.



I love his happy smile here!



Working on the stairs. He gets up to this point and then just gets stuck. He gets very frustrated and yells a lot because he can't figure out how to go up and he can't get back down to sitting yet.

Moving on up!

Spenser had his 9 month check up today! Here are his stats and for comparison, in parentheses will be his stats from 3 days old. He was 22 lb 9 oz (6 lb 10 1/2 oz), 28 1/2" long (19 1/2"), and his head was 18" (13 3/4").

He's still such a happy, easy going baby! He has 2 teeth on the bottom and appears to be working on some on top. The drool has been pretty relentless! Despite the scarcity of his teeth, he wants to eat anything the grown ups are eating!

Grandma Gail recently visited and made these awesome new drool bibs for him!

Spenser and his daddy eating mommy's homemade bread and blackberry jam. Grandma Gail and I went out to Miller's Farms and picked the last blackberries of the season. The tasty results were definitely worth wading through the weeds and bugs for.

Grandma Gail and Spenser at breakfast. We were so busy doing fun things like swimming an digging dirt in the garden that we didn't take any other pictures.




In more important news, Spenser is officially crawling! Watch out, cats!

Another milestone

They are coming fast and furious these days. Today, Spenser went from laying on his back to sitting up all by himself. He's getting good at sitting on the floor and playing with his toys by himself for longer stretches of time. This is good in that it lets me get a few things done while he is playing ( like update the blog for all of his fans).

In other news, Grandma Gail arrives tomorrow. We are really excited to see her!

On the move

Time to finish putting up the gates...Spenser is officially on the move. When I picked him up at school today, he was working his way across the floor in a move halfway between an army crawl and a real baby crawl. The cats are no longer safe!

Pulled up to standing!

Here's Spenser at school. He likes to play with the other kids. He's getting good at squirming around on the floor. He's not actually crawling, but somehow gets about quite well. Two nights ago, C and I were sitting on the floor playing with him, when Spenser reached up, grabbed the edge of the exersaucer and pulled himself up to standing! He was only able to stay up for 2-3 seconds, but it was a huge milestone for him!

Eight months old!

Eight months old and such a big boy! He has his second tooth starting to come in. He has mastered the pincer grasp. He has a lot to say, but we seem to have misplaced our baby:English translating book. We went to the Fredericksburg Fair this weekend. He was very fascinated by all the animals. He got to try smoked brisket, pulled pork, french fries and funnel cake. His absolute favorite treat, however, was LEMONADE. He couldn't get enough and was trying to pull the cup out of our hands.

If you click on this picture and enlarge it, you can just see his little tooth on the bottom. Today, I could feel a second one coming in next to it.

He really likes feeding himself and has started snatching the spoon out of my hand. Three spoons were on the floor by the time this picture was taken.


Good thing the housekeeper comes tomorrow. I did mop it up.....and give Spenser a post lunch bath!

Eating lunch

Spenser has been doing a great job eating. He's gotten to the point where he doesn't want mushy baby food. He wants bits and pieces that he can pick up himself! At school yesterday, he had spaghetti, peas, green beans, bananas and 2 pieces of bread. Apparently, he kept eating as long as they kept offering.

Here he is last night at supper with a melange of peaches, peas, and ground up chicken, with a side of dried apple bits and gold fish crackers.

We've also been working on learning to drink out of a cup. He only has bottles while he is at school or with daddy. If he gets good at the cup thing, maybe we can skip right over the sippy cups. He has a way to go though. This is an example of why you don't want to share a cup or drink after him. You might get a healthy dose of his meal with your drink.

7 month update

Seven months crept up on us and slipped by. Spenser has been 7 months old for a week now. As you can see by the picture, everything goes in his mouth and he's quite adept at sitting up on his own. He's very good at the pincer grasp and likes tasting all kinds of new foods. This also makes going to restaurants a lot easier and more entertaining. We went out for New Mexican for breakfast on Saturday and Spenser got to try home fries and tortillas. I didn't think he was quite ready for beans and green chile sauce.

He loves swimming and playing in his little pools. He finds the cats fascinating and hilarious. He continues to be a happy and good natured baby with smiles and giggles for everyone he meets.

Hot, hot, hot!

It's been 95+ all week here on top of the usual humidity. That's just too miserable to go outside, much less do anything other than wilt and drink lemonade in the shade. It's unfortunate that my garden is getting neglected for a third year in a row. I need to do some weeding and pruning and planting of pots.

The wee one is taking a nap upstairs. I was thinking of all the things he has started eating in the past month:

Yogurt, vanilla and banana flavors, which he thinks are the bomb-diggity
Pureed fruits: apple, banana, apricot, pear,plum, and peach
Pureed veggies: avocado, green beans, peas, squash, pumpkin, carrot, and sweet potato
Cereals: rice and oatmeal, cheerios, and "puffs" in banana and sweet potato flavor
Juices: Apple and prune/apple combo

A couple of tastes of pureed chicken and gravy did not go over so well.
He had a few licks of strawberry popsicle today. I can already tell that they will be popular.

We have two more days of swimming lessons left. He really likes being in the water and has no fear of getting his face under the water. Yay for water babies!

Yes it's 4 AM

I'll be glad when C gets back from his out of town conference tonight. Single mommyhood is rough when the little guy won't sleep.

First days of summer

We've spent the past week doing summer type things, even though summer doesn't officially start until Monday. Spenser has been enrolled in swimming lessons through the county. We went every night this past week (except for Thursday, when it was storming) and we'll go Monday through Thursday this next week. He's in a class meant for 6 month-2 year olds. He's the youngest one in the class...most of the other kids are closer to 2. He's also the only one who hasn't screamed, cried or had a tantrum about getting in the water. He's even let us dunk him under a few times and he pops up smiling each time.

Getting used to the water. He's pretty happy about the whole experience. He even starts laughing and smiling when we pull into the parking lot.

Practicing floating on his tummy and moving his arms. He hasn't quite figured out how to blow bubbles when his face is in the water.

Sitting in the awesome swimming pool I picked up out of the One Step Ahead catalog.

Playing in the yard on the fuzzy quilt Grandma Gail made him. He was quite content to sit and play for quite a while as I did some gardening.

My vegetable garden is quite hardy since it's fortified against rabbits.

The End.

Weekend updates

Solid foods are going better. He's figured out that the spoon is actually putting yummy stuff in his mouth and he should swallow it.

Yummy sweet potato! He's also digging on the cheerios and yogurt melts (little freeze dried blobs of yogurt)

In non-baby related news, we've started overhauling the front garden. It has gotten overgrown and crowded. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the garden before we started, so this picture is after we removed 6 large barberries, 4 creeping junipers and several large clumps of mums and daylilies. We dug up the remaining azaleas to relocate them and divided clumps of monkey grass to spread them around. We put down some soaker hoses and mulched the area.



We're only about a quarter of the way done with the entire garden, but I think it's a nice start. We'll throw some annuals in this bed just to have some color in it for the summer and maybe add a couple of evergreen type plants in the fall. Oh, and the two big black bags with plants are potato bags growing Yukon golds.

More pool time!

We broke his cool, crazy, monkey-style board shorts.



He really likes this little pool. Best $4 I've spent in a while.