Several Videos of John

You know you're the parent of only one child when you have time to hover around your baby all day with a video camera, hoping to capture his proto-crawling on film. I never did, but I captured other cute moments. For anybody who is not a grandparent or aunt or uncle of John, these videos will probably be boring. You've been forewarned.

• Frustration: John is frustrated, trying to reach some toys.
• Noises: Listen to John's low guttural singing.
• Not Crawling: John has been "shoveling" (head in the ground, bottom in the air, feet pushing him along) as of late, but I couldn't get it on film.
• Not Rolling Over
• Rolling Over
• Reading: John playing with his favorite Itsy Bitsy Spider book.
• Jumping and Turning: John enjoying his jumpy seat

In wildlife news, our family of towhees is missing. Today the nest was empty and I saw no signs of baby bird remains on the ground. But where could they be? Did I disturb the parents too much by peeking in the bushes those two times? I never touched the nest! If the parents wanted to relocate their babies, could they have done so? Or did they just abandon the babies to sure death? I'm worried.

What's Cookin'? Tonight Chris and I had our friends Matt and Elaine, with their two children, over for dinner. What fun! I wanted to cook pizza, but couldn't decide on which recipe, so I made six mini pizzas. We cut them up and sampled them all:

• Tomato sauce, Roma tomatoes, goat cheese
• Olive oil, red and yellow bell peppers, portobello mushrooms, artichoke hearts, goat cheese, balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil, caramelized Vidalia onions, Gorgonzola cheese
• Tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese
• Pesto, caramelized Vidalia onions, sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese
• Tomato sauce, caramelized Vidalia onions, red and yellow bell peppers, and goat cheese

I also made a chocolate angel food cake, which I served with strawberries, kiwi, and whipped creme. This was my first angel food cake and the first time I used my fleur de lis Bundt cake pan. I learned something new today: angel food cake is not meant to be cooked in a Bundt pan because it sticks, and when one does cook with a Bundt pan, one needs to coat the inside with some kind of flour-grease mixture. The non-stick spray I used probably acted as a glue. I ended up cutting the cake slices right out of the Bundt pan.