Dressed Up for Mass

A Sci Fi Monster in our Own Home

One of our son's favorite noises to make sounds to Chris like the the Sleestak from the 1970s "Land of the Lost" television series. Click on the MP3 of "Sleestak doing their thing" to hear an example! As a Trekkie unfamiliar with "Land of the Lost," I think that John sounds like the Gorn from the Original Star Trek episode "The Arena."

EDIT: Upon review, Chris now says that John most accurately sounds like the Gorn.

Balloon Antics

John on a breezy autumnal walk this morning, wearing his denim jacket:



Does John have a future on motorcycles?

Following is a video of John playing with a Mylar balloon--his infant homecoming balloon, in fact. John had had a rough day with little sleep when he finally fell asleep for the evening. He woke up a mere 15 minutes later screaming, then proceeded to scream and wail for 30 minutes straight. I tried to nurse him, I walked him, I took him outside, I walked in every room of the house, I set him down by his toys . . . nothing worked. Finally I asked Chris to hold him for a minute while I changed in pajamas, figuring that if I faced a long night with a screaming baby, I might as well be comfortable.

Silence.

I went to investigate the sudden, blessed silence. Chris had "cheated" by giving John his long-coveted Mylar balloon. John has eyed this balloon since birth (I've been saving it for sentimental reasons) and Daddy finally let him play with it. Now the balloon is covered in teeth marks, but it sure cheered up John that evening!

Couscous in Hair

What's Cookin'? Last night I made black bean and couscous salad and used the leftover turkey for turkey ranch wraps.

It's always a bit of a disaster when I feed John couscous, in part because he likes it so much. Take special note of his hair.

Fun with Trains

Today I went for a visit at my friend Elaine's home. For the first time, John actually zoomed around and played with her kids' toys. He especially enjoyed the train table!


What a big boy!

The One-Armed Cook

Today I attended a different chapter's LLL meeting because they were hosting a special guest speaker, Cynthia Stevens Graubart, co-author of The One-Armed Cook. The book is full of recipes that really can be made with only one hand because the other hand is busy holding a baby. Mrs. Graubart made us tortellini and bean soup right in front of us and it was delicious! I enjoyed meeting some new LLL women.

I have further baby-proofed my kitchen dining area in hopes that John will play in it more peaceably while I cook. I set him up with a plastic bowl full of a couple inches of water and some small Tupperware pieces. He kept himself quite happily busy while I prepared slow-cooker turkey breast, roast potatoes and onions, and green vegetables. (Note to self: the piece of meat I bought was skinless breast and the slow-cooker recipe calls for turkey with skin for a reason--it needs more fat to withstand the long cooking time.)

Mesmerized

Sadly, the day has come that John truly notices the television and is mesmerized by it. I have yet to ever put on a baby or kid show for him, but I will turn on an adult show for me. I very rarely watch television during the day, but yesterday morning I turned on the news in hopes of learning about something going on in the world beyond my motherly concerns of diapers and dirty laundry. A while later I noticed that the house was pleasantly silent and John's incessant-shrieking-unless-I-am-holding-him (he is going through a new clingy phase) had stopped. I found John just sitting like a lump, finger in his mouth, staring at the television. For minutes. So, now I have to avoid turning on the television when John is awake so that it's just me who is sitting like a lump, staring at the television. My brain is already turned to rot, but maybe I can save my son's!

Yesterday was pretty tough, so after dinner, Chris sent me on a walk alone and he bathed John himself. (Of course, Chris thought it was funny to call me on my cell phone while I was walking to ask where he could find the gauze bandages. Hardee har har. Give this mama a heart attack!) Here's my naked cutie, finger in his mouth (obviously, he's working on a tooth).

What's Cookin'? A couple of nights ago I made corn pone pie out of my beloved Fannie Farmer cookbook. I couldn't find any recipes for corn pone pie on Allrecipes.com to link for y'all. It is a mixture of cooked ground beef, pinto beans, stewed tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, and chili pepper with raw corn bread batter poured on top, then all cooked in the oven. It's homey and soothing. I made a beef version for Chris and a TSP (textured soy protein) version for me.

I gave John some off of my plate and he seemed to enjoy it both the first night and when we had leftovers. This boy doesn't seem to like sweet things (banana, yogurt, yams, apple sauce) but likes spicy flavors.

Homemaking Tip: Speaking of cooking in the oven, I tried a new technique for cleaning my oven, which was covered in carbon causing billows of smoke when I'd use the oven. I tried using a spray bottle of baking soda and water, following this fellow's instructions. I just sprayed the mixture in the oven before cooking something; baking soda is non-toxic and an ingredient in many of our foods, so it didn't matter if some got in my meal (which it didn't). The instructions said this might require many applications, but my oven was almost entirely cleaned after one application. I used a paper towel of all things to wipe off the burnt-on carbon! Last time I used baking soda as well, but I scrubbed with great force using balled-up foil. That worked but required a lot more sweat on my part. I like this new tactic better and I love that it is non-toxic and cheap!

John, Not Bonnie!

No, your name is John, not Bonnie!

Yesterday I bought The Golden Book of Favorite Songs in order to learn the lyrics to classic American songs (some originating from this country, many adopted from other lands). That way I can sing real, fun and edifying songs to my boy instead of making up little goofy songs, which is what I do. Today I sat on the chair in the living room and sang "My Bonnie" to John. Bring back, bring back, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me!

I don't have a trained or even very good singing voice, but my singing made John smile and start cruising toward me slowly, as if enchanted.

Then he tried to take his first step! He cruised to the end of the couch and instead of cruising along the ottoman to reach me at the chair, John paused to calculate, then stepped out and away from the furniture and toward me! He took a step, tottered, then fell into my legs.

Exciting times!

Snowbirds in Town

Today, Uncle Conrad and Aunt Arlene, our delightful snowbird relatives, were in town as they passed through on their way home to Florida, so we had a big family gathering with the Kennesaw Lauers'. Here is sweet Cousin Annie, as always very helpfully playing with John:

Literature Runs in the Blood

Daddy's briefcase has straps, buckles, snaps, and zippers, which makes it, in a word, wonderful.

Now I know for sure that John is my son. He hasn't been that interested in books for all these months, despite my hearing about other same-aged babies who just love to lay limp and content in their mamas' laps and have board books read to them. This week, John has taken a new, excited interested in books. He laughs like crazy when we read his animal books and I make the animal sounds ("the dog says woof woof!"). He lies quietly in my lap and sometimes even helps me turn the pages. So, yesterday I bought him some cute new baby books:

• Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks from A to Z
• The Runaway Bunny
• Who Says Quack?
• The Little Quiet Book
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Farm Animals

New talent of the day: Tonight John successfully sipped water from a straw like a big boy!

What's Cookin'? Crispy Rosemary Chicken and Fries in my new cast iron skillet.

Greek Night

What's Cookin'? It's been a while since I've reported my menu, which reflects my lazy cooking as of late. Tonight I tried Greek cooking, which was a first! I made falafel and tzatziki in Mediterranean flat bread, baked French fries with garlic feta dip, and hummus. Everything was made from scratch except the flat bread. My falafel needs improvement in technique, if not in taste. The recipe specifically states not to use a food processor lest the chickpeas become too thin. I mashed the chickpeas by fork, but they never mashed properly. My falafel patties crumbled in hand and dissolved in the deep frying oil, so I added many more bread crumbs to the second batch, to no avail. I decided to serve "falafel scramble" instead of patties, which tasted just as good.

The only downside to all this, realized too late, is that now Chris won't so readily agree to take me out for dinner at my favorite new Greek restaurant down the road because he'll think I can cook it myself!

How to Shoo John

John is very attached to me and wants to be playing next to me all the time. His being in the living room while I'm in the kitchen isn't close enough. I think I've finally figured out a way to shoo him away: try to stick a spoon full of any kind of food in his mouth! John refuses to be fed, either by spoon or by hand; he only wants to self-feed. If I offer a spoon in his direction, he jerks his head and scoots away from me. All these months I've been a little frustrated by that, but now I see how I can use it for my desires. Bwa ha ha ha!

Touring Greenville

Chris is taking a few days of vacation so we toodled up to beautiful Greenville, South Carolina, for a couple of days. Reedy River Falls Park, smack in the middle of downtown, is simply gorgeous. I loved the native plants, all in bloom.




Chris had an accumulation of hotel points from business travel, so we were able to stay free at a brand new hotel right on historic Main Street. That was a real treat! Of course, John didn't notice the lovely appointments and charming details. What he favored was the super-powered air conditioner at just his height. John would stand there--the air fluttering his air straight upward--laughing like a lunatic! (I never captured the perfect photo of it.)




We enjoyed a delicious and relaxing dinner at the Trio Brick Oven Cafe. We each ordered the "penne goat": a penne pasta with goat cheese and other tasty tidbits (Chris' with duck sausage). That evening turned out to be one of John's best night eating solids yet. He happily ate bread, kalamata olive, penne pasta, goat cheese, and duck sausage. Now, keep in mind that John only ate about one Cheerio-sized bit of all of those items, but that remains a successful night for him!

John behaved very sweetly and quietly at the restaurant. Then, as if he knew that we were trying to enjoy ourselves, John fell asleep in the hotel room right next to us with the television going (rare!), allowing us to watch an entire movie in one sitting ("Evan Almighty")! It's only taken nine months.

Just his height: Here is John cruising around beneath a table at a restaurant where we stopped for lunch.

On the drive home, we stopped by a Lodge outlet store and bought a ridiculously inexpensive deep, 3-quart deep cast iron skillet with a lid, which opens up new cooking avenues to me. Domestic excitement!

Where Is My Baby?

Has anybody seen my baby? Yesterday I had a baby son and this morning I woke up to find a big boy, wearing big boy overalls and big boy shoes!


Today I visited my new friend Heather, whom I met through La Leche League. Her daughter Lucia (13 months) is a bit older than John, so she was much more aware that another baby was playing with her toys than was John aware that these toys belonged to anybody else.

John's current favorite place to play is a little, hidden nook behind the chair in the living room. There John can pick at the air grate in the floor and stare out the window.
John is now standing on hearth. Trouble is to come!

Reading with Daddy

John enjoys his Exersaucer from the outside. I was trying to catch a photo of how John was lifting it up almost a foot high!
John was rapt with interest while Daddy read to him:

"Crab Pajamas"

This morning I came upon John quietly "reading" a book. So sweet.

Tell me, who could resist squeezing this little boy wearing such cute pajamas covered in sea creatures?

• John's new record for standing by himself is 11 seconds.
• A few days ago, John kissed me back for the first time. Melt this mama's heart!
• Does anybody want to try Netflix free for a month? Today in the mail we received four coupons to give to friends. Email me if you want a coupon code to use online.

John and Christina

Remember little Christina, born a week before John? Today we enjoyed lunch after Mass with our friends Dave and Sarah and their growing brood (Sarah is three months pregnant with #5! :). John and Christina played house: "What shall we make for dinner tonight, daaahling?"

Count Your Blessings

If we could reduce the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:

• 60 Asians
• 12 Europeans
• 5 US Americans and Canadians
• 8 Latin Americans
• 14 Africans
• 49 would be female
• 51 would be male
• 33 would be Christian
• 67 would be non-Christian (And the overwhelming majority of these 67 would suffer great persecution if they attempted to become Christian)
• 5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth
• 80 would live in substandard housing
• 24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)
• 67 would be unable to read
• 1 (only one) would have a college education
• 50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation
• 33 would be without access to a safe water supply
• 1 near death
• 2 would be near birth
• 7 people would have access to the Internet

If you have never experienced imprisonment, an agony of tortures or a famine, you are happier, than 500 million persons in this world.

If you are able to go to church, without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are happier, than 3 billion persons living in this world today.

If there is a meal in your refrigerator, if you are dressed and have got shoes, if you have a bed and a roof above your head, you are better off, than 75% of people in this world.

If the father of your child is married to you, provides for you, and your marriage is free of violence, then you are a rarity. If you have a bank account, money in your purse, you belong to 8% of well-provided people in this world.

If you read this text, you are blessed even more, because you are not among those 2 billion people living in the world today which cannot read.

This is the human condition of our world today. If we take a look at the world from this condensed perspective, the need for acceptance and appreciation for the many blessings in our lives becomes much more evident.

Burrito Boy

Last night I served John noodles with marinara sauce (which he really enjoyed, by the way!). I took off his outfit first because I didn't want marina stains on his clothing. When I realized he was wearing a white cloth diaper and not a disposable, I didn't want stains on that either. I paused to consider the situation, then wrapped John in a kitchen towel, burrito style. As you can see, John was skeptical.

After dinner, John crawled into the sofa table again, where he was having fun opening the drawers from behind. Sorry the photo is blurry, but look at that joyous face!

Conscience of a Conservative (Edited)

This morning I came across Daddy reading Barry Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative to John. This baby will rarely sit still in my lap long enough to look at a board book, but he sat relaxed in Daddy's lap for five minutes. Chris was reading the text about communist dictators in the sing-songy voice appropriate to reading a children's book. It was hilarious!

EDIT: Some hours later, while I was in the kitchen not 20 feet away and John was playing in the living room, I was alerted to sounds of choking. I raced to John and dug the offending item out of his mouth. Paper! But from what source? Then I saw it . . . Daddy had left his morning reading on the floor for John to find. The baby bit the corner off and nearly tore off the cover. Shall we interpret this to mean that John loves Barry's writings so much that he wants to eat them or that John is going to be a liberal?



Breaking Format



I do not normally post items of news, but I'm failing to resist doing this. Read this article about an Episcopalian priest(ess) who is both Christian and Muslim. Does anyone want to play the game in which we try to count how many things are wrong in this article? I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Wednesday

"Daddy, why won't you let me play outside?"
We title this photograph "Patriotism." Note the tear in John's eyes.
Today John discovered the dishwasher for the first time.

New Tool Pajamas

Here is John occupying himself with a bottle of lotion while toodling around the bathroom. This allows me to get ready for the day in some degree of peace.

Today I bought a few items of clothing at a consignment store, including the below pajamas. (These are sized for 20-23 pounds, which confuses me because John doesn't even weigh 20 pounds yet and I had to squeeze him into the pajamas!) I also scored with a simple polo shirt from an apparently chic brand: I paid $4 and the shirt still had its brand new tag on it for $35!!!