Friday, June 29, 2007

Flower Child


m&m maddness

Our friend Bobbi posted a super fun contest on her blog this week. The contest is to see who can make an m&m on m&m's website and make it look the most like themselves. Well, of course we had to get in on the fun.

Here's an m&m I made of John. You'll notice the headphones that are attached to his head all day while he works in his studio and of course his slippers are because he works from home. The robot transformer arms? Cuz he's my techie nerd and I wouldn't have it any other way.


Here's John's take on me. He says the hat matches one that I usually wear in the winter. He's says it shows my "hyper, but mellow" personality. I'm guessing the bear is for Miles.


For more, and MUCH more creative m&m's from some of Bobbi's adorable bloggers, check out Bobbi's blog at: Bobbi's Blog You will be amazed by how much these m&m's look like their creators. There is even a dog m&m that cracked us up. Oh, and you can vote for your favorite as Bobbi is giving out a prize. Actually, the one I made for John is in the top 7, so check out the competition and vote accordingly!

To cajole you to go to her website, Here the woman hereself, Bobbi:


Her hubby Mike's m&m is hilarious too, but I'll make you go to her website to check it out.

Enjoy and Happy Friday!

PS Anybody want to get in on the fun and email me their m&m? Go for it! It's the Friday before the 4th. You guys aren't actually getting any work done today anyway, are you? ; ) Send 'em to hyperbets at comcast dot net

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Test Driving the spoon

We still aren't ready for solid foods yet, but we are trying out the highchair to get him comfy in it. I read in a book that one of the ways to see if babies are ready for solid food is to see how they react to a spoon in their mouth. So no food yet, but here's the reaction to the spoon.

Hey, what's this thing?

I think it goes in my mouth...

Yep, it definitely goes in my mouth but somethings not quite right.

Yea! This is the way it goes! (this one is my favorite. That face kills me!)

Daddy's practising for solids. I think he's got the technique down...

Hey, where's the beef?

Ok, I feel kind of stupid saying "Where's the beef" past the year 1985, but hey, I'm a nerd. So forgive me.

We are excited to start solids soon, but honestly, there's no need to start them quite yet. Our pediatrician said that as long as he is still sleeping well and through the night that he's still getting all the calories he needs. I'm thrilled with that because as much fun as I'm sure it will be to feed him solids, breastfeeding is so easy, cheap, transportable and makes him happy.

By the way, I have to laugh at us. I have friends who send photos of them feeding their kids actual food. I send out 12 pictures of us practicing with a spoon. We are insane! Being a first time parent is awesome. EVERYTHING, even when your baby smiles as he fills his pants, is cause for delight and approval from you and your spouse. Ahhh, the simple life is so good. : )

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

bundle of joy

Daddy captured Miles checking himself out in the mirror all snuggled up in his "hotsling" and me looking like a moron. ; )


I've been wearing this to the grocery store instead of lugging in the massive carseat and it has helped ALOT. I LOATHE grocery shopping so anything that can help makes me happy. On this occasion we were getting ready for a walk around the neighborhood. Miles in the sling always makes people smile, including Miles himself.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

sleepy house, wired mouse


As the evening draws to an end, we slow things down a bit with an evening book.

Just as we try to get baby to settle down to bed, a chipmunk stirs outside on the patio causing the pugs to erupt in a fit of raspy howling. Oh how this little critter loves to taunt our pugs!


So much for the quiet house! Here's hoping your home is a peaceful one and your patio is chipmunk free.

Nighty night. : )

Farm Flowers





John and I have really enjoyed dabbling in photography since we got our good camera last year. Here are a couple shots we took of the beautiful flowers at the farm during our family reunion last weekend. Enjoy!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Happiest Baby on the Block...

We have this new little thing we do where Miles grabs our fingers and we count, "1,2 THREE!" and we pull him up. He makes this funny little face like he's doing a sit up and then gets all happy and excited once he is sitting up. Here are some shots I took last week.


Here Miles is giggling like crazy. His giggles are no longer this elusive thing. We get plenty now during the day and it's so much fun!


I have SOOOO much fun with Miles during the day that I'm doing a terrible job of getting much of anything else done around the house. Who cares though, they are only this age once!


I call this picture "The Happiest Baby on the Block" photo. That's the name of a book that I owned and started to read while I was pregnant. I remember my midwife, Andrea, was always trying to get me to chill out and stop reading so many baby books. She said, "Happiest Baby on the Block? Well, that's a lot of pressure for one little baby to have to be the happiest on the block!" She had told me to put the book down and know that all a baby needs is nourishment and love. The rest will fall into place. I remember looking at her and wondering how all the rest could possibily fall into place when I was so clueless. Then I had Miles and I realized how powerful this thing called intuition is. Before then, I couldn't even hold someone's baby without wondering just how long I had to hold it until I could give it back to it's mother. (Yes, I know that makes me sound like a huge jerk! I just didn't have a lot of experience with babies. Kids, I could handle. Babies were a mystery.) As I said, I had zero chemistry with babies before Miles so to all of a sudden be flooded with this ability to nurture Miles when he arrived was pretty powerful.

I'm working on remembering that now as i find my nightstand is creaking under a pretty serious stack of baby care books once more. The Baby Whisperer, The No-Cry Sleep Solution, The Expert's Guide to Babies, What the Other Mother's know, etc. Honestly, I don't have any sleep problems (Thank GOD, please let that continue!), Miles eats just fine and we are doing great. I just get a little (ok, maybe a lot) neurotic about not messing things up. So I need to remember Andrea's words and take a look at our happily thriving little guy and remind ourselves that we are all doing great. The books are a good thing to get some tips here and there, but more often than not, I find myself putting the book down and remembering that my intuition is doing just fine and to trust myself and my ability. Oh, and everything really does fall into place. Well, everything except the clutter around the house. ; )

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Family Reunion at the Farm

Today John and I headed North to a family reunion on my Mother's side of the family. It was held at this wonderful farm and thankfully, the rain held off for our gathering. I didn't grab a lot of pics of family as we were busy with Miles a lot and we didnt have a tripod for a huge group shot either. (Duh!) Next time... These pics should give you an idea of the relaxing day we had on the farm.
Here's a rare quiet moment with me and my mom and Miles by the windmill. Earlier that day I had mom hold Miles while we got some food. Well, within minutes of me leaving Miles with her, he had ANOTHER diaper blow out (this time with a cloth diaper) and had an accident on my mom. So as I'm returning to the table I see Miles crying and my mom holding my baby completely NAKED outside. Bless her heart she was trying to get him all cleaned up all by herself. Thankfully we have learned to always have a spare outfit and was able to have it all contained within minutes. Who knew I would ever become so adapt at "poo handling?" I'm a pro now! I suppose I have the pugs to thank us for breaking us in.



If you live in Indiana or grew up here, you know what the phrase "Knee high by the 4th of July means." Here I am corn gazing.

The neighbor's dog just couldn't stay away. Especially when there were so many people eager to scratch his belly.
I never considered myself a city mouse until I caught a glimpse of the amazing garden at the farm. I had NEVER seen vegetables this huge and beautiful.

Little Shop of Horrors!!! I was kind of thankful there was a wire fence between me and this cabbage. It kind of looked like it was going to come and get me!

Miles took a nice long nap in the bouncer while we got caught up with family and fed the fish in the pond. He's starting to wake up here though...

Don't cry Miles! Daddy's here...

On the way home we took a detour to Auburn to feed Miles and expose John to an old ice cream shack from my youth. My mom used to take me to the Brown House when I was a kid and then as a teen I lifeguarded at the Auburn Pool and after a long day's work I would grab a chocolate malt for the drive home. Today, after a nice long walk with the stroller we decided to grab a malt but realized I didn't have any cash! Does this place look like it takes credit cards?

Ugh! So we walked the 16 blocks back to our car and drove back to get our chocolate fix. Yum! Thankfully we could fish enough money out of the cracks of the carseats to buy one. (We never have cash on us!)

It was a great day. I have TONS of pics to post on my blog this week, so stay tuned.

Karen's Birthday

Friday we celebrated my friend Karen's birthday with some dessert at our house. Here's the birthday girl with a piece of homemade angel food cake I made.
Here's the dessert plate before....


...and after. We had to restrain ourselves from licking the bowls clean. We made pigs out of ourselves but had a great time.

Happy Birthday Karen! It's going to be a great year for you!!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Teething Tuesday...

Miles is rolling over more and more now, which is alot of fun to watch. We are working on him sitting up, though he has a ways to go. If I let go, he folds forward in no time flat. He loves to stand though while I hold him by his arms and I need to get pics of that. He's just a joy and giggles and smiles so much.


This weekend John and I purchased a love seat for our front porch and little side table. (We were able to get upholstered stuff since it's under our porch. Anybody know where I can get some outdoor pillows?) We currently have no back patio to speak of and are looking into installing something, so for now, our front porch is where we chill. On Father's day I attempted to snap some pics of daddy with his kids, but ended up getting these quirky shots.

The pugs are thrilled to have a cushy seat to watch the world go by.

So Miles has been drooling a bit more and just can't get enough of his fingers or gumming on toys. So we have been wondering if he's getting close to teething. Well today he was just beside himself. He was crabby and soooo tired, but couldn't' sleep. Finally, John fished around on his gums and lo and behold, we think we found a little hard spot. So I think he's teething. We aren't always quick to jump on medicine, but we gave him a bit of Tylenol and the rest of the evening was great. So I think that was the problem. It's hilarious though how John and I are such neurotic rookies. Even over something simple like teething we jump on the internet, searching for answers and micromanaging every little thing it could be. We sure love this little guy and always want to do what's best for him.

Here's our little guy munching away.


I read something interesting today and wanted to share:

A while back I read about an interesting phenomenon called helicopter parenting. (Google Helicopter Parenting and you'll find a mecca of articles on the subject.) It's where parents hover over their children, communicating with them non-stop, fixing their life's problems and not really allowing them to experience failures on their own. This really shows up when they go to college because the parents are calling them numerous times a day (texting too) and are so involved that they contact their student's professors and RA's to solve issues with grades and social problems in the dorm.

I just read an article today in the paper where these helicopter parents are now actually getting involved in (and messing up) the job negotiation process as these kids grow to search for jobs. One company said they actually had a parent show up to a training session FOR their child. They have had parents call regarding jobs for them and actually calling to negotiate salaries. Then, a bit separate from the parenting issue, but an issue for the next generation of these kids, I guess there are college graduates that don't' understand you have to show up for work during spring break. This article spoke with one company that had kids fresh out of college that took the week of spring break off (without permission) thinking it was a national holiday.

So here I show my age as I exclaim, "Kids these days!!" ;>) But I guess it's also, "Parents these days" as well too. Hmmmm, I wonder how I'll balance micro-managing little things like teething worries with someday allowing Miles to handle his own bad grade on a test or paper. Thankfully I have 18 years and an awesome hubby with a good head on his shoulders to help me balance it all out.

Thankfully, right now I can hover all I want. But I'm asking you now to smack me if I end up texting Miles 15 times a day when he's away at college! Or worse yet, fixing a problem for him by calling a professor. Sheesh.... I once heard a great quote, "The best gift you can give your children are roots and wings." Lord, please give me the strength to remember that someday. Thank goodness my job right now is to give roots. Soon enough I'll be dealing with the wings part, I'm sure.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

First day at the pool

Today we went swimming at Grandma Smith's house. She had a special little area all set up especially for Miles complete with a tent for shade, a rocker and an outdoor pack-n-play. Are we spoiled much?

Look at these handsome guys!You can't tell here, but Miles' bathing suit matches daddy's. (No, John isn't wearing a speedo!)
Grandma had a special little baby pool for Miles complete with warmed water and an umbrella for shade.
Miles didn't cry at all and was pretty serious checking out the new sensations of being in the water. He was a bit sleepy today as he didn't nap as long as usual and I think the heat kind of made him a bit drowsy too. All in all though his first swim was a success!

Driving the boat in the big pool.

We eventually took him out of the boat and got to see Miles kicking underwater. Even though I spent my college years teaching baby swimming lessons, I was too chicken to put him under the water. John was brave though and Miles did his first "1-2-3 swim!" under the water. He seemed a bit surprised, but no tears. Yippee!
Jim Dumire, a neighbor and dear family friend stopped by to say hello. His son Oliver hung out with us too, which was great. Jim chatted up Miles and got some adorable giggles and smiles out of him.
My mom hadn't heard Miles give a good belly laugh yet so she was thrilled Miles was so at ease with Jim.

It was a really nice day and John and I even got some relaxation in, which was wonderful. It's hilarious how long it takes to prepare to leave the house with baby. I swear, it was like we were going away for three days with all the stuff we lugged to Grandma's house! I had decided to give disposable diapers a try thinking they would be easier for a trip to the pool. (I didn't see a need to get a disposable swim diaper as I had a cloth one.) Well, I put it on him right before we left the house and when I pulled him out of the car seat at Grandma's house he was sitting in a mess. Yep, he had leaked through the "sposie," through his onesie, through the car seat strap and all the way to the BASE of the carseat attached to our backseat. I think if the poo could have found it's way to the underbelly of our car, it would have. It was disgusting to say the least. So even though John had an adventurous time cleaning out the 5 foot radius of the car seat, he seemed secretly happy that the sposies had, once again, failed to perform therefore securing our cloth "dipes" in more reliable standing. If you can't tell, John's the hard core cloth fan and I'm the one who keeps thinking I should substitute sposies from time to time to make life easier. Well, the last time I did that (when I was sick with a cold) I ended up with a mess as well. So if anybody needs any Pampers, let me know. We have a bag that I don't think John will ever let me use again!

Here's some play time John captured from last week. You'll notice that Stamp is right next to us, as always.



Miles has been doing great and I just realized yesterday that so far, he never caught my cold. There is much rejoicing of this.

He's been doing great and once again today we came into his room to see he had rolled over onto his belly again. We haven't seen it in action, but surely, we'll catch it soon.

That's the latest. I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is a big day with John's first father's day! Check out his blog for his version of today's story at:
John's blog

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Moving on up...

When we first put Miles in his new highchair he was all smiles and totally excited. He was so cute, I wanted to stay in the moment and enjoy, instead of hopping behind the camera. By the time I got the camera out, he was all business and pretty serious. He sits in the highchair for about 5-10 min. and then he's over it. He's a long way off from eating solids, but we figure we could start getting him used to sitting up with us for dinner.


Once he got grouchy, out of the chair he went and into Daddy's arms.

I had to include this photo. Stamp had her nose to the door for the longest time and I couldn't figure out why. She would sniff and sniff and sniff and every once in a while she would let out a funny yelp. Well, I looked outside and there was nothing there, so I just figured she was being a nutty pug. Well, come to find out, there was a next day air envelope that had slid under our welcome mat (outside, mind you) and Stamp was enthralled. I guess you had to be there, but she seriously sat there and stared at the door for like an hour. She cracks us up. ; )

I'm going to completely change gears now....

This is a photo of a turtle dove that has created a nest in a landscaping tree (otherwise known as "cousin It" for it's bushiness) outside of John's office window. John found it when he was pruning "Cousin It" and it scared the daylights out of him when it decided to come flapping wildy out of it's nest in protest. We have been keeping an eye on it and watching for babies, of course while keeping a safe distance. From what I have heard, doves mate for life and of course there is the connection to peace, so it's nice to have her energy nearby.


John snapped this photo and I think it's beautiful.

To go along with this photo, I would like to post a poem written by Mattie Stepanek when he was twelve years old. Mattie is a boy who was ill from a neuromuscular disease and was confined to a wheelchair gravely ill his entire life. Mattie, who published many books of poetry, was amazingly mature and had vision beyond his years. (If you don't know who he is, look him up.) He passed just weeks short of his 14th birthday. Mattie's poetry comes to mind around this time of year for me and with all the craziness in the world, I wanted to post this poem. He has a million poems that are awesome, but I came across this one today and considering I have the news on a lot and everyday there is just more and more chaos going on in the world, this one spoke to me this evening. So instead of reading about what's going on with the war or how many more days Paris Hilton has in jail, read this poem. The child was a genius.

FOR OUR WORLD

We need to stop.
Just stop.
Stop for a moment.
Before anybody
Says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else.
We need to be silent.
Just silent.
Silent for a moment.
Before we forever lose
The blessing of songs
That grow in our hearts.
We need to notice.
Just notice.
Notice for a moment.
Before the future slips away
Into ashes and dust of humility.
Stop, be silent, and notice.
In so many ways, we are the same.
Our differences are unique treasures.
We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts
To nurture, to offer, to accept.
We need to be.
Just be.
Be for a moment.
Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting,
Like children and lambs,
Never judging or vengeful
Like the judging and vengeful.
And now, let us pray,
Differently, yet together,
Before there is no earth, no life,
No chance for peace.

September 11, 2001
Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek
from Hope Through Heartsongs, 2002