Craft*Suki DB & the BB

Let's assume DB isn't spending the evening before her super-awesome baby shower checking JB's blog...

So, as long as she isn't looking, let me show you what I've made her little baby Liam.

You know, the usual: a taggy ball & blanket.

Hopefully, little baby Liam likes 'em!

Hasta manana Brizown.

Quack, quack, woof

Another frosty morning, followed by another fabulously beautiful afternoon in Wild & Wonderful West Virginia. Mama can really dig this... well, technically, I can't dig anything in snow-covered garden yet, but it shouldn't be long!

After a preemptive early morning nap, we headed for a 99 cent Diet Dr. Pepper and then onto the park.

At first the little snowman wanted nothing to do with the snow; he was much more interested in the soggy, melted snow mud puddles. Mama's really gonna have to make her peace with potentially fecal infested mud puddles or at least learn to hide it a little better before spring...

After a little snack at the park... Mama had to drag Zander kicking & screaming to the car. He was NOT happy about leaving the park without a swim with the duckies. This might be a negative about swimming lessons; now the kid's gonna want to go swimming all the time.

Julie Goodneighbor came over to play with Zander after school, but instead of going to the gym, where Mama's belong, I decided to make 3 pans of spinach & mushroom stuffed shells. One for Baby Ella. One for baby dog neighbor (born today). And one for Mama. Yum.

Julie entertained the babes indoors for a while, but the sky was so blue, she decided to take him for a stroll around the 'hood. Without an afternoon nap, the little monkey was getting pretty cranky, so Colleen came over after the walk to help Julie cheer the little man up. It worked.

Zander was having so much fun, he kept spitting up. When the boy had spit up on his final layer, I noticed the rash. Yesterday, the babe woke up with what looked like one big hive & a half dozen mini-hives/welts on his wrist. They went away, so I filed away my milk allergy suspicion.

But this evening, the babes had a rash all over his belly & thighs. By bedtime, the rash on the inside of his knees & one thigh looked like they were turning into eczema, but the rest of the little plum was still rashy. Poor little guy!

Sun Shinin' Day

What a fabulous day. The sun was shinin'. The snow was meltin'. It was beautiful.

The sun did fool Mama & Zander early, but it was too late for the chill to slow us down.

When the sun is out, shinin' down bright, what else would a true-blue babe want to do other than go swimming? So swimming we went.

The YMCA pool was kind of dim, but a pool full of aquasizing grannies kept the babe smiling. They old ladies even almost taught the boy to doggie paddle with all the waving/splashing they encouraged! And Zane was so excited about the goggled man swimming laps. Oh, what fun! The little dirt ball even enjoyed his first covert visit to the girls locker room. That boy sure enjoyed crawling under the stall dividers, but we'll address that when he gets a bit older.

After we dried off, we scouted out the gym. One of the Y's gym's was occupied by about a half dozen middle-aged women looking to uphold their New Year's resolution. But, luckily, the second gym only had two older fellas walking laps.

So, I introduced Z to the basketball. And the red ball. And the blue ball. And the orange ball. I made sure to explain to the boy, that I don't know anything about basketball, and that he'd have to talk to grandpa about specifics. But he LOVED tossing the ball, as well a one-year-old could, toward the net. So cute!

And then we had to make sure to hydrate when we got back home!

A Mightly Pickle

Well, there's no easy way to say this. So, here goes...

My baby pranked the Wheeling Police Department. Then hung up. Well, technically, I hung up. But, Papa gave him the phone. OK, I gave him the phone, but Papa turned it on.

The phone was blinking "Insert Sim," so we assumed we were safe... enough. So, FYI, even unactivated cell phones can dial up the fuzz.



But before I had to call the police department, divert the en-route cruisers & promise to never let the boy use the phone again, we sat down for dinner. Although we eat most of our meals as snacks, we always sit down to dinner together. The commercials say it is the thing to do.

Although we always eat dinner together, Mama hasn't spent much time cooking since the nap-free fever week began. But tonight I forced myself to break the take-out habit & back a Sheppard's Pie for dinner. And Sheppard's Pie, according to Papa, requires pickles. Unfortunately, last time Papa required Russian, read Jewish, pickles, he ate them all & put the brine back in the fridge.

So, what do you do when pickles are required, but the jar is empty? You just drink the juice. I think I saw Dirdushka do this once... but he couldn't finish the glass.

But Papa, Papa is hard core. You did notice Papa swigging from the pickle jar in the above video, right? And now Papa wants to teach our boy the way of the pickle too.

Do-it-yourselfer

Yeah, we decided to go back to Ikea Sunday & bring home a another baby chair for Alexander; the first was so cute, we had to get another!

Zander had fun helping Papa put it together, but the babe probably has more of his Mama's Do-it-yourself skills than Papa's at this point!