Hank & Silas turn 2

We went to Hank & Silas' joint second birthday party yesterday. It was great fun. There were lots of kids, toys, yummy cupcakes, finger paints, and to top it all off a rocket-ship piñata!

Conan didn't take any swings at the piñata, but he crawled right in with the rest of the kids to grab some loot when it burst open. What did he get? A small plastic skull, of course. No playdoh or bubbles for this little barbarian. He had a great time chewing on it for the remainder of the party. :)

Conan was so tired after the party, he fell asleep in the car on the way home and I was able to just put him straight to bed. It's hard work keeping up with the big kids!

Music & Measurements

Here's a little musical interlude for you...


Conan had his checkup on Tuesday. He weighs 19 lbs and is 30.75 inches tall. He's still exactly 25th percentile on his weight, and 100th percentile for his height. Statistically speaking, there are no babies his age who are taller than he is.

Or, to put his height into perspective another way: I am only 61.5 inches tall, so he's exactly half my height. Wow.

Eating

I'm really enjoying making baby food for Conan. He is a great eater, gobbling 4 to 5 ounces of food at a meal, washed down with a couple ounces from the bottle or sippy cup. Some things he likes better than others, but he's generally very accepting of new flavors and textures. He's starting to get really interested in feeding himself, he loves toast and crackers and little bits of soft fruit. He's very quick with his little spoon-grabbing hands, to the point where the easiest way for me to feed him is to give him two spoons (one for each hand) so that he will let me put the third spoon in his mouth.

I recently introduced Sunflower-seed butter and Tahini (sesame butter) into his diet. Both of these are high in iron & minerals & protein, and they work great to thicken vegetable mixtures. Tahini-banana and Sunflower-pear-plum were both great hits with Conan. Oatmeal with Figs & Wild Blueberries is a very gourmet baby breakfast. Avocado is still a favorite; Avocado-Banana-Apple is always a good choice for lunch. Pear-Mango-Cucumber is a delicious desert or snack. Roasted Tomato-Zucchini-Garlic makes a great dinner, and so does Chicken, Yams & Carrots. Besides the blends, I freeze a lot of single-vegetable purees, and then combine 4 or 5 cubes and thaw to make new flavor combinations.

One thing I have learned is that foods thickened with either rice or potatoes change texture once they have been frozen and thawed. They get sort of a lumpy, grainy texture, and Conan doesn't like them as well. Oatmeal works much better to thicken and add some starch. For vegetable & fruit mixtures that are runny or watery after they've been thawed, I find it works well to add a lttle instant baby cereal to thicken them before feeding him. It's just got to be thick enough to stick to the spoon long enough to make it to his mouth!

A frog on a fig

This little guy has found a great perch.

Last year we planted a fig tree on the south side of the house. It's a super hardy variety, and a good sheltered spot, so we thought it would do well. However, the winter storms we had in December brough extreme cold temperatures; I thought the fig was done for. Our rosemary plant and a couple of blueberries did in fact die. But lo & behold, late in the spring a few little shoots appeared at the base of the trunk on the fig. Now it is doing great!
I probably ought to prune several of these branches off of it, but they are all covered in figs so I can't bring myself to do so. I'll trim it next spring, after we see what makes it through the winter.

Baby Gate Fail

I was working the other morning when I realized that it was quiet - TOO QUIET. Conan had been playing in the living room, which was all baby-gated and secure, or so I thought. But when I checked he was not in the living room, but rather had managed to squirm through the cat-opening in the kitchen baby gate and was happily playing in the cat water. I snapped this picture before he knew he'd been caught:
It doesn't show that well in the photo, but he's soaked and there's water all over the floor. The thing I find the most amusing is that he was being completely silent - sneaky baby! When he's playing with something he knows is alowed, he squeals and burbles and jabbers. Aparently he knows to keep quiet when he's doing something he knows he shouldn't. Such a smart little guy. :)

We've since increased the baby-gate security somewhat. We do have to leave an opening for Iggy to get through (geriatric three-legged cats don't jump!) so there will always be a weak spot in our baby-proofing. I'll just have to keep my ear tuned for the quietness of trouble!

Mama!

Conan called me Mama! He's said it a couple of times before that were a little ambiguous, but this time there was no mistaking it. He looked right at me and said it. I don't have any words for how happy this makes me.

Stair Climbing

Conan's current favorite activity is climbing the stairs. If the gate isn't up, he's on them, fast! We let him climb them with supervision, and he loves to go up again and again. He's a pro at going up, but hasn't figured out going down. He especially loves to play "chase me" and try to get away crawling down the hall at the top, giggling like crazy. He was a bit confused by me following him with the camera, instead of trying to catch and tickle him, so I wasn't able to get top speed & giggles. You'll have to come over and see it for yourself! :)

Long Sleepy Weekend

He must be getting ready for another growth spurt, beacuse we're getting 3-4 hour long naps all of a sudden. Not that I'm complaining! I've taken a few naps myself this weekend. :) In the true spirit of Labor Day, we've done very little all weekend long. I'm actually very thankful for the rainy weather - without it I would have felt like we needed to get out and either recreate or work on some projects. Instead we stayed inside, cooked, ate, and rested. Perfect!

Garden Harvest

It's harvest time! The tomatoes are ripening, and I'm overwhelmed with cucumbers. No time to make pickles with Conan on the scene... maybe next year. Luckily the beans are winding down now, they've been tremendous this year. My corn crop has been pretty small - I was relunctant to weed out very many of the volunteer sunflowers this spring and the corn really didn't like growing up in the shade. The plants got about 2.5 feet high and the ears range from 1-5" in length. Perfectly sized for Conan! They are so tender and delicious. On the other hand, I have never had so many sunflowers; I've been able to pick and give away big boquets of them all summer long and it is such a luxury. I can always buy corn. :) My zucchini crop mostly failed (I know, I didn't think it was possible either!), I just harvested the first - and probably the only - zuc I'm going to get from the garden. Not that we haven't been well-supplied with zucchini; between the office zuc pool and Dave's garden, we've still had plenty.