I can has crawling baby!

Before The Fry got sick last month, he was really into finger foods!

Now they are all over our floor. We have a special brush and dustpan that we use just for cleaning up finger foods off the floor. Here we have little cooked macaroni noodles.

Egg yolks are tasty and easy to eat, but difficult to get in the mouth.

Mostly, we just like cheerios. We even have a preferred brand of them! Thank goodness it's generic!

Look at that smug lil' grin!

But not as smug as this one!

He eats in his swing because it has a tray and also because we feel like it'll be a little pointless to buy a high chair when we'll only be using it for another 6 weeks before we move (saving more info for another post). There's a toy that attaches to the tray, and sometimes I forget to take it off:

Lately, he's been pushing himself on his hands and knees (!) to crawl. Of course, the only picture I could get of him crawling has "evil eyes".

He only really "scoots" forward once before he flops back down again.

He rather likes lying on his back, and since he's content to roll on the floor and is mobile enough to get what he wants, he's in no hurry to crawl. Furthermore, he resists sitting up at all because it requires him to be still. He does not like being still (unless he is being held - and even that is a challenge)!

Today we're having fun with one of our favorite toys - Mr. Crab!

Okay, well that is PapaFish's sock. But Mr. Crab is waiting to be picked up and drooled on!

That's better!

And that's good, too!

Look at those luscious locks!

Say hi to Grandma and Grandpa!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mothers Day, all you wonderful Mamas out there! Enjoy these beautiful apple blossoms, found not five minutes' walk from our home!

Spring has truly arrived "in full bloom"!

We even saw some cherry blossoms:

They are my favorite flower as far as blossoming trees goes (Tiger Lilies are my favorite of all flowers) - and it was the perfect gift for Mother's Day to see these flowers as I walked with TheFry on Saturday evening.

While we were walking at the park, we spied this bench with what looked like a bouquet of flowers on it...

But it wasn't a romantic gesture from a guy about to propose to his girlfriend, as I had hoped. Then again, I am a sap sometimes. But the flowers were pretty anyway, and I love the big shiny building in the background. There's something quaint about a city park.

We spent a lot of time watching these two birds. They kept singing and chirping and TheFry would just smile and laugh and kick his chubby little legs. Eventually, they flew off and we headed home.

TheFry has been eating a lot of spinach lately. We make our own baby foods at home, and he is afraid of the food processor. Therefore, I tend to prepare the foods after he goes to bed, and sometimes it takes several hours (like if he keeps waking up every hour). Such is life in an apartment. But I think a messy face is a cute face.

Lately, TheFry has been pushing himself up on his hands. Sometimes he forgets to unclinch his fists.

Here he is, chubby and happy and dressed like a mime (that one was for you, Mom ;) ).

This one's my favorite. That's not a tooth - it's just his gums. He really likes to play with his tongue, including turning it sideways (which I myself cannot do), chewing on it and the like.

In other news, I have a romantic husband! He made chocolate ganache-covered blackberries for Mother's Day! Aww...

Yes, those are slices of candied kumquat zest adorning the little nuggets of blackberry deliciousness!

A blurry close-up because I only have a P&S...

That's better! Mmm...ganache was a little melty, so it stuck to the paper instead of peeling off like plain chocolate. The blackberries were savory yet subtle - not overpowered by the ganache and yet now overpowering it, either. The kumquat added a little bit of zing to the overall feel, and a much-needed crunch. The sugar coating on the kumquat zest kept it from being bitter (which is how I remember kumquats from my childhood).

To be honest, I was skeptical about the kumquat zest because the only time I've ever had kumquats they were extremely bitter. However, this was an amazing dessert and I have a wonderful husband who stayed up after work buying and preparing the ingredients for me! He even made chocolate-covered pecans (also with the ganache - sadly, no pictures), and pecans are my favorite kind of nut!

Well, happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there, and here's hoping you had a relaxing day with good food and family who loves you! Until next time!

Stitch to Enrich!

This last Saturday was our first time hanging out with the folks who "Stitch to Enrich!" Our church is really trying to help the local community, and the Stitch to Enrich program is one way of doing that. Some of the young women in our church who know how to knit are teaching others to do so. So this Saturday, I went to a young lady's apartment and learned how to knit with about a half-dozen other girls (plus Trinity and Dexter!)



The blanket TheFry has in the picture is one that I crocheted for him. I started working on it before he was born and just finished it last month. ^_^;; I learned over the weekend that knitting is a rather clumsy affair. I dealt with the frustration by picking up a more complicated crochet project. I'm planning on knitting a little girl's sweater.



In the end, we hope to donate 100 items of clothing (mostly scarves and hats) to a local homeless shelter for those who can't afford winter clothes. In our local area it is miserably cold for about six months of the year. This last winter, we had several weeks of below-zero temperatures - a longer stretch of them than I ever remember.





Anyhow, TheFry enjoyed being fawned over and playing with yarn (until he got all tangled up this one time, and MamaFish had to save him). He got all pooped out on affection, and demanded to return home earlier than we had hoped.

Until next time!

There are no words...

No, we do not smother our boy, nor do we even put him to bed on his tummy. In fact, we have never put him to bed on his tummy.

This is what happens when he's playing in his crib and then just randomly falls asleep in some weird position. If you have ever watched baby pheasants, you will see the same thing at work: they are hyper, run around the coop cheeping nefariously, then randomly fall over, as if dead...only they're sleeping. When they wake up, they just pop up and start running around, and do the whole thing again. Such is life in our Fish Bowl.




As you can see, he is more interested in pushing things around with his fingers than he is eating them. I guess that Finger Foods will be an adventure!

Spring Has Finally Sprung!

That's right - it's finally spring in Minnesota! Not all the trees are budding quite as much as this shrub, but the grass is getting greener, the birds are chirping, and the ducks are getting twitterpated!


Almost every night The Fry and I take a half-hour walk around the neighborhood. There is a small pond that has houses built all around it, and we walk along the streets by the houses around the pond. On our walk we see all kinds of creatures: squirrels, robins, mallards, Canadian geese, puppy dogs, house cats and even the occasional muskrat! We usually go in the evening so that it's just getting to be dusk around the time we get home. The Fry loves our walk and is completely mesmerized the whole time.

Lately our fridge looks like this. We make our own baby food for The Fry, and I've finally finished pureeing the fruits and veggies we bought two weeks ago. I am wondering if we will use it all up before we start giving foods to The Fry in chunks, but so far his chewing ability isn't so adept. He is not very developmentally speedy, but he seems happy at the pace he's set for himself, so I can't complain.

Anyhow, shown in the fridge is: milk, squash, green beans, pears, apples and breakfast cereal (a combination of barley, pears and milk)! What treats!


In other news, we've been trying the Cry-It-Out method as a result of going nearly insane with the lengthy and complicated nap- and bed-time procedures required to get The Fry enough rest. Our normal protocol involves getting just the right accessories: sometimes a blanket and sometimes not, sometimes a blanket and a stuffed animal, sometimes a TV or computer screen, sometimes singing but sometimes complete silence, and basically a lot of squirming, thrashing and screaming no matter how much cuddling we give or withhold. It's impossible to tell what he wants, but what he needs is sleep.

As you can probably guess, CIO isn't working. The score so far is:

Fry: 3
MamaFish...1

So I guess I'm just a bleeding-heart MamaFish. But I remember that my youngest brother went through the procedure of having to have an adult lay with him while he fell asleep until he was at least four or five years old. I suppose that day is imminent, but perhaps I'll figure something out in the meantime.