Refusing to be Fed: Round 2

My darling sweet boy is back on his 'I can do it myself' kick when it comes to meal times. Part of me wonders what parallel universe I'm in that a child of mine and Michael's would refuse to sit in a cushy chair and have yummy food shoveled into his mouth. But then I remember all the horror stories my mom tells of my strong-willed, no-holds-barred insistence on doing everything myself and I wonder if when the Lord said in Deuteronomy "I will repay" He also had grandparents in mind. I know that's a little out of context, but grandparents have to get a kick out of seeing their kids go through the same things they went through with us! My mom can already tell that Wes' temperment is nothing like mine was, but I can see little glimpses of his need for independence arising!

Wes will eat absolutely anything as long as it's it finger food form, so here's an another idea (remember the Baby Food Nuggets?) for refused baby food:

Baby Food Quesadillas

This is a whole wheat tortilla, cheese, and left over pinto beans (sounds pretty good so far, right?) chicken curry, and broccoli, squash and kale. (lost you at the chicken curry, huh?) Wes gobbled it right up. I've also tried baby food grilled cheese, works like a charm!

Also, here are some great recipes that Wes loves that do double duty as Baby Food and Mommy and Daddy Food:

Quinoa and Lentil Confetti - a little messy as finger food, but we make it work. This is a great side dish that's yummy hot or cold!

Tex Mex Rice Cakes - I made this recipe and split it in half for Wes and I. For Wes I just used the egg yolk and made up the cakes. For myself I used the egg white and fried it up like fried rice. So delicious!

Red Lentil Puree - Wes prefers this not pureed and frankly I do to :) I did cut the spices in half and felt like that was plenty. Wes loves spices and flavor and this packs a punch!

Here's a picture of the Red Lentil's. Wes and I had it with salmon.

BOOM!!

The day has come to officially call it...Wes' first word is "boom"! He loves to knock things over, especially towers of tupperware. Wes was lucky enough to inherit a ton of tupperware when a neighbor recently moved and we've found many fun uses for it that don't involve storing leftovers.

These pictures are from back in March when Michael started saying "boom!" when Wes would knock over a tower he had built. And pretty quickly Wes started repeating it. We waited a while to decide if this was truly is first word, since 'boom' sounds pretty much like a lot of other baby babblings. But now whenever he knocks over a tower or drops something or hears a loud noise he says 'boom'. It's not the endearing "Mama" that I had hoped for, but it's pretty darn cute.

Recently Wes has also been saying "bubbles" since we love sitting in our backyard and blowing lots of them. There's always a nice little ocean breeze at our house and it carries the bubbles quite a ways before they pop. It's just adorable to see his tiny hands reach for them as they float away.

Wes has just started to say "bye" as well. He loves to wave and will wave as soon as you say 'hi or bye, bye'. He will wave at anyone or anything: we wave to daddy when he leaves for work (Wes has been getting up around 5:15am these days, so we're all wide awake when he leaves. I really miss the days of a kiss on the cheek and then another hour and a half of sleep) We wave to the neighborhood kitty cat that sometimes uses our planter box as a litter box (a much nicer greeing that she deserves in my opinion). And we wave to the bath water as it heads down the drain (I love seeing Wes' and his naked little buns peeping over the edge of the bath tub to wave bye bye to the water.)

'Mamma' and 'Dadda' are in there too, but they're definitely not in his prefered vocabulary quite yet. I'm looking forward to hearing the thoughts my little man has in his head!

Sous Chef

Wes loves being in the kitchen, though since our kitchen is pretty small he's usually more underfoot. Michael always reminds me that there's only room for one chef in the kitchen, so three can definitely spoil the pot. Wes loves his designated cabinets and drawers, though it only takes him a minute before he remembers all the other ones that have a lock or rubber band around the knobs (so far it's been pretty efficient!).

As soon as I open the refrigerator or freezer doors he's right there to see what's inside.

And of course he loves the dishwasher. He quickly figured out how to pull the silverware out of the rack, and I quickly learned not to turn my back on him when cutlery is present. I went to clear dinner dishes from the table and returned to Wes wielding a knife. Luckily it was a butter knife, but still, that kid is quick!

Leave Some for the Fish

Wes and I started Mommy and Me swim lessons last week! Wes is loving the water and I'm surviving being back in a swimsuit!

Our lessons are in Fountain Valley through Ambrose Aquatics.

Wes' friend Evan is in our swim class too. Evan's Aunt Tori is the instructor!
Look at the mugs on these too, remember when they were just tiny??

This was actually Wes' first time in a swimming pool!

He loved it!

Getting Dunked!

Wes drank quite a bit of water, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Practicing his kicks.

Nice form Wes, and horrible tan lines mommy!

Baby Food: A Lesson in Multi-tasking

How to Kill Two Birds with One Stone:

For Baby: Tropical Fruit Puree

Equal parts ripe Watermelon, Papaya, Kiwi and Pear

Puree and Serve

For Mom and Dad: Tropical Fruit Daqueri

Leftover baby fruit puree plus ice, rum and Midori.

Blend and Enjoy!

(I have to give Michael the credit for this one, and they are delicious!)

Spring Break

Grandma Susie was on spring break from Northwood High School, so we had a fun picnic at the new Orchard Ranch Park in Tustin.

With my Auntie Jessica and cousins Haley, Gia and Cash.

The girls love playing with Wes!

Wes got a car washing lesson from Dad.

Mike is obsessed with clean cars so I'm sure this will be an excellent father-son activity!

Auntie Madison was also on spring break so we went to visit her and soon-to-be Uncle Nathan (they are getting married in November) down in San Clemete where they were camping. Here I am with my dad, Auntie Madison and Grandpa Al.

Uncle Nathan gave me this cool glow stick, he reassured my mom that they are not toxic! She still did her best to keep it out of my mouth.

You Look Like a Monkey.....

...and you smell like one too!!! Nothing personal of course! :) I couldn't help singing that wonderful corruption of "Happy Birthday" to Wesley as we drove to the San Diego Wild Animal Park on Monday. My mom works as a sewing instructor at The Knit Sewing Club and a wonderful "student" of hers is a member at the Wild Animal Park and she graciously invited our family to the Park to go on the Photo Safari. You get to be right down inside the animal enclosures and get up close and personal with a few of them!

Here's what the 'tour bus' looks like.


Don't ask me what the actual name of this animal was, but it is basically an Asian buffalo.

Loved this mama and her brand new baby!

Rhino's

I love this picture of my mom. Feeding the giraffe's was a little freaky!

My niece Haley and I feeding a giraffe. Wes was too little to take the tour, so he and Michael checked out the animals from a safer vantage point.

We ventured into the Butterfly Jungle which was amazing and only open for a couple of weeks. We couldn't get any butterflies to land on us, but it was fun seeing peoples reaction when one landed on them!

Feeding the Lorakeets

This is one pregnant gorilla! I remember sitting like that at the end too.

Haley, Wes and Mike with the elephants.

Happy Easter!

While we were at Church celebrating our risen Lord, we had a visit from the Easter Bunny! (Actually he came Saturday during afternoon nap, but this year Wes is none the wiser!)

I thought I'd mention here that Wes is doing great in the nursery at Church. Last week was the first time I'd put him in the nursery since it is now impossible to pay any attention to what the pastor is saying if he's with us. There were more kids in the nursery this week and he seemed to have a lot of fun playing with kids his age.

Wes with some eggs the Easter Bunny left for him.

The Easter Bunny didn't realize how long our walk is, he definitely got a little lazy the closer he got to our door :)

Luckily Easter Bunny tracks wipe off with a little bit of water.
(they are just flour and water)
Growing up, our next door neighbors would make these bunny tracks every Easter. Since I am so sentimental and just love traditions I knew these would become one of ours! I did have to call my old neighbors and ask how to make them though. Flour, water and your fingers - I especially love cheap, easy and fun traditions!

After church Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Monica and Uncle Chris came over for brunch. Grandma brought us some Easter egg gifts too!

After a nap we headed to La Mirada to have Easter with Mike's family at Aunt Kathy's house. Mike had been working for 5 days, so he missed all the Easter festivities. Uncle Jay suped up this jeep with some paint and racing stickers. Seeing Wes in it gave me a major flash forward moment to 16 years from now...scary!


It's great having older cousins who play with me while mommy gets to visit. Here I am with Kaitlin, Zoie and Camden after the Easter Egg hunt.





There were so many cool toys at Aunt Kathy's house!

And dogs too! Wes loves dogs, and I am really thankful to have friends and family who have them, so maybe we won't have to. (I'm not a huge pet person) Though I know daddy will have something to say about that!

Cruisin' with my cousin!

Good Friday

Wes and I went to Good Friday service at Irvine Meadows (aka Verizon Wireless Ampitheater) with Auntie Monica and Grandma. It was such a great service and such a beautiful day!

It will be a real shame if and when Verizon and Wild River's close. Wild Rivers is THE summer spot, or at least it use to be, for so many kids in this area. It's lease is now year to year from the Irvine Company and I'm sure as soon as the housing market turns around it will be gone to make way for new homes. Verizon's lease is over in 2017. I hope Wild Rivers is around long enough for Wes to go once, I have lots of fun memories there.

Easter Party at Auntie Chrissy's

My friend Christiana and I have been friends since we were just about as old as our sons are now. We grew up together and have shared so many wonderful years of friendship. And it is such a blessing now to see our children start their own, hopefully, life long friendship.

Chrissy's son Cody in yellow, Chrissy's sister Amanda's son Tyler in blue and Wes.

Auntie Chrissy reading the kids a story about the fun things Easter brings but also about remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross.

A few of Wes' friends.

Wes' first Easter Egg Hunt.

Even though he's not walking, he managed to grab a couple of eggs!

Checking out his stash!

He loves to bang two things together right now, but he won't clap yet.

With his good friend Gracie.

Wes had his first taste of sugar today when a rogue yellow jelly bean found it's way into his mouth. Luckily he was just sucking on it and not trying to swallow it! As most of my friends know, I have a horrible sweet tooth and I've been hoping that I didn't pass that gene on to Wes :) But as you can guess he wan't too thrilled when I fished out that jelly bean.