byot...

i am not loving this tomato recall. more accurately, i don't love the fact that i FORGET about the tomato recall. we decided to grab burger king for supper since it's really fast and requires no clean-up and i was craving something charbroiled. let me just state the obvious, that junior whoppers (or any size whopper for that matter) do not taste the same without tomatoes. so until this little tomato thing is over, i need to remember: byot... bring your own tomatoes.

(this pic is for you, mom. just one of those days where a girl really misses her mom...)


in other random happenings and thoughts:
* overheard just mere minutes ago from the living room: "hahahaha! cole's so tired he can barely crawl! his head is all droopy and he's dragging along!". yeah, funny, but at the same time, NOT!!!!
as for the random thoughts, here's a few for a little amusement:

* how can people be goth down here? haven't they figured out that it's really hot and sunny and black absorbs the heat? silly people.

* never mind what i said before about the random thoughtS (plural)... that was the only one that i can remember. i swear there were more, i just don't know where they've gotten to. oh well. the others weren't bad though!

no sleep, but i have a cool template!

yeah, so here's the deal with the sleep issue- cole has taken to getting up in the early am, usually around 3 am, this morning it was 2. he thinks that it's time to play... seriously. i have tried everything: earlier bedtime, later bedtime; chamomile tea in his bottle, no tea in his bottle; trying to rock him back to sleep, trying to let him put himself back to sleep, even bringing him to bed with me... nothing works. i've tried cd's with lullabies, ocean and rain sounds, that doesn't help either. i am at the end of my rope, running on 3 or 4 hours of solid sleep each night for the past few months. rare is the occasion that he DOES sleep a full 8 hours... it kind of worries me that he is going on 5 or 6 hours of sleep (the daytime naps are not a guarantee). if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know- i am THIS close to hiring out a sitter for the nights just so i can sleep!
but on the other hand, i was getting really bored with the limited backgrounds offered by blogger, so i found this neat website that offers free template (there's a link to it in my 'places to go'). the only thing is that not all of my links and widgets saved, so i had to go and re-add them. oh well... so, not all of my links are the same, but i will re-add them as i remember them. i did find new ones in the process of trying to get them all back, which is a bonus. feel free to check out the templates there, there are some really neat ones!

mud pies and banana bread

so, i made banana bread today, thinking that it's been awhile since we had banana bread, those REALLY ripe bananas aren't going to use themselves and it would be cool for cole to add a new food to his menu. i was right on all three counts... especially the last one. seems that cole loves banana bread! i'm not sure what pleased him more- a new food or the fact that he fed it to himself! he ate a whole slice... and don't worry, i used a quarter cup of suger and substituted the other 1/2 cup with applesauce, so it's pretty healthy! that's about all the sugar i'm willing to let him have at this point...
this onesie was a gift from my cousin sandy- it's big for him yet, but i couldn't wait a day longer! now that he's crawling, i was really anxious to see the "mud pie" creeping along beneath my feet. so sandy, these pics are for you! i have to say, i am a sucker for this particular shade of orange, which is great because it neatly disguises sweet potato spills...
(ah, the mud pie...)

we also got our front door fixed today. i have no idea why i felt the need to say "front" because we have no other door.... but anyway, the deadbolt worked great, but the latch didn't quite work on the handle so it never stayed shut when the deadbolt was opened. so our resident mr fix-it came to take care of it. for those of you who have read our random ramblings from the beginning, i was calling him gerry. sadly, i was mistaken- his name is actually glen. ooops. i found this out because last week our garbage disposal had an issue so i called the main office to see if "gerry" was available in the near future to come take a look at it. the office lady laughed her head off and then told me his name was actually glen, not gerry. i don't know if she passed this little tidbit on to him or not- if she did, he never said a word. thank goodness- i am MORTIFIED that i have been calling him the wrong name for months! he's really good-natured so i'm almost positive he won't hold a grudge on that one. so- banana bread, a new door latch... life is good! now, if only cole would NOT wake up at 3 am, ready for the day, everything would be absolutely peachy.

new little cousin

just a quick post to welcome a new cousin: america laverne gabhart was born on 3rd june! congratulations to eric, audrey, addie, konrad, adrianna and truman on the new addition! can't wait to meet her- she's beautiful! sarah and stephen have a link to eric's page, there are pictures there. we love you, indiana cousins!

lazy saturday...

our saturday was pretty uneventful- we pretty much stayed in, with the exception of our weekly trip to walmart and meeting andy for a late lunch at chili's. i decided that it was high time i made bread again so that was the one thing i accomplished. for some reason it always turns out more dense than my mom's, but it's edible, so i guess i can't complain.what i HOPED was that the bread would make itself and i could take a nap while kelvin spent some time with cole. what really happened was the boys crashed and i had to make the bread after all. the photo above is proof... sleepyheads!
i couldn't resist- bathtub photos are always fun, and cole has been such an expressive little boy lately. his newest thing is sucking on his top lip with his tongue out. he started doing it as a way to get mommy to laugh, i think, and then it just went from that to an alternative sort of pacifier. if he's tired or concentrating, he'll really go to town on his poor upper lip! funny- really cute, too!
water is funny....
i love, love, love his funny-face!!!
cole's favorite tub toy? the drain plug. don't ask me why, i haven't a clue! he does like the fishy toys that mom and dad brought him in april, but for some reason, the drain is just a little more appealing. usually he takes in a mouthful of water when he goes for it, which really doesn't deter him, but scares me because he sputters and coughs and gets all red in the face. i think it's more a drama thing than actual choking because when he's done he looks up and grins really wide like he just pulled the wool over my eyes. therefore, i tend to try to stop him from playing with the plug. that, and it's part of the drain and drains are gross. sorry- i have SERIOUS bathroom issues... if it was practical, i would prefer to not touch even the plug without gloves, but whatever. anyway, i was fiddling with the camera and kinda watching him inch toward it, and then got his attention for a photo, but i think he thought i was going to tell him 'no', and that's why he has the deer-in-the-headlights look! cute, no?

anyway, can't wait to scrapbook these too... poor kid is going to have to have his own library for all his scrapbooks. i wish- i STILL only have two pages (his ultrasound pics) done. maybe someday... i'll have to hire a sitter so i can get that project going!

oh, one more thing- i found the sweetest baby basics for my new nephew... can't wait to get more collected and sent!!!

cole's cracker

cole had his first cracker tonight! he likes to crawl around the kitchen when i'm working there, and a lot of the time, it ends up that he clings to my leg, or if he's feeling particularily voracious, he bites my leg instead. or my toes, whatever is most appealing at the moment. so, since he tried chicken noodle soup with finely crushed saltines yesterday and really enjoyed it, i figured that i would give him a whole cracker and see if he'd take to it. he did. very much- in fact, he ended up eating two.
don't worry, all you fellow mommies out there- i scraped all the salt off first! so, while mommy had her late afternoon snack of left-over chicken noodle soup, cole munched away on his cracker. i was prepping myself for a soggy mess, figuring that he'd just suck on it and most of it would escape via the never-ending trickle of drool that comes with the teething territory, but i was severely mistaken. not 10 seconds after he got his cracker, i hear "crunch crunch..."- he skipped the whole gumming it up first thing and went straight to chewing it. looks are very deceiving when it comes to those tow tiny little teeth... boy do they make quick work of anything edible!
("that was yummy- more please?")

i guess i really don't have to mention that there was very little mess to clean up.... sure, every baby leaves a food trail but he got most of it. i was putting off the cracker thing, because i wasn't sure when the 'right' time for crackers is for little ones, but i guess that his time is now.

he loved it, and i have found a new way to keep him out of trouble- the apartment is silent when he's munching away!

baby picasso

(this is what he thinks crayons are for...)

last night, after supper, cole was a bit restless so to kill time until his bath, i gave him a piece of paper and crayons. we got the crayons when went to ihop last week- i am amazed at how many waitresses talk about their kids/grandkids and still give a 9-month old crayons. really, what are they thinking? crayons will not magically expand the attention span of said child- they will only be eaten and thrown on the floor. this process will take approximately all of 2 minutes.

anyway, we took the crayons home because someday he'll know what their purpose is and be able to use them to their full potential. i figure that this day is at least a good 6 months away... apparently, he has already got the idea. for the most part- the first picture is NOT a good example of just how much of this concept he has grasped.

with a little help from mommy, he managed to make some pretty good squiggles on his paper. there are lots of random dots, mostly blue (since he thought the orange crayon should be a snack instead) from throwing it around. almost like a jackson pollack instead of a picasso, but picasso is what came to mind initially. he did have a bit of fun for a few minutes, and i did keep the finished masterpiece. dated, of course.

(look, mom- neat, huh? now can i eat it??)

so, cole's first dabbling in the wonderful world of art was a success of sorts. we have proof that he wielded a crayon before the age of one... if he's not too frustrated maybe we'll give it another go this afternoon. unless, of course, he's still more interested in ripping the paper and munching the art media... then we'll skip it.