Weekend Update 9.27.09

Busy week! We're definitely in the thick of things now. During the week we were both busy with our jobs (wah wah I say that every week, but it's a good thing so hey let's keep hearing it). Our daycare provider, Fanta, passed along some of her outdoor toys to us, which YAY. So Peter is now the proud owner of a wooden rocking horsey toy, a fort/house-ish thing by Fisher Price, and a toy trunk. Took a few days to drag it all over to our house (thank you, teeny Focus car). But worth it!

We also finally have a new skylight. We have needed one for months, the old one started leaking whenever it rained; have gone through a few well meaning roofers (who promised to order us a new skylight and then hey yeah we never hear from them again and they don't return calls...). The old one was a shady brown and probably 20 years old and made the kitchen hot hot hot. The new skylight has made an immediate difference - it's lovely and clear, which makes our kitchen brighter if you can even imagine. And yet it does not let in the heat... AMAZING! Not cheap but I'm kinda glad the old one pooped out, this one is a million times better. Now we just have to re-do the sheet rock around it, maybe add some trim...

I had my Book Club this week too. We read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and I brought tiramisu cupcakes (from the Martha Stewart book). Awesome on both fronts :) Scott also bottled his dry stout, so we were both stayed pretty busy.

The weekend was crazy-busy too - Saturday I had a pie class at The Bayleaf, it was lots of fun and I got a few good recipes out of it. Look out peeps, I'll be baking some pies soon. We tried to go to the church Polka Mass. I say try... Maybe because we sat it a totally different area than usual. Maybe because I've been bragging that the baby is so good during Mass. Whatever the cause - Peter started screaming after the 2nd Reading, so we had to leave. Not like Scott was that bummed, it meant hitting up the church Oktoberfest before the rest of the masses...

Sunday we headed to the K for the last Royals game of the season. We had a lot of fun, and got to see Zack pitch. Royals won, yay! I carted the camera to the game, pictures below.

Okay, I'm off to take a shower and crawl into bed with my October book club book. Have a great week!



Scott and a sleeping baby do the tailgating thing.

Our (boring) tailgating stash: a sandwich, some chips, some beer. And a stroller and assorted car supplies...

Once he woke up, Pete baby was a happy tailgater.

Baby Peter is ready to go!

The view from our seats.

The boys pose with Peter's "Official Royals Fan" certificate.

Go Zack!

I took a picture of these cute brothers (I assume brothers), I just thought they were adorable. But literally 30 seconds after I took this picture, the little one punched the older one in the face. Lovely.

The Hall of Fame exhibit at the K.

The boys and the shiny, gleaming trophy awesomeness.

We then headed back to the game. More Zack pitching goodness.

The beloved hot dog race (in my opinion, a cheap rip-off of the sausage race. Why not do something KC-specific, like BBQ sauces or something? But I digress...). They had little kids do the run which was hilarious. Mustard SMOKED the other condiments. Go Team Mustard!

Zonked out. He woke up slap-happy (a bad sign, as we have learned quickly in his short life). Sure enough, there was much fussing shortly after, so we left at the 8th inning. Which was fine, Zack was done pitching, we saw what we wanted to see.

16 Weeks: A Story of Opposites

Baby Peter is a big part of our life (right now you’re probably thinking to yourself, ‘well duh. Obviously’). Anyhoo. You get to see him on this blog a lot. He’s included in the daily updates and you can find him in the corner of recipe pictures if you look close enough. Sometimes the main reason for a blog update and sometimes just tossed in with the mess of things, Peter's pretty much found in some nook or cranny of every post.

Given that, I thought that perhaps he deserved his own little update so that people could see how he’s doing these days. A few people have been asking, so I might as well hit everybody up with a status at the same time. Almost four months old, my goodness, and there’s just so much to tell.

Growth-wise, he seems gigantic to me. For the most part he’s in 3-6-month clothes but, oddly enough, still fits his 0-3-month pants just fine. He’s a beast - has been working his leg and tummy muscles for months, pretending to stand since he was 4 weeks old; and now can do so competently by merely holding our fingers in his little hands.

He sits pretty well at this point; eventually he will tip over but will then hold himself upright with his hands in front, tripod style. He rolls and he kicks and he is so close to crawling that it kinda makes me want to cry. He’s growing up so, so fast.

His temperament is the same as always, for the most part mellow with a dash of theatrics when the occasional bad mood hits him. And let’s just say that you wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley when he’s tired. He’s so much more social but also is starting to show signs of being a shy guy. He’s also beginning to recognize the difference between his everyday peeps and those he doesn’t see so often.

He likes to smile but is a bit bashful about it; with the ladies he gets flirty and turns his head to the side before giving them an impish grin, what a ladykiller. Someday we’re probably going to have our hands full with that boy.

What is he into these days? He looooooves to eat big boy food (a.k.a. rice cereal). He plays in his exersaucer like a focused little scientist, methodically going around from toy to toy until he’s mastered it to his liking - he always always always ends his playing with a sigh, then turns to the next toy on the left. It’s hilarious.

He still enjoys his dance routines with mom. He already likes chewing on his teething giraffe, and carts his lifelong buddy (Cheryl the pacifier duck) along with him everywhere he goes.

He has recently found bright colors mesmerizing - he could stare at his foam floor mat for hours. He finds it absolutely hysterical if you pretend to eat out of his bottle. He’s ticklish on the sides of his tummy, and gives big gummy smiles if you pretend to gobble up his chubby cheeks.

He's such a big boy and yet still our teeny baby, only a handful of months old. Place him down to play and he lunges and bellows like an ox; but pick him up and he still curls in to your shoulder, head snuggling into your neck. His feet are fat and doughy and delicious. He is drinking up his environment with every second he’s awake, the most alert little person I’ve ever seen - and yet moments later he’s staring adoringly at the wall (yet again). He is the most challenging, frustrating, charming little thing and as cliché as it is, we can’t imagine how boring our life was before he blessed us with his wiggly presence.

What a crazy 16 weeks it has been. We'll see what the next 16 bring...

Oktoberfest 2009

It may not be Munich, but it'll do. Our church puts on an Oktoberfest every year, and we ventured out for it this time around. Enjoy the pictures...



Scott and I split a plate. Cabbage rolls, kraut, and German potato salad. YUM.

I love accordian players. This guy was adorable.

A montage of sorts. I noticed a definite pattern when going through my photos from our time at Oktoberfest. Let's just say that Peter takes after his father in more ways than his looks.

Om Nom Nom Rice Cereal

Our big ole boy is, like, the biggest milk pig evaar. He drinks a ton a day. He's also close to 16 lbs., and he seems to get the whole food thing. He watches us eat like a hawk, mimics us when we have dinner. And, well, considering the whole milk pig thing... I figured it might be time to start to expand his diet. He's like a week away from being 4 months, but I think he might be ready.

Just to be safe, we started with rice cereal (hypoallergenic, so if he's not ready at least we aren't screwing him up permanently).


Um - while he had the obvious reaction to the first bite or two (the 'WTF are you doing to me' face), he figured out really quickly that MAN he loves the cereal!


So, we'll see how the tummy takes it (so far so good) and maybe a teeny bit of cereal will be in his diet from here on out. Hopefully this is a good sign that we'll have a little gastronome in our house :)


Before the first try, he has no idea what's coming...



Totally not into what's going on at first:

And then? He changes his mind.

It got to the point where he became pretty darn impatient in-between spoonfuls...

Weekend Update 9.20.09

Oh my gosh, busy week my friends.

The week: Scott bottled a beer (Festivus ale) on Wednesday, and I headed to the JBF Sale in Lawrence Thursday night. It was... okay. The JoCo one is much much bigger, therefore much superior. Leah and I have a pact to consign and shop the next JoCo one, which should be in March. While the Lawrence one was smaller I was still able to get some good deals. Found tons of slacks and pants for Peter, and some cool PJs and onesies. Found him a cute pair of Robeez. And a sweeeet black velvet blazer. On top of that, some foam floor mats, toys, and a costume for our dear Mahni. So, there were still deals to be found!

Friday night we just made deep dish pizza at home (I have THE BEST recipe compliments of Leslie @ Blog Soup, just like the Real Thing) and watched some TV while we tried to ignore the musical stylings of... our screaming little Peter.

Yup, we're giving the whole "cry it out" thing a try. Peter went from a Really Good Sleeper (only getting up every 3 hours, all business, then back to bed) to Bad Bad Awful Sleeper - up several times a night, sometimes for an hour or more, up for the day as early as 4am... For the past several weeks we've been the walking dead around here, all three of us.

I got a lot of information from my girlfriends, and a pattern that emerged was: (1) get the boy to bed earlier, and (2) don't end the "bedtime routine" with his feeding. Then he only will go back to bed with a feeding.

I've also been reading this book which was recommended by several friends, and the main bits I got out of it were (1) try the "cry it out" to see if it works for you, as it can be very helpful for some families, and (2) never let a baby under 6 months of age go more than 2 hours without a nap. Even if he only naps for 15 minutes, he'll need something.

So Friday, armed with our advice, Peter was in bed by 6:30pm, and went to bed sleepy after some book reading (feeding came earlier in the night). He cried for, oh, a good hour. Then off and on for another 30 minutes. Was any of that easy for us? Uh, no. But he finally put himself to sleep, and while it's probably premature (we've only had a handful of naps and one more nighttime since Friday) it appears to have helped things tremendously. Friday night he only got up twice, and for 10 minutes a pop. Saturday night he only got up ONCE, and was back in bed after only FIVE MINUTES. Oh my gosh! I feel like a new woman, it was amazing.

Anyhoo. Sad, but that is one of the biggest highlights of the past 4 months for me...

Saturday we took it easy. Peter and I made a grocery list and did some shopping. We stopped by downtown first and took a nice walk (the weather was PERFECT again, we've had a fantastic summer here). We also picked up these shoes, because I've been dreaming about them for a month now... Then got some groceries, and headed back home in time to watch KU pummel the Dookies into the ground.

While all that was going on, Scott brewed a new batch of beer (this time a Weisenboch). That evening, we headed to Toe Pee Kah to see Kate and her new house. Such a pretty house, too! She has a gorgeous Craftsman bungalow in the cutest neighborhood. We are officially jealous over here. We stayed there longer than we anticipated, but that happens in good company with good food and a gorgeous setting :) Before heading home we had some Bobo's Drive In for dinner, and I will say it is worth the hype. Yummy yum burgers and rings/fries.

Sunday we took it a bit easier. Got up a little later, as the church schedule was very different this week. Our church is celebrating their 150th year in 2009, so Sunday was their Sesquecentennial Mass. Since they wanted one mass with the entire parish, they held it at KU's Lied Center at 11am. Oh, my goodness.

I just want to say that as much as it would make my dad give me the side eye, I am going to admit that we had a big breakfast and copious amounts of coffee beforehand and I AM GLAD. We got to the Lied Center at 10:50am to get seated and such, Peter in his Sunday finest. And we scooted out a little after 1:00pm, right after Communion, with a little dude minus his hat, shoes, and his happy personality. The mass was cool, lots of stuff going on, but given the HUGE crowd, and the English + Spanish versions of everything, and the choir... It took awhile, longer than even a mellow little baby can take.

So we skipped the church lunch afterwards, instead heading home. We spent the rest of the day catching up on household chores, going through Peter's clothes yet again (oh my, but he grows so fast). Oh, yes - and Peter and I took a 3-hour nap. THREE HOURS. It was as glorious as it sounds. And yet I'm still tired, ironically...

In the evening: Peter tried some rice cereal. The results... well, check in here to see. And that's it, folks! Next week we have lots going on, so it should be a big update post as well.

Have a good week!