beba

What question do you hate being asked?

What's for dinner?!

Man, I HATE that question.

Here's one way we've tried to resolve it.

I love July 4! Not only is it a long weekend this year, but it's also my 40th birthday and today, the 6th, is our third wedding anniversary (and Jake's 11 month birthday!).

I've been having a wonderful weekend. I miss my girlies, but I had a nice long talk with each of them when they called to wish me happy birthday and they were just SO sweet. I'm enjoying the quiet time, but I also can't WAIT until they are home! They are having a blast with their grandma and that part of their family (which is HUGE and close knit) and I'm glad about that, though.

Scott is totally indulging me - he helped me get a pedicure on Friday after we had dinner at my favorite little Italian restaurant. Yummy! Then we came home and relaxed, watched Nova (about how fireworks are made and displayed - we're such GEEKS!). Then we watched the Tempe Town Lake fireworks on TV heh. Which was nice because the weather was very iffy at fireworks time - lots of wind, dust and lightening. Eventually the storm blew north of the city, but it was touch and go for a couple hours. I'm just as happy we weren't out in that.

Yesterday, we had our anniversary luncheon (our anniversary is today, but we wanted to spend Sunday being lazy around the house). We found a little wine bistro called D'Vine that isn't too far from our house. We went around 1 pm and it was perfect. We were the only ones there and Jake was a dream baby. we started him off with some Cheerios, but as soon as our tapas arrived, he was having NONE of that. He wanted to eat our yummy food. He basically ate one third of it, too! We even ordered him his own entree he is getting to be such a hearty self-feeder! Besides eating a substantial portion of what we ordered him, he also shared a bit of OUR entrees, plus dessert. We couldn't believe how much that boy put away! Here was the menu:

stuffed mushroom
marinated grilled portabella stuffed with a blend of cheeses, roasted garlic, red onions and bacon

fried artichoke
beer battered artichoke hearts lightly fried and drizzled with a chipotle aioli

Jake had the

grilled cheese “samich” (with gruyere)
your choice of gruyere, cheddar or havarti with a basil butter; served with french fries)

Scott and I had the

pork tenderloin
chipotle marinated pork tenderloin, grilled and sliced then served with green chili mashed potatoes, sautéed vegetables then finished with a red chimichuri sauce

Peach cobbler a la mode for dessert

After that, we went to the jewelry store to get my wedding set cleaned up, Scott's ring re-sized and re-engraved (it's too big) and look at mama rings. We decided not to get a mama ring yet, but this ring instead:

The rubies represent July - my birthstone, as well as the month we were married. Three stones represent our three years of marriage. So it's a combo 40th birthday/3 year anniversary ring. Scotty has the mama ring in reserve for some other holiday someday lol. It's at the jewelers being re-sized right now. I'll get it on Friday.

Today we're hanging out at home, doing our own cookin' and probably taking Jake for a swim.

Looking at pix on camera:

Jake LOVES Dr. Who (especially the theme song and credits)

Jake is 11 months old:

Pat-a-cake with mama:

Sillies:

Teef!

Attack of the hat is a fun game! (This is the split second before he ripped it off lol)

Show us your last text message.

Sent from her dad's cell phone...

Hi mom it's Mira how are you doing today we are in ohio we just ate. We were in a big storme last night it was scary because we heard hospital cars.

My girls are visiting their Grandma in Ohio for the next few weeks. They had pretty hellish travel yesterday! Their dad works for an airline so he can fly them on standby for a very small fee. Thing is, what with airlines cutting flights and it being summer travel season, getting standby for a 3-4 person party is TOUGH. They missed out on two direct flights before they finally got on board a flight with a Chicago connection. Then it stormed en route to Columbus from Chicago. The girls were pretty frightened, they said - they were in the thunder and lightening as they made their descent. Ack! I don't think that's even happened to ME and I've flown lots.

The storm continued well after they landed all during their one hour drive to Grandma's house (apparently a tornado also touched down in the Columbus area). They left their dad's house in Phoenix around 9 am PST yesterday and arrived at their grandma's at 2 am EST.

Ughhhh.

Anyway, all is well, but it made quite an impression on them...

Spraying crumbs is required protocol...

Can you believe this boy??? Here is Jake's latest trick, just starting today. I about had a heart attack the first time he attempted it, because he's been faking me out with pretend nosedives off the side. He sure is an adventuresome little sprig. If he could figure out how to get atop the highest point of the couch, no doubt he'd be dropping over the side from THAT height. I think he needs a rappelling set for his birthday...

Disclaimer: I don't think Jake is ready for anything more than a little pedal around the 'hood (especially since he hates the helmet we recently got him), but we went around the block today and he LOOOOOOOVED it!

I can't wait until he's ready for more!!

(And, yes, I wear a helmet and real shoes on a bike ride! We just took a spin around the block and my 12 year old B already lectured me on breaking that iron-clad helmet rule. ;-)

Ohhh, Jason Mraz has a new album out. First song I heard off of it made me think of my wonderful hubby:

These are particularly low quality pix, but so cute I had to share. Jake LOVES peekaboo and it's so cute how he hides!

Where's Jake...?

THERE he is!!!!

Scott and I are going to give THIS a try:

It's a dog - got it for dirt cheap on Craig's List (funnily enough the seller lives 5 min down the road from us!). If we really enjoy tandeming, we'll get a better bike later. But this bike was cheaper than renting one, so a good way to try it out.

We spent a good part of the weekend talking to our neighborhood bike shop people (the owners tandem) and researching. I think Scott and I will be a good team.

Funny thing the bike shop owner told us they say about tandeming, though: "Whatever direction your relationship is headed, tandeming will get you there twice as fast." 

Since he was mobile at 4 months and crawling by the time he was five months old, we thought for sure Jake would be walking by 9 months. But, nope - until very recently he hasn't been all that interested. He's quite a fast and efficient crawler. He'll cruise around furniture, of course, but as soon as he needs to move away from the furniture, he drops to his knees and scrambles off.

But Jake hit a new milestone last night... just as recently as the weekend he would resist when I'd try to "walk" with him by holding his hands. He'd always want on his knees so he could crawl at high speed.

Something clicked last night though and he couldn't get enough of walking around this way - he thought it was SO FUN and kept approaching me and grabbing my hands for more! more! In the past week he's also started being more daring with his cruising - sometimes he'll let go and stand unsupported for a few seconds. And we've all seen him take an unassisted step or two while cruising - tho it's definitely a blink-and-you-miss-it moment and we wonder if we can even believe our eyes.