121.

Thank you Pinterest for supplying me with a great recipe for tonight's dinner.  We are blessed with a wonderful Papaw, who is also a deep sea fisherman.  He keeps us well stocked in fresh seafood!  Tonight's delicacy was shrimp cooked in lemon butter and Italian seasonings.  

120. Sunday Funday

We went for a Sunday drive on Fort Gordon.  MM has been seeing very small signs stating there is a lake located on the post, yet we have never seen nor heard of a lake at Fort Gordon.  Exploration was needed. 
After driving into the middle of nowhere, past various shooting ranges and onto some dirt roads we did discover the lake.  It's small and looks like a great place for water moccasins live, needless to say we didn't get out of the truck.  It was a really pretty drive though.
Baby J did fantastic in the backseat, just a talking and giggling and roaring.  We decided he deserved some fun after that, onto the new post playground we went... 

 

119.

Whoa, that was a busy Saturday!  I woke up at 630am to hunt deals at local garage sales.  A friend's church was hosting their annual mission fundraiser via yard sale at the church and they weren't messing around... People were conducting traffic, over 300 in line waiting to enter, and I have heard they net over $15, 000 in profit in just 1 morning!  Pretty amazing fundraising.  After a couple hours I met up with MM for a baby exchange and he headed to post to continue competing in his softball tournament.  He played 4 games back to back and his team ended up in 4th place.  We attended a baby shower in the afternoon and on our way home picked up a 2nd baby to watch for the evening so her parents could go on a date in celebration of their anniversary.  She's one adorable baby and a happy little thing too.  Having Miss Kolbie over was lots of fun. 

118.

Warming before a game at Fort Gordon's 17 team- double elimination- single pitch- softball tournament.  He plays for DDEAMC, the hospital team.  Baby J and I came out to watch for a couple hours, but we had to call it night before he was finished.  As I type this his team has advanced twice and is playing their 3rd game of the night. 

117. color-coordinated

Like father, like son.  MM chose his outfit without knowing what I had dressed Baby J in; they came out looking like  twinkies in their green polos and brown shorts.  Adorable. 

116.

Might just grow up to be a musician like his Daddy. 

115.

A boy and his dog. 

114.

Chop Suey from 'Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives'

About 30 minutes of prep work in the morning and then let it crockpot simmer all day and have a tasty one dish dinner that evening.  This new recipe received the husband stamp of approval.

Want to know how to make it?
Brown 1lb meat (I used ground chicken, but the recipe calls for beef) with a diced onion and 5 strips of raw bacon chopped.  
Dump the cooked meat (with onion and bacon) into the crockpot. 
Add a diced pepper- recipe calls for green, but because I don't like green peppers I used red. 
Dump in a can of diced tomatoes and then fill that can with water and dump that in too.
Add a jar of spaghetti sauce, any flavor and 6 chopped garlic cloves.
Let this simmer on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours. 
30 minutes before you want to eat stir in a 16oz package of elbow noodles (I used whole wheat and they cooked up well), re-cover crockpot and let simmer.  The noodles will soak up all the liquid. 
Spoon into bowl and top with generous heap of shredded cheese.  Dig in!!

113. slumberpartypalooza!

Leigh (2nd from left) is graduating dental school and moving to Colorado next month.  We are all so sad to have her go, but so very happy for her and this great opportunity!  Her husband was out of town for a golf tournament and we thought what better way to get in quality Leigh time than with a slumber party!  The 4 of us (me, leigh, meghan, jasmin) have been in a community group through our church for the last year+ and over the course of that time we have become really good friends.  We have fun together, talk and laugh together, pray together, and support each other through whatever life throws at us.  They are [a portion of] my family away from family and I love them.

On this particular night there was dental school touring, pizza and beering, laughing, story-telling, more laughing, pajama wearing while oreo eating, more laughing, clothing swapping, and a little more laughing before going to bed much later than we should have.  

112.

I tried and tried, but just couldn't decide on 1 photo for the day.  So 2 it is!  Papaw & Gigi (who live on an island in FL) gave Baby J this shirt for Easter.  They say everyone needs a Florida shirt!  I think Baby J pulls it off mighty well!  He is also sporting his new sandals that we bought this week, quite an improvement from his old ones.

111.

Friday night date night downtown!  Dinner at Crums (on of our favorite local places), wine on the patio, and live music at Joe's Underground.  Pretty fantastic evening. 

110.

One of the many reasons I love springtime is because of the berries!  Between the strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries that are coming into season I have an endless supply of deliciously sweet, nature-made snacks!  These are the latest blackberries I bought; they are very plump and juicy and I am afraid they are so yummy there is a good chance they don't make it long enough to accompany my breakfast.

109. Lost Dog

Wrigley Bear was a bad little pup today.

First I should start out by explaining that the soil here isn't really dirt at all, but sand.  Our backyard is a beach minus the the beautiful ocean, add some ugly weeds and dog poop.  Lovely.

With the soil being sand it makes it very easy for our dogs to dig, which they have done in the past, but always into the neighbor's yard because she has a small dog as well.  Our dogs get very excited at the prospect of new friends.  We have blocked that side of our fence with cinder blocks to prevent them from going under it.  But after a year and 4 months of living in this house Wrigs decided to dig out under the back fence which instead of leading to a neighbor's yard leads to woods.

Baby J and I spent 30 minutes walking around the neighborhood and back to the edge of the woods hollering "WRIGLEY!".  I was getting panicky thinking of my little doggie being hit by a car, or getting lost in the woods, or someone finding and stealing him.  He is microchipped, but wasn't wearing his collar on this particular morning.  So after searching without success I came home and began working on 'Lost Dog' posters.  That's when my doorbell rang and the young Asian boy who lives across the street pointed to the end of our street and said, "your dog maybe there?".  And he was right, yes it was my dog there and as soon as Wrigley saw me step out the door he came running home with dirty paws and wet face, seeming pretty happy about his adventure.  I'm just thankful to have him home.  He may be an ornery thing sometimes, but we've had him since he was just a little Peter and I couldn't imagine our family without him.

108. Toadie

We have a little toad who comes to visit each evening.  He sits on our patio near the back door.  Our dogs (especially Ruby) can hardly stand to be in the house knowing there is a creature to be sniffed so close.  He's a cute little thing and doesn't seem to be scared by much of anything.  Each morning he is gone, not to be seen all day.  But once the sun goes down, like clockwork, he appears.

107.

He starting to get curls in the back of his head.  Looks like he might have his momma's hair.

106.

MM's brother Matt is moving from Florida to North Carolina.  We met him in Columbia, SC as he made his journey north.  With MM being Army and Matt being Coast Guard it's not very often that they are close enough (in proximity) to each other to meet up.  We were all happy to make the extra trek in order to be able to have lunch together.  His new location will put him about 5 hours from Augusta, and while that is not overly convenient, it will be the closest these 2 brothers will have lived to one another since they left their parents house after high school graduation.  We are looking forward to spending time together and for Baby J to get to know his Aunt and Uncle better before the Army picks us up and moves us far away again.

105.

I am trying my hand at growing Rosemary.  A friend has a big plant of it growing in her backyard so we dug up part of it and transplanted to my pot.  I haven't been known to have the greenest of thumbs, which is rather disappointing because my mom and my grandma are both excellent growers of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.  I'm hoping I just need more practice.  After potting the plant I had to trim it up.  The excess is hanging in my kitchen drying out.  The delicious aroma it was putting out inspired MM to finally attempt to find a semi-local (very tiny) meat market that has gotten rave reviews from his coworkers.  A 40 minute afternoon drive into the Middle-Of-Nowhere and we finally stumbled upon the meat market.  We also stumbled upon the disappointing news that it closes at noon on Saturdays.  We settled for grocery store meat and MM made his "Italian Dream" (featured in POD 76.) steak for dinner. 
If you have any great tips/advice for keeping Rosemary alive I am all ears.

104.

Baby J learned the hard way today that not all dogs 

are as patient with a toddler's "cuddles" 

as Wrigley and Ruby.

103. It's strawberry season.

This morning Baby J and I joined friends at Gurosik's Berry Plantation for some strawberry picking.  I have been stalking their website waiting for their farm's 'You Pick' to open up to the public.  I gathered a gallon of plump, juicy, locally-grown strawberries.  Baby J mostly picked and squashed the berries.  Here is the happy baby showing no [wink] evidence of eating instead of gathering the strawberries. 

Baby J

Jasmin

Mikaela

Kelly

102.

Nothing like waiting until the week of the tax deadline to work on our taxes.  But, it is DONE! 

101.

Daylight savings + warm Spring weather = Nightly evening family strolls.

100.

Happy 100th day of 2012!!!  Honestly I am shocked that I have kept up this new year's resolution for 100 days... only 265 266 days to go.  I figured nothing said "Day 100" like a lot (100 to be exact) of colorful balls!  So here is Baby J enjoying his Easter gift!  A 100 pack of balls sure looks like a lot more before it's dumped into a pack'n'play.  I am tempted to buy a couple more hundred ball packs, but I'm pretty sure I would end up spending each evening collecting 300 balls.

99. O' Happy Day!

We are blessed to have family close enough to come to town and celebrate Easter with us.  Being a military family has the potential of lonely holidays.  MM's grandparents came for the weekend while his Aunt and Uncle joined us for the day.  After taking them to our church for Easter service we came home to a small feast.  [ham, roasted asparagus, mashed potatoes, gravy, pineapple casserole, rolls, and brownie shortcake for dessert].  Cat naps and watching the final round of the Masters made for a relaxing afternoon.    

All things baby [18m]

Well it has been 10 months since I wrote 'a state of the baby address'. It is truly amazing how quickly and vastly babies and toddlers change in such a short an amount of time!  Baby J is no exception and even though I would like to slow the process down, he just keeps growing up!  Some nerve! 

His eyes are still a striking bright blue gray and we are often stopped in public to discuss their beauty.  He doesn't have much hair, but it is growing in slowly, more in the back than on top.  Working his way to a mullet.  The back of his hair is beginning to curl, with 3 or 4 little ringlets forming. 

Current Stats:
LENGTH- 32 inches long - 60th percentile
WEIGHT- 22 lbs - 10th percentile
12 TEETH: including his first molars and he is beginning to cut his eye teeth.

Vocabulary:
Baby J tries to say many words.  He will attempt to repeat almost anything you ask him to say.  Even if it comes out sounding absolutely nothing like the word you are saying to him.
His main words: the ones he uses on a daily basis consist of...

• Daddy- "Dah" & "Daddeee" & "Dada"
• Momma- "Mah" & "Mommy" & once in awhile "Momma"
• This- "Dis"
• That- "Dat"

This and that are accompanied with lots of pointing.  He will ask, "Dis?" with a point and if he is told no, he will point again and ask "Dat?" hoping your answer will change.

• Dog- "Doh" and Puppy- which he can say very well, but sometimes sounds more like "buppy"
• Please- "Pa-weee" if he is trying and "Bee" if he is just wanting you to give him what you have quickly.  
• Eye- he can say while pointing to his own eye or poking you in yours.  
• Ball- "Bah" this is the same word he uses for Balloon too.  I suppose it is just a floating ball.  
• "Ow-ey" when something hurts.
• "Oooooooooooo" is how he says Moo.  He has a small plastic cow and he refers to it as his "Ooo".  But will also say it if you ask him "what does a cow say?"
• Ruby- "Ru-E"
• Wrigley- "Rey"
• Instead of saying "Yes" he makes a cute "He-he-he-he-he" chuckle noise.
• No- "No-No" always said twice and usually while shaking his hand at you.  I'm afraid he has since me shake my finger at him and say it too many times.  

Speaking of "No-No"...
Each morning I push our coffee table against our couch to prevent him from digging in the drawers which are full of cords, cables, notepads and sharpie markers.  He has learned to climb onto the couch and then onto the coffee table and stand up.  He thinks it's fun to be so tall.  I have told him not to do this, so now he climbs onto it,  stands firmly in the middle and shakes his hand saying "No-No", "No-No".  It is impossible not to laugh!  MM and I have to turn our faces away to collect ourselves before once again getting him down and telling him that he cannot stand on furniture.

contemplating standing on the coffee table

• Hi and Bye Bye- both accompanied with waves 
• Book- he says correctly, but usually without the ending "k" sound
• Granola- "La-la" really rolling that tongue for those L's.  So cute!
• Darla - He can say Darla well, it's the name of a friend's puppy that he really likes. 
• All Done- He signs this instead of saying it
• Banana and Nana- "NAH" (MM's mom's name)
• Mimi he can say  (my mom's name)
• Papaw/Papa- "Pah-Pah"
• Gigi he can say

Papaw and Gigi taught him to say those last 2 when they were up visiting at Easter.  The funny thing is because their names are said together so often, when we ask him to say Papaw, he most often responds "Gigi".


Body Parts:
Baby J has been learning where his body parts are located.  He loves to point to them when asked.  He can point to his eye, hair, ear, nose, lips, neck, belly button, toes, elbow, and fingers. 

"where's your nose?"

Other Baby Tidbits:
We are still the very lucky parents to an excellent sleeper.  He goes to bed by 8pm and will sleep 11-12 consecutive hours.  It is fabulous!  He has been taking just 1 nap a day for about 6 months now and it's made for an easy daily routine. 

He still loves to play peck-a-boo, we call it "where's J?" while he hides his face with his hands.  He always peeks out at us between his fingers.  

He may have taken a little longer than other babies to walk, but he sure has made up for his delayed desire to move upright.  He is walking all over the place and he is fast too!  He also climbs the stairs with ease, going up and down too many times a day to count.  But the other day he was distracted by a dog at the top of the stairs and missed judged his knee placement, slipping and tumbling the whole way down the stairs.  I was standing beside him at the time of this accident and like slow motion I reached out to grab him just as he slipped away from my grasp.  I honestly think my heart stopped for a few seconds!!!  Watching him tumble like a rag-doll was nightmarish.  I consoled him, checked for major injuries, and loaded him into the car and drove straight to the Emergency Room.  Turns out when you have a toddler at home it is very helpful if your husband runs an ER.  We were able to slip in the back and have a doctor look him over.  He received a clean medical check-over and I was able to take him home with peace of mind.  This incident actually makes the second time in the past month that we have visited Daddy's work- and not to say hello!  The other accident was when a friend's older dog who isn't used to kids bite Baby J after he attempted to hug her.  It wasn't a bad bite, just really scary.  We wanted to insure that no infection would begin in the wound so we went into the ER to have it properly cleaned, medicated, and bandaged.  I pray we are done with the accidents for a little while- at this rate I will be gray before I am 30!  

Baby J is still the happiest little boy.  He makes each day joyful.
He loves his doggies and plays with them often, even climbing into their dugout (kennel) to hang out with them.  He feeds them too; they have learned just whose chair to hang out under during dinnertime.
He is really into music.  MM plays piano and guitar at home and Baby J loves to listen and watch and sometimes tries to join.  If there is a musician/band performing on TV he will stop what he is doing, becoming mesmerized.  I hope music is in his soul.  I also hope he has his Dad's natural abilities and talents in that department.
He's a banana lover and starts each morning with one.
In the evenings we take Baby J and the dogs for a walk in the neighborhood.  Baby J likes to hold the leases and let the dogs pull him in his stroller like it is a sled.  It's really comical!
He loves to "attack" if you are lying on the floor.  Meaning we lay on  the floor and he climbs all over us while we say things like, "he's getting me!" and he giggles.  He really likes to sit on his momma's belly and bounce.  This is not mom's favorite game. 

I feel like I could go on and on with cute, funny, and exceptionally smart for his age, things Baby J does each day, but I know that it's just not as fun to read the ongoing list if you aren't the parent.  So I will force myself to stop here.  And end by saying Baby J is doing great and we are blessed. 
 

98. MASTERS

 

We were lucky enough to score in the Army lottery for Masters tickets this year.  This was MM's 2nd year in a row to attend a tournament round, and although I have had the privilege to experience Augusta National on practice round days, this was the first time I have been able to go to a tournament day.  There's a different air about the place, more focus, more emotions.  

Our day in Golf Heaven...

• Placed our chairs on the 18th hole.
•  Photo opportunity at Founder's Circle front of the Clubhouse at the end of Magnolia Lane.
• 1st hole to watch Tiger Woods & Charl Schwartzel tee off.
• Walked to the 4th hole, we were able to watch one of the longest Par 3s in golf.   We watched multiple golfers play through this hole, including Tiger.
• Had lunch inside, then out to car to change into shorts, headed back into the course via Gate 9.
• Tee box of Hole 6, where you can also watch the 5th green.
• Sat on the hill of the 6th hole.  Really cool spot where the golfers actually tee off behind you;  the ball flies over your head and you can watch the green in front of you, as well the 16th green.
• Grandstand seats at the 14th Tee Box, which provides a perfect view of the 13th green (Azalea).
•  Amen Corner- found a shady spot to stand watching the 12th hole, then moved to the grandstand where we could watch 11th green, the entire 12th, and the 13th tee shots.  
• We followed Phil Mickelson through Amen Corner; where he Birdied the 12th and Eagled the 13th.  The crowd was pumped up!
• We made our way to the 18th (back to our chairs) and watched the remaining players finish the third round.

97.

Papaw and Gigi drove up from Florida for the holiday weekend.  Baby J learned how to say both "papaw" and "gigi" while they were here. 
I'm sure it had nothing to do with their coaching him on those specific words. 
They loved it; there is no fighting the heart-melting power in hearing him call you by name.

96.

The Easter Bunny is ready to make his delivery.  A friend of ours embroidered this basket liner and I think it turned out super cute!  A soft bunny book and board book about Easter, along with a few balls [from the pack of 100 (to create an at home ball pit in his pack'n'play) that Baby J is getting for Easter] complete the basket-o-fun!

95.

For dinner I made maple roasted chicken & sweet potatoes.  This is always a hit dish in our house.  Baby J, who is a sweet potato lover,  insisted on feeding himself.  And as you can see, he had fun doing it.

94. practice rounds

MM & I used our practice round badges to visit Augusta National today.  The place was gorgeous!  We excepted nothing less.  With Spring coming much earlier this year the thousands of azalea bushes bloomed early leaving the golf course much less colorful.  For that reason alone I would have taken a couple more weeks of winter.  We had a really fun day walking the grounds and watching the golfers.  Later in the afternoon we passed our badges onto friends so they could experience the greatness too. 

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were so close I could have touched them... if I was one of those crazy people who grab celebrities, thankfully for them, I am not.

I am really excited to experience the Masters this year.  MM was able to score 2 tournament badges, so we will be spending Saturday at Augusta National as well.  On tournament days cameras are not allowed, while I am sad that I can't capture the day, I am also really happy to be forced into enjoying the moment instead of living through the lens.     

93.

Our little monkey!!  Baby J has been trying to figure out how to climb onto the furniture and today he mastered the technique.  We used to put non-baby-items (cell phones, remotes, cameras) on the back of the couch to keep them away from him, but it looks like those days are over.

92.

It is that time of year... tomorrow it is officially MASTERS week!  The city has swelled with out-of-town, out-of-state, and out-of-country visitors.  This afternoon MM and Baby J enjoyed a Daddy Date, spending quality time together.  They drove down Washington Road and stopped for photos outside the members gate at the entrance of Magnolia Lane.

[I enjoyed alone time, sipping a shaken black tea lemonade while reading at the local Barnes & Noble, it was quite nice.]