Long time, no post! Thanks to those who have been calling and writing to see what we are doing, other than not posting. We've missed you, too.
In brief, we've been busy with nothing more involved than day to day life. (It may not sound like a lot, but it's enough that I have recently been contemplating stopping the blog.) Here's some of what we have been doing: Easter egg hunts, non-Easter "Spring" egg hunts, trips to Florida and back, baking for our first bake sale, freecycling, cleaning, grocery shopping, and laundry, too much laundry. Here's some of what Zeke's been doing: clapping, eating, signing a little, eating, standing, eating, playing in water, eating, babbling like crazy, eating, playing, eating, loving baths, singing, drinking juice boxes, getting more teeth, eating, and not sleeping.
No really, Zeke has been eating a lot more recently. I suspect that the lean eating from a month ago when Zeke was recovering from a stomach bug is long gone. I guess Mr. Baby needs a lot of fuel to grow into Mr. Toddler. Typical breakfast is oatmeal, at least half a banana, apple sauce, maybe some orange juice and sometimes a waffle or toast. He is especially keen for biscuits and will scream until he gets some. (Is this a mark of a Southern boy?) Lunch is usually more restrained and is baby food. Typical dinner is rice cooked in broth, veggie chicken, pureed vegetable, a little soy milk and fresh fruit. In fact, his favorite food these days is ripe cantaloupe and he can consume a quarter of a cantaloupe at a time. Still, feeding him is a challenge. One day he likes something, the next it gets spit out or tossed onto the wall or dropped to the dog. Also, I'm having a hard time thinking of things that we can all eat together as a family conveniently. Timing is a challenge: often, it's easiest to eat after he has already gone to bed. Creativity is another challenge: I don't find a lot of the food we eat suitable for Zeke. Tomorrow I'm going to head out to the library to check out some cookbooks to get me over this slump.
Zeke, in general, has very full days (and nights) and seems to do something new at a pace than we can hardly get used to. When we got back from Florida, he wowed his dad (and me) with all sorts of new skills, referenced (subtly) by this post title. For example, he gets in and out of his car so confidently and in a flash. He turns himself backwards and all around and even tries to slip in the car Dukes of Hazzard style going in on the side with no door. He also somehow can navigate going down the stairs. Now we knew he could get down one or two by himself, but didn't expect him to be able to get from the top to the bottom all by himself. Oh well -- thank goodness for exceeding expectations and good baby gates.
It was a busy day for us. It was our turn to host the playgroup Zeke and I attend. That meant: attempting to clean up, baking some snacks, hosting nine moms and babies, trying to hold conversations over the din of electronic toys for a few hours, and then cleaning up again. It was a little overwhelming, but I thought it was a lot of fun!
