Buoy Baby

Noah came for the morning yesterday and joined Fred and I at our swim class. As a bonus for Fred, daddy stayed home to help a mama out! Its incredible that a half hour lesson is a two hour adventure with wardrobe changes, a group shower, and all the packing/unpacking! We were all wiped out! Fred is a total shrimp gipper with kicking and splashing all over the place trying to swim. Noah sorta just bobs in the water. He is so buoyant it is hilarious! His trunks fill with air making him look even puffier than what he is! Too cute! When we practiced floating the kids on their back the other one year old in the class wriggles to keep his head up, Fred tries to make like a clam doing an ab crunch in the water to lift his head out. I could have let go of Noah and he would have been content to just float with only his nose and eyes above water. Just another instance where these buddies are total opposites. We hope he can come again next time with his mom so she can get in on the fun! Pictures and movie from the locker room when we were trying to put on our best Michael Phelps game face, with chest bump! I think in any relay Noah wouldn't swim anchor, he would just be an anchor.

Watch out Will...

Uncle Jeff has 4 nephews and a niece, 2 of his nephews are older than Fred is, meaning they have had more face time with Uncle Jeff. Fred is working hard to assume the number one spot of nephews. There is big competition out there. One of the nephews is even talking and using very cute phrases, such as "Jeff and Bama (Obama) on the plane?". The word "obsessed" has been used for this little one's infacuation with his uncle. And spare me the discussion about loving them all equally and that they are all unique. Fred doesn't want to hear it. Freddy is laying the charm on thick to get his Uncle's attention. Hopefully the red spikey hair and giggling will aide his cuteness factor because we are running a little low in the talent competition, I mean come on, talking & potty trained?! Now that's impressive!

To be 29...

I don't usually do this so forgive my inside humor on this post, its a special day for a special girl. I hope it draws a smile no matter who you are.

Feeling nostalgic for H.S. days... Philie wanted just wanted to wish one the FL7(&Brace) (ha ha) members and very happy day.

Can you imagine the two of them running around in an old beat up Toyota Camry with a petrified blueberry mini-muffin and a pointed piece of metal as a key? What sort of band geeks will they be I wonder?!

Shhh... he doesn't like to talk about how old he is

So have a mentioned that Stan turned 30?! Let me just announce that to the whole world wide computer internet web. There wasn't alot of hoopla other than a dinner with family which was very nice. I think the biggest show stopper was that Fred was wearing an "outfit". I didn't realize onesies and sleepers were not considered clothes, not being a fashonista myself. He got all dressed up for his dad, and I thought he looked rather dapper. So Stan started a new decade, it will be soooooooooo long before I enter that decade, he'll just have to go it alone.

Organic Farming...

Something went terribly wrong this summer in the planting of our carrots. We don't use fertilizer or pesticides or anything, the garden is a Darwinian experiment gone amok. So when we pulled these bad boys out of the ground it was something to see! We think the ground was too compact and so they just grew whichever way they could. How bizarre is it that when we look at natural and organic food we think it is weird because it doesn't conform to the image of the prepackaged food we have in our head? Fred however has got his farm in much better order.

He loves this exersaucer and the farm animals around him. We have also decided that floppy hats are not a good look for him, he's more of a baseball cap kinda guy. This fall we will be wearing our Illini hat cap with pride! Sometimes the floppy sun hats get in the way and he looks like a mushroom top -but his farm is fabulous.

A new look

Not only is the blog looking freshened up (including new blog links/descriptions and profile) but Fred is also trying to sport a new look - teeth! He has got one sharp puppy dog chomper on the lower gum. I've only been bitten once but I'm starting to get nervous..

Many more posts to come!

Shrimp Gipper!

First off, I'd like to dedicate this post to someone very special, a daily reader, who has been tormented that there are no new posts of late because she would like to procrastinate from her studies. This one goes out to Aunty Mol - we hope you like it and we can't wait to get back on skype with ya baby!

eh-hem (cough, cough)....

So anyway, Shrimp Gipper is the name of the swim class that Fred and I are enrolled in. Stan likes to say the name of this class over and over again because it is ridiculous. It is the most hilarious thing to take a baby swimming! At first when we brought Fred to the pool I didn't know if we would last...

However he loves class! He is a total water baby though and through! There is only one other baby and mommy in class so it makes for almost a semi-private lesson. I think Fred's favorite part is flirting with all the granny's in water aerobics at the other end of the pool. You should see him shake his trunks! We think we will get to bring our buddy Noah to class this week should make for an exciting time!

Flavor Flav

Fred now tasted food and flavor and can not be stopped although he was more interested in the spoon at first. We have ventured through rice cereal, oatmeal, banana, sweet potatoes, peaches, and are gearing up for avocados. I'm making most of Fred's food which is fun, but I had a little run in with making rice cereal. I was given this book called Super Baby Food and it has recipes for Super porridge and rice cereal and such. Well I first started I misread a direction and didn't really thoroughly cook the brown rice cereal I made. I gave a Fred a spoonful and made this really bizarre face and so I tried a bite and it was like eating a spoon full of sand I felt so bad! You would think that if I can make Thanksgiving dinner for 18 people I could make baby food but I think it is the most challenging because I get no feed back if everything is ok. The most fun has been to watch him eat the peaches. This peaches are so fresh and ripe and just bursting with flavor and so he makes the funniest faces by puckering up and blinking because the taste is just so intense - I imagine, especially compared with milk. Yet another milestone to make me realize just how big he is getting!

Pure Michigan

So, oh my, its been about a month and I still haven't posted about the vacation. Sorry we've just been hanging out, watching political conventions, taking walks, doing our thing - nothing exciting but for whatever reason I haven't posted.

So the trip was really fun, only problem was I stepped on some winged stinging capability creature on the beach that launched its defense under my middle toe causing my foot to swell to pregnancy proportions and display a rash that itched like nothing else. It was a little chillier than I expected. Mostly we walked the beach, walked the little towns and window shopped and just enjoyed each other's company while watching olympics. Stan got to ride his bike for longer rides and was really excited about that, Molly got to tan, and my mom got to play with Fred. Fred rode a boat - he was safety director on our little pontoon cruise. Stan seemed to enjoy vacationing with his in-laws, Fred did really well even dining out a couple of times and being very flexible with changes to his schedule. Although he was not amused as we tried to put him into the lake water, it was extremely cold and just another display of how we are bigger than him and can force him to do what we want... poor baby - he'll get over it, we hope.