Amid My Toys

Today's big adventure was pulling out all the toys from the toy basket and playing with all of them! He had a wonderful time chewing on all of them. I thought he might be getting a new tooth, and when I took a look, there was a new tooth.

LON FIVE TEETH!

He has three teeth on top, soon to be four on top.







My boys. All except for the cat. Bullwinkle. Lon and Mark.






We have been having a tough time having lunch today. All he really wanted to eat today was cookies and his bottle. I am chalking that up to teething. Crunchy food and comfort. But he did eat a full dinner. These are the pictures.




This is another favorite. My pirate baby!
Paparazzi! At my age! Please can't you see I am eating here!

Gardening and My New Sweater

This weekend was very nice. We spent alot of time out in the yard -- killing weeds in a baby friendly way. That is pulling them out by the roots, or in the case of dandelions, with a rusty old paring knife. Mark is making sure that Lon knows in the importance of being hydrated out in the sun. Also, we had covered little Lon is SPF 346. Even on his head as he refused to wear his all important sun hat. The one that Grandma Phis got him in Alaska.






Lon looked very nice in his hat, however, he refused to keep it on his head. Not even enough time to snap a photo.









This is my favorite photo of the weekend. Lon letting Mamma know that all is right with his world. I just love this picture! It is my desktop!




Lon and I went to PEO today. It was fun as always, and Lon got a present! A hand knit sweater, from Linda. How nice is that? He had to try it on as soon as he got home. What a wonderful gift! This is just so nice! Thank you thank you thank you

Feeding Ourself

Today was another beautiful day. I thought Lon would enjoy feeding himself for a change of pace. I took off all his clothes, except his diaper, put him in the high chair and took the whole kit and caboodle out on the porch. The following photos are of his adventure with turkey and peas.



Before the adventure. This is today's new toy, a fake remote that lights up and makes noise. The best kind of toys.

This is new, hmmm. I have a spoon, a plate full of food, just for me.

maybe I should pull it toward me just a little

It flipped over, honest, all by itself!

This is alot more fun than I thought it would be!







wow, a bowl appeared.











I must check the mark, it could be a valuable antique!




After this mommy took the little man inside, gave him a bath and then hosed off the high chair! I think we were pretty successful in the first attempt at self feeding of number two baby chow!!

Tulip Time in Skagit Valley

In April every year the tulips come up in the Skagit Valley, just north of Seattle. Acres of tulips. Acres of red, yellow, purple, whatever color. It is so beautiful. The weekends are nuts to go up there. Thousands of people come up! We went today, Easter Monday. It was a gorgeous day. Blue sky, white fluffy clouds (looked like a maxfield parish sky). It was great for taking photos. I took 140 photos of tulips. We went to Rozengaarde, and Tulip Town. Rozengaarde is wonderful, it has some tulip fields around it, but the site itself is a garden that showcases almost every variety of tulip you can think of. Double blooms, blooms that look like peonies, parrot tulips, the kind that have the fringed edges. Tulip town is also nice, they have a trolley that goes around the show field so people who have trouble walking that far can see the fields. The fields are very muddy as it has been raining for days before today! Hail on Holy Saturday! Yipes. Today was so worth it.







I am going to put up some photos of the tulips. The first are at Rozengaarde, the field photos are from Tulip Towne.











Daddy and Lon at Tulip Towne.
















This was not in one of the structured places, it is a field. Some people plant corn or barley, in the Skagit Valley, they plant tulips and it is so beautiful.

Happy Easter!

Grandma and Lon. Easter Morning

Lon and Rahul

Lon had a wonderful Easter! The Easter Bunny brought him a basket with his name on it. Filled with a baby tigger toy, a cell phone that when he presses certain buttons he hears Mommy or Daddy's voice telling him we love him! Two books, a book about the Easter Bunny, (proper introductions and all that) and a counting book with dogs! (one dog, woof, two dogs, woof! ARP arf!, etc) Very cute. 10 dogs and one cat.


We had a great dinner for Easter, and terrific company. Mark's Mother and Brother came from Connecticut, Uncle Vasu and his roommate Rahul, Dan and Chris. Our dinner was good. Ham, Potatoes Au Gratin, asparagus, Bunny Salad (the shredded carrots, with pineapple and raisins) 5 cup salad, rolls, and a raspberry cheesecake. Assorted sweet breads (mainly hot cross buns, Kulich and the accompanying Pashka. Everyone was very full. The only thing we ran out of was asparagus. The ham from Costco is a great ham.

This is the Pashka and Kulich. I am very pleased with myself. This is my first attempt for me to use the Pashka mold I found at a garage sale. They did not know what it was, it was just in the garage. I KNEW what it was. I had wanted one for a long time. It does not have the designs routed into the sides. But it is a proper mold. I am happy with it. Pashka is a sweetened cream cheese with raisins and almonds in it. The Kulich (a bread) is supposed to look like the onion domes on the Orthodox church. I think they look pretty good too.

Nine Month Stats!

Lon went to the Doctors today. It went well. There were no shots today. He gets a reprieve this visit. Next visit he gets a bunch. He is advanced for his age with all the things he can do! Crawling, cruising, walking with help, climibing, babbling, saying Mamma and not looking at the dog, responding to his name, banging a toy onto another surface, eating cookies, knowing what up means, (he also helps, he tries to sit up when he is laying on his back and I tell him time to come up! ) and what no means (but ignoring it). Apperantly alot of these things he should be doing in 3 months, not yet! However, I am happy he is advanaced!
Here are the tangible stats:
Head circumference: 18 inches. I have no idea what that really means.
Lon is 30 inches long. That is 90% for his age Only 10% of children his age are taller.
Lon weighs 17.9 pounds. That is 10%. A whopping 90% of children his age weigh more than he does!
The doctor would like to see him gain some more weight. He has gained 4 inches and two pounds.
Lon just woke up!

Cookie Monster

My mother gave Lon his first animal cracker, when we were in Virginia. The kind that come in the little red box. He doesn't just like them. HE LOVES THEM. He knows the box, he knows the snack bag. He wants COOKIES. He thinks they are the very best thing ever. He likes to have his cookie break. I think he might even trade his spinach lasagne for cookies and vanilla custard! Again, the vanilla custard was introduced to him by my mother. I did get him to eat the whole jar of spinach lasagne, then 3/4 of the custard and two cookies for his dinner.
I also gave him a piece of apple, a real apple. He rolled it around in his mouth, he liked it. It was too cruchy and Lon does not have enough teeth yet.
I saw a bedspread pattern that looks like the animal cracker box! I think I might look for that, but then again, by the time I got it done he might think animal crackers are silly. But then again, I still like animal crackers.

Grass

Today was a busy day for the little guy. He helped me plant the hanging baskets and the flower pot that goes on the rail in front of the house. 5 baskets in front, and only one of the three that goes in back. Yesterday, Lon helped me pick out the plants, and today he told me what colors he wanted to see together. I think he did a pretty good job. He was out in the driveway in his einstien. After I was done getting my hands all dirty (that was so wonderful, being able to do some gardening even if it was just the baskets!) Lon got out of his toy and decided to see what this grass stuff was all about. The lawn was tall. He thought it was okay for about 5 minutes, then, he noticed it was really damp and rather cold and it was time for a cookie anyway.














After checking out the grass we went back in. Had a cookie and read the new oregon coast magazine



He is going to tell Daddy about all the good places to see and do on the Oregon Coast. He thinks it would be tons of fun to go back there! Well, okay, Mommy thinks it would be tons of fun to go down the coast again.











I have to put this photo in. I did this on Sunday night after Lon went to bed. I have always thought those decorated sugar cubes were really nifty. I finally found where they sell the rectangle sugar *cubes*. They are only sold in the deep south, made by Dominos. Thank goodness you can get them online! They are called tablets. Same amount of sugar, just a bigger *work* surface. I did about 180 sugar tablets. Royal icing flowers. it was great fun. I love it when it turns out well. Almost looks like I knew what I was doing.

Lon FOUR teeth!

When I was telling Mark about Lon's new tooth, I tried to show him the one new upper tooth. There were TWO small white tiny teeth poking out of the upper gums! Lon now has four teeth. He gets two at a time. I wonder if that is normal, but it seems to be normal for him.
Four teeth! wow! He is growing up so fast!

A Dental Update

This morning I heard a clicking noise. Lon was making the noise. I thought he had something in his mouth. Well, he did. An upper tooth! No wonder he had a tough night last night. He is so sweet!

I took this photo when we got home from the bunny shoot.
Lon says:
I am getting a new tooth right NOW mom! You just don't know it! You will tonight when I just want you to hold me all night. So I got to sleep in the big bed.



I am walking with Daddy. It is really fun. I love to walk around and around and around the kitchen pantry. Into the living room, back to the squirrel door, through the kitchen, back to the living room. Again and again. Until I get tired. I love walking with Daddy. I will even walk with Mommy.





I cleaned the camera battery terminals and viola! It is working for now. Whew! One less thing to worry about.

Camera Troubles!

There may be a lag in photos this week. The camera is having troubles. It seems to think it needs new batteries even when I have just fed it new batteries. I remember that Karen's mother in law had the same camera and had the same problem at the baptism. hmmm. I am hoping I have a bad batch of batteries! Lon is doing well. He had on a TIE for the very first time this morning to get his Easter photos taken with the Easter Bunny at the Mall. He was SO handsome. (I will post those photos as soon as I get them) He had a sports coat, a white shirt, blue tie with yellow sailboats and chinos. He also had his Robbeez elephants on. Such a handsome guy! I was a nice mommy, I took the tie, the jacket and the button down shirt off and put him in a tee shirt as soon as the photos were over. He liked that.
The line was really short to get Bunny Photos. It helps it was a tuesday at 10:30am. I can't wait to see them! So we were back home, crawling all over by noon. We had to get some Easter candy for baskets.
I will work on the camera and keep you all posted.

Finally, The Bassett Bash

After living in this area for more than a decade, having a hound for more than a decade, we finally made it to Woodinville's Bassett Bash. It has happened for the last 23 years. A parade, a bash -- where the longest ears are measured, the loudest howl, the most freckles, the farthest traveled (salem or.). There were about 150 to 200 hounds there. Bullwinkle was in heaven! His hips are feeling better (good drugs) and he was amongst his own. Lon seemed to enjoy finally being out of the house! He is feeling better too. Mommy, however, is fighting that yearly battle against the dreaded elm tree pollen. Someone told me that there were only a few trees blooming now, cherry (nope, been to the cherry blossoms in DC, not them), alders (you gotta be kidding me, I grew up in an alder forest, I would have known it before now), and elms. So by process of elimination, it is elms.

When we got home Lon was a bundle of energy! He wanted to crawl! so I let him, we set up a play area, plenty of blankets for him if he fell over and bonked his head. We have his toys set up, the play wall that makes noise and the other toy that makes noise. The other toy is one that will convert to a little desk later, says it will last till he is 36 months old. Which would be nice. It lights up and plays 5 songs. He loves it. It lights up and plays music. What could be better than that? Of course, we had this all set up, and he wanted to play elsewhere!



I am going to find the squirrel! I see him!




















A pit stop to look in the Einstein on the way to the squirrels. It is really interesing under there.









Yes, there is glass between the two.

















He now hoists himself up and stands. He can walk holding on to furniture, etc. I am pretty sure that by Easter he will be walking on his own. Then we really get BUSY! This is going to be fun.