Snack Time

Here's a fun picture that I snapped of Andrew enjoying a snack. He's having animal crackers, vanilla pudding, and milk. Notice that he is sitting in a portable high chair...on the floor. This chair should be strapped to a regular dining room chair, but Andrew has preferred this recently. He moves it from room to room, sits in it on the floor, and makes sure to snap the tray into place. It doesn't matter if he's getting ready to eat or not. He's gotta have the tray on it.

I'm not sure what happened to his pants.

The Flying Spoon

Andrew has always been a good eater. Lately he's been asking for a lot of peanut butter sandwiches (no jelly for him), but he still eats a good amount of fruits and vegetables. But there are still those times when he doesn't want to eat at all. And so you have to help him make it fun. The "Flying Spoon" is a classic trick that we used on Andrew a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure all of you have done some variation of this with your own kids. Well, Andrew liked it so much that he started doing it by himself that night. Talk about a parent's dream, right? Not only is he eating, but he's doing the extra bit to make it fun for himself. What's a parent to do? Uh...grab the camera to shoot a quick video for the blog.

By the way, I'm experimenting by sending these posts to Blogger through email. It's either a new feature, or I just realized how to set up the email address to do it. Either way it's a pretty neat trick!

The Simple Things

Sometimes the easy, simple, and most obvious solution really is the best. I'm trying to remember this as we are working through a giant spring to-do list. For example, we were eating breakfast on Saturday morning, and I made a comment that we should think about rearranging the furniture. Just to liven things up a little bit and change the feel of the room. I pointed out that we should swap the piano and the china cabinet – probably the two largest and heaviest pieces we own. After a few seconds of consideration, Susie looked at me and said "Or you could just switch seats?"

One Little Miracle

A friend of mine in South Carolina recently welcomed her baby daughter into the world - Abigail Louise H. And this little baby is truly a miracle. You see Abby Lou was born on April 1 at what was almost exactly 24 weeks into the pregnancy. She weighed just 1 lb. 5 oz. when she was born. She is in the NICU and on a ventilator to help her breathe. But she is gaining weight, has shown improvement in her lungs this week, and is already starting to be weaned of the ventilator. All things considered, she is doing relatively well but has some way to go. The biggest concerns at the moment are her breathing and the fear of infection. My friend has started a blog through the hospital to keep family and friends updated on Abby's progress. I might share that site down the road, but not just yet. My request for now is simply that you keep little Abby, her parents, and her doctors in your thoughts and prayers.

The Zoo...The Zoo!

We love the zoo! And St Louis has an amazing one. Plus, it's about 15 minutes from our house, and it has free admission. Here's some pictures from a visit we made about two weeks ago. The weather was perfect. It was warm enough for us to be out to enjoy the day, and cool enough so that the animals were very active. Hope you enjoy!

Andrew watching the baby and mama elephant.

Another elephant picture. They have lots of elephants at the zoo.

This was before the carousel started. Unfortunately, Andrew was too antsy to sit up on the tiger so we ended on a bench instead.

Hungry, hungry hippo. Did you know that hippos can run as fast as 30 mph? That is something I'd like to see. They are herbivores who are most active at night and can be very aggressive animals.

Oh, he's just a big sweetie! Andrew was a bit scared of the hippo at first. He got used to them. It is so amazing to watch them underwater. We also heard them vocalize. They make a very deep bellowing sound.

Did you know that giraffes and humans have the same number of vertebrae in their necks? True story.

Sleepy mountain lion/cougar/panther/puma. Seriously, does this thing need anymore names?

Somalia Wild Ass. That's what the sign said. I'm just sayin'.

Watch out...they spit. I'm just sayin'.

I love the penguins, but they are kind of smelly. Like bad fish. I'm just sayin'.

Hey Andrew, what do you think of all of Dad's fun animal facts? Yeah, that's what I thought.

This Post is for Grandma Barb

It's been a long time since I've made a post. I have several ones in the works (okay, they are in my head anyway), but I just haven't had the chance with all of the business of daily life and travelling for work. And then a funny thing happened on the way to work today. I was talking with my Mom, and I made a comment that I had some pictures and things I wanted to post from the last few weeks. She said that she checks this blog on a regular basis, and she knew that I hadn't made a post since March 26. Whoa! She knew the date of my latest post. And off the top of her head too! So I'm dedicating this post of lunchtime pictures taken on Saturday to my mom / Grandma Barb. Thank you for reading! We love you!

We had Subway for lunch on Saturday. Susie and I had started eating when Andrew ran into the dining room. He pointed at the table and said "cookie". I couldn't tell you the last time we have eaten at Subway, but Andrew definitely remembers the cookies. This kid and his brand recognition is a marketer's dream.

I'd like to say he ate the cookie for dessert. But that's pretty much all he ate for lunch that day. Oh, wait! He did have some Cool Ranch Doritos and a little bit of peanut butter on bread. But he mostly filled up on a chocolate chip cookie.

Do you like see-food? Andrew does too. Here he is saying the word cookie.