Yummy New Treat!

This year I finally signed up for a CSA box from Blue Moon Organics. For those unfamiliar with the concept, basically I commit ahead of time to a weekly produce box from the farm. Every week I pick up my box and it contains that week's fresh fruits and vegetables. I get whatever is in peak of season that week. I get a "fruit centric" box, so I get a hefty helping of fruit--currently strawberries. Its changing how I cook--after I pick up my box on Thursdays I can then plan my menus for the week. I'm having a lot of fun, trying some new recipes and getting out of the broccoli/zucchini/green salad rut.

For quite some time, Anthony has refused to eat vegetables at home. (He'll still eat them at daycare.) However, he has a certain fondness for whatever is on his friend Robert's counter. Earlier this week, Robert's Mom Sarah was shelling peas. Anthony wanted them. He ate a few and decided that raw peas out of the shell were okay.

We came home and shelled a few of the sugar snap peas I had in the refrigerator. (My box this week and last week contained a pound of sugar-snaps.) He loved them.
Then I discovered that he also enjoyed eating the whole thing raw. Only issue is that it took him forever to munch up all that fiber. Meanwhile, he drooled chlorophyll all over his collar.

Anthony's Airplane Magazine

Anthony has become quite the reader. He sits at the table with us now for meals. At breakfast we traditionally read the paper and Anthony joins in with his own reading material. His current favorite is "AOPA Pilot". He's pretty seriously attached to that magazine. He likes to flip through the pages and point to pictures of the airplanes. I think he's working pretty hard at saying "airplane", too.

Another View

Grandma Taught Anthony a New Trick

Bob's mom came last weekend for a short trip. Somehow, we didn't get a picture of the two of them together. :-(

They had so much fun together, it was great watching. He thought she was the funniest thing EVER. She even taught him a new trick.

Mama is so proud!

Pumpkin Boy

I meant to post this one a few weeks back.

I sent Anthony off to daycare every day dressed very nicely. Most of his outfits are name brands and they always match. (I have to dress him nicely to counteract the long uncombed hair.) His bag, of course, always has one change of clothes in it. As always, the change of clothes is also a coordinated outfit.

Here's where Maria and Kathleen mess with my plan. When little dude requires a change of clothes, they only change the offending article of clothing. Sometimes it works, a week before this he came home wearing his jeans with his gray "peas" t-shirt. The matching gray yoga pants were safe in the bag. But he still looked okay.

Then there was the day he came home dressed like a pumpkin.

Earth Day on the Bay

While Bob went flying on Saturday, Anthony and I went up to the Marine Science Institute's Earth Day on the Bay. Honestly, little dude didn't enjoy it quite as much as I had expected.

He seemed to appreciate getting to "pet" the fish. He also enjoyed wading in the bay for a few minutes. He didn't enjoy the Banana Slug String Band at all, though. Kind of surprised me--they put on a good show and who doesn't enjoy kid oriented music?? We decided not to wait around for the mud-grab. I'm not sure he would have appreciated the texture, anyway.

What he DID enjoy was begging for food from other families. We had our own snacks, but other people's are clearly better.

The Grown-up's Easter Basket

Donna and I tie-dyed eggs this year. They came out fabulous. (yet no pictures, sense a theme). I did make a point of getting a photo of the cookies that I made for the grown-ups basket. Yes, I made them all by myself. Bob helped me assembled them at the very end, though. He did a good job, I think he might be better at this than I am!

Anthony's basket contained: one box of animal crackers, an airplane pull toy and a new toothbrush.

Easter Duds

Anthony is wearing his new Easter shirt with LAST YEAR'S pants. They are now more of a board short than a cargo pant, but they look great!

This year's pants had already fallen off of him, so we changed. They're styled very similar, though.

(If pictures were taken of different days, its easier for me to make separate blog entries.)

Too bad we didn't get pictures of the whole family dressed up!

Happy Easter!

Better late than never....
(Of course, the answer to that is "better never late!")

We didn't get many pictures from Easter, I blame Bob! Oh well. Vince, Donna and Jessica came out for the weekend. We had a lovely time. Saturday we all went to the California Academy of Sciences. It was very crowded but we had a nice time. With no pictures. Probably my fault.

Sunday we went to church. Anthony got kicked out of the sanctuary to the nursery even before the service started. Overflow seating was in the garden and Jess quickly abandoned us to go sit in the sun. (There are large sliding doors that open the garden to the sanctuary.)
The Easter Bunny was very good to Anthony. He got several new books, including "Hands, Hands, Fingers Thumb", one of my new favorites. Donna also gave him some new dude duds. He needs to gain wait to keep the pants up, though. I'll get pictures soon.

Anthony's First Apple

Anthony's pal Robert has been chowing on apples lately, so today I gave one to Anthony to try. I had to start it for him, but then he had a lovely time chowing away.

This picture is *very* mis-leading. He did most of the apple eating in the front yard with Robert, who had his own apple. There were a few mishaps and I had to wash it off with the garden hose a few times. Yes, I'm that kind of Mom!

The funniest thing was watching both boys check out the neighbor's sprinklers. They are the same size, standing side-by-side munching on their apples watching the sprinkler go like it was the neatest thing ever!

By the way, it took him a good hour to eat the apple that far down. We gave it back to him for some pictures after dinner.

Dinner was last night's leftovers--gnocchi and pine nuts in a brown butter sauce. He liked the gnocchi okay, not as much as the apple!

Mama's little ragamuffin

I think that Maria at daycare is sending hints about Anthony needing a haircut. I picked him up today and all his hair was in a pony tail on top of his head, Pebbles style.

I made him keep his hair that way until Daddy came home.

He has peanut butter smeared all over his shirt and in the hair. Pediatrician gave us the okay to try it for the first time. Not exactly a success so far. He doesn't appear to recognize it as food.

Yes, I know he needs a haircut. Probably a big-boy haircut. I just love his wild hair, though.

18 Months Old

Sorry, I've been bad about posting lately.

Anthony is 18 months old now.
At his check-up this week he came in at 31 1/2 inches, 34 lb, 6 ounces.
He's still 75% for height but has dropped to 25% for weight. He's an active little dude.
And skinny, his jeans tend to sag.

Let's see, what is he doing now:
1. 1 word: Mama. I think that's a most excellent first word. There may be more that we don't understand. Pediatrician isn't worried that he's not talking yet as he uses "advanced jargon" and clearly understands everything we tell him.
2. Books: he loves books and will pull his favorites off the shelf for you to read.
Current favorites: "The Pigeon Wants a Puppy", "Planes" and "Goodnight Gorilla". He'll also sit down and flip through the pages checking out the pictures.
3. Favorite toys: his plastic slide, his lawnmower and Mom's shoes.
4. Favorite food: kiwi fruit is number 1 by a landslide. He's also been enjoying black beans lately. He pretty much eats them straight out of the can. (Rinsed first, of course.)
5. He's figured out how to make his riding toys go.

By the way, if anyone wants a gift suggestion, more of the "Pigeon books" by Mo Willems would be greatly loved. I love reading "Pigeon Wants a Puppy", especially the line, "I'm a puppy loving pigeon!" Its one of my current favorites.

Sunny days, Sweeping the clouds away

We had a great spring weekend! Fortunately Anthony still fits in some of his summer clothes from last year. Since he has slimmed down so much some of his old favorites have a new lease on life.

Bob and Anthony spent a lot of time at the park, checking out all four swings and all the slides. Then in the afternoon his pal Ciaran came over for a playdate. After C left, we went outside and played some more!

Our front yard is getting pretty full of plastic c***. I'm really truly not a big fan, but Anthony LOVES his slide. His favorite toy of all is probably his new Cozy Coupe police car. I'll get pictures soon.

PS A note to Great Grandma Ella in North Dakota. We've been thinking of you and are glad to hear that you haven't floated away.

New Shoes

Yesterday we went to REI and Anthony got his first pair of big-boy sandals. They are his first pair of shoes that are sized by size, rather than age. He is currently wearing a size 6. He was a little unsure of them at first and then decided they were a lot of fun. I decided on Keen's, even though I think they are atrociously ugly in grown-up shoes. They're pretty cute in mineature, though.

This morning Anthony woke up and wanted to wear his new sandals. He probably thought he'd be able to go outside and play.

Visiting Anthony's Birthfamily

We had a nice visit with Anthony's birthfamily last weekend. Unfortunately, we didn't get any great group pictures. Someone who shall remain nameless was less than cooperative.

Basically, Anthony's stranger anxiety got the best of him. He REALLY doesn't like being approached. If you come on to him too strong he just plain won't warm up to you. He needs to approach you, and then he'll be great.

He and Yesenia had a great time together. Anthony really admired her pretty pink bike and she took him for rides on it. (Bob and I took turns holding the other side.) He looks EXACTLY like her. From the beginning everyone commented on it, but I'd never seen pictures of her as a baby. Now I really see the resemblance.
Everyone has the big eyes. Victoria, her mother, her grandmother and all the kids. When we're out in public its a toss-up whether people comment on Anthony's hair or eyes.

Fun with Bubbles

Anthony LOVES bubbles. He likes dipping his bubble wand in the bottle (and then slurping off the bubble liquid). He likes watching me blow bubbles. He likes popping the ones that land in the grass. He even likes sticking his tongue through the hole in the bubble wand.

I think he's part giraffe!

We've got the best mown sidewalk in the neighborhood!

Anthony can probably spend hours mowing the sidewalk with his mulching mower. When he'd done Claire and Robert will happily take over. Hopefully Anthony will have as much interest in using the real mower when's he a teenager!

Something I've realized lately--he understands that he is supposed to stay on the sidewalk. I don't trust him, of course.

Our "Playborhood"

My neighbor Sarah (Robert's Mom) introduced me to the concept of a Playborhood awhile back. Basically, you want to encourage interaction with your neighbors and free-play. Kids running around and playing together, inventing their own games, that sort of thing. It appeals to me, BIG time.

The Playborhood blog has some great articles discussing how to get back to that era of free-play, rather than adult sponsored interaction. (Use the pulldown menu entitled "Show all categories". I was reading them (instead of working) the other day and realized that we have that in our neighborhood! In fact, its one of the things I love about our neighborhood.

We go to the park pretty regularly and we always run into other families we know. Three days this week when I got home from work we played with our neighbors Claire and Robert. When we came home on Thursday they were actually in our yard. Robert was playing on the slide while Claire pushed the doorbell a few hundred times in the belief that we'd finally come out and play. Meanwhile other families were coming home from work or walking home from the park and they'd stop by for a visit. When we bought the slide I purposefully put it in the front yard, hoping that it would encourage play amongst all the kids. And it worked!

One of my favorite things right now is watching Anthony play with the other kids. He has so much fun. At the park Wednesday he played with Emma, who was 3. He followed her up the jungle-gym and they rode the side-by-side down together, giggling hysterically.

PS Sorry I don't have a great picture of the kids playing. I was too busy supervising the Cozy-Coupe and blowing bubbles to handle a camera, too. The Cozy-Coupe is Robert's. Anthony loves it, though. I'll have to keep an eye out on the garage sales for one of our own.

How's this for a look??

Did I mention he likes shoes??

They don't even havt to match!
Or be on the correct feet?

The picture isn't charming

But the experience sure was!

Aidan from our adoption group and his mommies came over for a playdate today. We had a great time. The cutest thing was watching Aidan give Anthony rides. First he pushed Anthony around on the fire-truck and then on the rocket ship.

It was great watching them play together. Alas, our attempts to document the experience appear to be lacking.

John came to visit!

Bob's old roommate was in town this week. He moved back to New Jersey years ago, but comes back on business trips a few times a year. The last time we saw him, Anthony was a teeny little thing.

They had a great time playing together. Basically they had 20 minutes of "let's get Anthony really wound-up time", then he and Bob went to pick up dinner and I was lucky enough to get Anthony asleep by the time they came back.

Too bad Kerry and the kids couldn't come. I haven't even gotten to meet their youngest and he is four.