Desert Life and Video Bonaza

OK, so there are 4 videos in this post.  Total overkill, I know.  The cutest one is the last one.  But I mentioned one last week and never delivered and some new ones have happened in this past week.  There are two snake videos, mostly for Brandon's dad to see but others might find them Animal Planety (?).  And the other one of Russell is interesting only if you like to track the growth and development of babies. So without further ado....

Yesterday, as I was heading out for some errands, this is what I found in the garage:

Except it was on the driver's side of my car and made me scream repeatedly.  As you can see, it was not a rattlesnake.  Brandon was a big hero, captured it, and put it in our backyard in the hopes that it will eat rodents, specifically the ones that are terrorizing the garden.

Ignore the part where I scream and talk like a complete wuss.  Please.

I'm not sure if Tucson has officially reached 100, but it certainly feels like summer is officially here.  This morning I took off our heavy down comforter and we've started sleeping with the windows closed, which is one of the saddest things I have to do all year.  The AC has been running and we are bound to see the aftermath in our electric bill.  We've been grilling, swimming, eating Frostys, Eegees and Orange Leaf (frozen yogurt mix-in place), and I'm trying to remember to wear a hat if I'm going to be outside for more than five minutes.

Russell is now over seven months....this month has been a big one for him!  His first tooth popped up last week and he is officially quite mobile, having learned a slither motion that gets him from A to B quite well--although he is often whining out of frustration as he does it.  His current obsession seems to be this game called Putting Dangerous or Dirty Things in My Mouth and he is very good at it.  His favorites seem to be saran wrap, flip-flops, computer cords, tissue paper, and the salt shaker and I know he is only going to get more and more skilled (i.e. knives, pills, raw meat) at it in the near future.  Just as I know that my life is rapidly becoming a really great game called Cleaning Up After Baby.  I'm not as good at that game as Russell is at his.  But you know, whatev.

Below is a video of Russell walking along our ottoman, something he gets better and better at each day.  The video is fairly long but since our computers are from the Stone Age and are super slow, editing it is out of the question because I would go crazy and poke out my eyes, making me unable to attend to my child as he plays his new game, Putting Dangerous or Dirty Things in My Mouth.  

This is another video, taken about a month ago, but it is pretty silly because Russell had the giggles.  Again, ignore my voice and the stupid things I say.  I need to learn to stay quiet while filming, but quiet is one of those games that I'm not too good at either.

Happy Memorial Day! 

Shameless Baby Show-Off Time

Here are just a few pictures...my commentary is kept at a minimum for better or worse.  I'm mostly trying to just get a post in before church and trying to make pictures of our growing boy more available to grandparents. 

We have ventured into feeding baby solids.  For the first few weeks, we was only tolerating it and he downright hated green beans.  I don't know what I was thinking, giving Russell green beans as one of his first flavors.  I mean, seriously.  Of all the wonderful flavors in the whole wide world...and I gave him green beans.   I probably would have made that same face!  So far, zucchini seems to be his favorite.  

One of Russell's favorite things is standing.  He has loved to stand on our laps since he was about three months or so...but lately he seems to be the happiest and most proud of himself when he is standing alongside a piece of furniture or holding onto our legs.  He can't pull himself up yet, but there are some days when the only thing that will satisfy him is when I prop him up on something and then put a desired object (like the remote or my phone) just out of his reach.  He will spend the next long while just reaching reaching reaching for that object, anticipating the awesomeness of being able to put it in his mouth when he finally grabs it.  

(Aren't those letters adorable?!  Caitlin made them for me!) 

Of course, he is just as fat as ever.  Friends complain when I bring him somewhere and have pants on him because they can't see his fat thighs.  And really, they are remarkably fat. At his last pediatrician appointment, about a month ago, he weighed 17 lbs 7 oz.  According to their stats, he is in the 50th percentile for weight...but that doesn't make sense.  Russell seems to have more rolls and dimples on his body that any other baby we know!  We love it, though, and will not be buying him baby spanx.

And finally, this is mostly for Leslie. This is my garden....so pretty and green!

Something is starting to eat my precious harvest.  Jerks.  We put some chicken wire along our fence in hopes of preventing the bunnies from coming in but leaves are still  going missing.  Grrr.  I'm starting to to think it might be birds.  I don't know what to do about that...are we going to have to build a cage?

 

These are our first fruits!  I don't love radishes but it was quite rewarding to pull these from the ground and eat them in a salad that evening.

Happy Spring dear friends!  This has been an especially enjoyable one.  We hope yours has been too.

Also, Katniss Everdeen forever!!  I think I'm going to read Anna Karenina next but I'm worried I'll just quit in the middle and don't want that to happen.  Has anyone read it?  Will I love it?

PS I tried to upload a video but it didn't work.  Anyone know why?  I tried to do it from Picassa.  I'll try to fiddle with it when I have more time.

Inspiration, Por Favor

Give it to me folks. I wanna write a blog people, I really do. I just can't think of what to write about. I'm not good at travelogues and the whatnot. What do you want to hear about? Inspire me. Give me ideas and I'll see what I can do.

These are the tidbits on my mind:

I have lots of adorable baby photos that I just took off my camera. That little boy of ours is pretty awesome.

We had a fantastic weekend in the mountains. It was windy but we saw deer and caterpillar cocoons had a fire and I'm now over the fact that I was a bad mom and got Russell a little sunburned (even though I almost cried about it last night).

I've been watching American Idol and have opinions about everyone. Sometimes I feel kind of embarrassed about it, but really, it is a great excuse to eat ice cream mid-week, debate about something extremely trivial with Brandon, and then text my sister and dad about it the next day. One of the latest issues of People has the most hilarious picture of Scotty McCreary; it looks like he is wearing pink lipstick, which was likely not intentional because he is the most conservative, innocent contestant.

Osama bin Laden is dead and it is weird. It feels bizarre to celebrate the death of someone, as evil a person as he likely was.

My garden is growing--my basil just sprouted which was a 'phew' because for some reason it popped up later than everything else. I'm thinking I should thin the radishes because there are like a million of them, but I don't really know how. And plus, I feel successful when I see all the green in my garden.

I saw four coyotes crossing the street near my house the other day.  I was sad Brandon wasn't with me because he would have gotten excited and asked if I had the camera.

Russell has been acting crazy lately.  He wakes up at night now, and he never used to.

I wanna go on a date with my husband but I don't want to leave him with someone because he'll probably scream nonstop and I'd feel both guilty for subjecting that person to misery and sick to my stomach that my baby was so distressed. But we've only had one date since the baby was born and it is time.

We started giving him solids last week and now when I eat in front of him, he leans forward and opens his mouth all funny, expecting me to feed my apple or cereal to him.  Sorry bud, not for a while still.

The other day, we went to Baskin Robbins 31 cent scoop night and it was bomb. We each got three scoops of ice cream in a waffle cone and the total was like $2.39 or something. I ate most of mine, but had to give the rest to Brandon. The best flavor was Gold Medal Ribbon. So gooey and rich.

Soon we will have to start using the air conditioner and take the down comforter off our bed but that's OK because we do live in Arizona and that's what happens here.  But at least it is a dry heat.

We'll soon start swimming in our pool a lot. If you come and visit, we'll have a major pool party, but we probably won't play Marco Polo because I kinda hate that game. We can do cannonballs and drink sugary pop and listen to pop music (just not Katy Perry because she wants to go all the way tonight and that is not a good message for the youth of today).

I'm reading the Lisbeth Salander books and wish they weren't so salacious and gruesome but I'm going to finish them anyway because I'm like that.

I kinda want to dye my hair platinum blond.

I need a new pair of black flip flops because I threw out the pair I wore last summer because by the end of my pregnancy, that was the only shoe that fit and once the baby was born, looking at them brought back unpleasant memories of my swollen feet and limbs.  They looked hideous, I'm not gonna lie.

 See? I have a little to say about a lot...but I can say a lot about a little if ya'll inspire me with the right topic

 6 months!

 Love.

 I get to be the only girl.

Those roses are on the bush right outside our bedroom window. Pretty great, eh?