Justice and Ellie

Look at these 2 cuties!! The other day little Ellie Plunk and her mama Jodi stopped by, much to my delight. Justice and Ellie were hanging out on the couch and just being adorable together. They are only 1 month and 2 days apart, so we're expecting that they will be best of friends and playmates as they get older. For now their relationship consists mainly of looking at each other and taking each other's paci. Gotta start somewhere.

24 Viewers, I Need to Hear From You.

OK, I don't know how many of you are still faithful 24 viewers, but I am still hanging in there. I have so far watched every minute that Jack Bauer has ever been on TV, and now I've learned that his minutes are numbered. I'm very curious to see how this final season will wrap up. But let me just get a show of hands... how many of you were so mad that they killed Renee??? I was sooo mad!!! Is it so impossible to let Jack be happy for more than 10 minutes?? Seriously?? Call me naive but I was picturing Jack and Renee finally settling down after Jack tied up this last crisis in truly-24-unrealistic fashion and maybe having a new baby since Jack doesn't seem old enough to be the grandpa that he is and dropping off the radar and never being called again with another national security crisis. Ahh, it's not to be. Renee is dead, and Jack will probably die in the season finale although he's evaded certain death more times than the number of grains of sand on the seashore. So it's actually more unrealistic that he would die than live. Anyway, when I saw that a couple of weeks ago I said yet again, alas, Jack will truly never be happy and will continue in his tortured existence forever. Wow, that was depressing.

Date Night at Busch Stadium... It was Glorious

Josh and I had the pleasure of going to a Cardinals game this past Friday night! It was amazing!! Our wonderful friends Lisa and Bryan took care of the boys and we left for a childless evening, which we so enjoyed. We had dinner together at Chipotle, tasty as ever, and then rode the Metro downtown to the stadium. By the way, let me say for the benefit of those readers who don't live in St Louis, St Louisans are serious about Cardinal baseball. Josh was appropriately dressed in blue and red, but I was wearing a white sweater and basically stuck out like a sore thumb. If you don't show up to the game in all Cardinal gear, you are less of a fan and less of a person. Now no one actually said that to me... I guess I projected that onto myself. Anyway we sat in the literal top row of the entire stadium (there's a seminary ticket for ya) but we could still see the game just great and we so enjoyed it. The game was a little slow until the 7th inning when the Cards offense finally got going and we got to see a GRAND SLAM!!! That was pretty much the most glorious moment of my baseball fanhood. Josh and I went appropriately ballistic and left the stadium 2 innings later (Cards 4, Mets 3) in a we-watched-a-really-good-game-with-a-grand-slam-without-out-kids- glow.

The Newest Gourmand

It's so crazy to me that suddenly my little babe is eating real food. He's already 7 1/2 months (which is unbelievable... when did that happen??), and now he eats like Howie only in smaller pieces. Yesterday he ate (in pieces, mind you) a hamburger, bun, and some pears. Saturday it was sweet potato fries, bread, etc. One day last week it was pot roast... Justice appears to have a good appetite once you ditch the baby food. And this all before he has even one tooth!!

Have I Mentioned that Howie is POTTY TRAINED??

That's the big news around here... Howie is NO LONGER IN DIAPERS!!! We are ecstatic!! He is off and running in underwear and we love it. The road to getting here was not without its bumps (meaning: lots and lots of accidents for 3 days straight, then a few more scattered here and there), but I'm so glad we stuck with it because now it's done. And it feels great. And he feels great about it too. So now we're back to one in diapers. Ahhh.

Oh Dear...

Please take a moment to look at Picture #1 and Picture #2. What do those things combine to give you?

#1

#2

Did you guess???

That's right, folks. Howie fell this morning at just the right spot to crash his head into the concrete wall in Picture #1. We have had other casualties involving that wall, and this one could have been much worse, so we're grateful to the Lord for protecting Howie! His head was gushing blood but once we got it all cleaned up there wasn't much there... I was picturing stitches, but none needed! Thank you, Lord!! For Howie the worst part is putting on the bandaid... for some reason he hates bandaids. He didn't cry long for the actual injury, but putting on the bandaid was much more traumatic.

Howie shows off his battle wound, and the cookie bribery Mama gave him while he got cleaned up.

We Love Forest Park... Can I Please Hear An "Amen??"

Josh's mom was here with us this past week, and we really enjoyed having her! We did lots of fun things, complete with 2 trips to the zoo, a beautiful Easter Sunday, Chick-Fil-A (of course), a rather interesting but very tasty dinner at a Chinese restaurant (let's just say right after we walked in Howie threw his cup in the fish pond in the waiting area... that's enough to give you a taste of why it was interesting), lots of walks, and a trip to the playground at Forest Park.

Take this guy outside and he's happy.

Howie hasn't quite gotten that you can look at the camera and say cheese at the same time.

What a handsome guy!! Please notice that my eyes look like someone injected them with something. I must have sneezed at least 50 times this day. I think it was allergies... I woke up to a car blanketed with pollen. Wow. But Howie looks cute, so please don't look at me.

Choosing a slide... serious business. (Nerd disclaimer: Josh put Howie in crocs and socks. I fought the socks. Not cool.)

Justice swinging away with Nana

How cool is this swing? Looks like a recliner.

Trip to the Zoo With Miss Lisa and Mya

We enjoyed a gorgeous morning at the zoo with Lisa and Mya not too long ago. It was fairly packed with spring breakers but we still managed to have a wonderful time, complete with goat and guinea pig petting, train riding, hippo watching, and plenty of sunshine. Glorious. We are so grateful for their special friendship!! Howie and Mya are too much fun together. (Can we say arranged marriage???)

Pics Abound.

Yummm, love this bread.

Wow, could you sit like this and get your toes? It probably would be scary if anyone other than a babe did this.

Nothing to see here, Mom.

Brotherly love

Justice often has this sort of face around big brother.

My Newest Obsession

I think I mentioned before that I'm learning how to knit!! I am completely in love!! It's so much fun. My friend Keren is teaching me how to knit "in the round" as it's called... these are some legwarmers I'm making for Justice. Why, you may ask, am I making legwarmers in April?? A valid question that I didn't think about until I already had a decent start on them, but since I probably won't finish until winter anyway, it's all good. I'm finding knitting to be seriously addictive.

Pics, Pics, and More Pics.

Look at these handsome boys. They are so precious.



This pic tells you all you need to know about Justice's general impression of baby food. Please note the mouth closed as tightly as can be.

The reception any pureed or mushy food gets. "Nope, that's not going in my mouth. Think again, Mother."

He looks so dang cute refusing the pears I just spent time preparing. Justice has decided he's going to cruise straight into regular food. To that end this is what he's eaten in the past two days: bits of an egg roll and rice at a Chinese restaurant, pears, bananas, toast, Colby cheese, and some diluted apple juice to wash it all down. Yum.

Howie lining his cars up. He does this several times on any given day.

Me and Baby J at Stacy Park on some gorgeous day a few weeks ago. I am so grateful that the weather is becoming so beautiful!! See ya later, winter!!!