This Weekend

This weekend felt super busy.

Pumpkin Patch last weekend, but still had to share!

Alex actually kept his pumpkin hat on longer than 5 seconds!

I worked my weekend shift at the hospital.  David and Alex came to eat lunch with me. Then we went grocery shopping for the week, which is always a fun/nervous experience with Alex in tow!  David mowed, because it's still getting up to 80's in Texas (grr-ready for cooler weather already!) Bath time with Alex Saturday night.  I start looking forward to this now, because he just loves his baths-probably because of the toys.  Without them, I think he wouldn't care too much about baths.  Anytime I take him with me to look in the bathroom mirror to play "Who's that baby?!?!" he gets this huge smile on his face.  lol.

Church on Sunday, then the rest of my boring weekend chores.

Hummus!
One of my goals for this weekend was to make hummus from a blogger I recently discovered. But it turned into an ordeal!  The Tuesday before, I asked Janet if she could pick up Smoked Paprika the next time she was at CostCo. She happened to be going right by there anyway, so she sent it home with Alex on Friday. After work on Friday, I took the time to go up to Williams Sonoma to get one of the spices: Sumac.  During our shopping trip, I scoured our grocery store to find Tahini. (in the health foods section if anyone shops at Kroger, NOT near the peanut butters, like I originally thought).  David's eyebrows took a long trip up his forehead at the price, but I assured him this would make quite a few batches of hummus.  During Alex's nap, I gathered and prepped all the ingredients only to realize I had no lemons or lemon juice.  David said he'd go back to the store, because he wanted some wine later that night.  He comes back without the lemon!  oops.  Such a guy moment, if I ever saw one!  Borrowed some lemon juice next door, and food processor I go!  About time.

 End result is delicious, thank goodness.  Shared some with neighbor since she gave me that last little ingredient I needed!  But if anyone makes this hummus, I recommend forcing some on your significant other, as the garlic is delicious, but doesn't exactly facilitate kissing.


Also pureed some beets and mangoes for Alex's new foods this week.

Alex liked them, I'm not a fan, but they sure look pretty!

I finished a Santa hat for Alex on Sunday to wear for our holiday card picture.  I got a great Groupon for holiday cards, but I need to figure out where to take our pics, since it isn't exactly picturesque here yet.

Alex is a-crawling and getting too efficient!

This morning he crawled in a 20 foot route from his blanket to the dog crate, to his play saucer, to the kitchen to check out what I was doing and then he shut the pantry door for me!

Food, Aunts, birthdays

Wow, what?  It's been almost 3 months since I posted last?!?!?!  that can't be right...

Alex is 8 months old today, and what a ham!

He was 24# last month too, so all that scooching on the floor must count as exercise!

Yep, we've been using a few baby sign language gestures.
Milk.  All done!  Eat.  More.  Diaper (though this one I don't think he sees from the changing station as it's done at the hip level)
About a month ago, we noticed that he was using All Done, especially when we lay him down to change his diaper!  It really motivated us to be more persistent with the gestures.  Now I'm catching myself making the gestures at work if I happen to say those words, lol.  It's been a very helpful tool, even with just the 2 words he can sign to us.

He's recently found out how fun peek a boo is...

plus he's been trying to crawl for about a month now.  He'll get from sitting, lunch forward and rock back and forth, but he always gets one of his legs stuck in front/underneath him.  I've been taking lots of videos lately just in case THIS is the time he figures it out!  So I'll be sure to blog/FB it when it does happen!

Food adventures
Last post was his first food.  I've introduced quite a few more since then:
Brown rice cereal-obviously a :-(
Avocado :-/
Green Peas :-/
Yellow Squash :-)
Sweet Potato :-))
Oatmeal :-(
Pears :-))
Banana :-/
Green Beans :-(
Apples :-))
Peaches :-)
Zucchini :-)
Carrots :-)
Butternut Squash :-))
Pumpkin :-/
Parsnips :-/
And most recently this week, I tried Chicken :-/

Next up: turkey, beef/lamb, mango, then yogurt...

Alex finally got to meet Aunt Nicole!  We had lots of fun together...trips to Firewheel (an outdoor mall), Pei Wei Asian Diner (new for Nicole), La Madeleine (since they aren't in CA?!?), and Dallas World Aquarium.

Birthday weekend:
David took me the weekend before to the Horseshoe Bay Resort in Hill Country, for our first weekend getaway without Alex.  It was very relaxing...once we got there!
For David's Big 3-0, he got a tattoo the night before, then I surprised him with a Drive & Ride Event at Texas Motor Speedway.  He's always wanted to do this, and I figured this was a really great excuse.

He had a good time, even in the rain!

That's pretty much what's been happening in our little corner of the world.  Catch ya next time!