Gardens, Gardens, Gardens!

We have been so very busy this last month or two diggin' in the dirt. Jim and I put in gardens here in front of the house. Jim did an amazing job creating a xeriscaped natural area and we also put in a small herb garden for me!

LOTS of hard labor of digging up sod.

Early days, right after we finished putting everything in.

Our Anniversary plant. Thanks Granma and Grandpop de Beaumont!

If that wasn't enough.... we decided to join in the "small truck farm" out at the ranch. Here's Jim planting our tomato plants.

We put in 4 different heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos, red bell peppers, banana peppers, green beans and cucumbers.

"I do it myself!"

He's mastered eating finger foods.
So, Henry is now making great attempts at feeding himself with the spoon!

Bathtime in the sink

First time for bathtime in the sink!

See the mangoes.

Must have the mangoes.

I LOVE MANGOES!

Homemade popsicles

Something they didn't have when Ayla was a baby was these little "mesh pops". THEY ARE AWESOME! You can open them and insert whatever kind of food or fruit. Then baby can chow away on his own eliminating any kind of choking hazard. Henry adores his "popsicles". I pack it full of frozen fruit and he'll go through 3 or 4 rounds before he's had enough. His favorite right now is frozen banana and pineapple... Pina Colada!

Guess who's got a new baby cousin?!!

JANE ANN SKAGGS was born Saturday, April 5, 2008 around 4:45am weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz. (same as AYLA!) and 19 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful. Amy looks amazing doesn't she?! Here's the whole family! Amy, Samuel, Jane and Jack Skaggs. Brother Samuel entertaining himself...
If you'd like to see... a few other pictures are on their blog.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD JANE!

Big boy eating

It didn't take but a few times for Henry to get the handle of finger foods and he never looked back. He will occasionally let us feed him with a spoon, but pretty much he's moved on to "I can do it" phase. I just love his new found independence, but I'm challenged to find a good mix of foods that he can feed himself since they still need to turn to mush. I was on a roll with homemaking all his purees and then *poof* we're done with that... gotta move on. Isn't he such a big boy!

2 years!

NO foolin'... hard to believe its been 2 years already! I absolutely love thinking about our fantastic weekend getaway at the beach with all of you beautiful family and friends at our side. Thanks so much for all your continued support for Jim and I.

9 months old!

Well Happy ST. Patty's day to yah! Henry turned 9 months yesterday. Can you believe it... NINE MONTHS! He had his 9 month check up yesterday as well. Here's his stats:

Weight: 17.5 lbs. (dropped to 10th%)
Height: 28.5 inches (holding at 50th%)
Head: 45 cm

Here's Henry on the first morning checking out the ocean from our deck:

Will post more vacation pictures when I get organized.

Good things

Henry continues to delight and impress us with his funny ways.
Jim has schooled him in raspberry blowing and he's now quite the expert. He gets in these raspberry conversations with himself. He must love the way it feels.
Then he'll switch to his "talking"... open vowel sound babbles... he's not big on any consonants yet but this boy loves his vowel sounds.

He loves to crawl and pull up and we've even caught him standing without any help a few times. Walking will be here before you know it! We're still lagging in the child proof department. We've got our gate for the stairs and have emptied the floor of hazards, but the cabinets still need their locks... someday we'll get organized.

He reaches up and plays piano a lot. He'll "sing" along with his music too. His little hand just romping around the keys. It's so so precious.

We are cruising with solids. I have figured out how to make just about everything I want and not be too overwhelmed with it. I will steam one veggie or fruit first thing in the morning, puree it, and spoon it into ice cube trays to freeze. Then later that day pop them out and they are ready for weeks of meals. He's enjoying just about everything I make which is always a chef's dream. He's up to 3 meals a day plus formula AND still nursing whenever I can! He's a eater!

His favorites right now are mangoes and yogurt, brown rice and veggies (we're trying asparagus today), carrots and apples, bananas and avocado.

I'll try and get some little videos of him soon... we've been having battery issues.
We're still searching for a new car and have to turn in the rental next Tuesday, so finding a car trumps all right now.

Finally out of rough waters

Gosh its been a hard month so far. But I'm hopeful we are on the up side now. Sleeping was our main issue. Henry has always been a good sleeper, so when it had been over a month it seemed since he had slept well, I was beginning to think it wasn't just teething. We tried all kinds of tricks with little or no change. Then, this week, the skies just cleared and he is sleeping again. Either something we did is working or his teeth finally gave him the rest he so deserved. I'm just so happy to be sleeping again.

I was inspired by the post nap pictures of Buddy Max (HI MAX!), so I took a few of Henry today when he woke up. Here they are: