Swirled Peas, Again

I hate peas. I hate peas. I was quite ready to move on to other, yummier smelling vegetables when John asked me what I was going to do with the 1/2 full container still left in the fridge. Unable to throw it out, we will soldier on with the darn peas. Although he doesn't appear to actually like them (that's my boy!), he will now tolerate them if they are swirled into his rice cereal and I sing 'Old McDonald' the entire time I am feeding him. The Entire Time I am Feeding Him.

We have had a busy weekend despite the poopy peas problem (not an actual poop problem at this point for those of you who care). In prepareation for the drywall delivery, John cleaned out the garage on Saturday. I confess to coming out for short periods of time and moving things around without actually helping. Then, I would suddenly remember something I needed to do or hear the baby, etc. If you talk to my dad, he will clearly remember such tactics from when I was thirteen and supposed to be helping him with yard work. Anyhow, John worked and worked all day and found all kinds of interesting treasures. Our garage sale/donate pile has grown to be quite monstrous again.

One of the treasures we found were the torches we bought for our deck 100 years ago (or 3 years ago) as the "finishing touch" for the deck. Although we walk by them every day, they seem to just sit there, unfinishing our garage. As a result, Sunday we spent part of the day installing our lovely torches. And the deck is now "finished". We also spent some time in the basement hammering things around and moving ladders while William played in his "office". We are getting closer and closer to being ready to install drywall.

Tired baby boy on Saturday. Yes, we still have the bumpers in...I keep meaning to take them out. But then he does silly things like trying to crawl into the railings of the crib, bonking his precious little head every time.


Our newly cleaned out garage. No, this is not the before shot. This is the after and I think it looks GREAT! Lots of space to hold the drywall...just not cars right now. Just not the car I guess I should say since the most we've ever got in there is my car.


Biter buscuit test drive on Saturday. Verdict:too soon for William/ mom is a paranoid freak. He definitely enjoyed it. I did not enjoy the gagging/coughing noises he made. We'll try again in awhile.


What a good helper! Rule #17: NEVER leave the ladder up where a cat could climb it into your ceiling.


William conducting business in his "office" on Sunday


The finished deck with torches

Making Whirled Peas

After three days of struggling with peas (have I ever mentioned I HATE PEAS?), I am leaning towards William disliking them. The only way I have found to get them in his mouth is to whirl them up into the rice cereal and pretend they aren't there. I am seriously considering making John finish out this last few days of the "peas week". I'm starting to wonder if my gagging while feeding William the peas is having anything to do with him not wanting to open his mouth for them. Hmmm....all I know is we are going to try something easier next time. Sweet potatoes I think. Or carrots.

In other excitement, we have finally ordered a whole flock (pride? herd? gaggle?) of drywall to be delivered next Friday. We decided that although the delivery charge is actually more, it is going to be a huge saving in the end to not have to haul it off of the truck. Now, we'll just have to figure out how to haul it from the garage to the basement. Progress at least.


We're going to be busy the next couple of weeks. We have a 6 month doctor appointment, 6 months pictures to be taken, vet appointments for the cats, a termite inspection, drywall delivery, TA and Gerry going to be in nearby Taylorville, Cousin Chrissie making a stop and possibly and visit from the Grandparents McGarry. And we still have to decide about the reunion thing since they have extended the deadline for ticket purchase. We had decided we just weren't going to go - and then they extended the deadline, opening up the option again. Makes me tired thinking about it.

Peas, Revisited

Turns out when peas are spit up again hours later, they still smell like peas. The first, second and third spit up all carried the essence o' peas. I smell like pea. I hate peas. Who picked peas anyhow?

...and I believed you...

Now that William has been eating solids for about a month, we have noticed the change in the poo. You all told me it was coming and I believed you 100%. You said it was going to change colors and it was going to smell. Smell horribly. Even so, I was not prepared. Changing diapers hasn't ever been my favorite job, but it isn't the worst thing ever. Now, it is a whole new game. The other day, I handed him to John and asked him to change his diaper. John, none the wiser, took William towards the bedroom to change the diaper. As an afterthought, I mentioned "he might be poopy". Now, this was not fair. I knew very well that he was poopy - I just didn't want to change him myself. William has changed over from the yellow milk poo to the full on brown poo (or sometimes yellow due to the squash). The occasional slightly smelly diaper once opened has become a sewer gas emitting stench. All the time. It would be an understatement to say that the cereal has given William gas. The kid is a fart machine. If you were lucky enough to spend any time with us in the last week, William has something he would like to say to you "EXCUSE ME". I think that will cover it. At least we are now creating poo everyday with regularity. When we first started the rice cereal, everything kind of stopped. No poo for 3 days makes one scary diaper.

Moving along to other topics: Peas.

Yesterday the peas weren't exactly a hit. I thought maybe William was not a good mood, too tired, or something. So, this morning, I decided to add a second cereal feed to William's schedule and try out those peas again. The verdict is : I think he doesn't like the peas. He stopped opening his mouth and turned his head away. It was a struggle to feed him the tablespoon I had scooped out for him. Oh well. More later.

Peas Please

Messy baby

It is good to be home. I did some laundry, cleaned a whole bunch and ran some errands. Where did I get my energy? Turns out William remembers his bed and slept in it all night until about 8am. Heaven!

After conquering squash, it is now time to move on to the next new vegetable! John picked peas. Unfortunately, I realized after we started feeding William that he was probably too tired to start eating a new food or any solid foods for that matter. What can you do? He was already messy, so we soldiered onward. The pictures don't really capture the total meltdown that occurred. We'll have to wait and see if it was the peas or if he was just really that tired.

Based on William's behavior the last several days, I would also guess we are going through another round of teething. No sign of which ones are coming in, just a crabby baby so far... The other discovery is the speed William developed in his scooting while we were in Rochester. After pulling him out from under the couch (where I think the cat may have been hiding from him) twice this morning, I decided it was time to try out the superyard Jim and Kendra gave us. Works pretty slick (sorry no pics), although it makes him pretty crabby to not be able to suck on the cat brush or lick the carpet near the fireplace. Oh well. No one ever said life was fair baby.

The first peas! Sorry the picture isn't rotated. So lazy... just turn your head


Smiling for the daddy!


This look is probably more accurate as to his feelings during the feeding.

No more Legs

All legs of our trip are completed as we arrived back home today around 4pm. John had time to mow the lawn, water the grass and then we went together to pick up my car from the repair shop (another story for another day). William was REALLY good until the last 45 minutes of the trip and then required constant attention. All in all not so bad for the amount of time he has spent in the car the last few days. It feels good to be home - even if it is hot. I'm anxious to see how William does sleeping in his own crib tonight. I hope he remembers it and sleeps all night looooong!

More tomorrow!

Not the End of the Story: Rochester Part 2

All Done! And messy!

All in all, we enjoyed our North Dakota adventure. William did better than anyone could have expected given he was not sleeping in his own bed, not taking any naps, not eating at his normal times, passed around groups of strangers, riding in the car for hours at a time and completely off of any kind of familiar schedule.

We got back to Rochester on Sunday the 8th just in time for dinner. We got the car unloaded and William into his seat to feed him his cereal and....his first vegetable! SQUASH! He did a good job and ate all of it without even making a funny face at all. He went down to sleep pretty early Sunday and made it longer into the night than the last few nights. Last night (Mon. eve) he did make it all the way through! Hurray! Now we'll find out what will happen when we get him home tomorrow night... The last leg of our trip will be tomorrow as we drive back home. Can't say I'm looking forward to sitting again.

Today we have the whole day with Grandma and tonight we have dinner planned with Mike and Tien (and Grandpa Heidt). I think we are all caught up now, or so I hope!

First vegetable: SQUASH!


First few bites. I'm not sure if the look is because of the flash on the camera or the taste of the squash.


He is super thrilled...again not sure if it is the camera or the squash


Mmmmmmm....squash?