Playtime!

Here I am with my playgroup yesterday.

Chloe, me, & Logan.....all of us have the same expression:

"Wha???"

Here I am a big boy pointing out that Baby Rusty is in the bouncer.

Pucker Up!

Gettin' ready to go out in my fancy collared shirt

how embarassing...mom didn't put my jeans on yet!

Sugar Plum Scary

John and plums don't quite see eye to eye yet. It appears they're a little tart for his discerning taste.

For the record: his mouth looks exactly like my abuelito when he didn't have his dentures in.

Logan and John Chillin'

Yea, we're cute

Me: Hey, Logan...what a neat shirt you have on there. I like the color.

Me: Oh, I especially like this interesting football patch here.

Logan: You're shirt's pretty cool too, John. Nice reindeer to get us in the Christmas mood.

Me: Thanks! My mommy got it for 5 dollars! FIVE....see my fingers??

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Our little family had a grand time this weekend. We spent Thanksgiving Day at my parent's house with my uncle, his wife and my 5 cousins. John had no shortage of entertainment with all the crowds that were lovin' on him. He also got to eat some of his favorite food on Thanksgiving....SWEET POTATO! yum

On Friday we drove up to College Station to watch The Game. I was so excited to see my dear friend Kara from Philly. Oh, how I've missed her friendship. She was my closest friend in PA and it was fun to introduce her to John. Right before we moved back to Houston, the three of us (plus 1 bun in the oven) went to D.C. for a quick road trip and I have fond memories of us sitting on the hotel bed watching my belly jump! I last saw Kara when she visited us in Houston the day before John arrived. But I digress....

As you can tell from the picture, John and Kara got along famously. She even brought him a cool toy that he was absolutely fascinated with.

Kara joined us for the game and MAN am I glad she brought her big blanket to keep us warm. It was Brrrr-chilly!

John did not attend this game. It was a bit too cold for him so he opted to hang out with Granny & Papaw who took great care of him while Mommy & Daddy enjoyed cheering for the Ags....

....from under a blanket

And here's John showing off how he can sit up quite well. This picture shows him passin' back a yell for his Aggie fans....I think this is a Yell Leader in the making, folks....

I have to say that on this Thanksgiving I am so thankful for my health, my dear husband, my loving family (on both sides), my friends & their sweet friendships, but on this Thanksgiving 2007 I am especially thankful for this adorable little ball of love who, only 12 months ago, was just a little Bun in my tummy helping me decorate my tiny Christmas tree in Philly. I'm so glad to have you here, Pun'kin Bear!

101 Ways To Have Fun With A Burp Cloth

Ever since the Toga Party post I have been wanting to do this to show all the great ways mom and child can amuse themselves with one burp cloth.

Poncho, Poncho Man (aka Barber Shop)

Wild, Wild West Renegade

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night...."

80's Aerobics Instructor

Arabian Knight

John Goes to the Spa

Yesterday was a good day. Kristen and I spent the morning at the Houstonian spa, Trellis, relaxing and being pampered. She had received a gift certificate recently and my mom had given me money for a massage for my birthday (in July!) so we decided to just go get our treatments together. My back and shoulders have been aching since John was born (less now than in the first few months) and I have been dying to get a massage so this treatment has been long-anticipated.


When I came home I had my sweet husband back. He had just returned from a trip to California and it was nice to see him again.


In the Spirit of the Spa, John was getting ready to take a shower this morning so I put him in his spa robe as he waited while Kyle and I ate lunch. Here he is waiting for his "treatment"

See...the spa makes everyone happy!

Dad, you're so funny!

In other developmental news: John has become a beast in the sitting upright category. He can sit unassisted for quite a long time now. And he seems to be rolling over a bit more consistently these days. I usually find him in the morning or after his naps facing up with a big smile on his little face! My Bubby bear is growing up too fast!

Sick Town

John and I are still sick. It's been one week and I think I'm getting worse!? At least John still has the energy to do two of his favorite new things. Jump in his jumper and stick out his tongue. And of course he does them at the same time!

Since I don't have the energy to really write anything I'll post some pictures of the little man.

What is this funny thing in my mouth?

Mom, this warm yam compote is delectable.....and this bib ain't bad either!

My toes are AWESOME!

Capturing the emotion of the moment. Can't you just hear the sound from this picture??? Maybe that's just me???

You're Full of It....

....literally. This morning I was in the shower and John was in the jumper, which is our normal routine. He jumps, I wipe the steam off the glass and smile at him, he jumps some more, and even though I don't have my glasses or contacts in, I can see my little man smiling back at me.

Today we were smiling at each other and Kyle walked in. "OH NO!" he yells (somehow Kyle always sees the bad stuff first). I open the shower door and ask Kyle to give me my glasses. Behold the sight: John was happily standing in the jumper (in just a diaper) with his feet dangling and dancing in a HUGE puddle of poo directly underneath him. He was swiping his foot proudly through the poo with big strokes creating an interesting caramel-colored brush pattern on our cream-colored tile floor. YIKES. Kyle and I were paralyzed as to what to do first. While we were thinking we noticed the poo had defied gravity by rocketing up his backside and up over his diaper and down to the floor. And as we watched the poo fountain, just a little bit more eeked out onto the floor. So we laughed and picked him up and he went straight into the shower, diaper and all. Thankfully the incident happened on the tile floor and it cleaned up easy. I really debated on whether or not to take a picture of this because it was revolting and hysterical all at the same time. I ended up not taking the picture. I'm sure John will be grateful to me when he gets older. You're welcome, child.

In other news it seems I have passed on my sickness to my little baby. I have been congested and this morning John woke up with a crusty nose. Poor little man is having some difficulty breathing. He sounds all garbled but hopefully he'll improve quickly. Please pray for his health. This is his first little sickness.

Bethancourt Bistro Update: Since Bananas Tartare we have tried Apples Au Jus and Warm Yam Compote. He seems to be a big fan of the latter. He ate lots of it and quite willingly. Apples Au Jus was a little strange but he warmed up to it by the third day.

In the Words of Napoleon Dynamite: "Yesssssss"

Let me just say that my life has improved dramatically as of 2 PM today. Why? Not because I have turned into a puree princess (due to the cookbook Deceptively Delicious), not because I am now a DVR diva which allows me to record The View, Oprah, The Office, & all the 48 Hours my little eyes could watch so I never miss a show. No. Those are topics for another blog.

Today my life has improved 100-fold because I discovered there is a Joann Fabrics less than 2 miles from my house. TWO miles! YESSSSssssss!!!!!! Why did it take so long for me to discover this? Last Thursday I was in a fender bender-- yes, I sacrificed the bumper of my car (and my neck) while on a mission to buy thread at the Joann's in West U. Everytime I'm there I think to myself "this place is so awesome! I wish there were one closer to me". The other day I was in another Joann's near my parents (sort of--because it's still about 10 minutes from their house). They had all these $1 bins and I bought 8 baby books for John. They were so cute. And again I thought to myself--"drats! why isn't Joann's near ME!?"

There IS one near me! Hallelujah! Sewing is my new favorite stress buster. My one guilty pleasure is having my mom come over to hang out with John so I can tinker with my little projects. I recently made some window treatments for our bedroom. I was so desperate to make something, anything that I offered to make a shower curtain and matching window valance for my mom's bathroom, then an accent pillow for her guest bedroom. And I bought fabric the other day to make a window treatment for my bathroom. Ambitious, huh? Ambition is great.....until your sewing machine goes BERSERK! This isn't the first time either. I have been using a refurbished machine Debbie gave me and we got it to work once before but I think this time it's really bit the dust. The definition of patience is sitting in front of the sewing machine trying to figure out what you did wrong and attempting to fix it.

Well, back to the fender bender. I'm OK. A woman hit me from behind as I was turning right. The jolt felt much worse than what actually happened to my tank-of-a-car. The bumper was bent a little and I was in shock for about 30 minutes. Thankfully John wasn't with me or I might have been a little more upset about it all. It could have been a lot worse so I'm thankful we're all OK.

Random Ramblings

A couple weeks ago Kyle and I really amused ourselves on our way to and from College Station. So if you're looking for some time killers here ya go:

#1: On the trip up Kyle mentioned something about Phillip and Cami and accidentally said Cillip and Fami, which tickled me wacky. I just laughed and laughed at this slip up. Then I proceeded to transpose all of our family's and friend's names I could think of. This provided many minutes of amusement. Some of our faves:
Crad & Chistina, Eustin & Jerin, Dawn & Jebbie, Mom & Taya, Cartha & M.O.

Doesn't seem so hilarious when I write it down but, trust me, it was way funny as we said them out loud.

#2: As we drove home from College Station I was on the internet on Kyle's Blackberry. One link led to another and somehow I ran across some intersting blogs. Being a blogger myself I was amused by these non-conventional blogs and realized there is probably a blog out there about everything possibly imaginable.

For instance...Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century. Say what?!. Apparently this blog was recently discovered so currently there are lots of comments posted. I challenge you to dig back a few weeks or months and read all the crazy, hilarious ponderings dedicated to the facial phenomenon known as "The Mustache".

Another weird but lovable blog I ran across was The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. This blog immediately touched me. As a spelling bee champ (1st grade, thank you very much) I have waged a personal war against misspellings since the tender age of six. I feel a sort of kinship with the grammar police of this blog. Who knew quotation marks were being grossly misused? I hope my quote marks around "The Mustache" above were used correctly????

Lunar-Induced Lunacies

I will start off by blaming the time change for John's yucky mood today. The other day I was revelling in the delights of my McDreamy....let the record show, today my dear McDreamy was replaced by McScreamy. Yikes. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the crib this morning.

We started out early this morning to go for a walk with Dee (my friend) and Kinsey (8 months). We got an extra hour of sleep so you'd think everyone would be rested and happy. John is always up for a walk and he loves the outdoors. However, about halfway through our walk John busts out with streaming tears and would not sit in the stroller. Tears and tears, sadness and pouty lips abound. The only way McScreamy would stop was when I carried the little 16-pounder, and even then aggravated whimpers still eeked out. He is normally not so clingy?

As soon as we came home little man went straight to bed. He woke up about an hour later. McDreamy returned. Kyle and I took him to the park nearby because he loves, LUUUUVS the swing. He was so happy and cracked up at Kyle's antics.

As soon as we got home McScreamy returned. Anger. Boiling rage. Pouty lips. Tears. What happened? Nothing would calm him so he went back down for a nap. He woke up a few hours later, still a bit irritable.


At least this afternoon we were able to harness the anger into something positive during tummy time. In his fit of rage he almost flipped over. At least we're not the only ones. I talked to Logan's mommy at church today and she said Logan was a bit out of sorts today too.

John is in bed now and tomorrow is a new day! Hallelujah.

Inside the....

The Bethancourt Bistro has been abuzz with our newest food critic reviewing our selections du jour.

Our first menu item this week was Bananas Tartare (prepared tableside). From the video below you can see that this dish received very bad reviews. Almost shut our joint down with those gag faces. However yesterday was a breakthrough and after watching dad open and close his mouth John seemed to sort of get the drift. It appears bananas have the "all clear" and there are no weird allergies or side effects....well....there is one side effect. I awoke this morning to Kyle's panicked voice screaming over the baby monitor:

"OOOOHHHH, Lori! What happened?!"

I sprint to the nursery, certain that someone is injured or in peril.

Kyle looks at me with horror, "Did you put chocolate pudding in John's diaper? I'm surprised the diaper kept all this in......"

Me: "Thanks for the update...I'm going back to bed"

Me talking in my head: "Seriously. Did you really startle (literally STARTLE) me awake at 7:30 AM to discuss our child's diaper contents? Did I mention it's 7:30 in the morning?"

ANYWAYS.....The Bethancourt Bistro is delighted to present Apples Au Jus next and in the coming days we will serve Warm Yam Compote and later, Steamed Wild Carrot. We'll keep you posted on John's lively "reviews".

John Goes Bananas!!!!

Today was a BIG milestone. John tried his first big people food: banana.

John donned his new Dubai bib - a gift from dad, sat in the "evil" recalled Bumbo chair and received his first taste of the Nanner.

It wasn't a hit.

I know, I know "Why didn't you give him rice cereal?". Frankly, rice cereal sounded yucky to me and the pediatrician said I could start with banana or applesauce instead.

Halloween report: Yesterday was fun. Our neigborhood had a huge block party so we got to meet our neighbors and we met a lot of the little people close to John's age. The coming years should be fun. There are twin boys (10 months), one girl (10 months), another boy (4 months), and a few others we didn't get to meet this time.

This turtle is coming out of his shell. On my way to a block party!

All this....for me???