What a week!

I can't believe it's already Thursday...this week has flown by. Monday I was on the phone again during Graeme's nap, trying to nail down a handful of apartment options for Mark to try to squeeze in visiting after he gets off around 3pm on Sat. (most of the apts. are only open until 4:30/5pm on Sat....so I have to tell him exactly where to go and try to map it out for him!) No biggie - we only need a place to live in three weeks LOL! I know God is going to provide just the right place. I found several options that I'm excited about.

Packing: I packed four boxes today! And was able to get a bunch of boxes from our Pastor's wife, who has been unpacking from their recent move and has loads of boxes to give away - what a blessing.

Thought I'd share how much Graeme enjoyed his smoothie this morning - strawberries, blackberries, juice and yogurt AND Green Food mixed in - it's a blend of like 20 different types of healthy greens that you add 2-3 tsp. into something and it's a blast of green food. Well, both Graeme and I don't eat enough greens, so this is a wonderful way for us to get it in. Besides, it's awfully fun to drink - Graeme obviously loves the straw!

Macy's SUPER clearance!

We went to Macy's this morning to return 2 outfits Great-Grandma Evans had given Graeme - they were the wrong size for the season he'd be wearing them, so we had to take them back :( BUT - for the price of those two outfits, we bought over 20 pieces of clothing - that's right, TWENTY....including several t-shirts that were $1/piece, two pairs of super-cute seersucker shorts to wear for Daddy's graduation, and various and asundry other items. I even bought some girl summer clothes, in case this one is a girl :-)

All summer clothes are on clearance, PLUS take an additional 40% off the clearance price!

New granola recipe

We had a Mommies Morning Out seminar this morning at church on "Meal Planning" - not one of my fortes, especially lately! (Come to think of it, I'm not quite sure what I would say my "forte" in home-making is - I don't think I've got one yet LOL! Reading books? I think we probably read 20-30 books today!) So I was inspired to improve both my and Graeme's eating habits.

First up: trying a new granola bar recipe. I want something on hand that has a good bit of protein and energy, plus something that will meet my sweet tooth and leave me feeling satisfied.

I thought this recipe looked good to me, from The Meal Makeover Moms' Blog. I'll review it tomorrow after we eat it :-)

I actually knit for my own child!

Finally, I buckled down and refused to do any more customs until I finished a pair of shorts for my own son. This colorway is a custom done by Trish of Candypantsyarns - I told her I wanted a patriotic colorway with army green in it - she did exactly what I was hoping for!




Now, who can tell me who this picture reminds you of? This is my test to see who is reading this blog LOL - you'd have to know my family well to know the answer ;)


And, finally, Graeme has developed a fascination for planes. We go on walks frequently, and our subdivision is located under a fairly consistent air-traffic pattern, apparently, for our local private airport...so we often hear the planes in the mornings and evenings. He loves to try to find it in the sky.

Look mom!

So he discovered mud this week...Oh the joy of the slimy feeling of mud through your fingers! And isn't he having fun with it???
He was a MESS!!!

How fast he's growing!

Wow, so much happening with our little guy! He is busy,busy,busy - constantly exploring and curious.

He's learning the parts of the face - he says "eye" and "ear" and points to the right part ("ear" still sounds like "eye" but I know what he means :). Mouth and nose are still a bit tricky. We have a Baby Einstein dvd that I'll watch with him sometimes about the parts of the body, and he's quickly catching on. He likes me to do the "Head and shoulders, knees and toes" song on him.

Speaking of songs, "The Wheels on the Bus" is our all-time fav around here lately! We have a book with all the verses, which he loves to go get and sit on my lap so I'll sing it to him. His favorite verses are the first verse (The wheels on the bus go round and round) and the third one (the people on the bus go bumpity-bump) - yes, you can guess why he likes that one :-) Of course I bump him up and down! The neat thing is that whenever he sees a bus (like on one of his puzzles or in another book) and I say "Bus?!" he starts "singing" the song - he'll move his hand round and round and sing the "round and round" part - and kind-of on pitch, no less! I'm quite impressed!

I bought a football for him this week at Old Navy (on clearance from 4th of July) and he loves it! The fact is, he is just a ball-fanatic. We go to the park several times a week, and anytime another child has a ball there, he goes right for it. He tried to follow one family home because they were taking the ball with them LOL! All sizes, all shapes...and he's learning to differentiate between the soccer ball, tennis ball, football, basketball, etc. Poor Poco gets so confused about which balls he's supposed to play with.

The last two pictures are of Graeme posing for the camera. He's so fascinated with cameras- the phone camera and the regular one. He loves for me to take his picture, and just recently started doing little poses, like sticking his finger in his mouth, just to see what it looks like on the camera - then he laughs at himself. It's quite funny.

Words he's saying: eye, ear, "there it is" (mostly the inflection, but he's definitely saying it!), ball, where is it?, and maybe water - I can't tell exactly. He talks a lot, but those are the most recognizable things right now. He was saying mama and dada, but I haven't heard those all week!

I know, I've been quiet!

But there are many good reasons!

Melissa came for a visit last week, and we were busy of course - playing with Graeme, shopping, goofing off, talking, etc...we went to the zoo, started my long-delayed scrapbook of Graeme's first year...and loved on Graeme a lot :) She's sending me the pictures from her camera, because they're mostly all on there - I'll share soon!

As a kind-of surprise birthday gift, my family gave $$ towards a plane ticket for me to go see Mark last weekend! It was absolutely wonderful to see him and spend time together. He was confined to base on Sunday, unfortunately - one of those situations where it was no one's fault, but the whole platoon had to take the consequences - but at least we still got to spend most of the day together. Brian and Alyssa were so kind to transport me back and forth from the Richmond airport - the dreaded traffic on 95 was horrendous on Sunday! We'll be avoiding the interstate as much as possible when we're living there, that's for sure. I did have a few hours Sunday morning to check out the area and discover that we'll want to live in Stafford, which is about 10-15 minutes down Highway 1 from Quantico...so Mark will spend some time looking at houses, and I need to do some internet house-hunting. We're hoping to be able to rent at least a townhouse - something bigger than an apartment. There are tons of things for rent there, of course, since it's a military town.

So this week we've been getting back to "just us". The first few days were an adjustment, but we're doing well. Graeme is once again teething...the poor child always gets a bunch in all at once. All of the eye teeth are coming in right now - top and bottom! Ack! The two bottom have popped through a bit, thankfully. More on him coming up :)