Eating "boom, " Drinking "burr," and going to "ool"

As hard as we try not to, Ryan and I seem to pick up "stephenish" and speak that language instead of pure English. It's fun to see him picking up new words on a regular basis. He is also walking all over the place now. It's refreshing to go to a bookstore or the library and have him walk down the aisles instead of pulling up to a shelf and pulling down everything in sight.

Ryan is practicing hard for his recital that takes place next Sunday. I have still been feeling really good - almost to the third trimester, and am working hard to be sure I get my daily protein. I make a menu that I try to stick to as much as our schedule allows, and so far it's working pretty well. Getting in the extra peanut butter on an apple - or a glass of milk before bed - can get me up to the recommended 80 grams of protein every day.

Stephen is still eating a banana every day—look what the sticker on it said today. We continue to be unsure what is causing his slight rash on his tummy. The dr. ran a basic allergy panel and found no positive allergies, which doesn't necessarily mean there is nothing wrong, so I guess we haven't learned anything significant yet. I still suspect a problem with corn, but we've decided for the time being to only avoid large amounts of corn, such as corn bread, corn cereals, etc. Avoiding it 100% is possible but it eliminates anything made with baking powder or cornstarch from his diet. That's tough to explain to a toddler ...

Well, I think the "little man" is waking up from his nap and would appreciate a visit from mommy.

Ten Months Old!

We've been enjoying the weather and getting out to garage sales and the park. Just this morning I walked over to a sale that seemed to need a little help with their pricing: children's clothes were 50 cents each. They could have gotten at least a dollar or even 2 for some of these things. Then they were selling a plain, beige phone (that's not even cordless!) for $5. Not gonna happen. By the way, we have one of these types of phones that I'd be happy to unload on someone who might want it. Otherwise maybe Stephen would like to play with it.

This is the first year since 1995 that I haven't been in Des Moines for the Drake Relays. Though I haven't watched many of the actual relays, walking along the painted street after all the students have colored their squares, wondering if I'll be able to park on my own street (wait I don't miss that), and even running in the road race . . . days like these I miss Des Moines! I'm also sitting here trying to think of someone I know in Champaign who has a truck to help us pick up a table. Kevin, what are you doing for the rest of the day . . . ?

Speaking of Des Moines, we'll be there Memorial Day weekend when John graduates from high school. I hope we can see many of our friends during that time, but we'll also be in town for a whole week in June when Ryan teaches at a jazz camp in West Des Moines.

Since it's a monthiversary, I'll need to write down on Stephen's calendar some of the things he's been doing this month. He does scoot around and roll quite a bit, but hasn't figured out the crawling thing. Yes, babies younger than him are even beginning to walk. We wonder if he'll skip right to that. He does stand at furniture for awhile before falling down. One of the funnier habits he's gotten into is finding the "O" on his alphabet ball and spending quite a bit of time just touching it. He sometimes touches the "Q" but quickly figures out that it just doesn't feel the same and moves 2 letters over to the "O." He's been looking at books some, too, especially the ones that have textures to explore. Our shopping trip this week was rather quiet because he was interested in feeling the tiger's whiskers in his new animal book. He does really enjoy peekaboo, and even plays it by himself. Yesterday I was reading some German phrases from a daily calendar I have and he giggled and giggled at that. I didn't quite understand what he thought was so funny. Oh - and how can I forget the food! He LOVES carrots! Feeding him had been so discouraging for me up until this point. Sure he'll eat rice puffs, but I wasn't wild about him filling up on those. I really wanted to get more than a spoonful of veggies in him. And on Wednesday he kept opening his mouth and essentially begging me to put more carrots in his mouth. Yeah!!! I never knew feeding a baby could be so much fun. And the diapers -- those changed literally overnight! He's sitting by me now clapping. We just got done singing BINGO and I think he wants an encore.