Walking pro

After being carted around the Paducah BBQ festival all afternoon, Munchie was ready for some green space. We let him loose on the lawn of the Quilter's Museum.

I have a good excuse, really...

And several not so good excuses. The good excuse for why this post is so late is that I fractured by finger and it's been difficult to use the computer. the other excuses are simply that i kept meaning to post and running out of time or energy.

I'm just now learning to type with my splint...
I guess it's possible, just not as easy.

OK, so Mom and I met up in Paducah last weekend for some mom-daughter-grandson time and for some delish barbecue.

A typical breakfast

Oh, my sweet boy. He never turns off the cute. In a few days, I might be missing out on these leisurely breakfasts with him, as I'm planning to pick up some hours at my old job for a month. So I thought I'd photograph some highlights from this morning's breakfast:
Milk. Which seems to be causing him some digestive trouble of late. I would give him my soymilk, but I hear the chemical makeup of soy acts like women's hormones when digested. So, not so good for my little guy. Rice Dream is uber-expensive and doesn't have enough fat in it for babies. Any ideas out there?
OK. Those are goldfish I forgot to clean up from yesterday. I'm a bad mom.
But I'm also a good mom in that I made him some %100 whole wheat bread pudding with blueberries, bananas and watermelon juice.
He likes it.
He also likes smashing banana with his toy hammer.
Big stretch! I guess we're not as awake as we appear!

Cook me, please.

New toy, new room, new look

Our good friends and former neighbors from Bruce View, Ricky and Barb, dropped by our house yesterday to visit. We were in the backyard cutting the Parrino boys' hair. They gave Stephen a wonderful wooden train and a set of dino pjs. I opened the train set this morning and Steve's been having a blast with it. I think he's put peices of it in all parts of the house.

Sadly, while I was giving Ricky and Barb a tour of the house, I left my two hairy guys outside. Joe got impatient and buzzed all of Stephen's hair off :-( I wasn't too happy about his new look.

And, it's a new room because our friend, Tatiana, moved out a few days ago to go live with her aunt. So we've converted her room into its original purpose: my office and our guest room. And of course, Stephen's other playroom. Every room in the house is his other playroom :-)

Visit from uncle Jimmy

I guess Jimmy is really second cousin or cousin once removed or something like that, but I think Uncle Jimmy has a nice ring to it :-)

Joe's cousin was in town to take some professional voice lessons in Nashville. We enjoyed eating vegan and talking about NASA, where he works.

Jeremiah's coming!

Stephen is soon to have a little friend... one that will keep him up at night and one he'll probably try to sneak up on and poke if we're not watching!

Jeremiah Isaiah Andrew Hartwell is set to be born Sept. 10... next Thursday! His mama, Tatiana, lives with us and has a sweet bond with Stephen. She is planning to be induced at midnight Wednesday. Your prayers will help this be a smooth and healthy labor.

I was recently reading the book of Jeremiah and I liked the beginning of the first chapter.

"I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations."

"O Sovereign Lord," [Jeremiah] said, "I can't speak for you! I'm too young!"

The Lord replied, "Don't say, 'I'm too young,' for you must go whereever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don't be afraid of the people, for I will with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!"

Then the Lord reached out and touched by mouth and said,

"Look, I have put my words in your mouth! Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant."

This makes and great prayer for a little boy, still in his mom's womb!