Gangster Des

Are you talkin' to me?

"I'll beat you both together. I'll beat you both apart!"

That's right...I didn't think you wanted a piece of this.

Food Makes Family

Something special happens when people share food. Eating together, cooking together or giving food to someone creates a special moment. This is why I love cooking for people. My cooking isn't flashy or fancy, but it is a way to share sustenance with people - both through food and through conversation.

That's why it's been particularly touching to me to have people bring us meals when we were in the hospital and after Desmond came home. A special kind of warmth radiated from the meals. The gift of food speaks volumes to the country-girl in me.

On a more practical note, I've also learned a lot of new approaches to portable meals - enchiladas, chili, ham and feta pasta, tamale pie, sloppy joes, wild rice chicken casserole, pork stew, etc. I even tasted cookies from a purple ribbon winner in a 4-H competition! (For those of you who don't know, as I didn't, a purple ribbon is even better than a blue ribbon. It's like saying "this is absolutely the best", not just "this is the best out of this competition".) I've really beefed up (no pun intended) my list of potential meals to take to folks.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us so far, whether through food or other means! And to our DC friends - you need to start having more babies so I can bring you some food!!

Feeding Fun

We had an exciting weekend. My mom, Judy, visited for the weekend. We cooked a ton of meals to freeze. She also let Peter and I go out while she watched Des for a few hours. Even though I missed the little guy by the end of the evening, it was great to have an adult-only outing to celebrate Sonia J's birthday!. Historically Peter and I don't do "dates" very well. People insist that we need to make sure to have adult-time now that we have a kid. We're trying to figure out what that looks like for us. This was a good start.

Des also took his a bottle from Peter. I thought he might balk since he hasn't had a bottle since the hospital, but he was very compliant. Peter enjoyed getting to participate in the feeding fun.


On top of all that excitement I also went jogging for the first time in several months. Jogging is probably a generous term...it was more like a slow lope. Still, it provided enough endorphins to be in a goofy-happy haze for several hours!

Snap, Crackle, Pop

Anyone who has worked with me, lived with me or spent any significant time around me knows that practically every joint in my body pops. Somehow even my nose can pop. Yeah, it's weird.

We've heard a faint pop a couple of times when picking up Desmond. I don't know if this is normal for babies or not. Considering his mom can sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies, I wouldn't be surprised if it was indeed a joint popping. Hopefully someday he will have patient friends like his mom who will put up with all of his popping.

Desmond likes pushing himself around on the play mat in the mornings.

Babies and hats...too cute!!

Brave Dads

Desmond is now 9 pounds! Good growth from his birth weight of 7 lbs. 11 oz.

I'm discovering there are a lot of great things about the way that husbands take care of babies. Peter is willing to do a test run at all the things that scare me. He was the first to cut Desmond's fingernails, to give him a bath, to burp him vigorously, swaddle him tightly etc. Basically, if there's a task that intimidates me, Peter steps up to the plate and tries it first. I'm so grateful I don't have to do this parenting thing alone!