Lots to catch up on!

Well, we've been doing alot in the last week or two. I think I'll go backwards and try to remember which day was which!

Sunday, Mar 2

We had our first big group of people over to the house for lunch after church. It was a bit stressful, getting things ready and ordering pizza during the sermon. Next time we'll preoder on time. And then, after all of the on-time ordering, our pizza still came late, due to the fact that the delivery guy's car was stolen, along with our pizzas. Yeah, pretty crazy! The weather was also soooo beautiful and warm, giving us a tease. We got out (even though we wanted to crash) and walked to Starbucks that's a half a mile away. (Last week, Amos learned about cars and the sound they make, as he and Nathan watch the cars go by in the mornings when they wake up). So while at Starbucks, which is at a busy intersection, Amos was quite entertained by the cars and motercycles going by, making their various vroooooooom sounds! We got home and took a nap. Amos slept for about an hour (he's been taking very poor naps since sleeping through the night) and when he got in bed with me, he fell back asleep, and slept for another hour!! I had to physically pick him up and carry him downstairs so he would wake up!! And he was up a bit late (again) so on Monday, we got him back on track!

Sunday night ended with eggs and smoothie for dinner along with a Scrabble game, which Nathan won. On one turn, he used all of his letters (50 points alone) and then landed on two double word squares for a quadruple word score (40 points) for a total of 90 points!! We played on, but the magic was gone as we knew who would win! It was fun anyway!

Amos and his new smoothie cup!

The game winning word--IMITATER--which lucky for Nathan, is a word!

Saturday, March 1

This day marked the beginning of one of the most fun months of the year! Two birthdays and a Saint Patrick's Day puts the month of March up there with October and December!
Saturday morning, we decided to go for a walk to a local tea shop called, Tea's Me. I had never been before but heard great things about the place, so we got all dressed up (the weather was still a bit chilly) and did the almost-mile walk. It was great and that neighborhood is really great to walk through. We had an early lunch. enjoying tasty chicken salad sandwiches and corn-chicken chowder soup.


Nathan had his first Wedding gig at Redeemer, so we dug deeeeep into his closet for some respectable looking clothes (to go with his respectable looking hair and beard trim) and gussied him up. During the wedding, Amos and I went to the Children's Museum, which was packed and were disappointed to find that the water play section was closed for maintenance. So we played in the sand and did other various activities. We still had a fun time!







When we picked up Nathan from the church, he was pretty hungry and I was too. We decided to head up to Chili's and hoped that Amos would fall asleep on the way. Well, he did, five minutes before we got there! We were both too hungry to sit in the car and let him sleep, so we brought him in and put him on the booth next to us. He slept almost the entire time! I woke him up just as dessert came so that he could eat his dinner and not be up all night! We really enjoyed our dinner; it seemed like a date, with Amos asleep and us getting a chance to talk, and the best part was, we didn't have to pay a babysitter or worry that he would freak out!

Friday, Feb 29 LEAP DAY!!

Our good friends, Kevin and Stephene Vanden Brink and their kids, came to town to celebrate Stephene's Grandfather's birthday. We had their youngest, Alea, over to play that afternoon and evening. Amos was in fine form to share (from having Jonas over the day before) and had a really fun time playing with Alea. They learned how to take turns and share the playhouse, push toys and bath toys, and both took pretty good naps to help them get through the evening hours.

Thursday, Feb 28

During breakfast, Amos wanted to be like me and eat puffins with milk, by himself. So I made a small dish of cereal and milk and let him try. Most of his attempts were futile, but he ended up eating a little bit of cereal and enjoying every minute of it.

Thursday morning was play time with Jen, Jonas and Luci Rader. I brought many of Amos' toys down to add to the plethora we have downstairs and the kids had a blast. Our living room has not yet been that messy with toys, but it was a good sign that lots of fun had been had. Jen brought some frozen fruit so we made fruit smoothies and had a delightful lunch. Amos enjoyed playing with everyone--he's a little social guy already!

Wednesday, Feb 27

After having Ellis Berend over Tuesday afternoon, and trying her grocery-store sushi (that was really good) I got a hankering for it too, so Nathan and Amos went out to do errands (while I finished filing stacks and stacks of papers and cleaning my messy closet) and brought back a few varieties for us to sup on. We had the most wonderful sushi dinner date at home, with the sushi being pretty good. We had awesome green tea with our dinner and when we ran out of soy sauce, Nathan was able to find some at the local market around the corner--they didn't sell it, but gave us the jar they had in their deli. We decided to have more dinner dates like this at home, deciding that it's still special and not nearly as expensive!

Tuesday, Feb 26

While I was making dinner, Nathan and Amos went up to the studio to play (one of Amos' favorite things to do). They usually play on the guitar or drums, but today, Nathan plugged a microphone into his guitar amp and they experimented with their voices. It was pretty cute!

Monday, Feb 25

This day began with a visit from our friend Darci, who was in town with her boyfriend Jeremy. She stopped by for breakfast before her drive home to Nashville. It was great to see her--we saw them the Saturday before...see below!

We took a snow walk today, as there were beautiful flakes falling for much of the morning and afternoon, but it wasn't too cold. After we got all bundled up, we went to find the jogger and the jogger cover, which I realized would keep Amos warm and dry. He did not like it at first, as I tried to cover him, but he became used to it and enjoyed looking at everything while we walked. I did a mile and a half around the neighborhood. It was great to see the houses and to walk again, as last winter, we were out almost every day, doing 2 miles, up hill, both ways!! It made me long for warm or at least milder weather, again.
We also got a guitar store catalogue in the mail and Amos looked at it for a long time. He's really into guitars, which he call "manar manar manar" (he makes the sound he thinks they make, in a high pitched voice!). So I got him talking on video again, telling me all about it!

This was Amos' first time to walk and play in the snow. I think he liked it, but suddenly started crying because his hand was cold!

We also got a guitar store catalogue in the mail and Amos looked at it for a long time. He's really into guitars, which he call "manar manar manar" (he makes the sound he thinks they make, in a high pitched voice!). So I got him talking on video again, telling me all about it! (I'll have to post it later...check back).

Saturday Feb 23

Indy has a new library and it's quite beautiful. We've been wanting to go and check it out, so it was a perfect thing to do with our friends, Jeremy and Darci, who were in town from Nashville. We got there and admired the great architecture and then headed to the sixth floor for a great view of the city. We enjoyed hanging out together and getting to know Jeremy!

Friday, Feb 22

I dug some cute little doggie pjs out of the "grow into" drawer and found that Amos had, indeed, grown into them! They were from Aunt Laura, last Christmas, and were so cute on Amos, I just left them on and put overalls over them. And oddly enough, his little Target dollar bin doggie matched the dogs on his pjs. Thanks, Aunt Laura!
We also got Amos a new puzzle, with animals and their sounds. He loved it and finally figured out how puzzles work!

Whew! I think I've managed to remember most of what's happened lately....I just checked the blog and saw that too, Amos' new sleeping arrangement was going on during all of this. In fact, he was teething when we tried and we were happy that he was able to get on his new routine while getting a molar. The molar has since broken through and we are now onto molar #2, on the left side.