photos

At least we're teaching this kid something...

Drunk on DP?

The first cool not sweltering evening in FOREVER. Thank God for highs in the low 80's.

This smile is the result of seeing DEAC!

Doing it all by self.

squash muffins

I am about to be your new best friend. I thought this was Matt's sister's recipe, but she says she got it from Matt's Aunt Katherine. Katherine, you are my hero.

I don't know about you, but I can only take so much fried squash, baked squash, and sauteed squash... enter Squash Muffins.

Yellow Squash Muffins

2 lbs. yellow squash (about 8 medium or 5 large)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp and 2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375. Wash squash, trim off ends, cut into slices. Cook in boiling water 15-20 minutes or until tender. Drain WELL and mash.

Measure out 2 cups of squash and mix with eggs and butter, set aside.

Combine remaining ingredients in large bowl, add remaining squash and the squash mixture, stir just until evenly moistened.

Spoon into greased muffin cups, filling 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on edges (not whole muffin).

This recipe makes 18-24 muffins.

I used Country Crock Lite instead of butter, and they still tasted great. Next time, I think I will try replacing at least some of the sugar with apple sauce and see how that goes. I had to bake them for 25 to 27 minutes, which is a little longer than the recipe says. But it's definitely true about just baking them until the edges are brown, not the whole muffin. They were PERFECT!

I didn't have enough yellow squash from my garden, so I combined yellow squash and zucchini. Matt was a little concerned about how that would taste, but I told him, "If a recipe calls for a cup of butter and a cup of sugar, it's going to taste like butter and sugar."

And he was pleased, as you can see.

It really is a great way to use some of your garden (or Farmer's Market) squash if you are tired of the same old thing. And they freeze well too. Kim says she always makes a double batch, freezes them and then just thaws them and heats them in foil in the oven. Tasty, even the second time around. Let me know if you try them!

a fun friday

On Friday, Jonah finally got his playdate with the two cute twin girls Kathryn nannies for (er... for whom Kathryn nannies... who actually says that?). We were supposed to do it last week, but their Mommy got sick, and then they got sick, so it just wasn't a great time. But Friday was so much fun.

This is Juliana.
And her sister, Jasmine.

They are ten months old and ON. THE. MOVE. It really made me realize how slow Jonah crawls. Honestly, I'm okay with it. :) It was so neat to see them be able to move and explore and get to what they wanted (quickly!). Jasmine loved the stairs and was SUPER fast. Juliana was all about Deac and just followed him everywhere. He was only partially amused.

It was hard to get them all three in the same frame, but they finally converged at the activity table.

And at one point, we just had a roundup. This was the only shot I got that didn't include the top of one of their heads.

I thought this one was adorable. What's that? Where's Jasmine?

Oh, there she is... enjoying some shoes and diaper salve with Jonah.

Jonah and one of his best buds, Kathryn.

Then, on Friday evening, we met our friends, Shawn and Jen (who, for some reason, were Jawn and Shen every time I said their names on Friday... it was a slow brain day.) Anyhoo... the Winston Salem Children's Museum has some $3.00 Friday nights, so Shen invited us to come along.

Shawn and Jen's little boy, Jude. He's four months older than Jonah, and I have high hopes that they'll be best buds.

I think the daddies had more fun than the (littler) boys.

This was a Scarf-Shooty-Outy thing that you could put soft balls and scarves in. It would shoot them all through the tube...

and then they'd pop right out.

Jonah was not amused with his hard hat (along with most of the rest of everything we did).

Jonah pushed the trucks. Jude went with a less conventional approach.

I don't know where this was, but it was soft and padded, so we hung out there for a while.

More of being NOT amused.

He did take a break of being Fussy McCrabby pants to play the laser harp.

But then he was back at it for Daddy's photo-op. (Matt may or may not have just shoved Jonah under Carmen's utters for some practice milking thus inducing a screaming fit, I couldn't rightly say.)

Jude loved the kitchen area. Steak in a bowl. Spaghetti straight on the table. Stacking the larger cup INSIDE the smaller cup. This boy lives on the edge.

"What's that? You wanna look up my nose?"

Driving the Krispy Kreme truck. Did you know Krispy Kreme started in Winston Salem? You're welcome, America. For those of you who don't know Krispy Kreme, you better hope you never taste a KK doughnut. You'll hate yourself for wasting all those years with your measly Dunkin' Donuts.

When we went into the Food Lion part of the museum, this little girl said, with a sassy attitude, "Um... Excuse me. I need someone to check me out please." So Jen and Shawn politely obliged. It was laugh out loud funny, but maybe you just had to be there.

Anyway, we stayed for about an hour and a half, and even though Jonah wasn't so into it, I was still so glad we went. The more we get Jonah out and experiencing new things, the more he'll get comfortable being other places besides our house. And I LOVE getting to spend time with Shawn, Jen, and Jude. I think the six of us (almost SEVEN!) are going to check out the Greensboro Children's Museum next month. They have $5.00 Friday nights and are even better. Hooray for fun outings and new experiences!

crazy jonah

So we had a great weekend, and I have many a cute photo to share, but I have to interrupt my (not so regularly scheduled) post to share this video.

You know how your kids just seem to stay the same and not learn anything new for several weeks, and then they learn like five new tricks in two days? We've had that kind of weekend. In the last three days, Jonah has waved bye-bye (although it was only one time... but was most certainly a bye-bye wave... I have witnesses), learned to give kisses, learned to high five, and lastly...

... has developed a strong preference for the color purple... as you can clearly see.

(And no, we don't usually sit around torturing our child for kicks and giggles and good video material... but sometimes we do.)

Kids are SO crazy. I just can't believe how he's changing and growing and learning so many new things. I mean, I know he's delayed (obviously), but I'm just so proud of the huge strides he's made in this last week or so.

On that same note, he ate his ENTIRE breakfast, lunch, and dinner BY MOUTH, and we only had to use the g-tube for his water and meds. (You can pick your mouth up off the floor now.) I know it probably won't last but HOLYCOW HOTDANG WOOHOO my child ate over 1,000 calories of SOLIDS today.

He's also pulling up to his knees and playing that way regularly these days. And today he was crawling around (mostly chasing after the purple ball) more than ever. He was so active compared to even a week ago. It's like he's just had this burst of energy and learning. Maybe that's what eating will do for you!

And on a two-steps-forward-one-step-back-that's-Jonah-for-you kind of note, although he now opens his mouth for food, he's started lifting his tongue up and getting confused about how the mechanics of eating go. Before, he knew how to open and swallow, but the psychological aversion was our problem. Now it seems that we've made some strides in that department (I'm not so naive to think this will for sure last), he's forgotten the physical skill of opening his mouth and taking the spoon. So, needless to say, that's frustrating and food goes everywhere, and feedings still take about ten times longer than they should, but we'll take what we can get! It's still a huge victory overall.

I'll blog about our weekend later on in the week. Jonah had a play date on Friday with some cutie twin girls (La-dies Man, I tell ya) AND got to go to the Children's Museum on Friday night. Fun times. Hope yours was as great as ours. Cute photos to come (tomorrow hopefully?).

it was just the battery!