Pictures

This is our house! One of the little things that I absolutely love about this house is that you have no idea that it's actually quite spacious inside! From the front you can't tell that there is a walk-up attic that runs the width of the house (it's only got about a 5'9" head clearance, but that's just enough for me, and definitely enough for kids to play around in) and you also can't see the mostly-finished walk-out basement with a 14'x30' family room, or the fabulous 1/3 of an acre backyard. It's like a treasure buried right in front of your eyes. Anyway, sorry to get mushy; I love our house! For the record, this is a picture taken by the county, last year. Currently there is a giant dumpster in the driveway, no more side-front-door to the right of the garage and no bushes inbetween the two front doors. The useless side-door steps are still there, but hopefully only until Saturday.
Taking a break from the house, here's a picture from this evening of Iain (with his classic camera-face) and two of his friends, banging away on a piano while we had an end-of-the-year chaplain dinner.

Back to the house... This is a current picture of "the arch" taken from the living room, looking into the kitchen. The right wall of the arch used to be another door into the back hall (where Mark is standing, just out of view) and the entire arch space was all wall. What a difference!

A view of our drywalled kitchen, taken from the living room, through the arch

The main floor bathroom

The lower level family room with its newly drywalled ceiling. Mark and Iain are standing in the south-east corner, to give perspective. Iain is waving at me.

The north end of the family room, with the door to the backyard. Again, Iain is waving at me. He's so great! :) By the way, we're planning on painting the room a nice light sage green to brighten up the space a bit and complement the trim work (some of which has been temporarily removed for drywalling purposes).

'nother house update

The drywall is up and taped with the first coat of mud on it! We went over last night to set up our new dehumidifier and four 20" box fans in order to help with the drying process. It was none too soon as it was 92 degrees and very very humid, last night!

Sorry, I didn't get any pictures since it was really late by the time we got over to the house and I was holding a very tired little guy. Here's a quick rundown of everything that was done:

-Living room: ceiling crack repair and skim-coat for a smooth finish (was poorly-done "orange-peel/knockdown" texture), drywall over a previous doorway, finish the "arch" (not really an arch, but but that's what we've been calling it, b/c it's a giant space that used to be a wall that leads from the living room to the dining room. It has curved corners to match our coved ceiling in the living room, so we call it "the arch")
-Master bedroom ceiling: skim-coat for a smooth finish (was fan-textured and looked AWFUL!)
-Main bathroom: drywall walls, tub-surround ceiling
-Kitchen: drywall walls, ceiling, skim-coat part of existing ceiling to cover sand-texture
-Lower-level office: drywall patch to repair what was removed for plumbing work
-Lower-level bathroom: ditto office
-Lower-level family room: drywall ceiling (had been badly-done drop ceiling)

It was so exciting to see our house actually starting to look like the house we're going to move into! The next big question is, do we want our living room to be "whole wheat" or "tranquil sahara"? Gotta love paint color names.

A few pictures

Mark and I have had an extremely full few days at the house. After having a youth group service day at our house on Saturday, during which an incredible amount of work was accomplished, our contractor showed up yesterday morning when we were planning on simply finishing up our insulating before the inspector showed up, and gave us another mountain of odds and ends to get through before today arrived. Needless to say, having our entire day hijacked took a few minutes to get used to, but everything was necessary and in the end it was so satisfying to leave our house neat as a dusty pin in anticipation of the drywall going in, today.

As Mark commented, yesterday, aside from a few small projects, our demo efforts are pretty much done. Hurray! With the insulation in and the drywall being hung as we speak (hurray for contracted projects!) there is forward progress being made at long last!

Not only that, but our recessed lights are in place in the kitchen and lower family room, the cabinets are on a shipping truck from Alabama to good old Minnesota, we've tentatively picked out our paint colors, we thought we had chosen a mattress until we discovered horrible reviews all over the internet - so if you love your mattress, we'd really appreciate a note about what kind it is - the insulation passed inspection (that was my pet project, so yay for me!), our garage is cleared of debri and the HUGE dumpster in our driveway is nearly full, the lawn is closer to being stick-free, we were told that the "weed" in our backyard is a weed, but not the weed but can quickly take over and should be removed sooner rather than later, and Mark spent hours successfully removing our very stubborn bathroom floor and managed to not even fall through, a point I'm grateful for as 1) I love my husband and would like to have him around for the next 100 or so years 2) For a bit of that time I was in the bathroom right below, removing screws and such in preparation for today, and don't think my pregnant self would've appreciated being a cushion for a 200+ lb man.

Enough babbling, here are a few pictures, though they are already out of date, since they were taken on Saturday and since then the insulation was finished, the tub surround was durarocked, and today the drywall is being hung everywhere. I'm hoping to talk Mark into an evening trip to the house to see our house in it's freshly drywalled state.

Bathtub:

The rest of the bathroom, before the floor came up:

Oh, sorry to bore you, I guess I included another bathroom shot:

A super great baby, sitting in our living room, looking through the cut-out wall into the dinnette and kitchen:

Iain and Mark a few weeks ago; I love how Mark is crawling and Iain's just standing there laughing at him.

Iain :)

Iain likes to sleep in the strangest positions. Recently, they've often involved his legs propped up against the crib rails:

Mother's Day and Yardwork

Mark bought me a lawnmower for Mother's Day. Ok, not really. Well, that wasn't his intention anyway. Last week we bought a used self-propelled, mulching lawnmower for $40 from a lovely older woman who was no longer strong enough to pull-start it (chaulk up another one for Mark and craigslist.) Yes, it has its quirks and using it yesterday for the first time presented a bit of a learning curve, but 5 hours, and 2 and a 1/2 passes through the backyard later (the grass was obscenely long and had to be cut in stages to prevent the blades from clogging) the yard looked amazing!

As an aside, I think the back fifth or so of our backyard is growing quite the collection of a particular herb that is used, well, er, medicinally, in many states though only legally in a select few - we can't say for sure, as we're too innocent/ignorant to really know what we're looking at. At any rate, it's not garden-variety lawn grass and therefore I'm adding weed-killer, no pun intended, to my shopping list.

Mark was completing the never-ending kitchen gutting while I did yardwork. Iain was with me, outside, sitting in his stroller. I'm convinced that child is part angel. I couldn't really attend to him, since I was busy with the lawn, so he just sat, napped, and ate some dinner in his stroller...for 5 hours, straight!!! When I was done, I rewarded him by breaking every rule in the book and letting him crawl around the freshly-cut lawn. Yes, his pants are grass-stained to high heaven, but it was worth it. Mark was also thrilled with our beautiful lawn and did a victory-lap around our backyard. I thought it was particularly funny because of the visible cloud of demo-dust in his wake.

This week is the beginning of major work on the house. You might call it a month-and-a-half-long grand finale. Last week we had quite a bit of plumbing odds and ends taken care of. This week is electrical work and lots and lots of ordering of exciting stuff: lighting fixtures, cabinets, appliances, paint, etc. After that it's insulating, drywalling, tiling, installing/refinishing hardwood floors, new windows, painting, installing kitchen cabinets, countertops and appliances, more painting, and some more painting. Mark would like me to add that most of this, and in particular the really nice stuff, is thanks to the generosity of family and the government. We would never even have dreamt of most of this a few months ago!

Have I mentioned how grateful I am that we don't have to live in the midst of all this demo/reno work?! At the end of a long day of work at the house, we can come back to our apartment and take a hot shower in a fully-functional bathroom and eat dinner in our fully-functional kitchen. We are very, very blessed.

P.S. My wonderful husband surprised me by taking me out to brunch for Mother's Day. Iain wasn't quite the angel while we ate. He still loves dropping things, reaching for any/everything he can't have, and trying to taste the most inedible things...though he did actually draw with the crayons for a second or two, when his pacifier was in his mouth.

Quick Takes, Ponderings

Due to a caffeine-induced rush of mental mania, I'm itching to write down some thoughts that keep buzzing through my head. Bear with me (or close this window now and spare yourself). :)

1. A lot of my "attitude of gratitude" is relative to my awareness of what could be, ie, the struggles of other people's lives. I believe I have been blessed with a deep awareness of gratitude for the large and small blessings in my life, but I need to improve my awareness of the silent "because" statements which follow my grateful praises. Examples:
- I am thankful that Iain is not a picky eater. Because if he were there would be no feeding him anything, thank you allergies.
- I am thankful that I am married to a wonderful man. Because our world is full of not-wonderful men and many of them are husbands.
- I am thankful that I have a doctor who is on top of my pregnancy and knows how to care for me and my baby. Because a lot of women have doctors who don't care or aren't as knowledgable.
This leads me to this conclusion: my prayers of thankfulness and prayers for the less-fortunate should probably go hand-in-hand more than not. I hope I do a better job in the future of not only being grateful but simultaneously interceding for those in less fortunate circumstances.

2. This is not an original thought, and I wish I could credit the person from which I first heard it, but I'm afraid that's lost information.

As I prepare to welcome baby #2 into my arms, as she is of course already present in my life, I recall how I felt shortly after Iain was born. He was a stranger. A needy, hungry, naked, ungrateful stranger. That sounds harsher than I mean it to, but at the same time, when you are sleep-deprived, the world doesn't look very rosy. Of course I loved him, but it was more of the "I choose to" kind of love than the "smitten" kind of love (a good life lesson on love, I suppose).

Having said that, a particular Bible passage comes to mind about welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked...etc. I'm sure you know the one. How much more clearly can this be lived than when we open our arms to accept a stranger into our very family, who will demand more of us than we ever thought possible to give...and then we do it all over again, (multiplied by ?).

I should add, on a positive note, that Iain paved the way of motherhood for me and I do believe I have grown quite a bit in the last year or so. When this little girl is born, helpless and demanding stranger though she will be, I am confident that my choice to love will come that much more easily because Iain has shown me where that road leads, and it is blessed!

3. There is a billboard not far from our new home that I absolutely love. Pictured on it is a large cardboard box and in it are 5 or so babies who look to be about Iain's age. The billboard reads "God's Stimulus Package." It makes me smile every time I see it.

I must've shared this before, but if not, I feel like I have to share this with everyone I know because our world is fighting so hard against it what with the bad economy, carbon footprints, and well, let's just be honest, selfishness: I become ever more convinced that people are our only eternally worthwhile investment. Let's break this down a bit:
- Can you take that new car, boat, house, to Heaven?
- What about that once-in-a-lifetime vacation?
- Well in your old age at least you'll have your prestigous position at that Firm that you worked for your whole life to keep you company and join you for Holidays, right?
- Or your generous retirement package, I mean, that will be honored in Heaven, right?
Ok, I think you get the idea: none of those things can go with us to Heaven. What can? Souls. So, let's invest in people: children, family, friendships. Let's all store up our treasure in Heaven by investing in the only thing that will last for all eternity: People! Besides, it's relationships and selflessness that brings true happiness, so what's to lose?

Quick Takes Updates...

1. Iain has hit "the terrible ones" to quote a friend of mine. He's still not walking, but he's perfecting his furniture-walking and has also amazed us with his go-go-gadget arm reach! He keeps me on my toes, my home neater-than-normal, and my worri-o-meter at a higher level than it's been since his really early days.

2. The house is progressing, though since the initail whirlwind of demolition, it's been more on paper than anything else. We're in the process of collecting multiple bids on each and every project that we're not doing ourselves. We haven't been procrastinating, but it's too boring of a story to explain why this had to wait until now.

3. I never cease to be amazed at God's provision for us, and this house is a continually blossoming example of that. What I mean is, when we bought this house, we looked at our budget and what we wanted to do/change to the house. Since then, our resources for this renovation project have literally doubled and God's provision and plan for our house has become ever clearer each day. Things we would never have dreamed of have fallen in our laps. This house is a testament to me that we can't dream big enough to match God's plan for us.

4. Please keep baby #2 and me in your prayers. So far I feel great and if you didn't see my bloodwork, everything looks like it's progressing perfectly. Having said that, because Iain arrived a month early, my OB started checking my pregnancy hormone (progesterone) again at my last appointment. The results were not entirely surprising considering my history, but the level was about half of what they would like to see. As a result, I'm back on progesterone shots 2x/week. Additionally, she will be doing a particular test at each appointment that apparently can predict with 90% accuracy whether or not I'll deliver in the next 2 weeks. Based on that test, she'll decide what, if any, activity restrictions I should be on. I feel confident that my doctor is doing an excellent job caring for me and giving me the best chance of carrying this baby to term.

Demolition Pictures (finally!)

I've finally found a moment to upload some before and during pictures of our demolition/remodel projects on our new home. Besides my classic procrastination, we've been a bit more busy than usual with a case of influenza (Iain, who besides sleeping more, coughing a bit and being generally more clingy and grouchy than usual, is well on his way to recovery.) Additionally, and much more happily!, Mark's parents are visiting from across the pond and between visiting friends, of whom they have quite a few in the cities, they are helping us with the house, be it sanding, demolishing a wall, taking Iain for a walk, etc. It's been so wonderful to spend time with them and of course their help is a blessing as well!

Ok, that intro aside, here are the long-awaited before/during pictures.

West view of Kitchen, and door into "mud room" hall, before:
East view of kitchen and the east wall between the eat-in kitchen and the living room, before:

"Mud room" hall and exterior door, kitchen to the left, before:

Main floor bath, before:

Demo Day 1, Bathroom: I removed most of the nasty plastic wall tilesDemo Day 2: Kitchen (Day 1 was removing the cabinets and I thought I had included a picture of that, here, but apparently not). Day 2 was removing the ceiling soffits.

An aside: this house could probably withstand a bomb being dropped on it. The walls and ceiling are classic plaster construction taken to the next level: on top of the studs is a layer of drywall, then a layer of plaster holding on a sturdy metal chicken-wire type frame, on top of that is a thick layer of plaster.

Apparently, drywall was first invented as a substitute for the wooden strips that plaster was applied to. It took a few years for some genius to realize that they could skip the plaster step and simply mud and tape the drywall. Needless to say, it's nice to know our home is solidly built; it's also a bit of a pain when it comes to tearing through it and it's causing demolition to go a bit slower than anticipated.

Demo Day 3: No more west wall between the kitchen and "mud room" hall (after that exterior door is walled-up, that space will be part of our kitchen). Yay, Mark!

A view of the same, from the garage-entryway.

Very impressively, for a person who has never so much as held a sledge-hammer, much less used power tools before, Mark has done the lion's share of the demolition on his own (made possible by great guidance from a contractor/carpenter friend of ours). Mark has also had some wonderful help from various friends, as well as his father. Dad actually tore through the plaster on the east wall of the kitchen, yesterday. This will eventually be fully open to the living room.

In the meantime, I've been diligently working on all my little projects. These include removing all the doors (about 10 I think) for sanding and painting, trying (!!!) to replace the locks (it's a long story and perhaps I'll go into some other time) begining some of the sanding on the miles of trim, and trying to decide how to best make the existing beautiful crystal doorknobs work in our new home. (Another long story, but I think we're close to a solution, and that's all I feel like saying at the moment). ...Oh, and taking care of a sick, clingy 14 month old at the same time. Ahhh, life. :)

Demolition Days 1, 2 pictures coming soon

For any of you faithful followers who actually check to see if I've updated this blog, well, here you are. I hope to consistently post updates on the demolition and remodel of our new home. I took before pictures and have so far taken pictures of the end of Days 1 and 2. I left the camera at the house, so you'll have to wait on those pictures until I get them uploaded, hopefully this evening. Honestly, I feel as though I've seen a whole different side of my wonderful husband. Sledgehammer, crowbar or reciprocating saw in-hand, he is a force to be reckoned with! My meager contributions of childcare, removing doors and their hardware and removing plastic tile from the bathroom walls have in no way compared to his accomplishments in the kitchen (with the help of 3 friends over 2 days). In a matter of hours (about 8 total) the kitchen has become an empty room and the soffits have been removed (hurray!).

In other news, please keep us in your prayers as we eagerly await our next ultrasound, a week from tomorrow (3/31) at 10:30 am. We can't wait to see our baby and are hopefull that we'll be able to find out if we're welcoming a boy or a girl! :)

Lent 2009

I just had a brief visit from a good friend who stopped by to drop off the Girl Scout cookies she so kindly picked up for me this past Sunday. It's Ash Wednesday. Need I say more? It's my fault for not getting them from her sooner. On the other hand, had I done that I'm sure they would be gone by now. As it is, they are nestled safely in my freezer where they will remain until Sunday...or Saturday evening. :)

During her visit, we chatted about how we're "no good at Lent". Is anyone? Isn't that the point? Something tells me that no one jumps for joy at the thought of 40 days of concentrating on the death of their selfish will. It's like cancer treatment for the soul. (How's that for a bad analogy, Maureen?) ;)

The Lord kindly prompted me to pull The Dialogue by St Catherine of Siena off the bookshelf about a week or so ago. This was just in time to dive into it and discover (I've never really read it, though I've owned it for years) a wealth of Lent-appropriate guidance on growing in virtue, love of neighbor and knowledge of self, all leading to knowledge and love of God. For anyone unfamiliar with this book, I HIGHLY recommend it; it's quite beautifully written and a great Lenten kick in the pants!

On to the practicals, if you're up for sharing, I'm curious to hear how the Lord has asked you to practice growth in virtue and death of self during this Lenten season. Here at the Archibald home, we're focusing on temperance (sorry, GS cookies), evangelism, and prayer. I am also striving to recognize, correct and quiet the voice of my will, whether it be whispering or screaming in my ear, as I go about my day. It's amazing how refreshing it is to do the opposite of whatever that little voice is telling you. "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery." (Galations 5:1 NAB)

Personalities, I suppose

You know you need more affirmation in your life when...
- You get excited about comments posted on your blog.

Ok, I guess that's all I have to say to get that off my chest. Whew. I never would've pegged myself for a "words of affirmation" kinda gal. Who knew.
(See http://www.fivelovelanguages.com/ for reference)

Mark is gone for the evening, Iain is asleep and the apartment is a wreck, ahhh a sweet blissful evening of nothing to do! Sometimes being a Type B personality really pays off. On the other hand, being married to a Type A also rubs off and I'm less able to ignore the disaster of used kleenexes (we have colds), dirty dishes, baby toys, clothes, books and misc. other that surrounds me. Argggh! Mark, why must you be so, so, so....wonderfully tidy???

This evening I was discussing personality types with 2 friends of mine. All three of us happened to be Type B's. One friend was wondering a) why Type A personalities have to be A, why can't B be A, huh??? I responded that Type A's have to be A because it's in their very nature. They wouldn't approve of not being first. ;) b) she wondered if there are Type C personalities, or if there are just 2, A and B, because A's made some sort decision that the "have it all togethers" were A and everyone else, aka, "the losers" were B. I see where she was going and I think I agree with her. It's all a conspiracy to keep the B man down. (And I, as a B say, "as if we need any help!").

To anyone from whom we have bought furniture off craigslist in the last 2 weeks who has since googled me and stumbled upon my blog, I mean no offense in what I am about to write. Rather, I am extremely grateful for the way you have blessed us with your no-longer-needed furniture. That said, Mark and I quickly made an amusing discovery while using craigslist to acquire whole room-fulls of terrific furniture for the house that we had better darn well close on or else we'll have to rent storage!: Craigslist is a wonderful tool, but you have to know how to play the game. Folks selling on craigslist appear to fall into 2 categories. 1) the wealthy who are doing the "out with the old, in with the new" bit and don't really need the cash, but aren't just going to donate their gently used mint condition furniture, so they sell it for a very reasonable price. 2) the not-so-wealthy who are looking to make a buck off of a cat-scratched, stained, moldy recliner (or similar) that should be burned, but they're asking $200 for it anyway.

If you need some cheap, comic relief in your life, I highly recommend a browse through craigslist.

Well, I'd write more, but I'm afraid I have a whole lot of sweet nothing to do for another hour before Mark gets home. G'night.

Happy Birthday, Iain!

Now that it's Iain's 1st birthday, I'm finally getting the Christmas pictures posted. Maybe if we're lucky I'll have his birthday pictures up by Easter. ;)

Iain opening his first present:
...still...

Iain helping to open another present

Iain enjoying his present. Hey wrapping paper's part of it, right?

Iain wearing one of his Chirstmas presents. Guess which parent chose that outfit for him (I'll give you a hint, it wasn't me!) :)

What are socks for, anyway?

The newest addition to the Keiser family! Monica Elizabeth

Another one of Heidi's babies. You can check out her website at: novantiqua.com (yes, that's a shameless plug.) :)

My two favorite guys, hanging out at home.

This is what happens when you give a baby a bowl of Cheerios, in hopes that the giant size of the bowl will contain them sufficiently. I guess not. There may have been 2 that actually found their way into his stomach. ???

Who knew how fast a year could go? We're not officially celebrating Iain's birthday until Saturday, but I will definitely post those wonderful cake-filled pictures after that.

And our house...

We have our final inspection tomorrow morning. I know, most people only have 1 home inspections, but we're special. :) ...or maybe the city didn't get the water turned on in time for the first one. Anyway, here's to hoping that the winterizing worked and we won't walk into a flooded home. yikes!

If all is good, than we'll continue to move forward and hopefully close around March 6. The plan is to continue to live here at UST until Mark's job ends at the close of the school year. We'll use those couple of months to do work on the house, without having to live in construction. Hurray! :) Our plan for the house includes painting the entire first floor, knocking through a wall, reflooring the kitchen, painting the cabinets, refinishing existing hardwood, replacing windows, furnace and water heater...umm, what have I forgotten, oh yeah, and remodeling the bathroom.

Does that sound ambitious enough? :) Please keep us in your prayers!

Creative juices, where? I want some!

I can't come up with a creative title for this post, so I'm waiting until one hits me while I write this. This is our life, in random bullets:

- We had the most memorable and blessed Christmas with my family in MI. We were all together as a whole family for a couple of days, which was a completely unexpected God-designed surprise!

- Heidi and Kevin (and the rest of us) welcomed their first child, Monica Elizabeth, on January 4th. It was an absolutely amazing birth; I had the great privelege of being present!

- Mark has sent in his application to begin a Master's in Non-Profit Management. We are excited about this endeavor and what it means both for him and SPO.

- Iain has tooth #3 coming in for a landing (upper left) and a cold, both of which have provided me tasts of newborn nights for the last week. Fortunately, the last couple of nights have been better...

- Baby #2 looked perfect in the ultrasound. New due date is August 25. Heartbeat 142. I feel absolutely great albeit more tired than usual. I am on progesterone shots for this pregnancy again, but I just heard from the dr. that my levels look great and I'm already able to reduce the dose by half! Hurray!

- Particularly with baby #2 on the way, Mark and I have been house-hunting. We put in an offer on a house on Monday and we are now anxiously waiting to hear back... more to come...

- I don't know if ever my "blood will thicken" enough to withstand MN winters. They sure are beautiful from indoors: bright sunshine, snow-covered ground ... but the temps! Right now it's -7 (-28 if you factor in the windchill).

- I'm running out of ideas of what to feed Iain, oh to have a creative mind! His milk allergy prevents him from eating a lot of normal things, and I find myself in a rut of the same 3 foods, one of which he has now refused to continue eating. I WELCOME ideas! (he can gum soft chunks of meats/fruits, and does fine with Cheerios, if that gives you an idea of his chewing capacity).

- Iain is trying to learn to crawl. Every day brings him a little closer. He can get up on his hands and knees and even moves his knees a bit, but not his hands. I am both excited and terrified...the babyproofing!

- One of these days, hopefully before Iain's first birthday, I will post pictures of Iain's first Christmas, Baby #2's first pictures, and hopefully pictures of our new house (if/when it becomes ours).

Please keep our family in your prayers, for health/protection (for new baby), for wisdom and guidance (new house), for energy, joy and peace (for pregnant mom), for healing for Iain from his milk allergy, for endurance and wisdom (for Mark and his many responsibilities).

Announcing...

Baby Archibald #2!
Stay tuned for...
-First ultrasound 1/8/09
-Due date 8/23/09

Iain

Iain is nearly 10 months, already! This past month has definitely been the most fun, so far. Iain is becoming more interactive, his babbling is increasing, he's eating more, he's more mobile and likes to explore, he's sleeping better, and he loves his mommy very very much! We have our good days and bad days, good night and bad nights, healthy weeks and weeks with colds, but overall, motherhood is definitely growing on me in ways I wouldn't have thought possible 8 months ago. Iain is such an indescribable joy to have in our family...and a joy for every lady he smiles at when we're out and about, as though they are his whole world (he doesn't smile as freely at men, for some reason).

I have recently ventured into the domestic arena of making my own babyfood. I can't believe how simple, cost-effective and delicious it is. What do I do?
- Crock-pot some meat (I've done both chicken thighs and a beef roast). - Whatever meat you might make for your family is fine, as long as there are no allergenic ingredients, and then use the leftovers for babyfood
- Mince/chop and LOOSELY pack in ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, transfer cubes to a ziplock bag. Packing loosely is key, so that the meat cube crumbles easily when you want to serve it.
- To prepare: crumble 1 or 2 meat cubes into microwave-safe bowl. Add about a tsp. of liquid (I use rice milk or water). microwave for 20-30 sec, just til thawed. Fork-press any large lumps into bits.
- I usually add a 1-2 tbs. applesauce (for flavor), 1/3 cup baby cereal - barley or oatmeal, and an equal portion of rice milk. You can use real milk if your child isn't allergic, of course.
- Microwave mixture for 30 seconds and serve to eager baby. :)
- I've also done the ice-cube tray bit with leftover minced veggies such as asparagus and sweet potato. These can be microwaved to thaw with the meat.

Here is the result:
Iain started making these faces one evening at the dinner table and we couldn't stop laughing. He had no idea he was being funny. :)

Ireland and Brady Halls have a traditional first-snowfall-of-the-season snowball fight. This year's occured around midnight and it definitely sounded like the world was ending! (This picture doesn't do it justice, there were 100s of guys out there at its peak.)

Guess what Dad is trying to get Iain into?

Our first (homemade) family portrait. Iain had a cold and low fever, hence the ruddy cheeks. He fell asleep about 10 seconds after this picture was taken.

My little goof :) This was just after we got home from a family walk in rain/sleet. brrrrrr. Note: Iain is being held up by me, he does not even sit for long on his own, yet.

Not a great pic of me, but I had to include our little JPII. Iain was a big hit among the moms at the All Saints party because of what he's wearing on his head....you nursing mothers might guess...(hey, it was Mark's idea!) :)

I caved

I guess all I needed was my own permission not to post pictures in order to make me realize that I'm a sucker for sharing cute pictures of my kid. Well, here you go, world:

By the way, Iain had his 9 month check-up today. He is 23 lbs and 30.5 inches. He's also got a bit of the "preemie, big boy" syndrome: his size is hindering his delayed-due-to-prematurity gross motor skill advancement (though he could win medals for his ability to roll to get around!) But no worries, he'll catch up soon and everything else is on schedule or ahead. :)

This is at the MOA (Mall of America). Iain didn't really understand that we were trying to measure him. Apparently the store didn't get it either, as you'll notice the ruler doesn't hit the floor despite starting the measurement at zero.
Caught in the act! We really do need to keep an eye on those keys! Ok, really this was during a fire alarm drill, during which we kept out of the cold in our parked car. Incidently, the alarm went off just after Iain went down for his early evening nap and dinner was cooking. I was not a happy camper.

One of my favorite pictures. My baby is getting so big! He's happily gnawing on an apple slice.

I couldn't resist, they were $1, and he's just so cute!

Did I mention the cuteness?

Not so skilled in the sitting department. I was going for that classic Autumn shot; it didn't quite work the way it had played out in my mind.

I love this pictures. My two favorite boys!

Visions of the future? It's good to know they sell shoes this size at The Rack (Nordstrom)

The world is an exhausting place, and sometimes you just need some sleep...and even then Mom just won't let you be!