Nine months!

My handsome little 17-pound pumpkin turned nine months old recently, and I can't believe he's been out as long as he's been in. He amazes me every single day, and I still find myself completely overwhelmed with the blessing of being his mom.

He's eating more solid food, including (drum roll, please!) meats. He has had turkey and sweet potatoes, chicken and noodles, chicken and apples and a few other flavors. Yep, he is officially a carnivore. Daddy couldn't be more proud.

He shocked us earlier this month by scaling our 12-step staircase in rapid form. Of course, Mommy was spotting him all the way. When he made it to the landing, I grinned and called him a little turkey. Then I clapped. Then he clapped. Showoff.

In addition to clapping, his repertoire also includes waving and peek-a-boo. His pediatrician is impressed and said those are 11-month milestones. What a little genius.

He's babbling more, yelling, growling, clucking his tongue, making elephant noises ("Elephant kisses!") and making fishy faces. His babbles are more complex, with multiple syllables and sounds. It'll be so fun when he can tell us what's on that sweet and crazy mind of his.

A few additional photos from the past month:

Westley admiring Daddy's acrylic landscape painting, displayed above our bed. West likes to feel the paint's texture.

Westley is a little chipmunk and likes to taste nearly everything, furniture included. He's given my mom (Gigi) a bruise. I explained to her that it was a love bite.

West is a little adrenaline junkie and enjoys being tossed around a bit, like Daddy is doing in this photo. He'll let you know he's loving it with fits of giggles. He has so much fun, it's difficult not to oblige.

Puffs!

Westley's daily menu now includes a couple of snacks, usually consisting of easy-to-eat baby puffs. (They're actually pretty tasty. I sampled the carrot and sweet potato variety I bought for him. My favorite, though, is apple cinnamon. They remind me of rice cakes.)

We love how it sounds when he chews them, making a sweet little crunching noise.

In addition to filling up his tummy, they're also helping with eye-hand coordination and (hopefully!) will help him develop his "pincher" grasp, which is when you use your index finger and thumb to pick things up.


For now, more of them land on the floor than in West's mouth ...



... but the dogs don't mind that at all.


Can you tell they're just plain fun?

Painting the sky

Maybe it's just because I'm missing Grandma, a talented painter, so much. When I saw this sunset shortly after her passing, I felt as if she was relishing the chance to try her hand on a larger canvas.

Well done, Grandma.

Boxcar racer!

The most recent example of how no toy can ever top a cardboard box:

Honoring Grandma

On Feb. 14, Brian's grandmother Eleanor Cracraft passed away. (Click to read her obituary, which I helped write. It expresses much of what I think of her.) Minutes after I had heard the news, I decided that after about 17 years as a widow, her sweetheart didn't want to spend another Valentine's Day without the love of his life.

I had known her for about 17 years and called her "Grandma." She outlived my biological grandparents by about 13 years. She taught me so much about faith, love, humor, forgiveness and generosity. I was so blessed to have the relationship with her that I did, especially in recent years. We had many conversations about parenthood and motherhood, and I loved watching her interact with Westley, her first great-grandson. In recent months, Brian and I made surprise visits to her apartment with Westley. It always tickled her so much.

Grandma and Westley at Christmas 2010

The last time we saw her was Feb. 12. Brian, Westley and I attended a baby sign language class at Wesley, the hospital where he was born. Grandma had been admitted there as a patient a couple of days before. After our class, we went upstairs to visit her for about an hour. We showed her new signs that we had learned and sang "This Old Man" with signs. I showed her pictures of Westley with his first valentine and told her about the delicious dinner Brian and I had shared the night before. Our visit was lighthearted and casual. She was expected to be released from the hospital a few days later, so it hadn't occurred to us that it would be the last time we would see her.

Westley gave her a valentine he had "signed" for her. In it, I wrote:

I love you this big:
<------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
and then some more!

The message made her laugh. We displayed the card so she could see it during her stay.

We also admired the beautiful view she had from the hospital window:


She could see all of Wichita, the city she called home for most of her life. It's where she grew up, raised her children, saw them raise their children and then delighted in that generation's children. In hindsight, it seems fitting that she spent her last days with this view. I hope it brought her peace and that she knew how much good she had done in this community. Wichita is a better place because it was her home. And I am a better person because of her influence and love in my life.

Click to view more photos I took of her in recent years.

So sweet

Yum. Can't you almost taste the sugary goodness?

With a romantic dinner date night planned, Brian and I snagged some Valentine's cupcakes for his parents as a thank-you for watching Westley. But we were the ones in for the real treat.

We headed south to nearby Mulvane to dine at the much-acclaimed Italian restaurant Luciano's. I've wanted to go for ages, and I wasn't disappointed. The place has attracted my friends and stars alike (including food queen Paula Deen).


The quaint restaurant is unassuming and simple but packs a delicious punch. Here's what I ate for my five-course meal:

Course 1, antipasti (appetizers): Calamari al Vino Bianco (sliced calamari sauteed with garlic and white wine)

Course 2, insalate (salads): Insalata Mediterranea (three different lettuces mixed with black olive, spring onion, Parmesan cheese, cherry tomato, cucumber and pine nuts served in a Parmesan cheese bowl)

Course 3, pasta: Fettuccine con Gamberetti (shrimp sauteed with fresh tomato, herbs and spices)

Course 4, secondi (entrees): Pesce di Luciano (tilapia braised in white wine with fresh vegetables, herbs and spices)

Course 5, dessert: Tiramisu

If you go, and you should, heed a few pieces of advice:

• Make a reservation. Good luck getting in if you don't. We made ours for 8 p.m. It was the perfect time. We arrived when the restaurant was packed, a fun experience. But by the time our meal really was under way, we shared our waiter with only one other table, allowing for exceptional service. Two hours later, we were among the last to leave.
  

• Spring for the five-course experience, and indulge in a bottle of chianti. (We chose Castello di Bossi, which I rated four out of five stars and would recommend.)

• Do yourself a favor: Share the appetizer, and order a half order of pasta. Both courses are so delicious that you'll want to eat everything they put in front of you. But then you'll never have room for the decadent dessert.

• Order a dessert. If you're a fool and do not, please do not tell me. I'll consider you utterly stupid and will disown you as a friend. Be sure to order your own dessert. Trade bites but do not share. I repeat, do not share. Yes, you'll be consuming a sinful amount of calories. C'mon, though. Live a little, will ya?!
  

• Plan all of your courses before you get started. Brian had wished that he'd only ordered one course with rich, filling cream sauce. The good news? Now we'll know for next time. And there will be a next time.
  

Profile of an angel

My funny Valentine

In advance of Valentine's Day, Westley received his first Valentine ... and it was from a little girl! And not even a relative!


That meant he got to try a sucker for the first time, an opportunity this mommy-who-isn't-so-keen-on-processed-sugar doesn't take likely.




OK, bud, now we're just getting carried away ...


Lovestruck and sugar-high. What's a young romantic to do?

Snow: My little snowbaby

Before:

Westley, warm and comfy in his car seat after daycare. (This snuggly car seat cover been a smart investment this winter.)


I love the above photo, which Brian snapped while Westley and I watched him photograph the snow. Then we switched off so I could take the pictures I shared in my post previous posts. While I was outside, Brian surprised me by bundling Westley up for a brief trip outside.

He seemed to enjoy the snow more than the first time he experienced it:

Snow: The pups

A death in the family has left me emotionally raw and uninspired to blog for the past 10 days or so, but I think I'm feeling up to it this weekend. I'm going to ease back in and pick up from where I left off chronologically a couple of weeks ago. Remembering a brief romp in the beautiful snow seems a pretty great place to revisit.

Before

During

After

Snow: The yard

February saw its second snowstorm in chilly ICT, canceling school, setting a new record low and blanketing our humble abode in a fluffy beautiful white blanket. A few scenes from our backyard:

Mommy's dream date, indeed

Baby games

Another to-do on the child-proofing checklist: Find a new home for our boardgames. For years, we've stacked them on the first shelf of the living room armoire. I'm thinking that might be a better place now for baskets of books and baby toys. Case in point:


Do you think Westley's trying to tell us he's mad? Or that he wants to hurry up and learn how to gab?

Brrrrr!

The -6 degree low temps nearly set a record last week. Schools canceled classes, banks and medical clinics shut down. I wore hiking socks and boots to work all week and snapped this photo from the newsroom downtown:

OldTown? Try ColdTown!

Brian and I stayed home in the evenings as much as possible. And I enjoyed a couple of mugs of my new favorite hot chocolate, Archer Farms Dark Chocolate.


I had to snap the above photo of our thermometer to contrast this picture from last summer:


The next morning, the thermometer read -2 degrees. But I was too cold to pad across the tile floor to snap a new picture.

This snowstorm has not been as much fun as January's. My car got stuck in snowdrifts, my windshield cracked (and needs to be replaced) after being exposed to the extreme cold temps. And Westley wasn't feeling well enough for us to bundle him up and go out and play. And now all the snow is melting and causing the yard to become a giant mud pie. Is it too early to wish for spring?

Heads up

Thanks to a tutorial on Clover Lane, a very cool blog I follow, I've been having fun creating unique Life is Golden blog banners this year. You'll notice my new romantic February header at the top of my blog, complete with 2001 wedding photo. (That's right: Brian and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary this year!)

In case you missed it, here's the January header that the new one replaced:

Peekaboo!

Not a fan

But I am a fan of this fan, which helped dry out our damp basement.

The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a challenge for our household.

Our dear, sweet water heater tank decided to stop cooperating with us and cried crocodile tears all over our basement. An emergency water restoration crew visit and a home insurance claim later, we're still trying to put the pieces back together. That will continue this afternoon when we venture out to Lowe's to pick out some new flooring for our bathroom. I think it's going to be several weeks before things are back to normal. Sigh.

Then our sweet little Pumpkin got an ear infection, which yielded scary-high temperatures, which led to another visit to the doctor, which led to a chest x-ray, blood tests, a pneumonia diagnosis and lots of medicine. It was stressful and worrisome and heartbreaking and exhausting. But after lots of love and attention from some smart medical professionals and Mommy and Daddy, Westley is on the mend.


Then, two days after my car got stuck in a snowdrift (twice!) after a mess of a blizzard, it decided not to start. A tow and a new battery and oil change later, it's awaiting its homecoming this afternoon.

There are two things I am very, very grateful for right now: insurance (home, medical and auto!) and a savings account. We are blessed to be in a position in life to have these buffers. It's been a headache with them. I can't imagine being without.