messy eaters

Kate has been packing on the pounds and she's got a new favorite food to add to her short list . . . carrots! As with Drew, Jana has been hard at work making baby food and her first efforts with Kate have involved carrots and squash. For some reason Kate loves the carrots, but previously has not been a big fan of rice cereal. For now we use the carrots, thicken them with a little rice cereal, and sneak the rice cereal to Kate under the disguise of the carrots. Kate loves to "help" with the feeding by using her hands, and it is MESSY!! After some feedings it will everywhere on her; the carrots end up in her meager hair, on her back, in her neck folds, in her ears, up her nose. It's incredible!I'm not sure about Kate's expression in this photo. She looks like I surprised her or something. Anyhow, she was so cute on her changer on the floor in her hat that we had to take a picture. You can't see the back of this watermelon outfit, but the back is covered in ruffles. I'm still getting used to outfits like this. Drew's clothes didn't have ruffles!

The other night we had spaghetti, which Drew absolutely loves. We're working on getting Drew to consistently eat with a fork, but he eats so much and he's already SO SLOW that sometimes we give in and let him eat with his hands. Just like Kate eating carrots, Drew makes quite a mess! Here is Drew showing off his "goatee" from the spaghetti sauce. I pointed out to him that he had a goatee just like his dad, and he found that pretty amusing.

As my knee continues to get better, I'm more active and Drew asks every night if we can go down the basement to play basketball. Just recently he's discovered that the soccer ball has a nice weight to it and it goes nicely into his basketball hoop. Because it's lighter than his usual basketball, it's a little easier for Drew to control and he actually makes a pretty high percentage of his shots.

Often on hearing all the giggling and yelling from the basement, the women (a.k.a. Jana and Kate) come down to see what's going on in the basement. Kate loves to watch Drew play.

For the most part Drew ignores Kate. Actually, most of the time we're doing anything (at daycare, at home, in the car) Drew ignores her, but every once in a while he still goes over and gives her a hug or a kiss. I think he's still patiently waiting for Kate to get big enough to play with him. It will still be a while Drew!

The other night Jana was talking to Grandma Lynn when Drew grabbed the cell phone and started to talk with her. Drew had never done this before! He usually tolerates one of us holding the phone up to his ear and he'll talk a little, but he had never held the phone himself.This past week Jana went out for the evening and I was home on my own with Kate and Drew. It had been a long day for all of us, and when Jana got home this is what she found on our couch. Kate was in her diaper and bib sound asleep on my chest. My eyes must have gotten a little heavy as well!