Big boy!

Sitting in his new booster seat, drinking from a sippy cup. He wants to crawl so badly! It is extremely frustrating to watch. He gets both hands and one leg all ready to go, but that's as much as he can do.
"I'm gonna do it...just watch me..."

9-month check-up

Sam Roman had his well-baby visit this morning. Here's the rundown:

19 lbs, 10 oz (!)
29 inches
Normal-sized head

No shots today, but a finger stick for lead and iron tests. He didn't even flinch when they pricked him. No tears or screams at all. We were amazed.

To compare, Sam is almost the exact same size as Anne was at 10.5 months. He's a beast!

We have movement!

Here's Sam Roman a few weeks ago, spinning on his belly. He has been making steady progress toward moving--very exciting since Anne never did it. Enjoy.

It's so freakin' hot!

We don't have air conditioning, so we broke out the kiddie pool yesterday. Anne loved it. Sambo, not so much.
He was plenty happy to sit NEXT TO the water and observe.

That's his chuckle face. I love it.

9 months old and a trip to the zoo

Sam Roman turned 9 months old yesterday. Here's a rundown of his skills:
-sits wonderfully
-turns himself in a full circle
-wants to crawl, but can't quite get his legs in the right spot
-says "Dadadadadadada" quite a bit
-eats anything that remotely resembles food
-has no teeth, but a lot of droolLast Saturday we went to the Como Zoo. We saw lots of animals and Anne had a good time. She was exhausted when we were done, but she had seen a playground when we arrived and all she wanted to do was play there. She found some energy somewhere and climbed around for a bit before we headed home. Here are the kids with each parent. Sam looks happy--I look tired.

Anne enjoyed some chocolate pudding yesterday, and I had to get a picture of her pudding beard. She was pretty wound-up from the sugar.

(insert drooling noise here)

Can I just say that Culver's Caramel Cashew sundae is the most delicious ice cream treat in the world? Because it is. I am officially revoking the title from the previous holder, Snickers Blizzard, and crowning the sundae "King of Summer Treats"

I don't know what took me so long to try it--I love custard, I love cashews, and I love caramel. But somehow, when the trifecta unites in one dish, ice cream bliss is achieved. Creamy, chewy, salty, crunchy heaven. With a cherry on top, to boot. Seriously, go get one right now. Scoopie is waiting to serve you:

If you dare to disagree with me, leave a comment. But if you think a McFlurry deserves any mention in an ice cream discussion, just leave now.

Verbal Gems from Tonight

Anne's been full of wisdom this evening. Here are a few of her thoughts:

Sam's red truck bit the dust today. Anne proposed this solution: We need some red glue! That will make it feel better.

When Sam got home she shouted "Daddy, your truck is broken!"

"Goodbye, sweetheart!" as she was leaving the room

"You're a good mama, Mama."

Anne names her babies weird things. Tonight the baby is called "Jay-dum" She had to give Jay-dum a time-out. She set it on the floor and stared it down, saying "You need to say sorry!"

While looking in the pantry "We have pizza soup and spaghetti soup!"

She set her baby on a chair, put a blankie around its neck, and said "My baby's getting a haircut!" When I told her she had to pretend to use the mousse she said "I don't wanna puh-tend! That baby needs her hair to be pretty!"

THIS is what a political ad should look like

Almost makes you want to move to Alabama...


I don't know what's up with the wonky formatting...did YouTube go widescreen without telling Blogger? You're all owned by Google--work together!

Dinner Improvisation

Sam had a 6:30 softball game last night, which meant a 5:45 departure from the house (gotta get in some BP, you know), which meant dinner needed to be on the table by 5:15. Couple that with arriving home at 4:15 with 2 kids in tow, I was feeling a little overwhelmed! However, a bit of planning, blog-reading, and Googling saved us from dinner disaster.

The menu for yesterday was BLTs, but that wasn't gonna happen for several reasons, so I needed a new plan. As I thought, I realized we had all of the makings of a pizza at home, except for the crust. A quick Google led me to this recipe for yeast-free pizza dough. I have nothing against yeast; it just isn't one of those things I keep around the house. I used half regular flour and half whole-wheat, and it turned out really well.

I also whipped up a quick pasta salad inspired by this recipe at $5 Dinners. I didn't have all the right ingredients, but we made it work. I used elbow macaroni, some quartered grape tomatoes, the remnants of a bag of frozen peas, bacon, and some diced chicken. Coat with ranch dressing and you have deliciousness! Of course Annie said "I don't want some of that" but she doesn't eat anything, so her opinion doesn't count. I brought the leftovers for lunch today.

There are no pictures of my awesomeness. Try to imagine it in your head.

And we did make it to softball on time. You should see the mountain of stuff we have to bring with us: bat bag, water bottle, bag of special toys, hidden snacks, jackets for everyone, blankies for everyone, and either the giant double stroller or combo of single stroller and Baby Bjorn. All for 90 minutes of social time (which I missed a lot of last night while walking Anne to the port-a-potty. That's a horror, let me tell you!) Soon enough school will be out and I can take an entire day to prepare for dinner and a softball game :)

We're not as smart as we think we are!

I went to college and majored in education. Erin and Todd have theology degrees, and Will is finishing his music major. According to this article, we have all picked one of the worst-paying degrees! Way to go, siblings--I'm glad I wasn't alone on the list :) And I'm glad I won't be alone in my middle-class life.

Happy Birthday/Mothers' Day

May 9 was a big day for us this year. Sam turned 26 today AND it was Mothers' Day. We had a full schedule of church, brunch, naps, and dinner with family. We saw Nana, Auntie Sarah, Oma, and Opa today. We both got a nice present of cute pictures of our kids yesterday. Enjoy!
He is just so freakin' happy. He must've known there was cake in his future.

Playtime

If you are a girl, or are the mom of a girl, you know that girls don't really play. Girls arrange. Girls "set up". My sister and I used to spend hours setting up a grocery store or a house or a campsite, only to leave it all sitting there. It wasn't to play with--it was to admire! Anne has a wonderful kitchen and a whole bin of play food from her Nana. She loves to play with it all and is very familiar with all of the pieces (Mama, where is my whisk?) But, as a girl, she plays with it by arranging things all over. Food in the sink, food in the fridge, food in the oven, etc. Here you can see her with an orderly sheet of velcro cookies and her perfectly sliced pizza.

We like to play "picnic", but it just involves Anne moving things on and off of a tray and telling me "No, that's for me!" when I pretend to eat something. Then she obsesses about finding matching cups and spoons. Never question whether this child is genetically mine.

Here's the Sambo, who managed to bend over and twist one leg behind him. Now it looks like he is practicing his sliding for baseball.

He claps, too, and is learning to give high-fives. Another super-genius at the Westphall house :)

Thanks, Oma, for the outfit, which you correctly predicted would "make his eyes look so blue." What a handsome little man.

I was on to something...

Remember my Jamie Oliver post? Turns out, I am not alone in my thinking. Today's "Taste" section of the Star Tribune has a feature article on the need for parents to feed their kids properly. Click here to read it (don't go pay for a newspaper--read your free copy at the office if you have one!) Here's the intro (sound familiar?):

Parents, we need to talk.

School lunch is the topic on many parents' minds, what with news stories, blogs and chefs outing school-lunch ladies as misguided fools. (Never mind that the lunch ladies aren't the ones making the food choices.)

Attention Erin and Todd