Rex's Top Ten

Last night after we had put Rex to bed for the night, Rob and I came up with Rex's Top Ten Favorite Things. Here it is:

10. Going on Walks
9. Screeching
8. Pooping
7. His Blocks
6. Jumperoo
5. Bouncy Seat
4. Food
3. Daddy
2. Mommy
1. The TV Remote

I'm sure Rob and I can be switched on the list depending on who he likes better at that particular moment but I'm pretty sure he would go for the tv remote over either one of us. He loves that thing! We now call it "The Precious" because he is like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Once he gets it, it goes directly into his mouth. It looks like there is a puppy in the house because of all the teeth marks on it. No puppy- just one crazy, remote-obsessed nine month old baby.

In other Rex news, still no actual crawling. He does this bizarre thing that is sort of like crawling and it does propel him forward but I'm afraid calling it crawling would not be entirely correct. He can clap his hands now which is a lot of fun. Another thing he recently learned to do is click his tongue against the roof of his mouth. So for the last few mornings we have heard lots of clapping and tongue clicking when he wakes up and is still laying in his crib. It's very funny. We are trying to get him to do high five and give kisses but he's not quite there yet. He loves to do the high five but you still have to help him with that. As for the kisses, he starts to kiss but then ends up trying to bite my cheek instead of kissing it. It's really funny too and we will keep working on it until he gets it. He has his nine month check-up tomorrow morning so we'll see how he is doing size-wise then.

As for Rob and I, we haven't been up to much lately. Rob's been working a lot outside with pruning everything and getting the lawn ready to go for the summer. All my bulbs have been jumping out of the ground lately which is a little scary because it is still a little early for them. There is definitely a chance for snow still for a few more weeks and if that happens, my little tulips, daffodils, hyacinth and giant allium are going to be toast. Oh well- at least I have the pictures from last year so I can see how beautiful they are. I have been going to the gym 4-5 times a week for the last two weeks. It's tough during the week because I have to get up at 5:00 a.m. to go but it feels really good to be getting back in shape the way I used to be. I think I'm starting to get past that initial phase where I have to make myself go and getting to the addiction phase where I have to go. Although things have been a little slow for us lately, it's about to get pretty busy. I think all of us have at least one appointment for something this week and my birthday is coming up next week. We also have some visitors next week from California (Rob's parents) and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them. Rex and I have not seen them since the beginning of October and Rob hasn't seen them since the end of October so it's been a while for all of us. I just wanted to mention that one of my appointments is to donate blood and I think all of you reading this should go do that too if you are able. It's a good thing to do and you have to eat twinkies and/or ho-hos after. It's a requirement so you can't feel bad about it.

Feeding Time at the Zoo

Feeding Rex gets to be more and more of an adventure with every passing day. We tried a biter biscuit a week or two ago.



Although he took a few nibbles at it, I discovered that he would rather bang it on the tray than actually eat it.



The sippy cup doesn't always work for him so we tried to pass some water to him using a straw. He doesn't drink out of the straw- we put the straw in the cup and get water in it then put our finger over the end then let the water dribble into his mouth. It didn't work out so good but I think he may like snorkling with his dad though someday.



Rex has a similar trick with his spoon. Now that he has two teeth on top to match the two on the bottom, he likes to catch things between the teeth and hold on. I think he is part crocodile because it is impossible to get that spoon loose sometimes.



Finally, he has learned to hold his bottle all by himself while he drinks it. What a treat for me!



So those are Rex's latest accomplishments in the world of food. He is eating meats now though we have to disguise it in with the vegetables because he can not stand the taste of the meat by itself. Please don't let him know what we are up to!

The Latest

It was so beautiful here last week- sunny and warm and so nice. This was the high for Thursday:



I got out the stroller, dusted it all off and got it cleaned up and we hit the road. Well, actually the sidewalk- I wouldn't take my baby for a walk in the middle of the road!



We actually took two walks that day- one in the afternoon and then Rob joined us for a walk in the evening. The lovely weather came to an end though the next day. It rained a bunch (A BUNCH!) Friday night, yesterday and was still going this morning. Unfortunately, sometime around lunchtime today, it started looking like this:



Ugh. Oh well- we picked up a couple of movies at the library on Saturday so we had those to watch. Rob picked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and I got Send Me No Flowers. I couldn't get into his movie so he's finishing it now while I do this. I don't think he'll be too into my Rock Hudson-Doris Day flick so I'm planning on watching that tomorrow while he is at work.

One of the bad things about moving to a new place is that you miss the restaurants back home. Mainly it is In-N-Out and mexican food for me but I also miss Versailles' Cuban food in LA. Not that I got to go there a lot but a few times a year, certainly. I decided last week to make some Lechon Asado for myself since I have no trips to LA planned anytime soon. Using parts of different recipes I found online, I came up with a decent version of a Versailles plate of roasted pork, black beans, rice and fried plantains.



The owners of Versailles don't need to worry though- their Cuban food is still far superior. Except for maybe the black beans. I liked mine better actually. But it was nice to have something similar out here.

Rex is doing great. I wrote a whole other post just about him before I wrote this one and I'll put it up in another day or two. Until then, here is a picture of Rex and his mommy.