Raising Watsons

So this video is from a month ago, but it’s still great.  Tucker recently discovered his feet and is taking full advantage of that baby flexibility to acquaint himself orally with his feet.  If his flexibility is inherited in any way from me, this will be one of the last times he will be able to do this!

Ben and I were sitting around the other day wondering how we could be any more liberal.  We live in California, use cloth diapers and recycle everything.  Then it hit us…

yep, that’s a 2010 Prius.  We got an unbelievable deal on the lease.  Now we just have to get used to driving it, kinda feels like a space ship.

The little dude turned 6 months old last weekend.  We celebrated by going to Williams Sonoma for a cooking class “Lessons in Dairy”.  I can’t wait to make my own butter!  It was a pretty crowded class but I used my derby blocking skills to get a taste of the homemade ricotta cheese with roasted stone fruit and honey whip cream.  Oh and they raved about the best honey ever  – Savannah Bee Company.

He looks more and more like a little boy every day.  I can’t stand it!   He almost looks scared of the dark here, it was early in the morning and I hadn’t turned the light on yet.

That’s better.

Friday included a trip to the chiropractor and then Moms group.  Tucker was really interested in the other babies and rolled his way around the room to all of their toys.

Yet another shopping trip.  Good thing he likes them because we shop a lot.   Before we made it home he tore off two buds from those pretty lilies.  His grasp is no joke!

Tucker had his very first ride in a shopping cart last weekend at Trader Joe’s. I wasn’t planning on ashopping cart ride yet (we have one of those super plush inserts thanks to Grandma Bonnie) but when I parked the cart was next to my car. I eyed it then tried him out and couldn’t believe he fit

He loved it! Lots of people stopped to talk to him and outright didn’t believe he was six months old. Also there were so many brightly colored objects to reach for, had it not been for the strap he surely would’ve fallen out. Future foodie for sure.

Another catch up post while we sort and look for good pictures from our trip.  Pictures that don’t justify purchasing an iPhone 4 just yet.   These pictures are from mid-June.  You can see Tucker’s new hair hasn’t grown in much yet.

I like these because they demonstrate the two Tuckers.  The one you see in pictures and the one I see the rest of the time.

What a good quiet baby sitting so nice on the couch

In real life, every other second on the couch was filled with squirming and lots of banging objects on surfaces.

sweet baby boy

or velociraptor?

He loves to eat my face and on days when his nails are long, it feels like picking up this guy.

and I love every second of it.

#motherhood

Here’s a few random shots from our trip. It seems more and more important to have a high quality camera phone these days. More often than not youtr nowhere near a camera when that amazing moment transpires, so you reach for something thats always on hand: your phone. At a measly 2 megapixel, my current iPhone 3G just isn’t cutting the mustard any longer. And forget about taking pictures in anything but nice bright sunshine. Sure, it’ll snao the shutter and give you something, but these aren’t the artistic smeary images. They’re just plain blurry!  I’m sure you’re sold now, WE just need to get the new iPhone with the flash and much higher-resolution camera.  Well, I will whenever they release the white version, because i’m just that gadget fashion conscious.

We recently moved the little guy to a nice place: more room for family to come visit, BIG back yard, two houses down from the largest park around.  The park has: a pond with ducks & geese, toddler playgrounds, outdoor gym, free sunday concerts … it’s just a nice place to be.  Plus we’re on a quiet street with very little through traffic.  When we moved into the place we knew there was a fruit tree in the back, but we didn’t realize that we had so many!

Witness the bounty of our backyard!

We have an unimpressive crabapple tree …

There is also an apricot tree.

Everything’s still a bit green on this, so we’ll have to wait a while to see what the fruit is really like.

Massive Black Walnut tree.

This bad boy is about 50′ tall and will cannonball your ass with half-pound walnuts all day!

I’ve heard some of these walnuts whumping into the ground at quite a speed!  So far no one has gotten beaned in the head, but it’s just a matter of time.

PS: These walnuts are completely inedible as far as I know, so it’s all for not.

Our Little Fig Tree

Judging how much fiber is in each one of these little fruits, I’m not sure how many of these we’ll actually be eating.  I used to love Raisin Nut Bran when I was a kid, and there were little date pieces mixed in with the nut-covered raisins and flakes.  My bowl would be licked clean except for the pile of fig bits at the bottom.  Fig Newtons? Nope, Apple Newtons were made just for me.  There is something magical about figs preserves and cheese, or fig preserves mixed with cocoa.  MMM-mmm.

The Pride of the backyard … the Orange Tree

We’ve heard that they are in fact sour oranges, but we’ll have to wait until our first harvest in a month or two.

I sure hope that they are sweetish, because there are a TON of them on the tree.

This is one tiny two square foot section around the bottom of the tree.

This is a pretty recent picture of Tucker and I where he’s using me as his personal trampoline.  It’s his favorite game.

Below is a picture of Ben and Tucker from about three weeks ago when we were fridge shopping.

Yes, Ben has had a hair cut since then.