Straub's Rooming House

Since we have moved to California we have never had a shortage of visitors. I'm pretty sure we have seen more friends and family here than we did when most of us were living on the east coast. Not that I'm complaining! It has been great to have visitors especially since we don't have a group of friends out here. (We're working on that, but it gets harder and harder to make new friends the older you get.) There has barely been a month since we moved into our current house that we haven't had guests. We recently had my college roommate Becky and her husband and son visit us from Texas for a few days, and our friends Rob and Moe from New Jersey were here right after that. In the middle of all that was Easter and we also just celebrated Chris Sr.'s birthday too! Lots of excitement in the Straub house lately. Next up on the visiting list is Grammy (my Mom) who will be here in May. We can't wait to have her here and I know she's really looking forward to spending lots of quality time with her grandson. 

Here are some pictures from the past few days:

Easter Morning

In his Easter outfit...yes, I put linen on a baby

Making a wish...

Eating the Jumperoo

Looking Cute!

Solid Foods

Yes, I eat solid foods and like them. My son isn't as comfortable with them.

We're working on Cotton's love of solid foods. We have tried rice cereal multiple times and the last few times he has willingly taken a few bites. The first couple of tries included some wiggling and screaming. Since then he hasn't exactly been excited about it, but he has opened his mouth up for the spoon. I consider two or three bites a success.

Yesterday and today we decided to be adventurous and gave organic peas a try. To my surprise he ate them and really seemed to like them. He was opening up for the next spoonful before I could get the peas on the spoon! I'll be sticking with veggies for a while so he doesn't develop his sweet tooth too early.

Day One of Peas

Getting ready for day two of peas

Peas make me Smile!

The Snail Hunter

Snails make me squeamish. Unfortunately we have lots of them that live around us. The worst is when you walk outside (never shoeless) to bring things to the recycle bin at night and you feel a big CRUNCH when you take a step. I'm not proud to admit it, but I am a snail killer.

I may be an inadvertent snail killer, but I am NOT the snail hunter. My wonderful husband gets that job. He may act like he doesn't like it but I see the way his face lights up when he sees an image like this one:

That is a photo of one of the pillars in front of our house covered in - count them - at least EIGHT snails. Yuck! Luckily Chris has a system of removing these snails and disposing of them. He uses a trusty G2 (Gatorade) plastic bottle and pops them off the wall. I hope no one from PETA is reading this blog, or they may be on the hunt for the Snail Hunter...

5 Months Old!

It is hard to believe but Cotton is 5 months old as of yesterday (4/16/11). He is growing so fast and is so much fun. He really loves to laugh and smile and we're enjoying every minute with him. 

Play time!

Hanging out in the Bumbo

Watching the dogs and ignoring Mommy and her camera

Leftover Bananas

You all know what I'm writing about. Those bananas that sit in the fruit bowl or on the kitchen counter that are just a little bit past their prime. They are starting to get that not so fresh feeling - a little bit mushy, brown spots, you can start smelling them when you walk by. Maybe, just maybe, there are some fruit flies that have appeared out of nowhere...not that it happens at my/your house.

Sometimes I get daring and try to eat one of these bananas, and I usually regret it. Sometimes, I toss one of these bananas in the blender with some berries, yogurt and juice or milk to make a healthy smoothie. If I'm really ambitious, and I have at least 3 of these old bananas, I will make banana bread. Lately, I have only had one of these sad and lonely bananas. Because of this I have started making banana muffins. I love to bake, thanks to my mother. She would always bake things from scratch when I was growing up, and still does today. Luckily she let me and my sister "help" her. Helping her usually consisted of holding the hand mixer and licking the bowl. Mom has a standby muffin recipe in her head that she made up one day. It works for blueberry muffins, apple muffins, and yes, banana muffins. She has given me that recipe - not in writing - and I now have it in my head too!

My favorite kitchen appliance

There used to be a dozen...

The only difference between my mom's banana muffins and mine is that I use my KitchenAid stand mixer instead of mixing by hand...I LOVE my stand mixer. Here are some photos of the muffins I made yesterday. Please note that there are not a dozen muffins - because of course I keep eating them.

Yummy!

The Jumperoo

Nana and Papa gave Cotton a Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo for Christmas. Until just the past week he didn't really know what to do with it. Now that he is interacting a lot more with his toys and surroundings, he seems to be taking more interest in it. He's still a little small for it, but to fix the problem I put a pillow under his feet to help stabilize him a bit. Here are a few pictures of some Jumperoo fun from this afternoon. 

Not So Crafty...

I like to think of myself as somewhat creative - but it tends to be more in theory than in action. One area where I had some great ideas and intentions was creating a scrapbook to commemorate our wedding in November 2009. I bought some of the crafts I needed, the actual book, some stickers, ordered lots of prints of our wedding photos, etc. But it is now April 2011 and I have yet to complete this scrapbook. I have a few good excuses - moving across the country, selling and buying a house, having a baby - but mostly I'm just afraid that my scrapbook won't live up to the dreams of what I think it should be.
I really admire those who can do this for a hobby, but I think my need for perfection has me scared to get the project done. This post will just have to serve as my motivation to finish it so I won't be embarrassed about it sitting in the closet.

I also have a big pile of pictures and items for Cotton's baby book - I have started that project and of course it will remain a work in progress as he grows and changes and reaches his milestones. But first I need to get my wedding project done!

So, the next time you talk to me or write to me, make sure you ask about my progress on the scrapbook. You may just guilt me into finishing what I already started.