seven months

Eli is seven months old already. Can you believe it?! I'm still amazed that he came out of me. He's been trying to pull himself up lately and crawling everywhere. He's a speedy crawler. He started having more redness on his left cheek and chin. We think it's from all the drooling. I'm not sure if this is just a phase, but he's gotten more whinny too. What happened to that sweet little boy? I'm just trying to keep myself cool and patient these days.

date night

We just saw the new Batman movie. It's not bad. This is the first date night for my husband and I since my mom left. My husband's friend Omar and his wife offered to babysit Eli. Their son Henry-Pete is just a couple months older. We thought they could be good playmates. I admit at first I had the first time parent paranoia, but I decided I didn't want to be the mom that keeps her kids in a bubble. We hung out at Omar's place for a while before we headed out for the movie to make sure Eli was okay. He quickly warmed up to Omar's family. He had such a great time with them. Looks like there will be many more play dates for Eli and Henry-Pete.

cans

I was shopping at the dollar general today and saw this. I was mesmerized.

just feel like venting

I don't understand grown men and their computer games. It's not like I don't know how to have fun or enjoy life, but how is staring at the screen shooting things and people fun? Besides, computer games can be very time consuming and take your time away from your family. I wonder if they will ever grow out of it.

crafty mind

I have been trying to be crafty, but I haven't had much time lately. Also I'm not as motivated as I hope to be. The first thing I need to do to get my crafty spirit going is to create a craft work space for myself. We have a big basement that's not being used much right now. We just need to install some good lighting down there. I also need a nice big table to do all my drawing and cutting. I want a table with simple design, a smooth top with four straight legs. Once I get that, I will need a new sewing machine and few sewing supplies then I will be good to go. We will see if we can get this going in the next couple months.

videos

I love laughing baby videos. It's more fun when it's your baby. Eli has a low laughing point. Here all I have to do is to brush my hair against his hands, somehow he thinks that's funny. The other two are Eli crawling. Hurray for reaching another milestone!

baking and cooking

I had a sudden craving for cheesecake yesterday, and I used a recipe from Martha Stewart living to make a cheesecake with blueberry topping. This is the simplest cheesecake recipe I have ever made, yet it's so rich and creamy. After putting Eli to sleep, I stayed up to bake the cheesecake. This tells you how bad I wanted it. I was so tempted to take a bite after it came out of the oven, but of course every baker knows you have to refrigerate a cheesecake for at least eight hours or overnight before it can reach the right consistency. I didn't go to bed until one in the morning, and I had to wake up at five to feed Eli. Although I was very sleepy, I couldn't help but to serve myself a slice of cheesecake before I went back to bed. That was good breakfast. For lunch today, I made a curry chicken salad sandwich. I used the recipe from my friend Amanda. I chose to use a store bought rotisserie chicken instead of making my own, and I think it added extra flavor.

jayhawks baby

fourth of july

this week's photos

Rose garden

My new favorite pastime

Eli has been making this face lately while teething

photos by amanda lucero

You can find her at APL Photography.

deck of cards

This was my only purchase at a garage sale last weekend. I love the tin box.

first tooth

Is there something on my face?

First chair

I'm not sure if you can see from this picture, but Eli is having his first tooth.

clouds

Looks like a dragon, don't you think?

napkin

My first sewing project. I used an old pillow case because I didn't know how it would turn out.

dinner

Grilled salmon with avocado mayonnaise and arugula. Simple and delightful.

home safely

My mom has arrived Hong Kong safely. When she went up to the gate in Des Moines, they told her she missed her flight. They had anther flight that was about to take off to Chicago, so they were so kind to turn around and let her get on that one. Then she got upgraded to first-class from Chicago to Hong Kong! She was able to rest comfortably the whole way. They had to detour to Beijing because of bad weather and were stuck on the plane for five hours before heading to Hong Kong, but who cares? She was in first-class.

goodnight

felted stones

I made these today (instruction here). They were my first crafty project.

I took today off to take my mom to the airport and stay home with the baby. We had a little incident at the airport. Upon checking in, we were told that two of my mom's luggages were overweight. It would cost her fifty bucks for each one if she wanted to keep them as is. At the last minutes, she was scrambling through her luggages trying to rearrange. I don't understand it. She had more stuff when she came. All these new airline rules are really irritating. It would have been okay if my mom didn't pack a lot of unnecessary items. She had a bag of uncooked cheesy hot dogs from our house that my husband and I weren't going to finish. She didn't want to waste them and was going to take them all the way back to Hong Kong. I wish we didn't have to send her off in such hurry, but there were only minutes to spare after that whole incident with the luggages.