Spam....argh

Just a heads up: if you are interested in leaving a comment you'll now have an added step. In the less than 24 hours since I published the last post, I've gotten two spam comments on the blog. Since I think that spam is stupid and annoying, I changed the comments preferences so now there's a word verification step. So, you'll write your comment and before it publishes you'll have to type in the word you see that Google provides you (this stops automatic spamming because if it's being done automatically, there's no one there to type in the word to verify an actual human is leaving the comment). If that doesn't help I might have to resort to having the blog only available to those I've invited, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen.

Flowers and Bakersfield

We had a wonderful trip to Bakersfield (though I must say, the city itself is not my favorite vacation spot...we just like the people there) last weekend. Feb. 14 is Jimmy's grandfather's birthday and since Jimmy's dad and some other relatives were going to be up there that weekend, we figured we didn't need much more incentive to make the trip. Nathan loved seeing his Papa, of course, as well as his "great greats." That's what he calls his great grandparents. In a previous post, I think I added a picture of Nathan riding on great-grandma's walker. He gets to do this when we go to the dining hall for a meal. He's done this on the past four or so visits. This time, since he's talking all of the time, whenever he saw the walker he said "Ride! Ride! Great! Great!" because he wants great-grandma to push it. It's very cute. :) He also took her great-grandpa's Bible and asked her to read it to him. He must be quite the scholar since it's definitely not a children's Bible. It's also the first time that we were able to get a four-generation Brock men picture!I also have some new flowers out on the balcony. The others died. Once I knew they were well on their way, I decided to stop watering them, give away some of the flower pots, and plant some flowers that would be smaller (=less mess on the balcony) and easier to get rid of when it's time to move. I'm excited because I planted the narcissus (the taller, yellow flowers) bulbs 2 years ago and they didn't bloom last year (my mom says it's because it didn't get cold enough for the bulbs over the winter), but they're blooming now. I really like flowers. They make me happy, and seeing them flourish makes me even happier.

Oh, and I don't have a picture of this but Nathan's doing it right now so it reminded me of it. His newest trick is to make sure things are in their place. When we come home, we take off his shoes and he promptly (without being told) puts them, his socks, and his jacket in his room. He also just pulled out some things I'd bought from Target, unpacked them, and threw the packaging in the trash (all unprompted). I find it rather cute myself. :)

Valentine's Day II

Here is a picture of the lovely orchid that was waiting for me when I got up yesterday morning, and a picture of the wonderful dinner planned and executed by my loving husband. :-) I didn't take a picture of the Coconut Choco Cheesecake because it wasn't very pretty and you would probably gain weight just by looking at it. It tasted good, though!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day 2008 is off to a good start (despite Nathan being sick yesterday and us not getting to go to MOMS today...see #3 as to why it was just fine that we didn't go):
1. Nathan slept until 7:30 this morning instead of 5:00 like yesterday morning.
2. When I came out to the living room there was a beautiful purple orchid waiting for me with a note so I didn't have to wonder who'd left it. :)
3. Nathan got to play with his Papa for about 2 hours. (Papa has more energy than mommy at the moment...)
4. I am baking a Coconut Choco Cheesecake for tonight's dessert and it looks like it will be good (I think I gained weight just making it without eating any of the batter).
5. Jimmy is making a dinner of Jamaican Jerk salmon, garlic mashed potatoes, salad, grilled asparagus, and bread.
6. I get to give him a gift I'm very excited about. :)

A taste of February

Well, there are times of drought in cute new things that Nathan's doing (that's when you don't see a post for weeks at a time), and there are times of plenty. Now that he's trying to do everything Jimmy and I do, it's certainly a time of plenty. :) Here are a few pictures of the things he's been doing lately.

I bought Nathan a potty because he's been announcing when he has a dirty diaper so I figured it can't hurt to have it around. It doubles as a stool so now we can actually wash his hands easily!

Nathan likes to help us cook. When Jimmy got out the eggs, Nathan announced "EGGS! EGGS!" and went into the cooking utensil drawer and got out the exact spatula that we usually use for scrambling eggs.

On another day we didn't quite have the time to let Nathan "cook" with us so I thought he'd like to "cook" some water with blue food coloring in it. He definitely enjoyed it.
And since he got some blue water on the floor, mommy showed him how to clean it up and he did a great job!
Feeding Elmo (because he does everything to Elmo and all the rest of his stuffed animals that we do to him, like feed them, give them the paci, put their shoes on, give them milk and juice, let them drive his firetruck...you get the picture!).
Advanced reader. :) Nathan likes to bring us books to have us read to him and yesterday he chose the first two books in the Lord of the Ring trilogy. He didn't read them for long, though.
Maybe Elmo needs to poopy, too?
On Saturday (the 9th) we went to Venice Beach. My friend Jenni, from William and Mary, was in town with a couple of her friends so we spent the morning at the beach with her. We'd never been to Venice before. It was definitely good to go once, but we don't feel the need to go again. There is some weird stuff there (and weird people). I didn't realize I looked so pregnant.
Waiting for a wave...

...and jumping over it because the water was COLD even though it was 76 outside!
Nathan had a fun time chasing the pigeons!
P.S. In case you didn't already know, you can click on each picture for an enlarged version.

Arrive on time!

You may be thinking that this post is about people who show up late, or my desire for baby number two to come on time, but it's not. It's about how annoying it is when people show up to your home 15 minutes early! FOUR times in the past two weeks Jimmy and I have been hosting something at our home and people have shown up 15 minutes early. These aren't people that we generally just hang out with so it's a little weird to say "um, just sit there for a while until we're ready." We have just barely finished dinner so I have to clean up with them around, and Nathan is not ready for bed so Jimmy is in the back getting him ready for bed and the guests are just sitting around staring at the walls because they came FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO. These events are recurring events so you would think that the first time they showed up early and we were obviously not ready they would have learned and come on time. Or, you might think we would have learned our lesson, but the guests told us they wouldn't come until the designated time the second time so we weren't assuming they would show up early again! In my opinion, it's just as rude (or more so, since I tend to be a late person :)) to show up to someone's home that early and expect them to be ready to entertain you.

Practicing to be a Big Brother

Here are some pictures of Nathan practicing to be a big brother. Recently (yesterday, to be precise) he started "feeding" my stuffed animals milk from his sippy cups and a bottle. Two interesting things: you will see in some of the following pictures what I mean by "bottle." He salvaged an empty contact lens solution bottle from the garbage and, saying "bottle, bottle" carried it to MY stuffed animals (Louis Thomas, the bear, and Boots, the cat). He is not at all interested in feeding his own stuffed animals. He also came up with this little activity all on his own. Once I saw him do it, however, I did prompt him to keep doing it so I could get some pictures. :) He is pretending more and more now, as well as talking all of the time, and they're both really cute developments (though he's been a chatterbox for nearly a year!).




He's also practicing kissing his little brother. Here he is giving some smooches to his new elephant (which he calls "Ella," his word for "elephant") and Boots.