Just Odds and Ends Again

So I haven't written in quite a while. Things have been very busy! DS is 7 months old now and really keeps me on my toes! He continues to eat solid food like it's going out of style and I am now making his baby food and giving him some table food. He loves hummus (which he tried after ripping a piece of hummus covered pita bread out of my hand and shoving it in his mouth). This week I have made him chicken sweet potato stew and cumin scented lentils and carrots. He loves these dishes and I think I may have a junior foodie on my hands!

A couple weeks ago he received a box of toys from A Toy Garden as a late half birthday present. He received beautiful wooden stacking cups, several play silks and some herbal cloth bean bags. DS loves these toys and I am happy to say he usually will choose them over the plastic ones. This makes me happy. I plan to phase plastic toys our of our house all together over the next year and hope to make his first birthday and this coming Christmas "plastic free" events. I was amazed the other day when DS was playing with some older friends how much they loved his wooden and fabric toys. Their play became much more creative and imaginative than it had been with the plastic toys with which the boys usually play It was encouraging and I feel like I am really on the right track with this.

This also ties into the research I've been doing about Waldorf schools and Waldorf home schooling. I am so drawn to this. Granted I am in the early stages of my research but I am very intrigued by the focus on imagination and creative play and nature and art as well as daily routines and things like baking bread. I also am very intrigued by the ideas of avoiding media. I need to do more research however and begin presenting it to DH. He is very pro-public education so I feel like I am fighting a bit of an uphill battle.

Another great thing that has happened recently is that we lost the tv remote control for several weeks! It has infuriated DH but honestly we only watched a few DVD's after DS went to bed and they were things we really wanted to watch. It was not mindless watching tv just because it's there and on. It felt really good. I found the remote two days ago. DH was very excited, but even so, we have not turned the the tv on since we found it! I consider this to be a big victory for a couple of tv junkies like ourselves.

Let me see, other things, DH and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary this past week. We went to the Mount Vernon Inn for lunch and I had the salmon corn cakes just like I did at our reception. After that we took a walk on the Mount Vernon trail and spent the evening visiting with our NoVa friends. It was lovely. To celebrate our "paper anniversary" I made and printed a digital scrapbook album of our wedding. Also my parents commemorated the day by getting a deep freezer for us. I am so happy to have it and to feel like I can take advantage of good buys when I find them and I hope to start doing some once a month cooking in order to fill it up.

Also, DS and I have really upped the time we spend outdoors;particularly walking and hiking. DS has of course also increased his time on the swings too. I've been writing about this on my other blog: http://myhealthychangesjournal.blogspot.com/. DS and I have also been going to the pool. He loves to be in the water sling and has realized that it is fun to splash mama.

I've also been enjoying some other creative activities such as knitting and cross stitch. These occupy my time after DS has gone to bed in the evening. I am working on a hat and scarf set for myself for this winter. DH gave me a Mount Vernon pioneer farm cross stitch kit for our anniversary which I am working on too. I also hope to get a cute little winter hat made for DS once I finish my scarf. I am also trying to do some digital scrapbooking too with the hope of making a family album and one album just for DS. I think I can manage a few pages a week and print them as we go.

Designs are freebies at ScrapbookFlair Designer Collections www.ScrapbookFlair.com