Snake charmer

Adam took Nolan to the farm with him this past weekend so I could go out with some friends and attend our friend Nicky's bridal shower/bachelorette party. I was out pretty late Friday night - 2 AM! I woke up Saturday morning not feeling all that motivated, but new I needed to get moving so I could finish my "chores" before the party. My first order of business was to go grocery shopping and make a Target run. I make the decision to make baby food for Nolan, so 2 baby cook books, 4 ice cube trays, a steamer and a food processer later I was on my way back home. I did manage to forget the weed killer I bought at Target in the lower part of the cart, so I had to go back to get that. I plowed, or rather mowed, our lawn when I got home. I love the fact our grass is thick and green, but seriously - we have to mow every 5 days to keep up with it! I thought it would be a good idea to weed whip after that, and somehow managed to do something to it that made the whipping string disappear. During that process I noticed our nice, friendly garden snake hanging out in front of the garage. I hate that thing! The weed whip scared it because instead of slithering in to the grass like it usually does it moved it's way in to our garage. Ugh! I was not happy. Good thing the weed whip was still running so the neighbor's wouldn't hear me saying some unmentionable things! I have no idea where it went, so the rest of the day I was a little creeped out by the fact it was in our garage somewhere. I tried trimming a shrub in our front yard after that but couldn't get that stupid thing running, either. I finally got so frustrated that I showered and got ready for the party. I got home pretty late again last night, but did remember to leave the garage door open about 2 inches in hopes the snake would make it's way out of our garage!

This morning I got up fairly early and began the process of making baby food. As I anticipated it took quite a bit of time and required lots of dish washing, but I feel good I did it. My only stumbling block was that I didn't realize the blade guards were on the blade for the food processor when I started to puree the peas, so when I finished I was pretty puzzled by all the white plastic shards in the peas! I started to pick the shards out, but then realized that 1) I hate the look, smell and texture of pureed peas and 2) Nolan would probably cut his mouth, so I had to throw them away. 4 1/2 hours later I managed to get through the rest of it, so now once he starts eating fruits and veggies we'll be ready to go with green beans, a few peas, sweet potatoes, zuccini, asparagus, peaches, apples, plums, blueberries and mangos!

I did manage to get outside today and apply the weed killer. [SIDE NOTE: As soon as I opened the garage I noticed the head of our friendly garden snake sticking out of a small hole in the concrete between our driveway and garage. Honestly, I think it's stalking me.] We haven't done a great job of keeping up with our weeds this year, so it took me a while. The highlight of the process was the fact I killed thousands of baby boxelder bugs that have somehow decided to make their home (or maybe it's a nest?) on the curb in front of our entire front yard. I hate boxelder bugs so good, bad or otherwise I took a lot of satisfaction in killing them with Round Up! I also sprayed the crack between our driveway and garage door in hopes the spray would make it's way down the little hole the snake lives in and kill it. That didn't work, but I tell you what did take care of it - Adam and Mike Farrington:)

We were going to try and wait until after Labor Day to start feeding Nolan rice cereal, but apparantly he was a litte fussy after this bottles this weekend and appeared to be hungry. So, with little fanfare, we put Nolan in the bumbo, put a bib on him, and attempted to feed him rice cereal. The idea was to mix 1 tbsp of cereal with formula, but I somehow managed to put too much formula in it so I had to mix in more cereal. I finally got the cereal to the right consistency and started feeding Nolan. I think Adam and I both thought he would be super excited to eat, so we were a little disappointed when he cried through most of it. He didn't eat much because we felt so bad for him! He calmed down once we fed him his bottle. I'm sure it was because it was familiar to him. Now that we've started we'll continue on and hope it gets better. I hear most kids end up liking it, so I'm sure Nolan will too - once he gets used to it!