the newest baby at our house

Well, Agape hasn't called in a while, so . . .

. . . we found ourselves a smaller, furrier kind of baby. This is Rocky the squirrel, who kind of looks more like a rat right now. Why do we have a baby squirrel? Well, my Paw Paw saved Rocky from his cat and then called my mom, because she's been known to take in homeless babies (in case you haven't noticed).

He loves to eat. After much googling, we discovered we needed to syringe-feed him puppy formula (after we re-hydrated him with Pedialyte, that is). He's not really interested in solids yet. We're guessing (again, after much googling) that he's about six weeks old.

He spends most of his time sleeping, snuggled up under a t-shirt in his box.

Jamal thinks he has a new pet. Mom thinks she's going to release him into the wild when he's about 12 weeks old. Whatever happens, I'll keep you posted.

speaking of

My nephew is cuter than your nephew. No, really, he is. He is. Really. I'll prove it to you. Here is a video of my then-22-month-old nephew "reading" Goodnight Moon to himself after hearing it only two times! If you've never read Goodnight Moon, the basic story involves identifying everything in and outside of a room, and then saying goodnight to everything in and outside of said room. You'll hear Chase saying goodnight (actually he prefers "night night") to kittens, stars, a cow, and, my personal favorite, a little toyhouse.



Speaking of Chase, I just discovered that he and Tekia recently had a little fun with photo booth on my computer.

Speaking of Tekia, she's been coughing her head off the past few days (not literally - you know what I mean). Last night at 12:15am, after listening to her cough for a solid hour, I made her try a trick that I'd read about on the internet. When I googled "how to stop coughing", I found that many people swore by putting Vicks Vapor Rub on your feet! I had actually tried it a few times with Halle but was never sure if it really worked. Anyway, after unsuccessful attempts at stopping her coughing with her inhaler, cough medicine, and cough drops, we were desperate. And tired. Tekia thought I was crazy, but she put some Vicks on the bottom on her feet, put socks on, and went back to bed. And, sure enough, it worked! Isn't that crazy? I only heard her cough twice after that, and she was asleep within ten minutes. And so was I. The first thing she said when she woke up this morning was, "It worked."

Speaking of Tekia waking up this morning, she stayed home from school and I was home with her (Mom had HeartLight and cancer stuff to do, and I was off work). Her breakfast order was as follows: "Two pieces of toast. One with jelly and one with mayonnaise. But do not put them together."

And speaking of mayonnaise toast, Tekia asked for seconds. Gross.

reunited and it feels so good

Avery's one Camp Granna request: to see Halle.

I know it seems crazy, but it was almost like Halle remembered her. They are BFFs (best friends forever, duh) as far as Avery's concerned - further evidence can be found here and here.

Avery's in heaven.

oh, by the way . . .

It's Camp Granna week! A good time is being had by all . . .



. . . most of the time.

too far

Dear Green People,

I came across this article the other day - "Green Baby Names: 100% Natural Names for Your Baby". Among those listed are Aqua, Beach, Field, Rain, and Spruce. Green People, I really think you've taken this green thing a little too far. I mean, I'm not anti-green or anything (nor am I only-organic-eating-and-hybrid-driving), but . . . seriously?? Are you guys joking?

Green People, relax! You have enough things to worry about. I promise the earth won't grow any warmer if you name your kids Aiden and Emily. Really. And your kids (probably) won't even get teased at school!

So you guys just keep up the good work with your cloth-diapering and homemade-baby-food-making, but don't sweat the small stuff (by the way, I would draw the "small stuff" line at using disposable diapers and Gerber baby food, but we're not talking about that now. We're talking about the "too far" line, so . . . whatev). Just leave the names of plants and bodies of water to, well, plants and bodies of water.

However, if you do insist on being all-green all the time, even in your baby-naming, I won't judge. And if I meet you in my workplace, I promise to take super care of little Branch Cedar Lake or Meadow Cloud Sequoia. I'll even decorate their crib card with stickers (made from recycled paper, of course) of leaves and flowers. Just for you.

love,
Callie

My seafood taco had legs in it.

One of our favorite parts of our Mexico trip was the FOOD! Seriously, our resort had excellent food. And the fact that you could eat as much as you wanted . . . well, that was just an added bonus.

The food was pretty, too. I took pictures of some of it (believe it or not). This is my mango trio dessert from the hotel's Caribbean restaurant - our favorite and the only one we visited twice for dinner.

And this is my delicious duck and plantain appetizer. No idea what the green stuff was (I thought about calling Ghostbusters, but it tasted alright, so I decided against it).

One day at lunch we visited the Mexican restaurant. Makes sense since we were in Mexico, right? We felt we should try some authentic Mexican food. Jamal decided not to take any chances with his lunch, though.
Dad ordered this. I'm not sure what it is, but it's pretty enough.

And then there was my order. I ordered seafood tacos. How much more Mexican and beach can you get than tacos and seafood? So here they are. Do you see a little something poking out?

Oh yes, those would be LEGS! LEGS in my tacos. Umm, thanks but no thanks. I'll take a burger and fries, please.
I actually did try one bite of one of the legs. And that was the end of my experience with seafood tacos.

Our favorite place for lunch (no, it wasn't the legs-in-my-taco place) was this beach bbq place.

And below is a picture of our farewell dinner, which was held at our favorite breakfast place.
Dad was not pleased with the size of his dessert.

We loved the food, but the company was better. :-)