yet ANOTHER reason to love this place!

Check out the amazingly beautiful ice storm we had today! these pictures are from our front yard this afternoon. The roads are disastrous and the news is already announcing school closures and delays for tomorrow. There were actually a few catastrophes in the church parking lot today as well!! Just a few cars sliding into to other cars is all. When we emerged from church it appeared as though all of the cars were covered with big pods of ice. We had to chip ice away to get to the key hole and even more when we tried to open our doors! I really love the way the grass blades snap in half when you slide across the lawn in this weather.

my 2nd favorite Zeb

I know that I said my favorite Zeb is laughing Zeb, but my second favorite is "after nap" Zeb. He is always so ridiculously smiley and happy. He is nothing like me right after I wake up. Once again he takes after his dad. Maybe he isn't my baby.

today's hidden tree

Hip hip hooray! It now really feels like Christmas! We just got back from The Nutcracker performed by the Toledo Ballet. It was absolutely wonderful (although it did make me homesick for Metta! good thing we are coming home in a week). I got tickets a few weeks back and I thought Kent knew for sure. He claims that it was a surprise to him but I still have my doubts.

One of the best parts of the evening was that it was at the Stranahan Theater, no more than a quarter mile from our apartment. We walked and probably made better time than if we had driven. Walking home in the freezing cold through the snow made a fabulous end to the evening! Zeb hung out with Sam while we were gone and did quite well. I think that he will do just fine with all of you relatives that are new to him. He really isn't afraid of people too much.

We tried to get the background in this picture. If you look closely enough you can see the wall. Yep, we sat in the last row of the theater. The very-very top row of the balcony. The tickets were really cheap and having terrible seats has become somewhat of a tradition for us whenever we go to any cultural event. There was a huge section of empty seats in the price category ahead of us though and at intermission we got all of the people around us to move up with us. We figured they couldn't send us all back to our seats. For the second half of the show we had much better seats.

hidden tree

Yesterday's tree was possibly my favorite thus far. Christmas Crunch and Mickey's Christmas Carol! Zeb also enjoyed them. Nothing better than Christmas Crunch to remind you of the holidays. Plus I love "the Christmas Carol" with Scrooge McDuck as Ebeneezer and Mickey as Bob Crachett. I do think tonight's hidden tree will be the very best of all! it's a great big secret so I can't post about it yet! I think that Kent already has it all figured out though.

drink drink drink

I guess it's pretty normal. I asked the neighbors if their rugrat drinks bath water and they said yes. Zeb LOVES warm sudsy water. weirdo. He is obsessed with sucking all of the water out of his little bear bath sponge. He will only sit up in the tub now so he leans completely forward and sucks all of the water out of his sponge! The best is when he topples forward and goes face first into the water and comes up sputtering and splashing and gasping for air! he does it to himself yet he looks at us with this look of bewilderment, wondering "how could you have done this to me?" it's adorable. When he's in the tub it makes me realize how much he's grown (and how much cuter he is!). Check out his baby picture! he was one ratty looking rugrat. And he fits on the little bear perfectly! Now he can barely sit on it. He kinda looks like ET. Okay, a lot he looks like ET. Good thing they get cuter.

laughing fits

Zeb has been having quite a few little laughing fits lately. He had one over at the neighbor's house while watching Sam and Jack throw a basketball around. He laughed so hard that he fell over. This video was yesterday. I made a funny noise at him and he just started giggling! I love when he does it. Laughing zeb is my favorite zeb.

the manor house

This morning for playgroup we went to this huge old mansion that is all decorated for Christmas! Apparently it belonged to the Champion spark plug millionaires way back when the company started. It was really neat. I want to go back with Kent before it closes. There are rooms full of trees and decorations and lots of great Christmas stuff. They've also got a large train set going in the basement.

And wonderfully enough, it snowed last night! I was so happy to wake up to a blanket of snow covering all of the leftover leaves. Ridiculously there were actual school closures this morning! and those schools that weren't closed were all late start by two hours! we only got three inches! I'd think that Toledoans were more accustomed to the snow.

baby bird.

It's like feeding a baby bird. Zeb has taken up an extreme aversion to baby food. He abhors it. He must take after his father because he will eat absolutely anything as long as the texture is to his liking. He has been eating what we eat for dinner, just a little more mushed. I have tried to puree his foods in the magic bullet but he really won't take it due to the consistency. He won't eat his rice cereal either. I have resorted to chewing up my food and spitting it back out for him to eat. Like I said, just like a baby and mama bird. He likes his food to be in small little pieces. What a particular little rugrat. And he loves to puff up his cheeks when he eats! Here he is devouring a mixture of carrots, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes.
The camera flash always picks up the reds in his hair! I don't think that it will appear that red in person when you all see it :)

Cause of Death!!

Today in the lab we discovered our cadaver's actual cause of death. I, for one small minute, wanted to become a pathologist! When we opened the pericardial sac to get to his heart we found a crazy, unnatural amount of blood surrounding the heart. This is a picture of a living patient, so picture all the red blood in the picture as dark brown, chunky almost plastic-like pieces of blood. It was very exciting. But once again... fat got in the way. His heart was so fatty that as we tried to find his coronary arteries, fat and oil were literally dripping off our hands. I will never eat KFC again!!!! I really wish I could take pictures in the lab (and so did my professor). It was a text book example of cardiac tamponade (blood around the heart)!

Merry Christmas Countdown!

I got this idea from a friend (thanks ashton's mom!) and had to alter it a little due to our circumstances, but I think it will be rather fun nonetheless. I love countdowns! and what's better than a countdown till Christmas? How about a countdown to heading home for Christmas?!?! I cut out these little construction paper trees and numbered them starting at 16. That's today! Sixteen days till we board the plane to SLC. On the back of each tree is something fun to do that will help us get in the Christmas spirit just a little bit more!! And to add a little twist I am hiding them all around the house. Kent and Zeb will have to search for them every day in order to see what the day's activity/surprise is. I started a little late but I figure better late than never. I think that it will be a fun tradition to continue. I'd tell you what I wrote on the trees but then Kent will know and the surprise/excitement factor will be nearly eradicated. Can you tell that I have a lot of time on my hands? my goodness! I'm turning into one of those cheesy moms/wives that I swore I'd never be.

favorite things

Yesterday was CRAZY! I cannot believe that I didn't post. I apologize to all of you in utah :) We were running around like banshees all day long. We didn't get home from church till late (choir and tithing) and then we had to head up to the Detroit airport and pick up a BYU student interviewing for med school here today! It was actually a lot of fun! Zeb LOVED the airport and all of the people. Plus it was really fun to help somebody out (especially considering students did the same for Kent last year..thanks Andrew!). This boy we picked up at the airport is married and has a little boy so I'd love if he gets accepted! the more wives and kids, the better :)

Anyway, back to the belated yesterday post. Lately Zeb has had the funniest fascination with this blanket! Thank you to Grandma Oswald (weird that she's Zeb's great grandma!). He will lay on it or sit on it and carefully touch and inspect each little animal head. It's adorable. And it keeps him content in his crib quite awhile after he wakes up. hooray. I can't believe the rate at which he is growing up. It's like he turned into a real boy overnight.

Time's up

We can't give Zeb back. The most lenient of the safe haven laws expired today for little Zeb! He is six months old! I can't believe it. We can no longer just drop him off at a police station or hospital with no questions asked. He is officially ours for keeps. We were going on a trial basis and we lucked out with such a good rugrat!
Here he is enjoying baby Einstein (at five am last Sunday after peeing in his pajamas and sheets and losing all interest in sleep). He loves to stick his legs in the air while he's watching. Maybe it's from when he watches me do pilates! When my legs are in the air he is very content to just stare. During the other parts he gets fussy. He laughs hysterically when we all do lunges at the mall walking group. He thinks it's so funny to watch us from his stroller bob up and down.