Spaghetti Face

Like Father
















Like Son

Keaton Update

Keaton has changed so much in the last month! Here's what's new in the world of K-Ray:

• No more baby food - he is 100% on table food now. His favorite foods are oranges, goldfish, hot dogs, quesadillas, peas, and cheese, but he pretty much devours everything I put in front of him. I'm so thankful that he is a good eater!
  
• He is still crawling (see video below) and starting to pull up
  
• Waving bye bye and hello
• Words: "Mama" "Dada" "Didi" (kitty) "Shhh" (goldfish)
• 5 teeth now!
  

I can really tell he is understanding much more than I give him credit for as well. He smiles when I mention certain foods or books, looks at the ground when I talk about the kitty, looks at the front door when I say "where's Daddy?" and puts his head on my chest when he sees the nursery doors at church. I've already had to start the spell-talking - especially when talking about C-O-O-K-I-E-S!

Here's an update on Keaton's crawling skills. He is still scooting around on his belly, but he is much faster now!

Happy Valentines Day!

We had a great morning hanging out with our neighborhood playgroup friends and decorating some yummy Valentines cookies!































































Keaton saying "bye bye" to his friends!












We missed you, Jody and Rory!

Cookie Time

I had the best morning baking cookies! Keaton is hosting a small Valentines gathering for his neighborhood buddies tomorrow morning, and we are planning to decorate Valentine cookies. One of my biggest pet peeves about cutout cookies is that a perfectly cut cookie dough shape always gets distorted into a unrecognizable blob of a cookie in the oven. I had a brilliant idea today to solve this problem. Once I took the cookie heart blobs out of the oven, I let them sit for 1-2 minutes and then used the cookie cutters to reshape the cookies! The result? I beautiful pile of perfectly shaped Valentine cookies ready for decorating! I can't believe I didn't think of that sooner!

Bonus: you get a truckload of cookie scraps to munch on all day.

oh, did I mention that I got 2 bags of Betty Crocker cookie mix and 4 tubs of icing for $1.38 after coupons yesterday at Publix??

Teeter and the Rite Stuff

I admit it. I am a dork with a capital D! Scott stayed with Keaton for few hours on Saturday so I could have some time to myself. A normal person would head to the mall, the gym, maybe Starbucks, a movie perhaps. Not me - I couldn't wait to go to the grocery store to use all my coupons! Here's just a taste of the deals I got this weekend.

Harris Teeter







It was triple coupon weekend! Three or four times times a year, Harris Teeter triples coupons up to $.75 for 3 days only. This means that a $.75 coupon = $2.25 off an item!
Spent: $55
Saved: $68 in coupons

Rite Aid












I earned some good rebate money at Rite Aid in January, so I got everything in the picture (over $50 value) for next to nothing . The Glucose Monitor and Bayer were basically free, so I'll donate these to charity since we don't need them.

Spent: $1.61 out of pocket
Coupons tendered: $24.49

Here's the kicker: this purchase earned me two $10 Rite Aid gift cards that I can use in March!

Molly, are you proud??

Got Cool Whip?

I babysat for a family in college who would not let their 4 year old have any sugar. I vowed that I would not be one of those moms, so I let Keaton have a little taste of something sweet that I am enjoying every now and then if he eats a good lunch. A little cool whip will not hurt him, right? He seemed to like it! Here's some pics of him with his cool whip mustache:

Mischief

Objects of Affection Article

I'm not even sure how a got a subscription to Parenting magazine. I definitely did not pay for it, but it comes every month, nonetheless. Usually, these issues arrive in get thrown in the ever growing stack of books and magazines I plan to pick up and read when I get a minute. I did open the February issue and stumble upon this article. I enjoyed it because it made me reminisce of my childhood with my thumb in my mouth and my beloved wet washcloth that I rubbed to my face. It made me think of my precious nephew Douglas and his green blanket with the little strings he wraps around his fingers. I also related to it because it is about watching your children grow older and mature. I know, Keaton is only 9 months old and he is my first. But, as exciting as it is to watch him move on to new and exciting milestones of growth, I'm always a little sad to see the previous stage go. This is just a fun read... hope you enjoy!

Here's the link: Objects of Affection article