This Boy Melts My Heart

Truly. Every day, in a hundred different ways. I love him so much. I can't believe what a perfect addition he's been to our family. We are all so crazy about him and he loves us each as well. He laughs and smiles whenever Ruthie comes near him; he grins and holds his hands out to me when I walk into the room; and he crawls as fast as he can over to Ian when he comes home from work. He is a lover, not a fighter, that's for sure.

He has just started signing "all through" at the end of meal time and it is amazing to watch. He is extremely ticklish, which we all love. He's super cheerful, pretty much all of the time, and he's a joy to watch eat - he shovels chicken and cheese in his mouth like there's a scarcity. 

He's also been making huge strides in his mobility. He's a super fast crawler and for the last three weeks he's been pulling himself up on anything that stands still long enough for him to crawl over to it. He's started doing a bit of cruising, holding onto things as he walks along. And a few times he's even transferred from one piece of furniture to the next. My guess is that he'll walk a little before a year, just like sister. 

We love our Jonah-man. Thank, God, for such a good gift! 

PNS

Do you know what that is? Yeah, I didn't either until last week. It stands for Pine Nut Syndrome. For the past 9 days, I've been experiencing it. Basically, they don't really know too much about it, except that some people, some of the time, get it, from some batches of pine nuts. I've eaten plenty of pine nuts before and had no problem. And Ian ate the same pine nuts as me on the fateful night that began the problem, and he's fine. The main symptom (at least in my case) is a bitter taste in the middle of my mouth when I eat or drink. That's exactly what I typed into Google when I first started noticing my issue, which was last Monday.

Google is amazing, isn't it? How long would I have wondered what the issue was, furiously scrubbing the middle of my mouth with my toothbrush (which, as I know now, only continues to aggravate the problem) if it weren't for Google? So here's what happened. On Monday morning, as I sipped my coffee, I kept getting a really bitter taste in my mouth. At first I thought it was drainage from my allergy nasal spray, so I kept sipping coffee. But each sip of coffee brought on a fresh wave. Then I noticed as I ate my eggs that while I could clearly taste the flavor of the eggs, there was also a persistent bitter flavor in the middle of my mouth. After breakfast, it faded completely, so I thought it was a fluke thing. Then it happened again with my lunch, which lead to the furious tongue scrubbing mentioned above. Finally, with the same thing happening at dinner, I sat down at my desk, to seek wisdom from the amazing Google. And sure enough, as soon as I typed "bitter taste in the middle of my mouth when I eat or drink" a dozen articles popped up on PNS. The first question - had I eaten pine nuts in the past 1-3 days? Yep. On the Saturday before, I had made homemade pesto with a batch of pine nuts I've been keeping in my fridge. And you know what? This was my second batch with these same pine nuts and I didn't experience this the first time. And Ian's been scott free both times. Crazy!

The article said that they don't really know why some people get it and some don't; and there is no guarantee I would even experience it next time I eat pine nuts, though I can promise you it's going to be a while (or maybe forever) until I try them again. They've analyzed the nuts that cause it side by side with nuts that don't and they can't see any discernible difference. Pretty much, it's a pine nut mystery.

With each day passing, the sensation has lessened slightly, so that today, I had almost no bitterness at all. Just a bit with my coffee (I only re-introduced coffee two days ago). I think tomorrow it might be totally better. One of the articles I read said that people's symptoms last between 1-4 weeks, so I'm glad I'm closer to the 1 end than the 4. And some people experience other symptoms as well, which I won't subject you to here. But be warned - PNS is out there, waiting to strike, and you could be next! If you're a geek like me and find things like this interesting, you can read one of the articles that was helpful for me: http://pinenutsyndrome.wordpress.com/pinenutsyndrome/

So, who wants the big bag of pine nuts I have in my freezer? =)

The Tree Offering This Morning

That's just from yesterday to this morning. The tree left us more this afternoon. Imagine how many avocados we'd have if we actually went out there and picked them! 

A Little of This, A Little of That

Life is good. I think and say that so many times each week. I know it may not always be that way, but today, it is. I'm thankful. I'm enjoying the kids so much and I'm loving where we live and the people we get to spend so much time with. Here's a little of what we've been up to...

Going to the Aquarium with cousins - last week we took Sammy and today we took Levi (sadly, no photo of today). Ruthie loved it, as did her cousins.

We started bathing the kids together and man, oh, man is it cute. Ruthie loves to help wash Jonah; he's not as big of a fan of that as she is. But he does love his bath and Daddy loves to giving them, especially now that he gets to do two at one time! 

We've been going to Disneyland a lot, enjoying the nice spring weather. This past Friday afternoon/night, we went with Mom, Dad, Mary, Mike and their kids. It was great. Ruthie, Clare and Abbie all have the same Cinderella shirt, given by Grandma (Hannah and Naomi have it too, but they don't currently have passes - boo!). Mary and I try to coordinate it so the girls wear them on the same trips and let me tell you, they get a lot of attention! Clare and Ruthie are particularly awesome together, following each other around and laughing at their own jokes. Such cute little besties. In this photo, they had laid down the Disneyland map to get a better look at it, while we were in line at Pirates of the Caribbean. Too cute!

Jonah is really starting to develop his personality, which is so fun. Here's Daddy and Jonah, goofing off!

This is one of my favorite stages - discovering the baby in the mirror. Jonah was quite taken with him today, kissing him, waving to him and then looking past him at me in the mirror. It was great! Love that guy.

Ruthie is so spoiled. How many kids get to go to Disneyland once week, let alone with both Grandma and Grandpa there to hold your hand and buy you treats? Good thing there are so many cousins or we would be in big trouble! 

So that's been our lives (or a small snapshot, at least) in the past few weeks. Hope your March has been lovely as well!

Eat Your Heart Out, East Coast

It's actually rainy and cloudy today, which is truthfully so nice, but this past weekend and week we've had truly lovely spring weather. Last Sunday, we met Mary and Mike's family at the park for some kite flying and a picnic dinner. We all rode our bikes (from our different houses) and had a lovely time being by the ocean. I slightly underestimated how long it would take us to get there, so we ended up riding home in the dark, but we still had a good time.  

And the Saturday of that same weekend, we took the kids to the small beach just off 2nd Street. It's great because the parking is easy and close and the waves are tiny, so Ruthie can really play around in the surf. She loves the beach and always wants to get all the way in the water, even when I think it's too cold. I have really learned my lesson this time and will bring her suit next visit! Jonah had a good time too, playing in the sand and even letting us dip his toes in the water. And thankfully, he only are one handful of sand!

I'm so thankful our kids love the beach since we are both such big fans. Ian is already asking when he can take Ruthie surfing with him. :)

Happy spring to you! Hope it's lovely. 

The McCurrys Go to the Zoo!

Having been to the San Diego Zoo and the LA Zoo, we thought it only fair to give the Santa Ana Zoo a try. We'd heard from friends and family that it was a small zoo with mostly monkeys, nothing really exotic. I think we went in with low expectations and man, we were pleasantly surprised! The parking was easy, the admission fees reasonable and even on a holiday (President's Day) it wasn't too crowded.

For her birthday, Ian's grandparents gave Ruthie a book about going to the zoo. Totally unintentionally, we had been reading her that book on the week leading up to going, which we decided to do pretty last minute. She loves the book and when we were at the zoo, totally connected the book with her visit. At first, she kept saying she was afraid of the monkeys but she warmed up to them pretty quickly. She liked the camel and the giant anteater (which was my favorite), but as always, the thing that captured her attention most was the other kids.

We packed our lunch and ate it at one of the many benches throughout the zoo. I was really impressed with the seating, play areas and shade - they definitely had families in mind when they designed this space. It was nice how small and contained it was. We were only there about 3 hours but it was perfect and just what we needed - low key, a change of scenery and a great time as a family. 

If you're in the area, I highly recommend a visit. Two thumbs up! 

And now, back to our Mecca...Disneyland with Aunt Mary, cousins and Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow!

Valentine Take Out and Make Out

It's become our tradition on Valentine's to get take out, which cleverly rhymes with make out. =) A lovely tradition. This year, we decided to feed the kids and put them to bed before having our own dinner, which was very nice. We ordered Thai food from a place up the street and even splurged on delivery (well, the delivery was free but you have to tip the guy, obviously). 

The food was great and we had a nice time. Very low key, no pressure, mostly just a regular night, expect that I used cloth napkins. It's amazing how much cloth napkins dress up a table. 

We didn't linger too long over dinner, as my brother was in town for my aunt's funeral and all the brothers were getting together. But it was still very nice. We don't do gifts for Valentine's Day - after my birthday, Christmas, and our anniversary, we're pretty gifted out by the time Valentine's Day rolls around. But we do exchange cards, sometimes funny (read slightly inappropriate), sometimes sweet.

I love our simple, easy Valentine's tradition. But mostly I love that I have every day to spend with Ian. Happy Valentine's, Babe!