Summer!

Well, we've had a busy weekend with Z's birthday, then our anniversary (11 years!), then the big birthday party for Z, his cousin Jenna, Aunt Biz and Uncle Andy in Mansfield. The biggest news is that Z spent his first night away from home on Saturday night. [insert **gasp!**] We had planned to have Ben's sister, Bekah, come over to babysit so we could go on a picnic for our anniversary. Then, when she and his mom suggested we bring him up to Akron to sleep over, we ended up ordering Indian takeaway and renting a movie ("The Producers"). The food was great, the movie "so-so". The experience of having your firstborn spent his first night away from you, not exactly priceless as you're constantly wondering how they are. He did great, no problems were reported. Below he's eating his current favorite treat (especially as he's working on those two year molars). "Want some?"

Yes, there's an owey on his nose. He got a really bad rug burn playing at his cousin's last week.

"One apple up on top..."

I was busy cooking and baking last week and made eight Stromboli and froze seven of them for after baby #2 arrives. Below is my first attempt at pretzel buns made with this pretzel recipe (the wheat version mentioned in one of the comments), which I rolled into bun sized balls, boiled for 3-4 min, rolled in the alkaline solution they mention, coated in egg white, sprinkled with Kosher salt then baked for about a half hour. Oh, and then I dipped them in melted butter. Ben can back me up, these were dreamy!

My best bag yet! I'm almost out of this fabric, and I'm kinda glad, I'd like to work with something different soon, but I made this for my sis-in-law, Biz for her birthday. It has four pockets (two in and two out) and is double stitched inside to reduce fraying. Oh to have a fancy serger that would eliminate fraying!

Z has been lots of fun lately, when he's not teething. He loves to play on this website (thanks Dana!), and says outloud the letters and their sounds along with the program. He's grown by leaps and bounds in his speech in the last month. He can identify many letters all on his own and sounds out many too. Our first shock was two weeks ago when he saw the "Scott" bath tissue in the bathroom (a giant multi-pack) and said, "Ssssss, Sssss, O, U" the two t's crossed together looked like a U kind of! Oh, and he sounds out C's like S's.

A couple of funnies, yesterday at the post office, he got antsy and so I set him up on the high counter next to me to get him out of his stroller. He was very good and played for a bit, then decided to lay down...on the counter. He just laid back. Cracked me up! Then just now (like five minutes ago) he discovered that if he punches in the air when he's facing the dogs (albeit 10 feet away) they'll run. So funny. It's like his super power. The dogs used to barely tolerate him, but now that he's not poking their eyes out, they instigate chasing games with him sometimes and let him pet them. This new super power shouldn't ruin the new relationship especially since he's not actually touching them and he still drops so much food when he eats, which is their main perk since we've had a kid. I almost forgot, he likes my growing belly, and lifts my shirt and his so we can rub bellies, so cute!