Boxed and ready to go...

Guitar play...

Fender is tons of fun and never a dull moment. Pulls himself up on stuff now and no matter where you put him down on the floor, he heads straight for the stereo. He also LOVES when his Daddy plays guitar! He'll even stop playing with the stereo to make music of his own. We keep saying we need to "baby proof" the house...but it hasn't happened. Maybe this will be the week. Anyway...here are lots more pictures from the past week or so. And yep...still more to come if I have the time.

Catch up...

Neve enough time to update this website as much as I'd like to. For now...here's a bunch of pictures of Fender from the past week. There are more to come...stay tuned.




Fender has played in his playcircle since he was about 2 months old and it has been so neat to see him interact with it at each developmental stage of his growth. Now that he has learned to crawl, he's found a whole new approach to his playcircle. :)

Yard play on mother's day...

Mmm, mmm, gggood...

No pictures...today. But I did want to take a minute to note that Fender was busy growing up this weekend... he is now able to get from sitting, to his tummy and yep...back to sitting again. Yea!! Even more independence, oh my. And after months of only forming consonants that let him spit on people (buh, buh, bluh, bwuh and puh puh puh) he added "mmm, mmm" and "guh" to his consonant repertoire this weekend.

He's 7 1/2 months old now and about 29 1/2 inches. Not sure how much he weighs, but it feels like a lot. :) I'd say about 21 lbs now. He gets anywhere he wants. He even goes forward...but he doesn't seem to crawl on his knees. He gets up on his hands and feet, kind of like a cave man, and moves forward, then drops to his knees and lunges further forward. Very funny to watch.

Yesterday we went to pick up a few things from Fen's late Great Paw Curt's estate, and came away with a true literary treasure. And one that Fen's Papa and Great Uncle Bill grew up with. It is a complete 1953 16 volume set of "The Children's Hour." Each volume has from 40-100 or more classic stories and the volumes are divided so cooly, by subjects such as "Sci-Fi," "Mysteries," "Stories of Old," "Stories of Today," "Animals Stories," "Caravan Fun," "First Stories," and so much more.

Actually...we were missing Volume 5 of the set, which as it turns out is called "Best Loved Poems" and is the most rare volume of the set to find due to the fact that most families kept that volume even if they sold off the rest. Long story, fairly short, I found only four copies available. The first (found on ebay) was $80 plus shipping (while all the other volumes on ebay were only about $6), the second was $45, a third was $10 with shipping, and the last was only $4.03.

Not only did I buy the missing volume for the lowest possible price, but my purchase benefited "Books for Africa" and no additional shipping cost for the US. Can it get better than that???? Well, yes it can... all of this was shipped by eco-friendly methods...and the $4.03 included a 5 cent carbonfree charge in their massive attempt to help offset carbon dioxide emissions.

So I just wanted to pass this website on to all of you in case you are ever looking for particular used books, or would just like to help the world when you purchase a used book... www.betterworld.com

I think this is the best purchase I've ever made! The book is in fair to good condition and might have some highlighting or marks in it, but I don't need it to be pristine. And I have 30 days to send it back if I am terribly unhappy with it. Honestly...I would have spent more than $4.03 in gas just driving to local bookstores and would not have even found the book...not to mention how much it would have cost once I did find a copy. Life is good.

Here's more on carbon free shipping...demand it when you shop online!

-------------------From www.betterworld.com
Details about carbonfree shipping...
Until Willie Nelson's Biodiesel bus does deliveries, we've got no choice but to send your book on normal planes, trains and automobiles. They all deliver your book considerably faster than we could on our bikes, but they belch carbon dioxide into the air the whole time. In case Al Gore hasn't stopped by your house, sat you down, and given you his slideshow yet, we've got some news for you. These carbon dioxide emissions are overheating our planet, causing a "climate crisis". Carbon Offsets are a way that we can "offset" these emissions through the purchase of clean energy credits and reversing deforestation. It is only a few pennies per book, but when thousands of people do it every day it adds up.

We looked at our shipments and used Carbonfund.org’s Carbonfree™ Shipping application to estimate the average offset needed for our packages and we always round up. 100% of the funds charged as Carbon Offsets WILL be used to purchase carbon offsets. Once Better World Books is 100% carbon neutral, we'll start to offset the carbon emissions of our non-profit partners. After that, we'll offset Exxon's emissions. They'll never know what hit 'em.

We work with www.carbonfund.org to make this possible. If you like it, demand Carbonfree™ Shipping wherever you shop online.

Mashed potatoes and a bath...

Yea...more videos. Here are three from two weeks ago. Fender loves his mashed potatoes and green beans from Grandma...
Grandma eats her mashed potatoes...Fender clearly wanted more...


Grandma won't deny her baby boy...so more potatoes down the hatch...


Eating is messy business...but cleaning up with Auntie L is lots of fun...

Rock the MLS vote...

Showing support for Uncle Bobby in my DC UNITED T-shirt!

Hey everyone...please go vote for my Uncle Bobby to be part of the MLS All Star team again this year. You will find his name "Bobby Boswell" listed under "Defenders". He was part of the All Star team last year and was voted "Defender of the Year" last year as well. He is really good and has already been called up to play for team USA several times. Oh yeah, and did I mention he was named one of Cosmopolitan's 50 most eligible bachelors last year? You can vote up to 10 times a day per email address and we have a little over 30 days to vote. Feel free to pass this on to any of your friends. :)

You may have to copy and paste this link into the address bar of your browser:
http://www.mlsnet.com/mls/events/all_star/2007/ballot/register.jsp

Uncle Bobby's website is always good for some laughs too: www.bobbyboswell.com.

My first mother's day...

I had a wonderful mother's day morning getting to spend a little time with my mom, step-mom, sister, grandmother, dad, husband and son. Had breakfast at IHOP with mom, sis, yiayia, Drew, and Fen. Then everyone went their seperate ways by 1:00PM and the rest of the day was just Fender and me. We made the most the lovely day and enjoyed some time in the yard. I love being mom to such an easy going boy. I think he's perfect! :)





oh...and no that isn't a "leftover Easter Egg" for anyone wondering. That is a musician's percussion instrument, which is in the shape of an egg. It was a gift from his Auntie L a couple of months ago and is still his favorite toy today.

Topless and tappas...

Posts are sporadic lately because I was sick last week, and then we had my uncle's funeral on Saturday, Mother's Day on Sunday, and Drew's Exam yesterday. So things have been busy and hectic lately. That said, Fender just keeps on going and going...much like the energizer bunny. He rarely naps, but isn't fussy either, so I guess the lack of sleep suits him just fine. He typically sleeps from 9PM to 7AM now, but most nights wakes about 4AM and occasionally can't get back to sleep on his own so I hold him about 10 minutes, and he is back out until 7AM. He is completely weened now and typically eats baby cereal or a jar of fruits or veggies first thing in the morning, then about an hour later has about 8oz formula before we go to daycare. He has another jar of food around Noon and either 4oz juice (if at daycare) or 8oz formula around 2PM. Formula again around 5PM, jar of food about 7PM, and 8oz formula before bed about 8:45PM.

So on to this week's events...after the graveside service for my Uncle Chris, we all met up for a reception/party in his honor (this is a wake type of things, but our Greek version) at which, my grandmother (Fen's Grt Grandmother) decided Fender was too hot and needed his shirt off, this was just after she asked for a cup so she could give him a sip of coca cola! Thankfully I was there and able to secure a cup and "water" for him instead of coke. But there was nothing I could do to save the shirt! Sorry Fender...at least no one said any "Casper" jokes to me directly. :/


Later that evening, my mom, sister, Fender and I drove to Dallas to see Drew, who had gone into work to study, and then we had Tappas for dinner. After all the excitement from the day, Fen took a nap. And Auntie L captured one of her favorite "funny" photos of Fen. :)

Rainy days and Mondays...

I was sick this past weekend, and went to doctor on Monday, but was getting over whatever gastro-intestinal flare up had gone on...only to come down with a really bad virus that night, so I've been pretty sick the past few days. I'm on the mend, but still not 100%. We've had rain here the past couple of nights as well and expect more tonight and forecast shows the same for the next 3-4 days. I love rain, and thunderstorms, but we're dog-sitting a sweet blue healer/colie mix who is very afriad of lightning so it has been tough for her the past few nights and looks like it will be more of the same tonight. Poor dear.

Well, while I've had to blues...the village (my wonderful family) has been tending to Fender's every need. You can observe for yourself in these recent photos... videos and more pics to come.







and of course, the dog helps with cleaning...