Its been a while since I’ve posted, oops…. It really is surprising how busy our lives are these days. Its also rather astonishing how the addition of one small being into our family has increased our luggage exponentially. Thank goodness our trips of late have all been via car… Hank is really having fun exploring his world which is also quite fun for us.
Our son *loves* various fabric and textures
We’ve been rather busy of late. Hank is starting to settle into more a “schedule” with his naps which is both good and bad. He seems to love napping right around the time of our yoga class and before that was fine, but now that he’s more alert and aware of his surroundings, he won’t have it. Instead, he gets upset because he’s tired, yet refuses to sleep because there is something going on around him and he doesn’t want to miss it. So, we’ve stopped going to yoga for now as his meltdowns (which seem to coincide with Savasana, relaxation, and a crying baby is NOT relaxing) aren’t really conducive to the whole zen vibe. I’d rather he sleep as its very important for his development. So now I do yoga at home, its not the same, but it is wonderful to stretch all the same.
We celebrated my brother, Joshua’s birthday recently. We went to a place called the Salt Lick and had barbeque. I’m amazed that Hank doesn’t want to sleep during yoga class, but could fall asleep there with little trouble. Hank is very into various textures right now and particularly enjoys fabric. He received a play tunnel for Christmas and has recently learned to tip it over by rolling into the sides.
Hank's new trick
Tyler and I affectionately call Hank’s tunnel his Bow-Flex because Hank will lay in it and pull on the various toys, often pulling one side of the tunnel down with him. its hilarious to watch. And now that he’s learned the trick of tipping it over, it seems to be his favorite thing to do there. We think its because he figured out that when he tips it to the side, he can more easily reach all the toys rather than pulling on just one at a time. He seems to enjoy himself and kicks with glee every time he does it.
Tyler has been enjoying taking photos lately. He takes them all the time of Hank, which is why you rarely see him in a photo. He’s a much better photographer than I am so I’m sorry to say that the photos I’ve taken of him aren’t very stellar. I will be working on that so hopefully I can post some of Tyler and Hank sometime soon… Anyway, back to Tyler’s photography. Recently he was contracted by an auction company to shoot a local home auction. He said that it was a lot of fun and a great experience. I imagine it was rather exciting as there was no reserve on the house and there were several people there. In the end, there was a bidding “war” with two prospective buyers, but ultimately, only one could buy the house. The auction company was very pleased with Tyler’s work and are looking forward to working with him again which is wonderful!
Hank *loves* books!
I’ve been enjoying my Turkish Cuisine cooking classes. The food is just delicious and the teachers are lovely women! I’ve made several wonderful friends, whom I can honestly say I don’t imagine I would have run into anywhere else. Of course now I am desperately wishing I could return to Turkey, but alas, for now our travels will be domestic. That’s not a bad thing, but its also not going to Turkey either… Tyler and several of our friends have really enjoyed the dishes I’ve made so far. At the end of February, my sister-in-law, Nancy and her (and my brother Ben’s) son, James came for a visit. She and I traveled to Turkey together so we both really appreciate the food. She came over and I taught her to make Moussaka and Cacik and Baklava.
Hank is one happy baby!
It was so wonderful cooking with her. She’s really good in the kitchen, very creative and she has fantastic knife skills! Nancy is really into food and I think it would be so awesome for her to end up being a food writer. She’s not overly pretentious (in fact, she’s completely UN-pretentious) like many of the food critics and writers out there which is definitely a plus. I’ve also begun rehearsing with my band again. I booked a few shows in April to see how I feel about balancing motherhood and music. So far all is well and its been great fun to get back with my band and make music.
So Hank is fascinated by the fish in our fish tank. He can stare for minutes (which translates to hours in baby time) at them and has recently begun to try touching them. Of course, he can’t, which seems to baffle him. He particularly likes to track Bandy (our clown fish) with his eyes, and now his hand on the glass. Its neat to see his face reflected in the mirror backing our tank, wide eyed and excited as he ‘touches” the fish. Man, is he in for a surprise when we take him fishing one day. I’m sure he’ll learn before then that fish are squishy.
Hank seems very drawn to the color red these days
Inside his tunnel