Oscar Camping

Success! Our First Official Camping Trip!

Most of you know about the disaster which was our first attempt at a camping trip, ( The Best Camping Trip Ever......or not) and the rain and hail storm we endured. So it might surprise you that we decided to go camping again on Saturday, but this time it was a great camping trip! We went with the Gothams (Matt, Pam, & Parker) and Pam's co-worker Chris, who brought his lovely lab puppy Otter. Our camp site was beautiful and the kids (humans and dogs) loved being outside. We had Hobo Dinners (beef, onions, veggies wrapped in foil and cooked in the campfire), Smores, and Pam's speciality: Pudgie Pies.
Pudgie Pies are two pieces of bread with pie filling (Pam brought blackberry) and the bread is buttered and placed in a Coleman sandwich maker and put in the fire. The bread toasts, the filling warms and........ yummy pudgie pies! They were wonderful- thanks Pam!
We woke up the next morning and had a great breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, pineapple, cantaloupe, and orange juice. It was a wonderful trip which was made great because of good company, good food, and of course no rain or hail.

Otter

Is there no end to Oscar trying to eat

everything and everyone!

Gunner

Not bad, huh?

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary.........

My garden is finally starting to bloom, which is on time in Jackson, compared to plants blooming in March or April in Louisiana. I wanted to show those who will not be able to see us this summer our beautiful flowers around our yard. Enjoy!

Are those Peas?

Oscar has been eating baby food now for about 4 weeks. He loves bananas (that is an understatement) and hates peas. I have been making my own sweet potato baby food and decided to make peas after my friend Allison said that her girls would not eat peas either until she made them herself. Now I know why....... the store bought peas look disgusting next to my homemade peas. Poor Oscar! I would not eat that brown, smelly mush either when compared to homemade, sweet, green peas. I am not saying I will be making all of this baby food, but I will definitely be making him homemade peas.

My Peas. Store Peas.

Look at all that yummy baby food.

Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Peas

The Cotton Anniversary

Today is our 2nd anniversary. Thanks to my mom, I found out about wordle this weekend and was able to make a card for my better half. Thanks mom!

Torn between Mama and Dada

You always want your child to say your name first.......

Decker the Sea Turtle

Emily & Mark bought Oscar a baby stuffed sea turtle from Hawaii. We named him Decker after Emily & Mark's last name.

Warning to all stuffed animals: Oscar will eat you. If you do not believe us, ask Rinky and Decker.

The Decker's!

Mark & Emily came to Jackson for a long weekend and stayed with us at our home. We have been excited about this weekend for a long time because we have missed the Deckers so much since they left Jackson and us two years ago to move to Hawaii. The only bummer looking into the weekend was the weather.... is it monsoon season in Jackson? However, we knew rain, sleet, hail, or shine it would be great just to see our friends again.
Mark & Chris love mountain biking so of course that is where they were headed on Friday. Mark & Chris have both never seen a 10ft jump they would not take on their bikes and........ I arrived home to find Mark had separated his AC joint in his shoulder from a fall . (Let us all remember this is the same course that Chris broke his collar bone on last year.) Mark went to Urgent Care and is now fine and recovering. I think this is a lesson for all of us that mountain biking should be left to stunt men.
We spent the rest of the weekend, since it was raining, hanging out, catching up, and making sure Emily did not get too close to the door with Oscar to make a break for it.

The Next Swimming Olympian?

Since it has been raining for 10 days straight in Jackson, we decided to take Oscar swimming at the Rec Center to get out of the house. Once we got in the kids pool, on the 1ft side, Oscar took a couple of minutes to look around and figure out what was going on around him. He then warmed up and we had some friends who were there as well, Joel (8 months) and Ruby (5 months). Mom even decided to get brave and let her precious baby go under water. He was definitely not a fan of underwater, but how in the world he is suppose to win all those gold medals if he does not start at 6 months? I am looking to get some endorsements....... maybe Little Swimmers?

Rubber Ducky You're the One.....

Oscar Eats at the Table

Oscar's New High Chair

We wanted to get one of those high chairs that mounts directly to the table, but our vintage metal table would not support it. We did not want a regular high chair because they take up a lot of space and your baby only uses them for a short while and then you have to spend more money on a booster seat and store the old highchair. What we stumbled upon was ingenious and answered all our problems..... the Stokke High Chair

This high chair allows Oscar to eat right at the table with us now until he is old enough to sit in one of our dining chairs, then it transforms into a child's desk chair, then remove the foot rest and lower the seat and it can sit a full size adult! (I would like to mention it does all of these function with the parts it comes with so there is no need to buy additional pieces later. )

We are so happy with this chair because you buy all this baby stuff and it is here today, gone to the garage tomorrow. It is nice to know that he could use this piece as some sort of chair all the way into college. That is almost 18 years of use from one piece of furniture!

Oscar Playing

Oscar Attacks Rinky

No zebra stuffed animals were harmed in the making of this film.

Oscar's First Cereal

Oscar's first cereal was very soupy- we had a great time getting him to eat it. He was great and a wonderful sport.

The Best Camping Trip Ever......or not

Being the wilderness girl I am (you know that is the description that comes to mind when you think of me) I could not wait until the summer to go camping and take Oscar.
So on Saturday we decided to go to Shadow Mountain with the Gothams. We had purchased a pack-n-play earlier that morning so we were prepared to entertain Oscar. Everything was set. We went up the mountain, unpacked, set up camp, collected sticks (yes, I collected sticks), started a fire, started grilling, and even had dreams of smores and "pudgie pies" to come..... and then
THUNDER! RAIN! More RAIN! HAIL!
Cut to me, Oscar, Pam, & Parker eating and hiding out in their truck and Matt, Chris, & Matt hanging out under a tree getting soaked for almost two hours. We decided around 8ish that this was not the camping trip any of us had planned and we better call it.
We finally made it down the mountain of now mud and slush, threw all our wet muddy camping gear in the garage, and went to bed.
Hopefully the next "first camping trip" will be better and I will have photos and videos to accompany the story.......