you know you enjoy being a mom when...

...you get a craving for oatmeal raisin cookies and wait for 2yo and 3yo to actually wake up to make them (as opposed to hurriedly making them during their nap)
...while making said cookies, you let them pour (after you've measured) not only the oatmeal and raisins but also the messy ingredients: cinnamon, flour and vanilla
....and despite the fact that said cookies turned out delicious but kinda dark and super flat, you gobble them up because they are so proud. and you let them eat them for breakfast the next day. i mean after all, they are OATMEAL and RAISIN? that's 2 food groups!
in other news, peanut tried rice cereal for the very first time ever tonight! i really wanted to wait to start solids until he was 6mos old but the little chunker is really starting to notice us when we eat. he sits in his highchair and stares until he starts to fuss/cry. then once you pick him up, he stares at your fork/spoon as it moves from the plate to your mouth. then he opens his mouth, as if he's REALLY wanting a bite.

well since he's been doing this for about a week, and since i had some milk that i had pumped to mix with the rice cereal i bit the bullet. it was somewhat a success. he did much better eating it off the spoon than i thought he would! he ate a good 8-10 bites before we called it quits, he was just so tired. so we'll wait a day for two then go again. i did buy fresh sweet potatoes and carrots so that i can start making his baby food this weekend! those will be the first two "real" foods we will introduce, followed by applesauce. this has been the pattern for older boys so we're gonna keep a good thing going!

"what is this?!?"

"mmm, i don't know what it is but i know that i like it!"

and approximately 5 minutes after eating--he was carb loaded and sleepy i guess. he didn't even need the binky!
speaking of binkies, pooks is doing WONDERFUL without his! he said bye bye that night then the following morning he excitedly slid down the entire flight of stairs to see what the binky fairy had left.he was excited to find a bag of M&M's, a Mr. Potatohead and a Cars football. he loved all the "pezents" and never even asked for the binky. two days later he did ask for his beloved "ga-ga" but it was after his nap. i just reminded him that we already said "bye bye" to the binkys and he said "oh". that was it. he never asked about it again. smooth as silk :)