Dailies | A Week of Firsts, Mother's Day Zoo Trip, and Milestones

It's been an eventful week for the little man.  Cinco de Mayo brought two gifts for Jasper - his fourth Imagination Library book and his very first case of the sniffles.  Our first bout with baby sickness taught us something new about being parents.  If the baby is sick, we're gonna get sick.  There's just no avoiding it.  Babies have no idea how to be hygienic and keep their virus-loaded bodily fluids to themselves, so approximately 36 hours later all three of us were sniffling, sneezing, coughing messes.  Frankly, I think Jasper handled his cold better than we did.  We certainly complained about it more than him.  Luckily it was a short-lived illness and after a few days we were all feeling right as rain.

The weekend arrived and I indulged a serious craving I'd been having for toaster waffles.  We have a waffle iron, we have all of the ingredients to make some thick, crispy Belgian waffles, but for some reason I just needed the kind of waffle that comes from the freezer and is ready after a few minutes in the toaster.  I picked up some organic whole grain waffles by Vans (a brand I've never tried before) and they were pretty tasty!  I topped one with natural peanut butter, the other with apple butter, and dipped them in a little sugar free syrup.

Saturday night we wanted a no-fuss dinner so we indulged another naughty craving and made chili cheese dogs!  We eat light and healthy on the weekdays and the weekends are our chance to loosen the reins a bit.  We used lean all-beef franks and heated them on our cast iron grill pan to get those nice tasty grill marks.  Then we placed them on buns toasted under the broiler and topped them with chili and 2% cheese.  They hit the spot!

Sunday was my first Mother's Day!  Matt and Jasper put together a cute "mommy survival kit" for me that included:

A new pumice stone - perhaps Matt's hint that I really, really need a pedicure?
the Mommy Hook - I love this thing!  It's basically a giant carabiner that hooks to the stroller handle to give you some extra space for hanging shopping bags or whatever else you need to store.
Timothy's German Chocolate Cake K-Cups - I have a habit of needing a little caffeine pick-me-up in the afternoons.  I'm not getting enough consistent sleep, so our little mini Keurig machine gets a daily workout.
Baby on Board sign - I guess I'm officially a mommy now!
Long Hair Towel - totally thoughtful gift.  Matt knows the most difficult part of getting a shower on a semi-regular basis with a fussy and clingy baby is getting my hair dry, so this quick drying towel is just what I need!

I seriously can't get over how gorgeous he is.  I could just eat his little face!

Matt is also pretty crazy about his little Mini Me.

My family came into town for the day and we met them at Puleo's Grille for lunch.  I told my mom she could pick the restaurant and I knew that Puleo's is where we would end up - my parents have loved this place ever since we first moved to Knoxville!  They have an amazing puff pastry chicken pot pie and they make some darn delicious individual flatbread pizzas.  I ordered mine with chicken, mushrooms, onions, and peppers.  SO yummy!  They recently started offering a huge Sunday brunch buffet and several members of my family did that.  I haven't tried the buffet yet, but I'll have to soon, because it looked amazing!

After brunch it was off to the Knoxville Zoo.  Matt and I are members and since it was Mother's Day, all mommies got in for free!  Summer weather is definitely upon us down here in the South - it was a hot, hot, HOT day!  Luckily the zoo has many shaded pathways, though we were all pretty sweaty by the end of the afternoon.

It's kind of a tradition to take photos by the bronze tortoise.  My brother is missing from this photo since he took one for the team to be the photographer!  Jasper's face isn't showing because he was twisting, writhing, and crying while this photo was being made.  It was time for his nap and he was not happy about it!

He finally did fall asleep in his stroller (he has a sunshade and was slathered in high-SPF baby sunblock, so he was protected from the sun all day!) and was in a much better mood after that.  When we cruised through the gift shop Matt let him hold a stuffed red panda and it got such a huge reaction out of him that of course his daddy had to buy it for him.  Spoiled rotten and only 6 months old - I'm in trouble, I think!

Oh, and one more thing that happened this week - Jasper hit a new milestone and began sitting up all on his own!  It's amazing watching him use his arms and core strength to keep his balance.  He's pretty good at staying upright, though he does topple to the side or backwards if he gets too excited.  Gotta say, it's pretty adorable seeing his tiny little body sitting up like a big boy.  I love watching him learn new skills, it's one of the amazing parts of being parents!