Homemade Applesauce

Here's an easy recipe that I've been making once a week for Ben. He loves it.

Peel and chop 2-3 apples (I like Macintosh apples best for this). Put chopped apples in a covered dish with one tablespoon water and microwave for 4-6 minutes (2 minutes per apple). Blend cooked apples until smooth and store in the fridge for up to a week. It's tart and yummy and it never lasts a whole week. It's great for grown-ups and low-fat baking as well.

My Boat of Fun

This is something Anne and I always used to enjoy when we were kids: we'd cram ourselves into laundry baskets with half a dozen stuffed animals.


We also pretended the baskets were boats and the floor was water filled with alligators, crocodiles, sharks, and piranha. What can I say, we loved danger.

Mr. Growly

Ben has been making this funny growling sound lately. We finally recorded it this morning. He had been fussy (you can see the ghost of a tear on his left eye), so Ickie pulled out the camera to amuse him.

Two Interesting Things: KK & Greta

Benjamin & Christopher Cottontail

Not everyone enjoys bunny ears.

Welcome the Newly Baptized!

Ben was baptized at our church during the Great Easter Vigil on Saturday night. It was a lovely service, and Ben was content the entire time. He didn't mind getting his head wet and tickled Father John's beard while he was baptizing him. I teared up for part of the liturgy. My little boy's life is filled with potential, and I believe we're doing the most important thing to start him on a path of faith, hope, and love.

Below are several photos: during the service, with a bunch of friends and family members, with just family, and with Father John.

He can feed himself.

Here he is at dinnertime tonight eating bits of banana. At least two thirds fell in his lap, but he did pretty well.

Objects in camera may be smaller than they appear.

Ben positively dwarfs Ickie in this shot, don't you think? He appears to be the 100-pound baby because he's in the foreground and Ickie is slumping into the couch.

As you can see here, he still fits on his dad's legs without breaking them:


And he is smaller than this book, which he is gripping with both his fingers and toes:


I love all the fat rolls on his arms and chest. It's like having a giant marshmallow with lots of personality.


And here's a family postcard: