Aristide, Peas, and Almost-Milestones.

Yep, that just about sums up our weekend. Random, yes, but a great weekend nonetheless. First we'll start with the Aristide part of the title. Aristide is a lovely building in Mansfield that was built by some friends of ours. They are always having fun stuff there, and this weekend we actually found ourselves there for three separate events. The first was a 30th birthday party (complete with live music, casino tables and Mexican food) on Friday night (I stole these pics from Hil. Thanks, HD!):

Me, Hilari, Tiffany and Aunt Biff. If you're wondering what's up with my hair, I'll tell you: I was pleased with myself because I had washed it, blown it dry, etc. earlier that day to be ready for the party that night. Then, at about four minutes to departure time, Mr. Jensen spit up all in my hair. Definitely no time to re-wash. Solution? Ponytail. Sticky, smelly ponytail. If you happened to be near me at the party and smell something funky, it wasn't your imagination. It was just my spit-up hair. Sorry.

Jonathan, Nick, Uncle Dot, Brian and Tommy

Saturday was one of those hang-around-the-house days. I just had to stop and think if I actually ever left the house, and it turns out I did...I went to the in-laws house to borrow their blender to make pureed peas for the babies. Which brings us to the "peas" part of the title...Charlotte and Jensen's first taste of peas was hilarious. Uncle Dot and Aunt Biff happened to have come over to hang out for a bit, so they got to witness it (and take pics for me).

It's worth noting that I don't like peas. At all. (Charlotte and Jensen, if you are reading this someday (and I certainly hope you are, because you READING this is the entire point of me WRITING it), you're probably saying something along the lines of, "But why did you make us eat peas if you don't even like them yourself? Not fair!" And you're right...it's not fair. But I gave you the peas because I love you two so much and I want you to be healthy. You'll understand someday. My mom (your Grandma) used to tell me the exact same thing. I didn't believe her. But she was right. And someday, you'll see that I'm right, too.) So I was busting out all my theatrical skills and saying things like "Mmmmmm...yummy peas!" to the point where Brian accused me of "overselling the peas." Jensen took his first bite and gave us the most pitiful look as if to ask why we were torturing him (we didn't have the camera at this point because we didn't know it would be so photo-worthy). He seemed to eventually resign himself to the fact that the peas were his food of the day, and I actually don't think he minded them...

I love this pic. The cheeks, the eyelashes, the chubby little hand.

Then Charlotte started chowing down, and she was all into the peas...at first. Then she started doing this...

And this...

So I'm not so sure what her deal is with the peas...she did the same thing the next couple of times she tried them. She starts out all happy and loving the peas, then all of a sudden she decides they're gross. Hey, maybe she believes my pea-overselling at first! And it takes her awhile to realize that the peas aren't really as "Mmmmmm, delicious!" as my acting skills are leading her to believe!

Our other noteworthy Saturday event was Mr. Jensen working on his crawling. He's not quite there yet, but the guy is seriously, seriously trying. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth (a move I like to call "The Angry Gorilla") and every once in a while he will propel himself forward, but forget to move his arms and wind up face-planting on the carpet. Todd and Tiff got to see his moves for the first time on Saturday, and they were cracking up at him. The four of us were holding our breath thinking we were about to witness his crawling milestone, but he just hasn't quite gotten it yet. He gets closer every day, and I am definitely having mixed feelings about it.

Check out my moves, Uncle Dot!

Moving onto Sunday...my mom came over in the morning to babysit so that Brian and I could go with Cristi to visit a new church that is currently meeting at Aristide. It was strange...I think we were among the oldest people there! Definitely not your usual church crowd...the service also lasted for an hour and a half, which seemed a bit long, but maybe not? Brian and I agreed that we really enjoyed the message though, so we are definitely going to visit again. After church we hung out at home for awhile, then we got the kiddos all dressed and headed out to attend a cook-off/concert at, you guessed it, Aristide! They had bounce houses and stuff for the kids, live music, and tons of teams (including my brother, Johnny and Tommy) participating in a cook-off with food like chili and ribs.

Jensen was very chill the entire time we were there (I've decided that the kid has two modes: chill and wild man!). Charlotte threatened to have a meltdown when we first arrived (I think she was overwhelmed) but she soon perked up, and she actually wound up being the life of the party! She loved the music and was squealing and kicking her legs the entire time. And she looked darn cute, if I do say so myself...

While there, little Charlotte had the weekend's other almost-milestone: When we first arrived, Cristi asked me if Charlotte was teething. I think I said something along the lines of, "I don't know." (Because really, I didn't know. She's been showing signs of teething for literally months now, so I had kind of started writing off the drooling, hand-chewing, etc.) Then Cristi said she saw a tooth...and sure enough, there it was...not quite poking through her gum yet, but close. I hadn't noticed it, and my mom swears it wasn't there that morning when she babysat. So we will always remember that Cristi was the first one to spot Charlotte's first tooth. :) I think it'll probably poke through any day now. This makes me sad...I'm going to miss their big, gummy smiles!

So, that was our weekend. A nice mix of friends, fun stuff, and hanging out at home. I just realized that we have something planned every weekend from now until Christmas...busy times ahead!