An "A" for Effort

More Solid Food Please

Simms is 11.5 months old, and has 5 little teeth that he's been putting to work. These days, he  prefers feeding himself,  likes trying new foods, and enjoys sharing his food with our dog, Rudy. (To prevent this, we usually have to put Rudy outside during mealtime).

Simms's current favorites include spinach bites, blueberries, melon, pasta, turkey dogs and tomatoes.  Peas and broccoli were in the top 5, but he seems to have lost his enthusiasm for those.  Today, he tried tofu and mango. Thumbs up to both of those. He's still on the fence about avocado...

On the menu:  turkey, blueberries, tomatoes, rice, blueberries

Check out those little teeth. chomp chomp.

Adding to the Family - yay!

Team Parikh Powell is growing from a family of three to a family of FOUR!  Baby Simms is going to be a big brother! I'm nearly 3.5 months pregnant now, and our due date is Christmas Eve 2011.  What a great Christmas present.

Simms and baby #2 will be 18 months apart in age. We will find out the gender around  the end of July, so stay tuned. To add to the happy news, my best friend, Susie, is also pregnant and has the EXACT same due date;  so we get to enjoy pregnancy together. Nothing like having a pregnancy pal -  eat and grow big together!

sonogram done at Week 8

Definitely Part Filipino

These two kiddos are definitely 1/4 Filipino. Just look at the way they're chowing down on this pansit  = ( a traditional filipino dish of rice noodles).

Note the long noodles dangling from both of their little mouths...



Roscoe's Pansit Beard




Simms ate two servings of the yummy pansit



In addition to pansit, we also enjoyed several other native filipino dishes at the picnic

Some of the talented chefs (Nora is the last one on the right)

Lola Nora!

Yep, still eating. How could one stop with all that good food around...?

Cooling Down

Here's how the kids are staying cool in the sweltering Mississippi heat. (whew!).  For a a more detailed weekend synopsis, take a look at  Michelle's great post!

Turtle and Simms sat on this float to stay safe from Greg,  "The Crocodile"

Roscoe and Jerel (the pool we were in belongs to Jerel's uncle)



Becky came to visit a few weekends ago from Colorado. All the kids loved having her in town.
How cute is HoneyB?!



Simms and Greg - these two guys love the water.

Missing Kaiser

We recently said goodbye to our dog, Kaiser, who has been with me over 15 years.  It was a sad day and we continue to miss him.  The house feels a little emptier without our fluffy sheepdog.

He had a great, long life and we were so lucky to have him as part of our family. I hope he's in dog heaven catching frisbees and herding flocks of sheep...

Kasier:   1996-2011

Kaiser and buddy, Rudy

Favorite Pastime - The Swing

Meanwhile, while Simms enjoys playtime on his swing, Papa Greg busily chops and hauls off the bamboo that is taking over the corner of our backyard.  I say, we need some pet panda bears...