I love watching my son eat. He had so many challenges with it as an infant and early toddler and to see him wolf down an apple nowadays, or tuck in for the third bowl of Kix cereal makes me smile broadly. I love watching his independence too when it comes to food. With his hand wrapped around the spoon, digging in for the ice cream or mashed potatoes. He'll eat three platefuls of mashed potatoes and still ask for more. Some meals he'll have 2 1/2 corn dogs. Some nights, it takes 2 waffles before he's fully sated. I love hearing him verbalize what he wants to eat, when he's hungry and when he's full. Lately, he has moments where he has "tummy aches" but the pain always seems to subside in time for dessert. Speaking of which, I know we're out of ice cream. Bummer. I need to go and buy some more grapes because he is on an active grape kick. He does not like Mom's green Granny Smith apples and prefers his red, Red Delicious apples instead. This morning he requested rice, sausage and eggs and wanted to be sure to get the rice in, even though it took longer than the rest of the meal to be ready. We're awfully fond of scrambled eggs lately, which is a nice protein source and we recently came out of a good chicken phase. Of course, he sort of calls all meat that he'll eat chicken, but we're not complaining or mincing words. He continues to be steadfast with his yogurt at lunch and Cascadian Farms granola bars are a must. He knows that Luke's or Daddy's juice is a Frappuchino Mocha. He loves to prepare us food in his little kitchen and he's a pro at putting together a kabob for us on his little grill. We need to get him more food sets because I know he'd love to have the pizza and cookie sets. Still, I need to reign in my spending as best I can. I'd like to pick up a playmobil set for him each month until his birthday and then get him the grand house too. One of the Dad's at Dad's class said that they went smaller with gifts and the kids were just as content. I suppose this should be my philosophy too, but I do like to see him enjoy his toys. The other day during a Target trip I told Luke we could go into the Lego area. Once we were done at the store and the new owners of a Toy Story Lego set I admitted that any time I willingly head into that section of the store, I have quieted any voices in my head that would oppose shopping. Of course, I also had to concede that I have my strange $50 rule. Things under $50 for people I love don't really phase me, but things beyond that make me uneasy about my budget, even if $50 isn't a smart financial move either. In Luke's case, most everything he likes or wants is over the $50 mark so that makes for a challenge to my odd budgeting rules. I don't want to buy junk though either so when it comes to Quinn purchases, $50 is a good number. Post the baby shower, I'm realizing that I need to start stocking up on items for #2. There's bunches of stuff that you throw after #1 because it gets used to frequently- burp clothes, receiving blankets and the like. I also have no clothes for a little girl and should probably attempt to have her outfitted now and again:) I made my first purchase the other day for her- new baby wash clothes. I've opened them already and used one to clean Quinn's face. I suppose none of her possessions will be totally sacred, at least for a while:) In terms of big stuff, there isn't major shopping to be done, except for a new car seat. We have the baby bucket and that will suffice for the first months, but we'll need to upgrade to a bigger seat at some point and Quinn still fits in his so we need another. We also need a high chair, as the second hand one we did use was already in some rough shape so we chucked it. Luke and Quinn should be at the school in a jiffy to pick me up from the school open house. Must run. Love my boys so very much!