Anders has been discovering the joys of food variety and I am on a constant quest to keep ants from devouring the leftovers. Two of his favorites are pasta with either tomato sauce or cheese and fruit. Mainly cherries.

I'm thinking that he is outgrowing the sink bathtub.

Well, I haven't posted much lately because we have been busy. My camera has been on low battery so I'm finally charging it to get some new pictures taken. Anders is getting so big and grown up and is looking more like a kid than a baby now. His hair is filling in so much and we are going to give him his first real haircut tomorrow if my schedule allows. I realized he needed one when I noticed a "bad boy tail" growing in. That's gotta go.
Some of the new things that he as been doing are saying "bye bye" although it sounds more like "ba ba" and he only says it when he wants not when the time is right. He also has hit the stage where he realizes what his muscles can do and he will clench everything up and his face gets all red. We call it "strong man". Today he discovered that his middle finger can "snap" at the knuckle and he spent a good five minutes with one hand up in the air "snapping" his finger up and down and watching with intensity. It was pretty funny to watch and Chris and I watched out of the corner of our eyes trying not to let him know he was being watched.
I'll post some more pictures soon. Probably of his first hair cut.

So today was an extremely hot day and Anders and I got to experience it fully while at the Santa Ana zoo. I woke up this morning and was antsy to get out and do something interesting. We've never taken Anders to the zoo and I wasn't sure if he was old enough yet to enjoy it. I did a little research and the Santa Ana zoo seemed small enough and interesting. (they have a little train that goes around the perimeter of the farm area.) It was all very exciting but really hot and muggy. Chris and I will probably take him back again soon on a cooler day!
When we got home we went for a swim which was extremely refreshing!

On another note one of the blogs that I read regularly has had a discussion going about a Southern Baptist seminary that is offering a 23 hour course on homemaking offered only to women. To get the whole article go here. Anyways, everybody is riled up about it and I have to say that the tone that it is presented in is distastefully legalistic and self-righteous (in my opinion). But it has made me think more about the subject especially because I am the primary house cleaner, cook and child caregiver in our home. I have noticed that even the women I know who work full time, take most of the responsibility of the home life on themselves. Now, most husbands that I know share some of the responsibilities around the house as well but that's not their primary focus.
As a side note, Chris and I were discussing this and he made an interesting observation that since the women's lib movement, the economy has grown and become dependent on two incomes and therefore much more expensive and difficult for the one income family. My sister Erin pointed out that we also have come to have higher standards of living. Thus making it difficult to make due when money gets tight. In my opinion this is directly related to the major problem of over spending and maxed out credit that much of America is dealing with now.

Anyways, after some thought I am of the opinion that the support and encouragement for wives to take homemaking more seriously is extremely important not just for the good of families but for the economy as well.
I believe that the tide has started to turn because frankly women are realizing that they are ones being shorted by going to work full time and having to come home and give undivided attention to kids, husbands and laundry. I haven't mentioned the problem of extra money shelled out for house keepers, babysitters/nanny's, gas, work clothes and pre-prepared convenience foods.
So, although I cringed a bit at the tone of the article, I really agree with what they are advocating. Teaching and encouraging women in the task that they will have whether they stay at home or work outside the home.

Well, as you can see Anders is missing Amelia. Actually I'm missing having the Mullins around and Anders is just amused with that cute little girl on mommy's computer!
Over the last couple of years I've had two cousins and their families and two sisters and their families move out of state. It's been a mass exodus from California and we understand but we don't necessarily like it! It seems like the trend lately. A lot of young families are moving out of state in search of affordable housing and a more relaxed way of life.
Although we are missing our extended family we have been enjoying spending more quality time with my parents and grandparents and seeing Anders get Grammy and Papa all to himself one day a week! He is getting a chance to really know his great grandparents in a way that Chris and I never did and we love that!

This Sunday turned out to be a pretty fun and special day at church. The couple in the picture below had a wedding after church and we all attended and celebrated with them. It was especially meaningful since he is a brand new christian and they have a 14 year old son already and the bride has a three year old daughter. It was truly a special and significant milestone for them and we were really blessed to be able to share that with them. The bride's daughter is Anders new best friend now. They are the only children at the church and Anders has taken quite a liking to the pretty little three year old. She really dotes on him and at one point during the day I glanced over and she was feeding him something! After taking a closer look I saw that it was just goldfish crackers and that Anders was quite enjoying them. After the service a friend of the groom pulled out a guitar and sang a song that he had written for the occasion. Anders was spellbound. The guy looked like a rock star with big blonde hair and very cool sunglasses and everyone commented on Anders reaction. He just sat there on all fours with his right arm lifted off the ground and a wide eyed stare. He didn't move the whole time the guy was singing. We were pretty amused!

Dance Baby Dance!


This has been Anders favorite activity the last couple of weeks. He LOVES music and we have one particular cd called "Baby Moves". It's basically alot of children's songs put to a rock/techno beat. He stands or sits next to the cd player the whole time the cd is playing. When the music gets especially wild sounding he looks at me with an expression of utter joy that says, "Wow! Could this get any more fun??"

Tonight was/is what I call a "Jonah night". Actually it started out pretty good and just in the last hour it has been a big pain. I went to see the new Harry Potter movie with a friend. Needless to say it is the first time in quite awhile that I have actually gotten to do something with a friend that doesn't involve babies. I was able to escape for just the movie and then I had to hurry back as soon as it was done to allow Chris to run an errand to Burbank.
When I got in the car and checked my phone messages there was one from Chris informing me that Anders had thrown up all over everything in his bed. He had taken care of it but all of the bedding and his special blanky needed to be washed. Now as most of you know I HATE doing laundry here at our apartment and I try and do it only once a week and just kill it. Lately it's been more annoying because it is so darn hot. Even in the evening when I have a chance to do it, it's still fairly warm outside.
I've had a few loads ready to go including all of the bedding from my bed so it was a good time to knock it out. Of course the whole time I'm counting out the last of our quarters and bumping the cart down the stairs and making my way to the laundry I'm feeling very frustrated. I want a break and there is none in sight. I know that I'll be staying up later then I want and I'll have to reassemble the bed when it's way past my bed time. (dwell, dwell, dwell dwell)
When all of the loads are in the washers I have one quarter left and so I'm trying to decide which load I want to put it in so it can have the three extra minutes of rinse time. I finally decide on the babies sheets and blankets and I drop the quarter in and.... it doesn't work! Arggggg my last quarter and that load needed the extra rinse too! It's sooo not fair! (dwell, dwell, dwell)
As I make my way back to the apartment with a black cloud floating over my head, I head up the stairs and.... I trip and fall. A scraped knee to add to my grumpy evening. For some reason it's worse to get hurt when you are already angry. It's almost insulting.
Anyways, now I'm waiting to make my way back down to transfer to the dryer. I already feel better with a little perspective.

I was sad to hear that Tammy Faye Baker died yesterday due to advanced colon cancer.
As much flack as she got over the years I saw her in a different light a couple of years ago when she was on a reality show called the "Surreal Life". I started watching the show because she was on it and it was really interesting how she interacted with the roommates on the show. She was a true example of Christian love and grace and you could see the affect it had on the whole season of the show. She didn't hide her Christianity and she talked about Jesus and scripture often. But she didn't judge or try to force everyone to believe like she did. She just showed love and lived what she believed. The other celebrities on the show respected and loved her back and I believe that they probably came away from that experience with a different view of God.
I came away from watching that show with a different view of God and humanity. All of a sudden my judgements of a person I had never met and who I always had dismissed as a shallow, fake, overly made-up, divorced, ex-wife of a con-man/preacher was a better example of Jesus than most people I had met in my 20 something evangelical years.
So, I'm glad that Tammy is finally with the Jesus that she loved and wanted others to love and I hope that I can someday, despite all of my imperfections, love others the way that Jesus loves them.

I am feeling very cooped up today! Lately instead of putting Anders down for a consistent nap I've been running around during the day. He usually falls asleep in the car and I get a change of scenery. We've been going to the library, the pet store, Target, anywhere I can think of to just get out. Now, there are a few bad things about this habit. The first is that I'm tempted to spend unnecessary money. The second is that I tend to eat fast food if I'm out during a meal time. The third problem is that Anders gets used to sleeping in the car not in his bed for naps. So he's been having major trouble napping if we happen to be home.
So I've devoted today to staying home during the major part of the day so that Anders will get two good naps and so I can do some much needed deep cleaning. It has been fairly productive. I've scrubbed the bathrooms and tidied the living room and this morning a 45 minute nap was accomplished and as of right now he's been asleep since 2:20 (it's 3:48)! Yay!
Tonight we'll pack a dinner and go check on my folks house since they're on a little vacation. I'll water their flowers and Anders can play with the special grandma toys. That will give us both something to do that doesn't cost money or clog arteries.

Well our new blog is off and running and hopefully Sister Heidi will be posting some stories of her own soon!
We had a great night with Heidi and Will on Saturday. They were staying with Will's parents about an hour away so we drove the distance to enjoy good fellowship and a B-B-Q. They left at 6pm on Sunday night and drove straight through all the way to Dallas! Crazy in my opinion but it worked and they supposedly arrived home last night around 7pm Dallas time.
Chris and I are about to walk out the door to get some breakfast at Denny's. Our goal is to see if we can keep our bill under 10 dollars. (is it ok to bring your own orange juice in a thermos?) Should be fun.

Erin and I were talking on the phone today and started recalling stories about growing up. We lived on a pretty busy street and there was always something happening from crazy people walking by (backwards) to loud fighting neighbors to accidents right in front of our house. We had cruisers blasting their loud bass stereos that would go by at all hours of the night and cop cars that would bust them. We would talk to people as they walked by and I remember that I struck up an acquaintance with a lady who collected cans really early in the morning. I would try to run out to the front yard to catch her when she walked by. I thought we really had a great friendship!
As Erin and I were recalling these stories we decided to start a blog with some of the experiences we had growing up in our house. Some of them will involve life on Beverly Blvd. and some will go beyond the border of our little picket fence oasis.
Here is the Link to picketfencestories.blogspot.com.

We had a great night last night watching fireworks at La Habra High school. Chris and I got to the stadium a little before 5:00 when the gates opened. We got a perfect spot right near the back for a speedy getaway! We (and Anders) were really glad to have my parents join us around 6:30. Anders loved the loud band that played most of the night and he clapped constantly. The fireworks were a little traumatizing but we made it through them! We'll see if another year helps that or makes it worse! I can't wait to see him really enjoy the excitement of fireworks.

I was relieved that the weather wasn't as bad as the anticipated 100 degree forecast. It was actually a little overcast part of the time which helped alot! We have been having some uncomfortably hot days with some humidity which is kind of unusual for L.A. It makes me glad that I don't live in Florida or some other wet and soggy place.

As a small America tribute I would like to refer to David Cho's blog.

I hope you all have a great 4th of July!

What a great weekend it has been with Heidi and Will and the fam visiting from Texas! Tonight we took Will and Heidi to our favorite local cheap Mongolian barbecue place. We had a great time visiting and Anders really took to Heidi! We have missed them since they moved last year.

The weather has been really hot and uncomfortable lately but Chris and I have been enjoying our community pool. Anders loves the water so it has become the best easy outdoors activity lately. There is nothing better than sitting next to a pool in the shade after a nice cool dip!

Cake Festivities!















And I'm..... done with cake.

Happy Birthday our little Anders! What a year it has been! From a jaundiced little preemie to a big healthy one year old. We are so thankful for every moment we have had this year with you!

We had an extremely busy weekend ending with a very nice evening at my parents house for a bar-b-Q last night. Anders was a total trooper through hours of driving and missing naps and going to bed late.
On Saturday night we drove out to Simi Valley to visit some good friends that are about to become parents any day. We wanted to see them before the craziness began. We got home around 11:30 and then got up early to drive out to Malibu for church. Going to church with Chris has been quite an event because we have to leave an hour before we need to be there and we need to be there about two hours before church starts so that he can set up the sound stage and work with the musicians and such. There is no nursery care so most of the service I am pacing around the building trying to find something for Anders to do. Anyways Sundays are always a production and yesterday was no exception. We were home for a couple of hours and then headed over to my folks house for a birthday/fathers day dinner. I turned 31 yesterday so I got to request the menu as is the Cox family custom. I chose barbecued ribs. Yum!
I found a horribly bright orange shirt that said "Worlds Greatest Dad" on it so Chris indulged me and wore it to dinner. =0)
Lately Anders has begun to show signs of becoming a certified "daddy's boy". He follows Chris all around the house and wants to be held whenever possible. Chris is a WONDERFUL dad and gives him lots of attention!

I had to post a blog just for the purpose of advertising my sister Erin's new web page.It is a support system for people with Crohn's disease. She has been pretty much symptom free since she started the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and she has been excited about sharing it with others. So if you know someone with Crohn's then send them her way!

Last week was a fun one with sister Erin visiting from Texas. On Thursday we went down to Malibu to look at the ocean. I also wanted to show Erin where we go to church. Chris was working on a project that day at the performing arts center that's located in the building with the church, so we were able to visit him as well. The next time I see her she will be a mom! We can't wait to meet the new little cousin.

I just returned from Erin's baby shower over at gma's. I can't wait to meet Erin's little guy come September! It's fun to see my little sister pregnant and happy and I know how much she will enjoy being a mom.
The last couple of weeks Chris and I have been talking about the need to move out closer to where Chris gets most of his work. He will possibly be working everyday in Sherman Oaks starting in late June and the commute can be pretty horrific. We've looked at the cost of apartments and houses (really expensive) and we've just kind of been waiting for the right opportunities to open up. One friend knows someone who may have a rental property somewhere on the other side of the San Fernando valley. Another friend is selling their mobile home in Malibu and we are seriously looking into that option. It's a two bedroom two bath with an office off of the master bedroom. There's a back, side and front yard that is surprisingly spacious and it comes with a ten person jakuzzie (totally usless in my opinion although I may take that back). There are a few obsticles that we are working through this week regarding this place and we will know pretty soon what we are able to do. We love the area of the mobile home community. It backs up to Malibu Creek state park and it's 10 minutes from Chris' Sunday job at the church. We would be so happy if it worked out. It's one of those things that is just close enough to hope for and yet isn't possible just yet.
I'm sure I'll write about it whether we get it or not.