Lots of fun things

We made this 16" cake for our friends Randal and Evie's wedding. It slightly resembled a cut tree when it was complete. It was crazy to do and also fun. (We are not cake decoraters!)

My sweet boys dressed all nice-y for the wedding. Royal did really well during the ceremony which we were both a little nervous about. It was a beautiful day to be wed.

Labor Day! We spent 4 hours at Cherokee Park with friends eating cheese and crackers and drinking Malbec out of plastic cups! It was a real nice time. Here is Izaak being a small spider monkey climbing on Tyler. 

Farmer Groces showed up later after some hard work (servers and farmers dont get a labor day). It almost appears as Royal is the one taking the photo, but nope, he just has a big head. 

Yea! We got to go to a real fancy dinner with Luke and Katherine sans Royal. It was a last minute surprise that we had someone to watch the little guy. I had lots of fun eating octopus, chicken liver pate and pork jowl as well as Gnocchi and cornmeal fried okra. 

We got up and out one morning...took our coffee to go to Cherokee Park of course. I joked that we should have made Royal's middle name Cherokee instead of Oakland because we go there so much. He likes being in his sling looking all around at the trees and leaves. It is sweet.

First time in a park swing.

We got a surprise visit from Royal's great-uncle Art of Florida. We got to have lunch at Flanigan's with Art as he was passing through. I hadn't seen him in 9 years so it was nice to catch up.

I am learning different ways of presenting food to Royal. Pureed foods are not totally necessary and probably are not the exciting of a texture anyway. And I have learned that you may as well teach them to feed themselves right away since you will have to eventually. So, I have tried cutting up carrots real small and mashing them a bit with a fork and putting them on his tray. Right now he  mostly just yells at the carrots and smashes them around but every once in awhile he will get some in his mouth. I am looking forward to him trying new yummy foods but keeping him breastfed as well for some time yet. A good book that I found through Passionatehomemaking.com is Real Food for mother and baby by Nina Planck. She pretty much just talks about feeding your baby what you are eating (as long as it is good for you of course) and making sure that they are getting fats from fish, meat and healthy oils like coconut and olive. 

By the way, Royal is 6 months old! Whew, God has really blessed our family through this stage. I am still able to stay home and can't imagine being anywhere else: learning patience over and over again! I am happy that this is all a process that will not end. There is always room for growth.