Dip It!

My husband is well known in certain circles for his propensity to "dip it" when on water skis. This "move" entails a one hand rope hold while the other hand carelessly skims the top of the water as he rides along. Whenever we are on a lake and he takes to the skis, cries of "dip it" can be heard from the boat for the duration of his turn. My son appears to be trying to follow in his daddy's footsteps, although his technique of "dipping it" requires a completely different set of circumstances. For my son, "dipping it" is all about the food.

This pregnancy (yes, for anyone who doesn't know, I am three months along!!!) has found a much more nauseous Amy than my previous pregnancies, so cold foods have been better for me than hot. Recently, I hit upon the idea of veggies and dip to go along with the fruits I have been consuming on a regular basis. So, I pulled out the standard sour cream/onion veggie dip my family has used for years and made up a batch. Oh, but if I had known the consequences....

It turns out that Robby loves dip. If he hears the word, he will go stand by the refrigerator and whine "diiiiiiip." If that is not effective quickly, he will try to drag whichever parent is close by to obtain said item of dip.

While he usually will eat some of the veggies that accompany the dip, often the dip becomes the main item of interest. Note in the picture the forlorn carrots on one side of the tray while the dip is being transferred directly to his mouth via spoon.

While a visit to Rio Mambo's last night proved that this dip is not the only dip that can satisfy my little dipper, I thought I would share the recipe because it is so easy and so good:

Harris Family Veggie Dip:

16 oz sour cream

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder

4 tsp minced onion

2 tbs parsley flakes

Mix together and enjoy! I mostly eat it just on veggies but Bryan likes it with chips too.

Loving My City (or Spring Break, part 2)

So, just in case anyone does not already know this, Bryan and I think we live in one of the greatest cities in America. We love the atmosphere of Fort Worth, and we love the many things that the city offers its residents and visitors. Now that the weather is starting to cooperate, we are taking advantage of a little bit of what we love. I have lots of pics, so I will keep my text short:

The Fort Worth Zoo:

This is the oldest zoo in Texas, and from what I have seen, it is also the best. We bought a membership and intend to visit often. One of my favorite exhibits is always the lonely lion without his mate and cubs. You can often hear his roars from all over the zoo, and he did not disappoint while we were there this time either:

The Botanic Gardens:

They are always so beautiful, and for $0, you can't beat the price! Plus, it is so fun to watch people here. I saw a couple who were obviously taking their engagement pictures, and the poor man looked so harassed and exhausted that I fear for him after they are actually married :) Robby loved the turtles and the ducks in the pond. Next time we will take bread to feed them.

Of course, maybe his favorite thing to do was to play on this bicycle stand. A lady walking by laughed and said that the youngest of us know how to take the most pleasure out of the smallest things and that we should learn from their example. I think she is right.

Monticello Park:

This is our neighborhood park and is only half a mile from our house. In good weather we go several times a week, and it almost feels like a part of home at this point to us. Here are some pics of all of us playing and having fun:

Hulen Mall:

Okay, so this is not a national treasure or anything, but we went to get Robby some new shoes (poor guy measured in at over a size 6 and was still in size 5's), and he loved playing in the new play area. So, I thought I would post a pic of that as well:

Of course, Sundance Square is one of my all time favorite locations, and we did not hit that up this week. But, I plan to be there sometime the weekend of April 17-19th for the Main Street Arts Festival, and then in May, we will hit up Mayfest as well. These should be doubly fun this year with Robby old enough to enjoy the children's activities.

Spring Break Fun

So last night I spent what has amounted to a traditional night for every holiday break that I get. I curled up on our bathmat until 1:15am reading a book. Why, you might ask? Well, the book was really interesting, and I knew by 11:00pm that I would not be going to sleep before reading the last couple hundred pages. So, I took a bath and read, but eventually I was tired of the bath, so then I got out and dressed and sat by the tub and read. I could not go to bed and read because I didn't want to wake Bryan with the light, so I stayed in the bathroom on my cozy bathmat. (Good thing I splurged for that super plush one!)

Isn't that what Spring Break is for though--doing fun stuff you can't do during the rest of the year? What, no one else counts reading on a cold bathroom floor as one of their top ten fun things to do during Spring Break? Anyone? No, it's just me? Whatevs.

TV and Children

When Robby was at that golden age where he could sit up on his own but was not yet mobile, we went through a brief stage of watching Baby Einstein videos. I don't think he was ever really all that fascinated with them, but he would occasionally turn his attention to whatever image was on the television. Even then, I fought battles with myself over the wisdom of allowing him to watch TV. I do believe that some television for children can be a valuable teaching tool, but I am also quite aware of how addictive it can be and what a negative presence it is in the lives of many children.

As soon as Robby became mobile, he lost all interest in the television and part of me was greatly relieved. We didn't even try to get him to watch any TV again until we drove to Houston this Christmas. We brought our portable DVD player and put The Grinch in for him to watch. No going. Completely uninterested.

So then, sometime early this year, we had the idea that if we wanted the TV on when Robby was around, we would put in Planet Earth since it is educational and has animals in it. Not surprisingly though, Robby really didn't pay too much attention to that either. He would watch a minute or so every once in a while, but he definitely wasn't enthralled.

Then, one day a couple weeks ago when I was utterly exhausted and Bryan wasn't going to be home until after Robby was in bed, I made a decision to put on the movie Cars, which we'd had for a while but never actually watched. Robby was immediately riveted. He climbed into my lap and watched the show for about 30 minutes, until it was bedtime. Now, Robby is not the snuggliest of children, so I enjoyed this very much. I told Bryan about the success, and so a couple of days later when it was a cold Saturday and Robby had pretty much run the house ragged, we put it in again and picked up where we had left off. He loved it as much or more this time. Now, he periodically brings us the remote control and demands Cars with a zooming hand motion to indicate he wants to see the fast races.

I am very torn by this new development. Like any parent, the idea of a few minutes reprieve where I know my child is being still and not getting into something is nice, but I don't want television to ever become a primary feature of his childhood. I also know that his interest in TV will only grow as he gets older and that this is now going to be a part in our lives. So, I am looking for any recommendations or advice on how to best balance the role that television will play in his life.