Cruisin'

Gabe-Luke has been cruising around a lot more. For the first time today, he followed us around the apartment. It's really nice, because he doesn't get bored sitting in the same spot all the time; he can explore a lot more. It also means that we have to watch him very closely. He is pulling things off the refrigerator, pulling towels off the stove handle, and getting curious about those cabinet doors. Thank goodness he isn't taller, or we'd be nervous about the stove. It won't be long... While we were looking for a chocolate chocolate chip recipe on the computer (which me made even though much of the cookie dough never made it to the oven), we thought he was playing in the living room, maybe even watching TV. We didn't realize he was coming to see us (he never had before!) until we saw him leaning way over just outside the barn door and laughing. He quickly corrected his course and came right in, stopping for a second to make sure that the door was open all the way. That's what he's doing in the picture. Earlier, while Patty was exercising in the living room, he had come over to help hold the exercise ball. A few times during the day, he ran right into our legs while following us around.

He had another first today: he ate his first "just like the grownups eat it" non-processed, non-frozen, non-jar food. We have some overripe organic bananas, and he ate half of one. He didn't need a bib or anything, although when he got curious, we let him stick his hand in and mash the banana himself. When he was through with it, it was mushed perfectly for spoon-feeding. He loved it.

He also loved his homemade dinner. We now have frozen five kinds of food, all organic and homemade:

• sweet potatoes (for our little southern-born baby)
• peas
• Braeburn apples
• Bosc pears, and
• bananas.

He's eating more and more, and the supplies are dwindling almost as fast as we can make them! He's up to two meals a day now in addition to three times nursing and is ready for teething biscuits or Cheerios and maybe some meat. It seems like there's a new "first" every day.

We are huge fans of The Amazing Race, and we make an event of the show every Tuesday night in our household. Because of that, we are starting an AR7 Watch. Here is our first installment:

• Ryan and Chuck: These guys, who got kicked off last week, might have become our favorites if they'd lasted, because they were funny, kind, and hillbillies - all good things. Our prejudices were challenged when one of them started speaking Portugese. They are actually our age, but we thought that they were quite a bit older. We were a little teary that they came in last.
• Megan and Heidi: We were so happy that they lost today. There are a lot of likeable teams this time, which is a relief after last season, but they weren't one of them.
• Rob and Amber: We are really surprised that we like them, because we were ready to hate them. We're not sure why - probably because they've already won a million, maybe because of his accent... who knows?
• Ron and Kelly: We were ready to root for our "neighbor" and Miss South Carolina, but they're not working too well together. Kelly seems like a pain in the butt. You'd think that a pageant queen would have a better personality. And skin. (Ouch!)
• Lynn and Alex: They won't win, but we hope they come close. They're more fun (and gayer) than a barrel of monkeys. We like them a lot.
• Ray and Deana: Who? They seem like they might be this season's Bolo and Lori, or maybe the token argumentative couple.
• Uchenna and Joyce: We haven't seen enough of them, and they don't seem like they're going to last long enough for us to get to know them.
• Debbie and Bianca: Two people we'd never be friends with in a million years, not that they'd stop fawning all over each other long enough to notice anyone else...
• Meredith and Gretchen: Token older couple. We predict that they last two more weeks.
• Brian and Greg: Their stupid frat-boy routine is surprisingly funny. They seem pretty interesting, but they probably won't last another week.
• Susan and Patrick: Patrick doesn't seem too interesting, but his mom seems really likeable. They seem to make a great team. They could last a while.

We really want to be on a future season, so we're studying the show. We're already testing out our "tag". Maybe we'll be "Married Parents", or maybe "Married Aerospace Engineers." Maybe "Married Best Friends," because we'd definitely be the best at teamwork. We've noticed that there are certain types of teams in every show: the elders, the sometime-daters, the strong guys, the athletes, the models/famous people, the married couple, the African-Americans - we guess we'd be the married couple. Our current rules for success: always choose physical tasks because they're never that hard and always quicker, never work with animals because they never cooperate, and don't stress out over starting in the back of the pack, because there's always a closed museum or grounded plane that puts everyone back on equal footing. Oh, and learn Spanish. The next season is going to be families of four, so we're going to have to wait to apply. We think we would win if we were able to compete. Easily, ha ha.