Monster 1950's oven:

This is the replacement I got as a Mothers Day gift. It's a smooth top double oven...a beautiful piece of equipment!!

It is amazing how much more fun it is to cook dinner when cooking on this thing. The monster oven had four burners, but only two of them worked, and it took FOREVER to preheat the oven...if it preheated at all. And I think the last time it hit an accurate temperature was sometime around 1962. I can't really believe we hadn't trashed it sooner.

Baby update -
Eli is smiling and "talking" more than ever which puts a warm fuzzy smile on my soul. He is also crying much less which puts a warm fuzzy smile on my sanity. It is so wonderful to see him take an interest in things, show preferences, and make attempts at interacting. He loves when Pete reads stories to him at night. Pete is a natural when it comes to storytelling. I got hooked when we were dating, and now Eli is hooked. Also, Eli's favorite thing right now is bears. He has a mobile with bears over his changing table, and he smiles at these bears more than anything else. During a good cry session (...which we lovingly refer to as a visit from Mr. McWhaaWhaa - Eli's alter ego...) we'll take him to see the "three wise bears", and inevitably he will quit crying and start smiling at the bears...which will buy us a good ten minutes before more crying. But again, cry sessions seem to be fewer and farther between.

Some recent pictures -

Eli "talking" to daddy -

catching some afternoon z's on the couch -