How to amuse a baby (and yourself) when your husband is out of town...

- take your new car out for a spin, of course! We took our first jaunt to the grocery store today in the Mazda. The one down side of the new ride is less trunk space, but we were pretty spoiled with Wanda the wagon and her colossal sized trunk

- take your new car out for a spin (oops, already did that, ha ha) to the car seat clinic to make sure your car seat is correctly installed in new car (they really should write a car seat installation for dummies manual)

- take a bath together - we don't do this often, but it was pretty fun, as long as Lexi doesn't pee in the tub like she usually does. By the way, naked soapy babies are very, very slippery!

- take a walk around the good ol' neighborhood while the sun is shining. Wave hi at familiar barking dogs and old men trimming their hedges for the second time in the past week

- meet friends for coffee and take advantage of dinner invites to other people's houses so I can avoid eating Mini Raviolis out of the can (OK, I don't actually eat them out of the can). Why cook for one?

- spend too much money at Costco, and if I can stomach it, Metrotown (while Daddy is away, the Amex will play, mwwwwwwwwaaah!)

- go to bed really early and not worry about being 'social' with your significant other. By early I mean 8:30pm. Boy I'm old.

- try to snap a picture of Lexi standing unassisted, which she has been doing for about a week now, but for some dang reason, refuses to do when the camera is out and ready to go

- try new foods - this past week or so, Lexi has tried mango (LOVES it), broccoli, cantaloupe and egg yolk (this one was a big YUCK). And OK, I'll admit to giving her a crumb or two of Hayden's birthday cake this past weekend

- spend lots of time on Google chat with Daddy

Doug won't be gone nearly as long as he was for the China trip, so hopefully Lexi won't decide to cut more teeth like she did the last time Daddy left town, and we'll be just fine!