Bloomin' Algae

When we first arrived in Fort Worth, we were distressed to find that our faucets streamed pond water. I suppose a more accurate description would be that the tap water tasted and smelled suspiciously like pond water. Since I am still breastfeeding, and I pretty much assume that any toxins I consume will drop Miles' IQ a few points or inflict untold damage on his endocrine and other important systems, I naturally investigated the cause of said water funk.

According to the official City of Fort Worth water guru, the water in Fort Worth is perfectly safe to drink, and the odd taste and smell can be attributed to "algae blooms" in local reservoirs. Is that all? I thought public officials were only supposed to tell us things that make us feel safe and cozy. I do not feel cozy when I imagine the water pictured above flowing from my tap! That guy must not be elected.

Aside from the nastiness of my mental image, the water really was unpalatable. We had been drinking lots of milk and bottled water until this week, when we noticed that the water tasted decidedly less like a pond. This is great news because there is just something un-American about not being able to drink your own tap water. We still drink a lot of milk.

I gave blood today.

Well, just a little. My stats from my doctor's appointment:

Height: 27 1/4 inches (75%ile)
Weight: 17 pounds 15 ounces (50%ile)

It was strange that everyone at the doctor's office kept calling mom "Gary", but I also thought it was odd that she didn't correct anyone. Adults.

Dopey Roper

If only Dopey weren't such a horrible nickname. . .

Miles has the big blue eyes, bald head, pokey ears, super smile, sweet disposition, inability to speak, and small stature of none other than Dopey Dwarf.

Howdy, y'all!

We Ropers are enjoying our new Texas home. Our apartment is large, nice, and bright. We have enjoyed exploring FW and have checked out some great museums, the old stockyards district, Ikea, the botanic gardens, the flea market, the Country Market grocery store (a destination in and of itself), and some restaurants and tortilla factories. We still need to visit the awesome zoo, but the heat has been a deterrent.

Dr. Gary's first rotation is surgery, and although busy, it is not as bad as he feared it would be. He's doing a great job, and he is convinced that Fort Worth is still the Wild West due to all of the gunshot and stabbing victims he sees every day.

Miles has developed a few new tricks recently.

1. He scoots all over. Not a crawl nor an army crawl, but his own unique mode of locomotion learned about four weeks ago.
2. Miles started eating baby food at about 5.5 months old (a month ago). He had been very interested in food for weeks so we decided to let him take the leap. Turns out he's a little omnivore. He hasn't turned anything down, and he is very calm and still when we feed him. It seems he doesn't want to interfere with the process; he wants his food as quickly and efficiently as possible!
3. He has a third tooth on the bottom as of last week. I am pleased with this development as I prefer odd numbers to even, and asymmetrical mouths are much funnier than symmetrical mouths.
4. On Monday, Miles decided that standing is way cooler than laying down or sitting so he started pulling himself up on the TV stand, grunting and puffing all the way up. He practices his new skill at every opportunity, which requires us to actually pay attention to the little bugger because he has no way down but to fall.
   
5. Miles squeals with delight when he sees pictures of himself on the computer screen.
6. Miles loves to read books.

We are quasi-settled in here. There remain numerous boxes full of mysterious contents of undetermined origin for which it is difficult to find places. The goal is to deal with those by the 16th because we will have been here one month and I'm afraid that if I don't set a hard deadline, our nice apartment will look like a refugee camp until we move out.