Christmas Cards

We've become those people who put their kids on Christmas cards. I think we'll get a good ten years out of this. The above photos are some of the many out takes from the cards.

One of the things I enjoy most about Christmas is sending cards. It's a nice way to stay in touch with people you don't see often. Of course, our cards aren't lengthy novels, but more of a "I was thinking of you during the holidays' sort of thing. As I was flipping through the address book, I ran across the address of one of my old friends. I haven't seen or heard from her since college. The last time I saw her was the first time I'd seen her in many years. I've googled and looked for her on facebook, but it seems she's fallen off the face of the earth. The address I have for her is her parent's, and I'm not even sure they live there anymore. I've decided to send a Christmas card to her anyway, with a note because she obviously won't recognize my married name. I don't know if she'll reply or not, but I'd just like to let her know that I've been wondering what her life has become. It's so odd how easily we lose people in our lives.

The Cheerio Tax

It started slowly. First when Doug was about two months old he would just enviously watch me eat. Then at about three months old he started actively lunging at my plate. At four months old we finally started him on solids and he took to solids like a house on fire. Finally at six months we were told to offer him table food. Then that was the end, there was no going back.

I have not had a meal all to myself since Doug has started eating. He seems to think that he is entitled to a portion of all food on my plate. It doesn't seem to matter if its eggs over easy, a roast beef sandwich or the last slice of cheesecake, he needs to get his share in. However, the very worst thing to eat in his proximity is cheerios. He believes that cheerios are his own personal food. Every time I have a bowl he comes over, opens his mouth and hits whatever part of me is accessible (in case I over looked him some how) and then starts shrieking for a spoonful of cheerios. I estimate he usually gets about a quarter or less of my daily bowl of cereal.

There is one person in this house who seems to be exempt from food sharing. The other night, Jeff and I were finishing off the cheesecake while watching tv in the living room. Doug could see that we were each eating, but who did he stand next to and open his mouth for? That's right, Mommy. Some how Daddy is impervious to this tax.

I think tonight, in protest, I might dump a box of cheerios into Doug's bath. However, knowing him, he's just eat them.

Picture Palooza!

So, I finally got around to diggin up some pics to post from this fall:

This is the three of us in front of our townhouse.

The Boy Who Trick or Treated.



First homemade dinner in the new house, spaghetti and meatballs.



First bath in the new house. Also, the first and last bath in the sink. So much water everywhere...



And finally, when he turned eight months old.




Happy weekend!

Return to Normalacy

Finally three weeks after moving, we seem to be getting back into the swing of things. Last Friday we finally had our first home cooked meal, spaghetti and meatballs. Saturday we got to the grocery store and planned a week's worth of meals. Sunday we finally got back to church. All in all, I think we're getting back on track, just in time for it all to go crazy again for the holidays! Sigh.

I'm really not ready for it to be Christmas yet. I just can't seem to find the Christmas spirit this year. I would like to postpone Christmas at least 2 months. Usually all my shopping is done by Thanksgiving. I don't like to go to the mall and crowded stores after Thanksgiving, over heated stores and long lines aren't great for me. So I'm a little stressed out about that. We also haven't completely unpacked, so finding the Christmas decorations is a bit problematic. We'll be driving to Kansas City on the 18th, so we'll have even less time to shop. I'm really looking forward to going to Kansas City for Doug's first Christmas. The holiday with my in-laws tends to be a little more laid back. They also don't get to see Doug much, so I'm excited we'll be there for Christmas. My mom thinks Doug will be walking by then, but I think he'll need another month. It will be a busy December!

In other news, I'm obsessed with our new DVR. When we moved we just transferred our Verizon service to the new house, but we couldn't take any of the equipment, which seems stupid. We had to get an HD DVR even though we don't have HD tv. Well, because it's an HD DVR it's 80 gigs. It holds an absurd amount of tv. Right now, we have two work weeks (80 hours) worth of recordings, and we haven't even used 40% of the memory yet! I've been recording so many movies. I'm not sure we'll even watch them all. It's really nice to be able to record things and not worry about how much room we have.

Jeff just got our server back up, so when I get a chance to upload new pics, I will post some.

Hey there!

Howdy!

So I haven't posted in a while. It's been a rather busy month! My fibromyalgia symptoms began to improve just as we were starting to get ready to move. So, that worked out quite well. I had the energy to pack as well as the time, so that's what I was doing. And every time Doug went down for a nap, I took a break myself, so there were few opportunities to post. So, let me see if I can fill you in on what's been going on.

We moved. It wasn't a major move, we just moved across a major road into a single family community (we'd lived in a 2br townhouse). We bought a house with four bed rooms, one of which will be a guest room and another which is a computer room, for now at least. I have to say, I rather enjoy having a computer room/office. We also have a house with one main floor and a basement, which my fibro greatly appreciates. It's nice to not be going up and down the stairs all the time (the last house didn't have a bathroom on the main floor). There's a full bathroom downstairs with the guestroom, which will be great for my in laws. We also finally got a baby gate. We hadn't put one up in the old house because we wanted to wait until we moved and we thought it would be annoying to show a house with one. The gate is between the kitchen and the dining room, which cuts Doug off from the stairs and the kitchen.Consequently Doug will pull himself up on the gate and scream when we're in there. We have our own wailing wall!

So Doug. The milestones seem to be flying by for him. At about 6 months he was pulling himself up and about a week before we moved he had started really cruising around. Now he's unstoppable. He prefers to try and cruise around the living room rather than play with his toys. We had so many boxes and such that he was able to circumnavigate the living room on his feet. He loves to walk around the coffee table, around and around. I don't know how many laps in a day he does, but I'm considering getting him a pedometer. I swear he's going to wear a rut around the coffee table. The other day Jeff noticed that Doug always goes around the coffee table clockwise. We attribute that to the fact that he seems to be pretty dominantly right handed- when he goes around the corners, he can hang onto the table with his right hand. If he feeds himself, he usually uses his right hand. If you give him something in his left, he usually passes it to the right. I didn't think handedness showed up so early. I'm not terribly surprised he's a righty, I'm pretty dominate with my right hand too. This Friday Doug will be 8 months old. We've been eating out a lot (the kitchen hasn't been unpacked yet) and ordering for Doug off the kid's menu. The portions are of course too much, but he does a good job of it. I wish restaurants had a toddler's meal in addition to the kid's menu. I think its silly that they price and portion the same meals for toddlers as well as twelve year olds!

Anyway, that's all for now. I've got a horrible head cold and want to crawl back into bed (Doug is with my mom today). I'll try to post some pics later this week.

Trouble

Doug is now officially mobile. He prefers to use a commando style crawl instead of a more typical crawl. I'm not sure why, we don't regularly have barbed wire or missiles in the house. Better safe than sorry I suppose.


This was the scene about a week ago:

I'd put him in his crib so that I could take a shower. He's now outgrown the bouncer and the swing, so my options for baby containment while I shower are now more limited. Anyway, I left him sitting up in his crib while I went into our room to get a rattle for him. He was quite pleased with himself, to say the least. He was very smiley when he saw me from over his crib rail. Since he could not get himself sitting up on his own, I left him in there on his back. Later that night I had Jeff lower the mattress for the first time. Sadly, he was not done.

Later that week we tarped off an area of our living room: The Destruction Zone.



We had to do it. Now that Doug is mobile, and interested in every nook and cranny of our living room, we needed to protect the carpet from the roaming spit up machine. We need it to be clean until the buyer does her final walk through. This seemed like an elegant solution to our problem, that is of course until he gets bored with his toys and wanders off. Sunday night we were straightening out the tarp and decided (like the responsible parents we are) to put Doug in the middle of the tarp and swing him (gently) around in it. Of course he loved it and was laughing and giggling as he rolled to and fro. Then he sat up. All. By. Himself. So we put him on the floor and on his back. He did it again and again. So, now we have a mobile baby that can sit himself up and pull himself up on the furniture. Game over. He's no longer allowed to be left alone, anywhere!

Yesterday I again put Doug in his crib while I took a shower. He was crying when he realized he'd been cruelly abandoned in his crib. Before I got in the shower, I noticed he has stopped crying. I poked my head out the door and heard happy and contented cooing. Which could only mean one thing: he was happy with himself because he was up to no good. So I looked in and saw this:


He probably can't climb over, and we can't lower the crib anymore. So for now, it'll have to do.

This is what I did today:

He very happily played there until he fell asleep. Standing up.

As he grows, I imagine I will have to come up with more and more creative ways for baby-tainment while I shower

And Life Keeps Moving

Life keeps moving on. We've been playing with my medication, trying to find a happy spot with it. The medication was taking nearly all of the pain away, but more than doubling my fatigue (which is why posts have been scarce). We've cut back my dose, which brings back some of the pain, but eases the fatigue a bit. So we'll see what happens.

In other health related news, I've started yoga. It's not typical yoga. It's yoga for chronic illness, so many things have been modified. I'm taking the class with a friend and there's a mix of women in the class. Every one seems very nice and most people have taken the class a few times before. My first class was last night and I ended up feeling very relaxed and energetic after class. I'm hopeful that after this class I'll be able to build up to something like swimming.

So onto house news. We are under contract! Our house is under contract and we should be under contract with the house we're buying by the end of this weekend! We didn't think it was going to happen, but all of the sudden a buyer came along and hopefully in the first week of November we'll be moved!

Douglas James is such a different baby now! He's sitting up now and is quite content to be left to himself to play on his play mat. Before this, after about 5 minutes on either his back or stomach he'd start screaming. He's also scooting. He moves, on his tummy, kind of like an inch worm. In fact, right now he's scooted off his mat and towards a chair leg, which he's gnawing on. He's also got two bottom teeth coming in and seems more determined than ever to chew on things. His eyes are still blue, and at this point, I'm thinking they're going to stay that way. I was so sure our baby would have Jeff's brown eyes, brown being a dominant color. We're also retiring the bumbo, the bouncer and the swing. He can nearly climb or twist out of them all. So now he's a free range baby!

Well, I think that pretty much bring this week up to speed!