Some pictures for Kara

Yeah! Pictures! He's getting too busy to smile for pictures, but he's still a cutie. We have lots of fun. We play peek-a-boo around the house, tickle games, and sometimes he likes to roll a ball back and forth. He always enjoys hitting his ball and chasing it around the house. Curtis plays a really fun "blast off" game with him. He says, "Three... two... one... Blast Off!!" and throws William up in the air, and after a couple of times, he says "Three... two... one... *exploding sound!*" and lets William fall down fast almost to the floor. William LOVES this game and laughs every time. Whoever is watching Curtis laughs too!

Almost a year

William's birthday is in a few weeks. I'm trying to remember to sing Happy Birthday every day so he'll like the song.

He's a big boy now. He can reach the doorknobs and the edge of the kitchen counter. He is very interested in any kind of door or drawer. This morning he opened up a cabinet in his room, took out a cuddly blanket, closed the cabinet and fell on the blanket to snuggle. Cute. He likes to stand up and push things down the hall. His favorites are his car and the laundry basket. He loves the elephants in his room. He wants to go around the room and visit all the elephants, touch their eyes, and say, "eh, eh, eh." We do this at least twice a day.

He eats a ton. I thought it would be five years before he ate as much as me, but we probably eat about the same amount of food right now! William might eat more! It's crazy. He likes to try to eat with a spoon, but he licks it like a popsicle. He also likes to drink out of an open cup, after he puts his big hand in and splashes around a little... We almost always use a sippy cup.

He takes one nap a day and sleeps at night from 7-7. It's nice.

This week we have a play date with Aunt Elizabeth, coffee date with a mom from church, and probably another zoo trip. I love going to the zoo! They have two baby jaguars right now that are either precious and sleepy or running around trying to attack their mom. I feel like that momma jaguar and I have some things in common.

Almost NINE months!

I had a sudden urge to blog. I know, this is an unusual urge for me to have. But I'm really missing my friends from Abilene, and I know some of you read this. (Shout out to Kara in Virginia! I miss you!)

William is figuring out things fast! He started crawling right before Christmas and in the last week he's started pulling up, feeding himself and he's down to two naps a day. What a big boy! It's funny that I feel so proud and moved when I watch him pick up a square piece of Chex cereal and bite off a corner. I also love it every time he helps me turn a page in a book we're reading. I'm so happy when he splashes and laughs in the tub. And I'm even a little proud that he's figured out how to pull his hats off so quickly.

His other recent accomplishments include:
learning how to open the CD player in his room and take out the CD,
pulling up on everything (chairs, window sills, a wall),
pulling books and DVDs off the shelves,
drinking from a cup if someone helps him,
pushing his arms into his sleeves when I'm dressing him,
giving hugs and open-mouth kisses (mostly to himself in the mirror)

One time he was chewing on the drawstring on Curtis's sweatshirt and he held it up to Curtis's mouth so he could "take a turn" then took the drawstring and pointed it in my direction. That's the only time we've seen him wanting to share so far. :-)

Of course he's very handsome. He's getting a little hair on his head. And he's tending to get more bumps and scratches also. He's wearing 12-18 month clothes and pajamas, and weighs 20+ pounds.

At the zoo (so happy to have a membership!!) the fish are his favorite. Maybe because I let him out of his stroller and he get to crawl around. He also likes to look outside, watch cars drive by, and "work" on the computer.

Three or four weeks ago I started a business as a Tastefully Simple Independent Consultant! (I know, "What is that??") Tastefully Simple makes gourmet food products that only require one or two ingredients. It's good stuff, fairly affordable - the average price is $7 - and yummy. So, my job includes booking taste-testing parties, passing around 18 or so samples at the party, then ordering clients products. So far, so good! I'm SO happy to have something to work on besides diapers, dishes and dirty laundry! I'm also VERY glad to have more opportunities to spend time with adults. But really, the extra income is the reason I got into it. Check it out at TastefullySimple.com and let me know what you think! If you're in driving distance I'd love to do a party with you, or if you think you'd like some of products, I can also help you with that. Right now my favorite things are the Bountiful Beer Bread, Corn Black Bean Salsa, and the Key Lime Cheeseball Mix!

This weekend I'm going to a conference in Dallas to check out the new Spring/Summer products and meet other consultants from the Southwest Region. I'm excited about wearing work clothes, being in a meeting, and learning some new stuff! Mom is going to be staying at the hotel with me and keeping William entertained. Here's one of my recent favorite quotes from Mom, "William, do you like watching the cars? Do you wish you could drive one? You can drive my car!" Silly Grandmas.

Also have to mention the awesome gift Curtis gave me this Christmas. It's a drawing by our good friend, Katrina Willis, and it's wonderful! It's a "family tree" theme, and it shows Curtis and I starting our family with William. I LOVE IT! And I'm so happy that Curtis and Katrina brought this drawing into existence and I get to keep it in my house! Also, props to Hannah for taking the pictures that Katrina used to do the drawing!

Belle Baby Carrier

I have a baby carrier that I love. It's a contraption made of a waist strap, a big pocket for William, and two shoulder straps that cross in the back. The whole thing is made of fabric, so I can roll it up and put it in my diaper bag. I can carry William facing in or out, and it's comfortable for both of us. I use it at the grocery store, Elizabeth's volleyball games, the library, Target... pretty much anywhere that I'm going to be standing up or carrying William up and down stairs. It's much easier than his car seat.

We get a lot of comments that go something like, "Well that's the life!" and "Must be nice to be carried around all day." Some days we don't get many comments, and other days we get lots of crazy ones. Here's a few of my favorites:

3 year old boy at Target:
"MOM!!! That baby is HANGING there!! MOM!!!"

Young woman at Target to her 2 year-old girl:
"Look at that baby. Poor baby. Poor, poor baby. You used to be a baby. Poor baby."

Old lady at HEB:
"Well that baby is just precious. Look at him riding in that! Have you taken a picture of him? You should take a picture of him."

Man in an elevator at the Dr. office:
"Just like hangin' in a tree! Now he knows what it's like to hang in a tree! Just like hangin' in a tree..."
I guess that makes me a tree.

Cashier:
"I guess you liked carrying him in your belly for 9 months?"
"Excuse me?"
"You're still carrying him on your belly!"

Lady at HEB:
(after a long conversation about how William must be a magician because he apparently makes his nose boogers come out of his eye)
"Now, I ride motorcycles and that would be the perfect way to ride with my new niece!"
I reply with stunned silence thinking about how illegal and dangerous that would be.
"How much does one of those things cost?"
"This one was $90."
"Oh! That's expensive! Can I buy yours from you?"
"No. I'm keeping this for a long time. We have to go."

November

Things are good. William's still working on crawling. He's getting better at getting up on his hands and knees, and he's started rocking back and forth. I'm glad that babies grow gradually.

I think last November I went to a study abroad conference in Merida, Mexico. My favorite part was sitting in pretty curly-iron chairs eating coconut ice cream at a 100-year-old ice cream shop on the main square of the city. This November I'm blending batches of sweet potato and cleaning light blue lint out of the dryer filter. Probably just as sweet.

Halloween was good. William was a dino and we went to Elizabeth's volleyball game with all four grandparents. Bill stood up and cheered in the aisle, Karen held William until he fell asleep (then Curtis took over), I got to sit by my mom, and my dad wore earplugs. I think everyone watched William as much as they watched the game. The coaches daughters, an angel and a fairy, came by and gave William a bag of candy; his first trick or treat candy. Like good parents, we ate it all for him.

Curtis has had a busy school week. He had a test on Thursday, quiz on Friday and test today, Monday. His math symbols look like another language (I guess it is). Most of it is math shorthand, and I definitely cannot read it, much less understand what it all means.

I'm sure there's dino pictures on facebook, I haven't had time to look. Here's a couple that we got:

update

William's doing awesome. He's 5 months old, has 5 teeth (three bottom and two top ones are on their way), and will probably be army-crawling in the next week or two. He loves to smile at his daddy. He's still sleeping through the night, and he's a happy, sweet baby. We started feeding him rice cereal this week, but it's mostly breast milk. He likes to "eat" or move his mouth around when other people are eating. Funny.






Tommy ripped his dew claw when he was running, so we all trooped down to the vet and got it wrapped up. It looked cool.

Stay-At-Home Mom

I'm enjoying living on my own schedule.

The first day that Curtis went to school, I was antsy. I spent about three hours moving William from room to room, swing, cradle, crib, floor mat, lap, repeat. I didn't know what I should be doing with my day. I didn't know when it was ok to take a shower, check the mail, or take out the trash, because I didn't have Curtis around to keep an eye on the William and Tommy duo.

But I'm figuring things out and this week is going really well. William sleeps a lot in the mornings, so I'm able to work on things. Yesterday, before The Price Is Right, I washed the Blazer with a hose and a sponge! I don't remember the last time that car was washed!

Today I replaced our broken toilet seat, and that was really a tough job! I don't know how much you know about the mechanics of toilet seats, but their held onto the porcelain thrown by screws, and those screws have big plastic nuts on the underside of the toilet. So, my toilet seat had rusty, corroded screws, and the nuts WOULD NOT screw off. The attempted unscrewing involved me sitting sideways on the toilet seat, with my head between my knees, trying to use pliers to unscrew the crazy nut. After an hour, I had an almost shredded piece of plastic that had moved down the screw a centimeter, with maybe 5 centimeters to go. That's when the Dremmel and safety goggles came out. Power tools are pretty cool. Since the nut was a little ways down the screw, I could get the dremmel in there and cut through the nut on two sides, then pull off each half with the pliers. Awesome! The other untouched nut was harder to cut since it was right up against the toilet, and this side of the toilet is closer to the wall. But I got the dremmel in there and figured if I could cut/melt off a big chunk of the nut, I could rip the rest off. Flying hot plastic pieces and several sparks later, I was able to rip off that crazy nut!! hahaha! I seriously ran two victory laps around the house with my hands up in the air. I've saved what's left of the nuts and I'll carry them around in my purse for a while, so please ask to see them! :-)