Funny How Things Turn Out

This weekend, Aaron and I traveled north of Seattle to the home of my best friend from high school, Athena, and her boyfriend Tony. Athena and I have been friends since the third grade! I still can't get over the fact that we not only live in the same state, but we only live an hour apart! When she left Missouri after graduating from high school to go to college in North Carolina and with my moving all over God's green earth because of the Air Force, I thought that we would keep in touch but most likely hardly ever see each other. However, about a year ago during one of our monthly phone calls, she told me that she had just been offered a job in the Seattle area and would be moving here! Yahoo! So now we get to see each other about once a month instead of just talking on the phone! Tony and Athena are so great with Aaron; we love spending time with them!

Please, Daddy, Can We Join The Y?

I Can See The Wheels Turning...

Aaron! Leave Reagan alone!
What's that, Mommy? I'm not doin' anything!
I think I wanna grab her tail!
Maybe I'll just eat it!
Or maybe I'll just give it to Reagan to eat! Aren't I a nice boy?
I really like her tail and I also would like to grab her face! Will she mind?

See, Mommy? We're best friends!

We're Getting There!

I have decided again to try to teach Aaron how to drink out of a sippy cup. I had tried to start this a couple months ago when I started him on solids, but he thought the sippy cup was just a toy. Now he at least knows that the spout actually goes in his mouth, even though I don't think he gets that something is supposed to come out of it. I've been trying to work on it with him by first putting his pacifier in his mouth and have him suck on it a few times, then yank it out and stick the sippy cup spout in, hoping that he'll continue the sucking motion and figure out that something will actually come out of the spout. So far, this doesn't seem to be working but I know persistance is the key at this age!

The Great-Grandchildren

While Aaron and I were in Missouri, we drove down to see my cousin Wendy and her two boys, Quinton and Ethan. Her mom, my Aunt Julie, was also there visiting. All of the great-grandchildren on my mom's side of the family were together again and we were finally able to get a picture of all of them. Wendy actually just gave me the great news that she and her husband Joe are expecting their third little one! She is due in October. This will be the sixth great-grandchild! So awesome!

From left to right are Ethan and Quinton (Wendy's boys), my Aaron and Emilie holding Stiehl (my sister Bethanie's kids).

Here is the first attempt at the group picture. It belongs on the blooper reel!

Ethan, turn around and look at the camera! Aaron, let go of Quinton!!

Here are pictures of our Granny and Poppy (both holding Aaron):

I Detect A Theme Here...

Lisa and I took the kiddos shopping on Tuesday and Aaron came out like a bandit. We found some good sales on winter clothes since all the summer stuff is starting to come out (which works well for us since it's long-sleeve weather around here until at least May). I got this cute onesie at Old Navy. Can you read what it says? Yeah, and he knows it too. He likes to flash that smile at all the ladies!

Official Makeup Bag Holder

Everyday when I get ready (O.K., everyday that I take a shower, which isn't everyday exactly), Aaron sits by me and rummages through my makeup bag as if it's the best toy on the planet. Could I be scarring him for life by letting him play with makeup? Naw, I'm just teaching him how to be helpful to the ladies (said in my best Tim Meadows' Ladies' Man voice).

Look, Daddy, I Feel Better!

Wait, what could that be on Aaron's face? A smile?! No way; it can't be! I thought he forgot how to do that!

Baby's First Power Outage

Last Friday, the area where we live had a pretty bad windstorm that knocked out power for 40,000 people, including us. We didn't have power from about 3:30 in the afternoon until midnight; all of this during the coldest week in recent history. To keep warm, Daddy had a great idea to have a camp-out in the middle of the living room! We got the mattress off the spare bed and put it in the middle of the floor, set up the Pack 'N Play for Aaron and moved Reagan's kennel in with us as well. Daddy figured how to manually switch on our gas fireplace which actually ended up putting out a lot of heat, so we were all warm and toasty! It was a lot of fun!

Aaron Is Eight Months Old!

Today my little guy turns eight months old. Time really does fly! Along with his formula, Aaron is now eating all kinds of solids including veggies, fruits, meats and even a little yogurt! All of these still need to be pureed, though. I tried to give him some cut up pieces of ripe banana but he just wasn't ready for it yet. He has the "pincer grasp" action completely down, meaning he can pick up something with this thumb and forefinger, but once he gets the object in his hand, he's not quite sure how to get it from there into his mouth! This will come with time.

As for crawling, not so much yet. He sits up perfectly on his own and will move from a sitting-up position to being on the floor on his tummy, but from here he doesn't know how to become forwardly mobile. He gets stuck and has to have one of us sit him back up again. It is so fascinating to me to watch how these things develop that we take so much for granted; yet this is also where the patience part comes into play.

We had to deal with our first major bout of sickness this week. We both came down with a nasty stomach bug that left us pretty incapacitated for the entire week. I think we're both starting to come out of it now though and are no worse for the wear. We had Daddy pretty stressed out, I think, trying to take care of the two of us! He's a great daddy. It is also true that around this age, separation anxiety starts to kick in (although I'm sure his being sick had something to do with it). Aaron has become very clingy as of late, which isn't necessarily a bad thing (I sort of dig that he prefers his daddy and me over other people); however, it is important to me that he develop a sense of independence to where it's O.K. that I leave the room for a minute (and we are SO not there right now).

Thanks to the Air Force, Aaron is getting to experience so much of the world at a very young age and I hope this leads to an adventurous and brave spirit. By the time he is a year old, Aaron will have taken five airplane trips (he even has his own frequent flyer miles!), travel to six states and experience great cities such as Seattle, St. Louis and San Antonio. It is my long-term goal to take him overseas before he is ten years old.

My short-term goals for the next few months are to enroll him in swimming lessons (I am scared to death of water and I don't want Aaron to grow up that way too) and also maybe a toddler tumble class of some sort. These goals are a priority because I want Aaron to have the best of both worlds - my full, undivided attention while he's at home but also the opportunity to interact with kids his own age so that he can learn that he's not the only kid on the planet! I want him to learn how to share and be friendly and I feel that he won't be able to learn this until he's put in a situation where he has to in order to be able to coexist successfully with other people besides his daddy and I. I am trying to lay the groundwork right now by teaching him to be nice to Reagan! And I think it's working - he actually pets her now instead of grabbing a handful of fur and holding on for dear life!

With all of these milestones, I grow more and more certain everyday that I made the right decision to stay home with Aaron. How can I miss all of this if I don't have to? I am blessed to have an awesome husband who takes great care of us. I am very proud of our little family and I am excited to see what the future holds for us!

The Kids Wanted To Say Hi

He's A Carnivore!

We officially gave Aaron his first bites of meat (rather, meat products) yesterday. He has moved up to Gerber 2nd Foods and we tried Vegetable Beef. As you can probably tell from the picture, the Vegetable Beef wasn't the biggest hit, but I'm hoping that was because he wasn't feeling well and just wasn't in the mood. He did take a few bites, though, so we're very proud of him! No vegetarians in this house!

Future Pilot Or Future M&M's Lover?

Here is Aaron with his new favorite toy. Of course, this one didn't cost us anything either (it was a gift from Grandma Q to Mommy and Daddy, not Aaron!). I will just add this to the growing pile of "Aaron's Favorite Things" (the hanger that came with his new jeans, BX ads, nasal aspirator, etc.) and from now on just bypass the toy aisle altogether!

Sick Baby Update

After a very loooooong weekend of a whole lotta cryin' and a whole lotta nuthin' in the sleep department, I decided to call the doctor today and get Aaron in to see if there was anything wrong with him that was more serious than a runny nose. As it turns out, he has an ear infection! Auugghh! Poor little guy! I can remember getting these as a kid (my dad doesn't seem to remember it, but I do...and I remember him giving me medicine in the middle of the night so what's up with that, Dad?) and them being SO not fun. I thought that he might have had one because he's been yanking on his ears, been INCREDIBLY fussy and all of this seems to get worse at night, which brings us to the sleep issues we've been having. The doctor gave him some antibiotics and some numbing ear drops and he is right now blessedly taking his afternoon snooze so hopefully this will also do the trick tonight!

My happy little guy is back!

This Is A Sick Baby

This weekend, we're having to deal with a very runny nose on an almost eight-month-old and, let me tell you, this is NOT fun. Aaron can't sleep or eat properly right now which makes for a very unhappy little guy. The last two nights have brought back flashbacks to when he was just a few weeks old and I wasn't getting more than a couple good hours of sleep at a time. I've been told that the only thing you can do is wait a runny nose out, so we are painfully doing just that with some help from the dreaded aspirator (he HATES it) and this plug-in thingy that shoots VapoRub stuff continuously out of it. Pray for us that this gets better soon because nothing is worse than hearing your child struggling to breathe over the monitor!

Bethanie's Blog!

First, I must say how proud I am of myself. Check out the sidebar to your left. I added a "Blogs I Read" list all by myself! Aren't you proud of me?! Anyway, enough of patting myself on the back. The real reason for this post is the first link in that list - Bethanie's Blog! I think my sister contracted the Blogging bug from me when I was in Missouri, so she has now started her very own Blog to brag about her own kids - Stiehl and Emilie. Check it out!

http://bethanieskids.blogspot.com

The Great Outdoors!

God is finally giving us a break from the rain this week but, more importantly, He is also allowing us to enjoy some sunshine! I love this area of Washington because it doesn't matter that it's wintertime; if the sun is shining, that means the temperature is probably at least 50 degrees! Bill and I took advantage of this great weather and took the kids - Aaron and Reagan - down to the park in our development to swing and go for a walk. It was so nice to finally get some fresh air without getting soaked!

Steelers Fan...For A Day

Last Sunday, we took Aaron to watch his very first Super Bowl at the house of some friends of Bill's cousin Kris (below in the top picture holding Aaron). He had a great time eating and playing then taking his afternoon snooze during the third quarter. In case you live under a rock, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks 21-10. For those of you who know me, I am a huge St. Louis Rams fan and the Seahawks are a major NFC West rival of the Rams, so you can guess why we became Steelers fans for a day. We were even able to deck Aaron out in Steelers gear courtesy of his Great Aunt Judy and Great Uncle Joe (Kris' parents) who live in Pittsburgh and love the Steelers. I wore my jersey of my beloved, Torry Holt, who is a wide receiver for the Rams. Here are some pictures from the party.

Daddy's Home...Again

Daddy returned home yesterday just in time to take a quick nap before we whisked him off to a Super Bowl party. Update on the sprained ankle: he caved and went to the doctor today. The doctor said that there was nothing that could be done except to keep wrapping it and let it heal on its own. He can drive and fly with it, so it must be on its way to being as good as new. We're glad to have him back, crippled and all!

Did I Mention I Was The Best Mom Ever?

I think Aaron may be getting ready to cut a few more teeth because he has been chewing on everything lately, including me. My hands, feet and chin (don't ask) have all been fair game. He has also been waking up at night screaming like he's in pain and is inconsolable for about a half an hour or so. I do the easy but probably not so smart thing of putting him in bed with me just so I can get some sleep. Hopefully the teeth will finally poke through and this may just be a phase that will eventually pass. I promise, though, the socks were clean!

Reagan, Up Close And Personal

Look At Me In My New Big Boy Car Seat!

We Can't Wait For The Olympics!