First steps!

So yesterday JW finally took some real, advance-forward steps! John caught him take two tiny ones at mass (where we sit in the cry room because he likes to make all sorts of noises during quiet times) and then in the afternoon, desperate to grab the phone, took another two steps toward it.  It's so crazy to think he wasn't even interested in walking until about a week or so ago, when we finally let me hold his hands and help him walk.  I wonder how long it'll be until he's actually walking around.

We redid our kitchen cabinets and entertainment center, and wow, what a difference! The paint fumes are still around a little, which is gross and annoying, but it's pretty worth it.  John added an antique white glaze to the "dover white" cabinets, which saved us over a thousand dollars because he did it himself.  Pretty awesome :)

We are in the process of sleep training JW a little more.  He's never been the best sleeper, especially for naps, and lately he wants us to sit in there with him forever and won't fall asleep, so we decided it was time for a little cry-it-out.  Luckily he hasn't cried for more than 10 minutes straight at any point, but those minutes were excruciating.  I know some people use that method starting at like 7 weeks, which I think is insane and something I'm absolutely not capable of outside of a dire situation, but I can see why it's popular toward the end of the first year when you're at your wits' end.  Because we're about there.  He also won't sleep anywhere but at home in his crib, so once we've got this "I require your presence in order to sleep" thing kicked, the next thing will be to alternate naptime places.  Siiiigh.  You probably think I'm crazy, and you're probably right. 

Even days where he drives me nuts, this little guy's smile just melts my mean-mommy heart :)

How is it March already?

Baby boy is almost 11 months old! He's standing unassisted really well now; in fact, he'll squat to play with toys and then stand right back up.  He's barely starting to show interest in taking a step, even assisted, so I think we still have a while before we're walking.

His birthday party invitations arrived this week, which is crazy.  We're mailing them to our gigantic family next week, I think, just to give people time to plan.  We may even heat the pool in order to have something for people to do, since I refuse to hire a clown for entertainment (my mom's suggestion, of course.) Nor is she getting the chimp she wanted as the greeter.  I don't know how serious she was about that one, but given her many years in event planning, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a chimp arrive at my house on April 9th.  Sheesh.

My real estate work has gotten pretty busy the last month... I have a closing for a seller this coming week (provided the appraisal went well) and then one, possibly two, at the beginning of April.  It's funny that three transactions at a time makes me feel very busy, but hey, I can only get things done in the two naptimes around here, and sometimes those aren't more than 1 hour.  One client loves to talk on the phone, even about the tiniest things, so I've given up trying to only take his calls during naptime and now he talks to me while he hears Scout the Dog singing about naming a green monkey after John.  Yeah.  ;)

Ten months, 4 days -- crawling towards toddlerhood

We officially have a cruiser in this house.  He's currently playing in his "play yard", wrestling this inflatable penguin to the ground.  This child is freakishly strong, so occasionally I see him standing up with a heavy-ish toy in his hands, shaking it.  It's pretty funny to watch :)

We have to go to the doctor today to get his second dose of the flu shot.  Why so late in the season, you ask? Well, I didn't feel comfortable giving it to him at his six month appointment since he was getting approximately 2356262 other vaccines at the same time, so we waited until the nine month appt.  Speaking of doctor's visits, I'm so angry at the lab where our doctor sends us for bloodwork.  Long story short, John suffered through three separate venipunctures at the hands of a very incompetent (at least child-wise) phlebotomist.  He ended up with a horrible bruise that took over a week to go away.  I took a picture of it so I can show his ped.  Ugh.  He was such a trooper and barely cried; I was the one who was traumatized by it! Maybe things have changed since I was a young child, but they didn't do venipuncture on infants for routine testing like that when I was little. 

On to happier things -- we're very excited that Biz is coming to visit this coming weekend, and that Laura is probably coming to visit in the next few weekends, too!

JW is playing a toy car right now... he really looks like a toddler.  I think I'm going to cry.  Lol it wouldn't be the first time I've cried this week, since I shed a few tears after giving him a tiny trim and I put his little hair in a baggie in his baby book.  That act is a little creepy, I'll admit, but I figured he might want it one day lol.

Sharp nails

One of my failures as a mother is the trimming of nails.  As a proud "pet parent," I have to pay someone else to cut my dogs' nails because even my sweet animals won't tolerate me coming at them with a clipper or even a grinder.  Well, now as a proud human parent (maybe that should have quotations around it, too lol), I still can't manage to cut my son's nails short enough so that he doesn't inflict injuries on himself or others.  I could barely do it to him when he was a newborn and nowadays forget it.

Today, JW scratched the side of his face from his temple down to his chin.  I assume he did it with his fingernail, since he doesn't usually have a knife or other blade on his person (usually).  This wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that any scratch on this kid turns bright fire engine red and looks AWFUL for several hours afterward.  So needless to say, we won't be going out for the rest of the day because I'm scared that someone will call CPS on me.  In fact, I was going to post the picture of it that I sent to John earlier, but I think it's probably best not to :)

9 months!

Dear little buddy,

You've now been on the outside as long as you were on the inside.  You're currently learning how to play with the little cars you got for Christmas, and you like to clack your tongue at me all day long.  You're very good-natured and don't mind that your face still has flecks of dried peach puree on it when we're at Lowe's.  You like to take your socks off in the car and drop them in the driveway.  You still think diaper changes are a form of modern-day torture. 

I could go on and on about you, but you're currently exercising some major strength and are about to break your cage -- I mean, play area.

Much love,
Mom

O Christmas Tree...

Sunday we went to buy our Christmas tree :) Right now it has only purple and white lights on in celebration of Advent, and then we'll turn on some multicolored lights on Christmas.  (That was the way the Christmas-decor-lover and her theologian husband compromised.)

Here's a picture of John waiting in line with us to get our tree's trunk trimmed (say that three times fast.)

I never thought I'd be one of those moms with a cart cover, but after getting looks from people at Target when I didn't use one, I felt bad and was worried that someone would report me to CPS. So I bought a cover for $5 at a church yard sale :)

When can I cut his hair? He looks like a fuzzy old man.  It doesn't look so bad in person, but in pictures he looks kind of ridiculous (and lovable, always.) How long does it take for his hair to really grow in? I'm still not really sure what color I'd call his hair.  Like sandy brown? Whose kid is this?? lol you wouldn't know he is a quarter Mexican and quarter Venezuelan... he looks pretty Irish to me :-/

Just a PSA...

Dear Shall-Remain-Nameless,

Don't try to feed lemons to my baby.  I don't see you taking a nice big bite out of a juicy lemon, so please don't encourage my son to do that.  While I told you not to do that because he's (supposedly) not allowed to have citrus until he's a year old, the real reason I said no was because giving a baby a lemon is ridiculous and mean and whyyyy would you do that? 

Hugs,
A.