Sitting, Spitting and Teeth

Today was the last day of school. William and I went to wave good bye to the buses as the kids left for the last time. I got to see a lot of my students from this year and cheer them out of the parking lot into the summer time. Waving the kids good bye is one of my favorite days of the year. It always brings tears to my eyes as I wave good bye to students that I loved in class as well as those I am glad to see leaving for the last time. Now they are in high school. I am feeling a little down because after I waved good bye to my fourth set of eighth graders, I went up to my room to organize and pack up some things to bring them home. Some one else is going to be teaching in my room next year. I don't know if I like the idea of someone else on my turf and sharing my space. I really don't want anyone else teaching those eighth graders next year. There are several kiddos coming up that I was hoping to teach next year. Now someone else will get to. I am not questioning my decision to stay home next year. Much. I still think it is the right thing for us to do...probably. I'm just a lot sad about packing up my room, saying good bye and knowing I won't be a part of things next year. I'll miss those kids...hormonal, crazy, smelly, drama causing eighth graders. Who knew I would love them so much (most of the time)?

Anyhow, enough of my sadness. William is working really hard at sitting up. If you put him on the ground, he does these "baby sit ups" to try to get to sitting. Sometimes, you have to unbend him from the sitting position to get him to lay down. He finally is showing he has a sense of balance. With my 50% DNA, it is completely possible that he would have no sense of balance. So, here are some pictures of us tonight with William practicing the sitting up. Please note: we are now confident enough in his skills that NO one's hands are waiting to catch him. He doesn't need it.

Serious baby. When did he start looking like a little boy and not a baby?

Smiles for the daddy.

Sitting and playing - they go together great!

We are also excited to announce that William has mastered the raspberry sound with his mouth. It is messy and I'm working on an entry dedicated entirely to the drooly mess he makes with his mouth. And teeth. The tooth is officially here. It is on his bottom left side of his mouth (or the lower right side of the picture). It is still hard to see in the picture - but I promise it is there!

Tomorrow we are going back to West to do some final (I think) packing. I'm not looking forward to it because we need to get up and go on the early side instead of laying around in our PJ's for most of the morning. Oh well...

more tomorrow,

kelly

Poor John...

I am not the best wife. I admit it. Some days I don't even try very hard. Yesterday was one of those days. I usually pack John a lunch for the next day while we are making dinner. John will spend some time with William when he gets home and I work on dinner and his lunch. Last night, I opened the refrigerator and freezer and found myself uninspired. I managed a dinner of leftover sloppy joes and my creativity expired. Poor John ended up with a yogurt and some left over pasta from....a long time ago. I opened the container and inspected it carefully. Nothing was growing on it - so in the lunchbox it went with the yogurt. Then, I remembered the pasta was actually my leftovers. I ate most of my pasta one night awhile back and put the leftovers in the fridge for later. Later never came and today I sent my husband to work with a 100 calorie cup of yogurt and old, forgotten pasta that couldn't even be considered half of a serving. As I remembered this last night, I decided to take action: I zipped the lunchbox shut. Did I even consider giving him the amazing leftover pancakes he made on Sunday morning for us? Not on your life! They are mine (and were GREAT today at lunchtime)!


Today, I felt bad about this. The guilt followed me around the house. I cleaned up the kitchen today and felt bad as I arranged the cans in the pantry. I sterilized some bottles and decided to make a pasta salad to go with dinner to make up for the terrible lunch. As long as I was heating up the stove, I went ahead and in addition made three (3) different varieties of rice to put into individual containers so we wouldn't have a repeat performance of bad lunches. As I was making the rices in three (3) different pots as well as boiling bottles, I spies suggestions on the back of one of the boxes. "Add a cup of broccoli to the rice mixture..." I thought this was a brilliant idea. So, I divided a bag of broccoli between the pots on the stovetop. As I was doing this, I remembered the USDA recommendation to eat between twenty to fifty (20-50) servings of vegetables a day. Nothing but the best for my husband! I opened up a big bag of California style mixed vegetables to add as well. I'm sure not eating my vegetables, so someone has to step up. I am now relieved and worry free as I know my husband will be well nourished tomorrow at lunch. And for the next 10 days with the 10 individual containers now found in the refrigerator.

John assures me that he had plenty to eat and someone brought in food for everyone at lunch today. I'm not worried. If there is a wife judging contest tomorrow at lunch, John will definitely be in the running.

Happy June!

Hey, did you know it was June? Me neither...until today at church I spied it on the bulletin being waved around by the very "active" young many in front of us.

The big news around here is that William's front bottom teeth are coming in. He was a little crabby on Saturday and we couldn't figure out what was going on. Finally, on Saturday, William pulled my finger to his mouth and chewed on it. There is very definitely a tooth in there! I can't see anything yet, but maybe in another day or two we'll be able to get a picture.

On Saturday morning, we took William to the park together for the first time. He enjoyed trying out the swing and watching the other kids play. We squeezed in a walk around the lake before going home to get some work done. After church, we noticed that John and William are starting to look more and more alike...or at least their clothes do! After taking some quick pictures outside, we gave our cats the ultimate loyalty test: we left the back door wide open for 2 hours (accident). The answer: nothing happened - but we were lucky!

Okay, maybe it is dorky. But I think they are handsome!

Earlier in the year, John and I agreed that we were going to try and use our air conditioning less to try and save a little money. We agreed upon June 1st for the "turn on"date. Well, it is now June 3 and we still haven't used the air yet (okay, in a weak moment we did turn it on for a few hours back in April). Usually, we turn the air on in April and leave it on almost continuously through September. You are not allowed to say anything about this unless you have been here in the summer time (Sheila? Grandma Kim? Grandpa Kevin? Ask them if we really need it on ALL the time). We are very proud we have been able to go this long without it. It really helps that I am home most days to have the house open for air flow. We'll see how long we last now that the weather is supposed to get warmer later this week.

William trying out the swing...he really did get going very far. He is still pretty top heavy and I was afraid he would topple out. Plus, he has no idea he should be hanging on...


More swinging around

Okay. I had another picture for you of John and William at the park. I've been trying for 2 days now to get the picture uploaded and it just WON'T. I'll try again later, but I'm publishing this one without it!

William and Mommy out on the deck

Finally!

I have been working on a big surprise for you all! I have stolen (I admit it) an idea from a few different people and made a photo montage of William's first three months. I'm also going to try and put a link on the side of the page for easy viewing. Once you've seen it, you'll want to watch it over and over and over and over....I think it is stupendous and it was a lot of fun to look back and all the "old" pictures of William. He has done a lot of growing!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

In other William news, he is now rolling from his back to his front in both directions. Makes diaper changes and bath time a whole new adventure as he feels any time spent on his back is just more practice for rolling over. He also has been doing a lot of experimenting vocally. He has discovered a squeal and a little shriek which are very cute. On the horizon, I see the scream ahead (yes, we have Tylenol). He has also found out that he can make coughing noises. Any down time is opportunity to practice any of his new sounds. So, there are lots of interesting noises coming from our house these days.

Thursday we went out for dinner with a few coworkers to say goodbye to an eighth grade teacher who is moving this summer. We'll miss you Lee! On Friday morning, we got out to the park to meet up with some other moms and kids. It was nice to chat and see other kids running around. The last day of school for my "kids" is this next week, so I'm going to try and get up there to say good bye to them and pick up some more stuff from my classroom.

William and John hanging out


Smiles from the boys

4 Month Doctor Appointment

Today was William's 4 month doctor appointment. We had a long list of questions to ask the doctor. William now weighs 18 pounds 13 oz and is 27 inches tall - that is in the 97% for both height and weight. We're just glad it is proportionate! His head circumference is the lowest scoring in the 95% at 44.5 cm. I had been worried that it didn't seem like he was growing as fast as before. I know that kids are supposed to slow down after the first 6 months, but we aren't quite there yet. The doctor reassured us that William is growing wonderfully - the last few month he grew from the 80th percentile curve to the 95 percentile curve. This time, he stayed in the 90th percentile and just grew. I don't know if this makes a whole lot of sense, but it made perfect sense to me during the doctor appointment.

Other highlights:

- William is teething. Although the spot in his mouth I thought was a tooth is a oil gland (normal).

-We can now use bug spray on William and can use sunscreen in 2 more months!

-The doctor recommended we start William on solids beginning at 5 months. At 5.5 months, we can start introducing vegetables. Should be fun!

-Swimming in pools is okay!

-The doctor is pleased with how William is doing developmentally. Based on his rolling, sitting, scooting, reaching and social interactions, she put him at the level of a 7 month old baby. Not bad for 4 months + 4 days.


And then there were the shots. Poor baby had a total of 4 injections and one oral vaccine. I thought it went much better than last time - John did not agree. I think the difference is where we were sitting. William is currently sleeping it off. Hopefully, he'll sleep and get to feeling better for tomorrow.

That's all for now....

Memorial Day Weekend

We have had a nice memorial day weekend. We celebrated our patio's one year anniversary by...doing almost no work outside. We did put in some duct work in the basement and some other odds and ends around the house. We did some sleeping in and went to church on Sunday. The pastor had asked we all wear red (everyone, not just us). I had the brilliant idea to take a family pic of all of us - but then changed when I got home. Just forgot, I guess. Today, we are going to Lydia's house to visit and grill out. Should be fun! Here are some pictures from this weekend!

John and William on Pentecost Sunday


William snuggled in for a nap with his bear


Sleeping in with Daddy

Why we decided to put the swing away...please note he IS buckled in!


The directions say "for up to 25 pounds". I don't think we've hit that yet, but...it still needs to go away! And yes, he IS buckled in!


Lydia and William! Lydia is almost exactly a year older than William. Can you tell?


Daddies and Babies


Daddies and Babies, part 2

4 Month Old

William turned 4 months old today. We took some pictures and worked on the basement. This evening, we took a walk and watched a movie together. All in all it was good to be together. I'm currently still going through the 150+ photos I took today of William for the best few. I had some making up to do after falling down on the job earlier this week. I may even try my hand at editing a few. So, I'll ask for you patience. Check back later - I'll add them eventually.


So, here they are. Some of them are good, others are mediocre at best. Oh well... I have more pictures from this weekend to upload and talk about. Maybe tomorrow. It's late now. I am afraid if I write more, I'll make embarrassing grammar errors.

Mr Cooperative

Diaper Shots