Pumpkin Patch

One day last week, we went to the pumpkin patch with our friends Jenn (mom) and Charlotte (daughter). We got lots of fun pictures and William loved playing with the pumpkins, eating the straw, pulling Charlotte's hair, and touching the flowers. Here are just a few! of the pictures we took at the pumpkin patch!

William is not sure he likes this (and the spot where he was sitting was wet! Opps!)

William with some mums...Nice smile!

William isn't afraid of the scarecrow!

My little pumpkin with a pumpkin!


Which one is William? He loved trying to push over that pumpkin next to him!

All the little pumpkins in a row!

Just so cute!

William and Charlotte! What is William's favorite thing about Charlotte? Pulling her hair. So, every picture has Jenn in it to make sure he doesn't pull her hair. He is SO quick, she needed to be right on top of him!

This pumpkin patch has really big tire swings!

Jenn and Charlotte


William and mommy

Charlotte and the girl scarecrow

PS Check back later - I'm going to try and get some more pictures up here later today!

William eating peas! Whole peas! How exciting!

Busy

We're busy. Some of us are running around and others are crawling and creating messes where ever we go. Note: you haven't lived unless you have washed your face and brushed your teeth with one foot on the toilet lid to keep the baby out. Including the rinsing and drying - requires a lot more balance that you would think. Try it sometime. You'd be surprised.

We went to the pumpkin patch, had a Parents as Teachers meeting, church youth group meeting, stained in our basement, renewed our license plates and shopped for Christmas presents. Oh, and cleaned because Grandma and Grandpa will be arriving tomorrow evening! And we will be going to Safe Halloween at North High to get some wear out of our Halloween costume. Pictures are coming. I promise.

A Real Stand up Kind of Guy

The big news of the weekend is William is starting to let go of what he is hanging on to in order to stand on his own two feet. At this point, it appears to only be happening by accident. He lets go with both hands to reach for something or examine an object more closely and TADA! he is standing up on his own. He did it for the first time on Friday night. I figured it was an accident and it wouldn't happen again. Then it happened 2-3 times Saturday and a few times again today. He is totally ready to do it physically. Mentally is another story. As soon as he realizes he is standing up he plunks himself down immediately. So far, the longest he has stood unassisted is about 30 seconds, but I think we'll be seeing more of over the next few weeks. Although I am excited to watch him learn, I'm a little sad. I was hoping to introduce my "baby" to some of our family over Thanksgiving. Now, it appears I may be introducing my big almost walking baby to everyone. Not exactly the mental picture I had in mind. Oh well - onward!

So many other things happening! The babbling is adorable and cute. I actually had to leave the pharmacy area of T@rget last week as I was afraid some unsuspecting customer picking up their blood pressure medicine would suffer a heart attack from the overwhelming cuteness of my baby. My baby HUMMING. Humming loudly and happily mixing in the Mamamamas and bababababas inbetween. I myself has to do some deep breathing to prevent myself from choking on my gum. It was that cute.

Eating! After our doctor appointment last week, I was feeling discouraged. The doctor advised us to quit using baby food and just feed finger food on his tray. Sounds great, only William was not interested. Everything we put in (or he put in) stayed in for about two seconds before being pushed right back out. However, this weekend we have made progress! Hurrah! Progress! Today alone we managed the following: soup crackers, 1 semi mashed banana, carrots from our soup, chicken from our soup, peas (PEAS! can you believe it?), bread, 2 elbow noodles and 1 tiny piece of cheese. Still isn't great, but at least SOME of it went where it was supposed to!

We had a quiet but productive weekend. I got out with the girls for some quilting and breakfast. John got some quality time in with his cabinet project in the basement. We taught confirmation on Sunday and did a little shopping. A very nice balance. We do keep meaning to hit up the pumpkin patch one of these days for some pictures. We keep putting it off - it will happen this week for sure! The other news is that we are preparing for the arrival of the Grandparents McGarry next weekend! Hurray!

We'll leave you with some pictures from this weekend!

9 Month Appointment

Just for comparison (and I'm a geek), here are William's stats from this year:

Birth: 8lbs 4oz, 21 inches long
1 Month: 10lbs 12oz, 22.25 inches long
2 Months: 15lbs 12oz, 26 inches long
4 Months: 18lbs 12oz, 27 inches long
6 Months:20lbs 12oz, 28.5 inches long
9 Months:22lbs 4oz, 30 inches long

So, he has grown quite a bit! Even with all his crawling and cruising and constant motion all the time. For height, William is still in the 95% or "topping off the charts" according to the doctor. However his weight has dropped from the 95% to the 75%. Probably from all the activity. The doctor was pleased with his progress and said she "has never seen such a happy boy!" Maybe she just says that to everyone. The best part of the appointment was we only had to get one shot (flu vaccine). We also confirmed William is completely healthy except for the cold. No ear infection, no viruses....so tonight is the night!

We talked about a lot of other stuff which seems foggy to me right now. We have permission to feed him all kinds of stuff now except strawberries and any kind of nuts. Okay, I can't think of anything else - time for bed. This is one tired momma.

Finally, it works!

Well, Blogger is finally letting me put pictures up! We have kind of laid low this week as William now has cold and is still not sleeping through the night. That would mean I am also not sleeping through the night. We have our 9 month doctor visit today and I am anxious to hear what the dr. has to say. I would like him to learn to put himself back to sleep without needing me in the night. But, I also would like to know that he isn't sick first. I would feel terrible if I had been letting him cry and it turns out he is sick! Today, we'll clear that up. I'm also looking forward to finding out how much he has grown in the last couple of months and ask some questions about his feedings and sleeping! I'll have a lot (I hope) to update later tonight. For now, I will just leave you with some pictures from this week!

John's cabinet project progress


Kelly's first Block of the Month project! It is so much fun to be back quilting.


William's walking project: still in progress


Yep, I am that weird. Here is my banged up knee. The top bruise is now bigger, but doesn't hurt as much.

My striped monster. The one who wakes me up in the middle of the night.



I know this is a little blurry, but I'm back to working on my photography...

Poopy Blogger

Well, I tried to upload some pictures last night with no success and now today it isn't working either. I guess I'll have to try again tonight! Sorry!

Tired. So tired.

Sometime over the course of the last two weeks, our beautiful baby boy has been transformed into a striped, beady eyed monster that arrives somewhere between 2 and 3 am. This monster is screaming and crying and oh so far away from my warm bed. That is right. William has stopped sleeping through the night. He had been consistently sleeping from 9pm until 7 am give of take an hour since he was roughly 9 weeks old. I thought the cycle was broken on Saturday night when he slept solid from 9pm through 7 am. But no. Last night he was up at 12, 2:30, 5:30, and 6:30. This was the worst night by far for sleep, but last week featured many wake up calls as well. The naps are also hit or miss during the daytime. This oasis of sleep is something I start planning and dreaming about as soon as he wakes up on a day like today. But, then, on a day like today, there weren't naps to be found. As far as I can tell, this could be for several reasons that should become clear as soon as he starts sleeping again:

1) He is teething. Evidence: fingers, hands, all objects are constantly in his mouth. More so than usual (which is a lot).

2) He is learning a new gross motor skill :standing/walking. Evidence: He is able to stand on his own with holding on to other objects for short periods of time UNLESS he realizes that he isn't hanging on to something. He is doing a lot of cruising and funny little handstands on the floor. He is no longer afraid when his push toy moves and delights in walking with it across the room to ram it into the bookcase, couch or unsuspecting parent.

3) He is going through a growth spurt. Evidence: some of his 12 month clothing appears to be too short. I'm not sure how well we are keeping up with his nuitritional needs as he is in constant motion during awake time throughout day. Even growing a teeny, tiny bit could require the gallons of extra milk he is now consuming during the wee hours of the night.

4) He is going through the jerk baby phase. Evidence: I think he giggled last night when I tripped into his room at 3am. Or maybe I just need a little more sleep.

Did you know John's car smokes? Neither did we.


Hiking yesterday. Near the end of the hike, I showed off my ungracefulness by doing a full face plant onto a rock bed. No blood, huge bruise on my knee. If you are lucky, I might take a picture to post here.


John and William read books while I ice my knee on the couch.


William does squats as part of his daily exercise routine.

The promised Lizapalooza picture

Shameless Babyness

These two are so cute - I can't resist posting some of them. I can't believe how much they have grown! Watch for the A-Dorable smiles! Coming soon...us at Lizapoolza. The first two are from earlier this month and the second three are from photos I received today!

This one is my favorite!

Nice Weekend

We had a great weekend! I started it out a little early by meeting Jennifer Hawn at the park on Friday for a picnic and some playing with the kiddos! Even though it was kind of on the warm side (90's), we had a fun time. It was great to get out and get some exercise and play with the kids with such great company. I think I could comfortably talk to Jenn for two weeks straight and not run out of things to talk about. Rereading that, it sounds like I talk a whole lot (although it's true). What I meant is she is a great friend to talk to about everything under the sun.

Charlotte and William packed up to do some walking (or watching their moms eat)

Charlotte on the swings. We are already working on sharing - you can see William behind Charlotte in the same swing. Aren't we great moms?

Charlotte and William swing! And Charlotte is hot and...

most of the time William was trying to either pull her hair or pull the adorable pink bow out of her hair. Ouch! No wonder she isn't smiling!


William's first time down the slide!


Jennifer and Charlotte play tic tac toe. I love Charlotte bow. I may be taking the blog to an all time low. Time to let this rhyme go. Although...

Saturday we got up and hunted around our subdivision garage sale for bargains. We found some great stuff! Some stuff we didn't even know we were looking for! We found: corner clamps, fort making kit, baby clothes, baby bibs, Halloween costumes, DVDs, a travel lap desk, a quilting hoop, and some old quilt squares. Lot of fun, although it was getting pretty warm out. After William's morning nap, we went to Boeing's Family Day. This is the first time I've ever gotten to see where John works the whole time he has worked for Boeing. We also got to have lunch in the steamy 92 degree heat (why did I wear jeans? I don't know!) and look at a lot of airplanes that start with letters like A, B, C, and F. I don't know where all the other letters in between went. Ask John. We don't have any pictures of this event because there were NO CAMERAS OR CELLPHONES ALLOWED. Someone told us they had a photo station set up for people to get a picture taken of the fam together. We couldn't find it though. I asked a few people working and freaked them all out. The most I could get from them was "No, photography is not allowed in any area..." "No, no cameras are allowed in any area...." etc. Most unhelpful.

Today, we did some relaxing and John did some work on our new TV cabinet. I didn't even get dressed today. Very nice. I'll leave you with one last picture from last week: our remote obsessed channel surfer.

Channel Surfing boy. Kind of hard to tell in this picture, but William has 2 remotes - 1 in each hand. He is crawling with one in each hand ("surfing")! Surfing is when William picks up something and slides it on the ground while he is crawling. He does this ALL the time with different toys/household objects. I think he likes it because then he can crawl really fast without picking up his hands.

Memo from William: I'm a big kid NOW

Yesterday we went to the Y in the early afternoon. William had been fed, changed and just woke up from a nap. Should have been a recipe for a great mood. But, I was a little nervous as last week he was crying and I had to be paged from the fitness center. So, I dropped him off and hurried away so I could hurry back (nothing makes me run faster than thinking about getting to pick him up when I'm done). When I came back to get him, he wasn't where I left him. The childwatch area is divided into two sections with an accordion door inbetween. One is for babies and the other is for older kids through age five. I left him in the baby section and when I came back, he was on the "Big Kid" side of the room. Apparently, William played for a few minutes with some toys and then crawled over to the bookcase that sits in the opening between the two rooms. He pulled himself up and whined/moaned while banging on the bookshelf. He refused to be distracted by toys, songs, the TV, or someone reading him books. When they finally put him on the "Big Kid" side, he got a huge smile on his face and crawled away to play. Which is what he was doing when I came to pick him up.

I get it. The message: I'm not a baby anymore! Let me play with the big kid stuff! The staff in the room told me the only restriction to being in that room is the kids need to wear shoes. So, I guess the next time we go, he'll have shoes on! (I'll still try and drop him off on the baby side. Even though I got the message loud and clear, it doesn't mean I want him to not be a baby anymore)


Some pictures up of William yesterday!

He actually climbed on this by himself. He was so proud of himself!

I can't believe he did it himself! Here he is starting to get mad because he can't get off...at least he still needs me for something :)


One of our new favorite past times: Waiting for Daddy to come home. William got SO excited when he sees John coming up the walk!


Kisses! The tricky part is getting in the house without William falling on his face to the concrete!

Another Big First

I wanted to make sure I got online tonight to share with you a huge milestone that occurred for William today. In the mail today, William received his first credit card application. Preapproved and everything! We didn't get to it tonight, but I'm sure we will carefully document this tomorrow. Seriously, who sends an eight month old a credit card application?

Anyhow, the other big news from the weekend I [think I] forgot to report is that tooth #8 has now broken through. We are almost half way done with teeth!

Over the weekend, we picked up a puzzle at a garage sale. William is only interested in taking OUT the pieces and carrying them around. Three at a time!

Behind him is another one of our finds: a Nemo riding toy!

Party Time

This was a busy weekend. There were several very fun events we were invited to this weekend. All were fun and exciting in their own way. But Saturday, woah. We were tired after Saturday. Saturday morning, we got up early to go to a subdivision garage sale (okay, I lied. William got us up early and we decided to go to the garage sale). Then we ran errands and William napped. After lunch, we went out to the visit my club from the middle school during their annual fund raiser Peanut Days. It was so much fun to see the kids and hang out for a little while and everyone enjoyed seeing William. Then, we were off to our friend, Charlotte's first birthday party. We got to eat fabulous cake and watch Charlotte demolish her first birthday cupcake before it was time to head off. William decided to nap in the car and were able to attend a "the deck is finished" party for one of John's coworkers. It was fun to finally meet some of John's coworkers I hear about all the time as well as enjoy the deck.

William was in serious need of a nap outside of his carseat and some time on the floor to crawl around by this point, so we came back home. I woke William at 7 in order to attend the 50th birthday celebration for one of my coworkers called "lizapalooza" (the party, not the coworker). It was wonderful to visit with everyone and catch up on all the newest developments. William had a great time until he stopped having a great time and then we took him home. A few minutes later, he was conked out in his bed and our lovely neighbor came over to listen to him snooze for us. Yes, we left him with someone for a few hours and we went back to the party. It was amazing and we both agreed we weren't (that) worried about him. We also agreed on the way home that William is an amazing baby who is perfect for us. Who else would nap on the fly, eat a meal in the dark in the car, nurse at strange houses and go go go all day long. Even with all that going on, he still managed to smile on demand, giggle like crazy, crawl everywhere, spill every drink in my hand and charm all the ladies. What a great kid!

William's newest accomplishment:climbing. He so far has figured out how to climb into the dishwasher and onto the top of our coffee table.


William's lizapalooza onesie. Spit up and all. John and I both have matching lizapalooza shirts also. Maybe Jeff will send us a picture?

Other highlights from this weekend (to help me remember when this stuff happened, feel free to skip): crawling with toys in his mouth and lots more babbling. We also had a breakthrough in the solid feedings. We finally have him eating the solid baby foods again with gusto and delight. However, he is really uninterested in going more solid that the pureed stuff. We've had success with the puffs and cheerios and nothing else. No on the green beans, cooked carrots, peaches, pears, bananas, watermelon and crackers. I was feeling so frustrated about wasting so much food after he squishes it up and drops it. Or puts it in his mouth and spits it out again. I'm starting to feel like he is going to still be eating out a jar when he turns 2. On a whim, I made some toast today and cut it up into tiny pieces to put on his tray. Holey Moley did he make a mess out of that - but HE ATE IT. I didn't even have to put it in his mouth! He did all the work! Is this a breakthrough? I sure hope so...

Cute stuff William is learning

It would appear the gross motor skills are slowing down a little bit (no, I didn't say HE was slowing down. If anything he is crawling even faster). William is still learning and picking up some new things all the time. Over the weekend, I caught John teaching William how to do this:

The bonus of the toilet paper roll is that the toilet is RIGHT there. It is so LOUD when he bangs on it- he loves it!

Crawling while holding the t.p. in his hands

Now, every time we are in the bathroom, he heads straight for the toilet paper roll. I'm sure he would have figured it out eventually -but thanks Daddy!

His other favorite pastime is pulling himself up on you. No problem unless you are wearing pants that have an elastic waistband. Consider yourself warned.

Yesterday when I was feeding William, he started smacking his lips together. Sort of like..."Mmmm....good [smack]". Either that or it sounds like he is blowing kisses. I'm not sure what he is trying to say/do, but I'm calling them kisses. Just 'cause I can.

He is also babbling a LOT more than before and I feel like he is trying to imitate words when he hears them. Yesterday we had an eye appointments and I was trying to entertain William with a container of Cheerios. He somehow managed to grab a whole handful and then drop them all on the ground. I said "Uh oh" and William stopping his wriggling and looked back at me and said something that sounded a lot like "Uh oh". Both John and I stopped what we were doing to look at him. He just kind of giggled, but wouldn't do it again. Maybe because I refused to dump the equivalent of half of box of Cheerios on the floor of the doctor's office. The talking is coming though...!