Life Around Here

I've had a lot of people ask me two things lately:



1) Are you all unpacked and settled in?



2) How are you feeling these days?



In answer to the first one, I guess you could say we aren't completely unpacked, but we are settled. There's 3 boxes that are opened but not emptied. Mainly they have frames and wall hangings. We don't want to put too many things on the walls yet, because we plan to paint some rooms in the future. And speaking of that, we actually bought some color samples to try out on the wall. It's really neat, cause at Lowe's or Home Depot, you can buy a small can of paint for about $4 to see if you like the color. It's much better than buying a whole gallon and finding out you don't like the color on your wall after all.



One of the first rooms we plan to paint will be the nursery. It's got girly green and pink paint with some butterfly wallpaper. Cute for a little girl, but totally doesn't match the Mickey stuff I have for the nursery. And plus, Matthew's a boy and he's currently sleeping in that room, so we definitely need to neutralize it.



The other room I'd like to get done is the family room, where we spend most of our time. Matthew's toys are in there, the TV's in there, and it's right off the kitchen. I'm getting tired of the dark green walls that make the room look small. My plan is to have a western-themed room and to use sunset colors on the walls--a nice warm golden color for most of the walls, and some shade of orange for an accent wall. Then I'll slowly acquire appropriately themed things to hang on the walls and stuff. When I look things up on the Internet, I find a lot of really rustic or outdoorsy things that you'd find in a log cabin or in Texas. I don't want to go that far with this style. Just some touches here and there, since Josh and I both like out West.



And in answer to the second question, I unintentionally lied to people this weekend. Between a graduation party and church, a lot of friends asked how I was feeling with morning sickness, and I said something along these lines: "I'm feeling better. Some mornings weren't the greatest, but those are starting to go away." I think I cursed myself, cause today I threw up. I threw up one morning last week, and seriously those were the first times I threw up because of a pregnancy. So I've been very fortunate, cause I know some women are sick for the entire 9 months! Anyway, hopefully the morning sickness really is going away and not becoming worse. It's fun to be pregnant, but not all the symptoms are enjoyable.

Matthew's had some little quirks lately. For some reason, once Josh comes home, Matthew suddenly becomes Mommy's little sidekick. He wants me to hold him, and he'll cry if I leave the room. He's not like that the rest of the day, though he does have his needier days like all babies/toddlers have. I hope it's a phase he passes through quickly. Another quirk that's developed lately is his refusal to eat some foods. He used to love love love yogurt, but now he only takes a few bites and he doesn't want anymore. And applesauce he won't even touch it seems. I've tried canned fruit that comes in chunks, but he's not thrilled with that either. He used to love fruit as a baby, but now all he wants is crackers crackers and more crackers. The whole not-eating-fruit thing is starting to affect him. You know how yogurt and/or fruit makes you regular? Well guess what, if you don't eat that stuff, you can get constipated, which is what's happening to him. I can only explain it to him so much, cause he doesn't get the concept that eating these foods will help him go. Again, hopefully it's just a phase that he passes through quickly.

In other Matthew news, he's graduated from destructo-boy to Bob the Builder. What I mean is, you know how all babies love to watch you stack blocks or build a tower, only so they can knock it down? Well, now he actually tries to build things and stack stuff on top of each other. He also finally crawls regular now. Remember how he only army crawled? Now he only does that if he's on the linoleum floor in the kitchen. Once he gets to carpet, he's on all fours, and he moves pretty fast too. He's learning new sign language words too: milk, eat, hot, change (for a diaper change), and he tries to say the word hot when he does the sign for it. He also can say "ha-ha" (sounds like laughter) and he's pretty good at saying "cracker." Now if someone else heard him, they might not have a clue as to what he's saying. But I guess since I'm with him all day, it's easier for me to understand him.


One Saturday neither of us had our eye on him, and when we came back to the room, we found him like this. He'd climbed onto the coffee table because his juice was out of reach.

This kid will try to maneuver anywhere. His newest favorite spot is under the end table. Josh took this pic through the glass table top.

Josh had a birthday this past Sunday, and we celebrated at his parent's house. Here you can see Matthew signing the word "hot" because of the candles. He naturally wanted to touch them, but we had to tell him otherwise.

Helping Daddy blow out the candles.

That's all I've got for you for now, but I promise I do have more to post. I'm a little behind on my blogging. I've got some videos, and more pictures of Matthew, and I even took some pics of the house. Not many, but some. Patience, grasshopper.

Cousin Time

It's been over a week since I posted, and I have some catching up to do. To bring you up to date, I am now 12 weeks pregnant--in other words, first trimester completed and only 2 more to go! Also, Matthew's got 2 more teeth, though you won't see them in pictures. They are the middle molars on the bottom, and they broke through early last week. I guess that explains all the drooling as of late.

This post is mainly about Matthew and his cousin, Chesney. (FYI, they are 5 months apart) They got to see each other twice in the last 2 weeks, and they had a good time together. For the first week, Sarah and Donald were up this way so Sarah could attend our ladies' refresher banquet. When that was over, we had the whole family hang out at our house for a while.

At Matthew's House

Matthew and Chesney playing together.

Matthew sharing his toys.

Matthew loving on Aunt Sarah.

Daddy, can I slap Matthew? I promise I won't do it hard.

Come here, Chesney. I just want to touch your ear, I swear.

Then for Memorial Day weekend, we headed to Sarah and Donald's place, a little over 2 hours from us. Matthew didn't sleep on that trip, and he was hard to please and fussy. It was a little discouraging to see that he couldn't handle that length of trip, but the return ride was much better. He took a nap and was in a better mood, so the time seemed to go by faster as we went home. Anyway, we arrived on Saturday around noon and had lunch together. Sarah and Donald have a dog named Canyon. I thought Matthew would be afraid of her, since he's afraid of other dogs, but he warmed up to her after a while. As long as she didn't bark at him, he wasn't nervous. In fact, he was even brave enough to pet her.

At Chesney's House

Chesney sharing her toys with Matthew.

That afternoon we made our way to a Strawberry Festival. Ches and Matthew did well in their strollers. They both sampled some of our food, strawberry shortcake and a strawberry-banana drink. We listened to a live band that played folk-type music, and Matthew had a good time listening to them.

Some strawberry stuff left on his face--adorable! There was a big yard sale across the street, so we checked it out. We scored black dress shoes (size 5 1/2) for $2 and a pair of brown sketchers (size 7) for $2 as well. He doesn't fit in them now, but they were barely used and such a steal that we had to jump on it. He'll wear them someday.

Family picture (obviously) :)

Father/son pic (one of my favs)

There was a big tractor nearby, and since Matthew and Chesney's great-grandpa used to own a dairy farm, we had to get some pics.

One smiling.

Now the other one. of course we couldn't get them to both smile at the same time.

Sarah and Donald took us to the original Texas Roadhouse for dinner on Sunday (there was no Sunday evening service b/c of the holiday, and strangely, the original "Texas" Roadhouse is not located in Texas)

Matthew had fun wrestling with Uncle Donald that night, and Chesney begged to get in on the action too.

We left Monday afternoon and tried to get some pics of the kids together. It wasn't perfect, but it was fun. First Matthew cheesed it up for me while Chesney changed out of her pjs.

Acting like cousins already. Or maybe more like brother and sister. This'll be good practice for when Matthew's new sibling comes along.

Yeah, Matthew wasn't innocent. He decided to try and pull her hair to get even.


It looks like she's biting him, but I'd like to think she's giving her only cousin a kiss.


The next three are the closest we got of them smiling together.






And one final one of my boy giving a nice smile for the camera. I think Aunt Sarah was making him laugh.


And that was our trip. Like I said before, he was much better on the ride home. We had a great time, and Matthew liked playing with toys that he's never seen before. In fact, he like this steering wheel one so much that I just bought it for him today. But I'm saving it for later. We are vacationing in August, and that will be a long ride. I think it's smart to have a few new toys to introduce to him on the journey.

My Obsession

The season finale of Smallville was on last night, and Josh and I had a great time watching it. For those of you who don't know, Smallville is a TV show about Clark Kent's life before he becomes Superman. I've always loved the Superman movies, and in comparison to other super heroes, Superman takes the cake. I'm not a comic book junkie though, so I don't know all the ins and outs of every character and plot from those pages. But in general I do love the story, so Smallville became an easy addiction for me to fall prey to. They just finished Season 8, and it was a really good episode. There weren't fantastic explosions and end-of-the-world destructions that are typical of Smallville season finales. There was more content involved, and they delivered a twisted implication and left some loose ends and unanswered questions. All in all, I think the writers set up really well for the final season, which will be starting in September. I can't believe I have to wait that long for the story to continue!

In family news, I am 11 weeks pregnant, which means I only have 29 more weeks to go! Whoo-hoo! It sounds short, but in reality, December seems far off. Occasionally my little tummy shows, depending on what I'm wearing. My skirts are starting to be too tight, so that's a bummer for church and stuff. I might go to JCPenney today to buy some maternity shorts. They actually had some longer ones, the Bermuda style that I like, and since they are having a sale, I want to take advantage of it. I'll definitely be needing shorts for the summer months. Yesterday I found a pretty summery top at Kohl's, so that'll be fun to wear when it gets warmer and I get bigger. Hopefully I shouldn't need too many more maternity pieces. I tried to get more staple items the first time I was pregnant, but it was also fall and winter, so I have a lot of long-sleeve and sweater stuff. Some items are 3/4 sleeve, so I can probably make those work when the seasons change.




Matthew is going through a mama's boy phase. He's totally fine if I leave him in the nursery at church. He doesn't cry or show any indication of missing me. But when I'm at home and we're playing on the floor, after 5 minutes he wants me to hold him. And a lot of times if I put him down somewhere, he'll put up a big fuss because I'm not holding him anymore. Dinnertime has become really bad. When I'm trying to make dinner, he'll cry and cry and try to get me to hold him. It's really very pitiful, but it's also frustrating. One, we need to buy gates, cause then I could block him off from the kitchen, so that would help. He wouldn't be trying to climb up my leg. Two, my mother-in-law gave me a good idea. She suggested I set him up in his high chair with a toy so he'd be more at my level. I tried it yesterday, and he was definitely content for a while. Near the end of my cooking he was reaching for me to get him out. Hopefully it will work again today.

His newest trick is climbing. He's actually climbed onto the couch once, but he's more comfortable climbing the stairs.

Matthew and Josh Learn to Climb the Stairs

Victory!

In house news, we've had a lot of rain lately, which showed us a nice little leak in our home. Josh took care of it yesterday, and I guess we'll find out the next time it rains if we've really solved the problem or not :) We've still got some things in boxes, but it's nothing we desperately need, otherwise it'd be unpacked by now. It's nice to have two extra rooms where we can hide stuff.

Weekend Events
Saturday our church is having a Ladies' Refresher Banquet (aka used to be called Mother/Daughter Banquet). Tell me, why have churches changed that name recently? Everyone is at least a daughter to someone, so technically no one's left out. Well, whatever. I guess it doesn't really matter anyway. I'm singing for the affair, so I need to practice my song a few more times today. Josh's sister and husband are going to be here for the weekend, which means Matthew will get to hang out with his cousin Chesney for a little while, and we can give them a tour of our new house. Should be a fun day!

Weekend Events

Oh, so I was feeding Matthew some goldfish last week, and check this one out. Doesn't it look like a goldfish within a goldfish? I'm thinking of selling it on EBay.

Just a crazy close up for your viewing pleasure.

Pausing a wrestling match for a smile at the camera.


Whee! So much fun!


He learned a new sign the other day. I've been showing him the sign for music forever, and he finally copied me. What you do is hold out one arm and sweep your hand across it, almost like you're directing a song, or shooing a fly away. Anyways, here's Matthew doing it.


First Haircut

Hi Mom! I'm on my way to my first haircut, and since I don't know what to expect, I've got a big smile on my face :)


Getting prepped for my new do.


Um, I'm not too sure what this lady's doing to me. Why does she keep touching my head?


Oh look! A Baby Einstein video! Cool!


A view from the back..


...and the front. Voila!

They even gave him a balloon and a certificate. It was a really cute place called Kiddie Kuts. A little pricey, but we had a coupon, and we were pleased with the results.

And unfortunately I didn't take any pictures on Mother's Day. I really meant to at least get a pic of Matthew and I together, but oh well. We have the memories I suppose. Josh's family came over after the morning service, and we enjoyed lasagna, salad, rolls, and banana pudding for dessert. All in all, it was a fun day and a good weekend.

Ultrasound and Other Things

See that kidney-shaped blob above? That's our second little one all cozy and comfy inside of me. My due date is December 5th, and that's pretty much all the updates I have on Buckeye Baby #2. When I hit 3 months pregnant I'll start having Josh take some belly pictures.

I've been feeling so-so. I usually don't feel good in the morning for a couple hours. I remember a little morning sickness when I was pregnant with Matthew, and this time around seems a little worse. But that could just be because I have a child to take care of. I can't just sleep it off or lay down whenever I want, you know? But still, overall it's not that bad, and I think it's actually subsiding anyway. I don't feel sick every morning lately, so that's a good sign for me :).


Matthew's being a goofball in these pics. Just above this he was making faces in the oven door for me. He is a wonderful little boy, but I have to be honest with you. Ever since he turned one he's become Mr. Attitude. He may not officially be a toddler yet, but he's got the tantrums and opinions of one. It kind of surprised me, because he's always been easy-going and laid back. But now he protests if I try to sit him down and he'd rather be held. If I tell him no when he's touching something he shouldn't, he looks right at me, and goes right back to touching it anyway. And then when I remove from the situation, he'll kick his legs and put up a short fuss.

Meal times have been interesting too. On the plus side, no more baby food! He eats pretty much all the foods we eat, though Gerber makes these Graduate meals that come in handy if we're at church or the mall or something like that. He likes waffles, applesauce, mac 'n' cheez, hamburger helper, yogurt, grilled cheese, tuna helper, fish sticks, and the list goes on. Oh, I was going to tell you how meal time is interesting. He's got a good memory, which is developmentally wonderful, but since he can't talk yet, he can get frustrated when I don't know what he wants. For instance, I may have a waffle and milk on the table for him, but he'll sign "more." I try to give him more waffle, but he shakes his head. He signs "more" again and points towards the frig. "Do you want yogurt?" Then he gets all excited. So even though I don't have the yogurt out for him to see, he knows where it is and wants it. It's great to watch him growing and learning. But it has its disadvantages. I mistakenly had a bag of goldfish out on the table at breakfast, and he wanted some (they are his current favorite snack). But goldfish isn't a breakfast food, so I hid them. Well, he knew where I put them and kept pointing at them. And when I'd say no, he threw a fit and started crying his eyes out. I didn't give in, cause I knew he'd be eating them later at lunch or snacktime, so it's not like I was permanently depriving him. I guess it's hard for little kids to learn the concept that instant gratification doesn't always happen. But he's a sweet little kid, and I'm learning how to read him. Just as he's learning from me where his limits are. It's gonna be an exciting road ahead of us.

And here are some videos Josh took last night. Matthew loves to walk around by holding onto the coffee table or our fingers. He's had this walker toy for a while now, but just yesterday we were showing him this way to use it, and now he loves it.