Fun with Words

Baxter isn't really vocal yet. He has a range of sounds he can do:

ga

guh

mmm

da

huhhh

tch (think blowing out through closed mouth with tongue against back of teeth)

high pitched screaching

He's said mama a few times, but not consistently. Today he started saying dada. But not talking about Jason, talking about the tv remote control. He then went and played with a few other toys, and then came back to it, and again called it dada. It was rather cute.

The other day I laughed at him, and he laughed back and then rolled onto his back and belly laughed, looked up to see if I was still laughing, rolled over onto his tummy, checked me, then rolled the other way onto his back, and was just putting on a show. Like he knew he was being funny, and was doing it on purpose. It was great.

And sometimes now he scrunches his nose. Too cute!

I love that boy so much. 

It's True

In case you didn't quite understand, or just missed it from my post last night, it's true.

Jason and I are DEBT FREE! (besides student loans)

I'm so excited! And I'm done with classes in just under three weeks. I'll be able to start my "real life" whatever that means.

Bax has napped terribly today. So he went down at 4pm for a third nap, and he's still asleep. His bed time is in 10 minutes. I guess when he wakes up I'll just put a night time diaper on him and put him back down. No bath tonight!

not me Monday, condensed

I certainly did not forget to write this earlier, so im not doing it while nursing Baxter. I did not buy a cookie with my coffee today because I wanted something sweet. I didn't have terrible gas from the massive amounts of garlic I consumed either.

And I most certainly DID NOT pay off all our debt besides student loans!!!!

And of course, I'm not going to bed now either.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Chasing Shadows

The other day I was putting away Baxter's laundry while he played on the floor. He's been working on the pincher grasp, where he picks something up with his thumb and index finger. In the past this is only been used on me (i.e. nursing, pull off, look pointy thing! pinch, OUCH! resume nursing). Well he saw my dancing shadow in the rays of sun and was trying to pick them up! It was super cute, so I took a picture:


I also picked up some teething biscuits for him, since he seems to like table food more then purees. He loved it. He smelled of teething biscuits all day. He also made a big mess!



Shortly after this photo there was actually remnants on his forehead as well. I gave him half of one later, but planned it so he went straight into the bathtub afterwards.

He's also been laughing and ticklish a lot more. He especially loves mirrors. There are handprints on ALL of them in the house now. So next time I get them cleaned I'll try to video him playing with mirrors again. But in the mean time here are some fun videos of Baxter playing with Mommy and Daddy.





On other notes, I finished and shipped my diaper order! Now I have papers to write, but what else is new? Baxter can also scoot quite far now :)

applesauce no, paper yes

Well Baxter still isn't very into solid foods, unless it's what we are eating. I had my friend and her daughter over last week, and Baxter kept stealing her apple to suck on. So I tried giving him applsauce. First thing he's actually spit out. But later I found him eating paper, which I had to fish out of his mouth. He is fond of puffs though, which are like sweet melting cheerios.

Today he got up early again, so I'm laying on the futon in his room while watching him explore the floor. He's not quite army crawling, he's more pulling himself around with his arms, but he's pretty good at it. He can almost get into a sitting possition by himself too. He's so amazing. Someties when I put him down for naps he has to talk to himself for a while first. Yesterday it sounded like "da da da geez oh right da da (thump head on mattress twice) da da" on repeat. I was trying not to laugh and wake him up!

Ok, he's starting to want my attention. Excuse any errors, since I wrote this post on my phone. I do have a video to upload, and maybe a picture/story too. I'll try to get to that later.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Stand by me

So Baxter really likes standing. A lot. His new favorite toy is the laundry basket because he can hold both sides and stand on his own. See Exhibit A:

The only problem with this is that laundry baskets are prone to tipping, so we hold both sides. The picture is blurry because it's from my phone as I'm gripping the basket with my ankles.

He's getting better at crawling. He does this funny arm pulling thing, and still tries to get up on his tip toes. It's not really coordinated yet, and he still rolls over to get there faster some times. I'm not sure I would call it an army crawl yet. But it still gets him where he wants to go.

He has discovered the cat food and water. He hasn't tried to eat it yet, but he has pulled the water onto his head. Jason and I can't figure out where to move it to so that he can't get it anymore.

I've made a lot of progress with my diaper order. I'm learning silly things like remove the lint from my machine every night and it doesn't break as often. I'm also getting significantly faster. But Jason was laughing at my inventory skills. I ran out of elastic yesterday so I went to get more. But JoAnn's was having a huge President's Day sale, so I came home with a bunch of thread too, you know, for inventory. This weekend I also realized that I had ordered snaps from China forgetting about the Chinese New Year, so I wasn't going to have them in time. But then I recalculated and realized that I had ordered enough for this order but would still be short in the future, so I ordered a bunch more locally. Luckily it's only a tad bit more expensive, but the shipping is a lot faster.

This morning Baxter woke up with a bit of a cold, at 5am. He wants to be upright (so his nose drains?) and I'm too tired, therefore he is in the jumperoo. But he's starting to make whiney noises, so it might be close to naptime.

The last few days he's been trying to eliminate his third nap of the day. Which would be fine if his second nap of the day didn't start between 10 and noon, and only last an hour or two. Being up from 11 to 6pm is REALLY hard on him, but he fights that last nap. It might be because he was starting to get sick though. So today I'm going to try to push the middle nap back in case he fights number three again. Oh, and I'm going to use Tylenol.

Ok, there was yawn #3 in the jumperoo. It's still a bit on the early side for his first nap, but now he might need more mommy time. Off to my full time job!

Not me Monday

As I recently mentioned, I follow MckMama's blog My Charming Kids. Every monday she does a post about things she did NOT do the week before. It's a way to pretend to be perfect while admitting our faults. I love reading hers every week, so I thought I would try it out!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This week I most certainly did not decide to stop shaving my armpits after finding a one inch long ingrown hair. And I most certainly did not vow to epilate instead, even though I constantly forget and end up shaving at the last minute.

I also did not put Baxter on a chair at the Public Heath department and sit in front of him while I got a flu shot, just so he wouldn't roll off! And I most certainly did not pretend to ignore him chewing on the armrests of said chair.

Of course I would never bake a batch of cupcakes JUST for me and Jason. Never! Not me! And we didn't eat over half of them in just a few days! Never!

And I am not going to try to do this post every week, simply because I enjoy reading other people's....

Photo Ambitions

As Baxter becomes more mobile, he becomes harder to catch on film. My camera will do an okay job on action shots, but it starts getting what is called noise. Like where there is supposed to be black it starts looking like a disco ball. As some of you may know, I loved photography in high school, and seriously thought about becoming a professional photographer. I had a nice Nikon SLR, and worked at a Photographic Supply store. After working in the industry for almost five years I realized that I didn't want to be a photographer, I just love great photography. Sometimes I can do it, but not always when prompted to perform. So instead it turned into a hobby. But I had a film camera, and the hobby eventually went dormant. A few years ago I bought a nice point and shoot to take with us on our three week road trip. Don't get me wrong, I love that camera. It's perfect for slipping into my pocket or purse, and it's great for toting around to various places. But if you have visited my flickr site, you know that I try to take good every day photos, the kind that would be amazing with a digital SLR.

I suppose reading My Charming Kids doesn't help. She has the most amazing story (it will take forever to read, and it WILL make you cry) and she takes beautiful pictures of her kids. I'm not nearly as good of a writer, but her blog is what I aspire to be someday. With graduation about a month away, I thinking about all the time I'm going to have during the day with just Baxter, and I'm pondering all the photographic opportunities. And then it will be spring, and I can take him to explore parks!

My photography bug has bitten again.

Of course, the camera I want is SUPER expensive. But I'm going to be a responsible adult type person and start saving my money towards it. We have a savings account that's linked to our checking account that we currently use for budgeting our childcare money. After I graduate that becomes the camera fund. We're going to make a monthly budget, and whatever extra I save outside of the budget gets to go to my camera fund. And my graduation present and anniversary gift are $100 toward my camera. We also have a Best Buy gift card from our credit card points that will be all the extras (memory card, extra battery, etc) so I just have to worry about the camera part.

Ready for the big number? I've done my research (I know, I'm very researchy when it comes to this much money and getting what I really want) and decided I want the Nikon D80. I've always been a Nikon girl, and this camera will last for a very long time. I could spend $200 less, but it would limit me in the future, and has a few things missing.

$800

Ok, now pick up your jaw and close your mouth. And start giving me good tips on how to save money. I want this thing bought before Baxter's first birthday! Or maybe a lot sooner... Of course, if you're wondering what to get me as a graduation present, this may also be a strong hint. I promise you would get to see benefits!

Out of Curiosity

For those of you who have been reading my blog since the Babysite days, do you like the blogger version any better? I'm debating it it was a good change or not. It's certainly easier to access so I've been posting more, and I like that I can embed photos and videos. Just curious!

I know there's no longer a guest book, but you can leave comments on individual posts. If there's something missing that you liked from before, let me know and I may be able to add something similar.

I would love to hear your comments!

It has started

Yesterday Baxter was moving a tiny bit, but today he was moving several feet in kind of a half army crawl half scoot. He wore himself out! He has also slept awesome the past few nights, which means it will be terrible tonight. Ok, since he's now sleeping, it's shower time!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

I think my education is working

I have an exam tomorrow in my Management 495: Strategic Management class. I have been completely unworried about it. Today I spent Baxter's naps (minus my shower, about an hour and a half) filling in the study guide. This class is considered a "capstone" class, to make sure we understand what we've been taking classes about. It just hit me that I already know everything this exam is going to be on, hence why I've been unconcerned. That or senioritis is really kicking in. So instead I will leave you with a cute little video of foxes figuring out what a trampoline does, and then I'll go off to read through this study guide once more before doing something else with my evening.

I am so not ready for this

Starting last friday, Baxter started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth, getting ready to crawl. He continued to do this all weekend. Sometimes he gets up on his hands and tip-toes, like a funny push up. And this morning he army crawled about two inches. I keep telling him to wait another month!


Last weekend we went to Seattle. We stayed with Jason's parents, which was nice. Baxter couldn't figure out if he liked the dog or if it scared him witless. It was a lot of fun! I got to meet someone from my online forum. I'm part of the July Firecrackers playgroup, even though Baxter was born in August. They're a great bunch of ladies. Kyliee and I met and walked around the Commons at Federal Way with her daughter Natalie and Baxter. It was a lot of fun.



After that Baxter and I went to a baby shower for April, my step-sister. She's due on March 16th, the same day as my last class! Baxter was a huge hit, and the party was fun too.

While Baxter and I were out and about, Jason went with his sister Jessica to an orienteering meet. Orienteering is something that Jason did in High School and loved. It's kind of like a race, but you have to use a map to find different check in points before you can finish it. He wasn't going to run it because he is out of shape, but at the last minute he decided it would be fun. He was sore for three days.

Jason will find out on May 11th if he has a job or not. The irritating thing is that the job fair is on April 16th, so he's not sure if he's going to go to that or not. He might just for information gathering. We're somewhat preparing for the worst, which most likely means a move to Seattle. If we moved to Seattle I would have to find a job, which would be difficult with bottle-refusing Baxter. But with what we could afford rent-wise, I wouldn't have space to sew my diapers. So pray that Jason gets to keep his job!!!

I have a debate on Wednesday for my leadership practicum class, and a mid-term too. So not fun. On Friday we have a recertification appointment at WIC, and then we might go see Great-Grandpa and Grandma for a late lunch/early dinner. And I'm busy making diapers in my free time! Good thing I enjoy sewing them :)

wow

Blogging has come a long way when you can start blogging from your phone.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Public Service Announcement

Babies are slippery when wet. Proceed with caution.

I heard it!

I heard Baxter call my name! Please note the time of my post. Yes, it is just after 2am. I was woken from my slumber by my should be sleeping son calling "mamama" piteously over and over. Of course I went to him, and gently soothed him back to sleep. And I'm so excited that I heard it, I just wish that I could more coherently remember it. The memory is already starting to fade, hence my blogging about it at 2am. Chances are I will forget about this post by the time I wake up tomorrow morning, and read it the next time I go to post, and be excited / disappointed all over again. So you, Blogger, are serving as my means of remembering. You don't require finding pen and paper. Although my eyes hurt from looking at a bright screen. I'm off to find my bed again.

Double

Baxter is now double his birth weight. At his 6 month appointment today he weighed in at 19lbs, 12oz. That's 6 whole ounces more than double his birthweight. And I think that means his growth has finally started to plateau! That mean it will be much easier to clothe the boy. He's almost grown out of his 6 month sleepers. I recently had to explain this to my father, so I'll explain it again. Baby clothes are stupidly sized. There is NOT consistent sizing between brands. Carter's is much more generously sized than other brands. In Carter's Bax can squeeze into some 6 month stuff, but he's generally too long. 9 month fits well, and 12 month works, but is really wide. In Old Navy, he's in a 12-18 month onesie (that's the only thing he has from there). In American Apparel he's in 12-18 month t-shirts, and they're slightly on the large size. He got some 6-9 month stuff for Christmas that's just too short, and some others that will be fine this summer if I turn them into t-shirts. I pretty much never put him in onesies, it's mostly t-shirts. And he usually wears the wool pants I knit him. I think he's set on clothes for a while!

My long week of school is over, but next week I have two short papers, one long paper and a mid-term. This sounds worse than it is, since the long paper is already written. And the two short papers are reflections on other people's papers. The mid-term I am slightly concerned about, but I'm not going to stress out about it.

We're going to Seattle for the weekend! I love seeing family. We're staying at Jason's parents this time. On Saturday I'm meeting up with a friend, and that afternoon Baxter and I are going to my step-sister April's baby shower. Fun times! When we get home, I have a TON of diapers to make!

See, I just knew that I had to write this and wait for bed. Baxter woke up. I'll put him back down and then put myself to sleep. Good night!

Sunrise, coffee, and alternate forms of fiber

There's one thing they never tell you about being a parent. "Sleeping in" means you got to sleep until 8am. Most mornings you are up between 5 and 6am, and if you're LUCKY it's 7. Jason and I take turns "sleeping in" on the weekend. He gets Saturdays, I get Sundays. But there are benefits to waking up early! Yes, that's right, benefits! For instance, I get to see the beautiful shades of pink and coral in the sunrise every morning. True that it's through the slats on his blinds, filtered through the bare branches of the maple trees outside, but it's still sunrise. And I see it six days a week.

Regardless of whether or not I get to sleep in, I need my morning coffee. I stopped drinking coffee while pregnant with Baxter, but now I drink it again. However, my coffee habits have changed. I now drink decaf, which still wakes me up. I think I'm just conditioned that coffee in the morning wakes me up. The other thing that I'm doing, is contributing my part to save third world countries. I now buy fair trade coffee, and it tastes great. Especially freshly ground in the morning. I swear, I wasn't a coffee snob until I visited the east coast and had to drink their "coffee" for a few days. But if we go back to the sunrise paragraph above, sometimes I don't feel like grinding my coffee in the morning. So today I had a brilliant idea. Why not have some of the coffee pre-ground, and some of it whole bean?!? Fantastic! But where do I PUT the ground coffee? Since Baxter refuses to take a bottle, I have some large bottles sitting around doing nothing. I think to myself "Hey, these bottles are airtight containers! And I paid good money for these!" Hence my new solution:

Enough about my rambling solutions. You want to hear about Baxter. The man child is doing fine, and he's more and more mobile every day. He seems determined to roll where ever he pleases. In fact, when he sees my shoes he gets excited, and makes his way over to them as fast as he can. He then promptly sticks them in his mouth. We did start him on solids (so far he's had carrots, banana, and avacado. Sweet potatoes or oatmeal are next) but by far his favorite food is wood. You know, door frames, chairs, the doors themselves. Seriously, the boy cannot get enough of them! I keep telling him that wood is not an appropriate source of fiber for a six month old.

On my end, things have been going. I'm not sure if they have been going good, or going bad, they're just going. I had a super busy week at school last week, including writing 5 papers. Pretty insane. I actually think my busiest week of the whole quarter ends tomorrow. Then I have a mid-term next week, but overall it calms down for a while. I also got some really great news on saturday. The CPSIA legislation that was passed last August that would virtually end business for small crafters of children's items was put on hold for another year. That means that I can officially start selling diapers in march when I graduate! I'm working on my first large order right now, and this morning I ordered labels! I can't even tell you how excited I was to order labels for Dilley Dally diapers. And on Sunday night I had a "mamas night out" with some of my good friends. It was amazing, and I just need that once a month.

Jason just finished up his first semester and is gearing up for the next set of lessons. He's been great, like always. I really have nothing to complain about with him. Oh wait, there is one MINOR thing. And it's not entirely his fault. He works at a public school, therefore he's ALWAYS SICK. Or bringing home germs. That part I could live without!

Liars and Frogs, 2.0

Welcome to those of you who came from my old Babysite! I decided to move to blogger so that I can include pictures, videos and links into my blog posts, and also have a more customizable format. I hope it's not too confusing for you, but it's certainly easier for me! I'm working on archiving and updating all my previous posts, so bear with me a bit as I work on that.

Classes have been crazy busy for me the last few weeks. This quarter I have two "writing intensive" courses, which means a lot for me to do. Oh, and the CPSIA gave us a one year reprieve on testing requirements, so that officially means that after I graduate I will be opening up Dilley Dally Diapers!

And a quick Baxter update, since he just woke up from his nap:

Last night I had a girls night out with some of my friends. When I'm home I put Bax to bed, and Jason does it on Mondays and Wednesdays when I have class. So last night he was distressed that I nursed him and then handed him off to Daddy to go to sleep, because he KNEW I was there! I went into the other room to finish getting dressed. When I left his room, he started crying, and called for "mama!" So I was his first word, but I MISSED it! Sad! I hope I get to hear it soon :D