A year ago today...

I know, I can't believe it's been a year already! My baby boy has grown into a sturdy little toddler.


This past year has been amazing. I was going to write a sappy post, but my boy needs me to put him down for a nap.

And yes, he's SOOOO BIG!!!

His first haircut...

We've been going back and forth, cut his hair before his birthday? Do it ourselves or have it done? We wanted it done before we go to Chelan on the 8th, and just have too much going on before then. So tonight, I set up the camera, handed it to Jason, and turned on the clippers...





And you better believe I'm keeping his wings...

My Goomba

My Goomba is adorable (especially in his Goomba shirt)


He's an incredibly smart monkey. Yes, he took the laundry basket, turned it upside down, climbed on top and used it as a stepstool.


He likes to sit in the chair. But not watch TV. Unless it's daddy playing Zelda or the creepy Arts channel.


He understands new games and toys right away.


And still tries to catch the sunlight.


I can't believe my baby will be a year old in less than a week! He can wave "bye-bye" now, and he's such a polite and sharing little boy. He loves to give hugs and kisses to his friends. We leave on Thursday to go to Seattle for a week for his birthday and family time, come home for a day, then leave for Chelan for another week. This time we're going with our good friends and their two little boys. It should be a fun filled week of bubbles, sprinklers, lake time, and card games in the evening. So I don't know how much I'll be blogging :) I'll try to keep photos updated though.

Having Jason home is great. Yesterday we took a walk around Lake Padden while Baxter napped in the stroller. And we've been taking turns sleeping in. That combined with Baxter only waking once a night has been glorious!

It's entirely too late to do this

It's after 10pm, and I should be heading to bed. But I sat down at my computer desk, and realized I have been super neglectful.



Baxter is still ridiculously cute. No worries. I actually have more pictures on my camera I should upload and edit, but as previously state, it's too late tonight. So just an update. Maybe short, maybe long? We'll see :)

Ok, it's been a LONG time! Baxter is walking everywhere now. He hates to crawl it seems like. Until earlier this week he was crawling a tiny bit so he could pull himself to standing so he could take off again, but he learned how to stand up on his own. It's sooo cute! But it means my baby boy is growing up :( Can you believe he's 10 months old already? It's crazy! He still isn't working on any words, but he has learned a few signs. He rarely uses them though. In fact, I taught him to sign "more" the other day using blueberries, but now he only wants more blueberries. He loves blueberries. Almost as much as he loves pudding.




Oh yeah, if you didn't see them on Flickr or Facebook already, we gave Baxter chocolate pudding. He made a royal mess, but it was so stinkin cute, and he loved it. I still have pudding spots on my walls though... Oops! He's starting to want to eat 3 meals a day, but not eating much. He's such a slow eater, and HATES bibs, so now that its finally warm I've just been stripping him down.

I started doing some Photography on the side, and I've been really liking it! Right now I've only taken pictures of a few friend's kids, and I have more to put up, but here's my gallery of photos. I'm hoping that if I get good enough it can bring in a little bit of extra cash next year. I've still been sewing diapers, and my newest creations, embellished birthday diapers, have been a hit so far! Check out my Dilley Dally blog for pictures of those though.

Jason is getting close to the end of the school year. His last day is the 17th, but then the 18-19 are the beginning of summer school. He's teaching a Geometry class this summer for students who want to skip ahead to Advanced Algebra next year. Usually it goes Algebra, Geometry, Advanced Algebra. So this class will be mostly online, and then Jason will be at the school for 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays to be there for help. It's a pretty neat system, and I'm looking forward to having him around this summer!

Speaking of summer plans, I'm totally excited to be taking our first vacation over the 4th of July! The Spears/Irvine family is going to the Chelan house, but we're staying a whole week. So some family time, and some just us. We bought a pool/lake toy for Baxter, and stocked up on sunscreen. I even faced the dreaded swimsuit shopping, because none of my old ones fit.

Now, swimsuit shopping is NEVER fun, but it's worse right now. My old suits are all too big, which is a nice feeling, but my tummy is in need of a lot more ahem control now, and by chest is in need of a lot more support. I also can't use anything that ties behind the neck, and V-necks and low necks are out. Yes, Baxter knows where his next meal is coming from, and he's not afraid to go after it if he's hungry enough. So those had to stay on the hangar. Luckily I found the perfect suit at the first place, and scored two amazing skirts that have been a lifesaver in this weather.

Ok, that's enough of an update for now, right? Steve and Krystal and little Bruce are coming over tomorrow, so I better get some rest tonight :)

Trouble

Baxter regularly takes 2-3 steps, and has taken up to 5 (although Kit who also witnessed it says 6). He's still pulling to stand, but about half the time when you go to set him down he only wants to be put on his feet, not sitting. He can stand pretty well unsupported, but not for longer than about 30 seconds. It's crazy how fast they grow though! I did not expect him to be walking before 9 months. I was trying to deny it before but the last couple days it's been really evident that this is a growing trend.

I'm having problems uploading pictures to flickr today for some reason, but I have some other fun pictures to post. Yesterday we took a spur of the moment trip to Oak Harbor to visit our good friends Kit and Christine and their two little boys. We had a great time, and every time we see them we say we should see them more often... And we really should! The boys had a great time playing together, and were nice the whole time. Baxter loves being around other kids, especially mobile ones. At playgroup he hangs out with the "older" kids (they're all under 3, but he hangs out with the mobile babies) instead of the ones closer to his own age.

I probably have more to post, but I'm not feeling the greatest and I have more to do. Ta ta!

four

Baxter's second top tooth came through this morning and I have the fussy baby to prove it.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

growing up

I'm writing this from my phone, so please excuse any errors. On Tuesday Bax decided he could walk. He pulled to standing and then took two steps before falling on his bum. He's really good at walking while holding hands (great with two, and fine with one!) but he's just now turning 8 months old... I'm so not ready for him to walk.

Right now I'm holding him as he sleeps and lets out huge man farts. He still hasn't broken his top teeth, I think they will remain in his gums forever. We may have a two year old with dentures like two of his grandpas....

So far my store opening has gone really well!! I sold 5 diapers yesterday, which is virtually unheard of for a new WAHM.

Oh!!! And I ordered my camera last night, I'm so excited for it to get here!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

PFFFFFFTTTTTTT

That's what I woke up to this morning. Last night Baxter figured out how to blow raspberries. So this morning instead of his usual babbling he blew raspberries over and over. So cute! He LOVES to stand. He can't pull himself up, but if you set him up he will stand for 20 minutes or more. The can travel a little bit, but not much. I think he just likes the balance practice.

Right now he's chewing on a teething biscuit, because that darn tooth hasn't popped through and it's bugging him. Luckily teething biscuits make him happy. He doesn't like purees, but give him table food and he's all over it.

I took his seven month pictures today. I put a few more up on Flickr, but here's my favorite of the batch. I actually took it for my online forum's picture of the week contest. The theme was blanket, and this was the blanket I knit for him before he was born. It turned out so sweet though that I like it anyway!



I also finished a new wool interlock cover for him. I dyed the wool and then had Grandma Annette (Jason's mom) embroider it. I loved his original cover with a monster on the bum, and I found out that monster's name was Milo. I found the embroidery patterns online, and I was super excited. Can you guess what this monster's name is?



It's Baxter! So I just HAD to make it for him. You understand, right?

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. 

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!

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 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 :)

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.

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

reaching...

I forgot to add yesterday that he's been starting to reach for toys. He's pretty good at getting them into his mouth to chew on too. But mostly he prefers my finger... He'll gnaw for ages on my knuckle. Last night he woke up 5 times. Not necessarily to nurse, but because his mouth hurt. He only nursed once out of all of that. He just wanted to know I was there, and to gnaw on my finger for a few minutes before falling back asleep. Did not make for a good exam this morning. It wasn't terrible, but it could have gone a lot better.

Tonight Jason has parent teacher conferences, and won't be home until about 9pm. So I have to put Baxter to bed by myself. I'm hoping to get my prep done for tomorrow, and just go to bed with him. Tomorrow night I'm volunteering at the Mother Baby Center auction (www.motherbabycenter.org). I highly recommend supporting them, they were a great support to me, and they're a fantastic addition to the Whatcom County community. But Jason gets to return the favor, and he gets to put Baxter to bed by himself tomorrow. We'll see how that goes, Baxter has never done that before, he's always had me to nurse him, then Daddy walks with him. It's a two part, two parent process. I'm glad he wants both of us though!

Happy Halloween!

Baxter was a gnome for Halloween this year. Which mostly meant he was subjected to a photo session while wearing a beard/hat combo that he wasn't particularly thrilled about. But it was still super cute. Next year we'll take him trick or treating. We only had ONE knock tonight! Two little girls in witch's outfits, and really bad face makeup. We have a ton of leftover candy. I guess "the thing" to do now is take the kids downtown. I hear Fairhaven is the place to go.

Baxter is just the cutest baby ever. I'm sure every mom thinks that, but he really is great. We need to get back down to Seattle so family can see how great he's getting. I'm not sure that's going to happen before Thanksgiving though. Travel is expensive, and we have a lot going on with school and work.

He's getting soooo much more social. Grandpa Gary was visiting from New York last week, and Baxter was great with talking and smiling. We went and spent the day with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Spears on Monday, and he could not get enough of them. He was telling them all sorts of stories and grinning up a storm. I know they're already in love with him, but he could have charmed a complete stranger that day! He's really developing a personality. We're trying to not let him watch TV, but it happens (in moderation). But Baxter, who was so huge at birth that we called him "Daddy's little linebacker," has decided he LOVES football. And sometimes baseball. Seriously, if football is on TV, he's glued to it. If you turn him around, he'll twist back to it. If you change the channel he'll whimper until you turn it back. It's actually pretty cute.

And he has the most adorable sad face! I know, I try not to let him get too sad, but he sticks his lower lip wayyyy out and gives a tiny whimper. If he hears another baby crying he'll do this in sympathy. To cute! And he continues to be amazing in all things physical. He holds a rattle pretty well now, and sometimes sucks on it. And he rolled over. He's been rolling over from front to back since mid-September, but he doesn't do it often. He likes his tummy time too much. But on Wednesday (at 12.5 weeks) he rolled over from back to belly! On the bed too, where it's supposed to be more difficult! He's taken to laying on his side when playing with toys though, it's so funny.

Lets see, I think he's starting to teeth. I just bought him an amber teething necklace to see if it helps with his fussiness at all. Although I shouldn't complain, he really is an easy baby. But he just doesn't want to be put down at all when he's fussy, which means I don't get things like laundry or homework done. And he doesn't nap well, so I don't have that time either. If you're curious about teething necklaces, more information on them can be found here: http://hyenacart.com/inspiredbyfinn/index.php?c=64&p=14913. I actually got two for Baxter, and one for Jason and I too. I had a discount code :D

As far as not quite so Baxter related, I'm still doing OK in school. I have an exam next Thursday, and I have 180 terms to work through, as well as 250 pages of reading that I haven't been able to do with Baxter around. The plan is to skim it this weekend, and hopefully get most of that done. Of course we're taking pictures tomorrow, and have errands to run, but I have high hopes! I tend to get more done when Jason is home. Weekends are their time together. That and bathtime. Baxter loves baththime.

Laundry is one of the hardest things to keep up with now. I always wash diapers and Baxter's clothes first priority, and those are generally fine. But the adult clothes and the towels get postponed, so this weekend was a major laundry day. Things are much better on that front now.

I'm still really enjoying making diapers. I don't have nearly enough time to do it right now though. I'm working on developing my own pattern. I've run into a fit issue with some of our diapers, and I'm debating selling them. Of course, I could only get less than $10/diaper for them, and the ones I want to replace them with are $35 each... I've found a new diapering love. I really like fitted diapers, and for me I'd need two sets for each child. Newborn (birth to 12 lbs) and then Onesize (usually 10lbs +). We recently tried Goodmama onesize diapers, and they're so great. None of the fit issues I was having with my other diapers. Containing the poo is worth it, right?

I also started thinking about Christmas. Even though Jason is working full time, I am not working, and we have another member in the house. So presents are mostly going to be homemade this year. Lots of knitting.... So I've started working on many of those projects. I think I'm going to make a gift registry/wish list for Baxter though, with maybe a few ideas for Jason and I on there. He doesn't need a whole lot, and he's growing so fast. He's almost completely in 6 month clothing now, with a few 3 month shirts that still fit. Clothing is hard, because he changes so quick! But I'd love him to have some wooden blocks, a wooden train set, wood cars, lots of books, and some balls to play with. Toys for him don't have to be "organic" we're just trying to stay away from plastic or overstimulating (noisy) toys. He already has a ton of stuffed animals too. But one of the goodmama diapers wouldn't go amiss either... :D But that's a project for another day.

This ended up being another long post, didn't it? Ok, it's way past my bedtime, and the dryer just finished. So I can fold this last load, put the diapers in the dryer (we put them in and get the dryer started once before bed, so in the morning we can do one more dryer cycle and they're ready to go for the day) then go to bed!

Big and Tall... with a small head

Baxter did great at his two month appointment yesterday. He cried when he had his immunizations (and was cranky last night) but he didn't pee on anyone! He's actually pretty good now and doesn't pee into the air anymore. He's grown a ton though! He's now 24.5 inches long (up 3 inches since birth) and 13 lbs 9 oz. That means he's in the 95% for both height and weight. But his head circumference is only 15.25 inches, which is in the 25th percentile. So he's really tall and weighs a lot for his age, but he has a tiny head. The funny thing is it makes him look more normal, because most babies look like they have oversized heads.

We also had pictures taken at Sears again yesterday. They were really impressed with how well he handled his head (maybe because it's so small?) and that he could actually lift it up so well. We got some great photos.

And on Sunday night he rolled over FOUR times in a row! The fourth one I got on video, but he's naked so I'm not going to post it on youtube. Every time he rolled over he had the most surprised look on his face like he couldn't figure out what just happened. It was hilarious!

Ok, enough doting mother, class is starting now :D

Eep!

Baxter rolled over! He did it on friday, but I thought it was a fluke, but he definitely did it today! He's so strong!