Life update, and Four-Legged Babysitters RULE!!

Hullo, folks... I imagine some of you have been wondering what happened to us!   Well, in the grand tradition of life, we got busy, we got stressed, and little things like updating the world on Casa Nolan just sorta fell by the wayside.  Woopsie!

And then last week the "something's gotta give" finally gave.  God came through.  We found someone willing to buy, and sold our gas-guzzling SUV.  We were able to get financing on an '08 Chevy Impala with 20,000 fewer miles on the engine and WAAAY better gas mileage, for a payment we can actually afford.  We put a deposit on the plumbing repair that we've been stalled on for a month, so in a week or so we'll have the ability to take showers instead of bird baths in the sink.  We got caught up on all our bills, paid off the funeral home, and scheduled a move-out at our storage locker for the end of the month.  Our "thanks for choosing AT&T" prepaid Visa finally showed up, two hundred bucks on that sucker.  (Btw, if you sign up w/ AT&T and are looking for your incentive card, be aware that you have to actually go to their rewards center, either online or by phone, and "redeem" the card, which I'm betting most people forget to actually do, which is why they can afford to be so generous.  Sneaky, sneaky.)  

We booked John a hotel room for next Tuesday night so he can go test for a new job that would provide retirement, benefits, medical, long term job security, and a pay rate that would actually allow us to start saving again, and move us into a beautiful area with plenty of hunting and fishing and still have a couple of decent size cities within easy reach.  Oh, and now we have a vehicle that actually makes it cheaper for him to drive there rather than fly.   We set aside money for the bills that hit at the end of the month, and to pay for our old house to have a proper clean-out so it can be ready for the renters our old realtor has available.  We set aside money for a return trip out to the new job site so that when they call and offer John a position (That's right, I said WHEN), we can all drive out and have a good look at where we would actually be living before we commit to the move.  I finally managed to freecycle an old china cabinet that was taking up space & gathering dust in the garage, leading me to hope that I stand a prayer of eliminating the ridiculous amount of extra STUFF this family has acquired over the past decade.  Last week I picked up a music student, so hurrah for putting that music degree to work!  And it looks like I may even be able to pick up a new computer to save me from my elderly and increasingly uncooperative laptop.

So there's the update on our lives in general. 

WHAT ABOUT THE BABY?!?!?! 

Yes, yes, I hear you, no need to shout.  *wink*

JJ is doing awesome. :)  

He's over twenty pounds now, and it's still all length, the boy is TALL, almost twenty-eight inches at his 9 month appointment.  He's been teething with a vengeance lately, and OH the drool, the crankies, the baby drama!!  We're mostly down to one nap these days, and typically 2-3 hours, though occasionally we have a very early morning and the two-nap day resurfaces for a week or so.  He's dropped his morning Zantac entirely, and we're beginning to wean him off the evening dose, though that's proving a bit more difficult, and the one night I actually forgot it was an unpleasant flashback to reflux hell.

Just an aside... the height is something that I intellectually knew, but it didn't really sink in until we were at a family get-together a couple of weeks back and I actually saw him next to another baby!  One of the extended cousins has a daughter twice JJ's age, and when I stood him up next to this actively toddling little girl (JJ can't stand independently yet) I was stunned to realize he was taller than the 18 month old!

And still with the puppy-dog feet!

Speaking of puppy-dogs...

Lady is being absolutely wonderful with JJ.  

I was trying for a different shot entirely... she had laid her head and front paws down across JJ's lap.  When she heard the 3-2-1 beeping from the laptop, she picked up her head, so I didn't quite get the shot I wanted, but it turned out super-cute anyway!  I mean, with the EARS!!!

Last pediatric appointment, I showed his doctor what happened the first time I let him play with a pencil.  I don't have a pic of that one (cuz it's filed away in the bedroom and JJ is asleep!), but suffice it to say she looked at me doing that stunned blinking thing and asked me if I had birthed a mini-Picasso.  LOL.  SO, yesterday I gave JJ crayons for the first time, and this is what he did:

Lighting's not so great, but you get the idea.  

No, seriously, he did that.  

I drew a couple of swirls with the green 

to get him started, but the rest is all JJ!!

He's starting to experiment with standing up on his own too. :)

Reeeeeaaaaaaally wants to move, my little man does.

Now, to finish up today's monster update, I bring you word on my feline babysitter...

Remember this?

And this?

Now we have this.

Just in the last couple of weeks, Minnows has begun to actively help with entertaining and alerting me to JJ's activities.  He's started sitting at the bedroom door meowing, not to be let in (because I'm not in there!), but to let me know that JJ is awake from his nap.  As JJ has gotten more mobile and communicative, Minnows has started purposely entertaining him, by which I mean running into the bedroom when I have to leave JJ in his pack'nplay for a moment, jumping into the pack'nplay to be petted (read: smacked on), or (just saw this one today) deliberately sitting on the bed with his tail JUST BARELY within reach and twitching it to keep JJ's attention while I deal with whatever it was outside the bedroom.  Highly hilarious, extremely cute, and it earns said kitteh much with the luvvins.

Well, that's everything, folks... may our lives continue to go well in the future so that it's not so long between posts again!

Lunchtime Fun

So I'm sitting at the kitchen table feeding JJ his sweet potatoes on bites of my cilantro & garlic bread  (that's cilantro & garlic baked in, not garlic bread like you serve with Italian), and JJ and John start mimicking each other.

Like, JJ looks at John and sort of lays his head to one side, so John lays his head over too.

Then John drops his head down more... and JJ drops HIS head to his little food tray.

Simultaneously getting sweet potato in his hair.  *facepalm*

JJ smacks his food tray... John pat-pat smacks his arm or the table.

And they go on like this for minutes at a time.  It's extremely cute.  I promise I'll do my best to snag video next time they get started.

Meanwhile, this will have to do:

Table banging... "MOOOM!! MORE FOOD!!!"

"OOH!!! FOOD!!!"

"OM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM!!!"

"I'm the baby, gotta love me!"

And one more just because it's adorable...

Nothing outdoes the classic cuteness of the OshKosh.

Except, of course, for teh babeh.

Helpless cooing in 3... 2... 1...

He so rarely lets me get the good snuzzle pics!

So you know those moments (hours... evenings...) where your child suddenly decides that all is right with the world, that 6:45 isn't such an unreasonable bedtime, decides to not only cooperate with the evening routine, but actively help you get it done and smile the whole time?  The rare and miraculous once in a blue moon evenings that tell you, yes, there IS a person in there, and yes, he IS learning, and no, he doesn't hate you for making him go to sleep when it's still light out?

We just had one of those.

In fact, the whole day has been incredibly smooth sailing, despite the atrociously early beginning thereof.

Yeah, JJ decided to get going at quarter past 5 today.  *groan*  Of course, it's tough to complain, because he also slept through from bedtime last night (almost 10.5 hours) with only one wake-up, and that was the post-bedtime top-off feed that I don't usually count anyway.  Once I realized that, well, I decided to stop being irritated about the 5am wake-up call.

Because of the early morning, it turned into a two-nap day, falling neatly into the ideal 2 nap day pattern, and baby was up for the afternoon at 2:30 on the dot, already awake when I went to go get him.

Ate his lunch (pureed squash ... but on toast fingers... yeah, I'm back to purées are EBIL, but that's another post)... drank some water...

Took a good half dozen sorta-maybe steps while clinging to my fingers...

Did NOT freak out during his evening play-time with Grandma (read: mommy's sanity-saving baby-free hour).  Normally he lasts about 40 minutes and then starts freaking out because Grandma is nice but she's NOT MOMMY!!!!

Sat (SAT) in his bath and played happily with his toys for fifteen whole minutes without making me constantly re-sit him.

(Here's the big one) REFUSED TO NURSE IN CLUTCH HOLD AND NURSED TO SLEEP IN CRADLE HOLD INSTEAD.  Y'all have no idea.  He is seven, almost eight months old, almost thirty inches long, and until a month ago was still exclusively nursing in clutch hold.  It's taken the last month to introduce it and for him to realize that it WORKS BETTER, so for him to actively refuse clutch is a huge big honkin' deal in the Nolan household!

So... seriously... who is this perfect little angel and what has he done with my child?????

He's sleeping now, and I'm waiting for the "Mooooooooooooooooooom, I'm still hungry!!!!!!!" cries to start, but I'm hoping a smooth day bodes well for a smooth night and it won't take too long to get him back to sleep.

ETA: Okay, so we're coming up on two hours since bedtime here.  At the hour mark I snuck into the bedroom, reeeeaaaaaal quiet-like, because I hadn't heard JJ fuss for his top-off feed yet.  And what do I find?  A peacefully sleeping baby who has flipped over on his tummy and clearly made it through the transition all. on. his. own.

One more bit of ultimate cuteness...

I can melt now, right?  Okay, just checking.  *melt*

Sleep Regressions SUCK!!!

It's official, my kid is the cutest kid ever. :P

That's his baby-mirror he's playing with... I recently figured out a way to attach it to his pack 'n play, so now I'm typically being woken in the morning by baby-giggles as he plays with his "friend"... infinitely preferable to being woken by "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH", let me tell you.

Okay, so y'all probably remember my moaning and whining about the 4 month sleep regression.

The 8 month?  Yeah, it's worse.

He's back to waking up an average of three times a night, and this time adjusting his reflux meds didn't fix it.  HELPED, oh wow did it help (he was up to 5-6x a night again and I was one cranky momma!), but the remaining three aren't reflux related.  Totally different cry, that.  Now, if they were spread out, I could deal with it, but they're all clustered between about 2 am and 6.

*whimpers*


He's also trying to drop a nap.  Yeah, he wants to go down to one nap already, he's been trying for a month, but until today I just wasn't seeing enough to indicate he was really ready.  Oh, we tried a couple of times, and there have been a few days where everything lined up just right and one nap did the job, but most days he just hasn't been up to the 4-5 hour wake times needed to pull off one nap.

Sacked out in the new pack 'n play.

BUT... that first nap in the morning keeps sneaking earlier and earlier.  Today he was only awake for an hour and forty before he got cranky and hungry and passed out at the breast in four minutes flat.  I haven't seen that short of a morning wake time since he was still taking three 2 hour naps every day.  Aaaand then he refused to nap again until 1:45, and only slept until 2:30.  Used to be he had to be awake by 4pm in order to sleep at 7.  Then 3:30, and it's been 3pm for a while now... so he was about due to back it up another half hour.

So, I'm thinking since John's off work tomorrow, it'd be a good day to take a real stab at the single nap day JJ apparently REALLY wants.

Kid's gonna have to get used to our Ergo (thank you, miss Elora!!!), if he's gonna only take one nap, because I absolutely cannot be stuck on my butt entertaining him all day with only one break.  Can't.  Won't.  Nuh uh.  Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.

Even if he is the cutest thing ever.

It's gonna be worth it next year.

Quick baby update:  JJ will be seven months old on Monday.  *blinks*  He's getting heavy, over seventeen pounds now, and you can see it.  On both of us.  I'm putting on muscle from toting the little monkey around all day.  We've started in on the solids, and most things so far are going over just fine.

The broccoli was a big hit. :)

So... on to wider things...

When I was a kid (like, four), my mother had this really extensive fruit and vegetable garden.  Raised beds, separate asparagus and strawberry patches, trellis setups for peas and green beans and cucumbers, sapling fruit trees along the driveway, the works.

I had this little 3" deep section at one end of one bed, where I grew giant sunflowers and zinnias and radishes.  It was fun.

Twenty-five years later, I'm finding out just how much WORK went into establishing that garden, because I'm trying to put a similarly sized one in at our current home.  Not doing raised beds, since the soil is pretty good as it is, just planting straight in the ground.

That's the plan anyway.

See, right now, the yard looks like this:

My adorable son in the foreground...

... and grass, all the way to the fence in the waaaaaay way background, except for one strip of flower-bed about three feet deep that took a solid month to rescue from hip high weeds because I had to work around half a dozen peonies and several burdock plants.  The flower-bed is finally cleared, and I've gotten started on the grass.

THAT, my friends, is putting up a fight.

I don't have a sod-kicker, and can't afford to rent one, so my only real option (because I am so not soaking close to a thousand square feet in chemicals) is to actually dig out the grass.  

With a shovel.

One.  Square.  At a time.

This is grass that was laid as sod over twenty years ago, when John's grandmother got past where she could keep up with the garden.  Over the last two decades, it's gotten itself nicely incorporated into the underlying soil, and managed to get invaded by dandelions, three different kinds of clover, and even the occasional thistle.  So when I say digging, I mean that getting a foot-square chunk loose takes about ten minutes.

I can't do long strips or mats like you see sod in at the garden center, because I have to be able to manage them by myself.  Means I'm limited to about 18" wide and 24" long, max.  

So every day, once JJ goes down for a nap, I slather on the sunscreen, pin my sun hat to my hair, and head out to sweat some more.  

I've settled on a process of cutting the squares and flopping them grass side down onto the next row.  In about a week I'll start circling back to knock off the loosed dirt and toss the (by then hopefully) dead grass into the composter.  

Then, of course, I have to get the in between rows.

*headdesk*

Here's what it looks like now:

By the end of July I want to have the grass cleared out to where the composter is standing.  I've pretty much given up on getting anything planted this year, just going to get rid of the grass and focus on building the soil now that I have my ComposTumbler back.  Also ordered a few pounds of seed to put in a green fertilizer crop that will keep the weeds down, capture all that lovely nitrogen I'm stirring up, and loosen up the deeper layers of soil.  That way next spring I can just till the whole mess under as soon as the ground thaws, and have a nice big garden ready for planting as soon as the weather gets decent.

Big job... but it's gonna be worth it next year.

Right?  *whimper*

My favorite things...

Admit it.  Every last one of you is singing the song.

But no, I'm not going to inflict a video of my personal rendition upon you.

I'm just popping on between diaper changes to gush a little, and vent a little, and wowzers, have I really almost made it through seven whole months of parent-hood?

My favorite thing about JJ's recent developments has GOT to be his newfound ability to entertain himself in the cosleeper for half an hour in the mornings.  This affords me the unbelievable luxury of waking up slowly, rather than being yanked into consciousness by the shrieking banshee child.

There's also introductions to the puppy-dog, which are going AWESOMELY well.  John was a bit worried about how Lady (our Malamute) would respond to JJ, so he's been very cautious now that we have her back with us.  She is, I am happy to report, being a wonderfully behaved goggie around teh babbeh.  (Yes, I'm speaking lolcat/babytalk, sue me.)  She has shared Mommy-lap with JJ and given him his first doggie face-washing.  The look on his face, y'all, was priceless.  One of those "I need 24/7 video coverage of my entire house and yard" moments.

Despite teething issues, JJ is continuing to sleep decently most nights, thank God.  It's interesting, I can tell how comfy (or not) he is by how many times he wakes up at night to nurse.  Once = comfy baby.  Twice = iffy, might be teeth, might be just wanting to snuggle.  3x or more = Not. A. Happy. Camper.

Kiddo is getting HEAVY... haven't popped him on the scale lately, but I've had to let the waist on his diapers out another notch.  Kid's getting him a little belly.

The other day I ran across some pictures of me at this age, and now I can see how he looks like me.  It's nice, because mostly I think he looks like John.  Oh, he definitely got the red hair, but it's already as dark as mine, so I don't really hold out hope for it STAYING red as he gets older.  Dark dark brown with red highlights, though... that's gonna be some niiiice hair.

Oh, dear.  I'm gonna have to watch out for the little girls with this one, aren't I? *facepalm*

The progress toward crawling is a little scary in its pace, the little bugger is desperate to be mobile by any means fair or foul.  There's a lot of army-style belly-crawling, lots of wiggles and scoots, and rocking on his hands and knees, but he also pulls up to his feet if he's got parental fingers to hold onto.  Still thinking he might (mostly) skip the crawling stage and go straight to cruising.

He's fascinated with the handset phones, he figured out how to make it go "beep!" and hasn't allowed me a peaceful call since.  The little green light that says my computer is charged is also a source of obsession, and he's constantly trying to get his little hands on the cord.

So, I'm actually really glad that this post sat unfinished overnight, because this morning JJ wiggled his way over to Mommy, just so he could lay his head on my shoulder and snuggle.  *melt*

Oh yeah, and one more thing... this right here:

This is my favorite time of day.

Six months and counting...

It's too hot to work on the garden today (seriously, it was 75º and 55% humidity at 7am... no WAY am I going out there now), so I'm blogging this morning instead.

Don't y'all feel special.  *wink*


JJ turned six months old on Friday, and all y'all know what that means.

Time for another foot pic!

       Itsy bitsy bebeh...                        Six months old....

Wow.  And his feet are getting wider too.

So, in the last month, he's gotten really super good at sitting on his own, he's even started to stand using parental fingers as balancing aids.  No, I mean it.  He will stand up if you give him your fingers to hang onto.  He's figured out that he can grip my hand and use it to pat his beany-baby type toys, instead of just patting them himself.  It's extremely cute.

One picture I wasn't able to get (due to cameras & water generally not mixing well) occurred a few days ago.  It was brutally humid & far too hot in the house, and JJ took a twenty minute nap at what should have been bedtime, popped his eyes open, and REFUSED to go back to sleep.  I finally shrugged & said "Okay, let's go take a cool shower."  Did the job, but oh, y'all should have seen the look on his face when the water from the shower head was cold.

Utter.  Betrayal.

I, of course, laughed as I realized "Oh, that's right!  You've never bathed in water that wasn't warm!"

He favored me with a repeat of this fan favorite look.

Except this time it was more like 

"No kidding, Mom.  Real brilliant deduction there."

I'm going to be ordering a few mesh baby feeders for him in the next week or so... bunkin reached for my cheese this morning.  First time he's reached for food, up until now he's been after anything we drink, but that was the first time he's shown interest in food... so it's time to get the tools!  I'm thinking avacado, peas, green stuff mostly.  Gonna try to hold off on the sweeter stuff, carrots & the like, until later, don't want him getting a sweet tooth before he even has teeth!

It's also time to either change the toys on the swing mobile to something with stretchy legs, or swap out the swing entirely for the bouncer that's sitting in the garage.  Last week JJ figured out that he can grab the toys hanging from the mobile, and actually managed to pull one off the mobile entirely.  He keeps that up, he's going to break the rotator arms, so it's time to change to something he can't hurt.

He's starting to fight me on naps again.  *sigh*  Just when I got the two nap thing figured out.  Need to lengthen his first wake time, I think, stretch it out a little.  Of course, longer wake times mean I will likely have to resign myself to slightly shorter naps.  Darn it, I was enjoying two hour blocks to get things done twice a day!  LOL

Flip side is that he's much more tolerant of the bright sunlight than he was even a month ago, which means I can take him outside more as long as we stick to the shade.

But not today.  It's 85º,  heading for mid-90s, the humidity is rising, and the UV index is high enough I'd practically have to bathe us both in sunscreen.  

Pass.

Too Hot to Walk

It finally happened.  It got too hot outdoors to take my daily walks.

*pouts*

The universe is out to sabotage me, I swear.

"Yeah, always with the excuses."

No, seriously.  It's too hot.  I walk with JJ, it's been too warm for the Moby since mid-March, and with the canopy up on the stroller to protect him from the sun, he gets too warm, goes to sleep, and it throws the whole afternoon's routine off-kilter.  Off-kilter afternoon = late bedtime = CRANKY baby.

So for exercise, I am forced to resort to my stationary bike in the basement while JJ naps.

For outside time... *grins*

PHOTO BOMB!!!

Not even six months old,

and he thinks he's a CK model.

I mean, LOOK at that sprawl!

He thinks the laptop is fascinating.

Keeping those little fingers off my keyboard 

and trackpad is interesting, y'all.

He's watching his own image on the screen, lol.

Check out my little DUDE!!!

A "spinner" off the maple entertained him 

for a good fifteen minutes. 

Then he tried to eat it.

Nursing outdoors is SO relaxing.

Oh, chill, Mom, you can't see anything.

Heehee... it's cute now, but I can already see

that look coming at me dripping with teenage disdain.

"Mom... what are you doing???  Yeah, I'm cute.  So what?"

"Bored now."

(Tell me someone gets that and I'm not just a big nerd.)

The spray of dried up maple leaves he found next.

LOADS of fun!

And yes, the onesie reads "my way or the highway".

First Mother's Day...

It's my first Mother's Day.

Five & a half months, JJ's still kicking, I figure we gotta be doing something right, yeah?

Oh, I know I got flowers last year while I was pregnant... but it's different, somehow, now that I've actually got the kiddo in my arms and I can squeeze him.

I love his expression here, he's all like 

"Mooooom, not in front of the guys!"

I miss my mom... at least once a day I look at my son and think "HOW did she ever pull this off?" 

But I tell gotta ya, folks...

               ...my faith in humanity has been restored this week. 

First a box the size of big tv shows up on my doorstep, sent by a friend from college, stuffed full of baby clothes.  When I got them all sorted out, I realized I won't have to buy clothes for JJ until sometime next year.  I actually *have* to put him in something new every day for a while in order to use the smallest stuff before he gets too big!  

And yes, we're taking lots and lots of pictures.

Then Friday came, with D's basket of survival goodies, and once again, I bawled.  I mean messy, snotty, red-eyed sobbing, y'all.  

Then Mommyland posted the link I sent them to their Facebook page.  I didn't even see it at first, until I was all "um... why are my page views suddenly going through the roof???", and I looked, and I tell you people, my jaw hit the freaking floor.  I called a friend to do the OMG dance, and yeah, the girlie shrieking was pretty epic.  The phrase "my day just can't GET any better" was repeated several times.

Saturday I got a card from another Mother Pucker, and again I did the face down in my arms weepy thing.

B from New Jersey...  YOU so totally rock!

That afternoon, my husband came home with this little treasure.

"My Wife: A Wonderful Blessing In My Life

I'm glad

it's Mother's Day

because special days

like this

remind me

how fortunate I am

to have your love

and you...

I could not 

have been blessed

with a more wonderful wife

than you.

Happy Mother's Day

with Love

God Bless the New Mommy, Love

John

Yeah... more sniffling.   Forget a tissue, this week has run me through the whole box.

This morning... JJ decided he was NOT INTERESTED in his nap.  Little monster screamed and whined, and I finally gave up and just handed him to his father.

And then he smiled at me.  Grrr.

Little monkey has the most infectious smile.  He grins that little grin at you, and no matter how irritated you were, you cannot HELP but smile back.  

*sigh*

I give.  He wins.  

We all love the punkin!  Best Mommy-Day Prezzie ever!

Puppy-Dog Feet

So I realized just now that JJ is going to be five months old next Monday.

José Jalepeno on the floor, when did that happen??????


Well, i decided the moment called for a new foot picture and line-up, so here they come...

EMBARRASSING BABY PICTURES!!!

12-15-2011... three weeks old exactly.

This would be right around the time the Screeching Banshee Child first made his appearance.

Made for some Long Nights.

02-03-2012... ten weeks old to the day.

He was still a pretty sleepy guy most of the time...

02-26-2012 ... 93 days.  

At this point the NB size clothes were starting to get pretty snug.

03-14-2012 ... 3 months 20 days.

This was right after our first major excursion out into the yard, 

where Daddy tried to bundle him up like we lived in the dang Arctic.

04-08-2012 ... 18 weeks 5 days.

The NB clothes have all been retired, and several 0-3 month outfits are also in the "Too Small" pile.

The 3-6s and 0-6s are now in the clothing rotation.

Today... 04-18-2012... 143 days. 

One week shy of 5 months.

I had to buy new socks last week because he has outgrown every last one of the ten pair we had.

The new ones are 6-12 month size, and fit perfectly.

I am in So.  Much.   Trouble.

On the plus side...

The new ones are super cute!!!