San Antonio

Over the last 2 months I've had a hard time blogging because I couldn't blog about the biggest thing going on in our lives: a possible move away from DC. Several months ago we began searching for jobs so we could move somewhere closer to family and more affordable. We were discouraged after having very little success. We were really excited when a great opportunity turned up in San Antonio, Texas. It is not nearly as close to family as we were hoping, but we decided to look into it.

The application/interview process took about 2 months long so I could never say anything even though it was basically all we were thinking about. Two weekends ago we visited San Antonio and the job offer became official. After a few days of consideration and weighing the options we decided to accept. We've both given notice at work, so we can finally talk about it. So in 12 days we will be leaving Maryland, on our way to our next adventure, in San Antonio!

Stephen will be staying in the education sector, working in the operations department at a charter school district. We are really excited about the schools, the leadership, the opportunity to move forward in a career, and a shorter commute (which hopefully means a little more time at home).  I, on the other hand, will be staying home full-time with Seth! I am so thankful that I was able to find a flexible job here in MD, but it's been hard to mentally juggle stay-at-home-mom days with work-days-- feeling like my efforts in both areas were inadequate. I'm sure I will still feel quite inadequate as a mom, but I am excited to be able to devote more of my energy to teaching and loving Seth.

We are sad to leave our church friends and regret that we ended up dragging our feet a little instead of  jumping in and loving this area from the start, but we'll always remember the great people we met and the fun memories we made here.

"We're moving?! To Texas?!"

"We need to start packing... NOW!"

"Hey if you turn this thing on I could really help out with some of the research for moving trucks and housing."

"Not sure why I'm wearing this funny costume, but I'm gonna miss this place. Bye-bye Maryland friends :("

"I could possibly get used to this- especially between the months of October and March."

"A riverwalk? And hanging out with Mom AND Dad? I'll take it!"

9/10 months

It's been 2 months since I did a post about Seth's milestones and development. It would be impossible to post everything awesome that this little guy can do... but I'll try :)

Weighing in at 20 lbs and at 29 1/2 inches tall (at 9 month appointment), we've got a strong, happy boy on our hands.

During the last 2 months Seth moved to mostly 12 month clothing and size 3 diapers, but it's no wonder with how much he loves to eat!

He has 3 meals of solids a day and nurses 3 times a day plus a bottle of formula before bedtime (biting mom can only be tolerated for so long). He loves pretty much everything we feed him, except pureed bananas- which also happens to be the very first baby food I fed him... strange! He knows how to drink from a sippy cup and from a straw and self-feeds himself all sorts of small cheerio/bread/cracker/soft fruit & veggie foods with a good pincer grasp and 4 sharp teeth.

Sleeping is still a slow and steady improvement. Happily 30 minute naps are completely extinct! He moved from 4 to 3 to 2 naps a day. These naps are about an hour each- it's no 3 hour afternoon mom-time, but I'll take it. He has no night-time feedings anymore and just wakes up occasionally in need of a pacifier. The remaining struggle is that he wakes up sometime in the 5am hour EVERYDAY and won't go back to sleep. I could handle 6 o'clock - 5 or 5:15 or 5:30 is just too early!! We've tried earlier bedtime, later bedtime, later dinner, bigger dinner, letting him cry, feeding him, etc. What an early bird!

Eating and sleeping used to fill our whole day when he was younger, but now it only makes up a fraction of the time. The rest is spent...

clapping dancing playing peekaboo 

 playing "chase" crawling fast  

laughing imitating sounds  

standing cruising bouncing balls 

turning pages brushing teeth taking wild baths

  babbling grinning biting  

taking walks riding in the car 

playing with friends being ticklish

Seth is learning something new every day. This week he imitated the sign for "more," copied me saying "Mom," "Dad," and "Jesus" with something suspiciously close in each instance, purposefully threw things on the floor, crawled as fast as he could to the bathroom when he heard the bathtub faucet, and made his parents very tired and very happy.

blackberry picking

teeth brushing

never fallen in this position- unbelievable

favorite red ball

new shoes and a cheesy grin

he loved the monkeys!

drum lessons with straws

taking over dad's job

cute thanksgiving PJs

Happy Birthday Grandma! and thanks for the fun visit!

messy cute scrunched face

"come here for a kiss, mom!"

loving blueberries

playing with one of his buddies from church

Washington Weather

Snowmageddon

5.9 Earthquake

Obviously a joke (http://famousdc.com/2010/07/16/dc-earthquake/). I know there was some real damage, but for our family and most we know it was just a good shake.

 Hurricane Irene

???

Washington's weather has been exciting over the last 2 years.And while these disasters have each been scary, the metro area's tendency to overreact has been a little amusing too.

If You're Happy and You Know It

Besides when Seth learned to laugh, I think this is the cutest thing. Especially yesterday and today when he frequently starts clapping out of the blue.

Summer meals

We've had a lot of delicious food this summer.

These are my favorites:
Skillet Vegetable Lasagna
Super Bean Burritos
Pineapple Bacon Burgers 
BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad
Mango Quinoa Salad
Teriyaki Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Crockpot Baked Potatoes
Egg Salad Sandwiches
Hawaiian Haystacks 
Spinach + any fruit + poppyseed dressing Salad
Tacos
Spaghetti


BUT now it's August and I need some new ovenless ideas (the charcoal grill at our complex is inconvenient so I mostly stick with the stove, microwave, or crockpot).

Anyone have any delicious favorites???

If not, at least you can enjoy these pictures from the goofiest guy at our house :) (unless you have Google+ and you've already had the pleasure of viewing these- and if you don't have Google+, you should!)

A special treat- watching Signing Time and eating mangoes

1 visible tooth. He has another on the bottom and one about to break through on the top.

"Wisdom"

It seems like every time I go to the grocery store (especially Aldi) I am "enlightened" with some parenting wisdom. I'm sure you can relate.

Yesterday's wisdom...
"I remember those days (looking at Seth who was grinning from ear to ear), *pause,* I'm glad they're over!"

I so disagree, random woman. Taking care of my little guy is awesome. Sure there are hard times, but  I am going to cherish each moment the best I can.

Even grumpy ones like this:

A message for my best friend

Love means...

Being spontaneous

2007

Taking adventures

2008

Supporting each other

2009

Smiling and laughing

2010

Having fun just because we're together 

2011

Happy 4th Anniversary, sweetheart!

p.s. Tonight you finished a journey you started 22 years ago, in 1989. CONGRATS on going to your last class and finishing school FOREVER!!!

7/8 months

Time for a combined summary of Seth's last two months. We have had some real fun with this guy lately! He's always growing; he weighs around 20 or 21 pounds and wears 9 month or 12 month clothes.

Eating
Still loving (almost) all pureed baby food and baby cereal. Favorites: pears, prunes and apples, peaches. Since he got his first tooth (July 4th) we let him try rice rusks, but he's still debating that one. While in Utah we bought him a fresh food feeder, a very good $7 investment. We put peaches, nectarines, and plums in it while the adults ate dinner to keep Seth occupied. And of course, he's still nursing.

His favorite eating trick is to blow with his tongue splattering food everywhere. Once this resulted in Stephen having some great pea-polka-dotted black shorts.

Sleeping
*I think* the days of 30 minute naps are OVER! Since we got home from Utah and readjusted Seth has been taking three 1 hour naps a day- hallelujah.

Night times had gotten to an all time terribleness with Seth waking up at, at a minimum, 11pm (right after we went to bed...rrrr), 2 am, and 5 am. I was nursing him every time. Now we make him cry it out at 11pm and it seems to be working because he's going back to sleep quicker and sleeping later (3 or 4 am) so this tired mom is getting much more sleep.

Bedtime? no, Aunt Krista!!!!!

Socializing
Seth met two awesome baby friends Max and Addison, while in Utah.

He also had a fantastic time socializing with grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, a cousin, and many other extended family members.

Matchin' Grandma

Matchin' Uncle Nate!

Playing with Cousin Caleb in the sprinklers (Caleb was so happy the whole time even though he had to get a nasal feeding tube while we were there- now he has a G-tube and seems to be doing the best with feeding that he ever has before!)

Cool cousins with Grandma and Grandpa

Hanging out with Stephen's cousins and their kids. Little Cali LOVED the baby and was so gentle with him.

Hanging out with Heather's cousin, Abby. Seth learned to wave and was doing it non-stop at their house! Cousin Jason was also nice enough to share his toys!

Having fun with more of Heather's cousins at the Murray 4th of July Parade.

Here's a close-up of the deputy badge that's hard to see in the last picture.

He loved his Great-Grandpa Purser.

Wagon rides at Grandma and Grandpa's may turn out to be a tradition.

Lovin' Aunt Lauren

Aunt Krista was so much fun!

Still on the socializing section...Since returning home, Seth has begun to develop stranger danger- just a mild intermittent case so far. He is mostly a very friendly, happy baby. He likes to give "fives" and if you're lucky he'll wave at you. If you're REALLY lucky he'll give you a kiss, that is, he'll suck/bite your face.

Communicating
Seth loves to babble repeated syllables. His favorite is "da da da da." When he wakes up every morning he says "da da da da..." in a quiet, whisper voice. It is ADORABLE! If we repeat a sound several times he usually switches to the sound we're saying.

We're working on using the following signs regularly so far: mom, dad, water, milk, food/eat, more, good night, and ball. I don't think he understands them yet, but hopefully he will and then eventually start to use them before he talks.

Playing
Let's see- can he chew on it? Then it's a toy. His favorite toys right now are his little tikes 4 key piano, soft plastic train, pop-up toy, ball, and wire whisk (he loves it!). The things he really wants to play with are cords. He is always scooting to them and has no concept of "uh oh" or "no." But he does recognize his favorite songs: "Popcorn Popping," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," and "Down by the Bay."

Which reminds me, Seth has been a scooter/army crawler since Father's Day. He can get up on his hands and knees but doesn't crawl yet. Also, he's tried to pull himself up on things like a box or the bathtub a few times.

We got the tunnel out for Caleb, but Seth was interested too and climbed through the entire thing with Stephen's help!

Seth loves big-kid toys like toothbrushes

Seth is the peek-a-boo master these days

scooting in action

Yes, he's chewing on the chair.

Happy and loving his horse, Sir Prance-a-lot

His favorite ball. He'll chase it anywhere!