Polar Vortex

There's cold. And then there's really cold. And then there's this.

Do you see those numbers? It already feels like forty degrees below zero (although does anyone really know what that feels like? I don't really care to go outside to find out), and the air temperature is supposed to drop nearly another ten degrees. Yay winter.

Thankfully it hasn't been like this all winter. Just a few weeks ago we were actually able to go for a rather pleasant walk.

And thankfully, we should be able to resume outdoor activities by the end of the week. While this polar vortex will certainly be dreadful (well, I mean, it would be dreadful if we had to go outside), at least it's not like we live in Canada or something where this is a common occurrence.

The Wrong Foot

Well, happy 2014. At least I hope it is for you. 2014 has definitely gotten off on the wrong foot in this house. What I thought may have been just a cold for William might have actually been the flu--complete with puking and diarrhea. Of course, we also (foolishly) tried giving him some pineapple the day after we got back, so we think that may have attributed to his tummy issues. Then on New Year's Eve, I spent the night ringing in the New Year during Central Time, Mountain Time, Pacific Time, and a few other western time zones--all thanks to a bout of stomach issues that kept me up most of the night. Darrell fell victim to the tummy bug last night, and we've spent the entirety of today lying low and recuperating. Thankfully we all seem to be on the mend, so fingers crossed our plans for this weekend (Christmas party and wedding) are able to go off without a hitch. Then maybe life will calm down--but highly unlikely since we have a nearly nine-month old who is constantly proving to us that our house isn't nearly as baby-proofed as we think.

Super Trooper

The story of William's first Christmas:

6+ hours on an airplane.

At least 20 hours in a car.

Multiple family gatherings with many, many, many new faces.

And through it all, William was a major trooper. Despite all the traveling (and the fact that he was cutting his second tooth!), he had plenty of smiles everywhere we went. Of course, now that we are home all the traveling seems to be taking its toll--in the form of a cold--so things have been a little fussy and sleep-deprived around here. But hopefully it's nothing a little rest and TLC won't fix, especially because we've got a wedding to attend on Saturday! No rest for the weary :-)

Stressed? Me? Never.

Christmas is Next. Week.

We have family/holiday celebrations Thursday night, Friday night, all day Saturday and all day Sunday.

We have a flight coming up soon with a very active 8-month old that we are dreading trying to prepare for.

Said eight-month old has decided that now is a good time to (officially) start cutting teeth--which has ramped up the fussiness and poor sleeping habits (as well as a sudden refusal to nurse). It's swell.

He has also decided that pooping is his new favorite thing--but getting his diaper changed is not. I honestly spent a total of One. Hour. changing diapers the other day because every diaper change is a battle.

There just isn't enough chocolate in my house wine in a bottle hours in the day.

William: Eight Months!

Sitting still is not in this kid's vocabulary. And doesn't he make the goofiest faces?!?

Check out his hair! William thought it would be fun to roll around on the blanket, which caused some major static electricity. I'm not sure he realized what Mom and Dad found so funny, but that's okay :)

So as I was looking through my notes about William's eighth month of life, I had to laugh at the first thing I had written down: Major teething pains. Super clingy, doesn't even want solid foods that he previously liked, not sleeping well, extra fussy. Well, I'm here to tell you, that by the time William officially turned eight months old, he still had no teeth. And those symptoms? Pretty much never let up. Now, I know that teething pains can start well before the teeth even start to show, but uffda. Things have been a little rough.

Thankfully, there have been plenty of good things going on as well. Because he was starting to refuse all foods, we decided to start giving him some finger foods to see how he did with those. And so far, he's doing great! We've tried banana, sweet potato, avocado, pear, bread (even a pancake!), and plum. He still misses his mouth about 30% of the time and struggles a little bit grabbing some of the slimier food items off his tray, but overall it's been a major success. As far as purees go, we've introduced rice cereal, carrot, acorn squash, peach, green beans, and asparagus. Overall, those have gone pretty well too, although I'm convinced he gobble up some of his lesser favorites (like asparagus) in a heartbeat if we gave them to him as finger foods instead of purees.

Despite the dropping temperatures and incessant cold/flu bugs that are going around, William has managed to remain healthy enough to avoid any visits to the doctor, which means no height/weight stats. Although based on our home scale we're pretty sure William is pushing nineteen pounds. Save for a few random discrepancies in the sizing he's pretty consistently in 6-9 month clothing, although some 3-6 month items still fit as well as some 12 month items. And he's still more than comfortable in size three diapers (knock on wood, it's been awhile since we've had a blowout!)

Developmentally, we can tell that he's working on finding his voice and figuring out how it works, but he's still not much of a talker. I think part of the reason he's been so slow on talking is that he is focusing all his energy elsewhere--mainly, becoming an independent mover. He isn't taking steps on his own yet, but he will stand unassisted for a few seconds, and he's just recently starting pulling himself into a seated position from his stomach (which--we discovered--required a whole new round of baby proofing because he can pull himself up onto a lot more things from a seated position than he could from his stomach). A fun skill he's picked up is the ability to take his shirts off, especially if we pull his arms out for him. Of course, this is not such a cute skill for him to practice while I'm trying to get him dressed, but it's still pretty cute (although it probably won't be as cute this summer when we can't get him to keep a shirt on. Oh well.)

As I alluded to with the "teething" issue, sleep is still inconsistent at best. On good nights, he'll go down between 730 and 800, stir a few times after that and need us to go calm him back down, nurse at 1030/1100, nurse again around 200, and then at 530 (almost on the dot) he'll wake up--still tired, but he won't go back in his crib so one of us will have to sit with him in the recliner until 730 or so when he gets up for the day. Sometimes he drops that 200 feeding, which is wonderful, and other nights he is up even more than that. It's exhausting, to say the least. And while Darrell and I realize that we've definitely created some sleep crutches for him and some of the issues are our own fault, we continue to come up with excuses (he's teething, we're going on vacation, he's got a cold, etc) to avoid doing any "harsh" sleep training method. Naps, however, have been improving slightly; I'm usually able to get at least one nap of just over an hour in his crib, so that's been nice.

Overall, we are still loving this whole parenting gig and each month continues to be more fun than the last as more and more of William's personality starts to come out (the stubbornness... Not quite as fun. But he comes by it honestly, so we really can't be surprised).

Throwback Thursday

I'm not sure if it technically counts as a "throwback" if it's from six-ish months ago, but considering William has practically quadrupled his age since the photo was taken, I'm going to say that in this case, a six-month old picture does, in fact, count as a throwback.

Look how cute! And how little! And how calm! I feel like he is never that calm and laid back anymore. Ever. Sigh.

And just for fun, here's a picture of me when I was approximately a quarter of my current age (now this is definitely a throwback).

Coolest. Christmas. Present. EVER. And yes, I totally wish I still had that sweatshirt so I could bust it out for an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Not that it would fit or anything, but that would just add to the ridiculousness of it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

You know how they say that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover? Well, it's also true that you shouldn't judge a book by its title. I'd heard nothing but good things about this book since it came out, and I knew it had made it on to many bestseller lists, but I just couldn't bring myself to read it (or even put it on my list of "books to read"). Why? I was intimidated by the title. It was just so long. What good would it do me to read a book that I couldn't even remember the title of to tell people what I was reading? And besides, if the author couldn't pare down the title of her book to something smaller than a mouthful, it seemed to me that the rest of the novel would be full of other lengthy and seemingly superfluous details and descriptions.

Well, although I don't like to say this very often, I was wrong. About as wrong as I've ever been about a book. I loved this book so much that it's now on my "will buy" list if I see it at a secondhand store because I would absolutely love to read it again. And again.

And honestly, I should have assumed that I would enjoy it--crazy title and all. After all, it is set during one of my favorite time periods to read about: WWII. And I know I say this about almost every WWII book I read, but the perspective of this book is a very unique one--and it is made even more so by the writing style. The book focuses on an island in the English Channel that was occupied by the Germans during the war, and subsequently cut off from all contact with the outside world. After the war and occupation are over, one of the islanders begins a correspondence with an author in London, and the entire book is written as a series of letters (and if you are worried that that would be confusing--as I was--don't be. It is wonderfully executed and easy to follow). There's bits that were humorous, bits that were sad, and even a little love story thrown in for good measure.

If I haven't sold you on this book yet, here is most telling bit of truth about how good this book is: the (fictional) author in London who is corresponding with the (fictional) residents of Guernsey decides that she would like to write an (fictional) article and then (fictional) book about their (fictional) story. On more than one occasion I found myself wanting to know what the name of that book was going to be so that I could read it next. That's how believable the characters are and how well written the novel is. And sadly, the author died before final publication of this book happened, so it's impossible highly unlikely that she will write any sort of follow-up novel. All the more reason to go out and read this one!