William's First Birthday

It's only been two weeks since the party, so I consider it a pretty good success to be getting these photos up already (especially considering everything else that is going on...). When I started planning William's party, I had ideas and plans a-plenty (thank you very much Pinterest!). Of course, what I didn't plan on was moving less than a month after the party. Once that stuff started going full swing I majorly eased up on the party knowing that I just wouldn't have time to make it super over-the-top and that I would only stress myself out if I tried. So we settled on a simple Ice Cream Social theme (I had to pay homage to the fact that he was born during the Ice-pocalypse somehow!) and called it good. And naturally, we took way too many pictures, so I'll stop with the meaningless babble that you aren't really interested in anyway.

Our (very!) simple décor and our ice cream sundae bar

Couldn't resist putting him back into this outfit from his newborn photo shoot!

Pretty much the only "craft" project I tackled for the party and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Digging into his gift from Aunt Macy and Uncle Mike

Playing with his new cars with Uncle Mike

Apparently Great-Grandpa got in the way. Whoops

Sifting through all the packing materials to get to the gift from Aunt Amanda and Uncle Nick

Finger Puppet Books!

Not too impressed with the new outfit from Grandma and Grandpa...

But loving his new wagon!!

Wagon rides with his buddy Caleb

Family picture!

As Darrell puts it, food is too precious to William for him to have done any cake "smashing" and subsequent wasting of it. He instead opted to very delicately pick at the frosting.

But, he did enjoy it!!

Almost forgot to put on his birthday hat!

Which was a very short-lived endeavor

Back in the wagon--and outside which makes it even better!

Too cool for his shades

Already picking up the ladies in his new ride

Packing stuff in his new suitcase--he's ready to go see Darrell's family in the Carolinas!

So, there you have it. A crazy day, but so much fun. We're so fortunate to have such wonderful friends and family--near and far--who not only helped us celebrate this wonderful day, but also helped us GET to this wonderful day. Because it does take a village to raise a child--and we've got ourselves a very good one. 

William: Twelve Months!!

Well, it's official: We have a one-year old!! A full-of-energy, constantly on-the-go, starting to develop a little bit of attitude one-year old. It's certainly trying at times, but I don't think we'd have it any other way.

At our twelve month well-visit, William weighed in at 19 lbs, 15 oz, and was 28.75 inches. We did have to make an unplanned doctor's visit shortly after eleven months due to a double ear infection, but that cleared up pretty quickly. He's still wearing size three diapers, and pretty consistently in twelve month clothing, although some nine month stuff still fits as well as some eighteen month stuff (is it too much to ask for clothing sizes to be consistent?!?). As of his birthday he also had six teeth--four on top and two on bottom. All four of the top teeth cut in the span of about two weeks, which was a little brutal to say the least (and resulted in drool EVERYWHERE).

Probably the biggest "new" thing we had to do this month was buy a pair of shoes! I don't know that I would fully consider William a "walker", but he walks often enough and is outside often enough (although in his option he could probably never be outside enough) that we figured it was time to invest in some shoes. And truthfully, I think the only thing holding him back from being a full-on walker (aside from being a little wobbly) is the fact that he can't get himself to a standing position from the middle of the room. Once he is pulled up on a toy (or couch or table or anything), his first inclination is now to walk away from the object instead of going back to the floor to crawl.

Babbling is still inconsistent at best, and it doesn't seem like his "ma-mas" and "da-das" are directed at anything, but that hasn't stopped him from figuring out other ways to communicate. He has the pointing thing figured out, and if that doesn't get your attention, he will grab at your hand and direct it toward whatever it is he wants. He's also started making up games for us to play with him--he'll hand us a block for us to put on his head, shake it off, and then hand it back to us to repeat. Of course, we'll usually end up tiring of his "games" before he does, but oh well.

It's still hard to believe that we've been parents for a full year; as Darrell likes to say he can't believe how quickly the year went but it simultaneously feels like William has been a part of our lives forever. I could probably spend an entire post reflecting on our first year as parents, but I'll save you the sappiness and cliches and just say that it was nothing like we ever expected. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a not so good way, but we wouldn't trade any of it for where we are today.

Still Here!

Life = crazy. There are no other words. But it's all good and I promise that I'm working on getting some intelligent, note-worthy posts put together, but I can't promise how soon I'll get them out. But, things are going so well that I got to break these out today for the first time this year:

And now it's thunderstorming!! Hopefully the week stays this good!

The Big Move!

Well, everything is as good as done for both selling our current house and buying a new one! After a blitz twenty hours of looking at houses (twelve of them!) last weekend, we put in an offer on our favorite, had a counter-offer back to us three hours later, and by 9:00 on Sunday night we had accepted and signed the offer. Everything has been happening so quickly that it almost seems surreal, and I have a feeling the next five weeks are going to fly by. Between packing and inspections and paperwork with our realtor and paperwork with the bank and paperwork with the utility companies--all on top of our "normal" stuff: work, meetings, doctor's appointments, birthday parties, bridal showers, eating, sleeping--things are just crazy around these parts. I've already had to reschedule a dentist appointment twice, and I'm not holding my breath that the new time I have scheduled is going to stick. But, in spite of all of the craziness, I couldn't be more happy and thankful. Never did we anticipate our house selling as quickly as it did (for as much as it did!), never did we anticipate getting as nice of a house as we did (and still within budget!), never did we imagine the process going so smoothly (if not a little rapidly). So I'll take a few weeks of craziness and some sleepless nights and the inevitable tension and stress for the luxury of being able to call this beautiful dwelling "home" in a mere five weeks!

William: Eleven Months!

I can't believe this is my last monthly update before William is a year old--although that's probably a good thing because I'm having a terribly tough time getting these posted with any sort of timeliness. And since this moving stuff is taking off faster than we could have imagined (more on that soon--hopefully!), I'm going to run though through this quickly.

--No official height and weight stats, but kid is growing like a weed--mostly thanks to the fact that he will eat pretty much anything we put in front of him (and some things--like cheese--he would eat non-stop if we let him). He's between sizes in clothes; I'm constantly going back and forth between 6-9 month outfits and 9-12 month outfits and often will have a shirt of one size paired with pants of a different size.

--Baths have made a drastic improvement from last month. It may have been a temporary sensory phase that he went through because we discovered that using less water helped, although he also may have just finally accepted them as part of his bedtime routine.

--Speaking of bedtime, things are still going wonderfully in that department. Eleven hours (730-630) is the norm, and he rarely protests getting put down. He's already dropped his morning nap (eek!), but usually takes at least a ninety-minute nap in his crib in the afternoon.

--Communication seems to have jumped leaps and bounds. Not only is he making consonant-vowel sounds much more frequently, but he is also showing much more variety in the sounds he makes. He still hasn't really said a word with intentional meaning (that we know of), but he is definitely learning what words mean (when his ball is in the room he will crawl to it if we ask him to get his ball).

--It won't be long before he is taking off on two legs. Anything and everything is a push toy that he uses to walk around the house with, and he's getting braver about letting go of things while standing. He's also starting to sit on his knees more often (as opposed to his butt), and we think it's in preparation for standing up on his own.

--And, of course, he's constantly doing fun and silly things that make this month even more exciting than last month. He'll now give high fives, he loves to clap, he thinks it's fun to put blocks and toys into a container (albeit not necessarily the container they belong in--we've started finding random toys in our kitchen drawers), and he has figured out how to put rings and blocks onto pegs which keeps him entertained for at least ten minutes (which may not seem like much, but it is fantastic). And I think it's safe to say we are going to have a little spitfire on our hands--it is unwise to remove a toy from his possession before he is done playing with it. Of course, once he gets over his tantrum he goes back to being a crazy goofy kid, so it's hard to feel sorry for him for too long!

The Happy Wives Club

This was our book club selection for the month of January? February? I honestly don't remember. Anyway, despite not actually finishing it in time for our book club meeting, I did finish the book a few days later. And I have a conflict of interest with what to write about it.

Here's the deal. Part of me wants to whole-heartedly endorse this book and recommend it to all my friends (female or not--the message of the book can be applicable for both sexes). In fact, I really want to pass my copy of the book around to others and share the message with them. But then I start to worry about how I would go about recommending it to my friends. I'm afraid that if I say, "Here, I think you should read this book about how to be a happy wife and have a wonderful marriage", all they'll hear is "Here, I think you should read this book because you seem terribly unhappy in your marriage and I think it could use some work". Even if I just think they should read the book because it's happy and uplifting and a positive book about marriage (for once!), I'm afraid there's no way to avoid my recommendation sounding like I think their life and marriage need improvements.

Here's my other hang-up with the book. While I loved the "secrets" the author uncovered about a happy, successful marriage on her journey around the world, I didn't truly find any of them earth-shattering. And, to risk sounding like I'm tooting the horn of my own marriage, I felt like Darrell and I already embodied most of them:

--Take divorce off the table. Never once has divorce been thrown out as a threat after a fight or particularly trying event. And it never will. We decided before we even got married that once those rings were on our fingers it was for good, and we would work at and do whatever it took to keep us together. Having parents who have never divorced certainly helped instill this mentality in us, but it was a decision we made together and we plan to stick to it.

--Laugh together every day. Please. Have you ever spent any time around my husband? Sometimes I wish he took himself and things more seriously. But only sometimes.

--Date your spouse. I don't exactly remember exactly when we started this ritual, but we make it a point to go on a date, just the two of us, once a month. We usually pick the night at the beginning of the month and plan something special, even if it is just dinner at a nice restaurant. We took a few months off right after William was born, but it's been especially good for us now to get back into the routine.

Those aren't the only "secrets", but I figured there was no sense in giving away the whole book because I do recommend this book and I do think lots of people should read it, regardless of their happiness level in their marriage. Because let's be honest--no one (and no marriage) is ever perfect.

Just a Little Bit Crazy

Here's a recap of the past two weeks:

Saturday, March 8th: Meet with my aunt Janelle, who is our realtor. Signed some paperwork to formally begin the process of selling our house, but didn't go so far as to put the house on the market (because it was no where near clean enough for showings and/or open houses).

Monday, March 10th: I had my first day back at work since William was born. Definitely a bit of a transition, but one I'm enjoying.

Tuesday, March 11th: My second day back at work. My aunt came down to the house to take a few pictures for a flyer to pass around to the other realtors at her office (but still no formal listing). My good friend got induced.

Thursday, March 13th: Go to the hospital to visit the newest, sweetest little girl I know. Darrell and I began tackling a list of things to get done around the house before we would be ready to list it.

Friday, March 14th: Get a call from my aunt in the evening that one of the realtors in her office has some clients who are very interested in our house. Wants to know if we can have it ready to show Sunday at noon. We agree, and then begin some mad cleaning/packing.

Saturday, March 15th: Mad packing/cleaning continues, but in shifts. I spend the late morning/early afternoon at the Shriner's Mosque at their annual beer pong tournament; Darrell brings William down after his nap and works at the event until after midnight.

Sunday, March 16th: Darrell, William, and I evacuate our house for the afternoon. We joke about how it doesn't feel like a "real" showing because A) it happened so quickly and B) we don't expect anything to come from it.

Monday, March 17th: Day three at work--still going well! We get a call from my aunt. The people who looked at the house have made an offer. Darrell and I panic slightly, and then stay up until 11:30 looking at houses online (plus we fill out like four March Madness brackets because, you know, why not?).

Tuesday, March 18th: We meet with our realtor and come up with a counter offer. By 10:00 that night the counter offer has been accepted and signed. (The only catch is that the buyers need to sell their house before they can close on ours). Darrell spends most of the night working on his "sermon" for the Lenten service on Wednesday.

Wednesday, March 19th: William and I have our last Kindermusik class (sad day!) Darrell gives his (fantastic!) Lenten message, although wishes things hadn't gotten so busy and he had spent more time preparing.

Thursday, March 20th: William wakes up SUPER early and is unusually fussy. Plus he naps for three hours in the morning--VERY uncharacteristic of him. I take his temperature before lunch--one hundred degrees. Head to the doctor's office that afternoon--double ear infection. We decide to postpone Book Club because other members are under the weather/have sick kiddos, so I get to lay low for the evening and cuddle up on my sick little guy. (Plus watch some crazy basketball games!)

Friday, March 21st: William is feeling much better (yay drugs!). Which is good, because there is no relief from the madness tonight (and I'm not just talking about the basketball games!). We are meeting with our realtor for round one of house shopping. Round two commences tomorrow morning (after William's first swimming lesson!), and, if necessary, round three is Sunday afternoon. Because we kind of need a place to live since our house is as good as sold.

Consider this my formal apology for my absence from the blog. Also consider this fair warning that there may be additional absences in the next two months (which will include William's birthday party, three bridal showers--two of which I'm helping to host--and a likely move).