Wednesday, May 18, 2011

11 months


11 months! And we're a little too near bedtime in this picture for a smile.
This is what he really thought of our picture taking.
Easter chicks.

Little break in the grass while mom was out for a run. I'm loving those eyelashes!

Helping us paint the house. He held the tape.

Hamming it up for the camera - this is our camera smile now.

This kid will seriously eat anything - lunch of pitas, hummus, and feta! YUM!
 This month brings the word exploded to mine. Your abilities have just absolutely exploded.

You say hi, wave bye, clap (tee hee - I love this one), dance to songs, sing along, squeal, and often sound like you're having a conversation. You are a ham - you smile for the camera now - so soon! You love attention, especially from girls, and flirt with everyone! If you're fussy, all we have to do is meet a new person and you turn on the charm. You give high fives regularly, you play with toy cars, roll them on the floor with the wheels down and say vroom (more like vmmmm). You eat everything we do - you get angry if we don't feed you what we're having. Sometimes you eat so much it surprises me. You always want to walk with us. You haven't really taken any steps yet unassisted, but can stand for a little while on your own, and you can walk while holding just one of our hands. You're getting so much stronger so very fast. You'll play by yourself for longer periods of time....usually if you see me you want to be walking around with me though - you play better with your dad. You're funny - you'll crack up at us and we crack up right back. We'll just sit and laugh at each other. You knocked your mouth into the table the other day - it was the first time I've seen you bleed and I'm proud of how calm I was - the first of many cuts and scrapes that childhood will bring.

One more month to go and you'll have a year under your belt. I can't believe it. Cheers to you little man, you've made this one hell of a ride so far.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A life update

Seems like all the talk around here is about that one guy...what's his name again? Oh yea, my son, Eliot. I can't get enough of that guy.But! I do have other things that I do. Really! The world keeps turning even though I'm a mom and totally infatuated with my firstborn...and in denial about the fact that he's going to be one in approximately a month's time.
The cat. He came this close (imagine really close fingers here) to joining that big litter box in the sky. Traxx turned 10 on the first (HOLYSHIT - Chris and I bought that cat together, as a kitten - and he's 10! I am old.) and he went downhill fast. There was a lot of losing weight, peeing gratuitously on everything, and me thinking that I don't want a cat who pees on everything while mourning the fact of - my cat! My first fur-baby! But it turns out it was a UTI, amongst other things. He's....well....he's got a diagnosis that means he has a limited amount of time left with us. A few years at best, but he's back in action just in time to longingly stare out the windows at the birds nesting in our gutters. Stupid birds.
The dog. He's doing awesome. I was so proud of us for "fixing" his leg issues but it turns out that he's just been so well rested that they fixed themselves! That's right! We never take the poor guy anywhere! So when the vet came over and told us he's 103 pounds of beastly furriness, I about fell off my chair (he should be around 80-90). I really thought what the vet called his love handles were his ribs. I should probably stop telling myself that when I look in a mirror too. Daly is now on a diet and a strict exercise regimen (where strict = when we can get out of the house he comes with). He hates the diet, loves the exercise, and he's already looking svelter (is that even a word? Blogger is accepting it). If I could just keep him out from under the high chair.
We're actively pursuing selling our house. So this does have something to do with our progeny, because these little people take up about 10 times the room of a normal sized person, but we knew we wouldn't be there forever either. In talking to a realtor we're close to breaking even (SOB - after 6 years of payments and tens of thousands of dollars invested into the place), but that's a good thing. It could be worse. We're painting the outside and we bought the stuff to start projects and it is sitting in corners collecting dust are doing a few minor updates, but may even list this fall. If not, we'll list next spring. Although we do have to list without our awesome winery rain barrel. We forgot about the barrel while wiping a poopy butt didn't winterize it properly and the bottom basically exploded. I am so looking forward to house shopping because THE DEALS! Even though we have to come up with another down payment, we'll get into our forever house for a really great price.
Chris and I? We're hanging in there. I basically rely on Chris to be superhuman, and he nearly always lives up to my expectations. But seriously I am sometimes surprised when he goes to take a nap or something - I forget how much I ask of him. I'm sometimes overwhelmed - with work, babies, animals, houses, but I'm happy. Who wouldn't be waking up to this guy every morning?