Just Because

"Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out." -Anton Chekhov

How is it that life can go on as normal, and yet I'm exhausted all the time? It's ridiculous.

Random notes about life lately:

• My sister, Susette, had her baby girl this morning! Her name is Zoey, and she's 6.7 lbs and 20.5 inches long. Congratulations, Suzi-Q!

Zoey's first picture!

• I'm going to be joining a gym in the next few days and working out with my mom. It's been a long time coming. I've wanted to have a gym membership for over a year, but we only just convinced ourselves it would be worth the money.
• I've vacuumed our apartment probably 5 times the last three days. My boys love taking the forgotten cereal boxes off the table, taking the bags out, and eating the cereal. Or, in the case of David, he loves taking the bags out and then dumping all the contents on the floor. And it's not just for cereal; it's for crackers, cookies, carrots, grapes, the containers with the berries in them... anything that's accidentally left out usually ends up on the floor. Thank goodness we have a Dyson!
• We play a lot of Angry Birds in this house. Andrew is in love with the game. It's too bad we didn't discover this a few months ago; we could've made it his birthday party theme!
• We recently discovered that if you have WIC, you can get a year pass to COSI  for only $25! Well, that's at least what we've heard, so hopefully we'll be getting a COSI pass soon!
• I've gotten really into two shows recently:

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• I like to get on Facebook afterward, talk about what I liked about the shows, and see which of my friends are also fans of the shows. We sometimes get into really good discussions, especially about Once Upon a Time. Downton Abbey just finished it's second season (they have 7-episode seasons), and you can still catch the most recent episodes on the PBS website.
• I had another Pinterest success: Red Velvet Cookies with White Chocolate Chips. I'd post a picture from the blog it came from, but this blog entry isn't liking formatting the pictures the way I want them to go very easily. You'll just have to click on the link and take a look. They were SUPER good.
• We got a Kindle Touch a few days ago, and I've read 3 short books on it so far: Beauty and the Beast, Heart of Gold, and A Christmas Carol. We were able to get the Kindle with tax return money and a gift card, and all the books were free on Amazon. I'm really liking it so far. I just wish there were more books that were sold for the Kindle that were cheap...

Alright. Andrew is throwing a fit about wanting to play Angry Birds. I better go.

Secret: I think I have middle-child syndrome. I get jealous of my sisters all the time, for the silliest things, thinking they get the better ends of whatever "stick" there is in life because they're the oldest and the youngest. I know that's ridiculous, but sometimes I just can't help myself.

While I'm thinking about it

"My son complains about headaches. I tell him all the time, when you get out of bed, it's feet first!" -Henny Youngman

I wanted to share these things about David before I forgot about them...

David's birthday is today! We had a fun play group this morning, and I hosted it so that I could serve cupcakes to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately, play group happens to be RIGHT during his morning nap, so he was asleep for pretty much all of it. :(

I discovered David's 7th cut tooth today. Hurray!

Now that he can walk, he does the funniest thing. Whenever we change his diaper, after we've wiped him down, he rolls right over and runs away without a diaper on. He thinks it's the funniest thing ever, laughing the entire time. It's especially funny watching him walk away if he's wearing footie pajamas and the feet are dragging behind him.

I also discovered today that David can now say his second word: Bye-bye! He says "bah bah", and waves his little arm around. It's super cute.

Oh, and this is a new face he makes when he's really happy about something:

As a side note, yesterday I did my hair in a way I've never done it before: fishtail! I did two of them, and they turned out ok, I think:

Yay for birthdays, growing up, discoveries, and trying new things!

Secret: I think David came into our family to help me know that there is such a thing as a calm, quiet child in the world. lol. And to also help me know that if I wanted more kids, they won't all be difficult. At least not difficult in the same ways. And that makes things a little easier, I think.

One Year Ago...

"All the world is a birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much." -George Harrison

One year ago today, I was packing my hospital bag, nervous with anticipation. I was scheduled to go into the hospital that night to have my labor induced so that I could have my baby on the 9th of February, 2011.

That's right, David turns the big O-N-E tomorrow, my friends. Let's look back through some of his accomplishments:

• He was born! After a little more than 9 hours of labor, he was born at 9:33am. He came a week early, on purpose, because we were a little worried he was going to be a big baby. And he was! He was 9lbs, and 21 1/2 inches long!
• He was jaundiced for the first few weeks, but got over that in the first few weeks.
• He learned to roll over between 3 1/2 and 4 months old.
• He started eating (and LOVED) solid food at 4 months.
• He learned how to scoot around at 5 months! I wasn't prepared for that...
• He learned to sit up (finally) around 6-6 1/2 months.
• He's sprouted 6 teeth since he turned 6 months old.
• He crawled (for real) at around 7 or 8 months.
• He learned to pull himself up and cruise around 8 1/2 months.
• He learned to walk at 10 1/2 months! I wasn't quite prepared for that either...
• He said his first word - Ball! - at 10 1/2 months. That's often the first thing I hear him say in his crib in the morning, and the last sound I hear him make at night when he falls asleep.

David is still as bald as ever, with mostly just light brown/dark blond fuzz growing on his head. He has the most mild, chill personality ever, loving to smile and laugh, but happy to be held and be quiet too. He loves playing with toys, especially with the ones Andrew doesn't want him to play with. ;) His favorite toys are balls, hence his first word. He brings a ball to me, says "Bah", and drops the ball forcefully into my hands. It's so cute! He smiles and laughs and makes everyone around him happy. We are so lucky to have him in our family!

Let's look at a few pictures to show how he's grown!

A few days old! He was so little compared to Andrew.

A week(ish) old. A friend came over and took some beautiful pictures of him!

Three months old, enjoying the sunshine.

6 months old, playing on the floor.

9 months old, enjoying eating dinner with the family.

A few days ago, we had ravioli for lunch. He was REALLY happy as he got it all over his hands, face, hair, and clothes. Oh, and this was right after having taken a bath, too. :)

On Sunday, my side of the family got together for some Sunday dinner/birthday cupcake eating to celebrate David's birthday. Here are some of my favorite pictures from that:

First bites.

SMOOSH!

What? It's good!

This picture should be in the dictionary after the word Gluttony!

My baby isn't a baby anymore! Where did the time go?

Secret: I'd rather walk through snow than rain. Yes, snow is colder, but at least it doesn't soak your clothes on impact! Which would you rather walk through?