Dear God The Teeth

There are at least 4 teeth pushing their way through poor baby boy's gums.

Last night he had a terrible fever, I had to strip him naked to cool him down. All night I had this fireball snuggled tight against me mummmmming in his sleep. Poor baby boy.

Today wasn't much better, he wanted to enjoy his books and toys, but nothing could make the pain to away. He would just wimper and cry. Until his bath it seemed nothing could make him happy.

He has started dancing. He rocks out to his little toys that play music and his dads singing. He wiggles and claps his hands, it is pretty much to die for.

9-Months

Happy 9 month birthday Jr.

Amazing Eliza took some beautiful photos of Jr. Here is a sample.

Our CD drive is broken on our computer, so they aren't on flickr. I am using Doo and Sheree's computer just to post these. It is a bummer. I was hoping that computer would last a bit longer. . .

So, what happens at 9 months? Still no crawling. He is army crawling, rolling and skidding across the floor. Ed is seriously worried, but I am not. He is just about to push a tooth through. You can see the bulge of a tooth. He is pretty surly.

The biggest thing is the point. He points all of the time. The finger can also be used to smash foods. He loves to point out the window at cars headlights. He also waves at his daddy, but it is way after his dad has left and can't see him wave.

6 A freaking M

Up at 6 AM. Tossing and turning all night, nursing every hour. I am running on like 45 minutes of sleep. Every time I would try to put him in his crib, he would wake from a dead sleep the second his head hit the sheets! Damn it!

Normally he is not like this, asleep around 8, awake around 8 with one or two minor wake ups in the middle of the night to check in, but something is going on this week that makes him flop around, cry and demand to nurse every hour.

Teething? Maybe. Who knows. I ask him and all he says is ma ma ma ma ma. Or uh uh uh walala.

At least his naps are back to normal. Two one hour + naps during the day. Lordy, how I wish I could join him.
Yeah, I know, this photo has nothing to do with the above post, but I love it. Here is another one that is totally irrelevant, but oh so cute. Jr. LOVES his auntie Liesel.

Gear Junkies

Today while I was dropping Jr. off to hang with Adrienne I had a moment to read Pregnancy Magazine, it reminded me of simpler times. While I was prego I read every pregnancy book, magazine, website, scrawl on bathroom walls. . . While I want to say that I was looking for enlightenment on the path to motherhood, I am going to be brutally honest I was looking for that magic gear that would make baby rearing practically the easiest thing I have ever done. Those magazines are full of those product promises.

Today I was laughing at my pre-baby self, pouring over those magazines, thinking about my upcoming bundle of joy and just waiting for my super gear to kick in and make it good.

There is no such gear, but there are some things that we couldn't have lived without. The first is nursing. I love nursing that baby. It is the best thing I could have ever done for him or me. No bottles to heat up, no hauling formula around, all of the nutrition he needs, I dropped weight like crazy and best of all, it is free. It is our time to be close, snuggle and love eachother. I love it and no I don't know how long it will go on. I get sad thinking about the day we no longer nurse.

Ed cut the top off of our changing table and mounted it to the top of the dresser. That gave me an extra foot of height so I don't have to bend over to change Jr. This was the most fabulous move Ed has made. My back was completely messed up from after birth, and the changing table height was completely what the Dr. ordered.

That brings me to another piece of gear I couldn't live without, the orthopedic Dr. that diagnosed my back issues and the physical therapist who got me back into shape. Every time I would leave the PT office, I would want to hug the physical therapist I felt so good and after a little over a month, I am pain free. Plus once she fixed an almost migraine.

Bob. We live for the Bob. Ed Sr. is particularly fond of Bob. It makes short work of the 2 hours he babysits in the afternoon. Bob to the Moogs, Bob to Doos, Bob to pick up mom from work. Bob is a noun and a verb.

The exercauser or The Office. Although I feel like spending time in there may be holding him back from crawling. I think I am the only person that isn't anxious for him to crawl, but it is not like I sticking him in the office him to keep him from crawling, but to take care of him just long enough to do the dishes, or put my shoes on.

Books. That kid LOVES books. His favorite book is Brown Bear. He loves to read books, play with books and chew on his books. Even if you don't have the book and you recite "brown bear brown bear what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me" he chills out instantly and looks around for his beloved novel.

Finally, there is Cissie. Ed and I work and fight incredibly hard to keep Jr. out of daycare. We are mostly broke and Ed has to get up ungodly early, and we need babysitting coverage for about 2.5 hours a day and that is where Cissie comes in. We knew how awesome she is, but being without her for a month has made us appreciate her aven more. Hurry back Cissie we miss you. It is so great to have her show up and Jr. smiles and yells for her to pick him up. He loves her and she him. She is awesome and we adore her.

HAPPY New Year!

Happy 2009! 2008 was a riot, but 2009 is going to be bigger and better! Crawling, walking, talking, solid poops. We are so excited!

We rung in the New Years in Clinton, MT with all of our good friends. It was perfect, Brian and Angela's house was able to accomodate four families - that is 8 adults, 4 kids and 4 dogs. Huge thanks to the Vibberts for opening their house to all of us. We had SO much fun!

We partied like crazy all weekend and even enjoyed some of the record setting snowfall.

I put all of the New Years photos into their own set on flickr. Luke took many of them. He is quite the photog for a 3 year old. No culling, no editing. I wanted you all to live the experience.

On Sunday, Ed Jr. showed off his brand new skill, clapping. Brian and Angela were there for the first big moment. Very exciting. That is how it goes, one minute you are trying to get him to clap and then suddenly after his nap, there he goes clap clap clapping away. Ed and I figured that if he was going to crawl, this would be the weekend he did it - you know to keep up with all of those kiddos. But no, no crawling, only rolling. He would roll across the world if we would just let him.