The park & Father's Day

Last week, Westen and I headed to the park (well, Aeson too but he was asleep in the car) and he had lots of fun.

On Thursday, there was a representative from the nature center in Peoria at the library, so we went to listen to him and Westen got to touch a snake again!

Saturday, we walked up to Farmer's Market and Westen got to plant a tomato plant.

Sunday was Father's Day. We spent most of the day at Eric's parent's. We had a good time and got to go see Grandpa Jim that evening as well. Eric got Cubs tickets for his gift, so the two of us will be heading to a game in August.

Last night, there were tornado warnings all over. I sent Eric out right away to get Westen, because he'd stayed at Grandma Sandy's to play with her. As soon as they got back, we all headed to the basement. Poor Westen was so scared! I don't even know how he knows what a tornado is-- this is the first time we've ever had to go to the basement & I don't recall talking about one before. Anyway, as soon as we got down there, he thought to pray! It was so cute, and we all tried to comfort him but we were quite nervous too! Luckily, I don't think anything really happened and Westen got to sleep in our room for the night.

We have a very, very busy week this week! We're headed to the library for an activity today and have LLL tonight, brown bag concert & picnic tomorrow, Heritage Days Thursday-Saturday, and then a dinner for Eric's work on Sunday. Busy, busy, busy!

Oh! Aeson said "ball" clear as day yesterday. Eric also says he said "hat," but I didn't hear it. :)

(The whole fam on Father's Day)

Pulled up to standing!

Saturday evening, we had Uncle Eddie, Aunt Chels, and baby Bentley over for dinner and to watch Alice in Wonderland (good movie!). I had read to make breastmilk popsicles for teething babies but since I really don't like to get out my pump unless I have to, I decided to make water with a little bit of 100% juice ones. And we gave Aeson his first one that night...
Can you see his uncertainty? :) He kept going back for more!
We ended up spending the day with them on Sunday as well. We're all going to miss them so much if they move! We showed them the house we are under contract for (at this moment..) that day. Every time we go in, we're pretty much overwhelmed by all that we need to do! I will HAVE to post before and after pictures. :)

On Monday, we put my niece in the exersaucer for the first time and she loved it! Westen stayed with Eric's parents for the night and did all sorts of fun stuff. They got ice cream, painted, planted his sweet potato plant, and he was about to take a bath with his (not TOY as he corrected grandma but..) FRIEND shark. :)

It's been a quiet day around here without him! Aeson pulled himself up to standing for the very first time today! He's stood for quite a while if we position him that way but today is the first time he's actually pulled himself up all by himself. He's done it several times since! I was so excited that he even got excited. That combined with seeing my camera (and deciding to go after it!) made for a blurry picture. :( At least I still captured it!
Aunt Chels also spent the afternoon with us, which Aeson loved, as you can see... :)

Yesterday

As I was catching up on my daycare paperwork, I came across our scores from one of the games we played with my sister and her husband this winter. I love summer and all that there is to do, but this made me remember that even during the winter, there are good memories.. memories of warm chili, discovering new games to play, and holiday meals. My sister is now uncertain where they are going to move, and I will miss those times if she does move far away! I know they will still happen but not as often.

I'm not sure if I've written about it before but Aeson ALWAYS crosses his feet when he's sitting down! It used to just be his feet and lately it has been more of his legs. It is too cute!
Excuse his dirty mouth. :) After noticing his first tooth coming through on the bottom, I noticed you can now see ALL four teeth on top moving their way down. They aren't at the edge of the gums yet but they will be soon. My poor teething boy.

I know, I know.. No dairy until at least one. Well, Aeson's had it a couple of times! We eat ice cream too often. :) And he is TOO interested! Last night, he just kept sticking his tongue out over and over again to eat Daddy's cold yummy cone!

Wedding Weekend, First Tooth!

Last week, at exactly 10 months old (9 gestationally), we FINALLY felt Aeson's first tooth! It's his bottom right one and it's definitely through. You can feel all the ridges but can't quite SEE it yet. (Plus he never wants us sticking our fingers in his mouth! haha)

We were gone this entire past weekend. Eric stood up with his friend Justin on his wedding day. We stayed with Eric's parents and had a good time. We were out late both nights, hanging out at Justin's parent's house, and when I was woken up at 8 & 9am, I remembered why you can't do that once you have children!! :) Lots of people got to see Aeson for the first time, or the first time since he was an infant. Most people said he looked just like daddy, which is typical :); however, a couple said he had my eyes or looked like a mix of us. Don't ever hear that!

Eric and I have been talking about when we'll start trying for our next baby for a while now. We got to thinking that their birthdays are exactly 6 months apart, so it'd be nice to have babies in May and November because then they'd all be 3 months apart! Plus, I never want to be at the end of my pregnancy in mid to late summer ever again! I haven't quite figured it all out, but it's a nice thought. :) At this point, I'm scared to death for another pregnancy and birth after Aeson's issues and STILL (10 months later) being sore sometimes from the C-section.

We decided to list our house with a realtor, so we're just waiting on our first showing now. We have until the end of June to get the rebate, so we'll have to re-evaluate things if we haven't sold by then.

Memorial Day weekend

We had a lovely weekend!

We went to my friend's son's birthday party on Saturday. It was for her youngest son, but Westen and her oldest have been the best of friends pretty much since they were born. Now that Westen is no longer in daycare, they don't get to see each other as often, but we still do from time to time. They've always gotten along perfectly. Well Saturday, Westen came up to me at the birthday party almost crying because her son had taken his Lego man completely apart and thrown all the little pieces everywhere.. and on top of that told him that he didn't want to be his friend anymore! Westen was heartbroken! We looked everywhere for the Lego pieces but only found two. He'd been very attached to his Lego man, taking it in the pool and to bed (everywhere!) with him. For the next couple of days, he kept asking why Kaden said what he did too. I felt so bad for him!

Sunday, we had our open house. Only one couple showed up this time. They seemed pretty interested, but we'll see. We're not really sure what to do from here.

That evening, we took Westen to his very first movie. He enjoyed it! We watched the new Shrek movie, and while he got a little antsy, he was still very good!

When we got home, we cut tiny pieces of our wedding cake from exactly one year ago and fed them to each other. :) It actually didn't taste too bad! I can't believe we've been married for (now) just over a year.. In some ways, it feels so much longer and in others, it doesn't at all! We get frustrated with each other and all the things I suppose normal couples do, but it amazes me how much I still care about him. I suppose just how different it is from my first marriage. Every day, from the moment I wake up, I can't wait until he gets home just to be with him. I love him very much.

Monday morning, Aeson woke up bright and early. He hasn't been sleeping very well lately. Eric decided to take me to buy a camera for our anniversary! I bought a dslr .. and I have no idea how to use it! It's frustrating me, because I want to be able to take good pictures NOW. On top of that, I got my didy today and I now have to learn how to use THAT as well! Ahh.. information overload!

We had a cookout yesterday evening at our house and had our siblings and some friends over. Everything was delicious, and we even made yummy daiquiri's.

Now we have a shortened work week and then another busy, busy weekend. One of Eric's best friends is getting married, so we have the rehearsal and all on Friday and then the wedding & reception Saturday. We're staying with Eric's parents all weekend, so I'm a bit nervous about how Aeson will do out of his home environment and with the busy weekend. Oh, if life were only easy all the time! I suppose I should be glad this is the extent of my stresses. :)

Oh, and on our exact anniversary, Aeson finally put it all together and CRAWLED! I think he's so much happier since he's able to get all around the house now! I'm so proud of him. :) He's kissing constantly now too, waving hi and bye, and giving five's. He's almost 10 months old!

Warm Weather

We've had a pretty good week! My husband's gotten off late pretty much every night, leaving him gone for 11 hours of the day.. six days this week. It's frustrating, but I try to remind myself that he's not in the military or something and gone for months at a time.. That would be so very hard.

Anyway, it was in the 80's here all week. We got a little pool for the kiddies to play in and they really enjoyed that. Aeson didn't, though.. I think it was too cold for him! :) We walked up to Farmer's Market one of the days, which was fun. This week was the last week for two of my daycare kids. I'm going to miss them! One may be back in the fall if we're living here. The other I know Westen's going to miss terribly, because she is his same age and they had tons of fun playing together. Both parents got me thank you cards and little gifts (a gift card for a salon and a bottle of yummy wine!) which was incredibly nice. I'm down to only two daycare kids and my own two, so I'm hoping it will be easier to do more this summer. I was disappointed to find out, though, that most of the playgroups end for the summer. :(

I ordered my first wrap this week! It's a woven wrap called a Didymos. I have a friend very much into babywearing, and she recommended this one. From what I've read, they're supposed to be the best. It was hard for me to justify spending that much money, but with as needy as Ace is, I think it will help tons AND I can use it for future children. I can't wait to get it! Hopefully I can figure it out. :)

Today has already been a busy day. I've been kind of in a melancholy mood.. We watched Dear John last night, and I think that's why. Anyway, we walked up to Farmer's Market (which is a nice long walk) and got bunches of yummy things and Westen got to plant his own sweet potato plant to bring home. We're getting ready to head to a birthday party in a bit and then we have grocery shopping and errands later, as well as getting ready for our open house tomorrow. Then tomorrow night, we're taking Westen to his very first movie in the theater. I'm excited! We're going to see the new Shrek movie. And Monday, we're having some family and friends over for a cookout, which I'm also excited for.. buttt.. being busy makes the weekend go by so fast. I would love to just relax!

Last thing for today.. I've started the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred dvd, and it has made me sore! I hope I can keep it up! I was already down a couple pounds this morning. I'm hoping that combined with nursing can get me to the weight I want to be. I am thankful, though, for already being less than before I was pregnant and being able to fit back in my old clothes... even though it is distributed differently!

The in-between

We have been busy, busy, busy! I miss my blog, and I miss my blog friends. It seems like no one posts much these days.

We rushed around getting our house in order and had our first open house last Sunday. We had five couples/families show up. No one seemed very interested, in my opinion. (Which is probably correct since it's now Tuesday evening and we haven't heard from any of them! :))

I want to KNOW where we are going to be and go with it. I hate being in the 'in between.' Eric said this morning that he isn't sure if he wants to move. That was quite frustrating, as he has been the one so certain! I want Westen to attend preschool in the fall, just to get out of the house, and we need to know where we are going to be living. Anyway, we have our second open house this weekend, so we'll see. I've kind of just figured that whatever's meant to be will happen.

Two of my daycare kids are done this week. One's mother is a teacher and will be off for the summer. The other is going to be attending a local daycare center, which they enrolled her in once they knew of our possible move. I hope we can make it financially with watching two children.. I have to say it will be nice to be able to get out and do more! We got a little pool last night and the kids enjoyed splashing around in it today. I want to go to the library, brown bag concerts, play groups, farmer's market, etc... but toting around six kids is pretty impossible. Especially without a vehicle that can hold that many or a multiple person stroller!

Eric and I will be celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary on Sunday. I think I started this blog just after we'd gotten married. What a year it's been.

Aeson's results from blood work and sono came back normal once again.. Thank you God. I always get so nervous when I receive the phone call from the doctor's office with the results.. I almost can't breathe for those seconds before they tell me. It's hard on a momma to go through every three months. Ace had a difficult time with the sono (he couldn't have anything to eat, including milk, for two or three hours before.. can't remember exactly.. and he was HUNGRY!), but he didn't even cry at all for the bloodwork. Yay Aeson!

Every day his abilities are progressing. He knows what "patty cake" is and will clap when you ask if he wants to play. Last week, he started being able to get himself from the lying on his stomach position to sitting up. I was thankful for that, because he would get so frustrated until I could help him! He's constantly pulling up on his knees whenever he has leverage. As for crawling.. he went from scooting on his stomach to getting up on all fours to moving backward to now being able to move his hands different positions while on all fours. He can't go forward yet, but it should be any day. It's amazing the little things I notice when I'm home with him every day! I'm pretty sure he's trying to say "boc boc boc" (like a chicken) and "doggy" too. And he makes kissing noises! (except he does it with his tongue :)) We never really hear any "mama"'s.. he's all about the "d" sounds.

I wish my life was more interesting, but that's about all there is to update on!