The Giggle King

It's been a while since I posted any video of baby Sam.  It's a bit dark since it was pretty late at night when I broke out the camera, but enjoy!

Right now we're holding down the fort and waiting for Hurricane Sandy to knock out the power.  Since we live on high ground and don't have any large trees I don't think we'll have any issues with the storm beyond power outages.  Crossing fingers.  

8 Months Old

I'm loving this fall.  The weather has been unseasonably warm, making family outings comfy.  And my oh my, lots of family outings!  And even though Sam mostly stares out at the world with a vacant stare from his stroller, I know he likes getting out of the house too.  But I digress.

What my 8 month old is like:
~He eats baby food for breakfast & dinner.  No allergic reactions yet.
~He can finally roll from his tummy to his back, but only with the motivation of toys.
~Is sleeping every night in his crib and sleeping sounder than ever!
~Usual night is from 10pm to 7am without a single squawk for help.
~He has been saying "Dada" and "Mama" for about a month or so, but they definitely have meaning behind them now.  He knows who is who and cries for the other if unhappy with your parenting skills.
~Will stand assisted and loves to dance and kick his feet around like wild if you sing.
~Most favorite thing in the world is a book.  Devours them.  Begs for them.  Gives you kisses if you read them to him.
~Oh yes, gives kisses!  I love this so much!
~Indicates what he wants while playing with motions and grunts.
~Likes to take apart stacks of toys I create/empty out his basket of toys faster than I can fill it.
~Continues to beat toys without mercy.  Together, on the floor, on you, etc.  I'm assuming this is some kind of life skill.
~While on his belly he lifts his top half off the ground right down to his belly button.  Then puts his top half down and inches his little bottom skyward.  Cracks me up.  He just has to get the coordination down and then he'll be ready for launch.

Ok, 8 Month Owl!!

Oof.  How will I ever part with this baby and let him grow into a teenager?

Saturday Selfies: Take 5

Back lighting.  This week the assignment was to take a photo featuring back lighting.

Now for the confession:  I cheated.  This photo is from that trip we took a week ago and I had handed my camera to Karen who was rolling around in the grass.  But I like the photo too much to not use it.  I mean, I love this photo.  Mostly because my chunky baby is blocking the view of my chunky thigh.  Oh, and cause he's so stinkin cute it hurts.  

Next week, whatever the assignment may be, I promise to put forth some effort.  But for now bask in the glow that is a glorious fall day playing in the leaves.  Oh, and visit Audrey!  Her baby just turned 2!

Baby's Epic Weekend

This is going to be long and picture heavy.  But it's also gonna make your head explode from the cuteness.

Saturday we headed out on our annual scenic train ride.  This is our 4th year doing this with Matt & Karen.  It's always an all day kind of outing, and Matt does not like change.  Which means we were going to be taking baby on a very long day of adventures.  We packed up a backpack FULL of crap and hoped for the best.  We left the house at 7:30am and returned home at 10:30 that night.  He did really good up till dinner that night when he had a minor meltdown in a restaurant cause he had just simply had enough.  Pretty good for a 7 month old!

Check out baby in the TINY fireplace!  Why would you have a fireplace that small?

The morning started with the long drive to Uniontown, PA for breakfast and another short drive to The Friendship Hill House.  Alfred Gallatin lived there way back when and blah, blah, blah.  I'm not much of a history person so I pretty much walked around looking at the pretty stuff and playing with Sam on the lawn.  The boys had a great time looking at graves and reading the 500 plaques around the house.  Karen, Sam & I had a much better time rolling in the leaves on the grass.

The train ride was next.  Oof.  Now, this is the 4th time I have gone with the boys on a scenic train ride.  They've been doing this since they were in high school, so they have many more under their belts.  I'm telling you this so you can appreciate all four of us standing in the parking lot watching the train pull into the "station" with our mouths hanging open in a mix of shock and concern.  The train station was an open gate in a chain link fence.  The train ticket booth was a lady with a clipboard and a cash box sitting in a lawn chair under an umbrella.  The two coach cars attached to the engine were dented, rusty, and you could see the faded letters spelling out "Potomac Eagle" written on the side.  It should be noted that the Potomac Eagle was the train Karen & I rode on our first train ride with the boys, so by the look of things these were retired coach cars from that operation.  Oh, and the brakes.  The brakes on the train were so loud and screechy that everyone in the parking lot plugged their ears.  It was all pretty funny and after seeing that it was kinda obvious why this is the last year this particular train ride is operating.

The train ride itself was nice.  We chose to sit in the caboose so we had the option of standing outside the train on the back grate during the ride.  I was nervous about taking Sam out on the grate, but for the last leg of the trip I did wrap him up snug in his Moby and take him out there.  He wasn't scared!  That really surprised me.  He kept looking down at the ground rushing past under our feet, but he never got scared.  Then he fell asleep.  Asleep, with the rushing air and the clack of the track under our feet.  I couldn't believe it.  The train conductor for our car walked up to get a closer look and laughed as he radioed the train engineer to tell him about the "sleeping adventurer" on board.  

The train was supposed to be going to a pumpkin patch with a 40 minute layover while us passengers could roam around and get hot chocolate.  There was no pumpkin patch, but there was a cute little town with an ice cream parlor so it was all good.  But what a strange train operation!

From there we started to head home (train ride lasted an extra hour beyond what it was advertised).  The stop for dinner was a bit stressful.  I didn't get to eat much since I was walking Sam back and forth next to our table.  And of course the stinker fell asleep as soon as the check came and everyone else was ready to leave.  But really, I'm proud of him for lasting that LONG day with lots of new experiences and being such a trooper about it.  I'm so glad baby is chill.

Then Sunday we spent playing with baby, carving pumpkins, and decorating the house for Halloween!  Every year, two weeks before Halloween, Morgan groans and watches from the front door as I go ape shit on the front yard.  Halloween is my thing.  It's the best holiday of the year, as far as I'm concerned.  And even though he gets a little embarrassed having to park his car next to a cemetery and walk past rubber rats to get into his house, I know he likes it too.  And with this being Sam's first Halloween, I went a bit overboard.  Just a bit.

I think I partially blame Pinterest for the overboardness of this year's pumpkin carving.  I mean, you know I'm not that creative on my own!  Although I did come up with the following in my own little brain.  Mainly because I have a need to have as many photos as possible of him that will make him blush when I show them to his future girlfriends.  Behold!  The OMG SQUEE HEADSPLODE photos!

"No, Mom!  Don't show those to Amanda!  Gosh, I hate you SO much!!!"

Saturday Selfies: Take 5

High Key photography.  Meaning parts of your photo are so bright they almost appear to be glowing.  I'm posting a day late because we were away on a trip all day Saturday, but thanks to that trip I have a better photo to present for today than what I had done earlier in the week!

Yup, photobombing my own kid.

Swing by Audrey and see what a photographer (you can hire her) can do with the concept of High Key.

Three Words Thursday

Tiny Teeth Spotted

Mommy Confessions

Hello.  My name is Christa and my 7 & 1/2 month old still sleeps in a bedside sleeper.

As my pregnancy was drawing to an end people kept asking me if the nursery was set up.  It wasn't.  But I didn't understand what all the rush was about when I planned on having Sam sleep in our room for the first 3 months.  Besides, I was (and still pretty much am) clueless when it comes to baby gear and what to do when setting up said nursery.

Then 3 months rolled around and I wasn't ready for him to move out to his own room.  Next thing I knew he had learned how to roll onto his belly and get stuck in that position.  I was afraid he would be in distress and I wouldn't hear him (I have hearing loss) over the baby monitor.  Month after month I kept finding reason after reason for my baby to stay within arms reach over night.

Plus, that nursery still wasn't put together.  I wanted it to be ready, it just wasn't happening.  For months I asked Morgan to take one afternoon and help me get it baby ready.  We needed to switch out the window blinds, move some furniture, and screw some things into the wall.  That's all!  Finally on Sunday he did just that.

It's not much, but it's baby ready.  Changing table, crib, banana leaf shade, a bench seat to the side, and string of stars night lights. Originally I had wanted to paint the room green, paint the dresser in the closet to match, get a comfy chair in there, and decorate like crazy.  But baby ready will have to do for now.

And so last night was the big night.  I cut the cord and let my precious pigeon pea sleep in his own room the whole way down the long, dark hallway.  I didn't get much sleep, but he made it the entire night over there!  He did squawk about 5 times or so for me to come rescue him from his tummy or plunk a binky in his mouth.  But that's better than I thought it would go!

Another Weekend of Fall Goodness!

Things we did this holiday weekend:

1.  Pumpkin Patch, Fools!  On a beautiful and warm day we took a family field trip to Jumbo's.  We had a mission.  Find an absurdly large pumpkin.  One that we could fit our 20 pound wonder Pud into.  We found a beauty (56 inch circumference) that will work nicely.  We'll probably carve it up and take "OMG GIANT BABY!" photos next weekend so the thing won't be rotten by the time Halloween gets here.  Jumbo's also had a farm animal petting zoo and kids crafting stations, all of which he is too young for.  But ahh, next year.  Yes.  It'll be grand.

2.  Brunswick Railroad Days!  Really, this should be called "Brunswick Day to Hang Out on the Street and Scare All the Little Kids With How Ugly You Are While Trying to Sell Your Hideous Crafts/Homemade Weapons".  Cause Yeah.  I clutched my baby tight as a man snuck up behind me and asked if I wanted to have him hold Sam while I climbed up onto the firetruck and then he would hand the baby back to me.  I'm sure he was just trying to be nice, but he was rough looking and it bothered me.  We quickly left the area with the firetrucks.

But we did get to finally go to the great little coffee shop/cafe there in town and also get our Sloppy Taco fix.  Plus Sam got to watch some trains go by and we were out of the house.  So that's a win!

3.  MIL came over for a grandson visit.  I love the look on Sam's face in this photo.  

4.  No photos for this one, but guess who has TWO teeth now.  I suppose I should say at least two teeth.  He won't let me poke around in there to do a detailed count.  I have to make my mouth inspections in a split second or be met with baby fury.  But yes, at least two teeth!

5.  Temps dipped into the 30's last night and so we broke out the extra warm baby pajamas.  He's not a fan of hoods, but he's so stinkin cute!

6.  Not sure this should make the list - but I just watched a hawk eat another bird in our backyard.  Kinda awesome.

Saturday Selfies: Take 4

Motion.  How's this for motion?  Mommy getting kicked in the throat.  As Sam gets stronger, playtime becomes ever more rough and tumble.  I miss the days when I could smother him in kisses and not have him grab fistfuls of hair in his vice grip meat mitts.

Stop by Audrey, The Idea Girl, and see some more "motion" pictures from those who participated in this week and prior weeks photo challenge!

This is Why

Baby, as I have mentioned, has been a cranky butt for a week now.  But all is well.  All is forgiven.  Now we know why.

Sam cut his first tooth last night.  I don't like seeing him in pain, obviously.  But now that I know that has been his issue I have to give baby credit for toughing it out.  I mean, teething has got to HURT.  And yes, he has been cranky, but he hasn't been wailing away in agony.  He even went out this past weekend and was on his best behavior and never once gave hint to how unhappy his mouth was.  He's a little trooper.