You might be a Momma if...

... You have a new reason to tie your sweat pants - that little man who is learning to pull up and stand doesn't differentiate between sweats, jeans, skirts or chair legs and doesn't mind exposing his mother in the process!

Our new home: Before

We were super excited to get into our new home -  but before that could happen we really needed to do some work throughout the house.  In addition to some deep cleaning and replacing some flooring and fixtures we really wanted to paint.  The former tenants had very 'festive' taste in colors and it showed!  Additionally, they left quite a lot of things behind when they moved out, some of it was usable, but most of it needed to be junked - including two cars, one of which didn't run...

Here is our home Before:

Bedroom before...

Kitchen before...

This is after we painted the office - and Pandora getting the baby's things.

Painted, but piled with boxes!

Chris hard at work!

The living room after...

The bathroom before...

You might be a Momma if...

... You have the Bath Time book memorized.

Ebenezer loves this book!  He loves pointing to the toys we read about and squeaking the pig's nose at the end!  And yes we've read it so many times I could recite it in my sleep - and do recite it to him as we are getting ready for bath sometimes!

It's like a finger pointing to the moon...

... Don't look at the finger or you'll miss all the heavenly glory!

While Ebenezer isn't Bruce Lee yet, he sure is taking a que from this line! He loves to use his index finger to check out the world around him.

New found freedom

Ethel was dead to begin with.

Sorry, I felt like channeling a Christmas Carol - I know, silly, but it's cold outside! :)

We recently had to scrap our old car, Ethel, because she developed a larger problem than we could fix. Good news, we still have our lovely Kia for Chris to get to work. Bad news, now there wasn't any transportation for Eb and I while he was gone. This wasn't too much of a problem since I was mostly going to my parents which is literally a mile away (less if you cut through the pasture), but it has been frustrating for me to have to depend solely on others or loaned vehicles while we look for another car.

One of the perks of living so close to the family is getting to eat lunch with them on the days Chris is at work. This necessitates a lot of back and forth however. On several occasions I tried walking, partly for fun/exercise partly to save whoever was driving a trip. The first time with our "city stroller" we only made it a few feet down our gravel driveway - the bumping from the small wheels was wearing me out and I knew we wouldn't make it down our nearly quarter mile drive. The next time I tried the BeJorn. We made it to the mailbox but I realized going back home was the better move, Eb is such a big guy I just can't keep his weight on me long enough to make it all the way... So for a time I was stranded unless I had a loaner from Mom and Dad.

All that changed just a couple weeks ago when, after much shopping and research, our new jogging stroller arrived! Oh how I danced a jig when it got here! I don't really jog or run with it, but the large, bike style tires and suspension between three wheels would make jogging a breeze if I so chose. The swivel front wheel (which can lock straight if you want to run) makes maneuvering a cinch - and it rolls so smooth once we hit pavement it wants to take off! I can tackle our gravel driveway without completely wearing out or shaking Eb to pieces - I might be in live with this product!

Wanna see how fun it is? Here is Eb and I taking it out for our first ride all the way to Mom's. Eb lives being outside so he had a blast!

If you're curious, and for my own future reference, we ended up with a Baby Trend jogging stroller from Wal-Mart, Target also carries them. I live lots of things about this stroller but a few highlights include: a shade that can ratchet to ANY direction - including straight in front of his face - to block the sun, deep cup holders that my water bottle doesn't bounce out of even on gravel, covered compartment that holds phone and keys, swivel front tire and inflatable tires that absorb shock, and the price. Did i forget to mention the price? Jogging/running strollers are typically terribly high, I was hoping to find a good used one on Craigslist, but after shopping and comparing, I realized this cost less or similar to a good, used, fixed front tire stroller. So I took a chance and it totally paid off! Obviously I don't know how it will hold up long term, but for now Eb and I are totally tickled with our new form of transportation!

'This is so cool, Mom!'

The neighbor's barn through the mist.

Hanging on fences for photo ops...

"Our" farm from the road.

My beautiful surroundings...

Our destination!

Oh Fall! How I've missed you!

Brisk mornings, coloring leaves, blue skies, pumpkins, apples, warm clothes and cozy quilts! Oh the excitement and anticipation that fills my chest! Each season has its wonder and glory, fresh every year, but fall sets my heart a glow every time. This year is especially sweet since I haven't experienced quite this dramatic of a change for over two years now. Don't get me wrong, Florida was lovely this time of year, after a sweltering summer you could finally enjoy being outside. But it was nothing like the transition I had come to know and love.

One of my favorite parts of Fall that I had nearly forgotten was the morning mist. Cool air moving over ground still warm from summer's kiss created beautiful, dense, morning fog, the kind that made the world look smaller and more mysterious. Rather than finding this mystery threatening, it is comforting to me. Like air wrapping the earth in her water vapor blanket to ward off the coming chill. It makes the whole world pause, be still, during those lingering fall mornings.

Waking up to the first of such mornings this year was like wrapping yourself on that old familiar quilt you thought you'd lost. Immediate comfort, peace and sense that all is right for a few moments.

Thank you fall, for such a lovely welcome back to the world of seasons.

Milestones: Eight months!

I totally missed Eb's 7 month update so I'm going to combine both months into one super long post! You have been warned!

When Eb hit 6 months mobility hit a new level - he started crawling! Of course he was a bit creaky at first, but he loves being able to move on his own power! It was fun to watch him in his early days of crawling - he would lift his hands really high and his but twists very precisely! It has become much more natural lately as he perfects his technique. Shortly after he started crawling we would watch him try to go really fast (like a spurt of super baby speed!) since he wasn't very coordinated these first attempts usually ended in face plants. But he quickly caught up with his ambitions and can now really scoot around the house!

With added mobility has come the need for more firm boundaries. I had a vague idea of what I wanted discipline and boundaries to look like, but I never anticipated having to begin them at 6 months! I frantically started asking moms I know and respect how they taught boundaries to their little ones and if he was too little to understand. They reassured he was old enough to understand, especially if the need for boundaries had already presented itself. They also helped me see the difference between discipline (correction for disobediences or crossing know boundaries, often what you do for older children) and training (teaching what the boundaries are to start with, what the correct response to 'no' is, attentiveness to what Mommy and Daddy say).

One example of what training looks like for us involves the brick around our wood stove. We don't want Eb to go anywhere near the stove an the brick makes a good boundary. The first couple times he touched it we said 'no touch' in a quiet, firm voice and pulled his hand away while redirecting him. The third time, when we know he's heard the words enough to recognize them, he got a flick on the hand accompanying 'no touch' and redirection. It was heartbreaking to see the shock on his face, but I'm so proud of how quickly he learned! Within a few training sessions I can now say 'no touch' and he takes his hand off whatever he was going for. He knows what is off bounds (like the brick, power cords that we can't get permanently out of his reach, etc) and most of them he just leaves alone - but a couple he challenges on a regular basis, almost to check that we are paying attention. While hard at first, this has been very freeing for both of us - I don't have to watch him like a hawk wherever he is so that I can constantly remove him from every possible harm, and since he knows the boundaries he is allowed to crawl in almost every room in the house ( the office and utility are out of bounds just because of what they contain and baby gates define those boundaries). This does not mean I let my son roam completely unattended - but it does mean I don't stress about him getting burned or electrocuted while I'm washing dishes and he doesn't want to be in the Jumperoo.

Just before his 7 month birthday those long awaited first teeth finally broke the surface! I expected teething pain to quickly recede once the teeth finally broke through but discomfort lingered for about another week. I love seeing those pearly whites when he smiles! This also means he is closer to solids, we are thinking if starting them this next month!

Eb has been developing his fine motor skills using his index finger. He has started using just one finger to touch and, when possible, move things. He looks so precise reaching out with that index finger!

Sleep disturbance has continued through this last month and possibly gotten worse, he usually ends up in my bed before morning so I can rest and he can get some extra sleep - it works fine for him because he sleeps really well when he's in bed with us - me, not so much, but at least I'm horizontal.

It is really fun for me to see how drastically different babies develop. In our bible study there is a little girl who is two months older than Eb, but you would never know when they are side by side! They are the contrast of male and female, they are roughly the same length but Eb is much bigger in girth and her hands and feet are so petite compared to his! I love it!

Grandma came to visit!

I don't want my picture taken!!!

Sporting the Steelers colors from Poppa John!

Practicing sitting up and playing with the pots!

Fashion sense with Great Granddaddy!

Playing with Daddy!

"Hi-YA"!

Now on to developments from the last month (7-8)!

The day after Eb turned 7 months we started "solids", which for him meant rice cereal. Aside from a few faces he did an awesome job! Shortly after that we put peaches in his fresh fruit mesh bag thing. At first he was not impressed, but soon he became excited whenever we brought out the mesh bag! We then went to carrots - which he was not excited about and I quickly backed off of because his sleep seemed to get worse the more solids we introduced. So we cut back to just once a day cereal recently and are considering trying meat next at the pediatricians recommendation.

Aside from the rice cereal I am trying to make all of Eb's baby food here at home, so far it going better than expected. I have a small food processor which I use to grind things very finely once they are cooked and then fill sections of an ice cube tray and freeze. This is great because the food pops easily out of the tray and it great for a single serving! I love it because I can feed him organically without spending an arm and a leg - plus I know exactly what in it and freezing preserves more nutrients than canning!

Since Eb has mastered crawling he can disappear in a heartbeat! He has this Super fast crawl that he likes to use when he's serious about getting somewhere! His favorite use of it is when playing chase the baby with Chris - he'll crawl away from Chris and then look over shoulder as of to say 'betcha can't catch me!' then squeal and take off really fast when Chris starts crawling after him! I LOVE watching them!

Eb also loves being read to now. He knows most of the time when we pull him into our laps while sitting on the floor we are going to read to him, so sometimes when we are playing on the floor he will initiate the reading by crawling up into our laps! We grab a book that's handy and he sits there happy as a lark listening and pointing at the pictures!

His sleep is still very interrupted through the night. At the beginning of the month it was worse than usual because Chris was out of town for a week. It seemed to bother Eb and really threw him off his schedule. He would look for Chris in the mornings and was really confused to have my brothers and sisters over almost every night. He improved some after Chris got home but is still waking an average of four to five times a night. It is doubly hard because he doesn't want Chris to comfort him, only me. I keep telling myself he will sleep better soon - right now that feels like a lie though :)

He is working on getting his top incisors in now. They still haven't shown their pearly selves but do seem to be coming in faster than his bottom two.

He still likes to people watch but he's less likely to interact with strangers now. Instead he likes to burry his head in my shoulder when they come close to talk to him. Hilarious to me to think of a 8 month old being 'shy'.

He is starting to discover the joy of boxes, putting things in and out - including himself! Ever since he successfully got in a big box with Aunt Hannah he has tried getting in several here at home but without much success. He can still get toys in and out though!

During a trip to check on his ears we found out that Eb is keeping up with his big boy reputation. He was 23.9 lbs and 29.25 inches long! For 7 months, which he was at the time, this put him in the "over 95th percentile" for both length and weight! I can't wait to see if this curve continues with how mobile he has become!

Eb is in such a hurry to be grown up and able to move faster, so he's already started on the next step towards walking - pulling up! He loves seeing what is on top of chairs couches and coffee tables along with the different view this new angle affords! With this new step he has discovered a new form of entertainment, looking out the windows! The windows in our old house are just the right height for him to pull up in and look at the world outside! Hours of entertainment for him and a precious sight to me!

Well that's my boy this month I can't wait to see what next month brings!

Eb with his friend Scarlet!

Hanging out with Aunt Hannah!

Look how awesome I am!

Pulling up all by himself!

"Look Ma! No Hands!"