Buster

Our family dog Buster had to be put down yesterday. We had him for 15 years and he was full grown when he came to us so he lived a very long time. He was one of the sweetest dogs I've ever known. Poor guy was ready to go though. Goodbye Buster. (Please say hi to Chessney for me.)

My New Neice

Capri Lilly Cleland. Born 2/3/2010.

9 Months

What a month! If I were to list here everything that comes to mind this post would be way too long. Anders just does not stop anymore and he's learning things so fast I can't believe it. Not only does he walk around with walkers now but if he gets stuck on something he knows how to turn it so that he can get around things. He can bend over while standing up and pick up toys without falling over and he'll take a couple of steps on his own if he feels like it. We have a toy box that is just his heighth and it's his favorite thing. I set it up in the middle of the living room and he would be happy to do nothing other then walk around it and pick toys out here and there all day long.


He sure is a busy kid. He does not like to sit still for one minute.
He says mama and dada; although I don't think that he knows what they mean yet. But he will repeat those words when I say them to him.
I'm jinxing myself by saying this but lately he has been sleeping like an angel. I don't know if it's because he's been sick or what but it's been great!
Both of his top teeth have come through now.
He has finally taken to the nursing thing again. In fact, today he made it clear to me that he would rather nurse then take the bottle. Of course that was just at one feeding, but it made me happy because that was NOT the case not too long ago.

He will wave bye-bye, when he feels like it. It's not just a hand wave, his whole arm moves up and down and it is just darling! Thank you Grandma Darley.
Have you ever noticed the vonage commercial where the screen is orange? There really isn't much that goes on in the commercial, just a bunch of words, it shows the earth for a second and mostly it's just a big screen of orange. If that commercial comes on and Anders is in the room he immediately stops what he is doing and turns to watch it. He knows the guys voice or the music or something because he can be completely out of view of the television and he'll start trying to get to where he can see it. This has been going on since he was probably five or six months old. In fact today he was almost asleep and that commercial came on and I thought for sure that he would be wide awake once he heard the guys voice, but luckily that wasn't the case. We'll see what happens next time though. Isn't that strange? If only I knew what he was thinking...

My Cheeser

My poor baby! Even though he's been sick with a cold for the last few days and is cutting one of his top teeth (and it looks seriously painful), for the most part he's still such a happy little kid. This is his new cheeser face that he pulls for mom when she has the camera out. I love him and his little (or maybe I should say BIG) personality!

8 months

It has been far too long and unfortunately I know I've missed out on documenting some things for myself. So I'm just going to promise myself that I will keep up to date and stay on top of it all. Here we go:

Anders is a little over eight months now. He wants to walk... desperately. In fact I think he sort of forgot how to crawl tonight because all he could think about was how bad he wants to walk.... yes he can crawl now. It's an army crawl so far, and just started this week, but I know it won't take long to be full blown crawling. Tonight he took his first few steps while holding on to a walking toy. I couldn't believe it! I almost screamed out loud I was so excited, but I didn't want to scare him.

Speaking of being scared. My mothers kitchen lighting is full of long fluorescent bulbs that are covered over with some funny plastic type stuff. I don't know what it's called. One day I lifted Anders up and touched his head to it because it makes a funny noise. He looked at me funny and I did it again, and then he proceded to bawl. Ever since then, when I walk into her kitchen he clings to me like he's terrified that I'm going to do it. In fact if I lift my hand above my head at all in her kitchen he gets scared. Which is the only reason that I can explain the fact that he no longer likes being thrown up into the air. Poor baby.

He throw fits. Boy was that a slap in the face. I had no idea how fast that came about. Maybe mine started early, I don't know. The main reason that he throws fits is after you've been walking him around for hours, either with our awesome contraption that Trish gave us, or just holding his hands as he walks around, and you're dying to take a break and try to set him down on his bum. He either goes stiff as a board or he will just let his legs give out and then push up again and give out and push up again like he's trying to bounce and of course he wails while he's doing this. The only reason that he throws fits is because he wants to keep WALKING.

He haves him some teeths now. We like to call him Mr. Chompers around the house. They are darling and I adore seeing them poking out at me when he smiles.

Things that make him laugh:

The dogs... still. He loves them so much. Whether they're sneezing, shaking their heads or play fighting by running circles around him, he just thinks they're hilarious.

When I do "itsy bitsy spider for him".

When daddy presses his face on the glass of the french doors and makes faces at him.

Being tickled. He's so very ticklish. Especially his feet.

When I tap his nose and say "beep beep".

When we play peek-a-boo.

And there are many random times that he'll just start laughing out of the blue as well.

He's finally up to date on both flu shots for the year! No more shots for another month. Yay!! Although, he really does great with them. He sure is a tough little guy.

He loves food. Real food. In fact it's been really frustrating because a lot of times he doesn't want to nurse or take a bottle. I've called the doctor because I'm so concerned that he isn't drinking a lot of milk. But he said as long as he's eating his solids well, it's just a phase and he'll pick it back up again in a few months(?). It scares me to death! When he got his shots the other day I asked if I could weigh him while I was there and he hasn't even put on a full pound since his six month appointment. I always thought that kids just ate and that was something that you didn't have to worry about, yet since he was three months old I've worried about it every day. He sure is growing tall though and with as happy as he is, I don't let myself worry too much... most of the time.

He's not a sleeper. Sometimes I think that my luck is changing. But then he proves me wrong. I think that he actually slept better the first three months of his life then he has since then. Somehow it seems backwards to me. But it's okay. We survive.

He's a mouth breather. You can hear him clear across the room. Sometimes it's just breathing but a lot of times it's the blowing spitty noises that you hear. In fact that is how we know that he is awake in the morning, because you can hear him breathing and making funny, breathy noises. I think it's stinkin' cute!

It's all just so bittersweet. I can't believe how fast my little man is growing up. I can't stop thinking about how bad I miss the baby stuff... the involuntary movements and sweet little whispers that he used to make. Everything he does now is so deliberate and thought out. All I know is that it is a good thing that I decided to commit to a more long term birth control then we planned on in the first place. Because babies are already on my mind.

First Christmas

I got the blues

Well we're all doing great here. It's been a while since I've posted anything. I find that I no longer have the brain power to come up with things to post. Which is really funny because back when my life was mostly boring, I felt I could write all day, about... well, nothing I guess. Now that I have a hundred different fun things going on, I just don't have the energy.
Regarding the title of this post... Anders now wants his daddy and reaches out for him when he comes home at night. Which is awesome! I'm so glad that him and his daddy are close. However, something happened last night that I didn't expect to happen atleast for a little while longer. Anders had a booger in his nose and I am the booger queen. I can't stand them, I've gotta get them out! So I start working on his nose to get the booger out and by the time I do (maybe 2 seconds later), he is screaming like nobody's business. I know that he hates it but I'm mom and I've gotta get them!
The screaming prompted dad to walk in the room, from where he was formerly setting mouse traps (yes, yuck we have mice for the first time). So Anders pushes me out of the way and starts reaching out to daddy like "mom is mean, get me out of here!" And now I've got the blues and I feel like I'm the meanest mom. Maybe I need to stop being the booger queen. It made me feel just horrible!!

...atleast I know he loves his daddy though.

*edit*
I think I need to clarify just how heartbreaking this was. Dad picked Anders up when he had reached out for him and held him for a minute. Then dad had to go back to setting traps. When he handed Anders back to me, he started bawling again and fighting to get back to his dad. That's how devastating the booger picking was.