Bye Bye

While he's not 100% consistent with his new trick, and certainley doesn't use it at appropriate times, like when leaving someone or someplace, it is stinkin' cute.

All I want for Christmas....

We started out ok

but he quickly changed his mind.

* and no, these are not from the camera; the cord is still lost. I have started looking into buying another one. I'm thinking about having my New Years resolution being something along the lines of "get my act together." I'll let you know how it goes. *

Lost

This post has been waiting forever for me to publish, but because my camera cord is lost I've been holding out thinking I'd find it any day now. That hasn't happened, so you'll have to use your imagination on this one....sorry.

Ah, the Japanese are in the inventors of many ingenious items, however these.....

**insert a picture of a red apple outlet cover

and blue car outlet cover**

are not one of them. When Ambrose was about 6 weeks I purchased these from the 100 yen store (the equivalent of our dollar stores, but WAY better....except for this item) in the anticipation of little curious fingers finding their way into our electrical outlets. As many of you know, I'm not exactly a planny planner or remotely organized (hence the lost camera cord), so getting these outlet covers so early is quite out of character. I would have never purchased these this early except for the fact that my ONLY memory of kindergarten (can't even remember my teacher, which for a prior kindergarten teacher is a little disheartening) is of a classmate standing behind me, sticking her finger into the electrical outlet and getting shocked. I hope to never see that again, and definitely not with my own child.

So as Ambrose starts to crawl we begin doing some minor baby proofing, and for once, when my husband (Mr. type A organized) mentions we need to get those outlet covers I about bust at the seams with the joy of being able to say "I already have them"!!

Prior to putting those covers in the outlets I don't know if Ambrose even noticed the outlets, but NOW, this kid is like a moth to a flame with these stupid things. I stand in my room, call him from the living room, he comes cruising around the corner with speed and determination, and every. single. time, he is deterred by the outlet covers and begins to poke at them and try and pull them out. Clearly the person who invented (and bought) these things didn't have a mobile 8 month old around!

There are days when John asks me what I did today, and more and more of those days I respond with "kept your son alive" because oh my gosh, just keeping him from crawling full speed ahead off the end of the bed, or chewing on the laptop charger *while plugged in*, splitting his head open on everything....is a full time job.

Likes/Dislikes revisited

I did this back when Ambrose was 3 months old, and thought I'd do it again.

At 8months Ambrose

Likes:

crawling: anything he can see, is pretty much at his fingertips, and he knows it. All day long my background music is his little hands slapping the tile floor as he races towards his next forbidden item or follows me around . It's fantastic.

bath: just the sound of the water running or the bath song sends him into a full on crawling sprint towards the bath tub. Once there he stands up outside the tub and yells until you put him in.

his dad: John is by far the favorite parent around here. Just John calling his name will send him into this arm flapping, sprint crawling frenzy. It is so sweet, and surprisingly I'm not jealous (yet).

being outside: from infancy he has loved being outside, and to this day still does. Now that he's crawling I'm constantly batting rocks, bugs, and plants out of his hand (or mouth if I'm a little slow on the draw). We take at least two walks a day in the wagon and he's happy as a clam the entire time.

baby Einstein: he is mesmerized by this silly movie (which I'm too cheap to buy so we watch a 5minute clip on you tube). If you've never watched it it's basically a different image, ( a face, toy or puppet )flashed every 20 seconds or so. To my kid, it's crack in video form. He LOVES it.

all foods: we have yet to find a single food he will not eat. He opens wide for every bite, even after he's reached maximum capacity. Rather than closing his mouth when I bring the spoon up, he allows me to feed him the food, but then begins an opened mouth cry and the food just sits on his tongue. Either learn the sign for "all done" or close your mouth....simple as that son.

dogs: not that we will be getting one ANY time soon, but he LOVEs our neighbors dogs. The more they bark the harder he laughs. I seriously don't get it. He lets them lick his face, nip at his hands (one is a little puppy) and knock him over, and he doesn't nothing but smile.

growing out of his clothes: the smallest size of clothes we buy is 18-24 months. He will send me (actually his grandmothers, because they are the ones who buy him all his clothes) into the poor house with how quickly he's growing out of clothes. Most of his pants are 2T, and I still can't button the button on them. I think (I know that I say this all the time....but really this time I think it's true) that he's plateaued on the growing. He's been hovering at the 25/26lb mark for about a month (which in the past he usually gained at least 2lbs per month) . Here's to hoping that he'll be able to wear all his clothes for AT LEAST another 6-9 months!

Dislikes:

In good news, I actually had a semi hard time coming up with this list, which is quite the reversal from just a few short months ago.

naps: he still is a terrible napper, and while I still hold out a glimmer of hope that maybe one day this will change, I'm not holding my breath.

spending significant amounts of time in the car: (which would be any amt of time longer than about 20 minutes). Putting him in the bigger (bagillion dollar) car seat has made time in the car so much better, however, he still doesn't love it, and will loudly request to get out if he's in there longer than he'd like to be.

having his diaper changed: now that he has figured out how to crawl, Ambrose has so many more important things to do than keep a clean bum. So the second I lay him down he is twisting with all his might trying to flip onto his belly and escape. Not even remotes, phones or singing can distract him. If he doesn't want to be there, good luck! Needless to say, I am a sweaty mess by the end of the whole ordeal. John tackles this problem in a different way. Rather than fighting him, he gets the old diaper off, and let's Ambrose make a mad dash (naked bum and all....a little risky if you ask me) to wherever he thinks is more important. John lets him sit there for a second, then grabs him and quickly throws the new diaper on. While less fussing and sweating is involved in John's method part of me just can't let this little guy think he's "won". hmmm......Maybe I should be picking my battles a little more selevtively.

Where's Ambrose?

Not here....

or even here....

Here!

Ambrose spends a majority of his day circling our "coffee table." (I use the word coffee table in very loose terms. All of you who have husbands that attended the academy will recognize that trunk, it has been displayed in our house since we got married, and I am SO over it, but for now, we are stuck with it because the coffee table I want costs about as much as our leather furniture).

As you can tell by the smile on his face he thinks he's pretty cool. It keeps him entertained and in one spot, so I'm not complaining.

* not even the coffee table can escape Ambrose's gummy, drooly mouth.

No laughing matter!

Just when I thought the naps couldn't get any worse, he proves me wrong. Most of our naps look like this.....

however less smiley and more red squishy faced and crying. He now sits/stands and screams the house down rather than napping. The fun part about it is he'll cry and scream for over half an hour, at which point I cave, go in there, hold his little bum to the mattress and he falls asleep, and only sleeps for 30, yes 3-0 minutes.

One day I will look at him, laugh, and tell him he was a terrible little napper, but at this point and time, naps are no laughing matter.

And so it begins

Halloween

Ambrose had a few different opportunities to wear his costume this year, which is great, because spending a ton of money on an outfit you wear for a couple of hours is quite ridiculous in my book (however, I did wear a wedding dress to my wedding, so maybe I'm being a little hypocritical).

The first time was to a birthday party at the zoo. Thankfully the weather cooled of nicely and Ambrose didn't sweat to death!

The next time was at the squadron Halloween party. This one was inside and while he didn't play any of the games he had a fantastic time watching all the sugar crazed children running around.

now that he's crawling, a lot of my pictures look like this :)
And of course, he wore it last night. However, he is under the weather AGAIN, and he would rather have been doing anything other than dressing up and riding in his wagon. Poor guy, you can see just how out of it he was :(

So big!

Just ask :)

And as if he needed to prove it, he started crawling today! I'll get video of that soon too!

Pumpkin carving

Ambrose helped carve his first pumpkin. He was interested the entire time, and even seemed to enjoy touching the "guts" of the pumpkin.

All smiles in the beginning!Digging in!

Letting dad take over.

Funny enough, I don't have a picture of the finished product, I'll try and get one before we head out for trick or treating tomorrow!

Radio Flyer

With "Pia" (the name that our nephews have given to John's mom) came a toy that every child should have....a red wagon! It has replaced strollers for our short walks, and Ambrose LOVES it! As you can tell by the pictures, we've had to do a little tweaking of our wagon.

Without some type of restraint, Ambrose dives head first towards any rocks we pass, so Pia got creative and attached a laundry basket with bungee cords, and the result; a wagon fit for a 7month old.

Cheeks!

Just when I think his cheeks can't get any chubbier we go and do this to him.

John's family is in town and we headed out to the base for a quick look around. As you can tell by the head gear, we took a trip out to the flight line. One may think that this was Ambrose's first trip out to the flight line, but being the fantastic mother that I am, I took his virgin ears out to hear the sound of freedom at a mere 5 weeks old. He still wasn't too impressed, and was rather annoyed with the "Mickey mouse ears". He did seem to enjoy sitting all loosy goosy in the bus though.

hello Sicky Mc Sickerton

My wonderful boy is under the weather. He's had a stuffy nose since Friday and it has been a full blown faucet the past few days. Yesterday I think we may have reached the peak of sickness and we are now on the down hill portion of this sickness ride. His nose still leaks, but it's more of the clear booger variety rather than the ugly green variety.

I am of course thrilled for him that he's feeling a little better, but selfishly I am oh so happy to be done with that awful booger sucker! Now that he is stronger he can protest much more effectivly. The rate and strength he is able to throw is head back and forth is quite amazing. Needless to say, it makes booger sucking turn into eyeball poking, ear wax grabbing and spit sucking rather than clearing out any of the sickies. And the crying, oh the crying. As I mentioned....SO glad to be done (for now) with the booger sucker.

One of the most concerning aspects of this little ordeal is sicky mc sickerton has gone on a feeding strike. It's more of a formula strike because he's still eating solids like a champ, but is taking only about 10-15oz of formula a day, down from normally 32oz. I have tried everything...cup, sippy cup, different bottle, different formula but to no avail!!!! I really hope that it is directly related to the sickness, but part of me fears that feedings will continue on this way, and oh my goodness, if that's the case I will be a mess.

Any suggestions? How about encouraging been there done that stories?

Splish Splash

Ambrose has always loved bath time, but just recently he's let us know by *telling* us.

Picture update

We are back in South Dakota and loving our time with family!

Clearly Ambrose LOVES being back too!


Grandma and Grandpa have a toy box that is the perfect size for Ambrose. He figured out he is able to access many more toys if he's on his knees or in a standing position.

Anything sweeter?

There is nothing better than the sound of Ambrose laughing!

Enjoy!

Surely he'll get used to it right?

So Ambrose hates hates hates my eleventy gabillion dollar gym. He cries so loud I can hear him on the treadmill across the gym. He does have moments where he must calm down ( I don't know because I promptly put my headphones on) because their rule is if he cries for 10min straight they come and get me. It is a very nice, clean and friendly facility, with every toy imaginable and a nice childcare provider, so I know he is safe and well taken care of. So I guess that just leaves separation anxiety. He is in some form of childcare almost daily, we do MOPS and a bible study two days a week and then we head to the gym on our off days and the church nursery on Sun. He cries at all of these places, but if I don't go to these activities, that awful cooped up stir crazy feeling comes out, and that's not good for any of us :) So on we go, hoping that one of these day, the crying will stop and he'll actually enjoy getting out of the house and talking to his peers as much as I do!

I just got back from paying my first months gym payment and let's just say it's about twice what we had budgeted for. The gym has a monopoly and they can get away with charging an astronomical price for not only the membership, but the childcare as well (to soften the blow they mentioned that the fee covers up to 10 children. Um...gee ...thanks...just out of principal I feel like taking every single one of my friends kids along with me just to get my money's worth!)

However, it doesn't matter what it costs because I am not going solely for my physical well being, but for my mental and social well being as well. Adding something else to my schedule gives me one more reason to get out of the house, get dressed (even if it's gym clothes) and do something without my wonderful (yet needy) son. Getting away for even an hour helps me be a better mom by having the opportunity to miss the little guy!

*However, I still better seem some pretty awesome results.*

time is flying

Where did my teeny tiny infant go? Someone has replaced my 5mo old baby with a little boy!

I don't know if it's the outfit, or the wall "standing", but I can start to see glimpses of a little boy coming out:)

Thankfully I still have pics like this that remind me he's not that big....yet!

Good old Alamogordo

Even crazies need exercises I guess. Ambrose and I run on this "path", it's basically a sidewalk set in the most scenic part of Alamogordo, which compared to crystal clear water, leaves something to be desired.Any who, the path has mile markers, some shaded area for water breaks....clearly used for exercise. In the past few days I've seen some interesting characters.

1. a lady, in a dress, speed walking with an umbrella stroller! It's hard enough pushing my gabillion dollar BOB, which has air filled tires the same size as most Japanese cars!

2. a man in a winter coat riding his bike. Um it's eleventy billion degrees here still, what in the heck is he thinking?

3. a man running in jeans and a nice polo shirt.

I've also come to find that Alamogordo"ians" aren't big on social graces. At the bank the other day Ambrose and I went in to cash a check and the conversation went something like this

Teller: Cute baby. Is he yours?

Me: Yup, sure is. (trying to smile and act like that wasn't a weird question)

Teller: Hmmm.... was he planned?

Me: Ah....(stammering at this point because what in the world is this guy thinking) yes, he was.

Teller: well then congratulations.

Really dude, really!? And what the heck were you going to say if I had said he wasn't planned?Condolences?

This next interaction came from someone I was buying a baby bath seat from.

Me: hello, I am the person buying the bath seat.

her: oh yea. WOW, you have blue eyes! Are they contacts?

Me: yes actually they are. They weren't exactly what I was looking for, but I've already bought an entire box, so I have to wear them until it's time to re-order and I can pick something different.

Her: yea, they are kind of scary. They're kind of like a vampire, like vampire blue.

Me: well...um.....thanks.

Ugh.

Week or two in review

Two posts in one day, it's amazing the stuff you get done when there's another set of helpful hands around the house!

Here's a couple pics from the last few weeks :)


Ambrose continues to LOVE being outside. We are out there at least a couple of times a day (however, the hot desert sun isn't enough to tire this kid out to sleep longer than his on the dot 38minute naps).

Ambrose has graduated from baths in the bucket, to baths in the sink, and now onto baths in the big boy bath. It is still one of his and our favorite times of the day.

He has figured out a couple of new tricks.....

If placed on the wall or next to a tall toy he is able to "stand" (actually lean is a more accurate term) and play. I think the key is the tree trunk legs he's got :)

He has figured out that if he rocks back and forth while seated he can scoot short distances and reach all those things that are placed just out of his reach. Good thing he's not real efficient at it or we'd be in for it.
He's outgrowing clothes faster than I can get new ones:)