Ambrose went on his first (of many, I'm sure) fishing trip this weekend. It was fantastic to get out of town for a little while, and it truly was an escape. The landscape is beautiful and the small town has fantastic little shops (including Starbucks).

Ambrose loves the outdoors, from the second we got there he was so excited!He has his own cloth fishing pole, while not used much for fishing, it made a great toy to chew on:)For the most part, he sat there taking it all in. You can see how different the landscape (and temperature) is once you get up into the mountains. Immediately after this picture was taken Ambrose took a nose dive right into the gravel. It was a very sad moment for all involved. What a great start to our Labor Day weekend (other than the nose dive of course).

Ambrose

* is SO much fun! I love every single day I spend with him.

*is is a sitting champ, I just sit him down in a room spread out some toys and walk away. This new trick couldn't have come at a better time. Let's just say he's had his fair share of "independent play time".

*is a terrible napper, but makes up for it by being a great night sleeper.

* wears 12 month clothes. Occasionally a 6-9 month outfit will fit, but mostly they're all too snug in the thigh.

* loves himself, if I put him infront of any reflective surface he will smile and talk for ages. Who said being an only child is lonely ;)

*eats three solid (well strained baby food) meals a day and loves it!

* still has beautiful ice blue eyes and a little bit of blond hair.

* has been on 10 flights since May 28th and will go on another 4 in October.

house number 5

We are finally digging our way out of this move. This one has been particularly hard for a few reasons

1. we made the rookie mistake of having the movers unpack every single box (almost). In case you're wondering what that looks like, here's a peek...

everyone asks if we had done this before, and yes we had. However the circumstances were very different. I was 38 weeks pregnant and could not bend over and unpack boxes. And we only had about 2,00 pounds of stuff. Let's just say it's a whole other story when you have 12,000 pounds of stuff to unpack.

2. this guy adds a whole other dimension of chaos to moving and unpacking.

3. It down poured! What luck?! I mean really, it's the desert.

4. The people unpacking no longer have the technique (and work ethic) of these guys

Look at that, desk and chair on his back, carried down my entire flight of stairs. They moved every piece of furniture out of my house in about 35 minutes, let just say that the guys here took a *leettle* longer.

Dear Ambrose,

Son, life with you is great! I didn't always feel that way, quite the opposite if I'm being honest with myself. Those first few weeks were depressingly difficult and incredibly overwhelming. I'd nod and smile when people would say that it goes by so fast, enjoy every second yada yada yada, but truth be told, there were days it couldn't go fast enough.

Today my feelings couldn't be more different. I feel a tinge of guilt and regret knowing I spent so much of your infancy wishing it away. I spend each and every waking second with you and it still isn't enough. I want to pause time just for a little while and soak in exactly who you are at this very moment. There is a saying that I read "Boys should never be made to go to bed because they wake up one day older," I am desperately trying to hold on to every moment, even one day older is too fast.

Hello from the lake

Hello from Ambrose

We are thoroughly enjoying our time here at the lake! It's been a wonderful time of relaxation and fun with family.

We started out the week spending some time on the dock.

Ambrose got his feet wet in the pool on the dock. This pool warmed to bath tub temps in about 5 seconds.

After exploring the pool, he decided to try out the lake. He LOVED every second of it.

By far, his favorite activity was boat rides. He smiled and squealed so much!

We also spent a lot of time playing inside.

When it was time to go this is the face Ambrose gave me...

4mo

We've reached the 4 mo mark and even at this early age Ambrose has decided that he'll be a type A personality. At his last appt., the 2mo mark he weighed in at an average (literally 50th percentile) 10lbs 11oz. However average just isn't good enough, we've got to be the best. So at his appt yesterday he scoffed average and decided the ninety-second percentile was more his style. Yes folks, he weighs 17lbs 10oz, no wonder the car seat feels like I'm carrying a bronzed statue of this kid. Good grief. His above average-ness continues on to his height as well, he's abot 26inches tall, which lands him in the 82 percentile, and is head circumference (forgot the number) is in the 88th percentile. Big kid all around.

In other 4mo old news, he can roll over (sometimes) - I think he finally realized that he could get himself out of tummy time if he could just master the rolling....so he did. While he is getting better at tummy time, and occasionally enjoys it.....

he still spends some of is time like this...

Although he's getting better and better at sitting up,

He still dive bombs face first into the carpet without warning,

I'd love it if he'd master it completely because he hates laying down to play. So it's either the jumperoo/excersaucer thingy, being carried, or playing with his toys in the upright position.Since I feel a tinge of guilt letting him sit in the jumperoo thingy for long periods of time (for fear it will bring his physical development to a screeching halt .... stop googling things already Stephanie!) and carrying him for extended periods of time is also not a great option it look likes sitting up it is:)

We are paci free. we went through a stint where he was waking 9 times a night and I was grasping at straws and thought thar maybe the culprit was the paci, so we weaned him cold turkey. It wasn't near as bad as I thought, however, I don't think that the paci was the true source of the problem, I think it was me....Oh well. Once again, this is my first child, I'll do better with the second.

Due to the paci weaning, or at least partially due to that we have a semi thumb/finger sucker on our hands. I think that he might have ended up that way regardless because he always had his fingers in his mouth, but the taking away of the paci solidified it. He occasionally sucks on his thumb to fall asleep, but will usually take it out once he's fallen asleep. Glad I got the braces for me now because I'm sure we'll be spending oodles of money on his teeth when he's older.

We've started him on rice cereal. He's taken to it pretty well but still tends to wear more than he eats, in fact it's a small miracle if any of it makes it all the way down. However, lucky for us, he's in no danger of starving any time soon.

A guy can't even drink his bottle without the paparazzi getting all up in your bidness!

He is proving to be a pretty resilient child. Moving and living out of a suitcase tests any adult, let alone a child but he has done well so far. We are not out of the woods yet, but he did survive the trans oceanic flight, living at one grandparents house for 5 weeks, moving to the others grandparents house for a week, back to grandparents number 1 for the 4 days, a flight south, and now currently staying in a friends home (for those of you in Japan with us we are staying with Motley...poor guy , he had NO IDEA what he was signing up for when he said that we could stay with him) and hopefully in the next week we will be closing on our house and sleeping well with the first of many move behind us :)

Packing for our next chapter in life

Our vacation back home is coming to an end and we've started the tough part of packing up. John drove down on Thurs. with what we have affectionately deemed our Hillbilly Truck, the only thing missing from our hillbilly mobile was a granny camped out on top in her rocking chair. It was packed to the gills, to the point that when John made sharp turns he was attacked by boxes coming from every direction.



As we come to the next chapter in our life I am a mixed ball of emotions, excitement, nervous.... all of you who have been there and done this know exactly what I'm talking a bout. Every three years I go through the exact same emotions I felt on the first day of my freshman year, however, the friendships I have made and all the experiences that go along with this wonderful life far exceed any I had in high school. So with more excitement than fear we begin the next chapter in our life!



Here is my little helper helping me pack!