We've moved

Here's the funny (read: stupid) thing. I named my blog by the name of the street we live on. Duh. Why would I do that?! Can I rename my blog?! I have no idea. Help anyone?

I think anyone who knows about our lives know that we are hanging out in Brownsburg (well, technically Pittsboro) with Josh's parents until we can find our next home! We are looking! There hasn't been much on the market that we are too excited about. We will consider south-ish Carmel (106th and below), Zionsville (as close to 65 as possible) and Brownsburg. I imagine Brownsburg will be the best compromise. (since Josh works south, but doesn't want to move south and Carmel and Zionsville tend to be on the high end of our price range) We'll see. I'd love to live right next to College Park. That's my # 1 preference!

Pray for us! Jeff and Anita have graciously made it "easy" to move our family of four in to their home. We are grateful. Short-term leases are hideously expensive and not something we wanted to do...but we also want to continue liking our inlaws/parents and having a friendship with them so mentally we are hoping to be out in 3-4 months tops. (Please Lord!) Actually, I've secretly asked God to give me a new house for my birthday. He has a couple of months to work on this. As long as Jeff and Anita will have us and let us look...we will do our best to make the living arrangements work :) Its a step and journey of faith for me for sure...but its a good way to grow myself and depend on the Lord!

Anyways, that's my short update. We have a P.O. Box in Brownsburg if anyone wants to send us mail :) here it is: P.O. Box 331 Brownsburg, IN 46112

11 months

Sheesh. 11 months. Its hard to believe. This has definitely been the fastest year of MY life.

Here's a brief recap:

Weight: 19 lbs

(I don't know length or head measurements because we haven't had a well child check up...I only know the weight because I took him in to have his ears checked :))

Sleep: all through the night-up around 7:30; morning nap from around 9:30-11:30; afternoon nap around 1:30-3:30 and bed between 8:30/9:00

Food: We quit nursing just shy of his 11 month birthday. (reference post below :)) This was completely baby led. At the advice of well seasoned breastfeeding mothers I tried to push through to see if this was a nursing strike or if he was really done. After two weeks of trying to push through, I decided we were really done. He eats table food wonderfully and drinks from a sippy (filled with cows milk or water) cup fantastically. He recently started exhibiting a displeasure for...wait for it....macaroni and cheese?!?!!! What!? Its true. He takes it out of his mouth and hands it back to me. OK. He loves meat. Loves it. Will gladly eat a hamburger, meatballs, steak(!)...yah. Eats veggies well. Loves green beans. Eats all fruit well. Prefers bananas.

Mobility: Crawls like a pro---and is a FAST ONE! Watch out! Pulls up to stand easily and now scoots around the couches and anything he can hang on to. Can actually stand unassisted, but prefers not to. Will walk around holding someones hands.

Personality: I've been saying for months how fiery and temperamental he is and I think this past month he has been a little bit more cool headed. He has been a bit more love-y and snuggly and a BIT less prone to bouts of screaming and baby temper tantrums :) They still exist, they are just a bit less frequent. He watches Owen every second he can. However, Owen has started to tell him no about things he doesn't want him into...which results in a desperate-mad scream and fist pounding. Wonderful :) He has successfully lasted in the nursery for the last 6 weeks and I feel that it is getting better....but he is still quite upset at drop off and I often find him being strolled around outside of the nursery when I pick him up. We will continue to press on in faith and confidence that he will enjoy "Sunday School" someday. :) On the flip side, I attend a bible study at church on Tuesday morning and he spends 2.5 hours in childcare during that time....and does exceptionally well. He will even nap! I don't quite understand the difference. Oy vey :)

I think thats about it! Next month I'll be doing a one year post! Agh. Can't believe it. I need more babies. Or maybe not. But, gah. Does it really need to go this fast!? Love my Wessie. So glad he is ours!

It is finished.

Nursing my baby that is :) Silly to blog about it, but I wanted some kind of record :) I've spent the last three weeks or so trying to outlast my maniac of a ten month old. I've mostly gotten screaming and hitting when I've tried to nurse him...not so much fun for me...so I mentally decided I would keep offering until he flat out refused me...and that happened yesterday. Today we woke up and didn't nurse at all and its been fine. I really wanted to make it to a year, but 10 months and three weeks is really close. I'm ok with it. (but sad because he's my baby and its something only I have been able to do for him for the past 11ish months!) I'm also really happy about how it all went. I've been on both sides of the breastfeeding spectrum. I had a terrible time with Owen. I mostly pumped for four months and bottle fed him breast milk before quitting altogether. Wes on the other hand has always been a boob man. :) Latched on perfectly after birth and we didn't look back. Not a single problem. I'm so glad God gave me the opportunity to see things from both sides. Its given me empathy when I hear about other people struggling with breastfeeding--I know the struggles are real. I've been there. And on the flip side, God gave me a wonderful nursing relationship with Wes...something I really, really desired. So thankful he fulfilled that desire!

Pre-K

Owen started school on Monday, August 29! It was sort of anti-climactic because it was a half day...and he already only goes half day, so I dropped him off at 9:00 and picked him up at 10:30...he was like...."its time to go home already?" :) Today (Wednesday) was his first "full" day of school. He goes from 9-12 on Wednesday's and on Monday and Friday he stays from 9-1 and gets to have lunch. He seems to really like his teachers and classmates and I think he's pretty excited. He has 11 kids in his class; 8 boys and 3 girls! Shew! Poor teachers! His teacher, Mrs. Schmitz is cute as a button and we really like her. Today he learned about reading a calendar (among other things, I'm sure)...when he got in the car he said "Mom, today is Wednesday. August 31, 2011." Thanks preschool :) Pretty exciting times!

God would ask us to move during soccer season! :)

Our house is sold! Well, kind of. Nothing is ever really sold or official until closing, but we think we have sold our house. OK. We have accepted an offer and are working towards a closing date of Sept. 19! Realizing that things can always fall through, we believe that this might actually happen this time around.

So we are packing. A little every day. I don't really know how to do this. Josh packed up our house in Warsaw because I was working and he was only working a little bit (part-time). Mostly, right now... I'm throwing a lot of things away. How do we accumulate so much STUFF!? Its disgusting. And then there are the: I-can't-throw-this-away, but-what-do-I-do-with-it things. Like: Josh bought me a Winnie the Pooh snow globe for my birthday when I was in high school. Ha. I'm sure I loved it at the time. Its a nice one---he probably spent some real money on it (at the Disney Store)...but what am I gonna do with THAT? We have no girls. Do I just keep it in a box forever and ever until I die and my boys go through all my stuff and ask themselves..."what am "I" going to do with THIS!? Good grief. Its so hard. And then Owen is collecting all of this "artwork". And its only going to get worse with preschool starting at the end of the month. Do I save every little piece? I mean, I just can't. I'm going to have to pick and choose. And THEN there is the question of all of our baby gear. Do we keep it? In the event that there is a third child?! (I mean, in the event that hell actually freezes over and Josh agrees to a third child..OR an "accident" happens and voila...baby?!) I can't decide. Its very traumatic for me over here...packing up...making decisions on what to take with us and what to get rid of. Geez.

For now we are going to be living with Josh's parents in Brownsburg. We are really grateful that they are going to let us stay. Otherwise we would have to find something to rent...but this gives us the opportunity to put some $$ back in our savings since we are really taking a pretty big loss on our house.

We are looking every day for a new place to live. We are considering: Brownsburg, South Carmel and Zionsville. We are trying to stay away from the vinyl siding communities since we consider that to be our starter house and hopefully where we end up moving will be our forever kind of house. I'm choosing to be confident that God is going to bring us our perfect house at just the right time...or at the time where I decide I can't deal with not having my own place to raise my children anymore. Whichever comes first! I trust you Lord! :)

Ok...that's that! Here we go!

10 Months of Wes!

Our baby is 10 months old! Here are a few highlights of this past month:

- He went from scooting only around on his belly to full fledged crawling....to pulling himself up to his feet....to trying to stand on his own! (so far unsuccessful! :))

-He continues with two good naps a day (he usually goes back to sleep about an hour after he wakes up! just can't keep those eyes open!) and sleeps all night. (generally 10+ hours)

-Continues to be a great eater. We aren't sure but we think he MAY not love noodles! Funny since that is all Owen will eat! A couple of new things he has tried this month are: hamburger, eggs, real life adult oatmeal and maybe you had a bite of mom's corn dog at the fair. We are STILL nursing! We are consistently 3 times a day now: morning-afternoon-night. Its lovely.

-Loves Owen....loves to crawl after him around the house..."play" with him in his room....pull himself up to him...stick his fingers in his eyes...you get the idea :)

-Doing better in the nursery at church. We pulled out our tough love of "you page us when you can't take it anymore" with the nursery workers and he is going on three consistent weeks of being in the nursery the whole service. Last week was the first week he didn't cry the whole time. It also took Owen three weeks. I hate doing this but it is SO worth it when we can drop him off and enjoy the entire service without having to juggle a baby during service! I told the nursery workers to just feed him cheerios the whole time...and I think they do :) Someday we will have to work on "food does not = happiness!" :)

-He is still in a size 3 pamper and really has grown out of any six month clothing--solidly into 9-12 months.

We love our fiery, but lovey redhead! He makes our life better! (and sometimes crazier! :))

Whoops

The differences between the first child and second child in our house amuse me sometimes. For instance: I followed every single parenting guideline presented to me by my pediatrician with Owen. (I mean, for the most part) With Wes, not so much. The other day, Wes toddled over to Owen's cup (which had a lid with a straw) and partake of some good ole'....cows milk. Gulp. Yep. Not so much supposed to have cows milk until you are one years old these days. He didn't drink a little...he drank like...all of it. A big cup of it.... In about 14 seconds. And just now, I momentarily lost my mind and filled his little sippy cup with...yep. Cows milk. So, I guess he's drinking cows milk now :) Just a little shy of his 10 month birthday. I'm guessing he'll survive.

(still breastfeeding too....trying to figure out how much longer. We'll see. Josh and I booked a vacation to Maine for just the two of us at the end of October so we'll have to be done by then I suppose!)