6 months...What Have We Done?

So yeah.  Summer happened.  And fall is coming to a close here pretty soon.  So, what did we do??

Since I teach at a year round school (hopefully we'll go back to traditional), I taught up until the first week of July (gag).  I said good bye to my teaching partner of three years (tears), and geared up for the new school year (which just so happened to start two weeks later (double gag).  Ugh..seriously.  I've liked the whole year round thing, and having my breaks spread out has been nice for Trey and I, but not having an actual summer away from school sucked big time.  Plus, I just really hate what it does with the dynamics of the school. 

I had two weeks before I needed to be back to school, so we set out for St. George with the Bland's, because I sure as hell wasn't spending my break at home. It. was. glorious.  We didn't really do much of anything, but I loved it so much.  We stayed in this awesome condo, did some super simple hiking, went swimming, shopping, went out to eat, went to Tuacahn, watched fireworks.  It was so great.  

I started my new school year with a new partner (love her!), and changed my schedule around a bit.  I'm still part time, but I work one full day a week and get off one full day a week, while working half days the rest of the week.  It's so nice.  Dave also started a new job.  So...lot's of changes.  It's been kind of stressful, I'm not gonna lie.  For example, my job.... (I wrote multiple paragraphs about this, and then decided to delete it for obvious reasons.  It felt good to get it out though).  Suffice to say, it has not been my best year.

Moving on.  I finished my kitchen!  It only took me 6 months (ha!), and I love it!  It's exactly how I imagined it would be.  However, I will NEVER do it myself again.  I severely underestimated the amount of time it would take to refinish my cabinets.  It's unbelievable how much work goes into that!  Granted, I wanted to do it right, so I was extremely careful throughout the whole process, but still.  With the amount of time it took me to finish (6 months!), I could have saved the money to hire someone to do it for me.  Had I decided to refinish them a few years ago, I think it would be different.  But being a mom means you have little to no time for extra activities such as refinishing your cabinets.  Alas, it's done now.  And I must say, it is pretty gratifying to walk into my kitchen and think "I did that." :)  So, what exactly did I do?

• Removed wallpaper and repainted the walls.
• Installed a new sink and granite counter tops.  I handpicked the slab of granite that was used and I love it!
• Installed a tile back splash.
• Installed new shutters for the window. (THAT was a fun one!)  ugh.
• Refinished the cabinets: removed all hardware, cleaned all doors and drawer fronts, applied de-glosser to everything, sanded, primed, and painted three coats to all doors, drawer fronts, cabinet bases and molding, reinstalled everything.  (I could seriously write a series of blog posts on these steps).
• Swore maybe a few dozen times... :)

Dave and I recently started a new hobby of painting miniature figurines.  The figurines we paint are part of a tabletop game called Warmachine.  I don't play the game, but it's been a lot of fun to paint.  The miniatures are sometimes frustrating (most are less than 2 inches tall and you have to assemble them before painting), but they are incredibly gratifying once finished.  We entered a painting competition this October and just found out today that I won first place!

I started making a quiet book for Trey for Christmas.  I may be just a little in over my head with this one.  I have no idea what I'm doing, but hundreds of people on Pinterest make it look easy, so it must be, right!?  :)  I'll post pics of it when it's finished.  I'm a total hack and just used free templates online to make the pages, but I'm pretty proud of it so far.  It's going to be really funny when Trey has no interest in it whatsoever.  

Oh!  And we celebrated Halloween..yesterday (look at how on top of things I am!).

Grandpa and Grandma Call's annual Halloween Party

 Is Trey not the cutest clown you've ever seen?!  Gah...love him!

One year!

12 months old!  Can you believe it?!  

A little bit about our ONE YEAR OLD:

• Trey started to take his first steps a few weeks ago, and now he's full on walking!  It's so fun and so crazy at the same time.  He is fast and so busy!  
• He has 4 teeth!  Two on top and two on the bottom.  They are so cute!  I thought I'd miss his toothless grin, but his teeth are so adorable.  They make him look so old!  
• His favorite food is squash.  He LOVES to be able to feed himself.  I'm pretty sure any and all "baby food" is a thing of the past now.  He refuses to eat it unless he gets to use the spoon.  You can imagine how well that works.  :)
• He has a weird obsession with socks.  He prefers them over toys.  It's the funniest thing.  He likes to have one sock in each hand.  He carries them around with him everywhere and oftentimes pulls one out to put it in his mouth.  He's this way with most objects.  He can't just have ONE toy.  He has to have three.  One in each hand, and one in his mouth.  So weird, but so adorable.
• He's usually down for the night by 7:30.  He's right in the throws of teething which has proved to be bothersome for him at night.  He does pretty well though.  He typically gets up once a night to eat, but every once in awhile he'll surprise us and sleep through the night again.  He usually sleeps 11-12 hours at night and then two short 30-45 minute naps a day.
• He got a bunch of touch and feel books for his birthday and he loves them!  He always uses them same finger to "inspect" things and we love it!  He is super inquisitive (as always) and loves to point and touch things with that one pointer finger.
• He says ba-ba, da-da, ma-ma, and ya.  He is ALWAYS making this sound like "huh? huh?" 
• He weighs 20 lbs (20th percentile).  He is 28 in tall (5th percentile).  His head circumference is 18.3 in (54th percentile).  So he's skinny and short with an average head size.  :)  I was kind of shocked that he had only gained one pound in over two months because he just seems so BIG to me.

Trey is such a delight.  We love him so much and can't believe that he has been with us for one year!  It really has gone by fast.  He brings so much joy into our home and we're pretty much enamored with him.  Happy birthday Treyby!  We love you!

Such a blurry picture from his birthday, but I can't get over how cute his little face is.

I know I already posted these pictures to Facebook, but I just had to post my favorite picture from his first year photos.  Isn't he the sweetest little boy!?

     

11 Months old!

This super blurry picture was the best I got on Trey's 11 month birthday.  He won't sit still for anything, and most of his pictures are blurry because of it.  Isn't he adorable though?!  Jeez...he's going to be a heart breaker.   

At 11 months old:

• You sleep from about 7:30-7:30 every night,  You usually sleep through the night, but occasionally will wake up once to eat...you're a growing boy!  
• You have two teeth!  They are both on the bottom, and we love them!  Your toothy grin is adorable. 
• You love your food!  You love to eat peas and peaches.  You love to feed yourself, and make HUGE messes while doing so.
• You've discovered how loud you can be, and you love to make yourself known!  You still say "da-da" and "ba-ba" the most.  
• You've started to love books!  We read several a day.  We love watching you flip through the pages all by yourself.
• Your favorite activity is opening all of the drawers in the kitchen and pulling out all of the utensils.  It's a several times a day activity and I fear my kitchen will never be clean because of it.  :)
• You LOVE to be chased by your Dad and squeal with delight as he catches up with you.  You love to walk with the walkers and love to chase us with them.    
• You can climb up the stairs, but not go down them,
• You love to be outside and you let us know how angry you are when we have to go back inside.  You've got just a little bit of a temper when you don't get your way.  :) 
• You still suck your thumb, and do so probably 80% of the time.  Not sure how we're going to stop that habit... 
• Super random, but we call you "The Treyby" more than anything else.  One of these days we might actually call you by your given name.  :)

Trey is such a pleasant little boy and we love him dearly.  Happy 11 months Treyby!

See what I mean about blurry pictures!?  He is never sitting still!

10 Month Old Trey

Trey is 10 months old and it's becoming clear to me that he is not going to be a baby for much longer.  He looks so much like a little boy, and it just breaks my heart!  What happened to my baby?  

Here's a glance at Trey's 10th month:

• He was still recovering from RSV for most of the month (sick babies are the worst).  Thankfully, he's seemed to be recovering from that nasty cough, and has been able to sleep through the night for the past week because of it.  :)
• He pretty much slept exclusively in his swing for the past month due to the aforementioned cough.  I pretty much owe my sanity to that swing.  I was worried that he would have a hard time transitioning back to his crib, but he's done great!  Such an awesome baby.
• He is SO inquisitive.  He's always been this way, but now that he is so mobile, it's much more pronounced.  He looks and studies everything so intently.  He loves shirt buttons and stares and pokes at them like they are the most fascinating things he's ever seen.  
• He still loves anything electronic and loves buttons that glow like the TV, printer, phones, etc.  
• He can walk with his walker and it's the cutest thing ever.  He's so proud of himself.
• He crawls...fast.  He pulls himself up and onto anything he can find.  He used to be so cautious and deliberate and now he's a little dare devil.  I'm pretty sure he's going to give me a heart attack one of these days.  Which brings me to my next point...
• He got his first boo boo, and it was awful.  He fell into a chair and split his head open.  We ended up having to take him in and have the wound glued shut.  I felt so awful about it, but was assured that he would have many accidents to come.  (Thanks...I guess?)  :)
• He is an awesome napper for pretty much the first time in his life.  He takes two 1 and a half to 2 hour naps a day.  It's so nice because he is so happy because of it.  He's always been such a pleasant little boy (after his first few months that is)...but I can really tell a difference between "got a good nap Trey" and "missed nap Trey".  :)
• He is very vocal and makes so many different sounds.  He's really discovered his tongue lately and likes to make clicking noises.  His favorite things to say are "da-da" and "ma-ma"..naturally. 
• He has a temper when he doesn't get his way and thankfully hasn't shown it often.  But hoo-boy, we're in for it.  We're trying to not give in to his screams of protest now, but boy is it hard.  I just want him to be happy, but I don't want a brat of a child either.  :) 
• Loves food and gets mad when he can't have what we're eating.  We're sticking to just pureed baby foods for the most part.  He'll eat anything we give him.  He loves the cereal puffs because it's something that he can feed himself. 
• No teeth yet, but we noticed two coming in on the bottom just the other day.  I'm sure they'll break through soon.  Finally!  We were starting to think he didn't have any!  ;) 

I can't believe it's almost been a year.  We love you little Treyby.

Trey at 9 Months!

It's pretty much impossible to get a good picture of Trey that's not blurry lately.  He's on the move!  Sitting on the chair in the nursery for our monthly photo is going to be a thing of the past, I'm afraid. A'int nobody got time for that! 

As usual, Trey is a delight.  He's had a rough few weeks, but he's a trooper.  He's pretty much been sick on and off for the past month.  Then, last week, he tested positive for RSV.  It's been heartbreaking to watch him be sick, but he's such a trooper!  He tries so hard to be happy even though he feels like crap.  :)

At nine months:

• You learned to kneel and then pull yourself up.  It's your new favorite trick and you are so very proud of yourself!  It's all you want to do all day long!  This has created problems for night time and nap time.  You'll pull yourself up in the crib and then cry and cry because you don't know how to get back down.  The swing has been a lifesaver, and that's where you sleep most of the time.  
• Since you've been so sick, night time has kind of been a nightmare.  You've been waking up every four hours at night, but now that you are getting over this nasty sickness (yay!), you'll sleep 10-12 hours straight!  So nice!
• Takes two naps a day ranging from 45 minutes to and hour and a half.  The older you get, the better napper you are!  
• Your army crawl is slowly morphing into a full on crawl.  You love to crawl and chase your dad.  Your favorite part of the day is when dad gets home from work.
• You've become a little spitfire and have started throwing tantrums.  If you don't get what you want, you throw your head back and scream.  We're really looking forward to the toddler stage... ;)
• You still adore bath time and love to play with your bath toys.  You're not very happy when it's time to get out and get ready for bed.  
• You giggle and babble all day long and we love it.  You say "da-da" "ba-ba" and "ma-ma"
• You love food!  Your favorite thing to eat is cereal puffs.  We're slowly transitioning from pureed foods to finger foods.

Here are his stats from his last appointment:

Weight: 19 pounds (28th percentile)

Height:  27.5 in (24th percentile)...so apparently he hasn't grown at all in height for the past three months??  I'm guessing the last measurement was incorrect.

Head circumference:  18 in (57th percentile)

So, he's back to being our little boy.  :)  As always, we adore him.  He brings so much happiness to our lives and everyone around him.  

A New Year

Our New Years Eve was very low key.  Which felt fitting since we are old fogies that go to bed by 9:30.  I'm pretty certain having a baby ages you by 10 years overnight.  We DID manage to stay awake until midnight, but it was hard my friends.  This demonstrates my thoughts on New Years Eve perfectly:

  But I digress...

I wanted to keep some traditions alive so I ventured out to Walmart to grab some fake bubbly.  This was not a wise decision.  I hate Walmart on the best of days, but on holidays it's pretty much the equivalent of Dante's nine circles of Hell.  Too may people, too few available check out lanes, self righteous idiots who feel it's no big deal to be in the 20 items or less lane when they have a cart FULL of groceries.. I think you catch my drift.  It was the fastest way possible to put someone in a bad mood.  Thankfully, I had had enough sense to pick up our Papa Murphey's pizzas EARLIER that day.  Oh yes...we really pulled out all the stops on this one.  Pizza AND sparkling grape juice...we party hard.

By the time I got home from my lovely adventure, Treyby was overdue for his "Tubby, ba-ba, sleepy nigh night".  And that right there is another way to recognize that you are just plain old.  When the phrase "tubby, ba-ba, sleepy nigh night" is part of your everyday vocabulary you are no longer cool.  As per routine, we gave Trey his bath, got him ready for bed, gave him his bottle and he was down by 7:30 ( I know.  We're lucky).

On with the party!  After devouring our awesome previously mentioned pizza, I proceeded to watch two movies without falling asleep (an amazing feat in my book).  It was now 11:30 and Dave was demanding that we open the bubbly to which I sternly objected.  "HELLO???  You can't just open the bottle and drink whenever!  You HAVE to wait until midnight.  That's the point."  But, if you know Dave, then you know that tradition means nothing to him, so we opened the bubbly at 11:45 and took a sip (gasp).  We did however keep tradition alive by having our usual yearly review where we discuss our favorite and least favorite times of the year.  There was talk of happy times (Trey's birth, a memory I relive often; new jobs, graduation (go Adam)!, and not so happy times (all-nighters with Trey, the weeks of recovery after Trey's birth, hard days at work)...I had been struggling all day with this feeling of being old and lame.  It's not that I really cared that we didn't have plans (we've never been into big parties), I just kept thinking, "Geez, we're only in our mid-twenties and we're already to that "we're too old for holidays like this" phase." It really shouldn't have bothered me, but it did.

Just as I finished my bubbly, Trey started to stir, as if he knew he needed to wake up to celebrate with us.  I went through the usual routine of changing him and feeding him and just as midnight struck, he layed his head on my chest all baby snuggly like (something he'll rarely do now because he's too big for snuggles or whatever...)  :)  And in that moment I knew that I was right where I needed to be, doing exactly what I needed to be doing: ringing in the new year with my baby.  I may go to bed by 9:30, use baby talk, and be covered in spit up, boogers and poop more often than I'd like to admit, but I wouldn't change anything about my life right now.  Happy New Years everyone.  I don't know how we're going to top 2014, but every new year seems to find a way.  

Christmas in Pictures

We had a great Christmas with Trey.  We're always so busy enjoying ourselves that I always fail big time when it comes to taking pictures, but I did manage to take a few Christmas morning.  We spent Christmas Eve with the Bland's and Christmas Day with Eddy's.  It was perfect.  For the first time in our marriage, we split up the days between families and I am so glad we did.  It was the first time that we could actually enjoy the holiday and not feel rushed.  We didn't feel obligated to "get to the next stop" and we were able to enjoy each day with our families.  Win.  Of course all the pictures I have are of Trey, but who else would you want to see, am I right?