Christmas Dreams

I'm listening to Josh do the dishes while Tommy shouts at me from the bathroom "I'm all dooooo-oooonnne!" then he gets distracted by one of the million Christmas songs we taught him in various moments of foolishness.

"Up on the house top click click click! it's about....what's it about mom?.....here comes Santa Clause......down with the chimney........tick tock tick tock.......HEEEELP! I'm all dooo-oonnnne!"

It's almost that game where you word link a bunch of songs together - only not quite as cool as that since it's really just ADD caroling.

Which brings me to my Christmas wishes.

• I hope Josh keeps doing the dishes. Forever.
• And Tommy keeps singing. Until I get annoyed and turn on music. Then I hope he sits down and folds his arms and listens to the lovely music quietly.
• I hope John avoids peanuts all day today. (Did I tell you about how he's allergic to peanuts and on Thanksgiving an unknowing aunt shared her peanut butter pie with him? If you were wondering what's open at 6pm on Thanksgiving Day, it's just one Walgreens in SOUTH Provo. None of the (6) Walgreens or Rite Aids between here and there. Just that one. Also we confirmed what we already knew, Josh is good in emergencies and I am a freakin' basket case.)
• I hope the snow doesn't stop coming. Until April. Because it's magical. And Tommy keeps staring at the window. 
• I hope I really don't have to go to the grocery store until after New Years...I think that's possible, but I'm not entirely sure - which probably means it isn't at all possible.
• I hope there are plenty of presents under the tree tomorrow (there are) and that my kids are enchanted and in love and GRATEFUL. Because we have been given much.

Things I Do Not Need

When The Universe finds out you're pregnant it tells everybody it knows. And The Universe if fairly well connected.

Which is why every week my mailboxes (both e- and snail) are crammed with lists of items I must have in my home before the baby arrives.

The truth is that we have bought precious little for Little John because I fully expect him to be a duplicate of Tommy. Still, it's overwhelming how much stuff a baby needs. Combine that with the unreasonable amount of time I spend on Pinterest and my shopping list is growing growing at an alarming rate.

That's why I'm excited about this short list of things I do not need.

1. A blanket with my face on it. Or anybody else's face on it.  Sorry Costco. It's cool that you can do that - but it's simply unnecessary.
   
2. Shrunken Heads in my drink this has been loved and pinned by an alarming number of people I follow on Pinterest and it still makes me shudder every time I see it.
   
   Same with these disgusting jell-o worms.
   
3. Any. More. Candy.
   

a prize!

Remember the last time I got an award? Tommy didn't want to miss all the excitement so he decided to grace us with his presence. So forgive me for being a little shy about accepting this one....but if this award results in a trip to the hospital, it won't be pretty.


But lookit! Diane gave me this:

Do you know Diane? Diane  reads excellent literature and understands and explains the gospel in a way that only experts do. Plus she just gave birth to her 8th beautiful child. She's a great person and I'm flattered that she picked me. 

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.
2. Tell 7 things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered new bloggers,
Contact them and let them know they've received the award

1. Thanks Diane!

2. I am a wife and mother (and I love both jobs). I am a list-maker. I am a game-player (as in board games and card games). I am NOT a runner, but I do like to "run". I am usually sleepy. I am trying to be a better kinder person. I am a member of the LDS Church.

3. I'm choosing to define "recent" as "during the past 2 years". 
Lindsey Sometimes it freaks me out how much my life is like other people's. She's "other people".
Nancy One of my favorite blog-friends. Someday I'm gonna meet her and it will be a beautiful thing.
Mal You remember Mal.
Noelle She really is nice. Not just faking it. 
Aubrie Party planner extraordinaire. This woman has some mad skills in the kitchen and also happens to enjoy people's company. (Weird huh?) If you be good enough friends with her for long enough, you might be invited to a theme party.
Jess She's one of the bravest people I know. Zumba anyone?
Shalee She's a writer. A real one. That means her blog is fun to read because it's well written.
Jess She's friends with everyone. Our high school class doesn't need to have a reunion because she has links to all of us on her blog. Coolest chick in the west. 
Stick Stick and I go WAY back - and miraculously she doesn't hate my guts. Plus she takes some incredible photos of her own family. If I could hire someone to follow me around catching memories it would be her. She's gifted.
Jill She served in Josh's same mission and married Josh's favorite companion of all time. She and Erb have a beautiful new baby girl and are some of my new favorite friends.
Carrie Her girls are some of the most beautiful I've ever known.
Ashlie Her kid says the funniest things I've ever heard. And she always shares the laughs. Plus she has a style.  I can see something someone else is wearing and say "That looks like Ashlie!"
Stephanie She always reminds me that being married is fun. She's kind and loving and genuine and I really like that about her.
Emily is the kind of woman I wish I was. All the way around. She's polite but not fake. She's beautiful and intelligent and driven and loving and attentive and appropriate ALL the time.
Aundrea You might know her cuz she says stuff here. :) Sometimes you meet people in your life and you know that you were meant to be sisters, but you accidentally landed in different families. So you're glad that your lives bring you together anyway.

You wondered where I've been?

It was our annual family camping trip to Alexander Lake.

The numbers tell the story:
3 months planning
3 days discussing menu options
12 conversations (each 10 e-mails long) about what camping food is best
26 hours packing (ok that might be a lie - but it FEELS true)
1 hour making pizza dough. Then punching it down in the car and in the mountains every 25 minutes for 7 hours.
45 minutes driving from here to Salt Lake and back because of crap we forgot and "cannot live without".
1.5 hours driving to our actual destination
24 diapers packed 19 diapers used
15 minutes hiking in the easy stuff
30 minutes whirley-ing the hard stuff over the hill
5 canoe trips across the lake
2 times wrestling Tommy into a life jacket against his will
6 tents
20-something chairs
8 kids (10 and under)
8 adults (with 2 who hadn't arrived yet)
1 walk around the lake
1.5 rolls of toilet paper
17 oversized roasted marshmallows
20+ gallons of water
1 half-mile swim
3 hours hiding in tents from the rain storm
6 rounds of Name That Jelly Belly Flavor
10 baby ducks watched every time anybody left shore
3 massive pirate wars with lilies and lily pads as ammo
5 "guys" made out of googley eyes glued to nature
2 sleepless nights
1 fantastic family camping trip

You wanna know what I came home to? 
3 loads of smokey laundry
4 loads of non-smokey laundry
209 blog posts to read
1 pair of clean underwear (good planning or divine intervention? you decide.)
45 personal e-mails and 14 work e-mails
1 bottle of leaky lighter fluid in the gear box (what are you supposed to do with that?)
2 handsome tired boys

I call it a success.

Did you know?

Did you know that Tommy sits in a high chair for meals now? He picks up his food, puts in his mouth, and grins.

Did you know that the average person laughs 15 times per day? I think I'm way WAY above average in this respect and here's why:

• Aundrea and I are convinced that we're employing a team at Miriam Webster's who reads our e-mails for new words that really ought to be in the dictionary. Words like four-fer (what's better than a two-fer?), up-in-the-air-ness, and disintegretous are common among people of our intelligence. 
• Josh calls and sings on my voice mail when any good song comes on the radio. Sometimes I cry, but usually I laugh.
• Tommy gut laughs with me. And if you're not gonna laugh at your kid, you're probably not gonna laugh at anything.
• I read a lotta blogs. And some of them link to funny videos like this:
  

Did you know that we will be going camping this weekend for the first time of the season, also for the first time with Tommy? I blame the weather. And the racing. And the family events. And the schooling. And the jobs. And the general busyness of life for the fact that we completely missed out on the two best months of camping this year. Lame sauce. 

Did you know that my older brother can beat Super Mario Brothers? The whole game. On the old school Nintendo. I'm not sure I ever fully appreciated what a work of art that truly was. That was way back in the day before you could save the game and come back later. The kid was dedicated.

Did you know that Josh is trying to beat the whole game? Fortunately for him you can save now. Because if you couldn't I would probably kill him.

Did you know that all of you summer-lovers finally won? I just want to take a minute to remind you that you win EVERY year. July always comes, and we all want to die because of the heat. So, next April when it snows.....just don't forget this feeling of being baked alive OK? 

It's 9:45 AM

It's 9:45am and so far today I have:

• "run" 2 miles
• showered
• got dressed
• made the bed
• made and cleaned up breakfast for 3
• changed
• cleaned up after 3 "triple berry puke" incidents (what kind of idiot mom wears adorable white capris while feeding her child triple berry ANYTHING? This kind of idiot mom.)
• washed/dried/put away 2 loads of laundry
• washed 1 batch of dishes
• entertained the little one
• read 52 "how to save money" blog posts
• spent 25 minutes on hold with the insurance company

Not a bad morning. 

I figure I can now get away with doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.

Which is really quite likely.

I just got a new season of Monk from my mom.....I'll be back in 16 episodes.

Did you know?

Did you know that I stole my baby's breakfast? Pancakes and mango puree are just too good to pass up.

Did you know that I tried to rearrange the furniture in my bedroom just to find out that there really is only one way it goes?

Did you know that Thomas had an entire pancake, a bottle and half a mango for breakfast. Maybe he was still hungry after all that so we snacked together on cheerios.

Did you know that I ran a race with a chip on my shoe? The most stressful part of the race was because the guy told us about 10 different times "make sure the shoe with the chip touches the start mat." and I was quite sure mine wouldn't (you know...because of my extraordinarily long stride....psshhhh) I'm pretty sure I took 4 steps on the mat naturally. I didn't need to stress over that.

Did you know that since I couldn't rearrange my bedroom furniture I made Josh paint our living room? It's still drying, I'll let you know if I like it later. *It's later. I love it. LOVE IT! It was totally worth the 3 year wait.

Did you know I also got a steal of a deal on flowers for my balcony? Farewell strawberries, hello pretty!

Did you know that the average lifespan of a major league baseball is only 7 pitches? I can't think of anything that gets gone faster. Not anything. (That's a lie....one time there was a package of oreos.......I can think of that.)

Did you know?

Did you know that the blinds have been open in both of bathrooms since the week we moved in? 3 years ago. Much to Junior's dismay....apparently it freaks men out when they're staring out the window which is right above the toilet while doing their buisness and realize they're staring directly into the neighbor's bathroom window. I don't have this problem.

Did you know that Junior taught my baby how to spit? So I'm leaving the bathroom blinds UP. That'll teach him.

Did you know that I'm not part of Generation X? I totally thought I was....but apparently I'm not. Technically speaking I'm Generation Y - which isn't really even a real thing as far as I can tell. Doesn't even have it's own radio station.

Did you know that teeth float? A lady in my ward told me that when babies are getting their teeth they come right up to the surface, then sink back down and float up again for months. MONTHS. I've been telling Josh that I swear I see white right under Tommy's gums then we look and his gums are just plain old boring red. Now I win. I probably did see the floating teeth and then they sunk again. Ha!

Did you know that today Thomas is 7 months old? Wow.

Did you know that we spent the weekend in Lindon? The whole weekend. It was lovely. Hotel Fugal is a beautiful place to be.

Did you know that if the Library didn't e-mail me to tell me my books were due, we'd probably owe them more than we owe on our house?

Did you know?

Did you know that paper towels start on rolls that are 16 feet long and weigh 16,000 pounds?

Did you know that today's box of Puff's Plus has the boy scout symbol on it? Weird.Tomorrow's probably doesn't.

Did you know that although Josh and I purchased exactly zero Easter presents for our child, he came away with 2 Easter baskets? That's because he has grandmothers who love him. Lucky kid. Meanwhile we have 2.5 dozen eggs in our fridge and more candy than we'll eat before Halloween. SPOI-LED.

Did you know that my sister ran a marathon with a needle in her foot? True story.

Did you know that I won?! This is a first for me, so I had to share. I'm sure you'll hear all about how much faster I am will my cool kids running shirt.

Did you know that Josh secretly plays racquetball? He's not hardcore or anything, but he really likes it and is always trying to force people to play with him. And by "people" I mean "me". And by "play" I mean "stand in the death trap they call a court dodging the bullet ball with a racket shielding my face". Fortunately we had a baby and he's bigger than that little hole in the wall you put your cell phones in. I always knew I wanted to be a mother.


Did you know that my mom is gonna run the 5k with me? That's because of how nice she is. Also she'll probably pretend she really can't run faster than I can just so I don't have to be embarrassed by being passed up by an almost 60 year old. She's really nice.

Did you know my mom is almost 60? Whoa.

Did you know that I will be purchasing my first box of diapers this week? That bites.

Did you know?

Did you know that it is possible to throw together a veggie tray in exactly 11 minutes? That's including dip making time. And assuming you have your husband helping.

Did you know that Easter is next week? NEXT week. I'm determined to celebrate it better than I did St. Patrick's Day. Also I'm determined to put up my March danglers before then.... *sigh* why do I even try?

Did you know that Thomas sits up in the bathtub? As I groaned while lifting him out the other day I wanted to cry over how big he is. I'm not sure how it's possible that one person change so much in so little time.

Did you know that Dallin got baptized yesterday? He's my nephew and it was really cool to be there and remember when I was baptized. I was worried about getting out of my wet clothes and into my dry ones fast enough because I didn't want the person being baptized after me to be waiting for me to get out of the dressing room. Even as an 8 year old I had the urge to "get out of the way!"

Did you know that if you stretch out a slinky to lay down flat it is 87 feet long? How bad do you wanna try that now?

Did you know that I wake up early on Sunday mornings just so I can turn on Sunday music because it's my favorite? I literally get out of bed JUST so I can turn on the good tunes. Today we're featuring a great mix of 6 years of EFY CDs.

Did you know that today is our "home Sunday" which is my favorite Sunday of the month. I think we'll go on a walk, maybe hit Temple Square, take a nap, play games, and enjoy our little family all by ourselves. Or maybe Josh will get bored with me and invite people over. Either way it'll be a great day.

Things I can hear

During naps I experience (and enjoy - which is totally weird for me) silence. Total and complete silence. I share my "office" with nobody. Josh isn't home to talk to, and I've stopped the annoying habit of talking to myself.

However, when Josh (and the rest of the neighborhood) comes home it's all a different story.

In the past 15 minutes I have heard all of the following:

• The last of "Old Dogs" in which some dude is singing "I'm all out of love" while being cradled by what the viewer can only assume is a killer gorilla. (What do you know about gorillas? Enlighten me.)
• Josh singing "I'm all out of love" cuz now it's in his head.
• Thomas shrieking with laugher.
• Splashing in the bathtub.
• Josh singing "splish splash I was takin' a bath" which somehow lead to whistling "a dream is a wish...your heart makes" which then morphed into "scrub-a-dub-dub my baby's in the tub-a" which of course leads to that "Trashing the Camp" song from Tarzan. If you've never played Encore or "String of songs" you should. But you should be on Josh's team or else you'll lose.
• Microwave beeping.
• Phones ringing (3 of them).
• Car alarms going off.
• Garage doors opening.
• Some kid crying the middle of the road because he fell off his bike. Poor kid.

I want an official sponsor

1. I know zero Olympians who could honestly tell me they eat Chicken McNuggets just before the big race. Or ever. Yes, I could've put the period after the word Olympians but we're going to pretend that's not true.
2. Just because "The Olympics" only accept Visa doesn't make it better than any other card. I know because I care more about which card Costco will take than which card "The Olympics" will take. Besides....what are you paying "The Olympics" for anyway? At least at Costco I come home with more stuff than I have room for.
3. Lean Cuisine will not make you ski faster. That's a scientifically proven fact.

Even though I know all that, I still want to have an official sponsor. I'd like to nominate the following for my sponsors:

1. Old Navy. Of course I'm assuming that would mean loads of free stuff. Including jammies for my baby, t-shirts for my new and improved mommy wardrobe, and a lifetime supply of flip flops.
2. Scott Hamilton. Mostly because he's been narrating figure skating for longer than I've been alive. I hear him say things like "beautiful!" and "flawless!" more than any other words, except maybe "this is a really tricky move". I want him to narrate my life.
3. The Olive Garden. Because just like Lean Cuisine won't make you ski faster, The Olive Garden WILL make you a better, happier mom. That's also a scientifically proven* fact.

*Scientifically proven = I conducted a study of my life and I'm happier when I eat Olive Garden. Particularly items ordered off the dessert menu. 

4 months

That's how old my child is.

This is what he does and is:

• He's grabby. Not so much in a "you have that and I want it so I'll reach for it" kind of way. More in a "there's something near my hand (blanket, binkie, burp cloth, finger, fist, hair, face) and I will close my fist around it so that thing will never EVER escape" kind of way.
• He "chews" things and bites his fists all day long. (Josh is convinced he's teething....I'm not convinced.)
  
  
• Also, he just discovered that he can suck on his lips..and that's cool.
  
  
  
  
  

  He doesn't know yet that this is the fishy face, but don't you worry. I'll teach him.
• He's the Drool Prince (only because his cousin, Taege, owns the title of Drool King and will probably never give it up.)
• He is in the 50th percentile for height (24.5 in) and 25th for weight (12 lbs 11 oz). Dr. Lady is not concerned about that. Even though "he's slimmed down considerably" there no need to worry. It's all good with me because it means we can call him "squirt" a little longer. Plus it means I can use the rest of that CASE of diapers.
• He sleeps through the night 75% of the time. Other times he wakes up at 1am starving and totally soaked. And by "other times" I mean "last night". That's when he and I "nap" on the love sac together.
• He rolls - but only if it's his idea. Like when we're at the Dr.'s office and she only has one hand on him and is trying to shine a light in his eyes, that's when it's his idea. But if it's my idea, like when we're having tummy time, or I've convinced myself that he's never really done it and I need him to prove it to me, he wants nothing to do with that rolling business.
• He squeals. Particularly when I'm trying to meet with people in my living room and Josh is doing whatever it is he does to him 2 feet away in the bedroom. He still only does this regularly for Josh. And Josh is still the only one who can turn this:
  
  
  to this:
  
  
• He has no concept of  Stranger Danger. As long as someone is paying attention to him he's happy (and no what's-her-face from Signing Time does NOT count...not that I've tried).
• He likes to be in the kitchen with me. Cooking, cleaning, dishes, it's all good as long as we're moving and I'm holding him. One-handed cheffing is now on my list of "really great skills nobody cares you have".
• He sits up. Sortof. He likes it when we play "One mississippi" where I hold him up until he's stable, then let go and count until he falls. He doesn't know what comes after "2miss". He still prefers standing to sitting.
  
  

Here's more of what my child looks like. You know, in case you forgot already.

The Sounds of Silence

After rocking and pacing and singing and holding and loving and cuddling and rocking some more with my (adorable) screaming child for the past hour, I am currently (finally) enjoying the sounds of silence.

I sit in the rocking chair in his room and listen.

I listen to the clock tick. With each tick tock tick tock he's been peaceful for 1 second longer.

I listen to the dishwasher drying the dishes. The utensils settle into themselves clanking together a bit.

I listen to the furnace start up and slowly spread the warmth through our home.

I listen to the grunt of a baby. I can almost hear his muscles relaxing one at a time. Slowly his body calms and eventually it will fall asleep.

I listen to the squeak of my rocking chair. Back and forth back and forth back and forth.

When it's painfully apparent that I'm the loudest one in the room, I slowly sneak out, leaving Thomas to his dreams. Ready to start my own.

Did you know?

Did you know that bats can't chew through steel wool? That's what you're supposed to use to fill small holes that would allow bat entrance into a building you'd rather not have them enter.

Did you know that I got fired from my calling as a RS teacher right when we got new exciting manuals?

Did you know that I'm a big sissy when it comes to mice? They freak me right out.

Did you know that I blog stalk a guy named Andy who is taking a year off to go camping all over the country? He's currently in Florida and taking pictures like these. When I grow up I want to do this. Seriously.

Did you know that when I was in first grade I sprained my ankle while jumping on the trampoline? I had to be carried up to the stage to get an award at the year-end assembly. I was mortified. That week I also remember my sister braiding my hair and making me hop down the hall to the bathroom to get another twistie. When I whined she just told me "it hurts to be beautiful". I still sorta believe that.

Did you know I've been growing this amaryllis since Thanksgiving? It decided to bloom the week that I was at work. I think my house plants hate me. On the other hand - isn't it beautiful?

In 2010

First of all, is it "twenty-ten" or "two-thousand ten"? I'm already annoyed by this year.

Last night on the way home from his parents house, Josh was asking his younger siblings what they want to do this year. Not so much "resolutions" or even goals, just plans.

Plans for 2010 in our family include:

• Josh starting the nursing program at SLCC. Finally. For real this time. (He starts the CNA night program on Tuesday which is the new "$350 6-week course" pre-req for the program. What a joy.)
• Us figuring out how we're gonna pay for that. And Uncle Sam is going to be useless. Putrid feds.
• Me taking over my sister's medical billing company - and learning a lot. I'm actually really looking forward to that. I already enjoy what I'm doing so far.
• Thomas will be learning to sit up, crawl, walk, and hopefully sign some important things so we can quit guessing if he's hungry or tired or bored or grouchy or hungry or poopy or hungry. 
• Baby's first camping trip. I'm really really excited about this for some reason...
• Some really cool (albeit cheap) vacation. Because even though we have a kid we're still cool.
• Sometime I'd like to go a whole day without being covered in partially digested milk or poop.
• Maybe we'll leave the house again.
• I plan to keep jogging and eating good foods (as determined and logged on nutrimirror) and hope that only good things come from that. I secretly hope I'll have some really great before/after picture to show at the end of the year a la Biggest Loser. But if not, at least I'll be full of good food.

So there you have it - the plans (as of January 1st) for 2010. 

What are your plans?

2009 in review - Non-baby-related

Lest you think we did nothing but have a baby all year.....here's the "non-baby version":

• In January Josh turned 25. And we celebrated MLK day in style.
• We played games in February. And I realized the true identity of my boss.
• In March I learned a shocking fact about my husband and that my grandpa had an opinion about Mr. Sellers. And we played at the playground.
• April brought Earth Day, taxes, my 24th birthday, and General Conference.
• May is when I started stalking the Falcons. And of course we remembered all the moms. We took our first camping trip of the summer and shopped at Walmart (like we always do) and didn't buy coupons (when I read that back it just sounds smarter and smarter - who BUYS coupons?).
• In June we went to Montana and lived in hotels and tried to decide whether or not to move. Josh had an asthma attack.
• 4th of July we celebrated sans fireworks. The rest of the month we lazed around on Sunday afternoons. Celebrated our 3rd anniversary and "grew" a garden. We went to Bear Lake and Joe's Valley with family. And at the end of the month Josh's father died. 
• In August we officially decided not to go to Montana. We camped at Alexander Lake and had some good days. I even cooked buffalo. 
• September was a big month because we used up a spice, celebrated Yom Kippur, went to the temple, watched the sheepdogs, figured out who that guy was, and enjoyed our own tiny miracles.
• October I got an award, got lost in my own neighborhood, paid for Yom Kippur, made fun of the vacuum salesman ("goosh! goosh!"), walked in the park and I took the lead in the lifelong snowball fight.
• November was all about Arizona, enjoying our ward, & watching movies. We blessed Thomas, expressed our gratitude and took pictures of ourselves.
• Of course December brought Christmas. We fought the weather, went to a concert, watched while Thomas rolled and napped.

A pretty dang good year if you ask me.

2009 in review - Baby Version

Really the biggest thing that happened this year was Thomas. Actually he's the biggest thing that's happened EVER in ANY year. So here's "The Baby Version" of the 2009 year in review.

• In January I got a syndrome.
• In February we found out we were pregnant. And the baby disappeared. And then Baby & I made a deal. And then he stopped being the tin man and finally grew a heart.
• Then in March I was sick.
• In April I didn't show. But I did get a new teammate. And I "forgot" that I "wasn't sick" anymore.
• In May "it" became "him". And he kicked me for the first time. And I stayed sick.
• Then came June when I was forced to "hold it". And we took Thomas on his first road trip.
• July brought the beginning of the baby belly photos because I was finally showing. And pregnancy became much more fun.
• With August came discomfort and exhaustion. Also a belly big enough to merit it's own introduction (and probably time zone if we're being honest). This is also when we started saying stuff on behalf of our kid. Like what he likes and doesn't like.
• In September we realized this kid was going to come out of me. I got cankles. I stopped being self-sufficient. And I started doing embarrassing things (again with the honesty, I've always been doing embarrassing things...but this topped them all!).
• In October I thought I peed my pants and the baby came out.
• In November Thomas turned 1 month old and slept through 1 night for me.
• December is when we learned how giant our child was and he turned 2 months. I'm still amazed that we now have all we ever wanted.

What a great year - you know as far as the baby goes.

Some stuff Thomas does

He loves to sit up. He holds my finger while I hold his forearms and he smiles and pants (I'm afraid this might be his permanent substitute for giggling) and oohs and ahhhs until he has no more strength and then he throws his head back and lays flat on his back to rest.

He also loves to stand. The same way. And he loves to stand up from a sitting position. I'll hold his hands and help him stand from sitting and he smiles all big, then sits down and starts to stand again. Who would've thought the process of standing could be so entertaining?

He bathes. Oh how he bathes. He can be screaming and crying and fighting mad, but put that kid in the tub and he suddenly remembers just how great life is. Although I think baths are disgusting (You just sit there? Stewing in your own filth? watch the first 30 seconds of this and you'll laugh. Probably.) there are certainly days that I think a long hot bath would remind me just how great life is. He used to scream from the second you pulled him out of the water until he was fully clothed, wrapped in a blanket, rocking and eating. He's much better at getting out now and only slightly whimpers if you take too long and he gets cold. He even lets you do the lotion without losing it.

He holds his bottle. You have to balance it just right if you want him to hold it by himself, but when I feed him his almost always grabs the bottle and jams it into his face. And he holds it TIGHT the entire time he's eating. Sometimes this is a problem since you can't get a bottle into a mouth that is blocked by 10 tiny fingers and 2 not-so-tiny fists. Fortunately I'm still stronger than him (barely) and can force his hands out of the way long enough to get the bottle in (usually).

He reaches. If you put the kid in the bouncy with toys (thanks for letting us borrow your bouncy Eva!) he will reach up for them. He particularly likes the monkey....or maybe I particularly like the monkey.... He grabs the tail of the lion (which makes it sing and growl and meow) and I think his hand gets stuck in the loop because he never does it just once. It's always singgrowlmeowsinggrowlmeo then nothing for a long time.

He likes people. Clearly he gets this from his father and not his anti-social mother. But if he's crying, and I walk into the room and start to talk to him, he starts to laugh/pant. Then I leave and he cries again.

He sleeps. I think in the past week I've had more really great nights than not. Which is encouraging. He'll sleep for 5-6 hours in the first stretch of the night and then he's up at least every 3 hours after that. He's started going back to sleep much faster, which makes my nights much sleepier. No more 3 hour feeding sessions. No more pacing the hallway and dancing around the living room at 2am. No more rocking until I'm seasick and half asleep myself. It's a beautiful thing.

He cuddles. He still likes to be held. A lot. Which works out pretty well most of the time because I truly like holding him. And so does Josh. But sometimes I just need 2 seconds to myself!!! OK?!?!?!?! Fortunately Josh comes home every. single. night. so that's usually possible.

Also he's working really hard on growing hair on top. We're past the peach fuzz stage, and now we're on to real hair, although it's thin and short....we're working on it. The mullet still reigns supreme. I just don't have the guts to cut it off - I don't want to chop off his head and he's not entirely still when he's awake yet. Tips?

Things I've never been grateful for

This year I'm thankful for a whole bunch of things I'd never really been thankful for before.

So this year's gratitude list is not the things I'm most thankful for, or the profound stuff, it's the new stuff.

Bathrobes to keep me warm in the middle of the night.
That the alarm clock has an "off" switch. I've never used it until now.
Thomas. Tommy. Tom. Little One. Babe. Sweetheart. Handsome. My little man. Sweets.
My body. I've never been a big fan until now.
Living in baby central.
Hand sanitizer.
Formula. Even though it stinks and is sticky.
Josh's natural fathering abilities. This might be cheating because I've always loved that about Josh, but I never really knew just how good a dad he was until now. So it's expanded....that counts as "new" right?
3 sets of grandparents for my little one.
Visiting teachers. (Hi Nikki! Invite me to your blog, OK?)
HGTV.
Dr. Man, Hospitals, modern medicine.
Nutrimirror.
The ability to broadcast my baby's screams through the whole house. (aka baby monitors)
That little button that releases the straps in the carseat.
Tennis shoes.