We're On the Move!

Big news on the home front--for the first time, our family home will be a house! We close next Friday at 1:00, and Joe plans to have the moving truck packed on Thursday night, sitting at the curb in front of the new place on Friday by noon and unpacked by 6pm that night. By packed, I mean we will pack it. Being blessed with three brothers, Joe is of the mindset that he comes with a set of moving guys who are morally obligated to help him move and reinforces this moral obligation with the threat of some brotherly punishment that involves (as best I can tell), some professional wrestling-type moves that have not been attempted since Joe was 18 and his brothers were 14, 10 and 8. Having helped Joe move 13 times in the last 14 years, the brothers are understandably tired of this exercise. Joe and I have been married four years, and this will be our fifth move with wedding china in tow. On the night of our last move, after 12 hard hours packing and dealing with a U-Haul truck in February in Chicago, I got Joe to agree in a moment of weakness that we would use movers for our next move. I said at the time that I should get it in writing and regret now that I didn't, because he now denies that those words ever crossed his lips.

But this time, the fact that the move is into a house (with a yard! and a coat closet!) makes even the thought of packing and moving bearable, so we are incredibly excited. I love the idea that this is the first house AJ will remember and that he will take his first steps there, say his first words there, and maybe even ride his first bike there. We are also going to reclaim our two cats who were exiled to live in Iowa with my brother when I was pregnant, so we are looking forward to introducing AJ to the idea of family pets. A recent visit with my mom's cat in Iowa involved some curious but dangerous ear-pulling on her cat that was followed by justifiable hisses, so we have some work to do on pet-friendly behavior. I am hoping that AJ will be so excited to chase the cats around that it might motivate him to walk.

We will finally have a true guest room (no more inflatable mattresses in the living room!), so please come visit us soon.

11 Month Update

This is our last monthly update before the little guy turns 1. They say that cliches are all based in truth, so I don't feel bad saying my, how time flies! AJ is poised in the edge of the two next big things--talking and walking. He has seemed to say ma-ma a few times when he really wants me, but he doesn't yet use it when I walk into a room, for example. He is still signing some words, mostly related to food, such as eat, drink and more. On the walking front, he cruises along furniture pretty quickly now (especially to get to the remote controls, which are a favorite "toy"). He will sometimes walk while holding onto Joe's hands or my hands, but more often than not when we try this, he just wants to sit down. We are getting our two cats back next week (more on that in the next post), so I am hoping that his fascination with kitties will motivate him to chase after them on his two little feet.

The pictures are of AJ at 11, 5 and 1 month.

Curly's Birthday Party

AJ's buddies gathered to celebrate his friend, L's birthday party last week. There are three little boys in our playgroup, so I refer to them as the Three Little Stooges sometimes because they are always engaged in unintentional physical comedy, like reaching out to explore a buddy's face and accidentally poking him in the eye. One friend has towhead blond hair, so he gets to be Curly, and another has very straight hair, so he is Moe. This leaves AJ to be Larry. So this was Curly's birthday party. I finally got a picture of Larry, Curly and Moe together, although Moe's cute straight hair is hidden by his hat. The baby in the bottom picture is AJ's friend, H., who was sporting her cute spring finest. Love the hat!

Facing Forward

In honor of AJ's upcoming birthday and extra-large size, we decided to go ahead and turn his car seat around to face forward. It was somewhat anti-climatic. We had always thought that riding in the car made him cranky because he had a view of the backseat and assumed that life would be much better as soon as he could face forward. But in the last few months, he has mellowed out considerably in the car and often napped. Now that he is facing forward, he seems less inclined to fall asleep since he has the interesting view. I, of course, wanted to turn the seat back around as soon as I realized this, but being the one who had spent the time to re-install it facing forward, Joe decided there are no take-backs in car seat land.

Mmmmm...cell phone

During our visit to Iowa, AJ enjoyed feeding his Uncle Andy a cell phone for a snack. AJ loves to feed anyone who will take him up on his offers. He often tries to feed guests a soggy piece of graham cracker or some mushed up peas from his high chair tray.

Equipment Check

Since AJ is on his way to becoming a swing aficionado, we decided to check out the equipment at the local park near Grammy J's house when we were visiting Iowa. We had one of the ridiculously cold spring days that have been plaguing the Midwest this year, so Grammy J bundled AJ up like it was February, rather than May. The part that amuses me about outings to the park at this age is that AJ has a great time in the swing but is ready to be done after 5 minutes. It makes all of the bundling and prep seem comical, but I guess you have to start somewhere and work your way up.

Birthday Par-Tay!

AJ's Fairy Godmother Kim was nice enough to have a little early birthday par-tay for AJ when we were in Iowa. (The big day is actually not until 6/10.) She hit all of his favorites--balloons, melon and lots of attention, attention, attention. We also discovered that AJ has an intense love for sausage egg casserole after he gobbled down two adult-sized pieces. His appetite was insatiable that day. I think he ate two cups of melon, the two pieces of egg casserole, two cartons of yogurt, oatmeal, raspberries, a dinner roll, part of an avocado and several other items that I can't remember now. It was tangible proof to me of how much he has grown in the past year from the days when his entire food intake for a day was a few ounces of milk.

The pictures are of the cake, AJ with Kim's mom (Auntie Cindy), Joe thrilled to wear a party hat, AJ trying on his birthday crown and me with AJ and his godmother.

Momma Bought Me My First Pair of Shoes

We decided it was time to buy AJ a pair of shoes now that he is thinking about walking. When I went with AJ to pick them out, we had three choices: a pair with flames, a pair with a skull and crossbones or a brown pair with blue velro straps. I decided that the brown pair looked most like his dadas shoes, so we went with those. That and it just seemed weird to me to buy a pair of shoes with a skull and crossbones on them for a baby. The pictures above are of AJ and his nanny, K., trying them on for the first time.

The Spaghetti Man

Here are some requisite pictures of AJ eating a messy tray of spaghetti, which he *loves*.

My Auntie Pickle

AJ had an awesome visit with his Auntie Pickle this weekend. My sister hadn't seen AJ since she moved to Santiago, Chile when he was three weeks old, so we were really looking forward to catching her up on his latest. We were worried that AJ would be tentative around Auntie Pickle since we only had a day and a half to see her, but he took to her right away, probably because she used to be a preschool teacher and has a way with little kids that sets them right at ease. He especially loved all of the little songs and stories that she knows for little kids, including a joke about a wide-mouthed frog that I thought was hilarious.