Awake and Waiting

For a couple weeks now, Mr. Mister has loved to pull himself up in his crib, fall, and repeat the process over and over as long as someone will sit there watching him. But today we hit a new (and very cute) milestone. When I went into his room to get him after his nap, he was standing up, waiting for me. It was adorable. Until this point, he could pull himself up from sitting but hadn't figured out the laying to sitting to standing process. But he figured it out today and there he was, waiting for me. I should note that he had a bloody lip also, so I think he must have bitten it as he was getting up. But after the second nap, he was up and smiling, free of any more blood...like he's been doing this his whole life.

Things I Haven't Blogged About...

The days fly by and all the things I want to blog about pile up. So here are some things I've been meaning to post....

1. Cherub Chowder - this was one of the recipes I made a couple weeks ago for Mr. Mister out of the baby cookbook I have. (Daddy often notes that Mr. Mister's meals are better than ours!) Mr. Mister loved this new meal, a thick, potato based puree. But it didn't sit well with him. He woke up screaming at 10:30 and was awake until 3am, gagging several times and throwing up once. We called the doctor at 2am, but she was not helpful at all. So we just stayed up, comforting him and playing with him in attempts to distract him. He finally fell asleep when we played the Baby Einstein video on the laptop outside of his crib. By morning he was all better and we successfully made it through his first real sickness.

2. Mother's Day - My first Mother's Day was fabulous. We planted my flowers on Saturday because Sunday was supposed to be stormy all day (and it was.) I loved working in the garden as Daddy and Mr. Mister played on the blanket in the yard. Then on Sunday, Daddy made me banana pancakes for breakfast and let me take a nap later in the afternoon. When I woke up from my nap, Daddy came in carrying Mr. Mister. They had colored me a picture on construction paper together and Mr. Mister was holding the paper as they came into the room. It was adorable. They also "pitched in together" to pay for us to have a family picture taken. All in all, it was a wonderful Mother's Day!

3. Zoo Babies - Mr. Mister and I met my sister and her son at the zoo last Friday. The Zoo Babies exhibit was going on and we were very excited to see all the cute little baby animals. There was only one problem. I think that every school in the city was on a field trip to the zoo that day. It was horrible. Kids everywhere, screaming at each other and at the animals. I couldn't handle it...it was completely chaotic. So we left after only a half hour and only one zoo baby sighting. One highlight was this conversation we overheard as a group of middle school students looked at a stork.

Student 1: What is it?
Student 2: It's a flamingo!
Student 1(after cleverly reading the sign) : It's not a flamingo, it's a stork!
Student 2: Yeah, it's the stork that brings us babies!

Toys

Today Mr. Mister crawled over to his toy basket and began taking every toy out, one by one. Some toys he just took out and threw to the side. Others he picked up, shook, put in his mouth, and then threw to the side. He had so much fun unpacking the basket and I loved watching him explore so independently. Here's a picture about half way through, as he's already surrounded by toys!

Army Crawling

One of our favorite things to do is to go into Mr. Mister's room while he's sleeping just to look at him. We have to be very careful, though, because he is an extremely light sleeper. Tonight, we went in to look at him, tiptoeing ever so quietly. As Daddy approached his crib, the floor creaked and Mr. Mister's head shot up as he immediately pushed up on his arms and looked around. I was second in line and saw Daddy hit the floor so fast it looked like a grenade was flying at his head. I burst out laughing and ran out of the room, while Daddy had to army crawl out so Mr. Mister would go back to sleep. Sure enough, he put his head right back down and fell back asleep. I wonder if he thought he was dreaming.

May 15

I'm not sure what's so special about May 15, but for some reason Dunkin' Donuts was offering free Iced Coffee today (really free - no catch!) and McDonald's was offering a free chicken sandwiches. Who doesn't love something free? In my opinion, free grants permission to consume things I normally wouldn't, so we made a date out of it. This was especially easy because both restaurants are right near our house and across the street from each other. We loaded Mr. Mister into the car seat and took off for the double drive thru experience. Sitting in the parking lot eating while Mr. Mister sat quietly watching the rain through the window was one of the most peaceful moments we've had in a while. A free date with a quiet baby was a nice way to spend a rainy evening.

Colorado Cousins

One of the best parts of the wedding weekend was having my brother and his family in town from Colorado. It's always fun to get to see them and to have all the cousins together. When they arrived, their youngest boy had a shirt on that said, "Awesome Big Brother." A fun announcement of the December arrival of their third child!

In the busyness of the weekend, we didn't get a picture of all four cousins together. But here are some pictures of the Colorado cousins, K (almost 3) and B (16 months). In the picture of K and Mr. Mister hugging, Mr. Mister is really biting his cousin's shoulder!

And He's Off!

Mr. Mister is officially doing the army crawl to get where he wants to go. He loves being able to move around, but he still gets tired of doing it himself sometimes and just yells when he sees something he wants but doesn't feel like crawling to get it. I don't blame him...the army crawl is a lot of work.

He's also pulling himself up to stand using the coffee table and the couch. And he's still loving his game in the crib...pulling himself up, letting go, falling on his butt and laughing. Now he also claps after he falls. We got some video that I'll try to post soon. There's not much cuter than Mr. Mister clapping. I love it.

Back to Life

Well, the activity of all wedding weekend is over and this week has been relatively low key. It was good for Mr. Mister to be back home and back on his schedule. He is so close to crawling, but just can't figure out how to move his knee where he wants it to go. I decided I'm not going to rush it, because once he figures out how to really move, he'll be taking off all the time. He already is figuring out how to get into everything. He took some books off the shelf and tore the covers and he took a couple keys off the keyboard of my laptop - he had the semi-colon key in his mouth for quite a few minutes while we looked everywhere for it. Finally I noticed his mouth looked funny and sure enough, he was chewing on it! He really never sits still. He's always looking around the room for something he can play with, reaching for something (grunting as he does), or putting something in his mouth.

He also learned how to pull himself up to stand in his crib. It's cute because he loves to let go and fall on his butt...it makes him laugh every time!

Just Married!

Here are pictures from my sister's wedding on Saturday. You can see that she was a BEAUTIFUL bride. The weekend was so much fun, starting with groomsmen vs. bridesmaid kickball on Thursday, continuing with the spa and rehearsal on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, and finishing with the post-wedding brunch on Sunday. We had fun with all of our family in town, celebrating K & N's marriage (finally!).

Despite the forecasts calling for thunderstorms, K remained hopeful that her prayers for a sunny afternoon would be answered. She mostly wanted sun so that we could take pictures outside. That morning, we had torrential downpours so bad that I could hardly see as I drove to her hair appointment. The rain finally stopped mid-morning, but the skies were still gray and cloudy. But, sure enough, as we headed to the church for pictures, the sun came out and we had perfectly blue skies the whole afternoon.

The ceremony was beautiful...very reflective of K & N's heart for Jesus to be the center of their lives and their relationship. The reception was so much fun...we danced the night away, thankful for my friends who were babysitting Mr. Mister so that we could enjoy the evening!

Lately

We've been housesitting for the past week for a family we know from church. They live out in the country on 15 acres with a little pond and 3 dogs. It would have been a nice, peaceful, getaway had it not been our busiest week of the year and had it not been cold and dreary the first half of the week. We traveled to Indiana last weekend for another one of my college housemate's weddings. This Saturday is my sister's wedding....a day we have been planning for and looking forward since last April when they got engaged. So with traveling last weekend and with all the wedding festivities this week, it's been very busy, but also very fun.

Tonight was "Briday Party Kickball." All the groomsmen and bridesmaids got together to eat dinner and play kickball at a park nearby. Tomorrow is the rehearsal and Saturday is the big day. My brother and his family arrived in town on Wednesday from Colorado. It's always fun to spend time with them and to have the four cousins (all boys!) together. Mr. Mister is the youngest so while the others run/crawl around, he sits and watches, looking as if he is secretly wanting to follow where they go. Soon he'll be able to hold his own with them.

I will have plenty of pictures to post next week, so look forward to seeing some cute kids and a beatiful bride!!