Happy Ten Months James!

Some new favs

James is nine months! Wow, I can't believe how old he is now.

He has learned lots of things. Like crawling. Or standing. Or climbing up stairs.

Or pulling everything off the shelf:
He is so excited to move these days that I couldn't even get him to sit still long enough to finish putting his jammies on.
First bubble bath:

Jason and I are trying to buy a house!

We have an offer out on the perfect house. Well mostly perfect really great house.

We just had a meeting with a property manager to rent out our condo. We can't sell because we owe more than it is worth in this economy. Which is fine, I want to keep the condo until I can sell it and get a check for some extra money off the place. (mama wants a boat. or lake house. or upgraded bathrooms. or a vacation. or all four?)

The property manager thinks she can get it rented out in 6 weeks or so. Which would be great. If we can get a lease on the place then our mortgage guy can get us approved for a higher amount of monies.

Ideally we will get approved, get the house, get closed by mid June so we can have James' bubble birthday bash in our own backyard. (on the totally not up to code deck...)

Keep us in your prayers that it all works out for the best. Be it this house or a different one.

Oh alright, I will post a picture of James too:

Poem.

I wrote this in class:

I am from slip-n-slides, garter snakes, and GI Joes. Sneaking Bike rides to 7-11 and hills for racing and sledding. Watermelon seed spitting contests and apple tree weddings.

I am from building blanket forts and cheating on Nintendo Track and Field. "Don't pull her hair" "But mom!" "Don't hit him" "But dad I wish I had a sister!"

I am from trips to Pennsylvania. The smell of cake, cookies, Sunday dinner, and Christmas trees. Grandma Rea in her apron filling the air with laughter. Slowly drifting into silence and confusion of the years.

I am from packing up the house, picking up the pieces. Numb from divorce and my two new houses. Spiders, fights, silent nights.

I am from growth, patience, and repaired relationships. New satisfaction from a friendship 17 years in the making with a brother that I now cannot live without.

I am from new family built through marriage and peace. New traditions started to pass along. In love with the next generation just started.

That is where I am from.

James is eight months old! I can't believe how quick it has gone! James has been a BUSY boy this month. He has learned how to say "mama" "mom" "mamamamamamamamam" and "babababa." He thinks "dadadada" is funny but has shown no interest in saying it himself. He has learned to for sure crawl backwards and is starting to crawl forwards. He is really motivated to crawl forwards when you put the laptop on the ground in front of him. He is eating lots of food these days. Purred veggies and fruits, chunky peas, turkey, yogurt, puffs, and as of tonight pasta bow ties.

He has such a funny little personality. He thinks it is fun to be messy, fun to be naked, fun to fart, more fun to fart while naked, and hilarious to pee while naked. He hardcore cracks up at the last one. He likes to bang on things, he is ticklish, loves the sound of the harmonica, and smiles SUPER big when I get home from work. Everyday he amazes me.

Alright, on to pictures:

Crawled himself under his chair when Jason wasn't looking.
Likes me.
Contemplating out to get into the box he is next to.

Just finished painting a birthday card. We were VERY messy today.
Just plain adorable.

James is getting so big!

This week he has learned to get up into a crawling position and stay that way for about a minute before he flops on his belly. He can also roll all over the room and knows where to roll to get his toys out.

He has learned to make a chomping motion with his mouth. It is super funny. He does it all day long until it is time to eat then he is back to mashing with his tongue.

This week he got to eat blueberries, which I apparently thought was more exciting than he did. He seems indifferent. He really likes plain yogurt and he will be trying parsnips tomorrow and turkey on Sunday.

Most importantly last night he slept soooo good. He went to bed at 730, slept until 440 and then again until 715. It was wonderful. I can already tell tonight wont be as well.

On a non James side of things, I started my masters last weekend. So far it is SUPER easy. We have done two art/poem projects and decorated our notebooks. If all classes are this easy it will be awesome. Now all I need is time/motivation to read the book by next month.

Now the part people actually care about. A few photos.

Jason made me a marshmallow fluff filled cake...it oozed but was tasty!

James looks like a marshmallow.