Happy Halloween!

This weekend my parents (and Maggie Moo) came down to stay, and we had a great weekend! We celebrated Halloween yesterday out at Salato Wildlife Education Center in Frankfort, along with Kevin's parents and his brother, Scott--I was looking for Halloween-y things to do and found that they were having a Halloween Walk with the Animals! It was an absolutely perfect fall day, and I'm glad we went.

They have an indoor exhibit area with snakes, frogs, turtles, owls, bees, fish, a squirrel (that was hiding), etc. Outdoors they have a bald eagle, black bear, elk, bison, bobcat, wild turkey, deer, and even a skunk!

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging around the house so Lewis could show his Grandma and Grandpa Carter his new skills. Mom cooked homemade potato soup and a peaches and cream french toast casserole (oh my!). Then they babysat for us this morning while Kevin and I ran a couple of errands and went out to lunch. Great weekend--so glad they came down!

Wearing Grandpa Carter's hat

Ribbit.

Ready to see some wild animals!

Check out who is sunning herself to the left of Lew's booty.

A Sleeping Beauty

Meow.

Wild turkeys (one put his tail feathers out)

Smooshyfaces

Resident skunk (who waddled and was very large and in charge--

she was overfed as a pet before ending up at Salato as an exhibit animal)

Frog Boy with Grandma Thompson

Trying to leap out of her hands

Lewis the Frog with all of his grandparents

This was his outfit for today--Mom had gotten him the 'Daddy's Little Monster' t-shirt, and I found the pants at Goodwill the other day.

Thinking he looks like Juni a little here...Em?

We found this walker yesterday at Goodwill to see how he'd do with it--so far, it rolls away from him, and he'd rather chew on the handle or play with the gadgets on the front, but we'll keep trying. For now, he seems good with walking around the coffee table.

His first time eating a 'real' apple was today! He's had applesauce to this point, but today I offered him some of my apple and he took a few nibbles off of it.

Yum!

Man Hands

I vant to suck your blood!!

(Can you see his vampire fangs up top there?)

Happy Halloween!

Up,Up,Updates

Feeding

We have been giving Lewis some Cheerios and cut up pieces of pasta or yogurt melts to try to encourage/teach him to feed himself. He has about a 10% tray-to-hand-to-inside-mouth success rate right now, I'd say. He LOVES Cheerios and tries SO hard to pick them up, but they usually end up in his lap or on the floor. Thankfully the dogs ALSO love Cheerios and have been hanging around at mealtimes the past week or so since the finger food effort began. The other night I found myself saying (and sharing) '1 for Lewis, 1 for Peter, 1 for Hattie, and 1 for me.' The dogs are so cute about it--they act like one single Cheerio is such a special treat that needs to be very delicately taken from my fingers.

Mom Group

I got word last week that the leader of our mom group from the hospital where we delivered had accepted a new job, so Lewis and I went last week to say goodbye and to thank her for all that she's done (and continues to do) for us. I meant to take a picture with her for Lewis' memory box, but of course forgot. I did get one of Lewis with his buddy, Josiah, who is 10 months old.

Sleeping

We tried shifting bedtime 15 minutes earlier to see if Lewis would sleep a little later in the mornings, but it completely and totally backfired on us. We were starting his bedtime routine at 7:30pm (asleep by 8pm) and he was awakening at 6:30am (which is the 10 1/2 hour mark, and we were shooting for 11 hours). We decided to try starting bedtime at 7:15pm (asleep by 7:45pm) to see if that would help him sleep later, but he started waking up at 5:45am. That was early and only 10 hours of sleep, so we are back to 7:30pm!

However, he has started to peep around 5:45am again, but doesn't seem to fully wake up until 6am. We obviously still have some tweaking to do. However, his naps have also been poor the past few days (30 minutes instead of the usual 45 minute, hour, or glorious, but rare, 2 hours, that we're used to), and I know his daytime sleep directly affects his nighttime sleep. A work in progress.

Swimming Lessons

Baby Splash is going well--we've had 2 classes so far with 2 different instructors and 2 very different teaching methods. The first was very structured, kept us going the whole 30 minutes, and took it very seriously (no baby ooohs and aaahs from her). The second, on the other hand, is all about the babies, very laid back, and didn't give us much direction at all. First lady wins for me. #2 is kind of how I envisioned the class would be, but since I saw #1's style first, I now expect #1 results, dang it.

And my parents just left from a weekend visit, so I have a bunch of pictures/videos to get posted! I'd started this post last week and just hadn't had time to finish it yet!

Keeping Us Busy

I took some videos the other morning of a typical morning at the ol' Thompson house. Some parts of the videos are a bit dark because they were taken early in the morning before the sun comes up.

First, this is Lewis crawling with a little pep in his step, then pulling up, and laughing/talking to himself a little.

This one is of him eating the table, as per usual, crawling away, changing course, pulling up/leaning over the magazine crate (that he fell into head first the other day) to gnaw on the wicker cube, heading over to Kevin (notice the corner bumper on the floor to his right--he's managed to pull them all off, either with his teeth or his hands), then he heads on into the kitchen. Next, he probably went to the dogs water bowl to have a little splash. He's all over the place!

And finally, Lewis' latest favorite thing to pull up on--the toilets (I just cleaned them, I swear, and we've since started leaving the lids shut and I have toilet locks for when he learns how to open the lid). In this, Lewis made his way into the bathroom at the end of Kevin's shower--SURPRISE!--(and Kevin didn't realize I was taking video, hence his 'Oh!' at the end). Nothing inappropriate/embarrassing, though.

So, needless to say, we spend A LOT of our time in the basement which is one big open room for him to roam freely and safely. There are times upstairs where he gets out of my sight, and by the time I get to him, he's already made his way to the end of the hall. Or to the dog bowls. Or the laundry basket. Or the dog's big wire crate.

He is a busy boy--if he isn't down on the ground exploring, he's in our arms looking around to see what he can get into next!

A Weekend at Home

We stayed in town this weekend and had a nice balance of relaxation and getting some much needed things done around the house.

Ben and Adie spent fall break down by Red River Gorge, so they stopped in on their way home Saturday afternoon for a nice visit. Two successful Goodwill stops and a tasty dinner at the new-ish restaurant up the street (Emily and Joe, still saving the Poutine for you!).

Saturday morning I was cleaning up, and Kevin yelled for me to 'Come, quickly' and 'Bring the camera!' Poor Lewis had gone booty up into the magazine crate. I should have knelt down and taken a picture from the side, but he was getting (understandably) fussy by the time I got one picture taken--just know that his feet were not touching the ground. He has also done this a few times in the basement with the laundry basket (with clean, folded laundry there to cushion his head).

Baby Got Back

Wearing Uncle Ben's hat, which I think is a size 8 like Kevin wears.

No doubt in Lewis' future.

I took this video sometime last week of Lewis standing and starting to move around more smoothly. He still wobbles a lot and falls a lot, but he is getting more confident/coordinated each day, it seems. It has been really fun to watch him evolve. Here he is harassing Hattie Boo who was happily asleep on the couch--she did growl around 0:24, but I'm not sure if the camera picked it up or not.

Kevin and I both had productive days today, switching off on Lewis duty. Kevin knocked out gutters, leaves, and mowing one last time, while I organized our junk room that was getting out of control. Goodwill stuff is loaded (thanks, Kevin!) and the junk room is no longer stressing me out.

This week is looking to be a little busy with running errands, and my parents are coming down this weekend, so we are looking forward to that! Hope everyone had a good one.

Consignment Sale Season Is Over...

And did it go out with a bang?!

This last sale had a 'New Mom' presale from 5-9 on Wednesday and then was open to the public Thursday-Saturday, 10-8 (or something like that). With that short presale time frame and Lewis' bedtime being 7:15 and rush hour traffic, I decided to skip the New Mom part. However, because one of the bridges is closed, they extended the New Mom hours to 11-9 on Wednesday. Whereas I once wouldn't have messed with it, I decided I should take advantage of one last New Mom perk (by the next round, Lewis will surpass the 12 month age 'suggestion' which I'll mention more of in a minute).

Lewis woke up from his nap at 10:30, so we hopped in the car and got there around 11:05, sort of by accident. I didn't mean to get there as soon as they opened, but it just worked out that he woke up when he did. Man, did I see some crazies by getting there when I did!! Crazed pregnant women, scooping up Pack n Plays and activity mats, being really annoyingly pushy and grabby and such. It was nuts!

I had one particular encounter with a mom and her daughter who was TOTALLY older than 12 months. Hell, she looked older than Juniper (18+ months) to me, so there is no way she qualifies as a New Mom. They should require birth certificates--just kidding, of course, but this lady was so rude! She was in my way a little, so I tried scooting around her stroller, nothing, accidentally bumped her and apologized, nothing, somehow knocked a book off the table and apologized and picked it up, nothing. I laughed to myself as I walked away from her. I saw her later chatting with some of the workers, and I decided there seems to be a whole unfriendly inner circle, and I'm not a fan. Snobby Knobbies, I'll call them (Floyds Knobs, Kevin's hometown, is snobbish in parts). Or Floyds Snobs, as Kevin calls them. Not a fan. Life is far too short to be so rude, lady. That's what I wanted to say.

Anyway, I have to go back there tomorrow. Not to the sale, but to the area. I scheduled an eye appointment to coincide with our original plan (and the eye doctor wasn't in today), so Kevin's parents are lined up to watch Lewis--instead of shopping after my appointment, I think I'll go for a pedicure instead.

Oh, and I had great shopping success. I found: 2 coffee table protectors (the elasticized ones, not the sticky ones), a few other childproofing items, a pair of Pediped shoes (for later), a pair of Stride Rite shoes (for later), a ball popper toy, a few books, and a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars (for later). Success--the childproofing supplies were my main mission, and I found just what I was looking for which rarely happens. So now we're set until the next round, 6 months from now!

Fall and a Lake House

Note: First of all, I changed my settings so that I have to approve comments before they are posted. I've gotten a few spam comments the last few days.

Carrying on, Saturday morning we headed up to Unionville (Bloomington) to spend the weekend with Ben and Adie! We had a great time-watched some football, cooked, grilled, drank, caught up on the latest, played board games, etc.

Their house is set right next to woods with neighbors blocked by trees and wild animals creeping in the night. We ate dinner out on their deck, and we think a deer was lurking in the trees. Sleep was amazing, too--I could not believe how quiet their house was! No traffic noises outside--I could get used to that! I couldn't even hear Lewis in the room next to ours, so I had to bring the monitor in (which he made it all night away from home again--wahoo!).

Ben and Adie have two cats, Rogue (gray female) and Gambit (black male). Gambit spends most of his time outdoors, but when he is inside, he is very friendly. Rogue mostly stays inside and is more, should I say, intolerant, of others. :) She is sweet, but then she isn't--you'll be petting her and she'll purr and purr, and then she turns and bites you! We weren't sure how close we should let Lewis get to her, and OF COURSE he was obsessed with her. She didn't seem sure what she wanted--she'd run off, then come back for more, then run again.

Rogue, perched safely off of the ground for

maximum Lewis-viewing capabilities...

Perhaps this was the best arrangement for both of them...

Kisses through the glass :)

Watching football on a super big TV

As I mentioned in his 8 month post, Lewis is growing out of his 9 month clothes but isn't quite big enough for all of the 12 month clothes. I'd packed some 12 month pants that I put on him Sunday morning, but as he was crawling, he crawled right out of them...oopsy.

Pants-Free Sunday

Obsessed with electronics

I almost forgot (because I forgot to take pictures)--Kevin, Lewis, and I ran into Bloomington Sunday morning to grab breakfast and to meet Kevin's friend Ahren's new baby boy, Henry! He is so cute and tiny (just two weeks old!). Once he is a bit bigger, we'll unleash Lewis on him so they can play. :) This was just a quick visit.

Later in the morning, he spit up and then crawled through the spit up, so I decided to put him in a different outfit altogether. Here he is with Ben and Kevin, watching the Colts.

Manly Things

Lewis petting (yanking) Gambit

Sunday afternoon, Adie arranged for us to go out to Gene and Donna's (from Waycross) house on Lake Lemon where we had never visited before but had always wanted to. It was wonderful to see them and sit out in perfect fall weather on the deck of their beautiful home on Lake Lemon. Again, I could get used to that--Kevin and I both said that we could totally be 'Lake House People' in the future. It was great catching up with them and the perfect way to end our trip up to the Bloomington area.

Two Waycross Marriages and One Waycross Baby

Thanks, Niednagels, for a wonderful visit and for helping

bring us together all those (10!) years ago! :)

Great weekend.

Tonight, Lewis and I had our first Baby Splash swim class...it's 30 minutes, once a week, for five weeks, to introduce him to the water and work on a few basic skills. It's never too early, right? :) It was SO MUCH more intense than I thought it would be--we were reaching/grabbing, kicking, dipping, floating...we were Go, Go, Go for the full half hour. The instructor is pretty hardcore! I think it's going to be a great thing.

Eight Months Old

Eight Months Old!

His stats (from BabyCenter):

Height: 29.5 inches (between 90 and 95th percentile)

Weight: 21.5 pounds (between 50 and 75th percentile)

Head Size: 19 inches (above 95th percentile)

What he is doing this month:

• Pulling up on everything! The entertainment center, trash can, coffee tables, firewood, ottoman, our legs, couches, Jumperoo, toilet, filing cabinets, cabinets/drawers with handles, and baby gate are his current favorites. Pretty much everything. As I mentioned a few days ago, he is learning to fall more gracefully.
  
  
• He is also starting to pick up his feet and slowly make his way around the coffee tables and couches. He reaches out to move from one object to another, too, and sometimes makes it, but more likely, falls. He is pretty brave! Also, pretty bruised. :)
  
  
• Talking: Possibly saying 'Hi!' When he greets us, the dogs, cashiers/strangers, himself in the mirror, etc. he sometimes has a kind of 'Hiyeeeeee' yell thing that he does. Also, during our sleep training, I am pretty sure I heard 'Mama' in his cries a few times (thankfully that only happened a few times).
  He doesn't make much noise, but he has started doing a tongue clicking thing that I read is an early form of communication, so I've been clicking back to him. We have conversations. :)
  
  
• Clothing: He has almost outgrown all of his 9 month clothes. He can still wear a few pairs of 6/9 month shorts, but we have mostly moved onto the 6-12 month and 12 month size.
  
  
• Eating: He has made his way through all of the 1st Gerber fruit and vegetable purees--he seems to like everything except peaches. He'll eat them, but he doesn't love them. I tried giving him homemade purees, but he puked on four different occasions, so I gave up. Any sort of chunk seems to gag him, so I decided we would hold off for now.
  Next week, I plan to offer more finger foods and steamed/mashed bits of 'real' food to see how that goes. I offered him soft, slimy bits of avocado the other day, but again, he gagged. No puke, but definite gagging.
  I just looked up the feeding guidelines for 8-10 months on BabyCenter, and it has definitely opened up since the 6-8 month guidelines. Soft cheese, eggs, meat, beans, bread, Cheerios...whoa! They list daily recommendations for dairy, grains, fruits, vegetables, and protein, so I need to start incorporating more than just fruit/vegetable/cereal that we've been doing thus far. We might even have to start a 'lunch' feeding to fit it all in. (Currently, we only do breakfast and dinner.)
  
  
• Sleeping: Like a champ. What a difference a few weeks can make. We are tweaking a few things (trying to make his afternoon nap longer/better, deciding what time to start his bedtime routine, deciding how much awake time he has in between naps, etc.), but overall he is sleeping very well now.
  
  
• Pooping: Not to be too gross, but the past few weeks he has finally started having 'human poops' instead of baby poops. Felt like it was note-worthy in case I ever look back at this ol' blog for poo-related research. :)
  
  
• Current Tooth Count: 3. There was a 4th last week, but it has since disappeared.

And finally, I made a crib rail guard this week to help protect the finish on his crib from his sharp little toophers! I am a Plain Jane and could not choose a fabric that I felt would 'go' with what we already have going on in the nursery, so I went with just a plain dark brown. I decided to make the ties in a fabric that complemented the dots/circles on his crib skirt, so I found an orange batik dotted/circle-y fabric and a green bubbly/circle-y fabric. Emily helped me decide to 'mix it up' and make each bow one of each color instead of alternating each green, orange, green, etc. like my ordered/plain mind tends to do... Anyway, here is the finished product--I am very happy with how it turned out!

Better hurry up with that sewing, Mama...

this crib rail is awfully tempting.

Thanks, Mama! This is awesome!

:)

Here is the tutorial I used, with a few minor exceptions.

Happiness Is...

Our fabulous new iron.

I started a sewing project this week (a crib rail protector so Lewis can't gnaw off the finish)--after laundering my fabric, everything was, of course, a crinkly mess. Fine. I grabbed our iron but quickly realized that it was going to take me hours to iron out all of my fabric. And even after they were 'done' they were still wrinkly. I called Kevin, frustrated by how awful it was, and he informed me that the iron was his from COLLEGE--probably dating back 15 years. Needless to say, I scooped up Lewis and headed off to Target to find a new one. It was time.

I called Kevin who researched reviews on Amazon.com--we ended up going with a Black and Decker 'The Classic' model. I love it--Mom, I think I remember you having one when we were young. It's adorably retro-looking, but it has modern features like steam (wow!) and auto shut-off. Irons have come a long way in 15 years! I might just start ironing things more often.

The new Pampers Cruisers

We just received a new case of diapers last week, and they are SO greatly improved from the last case. They are softer, seem to have better absorbency and more absorbency square inch-age, and have new designs (better graphics, cute multi-colored dots, etc.). They are cute. I know it's stupid to think that diapers are cute, but they are. And so soft! (And yes, bad for Mother Earth.)

Fall Leaves

We are heading to the Bloomington/Brown County area this weekend, and B.C. is my favorite place to see the gorgeous fall colors!

Consignment Sales

Today I had a Consignment Sale moment. I went in with a short list of items to look for: childproofing supplies, baby gate, gear, toys. I forgot to look at clothes, but that's okay. He's good for now.

They did not have any childproofing supplies that I needed. However they did have TWO baby gates--one was a top-of-the-stair gate (it swings open/closed) that exactly matches another top-of-stair gate I found on craigslist last year. $5--sold! Now we can gate the top and bottom of our stairs to the basement. There is a door at the top, but I was uneasy about accidentally leaving it open when running downstairs. I also wanted to put one at the bottom of the stairs to keep him off of the landing/staircase.

Furthermore, I found a nice and tall pressure-mounted gate for $7 that exactly matches one that we bought for the dogs a few years ago and now use for Lewis. So now I can totally gate him into the living room AND be coordinated, doing so. :) You know how I love for things to match.

I found some awesome books, a few ziplocs of train track pieces, a nice wooden ABCs puzzle, and another Miracle Blanket that I've heard such great things about. One more next week, and the 'season' is over for me.

I'll post pictures of his crib rail protector once it is finished. I just need to iron it (my new favorite thing to do) and then topstitch it. It definitely takes longer to get things finished with an active baby in the house!

Weekend Fun

We made a trip up to the Indianapolis area this weekend. On the way up, we stopped off to visit with my parents for a bit at Papaw Sonny's favorite restaurant: Fazoli's! He said he hopes/wants Lewis to love it as much as he does. Dad has been known to drive almost an hour to Indianapolis to get his Classic Sampler and breadstick fix. :) We had a nice visit--David even surprised us with a visit, which was great!

Fazoli's with Mamaw and Papaw

Chillaxin' with Unckie Dave

We spent the weekend at Tony and Kendra's house in Fishers. We were supposed to go up to help them work on redoing their bathroom back in June, but we had to reschedule. Kevin, Tony, and Tony's dad worked on the bathroom while Kendra and I chatted and watched the babes.

Here is Lewis playing with one of the 5-month-old twins, Jenson. Lewis 'played' with Jenson and Edison--smushing their faces, eating their hair, sticking his fingers in their mouths, etc. He was a little bit rough, so we had to keep a close eye on him. I think he was used to playing with Juniper who outweighs him and who pushes back. It was fun to see all of the kids interacting.

What's up, Jenson?

We had a very, very, very fun time after the children went to sleep on Saturday. Dare I say too much fun? We played cards until very late and drank a little bit (or a lot) more than we are used to drinking, but it was really fun. Sunday morning was a little bit rough--we got up, fed Lewis, hung out for a bit, and then Kevin, Lewis, and I all took morning naps together. We felt better after the nap, but still didn't feel great. We aren't as young as we used to be. :)

The older girls (Lily and Sophie) wanted to play Super Mario Bros (NOT Brothers) in between wake-up time and nap time, so I joined. It was like the old Super Mario Brothers, but on the Wii. Some of it was familiar, but there were new features I kept screwing up (like having to shake the controller to jump higher).

Lily and Sophie and I played while Kevin took pictures of Norah and Lewis playing. Norah really seemed to like Lewis, and she calls him Lewsis, which is super cute.

Lewsis and beautiful Norah

Hey, Papa!

My bottom teeth are HUGE! See?!?

:)

Sweet Norah

Later, I ran upstairs for something and caught this moment from up above that made me smile. Lots of activity going on at the Butt house! And the twins weren't even out there when I took this (but Lewis is down there with our friend, Alan, and his son, Ben). And don't forget the dog (Maya)! Our dogs were there, too, but they were locked up in their crates in our room.

Sunday afternoon, we went to Ben's 1st birthday party and then headed back home. It was a great weekend!