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!

Some Updates

Getting Outside

Last week we made it to Cherokee Park here in Louisville--they have a 2.5 mile multi-use loop road that winds through the woods (full of leaves just beginning to change color) and past a few really beautiful outlooks. We did hear the interstate a few times, but otherwise it was hard to believe we were in the middle of the city. Also, I didn't get lost, which I consider a small victory! The park is notorious for being confusing because the loop is a one-way with many in/out points.

I'm going to try to get us out on a longer walk at least once a week as a way of semi-training for a 5K coming up in mid-November. Kevin is running the mini marathon, so Lewis and I signed up to walk the 5K with Lewis in the jogging stroller. The once-a-week longer walk will be in addition to the mile and a half morning walk we've been doing for the past month or so.

Here is Lewis at one of the overlooks in Cherokee Park. I can totally see us there in a few years, chasing him down this huge hill. It's one of those hills that makes you want to log roll down it or run really, really fast.

Pulling Up/Falling Down

Lewis is becoming much more graceful and daring with his pulling up/falling down. He has figured out that landing squarely on his butt hurts a lot less than the butt-back-head combination. He still falls, of course, but he has greatly improved and refined his method in just this past week. The worst is when he falls and hits the shelf around the bottom of the coffee table. His black eye was JUST about gone, and he fell and got a new bump this morning on his eyebrow. And a bump on his forehead. And a bruise on his cheek. And he flipped head first into the laundry basket for a few seconds--butt in the air, flailing his legs.

He likes to (if given the chance) pull up on the coffee tables, floor lamp, toilet, entertainment center, laundry basket, chairs, couches, and Peter's elevated dog bowl frame. He is keeping me on my toes, for sure.

Sleep

Last week, we officially dove into the world of sleep training. The book we are using (The SleepEasy Solution) teaches Lewis to fall asleep on his own, without me nursing him, without being rocked, without having a pacifier, etc.

I can't believe we waited this long to do it.

The first night was rough, I admit. Since then, he has 'gotten' it and he has been falling asleep better and better each day/night. He's had a few hiccups, but overall we are all very excited about the change in just a week's time. What a difference an uninterrupted night of sleep makes after almost 8 months without it!

The problem was that we were sending mixed signals. If he cried, we might go in and shush him. We might give him a minute to see if he would fall asleep. We might go in and pick him up and bounce him. We might try the pacifier. We might sit and rock him. I might nurse him. We would take turns, get frustrated, get annoyed with each other, get laughed at (that was Kevin's favorite), and we finally decided it was time that he learned how to fall asleep on his own.

While it has been hard to hear him cry it out, we do go in at specific intervals to let him know we're not far and that it is okay to go to sleep. So far, so good. Before going away for the weekend, he was happily falling asleep at every naptime and bedtime without a peep. We went to Indianapolis this weekend where he made it all night (yay!), but he had some trouble falling asleep for his afternoon nap today here at home. And he woke up 45 minutes earlier than usual this morning, too, so he's a little bit out of whack--we'll just stick with the plan, though, and hopefully he'll get back to happily sleeping again soon.

Consignment Sales

It is the Fall/Winter consignment sale 'season' around Louisville...I have been to two so far, and I have two more to check out--one this week and one next. I am hoping to find some childproofing supplies to try to lessen the bumps and bruises--I saw some at the first sale, but Lewis wasn't mobile then and I didn't think to buy any. The second sale didn't have very many, but I did find a good variety of toys.

Here is a video I took (before my memory card filled up, of course) the other night of him playing with a highchair toy I found--I didn't know they existed, and I'm so glad I found this! I tend to cram in unloading the dishwasher or washing dishes while I have him in his highchair, waiting to eat. So it's really nice to be able to give him a toy to play with while I take the extra 5 minutes. He loves it, too!

Craftiness

Friday we went to JoAnn's to shop their Columbus Day sale. They had a lot of items that I've been sort of waiting to pounce on, on sale, plus I received a 20% coupon in my email for regular and sale-priced items, which never happens. So, I bought $125 worth of fabric, batting, velcro, and (four!) throw pillow forms for only $75. Yay!

I need to get started on the sewing projects like YESTERDAY. The biggest project I have planned is a crib rail guard to protect the finish on his crib, but I need to find some time to make it! He now totally pulls up in his crib and stands there waiting to be picked up--it is only a matter of time before he starts gnawing on it and messing up the finish. A race against his sharp little teeth!

First Football Game, First Time Pulling up, and (Subsequent) First Black Eye!

Hello, Fall! I love you. I love the changing leaves. I love the cool air. I love football. I love bonfires. I love sweatshirts. I love pumpkin-y stuff. I love it all.

We had a great weekend--we (Kevin, Lewis, and I and Kevin's brother, Scott) went to the Louisville vs. Marshall football game on Saturday. Louisville lost, but we had fun tailgating and being out in the perfect football weather. Today we had a laid back day around the house where Lewis pulled up to standing for the first time (!!!), we took a nice walk around the neighborhood with the dogs, and then tonight we cooked dinner over a bonfire.

Thanks to the Campfire Cooking cookbook that you got me a few Christmases ago, Mom, we made some tasty taco pockets. They consisted of crescent roll dough in a pie iron, filled with taco meat, beans, and cheese. A-men. Since we only have one pie iron, we put them in the oven after Kevin was finished cooking them (one at a time) over the fire--I didn't think of it until afterwards, but the extra oven time helped the dough puff up even more and they were delicious! And my hair smells like bonfire--even better. :)

We also turned our heat on for the first time this weekend--we woke up Saturday morning and the house was pretty chilly (overnight lows were in the 40s), so we decided that we should probably go ahead and turn it on for Lewis' sake.

Here is his game day outfit. We got the jersey for him at a consignment sale right after he was born, so I'm glad he had a chance to wear it before it was too small! I couldn't get him to stay still for very long, so the pictures aren't the greatest, but you get the point.

Go Cards!

I pulled his pants down a bit so you could see the Cardinal on his booty.

Ready for the big game!

First Time Tailgating

Trying to steal my Pumpkin Blue Moon (so tasty) :)

Bundled up and NOT napping (who could?)

We had planned to start sleep training after the game, but his afternoon nap didn't happen until the drive home (close to 7pm), so we decided that was not the best time to start it. Today got away from me and I felt unprepared, so we aren't starting it tonight either. I will try to finish my preparations tomorrow--I have a little bit of rereading I would like to do and a little bit more wrapping-my-brain-around-it to do before I feel comfortable committing to it. I just need a little bit more time.

The next set of pictures/video are from this afternoon when he all of a sudden decided to start pulling up! He's been looking and reaching upward for a few weeks now, but he's just started trying to pull with his arms the past few days. He has been getting to his knees and hanging out like that for a while before giving up, moving on, etc. Finally today he figured out that he could also push up with his legs! We were totally shocked (and maybe a little teary-eyed) when he pulled up to standing today. It has been so neat to watch him figure it out--I'm also so glad Kevin was able to see it with me for the first time!

Cracking himself up in his orange fleece pants.

We are a fleece pants-loving household.

Yum, lead paint.

We had Multi-room DVR installed last week, and they left the old DVR remote, so we took the batteries out and let Lewis play with it since he is constantly eyeing our phones, remotes, etc.

Here are a few videos of his new skill--still pretty rough, but he is determined to figure it out! And, like Emily said, I know there will be lots of bumps and bruises as he is learning.

His first black eye

He got it while trying to pull up onto the Rock Band drum set. He face-planted onto the base of one of the legs and hit it at just the right angle.

Oh, and you can't see it in these pictures, but he has a FOURTH tooth coming through!! Just spotted it peeking through the skin today--it is in the same position as the third, on the opposite side. I believe they are the ones directly next to his top two middle ones--I told Kevin we should ditch the frog idea for Halloween and do either a vampire or a Jack-o-lantern since he'll have such a great, toothy smile by then! We'll see--we still have a month, so he could get more between now and then.

I love you, Lewis Pete. :)