pictures from my phone from the past 8 months.

Here are shots from my phone since November. I take photos but then they sit on my phone so in honor of his first year, I thought I would share because there are things about each of these pictures that make me sad that he's growing but excited to see how is has grown and keeps growing.

Hot hot hot day.

He was so chill, letting his cousins hold the hose of freezing water
over his face.

After the toy was taken from him by this guy...

and then after he had to give it back.

It was a hot hot day--in the high 90s and the humidity felt about 1000%. The kids ended the day in some little pools and our boy played away in the water and pulling himself up on the sides. He lasted longer than all the cousins and held his own with all of them as they splashed him.

A few more things I remember:
*How amazing that I was able to wake up so easily ever couple hours to feed him and stay awake. That was a miracle.
*How he never got baby acne and had and still has the most beautiful skin tone.
* Feeling excited and relieved when we would weigh him (in those first couple weeks) and he had gained ounces.
* Watching "Deadliest Catch" during the night feedings. Love Sig.
* Spending an hour feeding him, then an hour pumping just in time to feed him again. Phew.
* The double breast pump. nuff said.
* The day he started to eat well and do the whole suck suck swallow thing and not be the lazy eater he was--only took him 6 weeks.

Wow, that was a blur of year

My boys

Mike on skype with his parents right after he was born.

I will always love this shot.

Our little kiwi boy turns one on Saturday. Uh, that went by kind of at a blurred top speed. It honestly does go by so much faster than you think. People, always tell you that and it's true because somehow are boy is one! If I can find the moments this week, I am going to take the time to remember some of this past year starting with the day he was born.

Things I am remembering:
* The way my contractions started just before midnight on his due date. It's like he knew and got things rolling.
* Watching episodes of "Ice Road Truckers" and "The Office" on hulu while I was home contracting.
* Clenching the head rest of Mike's seat as he SPED to the hospital while the "Last of the Mohicans" soundtrack BLASTED--it really helped me. Daaaaa da da da da da da daaaaaaaa.....
* Having the midwife peak her head into triage right after I got to the hospital and heard my contraction grunt and said, "uh, this woman is going to have a baby" 20 odd minutes later I did.
* The oxygen I breathed in between contractions and pushes felt sooooooo cool and good. Deep, deep cool breaths of oxygen. Nothing like getting high on some 02.
* The midwife checking out the placenta and kind of giving us a tour (sounds grosse but it was actually very interesting and the btw, mine showed no signs of thinning...the preeclampsia thing)
* Mike almost fainting :)
* The feeling of relief!

first scab.

Sorry for the lack of posts. We have been full out working on the Inn but I have a brief respite now to update. This was a few days after the incident where he had his first big tumble (off our bed-ouch!) The scab covered his whole nose but healed very quickly. It was hot this day and his cheeks were all rosey. He also fell asleep in his chair eating lunch in the warm air. That's the life huh?

Montreal a month ago

taking a break after crossing the border


not sure what this building was but it was very colorful


reminds me of gaudi


the cool rental bikes


the boys


the free baklava we got at the cafe


Canadian tag




this was a big important building but I have forgotten why?


not a hero movie ;)

at ikea

It was such a fun day when we went up to Montreal with Mike's dad and my mom about a month ago. I really enjoyed having a family day away from the busy busy life here. It was only about 3 hours and exciting to go to another country and actually feel the difference. Helps keep our travel bug at bay when we can run up to Montreal for the day and get a small dose.

There were all these cool rental bike stations and lots of sculptures around and we spent lots of time people watching, walking, and driving around the different areas of the city. We made our way to Ikea before we drove home. My favorite moment of the day was when Pete had our boy on his shoulders and I heard "Ouch!" and he had leaned over and bit Pete's ear with his little sharp teeth. Of course he was all smiles and giggling. Funny.

11 month.

I think this is the first month when I looked at the month picture and saw a little boy not a baby. I wanted to get this posted before I went to bed so I might write more tomorrow. He is our busy blue eyed boy. This morning he pulled himself up to our table and reached for anything and threw it on the ground. He's into everything.

.

Preppy boy.

I found this Lacoste/IZOD shirt in one of the many bags of hand me downs. It is serious vintage 80s goodness and paired with those $1 plaid shorts, our boy was looking ready for golf at the country club. Thanks for this picture, Rich.

Pete is here.

Pete is here for a week on his way back from a conference in Germany. We've just been doing our thing and Pete is here to hang with our little man. In the last 2 days he has been starting to pull himself up on things and today he discovered stairs and went up two. He likes walking around on your shoulders and think he looks so cute up there. He's also just started doing the little shy thing when people talk with him, he'll lean his head onto my shoulder. I love that. I will take any little quiet moments I can get. He is most content exploring and seeing new things. He seems to get bored with the same old books and toys. We are heading up to Montreal for the day tomorrow and hitting IKEA on the way back. I feel like we are going on vacation. I am very excited. Hey, we are going to a different country.