New Roommates, Dancing and Summer Fun

I'm back! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated the blog - I really fell behind this time! But, I decided in the last week that I am really going to try a lot harder to keep up to date with my e-mails, messages from people, and keeping this updated with the most current info for everyone! I know how much I look forward to getting updates from my friends and family, so I want to be more regular about this.

Lots of stuff has been happening around here since the last time that I wrote! Sam is 14 months old now and doing wonderful. He got his first pillow two days ago - I was trying to find a smaller one and came across a travel pillow, which is just about the perfect size for his little boy head. He has been doing pretty well with sleeping, most nights he sleeps through the night or only wakes up once. He's pretty much down to one bottle a day at bedtime too, mostly he drinks milk and juice and water out of his sippy cups. He has been taking super long naps - sometimes up to 4 hours! I'm not sure why, but the great part is that when it gets to be about 4.5 hours after he woke up in the morning we can do some quiet time and then put him down awake for his nap and he will usually go to sleep pretty quickly. It's much better than just waiting for him to fall asleep on his own and him getting over tired.

Sam is a champion walker now - he barely crawls anymore. He does crawl when he falls and isn't near something to pull himself back up to standing on, but sometimes he walks around on his knees instead! Yesterday while I was out, Justin saw him stand up on his own twice, without holding on to anything! It's the first time he's done that, and once he gets that down I think he'll pretty much give up crawling for the most part! He is also good at climbing stairs somehow, even though we have our stairs blocked off. I let him climb up today and he is pretty quick! It's another story when it comes to going down the stairs though. He has no concept of how to do it, whether it be walking down or crawling down backwards. So, we need to work on that.

Sam has also started dancing! It's not too much yet, but he wiggles his butt back and forth when music is playing, especially the theme song to "The Backyardigans", which seems to be his favorite song aside from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He also loves Blues Clues and is very captivated by it, and dances during all of the little songs they do. It's so cute! We will try to get a little video of it soon.

Justin finally figured out the right way to convert the videos that I'd taken with our camera. It actually takes pretty good quality videos, which is nice because we can take short ones and then just transfer them to the computer when we transfer our pictures. So, I've will upload some videos from March and April onto my video page as soon as I figure out which website I want to use. I will put a link to our video website over to the right with the link to our photo pages. We also have a cute video of Sam walking all the way down the hallway when he was first learning, but I haven't gotten it converted yet. I also have a few random pictures from June that I just added to our Flickr page including some from our most recent visit to Bellingham, and some from the Science Center last week. Check them out for your Sam fix!

Up until the last couple of days (we think he might not have been feeling too well), Sam has been eating like CRAZY! I swear, he eats as much or more than Seamus and Lorelai, who are 3 and 5. I don't know where he puts all of it, he's so small still! His favorite food right now is hot dogs. He eats the fake Morningstar Farms hot dogs at home, and regular meat hot dogs if we're out somewhere that they're selling them. He finally got the hang of sippy cups and usually has one with him now. He has done really great with the transition to using a milk-based formula and to drinking whole milk, no stomach troubles or anything, which is great. He still won't eat peas or carrots, but I think maybe if they were fresh and not packaged he might like them more. Who can blame him for not wanting to eat microwaved, packaged peas?

So, that is mostly what's been going on with Sam. Justin and I are both doing well, although Justin has been thrown off lately because of going back and forth between working at night and working during the day. The biggest change around our house is that we got a new roommate last week! Justin's friend Tim moved back up to Seattle from Las Vegas about 3 weeks ago. He was staying with us and looking for a place to live and after much discussion, Justin and I decided to clear out the office and rent it to him. It's a little bit of a change for me, but I am also trying to do something good for someone and help him out, at least until he gets settled in with jobs and stuff again. Now the desk is in our bedroom, and if he moves out we'll have a room for the next baby, whenever that happens. It's working out fairly well so far, and there are DEFINITELY perks. Like having someone to mow the lawn and take out the trash. Plus, last week Justin and I actually got to go to TWO movies in one week by having Tim stay here with Sam after he went to bed for the night! Woo hoo!

I am still loving staying home with Sam and going to regular playdates with our friends. I'm REALLY looking forward to the new Harry Potter movie and the new bok that cmes out in 2 weeks. Next week I'm volunteering M-Th to help out with the kids at Vacation Bible School at church, then on Thursday night Kira and I are leaving on a redeye flight to Atlanta to go to our Aunt Becky's wedding. We'll be gone until Monday, it should be a nice little break, and I'm really looking forward to spending the time with Kira.

So, that is what's going on with us. I will post again much sooner this time!