I'm still here...

I haven't actually fallen off the planet.

Life is moving by at lightening speed lately. We've had our house appraisal and inspections. I have a million pictures to share once I have enough time to actually put them on my computer. Packing is... not really happening. We've made some more progress but its hard to find the motivation after working all day long. All I want to do is go to sleep after we put Marshall to bed. Too bad we don't have time to sleep.

I had a dream a few nights ago that we moved the things we really wanted out of our house, then lit the house on fire so we wouldn't have to deal with the other stuff. My subconscious isn't very subtle apparently. Maybe I shouldn't have written that down because now when I DO torch our house in a fit of rage and desperation there is proof that it was pre-meditated. Hmm.

Jerad has more work lined up than he has time to actually do it. Its awesome because it looks like we'll be able to do some things to the new house sooner than we thought we could, but not awesome because he doesn't have a moment of free time. He also has a project coming up in Pasadena that will last at least a month, and maybe as long as three months. He'll come home on the weekends but its still going to be hard.

Marshall is getting cuter by the minute. He is talking sooooo much! He says so many things now. His favorite things to "talk about" are the lights, doggies, and daddy and he starts blabbing all about them as soon as his eyes pop open in the morning. He's learning body parts and colors and can pick out orange and blue. He's starting to "sing" along with Jerad or the radio. So far it doesn't look like he's inherited Jerad's singing talent, he is definitely tone deaf like his mother. He's going through a phase of wanting to sleep with us again which is nice because we don't have to take turns getting out of bed when he wakes up now. He is thisclose to walking. Lord help us.

His birthday party is about 1.5 weeks away and I've done nothing to prepare for it except for inviting about 40 people to our house. Our disaster house that we will be moving out of about a week after the party. Hmm. What is there to do but laugh about it right?

The next few weeks are going to be stressful because we have social commitments literally every day of every weekend, plus we're working like crazy, plus doing the whole moving and home buying thing. Add a toddling baby, 3 crazy dogs, and a needy cat to the mix and we may be checking ourselves into a psych ward soon. Somehow we'll make it and hopefully find time to enjoy ourselves in the meantime.

Progress

Well, packing is officially underway! This is where we were at as of last weekend:


20 boxes. 15 medium, 5 large. And it sure doesn't seem like there is any less stuff on our house. We packed a lot of the kitchen, leaving service for 4, only a skillet and 2 different sized pots, then the knives and some cooking utensils. I've probably opened an empty drawer looking for something I "need" about 50 times now. That said I kind of like it.

We also packed a bunch of clothes, all the extra linens, and all my craft stuff. We're trying to get as much done now as we can before Jerad ends up out of town and I'm stuck packing on my own (ya, not gonna happen).

Since then we've packed another 5 boxes of house stuff, and worked in the basement.

Besides the ginormous amount of stuff we have in the house, we also have a basement. I'm thinking maybe we'll just seal the door shut and leave our stuff down there for some future owner to find. Bad idea? Its kind of the place where we throw things that we're "planning on dealing with later." And where Jerad keeps all his tools. Not a pretty sight.

In the meantime we're filling the office/spare room with boxes which means that the couch and a chair that were in there are now in our living room. I feel like we should have a party because we have seating for about 75 right now:



I have a goal of packing 10 boxes during the work week, then 20 each weekend plus spending 2 hours each weekend in the basement. We only have 3 weeks till closing (no exact date yet), so hopefully this plan will save us from being overloaded at the last minute.

In the next three weeks, besides dealing with all the stuff that comes with the home buying process, and trying to pack up this house, we have Easter, a family dinner, a guy's target shooting trip, Marshall's b-day, a baby shower, a wedding, 2 other birthdays, and a 3 day sales seminar at my job. Not to mention as usual, Jerad has more work than he can handle.

Wish us luck.

(you didn't think I'd leave you without a Marshall pic did you? :)

Little helper

Mars loves being involved in whatever we're doing, from cooking, to laundry, to vacuuming, to gardening he is thrilled to help.

Did I mention we're moving soon?

So, for the last few months we've been house hunting. For the most part we've been keeping it on the D.L. Well, I may pester a few friends hourly, I mean, daily with new listings and asking what they think... but besides that. I haven't wanted to say anything because you just never know what will happen, so why tell everyone we're house hunting then end up not going anywhere?

I guess I'm ready to put it out into the universe.

Monday morning we made an offer on this guy:

4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, living and family rooms, 2355 sq ft on .37 acres in a great location.

And they accepted it.

So, hopefully we're moving there in the next 30-45 days or so. If something falls through we have 2 other houses that came in close second so one way or another we'll be saying good bye to our little house soon.

Lunch

Its just been one of those days.

Our little Hambone

This is what happens when we say "show me your funny face"

Have I mentioned how much I love...

... the way Marshall just crawls into bed and puts himself to sleep?


This is self soothing at its best. All those months of nursing, and rocking, and cosleeping, and babywearing, and doing any little thing that made him fall asleep happily and peacefully and make positive sleep associations TOTALLY PAID OFF.


Also, how cute is that little stink-bug pose?

Favorite Toys

We try to keep the toys to a minimum over here. I don't have a problem with kid toys per se, I just want to avoid our house looking like this:

(photo from here)

I feel like when it comes to toys, less is more and I want Marshall to be able to clearly find and enjoy the things he does have. I have a box of toys in his closet and I try to rotate them and put out new things as the novelty of the current ones wears off. I also move his toys and books from room to room, because sometimes a bead maze in his bedroom is boring, but put it in the office and suddenly it becomes The Best Thing Ever.

Honestly, I don't know why I make the effort, because his favorite things aren't even "toys" at all.

This is what he's been obsessed with for the past few weeks:

That would be an acorn squash. I bought it to roast, and the little thief nabbed it and hasn't stopped rolling it around ever since.





His other current obsession are coffee cans with a few beans in them.


He bats and chases them around the house. Its pretty amusing.




Other favorite "non toys" have been a sea shell that he pushes like a car, a bag of wooden clothes pins, and when I saved up empty toilet paper rolls and filled a small basket with them. I'm trying to enjoy his easy to please attitude now before he starts begging for Thomas the Tank Engine or whatever it is kids are into these days.

11 months

Yesterday Marshall turned 11 months old. I keep telling him to stop getting older, but clearly he isn't listening.

This is such a fun stage. The biggest changes in the past month are his communication abilities. He definitely has preferences and opinions and makes sure we know what they are. He is saying "mama" and "dada" and "hi" and "gooo" (short for "good" when he eats something he likes), and sometimes "light" and "bite" (although it sounds like "lye" and "bye"). He definitely understands a lot of what we say and knows what fan, car, bye bye, cat, doggies, grandma + grampa, take a drink, on and off (for the lights), sit down, come here and a few other things all mean. He loves showing off and will wave when we say "hi" or "say bye-bye," give us kisses when we ask, clap when we say "yeay!" or when he does something he's proud of.

His newest trick is putting his hands up in the air when we say "how big?"

Then we say "soooooo big!" And he thinks its hilarious.


And yes, it is as adorable as it looks in the pictures.

Current obsessions include but are not limited to: pictures and videos of babies (especially himself); electronics like our phones or remotes (cannot be tricked by a toy version!); pointing to and reaching for anything of interest and asking us "dat?" (meaning 'hey guys, what is that thing?'); opening and closing doors, cabinets and drawers; pulling things out of drawers, laundry baskets or bins; placing toys on top of other toys; kissing the baby in the mirror, mommy and daddy, or his stuffed animals (he is one kissy little kid!); chugging water out of our cups; riding on daddy's shoulders; and playing 'chase.' He'll crawl up to us, then make a creepy fake laughing sound while crawling away and looking over his shoulder. Then we say 'I'm gonna get you!' and pretend tickle the air, and he totally loses his mind and squeals as he crawls away in a panic. Soooo cute. Sometimes he'll turn around and chase us back, except when he catches us he bites which isn't quite as cute.

He is really into books now:

His favorites are 2 books from Aunt Kanda and Uncle Mark that have pictures of babies in them. He will sit in his chair and flip through all of the pages while babbling under his breath:

then every now and then he'll burst out laughing. He is so concentrated, its adorable to watch:
This month he has really stepped up his eating game as well. He will pick the foods he likes off of his tray, then throw what he doesn't like onto the floor. He favorites are spicy things like chana masala, curried vegetables, anything sauteed in garlic, and last night he loved the heck out of some bbq'd mahi mahi. Let me say, I am sooo glad we decided to let him self feed instead of doing baby food purees. It has made meal times so convenient. We just give him his own portion of whatever we're eating and he "talks" and eats while we talk and eat our own meals. He loves picking up the food and taking bites, then picking out something else and trying it.

Lately I've been giving him a spoon of coconut oil to suck on with meals because its an easy way to give him a healthy fat and he loves holding the spoon.


He is so close to walking. He can stand without holding onto anything, but as soon as he notices that he's doing it, he'll sit down. He can walk around holding to us with just one hand. I'm actually looking forward to him starting to walk because hopefully it will slow him down a little. This kid is a FAST crawler!

He loves the dogs. If they're in the house he will chase them all around, and as soon as we go in the backyard he speeds towards their side yard and "calls" them by grunting and yelling:


I think they can understand him because they always come running:


Bailey is convinced he is able to play fetch with her and always brings him a ball or frisbee.

She'll hold it right up to the fence and wait for him to grab it. Then she gets all excited only to be let down when he decides to chew on it himself (I gave up on that battle a long time ago) or just shake it and throw it down. She forgives him though.


Right now Marshall is obsessed with "helping" me vacuum. I have a canister vac and he'll hold on to it and walk around behind me then crawl up to the power head and beat on it. Its actually nice because if he's bored its an easy way to get the house clean AND keep him entertained. The only thing better than the vacuum, is the lawn mower:


He loves to watch Jerad mow and claps and cheers him on the whole time:

So far, this kid isn't scared of anything.

He still loves wheels and balls, and LOVES sitting on Jerad's little tractor that is just his size:


He gets super focused and steers, pulls the levers, bounces in the seat, and beats on the wheel.

When he gets a little older he's gonna love driving it!

I can't believe our little man is almost a year old. Time has flown by so fast. I'm trying to cherish every moment, but also can't wait to see what the next month brings!