Christmas recap; goodbye 2013

     I hope I will be better at posting next year but who knows.  It has been a stressful, busy month.  We bought a house!  We are closing tomorrow.  It was built in 1959 and looks different on the outside than every other home we saw so it was a breath of fresh air.  I think it is so cute.  It has plenty of room for us to be comfortable for a few years and grow our family.  It was just stressful getting all of the paperwork in.  It is almost all over and now we will be able to concentrate on fixing it up.  I can post inside pictures later.

My Christmas wreath.

     Christmas was great.  We spent time with both our families and Eric got to spend it with us.  It's always nice having everyone together again.  We played a couple of games, had some delicious food and all the kids had a blast together.  I thought Adrian would be more fun opening gifts this year but he was pretty apathetic.  When we opened presents from Santa he pulled the bow off of one present, and tried to bite another bow off.  That was it.  He loved playing with everything once it was open so that has been entertaining.  It's nice to have new things to play with him.

     Now that Adrian has all of the physical milestones down, he is talking more.  In one day I heard him say three new things.  He said "uh huh" when my dad asked him if he liked his new plane.  He repeatedly said "ta daa!" while my mom was playing with him.  He said "uh oh!" but I'm not sure what that was about.  He says "more" "wow" and his new favorite word is "no."  He hands books to me when he wants to read.  His favorite book is the Pout Pout Fish.  He is starting to outgrow his onesies and shirts, but his pants are still too long.  The boy has a long torso and short legs.

I went to get pictures from my phone and google made it snow in this picture lol.

     I don't want to forget cute stories and I know I'll have many more as he gets older.  I'm going to try to be better at keeping up with this.  Here's to the new year!

He's so smart, I just love it.

     Yesterday Chris came over and we played this game called Smash Up.  Chris won both times and Matt was mad that he lost.  So we played again when Chris left and he won.  Only because I let him though.

     Adrian is quite the handful these days.  Have I said that before?  I can't wait until he gets out of the habit of putting everything in his mouth.  He has also learned a new trick: tearing pages out of books.  So now all he has access to are his board books.  He used to just look at them or take them all off the shelf and walk away; so I wasn't worried about ruining them.

     Chris and Allie gave him this cow that moos and walks while a song plays.  It terrifies and fascinates him at the same time.  He cowers and smiles while it plays, and brings it to me when he wants to hear it.  I started singing Old Macdonald for the first time the other day and I did the cow first.  Adrian got up and grabbed the cow.  He knows what a cow is!  I was so impressed.  In other news, Mom heard him say "kick" while he was kicking a balloon the other day.  He says "done" after meals even though it doesn't prevent him from throwing his food over and trying to get out.  He places phones to his ear and pretends to talk on them.  He knows what the remote does and points it at the tv.  Another thing is, he is starting to figure out how things fit together.  He wants to put the plug into my computer and put the caps on drinks.  I got him a puzzle today and he was trying to do it.  He's so smart, I just love it.

You can't see it too well but this is him pointing the remote.

     I've gotten all of my Christmas shopping done for Adrian and I'm pretty proud of myself because I got some great deals.  Not black friday worthy, but I am not a black friday shopper.  Black friday is like taking all of my social fears and combining them in the recesses of hell.  While I am pleased that I got it done, I really want to give his presents to him now.  It will be hard to wait a month.  Now I need to do a craft project but I can't tell you what it is because it's a surprise for some people.  Also it might not turn out.  Wish me luck!

October

     We have had a busy month of pumpkin patches, illness, house hunting, house disappointments and halloween festivities.  Yet I don't feel very interesting today so I'm mostly going to post pictures.

     We went to a different pumpkin patch than normal, with mom and Michelle, Hudson and Coco.  It was fun but a little confusing to navigate.

I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be a tree dude from Lord of the Rings.  So I took a picture for Matt. Notice Adrian at the bottom.

In the middle of the picture is a David Bowie chicken.  Check out his mane thing.  I'm not sure what he really is called but look at him!

At my parent's house, watching Sophie eat.  He just sat there and watched and she didn't care.  I stood there with him, don't worry.

Cuffed jeans on babies are to die for.

     In my last post I talked about how we were going to bid on a house; we lost the bid.  We had a different house that we bid on a couple weeks later which would have been perfect, but we lost that bid too.  So the search continues.  We have our eye on one right now that's right across from a park.  We are going to look into how much it will cost to make repairs before we put an offer in on it.

This is an adorable lion jacket I bought because I assumed it would be cold at the pumpkin patch.

     Matt and I went to Vala's pumpkin patch with some of our friends who go every year.  We had Matt's parents babysit Adrian because he is no fun in public right now.  He just wants to crawl around and eat whatever is on the floor.  I think he enjoyed being at his grandparent's house more anyway.  We only took a couple pictures and they aren't very good.  So no pictures for you.

     Yesterday was my birthday so my mom made a cake and Michelle decorated it.  It was beautiful and delicious!  Matt had to work so we are going out for my birthday tonight.  I keep seeing commercials for Olive Garden that look delicious so we might go there.  I'm not very adventurous.

     I finished Adrian's Halloween costume, which is Charlie Brown.  He looks so cute!  Tomorrow we are going to a nursing home with my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group and the residents are going to pass out candy to the kids.  So at least he will get some use out of his costume.

Happy Halloween everyone!

With one you get egg roll...on the ground

     Does anyone get my title?  Hmm?  That movie was on the other day.

     Adrian is walking more every day and it is adorable.  It is also a pain in the ass.  Now that he has learned a new way to be mobile, he doesn't want to stay still for anything.  Even when he has food in front of him!  Are we sure this is my child?  I was looking for a card for Christian's birthday at Target and Adrian was wriggling out of the shopping cart, flinging himself back when I picked him up and carrying on and it was nearly impossible to concentrate.  I don't like to be rushed while picking a card.  We high tailed it out of there as soon as I was done but I realized I'm going to have to avoid taking him out now.

Adrian's jack-o-lantern

     I realize he is just a normal one year old and I love him dearly but I miss my little shopping buddy.  He did manage to sit still long enough to decide between two light-up jack-o-lanterns.  He looked at both of them, and flung his arms towards the one with a scary face.  That's my boy!  I'm so excited to have someone to decorate with.

     I went to lunch with Matt's mom and Jenny that I used to work with on Saturday and he slept most of the time so it was nice.  Then on Sunday I went to lunch with my Aunt Patty and Matt watched Adrian.  It was a nice, peaceful lunch and I finally gave her that blanket!  Today I went to lunch with Michelle and Hudson.  Adrian did fine for about 5 minutes and then he freaked out and was screaming, flinging himself about, and then he threw an egg roll.  The egg roll was the last straw, those things are delicious and I only got one.  Also I didn't want to disturb the other patrons with his screaming so I called Matt and had him pick Adrian up.

     Michelle and I decided to take the babies to play at the mall play area next time.  Other than that I'm going to have to find things for Adrian to do to get energy out when it is cold.  Wish me luck.

     On another note, Matt and I are going to bid on a house tomorrow!  It isn't too far away and it has 3 bedrooms, a 2 car garage and a pretty big kitchen. I am so nervous and excited and I hope we get it!

I couldn't get a picture of his adorable outfit because he didn't want to be held down.  

Lipstick.  This was fun to get out of the carpet.  Thank goodness his shirt isn't ruined!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

   

       
    Last weekend we went to Vala's with my friends.  It was fun going out with all four of the kids.  They look so cute next to each other.

     Adrian liked the hay and wanted to crawl around the whole time.  He was filthy by the end.  I tried letting him play in the corn pit but he just wanted to eat it.  So mostly he either rode the stroller around or made me hold him.  We watched the pig race and Adrian and Anakin's strollers were side by side.  They held hands for a few seconds, which was adorable:

     We rode the hay rack ride and Adrian liked the tractor the was pulling us.  He got mad towards the end and I had to distract him with food.  Always food.  After a little while the high school crowd started trickling in.  We noticed that 90% of the girls were wearing leggings as pants.  I didn't realize that was such a strong trend right now and it made all of us feel really old.  In my day, you covered your ass.

     It was hard without Matt because Adrian was fighting me when I tried to put him in the stroller, so I had to carry him around most of the time.  My friends were helpful but I always feel like a single mom when they have their spouses and I'm alone.  I'll make sure Matt can go with us next year because I think I would enjoy it more.  I did have fun though, and Adrian had a blast.  He was passed out in the car on the way home.

     Matt, Adrian and I will go closer to Halloween so we can have a family outing and take more pictures of Adrian with pumpkins, and go through the Pumpkin Mine.

     Adrian is standing by himself, and then taking 2 or 3 steps forward.  He is doing so well and will be walking any day!

Countdown to fall

    It is taking everything I have not to put out my fall wreath and buy some mums right now.  Only 9 days until fall starts!  I am so excited.  Fall is my favorite season.  I love the colors of the leaves, and pumpkins, baking pies, wearing long sleeves and jeans, and the holidays are just around the corner.  I think Adrian will appreciate the season a lot more this year.  He needs to start walking so he can fully participate!  I will love it if he is walking at least a little when we go to Vala's Pumpkin Patch.

     Speaking of my little angel

This is what he has been up to lately:

He likes to pull every dvd and book off of the shelf.  Then they get stepped on.  Don't worry, the shelf is tied down.

Note the Cheerio on his head

 I put a napkin on top of his head and he laughed and took it off.  Then he put it back on his head.  Monkey see monkey do!

 I gave him pasta and peaches.  He ate all of the peaches and threw the pasta overboard.  This boy loves fruit.

For Grandparent's day I made framed scrapbook pages with Adrians handprint and poems.  Matt helped me pick out the items for his parents' gift:

For Grandma and Papa Carlson:

Nona and Grandpa Bobby John:

Getting these handprints was a lot of work.  I ended up sticking his high chair in front of Kipper so he would be distracted.  Voila!

Daria

This is the Daria reference I made in my last post:



That is all.

Date Night

     Adrian is better and has his appetite back.  As hard as it is to chase him and clean up after him all day, it sure beats seeing him sick and crying every couple hours because he feels so awful.

     This weekend Matt and I went on a date.  Matt's parents watched Adrian and we went to a hibachi grill.  It's a fun place to have a date, but both of us were a little nervous because we had three other couples at our table that we didn't know.  They were nice though.  The whole time I was dreading the part that always happens: when they throw shrimp so you can catch it with your mouth.  To me, this is gross and inappropriate in a restaurant.  It doesn't bother me when other people do it, but I don't want to.  Call me a prude, call me a party pooper, I will own that. I have all kinds of hang ups.  The list would be very long. So when the time came he asked if I was ready:

Me: "I don't want to, I don't like shrimp"
Him: "That's okay" (proceeds to take some of my chicken instead)
Me:"I just don't want to do it at all, it grosses me out"
Him: "Are you sure?  Just try it" (starts to get ready to toss)
Me: "I'll duck" "have you ever seen Daria?"
Him: "party pooper" (turns to Matt and says something about feeling sorry for him, in a joking way)
Matt:"Help me."

So even though I'm LAME everyone else had fun.  The food was delicious and I got my fried rice kick for the week.

After this we were going to walk around the outdoor mall, but we took so long trying to find a parking spot that we gave up.  So next we went to a comic book store because I agreed to it beforehand.  I ended up getting the first comic of Buffy from season 8 and Matt got nothing, so who's the nerd now?  I've read what happens in the comics and it gets insane and I refused to accept any of it as cannon.  I've decided to give it a chance.

After the comic book store we got ice cream and parked and talked while we ate it.  Was our date like a high school date?  I don't care, it was nice.

On Friday we were supposed to go to a concert at a vineyard but it got cancelled.  So we played video games together.  I suck at current video games.  There are too many buttons!  I can't keep up.

     Adrian has started this new thing where he squeezes his fingers in and out like he's milking a cow.  He uses both hands and it means "come here" "pick me up" or "give me that food".  I think he learned it from Matt, who motions "come here" with his fingers in a similar fashion.  It's so cute, I'll have to get a video.  Of Adrian, not Matt.