9 Months

Christopher had his 9 month well check on Monday. He's healthy as can be. The Dr. said it won't be long now until he has teeth. Only had one shot this time, he didn't cry but he did get a tear in his eye and look up at me with the saddest face he could muster. I'm going to be in trouble later when he's intentionally pulling that look.

At his well check we got his currents stats too!!
Height: 26.5" up from 26" at his 6 month well check, 24.8" at his 4 month well check and 23.3" at his 2 month. This puts him in the 3rd percentile.
Weight: 18.15lbs up from 17lbs 6oz at his 6 month, 15lbs 6oz at his 4 month well check and 11lbs 1oz at his 2 month. This puts him in the 10th percentile.

He's Crawling!!

It's amazing how fast our little ones grow. Just last week he was barely pulling himself along the floor (in undead zombie fashion,) and this week he's crawling. He's able to put some speed on too, it's crazy that one minute he'll be right in front of me and if I stop paying attention he'll be clear across the room because he found another power cord to tug on. That's right, Christopher and cords have a magnetic attraction to each other. If they are in the same vicinity you can be sure they'll meet up.

The last couple of nights have been late ones. The little guy has been fighting some kind of sick for a couple of weeks now and the last two days seem to have taken their toll. He's napping a lot which means he's not going down for the night as early. However he's still waking up at his normal time, which leads to a tired couple of parents. Luckily Adam is home this week (so far,) so I've had help. I probably would have been calling for the grandparents brigade for reinforcements if he hadn't been here.

My new improved kitchen!!

I decided I wanted to paint my kitchen. All the walls in my house being one color was driving me mad and the only "common" area downstairs I could really see painting was the kitchen. It was clay beige (see photo below.)



I talked to Adam and he said I could paint. He didn't even mind that I had picked an orange color. As some of you know the"rust" color that my house in Veneta, OR was supposed to be was called pink by many a friend of ours. I picked a shade or two too light... oops. So we went to Home Depot and I picked out the color Pumpkin Toast!! I love it. Just a little color can sure warm up a room. Now all I have to do is get some wall hangings and maybe a rug for the table, my poor little feet get cold when I eat in there and it'll be finished. Here's the finished paint job.

Little Sneaky Baby!!

So Christopher was happily playing on the floor in the living room when I took some laundry up to the washer. I loaded it, took some clothes out of the dryer and headed back down the stairs... to find this. I couldn't resist sharing since his smile is so genuine. He's taken quite a few dvd's out and after the picture was taken he continued to get more. Sure do love this guy.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was pretty darn good. On the 22nd Adam, Christopher and I headed out to my sisters house. My parents came out too and we got to meet my sister's soon to be in-laws. It was a yummy traditional meal; turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, yams and pie!! I of course didn't get to eat with the rest of the family because Christopher has wonderful timing when it comes to meals and decided he was hungry.

On Saturday the 24th I hosted our family dinner. My first time hosting Thanksgiving and I had 14 people. Grandparents, both sisters and their families and my parental units of course. The turkey was great, very moist, herb roasted potatoes, green beans, yams, stuffing, pie... etc. Everything was wheat free and milk free. You would never have known, in fact many people eating didn't know. It's so nice to be able to not worry about being sick after a meal like that and have it turn out so great. Again, I didn't get to eat with the crowd, I was feeding the baby who's timing is impeccable. It was great to get so many family members in one place at one time. I'm making bread today so I can have a turkey sandwich... yummy!!!

The great part was that my mom kicked butt on the Wii. She was playing Mario Party mini games and rocking it. My dad even played with my nephews for a bit. I don't know if my grandparents played at all but they hung out up there for a while. I love that we have something that's so easy to use anybody can jump in and enjoy themselves. Definitely a good investment.

From Baldwin Blath...

Deer Hunting in Minnesota

I spent last week hunting with my dad (and only had to do minimal computer work). I haven't been deer hunting in Minnesota since 2001 and I had a great time. It was a full week of doing absolutely nothing. By the end of the week I even forgot what the date was.

My dad shot a 6 point (3 point for you crazy people who think that you should only count 1 side of the antlers) and I shot a 4 point.

Friday night I stayed with friends (Justin and Chris) and of course went out and had too much fun before I had to fly back home at 6:00 AM on Saturday. I had to literally kick Justin in the shoulder to get him up so I would be at the airport on time.

Halloween Party 2007

Yes yes, I realize I'm a little late posting. I've been busy and just didn't get around to it. So this year was our first "annual" Halloween party in our new house. We had a pretty decent turnout, 26 people walked through our door, all dressed to impress. Costumes ranged from cute to bloody. There was food and Wii. Next year I'll try to think of some party games to play, this year was kinda thrown together and with the baby my planning time was otherwise consumed. Here are some pics.

Halloween Party 2007

What a pair!

Adam and I have noticed that Christopher loves to bang on the keyboard or do whatever it is mommy and daddy are doing. So, we felt like indulging him. As Adam plugged away at some code Christopher banged away at his very own keyboard. He later found the cord coming off the keyboard much more amusing than the keyboard itself, at which time we decided to take it away from him. We didn't need a strangled baby on our hands, they aren't half as cute as the live versions.

Pumpkin Blues.

So I got up this morning at 5:30 a.m. to feed Christopher. Since it's to early to start cooking for our party I planned to carve my pumpkins. I went to bed last night knowing I would have time to do it before everything else and waiting until today might get them to last until Halloween. I figured they would make a good Halloween welcome for the party guests. I stepped out onto the front porch and did not see my pumpkins anywhere. I checked the bed of the truck and around the corner to see if they had been hidden from me in some sort of prank. I looked at the neighbors houses, all still sporting their pumpkins. I then went to the garage, maybe my wonderful husband put them there to keep them out of the frost. Nope. So a few tears later I wake Adam up to let him know my pumpkins have been kidnapped and it's not nice. So needless to say I'm feeling very bummed this morning and am not in much of a party mood anymore.

What a long couple of days.

So, Tuesday night I had my parents over for dinner and a movie. This movie is the most awesomest "zombie" animal movie ever. My friends let me borrow it and let me just say, the rents and I had a good laugh. This also had some really good surround sound effects. I was impressed, I jumped in fact as I thought something was going on outside of the room, in my house when I realized it was all the action taking place behind me from the speakers! So if you haven't watched it, do so. Black Sheep, rent it today. You'll laugh, I promise, and you'll probably never look at a sheep the same way again.

Last night was a long one. Christopher had his first night of vomiting. Over a 3 hour span I had to change myself and the little guy 5 times. Poor thing couldn't even keep a sip of water down. I had to hold him most of the night because when I set him down his poor little body would start heaving again. He seems to be doing fine today, a little cranky from being overly tired. I know I'm tired. He's able to keep all his food down, not doing solids today though.

It's a beautiful day!!

It's just gorgeous outside today. Especially for being fall. I must say I'm enjoying the sunshine.

I've (meaning Adam helped a little) got most my fall "chores" done. The lawn has been given its fall feeding. The fence has been stained (this is where Adam helped.) This morning the local Gamecube champion and his dad came over and blew out my sprinklers. Thanks!!!

So all in all it's been a productive couple of weeks so far. Christopher is doing his thing, growing. Sleeping right now, which he tends to do on a belly full of cereal and bananas. Adam will be heading to MN to get me some venison in a couple of weeks, excited about that. Although MN venison does taste different than WA venison, it's still good. Party this weekend. Gonna have quite a few people, all in costume. Should be fun. Lots of food. Anyway. I'm just kinda rambling. Sorry.

Plbbbbb!

Christopher was being really cute this morning. So cute that I had to pull out the camera. As you can see he was in a tongue mood. I believe he made this face after trying to eat my foot (yes it was clean,) can't quite remember however. From the looks of it he won't be trying it again anytime soon.

Adam is travelling again. Last week was his first back on the road. I had become used to him being here again unfortunately as he was home for a month (I think) and now am having to become used to him being gone again. I know the 36 hours I'll have him home for every weekend over the next few weeks will feel "normal" in no time, which is sad. It'll be nice when he doesn't have to travel for work anymore, but for now it's a necessary evil.

Halloween is on it's way. We've started decorating the house and hope that our party is a success. We'll probably do one every year since it's my favorite holiday. I've got some pretty neat decorations and every year they'll just get better, if you happen to drive (especially at night) by you should look at the second story window. It's cool.

Voice Mail

Gar gives good voice mail.

vn b uihij6 k kll;l-,.-k99l-

No more SQUASH!!!

Christopher recently started eating solids... if you can call very runny rice cereal a solid. I thought I would try one of the more unappealing flavors first as we ventured a little further than rice, since his palate is fresh maybe he wouldn't mind eating squash since he didn't know any better. Well, I was wrong. I was given many wonderful faces as we tried to eat the squash, a lot of this tastes icky shivers and most of it getting spit out. In the end, after one of the last couple of bites I tried to give him he shot me the "NO MORE SQUASH," face that you're witnessing here. I couldn't pass up posting it.

6 Months!!

Christopher was 6 months on the 12th. I waited to do his update post until he had his well check today. He's been great, sitting up like a champ, cooing and babbling up a storm (especially at 6 am over the monitor,) he even started eating rice cereal on Saturday. His grabby little hands can pretty much get anything within a two foot radius and we've learned to clear the area before setting him down anywhere. He also enjoys being outside and watching Maddie run around the yard, and watching Kiro inside (Kiro has lost a few tufts of fur to the little mister already.) Everyday he changes just a little bit, but he's always cute and always cuddly. He's even starting to play shy for the girls. We're going to have our hands full, that's for sure.

At his well check we got his currents stats too!!
Height: 26", up from 24.8" at his 4 month well check and 23.3" at his 2 month. This puts him in the 30 percentile.
Weight: 17lbs 6oz, up from 15lbs 6oz at his 4 month well check and 11lbs 1oz at his 2 month. This puts him in the 46 percentile.

Remote Hog!!

I took this very cute picture of Christopher not to long ago. He never ceases to make me laugh, of all the toys he has to play with he chooses to eat the remote more often than not. He gave me this look when I asked him when I could have the remote back.

Wedding Bells

Two good friends of mine (Erin and Caleb) from college (and Minnesota) got married this weekend. It was amazing to see all of the individuals I had not seen in years. So many had families and have been so successful, others just stayed the same and it was like I had seen them just yesterday. I wish Caleb and Erin all the happiness in the world.

Now it is time to get back to my family which I miss so very much. It seems like I have been gone forever even though it has only been a week. Time to get rid of this traveling job and be home more.

Good news...

Oh, so last week my sister and her beau got engaged. They've been seeing each other for about a year and I'm happy for them. They're planning a winter wedding (around January.) They've also recently signed on their first home and if all goes well will be able to move in the first of October. I wish them tons of luck and many happy years.

Stoopid Rain

It figures. I arrange for my neighbor to watch Christopher for a couple of hours this morning so I can mow the lawn... AND IT RAINS!!! So now I'll have to do it tomorrow. If I was bagging the clippings I'd just mow it today anyway, but I want to mulch and wet grass does not mulch well. So frustrating.

Later the same day... it stopped raining and I was able to get the lawn mowed. It was terribly muggy and miserable however. Christopher enjoyed playing with Katie (neighbor's almost 4 year old,) and can't wait to go over there again. He got home and fell fast asleep.

BBQ

What meant to be a small gathering this weekend with Gar, Kristie, Rachel, Chris and I turned into quite the large BBQ. This was due to the fact that Rachel invited the neighbors (Aaron and Jennifer), her parents (since it was her dad's birthday) and I invited Aaron and Tioni, oh and it was my father-in-law's birthday (he got a lemon meringue pie).

In the end I'm glad that Gar invited us to have a BBQ (meat meet) at our house, it was a good time. If you missed the party you missed out!

The County Fair

I took Christopher to his first county fair last night. Jennifer, Joel, Grason, Matt, Ashley, Kaitlin, Christopher and I all went together. Christopher loved seeing the animals and was very intently watching everything around him. I got many "What a beautiful baby," comments which made me a proud mama. I didn't bring my camera unfortunately, I suppose it's ok though since most the pictures would have been of Chris in his stroller. I had a turkey leg, corn on the cob and curly fries (the fries and turkey I shared with others... no way I could eat that much myself.) Christopher had a nice cold bottle of mommy milk which he took from me almost no problem, he played with it for the first few minutes and gulped the rest down. I even went down Big Pink (slide) once since Chris was asleep. Hopefully next year Adam will be able to go with us.

Some good news!!

Suzy and Ed are moving back to the Tri-Cities. Suzy landed a teaching job and things are slowly falling in place for them. Good job Suzy!!

My little sister and her boyfriend put in an offer on a house, and it was accepted!! So they should be getting keys in early October.

If anybody else had good things happen, then um... good for you.

Almost a full weekend

Well I almost got a full weekend at home. I spent Friday night and Saturday morning in Denver due to hurricane weather in Houston. I got a lot of work done when I got home though. The video portion of the home theater is installed and working. The matrix is no fun to watch without audio. A lot of rock was moved from the driveway to the backyard, although Rachel wishes I had done more of that, that should get finished this coming weekend.

Chris didn't want to go to bed on Sunday night so he got to stay up late and watch "Black Snake Moan." Turns out that movie was not that great.

Gar and Kristie came over bearing gifts for Rachel from Disneyland. *pout* and Gar social engineered me into having them over to grill this coming weekend.

WAHOO!

This weekend is a special weekend. My customer is going to take Monday off so that means I don't have to fly out on Sunday. I get a whole 2 days at home! Of course I still have to fly out on Monday, but having 2 days is going to feel like a vacation.

Added by Rachel: Needless to say, Adam did not get to come home last night. His first plane was delayed and as he was getting to his gate in Denver they were pulling the plane away from the dock (10 minutes early) causing him not to get home. I'll be picking him up this morning sometime. For all of you who get to be home with your families most of the time, enjoy it because this sucks.

Today is not my day :-(

So today hasn't been great for me. It started out fine, well... maybe not. Christopher got us up at 6 a.m. so way to early. Then I went to Costco and on the way home the rotisserie chicken I purchased toppled over in the car and spilled grease and chicken juice everywhere... smelled great, sucked to clean up. The icing on the cake was the projectile potty Chris then took all over his changing pad and my pant leg, that's right, #1 & #2 folks. Needless to say I'll probably have a GF beer after I lay him down for the night and hope that nothing else goes wrong this evening.

(8:00 p.m. So I'm sitting on the couch, enjoying a bowl of ice cream and a freaking beetle bites my arm!!! Give me a break already.)

New hobby, Housesitting.

So my across the street neighbors were gone for a week and I told them I would watch their house, i.e. put the trash out on garbage day, get the mail and water the flowers. No biggie. They were getting some work done in the back having sprinklers put in and a paver patio. Well, the workers turned off the irrigation, and..... the front lawn wasn't getting watered. I noticed some dark spots but wasn't sure what was going on, by the time I figured it out (I never see the sprinklers go off so couldn't tell if the lawn was getting watered or not) they were back and the yard had some definite brown spots. It's already recovered though and is nice and green again. Now that I know what a dying lawn looks like I can prevent it in future sitting ventures.

A couple of my other friends are in the the Happiest Place on Earth right now. I'm feeding their fish, getting their mail and bringing in the paper. When I walked in the first day there was a huge plate of GF Chocolate Chip cookies to thank me!!! Yummy. I'm probably enjoying them a bit to much. My second day I walked in to not one, not two... but THREE giant spiders just hanging out on the walls, so I've added exterminator to my list of duties while they are gone. Don't worry, I washed all the bug guts off the wall.

Kajsa and Daniel!!!

My visit with Kajsa and Daniel was great, unfortunately too short but very enjoyable. I do love when I get to see my friends. Started with a tour of the house and then we played some catch up. Daniel promised to try some Dutch Bros. for me so we'll see if he actually does, I suggested a Miky Way because they are tasty. I sure miss those two, good friends they are. (And yes, I know they will end up reading this, they are some of my most faithful readers... haha.) Anyway, here are a couple of pictures.

Kajsa, Rachel and Christopher.
Kajsa is wearing Lego heads for earings, they were very cute!!


Christopher enjoying the toy Kajsa and Daniel bought him.

Woo Hoo!!

I get to see Kajsa and Daniel today. I'm so excited. The last time I saw them was a couple of years ago down in AZ. I'll update you all after the visit. They'll just have to live with my pigsty of a house for a few hours... I did clean a little I promise.

Art in the Park

This weekend was a whole lot of fun (especially since I didn't have to fly out on Sunday).

Saturday morning Rachel, Chris, Grandpa Turner and I went down to Howard Amon park in Richland for the art in the park sidewalk show. In the evening Sandrina babysat for us so that Rachel and I could go out to dinner with Rachel's parents to help me use up my "consumable " award from Symantec (had to be used for a dinner, movie, essentially anything I couldn't take home). We went to Cedars restaurant and then Rachel and I stopped for Dutch Bros coffee on the way home.

Sunday was spent running around doing errands and crawling around the ceiling measuring, drilling holes and making checklists for the parts I need to complete the home theater.

Today is expense report / mow the lawn day and then Tuesday is Viva Las Vegas for the annual BlackHat and Defcon security conferences. Rachel will be bored staying at home so call her / invite her to do stuffs.

4 Months Old!!

Today Christopher had his 4 month well check. The Dr. said he's doing great and is reaching all the developmental milestones he should be. He received a couple of vaccinations and since he was already grumpy before they were administered it just made him mad to be poked... mommy also left the pacifier in the car which, lesson learned, is a no no on shot day. Luckily Chris seemed to poop out a pacifier when I tried to put him in the carseat and it saved the day, keeping him quiet until we got to the car.

Christopher's new growth stats as of 7/16/07:
Height: 24.75 inches (39.84 percentile) Which is up from 23.25 inches at his two month.
Weight: 15.375 lbs (57.30 percentile) Which is up from 11.09 lbs at his two month.

We're home.

We made it back from MN Thursday around 4 p.m. As a family we're entirely too sick of the car. Especially little Christopher who is stuck in his car seat for the duration of all car travel. The wedding (Adam's sister Michelle) went well, the weather cooperated and nobody died of food poisoning which I think is always a good thing. All joking aside we wish Michelle and Brian congrats and many fine years together.

Adam got to go fishing while at the lake for a total of maybe 3 hours and managed to catch a couple of walleye. I'm sure if he'd had the chance he'd have been out there many many more. Unfortunately with all the wedding chaos and the weather being uncooperative it didn't allow for as much fishing with his dad as he would have liked.

On our way home we went to Yellowstone for a day. It was beautiful. Pictures cannot capture the majesty of many of the sites we saw. If we'd had more time we would have like to spend a couple more days exploring the park. Alas it'll have to wait for another day when hopefully Christopher is a little older and we can dedicate more time to it. We did take some pictures though so feel free to take a look at them.

Yellowstone 2007

Made it to ND

So we finally made it to ND. (of course this is where Gar thinks I'm from, but really we are headed to MN, silly Gar). We are stopped at a rest area just outside of Bismarck, ND as Chris decided it was time to eat lunch. We are on course to being in Fargo tonight and visit with some friends before heading on to Hallock, MN either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Rachel says "ND is boooooring. Too flat! Where are all the trees?"

Adam says "pass me another rockstar and keep that baby quiet!"

Still no pictures to share...

Trip to MN (Day 1)

Today Rachel and I traveled 682 miles from Kennewick, WA to Billings, MT (where we are located while I write this post) on our way to Minnesota for my sisters wedding. Chris needed to be changed twice and fed three times while on the road so the stops weren't as frequent as I thought they would be. Since any pictures we would have taken would have been from the car, we didn't take any so I don't have any to share. On our way back we expect to stop in Yellowstone National Park so you can expect some good pictures then.

Tomorrow we are planning on reaching Fargo, ND, which will involve about another 12 hours of driving, then a pickled egg and beer is in store at Laurmen's (if the place still exists).

Congratulations are in store for our friends Craig and Louise who had their first child (Laila Tai) yesterday.. w00t!

Poor Little Mister

My poor little guy is sicky. He's not super sicky but I think he caught a little of what I had last week. He's got a very runny nose which helps him sound worse than he is since he's really not breathing through his mouth yet and his eyes are kinda puffy. I'm doing everything I can to make him comfy which entails a lot of snot sucking through the suction bulb. I just feel bad because we are leaving on our road trip tomorrow which won't be fun for him if he's not feeling good.

Anniversary Follow-up

Rachel and I had a great time last night. Anthony's had great atmosphere, however both of us share the opinion that the food and service at the Bonefish Grill was better. Also the noise in the restaurant was annoying. You can actually talk to each other at Bonefish. Rachel went with a traditional third anniversary gift that involved leather (a belt for all you twisted minds out there) and I got her a knife set that she has been wanting for a long time.

Our thoughts go out to our friends Craig and Louise who are in the middle of labor with their first child. I hope things progress quickly as from what I have heard it has been well over 24 hours now.

Third Anniversary

Today is our third anniversary. Grandma Nancy was kind enough to babysit tonight for a couple of hours so that Rachel and I can go out to dinner. The plan as it stands is to head to Anthony's in Richland as we have never been there before.

First Haircut...for the lawn

The backyard got cut for the first time. It was well past rooting and was about to go to seed so it just had to be done. With that out of the way, Rachel and I realize we need another trash bin to deal with the waste that will be generated each week (diapers take up a lot of room too)!

Let's see, what else...oh I attended another toastmasters meeting tonight. I have been traveling so much that I haven't been able to attend. Rachel has been dealing with adjusting to life with Chris so hasn't been attending either (bad Rachel, no cookie).

Tomorrow is Rachel and my anniversary and I think the plan is to have our first babysitter (Grandma) and have a couple hours alone for dinner at some place yet to be decided.

For the heck of it here is a couple fun pictures. The first is Rachel in the baby section at Borders for the first time when she figured out she was pregnant.


As you can see from the next picture, she wasn't too fond of being found out and her picture being taken.

Projector Mounted!

Between Chris waking up and making noise and Rachel not feeling good and coughing like crazy, I was up this morning before 6:00 AM (way to early in my mind). I decided today would be a good day to get some work done on the theater before we head on vacation to Minnesota this next week.

Mounting the projector involved climbing into the attic 5 times, building a crazy mounting bracket and dragging insulation all over the house (which I'm sure made Rachel happy).

I didn't take Gar's advice, which was

Gar (6/12/2007 1:50:19 PM): Wear shorts, a tank top, and no mask. Do it at 6pm too please.
Gar (6/12/2007 1:51:12 PM): so hot that shorts do nothing, except allow insulation to stick to your sweaty legs and itch for weeks.

Instead I did most of it around 9:00-11:00 AM, by the time noon rolled around it was blazing hot up there and it would have been a most unpleasant experience. Now that I'm intimately familiar with the attic I hope that running cables for the audio equipment will be a lot easier than mounting this silly projector!

Projector: Mitsubishi HD1000U

Home Theater - Phase 1

Phase one of the home theater is finished. The speakers are unboxed and the projector screen has successfully been installed. This was a giant pain in the ass, although the end product turned out good there was way to much measuring, leveling and some more measuring involved!

Here is some spec's.
Screen: Da-Lite Cinema Contour with Da-Mat finish
Front Speakers: Polk Audio RTi8's
Center Channel: Polk Audio CSi3
Subwoofer: Polk Audio PSW505
Surround & Back Speakers: Polk Audio RTi4's

Pictures:

First picture of the new screen on the wall.

Another one but this time with the speakers setup
(still need to run the wire though)

Dutch Bros.

I'm so EXCITED!!! The Dutch Bros. stand finally opened this weekend. This morning Adam and I drove down Clearwater Ave to get our free cup o' joe. This totally makes my LIFE... since I don't have much of one. I've been missing the magic Dutch Bros. brew ever since we moved back here from OR and I can say without a doubt I wasn't disappointed.

What the Heck!?!?!

So I went outside this morning to bring in the garbage and check on my flowers... maybe even pull a little bermuda grass from the lawn and what do I find.

Somebody better be able to explain this to me. Cherry coke handcuffed to my cherry tree...

Speakers, Projector and Screen have arrived!

In you were not in the know, Rachel and I are working on building out our upstairs "bonus" room into a home theater. This week while I was in Cleveland, OH the projector, screen and speakers were delivered to the house. The UPS man was kind enough to leave many dollars in equipment on the front porch in the middle of the day and not even ring the bell. Even if signature is not required he should have at least rang the bell. Luckily Rachel is strong and hauled in the boxes herself. What a jerk that UPS guy was!

Here is a picture of everything in boxes. I am not even home yet, so you are seeing them just as I have!