8 Months Old

Remy is 8 months old today. 8 months is nearly as long as I carried him in my womb (and considering how much he grew over those months is the only thing that makes his growth over the last 8 seem less staggering!)

• He has 5 teeth and a 6th one on the way.
• He finally has a full head of whispy brown hair.
• He can get himself into a sitting position, crawl, and pull himself up to a standing position.
• He can say Dada, but his new favorite thing is to make a high pitched wheezing noise while slowly inhaling.
  
• He loves to get a mouth full of formula and gargle.
  
• He eats solids twice a day and has started eating puffs and arrowroot cookies (the cookies are frightening because he tries to put the entire thing in his mouth at once.)
• He has outgrown his infant carrier and now has a convertible car seat and sits in the shopping cart like such a big boy!
• His love affair with his blanky continues. He holds it tenderly to his nose while he sucks his binky or his thumb, just like his mom used to do.
• His right hand is dominant.
  
• He still has some stranger anxiety - when people talk to him at the store his face turns red.
• When we walk into the bathroom these days, he is less interested in the mirror and more interested in playing with the faucet. He loves water and shiny metal so the two together are just irresistible.
• Thankfully, he still loves to snuggle with his mama in the rocking chair.
  

***edit, 1/15/11***
Oh, and I forgot to mention the teeth grinding! Now that he has top teeth and bottom teeth he likes to grind them in a side to side motion. It makes my skin crawl!

The Southwest in Winter

On Sunday we drove up to Mt. Charleston on a whim. It was gorgeous. But since it was on a whim, we were sans camera. So instead I have a picture of the Grand Canyon from our flight home on the 1st. (At least I assume it's the Grand Canyon...otherwise it is just a really great canyon.) It demonstrates the same thing we experience here in Vegas...higher elevations, snow - lower elevations, no snow.

New Year

Obligatory balcony shot.

My Year In Review

Wow, I was just looking back at my blog from this time last year...Ross was 14 months unemployed and we were picking out paint for the crooked little upstairs bedroom that was to be Remy's nursery, with no idea that the very next month we would be apartment hunting in Nevada. What a year it has been! Ross's job, Las Vegas, Remy's birth, adventures in breastfeeding, ER visits, late night swims, flying to and fro, and family flying to and fro...a blessed and full year!

New Years Resolutions

Ug, this part is hard. The nice thing about keeping one's ambitions private is that one can also hope to keep one's failures private. But at 32 I'm fairly used to public embarrassment, so here goes:

• I resolve to go to weekend services at church AT LEAST twice a month. (When I was pregnant my resolution was that after the baby came we would go every week...that didn't exactly happen, so I am starting small this time.)
• I resolve to learn one new recipe a month.
• I resolve to limit myself to one impulse buy per grocery trip (stole that one for askmoxie.org. Brilliant, right?)
• I resolve to find ways to be creative on a regular basis. (This one is a little vague but I will work it out as I go.)
  

This Time Next Year

As 2010 proved, you really never know where you will be in a year, but it would be nice if it looked something like this:

• Ross continues to do well at Petroglyph and is either wrapping up his current game or starting on a new one.
• We will have recently moved into a house, preferably with a pool and a lot of extra space for guests.
• I will have had my thyroid out and perhaps be trying for baby #2.
• Remy will be walking and talking and delighting us daily.
  

We are the Champions!

Winter is not easy. Even in Vegas. So you have got to pause and celebrate the little victories. Here are ours:

• Remy has learned how to get into a sitting position all by himself!
• Remy has learned to say Dada! It is a great relief because before this the only thing in his repertoire was screeching and that gets kind of old. (He went through a phase where his whining would sound like mama, but I don't think that counts.)
  
• Remy crawled forward for the first time on Saturday night! For now though he still prefers to get around by rolling and wriggling.
• Remy has a new tooth!

And my less impressive list of accomplishments:

• I am down a pants size! Woot!

Back in Nevada

We're home! We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year in Raleigh, but I think I am too tired to do the trip justice in this post so I will save that for later. In the meantime, here are some pics from around the apartment today:

It snowed this morning! Very pretty and all, but I am ready for some sunshine.

I set up Remy's new crib this morning. His New Year's resolution is to sleep in his very own room - right Remy? (The other bed is for Remy's guests.)

His first guest says she prefers this bed.

Almost forgot to post this one! This was Remy posing for his picture after I came in from taking snow pictures. He loves the camera and he won't let me put it away without taking a picture of him and showing it to him.

Cotton Candy Sunset

7 Months Old!

• Remy is a tall baby, in the 90th percentile for his age.
• He doesn't know how to crawl yet, but he loves to shoot out from a sitting position onto his belly. This is a good way to bonk your face on the floor, but he doesn't care.
  
• He still loves taking baths and has gotten really good at snatching up his rubber ducky as it floats by.
  
• He is eating solids now. Some days he is a champ at it, other days he spits every bite out.
  
• When he is feeling melancholy he cups the back of his head with his hand.
• He has giant feet and he rubs them together like a cricket when he is restless.
  
• He has started to get better at his vowel sounds, but hasn't started using any words yet.
  
• He is still sleeping in his pack 'n play in our bedroom (and, invariably, in our bed) but next month he moves to his own bedroom.
• He is good baby, but he is not a quite baby.
  
• The sight of his Daddy across a room sends him into paroxysms of joy. I am usually injured in some way when this happens.
  

What Season is This?

When the sun sets at 4:30pm there is no mistaking that it is winter, but it does get a little confusing (at least for a Midwesterner) when the temperature is in the 60s every day, and the leaves in the park across the street have just now changed colors.



I have the Christmas tree up and garland and lights festoon the balcony, but I feel like Christmas is still a long way off.

The one face he doesn't have...

is a poker face!

What a Year!

He Makes Every Day Special