Hello and Goodbye

It turns out having two blogs was a dumb idea. I started this blog in an attempt to keep up with Munchy's milestones somewhere because I knew very well that writing it all down on paper was not going to happen. My other blog, Bunnybum, was my way of addressing the rest of my life. ("The rest of my life," HA! Is there any other part of my life other than Max and Max's yet-to-be-born sibling? Not really.) So that is how I got where I am right now. Instead of feeling pressure to post to two blogs that, in effect, separate the different aspects of my life I have decided to stop posting to süß one and only post on Bunnybum. My flickr account has become my place to dump random thoughts and Munchy's milestones. It is much easier for me to update flickr on a picture by picture basis anyway and I really enjoy the interactive nature of flickr. For me blogging isn't as much about feedback and socializing as it is getting some of what is in my little brain out there. That is not to say that I don't love it when a new friend comments, when I hear from an old friend or when I sell something. I have met some fabulous people through this blog and Bunnybum. Anyhoo, I am rambling. It all boils down to this, I am still blogging away just not here. Join me and my family over at Bunnybum. I am planning to change things up a bit over there. There are a lot of things changing in my life right now. That is why I need to consolidate to make it easier. I hope you enjoy the result.

He sings at sirens

Munch sings a super high-pitched "aaaahhhhhhhhh" when he hears emergency sirens. It is the sweetest sound I have ever heard.
Hope you are all having a good day. Please think really good thoughts for sweet Biggs.
xoxo

It has been a while.

We have been busy. Kind of. Well, not really. More barfy than busy, actually. It seems like nothing and everything has changed since my last post. Max is still not walking, but that is fine with me. He is pretty easy to keep track of at the moment. Except when he goes in his room, closes the door and plays on his futon. He has done that a few times. Just wants some alone time. q2WW 2 (that nonsense is courtesy of Max, by the way)
I am finally feeling better. Not as many random vomit sessions. Notice, I said as many. s31 (again, Max) This pregnancy has been totally different from Max's. Totally. I have had every symptom in the book. Some to the extreme. Thankfully, my appetite is back, big-time, so being able to eat improves my mood very much.
Everything with the move is moving along. The stress of all the paperwork and logistics of actually moving to another country is definitely getting to us. Poor Scottc. He has been taking care of all of it because the thought of that giant stack of forms is too much for my little brain to handle right now. A very good thing about this move is that we feel like we need to see as many family members and friends as possible before we go so our calendar has been full of good stuff. My cousin Betsy's wedding in September helped us out a lot with Mama's side and our Thanksgiving trip to Ohio allowed us to catch-up with some important people on Dad's side. We get to see the Denver and Utah crews in January and then we will be back in Seattle getting all packed up. I wish we had unlimited funds to travel around to all the people we love but unfortunately that is not the case. Plus, traveling with Max isn't exactly the funnest experience ever. He is a great little road-kid, but even a great traveler is a pain in the ass on a plane. Sorry, but it is true. He stays in a good mood for the most part but doesn't really sleep on planes and is super active so it is constant entertaining and feeding of random goodies. And we can't exactly let him crawl around and grab people's arms to entertain him, as much as he would love that. To think, pretty soon we will have another one. Geez.
We have our twenty week scan next week. Crazy. Half way there. I am not showing yet but that is no surprise. I didn't really show until seven months or so with Max. I have plenty of room under my giant boobies to hide a developing child. I will post a photo of 'little one' after the scan. We aren't going to find out the sex of little one. We want to be surprised again. So fun.
I suppose I should add some of Max's latest info so that I can refer back when I actually sit down to make his baby book.
He has a million teeth. Well, more like twelve. The kid already has four molars. He is a creep-show.
The milk allergy thing has been kind of rough to regulate but seems to be the reason he wasn't able to gain much weight. Since we have eliminated all milk protein from his diet he has gained over three pounds and is solidly back on the growth chart. Munch is a good eater but he loves his soy milk. He also still loves fruit and meat.
When he plays with little cars and trucks he makes an engine sound. So flippin cute.
His favorite words seems to be "uh-uh-oh" and "dada". And he calls Otis "tis". Also, quite cute.
Stairs have become a recent source of entertainment. Great. Real safe, Max.
He knows where his ears, head, teeth and belly are and he gets angry with me sometimes when I ask him where his nose is. I have no idea why.
So that's the update. Sorry it has been so long since the last one. It has always been my intention to post regularly but that gets hard sometimes. I will try my best to keep it up.

Some news.

Looks like I am going to have to change the title of my blog to süß ones. That's right, I am pregnant! Munchy is going to be a big brother. Scott and I are thrilled that our little family is growing. I am fifteen weeks pregnant today and I'm due on April 26th.
Whoever said that each pregnancy is different was so right. I had it easy with Munchy and I didn't even know it. This time around I have had morning sickness all day long, mystery hives and absolutely no appetite. Things are starting to get better though, and I have had a lot of support from a very patient and loving Scott. He is a good one.
I have included a little pregnancy calendar that should update each time you look at this page. Another pregnancy symptom I have been experiencing is forgetfulness. Oops. Hope this little calendar helps me keep track of how far along I am.

A Birthday Update

I know some of you are anxiously awaiting birthday photos so I feel that I should give you an update. My camera and computer are in a fight. For some reason they don't want to get along. I think I have fixed the problem now but we leave for South Dakota tomorrow morning and I am too tired to deal with the hundreds of photos I need to deal with right now. So, I will post a proper birthday round-up when we return next week. There will be many more photos to add to the bazillion waiting for me. Munchy gets to hang out with all of my mama's family and play at my aunt's farm/winery. Plenty of fantastic photo opportunities to be sure.

This one is for the book...

the baby book, that is.
This blog is pretty much Munchy's baby book. I knew that if I tried to put together a real book that I would make it too complicated and then I would never get it all together and then I would feel guilty. A blog makes sense to me because all of our family and friends can access it and contribute, it won't go up in flames if our house does and it is super, duper cheap. You know if I made a real book it would end up costing us hundreds of dollars. Custom stamps, imported paper and archival glue are expensive, people.
I haven't done an update of what Munchy has been up to lately and since he changes so quickly there is a lot to cover.
First of all, we have to start watching our mouths in front of him now. He repeats our words a lot. Some of his favorites are Otis (tiss), water (wado,wado,wado) and bye bye. Scott hasn't heard him say wado,wado,wado yet. It is really cute. He says it after he takes a drink of, you guessed it, water.
Crawling is still his main means of getting around. Munch isn't interested in walking yet. Good.
Otis is starting to play rough with Munch and they are both loving it. When I say rough I actually mean super gentle but with more bouncing involved. Otis gets his little booty up in the air and bounces around barking at Munch. Munch thinks it is hilarious and tries to grab Otis' ears. Otis, in turn, gets more fired up and barks louder. This little exchange usually ends with Munch finding a toy that is more interesting than a barking, bouncing dog. You know, a plastic baby spoon or something.
Munch is getting good at immitating more than just words. He saw Daddy yawning and stretching in the kitchen last night and then he put his arms over his head and opened his mouth really wide. The other day Daddy was making funny noises opening and closing his mouth and then Munch did the exact same thing. Funny thing is that Munchy isn't particularly proud of himself when he figures stuff like this out and he looks at us like we are crazy for laughing or, in my case, crying.
Most babies get all comfy and cozy in their stroller (buggy, pram, pushchair, whatever). Not Max. He is all about checking things out. No naps in on the go for him. Too much to look at.
The boy can eat. It is amazing how much food he can fit in his tiny body. Yesterday he had a big slice of pot roast and about half of a cup of peas and corn. And then he ate the same amount again for seconds. He really is a small guy though. Really thin and long. Everyone always thinks he is older than he is because his body has the proportions of a toddler body.
Got to go. My favorite little person needs more kisses.

Goofy face.

Max loves to swing. It has been cooling off here and the days are getting shorter. I love it. Max's autumn wardrobe is pretty impressive. More samples to come.

Poor Kid

Max is sick. Just a runny nose and sore throat but I just hate it. He is grumpy and obviously upset about it. Luckily he is drinking a ton of water even though it hurts to swallow. I have the sniffles too, but it is hard to focus on being sick when my boy needs extra attention. We were supposed to hang out at Bumbershoot with Patty, Larry and Daddy. After about an hour we decided it would be much better for the little guy to take him home. So the lucky mama got to pack up and leave. I must admit that I am not heart broken. Cuddling with my tired, sick baby and watching cartoons sounds much better than navigating a crying baby in a big stroller through a sea of people.

Pretty busy around here.

Scott is now done painting the downstairs and has begun putting in the new floors. It is going to look great. I have been getting all of my bunnybum stuff ready for the Bouncing Wall boutique opening. The official open date is September fourteenth. I am so excited but that means I have to deliver all of my goods by September first. Ack! As usual I have made things more complicated than they need to be but I want to be sure that my first batch of goods are perfect and really interesting. Enough about me and Scott.
Munchy has been scooting around on his tummy for a couple months now without any vertical progress whatsoever. He is almost eleven months and still hasn't figured out how to get to a standing position from sitting. I am actually totally ok with this though. The longer it takes him to walk the easier for me. He will walk eventually. I don't know any adults who crawl as their main mode of getting around. I take that back, I know a few (drunken bastards). He seems happy to sit and look at his books or scoot around with a ball in each hand. He has gecko fingers. I think he could probably palm a basketball.
Our little family has been going out to eat a lot lately. I think because Scott and I have been so busy neither one of us has the time or energy to figure out what to make for dinner. Plus, it is always fun to let Munch try new foods. He likes it all. Any kind of meat is his favorite food followed closely by all fruit. Just now he ate about thirty grapes cut into quarters. Not bad for a tiny little guy. His pooping is getting better. (For those of you who didn't know, Munch had infrequent hard poo for a while.) The massive amount of grapes he is eating is doing the trick.
Here is a recent photo of Munchkin out to eat in Issaquah. He is such a great baby and an absolute joy to take places.

A few of Munchy's favorite videos

I usually have the tv on in the mornings to watch the news, mtv and whatever else happens to be on. Usually Munch just ignores it. However, I have noticed that he pays attention to specific videos. Here is a quick list of Munchy's favorites:
Nelly Furtado - Permiscuous
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
The Pussycat Dolls - Buttons
The Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc
Sometimes I try to put on some cartoons or Seasame Street but he doesn't seem to notice them. The only animated show he likes is The Backyardigans. He loves it. So, of course, we had to get all of the dvds of the show and when he gets old enough to play with little figurines or games we will probably get all of them too. I never would have thought that I would be that mommy who buys her kid a bunch of commercial junk. I always pictured us in the little wonderland of homemade or vintage toys, eating organic banana bread, with butterflies and dragonflies magically dancing around. In reality we will be probably be eating Kraft mac n cheese*, playing the Xbox and drinking a coke. That sounds AWFUL. If you notice that my life starts to resemble that worst case scenario I just described PLEASE remind me of how awful that is.
*There is absolutely nothing wrong with Kraft mac n cheese. It is delicious.