Somewhere between Phoenix and Kalamazoo, I traded a high-paying, emotionally non-stimulating job costing computer processor parts to the penny, for a kitchen mixer and a 16 pound man who yells at me, loves to sit in my lap, and drools all over my clothing.

My Kitchen Aid Mixer, nicknamed “Hello Kitchy” has been put to work now that I actually have time to use it.  I’ve been making meatballs, pizza from scratch, and soft beer pretzels.  Who is this person in my kitchen cooking from scratch?! And more importantly, I haven’t set my oven on fire trying to cook pizzas.  I’ve come such a long way from the literal use of fire extinguishers. So anyone looking for recipes for homemade (from scratch) pizza dough and pizza sauce send me a comment or email and I’ll send it over!  I once made a dinner of appetizers:

Furthering my Domestic Goddess status, I’ve been sewing, embroidering, and crafting like crazy.  Granted, none of it is for me.  i’m sure Angel would appreciate if I finally finished that honeymoon scrapbook that I started years ago, but whatever.  I’ll get to it when I get back from all of these vacations.  I nearly promise.

On Labor Day I let (let, demanded, whatever you want to call it) the boys bond upstairs while I decided that it was finally time to stop fighting the move and finish unpacking.  I call this “acceptance” and the last stage of my grieving the move.  My basement has looked like this for months now:

This is where the movers decided to throw everything while we weren’t paying attention during their unload.  I seriously once found a box labeled “Master Bedroom dresser” thrown in the corner of the basement.  The only reason I found it is because I knew I had sweatpants and under garments that were missing and it seemed like the least logical place for them to be.  The basement became such a mess after looking for belongings for 6 months in boxes like this:

Hey babe, have you seen our garage crap?  I’m really looking for something that the movers didn’t inventory.  How about I look in this box meticulously labeled “garage crap” because I’m sure whatever I’m looking for is in there.

9 hours of lifting, bending, hauling, trashing, and spiders later, my basement now looks like this:

To reward my effors of Monday’s labor, I woke up Tuesday sick as a dog.  This is the world telling me that I’m not made to work.  Ever.  And because I’m working towards my status as World’s Best Mother, I then passed my sickness on to my sidekick.  So we spent Tuesday looking like this:

And this:

He clearly rebounded a little faster than I did.

While I was laying on the family room floor on Tuesday with Lucas bouncing up and down on my belly, I decided that the floor was just asking for death.  So I pealed myself up onto the couch where I may have accidentally closed my eyes for a minute.  I woke up to the sound of the baby gate closing, and this:

Anyone with kids knows that finding the baby gate like this gives you the same amount of fear that you had seeing the raptor fence torn on Jurassic Park.  Luckily, my sweet little man was just giggling away chasing after the dog who was trying to herd the tiny human back into the jail cell.

So I spent the rest of the day back on the floor with a blanket and this little guy crawling all over me giving me hugs.

On Wednesday I was  luckily feeling much better, but my little man, however, was not.  So we spent Wednesday welcoming his top tooth (and it only cost $3 to the swear jar!), and a lot of time in the rocking chair, which Lucas only appreciated for 1/1,000 of a second before he decided that cuddling was for babies.  Ugh!  I miss those days in the rocking chair!!!!  I snuck in one quick snuggle after a bottle when he was just too tired to fight me:

And it was priceless.  He quickly bounced back and we’ve spent a snotty rest of the week looking like his usually adorable self.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, Angel told Lucas that he couldn’t have the beer glass that daddy was drinking out of.  After 3 times of saying no and taking his hand away, he shot us one of these looks, which just means that at 16 pounds he’s learned how to get whatever he wants.  Excellent.  There’s only 17 years and 3 months to go before I legally don’t have to look at this face any more.  We are so screwed.

…And then Lucas turned 9 months old, and it took us 2 days and about 349 tries and these were the best 3 pictures that we could get.  Life is already getting harder with a little boy.  I can’t wait to see what other tricks he learns to get into things and capture his mommy and daddy’s hearts.

Cheers!

It’s already 10, so I’m going to have to be quick because my head is dying to hit my pillow.

I really should be better about updating the blog because every time that I actually sit down to do it, I honestly can’t remember what I’ve been up to, though I feel like I’ve been busy.  I guess a tiny, teething, human really sucks the energy from me.  Who would have known? (Except for every other mother on Earth).

I’ve been doing a low of sewing projects.  A. Lot.  But they’re all gifts for my knocked up friends and family members who read the blog so I really can’t post pictures and talk about how proud of myself I am.  But there are a few lucky ladies with some awesome custom gear headed their way when I head their way.

Speaking of, I suppose that our family is turning into somewhat of a snowbird family.  We have all of our vacation plans in fall and winter!  First, we’re headed to the Caribbean to introduce Lucas to Angel’s side of the family.  I’m a little excited to bust my shorts out of mothballs (see: what a lovely spring we’ve had this summer).  In case this move hasn’t been rough enough for me, it turns out that I really miss the heat.  And I no longer believe everyone who tells me that “this (fill in the blank) really isn’t normal!”  I think the constant rain, heater in May, sweatshirts in August, and blankets at night are my new normal.

Also, I blame Dave Ramsey for my new desire to take my snorkel gear to the local  mall fountain and start stealing change.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to while I wasn’t here:

Too Lucas to the zoo in Grand Rapids

Where the excitement quickly got to him

Got the exterior of one of our rental houses painted in Arizona. The dead grass reminded me that it’s probably 120 degrees there and made me miss it a little less

Lucas turned 9 months old! We celebrated with his first “big boy” dinner of carrots, pasta, and a sippy cup. I’m not sure if I was more proud of him for turning 9 months old, or myself for keeping him happy and healthy for 9 months!

This face just makes my day. Every day, any time.

I’ll write more tomorrow about his 9 month well visit at the doctor.  Nighty night!

This post is going to be something of a “Serious Sandwich” meaning that the serious stuff is going to be surrounded by the funny, embarrassing, and generally light-hearted feeling that I try to keep within my usual posts.

On Friday night we cashed in on free babysitting again and went out to a sushi dinner.  I would like to note that sushi really doesn’t mix well with wine.  Alrighty then, so we went to a nice dinner and then brought a bottle of wine to our friends who were watching Lucas.  They were surprised at how quickly we got back and invited us in for a drink before we went home.  “One drink” turned into 4 bottles of wine that all hit me at once and I told Angel that he should probably finish his glass so that we could go because the room was starting to spin and there was a possibility that I was going to get sick, and frankly I would rather that not happen at our friend’s house or our new car.  He didn’t take me seriously.  I nearly yaked in the car on the way home, so I asked Angel to pull over and he does.  I get out of the car and realize that we’re in front of our church! I can’t throw up on the lawn of a church, there just seems like something horribly wrong with that.  I ask Angel if he couldn’t just pull one house forward because I can’t get sick in front of a church and he laughed and said, “Are you serious?! This would be EPIC.”  I make it to the house where I nearly throw up in the front yard, and barely get 2 steps into the house when I dart to the bathroom and spend the rest of the night there.  While Angel was bringing me a pillow and blanket after putting the baby to bed I tell him that this is horribly embarrassing and he tells me: “No.  ‘Embarrassing’ is that it’s only 10pm.”  Sigh.  And that is how I finally got the courage to stop nursing.

On a serous note now, last night I had an anxiety attack.  A full blown anxiety attack.  I would love to tell you what the source of it was, but I’m just as clueless.  I’m a mom, so I’m always worried about everything and don’t think that it’s anything unusual.  But at 11pm when I’m sitting in bed, hunched over with chest pains, and hyperventilating, asking Angel to Google it or take me to the hospital we came up with an anxiety attack.  He read me some of the things to calm myself down and when they started to work I think we both were a little less concerned.  For the record, true anxiety attacks feel exactly like I imagine a heart attack does.  It was terrifying.  I spent all day today in pajamas sewing and cuddling with Lucas just trying to stay as calm as a cucumber.  I don’t know how people can live like this.

And now, my usual photo montage of my adorable spawn.  I would love to also share photos of my crafting and sewing but they’re all for ladies who read this blog!  Sorry ladies, nothing to see here.

We’ve traded poisonous insects for poisonous plants. First it was poison ivy and now it’s poisonous mushrooms on logs in the dog run. I’ll take scorpions any day

We miss you, grandma!

Baby bedding custom made for my sister in law. Hopefully it lives up to her expectations because it took hours and a few donations to Lucas’ swear jar

Morning oatmeal

Learning how to stick his tongue out

more morning oatmeal. What a happy baby!!

Toy heaven.

As usual, I’ve been too busy to write what I’ve been up to and now I’m too far behind to know where to start.  So instead, you get a photo montage of the highlights.

Lucas has learned how to jail break the baby gates, crawl around the dining room, through the kitchen, and to my diaper bag, where he knows that he can find food. He’ll then pull out the food and bring it to me to open.

I’ve made a couple of new changing pad covers with super soft material and then embroidered them. One has deer to match his nursery and the other has his name for the family room. Still loving my sewing machine!

Looking for daddy after bath time

I’m pretty sure that this play table is haunted. So naturally, it’s Lucas’ favorite toy.

Eggs for the first time

Stage 2 melt down temporarily interrupted by the TV.  So what does any good mom do?  Laugh and film it.

So there you have it!

Once upon a time, a soon to be mom traded her convertible in for a 4 door Passat.  A year and a half later she’s living in Michigan and her husband is jacking her car for the gas mileage to his work and she’s trying to lift a baby in and out of a car that doesn’t fit that’s going to start needing some serious dough for repairs and maintenance.

So the mom and dad take their baby bear car shopping all over the state.  The first car was too small, the second car was too big, but the third car was juuuuust right.

Welcome to the family, VW Tiguan.  I look forward to cleaning Lucas’ vomit off of your seats.

Just when I was ready to storm up the stairs to bed, pounding every step like a 5 year old throwing a tantrum, I found this gem via my sister-in-law and it was too good not to share.

If my embroidery machine had feelings, I would have crushed them tonight.  Which is ironic because that’s sort of what I wanted to do to my beloved sewing machine come the ump-teenth time that the thread broke and 3rd time that the needle broke.  So instead of committing sewing machine homicide, I decided that the smarter thing would be to walk away from my crafting for the night and try again later.  But just so the blogging world is aware, I owe Lucas’ swear jar some change.

On an unrelated topic, what are the rules against yelling at your child and blasting profane rap music (circa 1990) so that he doesn’t fall asleep?  I was on my way to the grocery store and wouldn’t you figure that of the 6,000 times that I’ve wished that he would fall asleep in the car and didn’t that I wanted him to stay awake and he wouldn’t?  He was totally confused until I hit the produce of the grocery store and my little sidekick was sound asleep in his baby backpack, drooling down my neck.  It was the most peaceful, and strangely not the wettest, trip to the grocery store that I’ve had in a while.

My sewing machine, along with Lucas’ second tooth that keeps coming in and then going away so that it can make a repeat performance, have me so annoyed that I’m just going to practice what my kindergarten teacher taught me: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

Radio silence.

Wine tasting: “No, you’re supposed to be over here so that I can kiss you. See?”

Wine tasting: “Do you think I can photoshop the baby out of the backpack so that I don’t look like an alcoholic mother?”

Picnic at the vineyard

How I Spent My 4th of July: With the Gerstner Family on Lake Michigan. Lucas was clearly too interested in the sand to look at the camera, but we’ll work on it

7 Months. He doesn’t want to sit still anymore so these sure are getting harder to take. Also: more adorable.

This is what pure joy looks like. Coincidentally, it’s also what baby oatmeal looks like

Saying hi to grandma!

Enjoyng some dinner at Pizza House in Ann Arbor. It sure is nice to use the patio in the summer

Do you recall me complaining about my hair coming out by the handful post pregnancy. I cut bangs because I had to do something to hide the baby bangs that are growing in. Nice to know that I’m not going to bald from this experience at least.

Signs of a real date night:
1. I dug a purse out of my closet.
2. It matched my outfit
3. It did not contain a diaper

Looks like my adorable sidekick is enjoying the University of Michigan as much as his daddy does

I believe that all inappropriate body parts are covered, so here is the traditional baby in the bubble bath photo that every parent (and now myself) has for future blackmail.

Lucas yelling at his toys for floating away

Boys sure learn at an early age how to make a mess

It’s been a while since I had the chance to post what I’ve been doing.  I assume you’ll understand why when I tell you that this:

Turned into this:

Courtesy of some evil baby teeth finally making an appearance.  Having a screaming and sick baby really makes everything that much more challenging.  Right when I was sad that he was growing up so quickly and didn’t need me anymore, he started teething and decided that ONLY mommy can make him feel better.  Mommy, on the other hand, is more than happy to oblige by dropping everything and spending days on the couch doing this:

So what do you know?  My baby needs me after all to make him feel better.

I was able to sneak in some mommy time in the middle of this teething adventure.  First, I took a stroll around the mall hoping that I could sneak a few minutes of sleep out of the Little Dude.  Luckily he was calm long enough for me to get my eyebrows done

And then I pressed my luck and got a new haircut!

This came a day after I spent 20 minutes tearing apart the diaper bag and car looking for the sunglasses that were on top of my head.  So I’m assuming the two add up to me officially becoming a mom.  I should probably just give up now and spring for some new Mom Jeans to complete my Stay-At-Home-Mom makeover.

The only way that I’ve been able to get anything done is with my little man literally attached to my hip in  my 4th baby carrier.  Some people go through strollers to find the one that works, some people go through bottles.  I took the middle ground and went with baby carriers and now I think I finally found one that I LOVE (love, love, love) so I’m going to sell all of my others and kick myself for not just starting here.

Before the teething started, I spent a busy week with folks who I’ve met here.  I spent a couple of days with ex-pat folks from Ireland.  Then a couple of play dates, a mom’s group, and a trip to the zoo!  I embraced the heat that I oh-so miss but was a little worried about my sweet boy over heating so I gave him a sippy cup of water, embraced the diaper look, and walked him through a couple of misters.  He didn’t care at all that it was hot as long as he was with mom and dad!

In the midst of all of this I’ve learned that now that Lucas doesn’t nap as well cuddling so he has to sleep in his crib, my new favorite time of day is letting him crawl around on the bedroom floor while I get dressed for the day.  He’s so stinking cute and I just love watching the personality that he’s getting!!!  I have the Pack n Play set up in the bedroom still and if he’s awake that’s where he goes when I shower.  Then it’s all fair game while I’m getting dressed and drying my hair.  Here are a few of the (pre teething) moments that I’ve caught on camera:

Make a new friend

Then try to eat him

Let. Me. Out.

Oh I see. Solitary.

Milk mustache

Jail break with mommy

And lastly, even while teething I have a happy baby.  This may have something to do with the baby Oragel and dose of Tylenol that he has in his system, but my snotball of a teething baby still has a smile in him to round off my blog post.

Cheers to a teething baby still sleeping 11 hours through the night uninterrupted!!