Michigan!

so glad to see everyone, especially the Richters and Uncle Mike! I don't think I've seen Uncle Mike since who knows when before I went to college and Aunt Sherry and Uncle Brett since I took a summer off to work at the shop and hang with the fam. And that was before I got married. I really wish we'd gotten to see Reeny though :( We missed you lots Reeny! Though you know... we've got a guest room! Not the lap of luxury, but it's calling "Reeeeeeny! Come visit William!" Actually, we'd love to have guests at all and I certainly don't get to see any of you enough so the offer is wide open! Sherry and Mike? Coming for Rolling Thunder next year? ;) Abbey and Spencer can come do summer internships here in DC! Free housing (I'll just make you guys cook!) So Happy Belated 4th of July! Going up to Ironwood was a wonderfully madhouse sort of trip and I just wish we'd been able to stay longer. Seth's work called him back too soon for taste, unfortunately, but at least we got to come! I was

To be honest, things have been a bit rough lately. Seth's been going out of town for work a lot lately. A couple times a month it seems like, or else one long trip a month. Next time he goes to San Antonio I'm going to go with and chill with the penguins at SeaWorld, but I wish William had his hoard of cousins here nearby to play with. He seemed to have so much fun with Jack and Aiden and everyone else. And he sure was pretty content hanging out with Ryan while we did grandkid photos!

It was so much fun seeing all the kids too. AnnaMarie and Michael's families have grown up so much since I last saw them! Sophie was so tiny last time! This picture is one of my favorites of Sophie and Jane playing on the computer chair, spinning each other around as fast as they could and laughing their heads off.

Going to Sunday Lake for the fireworks is my absolute favorite place for them. Even living in DC, nothing compares to the fireworks up there. The local shows here may be more spectacular, but they're also more crowded, and the traffic is appalling. Not to mention this year we had a huge storm come through and knock our power out on Friday night. It knocked out pretty much everyone in the DC area. I think the totals were something like 500,000 homes without power. With the typical service (that is to say, not much at all) that Pepco has up here, it took a week for power to be restored to us. In the meantime some good friends of ours were far enough north that they only lost power for a day and were kind enough to let us stay at their place- and to snakesit for us. Kitty's got a tank that self-regulates his temp and humidity so it's normally not a problem to leave him alone while we go for a few days, but it was the hottest week of the year and he'd have fried without someone to refill his water and AC to keep them temp from going way too high. Tangent aside, due to the electrical problems- and water shortages since the water treatment plants were out of electricity too- many of the local firework shows were cancelled altogether. The night we arrived we did bring the storms with us though apparently, as the power went out at Dad's house during a thunderstorm! Thankfully it came back by morning though. heh.

All in all, it was one of the best vacations we've had in a long long time and so much fun :) I still keep trying to call Christy Abbey though, they look so much alike.

William loved it too, even the fireworks. He didn't get scared at all, just stared and absolutely love it. We're definitely looking forward to doing it again soon.

July

I can't believe July is almost gone. It's been so fast and William's been growing like a bean sprout. So I'll catch you all up on what's been going on backwards. So William is 5 months old tomorrow. I don't know where the time has gone, but I blink and he seems bigger. He's starting to teeth too. He's got two sharp little chompers I can feel in the bottom gums so we busted out the teething rings from his baby shower for him. He's not quite sure what to make of them yet and still prefers to chew on fingers. He is a master of facescooting and rolling. Still hasn't figured out that if he uses his arms along with his legs he'd have an easier go of it. He also really loves the bouncer toy that helps him stand up and today he's figured out how to move his feet so that he can spin around in it to reach the different toys on all sides. Right now though he's sitting in it, watching me type, and blowing raspberries me. Raspberries are the most hysterical thing in the world apparently and he sets off in a fit of giggles whenever I return the favor. On the other side of things, ever since we got home from Michigan his sleep schedule has not been very kind to me. He used to be great about sleeping through the night! Now he's decided he must get up every 3-4 hours. Letting him cry it out wasn't working so hot either. He'd start facescooting in his crib, get stuck in a corner, and then get [i]really[/i] upset. So I wind up getting up, cuddling him, inevitably falling asleep in the rocking chair, and then putting him back in his crib when I wake up an hour later with a crick in my neck. Not good habits, but what can I do? I can't have him up and sobbing at 4am when Seth needs to go to work, and I hate when Seth has to go downstairs and sleep in the guest room to get any rest at all. With the teeth starting to come in I think I'm going to try starting him on solids even if he's not six months yet. He's bigger than some six months old and certainly developed enough that I probably could have started it already. Maybe that'll help him sleep through the night better. Our friends whose baby is several months older than William (I always think of Sophie as six months old still, but I guess she must be 8 or 9 months now. heh) have one of those baby food makers that steam and puree all in one go absolutely love theirs so I think we'll get one of those and see how it goes for the peanut. The baby food in the jars from the store kind of freaks me out. I'd much rather get fresh veggies and fruit and things and make my own. I screwed up basic peanut butter cookies this week to an appalling degree, but I can't conceivably screw up pureeing veggies now can I. Even with my kitchen non-skills. So let's see. What else of note has happened... oh! Speaking of William's bad sleep habits, last Thursday night he decided to take the saying 'Sleep is for the Weak' to heart. And didn't sleep. At all. All night. Oh he was happy as a clam so long as he wasn't in his crib and could play with mommy or daddy, but sleep? Ha. It's not like he'd taken any significant naps that day either so I honestly don't know what happened. He was up all day bright and early and of course I hadn't gotten much sleep with him getting up twice in the night so I was tired all day before he pulled this stunt. Thankfully Seth was a super hero and around 2am when I was about to crack he took the Peanut downstairs to play and I got some rest. Seth took Friday off work to sleep. Urk. Well William wants some mommy time so pictures and the trip up North for the 4th will have to wait a bit. Hopefully I can get back to this later today.