Things have gotten away from me lately...

As the title says, things have gotten away from me lately. I'm not quite sure where time has gone now that it's starting to get cooler and turn into fall here. The leaves haven't changed yet, but I'm looking forward to it. It's my favorite time of the year. Anyways. Blather about me first and then you can have cute pictures of William to coo over. :)

For the past three months I've been working on losing weight and getting back into shape. To be completely honest, my exercise efforts have been a losing proposition. The time to get out and run or whatever just doesn't seem to be there. I don't really want to spend yet more money on a jogging stroller I'd probably only use for the rest of the fall until snow comes, and frankly most of the gyms around here are outrageously prices (around $100/month) with no baby care for the peanut. There's one I've been meaning to check out that's reasonably priced with baby care, but it's 30 minutes away without traffic and I haven't gotten over there yet- and if I haven't gotten over there yet would I get over there again if I did have a membership? Like I said, my motivation in that department kinda sucks.

On the other hand, I've been doing really well in the diet department! I've changed how I eat (no more munchies whenever I get bored and a lot less sweets!) and I've been counting calories. The past couple weeks I've even left off the literal counting and just try to keep the lifestyle and portion size of what had been in my caloric budget when I was counting. I don't want to spend my entire life checking food labels- I'd much rather be able to make eating reasonably an instinct. I've lost over 20lbs so far! My goal is to get down to 140 (10 more pounds to go!) and fit back into some of my old costumes I outgrew even before I had William. As it is, I'm below my pre-pregnancy weight so I'm really happy and feeling great!

Let's see, other stuff and things. I've been called to serve in the Primary now! I'm teaching the 9-10 year olds as well as being the Activity Days leader for the 8-11 year old girls. I hope it'll be a fun calling and that it'll go well. Teaching makes juggling William a bit tricky now though since Seth teaches the YM. He just got called to be the YM 1st counselor instead of the 2nd where he has been for several months now. But Seth takes him 2nd hour when I teach and then we do a hand off for 3rd hour and I take him while my kids are in sharing time. Thankfully other teachers can keep an eye on them there. William's normal lunch time comes up during 2nd hour so we're going to have to juggle that around and hope he doesn't give Seth too much trouble! This past Sunday he was really good though. He got hungry early so I sat in the hall feeding him, wanted to play with Dad all 2nd hour, and then he passed out and slept all 3rd hour for me! He's too cute.

Sewing Updates!
I've been out of the costuming thing lately. It's the off season for conventions now and William is far too cute and interactive to sit still while I sew these days. I've still got a top sitting on my cutting table half finished because I haven't found the time to get back to it. Really should do that. I even dyed the fabric one afternoon into a soft lavender-grey color.

I still want to make that yellow 18th century dress, but things haven't worked out very well for me to get to the Library of Congress to do the necessary research since William isn't allowed inside. Frustrating, but that's life and I'll get to it eventually. My 18th century corset also needs some repairs done before I can wear it again. So I'm going to take a break from historical for a while. It's sort of devoured my costuming career the past couple years and I've been wanting to get back into more the crazy out-there scifi/fantasy realm of costuming again where being historically accurate doesn't matter and you can go nuts and create something really impressive. The trick, of course, is to create something awesome that is recognizable (even if only by some) rather than an original creation that makes everyone go 'uh, what are you supposed to be?

So my ambition is this character from the new Guild Wars 2 video game. She's a tree. Sort of. heh. The character herself is fun, but she'll also be an awesome technical challenge for me that'll really push me to improve and expand my skills. It'll take a lot of fabric painting (for the plant like textures on her clothing and limbs), prop making (which I've never done much with), alternative materials that have more structure than regular fabrics (like her big leafy shoulder thingy), body painting for the face, and wig making! Pretty much everything I'll be doing will be new and that'll be a ton of fun. Just need to... you know... find the time to do it!

Now onto the stuff you guys actually care about! As I type, William has just stood up on his own for the first time!

Here's William playing in church. I only had my ipad with me, so quality isn't that good.
William has had a lot of 'firsts' this month it seems. He even had his first kiss! Though it's very likely that he and Ari were just trying to bite each others noses off and missed. Still. This one'll go in the file to bust out and tease him with when he's older!

Here are some other fun pictures. These next few are from August actually, that I finally got off of my camera. "You're probably wondering why I called you all here today..."

Good Night Moon is his favorite book.

The power of Spoon

cFirst time eating solids! Carrots are yummy!

"I caught a Dad!"

First time sitting on his own!

These are from September (Yay for getting caught up!) Playing with Dad when he gets home is always a highlight.

"But Cameras are awesome too!" He's such a ham.

"What? Dad won't ever let me fall!"

Dinner time is always an adventure. That's why he needs his pilot hat.