Well that's not good...

Someone got into our car last night. This morning the door was ajar, the glove box was riffled through, and the back seat next to William's carseat was dropped flat to access the trunk. We don't think anything was taken. The GPS was still there and we didn't keep any other valuables in the car but it still freaks me out. Seth thinks they might have been scared off by someone, but if they had time to search through the glove box and drop the back seat and didn't take the GPS then what were they looking for? Time for a little more paranoia around the house since I'm home alone with William so much. :(

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.

Good Morning Peanut!

Fine, fine, I'll update this darn thing

So here's a picture post. William is sqwaking and crawling around like a fiend. Currently trying to get under the chaise for some reason.

Seth and Peanut playing together!

Playing with Grandpa when we went up there in July while Seth was out of town for work!

Practicing scooting around! He hadn't completely gotten the hang of it at this point, but putting Mr. Parrot just out of reach was good incentive!

Of course Grandma makes the best playmate, and spoils him rotten.

He's also pretty good at helping sit on the laundry.

We finally got a rug in the living room upstairs so he can crawl around comfortably.

Just needed to give it a Quality check! Yup, it's nice and soft for little guys knees.

And back up to see Grandma and Grandpa again once Seth came home from travelling for work! Peanut is so lucky.

We even got to go to their county fair and meet the goats.

And a horse!

And a (stuffed) elk(?)! He wasn't sure what to think about all this.

And lastly in the pictures I've managed to get around to uploading, I finally got the curtains finished in the living room with a blue linen swag. We're planning on finally finishing our living room as soon as finances allow with a TV console (and moving our big screen upstairs and hooking it up to my old computer. A couch and a couple of end tables. The chaise'll squeeze in here still, but the giant poof will head downstairs to the guest room or be sold to a friend. We'll see. Money's tight right now since we're expecting Seth to be furloughed for two months this upcoming fiscal year. Way to go government.

Bedtime is hard

I'll catch up more later, but just a few thoughts tonight while it's on my mind. Bedtime is hard. Poor William didn't sleep well when we went up to visit Grandma and Papa Pease last week. Every night he got up every three hours. Drove me nuts. He'd been sleeping ok here at home, but after several days up there it threw everything off. When we got home he'd try to stay up until 1 or even 2am. Admittedly we keep late hours at our house since Seth often works with west coast people so goes into work late and comes home late. But it was getting ridiculous. So we've put our foot down. Bedtime is at 11 now. Wiliam gets one last dinner, a snuggle, and then gets put down for the night... and sobs. And sobs. And sobs. Tonight he didn't stop until after midnight. It's heartbreaking. We'll go in every 15 minutes or so, calm him down and then leave again but that just makes him cry harder. I really hope he starts to catch on to this whole falling asleep thing soon. :(

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.