We've been up to a lot of things here and there over the last month, but I haven't had time to blog about them, or even take my pictures off the camera. I think I'm only working on this post right now because I just started uploading the photos and it says I have 451. Not only is that going to take a long time, but man, how much there must be to blog about, then, right??!
Soooo...update...
I'm just going to do a September-in-summary, because it's easier that way.
-went to a pioneer festival/craft show on Labour Day. Had lots of fun, discovered I like kettle corn popcorn, learned how to do melted glass (seriously, I always wanted to know! The finished product looks so easy, I'm sure I could do it...so I asked the vendor how he made his stuff, and then trounced off without buying anything. Okay, it wasn't so blatant as that, and we had a really nice conversation, so I don't think he was too put out. Besides, I'm not buying a kiln any time soon, so I don't think he needs to worry about competition.) Some photos of the craft show are below:
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| My attempt at a cool angle. |
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| If it wasn't for those Heinz cans and the Tim Horton's cup, it'd look pretty vintage! |
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| CUTE little boy dressed in period clothing. |
-was a little sad when all the kids started school, but the sadness is going away. I registered for my last university class EVER (well, the last one I need to finish my degree anyway) and I start in January. SO excited to think that I might someday have letters behind my name, even if it's only BA (pass.)
-Matthew has a new calling now. He's been released as the stake Young Men secretary (so no registration next year...yay!) and has been called as the stake executive secretary (maybe the intensity of the last week of registration...times 5...for every week, and not just for one week. AH!) It will be a lot of work, but he's really looking forward to it. Our stake president is a great man, and it'll be wonderful working with him. And, did you know that he (the stake president) puts 25 hours of his week aside for meetings just for his calling? And then has a full-time job on top of that? And a family? That includes teenagers? Let me just say, WOW. How does he do it?
-I've had a slight calling change as well. Well, not calling change, but assignment change. I'm the 2nd counselor in primary, but now I won't have a month of sharing times every few months anymore, but instead I'll be doing music time every week. I'm really excited about doing it when I'm PREPARED. See, I've filled in many times for music time, but only when someone didn't make it, so I had to wing it. It'll be fun actually doing stuff for it, and teaching the kids all sorts of songs.
-speaking of primary, we had our pioneer activity the other week at Janine's place, and it was great! We had an awesome turn-out (only 4 kids missing) and the kids had a lot of fun. Here are some of my favourite pictures of the day:
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| A pioneer game we did with the kids (tug-of-war) |
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| SO camera-trained already, I love it! |
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| Okay, so when I asked Ryan (on the right) if Charlie (the horse) was his friend, he promptly put one arm on his hip and began talking all big-man style about how cool Charlie is and how they're besties. Matt is here trying to imitate Ryan and can't keep from laughing. |
-Elijah is doing really well. He probably deserves a few bullet points, so I'll make the first one about the fair. We went to the county fair in my hometown the weekend after labour day, and I entered Elijah into the baby contest. My sister entered Ayden as well, but in a different age category. For each category there were four 1st-place prizes, being most content baby, happiest baby (seriously, what's the difference?) baby with the biggest and brightest eyes, and best matched parent and baby. And Elijah won first in one of the categories!! Can you guess which one? Yep, that's right, the biggest and brightest eyes. I take it as a compliment to myself, as it's pretty much the only feature of mine he inherited, but I really can't take credit for how they light up and twinkle when he's happy. He does that all on his own. So without further ado, here are some photos of my biggest and brightest-eyed baby!
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| GAH does he get any cuter?! And check out those big and brights. |
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| Ayden won in his category for biggest and brightest eyes as well, and I'm glad they were in different age categories, because I'd hate to pit them up against eachother. Because obviously Elijah would win. Just kidding! It'd be tough though. I think Eli's eyes are brighter, but Ayden's just might be bigger. |
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| And Preston, in good spirits while riding a horse. |
-Elijah has also been VERY mobile lately. He rolls to get anywhere he wants, and started army-crawling a week or two ago. It's so cute! He also LOVES the piano, and yesterday when he thought I wasn't looking, he army-crawled across the floor to the base of it, and just stared upwards longingly until I lifted him up and sat down with him. He promptly began pounding the keys with a look of absolute glee on his face.
It's fun because now when he's grouchy there are a few things we can do to entertain him. The piano is one thing, going for a walk is another, there's the exersaucer, jolly jumper, sitting him in his highchair with the spatula, turning on the Backyardigans (although that one he is losing interest in) or even turning on the ceiling fan in one of the bedrooms. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm figuring him out.
-Elijah will be 8 months old in a few days, and I have no clue how big he is. At 7 months he was 18lb 7oz, and still 28.5" long, so I'm guessing 19 lb's and 29"??? I know he'll eventually sit, stand, walk, run, etc on his own, but it feels like it'll never happen. He still isn't pulling himself into a sitting position, although he can hold himself up when I sit him like that. Maybe it's because he's not crawling the normal way? Which I don't think he'll EVER do, because he has yet to push himself onto his knees. That whole rocking business? Forget it. Oh well. I know he's fine, I just like seeing him accomplish new things.
Oh, but here's something that IS actually concerning me. Lately he has about zero interest in baby food. He was doing really well for a while, eating 6 heaping spoonfuls of baby food in one sitting, and now I'm lucky to get down 1. I don't know what's happened, he's just lost interest. Again, I know they're just general milestones, but by 9 months I should be able to feed him textures, or pass him a piece of toast to chew on, etc, but he gags any time food sits on his tongue, and chokes once it dares to be swallowed. I don't know what to do about it, as he isn't really interested in anything but our food, like a piece of cucumber to chew on. But then, I worry that if I do that, he's going to break a piece off and choke on it. AH. He'll take fruit the best, but he's even been turning his nose up to that pretty quickly lately.
Anyone know what's going on? Can teething cause him to not want to eat? He's nursing just fine, but I really wanted to wean him by January, and he won't take a bottle and now won't even take baby food. What happened to the indepence of once they hit 6 months, and you can actually go and DO things because they can eat solids? As with every time-related milestone or goal in my life, I'm feeling pretty naive and duped. Do I stick with it though, and wait to see the doctor until his 9-month check-up in November? Or do I need to address this sooner? I feel so confused.
-we've only shown our house twice now. I'm bummed to say the least, but it IS hopeful that one wanted to buy it. They just had a maximum (supposedly from the bank) that was lower than what we thought acceptable considering the renovations we just did. But still! When will you sell, house, WHEN?! Because I'd really like to stop stressing about keeping you so clean. Tidy, a little clean, FINE, but spotless? GAH. It's never spotless, so I'm always stressing. ?Have I mentioned I don't like selling houses? Joy in the journey...joy in the journey...joy in the journey...
I can't think of much else to post on at this point, so I'm going to wrap this up now and get Elijah up from his nap.
EDIT - I'm actually finishing this the day after I wrote it, as the pictures weren't ready yet, but new thing - Eli got hives again this evening, after having a few licks of a sugar-based syrup that had been in contact with milk. Starting to wonder more and more about that allergy. This time, though, he hadn't been covered in the syrup (thank goodness! That'd make for a sticky baby) like he had been with the formula. Matt says I should take the formula and draw an "H" on his cheek and see if it gets all hive-y. I'm considering it...ha.
