Peel Banana!

I want to like Halloween.  I really do.  I like the part where people have cute costumes.  It just turns out that I almost never do.  Lack of imagination maybe?  Well this year the day of the ward trunk or treat and Halloween party Bill and I had a bit of a busy day with an all-day test for Bill and teaching in Salt Lake for me.  So we forewent costumes ourselves.  However, you can't not get a costume for your baby's first Halloween.  It would just be criminal. :)  Thankfully DI came to the rescue with an adorable costume for all of $1.50.  Behold, Spencer the banana!

 One of our friends gave him a Kit Kat.  We gave it to him, figuring he would suck on the wrapper.  Oh no.  He chewed through the wrapper and inhaled the whole thing.  And he screamed anytime I took it from him.  It was hilarious.  The kid likes chocolate.  He's a smart one.

Lately he's been doing this funny thing where he opens his mouth huge and sticks his tongue out as far as it goes.  I managed to get a picture of him doing it yesterday.

Our "new" house

I always like posting pictures of the new places I move.  This one is a little slow in coming, since we've lived here for three months now.  It really feels like we've lived here forever though.  We had an amazing opportunity fall into our laps in the form of the opportunity to rent this house.  It's inexpensive, bigger than anywhere we've ever lived, in our same ward, and in a great location.  It will do just fine for the next couple years we are in Provo.  Since moving has become quite the affair these days, this is by far the best part.  So here goes.  Behold, our house.

Here's the living room from every angle.  My sister and BIL were nice enough to give us their old couches when we moved in here, plus let us babysit their piano.  It definitely gives me piano envy.  So beautiful!  I love the huge front window, except for the part where it's freezing in the wintertime.  Nothing a little plastic window covering won't solve.

 Here's the hallway. 

 The bathroom.

 Our bedroom.  We're in the process of installing a fan.  We have to get into the attic to brace it, so thus the "in the process" status.

 The office.  This was the only place our lovesac would fit, but I actually love it in here.  This also plays part time Bill's dad's room.  He stays with us sometimes since they're in the midst of moving here.

 I love that Bill and I both have a desk.  It makes life so much easier.

 This is Spencer's room.  It has serious need of some wall hangings, but the layout works well.  The red carpet here and in our bedroom is classic, leftover from the owner years ago.  Not so pretty, but really soft.  I'm looking at the bright side, you know? :)

 This is the kitchen.  It's so big compared to all the other places I've lived in!  I could go for a bit more counter space, but it's definitely good for now.  Oh, and a dishwasher.  I will really appreciate one of those when we get one again.

 The dining room.  Yes, a real dining room!  Yay!  Here's to living in houses not apartments where that seems to be optional.  The washer/dryer is in a closet between this room and the living room.

 And the view of the living room from the dining room.

And there you have it.  Our house.  I didn't take a picture of the yard because well, it's cold outside.  I'm only so ambitious.  Just imagine plenty of grass and a big gnarly bush that is coming out in the Spring. Woohoo!

9 Months

I completely missed my 8-month post and now Spencer is already 9 months old!  We went to his checkup today and he's health and well.  17lbs 11oz, 29.3 inches tall, big head.  He's still our bobblehead baby.  He's in the 70 and 80% range for height and head circumference and the 8th for weight.  Someone I know coined a new name for him.  He's my lollipop baby.  So funny.  Really though, he is growing like a weed.

He's pulling himself up and cruising everywhere he can and has been for a month now.  I forecast walking by Thanksgiving or not that much after.  He is in love with moving.  He still only army crawls unless he doesn't like what he's on; then he will get up on all fours.

He's still just so expressive.  He finds everything funny and laughs all the time.  He thinks it's hilarious if I say 'boo' to him, so I do it on a regular basis.  His favorite game is for me to crawl away from him around a corner and he'll chase me and then when he comes around the corner I yell 'boo' and he jumps and laughs and laughs.  Then we do it all again.

He's chewing on everything.  He has six teeth--four upper teeth and two lower.  He seems to be teething again, as he's chewing on everything in sight.  He loves food.  He eats most anything I give him.  He wants anything I'm eating now.  I'm still trying to let go and just let him go at food and get crazy dirty, but it'll come.

For a while he thought it was hilarious to buzz his lips, though mostly he just ended up spitting all over everything.  He's now moved on to opening his mouth as wide as he can and sticking his tongue out as far as it goes.  What a goof!  He especially loves doing both things when we will do it to him and then he mimics us back.

He babbles all the time. He loves to say mamamamama... though he will also come out with dadadada sometimes too.  I don't think he is calling me specifically that, but when he's sad, that's what he says until I come pick him up.  I imagine he really is calling me mama and smile every time. :)  He talks all the time.  He is not a quiet child, that is for sure.

He is super curious.  His favorite thing is to go to a new place so he can go exploring.  He of course tastes everything new he finds, even if it means getting flat on the floor so he can suck on a doorstop.  Gross, but amusing.  Hopefully that curiosity will become more constructive as he gets older, but I imagine I will find him in lots of places I don't want him along the way.

That's all I can think of for the moment.  Yay for 9 months!

Hello world!

Hi everyone.  I disappeared for a month.  But not really.  I'm still here.  It's just that Spencer chewed on my computer power cord and it stopped working and I ordered a new cord and it took two weeks to arrive.  What the heck?!  Nothing takes that long to ship these days.  Then when it got here it was cut in a couple places.  So it's going back and I will have to wait another while for a new one to arrive.  But for now I can upload pictures and blog and feel happy using my mac instead of my husband's PC, and life is good. :) 

So what has been happening lately? Lots of stuff!  We went camping for the first time.  How has it taken us this long to get out camping with Spencer?  Oh well.  Water under the bridge. It was so fun.  We just went to a state park campground outside of Midway, but we went with Bill's dad and cooked cobbler in our dutch oven, consumed some of those huge campfire marshmallows, cooked outside and therefore the food tasted amazing, slept in a tent, and generally had a great time.

Oh, and I cut my hair.  Bad picture but good haircut.  I like it.  Spencer can't pull it as often.  It's super easy to style.  Good times.  I'll probably grow it out again now. :)  Speaking of Spencer, he has been learning lots of stuff.

How to stand up

 How to do pullups

 How to climb stairs

 How to stuff his face full of food

 How to pull off all the toilet paper on the roll

You know. Important stuff.

Oh, and I got a job.  The MPA department at BYU called me and asked if I would come back and be a teaching assistant for one of the professors for his statistics class in the Executive MPA program.  I was flattered.  I said yes.  Now I'm one step closer to my dream of teaching college.  It's fun. 

So yeah, that's mostly it for the moment.  Life is good.  We're good.  Bill just discovered he has two instead of three semesters left.  Joy!  Things are going well.