Some videos from last month

As Amanda rests from her creme cheese gastro-attack, I volunteered to post videos for our family viewings. Editing of these video took about an hour, so it's been a while and I unfortunately don't quite remember which clips are from what events. Suffice it to say that these are of Andrew's out and abouts for the last several weeks. Enjoy.

The First Present

We opened the first present this weekend - a new outfit for Andrew from Grandma and Grandpa so he could wear it to church. He looked smashing, of course. We had a fun weekend. We had a free night in the local Hampton Inn that was going to expire, so we went last night to enjoy ourselves. The king bed was SO comfortable and sitting and watching TV was a blast (we don't get any reception in our apartment and are too cheap to pay for cable - well, we do get a fuzzy Animal Planet). They also had a really good breakfast with hot eggs and sausage even. But now, I have a horrible stomachache and feel SO sick - I wonder if it was from breakfast. ICK.

Snow

Yeah!!! The semester is done!!! I finished with my poster presentation yesterday - from 3:30-7:30 - four whole hours! I am so glad to be done and am taking off until we get back from Japan when I really need to buckle down and get a lot of research done.

Anyways, we had a BIG snowstorm on Saturday / Sunday. Biggest one we had in a long time. Thankfully, Katsu went to the grocery store in his pajamas on Saturday evening before it got too bad to pick up a gallon of Pumpkin Pie ice cream. Andrew and I both had colds, so we were planning on staying home from church anyways, but almost a foot of snow later, church was canceled. Katsu did go outside some to shovel and also to throw snowballs at our patio door while Andrew watched. We mostly just watched Gilmore Girls all weekend, which of course, is the perfect way to spend the weekend.

Early Christmas

Katsu got his Christmas present a little early - yesterday. We are both excited about it.

(Sorry the pictures is dark - that's what Michigan in the winter makes our apartment - dark).

Or you can see it here.

Andrew is 7 months old!

It's taken me a few days to get the post up, but Andrew is now seven months old. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. This was another challenging month for us. Andrew has become very stubborn and basically stopped taking naps for me, except after nursing or in the car. And if I am lucky enough to get him to nap in his crib, it's for 30-45 minutes tops. He arches his back if I try to calm him before putting him in the crib, but if I just place him in the crib, he cries and cries and does not go to sleep. As you can tell by this diatribe - it's very frustrating for me, especially as another month has gone by without research done.

Anyways, after a month and some of trying, he has finally seemed to get how a sippy cup works, well, for at least one sip a day, though the rest of the time he just bites it. He also eats maybe three tiny spoonfuls of food a day. We just have to let him hold the spoon and essentially feed himself. Messy, to say the least. Still not a fan of solids, what can we say.

He has been kind of fussy this month from teething and we can finally see the top of one of the teeth. And the last few days he has been sleeping much better, so we are all grateful. Very grateful. Very very very very grateful. We've been a tired lot.

Andrew loves to sit still and hates hates his tummy, though he is ending up there more and more as he is more ambitious trying to reach things. Maybe it will eventually lead to creeping or crawling. Occassionally, he seems to kind of creep backwards, so maybe there is hope for his future crawling.

On the other hand, he LOVES to stand. And just this last week, he has figured out how to pull himself up on the crib or with our fingers or clothes. He is SO proud when he does this and laughs and smiles from ear to ear.

For pictures, just a few. A family picture we had a friend take for our newsletter which we will eventually get out. Christmas things are happening a little slowly this year. Also, a picture of Andrew's favorite game - the "Andrew bed" - where I sit him on the bed and make the bed around him, usually with the cat Joe jumping in and playing too. Andrew laughs and laughs and laughs and thinks its the funnest thing ever! Also, some pictures of Andrew standing. Sleeping gave him a cute Bam Bam hair through his helmet.

Andrew & Santa

We went to a local garden / variety store and took a picture of Andrew with Santa. He seemed to quite enjoy it, plus there were snacks for us to eat - chestnuts and freshly smoked duck. Yum! We also stopped by a local home built back before the Civil War all decked out for Christmas and enjoyed some cookies. It was not too bad of a day!