Strollin'

Kendry recently figured out the whole process of putting one foot in front of the other. In fact, now when he practices walking he takes enormous steps. Perhaps he has his mommy's long stride.

One of his favorite activities is for us to take him "walking" around the house:

I fully realize that once he starts walking he'll be getting into even more than he is these days with the army crawling, but at least walking won't leave him with the dirty shirt he gets from scooting around on the hard floors.

Army crawl

Whew! It only took me about four tries, but I finally got the program to work with me. Here is our little crawler in action:

Ten on Wednesday

1. Kendry has his 9 month check-up next Monday, which means he only has five more days to pack on the pounds for his official weigh-in. His eating habits have been a little finicky over the last few weeks; we are attributing it to his teething. But finicky eater or not, he is definitely a healthy, growing boy.

2. One of our favorite pastimes while shopping at Costco is hitting up the sample tables. Forget about making lunch - just head to Costco around 11am on a Saturday or Sunday and you can enjoy quite the smorgasbord of meats, cheeses, pasta, soup, fish, bread and pastries. I do draw the line at actually standing there and waiting for the next batch to come out of the pan or microwave though - for some reason that appears a bit desperate to me and, please, I’ve got shopping to do. But do you ever notice the poor guy/gal who got stuck with manning the sample table for milk or vitamins? Seriously, does anyone even approach those tables except out of pity?

3. I have decided that for my 30th birthday I want to go to Silverwood Theme Park. What better way to ring in a monumental birthday than acting like a kid again?! Plus, I have never been there.

4. Kendry has become our little army crawler; he crawls all around the house on his belly rather than on all fours. I got a video of him crawling but had trouble getting it to upload this morning. Grr! For those of you on Facebook, I did manage to get it uploaded there.

5. I am thinking to go with a bug theme for Kendry’s first birthday. Only three more months until my baby boy turns 1!

6. It was nearly 50 degrees again yesterday. I wore my long pea coat to work because it was still decently chilly in the morning, but when I headed out for lunch I felt like I was dressed for the wrong season. Obviously, Punxsutawney Phil hasn’t been to Lewiston in the last few weeks or he would know that spring seems to have arrived already.

7. GO COLTS!!

8. As many of you know, I don't have a dishwasher. Our house was built in the 50's and I'm not sure anything other than the floor and the sink has been updated since then - save for the GE appliances we purchased shortly after we moved in. But I digress. These days I feel like I spend half my evening at the sink, hand washing the day's dishes. I'm tempted to start keeping track of just how much of my life is spent at that darn sink. Perhaps that will help convince my hubby that we at least need to find a portable dishwasher to use until we can remodel the kitchen.

9. I have actually made myself a pot of coffee the last few mornings at home and have gotten minimal negative remarks from the peanut gallery (aka my hubby). For those who know Justin, you know this is a huge step because he hates coffee with a passion. Boy, does that morning cup help get me going, especially when I get up at 4:45 to hit the gym.

10. There is a man at my gym who wears an 80's style cut-off sweatshirt for his workouts. Think "Flashdance", but with a guy who is about 6ft and 220lbs. And when I say cut-off I mean he doesn't just cut around the neck and arms, but he also cuts off the bottom to make it nice and short at his waist. Now imagine him doing overhead presses... Ahhh, just another day in Clarkston.

A Taste of the Single Mom Life

Whew! That’s just about all I can say after the last 48 hours, during which its just been Kendry and me. Justin’s work sent him to Boise on Tuesday afternoon; much to our delight, he flies back tonight at 6:30. I shouldn’t be this worn out after just two days, right? Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Our regular schedule (when Justin is home) involves me dropping Kendry at daycare in the morning and Justin picking him up in the afternoon, usually around 4:30. For the last two days though, Kendry had to stay at daycare an extra hour because I don’t get off work until 5. On top of that, in order to pick him up I don’t get to take my normal route home - pretty much a straight shot with very little traffic or stoplights. Nope, instead I get to head straight up Lewiston’s main drag, complete with rush hour traffic and eight stoplights. Needless to say, by the time Kendry and I made it home the last two days we were completely exhausted. I’m not sure what I had envisioned for these two days on our own, but I can assure you that it didn’t involve Kendry waking up at 5:15am the first day, the hassle of getting my car to Les Schwab to have my tires rotated, or being delegated to pick up the office mail at the post office each morning.

We have only four more hours until Justin arrives home, and those four hours will probably seem like twenty. At 5pm on the dot I have to pick up my car at Les Schwab, dash to pick up Kendry, and then scoot over to the church to prepare the Sunday school supplies. The catch is to accomplish all of this before 6:15pm because Justin has requested that Kendry and I be in the terminal waiting for him when he plane lands at 6:30. Yep, I’m pretty sure my blood pressure went up just thinking about this after work itinerary. However, I did manage to put dinner in the crock pot this morning before I left for work, so a fresh batch of taco soup will be waiting for us at home. Yeah, me!

Gotta send a shout out to Shirley and Chet who watched Kendry an extra hour the last few days. You are both such a blessing to our family! Thank you so much!

And another shout out to my girlfriend Nancy who had us over for dinner last night. Dinner was delicious! And now I can say for certain that I ate at least one complete meal while Justin was gone; the rest of it is all a blur.

TOT

Oooo, my 10 this week is kinda lengthy. Lots on my mind...

1. My hubby made my week by giving me a Starbucks gift card that he got as a perk at work. I have never been so happy that Justin hates coffee.

2. I finally finished the re-do of my photo collage wall at home. Up until a few months ago I only had a few wedding photos on the wall. Kinda drab. I took those down, painted the wall, reformatted my collage (complete with new photos and my Family sign), and then "staged" the area. I am so pleased with how it turned out, even though it took me a few months to get it accomplished. The sign says: "A Happy Family is but an Earlier Heaven". I am still searching for just the right hardware pulls for the buffet dresser. I seriously struggle with home decorating; I pretty much have to see something I like in a magazine or store, or someone else's home, and copy it. I give credit to Real Deals store for this staging, especially the old books (which actually were from my own home library - I didn't have to buy them). 3. I am loving my new wheels! How did I ever live without heated seats?

4. I battled some nostalgia this weekend as we installed Kendry's big boy car seat (the correct one that rear-faces this time) in my car and we put away his infant seat. I cleaned the infant seat and base thoroughly because I am the type who cringes at the very thought of putting anything into storage in a dirty condition. When I put the infant seat cover back on I put the harness at the very smallest setting, figuring that the next child to ride in the seat will be a tiny newborn - well, tiny as in less than 10lbs 5oz anyway, or at least I hope. It was strange to think of Kendry being small enough for that setting not too long ago, and it was exciting to think of the next baby we'll get to put in the seat.

5. One of the next projects I have in mind for home decorating involves stealing Justin's nightstand...permanently. Think I can get away with it?

6. As I mentioned a few days ago, we went to the local pool last Friday for Kendry's first swim. This weekend I finally got caught up on laundry and was quite surprised to find what I can only assume is chewing gum on the seat of Justin's swim trunks that he wore to the pool. Initially I thought it was just lotion, soap or, more common around our household, Kendry's spit up. But after two washes with no luck of getting it out I finally asked Justin if it could be gum. He was just as stumped as I was but, not having nearly as much tolerance for public swimming pools, admitted in disgust that it was probably some foolish kid's gum that they spit out in the pool. Yuck!

7. Its getting lighter and lighter outside when I leave work at 5pm. We're gaining!

8. On Sunday morning Kendry figured out how to get on his knees and pull himself up at the coffee table, positioning himself perfectly to reach the things we have attempted to keep out of his reach by placing them on the table. I was so surprised that I quickly pulled him down for fear of him tumbling over, only to realize that is exactly how he is going to learn. Naturally, when he attempted it again a little later and I simply stood by to watch, he DID topple over and bonk his head on the floor. But this milestone made me realize it was high time we move his crib mattress to the lower setting before he figures out how to topple over that.

9. I truly believe the Black-Eyed Peas should do a workout CD. How can you not be motivated for a tough workout listening to "I Gotta Feeling" or "Let's Get it Started"?

10. I love how much Kendry loves bathtime. No matter how fussy or tired he may be in the evening, he always perks up for his bath.