More pics

Today was another awesome day. I love this part of my life. Watching William grow over the last 9 months has made this the best 9 months of my life. I try to take time to treasure each day, because I know you can't go back in time and life passes by so quickly. Time is a thief.

William and I drove out to Seattle to have lunch with my friend, Kristie. We were considering going to Alki Beach, but had to change plans since William's AM nap ran long. We had a great lunch at an Indian Restaurant in Ballard and then we all headed over to a Chai House for an awesome iced soy chai...yummy!

When we got back to Snoqualmie, we headed over to Layla's house to hang out in her air conditioned home and play with the girls. I am still amazed at how much William adores Astrid. He just stares at her and watches everything she does. When she does something interesting, he jumps up and down with excitement.

Since neither Layla nor I felt like cooking in this heat, we all headed over to iBurger for dinner. Then we walked over to the library and got library cards for our family.

I still have a ton of photos from the last couple of weeks that I wanted to post, so here they are...

William and I at Lime Kiln Point, San Juan Island after our picnic.

Two baby deer at the Island House on San Juan Island.

William is packed and ready to go strawberry picking at Remlinger Farms.

William hanging loose at Lime Kiln Point, SJI after our picnic lunch.

William has six teeth!

William got his sixth tooth in yesterday. It is next to his upper front right tooth. He also figured out how to go from rocking back and forth on his hands and knees and crawling backwards to a sitting position.

A hot summer weekend

Andrew and William during an early morning breakfast out on the terrace at the San Juan Island house last weekend.

Chelsea, William and Rowan enjoying an early morning out on the terrace.

We had an awesome weekend. Saturday morning we met Layla, Alyse and Astrid at Starbucks and then William, Andrew and I followed them over to Remlinger Farms to go strawberry picking. I have attached a couple of pics from our fun outing. We will definitely be going back there soon.

Layla, Alyse, Astrid, Andrew and William are ready to go strawberry picking!!

William in his backpack carrier at Remlinger Farms.
William and Alyse at Remlinger Farms after lunch.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Lindsey, Lance and Phoenix's house and had a delicious bbq thanks to Lance's awesome culinary skills. William and Phoenix had the same due date and are super cute together.

Lindsey and Phoenix.

William and his friend, Phoenix.

Adorable Phoenix after enjoying a graham cracker.

Sunday afternoon, we all headed over to Steph, Jon, and Ellie's house for a PEPS bbq. We got to meet all of the daddies and it was great to see Cate, our group leader, again.

Almost all the PEPS babies and mommies (and daddy) together again.

William in the pool at the PEPS party.

Monday, William and I are going to get together with my friend, Kristie likely in Seattle somewhere. I can't wait. We haven't seen her in months!!

This Wednesday, our little family will be heading up to San Juan Island to stay at the Island House for the 4th of July. We are excited to celebrate the holiday with Andrew's parents. I'm sure we will have a great time enjoying the festivities on the island. I'm psyched for the parade and whatever fireworks we might see. William loves spending time with his Papa and Grandma. William even loves his Grandma's singing!! He gets so excited when she sings to him while she is cooking in the kitchen.

In summary...

I just got these photos from Autumn and thought I should post them. They were taken last week at a park near our house.

Today was another gorgeous summer day. We met with our landscaper to discuss the plantings around the patio this morning before Andrew left for work. Then, William had a bath and we made our way over to Layla's house for a play date. We had some lunch together and then William and I headed home for his afternoon nap.

This past weekend was super fun and super busy. We ended up learning a few things about traveling with a baby. William slept through the night in his own crib all of last week. At the Wildwood house he woke up at least once per night every night we were there. At the Wildwood house he got grumpy by his last day there due to his routine being totally disrupted. Today, he was back to his normal self and his normal routine. All of this insight has led me to question whether a complicated vacation in August is really such a great idea. I'm starting to wonder if doing something closer to home would be a better idea. I'm also starting to worry about traveling to Germany for our Memming-Familienfest in September all by myself. Eek.

While we were at Andrew's parents' place on San Juan Island we managed to do lots of fun things together. The weather was good with a few sunny days. We walked to Roche Harbor several times. Andrew and I went scootering, which was more fun than I had expected. I love my scooter. Andrew and I went kayaking all around Wescott Bay. We went for a picnic with William at Lime Kiln Point and then for a walk around English Camp. We got to see seals and eagles (up close) and ospreys. Andrew worked with his father on getting the sailboat ready for launching. Andrew and I got to enjoy our first date night ever since William was born and we went out to dinner at Duck Soup Inn. The food was incredible and we really enjoyed reconnecting over dinner. When we got back we went for a fun scooter ride together.

William is developing in leaps and bounds right now. He is making lots of new noises in addition to his baa, maa, paa, daa etc. He is making a clicking noise with his tongue behind his bottom teeth. He is close to crawling and is rocking back and forth and crawling backwards. He can get up on his hands and knees and seems to be figuring it all out. He's also getting more and more steady on his feet and can stand for long periods while holding onto something.

A gorgeous summer day on San Juan Island

Today we enjoyed an awesome day on San Juan Island. In the morning I took Rowan and William for a walk along the shore and then Andrew, William and I had breakfast out on the terrace overlooking the water. At noon, Andrew, William and I drove over to Lime Kiln Point Park and had a picnic. Next we went for a walk at English Camp and then walked on the docks in Roche Harbor. When we got back home, I took William and Rowan for a walk around the Island House property. We explored the gardens and walked along the shore. William loved being carried around in the Ergo backpack carrier today and seemed perfectly content during all of our walks.

This evening, Andrew and I enjoyed our first activity alone (without William) since William was born. After Andrew put William to bed, Grandma Jenny kept an ear out for William and rocked him back to sleep during a brief waking. He sometimes wakes himself up after rolling onto his tummy and pushing himself up onto his hands.

Andrew and I had an awesome kayak in Wescott Bay. We got to see seals and watched as an eagle swooped down and caught a fish which made a big splash just before it took off flying again. It was a gorgeous evening with the sun shining on the rocks and plants along the shoreline making the scene look ethereal.

On San Juan Island

I wanted to make a note of a couple new things that William is doing for my own future reference. Just last week, William had trouble holding one item in each hand. Today, he was able to do this with no problem and enjoyed holding a spatula in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other.

He is pulling himself up entirely on his own when he holds my hands. He bounces when he sitting in his high chair. He laughs when Rowan makes funny noises. He scoots backwards. He flexes his hips to bring his knees under him into a crawling position.

Yesterday was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. William and I drove into Seattle to visit Andrew at work. Then we headed back to our neighborhood to meet Layla, Astrid and Alyse at a park to play. William enjoyed rolling around on our picnic blanket and playing with the grass, while Astrid had fun playing on the playground equipment. Andrew met me at my PT appointment to pick up William and I headed out to my coach's house for a lesson on swim form. We watch Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen's instructional video and discussed how to incorporate this new technique into our own swim style. Meanwhile, Andrew had a very difficult time William (aka the thrashing little monkey) to sleep.

Last night was William's fourth consecutive night of sleeping through the night. Yeah!! He's slept through the night many, many times before but his sleep patterns tend to change every few months and this seems to be our current pattern.

Father's Day at the Robinsons'

William and Andrew on Father's Day at the Robinsons' house in Mukilteo.

Jenny, William, Maya and Roy on Father's Day.

Today we enjoyed Father's Day at the Robinsons' house in Mukilteo. I have attached a few photos above, taken during our little celebration.

I have included a link to McKenzie Photography so that you can view the gorgeous photos McKenzie took of William a couple of weeks ago. To enter the online gallery, go to the proofing page and then enter Robinson as the password. These photos will only be viewable online for another 5 days and can be ordered directly from McKenzie Photography. Enjoy!

Father's Day weekend

I keep thinking of things that I want to post about during the day and then when it comes time for me to post they all fly out of my head. Let's see what I can come up with...

He has learned how to mimic us. When we bang on a table or surface, he will mimic us. Yesterday we were out to eat at a restaurant and I sat William in the corner of the booth and gave him a spoon and a teething cracker and he was entertained for the entire meal. It was awesome. This is the first time we have eaten in peace since he was a little newborn baby. He amused himself by banging the spoon on the booth cushion, chewing on the spoon and feeding himself a teething cracker. He has gotten much, much better at self-feeding. He loves rice crackers.

He seems to be more interested in watching me use sign language lately. It looks like he is understanding some of what I sign to him.

He will laugh at things as if they are a funny joke. This evening Rowan made one of his normal groaning noises and I imitated it and this made William laugh. I repeated this noise many, many times and every time William laughed/giggled. It was so very cute. He will laugh if you tickle him, make funny faces/noises or he hears us laughing.

We have been calling him Monkey lately for very good reason. He is a wild little animal these days. He rolls around and scoots himself backwards on the floor and when you are holding him he will shake his head, make lots of noise/baby talk, kick his legs and arch backwards...sometimes all at once. He's a little squiggly worm.

He definitely understands the concept of object permanence. If you give him a toy and take it away (as I did in The Land of Nod today) he will scream and yell and get very upset, even if you try to appease him with another toy. This morning he was chewing on a froggie toy that he has and I put it in a box and he grabbed the box and turned it over to find his froggie.

He can't exactly crawl backwards but he has figured out how to push himself backwards when he is on his tummy on the hard wood floor. It's very frustrating for him because he ends up further away from the toy he is trying to get.

For some reason that neither Andrew nor I has been able to figure out, he has been very difficult to put to bed lately. Once he is asleep in his crib he sleeps soundly and usually through the night. When we are trying to rock him to sleep, he fights going to bed with his whole body and will thrash about and scream and cry. He is usually calmed by putting him in his crib for a while, but will then want to be held again after a little while. Tonight I had to cuddle him in our bed for a while until he fell asleep and then Andrew was able to put him in his crib without a fight. Hmmm.

He has been blowing raspberries again lately. He is very focused on figuring out how to make noise with his mouth and with his hands (banging) and using toys (maracas, banging things together, etc.).

Today we got to spend a little bit of time with Andrew's parents. William loved hanging out with his grandparents and we are looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow for Father's Day. It will be Andrew's first Father's Day since William was born, so it will be very special.

Ah yes...now that I've posted this, I remember one more thing that I wanted to post. On Friday, William and I met up with Layla, Astrid and Alyse at the outlet mall. Layla and I were taking a break and feeding the babies when Astrid was horsing around on the couch and fell off landing on her back. She laid there stunned for a moment until she got her bearings and then she started crying. While she was crying and being consoled by her Mom, she considered what had happened for a moment and said very somberly (in the way that only a 3 year old child can) "I fell on the floor and was laying on my back like a dead ladybug". Then she half smiled at her excellent description of what had happened for a couple seconds until she resumed sobbing. It was the cutest thing I have seen in a long time. I probably didn't do this story justice, maybe you had to be there. Oh and don't worry, she wasn't hurt, she was just stunned and maybe a little bit tired.

Little lip smacker

William has been doing very well lately. He has been in a good mood and has been taking the teething in stride. His right front tooth is slowly coming in and doesn't seem to be causing him any major pain. He has started to make a new sound by smacking his lips together. I think he started doing this to alleviate his teething pain. He giggles all the time. He has become ticklish and will giggle if you tickle his tummy and back. It's pretty adorable.

Today we went over to our neighbors house to play with Ellie. We were the only members of our PEPS group that were able to meet today and Will and Ellie had a fun time playing with Ellie's toys. Ellie was crawling around like a little pro and I'm hoping William was paying attention to her technique. Will and Ellie had a lot of fun standing at the little activity table together. William found Ellie to be pretty funny and would laugh at different things she'd do with his full-belly laugh. Too cute.

My back is still killing me, albeit a bit less than it was yesterday. The exercises the PT gave me to strengthen my core seem to be helping and he was able to rule out a disc issue much to my relief. I was able to make it to Dankin Team Training last night and even did a small amount of jogging around the track during our maximum heart rate testing trials. After speaking with my coach and PT, I've decided to adjust my workouts to primarily core strength training, biking on the trainer at home, brisk walking/jogging and lap swimming. As I've always said, my main goal for the Danskin is to finish without being the Final Finisher. After the Danskin, I will focus on improving my time in the Danskin and competing in other triathlons with Holly. I will not give up on this no matter how difficult it may be.

William and his Row-dog

William is rolling around whenever he has the chance. He is working on crawling and brought his knees up under him several times yesterday. He has figured out how to hold an object while he is rolling around the room so he can take it with him on his travels...

His right front tooth is making it's way out and you can see it now.

My back is still extremely sore and I can't really move around without experiencing a ton of pain so we stayed close to home yesterday. In the afternoon, Layla and Alyse came to visit us and keep us company and Andrew came home a little early to help with William. I've got a PT appointment today and am hopeful that I will start feeling better soon.

When is the weather going to improve?

William is getting another tooth. As I was changing his diaper this afternoon I noticed a speck of blood on his gums where his right front tooth is coming in. When I felt the area with my finger, I could feel the ridge of his actual tooth as it was coming through. That brings us to a grand total of 5 baby teeth. William was in a suprisingly good mood today considering the pain that he must be feeling from teething.

I don't know how else to say this...This weather has to improve soon. I can't believe that it is still gray and rainy in June. I'm seriously considering moving back to the East coast after this past winter and spring. Andrew is not so convinced about this idea.

Today was an extremely busy day. We got up early and headed over to Jennifer's house for an Usborne book coffee date. Then we headed into town to meet Layla and Alyse for lunch and some shopping. We had volunteered to host a park play date for this afternoon, so we headed over to the park to greet the other mommies and kiddos. The weather was crazy with sun, wind, rain, dark clouds and we decided to head home a little bit early for an afternoon nap.

This evening I headed out for a massage at Gene Juarez out of complete desperation. My back has been getting worse and worse everyday and today I was having trouble just walking without my legs buckling beneath me. I'm hoping this massage has helped.

Sorry for not posting sooner

It has been a fun and eventful week. Where to start?
On Tuesday, Andrew had his friend over to play Xbox and I went to Jeannine's house to watch The Mole with the other SnoValley moms. On Wednesday, William and I spent the morning at a Children's Museum in Factoria with Kerry and her kids. Wednesday was also my first day of Danskin Team Training. Thursday, William and I were stranded at home because Andrew accidentally took both sets of our keys to the Highlander to work with him so we couldn't go anywhere and ended up missing our PEPS meeting. That evening I met up with Beth and Sarah at the Seattle REI and listened to Sally Edwards speak about the Danskin. Friday, William and I met up with the other moms for Donut Day at Krispy Kreme and then hung out for a few hours with Layla, Astrid and Alyse. Saturday, I woke up super early for my Danskin team training session and biked a few miles and practiced safe biking skills. We learned how to change a tire and safety rules and signaling. After I got home, we all went to the Bellevue Mall for some walking/shopping. William seems to love his new (used) Valco Buggster stroller and has fallen asleep in it three times over the last three days. He seems to be super comfy and we get tons of compliments on how cool it looks. It is pretty snazzy for a stroller that I bought for less than 1/3 of it's original sticker price.
Today, we got up and went for brunch at Mike's and then out to Target for some organizing storage bins and came home and organized our closet while William practiced his rolling skills.

He turned 8 months old on the 5th and is due for his monthly update letter...

Dear William,

You turned 8 months old on June 5th. This past month has been so much fun. You have become mobile and can almost always get whatever toy you want by rolling around and turning yourself around on your tummy. At first, you only rolled to your left side, but now you will roll to either side with no problem. You have figured out how to pivot on your tummy using your arms and you will occasionally bring your knees up under your tummy. You sleep through the night fairly frequently and on the nights when you wake up it is usually at 1am or 3am and is due to your being hungry. Once we give you a bottle you usually consume the entire thing in 5 minutes!! You don't usually like to go back into your crib when you wake during the night, so I have recently begun carrying you back to our room and letting you sleep between mommy and daddy for the rest of the night. I do not care what anyone else says or thinks. I don't want anyone else's opinion on this subject. Your daddy and I know that this is the right thing for us and cosleeping is natural and normal for us. I love this time with you. I love having you sleep between us during the wee hours of the morning. I love cuddling you back to sleep. I actually look forward to it. I love listening to you breathe; your breathing slowing and deepening as you fall asleep. I love how you snuggle into my chest. I love how you grab onto my shirt with your tiny little hand as you are falling asleep. I know that life is way too short and that these incredibly precious moments are limited and will not go on forever. I try to take time many times a day to feel how wonderful it is to spend the days with you and watch you grow. I love being your mother more than anything else I have ever done in my life.

Your personality continues to amaze strangers on a daily basis. People are always amazed at how you smile with your mouth and your eyes whenever anyone smiles at you. You laugh all the time these days. You are such a joyful and enthusiastic little guy. You laugh when I shake my head, make funny faces, and make raspberry and other silly noises. You love to be tickled and laugh with mom and dad and strangers alike. You still love your doggie, Rowan, and have a new game that you look at Rowan over my left and right shoulders when he is sitting directly behind me. It's like peek a boo with your doggie. You laugh and giggle and can't get enough of this game. Frequently, I look back at you through the mirror so I can see you sitting in your car seat and I am overwhelmed withsuch intense love for you, my beautiful, wonderful, incredible little son. You are such an amazing person and I couldn't love you anymore than I already do. Sometimes, I get a little scared when I think that you could decide to become a soldier in a war like the one our soldiers are currently fighting and I have to think of something else because it is too terrifying for me to consider. I am extremely grateful and appreciative of the work our American soldiers do, but I can't bear the thought of you, my extremely precious son, being exposed to the kind of dangers soldiers face. I really hope that you decide to serve mankind/our country doing some other kind of work where you aren't exposed to risk and danger and you cannot be drafted during a war. Okay, enough of that.

This past Wednesday, we went to look at the photographs that were taken of you last Saturday. Both Daddy and I were amazed at how well they turned out. You are so photogenic and you smile so readily that we joke that you would be a perfect baby model. Yesterday, Daddy and I set up our photographic equipment and took more photos of you as you played with some of your new noise-making toys. You love to shake maracas and rattles and anything else that makes noise. When Daddy and I were with you at the mall yesterday, I let you hold a toy that made a bell-ringing noise when shaken. When we tried to take it away from you, you immediately sobbed until we relented and gave it back to you. You would not accept being given a different toy as a replacement, you wanted that specific toy. Once we got to the register to pay for it, we had to take it away again so that the cashier could ring it up and once again you began crying until we gave it back. This is a new developmental milestone, you now notice when a toy is taken away and you have preferences and opinions.

You can stand on your own quite well. When you are given something (a table, ottoman, booth) to hold onto, you can stand for a very long time on your own. You haven't started cruising yet, but you will occasionally let go of whatever you are holding onto and stand up until you end up leaning up against it again. You like to reach for things on top of the table and you also like to smack your hands against the table. Your fascination with the T.V. remote has officially begun. I'm glad we rarely ever watch T.V. because the remote battle is not one I really want to fight with you.

I can't think of any other recent developments. You continue to love eating solid foods. Bananas are still your favorite. You are working on your pincer grasp and feeding yourself. You love to babble and you coo yourself to sleep in the car. You have graduated to the Britax Marathon car seat and seem to find it much more comfortable than your infant car seat. You fall asleep in it all the time. It even looks comfy. You still love your two giraffes, blankets (lovies), and learning puppy. You are starting to enjoy looking at books and I try to read to you at least once a day.

Much love,
Mama

Crazy week ahead...

Oh my goodness! I don't know how this happened, but I am triple-booked tomorrow. I think I am going to be forced to get a cell phone with a PDA feature because I keep making plans and then going back to my calendar and realizing that I am now double booked. I DESPISE buying new cell phones because they are a total waste of money--they always break or go funny before my term is up...ugh...my current cell phone is the best one I have ever had and well, I don't really want to part with it...hmm...what to do?

Today was a fun day. William and I stayed close to home in the morning and had our usual eat, play sleep schedule while I tried to squeeze in some chores. Then we met up with Lindsay and Phoenix for a super fun play date at their house. They are the same age and are so adorable together.

Tomorrow we currently have the following activities planned:
Stroller Strides in the morning
Meet Tara for lunch
Go to baby play date in afternoon
Go to friend's house to watch The Mole in evening (sans William)