A little update

Here are a few photos from Kristine. These were taken during our trip to Spokane, WA this summer.

Today we visited with Kristine and went to a party store to get a couple things for William's big birthday bash this weekend.

We have been trying to sell our Honda Element and had someone come to test drive it this evening. I hope it sells.

William is turning 1 soon. I took him to the doctor yesterday and his weight was 22 lbs 13 oz. William is talking now!! He's saying "Hi" and "Bye" and "MaMa" and "DaDa" and "BaBa" (for bottle) and "Dah" (for doggie). He waves hello and goodbye.

William is turning ONE soon!!!

Sorry I haven't been posting. I haven't been very good at keeping in touch with friends and family either. I haven't wanted to burden anyone with all of my stress so I have been keeping to myself.

William is doing great. He's got a sense of humor now. He will laugh when he finds something funny. I have always tried to make bedtime/naptime a happy time for William. When I am rocking him I will giggle and laugh while I am singing his lullabyes. I try to make him laugh when I put him in his crib so that he falls asleep happy. He often cracks up while I am rocking him. It's adorable.

He is getting very close to walking. He stands on his own (not holding on to anything) for several seconds and is enjoying walking while holding onto our fingers. He loves walking while pushing his push toys.

Today we have been working very hard to get the house ready for William's birthday party. I vacuumed and steam cleaned the carpets/stairs and scrubbed and polished the hard wood floors. Andrew has been working on getting his office organized and putting up artwork and framed photographs.

I am trying to be more a domestic goddess. This past week I cleaned the house everyday and cooked dinner every night.

Recent photos

It's been awhile since I last posted some photos. Here are a few from the last few weeks.

William in Roche Harbor.

Grandma Donna (aka Grand Madonna) and William in Roche Harbor.

Grand Madonna and William at Mount St. Helens.

William and his Grandma Jenny at the rehearsal dinner.

William and his Papa Roy.

William and Andrew at wedding.

Chelsea with William and Maya this weekend.

Great Uncle Craig and William.

Family Photo

Maya and William.

William with his uncle.

Maya, William and Papa.

Great Auntie Heather and Great Uncle Craig with William.

Ali and Chelsea at Ali's Baby Shower.

Andrew actually had today off from work!!!

Today we decided to go to Mount St. Helen with Andrew, Mom, William and me. It was the second visit for Andrew and me and a first for Mom and Will. Mom really enjoyed listening to the park ranger's talk and walking on the paths. She bought a little hedgehog finger puppet for Will and a dragonfly print for me. This was especially meaningful as dragonflies have come to symbolize my father and today was the 8th anniversary of his death. A funny anecdote: as Andrew and I were walking with Will in his stroller, a man noticed Will chewing on the snack tray of his stroller and said in a thick Edinburgh accent "Pets aren't allowed past this point".

It's been a difficult week around here. Andrew's company is in the process of being sold...again and this presents some major worries about us losing our only income source if they were to close the Seattle office. I contacted my old job to see about applying for my old job and will be going in for an interview (very informal) this coming Tuesday. We have yet to figure out what we will do for childcare and whether it makes sense for me to return to work at this point. If I do return to work, it will be the day after William's 1st birthday and I will have to work full-time for the first month of re-training. It is only after that month that I will be given the option to work part-time (3 days a week) from 1130am-8pm. I've been doing a lot of thinking on whether or not this is the right thing to do. It's a very difficult decision and the thought of leaving William in someone else's care breaks my heart.

Labor Day Weekend

It's been a few days since I posted and I am sorry for that. We didn't end up going to SJI for a long weekend as we had originally planned because Andrew's work project is not completed yet. It may be done this week. My mom is arriving on Wednesday and we might head up to SJI on Friday for the weekend.

So what have we been up to? We hung around this weekend and went out for little shopping trips to Bellevue Square, U Village and Redmond Town Center. William got a couple Sandra Boynton books to add to his bedtime collection since Pajama Time was such a big hit. I did some dress shopping and am still on the lookout for the dress I will wear to the Carlstedt-Robinson wedding later this month. White House Black Market always has gorgeous dresses and they are getting their Fall dresses this week...I am so excited to spend time with the N. Ireland family members. It's going to be a blast to get everyone together again!

William is getting to be a super cruiser and walks along furniture. He will clap when prompted and really seems to be talking to us now. He seems to call out MaMaMaMa when we wants me and seemed to say BaBaBaBa when he wanted his bottle. He will wave goodbye and hello. He can feed himself his own bottle. He lowers himself to the ground from a standing position instead of just letting himself fall. He bounces around on his bottom when he is excited.

This past week we hung out with Layla and the girls and went to the Outlet mall and the library and had coffee with Tara and her mom.

The photo posted below was taken by Autumn at her house during a little play date for William and Lucas. William loved climbing/bouncing on Andrew's back. This week we will probably have a PEPS play date and spend some time with Autumn/Lucas before we head up to SJI. Taa for now.