things that made me happy today

i love this time of the year in nc. the kids and i went for a stroll around the neighborhood this evening. the weather was perfect. we saw a bunch of wild bunnies all over the place! here is one lounging in our neighbor's yard.

we also saw tons of fireflies! alanna is really good at catching them, they like to land on her for some reason. but they won't light up, unless they're in flight. i tried to catch a photo of them lit-up, but had no such luck.

a lightning bug up close

earlier today, while at target, i caught this great photo of malcolm digging for gold. haha! he has just decided that it is fun to stick his fingers up his nose, and he shoves 'em way up there. it's pretty funny.

our friend garrett watched the kids for a bit tonight, so that danny and i could have a coffee date. we went to barnes & noble, shared a medium coffee, and sat together and read magazines. it was nice.

8 days

last night marked 8 days of malcolm sleeping alone, all night, in his crib! after 15 months of frustration, and battling with him at bed time, we are now letting him "cry it out". and it is working like a charm. i am so pleased with the way he has responded to it. we tried the CIO method a couple times when we was younger, but it just didn't work. so we stopped. he was so young, and it made me too sad to listen to him in there crying all alone. i know every baby reacts differently to it, and i just don't think he was ready for it, until now.

but this last week has been totally different. the first night i put him in his crib, he cried for about 15 min, fell asleep for about 20 min, woke up and cried for 15 more, and then was out. night two he cried for about 15 minutes and was out. he did wake up a few times that night, but i just left him in there, and he eventually fell back asleep. nights 3 through 8, he was asleep within 10-15 minutes, and stayed asleep for 7 to 10 hours. the past three nights, we have moved up "bedtime" an hour, and he went to sleep just fine. so we are going to slowly get his schedule on the right track. i am so stoked.

it's so nice to go to bed on my own terms. and to have a few minutes of "free time" to clean up, or make alanna's lunch, or read a magazine. i've already read three issues of good housekeeping, that i didn't have a chance to read (uninterrupted) before. (thanks vicky, for the subscription!) plus it's nice to be able to sleep next to my husband again (well, kind of... lucky is always squeezed in between us).

a well rested baby is a happy baby, and a well rested mom is a better mom.

malcolm, well rested & sleepy-eyed in the morning!

this past weekend was great. sorry, i didn't take any photos. on sunday, we were up and out of the house by 12:30 pm (that's rare on the weekend). we all went to the flea market at the fairgrounds. we love bumming around there, lots of interesting stuff (and people) to look at. we went to the nc museum of art. had some yummy veggie burgers for dinner. then stopped at the mall, so i could go to the scrapbooking store, and danny could go to barnes & noble.

yesterday was memorial day, so alanna was out of school. the kids and i went over to our friend's lia and gannon's house for a cook out. they have a nice back deck, and a big yard, and the kids loved running around on the grass. lana and her kids were there too, and malcolm loved chasing after damien. it was cute. the weather was awesome all weekend long. it did rain on and off, but the clouds made it so that the sun didn't burn us up while we were outside.

earth crisis played in raleigh last night, so alanna and danny went to the show. i stayed home with malcolm, since the venue was not appropriate for him. danny met the band for food, and then brought karl by the house, when he came to pick up alanna. we had a nice chat about vegan food, parenthood, and kids (he has an eleven year old son). it was a nice little hang out. danny said the show was good, and they had a nice time at it. he saw lots of old friends that he doesn't see very often.

tomorrow is alanna's last day of 6th grade. i hope all goes well. i know she is going to be sad when she gets home. i remember being sad when school let out, knowing that i wasn't going to see my friends anymore. bummer.

look what malcolm gave me...

...a big ol' black eye, ouch! but it was totally unintentional. on saturday, he was sitting in my lap, and he threw his head back and it smashed me in the eye. like right on the brow bone. it hurt, and i kind of saw stars. on sunday this is what it looked like:

it started off a little grey, then started to get darker and kind of reddish. and as of today it is yellow. eeeww. i hope people don't think danny gave it to me, haha.

this was last night. terrible photo, i know.

malcolm is also getting over a few bruises of his own on his forehead. he's been climbing a lot and getting into everything, and he is still pretty clumsy, so he had a few falls last week. you can see his little yellow bruises here:

he can now climb up onto our bed without any help


he was playing with lucky dog. lucky was giving him kisses, and i tried to catch one in a photo, but this is as close as i could get.

today we went to michaels craft store, to look for a gift for one of alanna's friends. i was also looking for some things to finish up malcolm's baby book. i love all the scrapbooking stuff they have in there! i can totally understand how people get addicted to that hobby. there are so many cute designs. cute paper. cute stickers. it's crazy. there is another store out here called "archiver's", which is loaded with cute scrapbooking stuff too. i would love to start doing it, but it would be a bit too time consuming... not to mention expensive! maybe someday, when i win the lottery. or after the kids are out of the house. ha.

we found a display of funny hats. malcolm liked to look at them, but he wasn't very excited when we put them on him.

and one last thing. i booked our hotel room for our october trip to disneyland. i got a good rate at a hotel that is directly across the street from the main entrance to the parks! pretty stoked about the idea of not having to walk very far to get to our room. this will be perfect for naps, and snacks, and a swim when it gets too hot out. my mom is deciding whether she wants to go again or not. we had a lot of fun with her last year, so let's keep our fingers crossed that she'll come. and i think kate and jason are planning on joining us for the weekend again too. yay! see you soon jeanie and demetri!!

disneyland, october 2008

rockets and cribs

on friday, i was a parent volunteer at alanna's middle school for their "rocket rush". we did some geocaching with gps' to find clues hidden around outside on the school grounds. it was fun, but kind of hard to use the gps. the class didn't end up having enough time to launch the rockets that they made (out of 2 liter soda bottles), so they are going to do it on monday.

yesterday as i was getting in the shower, i realized that i had a nasty little tick on my leg, above my knee. i'm sure he latched on while i was at her school, i just didn't notice it until the next day. danny tweezed it off for me. that's the first one i've ever had. alanna has already found two on her this year... i guess it's gonna be a long tick-filled summer. yuck!

here is my awesome id sticker that i had to wear while in the school

alanna took her eog's (end of grade tests) last week, and we got her scores this week. all A's! and all 4's, her language arts score was a high 4, which is pretty much the same as an A+! she sure is a little smarty pants. we also got a letter from the school system stating that she will be enrolled in a different middle school for 7th grade. she is not excited about this news, she doesn't want to leave her new friends from this year. but i've heard good things about the new school. and i'm sure she will adjust fine. she makes friends easily. there are only seven school days left of sixth grade. wow, this year went by fast.

last night marked two weeks of me attempting to get malcolm to sleep in his crib. the first few nights, he did great, slept like 7 or 8 hours in there without stirring. but then he started to wake up after only two hours. and so this last week has been a few hours in the crib, and then a few hours in bed with us. it sucks. and he is still staying up until 4 or so. i'm running out of steam.

he would rather sleep on the bare floor, than let me put him down in his crib. it's crazy

alanna got him up this morning at 10:30, and let me sleep for an extra hour. i'm hoping that while she is out of school for the summer, she can help me get him up earlier. it's so hard for me to get up with him at 9 or 10 am, after we just went to bed at 5 am. i'm too exhausted in the morning, and i can't think straight. wish us luck.

climbing

malcolm is now climbing up on things (yikes!), like the coffee table. he can open the drawer, use it as a step, and get up on top in no time. i made a little video of how fast he can do it, but after seven failed attempts to upload it to my youtube page, i am just going to post a few photos here (our internet service is awful). he is fearless. it's scary to watch him stand up on it.

naughty baby!

sliding off

he even tries to climb into the bumbo while it's on top of the table!
(don't worry, i'm always watching him)

he is a danger baby!

beep beep

we went to trader joe's today. malcolm took his first ride in one of their race carts. he had fun turning both steering wheels. looks like he needs a buddy in there with him.

he is starting to look so grown up. i think this new hair cut makes him look so much older.

this boy likes sticks

malcolm loves to be outside, and his new favorite thing is the stick. he likes to sit in our driveway and play with them. he also likes pine cones, and picking anything that grows... like grass and flowers. he is such a boy, and i'm totally loving it (minus the getting dirty part, and the putting gross stuff in his mouth part, haha).

he didn't like the taste of it, haha

and i'm totally loving his new hair cut!

family photos

these photos were taken while we were in salt lake city in april. my friend bethany is a great photographer, and she shot them for us. i was excited when i checked the mail today, and they were waiting in the mail box for me! i think they turned out very nice. there were a lot to choose from, but these are my favorites. (danny says i posted too many, haha) thanks again bethany!

www.myspace.com/patiriphotography

holy crap, we shaved the baby!

malcolm was in desperate need of a hair cut... so we shaved it all off! it's getting hot out, and he needed a more summer friendly look. i totally love his little curls in the back, and i'm hoping they will grow back. we've cut his hair once before, not quite this short, and it all grew back pretty quick. i think this new cut is very cute. it brings out his eyes. actually, his eyelashes are longer than his hair now!

this is what he looked like when he woke up from his long nap yesterday... wild!

this was earlier today

right before we started shaving

he totally fell asleep!

rinsing off all the hair

the finished product!

(he always has something in his mouth, haha)