Peter sat at the table with us for the first time tonight! He was so cute sitting there like a big boy chowing down on his dinner. Some bits were eaten off a fork we loaded for him but much more was simply picked up and eaten out of hand (or out of lap). I was actually pretty surprised, he still usually just tips plates and bowls right over but he just sat right down and joined in like he knew exactly what to do.

So much going on...

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted.  Oops.

I'm here to post cause Peter was just playing a cute little game he invented that I just felt like sharing.  I gave him a glass of ice that he dumped over and then very carefully picked up each ice cube and put it back in the glass.  As soon as they were all picked up, it got dumped over again.  He did that over and over for probably 10 minutes.  Each time he got quicker at picking up the ice cubes, at first he struggled as they kept slipping out of his hands but practice makes perfect!

The other big news is that he's said his first word.  Da-da!  Jason is understandably very excited about this except for when Peter shouts it while smacking him first thing in the morning.  :)  I don't think the boy is taking after his poppa's night owl ways.

Oh, and he's getting closer and closer to walking.  He's standing up without assistance and is perfectly stable while doing so (even able to shift his weight to close a drawer and then straighten back up).  No attempted steps yet though. 

All right, Peter's telling me I'm done for now.  Next time there will be pictures!

Aren't my two men adorable?? Peter just loves it when his daddy comes home to eat lunch with him and I just love having opportunities to get cute pictures of the two together. :)

We went to Portland Saturday and had a great visit with my family. Peter had some fun playtime with Grandpa Larry. He didn't even mind when Grandpa stuck his truck in his pants. That confused him for a bit (the truck rattled every time he moved) but when he couldn't see anything he forgot about it and went back to his other toys. It was pretty funny.

I have such a wonderful life. As I sit here typing Peter is snoring the morning away. Baby snores are so stinkin' cute.

Pictures in a baby's life

He's sitting inside a tunnel playing with an empty tube of toothpaste. I love how everything in the world is fun and fascinating for him.

A few more pictures of him with his beloved mice. His is the one with the 'tail' and he carts it everywhere but Daddy's clicks better. He knows where Jason's mouse lives and he like to go into the computer room and grab it. Sometimes he'll wander around the apartment with it but the pictures here are from a day when he just decided to play with it on Daddy's chair.

Peter loved my split pea soup (no, it's not green, I thought the yellow split peas were prettier). Of course I ended up wearing even more of it than he did but we both had fun and he had so much fun taking the loaded spoon and feeding himself. :)

So, a few weeks ago I mentioned that he enjoyed helping me unload the dishwasher.  Well, now he's helping load it too, with himself.  The morning I took this picture I had opened the dishwasher to unload it then instead of emptying the silverware as usual Peter decided to climb in.  His first time climbing up on anything and he made it look effortless.  He doesn't climb in every opportunity but periodically.

Peter also LOVES his bathtime.  So far, no matter what he's doing, when he hears the bathwater running he comes flying into the bathroom and he stands up at the side of the tub and hollers and dances from side to side as it fills.  I've gotten some video of it but I haven't played much with how to share that video with you all.  I'll get to it at some point but for now, just trust me, it's cute!

Life, housekeeping, etc

I've always known I was going to be a mommy.  While I was pregnant I got nervous about whether or not I was really ready and I worried whether I could be as good of a mommy as I had but now that Peter's here I'm feeling pretty good.  It's the whole wife and mother balance that I'm working on now. 

Peter has been my number 1 priority and he'll probably be there for some time, but I have to remember: a happy healthy daddy is an important part of a happy healthy family.  Just because Jason is capable of taking care of himself doesn't mean I can leave him to his own devices.  It's so easy to just worry about Peter and chores and doing what 'needs' to be done but it's so rewarding to just push Jason to the top of the heap and do things for him like make his lunch or a favorite dinner.  The smile I get when I bake a few cookies and bring him a glass of milk says it all.  There are so many little things I can do for him to remind him how special he is and that he's so much more than just a paycheck for the house.

I'm still amazed at how hard it is to keep a house with a young child clean but I'm getting better.  I'm still in love with my washing machine, I can't believe I made it through so many years without one (including 5 months with a baby!)   I stumbled across the FLY Lady a while back and I'm slowly implementing her teachings into my life and I can feel the difference.  She gives me hope that I will eventually be able to cure my CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome, I get a kick outta that) even with my little dude's 'help.'

Speaking of the little dude, we've been enjoying the dry weather and going for a lot of walks lately.  They're just putting the finishing touches on the new pedestrian bridge that makes the walk into town much safer so we've been walking to the grocery store.  Peter loves to get out and see the people and watch the cars and it's nice for me to have a purpose for my walk, I'm far less likely to put it off than one just for exercise.  It's just far enough to be a nice walk but it's close enough that the trip home carrying Peter on my front and a backpack full of groceries is manageable.  I LOVE my baby wrap.

I've got some great new pictures to post but Peter's asleep in my lap and I can't reach the camera so they'll just have to wait for now.  I love sleepin baby snuggles.

Pictures and talk about Christmas (finally!)

Peter enjoys helping me unload the dishwasher. Sadly, he doesn't seem to get that I'd rather he waited until they were Clean before unloading...

Christmas Eve over at my Grandpa's (wearing his new "My first Yankee's tee").

Peter had a blast playing with Uncle Jesse's hat and chewing on his Christmas presents. We eventually ended up opening them for him as he was showing no inclination to transfer from chewing to tearing and we wanted to see what he thought of his new toys (he loves his little radio, but the xylophone seems a bit beyond him at the moment).  I love seeing my brothers play with him.  It wasn't until I started going through these pictures that I realized I was very negligent and didn't get any pictures of Peter with anyone else!

Peter's thoughts on Christmas Day "Tiring." 

He came away with a large haul of new toys and clothes, I keep forgetting to do a fashion show to get him in all his new clothes, maybe I'll get to it before he grows out of them.  I got Jason a new Windows phone and he's been having fun with that.  I got lucky in that his old phone was dead when I bought it because AT&T automatically sent text messages to his phone when I upgraded the data plan and that would have given away the surprise.  Jason got me a buncha new stuff for my kitchen, a nice new knife and some new pans, my kinda presents.  I always love getting stuff that is useful and pretty.  One of the new skillets is purple and blue and another is green, they're so fun (and now I can finally throw out my scratched up old skillets)!  He also found an adorable print of a little boy on a toy tractor hauling a litter of puppies in his trailer.  I get to pretend it's Peter on my dream farm.  :)

Evergreen Aviation and Space

My folks came to visit today and we finally got around to going to see the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum where the Spruce Goose resides.  That plane is absolutely mind numbing.  Every time I looked up and saw it my mind just said "wha...?"  It's just incomprehensible that that thing could actually fly.  Also pretty amazing that they even bothered to build it when it never got used, apparently the one and only flight it did make was just to show it could and not actually for any purpose.

I found the space side of things more interesting than the aviation but Jason seemed to really enjoy both.  But even for the space stuff, it was the information with the displays that I found interesting, I really didn't care that much about seeing the actual rockets and shuttles and stuff.  I'm just not much of a museum person, I'd much rather read a good book on a topic.  The trip did raise my interest and my grandpa told me he bought a book on the Spruce Goose's creator when he came to the museum so I am looking forward to reading that.  Who knows where that will lead?

I won't be going back anytime soon, as in, not until Peter actually cares enough to ask me to go (even then, I'd prolly send him with his poppa) but I had a lot of fun spending the day with my family.  Maybe sometime soon Peter will let his grandma and grandpa hold him for more than 5 minutes before he starts making "you're not my momma or poppa" sad faces.

This has been a busy week, I also went in to work for more than a few minutes for the first time since Peter was born.  I had Peter with me since Jason was working and Peter isn't happy being left with anyone else yet.  We weren't sure how it was going to work out but there was some stuff that I needed to be there to take care of and we figured we'd just see how it went.  I just held him in his sling all day as I puttered around fixing the computers and whatnot and he just had a blast watching me.  Our only incident was at the end of the day when I left him with a coworker while I went to the bathroom.  Apparently he was happy for about a minute but then he realized he was with a stranger and I was gone and he started bawling.  All in all, he was fantastic and the other ladies were very impressed with how patient and happy he was all day long and they had fun getting to play with the adorable smiley baby. 

I enjoyed seeing everyone again but I really really love the fact that most of the work I do for the clinic I can do from home.  That's a long drive to have to make often for work, especially with a baby.

All right, Peter is finally ready for bed.  I think I may even get a chance to get our Christmas pictures posted this week!