9 Month Stats

Andrew turned 9 months on August 25th and we had his 9 month well-visit this morning. He is absolutely perfect. He is growing like a healthy baby boy should and we have no problems at all.

His height: 28.5 Inches (70th Percentile)
His weight: 21 pds, 14 oz (75th Percentile)
His Head: Off the charts - I still believe that is because his brain is huge. :-) I will always believe that.

We were heading out of the office and I stopped to make his 12 month appointment but he wanted no part of that... He decided  he was going to go ahead and start heading home. He actually crawled all the way out the door and in to the hallway. If we let him, he would have crawled all the way to the elevator. 

As a celebration of our day at the Dr's office, we went to have breakfast as a family. This morning, we went to Whataburger...my favorite. Anyone who knows anything about me and my pregnancy knows that while I was pregnant, I ate an enormous amount of Whataburger Taquitos - it was my one big craving and I indulged in that craving at least 3 times a week. We joked that Andrew was actually made of taquitos. So, I'm a very proud mom as I say that today, my child ate a taquito! Not exactly the entire thing, but he ate the eggs out of it. We were under the impression that we could not feed eggs to Andrew until he was at least 1 year old - however, the paperwork from today's visit said otherwise. So, we jumped at the chance to let him try it. And, of course - he is a huge fan of the Whataburger Taquito. Big Shocker, I know.

 He looks like a little boy to me now, not a little baby anymore. He is so much fun and such a sweet little boy. The last 9 months have been amazing and each day I learn something new about my baby boy. I'm stuck between the "can't wait for him to get bigger" and "wish he would never change" mindsets. The brightest light in my life. I love my Andrew Grayson Walker!

Scared the *&#!% Out of Us

Today, we were in the kitchen having lunch and chatting with Ms. J (our nanny). I gave Andrew a Gerber Graduate little biscuit thingy that he has had multiple times and never seemed to have any problems with. This time was different. Jeff happened to look down at Andrew who was sitting on the floor between all of us and his face had turned completely red and he had this sheer look of terror and panic on his face. He was choking - full blown, no air, food lodged kind of choking. Jeff immediately went down to Andrew and was patting his back with a good amount of force to make a difference. I think that it cleared the biscuit, but we were not sure. Next thing you know, Ms. J picked Andrew up, quickly turned him over on her forearm and with a good amount of force, hit his back. That definitely worked. He was fine at that point.

So, you may ask - what was my reaction?? All I could do was say "Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit..." Literally - that was it. They were handling him and I was bouncing from foot to foot cursing with my hands shaking. When it was all done, I stuck my hand in his mouth and cleared out the rest of the biscuit that was hanging around. That was my one small contribution.

UGH - that literally scared the bejeezus out of us. But, he is totally fine...well, until he knocked his head on the coffee table this evening. Having a boy is going to be hard. But, I'm totally looking forward to his exciting adventures as long as he stays safe.

Life Without Cable

Jeff and I have been trying to be extremely budget-conscious since he has gone back to school. It's been a challenge to go from a 2 income family to a 1 income family and sometimes we come up with things that, at the time, make tons of sense.

We had been playing around with the idea of canceling our cable. We hardly ever watch television and if it is on, it's due to a rented movie. So, we figured why continue to pay for a service that we are not using. It would save us $100 a month and that seemed like a no-brainer. We were only playing around with this idea until I came home one afternoon and Jeff had actually "pulled the plug" on our cable subscription.

Fast forward to the first day of actually not having cable. I kid you not, I've never wanted to watch television so bad in my life! It's all about want-what-you-can't-have and I realize that. We even went out and bought a high-end antenna (I think that's an oxymoron) and it gave us about 5 channels that we could watch and 25 Spanish channels that we could skip over. Needless to say, our little experiment of no cable lasted a full 2 weeks and that is because the cable company needed a week to set us back up.

The cable guy comes on Thursday. I'm sure I won't actually watch tv, but hey... at least now I know I can.

Andrew & The Tennis Ball

Last night we had some fun with the tennis ball. I got the video camera while Jennifer played with Andrew and the tennis ball. He had a great time - as you can see. I love this little kiddo so much - he is a blast. 

Check the 'tude dude...

Our sweet baby boy has figured out how he can get his way and is actually manipulating the system. My child has found a loop hole. But, we are on to him - and trying to outsmart him. We figure that since he is only 8 months old, we have a small head start, but we are not overly confident that we will win (have you met my dogs???).

So, here is the deal...my child has learned and almost perfected the "fake cry". He uses it carefully and wisely. He seems to throw it at you when you least expect it and now that we are on to him, he is just plain pissed off. So, my sweet kiddo has some attitude these days that makes me want to carry him around upside down for a while so he can see what a rough life might really be like. I know it sounds bad, but I actually asked Jeff the other day if it was bad that my child was really annoying me. His temper tantrum type behavior sure seems early. We are going to have to put a stop to this pretty quickly if we are wanting to have any more babies running around this casa.

Other than that, he is still full of smiles, giggles and full blown curious-crawling adventures. Our dogs run from him and we run after him. Keeping us on our toes!

And we're off!

Watch out world, Andrew is crawling. He has been flirting with the idea of crawling now for a few weeks, but yesterday was the day that he finally figured it out and forward motion has been achieved. He is not a terror on the knees yet, but he has definitely got a cute little pace going. He was officially 7 months and 3 weeks old when he figured it out. I am very proud of him and am well aware of the newest "to do" item that has jumped to the top of our list - baby proof this house. Andrew is an absolute joy and a big ball of happiness and at the core of that big ball of happiness is an independent, curious and slightly stubborn kiddo. I'm hoping we can be one step ahead of him as he explores this world with his new wheels.

Looking back on 33

Today is my birthday and I am officially 34 years old. Not any type of major milestone to get very excited about other than a wonderful excuse to eat as much junk food as I want and not feel even a little bit bad about it. As far as today is going, I may just forget the birthday all together. I spilled very hot coffee all over my shorts/legs while driving home from the donut place (my annual birthday breakfast) where I was informed that they were out of regular donuts...really, does that happen? I had to eat my birthday breakfast at home because the previous AC problem that we thought we had fixed has come back with a mean vengeance. Last night I returned home from dinner and I walked in to a sauna. So for the second time in 3 weeks, everything (the word "everything" has a new meaning now that we have a child) was packed up and brought over to Laura's to spend the night. This latest fix is not nearly as nice on the pocket book as the first "fix" and even though we told the nice man it was my birthday, he still gave us a bill for over $500. UGG. Jeff reminded me that it could have been much worse, so I am thankful that it was not much more than that. However, I say this as I'm still sitting in a house with no AC - so an update may follow.

On to the good stuff ... As I move in to the next year of my life, I spent some time today looking back over the last year. Needless to say, 33 was an absolutely fantastic year for me. I got to meet my wonderful baby boy and spend some of the most amazing time with him. As a result of having him, my parents (and even my brother) are here more often and we spend some great time with them and Jeff's family too. Having Andrew was the best and most successful accomplishment of my life. Few things can compare to that type of life-changing event.

So, even though I welcome 34 in a sweaty, no-ac kind of way, I'm still happy with my life. I'm overwhelmed, super stressed and have very little time on my hands, but I have a very happy baby, a great family, outstanding friends, a wonderful career, I'm healthy and I have the smartest husband/super student in the whole world. Life is good and I welcome 34 and the fun things it has to offer.

The quality of this picture is pretty bad, but it's the most recent of my little man and me.