"Sigh"

Trying to keep my head above water.  That's pretty much how I feel right now.  Aydin's been sick for the past three weeks from pink-eye, to a head cold, to the flu.  Jesse and I have been sick. Abel too.  We put a bid on a house yesterday.  We were supposed to find out today if we got it. Today was crazy. Couldn't sleep last night... anticipating the call ... 4 chickens dead in their new "predator proof" pen this morning... crying, apologizing to them, cleaning up the mess... trying to work... Aydin's throwing up... all over... forget work... extra cuddle time with a sick baby, mmmm... Abe to the vet (with Aydin in tow) ahhh... Aydin's throwing up again... ALL OVER... cleaning the couch cushions ("crap is that bleach or couch cleaning solution in that bottle?  We'll know soon enough")... yada, yada, yada... more throwing up... lost the bid... whatever... exhausted!

After a day like today this is what can still make me smile:

Mommy & Me @ the Cozy Cow Dairy

We have started a mommy & me group at my church.  There are about five moms so far, and we all meet every other Monday for some socializing for us and the kiddos.  Today we went to a dairy in Windsor to watch the cows being milked and pet the calves and goats.  The kids all had a great time! It was pretty fun, even for a 9 month old.  I stood her up on the gate and she reached out right away to pet one of the calves. She loved the calves.  She was also a big fan of the goats who were trying to eat her shoe laces.  She actually started whining when I pulled her away from them.  After seeing the milking process though, I have to say that it might be a while before I drink milk again.  Something about it just rubbed me the wrong way (maybe it's because I'm a nursing mom, I don't know.)

9 Months

9 months old now!  Wow... that's all I can say.  She is amazing.  She has really taken off this past month.  She is crawling all over the place now, and she'll even do it the "right way" if she's motivated.  She pulls herself up onto EVERYTHING, and she is starting to walk a little with assistance.  I think she looks like a drunken zombie when she walks (that's the first thing that came to mind when I saw her spaghetti jointed , wobbly walk.  I don't even know if zombies can get drunk.)  I think the biggest step we took last month was baby-proofing our living room.  She hasn't quite figured out how to scale our one massive step yet so our living room is our safe place for her for now.  I don't think it'll be to long before we have to get out the baby gate though, because she has figured out how to get up Grandma and Grandpa Hamilton's steps.  And I think her new favorite thing might be swimming.  She has so much fun at the pool.  We have taken her a couple of times.  She splashes and tries to stick her face in to drink the water.  We got her a little "raft" thing and she just sits in there and kicks and laughs.  I enrolled her in swimming lessons for this summer. I think she'll have so much fun with all of the other babies! 

 As hard as it can be sometimes to keep track of her now, we are enjoying every minute!  I get a little sad when I think of how fast this has flown by, but the older she gets the more fun we have together and I love it!

Oh, and I have to say something about the picture above.  Aydin LOVES Abe.  Loves him!  Abe TOLERATES Aydin.  Tolerate is the best word for it.  He does not love her, might not even like her, but he lets her do anything.  She crawls all over him now, licks his fur (when mom's not looking), tries to touch his eyes and nose.  He just lays there and pleads with us with his eyes.  Sorry Abe!  Someday they really will be best friends.

Sunny Day

Easter Sunday

What a wonderful Easter Sunday!  We had so much to celebrate:  the resurrection of our Lord, my sister's engagement, and her and her fiancé's baptism.  We celebrated accordingly.  After Easter morning services we headed over to my parent's house for lunch.  Michelle had a couple of friends over, and Ryan's (her fiance) mom came over as well to meet our family.  We had such a good time.  

Grandma Hamilton put together Aydin's 1st Easter basket.  Mom and dad stole a lot of the goodies (chocolate) but she had a fun time pulling everything out.

She is moving around like crazy now!  She pulls herself up on EVERYTHING, she can sit herself up, and she crawls so fast.  She still just drags herself along like a wounded soldier though.  

This is her smoochy face.  She was doing this non-stop the whole way through JoAnn$ Fabrics the other day.  So funny!

We helped out with Easter Marketplace at our church again this year.  My sister helped at our booth too so we could do some stuff with Aydin.  

Her first Easter egg hunt was a little sketchy.  She was in the 0-3 year old section and was by far the youngest.  One kid came over and sneaked an egg out from under her, and there was a clown who she was terrified of, but she got a few stuffed toys and stickers out of the deal.

And of course Grandma Williams got an Elvis impersonating Easter bunny who dances for her.  It's ears move like crazy, it is super loud, and she LOVES it.  When it's not "singing" and "dancing"  she moves its ears herself.

P.S. I think I'm going to start a shop on ETSY and try to sell some owls.  I figure I might as well make a couple and see if they sell.  If not, Aydin will just have an owl family to play with (  : We'll see!

hoot, hoo

I cooked up that owl in a frenzy of designing and sewing last night (and a little into the a.m. too) and I love it.  When Aydin joined me in bed early this morning I put the owl above her so she would see it when she woke up.  She was so excited.  She put out her finger to touch it and then looked at me.  She wouldn't touch it until I moved it closer to her.  She loved the "feathers!"  What a good way to wake up (I just wish it was a little later.) 

Say Cheeeeese!

This is the new "picture taking" smile these days. I love it! She is so much fun! She is so busy these days too. She is crawling all over the place now. The things that make her crawl the fastest: Abel, magazines, and her rocking horse. That rocking horse is her new absolute favorite thing. She will crawl to it and smack it and yell until we put her on it and she will sit there for a half hour at a time just grinning, rocking, and mumbling.

Breaking News

She's CRAWLING!!!

Okay, I realize this isn't very far. This is only her second attempt, but she's been making good progress. I'll get another video after a little more practice ( :

A Little Catching Up

I realize it has been a while since my last post. Sorry... Things have been going pretty good. Jesse is feeling much better! He has an appointment to get his brace off this Thursday. After that he will start therapy. He has been told that recovery could be long and painful though, so we'll see how it goes. He doesn't think he will be able to play softball this summer though.Boooo. I think I might try to talk him into going to watch anyway. I love visiting with all of the women who are supposed to be watching the game.

I have been trying to get more and more work done lately. It is hard to get work done at home when all I want to do is play with Aydin, but I think it's good for both of us for her to have some time to play by herself. I have been in a little bit of a funk lately. One of those "just don't feel like doing anything; stay at home in my p.j.s funks." My solution... getting my hair chopped. I always said I wasn't going to get a "mom-do" when I had a baby, but I NEVER wear it down anyway so I thought I would try something new. Umm, no pictures of me for a while.

Aydin... Oh my gosh where do I start. She is such a character lately. She can't wait to get moving. She is so close. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks. She actually did crawl in her sleep the other night. Any day now. I am also pretty sure she has said her first word. She will look at Jesse and say "da-da." She baby talks all the time now, but she has done this enough now that it isn't just random chance. She loves to watch T.V. upside down. She will lay on her back on the couch and push with her feet until her head is hanging off of the edge and just watch. She likes to try to eat the bubbles I blow for her in the bathtub. As they are coming off the wand she will open her mouth and lick the air trying to get them. She has no interest in touching them, just eating them. It is so funny I really wish I could get a video of this, but no luck yet. And I think she is finally teething for real. I can see four teeth in there, two on top and two on the bottom (like a beaver.) They haven't made much progress in the past three weeks, but I'm counting on them popping out anytime.

Okay, so one picture for Sherry, but I won't take one of the back because the back of my head really looks like the backside of a duck!

Aydin's 1st 6 Months

Jesse made this for me today; made me tear up a little.

5-5-5

Sherry tagged me to post the fifth picture in my fifth picture folder and this is it. This is Jesse and my hike up Horstooth last spring. I was about five months pregnant with Aydin at the time.

I tag:
Bethany
Martha
Michelle
Marissa

Recovery

The pictures below pretty much show what Jesse has been doing for the past seven days. He had surgery last Friday to re-attach his patella tendon to his patella. His surgery went well, but it was pretty invasive, so he ended up being a LOT more sore than he had expected. He's been feeling much better the past couple of days though . Anyway he is supposed to stay off of it for 2-3 weeks so he has been living on our couch. Aydin is loving all of the daddy/baby play time! Aydin has been trying some different foods the past couple of weeks. Her favorite: carrots. She is also a fan of blueberry and apples (as seen below.) I was a little afraid her face would be stained blue, but we got it all off eventually ( :And the following picture is totally random, but it's so cute I had to post it.

1/2 Year

She's 6 months old now! 6 months is so much fun. Her personality has come out in full force now. She has been full of it since the day she was born, but it is so fun to watch it progress. She keeps us entertained for sure. She is sitting up, rolling back and forth, and talking! Last week she just started to get so vocal and laughing more. She also has figured out that if she rolls around enough she will eventually get to where she wants to be. She can't crawl yet so she just reaches and rolls back and forth until she's there. Hilarious!

I made this car seat cover a couple of weeks ago. I love it! I'm going to make another one for summer.

Right now I am getting the house all cleaned up and reorganized. Jesse has to have knee surgery on Friday, and I want it to be easy for him to get around. He tore his patella tendon from his knee cap playing basketball a week ago. He didn't think he'd really hurt it, just tweaked it, but after a doctor's office visit and an MRI it was confirmed. This is the first surgery he has ever been in, and it seems like it is fairly invasive, so we are a little nervous. The recovery requires two weeks home from work, 6-8 weeks in a brace that holds his leg straight, and who knows how long for rehab afterwards. This is going to be a little rough I think. On the funny side it's his right knee (and his leg has to stay straight) I am now the taxi driver...and he is so tall that we had to unbolt the front passenger seat just so he has enough room. We'll see how these next few weeks go.

Trip to Idaho

We used to go to Idaho every other Christmas to visit my dad's family. We hadn't done that in a while so this year I decided to plan a trip up there. Obviously we couldn't go for Christmas (both of our families wanted to be a part of Aydin's first Christmas) but I thought an after Christmas trip might be a possibility. My dad rented a van and we packed up and left early, early on the 28th. The usual twelve hour trip (sometimes 10) ended up taking about 15 hours with the nursing and diaper changing stops, but Aydin was a real trooper. Aydin loved meeting all of the family members. She was such a happy baby the whole trip! She has been all about reaching out for stuff. Everything goes straight to her mouth.Before we left to come home we were able to drive to Kennewick, OR and meet up with Luke and Sherry and the kids!! We got there around five p.m. and had to leave the next day at noon, so we didn't have a lot of time together, but it was worth every minute of the long drive there and back to Nampa. When we got there we had dinner and then spent the rest of our night together trying to get the kids to sleep. ALL of them were too wired from the excitement of being in a new place together. The next day we, of course, got in some shopping! We had thought there wouldn't be much to do there, but they had a great mall. The navy coat and sunglasses from one of the above pictures were what we came away with. It was so great to see them again. We've missed them! It was one of those trip that I won't forget.
Since she has started sitting up she doesn't like her carrier car seat anymore because it doesn't let sit upright, so while we were in Kennewick we bought her a new car seat. She loved it!! She also loves her new bunny. She got this bunny for Christmas from Jesse's aunt, and she has been completely attached to it ever since. We give it to her when she is trying to fall asleep, and she'll stick the ear in her mouth and hold it until she's asleep. SO cute!