House Hunt from Hell

1.) The Clarksville house is for some reason anathema to the buyers of the moment. Sigh.

2.) I could be getting a job anywhere from Oak Ridge to Strawberry Plains (interviews at Central High and Carter High this Friday, so at least I'm moving toward a job resolution of some sort), so where we should live is a huge question mark.

3.) Chris and I have WILDLY divergent ideas of what our ideal home should be.

Chris would like a neat, updated house in a subdivision with a big backyard (see above). Amelia would like a bigger house with lots of character, one that we could tailor to our own design style (again, see above). I dream of coffered ceilings; Chris dreams of walk-out basements. I imagine sophisticated parties by the pool; Chris imagines heated and cooled storage for his hunting and fishing paraphernalia. I want a creek in the backyard; Chris wants a house that doesn't creak. Clearly, we do not envision the same piece of real estate. Where will we find a duplex that is half 19-century Georgian and half 21st-century contemporary? Let me know if you've seen that house because our realtor is sure stumped.

New Goals in Life

With all the stressful junk in my life right now (a.k.a. selling a house, looking for a new house, not sleeping a full night--see previous blog, searching for a job, not eating sugar--the worst of all, and trying to plan M's first birthday, and on and on and on), I have had a few episodes of self-pity and irrational rage in the last couple of weeks (like when a realtor who attended one of our open houses last week left a comment for us that we needed the master bedroom on the main, and I literally screamed at Chris on the phone because that was my only option for getting out my anger and bitterness, as I did not know that realtor's address and had no access to lighter fluid and needlenose pliers--which seemed like excellent tools with which to make him pay for his idiocy. Later I calmed down and am now in the process of developing a plan to move the master bedroom downstairs. Thank you, realtors of Clarksville, for all your realistic and helpful selling hints!). Despite all that, I am dedicated to focusing on the positive (no, really, I am), and so I felt it would be beneficial to look ahead and draft a list of goals I would like to accomplish just as soon as all these stressful areas of life are resolved (ha!).

1.) Finish the scrapbook I started for Mason the month before he was born (OR...complete the photo books I started on shutterfly, which would be more attainable, as I am a reluctant and surly scrapbooker).

2.) Take M on his first hike in the Smokies (Abram's Falls, maybe?).

3.) Enroll M in Mommy-and-Me Gymnastics. (Now THAT should generate some fodder for the blog!)

4.) Try one of the fun projects at www.livingwithlindsay.com.

5.) Well, I had a #5, but then I think I fell asleep with my eyes open for a minute, and now I can't remember. Oh, well. I'm sure I'll think of something else to add when I'm add with M at 2:38 tomorrow morning.

My Son, the Sleep Hater

Does this look like a picture of a child who never sleeps? Well, it is. Pretty bright-eyed for someone who spends half the night screaming "MAMA" until a) I give in and rub his back until he falls back asleep (at which point he typically allows me enough time to aaaaalmost go back to sleep myself and then repeats the whole process) or b) he pukes or c) he finally whimpers himself to sleep, slumped in a crumpled corner of the crib, defeated and dejected. How he manages to wake up (around 4:15-ish these days) with a smile and a rested look in his eyes is beyond me because you cannot say the same for his mother.

Even when M miraculously manages to stay asleep for a few hours at a time, I have trouble sleeping still because I jump at every noise, afraid I'm going to have pull a Charlie's Angels stunt to save my child from burglars and murderers. Lack of sleep exacerbates my over-active imagination, and my vivid daydreaming about all the possible ways Mason and I could be maimed and tortured while we are alone in Clarksville precludes deep sleeping--it's an exhausting and vicious cycle.

Anyhow, now that some of you are probably concerned about my mental state, I will distract you with some photos taken last night as I attempted to wear M out so he would go back to sleeping through an ENTIRE night (didn't work, by the way). I'm going to attempt to blog more frequently (yes, Papaw Baker, I promise to do better!) because I'm so tired some days that I sometimes can't remember the daily, mundane details of my life, so I am worried I won't remember much about this time of M's life later. I love the first one; M looks as if he is totally fed up with something...like a grumpy old man.

Spring Pictures

Chris and I took Mason over to the Austin Peay campus last Saturday to take some family pictures now that everything is green and blooming, and we got some of the cutest pictures of M!

Lesson Learned

A couple of days ago Mason crawled into his toy basket. He stood at the edge reaching for a toy that was just a tad behind his little grasping fingers, and I could see his mind working out a strategy. He pondered for a minute (as I ran for the camera!) and then dove on in. I snapped a picture as he went in and then another as he began to try to wriggle out--a moment before he started to wail for Mama to rescue him.

That was the only time he's done that because he must have figured out immediately afterward that walking around to the other side of the basket is a much faster (and more comfortable) way to snatch a distant toy.

Milestones Update

At nine and a half months, M is a handful! He said his first word, "mama," on March 25th, much to Chris' chagrin. My mom laughed; she said she'd never heard of a baby saying "mama" before "dada," but M doesn't really even attempt the "d" sound, so "dada" may be a while away still. Just this morning he said "baba" for bottle, which we've been working on all week--along with "dada," of course. C told me if M says "Yaya" (our name for Miriam) before he says "dada," he's coming to get him and bring him to Maryville.

He pulls up by himself without assistance (he pulled himself up in his crib for the first time on March 28th) and cruises along the furniture, often with only one hand. He loves to go back and forth between the coffee table and the couch, and sometimes he lets go with his hands--although he's definitely not skilled enough to be doing that yet! He wants to walk SO badly, and yesterday he discovered the stairs. So far he has managed to climb up one stair, but that's as far as he made it.

Last week he started waving (which Miriam takes credit for teaching him), and it really sounds like he's saying "hi," but we MIGHT be a little generous in attributing that word to his vocabulary just yet. Miriam is also trying to teach him patty-cake. Last month we were lamenting that he wasn't doing that or waving yet, but then I realized that we really never waved, and I haven't done patty-cake since he was tiny. Furthermore, I always did patty-cake with his feet, so Miriam worries that when they pllay patty-cake in preschool, Mason will take off his shoes. How embarassing.

When you sing or play music, M dances: He bobs his head up and down like a head-banger. It's hysterical! He helps push his arms through or pull his arms out when I'm dressing him, and he gives a hand pulling shirts over his head too (apparently I'm way too slow for his taste). He can drink from a cup, but he's less interested in sippy cups, so we're still working on that. Hmm...what else? He gave up baby food long ago, so he eats table food all the time now. Special favorites: nectarines, green beans, spinach tortellini, and Colby Jack cheese.

Oh, and M twiddles his thumbs! Chris does that, and it drives me crazy, but it's super cute when Mason does it. Chris pointed out that he was doing it about a month ago, and now he does it a lot. All in all, M has been early or right on time with all developmental milestones, which is so incredible considering what he went through. Every time I think about how far he has come, I say a prayer of thanks.

Are These Not the Most Beautiful Blue Eyes?

The Unexpected Happens

Obviously, knocking on wood is not effective. I had mentioned in a previous post that his last checkup would be the last time M saw his pediatrician unless "something unexpected" happened. So, of course, it did. Last Tuesday I took M in to the after-hours clinic to see Dr. Seawell, and she diagnosed croup and prescribed a steroid pill. Taking care of a baby with croup is tricky enough, but taking of a baby with croup when you are on painkillers and muscle relaxers and can barely walk is MUCH more difficult. Luckily, Debbie helped out a lot, and my back got progressively better so that by Friday I was feeling almost back to normal. Still...what a terrible week! I can't believe we both survived.

Easter in Clarksville

The Shasserres came over for Easter dinner Sunday afternoon, so we took some pictures of M outside with his Easter goodies. I had dressed him in his Easter outfit, a pale blue Eton suit with little green embroidered alligators all over it. A blue, green, and white plaid shirt went under it, but it was way too hot for him to wear that much clothing, so I let him go shirtless and barefoot. His poor little scrawny arms!

M's first Easter basket consisted of two Easter-themed board books, a whirly toy that lights up, a fluffy sheep, bunny ears (which Chris had serious objections to when I put them on M's head), a stuffed flower with a twisty stem, and a container of strawberry-apple puffs. Not surprisingly, filling an Easter basket is difficult when candy is out of the question, but I managed to put together a relatively cute ensemble.

Mirm and I had put together a fairly traditional Easter dinner with ham, deviled eggs, and green bean casserole. I even lit some candles that were left over from our wedding. Very fancy! Nick said our blessing and thanked God for friendships, and Miriam and I got teary (of course). It was an Easter I won't forget.

Spring Break: Part 2

The rest of spring break consisted of a lot of running around. M and I visited my old buddies at MHS, and C and I went to look at houses in Knoxville with our realtor, Elizabeth. We really like her, but C and I can't agree on the level of renovation that we're okay with, so I'm afraid we may have to buy two different houses.

M had his nine-months pictures made at Master Portraits on Saturday afternoon, and we got a couple with live bunnies. They're cute, but they're not his best pictures ever (C grumbled that the pictures Mirm and I take are better...and free). That night we all gathered at Kristin's for the annual Easter egg hunt, and I was so excited about M's first hunt! I had bought the cutest pinata at Walmart earlier in the week, and Mom, Haylee, M, and I had filled it with Easter candy (well, M actually just chewed on a mini Hershey's bar and made a chocolatey mess on his hands and face). It was a big hit (no pun intended)!

I had recruited Tyra to be M's assistant during the hunt, and C filmed while I hobbled around (I had somehow managed to throw out my back so that by the time we got home, I could barely move). We hadn't planned on doing the hunt that night, but we changed it so that M and I wouldn't have to come back the following weekend, so I hadn't brought M's Easter basket. As I was crippled, someone had just given M a Walmart bag in lieu of a bag, and I flipped out when I came out and saw it. A plastic bag for his first Easter egg hunt?! I think not. Someone ran and brought him a real basket...although it was not as cute as the one I had at home, which was a Longaberger hand-me-down from (you guessed it) Longaberger Queen, Debbie. M enjoyed picking up the eggs and managed to do fairly well, primarily because his assistant had hidden the eggs and hid a few in illegal places just so she could snag them for the littlest egg-hunter.

Because my back prevented us from going to church on Sunday, we hung around until early afternoon, when Mom and I had to pack up M and return to Clarksville once more. Kristin and Mary's new friend Jamie came over to give me a steroid shot so I could stand the ride home, and somehow we managed to make it back.

Spring Break: Part 1

Spring Break finally rolled around; it seemed to take forever to arrive, as our extra 30-minutes schedule kicked in at the beginning of March. Mom had driven up on Tuesday of the week before SB because I needed to attend the UT Education Job Fair on Wednesday, the 17th. So up she came that morning, and back to Maryville she returned that afternoon with M and me. We spent the night at Mom's, and she kept M while I went to UT. Long drive for just an hour at UT, but I really wanted to introduce myself to the Oak Ridge Schools people--I'm aiming for a job at Oak Ridge High School. I'm not sure it did me any good because there must have been a thousand people there, and I doubt I made such an impression that the ORS lady will remember me, but it was worth a try. So less than 24 hours after we left Clarksville, we headed back up there so I could finish the work week. Haylee and Emily came with us to entertain M on the drive (since he's mobile and determined to walk, he is decidedly less pleasant while traveling), and they were invaluable!

H and E had a girls' day with Mom in Nashville on Thursday, and then they met back up with me and M at Debbie's house after school on Friday, and it was back to the familiar route home again for the five of us.

M was thrilled to be reunited with Skipper (I'm not sure the feeling was mutual!), and we had a hard time getting our little guy into bed that first night, but he woke up ready to tackle the day on Saturday. C and I took him and Mom to Knoxville to watch Thomas play soccer (he is sooo good!), and, as usual, M didn't care what we were doing as long as we were outside!

Later that day we went to Perpetual Motion for Jake's birthday party--what a great place! I love that the kids were active. M was too little, of course, to participate in the tumbling, but he enjoyed some one-on-one tumbling time with his mama. He was especially entertained by the mini-trampoline. Aunt Mary also introduced him to chocolate cake, which may make favorite aunt status difficult to steal away from her--she'll always be the one who never says no to candy.