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?