Exhausted.

Wow. This has probably been one of the longest, worst weeks that I can remember right now. All three of us have been sick. Our house is like one big gaint GERM. It might take a nuclear weapon to clear all the yuckies out of this place. I'm so tired of puke. and poop. and snot, mucous, boogers, tissues, gatorade, sprite, saltines, coughing, sneezing, crying, and the smell of menthol. It all started with my new "job". A good friend of ours owns a few restaurants down at the oceanfront, and he told me if I ever wanted to get out of the house to let him know and he would hire me as a waitress (his wife used to stay at home with their child so he knows that its important for the mama to get out of the house every once in awhile :-) Anyways, it was Shamrock Marathon and he needed me all day Saturday and Sunday. So I trained for a few hours Thursday and Friday. Escher came down with a cold on Friday, and was up all night, poor little guy. I was gone most of the day Saturday, and Sunday. Matt was such a trooper, he took great care of Escher all weekend. Sunday night I was exhausted and started having stomach problems. I was down for the count all day monday and most of the day Tuesday. Escher went to the dr with a really bad cold and the beginning of an ear infection. Matt got sick Wednesday and has been coughing a lot. Then Thursday I got sick again and ended up at the dr on Friday! Needless to say, we all spent the weekend recouperating. Escher is feeling much better, no more snotty nose. He still has a bit of a cough, as does Matt. But we are hoping that the worst is over and we stay healthy for awhile. As for my job, its going to be a one night a week thing at Johnny Mananas, on 23rd Street, Boardwalk Side. If you are ever down there, pop in for a margarita or some fish tacos!

As for good news, Escher has started crawling!! Right now it is like a GI-Joe Army crawl, but he is starting to lift that belly up off the floor. Its so funny, his toys don't really entertain him anymore. He wants to play with the front door, check out my books, discover the kitchen and hallway, and generally just motor around the house. I feel like we are running out of space for him to explore. It gets a little hairy on days like today when we can't put the dogs outside and we are cramped in here with nothing to do. However, the small house is nice because Escher is now experiencing a little separation anxiety, and he cries if you leave the room. With our layout he can still see/hear me from pretty much anywhere in the house! Yesterday it was cute, I went into our bedroom and he came to find me, and shrieked with delight when he saw me. It made me feel pretty cool :-)

Alright, I need to go finish up some hw before duders wakes up from his nap. Here are some pictures from the bay a few weeks ago :-)

I love my little Indiana :-)

Sea Monster Beach Tent

Check out Escher's cool fishy-monster beach tent! We're practicing for summer!

It will be easy to find us on the beach. Just look for this!

We're Swinging!

This week the weather has been gorgeous so we pulled out the swing my parents gave us and put Mr. Man in it. He LOVES it! The faster the better, haha! Totally his Daddy's son :-) We are looking forward to many fun hours in the swing!

Not much else has been going on lately. Poor little guy has FOUR teeth up top coming through all at once, and I'm thinking there is another working its way down, too. Hopefully once they come through he will have a little break.

Sometimes I just can't believe how big he has gotten! He is such a good boy :-)

March Madness

How crazy is it that we are about 3 weeks away from spring, and it snowed this morning in Virginia Beach! I don't know about ya'll, but I am SO OVER all this stupid snow and cold! Thankfully, I watched the weather forecast this morning and it is supposed to get up to 60 early next week. What the weather gods don't realize is that I have an almost 8 month old who is starting to explore EVERYTHING and we need to get out of the house and into some sunshine! We have big plans for the warm weather:

• swing!


• beach!


• picnics!


• grilling out!


• a kiddie pool in the back yard!


• decorating our back porch!

The list could seriously go on and on. As I'm doing dishes I look out the window dreaming of feeling the warm sunshine on my face. Soon, my love of sunshine will be fulfilled. I CAN'T WAIT!

In other news, our almost 8 month old has just been growing and changing more and more everyday. Here are some of the new things that Escher has been doing (more bullets, yay!):

• we have a total of 3 teeth, 2 bottom and one up top. the other top one is working its way through. poor little guy, I feel like he has been teething for forever!


• we now have 2 big kid carseats, for both the Yukon and the Accord. He loves them both and fits so much better in them. He was a few inches over the height limit of the infant car seat! I absolutely love not having to cart that bucket seat around.


• Escher loves to sit up like a big kid in grocery carts!


• We took the infant seat out of his whale tub, so he sits up now. He really enjoys bathtime these days. We have squirt toys and a little whale cup. However, his favorite toys are washclothes and the plastic SOLO cup we use to wash his hair. Go figure :-)


• While he isn't quite crawling yet, he is totally mobile and gets wherever he needs to go by rolling and pivoting. Its actually quite impressive! I'm not stressing the crawling... For one, I like that I can sit him down and he usually stays right where he is. Two, I never really crawled, I rolled. And three, Matt walked pretty early, so we are guessing that Escher might just skip crawling and start pulling up to cruise. He loves to stand and will tug at you to pull him up to his feet.
  
• He is eating a wide range of foods these days. He wasn't very happy with us sticking a spoon with mushy stuff on it in his mouth, so we just give him big chunks of the food that we are eating so he can gnaw on whatever he likes. Yesterday he demolished 3 chunks of cantaloupe! I totally agree, it was a delicious melon :-). Some random favorites are orange pepper (weird, huh?) carrots, celery, apples, cantaloupe, asparagus, pancakes (it was soooo cute to watch!) and cucumber. Most of the time he just plays with his food, but we are starting to notice that he is eating more and more these days.
• He is really using his voice these days. Sometimes I swear that he says Mama and Dada and uses it in context. I walked by the exersaucer the other day and he reached out for me and said MAAAAMAAAAA. Now, I understand that this is a common sound for them to say... but I like to think he can relate me to "mama". When Matt walks in the room, sometimes he says something that sounds like "Eyh dada" (like "hey dada!") Who knows what the little guy is thinking, but boy, is he trying to tell us!

Well, thats about everything I can think of right now, even though I'm sure there is more. I hope everyone has a great week! Let's all do a warm weather dance!

Going for a stroll in my awesome jeep stroller. Thanks Uncle Chris!

One of the last days in his infant carrier!

Crazy bathtime hair!

One of the new carseats!

Our Day!

A few times in the past month or so, I have had people inquire about how Escher's day goes. So, be curious no more! Here is an average day in the world of little dude and me!

7am- wake time! Escher usually wakes up very happy, and he talks to Floppy in his crib while I rub the sleep out of my eyes :-). He gets a bottle and has floor play time while I make coffee and clean up the kitchen. Sometimes we watch Curious George (I LOVE him!).

9am- Its naptime! I do schoolwork while he sleeps, or clean.

11am- And he's up! He has another bottle, then if its nice, we go for a walk. If we have errands to run, this is usually the time of day we get out. Then its lunch time! After we eat, Escher usually watches a little bit (ok, or all) of a Baby Einstein dvd while I clean up.

1:30 or so- down for another nap

3ish: awake, another bottle, and more playtime! Escher really loves just rolling around on the blanket with all of his toys. His favorites seem to be the bucket of plastic food, balls, trucks, and his lion mirror so he can look at the handsome boy in it!

He has pretty much dropped his late afternoon catnap. Even if I try to get him to take it, he just rolls around in his crib. So between the time when he gets up at 3, he eats, plays, waits for Matt to come home, and he "helps" me cook dinner. He likes to play with measuring cups, spoons, spatulas, tupperware, etc. Depending on what we are eating for dinner, and when its ready, and how tired Escher is depends on whether or not he "eats" with us or not. He is starting to eat more grown up food, and we really love having him sit at the table with us, but some nights we see the eye rubbing a little earlier than usual, so then its a bath around 630 or so, then a bottle and bed. We give him a "dreamfeed" around 930-10pm, which helps him sleep through the night. Then its up the next morning for more PLAYING!

So thats it! We have a pretty consistent schedule. For awhile I was really anxious about deviating from it, but with all the craziness going on with the move, I couldn't control every minute of his day. Thankfully he adapted very well, and I don't worry so much if a day doesn't go exactly according to plan. On Wednesdays we go to Grace Bible Church where I help out in the nursery for the Women's Bible Study group. Escher likes to watch all the kids play! We really can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can play outside more!

Hope everyone has a great week!

7 months!

Happy Seven Month Birthday Escher!

Here is a link to some more pictures...

http://picasaweb.google.com/trishamundell/EscherIs7Months#

Snowy Beach

Virginia Beach got snow! And lots of it, too! I honestly can't remember the last time the Hampton Roads area had this much of the white stuff. Neither Matt or I expected to have snow at this house, we were actually glad to leave all the snow behind in Richmond (I like the first snow of the year, then I'm ready for warm weather!) However, I figured this was a once in a blue moon kinda thing, so Truman and I braved the storm and walked down to the ocean. It was incredible. Insane, but awesome. We could only go so far down the walkway to the ocean because the wind was so strong, and it was blowing the snow into our faces so hard it felt like needles. I am really glad we went down there though. It has been so cold lately that the snow stuck to the sand, and the dunes just looked amazing. I honestly think Truman would have stayed out in the snow most of the day, he absolutely loved it! Since Escher has had a cold, we didn't bundle him up and take him out in it. He checked it out from the window :-)

89th Street Access

Crazy! I could barely see what I was taking a picture of, I just held the camera up and snapped!

89th Street Beach Access.

My brave, snowy puppy.

It was so crazy to see snow on the dunes!