Someday

Someday I'll blog about our trip to Utah. But my, there sure are a lot of pictures. So in the meantime, here are a few catch-up posts for your enjoyment (or mine).

Bristle Blocks

A family friend gave us these bristle blocks shortly after Talmage was born (thanks, Harkers!). It will be a while before he actually builds things with them, I'm sure, but for now he still likes playing with them!

Hmm...what to do, what to do...

Yo.

I can't get enough of this boy!!!

Life Lately

Mr. Pants-Head

When he sets his mind to doing something, there isn't a whole lot you can do to stop him! He'll find a way! He has done this more than once--the buckle was completely fastened, but he found a way to get the speck on the floor he found. He wasn't thrilled, however, about the predicament he got himself into.

He loves drinking from cups! (And soaking himself in the process...)

Anything adults do that he can do makes him absolutely ecstatic.

How mischievous does he look here?? He likes getting under the piano, where we have our CDs, and pulling them out. I don't really mind, and we don't really have a better place to put them, so I just let him do it. I, however, no longer take the time to re-alphabetize them when he's done.

Plain and Simple Joy

Always lots of kisses! (And sometimes biting...)

On the Move

Talmage has been doing a whole lot of this lately:

Yep, he's walking! And in case you couldn't tell, he's pretty thrilled about it, too. :)

Just Because

I think he's so cute!

On Wednesday we went to his 9 month check-up. He weighed 18 pounds, 1.5 ounces (20th percentile) and was 30 inches long (95th percentile). So he is pretty long and skinny! He's doing so well. He is starting to take steps (the other day he took 4 consecutive steps without falling), and his new favorite game is "So Big," which he does constantly. I probably say, "So big!" at least 30 times each day. He's already in size 4 shoes (still has extremely long feet and big hands!) and still loves reading books, singing songs, and playing games. His mischievous streak comes out more and more each day as he gets a sly smile on his face and does something slightly naughty, such as biting/pulling hair/pinching. He loves emptying things, drinking water, grabbing noses, and being outside.

One funny thing is that he has a book with photos of different animals in it, and there is a photo of a bee. Well, the bee is a fairly dark color, and it is about the same size and shape in the book as a cockroach. So every time we would get to that page, Talmage would lift his hand high up into the air and smack the bee hard! I guess he has seen us kill enough cockroaches to learn what to do when you see one!

He has decided he no longer needs a morning nap, he is so lively and full of energy, and he is always busy and into everything! He gets restless and bored easily, but he is very good-natured at the same time. We love him so much!

P.S. About the cockroaches...if you're sick of reading about them (and I don't blame you if you are!), you can stop reading this. But I guess the office inspected all of the apartments in our building because of the problem we have been having and they discovered that our next door neighbor has some major issues. They professionally bug-bombed her apartment, filling it with toxic gas, and the office is taking some pretty serious action to fix the state of things. Hopefully this means that the problem will be resolved such that we don't take it with us to our new place in a month, which is something I have been concerned about! Although it is repulsive, it is comforting to open a cupboard and see hundreds (literally!!) of dead cockroaches. Needless to say, we're still living pretty much on cold cereal and sandwiches. :)

Also, I will get caught up on here eventually. Things have been crazy. I think there is some sort of natural law that when you vacation with small children, it takes at least as much time after you return home as the vacation itself lasted to settle back into your regular routine and get back on track.

Some Stories and Some News

First of all, I have a bunch of pictures to post, but this week has been CRAZY and we're leaving tomorrow morning to go to Utah for a week! So I'll have to play catch-up when we get back.

Second, we have been fighting the cockroaches valiantly for a week now, and our efforts are starting to pay off. We've been living off cold cereal and PB&J sandwiches, eating in our bedroom, and killing them like crazy through various means, but I think they're starting to go away at least a little bit. We have had some pretty disgusting experiences with them, but I'll spare you the details. However, a couple of minutes ago I was on the computer and felt a tickle on my arm. Sure enough, one of the little beasts was crawling on me!

Which brings me to my next item of business. We actually owe the cockroaches a huge thank you, because as a result of their infestation we started looking for a new place to live (Did you know they can cause salmonella, dysentery, and other awful diseases? We were ready to move on...), and we found the most amazing place for us! We absolutely love it, it has room to grow, we got an incredible deal on it, the location is great...it's just all around AMAZING for us! It truly is such a blessing, and we can't wait to move in. I am more than ready to start using a kitchen again without critters scurrying away from me every time I open a cupboard, the dishwasher, the fridge, etc.

Talmage has also learned how to stand independently now! He can stand for about 30 seconds before he gets a smile on his face and dives into my lap. :) He also took his first step without losing his balance on Wednesday! He is going to be so happy when he can walk--it drives him crazy that he can't get to what he wants by himself.

And last of all, a funny story. Last night we went out on a little date (since I'm leaving early in the morning for Utah, and Sam is coming out on Tuesday), so we went to get some gelato at this little gelato shop called Paciugo. They had all kinds of interesting flavors (Have you ever tried "Olive Oil and Black Pepper" gelato? It's very unique...), and one of the flavors was "Bailey's." The worker was giving us samples of whatever we asked about, and I said, "What's Bailey's?" He said, "It's actual Bailey's." I stared at him with a blank expression. He said, "Bailey's liquor..." with a "no-duh" tone of voice as he reached down to get me a sample. I was so startled I essentially screamed out, "Nononononono, I don't want a sample of that one!" He just gave me a strange look and moved on to the next flavor. So now you know, if you see something called "Bailey's," it may contain liquor. You've been warned.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!