First Word???

I don't know how I could forget to add this story to the blog the other day. I believe it was Tuesday evening, after work, when we (AJ, William, and I) were hanging out in the living room. I was trying to get William to drink his bottle, which has become increasingly challenging because he is now very easily distracted. So, I was laying on the couch and William was sitting on the floor next to the couch near me. He was trying to pull himself up to stand next to the couch and once he was standing, in true baby fashion, just grabbed right on to my chest. I said "Hey, don't grab my boob," (with a big smile of course) and he said "Boob!" AJ heard it too! Does that mean it counts as his first real word? Leave it to AJ's child to have that as the first word! Well anyway, it was adorable and William was so proud of himself for saying what mommy said. Guess I really need to start watching myself :-)

Monkey Face!

It's been a week since I've written so I thought I'd update this again tonight with some pictures, a video, and some little stories. So we had another weekend at home this past weekend. We got so much accomplished and our house was clean... Yes I said was - I have a dog, a cat, a baby, and a husband, so nothing stays clean for long :-) We were supposed to have a packed weekend visiting friends, but things came up so it was just the three of us! I did a little rearranging of baby things and even put some things away. That was bittersweet because it saddens me that he's losing his baby-ness. On the flip side, he's at a really fun age where he's learning and growing so quickly. In addition, I was able to clear some clutter and move the pack n' play from our living room. We'll still need it for Addyson on the weeks that the nanny is here, but we'll probably just set it up in William's room or the guest room. I'm just so glad to have that space back! Here are some pictures of the weekend - well of William crawling around and just being the cutest baby in the world!

Okay, so Friday Di (the nanny) had to take off so AJ stayed and worked from home that day. Well, William had been doing what we called the "monkey face" for a few weeks now, especially when he's eating. Otherwise, it was usually pretty random. So I come home from work that day to find out what my boys have been up to all day while Mommy was at work. AJ was so proud because he taught William how to do "Monkey Face" on command. Now, anytime William is in somewhat of a happy mood, you can say "monkey face" and he'll do it. Some of you may not know what I mean by that, so I've attached a short video that I know you'll enjoy!

Another Tooth!

So it was getting close, but it's official today that William now has a second tooth coming through. He'd been working on that one for quite a while and now it's here. It's so cute! And sharp! I noticed it this morning when he was being his cutie little self and crawling over pillows on our bed to come get me. He was smiling so big and I noticed it looked extra white in his gums today. So I checked it and yep, there it was. It must not be hurting him as much b/c he actually let me touch without fussing or turning his head. He was happy for us to check out what he worked so hard for. Not much else is happening since last night. Just looking forward to the weekend... it's almost here!!!

Video

Is he not the cutest little crawler you've ever seen? And there's Chewie - making sure he's okay...

Back from Houston... and pictures!

Hello Everyone! It's Tuesday night and I'm pooped! Busy busy busy since we've come home from Houston. AJ had a basketball game last night so I was solo taking care of William and the evening chores and tonight I volunteered for a benefit to help the orphans in China after the earthquake, so AJ had the evening chores. But I did get home in time to put my little sweet pea to bed, which I love doing! It's usually a happy time for him because he's used to our routine and he loves to read Good Night Moon. It's so cute, because he knows exactly when (and how) to turn the page when it's time. He's so smart!
As I was packing to get out of the house for the airport Friday, William scaled the stairs again... and this time I was prepared with the camera. Again, he was so proud of himself and it was adorable! The plane ride was excellent! I couldn't believe it, but it turns out that it's actually better to fly during his awake time. Who woulda guessed it! Apparently, when it's his bed time, he's cranky and just wants to lay down, but when he's awake he's happy and good with almost any scenario. I included a slide show of airplane pictures and other pics while we were in Houston. We had a great trip. It's always so nice to see the Porfirios. We had the reunion on Saturday which was fun, more so for AJ since I only knew 3 people, but I'm so glad to have gone and met his old high school buddies. They all mentioned in some form or another how great of a baseball player AJ was... I knew he was great, but it was so different hearing it from his high school peers. We went out to a club afterwards and man, did I feel old! Not that we were the old ones there, because it was a mixed crowd, but because I was SO tired and my feet hurt and I just wanted to sleep. That's so sad! The 5 years ago Jessica would have laughed at me, smacked me around a bit, and then made me do a shot! Ha ha... aah the old days! Anyways, I digress... So we also went to visit Dave, Sarah, and Baby Thomas. That baby is so cute!!! He's a precious little peanut! Dave and Sarah are so blessed! Hmmmm... OH yeah, and Sunday we went to Kemah with all the family and had a lovely lunch! Thank you so much Vance and Annette - it was delicious! We walked around a bit but it was SO hot I couldn't stand it. Yeah yeah, I'm a wimp, but I'm from NY darn it! Okay, well I'm gonna stop rambling now b/c I'm supposed to go down and watch Big Brother with hubby and he's wondering where I am. I'll post pictures and a new crawling video before I go. I love you all - have a great week!

Who Knew?

This morning, as we were going through our normal routine of trying to get out the door for work, I had placed William on the floor for a minute so I could grab some things. Yes, he was near the stairs, but I'm thinking "He's only been crawling for a week so he won't be able to do stairs yet." WRONG! I looked over at him to see what he was up to and there he was, standing tall and proud on the first step! What??? How did he do that? That little booger never ceases to amaze me. It was so adorable because he was just beaming pride from what he had just accomplished. And, of course I panicked and got him down right away without getting a picture first, so when I tried to reenact (with camera in hand) it it just wasn't the same. But I will try next week to (re)capture the moment.

Today we are off to Houston for AJ's 10 year high school reunion - Man is he old! Ha ha, just kidding, mine is in 3 weeks. We're looking forward to seeing everyone. His friends Dave and Sarah just had their baby last weekend, Thomas Gordon, so we'll be visiting them too. Babies are wonderful - we're so happy for them! Plus, it looks like William will get a chance to meet some of his Daddy's crazy buddies before we head out for the reunion. I'm not sure what else is planned - I don't usually know until the last minute :-) But it will be fun. Again, I'm a bit nervous with William on the plane. We fly out earlier than we usually do, so it is not during a nap time and he's going to hate sitting on my lap for 2 hours - especially since he could be crawling or standing instead. I'll just bring toys, books, and food and hope for the best! Happy Friday!

New Poll

Since William now officially has a tooth, the last poll I had up is over and unfortunately no one got it right. So I just posted a new poll - When will he walk? And by this I mean solely on his own. To be fair, I will say that he is now cruising around the furniture and pulls himself up very well. Well, it's not like I'm giving out prizes or anything so it doesn't really matter. I just thought it'd be fun!

Big Boy!

Well, William is so active now! He just loves to crawl and is so proud of himself for being able to do so. That's all he wants to do now, so much so that he doesn't want to sleep... ever! In addition to being able to crawl, he has also figured out how to stand up in his crib. So now, my wonderful and excellent sleeper just stands up and plays in his crib at bedtime. A new challenge, but it's so funny to watch him. And to top it off, tooth #2 is trying to make it's way out! So this little man has a lot going on these days. I am just in awe of him. So it's late on Tuesday and I'm pretty tired so I don't know what to say. I just came online to upload some pictures (look below for new slideshows) and get some music. I just found out I'm running in the Great Race in 3 weeks so I'm finally (after a year and a half) going to put some tunes on my mp3 player. Yes, so the Great Race is a team event where there is a runner, biker, and 2 canoers. The run is a 5k and I did it a few years ago before our wedding and it was a lot of fun. I thought I was canoeing this year so I hadn't run in a few weeks... oops! Well here I go rambling again - in my typical fashion :-) Here is some video of our little creepy crawler... enjoy!
P.S. My camera didn't have much room left on the memory card so they are short videos. I'll get more video soon.

Crawling Battle Scars - The First Of Many...

Oh my Gosh! William is just the cutest ever. So he is officially a crawling baby. He did it last night with no hesitation. He loves it! He gets so excited when he gets close to whatever he's heading for - breathing heavy and smiling. Last night, while we were playing with his stacking cups - stacking them up so he can knock them down - he started crawling toward them. But when he got close he didn't stop, he just crawled right into them, head first. It was so funny, until he flopped onto his tummy then started crying so hard. He had fallen on one of the cups with his face and immediately had a bruise right under his eye. Poor baby!!! He was so sad and I wanted to cry for him too... until I put him down and he was distracted by his new skill of crawling. It had lasting effects on me but he was fine. It still makes me sad for him that he got hurt, but it's just the first of many I'm sure.

In other news, Debbie came into town last night and the French's got a head start on their way back to Houston. It was fun having them visit. The boys seemed to like it. They wore themselves out at the Wave Pool yesterday. It's so cute because Archer is just so in love with William and wants to snuggle with him and help him learn things. Chance seems to like him too, but doesn't understand that he's just a baby and can't wrestle with him yet :-) Overall, it was a good time and hopefully one day they'll be able to stay longer. So now, Debbie's at the house with William and I'm at work (typing real fast) and thinking about how all I want to do is be home with my son on his first full day of crawling. I know I'll get enough of it soon, this is just the beginning. I just can't believe how much of a big boy he seems now - crawling, getting a tooth, and pulling himself up on furniture - it's all happening so fast! I'm not ready!!!

William's Growing....

Wednesday afternoon William had a doctor appointment for his 9 month checkup. He is now 19lbs and 29 inches long - up 2 lbs and 2 in. from his 6 month checkup. The doctor says he's looking great and growing as he should be. In other William news, that pesky tooth has now popped through the surface of his gums and is sharp! It's mostly just the front right tooth, but the left one is not far behind. It is very clear by his behavior these days that he is teething. He gets quite fussy and is shoving anything and everything in his mouth. And he's wanting to drink his bottle less and less. I don't blame him though... that seems to be so painful and I hate it for him. AND, last but certainly not least, William crawled today! It was more like what our neighbors dubbed "the wounded soldier" crawl where one leg just kind of hangs down and most of the moving is done by the other leg. Addyson (William's day buddy) started crawling like that and I guess William learned it from her. I can't really describe William's crawl in detail because I missed it - but AJ called me at work to tell me about it. He said he went from near our couch to the TV... about 3-4 feet. I almost cried because I was at work instead of home and missed his first real crawl, but that's all part of a workin' mom's job I suppose.

Lots to cover this time

I was going to wait to write this post until I was able to upload pictures with it, but I don't see an opportunity for that for at least a few more days and I didn't want to forget everything. So I'll just edit this with pictures once I get them on the computer... so keep checking :-) I can't believe it's Thursday already! We got back from Arizona Sunday night... late. We had a great time! Thank you so much Auntie Carol and Uncle Gary for letting us stay with you. William got to meet his cousins Rachael and Connor and his Great Gigi too! Gigi seemed to really enjoy watching William and kept calling him "Happy Baby," "Smiley Baby." We mostly just hung out in the pool during the day - which was a nice 90º and up! It was like a big bath tub. William really loved it. Auntie Carol took her kids for swimming lessons when they were infants so she showed us some stuff. I even let William go under water. I was so scared and was very reluctant, but I did it! I'm so proud of me...uh... I mean him. He was such a sport and loved it. He would stick his little tongue out every time he'd come back up. While we were there we also went to the Train Park, which was nice but it was SO HOT! (like 110º hot) We didn't stay long for that reason. Then we just hung out some more and came back home on Sunday.

Monday and Tuesday were spent unpacking and cleaning our house in preparation for our guests. Last night Lynn, Chad, Archer, and Chance came into town for the last part of their Super Road trip, starting in Houston, going to D.C., Virginia, Nashville and then back home (I think that's right - Lynn let me know if I goofed it up.) Tonight, Debbie comes into town for the weekend so it will be a packed house for the night and then the French's leave in the morning. I'm throwing a little welcoming party for Samantha's new baby this weekend (in lieu of a shower) and I'm cooking all the food - Debbie will be enlisted to help, although she may not know that yet ;-) So we're busy, busy, busy still.

And we're off... again

To all the Auburnians, Happy 3rd of Auburn! (A little background on that- in Auburn, NY we/they do the fireworks on the 3rd of July b/c the Syracuse symphony plays at the lake, which is the fireworks location, beforehand and are in Syracuse on the 4th so they need do it a day early there. Well, at least that's what my parents say. My siblings and I think it's because in Auburn we know how to party and usually the 4th falls on a weekday. Doing the fireworks the night before allows us to party it up for the fireworks and have the following day (the 4th) to recover and have afternoon BBQs.)(Oh, yeah and I was telling a friend in Buffalo about that years ago and he mistakenly called it "the 3rd of Auburn." I thought that was a great name so there you go... ) And for the rest of you, Happy 4th of July tomorrow!
So, last weekend we stayed here in Nashville which was a nice recovery from travel and we somewhat got our house back in order. Now, tonight we are flying out to Phoenix, AZ to visit my Auntie Carol and her family, along with my Gigi (grandfather.) This is the first time they will get to meet William and I'm so excited. William is my Gigi's first great grandchild too, so that's special. But not by much... my cousin Tania recently had a baby boy and Jeffrey has got one on the way too! The flight should be interesting as it is William's longest consecutive flight (meaning no layovers) yet. I'm hoping he'll just to go sleep, but I don't think we'll be that lucky. But that's okay. I like being able to hold my little baby during the flight. It's the longest I get to hold him these days. He's getting so big and just wants to move around all the time, so he doesn't enjoy being held and cradled like he used too (sniffle, sniffle.) I think that is all for now. I feel as though I'm leaving something out, but I'll just have to write about it later. I Love you all and have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Teeth are coming!

Well we thought it was still a bit further away, but William is finally getting some teeth! Sunday morning we woke up to find white gums and a sharp tooth poking out. Only to have that completely disappear by Sunday night with the exception of one little red bump on his gum. Strange. Then Monday morning he still had that bump but his little gums were white again - and it didn't disappear this time. His bottom, front, right tooth is making it's debut a little faster than the left and it's just SO cute! He's handling it pretty well considering this must be such a painful experience. I can somewhat relate to gum pain with my recent experience with braces as it was slightly torturous at times. He goes through little spurts where it seems so painful he doesn't know what to do with himself and he just rubs his hands all over his face and puts his fist in his mouth. Other times he'll just chew the air. Poor guy! He even tried to eat Gizmo's tail (our Persian cat) and Chewie's leg (our retriever mix dog) Yuck! Good thing they don't mind though. They like the attention. So as those teeth slowly progress I will keep you posted. If he can sit still long enough I'll even try to get a picture, but I won't count on that :-)