all the things.

last weekend, i was sifting through old blog posts looking for pictures of ek so i could create her birthday invitations.  i went back to last year and realized i never even created a post about her second birthday.  inevitably, this makes me feel like a failure.

lately, all the things are in motion around me.  like i am a clown, juggling balls and batons and maybe a chainsaw and something on fire too.  a stiff breeze or someone sneezing at the wrong time and i am sure i will drop any or all of it.  i'm not miserable at all right now, nor depressed, nor even really that stressed (compared to some times in my existence).  i just feel like i have a slippery grasp or no grip at all on much of anything.  my head and my calendar and my phone are full of lists and plans and ideas that don't make it to the execution phase and then i end up having that constant feeling like i'm forgetting something.  because, of course, i am.

halloween is this thursday.  my kids' costumes are...weak.  good idea, poor execution.  i know that's not the point and that they will have a great time and this will just be a funny story, but i can't help but feel like i am lacking.

emme's birthday is next thursday.  we are throwing two parties this year - one for regular-life friends and one for school friends.  school friends are morphing in to real life friends, but for this year, it's still more convenient/digestible to have the parties separate.  for the record, justin booked venues, etc.  i created digital invitations.  but we have done nothing else.  nothing.  so, that's pretty lame.  ha.

and finally....we are buying a new house.  !  this is both amazing and utterly terrifying.  we've been wanting to move almost since we moved in to our current house - love the house, but the neighborhood is just not somewhere we wanted to settle for more than a couple of years (elementary school is not ideal, there is some crime, we wanted to be more central, walkability, etc.).  it's hard to not feel settled.  so, here we go.  our current house will (hopefully) hit the market next week, and we will be in a new, much more permanent home by christmas.  eeeek!

nine month pictures.

with the glorious weather we've been having lately, we hit up central market for a little picnic and hollis's nine month photo shoot.

nine months.

my baby is now nine months old.  he's almost been out as long as he was in - craziness.  

physical: we just had hb's 9-month appointment, so i know his stats.  
weight: 21 lbs. 4 oz. - 50%
height: 28 inches - 25%
head: 47.5 cm - 90%

so, short and chubby with a big ol' head.  ha.  seriously, i think he's about the most delicious baby i've ever seen these days.  what else?  four teeth now - two on top, two on bottom.  his hair is getting longer but is still so blonde you can hardly see it.  bluest eyes ever.  

likes: in order (from what i can tell): emme.  pulling up to standing.  nursing.  cuddling.  food.  laughing.  crawling all over the place.  

dislikes: not being able to walk yet.  he's been crawling for maybe a week and he's already ready to be walking.  i hope he takes his time...right now he's in the super fun attached to mom phase where he gets upset if i am not looking directly at him/100% engaged with him.  

biggest achievement of the month: the biggest deal this month is the crawling!  he is learning fast and on the move.  he crawled down the entire hall by himself the other day, as well as from the living room all the way into the bathroom to see what ek was up to.   

biggest challenge of the month: hollis got his two top teeth this month and that wasn't the most fun thing ever.  but even though they are bigger and more intense than his bottom two, i think he handled them better, so there's hope for the 16 more teeth we'll be working on over the next year or so.  

nicknames: the duder has remained pretty consistent with nicknames.  no new ones come to mind this month. 

sleep: oh, sleep.  well.  between the new teeth, the crawling, the trip to louisiana, and whatever other random things you might want to cite, we are still not really sleeping all the way through the night.  but we're making some progress here and there.  it's hard.  i know he doesn't need to nurse at 4am.  but i need him to go back to sleep quickly so i can pretend to get 2 or so more hours of sleep before getting up for work.  so.  it's a work in progress.  

temperament/personality: such a fun, funny, loving kid.  he's much better about entertaining himself than ek was at this age (especially if you just give him a minute to get over being annoyed that you're not paying attention to him).  sweet as can be.  

eating: all the things.  so far, he's not wild about bananas, but he will eat almost everything else.  i let him feed himself food in whole form.  lately he's tried quinoa, beef stew, pork tenderloin, kiwi, and probably a couple of other new things.  

motor development: it's weird that only a month ago, hollis wasn't even really getting himself into a seated position independently.  now, only weeks later, he is crawling up on all fours and pulling up (sometimes).  he loves to bear weight on his legs but is still a little unsteady on them.  he's not creeping or trying to take steps yet (even holding on to furniture or humans), but he's thinking about it.  

i'll try to post pictures a little sooner this time.  

eight month pictures.

hollis turned nine months old yesterday, so here are his eight month pics from september.  and a couple of our silly ek for good measure.