7 Months

I feel like Andrew is changing and growing all the time, and this month was no exception!

He can really pull himself up on anything now.  It was such a surprise to me one day when I went to get him from his crib and he was standing up!  He also pulls up on the couch, shelves, chairs, etc.  He even pulled himself up on a closet door- it's a mirror so it's a completely smooth surface.  We've now lowered his crib to the lowest setting and put away my keyboard, which he also used to pull up.

Not only does Andrew stand himself up, he can also walk- using the furniture as support obviously.  He can even make it from one side of our ottoman to the other (it's a big square, so I'm pretty impressed), usually toward me.  He can also do some walking if I hold his hands.  We made it all the way from the kitchen to the bathroom like that one time.

This kid knows who his mama is.  Seriously.  It's kind of funny how Andrew will be perfectly happy playing with Aaron, but as soon as I come into the room, he'll come right to me or fuss if he can't.  This doesn't happen all the time (thank goodness) but it happens often enough to be funny.  Sometimes Aaron will be holding Andrew while I sit on the couch, and no matter how Aaron turns his body, Andrew will find a way to watch me.  Just stare at me.  Of course he does that to Aaron too, if I'm holding him.

Andrew is getting pretty independent.  If he's in a good mood (which is most of the time- he just needs enough sleep and a full belly) he's perfectly content to play by himself in the living room.  He has a few toys that he loves, but mostly he enjoys playing with diaper/wipes boxes, the ottoman, the fireplace chain curtain, anything paper (books, junk mail, flyers), and his jumper.  He still uses his jumper sometimes, but usually he prefers to stand outside of it and play with it from there.

He is taking 2 naps each day, usually about an hour and a half each.  As long as he gets those naps, he's a happy kid.  The time varies, but the first one is usually about 2 hours after he wakes up for the day (or after he falls asleep nursing in the morning) and the second is 2-3 hours after he wakes up from the first.

We sure love this kid.  He's such a happy, healthy, friendly little boy- he's hardly even a baby anymore!

New things for Andrew this month:

Fireworks

Beach

Lots of new foods
Riding in a swing

Real crawling

Standing up

Walking- with help from furniture and mom

Drinking formula

Talking A LOT

Gained a cousin

Met an uncle

Goodbye to Manassas!

It's official.  My parents no longer live in Manassas.

I'm excited for them- their new house is a better size for them.  The community is great.  The lake is beautiful.

But Manassas was home.  It has been home for 12 years, twice as long as my family has ever lived in any one city.  I mean, I haven't lived there full time since about 7 years ago, but still.

Anyway, last weekend we helped my parents move.  They've been gradually moving ever since they bought the new house in November, but with the closing date fast approaching, they needed help getting the last of it out.

They rented the biggest U-Haul thinking it would be overkill.

It was not overkill.

In fact, we had to leave some stuff behind because it wouldn't all fit.  They had to fill up the station wagon twice to get the rest of it.

We spent Friday packing and loading the truck.

The house sold fast.  I mean really fast.  They had an offer on it before the house had even been on the market for 5 hours.  And then the buyers wanted to close on the house in 2 weeks.  Unfortunately this 2 weeks came at the same time as YW camp, where my parents were coordinating staffing and scheduling, and my sister delivering her baby boy.  Not super convenient.  So there was a lot of packing to do still.  It took all of Friday and some of Saturday morning, too, to get everything packed up and the truck filled.

When we got to the new house, we discovered that the truck couldn't get up the driveway because it scraped the road or the driveway no matter how we angled it.  So we had to park it on the street and carry everything up the driveway.  Aaron, Austin, and my dad did most of the heavy lifting.  Andrew took a pretty good nap though, so Mariko stayed inside with Harrison and the baby monitor so my mom and I could help with unloading too.

Finally we finished unloading and headed off to the beach.

There's still a lot of unpacking and organizing to do- they are downsizing after all, and I think they still have more stuff than they have room for.  But they officially only have one house now.

And I've seen my old house for the last time.

So goodbye Manassas.  For good this time.  It's been great (mostly).  I'll miss you.

Independence Day

We headed out to my parents' lake house on July 3rd after Aaron got off work.  It was just my dad there- my mom was in Radford, helping my sister who just had a baby.  Their community had a fireworks show planned for that night.

Side note- a lot of places did fireworks on the 3rd this year.  Anyone know why?  I know Fort Meade did them that night too...

The plan was that we would put Andrew to bed at his usual time, and then my dad was going to stay at the house with the baby monitor while Aaron and I went to the beach to watch the fireworks.

For some reason, Andrew slept for an hour and then decided he had enough sleep for a while.  So he ended up being wide awake when it was time to head out to see the fireworks.  So we ended up all going together and Andrew saw fireworks for the first time!

It was actually a good show.  We didn't have the best view from where we were on the beach, so halfway through we moved up the parking lot and watched from there.  The little man was so interested in the fireworks- not scared at all.  I was impressed.

On the 4th, Aaron, Andrew, and I were completely lazy in the morning, while my dad did a lot of driving to pick up my mom (something like 4 hours each way I think).  When they got back we went swimming at the beach and had burgers for dinner.  It was a really nice, relaxing day!

(Which is great, because the next few days were just the opposite- and that's what I will write about in my next post.)