Just because he is so cute!

Not much to say in this post. We have actually made a lot of house progress - we are almost finished with our temporary closets - and only 1.5 years later! That is pretty sad. I just wanted to post these because they are cute. Hopefully I can catch up on my posts over the weekend.

Rolling, rolling, rolling....

I am a little behind on the posts but I wanted to get this one up while I had a few minutes. Mur has started to roll over which is both exciting and scary! He will immediately roll over in his crib (yes he is finally out of his pack & play, we surpassed the safe weight limit for the bassinet portion so we thought it was a good idea to get him out of there because I am not reaching in there and picking up that heavy guy in the bottom day after day). So when he rolls over what are you going to do? He is supposed to sleep on his back but 95% of the time he rolls right over. I have read the books some say roll them back over - I have done that, he rolls right back over, and some say leave them - so then if he dies in his sleep what kind of guilt is that going to leave me with?! In the end I decided that he has very good head control and strength so if he rolls himself over he should be able to move his head so that he doesn't sufficate. I tried the sleep positioner but I think he is just too big and he rolls right out of it. And the other lovely thing about rolling over is that he screams once he is on his stomach because it is hard for him to flip back over. So after about two weeks of this I can happily report that he now rolls right over and only screams half of the time. I am thrilled! Now for the day I turn my back and he rolls right off the changing table - I don't think that is going to be a good day but I have this feeling that it is coming or something like it is coming very soon. This has also made us realize that after rolling over come crawling. Well our house, except for the part that we haven't redone yet, has no baseboard and has plenty of plaster, insulation, and firestopping sticking out of those holes between the floor and the wall - I am sure the safety books would not recommend this scenario when your child is starting to crawl. So we have many hours, days, weeks, ahead of us installing the baseboard, caulking it, filling in the nail holes with wood filler, sanding that down, priming it and then painting it. On the bright side I have a trim color picked out - not sure if that is really going to help me right now but it seemed like a task that I could check off my list of things to do rather easily. I think with a little baseboard in some of the rooms and some baby gates we should be just fine. I mean Mur just got out of his pack & play, moved into his own room which really isn't his own room, it is the guest room because his room is still full of construction materials, so I think the guy is really asking a lot of us to have all of the baseboard finished when he starts crawling. He really needs to become a little less demanding :) Enough of my complaining. Enjoy the video!

Daddy's little dork

Andy calls Mur a dork when he wears this outfit. I think he looks cute but then again I think he is cute all of the time! I have a lot of pictures that I finally put on my computer so here is a quick set, they are a little repetitive but I just think Mur is so cute that I am putting all of the pictures from our boring night at home.

Starting a new life together....

Two of our best friends have gotten engaged and have set their wedding dates for this coming September. Andy and I are thrilled! Matt, one of his best friends, got engaged to Ingrid in the Fall while they were in China and one of my best friends, Courtney, got engaged to Wayne a few days before Christmas. I only have pictures of Courtney and Wayne because Ingrid is out of town but I am sure once she gets back from her travels we can get some pictures. I am so excited for both couples and I am so excited for some weddings - it is like a vacation to look forward to - I know that is kind of selfish to say because it is their day but I am excited for a night out where Andy and I can be a couple again without Mur! Can't wait. CONGRATS to the happy couples!

Hanging in my Highchair

I have been a little lazy about the blog lately. Things have been busy blah blah blah. Things will always be busy so I try not to use that as an excuse. This is an old video from Christmas - Murdoch got a new highchair from Grandma Talli and Grandpa Bob. This is his first time in the highchair. He seems to really enjoy it and we have used it several times since then and he seems to like being up high and having out with the adults. Now if only he would get that excited about the rice cereal - it is improving but boy it is messy. I guess I should just except the messy - at least he isn't throwing it across the room...yet.

We need to get new disks for the camcorder - until then we won't have anything new. Hopefully Andy makes it to Best Buy today.

We are moving...

No not into another house just to our third floor - finally! I can't believe that it was last March when we returned from St. Lucia - our final non-kid just the two of us vacation - to a bedroom where the ceiling had collapsed onto our bed. We arrive home and I am frantically looking for a Bed Bath and Beyond coupon and hoping it is still open at 8 PM so that I can buy an aerobed for us to sleep on. Little did I know that we would be on that Aerobed until June, and I would like to add that this time that I was 6 months pregnany. Deucey really enjoyed this time - she spent many a night with her head between our pillows because she was not allowed on the bed. It has been one hell of a house project for us. It isn't over but the fact that we can sleep and shower on the third floor is a really big deal. Andy has worked very hard on this project - we used to do everything together but I couldn't do everything while I was pregnany and now sometimes Mur needs entertaining which means that Andy is up there quite often by himself. So I probably don't say it enough but I am so grateful that he is so handy and motivated to go up there by himself because I know how hard that is. Now we will probably have a good year or so of finish work and painting but our house is always a work in progress. Who knows, maybe we will even start a new project - our front room is very drafty - it is very tempting to just rip all of that down so that it is brand new as well. Not sure that we are quite there yet but we may be there sooner rather than later.

And on another note, Mur will be moving into his own room. I have mixed feelings about this. I know he needs to move into his own room - it will help us sleep because we won't hear all of his extra little noises and it will probably help him sleep better as well because he won't hear us, especially me in the AM getting ready for work. I also know that he needs to become an independent person as much as I want to shelter him and rock him to sleep every night I know that is just not possible for years on end. I guess Mur moving into another room is just another milestone that says my baby is growing up and it makes me sad. I love this time - he smiles all of the time, we are his whole world so we don't need to worry about if kids are being mean to him, or if he is taking drugs, or all of the other things the outside world introduces. For now I will just try to focus on this time because I know I can't get it back but it is hard not to think about how fast it is going. I guess this will always be the case with kids but sometimes it is just more apparent than other.s

The boys hanging out

I have a huge backlog of videos so now with the use of dropshots, thanks Ellen, I can upload the videos and then do the post later even if I am not sitting at my laptop at home. After sitting at a computer all day sometimes the last thing I want to do is fire up the computer at home so the blog suffers.

I think we took this on Christmas or right around Christmas. Andy loves to make Murdoch laugh and smile and Murdoch is a very willing participant. I love how much he smiles and giggles right now. I can't imagine him yelling NO! and MINE! though I know it is coming. I need to get as much of this as I can on video so when he is yelling NO! at me I can go back and look at these videos and smile and then deal with the tantrum.

Guitar Hero

I thought I could use a little lighter post after the last one. This is a clip of Andy playing Guitar Hero when my sister was visiting - just a little glimpse into our lives and what we do in the evenings since the arrival of Murdoch. I have to say that I wouldn't have thought that a video game where you play a fake guitar would provide this many hours of entertainment but it does! I guess I never wanted to be in a rock band so this game doesn't really appeal to me. Whether you want to be in a rock band or not I still think you will find this clip funny - I did!

Processing a loss

My friend Janina died last week in her sleep. I found out via email at work. I had sent her email asking her for her new address because I wanted to send her our holiday card and I also wanted to find out when she was going to be in Boston around the holidays because we were supposed to get together. I sent the email off thinking nothing of it and I received an email back with the subject Tragic News. I didn't read it right away - I assumed the tragic news was that she wasn't able to make it to Boston for the holidays or that she was already so booked seeing people that maybe we wouldn't be able to see each other. However when I opened the email and I read it I was in a state of shock. It was from her husband Brad telling me that Janina had passed away in her sleep from unknown causes and that there would be a service this weekend. I was at work at the time so I really didn't want to have much of a reaction - I prefer to leave personal issues at home and not bring them into the office unless they are really affecting my worklife. I teared up after reading the email about 5 or so times - it took a little bit of time for it to settle in but at the same time it never really did and I am confused by this. I have been reviewing this in my mind for about a week and I can't find the reason why I am almost like an emotionally void person when it comes to sorrow and sadness right now. I have been like this since Murdoch was born. I chalked it up to being tired and so many other things going on but I would think that would have passed by now. My other thought was that since Janina moved to LA we definitely haven't talked as much and we barely see each other. So maybe it is that because I don't see her except maybe once a year this doesn't exactly affect my day-to-day life. I know that sounds horrible and I hate to even say it but right now I think I am still processing the fact that she has passed away because it doesn't seem like that could have actually happened. Janina is one of the happiest, generous, and outgoing people I know so of all people death just doesn't work with how I see and feel about her.

It does make you realize how short life can be. Janina was younger than me, only married two years, and had so much in front of her. Sometimes you get caught up in a day in day out rut and it is things like this that makes you remember and realize that you really need to get out there and stuff putting things off that you wanted to do because you may not be able to do them. Even if you can just do a few smalls things. I am going to try and do that in 2008.

Thank you for listening to this post. I am feeling a bit hallow around this whole subject and I just wanted to write a little bit down about it. And I think it has helped - I am finally able to get past my eyes just tearing up. Maybe this is why we have services and funerals - it makes the situation more real and it gives you a venue to express your feelings.

Here is a link to her obituary.