6 months!

Victor was 6 months old yesterday! It's so cliche but so true, they do grow up so fast! He's such a tall, gangly baby now. I really want to get him weighed and measured again, but he's not one of those super fat babies (except for his adorable little squishy fat cheeks!). Long arms, long legs, long body. When I went through the 9 month sizes I almost had to discard some of them because they were clearly meant for fatter, shorter babies (he just wore them early and had room around the tummy). I notice it most when I am feeding him, though--when he was born, he was the perfect size to hold in one arm. His head would rest in the crook of my elbow, and his little buns fit perfectly into my hand. Now I can barely reach his butt with my fingers extended! I wouldn't go back though. He's so much more fun now that you can play with him and make him smile and laugh. I love it when he flaps his arms and legs when he gets excited (which is why we already have the perfect Halloween costume for him, and I intend to take a video and turn it into a youtube sensation ;) ). I would, however, like to go back to the days of him sleeping through the night!! He hasn't slept through the night since before we got to Ohio, and never once in our new apartment!! It's getting old pretty darn quick. Blame it on his cold, blame it on his teething, blame it on his mommy and daddy staying late at grammy's house to watch True Blood, but it's not fun. He's still cute though. His hair is coming in more and looks a lot darker on top (though he still has a little bald patch in the back where he rubs his head). His eyes haven't changed for a while; they're still brown in the center and dark blue on the outside. He's turned into a tummy sleeper. Unless he's waaay out of it, the first thing he does when he lies down is roll onto his side or his tummy. Sometimes I'll roll him onto his tummy when I put him in his crib just to help him decide to go to sleep (and lately even that hasn't been working too well--naptimes are a battle again). He's started fighting when we put him in his carseat. He'll arch his back and slide down and cry; then once he's in he's fine, silly baby. I think we need to get in there and adjust the straps to the higher holes but we've just been too busy, and it's such a hassle to change that out. Hopefully now that Damian will be starting work we'll get back to a regular schedule where we have regular naptimes and bedtimes. I was thinking of trying to teach him sign language, too, since boys are supposed to get verbal later in life (though something tells me Victor won't have too much trouble). The only problem with that plan is that Damian and I would have to learn sign language too! ;) Flash cards, anyone? So many changes! It was fun going through the store again and being able to get all the 6 month toys now for him to play with! Yay! Lucky little baby :) So much fun stuff coming up!!

Relocation, relocation, relocation

We made it! We are now Ohioans. A long trip, but it will be worth it. The moving people came on Friday, August 20 at 7:30 a.m. We originally intended to stay one last night in the apartment and leave on Saturday, but after they left at noon, we just wanted to get the heck out of town. Victor and I managed one last little trip to the ocean in the morning, we had a last lunch in downtown Carlsbad on the way out, and after loading my car up on to the trailer we managed to get out of town by 4--just in time for rush hour! So we only made it as far as Victorville (hee) that first night. It was worth it, though, our nice apartment was too empty and depressing. So we got a good head start on our trip. We bypassed Las Vegas on Saturday and stayed in Cedar City, Utah the next night--I was sooo glad to get out of the desert and the 110 degree weather! Utah was actually a lot cooler, greener, and prettier than I was expecting, so yay (though after the nasty desert pretty much anything would have been). Still, we didn't stray off the beaten path. Sunday night we made it to Grand Junction, Colorado, just across the border from Utah. Colorado is sooo pretty!! Such a gorgeous drive on Monday, all the way to Denver--except for the part where it rained going down the mountain with the trailer fishtailing and the baby crying--because of course Victor surprised us with his first little tooth on Monday morning! We didn't even know he was teething until I felt it in his mouth! It was probably a good thing we were driving so much--he was kind of forced to sleep through most of it. He did have a pretty bad night Sunday night (waking up crying a lot) so at least we figured out why eventually.

Tuesday was an adventuresome day. My mom arrived bright and early at the Denver airport. (Why Denver? There's a direct flight from Akron-Canton Airport on a great airline (Frontier).) Victor was liking his car seat less and less, so it was a good time for me and him to abandon ship and fly to Ohio. Thank goodness it was a direct flight--he cut off my circulation sleeping for the first hour, and then wouldn't stop moving and wiggling for the next two, and of course I was seated next to the disapproving middle-aged man instead of a cooing grandma. At least I had an aisle seat. We survived, though, and Victor ended up with another tooth by Tuesday night! My mom and Damian continued the long boring drive through hundreds of miles of corn. They were able to keep going longer in a day than Victor was, and made it to Akron by Thursday for dinner!

Good timing on their part, because the movers were ready for us bright and early on Friday morning once again! So by Friday the 27th, we had our cars, our stuff, our apartment, and our family back together once again.

At this point we're about as moved in as we're going to get. We have a month-to-month lease in hopes of acquiring a house before too long. That means we still have a bunch of boxes we haven't opened sitting in our new living room. The good news is that we've already found a house we like! Now if only we were making money, maybe we could put an offer in on it... ;)

Damian starts his new job on Tuesday the 7th. In the meantime, we've been enjoying the hospitality of my parents and sister. Unfortunately, we all came down with colds soon after Damian arrived. Victor has been a trooper through it, even staying cheerful and determined to play as hard as usual despite the stuffy nose. I'm finally feeling better, but he still gets congested sometimes, so I'm hoping he just has some lingering symptoms rather than Damian's full blown ragweed allergies.

Victor is supposed to get his 6 month shots next week (6 months on Sunday, can you believe it???) but we're still trying to get some interim health insurance coverage before we go. We have until the end of the month to get them, so hopefully we should be set before then. Damian's full blown health insurance doesn't start until November, of course. I still need to find a pediatrician first!

Well now that we have our internet hooked up I'll hopefully be able to post more often. Should be lots of exciting news coming soon!