Toddling

Not sure if toddling is a word, but I think we can safely say it's exactly what Jackson's doing these days.  Over the last 3-4 days, he's gone from walking back and forth between Corey and I to toddling from room and down the hallway.  It all started on Thursday morning after I put his coat on him - I stood him in front of me so I could grab my purse and his bag before picking him back up, but when I looked up again, he'd walked about 10 feet to our front door (which was open) and had poked his head out, looking for Corey, who'd just taken something to the car.  Every day he gets stronger and more stable, and ever day he becomes a bit more brave, even allowing me to 'chase' him down the hall.  It's so stinkin' cute.

He can't quite stand and start walking without pulling himself up on something first, but he's finding ways to get himself up and about with no problem.  Good thing the baby gates came and Corey installed them a few days ago...

And even though the following video is unrelated to walking, I just had to post it.  Jackson's discovered that one of his shape sorter shapes makes a fun kazoo-like sound and he spent about a half hour with it in his mouth tonight, while opening and shutting (and opening and shutting, again and again) the door on daddy.  So funny.  Love this kid!

Sneak Peek

Things are coming along nicely with the house, mostly thanks to my handy hubby who has been working his cute bootie off all around the house, inside and out. 

Here's a sneak peek of a few of the things that are completed:

Corey picked out and put together the table for the nook.

New patio furniture that Corey put together, which we put to good use on Saturday afternoon, relaxing in the sun while J napped upstairs.  It was fabulous.

The new furniture we picked out for the family fits perfectly.

We are pretty much done unpacking, though we still have a few piles/boxes of items we're not sure what to do with yet, but I'm okay with that.  All that matters is that things are starting to feel more like home and I haven't had to stop and try to remember where I put an item every time I need something.

In other news, Roxy either caught some sort of bug or ate something in the backyard and has been having tummy issues, which result in accidents in the middle of the night as she frantically tries to run down the stairs to get outside.  This has resulted in two middle of the night carpet cleanings and a trip to the vet this evening.  The vet has her on a bland diet (i.e. white rice + low fat cottage cheese)for a few days, along with some meds, and we get to take in a stool sample tomorrow - lucky us.

On that note - I'm off to watch the rest of the Bachelorette after a long, crazy day.

Buried in Boxes

It's official - we have moved to Sammamish!  We got the keys to the house on Tuesday and spent a few days making trips on our own, before the movers (Can't Stop Moving - highly recommended!) came yesterday.  We got off to a bit of a rough start - the elevator we had a key for wasn't working, so we had to use the further one, and had to keep waiting our turn.  This didn't phase the movers and they had everything out in under two hours.  After making the trek to our new place, they unloaded everything in an hour, with the total time taking them four hours, which is exactly what they quoted.

Since then, Corey's been doing amazing work setting up, hanging, unpacking, putting together, collapsing boxes, etc.  He recently bought some new tools, given that we owned next to nothing after living in a condo for so long, and let's just say that they've been put to very good use - items completed include a mounted TV, patio table + 6 chairs, kitchen table, towel hooks, curtain rod, and the list goes on.

Roxy's been loving life running in and out, hanging out in the garage, flying up and down the stairs, and playing.  She's been more playful than ever and she's already successfully managed to knock the screen off the back door because she didn't see it when she went running towards the backyard this evening.  (Don't worry - we were able to get in back in working order).

Jackson seems to like his room, which we fully set-up before his first trip here, and the rest of the house, but I'm not sure if he really understands that we've moved.  His new room is much lighter than his old so he had a hard time falling asleep last night and woke up once in the middle of the night, but made up for it with a three hour nap today.  Corey rigged up a solution so hopefully he'll have a better night tonight.

Overall, we've made a huge dent in unpacking the mound of boxes in the garage, and were even able to park both cars in the garage tonight.  We still have a few more boxes to go through, but, we'll save that for tomorrow - we're both absolutely exhausted, sore and ready to catch up on some TV that we've missed out on the last few days.

More to come soon, but here are some pics in the meantime.

Row 1: Our life for an entire week leading up to the move.
Row 2: Our new closet, which is one of the first things we focused on, prior to Thursday's move; our moving supervisor.
Row 3: An empty condo!; dolly caravan
Row 4: Even though we have a TON of junk, we surprisingly only managed to fill about 1/2 of the moving van.
Row 5: Rather than exploring his first time in the house, Jackson headed straight to his toys; my boys at our first dinner in our house.  (If you look hard, you can see Roxy hanging out with us.)

Mother's Day 2012

We are so lucky.  We have three great moms and we got to celebrate with each of them this weekend.  We kicked the weekend off on Friday by celebrating with Joan and then spent lunch with my parents and grandma at Suncadia yesterday.

We wrapped up the sunny Seattle weekend today with a Corey, J and momma day here.  Even though we had lots of packing to fit in, Corey still found plenty of ways to celebrate Mother's Day, including my go-to drink and scone from Starbucks, a cute card and blog post, a froyo break this afternoon, and taking care of things around the house.

Being a mom is the best, most rewarding job I've ever had and while I have so much still to learn, I am so lucky to have so many wonderful role models in my life.  Thanks to all these moms - my mom, grandma and Joan - for being so wonderful, supportive and full of love.

Finally, we wish a Happy Mother's Day to all of the other fabulous momma and mommas-to-be in our lives!

Love, love, love being this cute kiddo's mom!

Life Lately

It's been busy around these parts lately between finalizing move details (we start moving on Tuesday!), finding a new day care for Jackson, planning and organizing his 1st birthday, co-hosting a baby shower for my dear friend Gina, packing, and being busy at work, but we've still been having lots of fun.

From top left: Helping Daddy set up the new vacuum; finally figuring out how to use a sippy cup after months of trying; tackling Daddy - a new favorite past time; eating peas and loving them (finally!); wishing Gramma Linda a happy birthday; a sneak peak at some of the furniture we purchased for our new family room; sleeping with both arms behind his head; a fun play date with Liam (my co-worker's son, who started at J's day care last week).

No Means No

Our little man learned a new trick at daycare this week -- shaking his head 'no' when he's done eating and we've tried to feed him another bite.  Or, his new fave - shaking his head when we're trying to get him to try something new, which is quite often.