Our first night away from the babe - and boy was it wonderful

1) Mama likes massages, hot tubs, cheese plates, and wine flights. duh.

2) Mama loves nights away - but can't stay away in the morning - we were home by 9:30 :)

3) Turner couldn't have cared less that we were gone. He had a fantastic time.

After my massage, my massuse told me that "every body tells a story and you are gonig to be a great mom - even though your parents weren't". I wonder if she could feel the knots in my back from lifting the 20 lb boy and the stretch marks all over my tummy and boobs. Plus, what a risky thing to say to someone about their parents.

Won't be paying full price for Costanoa, but for a groupon price it rocked.

where is the extra camera battery?

I finally have a moment to upload pictures but the camera battery is dead and the replacement is with the charger. Probably somewhere deep in a box that will never see the light of day.

8 months old

This is as close as the boy will get to a babybook (seriously - how do people keep up with those?).

At eight months you have SIX teeth. At seven months you had ZERO. Over the last two weeks you've gotten all your teeth (four on top and two on bottom) and no one has gotten much sleep because you've been so restless. You had a few bad days at daycare, but otherwise, you've been okay.

You're DONE crawling. You think its too slow and you want to walk. You're standing up without holding onto anything and yesterday you took one step (though it was an accident). I predict by 10 months you'll be walking and I'm scared :)

We decided to stop using the crib since it was impossible to get you to stay asleep, and we're finally getting some evenings back now that you are on a futon on the floor and we don't have to move you to the crib after you fall asleep. We're baby-proofed the room so even if you get up there's nothing that can hurt you (and vice versa), but really, when you wake up, you just sit up and cry which makes me so sad.



You've become so "enthusiastic" with your love for other babies that you've actually become a danger - kissing them with your teeth, pulling up on their little bodies, and hitting them with your wildly waving hands. I hate that I have to keep pulling you off, but your daddy's "sneak attack" game only encourages the wrestling :)

Hiding the TV in our expedit

In our old house, we had an office/guest room/TV room/den. The TV lived in a beautiful armoire in there and we had a TV free living room. I hate the idea that the TV would be the focal point in our house.

Problem is, we went from a three bedroom to a two bedroom, so the TV is in the living room.

We also lost a lot of built in bookshelves, so ikea expedit came to the rescue.

Problem is - little 8 month old hands LOVE the flashing lights on the wireless router and can't wait to sink his newly popped out teeth into electrical wires.



Mama had to think and think fast.

In our old house we had this piece of fabric framed above our bed that we liked (bought for $10 off craigslist), but I was ready to move on in our new house. It would become our "cover."

Nothing gets done around here unless its naptime and naptime means NO noise (how a musician got a noise sensitive kid, I'll never know). So sewing our project was out.

I sent papa off to the store for two tension rods...and i got cutting.



I cut the fabric in half and started "hemming" using "stitch witchery" an iron on hem thingamajigger.



(and I actually followed the directions! shocker!).

So, I hemmed the sides and created one loop (essentially hemming the top but leaving space so a rod could go through it). Hung it and measured to make sure it would fit correctly, then made the second loop. All without touching the sewing machine. I was expecting to have to sew it up after making sure it worked, but so far a week later and it holds up well.



I re-inserted the rods, stuck them up and VOILA! Magically perfect! (well, we might do some upgrades at some point - but for now the boy and the tv are safe).