fun with decorating

We are deep into decorating and I am up late going cross-eyed plowing through options for various rooms. Some will recall that I have long had a vision for Sawyer's room that involved lime green walls, wainscoating, white linens and black furniture. Well, we couldn't afford to do the wainscoating right now, so I'll have to live with the bottom half of the wall painted white. And lime green, it turns out, didn't match the trim on the Pottery Barn bedding I got, so I went with a cedar green instead. Here is a mockup of what Sawyer's colors will look like. Help me choose a border. I do have a turtle theme going by way of one framed poster and a night light, but I do like caterpillars and bugs too. Possibly my favorite is just the simple black border.

Traditional Xmas jig

I had to include these photos in the Christmas lineup. Ross -somehow- is still able to play the dulcimers that we built in grade school, which -somehow- still sound like musical instruments despite the fact that they are made of cardboard. They have adorned the walls of the Armstrong house for some 20 years and every Christmas, after a few bottles of wine have slid down the gullet, a few people can't resist hammering the old strings or, in my mom's case, dancing a jig.

Party with the buds

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is seeing my old friends from high school who return from the far reaches of the United States and its incorporated territories to visit family. For the last 15 years or so we have maintained our friendship, even when years go by without seeing each other. A core group of us were able to connect this Christmas along with our growing families. Its amazing to look at the pictures. In some ways they look just like the photos we took of each other 10 years ago. In other ways, I could never have imagined this.

Sawyer dresses for the occasion - Melanie provided the antlers

Charles (20 months) and Jack (25 months) duke it out over the fun ball machine. Bethany plays referee

Melanie tries to reign Jack back in.

Sean talks Puerto Rico surf.

Potato talks about his new restaurant.

Who Knew?

So Sawyer developed some gnarly goopy eyes Christmas night. The following morning he slept until well past 11 am - probably because he couldn't open his eyes - they were sealed shut. A warm wash cloth solved the problem, but only temporarily. Giant strings of goop hung from his poor eyelids and globbed in the corners of his eyes, crusting over if they weren't cleaned off immediately. A quick online search convinced me that he had conjunctivitous. We headed to the doctor this morning - turns out that goopy eyes are a sign of an ear infection. Who knew? He has a miidle ear infection in his left ear. We're looking at a 10-day course of antibiotics. Hopefully he won't get thrush!

Santa Came

Justin was so excited about Santa this year. He came racing upstairs and woke me up at 7 am to let me know that Rudolph drank some of the Coke (classic in a bottle with a straw) he had left. He got a pretty sweet loot, but the best gift was the Nano Ipod Santa gave him. He's spent the last few days building a 12,000 piece Star Wars Lego set and singing off key with his earphones plugged in.

Sawyer just wanted to eat everything Santa gave him.

Xmas Eve

The Annual Armstrong Christmas Eve Bash


Chef Scott and his Sous

Dad tackles the decorating

More of Dad's handywork

Jen, Reid and Sawyer the Elf

Brother Ross and Niki

Justin takes a bite out of the apple on steroids that Niki brought

The Cousins (four or five times removed)

Aunt Niki says: Who's the baby?

WSP: 5 months

Sawyer turned five months just before the holidays. He celebrated the event by learning to roll over from back to front, so now when we hit the beach he can suntan himself on both sides. He can also sit up all by himself now and its fun to time how long he lasts before he gets really excited about a toy, his feet or a friendly face and tumbles over. He's ticklish now, and he laughs out loud when I give him big sloppy zurburts on his belly. He loves books, although, like everything else, he just wants to eat them. He reaches for things, like the fluffy pink cell phone covers hanging on the rack in the convenience store (close call) or people (like me when he sees me across the room). The best part, is that he's started to give us kisses. Ok, its actually more like a sucker fish in an aquarium - he just opens his mouth wide and presses it against your cheek and just stays like that . . . oh the LOVE!

Golden Days

This is the heralded "Golden Age" of babydom, between four and seven months or so. Personalities develop, playing is fun, new skills are acquired everyday; however (for the most part), the tykes aren't yet into everything or taking off every time you turn your back.

Scott and I are having so much fun being parents, which surprises me for some reason. When, in my pre-Sawyer phase of life, I thought about parenting, I maybe thought responsibility, lifestyle change, money, but I never realized how much fun it would be. I love to lie down on the floor with Sawyer and fly him over my head, or gobble up his neck and tummy after I change his diaper and make him laugh hysterically. It's therapeutic - singing the itsy-bitsy spider seven times in a row or playing peekaboo with the diaper cloth even if I'm the only one who really understands the game at this point.

And I really had no concept of how much we would miss Sawyer even when we are away from him for a few hours. Scott is sad if he stops by the house for lunch and Sawyer is napping, and he can't wait to hold him when he gets home at night. When I pick him up from the sitters, I can't wait to get him home and spread out the big quilt on the floor and throw his toys all over it and watch him roll around, gumming-to-death anything that gets in his way.

I know parenting won't always be this easy or this enjoyable. I want to soak up all the "Golden Days" I can.

Scary Book Story

La, la-la, la-la. Playing with my toys is fun.


Oh, no! Help! Mommy! This book is attacking my face!

foot fetish

Sawyer is pretty single-minded about his feet these days, especially when his shoes and socks are off. When I change a diaper, his lower half is like a spring that flies back up towards his mounth every time I let go.

Sawyer turns five months in one week, but we just had our four-month appointment today. That's what happens when there is only one pediatrician in a 100-mile radius. Oddly, Sawyer seemed to remember the place. No sooner than I put him down on the table, he started crying. And it wasn't an I'm hungry or tired cry. I was an "I-know-what's-coming" sob. He had a look of fear in his eyes that just broke mommy's heart.

So, Sawyer is weighing in at 16.5 pounds these days and he is 26.5 inches long, which puts him in the 50th percentile for weight and the 80th for height . . . or something like that. Point being, he's tall and skinny like his dad (double chin notwithstanding).

On the solid food situation, I was kinda looking forward to the go-ahead to start some rice cereal, but instead Doc said I should wait another six weeks since Sawyer is growing well. She reasons that babies grow better on breast milk up to 9 months of age. I guess I can wait a little while longer, although I am excited to bring some diversity to the menu.

On the sleep situation, he's sleeping from 7 pm to 8 am, only waking up once to eat, which Doc said is normal at this point.

FInally, Doc said she is worried about his lazy left eye and suggested I get it checked out by a specialist because it could lead to blindness. She said he may need a patch, glasses or even surgery. Needless to say, this freaked me out. Both Scott and I had slightly lazy eyes in our youths that corrected themselves and Justin had a slightly lazy eye that required visual therapy to correct. So I really wasn't too worried about it until the Doc made a big deal out of it. Hopefully she is just being overly cautious.

Anyway that's all the news from Hull Creek. Gearing up for Christmas and still working on the house. Looks like we'll be getting the final coat of poly on the floors before coming up to DC for Xmas. Then we'll be back down for a week with Justin over the New Year packing and moving.

Sawyer at play

Serious about his business












Such a funny expression!













Yummy!

Welcome Lila

The Creighton-Colemans welcomed their newest addition Lila Felicity Coleman December 9. For those of you who were following Sarah's pregnancy plight (12 weeks of bedrest), I am happy to announce that her little girl weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and is totally healthy. Big brother Camden is very excited.

Silly Sawyer

Sawyer and his wacky antics

Beware of my annoying commentary

Invitation to Blog-Stalk my friends

For folks who like reading about other people's baby-rearing experiences, I have posted links to several of my friends' blogs on the left. Sarah Quainton, a friend from high school, writes about her 6-month-old Addie. Catherine Emery, a friend from this area who recently moved to L.A. writes about her 4-month-old Tayloe (only two days younger than Sawyer). I have just added a link to my friend Wendy Tovsky's site. She's starting to write about her 5-month-old twin boys. Wendy and I met on our respective honeymoons in Costa Rica. We've been on roughly the same life-schedule ever since. My friend Maria Taddonio from Boulder is expecting a girl in February and posting belly updates on her website Chillable.com. Girls seem to be the latest trend. Sarah Creighton (a friend from Leadville) is expecting a girl in a few weeks. Jen Randall (from high school) is also expecting a girl in February. Molly Knight Raskin (friend since montesorri school) is expecting a girl in April. Still waiting to hear what my pregnant friends Kate Oliver (April) and Melanie Catalfomo (June) are expecting. Hope we get to read blogs from all these ladies.

Random thoughts. . .

On NAPTIME:
Sometimes when Sawyer is in his crib crying because I am making him go down for a nap, I swear he makes this sound at the end of his wail that sounds just like he's saying "mama,mama..." Of course, I don't think he can even form the letter "m" yet, but to my ear it sounds like the final plea -
What other people hear:
AN-RA; AN-RA; AN-RA; AN-RA; NA-NA-NA
What I hear:
Mama, how can you leave me here by myself? I promise to smile and be cute if you just come in here for one second to make sure I'm okay. Mama! Please! Mamaaaaa.......
Of course, if I do give in and check on him, the whole routine just starts over again.

On UNSOLICITED ADVICE:
Recently strangers have taken to giving me random advice. Please note, the following comments are not taken out of context. There WAS NO CONTEXT. Strangers just walk up to me and blurt out their favorite bit of advice. I'm still working on a tactful response.
Yesterday in Target the advice came from a fellow shopper in the toy department: "Make sure your baby has a lot of tummy time," she said. "Babies are crawling and walking much later these days because they don't get enough tummy time." (No-Duh! Look lady, you're preaching to the choir.)
Today at lunch the advice came from a mother of four: "Breastfeed as long as you can - two or three years," she said. "Don't listen to what other people say about it." (I have a basic rule of thumb: If they are old enough to walk up and ask for it, they are simply too old - Unless, of course, we have been stranded in our car for a week on a snowy mountain pass.)

Nothing fake about that beard

From time to time haivng semi-celebrity status in this small town has its perks. Using her newspaper connections, my coworker Lisa managed to book the Real Santa for her daughter's sixth birthday party this weekend, despite his busy holiday schedule. And, thanks primarily to the proximity of my desk to Lisa's (plus the fact that I was sitting there when Mrs. Claus called to make the arrangements), Sawyer was invited to young Rachel's party. The hair, the beard and even the belly that shakes like a bowl fully of jelly are all real. (I think Santa gave up his pipe in the wake of the tabacco industry trials.) The Real Santa, we learned, drives a Chevy on non-holidays. Anyway, Sawyer had no idea what he wanted for Christmas, except for maybe his pacifier, which I pulled from his mouth seconds before snapping this shot.

tummy time

"Leather" Anniversary

Scott and I celebrated three blissful years as husband and wife tonight. Actually, our celebration went more like this. On Saturday morning, Scott walked in through the front door with a big smile. Happy anniversary! he said, and handed me my present (we always give the traditional anniversary gifts). He has never been good at secrets and has a hard enough time making it from the store to the house without telling me what he got, not to mention waiting a few days to give it to me. My gift to him showed up in the mail yesterday so I let him open it. So, today, we both left the house without remembering that it was our anniversary. We spoke on the phone several times and still forgot to wish each other a happy anniversary. On my way home from work at 9:30 p.m. I stopped at McD's. We shared a "fast" but romantic meal on the floor of our living room, where Scott now remains, passed out.
Our dinner converstaion went something like this:
Me: It's really hard to believe that we've only been married three years.
Scott: It feels like 20.
Me: I know (groan).
Scott: I hope it stays like that.
Me: What do you mean?
Scott: I don't want it to go by too fast.
Me: Awww......

The Barnhouse

My parents think we're crazy, but it sure makes a statement, huh? A tribute to all the farms around here. Inside pictures coming later this week when we finish the drywall. Still trying to be in by Christmas....

Thanksgiving Day

some more wedding pics

play date

Scott made my morning, and Sawyer's, by taking him out of the room when he woke up at 6:30 so that I could sleep in (until 8). I found these cute pics of Sawyer playing with daddy on my camera and I had to post them all.