Lots of Updates

So it's been over a month since I last posted something. I feel bad because I know I'll forget something major (or what I would say is major), and I wanted to write more often so that I could remember certain things Robert Alan did and know when he did them. Oh well. Here's what I want to cover: mine and RA's trip to A-town for Jamie's graduation, Mother's day, RA crawling, Memorial Day weekend, our house, and maybe some other stuff, but I think that'll be long enough for now.

So the 6th and 7th month of RA's life have come and gone. He's almost 7.5 months old now! I can't believe it. During his 6th month, he and I took our first road trip alone. Brittney actually rode to Abilene with us so that we could go to Jamie's college graduation. It was a horrible trip down there. He cried all but 30 minutes of it, and it's a 3 hour trip. It was awful. We enjoyed our stay, though, and I got to really let loose and enjoy myself. My parents hosted a party at their house the night Jamie graduated, and during one of the toasts I was having so much fun that I said, "Amen!" instead of Cheers! Oops. I felt very sacreligious (sp?). I asked for forgiveness, though, and moved on. :-)

The kid loves to eat paper. Don't ask me why.

Hanging out with Aunt B in the lobby. "Graduation is boring, Mom!"

He loved Aunt B's necklaces, so we put them on him so he could chew endlessly.

Such a cool little kid.

Conked out at the restaurant.

Jamie's graduation was the same weekend as Mother's Day, so it was nice to see my mom that day. We left early, though, so that we could get back to Waco and carry on with the plans we had already made for my first mother's day (you see, we didn't realize Jamie's graduation was Mother's Day weekend until a couple days before, so we had already made arrangements to have lunch with David's mom at her house, etc.). I was driving back to Waco by myself with Robert Alan and I was so nervous, but he was perfect! Where he had cried all but 30 minutes of the trip to Abilene, he only cried the last 30 minutes of the trip back to Waco. It was wonderful, and I thought that it was the perfect gift for Mother's day. He was so sweet and quiet the whole time. He'd doze off for a little while and then wake up and just quietly look around. Then he'd go back to sleep for a bit. It was wonderful.

I enjoyed my first Mother's Day. David got me a sweet card and RA did too. David also got us a travel DVD player and a stand to install in the car so that RA can watch DVD's when we're on road trips. I was so proud of him for doing this because I had mentioned to him how awful the drive to Abilene was with a screaming baby in the back and that I wanted to go buy a DVD player. He picked up on it and got it for me! So sweet. I also got to take a nap, which is a really good gift as well. All in all, it was a good day.


We've been having so much fun lately. It seems like when Robert Alan turned 6 months old, he became so happy. We had a week or so where he was mad all the time and he would do an awesome "mad face" where he squeezed his fist, frowned, pooched out his lips and snorted in and out through his nose. It was absolutely hillarious. I couldn't help but laugh each time he did it, so he did it a lot, even when he wasn't mad, just to make me laugh I think. I think he did that because he was frustrated with being unable to move and get where he wanted to go. Now, though, he has started army crawling, so he's able to get pretty much anywhere he wants, though he doesn't venture much further than his blanket. He's too lazy to get up on all fours, so he tries to pull himself with his arms. Since last night, he's been using his feet and legs a little more, though. I think he'll probably be crawling normally in the next couple weeks. We'll see.


He's also giving awesome kisses. We say, "Give me a kiss" and he opens his mouth as wide as possible and presses up against your mouth, cheek, arm, whatever he's closest to. It's a very wet, very slobbery kiss and I usually have to wipe my cheek off afterwards, but I love it! Sometimes, when he really wants to show me he loves me, he blows a sherbert on my cheek. I love it and can't get enough of it. What I don't love, though, is that he bites down, sometimes, and could, if he wanted to, take a piece out of my cheek, arm, or whatever it is he's "kissing." I might need to start calling him Mike Tyson. He really bites hard and he left a bruise on my cheek this weekend. Ouch! I can't get mad at him, though. He doesn't know any better and he's really just trying to show me he loves me.

Chillin' in the jumper outside. "What's up, Mom?!"

He also loves noses. He tries to grab everyone's nose all the time. It's hillarious. I am having so much fun with him, and I'm so glad we've been able to spend more time with each other lately. This past weekend, we went to Abilene. We were there from Thursday until Tuesday. It was a great getaway, though I wouldn't call it a vacation. David calls it a vacation, but he got to golf every day for 4 straight days and pretty much do as he pleased. I enjoyed being home and getting away from work, but I still had the same duties as I do every day. My mom did offer to keep RA quite a bit so that I could go watch the guys play golf and we had a babysitter a couple nights so that we could go out. It really was a good time had by all. Robert Alan and I enjoyed getting some sun on our skin. Brittney had recently told me she'd never seen me so white. Thanks, sis. :-) We swam every day we were there. He loves the water, and it would wear him out so he slept really well all weekend. I worried the whole time about him sunburning, though. I need to get over that. I'm sure I will after a couple more days at the pool. I just don't anything to happen to his baby-soft skin!


I can't think of anything else that happened in Abilene (besides the fact that we got him an awesome horse-print baby-sized recliner, picture to come), so I'll move on. In the last month, we also decided we would sell our house. It was a hard decision for us because we worked so hard on this house. When we bought it a little over a year ago, we completely gutted it and re-did everything. The only thing we left was the kitchen and laundry room tile. Everything else came out and we turned it into an awesome house. I love it and don't want to leave it. However, we sold it over the weekend! I think it was on the market for a couple weeks, and the first couple that looked at it bought it. It's very bittersweet. I'm excited about the next phase in our lives, but I'm also sad to leave something that I like so much. I've never been attached to a house before like I am to this one. I know that I'll like another house more than this one, but I guess it's harder for me because it won't be the next house that I like more than this one. We've decided to make a little bit of a weird decision (some would say a very weird decision) and rent a smaller house from David's parents while we work really hard to save money to either buy or build our dream house. The house we'll be renting is a lot smaller than the one we currently live in and it won't have nearly as nice finishes and ours does either. It'll be hard for us to refrain from putting money into it, but I think that's what will help us save faster---not spending money on renovations and trying to get out of the house and into a better house quickly. I'm also very excited about the neighborhood we'll be living in. While it's not as nice as the one we are in now, it's one of those neighborhoods where people know each other and talk to their neighbors. Of course, we'll know our next door neighbors because they are David's parents, but I'm excited about getting to know the others. The ones on the other side of Melanie and Larry's house are really nice and their daughter, Myla, is 3 days younger than RA, so he'll have an automatic playmate that I'm excited about. I'll also enjoy not having to drive across town 2-4 times a day to drop him off and pick him up from Melanie's. She'll just be a couple steps away now! Next time I forget my cell phone, I won't have to drive 15 minutes back to go get it. (Quick sidenote: I forget things all the time, but the latest and best is me forgetting food at the drive-thru. Yes, it really happened. I gave the girl my money, she gave me my change, and I drove away without the food. I got a couple blocks away and realized I didn't have any food, so I had to turn around and go back through the drive-thru. I said, "Umm, I just came through the drive-thru and I forgot my food." She said, "We wondered where you went. Pull on through." Good grief.) So, we sold the house this weekend and the closing date is in 17 days! I can't believe it! I never thought we would close so quickly. It'll be a quick turnaround, but we're going to have the movers pack and move us. I've never done that before, so we'll see how that goes. It can't be bad, I mean, packing really stinks, so if someone else will do it for me, why not, right?


So what else has been going on you ask? Well, I was in the hospital the week before last week with kidney stones. What?! Seriously. I went to happy hour with some friends, and towards the end, my back and stomach started really hurting. I thought maybe it was just really bad cramps and I wasn't used to it, but it was horrible pain. I drove back home trying to have a conversation with a friend from Houston, and when I arrive at the house, I had to get off the phone with her because I was hurting so bad. I ended up going to the hospital. They diagnosed me with food poisoning (from sushi, most likely) AND a huge kidney stone. I had to go the next day to the hospital for surgery to have it removed since it was 8mm and you can only pass one smaller than 6mm. Nice. So they did the surgery, put a stint in, gave me some meds, and sent me home packing. The meds were nice, but I always hate taking those things for fear I'll like it too much, so I only took two and then dealt with it. By the way, if anyone has ever had a kidney stone, you know how painful it is, but I'll just say that it's worse than the worst contraction I had with Robert Alan, and I'm not too far removed from that experience to have forgotten what that felt like. It really is worse than labor. It sucks. And the stint is almost as bad. It's not painful but is extremely uncomfortable and makes you feel like you have to go to the bathroom all the time. I was so happy to have it taken out last week. That sucked too, and the pain afterwards was really bad (bad enough for me to think I had another stone and to take a pain pill), but now I'm back to normal and feeling good. In fact, I'm feeling like I'm ready to start doing P90X and paying attention to what I eat more closely. I want to get into really good shape and I do NOT want to have another stone ever again. Whatever it takes to make that happen, I'll do.


So, that's the last several weeks in a nutshell ("Oh look! I'm in a nutshell!") Sorry. I couldn't resist. RA's crawling and kissing, I had a brief stay in the hospital, and we're packing and moving. Life's crazy and I'm lovin' it! Talk to you later!