An Interview

Okay, so I guess I could have given you a little more information regarding our move to England.  Sorry, I tend to skip over details when I get excited. To help explain things, I figured I'd get my crazy on and "interview" myself using questions I've been asked during the last couple days...

Kendall:   Okay, settle down, I know you're excited, but I have some questions for ya.
Kendall:  Okay, shoot.

Kendall: Are you out of your mind?

Kendall: I think so, but I'm too busy getting ready to be sure.  I'll get back to you.

Kendall: Why are you moving to England?
Kendall: Great question!  Well, we've been wanting to move somewhere over seas for a while and thought   England would be a really good place to start (we already speak the language, sort of...).  We're going to use England as kind of a home base and hope to visit much of Europe on the weekends and holidays.

Kendall: Didn't you tell your wonderful Sister-In-Law, Michelle, just a couple weeks ago that you had decided not to move to England, did you lie to her?
Kendall: Of course not!  At the time we had ruled out moving to England due to cost of living.  We're really wanting to pay off debt right now.

Kendall:  Then what changed, you honest person, you?
Kendall: Well, we found a website for people who need others to house sit for them.  We applied and were accepted to house sit over there.  That means we get to live in England rent free, which makes it cheaper, obviously.

Kendall:  Where in England are you house sitting?
Kendall: It's a teeinstee (aka tinier than tiny) little ex-mining village in northern England called Ludworth.  It's near Durham and Newcastle.

Kendall:  That should be exciting, can you speak with a British accent?
Kendall: No, I will stick out like a sore thumb.

Kendall: Did you spell "British" correctly on your first try?
Kendall: I plead the 5th...

Kendall:  Will you blog about all the funny ways you embarrass yourself over there your adventures?
Kendall: Of course, I can't wait!

So there you have it, folks, straight from the horse's mouth.  Who ever thought that phrase was a good idea? I made some progress today, so that's exciting.  If you have any other questions, just let me know! (And don't worry, talking to myself will hopefully be a one time occurrence here.)

Any places that we should for sure go and see?  We don't want to miss anything cool!


Kendall

On the move...

So, I have some big news....

We're MOVING to ENGLAND!!!

for 6 months.

Wow, how crazy is that?

Craaa-zy.

You wanna know something crazier?

We're moving in 2 weeks.

(yes, you read that right, yikes!)

I'm super excited, scared, excited, scared, excited.

In that order.

So, needless to say we're getting our little tushies in gear and trying to get things done like maniacs.  

Poor little buddy is super sick right now and was up most of the night, so it's making it a little harder to get stuff done.

 Here's the poor little guy with a fever.  

I put a cold wash cloth on his head because I'm a hip-happenin' mom like that.

We took him to the doctor since he's sick.  He weighs 24lbs, so he's kind of plateaued finally.  We asked what percentile he's at.  The doctor laughed and said the chart maxed out at 18lbs.  Oh, nevermind. We also told the doctor how much he's eating and (after picking his jaw off the ground) we found out he's getting about twice as much liquid as he's supposed too.  Oops.  So, needless to say we have some exciting news.

He's reached a couple new landmarks this month: 

1) sitting up all on his own!

He loves sitting up by himself and playing with his roller coaster bead toy.  He's so intent...

AND...

2)Eating rice cereal!

(Let me tell you, this boy can eat. The very first time I gave it to him he ate almost the whole thing, he just kept opening his mouth for more and more.  What a champ!)

He's getting to be so big and doing so many big boy things.  Sigh, I guess they can't stay young forever!

(This is actually from over a month ago, but I just thought he looked so big in this little sweater vest. :)

Well, I suppose I should get packing, ahhhh!

Kendall

Free 8x10 collage

Hey there!

Just a quick post:

Did you know you could get a free 8x10 collage from Walgreen's today?  It's part of their 7 days of deals.

I just ordered mine online, I'm pretty excited about it.  Just make sure to pick it up in the store so you don't have to pay shipping!

Hope your week is going well!

Kendall

Quiet

So, I did it.  I didn't think I would, but I did.

 "What did you do?"  

Wow, thanks for asking. 

 I put the little bean down for a nap.  Awake.  Yup, I always thought I'd be too much of a softy, but nope.

"What made you do it, you rock you?" 

I'd been feeling that Judah was waking up too early from his naps.  He kept waking up a little cranky, like he was still tired.  Yesterday he woke up from a nap and I held him for a bit to try to finish something before I fed him.  He passed back out for another hour.  That means by going and grabbing him right away I almost deprived him of an hour of sleep he really needed.

I decided to re-read the book, Baby Wise, to see if I could figure out what to do. It said that sometimes babies will wake up during a lighter sleeping cycle, but should be able to fall back asleep on their own to finish their nap.  Earlier I tested this theory.  It totally worked.  He woke up in the middle of a nap, but then fell back asleep in just a few minutes.  Phew.  

So, for this nap, I thought I would see if he could fall asleep on his on, so that he knows how to. 

He hollered for exactly 10 minutes, then...

Quiet. 

Wow, go little buddy!  I'm hoping this will help him get his full naps in during the day.  Not only does he desperately need his sleep, I desperately need the time to get things done.  Win, Win!

Any seasoned or unseasoned moms have more tips for scheduling?  I think this one might be a life-saver!

Kendall

Wow, was that February that just zoomed past? I think so. I feels like just yesterday that I was writing the post about my jitter bug turning 3 months, but that was 3 weeks ago.  That means I'm going to have to write a 4 month post coming soon.  Time is seriously flying.  What do I say to that?  Slow down Bessie!  I want to get in a few more cuddles before my little peanut turns 18.

Anyway, I'm really excited about getting to be a stay at home mom.  It's been going really well.  There was a couple days a week ago that I was drop dead exhausted a little burnt out, but God had an amazing friend there to encourage me.

Here are a couple of tips I've learned:
1. Do a load of laundry every day.  It's amazing how quickly that can pile up when you have a baby around.
2. Put your chores on rotation.  I do one chore a day in addition to basic maintenance.  So I dust Mondays, Wipe stuff down Tuesdays, Vacuum Wednesdays, so on and so forth... (I've always wanted to say that.)
3. Pick up as you go.
4. Whistle while you work.

Okay, that last one is optional, but it really does help to have a good attitude and enjoy your work.  Plus, my little dwarf cracks up when I whistle. :)

I've also realized that I'm not as organized as I thought I was.  Yes, we don't have a lot of stuff and we frequently purge what we do have, but some how that little bit of stuff seems to explode quite easily.  So, I'm trying to figure out how to organize my life/home.  Any tips?

And the obligatory baby update:
Weight: He's kind of leveling off at 23 pounds, whew.
Size: He's officially in 12 month clothing.
Sleep: He usually does from about 10:30 or 11:00 to about 6:00. We don't complain. :)
Sitting: He can sit up on his own, but is a little wobbly.
Standing: He can stand when propped on our ottoman.  He's thinks he's pretty tough stuff.
Rolling:  Not really, but he does this great beached whale impersonation. :)
Social: He's really starting to smile a ton, it's so sweet.
Talking: He's pretty verbal.  He'll "sing" himself to sleep, it's hilarious.  He loves trying to talk to us.  He's tried to say "hi" a couple of times and has a few sounds down.  As far as consonants go, he's up to: "Guh", "Buh", "Huh", "Wuh", and just today I heard "Duh."  Those tricky consonants are hard but it seems like he learns a new one at every turn.
Other randoms: He's started sucking on his bottom lip when he's hungry, it's pretty cute.

Annnnd, it's almost impossible to take a still shot of this kid unless he's sleeping. :)
I'll have to post more pictures next time I have a ton on my phone, but that's plugged in next to a sleeping baby.  And only things with the word "fire" in them are worthy of waking up a sleeping baby.

Until next time!

Kendall

3 months!!!

I can NOT believe my little buddy is 3 months as of yesterday.  It seems like it took forever for him to turn 2 months, and then it seems  like it was just yesterday that he turned 2 months.  Crazy!  He's growing like a weed. We love him so much! Look how little he used to be! Awww!

Now he's so big! We weighed him, guess how much this child weighs!  Okay, unless you are Joshua's brother, Paul, who guessed it perfectly (crazy cat), you won't get it!  Ready?  Brace yourself...

20 pounds!!!!
(Correction as dictated by my editor/husband so that you can FULLY grasp the amazing-ness of Paul's guess: it was 19.6 to be exact. I rounded, but that was over a week ago, so it's kosher)
(are you happy Mr. Blog Nazi love of my life? :) a girl can't get away with anything these days...)

Oh My-lanta, that's big!  We grow them big here folks... :)  

 Grabbing those toys, "I just want to have a little nibble..." 

 Pure joy!

 Mommy's new reading buddy! :)

Judah,

You are such a sweet boy.  You live up to your name so well, it means praise.  I know you will use the patience and joy that I see in you to praise the Lord.  We are so blessed to have you, you are such an easy going baby.  My heart just melts when I know you are super hungry and should be grumpy, but you're just playing away with that silly zipper on your car seat.  I love that you have a stubborn side to you too.  You know you will literally holler (not cry) until you get mommy or daddy's attention, it's totally adorable.  You are so strong, always trying to stand and push yourself up.  I can't believe how much you learn and how fast you're growing.  I'm SO thankful that you aren't growing too fast and that your favorite thing is to cuddle with your mama.  God knows mommy really well in giving her a cuddly baby, I LOVE to cuddle with you.  I love your eyes, your nose, your bull dog cheeks.  I know I'm biased, but you are such a beautiful baby.  We praise God for you everyday.  You are such a gift and we are delighted to be used by God to see you grow into the boy he has called you be.

Love,

Mommy

Ice Skating and One Hand

We went ice skating on a pond near our house yesterday.  It was SO much fun. 

It was Judah's first time, but he skated like a champ.  (Or slept like a champ...)

I survived. Thank you Lord!

The Von Skate family.

Hopefully Judah gets his daddy's mad skating skills and not his mama's wobbly skating skills. 

And now a picture book on life as the one-handed mom:

 This sweet little boy is going through a phase.  It's the if you don't hold me, I'll do this phase:

Which means it is the "his mama doesn't get much done unless he does this" phase:

 So aforementioned mama comes up with creative ways so he can eat:

 So there you go, we are learning all sorts of ways to do things one handed in this family... 

But he's also in the "I'm the cutest kid in the world" phase, so it's all worth it: 

:)  The end.

I think he is at the time where he really wants to grab his toys and eat them, but he's not quite there yet to do it all the time so he gets frustrated.  Poor guy.  I keep trying to put him in his seat to play with toys and do tummy time, it just doesn't last terribly long without him getting upset.  Oh well. He's totally happy to be held and talk with us, so we're just enjoying that. :)  

The end. (again) :)

Kendall