Snow Day

Oh, how I love me some snow days.  Especially since when Jake has a snow day...  well I guess I automatically do, too!  No waiting for anyone to "make the call," I just get to be home with my two favorites!  

The past two days have involved sledding, walking to Starbucks, (sorry LSC, you are too far away!) eating Jake's famous Almond Pancakes, playing games with the siblings, looking out the window at the beautiful scenery and being thankful for all that I have. 

I know that it wrecks havoc on the school schedule but BOY is it nice to have a time-out from life and see the world all covered in white!  

About to sled down the hill with daddy!

Our snow man

We thought we'd see if Hunter figured out how to make a snow angel, but then we realized that he can't really move his arms! 

On the way to Starbucks

Trompin' through the forest with Drew & Rachel

Hunter's loving his prunes and yogurt!  mmmmm..

Eating snow!

9.5 Months

So its just as I thought it would be.  The first 6 months were pretty long (in both wonderful and challenging ways) but I predicted that the next oh, 18+ years of our lives would fly by, and yep, so far I was right!  

Here's the latest on our little man.

GROWING! 

At his 9 month checkup he was 17 pounds 1 ounce and was 27 inches in length (10th percentile).  

YUMMMM . . .  

He eats 3 solid food meals a day (just moved to 3 at his 9 month bday), and we're expanding his palate every day!  (well every 3 days)  He is a STUD at feeding himself, but we're still working on his picky-ness of textures.  He doesn't really like putting anything that's "mushy" into his mouth, but he's more than happy to eat it if we put it there!  He's still breastfeeding 4-6x a day, and hopefully this will continue through his first birthday where I'll then evaluate how things are going.

RUNNING YET?  

Nope.  But, just in the last week he has made dramatic improvements in his mobility.  He now can:  crawl backwards, crawl in circles, and ROLL anywhere he wants to go.  He still can't quite figure out the forward crawling motion, but I think its much more humorous and fun to watch him be creative in how he gets from point A to point B.  And boy, does he LOVE to walk!  If you hold both your pointer fingers out at him he'll get this goofy grin on, grab your fingers, and pick up his legs to walk, even if you're not moving yet!  But once you move, he's right there with you, with some amazing walking skills, and zero balance.  Its kind of the cutest thing ever.  Especially because he giggles and/or smiles the entire way.  We've also found out that he's a soccer star!  He knows what "kick" means and has some mad skills with the balloon soccer games that happen on occasion in the living and dining rooms.  Hey I could handle soccer mom status!

PRETTY MUCH A GENIUS  

Hunter can wave Bye-Bye, give a "High 5", make the sign for "more" and he is starting to know what the word "no" means.  He knows what "up" means and KNOWS when he wakes up from his naps that he wants mama and will let everyone know.  He's an expert at playing the piano,  loves reading books with me (or eating them), and he's been assisting Jake as he plays Words With Friends on his new phone.  He also loves texting on my phone and pressing "end" when I'm talking to a friend.  He is starting to talk so much more, but unfortunately he's speaking a different language than both Jake and I (he's so smart!) so its difficult to figure out what he's saying. 

ZZZZZ.......

So, Hunter's daily schedule has been so much more predictable!  He does not consistently take long naps, but compared to months ago, he does great!  He usually takes about 3 naps a day, and he goes to bed at 7:00ish every night.  He wakes up anywhere from 6:30 to 7:45 every morning.  So, I don't have much to complain about!

But, I guess I still will.  :)  Once he goes to bed at 7:00, he will wake up at least 3 times to eat every night!  Not a big deal, but for some reason it has reeeeally been making me tired lately, and its time to make another sleep transition.  As of two nights ago, I'm trying a new night schedule,... no details yet, but I will let you know how it goes!

CHOMP CHOMP

He has 4 teeth!  The normal bottom middle cute teeth, and then the atypical monstrous Incisors on the top!  He's our little vampire . . . but at least he's a cute one!

LOVELY LOCKS
Yep, he's definitely getting more hair!  We still have yet to tell if its going to transition towards brown, stay a dark blonde, or turn red?  He could go either way!  And, if he gets sweaty, the curls start to come out, so who knows what's going to happen!  Either way, we're just happy he has hair to talk about!

ALL SMILES
Okay well no one can smile ALL the time . . . but Hunter gets pretty close!!  He's not a super fan of diaper changes, but lets be honest, wouldn't you feel the same?  He's getting better about letting us change his clothes, but some days are more of a struggle in this department.  But I will say, with all thankfulness, that Hunter is just truly a JOY and he brightens our life every day.  He's such a happy baby, and although it may be just a stage, we'll embrace it as much as we can for the moment!!

Hunter, words cannot express how much we love you.  You amaze us every day!

                                     

Christmas #2: Bellingham Fam

I don't know how they did it, but my parents managed to make their way up to Bellingham to celebrate on Christmas Eve morning all together, before making the trek to Federal Way to finish out the day with my extended Haugland family.  Although it was a little crazy, it was so worth it!  What a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve morning . . . Eating AMAZING cinnamon rolls and sausage casserole, and opening gifts with my awesome quirky family.  Love it.

Here's our morning in pictures:

Our best gift ever, really

Uncle Eric's addition to Hunter's toy collection!

Ugh. . . this was the beginning of my Caspar Babypants obsession!  (and, my inability to sleep at night due to these silly songs replaying in my head over and over . . . )

Eric was all about the Christmas Spirit.  Especially at 8:00am 

Yumm . . . Christmas Breakfast!

Cute deer outfit from Mimi and Grandpa!

Melissa had so many creative ways of giving presents!  Mom and dad had to decode this message to get their present!  Good thing they are pretty sharp.

My dad and his Toys...  You thought this might be Hunter's?  No way!

I like these additions to our family quite a bit!

Christmas #1: Leavenworth

We spent a marvelous 5 nights and 6 days with Jake's family in Leavenworth this year.  Although there was less snow than anticipated, the entire week was beautiful blue skies, and crisp Winter air.  If it would have snowed one day it would have been perfect, but really it was fantastic weather for our trip.  

There are 11 of us all together so we're quite the crew, but Jake's parents rented a house for us all which gave us the perfect place to play Bananagrams, eat Amazing meals, play the Wii, play pool, relax in the hot tub, and enjoy the town of Leavenworth.  Enjoy the week of pics!

Hanging out in town waiting for the big LIGHTING CEREMONY!  

After enjoying our Brat at Munchen Haus.  Our Leavenworth tradition!

Cory and 3 of her sweet kiddos 

The town is Lit!  Its really Christmas!

All dressed up and ready to sled!

                                      

Opening presents by the tree

This looks a little misleading . . . Cute, but we never took Hunter on a chairlift.  Someday, though!

He loves the snow!

Everyone's lined up to watch Uncle Jake snowboard and Brandon sled down the biiiig hill.

Enjoying the Hot Tub

Definitely not his first taste of Whip Cream.  Can you guess whose arms he is in?

At the 59'er Diner.  Best milkshakes and service ever!

Hunter was spreading Christmas cheer everywhere he went!

Uncle Jake and his nieces and nephews

Yikes, Hunter!  Can't quite tell how he's feeling here...

All of the kids opening the Advent Calendar with GG

Face-Off

Alright, who wins?


Jake worked for weeks to get the "creepy mustache man" look, and Hunter had to try very hard to eat "just so" so he could create the "cute bearded baby" look.  (I promise, I had nothing to do with the artistic design of his facial hair!)

I guess I'm biased toward both of them so I'll just repeat a comment one of Jake's students said to Jake that day.  "I feel like your mustache is talking to me".  And really, if the mustache is taking on characteristics of its own besides being just creepy, it must go.  And, it did.  Because we all know we can't trust a man with just a mustache.

But a baby with a beard?  Now thats more like it!

Jingle All the Way

Although we ran out of time to actually put the jingles on our toes, we still joined the festive and purposeful Jingle Bell Run this past weekend!  This was the first run that Hunter has ever been a part of, and I would say he's a natural.  I think he even tried to make himself more aerodynamic so Jake would have an easier time dodging the 3,100 people around us.  

The run is really to raise $$ for arthritis research, ( which I think they made a lot of money, yay! )  but I had a few other things going on in my head as we ran.  This was a big "Look-Back" moment for me as we braved the cold temperatures and many other strollers in the pathways.  Jake's family always talks about look-back moments, and I've not joined in much on that conversation, but I couldn't avoid thinking about this one the whole time!

This actually wasn't Hunter's first time doing this run, in fact, he ran the whole thing last year!  However, he was in my tummy and we didn't know what we were going to be in for, 4 months from that date.  Well I knew we were going to HAVE a baby. . . . but I didn't know it would be our sweet Hunter.  I didn't know if we would ever be able to leave the house after he was born, or if we would still have friends once our little guy joined the world ( we were basically the first of our small group to venture into parenthood ) or if it would be so much work that we were just exhausted ALL the time and fun things just wouldn't happen because that would put us over the edge.  I didn't know that I would love this little sweet, happy, social boy more than I could have ever imagined, and that he would 'just fit' with Jake and I so well.  I knew none of this as I ran last year, but was hopeful and living in faith that God would be with us throughout the process, whatever it involved.  And He totally has.  God is faithful!  Our journey of parenthood thus far has not been too difficult, but it has come with many small challenges, just because we have so much to learn!  

Something about doing the Jingle Bell Run exactly one year later just stopped me in my tracks on Saturday morning, and made me get just a little bit reminiscent/nostalgic.  Last year, I knew that I loved Jake and I loved our relationship.  This year I love Jake in a whole new way;  as a father to our son, and as a partner in the parenting biz.  Last year I knew I loved the child I was carrying, but oh my do I love my little Hunter now!  Last year I was fancy-free and could make decisions that only affected Jake and I.   This year, my schedule looks a little different, and every decision we make will affect Hunter as well!  . . . a little overwhelming if I think about it too much!  

I know there are many "look-back" moments to come, and most will be even more poignant than this one, but I am trying to relish my time as a mommy with just one young child - a time I will never get back!  

And here we are, ready to run!

And . . . We still have friends that will hang out with us.  Phew!  Here are our running buddies for the morning.  A fun crew!

And, this picture is here to show you why we probably won't get Santa pictures done this year . . . 

But don't Jake and I look happy?  Haha. . . 

Oh, Hello

Oh, Hello my one blog reader who still remembers that I used to post things on here way back in the day.  Well, here I am again and I might just pretend that I didn't do anything this past month and a half, . . . . or I'll gradually start posting some of the things that have happened like Halloween, birthdays, Thanksgiving(s), new teeth (!) and other fun adventures.  But I guess I'll just see how life goes.  I'm not a super detail person and it doesn't bug me to have a blog that isn't entirely in chronological order.  In fact, I have two blog posts from this summer that are halfway finished.  Perhaps in the New Year I'll get on that!  But today I will just leave you in suspense.  

It seems a little ironic that my last post was about sleep, and actually getting some of it, so you'd think that I might have more time to write blog posts.  However, I guess that was not the case!  I have been getting more sleep, but apparently all my extra time has gone to other things.  What things?  Well, not quite sure, but in my mind my life feels much more normal, and I guess it doesn't really matter what my time has gone towards, except that I feel more in control of where my time is spent, yay!

So to the one follower, thanks for sticking around!  I'll be much more exciting again soon but for now, I'm going to leave you with just a couple sweet goofy pics of my little man!  Even when he sleeps (he's taking a nap right now of course) I kind of just think about him and commonly look at his pictures so I thought I'd share the latest with you.  Enjoy!