AJ's Development Over the Past Month

He's on a roll! He was already rolling around well. About three-four weeks ago AJ got his first tooth. I noticed it on a Sunday. That Tuesday he crawled. That Friday I noticed another tooth coming in. The next week he was crawling even better (of course). A week later he was growing in a third tooth. I can see more on their way. Now, over the past few days, he's sitting up from the crawling position, on his own. And he's pulling up on shorter items and anything he can get a good hold on. Which means NOTHING is safe. He's really on the go now and developing quite rapidly.

At this rate he'll be walking by nine months. Noooo! I'm excited for him, but not for us. The race is on with crawling. I'm not ready for walking and running. Nope. I want him to wait. And the thing is weren't not even encouraging it. He's just doing it all on his own. He's even tried several times to cruise furniture but luckily once he takes a step he falls. He's never too happy about that but he does try again, and again, and again. If we stand him at the coffee table he lets go with one hand and reaches for anything close by. He's tried to go from the coffee table to the couch but only gets half way- one hand on each- before loosing this balance. The little rascal is getting to coordinated and too smart!

I do love his smile though. He's always so happy. He rarely gets upset. He's become pretty attached to me recently and does not like when I leave the room, even if his dad or brothers are near. Also, when he's crawling around and getting into something new he makes a laughing "k-k" sound. It's so cute! Of course this means that if we can't see him we have to look right away. He finds all kinds of stuff, anywhere. OH, and shortly after he started to crawl we had to rearrange the living room. Yes, I rearrange each season but this was a totally new layout. We now have the sectional put together in a way that puts its corner in the walkway near the stairway, thereby blocking the walkway, stairs, and stair railing. I'm creative.

The short part of the stairway is blocked by the ottoman with pillows on it creating a sitting area in the corner, with the little electric fireplace and lamp in the corner. Logan has dubbed this area the "kids area" but I have to remind him that we can hear his music a foot away on the couch, too. Very funny. He uses the area to listen to music, draw, and read. It's just big enough for him to lay on the floor. Aj likes that spot, too, because it's the only place that the outlets are being used where he can see and reach them. Sigh.

We also added a gate between the kitchen and living room to ensure AJ can not get to the stairway through the kitchen. I'm not sure what we'll do when he starts to climb on the couch. At that point we'll have to move the couch away from the stairway and railing again so that he does not launch himself over the couch and down the stairs.

Here's a recent photo taken before we headed to the rodeo. He loves animals so the horses captivated him there.

The Past Few Crazy Days

Our overnight in KC was great! We stayed at the Hyatt Place Overland Park/Convention Center. Very NICE! I found this place to be better than the nearby 3 1/2 star hotels nearby, plus they served a continental breakfast which meant we didn't have to pay $10 each for a breakfast buffet (which I probably could not have eaten much anyway). The decor was nice the beds were comfy and we had lots of pillows. Shaun's favorite part was the 42 inch flat screen TV which you could watch either from bed or from the L-shaped couch in the living area of the room. This was a very clean hotel with great staff and good food options (you could order from the snack bar anytime).

Thanks, in part, to our GPS we found out there was a Japanese Steakhouse nearby (see Han Shin Japanese Steakhouse's website- this is where we went). The GPS got us to the right area but I had to call to find out exactly where it was located because the GPS was wrong. We hadn't eaten at one of these before so we were excited when we got there and it was what we expected. We had our dinner (which we shared a LARGE meal) cooked on the flat grill right in front of us. We shared the table/cook/grill with a local couple. The food was great and very filling. I'm so glad I hadn't ordered my own! I couldn't have kept it overnight so it wouldn't have been worth it. The hotel room did have a fridge but I didn't want to smell the food the next morning (pregnancy nose) and we wouldn't have been able to eat it for lunch the next day anyway since we were traveling back to Manhattan by then.

Finding the U-Haul was another story with the GPS. ARGH! Who knew there were two roads in the same vicinity with the same name? Of course the GPS didn't tell us this and didn't let me put in the exact address of the U-Haul store. Nope, we had to drive the same short road three times while I called U-Haul and asked for directions only to figure it all out myself because they were screwed up too. Apparently no one had told them there is another road either. Once we got the U-Haul everything went smoothly. We loaded up after spending some time surfing catalogs at Direct Buy. Shaun also ordered pasta maker attachments for our Kitchen Aid while we were there. The trip home was happily uneventful. When we picked our boys up at our friends' home they offered to help with unloading so that went quickly.

To add to the day's excitement, I convinced Shaun to go browse at the "Greatest Sale on Earth" which is in the football/basketball stadiums' parking lot here in Manhattan. The three major local car dealerships bring all of their cars to the parking lot and together have a massive sale. If you haven't seen it it's worth at least driving by. And of course that means the dealerships look like they've all closed which was funny this year with all that has happened with the economy. Our "browsing" ended up meaning that we left with a new car. Dang sales trap! I knew better than to go but really wanted to figure out what we could afford IF we decided to buy something before the baby is born. Hmmm. Fooled myself I guess.

Instead of just going around looking at minivans and SUV's that we knew we couldn't afford I went straight to a sales tent of a local dealer and asked them some questions. I wanted to know what our car would be worth as a trade it and what to expect for monthly payments if we financed. I got the trade-in value without even a peak at our car and was told that financing (with our excellent credit which they also didn't bother to look up) would be about $22 per thousand financed. OK, that gave me a better feel for everything. I asked if they had anything used that was priced around $10,000. We were only interested in minivans and SUV's so that really limited us. They soooo wanted us to just find something expensive that we liked and then come talk. I wasn't falling for it! I asked a salesman who looked nice to bring us to anything they had like what we wanted. They had TWO SUVs and that was it in our price range. So, we looked at the first, almost laughed because it was smaller than our car, and then he showed us the second very unenthusiastically. He seemed tired from working all day and pretty sure that we weren't getting anything anyway. But he was still nice and polite. We thanked him after seeing the second SUV and said we might be back later. We then visited another dealership's area but quickly realized they didn't have what we were looking for so we headed back.

The salesman we had spoken to a little earlier came back over to the SUV when he saw we were back and was very helpful. We ended up taking it for a quick test drive and dropping the boys off for a baseball party at Time Our Corner and then bringing the SUV back to the parking lot. The salesman asked if we wanted to talk about it and I said yes, but that we only had about 15 minutes because I needed to leave for a photo gig. Well, in the short 15 minutes I got the deal I wanted and we agreed to come back later that evening with our car ready to trade (he still hadn't done anything but move it about 20 feet or so but had already committed to a better trade-in price). After photographing a wedding reception Shaun picked me up in the Buick and I called the salesman to say we were on our way back. We met him there, exchanged vehicles, and paid CASH for the remaining part owed. It was crazy fast! Shaun and I were so very proud of ourselves for being able to do this and we felt so grown up. This is the first car we've purchased on our own and we were able to do so with only our savings and a trade in. It was truly amazing!

So, that was our Friday and Saturday. Sunday was very relaxing. After church I studied (ICK! Hate to do that on Sundays.) and the boys and Shaun cleared out their bedroom so the furniture could be assembled. Shaun cleaned the carpet and then Monday evening we assembled all the furniture and the boys started moving their clothing into the dresser and Logan brought his from his closet and took over half of Shane's closet. It was a fun family evening!

Furniture and A Night Alone

Yay! The boys' furniture is in at Direct Buy Johnson County! This means we need to now go to Lenexa (near KC) and pick it up. Then Shaun will have the pleasure of assembling everything over the next few days. The boys have been busy cleaning their rooms in hopes that they have a shared room with bunk beds very soon. They will also have a new large dresser to share and the baby will have a nice table/dresser for her/his room. Oh, and we should know if it's a boy or girl the first week of August! Things are moving right along.

In order to go to pick up everything Shaun and I decided that we'd leave tonight...this is where a night alone comes in... We have a lot going on tomorrow evening and want to have plenty of time to pick up a U-Haul, get everything loaded, drive home, unload, and then drop off the U-Haul here in Manhappiness. Shane has a baseball party at 5 and I have a photo gig at 6 (wedding reception for couple recently married in Spain). So, what better than spending the night in Kansas City? I'd considered calling a few friends who live in the area as I'm sure they wouldn't mind having guests but this was too easy for me. Shaun and I haven't stayed alone in a hotel since our friends Heather and Jeff's wedding (um) a few years ago (5 now or 6? I've lost track). I can't remember why we did then, I think maybe it was between the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. Although I was thinking the kids were at the wedding and I remember being sick with strep throat for a few days prior. Dang! It has been a while.

After work I am going to go home and pack quickly (will only take five minutes) then we're dropping the kids at a friend's house and heading out on our own. I like the sound of that. Hopefully we'll grab snacks at home or on the way and then, if we're up to it, find somewhere nice to eat dinner, perhaps in the plaza, possibly Cheesecake Factory which I know Shaun would like. Then to the hotel where I plan to soak in the pool unless there are kids playing roudily. Or we may just stay in our room and um, relax. Tomorrow we'll sleep in and then have a nice continental breakfast before heading over to Direct Buy around 9:15 or so. I think they open at 9:30 so no need to rise early!

Ahhhhh. I'm sooo looking forward to quiet time. Maybe I can convince Shaun not to snore...