Noises

Christopher has started making this little clicking noise with his mouth. The video is a little dark but you can still see and hear just how adorable he is.

7 Months

On December 29th, 2008 I spent most of the day working. I work from home as a bookkeeper and I was frantic to get payroll done and all of the year end stuff done. I had a feeling that I would be very busy very soon.

At 4:23 AM on December 30th my cell phone rang. It was J. She asked "Are you awake?" Believe me at as soon as I heard her voice I was WIDE awake. I knew if she was calling me at 4:23AM that it was time. Time for our little man to be born. What an amazing day that was!

The past 7 month have continued to be amazing. Christopher is wonderful. He is getting to be such a big boy. He is trying to learn to crawl but the fact that he can't quite do it doesn't stop him. He just rolls and scoots wherever he wants to go. He says 'da,da,da' when he is happy and 'ma,ma,ma' when he is mad or hungry. He loves music even if I am the one singing it (Old McDonald is his favorite), he is quick to laugh and such a wonderful little man. Our life is a Joy!

Christopher and Daddy Playing

Update and Video

I know it has been a while. We are here in Wyoming. Still iving in our camp trailer but hoping soon to be moving into the Mobile Home we bought. People are are working on it right now, so maybe soon we can move in.

Christopher is growing up very fast. Look how cute he is!

Videos of Christopher

A couple of videos of Christopher doing what he does best. Looking Adorable!

Christopher

Here we are last weekend at one of the parks. Joe is behind the camera. We have been trying to make Saturday's a family fun day as much as possible while working around my bookkeeping schedule. Our typical Saturday has had us going early to the farmers market and going for a walk down town or to one of the parks or to both. Yesterday the weather was a little cold so we didn't walk as much as we have been. After our fun time out we come home and I work.

I just finished up working now and have very little little juice left on my laptop. We are going to a going away party today for my sister and her husband. They will be moving to Wyoming in the next couple of weeks. I'm not ready for them to leave yet. I have relied on having my sis around. I know we will follow them in a few months but even then we will still live a few hours apart (unlike the few minutes we are apart now). The party should be fun.

Routines

Things are going very good here. We are all getting into a routine with having Christopher. The girls are wonderful big sisters. They are very helpful. Things are pretty uneventful so I don't actually have much to report.

Christopher is growing like a weed. He is such a good baby. I finally got all of the w-2's and 1099's done for work. I am now just working on getting everything put together to go to the CPA. One of the big challenges with that is that the company I work for changed status mid-year. So I have to get everything put together for two companies instead of one. I have spent most of my weekends since the beginning of the year working and also about 5 hours during the week. I think that I will be working about 15-20 hours a week for the next 6 weeks. I'll admit that it is a little hard to juggle that with the baby but one good thing is that I can only work evenings and weekends due to the regular office person being in there during the day (we use a service that allows me to actually log on to the office computer from my computer it is a wonderful thing but only one of us can use the office computer at a time). During the times I can work either the girls or Joe or all are home. Built in babysitting!!

We have started the process of preparing for our move East. We need to get a couple of permits lined up and we need to arrange for power (can't get power until we get the permits). We will live in the trailer until we can get a modular or manufactured home put up. In order to live in the trailer we have to have a temporary home permit. I'll admit that the idea that our trailer is a temporary home is funny to me but those are the rules. In order to get the temporary home permit we also have to provide our plans for the foundation and structure of our permanent home. We kind of have something picked out but aren't sure so I ordered more info from a guy we met with last year. That should be here by Thursday. I'm hoping to be able to send our permit requests off my the middle of February. My sister and her husband and daughter will be leaving for Wyoming in the next few weeks. They bought 40 acres a few hours from us. It has been very nice living in the same town as my sister for the past three months. We haven't lived near each other for 18 years. I will miss her very much when she goes.

Christopher is beginning to fuss so I should sign off. We have been thinking of nicknames for him. I like Christopher and prefer no nickname but Joe wants a nickname. He usually calls him CJ but lately started calling him Siege (CJ but all ran together). I think I could like Siege...

Busy Week

Whew. This has been a full week.

Monday KiKi, LuLu, Christopher and I met up with J and her daughter. We met in Old Sac. Neat area. Lots of little Tourist Trap shops. We had lunch, walked around, bought candy, went to a train museum and then had a snack before our visiting time was done.

I love all of us being able to be together. The girls get along very good. Christopher was wonderful. He is such a good baby. It was kind of fun for me to look at him and compare him with J. They have some similar features and he gets some of the same looks that she does. Most of the time I see Joe in him but sometimes he will do something and I'll think "that looks just like J". I have to admit that I had a small fear that Christopher would know that J was his bio mom when she held him and that he would like her better (yes, I know that is stupid but I want to make this blog honest about my feelings/thoughts and that is something that I thought). I think that KiKi really helped me with that silly thought. While we were waiting for J to arrive KiKi told me how lucky that Christopher is to have two mommy's who love him so much. KiKi is one smart 13 year old!

The rest of the week I have spent taking care of Christopher and trying to get bookkeeping work done. W-2's and 1099's and all the year end tax stuff is due. I have been working alot more than I had been and some days it is challenging. I'll be working on the computer while on speaker phone and nursing or holding Christopher. One day I swear that he didn't let me put him down for more than 5 minutes at a time! I managed to work 5 hours that day while holding him.

The breast feeding is going okay. I was hoping to have a little more milk than I do. And that Lact-Aid thing didn't work out so good for me. The idea of it is good but I swear that it hurt all the way to my back bone when he nursed on me with that thing. It was like he had to suck waaaaay too hard. So now I nurse him and we supplement with a bottle. He seems to be okay with going back and forth without any nipple confusion. I am hoping that my production will increase a little bit. We had some breast milk donated from a surro friend which lasted the first couple of weeks. That was so wonderful. And on Monday J gave me almost a full camping size cooler of milk. So we combine my milk, J's milk and formula now. He seems good with that mixture. But I'll tell you the kid will eat himself sick if I let him. The doctor said only 3 ounces at a time due to him having little spit up issues. Christopher thinks he is on a starvation diet when we stop at 3 ounces. One day I gave him a little extra and up it all came. I guess the doc knows what he is talking about.

Angel and Bear are doing good. We are hoping to see them in March. Both are staying busy right now and Angel says that married life is ok. They are actually going to be moving soon so that should be very fun for them.

Christopher

Our little man is so amazing. He is such a sweet little guy. J always said that he was 'mellow' and she is very right. He is so good natured.

Joe is still on cloud nine. He says he can't wait to get home from work each day to see him. He will just hold him for hours and stare at him. Joe said that he didn't know that he could love someone so fast. Right now they are lying on the couch together taking a nap.

KiKi and LuLu think that Christopher is amazing. They love holding him and picking out his clothes and even want to help with diaper changes.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love him. The fact that I was able to become a mommy again with the man that I love is huge. And it is all thanks to J. She is such an amazing woman to do this for us. Sometimes when I am holding Christopher I think about the sacrifice that J has made to allow me this. How can I ever thank her enough?

He's Here!

Our perfect little guy was born on Tuesday, December 30th at 12:21 PM.

J was incredible. Being there and experiencing his birth was so amazing. I tear up thinking about it.

He is beautiful. And as J has always said such a mellow baby. I'll update more later (the juice on my laptop is almost out). In the mean time please keep J in your thoughts and prayers. She is having some difficulties from the epidural.

J we love you!!