Reader Beware: This post covers an entire month...and a busy month at that

Well, we made it to AZ. Thanks to everyone who helped us with the move, and a big shout out to John and Bev for letting us stay with them at their house while we shop around for one of our own. The last month has been overwhelming, which is why I haven't posted anything on the blog. But between quitting my job, telling my piano students good-bye, saying farewell in both our English and Spanish wards, finding boxes, packing up everything we own, finding a temporary place to stay, finding a storage unit, finding a rental truck, finding people to help with the move in both states, saying good-bye to all our CA friends and family, driving the almost 400 miles at 55 mph, finding a place to get a mortgage loan from, finding a home to put an offer on.... there is quite a bit involved with relocating to another state. But we're coping. We really couldn't have done it without everyone's help. Thanks for all your love and support.

Dustin started work this week, at least the teacher training part of it. School doesn't start until the 3rd of August. He's had a lot to do with setting up his classroom, finding out what level(s) of Spanish he's got (although he still doesn't know how many of each class he's going to have) and what text book to use for each level (there's been confusion there as well), and then trying to do lesson plans as best he can with the information he does have so far. It's been fun to have his friend David Weidner teaching at the same school. Their rooms are in the same building, so they get to see a lot of each other.

We're not fully adjusted to the heat yet. My sun visor in my car has had the inner adhesive melt, I think, because it now emits a funny odor and inflates with air slightly after being on my windshield too long. Jason currently has a pretty bad heat rash. But he loves bath time and swimming now, because its not cold at all. The water is warm, the air outside the water is warm. So he can't get enough of it. He loves to splash all over the place.

The house hunt is... underway. We did submit one back up offer on a house. We should hopefully hear back within the week on that. We have a few other leads we're looking into as well. The market is pretty crazy down in Queen Creek. A lot of great deals, but they're getting gobbled up pretty fast and there are bidding wars going on, so most every home is selling for over the listing price. By the time we get in to see a place and get an offer ready to submit the next day, it has already gone under contract with someone else. But we've got faith it'll work and we'll wind up where we are meant to be.

It's funny how many people we know from CA have moved out to this area. While we were in CA, it seemed like everyone we told about our move knew someone down in Queen Creek or Mesa. Probably the epitome of the whole "small world" experience we've been having can be summed up by our experience last Friday night. We went to Mesa to spend the evening with some friends from CA, Nate and Kelli King, who moved out to Mesa years ago. Kelli's father happens to be the guy in CA who got us our mortgage loan. But that's not the most coincidental part. So we're at Nate and Kelli's in Mesa, and they let us go through their DVD collection to borrow some movies. I pulled out all the ones I hadn't seen and Dustin looked over the titles and pulled one out called "Spirit Hunter" and said, "We have to borrow this one!" I asked him why that one, and he reminded me that "Spirit Hunter" was the title to David Weidner's full length independent movie that he produced years ago. (Dave is starting up the Film/TV program at the high school). Just a few days prior, we had been having dinner with the Weidner's and asking about the movie, but he didn't have a copy of it on DVD that we could borrow. We thought about getting it off of Amazon, just to check it out. But then there it was at the Kings house!

Dustin said, "I can't believe you have this movie!"

Nate replied, "Why wouldn't I? I'm the one who shot the movie".

"You know David Weidner?"

"Of course I do. How do you know him?"

"He's teaching with me at the school."

"David Weidner moved out here? No way!"

Yeah. It was a crazy night.

So while the month has been super busy for us, I think Jason has been just as busy. He turned 8 months today. And I think he has grown and developed more from month 7 to month 8 than in any other month of his life.

Here's his traditional monthiversary photo.

Other changes for Jason include: Eating more than just rice cereal. He still makes his funny faces whenever we introduce a new food, but he is a GREAT eater. He will gobble everything up and always wants to hold the spoon himself. Plastic spoons are his newest toy craze. He just loves them!

Two new teeth have broken through, bringing him up to the grand total of three. (The first was on Father's day, just before he turned 7 months). Two on bottom, one on top. Now when he bites, it REALLY hurts. Pending on how many more teeth he gets, I'm not sure I'll make it nursing past the 9 month mark. We'll see...

Jason still doesn't crawl, but he has perfected his scoot, so I don't think he will crawl. His scoot is fast enough and efficient enough to get him wherever he wants to be, including going between boxes and through the space between the sofa and glider chair, weaving through the piano bench legs, to get to the piano pedals.

Jason has learned how to scoot up stairs as well. Both on the one step ledge from John and Bev's family room to kitchen (which seems to be his favorite spot in the house) as well as the stairs leading from our basement area up to the main floor. This morning I watched him climb two whole steps, and the middle step was not a wide ledge like he was use to. It was a narrow, normal step. Man, this kid is smart! He has also perfected sitting up and pivoting to be sitting facing the opposite direction.

Just Sunday we went in to get him up from his nap and found him standing in his crib. Since he could have easily leaned forward and fallen out onto the floor, we were both proud of his newly acquired skill, and nervous. Dustin spent the evening figuring out how to further lower the crib. Since then he has been scooting himself all over the place, pulling himself up into a standing position and getting into whatever he wants, such as his boxes of food and bottles.

Other favorite skills include babbling, ALL of the time. He still grunts and squeals and shrieks, but now there is a constant string of Dadada, Mamama (usually he uses that one when he cries and wakes up from naps), Namnamnam, blah-blah-blah, etc. with spit bubbles and raspberries in there as well. We think its adorable. I can have conversations with him now. It's so much fun.

Okay, so as I'm typing this, he is just chilling on that little ledge he loves, babbling away. I captured another video and am going to post that as well. What a vocal guy he is!

He is also working on clapping and has really improved even in just the last week. Here he is last night. He is so entertaining!

Well, there's my big month-long post. Hopefully it won't be that long before I post again.

Jason at 7 months

So my little "Fat Toad", as I like to call him, just turned 7 months. I Thought I would give you some pictures from the last little bit to update you on all his little quirks. We'll start off with his traditional growth pictures. He is getting so big!

Can you see why I call him fat toad? Look at that belly!

Jason loves to arch his back and stare at ceiling fans. Here he is doing both while Grandma tries to keep him from falling.

Jason is way too interested in the world around him that not even nursing can hold his attention very long. He always wants to take a break to look around and check things out.

He also has a hard time holding still during diaper changes and always wants to roll over onto his belly.

Jason also went on a little fist shaking kick for a few days. We thought it was hilarious. He was just clench his fists and shake them at us. What a goof!

As always, he is attracted by shiny things (such as Neina's shoes)

He is quite flexible and enjoys putting his feet in his mouth. In this picture, you can also see his sock scar that at 7 months, still hasn't gone away. (It's that reddish-brown line that runs around his calf. All because he slept with a pair of socks on that were just a little too tight).

Jason actually enjoys reading his books. Sometimes I will catch him flipping the pages and really staring at the words and pictures, all by himself. Other times, he just gnaws on them.

While Jason still isn't crawling, he is getting faster and faster at his inchworm, and loves to just get up on all fours.

Of course, there's eating. He is a very good eater, just like his mommy and daddy! For videos of Jason eating, check out the "Yumminess" post on our blog.


Other milestones include:

Finally cutting his first tooth on Sunday June 21st, just a few days shy of being 7 months. That has meant for increased fussiness, especially in the evenings early mornings (the whole sleeping through the night thing is no more. *tear*)

On Monday June 22nd, he went swimming for the first time, although the water was a bit too chilly to enjoy it (though Daddy did put his feet in the pool again yesterday while it was warmer and he starting kicking and splashing a lot).

And Wednesday June 24th we caught him pushing himself up into a sitting position all on his own.

So there are the updates of our little buddy. We love him so much and he brings us so much joy. Hope we were able to share some of that joy with you.

Yumminess

Here are three videos chronicling Jason's adventures in food land. Enjoy!

Jason first eats "solid" foods Tuesday June 9th. And by solid, we mean 4:1 ratio of milk to rice cereal. Not bad for a first attempt.

Just a few days later, (Saturday June 13th) while trying to achieve a 3:1 ratio, I realized it was a touch too runny because it hadn't been a full tablespoon of rice cereal that I added. So I went to pour in just a smidgen more and accidentally dumped 1/4 cup of rice cereal flakes into the bowl. I scraped as much of the excess off into another bowl as I could, and still had to add some more liquid to the first just to get it down to about a 1.5:1 ratio. But he loved it! He was thrilled by having something so solid that not only did he polish off the whole bowl, but I went ahead and mixed up the excess I had scraped into a second bowl, and he polished off that helping as well. What a good eater! I think we've found our magic ratio.

After a week of eating just rice cereal (it's all I brought on vacation) we finally came home and we able to feed Jason something else. On Tuesday the 23rd, to celebrate turning 7 months, Jason ate some winter squash for the first time. I think this is one of my top five videos of Jason. It's a classic.

As a follow up, we fed Jason the rest of that jar of winter squash Wednesday and Thursday night as well. Now, before you call Child Protection Services on us for torturing him two more nights with the food he apparently hates, you should know that he enjoys winter squash now. He still made that face and shuddered occasionally, but it was less and less each night, and despite any funny faces he made, he kept coming back for more and finished off the jar. So I think it's just a matter of adjusting his taste buds. Which brings me to the important parenting lesson learned: Your child may tell you they don't like something at first, but they don't know enough to know if they like it or not. Help them stick with it, and they may realize they really do enjoy it. (Thanks Mom for learning that lesson and making me stick with piano!)

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE

So much has happened in the last 2 weeks, I don't know where to begin blogging. I need to tell about Jason eating, update on his teething and crawling endeavors, our UT trip, his 7 month pictures, etc. And I'll do those in a few subsequent posts, so you can read as much or as little as you want to (but make sure you check out the video of Jason eating Winter Squash for the first time. HILARIOUS!!!)

However, so that the following information does not get lost in a myriad of photos and videos and stories, I wanted to first post that:

WE ARE MOVING TO ARIZONA JULY 11th.

Yes, two weeks from tomorrow we bid California good-bye. Why? Because half-way through our vacation we got a call from the school district in Queen Creek (we had taken their lack of communication to mean the same as a rejection) and they offered Dustin the job. So he will be working at the same school as his friend David (see post on Dustin's graduation) and he will be starting July 21st for teacher training, with in-class instruction beginning August 3rd. So we cut our Utah trip short, drove to AZ to scope out the situation and we're accepting the position. It means a lot of changes in a little amount of time, but they'll be good changes. We'll miss our CA friends and the weather, but we'll get to be closer to family, have Dustin work instead of me, and it looks like we'll be owning our own home by the end of the year. (Queen Creek was reported as the number one foreclosure city in America). The pros definitely outweigh the cons. So Arizona, here we come!!!

The most adorable stroke

Jay just had his 6 month check up yesterday, (the doctor was on vacation until now) and here are the results:

He weighed in at 18 lbs 12.5 ounces, (75th percentile) and is 28.5" long (90th percentile). Another half an inch and we'll need to invest in a new car seat. *sigh* It's a good thing this kid is cute or else I don't know how we'd keep forking money over for him.

Still no teeth visible, but he drools like crazy. One of these days I'm sure we'll have a break through in that department, though I'm in no hurry. Nursing is hard enough with the world's most distracted baby. Seriously, he'll stop nursing, roll onto his stomach and just prop himself up on his hands and watch TV or look around the room smacking his lips for 10-20 seconds, then come dive bombing back in for another little bit whenever he wants. It's quite comical, but makes nursing a very drawn out process. Once we add teeth to the mix, I'm not sure how things will go.

Still has the scar on the back of his leg from when his socks were too tight 2 months ago (even the doctor couldn't believe the infamous sock scar!) and the doctor says only time can heal it. I figure, if the only way we scar him for life is that sock incident, then we're a huge success as parents. (If anyone hasn't seen the scar/heard the story and wants a separate post on it, comment so and I'll post something separately)

Jason's left tear duct is still clogged( has been since birth). In addition to getting little eye boogers all the time, it still gets red and puffy every so often, although the doctor says its not the same infection we were treating with drops last month, but rather the random redness/puffiness could be due to salivating all over his hands and then rubbing his eyes, both results of teething. The eye could simply be irritated as a result of that. But he said to keep massaging the duct area 2-3 times a day and if the tear duct is still clogged around 9-12 months, Jason will win himself a trip to the opthamologist (sp?) and have to go under anesthesia while they put a little probe down the duct and clear the blockage. So here's hoping the massaging does the trick.

We got the go ahead to start giving him solids, which we were hoping to do last night, but Jason had a fever from the vaccinations combined with the cold he's getting, so we decided to wait until he was feeling better. Maybe tonight will be the night. I've got my camera battery charging up for the occasion. We'll be sure to post about that experience.

Otherwise, Jason is still just a happy social butterfly. Everyone loves him, and if you need more evidence as to why, below are some of his official 6 month pictures our friend Emiliy Marino took for us at the park by our home.

When our friend Amy saw this picture, she commented: "That's the most adorable stroke I've ever seen!"

Piano Recital

So yesterday, May 30th, I had my third piano recital. My first one was a year ago, when I only had 1 student, Summer Castillo. I was able to join my friend Brook Trieber in her piano recital. Brook gave up teaching after that recital to return to the workforce, and I inherited a few of her students, sisters Julia and Amanda North and Jared Debest. I also got two brand new students of my own, Joey Adamson and Elizabeth Hatch. Last November I had another recital, joining with another friend, Jackie Brown. That time I had 4 students play in the recital (the Norths were out of town). Recital number three, I teamed up with Jackie again, and again had 4 students play (Jared stopped taking lessons and Julia was out of town). All of my students did so well. They all had their pieces memorized, had wonderful dynamics and gave very polished performances. I was so proud of them. Here are some pictures I took of that day.

Me and Jackie

All my students

Me and Elizabeth

Me and Amanda

Me and Joey

Me and Summer

The smartest little inchworm

Before I go into the main purpose of this post, let me just give the update that no, we still have not heard back from the school district in Queen Creek. We left a message on Thursday, we'll call back next week. We'll be sure to let everyone know as soon as we know anything.

Now onto the good stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly Jason learns things. Right around the time he turned 6 months, Jason started doing his pre-cursor crawl. Specifically, he was trying to get up on his knees, or he would be pushing himself up so much on his arms that he would get most his belly off the ground. But he wasn't able to get up on his hands and knees at the same time. It would always be one or the other. And usually he would do arms first, then try and get his bum up, only to push himself backwards like a little inchworm stuck in reverse. We took a video of it the first night he really started trying to put the two together (see below). The next morning, he successfully did bum first, then hands, and actually scooted forward a few times, but then he kept reverting to the inchworm in reverse method.

That all lasted just a few days. Then yesterday when we came home from date night, our friends who had been watching Jason asked how long he's been doing that "on the hands and knees and rocking thing". We explained his inchworm movements, and they said he had actually gotten up on all fours and stayed up there and rocked. We were so excited to hear that and anxious to see for ourselves. Then this morning, he gave us what we wanted, and I even got it on camera. In five short days he went from the above video, to the one below. How quickly this guy learns!