::::

Babies just love to explore and do fun stuff. They love to play with toys and get tickled. They love to reach for things that they shouldn't touch.

They love these things and beg to do them all day long. They insist that they're not tired and it's not bedtime. Ever.
BUT.
They give themselves away.

This morning at about 8AM I was thinking that our Sandy looked a little sleepy. But he was convinced that he needed to be playing and having fun.

But then he spied his pacifier across the room.

Once he had that he saw his blanket.


The rest is pretty-much history. He tried to tell me he really didn't need a nap, but luckily I know better.

He went right to sleep, the cute little stinker.

::finally::

This is old news for us--from early May in fact. But not too much of old news for the rest of you because you haven't been to our house yet!
The baby finally has his own room. At our last house--our rental here--he had a corner of our room. His little drawer unit was in there, and his teency Moses basket. And his clothes hung in our closet. It was temporary because we knew we would be moving sometime soon. And plus, he was such a bad dang sleeper that I needed him really close to maximize the short periods of time I got to sleep.
So all that aside, now he has a real room. All his (for now.) And it's cute. Not too fancy or anything, but cute because it's his.
He has built in bookshelves right inside the door. Max is a little envious that he gets all those books, but I think it's a good thing since we need to share anyway.

Then he's just got some mismatched furniture in there and a lovely crib that I got on a deep sale from Pottery Barn. It's really nice, maybe one of the nicer pieces of furniture we own right now. It makes the room I think, along with the cute little mobile from IKEA.

Lucky Sand has lots of toys--most of them used to belong to Max, but he does have a few of his own. The little giraffe with the rings around his neck is a relic from Max's babyhood.

The very best thing in the room though, is the little snort that sleeps in it.
He's adorable, and he's been doing great on his naps since the new room. They've definitely improved. And now, with Kris's help we're getting him to sleep through most (ok maybe more like a lot than most) nights. At least from about 10 to 5:30. And at this point any decent sleep at night is something we're grateful for. And he's sleeping in his own bed, which is good because the moses basket just doesn't accommodate his big boyness anymore.

So there you go, cute baby in a room all his own.

::::

We went to Sandy's first doctor's appointment yesterday. He did great and the doctor said he was perfect!
It totally wore him out though. He slept for the rest of the day.


So darn cute.

::::

What can I say--the man loves his cars!

The other day he told me that he just LOVES cars right now--maybe even more than legos. Woah, that's heavy.

This shot was totally candid, not even slightly staged. This is how we found him at about 10PM the other night. What a funny little guy.

::guess who::

We're lucky enough to have a semi-surprise visit from Kris's brother Kelly this week! He came in today and gets to stay until next week.
It's only too bad his wife Lechelle couldn't come with him. Next time, right Lechelle??

Poor Kris has had kind of an intense week. He's on call right now, and has had to go in and take calls at night the last few days. Some weeks are light and some are heavy, this one's been heavy so far, and it's only been a few days! He's also on a rotation where he goes to the operating room three days a week to learn about administering anesthesia. It's interesting, but he has to get up at about 5:30 those mornings. It ruins him for the evening. He's super tired, and with good reason, poor guy.


Anyway, Kelly got here this afternoon, and he and Max were already having a good old time. Matching. I got them the cutest shirts for christmas. Too bad Max's is pretty much too small already--his little belly sticks out the bottom unless he's wearing something underneath.



And speaking of matching, how about this look?

Just when we were talking about grabbing some after dinner celebratory ice cream Kris's pager went off. It was a big messy case, so Kelly thought he'd go along to observe and keep Kris company. I might not see them for a good long while, but at least they're together. Brothers are great.

::some thoughts::

These are some of things swirling (or squirreling) around in my head right now.

I think that four year old boys, in bed, heavily sleeping with their arms above their heads are very very very cute.

My parents left today, it was so fun that they could come and visit.  I wanted to take care of them, but of course they ended up taking care of us.  I miss them already and they've only been gone for a few hours.  Poor Max really wishes he lived closer to all his grandparents, and I don't blame him.  He probably has the four best grandparents in the world.  Oh well, maybe someday we can get closer.

I miss the fall leaves!  They're mostly all gone now, and it's sad.

I can't believe how cold it is here suddenly.  It's freezing outside.  As I sit here my hands feel all cold and stiff from typing and my feet are frigid.  I wonder if it's just going to stay this way until spring.

Today when we got home from dropping Max off at school, Sultan had escaped the yard.  The back gate blew open in the wind last night I guess.

When I walked up the sidewalk I saw him there at the end of our driveway sitting right by the back of the car.  Poor guy.  He was all scared, and so was I.

I'm so glad he had the brains not to run away.  I'm so glad he didn't get hit.  Phew.

Kris is coming back from NYC right now.  He got to be involved in the interviews for next year's residents.  I'm very interested to hear all about it.  Thinking about the whole application and interview process sure brings back some stressful memories.  I'm just so glad we don't have to do that again anytime soon.  I have big-time sympathy for anybody that's doing it right now.

I can't believe we're seeing this around here:

It blows my mind.  I honestly thought it was a possibility that we'd never see gas below $2 again.  And it's quite the relief to my pocketbook right now.  I know it's not a great sign for the economy that gas keeps dropping, but I can't help but like it.  Between the lower prices and our new smaller car hopefully our gas bill is going to be quite a bit lower.  We'll see.

Happy wednesday everybody.  I hope you had a good one.