::pink-eye::

Oh ick. Ick ick pink eye.
I don't think it's fair to get things like this as an adult. It's so frustrating and embarrassing as well. And unfortunately, just because mom is sick doesn't mean the world stops spinning. In fact often it seems that it spins faster.
Anyway, Kris got sick last week after he did an insane 12 hour bike race. I think he just wore himself out completely and then was very ready to get sick. He got a bad cold then what ended up being pink-eye, though I just thought it was part of his cold. We had to go to Phoenix for the weekend for work. We were supposed to go swimming with some friends on monday morning (we were leaving for home monday at noon.) When the baby woke up I noticed his eye was all crusty and then I knew it was the beginning of the end.

The next morning I got it and then the morning after that Max got it.
Max missed his field day at school and the last three days of the year. He didn't mind it too much of course, but I got pretty tired trying to entertain everybody.
I loved having eyes that looked like they belonged to an elephant. Plus, to make it even worse I obviously couldn't wear my contact lenses, and unfortunately my only pair of glasses got melted on a space heater at some point. They won't stay on my face very well and they make me feel claustrophobic and terrible. They're also a little outdated so everything's just a bit blurry.
So, all complaining aside, it was a pretty bad week.

See that sad weepy swollen eye?

Max the lightest case of anybody--plus his eyes are so huge that you could hardly tell they were swollen at all.

The boys did get to spend some quality time together this week though and that was nice.


But don't even get me started on the torture it is to give these boys burning eyedrops. So sad and awful and frustrating.
The things I learned this week?
1. Avoid pink-eye like the plague.
2. Get some glasses that work.
I think I'm going to go look for some tomorrow morning.

::six month comparison #2::

Sorry but I just think these are too fun.
Sweet baby two days old in his Moses Basket:


A couple of weeks later--still not quite a month old:

(ahhhhhh! he's so tiny!!)
A couple mornings ago, six months old:

Nope, he can't really stretch all the way out anymore.
Ya think we need to get him to sleep through the night soon? He needs to be doing all his sleeping in his crib--but he usually only makes it until 2 or 3AM at best and then ends up back in his basket. Poor little guy loves his basket, too bad he's so ginormous now! Well, not too bad he's so strong and big, but too bad for his comfy moses basket.

Seeing how quickly babies grow like this is just insane, isn't it? No wonder they need to sleep so much (note I said NEEDS to sleep, not actually sleeps!.)

::six month comparison::

0:

2 months:

4 months:

6 months:

Is this guy growing or what? He's still got those little worried eyebrows though.
I'm sure that eating two tubs of food per night isn't going to hurt his growth rate. I feel like I accidentally bought an Irish Wolfhound puppy thinking he was a Golden Retriever or something.
Love him.

::anniversary::

This darling little guy hit his six month mark last week. The date came and went of course, due to an extremely busy crazy week. But I didn't want to let it pass by completely without remarking on it.
In some ways I can't believe it's been six months and in some ways it feels like the last six months have been years. Of course we can't imagine our family without him--or even how life was before he was here.
He's our darling friend and brother. We're just so happy to have him around.


He finally started eating real food last week, and by today he's begging for it--veggies and a bit of fruits. When he's eating if I put down the spoon he gets very distressed and mad at me. He wants me 100% dedicated to the task at hand.

He also finally starting rolling on his own today--he's done it a few times but not consistently and mostly with a good amount of encouragement. Today he's just been going for it--from his back to his belly--over and over.
We're so proud--a little scared of how things will change when he really starts moving around--but proud nonetheless!
Happy six months to our Sand. So glad you're here with us!

::life is good::

When you're hanging around in a hammock.

We sure love this old hammock that Kelly brought home from his mission for us. We've logged a lot of good hours in it.

It's most exciting that we found a good place for it here at our new house. It's out on the back deck and the view from it is pretty darn lovely.

But I love today's contents of the hammock most of all.

::before & after & a bonus::

When the day finally came and we got to take possession of our new house we were very excited, and really really hoping that the prior owner was actually done and moved out--especially considering the fact that we had been to the house not too long before and there had still been lots and lots of stuff everywhere.

Anyway, we came in and happily, her stuff was all gone and the house was empty and ready for us.
But sadly we ran across this on one of the walls:

Yes, not only had somebody drilled huge holes into the wall to hang something bizarre, but they had also painted around it. Who does that? Seriously, did they hire SpongeBob or somebody to do the painting?!
Needless to say we were annoyed. That's not the kind of thing you can just overlook--and combined with the fact that she had taken a big TV mount down in the bedroom and the wall looked like a land mine had gone off inside it--we were pretty unhappy.

So luckily, later that week Kris went to Home Depot to get some supplies and serendipitously they were presenting a little wall repairing class and he got to sit in and learn a ton. So he fixed the wall--almost overfixed it in his excitement, but not quite.
Then I got brave and found the paint that matched the wall in the garage. I figured even if the paint had aged or faded, it couldn't look worse than that weird Cheshire Cat shape there on the wall.
So I painted it. Two coats. And it turned out perfect.

We were/are very proud of ourselves. It's so nice to see something repaired so darn well! Now on to all the other cracks, scrapes, holes and scratches in house. All the woodwork on the doors need help. The lady had a dog at some point and that dang dog scratched the dickens out of every doorframe and doorjam in the house. I'm going to have to experiment and see what can be done.

And the bonus?
Goofy pictures of a sweet silly and goofy boy. He was watching Kris put in towel & toilet paper holders, since somehow the guest bathroom had none.


And there ya go.

::artistic::

Have you seen those paintings by Brian Kershisnik? You know, those ones with the vomiting dogs--like this one:
I really like them, not sure why exactly.

I like them.
And I want to prove to you that I'm just as artistic as he is.

See?

Shoot, I posted that and then realized you can hardly even tell he's puking. So I found another one for you from a while ago. You can tell it's from a while ago from the green grass.

Yes, I'm artistic. No question about it.

::::

"Does anybody have a kleenex?" he asks--very seriously.


Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Too bad this beloved silly putty had to go putty up the landfill after it got stuck in the carpet of the new house. Dad was not very happy about that.
I'm sure he'll figure out other uses for our kleenexes. He's creative that way.

::max's story::

Tonight Max's teacher hosted a story reading for his class. All the kids wrote and illustrated a little story. Then they got to sit up on the stool wearing a beret and read it for the crowd. The stories were so cute and the performances were sweet and hilarious. Max is lucky to have such a great teacher who has helped the kids in his class so much. Some of them couldn't even read at the beginning of the year, and here they were reading stories in front of people. It's great.

We were so proud of Max, his reading and his writing. He's a smart capable guy and it's fun to see that demonstrated for us.
Be sure to watch all the way to the end, the last couple of seconds awesome.