Evan's 1st trip to Arizona

Last weekend Evan & I traveled to Arizona to go see my parents. It was Evan's 1st trip to Arizona. He did wonderfully on the airplane, thank goodness for both of us. I was petrified that trip by ourselves would not be so pleasant. But he was great, and the star of the plane rides. He has perfected "hi", followed by a smile. He's quite the flirt. He did not ever adjust to the time change, so our days began at 4:00am, but it was worth it to spend time with grandma and grandpa! We also got to see Mike, Laura, Emma & Alex, which was so much fun. We'll be back for a week at Thanksgiving.

More pictures of the house

Our realtor went by and took pictures throughout the house (the other ones were from the builder's website).

Evan is 9 months old!

Evan, you turned 9 months on Tuesday. It's hard to believe, time has gone so fast.
We went to the doctor's today and you are 21 pounds, 29 inches. 50% for weight, boy that's changed since you were first born and in the 95%, and 75% for height. You've definitely slimmed down since you started moving around.

Clothes: size 3 diaper, 9-12 month and 12-18 month clothes, depending on the brand.

Feeding: You love to eat, somedays I feel like that's all you do. You have formula three times a day-8 ounces when you wake up, 6 at 3:30 or 4:00pm, and 8 ounces before bedtime. You are definitely not picky, you just don't like avocado and blueberries! I still feed you baby food when we are traveling, b/c it's easier, but otherwise, you eat regular food, just cut up very small. You are still not crazy about the sippy cup, although you've tried every variety. Hopefully you'll take to it soon.

Toys/Games: The stackable rings and stackable cubes are still your favorite toys. You also really like your Leap Frog musical table and are great at standing up to play with it.

"Words:" You have learned so many new words this month, that's definitely the biggest change I've seen over the last month. You say mama, baba, dada, nana, nunu and hi the most. You are very loud when you speak, which is cute most of the time. Ms. Erin said you are the loudest baby she's ever watched. Way to be #1!

Smiles: You smile at everyone you see, you are quite a flirt. Everyone tells us you are the happiest baby they've ever seen and ask "is he always this happy". And you are, unless mom or dad walk out of the room, then you are not so happy. You are definitely going through serious separation anxiety. Some days when mom leaves you at Ms. Erin's, you cry for an hour after I leave. It's nice you love me so much, but I hope that you get over this soon. You're missing out on a lot of fun during that crying time.

Teeth: You still just have 3 bottom teeth, although the top 4 look like they will pop through any day. We'll just have to wait.

Moving: You are getting everywhere these days, you crawl backwards very well and now you are beginning to master the front crawl. You are getting fast, I need to watch out! You are also enjoying standing up, but you are not yet pulling yourself up.

Sleep: You take 2 naps a day, ranging from 45 minutes-2 hours. One in the am, one in the afternoon. You sleep from 7:30pm to 6:30am, which is wonderful. Although I don't love 6:30am, I have nothing to complain about :).

Tomorrow you and I take your first trip to Grandma & Grandpa Orme's in Arizona. We cannot wait!

Pictures of our house

Here are some pictures of our house under construction and of the inside of the model.

We bought a house!!!

In our crazy marathon home hunting weekend, we actually left home owners! I can't believe it. We've been looking in Maryland for over a year and only found 2 homes worth making an offer on (thankfully they didn't pan out with the move and all...). But we found our dream home and I can't believe we actually are going to live in it!!! Pinch me.

Of course, my camera died while we were there, so I have no pictures of the house. However, our realtor, Char (who is WONDERFUL), is going to take pictures tomorrow and email them to me, so I'll post them then.

It's a 5 bed/4 bath house, so lots and lots of room for all of our visitors! Mickey's playground, here we come :). Wow, I just can't wipe the smile from my face!

Florida Bound

Tomorrow we leave for Florida to go find a house. Not only that, but tomorrow is the first time Evan and I fly together, alone. We are meeting Joe there, he's flying from Texas. That will be an adventure in itself, but at least it's only 2 hours.

I can't believe we are really moving. I definitely have mixed emotions-I will be sad to leave our friends and family here; but am excited for Joe to be home almost every night, us to live in a house that doesn't need a complete overhaul, living near Charlie, Shannon & Maxwell and no snow! So, as I prepare for the trip, I am especially excited for the house hunting. It will be such a different experience from house hunting here in Maryland. I'll be sure to post pictures of the homes we like, or the one we buy. Wish us luck!

Look mom, I can feed myself

Against all my desire to keep him clean, I've decided it's best to let Evan learn how to feed himself. We started with pasta and lima beans and he did so well! I only picked up about 1/20 of the food off of him and his seat. He actually got the rest in his mouth (sometimes in fist fulls!). No doubt he loves to eat :).

Shannon and Charlie Visit and Bryan's MBA Party

This weekend was very exciting-Shannon & Charlie came up from Florida to visit (bringing lots of real estate info with them!) and Laura threw Bryan a wonderful MBA graduation party. It was so fun for the 6 of us to get together on Friday night and then celebrate Bryan's big accomplishment on Saturday. Evan dressed up in a University of Maryland outfit to celebrate Bryan's new alma mater (Joe was pretty happy with the outfit too!). Here are various pictures of the weekend. I was pretty bad about taking more pictures, sorry Mom & Dad!

Annapolis

On Saturday we headed out to Annapolis. It's my favorite place in Maryland. The weather was beautiful, mid 80's, sunny and no humidity. We had a great time walking around and saw lots of Midshipmen/women. We also met a few nice people who offered to take a family picture of us, how nice to get all 3 of us in one picture!