Cloud 9, Sleeping & Playing!

I tried to start off with a pic of Anderson, but Blogger & I are not friends right now so you will have to see the clouds first. Last week was Homecoming/Spirit week, which means I sat down about 2 minutes total in the span of the week. (hello, high school friends...let me just say that our Spirit Week kicked the butt of this week, but it still was pretty fun!) As the cheerleader sponsor, I am in charge of the dance. The theme was "On Cloud 9" and it went very heavenly as expected. After the dance, Chelsea & I brought the clouds to our classrooms. I saw no need to waste balloons.

It is more difficult than you might imagine to turn a cafeteria into Cloud 9, but I think we did a pretty good job! The balloon "clouds" lit up when it was dark. There were a few fiascoes regarding a light that wouldn't turn off over the dance floor (a ladder, butcher paper & tape fixed that), a circuit that blew mid song (extension cord plugged in the coke machine fixed that), a very loud, collective chorus of a very inappropriate song being sung by the 900 students (my frantic rushing to the dj stopped that...Seriously, I may be old, but I know what those words mean!). Anyway, overall it was fun & a big success!

It seriously does not get cuter than a sleeping baby with a booty in the air. It's even cuter when the booty has a shout out to Dr. Seuss! He sleeps with his glowworm from Aunt Cole & his blanket from Skye every night. I have named them Franklin & Winston. I love Winston Churchill & he said, "We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm!", so it is only fitting that his name is Winston. And, as everyone who loves history knows, you can't have Winston without one of his bffs FDR. If they were able to take Hitler down, I feel pretty confident that they can take care of monsters under the bed.

He is really obsessed with playing in the dishwasher.

He is also still pushing the chairs around the house. I will try to get a new video for Elizabeth & Claire to watch!

He has just recently discovered this giant stuffed dog that my mom bought him & he LOVES it! He will throw himself down on it, almost in a dive move and just giggle. Also, he & Brandon play hide & seek with it, which is so fun.

Popsicles & Pirates!

Are 8 month olds supposed to have popsicles? I hope so because they are quickly becoming his favorite food. When he was sick a few weeks ago, we were desperate for him to eat anything and he was hooked pretty quickly. He is almost to the point where he comes crawling if he hears the freezer open. I am concerned at how many different pictures I have of him with popsicles.

Saturday was "Talk like a Pirate Day", so you know we had to celebrate. Anderson celebrated in one of his many pirate outfits & said, "Arghhh" all day. It was my dream come true.

Because we like to spread our "pirateness", we went to visit Jack & brought a pirate hat to share! Jack has a nice pirate name (Captain Jack Sparrow, anyone??) so, of course, he looked adorable in the hat!

Even though all 3 people in the picture look cute, this is terrifying. One more shout out to mom, who thinks 2 at once is normal...possibly even fun. Anderson & Jack are quickly becoming BFFs. This really looks like they are having a conversation, doesn't it?

How cute is this pic? He loves Uncle Austin, which is normal considering they have the same eyes. Anderson is a Glover boy if by nothing else than his eyes.

Chloe, swinging & moving furniture

sigh. Chloe noticed her absence from the blog & decided she needed a shout out, so she generously gave me something to include about her. At the groomers last week she ate her collar. I went to pick her up & was greeted with, "Chloe was a bad girl today." My first thought was fear at how much her behavior was going to cost. While I was irritated at the collar, I was also relieved as I had imagined the destruction of some really expensive dog grooming thing. Bits of the rest of the conversation: "I hadn't even turned around & she had it in 3 pieces.", "She is a bit of a drama queen, isn't she?", "Is she like this at home?" and my personal favorite, "She'll outgrow her energy-she's just a puppy." SHE IS 7!! She would make a terrible criminal; she just posed with the evidence. She is a lucky girl because Gabs would never let her go down by herself.

Trying to take his monthly blanket picture still proves to be a challenge. He did sit, but no smile.

I tried to keep him stationary with a toy on the blanket, which looks a little awkward, but how cute is this expression?

We took him to the park last week & he loved the swing! NoniBop takes him there during the week, so he is an old pro.

I am not sure if he loves Brandon or the swing more. Who am I kidding? Brandon wins above all else.

A new toy at GG's! Plus, rocking it out in the wifebeater.

Anderson loves some America. Seriously, I bought this inflatable Uncle Sam to hang out in my classroom & Pops inflated him for me. He is 5 feet tall which is basically my height & he has brought a whole new level of patriotism to my room. There was a brief time where he was being used as the hall pass, which led to random Uncle Sam sightings. My students would say, "I saw Uncle Sam outside my Algebra class." or "Was Uncle Sam walking through lunch today?" I figure he will make a fun pool toy for Anderson next summer, too.

This is a hilarious video of Anderson moving a chair all the way across the kitchen. Brandon had him rearranging the furniture while I was at the Farragut game. It is 4 minutes long, so I had to upload it to youtube. Here is the link...let me know if it doesn't work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLQyp2birNY

Here is a video from when we went to Birmingham a few weeks ago. It is Anderson with Lily's walking toy, but I mostly like it because of our 7 conversations going on in the background. I think Zack is the only one actually paying attention to Anderson.

Anderson is 8 months!!

Anderson turned 8 months last week & I have been trying since then to get his monthly update picture. It has not gone well. 42 pictures, 6 signs, 3 outfits & a week later, this is the best I could do.

This is what most of them ended up looking like-a blur of giggliness. That, of course, is not a bad thing.

I thought a change of scenery would yield some better results.

Anderson started school!! Ok, so it's Mother's (Noni's) Day Out, but it is pretty official! Look at his name on a frog! Like a real student! Those are the names of all of his little friends on the other frogs. With his teacher! He looks very confused because he fell asleep in the car & he woke up being held by someone he didn't know having camera flashes in his face. He also looks adorable, so that makes up for the confused expression. Aunt Cole made his onesie-it has a little a on the pocket! He is the youngest one in his class because it is 8-12 months right now. He actually turned 8 months on the 1st day of school. They will stay together (friends) all year & then move up together next year. While I dearly love my own infant, I cannot imagine a more terrifying job than being trapped in a room with 8 of them. Thank goodness there are people with more patience than me.

Anderson at 8 months: He is definitely losing interest in the baby food situation. He has started eating little finger foods- fruit, cheese, cheerios. The carb pieces are the biggest hit. Finally, some proof he is related to me. He weighs 18lbs 13 oz and my current nickname for him is "Cheesy Beef". I cannot exactly remember the origin, but I think it was stinky-stinky cheese-cheese gordita-cheesy beef. I need to stop because he is starting to respond to it.

We took him to the eye doctor, thanks to Aunt Paula who told me about this free program for babies (infantsee-everyone should use it!), and found out he has a cataract! The doc wasn't too concerned, just told us to keep an eye on it. Is it wrong that I was secretly hoping for a patch? My perfect little pirate....

He is pulling up, cruising on everything! He is so mobile & basically has access to everything now so there is lots of chasing. Also, I am pretty sure Santa is going to bring the boy a real toy box because the canvas box I bought to hold blankets is not quite the same.

He is always so helpful. Organizing the fridge shelves while I put up the groceries.

He still is a great sleeper at night. I will thank you once more, crying it out!! He goes to bed about 7ish & is up about 6.

A couple of things about this picture. First, my cousin, Shannon, had the genius idea to make a set of keys with just blank keys from Wal Mart for her son & I totally stole the idea. He seriously loves them. Second, how cute are the orange shoes? They are little loafers that were Lily's first. We like to keep our Vol allegiance in the family. Third, you will notice the changing pad is gone. It actually left us a few weeks ago & could've been gone even sooner. Changing his diaper is the most exhausting part of the day. I have to stretch going into it or I am sore for days. We quickly realized that no amount of distracting (even with the keys) can keep him still. I have to basically put my knee on his chest to hold him down for diaper changes & that doesn't really happen on a changing pad. On his first day at school his teacher said she realized quickly she has to change him on the floor. I think the fact that his 1st ever "teacher comment" was about his energy is a little more proof that he got my genes.

Aunt Manda sent a present (it was a few weeks ago) & he LOVED the box. Played with it all night. He also liked the things inside of it, but the box was the big hit.

Anderson has become really obsessed with Brandon. They play all of the time & Brandon can get him to laugh better than anyone. If he didn't love me the most, I might be a little jealous.

Well, it's a good thing I got the cabinet lock thing. Obviously, it is really working well.

Here is a little video that proves again his undying love for Brandon & shows his FAVORITE pasttime-playing on the bed! He loves to do this. Please note that I do not make my bed. While this makes my mom cringe (she loves to make a bed), I think it works out well for Anderson.

katniss is my hero

You know what I'm talking about if you have been lucky enough to visit the Arena with her in the Hunger Games trilogy. I love, love a book & there are many that capture my attention, but life in Panem has really monopolized my thoughts for a good while. Props to Nicole for getting me hooked (and, subsequently, all of my students-my copies are being rotated around my classes with a waiting list!)Teddy Roosevelt once said, "Reading for me is like a disease." Oh, how true. It is the most addictive, consuming thing in the world, a good book. I love it.

Bham

Anderson, Noni, Bop & I made a trip to visit the fam in Alabama over the weekend. We got some really good pictures of the cousins. Mom said she didn't care what it looked like, she just wanted a picture of the 4 of them. I am pretty sure she wasn't expecting something this awesome.

He was pretty good in the car. Traveling with Noni definitely provides sanity for everyone (me). I bought him these foam bath toys at Target & he loves them! You get a bunch of letters & numbers so I have stashed them everywhere. You never know when you need a distraction.

I literally laughed all weekend at Lily. She is such a little person & it is hilarious. She got her seat out, went to the pantry & got some cookies and sat down with the remote. Being 17 months seems like a pretty sweet gig.

Discussing the UT game.

The only sad part of the trip was the fact that Anderson got sick with a sinus infection. Pitiful. I guess I shouldn't complain because he didn't get sick until he was 8 months old, but it is really awful. I really wish it was instinct to know how to blow your nose because I am terrible with the nose sucker thing. Also, it is so hard to get him to eat. He never was a big fan of the bottle, but now with his snottiness it is really bad. It is exciting if he eats 1 oz.

Because he was sick, Anderson got to wear the "Noah" shirt. It's like a family heirloom. (see the shot below of Lily from Jan.) It just makes you feel better to wear it. He did love all of his gifts from Aunt Manda, too!

It took Lily a few minutes to realize he was in her tub, but when she did it did not go well.

Go Vols!! I just like this outfit.

Aunt Cole supported the Vols, too. Of course.

He wanted his Uncle Zack/Godfather to hold him & then Lily spotted another baby in Za's arms & was on it. He managed well with both of them. Such a good uncle.


Because I am a really mean mom, we kept tricking Anderson.

Fun.

Yes, I took pictures instead of helping him. He is a big boy & needs to figure these things out himself. Plus, it was funny.