A post all about Eric... for those of you going through withdrawals...

So I realized that I haven't been posting as much about Eric. Lately I've been working on this blog to get it ready. So here are lots of pictures of Eric and what he's been up to.

So Eric really likes being on his tummy now (but not as much as he likes standing and being in his jumper.) This is how being on his tummy has been working lately:
I put him on his tummy, and start doing something (close by so I can keep an eye on him),
I look away for a few seconds/minutes and come back to this: (you'll need to see how he is oriented on the blanket by the pictures on it)
Look away again for a few minutes...
and again... He looks at me with those georgeous eyes... isn't he just so cute?
Let's me know he's not so happy I'm ignoring himThis is Eric laying on his back...
He has started arching his back (he does this a lot when he first wakes up and stretches, but it is a newer thing for him to do while playing.)
He also likes his feet up in the air...
And to grab at his feet that are in the air...
and hold onto his feet (or foot)...
And to hold onto his feet (really he loves this)
Then he arches his back again.
Plays with his toys...
Waits for me to not look, and then...
yep he's on his tummy, not his back. He's started turning over when I lay him down to sleep as well. He's only fallen asleep on his tummy a couple of times, so far... He usually does pretty good when I flip him back over.

I also have to occasionally move him so he's not off the blanket, or I just use a bigger blanket. He's started to be able to move forward a bit, which is not good considering we still have a pile of boxes in our living room... and will until we move again (no later than Sept. 30).

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures of Eric, he's doing great! And he's as cute as ever :)

Cooking Blog

So, I've started a new blog. Why? Good question, but basically I wanted to do cooking posts and thought that a separate blog would work best. Plus I have a different profile for that one and it is available for the whole world. I will not be putting any personal identifiers on it besides my first name.

So all of you that want to follow a blog about my cooking, feel free to go to http://crystalscozykitchen.blogspot.com/ and check it out. I think that I pretty much have it sorted out how I want it. I will be posting 3 times per week, with Recipe posts on Thursday and sometimes on Tuesdays. All comments are going to be moderated so there won't be objectionable comments posted. So, head on over and check it out and tell me what you think. If you know of some one who may like it, please feel free to forward the address to anyone.

Our collection

Hello, My Name is Crystal and I play boardgames...
Hello, My Name is Daniel and I play boardgames...

So what happens when two people who love to play boardgames get together? Well, they play boardgames. When you get two people who love to play boardgames together and they move far away from family and it takes them a while to make friends, and all of the sudden their income is doubled for a short time (and they learn about great online stores with discounts on boardgames with free shipping on orders over so many $$), this may be the result...

For those of you curious about our collection, it can be viewed here (with Daniels comments) or here (with my comments).

We started out buying games to celebrate achievements (getting a job, birthdays, etc) in our lives, instead of going out to eat. We decided that instead of paying for one meal (not fast food) where we ate too much for our good we would buy a game of around the same price and it would last a lot longer. I will admit that we may have went a little overboard after moving to Madison, but I don't think that we really realized how many games we owned until we tried to pack them when we moved 3 weeks ago!

Eric at 4 Months

So we went for Eric's 4 month check up on the 16th. He was 15 lbs and 14 ounces and 25 inches long. He's in the 70th percentiles all across the board. He's growing up great! He is also getting some of his hair back, but it isn't as long as at birth. Now for the pictures of Eric at 4 months (in no particular order)...

Eric with the Green Monkey... Compare at 3 Months, at 2 Months and at one month

Contemplating eating the blanket

Just eating away at the blanket...

His feet almost look like he's running away while eating the blanket.

Eric has been doing the hands off lifting his head up thing for a few weeks but this is the first picture I have of it. While he is doing this he usually has his feet off the floor as well and kicks like crazy. He also likes to lift his bum into the air while mashing his head into the floor, and then lets his bum down and pushes up with his hands... someday he'll figure out that he needs to lift his bum while doing the push-up, and then we'll need to seriously baby-proof our apartment.

Playing with the toy

Eric in his 'going home' outfit, I'm surprised it still fit! Compare to when he came home and to his one week pictures.

This is one of my favorites, he is just too cute!

Close up

Alfalfa Hair

So Eric's hair lately reminds us of Alfalfa from The Little Rascals, so we got some pictures of it...

Jump, Jump, Jump

So one great thing about our new apartment is that the doorways have molding, so we could put up a Johnny Jumper for Eric. He loves it! It is nice for me because the bedroom doorway is just across from our kitchen, so I can put him in it and cook breakfast or dinner (as long as I remember to talk to him!)
This video was taken the day after we got it as Eric was having fun.



This movie is so cute with Eric laughing, so I just has to post it!

Moving...

So this is probably going to be a longer post... but I have pictures to break it up ;). So packing and moving with a 3.5 month old is an interesting experience. Eric had some fun playing in the packing peanuts (with mommy's supervision since he's at the stage where he wants to put everything in his mouth.)
In the middle of packing and trying to find a place to live, Daniel went for a job interview... Here's Eric's first time at an airport:
We were so glad to see Daddy again, even though he had only been gone for a little over 24 hours!

So Moving day came and we weren't quite ready to move (having been trying to find a place to move into as well). The Elders Quorum had some people come help us move, and honestly I'm not sure how many people showed up because it felt that every time I turned around another person was there to help. They helped us by getting boxes and packing the rest of the stuff we hadn't gotten to yet. It made it go so quick. Eric wasn't so happy with all the commotion and needed to be held or else he would start wailing. One of our neighbors and her teenage (I think) daughter came over and the daughter held Eric for a while so I could get some stuff done. It was awesome to see how much help we got. It made it so we actually were finished cleaning our apartment by 11:30 that night (since we techincally had until midnight to be out it worked out great!)

Some of the guys also helped us unload at our new apartment. Daniel got some pictures shortly after we moved in of what it looked like. Let's just say moving a 2-bedroom apartment into a 1-bedroom apartment isn't such a fun thing.


So these pictures show most of it, but what isn't as apparent is the complete lack of floor space that we had. We were climbing over boxes and stuff to get anywhere in our apartment. Luckily now we have a pile of boxes that we are not unpacking in one corner and actually have room to move around. And yes that is our whole kitchen in the picture just above. I think that is one of the hardest things for me (I am trying to look at the bright side as now I have a normal sized oven and we have a half-sized dishwasher - the first dishwasher Daniel and I have had in our 3.5 years of marriage!)

After moving, we were beat, Daniel took advantage of our one couch cushion that was in the right place here...
Lastly I have to say a big THANK YOU to all those who have helped us in our move. And no we still don't know what we're doing, but at least we have a place to live until the end of September.

And we're back...

So after what feels like living in the dark ages, we're back! We would have been connected on Monday but the phone jack in our living/dining room wasn't working, and after waiting until now to get it fixed and dealing without internet... we decided enough was enough and moved the computer into our bedroom where our only working phone jack is located. YEY! I'll be making some more detailed posts in the coming week, including Eric's 4-month pictures.

Out of contact for a bit

We'll be out of contact for a bit due to no internet currently set up in our apartment. The move went well, we're so grateful for all those who helped us! If it weren't for them we'd still be moving stuff!