Welcome back to me!

Sorry guys.
In our defense, I will say that the past three months have been absolutely insane. Our transmission blew up, we bought a new car, Will and I got the stomach flu, James got food poisoning, Will got three new teeth, we went on vacation... I'm sure that there a couple other things in there too.

So anyway, here's the updates:
Congratulations to Matt and Kylie! They have a new little boy named Jonah.
Congratulations to Eddie and Andrea! They have a new little boy named Thomas.
Congratulations to Mike and Cara! They're having a little one in February (my bet is a boy).
Congratulations to Adam and Amanda! They're having a little one in December AND they survived having James and me over for a week!

Yep, we went to California on vacation. Let the pictures commence!
First stop: Monterey Bay Aquarium. I've wanted to go to this place since I was 10 years old folks. Cool stuff:

You wouldn't think that jellyfish would be so photogenic, would you? The MBA has tons (literally) of cool stuff-- sea and river otters, penguins, frogs, seahorses, sharks, and these wonderful touch tables-- you can pet urchins (SOFTLY), starfish, and various other invertebrates. They have one pool where you can pet stingrays. They feel wonderful-- not scaly like you'd think, but like very thick, short, wet velvet on a rubber backing.
After the aquarium we drove down the beach a bit and visited tide pools and this place called Moss Landing. Wonderful sand and waves, plus these little critters called sand crabs that you can dig up if you follow a wave.

We also went to Yosemite National Park. It's gorgeous! Here's a few pictures to prove it (also to prove that I did in fact swim in Yosemite--scratch that, Merced-- River):



A couple pictures of Will to finish things off. Oh, for those who are wondering, there aren't pictures of James because he took them all:)-- except these pictures of Will. I'll claim credit for those:)

Yargh!!

So our transmission blew up.
No,it really blew up. As in, big ol' hole in the side, with debris and transmission fluid scattered across the freeway. MAN I hate cars. At least horses don't spontaneously combust. Usually.

Picture Bonanza

Without further ado...

Revelation!

So, my sweet little baby has recently moved his wake-up time: from 7-7:30 back to 6, 6:30, back to 5:30. Stinks for me. So as I was changing is diaper this morning, thinking, "What next, 4:30?" this thought popped into my head. Actually, it was a page from a book I'd read when we were trying to teach him to sleep at all (by Dr. Ferber. GREAT BOOK.). On said page was a table showing how much sleep a case study baby was getting. Her parents said she wasn't sleeping enough at night, but when you looked at the table, you saw that the baby was getting 15-16 hours of sleep in one day and night... she was just napping a lot. She didn't need to sleep any more than she was at night.
And the light comes on! Will naps really well. It used to be that he'd nap two times a day, maybe three if he'd had a rough day. But lately (say, since the whole move-back thing started) he's been doing 3 or 4 naps a day. And they've been good long naps too.
You know, you'd think this would have occurred to me earlier. Just goes to show what the humility brought on by sleep deprivation can do for you!

Theeeey're OFF!

YES!

I hate being sick

That's all. I just hate being sick.

Home

We found a coffee table book called Spectacular Alaska. I just finished looking through it. MAN I miss home. I know that home is where my family is... but there's something about Alaska.