With the babe, there is ALWAYS something new that's going on with him. The constant change happening before your eyes makes the sometimes monotonous life of a mommy so exciting. A few days ago Josh noticed Morgan's very first tooth coming through. Josh was rubbing some fluoride that the doctor had given us on Morgan's gums and he felt it. He yelled at me to come and feel it/see it and there it was! SO cute. I do feel like the teething thing has him more on edge, but he's still a generally happy little guy.
See?

A video of the goobs were you can actually see him. Neat, right?

Shout outs:

-Jaclyn! I'm so happy you're here! You are awesome. I must commend your performance in Settlers of Catan last night. Well done.

-Turek Clan! Lunch was way fun and it was soooo good to see you guys.

-Ikea! Thank you for being so family friendly. I'm so impressed with the free diapers in the bathroom situation. And wipes. Also thank you for the array of aesthetically pleasing yet practical products you offer.

-Kira and Austin! I'm so happy you guys are back in town. Your son is so great. So are you guys. I look forward to more hang outage in the near future. Our sons are going to be best buds, pretty much.


-Joshie! I love you. so. much.

The Cuteness

Yes, the cuteness is Morgan of course.
Even though a part of me feels sad that he's getting older all the time, I truly feel like he's just getting cuter and cuter. I would, right? Seeing him understand more and more about what goes on around him is so neat. I love that he gets all excited to see me. I also love how he has all these different moods now. Sometimes he's just in his own little world playing with a toy (or touching the tag on a toy over and over), sometimes he wants to giggle and have fun, sometimes he just wants to roll all the way across the room, and sometimes he wants to sleep or eat.
He's just such a fun boy.

Today he was so fascinated by the mirror. He's been interested in looking at himself in a mirror for a few months now, but just recently he's been loving it more. Looking in the mirror always makes him smile. I feel like he was in the "his own little world" mood today where it seems like he's learning more by the second as he was looking at himself.


He gets SO fascinated by tags on things.

(Josh's Post)

Hey Heather- I wanted to ask you out on a special date in a fun and spontaneous way- I felt like the blog was a perfect place to do so. Anyway the date is Friday September 9th at 5pm- if you choose to accept you'll need to wear something nice-ish, but you always dress great so that won't be an issue- you'll also need an empty stomach. Will you please acompany me on this most amazing date?

Finally!

Ok, so I finally made a changing pad cover. Yay!
The tutorial I used was really great- you can find it here. I just used fabric I already had so the accent fabric at the top is smaller than it should be, but it was fun to make and I'm pretty happy with it!



Also, Morgan is getting a lot better at sitting up on his own!

More Montana

Ok, you know I have to add my two cents about our awesome trip. And of course pictures. Josh did do an amazing and quite poetic job of describing our trip though, so I don't have too much to say.

I feel like we are getting to be pros at traveling with a baby. Well I guess the main thing that has made it easier is giving the boy bottles rather than the boob. I totally miss nursing him but he's decided he's getting too old for it I guess and he just started weening himself off. ANYWAYS, we had a thermos with hot water that we could warm breastmilk in or make formula with. I just stuck my arm back there and fed him while he was in his car seat. So slick. He really didn't slow us down at all.

Hanging out with my grandparents was just so wonderful. Of course my favorite part was how much they loved to be with Morgan. My Grandma got down on the floor to play with him and everything. I loved that! They both had a lot of fun with him. I wish I would have gotten a picture with them. Man. Next time.

My mom happened to be in Montana at the same time, visiting her mom in Bozeman- my other Grandma (who is also a stellar person- I'm a very lucky grandchild).  Mom came up to see us for a night on her way back to Washington. I was SO glad I got to hang out with my mom for a little bit too.



As Josh said, we did get to see some bears on our little outing to West Glacier. I wish I could say they were legitimately wild, but that would be a lie. We went to this place where we could drive around amongst black bears- I think it was called "The Great Bear Adventure", or something like that. It's a step up from the zoo because there aren't any cages, they walk on the road by your car. I had actually been there before years ago, and I remembered it being fun, so I wanted to go with Josh. He was pretty nervous, haha, but we really enjoyed it.




Here's Josh masking his fear with a smile-
(The bear is that black blob in the trees)


So we stopped at this place on the way to Glacier. We planned on hanging out at Glacier for an hour or two then heading back to Grandma and Grandpas. They were kind enough to watch Morgan while we went on this awesome date. The thing is, we didn't realize how spendy getting into the park was- $25! Since we were only going to stay a very short time, it wasn't worth it. Plus, we missed Morgan. (We kind of love that kid. A LOT.) So we turned around but stopped and got some huckleberry pie to make our Montana cultural experience more complete.


It was yummy.



Remember how I said I didn't have much to say? I know- lies.
But pretty much we had a great time.
Morgan started some new tricks there like crinkling his nose and more kinds of squeaks and squawks.
I would also like to mention the s'more with Reese's are delicious- my grandparents are geniuses!
Here's Joshie and I on the boat~


Me and Morgan in the token place on the deck. Isn't he HUGE?!

Josh's Take on the Montana Adventure

Montana was so great.  I've never been to The Treasure State and I found that it certainly does contain a bountiful booty of FUN. In addition, I had the pleasure of playing Ladder Golf with two of the best golf ball slingers in this century; Bob and Ginny Halgren. I've never played the game before, but watching and playing with these two professionals lit a fire deep inside me which has continued to grow- I realize now that my calling is to learn everything I can about Ladder Golf. It's hard to know what the most enjoyable activity was with all the S'mores, Bob's fantastic lake tour, the copious amount of watermelon, Ginny's card skills along with her super automatic shuffling robot with the capacity to take over the world, and the ferociously domesticated bears we saw on the drive to West Glacier (I really wanted to see wolverines, but lazy bears were a fine and memorable substitute). 
I think I realized what Montana was about when Heather and I stopped in Lima, MT (my first stop in Montana) to fill up the car. A prospectoresque man came up to me and just started talking to me about where I was from as I pulled the trigger on the nozzle to fill up the Ford. He did most of the talking as I was too mesmerised by his welcoming bright blue eyes, his silky long white beard, his decayed grin, and his lack of fingers. He told a lot of jokes, and he creeped me out a lot too. But Mike (his name) was a friendly soul and he showed me that Montana was about creepy bearded old people, and also that it's about having good times. Heather's always talked about the lake throughout the 2 years we've been married. It is quite the place- but even more than the place, what made the trip so unforgettable was the character of the most loving grandparents/grandparents-in-law/great grandparents. It was a blessing to spend a majority of the week with Bob and Ginny (and Pam too for a bit) - we loved our trip to Montana- and we love them too. thanks Bob and Ginny. 

Road Triiiiiiiip!

         I'm typing this post from my brand spanking new MacBook Pro. It's so beautiful!  I still can't believe it's mine. I actually don't know anything about macs but I'm having fun learning. I just got it yesterday. I received a lovely monetary gift from my grandparents that made it possible. I've been using Josh's little netbook for the past few months because my old laptop (which I really loved and is hard to part with) has a broken battery adapter port- which has already been fixed and broke again. So sad. But.. hello gorgeous new mac!

       I'de like to backtrack a little though, to the purchasing experiance of said mac. So Josh, Morgan and I head to our local Mac store. I had done my research (on MacBook Pro vs. the Air) and knew which one I wanted. So we know what we want, get our/Josh's student discount (woo), and bam, it's mine. We bring it home and Josh sets it up for me. Well, tried. When he turned the computer on it wouldn't leave the welcome screen. The pointer icon thingy was in thinking mode and it seemed to be frozen. It was so dissapointing. We were watching our friends Tyler and Erika's way cute baby that evening so I had to leave Josh with two babies to go back to the store.  They gave me a new one which was good. When I got home and we opened it, we realized that the previous one didn't have a lot of the original packaging. I was a little amped that they would give us a returned or refurbished computer without noticing when we dropped so much moolah for it. But in the end, I have my beautiful new, (legitimately new) functioning mac and am loving it. 

        But also what's neat about me typing this post is that I am in a car on the way to Montana! Off to visit Grandma and Grandpa Halgren. Josh posted that little piece of info last night about our trip. It's kind of spur of the moment, I just was thinking Monday morning about how we planned to visit Grandma and Grandpa next summer and how I excited I was. But then I started thinking about how I wanted to go sooner than that. And it was plausible with the aforementioned monetary gift. But if we were to go sooner than next summer, the next 2 weeks were our only options, since Josh would be in school. And next week Josh is working a ton so the only option was… this week. I couldn't get the thought to go out of my head. Luckily Josh is amazing and was down with my crazy hair-brained schemes. He found people to cover his 2 shifts at work, and it was set. 

      I love visiting my grandparents. They are the kindest, funnest people ever. They live on a lake and I have SUCH fun memories of being up there throughout my childhood. We would go a few times a year. We would fish, boat, paddleboat, 4 wheel, roast s'mores, go on walks to the meadow, and play tons of games. I don't think a place could get much funner. It's funny now though, Josh and I are mostly looking forward to relaxing more than anything else. Relaxing with my awesome grandparents. Some fishing and 4 wheeling may happen, but we'll see. I'm excited for Morgan to experience new sights and sounds and be able to hang out with his great-grandparents more. 

I'm sure I'll blog it up after the trip about our adventures!

Josh's Post

Montana bound in T minus 9 hours.

August = Summer Almost Gone

      It's not really August, right? Tell me it's not. I mean I'm cool with fall and everything- I actually love fall- but it's just that the past.. oh, 6 months (and 5 days), have gone by SO fast. It was February in my head until about May. I hear that's somewhat normal for new moms though, so hopefully I'm not going TOO psycho.
     Another reason why this summer has gone by so fast is that Josh and I have stayed really busy. We went to Washington (<3) in May to get the boy blessed and visit family, and then last month for Josh's brother Joey's wedding. Going home to Washington is a wonderful thing- we LOVE our family and all. And they sure love Morgan... and us too I guess :). But going home can sure be hectic. Being married to someone from the same hometown should make things easy breezey, right? In some ways. But going home to visit can get crazy- trying to fit in time in equal-ish amounts with our two families, and trying to see friends keeps us so busy while we're there. Four or five days is definitley not enough time. So we are very, very excited to be there more permanently in about a year. Yay! And thinking about Josh being done with school makes me so happy. He didn't take any classes this summer, which was so nice. He goes back to the daily grind in just a couple weeks though. My days of being spoiled with so much time with him will end. Very sad.
      Also what has kept us busy is this huge project of cleaning out and de-clutttering our apartment. Josh had been super hardcore about it and he's been working really hard at getting rid of every single thing he doesn't need. He is doing the 100 thing challenge, except I think he is doing 99 things. Totally "one-upped" Dave Bruno. At first I was a little hesitant about his seemingly hair-brained scheme of living so minimally. But.. I'm totally on boared now. We've gotten rid of TONS of stuff. Seriously, so much stuff. It's really amazing. And it feels so good.
      So along with our attempts at minimalism we've tried to make our place look really good too. I made some pillow covers that I believe to be awesome. We also spent some of our birthday money on some sweet stuff at Ikea- new lamp, curtains, bedspread, side tables ($8) and sweet little lamps by our bed.


I was so excited to discover how to make ruffles!

View from the front door...



I just love the lamp shade. Super cute, right? Am I boring you guys yet?


Cute quilty bedspread from ikea. I love quilts. I want to use the one my grandma made us for our wedding present but I'm too scared to ruin it. But I totally want to learn to quilt someday.




And finally, I have to display the sweet lamp. I mean there's not much to it, but thats what I like. It's really cool because it's all one glass piece.

Yes, those are earplugs. Snorage does happen. And don't worry, somehow with my mom superpowers I can still hear Morgan.

Sorry if I bored you... kind of. But not really. Because this is some sweet shiz.

Giggles

    Ok, I love Morgan's giggles SO much. They always make me genuinely laugh too- it's pure joy. He's giggling more and more which is so fun. We've probably had three good gigglefests today.
    I need to get better footage of his giggles but I wanted to post a video I took last night. Morgan took a nap close to his bedtime so Josh and I were wondering if he was down for the night, but when we checked on him he was just so happy to see us. Josh took him out of bed, and I think he was pretty excited to be with us. I should have started at the beginning of his giggly mood, it was kind of winding down but you get the idea of how adorable it is. Sorry I was a complete idiot and it's all sideways! haha. I promise I'll post a better one soon. Also, I wish I could edit out my voice... pretty annoying...

The Doc

     Morgan had his 6 month appointment this morning. We love our pediatrician; he is awesome. I like how it seems like Morgan is his favorite, even though I'm sure he makes every single patient (or patient's mother) feel that way. The poor boy had to get shots today. That is always rough... more so for me than him I think. He screams when it happens but calms down really quickly. I'm so glad Josh could come with me since he didn't work today, that's always SO nice. I'm pretty dang spoiled having Josh around for the whole day every other day now...
   Morgan has gained about a pound and a half from when I took him in a week and a half ago because I was worried about his eating. I've been supplementing with some bottles and it's been a good move, I think. Even though now of course I'm afraid he'd always rather have a bottle than nurse, but the main thing is that I get enough food in him and he's healthy.
    So, here are the stats:
    Length: 26.5 inches, 53 %tile
    Weight: 17.04 lbs, 42 %tile
    Head Circumference: 17.5 inches, 70 %tile.

    So he's all around fairly average, with a slightly big noggin. But I sure love that noggin.
How could I not?





   

I Love Us

Family pictures from May. Tiffany Parrish did a great job.




The goober is eating solids (funny that they call them that) now!

This is really happening, people!

      Ok, we are really gonna do the blog thing. I'm excited about it. I think it's a great way to keep in the know with family and friends. And especially with the little guy around, there is usually some sort of new thing or excitement going on. So... truth be told most of it will probably be about him. Just warning you.
     So the question in, what's going on with the Perry's right now? Josh is working at the place I used to work- sort of. I worked at Maple Lake Academy, which is a residential treatment center for girls. It's a little different than other residential treatment centers in that it focuses on nonverbal learning disorders and Asperger's Syndrome. Kind of those issues that greatly affect social skills. There's a lot of auditory processing issues and ADD and ADHD and things of that nature too. But anyways, Maple Lake Academy opened up a school for boys in June and Josh is working there.He is a "mentor", which means he just goes though the boys' schedule with them and makes sure they're doing what they are supposed to. He's really loving it. He is seriously the perfect guy for the job. Seriously. He's really great at connecting with people, communicating, holding boundaries, teaching, and being hilarious. Those are all essential qualities for the job.
      I get to hang out with Morgan all day! He's just the best little guy ever. It's so fun to have a little buddy all the time. I mean, he has grumpy times, but even those are adorable. He hasn't been liking nap time a ton, but at least he sleeps GREAT at night. Usually 10 hours straight. I'm one lucky mama! He's been on sort of eating strike and only nurses for 5 minutes or less at a time so that's been stressing me out. I took him the doctor since I was so worried and the doctor said it was pretty normal for him to go through phases like that. I worry about his weight gain but if the doctor says not to worry, I should probably take his advice...
     Morgan has his 6 month appointment tomorrow! It completely blows my mind that the boy is 6 months. Wow. I'm excited to get all of his stats tomorrow but not for the shots. I'll probably post about how it goes!