Maryland, here comes Alistair!

Only one picture today. We're still on dial-up, so that's a miracle. The mobile version of blogger doesn't allow picture uploads, so I haven't been able to blog from my blackberry. But here's a quick update to hold you over a few more weeks:

Noah got an amazing job in Maryland (Washington, DC area) so we're moving again. He started 3 weeks ago and Alistair and I are stil in PA. We are driving to MD tomorrow to find a house. So, hopefully, the move will be happening in the next 2-3 weeks! (Faster internet!)

Alistair has been amazing! He is growing so fast and developing VERY well! His 6 month check up was march 17th and he was still VERY tall for his age, but about average for weight. (Figures we would have a tall, skinny kid, huh?!) The doctor said that his strength and gross motor skills are "ahead of the game." He sits up, waves, rasberries and "army crawls" with the best of 'em. He eats meats now, which he LOVES! He is eating 3 meals a day of baby food and has "puffs" (which he feeds himself) and juice for snacks. AND...I am VERY proud to say....he's still nursing too! He now has 5 teeth and there's at least one more that should be popping up in the next day or so.

Much to get done so, in closing, I would like to thank EVERYONE at Nittany Christian School! You guys are AMAZING. I feel like I'm leaving my family and my very best friends. Thank you for welcoming us to State College with open arms and loving me and Alistair so much! We will miss you more than words can say. We have been truly blessed to have you in our life! God Bless You, Terra, Ann, Kylie, Abigail, Amanda, Holly, Beth, Cherelle, Krissy, Heather, and Kris (aka Girlfriend). We know you read the blog and we will visit!

Alistair at 7 months enjoying a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon in the woods:

To Ohio and back in 24 hours!

Alistair and Mommy spent 24 hours in Ohio this weekend. Here's what happened:


ALISTAIR AND COUSIN BRANDON


WITH GREAT-GRANDMA MILLER AND MILLIE


GREAT-GRANDPAP MILLER SHARES HIS "HOKIE POKIE ELMO"


WAKE UP UNCLE MARK!


MEETING COUSIN WILL....YAY.....FINALLY!!!


MEETING AUNT ANN


PLAYING WITH COUSIN BRAD


ALISTAIR AND HIS GREAT-GRANDMA CENTRIC


OUR LITTLE FAMILY BEFORE WE LEFT FOR OHIO


BEST BUDDIES ALREADY!


GRANDMA'S BOYS!!!


GREAT-GRANDMA MILLER


GREAT-GRANDPAP MILLER

Updates!

Greetings, loyal blog readers! Thank you for being so patient! We are still running on dial-up. Verizon does not have DSL in our neighborhood, but we recently signed up enough families to get it installed, so faster internet is on it's way! But for now.........

Alistair turned 5 months old! And he is bigger by the minute! He is advancing rapidly. Pushing up and his hands, getting up on his knees.....but having a little trouble doing both at the same time. He is more and more coordinated everyday, so he will be crawling soon. (Now we have to figure out where to put the dog bowls!)

He had a bout with bonchialitis and was on nebulizer treatments 4 x's a day for 2 weeks. THANKFULLY, he is feeling MUCH better! It was pure torture having to watch him be so miserable when I couldn't do anything for him. I don't know if it was harder on him or us!? In the middle of all that, Alistair and Noah dealt with a stomach bug.

During his sickness, he was also teething pretty seriously. He cut his 2 bottom teeth at 4 1/2 months old! We started dabbling with some foods around 4 months and he loved it until he got sick. So for about 2 weeks he didn't want to see a spoon. But, now he's chowing down again....and we are still successfully breastfeeding! I'm so proud of my little man!


Footnote: I turned 24 last Sunday.......and Noah got a job! We FINALLY feel like we're settling in! :)

blackberry

Well, I was finally up for my phone upgrade woth at&t, so I got a sweet deal on a new blackberry. The internet speed on this thing is better than dial-up! So, the blog is back!

I'll get better at this and we'll be up and running! Yay! About to make dinner, so I'll blog more later!

SCHOOL!

I started working this past week and Alistair starting going to school. The GREAT news is my job is in the infant room at Nittany Christian School and Alistair is in my class!!!! IT IS WONDERFUL!!!!! I LOVE the job and it is an added bonus that I have my little man there all day with me! No going off to work worrying if someone is taking good care of him! He resisted the bottles at first, but is doing MUCH MUCH better now! If he is hungry when it's time for my lunch break, I take him with me to nurse. If not, I pump more milk for him to eat in the afternoon! I couldn't ask for anything more! It is good for him too! He's at a great age to learn that other people can take care of him, and they do! He is also VERY interested in the other babies....he's the youngest one in our class.

More GREAT news!!!!! Alistair has started rolling over! He did it for the first time Friday morning and is just having a blast with his new-found skill! However, he's only figured out rolling back over once, so he gets mad at me if I leave him on his tummy and I have to roll him back over! (He has NEVER liked tummy time.)

I wish I could blog more, but this dial-up is killing me. We will have a better connection soon and I will catch everyone up on the latest pictures!

We're here!

We arrived in PA on Tuesday night and have been VERY busy settling in since. The only internet connection we can get right now is dial-up, so it's gonna be slow-going with the blog for a few weeks.

I am unable to upload pictures....please check back.

On with a New Chapter!

Well, here we are! We move tomorrow! We will be in PA by tomorrow night and moving into our new place on Tuesday! So far everything is going well, we're finishing the packing today and there really isn't much more to do. Alistair has been an angel! He loves to play by himself and look out the window, so he has allowed Mommy to get a lot done the past few days.

I will be off the air for a few days, so here's some Alistair to hold you over until I can blog again!

Alistair always seems to be naked before Gnu Gnu gets him:


He's really gonna miss Aunt Jen:


This is what happened after Thanksgiving dinner:


Visiting Anne and Kelly one more time:


Alistair LOVES camping out (our beds were packed up):


Ralphy's ready to go...Hey, Ralphy, Alistair is going to need that!

Packing Fury!

Well, Happy Thanksgiving! This will be the first Thanksgiving since we were married that Noah and I haven't hosted the holiday meal. That's somewhat depressing for me, since Thanksgiving is my specialty. (I've been known to host a Thanksgiving meal in July just so I could cook.) But, THANK GOD Noah's sister is hosting the meal this year and I've been asked to help! I thought I was going to lose my mind if I didn't get to have a Thanksgiving. We're looking forward to spending some time with Jennifer before we move. Gail and Rocky are coming too! There will plenty of Turkey, Hungarian Stuffing, pies and attention for Alistair!

Well, our apartment is almost completely packed up and our living room is full of boxes. We've been hard at work trying to get everything ready to go on the truck on Monday. It is hard to believe that after all of the waiting, planning and excitement our move is FINALLY here! (Well, in about 4 days.) The opportunity to start over is a breath of fresh air. Finally, we're going to live somewhere we WANT to live. Finally, we're making a move without the thought in the back of our minds, "we'll have to move again in 3 years or so." It is sad to leave so many great friends behind, but our door is ALWAYS open for visitors and I'm sure we'll be back to Virginia every now and then.

I must get some work done while the little man sleeps! Thanks for checking in!

Alistair Slept Through the Night!

After 2 1/2 months of parenthood it's a great feeling to wake up at 6:30am to the delightful sound of a cooing baby and realize you've been asleep for 7 hours! We got up, Alistair ate, then played himself out again:


Hangin' out with Daddy (Frank is never far):


Looking handsome in my outfit from Cousin Jamie:


Frank guards his sleeping puppy:


If Bostons could climb trees, Frank would have caught that squirrel:

Imagine waking up to a wet fist to the nose....

So, when we were in PA last week, Alistair did A LOT of sleeping in the car. This confused him, so that he thought he was suppossed to be awake in the middle of the night! Also, he has recently taken to sucking on his hands....ALL THE TIME! So, since he was sleeping between us in PA, we were kept awake by him kicking all the blankets off and punching us with his wet fists! EWWW.....
Hence, his new nickname, "Mr. Kicky-Punchy!"

HERE'S PROOF OF HIS FURY:

HURRICANE ALISTAIR HITS CENTRAL PA

We left on Tuesday morning to go to Pennsylvania to find a place to live! We stopped en route at Andrews Air Force Base to visit Noah's dad.
Here's Alistair with his Pappy at AAFB:


After a LOOONNNNNGGGG day in State College and Bellefonte Wednesday wandering around, looking at houses and even being stood up by one realtor, we returned to Port Royal for Aunt Sue's birthday dinner!

Alistair LOVES Cousin Jamie:


Alistair with his Great-Grammie Brackbill:


Thursday, we got going a little earlier and delivered some resumes first thing. This happened a little quicker than the day before, since we now know how to get around! We were done so quick that we had time to stop at Nittany Mall, get Alistair out of his carseat and walk around a little bit. We met with ANOTHER realtor in Bellefonte and looked at 2 more houses. We were a little discourged after that, but decided to call a number we saw on the side of a house on route 322 earlier that day. GOOD THING WE DID! We went to see that one, a duplex. IT WAS PERFECT FOR US! We were VERY exicted about it when we met Mitchell at Duffy's Tavern for a few beers.

Noah and his LOOOONG-time friend, Mitchell Dysinger (notice the boston terrier on the mantle behind them..hehehe):


After leaving Duffy's, we stopped back in at the duplex and gave the "boss man" the final word that we wanted that place!......
ON TO PORT ROYAL......
We met Gnu-Gnu and Grand-dude at Grammie Esh's house for dinner!

Gnu-Gnu perfects the art of baby tossing:


Alistair just LOVED all the affection from Gnu-Gnu and Dude:


This is Alistair with his Great-Grammie Esh:


Alistair was up EARLY Friday morning wanting to play, so we all got up!

We saw a bunch of turkeys outside the living room window:


Alistair was happy to have his very first bath in a kitchen sink:


Then, he was mad at Mommy for taking him out:


Daddy took his truck on one last run around the farm before parking it at the barn:


We visited Gnu-Gnu at her work on our way out of PA. We met a lot of her co-workers and she REALLY enjoyed showing him off, but there are no cameras allowed in her office. :(

And this is the pooped-out face we looked at all the way back to Virginia:


So, the trip was a GIANT whirlwind of events, but VERY successful! We got to see A LOT of family and a few friends, we found a place to live, and made HUGE strides in the job search! Everything is VERY promising! We will be moving out of our Virginia Beach apartment Nov. 26th and heading to PA for good. We'll post more details as we have them!

Pennsylvania!!!

We're heading to PA this morning to get some stuff set for when we move. We'll be there until Friday, so I'll have pics and posts when we return.

But, just to hold you over, here's Alistair with his friend, Anya, hanging out at Barnes and Noble. And at Sunday brunch with Uncle Steve at IHOP!

CHECK ME OUT!

CHECK OUT MY NEW CAMO PANTS AND BADASS SHOES!


THEN, WATCH ME SMILE AND GIGGLE AT MY NEW FAVORITE SOUND, "OOOOOOOOH!"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Dr. Visit & Milestones!

Well, Alistair had his 2 month visit this morning...actually, I couldn't get him in until the end of NOV, so I scheduled a "weight check" and then asked for all the 2 month stuff when we got there! Oooooo.... tricky, tricky, Mommy! Well, it worked and they went ahead and gave him his shots and check-up for me! HAHA!

Our little weed is 13 lbs, 2 oz and 24 inches long! That's the 91st percentile for height and weight! He got 3 shots and 1 oral vaccination today, too. Poor boy was a trooper! Of course, he cried a little, but as soon as his mommy picked him up he stopped and before we got downstairs to pick up prescriptions he was asleep!

More good news! He's reaching all his major milestones!!!! We are so proud of him! He can roll from his back to his side, smiles, coos, giggles, blows bubbles, focuses his eyes on toys and faces, he moves his arms and legs smoothly now and he holds his head up nicely, although it's still a bit wobley when he's tired. He recognizes Mommy and Daddy and is now VERY vocal at the sound of our voices, saying "ahh" for us!

There are going to be a lot of big events soon as we get ready to move in NOV.....a HUGE adventure for all of us. So, we'll keep the stories, pictures and videos coming!

SLEEPING SOUNDLY AFTER A TRAUMATIC MORNING: