Ohhhhh, boy! He's up!

So, I've been noticing a pattern with Garrett and his milestones. My friend, Kim, has a son who's almost exactly a month older than G and posts about his milestones on Facebook and her blog, just like I do. I started noticing a couple of months ago that about 1-2 weeks after Kim posted about Finn reaching a milestone, Garrett followed suit. Sitting, crawling, etc. So, when she posted at the beginning of the month that Finn was pulling himself to stand, I started to watch Garrett even more closely...to be honest, I wasn't anywhere near ready for him to be getting that much closer to walking yet! Well, it took almost a month this time, but.....



.....yep, my little monster figured out pulling himself up to standing last night.

See the diaper box he's using for balance here? The first thing I saw when he started to figure it out was straight legs, feet on the floor, belly laying across the diaper box, & hands reaching for all the goodies (cords, etc) on the other side of the box. Then he pushed himself up straight to standing! I was so shocked that it took a minute for me to realize what he was doing & get Todd's attention, LOL!

The next thing he did? Turned to the right just far enough to get his right hand on the coffee table, then joined it with his left hand...and immediately lifted the right hand off the coffee table to grab for everything on top of it! No pausing to make sure his balance was ok, no wobbling, no fear of falling there!

Things just got more interesting around our house!

I'm struggling with my job situation right now, and I kind of feel like I don't have a right to. I have a job, a very stable job, when a lot of people (including far too many I know and love) don't. But...I've discovered I really don't like my job, and that's unusual for me. I thought working customer service for the claims department of a disability insurance company would be rewarding--helping people cope while they're sick/injured and can't work, working with them to get them back to work, etc--but instead, I feel like a switchboard operator or like I'm giving excuses for others all day long. Not so much what I find rewarding! I'm usually so laid back and can focus more on the people I work with than the job itself when it comes to whether I enjoy going into the office more often then not. For some reason, I'm not able to do that now, and being the working spouse, I almost don't feel like I have a choice about whether to stay or move on. My husband disagrees--he told me the other day to find another job, if I don't like the one I have. He hates seeing me (and let's face it, listening to me!) hate what I do. I told him I couldn't jeopardize the one I have just to find something I like better; not in today's economy.

So, I've started really researching what I want to be doing from here on out. When I do move on from where I am, I don't want to just move to another "job". I want it to be a career, and I truly don't know what that needs to be. I've never been one of those people who always knew what she wanted to be--not like my friend, Tracy, who knew ever since I-don't-know-when that she wanted to be a teacher, and everything she did worked toward that goal. It used to drive me crazy, and still does! I feel like, at 31 years old, I should have some idea of how to use my passions and talents in the workplace to make enough money to support my family and to enjoy myself at the same time.

But I don't. Not really.

So, I think my next step is to start talking to people I know who truly love what they do (having the periodic "blech" day is perfectly acceptable, LOL)--maybe they can help me figure out where to go next!

Mmmmm....Spaghetti!

Garrett had his 1st spaghetti dinner last night, and, boy, was it ever a hit, LOL!

A whole new year!

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I last posted anything! My excuse is my step-daughter--we have a certain number of gigabytes available on our plan every month, and we usually have no problem staying within that limit, even with Beth's hours on end on the computer, watching videos, etc. Apparently, Beth here for 2 weeks doing the same thing makes a significant dent! We usually have at least 1 gig still available for the last week of the month, often more. This month? We had 700 mb available for the 2nd TWO weeks! Grrrrr! Boy, she heard about it, let me tell ya! No more hours of videos for Beth!


Christmas was wonderful and much quieter than Thanksgiving. T-day's really the big family get together holiday for the King family (my extended fam), so Christmas is always lower key, but this year seemed to be much more so. Maybe because my aunt Debbie & uncle Bob stayed home in Seattle, and my aunt Sylvia & uncle Don stayed home in Corvallis....I don't know, but it was quiet. Garrett really had no interest in opening presents, just in eating the paper after it was off! Well, until Trin handed him a present that made noise, LOL! We had to search, but we finally found a set of wooden blocks, which was one of those classic toys we really wanted to find for the G-man. The set I found is also a shape sorter, which I find even more awesome--I loved my shape sorter as a kid! I took the plastic packaging off the blocks set and put the blocks inside the sorter before wrapping it, so it made a lot of noise--G almost dove off the couch trying to get it! He loves it now that it's unwrapped, too!


Trin's favorite gift of the day? Sounds funny, but I'd swear (without asking her) it's the fashion glasses. No kidding--fashion glasses! They were on her list, and I found a cute pair at Claire's for $5...She's worn them nearly everyday since Christmas--takes them off when she goes to bed at night, and most mornings, she puts them on almost the minute she gets up! It cracks me up, but at the same time, seeing her in them freaks me out--she looks so much older! I have a hard time believing she'll be 9 in April and that she only has 2 more years of elementary school left before she's a middle schooler--yikes!




Oh, I got caught downtown in that snow "storm" a couple weeks ago--that was fun. Waited for 2 hours at my bus stop for a bus, got from 5th & Market to 5th & Broadway in about 40 minutes on that bus, then got stuck behind 2 other stuck buses & sat for another 30 minutes, waiting for my hubby to show up to just drive me home. We wound our way through the West Hills to avoid the parking lots on the main roads & highways, stopped to play Good Samaritan and tow 2 other cars up the hill, dropped off a fellow traveller at her home, and made it home around 9:45....I get off work at 5 and usually am home by 6. It was a loooooonnnng night!


Back on the "kid front": Garrett's 9 months old now, which I can't believe. Has it really been 9 months? He's a crawling master and is pulling up to his knees, which means pulling to stand and then cruising and walking I'm sure aren't far behind--yikes! He fights going to sleep unless he's completely exhausted, which makes for some long evenings. I've started taking him in and lying down in bed with him in a dark room, which works sometimes too well--there have been nights I've fallen asleep there too, LOL! Boy, trying to take his 9 month pictures was fun. He was so focused on the paper that I could barely get his attention on me--of the 14 pics I took, only 2 successfully show the sign and have Garrett actually looking at me--it was so funny! These aren't those 2, btw, but I love them: