It's Christmas time again!

Already in the throws of December, I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. Pete is almost 15 months old (wow) and is growing bigger everyday. I weighed him this morning, and he was almost 22 pounds.

We finally got our Christmas tree up this past weekend. It will probably one of the only inside decorations this year. After many sleepless nights and Josh's back out of commission, I don't have much energy to really decorate. We'll see if I go further. Pete really likes the tree. We came up with a clever solution to it. It is on one of the end tables. I tied it to the table, in case Pete was able to grab and try to pull it over. For the most part it is out of his reach. He'll go over to it an point and jabber about it. Then walk over to either Josh or I, with a gleam in his eye and jabber more about it.

This year we are staying home to start our own traditions. One of which is going to our Christmas Eve service. I am still figuring out what Christmas day is going to look like. Granni comes that day hopefully in time for dinner. She be with us for a few days, then my parents are flying down to stay with us for a little bit.

42 Years Ago Today...

...I wasn't even a gleam in my parent's eye. In fact I doubt they were even thinking about the children they would eventually be blessed with. My guess, is that they were concentrating on making it through their wedding.


One of the things I remember getting to listen to every so often was the recording of my parents wedding on a reel to reel. With all the moves my parents have made, I am not sure if they even still have it!

(r to l) Ray and Evie Setterlof, Carol and Dave Butler,
Livona and Harlow Butler-July 27, 1969

I got a small album of their wedding pictures after my Gram was moved into a nursing home. I enjoy looking through it and seeing glimpses of their day. My parents have lived a full life. My dad getting drafted into the Air Force a year or two after they got married, to becoming missionaries when I was 10. They have traveled the world, going to places that were and are far away from their family.


Thank you, Dad and Mom, for loving each other through thick and thin, and giving us an example of what marriage is.

After Dark

When I am really exhausted, I tend to wake up with a start in the middle of night. Why? For some reason, my brain is convinced that Peter is in bed with us and is in peril. The first time this happened, Pete was only a couple of days old and I was certain that Josh had rolled over on Peter. Now, Peter was safely swaddled and sleeping blissfully unaware of his mommy's delusional brain.

The last time this happened was a couple of weeks ago. I had a hard time getting to sleep and the sleep I did get was fitful. I semi-woke up in a panic, thinking that Pete was struggling in his swaddle. I "knew" he was down by my legs trying to get out. I reached down trying to help him out. There was a lot of soft fluffy, which I couldn't understand. I was trying to uncover his head, but it wasn't coming out. After struggling with him for a few minutes, my brain cleared and realized, what I was struggling with.

The culprit:
Yep, my pillow. What I thought was Pete's head was the top of the pillow, and I was struggling with getting it out of its sham.

I am sure I'll have more starts in the middle of night, roll Josh over, or feel on the other side of the bed where I am sure that Pete is, and then realize that Pete is comfortably sleeping in his own bed.

Peter at play

Yesterday morning, after waking up, Pete played for a nice long while. Very content to sit at his toy box and pull things out. Here is a sample of what I enjoyed. These times of quiet play are few and far between. Most days he is off to explore the world. He loves his new found freedom of crawling and walking (as long as he has something to hold on to). It has been so much fun living life with him as he discovers his new world.



Last night, Pete and I sat outside on our covered patio watching the storm. I explained to him thunder and lightening, how to figure out how far away the storm is. My goal is that he will love storms like this and not be afraid of thunder storms, but not too much. Don't know if I want a storm chaser in the family. When ever the lightening flashed, it caught his attention. He would follow it and look back at me and grin. Sometimes the thunder would startle him, but he takes it in stride. Which is nice, especially here in Texas, where we get some big thunderstorms.

A couple weeks ago we had one come through just after I put him down for a nap. There was an extremely loud clap of thunder that I thought for sure would wake Pete up. I snuck into his room to see if he was awake, praying he was still asleep. The thunder didn't even phase him.

Peter and electronic communication

Pete really likes to talk. He knows the sound of the telephone ringing, but also the ring for when Skype. I did catch the beginning of his anticipation here as we were waiting on Grandma to pick up on Skype. His eyes light up, and if he is across the room, he crawls as fast as he can to the computer when that ring starts going!


One of his favorite toys is the telephone. I think it might be because the noise the buttons make when he press them. Though now he has taken up press buttons on the phone, then start talking to it. It is very cute! Our little guy is such a social butterfly. That or he just loves the attention.

A walk down memory lane

I enjoy seeing early pictures of Pete, so I thought I would share a few of them with you. It seems unreal in a way that he is over 9 months old!

Wandering Pete

Pete is loving his new found mobility. Yesterday, I saw him crawl out of the living room. Normally, he makes a bee-line for the paper bag ready to be shredded. After a few minutes of quiet, I wondered where he was. I looked around and saw him in the kitchen playing by the dishwasher. He figured out how to get the magnet off the dishwasher door. He was happy, so I finished what I was doing. I walked around to where he was and noticed he was gumming something. Great, he found something on the floor. I thought I had cleaned it that morning. As I went to get whatever it was out of his mouth, he kept shaking his head and not letting me get into his mouth. A little battle ensued, I was able to get my finger inside his mouth. Upon which he clamped down (thankfully no teeth yet) on my finger. I fished out a piece of orange peel. Can't image that must have tasted very good.

Bubbles

Sorry for the poor quality...but thought you'd enjoy seeing Pete convincing me he is not sleepy.

Can't believe that it is almost the end of January

So, I have been really lax on posting on this blog. Been adding more to Facebook than here. Peter is growing like a weed. He has his first real cold right now. Been told that babies will have 10 colds their first year, and I am hoping Peter is the exception. A cold is no fever, a runny nose and cough. He doesn't like getting his nose cleaned out, but it has to be done.

In the past month he has discovered squealing, and is laughing a lot more. He can pull himself up from a 30 degree angle to a sitting position (holding on to our fingers). And he is standing and squatting more when we are holding him. We are working on rolling over. At his last check up (Dec. 30) he weighed 13 lbs. and was 24 in. long.

Here is a clip from Christmas time of Peter meeting his great grandpa for the first time.