Month 10...

Today I started planning/thinking about Archer's first birthday party---and in a moments time found myself in tears!  I then started to think back to our sweet baby and here is what I thought up:

*Everyone says having a newborn is the worst...exhausting, stressful, never ending feeding/changing/crying.  Looking back--that stage was somewhat of a breeze!  Having a seven pound sweet smelling precious thing that sleeps 23 hours a day really wasn't bad!  Sure the recovery from the process of getting the babe out is somewhat tiring, and breastfeeding for 20 hours a day is tiring, but all in all, it was incredibly sweet (who would have though something so small could require SO MUCH attention and time though!)

Then at about 6-8 weeks the little bundle spends more time awake, and SMILING.  Suddenly the endless nights are absolutely worth it, and you can now sort of leave the house without planning where you will sneak off to when the little one becomes inconsolable.  Also, right about this time is when Archer started sleeping an 8 hour stretch at night (10pm-6 or 7am) which was wonderful for us!

Month 3-5 was AWESOME.  And if I didn't love every other stage...I would be brave enough to say this has been somewhat of a favorite!  At this point Archer was interactive (and babbled nonstop).  I could put him somewhere...playpen, swing, bouncy, bumbo-and he was perfectly content.  I always had a super clean house because babies at this age (at least Archie) took two long naps, and one short nap/day!  It was right at 12 weeks Archer started going to bed at 7pm, waking once at 3am for a feeding, and back to sleep until 7am.  He would then nap from about 9am-10:30am, again from 12:30-2:00pm, and from 4:00-4:45pm.  Hahah, typing about this has gotten me longing for those days! 

Month 6 into month seven got interesting!  Suddenly the after the afternoon nap was gone, bedtime slowly moved to sometime between 7-8, and wakeup time was somewhere between 6 and 7.  He was sitting...and MOBILE!  Even though he could crawl, he didn't fully understand his capabilities...that was next month..

Month 8-9 was awesome.  Very busy, very independent, destructive baby.

And now month 10.  Our new "favorite" stage.  What a ham...what a mess.  Our house is always in a state of destruction...and we are always finding out why people make a living babyproofing other people's homes.  The attached pictures were all taken within about 30 minutes...enjoy.

New camera...

We finally realized our camera is not coming back (I realized long before Colin..but decided to be patient) so we ordered a new one today..HORRAY!  I think it has been close to a month without a picture of little buddy, but thanks to my ma-we have gotten plenty on video!!!

In other news, Colin is playing bike polo with some buddies, Archie is fast asleep, and I am enjoying a cold glass of wine, about to sit down and scrapbook...or watch tv...or sleep.  :)  Work wears me out and I am doing my best to enjoy this year as a full time nurse-looking forward to only working a shift a week after May 4th (when my contract is up).  I love working and absolutely love being a nurse-but I love being a mom/wife 10Xmore.  I feel like my time with my family is compromised and I have forever to work!

Archer is the best.  He IS joy, in every aspect.  This evening we put him in his pool outside and brought him in right before dinner...didn't diaper him because we didn't want to waste a diaper and sure enough got a very nice surprise on the kitchen floor (not a liquid surprise either).  Archer never poops unless he is diaperless apparently!

OK, I am off to enjoy this lovely evening.

Pictures soon I promise!

Sneezy...

Archer laughs hysterically when we sneeze...and yesterday started fake sneezing all the time, if we had a digital camera (we lost it) I would absolutely post a video-it is beyond the cutest thing you will ever see!

In other news, Colin has been fixing up a bike for bike polo for sometime now and just finished yesterday (he even built his own wheel which is bike building wizardry) just in time to play some intense bike polo today.  I adore that man and his hobbies for sure!

That's all for now, I think Archer and I are going to go outside and go swimming (as he gags himself with an ink pen he found on the floor).

-the kimbles.

It is safe to say...

We are addicted to our son.  Archer continues to amaze us, and we continue to say, "oh, this is our favorite stage FOR SURE!"  

At ten months he is a blossoming bundle of likes and DISlikes.  Archer is now crawling EVERYWHERE (has been since he was 6 3/4 months old).  He is pulling up, and even on occasion caught standing in the middle of the room!  He inches his way around furniture, often brave enough to let go and just stand there, or hold on one handed.  He thinks several things are hilarious and seems to think Colin and I are quite the act!  He loves to dance (especially after dinner, and especially to a few of his favorite songs..even better, we will leave him in his high chair and dance together silly which he thinks is the greatest thing next to string cheese).  He loves "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and his attempt at the hand motions are adorable!  Today in the car that song was playing on the cd (ug...children's cds already) and I was watching him in the mirror in the back mimic the actions to the song...it was unreal to see him doing that!  Little hands making a spider and then above the head for the sun and back down again to make a spider...crazy.

Let's see...Archer eats what we eat (and has been for the past two months).  He never really was interested in "baby food" even though we slaved away making 6 1 gallon bags of pure homeade baby food delight!  Once we started offering him what was on our plate he started eating solids!  Within the last week he has transitioned to three full meals (still nursing about 5 times/day).  

Hmmm..we just took a vacation to Iowa which was awesome.  It was, like always, a very fast trip!  We got in late on Wednesday night and had wedding stuff Fri, Sat, then one more night at mom's before returning to Louisiana on Monday.  Archer always seems to have an awesome time when we travel...he is such an extrovert like his "da da."

..Which brings up another interesting point, our talking boy.  Archer now says, "Da Da" and when asked where da da is he will look at colin and repeat "da da" leaving us no choice but to believe he knows word and association.  Archie also says "mom mom" which is amazing, and he totally knows that means ME--as he generally says it while trying to convince me to pick him up!  The only other thing we hear him say is "ball"...and he says it while crawling towards his ball or throwing his ball-fairly impressive.  We can ask him to get a book (he LOVES to be read to-and often read to himself, flipping through pages speaking garbeled baby language), get his truck, get a ball, etc and he will quickly do it.

Life in the Kimble home is awesome, and we feel our abundant blessings daily.  I am really going to work on updating this as often as possible-it has been far too long!!!

Love the Kimbles.