a move. lost dog. happy ending. ten months.

this is going to be a bit jumbled, it seems thats all I have time for these days.

We have been officially moved into our house for a week now. 

As a welcome home present, our refrigerator and dryer both decided to break within three days of each other. Kind of ridiculous, but luckily Will's mom was here for the fridge incident and generously bought us a new one. Our parents are bound to stop helping us out at some point, but until then, we are deeply grateful for all they have blessed us with. 

 

Aspen decided to wander out of our backyard the second day we moved in. We were also lucky in that instance because we found her a block down wandering into someone's apartment. 

She then decided to escape out our front door yesterday and was gone for eight hours. We really had our doubts that she would ever return. But as we lay on the couch sulking our neighbors came by asking if she was our dog. Turns out, she was playing in the yard three houses down, who knows where she spent the rest of the day, but we are thankful she came back to us, stinky gas and all. 

 

We have mowed the lawn two times with our electric mower. If mowing a lawn doesn't make you feel like genuine homeowner, I don't know what does.  Despite some minor setbacks, the house is really all we could have ever imagined. I already feel such a relief being able to escape to the front porch if Madison refuses her naps. I did not realize how trapped I felt in our apartment until we moved here. 

 

We also finally had our fancy front loader washing machine delivered today. Will keeps laughing at me because I just sit in front of it watching the laundry go round, amazed at how it actually is cleaning our clothes with hardly any detergent and no water. I just can not understand it.

We do not have a working guest room quite yet, but can not wait to have people come and visit us. So come please!

 

And some how during all this crazy moving stuff, Madison turned ten months old. Just in case you couldn't figure it out, that is TWO months away from being a year. Crazy stuff.

 These pictures get more and more difficult to take. She just ends up looking miserable because I am making her stay in one spot, what a horrible mother I am. 

 At ten months: 

*She only weighs 16.5 lbs. A wee little thing, barely hitting the tenth percentile.

*is a crawling machine. She still has the funniest crawl, where she keeps one leg bent and pushes off with her left leg. But she can move. 

* Has figured out how to climb stairs, pull up on furniture, and push boxes while she walks. 

*She understands nearly everything we say to her. That does not necessarily mean she listens to what we say, but she knows. 

* Has become pretty affectionate. This has been by far my favorite thing she has done this month. Having her shower us with kisses in the morning is probably one of my greatest pleasures. It is also adorable to watch her kiss all the children at play group. She gives them huge hugs and pulls them over.

*She is sleeping through the night. But unfortunately is up for the day around 5:30. Good gosh, its making for some long days. The days last forever when you are ready for lunch by 9 am.

* She is beginning to really dance. Whenever she hears music she starts moving her hips around, so cute. 

This month has been pretty wonderful. It seems a lot of things are getting much easier now that she is more independent. She can roam around the house and play with herself for hours. She has finally gotten the hint that she should sleep in her crib. She has this wonderfully entertaining personality that leaves us totally tickled inside. She is just really taking off and once again, I am so blessed to be able to watch it unfold. We have been with out internet for a week and I love what it does for my perspective. It encourages me to be more present with Madison and reminds me that she should not be fighting the computer screen for my attention. I want to really give her my attention and time so she knows that I value her over anything else. I can not wait to see what else she learns and is capable of doing this next month and a half before she turns one.