Making our way

We've moved, and though we're still living out of boxes we couldn't be happier. The boys love our big backyard, and Evan is wild about his new blue room. Mike and I are thrilled to be so close to the college in such a nice, quiet neighborhood. It's good here, and I think it's going to be fun fixing things the way we want them and really making the place our own.

Did I mention it's quiet? I was back at the old house the other day cleaning (we still have more of that to do) and I couldn't believe how loud the neighbors were. There were kids running outside the house, screaming so loudly that they woke Grady, even through closed windows. And most happily, we also can open our windows at the new place, because we don't have the constant cigarette smoke drifting in from all sides. It's nice not to have to get up in the middle of the night to shut the bedroom window because your neighbor decided to light up on the front porch.

So we're settling in slowly. Evan took a few days to adjust, but he's doing fine, and I think it will be even better once we're finished at the old house and don't have to go back there anymore. He did better than I thought he would--the first two days were a bit rough, but now things are back to normal.

Grady's first birthday party on Sunday went well. The weather was perfect and we were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. G made a huge mess with his cake and spent the bulk of the party in just his diaper, but he didn't seem to mind. He enjoyed all the sweets and all the attention, so I think it was a pretty successful day.

G has also started walking for real this week (look out Trish--Duncan is next!). He was taking two or three steps here and there, but yesterday at his 12 month checkup he walked across the exam room all by himself. The doctor checked the "I can walk" box. So now he's doing it sometimes, but it's still faster to crawl. He loves the praise he gets when he walks though, so I think that's a big motivator. By the end of the month, he should be cruising along without any trouble.

As for his 12 month checkup, he's 19 pounds 9 ounces (9th percentile) and 28.25 inches (9th percentile). He's a little peanut! And that's actually a 3 ounce loss from his 9 month stats, mostly because he's on the go all the time now. So we've been encouraged to stuff him full of high calorie foods and keep an eye out, because he's only going to get more active from here. Grady also had allergy testing done, so we're waiting on the results of that before we start any milk or egg. G had hives on his face after trying some dairy, so we wanted to rule out any issues before we started on those types of foods. I hope he's not allergic, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one.

If he's not, bring on the milkshakes!