The last 4 months have seen...

...Alastair figure out how to crawl and he is one fast son of a gun! He also started pulling up on everything starting in November and with that new skill brought standing in his crib! He's sleeping so-so, he still gets up about 3 times a night and I know the "rule" is now I should sleep train but I'm not up for that. I don't like to worry about sleeping thru the night until after a year because so much goes on before that with major growth spurts, teeth etc that I just don't find it worth worrying about for me. He laughs and gets this huge grin that just lights up his face when you tickle him or toss him in the air. He especially loves peek-a-boo with Karalee. He got his first dose of flu shot but hasn't been able to get the second dose because they ran out. He's wearing pretty much 9 months clothes now but can wear some 6-9 if they run closer to 9 months size. I did put him in a pair of pj's last night that were 12 months and they must have been shrunk because they're about 6 months size lol. He also got his first tooth and is currently working on his second! They're both on the bottom, his first one was bottom right and he's working on bottom left.

Karalee loves to take her books out and "read" aka flip the pages. I'm so thrilled she loves books so much and it's a lot of fun to read to her as she points out the animals and will do their sounds if you ask. She's also made the connection from books and movies if they point to say their nose, she immediatly points to their nose, her nose and my nose saying "they have nose, Kawalee nose, Momma nose!" Very cute and wicked smart my daughter is that is certain! She loves to hold phones and say "I tawk to Mickey, Sunsine, Gwama, Dada" however you hand her a phone with someone actually talking and it's a crap shoot as to whether she'll actually converse lol. She's figured out how to get out of her clothes so now and then you suddenly have a naked toddler dashing thru the house laughing like a maniac. She loves baths and even better if it's a bubble bath! It's to the point now where she'll tell me at random times of the day "I take bath now" to which I usually nix the idea of, yep I'm mean. She got the flu mist this year and did great with it, I was relieved she didn't need the shot! She's really getting into pretend play which is so much fun to watch! She loves to "cook" and for awhile it was only Dana she'd cook for, I wasn't allowed to play lol.

We have a pretty good routine these days where if it's bath night both kids get bathed together, then I take and get Alastair in pj's and to bed while Dana plays with Karalee and then gets her in pj's. By the time I come out from having put Alastair to bed it's about 7 so that leaves about 20 minutes for Karalee to play until it's time to settle down and head to bed.

Dana's work keeps undergoing change, they recently had layoffs of a department "they didn't need anymore" so I worry but he keeps reassuring me they need his department and his job is safe. I trust him but I can't help but worry because I just don't trust a company to tell their employee's the truth about something like that. Thankfully we paid my car off so that's one less bill to worry about!

Speaking of my car we had to get a new clutch, flywheel, shaft something or other (it goes on the shaft but isn't the shaft itself) and that was a very painful check to write. We're blessed that Dana's parents were able to help with the bill and we're very thankful. My car goes in for a new timing belt over Thanksgiving while Dana's folks are out visiting so I'm hoping that it's an easier job then my clutch. Clutch jobs are typically fairly easy but there were other problems that they couldn't figure out so all told it took about 3 weeks to get my car fully up, they'd fix it then I'd have to bring it back because it was a fight to get my car in first and I couldn't get reverse at all unless I was rolling (which is the problem we brought it in for) they'd think they fixed it, I'd have to bring it back same problem. Sigh. It was very aggravating for the mechanics and us. They're an awesome shop but don't typically work on Hyundai's and the problem they had wasn't easily discovered at first. But it works like a champ now so that's all that matters!

On a sad note we did have to put Max down. He started to have cluster seizures again and we weighed the option of spending the money to get the emergency vet to get them stopped which we knew from experience would be a lot of work or letting him go because of how violent his seizures are and there would be no telling how long he'd go seizure free. So, we made the heart wrenching decision to put him down. The vet agreed because she saw how violent his seizures were and how much they took out of him. It was easily one of the hardest decisions we've ever made. We do have his ashes and a plaster imprint of his paw print so that helps.

Lets' see...my friend Mollie had a beautiful little girl she named Lola and her son has been awesome with her! Lola did/does suffer from colic so poor Mollie was having to deal with a screaming, inconsolable baby for 3 hours every.single.night. I think I'd have run from the house tearing my hair out. Luckily we were able to find out a few tricks to try and Lola has been much happier which in turn makes for a happier and relieved Momma!

I'm toying with becoming a surrogate but haven't found out all I need to know yet. I did find out one piece of information which stalled my will to look. When you carry another persons baby it is obviously their child, well if test should show a genetic issue or too many babies for them to care for (I'm only willing to do invetro so I wouldn't be using my eggs) then they can have them terminated or cut down on the amount of babies. Well...while I agree everyone should have say in their kids I honestly don't think I would deal well with termination. I know I'd have so much grief that I really would be heartbroken even though the baby wasn't mine. I don't know. It's a difficult decision and I'm not taking the idea of surrogacy lightly at all. I would love to be able to give a couple a child of their very own, I just need to make sure I can handle any decisions that come up.

Pictures to be posted as munchkins allow time for, by the time I get them to bed I'm ready for bed usually lol.