o...it has been quite a long time since I posted. I have found I don't take so many pictures or have so many updates now that we don't live in a city of interest. But nonetheless, my son still is hitting milestones and I am still gaining weight. We are almost done with our house projects and I will post new and updated periodically as we finish things. But onto the highlight....
Steven Edward is at such a fun stage...climbing, running, learning to talk, and generally interacting with his surroundings!.....here are some of his new tricks.
*He is starting to say words. His new favorite is hello. He wakes up saying it over the monitor and runs throughout the house yelling it. It doesn't always correspond with a wave but most of the time it comes with a big smile. He has quite mastered the words for uh-oh, car, and all done and uses these in the appropriate places (except uh-oh often comes after throwing or demolishing things and is not solely reserved for accidents).
*He is starting to discover the world around him in detail. He notices (and waves at) planes and trucks. He tries to squish ants with his feet and he points out gnats on our windows. He marvels at the wind through the trees and loves to point out every light and fan that we pass. He is into all of the little things.
* He loves to climb on ANYTHING! Boxes, chairs, ....basically anything. He will climb into our chairs just to sit and play with his cars.
* He has learned to LOVE Richard Scary books. He brings them to me, sits in my laps, turns the pages, and points out his favorite things (wheels, cars, dogs, etc.). He is not to the point where he wants me to read books, but I am learning to talk about each page in an animated way and he loves to sit and listen.
*He went through a phase where he didn't want to use his hands while eating (don't get too excited, we're not quite to the spoon phase, though he is learning that quickly). He for at least two days would put his face to his tray to eat his food, smash it with the end of a banana to make it stick and eat it, or put it on his sippy cup top and eat it off of there. How inventive he has become. This to me is little pieces of his father coming out of him. :)
*He loves cars and trucks. He will push the around the house, or tables, walls, doors, me....or generally anything that he can roll them on.
*He knows his favorite objects (his milk, his lamby, trucks, or balls) and can retrieve them from other rooms if asked.
*He is obsessed with shoes. He will often bring them to me and throw fits if I won't put them on.
*He has just started to understand the routine for when Daddy leaves and goes to work. Just before his father leaves he will cry for him to pick him up and refuse to let Steven put him down in hopes that it will make him stay. He has even (much to my sadness) thrown fits once Steven leaves where he will refuse to let me pick him up, and prefers to sit on the floor and cry by himself about his Daddy leaving. This was the first time I almost teared up over him not wanting me.....I know the first of many.
*He loves the park, the creek and the general outdoors.
And me....I am 24 weeks pregnant and since I've been back in Asheville, the time has passed a bit slower. We are waiting to find out if it is a boy or a girl but either way it is every bit as active as my son was in my belly. The doctors will not know if I have the same condition I did last time until the third tri-mester, but they will keep a close watch on me to trouble shoot this if it happens. I will start after my next visit going every week to be monitored, get monthly ultrasounds, and periodic blood work to keep track of the baby. As it stands right now, we are leaving the birth in the Lord's hands. We have a C-section scheduled on November 13th but if the Lord choooses to start my labor before then we will hope to give birth vaginally. Steven and i have prayed through the options and feel like this is the best decision based on all of the risks of a V-BAC combined with my last experience. Please keep praying for us in that regard and we will keep you updated.
And as far as our house goes, here are some pictures of what we've been working on
This is our dining room. The table is Rose Wood-6 ft with two add on leaves at the ends which makes it almost 9 ft. Sally and I searched all day at antiquie stores to find the chairs which we recovered to match our living room rug and furniture. The sliding glass doors lead onto our screened in porch.
This is our entrace hall. We found the table at an antique store.
This is the wall that leads down our hallway (on the otherside is our kitchen). The living room is to the right and you can see the dining room in the background. There is a door to the kitchen both to the left of this table and in the dining room
Here we have the living room. The rug is new and took FOREVER to shop for. We also purchased the corner TV cabinet to hide our TV and computers. To the right in the window you will see a stained glass which my husband re-framed and is one of my favorite pieces in this room!
The only major purchase we have left is a love seat to go in this room. We already have it picked out and will probably go purchase it today. Once that is there we will give you another view as well!
And lastly we have the nursery. We added valences, re-did the dresser, and finally got things on the walls.
We are going to re-finish this end table to make give it green legs and a stained top and I will eventually have green cushions as well for this rocker. We are working on his new room that Steven Edward will move into after the baby is born. Once that is finished we will put a picture of that up too!
* He loves to climb on ANYTHING! Boxes, chairs, ....basically anything. He will climb into our chairs just to sit and play with his cars.
*He loves cars and trucks. He will push the around the house, or tables, walls, doors, me....or generally anything that he can roll them on.
We are going to re-finish this end table to make give it green legs and a stained top and I will eventually have green cushions as well for this rocker. We are working on his new room that Steven Edward will move into after the baby is born. Once that is finished we will put a picture of that up too!
The hard part about doing anything yourself is that you inevitably look at it daily and see all of the flaws. The things that no one else would ever notice but stand out like a glaring mistake to you....well being your family's hair cutter seems to be no different. All year in New York I cut my husband's hair and I found I had the tendency to keep cutting hours after we were done. I would see an annoying spot and sneak up with scissors. Luckily my husband is loving, forgiving, and a good balance for my personality....he would eventually say, "Courtney, Stop! You're not allowed to cut anymore, you're neurotic." Well I found this same tendency with my son. It 
started as a little trim....then I did a bit more....I think I ended up cutting four different times. But unlike his father, he lacks the ability to say "Stop being neurotic, mom!" So what started as a trim ends up being a buzz cut before you know it. Luckily my husband (being my balance) made me promise not to touch my son's hair anymore. I honestly should have stopped at the third....because it was at the fourth that I realized a sad truth. This whole time as my son has started walking I was happily telling everyone he had thinned out! I reported with excitement that it looked like he was slimming down. Unfortunately the sad truth was that his hair was just getting longer. Now he is back to his same old chubby self-which is evident by the new school boy haircut.
