A Little Obsessed

I just can't get enough of this little guy lately. I never knew that babies could have so much personality. He cracks us up every single day with his funny facial expressions and the things he does to entertain himself. We play "This little piggy" and "Patty cake" several times a day. He loves to "read" his books (aka turn the pages over and over again too quickly for me to actually read anything to him). He loves to climb over, under, and through things (like the kitchen table and chairs, mommy's legs, toys, and cardboard boxes). He is walking and standing up on his own (but still crawls a lot too). He likes to "exercise" under the kitchen table while holding onto his high chair and doing leg lifts and squats. He's learned to nod his head when you nod yours. He likes to play peek-a-boo with his blanket and looks so proud when he pulls it off of his head. The other day he kept handing me things and then laughing when I handed them back to him. He loves cupboards and doors--opening them, closing them, pulling everything out of them, playing with the spring behind the door, he's obsessed. Whenever Taylor or I go out the front door he stops whatever he's doing and the second the door opens he crawls at lightning speed toward it. He also loves his stuffed giraffe--when you put him to bed he holds the giraffe up to his face with one hand, sticks the other hand's second and third fingers in his mouth, and then lays down on top of the giraffe. It's the cutest thing.

But he is growing up way too fast. I can't believe that he's almost 11 months old! I have no idea where this past year went, but I'm so glad that I've gotten to spend most of it with him. Taylor and I are so blessed to have him in our lives and we just love him to pieces.

Walkie Talkie Baby

Will is 10 months old and suddenly he is growing up way too fast. Over the course of about a week he got 4 more teeth (that's 8 total now), started "talking" (ie. dadada baba dada... all day long) and walking! He hasn't figured out how to stand up without something to pull up on (mom, dad, furniture) but if we pull him up and get him started, he just keeps walking. He doesn't go very far but he's totally fearless, ends up diving and/or falling a lot, and once he gets the hang of it we think he'll just go straight to running. :) We love him so much and are so proud of him!

Here's a video of our new favorite game.

Password: walk

Will's first steps from Heather Moss on Vimeo.

Santa Barbara Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran my first half marathon! I needed something to motivate myself post pregnancy to get in shape again so I found a "Half Marathon for Beginners" training schedule online, stuck to it for 12 weeks, and signed up for the half marathon in Santa Barbara. A couple things I learned:

1. If you wear a BYU sweatshirt anywhere you're bound to meet another Mormon and find out they know someone you know too. (Happened before the race.)

2. Santa Barbara is gorgeous.

3. Apparently I am a much better racer than trainer. I was a lot faster than I expected to be. Based on how fast I ran by myself while training, my goal was about 2 1/2 hours. Throw in the pressure of an actual race and plenty of other racers to fuel my Hamilton competitiveness and the result is..... (wait for it....) 2:12:44. Woohoo! I was so excited. :)

Taylor, Will, and my parents all came up to be my cheer squad and Taylor was my personal photographer for the last mile or so. Today he kept complaining that his calves were sore from trying to run ahead of me to take pictures. (Meanwhile, I've been hobbling around like an old lady I'm so sore.)

Since it was Veteran's Day they had flags lining the last mile of the course (they even handed us mini flags to hold for the last mile) and there were also several veterans cheering us on. In spite of all my aches and pains it was a very inspirational and motivating way to end the race.

(It also didn't hurt that I had an awesome view of the beach and the ocean for the last two miles that also happened to be downhill.)

All done!

I almost got a little choked up when they handed me my medal. I know that may sound a little ridiculous but it's the first medal I've ever gotten. Ever. Sure, it was just a participation medal but I've never even gotten one of those. In middle school and high school I was really dedicated and worked really hard but hey, I just wasn't very fast in running or swimming. I did get the "Sportsmanship Award" at the end of the season a few times, but I never got a medal. And now I have one! And I wore it all day.

 My number one fans.

After dropping me off before the race, Taylor and Will went to IHOP for breakfast and drove up in the mountains to check out the view before going back to the course to cheer. It was such a beautiful day.

After the race we went to lunch with my mom and dad on Santa Claus Lane in Carpinteria. We went to this burger place by the beach and it was sooo yummy! Will had a little accident (diaper leak) while my dad was holding him (our cue that it was time to leave haha) but after changing him and feeding him a bottle the poor little guy was all tuckered out. He napped before both me and Taylor and gave himself an awesome hairstyle in the process.

I'd take getting out of shape from pregnancy and having to work really hard to get my body back any time if it means getting to spend every day with this little boy!

Daylight Savings and the Incredible Hulk

First, I just have a little bit to say about daylight savings. You know how everyone's always saying how great it is in the Fall because you gain an hour of sleep? Well, babies don't know that. Will decided to wake up even earlier than he usually does and sat "aaah"ing in his crib for about 20 minutes until he decided he was bored and hungry. So we made him a bottle (and had to get back up out of bed several times to lay him down and give him the bottle again until he finally finished it after about half an hour). Then I took him to the front room to play since it was almost 7:00 and that's what we usually do. Oddly enough I decided to look at a calendar of church activities (I know, weird choice for 7:00 am). When I saw the words "DAYLIGHT SAVINGS" my stomach dropped, I looked at the clock and saw that it was actually 5:58, not 6:58, and I realized that it was going to be a very long day. Hopefully we'll be able to get Will on the new time soon or we'll be waking up at 5:00 a lot.

On a funnier note, Taylor and I were watching The Avengers movie last night and realized there was something very similar between how Will plays with toys and what happens about 33 seconds into this scene:

Yep, our son is the Hulk.

Sure, he's not green or angry, but he yells and grunts and throws all of his toys and destroys everything that's not water- or baby-proof. And if he could crash through walls and climb on buildings I think he would. With a big, silly smile on his face.

And speaking of throwing things, Will and I played catch yesterday (kind of) and he loved it. And he just happened to be wearing green. :) Enjoy.

Password: hulk

Will playing catch 11-3-12 from Heather Moss on Vimeo.

One Little Indian

Or Native American... whichever you prefer. Either way, Will was a really cute one for Halloween! Although we didn't actually dress up on Halloween (Will was super tired and barely even made it to 6:30), we did go to a Trunk or Treat (car to car in a parking lot instead of house to house) at our church last weekend. It was really fun. I was also an Indian and Taylor was going to be a cowboy but because he didn't have a cowboy hat or boots we ended up finding some random items in my mom's costume box and decided he was a Lion Tamer (leopard spotted vest and a whip). I took a bunch of pictures of Will before we left but we completely forgot to get pictures of Taylor and me. But we had a great time seeing all the little kids in costumes and getting candy "for Will" (aka for mom and dad). I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

"Yeah, I'm an Indian... 'Sup."

Angry/funny face.

Calabasas Pumpkin Festival

This weekend there was a Halloween festival down the street from us and we decided to go with some friends. The street was closed off to cars and instead lined with tents selling Halloween decorations, jewelry, clothes, and yummy smelling food (apparently bacon wrapped hotdogs are the new big thing). There were also carnival game booths and bouncy houses at the park nearby and bales of hay and pumpkins everywhere. Some of our personal highlights:

Will and Harrison (a few months older than Will) went down this giant slide with their dads.

Taylor and Jonny had fun! But the little boys were not amused. Even with the wind blowing through their hair, speeding down the slide, their faces didn't change at all the whole way down. Apparently it wasn't that big of a deal. 

Happy dads, indifferent sons...

Another highlight: The "put your face here" picture boards. (I don't know what they're actually called..)

We don't typically do these... but I guess having children changes you. We took a lot of pictures here. Will and Harrison's heads were a tad small for the hole but hey, they're adorable anyway.

Will's Superman position.

And it wouldn't be a Pumpkin Festival without lots of pictures with pumpkins.

Will tried to eat some of the hay... and I kind of let him. (For the sake of a cute picture! I'm not that sorry.)

My two favorite boys ever.

Just Havin' a Ball

Will loves to play. We used to call it "playing" whenever he had a toy either in his hand or in his mouth, or even if he was just sitting by it. But now he really plays. It is so fun for Taylor and me. Nighttime before bed is now playtime. We basically send Will chasing after toys and laughing until he's all sweaty and worn out. Then we give him a bottle and put him to bed. Life sure is good.

Password: ball


Will Playing 10-14-12 from Heather Moss on Vimeo.

Utah Travels

Even though we don't live in Utah anymore, we sure have been there a lot recently. At the end of September we went up to Salt Lake and Park City for Taylor's friend Justin's wedding. We got there just in time to see the leaves starting to change color in the mountains and it was so beautiful it made me miss real autumn a little bit (except then I remember that real autumn leads to real winter... of which I'm still not the biggest fan). 

Last weekend we drove up to St. George to see Aladdin at the Tuacahn Theatre (a really cool outdoor theatre with these huge red rock cliffs around it) and watch my dad run his fourth marathon (he crushed his PR- 4:00:21. Way to go Dad!). 

Then this past weekend Will and I flew up to Salt Lake again for my friend Emily's wedding and my friend Allie's baby shower. Taylor was in New Orleans for the week for work (I've left it to him to you about it), so I got to experience traveling ALONE with an INFANT for the first (and hopefully but probably not the last) time. Honestly though, it could have been worse. Aside from feeling slightly beat up after holding a very squirmy, busy, wants-to-crawl-and-eat-everything-in-sight baby on my lap for an hour and a half flight (thank goodness it wasn't any longer), the whole experience wasn't that bad. Will didn't cry or whine much, the people sitting by me were very nice and patient, and I was like Supermom coming through security at the airport on the way home. Pull carseat off of stroller frame, collapse stroller, pull out liquids bag, pull out all baby food and bottles so they can scan them, take Will out of carseat, take off shoes, put everything on the conveyer belt, walk through metal detector, and reverse. I was so fast. I wish someone could have seen it and timed it so we could have it on record.

Anyways, back to the trip: Emily got married in the LDS temple in Draper and then had a reception that night in East Carbon, Utah. Anyone know where that is? Neither did I. Turns out it was about two and a half hours from where I was staying. Luckily I was able to carpool with some friends and I sat in the back with Will so I could feed him and keep him entertained for most of the ride. And it was totally worth the trip. Emily looked so beautiful and so happy. I am so excited for her and her new husband Travis and hope that they are already loving married life. The day after the wedding I got to go to my friend Allie's baby shower. She and her husband Jordan used to be our neighbors in Provo and are some of our best friends. We miss them a lot and I was glad that Allie was able to convince her family to have the shower when I was in town. I can't wait for their baby boy to come!

Anyways, now Taylor and I are BOTH home and hopefully it will be that way until Thanksgiving. Even though we love going to Utah and seeing friends, I think I've had my fill of traveling for a while. 

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I didn't have room to lug our big camera around on these trips and unlike Taylor, I don't have an iPhone to take pictures with.

The Big Easy

I spent the whole of last week in New Orleans for a business trade show for the collision repair industry where we were exhibiting. So this was the first trade show that I was in charge of putting on so that meant we bought all the stuff from Walmart instead of spending a fortune to rent carpet, tables, and chairs. And we did a pretty great job at branding while we were at it with our scrappiness I would have to say. The show went really well for us. We couldn't sell anything because our product is not finished yet, but we created a ton of buzz and talked to a lot of the influential guys at bigger companies that are really excited about our product. Lots of people would like to rep it for us as well. I've included a few pictures from our humble little booth. And remember we carried everything you see here in and out. That was exhausting!

This was our little 10'x10' home for more hours than you want to know about.

We had heard about the notoriety of Bourbon Street and decided that if we were going to be in New Orleans that was one place we needed to see. Alongside that it is the heart of the French Quarter which is supposed to be noteworthy. This place was disgusting. All kinds of weird and crazy people were just walking around doing whatever they wanted. This place makes Vegas look tame. I'm just glad we followed the advice of our friends Michael and Aly Davis to not be there after dark. I mean we were there at 5PM and everyone was drunk and doing crazy things already. That is one place I will never be returning.

Here's the street sign without a bunch of stickers vandalizing it.

Above is a very neat statue of Andrew Jackson in a square outside the cathedral in the French Quarter. And the cathedral below.

Heather's visiting teacher in Provo, Aly Davis, and her husband Michael are living in New Orleans for an internship. We were able to go to dinner with them one night and they showed us these Amazing (that's right I capitalized it) French dessert pastries called beignets. Wow! These were delicious and one of the definite highlights of New Orleans for me.

My only real regret is that we didn't have time to walk through one of the amazing cemeteries. Since the water table is so high they don't bury people underground. Everyone has their own tomb and you just pass row after row of these epic looking tombs. Luckily, everyday on our way to the convention center we passed two such cemeteries on the freeway and could glimpse the majestic rows of tombs.

Another cool part of the trip was this glass elevator. I was mesmerized looking out at the other buildings. This elevator felt like an amusement ride on which you weren't buckled in. It was quite the wild ride. Probably my favorite elevator I've ever ridden. Check out the view from the elevator below:

And this was the view from the plane over the Mississippi as the sun rose.

Overall it was a successful trip for the business. That was the whole purpose of the trip, but one has to eat and to wander around town a little bit if there is time right? It was a long trip though and I'm very glad to be home again with Heather and Will.

My Favorite Eight-Month-Old

Will is eight months old and I'm having a hard time believing it. I remember the week after I had him my mom told me, "Just get through the first 3 months and then everything gets better." At the time since I hadn't slept in days (yes, just days... oh, how naive I was then) I thought, "Three MONTHS??" But she was right and sure enough the first 3 months FLEW by. I thought they seemed so fast because of sleep deprivation, but no, I've learned that with parenthood you just lose all sense of time. The busier Will gets, the busier I get, and the faster time goes. 

Since Will is crawling and can get pretty much anywhere he wants now, I am extra busy. I spend most of my day making sure he can't reach any remote controls, phones, or electric cords, isn't sucking on a pair of shoes I accidentally left by the front door, isn't trying to squeeze past our kitchen chair blockade to get to our food shelves, isn't pulling the pile of folded laundry down off the couch, and (more often than you'd think) pulling him away from our wood furniture to stop him from chewing on it. He also likes to come up to me if I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up on the coffee table and A) walk along the couch and push his head against my legs until I lift them up for him to pass or B) walk along the table so he can try to suck on my toes. 

Last week, my mom came and brought some of her toys over for Will to borrow (some of which I think were around when Brooke and I were little) and Will loves having a fresh batch of toys. His favorites are a chain of colorful links, a beaded teether toy, and this odd gold mirror/locket with a bunch of zodiac symbols (I think I picked it from a treasure box in one of my elementary school classes...?). Generally, he puts his toy of choice in his mouth (or at least one end of it), crawls to a different location, plays with it, chews on it, looks at it, puts it back in his mouth and goes somewhere else until he finds a better toy.

His favorite noise to make is a growl. He growls pretty much all day long. In fact, someone came up to me after church today (as I was pulling Will away from the wooden pew at the back *not a chew toy, Will*) and asked, "Is that the tiger I kept hearing?"

He also has MANY facial expressions, but his two favorites (and ours too, we still get a kick out of them) both involve scrunching up his nose, breathing loudly through his nose and either puckering his lips or giving a goofy smile (grimace?). SO funny.

He's got four teeth: his bottom front teeth and his top not front teeth but the ones next to them. I almost hope that his front teeth don't come for a few months. ("All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" anyone?)

And did I mention he bear crawls on his hands and feet everywhere?

Sometimes I wonder how Taylor and I ended up with such a funny kid with so much personality.