The Harvey Family: Blake- Week 35

This was my last week of work and I've had a roller coaster of emotions. On one hand I'm really sad to leave my friends at work since they're so much fun to be around and joke with during the day. At the same time, there was a lot of stuff I dealt with on a daily basis that I didn't get paid enough to deal with. Everyone has been really supportive in saying that they wish me the best because the best thing you can do for your children is spend as much time with them as possible while they're young. Many of the engineers and architects have talked to said their wives were able to stay at home with the children and it was definitely the right decision. I know this will be the best thing for our family and for Blake, so I'm looking forward to starting this new chapter in our lives!

The other thing that has been taking most of our time is trying to decide on new floors for Blake's bedroom and the office/guest bedroom. We've gone around and around on laminate vs. engineered hardwood and come full circle from medium to light wood, back to medium/redish tone to go with the cherry furniture that we have in Blake's room. The biggest considerations are durability and price. Laminates are harder, cheaper, and more durable but don't add value to the house. Engineered hardwoods are definitely more expensive and we risk having Blake destroy them with banging toys into them and who knows what else, but have potential to add value. Then, what color and wood type to go with... does this one have too much grain? Does this look too country for our taste? Does this hardwood look too much like laminate? Does this laminate look too much like laminate? Needless to say, we still haven't settled on anything and Blake doesn't really enjoy shopping for flooring.

This week, Blake:

has really been enjoying reading a lot more. He used to only get a couple pages in before grabbing the book and throwing it down or closing it and putting it in his mouth. Now he actually lets you finish a book and sometimes more than one before commencing either of the actions mentioned above.
has been much better about eating in the high chair. Mimi taught him to keep his fingers out of the way while we feed him with a spoon and that has made life SO much easier. Thanks Mimi! Especially since he HATES getting his hands and face cleaned with the washcloth after making a mess. It makes him cry just about every time.
babbled a lot more but doesn't seem interested in saying the words we're trying to get him to say (like Mama, haha). As long as he's in a good mood, he makes lots of adorable baby noises. He's throwing in a lot of tongue movement this week. I told him that you don't need to stick your tongue out to say Mama but he's clearly not listening and is determined to only speak words that require his tongue. Lala perhaps?
STILL HAS NO TEETH. I know I should be grateful for this since it's nice to not have to worry too much about dental hygiene yet but I'd like to be a little closer to the end of this teething thing. He has been drooling like a maniac this week and soaks multiple cloths throughout the day. Talking with his tongue sticking out doesn't help matters since he blows bubbles and that adds to the drool.
started crawling backward. His arms seem strong enough to pick his body up off the ground (but not his knees yet) and propel himself (but not forward yet) and he just slides backward. Hey, it's a start! He also can rotate a little more than he used to if he sees something to his side that he wants.
went to lunch with Mimi and some neighbors for Mimi's last day in town and did well other than throwing the menu on the floor a couple times.
has been sleeping in our bed since he hasn't been feeling well and sadly that means he's sleeping on us a lot of the time so we haven't been getting much sleep. I think he's been feeling worse since he started the antibiotics for his ear infection. I'm sure the pain from that would've gotten worse, but the diarrhea from the meds has cause him so much gas and tummy ache that have been quite a battle the last 20 days. Hopefully the infection is gone and we can start the recovery period from the meds now.