Review of the Holidays

I have to admit, I am one of the worlds worst picture historians out there. I am one of those people who really likes to be a part of the activities (especially if they involve my family) than be the one outside the fun taking pictures. I have in the past taken picture of fairly staged moments, like all of Elijah's month pictures when I can remember or specific picture moments like birthdays and such. However, with this being said, I realize I did not take many pictures of our Christmas together with Elijah. So here are some of the highlights:

What??? I'm learning how to play!! This is Elijah semi destroying the nativity set. You have no idea how far a little guy can chuck a sheep!

Smile six months old today!

Six months old today and checking out the cool tree.

Christmas outfit, I guess little boys can be just as cute as little girls.

Christmas Eve at my mom's and Sonny's house.

Elijah helping Daddy open his new Remote starter for his car. Please note my beautiful purse Elijah is laying next to as well.

My dad's dog, Jasmine, after we opened all the presents. She thought the tree looked like a good place to sleep.

Christmas with the cousins.

Bath time in the sink of the hotel. Mind you after this picture was taken a magic fountain was added to the bath soaking everything around.

4 generations of Collins family. Bummer the other great grandchild wasn't there too.

Traveling with an infant/not really an infant

Many times as a soon to be parent or a new parent you read about how easy it is to travel with a new baby. They seem to be really go with the flow and ho hum about life and when you travel for long distances they will most likely sleep through the car ride and life will be good.

With this in mind we up and left for a short, long weekend when Elijah was just shy of 4 weeks old. BJ and I took the LONG road trip down to Tennessee for my cousin's wedding. At that time we were still new parents and the challenges that we faced were more along the lines of feeding a child that wasn't on a schedule yet, bringing the right number of diapers, packing the right amount of clothes for the child and bringing things that we just weren't yet used to lugging around with us. The hardest part of the whole trip was Elijah waking up screaming bloody murder as we were stuck in crawling traffic in a construction zone. It was awesome! The second hardest part of the trip was realizing he had blown out a diaper at one of the feeding stops on the way home and not having any way to wash the car seat cover.

Overall, I felt that that trip was relatively easy. Granted I had my wonderful husband with me to help me carry the heavy car seat, and child when my still recovering body just couldn't manage. I also had my wonderful mother with me during some very long and potentially lonely feeding sessions. But as I look back it was very easy to travel with Elijah at less than a month. With that in mind that is what fueled the thought that BJ and I could make the annual trip to Michigan this year to show off the little guy almost 5 months later.

However, last minute we decided that due to BJ's work schedule it wasn't practical (or necessarily safe) for BJ to come out for just over a 24 hour period with the family so we decided I would go alone with the boy. At this point in time we have just passed Elijah's 6 month birthday and I feel that as his parents we are really good about reading him, anticipating him, and fulfilling his needs before he breaks down in utter frustration and anger which makes parenting easier. However, we are able to do this typically when we are at home and have everything our little hearts desire at our finger tips and we also have each other. This makes packing for a 4 day excursion interesting, especially when you throw into the picture the fact that I was now riding up in someone else's car and the instructions were to pack light. Okay well this should be fun. Here is what we brought just for the baby.

8 containers of baby food

4 bottles

1 can of formula

The "pump"

5 outfits

3 backup under shirts

2 sets of pajamas

2 towels

1 washcloth

baby soap

Enough cereal for 3 tablespoons of food 2 times a day for the 4 days way

2 spoons

5 bowls for food

Diapers and lots of them

Swim diapers

Wipes

1 quilt

2 thick blankets

1 receiving blanket

3 stuffed animals

4 hard covered books

1 soft book

2 rattles

Talking Cookie Monster

A Talking spinning ball toy (we knew there would be minimal baby toys)

Ice pack to keep the pumped milk cold

new baby shoes

diaper bag

stroller

car seat

What I learned: It is easy to travel with an infant if, your child has begun to stick to a schedule, is only on breast milk and can exclusively breast feed, you have NO solid food to transport and if you do it doesn't have to be refrigerated, and where ever you are going has infant toys to entertain your child, or your child still is uninterested in toys it doesn't matter if you have toys or not. Even packing light I feel I brought half our house and to make things more fun it is just me lugging (every time we leave the hotel) just about all this stuff. Fun time!! I will eventually post pictures of Elijah's bath time in the hotel.

Busy Busy Busy

I feel like I have been very busy this weekend, in retrospect, I really haven't been. Saturday we took Elijah into the Doctor for his 6 month check up, 18 pounds 10 ounces. He also received two sets of shots and on oral vaccine. Then we came home and celebrated our first day of Christmas with our neighbors then headed out to Portillos for lunch. We stopped by the grocery store on the way home and bought all the ingredients for the worlds best Christmas cookies and came home. Then we ended up watching Cars. Before we knew it it was time for Elijah to eat dinner, take a bath and head to bed. Then we had dinner, as I was getting ready to make Christmas cookies, Elijah woke up and hand a low grade fever and was very crabby. I finally got him back to sleep by 10 but by then it was to late for cookies so I played on the computer. Sunday we headed to church, came home, had lunch, and we all took 2 hour nap. Then I FINALLY made cookies while BJ and Elijah played and did the laundry.

I think I set a record for longest time spent making one batch of cookies. I think from start to done baking I spend about 3 and a half hours on them and they still are not frosted yet. Oh well, they are absolutely worth it. It wouldn't be Christmas without these cookies. Last year in Michigan we had a discussion about the cookies and how everyone starts with the same recipe but no ones cookies are the same. As it turns out nobody had the correct original recipe. Most people had ended up adding or subtracting ingredients to the cookies while other changed the cooking times and temp. Grandmother still has the original recipe and we were going to scan it into the computer to mail to all but we forgot. This year we will. Tomorrow we will frost these babies and then my yearly baking will be done.

Things that make me smile!

In light of my extremely crabby mood this last week and in anticipation of of my crabby mood next week I decided to make a post about the things that make me smile.

• A whole family of Mr. Potato Head's
• Children's faces between the ages of 3 and 6 when you mention Santa or Christmas
• A street full of Christmas lights on houses
• An awesome sale
• My baby's toothless smile
• My baby hanging upside down from his bouncy seat with a look on his face like he should have figured out how to do that sooner because it was so much fun.
• A Christmas tree full of sentimental ornaments
• My Christmas Village
• Nativity sets with sentimental meanings
• Elijah exploring his world
• Iced tea
• Hot tea
• Candy Cane Christmas Cookies
• Fisher Price Little People

Doctor appointment

Yesterday Elijah met with the surgen to look at his butt issue. And the doctor confermed our thoughts, Elijah is going to be getting surgery on his buttocks. It seems really simple, we hope. The Doc will go in and basically cut out the hole and let it heal up on its own. But I feel bad for the poor kid. Oh well, at least it is all going to happen before he will be able to remember.

Happy Birthday Plants

Just for the record I am the worlds worst person to keep plants alive. However, I do have to say that last year the week before Thanksgiving I got two bamboo shoots. Now you may say that bamboo plants are fool proof. All you have to do is give them water. They don't even need sunlight. Well I have actually killed one once. So they are not that fool proof. But the two I got over a year ago are still alive and growing. I guess Elijah has hope that he will live to see his first birthday.

I will post about Elijah's doctors appointment too tonight.

It will have to wait

Last night I was getting all ready to post on my nativity sets that I have and that I get so excited about at Christmas when a giant spider shot out from under the couch that I was sitting on and went strait for my pump. I started freaking out, and go figure the dog was all the way upstairs sleeping on the bed, so it took her about forever to get down stairs. Now just for the record, this spider was smaller than the one found back in October by the back door, but this one had some sort of caffeine in it's system. I don't think I have ever seen a spider go so fast. It was crazy. I actually think that is what scared me most about this spider. Well Rescue came down and was all ready to play...with me. She had no clue about the spider. Since it had made it's way to the pump I had no idea where it was hiding so i just started staring at the pump thinking that would get the bug to leave it. Well if finally did but it ran out to the middle of the room then turned around and went right back to where it came from. I was freaked out and mad at the darn bug. I was also on the phone and trying to have a real conversation but I could only half concentrate. Then it was gone for a bit. Then it showed up again on the wall and was making it's way toward the ceiling. This is when BJ suggested through text message that I get the neighbor to kill it. I felt bad asking the neighbor to do it, and by this time it was on the ceiling. Way far away from me. Well, he must have asked for me, because about 5 minutes later there was a knock on the door and as I answer it I realize the spider is completely gone. We looked everywhere. For someone who was keeping her eyes glued to the bug to make sure it didn't eat me, it really un-nerved me to think it could have been anywhere. Jon left and about 10 min. later the spider reapplied, however, it had trapped me into the living room. After I had seen how fast it ran I was not about to go anywhere with in 2 feet of it and to get out of the living room I would have had to do that. So you ask, how did you get out? Oh yeah, I jumped over the back of the couch, and texted Jon to come back and kill it. He did, and I still had to do the hebi gebi dance. Blah. But at least I was able to sleep last night without having to worry about the spider getting me.

Post to come:
Nativity sets/Christmas village
Happy birthday plants
Wrapping paper invention.

Limited Christmas Spirit

As the Holidays approach many people are getting into the Christmas Spirit. I, however, am having a very hard time. I feel extra stress at work and with the new baby, I don't have the time after work like I used to to go shopping. I even feel slightly Grinchy. I am also having difficult creating "lists" for what I want for Christmas. And tonight while talking with my dad, I realized why. He said that he just saw an article about how what used to be a holiday of "here you go I saw this and thought you would really like it," or "the second I saw this I thought of you and how much you could use it." Now a days Christmas is more like "can I have a shopping list." I don't like requesting stuff, I like giving. But in order to give, I have to be able to shop. And I want to go shopping.

So after thinking about it this year I will try to get gifts that I think someone will like, verses only what they asked for. I will also take into consideration the lists that were made but we will see. Now if only I could solve the stressful work deal. Again everyone pray for snow Thursday or Friday.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Just in case you have been locked in a cave for that past 3 days, and the cave is located somewhere 1000 miles away from the USA, you will have noticed that there was a major winter storm across the US. Apparently everyone that has a client that needs therapy saw this storm coming and canceled there sessions, just in case. We also had cars not starting and lots and lots of sick people. It's kind of funny, in college I worked for a place that thrived off of sick people. Now I work for a company that will go under if kids keep getting sick. Other than being sick and the weather, cars wouldn't start and other people just didn't want to go out. It has been very slow at work these last few weeks, however, in the next week I have 4 evaluations and 7 reports due. Why couldn't the snow come like next Thursday so I could catch up on the paper work before the holidays. Blah. I see stress soon.

Keeping Score

Why must everything in our lives revolve around keeping score. Lately this has really been bugging me and it has finally reached a breaking point. So, since you read the blog you just have to deal with the post. And if you think that I am talking about you some where in it, I probably am which means you need to reconsider your actions. If you don't think I am talking about you then I probably am not. The biggest theme of this post is GET OVER IT!!

Alright, so back to the issue at hand. Why must we continually keep score in our lives? I mean we all feel the HUGE need to make sure everything is "fair," however, when life really is fair we then spend the rest of our lives trying to do better than everyone else. I think it all starts when we are kids. I can vividly remember my brother and I keeping score religiously about who got to sit in the front seat when ever we would go places. It got so bad that my mom had to implement a rule that one of us would get the front going to a place and the other would get the front going back. Heaven forbid we make two stops and were in the car 3 times. After a while we started calculating time we spent in the car. And if one of your front seat trips was shorter than the other persons then you got the front again next time we left. It even went so far as my brother stating the argument that I was born first so I had 6 more years on him that he should be able to catch up.

Then when we are in school we feel the need to be better than everyone else in school. We compete in sports, academics, who gets their licence first, who graduates first, and who gets the highest grade point average.

Then we grow up and get over it all. NOT!!! Nope then you get to the working world. There you compete with all the people around you, do they get the same number of vacation days, are they being paid the same as you, does your boss give them extra privileges that you don't get?? I mean today, even after I was all worked up about this topic to begin with, I was looking at the schedule and realized that this week I have 2 evals, and 6 reports due, next week I have 3 evals and 7 reports due and other therapist don't. Really that's my deal? I know things will work out, they always do, but it is stressful to look at the schedule and think that I will have no time to write up the reports that need to get done. I also need to not get annoyed at my coworkers when they have just as much work to do, just different kinds of work.

Now when I look back getting mad at my brother over the stupid front seat of the car was ridiculous and I am past that now. So for all you people out there who have difficulty with their family not treating everyone identically and extending all privileges to everyone, here is a social story for you. When you feel a situation that you are angry about please refer back to the social story.

My name is ______.

I have a large and wonderful family.Sometimes, my parents do things special with just me.We have dinner, get special presents, and they spend special one-on-one time with my children.

Sometimes, my parents do things special with my siblings and not me.They have dinner without me, they get special presents when I don't, and they spend special time with my nieces and nephews and not my children.

This is okay. My parents love me and my siblings equally but they show it in different ways.

I need to get over being obsessed with equality and be happy when my siblings get special treats.

Now this has been posted on the world wide web. I know you will all find it and I am sure half of you will be angry at it. Well get over it, and let's all move on. However, this stands as a warning. This was my discrete way of tell you all about it. Next time you complain out loud, I will not be so discrete and nice about it.

I can see!!

In the words of Batty for Ferngully... "I can see! It's a miracle!"

Let's rewind to 6:30am Friday. I was getting ready and getting Elijah ready all at the same time. Before I did anything though I put in my contacts. They were a bit blurry to begin with but we are pushing 4 weeks in two week contacts. So I didn't think anything of it. I proceeded to do my makeup, change and dress the baby and leave the bathroom. I continued getting ready by making breakfast, making lunch, getting all of Elijah's stuff ready. It was kinda a busy morning. Actually now that I think about it, all my mornings are busy now that BJ is up and off to work way early. Anyways, there was a massive amount of fireman activity right outside my door, sorta distracting.

I then ran Elijah over to daycare, hopped in my car and drove off to work. About a block away I realize that my left eye is still really really blurry. After driving by the fire trucks and around the block an extra time I kept rubbing my eye to get what ever it was off my contact that was making it blurry. About a mile from the house I started thinking maybe I put the contact in backwards, but that usually hurts and my eye didn't hurt. Except for the rubbing that I kept doing. I then spent the rest of the drive switching between eyes trying to get the blurriness under control so I could focus.

Once at work I pull down the visor to check out the contact and realize...there isn't one there. Umm... Okay, could have sworn I poked my finger in my eye today. Great this should be interesting. Only one contact. I soon realized that if anything was less than 5 feet from me it was clear. However, if I was closer than 1.5 feet from something it was a whole new type of blurry. By 11:30 I was so nauseous from what my eyes thought were motion sickness and I had a splitting headache in my left eye. I ended up typing a report for about an hour and a half with only one eye open. I was so excited to get home and put on my glasses. That's when I started the search for the long lost contact.

Found it, stuck to the floor hard and dry from a day without moisture. It was right next to where I was getting ready. Must have stuck to my finger or something and never made it in my eye. All I have to say is, "man that was a sucky day."

Tis the Season!!

I enjoy this time of year, however, with Christmas cards comes Christmas letters. It is hard for me to just send out picture cards to all. I feel that with the warm thoughts and well wishes I should also send you a brief review of our last year. However, I always have difficulty remembering what all happened in the past year. This next year I think will be a little bit easier if I keep up with the blog. I mean, all I would have to do is review the blog for the highlights of the past year and summarise. Or better yet, just refer people back to the blog and they can review it themselves.

On a side note. Right now we are watching Discovery Channel and they are looking at Kimono Dragons and are walking around the wild ones. The wild ones are actually trying to eat them slowly. Nope not for me. I'm scared just sitting here on the couch millions and millions of miles away form them.

Baptizm

Today was Elijah's baptizm. We chose this weekend because all our siblings would be home from collage and typically we don't travel this weekend. In anticipation of his baptizm we brought an extra white onesie due to the fact, that out of the 5 months Elijah has been alive he has blown out a diaper probably 12 Sunday's at church. Well church started and we were doing good, no poop. Elijah had to stay good and awake until after the sermon today which was when he was actually going to be baptized. About 5 minutes before the sermon was over from a pew away I here a PTHTHTHT (wet fart noise). All of a sudden we all start to giggle and I hear "oh no you better hurry!" So I quickly grabbed his diaper bag and the child, sprint from the first row of the church with the baby in heals and head to the bathroom. I got about half way there and I made the executive decision to change him in the hallway. Why?? Well to get the changing table down and him on it and change him takes 2-3 times longer because they never make changing tables at the height for a short person and its is an acquired angle to do so. Therefore, I changed his massively poopy diaper in the hallway of the church very very quickly and ran back to church. We made it back just in time to get to the front of the church and baptize him. We were good. The pastor remembered his name, Elijah didn't throw up on the pastor and he wasn't dropped by his Godmother. It was all good. Then we went off to eat lots and lots of chili. It was a wonderful day! Elijah is a wonderful baby and we are very thankful for all our family and all our friends.

ZZZ...Gobble...Gobble...ZZZ

Happy Thanksgiving weekend. I was going to post on Thanksgiving about my Thanksgiving, however, I got a bit busy and ended up going to bed instead of posting.

So here is a look back on my Thanksgiving. First of all I am thankful for my husband for sweeping away the baby in the morning and letting me sleep past 7. However, by 7:30 I was wide awake and didn't get much more sleep after that. Then BJ made me breakfast toast with a turkey cut out of it and an egg over easy inside. Real cute and real yummy. Then we headed off to the Okel house to spend Elijah's first Thanksgiving there. Dinner was delicious. Then we headed off to home where I feel fast asleep.

Friday, Mom and Sonny came over to help cook chili for our Sunday family gathering. However, before we started cooking, Elijah headed off to the doctor to get his tushy looked at. Turns out Elijah as a possible fistula and we will be heading off to meet with a pediatric surgeon to see what we need to do about it. Fantastic!! I knew I should have put more money on the Flex Spending Card this year. Oh well, I am sure everything will be okay as long as we get this taken care of quickly.

Saturday, (today) we are doing round 2 of Thanksgiving with the Collins side of my family (Mom, Sonny, Brett, and Kelsey). Who can turn down delicious food? Not me. I am all for it!

Sad baby = Sad mommy

I thought we wouldn't have to worry about tummy issues for a couple of years with our little man. NOPE they have started. I should have known. Like father, like son! That's why I said I should have known. BJ has had issues with wheat and yeast there for, when it is time to start Elijah on rice cereal I should have known that it was all going to easy. So for the first week it went real well. Then we both go sick and the second week he was supposed to be on cereal he wasn't and was strictly back to milk. The third week he went back to cereal and things were good. Then two weeks ago he started to stop pooping!! Yup, the post is about poop! Then after 4 days of no poop we had some explosion. Then 3 days of poop, then 3 days of no poop, then poop. Each time we didn't have poop my perfectly happy little baby boy left and I got a tense, arched backed screaming in pain baby. As the days have gone on his little belly is tight and hard, a slightly raw from all the tummy massages that I have been giving him. I just feel sooo bad. Then as I do the research everything says to give the baby prunes or fruit, but he isn't there in his food exploration yet. So to prevent being "that parent" and call the doctor on the holiday to ask about something as dumb as poop I called today. Turns out we get to start giving him baby water. Really baby water? Now that is a new one even for me. I thought water was water. Guess I didn't realize that there was special water that baby could only drink. Whatever. I also have to take Elijah off of rice cereal and put him on oatmeal cereal, let's hope this works and let's hope for poop.

And so sorry, I will post pictures of Elijah tomorrow. I hope.

5 months

Wow, it's hard to believe that Elijah has been in our house and lives for 5 months now. A small part of me is surprised that it has only been 5 months, at times I feel like the little man has been around and in our lives for years. But then another part of me can't believe how fast those 5 months have gone and feels like it was just yesterday that I brought the little guy home. Over the past couple of months I can't remember when Elijah learned a new thing, I just realize every now and then something he is doing consistently and I don't remember watching him learn that. For example, I noticed tonight that Elijah likes to hold on to his toes, but today is the first time I noticed that. Did he just learn that tonight?? or has it been something he has been working on every now and then and I just didn't notice his exploration of his toes. It's sad, some days on my way to work or home from work I think about the day we came home from the hospital and how overwhelmed I was and shocked that the hospital staff trusted me and my husband enough to be the sole care takers of that little guy. I guess they were right though since he is the size of a baby moose and meeting his developmental milestones that he should be right on time.

On another note, I was going to post pictures of Elijah, but... he was super crabby and when ever I put him down for 20 seconds he would start screaming. So no cute pictures today. We will try again tomorrow.

Date night

Last night BJ and I went out to dinner and a movie and we left little man Elijah with his grandparents right down the street from the movie theater. While we were at dinner I felt as though the entire restaurant was empty. I thought that was odd, especially since it was about 6 on a Friday night, less than a block away from the movie theater. We then saw The Blindside which is a movie about the pro-football player who had a difficult start in life. The movie reassured a feeling I have had for a very long time. I have always felt that I want to have 2 children then adopt a third.

However, while at the movie, Elijah had a massive gas attack and was very uncomfortable and screaming for about 45 minutes. Poor Dad and Kelly. They tried to call and text, but they didn't go through since we were in the theater. I feel bad. At least he finally went back to sleep. Now I just get to spend the rest of the weekend trying to get the kid to poop.

The Hubbies Turn!!!

So for all of you dedicated readers of littlekellyslife.blogspot.com, this is a new treat for you! This post is coming straight from the hubby. My post today should hopefully make you laugh. Or at least it will if you"truly" know Kelly and I!!!



For anyone who has to operate machinery for work, mainly machines that one must drive, you may sympathize with me. Recently I started my new job and as a green horn I am currently doing labor work. This also entitles me to operating a forklift. If you are not familiar with forklifts, than please listen carefully. There are two gears on a forklift, forward and reverse, as well as neutral. The lever in which you use to switch between gears is on the side of the steering wheel. You move it forward to go forward and backward to, you guessed it, go backward. So now to the funny part of the story! The other day believe it was Saturday, Kelly and I were going somewhere and I was driving. I backed out of the garage and into the driveway. While switching the gear shift into drive, with the actual gear shift of the car, I also managed to turn on the right hand turn signal. As stated before, the gear shift for the fork lift is on the column near the steering wheel. Yep! Same exact place as the turn signal lever on a car!!! So while driving my car I managed to think that I was actually in the fork lift! It would have been fine if that was the only time I had done it, BUT I did it again while leaving work today to come home! Maybe I should just drive a forklift all the time!





Okay now for the second story and to give you a taste of what I got myself into by marrying Kelly!!! When she gets bored, she thinks of interesting questions! Things that no one in their right mind would probably ever think of! So... Last night we were watching TV, I think the news was on, and out of nowhere she asks me one of her questions! I am going to try and word it exact so here goes.


"With there being less use of the US Postal service, cause less people are mailing/shipping things, Do you think that the number of mailman babies has decreased? You know what I mean? I mean there are less mailmen walking around and more mailboxes like ours (mailbox with all of our neighbors as well in a center location). Also there are more female mail people, Do they ever have mail babies?"

I might have missed some of the question but I think I got the most of it! REALLY, someone please tell me how I am supposed to answer that! I will try to steal the blog away from her if she is to ask me any other off the wall questions. Than again maybe I will just make it my blog now since I get at least one of these questions a day!!!


Hope you all enjoyed and I hope that I gave you a good laugh or two!!

Places I want to go before I die:

At BJ's old job he placed temp. lab workers all over the country. When he was let go some of them sent him personal e-mail saying that they missed him. One of them even sent us a package from Hawaii. That made me think where are the places in the world that I would love to visit some time in my life. (Not in any particular order)

1. Great Wall of China (need to get over my eating things I don't know fear first).

2. Eiffel Tower

3. Egypt (all of it).

4. San Andrus Fault

5. Rome

6. Hawaii

7. Dallas

8. Grand Canyon

9. Las Vegas

10. Maine in the fall

11. Aruba

12. The place where the Mississippi river meets the Gulf of Mexico

I'm sure there are more, but I just realized how geographically challenged I am. Hmmm, I guess I'll figure it out later in life when I need to plan a trip.

You're kidding right?

Little man Elijah is getting baptized the weekend of Thanksgiving and BJ and I are trying to get everything together for that day. One of the things that we are trying to figure out is his outfit for the day. We first thought, lets go traditional outfit... yeah that didn't last long. One look at the price tag and I was shocked. $50.00 for the cheaper outfit. An outfit that the little man will only wear one time and he will possibly poop in or spit up on before the actual event. The second thought was that we would get something that our second child would wear but then we would have to be okay with letting our boy wear a dress, or guarantee us having another boy. Still couldn't bring my self to spend that kind of money on a white outfit.

The second option was to get him a little suit that he could wear again around Christmas. But it didn't look real baptismal.

What we decided: He will be wearing a white long sleeve onsiee, (we bought a 4 pack so if he poops and explodes his diaper we have backups) and will be wrapped in a very soft, white knit blanket that was given to us for a shower gift from the pastors who married us. Very sentimental and symbolic to us.

Carefull the first step is a doozie

This weekend BJ and I slacked a bunch and really didn't do our typical weekend house work. Therefore, at about 7:30ish I realized that none of the laundry had been done. This used to not phase me. However, since having a kid I have a limited number of pants I can wear and I can no longer wear a pair of pants multiple times due to every pair of pants get some sort of baby fluid on them by the end of the day. Anyway, there it is, 7:30 and I need to get 3 loads of laundry done before I go to bed. So I started the loads, but since we hadn't put away the laundry from last week I had no laundry basket and just carried the loads down one at a time as they were ready to be washed. On my third trip, now were talking 9:00ish, I had all the rest of the clothes and I was heading down the stairs. About 4 steps from the bottom, I'm not sure what happened, all I know is one moment I am walking down the stairs with dirty clothes, the next I'm sliding down two or three stairs on my but with dirty clothes everywhere. My initial reaction was, "Owww, I think I need to cry." My next reaction not even half a second later, "Oww that really sucked and I can't believe that just happened." Followed by about 3 minutes of laughing. BJ who watched the whole thing took his time coming over to me to see if I was okay. Probably had something to do with the fact that I was sprawled across the stairs laughing. Once he did, he dug me out from under the laundry, and gave me a hug. Then being a guy patted me on my butt to say you will be okay, however, hit me right on the spot I just fell. He therefore got a punch to the gut. Oh well. Oh and the picture is where I found Rescue on Saturday trying to take a nap. Weird dog.

Oh and Elijah's update, still no poop. We're still waiting. I'm giving it one more day before I call the doctor.

The Cost of Gas

Yes gas costs a lot up here in the Chicago suburbs. Specifically, gas costs between $2.59 and $2.79. However, that's not what I was talking about. I'm talking about baby boy Elijah. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to messy. Today was obnoxious. Poor kid, he hasn't pooped in over 24 hours. Yes, I have become a true parent. I am now blogging about my child's poop (or lack there of). So yeah, little Elijah has been full of gas all day long. He has been a bit fussy too. That's the real issue, our happy baby has to be held, and preferably standing. Well our baby is not so little and he is difficult to hold for that long of a period. Like I said, tomorrow will be messy or tonight, one of the two. I see poop in my future. I also see pictures of baby on the blog. Here are a few from the day, before he got to fussy from poop.

Lost Car

If you have ever gone to the airport and had to park your car, you know the joy that comes along with trying to find your car when you are done with what ever you are doing. Well BJ has been to the airport for 3 days in a row to work an 8-2 shift for a marketing company. On the third day he had a moment that I would have paid to see. He was getting off the elevator and walked to the row and the spot he thought he had left his car in. Wasn't there. He looked up and down the row and didn't see his car. He then was really smart and hit the button on his car remote to lock his car and listen to the beep. He could hear it honking but couldn't see it. So he walked down the row and hit the button again, no noise. Walked back to the spot he started in hit the button heard the honk. Still didn't see anything. Walked in the opposite direction and pushed the button. No honk. Again walked back to where he started, honk. After about 5-10 minutes of pacing back and forth it dawned on him. The car was on the floor above him. In the exact spot that he was standing in.

BJ's response to the experience: The cards that are at the elevator for you to take to remind you what floor you parked on, you should take.

Possible New Job

BJ has been picking up some hours with a marketing company which he is really really enjoying. However, this new past time comes with some downsides too. Some of these include, all over body pain from standing all day long, and being over exhausted from getting up at the crack of dawn and driving all over the city. On the upside BJ gets to people watch all day long. Slightly jealous can't lie.

Today though, BJ got a call that he will be doing labor for a new food manufacturing plant that is getting ready to open in our area. This job has a much bigger opportunity for a long term career. I enjoy new beginnings even if I'm not the biggest fan of change.

Complaints

I have been receiving some complaints lately about the pictures/or lack there of on the blog. I know, Elijah hasn't had his picture on the blog in over a week. I know this, and I'm sorry. I have an excuse though!!! My excuse is that I am a full time Speech therapist and BJ is keeping busy outside the house looking for a job. I think I have figured it that I am only spending about 4 hours with my son a day when he is actually awake. If I figure him waking up about 5:30 I hang with him for about 20-30 minutes while he eats, then I stick him in his bouncy seat and I jump in the shower. I then sit with him and talk to him while I do my hair and makeup for the day. I then get him ready to go and we head downstairs. He hangs in his highchair while I put the dog out, pack my lunch, make breakfast, get his food ready, put my pump together for work and load my car. If It is a good day I will eat Breakfast. By 7:15 we head out the door and off to daycare. (Up to about 1.5 hours together).

When I get home from work (most days Elijah is already home) around 6:00, I grab the baby and talk with him for about um.. 15-30 minutes then head off to get his dinner ready. I heat up his food and make his rice and spend at most 30 minutes feeding him. By about 6:45-7 he gets real cranky and it's off to bed with him. I can't remember a day when he is awake past 7:30. Then I step back and realize I didn't take his picture today and I will never have that day on film.

We are getting closer and closer to Elijah's 5 month birthday and I at times feel sad already. I'm sad that I spend over 50 hours a week away from my baby and am missing all the cool little things he does during the day. With him being so young he could do a new skill every day but since I'm not on the floor playing with him every day I could miss some of those things. I mean he is such a happy baby and so curious about life I feel one weekend I will be with him and he will just up and walk a way. However, at the same time, I still enjoy working and would miss it WAY to much. Sucks being a working parent, I don't think this part will get any easier as he gets older. Maybe once he gets into school I won't be so sad.

Our Dog Rescue

I wasn't blogging over the time when we acquired our .5 child, AKA our doggy. Let's start at the beginning of this story and after BJ and I bought our house we were ready for our next big acquisition, a dog. In March we went on our last big vacation before we got a dog and then BJ went on a business trip in the middle of April. The weekend he got back we went off to the pound to check out the cute doggies there. The problem was that I wanted a dog between 30 and 50 pounds, one that was around 2 years old, and one that was good with young kids since we wanted to have one soon. We were having problems finding a dog that met those standards for us. Most of the dogs we were finding were over 100 pounds or under 15 pounds. Others were not recommended for children at all or children over the age of 9. I was getting a bit frustrated with what our options were. Then we found Rescue The Wonder Dog.

She was about 30 pounds when we found her but they thought she would gain about 5 more pounds, the thought she would be good with kids and they recommended that she go to a home that could spend time with her because she was very skittish with EVERYTHING. So we got her and brought her home, once we would get her in the car. Found out she was scared to death of cars and refused to get into the car. She barfed doggy bits in the car on the way home and that should have been our first clue we were in for a bumpy ride.

Over the next 24 hours we figured out:

• She had difficulty with transitions. She refused to go through doorways which makes if very challenging to get her to go to the bathroom. (Now she has no issues with them)
  
• She is scared of her leash. We would have to chase her around the house and corner her to get her leash on then start running and get through the door. (Now as long as BJ or I put the leash on her she doesn't mind)


• She had gravitational insecurity. She didn't know how to go up stairs and would only take her front feet off the floor. It took her about a week to figure out how to get up the stairs and for the first couple of months we had to lift her in and out of the car.
  
• She had massive anxiety if you left her. Thank goodness we had a crate or else I'm not real sure what we would have lost. (She chewed a lot of towels).
  
• She didn't like the order of the house and kept trying to attack me. (Training took care of that)
  
• She was scared to death of any motor vehicle bigger than a bicycle, especially buses, dump trucks, tractors, and motorcycles. And when your house has a back yard that is for a construction dump site there are lots of things your dog doesn't want to be around. (Now she chases them as they drive by)
  
• She has no body awareness. She is the only dog I know that takes over a half an hour to pee, and will poop while walking.

Over the next couple of months we went to training school the really didn't work out for us. They even recommended us getting rid of her. That's when we found the trainer that worked for us. We went to 10 weeks of training and by the end we had a dog that trusted us and is not so scared of everything. However, she still doesn't do well with some people. In fact, for some odd reason she is scared to death of BJ's father. No clue why. Now our dog is still weird and here is what we need a doggy Occupational Therapist to work on with.

• Understanding when she is hungry. She won't eat for 24 hours then barf because her stomach is empty.
  
• Pee in less than 10 minutes.
  
• Her attention span

The list has gotten MUCH shorter over the last year and a half and most of the time I am glad we kept her. I do have to say though there are days that I threaten to sell her to the Gypsies.

Pregnacy and the after effects

When your pregnant you expect your body to change in certain ways. However, there are many things that those other people forget to mention. For example, I knew I would gain weight, they said 20 pounds... actual 45 pounds. They said I would have stretch marks, I assumed on my stomach... actual, got them on my back, inner thighs, and calves, none on my stomach. They said your boobs will get bigger... actual they quadrupled in size and are always full. They said it will take time to lose the baby weight... actual, the weight comes off semi quickly, however, all the lose skin sticks around for what feels like forever. What they forgot to mention... your eyes change about 3 months after you give birth so you can't see anything, you lose 3-4 giant fist fulls of hair a day (seriously I feel like a shedding doggy), and you eventually get used to sleeping in 4-5 hour spurts.

Yeah and I'm only 4.5 months out of being preggers. Can't wait for the rest of the surprises to pop up any day now.

Merry Chirstmas

I mean wait... Oh yeah, Christmas is in um a month an a half. I mean get over it. Sitting on the couch in the last commercial break i have seen 3 "holiday" commercials. Really?? Every year there is a longer and longer period of Holiday commercial cheer. What ever happened to advent? Oh right, you can't make money off of the real story of Christmas. I forgot. I think it will be about 5 more years before there will be Christmas commercials year round.

However, with the last two days having temperatures in the low 70's it is hard to remember that it is November.

Fall Cleaning

I know most people do spring cleaning, however, since I was super preggers in the spring we didn't really do much of that. (Ha that's my excuse but in all actuality is we just don't deep clean as often as we should.) Since I know that my house is messy and right after I returned to work from maternity leave I found out we can't roll over any of our vacation time to next year so I would have extra time off. I figured, I'll take a couple of days off and clean the house. Then BJ got laid off and both Elijah and I came down with something so two of the planed cleaning days went down the drain. On Friday BJ and I cleaned like it was no body's business. Elijah went off to daycare and I started on the bathrooms, 2 hours later the bathrooms looked like new. In my own opinion there are several very important areas of the house that need to be clean, they are toilets, showers, and sinks. When we are ready to buy our next house the one deciding factor for me will be how the showers look. If they are not clean at first glance no sale. A dirty shower is gives me chills. Now don't get me wrong I went to collage, I spent 3 years showering in "public/community" showers. But that was enough for me.

It's funny though, with the house this clean, I feel as it isn't really my house. I'm sure I will get used to it.

Word of the day...BLAH

Yesterday at 6:00 am we get a phone call from Elijah's daycare saying that her daughter was super sick and they were rushing her to the hospital, therefore, no daycare today. about 3 hours later, I started to not feel so hot but it wasn't anything to worry about. Progressively throughout the day I felt worse and worse, Elijah's low grade fever came back and the the daycare providers daughter was admitted to the hospital. Today, I'm not feeling any better, nor is Elijah. But my thinking back in September was that I would take 3 days in November and really deep clean the house, now that it is November and I'm off work, I just want to curl up on the couch and sleep and try to get solid food into my system. Either way, I wouldn't be working today so at least I had planned a head with my clients. BLAH

Little Piggy, Little Piggy let me come in.

Some time in the past 7 days I told Elijah the story of the 3 little pigs as we were going to bed. He didn't seem to like the part when the houses got blown down. Flash forward to yesterday, I get a phone call from daycare saying that Elijah has a fever of 101.5. Awesome, couldn't have come on a worse day. Luckily, since Elijah goes to an in home daycare and ALL the kids were sick (including her own) there were really no kids at daycare so she let Elijah stay there today. Very helpful so I could get to work and BJ could take care of his job interviews. Now piggy get out of my house. (Elijah has not had a fever since 2:30 am and he did lots of sleeping today.)

What I found in my car

For anyone who has been anywhere near my car in the last, um... 3-4 years, you will know my car seems to be a black hole for crap. Now BJ likes to say excuses and butts are basically the same thing, everyone has one and they both stink. Well my excuses for my car are:

A) we never take my car so why should it be clean?

B) I have a lot of stuff to bring back and forth why not just give it a permanent home in my car?

Well It finally came to a point (BJ told me I had to or he would do it) that I needed to clean my car. I thought It would be funny to share all that I found. HA you ready.

2-child puzzles (1 floor puzzle, 1- 9 piece wooden one
1- coloring book

2- sets of stickers

1- hot wheel car

1- Fisher Price car with baby in the back seat

1- unopened deck of cards

3- pairs of socks

1- cat puppet

50- wedding favor bubbles

8- reusable bags

1- pair of mittens

1- water bottle

3- expired vehicle registrations

2- emissions tests (made me realize I missed my last vehicle emissions in 2008)

7- expired insurance cards

1- bag of popcorn (not sure why)

1- hair claw

2- uppercase living catalogs

3- Mr. Potato Head bodies (no parts)

3- Baby potato head bodies (again no parts)

1- giant potato head, with parts

1- CD

1- half drunk Iced tea

1- Tupperware with a science experiment inside

1- hand held AC adapted vacuum cleaner

1- mini brown paper bag

1- bag of garbage

1- pen

1- travel bottle of contact solution that expired in 2002

1- Christmas Chocolate

1- speech developmental chart

1- gift card to Target

1- phone charger to a phone I don't have any more

1- tum

directions to two places and 1 dead June bug. Ha and that's not including the car seat base, stuffed cow, umbrella (that is never used), atlas (that has never been opened), a box of tampons, a tire pressure gage and 3 travel sized packs of Kleenex. I know, I'm a slob. now my car can go to the Doctor and get it's axel fixed.

Happy Halloween and All Saints Day

Yesterday we celebrated Elijah's first Halloween. In the morning we just sat around the house and took pictures with our pumpkins. The little one is Elijah's pumpkin that I carved for him, the big one is BJ's pumpkin he carved for his favorite team, and the medium pumpkin is mine that our neighbor carved for me since I had Elijah. That night we drove to the city to visit two of my old co-workers who just moved and actually moved less than a mile of each other. We ended up doing drinks and appetizers at one house, then dinner and dessert at the other. We walked between the two houses because we found a great parking spot and didn't want to have to give it up. As we walked between the houses all dressed up families were handing us candy. So even though Elijah was sound asleep for the walk his first trick-or-treating experience was successful in getting mommy and daddy candy.

First Halloween, First pumpkin experience. Now what kind of mother would I be if I did not let my child experience ALL of Halloween. We have the costume, we have taken festive pictures (with our neighbors door decorations), and we bought the pumpkins. Well I think it is my duty as a parent to expose my child to all the gross things there are too. Such as pumpkin guts. I only wish I could have let him play in it all longer, I was just afraid he would try to eat it or get a skin rash from the guts so he just got to dip his fingers in it. But it still is funny.

On a side note did anyone notice how little time I actually spend with my child when he is awake during the day?? Yeah, that's why there are not a lot of pictures of him, because I'm to busy playing with him in the 2-3 hours he is awake and home.

A Day in My Life

We will do a 12am to 12am.

We start with me sound asleep (most of the time.) Some time between 2 and 3 little man Elijah wakes up and wants to be feed, and me being the wonderful mother that I am try to ignore him for at least 10 minutes hoping he falls back asleep. He never does. So I get up, check to make sure my side of the bed is still on so the bed is warm when I get back and go get the boy. I stumble into his room and remember he weighs half a ton and have to get my muscles ready to lift him out of the crib. I feed him for about 20 minutes then think about changing him. I change him only about 50% of the time, typically only when he poops during the feeding. I then try to burp him but most of the time he is already sound a sleep. I put him back in his crib cover him up and head back to bed. Crawl back in bed, kick the dog back to the end of the bed because some time during the last 20 minutes the dog took over my spot. I fall back asleep until about 5 or 5:30. Lately, Elijah has been sleeping in later but sometimes he wakes up at 5 and wants to eat so I feed him if not then at 5:30 my alarm goes off and I hit snooze for about uh... 30-45 minutes.

6:15 I typically roll over and realize I need to get up and almost at the same time I realize I didn't wash the pump parts last night and I'm already running late. I poke BJ and ask him if he will help me. He always mumbles a yeah. I then head off to shower and get ready for the day. At 6:40 if Elijah has not eaten yet I feed him while I do my makeup. I then stare at my baby for a couple of minutes until I realize that I needed to be downstairs about 10 minutes ago.

7:00 I get downstairs turn on the hot water to wash the pump parts, make lunch, and make breakfast. Some times I eat in the car others I eat while I make my lunch. All the while I stare at baby. I then throw all the pump parts into the bag, swear I will wash them when I get home tonight and put it, my lunch and hot tea into the car. Come back inside put a coat on the baby and run him to the sitters (two doors down). Say goodbye to BJ and head off to work by 7:20.

Now the last couple of weeks my car has been making funny noises and that is never good especially when your income is less than before. So the whole way to work I think about the noise and how much it will cost to fix.

7:50 I get to work go in and talk with the ladies in the front. Sign in, get my charts and head off to prep for the day. That typically means staring at my computer for several minutes before I realize if I don't pump soon I will lose my window and be in pain for the morning. So I grab my first few charts, my cart and some toys and head off to my room for the day.

8:15 pump, 8:30 start therapy and treat until about 11:45 when it is time to pump again. 12:00 time for lunch and talking with my co-workers. 12:30 back to treating until 3:00 when it is time to pump again. 3:15 or 3:30 back to work until about 5. I clean up my room and get ready to head home. Get home between 5:30 and 6 most days to feed the baby his rice cereal.

7:00 bring the baby up to bed and get put him down, 7:30 head down stairs and figure out what is for dinner and eat some time later.

8:00 sit down on the couch and watch my nightly tv, when I usually get so sleepy that I start to fade. 9:00 think about going to bed early, 10:00 get up to go to bed, turn on the bed, brush my teeth, and head to bed. Think about not cleaning the pump and think tomorrow will be different. At about 10:30 BJ comes to bed which means I talk to him for several minutes and don't actually fall asleep until 11 thinking tomorrow I am going to bed earlier. Fall asleep. The end.

It's a bug

With this H1N1 thing flying around and everyone under the sun contracting some form of it, I was wonder... Instead of saying "I have a bug" when you are sick should we say, "I have a pig?" I mean it was the swine flu for forever.

Also I think the computer has caught the H1N1 pig. It has not been behaving very well these past few days. Every time we want to upload the cereal video it freezes, and then just doesn't want to work the rest of the evening. So I'm a but frustrated. We have this "wonderful" video camera that is a hard drive. The thing about it is there are no tapes!!! That's awesome, except now I can't figure out how to get all these awesome movies off the hard drive and burn them onto a DVD to keep forever and ever. So in summary, for Christmas I would like either :

A) an external hard drive to load up the movies and burn them from that to a DVD, or

B) someone to figure out how to do make me the DVDs and do it for me.

and C) I would also enjoy my wedding album (hint, hint hubby. Don't worry supposedly we have already paid for it 3 Flipping years ago when we got married!)

First Cereal!

First cereal time!! Me being a Speech-Language Pathologist I have been around many children when they are eating. One of the things I work with is helping children that have difficulties when they eat. That and I have taken loads of classes on eating and the developmental process of the tongue and mouth and swallowing. All this being said I still get a kick seeing new things presented to children, especially orally. So here is my little munchkin and his first experience with solid food. Sorry it is so long but we have managed to catch all of Elijah's new things. You will hear his little giggle, his cooing, see his new trick on how to suck both his lower and upper lip. What can I say, he is just cute.

Some things to note in this long video...See my beautiful flowers that BJ sent me the day before he lost his job but showed up the day he lost his job. Me and my beautiful Saturday morning gear, ( I really did shower later but I was sick the whole week so I earned the right to have bed head.) Hear my really sexy voice compliments of my cold. And oh yeah, Baby Elijah. Sorry it is a bit long. (Okay it doesn't want to post. I'll get it latter and post it then. GRR I'm frustrated.)

Secondly, I just want to say I completely agree with vaccinations and it is absolutely pish posh that childhood vaccinations cause Autism, but... Not a fan of the evil beast they turn my child into 3 days later. First of all, I think I have narrowed it down to which one it was. It was the stupid Rhoto virus. Let's just say that my happy baby cried for 2 straight hours last night 2 hours after he typically goes to sleep. The whole thing ended with lots of crying and Elijah's daddy coming in to the rescue at about 8:45. Not a good night last night.

4 Months Old

Today little man Elijah is 4 months old today. Yesterday he went off to the doctors for his 4 month visit. Drum roll please. His weight- 16 lbs 13 oz (85%), Height- 25.3 inches (65%). Alright we are getting better with his height, still a little chunky though. I love my little man, this month he rolled over 2 times, giggled 4-5 times, slept through the night once or twice, smiled at mommy and daddy over 10,000 times, began prop sitting for several moments. I'm sure there is more but every day he does something new that it's hard to remember what he couldn't do the day before. So the best part of having a kid is being mean to them and dressing them up for Halloween. This year Mister Elijah is going to be a scary tiger. Here are some cute pictures of him all dressed up. Now the very festive pictures came from our neighbors yard. They are more festive and crafty and actually decorate for the holiday so we "borrowed" their decor and took some pictures. So, "Roar, Trick-or-Treat, Grrrr."

Tomorrow is a new day

Today was the end of another chapter in our life. Time to write a new story! AKA- BJ got let go today. Let's just say, this was not the way to start my Wednesday. This whole job thing is something we have seen coming for the past hmmm... 18 months. Yeah we knew this was in the cards it just sucks when it actually shows up. Oh well, Tomorrow starts the, TIME TO FIND A NEW CAREER search. I wonder where we will end up in a couple of months. We will be good, I mean who wouldn't want BJ, he is awesome! I love him!

Sleep

Elijah typically will go to sleep with in 15 minutes of us beginning to put him down, however, we have to be holding him for him to go to sleep (95% of the time). Now being a new parent, everyone has the need to share their advice with me and I hear you have to let them cry, you have to hold them to nurture them. I also know sooner or later I can't hold Elijah to go to sleep (probably soon, due to his massive size). But here is my dilemma. Elijah is a good sleeper but he is not very good at regulating his body and I have a small suspicion he has GERD. Therefore, he needs to be rocked in an upright position until he is sound asleep. If I happen to put him down before he is completely out he will wake up screaming. If he happens to get to the screaming phase going to bed will take an extra 60 minutes because that's how long it will take to calm him down. The whole, let him scream until he falls asleep, does not work. He will scream so hard until he throws up. However, he will put himself to sleep when he is in his car seat/swing (but there is movement).

So my question to all the mothers: How do you wean your baby from sleeping in your arms to falling asleep by themselves without throwing up?

Body Fluid Sunday

Today was super slow and boring but I feel much better and am ready to go to work tomorrow. What I didn't tell you about yesterday was the wonderful experience Elijah gave me during church. All you parents out there will enjoy this, all you soon to be parents take note, all you with out children think carefully about changing that fact.

Now a days I try to feed Elijah right before church, I used to pump and bring a bottle, however, Elijah is waking up later so there isn't much left to pump out. So the last couple of Sundays I have been breastfeeding Elijah right before the service so he can make it through without fussing. Well he was eating away and it was about 3 minutes before the service was about to start and massive fart/poop. I knew immediately this was going to be messy and I thought he just might have blown out of his diaper. Quick check confirmed my suspicion and lucky me didn't have the diaper bag. BJ had brought it into church already so I had to carry the poopy baby in to church superman style so I wouldn't smear it anymore, get the bag and carry baby back out superman style to the bathroom.


Thank goodness the stall with the changing station was open. I get Elijah's new Peterson jersey off and realize just how massive this poop was. Typically when we have poopy explosive diapers we two person it. Makes it so much easier. However, being the changing stations are in the bathrooms this is impossible. So here I am trying to figure out how to get baby to stand up, unbutton his onesy, and think about getting it off. I thought well if I can wipe the poop off his back and fold over the shirt I might be able to get it off without creating a massive mess. At this point I realize we really only have enough wipes in the travel wipe box for one massive diaper or two contained diapers. Knowing after church we were going to my dads I needed to conserve the wipes as much as possible. So I take poopy baby out to the towels and get a couple of wet towels to wipe down the baby and take them all back into the stall. Wipe down the baby the still have to get the shirt off. during the process I manage to get poop all over his back, again, his arm and slightly in his hair too. Hmm, now what do I do with the wonderful poopy shirt? Typically I have Ziploc bags in the diaper bag. Today, not so much. I put the shirt on top of the changing table for now to worry about after I finish changing the baby. Finally get to opening up the diaper and clean him all up, get out the new fresh diaper and as I'm putting it on him HE PEES!!! all on him, his head, the changing table. It was great. I just started laughing now. I hear other families in the bathroom so I ask if one of them could grab me a towel or two to clean soak up the new mess Elijah just made for me. So a wonderful mother brought me a couple and gave me the idea to wrap the shirt in paper towels to get it home. Done.

Once the baby is all dressed, dry, and clean and I have wiped down the entire changing station and taken care of the poopy shirt I pick up Elijah and take him out so I could wash my hands. At this moment Elijah spits up all on my shoulder. Alright we got the tri-fecta!! To bad I didn't have money on that diaper changing experience. After my hands are washed I head to church. As I round the corner to go into the sanctuary I see my mom coming out with a worried look on her face. I check the time. Oh yeah we are now 20 minutes into the service. Wonderful. Church should really consider putting speakers in the bathroom for people like me who missed the first half of the service due to a poopy baby.


What I have learned: Double check to make sure you have diapers, 2 changes of clothes, plenty of wipes to clean 5 poopy diapers, and Ziploc bags. Also, next time Daddy gets to change the baby at church. HAHA

Caption for this Photo: Daddy what are you doing? Do we really have to go back out in the cold?