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?

No Sick Days for Mommies

I woke up today at my typical 2:45 to feed baby and thought, "hmm, my throat is a bit scratchy." But this is nothing new to me, I mean common, the weather is changing, the kids at work are typically sick from October to April with some type of cold or whatever and BJ just got over a cold. I was actually surprised my cold took this long to show up. So I fed Elijah and went back to bed, however, in the 45 minutes I was up I started to get massive sinus pressure. Fabulous, this will be a fun cold. By the time I woke up in the morning I felt just about the same but lots of sinus pressure. I think, "I'm still good, I can breathe out of my nose and I really don't feel run down. Then BAM out of no where my back starts to hurt. One thing I have learned over the last couple of years is, if my muscles ache like I just had a super long workout but my butt never left the couch, I am sick. As the day went on, I got achier and achier. By the time we got home around 4, I took my temp. BINGO 100.4, can't go to work tomorrow. Kids have to be fever free 24 hours, so do clinicians. So I call up the doc. to ask what I should do about Elijah since I don't want him sick. Doc tells me sorta the opposite of what I was expecting, we get to spend the next couple of hours together until I'm all better. Reason being, since I strictly give Elijah breast milk it becomes his own little anti-cold/flu medicine. And It has to be given directly from the source to have the most anti-bodies. Great. I get to stay home from work tomorrow, but baby, who is perfectly healthy, gets to stay with me just so he doesn't get sick. I hope I can get through the day okay. If not Daddy is just a phone call away to come help.

Bed wetting

For one member of the house hold it is appropriate and expected for the bed to be wet every once in awhile, for the other members it is not acceptable. Let me tell you about the wet bed that I encountered last night.

At 2:45 am Elijah woke up and wanted to be fed. That's fine, that's normal. So I got out of my nice warm, 2 comforter, heated mattress pad bed to feed him. As I was feeding him he decided to poop. Not just poop though explosive diaper poop all up the back and all. It was great so I changed him, and fed him the second half of his midnight meal. As I was feeding him I heard Rescue in the bed room readjust herself. Again, normal, Rescue typically likes to sleep touching us and when one of us gets up she will typically take over there spot. Elijah finishes and I put him back to bed. All good. I walk into the bedroom and practically find Rescue on my pillow. Not the first time, I laugh, wake up BJ and tell him to look at the dog. He snicker and tells Rescue to move, then rolls over and goes back to sleep. Rescue looks at me and puts her head back down. Mean while, I climb back into bed and dig my feet under the dog to make her move she literally flies off the bed and heads to her doggy bed on the floor. I try to convince her to get back in the bed which she does and tries to sleep on my lap, at that point things go from normal to way not normal. I then stretch out my legs and my feet hit a damp spot. I pull my feet back and think, "did I really keep the bed on that high that my feet sweat that much?" I then put my feet back to feel it again, not just damp, soaking. Then I get the smell. PEE. BJ gets a punch to the kidneys and "Rescue flipping peed in the bed!" His response, "are you sure?" What do you mean am I sure, real sure that wet spot at the end of the bed is pee. We then have to get up, change the sheets, and the covers but here is the problem. As you just read, I just changed the sheets Wednesday, so the second set of sheets we have for our bed are dirty and we only have two comforters and they were both on the bed. Really?? Really?? at that point Elijah wakes back up. GRRR. Put the baby back to bed, put Rescue in her crate, BAD DOG, get a blanket and quilt out of the closet.

The only good thing, due to the # of layers on the bed the heated mattress pad did not get wet and that's the only way we stayed warm the rest of the night.

Bed

Many of you may know that one of my favorite past times is sleeping. I love a good nap, I love sleeping in Hotels, I just love sleep. My favorite thing about the change in weather is the change in bedding. the last couple of night Bj and I have been going to bed freezing. We have to cuddle up shivering for about 20 minutes before we are warm enough to sleep. I also sit there the whole time and talking about getting out the heated mattress pad. Well last night I did it myself. I stripped the bed and put on the new mattress pad and new sheets along with a down comforter. It makes me so happy the first week after I change the bed for winter. All day today all I could think about was the bed and how great it would be to sleep in my bed. So the one thing I am so excited about is going to sleep tonight! I love sleep did I mention that?

The Fish and the Baby that tried to Kill me

Last night BJ thought he would be the wonderful husband that I know he is. So he made some fish that was marinated in spices. Now #1 not a fan of fish or really anything that swims but I'll eat it if that's what is for dinner. And #2 I hate, and I mean HATE anything spicy. So as I'm getting ready to eat BJ takes a bite and says, hmm it seems a bit more spicy than last time. I think, "yeah it's probably just a bit spicy, I ate it last time, I can eat it this time." I took one bite and thought my mouth was actually on fire. I was holding Elijah and i was trying to spit out the food, and give Elijah to BJ without dropping my plate and screaming all at the same time. I then proceeded to down two glasses of milk. How do people eat stuff like that?? It wasn't even a taste it was a feeling. How do you enjoy the feeling of pain while eating what is supposed to be delicious food? I don't know. It all just stunk.

Then last night, Elijah took an hour to go to sleep. (Not typical, usually 20-30 min. max). Then proceeded to wake up 3 times and the last time (3:00 am) he decided he didn't want to go back to bed. After an hour of me struggling with him I went and woke up BJ and told him it was his turn and I needed some sleep. BJ then spent the next hour trying to get him to go back to sleep. I got back up at 5 and fed him when he fell back asleep. By this time BJ was annoyed and sleepy so we both slept in past our alarms and went in to work 45 minutes later. Then this morning Elijah looked at us and smiled and we forgave him, but only because he is sooo cute. I tried to get a picture of him but he has now decided that when he sees a camera he will stop smiling. What a bum.

Big boobies

My whole life I have never really been blessed with a chest. I would say I have more than some, but definitely less than most. Since being pregnant I was introduced to the world of boobies. Initially I thought it was great in the first/second trimester, then in the third trimester I was just so bummed about my whole body being sooooo incredibly large I was done with extra body parts. Then Elijah showed up. Belly shrunk, boobies got bigger, and bigger. I never quite understood why people who looked the same size as me needed shirt sizes bigger to fit their chest. Well as I start to go through my clothes that came out of my closet during my pregnancy I realize that none of my sweaters will fit until I'm done being a cow. All my shirts are just so unflattering now. I typically end up wearing my work Polo's every day just so I don't have to see my chest in shirts.

I mean really how ironic is that, all growing up I wanted bigger boobs, now I have them and I want to get rid of them. Life is so unfair.

I'm Shrinking

Since about this time last year I slowly started to gain a small amount of weight, then quickly gained a lot of weight. 45 pounds to be exact over the course of 9 months. After Elijah was born I quickly lost 30 pounds in about 4-5 weeks. Since then I have slowly but surly continued to lose a little weight every week or so. This would seem really awesome if my body wasn't also shrinking. The weekend before I went back to work I went out and bought about 6 pairs of pants so I could go back to work not wearing maternity pants. Now however, all those pairs of pants are getting a bit on the big size but my pre-maternity pants are still slightly to small. Grr, stuck between a rock and a hard place, but at least I fit.

Baby Socks

I was going to post on sleepy Sundays but I forgot my camera with the DJ stuff that was sent back to my In-laws about 45 minutes before I remembered it was there. So instead baby socks it is.

Okay I would like to talk with the individual who thought that socks should be made in baby sizes. I am sure that who ever decided to make these darn things never had a baby because if they did they would actually work. Here are my complaints about the little socks. First, they hardly ever stay on. Now with the changing weather I fear for my child's toes to get so cold they just up and fall off so I put on little socks. I then spend the next 5 hours readjusting them pulling them back up until I finally get fed up and yank them off. Second, if they do stay on they are so darn tight that the chubby little legs/feet of the baby have sock imprints on them. Elijah's feet in socks look like my feet when I was pregnant. Sausages in fabric. And third, If they do stay on, every time you have to change a diaper, they are just one more thing you have to remove. If you don't remove the socks then your baby is bound to dip one or both of his feet in the poopy diaper that he just created for you.

My solution, all baby pants should be make with little booties attached just like the all the pajamas. That way the toes stay warm and you don't spend your whole day fixing the socks. Tada.

On another note, I started to go back and put labels on all of my posts and reading all the old posts. It's my mind and I really don't how it works. Some of them are funny if you pick a label and read several of the posts you might get a kick out of them.

The Giggle

Last week (Friday maybe) Carissa (who Elijah spends his days with) told me that he laughed for the first time that day. A real laugh too. Up until that point Elijah's laugh has been more of a gagging sound with a very very very wide open smile. We used to call a bug catcher in color guard way back in the day. However, she told me it was a real laugh that was just soooo cute. Apparently the rest of the day all the kids were trying to get Elijah to laugh which is probably why he has refused to laugh for me. Up until TODAY!!! It was great. We were playing on the floor and Rescue was being a slightly crazy dog which was getting me worried.

Short story of Rescue: From the day we brought her home I have been convinced that our dog needs Doggy Occupational Therapy. She has difficulty with transitions, she has gravitational insecurity (she wouldn't go up stairs), and she has problems figuring out where her body is in space (runs in to walls, frequently step on your foot with her incredibly long toe nails, and can't tell when she is pooping). She also has doggie ADHD (runs in the family I guess) because she is the only dog in the world that takes 20 minutes to pee and that's when she really has to go.

So anyway, Rescue was being wild and crazy and came with in centimeters of stepping on little Elijah's head while killing one of her jungle animals. Well since I felt bad for her being in her crate all day I didn't want to make her stop running around so every time she came running into the room I would cover Elijah with my body. Well Elijah just though that, that was absolutely hilarious and started his typical giggle, then broke into a laugh. Carissa was right, it was SOOOO adorable. It actually made me cry a little bit. I love him!

Thursday

By Thursday night I can hardly keep my eyes open. I don't know why, for the most part Thursday is no different than every other day. I do work close to 10 hours on Thursday, and have the possibility of seeing 9 kiddos. However, on Wednesday I work just under 8 hours and can also see 9 kiddos. I just don't understand how working more hours, given a couple more breaks makes me more exhausted than less hours with more kids. Either way by the time I get home Thursday, I get dinner on the table, pump and sit down on the couch I am practically half a sleep. The last two weeks I have fallen asleep in the last 15 minutes of the Mentalist meaning I miss the ending. I'm trying to make it through the t.v. shows tonight. Cross your fingers.

Sorry no pictures of Elijah tonight.

Distractablity

BJ and I both have a touch of Attention Deficit Disorder (the longer I'm around BJ the more I think BJ has more than a touch, but SHHHH). So as I mentioned before this causes some interesting moments between BJ and I, mostly in our conversations. For most of the time we have 2-3 conversations going at the same time and never actually finish one. However, lately as I hang round Elijah I see baby ADD and it makes me giggle. Like yesterday, as I was trying to feed Elijah he kept seeing my hair and batting at it, then giggling which caused him to stop eating. It was actually very funny because it was a cycle of eat, bat the hair, laugh, eat, bat the hair, laugh repeat. Finally I gave up and he went to daycare with very little breakfast and lots of extra food for when he got hungry there.

Creapy crawly

So I was going to post about a really stupid program called "my baby can read." But God decided to give me something else to post about. All I have to say about this program is that if any one of you how have children buy this program to teach your child to read before the age of 3. I will come over to your house steal the program and scold you for it. GRRR stupid.

Anyway. So in two days there have been two giant spiders in our house. They were both found in the same spot in the house and it really has me thinking where these things are living when we don't see them. And what in Gods name are they eating to get so darn big. Since living in this house we have had a total of 5 of these giant spiders. Let me tell you about all of them.

So the first one was in the laundry room probably about a year ago. I was moving the wet clothes from the washer to the drier when a giant spider ran out from under the drier and hid under a tub. I promptly ran out of the laundry room and made BJ go kill it. He laughing at me was like "it's probably only a little thing." Not even 30 seconds after he went in to the laundry room I heard "ahhh, Oh dear God" then WHAP "he's dead, that was disgusting." Yeah see when I say monster spider I mean it.

The second on BJ found it tried to hide behind the refrigerator. BJ calmed this second one was bigger than the first and actually moved the refrigerator to kill it. But, being so big he didn't want to squish is so he sucked it up with the vacuum. This actually didn't kill it so he took the vacuum canister outside where he squashed it.

The third was when I was pregnant and wasn't sleeping. I would come downstairs after an hour of tossing and turning. But typically I would not turn on any lights hoping that I would be able to fall asleep eventually. This night I decided to turn on a light when I went into the kitchen for some odd reason saw a giant spider staring back at me right where I would have walked. Well seeing as it was about 4 am I didn't want to wake up BJ I decided to try to capture it. I have caught a couple of spiders in shot glasses (and now a days that the only use for our shot glasses) but this one's body was as big as the glass opening. I though about a regular glass, but, its legs were so long that I would probably touch one of them and it would take off running. Totally not what I wanted to happen. So I finally found a giant Tupperware and threw it from as far as possible to keep him there. When BJ woke up he was surprised I was brave enough to get that close to it.

The forth one was yesterday. Rescue was playing bug hunter and had stalked a smaller spider to the patio door and had got it a couple of times but kept spitting it out. So I helped her and kept moving the rug hat the spider was crawling under so she could eat it. She finished her spider and I was praising her for it when I saw the giant one. I started screaming because BJ just went into the garage. He actually heard me on the complete other side of the house. He came in and killed it.

The fifth one was tonight same spot as last night. But, of course I found it after BJ took Elijah up to bed so I had to stay in the kitchen watching it in case it decided to try and hide from us.

I hate spiders! They are worse than rodents because they have lots more legs. Eww.

I love my hubby

Today marks the 12 year anniversary of when BJ and I first started dating. It's crazy for me to think that we have been together for 12 years and never once have broken up. Every time we hit one of these anniversaries we typically have a conversation along these lines. So did you ever thing 12 years ago this is where you would end up? Wife, house, dog, kid all with me?? And every year the answer is the same. Nope! So today I will tell you some of the reasons why I love my hubby.

1. He will kill giant furry spiders that magically appear in the kitchen at random times.
2. He can reach things on shelves that are over my head.
3. His car is always clean so I don't have to worry about ever cleaning mine out.
4. He is artsy fartsy and had a better eye for color matching than I do. Hence why he does all the color schemes for our house.
5. He always makes me laugh.
6. He knows how to tune me out so I still think he is listening when I start to complain about life.
7. He listens when he knows it counts.
8. He is patient with me even if he isn't with the rest of the world.
9. He gets the way my mind works.
10. He knows when I'm having a rough time by the tone of my voice and without me telling him whats wrong.
11. Even though he doesn't do as much as I would like him to he knows how to cook.
12. He likes to cook.
13. He is snuggly like a teddy bear.
14. He is just as ADD as I am which makes for some very interesting moments in our house.
15. He is good at sports, and I enjoy watching him play.
16. He gets up for Elijah in the middle of the night when I tell him to.
17. He has the best smile in the world (second only to Elijah's).
18. He puts forth 100% effort towards new tasks and things he loves.
19. He can now vacuum a room correctly (he is very trainable).
20. He does things for me, my way just so I won't complain about them too much.

There are plenty more but those are some of my favorites.

Love you dear!

Bears game

Today was Elijah's first tailgating experience, and B.J.'s third Bear's game. Here's how the day went.

So BJ was out way late last night DJ a wedding. I think he got home some where between 2 and 2:30 when Elijah decided he was hungry. While I fed the baby BJ fell fast asleep. At 5 Eli woke up again and wanted more food. As I was feeding him he had a HUGE explosive dipper. Now typically in that state of mind (sleepy that is) I would call for BJ to come help me clean it up. However, I felt sorry for him since I had an extra 3 hours of sleep I figured I could probably figure it all out without him. I then preceded to not dress Elijah in fear that he would ruin his nicely planned out outfit for the day. After showering and getting dressed I woke up BJ at 6. We finished getting ready and left the house (about 5 min. after I really wanted too but not to bad) heading to my co-workers parents house to start the day. On the way there, BJ and I had a brain fart and turned the wrong way for about 5 min. before I realized we were going the wrong way.

Once on the Bears bus Elijah fell back asleep and we picked up my co-workers brother and nephew (age 4) who was sooo super excited about going to a Bears game he was off the walls. We got down to Chicago about 8:15 and started to cook. We had waffliges for breakfast (waffles with a sausage patty in the middle of them) followed by some type of delicious sandwich for lunch. Then everyone beside Elijah and I left for the game. Eli and I got on the bus turned on the T.V. and watched the pre-game while dogging the bees that were stuck in the bus and pissed about it all while feeding Elijah. Eventually we both fell asleep for a nice afternoon nap. I found it funny that even though we were watching the game live I could hear the stadium noise about 30 seconds to a minute before anything would happen on T.V. so it gave me time to prep Elijah for horns honking before they honked.

Everyone returned to the bus around 3, 3:30ish when the drunk lady from the bus next to us came on and was about to eat Elijah if I would have let her. We hung out for a bit longer then packed up and left the parking lot around 4:30 where we promptly got stuck in traffic. Elijah was good for most the ride home until about 6:15 when he decided he was really hungry and had blown out another dipper.

Over all great day, I enjoyed my nap on the bus during the second half and I got to eat great food, B.J. had a great time at the game and loved the food, and Elijah was a good boy and got plenty of attention all day long.

Cold Part 2

Tomorrow we are going with my co-workers family and a bunch of their friends to the Bears vs. Lions game in Chicago. Her family has session tickets and has offered to take us for several years now, which is the only way we would ever be able to go. However, as much fun we have, I didn't really expect to go this year for several reasons. First, we typically go to the Bears vs. Vikings game and this year it is the Monday after Christmas and we will be coming home from Michigan that day, and Secondly, we have the baby now. So when they asked us to go this year, I knew BJ would be devastated if I turned them down so we just had to figure out things with the baby. Now for anyone who knows me, I'm not a big sports person. All the interest in sports was really given to all of my other siblings, I go for food and the time out entertainment. So I figured Elijah and I could go down with them and when they all go into the game Elijah and I will stay on the bus and (hopefully) nap. Great.

Well all week I have been watching the weather and for tomorrow it is supposed to be a high of 58 and a low of 45. We will probably be outside most of the day and that means so will Elijah. I have a difficult time regulating my body temperature and I know babies do too, so I have to figure out how to keep baby Elijah warm tomorrow. This process has actually been the only thing consuming my mind outside of work stuff for the past couple of days. So this afternoon we did a practice run with the layers to make sure they all fit together nicely. Now keep in mind that my son has a habit of blowing out dippers at the most inconvenient time, so everything that he is putting on, I have to pack a second one (and in some instances a third and fourth one) in anticipation of a blown out dipper and not wanting him to run around naked in the chilly fall weather on the shore of Lake Michigan. (Sorry all the pictures are sideways. I'm sleepy and don't want to fix them. Turn your head and they look great.)

Here's what we started with. Dipper. Very important layer.

Next came the long sleeve onesie (with a football helmet on it), long pants (these ones are the backups cuz the ones he will be wearing were in the wash), and socks (with polar bears on them).

Then a jumper with open legs and arms (Space monkey).

And the last layer of clothing. Flannel footie pajamas (with polar bears all over), and his Vikings skull cap to keep his ears and head warm. We are also bringing his hoody too just in case we need another layer or something. See, see, see what kind of mother I have already turned myself into. I might as well pack all of his clothing just in case. and his poor boy then has to smash himself in the the Bjorn for most of the day. HA, I might regret this quickly tomorrow. Well I'm off to put thought into what I should wear tomorrow.

Cold Part 1

So several years ago my brother, sister, BJ, my step-mom (also named Kelly) and I were all sitting around talking about my sister leaving for collage. During that conversation Kelly said that once your a parent the one thing that you constantly worry about is if your child is warm enough. In my head I thought, "really, warm enough isn't there other things to concern yourself with once you become a parent?" Well needless to say she was right. I have figured out that most of the other things that concern you come and go. And almost nothing sticks in your mind as many times as if they are warm enough. Poor Elijah will probably never be cold because I hate being cold myself so I constantly am thinking about if he is warm enough.

Lately with the change in weather (and man was it a quick change) Elijah's room has been cold. Now I take after my mother (slightly) with the temperature of the house. This probably is one of the things that drives me the most crazy about me is the temperature of our house. In the winter I think the house should be colder, and in the summer the house should be warmer. It makes me laugh when in the winter people have their house temp at 75 but in the summer they turn down temp to 65. I mean come on, dress appropriately and save some money. Now here is my dilemma. Since having a child I am torn between the temp of the house and the temp of my baby. It makes it even harder because Elijah's room is the coldest room in the house. He has 2 outside walls and he is above the garage that isn't that warm, plus the kid sucks on his hands so they are always wet and freezing.

Tonight we solved the problem. We headed off to my favorite store in the world, Costco, and bought a space heater for Elijah's room. We found a cute little one that turns and the actual screen of the heater doesn't get that warm so I don't have to be a crazy freak when Elijah starts crawling around.

Here are some pictures of Elijah's room. Sorry no pictures of Eli tonight, but tomorrow in the second part of cold I will have some.

Crib, which will turn into a toddler bed and then a big boy bed eventually. Please note all the cute stuffed animals that are waiting for Elijah to be able to sleep with them without the risk of SIDS! Some day, some day.Here is my favorite part of the room. The rocking chair! It's where I spend many a nights feeding the baby. The dresser is our current changing table, slightly messy but oh well. Notice all the books and fun things waiting for Elijah to be able to attend long enough to them. Also one of the outside walls. between the rocking chair and the other picture is the giant window in the room which I still want to get curtains for but I don't know what kind I want yet.Stash-o-dippers and Elijah's Christmas present. SHH don't tell him it's on the floor in his room maybe he will be surprised in 3 months time. Oh and note most of the diapers on the floor are too small for him and I still need to return them to get the next size. What a pain.

Unrelated note, this was Rescue on Sunday night during a crazy rain storm. She was glued to my leg all night, then when BJ came home he wanted to clean out the garage so he could park his car in it. Well not wanting to leave Rescue in the house with the storm I had her come out with us. After about a minute I couldn't find the dog and I looked down and she was under the work bench BJ built, like it was her own personal loft bed. We thought it was funny so we took a picture.