8 months old!

Yup that's right 8 months ago this was me and Elijah...And baby Elijah all by himself...

Now this is Elijah...

Let me just tell you how Elijah has changed, most of which has been this past month.

-He is crawling better, more fluidly, and less worm like. In fact, last night I put him down in his room and had him follow me to the bathroom for his bath. It was so cute. Kinda like a little puppy dog.

-When you sneak up on him and go AHHH, he will respond in the same volume, and intonation with AHHHHH. As cute as this is, it has gotten to a point where when ever he sees me or BJ he just goes AHHH! to start the game. It is real funny. All except when he did it Sunday when he was sleeping with us because he wouldn't sleep. He woke up at 6:30 AM, kicked me, rolled over, climbed on top of me, and goes AHHHHHH.

-He as just started waving. He waves more when he sees you and not so much when you leave. That is okay with me though because a lot of times we don't wave goodbye to him. We typically dump and run so we don't get a sad baby. But we wave at him a lot when we see him. So he waves just about when ever he sees us.

-He has 4 teeth now. As much as I miss the gummy smile that he used to have, I am enjoying the little teeth he has.

-We have started Cheerios (or in SLP lingo-meltable solids). I have found that this is the best way to entertain him in the morning instead of trying to keep him out of the dogs water bowl. It actually is funny when the puff stars stick to him and he can't get them off. I am entertained for hours just watching him.

-He has started to self feed with a spoon, but minimally because I haven't yet covered the carpet and half the time don't have enough time to bathe him after all our meals.

-He is starting to show side preference in hand dominance (yes, I know this can still change for 3-4 more years but still). I think he might be a lefty! Thanks to BJ's mom! (Sorry Megan yours is from the wrong side of the family to have anything to do with it.)

-His butt looks all fixed. We have another follow up appointment on March 8th.

-He is trying more and more to pull himself up to stand. He gets his hands off the ground about to the height of his waist but won't go much further. So now he looks like a giant 90 Degree angle.

why I love my job

There are many moments in my life when I don't enjoy my job. However, to all those moments I have 10 or more moments that I love. Here are a couple of them:

• My friend who is so into sports has told me on multiple occasions that he wants to be a basketball, football playing chef.
• My friend who thought he got a day off of school because of Valentines day, and my other friend who thought he got a day off of school because of Groundhogs day.
• My friend who thought that the handicap signs were people sitting on to potties.
• The days I get hugs and kisses from my favorite friends.
• I played candyland 3 times today, and candyland bingo once.
• My ability to constantly lose at Hi-Ho-Cherry-O even if I try and cheat to win.
• I know how to cheat at almost all games so I can lose. (Some times I switch it around to win)
• Special rules to make all games completable in about 15-20 min. (except battleship, can't play that one fast)
• Mr. Potato head and all his parts.
• Sticky balls
• Bubbles when they want to work right.
• FisherPrice little people
• Talking with Friends over 10 about "real life" things.
• Singing Wheels-on-the Bus at the top of my lungs while doing all the motions while my little friends just sit and stare at me.

These are just a few...

PS. Stay tuned tomorrow for pictures of my 8 month old child. Yes tomorrow he will be 8 months old. CRAZY.

When two worlds meet

We all have different lives as we go through life. However, most people have several lives that are all intertwined, I never felt that way with mine. I specifically remember 3 as I grew up: my life in Naperville, which included my high school life, and my mom, and my brother; my life in Warrenville, which included my dad, step-mom, brother and sister; and my church life, which included BJ. Even though all my lives were continually changing, very rarely did they actually over lap. And when they did overlap it was kinda like guest appearances on your favorite TV show. Every once in a while my Naperville life would get a peak at my Warrenville life, Sometimes my Naperville life would get a peak into my church life. My church life got to peak at both sides because BJ gradually became part of both of my lives but in high school we still had our own lives that occasionally crossed. However, very rarely did my Warrenville life ever get to see either of my other lives. Reason being, my Warrenville life was really about my brother and sister because we hung out with the families of their friends. This never bugged me, It was just how my life was. I was used to my separate lives. I was real happy with them. And since I was older than all of my siblings by several years my Naperville/high school life was really the one that if I had to pick one would be "typical."

Although I have different lives now than I did in high school, I had all three lives in the same spot this weekend and it was weird, but fun. Here's how it went: This weekend my best friend asked me to go to a chili cook off for her boyfriends church. I said sure, I knew where the church was and it was just minutes from my dad's house. However, when I told my dad where we were going, he informed me that everyone that we hung out with "back in the day" go to that church. Well okay, guess I should get ready to see everyone that I really haven't seen in AGES. Well sure enough just about everyone was there! And of course there I was, without my family, and never there before. Several people took a couple of minutes to place me then we did a whole bunch of catching up. This was all followed by, "why are you here?" Well my answer was my best friend from high school is dating someone at this church and they entered the cook off. They then of course wanted to know who my friend was dating. Umm... "Dan" was all I could answer. After several of these questions I decided it would be a good idea to figure out his last name. I was also told just tell them, "Kim's son." Right, got it. Then as I told all of the Warrnville people, I found out most of them knew his family. In fact, many of them had helped in making their chili. How weird. Which made me think, "my family probably knows his family." Sure enough get home and let them know who the family was, yup they knew his family. Who knew that if I would have lived in Warrnville my whole life, and never had my Naperville life, I would have probably met up with my high school best friend because her current boyfriend and I would have been the same age and everyone in Warrenville knows everyone else. Freaky!!

Olympic Fever

I'm trying to make it as contagious as possible. I have been missing sleep, dreaming about the Olympics, and checking the medal count almost religiously. Because of this, and it is fun to have something to talk about with my kids, I have been asking all kids if they have been watching the Olympics. Some say no but then when asked if they have been watching ice skating, they say yes. Some say no but their parents are. And others say yes and they proceed to tell you all about what they are learning or what they have seen. One little boy today told me all about the speed skaters, "Did you know they have longer skates?" Another kid told me she like to watch the skiers who go like this... and proceeded to walk down the hallway like she was going over moguls. So because of this I have been creating homework that the kids can do while they are watching the Olympics. My most recent, most creative... Olympic Bingo!! That's right. All my articulation kids (working on speech sounds) are getting lists of words that have something, anything, and sometimes a stretch, that are about the Olympics. Then they take the list home with their mini-bingo board and sit in front of the TV calling out their words until they have a cover all. My favorite are the kids working on the /s/ blends (sk, st, sn, sm, sw, sp) My most creative stretch... Swimsuit, that's what the figure skaters wear. HA... Poor kids, I'm screwing them up. I think the parents are more excited about the homework than the little kids. That is great because then it will actually get done, I hope. Others... "sh" words, Shawn White, shovel, show, shake, share. I enjoy when I get into the homework. I enjoy it even more when I actually think it will get done.

On another note, I can't wait to get back to a regular sleep cycle. They stay on way past my bed time!

Fat Tuesday!!

I'm not Cathlic but every year I try to "give up" something that I enjoy. I do this for several reasons, one: I think it is good to understand sacrafice, and two: it is a good way to change habits with support of God.

This year I have decided that I will be giving up eating out. Yes, that will be hard for me seeing as I typically stop for breakfast 1 or 2 days a week, got out to lunch 1 or 2 days, and our weekends we typically spend going out to eat with our neighbors or ordering in. But if it was an easy change then it wouldn't be a sacrafice would it? When I told BJ this he then decided to join me in my quest to go from tomarrow until Easter without eating out. I just think that we were using the convience of it and it wasn't helping my weight loss or our financial situation at all.

So to all those of you out there that we spend going out to eat with... I am sorry, no coffee or tea runs, no lunch runs, no grabbing a bite to eat. This does mean, planning ahead. I already know days when this will be hard for us, like in the begining of March, I have 2 or 3 days off and when I'm out running errands I won't be able to just grab a quick bite to eat. I will actually have to pack a lunch. Also this means, I have to get my butt out of bed 10 minutes earlier every day so I can eat breakfast and make a lunch while still getting Elijah ready for school.

And you don't have to worry about me cheating. Cuz I'm being watched all the time.

Facebook $$$ What??

The other day I was poking around on Facebook and found something that implied that in July it will cost money to be a "member" on facebook. Let me just say that I think they are making a huge mistake.
1. The largest population of people of people joining every year has to be high school and college kids. At least those are the ones that have the most time on their hands and can use all of facebook for all that it is worth.
2. I know just about everyone I know will stop using facebook once I have to pay for it. I mean really? That is money I don't have right now. And I don't see myself making that payment a priority in my life.
3. If the reason you have facebook is so you can stay in touch with people, but all the people you are in touch with are no longer there, you probably won't stay much longer either.

I also think that if Facebook goes about going this route, twitter will be come the big thing and Facebook will become the next MySpace.

To Be or Not To Be...

A soccer mom that is. It is getting to be that time in our lives when we need to start talking about getting a new car. However, I am one of those people who likes to think practical and for the future. I know there have been posts about this in the past so this isn't like it is something new since I have become a mom. But still I can't help but think of the future and how spending money now will benefit me in the future. One of the reasons we went to the Auto show was to check out different cars that would possibly become our next car. Well going to the show we were looking for a car that gives us more room so we can take our GIANT stroller with us to places and still be able to bring luggage and stuff. That was the main reason. Then we started talking about getting an SUV. But I am having trouble going for an SUV when the 3rd row of seats is always SOOOO uncomfortable. And of course, since I am little I typically end up sitting in the back row. But then again, people keep saying but it's you, BJ and Elijah. Yes, I know this but... I like to be effective and when our little family and another family go places it would be nice to car pool. Plus, let me just tell you that the new car seat we have is not that little. The thought of having to put that thing in the middle seat and 2 full grown adults in the back is a very crowded thought. Plus, BJ and I are really the first people we know to have kids but that means that in the next few years more people we know will be having kids. So it would be nice to have a vehicle that can hold 4 adults, and 2 children in car seats. Yes, this means we are back to the van. But then I have to think, but it's just me, BJ, and Elijah, and trust me a fourth little Okel is not going to be in the cards for the next couple of years. But some day I would like a fourth, maybe even a fifth Okel so do I buy the car that will live with our family for the next um... um... lets see, my car is a '98 and it is now '10 making it 12 years old. So if I buy a new car it would live with us for 12+ years I would hope. A used car probably not that long. Depends on the car. I could go for cars like a Mazda 6 with seats that fold down or a car like the Subaru Outback that has lots of storage room that will fit our great stroller and luggage. But still I keep coming back to the # of seats. Any help out there??? Thoughts??? I also don't want a car that will cost so much money that we can't go on vacation for the next 12 years. AHHHHHH!

Day at the Auto Show!

Last year on Valentines Day BJ and I headed to the Auto show. Last year I was preggers and in a a lot of pain with all that walking and standing and everything. This year different story. This year there was not a baby on the inside of me but a giant child on the outside fo me. This year we also had our neighbors come with us. Here are some pictures of us enjoying all the shinny cars and cool things. We child tested many vehicles and I took every captain's seat in and out of every "van" there. Those things are heavy, but, if I will be the one doing it, then I have to do it all by myself. I have to say the easiest of all of them were the Town and Country and the Dodge Van which is basically the same thing. BJ is now sound asleep on the neighbors couch while Elijah is up stairs in his pack-n-play sleeping. Overall it was a great day, good friends, good food, and good entertainment.First we tried out a motorcycle. This is the only place mommy will let me ride one. Especially without a helmet!

Then I found a car that met it's match with a circular saw. I thought the big round thing in my face was a really big teething ring. It tasted kinda funny and mommy wouldn't let me eat it Then we headed over so I could flirt with the Blackhawks Ice Crew!

Here is my little Mini man in a Mini Cooper. How cute.

Hey cool, this truck has a playpen in the back of it. Awesome!

Here is Elijah getting plowed while eating his bottle.

There were cars there made by Ford that you could customize for your business. Well we found one that I think the logo should have been placed differently on the car. Here is the full logo:

Here is what it said when you open the door. I thought it was funny.

EARTHQUAKE!!!! RUN FOR THE ROAD

For those of you who didn't know, Illinois had an earthquake of 3.6 or 4.3 whoever you want to believe, about 3:45 am. Well this is the third earthquake that I have lived through since, well... um... since being alive. However, it was the first I actually felt.

The first quake was either when I was in High School or in Collage around 12:30am and I was heading to bed. I heard the house shake but i didn't actually feel anything. The second was a couple of years ago at about 3:00am, the whole family slept right through it. And here is how the third one played out.

I had awoken around 2 or so from some noise, or wind or something and I went back to sleep. Then at about 3:45 I woke up and heard a very strange sound. It is hard to to describe it because I was coming out of a very deep sleep. And during those moments I am not very clear with details. But I can tell you enough that between the shaking and the noise I was really convinced a snow plow had just ran into the side of our house. However, I wasn't worried enough to actually get out of bed to go check it out. I guess I figured if the wall was still okay and we were not falling out of our house, it could wait until morning. The noise then stopped and it was just shaking. Again, due to my sleep induced haze, I then convinced myself that it was just the wind, even if the wind had never done that to our house before. Now that I actually sit down and think about it I see more of my rational for the whole thing. I remember all the weather reports the night before staying that there were going to be large gusts of wind and lots of blowing and drifting snow. And since we live in a wind tunnel as it is, it was probably just the wind.

Things that I am now thinking about:

1. This is the second earthquake we have had since living in this house maybe we should see if we have earthquake coverage on our homeowners insurance. If we don't, we should probably add that on. So while we wait for the big one that will separate Illinois from the rest of the USA and throw it into the ocean we won't look like the house from life (split level).

2. Thanks a ton Elijah for sleeping through the night for the last 6 days or so. If you weren't doing that then we would have been awake and huddling together in your bedroom. "Gosh I always miss the fun stuff."

3. Elijah must have felt it because about an hour later he was crying and wide awake. He tends to chill in his crib for about an hour before he gets board and needs to be picked up. So at 4:45 am we had a screaming, hungry, wide awake child. Fantastic!!!

What did you think was happening when you were in the earthquake??

Life

UPDATE #1: No new car yet, need to make time to call Mazda. When?? Not real sure since I work during the time I need to call them.
UPDATE #2: Elijah's butt is doing good. However, he screams bloody murder anytime we need to change his diaper. That's real fun.
UPDATE#3: Elijah is up to 4 teeth. 2 top, and 2 bottom.
The other night I ended up watching the made for TV movie about the high school girls that all got pregnant together because they thought it would be really fun to all have babies together. One of the big things that I couldn't get over (being a person who just had a baby) is how much people really "forgot" to tell me about babies. So this started me thinking about what else people tend to make sound so much easier or better than they really are. Don't get me wrong, I love my little baby and i wouldn't return him right now, but there were things that would have been nice to know before I felt like the only person in the whole wide world that felt them. This made me start thinking though what else is like that and with Valentines Day coming up I thought there were somethings that needed to be discussed.
During one or two of our showers or in cards that we received at our wedding we got some stupid/bad advice. Let's talk about it... Never go to bed angry at each other. Really?? I can't even begin to talk about how many times BJ and I have gone to bed angry with each other since we were married. And in all actuality some times sleep is better than "talking it out." I mean when it is 10:00 and I am heading to bed and realize that BJ didn't put the garbage out like he promised, I will just have to suck it up and sleep on it and deal with it in the morning. Or when there really are times that you really are angry at the other person that you need the night to cool off before you address the problem. I honestly think it, no matter how much you love someone, that getting angry or upset at the other person is healthy because then you can appreciate more.

What's some stupid advice you got?? Let me know, I'll find some fun examples for you if you just give me the advice.

I lost in Monopoly... TO THE DOG!!

Awhile back BJ and I were in Meijer and were checking out the clearance section and we came across Monopoly Tycoon. It looked different, a new twist on the old game. So we took a chance and bought it. Then maybe 3-4 months later we finally got around to playing it. We sat down got everything out... and realized that you needed 3-5 players. Bummer. We really wanted to play so we started making a compromise... "How about we both play the third person? How about Rescue be the third person?" We liked that one. We then made the decision that she had to buy anything she landed on and any trade offered presented to her. The interesting part about this game is that there is a DVD to give out the chance, and community chest, as well as some different things. Then all of a sudden, Rescue started to take off. She had a ton of properties, and a ton of money. Great. Then we started making bogus trades with her, "Rescue, if you give me X, I will give you treat. Do you accept?" Of course she did. We continued to make bogus trades and deals that would benefit ourselves. At the end of the game you tally up your money and things to get points. The one with the most points wins! Rescue had 84 points, I had 85 and BJ had 73. How sad is that. Even cheating and taking advantage of the non-human, she still almost beat us. That sucks! HA!

Problem with movie deal

I get distracted A LOT. When I get distracted I think of many, many, many different things. Since posting last night I have been thinking about my made for TV movie. I have realized a flaw...I don't have guts to complain about things at work or people that may be annoying me that particular day or week, or month. Now don't get me wrong, most of the things that happen to me I am not really annoyed by. But there are times. I can always post about crazy dog, and some crazy kids but other than that, I need to be careful not to make people mad at me. However, sometimes I think the dog might be able to read cuz she acts weird sometimes. Oh well, so life will go on, and if my life story ever gets made into a movie, depending on the $$ that they offer me, their might be a bunch "additions" to my blog. Don't worry though if you never make me mad then you won't have to be worried about looking bad on TV. HA... maybe the people I don't like will be played by people who can't act. HA... So far people that have claimed actors: My mom wants Meg Ryan or ?? I forgot, one of my co-workers wants Julia Roberts. I am still pushing BJ to pick someone.

Wish me luck. Tomorrow I will be off to Mazda with my Father to push for reimbursement on my car. Yes, I'm taking my dad because BJ will be at work and I really didn't think the Suits at Mazda would take a 5'1'' girl who looks like she is 12 carrying a baby that is half her size seriously. So Elijah will stay with Grandma and my dad, my automotive pinata bag, and I will go for a ride to Mazda. In a perfect, and completely unrealistic world, Mazda would look at everything and say, "We are sorry for your inconvenience, here's a new car." Um, Okay! We will see what goes down. There is going to be a rumble!

Time to wake up my hubby so he can go to bed.

Once upon a time..

First of all I will fill you in about the car then get to something happier.

Cost of tow to car place: Free thanks to AAA

Cost of Rental car for 1.5 days while car is being fixed: $70.00 after 5% discount from AAA (hopefully we will be reimbursed for this from our insurace company)

Cost of missing 2 hours of work: 0 dollars-all my kids reschedualed

Cost of a broken spring in your drive belt that won't let your car run: $1022.86 **OUCH** Trust me Mazda will be hearing from me and I will be working in all my free time to get as much of it reimbursed as possible.

HAPPIER NOTE begins now-->

Since my mom opened my eyes to the number of blogs out on the Internet and the number of people reading other peoples blogs I have begun thinking...

Now that I know people will read my blog they get a window into my world. Some times, things that happen in real life are better than things someone can create (i.e. my dog). If you get a real interesting life and the right person reading your blog you could get a movie deal out of it. I mean come on, look at some of the movies that have made it big recently. The Blindside: true story on the life of an ordinary man who had an extra ordinary event in his life. Example number 2: Marley and Me: a true story about the life of a dog and how it impacted a family. Example number 3: My Big Fat Greek Wedding: alright I know this one was a little over the top and exaggerated but still taken from life experiences.

Therefore in the future, I see movie/TV producers looking to the blogs of everyday people to make the next big movie or TV show. I mean how cool would it be if one day your just sitting in your living room, writing the day's events on the computer to share with the world, and save your life on the Internet for the rest of history, and the next you are answering the phone to a producer wanting to buy the rights to your life. For that matter everyone I mention in my blog needs to start thinking about what famous person you want to play you in my made for TV movie. Let me know in case I get the call tomorrow.

I would like Sandra Bullock to play me. I think she is clumsy, and she acts the way my brain works.

Oh and by the way this would be awesome!!

Bagheera-The car

BJ and I have names for our cars. BJ's car's name is Miki as in Miki Moto the pearl guy, mine's name is Bagheera from the Jungle Book. Well today, Bagheera decided to threaten to die today. Let's just say, not a good time. Well here is how it all went down.

It all started Monday, when I got home from work BJ opened the garage door with the baby and said, "your car sounds funny." I thought well I haven't heard anything so it must not be that bad, and if it does sound bad, I have no clue how long it's been going on cuz I haven't been hearing it.

On Tuesday, as I was walking out to my car after work I listened to the car a bit and realized, yes it does sound a bit off. But just a tad off. Not enough for me to drop everything and rush it into the shop.

On Wednesday (today), I dropped Elijah off at daycare and on the way back to the house I thought, "this weekend I will have BJ look into the car thing and see if he can figure it out." I also realized that BJ left his phone at home today and I really hoped I didn't need him for anything today. I then jumped in the car, started it up, and backed out of the garage. On the way out my car stutters and I assume it got stuck on the newspaper, so I tapped the gas, off I went. I got down the drive way, onto the street and PTHHH. Car dead! Yeah this sucks. After throwing a mini tantrum beating the steering wheel, swearing under my breath and clenching my fists while pulling out my hair, I tried the car again. No luck. As I sat there looking at all the lights on the dash lit up like a Christmas tree I called my boss to let her know I was going to be a bit late.

Part two of sucky day: I call up AAA- which by the way is the BEST investment you can have if you are a driver. Tangent: for about $125 a year you get tows up to 100 miles, an unlimited number and then you get discounts on things, plus those free travel books if you travel. Back on topic: I spent about 45 min on the phone with them getting a tow truck and looking into a renta car. I was then transferred to Hertz to help me get a car...however, they ran out of cars. How do you run out of cars, your a rental car company. Anyway, I wait around and get a phone call thinking it was the tow guy saying he was here. No, No it was the tow guy saying he was lost. Fantastic, now I will be even later for work. I finally get to the car place and drop off my car. They call Enterprise and "They pick you up." On the way to Enterprise the guy asks, "what are you looking for." Me knowing perfectly well that anything that causes you to be towed into the repair shop will not be cheap says, "something small, and cheap." We get there and the next thing he says is I have an SUV you can drive for 70 bucks a day. Really what part of small and Cheap do you not understand? Anyway I drove off with a Kia Rio. It's small and it definitely is cheapish. I finally get to work about 10:00 and am completely disorganized. I was completely unprepared and I couldn't settle down.

Part three of bad day: The car place called to let me know what was going on with my car and to keep me up to speed with everything. He had checked the spark plugs, they worked, but old so he changed them. Still didn't work, then he checked the cylinders, no problems there, then he had an idea, a hunch. He did some research and found out the symptoms sounded just like some thing he read. Did more research found out Mazda 626's year 1998 had a recall on this part. The mechanic called Mazda and found out that this issue that was recalled, that happened to my car, did not cover my car. He followed this up with it will be costly to fix this do you want me to fix it?? Let me see, YES, my car isn't even driving, what will I do with it not working? He then wanted to know if he should call me with the final estimate. I said, "NO" because I would have to pay it somewhere, and it will be cheaper than buying a new car. By the time I got home I realize, I don't have my house keys, they are with my car, so was my garage door opener. I jump out of the car to use the key pad for the garage door, and nothing. The garage door refused to open. AWESOME!!!!!!!! After 10 minutes of pushing garage door buttons it finally opens I park and am done for the night.

I'm done, I'm tired, I had to do it all by myself like a grown up, and I'm dreading the cost of this wonderful day. All I have to say...thank goodness I didn't have to pay the towing fee. The rest of it... I have to laugh because there is nothing else I can do. However, I may be putting a collection together to cover the cost of the repair.

Final note: Bagheera, you're not aloud to die! Not yet, Not this way!

Personal Image

BJ came home from youth group last night and they had been talking about body image and how we put so much of our lives into making sure everyone else likes us. Every one reaches their ability to accept themselves they way we were made at different times in our lives. But BJ pointed out that he became comfortable in his own skin when he was in middle school. That made me start thinking. BJ was comfortable with who he was before we started dating by I definitely was not. I started trying to figure out when I became comfortable with me. I think it was some where when I was in college, before grad school. But I really have to say BJ's model really helped me get to where I was comfortable with me. I think many people in the world would be much happier about life in general if they were able to enjoy who they are. I know that I am not the tallest, athletic, most gorgeous (or even wanting to put the time into making me that way), but I do know that I can just about make everyone laugh, I can be smart but I don't like to, I enjoy my inner child.

I wish I could help others figure out how to get to that level of confidence and be comfortable in their own skin. Because once you accept your faults for things you can't change, you will be happy!

Question of the day

You may know that we have a dog. Not a very smart dog, but we have a dog. During the summer we are semi good at cleaning up the back yard once a week or so. However, in the winter, not so much. There are several reasons behind this

1. It is cold out there, I don't want to go out there to do it.

2. It is cold out there, I don't want to be out there anyway so why does it matter if there is poop all over.

3. It snows and it covers up the poop.

4. It is cold out there, and the poop freezes to the ground

Anyway, I went out to pick up the yard because even the dog was giving me looks like, "Um, this is gross I have no where to walk." So out I go with a shopping bag and a garden shovel. I'm out there and I make a realization and one of my wonderful questions pops into my head. The realization: Rabbits poop A LOT!!!! Question: If rabbits eat so much then why couldn't they poop like dogs? They need bigger poops instead of the little things they create. I also found in the back yard:

Lots of dog poop

2 pieces of rabbit poop for every piece of dog poop

A dead pigeon

snow

And the dog. Who knew she was out there.

Another thing I realized today, My mom reads about 50 different blogs. Never knew.

Sleep deprived

I feel that I need to get this down before I forget it completely. As I look back at how far our little family has come in the last 7 months I realize there were things, that if I was blogging at the time, needed to be blogged about.

About 6 months ago or maybe a little bit more, there were many nights that I was very sleep deprived. I spent most of my time trying to figure out when I fed Elijah last, how long have been feeding him, and when would be the next time he needed to be fed. Even when I was trying to sleep. However, one night I got stuck between being awake and being asleep, I started going through the motions in my head of when I was feeding Elijah, but I was still sleeping. I then started having a vivid delusion of Rescue sleeping in Elijah's bassinet.

This is when I started talking in my sleep. I felt that I was holding Elijah and I needed to put him back in his bassinet, but the dog was there. I woke up BJ and told him that he needed to get Rescue out of the bassinet. He questioned me about what I wanted him to do and i told him again, "get Rescue out of the bassinet." He actually got up, walked over to the bassinet, passing the dog at the end of the bed, looked in and said, Elijah's in the bassinet. That's when it hit him that I was talking in my sleep. At first he was angry that I woke him up and got him out of bed, but then he thought it was funny.

Ah, wonderful sleep deprived moments in life. Very glad the majority of those days are gone and if I get up now in the middle of the night it is only for 15 min. However, over the past two weeks I have only gotten up 4 or 5 nights out of 14. Looks like I'm getting closer to getting a full nights sleep.

How being an SLP saved my parenting butt today.

I have been working as an SLP for the past 3 and a half years. In those years I have used fractions of what I learned in school and most of what I do has been acquired over the last few years by trial and error. However, since being a parent I have begun to apply more of my schooling to my child than any one of my clients. Today was one of those days and it really saved me from having a really, really crabby baby.

Today I went to visit an old collage friend, who recently had a baby. Since I still feel as though I am a new mom and I still feel it would be so helpful to have someone who was recently in my shoes to answer all my questions, I wanted to be that person for someone else. So I packed up the little man, picked up lunch and headed over to give adult interaction to a new mommy. While we were there Elijah had lunch, a nap and was ready for his afternoon bottle. That's when I realized we were going to have a problem. In the container that we had Elijah's formula there was some oatmeal left over from sometime previously. Well Oatmeal makes things thicker, no matter how much liquid you add to it. After Elijah sat and sucked on the bottle for about 15 minutes with nothing coming out I knew the nipple was to small for the thickness of the liquid. Well I was in big trouble. I didn't have more formula, and I didn't have bigger nipples for the bottle so I had to make a choice. Do I pack up the kid and race home to get new formula with no oatmeal in it, or do I have him drink out of an open cup.

**DUN DU DA** SLP to the rescue! I took some of Keri's engineering abilities, and made my Subway cup into a nosie cup with a nice pair of scissors. That's when my SLP instincts took over. I poured in the formula on ounce at a time, gave moderate level support to his lower lip, and my little boy drank 6 or 7 ounces out of an open cup. Overall he probably only lost about .5 oz due to me getting carried a way and dumping it all down his face.

I feel so proud, one as a mom and two as an SLP that taught another child how to drink from an open cup. I rock!

Outpatient surgery for the little guy

Today was Elijah's surgery, I will give you a run down of how our day went from the time we woke up until now. I woke up at 4:30 to get ready for the day, I knew it was going to be a long one and I wanted to make sure I wasn't late. I always hated those people who were late for their scheduled appointments when I worked at the hospital. So BJ and I were both ready by about 5:15 and then got the dog ready as well as packed everything that we thought we would need for the day at the hospital. We got Elijah up around 5:30 and put him right into his car seat. He was very confused with us and still very sleepy. We used our new Gamin to get us to the hospital even though I could have probably gotten us there half asleep and with my eyes closed. After a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts for coffee and Breakfast we made it to the hospital with plenty of time to spare. We checked in and by this time Elijah had woken back up from his nap in the car and was very fascinated with where we were. We were called back for the Pre-Op stuff around 7:00 and that is when the fun began.

Elijah had to put on the hospital pajamas which were just the cutest things ever and we met with all the nurses, doctors that would be in the operating room with Elijah. Then we got to sit and wait for a while while everything got ready.

I do have to say that Little E looked even littler in the giant bed they had.

We eventually went through all the toys I brought for Elijah and we passed our time by watching all of the nurses, doctors and registration people walking around outside our door. That was much more interesting. Plus we were now getting close to 7:30 and Elijah usually takes a nap about 2 hours after he wakes up so he was getting sleepy.

Around 7:30 they came and got Elijah and took him back to surgery and BJ and I went back out to the waiting area. I have to say that that was the hardest part of the whole day, not being with him. I knew BJ and I would have a hard time passing the time so I had brought a deck of cards to play WAR with. Mindless game that could take a very long time to play. After about 45-60 minutes they came to take us back to meet with the surgeon and have him tell us how the surgery went and how to take care of our little man when he went home. Then they put us in a recovery room to wait for him. This was the second hardest part of the day. I knew he was out of surgery but I could not yet see him. Then they finally brought him back in a giant metal crib with little wires and tubes everywhere.

Right when he got to the room he got very confused and really got mad at all the people and started to cry, but they told us we could get him and hold him. That made everything better.

We then gave Elijah his first food of the day around 8:30-9 with his last feeding at 7:30 the night before. He had the tightest death grip on the bottle that I have ever seen. He did not want to let that thing go. He was also really sleepy so he basically slept through his entire feeding.

Then he slowly started to wake up more and more and become himself. But all day I could tell that he was off. He slept a lot today and for real long periods of time too. Dressing his new and improved bottom is fairly easy but I say that without having to clean up a poopy wound yet. Let's see how tomorrow goes before I say that it is easy to care for. Doc says that the whole they created to remove the hole that was there should take about 3-4 weeks to close up. That is a real long time to care for a wound on a bottom of a little poopy, wiggly, baby.

Overall, the day went well and I was very proud of myself for not crying. I think it helped too that this was a butt and there are no major important organs anywhere near where the surgery was taking place. Anything like this on the belly, chest, neck or face I would have been a horrible wreak. Thank you to all who prayed for us today it helped us get through the day. Tomorrow BJ goes back to work and I will be with baby to make sure he is all good.

Surgery

Tomorrow is Elijah's surgery. Initially when I found out Elijah needed surgery, I took it real well. It was presented to me in a very matter of fact way with just a shrug and a "this is very routine." Then we met with the surgeon and he knew what he was doing, and very confident but not overly cocky. I was fine when he told us Elijah needed surgery. Then the Holiday's came and we put off scheduling his surgery until after the new year. Even scheduling it I was fine. It wasn't until today at 12:20 that it hit me. The pre-op nurse called to ask all the pre-op questions that I had practiced and warned patients about for years when I worked on the other side of the phone. I was told where to park, and answered questions that part of me felt were really funny, and part of me was really sad that I was answering if my child had any psychological disorders so he could have surgery. I know that Elijah will be just fine. I know that he won't remember anything. I know that the pain from his recovery he won't remember. But I feel... I guess I feel like a mom. I just want to hold him his whole surgery, I don't want to be rooms away. However, by the time most of you will be reading this we will probably be on our way home hanging with a very crabby baby who is still trying to pop 3 of his 4 teeth. I'll let you know how everything went tomorrow night.

On another note this was my fortune tonight: One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory. Guess that means I should be happy for the rest of my life because I have a horrible memory.

Video

Alright, I finally took some video of Elijah crawling. Now the true test is to see if I can up load it to the blog. If there is a video clip attached to this blog then you know if worked, if there is only cute pictures of my little guy then you are just going to have to deal with that. UPDATE: one video uploaded so we are going to be daring and try a second one.

So here is the story of how Elijah learned how to crawl. Since Christmas he has been pushing up on his hands and knees as well as doing some awesome scooting backwards. Then about a week before he turned 7 months, he actually made some forward movement. But in true Elijah fashion that was it for a while. It's kind of like his babbling. On New Years Day he just started talking up a storm, then that was it for like several weeks. Then kaboom! Babbling again. So as the week went on and there was no news from daycare that he crawled again I was thinking we weren't going to see the crawling for several more weeks. I then started to chalk the lack of crawling to the fact that he is breaking all of his baby teeth at the same time. But then on Friday we headed over to the neighbors/Godparents house and sure enough, he saw dog toys and off he went. We figured out that in order to get Elijah to really move we have to give him something that he shouldn't have to work for. The more he isn't supposed to have it the faster he goes for it. Since that dog toy crawl he has been unstoppable. On one hand it is so great, on the other, I have already caught him playing in the dogs water bowl 2 times. We are in so much trouble.

But her are some cute pictures of Elijah oh his 7 month birthday and 7 months and 1 day. and then today. Daddy and baby watching some Saturday TV. Elijah trying to cheer on the Vikings to win!!

Look at me I have a new tent!! Rescue Come play with me!

Peak I see you!

Just for the Record

Just in case I run of time later... ELIJAH IS CRAWLING!!! Yeah that's right! Oh and today is his 7 month birthday. I have multiple witnesses to this wonderful event so once we get home I'll try to get a video of it for you all to see.

Addictions

Addictions are bad, but lets be honest, we all have them. If you look back over the course of your life you probably notice that you probably had addictions that you have now overcome. Here are a list of some of my current addictions, and past addictions and what caused them to go away.

Past addictions:

• Diet Mountain Dew (stopped because pregnant people shouldn't drink it.)
• Sleep (baby fixed that)
• Doritos (college didn't have vending machines)
• Butterfingers (again no vending machines in college)
• AIM (Facebook)
• Snood (unknown new computer maybe)
• Sims (Snood)
• Facebook (going back to work and not pumping every 3 hours)
• Picross (going back to work and getting gamers thumb)

Current addictions:

• Elijah!
• Disney movies
• TV
• Checking E-mail
• Shaving

Parenting Dilema

The other night I finally had enough. I needed to pluck my eyebrows. I am real sure that the last time I attacked my hairy eyebrows was about 2 weeks before Elijah was born. And even then I didn't even do it, I had them threaded by someone. Now if anyone knows me then they should understand why I shouldn't go more than 7 months between eyebrow trims. For those of you who don't know me let me explain.

The majority of my family history is of European descent and not the cute Swedish European either. Oh no no, the dark haired, lots of hair Europeans. In fact, I get a little envious of people when they say, "I haven't shaved for ages" and you can't see a hair on their leg. I feel like my legs get a 5 o'clock shadow. That's why I wear pants in the summer!

Anyway, I went 7 months without tending to my furry caterpillars on my face. I had finally had it and needed to take care of them. I sat down the other night with the tweezers and the magnified mirror and went at them. It was going good, after the first few moments of utter pain your eyebrow just goes numb. Finally I finished the first eye, then the issue. Elijah woke up and started to cry. BJ was in the shower getting ready for work so i was the only one left to tend to the baby. But I only had one eye done, and I knew if I stopped I would be to sleepy to finish the other side and I can't go to work with just one eye done. I really buckled down and tuned out the baby. I think I started getting sloppy because I kept asking BJ if they looked the same and he kept telling me no. And I kept hearing the baby crying in the background. Eventually I finished and they look, okay. But what can you expect when you have big and bushy eyebrows.

Moral of the story, my eyebrows look better now than they did a week ago, but they aren't Hollywood perfect due to my European background.

Come Out Come Out Where Ever You Arn't

So picking up Elijah from daycare Carissa said, "he is breaking teeth." About time kid!! After poking around in his mouth for a bit there, I then drag him home and poke some more. We figured out that the best way to see into his mouth is to make him laugh. Oh and sure enough, we are breaking teeth. Yes teeth, not tooth. For all of you who don't spend your day working with regular and irregular plurals or the phoneme "th," teeth is the plural for one tooth. And go figure I was just saying to my co-workers, now that all the Tylenol in the world is being recalled, Elijah is going to break 4 teeth. Okay so it is not all 4 teeth, right now it is just 2, but still. Lots of sniffing of the Tylenol though. I refuse to throw out perfectly good pain killers when they don't smell bad. As soon as the teeth come out I will get some pictures of them.

Hubby Hi-Jacking

It is time for me, BJ, to hi-jack the blog again!!! As you all may know, I have been working 3rd shift for the last week. Well we are now two days into the second week and I am really looking forward to being back on the day shift. I will admit that it has not really been that bad as far as my sleep goes. My body is a little sore, but my mind on the other hand is in need of some normalcy.


Although I definitely do not miss driving without traffic and the weight that I have lost. I do have a list of things that I do miss. I miss eating breakfast for breakfast and dinner for dinner. I miss seeing Elijah both in the morning and evening. I miss the sun during the day, even if I can't really see it but through the skylights in the ceiling of the plant. And the thing in which I miss the most is sleeping in the same bed, at the same time, as Kelly.


I am looking forward to going back to a normal day shift and bring my mind back to ease.

Letter to Elijah

Dear Elijah,

Last month (December) I brought you to Michigan and you decided to show us a new trick. At that time I made a prediction (okay a bet) with your grandma that you would be crawling by your 7 month birthday. Since then you have continued to learn to scoot backwards, and are getting really good at pushing up on your hands and knees. The other night you even did the first army crawl forward about 5 inches, followed by a push up onto your hands and knees taking one "step forward." Now it was all looking good for me, you still had about a week to go to complete your crawling for me to win my, uh... prediction. However, today's report from daycare was that all you wanted to do was lay around and seemed a bit lethargic. Now kid, how am I supposed to win my bet, I mean prediction, if you don't practice during the day. So Elijah, get back on that crawling band wagon and start moving. It's to early in your life for me to be wrong and your grandma to be right. So, GET TO IT!!!!

Love your Mommy

200th Post

Today is this blogs 200th post. Yeah, I know, I'm awesome. For this post I'm going to make a list of some things that have been stuck in my head lately.

• We (and really I mean BJ) killed another mouse in the garage.
• I want to know what people said in the olden days (before cars and stuff) said when they pushed their babies nose? Couldn't say beep beep, when horns don't exist.
• So if you work 3rd shift (12 am -8 am) and you have a cold and need to take medicine, do you then take DyQuil at night and NyQuil during the day?
• Now that I have stopped being a cow, what size are my boobs going to be?
• Why do I get so cold at night?
• Found out the dog is scared of the smoke detector.
• I really miss having BJ in bed with me at night. I can't sleep anymore.
• I'm Freezing right now.
• I don't want to go to the dentist tomorrow.
• Still cold.
• How many mice are calling our garage home?
• Guess the rodent repliers didn't work in the garage.
• As I am getting excited for the Winter Olympics, realize that almost all of my clients are to young to remember the last winter Olympics.
• I'm old
• I'm still cold.
• I'm going to bed.

That was just a short list and window into my head in an average minute.

Look I have a new trick!

Elijah has figured out a new trick which is absolutely fabulous, especially when he pairs it with another new trick. The tricks. Blowing raspberries and eating. What do you get? A really big mess. Especially when Elijah then turns his head to blow the raspberries to the side of his highchair then turn his head back so all the food he just spit on the side of the highchair gets in his hair and ear. Its awesome! But it makes for some really cute pictures.

Change

I don't like change. Change is difficult, however, I know that the majority of time, I will not be able to go very long with out a little bit of change. The biggest change in our lives lately (other than the baby) has been BJ's job. He has gone from a 40 hr work week behind a desk, to no job at all, to 50+ hr work week doing promotions at all hours of the day and week, to 45+ hours doing manual labor for food processing plant. In a very short amount of time BJ has been able to dip his fingers in many different areas of "work" and has been able to figure out where he feels happiest. In the end he has decided, and I agree, that he feels the best, both emotionally and physically, in hard labor. Looking back on BJ's jobs over the past 10 years this is true. Other than some technical issues his favorite job was working as a packer/mover for a moving company. Now that he is back in a job where he has physical work to complete he is happy again, most of the time. Starting in about 25 hours from when I am writing this post, BJ will be heading off to work the 3rd shift. Something BJ has never done before, leaving me here with the baby. BJ was told that this is only temporary but things change and I get worried that the time I used to spend with my husband are now gone. For it is early on a Saturday night and when the baby was being put to bed so was my husband. Tomorrow, to get ready for the new work times, BJ will be spending most of the early morning cleaning and hanging around the house until we are off to church, then coming home to sleep as much as possible. I just keep hoping that the sacrifices our new small family is making for this new job will be worth while in the long run. If not, it is back to the drawing board for more change. Just keep us in your prays that eventually we will be back to a routine as a family and happy.

What we found in BJ's car

This all started months ago when BJ made me clean out my car because he said it was gross. So I did. Then months went by and my car has slowly started to collect stuff again. Then a week or so before Christmas we went out shopping and put Elijah's stroller in the trunk. I then took the stroller with me to Michigan and when I went to use it realized that the toy that was attached to the stroller was all ripped up, odd. I then came home and told BJ about it. I just figured it was in our garage and a mouse got in and nibbled away at it. Well the other day BJ realized that there was a possibility of a mouse living in his car. Yes, that's right a wild field mouse living in his car. Now in all my life I will never say that I am super clean or organized but in all fairness I have never had a living rodent in my car. So there BJ, no more comments about my car! To get rid of BJ's new furry friend he bought some traps and set one in his car and one in the garage last night. Today, 2 mice. One in each trap! Success!! BJ then emptied the traps in the middle of the driveway and they waited for the snowplow to bury them.

On another note here is my son making a funny face trying to eat his daddies glass.

Static Electricity

So being up in the middle of the night a lot when it is completely dark has made me realize some things about life. One of the things I have realized is that static electricity is fun to watch. Getting in and out of bed at night during the night time feedings creates some massive static in the comforter. It looks like little lighting bugs running through the bed. What is really fun is to rub the sheets together then touch the dog. Creates a large flash and the dog doesn't even wake up. Then when I was in Michigan at the hotel the little lighting bugs followed me there. Maybe it is the lack of sleep, maybe it is just the way I function but I like the little lighting bolts that run through my bed.

Random thoughts

First of all, there is nothing good on TV tonight. However, as I was flipping through the TV guide on cable I came across a NEW (2010): It looked so weird, I couldn't even watch the show. That and it was probably something about killer bugs or something. Not to sure.

Second: I have a confession to make, I made a New Years Resolution. I don't know if that is something that I should be proud about or if I should even count it as a resolution. More or less it is a start date with a time limit to when I want new behaviors to have replaced old. Anyway, I have decided that 2010 I will be using to get my eating habits back in check. After being pregnant and breast feeding I haven't really given my food a second thought. I need to get back in that habit since I will soon be done breast feeding and I don't think my metabolism will keep up with the way I am currently eating.

Third: Elijah is getting good at moving backwards. I don't know if he did it intentionally or not last night but he managed to scoot backwards to the kitchen table, under one chair, turn 90 degrees, move over a chair, turn 90 degrees again and out the other side of the table. Personally, I thought it was real impressive only getting stuck on one chair leg at the end.

Fourth: I have also recently decided that I deserve a long weekend away where it is warm with out my husband and baby. Unfortunately, my husband doesn't quite understand why I deserve the break or why he isn't aloud to come. Here is my rational for all this. First I spent about 3 months carrying a very large baby inside my body, followed by a natural birth. I then spent my 3 months of summer vacation inside because I was in to much pain and you can't really take an infant out into the sun. I have then also been the primary parent to get up in the middle of the night for the last 5 months tending to baby at 3 am at which time BJ sleeps right though this and has thought the baby doesn't get up anymore. BJ has also gone off to Minnesota for a football game leaving me here with baby, and has had a long weekend at home while I played single mother and got no sleep. Plus he is going off on a long weekend with the church kids to go skiing in about 2 or three weeks. If we only had the cash to do this I would be away for the weekend. I also don't think BJ knows exactly how much energy it takes to get up every night 1-3 times to tend to the child, dress him and get him ready for the day then at night plan his meals, bathe and get him ready for bed as well as getting him to sleep. It has been over 6 months since Elijah came to live with us and even though BJ is a wonderful dad, I have the majority of the responsibilities of taking care of the baby and a weekend away some where warm by a pool would be fantastic. Oh well like I said, the cash isn't there so I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Happy New Year

Today was our first day of 2010. Let's just stop and discuss how difficult it is to write that. 2010, not 20010, and 10 just feels weird for me. Anyway, last day of 2009 both BJ and I put in a full day at work then we went out to dinner with the neighbors and spent the evening at their house. After midnight we packed up our belongings and headed home to get into bed promptly by 12:15. Today we woke up realized the house was freezing and headed over to the neighbors for breakfast. After breakfast we headed home to clean the house. Wahoo what a day. Then we headed out to the mall to exchange the purse for one with more pockets and get Elijah's wardrobe for next winter. Good day.

Elijah has decided that since he woke up he has begun to babble. We have mamama, nanana and some dadada. And he will also begin crawling within a month. Great!

Happy New Year to you.