Keeping Score

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

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

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

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

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

My name is ______.

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

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

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

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

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

I can see!!

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

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

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

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

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

Tis the Season!!

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

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

Baptizm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sad baby = Sad mommy

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

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

5 months

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

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

Date night

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

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

The Hubbies Turn!!!

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



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





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


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

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


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

Places I want to go before I die:

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

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

2. Eiffel Tower

3. Egypt (all of it).

4. San Andrus Fault

5. Rome

6. Hawaii

7. Dallas

8. Grand Canyon

9. Las Vegas

10. Maine in the fall

11. Aruba

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

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

You're kidding right?

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

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

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

Carefull the first step is a doozie

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

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

The Cost of Gas

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

Lost Car

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

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

Possible New Job

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

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

Complaints

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

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

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

Our Dog Rescue

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

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

Over the next 24 hours we figured out:

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


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

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

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

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

Pregnacy and the after effects

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

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

Merry Chirstmas

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

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

Fall Cleaning

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

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

Word of the day...BLAH

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

Little Piggy, Little Piggy let me come in.

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

What I found in my car

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

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

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

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

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

2- sets of stickers

1- hot wheel car

1- Fisher Price car with baby in the back seat

1- unopened deck of cards

3- pairs of socks

1- cat puppet

50- wedding favor bubbles

8- reusable bags

1- pair of mittens

1- water bottle

3- expired vehicle registrations

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

7- expired insurance cards

1- bag of popcorn (not sure why)

1- hair claw

2- uppercase living catalogs

3- Mr. Potato Head bodies (no parts)

3- Baby potato head bodies (again no parts)

1- giant potato head, with parts

1- CD

1- half drunk Iced tea

1- Tupperware with a science experiment inside

1- hand held AC adapted vacuum cleaner

1- mini brown paper bag

1- bag of garbage

1- pen

1- travel bottle of contact solution that expired in 2002

1- Christmas Chocolate

1- speech developmental chart

1- gift card to Target

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

1- tum

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

Happy Halloween and All Saints Day

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

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

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

A Day in My Life

We will do a 12am to 12am.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's a bug

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

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

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

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

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

First Cereal!

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

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

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

4 Months Old

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

Tomorrow is a new day

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

Sleep

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

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

Body Fluid Sunday

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

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


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

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


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

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

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.