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.

Review of the Holidays

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

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

Smile six months old today!

Six months old today and checking out the cool tree.

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

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

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

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

Christmas with the cousins.

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

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

Traveling with an infant/not really an infant

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

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

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

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

8 containers of baby food

4 bottles

1 can of formula

The "pump"

5 outfits

3 backup under shirts

2 sets of pajamas

2 towels

1 washcloth

baby soap

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

2 spoons

5 bowls for food

Diapers and lots of them

Swim diapers

Wipes

1 quilt

2 thick blankets

1 receiving blanket

3 stuffed animals

4 hard covered books

1 soft book

2 rattles

Talking Cookie Monster

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

Ice pack to keep the pumped milk cold

new baby shoes

diaper bag

stroller

car seat

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

Busy Busy Busy

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

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

Things that make me smile!

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

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

Doctor appointment

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

Happy Birthday Plants

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

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

It will have to wait

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

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

Limited Christmas Spirit

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

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

Snow, Snow, Snow

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

Keeping Score

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

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

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

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

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

My name is ______.

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

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

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

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

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

I can see!!

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

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

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

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

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

Tis the Season!!

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

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

Baptizm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sad baby = Sad mommy

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

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

5 months

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

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

Date night

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

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