Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Weekend in Review

We had such a fun weekend this past weekend.  B had to work at a beer festival in Wilmington, NC.  We love this festival because the organizers always put the reps up at a beach front condo in Wrightsville Beach.  So, this year we asked our BFF's to join us.  While the men worked, the ladies and the kiddos (they have the sweetest little 5 month old girl.  She and H are already betrothed) hung out and explored Wilmington.

At one point, my BFF and I were sitting in the front seat of the car eating fruit snacks and talking.  In the back I could hear H saying "pweeeees" asking for me to share the fruit snacks.  Well, it didn't really register to me what he was asking for.  Then, all of a sudden, he yells "HEY!!! Pwees!!!!" so I would finally listen to him and share the fruit snacks.  We about died.  The things that come out of that kid's mouth lately are hilarious.  Earlier in the day, he took a drink of water from his sippy cup and said "mmmm.  Good!" clear as a bell.

The gorgeous sunrise view from our room



My loves playing in the surf

My new favorite pic of H ever.  That face!

When we got back to town, we headed straight for the State Fair.  Thank goodness H (and I) napped in the car on the way home. H was in major stimulation overload.  But he loved every second of it.  We saw all the animals and he told us what they all say.  He rode the merry go round with his grumpa.  He ate a nasty looking red hot dog (Brighleaf hot dogs are big in this area but the redness of them gross me out).  He tried some cotton candy (that I didn't authorize and was, in fact, a little pissed that my FIL didn't ask my permission before giving it to him).  Thankfully the texture freaked him out and he didn't like it.  We had so much fun and he had the best time ever.





My boys

I'm destined to a lifetime of weird faces in photos

H and his grumpa


 All in all, it was a perfect fall weekend!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Remembering

I spent this past weekend in New York City with my sister and my parents.  I went years ago and I've longed to go back.  When I was finally able to, it was with a heavy heart.  My dear Aunt Kathy passed away last week with a long and valiant battle with cancer.

Kathy was my step dad's sister.  She came into our lives when I was 16.  She has always been so great to my siblings and I.  Never treating us like the step kids.  

In the words of my (step) dad, Kathy was Kathy.  That's really the best way to describe her.  She was funny weather she meant to be or not.  She was larger than life.  She was over the top.  She was deeply devout in her faith. She loved her family above all else. I will miss her dearly.


Thursday, September 25, 2014

Holt - 18 months

Since my return to blogging happens to coincide with H's 18 month birthday - I thought I'd catch you all up on what my little boo has been up to.


As evidenced above - this dude loves him some bananas.  Every morning he stands in front of where we keep them and points up saying "nana, nana, nana!!"  Followed by "pweeeee" because we make him say please before we give him anything.

Other favorite things:
Animal crackers
Climbing on anything and everything
Being outside
Our dog Hippo
Frozen - he sings along and makes the clock noise from "Do You Want to Build a Snowman"

He's no longer walks - just runs everywhere.  It's quite possibly one of the cutest things I've seen, but impossible to describe.  Take my word for it - adorable.



We are enjoying the fall so much.  We went to our first college football game of the season last weekend.  H loved it.  He clapped and cheered and climbed all over the place.  All was well until the ass in front of us suggested we "put a seat belt on that kid".  He's lucky I didn't punch him in the throat.  Lucky for him, it was getting to be bed time and it was half time, so we left.

Fun stuff he does/says:
Everything is "hot" - he says "that's hot" then holds his little hand out like don't touch it.
He can tell us the noises that a cow, cat, dog, pig, duck, firetruck, dinosaur, and sheep all make.  And, according to him - a llama says "llama".
He's obsessed with firetrucks.  He's been to 2 firestations and is in total awe at them.



We had his 18 month check up today.  All is well.  His head hasn't gotten any bigger since his 15 month check up.  So, that finally puts us back on the growth chart!  He's in the 70's percentile wise for height and weight.  Such a big dude!  Our NP we see loves him.  She said he's the most cooperative 18 month old she's seen.  That makes this momma feel good.  He does have an ear infection.  But, he's such a little trooper that it doesn't even bother him and he doesn't act like anything is wrong.

I feel like this was kind of all over the place so I'll wrap up.  That's what my little boo has been up to lately.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Is this thing on?

Oh, hello there!  Remember me?  I'm the blogger who sucks at blogging.  I have an adorable son.  Remember me?

So, yeah, I've taken a 7 month hiatus from blogging.  I'd like to say that I needed a cleans or whatever. But, the fact is, life got crazy.  The past 7 months have been bananas (I may or may not have sang the Gwen Stefani song while spelling that...).  And, I'm not really sure anyone reads my little piece of the internet.  So, I quit blogging.  But, things have both slowed down and ramped back up, so I thought "what the hell" let's give this thing another go.  Who cares if anyone even reads it.  Sometimes it's nice to just put it all out there and get it off your chest.

Here's a quick recap of what's happened since we last spoke:

* We decided to list our house and buy a bigger one
* Holt turned ONE!!!!!
* Our house sold in 4 days for the asking price
* I got a new job
*We were almost homeless b/c we go screwed over on a new construction house and then we had a mortgage snafu
* We found, fell in love with, and bought a new house
* Another daycare shuffle - still with our favorite just a different set up
* We moved
* B got a new job
* We decided we want to have another baby

Whew.  Bananas.

As for that last little bit.  Yeah.  About that.  No, I'm not pregnant.  Nor do I expect to be for a while.  But, we decided to just see what will happen.  I'm taking a suppliment called Pregnitude that my RE put me on the cycle I got pregnant with H.  I've been on it for about a month and a half.  Then, during my annual gyno visit, I discussed with Dr. T that we were sort of seeing what could happen but by no means were we ready to go back to the RE.  So, she prescribed me some Clomid and gave me instructions to call her if I didn't get my period a week after a normal person would.  I didn't.  So, today I called in to get some Provera to see if we can kick start a period and then we will see what happens.

My thoughts about doing this again - I sort of feel no pressure.  Would I like another child?  Absolutely.  But, I don't feel this major race against the clock.  I've had several friends get pregnant and I'm nothing but happy for them.  I have my perfect little kiddo.  He's the best thing ever.  Seriously, sometimes I look at him and think my heart may burst from loving him so damn much.  So I really feel like another pregnancy and child is really just icing on the cake.

Remind me of this when I'm 6 months in and clomid isn't working and I'm devastated....

Monday, February 24, 2014

11 Months

Holy cow, we officially have less than a month until my sweet baby is ONE.  I want to cry just thinking about it! 

Month 10 was a busy one for our little dude.  Lots and lots of new things for him!


He took his first steps!  It was every working mom's nightmare though - they were at daycare.  I could tell the sitter didn't want to tell me.  But, she did.  I got in my car and burst into tears.  He's been steadily taking steps here and there, but still has zero interest in walking full time.  He's decided that crawling is faster and more efficient.
He's also saying several new words.  He says HI clear as a bell.  And says it all the time.  It's so cute.  He now will even wave while he does it.  He also says dog.  Well, he says "dah!" but is always near the dogs or looking at them when he says it.  It's adorable.

And, we are paci free!!!!  I've been tossing the idea around for a long time.  Several months ago, I noticed that he mostly just played with it and only used it for sleeping.  However, the old (awful) sitter insisted that we keep using it.  Plus, it helps prevent SIDS, so I just kept it.  My goal was to start weaning him from it at a year.  Well the new sitter said she preferred not to use pacis (music to my ears!) and she said he was going down for naps just fine without it.  So, I decided to try it at night without it.  After a few rocky cry it out nights, we had success!  He's now been without it for about 3 weeks.

 
He's still eating 3 meals a day and taking only 4 5 oz bottles.  Only one more month of formula!!  Woo Hoo!!!!  I can't tell you how excited this makes me!  We've been really working with the straw sippy cups, so I don't think the transition from a bottle to a cup should be too hard.  He's usually a pretty adaptable kiddo.

He still loves tubby (bath) time, and playing, and dancing.  He loves the sound of his own voice and talks and yells all the time.  He cracks us up so much.  He's really just the cutest little guy on the planet.

His only dislikes are being pinned down for diaper changes and getting dressed.  He's far too busy for such trivial things.

The weather was amazing here this weekend, so we were very busy out and about enjoying it.  Here are a few pics of my sweet little boo enjoying it!


I love dressing him like a little man.  This outfit made me happy

We spent the afternoon at the park with his baby bestie Landon yesterday


Well, clearly it wasn't all sunshine and happiness.  He was a very sad panda for most of yesterday


My sweet little boo,

Your daddy and I love you so much we can't even stand it!  You are so funny and smart and curious.  You always keep us on our toes.  We love just watching you play and learn and explore.

We love you so much!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

10 Months!

We are quickly approaching H's first birthday and I swear time is in a vortex and is flying by.  I wish it would stop!


 
 


This month has been so fun with my little dude.  He's full of energy and so so happy all the time.  He giggles and laughs when we tickle him.  And since he's discovered he can yell, that's basically his only volume.  He thinks it's hilarious.  Us?  Less so.  He's starting to stand unsupported more and more. He loves music. He's always dancing. Or, singing to himself and dancing to his own song. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever.
Exhibit A
He's eating 3 big boy meals a day.  And is down to 4 5 oz bottles.  My plan is to switch to whole milk when he turns one.  He got his his third and fourth top teeth (bringing the grand total to 6!) this month, so eating real food is more and more possible.  I also introduced him to goldfish crackers and he loves them!  His favorite foods are: steamed cauliflower (he LOVES it!), any fruit, and mum mums.  We have also been working on converting him to the straw sippy cup.

There are very few dislikes this month.  Mostly not giving him his food quick enough.  And diaper changes.  You can't pin this free range baby down!


Toys! Also, I die over these big boy jammies!


More toys!



Major news this month though.  We fired our sitter.  I swear, it's been a week and a half and I'm still livid over this!  The Friday before MLK day, I got off work an hour early.  I headed to pick H up from the sitter.  I swear, as I was ringing the bell I thought to myself "I should have let her know I'm coming early.  Well, actually, it's probably good to stop by unannounced".  Not a second later, her teenage son opens the door. (this is the same teenage son who left H napping on a changing table unattended back in August and she SWORE that he was never allowed with the kids again)  I asked where his mom was.  She was gone to pick his sister up from college - an HOUR AND A HALF away!!!! Meaning, she was gone at a MINIMUM 3 hours.  And that's just travel time.  Leaving my son and the other little kid she keeps alone with an incompetent teenager and a few of his buddies for most of the day!!!!!!!!  I couldn't get H out of there fast enough.  I mean, I didn't even think to get his stuff.  I did manage to get the brand new, unopened pack of diapers that we brought that day.  Then, as I was pulling out, she pulled up.  Meaning, had I not gotten off early, I never would have known she was gone.  She all but jumped out of a moving car.  "oh is everything ok?!"  Um, no you psycho, it's not.  But, for fear of killing her in her driveway, I just shortly answered that I got off work early and picked him up.  I honestly didn't trust myself to say anymore.  She got a strongly worded firing email when I got home.  Had it not been for B making me be civil, the email would have included several "eff you's" and been explitave ladden.  I'm really upset that I don't have the phone number of the other mother who keeps her kid there.  I feel like I'm doing her a disservice by not letting her know what went on.

Thankfully, we have found a wonderful place for him.  It's two girls running it out of their house.  They're basically running it like a daycare center.  So, I get all of the benefits with none of the downfalls.  Yesterday was his first day.  He was so happy and chatty all evening.  Usually he's fussy leaving and will nap on the way home.  It did my heart good to see him so happy.  Today is day 2 and it's show and tell.  He's bringing his stuffed Mickey doll.


I mean can you even stand it?!
Meanwhile, here are some amazing pictures from the past month...



This is his "I'm mad that mommy wouldn't let me eat the remote" face.  I spy 2 top teeth!

It was rainy and humid this day.  Clearly his hair didn't agree with the weather!

THE HAIR