Crumbs...!

Thanks a lot full moon

2012-02-07T20:59:00.002-06:00

Well, the full moon has been no help to me this month, eh! No contractions at all today. Blood pressure is a bit high and my lower legs and feet are swollen. I am very uncomfortable!

On a different note, we bought Henry a potty today, it was just $3 so we thought we would give it a try. He lifted up the little lid, sat down and pee peed in the potty. Good boy!

Henry's sleeping habits are rather off kilter for some reason at the moment and he didnt take an afternoon nap yesterday, so we went to visit Lana and Knox and play in the huge 'sand pit' at the end of their road...

Im going to be pregnant forever

2012-02-06T14:28:00.005-06:00

Like most people, I had a thousand due dates. Well, just two, but still, that's annoying enough. So one due date passed on Saturday and one is Wednesday. I have lost all hope for the full moon to bring the baby because its Monday afternoon and Im not in labour, so tomorrow is pretty much out of the question now. I have resolved myself to the fact that I am going to be pregnant forever.

I got pretty excited yesterday as I had 2 minute contractions all morning, then 5, then 7 and then they stopped early afternoon. Fantastic. So disappointing.

I go through bouts of being incredibly uncomfortable and periods of feeling normal (pregnant, 50 lbs heavier than usual, normal at least).

Im guessing there is still a two week window when this baby could show up. yeay. Oh and to boot, all I want to do right now is climb into bed, (yes, I realise its 2 in the afternoon - Im tired, alright) but Henry is talking away in his room, refusing to take a nap and stressing either that his socks are on and he needs them off, or that they are off and he needs them on. Please go to sleep little man.

Here are some pictures from our stomping around in the puddles Saturday... It was all fun and games until Henry stepped into a puddle that went over his boots. He was no longer a happy camper after that and screamed until he was running around the house almost naked, as is the way he seems most happy. Roll on warmer weather so that he can live naked the whole time, though a winter of 50s and 60s really is nothing to complain about!

Its decided!

2012-01-31T13:19:00.001-06:00

Well, we just looked it up and the full moon is February 7th, so we have booked our birth in for next Tuesday, as births often coincide with storms or full moons! Yeay! I am so glad it is decided!

Im rather ready to have my body back!

Some family pics

2012-01-26T13:53:00.005-06:00

We took these pictures about a month ago, so Id have been 34 weeks pregnant and Henry was coming up on 18 months old. Danny was 30 years and 9 months.

Henry and I have had a lovely morning doing NOTHING! Its been fantastic. We watched the rain, read books in bed, played hide and seek, cars, chase, play-doh, had lunch and now he is napping, and Im probably not far behind. Rainy days at home are good every so often!

Tag, You're IT

2012-01-25T12:12:00.002-06:00

My friend Crady 'tagged' me in one of her posts about getting to know someone, so I have attempted to answer her questions but I find these sorts of questions especially hard to answer because 1) you have to think, and thinking is hard! and 2) I dont ever think there is one definitive answer to certain questions because its all about how you feel at the time that influences how you answer. The next problem is that you are supposed to 'Tag' other people to answer your questions, but I dont know 11 people with blogs to 'Tag' because I dont have time to explore blogs. But maybe I could email some people and then post their responses...?

First Things First, The Rules:
You must post the rules.
Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
Tag eleven people and link them on your post
Let them know you've tagged them!

11 fun facts
1. Im really excited to have a baby here soon and look forward to all of the things that I will be able to do again.
2. I am pretty anxious about labour, but am really glad to be doing it at home this time.
3. I really don’t know if I would like our baby to be a boy or a girl.
4. I have no idea how many children I would like. Would I be ok with this being the last time I was pregnant? Would I be ok with just two kids? Do I think we can support more than two kids financially, or should?
5. I love having a family so much that sometimes when I see Danny and Henry playing together or wrestling on the bed, I get a little weepy. I have never been this happy I don’t think, and Im not sure that I ever thought I could be.
6. I miss cycling and running. I am a little anxious about cycling alone since Kevser’s accident, but don’t see any other way since my schedule is going to be dictated by two children and my husband.
7. I love colourful clothing, particularly very bright pink!
8. If I could get my back rubbed every night, I would.
9. I really wish we could take a vacation on our own to somewhere new and exciting.
10. My favourite part of the day is a toss up between weekend mornings where we all three play in bed together with Henry’s cars or books, or the evening before Henry’s bed time when we read books in bed together!
11. I wish I were better at cooking meat.

Questions from Crady

1. If you could live in any era, what would it be and why?

I would live now, because its what I am used to and Im happy. Not so keen on change! It would have been dangerous living with the dinosaurs. Women seem to have had it rough during other times.

2. What is your dream vacation?

Im not sure that I can answer this, as there are so many different types of vacation. I think right now, hiking somewhere exotic sounds super fun. Id really love to check out Mayan temples but am rather scared of being in the jungle. One day, I intend to take the original vacation we planned for our honeymoon (a hut over the water in Bora Bora), before we more sensibly decided to take a cheaper vacation and buy a car instead. Id love to visit parts of Utah where the water formed sand features are great to hike through or mountain bike in. I would love to re-visit New Zealand on a longer trip and do the trips of multiple day/week hikes through the wilderness.

3. If money was no issue, what would you do with your life? Why?

Probably stay at home with my kids and go on lots of international trips. I really enjoy spending time with Henry and feel that it gives him the best start in life to know that he is the most important thing in mine. Right now, I think Id like to be a mid-wife also! I love babies and birth. Id consider being a surrogate but don’t want to take all the drugs. Hmmmm, Id maybe also consider being a personal trainer, or a school teacher.

4. What is your favorite Christmas memory?

Since I think Christmas is about the kids, I build new ones every year. This year I made cookies for Santa with Henry Christmas eve and he was really good at stirring the ingredients (as long as you didn’t mind how much of it stayed in the bowl) and got super messy picking the chocolate chips out of the dough and cramming them into his mouth! I remember making Christmas cake with my mum in the autumn, dressed in my Brownies uniform standing on a chair and want to pass this baking-together thing on to my kids.

5. What is your favorite season? Why?

Spring; because you can get out running and cycling again after a winter inside and the bulbs are all popping up out of the ground and looking beautiful.

6. What was the last book you read that you just couldn't put down?

I don’t get to read much but I bought myself two books on my birthday and finished one the next day, though technically it’s a novella: Of Love and Other Demons, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

7. If you could move anywhere in the world (and have all your family and friends come with you) where would you want to live?

I haven’t seen enough of the world to answer.

8. What is your favorite thing to cook?

I am better at cooking dinner, but everyone loves to bake cakes! I particularly love baking the tall, multi-layer cakes that you get to frost with a palate knife, though I never get to make them because we dont need a huge cake around the house!

9. What is the best restaurant you've eaten in?

Surely this depends on what you want to eat at the time! We used to love LnMs when it was here in town. There are some really nice farm style restaurants Ive eaten-in in Portland, OR. I had a fantastic filet mignon at a restaurant in Memphis for my birthday once, though I have no idea what it was called. I have to say, it takes a lot for a restaurant to impress me. McEwans here in town has fantastic banana creme pie, but the meals left a little to be desired.

10. What do you most admire about your spouse/significant other?

His hard working mentality and diligence, and how he always strives to look after us and provide for us; unselfishly and unquestioningly. His patience and ability to deal with other people and pacify situations that would be difficult if dealt with by anyone else.

11. What 3 people would you most want to have dinner with?

My mum, my husband and my sister.

As much trouble as I have answering these sorts of questions, I have a tremendous amount of trouble thinking of suitable ones to ask other people. So please excuse my awful questions but here are my questions for you...

1. What is your favourite thing to eat?
2. What is your favourite hobby?
3. What would you most like to excel at, that perhaps you don’t now?
4. What do you most like about yourself?
5. What would you most like to change about your life?
6. What is the movie that you have watched the most times?
7. What do you find most beautiful in life?
8. What is your favourite plant?
9. What enables you to relax the most or that you find most relaxing?
10. Do you have any hopes and dreams for your children’s careers? What are they?
11. What do you tend to buy too much of?

If you feel like answering these questions, please either post a comment or email me and I will post your answers. Sorry I dont follow 11 blogs and cant complete the tag game.

Very pregnant

2012-01-24T08:22:00.009-06:00

Some random pictures of my little monkey first!

I just realised that when you are this pregnant, is when people are most interested in you, and I havent been blogging at all! So sorry. Reason is, I keep wanting to put pictures up, so Danny takes them and then doesnt make them available to me. Good job I didnt pay him, mind you, if I had paid, perhaps I would have got some photos! I mean seriously, why should some family who has paid thousands of dollars to have a professional photographer cover their wedding, come before pictures of my fat belly!?! Ridiculous!

So I have taken matters into my own hands and used my phone to take a profile pictures of my belly at 38 weeks. I know a black dress isnt the way to show how huge you look, but I just thought of doing this, so Ill get an actually belly shot tonight and post it.

Obviously, I am huge! I have booked myself a manicure for next week to make me feel better about weighing the most Ive ever weighed. To be honest, the weight doesnt bother me so much, its more the aching hips in the evenings, or the sore ribs in the mornings, or the peeing every 15 minutes. I think my cold of the past 6 weeks has finally gone. Though now Henry has a cold and Danny may possibly be getting one. Poor newborn coming into this unhealthy climate.

I walked 4 miles on the trails Sunday, 3.5 miles around town yesterday and have plans to do the same today during my lunch break.

Next week is probably going to be my last week of work.

I fell over again. This time just from the couch. But this time I cried, because it actually hurt. I landed on the side of my ankle and took a baby to the lungs, which really winded me, and shocked the bageebas out of the baby.

A month has passed

2012-01-09T20:54:00.005-06:00

Here is a picture of Henry in the Kroger parking lot Saturday. He cried when I made him get out of the little car. He had had an all out kicking and screaming tantrum that morning because I tried to put his rubber boots on him so we could splash in the rain. Some battles just arent worth the fight, so I didnt make him wear them. Royal waste of money they were.

I have lots of pictures for you, but as usual, Danny is away and I dont know where they are. We took some family pics on timer the other day and then some of my 36 week watermelon.

36 weeks. Isnt that insane.

Henry has gone through a two week spout of refusing to eat and is back into gorging himself on whatever you put in front of him. During that two week period, he got his top two canines. He has a daily pre-dinner snack of frozen peas and corn. He has developed his fondness of his Papa and misses him terribly when he is gone. He ran naked around the house tonight holding the phone because Danny was skyping on it. He has cultivated a love of his Uncle Jonathan to the point where you cant mention his name or Henry will call it out for about 10 minutes incessantly. Jonathan is staying with us this week, so he is getting his far share of Henry kisses. He has lots of new words; purple, blue, yellow, orange, cookie, raisins, strawberries, NO (often proceeded by Mummy), trust fall (Tosh.0 watchers will understand this one), Beep Bo (belly button), Neigh (horse sound), Moo (cow sound), shoes, lights, drink, milk, please... there are many more. He is a thorough pleasure to be around the majority of the time; a lovely young man. He has pee-peed in the potty several times and knows that if he successfully pee pees in the potty, he gets one little jelly bean, so he makes sure and pee pees in the potty every night! He pee pees everywhere else as well, but realises that doesnt get him a piece of candy!

In the past month I have turned 31 years old. Become more and more pregnant, and more and more tired as a result! I have taken to napping whenever I can. I have gained 45 lbs since June of last year. Shocking. I have had lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, and if I were a first time mum, I probably would have thought I was going into labour, they were so frequent last weekend. This past Saturday I fell over, straight on my butt, whilst holding a cup of water at the candy store. Yes, I know what you are thinking, having gained 45 lbs already, like I need a candy store. Whatever. I actually look smaller (in the face and arms - not the massive belly) than when I was this pregnant with Henry. The baby continues to jab me in the ribs and painfully stretch its legs out. Oh and I may have accidentally found out that the baby is a boy, though I am trying to ignore the comment. The business desk lady at the doctors told me this past visit that I had to pay for HIS circumcision next visit. I looked at her and asked what if it wasnt a boy. erm. She looked a little surprised and said, well then you will get your money back. And she also likes to make a point of telling me its more expensive at the doctors office than at the hospital, like that is going to convince me into a hospital birth. Its more likely to convince me not to circumcise woman. Anyway, I dont know if the people at the desk even see your medical records, maybe Ill ask next time I go, but either way, I am trying to forget she said it!

I thought Id been doing well; I walk to work and back, I walk an hour or so on my days off. But I just did the prenatal yoga dvd for the first time in months and it about killed me, no lie. And if you dont believe that I am all belly, imagine that to do a lunge I had to manual maneuver my belly into position with my hands and even then it was resting on my leg. Or the fact that to do a forward fold I had to have my legs wide apart and still my belly rested between my legs. Not long now folks!

Snow day!

2011-12-07T09:03:00.002-06:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, I walked to work today, in the SNOW! Craziness! I looked like a Clementine on stilts wearing Danny's orange rain-jacket (which incidentally only just did up over my belly!) and black leggings, with clashing pink wellies/rubber boots. How inconsiderate of Danny to have a rain-jacket that doesn't match my wellies!

We had a lovely, yet chilly evening last night, watching the Oxford Christmas parade; a first for myself, Henry and our British visitors. Everyone had a fantastic time, though it was past Henry's bedtime when we started to head home and he cried intensely until we started our ABCs and Old Macdonald.

Not my favourite Thursday ever

2011-12-02T19:36:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, Henry decided he wasnt going to take a nap. ALL DAY! It might not have been a problem but 1) I am super duper pregnant (and huge, yes thank you EVERYONE for telling me) and 2) I am not sleeping because I am super duper pregnant! So a super duper tired mummy left Henry in his bed for 2 hours total yesterday afternoon (went in half way through to check he didnt have a dirty diaper and read a couple of books). I laid down for 30 minutes, but with him singing to himself in the room next door, not much of a nap was had. But it turned out to be a fun afternoon regardless. We walked the dogs to the square, played in front of the courthouse and popped into the bookstore to get a christmas present. I was pretty tired by the time we walked home again a few hours later, but we had a fun time.

This week, dinner time was a totally different ball game. This week, as long as Henry could feed it to himself with a fork, he ate it. Sausages, chicken, baked beans, butternut squash (well, he tried it, he didnt actually eat it, but hey, at least he tried it!), bread and butter, strawberries, raspberries, everything that can be stabbed with a fork! Made my life easier, thats for sure.

We went from being just the two of us, well, plus the dogs and the Bump, of course, to the house now including Papa and my dad, and tomorrow, one of his workers. Not only is it all of us, but we are all cramped into a tiny living space because the kitchen, dining room and play room have been taken over until further notice! Kitchen is starting to look totally different, there is a new window, new walls, new door holes, new floor, new light holes. Tomorrow the shipment with the kitchen arrives, its going to get interesting up in here!

I was worried it was the way of things to come, but H was happy to take a nap today and I drove to Black Zion to pick up our quarter of a cow. Such an interesting life I lead! Other tasks today, Farmers market for special thick noodles to make Thai curry when our stove gets plugged in tomorrow, vet for Mojos check up and allergy shot (which may have to become a regular event), kroger for MORE food (as it seems my dad is an eating machine!) and of course, general play time with H. On 3 or 4 hours sleep, Im exhausted. I just seem to lie then, in bed, waiting for sleep to drift back over me. Tonight Im going to eat when I wake up, just incase thats the reason Im not falling back to sleep til 6am (and then of course I hear MAMA around 630am).

Henry 16 month check up

2011-11-30T21:15:00.003-06:00

Henry's doctors visit went as well as can be expected yesterday! The doctor said he is very healthy and growing well, so that is good! He has, however, developed an incredible fear of medical personnel. I should have guessed really, since he cried bloody murder when I had my blood pressure taken or we listened to the baby's heart beat with the dopler, but it sort of slipped my mind.

The crying/screaming began when we tried to get his weight. All this involves is laying him on the scales, but it had to be a speedy affair because he was tremendously distraught. At least to get his height I could hug him while he cried. He was fine in the room, running around in socks and a diaper. But when Dr. Dennis tried to listen to his lungs with the stethoscope, he started crying again. He cried as the doctor looked into his ears and his mouth, and screamed when he got the MMR vaccination, but I managed to end this pretty quickly by singing him his abc's.

Height 82 cm: 66%

Weight 22 lbs 10 oz: 17%

Head circumference 49.5 cm: 93% (just like his father!)

We ate out again last night, and despite the kind offers, I decided to 'cook' at home tonight, this time without an oven or stove! Eating out is fine, but tiring when I am on my own, neither of us particularly like being out the house almost 12 hours, its almost impossible for me to get H to bed anywhere close to 7pm and even then he gets mad at me for putting him to bed when we have only been in the house 15 minutes and managed to brush our teeth and read a book or two (rather than the usual 20 minutes or there abouts of story time). But I managed to make a delicious and nutritional meal with a toaster oven and a microwave! Im going to look at those Steamables bags tomorrow because maybe they will work for making nutritional meals in the microwave. I had a chicken breast roasted in orange juice with cranberries and butternut squash, with two huge servings of peas and corn. H pretty much just ate his chicken and apple sausage, but to his credit he did taste the butternut squash, he just didn't like it. He even fed himself his sausage with a fork, stabbing each individual piece without help from me! I got a video of it, but I dont know how to upload it, so Ill have to see if Danny can do it when he has time.

Our kitchen is now starting to look like it will in a few weeks. The doors are now in the right places, holes for lights are cut and wiring carried out, insulation in and drywall on walls. My dad gets here tomorrow and the shipment on Friday, so let the fun begin! I am so ready to have my house back! H was covered in dry wall dust within 1 minute of being in the house tonight. Nasty. What once was his toy room is under plastic sheeting and he doesnt quite know what to do about it, but the sneaky little man found a way to access the lego bucket from underneath the computer desk and was able to extract legos one by one to take over to the dog beds (his favourite place to lie) and play with them there. So cute!

I have to say, I was super impressed that he could feed himself his dinner tonight with no help from me, and that he ate his dinner with no argument! Of course, he got 1.5 mini Oreos tonight!

Mondays are all the same - exhausting

2011-11-28T22:02:00.003-06:00

So, its Monday again. I may only work three days a week, but I get super tired, especially on Mondays. Living without a kitchen means we are leaning on friends to make us dinner, which is grately appreciated. At least I dont have to make H behave in a restaurant every night of the week. However getting him home, sticking his Pjs straight on him, reading a book or two then sticking him in his bed, doesnt go down well with him. And then me, yes well, I had to make up several hours of work after he went to bed because he has a doctors wellness check up tomorrow that could not be changed (next available appointment is in 3 months!), so I am even more glad not to have any post-dinner cleaning up to do, but find myself ridiculously exhausted and have done nothing but work today and attempt to feed my child and keep him on the straight and narrow for the very short two hours that I actually spent with him. Oh and recite my new mantra over and over again for the two short car journeys we spent together this evening to keep the peace. You know the one, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G", I wont go on, but I am ever so glad it works. I wouldnt be surprised if I didnt sing it in my sleep tonight - and I have a terrible 'singing' voice. And that is assuming I get to sleep tonight. Last night H woke up crying at 330am.. He didnt cry long, maybe 15 seconds, and then again about 20 minutes later and then about 430am. Not enough to warrant going in there, but enough to keep me awake long enough for the new baby to wake up and do its Kung Fu Panda work out until it was almost time to get up. I dont know what was wrong with him, though I suspect its those pesky canines again. Why cant they just push through!

For a short minute this evening I thought how nice it will be to have a leisurely breakfast and some play time with H in the morning, but then I realised the builders will be here at 8am anyways. But its supposed to snow tonight and be freezing again tomorrow, so there isnt much else for us to do. I need to go check out the day cares around town and put our names down on one for next fall, so maybe we will do that in the morning to save time Thursday. I figure its about time H got to socialise with other kids, that and I give my part time babysitter more money than I would a full time daycare, even if he only attended it part time. Also need to enroll in the mothers day out programs, maybe that will work out instead and be much cheaper.

But for right now, on this cold, wet, Monday night, I am exhausted.

Back to (our new) normal

2011-11-16T19:17:00.005-06:00

Just in case you were worried about me after last night, which was in fact awful, I thought Id let you know that things were back to our new normal again tonight. I also got a little brave and instead of holding him while I cooked, I tried distracting him with something else. When he started repeating his mantra, "mummy, mummy, mummy", in that whiney tone, I took him by the hand and walked him over to the toy room (thankfully my dinner was rather hands off at this point) and got out a puzzle for him to play with and it worked, for a little while. I then gave him something new that he hadnt had the pleasure of playing with before - the two smaller bowls that sit in the food processer. These were a real hit and he carried them round with him everywhere.

He didnt eat any of our delicious dinner (spinach and pea pasta with Salmon - ridiculously health but oh so delicious!) but he didnt scream at all while I ate. After I had finished eating and he was given his milk, he threw it on the floor. I picked it up once and after the second time he threw it on the floor I told him that it was gone now. He did have a little cry, but I informed him that mummy didnt pick up the things we threw on the floor, particularly not so heavily pregnant, so in the future, he had best not throw it on the floor. He seemed reasonably satisified, at least he didnt cry for the milk. I then did the dishes while he occupied himself quietly.

He had a nice bath where I didnt have to perform a small play with the piggies, which gets a little old when you cant think of anything to talk about with two rubber piggies. I actually looked at his back most of the time as he was turned around shoveling water into the cup.

He happily brushed his teeth and then we had a huge development! Henry peed in the toilet!!! Every night he gets three chances to climb up his stool and I tell him to go pee. Tonight he got four chances and on the last one, he actually went! He found it so funny that he was peeing in the toilet, so maybe he will be excited to do it tomorrow night too!

We read some books together, curled up on our bed and he peacefully went to bed. I even asked him for a kiss on the way to his bedroom, at which he usually shakes his head, well tonight he leaned in and gave me several kisses with a smile!

Now this is what I was looking for last night!!! Im still going to treat myself to a decaf vanilla chai latte with 5 marshmallows, because, lets face it, I deserve it!

Then I will begin laundry, clean the bathroom and mop the floors. All in anticipation of our much awaited arrival tomorrow night... our Papa comes home after almost two weeks camping out in the Bush in Australia! I have yet to ask him if he saw a kangaroo! Its actually the longest time period that we havent spoken to each other in our 8+ years together. I am so ready for a manly hug!

Much better!

2011-11-15T21:51:00.003-06:00

Two cups of vanilla chai latte, each containing 5 marshmallows, 3 extra marshmallows and one and a half hours of sewing and I almost feel human again! Relaxed enough to go to bed at least!

Let's all hope tomorrow brings a little man in a better mood!

What a freakin' evening

2011-11-15T19:22:00.004-06:00

Oh my goodness. I just had the evening from hell. I don't know why we have expectations in life, we are only ever let down. Wow. I have got to sit here a minute and recover.

My expectation for the evening was that Henry and I would have a lovely evening together. I chose not to go out to get burgers like we often do on a Tuesday, because I wanted to spend some time with my son. I thought we could play a little, have a nice dinner, take a fun bath, read some stories and go to bed. That's what I thought. huh.

Everything seemed ok when we first got home. He walked up the path, climbed the steps and came in the house just fine. Then it began. The whining. So I took him to the play room, set him down and we started playing. It went well for a few minutes. I decided to check on his dinner and the Mummy, Mummy, Mummys began. Incessantly. So I held him while I fixed his dinner. One of his favourite dinners; sausage, chips/fries and peas. I set him in the highchair and the screaming began. Oh my goodness. Who stole my baby and replaced him with this monster. So I took him out of the highchair and carried on eating my dinner while he stood there and screamed. Then he asked for the fork with the piece of sausage on, and he fed himself. When he realised what it was he had for dinner, he reached for the plate, but I told him to eat his dinner he had to sit in the high chair. So I put him in the high chair, where he screamed. I carried on eating my dinner. When he got done screaming, he started eating his dinner. Then something made him start screaming again. After I had finished my dinner and could no longer bear the screaming, I took him back out of the high chair and he sat on the dog bed and carried on screaming. In fact he only stopped screaming when I started video recording his tantrum with my camera, then he just laid there in the dog bed looking at the camera.

Then he started screaming for his milk. I did get him some milk, and that provided me with a few minutes of peace and quiet, but he refused to be put down.

After he finished his milk I ran the bath. He climbed his stool and called for the tooth brush. After I told him we would brush our teeth after the bath, he started screaming and stood their screaming. When the bath was ready I took off his clothes, whilst he carried on screaming. When I put him in the bath he carried on screaming. When I sat on the toilet with the nail clippers and cut my toe nails he went deadly silent and watched. He then asked me to cut his nails, so I cut a few of his finger nails and then he wanted the nail clippers, which I would not let him have, so he started screaming again. We picked up all the toys and he happily took out the plug and handed to me. After drying off he was ecstatic to finally get to brush his teeth. Phew, no screaming. We went to his bedroom, he walked willingly, but when I put him on the changing pad to put a diaper on him, he started screaming again. Thankfully, story time was its usual fun, as long as I read the correct books. I tried to read the Belly Button book and he threatened to scream again. He started crying when I told him it was time for bed, but said goodnight to the doggies any ways. He calmed down a little bit on the way to his bedroom, but started screaming hysterically again when I put him in his bed.

I have no stinkin' idea what the heck is wrong with him, but I sure am glad he is quietly in bed. I almost wish I could drink so that I could have a big glass of wine, but a decaf chai tea and the couch will have to suffice Im afraid. What a crappy evening. Wow. Im still in shock. I suspect he was just really tired because he didnt sleep well last night at all (which I suspect may be a result of those pesky canines coming in) and apparently was prematurely woken up from his nap this afternoon. Lets all hope for a better nights sleep for all of us.

As an aside, the new baby has changed position. Somehow last night its butt got over to the right side of my ribs, which is probably another reason I didnt sleep well and had a sore back this morning.

I have saved Henry's sausage and peas and he will be given them tomorrow night for dinner. Little stinker.

The most rest Ive had in a while!

2011-11-15T10:18:00.001-06:00

I am at work.

I am listening to the dulcent tones of Bethany Yarrow and her instrumental team.

I am doing data analysis in my comfy (probaby faux leather) chair.

I havent felt this relaxed in a long time! Bliss.

I could almost nod off!

Whirlwind visit

2011-11-12T19:31:00.006-06:00

H and I had a fun few days with the Vinsons, but he seemed very glad to be home tonight. His personality has TOTALLY changed over the past week or two. He is most definitely a little boy now. All you people that said I needed to wean him of the need for his mummy were wrong! He has done it himself! To some extent, at least. He still panics if I go to the bathroom and screams my name, banging on the door until I come out, but he plays around the house while I make dinner or clean up after dinner now. But we have also hit the terrible twos I think, either that or he just has more energy than he knows what to do with. Unfortunately I think he has discovered how to scream NO, when another child has a toy he wants or something isnt going according to his plan, so we are going to have to deal with that kind of behaviour somehow.

Our trip went well. We had gymnastics and tea Thursday morning as usual, then we left town around 1130am. H fell asleep almost immediately, which wasnt part of the plan. When he woke up in Jackson, TN an hour and a half later, we stopped for lunch, though he barely ate. We must have looked funny because all of the people (all men) in the Subway where we ate couldnt help but stare at this hugely pregnant woman chatting along merrily with a little blonde headed toddler. He didnt sleep again but we sang children's songs and re-capped our body parts and animal sounds, so he was happy. To my surprise, he was happy playing at this foreign house. I expected him to sit on my lap and not move. He was a little naughty with Jay as he seemed to realise pretty darn quickly that, unlike his other friends, Jay wasnt going to snatch a toy back if he took it from him, so of course, he kept taking Jay's toys. Jays response was to start crying, not what H is used to and it didnt phase him at all. Knox tends to take whatever it is Henry has and then it all seems fair to the both of them. Basically he was a little bully for the weekend and we actually started Time Outs.

Jay was so much more developed than I expected. Almost running round their house, as long as he had something to hold on to. Ive never seen cruisin' like it!

Again, to my incredible surprise H slept well in this foreign pack and play in this foreign house. Id always wondered what time he actually woke up versus what time he started calling for me and having shared a room with him, thank goodness he doesnt call for me as soon as he wakes up, coz its early! We played outside once it warmed up and he napped well during the afternoon. I laid down but didnt fall asleep unfortunately. This morning Summer, H and I popped to Target and Michaels, but I will never set foot in another craft store with my toddler again. Everything in that place was at his level and breakable. He was manic, running from one display to the next trying to rip things off the shelves. It completely wore me out.

After lunch we set off home. H was asleep within 7 minutes of leaving! He only slept 1.5 hours but we managed not to stop! I was slowly sipping my water so as not to fill up and need to pee. I didnt give him his cup until 30 minutes from the house so that he wouldnt need a clean diaper. We sang Old MacDonald a lot, though it was more of a Safari than a Farm, so that we could do lion noises, and monkeys and what not. He played peek-abo with me in the mirror and we made it to Oxford in 4 hours. We had to stop at Kroger as I knew we had no milk and we got some fantastic deals on Organic grapes and apples, some yummy looking oranges and both strawberries and raspberries were 2 for $4, so I couldnt resist, despite it being totally the wrong time of year. He then ate more food than I thought physically possible. Actually, Id like to get opinions on something, if you dont mind. Our dinner tonight was one of his favourite meals, though we dont eat it often because I worry that it is unhealthy, but I really dont think so. We had lots of fresh chopped spinach in scrambled eggs with spaghettios on toast. What do you think, unhealthy or not? After a huge portion of this, 4 eggs, 4 servings of spinach and a can of spaghettios between us, we then demolished a whole carton of raspberries. H ate a mini Oreo and polished off a cup of milk! Where does that tiny child put it all!? After that much spinach though, tomorrow is going to be full of icky diapers for me!

He was soo sooooo happy to be home. A little annoyed at me that we didnt take a bath. In fact, he threw all of his bath toys in the bath and tried to climb over the side! But I am really trying to keep his bed time close to 7pm for my sanity and we just didnt have time. Instead of crawling around the bed at story time, he laid propped up on pillows next to me holding his foot while we read his favourites.

Guess I have to tidy up the debris from the trip then catch up on some work that I missed Wednesday. My jobs never end! Not to mention that my other baby likes to lie with its legs straight out, which is less than comfortable! It was a fun trip, nice to get out the house and do something different, but I am absolutely exhausted now and have all the things I usually do in 4 days, to squeeze into one.

27 weeks

2011-11-09T21:54:00.003-06:00

Drove all the way to Memphis today for our mid-wife apt. Thankfully, Lana and Knox accompanied us, so it was more fun. We had minor dramas that made us leave 30 minutes late; Knox jumped in a deep puddle and needed a new outfit and H had a poopy diaper, but we still made it on time.

I have gained a few more pounds, getting near to the 35 lbs I gained with H. Blood pressure was good at 120/78. Baby's heart beat was 148, Lana listened with the old fashioned thingy, I couldnt hear it though. Head is down, as I suspected after Saturdays gymnastics, butt off under the left rib and legs out to the right. Despite being 27 weeks, the fundal height measured in at 29 weeks. Yes, well. Mid-wife thinks its a girl! No basis for this, she just kept calling it 'her'. I got told to eat more, as I full well know, thats why Im feeling so sick all of the time and getting terrible headaches. I just dont ever feel like eating and there is nothing I ever want. Might buy some granola type bar things, Lara or Luna or something LLL, keep on hand. Doctors visit Next the week of Thanksgiving, then Mid-wives Dec 14th. We discussed the Rhogam shot and she sees nothing wrong with getting it and not getting it. We discussed the FLU shot and she is against it, pregnant or not.

After our visit, we went along to the Carriage Crossing Mall in Collierville. I know its silly as I only have three months left, but I bought myself two sweaters. Lana hopefully has some maternity jeans for me with full panels as Im pretty much out of clothes for the bottom half of my body. Would have bought some jeans today but 1) the women in the shop were sooooo rude and 2) they only had 'regular' length, and for $70 I dont want to have to hem!

Off to visit Summer and Jay in Symrna, TN tomorrow, for a few days. Its my rogue road trip!

As for the house, the mudroom has officially been demolished! My house is trashed because the builders keep walking through it to use the bathroom.

Im exhausted.

Time change

2011-11-06T19:29:00.003-06:00

I am as free as a bird, with no where to fly.

For about the past month we have been putting Henry to bed at 8pm. It was sort of my fault, it was in anticipation of the time change, its just that the time change was much later than I realised. But last night the clocks went back here in the U.S. Henry didnt wake up until 730am (830am summer time) so that was nice, we all got to lie in! I slept pretty well last night, but being pregnant, pretty well isnt exactly great, so I knew that Danny didnt sleep well at all, thus the lie in this morning was blissful! We had a few hours to play with our Papa, he and Henry cleaned out the car and I got to use the bathroom in peace and quiet, without a certain little person sitting on my lap! That may be more information than you needed, but it really is cause for celebration if I get to use the bathroom on my own! I realised that I hadnt left the house since Friday morning and felt a little confined, so we loaded up the troops and walked to the square. The dogs lay in the sun whilst Henry and I rolled trucks down the courthouse ramp. Lost track of time and didnt make it home until 1230, so we had a quick lunch and H went to sleep. I planted my recent purchases from the Barn and took myself off to bed too! We all slept until almost 5pm again! After some rolling of the trucks down the slide, I cooked us a quick Cous Cous dinner, Henry played while I did the dishes, bath time, story time and bed was at 710pm! That might not seem like a big deal to you, but it means that I am going to have all of my 'jobs' done by 8pm, instead of 9pm. Which means I get to do something I want to do before bed, rather than just having to get my stuff ready for tomorrow and take myself off to bed. I dont feel like working on the curtains tonight, so maybe some yoga is on the cards. I really hope to keep up this 7ish bedtime, though I doubt its possible. It was a bit of a fluster getting all of that done by 7pm. We often dont eat dinner til 6pm on work nights and especially not when Papa is here, because he often doesnt come home from work til 6pm, so fitting it all in will be tough, but it sure is nice having some free time.

If you have trouble convincing your child they should eat vegetables and have to 'hide' them like me, or if you are rushed after work and need a quick fix dinner, try this, there are lots of variations you could do, this is just what I had in the house.

1 zucchini, chopped up really really small (remember your goal here, disguising vegetables!)

1 carrot, chopped up really really small

1 red bell pepper, you guessed it, chopped up really really small

sliced olives

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 cup cous cous (I used Israeli cous cous, easier to disguise the vegetables because it is bigger)

1 cup water

some tasty herbs, salt and pepper

splash of balsamic and lemon juice

Stick everything in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for 8 minutes. Leave sitting a couple more minutes off the heat. Stir in grated parmesan.

I chopped everything up in the morning and doused with lemon juice so I could just throw it all in when the time came.

You could use anything you want, spinach, capers, green onions, peas, squash, feta cheese, no cheese, chicken, sausage bla bla bla. If you use meat, make sure it is pre-cooked before you stir it in.

This was enough food for H and I (I had seconds, of course) with a little left over, so Id double it for another adult and then you will have a whole portion of left overs.

On a totally different note, our new baby did some major gymnastics this week and I think it may have turned head down. I had been in rather a lot of pain for a few weeks now and you could see its head sticking out the side of my stomach. But the pain has gone and the kicks and punches seem to be further up than they used to be. I felt like my uterus was ripping away from its ligaments and you could see this giant bulge in my side. Hopefully its head down, and hopefully it stays that way!

Its the small things in life

2011-11-05T20:12:00.006-05:00

Our little bonfire party last night was a bit of a whirlwind, but lots of fun. The number of children at our bonfire parties has slowly increased over the years, but last night hit an all time high! There were just 2 of the 5 Crowe kids, 2 of the 3 Finley's, Knox, Leila, 2 Dawson kids and of course, my little man. I think there were still more adults than kids though!

In an untraditional manner, someone brought an effigy to burn. Danny and I were sort of expecting a Guy, as usual, but Walter brought an effigy of a car to symbolise all of the people and pets that we have recently lost to cars. We burned that sucker!

Unfortunately Henry has that nagging cough back and didnt sleep well at all. He was calling my name around 4am, but I must have drifted back off because I woke to my name again around 545am. Then everyone went back to sleep until Tux, wretched dog, barked at 745am. Then a split second later you hear, "Mama!" ugh. But it was good as Henry seemed to have peed through his diaper, pjs and into all of his sheets somehow. Because of this general lack of sleep in the household, tensions were high this morning. Or rather, Mummy was grumpy! As was Henry. Around 1015am we put Henry in his bed to see what happened, and I laid down. I couldnt sleep because Henry was reading allowed to himself (or just sort of chanting his new favourite word "duck") and the new baby was practising its soccer skills. But we all got up in a much better mood after our 20 minutes of quiet time alone.

My 'small thing in life' to celebrate for today is that I discovered how to (sort of) replicate the most delicious Chai tea they serve at the coffee shop in town. Its my naughty indulgence. The one at the coffee shop is caffeinated and is probably a thousand calories, not to mention it costs around $5. I get one every Thursday morning! But if you buy Stash brand, decaf vanilla chai tea and stir in 5 marshmallows and some milk, it tastes pretty similar! And provides me with my sugary fix which I seem to need every few minutes whilst pregnant! Ive already had two cups today!

Big news on the house front: Mud room de- and re-construction starts this week and the kitchen gets ripped out! So if anyone was thinking about coming over for dinner, you'd better hurry up and make it early week because Ill be looking for handouts for the next 6 weeks after that!

Complaint

2011-11-02T11:31:00.002-05:00

I dont often use this media to complain about work, but I have found the past hour rather amusing and I feel the need to share!

I am currently working up data carried out by some students at a University elsewhere in the United States. In the interest of anomynity, I shall keep the details to myself. But in the space of just two field sheets I have the following units, not marked, just numbers on a piece of paper: millimeters, centimeters, feet and inches. They are all in totally different places, totally unlabelled, and in fact, the millimeters are in a column labelled feet, though I know this to be a physical impossibility. So Im sitting here bitching, cursing these random people, whom I shall never meet. 1) who uses totally different units on the same piece of paper, let alone in the same day! 2) Who doesnt label the units whenever they are filling out a field form?

Ridiculous the incompetence of some people.

The moral of my story is, if you are ever writing something down, please include the units.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-01T20:57:00.005-05:00

I know its a little late for this post, but we took our little man trick or treating yesterday and we all actually had a good time. We probably stayed out a little late, and Henry probably ate too many sweets, but it was fun.

The first house we went to, Henry was the last child to get a piece of candy and it was a tiny mini snickers, which he proceeded to devour. We moved on to the fire station where we went through a particularly scary haunted house and he cried a little. There were lots of lines on North Lamar and that wasnt our idea of fun, and lets face it, we didnt want him filling his basket up with candy anyways! Next he ate a packet of fruit jellies and two tootsie rolls. By now, he was a sugar rampant menace. We walked through the square and on to Holli's Sweet Tooth, an old fashion sweet shop where they have the candy in jars that Henry can reach. We got ice creams and about the time that he started trying to dip his hands into the candy bins, we left. We walked back through the square and down the other side of North Lamar when he started to whine rather a lot, so we headed home. It did end with some crying but I think he was coming off his sugar high and getting tired. It was a fun evening though! I tried to tell Danny next year he can take both kids and I could rest at home, but he said that sounded like hard work!

Yes, I know Im cute and I exploit my mother...

A little shell shocked after the scary masked clown, smoke and strobe lights of the fire house haunted house...oh, and I forgot to mention, I got 8 inches cut off my hair Friday afternoon!
Yes, I can fit an entire mini snickers in my mouth at once...

No, its not twins. Thanks. Ive already been asked several times. How to make a woman feel even better about her self, ask her if she is having twins, or even better, simply state that she is huge. Thanks again.

Henry and Papa GQ magazine

2011-10-22T13:24:00.004-05:00

We have had a lovely morning. We got up late, ate a nice breakfast (Crunchy Nut Cornflakes), walked the dogs to the Farmers Market where we socialised with the folks and Henry got a free cookie, for "being cute". Pen-ultimate Farmers Market of 2011, so sad. What will I do on Saturday mornings from now on?! We then walked to the park and met up with some mums and kids we know. We played until we had run out of diapers and we came home!

The GQ pose.

Then just some goofy ones...

Henry and Papa

2011-10-21T22:08:00.001-05:00

How handsome are my boys!!!

A fun afternoon

2011-10-20T20:18:00.003-05:00

The dogs have been really getting on my nerves lately. They are so needy. After a nice long phone call with my mummy this afternoon, I tried to take a nap. After lying comfortably in bed with my eyes closed for a few minutes, Tux decided to come looking for me, but went straight to Henry's room, bashed his way through the door, which loudly hit the wall. This, of course, woke Henry up, just 1.5 hours after he had gone to bed. ugh. No nap for me then. But we had a lovely afternoon, so it made up for no nap, I guess!

We saddled up the circus and walked the dogs to the square. Henry played on the steps of the court house for about an hour. He loves to climb up the steps then run down the ramp. We ate our afternoon snacks, I chased him around, he screamed running around with his hands in the air. Good times! It must have been fun because after we had walked home, he wandered into the play room and played while I prepared dinner, an unheard of anomaly (I usually cook holding him). Annoyingly, I had already made dinner but it enabled me to clean up some dishes to make post-dinner clean up easier. He came back into the kitchen and played with pots and pants while I did other things. Who stole my baby and replaced him with a self-sufficient little man! Thank you! Just kidding, but it was nice to be able to do things without either someone tugging at your shirt or jeans crying, or holding said someone to prevent aforementioned activities. Henry's Uncle J-J came over for dinner with a friend and Henry was a little angel, eating lots of dinner, then some banana, then his cookie and some milk. After a long bath and a demonstration of his roly poly (somersault) capabilities, we retired to bed to read our three new Boynton books.

Henry at a recent gathering in Lana's neighbourhood...

An H update in pictures

2011-10-18T20:16:00.006-05:00

Henry and I do lots of goofy things, that's just the kind of people we are. Tonight we 'eskimo kissed', or rubbed noses. He found it hilarious and we spent about 5 minutes rubbing noses and laughing before bed tonight, until he progressed to biting my nose and laughing!

These havent been 'touched up' as my pictures usually have, by my in house photographer, but I thought Id post them anyway.

Chasing H around the car Thursday night before dinner out with the folks...

Check out that running style!

Ive found the stash of photos now, so more (un-touched up) photos tomorrow...

Feeling better emotionally

2011-10-18T15:36:00.004-05:00

Henry and I had a lovely weekend with our Papa. We cruised on up to the square on our bicycles and I ate a cake from the Bottletree infront of the Courthouse, where Henry just loves to run up and down the ramp. He did get his first nose bleed, though Im surprised we made it this far without one, to be honest. He tripped just the right distance before a step, so that the bridge of his nose caught the step. He was pretty upset for a good few minutes. And since he had a cold the blood was mixing with his snot. Pretty icky. We bought him some new shoes, and this time Danny didnt comment on the price. We played in the front yard of the neighbours house with their 4 little girls (at which time Danny commented to their parents about the price of the shoes!).

Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the Memorial Ride for Kevser Sunday. Henry had been so sick we decided it wasnt a good idea to wake him up at 215pm for me to go. In the eventuality, it was probably a good thing I didnt wake him up because he didnt start chirping Mama until 4pm, so he obviously needed to sleep.

The Braxton Hicks contractions havent come back since the Memorial Service Thursday, so I must have just been sub-consciously worked up about it. Feeling super nauseas now though and have this icky vomit-like taste in my mouth most of the time. ugh, gross.

Went to the ladies luncheon at the Sed lab today with Tasha and it was lovely to see everyone. They were all asking us about our babies and the new house and what not so we had lots to talk about. It was a nice respite in an otherwise grim, grey day of showers and boring mundane tasks at work.

Surprise visit

2011-10-14T20:43:00.006-05:00

Last night, lying in bed, I wondered what the date was as I knew that my sister's birthday was coming up. Having checked the phone, I reaslied her birthday was today, thank goodness I thought of it last night. Dont worry, I sent presents and a card weeks ago. But it occurred to me that I had a doctors visit on her birthday. Whooa, that came out of no where. Time is seriously flying at the moment. So this morning I didnt get to eat or drink anything and had to take the silly glucose test, which this time I passed, thankfully; didnt want to do the 3 hour one. But that threw our Friday for a loop. Henry gets very very upset when anyone does anything medical to me. When he saw the blood pressure cuff he started screaming and didnt stop until the nurse took it off my arm. He cried when she pricked my finger and sat on my lap sobbing when the doctor listened to the baby's heart beat. I didnt gain any weight this past 2 weeks, blood pressure was 124/70 and the babys heart beat around 140. Told him about my nightly cramps and he didnt seem too bothered, so all is well with the bump. Next visit is with the midwives Nov 9th.

Anyone have any strong views on the Rhogam shot? I had it at 28 weeks with Henry but had decided I wasnt going to have it this time until after the baby was born if in fact, the baby had rhesus positive blood. But I think Dr. Henderson talked me into getting it so I wondered if anyone had any strong feelings on it. The only (major) negative argument seems to be that the shot is comprised of pooled blood serum and there are things in blood serum which cannot yet be screened for such as BSE (mad cow) so I risk infecting myself with these un-screenable diseases. If you dont have the shot and your baby is, in my case, rhesus positive, and blood is transfered between you, future pregnancies will result in mis-carriage as you will have developed an immune system to the foetal cells. I would like another child I think. So anyways, I think I talked myself back into getting the 28 week shot as well as the post-birth shot, unless anyone has any strong views on the subject to sway me otherwise?

I didnt want to, but we went to the grocery store after that. I wasnt desperate for food but didnt want to go over the weekend and then have work Monday. Got an exciting menu for next week though, so thats good. Vegetable lasagne, baked potato, Jambalaya, stuffed peppers, broccoli cheese soup! Been off of food in general lately so its good to actually want to cook, because then I will eat!

To cheer myself up we went to The Barn, a new garden nursery in town. People didnt really seem to want to help me chose plants at first, but they became more helpful. Henry had a blast playing with the gravel and crawling through little gaps in the bushes to find me. Might go back this weekend and buy some stuff. Perennials were on sale and I do love tall phlox. Maybe some Jasmine for our beautiful new arbor.

Following lunch, H took a 3 hour nap, such a contrast to yesterday! So I pulled ivy for an hour and half then napped an hour and a half! After some brief acorn organisation, which we must spend at least some time on each day (though I may need to find Henry a new acorn collection bucket as the raisin tub seems almost full), we walked to Lila's birthday party. A little late for a 1 year olds birthday party in my opinion (6-8pm), but I guess they schedule themselves differently! Most of the kids were tired and every little bump or stolen cracker brought a few seconds of wailing, but it was fun to get out. We read books on Mummy and Daddy's bed after we walked home, as we do every night. Henry had a great time sticking his fingers in the little holes that the Very Hungry Caterpillar had chomped through, and we read Pooh's Bees one and a half times. Now that he is sleeping Im going to do some tidying up and take myself off to bed as soon as is physically possible. Pretty tired.

No cramps today, so I must have just been worked up yesterday. It always stresses me out no end when H doesnt nap, because I know how much he needs to.

I must have sounded pretty bad yesterday as you all sent me such lovely emails. Thank you so much for your kind thoughts. Im ok. I think honestly, Im a little lonely. And I think of Yavuz and wonder how on earth he can go on after this, how lonely he must feel. A huge portion of the people I love live so far away, be it Nashville, Florida, Maine, Arkansas or England and Danny is always so busy trying to look after us so well, that we dont see him as much as we would like. Im sure, more than anything, Im just pregnant and hormonal, and its been a hard week. I also need a reality check. For some reason it still doesnt seem to register with me that Im pregnant. I have a big fat belly that wiggles and flips all of the time, but still I think I can do whatever I want and am invincible. It occurred to me today that I will be in the third trimester in November. Thats really pregnant. I need to buck my ideas up I think, and learn how to take it easy. How do you learn something so unnatural to yourself!?

We should get to spend lots of time with our Papa tomorrow. Maybe we can take some fun pictures of H for me to post next week, I know you miss seeing him! He is so adorable too. Tonight he wore brown corduroys and a check blue shirt to the party and looked like a cute little man! Oh and the most adorable thing ever is that he is getting a swath of thick black hair on his legs, not a baby anymore! What the heck am I going to be like when he starts potty training or even worse, shaving?!

Started out well

2011-10-13T21:29:00.002-05:00

Our Thursday started out well, as they usually do, but unlike usual, it went quickly down hill after lunch.

It was raining when I woke up this morning so instead of walking the dogs as planned, I laid in bed, which was nice and probably good for me. We had breakfast with our Papa and drove to baby gymnastics as the roads still seemed wet, but again, it was probably good because I have been pretty exhausted lately and am wondering if cycling is on its way out the door for me. Baby gymnastics was fun, as usual, and the Chai Tea that followed with Jill, Lana and their respective kids was incredibly fun and relaxing, as usual. I just feel like everything flows out of me. We dont talk about much, sometimes we just have to fuss over our children, but it takes me to a relaxing place that nothing else seems to. We then walked over to the Pumpkin Patch at St. Peters church with Jill and Collier and played in the pumpkins for a while.

After lunch, I tried to get Henry to nap a little earlier than usual because we had to be at the Chapel for 4pm. You guessed it, he wouldnt nap. I gave him some Tylenol as it seems that unlike all of his other teeth, which caused him no problems at all, the canines are proving problematic. He still didnt sleep. I left him talking to himself for 1.5 hours before giving up. I plopped him in the stroller and off we walked. Now consider that I have been having a pretty rough time with my tummy lately, I think its Braxton Hicks. So walking with Henry trying to get him to sleep was making the stomach cramps worse until I had worked myself up into a worried frenzy and still H was not asleep. So we stopped at Holli's for a scoop of butter pecan ice cream and some chocolate covered animal crackers and we walked on. Eventually at around 340 he fell asleep and my cramps continued. Jonathan was kind enough to walk him around asleep while I went to the Memorial Service for Kevser. Sitting down and drinking water made the cramps go away and the baby woke up and started kicking, so all is well with the bump again.

The Memorial Service was bearable, right until Yavuz thanked everyone for being there and said that she had taken a part of him away, but that it was ok, because she had left a part of herself with him. At this my tears flowed.

Im tired. H isnt feeling good and Im sure will wake up screaming in pain again like he did last night and we will have to hold him for an hour or so until he feels well enough to go back to sleep. And exhausted, I shall wake up tomorrow and do it all again.

Does anyone have any good news for me? Its not like me to feel like this, so Im not quite sure how to get these blues to go away, but they need to because being sad is tiring and its just not me.

Such a Dangerous Hobby

2011-10-11T20:19:00.004-05:00

A dear dear friend of ours was killed Friday riding her bicycle back from the lake. Her husband is like a brother to us, particularly to Danny.

There is little information about the driver or the circumstances under which she was hit, which no one can seem to understand as it is a straight, open road on which you can see for miles. We presume the driver was negligent, however the police have yet to provide a report.

There is a Memorial Service at the Chapel on Campus for those that wish to pay their respects. Thursday, 4pm.

Via some influential people making some influential calls, they have been able to get the paperwork expedited and are able to leave to take her home to Turkey before the weekend.

If you cant make the Memorial Service and would still like to honor Kevser, there is a community ride Sunday from the Square to the location of the accident, leaving at 4pm. Henry and I will be participating so please join us. There is also a fund to help re-patriate her if you wish to help in some small way. Please contact me personally for details.

I have been asked if I am now scared to ride my bike and I am not. However I am scared to drive my car. I am frequently tired driving, especially after work (we arent talking late here - I leave work at 430pm) and worry about it every day now - what if I dont see someone on the road. All I can do is pay close attention I suppose and make sure I dont use my telephone or get distracted by Henry in the back or anything like that. The guy driving that truck had to have been looking away from the road for a good 2-3 miles to not see her cycling, and on a 55mph road - though I doubt that's all he was doing - that's a good length of time to not be looking at the road.

You will be very much missed, Kevser, for your vibrant and happy demeanor and the way that you would light up a room with your smile.

Kevser and Henry the day after he was born.

Kevser, Yavuz and Lara at the airshow

My idea of relaxation!

2011-09-25T22:17:00.008-05:00

Its 1030pm, Sunday night and I just finished cleaning up after over two hours of cooking! It seemed to work out well because Danny watched football the entire time, so this might be my new Sunday night! I cooked myself a spicy lentil stew (full of wonderful folates, great for growing babies!) and I put together almost 20 Cornish Pasties, the pastry for which I had made earlier in the week. Kept 4 out for tomorrow nights dinner and have an undocumented number in the freezer! So exciting! I love having homemade stuff in the freezer because it seems like you can put together an effortless homemade meal in the future! I feel refreshed having done something fun, yet productive, whilst dancing to Beatles Radio on Pandora.com. Only downside is, my feet are particularly sore.

These photos are several weeks old because Henry no longer walks with this toy, but they are no less cute, so enjoy!

Out for a stroll...

Plush

2011-09-23T19:48:00.006-05:00

We are always unpacking new stuff in this house full of boxes. The other day I was doing the dishes after dinner whilst Danny gave Henry a bath. Then I hear Danny say, "go show Momma" and as I look up Henry proudly saunters into the room with his very plush John Lewis bath robe on. He was so proud of himself! He loves to wear it every night after his bath, but at the rate he pees, thats more laundry for Mummy, we need seven robes, one for each night of the week!

What an evening

2011-09-22T20:37:00.002-05:00

I realise its probably bad form to make two posts in one day, but I have to tell you about my evening...

We went and ate pizza at Soul Shine pizza with Lana, Steve (Lana's husband), Knox and Lana's friend and her baby girl, Lila. Henry was an angel, he not only behaved really well, but he ate all of the snacks I took for him (a cooked carrot, a cream cheese sandwich, raisins and fresh pineapple) and then he ate a ton of vegetable pizza (so he ate artichoke hearts, broccoli and black olives also). We then went over to Holli's Sweet Tooth where they sell mini children's ice cream portions on a mini wafer cone - adorable. Henry had vanilla and I had triple caramel, delicious, though I fed most of Henrys ice cream to Knox. I also got pick and mix chocolate covered stuff (the chocolate covered animal crackers were the best). The reason this is odd is that I dont care for chocolate and I dont really eat candy (which, if you believe in cravings, suggests that our new baby is a girl, but whatever). What makes the evening so interesting is that I cycled to the square and it was now dark. erm. Yes, dark. So Henry and Knox are up way past their latest ever bedtimes and I am on the square with a trailer. I did have one flashy rear light, but dont worry, we didnt cycle home. Lana offered to follows us home, but dont worry, that didnt seem safe enough either. So we called our husbands who were off drinking beer and threw the bike and trailer in the back of Steve's truck. Fingers crossed it doesnt get stolen. It is a Thursday night. Anyway, the evening gets better, I couldnt find my house keys. So we drove over to the bar where we knew they had met and I ran in with Henry (I heard, "hey theres a baby in the house" - oh dear). Its still only 8pm mind you, not super late, but super late for our kiddos who are usually sound asleep by 730pm. Anyways, Danny was not there. erm. So I call to find out where they are and they are at a different bar across town, so with H under the seatbelt with me, squishing my other baby we go to the other bar, but there were lots of police out - remember, its a Thursday night. So I had to stand him on the floor boards, but he was super happy because he found one of Knox' snack cups and played with the radio buttons. We eventually got the keys from Danny and made it away from the square without getting stopped by the police even though a line of four policemen on horse back walked past my side of the car while we were at a traffic light! Never a dull moment!

When we got home Henry had wet through his diaper and was more tired than I may ever have seen him. We were on our sixth poo poo of the day also. So I quickly bundled him into his clean disposable diaper, buttoned up his clean white pyjamas and tried to comfort him, but all that boy wanted was his bed. So I laid him in his bed, but you have to understand I can no longer lean over enough to lay him down so I have to sort of set him sitting up right and let him lay down. I rubbed his tummy and told him how much I loved him and what a good boy he was and he rubbed his eyes, closed them and I dashed out of the room. He may have even been asleep before I had shut the door.

What amazes me is if he was that ridiculously tired, why was he such a well behaved little boy. Though dont get me wrong, Im not complaining. I had a wonderful, wonderful evening out and I am pretty sure H did too. He ate well and I didnt have to cook or clean! And I picked up some chocolate, which unfortunately is in my trailer in the back of Steve's truck still but I have high hopes that it will make it here, fingers crossed!

Oh, and Danny got dropped off at the square but had his sun glasses on so is now out on the town without any glasses (we wear prescription sunglasses)!

We are a right pair, eh! I attribute my very unusual recent brain farts to pregnancy, but whats Danny's excuse!

Im going to make some banana nut muffins for our play dates tomorrow, of which we have a ton, and then Im going to lie in bed and read my book. What a lovely day.

I LOVE THURSDAYS!

The Memphis Airshow last Saturday

2011-09-22T14:52:00.005-05:00

Future heart breaker...

I probably forgot to tell you, but H is officially walking now, and getting up on his own from a seated position. Even remaining standing when obnoxiously 'kissed' by Tux (our 110lb dog).

He really didnt like the sound of the jets and ran to me screaming every time they flew over. We couldnt get him to wear the headphones or ear plugs we had brought for him. But he liked watching the quiet planes and when they were far enough away that the noise didnt bother him.

Here you see that he did not want to put his sandwich box down! Cream cheese sandwiches sure are hard to come by, someone might steal it!

Yes, I realise he needs a haircut. Depending on what time he gets up, we might go this afternoon...

Goofy kid

2011-09-21T22:17:00.003-05:00

It was an ugly day for me, so I thought Id post some funny pictures.

Having recently consented to giving up cycling for exercise (several dogs ran out to 'greet' me on my last ride because of the cooler weather), but still wanting to enjoy my hour alone three days a week, I turned to jogging today. Im going to clarify that I said, JOGGING (not running). It was a lovely jog in the mid-day sun with bright blue, almost autumnal skies, but not quite, since it was still over 80F! Then I tripped, on nothing at all. Nothing at all. Thankfully, wearing sunglasses, I was able to cry the next 5 minutes down the road without anybody noticing. Well that is, unless they looked at the blood pouring out of both of my knees and my hand, thankfully the left hand. I did complete the rest of my 50 minute jog, having stopped crying (reasonably) quickly. So now, with a swollen twisted ankle, a gash out of my left thumb (which is going to be a bi-tch to heal because of its location - cant even tie my own hair up), a huge divot out of my right knee, a graze on my left knee and a serious feeling of self-pity, I wonder what the next 20 weeks has in store for me if I cant get outside and exercise... its going to be a grim winter. Id take being huge through the summer with the outdoor pool right there at my finger tips over a winter of feeling like a beached whale, most likely in her husbands clothes with no physical activity except workout dvds, any day. I love being pregnant, but I HATE not being able to exercise, and Im not an overly nice person to live with without exercise, so please all of you, pity my wonderful husband. It cant be time to be stuck with walking already, not with as much energy as I have and not with this beautiful weather.

Back tracking

2011-09-19T19:55:00.004-05:00

Im going to try and amuse my mummy with photos while she is home sick, so you are going to see some older photos coming your way.

I dont remember when this is from, but as you can see, Im already pregnant, so its been in the past few months...

Our hard hat zone...

I LOVE THURSDAYS!!!

2011-09-15T15:08:00.002-05:00

Thursdays are my new favourite day of the week!

I got a lie in until 650am this morning, walked the dogs without the stroller and generally had a nice time waking up. Must have been growing a lot yesterday because today no rib cage or hip pains! Fantastic! We got to have breakfast with Papa then we cycled to the rec center for baby gymnastics. On to the coffee shop where we had tea and the kids played in the foyer between the shops. The boys were out voted this time as there were three little girls to play with! We wandered around the square as we had to buy a birthday present for Sophia, then lunch with Papa and nap time for H, while I played in the yard. Unfortunately they canceled my hair cut so I am still straggly! We have to hit up the post office and the grocery store this afternoon so we will be busy! Danny and I decided to forgo the posh dinner out and get something quick to make it to the 7pm movie. Im not thrilled that we are going to see an action thriller type movie but it seems thats our only option because Im not going to a horror movie. I think this will really make Danny happy, we havent been to see a movie since H was born.

Speaking of, I hear my little man waking up now!

Maternity clothes

2011-09-14T21:32:00.002-05:00

I just unpacked my maternity clothes from last time... so excited to wear some of those tee-shirts again, but a little surprised I am using them again so soon after last time! I sure hope its not a cold winter like the last one as I dont intend to spend lots of money on sweaters and have just two pairs of maternity jeans, one of which I may have purchase too small. Its so warm and beautiful out, Im really having trouble imagining that I will need sweaters anytime soon... Can I make through the entire winter...

Not much going on

2011-09-14T19:21:00.002-05:00

We have made some good progress on the house lately. And by we, I mean Danny, of course. Though I, in turn, have played my part. On Saturday I took Henry to Memphis to Target and Costco so that we were not in the way. Spent $500 for the privilege, oh dear. Got some much needed essentials though such as long sleeved maternity shirts and some track pants for H. Its not chilly here yet, but I think it may start to cool of here soon. When we got back, Danny had unpacked tons of boxes (even though I was told I wasnt allowed!) and things were getting more organised.

We do, in fact, have the correct windows, they just hadnt sent us all of the parts. We now have the internal grids and Danny is making his way round the windows installing them. I have even ordered some beautiful fabric so that I can attempt to make Roman Blinds for our bedroom.

We realised that we gave the painters the wrong colour paint for the kids bedrooms, so I am getting stern looks when I ask if we can have them repainted the correct colour. They are peach. Its great in our room where I wanted it peach and plan on accenting with peach and having crisp white bed sheets. But in the kids rooms I was going to do red or navy blinds and have colourful decals on the walls, which were supposed to be a neutral cream. So either Ill get them painted when he is out of town one week or I will wait and he can do it in December, when he potentially has some time. yeah right. Believe that when I see it.

Closet and dining room doors arrived and were completely the wrong doors, so they got sent back. Ridiculous. I loathe Lowes.

Its shaping up to be a very busy end of the week, after my three days of work, which of course wore me out to no end. Tomorrow we have baby gymnastics, tea with a thousand little ones at the coffee shop where I will be naughty and have my weekly dose of caffeine. I dont want the caffeine, I would actually prefer to be caffeine free pregnant or not, but I just LOVE Chai tea with lots of foamy milk! Then I have my hair cut at noon and Danny and I are going out to celebrate our 6th year wedding anniversary tomorrow night (which is actually Saturday). Its going to be a big deal for me because we are leaving H with a new babysitter, and not only that, but she is going to put him to bed! I am the only person that has ever put him to bed at night, Danny has done a few nights here or there if I was tired, but all me other than that, so we shall see how that goes, for the both of us. Mind you, I left for work this morning before he got up and managed to get through my day, so I should be fine. Im a little worried about Brittany though! At least I will feel like she is earning her $10 an hour!

Friday we have our monthly check up and we get to see the baby on an ultrasound. We can find out the gender if we want, but we are going to find out when it is born. So exciting! I am a little anxious about the doctors visit though because we have to tell Dr. Henderson that we are planning a home birth, but that we would still like him to be our doctor in case of emergency, we shall see how he takes it. I am actually feeling pregnant these days; only 19 weeks! Almost half way and finally I feel pregnant. My belly is huge! Oh, that was the funny thing about Saturday. I havent seen myself naked since we went to Puerto Rico a few months ago as we only have one small mirror in the bathroom above the sink here. So I can see the nasty eczema spreading painfully across my face, but I hadnt seen my belly at all! Trying on clothes at the weekend in the fully mirrored changing room at Target really let me see just how big I was! Definitely pregnant! I dont often complain about anything pregnancy related but Im going to now: today my hips hurt. They really ache. And I am tired of waking up and my rib cage hurting. I know it has to expand but seriously, does it have to ache this much. And the sore, bleeding gums, so over that. Danny finally suggested that I stop cycling for exercise today, though it was my fault really as I told him some idiot almost side-swiped me and three dogs almost got under my wheels (which would make me flip). I may have almost consented to only cycling for transportation, not exercise. Hope those new running shoes fit me well!

Saturday we are going to the Memphis air show and Danny is very excited about it. Should be good fun! Hope H is in a good frame of mind.

We have recently discovered that our little man loves sausages, which is good because I have a hard time getting him to eat meat sometimes. He can walk just fine without help but he only does it when he feels like it. Most of the time he demands to hold your hand or even worse, he pulls on my skirts burying his face into my legs until I pick him up. Lazy-bones.

Got a thousand and one things to do tonight, so why am I still on the internet...

New Job News

2011-09-07T21:17:00.003-05:00

My first two days at work for Cardno Entrix have been great. It was a little slow Tuesday morning but our boss came in Tuesday afternoon and we visited our new office, which has a balcony overlooking the square. The afternoon sun was warm and welcoming.

Dinner Tuesday was great fun. Much to my surprise and excitement, Danny suggested walking to dinner. We had a babysitter and left the just after bed time for H. We ate at Boure with the whole group and our new boss. The mood was light and jovial and we shared three delicious desserts at the end! Danny and I had a lovely stroll home! This wife is so easy to please!

With our boss here today, work was a bit more on the go, but equally good. We convened at my house because the office isnt ready and the coffee shop was super busy. Danny brought us sandwiches for lunch and I ran some work errands around town on my bike in the afternoon. I look pretty funny now with this big old belly hanging down over my legs when Im riding. Definitely looking pregnant these days!

Glad of my day with Henry tomorrow. We have gymnastics first thing in the morning, then a brunch date with Knox and Lana, some play time Im sure, lunch with Papa, nap time, more play time, dinner, bath and bed! The life of a 14 month old is ever busy!

After the exciting week of walking last week, Henry now refuses to walk without holding at least one of our hands. He is getting two new teeth on the bottom jaw and has rather a varried volcabulary. He says; bath, baby, diaper, water, Maa (milk) not to mention Mama, Mummy and Papa, and Im sure there are some words in there I have forgotten. My little baby is growing up!

Turned out to be a nice day

2011-09-06T08:59:00.004-05:00

When Henry was being fussy at 730am yesterday morning and it was STILL raining, I was a little worried about the rest of the day, and the sanity of the five of us (dogs were a little stir crazy with the weather too), but it actually turned out to be a lovely day on Bramlett Boulevard.

Henry and I took the dogs to the park in the light rain because I knew other wise they wouldnt go outside. We played a little in the house and he and Danny played outside in the puddles again, though it was cold this time and I had to warm his little feet up when he came in. He did look cute in his little yellow rain jacket though! When he is walking I might get him some wellies (rubber boots) so we can go splashing around. Dragging him away from the door where he sat banging to go outside was a little hard, but he got over it.

Danny got the wardrobes outfitted with our new organisation systems and we actually moved into our bedroom! Slept in it last night! Its very pretty, light and airy. I will get some new bedsheets for a fresh start and we never had any bedroom furniture at the other house, so Ill need to go buy some bedside tables and maybe a little chez longe or a couch or something. The only bummer with sleeping there is that its close enough to Henrys room that I hear EVERY little move or noise he makes, the perils of being the mummy I guess, and a light sleeper to boot. He must have been having a nice dream around 5am because he had a little giggle to himself. So cute.

The new baby was being feisty yesterday, so much so that Danny could feel it doing summersaults in my tummy!

Danny had the great idea to go out to lunch, just to get out of the house, so we had fantastic Newk's salads and generally enjoyed each others company for a change.

In the afternoon the sun came out and Henry and I cruised up and down the sidewalk with his walker. Got some cute pictures but I have to wait for Danny to download his camera, maybe later.

First day at work today...

Rain, rain and more rain

2011-09-04T19:22:00.003-05:00

I know we needed some rain, but seriously! This much! Henry woke up at 640 this morning and I managed to make him wait til 655am before going to get him. Bundled him into the stroller, much to his disgust, got the dogs all psyched for a walk and when we got outside around 710am it was already sprinkling. Then the rain came, and continued to come, and got worse! Around 4pm it was light enough that the dogs went to the bathroom for the first time, but then it started raining heavily again. So much rain!

We skyped every English-man you can imagine. Baked fresh bagels and then proceeded to eat about 4 each for lunch! Ok, Henry ate just a half a one like usual, but Danny and I pigged out! DInner was no less of a pig out. We attempt to re-create a British favourite; Bangers and Mash. No, not chopped up drug dealers, bangers are sausages and the reason we never have it is because we cant find delicious sausages here in town. They sell some nice ones at Whole Foods in Memphis, but thats a heck of a long way to go for a banger. I bought some pork and garlic sausages (thats what they were called) at the only butchers in town, L Bs Meat Market. It is chorizo. The meal was still really nice but not what we were exactly looking for. Mash was delicious though (I use sour cream with butter, instead of milk), Carrots and green beans were yummy and the onion gravy, well, what more do you need to say. Henry only ate half of two baby carrots. His loss. What kind of a kid doesnt like mash potato!?

The best part of the day was when Danny and Henry splashed in the puddles in the rain! Twice! Henry had a great time and they came in just intime before another serious down pour. It was pretty hard to explain to Henry why we couldn't play outside and at one point this morning he just stood at the back door looking out for about 15 minutes. Poor little fellow.

Maybe the rain will stop tomorrow and maybe Ill get to go out on my bike as I had planned today. Then the sleepy bliss ends Tuesday when I start my new job. Not overly excited, rather enjoyed playing with my baby for two weeks. OH and on the new baby front, we think its a boy now. We looked at pictures from being pregnant with Henry and my belly is exactly the same, all below the belly button, or Bee Bo and Henry likes to call it (we have a Bee Bo book).

Never the same thing twice

2011-09-03T21:08:00.005-05:00

The funny thing about babies, is that they are so different from day to day. Yesterday H and I played with the same little rolling cow and pig for one and a half hours on the front porch, a minor miracle. This morning we played sidewalk chalk on the drive way for probably the same length of time. Then this afternoon it was like he was on Speed, or what I imagine being on Speed is like. To say that he didnt play in one place for more than 5 seconds at a time, is probably understating his mood this afternoon. As soon as I had made it up and over to the new location, he was gone, playing with something on the other side of the room.

I was dreading dinner time tonight... he hadnt eaten for the past two nights and last night he had an all out meltdown when I tried to put him in his highchair. Usually he is standing at the highchair, banging on it to be fed his dinner. But this evening to my surprise, and a huge amount of relief, he ate his pesto spaghetti and even ate some salmon, which shocked the beegeebees out of me. So he got a cookie for being a good boy! I never said I was above bribery.

Got a little more ivy cleaned today, though at 1.5 hours a day on my days off, its not going to get cleared very quickly.

My baby bump has grown exponentially this week and the little blighter kicks me every so often, either that or its more wind. It doesnt seem to like cold water! A similar size growth on my foot (ok, a slight exaggeration, but it was about 1.5 inches long) led me to order some new running shoes as I managed to get up two mornings in a row at 6am and go jogging before Danny left for work. Now Im resting I guess, until my blister heals and my new shoes get here. Hoping to ride out tomorrow but it looks like rain, so we shall see. I need to do something on my own after today... I sort of lost it just before lunch. Henry was awful. The odd thing was, after half a grilled cheese and some tomato soup he was his chirpy playful self again, so Im just surprised he didnt tell me he was hungry but just cried and demanded to be held and then cried at that too.

I had hoped to have a box of tomatoes to can during the rainy weekend but they didnt have any boxes at the famers market, believe it or not. So I payed for my tomatoes and will collect them wednesday, which means I have to can thursday, which is less than ideal. Going to make a cake instead, since Alison gave me some pears and Im not at all sure what to do with them other than make a cake. I think Danny wanted some bagels too, but we shall see.

Off to bed after another ridiculously tiring day. Im not preparing for a new born very well by being constantly exhausted with just one baby!

Poor Henry!

2011-09-01T13:20:00.003-05:00

Poor Henry indeed! I have already enrolled his cute little butt in Fun n Fit Gymnastics starting next week! Its bloody expensive, so I hope he likes it! I thought he would not only enjoy climbing on a bunch of gym equipment but playing with other little 12-18 month olds is good for him Im sure! Tried to look up swimming lessons but the fall schedule isnt listed yet. Ill have that boy all scheduled up before he knows it!

Back to work next week. ugh.

Getting there

2011-08-31T19:20:00.004-05:00

Henry and I had a fantastic afternoon together; playing on the bed, Mummy the jungle gym, one-sided pillow fights (I just bash him in the head with a pillow and he laughs his head off!), walking behind the walker thingy, lids in the kitchen, stacking blocks, but he tried something new and loved it. Danny didnt believe me at all but then the evening game became, climb off the bed, crawl to the sofa, walk from the sofa to the bed, climb on the bed, across Papa, off the bed and start all over again...

Walking on my own... from Danny Klimetz on Vimeo.

Unusual night

2011-08-30T15:31:00.003-05:00

We had a most interesting night yesterday. Totally unusual for us.

Henry wouldn't go to sleep. I had even etched out some time to myself to do my new prenatal work out dvd and 15 minutes into it the screaming was just too much so I went in to get my little man. Every time I put him back into his bed almost asleep, he would sit up screaming again. We tried a cup of milk, we tried some yoghurt incase he was hungry, then eventually we resorted to Tylenol and Mummy leave the room. Papa sat with him a while then left too and he eventually went to sleep around 9pm. I got in an hour or two of sleep before he woke up screaming again at 130am. We wondered if maybe it was the paint smell in his room so we took him to our bed but he just wanted to play. We tried tummy medicine then eventually around 4am resorted to more Tylenol, switched off the fan and he was asleep by about 430am. We wrote to the Midwife to cancel our appointment but much to our surprise, our little man was bright and chirpy at 7am again. Papa wasn't! It wasn't really that much less sleep than I sometimes get at night so I was fine. Henry was full of beans and having a great time in his diaper playing in the cool morning, throwing leaves on himself. No extra moodiness and no extra nap. We went to the grocery store then to lunch with Lana and Knox, then it took me 40 minutes to get him to sleep on my bed, where we slept for just under 2 hours, but he was still tired when he woke up. We rode to the trails and went jogging with Knox and Lana but H wasn't a happy bunny really. He must have had an upset stomach because all but one nappy change today was a gnarly poo poo, I wonder if this means more molars are on their way through. I suspect there is a little separation anxiety mixed in because he screamed bloody murder when I put him down to bed again tonight, but it only lasted 10 minutes or so. I knew he was tired because he threw a fit when I put his pajamas on.

Its nights like last night that make you thankful for a good sleeper! Our usual 12 hour sleeper really threw us for a loop.

Now I have to tidy up because we didn't do any yesterday, since we spent the whole evening holding Henry.

We were thankfully able to get another appointment with the Midwife tomorrow morning, which also happens to be Danny's sister's 16th Birthday, so I guess it all worked out because maybe we can take her out for lunch tomorrow.

Here's to wishing for a night of no baby screaming...

We continue to battle dinner times and unfortunately have had to resort to ketchup on chicken and shove it in his mouth before he will eat it. When will these battles ever end! Im not making pasta every night of my life for the next 18 years.

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa!

2011-08-29T19:22:00.001-05:00

You must be pretty old Great Grandpa since you have tons of grand kids, and as but a small one, I wish you a happy birthday!

First time for everything...

2011-08-28T19:29:00.005-05:00

Tonight is the first night that we are trying the go to bed hungry thing. Henry didnt eat much of his dinner tonight and we didnt offer him a second option. We shall see what happens at 3am.

He does have another tooth, so thats what last weeks upset tummy must have been about. A molar on the bottom left jaw. He just has the middle two and the one molar at the back, nothing in between! Goodness knows how many other teeth he has in there, Im scared to stick my fingers in because he chomps down!

We had a fun day today. H played in a metal tub full of water. After nap time we went to the pool and then for ice cream. I went riding to the lake all on my own! Totally embarrassed myself as I was leaving the house though. The neighbours were sitting on their stoop so I went to tell them we were going to the pool later if they wanted to come. My new clips are stiffer than the old ones and I couldnt unclip my foot and ended up laying on my side under my bike in their front yard! I blamed it on pregnancy balance issues but really Im a dumb arse! At 16.5 weeks I have already gained 15 lbs, can you imagine if I didnt do as much exercise as I already do!

You never knew we had a private jacuzzi did you!

Busy week ahead. Lots of good bye events at the lab tomorrow, visiting with a midwife in Memphis Tuesday as we are considering a home birth, and still the painters will be here so no afternoon napping in his room. Going to be another tiring week! Oh and did I say my rib cage was hurting, sorry I meant my entire torso aches every morning and Im not sleeping. When I do sleep I have horrid horrid pregnancy nightmares. Will I ever get some rest!? NOPE

New kicks

2011-08-27T19:07:00.005-05:00

I dont know why I ever worry about my son's eating habits. He had some gnarly diapers friday and then he ate like a champ. I need to just realise that he will eat if he is feeling ok. Unfortunately the most gnarly of them all was sitting outside the library and it came out of the diaper onto the very white onesie and all over the overalls too. Thankfully mummy had a bag for the ickiness and a spare onesie in the stroller.

So story time at the library wasn't overly successful for us and it turns out we didn't even make it to story time, we were at toddler time. Henry just kept taking other children's shoes. The little girls would kick him demanding their shoes back and sometimes he even wanted little girls who had taken their shoes off, to put them back on. So despite the fact that he doesnt need any shoes as he isn't walking, and the fact that he wont wear the sandals he has, we went straight to Neilson's to buy H some new Kicks. We debated the Toms but the soles were a little hard and they are supposed to learn to walk barefoot, so we went with the Pedipeds - hand made with leather soles so its almost like not wearing shoes at all. Henry absolutely loves them and wants to wear them all of the time! Which is great because they cost a small fortune. Papa loved them when he got home too, then I told him they were $35.50 before tax and he about had a heart attack. The thing is, kids feet are important and at the rate H grows, he will be wearing these shoes at least until he needs to start wearing socks around October time. Pediped also had some 18-24 months sheep skin lined moccasins for the fall, so Mummy is already eyeing those up! He loves his new shoes and the good thing is, I dont feel guilty letting him play on the dirty pavements on the square or out and about.

Henry and his new shoes:

We had another fantastic day today. I just love being Henry's Mummy, we have so much fun! He woke up at the usual time, 645am on the dot; Mama, Mama! My rib cage has been aching first thing in the morning so usually at this calling of my name I sit up instantly and just sit there a few minutes, let the aching go away. We had an early breakfast today then walked the dogs. Knox and Lana came over and we walked to the farmers market where they had sweet potatoes for the first time. Pretty exciting as Papa loves sweet potatoes. Because they were dug this week, you are supposed to not use them for 2-3 weeks so I had to inform Danny we couldnt have them this week. Zion Farms also had ground lamb which will be a nice treat this week; we talked about ordering half a cow from him too. Its pricey but I wont buy meat from the supermarket so you get what you pay for in my opinion. We then walked over to Square Books Junior for story time where the little guys played with a thousand other little guys! After a nice stroll home Henry had fun walking behind his walker thingy and playing on the couches, which were returned to us a littler earlier than we needed them, but at least Danny didnt have to go get them. We had leant them to Ibrahim who had some folks staying in his unfurnished house. It worked out for us because we dont have room for them right now, but they gave them back today, so we are little cramped in our living room/bedroom.

Speaking of, the bedrooms are coming along nicely. Its taking a whole lot longer than we expected but you cant rush beauty I suppose. Its actually been really hard for me because Henry hasn't been able to sleep in his bedroom during the day. The first day we cycled for two hours and he slept 40 minutes. The second day we walked for 2 hours and he slept 35 minutes, so exhausted, the third day I tried getting him so sleep on my bed. It took me about 40 minutes but then he (and I) slept 3.5 hours, so it was blissful rest! Friday was eventful for us because we looked after Knox and Jayden came over to visit, so we had a full house and H didnt take his nap (usually at 1pm) until 330pm! Little trooper. And we had to wake him up at 515pm to go get some dinner - the new baby wanted a cheese burger! So today Mummy was exhausted! It was so nice to put H in his bed for his nap rather than struggle to get him to sleep on my bed and then have to lie there with him so he didnt fall off the bed. Mind you, I was so tired I ended up collapsing into bed too, and I slept HARD! We played a little while then went across the street to visit with our neighbours and Henry played with the side walk chalk with Darden (3 yrs old). After some delicious home made tomato soup and grilled cheeses (with bread from Lana) and a nice bath, we did some walking and bouncing on the bed like we do every evening and H is now soundly asleep in bed. For some reason I am still exhausted so Im going to clean up after the day of destruction, sweep, mop and settle down to some ironing. Danny has a wedding in Clarksdale and probably wont be home til after midnight - that man works so stinking hard! Trooper!

Henry and Knox giving Mummy a hard time!

Oh and it seems at 16.5 weeks pregnant I have reached the stage where I no longer look like I have a (very fashionable) muffin top; two women asked me when I was due today, so hooray! I look pregnant and I guess with all this tiredness today, I feel it too, though its probably about time!

Whatever can I do!?

2011-08-25T19:49:00.003-05:00

Henry has entered an "I wont eat anything you give me unless its a raisin, grape, cheese or cracker" phase and I am at a serious loss. For dinner all we can get him to eat is pasta, and tonight he wouldnt even eat that. He ate 7 strawberries and some yoghurt, then picked the raisins out of the chicken korma and ate those. He has stopped eating peas which he used to eat when all else failed. He has stopped eating cream cheese bagels which were our fail safe lunch. He did manage to eat a banana today and some peanut butter from a spoon, but would not eat it on toast.

What can I do!?

Nearly there!

2011-08-24T21:34:00.003-05:00

Tonight H was running around the house behind his walker, as he loves to do in the evenings (only the evenings mind you, he wont play with it at any other time of the day!), when he stopped, let go, turned around and walked off! 6 steps later he face planted, but then he got back up, grabbed the walker and took off again.

Ice cream!

2011-08-23T19:50:00.003-05:00

We celebrated the only way we know how, with ice cream. Yep, you guessed it, will finally received a big fat cheque for our old house!!! Hooray, I hear you cry! I KNOW! At last!

Please excuse the finger in the photo, its just an iphone.

Productive 100 minutes

2011-08-20T12:49:00.003-05:00

In my time alone I used the toilet in peace and quiet with no one sitting on my lap or yelling my name.

I shaved and bathed my filthy over grown dogs.

I took a shower, since I was covered in dog hair.

When they got home H had fallen asleep in the car so was waking up when Danny bumped his head after changing his nappy. Though Im not much better, when strapping him into his high chair I pinched some soft belly skin between the buckle parts. Great parents we are. Poor little fellow. But nonetheless he ate his spaghetti hoops and laughing cow triangle happily. He ran around the house behind a push toy and is currently working on going to sleep for an afternoon nap.

Papa is outfitting the shed and Im going to clean up the lunch debris and then possibly sit down!

Saturdays eh!

oh and we also found out today that not only is the crazy lady next door feeding our dogs cat food, not such a big deal, but now she is feeding them chicken bones! So Danny (politely, perhaps!) told her that we absolutely do not want her feeding our dogs chicken bones, that the bones can splinter in their stomach and kill them. So she shrugged and said, ok Ill just feed it to the cat. Poor cat.

Alone!

2011-08-20T10:09:00.002-05:00

Papa has taken Henry to HomeDepot to buy some stuff to organise the shed. What ever am I going to do, alone, for a couple of hours!!!!!!

Much better!

2011-08-19T19:58:00.003-05:00

Henry has made a full recovery from his nasty stomach illness, and it seems it is going round Oxford, so we were probably bound to get it at some point anyway. Poor little man though, it was pretty rough there for a while. He stopped eating pretty much after Monday. His temperature went back to normal Wednesday and he started sleeping better. Then he ate a little lunch Thursday and when I put his dinner down in front of him Thursday night he crammed it into his mouth quicker than you could blink. He got a mini Oreo cookie and a cup of milk for eating so well! I know, Im naughty, he doesn't get one every night, just when he eats what I consider to be a good dinner.

Today we looked after Jayden, Henry's two and a half year old cousin and boy, am I tired now! Since he didn't really understand playing quietly because Henry is napping, we had to play outside between 1pm and 330pm, the hottest part of the day! Henry took a really good nap though, so he must have been doing some growing!

After they left we cycled over to see Megan briefly and they had some friends visiting whose 4 month old son weighed almost the same as Henry! Henry was 19 lbs 10 oz a month ago and this little boy was 19 lbs! It was nice to see Megan, Lee and the whole family, they are all doing so well!

No plans for the weekend really. Im sure we will walk the dogs to the farmers market in the morning and let Papa lie in bed to get some much needed rest. Papa is going to work on shed organization so we can get some more boxes out of the house and we may go swimming, since the pool is only open a few more weeks. Maybe I will go cycling on my own sunday, and Im sure there is a trip to Yayas for frozen yoghurt in there somewhere! Dinner with the Ozeron's should be nice tomorrow night.

Tonight Lana and I are starting our babysitting club. I am at their house with Knox while they go out for dinner together, then next week its our turn! and no one has to pay for a babysitter!!! Its actually rather nice for me because I had to leave the dishes to get here in time, I won't have time to clean the floor when I get home so Danny will most likely have to do it and I am just sitting down on the couch without a care in the world!!! A never before occurrence!

The end of an era

2011-08-16T22:26:00.003-05:00

Today was my last day at the lab having worked there almost a decade; nine years, three months to be a little more precise. Well, today was supposed to be my last day, but I guess it ended up being yesterday. I was at work an hour today before my babysitter, Jill, called me to tell me to come collect Henry. He hasn't been feeling well since Sunday, and apparently this morning he would do nothing but yell my name continually. So I took him home via the store to get some more baby pain reliever. He was ok, playing up a little to get his mummy I think, but he is ill. We are not sure if he has a stomach bug, or the upset tummy is a result of yet more teeth coming in on his upper jaw, the evidence of which I saw at lunchtime. Either way he isn't really eating and he feels really sorry for himself. He has big black bags under his eyes, poor little fellow and is doing the most disgusting green squishy poos ever; in the bath, in the playroom just after his bath, every other diaper...gross.

It was a slightly useless day for me really, since H was so whiney I just tried keeping him from crying all day really. Holding him was often not what he wanted, but he would not allow me to put him down, and don't even consider going to the bathroom mummy, not allowed. Because the people were putting in the windows, I had to get Henry to sleep on our bed in the living room, which was a mission. Thankfully they finished half way through and I was able to move him to his own bed where he slept more soundly.

We now have five new windows fitted and they look fabulous! Most of the trim is done, just got to frame up the windows and a couple more of the doors, then the painters come in. Tonight Danny and I successfully finalized the kitchen plans, so now we just have to re-do the drawings clearly and double check all measurements. Then work can being on the kitchen hopefully!

Tomorrow we must go to the grocery store, we are out of toilet paper! Terrible house wife that I am! I would love to do some exercise too, as today was a wash. Thursday I have a doctors checkup for baby number two and Friday Jonathan is moving into dorms here in town so it looks like I'm babysitting jayden, which could be interesting; pregnant me, sick Henry and a 2.5 year old boy. If only I could drink, as I foresee needing a cocktail Friday night. Oh and Friday night I babysit for Lana as we are trying to establish a babysitting club, if anyone is interested. I would just like to re-learn who my husband is without having to pay someone $10 an hour to sit in my house and watch tv. So we shall see if babysitting for someone else so that they will babysit for us, works!

At the beginning of the week, I was dreading this week, then it got made worse with H feeling terrible, poor fellow. On the upside, Jill gave me a cheesecake today and slice number one was pretty delicious! I wonder how long it takes me to finish the rest!

Autumn is on the way

2011-08-11T20:59:00.002-05:00

The rain this morning completely threw me for a loop. I just didn't expect it. And whilst I'm not going to complain about this cooler weather just yet, I have to say, I'm really not ready for autumn. We missed our park date today because of the rain, but went over to visit Lana and Knox instead. They are funny playing together those little boys. Knox has a mini armchair which Henry apparently took a shine too. So sitting happily in his little armchair, Henry was unimpressed when Knox decided he was going to come sit in it too. So Henry pushes Knox off the chair with all his might, some grimacing and grunts necessary with the effort too! Hilarious! To his credit, Knox kept on trying to get back in his chair and Henry kept on pushing him off. I think I know what Henry might be getting for Christmas though! Not to mention, when one had a cup of grapes, the other needed one, then they needed the cup of grapes the other little boy had. Then his toy too. And it went on.

I like the way my work days are set up in that I get to tuesday evening and am physically and emotionally relieved the next day is a day off, a day to spend with my little stinker. But then Thursday nights I don't exactly relish having to go back to work on Fridays.

Bedrooms doors arrived today and of course one of them is damaged. I honestly feel like we just can't get a break. And no, their still is not a cheque in my bank account for the other house. Grrrrrrr.

My little baby did something ever so sweet this morning though... I was changing his nappy first thing this morning and he leaned up and grabbed the outsides of the tops of both my arms and pulled me toward him to give me a big kiss on the lips! So cute. I'm enjoying it now because I know with a boy, the affection won't last long!

Since when...

2011-08-09T21:38:00.003-05:00

I have tried to bury this post in the back of mind, as I fear there may be repercussions from some of you, but I just can't keep quiet a moment longer.

Since when did it become ok, no, trendy, for fat middle aged/old men to wear cycling shorts to swim in?

I've been going to the City pool in my lunch breaks for a blissful hour of freedom and exercise without a stroller. But why must I be subjected to visions of wrinkly bellies hanging over tight, tight cycling shorts? Does it really make you THAT much more efficient in the water? My front crawl is quicker than you. Heck, even my pregnant breast stroke is quicker than your front crawl, so tell me what do you need the super trendy, sleek black cycling shorts for? All of you?

The nicest part about swimming laps outdoors is watching your shadow glide through the water on the floor of the pool and how it goes in and out as the sun hides behind clouds. The pool closes for the year the first week of September; what ever am I goin to do?

Always lots of fun!

2011-08-07T21:35:00.009-05:00

Henry and I continue to have lots of fun together, though it is apparent why I never feel rested! But I guess you can rest when you are old, right!?

As usual we started out bright and early. The dogs actually surprised me by behaving really well on our walk at the park this morning, I'm sure they were just hot. Oh but no, I skip the first part of my morning... Turn away if you are fed up with poop stories... We began as normal, I greet Henry with a cup of milk which he drinks like he hasn't drunk in weeks. I change his nappy. As we have done on many occasion, and no, this is not the first time this has happened to me, so you would think I would have learned by now, I left him with out a nappy while we go out onto the deck to hang up the nappies from last nights wash. He just loves to help me hang them on the rack, which in itself is adorable. He even loves taking the clean ones out of the washing machine and putting them in the basket almost climbing into the machine to get the ones at the back. In my defense, I think carefree skin time is good for babies bottoms. You guessed it, he did a big squishy poo as he was crawling along, so he walked in it a little too. So I scooped him up and plopped him in the shower and all was fixed in minutes. The best part of it all is, I knew I wouldn't have to clean it up since I figured the dogs would find it and sure enough, when we came back outside there was no poo poo to be seen. Ick.

We played inside a little while then cycled to visit the Ozeren's across town and had a good old play at their house. He fell asleep on the ride home, which is something he hasnt done since he was little. I even left him in the stroller outside of the farmers market when I popped in to buy milk. He woke up briefly when I took him out of the stroller at home but I laid him down in his bed and he was asleep again in minutes. He slept til 2pm so we had a really late lunch! But no one can pass up grilled cheeses and spaghetti hoops now can they!

We cycled to the pool and had a little splash around. He is really into diving into the pool and swimming with his face in the water at the moment, so all the other parents watch in awe as this little baby plunges himself head first into the pool and they can't get their 4 year old to put their face in.

No progress on the walking front, since that's all anyone seems to ask me about. Gees folks, he will walk when he walks! He is really into waving good bye and giving kisses at the moment and was entertained for at least 20 minutes today placing pieces of paper into Papa's dress shoes. I think he would have done it longer except our lunch was ready. He has great dexterity now and can put his Lego together with ease. Oh and he threw the mouse on the floor so I am back to the stupid i-thingy. Ugh.

He loves to skype his Papa and I am really excited to see what he does Friday when he finally comes home. Don't you worry, Papa has been clearly informed that no trips of this length will ever be occurring again. We miss him too much.

No news on the belly front. Still got a wretched stomach with pains that just will not go away. Though Danny did remind me my stomach behaved the same way with Henry. I have talked him into not finding out the gender, so you must all wait in suspense too! And we are taking names for suggestion...

Another busy Saturday

2011-08-06T21:35:00.005-05:00

I like to keep my little boy busy!

This morning we walked the dogs to the farmers market for the usual fair of peaches, tomatoes and zucchini but H didn't feel too much like dancin to the music so we didn't really stay long. We played at home a little while and went to story time at the bookstore where Henry actually had a toy taken away from him by a bigger kid and he just watched in awe. After the grocery store and lunch we took naps, though mine wasn't nearly long enough as I had to do some cleaning before I could lie down. When H woke up we cycled to the pool for a thirty minute dip in the nice cool pool, played in the sprinklers for 10 minutes then they shut the pool because of thunder. That was alright with us though, we cycled to Ya Yas and got some mixed berry sorbet. Some girly friends came over for dinner and it was so nice to have company! I'm so used to having people over to dinner all the time that it's been a little weird eating on our own every night. I have to agree with them, my lasagna was incredible! Henry totally played up to them after dinner, but that's ok! They brought me a delicious blackberry crumble ice cream from Holli's Sweet Tooth to top off our evening!

More of the same tomorrow I'm sure!

No luck

2011-08-05T20:35:00.004-05:00

Still no luck on closing on our house. Rather distressed about it all really. They are apparently going to be paying us $35 per day to compensate us for having to pay taxes and insurance and mortgages on both houses but honestly, I just want to sell the darn house. It seems that in Arizona you have to have both parties on the house deed and they only had the husband down. So now all of the paper work is being re-done to add her to the deed. So maybe another week or two. geeeees.

Just cut the grass, again. Hopefully that was it for me and grass cutting. Ever. The darn thing just made my headache worse. Going to make a lasagna, clean the floors (of course), do the laundry and go to bed. ROCKIN' friday night.

I wonder what the weekend has install for me. Hopefully two wonderful afternoon naps and some fun pool time with my little boy!

Here we go again!

2011-08-04T21:25:00.004-05:00

Oooops!

13 weeks pregnant. Picture from 11 weeks.

Due date February 8th 2011

Passed me by

2011-08-03T08:06:00.002-05:00

Some how it passed me by that Henry had got two new teeth! His sleeping patterns have been a little messed up, but I just didnt think anything of it and I saw the two new ones last night on the top gum. He is pretty close to walking too. Sometimes he just wants to walk around the house holding my fingers.

My baby is growing up!

Not much going on

2011-08-01T19:51:00.003-05:00

The lack of posting is explained by the lack of anything going on really.

Last Thursday Henry and I got caught in a torrential down pour. It didnt matter so much for us as we had just got out of the pool, but the trailer (we had cycled to the pool) was left open and had a deep puddle of water in it after just 15 minutes of rain! Poor Henry rode in his diaper all the way home and Im sure I saw a few people laughing in their cars at the little baby in the stroller almost naked!

Saturday we had a little bit of a drama but it was eventually resolved. We had a busy morning. We begun by taking our car to Good Year Tire on University Avenue. I point out where we went because they are simply love folks and if you need new tires, you should definitely go there. So we dropped off our Jetta which had a nail in the back tire. We jogged to the Farmers Market across town, bought some groceries, danced to the Bluegrass band, socialised a little and jogged back to the tire place. No, I didnt just have one nail in my back tire? OH. I had two nails in the front right and one in the front left. Not to mention a 'knot' in one of the front tires, I stopped paying attention really and just asked them to fix it. We didnt wait around as ATT was supposed to be coming to our house between 9 and 11 am to install our internet and cable. We jogged back to the house and got there at 855am to a note from the ATT guy that said he knocked at 845am. I was livid. Especially after the fourth person put me on hold and then eventually hung up. I finally got a person who stuck with me and got put back in the pool for a service guy. He was a nice man who arrived around 1030 ish and was here until gone 3pm. ugh. So we didnt get to leave the house again! We eventually made it to the pool around 4pm I think, had a swim and headed over to Chik Fil A for dinner with Alison and Sophia.

Sunday we cycled to the trails, jogged three miles and cycled home. Henry isnt napping well during the day so the afternoon was a little bit of a challenge. He didnt want to sleep but when he was awake he just cried because he was tired. ugh. No fun for mummy. I did notice a new tooth, so I wonder if thats bothering his naps. Luckily he still sleeps well at night!

Today was rather a huge let down. I thought we were going to close on our house and I was going to deposit a big fat cheque in to my not so fat bank account. But alas, no, not today. I signed the paper work but apparently the mortgage company is dragging their heels and its taking ages to get the money. So fingers crossed we should have sold a house officially by wednesday! That will really make me happy!

The best tomato soup recipe you will ever taste

2011-07-27T22:19:00.004-05:00

After looking online for a tomato soup recipe, I decided they were no good. Any soup recipe that uses canned tomatoes is not the recipe for me. So I winged it, as usual. Thought this time, I hit jack pot. Mental note, write this one in my cook book. I remember having no luck on the invent a tomato soup recipe mission last year, so I have no idea what happened to me tonight but ladies and gents, here is the tomato soup recipe to knock your socks off...

Bring to a boil and simmer the following ingredients for about an hour
One coarsely chopped onion
Four small zucchini/cougettes, half inch slices
8-10 lbs fresh tomatoes, skinned
Zest of one lime
Juice of half a lime
Some fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper (a lot more salt than you would think)

Once all of the veggies are tender, blend with emersion blender.

Add about 4-8 Oz sour cream, depending on how creamy you want it
Another handful of fresh basil leaves
An inch or two block of grated fresh parmesan cheese

Blend with emersion blender again.

It's so good that I am eating a bowl at 1030 at night instead of going to bed and considering how many jars of this I can either can or fit in my freezer.

I know what I'm eating for dinner tomorrow night. Where is my grilled cheese?!

Easiest way to skin a tomato (in my opinion)
Cut tomato in half through the stem
Cut the stem out of both sides
Lay cut side down on a tin foil lined baking tray
Broil/grill

an inch or two from elements for 8 minutes
Leave to cool and peel away the skins

Technically the correct wy to skin a tomato is to etch a cross in the bottom of it and blanch it in boiling water for 30 seconds then plunge into ice water, then peel. I think this is messy and time consuming. Just my two cents.

Fun... For a whle!

2011-07-27T20:08:00.002-05:00

Tonight I had the pleasure of cutting our grass with a push mower. It really was fun at first, then it got boring and seemed like it was never going to end. I do not wish for this chore to be added to my list of many! Besides, I still have to clean up after dinner, tidy the house from the day, and of course sweep and mop the floor. Oh and stuff diapers, fold laundry and try and get to bed sometime today! Oh and I have skinned some tomatoes ready to make myself some soup.

I am anxious to get going on my new yard but I fear there isn't much I can do without Danny's help, nor before slightly cooler, wetter weather. I did find a huge area of poison ivy so I can spray it tomorrow. And any suggestions on how best to kill ant mounds are welcome. My big conundrum, and suggestions are welcome (please) is how to get rid of ivy growing along the ground (regular ivy, not the poisonous kind) without killing the lirope grass growing within it. Alternatively, do I learn to live with it, I just really don't like it and feel like it's trying to take over my yard.

The landscape gardener comes to look at the property tomorrow and give me a price quote on a fence, which I'm pretty excited about. I also feel like I can't get going on my new flower beds until I have a fence to work around. It's going to be a shame, I'm going to be digging up lots of nice grass, but there are bare patches in other parts of the yard, so I can populate them with the the grass I dig up.

On to cleaning I guess... Is there a spot to fit chargeable batteries somewhere on my person? I might need an external boost!

Much better, thanks

2011-07-25T20:42:00.004-05:00

I am much better today, thanks. I can actually smell the Vicks I am sticking up my nose!

Found the iron but can't find the dog razors as of yet. Why oh why won't my meany husband let me unpack any of these darned boxes! Mind you, he isn't here...

Went over to Quail Creek today to vacuum and clean out the fridge... Poor place is like a jungle. I guess that's what happens if no one weeds in MS for a few weeks. The deer have also gone through the back yard with a fine tooth comb. They were even back there when I went out side for a look this afternoon, and were none to pleased to be disturbed. Snorting and blowing through their noses at me, staring me down, eventually they jumped back over the fence. Poor hostas, hydrangeas, lillies, all gone...

Floor work out of a different kind

2011-07-24T20:56:00.005-05:00

Some people have yoga, some people watch tv, I have an evening routine of a different kind these days. I tried timing my new floor work out tonight, but it got a little messed up with a phone call to Danny and a quick nibble on some strawberries, but it goes as follows (roughly) taking an approximate total of 30 minutes (if you don't include the distracting husband):
5 minutes to sweep dining room and kitchen
3 minutes to mop dining room and kitchen with snazzy Rubbermaid Reveal (you need one)
2 minutes to text Danny and eat some strawberries
5 minutes to pick up toys. That child of mine needs to learn to put away his own toys.
10 minutes to talk to Danny and eat some more strawberries
10 minutes to sweep living room and play area
8 minutes to mop living room and play area

If you would like to donate to the "buy my wonderful Mummy a robotic vacuum cleaner" fund please send cheques to 126 Daffodil Hill, Apalachian Trail, Will-Never-Get-There-Land, MS, 00000, USA. Made payable to Why Don't Mummies Get Paid. I appreciate your generosity greatly, coz those little buggers seem to be expensive. Alternatively, Christmas is coming up and at my age, a vacuum cleaner isn't a bad present... Don't quote me on that, Im just tired of sweeping this darned beautiful floor already.

We miss you already

2011-07-24T19:22:00.003-05:00

Today our Papa left us for three weeks and we miss him already. New Mexico and then South Dakota, probably not fun.

So so sick

2011-07-23T20:05:00.005-05:00

Why does this happen to me all of the time? Henry gets a cold from the flight, gives it to me, gets better quickly (thankfully) then I am seriously sick forever more. When I blow my nose I start to cough. When I start to cough it resonates through my whole body with a dry hacking but there is something in that tight chest to come up. Then my eyes get weepy and I confirm that yes, I feel like a big huge piece of crap. In short, I feel terrible right now and am going to bed as soon as I have eaten enough food to stop my stomach from growling; it's 8 pm on a Saturday night, geees I live the high life.

This morning Henry, Tux, Mojo (the last two are our furkids) and I walked to the farmers market for the first time in our lives. It was awesome (apart from my having to pause to blow my nose and hack my little heart out every few steps, oh and having to pick up dog poo). Unfortunately no eggs, I figured it would be getting too hot, but we managed to squeeze another box of peaches, two boxes of blueberries, some more tomatoes, figs and pears into our stroller (yes, Henry had to share leg room with the peaches, poor soul). Now all we need is some good goats cheese and some crusty bread for a mouth watering dinner.

Today we drove to Bolivar, TN to visit Dannys extended family at the lake, despite him having a wedding and staying in Oxford. Yes I am a fantastic wife (are you reading this Danny?). Yes, I realize that probably contributed to my shear exhaustion. Anyways, I'm off to bed, but if you are ever unfortunate enough to feel crappy in the summer please please halve some nectarines, sprinkle them with raw sugar and drizzle a good balsamic vinegar into the pit holes then broil/grill until the tops turn black (about 8 minutes). Absolutely delicious. Very very comforting. In fact, so comforting, I may have two more nectarines before bed! The good thing about this is that you can use slightly unripe nectarines, if you are impatient, like me. Only bad thing about eating this (I'm on my second bowl) is that you have to wait while the nectarines cool down. Ugh.

Fantastic last day

2011-07-22T21:03:00.003-05:00

Today was the last day of my vacation and it was fantastic (apart from being super sick).

Henry and I cycled to the baby doctor for H's one year check up. No waiting, for a change. The nurse had to prick his finger for an iron test, which didn't bother him at all. Nor did it bother him when she spent the next minute squeezing blood out of his finger. But when she put that bandaid on his little finger he had a fit and started crying his eyes out. It's always hard when he gets vaccinations too, he cried so hard with the first injection and there was still two to come. I took a packet of fruit jellies though, and his wailing cleared up pretty quick when I offered him a berry bunny. His health is great. Weight 19 lbs 10 oz, 8 th percentile. Height 30 inches, 50 th percentile. Head circumference 79 th percentile.

We dropped the bike off at home and walked to the park, where we spent ages playing on the slide and swings and just generally crawling around. Danny even popped by and dropped off a donut! After lunch H took an insufficient nap and was a little grumpy. We cycled to pick up our csa veg then cycled to the pool where we had a blast. Back to town to meet Papa for dinner at Ajax. I thought Henry would have been tired when we got home at 7pm, his usual bed time, but I put him on thie driveway briefly while I unpacked the trailer and he became engrossed in some tennis balls, rackets, softballs, and badminton rackets that were lying around, so we sat on the driveway for half hour. When I did put him to bed at 730 he went straight to sleep.

I am now putting myself to bed and hoping I sleep better than last night with this horrendous cold.

What a beautiful day with my beautiful little boy!

I love being Mummy...

2011-07-21T22:13:00.005-05:00

This evening Henry and I ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches for dinner (I had Nutella in mine also, but don't tell H). It wa delicious and there was no one to tell us off! Then we had strawberries for dessert and I even sprinkled sugar on mine!

We cycled to HomeDepot this afternoon to get a couple of things and narrowly escaped a killer thunderstorm!

H and I seem to have horrid summer colds, not pleasant. I'm sure it will make the little mans shots worse tomorrow at his one year check up.

Tomorrow perhaps we will have salad for dinner to make up for tonight!

Home sweet home!

2011-07-20T21:43:00.003-05:00

We got home late last night after a rather awful ride home from the airport. It was super late for Henry, around 10 pm Puerto Rican time, and he doesn't do well in the car, so he screamed for about the first 20 minutes, despite the fact that I sat in the back with him. He eventually fell asleep, only to wake up when Danny over took someone because he crossed over the things in the middle of the road to stop you drifting. He then screamed until about 2 minutes from the off ramp to get to the house, when he fell asleep again. We eventually got him to bed.

Today was lovely. Since we had no food in the house, we went to Big Bad Breakfast and it turns out the farmers market is now open on wednesday mornings, so I bought two boxes of peaches and some other fresh veg. Definitely a good start to the day. H and I went to the store and then he played happily on his own (a very rare occourance) while I put the groceries away. After lunch and a nap we walked to the square with Alison and Sophia to get ice creams and play on the courthouse lawn. What a beautiful way to spend an afternoon.

I feel pretty useless since I can't make any progress on the house during the day and during the evening I spend my time cleaning up after the day. All the while Danny is running himself ragged working too hard at everything under the sun. It now looks like he won't be able to take off before the new job which worries me a lot... He is just spread too thinly and needs a rest. His sense of duty is something I admire about him, but there needs to be some self preservation.

Well, finger tapping on this silly iPad is somewhat annoying and we don't have internet yet at this new house, so good night to you and apologies for no holiday pics, they will probably have to wait til Danny gets back from his field trip mid-August to set up the Internet and desktop. Sorry.

The end of the trip

2011-07-18T11:57:00.002-05:00

Im tired but its been a good holiday.

I managed to get burnt yesterday for the first time. Sucks that I go the whole trip and dont get burnt and get a little toasty yesterday. Not a lot, just a little. Little man has stayed unburnt, thankfully, though he is a little Coppertone Baby with his brown arms and legs and little white toosh.

We had a fun few days at the posh resort nearby. We checked in early saturday morning for one night to get the perks that go with the resort. We took a private ferry to the private island and played on the beach for the day. Jade even stayed in with Henry after he had gone to bed, so that Danny and I could go out together! We took a stroll through the gardens, got dessert and strolled around the marina. Poor little Jadie wasnt sure if babysitters were allowed to go to sleep so she was desperately trying to keep her self awake, to no avail! Then yesterday we went to the beach in the morning where Jade and Danny rented a jetski and Henry played in the sand happily. We dig him a big hole and he just spends hours climbing in and out of it! I managed to get him to take a nap in the Ergo (which of course made us sweat like no bodies business!) and then we all went to the little waterpark on the resort where I took Henry on the tubing slide and he played with Therese and Jade in the kiddie pool. Apparently he got so excited about going down the kiddie slide with his Auntie Jade that he screamed and pointed in the line with the other kids!

Today is a quiet recovery day by the pool, H is napping and Im on my way now.

Tomorrow we head home on a 1pm flight, perfect for nap time in the Ergo. So I guess that means we had better go pack! We have stuff EVERYWHERE!

Going to get one last Pina Colada with dinner tonight, Henry is addicted! I even put some in his sippy cup but he thought I was tricking him so he wouldnt drink it. When he suddenly realised I had given him some, he drank the entire cup!

Oh and butt rash is a little rough when he is sitting in a swim diaper all day and sand gets in the cracks, but hopefully it will clear up quickly when we get home. 1 year doctors apt Friday! Poor little man is going to need a vacation from the vacation to recover!

A day on the water

2011-07-11T19:07:00.006-05:00

Henry slept like a baby, as it were, though this is a silly saying as babies don't really sleep well at all. So that meant both Mummy and Daddy slept well, which meant everyone was in a good mood this morning! Yeay!

I woke up early and just laid around waiting for H to get up, which occurred around 7am. We walked to the marina and looked at the boats and I was sweating before we got half way home - needless to say, its hot here! I left Danny in bed as long as I could and ended up waking him around 830am to check his email about the boating trip. Turns out you had to be there at 930am so we dashed around getting ready and Danny announces at 855am that he wants to go buy a floatie for Henry. So we head to the store, not stopping to look at a map. hmmmmm. So we get a little off route, but we did end up there, just 10 minutes later than we should have. So Danny flew into the Walmart and then drove to the boat dock like a bat out of hell, which is fine because he was just driving like a Puerto Rican. Speaking of which, there seems to be no rules of the road. People just pull out in front of people onto main roads, drive on the wrong side of the road when they feel like it (no cars along the side of the road to go round and there is a yellow line in the middle), park in the middle of the road... in short, they are crazy ass drivers and Im glad its not me driving us around as Id park up and start crying. And also its really weird seeing island/Mexican style houses and then a bunch of American stuff (Burger King, Pizza Hut, Church's Chicken, Walmart, Walgreens etc). And Danny is truly bothered by the fact that everyone has bars on the houses (windows, doors, patios, yards).

Anyways, we made it to the boat dock a little late, but in good time nonetheless. Since Im sure you love to hear about all of my many poo poo mishaps, Henry did a big stinker and I realised that the diaper thing I carry in my bag was still in the stroller from this morning. Oh dear. So we had no wipes. hmmmm. So I took him to the toilets and stuck his ass in the sink. I mean, its not like I havent done that before, regularly. It was a large catamaran and we got on quick enough to get a seat in the shade, thank goodness. I just think the sun here is so much stronger than at home. Henry was great, he just sat on my lap, dancing to the music. We sailed to a nice white sandy beach where Henry and I played in the sand. He stinking loved it! I kept burying him in the sand and he found it hilarious. He wasnt so keen on the salt water and cried when it went in his face a lot, but he liked sitting at the edge of the waves, as long as I lifted him up for the big ones.

He sat in the floatie (a bumble bee) on the boat with his bucket and spades and played happily for ages after lunch. As usual, everyone loved him and he was continually dancing to the loud music! At the next snorkeling location Danny and I took H with us in the floatie. He liked it alright for a while but I think he just wanted to see us because he would complain while our heads were in the water and laugh and be happy when we looked up at him. So I took him back to the boat and we floated around together next to the boat for a while. More playing in the floatie on the boat deck and lots of crackers and kiwi fruit kept the little man happy as Larry, despite no nap. So on the 3 minute car journey home, he went straight to sleep! He woke up briefly when we got him out of the car and then went straight back to sleep on my shoulder. Such a good little chappie.

After his nap we popped out for dinner and had a super hard time finding somewhere to eat and ended up at Pizza Hut because we were in a hurry. Strangely, everyone in there was Puerto Rican except for one other American looking family. I just think they arent really a culture that eats out all that much. There are tons of bars, just not very many local restaurants. We did drive around for a while looking for somewhere before we gave up and went to PH.

After a bath and a story, Henry went straight off to sleep and fingers crossed for another night like last night because I am whoopped!

San Juan tomorrow I think. Not a moments rest I guess.

Jadie comes in tomorrow night, so hopefully we can rest Wednesday as she will be tired from travelling and will want to play with H.

Oh and Wednesday is Henry's birthday, though with all the presents and parties a bit at a time, I feel like he has had a hundred birthdays already!

I just had a thought (yes, it hurt). I wonder what all of this travelling and activity is doing to Henry's development as a person. I mean, don't most kids just go to daycare and come home; with one family vacation a year, camping in North Carolina. He is a very very sociable person, but is that how he was born? Anna-Prescott and Collier, two of the kids he shares a babysitter with are 10 months apart in age and such different siblings. AP is very shy and quiet, while Collier is a little chatter box. Im sure their mum doesnt treat them terribly differently, so is it just how they were born? Was Henry just born a sociable young man? One of the things people always say about him is what a happy little baby he is, and yes he is a very happy little baby. Surely this is nothing Im doing - he must have just been born that way. Is it something I did pregnant? There is so much we just don't know. I like to think its just the way he is, that way I cant screw him up too much!

Puerto Rico begins

2011-07-10T19:07:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was long, seriously long. The travelling part wasnt so bad. Henry took a decent nap in his Ergo at the regular time. He ate airport and airplane food and all was looking good. He fell asleep on the drive from the airport to the condo and then we couldnt get him back to sleep when we got here. Hours of crying and us not giving in, then in the end he fell asleep, thankfully. But it didnt last long and I really didnt have the energy to do anything about it, so for the first time in his short life, he slept in the bed with us. oh dear. So of course I hardly slept because I was worried Danny would roll on him and to be honest, he looked so sweet asleep I watched him for a huge portion of the night. I was also hot because we raised the temperature in the room because he was sleeping without a blanket but I didnt bank on him spooning with me under the covers. And my foot was itchy. Put it all together, and the fact that he woke up at 630am, Mummy hardly slept last night. Though I wasnt so worse for wears today, thankfully.

The day started early but relaxed with a leisurely breakfast. Then someone suggested taking a ferry to the island which left at 9am so we rushed around getting ready and were actually out of the door by 830am ish. We drove around to a few of the wrong locations and eventually pulled up to the ferry spot to find out that people line up for tickets at 11pm the night before, to buy the ticket at 1am when the office opens. Needless to say, we ended up back at the condo pool, which was more than fine by me. It was then impossible to get Henry to nap for some bizarre reason. It took 1 hour and 40 minutes and even then he only slept 55 minutes. So he was very very tired this afternoon. We played at the pool again with our little fish. There is a baby pool thats just the right depth that he can wear his floatie and swim around without any help... unless of course he rolls on to his back. Then he is like a little turtle and he cant roll over, getting very annoyed at being stuck.

We had dinner at Ole Lelolai restaurant which was delicious but pricey. I get the impression its going to be an expensive holiday. I had Sea Bass with an olive tapenade and parmessan risotto, which Henry loved! He even ate the sea bass and Theresse's seafood paella.

Tomorrow I think the plan is a snorkel cruise on a catamaran, so we shall see how Henry likes that.

Im exhausted and was rather anxious for tonights bedtime situation, but to my surprise, he went straight to sleep. Thank goodness, I dont think I could have taken another night last night. Thank you H.

2011-07-08T21:41:00.003-05:00

Every day we find a few more things wrong with this quirky old house, though as I learn to love it more, I fear Danny is distancing himself from it.

Today we learned that the ac pipes under the house are not insulated, so we are cooling our crawl space and there is only one working outdoor faucet, and it's by the front door. Neither thing should be a problem to fix, it just may be turning into a money pit!

Danny put up a temporary fence for the dogs, so it's nice to be able to put them out at night at not have to go with them

Off on our travels tomorrow. Got our baby floaties, our cloth nappies, more snacks than you would have thought one little man could eat in a year. Should be fun. Thought it's any wonder we have room for mummy and daddy's clothes with all the toys, snorkeling stuff and other crap we have packed.

We are mostly moved out of the other house now. Just some random stuff left in the garage, so that is good.

This evening Henry took his first joint bath with Sophia. It didn't go so well because he was super tired, but it sure did entertain the mummies!

A day like anyother

2011-07-07T09:53:00.004-05:00

Our first day in our new house was almost like any other day for Henry and I. All except we walked to the park around 9am to play on the swings, make some friends and slide the slide. That was a fun way to start the day and I'm sure how we will pretty much start all of our days off together from now on! We popped to the store where he proceeded to have a tantrum. These have been become more frequent lately and I dont really even notice, I just pick him up; well, that has got to stop. So yesterday I gently told him that nice little boys didn't behave that way and he was going to remain sitting in the trolley because he was fine. He screamed for the length of time it took me to chose a water filter and then got bored of it. I know he is fine, its just remembering to leave him when he screams bloody murder and not to do the automatic thing, pick him up. We are going to have to start 'time outs' for bad behaviour too as the more he learns, the more frustrated he gets when he cant place the puzzle piece in the right spot, for instance. He then proceeds to hit everything in sight and scream. Not going to fly little man. I just have to remember to deal with this behaviour.

It took me an entire nap time to sweep and mop the living space - did I mention I hate hard wood floors. I was just thinking about sitting down when a little voice started talking to me from his bedroom. oh well. I did buy this fantastic thing called a Rubbermaid Reveal though. Its basically a big broom type thing but with a microfiber cloth on the end and you spray water in front of it to mop the floor. Its quicker, uses less water and you get to wash the cloth when you are done for the next wash. I had it all clean and then when I walked the dogs at the park this morning before work, they trailed sand and morning dew back into the house, making it instantly filthy again. Looks like mopping is going to become a multi-week job for me. ugh.

Another major draw back of this new house is the somewhat lacking air conditioning. I had it set to 69F all day and it made it down to 73F. It blows a gale in the bathroom but the living room (where we currently sleep until the bedrooms are renovated - remember, waiting on the windows...) only had two vents and gets rather warm.

The biggest draw back of all (until the school semester starts up of course, and traffic is bumper to bumper at 8am and 3pm) is the ant situation. I watched the little army walk around the bait traps I set out last night. ugh.

But it really is a nice place to live. Our neighbour came by last night to bring us cookies and invite us to the neighbourhood party of the year at their house saturday night, which is terribly unfortunate because we wont be here. Shame, that really would have been a great way to get to know the neighbours. Though when our house finally becomes presentable, Ill have a party too!

Our new washing machine and drier are not only beautiful, but fantastic. Quiet, water efficient, quick.

The fridge is beautiful, though looks a little silly in the play room, where it will stay until we get a kitchen. Speaking of, it is the most poorly designed kitchen I have ever had the misfortune to use! I am so glad we are getting rid of everything in it!

Re-reading this, it really is silly the things that make a (or this) woman happy. Beautiful appliances, walking at the park...

oh and then in the afternoon we went to the pool where Henry was, as usual, the center of attention. So much so that all of the little children that wanted to play with him were using me as a jungle gym. Definitely made me realise I don't need 4 or 5 children, since I was keeping track of my son, generally had about two little kids climbing on my back for a piggy back and then two more wanting me to watch them swim. Tiring. Dinner time was hilarious yesterday too! I made pasta shells in homemade marinara with zucchini and squash. I tossed some cheese cubes in it too. So Henry starts out picking out the cheese cubes. I stabbed a shell with a fork and tried to feed it to him and he was typically very dubious of what that woman was trying to get him to eat so he picked it off the fork with his little fingers and carefully placed it to his lips. Then he ate once shell at a time carefully, then he lost all caution and was shovelling entire handfuls of pasta into his mouth! At the point at which he started to throw it on the floor, I decided we were done, though Mojo was enjoying the freebies. We had a bath and started to play. Papa came home and got a plate of pasta, sitting down with us in the living room/bedroom. Henry was like a whippit, over to Danny, standing up between his legs shovelling Dannys food into his mouth too! We had to take the plate away in the end! But you watch, when I try and feed him the same meal tonight, he will refuse to eat it! Babies!

Looking forward to actually spending some time with Danny on vacation next week, though even so, he will be at a photography class during the day. I just have missed him so much recently, he is always moving something.

Bramlett Boulevard, we are officially a part of your world now!

The BIG move

2011-07-05T11:28:00.002-05:00

The big move got move up to today since I was put on mandatory leave by UT. No, I didnt do anything naughty, there is no juicy gossip, its just that I have 230 hours of leave and they dont have the money to pay me for it all so I am on leave to use it up. Timing actually worked out rather well because Danny wanted to move tomorrow but then tells me he has a photoshoot after work tomorrow. So I dont really know how they would have gone together.

No internet at the new house until August (what the heck is up with AT&T) so this is it folks. We will have a fantastic time in Puerto Rico, hopefully, and I will get some photos of H and I living in our hard hats for safety. Until then, Good Bye Quail Creek. I have to say, I am very very sad to be leaving you and I will most definitely shed several tears for you this evening.

I never thought Id say this

2011-07-04T19:54:00.005-05:00

I never thought Id say this... But today, I hate my cloth nappies (diapers). Well, perhaps its not the nappies I hate, but the fact that Henry has worked out how to get them off. And yes, he had already done a huge poo poo in it. And yes, he did smear it over all of the teddy bears in his crib, all over his legs and arms and all over his crib. I went in there to get him up from his nap and I could smell it when I walked into the room. I thought that I had got lucky and it was an unusually small poo poo because there was just a little spot of it that I could see, until I picked him up and peeled back his binky (comfort blanket) and low and behold, there was the dookie of all dookies staring at me. Since blueberries come out the other end whole (probably just because he eats so many of them) I was rather concerned that he might have re-eaten the blueberries, but there was no poo poo on his face, so let's just hope that he didnt. And of course we were home alone, so I (gagging) had to peel off the sheets and deposit the mess in the toilet, occasionally stepping back for fresh air. Then I had to undo the bumper which took me so long, Henry came back into the room (from playing in the other room) to see what I was doing. Saw his binky (all covered in poo) lying on the floor, scooped it up into his arms and sat there watching me. He looked shocked when I yelled no and took his binky away from him. Poor little devil.

Mess dealt with, we ate some raisins on the kitchen floor and decided to go to the lake to meet Papa and the fam who were boating and grilling. It was over cast and rather cool out, which was a pleasant surprise, because I have to say, I had been dreading going out to the lake in the heat of the day. But 79F I can take rather nicely, and no sun screen was a treat too! Took Henry down to the lake with Papa and he just had a blast, total contrast to the last time we took him to the lake. He sat in a few inches of water, naked, playing with the sand, looking for stones and generally swimming around. He is a crazy baby though, he will totally swim out until his whole head is under water and just keep on trucking until you pick him up and take him to shallower water. Danny said he saw blueberries floating around, so they moved to a different part of the water! Fish food!

We left in time to avoid a total melt down and he went straight to sleep when I walked out of his bedroom by 730pm. Lovely surprise after yesterday. Trying to tidy up the mass of toys we are now faced with in this total construction zone of a house. Which reminds me, thank you so much for sending me a hot pink hard hat avid reader! I will send pictures when we move to the new house Wednesday; Henry even got a hard hat for his birthday, so we will both be safe, though his is yellow. By the way, of course the crazy old man is refusing to give us any money for the shed. Typical.

Oh and Happy 4th. Yeay for work tomorrow. NOT.

Never a dull moment...

2011-07-03T20:32:00.009-05:00

Today we had a first birthday party for our little man. A week or so early, I know, but we are on vacation for his birthday and this was the only weekend we had available.

I have never seen so many birthday presents, what a lucky young man. Thank you all so much. Its funny, I invited people whom I wanted to share Henry's first birthday with him. People I thought were important to him and people that were important to us. I didn't expect everyone to bring a present, or three. Which is silly because I wouldn't go to a birthday party without taking a present, so I should have realised everyone would bring one, but still, it was not necessary and you all are so very generous. It is going to take him a week to play with all of these presents! And I kept some of the ones we have bought him to give to him on his birthday.

I am exhausted. I stayed up until midnight last night decorating his cake, making salsa, chopping fruit, and so on. It might not sound late to you, but I usually go to bed around 1030pm and get up with Henry around 7am, no matter what time I go to bed! Needless to say, today was a little bit of a whirlwind for me! Henry woke up at 630am and I left him playing in his bed til 715am. We had breakfast and skyped Nanny and Grandpa to open our first present - a bumblebee bike, awesome! We played inside and out (before it got too hot) and generally had good times. When Henry went to nap I rushed over to Jill's house to get things rolling, and still I didnt really have enough time! We had lots of food, though most of it went so that was good. Lots of fruit, chips (crisps), crackers, meatballs... The kids all played in the pool for a good long time then Henry ate some cake, though he wasn't too into the whole smashing the cake into his face thing. He opened his thousands of presents and was not happy when each one got taken away so he could open the next! Whilst his papa was in charge of him he managed to throw himself backwards off the bench and landed on his back as I came walking out of the house and obviously went running over there. No blood - this time. Tidy up was quick and easy with lots of willing helpers. As he was playing on the deck right at the end, he managed to cut his foot, with lots of blood this time. Poor baby.

At first the bedtime ritual went more easily than usual, despite being 30 minutes later. Nappy on no problems, pjs on with no crying, to my surprise. But now, at 842pm we are still listening to his wails from his bedroom. He is just over tired we think, but he will not go to sleep. We have both tried to comfort him to no avail, so now we are leaving him, at a loss. 852pm and he is finally asleep.

What a day.

Crazy old guy

2011-06-29T19:12:00.002-05:00

So it seems that the man we bought our house from is a crazy old guy that no body has a nice word to say about.

When the guys were over at the house last night cleaning out the metal shed in the back yard, some lady came over and told them they were not allowed to be doing that. Danny was very polite and told her that he had bought the house and that he was allowed to be doing that. And she was adamant that no, he was not, that the contents of that shed, and the shed itself belonged to the State of Mississippi. Do what?! So the North Mississippi Regional Center (adult home for mentally ill folk) used to rent the house from the old guy that owned it and apparently the shed is theirs. Well, that is news to us. And news to them that someone had bought the house. We had bought a new shed based on the size of the shed that was already there; new shed for stuff that needs to stay clean (bikes, strollers, tents etc) and old shed for dirty stuff (lawn mower, shovels, potting soil, pots etc). Not to mention the guys had loaded all of the gear onto the rented trailer that needed to be returned today and now couldnt be used for anything else that night. So they left the trailer at the house and the folks from the NMS regional center collect the rubbish from the shed today and are collecting the shed tomorrow. Where the heck does that leave us? Something that was ours is no longer ours. Craziness. So we got our realtor on the case, told him how much we wanted the old owner to give us for the shed, given that he did not disclose the fact that it was not ours. I doubt he is going to give us a single penny, miserly old man, but fingers crossed.

Much worse than that, Danny tried to kill himself. He runs around at twenty miles an hour because he is trying to make everything perfect - I think because he worries that he was the one that wanted to move and he doesnt want to give me anything to complain about. Dont get me wrong, I havent complained about anything yet and dont intend to because WE are moving, but I think its what troubles him. I am just fine moving into a gutted house because I know its temporary, but he is going on a field trip for three weeks and I think he feels a little guilty that Im going to be living in a construction site on my own with a wee-baby. Anyway, back to the story of how he almost killed himself because he was trying to go to fast. He was going to hook up the washer and drier but decided he was going to test the drier plug before he attached it to the drier to check it was the right size. But the three wires were all touching when he pushed the plug into the wall. There was a huge explosion and he apparently stood there in shock for a few minutes. Thankfully he is fine, but he of course, wont listen to me about slowing things down, so perhaps you could call him and let him know that we would like to keep him around a little longer and perhaps he could slow down the pace a little.

Purchased

2011-06-28T19:46:00.003-05:00

Today we spent $4800 on windows. Windows just for three bedrooms. 5 windows. And despite that sounding like a huge amount of money, we got tons of money off. They were 15% off this week and we had a 10% off coupon. What a good time of year to move house. Our appliances, which arrived today, were also 15% off last week. We are now the proud owners of a very nice fridge, dishwasher and a very red washer and drier. I have yet to see any of them.

Tip of the day: if you need to buy some things from Lowe's go to the postoffice and get a change of address packet, there is a 10% off coupon inside.

There really isnt much that my wonderful husband says that is just plain stupid, but he seems to think that there are simply less mosquitos in the city. I know that he thinks that moving to the city is going to improve life to the max, but no mosquitos, especially when there is a storm drain in our back yard, seriously!

Today he has rented a U-haul, bought a bunch of beer and is picking up hamburgers from Larry's and some friends are helping him move a ton of big stuff. Spare beds, sofas, book shelves... our house looks like a bomb has explode and left nothing behind! So that I dont feel totally useless, sitting here while they empty out the shed at the new house which was left FULL of 10 years of someone else's crap, I am going to clean the kitchen, unpack the dishwasher and iron some shirts. What a fun night ahead!

HOW MUCH!

2011-06-27T20:03:00.004-05:00

Do you have any idea how much windows cost!?!?

I do. Since we drove all the way to Batesville today to go buy some at Lowe's, where they are currently 15% off. Didn't have correct sizes and numbers, essential when forking out this much money, so we picked the windows out and have to go back tomorrow with dimensions and credit cards.

Approximately $475 per window.

Yes, we are buying 11 windows, and that doesn't even cover the entire house, but it's all we are willing to do right now! Dont want to get ahead of ourselves on the renovations.

Danny is a little distressed that the delivery time on the windows is 28 days, so we will be moving into the house before they have finished (or for that matter, started) our bedrooms, but I knew they would take that long, so I had already prepared myself for living in a construction site. Do they make hot pink hard hats? Or do they just sell those at Adult Stores?!

Great summer pasta for dinner tonight...

Shave a small zucchini/courgette with a vegetable peeler, toss with hot cooked pasta, a diced fresh tomato, some diced fresh mozzarella, olive oil, lemon juice and a splash of balsamic and some freshly picked basil. Yummy! Henry even preferred it to his spaghetti.

Weekend antics

2011-06-26T20:09:00.002-05:00

I hadn't realised what a fun packed Saturday we had until a friend asked us that night what we had done...

Henry and I went to the farmers market around 830am, not early enough for peaches, nectarines or organic blueberries but everyone was still there to visit with, including the chicks the egg people brought, though Henry still isn't sure about the chirping little balls of feathers.

We then went to breakfast at the bakery with Papa where we devoured a brioche, a bagel and a biscuit together.

We then went to story time where the crowd was a little younger than usual, mostly 2-3 year olds I think. Henry had a good time playing with the blocks, singing Old MacDonald and generally crawling around looking at the other kids.

We popped to our new house briefly where they were jacking up the floor to sort out the differential settling. Its funny, I hadn't really noticed that the floor wasn't flat until I walked in to the house Saturday and it was noticeably level for the first time!

Then Papa and Henry went to Home Depot where they discovered that the shed that we bought at the beginning of the week was now 10% off, so in true money saver mode, Danny got 10% back on the shed that we had already bought! Funny enough, the lady called him again and found that she could get him another $33 off if he wanted to come back in! At this point, I came home, had lunch, read a magazine, did a little tidying up and generally had some peace and quiet. Thank you Papa!!!

Then Henry took a nap.

Then we went to the pool all together and met up with Sophia and her Daddy.

Then we bought some shampoo at Kroger and had dinner with Yavuz and Kevser; trashy Mexican, delicious! The salsa was a little too spicy for Henry who about had a fit when he tasted it, but devoured his spaghetti that we had brought him.

Then we went to visit the 8 week old Golden Retriever puppy that Yavuz and Kevser recently got, though Henry wasn't exactly impressed.

Then he went to bed! Phew. What a fun packed day.

Sunday was a little lower key, probably a necessity! We walked the dogs, met up with Papa at the lake where he was doing a photo-shoot, tried to play in the water but Henry did not like the waves at all, probably means we will be playing in the pool rather than the sea in Puerto Rico. Played at the house, napped (both of us!) then went to get ice cream at Sonic after dinner. Henry is now sleeping soundly and I have lots of laundry to do and lunches to get ready for work tomorrow. It never ends... but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Letters from our readers...

2011-06-24T20:50:00.009-05:00

"Consider this a formal complaint. When you started your blog you were peeved no-one seemed to read it. Now we are all hooked you have put three entries on since April - this is simply not good enough. We would like more long term commitment. We are growing old, we can only look forward to living vicariously (look it up!) and therefore you should take your responsibilities seriously. Don't make excuses about work, child, moving house, exercising, cleaning, laundry, gardening, shopping, socialising, spending time with husband or other inconsequential activities - prioritise!"

Well reader, I apologise, and to anyone else that may feel this way. I had no intention of leaving you bored at home, alone, I have just allowed life to take over... So here is what we have been up to lately...

1. We bought a house! Yes, we are moving down town! Danny wanted a newer house where nothing would go wrong. We bought a 1960s gem that needs everything replacing, he just found black mould and Im sure the paint is full of lead. On the upside, we get to totally re-model and get everything the way we want it, we will be living 5 minutes walk from the children's park, the skate park (because you just know Henry will be a dare devil when he is older), the public library and all of the schools. We are a 20 minute stroll from the square and all the fun stuff that comes along with that.

2. We accepted an offer on our house! 18 days was what it took. Unfortunately the inspection has apparently come back with a list of small things to fix so we just need to think about how much we want this sale to go through and how much we are willing to pay for it.

3. We got new jobs! In the fall we start working for an International private consultancy firm called Cardno Entrix, doing pretty much what we do now, just a much more stressful job for much more moola. Nothing for nothing eh.

As if that's not enough, Henry is every growing, of course! He is crawling at lightening speed and has decided he needs to eat his dinner with a fork (that he yields) and drink from a regular glass (only). Our beautifully behaved wee-bern has turned into a naughty little devil, almost over night. It took us three nights in a row (apparently at the end of the day we are tired and less quick to notice) to realise that we were getting played at dinner time. He would have a fit until I picked him up and let him finish his dinner sitting on my lap. As soon as we realised that it was the third night in a row that I was covered in food because he was sitting on my lap, we ceased allowing him to sit on my lap and so dinner time now results in screaming and an all out tantrum within 5 minutes. After 5 more minutes he stops crying because he realises we arent going to do anything about it. Poor little man, yeah right. He knows exactly what he is doing. He is sort of self-weaning, which is probably good because I wouldnt have the heart to forcefully wean him Im sure. Some days he does not nurse at all, sometimes once or twice. We enjoy going to the City pool most of our days together. Henry thinks he can swim un-aided, which means you have to constantly have your wits about you, and putting his head under water is no problem at all. In fact he sits on the edge of the pool and dives in so that I have to catch him as he goes under. I have had to work several weeks of full time lately and that has not been nice since we havent got to spend much time together, but I told my boss that I couldnt do it anymore.

So we are currently in-undated with re-modelling decisions. Constantly packing more boxes up and thus living in a shell, basically. We have bought some of our appliances, which while fun ordering exactly what you want, was not nice when you look at the total bill! Trying to get through each day making progress but stopping to enjoy play time with our little man and squeezing some sleep in there somewhere. I look forward to coming to some agreements on the inspection findings and closing August 1st. Please please please buy our house crazy lady from Tuscaloosa.

Oh, and I know what living vicariously means. Im not 5 mum! And thanks for the 'complaint' it really made me laugh today!

Dinner time!

2011-06-07T20:41:00.004-05:00

I have had various complaints about the lack of posting and I do apologise, we are ever busy in this household, of course!

We spent the Memorial Day weekend 'blitzing' our house, getting it ready to sell. Yes, we are moving! We are hoping to close on Bramlett Boulevard on Thursday... this crazy show is moving down town baby! We will be minutes walking distance from the childrens park, the skate park and the library and a 20 minute walk to the square. Fantastic! Then this past weekend we went to Maryland to visit friends who are due at the end of July. Lots of fun!

This is a demonstration video on how to get your chilluns to eat greens! Henry had refused to eat most everything over the weekend, kinda embarrassing when you are dining with soon to be parents who are probably thinking, 'well, what a naughty child, and she lets him just eat yoghurt at every meal time'. So I made dinner last night cautious that he might not even touch the Spinach Pea Pasta, but here is the evidence that, last night at least, he stinkin' loved it! (recipe to follow!)

Henry loves his pasta! from Danny Klimetz on Vimeo.

Spinach Pea Pasta

(dont tell the kids whats in it - you could alternatively call it Monster Snot Pasta)

Boil the contents of a small bag of frozen spinach and half a bag of frozen peas for 4 - 6 minutes. In a food processor, blend with Olive Oil, a heafty serving of Pesto (4 heaped tablespoons probably), a box of cream cheese (8oz) and season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook wholewheat pasta for 2 minutes less than package directions (I also saved the water I boiled the spinach and peas in and cooked the pasta in that - no reason, just saving water really). Drain pasta, storing pasta water. Return pasta to pot with half of spinach mix and several large splashes of pasta water and cook down the water until its a thick pasta sauce (minute or two).

Watch your child enjoy greens! Then enjoy the left over sauce as a dip for crackers for lunch the next day!

Splish splosh!

2011-05-11T20:36:00.000-05:00

I know that I owe you lots of back logged pictures; the rest of our trip to England, the first hair cut... but today we played in the paddling pool...Henry is a water baby, Knox opted to get out and snack!

Is it wrong to eat Lemon curd from the jar with a spoon?

Exhausted

2011-05-03T21:44:00.003-05:00

After two hard and stressful days at work I actually enjoyed the peace and quiet that came with cleaning my stainless steel kitchen appliances this evening. Then as it rolled on into night I have been vacuuming, sweeping and mopping. All post-baby dinner time, play time, bath time and more play time, story time and bed time! Now at 945pm Im about to embark on my laundry and ironing, though my eyes are getting heavy.

Tomorrow morning Henry has his first hair cut. I know you will all fuss that he is too young, not even 10 months, but his hair is growing down into his eyes and annoys the heck out of me! Just a little trim to tidy it up.

I know that I have still more pictures to put up of our holiday many weeks ago. Hopefully I will get them up before our next mini-trip to DC to visit the Stix' before they have their baby... all these pregnant people are making me get broody again!

Henry update: he has a third tooth and is drooling like a mad fool so is probably getting some more here soon. He is crawling all over the place, but more of an army-style 'drag yourself through the trenches' than an actual 'arms and knees' type crawl. Nonetheless, he is very mobile! He LOVES his new Leap Frog table and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone who has or is soon to have a little one! He officially does not like white pasta sauces but loves tomato based sauces. He LOVES Jambalya and likes Lamb curry ok. He has very very stinky poopoos!

In other news: we escaped the carnage of the tornados last week thankfully, but did lose a tree in our front yard. I think it was more the weight of the rain on the sideways-heavy tree and the super saturated ground, than wind damage. I am going out tomorrow night!!! There is a wine tasting at the Ravine and I am going on a girls night. Dont worry, I have acquired a ride, six half glasses of wine and Im anybodies! Farmers market starts up this weekend, so Henry and I will begin our summer tradition of riding to town together early saturday morning, pottering around the farmers market and heading over to the coffee shop for breakfast and early morning tea before cycling on home again. I am very excited. I know that we spend lots of time together anyways, but its nice to have this one thing we do together on a regular basis. Oh and dont forget, its Mother's Day in the US this weekend... Ive put my order in to get pampered for the day. Or at least to not change a nappy for the day!

Joy rides

2011-04-20T15:51:00.010-05:00

Driving Daddy's car to Meridian wasn't enough for our budding race car driver, we had to steal Grandpa's car too!

Ah sweet sunday

2011-04-17T20:14:00.002-05:00

More holiday news later, when I have the time to upload pictures, but I just wanted to let you know; I had a fantastic Sunday.

Henry threw me off kilter by waking up at 2am, not sure why, so I was rather tired this morning. Managed to ride my bike to the lake in the chilly spring morning, which was lovely. Then Henry and I watered our tomato plants and his feet. He literally played in the mud - and he thoroughly enjoyed getting dirty! We took the dogs to the lake and they played in the water, by this afternoon it had warmed up nicely. We ate dinner out on our deck (that Papa lovingly swept for us) and you would never believe what my little man ate for dinner... Rib eye steak, sweet potato fries, corn and edamame salad, carrot and pineapple salad and asparagus, with a cracker and some kiwi thrown in for good measure. He has such a big appetite!

Bought myself an Ergo last night, boy those things are expensive.

The Holiday condensed...

2011-04-15T11:13:00.029-05:00

I know, I know, talk about late on the holiday write up. My apologies, but I had to wait for Danny to work on the pics, which he ensures me he has now done. Plus I find that I get in the habit of things, and then I get out of the habit of things and I have been out of the habit of blogging. The weather has been so great that there is no time for sitting in doors at a computer on my days off. But we just had a super storm so everything is soaking wet outside.

Anyways...

The Birthday Holiday

Henry is a fantastic traveller. We left our house at around 3pm Thursday and got to our hotel 9pm Friday; with a time difference of something like 7 hours. No fussing, crying, or acting out. Thanks to Alison, who leant us her Ergo carrier (an absolute must for new parents, now that I have been able to borrow one and test it out) napping on the go was a cinch. Im sure it added to Henry's 9 month separation anxiety, but we just had to live with that for the time being. He slept about 7 of the 8 hour flight to Amsterdam, played in the airport, slept on the small flight to Rome, played in the train station, ate dinner on the high-speed train and then crashed in the Ergo on the (far too long) walk to the hotel.

Florence

Florence is nice... a little too touristy, but nice. We hopped on a little bus (adding to Henry's transportation experience), walked around a little and ended up in the major museum that is the place to go. We walked in and I looked around; looked at Danny and said "what are we doing here?". We dont like art work. Danny informed me that Florence was all about artwork. We decided after that, to save the money and just look at the architecture from the outside of the building; much more our thing, and free! We never ventured into any supermarkets and Henry wont eat jarred baby food anyways, it just makes meal times a battle (which we arent used to) so he ate like an Italian! Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella, diced tomatoes, Pesto Gnocchi, Ragu meat sauce with Parpadelle pasta, freshly baked bread, pizza and lots and lots of Gelato! The Italians LOVED him! Everywhere we went people went crazy for our little Bambino! I was nursing him on a train once and this woman kept turning round to look at me. I hoped that public nursing wasnt taboo in Italy (as that was going to make the trip hard) and just kept smiling at her. When he was finished nursing and he sat up, she started smiling at him and making faces. So she just kept looking at us to see when he was done so that she could interact with him! As it turned out, nursing wasnt a big deal in Italy at all, waiters even came over to take our order while I was feeding him.

That was really all we did in Florence... eat a lot, walk around even more and look at the lovely architecture. What I enjoyed most about the trip, was getting to spend lots of time with my very handsome, very wonderful men, with no house work or yard work to think about, or even work work for that matter!

Pisa

Getting to Pisa could have been a mission, but it worked out ok. We got to the train station in Florence in just enough time to buy a ticket, run across the station to collect our baggage, run back across the station, along the platform and pile onto a train. Then the train got several stops away and stopped. We just sat there. A group of women got on the train blaring loud obnoxious music from their phones and I was about to loose it when someone came and announced to the carriage that there were no trains going to Pisa tonight. It was a Sunday. So everyone disembarks and makes their way outside of the train station. Where are we? What are we going to do? After some time of just standing around with everyone else we approached some folks to see if they wanted to share a taxi to Pisa. It didnt really matter how much it cost (probably around 100 Euros), we had a baby and he needed to sleep in a bed that night. After organising this with a British couple, everyone starts flooding back into the train station. It seems that the trains were running again. So Henry asleep in the Ergo, and Danny loaded like a pack donkey with our gear, we run through the train station, under the platform, up the stairs, along the platform to find a carriage where we could actually fit in and we make it onto the very first carriage. But Danny slipped in the confusion and all I saw was his leg disappearing between the train and the platform. Instantly I started processing where the hospital might be, but he was fine, thank goodness! When we got to Pisa and called our hotel for the pick up, they were on their way to pick up another couple, turns out the people we were going to share a taxi with were also staying at the same hotel!

In Pisa we walked to the Leaning Tower, of course! Henry was having a fantastic time at the railing, so we let him play their for about 30 minutes. We walked around (outside, of course!), he slept in the Ergo, we bought him some Italian clothes (that were made in France - duh!). Played at a children's park and found a fantastic hole in the wall, totally out of the way place for lunch with communal tables and benches, self serve wine and water and great food!

That night Henry and I flew to England. He slept in the Ergo from 30 minutes before the flight began until we landed. I think this is where we got our stinker of a cold because no one else that we were living with had it or got it.

I will have to write about England another day! I still have ironing to do before H wakes up! Never mind, he is awake!

oh dear...

2011-03-24T01:51:00.001-05:00

Henry and I have a killer cold.

On our travels...

2011-03-23T08:10:00.004-05:00

After a few very tiring, but fun, days traipsing all over Florence and Pisa, Henry is safely situated at his Nanny's house. I have some fantastic photos, of course, but Papa has our download cable and is still in Florence, so you will have to wait.

Henry ate Gelato everyday, stayed up way past his usual bed time, discovered a love of pesto gnocchi and mozzarella cheese and an ability to nap in the ergo that Alison so kindly lent us. We loved the architecture of Florence, but realised pretty quickly (in fact after the very first museum that we went into) that museums aren't for us, so we stuck to looking at the outside of buildings, which was much cheaper anyways! Free in fact!

We had a little hiccup on our train journey to Pisa in that our train broke down and we were just sitting on it with all the other passengers and no body decided to tell us. Eventually a nice lady came and told us and we all disembarked. Stuck in some po-dung town on a Sunday in a country where you don't speak the lingo, oh yes, with an eight month old. Yippee. We were on the brink of sharing a taxi with an older British couple to Pisa when the crowd started flooding back into the station... yep, trains were back on. So carrying all of our junk, and H asleep in his little pouch, we joined the throngs of people down the stairs, under the railway, up the stairs, run along the platform trying to squeeze onto a carriage... we made it onto the last one because I ran and stood in the doorway so it wouldn't close. Danny runs up with our suitcases, falls... but thankfully only scraped his ankle because from where I was standing, watching one foot (and leg) disappear between the train and the platform, we were headed to the Emergency Room, if there was one... We made it to Pisa and strangely enough, were staying in the same hotel as the British couple we were going to share a taxi with! I LOVED Pisa. Much more old towny and relaxed than Florence. We even found a childrens park and played on the swings, mixed with little Italian toddlers and hit the merry-go-round, though the later wasn't exactly a hit with the H-man. Henry and I took a quick flight back to England and he slept the whole flight. Im sure the people that decided not to sit next to us (we had the whole row to ourselves) because they didnt want to sit next to a baby, were aggravated that the toddlers in the middle of the plane cried the whole way there, whilst H just slept on quietly in his pouch. I even managed to get the car seat in Grandpa's car all on my own, in the dark, tired ad hungry! Brownie points for Mummy!

We are now just relaxing at Nanny's house. This morning we ate our lunch out in the garden, feeding the ducks our left over bread. Henry loves watching the lambs play in the field behind us and is seemingly transfixed by the goings-on of the pond. Tomorrow the Country Living Fair, so let's hope Henry is in a good mood for our day-long outing with the girlies and that this time our train doesn't decide to just give up!

We miss Papa and look forward to his arrival tomorrow night. Should be a nice surprise for H Friday morning when he wakes up.

Essential baby gear for International travelling: an Ergo pouch for daytime naps on the go; a very durable stroller (we have a something Maclaren but I cant remember the name right now); teething biscuits for entertainment and popping those ears if its not time to nurse during take off and landing; bread sticks for restaurant entertainment; a wipe-able bib; a sleepsack and binky (comfort blanket) to make every hotel bed feel like home...

Respects

2011-03-13T19:49:00.005-05:00

A sad thing happened to our family last week. Our matriarch past away last Saturday. Dot was a wonderful woman who saw the best in everyone. We miss you Grandma.

We drove down to Meridian for her funeral. The saddest thing was that it was the first time in almost a decade that ALL of her descendants were in one place at the same time.

She loved pictures of Henry, so here are some of Henry driving us to Meridian. He is a bright child that has already acquired his driving license. Papa is just the booster seat.

Happy 8 months old H!

weeeeeeeee!

2011-02-19T08:58:00.005-06:00

Henry, Sophia and Knox all went to the park this week to play on the swings and the slide. Sophia was able to run through the obstacle course, whilst Henry and Knox had to get carried around by their mummies, but Henry really enjoyed the swings. Knox wasn't so impressed with the swing and got this terrified bulging eyes look about his face, poor little chap. I think perhaps the 'fun' in the slide evaded Henry a little, but hopefully he will learn to see how much fun slides are! Then he got to eat his lunch sitting on the outdoor Checkers/Draughts board. Now that its warming up outside we have lots more activities to entertain us!

Are we on our way?

2011-02-16T16:56:00.004-06:00

We thought Henry was a long way from crawling because as soon as you put him on his stomach, he rolls to his back. Very gracefully, but nonetheless, he ends up on his back pretty quickly. So we figured he wouldnt be able to crawl if he never spent time on his stomach. Well, now Im not so sure. He was ever so tired after our fun packed picnic at the park with Papa at lunchtime (say that quickly!) that I was sure he would go straight to sleep when we got home. So I put him on his back, in his bed and sure enough, he was quiet straight away. Then 3 minutes later he was screaming bloody murder. Henry isnt one to cry when you put him to bed unless something is wrong, and it usually means wind, so I went to see what was up. My crazy little boy was at the other end of the bed, 90 degrees to the way I had positioned him and on his front. Not lying on his tummy but propped up on his elbows and knees, just a-cryin' his little heart out with dark purple tired eyes. So I picked him up and asked him why he didnt just roll onto his back if he didnt want to be on his tummy any more, but of course, he couldnt answer me. I had read somewhere that babies are thinking about all the things that they are learning so much that they think about it in their sleep too. So I wonder if he was thinking about crawling in his sleep and rolled over in his sleep and thats what woke him up. We shall never know, but I wonder how far away mobility really is...

Beautiful!

2011-02-14T09:25:00.002-06:00

Saturday was the start of a beautiful 10 day forecast. It is incredible out! I have the back door open and I didnt have to wear ear muffs or gloves or even leggings that covered my entire legs when running this morning! There is definitely a spring in my step. Is this the beginning of spring???

Happy Valentines Day.

Happy 7 month birthday little man!

2011-02-13T21:19:00.004-06:00

Please note the following; I am standing on my own, yes, unattended! Oh and the copious amounts of drool running down my body!

The 7 month scoop on the H-man... I have two teeth now, the bottom middle two. I wake up several times a night, because I know my mummy is super tired, or perhaps because my second tooth has been coming in. I sit up well, but still avoid tummy time, so who knows when Ill be crawling. I have this new gummy smile, which is adorable and my Papa seems to be my favourite person! I have been skipping my late afternoon nap and surprisingly, not being a grumpy pants in the evening. I have moved on up into 6-9 month clothes and mummy says I am getting heavier and the cheeky woman says I have leg rolls. I have expanded my food repertoire and my favourite thing to eat is chopped banana in vanilla yoghurt.

As ever, I am a super happy young man...

My first visit to Costco

2011-02-12T19:01:00.003-06:00

Knox and Henry at Costco! Who ever thought of double wide trolleys/carts was a genius!

After three days of freezing cold weather and living in a white world, stuck inside going stir crazy, today was absolutely beautiful and of course, Henry and I had an absolutely fantastic day! We played this morning, I ran during his first nap, then we had a play date with Sophia and Alison; learning how to share toys is going to be challenging since he doesnt go to day care. After another nap we walked the dogs in the glorious sunshine. It was the first time that Henry was big enough to touch the toys that hang in his Chariot and not be wearing gloves! We played some more and played some more, Papa payed us a surprise visit (he has been at the Film Fest all weekend and we havent really seen him since Wednesday), then we had a 40 minute bath! Henry is tucked away in bed, most probably exhausted, especially with only two naps today. I have made him a most delicious meal for next week; a barley vegetable risotto. It is so good that I almost ate it for dinner myself but I have no more barely and what kind of a mother takes food away from her baby! But if tomorrow night he doesn't like it... well game on, there is no point wasting it is there! All there is left to do is laundry and stuffing diapers; will I ever rest...

Would you want to eat your lunch on the toilet?

2011-02-12T09:04:00.001-06:00

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/11/133663903/breastfeeding-gets-a-boost-amid-the-health-policy-wars?sc=17&f=1001

Breast-Feeding Gets A Boost Amid The Health Policy Wars
by Julie Rovner

- February 11, 2011

With the House expected to vote to defund last year's health overhaul law and frequent battles in the Senate over repealing the law all together, things have been pretty ugly here in Washington.

But this week brought a small win for moms. A group of lawmakers are celebrating a decision by the Internal Revenue Service to allow women to deduct the cost of breast pumps and other breast-feeding supplies.

The policy change means that from now on, taxpayers will be able to get back the money shelled out for breast-feeding supplies, which can cost hundreds of dollars.

It's not super easy (is anything dealing with the IRS easy?) But women in the know can now get reimbursed if they use money from their Health Savings Accounts or Flexible Spending Accounts. Or, they can deduct the costs from their income taxes — if they have other medical expenses that make up more than 7.5 percent of their income.

"This is good news for nursing moms, and a welcome recognition of scientific fact by the IRS: breast-feeding has significant health benefits," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who has led the charge for over a decade. Previously, breastfeeding supplies weren't deductible because the IRS considered them a nutritional expense, rather than a medical one.

The change was also lauded by the American Academy of Pediatrics. "For years, the AAP has been urging the IRS to recognize that breast milk is not just the best and most natural food for infants; it confers well-documented health benefits on both baby and mother that cannot be obtained any other way," AAP President Dr. O. Marion Burton said in a statement.

Rep. Maloney was the lead sponsor of a 1999 law that expressly permits breast-feeding on federal property.

But apparently not everyone got the message. The Washington Post reported earlier this week that a woman attempting to breast-feed her baby on a bench at the Hirshhorn Art Museum (part of the federal Smithsonian complex) was asked by a security guard to do it in the ladies' restroom instead. When she said there was no place to sit in the restroom, the guard "told her to try sitting on the toilet."

Shame we cant take a trip to Washington this week!