7 Years!

Kendall and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary t his Monday. Even though I've been sick (for two weeks!) and had no voice, we still got a babysitter and went out to dinner. We tried a new place in town called Kents. They wood fire their steaks and are the only place in Troy that offers both choice and prime cuts of meat. Being the steak connoisseurs that we are, we wanted to take this place for a spin. Let me say, we were NOT disappointed.

The steak was DELICIOUS and cooked exactly to specification, the twice bake potato had an amazing cheese crust, and the appetizer that we chose had fried zucchini, portobello mushrooms and ravioli that were to die for. I was stuffed! Our bill came to about 80 dollars with tip, so it's definitely a place for special occasions and not for casual dining.

After dinner we headed to downtown Troy and strolled hand in hand around the town square. We took a self portrait in front of the Christmas tree in the middle of the driving circle. I think this will become a new tradition for us as we took once there last year, just 6 days after Max was born.

Which led us to talking about how we can't believe our baby is 1. Time sure does fly. Kendall is such an amazing father and husband and I'm so grateful to have found such a hard working, dedicated, loving man. We know so many people who are already divorced and I am glad that we work so hard to make our relationship strong. It takes some fighting and swallowing of our pride sometimes, but overall, we make things good. I look forward to continuing the celebration. And hoping that next year we are also celebrating the birth of another child. Keep your fingers crossed that we can make that happen!

My Baby is One!

Where has the time gone?? This time last year I was snuggling a 9 lb 13 oz little baby in my arms and figurig out how to get him on my boob. And today he ate an entire cupcake all by himself! I stood in my bedroom last night and cried. I can't even imagine how we will all feel when our babies are turning 18! 30!

I am so greatful that God blessed us with this wonderful little boy. And I think it's even better that he was born at Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

So we've been pretty busy beavers lately. Here's the quick highlights...

• Max's first Thanksgiving was a success. I bought 2 dollar place mats in the shape of cornucopias at Kohl's the day before Thanksgiving and set a beautiful table with my china and crystal. Max ate turkey and yams and stuffing and pumpkin pie. Such a big boy! I find it hard to believe that last Thanksgiving he was a 9 pound baby in my belly! Then I look back at pictures of myself, and it's not so hard to believe. :)

• Work has been stressful. Kids are stirring up crazy drama. We've already had one girl admitted to the mental hospital here in Troy, two boys got into a fist fight, a girl lied and told the grade she had cancer, another girl is spreading rumors that a 7th grade teacher is a lesbian and a boy is being accused of sexually harassing a girl via texting. *sigh* I really need these two weeks off....and then some!

• Kendall, on the other hand, FINALLY signed his partnership contracts! He is now officially an "owner" of a small business. He owns 1/5 of the family practice. I took a half day off work to go to his office Christmas lunch and got to watch him sign all the paperwork and stocks. I have to admit, I got a little teary eyed. It took us a long time to get here. Lots of late nights for Kendall and doing things by myself have finally led to his dream of working in his own office. He got a very generous buy-in plan that puts us out of debt from the practice in just 4 years time. Which means we are NOT 1 million dollars in debt! Thank God!

• Max can now say three words besides mama and dada. He says "bye bye", "hi" and "this". We think he is currently attempting "dog" (sounds like "daugh") and "grandma" (which sounds like "gaga", "gama" and "ga" depending on the day). He is also becoming VERY mobile. If you give him a little cart to push, he can walk around the whole room. I'm waiting for him to take that first step away from the furniture.

• We also took Max is his first UD game! We only stayed for about an hour but he didn't seem intimidated by all of the noise and enjoyed watching the crowd. Looks like we're going to have to get some more tickets! GO FLYERS!

Weird Things I Do

You know how we all have habits and patterns that we follow? I was sitting here eating a snack thinking about mine and wanted to share a few.

1. I like to eat Cheese and Peanut Butter crackers with a glass of milk. I eat them the same way every time. I bite the cracker, take a sip of milk, chew and swallow. Then I repeat this process until all crackers are gone. However, sometimes I encounter a pack of crackers that doesn't have enough salt on them. If the first cracker doesn't, odds are the other 5 don't either. So I pitch them. Wasteful? Yes. But a ruined snack isn't worth the 25 cents.

2. My morning routine is almost exactly the same very day and I pace myself all based on the morning wake up song on Mix 107.7. If I am flat ironing my hair when the song comes on, I know I am on schedule.

3. During the work week my lunch usually needs to be microwaved. It's either leftovers or a frozen entree. When I dismiss my 5th period kids at 12:05 I always put my food in the microwave before walking the 6th period kids to the cafeteria. (Yes, we walk 8th graders in a single file line to the cafeteria- annoying.) The kids know that I won't walk them down until my lunch is started.

4. I sleep in a t-shirt and underwear. I can't wear pants to bed. They make me feel constricted. I wear shorts every 28 days or so (you should understand why) but those nights are always the worst sleep I get. Even when I was 9 months pregnant, I slept in Kendall's t-shirts and my giant maternity underwear. :)

5. I have a giant mole on my neck that I play with when I am bored. It is raised and I have had it since I was young. Even as a young girl I would play with it. I also play with my left ear when I am bored. When I was young I played with it so much that I wore grooves in the cartilage. It still has those grooves. I still rub them. Ask me, I'll let you feel. :)

Randomness

• DC sucked except for seeing Sarah Ford. Seeing Sarah was the only thing that happened that didn't end up with me yelling at someone. :)
• Kendall FINALLY got to see what his partner contract is going to look like. While I can't say I'm 100% pleased, I'm hopefully optimistic. I may not get to job share next year, but the year after that is a distinct possibility. His buy-in won't cost us anything out of our current budget and we'll still get productivity bonuses to boot, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to make up for half of my salary yet. BUT the best part is that we get the whole deal paid off in FOUR years. Yes, that means in four years time, we'll hopefully have a large portion of our other debts paid off AND we won't owe the practice anything. Which means everything Kendall earns, we get to keep. Which makes me breath a little easier.
• Max is sick...AGAIN! An ear infection and I think teething. His temperature went up to 103 this weekend. We took him in to the office Saturday night and ran a flu test on him (one of the perks to having a key and the alarm code to a doctor's office...oh wait and being married to a doctor :) and he was negative. Which was a relief. But he had to stay home from "school" today, which means Kendall and I had to split the workday and stay home too. Can't say I was too disappointed to leave work at 11;30.
• Speaking of which...I'm soooooooo unmotivated at work. I didn't even bring any papers home to grade today while I am "watching" Max. I knew he would take a long nap, and I decided I wanted to make my Christmas list. :) I have a movie planned for the end of the week...so no worries. HA! This is how I know that I should be job sharing. When I'm at work, all I can think about it getting home to him. When I'm at home, I'm grateful that I get some time to my day to see other grownups. Working part time just seems ideal.
• I am in the process of looking for invitations for Max's birthday party. Nothing is good enough. If you find a cute birthday party invitation with puppies on it, send it my way....but I need it soon. His birthday is only 3 weeks away! I may have to resort to online invitations. Not my favorite choice though.
• I'm really starting to get the baby itch again. I know, you're thinking, "But Lisa, Max is BARELY out of the baby phase!" But I can't stop thinking about how he's almost a "big boy" with all of the things he does now. And it makes me actually miss when he was tiny. Plus, I fear it taking too long. I don't want Max to be 16 with a baby brother. I exaggerate....but still....
• I am addicted to coffee. I used to think it was stupid to drink it every morning. Now I am cranky without it. The kids at school know when I don't have my morning joe.
• Is anyone else in LOVE with Glee? I put both of the CDs on my Christmas list. And it looks like they're releasing the first half of season 1 on DVD right after Christmas!
• I am officially ready for Christmas music and my trees and lights to be up. Sorry folks, I LOVE this holiday!

Baby 101

Sometimes I worry that Max is way behind and that I'm a bad parent. I'm sure that every parent feel this way at times, but I watch videos of Nicole and I read the blogs of friends with babies and I feel like maybe Max isn't going to be very smart and it's my fault. I know all babies are different. I know that boys and girls are different and do things at different times. For example, my mom says I was trying to walk by 9 months. My brother waited until almost 14 months. I was talking by a year. My brother wasn't. I know girls are typically easier to potty train and will train sooner too. Even knowing all of these things, I agonize over whether I'm doing the right things to make him successful.

For example, I've tried reading Max books. He won't sit still long enough to read them. Now that he can move, he has much better things to do. Like crawl over and play with his toys. Even at night, he doesn't want me to read him a bed time story. So I worry that because I'm not reading to him every night, he's going to grow up to be stupid. I keep trying to tell myself that when he gets a little older, he'll want to do it.

I was watching TV early in the morning last weekend and say an informercial for Your Baby Can Read. There was a 9 month old baby reading flash cards! Max can't even say any real words yet! Is that my fault? I talk to him all the time. We practice saying words out loud. I try not to use baby talk with him. When he is playing, i try to tell him what things are. Is this enough?? I hate watching that infomercial because it makes me want to order those stupid videos so that my kid can be "advanced".

Many of my friends who are parents don't seem to remember what it was like at Max's age, which I find to be very frustrating. At least it would give me a gauge for where he is at if they could give me an idea of what their baby was doing. I don't want to push him to do things too soon, but I also don't want to sit back and not push him hard enough.

Being a parent is hard.

I'm Still Alive

I swear, not being able to blog from my work computer means almost no time to blog at all! And it would take too long for me to use my iPhone keyboard to type you a full entry!

So this is my first post as a "secret blo

gger". My mom still hasn't said anything about it being blocked, which means she must not have tried to check it lately. I'm planning on telling her that a student found it. I'm still pretending like I have no idea what she said about me behind my back. While it bothers me a little bit, I'm pretty much over it. If she doesn't want to share her issues with me, it just makes my life that much easier. :P

Max:

So Max has been keeping us pretty busy:

• I feel like he's constantly got a cold right now. Ick.
• He's been teething. He's now up to 7 teeth! OY!
• He's wearing age 18-24 month clothes. They're a bit big, but by January they'll fit just right.
• At his last well-child check he was in the 99th percentile for height. If we were to calculate his adult height right now, he'd be 6'6" as an adult. LOL! Let's hope it's a few inches less than that. But not too much shorter.... ;)
• He's crawling like a pro and pulling himself up on everything. He's just starting to get the concept of taking steps. We've been putting shoes on him every day for stability.
• He waves hello to dogs, lawnmowers, and mommy and daddy. Everyone else is chopped liver. :)
• He seems very close to saying "dog". He says, "Doh". He also seems to understand Mama and Dada are actually us. And he says "Baba" for bottle.
• We carved pumpkins last night. Max loved the "goop". :)
• He likes to try just about everything we eat. He loves chicken nuggets...sort of. He'll gobble them up, chew on them for a few minutes, and then spit out whatever is left. Kinda gross, but also kinda funny.
• We are taking him trick-or-treating tonight to our neighbors. He is dressing as Dr. Erdahl. A friend of my mom's bought him the outfit when he was born. It's a 2T. I can't believe my baby is almost 1 and is getting ready to celebrate his first Halloween!!!!!
• I'm in the process of planning his first birthday party. I'm afraid not much family will be able to come. If you'd like to attend, let me know. I'm not planning on sending out many "friend" invitations. But you're always welcome. I'm thinking of theming it around dogs. Since he loves them so much. Now to decide if I'm making my own dog cake....hmmmm...

Me

• Leaving for Washington D.C. in less than a week. We leave on Tuesday morning at 6 am. We have a group of three boys that didn't make the deadline for turning things in for the trip. One of the moms has decided that she's going to drive them herself. They are going to follow our buses. RI-DIC-U-LOUS! I can't believe these parents are allowing this. You didn't get your money in on time, therefore, you can't go. They're all getting 4 days of unexcused absences and will be forbidden from speaking to the rest of the kids on the trip. What fun is that?
• I've been feeling overwhelmed and exhausted all the time lately. I don't hate my job, but I can't say I love it right now either. I hate that I don't get to spend my days with Max. He's doing find at daycare, but it makes me sad to think I'm missing these days. I have to find a way to job share next year. My fear is that it won't happen.
• We've been officially trying for baby #2 since about July now and still no success. I can't say that we're trying TOO hard though. Every month I say I would be surprised if I was actually pregnant. We're going to get really serious around Christmas. Jessica is trying for baby #2 and Natalie is too, and I'd really like to be pregnant at the same time as someone and have kids that are close in age. Please don't ask how things are going though in the future. We're planning on hitting up the fertility guys in February if we don't get pregnant on our own. I'll let you know when it happens.
• I've been feeling like my house is "old" lately. I am itching to do some remodeling and redecorating inside. I think this winter's goals are to take the wallpaper down in the laundry room and the powder room and to give them both a more modern look. I also want to gut the sink and floor out of the powder room too. I'd also like to paint our bedroom and bathroom and update the fixtures. Really, I want to gut the whole bathroom upstairs, but that will have to wait for a couple of years. This short term fix should do for now.
• Our next major purchase HAS to be a king sized bed. Kendall and I both have back aches on a daily basis and we've slept on too many kings lately to keep sleeping on our queen. We want more space. :)

Hope this is enough of an update for now! Probably get

back to you in a few weeks. Here's a picture of Max with the pumpkin goop!

Excited

Okay, so this might sound weird, but I'm already starting to get excited for November and December to come around. I'm definitely a fan of fall and winter weather, I look forward to school delays and cancelations and I find my best clothes come from those seasons. But this year it's all about Max.

For the last year and a half, I have imagined what it would be like to have a child at the holidays. This time last year, I was still pregnant. Big, miserable, sweaty, huge legs and feet, and ready to pop the little guy out. Even the day after Thanksgiving, I was out hoofing it with a giant belly. And I know that I "had" Max last Christmas, but he was like 3 weeks old and a little blob. A cute little blob, but still a blob. But now, the holidays are really just around the corner. And I can't wait!

I imagine the delight on his face as he eats his first bites of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. I imagine him watching us from his car seat and clapping to the Christmas songs while Kendall and I sing along in the car. I can see us chasing after him as he almost pulls down one of the 4 Christmas trees we have in the house. And I can almost imagine how amazing it will be to tuck him in on Christmas Eve and hide his presents from Santa under the tree for the first time.

I know that we still have 107 days until Christmas, but I'm already feeling the holiday spirits come on me, knowing that FINALLY we will start our own holiday traditions with our little boy. :)

Just One Question

When the frick in this hot weather going to go away??????

For those of you working in air conditioning- No booing this question. Because it's flippin' nasty in my school building!!!!!

Politics

Let me start by saying I don't think Obama is a socialist who is trying to take over our country. I don't believe in the Obama Army. I don't believe he's trying to push a bill through Congress that gives him control of the Internet like China's dictator has. I don't think he's a Nazi. And I think people who do believe these things don't do enough research to get the real answers. So this week has put me in two situations involving politics and President Obama that annoy me.

1. My mother-in-law wants to go to a Tea Party on Saturday. That's fine. It's your constitutional right to bitch. But I've already voiced my opinion to her that I don't agree with her political opinions. And yet she felt the need last Sunday to tell me that she feels we should be going to this tea party too. She even tried to show me the flier. I just ignored her. I didn't know what else to do short of saying, "I don't think Obama is a socialist Nazi who is trying to become a dictator." I get so annoyed with the fact that she just won't respect that I have extremely different views on the world than she does. *sigh* If I end up in a concentration camp, then she can tell me, "I told you so." Until then, please stop pushing your politics on me! It won't work

2. Our building principal sent out an email about Obama's address to school children that is coming up on Tuesday. He told us that if we were going to allow students to watch the address we needed to send home a letter to each parent and have an alternative assignment ready for any student whose parents didn't want them to watch the address. I guess several parents have already called the building saying they won't send their children to school that day if teachers are showing it.

Here's my issue- we show Channel One (a student news program) every day. Does the principal not think that Channel One will be covering this address the day AFTER he gives it? Will we not be showing Channel One that day? Isn't that censorship??? Will parents be keeping their kids home from school any time President Obama is on Channel One? Since he's going to be the president for the next four years, don't they think he's going to be on the news quite a bit?

Furthermore, did these parents do any research? The White House has specifically said that it is not about his political agenda, it's about studying hard and staying in school. Bush senior gave an address like this 8 years ago. Ronald Reagan gave a politically charged speech to students about taxes during his term. I somehow doubt Obama is going to ask children to stand up and unite against Republicans. I'm not worried about some secret subliminal message. What is the hoopla about? One sentence in a lesson plan from the Department of Education that said, "students draft letters to themselves discussing 'what they can do to help the president'"? I don't think they meant join the "Obama Army". I think they meant, how can they help him further his educational agenda for children to stay in school. I read the lesson plan. It's not bad. I think it's unfortunate that people have put anything and everything that this administration does under a microscope, looking for things they can jump on.

When I told our building principal (who's a Republican) that Bush senior and Reagan had both given addresses like this in the past he said, "Oh." Idiot. This is the same man who told me I couldn't wear my Obama t-shirt to school during the election, when just four years before he had worn his Bush/Cheney polo to school almost every week.

I think what really outrages me is that it feels like he's only doing this because he hates Obama. He didn't even send the email about getting parent permission until TODAY. How does that give me time to draft a letter and get it to parents before Tuesday on a LONG WEEKEND? I think the parent phone calls are a convenient excuse.

Whether you agree with me or not, I just felt the need to vent these things. I find our current political climate very frustrating and hostile. I question what the country's sentiment would be right now if McCain had been elected. Would we really be in some magic kingdom where everything was fixed? I don't think so. What I'd really like to see happening right now is less resistance and more willingness to work TOGETHER to find solutions. That goes for the Obama Administration and the Republicans.

Monday Monday

• It really irritates me when people call me up (telemarketers) and act like they immediately know more than me about a topic. For example, we keep getting these phone calls from a bunch of different companies that buy your time share weeks in case you won't use them. They try to give you a song and dance about how you'll make 10K by selling your time. Now even an idiot would know you're going to get taxed on that money. So when I asked the guy today how I was supposed to get around that, he snottily replied, "Well it's not like your going to make 30 grand off this transaction," I snottily replied back, "Yea, but when you're already in an upper tax bracket, every penny counts. And 10 grand is a lot of pennies." That shut him up.
• Which leads me to my next point- you can't always judge someone based on what the own. It goes both ways. Just because someone drives a BMW, it doesn't mean they're loaded- they could be eating Ramen to drive that car. And just because I only paid for a small time share doesn't mean that I'm some desperate idiot who can't afford their vacation plan and needs to sell it to you when I can bank it for two extra years with RCI. Grrrrr....
• My poor baby is sick. I'm confident it's from that breeding ground of disease known as daycare. In the two weeks he's been there he's already had a bout of diarrhea and is now at home with a cough, fever and double ear infection. *sigh* I had to leave work early to get him. I can't afford to keep doing this if I want to have another kid.
• Speaking of work- my morning kids are going to be a total pain in my butt, but my afternoon kids are starting to ROCK. I hope it's enough to get me through the year.
• We took Max to the zoo for the first time yesterday. Got to see the BABY ELEPHANT. Super cute. :) I'll leave you with some pictures from the trip.

Max loved peeking at us through these holes

.

He got to see lions and tigers AND bears. Oh my!

Hello baby elephant!!!!

We thought it was hilarious that he wanted to pet the fake statues in the zoo. He also enjoyed pulling the hair on the goats in the petting zoo. Sooooo glad that the goats were patient!

Poor Farley

My mom had to make the difficult decision to put her dog down today. He has been blind for quite a while now because of glaucoma, and the doctor warned her that his eyes would just get worse. So bad in fact, that the pressure would be painful and his eyes would eventually bulge and possibly pop out of his head. (Yea, gross. I know.) So she asked for the symptoms. The vet said he'd start rubbing his eyes a lot when they started to hurt. And last week, he started rubbing.

So instead of being selfish and dragging it out until his eyes were unbearable, she made the decision to put him down. She went to the vet tonight and my brother went with her, and they hugged him and kissed him and held him while he slowly went to sleep. Very sad. Very peaceful. Very hard on my mom.

I'm not quite sure what she'll do without him. She's so sad right now. I'm sad right now. Farley was a good dog. He went through some crazy times with my mom. And now she's alone. And that makes me sad. I wish I could do something. But being three hours away makes it hard. So I'm posting some pictures and videos of Max on my Mobile Me account through Mac and hoping that it helps cheer her up a bit.

I'm not sure when she'll get another dog, but I hope it' sometime soon. Not to dishonor his memory and place in her heart, but she needs something to come home to every day...and she's already told me a dog is easier than a man. (haha) So keep my mom in your thoughts and if you're the praying kind, keep her in your prayers. Because if you've ever been a dog person, you understand that a dog isn't a pet. It's a family member. And your heart feels a little empty when that friend is gone.

Poor Max!

I've been getting ready for school all week and taking Max to daycare. He hasn't seemed to mind it. The people there are really nice and almost all of the employees know him by name and tell me how happy and friendly Max is. It's very nice to hear. Even when he's tired or teething, he's still a smiley baby when he's there.

Yesterday I got a call that he had a slight fever and green diarrhea. I went to go get him and since then he has had crazy poops! He keeps leaking out the sides of his diapers! His little bottom has this horrible red rash all over it. We've done Desitin and Butt Paste and neither is relieving it because he just keeps pooping!!!!

On top of that, his two top teeth are coming in at the same time. They're so close! Definitely moving faster than his bottom teeth did.

But between his sore gums and his sore bottom, the poor kid is RAW and sleeping a lot. Last night he went to bed at 5 and we woke him up at 9 to put on his pjs and feed him. Tonight he went to bed at 6 and will get woken up at 9 again. My poor baby!!! At least we got this out of the way before school starts next week!

Daycare Woes

So I'm really not looking forward to going back to work. I haven't been into the building at all yet and school starts in two weeks. I still have furniture to move around and my desk to set back up. Plus bulletin boards to put together...Oh, and those annoying lesson plans. Haha.


I'm not feeling the same anxiety I did last time with leaving Max because we decided to switch daycares. Last week I visited three traditional daycares and interviewed three private people and we finally made the decision to go with a different daycare center in town. It just started in April and we actually know the people that own it in a roundabout way. There are positives and negatives to this whole experience.


Positives include:

• There are quite a few less kids in the rooms. Which means a lot more one on one attention for Max.


• In addition to less kids, the rooms are MUCH larger than his last daycare. In his new room he has plenty of room to crawl around (when he finally starts doing that!) and there are lots of toys and books on the floor within his reach.


• The new facility has tiled floors with playmats. They mop every day (which we have witnessed on the several visits we've made there) and they also clean the sheets and mattrasses on every crib daily. None of these things were done at Max's last daycare.


• We also don't have to worry about putting together bottles! The new center will keep several of his bottles or sippy cups at the facility and they will wash them every day in there super steamy dishwasher. It means that we only have to drop off the carton of goat milk and the rest of the work is on them.


• In addition, Max is mostly on baby food at this point, so it's food and bibs. This is a lot less work on us for washing bottles every night and labeling them.


• There is a lot of play time on the floors involved in the new center. Very little time is spent "up". There is only one exersaucer and one swing in his new room.


• It costs the same amount as his old daycare.

Negatives include:

• The stress I went through in finding a new place.


• Having to tell the old place that we were leaving and be treated rudely by the assistant director.


• Learning that our old place was violating SEVERAL state requirements and that Max probably suffered because of some of them.


• Having to call Jobs and Family Services to report our old daycare for the violations.

I can't tell you how many parents I've talked to that have withdrawn their children from Max's old daycare this summer. Another friend of mine withdrew her son today after witnessing several two year olds dragging bags of dirty diapers behind them to a dumpster (the teacher was "supervising") and then coming in and not washing their hands. Furthermore, she noticed there wasn't even any soap next to the sink!

We learned that in Max's room they are not supposed to have ANYTHING attached to their cribs (state law- Max had multiple things hanging on his crib that they encouraged us to bring in) and that there must be a fire exit in the room (there isn't one). We also learned that the daycare center isn't even allowed to put a wedge in the crib if they try to roll over while sleeping. We signed a waiver giving Max permission to sleep on his stomach (the whole SIDS concern) but they were still forcing him to sleep in a wedge.

We also heard that in order to make room in Max's age group, the old daycare was transitioning anyone who could walk up to the two year old room. So there were several 16 month olds in with 24 month ++ kids.

Needless to say, we're very happy to have switched and it should cause a lot less stress on us at work and home. I'm starting him this Thrusday and Friday and then three days next week. I'm sad that I have to leave him (esp at such a fun time in his development) and I fear that I will miss important milestones like crawling, walking, and his first word. But hopefully we all come out the better at the end of this year. I just can't believe that my baby is turning 1 in four months time! Before I know it, I'll be planning his birthday party and celebrating Christmas again!

I Love My Yard...and Hate the Neighbor's

So I've mentioned how hard we worked on the deck and The Great Wall. But until it was all finished, I didn't realize how much I was going to like it. It thought it was going to be an improvement and something I could "live with" until we had the finances to do what we really want. (It involves a large covered patio that's attached to the house with ceiling fans and a built in grill, large outdoor furniture, etc.)

But now that it's done, and my plants are all in and my new over sized chairs are set up, I love it! I can put the awning out and pretend it's my permanent roof, and I can watch the trees blow gently in the breeze and admire my potted plants, all from the comfort of my red cushioned armchair and ottoman. :) And it certainly helps that the neighbors have been very complimentary.

But what bugs me more than ever now is my neighbors' yard. They don't do anything to maintain it. The couple that lives there are technically friends and you would think I would be able to say something to them, but I can't. And I think most of the other neighbors are fed up with their yard too. So much so, that they don't speak to them. It's awkward. And part of me wishes I could put up a fence so I didn't have to look at the giant weeds growing in their beds. I should sneak a picture to show you how tall them are. I think my dogs would get lost in them! Even their family is fed up with the way their yard looks because they've been over to trim the bushes and clean some of the smaller beds when they're not home!

Another pet peeve of mine is mulching. They haven't mulched since they moved in 2 years ago. The beds look bare and the mulch would actually help keep down the weeds! One neighbor was kind enough to give them a couple of yards of leftover mulch for some of their front beds, but even that didn't cover everything! And they keep saying they're going to get more mulch to finish the front beds at least, but it never happens. We had about 2 yards left over from our own job and I'm contemplating just finishing the job myself. It's just an eyesore on our street.

And I have to be honest and say I don't feel bad for complaining about them. Because I'm of the belief that if you can't afford to maintain the house, you can't afford the house. Just because you can make the monthly mortgage payment, you also have to factor in what it costs to maintain the exterior. I'm not asking them to water their lawn (heck, even I don't do that!) or put in new plants. I'm just looking for them to weed and mulch to help maintain the clean look of our street.

But I don't know how to say that without being rude. So I won't say anything. And will sneak over there in the dead of night to pull weeds. Or hope for an early frost. :P

Time

I just don't seem to have time for this blogging thing anymore! I feel bad. I don't even have time to read other people's blogs. I'm amazed at how much time a kid can take up! And then when I'm staying home I find there are a million and one things that I could be doing! Here's what we've been up to lately:

• The Great Wall of Erdahl is finally finished. Most of our evenings have actually been spent outside working on the yard. It's exhausting! But the end result is awesome. We have all of our flowers in, the mulch laid, and even managed to build some new patio furniture. We bought two chairs and ottomans with bright red fabric and really big cushions. They look awesome, if I do say so myself. I'll try to get a picture in here later.
• Max FINALLY has two bottom teeth peeking through. They've been waxing and waning in his little gums for almost two months. And now they are finally peeking through. Nice and jagged. He is now experimenting with biting things. Including me. :P
• My birthday party was a great success. Lots of visitors (upwards of 50 people came!) and plenty of good times in the Jumpy house. :) My legs were SOOOOOO sore the next day. It was crazy! But totally worth the money. I am thoroughly enjoying my new decade. Considering I've only been 30 for one day....haha.
• We're taking Max on a plane for the first time ever next week. Kendall is heading to a conference in Orlando for 4 days and we're tagging along. We're staying a pretty posh resort and spa that offers a crib for the room and on site babysitting for when I want to get a pedicure or massage or whatever. Crazy! I'll try to take pictures of Max and me by the pool. We're thinking of trying to get a shuttle to either Sea World or Disney one night. Should be a good time. Hopefully Max behaves on the plane.
• School starts in a month. *sigh* I'm totally not looking forward to it at all. I think I'll be counting the days until Christmas break. And then Spring Break. And then Summer Break. :) I was looking as my class rosters and I'm already having dreams about screaming at the kids. Not a good sign.
• I have really enjoyed my summer with Max. I was sitting in front of him the other day at his highchair and was thinking about how great it's been to have him in our life. This time last summer I was just wondering what it would be like to juggle a baby and all of our other day to day chores and business and now I realize how great it is. Even if he has meltdowns and bad days, Max is such a great kid.
• I got a Sony Reader for my birthday and I'm super excited. I've already downloaded three free books from the Internet and the library. It's compact and lightweight and easy to read the screen. This might actually help cut down on the ridiculous number of books we have in the house! We'll see.... :)

Fake Sneezing

I guess this is all the thing now as a 7 month old baby. He thinks fake sneezes are HIL-AR-I-OUS.

I posted this from my phone just so Sarah wouldn't drown in her disappointment. :P.

We took Max to the pool tonight and decided to buy the family pool pass. That we can go whenever we want and not worry about how long we stay. :)

I am officially testing to see if I can post blog entries from my phone. If it works maybe I'll actually blog more! :)

Summertime

Well, now that I'm off on summer vacation, hopefully I'll be a little better about blogging again.  Here's a list of the things I'd like to happen this summer:

1.  Get the deck refinished.  This one is "in process". Kendall is on his way to get the sander as we speak.  Should be done by the end of the week.

2.  Finish the Great Wall of Erdahl.  Again, we hope to have this done soon.

3.  Get the front yard finished.  The landscapers are supposed to be here around the 16th of June.  Hopefully they stay on schedule.  I want a pretty front yard again.

4.  Max sitting up on his own.  He tries so hard.  His head is so heavy.  His belly makes him spit up almost every time he tries.  But I'm hoping that by July he's sitting up on his own.  It will make playing with toys so much more fun!

5.  Read at least 10 books this summer.  Half trashy, half young adult lit.  I think one of the 7th grade teachers is going to start a book club with me at school in the fall.  It would be a great way to get the kids reading for their required reading and I think we could read some really fun books.

6.  Start trying for baby #2.  Yes, we're crazy.   But we also know we want several children.  And at the rate it took us to have Max, we don't want to take any chances.  We're thinking maybe September....but we just won't commit yet.  Which means we're not ready.  :P

7.  Clear out my closet.  It is full of old clothes that I have just beat the crap out of.  White t-shirts that just look gray.  Sweaters with holes in them.  I need to pitch some of this stuff!

8.  Find a way to marry my iPhone.  Yeaaaaaa.  I love it.  I want to marry it.  Must find a way around polygamy being illegal.....*grin*

Typing As Fast as I Can

I suck at posting to my blog. Maybe that's because I feel like I have very little time anymore! Why didn't someone tell me that being a mom and working at the same time would be exhausting and ridiculously time consuming!

Fast update while Max naps!

Max:

• His stomach issues seem to be under control a lot more. He rarely spits up. It's nice.
• He's now eating rice and oatmeal cereals, peas, green beans, pears, and applesauce. I think we are going to try carrots tonight. He refuses nothing. He gobbles it up. It's hilarious. He cries when it's all gone.
• Still trying to work on sitting up on his own. Still struggling with it.
• Wearing size 12-18 month summer clothes. Good thing for stuff we got as gifts and garage sales.
• He sleeps from 8:30 to 7 now. Super nice. I wish he'd sleep from 10 to 9 for the weekends. :P
• Still not talking much. I want him to say more. I'm hoping he won't be behind. He doesn't make the usual baby sounds, just screeches a lot. I know he can hear me though. He turns when I say his name.
• We've been working on 10 animal flashcards at least twice a day. Current animals: Dog, Cat, Bird, Lion, Pig, Horse, Duck, Monkey, Cow, and Mouse. We say each word twice and then make the animal noise 4 times. His favorite part is, of course, the noises.

Me:

• I get my iPhone is just a little over a week. I'm SUPER excited! It's my early 30th birthday present.
• Speaking of birthdays...I've decided to have a giant cookout at my house for my 30th, on my 30th since it's a Saturday. So mark your calendars now. :) Invitations forthcoming.
• I've been struggling with pumping. My milk seems like it's starting to dry up. I refuse to quit. I'm hoping to hold out the 10 more days of school and then go back to breastfeeding exclusively for a while. Then we're going to try formula again in July I think.
• I hate work right now. My kids suck. I got a death threat last week. And had two parents yell at me. Jerks. I just want this year to end.
• Next year's schedule looks awesome though! I'm not teaching 7th grade- thank GOD- and will be picking up the Creative Writing elective. I'm also still teaching the gifted kids.

Kendall:

• He's been working on the Great Wall of Erdahl and we have the first half complete. I'm so glad he can do these kinds of things.
• Also been super awesome about packing my lunches in the morning and getting Max off to daycare. I think he likes having that time with him in the morning.
• Going to a conference at the end of July in Orlando. I'm heading with him for the 4 days and will be hanging out with Max at the resort. It looks super nice and I think Kendall is looking forward to me going this year. It used to be in Chicago (I was actually going to go to see Viki!) but the conference people decided to change it up.
• Driving around in the Bird Turdmobile. Since we've been hauling all this dirt in, the birds have been finding more worms. And shitting all over his car since it's in the drive while we store various tools in the garage. LOL! He's really tired of it. And calls his card the above-mentioned name.

Gotta go! Ciao!

Crazy, Crazy Busy

I feel like starting back to work has made me lose track of everything! My house feels like it's a mess, laundry hasn't been put away in weeks, and barely washed. Even Max hasn't had very many pictures taken! I try to take a couple of shots a week, but sometimes I don't feel like I get them.

The weather has been screwy too. We had several glorious days of summer weather, a total tease, and then we've had crappy rain and dampness all week. Today looks like it has the potential to be better, but it's cold, so that ruins it.

Some quick updates on life:

Max:

• He has now completely mastered the art of rolling over from his back to his stomach. He does it all the time. At daycare, he does it so much, they have had to put a wedge in his crib so he can't do it. Since he can't roll back over to his back, he gets mad and cries.
• He is drooling like crazy. No teeth yet. But teething has definitely begun. He loves chewing on things.
• His hand-eye coordination is getting really good. He grabs for small objects and is starting to choose the toys that he prefers when given a pile to pick from.
• He loves his Grover that he sleeps with. We lay Grover next to him and many times catch him hugging him while sleeping. Way cute. I have a picture I'll try to get up.
• He is now eating Rice and Oatmeal cereals. He gobbles it up. He's also taking an interest in our table food. Last night at Red Robin, he grabbed a french fry out of my basket and had it in his mouth before I even noticed. LOL! We obviously grabbed it away. I think we will start baby food in a few weeks.
• He now responds to his name most of the time and is starting to reach for us to hold him. It makes me feel good when I go pick him up from daycare.

Kendall

• Work has been hectic and many days he gets frustrated and feels behind. Sometimes he only gets a 20 minute lunch (instead of his scheduled hour) because his morning gets behind so badly. He's frustrated with the schedulers for not giving him the proper amounts of time.
• Only 2 more months until his contract runs out with the practice. Not much has been said about his buy-in except that they've been talking about it. This is only frustrating because Kendall will be losing out on money if they don't give him his buy-in in July. He already makes more than they pay him. We want that money! Not to mention the fact that partners get 6 weeks of vacation vs 2 weeks employed.
• Kendall loves me so much that he built me a wall. We're calling it the Great Wall of Erdahl. It's going to go around 2/3 of our house when it's all finished. He built the first portion last weekend around part of the deck and we will hopefully be buying plants this weekend for Mother's Day. I'm so excited. We even had a landscape design done for the front and back and are planning on doing much of it ourselves throughout the summer.

Me

• I am only 28 days away from an iPhone. SOOOOO excited! We went to Best Buy last night and were playing with them. I can't wait!
• It's only been three weeks since I started back and already I'm sick of working. Part of it is that this year's group of kids has gotten really obnoxious. I'm so glad that I was gone for 4 months. They just don't have any respect for rules or homework or...anything! And it's not just for me. They're this way for every teacher! I'm so looking forward to summer vacation! Only 23 more work days...
• TMI WARNING: I stopped taking my mini pill last month because I thought it was pointless. We barely have time for sex as it is and we want to start trying for baby #2 sometime this summer. So of course, I go off the pill and get my freaking period the next month. Grrrr....I was looking forward to going several more months without it. Oh well, at least this means my body will be ready when we are. Unfortunately, I think it has reduced my milk supply a little bit. I'm hoping to make it to the end off the school year and then possibly trying some formula once Max is on baby food. His stomach has been so good lately I just don't want to jinx it yet.
• I'm DYING for some Mexican food- yet another reason to try Max on formula. :)

Sorry for the lengthy absence and even lengthier post. I'll try to be better, but can't promise anything. Summer is just around the corner, hopefully it will be easier then.

Real Quick

So my first couple of days back have actually been pretty decent.  The kids were actually happy to see me (for the most part) and I haven't had to snap too many times.  Although I've busted out several "Really?"'s and one or two "Seriously?"'s.  The kids are working on a group project this week, so it gives me the opportunity to clean up from the absolute cluster f*ck my long term sub left me.

Not only was my room physically dirty (I had to wash down my desk from the rings of stickiness and food crumbs) but I'm also finding out that he didn't do ANYTHING I instructed him to do while I was gone.  One of things I asked him to do was bell work.  It's the same thing every day, just a new passage to read from a workbook.  The kids read the paragraphs, answer a couple of questions, trade-n-grade, and we discuss.  Takes all of 5 mins each day.  The questions are excellent practice for the state test.  He told the kids, and I quote, "These are a waste of time and the answers are in the back, so we're not going to do them."  WHAT!?!?!?!  He didn't complete a single one, so my kids are like 60 behind.  And they lost out on all of that practice.  *sigh*  

Max has been handling daycare to the best of his ability.  He's eating and sleeping, just not the same as he would at home.  It's kind of frustrating.  He didn't take a single nap from 3:30 on and went to bed early tonight.  Which sucks because it means less time with him.  I don't want them changing my baby, but in three days time, it's already started happening.  :(  I just keep telling myself that it's only for another 30 some days.  And then he's back home with me for the summer.

I could write a novel here about what's been happening in just three days time, but I don't have time.  I want to eat some cake before heading up to bed.  And relax a little.  And get Kendall to rub my back.  :)  Being a stay-at-home mom is sounding better and better all the time.  Too bad I don't have that choice.

First Day Back Anxiety

I officially start back to work tomorrow.  It's got me stressed.  I don't want to leave my little boy with strangers.  And after Friday's observations, I am worried about leaving him at this daycare.  (Long story, but one example was an unsupervised child on the floor for 5 minutes while the safety gate to the room was left open and no one was watching him.)  It's nothing like they first presented themselves to be.  I'm seriously going to look elsewhere for next year.  

They didn't even have a mattress for him on Friday for his crib!  I have made Kendall promise that he won't leave him if there is no mattress.  I have two people lined up to watch him if there isn't one.  *sigh*  I shouldn't be having to do this.  

Maybe I should have picked somewhere that was close to my work, and not my home.  Then I could pop in and visit with him more, like Karen does.  Always something to consider when looking for next year.

I'll let you know how the day goes.  I'm really not worried about the kids at school.  I'll bark, they'll jump.  It's missing Max too much that I'm worried about!  :(

I've been taking Max to daycare all week and when we showed up on Tuesday they asked if they could do a craft project with him.

Today when I showed up, this was on the wall. It made me a feel a little better. It made me think that these kind of projects would be coming home once or twice a month and that they were things I could save for him when he was grown.

While I'm still not thrilled at the idea of taking him to daycare, I also met his primary caretaker today, Gail, and she held Max for an hour, just cuddling him and loving him. And he took to her and snuggled in when he started to get sleepy. I didn't even really feel jealous, which is good. She also has a son named Max who had stomach problems when he was a baby. She asked me lots of questions and made me feel like I was the expert on my kid. Even if she ignores everything I said when I'm not there, she at least made me feel like she wanted to know more about my child.

I have great friends. Thanks guys. :)

A Little Sad

Today starts my last week of maternity leave. I'm sad. I'm pretty sure as the week progresses I'll get more sad. But being said also makes me happy. I know, weird. But really, if you had asked me 8 weeks ago if I was ready to go back to work I would have shouted, "YES!" And that's why I'm happy to be sad. Because I finally feel like we have Max's stomach issues under control and I actually enjoy being at home with him.

More for documenting life (like Karen says) and less for your entertainment, I wanted to note a couple of things about Max and my feelings about going back to work. So I won't be offended if people don't read the rest of this. :)

I'm anxious for several reasons, including having enough breast milk, missing milestones, and the fear that Max will love the daycare people more than he loves me.

The breast milk issue stems from the fact that either I really suck at using my electric pump, or my boobs just don't like the pump. I have about 9 feedings frozen, and I'm hoping to get at least 3 or 4 more this week, but Max has to go for 38 days. We've been giving him cereal once a day and he seems to like it. But he doesn't eat enough of it to really satisfy his little belly. I'm hoping that by the end of this week I'll be able to give him half and half at each of the meals he'll get at daycare. That would significantly help.

The milestones is a big one for me because Max really seems to just be starting to "do things" and I don't want to miss them. For example, this weekend he almost rolled over from his back to his front. He was so close, and then he rolled back. Grrr. He's also starting to realize that if he leans forward far enough, he can sit up. When he's in his bouncy seat he spends more time lifting his head off the back and trying to lean forward than he does just relaxing. He also doesn't like to be cradled as much, unless he's really tired. He wants to try and sit up in your arms. When we carry him now, he likes to hold himself up and look around.

He smiles at pretty much any woman that talks to him (he's a total ladies man) and he laughs out loud and only God knows what sometimes. Sometimes I think there must be a ghost in the room because he'll be looking into space just laughing and smiling. He has the cutest little giggle sometimes, and at others big loud guffaws of laughter. He's also learning how to express his dissatisfaction in loud shouting bursts instead of just crying. His crying has also gotten more dramatic. He can now make his face turn beet red and does the whole I'm-crying-so-hard-I-can't-breath thing. It's almost funny. Almost.

I guess I'm just afraid that he'll roll over at daycare for the first time or sit up by himself and I'll have to hear the excited voice of the daycare worker telling me about it instead of witnessing it myself. It also leads me to the fear that next year he will take his first steps there, and I'll miss it. I've contemplated telling them to not tell me when he does these things and just pretend that all of his firsts conveniently occur at home. I'm not sure yet. I guess I'll have to make that decision this week.

Which closely leads into my fear that Max will love the daycare workers more than me. Don't get me wrong, I want him to like going there, because I don't have any other choice right now. With my job providing the health insurance, I can't quit. And I'm a little bitter about that to be honest. But that's a whole other post. I just don't want Max to prefer the people that take care of him all day over me. It's stupid, I know. My kid will always prefer me. Esp. because he's only going there for 38 days before he spends three more months at home with me, even more time to bond. But what about next year? When he goes there for 9 months?

We're going to stay at daycare for an hour each day this week. I'm sure that the director thinks I'm crazy and overprotective and neurotic. But I don't really care. Because I'm paying these people 155 bucks a week to oversee the safety of my child. And I want to feel comfortable with leaving him there. Hopefully after taking him there and doing a practice run on Friday where Kendall drops him off, I'll feel okay next Monday morning when I have to leave my baby with a stranger. Because right now, it's making me tear up, which just isn't good for my mascara.

Stupid Little Girl

I can't stand the little girl in the VanDeKamps fish sticks commercial. Every time I see her, i want to smack her for talking to her mother that way! This is why I have problems as a teacher- because there are really parents out there that let their kid talk to them that way and then give them what they want.

Stupid commercial.....

Oh Baby!

So we went to visit some friends that just had a little boy two weeks ago. His name is Malachi and he has to be the tiniest baby I've ever seen! He weighs just under 7 pounds and to me, he looked like a preemie!

From the moment I saw him it was almost like he wasn't real! He looked like a little doll! As I was holding him (which felt like I was holding air!) I started thinking about my other friends and how big their babies were when I first met them. I don't remember any of them being this small. Maybe it's just because Max was so large when he was born and he was the last newborn I held before Chi.

Putting the two boys next to each other made Max seem even more beastly. And it also made me feel like a seasoned mother. I've only had him for 4 months, but I feel like I'm eons ahead of Lisa (the other mom's name is Lisa too :) when I listened to her talking.

Isn't it amazing how quickly they grow and we gain the confidence of a mother? Look how big my little boy is!

A Little Logic

In our current economy, many people are making late payments or no payments at all on their bills. Some are getting way behind because they've lost their jobs or their interest rates have risen on their lines of credit.

Fortunately, I am not one of these people. I have always paid my bills on time, and in many cases (with the exception of major purchases like the house, a car) paid in full within a 30 day period. I am also one to take advantage of same as cash deals on larger purchases so that I don't have to deplete my savings account to make the purchase.

Since some of you only know me through the blogging world, I will note here that the only reason I would pay a bill late is if I didn't know about it. This happened to be the case with my January bill from Eddie Bauer. Somehow I had inadvertently change from a paper bill to an electronic bill. They contacted me via phone to ask why I hadn't paid my December bill and I told them that I hadn't received my statement in the mail and just hadn't thought about it after the holidays. I immediately rectified the situation over the phone by paying the entire bill with my credit card. I also requested that any further bills be sent as paper statements.I thought that was the end of it.

I received a bill the other day from my Eddie Bauer Credit Account. When I opened the bill I was surprised to see that I had a 54 dollar balance and it was a "past due" statement. I have not made any purchases on the card since December and had paid off the previous balance. When I started reading the statement more closely it said that I was being charged a late fee. I was irate. I called the 1800 number and politely asked why I was being charged a late fee on an account that had no balance.

Upon further inspection, the representative told me that I had been charged a late fee in January for not paying my bill on time. I asked the gentleman why I wasn't informed of that fee when I paid the bill over the phone. Of course, he had no idea. It was noted on my account that I had requested paper statements be reissued and that there had been some type of miscommunication over the December bill. He read it to me. He then told me that as a one time courtesy he would wave that late fee. I thought THAT was the end of it. Then he told me I'd still have to pay the late fee on the late fee. WHAT?!?!?!!

I asked him if he saw the logic in still charging me a late fee on a late fee he had just waved. He agreed that it didn't make much sense, but that he was only allowed to wave one late fee. I asked to speak with his supervisor. He told me there was really no point in speaking to them because they would tell me the same thing. I told the young man that I wanted to hear it directly from the supervisor's lips.

At first the supervisor was adamant that they had a policy. Then I explained that it made no sense to make me pay a late fee on a fee that was just waived off of my account. That if they had waived the first fee or asked me to pay it at the time that I had originally rectified the late bill, we wouldn't even be in this situation. She was silent for a moment (making the connection, maybe?) and then said, "Fine, I'll waive the second late fee, even though I'm not supposed to." While I think she was rude because my logic made more sense than her policy, I still won. And that makes me happy. :)

Happiness

I was listening to the John Tesh radio show tonight on the way home. He was talking about a new study that suggests that people who are happy make the people around them happy without doing anything but being happy. Almost like it radiates off of them and the people around them absorb that happiness.

It's a fascinating concept. I started to think, am I happy? Yes! And then I started to think, am I making the people around me happy? I'm not sure. But the concept sure sounds nice, that I don't have to do anything but be happy. He said that the people most affected are those that live within a one mile radius of you. Obviously your spouse, family, and neighbors are the most affected. Coworkers and other people that you know that live in that range are also affected to a lesser degree.

It was also suggested that people you know by association can make you happy, so basically friends of friends. I think that's true. For example, Jessica and I were talking about a friend who just had twins. I'm not really friends with this girl, but I know her pretty well and I'm happy for her. Knowing that she's happy makes me happy. I can think of multiple examples of this, where a friend tells me a happy story about someone they know and then I feel good. The idea being that you get to hear that someone else is happy and then become happy by association.

The same would also be true, according to this study, of negative feelings. So of course, the study suggests that you should avoid spending time with negative people.

While most of this seems like common sense, it also suggested that people you don't even know would be affected by your happy mood. I would assume this would mean the people you come in contact with that don't really know you, but pick up on your emotions. For example, the woman who makes your coffee gets a smile and maybe a bigger tip because of your good mood, which in turn puts her in a better mood.

Any thoughts?

This Was My Day...*sigh*

No Thumb- but still!

I found some of these shots to be amusing consiering his shirt of the day. Thumb picture later. On the regular camera. These are just from my cell.

Uh Oh...

Max is now sucking his thumb. His left thumb. It's super cute and he's learning to self soothe....but how am I going to break this later???? I'll try to get a picture of it. :)

WTF?

Someone is out mowing their lawn. It's not my neighbor...suprisingly.

But what the heck are they mowing? The grass in my yard is still brown! Oh wait, maybe that's because we're the neighbors that don't do anything to our lawn except mow and pray for rain. No, it's still too early.

Put that mower away!

My True Colors Glaring Through

A true representation of my personality and hopefully that of my son. Yes, I'm goofy. It's what makes me AWESOME. I rock.

Magic Gravy

Since Morrie had more of his teeth pulled in January, we've been softening his food with water. He doesn't have any teeth on the top, right side of his mouth and very few on the bottom on that side. We noticed that he wasn't eating the food hard and as soon as we made it mushy he would chow.

We've been having a problem with Maggie trying to eat his food too. We thought maybe it was because she was bored with her own food. So we bought her something new. It seemed to work for a while, but lately we've been yelling at her again for eating Morrie's.

This morning I noticed that she was sitting by the sink staring at Morrie's bowl while the food soaked. After placing his bowl on the floor, she immediately tried to snack with him. So I tried something new...I told Kendall to take her bowl to the sink and put some water on the food. She sat there staring at the bowl and then followed Kendall back to her spot on the floor and promptly ate more than half of the food in one sitting.

Basically, she thinks we're putting some type of gravy on Morrie's food and not hers. That's why she's been eating his food. As soon as she thought we were putting the same "gravy" on her food, she ate it. Silly puppy.

New Things I've Learned About Max

1. His new favorite song is "I Like Chinese" by Monty Python. He likes both the original version and the one that Kendall and I made up words to. It usually calms him from crying.

2. If I leave him in his crib for long enough after his morning nap, he will usually work out a poop. He will sometimes lay in there, making small noises, for almost a half an hour. The whole room sometimes stinks when I finally go get him.

3. He likes pooping in public. And usually those poops explode out of his diaper and down his legs, which means a wardrobe change.

4. He now recognizes "The Boob". If you show it to him and he's upset, it will sometimes calm him. It's kind of funny...then again, I'm flashing my kid, which is a little weird. :)

5. He is starting to figure out he has feet. The other day I caught him grabbing at his toes. He is also the most ticklish on his feet. He will actually giggle when I tickle him there.

Airplanes

Once again I feel as if my irrational fear of flying is confirmed.  Another plane has crashed while landing in Amsterdam.  Nine people died and the plane broke into THREE PIECES.  Two crashes so close together makes me even more afraid to fly right now.  

It's like I have this paranoid feeling that someone is coordinating all of this.  I know that's irrational and it's just coincidental, but still.....

I'm really starting to wonder if I'm developing a phobia.

High Chair Fun!

This is only his second time in the high chair. I think he's going to like it. :)

Slackers!

I just feel the need to point out that SOME people who read my blog are seriously slacking with writing in their own!!!! :P You know who you are....

I Like My Changing Table

For the First Time Ever!

I'm posting to you from our new iMac computer.  :)  Yes, I beat Karen to a Mac.  I'm super excited!

Basically our desktop was toast.  We thought we could fix the problem by wiping the hard drive and installing the latest Norton.  And then, in the middle of uninstalling the old Norton, the computer did what it was good at, it crashed....again.  So we tried wiping it clean...again.  And it crashed while wiping.  And then again while we were trying to reinstall the system software.  

So we gave up.  We headed to Best Buy on Valentine's Day with the intention of "just looking".  Yea.  That turned into two hours of talking to the Mac representative.  One hour before our haircuts, and one hour after.   He was awesome.  Very informative.  Showed us all of the cool things a Mac can do.  It's very user friendly.  A monkey could create a slide show and it would look like a professional had done it.  AND- no antivirus software needed.  Because Macs are beastly.  :)

So needless to say, I'm excited.  Max is still sleeping and I'm getting a chance to start messing around with this bad boy.  We spent the weekend setting up the software and I'm starting to really understand how everything works.

A word of caution though- if you are not confident in your computer abilities or are afraid to play around with things and then figure out how you deleted them (like I accidentally did yesterday), a Mac might not be for you.  It's significantly different from a PC.  But once you start to get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun.  :)

News Commentary

Let's stir the pot up a little bit....

1. Michael Phelps- While I do think that he deserves to have his endorsements taken away, I don't see why his pot smoking is making such a big deal in the media. Yeah yeah, he's a role model, blah blah blah. So am I. I don't think a photo of me smoking pot from a bong would make the news. (And for the record- I've NEVER done an illegal druf. And I'll proudly tell my son that some day.) Furthermore, how many of us have pictures of ourselves doing illegal things? (Say, underage drinking maybe????) We just don't have 8 gold medals, so ours doesn't get posted in the newspaper. And the idea that he may be prosecuted? Stupid. You didn't catch him doing it, you can't really prove from the photo that he was smoking pot, how are you going to charge him with anything? It's crap. Cut the kid some slack. No one is perfect.

2. Continental Flight 3407- This is why I think I'm going to die every time I get on a plane. Because people DO DIE. And it looks horrible. What a horrible way to go. And just miles from their final destination. No warning. I feel awful for the families of these people. This is why I will be driving my car for the next several vacations we take. And I don't care what the statistics are on flying vs driving. I feel in control in my car. I'm not in control of a giant metal bird.

3. The Stimulus Bill- Am I the only one who is confused on how even half of this crap is going to help our economy? I get the tax credits and how it can put more money back in my pocket, but are they assuming that people will spend this extra money? And I don't see how people can point fingers at only Obama for this bill when the House and the Senate had to negotiate what they wanted and didn't want in this bill before they would vote on it. It's no longer just the Obama agenda at work here. It's all of our elected officials. So I'm getting really tired of hearing people say that this is all Obama trying to push his agenda through. And what happens if this works and it boosts the economy? Will all of the people who are bitching about him give credit to Obama at the end? Of course not. I get tired of people pointing fingers at individuals. I don't blame Bush for this crisis. I blame the American people. It's our overspending and irresponsibility that got us here. So why knock on Obama for trying to turn things around? He's not to blame for our idiocy. One man in the Oval Office isn't responsible for everything.

4. Nadya Suleman- WTF? This lady needs some help. I watched her interview with NBC, she sounded crazy. And I feel really bad for her 14 kids. At one point in the interview she said she had to use up all of her frozen embryos because she believed it would be wrong to kill them. Okay, I get that. But really, couldn't she have donated them to people who couldn't get their own eggs? And the question of whether she looks like Angelina Jolie- Um, YEAH! They showed pictures of her from several years ago and she looks totally different now. And you can totally tell she's had collagen or something injected into her lips. Where did she get the money for that, from the student loans she's using to raise her kids? How will she possibly care for all of these babies? It just makes me angry that stupid people can have babies. There should be some type of way to prevent this from happening.

Okay, I keep waiting for Max to wake up- but he's still sleeping! Amazing!

Kick Gym & Teddy Bears

:)

Sometimes my kid makes me smile so much, it makes my face hurt. :)

Max's Two Month Checkup

We took Max for his two month well child visit yesterday. Here are his stats...

Weight: 14 pounds, 4 ounces. This puts him in the 100th percentile for his weight. :) His diapers were starting to get tight, so we knew he had to be getting close to 14 pounds. And his 0-3 month shirts are starting to get hard to snap in the crotch and were looking quite tight at the waist. Now we know why. We bought the next size diapers (they were starting to "leak) but we're going to try and force him to wear the shirts for a while longer.

Height: 24 inches. This puts him in the 85th percentile. I was a little suprised because Max comes from tall families. But then Kendall put it into perspective for me. Children that are in the 50th percentile for height are projected to be 5'10". So the fact that Max is in the 85th percentile means he will be well over 6 feet tall. That made me happy. I don't want a stubby kid. LOL! The weird part is, he still fits in his 0-3 month pants. So I guess we'll be putting him in two different sized clothes...which I've heard isn't uncommon.

Head circumference: 42 centimeters. Which converts to 16.5 inches. This puts him in the 100th percentile. He was 15 inches at birth. The diameter of his head is currently 13.5 centimeters. This is why he couldn't come out the "old fashioned way". His head diameter at birth was 11 centimeters. And anyone who's had a baby knows, you only dialate to 10 centimeters....needless to say, my kid has a big head...still.

So basically, he kid has a big head, little legs, and weighs as much as Maggie. LOL! As the doctor commented, "He's obviously not having any problems eating." Yeahhhhh.....

6 More Weeks of Winter

First D.J.: Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today.
Second D.J.: It's coooold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?
First D.J.: Not hardly. And you know, you can expect hazardous travel later today with that, you know, that, uh, that blizzard thing.
Second D.J.: [mockingly] That blizzard - thing. That blizzard - thing. Oh, well, here's the report! The National Weather Service is calling for a "big blizzard thing!"
First D.J.: Yessss, they are. But you know, there's another reason why today is especially exciting.
Second D.J.: Especially cold!
First D.J.: Especially cold, okay, but the big question on everybody's lips...
Second D.J.: - On their chapped lips...
First D.J.: - On their chapped lips, right: Do ya think Phil is gonna come out and see his shadow?
Second D.J.: Punxsutawney Phil!
First D.J.: Thats right, woodchuck-chuckers - it's [in unison]
First D.J.: GROUNDHOG DAY!
Second D.J.: GROUNDHOG DAY!

If you haven't seen this movie, you seriously need to go out and rent it. Today. Right now. Seriously.

I Like Being Naked

Like the title says, I enjoy nudity. I guess I should clarify though...I like wearing nothing but my underwear around the house. Sometimes I'll sit around in my underwear and watch TV. Other times I blog in my underwear. I sleep in just a t-shirt and my underwear. It's just more comfortable than clothing. And when I'm getting ready in the morning, it's just cooler. I sweat under the bathroom lights.

The only problem with this secret pleasure? We have a HUGE window on the front of our house that is directly in line with my staircase to the second floor and aligns with my second floor hallway. I also don't like closing the blinds on the back of the house. I don't really see a point since they all face the backyard. So it leads me to wonder, how many of my neighbors have seen me in my underwear? At least I wear nice undewear. :) Or underwear at all!

All Dressed and Ready to Go

So I really shouldn't complain because my kid has been napping for an hour....but I want to get out of the house! I'm showered, makeuped and ready to go. And today I felt like I did everything right...almost like I've figured out how to get him to nap.

Now the funny thing is, I'm probably wrong. Or it will work for like 2 more days and then my little tricks won't make him fall asleep anymore. But I guess I have to take the wins when I can get them.

Oh, and he's sleeping in his crib for naps now...it's a step in the right direction. :)

SNOW!

For once the weather man got it right....we got a sh*t load of snow. We have at least a foot and it's STILL snowing at 11:45 AM. Max is much too excited to take a nap....yeah right....The poor kid has gas and is trying to work that out and sleep at the same time...as long as he's resting, I guess I'm okay with his not actually sleeping. It's not like we can go for a car ride today...

But back to the snow....I don't know how I'm going to get the dogs outside today to go to the bathroom. Kendall claims that at 6am there wasn't that much out on the deck and they scurried their little furry butts out there. Now the snow is so high it would be over Maggie's head. It's tempting to let her try it....

I also got a snow day out of this mess. Which means that I get an extra day of pay in March because I don't have to take a sick day for today. Hooray! Even though I knew I wasn't going in anyways, the phone call was still exciting.

We couldn't do it......maybe tonight.....or next week. :P

Sad :(

Max is 7 weeks old today. And tonight, for the very first time, we are going to try laying him to sleep in his own crib. And that makes me sad. For the last 49 days he's slept in our room with us. And now I have this irrational feeling that we are kicking him out of the nest. Like he's not good enough to sleep with mom and dad.

I think it's because the dogs sleep in the bedroom with us. Maggie even sleeps in bed with us. So putting Max in his own room makes it feel like we're excluding him from the "fun". We still let the dogs sleep in our room, so why not Max?

I'm sure that I will get over this...but right now, it makes me sad. :(

Great Grandma and Grandpa

Max was in a pretty good mood this morning when he got to spend time with his Great Grandma and Grandpa. I was really happy to get these shots. Someday Max will hopefully appreciate them. My grandparents are both almost in their 90s...there is not guarantee that they will live long enough for Max to remember them the way I remember my great grandma.

Right now I am enjoying some alone time upstairs in the bedroom while Kendall and my mom juggle the fussy boy back and forth. I'm waiting for them to both quit and hand him off to the boob....which is inevitably what everyone seems to do when they can't calm him. My mom has generously offered to come back down when her bosses go to Florida in a few weeks. I've decided to take her up on the offer. I could really use a day where I can get my hair cut and maybe a pedicure. If she comes down, I can do that....and we can finally get all of those boxes of Christmas decorations back into the basement.....

First Big Trip

We're off to Cleveland for the weekend so that Max can finally meet his great grandparents and his great aunt and great uncle. They're all super excited. I think it's going to be a very busy weekend for us and Max might be exhausted at the end (heck, we probably will be too!) but it will be worth the trip for people to ooh and aah over how adorable our kid is. :)

I wanted to get a pack n play that we could leave up there so we don't always have to haul ours. After searching several used stores and searching Craigslist, I found one! It's practically new (maybe used once or twice) and comes with everything ours does....except the big price. I only paid 60 bucks! And that's talking them down from their original price! I got a steal! :) I'll post a pictures of it and some of Aaron's photos of Max when I get a chance.

Random Blurbs

Yesterday evening we went to Kroger to pick up a few items. On that list was supposed to be a box of condoms, as I don't feel like having two babies under the age of 1. We walked into the store, picked up our bread, milk, pears, etc, and were on our way to the pharmacy section when a woman stops me and says, "Aren't you Mrs. E-----?" Turns out it was the mom of one of my current students. At that point I refused to go buy the condoms. Kendall didn't understand. He wanted to know why I wouldn't buy them. I told him, "When I'm Mrs. E-----, I don't have sex. We got Max by holding hands."

I have been watching coverage of the inauguration events in D.C. I totally want to be there! One of our college friends is there right now and posted pictures on her Facebook page and I'm so jealous! Kendall has a cousin who lives in the D.C. area, if I were her, I'd be at all the events I could. My guess is that she isn't going to any of them. That's just her personality.

I think Max is starting to get the concept of a nap and how to fall asleep on his own. Saturday and Sunday he took several naps each day. Today he is resisting his nap (as usual) but in a much more quiet fashion. I think he's actually trying to fall asleep on his own. He's had a lot less gas since we started his Zantac for possible reflux. I think that helps too. Oh, and we have this floor mat/activity gym thing that seems to make him fall asleep! I think it's the Mozart. I will now be investing in multiple Mozart CDs.....

Jessica and Aaron came up on Saturday to take pictures of Max. Jessica said some of them came out really well, we're still waiting to see them. I'll post a few when they are done. I have full confidence that they'll be amazing because Aaron is a great photographer. They've also generously offered to take pictures at 3 months and any other age milestone we'd like to have them taken at. :) So good to have friends with talents....any accountants out there? Hahaha.

We bought some Space Bags. I'm eager to get my maternity clothes in storage and we have some sweaters and blankets that we don't use very often anymore that we'd like to compress. I'll be interested to see if they actually work as well as they advertise. I'll let you know.

I'm not as good at reviewing movies as Karen is, but here are the movies we've seen lately and the grade we would give them: Atonement (A-), Meet Dave (B+), Speed Racer (B-), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (C-), Appaloosa (A). I'm also still looking forward to seeing The Duchess, Elizabeth the Golden Age, and the series Secret Life of an American Teenager.