Real Housewife of Toddler County

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Return Of The Teething Monster

Nicholas has been cutting four molars one right after another starting about two months ago. Baby drool EVERYWHERE! Gross. I was on my knees nightly begging the baby gods to please hurry this process along and make it quick. Once again I think I got more than I bargained for, which I suppose aught to teach me not to pray to false gods lol. Teething sure is hurrying along. He's got the four molars mostly in but guess what. Apparently the baby gods decided to send the tooth fairy/teething monster BACK to our house to deliver MORE teeth. zomg! Today I was checking on the status of our molar acquisitions and noticed that there are four MORE teeth just barely poking through. Ugh, no wonder the drooling hasn't stopped (and in fact has increased!). Nooooo!!! Looks like we're working on the teeth between the four front teeth and the molars. Wonderful. I have noticed for a couple of days now that Nicholas has been biting on his thumb in a weird way. I realize today he isn't biting his fingers, he's using his fingers to feel his gums. He's nothing if not curious and I'm sure they are a bit sore. He's been a good boy about it though. I guess since he's been cutting teeth for more than two months now he's maybe just gotten used to to? He's is likely to be slightly fussy here and there but NOTHING like what he used to be like when teething. He's also eating like a champ for the most part. Today he ate almost a whole apple and man the boy can tear him up some chicken. No worries! I am thinking now that perhaps the runny nose may have been another gift from the tooth fairy (gosh, when does she start bringing $$ on her visits??) and he was not really sick. I was very concerned that he was getting sick this weekend but aside from two days of being a little stuffy and one day with a fever and the grumpies he's been fine. Just a slightly runny nose every once in a while. I think the new teeth may also have brought him new stores of energy! What is the tooth fairy putting in these things?? He's been a hyper little bugger lately running around screaming (the happy kind of screaming) at the top of his lungs and smiling and laughing. Imagine my shock to find new teeth beginning to poke through today. That is very out of character for teething toddler of doom - AKA Nicholas. I won't complain though, except about the baby drool which is just GROSS. I am happy that he is happy and I hope he stays that way. I honestly don't have any great teething remedies up my sleeve b/c nothing except Tylenol seems to help him. He won't chew on frozen rags, I'm frighten of gels stuff on the gums, and his doctor says not to give him those little teething tablets. *shrugs* Ok. At least lately he hasn't seemed to need anything at all and maybe the baby gods aren't really picking on me after all. They at least seem to have some compassion for a poor baby and aren't making this process any more uncomfortable than need be even though they have doubled the teething workload.  For that I thank them. For the tooth fairy... you're still on my list bitch. Beware.... :)

Real Momma's Don't Lable Themselves

Sometimes a momma just can't win. She isn't mainstream enough and gets judged harshly for her beliefs in breast feeding, cloth diapering, or her position on various sleep training techniques. So she calls herself crunchy, or natural, or green.  Then one day she isn't natural enough because in she doesn't fall in line with a group who feels they have a divine right to judge mainstream mothers. She finds herself  either to attached for the mainstream or not attached enough for the natural crunch.  Yesterday I found out I was not pro-breastfeeding enough. OMG, can you imagine somebody saying such a thing to me? TO ME??????? No, really STOP laughing, I am perfectly serious. :P It's a case of not being enough for one group and being to much for another and it really gave me pause and got me thinking.

 Every mother no matter what style of parenting she attempts to adhere to is going to eventually HAVE to make it her own and adapt it to her lifestyle, personal set of beliefs, and unique needs. Otherwise they risk falling into the trap of becoming a slave not to their children but to the idea of *insert parenting label here* It's ridiculous. Simply put you have to be comfortable in your own skin. Nobody can tell you how to do that or what you should be comfortable with. Some things you will see or hear and think OMG, that's ridiculous! Other things will intrigue you, some may even inspire you. Be inspired if you will, but FUCK the label. Don't aspire to parent your children the way another mother you know does, or the way your family wishes you would, or the way a book/blog/forum tells you that you should. Do what is in your child's best interest and do it the best way you can.

For the situation from yesterday, it is not necessarily in your baby's best interest to nurse in public, it doesn't harm or help either way. In fact it doesn't matter at all how or where your baby nurses. The important thing is that they are receiving mother's milk. Duh! Applaud THAT not where they are nursing, and don't get pissy when somebody expresses their own (very well informed) belief on the subject either. I believe in live and let live and try your best not to bother or negatively impact others. What I choose to do with my own personal life and my own son does not have anything at all to do with you. If you don't like some of my parenting choices well bite me.... if you dare. Open yourself up to engage in debates in a way that allows you to be free from emotion and accepting of differing view points. You never know, if you stop being preaching and judgmental for two whole seconds you might just learn something. I don't have to agree with what you do and you don't have to agree with what I do. That's fine.  A real momma does it her way so long as her way isn't going to harm her child. A real momma doesn't allow herself to be labeled nor does she limit herself with a label. News flash, I don't know if you've noticed or not but I haven't seen anyone walking around sporting 1st place ribbons or gold medals for natural birth, home births, attachment parenting, cloth diapering, or even public breastfeeding. Yet some mothers continue to try and put their ideal up on a pedestal and are quick to judge or speak down to other mothers who can't or don't want to measure up. They call these ideals "brave" as in "the brave who will nurse their children anytime anywhere and at any age". K, you go ahead and do your thing in a shopping cart at a WalMart, but don't expect me to follow suit just because you are "brave" and you think I am not. Bold and brave are not the same thing by the way, and I'll let you examine that for yourself. I have a sense of modesty, excuse me for that, and don't feel like whipping the girls out in the middle of a shopping trip if I don't have to and expose more of my body and needed to complete the task. Nursing is perfectly acceptable and natural act. Public nudity... well maybe not so much and the woman in the photo being discussed was in my opinionated opinion slightly over exposed. I can understand how she ended up as a boob on the people of WalMart  website. I didn't say it was right to make fun of her I just said I can understand how it happened that she was there and why some of the comments where what they were. Sorry, if you get your panties in a twist over that. Grow up. I thought it was less than appropriate from my point of view which speaks to what I would personally be comfortable doing, not judging somebody else for the difference in their own personal comfort level. I am supportive of a mother's right to nurse in public, just because I don't exercise that right the same way this woman did doesn't make me less than somebody else who does. I pretty much always nursed Nicholas in a car, or other private-ish place and the same applied for pumping. I was also most comfortable if I was almost completely covered though I never actually used a nursing cover. I simply didn't expose more of myself than was absolutely necessary.  Everyone is entitled to express their opinion. Go for it in fact.  Don't be so surprised though when there is more than one opinion on your chosen subject. You need to be tolerant of that fact.

My whole point is this; I am not an attachment parent, though I believe in, often promote, and apply the concepts of attachment parenting to my personal life. I am not a baby wearer though I have and still do wear my son when it is mutually desired. I also use a stroller *gasp*. I am not a green or crunchy mother either. My own person style is green in color but you have to remember just how many shades of green there are.  I adapt as many green living concepts into my daily life as I am able to at this time. Some people go a lot further than I am even willing to go and I am glad for them, but they still aren't getting a cookie from me for it. I relate well to many "crunchy" mothers but I won't call myself that either and it isn't just because I can't stand that particular term (makes me think of dirty underwear - sorry ladies, I obviously don't understand where that came from). Apparently as with being green there are different textures of crunch. I find myself often not crunchy enough. So who am I as a parent? I am a REAL MOMMA! I do my own research, ask my own questions, tell my own stories, and I make my own choices because I have a mind of my OWN. This is the only label I will accept and I hope others can follow suit or keep their lips zipped. Don't be what anyone else wants you to be, I certainly won't.  Just be real and most importantly own your reality! Forget everyone else and their opinions. Glean what real knowledge you can from them, be open to ideas, engage in friendly debate on occasion, but do it on your own terms and decide for yourself what is best. Always reserve judgment of a situation or idea until you are completely education on ALL sides of the debate on it. I won't buy into a label unless it's Prada, Armani, or Versace. If you choose to then so be it but judge others for not measuring up at your own risk. You might just find YOURSELF the one who doesn't measure up to somebody else. After all, there is always a bigger fish.... and beware Real Mommas WON'T take your bullshit.

Lets make a baby

Yes, I have turned the page in the book that is my life and entered into the exciting and sometimes complex world of TTC, which stands for Trying to Conceive. We are working on baby number two. We were excited to try for a baby way back before Nicholas came along, however just didn't happen.Turns out that we weren't REALLY trying, there was so much more to this project that I had dreamed of. A year later I said screw this and decided I would rather have a new puppy. Enter our silver standard poodle Saleen. 8 weeks after she came home, guesssss what.... SURPRISE!  Baby on the way lol :) This time we decided to plan a little better and not really knowing where to start I logged onto a website called Baby Center and joined their getting pregnant forum. WOW, was I ever in for a surprise (not to mention quite the emotional roller coaster ride but that's a whole different post I'm afraid). I learned what it meant to be REALLY trying to have a baby lol. I quickly discovered that just doing the baby dance is sometimes not all that it takes to make a baby. These ladies are incredibly in touch with their bodies and know things about themselves I didn't even think was possible to know. They temp, and chart, and observe CM (a abbreviation I won't explain for the faint of heart) and examine themselves regularly to note the position and condition of their reproductive self. They keep track of all this on various websites and even know when and how to test long before a missed period. Truly a fascinating world. Even when they manage to get pregnant most of them stay on the forum to help newbies, like myself, learn the ways of the TTC force.

Months ago I purchased a basal thermometer in an attempt to explore Natural Family Planning. Said thermometer has been sitting on my night stand still in it's unopened package. Charting my temps just seemed complicated and to be honest I was a bit of a wuss when it came to relying on such a method for birth control. The more I read the more I realized that timing is everything and knowing WHEN to dance is almost as important as actually doing the dance. This would also be true of trying to prevent conception. I learned tons of techniques that I was previously unaware of and soon found myself totally immersed in a fascinating world where people know themselves so completely it would shock you and they are totally free in sharing their observations with you. They will also freely help you figure out your own chart and learn all the wonderful things that they know. They seem to have their own language as well. You almost need a lingo cheat sheet in order to understand what you are reading at times but not to fear you learn very quickly. In fact I posted a status on my personal facebook profile that quickly generated a response from those in the know. My best friend however had to ask what in the world I was talking about when I said I was 14 DPO and I was going to POAS that night. Then later that evening I was able to post that I had done the POAS thing and O.M.G it was BFP, (even though it didn't stay that way). Only people in the know would understand those statements. Only people in the know understand what I mean when I say we didn't have sticky dust as well. It's so fascinating really how people can come together and just create their own little world and work together and support each other in this TTC journey. The support I have found both educational and emotional has been surprising and no drama, at all ! We are all to centered on our mission for petty drama.

So this month we are going to attempt charting. I have opened the basal thermometer and have it under my pillow. I have an account, per instructions given via the getting pregnant group, on fertility friend.com to help me keep track of what my temps are and other observations about my body which I will leave to the imagination (or to those "in the know"). I am perhaps to clinical and find myself looking at this as a giant science project. It's fascinating lol and I can't help it. I don't care really if I actually get pregnant, in fact perhaps I should not as Nicholas is a handful. I am not sure I can handle two of them. However I can't help being interesting in learning something new about myself and will proceed with at least the charting even if I don't end up dancing. I'm like a kid in a candy store given the opportunity to learn new things.

So I guess we'll just wait and see. We've got one month officially under our belts and that was a success. Now we'll get more specific in our ovulation charting and see what happens. I am engaged in an imaginary race with a family member, we'll see who wins :p Hehe, stand back, I'm going to try science! :)

Reading Wars - Victory is OURS!

I think it is safe to say Reading Wars has been won :) Nicholas has become so attached to story time that trying to put him to bed for a nap or for the night without a book first is a perilous task indeed. Not only that but the whole point of reading wars was to promote verbal development. I have to say it might just be working. We have noticed a change in the way Nicholas babbles. It's very interesting actually. It isn't so much that he sounds more conversational, though he often does, but more that his babbling is reminiscent of the cadence of a book that rhymes or a poem. He has several books that where the story line rhymes and the particular verbal cadence that one has when reading such a book is now appearing in Nicholas' various forms of babbling. He is also becoming more apt to babble back and forth with you. For instance I pointed out a dog in a book the other day and he looked back over his shoulder at me and made a sound that sounded a lot like dog. I'm not running to the rooftop to shout to the world that his first word was dog but I will admit that it was pretty close. Almost as exciting as that is the fact that we have a new new trick that developed over the past week. We have a stash of books in the living room some of which I've intentionally put there and some he has swiped from his bedroom. Lately he's been going and grabbing books and running to me with them. If I take the book from him he will often try to climb up on the couch and sit next to me while we read the book. Sometimes he just stands there while we look at it together. He LOVE LOVE LOVES a baby faces book about learning to eat. We got it from the doctor when he was 6 months old. I often touch various points on his face while reading the book as it talks about where food ends up when you're just learning to eat. Now he gets a HUGE grin on his face when we get to the page where a little girl has food on her nose and usually the touching of his nose earns me a giggle. Another favorite book is The Going To Bed Book. We read it every single night before bed, it's the last book we read before turning out the light and singing out bedtime song. Since we read it so much I have notice a lot of his babbling most closely resembles the rhyming cadence of this particular book. We're also big fans of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, God Made Puppies (which was actually a book of MINE when I was little), and The Very Busy Spider. A new Baby Einstein book about colors is one of the ones he brings to me most often while we are playing in the living room. It is so adorable when he does that and to watch him focus on the photos on the pages is super duper adorable. We have also noticed that we're hearing momma and dadda more and more often in amongst his babbling. Every once in a while he seems to be saying it TO one of us rather than just babbling it. We don't always get a clear mama or dada but rather ma ma ma and da da da. We're still signing as well even though many many people believe that signing actually delays speak. I don't care. I'd rather give him the tools to communicate however he chooses than try and force him to talk right this second. Our most often used sign is "eat", followed closely by "all done". Those are pretty much the only two he uses but he's begun pointing a lot. I think we might be getting closer to more understandable communication. Hoping we'll have real words by the time we go back to the doctor in two months. If not, I will be able to say with absolute certainty that it isn't from lack of reading or talking with him. I think since he's been such a good boy this week he deserves to go to the book store and pick out a couple new book. Ahhh, who am I kidding, I missed the Ragababe opening today and just want to feel like I bought him SOMETHING since he isn't going to be getting a new diaper lol. Meh, who cares, I'm sure he'll enjoy new books and frankly so will I. If I had to read the Where's My Puppy? one more time I might go insane. We definitely need new material!!

Starting A Veggie "Garden"

So I know it's already June, (gosh where did spring go???) and I'm a little late to the party but Nicholas and I are starting our own little veggie garden. Now see we have a whole little fenced off section in an out of the way corner of the yard that has been a garden before. It was supposed to be a garden again this year. Welll...... the chickens and the duck are living in there at the moment so bummer, no in ground veggie gardening for us. Over memorial day though Old Time Pottery had a FANTASTIC sale and in amongst the items that were on sale were bunches and bunches of clay pots..... for under two bucks a piece. Not little tiny clay pots either, the nice useful 12 inch ones that are going to end up being really useful. :) We bought a bunch of them along with a bunch of smaller ones and they have been sitting on the back porch for about a week now. My mother gifted me with some dirt and I was all set. Except for the plants. Well last weekend I suddenly remembered that I had a Walmart gift card that I had received for Christmas and YAY off to wally world we went to look at veggies. To be honest, the selection was pretty sad lol. A bunch of the same kinds of plants I'm afraid and apparently tomatoes are the MOST popular b/c that is what they had the most of. A lot of the peat pots were pretty died out and the specimens wilted and dying. Bummer. Oh well. I bought several anyway.  Mostly I got the four packs of things like squash and various peppers b/c those were the cheapest and since they were all looking pretty sad I decided I would rather spend less and get more sad looking plants than spend more for less and risk some of them actually dying. We packed up our haul and ended up not having to spend any extra money for the plant. You've gotta love a gift card right? Because walmart had NO good looking herbs we also went to Lowe's which is right across the street to look. They must have been awaiting a shipment b/c they didn't have herbs either but they did have a poor dying four pack of spaghetti squash. When we took it up to the register my husband pointed out that it was dying and they sold it to us for just $ .50. Can't beat that!

I took advantage of nap time a couple of days later to plant our new container garden in the pots we purchased the weekend before. Everything except the tomatoes found a home in the pots. The tomatoes ended up in the flower bed up front where there are ironically no flowers b/c none of the seeds I planted this spring sprouted. I have just the worst luck with seeds lol. Anyway everything else is right off the back porch organized neatly which makes me happy.  So far everything is doing well. Some of the spaghetti squash plants don't look like they are going to make it but two of them, which are sharing one pot for now, seem to be recovering with good soil and plenty of water.  The tomatoes up from are also doing very very well.  It's even rained a time or two since we've planted the veggies which helps a TON since it's been soooooooooo dry here over the spring. I really cannot wait until we start getting good veggies in a few weeks. We've planted, several different peppers, tomatoes, egg plant, two types of squash, zucchini, and we have a strawberry plant that hubby and I have had since we got married that loaded with berries already. I am hoping to get more herbs, hopefully somebody will have some in stock soon, to add to the rosemary and mint that grows like crazy in our front yard. Maybe I will be able to look into canning and preserving some of the veggies for the winter. Not sure if we'll get enough this year with just what is in the pots but you never know I guess. Next year for sure I will try it! Maybe next year I will be able to plant a baby food garden for a new little Johnson, ya never know about that either :D

Now I just have to make sure to keep these guys away from the new plants and we'll be all set :D Hopefully they'll be to busy laying eggs soon :P 

Happy gardening!!

Baby Food Wars

I haven't posted a BFW post in a while and thought perhaps it was time once again. The current battle is not exactly WHAT foods we're eating and introducing but rather HOW we are eating them. We are attempting to introduce Baby N to the concept of using a spoon to eat with. He still eats with his hands 98% of the time. It's just easy that way. I can cut something up to an appropriate size, put it on his tray and away he goes, (with my supervision of course).  Granted it can be messy and he tends to double fist things that are especially yummy which causes a lot of dropping into his lap. His usual practice of eating with both hands like this results in him jamming as much food into his face as is possible. With his cheeks puffed so far out he often resembles a hamster! I'm proud to say that most of the food DOES make it to his mouth and very little is dropped. However, he still loses a fair amount.  I probably need to get him one of those bibs that is designed to catch dropped food. It might make things a little easier. I've pretty much given up on bibs in general these days, and can't even remember the last time he wore one during a meal lol. *shrugs* just add that to the growing list of my motherly faults I suppose. Anyway apparently finger foods weren't messy enough for me and I decided we needed to up the ante.  On Easter Sunday we ate lunch with part of our family and there were two kids there both eating with forks. They are older than Nicholas but still, it inspired me to start introducing the idea of using a utensil to eat with.  I have a toddler after all, he's not a baby anymore, he should be able to do anything right?

We finally took the plunge a few weeks later and I wish I HAD put a bib on him that day! His first attempt was to eat yogurt out of a little bowl with one of the spoons we already had and had used to feed him baby food with way back when. It's a bit long I suppose and while he almost instantly grasped the idea that the spoon should deliver the yogurt his execution was a little off. Most of the yogurt ended up ON him rather than in him. Adorable to be sure but messy to clean up later. The main issue was that he was holding the spoon side ways so that when he scooped up some yogurt and started moving it towards his wide open pie hole the yogurt would drop out well before making it to it's destination. Lord help me though when I tried to touch the spoon and readjust it in his hand he threw a fit. He's gonna do it his own self thank you very much! OK, little man... go for it. He did manage to eat some of the yogurt and that was reward enough for him to keep working at it.

The next hurdle we faced arose the second time we handed him a spoon. This one was a shorter kids spoon that I had from a long time ago. I didn't tell him that it was a My Little Pony spoon lol. I bought it to get the plate and bowl a few years back,. I am a die hard MLP fan/collector!! Anyway back to the point, Nicholas had a slightly easier time with this spoon and some mashed potatoes. However he was apparently hungrier than a spoon could handle and reverted back to the double handed eating technique. He would spoon up some 'taters and try and to get them to his mouth while at the same time grabbing a handful of them with the opposite hand and shoving those straight into his face. Yum, Yum. Haha.

We are still working on letting him use his spoon and I know he'll get it eventually. However, we don't use utensils very often b/c I am the type of momma that is having a hard time letting go of my idea of a clean baby after meal times. We are sticking to finger foods for the most part and sometimes I hand him his spoon, yeah it's still the my little pony one, to practice with at snack times. For regular mealtimes though I'm finding that I value his ability to eat on his own without me having to worry about him jabbing his eye out. So far he's only tried once. Mastering the use of a spoon will eventually happen and once it does we'll move on to a fork. Forks make me seriously nervous. There isn't tooooo much damage the toddler of doom could do with a spoon but a fork.... or eventually a knife??? Lord, LOL, am I ever going to be ready for that? Probably not, but as with everything we'll do it anyway and be the better for it. For now, so long as he keeps eating his veggies I don't care how he shovels them in :)

Reading Wars

So apparently I am a bad mother and have not been reading enough to my son. While we are confessing sins I'll also own up to the fact that I don't brush his teeth twice a day every day :/ It's hard to remember sometimes. Anyway little man is 15, almost 16 months old and not talking - at all. At his 15 month check up his doctor expressed concern that he wasn't speaking. She's not expecting him to greet me every morning with a "hello mother, let's have a wonderful day" or anything but she says he should be saying 3-6 words by now. When he was 6 or 7 months old he said mama for the first time and by 8 months he had stopped saying it entirely. I heard a dada yesterday but it was jumbled into all his other random babbling and I know darn well he isn't really saying talking about daddy. The doctor says he should be saying mama and dada and with purpose by now. Anyway she says I need to make sure he hears 5,000 words a day no clue on how I should count to make sure haha but hey I'm a GIRL I can talk up a storm! I am also supposed to be reading tons of books to him. The paperwork she gave me she wrote 20-30 books... I sincerely hope that was a typo and she meant something more realistic. We don't even own 20 books, unless we want to start reading trashy Christine Feehan romance novels. I like them but somehow vampires and sex doesn't seem age appropriate for a toddler. (Dear Mrs. Feehan PLEASE, please hurry and write Skyler's story!! The wait is killing me!!). I cannot even imagine trying to read that many books in a day? Am I the only one out there that doesn't/cant do that. Gosh, that would be almost a full time job. Yeah, sure Doc I'll get right on that right after I do my real job, and all my housework, cooking, and general parenting chores. Wonderful.

So because I felt like a parental reading failure I got started right away with the new reading regime and tried to add extra books to our routine. Previously reading has consisted of picture books with one word to each page and us pointing to and talking about the photos. That's not good enough I guess. Anyway, I sat down on the floor that very day with a copy of The Very Busy Spider totally sure Nicholas would be thrilled and in heaven to have more reading time. I was wrong. He wanted no part of it. Great. I chased him around with the book for 15 minutes before I just gave up. No worries, we'll try again later. I tried again later with the same result. This went on for days. Yay, motherhood is "fun". I tried reading to him in the bath tub and he threw water at me. I tried reading to him in his highchair and he fussed b/c he wanted to do baby signing time. I tried touch and feel books, colorful books, rhyming books, musical books, you name it, and I tried it. Nope nothing seemed to change our routine of looking at a book for just a few minutes at a time and pointing out photos. I decided I would even try to just MAKE him sit down and read a book with me. That was fun. He kicked and struggled and pulled my hair. Yay.... :/ He ended up upside down in my lap me holding onto his hips holding the book out in front trying to yell the words off the page so I could be heard over his loud protests lol. This isn't working!!! At my wits end I couldn't help but wonder how I was supposed to get additional books into our routine when I couldn't even get him to sit still for ONE. I want to cry lol.

The breakthrough came about a week later. At the same time as we were trying to introduce more books and a set in stone story time we were also weaning from the bottle to a sippy cup before bed. Up until this point in time Nicholas has "nursed" himself to sleep, except since I don't have any milk anymore he was using a bottle. Not the best habit but you know what, BITE ME. With Nicholas you take whatever you can get and you are thankful for it. As it turns out story time was the perfect substitute for bottle time. It wasn't easy at first but day after day the habit of reading a story or two (or three or four) before bedtime became stronger and the bottle was forgotten just as easily as it had been introduced in the first place. Nicholas wouldn't always sit still but I found that standing up and walking around the nursery with him in one arm and the book held our in front of us with the other was helpful. My hair became less of a plaything and the pictures in the book became more interesting. He especially likes a peek-a-book book probably b/c of the little pages within a page that you can turn and see what it hiding. The colorful tabs on the books pages are also a hit. :) It was a HUGE relief the night we sat in the antique maple rocker in the nursery and read four whole books and he still wanted more. I wanted to cry then too. Ahhhh, the sweet smell of  SUCCESS!  ugh... wait a second.... I think that's the diaper genie. :/ Anyhow, I tried to put Nicholas down for a nap yesterday without reading a book first and O.M.G. he threw the mother of all temper tantrums. Seems like my little active can sit still for a story toddler has turned into a book lover after all. I gave in and read him a story, which just happened to be The Going To Bed Book. :) Our reading list is a bit short at the moment and we read the same stories over and over again. He, ironically, will NOT tolerate the old picture books with one word per page. That's a recipe for a quick temper tantrum. He really prefers the touch and feel books and the books with story's that rhyme. Anything with actual photos of people or animals is also a big hit over books that are illustrated. I need to head out to barnes and noble and sort through some inexpensive board books I noticed they had the last time we were there. His next favorite book, and my LEAST favorite is a veggie tales books he got for Easter. It has a button in one corner that you can press and hear a REALLY off key, sounds like somebody is strangling the singer, verse of "God make me special" which is what the book is about. He won't actually let me read him the book so I guess that means he doesn't care if God made anyone special lol, mostly he just pushes the button. Over, and over, OVER again! OMG! I'm hopeful that the batteries in that thing are everlasting lol. This morning he picked up a copy of Dun dunnn duuuunnnnn The Very Busy Spider and came running to me with a big huge grin. I love it when I win :)

Side note; we've been reading and reading and reading and even making him watch your baby can read and talking and talking and talking for a month now. No change in verbal skills LoL. He is no closer to forming actual words than when we started and not to say what we've been up to isn't a good thing, I'm just pointing out that it's not helping with anything other than bonding. Lord knows he's certainly already well bonded to me. :P That's not to say he's quiet either, Nicholas has a lot to say but he's going to use his own language for now and as far as he's concerned his doctor can kiss his ragababe!  :p

Second side note: We are always open to suggestions for good books for kids under 2. We need more and more and more! :D

RaNdoM Restaurant Experiences

Soooo, the better behaved my little man gets the more we can take him out. He LOVES to eat so it's getting easier to assume we can go have a meal out of the home on occasion. This is a good good thing for mommy and daddy, we get to get out of the house and we don't have to worry about leaving the creature.... err the toddler with a baby sitter. So no worries on trying to find somebody and no worries about what time we have to be leave or be back. We are experiencing more and more freedom and less and less of the "If I don't get out of this house I am going to keeeel you !" :) Always a nice change of pace. The only downside to dining with one of the worlds most adorable and handsome little toddlers is that you tend to attract attention. Almost as much attention as you get with a brand spanking new newborn sleeping in a car seat at crackle barrel lol. Anyway, this is a different type of attention. Because little man is so personable and it seems has never met a stranger people talk to him/us ALL the time !! These days most of the attention comes from grandparent types and it's not totally unwelcome. Other times it gets a little annoying. Below are a few of those times.....

This past month the three of us went out for pizza. Nicholas usually gets some veggies from the salad bar, some pasta, random crap that we bring from home for him to eat, and pizza crusts that my husband doesn't eat. Maybe it sounds weird but Cici's Pizza was one of the first places we were able to eat out b/c we could give little man a crust to chew on and it kept him happy while we were able to wolf down a decent meal. Now of course he gets real food but still gets a pizza crust or two. (He recently had his very first real piece of pizza but at the time of this trip he had not been allowed to have anything but crusts yet). We had been there about 15 minutes or so I suppose and Nicholas was happily munching on his lunch and a pizza crust. A pair of rather large ladies came in and sat at the table directly facing me, which would be behind my husband since he was seated across from me. They were both in tight spandex like yoga pants. I just so happen have the same pair of pants for when I am working out, no shame in working out in them.... wearing them out to a pizza buffet when they are practically a second skin and your pushing well past 300lbs... eehhh, maybe a fashion don't.  (Oh and for the record I own these pants in a smaller size, I'm not in the skinny bitch club -yet- but I'm not XXXL either, I was also wearing cloths that fit). So this lady goes up and piles two plates HIGH with pizza and comes back to sit down. She then starts eating her pizza. Me minding my own dang business for a change happens to look up from my own plate and notice her glaring at myself and Nicholas. I ignore her. I notice a few minutes later she is still glaring and now not only is she glaring she is staring right as my son chewing on his crust with a couple bits of pasta and veggie on his plate and shaking her head. WTH? Hey newsflash, check yourself and your own two plates honey! Quit looking at my kid like you want to murder us both, weirdo! She glared at us shaking her head from time to time for the rest of our meal. Creeeepy! Who does that, who glares at a smiling happy toddler (that isn't throwing food or otherwise creating mayhem) I felt like asking her what her problem was with a 14 mo old baby but whatever. Honestly I was afraid to approach her, she looked like she could do me harm lol. I settled for posting a photo of her glaring at my kid on facebook instead :P Mwahahahaha, This was unwelcome attention.

Experience two came just a week ago in a local Burger King. We sometimes get Nicholas a kids meal (chicken nuggets with apple slices and juice). He is happily munching on his nuggets and I notice an older couple, smiling pleasantly in our direction obviously amused by Nicholas. Not such a bad thing so I ignored them after sending them a nice smile in return. This is the south after all, y'all have to be polite ;) When the couple was finished with their meal and their sodas they got up and came over to our table to talk to Nicholas. The usual conversation was exchanged about how old he was and what his name was (why people want to know his name is still a mystery to me as is why people want to know details of his birth. One of these days I fully expect to be asked for his SSN by a complete stranger lol). They mentioned their own grandchildren as grandparents tend to always do and I expected that would be the end of the polite encounter. I was wrong. The older gentleman proceeded to get in Nicholas' face trying to make him laugh and then POP he popped out his lower teeth which apparently were false teeth. OMG! Hey, A-hole we're eating here!!! God Almighty, kill meee.... I almost threw up. I have a weird phobia about false teeth which I guess I can file on the shelf next to my belly button, needles, and spider phobias. The look on Nicholas' face was equally horrified. The man and woman laughed and he did it again. Well, that's one way to get a toddler's attention and after two more false teeth show and tells Nicholas was grabbing at his own teeth to see if THEY were going to come out. I was ready to faint and sooooo glad to bid farewell to this couple. This was unwanted attention!  

Yesterday I took my husband to a new place that just opened up in town to try it out. I had been already and liked it and noticed that they had a decent priced lunch menu. Aside from the dumb blonde waitress (And I can say that b/c I AM blonde) who couldn't figure out that we really DID just want water for Nicholas to drink and not a soda or sports drink of any kind and we really  DID want steamed veggies as a side for his kids meal VS the "smiley fries" that come standard we had a good experience. There weren't many people in the place since it was a weekday just after the bulk of the main lunch rush. The wait staff was in love, as many a wait staff have been, with Nicholas and his antics. The hostess carried him to the table and proclaimed that he must know a grandma when he see's one and the waitresses kept coming by to tickle him as we waiting for our meals. At a table nearby were two older ladies and a teenager, who come to think of it should have been in school but whatever lol. After the two toddler girls three tables over (in the opposite direction) left Nicholas decided he would engage these ladies behind us. He kept turning around and staring like a creepy stalker and then waving to see if he could get their attention. He even went as far as to hold out a bit of half eaten grilled cheese to them. He didn't go unnoticed by them or by several other people who could see him. By the time we were able halfway through our meal the entire dining room had noticed the adorable boy with the airplane toy and the grilled cheese. Nice, I do so love to be the center of attention when a waiter delivers a taco salad that is bigger than my head (a fact I was unaware of when I ordered it!). It was really hard to get Nicholas to eat any lunch which made me feel bad for paying the up charge for the steam veggies with his meal, because he was way more interested in getting the attention of his chosen new friends. They kept egging him on too. Just as soon as I would make him turn around and get him interested in his food they would catch his attention and continue to interact with him. It made it really difficult to eat actually on account of I had to pay attention and make sure he didn't try and pitch his cup, or any food towards their table. Kid's got a good arm, and well.... that's just not Ok to throw food or anything else at other diners. Throw it at your dad or the waitress like everyone else! You're not special lol. Another couple who had been watching the whole thing stopped to talk to us on their way out about the usual how cute and how old and then parted with a rather ominous good luck. Good luck?? WTF?? Is he about to explode or something??? I'm a first time mom, if you know something I don't now isn't the time for secretes.... gosh, do I have enough baby wipes to cover what is about to happen???? I was nervous for the rest of the meal. Finally we were done with lunch and Nicholas' new friends insisted we bring him over to their table before we left to say a proper hello. Friendly folks but still, this was unwelcome attention since it went on for so long. On a side note; it was also an unwelcome experience to have a lady in a ford Taurus try and run me over in the parking lot while we were getting into the car. I sprang to safety, thankfully daddy had the baby on the other side of the car, just in time to avoid being smacked with the car door. Thanks a lot lady! When she got out of her car she shrugged and sort of thanked me for getting out of the way so quickly saying " you must have known I was HUNGRY !!!" Uhhh yeah, you look hungry... hey you also look like that shirt/pants set is four sizes to small. Not to be rude but Kmart DOES carry the extra extra large fo yo hungry ass.... This is the time when it's Ok to go ahead and up size and that car you almost hit me with is brand new so don't tell me you can't afford it. :p

I need a little sign or something sometimes. The constant awww he's so cute, how old is he? What's his name? When's his birthday? Well all that get's tiring after a while. I need a stay away I'm crabby or sick or my baby is rabid and bites sign. Oh or better yet, and perhaps more practical, maybe I should go on vista print and get little baby business cards made with the answers to all the usual questions and a thanks for stopping buy type message. Then I could just smile and hand them out before people had a chance to interrupt a family meal. Then again it's probably friendlier on the wallet and the waistline to just continue to eat all our meals at home. *shurgs* can't win I guess. Dining out is fun, meeting new people is fun, constantly not being able to talk to your husband or finish a meal .... maybe not so much fun.
What's a girl to do ? : P

The Commercial Break.... :-S

Today was kind of a rough day. No nap for baby, sick dogs, overwhelmingly dirty house... you get the idea. I decided it would be OK for Nicholas to watch a little TV while he was in his highchair in the hopes that he would sit in there a little longer than normal and give me time to mop the floor (again) to clean up the dog's unfortunate accident. After that was done I couldn't help getting sucked in by a episode of The Wonder Pets. First of all is there is dumber show on TV.... besides Dora the Explorer I mean? Anyway while I sat there stunned by the sheer silliness of this show (Nicholas grinning like a idiot and enjoying every minute of course) the commercials came on. First one was for cereal, Cinnamon toast crunch to be exact. Pretty innocent right? Uh hu, until I paid closer attention. Two squares of cereal are in the bowl, no milk just in case it matters to you. While one square looks the other way the other sticks out it's tongue and licks it's friend. Ummm gross lol. Then it acts like it did nothing. The second square looks away again and we see the first start to stick it's tongue out again for another lick and BAM, the second square turns around and in one bite EATS his licking friend! OMG.... !!!  In the same commercial break we watched another cereal commercial. This one for Trix. We've all seen these right, where the white bunny just wants a bowl of cereal and the kids won't let him have one. This has been going on since I was a little kid, and maybe even longer. Poor rabbit. This time the rabbit seems to accept that he will never get a bowl of Trix and just shrugs and says " A rabbit can dream can't he?". What on earth??? Isn't that sending the message that sometimes you just can't achieve your goals, hopes, and dreams? Gosh. It's been like 20+ years, give the damn rabbit a bowl of cereal already. Chances are he won't even like it. Seriously have you tastes Trix? Yuck :P lol. We also watched commercials for some crazy toys and Trojan condoms. Speaking of the last one, maybe that is there to remind you about birth control so you don't have to watch stupid shows like this for any longer than you have to (like you would if you had another baby) LOL. Or maybe it was there to rub in the fact that you forgot to use one that one night and now look what you have to watch on TV. :p

So I'm thinking I may DVR the Wonder Pets show for future TV days and then I can fast forward through the commercials. I pay attention to the subject matter of the shows I may allow him to watch but I can't factor in commercials. It doesn't do a great deal of good to do research and pre-watch some shows to make sure you are OK with letting your creature watch them when the network is going to put inappropriate commercials into the mix :P

NO, Momma I don't want to smile! :p

I have such a little flirt/ham of a toddler. Really he smiles at everyone (except walmart cashiers??) and plays shy baby and flirts and puts his hands out. He is sooooo cute, not that I am biased or anything. Just today he walked right up to two lady's working at a jewelry store and pretty much demanded that they notice him and he just broke out the biggest cutest cheeeeeeese smile he had. We were walking around the mall today which is how he walked up to them. We were following behind him holding onto the other end of his toddler leash. Yeah, yeah, I am one of those mom's who believes in toddler leashes. If you don't well.... bite me, or get your butt down here and come to the mall with me and it can be your job to chase after Nicholas when he doesn't want to ride in his stroller. :P Anyway back to the story. We were at the mall to see the Easter Bunny and hopefully get a photo with him. It took us a while with all the detours and what not that Nicholas wanted to make but finally we located his bunny-ness and yay there was no line at all to take pictures. Poor Easter bun bun was sitting there looking quite bored in fact lol. We selected the package we wanted, just the one photo and then let the lady talk us into buying a photo frame for a dollar more and the photo would be free. *Shrugs* what's a photo without a frame right? Anyway I walked up and showed Nicholas the big bunny and then plopped in down in said bunny's lap and step out of the camera's shot. Now the rule here is you are supposed to SMILE for the camera, right. Hahaha, NOT Nicholas. As soon as I plopped him down the smile vanished and a very serious look came over his face. This is normal. It is amazing difficult to photograph Nicholas. He just seems to know when you are about to snap the picture and stops smiling and/or turns his head away. Nice. I was just happy he was directing his serious look towards the camera. The ladies taking the photo though weren't busy and didn't have a line of people waiting so they were not going to accept a non smiling photo. They jingled keys, waved toys, played peek-a-boo, flashed the flash on the camera, sang, called his name.... the works. LoL. Nope, not gonna happen lady. I am not going to smile at YOU. Never mind that I was smiling 10 seconds ago. He even decided he had had enough of looking at the camera and turned to look at and smack the Easter Bunny. :/ great I have a kid who has violent tendencies towards mascots lol. We got a couple of shots of a less serious look, almost a smile but no real smile. Even I couldn't get him to smile by making funny noises or talking to him. At that point I called in the big guns, AKA Daddy who without fail can usually get a smile out of little Nicholas. Poor daddy... today was not his day lol. He played peek-a-boo, made all sorts of crazy sounds, jumped around, danced... haha he seriously worked up a sweat and probably got a good start on a workout in before FINALLY we got a brief smile. *snap and flash* YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS we got it! Whooo hooo. Nicholas took that opportunity to take another swipe at the Easter Bunny's nose and as I swooped in to pick him up. Thankfully the photo is nice and clear and he's looking directly at the camera and has a BIG grin on his face :) YAY! I don't think we have gotten as nice as photo as this one. Certainly not with Santa, but then there was a huge line of people waiting and that one was free so they weren't inclined to be as patient I suppose. From the photographer's standpoint all of Daddy's hoping and yelling and crazy noises attracted the attention of several other parents who brought THEIR kids over to meet and have photos with the Easter Bunny as well. Hummm, they should have given us a commission or something lol.

So we are officially ready for Easter now, we have seen the bunny, and we have plans to dye eggs and make a little baby Easter basket and preserve the memory on film :) Maybe on Easter morning I can get a couple more photos of Nicholas smiling lol, we'll see. Sure wish somebody would tell Nicholas that smiling for the camera is a good thing!!! I guess he'll get better at that with time.... at least I hope he will !!!  

Of course I will share our Easter picture with you all :) Come on, all together now, Awwwww :) This is a snap shot of the photo that I took with my blackberry which is why it is a bit dark and not perfect quality. You can still see the smile though!

Baby Nicholas goes to Hooters!

Ok, so I was raised to believe Hooters was a bad place, just one step down from a strip joint. You go there to look at boobies and butts and you justify it by saying the food is really good whether it is or not. It's a sports bar, a guy place.... the ultimate man cave. Except for one thing, the wife and baby you brought along b/c this is actually really and truly a family restaurant. Surprise! lol. Never mind that a pretty decent number of playmates and Hefner girlfriends have been hooters girls, and never mind that they require all sorts of ridiculous dress and behavior of their employee's. Honest to goodness this is daddy's favorite family hangout. I found that out today when my husband and I decided to take our weekend trip out to lunch and out of the blue he said "why don't we go to Hooters?" I had made mention a time or two about the rumors of good food and said I had never been before. Off we went :D


Yay arrival at last, I get to experience the hoot. We walk in the door and first impression was yup it's a sports bar type place and ummmmmmmm is there a hostess on duty or can we just go sit down? About .003 seconds later a cheery chorus of "Hi, WELCOME to Hooters!!!" Well, ok, so we've got friendly folks in here I guess. :) The hostess comes bustling up gives us a nod and a smile I guess to show that she is not totally ignoring us as she by passes me and heads straight to.... nope, not the husband. NICHOLAS! "Oh my gosh, heeeeelllooooo, aren't you a little cutie pie! Yes, you are soooooo CUTE!" With no hesitation she holds out her hands and to my extreme surprise takes my son right out of my husbands arms and continues to fawn over him. Make no mistake here, she didn't just steal him or anything, I think she may have asked if she could hold him I don't really recall. My husband handed him over no doubt just as surprised as I was lol and inquired if they had highchairs. The reply he got was "Of course we do, we just wuv widdle babies like you handsome boy!" lol. She carried Nicholas all the way to the table and expertly plopped him into a highchair and helped buckle him in. All the while keeping up a steady conversation along the lines of welcome to hooters with a fair amount of what a cute little boy this is and a mention of her own daughter loving to come eat here at  hooters b/c of the lights around the windows looking like Christmas lights. Nice. A few seconds after being seated we had our drink order taken by our waitress and magically crackers appeared at the table for Nicholas brought by the hostess. Another waitress brought over a yellow balloon and tied it to the highchair for Nicholas to play with. So adorable since Nicholas and daddy were wearing their matching yellow polo shirts today :) We order our fried pickle appetizer and crayons and a coloring page appeared at the table. Nicholas was in heaven with all the girls paying attention to him. He is such a flirt. He chowed down on some fried pickles and when our meals arrived the waitress has brains in addition to her boobs and made sure to place the plates OUT of Nicholas' reach. I cannot tell you how many dumb waiters and waitresses out there (probably those who do not have kids) put a scalding hot plate of food down practically right in front of Nicholas. Ummmm hey genius, babies tend to grab things and this has one of two outcomes. Either the plate is hot and will burn him (Mexican places) or he will mange to get a hold on it and WILL pull it into his lap and thus dumping food all over the floor, and possibly burning himself in the process and almost certainly will break the glass plate. Thankgoodness this lady has some sense. She was also nice enough to offer to refill his sippy cup with water when he had drank most of what we had brought for him. There is a first! All throughout our meal Nicholas babbled at and flirted with the waitress who kept in a good mood so mommy and daddy could actually eat for a chance. He hadn't even had a nap and between the food, crayons, balloon and wait staff Nicholas stayed entertained and happy without being over stimulated. Apparently the staff at our local hooters is extremely baby friendly. Definitely a win. I have to say it was a nice change from other places we've eaten where the staff could care less and you have to be on the lookout for things than can wrong during the meal.

The most surprising thing about this whole experience was guess what, the food IS really good. I was surprised. They have more than wings as well which also kind of surprised me. I had only ever heard about their wings. The staff was friendly and yeah they were dressed in a way that would certainly add fuel to a man's imagination but hey, at least they are covered. There are way worse things for my husband to be looking at and they were wearing little shorts under their ridiculously short school girl inspired skirts so nothing was showing that shouldn't be. I have to say we will definitely be back. Yum yum and lots of fun. :) I'd call this a hidden gem, who knew?? :) This is my kind of place..... now if I could just magically look like a hooters girls we'd be all set :P Hahaha, 

Healthy Mom In the Kitchen Recipe Challenge

Help us cook and eat healthier (or for that matter at all lol) I plan on compiling and then trying out as many new recipes as I can with my family and writing a review of how it went. Me ... in the kitchen..... you won't want to miss this ROFL.

Recipes need to be
- reasonably healthy, (Even better if they happen to be vegetarian or easily converted to veggie)
-all or in part toddler friendly
-easy to prepare. No crazy prep instructions if you please, if I try and flambe something I am likely to set my house on fire.
-NOTHING fried, see previous comment and friend foods aren't super healthy anyhow.
-inexpensive to prepare. No 8.99 a pound lamb or anything. :P
-preference will be given to clean fresh ingredient recipes over recipes that contain or are based on store bought mixes or soups. These types of recipes may take longer to prepare but that's OK. That is part of the challenge.

You can e-mail your recipes to Trainer@Blacktiekennels.com (please put recipe challenge in the subject line) or you can leave them as a comment here (comments won't be published for viewing)

Shut it and ring me up Mr. Walmart cashier

Good lord, sometimes you just want to smack people.

I was in WallyWorld this evening to buy dog food, which in my case means 20 lbs of chicken quarters (more on that in later post). My husband and I decided that since we were in the store on our own without baby Nicholas we could spend as much time looking at whatever we wanted to as we wanted. Somehow we ended up in the craft section on the way to electronics and I decided I would go ahead and buy Nicholas some crayons. I was reading in the WTE the toddler years book that it is never to early to introduce art and Nicholas is much better about not trying to eat everything he picks up so we are going to give the crayons another try. I bought a small pack of the large ones (I was looking for the uber large ones but I guess they don't make those anymore???). We looked around some, picked up the chicken, and proceeded to the checkout. Because we only had three items we went through the express lane. We were in a hurry to go and pick Nicholas up from Granny's house since it was getting late. The cashier was a nice older gentleman who was just a little to nice. He was taking FOREVER to ring up the two ladies (who were together but buying their items separately). He was talking about each item and flirting and OMG.... just HURRY up! This is supposed to be express checkout for heaven sake. COME ON! Finally it's my turn and he acts like the two bags of chicken are just sooooooooooo heavy and comments about how I must like big meats. First of all you're in your 60's at least and I'm a 20 something. I'm not discussing what kind of meat I like or how big I like it. Hey, though I'm kind of a bitch so sure I'll play along. To throw him a curve ball I commented that I was a vegetarian and didn't eat meat (partly true, though I had just come from a nice dinner with the hubs where I had eaten a medium rare steak lol). He almost dropped the second bag of chicken and just looked at me. Ummmm k, now whatcha gonna say gramps? Anyway he then started commenting that the bags were very heavy and he was only going to put one each in a shopping bag. Sure, that makes sense to me. Ever try and carry 20lbs of anything in a little plastic bag? Then we get to the crayons. You would have thought I was buying beer and condoms or something when he saw those. "ohhhh crayons huh?" Ugh, can I hit this guy? JUST RING IT UP AND LET ME PAY!!!! He makes a big production about the crayons and my husband pipes up and says that they are for our son, his first set of crayons dontcha know. No comment from the cashier. Weirdo, apparently walmart is all about hiring geriatric deviants to run their registers??? Anyway he then kind of refuses to put the crayons in their own bag and tosses them in with one of the bags of chicken. *smacks head* hey mister, you ever hear of salmonella ? Thank goodness these are nice thick bags and didn't have any leaks in them. He could of put them in one of the little tiny bags before he stuck them in with the chicken. OK so finally our purchases are rung up and I am paying and we should be on our way. Nope, this is walmart we're talking about here nothing is ever that easy. He takes forever to count out our change. OK so he wants to make sure he does it right, that's fine. What was not fine was that he took the time to look at each and every coin front and back (WTH??) and same with the bills. Like do we have a money fetish?? There was a stamp on one of the dollar bills he pulled out of the drawer that said something like "track this bill" and had a website to log onto. He made a big deal about that too reading it out loud to everyone standing in line. OMG, seriously it's my money give it to me and let me out of here you freak. Nope, not so fast. Now he wants to have a discussion on what this might mean. Kill me... we are never getting out of walmart, tell Nicholas I loved him and was buying him crayons lol.

Finally we were able to leave and head to the car after it taking us almost 10 minutes to check out with three items. Incredible. Nicholas was happy to see us when we arrived to pick him up. It was nice to go out without him but I was glad to have him back as well. Thank god he wasn't with us in walmart. He's not the most patient creature and having to sit there while Mr crazy guy checked up out would have been a real experience. Then again he would have probably started throwing a fit and maybe the process would have been a lot faster :P

The dollar bill by the way is a neat thing. The website is www.wheresgeorge.com and you enter the serial number of the dollar bill you've received and you can see where the dollar has been before it came to you. This one has traveled 99 miles in about a month, the last entry was in Mobile AL which is a couple hours from here. Interesting. :P

Becoming a little person

Nicholas has crawled, crab walked, and toddled into toddler hood full tilt. It's amazing how quickly he is changing and learning new things. I have always heard that newborns change the fastest and the first year of life is the most amazing thing to witness. I respectfully beg to differ. The second year so far has been WAY more exciting than the first and we are only two months in. Of course the first smile and the first laugh, and the first time he rolled over or played with a toy will forever warm my heart but frankly toddlers are just more fun! People have cautioned me to "watch out" and used phrases like "oh boy, you're in for it now!!" whenever I've spoken about things like Nicholas learning to walk. Puhhh- leease!! That's a bunch of nonsense. He started walking independently about two and a half weeks ago (he's been walking holding onto things since October I think) and since then he's been tons of fun and a lot less trouble. He can get from point A to point B faster, is more keen to follow me when I need him to, and I can now let him play in the yard without having to worry as much about what he may eat. Fact of the matter is when you're standing up you are to busy to try and stuff handfuls of grass into your face or grab teeny twigs and try and jab your eye. We did have a dirt eating (please god I hope it was just dirt) incident last week. I think that was a special case though. He is happy to run around the backyard exploring and no doubt learning tons about the world. Not to mention walking is cleaner than crawling. Only his feet get dirty now, at least until he learns to make mud pies ;)

Walking isn't the only change we've seen in the last few weeks. Little things like picking up an object and handing it to mommy or daddy have become some of our favorite games. It was ultra adorable the first time he did it. He would hand first to daddy, take it back, then hand it to mommy and take it back and so on. Minutes (which in toddler time equates to hours) of entertainment for him and for us. Earlier this week he started pointing to himself in the mirror in imitation of what we do when we point to the mirror. I should probably explain that every time we pass a mirror we point and say things like, "look, look, there's a baby" or "Look Nicholas, it's the baby in the mirror". Recently we've begun naming the baby in the mirror Nicholas since that is who it is. He LOVES the baby in the mirror and will grin his biggest grin and wave and sometimes clap and now he will also point at the baby as soon as he seems him. Super cute! Yesterday we started learning to turn the light to the nursery on and off :) As soon as the light goes on (or off) he smiles and might even giggle He is really into cause and effect type games right now. We spent a good 10 minutes yesterday standing next to wall pressing the light switch and watching what happens. He doesn't always push it hard enough to turn it on but he's showing that he understands how it works at least a little bit. Our new routine is to have him turn the light on when we head in for a diaper change and to turn it off when we leave. He loves it! Today's big accomplishments were climbing up onto his toy train by himself and learning to kick a little foam basket ball that he got for Christmas. I was showing him how it could roll and he could chase it when by a lucky chance his foot connected with the ball and sent it across the living room. He was fascinated and we played that game for a good long while until something on the bookcase caught his attention. Gotta love how quickly a toddler can shift his focus.

We also have a favorite book all of a sudden. I believe he got it for his birthday though I have no idea who gave it to him. It's called Where's My Puppy and it's a little peek-a-boo book and it has a hole in the middle of a lot of the pages. Nicholas is fascinated with holes for some reason. If he can poke his finger in it he certainly will !!! This applies to noses, mouths, eyes, water bottles, soda cans.... you get the idea. He sits in your lap and lets you read the book while he jams his little toddler fingers into the books holes on each page. It's one of the few times he is stationary while awake.

soooooo big!

Honestly when babies are first born they are really more like high maintenance pets. You have to keep them clean, feed them, provide stimulation and love. Even when they start crawling they are still kind of like a very very involved and demanding pet. With the coming of toddler hood Nicholas has begun to blossom into a little person who each and every day acts more and more like a little kid. He laughs and smiles and shows what he likes and dislikes. Tantrums aside (which we really haven't gotten into yet) I think toddler hood is awesome and way more fun than having a newborn/infant. Sure it's a little more work but it's fun work and watching him learn and figure things out is a way better pay off than I got when he was an infant. Not to mention that after a year of practice I am much much better at dealing with him in my own way.  I kind of wish other people would see that  and understand that I've got this (for the moment) instead of telling me that I was "really in for it now!" That sort of statement just isn't helpful or appreciated. Haha, it was more appropriate when I first found out I was expecting. :P

Craziness at Golden Corral

Hahahaha, we ate out this past weekend and it was quite an experience. We went to Golden Corral b/c it is super easy to find something for Nicholas to eat on a buffet and there is no waiting for food to be delivered which also makes dining with Nicholas an easier experience. First thing, as most buffets of this sort go you have to wait in line and then pay before you can enter over eaters paradise, (aka the buffet). While waiting in line I noticed a sign that read " for your convenience plates and utensils are located on the buffet islands. These items are strictly optional".  Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ???? Optional ??? So I can just go up to the buffet and grab the whole (probably scalding hot) platter of fried chicken and maybe some containers of veggies and bring them back to my table? Or I can just pull my chair up and eat directly off the buffet (with my hands??) ?? Since when is a plate optional at a restaurant? I can see maybe some paranoid type people bringing their own silverware but plates??? That is just weird, but then we were in Pensacola and there are some ummm interesting folks living there. Thankfully all the patrons I observed were taking advantage of the optional plates and silverware.

Next thing I noticed, and maybe this is a regional thing, but since when is it acceptable to head out to the golden corral in full blown hooker I'm ready to get laid and paid attire.... in your 40;s ?? YIKES!! My husband spent a fair amount of time staring down at his plate to avoid having his eyes seared out of his head but a particular patron who didn't get the memo that just because you can stuff your cellulite in those leggings doesn't mean you can go out in public wearing them. Newsflash, men don't want to see a morbidly obese woman's butt crack or lumpy butt and NOBODY want to see the pantie line of your g-string or it poking out above the tops of your waaayyyy to small pants. The people who sat down right behind us were extra special too. Again, when you turn 35 and you look 45 it's time to start dressing like an adult. Sorry, I don't make the rules. :P These people had two children with them grade school age, and they were really raising them up right. Little girl, about 8ish was a little hooker in training in her outfit. Since when are F me boots made in kid sizes??? She also had her hair dyes (with roots grown out about an inch and a half in true redneck fashion) this god awful maroon red color that some many people seem to find attractive. It matched her mothers lol. It was awful. Come on people, don't do that to your kids. Let them have a natural hair color, kids that young don't need makup and sexy clothes. And we wonder why teen pregnancy is such a big issue... HELLLLLLOOOO??  The little boy had the honest to goodness strangest haircut I have ever seen in my life. I have to wonder who's idea it was. He had a patch of hair about the size of a half dollar right in the middle of his forehead where the hair was grown out and allowed to hang down right between his eyes. The rest of his head was shaved bald. It was sort of like a reverse rat tail. I don't even know what to say about that?? I just hope that it was the little boys idea and he liked it.

The extra special people behavior wasn't limited to just the eating area of the restaurant. I had to go to the bathroom near the end of the meal and left Nicholas in daddy's care to go take care of business. Wow.... Just wow.... I found myself in a stall between two teens who were texting each other while they were doing whatever it was that needed doing and giggling like they escape from the mental ward of the local hospital. Umm why not just sit next to each other and talk ?? Weird. Then comes in a lady who heads into one of the stalls and is interrupted by her cell phone ringing. Now my view on this is let it ring. Take care of yourself and then call whoever back. It'll only take a minute. Don't answer your phone, this is just NOT classy. Well, nobody ever told this lady that and not only did she answer but she answered and put her phone on speaker. WOW! Guess who was calling?? Her husband, and he was calling from the table to tell her to hurry it up b/c he wanted to go and get ice cream and he couldn't b/c he was stuck sitting with their kids. WOW!!! Really? She proceeds to have a fight with him in the bathroom on the speaker phone about how she'll take as long as she damn well pleases and there is nothing he can do about it. I couldn't help it. I was finished but I sat there an extra minute or so just for pure entertainment value. LoL. On the way out of the bathroom the sign on the door read " if this restroom has not met your expectation please notify a member of management". ROFL, oh I think we've more than met my expectations!

Oh the way out to the car I almost felt the need to pay an extra dollar or two for the show. I mean I didn't realize entertainment would come with the meal. For once Nicholas wasn't the funniest thing in the place, though he was the cutest :P I will definitely be back here!! The food was actually pretty good and the wait staff was great as well. Easy place to take baby, good food, good waiter, and a dinner show. What more can you ask for ?


I'm soooo probably going to hell.....

Ragamail :D

Ragamail calllllll, ragamail, ragamail, hot diggity dog it's ragamail! :D

Yup I got new diapers yesterday and of course they were the bestest most awesomest diapers in the cloth diapering universe (even if they don't have puppies on them lol). They were well worth the wait.

Ragababe has been busy busy coming up with new color options for their diapers and hopefully will reopen for sales sometime this month. They have introduced a new darker tie dye print and added black to their all in one solid and two step diaper. I know I kind of said in my last ragapost that I likely wouldn't be forking over the cash for any more two steps ( as awesome as they are) but with the option of black and pick your own snap colors. How can I resist?? I have the BEST idea for a pattern made from the snaps on a two step and I want, I want, I want. Of course the last time the opened, for about 15 minutes, I was only able to get two diapers ordered. Granny was buying Nicholas two new rags for his birthday and I was going to use my own card to buy some additional ones. Of course by the time I got the first order finished and went back to do my second the site was no longer live and all the diapers were out of stock. Bummer. Maybe next time though :)

I'll be happy with these two for now :)

What's going on with us

So, I haven't been able to write much for a while. Partly because I have been super busy and mostly because I no longer have my own computer. I am kind of hoping that the mother's day fairy will bring me one in May but who knows. For the moment I have hijacked my husband's laptop and I must be doing something right after hours because he doesn't mind. :P  My laptop was on it's last legs and finally died... not only did it die but it also literally fell apart. :/ Sucks to be me sometimes lol. Oh well. Anyway like I said I've jacked my husband's and am sitting here at my newly cleaned off kitchen table with a a cat (who isn't supposed to be up here) sitting next to me watching the words magically appear on the screen and four dogs supervising my writing from the floor both in the living room and right here under the table at my feet. No word on where to demon cat from hell is hiding but I am sure she is around somewhere, oh wait, never mind there she is sleeping in the chair across the table from me.

Anyway a lot has happened like I said. Besides losing my computer and (OMG) ALL of my photos from the past four years (I can still retrieve them so yay for that!) we have begun the journey into toddler hood with Nicholas. He's taken his first steps but still isn't really walking on his own yet. He is happy to walk holding onto things (walls, couches, tables, pants legs, toys he can push) but rarely will he venture out on his own and when he does it's only a couple of steps at a time before he sits and down crawls. Guess he doesn't want to grow up any more than I want him to :P I don't know when he'll begin really walking but I am hoping it is soon b/c walking means getting to go and play outside more which is a huge plus.

In January we welcomed 6 little chicks into our family after decided we'd like to raise a few laying hens for eggs. Fresh eggs coming soon. The chicks are 8 or 9 weeks old now and not old enough to lay yet but are doing well. We have two Buff Orpingtons, three Black Australorps, and one Silver Laced Wyndotte. I think one of the lorps might be a rooster but I hope not. If it turns out to be a roo he's outta here I'm afraid. In the meantime they are all living quite happily in a coop in our backyard with most of the day to free range and my my how friendly they are, but that's another post. We'll see what happens and I'll keep everyone updated on the "Chicken Project" :) In related news we also welcomed a duck named Daisy into our feathered family in Feb. Actually on Nicholas' birthday lol. I'll make a separate post about Daisy's story later, it's kind of sad, but she is happy and well cared for and lays an egg a day for us almost without fail. She is also super friendly lol and living in our backyard eating bugs and fertilizing the grass.

We are trying to be a little more self sufficient I suppose and in addition to the new feathered friends we are also planning out a large veggie/herb garden. I am about ready to get seeds and am super excited reading articles on canning and preserving fresh home grown food. It's going to be exciting. I am planning to do a lot of container gardening in addition to the little plot of land we've fenced off to be the traditional veggie garden. I figure the more crop I can grow in containers the more ground space that frees up for other plants. All of my herbs will be in planter boxes that my husband is going to put up on the fence. We have one of those hanging tomato contraptions and will put it to use and plants like peppers and more tomatoes do very well in containers. It'll be fun and will help with out quest to cook and eat healthier at home.
Speaking of eating healthy we've decided to begin a more vegetarian lifestyle. Hubby is surprisingly supportive of the idea as well as of the idea that I would like to be more strict about what I eat and hopefully lose a little weight. Hummm... I wonder if his support is his way of agreeing that I am fat.... A-hole. Anyway that aside I'm appreciative of the support regardless. As of now we no longer purchase any type of beef and we don't cook or eat beef at home. Now when we are out my husband can eat as he pleases, though we've never discussed such a thing. I figure though that that is fair and if he wants a burger or a steak so be it. I'm sticking to chicken which I don't tell jeepers and peepers who are residing the backyard lol. Eventually I would like to eliminate chicken and pork as well for most meals. We'll see how that goes. I could do it but could hubby? lol.

In the spirit of fun and reclaiming some of my old seld we've decided to set some goals with our dogs in the form of switching them to a more natural diet (raw foods in this case) and doing some more serious training to get two of them ready to compete in AKC obedience and Rally-O trials. That will be fun. We already have one who has a Rally title so I'm hoping the other two can follow in his paw prints. Now that Nicholas is more agreeable to staying in his play pen for a little while out in my grooming area I am also working on some niffty haircut for the two poodles as well as grooming more of my client's dogs which is helpful when it comes to purchasing dog food.

Nicholas got to meet his first international travelers this past week when some friend's of my mother's arrived on a visit from Scotland. He was very put off at first by the odd (to him) accent but over the last week he has decided that at least one of the two guests are ok in his book and he is happy to smile and interact like he would with somebody he's known for ages. I sure wish he hadn't just started teething right before they got here and he would be in a more pleasant mood. Poor guy. That bitchy tooth fairy took her sweet time in delivering his 7th and 8th tooth this past weekend and today. Hopefully they'll hurry up and come all the way out and he can be done with this nonsense. (by the way, children's Advil you suck). I can't wait to see his bright smile with two new teeth in it :)

Hummm.. well I guess that brings us all up to speed on what's been happening lately in this crazy life plus baby. I am hoping to continue with my chicken and garden project posts for a little change of pace as well as of course my slightly warped observations of the world around me. Hopefully I won't offend anyone but I guess if I do... well to bad. I am who I am *shrugs* lol Stay tuned :)

Birthday Fun

Nicholas turned a year old on Feb. 3rd and the event was not without celebration. We woke Nicholas up that morning with a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY little man and proceeded to crackle barrel for a big 'ol country breakfast and a happy birthday wish and photo over our eggs at exactly 9:23 am. Then to Great Grandma's house to say hello and deliver an invitation to be bestest toddler party this side of the of the Mississippi :P The grandparents surprised us by taking us all out for Pizza for lunch, which having had a HUGE breakfast we weren't really hungry for but it was fun anyway. Well... it was until I was standing in line behind some old lady who took half (which happened to also be all that was left) of the only pizza I was up there to get. Freakin- A!! Anyway. Then on to LaRumba for dinner and cake and a HUGE mess lol, then to Granny's for a cup cake that Nicholas was allowed to make a mess with all over the floor. Nice. He passed out major when we got home but had to get up early the next morning for his date with the doctor for his check up and shots. Poor guy not only got shots but also more blood work :( It was traumatic so on the way home we stopped by Krispy Kreme for a hot fresh doughnut. He made tons of friends with the staff there and entertained quite a few customers as well. :) He never ceases to be adorable that is for sure!

In the midst of all the fun we put the final touches on Nicholas' birthday party. It was being held on neutral ground so that all of our various family units (as well as our friends) could come and get along and hopefully help us to celebrate. We ordered food and decorated and of course had some decent music playing in the background. We bought out party city's 1st birthday decorations and had fun hanging and taping them everywhere. Nicholas had his very own (healthier) banana birthday cake with cream cheese frosting. He actually didn't eat any of the cake haha but he did have a blast smearing frosting EVERYWHERE. As soon as I get a new computer (mine has crashed along with all the photo's of the last year -YIKES) and can pull the photos off the old hard drive I will be sure to post a few for your viewing pleasure. We ended up having to wash him down in the big sink in the kitchen to get all the sticky frosting off before heading home. Nicholas got tons of gifts (thank you all) which daddy had to open for him.Those photos are on the old hard drive as well :/

All in all the weekend was SUPER busy and SUPER FUN. I couldn't believe a whole year had gone buy so quickly. The challenges we faced in the past year have been tough but we made it. Now on to TODDLER HOOD :)

This time last year....

A year ago today I found out that your arrival was imminent. You weren't supposed to arrive for at least another week but when we went to our doctors appointment mommy's blood pressure was WAY WAY to high and she had a headache and you weren't moving around very much. It was time, the doctor said we couldn't wait any longer and gave mommy the news that you would be here the day after tomorrow. I just blinked at her, I wasn't sure what to say or how to feel about that. The whole plan had changed. My whole week had been planned out and now the plan didn't matter. All of a sudden the reality came crashing in on me that I was going to be a mother. Everything seems so much more real than it had ever been before. I was overwhelmed. With the receptionist I canceled the rest of my weekly visits and scheduled a check up for two weeks then left the office with well wishes from the nurse and the reception staff. I manage to not cry in the elevator and when I got to the car I send daddy a text message to tell him what the doctor had said, he working downstairs in the main part of the hospital and was really excited. I sat in my car and cried for a few minutes before heading home. I cried off an on all the way home. I guess I was just scared. When I got home I did a little housework and a little more crying and took a nap. A nap always makes things better when you are pregnant :P
I didn't tell anyone other than daddy. Not granny, or Red, or Buff, or Luvie or Big Daddy, or my poodle friends. The only people I told were my mommy friends on WTE and discovered several other mommies has received the same news and I would not be a lone in labor and delivery, at least not in spirit. I couldn't even tell my mother over a happy meal at McDonalds. I sat there and talked about the need to go ahead and meet with the pet sitter "just in case" and acted like nothing had changed.
Of course I HAD to tell our pet sitter the next day so that she would know to come on Wednesday instead of Saturday to take care of the pups.

It's so strange to think back and compare what my thoughts and feelings were then and what they are now. Now I am super excited for your very first birthday, which is the day after tomorrow :) Or if I don't type a little faster it'll technically be tomorrow lol. Then I was frighten and not sure what to expect. Nervous that this was IT and it was almost time. I cleaned and cleaned, and cried, and cooked and cleaned and cried a little more though I tried not to do it in front of daddy. I didn't want him to think I wasn't happy, I was just nervous and overwhelmed. Sort of like how I was overwhelmed when you were born. I couldn't believe how quickly the months of pregnancy had gone by and I wasn't sure how good a mommy I'd be. Hopefully I'm doing OK now :)

 

It's amazing that you are almost a year old now.... where did the time go? Just like how pregnancy flew by so to has this first year of parenthood. Simply amazing :)