HELLO!!!

Does anyone still have me on their feed reader?

It’s been a long time, yes I know. I am sad to say that it is going to be even longer. I am going to be deleting my blog once I have pulled all the information that I want off it. I have thought long and hard about this and have decided that I just don’t have the time to blog anymore.  I will still be out there lurking on your blogs but if you need to find me or want to stay updated look on Facebook.  If you don’t know how to find me on Facebook send me a message and I will make sure we can find each other.  It was fun while it lasted, thanks to the few of you out there that stayed interested in our lives and what I had to say.

Belated Birthday Wishes

Happy Belated Birthday C-Man.  My nephew turned one yesterday and I forgot to wish him a happy birthday.  We celebrated his birthday this past weekend and once again I have photos but not at my fingertips right this minute.  Look for an updated post soon.

Nine Months Old

Smidgel turned nine months old on Monday (yes, I am late again. Hopefully I won’t make a habit of this). Let’s see what did he have to offer us this month, other than being super skinny. The newest thing is that he is really interested in what we are eating and not what is on his plate. He has had a plethora of new foods this month, thanks to four top teeth, and is enjoying them all. We have found that he really loves meats and pastas. We had one of those Gerber graduate pasta pick-ups and he loved them. He didn’t like to pick them up however because they were slimy. That is what he does with anything slimy, he will pick it up and then look at it with a disgusting look on his face and then fling it all over the place trying to get it off his hands. He also loves it when he gets whole things and can make huge messes. We are smart though and keep him confined to his high chair when we decide to do that.This was also the month where he started to pull up on everything and sometimes he gets himself in quite a predicament.But he eventually gets to where he needs to be.I often find myself just staring at Smidgel and wondering where the time went and that he is getting big so quick. But then he falls or bumps his head and comes crawling to me looking for comfort. Or he cries because I leave the room and I am reminded that I still have so much more to look forward to. And you know what I love the most about this month…when I get him out of his crib after naps or in the morning he gives me a big ole’ hug. He lays his head on my shoulder for a few seconds and then gives me a big smile. It just melts my heart every time. Happy nine months little man!

9 Month Check-up

Smidgel had his nine month check-up yesterday. He went to a new doctor because we have switched his insurance and it is much closer to home. His stats were fifteen pounds, twelve ounces (less than the fifth percentile) and 28.5 inches long (60th percentile). Our doctor was concerned with the downward trend in his weight percentiles so he is recommending us to some specialists. We have to go to an endocrinologist and a pediatric developmental specialist. The endocrinologist will let us know if his thyroid, pituitary gland, etc are working correctly. There really is no concern in his development but apparently the two specialist go hand in hand. They also collected blood samples to check his red and white blood cell counts and also lead levels. Collecting the blood was no fun at all. They strapped him to a little backboard and then strapped his legs down. Once they found a vein in his arm they strapped the other arm down. You then have to hold their little arm still while the nurse puts the needle in. She hit it the first time around but once it started flowing the vein blew so we had to repeat the process on the other arm. Of course by then he was hysterical so the second time around it was heartbreaking. He kept looking at me and reaching out to me to pick him up. They got the blood they needed the second time around and once I picked him up he calmed down and all was forgotten shortly after. Now we just wait and see if anything turns up or if our little man is just a skinny fella.

First Mother’s Day

Today was my first Mother’s Day and I couldn’t have asked for a better one. I got to sleep in late and once I was up Boo-Boo made breakfast for me. He bought me a waffle maker (as I have been dying for waffles) but his first didn’t turn out right so he abandoned the idea. I got blueberry pancakes instead and they were fabulous. Once Smidgel woke up from his nap he gave me his present……candy and a camera case for the camera that I got for Christmas. Boo-Boo said that he decided on the candy while they were shopping. Apparently as they were walking past the candy aisle, Smidgel reached out and grabbed at the candy. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and the boys took naps in the afternoon. Happy Mother’s Day to all the rest of the mother’s out there, especially mine!!!

Odds and Ends

I really do need to get better about blogging as there is a lot to talk about since my last post. To start with, Boo-Boo started his new job two weeks and two days ago. The short of it is that he LOVES what he is doing and the people that he is working with. There is one lady there that isn’t so pleasant but she is only there until he gets his certification from the jail. Once he gets that certification he goes to his normal hours and will be home early in the afternoon. A new girl started yesterday so the training (by the no-so-nice-lady) will be focused on her now. Ever since his second week there he has pretty much been on his own anyways. I am super excited for him that he has finally found something in his field and that he is happy doing.

My work has undergone an additional change as well. Our other full-time employee has found a new job and her last day was last Friday. So, I have taken over all of her projects and will continue to manage any new state jobs that come out of the F office. We have found a replacement for Boo-Boo and he started last Thursday. I have yet to meet him but from what I understand he is picking things up quite quickly. The additional work won’t be that overwhelming because I was already managing the large projects out of the F office and the ones I inherited are small.

Last Tuesday evening, Smidgel was running a slight fever. Wednesday morning when he got up his fever was up to 102 so we made him a doctor’s appointment. He still had a runny nose and cough from the cold he had a few weeks earlier so the addition of a fever was a little concerning. The diagnosis was that he has his first ear infection. The doctor thinks that because he held onto the cold so long and couldn’t expel the mucus so it backed up and caused the ear infection. He went on his meds and Tylenol that day and Thursday was back to his normal self. He is still sticking things in his ears and occasionally pulling at them (which he did when he was tired anyways) but we still have a few days left on the medication. If he still has one it will be caught when he goes in for his nine month check-up in a week or so.

Wednesday I had my final appointment for my knee and I am finally cleared. As usual I took longer to get back to normal but I can now do anything my little heart desires. Thank goodness because since the initial fall down the stairs, I have gained around eight pounds. I guess being unable to do a whole lot for about four months and eating not so great will do that to you. Yesterday I started on the path of getting back on our “diet” and trying to do some sort of exercise. Yesterday’s exercise was crunches and push ups which were very interesting with Smidgel trying to climb all over me.

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to give my blog a serious makeover. I am tired of the same old look and I am contemplating moving over to WordPress. It is unlikely I will do that though because it will be too much of a pain to transfer everything and update everyone on the new URL. I don’t want to lose all my old posts and I am already going to go through them all anyways. I am going through them to change out names of people and give them their new pseudonyms. As you can tell from this post, my husband is now referred to as Boo-Boo and my son is now referred to as Smidgel. My friends will also get new names instead of being referred to by their initials but Boo-Boo’s siblings will still stay numbers because there are too many of them. That is all for now.

Eight Months Old

George turned eight months old on Saturday. I am kind of late this month but it’s better late than never, right? We had a lot of changes this month and I do have to say that this is a super fun age. The biggest change is the fact that he can crawl. About a week after he started inching and dragging he really started to crawl and now he just flies wherever he wants to go. He loves to terrorize Georgia. He will crawl over to where she is laying, she will get up and move across the room, he will crawl over to where she just moved and the process will start all over again. Eventually she will either leave the room or get up on one of the couches. Her best bet is to leave the room because if she gets on a couch he just crawls over to it and pulls himself up to get to her. On one of his many crawling adventures he discovered the dogs water bowl so I am constantly retrieving him from the other room.This was also the month of many faces. His first face was this one, we call it his old man face. That one lasted about a week and then he started doing this one. That one only last for a few days but they were both entertaining while they lasted. We think they were both the result of him feeling his teeth with his tongue. Speaking of teeth, his top four teeth are breaking the surface. We had been waiting and waiting for those teeth because Robert said that he couldn’t have Cheerios until they came in. Well, our babysitter fixed that for us when she gave him some the first time he stayed with her. I was super excited because now Robert couldn’t say he had to wait. He does great with them and we have since moved on to Vanilla Wafers and most recently Ritz Crackers (the Ritz were really after he turned eight months old but whatever).

This is the first month where is isn’t really interested in breast feeding. He eats pretty well (ten to fifteen minutes) in the morning and before bed but other than that he only eats for a couple of minutes. I have a feeling that breastfeeding will be making its way out of the picture here soon. I actually had to give him a bottle of formula the last couple of days because he wouldn’t take the time to eat and it had been so long since he last had milk. I don’t know if it is the age but I think that he feels like he is missing too much when he is confined to the breast. When he has a bottle at least he can look around and play with it while he is eating.

Probably the most exciting thing, for me anyways, is that he takes fabulous naps and is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! We decided shortly after he turned seven months old that we were going to start letting him cry when he woke up in the middle of the night. We gave him thirty minutes to settle himself before went up there. The first couple of nights he pretty much used all thirty minutes before he settled back down but we never had to go up to get him. After three or four days the waking in the middle of the night stopped. Occasionally I will hear him move around or talk to himself but that is all he does and then he goes back to sleep.Here’s to eight wonderful months little man. We love you bunches!

ABCs Meme

Oh how I love meme’s and I am finally getting around to this one.

A – ADVOCATE FOR: Pet adoption. So many people don’t research the breeds that they decide to buy and end up getting rid of their animals because they are too hyper, end up being aggressive, etc, etc. These poor, innocent animals get sent to shelters and a lot of them never make it out. It’s not their fault that people can’t handle the well known traits of their breed.
B – BEST FEATURE: My eyes
C – COULD DO WITHOUT: Chores
D – DREAMS & DESIRES: Dreams = open my own rescue group, Desires = that all the stuff be done in my house so I don’t have to worry about it.
E – ESSENTIAL ITEMS: Cell phone and computer now that I work from home.
F – FAVORITE PAST TIME: Reading
G – GOOD AT: My job
H – HAVE NEVER TRIED: Skydiving
I – IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS: I’d pay off our house, both of our student loans and sell the Explorer. I would then hire someone to do “desires” and open up my “dream”.
J – JUNKIE FOR: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream
K – KINDRED SPIRIT: Robert, his grandfather once told us that he felt we were soul mates.
L – LITTLE KNOWN FACT: I have a birthmark shaped like Italy on my butt
M – MEMORABLE MOMENT: There are lots…my wedding, George being born, building our house, tons in college (like accidentally throwing a can of soda at Katie my senior year when I was slammed).
N – NEVER AGAIN WILL I: MOVE!!! Amen EC
O – OCCASIONAL INDULGENCE: McDonald’s Iced Coffee
P – PROFESSION: Environmental Consultant
Q – QUOTE: “Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~unknown
R – REASON TO SMILE: Everything life has given me
S – SORRY ABOUT: Not taking as good of care of my dog a few months ago.
T – TAG SOME FRIENDS: Whoever
U – UNINTERESTED IN: Politics
V – VERY SCARED OF: Something happening to any member of my family
W – WORST HABIT: Potty mouth
X – X MARKS MY IDEAL VACATION SPOT: I don’t know if it is ideal but I would like to go to Alaska.
Y – YUMMIEST DESSERT: Any pie from Crossroad Store
Z – ZODIAC SIGN: Libra through and through

Catching Up

Sorry for my long hiatus but as some (or maybe all) of you know the end of a quarter means a lot of reports for me to write. I have finally gotten all of those reports out and now it is just back to the normal ones. Work itself is going to be undergoing a drastic change in the next week and maybe an even more drastic one in the next month. I am happy to announce that Robert has gotten a new job doing what he wants to do. He has been with us for about two and a half years and will be starting his new job next Monday. It’s time for him to move on but he is going to be missed in the company as he was the shoulder we all leaned on. Needless to say I may have to start going back out in the field, which I am fine with, so we found George a babysitter. He stayed with her a week ago and did great. He actually took a good morning nap and she said the only time he was fussy was right before nap time, which is normal. George has his first cold and is handling it like a champ. He started to get sick on Friday and by Monday he had a flemmy (spelling?) cough and was pulling at his ear. Robert took him to the doctor and they said that he was fine and he just had a cold. Not much has changed since then but for the most part he is still my chipper little man, just with a runny nose and cough. The rest of the George update will have to wait until Saturday (probably Sunday) when he turns EIGHT MONTHS OLD!!!

Saturday is Robert’s ten year high school reunion. Yet another mind blowing thing…I can’t believe we graduated from high school ten years ago. We are going to go and George is going to stay with his grandparents so I may actually get to have a drink or two. That may be all I can handle seeing as though it has been about a year and a half since I last drank. My high school reunion is in September but we will not be attending. That’s about all that is new in our world. I will update later with March’s home improvement, which isn’t much and anything else that may come to mind.