Mother's Day

Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all the mommies out there.

Yesterday I woke up to some beautiful flowers that Andrew got for me. Ok, maybe he had a little help from daddy.

I love Calla Lillies and am so excited that we will be able to plant these and have them year after year

I'm not sure what these are and if the petals are supposed to open up or stay in little tubes like this, but they're pretty cool.

At 10:30 we got on the road to head up to my parents house in Myrtle Beach.  My grandparents (my dad's parents) were there and they had yet to meet the munchkin yet so I was excited to get to introduce them. Unfortunately I don't think they will remember him. They had to be reminded who I was a couple times - it made me sad. My grandpap is 92 and I think my grandma is 87 (she won't tell anyone how old she is).  They have both lived very long lives, but they just aren't "there" really anymore.  My grandma did get a kick out of Andrew and some of his antics and she would laugh at him while he was playing, but I don't think they realize who he is in relation to them  :(

Four generations of my family

Andrew and his great-grandma

We played around outside with the girls picking flowers and bringing them to my mom. Andrew was crawling in the grass, but trying to get up on his hands and feet because he apparently didn't like getting his knees wet  (well then you better learn to walk, munchkin).

Then we took a couple pictures - not easy to get everyone looking at the same camera and smiling, but we got a few good ones.

Yeah, my kid sticks out like a sore thumb with that blond hair

My mom with all her grandkids

After a little more playtime it was time to get on the road and head back to Charleston.

Another Mother's Day come and gone. Some days it still seems weird to me that I fit in that category now.  It doesn't always seem real - I'm a mom.  All I know is it better be real because I'm not giving up that title (or my munchkin) for anything.

I Spoke Too Soon

Yep. I have pinkeye.  Excellent.

All day yesterday my right eye was driving me crazy. It felt like there was something in it, I was constantly wiping funk out of it, and it had a nice pinkish hue.  Ugh.

When I got home after forcing myself to go to the gym (I'm trying to sweat this cold out of my system) I instantly took my contacts out and threw that pair away.  It felt slightly better, but was still watery and funky.  I was afraid that I was going to wake up this morning with my eye sealed shut, but it wasn't awful - just a little watery.  However, I did NOT want to put a new pair of contacts in and have them become funkified and have to be thrown out as well, so today I am sporting my specs and looking all intellectual.

Just one of the many joys of motherhood I guess.

Wordless Wednesday ~ I'm a Pineapple Farmer

Thanks for sharing little buddy

No, I do not have pink eye.  But I do have an awesome cold that the munchkin decided he wanted to share with me.  Now, I'm all for him sharing, especially since I think this is a battle we'll be fighting in the months and years to come.  But while I would like for him to share his toys and snacks with others I am perfectly fine with him keeping his germs to himself.

By Friday afternoon his eye was looking ok. I continue to put the eye drops in as prescribed which is an event in and of itself, just to make sure all is good, but it's looking fine.  So he wasn't crawling around with a gooey eye all weekend, but he did have the ever so attractive runny  nose. Meaning all weekend I was chasing him around with a Kleenex or a wipe and trying to clean his face. He loves that.

What he loves even more is to rub that snotty nose all over whatever he can. Namely mommy.  Awesome.  Don't get me wrong, there are few things better than the munchkin crawling full speed ahead towards me ready to tackle me for snuggles.  However, when he is dripping snot as he charges at me it's a little less fun.

I was kind of hoping the little snot monster was just teething and not sick, but by Sunday evening I had a raging headache. Monday morning I woke up with a sore throat.  By yesterday afternoon I was sitting at my desk (yes, I went to work) counting the minutes til I could haul ass and get home.  I stupidly didn't bring my computer home with me thinking that surely I would feel better today.  Not so much.

I dropped off the munchkin at daycare and J said he would swing by my office and grab my computer for me since he has meetings downtown this afternoon.  Unfortunately when I got home after dropping munchkin off  I didn't realize the garage door wasn't all the way up when I started to back into the garage.  Fabulous.  Luckily J was able to get the door bent back and it's working again with just a few small dents.  And the scratches on my car are only on the top of the spoiler thing on the back and you'd have to be 7 feet tall to really see them.  But I feel like an idiot (on top of being sick) and I kind of just want to curl up on the couch and sleep, but I have a little work to get done.

I got these pictures by standing on the bumper. So you'd have to be Shaq to see them just standing there.

You can see the dents along the bottom.  Yeah - I'm an idiot.

So I'll power through and do my work while crossing my fingers that I wake up tomorrow feeling more like myself.  And that I don't do any more damage with my car...

Pinkeye. Awesome.

Yep, the little munchkin has pinkeye.  When I picked him up from daycare yesterday his left eye was gooey and I kept having to wipe the discharge funk out of it.  He wasn't really bothered by it, but it looked nasty.  This morning when I went to get him out of the crib it was swollen and crusted shut.  Ugh.

After a warm washcloth and some gentle wiping we were able to get him cleaned up.  Clearly he could not go to daycare today, but as luck would have it I had my work computer at home so I just emailed my boss letting him know that I'd have to work here today.

I called the pediatrician and was able to get him in at 8:15. Of course by the time we got in his eye wasn't goopy anymore, but still red and a little swollen.   She said it definitely appears to be pinkeye and sent in a prescription for some eye drops.  The good news is that after 24 hours he would be able to go back to daycare, so he'll definitely be fine to go back on Monday.  The bad news is we have to put eye drops in his eyes three times a day for the next week.  Yeah - that should be fun.

So far I've gotten them in once and after a little snack he is down for a nap.  Here's hoping that his eye clears up soon and that he doesn't decide to share with mommy and daddy.

It's Over

That's it. I think it's official. Our days of breastfeeding are done.

It's not that I want to stop completely,  but I think I don't have a choice. The well has run dry.  I have been nursing him in the mornings before breakfast and pumping at night before bed, but it's gone.  I think he might still be getting a little bit - at least from the right side - but it's not much. And now when I pump before bed I am getting less than an ounce (I was getting two ounces or so before).  So I think that's it.  The milk machine is out of business.

I don't think it will be a big deal for the munchkin.  He's been rejecting me for quite some time when I try to nurse him any other time than in the morning.  The past two mornings I have given him a small bottle before letting him nurse and he didn't fight it at all. Of course I should be giving him a sippy instead of a bottle, but so far I'm sucking at getting him transitioned to sippys so whatever.

I'm kind of torn as to what to do. Do I keep trying to nurse him in the mornings and let him get what ever small amount of milk is left?  Or do I just quit cold turkey and switch to giving him a bottle/sippy with his breakfast?  Decisions decisions...

Wordless Wednesday ~ Three Amazing Years

Toddle Along Tuesday ~ Bedtime Routine

Yes, this is two posts in one day, but it is slooooooooow at work so why not? Plus I wanted to join in on the fun for this week's Toddle Along Tuesday and share our bedtime routine.

Our bedtime routine starts most nights right after dinner.  Once the munchkin has made it clear that he is done with eating (meaning all food has been thrown to the floor) we go and run his bath.  He LOVES "helping" daddy fill the tub:

This is normally between 7:15 and 7:30.  He gets a bath every night and has since he was about 6 weeks old.  Most of the bath is spent trying to keep him in the tub, but he loves to splash around and play with all his toys.

Once I've decided that he's made enough of a mess and he is more interested in climbing out I'll empty the tub and spray him off with the sprayer. He loves it.  Then he's wrapped up in either his puppy towel or his shark towel:

He's a happy camper after bath time.  We take him in his room, dry him off and attempt to get a diaper on him before he can pee everywhere.  He raises hell because he loves to be naked, but once the diaper is on he's back to being happy and crawling all over looking for something to play with.

He'll play with daddy for a while until he starts to whine and fuss.  Then he gets lotioned up and we put his jammies on. He raises hell during this time, too, but is fine once he's dressed.  He'll play a little more while I go make up his bedtime bottle. Once he sees it it's meltdown time.  I'll walk into his room and he'll follow me down the hall crying because he's tired and wants his bottle. Yes, I know we need to get him off the bedtime bottle, but we haven't gotten there yet.  I give him his bottle while J turns on the humidifier and fan (for white noise).  Once he's done I try to give his teeth a quick brush and then it's into the crib.  He's always awake when I put him in there and I'll turn on his rainforest crib soother and give him a kiss. This is generally around 8:15 or so.  8:30 at the latest.

Normally he goes to sleep within 15 minutes and for the most part will stay that way until we wake him up around 7:00 the next morning.

We have been blessed with a very easy baby to put to sleep and a great sleeper.  I have always been so grateful that he sleeps through the night and has since around 12 weeks old. I feel like we hit the lottery with that one!

So how about you?  What does your bedtime routine look like?  Hop on over to Growing up Geeky and share your bedtime routine with Toddle Along Tuesday

April Body Progress

It's that time again.  Time to bare my  body and see what (if any) progress I've made.

I'm laughing in this picture because Andrew was being a spazz. You can see his little foot in the bottom left of the picture as he was crawling out of the bathroom.

Chest is still bony looking. I guess my upper ribs are just kind of prominent.  Boobs have definitely deflated even more since the milk is just about gone.  Yay for fitting into bathing suit tops this summer!

Andrew pulling stuff off the ledge and being a weirdo.

So I think I actually look bigger this month  :(  Maybe it's because I took the picture in the evening after a day of eating instead of in the morning.  Or maybe it's because I have no control and the Easter candy was abundant in our house this month.  Ugh.

On the bright side I did run 64 miles this month to bring my grand total for 2012 to 210.2 miles.  Not too shabby considering I think I only did about 250 miles total in 2011.  I may have even gotten more in this month if my left hip didn't hurt so damn bad.  I have no idea what's going on with it, but it sucks.  I know I've been running harder lately so maybe that's aggravating something.  I don't want to injure it, but I also don't want to take too much time off because I am back on track with my 50 miles/month goal. I'm taking today off and will take some ibuprofen to help with any inflammation.  :::Crossing my fingers that it goes away soon:::

Starting today I am getting back into the habit of logging all my meals and snacks using livestrong.com.  It worked great when I was trying to lose weight before getting pregnant so hopefully it will hold me accountable now and get me back on track.  Beach season is upon us and I would really like to be ready.

Goal for May is 60 miles.

Revisiting the Baby #2 Idea

This weekend we had a lot to do. On Saturday we had my company picnic at Blackbeard's Cove (a local amusement area with go-karts, mini-golf, arcade games, jump castles, etc.) and yesterday we had a first birthday party for a friend's son over at the park by Alhambra Hall.  Obviously both occasions had lots of kids running around.  And there were lots of questions for us from lots of people.  The big one was "Are you going to have another?".

That is an excellent question.  And I'm wavering.

Since I think I got my first post-partum period a few weeks ago I have begun charting again with fertility friend.  Mostly it's so I can try to see what the heck is going on with my body.  I'm not holding out much hope that my cycles are going to be "normal" just yet, and I really just want to see what's going on and be prepared.

Anyway, J and I have discussed in passing before if we are going to have a second child.  He has mentioned wanting to have a little girl (um yeah - it's a 50/50 shot, dude) and how we should just pack up the baby things "until next time" so obviously he would like another little munchkin running around.  And I would, too. I mean, when I look at this face:



How could I not want another one??

Sadly, one thing that's holding us back right now is the money.  We are by no means struggling to make ends meet right now - we are comfortable and doing just fine.  But if you add in another little person I think all bets are off.  J had said before if we had another kid I would probably need to stay home, which I might be ok with, but I don't think it's really true.  If you doubled what we pay for childcare right now it would still be a little less than one paycheck for me so it's not like I would be working for nothing.  Of course if we had another child we might have to switch daycares because I don't know if there would be a spot for another baby there (and I absolutely LOVE our daycare so the thought of moving Andrew would break my heart).  If I didn't have my giant car payment (that $754 payment is a punch to the gut every month) and we didn't have that empty lot that we are paying on then getting by with one paycheck might be feasible. Right now it is not.

Then there is the room factor.  Our house isn't tiny, but it isn't huge. Technically we could make do with where we are since it is a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom house (one of those bedrooms is now the 'man room').  But we don't have a play room for kids and that is something I think we really need.  What our house lacks in size it more than makes up for with it's location. We are right next to one of the best elementary schools in the state (#4 out of 566 statewide according to schooldigger.com).  That means in 4 years when Andrew starts school I will be able to walk him there every morning.  I love that.  And the middle school  he will go to (less than a mile from our house) is #8 out of 254.  Not bad.  If we were to build a house on the lot that J bought when we first started dating and move over there then Andrew would have to go to different schools that aren't as good ( #79/566 and #34/254) or as convenient.  Plus I LOVE our house. We have put so much work into it that I hate the thought of leaving it.

So I don't know.  I still think we will have another little munchkin, but we need to figure out the logistics.  In the meantime I will keep charting and keep enjoying this amazing little kid: