Some Daycare Shots

Have I told you how much I love our daycare? Oh yeah, I think I've mentioned it a time or two  :)

Well I'll say it again. I love them.  They are awesome and I am so happy to have them taking care of Andrew when we aren't able to be with him. 10 months after leaving him for the first time to go back to work it still stings sometimes to hand him over in the mornings.  There are still times I wish that I was able to stay home with him - to get to see his smiling face and hear his giggles anytime I want.  It still tugs at my heart every time I walk out that door.

Fortunately Andrea knows how difficult it is for me to not be there.  To make it easier she sends me pictures and videos so I don't have to completely miss out on everything.

Baby Laure and Andrew watching the dog.  Laure is one month younger than Andrew and is a little peanut. It cracks me up to see her standing there.

Andrew at Pitt St for one of their Wednesday outings

Seeing this face and knowing he's having fun makes me smile

His favorite activity - the swings at the park during Friday park day

Marc is officially the baby whisperer.  When Andrew is being a cranky-pants he is awesome at calming him and getting him to nap.  He is also awesome at getting huge belly laughs out of him.

Here is a video of him "walking" at daycare yesterday.

So yeah - we hit the lottery when it came to daycare.  They are fabulous and I'm so grateful that we found them. I guess it really was a blessing in disguise that our first daycare provider died before Andrew could start there (yes - I feel awful saying that).

Wordless Wednesday ~ What's So Funny?

Toddle Along Tuesday ~ I'll Never

No, I'm not talking about the fun drinking game 'I Never'.  I'm talking about the things I never thought I would do as a parent prior to actually becoming one.  There weren't many things that I actually said/thought I would never do - I've never been one of those people who makes bold statements like that.  There are a few things that I did say out loud (or think to myself), though.

I'll never become one of those women who constantly talks about her kid.  
Yeah, I'd like to apologize to my friends and family for not sticking to this one. I can't help it - he's just so damn cute and funny that I can't help but talk about him.  I go back and look at my facebook and see that everything seems to be about him, so I try to throw in some non-kid stuff to give it some variety. Inevitably, though, it always comes back to my favorite topic - the munchkin.

What do you mean you don't want to talk about me?

I'll quit breastfeeding once he gets teeth and definitely won't go past a year.
I will admit that when that first tooth popped through and he gave my nips some nips I was almost tempted to throw in the towel. I did not want to become a chew toy.  But we powered through and he learned not to bite and six months later we are still at it - albeit really only one time a day in the morning - but we're still at it nonetheless. He'll be 14 months old next weekend and though I don't see us stopping just yet.  I know the end is near, but it isn't imminent (unless my body completely quits producing any milk whatsoever, which might happen soon).

I'll never let our house become overrun with toys.
Ummm... yeah. I think that one was just delusional.  Not that our house looks like Toys R Us exploded or anything (at least on some days), but it's everywhere.  I will say that every night we gather everything up and return it to some semblance of order, but for an OCD clean freak like J I just know that it is driving him crazy.  Sorry hon - I think it's only gonna get worse.

Toys EVERYWHERE

I'll never co-sleep/bedshare.
This is one that I have stuck to.  Yes, when I was on maternity leave there were a handful of times that I brought him into the bed with me in the morning after J had gone to work and we would snuggle, but I never actually slept with him in the bed.  Mostly because I can't sleep with a noisy squirmy little person next to me. It's also because I was terrified of the possibility of something bad happening.  My sister is a pediatrician and  I have heard too many horror stories from her to ever feel comfortable doing it.  Yes, I know there are safe ways to co-sleep, but even though he is a great sleeper he is not quiet and if he was right next to our bed I would have never have gotten any sleep.

This is as close as we ever got to co-sleeping.

So there you have it. Me eating my words.

What about you?  Are there any "I'll never" statements that you made in the past that didn't quite stick?  Head on over to Growing Up Geeky and link up to Toddle Along Tuesday.

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