Um, can someone bring back my happy cheerful non-cranky son please? Because I don't know who this kid is. He is miserable because he's teething, these top teeth are killing him. He doesn't want his gums touched or rubbed, he doesn't really want to chew on anything, he tries and starts immediately whining and crying. He just lost it at dinner time tonight and just screamed and screamed until I picked him up and put him on my lap (he was in his high chair) and cuddled him, but eventually I needed to actually eat some dinner so I just put him in his high chair and gave him the bowl of rice cereal that he was refusing to eat and a spoon and let him make a big mess. He loved it. He was actually quiet! He spent about 20 minutes squishing it in his hands and wiping it all over his tray. He hasn't really connected that he can put food into his mouth himself and eat it, he just plays with it. He's also really freaked out by anything with any more texture than purees, I tried to give him some baked mashed sweet potato and even after straining it through a strainer he kept making these gagging faces, like the texture was too much. Which kinda sucks because baby food is not cheap compared to just baking a sweet potato and mashing it up or a banana or whatever. Oh well.

We bought Savino's "real" carseat today and installed it. I didn't realize it until today but he is actually well over the reccomended height for the infant seat, by several inches. We have been talking about moving up to the big carseat anyway, and so I just went ahead and found one that I liked and the best deal on it was at Wal-Mart so we went and picked it up. Savino is kinda 'eh' about it, I don't think he was really in the mood to appreciate how much nicer it is for him to be able to look out of the window at a higher level. He liked not having to be tied down to the infant seat though, I bought a shopping cart cover and he had a great time playing with all the toys that are attached to it while we were in the store. It's just one step further away from babyhood *sniffs*.

Poor Haley had to study this evening because she has a math test tomorrow. She was really struggling with grasping this one concept and I was having a hard time explaining it to her and helping her figure it out, we were both getting frustrated. I definitely couldn't be a teacher, I have a ton of respect for anyone who does that on a daily basis because I just got more and more frustrated with not being able to help her. Finally, I had to take a break and give Savino a bath (this was after dinner) and she calmed down and when I brought the baby back down, I gave him to Tim and we were able to work it out together by going over it really slowly, step by step. I shudder to think how it will be when she is in high school, it will kill us. I guess that's what tutors are for. I hope she does well on her math test tomorrow, she is trying really hard to pull the C+ she has in math up to a B. I told her that if she is able to pull this last C up to a B we will do something special, because she has really struggled this year with a few subjects but this is the last one that she is working on, the rest she has at least a B in. I don't want to put too much pressure on her about her grades because I think that B's are perfectly fine, but I know she is capable of really applying herself and I want her to have that feeling of pride in herself about it. She brought home like 3 A+'s on tests the other day and I lavished the praise on her, she really deserved it.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that Savino will have a restful night, his teeth are really bothering him. I gave him some Motrin before bed but he has been super incredibly fussy, I don't know if it is going to be a good night or not. I really hope these teeth get through in the next few days, I am stressed for him. This afternoon he was nursing and fell asleep, I tried to hand him off to Tim so I could fix dinner and he woke up and just lost it. He was not OK with Tim holding him, he was shrieking at the top of his lungs, his something-is-terribly-wrong shriek. He didn't stop until I came in and picked him up again. If it is going to be like this for the next week, I think I may just lose my mind.

Easter Catchup

It has been a long week. At least it is almost over! We have been battling The Plague here lately. Poor Haley was so so sick on Monday, she spent the entire day laying on the couch falling asleep between watching cartoons (and it's a measure of just how sick she was that I didn't object to letting her watch TV all day long, not my favorite thing). Savino started getting sick Sunday night with an unbelievable diaper blowout. I will spare you details, but while Haley recovered by Tuesday morning (though all of Monday was spent too sick to even eat), Savino is still not completely right. Poor bubs. He just isn't interested in eating, but is still nursing and taking a bottle without any problems, so he isn't too bad, but his butt is not right. Again, I will spare the details, let's just say it's not pleasant. I will be glad when he is completely recovered.

Easter was alright, we had a lot of people up in the house even though none of Tim's siblings came. It was his mom and dad, Jay and Eleni and Chyron, Eleni's Mom and Dad and her Mom's Mom (Who goes by Yaya), and Laila and Jaden, Haley and Savino. The kids went NUTS. It was a madhouse! Our house is pretty big, but they somehow managed to make it feel small with all their running through the house and screaming and carrying on. We just let them run wild, they kept each other entertained though I think poor Jaden was a little overwhelmed. At just a year old, he can't quite keep up with the bigger kids, though he gave it a good try. He had to take refuge on my lap a few times and finally just went into the other room and played mostly by himself with all of Savino's toys. Savino held up really well, all things considered. He didn't have any stranger anxiety for a change and even let Tim's dad hold him without any complaints. We had MASS amounts of food. We had so much leftovers that even after sending food home with people, we still had leftovers. In fact, I still have turkey and tiramisu leftovers in my fridge and it's been 5 days. So yeah, I think it went pretty good.

It wasn't without drama, of course, but I have decided that I am setting the drama free and not going to let it involve me. It's not my problem. That's my mantra. It seems a little cold to just not let other people's problems become my problems but I'm happier, my family is happier, when I am not obsessing over how I can fix something that is beyond all my reach to fix. If that seems obscure, sorry, but just explaining what it is that I'm not embracing would be going into the drama, so... Yeah.

I did get some really nice pictures of the kids on Tuesday before Haley had to go back to school on Wednesday. Some of them I am not entirely pleased with because I somehow shot too far to the left and the only fix would be to crop into them too far from the right, but oh well. I never claimed to be a professional photographer. I am still happy with them and am hoping that once I have done enough processing on them, I can order some good sized prints from Snapfish. My goal is to be done with photo studios like Olan Mills and the Wal-mart studios. I get so frustrated taking the kids there, it's always more expensive than I plan for, it's always so DIFFICULT to get good pictures from those places, so if I can passably replicate those pictures at home in my ghetto studio, all to the better. So, Easter pictures...







I think my favorite one is the one of Haley looking down at Savino who is looking up at her. So cute, even if it is a bit blurry. I can see the resemblence between them so much more when they are sitting together like that. Everyone keeps saying, "Savino looks so much like Haley!" or "He looks like you!". It wasn't until I got out a baby picture of me at about the same age as him that it becomes really apparent that he really DOES look like I did as a baby. I can see the Tim in him too, but he is definitely my child! Haley looks/ed so much like Tim and Chantal, and only now that she is getting older looks like me, I think.

Anyway, we have a big weekend coming up and hopefully it will hold off on the raining. It has been in the upper 40's so far this week, which is so nice, I will be thrilled if it sticks around, but I am not holding my breath either. As soon as I say, "Ah, Spring" it snows again. So whatever. Spring will never be here!

Savino has finally cut me a little slack on the sleeping thing. We have been getting about 5 hours uninterrupted sleep lately and that is a big relief. If only my insomnia would cut it out. I spent over a year going to bed before 11 and now I have a hard time winding down enough to go to bed at 11, let alone fall asleep. I am not giving up though, when you have to wake up at 3am and then get up by 7:30, you just can't stay up late. It just doesn't work. The boy will be 7 months old on Saturday. It seems UNREAL. Wasn't he just born yesterday? Before I know it, we will be planning his first birthday party. Crazy!

Well, I ought to wrap this up before Tim gets home. We have errands to run as soon as he gets home, of course. Fun fun fun.

Easter Dinner, Anyone?

Yeah, so Tim calls me at 3pm (which, by the way, woke Savino up from the nap he was taking IN HIS CRIB) and informs me that he just spoke with his mom about Easter dinner and...

We are hosting Easter dinner this year. Yes. Everyone is coming to OUR house for dinner. Why is this? Because apparently my mother in law's dog is "sick" and she is too concerned about the dog to cook dinner. Oh, they will come over to eat, but *WE* get to cook for everyone. She is going to bring over a turkey apparently, and we are cooking everything else. So yeah, nothing like last minute Easter dinner shopping, is there? Thanks Mother in Law. It's a good thing I got started on cleaning the house this afternoon before Tim called with this wonderful news. I cleaned the kitchen and swept the dining room, but I still have to declutter and mop and I am getting exhausted thinking about it.

We tried to get Easter basket things at Wal-Mart. Bad idea. There were masses of other people there and it was ridiculous. I got frustrated and Savino was crying because he was hot and stuck in his seat and it was his dinnertime, I ended up getting into an argument with Tim and we left without getting anything other than candy. So, I guess we get to try it again, take two style, tomorrow. THAT will be fun, I am sure.

We didn't have to watch Chantal's kids after all, though I am not sure what prompted the change of plans for her. She left just as soon as we got home, but she was planning on going out with one of her friends. I noticed today when she came over that she's not wearing her wedding rings anymore. Interesting.

So, I am not psyched at all about having everyone over for Easter dinner. I would have rather gone over to my mother in law's and cooked there and cleaned up afterwards than have everyone here. Tim got bitched at a little bit for agreeing without even asking me first, I was just looking forward to not having to do anything for Easter. Oh well. I hope Savino doesn't lose his mind with a bunch of strangers around him.

Savino totally could not handle having Chantal here today. She came over at 3pm, a full two hours before Tim got home from work and messed around on the computer and stuff. She tried to talk to Savino and he couldn't even bear to have her nearby, he would immediately launch into wails and tears if she even looked at him. It took him the two hours until Tim got home to get comfortable enough with having her around so that she could talk to him without him crying. He was totally OK with Laila and Jaden this time though, when they came over I was upstairs with Savino in our bedroom and Laila came in and sat down next to him on the bed and he just grinned at her. A much better reaction than last weekend, when he wailed and wailed. He has intermittent stranger anxiety it seems. He has been flirting with women in the grocery store and when we run errands. If someone admires him without getting too close, he just grins and gives them the full dose of charm. But sometimes, like with Chantal and Laila and Jaden last weekend, he just loses it. It's hard to tell which way it will go until he's either smiling or crying.

I have some of the most adorable pictures too from this afternoon. Jaden loves and I mean LOVES to give Savino kisses, most of the time Savino will allow it, and Jaden kept kissing him this afternoon. I managed to get a few good pictures to blackmail them with later, it is too cute!

With A Rebel Yell

Those damn Comcast commercials, they have that stupid song stuck in my head. Get. OUT!

I was very snappish tonight, and I blame the children and Tim both. Well, really it was probably nobody's fault, but I still blame them. I am such a wonderful wife/mother, no? Dealing with Haley's homework is, like, the BANE of my existence. I hate it. And it is only going to get worse as she gets older and the homework gets more complicated. *sighs* She is working on multiplication right now and we are going to have to start memorizing her multiplication tables to make her life easier. Thaaat's gonna be fun.

Savino was just very clingy and high needs, I don't know if he was just not feeling good or the teeth were bothering him or what, but he nursed a LOT today, and just didn't want to chill on his own at all. I just held him as much as I could, but about 6:30pm I was ready to run screaming off down the road. I just said to Tim, "Please hold your son. I can't anymore." and thankfully he took him until bedtime at 8pm. I just need like an hour to decompress when Tim gets home, which I am sure sucks for him because he comes home from work and I'm all, "TAKE THESE CHILDREN AWAY FROM ME NOW!" but that's life. He gets to leave the house every day and go out to lunch with his friends and his penance is to come home to a shrill wife and demanding children. Lucky him! Don't feel too bad for him, he's spoiled too.

My body, post-Savino, is killing me. My face particularly, it's like I'm going through some sort of crazy puberty or something, I've been getting these breakouts that are just wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. I am thisclose to ordering some ProActiv because I don't know what else to do! The usual routine is not cutting it. And I am not wearing makeup a lot (obviously, since I am just at home with my son all day!), or leaving my hair down near my face or anything, it's crazy. Thank you breastfeeding. Or whatever it is. Anyway, I am not pleased. I'm too old for this nonsense.

I kept stroking my boy's head and touching his face while he was nursing today. I am definitely in that "you're growing up too fast" place right now. He is getting so big and so independant in many ways, but when he is dozing off while nursing, he has that little baby peacefulness in his face and I am just so aware of holding onto every last moment of this. Maybe I go on and on about how "this is the last..." with Savino, but it really is, and you don't know how precious every second of it is until you're through it and out the other side and you have this 8 yr. old who doesn't even need you half the time anymore. It goes by too too quickly. I realized when I was smoothing and running my fingers through Savino's hair that I can't palm his head anymore, it is too big! It was just the other day, it seems, that I could fit his whole little head in my hand, just cup my palm around him. When he nurses, his body half hangs off my lap because he is too long, he has to curl up his legs to fit. I am still ridiculously emotional about it all. I didn't know what I was going to do with a little boy and now I can't even imagine having anyone else in my life instead of him. He is such a loving, happy, smiley, sweet little boy. He is spoiled and demanding and loves to be thrown up in the air and swung around in circles and I'm such a sucker for him.

Ok, enough sappiness. I can't help it. It just flows out of me.

I have been having to FORCE myself onto the treadmill lately. It is my nemesis. I am so tired, it is hard to convince myself that I need to workout, but if I start to miss days then it becomes just that much harder to get onto it again and back in the rhythm. If only it would WARM UP. I want to walk on the bike trail and be able to put the boy in a stroller and just go. If only it would just get and stay in the upper 50's even, I think I could bundle up the boy enough that he would be fine, but when it's 34 degrees out, it's just not gonna happen. It is 32 degrees right now. Urg. If it seriously does snow, I think I might cry.

I have to think of something to make for dinner tomorrow. I literally haven't made dinner in like a week. Tim has been doing all the cooking, and I don't have a problem with that, I think he would rather cook than watch the baby while I cook anyway. Of course, he hasn't been doing the dishes and he made dinner tonight and just left the chaos and mayhem all over the kitchen, but whatever. It's a small price to pay I suppose.

I am into the new season of Top Chef. There was a Top Chef marathon on Bravo today, so that was playing as background entertainment when I was stuck nursing Savino fifteen million times. I curse the fact that there is no Bravo OnDemand. As much as we pay for our cable service, I think every single show should be available in the OnDemand programming. I've been looking at buying a DVR but they are CRAZY expensive if you don't buy them from your cable provider, and we pay way too much in our cable bill as it is, I can't justify getting a DVR on top of it unless we cut our package back or drop our HBO and Showtime. We rarely watch the HBO or Showtime anymore, but we do every now and then, and we will watch movies from time to time and so it is nice to just have it when the mood strikes. So, no DVR for now I guess. But yeah, Top Chef. It rocks, even though I don't think that I would really eat half the things that they make. Some of that stuff is a little iffy.

Well, I should have been in bed an hour ago. I will regret not having gone when I was tired. Oh well.

Corned Beef and Potatoes

Ok, this entry will probably be in peices because the boy is fussing around on the floor and must be attended to and rescued from the various places he keeps getting himself stuck (under the bouncer, under the jumper, half under the couch, are you sensing a trend?). The crawling in reverse thing has him all sorts of pissed off. The things he wants to play with are IN FRONT of him and he just keeps going further and further backwards. And I won't let him play with my slipper, and that is making him mad because apparently it looks like a fun toy. *shrugs*

I had an exhausting morning. Savino slept well throughout the night... until about 5am. And then it was nurse/fuss/nurse/scream and flail/bottle/nurse/flail. He FINALLY passed out at 7am when Tim got up and started getting ready for work. I was all, "Wake the baby and DIE". I had to stay up for a little bit to fix Haley's hair for school. I bought her some special St. Patrick's Day hair things and had to put them in her hair for her. She was SO EXCITED that it was St. Patrick's Day.

When we finally did get up, I put the boy in his Lucky Charm t-shirt. You will see, I took pictures, of course. He is too cute. Of course, I am pretty much running on fumes today, so it is a good thing he is being so cute.

Toys R Us was having a big Fisher Price sale this weekend, buy one get one free under 20$ so we went yesterday and picked out two new toys for Savino. I feel bad that he really doesn't have a lot to play with, I mean not that a 6 mo. needs a bunch of toys but pretty much everything we do have is girl-oriented. He needed some infant boy toys. Tim picked out this tool bench musical toy and I got him a little piano thing to bang on. He doesn't seem to care much about them, he just ends up flipping them over and then banging on the underside. Oh well!

Haley's Spring Break starts Friday and lasts until Tuesday. I am kinda eh over the fact that their spring break is THREE DAYS. That seems so short to me! But, they have to make up some time for snow days, so I suppose that's why.

Ok, boy must be rescued. I'm out.

I had to put the corned beef brisket in the oven, it has to cook for like 3.5 hours. I hope it turns out ok, I didn't have a rack that would fit in the bottom of the pan so hopefully that won't be a problem. We are having corned beef and potatoes and vegetables. Mmm. Irishness.

I can't believe next weekend is Easter. I need to get off my ass and buy Easter basket stuff I suppose. Haley requested a pre-made Easter basket this year, she didn't want her expensive Longaberger Easter basket filled. *sighs* I suppose she has a few more years of Easter basket before she will be too old, but I think she is a little cheeky for ASKING for which type of basket she gets. Oh well. It is probably cheaper to buy the pre-made baskets than to fill one myself anyway. Laila won't be here so I don't have to do one for her, she is going to be in Dayton. Jaden and Savino are kinda too young really, I might do something little for both of them.

I bought one of these Woodwick candles, in case you're not familiar with them they have this wooden wick that supposedly crackles like a fireplace as the candle burns. We burned it for a little while last night, but maybe I trimmed the wick too short because it didn't crackle. It smells nice though. I wanted the scent "Redwood" but they didn't have any at the Hallmark store, so I had to settle for "Fireside" which smells good.

I didn't end up getting Savino's convertible carseat because, of course, Sam's didn't have them anymore! This is the story of my life, I postpone buying something and then when I go back to buy it, it's not there anymore! Tim gets frustrated with me because of it, but that's just me. So, I don't know which car seat I am going to get now. I went to Toys R Us where they had the same car seat but not on sale... out of stock. Well, damn. We're going to have to get one soon, the boy + the infant seat = too heavy.

A little St. Patrick's Day cuteness for you...

What's St. Patrick's Day, Mom?




Ok, just put the camera down now, ok?




No really. Put. It. Down. (And yes, I did, look how angry!)

More of the Same

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures...


He sneezed cereal all over himself. It was too funny not to catch!


Eating carrots for the first time


I somehow caught some strange eye roll!


Happy boy





Ok, so now that we've gotten THAT out of the way. Eleni came over for a little while this evening but we ended up just gossiping and eating dinner and not doing any baby shower invitations. I think she was just not in the mood for it. Plus Savino was being exceptionally cute and flirting with her.

Tim has already been called out to the hospital TWICE since he left work, so this bodes to be quite the weekend, I am sure. Oh well. He got a very very good peice of news today. The administrator of the hospital called him into her office to talk to him (and of course, I knew he would immediately think that he was in trouble because he was talking just earlier this week about being fired over that survey which ended up being perfectly fine), and closed the door and told him that what she was going to tell him had to stay in the office. She read to him a letter that she was sending to the corporate headquarters reccommending him for a 4% raise and told him that he would be getting a hefty bonus check because the hospital made and exceeded their budget last year. In fact, he is getting a much bigger bonus check this year than he got last year! Hey, I won't complain about THAT! He deserves it, really, he works his ass off and his job is a kinda sucky one that is so high pressure. So yay for that! I expect he will want to buy a guitar with it, surprise surprise lol. So I don't think he has to worry about his job security, I doubt he would be fired after being reccommended for a raise! He sent me a text telling me all of this and I had to check and make sure he was being serious! He really deserves it, I don't care how many times I repeat that, because Tim rules!

He made dinner again tonight and it was so good again, he has really been outdoing himself in the kitchen, and he has made dinner almost every night this week too! I am very appreciative of his help lately, it has been a big change from feeling like he was dragging his feet around.

I don't have any exciting plans for the weekend. I will probably go out and buy Savino's big carseat, we are definitely dumping the bucket seat soon. He is getting too big for it anyway. I think the weight limit for that seat is 22 lbs. and he is already at least 18 lbs. Sam's has the Alpha Sport seat that I liked in Toys R Us on sale, I will probably get that one. I think he will be so pleased to be up higher and able to look out the windows. I have been waiting for the weather to warm up a little more because he stays warmer tucked up in the infant seat, but he is more and more protesting sitting in it and I end up carrying him anyway, so I might as well just put him in a convertible seat. I also need to get one of those shopping cart covers that has toys and whatnot on it. I am going to work on my projects that I have started, I have to finish up what I started on Haley's family tree quilt, and I have a few knitting projects I want to try. Hahahaha, excuse me while I laugh myself silly, I should say that I have a few knitting projects that I will start and then set aside in the middle of and end up frogging in three months! No really, I am going to try and finish at least one, I found some cool patterns on Ravelry today and I think I could actually stay into them long enough to finish one. I would like to make a pixie hat for Savino and a pair of teeny tiny socks for Eleni's baby-to-be. The socks won't take long, I am going to do the wee little ones and I HOPE they won't take too long.

I spent way too much time today browsing Etsy. Well, I limited my browsing to when I was stuck sitting in the recliner nursing Savino, but still, I was captivated. I love love love Etsy. I could spend THOUSANDS of dollars, there are so many really cool things on there. I think I will be buying a lot of Christmas presents from there this year because I like the idea of giving something handmade. I was a little obsessed with some beautiful brooches and the baby stuff was just too cute too.

Speaking of baby stuff, Tim put the snaps on my bibs last night, they just need to be washed now to get all the shedding out of the terry, but they turned out pretty well! I think I will make the necks of the next ones a bit bigger, I think they need a little room to grow in them. I have 7 done, plus one burp cloth. I have a LOT more material to cut up, and I think I might go to Wal-Mart to see if they have any cute holiday fabrics on the sale tables. I would like to give Eleni 10 bibs and have a good stock for myself leftover, so I probably need to make about 30 in all. Sounds like a lot, but you have to keep in mind Savino goes through at least one bib a day, sometimes more depending on whether there are any unfortunate spit up incidents. It's handy to have a lot of extra ones around to throw in my purse or use for spills too. And they're cute! It helps that it is a quick and easy project that is almost instant gratification, I can cut, pin, sew, turn, and put snaps on in about three days at my baby-laden pace. That is record time for me! I took some pictures of the ones that I have finished, I just have to upload and resize them.

It's almost time to order more prints! Yay! I am always excited to see what the digital photos look like in actual print. I have about 200 pictures that I need to put into my scrapbook too, it is kinda ridiculous. I just haven't felt like sitting down and scrapbooking lately.

Ok, so I am done rambling now. Maybe your weekend be fulfilling and drama free!

Friday, Friday

Last night was the break in the restless sleeping, thank goodness. Savino slept just fine, only waking up once at 1am to nurse and then went back to sleep until 6:30am. As a result, we were out of bed at 7am when Tim and Haley got up because I felt really rested and wasn't tempted to roll over and go back to sleep. Yay for sleep! Sleep rocks.

Tim's glasses from zennioptical should be here today or tomorrow. Yay! If he is pleased with them, I am going to order a few pairs. I've been waiting to see what the quality is like, but he is really happy with the sunglasses that he already received a few days ago. I am looking forward to having new glasses!

Tim is on 24 hour call this weekend, from tonight until Sunday night. Lucky him! He thinks he will be called in a lot as well, apparently things are crazy at the hospital right now. Oh well, he gets paid $50 per call, so I won't complain about the money if he does get called in!

Savino is scooting backwards now, I have had to put him back on his blanket three times now because he has scooted himself backwards completely off it! Soon he will be going the otder direction. He gets up on his hands and knees and then flops onto his belly and it pushes him backwards. He is so silly! We have been cutting back on the solids lately, something he ate or something I ate and got passed on in my breastmilk burned up his butt and I wanted to cut way back on the solids until his butt is healed up. It's almost there, I've been putting Bordreaux's Butt Paste and some zinc oxide cream on it at every diaper change and it seems to be almost gone. He has tried sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, and peas and this week the new food was oatmeal which he doesn't seem to care much for. We might try a fruit this weekend, it depends on the butt situation.

Tim has been a lot more helpful this week since I complained about the dishes and the house being a mess. He actually washed all the dishes and has made dinner most of the week, and I am very relieved about that. I was beginning to get seriously upset about the state of things, I think he picked up on it. Last night he made the most awesome steak tips with crimini mushrooms and peppers and onions and rice with corn and salad. Oh it was good. I could have had just a big bowl of the mushrooms and peppers and onions, it was delicious!

Eleni is supposed to come over tomorrow so that I can help her print out her baby shower invitations. It is almost a month away, I should probably get cracking on putting together the door prizes and games and stuff. Also I am making the cake for the party, and I will probably need to pick up some fondant for that. I think I will make a triple layer with white chocolate filling and raspberry jam and a white buttercream icing. I have to make one without a fruit filling for Eleni's mom though, so I will make at least two cakes. It has been awhile since I have made any cakes though, come to think of it. I made that chocolate flourless cake for Tim's birthday but I think that was the last time. I am kinda looking forward to getting into it again! I am actually looking forward to the shower too, I am going to leave the baby with Tim and Eleni's mom is hosting it at her place. I think we will have some fun games, and I will be taking lots of pictures too I think.

Well, I will upload some pictures and then I think I am going to need another cup of coffee and a banana. I have decided to end the caffeine strike. I don't think my abstaining has affected the boy in any way, but I will watch and see if he becomes any more restless if I start to consume more. I was looking up naproxen in a lactation and medicine safety chart and noticed that caffeine is classified as not a lactation risk, and I miss my coffee and regular Diet Coke and being able to just have a cup of tea without worrying about it. Anyway, yay for coffee!

Pictures...

Just Another Day (And Survey)

I was tagged...

Five Years Ago: Haley was 3 (almost 4) years old, and I think Laila was just a little baby. (I'd have to look back in my diary to be sure) She was (and still is) such a sweet little girl, and I was finally figuring everything out with being a mom. I was working for an internet startup as Director of Business Development which was a learning experience in how to deal with people. I managed to get out of that job just in time because the company went under less than a year later.

Three Years Ago: We were contemplating moving and buying a bigger house, I was 25 years old (*sighs*), later in the year we bought our big house and moved out of the little house, which we rented to Tim's brother. Haley had started school and I had blissful days of working from home and enjoying my days off. Tim was working a split schedule and we had days during the week together with no kids. BLISS!

1 Year Ago: I was pregnant with Savino and thrilled beyond all reason by it. I never thought Tim would agree to us having another kid, so it was a time of much happiness. I was stressed by my diabetes and worried about how it would affect the baby, but still thrilled. Chantal had Jaden and he was about 6 months old and just a fun little baby to hang out with, Chantal was in school studying to be a paralegal and Laila was in preschool and they were still living with us.

Yesterday: Errands, babybabybaby, Tim made homemade ham and cheese "hot pockets" and we had lots of leftovers from the party that we had on Saturday with Eleni and her parents and Jay and Chyron.

Today: Work, laundry, laundry, laundry, baby, poor Savino is still teething and kinda miserable as the day progresses. I am trying not to give him medicine unless he truly needs it, but he gets so desperate and cranky that I am afraid he is in pain and I really don't want him suffering. God bless Hyland's teething tablets, those things rock.

Tomorrow: If I am lucky, it will be more of the same minus some laundry, plus some dishwashing, and hopefully minus a lot of crankiness on the baby's part. I hope for him a good day filled with smiles and at least one two hour nap (excuse me while I laugh hysterically).

End survey!

Last night was a little better, but I am still kinda beat. The time change is killing me. Oh well. I will cope.

Tim is stressing because tomorrow is a big day at the hospital, they are having a big survey done to renew the hospitals license so everything and everyone will be under really close scrutiny. He's worried that if they find anything wrong in the Admissions department (that he is the Director/Head of) that it will be his job on the line. I am just rolling my eyes at that because 1) Nothing will be wrong, Tim is anal about dotting every "i" and 2) They wouldn't fire him if he walked in and told everyone to go fuck themselves because he is the only one who knows how to do the job. I think he just gets himself worked up over things, and gets worried and it's unnecessary stress. Anyway, he will be happy when tomorrow is over.

I spent part of the day with my head buried in the washer or dryer, doing laundry. Savino managed to not lose his mind and put up with me running back and forth from the laundry room to the bedroom to his bedroom and back again. He wasn't pleased about it when it got to be the evening and we were STILL doing laundry, but that's life. He's got a lot of clothes. I weeded through his dresser again *sighs*. It is so bittersweet taking clothes that are too small out and putting them aside for Eleni. Some of them I am saving just to put in his keepsake chest, but most I am passing on. I bought him some new clothes last week and I washed and put those away, and dug out a whole bunch of clothes that were in the "too big" drawer that will fit now. Though I pulled probably half a garbage bag full of clothes out of his drawers, his pants drawer is still overflowing and I could barely get all his "outfits" into the drawer. I think in a few months I will probably have to buy some more short sleeved onesies unless Chantal has some to pass on, but other than that, the boy is even set for the summer. He might need sandals, but that's it.

I also managed to get all the fabric that I bought yesterday cut into bib-shapes and pinned to the terrycloth backing, so they are ready to be sewn. Scintillating, I know. I ended up with 9 bibs out of the material that I had, and I found some remnants from the slings I made that will yeild probably ten more or so, and I know I have even more upstairs in the bedroom. I also had an AHA moment, cutting the terry cloth into the bib pattern, I realized I didn't have to pay $6 for a yard of terry cloth, duh, I could have just gone and bought a few cheap bath towels and cut them up. I know just where to find some thing white towels for $1 each, which will be perfect. Now I feel stupid for paying $6 for a yard at JoAnn fabrics. Oh well. Now I know.

I need to fix up my Ravelry account to show off all the baby-related crafts I have been churning out. I have maybe 15 pairs of babylegs that I've done for Savino and now the bibs and I also made up a few burp-clothes out of the leftover fabric that wasn't big enough for the bibs. Tim suggested I make some to sell, but honestly, I don't really think they would sell. People have much cuter stuff out there. Especially on Etsy. I was on there this evening looking at other people's bibs and was amazed at all the cute stuff! Unfortunately, I have a hard time justifying paying $8 for one bib. I didn't pay $8 for all the stuff I bought that made 9 bibs, so that is just a little too much for me, but they are cute! If I was spending someone else's money... hehe.

I feel so boring lately. Literally all I have to talk about is my kids, my crafts, or Chantal's drama. *sighs* I used to write poetry. I used to have something to say. These days, I have nothing. This is just all my daily drivel. I mean, I'm not upset by that, really, because this is my life. My mind is so numbed by lack of sleep, or preoccupied with babybabybaby, or struggling with my camera that I don't have the energy to sit down and write something meaningful. THIS is meaningful to me. What little energy I do have is being poured into cooking dinner, doing babycrafts, folding laundry, wrangling Haley's schoolwork. Oh well. I don't even really have the energy to feel regret.

Tim fixed my tripod! I thought that I had broken it, but apparently it just came apart, I didn't actually break it. Of course, then he had to show me how to use it. At least now I know! I think that I am going to try taking the next pictures of Savino with the tripod and see if perhaps that cuts down on the amount of blurry/out of focus pictures I end up with. I know part of it is him moving around, he doesn't exactly stay still, but part of it is also me moving around. I don't really care, really, because I just shoot in continuous mode and take 5 billion pictures so the law of averages means I have at least one or two shots in focus, but it would be nice to have more than 50 out of 200 hundred shots. I also haven't been doing much post-processing on the pictures I've taken recently. Part of it is me afraid of screwing the pictures up, I don't think my monitor is calibrated correctly, and some of the pictures that I ordered prints of lately came out not quite right. The other part of it is that I have like 250 pictures to edit and most of the editing that I want to do is time consuming like cloning out things and I am being miserly with my time at the computer lately. Wah wah wah, I know. If that's what I have to complain about, I've got it pretty damn good. I think that I will just order some prints of what I have unedited and see what they look like.

Ok, I think I am going to take my butt to bed. I'm tired.

Total and Complete Exhaustion

I have so little energy that I can't even express how little I have. I am so so so so tired. Please, PLEASE let my son sleep tonight! The last two nights have been complete hell. I thought once the teeth popped through that the hard part was over! My son has not slept more than an hour and a half stretch at all in 48 hours and has taken three 20 minute naps. I am DEAD on my feet. At least last night Tim took over from 4:30am to 6am and then I nursed the boy again and Tim changed him and got him dressed for me. But, for real, I need some sleep. I was making Savino a bottle in the middle of the night and couldn't keep my eyes open and crying from exhaustion all at the same time. It's like he's a newborn all over again, but with twice the screaming. I even gave in and gave him Tylenol in the middle of the night AND teething tablets. Tonight I gave him a dose of Motrin right after dinner and didn't let him nap AT ALL, so hopefully he will sleep a little better. Please, please, because I think I might throw myself out the window if I can't get some sleep. I am wrecked.



So, instead of lucid thought, you get more pictures. How I even managed to get half of these in focus with how bleary my eyes were all day, I don't even know. I caved and drank half a Diet Coke, I needed the caffeine.



We went to JoAnn Fabrics today so Tim could pick up some stickers for my old laptop keyboard where I have worn off the letters on half the keyboard, and I found the cutest flannel and cotton fabric that I am going to make some bibs with. I am backing them with terry/towel fabric and got a snap punch to put snaps on them with. I'm just using these ones I got handed down from Eleni as a template because I will likely be giving those back to her when she has her baby, but I will still need bibs for Savino and I LOVE these bibs of hers that I have been using that are backed in terry. They are WONDERFUL. So yeah, I am going to try and make a few. I can't wait to see how they turn out. I got half a yard of three different materials, which should be enough to make at least six bibs I think.



I tried on a pair of jeans in Target today that are two sizes smaller than the ones that I am currently wearing. I picked them up because they looked like they might fit though I was dubious about the size, and because the jeans I have now are a little too big. I need to get new jeans, but I am still working on losing the rest of the weight that I want to get off before the summer so I don't want to buy any right now. If that makes sense. Anyway, I was fully mentally braced for them to not fit and I even said to myself, "Self, I don't know why you are doing this to yourself, you will just be pissed off later!" So imagine my shock when they buttoned up! :o I didn't get them because there was something crazy going on with the rise in the waist, but I was really pleased! It was a healthy dose of motivation to keep on keepin' on and the tantalizing thought of being able to buy all my jeans in TWO SMALLER SIZES had me grinning.




I need to get a camcorder, I've come to that conclusion. My point and shoot camera takes OK video, but it's not really the best quality and I would really really like to be able to have some decent home movies for the kids when they are older, especially of things like Savino crawling, etc. I would ideally like one that you can record onto a DVD within the camcorder, but now that my laptop has a DVD burner and the desktop has a DVD burner, it's not exactly vital, so if anyone has a beloved digital camcorder that they love, please shoot me some reccomendations. I'm trying not to spend more than $300.

On that note, I am so so beat. I must get some sleep. Oh goody, my son is making noise, please let this not be the start of another restless night. I will DIE.

Pictures

Just some of the pictures that I have been working on.
None of them are really done yet, I have just started editing them, but these are ones that I just resized really quickly.

Even More Milestones

If it wasn't enough that Savino has decided to get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth (and I managed to get pictures of this! Yay!), after nursing him this evening, he was pulling my hand to his mouth and trying to chew on his fingers. I put my index finger in his mouth (my hands were clean, don't worry!) to rub his gums which he seems to like, and what do I discover....

HE HAS TWO TEETH THAT JUST BROKE THROUGH HIS LOWER GUMS!

Yes, my son has just cut his first TWO teeth at the same time, both front lower teeth.

I just assumed his slight fever and crankiness was due to the shots he got yesterday, but I am almost 99% sure that they hadn't broke through yesterday, so sometime between then and 5pm tonight, they broke through. He has been in a much more mellow mood since then, though that might be because instead of giving him Motrin, I gave him some teething tablets. He has been extra drooly and just outright GNAWING on his fingers lately, but I just assumed that it was just more of the same, this prolonged teething. *sighs* I guess not!

I just want him to stop growing up for a second, because it seems like it is all happening all at once. I am freaking out over here! Is he just going to get up and walk away tomorrow? I am not in this big of a hurry for him to grow up! (And honestly, I am praying this isn't the start of a nursing battle where he wants to bite all the time, I will DIE).

I am typing this from my new laptop. It rocks. It even has a card slot for my SD card so I can put it directly into my computer rather than using my card reader. I love. I am going to dive into editing the 587 pictures I have to slog through now. Pictures tomorrow.

Another Milestone

Savino JUST started pushing himself up onto his hands and knees from his belly, as in maybe five minutes ago. I can't believe how quickly it happens, one moment he is trying trying trying and the next, got it! It's crazy! So, crawling is not too far behind. He can push himself backwards already, going up on his hands and knees and then dropping onto his belly and then back up on the hands and knees, it moves him backwards. He wants to go FORWARDS so badly though, his toys are in front of him! He won't stay on his blanket on the floor either. So I guess the days of letting him just lay on his blanket on the floor are just about over.

*sniff* Who said he was allowed to grow up so fast??

In other, less exciting news, my laptop finally arrived but I haven't had a chance to plug it in or anything because I've been doing baby stuff and work stuff all morning, and I also have over 500 pictures on my camera that need processed, probably 200 of them are blurry or otherwise not good enough to keep but still, that's a lot of pictures to edit. So yeah, I'm going under for a bit.

6 Month Doctor's Visit

It was a pretty good day, though I am sure if my boy could talk he would beg to differ! I did manage to miss the DHL dude and my laptop though :(. I could have had it today! (It was originally supposed to be delivered tomorrow anyway, so no real loss) Tim had the day off because it was Savino's 6 month checkup.

The boy did so good at the doctors! I was shocked! He has been going through some serious stranger anxiety where he cries if someone approaches him too quickly. He didn't cry once at the dr! Of course, our doctor rocks, he is so friendly and approachable. He was kissing on Savino and laughing with him and giving him headbutts, and Savino was just thrilled, he smiled and smiled and didn't even protest once when the doctor picked him off Tim's lap to examine him. The dr. proclaimed him in fine health, no problems, and totally adorable, he even forgave him when Savino peed all over him during the exam. Hehe. Then it was my favorite time of the exam, the height and weight check! He didn't even cry when I got him naked, which he usually does, and I plopped him on the scale and he weighs 18 lbs. right on the nose. He is 28.5" long.

Now, to put that in perspective, he was 14 lbs. 11.5 oz. at the start of January, two months ago. He was 25.5" (I think). So in two months he put on 3 lbs. 4.5 oz. and THREE inches. Insane. He is so big! It is too gradual for me to see, since I see him every day, but I knew that he was growing a lot.

It is also a big reassurance that I am still making enough milk for him because his supplemental formula intake has not grown as he has, he is still drinking the same amount that he was two months ago. Of course, he does have about 8 Tb. of rice cereal a day and 2 Tb. of either sweet potatoes or carrots, but it is always so good to have that reassurance that my body is still feeding him well!

The only part of the visit that he cried at was, of course, the shots. Poor baby, he had two shots but like 5 different vaccinations, one of the shots is a 4-in-1. This is a big improvement from when Haley was a baby and she always had multiple shots. I am also really reassured by the fact that our pediatrician believes in delaying the MMR until babies are past the 1 yr. mark. So Savino is done with shots for another six months, thank goodness. The boy only cried for a moment during the administering of the shot, as soon as the nurse picked him up off the table, he stopped crying and just sniffled and looked over at me and "complained". He is getting to be such a big boy!!

He was out of sorts the rest of the day of course, he fell asleep in the car and napped through a trip to Target, and only woke up when Tim and I went into The Olive Garden for lunch. He wouldn't eat at lunch, he wanted to nurse and wanted a bottle, but refused any solids. I couldn't fault him, I know he didn't feel good. I also stopped in at Kohl's and got Haley a t-shirt that says "My Dad Rocks" with a guitar on it (Tim was pleased by that) and I got two outfits and a onesie for Savino as well. Everything was on sale, so that was a good thing. When we got home, all Savino wanted to do was nurse and fuss. He nursed and dozed and played and then nursed again. And again. And again. It was a flashback to three months ago! All he wanted to do was lay on me and nurse, I just let him. I gave him some Motrin because he started to feel warm and was looking so puny around 3:30 and then an hour later he fell asleep while, of course, nursing and I drifted off as well and we slept from 4:30 until almost 6pm, though I kept waking up. He needed that nap, he was much better after that and managed to eat some dinner, actually he ate everything so that was good. He chilled in his high chair while we ate and then played on the floor with Tim for an hour before bed. He was ready for bedtime when we got there though, he got his nightly rub down with the bedtime lotion and sacked out while I nursed him to sleep. Hopefully he will sleep well.

Eleni came over last night to visit for awhile, we ended up feeding Chyron dinner while she and Jay went to vote, and I think they appreciated that. Chyron is too much, he is so cute! It's hard to believe he's already 3 years old. It seems like just yesterday when I was babysitting him as a tiny little baby! I filled Eleni in on the whole Chantal thing, she was aghast. I told her, I am just totally over it, what will be will be. Chantal will do what she wants and the rest be damned! I need to get in touch with Eleni's mom about her baby shower and find out what I can do for her.

I am so excited to play with my new laptop! I hope that it comes tomorrow! I am also still waiting on the pants I bought for Savino and the drums I bought for the kids to arrive in the mail, hopefully soon. Tim is still waiting for his glasses from zennioptical.com. I really hope he hears something about them soon, he is ready for them!

I really need to buckle down and list some things for sale on eBay this week, I think I will try to get that done tomorrow perhaps. I have a crapload to list! I really hope it all sells well.

I'm tired, despite the nap earlier. I haven't been getting to bed at a good time, I keep falling prey to wanting to stay up and enjoy the non-baby time, but then I pay for it at 6am when Savino starts to wake up. It's hard. I am re-reading the Dark Tower series right now and that doesn't help either, I want to stay up reading.

Tonight is the Project Runway finale! Yay! I think I will get some tea and enjoy. It is my vice. At least right when this is over, Top Chef starts again. I love my sick reality shows.

So, I have a monster child apparently hehe. According to the growth charts, he is in the 95th% for height. Big boy! Of course, his head circumference is only in the 5th%, which is slightly worrying, but until the dr. says something about it I will try not to stress over it. He has the greenlight to continue with the solids and he can have juice, but I think we will wait on that, he doesn't NEED it. I think we will try squash again tomorrow and then in a few days perhaps the green beans or peas.

I am reminding myself every single day to hold onto every moment, that his babyhood is slipping away every day and THIS IS IT. It makes the fussy moments a little easier when you can tell yourself "This is the last time he will be this little, fuss about this, need you like this". I am not in a hurry for him to grow up, but I am also really enjoying seeing him grow up. It is bittersweet!

On that note, Project Runway!

Monday, Monday

I'm watching this "Secret Life Of a Soccer Mom" show. I wonder what I would have done if I hadn't gotten myself a husband and kids? I can't imagine. Probably have gotten myself into a string of bad relationships. Who knows?

It was so blissfully warm today. The high was like 73. It was wonderful. Please bring on the warmer weather! Of course, tomorrow it is supposed to be like 49 and it is supposed to continue to get colder until it snows, again, at the end of the week. I can't even think about that or I will scream. It was so warm when it was time to go get Haley that I strapped Savino onto my back in the mei tai and let him pull his socks off and be barefooted in the sun. He loved it! He was totally chilled out and mellow riding on my back, just looking at everything and patting my tattoo on the back of my neck and trying to pull my hair down out of the bun it was up in. I am so looking forward to being able to do that more often!

Before we went to the bus stop, I walked around the yard with Savino showing him all the plants that are getting ready for spring. I have buds in my tulip bed! I have to go through and pull out all the dead annuals that I have let linger on past their lifespan. I saw about ten or twelve little buds peeking up through the mulch. I am so thrilled! You know when the tulips start to show that winter is on its way out. Please, please, please let it be on the way out.

I managed to take some pictures of Savino in front of my makeshift backdrop this afternoon, but I am not totally pleased with the results. I obviously have a long way to go, and I know that, and I shouldn't expect to be some fabulous photographer overnight, but I am so eager to get there. I messed around with some lights this evening taking pictures of Haley and am not pleased at all with the results, what I thought looked good didn't photograph very well. I need to get some better lighting I think. I did get some very sweet pictures of Savino though, I need to edit them but I am trying to wait until my new laptop arrives rather than put them on this one, edit and then have to burn them to CD to transfer them when I get the other laptop. If that makes any sense. Anyway, I took like 200 pictures so I should have a few that are not blurry or where I cropped the top of a head off or something. I took some pictures of Savino stripped down to his diaper wearing Haley's angel wings from her Halloween costume and they are TOO CUTE! I die! I am really hoping that my prints arrive tomorrow so I can see what the prints look like from pictures taken with the new camera.

Savino was so good today, he was in such a good mood! It was such a nice change after him being so cranky lately, he was just happy to hang out with me all day and do our thing. He even let me sleep in for a bit this morning, he nursed himself back to sleep from about 7:45 until almost 8:30 when the city helpfully started trimming trees and chipping the limbs RIGHT OUTSIDE THE WINDOW and woke us both up. Oh well, 8:30 is an hour later than I usually get! We even had to make a run to the store at the last minute this evening to get bread and milk and he was completely cool the whole time, he didn't complain once. It was such a nice change, he was so happy and smiling all day. He didn't nap very well, but I am hoping we are just passing through a growth spurt phase and he will go back to taking at least one decent nap a day. Until then, we will ride the 20 minute nap wave I guess.

Well, I suppose I ought to try and get my butt in bed before 11:30 tonight and try and salvage some sleep while I can, before the boy wakes up to eat again. Ciao.

IKEA and Malls

It's been a long weekend, yo. Poor Savino is all kinds of out of sorts, he has been sleeping very restlessly the last few nights and hasn't been napping at all except for 20 minutes here and there. The weekends really wreck our routine, and it's really my fault, but it's the only time that we can go run errands. Oh well, we will get back on track this week.

Part of why he is so off his schedule is that Tim got it into his head that we would go to the Robinson Mall which is on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, which is about 45 minutes away. The mall was HUGE and packed and noisy, and a little overwhelming for the boy, though he did pretty good most of the time. We also visited IKEA while we were up there because there isn't one anywhere around here. So it was a very long day for him, we ended up getting home later than I had hoped and Savino didn't get in bed on time. I think it threw him off, he's also teething hardcore. I had to give him some Tylenol on top of teething tablets, and he keeps waking up to scream. Poor kid! He has a dr's appointment on Wednesday, I am anxious to see how big he has gotten! I broke out the measuring tape the other day, but I must have been measuring wrong because according to the measuring tape he has grown three inches! That's just crazy.

I am in LOVE with IKEA. God I wish there was one closer to us. Cheap Swedish stuff! It rocks! I found a few things for my photography set up, and a few things for the house. If we had taken the van with us I would have bought more, so it's probably a good thing that we didn't. I wish that we had gone a little earlier in the day though, because by the time we hit up IKEA the kids were BEAT and ready to go home.

The main lure of the Robinson Mall is the Build A Bear Workshop, which if you aren't familiar with is a store where you pick a stuffed animal "shell" and help stuff it and put a heart inside it and you get an adoption certificate and they have a ridiculous amount of accessories and clothes and shoes and outfits for the stuffed animals. The actual stuffed animals are pretty reasonably priced, but start adding on accessories and it gets pricey fast. I took Haley years ago when she was still little when I went there once with Eleni and she has a bear named "Sweetiepie" from that visit. We got Savino his first stuffed animal, a brown puppy that we named "Woofy" and Haley picked out a bright pink bunny and named it "Rainbow". It was fun, and I got a picture of Savino clutching the little heart that goes inside the puppy. The person who does the stuffing of the animal (they have this huge fluff-stuffing machine) asks the kid to give the heart a kiss and make a wish and put it inside the bear, so I gave Savino his heart to slobber on hehe. I will definitely have to get a picture of Savino with his puppy, I put it in his crib so he can pet it and play with it in the mornings when he is chilling while I try to wake up. This morning he laid on his belly in front of it and kept reaching out and stroking its fur so softly, it was adorable.

Of course Haley was thrilled to get to pick out a stuffed animal. She has been carrying her "Rainbow" around since she picked out, she is in love. To be a kid again and be so thrilled by something so simple.

I picked up a few things this weekend to aid me in taking pictures, at IKEA I got this curtain rod setup, it's not a rod actually, but wire strung between two ends and can be mounted on a wall. It's hard to explain but anyway, I got it to hang backgrounds/drops from and a lamp to rig up into a softbox. Today I got a canvas dropcloth from Lowe's to use as a background until I can find something better, but I will probably dye it from its natural colour to something darker when the weather gets warm enough to take it outside. I need to iron or steam it but I am hopeful that it will be a good starting point to practice with. We will see! I might try to work on it a bit tomorrow if I can.

My laptop is still alive, miraculously enough. Crazy! I am still shocked.

I think I will take myself to bed and get some rest. It has been a very long weekend.