I know. I know. Have some pictures.




























My life is ridiculously busy. I should be in bed right now instead of posting this, but I feel so guilty every time I read blogs, I had to post SOMETHING. But I am very tired. Taking care of four kids is exhausting sometimes, especially two little boys. I've realized my son is even more rambunctious than I ever thought. There are not enough hours in the day. As soon as I finish this, I have to go pack lunches for the girls for school tomorrow and drag myself to bed.

9 Years Ago

In a few short minutes it will be exactly 9 years ago that my beautiful Haley Dallas came into the world, complete with drama right from the start.




6 lbs. 2 oz., born at 6:16pm on 6/16/1999. It seems like forever ago, and yesterday, all at the same time. She was so tiny, with the longest arms and legs. I was so unprepared, and awed, and scared.




But what a ridiculous amount of joy she brought into our family. She gave me and Tim so much love, and made everyone smile with her smile.




Always the drama queen, always the center of attention, and the biggest Daddy's Girl. She knew how to get him to do whatever she wanted from the beginning and she still knows how to work it!




She has always loved art, and music, and drawing, and creating, and singing. Anything artistic makes her happy. She will still spend an hour creating or crafting, just happily. She is amazing.




Happy birthday, my beautiful girl. Halfway to being an adult, and it seems like it was just yesterday that they put you into my arms.

The littlest Fillon addition, Eleni's son Therron. He is almost 4 weeks old (3 weeks in this picture)


He is so so tiny. He was 5 lbs. 13 oz. at birth and about 6 lbs. in these pictures. Savino was never this little!


My foxglove that is growing in the front flowerbed. The blooms are so strikingly beautiful. The ones toward the bottom of the plant are the lavendar/purplish and the ones at the top are a very light cream with dark red spotting. Do you see the spider? I didn't until I was editing these!


Foxglove is a perennial, so I can't wait to see what it will look like next year!


The boy! Making all sorts of faces, as usual!


This one is blurry, but I love the look on his face because this is typical him, smiling and flailing!


I have to get a better picture of his hair, it is getting so curly! It will definitely be curlier than Haley's is.


Baby bath blackmail! He is looking at the drain switch and thinking how he can reach it and flip it before I intervene, hence the mischevious smile.


Attack! He loves to beat the side of the tub and yell all through his bath. It must be a boy thing!


Now that's out of the way...

Lucky Tim gets to spend his day out at the Little House tearing up the entire kitchen floor. How fun. The more he pulled up from where the leak in the water pipe rotted out the floor under the sink, the more he discovered it just needed replaced. God only know how old that floor was, but there was a leak under the dishwasher as well, Tim discovered a dead rat laying across some wiring so it must have been chewing holes in the hoses and gotten electrocuted. How lovely. So we are just going to completely replace the floor and be done with it. I don't know if peel and stick tile will be easier or getting sheet linoleum instead. Tim suggested carpet and I just gave him The Look. Carpet in a kitchen = teh wrong. It will take something like 11 boxes of peel and stick tile if there is 20 sq. feet to a box. I have to go to Lowe's and price things. We will have to buy plywood for subflooring, but we have enough floor studs. Tim is doing his best to get the floor pulled up today so he can start laying down the studs and then the plywood. Once we have all that done, the plumbing can go back in, we'll put down whatever new flooring we pick out and then the appliances and sink cabinet can go back in as well. Then maybe our poor renter can move in. Oh well.

I have done exactly zero shopping for either Father's Day or Haley's birthday. I guess I know what I will be doing tonight after the kids are in bed. I was going to try and go out while Tim was at the Little House and Chantal had Haley, but Savino had other plans. He was too tired and fussy, we just came home and he fell asleep and now it is time to eat. I doubt we will make it out before Chantal gets back. It's alright, I will just do what I can, and deal with it. Tim has to help Jay install ceiling fans this evening after he gets back from the little house, so I don't even think I can just leave the kids with him and go do it, unless I let him take Haley over to the house and keep Savino with me. That might work.

I have discovered that Diet Pepsi Max makes me sick. I think it must be the sort of ginseng they use in it, or the amount of caffeine. I drank some the other night before I started feeling sick, and then I had some this afternoon and almost immediately started feeling the same slight nausea and unsettled stomach feelings. Suck. Guess Tim gets it all to himself.

I am looking forward to not having to shuttle Haley around to a million different places next week. So far we don't have anything lined up for next week, we might actually be able to just relax for a little bit! Maybe I can convince Tim to put the trampoline up so she can jump on it. Oh, I do have to go to Eleni's to do Therron's newborn portraits though. I guess I have more to do than I thought.

Savino is a standing up boy now. He has started pulling himself up to a standing position on everything, his crib, the couch, everywhere. Soon the cruising will start, and from there it's a hop to walking. They get big so fast!

On that note, he is screaming, it is time for his lunch. Laters.

Edited to add pictures...

I am trying to squeeze in an entry before my son starts flipping out again. He has had exactly 0 naps today, just a brief nod off while he was nursing before dinner. We have been on the run all day, and he was up early and had an extremely extremely restless night. So he is running on Empty. He screamed through dinner over and over "Na na na na" and only paused in the screaming to eat most of a banana (maybe that is what he meant?) and half a peice of bread, and screamed through most of what he ate of his oatmeal, carrots and sweet potatoes and chicken. *sighs* He refused all bottles all day and just wanted to nurse and he nursed FOUR TIMES last night, starting at 12:40, then at 2, then at 3:40 and then at 5am. I was exhausted. I AM exhausted. I am just so used to being tired that I don't really feel it anymore.

Yesterday Savino started pulling himself up to a standing position all by himself! Eep! He is getting too big too fast! He also started repeating "Bye bye!" when you prompt him to say it, but only when he wants to. It is beyond cute! Haley insisted that Savino said "No" in the Gap today when we were at the mall, but I didn't hear it. He is just achieving milestones left and right. He is 9 months old! Where did the time go?


Haley's swimming lesson went well again. I didn't hang out and watch this time, she just took off and then I went to Eleni and Jay's to sit for half an hour.

Eleni finally ventured out with the baby for the first time. We went to the mall and walked around and shopped and it was really nice. I got Savino a new rash guard for the pool, a long sleeved one that is pretty much too big. It will probably fit better next year. I got Haley a really cute outfit from Old Navy, a skort and a t-shirt that matched with 3/4 length sleeves. She looked very cute in it. It's going to be one of her vacation outfits.

I had to break down and tell Haley all about our plans for vacation, we have been keeping it a surprise, so that she will really try to work harder at her swimming lessons. She needs to learn how to swim well to fully enjoy herself at the water park when we go. She was so incredibly excited to hear all the plans. She is beside herself with anticipation. Thank goodness there is only a month until we go, I only have to hear about it for four weeks.

We tried to go to the pool this afternoon but the rain and thunder started up as soon as we got there. Haley got in about ten or fifteen minutes of swimming before we called it quits and left. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Despite slathering baby sunscreen on him, Savino is starting to tan up a little bit. He has skin like Tim and Haley, it must be the Italian/Greek in him, they all tan instantly and it takes a bit for them to burn. Haley always gets very tan during the summer, and their hair starts to lighten up and get blonde. Of course, Savino's hair is already pretty blonde, so it is getting almost silvery.

I think I have almost picked all the strawberries out of our patch for this first crop. There are a few more that haven't ripened yet, and the chipmunks or birds have discovered the strawberries and I lost probably fifteen or twenty to them before I went out and picked this evening, but overall I picked out quite a bit before they got to them! I am really pleased with the yeild this year. We even got some that could be considered "Goliath"-ish, they were pretty big. Everything I've read says the yeild goes down year after year, but I haven't experienced that yet. I just hope that the second crop is half as good as the first. We have enjoyed eating our fresh strawberries. They taste so good! There is a lot more flavor in them than the ones you buy in the store.

I bought Tim's father his Father's Day present today, an Ohio State hammer. Don't ask me. Tim wanted to get it for him for Christmas and they sold out of them before we could buy one. I saw one for sale in the mall today and bought it. At least I don't have to worry about that anymore. Father's Day shopping done. At least for Tim's father. I need to get Tim a card and figure out some sort of cute craft to give him from the kids. Haley made this totally adorable book that she printed out from some website and it has this really cute poem in it and places for her to color pictures and she did a really good job on it. She made it all by herself without any help from me! I almost started crying looking at it. She is so grown up! I am sure I can find some cute Father's Day craft for us to do for him.

I almost bought Tim a new wedding ring today, but managed to restrain myself. I HAVE to buy Haley's birthday presents before I buy anything for Tim. Our local Zales has a kick ass sale going on for pre-owned jewelry and Tim has tried this wedding band on before, and it even fits. I just hope no one buys it before I can. They also have a really nice men's titanium and diamond bracelet that I think he would like too. I managed to walk away without buying it, but it was a close thing.

OK, time to get the boy in the bath and then bed. Hopefully he sleeps well tonight!

Took Haley to the park this afternoon, it was the first time I have taken her out by myself without the baby since he was born, so it was nice to just have it be us again! Tim got stuck at home with the baby HA and he had to make us dinner, double HA! No, really, he didn't care, he seemed grumpy when we came home but I honestly think that he thinks I am going to just, like, LEAVE and be gone for days or something when I go somewhere without him in tow. Oh well. I took my camera to the park with us and got some nice pictures of Haley.

It was kinda chilly because it was later in the day, and we only stayed for about 20 minutes much to Haley's dismay. I told her we will come back, I am sure she will get sick of the playground before too long because we will be there all summer! They have baby swings for the boy and I am sure he will have fun playing in the wood chips and watching the big kids run around. He will probably be crawling by then and I'll be too busy chasing him to take pictures!









Every time I leave the boy with Tim, I miss him like crazy! This was maybe the 3rd time I've left him and gone off without him and it is still not easy. I even called home while we were out (we had to go to a few stores before we went home) to make sure everything was alright. I don't think he even notices that I am gone. He was happily playing with Tim on the floor when we got home.

Tim and his guitars. He is STILL obsessed. He has plans now to overhaul a guitar and put in all new components. I just shrug and nod and say OK. I don't care, he can be as obsessed as he wants.

Well, I should head to bed. I am still waking up with Savino at 4am and not being able to sleep. Last night wasn't so bad, but it is still not fun getting up at 7:30am after two hours of sleep.

Ok, I am out.

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.

Dark Chocolate, Please?

This will have to be brief as Savino is starting to sqwuak in his bouncer seat at my feet and there is some downloading going on in his diaper I think. (I know, you really needed to know that, right?)

So, yes, it appears that I FUBAR'd my laptop after all. *sighs* I put it back together yesterday evening, and it wouldn't even start up. The lights come on and then the lights go off and nothing happens. Suck. I took it back apart on Tim's reccomendation and am leaving it to sit and dry for a few days and then we'll try again. In the meantime, Tim and I have to share a computer because my other laptop upstairs has decided to no longer sees the network, it refuses to connect wirelessly to the internet and I haven't contemplated moving it downstairs where I can plug the network cable directly into it yet. I might though.

Tim pressured me into purchasing the new laptop. If anyone needs a cheap laptop, Dell has them for $399 which is like UNHEARD OF. Even on eBay, New in the box laptops are not that cheap. I put in an extra $30 for a DVD burner so that I can back up my pictures onto DVD and not worry about having them be large files. Of course, the stupid thing won't even be shipped before March 3rd, so I must suffer another week without my own computer.

Um, yeah, maybe I am a little spoiled. I don't like sharing a computer with Tim because he has a million and a half applications on his that make the computer run SLOWLY.

Ok, the boy can't stand it anymore, I must take a break to deal with him.

Mmm, I had garlic shrimp with pasta and vegetables for lunch. It's this kit that you just dump in a pan with a tablespoon of water, cover, and heat through for 10 minutes. Mmmm good. I am like the only one who likes this though, it has too much vegetables in it for everyone else apparently. Whatever, more vegetables for me!

I need to stay away from eBay, I keep bidding on things and I am starting to have bidder's remorse, like I haven't even won it yet and I'm already wishing I hadn't bid on it. Just stuff like pants for the boy and a lot of 12-18 mo. sized onesies. He doesn't REALLY need clothes, but I was bored while I was working. I also bought more ink for our printer, but we did need that.

Tim got this GPS unit from his friend that connects via Bluetooth to his fancy computer-phone and figured out how to install the Tom Tom navigation system on his phone so now we have a GPS. He is very pleased with himself about this, he has been wrestling with it for about a week now and kept pressuring me to let him just buy a regular GPS but I kept saying, "What FOR?" It's not like we go anywhere that we don't know how to get to, and those suckers are EXPENSIVE. It would just be another toy for him to play with. So he perserved and made the GPS his friend gave him work and now we are all set to start geocaching when the weather gets nice. There are TON of caches in our area, and Tim's friend wants to do it with us apparently. Whatev, I don't care. I did note that the GPS will probably come in handy this summer in finding yard sales. Last summer it was ridiculous how hard it was to find these remote addresses when people didn't put up any signs, and y'all know me, I am a hard core yard/garage sale addict. So that is a good thing, I suppose.

Haley has another snow day today. Have I mentioned how sick I am of the snow? And the winter? I am done. Just done. THREE INCHES last night. First she had a 2 hr. delay and then this morning at 6am, school was cancelled. I am cringing to think of how many make up days they are going to have to do this year. She is, of course, ecstatic and has spent most of the day watching TV and vegging out hardcore. I did make her fold and put away her laundry and I will probably make her do some more chores and study her math this evening. I figure, what are snow days for if not to play outside in the snow and then veg out in front of the TV. I don't know, we never had snow days when I was in school.

Savino has started to refuse to nap in his swing, which is fine on one hand because I didn't want that to become a long term habit, but sucky on the other in that it means that I have to lay down with him and nurse him to sleep or put him in his crib and let him wear himself out. Yesterday after nursing, I laid him dwon in his crib and he just laid on his belly and put his head down and eventually drifted off. He only slept for 45 minutes though. He is WAY too young to be going on nap strikes, he needs that time asleep or he becomes The Crabbiest Baby In The World, but try telling him that. It's just tough when 5pm rolls around and he is crying and flailing around with his arms and inconsolable and just wants to sleep but it's way too early for him to go to bed. *sighs* Babies.

Spring, please come so I can take this kid outside and let him wear himself out in the grass and sunshine.

Well, the boy is inconsolable again so I will wrap this up. It's always something!

Pictures

Tim had to go into work a few times today, so I occupied myself by taking pictures of my captive children. Some of them turned out really nice! I am digging my camera! I have only done minimal editing on them, so I am pretty impressed by the results!

The ones of Haley I messed around with using the Unsharp Mask and I am not totally pleased with the results. I think I might have done more damage than good. Oh well. You live and learn.

I am trying to avoid using the flash as much as possible, the results are kinda hit or miss with it. I like using the natural light as much as possible. The evening sunset light coming through the window was great, except Haley wouldn't stay full in it!




This one was blurry, but I liked it anyway. These were taken in the morning when the light was a little better






He turned his head away at the last moment, so I got a shot of his bald little head hehe, but I liked it anyway!



Taken with the flash, but it wasn't a horrible picture anyway



These last two are my favorite of the whole day



This one turned out the best, I think. I did the least amount of editing to this one.



We tried to go to The Olive Garden for lunch, well Tim wanted to at least. I tried to tell him "The wait will be INSANE for Saturday lunch". He wanted to try anyway. We got there (it's about a 10 minute drive away), and it was an HOUR wait to be seated. Um, no. We turned around and drove back to the Chinese place. Oh well, I tried to tell him! I had steamed vegetables and chicken too, so it wasn't like I cared where we ate, you can get boring healthy food just about anywhere.

Alright, Chantal just rolled in so I better get off here.