I like how these turned out. I am trying to be less critical and just enjoy these. I am HATING the ones I took on Saturday. I want to just throw them all away and not deal with them. I might. Life is too short to spend editing pictures you hate (if you're not getting paid for it!)








These were all from the Apple Fest on Sunday, by the way. It wasn't much of an Apple Fest though. It was kinda lame, but the kids had a fantastic time and I guess that is what matters!


It wasn't a bad day or evening, and I managed to get a bit done. I am waging the war on the fleas in the house. We are on the brink of infestation. We have been dealing with little baby fleas that the dogs have been bringing in from outside which promptly jump off them since they have been treated with flea stuff. I spent two hours last night spreading Borax all over the carpets and sweeping it into the cracks in the hardwood floor. I am beyond pissed that we made it through most of the year before succombing to the stupid fleas right before the weather changes and kills them all. And of course, I can't use the stuff I have used in the past to kill fleas because it's a carpet powder with serious chemicals and I don't want to have the babies crawling around on that. So I used a combination of Borax and table salt, and did the downstairs last night and put down the powder upstairs today. I vaccuumed up the downstairs after an hour but am leaving the upstairs at least 24 hours before I try vaccuuing up there, I want to be sure I really give it a chance to work up there where the kids aren't always hanging out. I am also trying to get all the stuff that has been laying on the floors washed and put away so we don't reinfest ourselves. Please please please let this work. I HATE dealing with fleas, that's why I put the stuff on the dogs. They must be all up in the yard though, I will have to spread the Borax out there too. At least it's not expensive.

Is it only Tuesday? Well, Tuesday night. It feels like it should be Friday already. Maybe that is just wishful thinking. I am kinda tired. I didn't get to bed until very late last night because of the Flea Wars and then just as soon as I got to sleep... Savino woke up crying and had to nurse. I am so over him waking up in the middle of the night. I am beginning to think he will never sleep through a night again. He hasn't in quite awhile. I have to cut him a break though, he is really working on these teeth. One of his bottom teeth in the front finally came up through, the edge of it, so he is starting to get there. The molars are still hanging out under the gums but starting to swell. His nose is starting to be much less runny, knock on wood. I hope he finds some relief soon.

I had better make the kids lunches and turn the laundry over. It. Never. Ends.

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.

My contacts are seriously bothering me, so excuse any typos, I am just trying to hammer this out before I take them out and go to bed.

I think we are FINALLY finished with renovations over at the Little House! Tim used his day off, his birthday and our anniversary, to go over and finish the last few things that needed doing, though we STILL have to order a part for the dishwasher, it is still leaking when you run it so no dishwasher for our renter. At least he can finally move in! I can't even tell you what a relief this is. We have been working on this stupid house for what feels like forever. We pretty much gutted and redid the entire kitchen, and finished the upstairs where Tim's brother had left it half done. It looks so good, though I have to say, it just doesn't feel like "our" house anymore. It's not the same. But it's very nice overall.

I had a good week in couponing despite CVS totally hosing us by not having much on sale because Ohio is part of their test market where apparently they were testing whether people would still shop there if they didn't put anything on sale! I did manage to get a few things anyway though, and this week will be a bit better because I have a lot of ExtraCare Bucks expiring and I have to use them up. I'm not as organized as my sister who takes these fab pictures of all her deals, I always forget and put everything away hehe.

But I did get...

4 bottles of V-O5 shampoo/conditioner for $2 (.50 each)
4 Schick Intuition Plus razors with 2 refills each, on sale for 3.99 but .99 each after my $3 off coupons (The regular price on the shelf was 9.99!)
2 3-packs of Irish Spring bar soap (for Tim, he loves this stuff) on sale for .99 each but .64 each after .35 coupon
1 Oust oil-candle with refill for 1.57 (on clearance 75% off)
2 Colgate Total Whitening Plus toothpaste 2/$3 with 1.50 coupon and .75 coupon, .75 total for both

Not too bad! I am pretty stocked up on razors, shampoo, and toothpaste though hehe. I think Tim will probably kill me for buying any more but I'm just going to sneak it into the back of the cabinet and hope he doesn't notice! If anything, I can always donate it to the women's shelter or food pantry. I'm so glad that this week CVS has Children's Advil on sale for free because Savino is teething hardcore and I was out of Tylenol for him. I just give it to him at night so he can sleep, otherwise he wakes up screaming at least three times in the night and wants to marathon nurse.

I participated in a Breastfeeding awareness walk at our local mall. I was pretty amused that they were having a walk... in the mall! It's not that big of a mall, but hey, it's air conditioned, I wasn't complaining. I think it's either World Breastfeeding Week or Month or something. Haley walked with me and Savino rode in the stroller. I was actually a little put off by some of the people who participated because they are like breastfeeding activists who want you to whip your boob out and nurse right in the middle of everything. It's not that I care about exposing myself (though, I don't enjoy it and sometimes I do feel uncomfortable about it), but really Savino just doesn't nurse well in public out in the middle of everywhere. He wants to look around and flirt and see if anyone is paying any attention to him. But I kept feeling like the other people who were participating kept waiting for me to nurse him in the middle of the mall to, I don't know, make a statement or something? I totally support breastfeeding and want more people to be aware that it is totally natural and that there is nothing wrong with it, it's not weird or painful (well, for the most part!), and there are a ton of benefits for everyone involved. Having said that, as a breastfeeding mom, I am so put off by anyone who thinks you ought to do it a certain way, or that you shouldn't be uncomfortable to whip it out in the middle of the mall. I think they hurt the cause more than they help it because they just seem so pushy and strident and out there. I don't want to be associated with them!

And in all fairness, I think that I have been able to do more for the cause of breastfeeding among my friends and family just by being totally normal about it, not forcing it down anyone's throat or making it an issue. Chyron, Jaden, Savino, and Therron are all Boobie Babies and it's just not a big deal. I was happy to participate, but I don't think I will next year. I was kinda weirded out by the expectations that other nursing moms were putting on me.

So, yeah, enough about my boobs!

Laila came home from spending the summer with her dad's family in Dayton, and has been spending the night with us. Well, first she spent the night with us and then Haley spent the night with her and then she came back with us when we picked Haley up and spent the night again. We went to the pool today and splashed around and we've been celebrating Tim's birthday and our anniversary, so there's been cake and ice cream and all sorts of spoiling! I think she is having a good time, her and Haley have been sharing a queen sized air mattress we set up in the spare/Savino's room and they have been thick as thieves. Laila has gotten so big! I missed her and I was very glad to have her back. I am having a good time hanging out with her, though she has been coughing a lot. I am so over her coming back from Dayton sick. I wish they took better care of her up there.

Well, I hear my son squeaking and getting ready to wake up and scream so I ought to wrap this up.

Yes, another food entry. We did grocery shopping today and I am really working on using more fresh foods/produce, so my fridge is overflowing with vegetables and freshness. Yay! Dinner was nothing special tonight, Tim grilled brats and we had strawberries and salad and mashed potatoes. But dessert was great, I made Marguerites that I saw on FoodGawker. They weren't as good as the ones on FoodGawker because 1) I only had 4 marshmellows and 2) They were stale and didn't really melt right. But they were still good! They will be better the next time I make them. They were super super easy. They took literally 1 minute to make from start to finish. Yay for a gas broiler! FoodGawker inspires me to try new things, I just love looking at all the food.

Savino had a HORRIFIC night last night. Oh man. I totally cursed myself. It was BAD. He woke up at 2am, and I had been up until 1am due to a combination of getting engrossed in my book and Tim. So I had an hour of sleep at that point, I got up and nursed him, gave him a bottle, and he was having a really hard time settling back down. I laid him down in his crib thinking he would just lay down and go back to sleep. Um, no. NO. I was up and down with him until 3am at which point I just laid down and Savino stood in his crib and talked and talked and then started yelling "DADADA" so Tim got up and tried to get him to go to sleep. He changed him, gave him another bottle, and after 20 minutes put him back in the crib. He was STILL awake and started crying, so I had to get back up again (and I couldn't sleep through Tim trying to settle him because Tim kept talking to Savino and Savino kept talking back). I nursed Savino AGAIN and gave him the rest of the bottle Tim made and finally at 4am he fell back asleep.

Except now at that point, I was completely awake. I laid there for a little bit and started thinking about what bills were due to be paid and got all paranoid that I forgot to pay the electric bill and so I got up at 4am and came downstairs and checked (it wasn't due until today) and paid it. Then I went back to bed and tossed and turned until 5am. Savino was up and wide awake at 7am. *sighs* I managed to keep him happy by letting him nurse off and on for an hour, between nursing he would crawl all over me while I held onto the back of his pj's so he wouldn't crawl off the bed. I let him play in his crib for about 20 minutes and he was happy as long as he had a bunch of stuff that I wouldn't ordinarily let him play with (the diaper rash cream, a book, my cell phone). I dozed off and on because I literally couldn't hold my eyes open. I was dying, I was so tired. Playing in the crib didn't last long though, and he was back in bed with me nursing AGAIN. Finally around 9 or so (I think) he fell back asleep because it was about time for a morning nap. He slept in bed with me on my arm and we slept until 10:30. Which is ridiculously late for us, really, but I couldn't function, literally, I had not gotten enough sleep being up all night. So it worked, and I was able to get up when he woke up, even though it threw our schedule off by about two hours for the rest of the day.

So yeah, sleep drama. I could do without it! Hopefully tonight will be a little easier. If he wakes up, hopefully he will go right back to sleep after eating. He was pretty tired when I put him to bed, so fingers crossed and knock on wood and all that.

I tried to do DITL today, I really did. I kept forgetting I was supposed to be taking pictures and then I realized that I suffer from anxiety about taking pictures in public. I felt REALLY self conscious about the few pictures I took, even though I just had my little point and shoot. *shrugs* I forgot about the time we were doing dinner and then I didn't do much of anything after dinner so there aren't many pictures there. I'll tackle editting pictures tomorrow or whenever.

I organized all my scrapbooking supplies tonight into that cart I was talking about that I bought at Lowe's. Um, yeah. I have too much stuff. I could have easily filled another cart. I didn't realize I had that much stuff! It made me really wish I could sit down and just go at it, I really wanted to. But I had too much other stuff to do. I am just trying to get all this stuff organized and put away. I have lots of pretty papers and stickers and things to play with when I do get time though! I also have lots of blank photo albums, I discovered. I have a lot of pictures, so I don't have any excuses other than no time.

Tomorrow, the pool. Again! We are all getting pretty tan with going out to the pool all the time. Savino is still pretty pale because I keep him slathered in sunscreen, but he has that gorgeous Italian skin that just tans right up no matter what you do so even he has a little colour, mostly on his legs where the sun hits them in the car. I wish I had that sort of skin, Haley has it and she tans instantly, I don't think I've ever seen her with a sunburn. Lucky them, at least they didn't inherit my pale burn-peel-burn-peel skin. I do tan, but very very slowly. Haley is itching to get back to the pool. It's been a few days.

Alright, I am going to force myself to bed and to sleep before 11:30 tonight. I need the sleep.

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!

The Sun Son

I had an incident yesterday in the parking lot of Walmart (I was not surprised. People act extra stupid in the parking lot of Walmart). I pulled into a parking space and parked and was on my cell phone calling Tim to ask him if he needed me to go to Lowe's for something. A soccer mom in a minivan tears through the parking lot and pulls into the space next to me and managed to park such that the rear end of her minivan was literally maybe a foot from the front end of the car, and her passenger side was right up against my passenger side. If there had been someone in the front passenger seat, they would not have been able to get out without opening the door into her van. She got out and walked around to get her kid out and LOOKED DOWN at how close she was to the car and then turned around and walked away, swinging her Coach purse the whole way. I said loudly, "You better hope I don't open my car door into your van". She turned around and looked at me and then kept going. I was seriously So. Tempted. to just open the car door into her van a few times and leave a few dents, but I am trying to practice good karma.

Just, if you can't park, cool, give yourself an extra parking space of buffer room. If you choose to park poorly, and leave it like that, don't be surprised if you piss people off. She was literally ON the yellow line of the parking spot. Arg! It just made me mad. Zen, zen, zen. I suppose that's what I get for going to Walmart!

Today was a pretty low key day except for having to go up to the hospital twice for things Tim forgot at home, first a cake I made for him to take in and then his lunch. Other than that, just picking Haley up from the bus and then making dinner, which turned out good. Meatloaf, I am trying to perfect my recipe. It's pretty good now, but I keep trying variations to find something perfect. We had corn on the cob, and mixed vegetables and green beans and garlic bread. I made a few chocolate walnut cookies for dessert, just the break apart and bake kind, so I only made enough for each of us to have two. I think everyone enjoyed dinner, and it felt good to cook again. I go through phases of cooking every night and then not feeling like cooking at all and Tim cooks instead or we eat whatever we have on hand that can be thrown into the oven, fish sticks or chicken or whatever. Most days it seems like Savino's fussy evening time coincides with dinner. It will be easier when Haley is out of school because she is an excellent distraction for Savino and she can supervise him having a snack or give him a bottle while I cook.

Tim has an appointment to meet with a guy from the water dept. at the little house on Friday to evaluate what we are going to have to do with the meter situation. When the guy repaired the meter last week he told Tim that they are making everyone upgrade their meters to these new ones that will require us to either completely change all the plumbing and purchase an upgrade kit that is $135 or dig a huge hole in the yard and tear up the sidewalk and all the concrete between the shutoff in the yard and the house to replace the pipes from the shutoff to the house. I am so pissed off about the whole situation. Either way, we are being screwed. I guess we'll just see what the guy says on Friday, but I am sure it will be "you have no choice". If we had not needed the meter fixed, they would never have said anything about upgrading the meter. It's just one stupid thing after another, I swear. I think we will probably end up having to purchase the upgrade kit and redoing the plumbing again. Tearing up the sidewalk and replacing all the outdoor pipes is just way too much and too expensive right now. At this rate we will NEVER get our renters into the house. At least eventually we will be able to recoup the cost through the rent, but still. Suck. Think good thoughts. Maybe they will show up and go, "Oh we take pity on you, we'll leave you alone". We got the bill for the part of the meter they replaced. It was just this one plate that is designed to crack if the water in the pipe freezes, and I'm sure it costs them $1 but they charged us $11 for it. Which is FINE with me, but then they also said that we will get a seperate bill for the labor, and truck time costs. Tim said it took the guy all of a minute to replace, so it better not be a big bill. I will be so glad to put all of this crap behind us. Burning the stupid house down looks better and better every day.

I leave you with the sweetness. He is getting too big! When he nurses, his body hangs half off my lap. *sniffs* I think back to when he was born and I could only nurse him in the football hold and I just laugh at the thought of trying to get him in that position now. He is way too big!

Here's to hoping we get a night of sleep. Last day of school for Haley tomorrow!

Catching Up

Wow, it's been awhile since I have sat down and updated. It's been crazy. Eleni had her baby! She went a bit early though, she wasn't due until June 17th, so it has been a little complicated. The baby was born with fluid in his lungs and developed a little bit of pnumonia and had a heart murmur that disappeared after 24 hours, but has been on a feeding tube and had to have oxygen for 24 hours as well. Eleni was in the hospital for 48 hours but the baby has to stay until next week :(. Oh, yeah, she had the baby on the 20th! So, it has been a little crazy. I was up at the hospital first waiting for her to birth and then to visit afterwards and then she came over to the house so I could give her my pumps and all the supplies that went with them. Since she can't breastfeed right now (and don't get me started on them not letting her breastfeed, it's beyond ridiculous!) she is pumping every two hours to try and get her milk to come in so that when the baby is finally released she will be able to feed him.

We've also been working on our Little House, doing some renovations before our new renter moves in next month. I had no idea it was in the state that it was in. I could kill Tim's brother, but I better not get started on THAT either. Let's just say there is a lot to be done and not enough time to get it all done in. Thankfully this renter is just really grateful to be renting it out and is not upset by the condition. We are working on the house on the weekends, and it is difficult when we have the kids with us to get any real amount of work done because of having to stop to deal with the baby. Unfortunately we don't have any reliable babysitters so this weekend will be the last weekend that me and the kids are going out to the house. I am going to try and get the last things that I need to do done tomorrow and then next weekend Tim will go out by himself and stay out there all day to tend to his list. My responsibilities are all cleaning related and hopefully I can get it all done in a few hours. Haley is SUCH a big help with Savino while we are out there, she plays with him and keeps him entertained, but it's near impossible for me to work in the same room with them because if he sees me, he wants me to hold him or nurse him or play with him. Momma's Boy! It's sweet, but not conducive to getting anything done!

I managed to help Tim get some yardwork done this evening after giving Savino a bath. He played happily in his exersaucer on the porch and I watered and fertilized the plants and pruned my cherry bushes and the willow tree in the front yard and then managed to rake up the grass cuttings from where Tim mowed. Everything looks decent enough for now, but I am not pleased with it overall. The front flower bed either needs mulch or a lot more plants. Oh well. It is like the very bottom of the list of things we need to do!

Supposedly my brother in law is going to spend the night with us tomorrow night in preparation for this BBQ that he wanted to have Sunday at our house. Because we have the big house, we get to host the BBQ. Fun. I was a little irritated actually, because didn't we JUST do something for Mother's Day at our house? Why do we have to do this? It would be one thing if it was just like, hey, we are bringing all this food and whatever and all you have to do is let us use the house, but it's NOT. It's "Why don't you buy a bunch of food and cook it and then we will come over and eat it?" Whatever. I'm not stressing out about it. I will do what I can to clean and get things looking decent and I bought some food but if people aren't happy with it, tough.

Pictures!



Just hanging out



Trying to get a look at Steve. He LOVES his kitty cats.



This is what happens when you try to change the diaper. Actually, I was letting his butt air out and he decided to take off on me. Can you say BLACKMAIL?



Steve is unphased.



Baby butt!



A different day. Just checking out the floor.



Hi Savino!



Baby in a cage! We traded out the PacknPlay for a play yard now that the kid is mobile. It keeps him in a safe babyproofed area and the dogs away from him. They tend to get overexcited sometimes and he has been run over a few times and it scared him. He loves having all his toys right there to wreck.



He is practicing standing up. He is SO CLOSE to being able to pull himself to a standing position, and getting a lot better at keeping his balance standing up.



In the hospital's waiting room while we were waiting for Eleni to give birth. Everyone kept exclaiming over how cute and well behaved he was. I said, "Don't be fooled! He is a hellion at 2am!"



He was very upset and hurt that I wouldn't let him put a rock in his mouth and told him No.



Yeah, see the big fat crocodile tears? He is giving me his "How could you do this to me Mom?" look.



He saw Tim and decided he was done with me and my camera and my telling him no. He's out!




I can't get over how big he's getting. Almost 9 months old! They grow up too fast.