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.

Pictures

Just a picture dump. I'm too tired for much of anything else. It's finally warmed up enough for me and Savino to take walks in the afternoon and today we went on a long one and between that and the usual grind I am beat. These are from Sunday, we went to the park and it was Savino's first time in a swing. He really liked it, but it wore him out too, I think the fresh air helped. Then we headed home for a post post Easter egg hunt (Easter stuff was on clearance at Wal-Mart and it ended up being a cheap, easy, and fun diversion for the girls), and Laila modeled the witch costume she picked out from the Dollar store for being on her best behaviour. I think that's it.

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.

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!)

Yet More Pictures

It was so nice to be able to put the baby to bed tonight and jump on the treadmill and walk. I needed to get new running shoes, my old ones were just dead, so today I found a pair of Reebok's that I love. They feel very comfy. I love our treadmill, it's been the best gift we've gotten. Tim hasn't been using it, he is a bum. I have to coerce him into getting back on it. I use it though, sometimes I just do a quick 15 minutes while Savino is napping upstairs but more often at night after I put him to bed. It had been a week since I used it though, my feet were killing me after the last time I was on it because my shoes were so worn out.

I am ready for the weekend to be over. I know that sounds crazy, but we have been running around and spending money, and catching up on all the errands we have needed to run and I kinda missed my quiet weekday time when it's just me and the baby and our schedule is predictable and routine. I know Savino loves having Tim around on the weekends, but I think that he likes it when it's just us as well.

Speaking of the baby, he tried sweet potatoes tonight for the first time. I was braced for him to reject them as well, he really didn't seem to like the carrots, though I know it takes more than a few times for them to decide whether they really like it or not. He seemed to like them a lot better than the carrots though, so that was cool. We are still taking it really slow with the amount he has been eating, he just had maybe a teaspoon. He kept opening his mouth really wide each time the spoon came near his mouth, it was kinda funny! I am glad that he seems to be doing well with it, he is getting more and more shrill about grabbing at our food so I am sure that he is happy to be trying new things.

Tim was nice enough to take baby duty this morning, he got him dressed and took him downstairs and fed him breakfast and made breakfast for the rest of us so I could get dressed and take my time. It's nice to have that once or twice a week, so I take advantage of it on the days that Tim is home. Of course, Savino helpfully woke up and stayed awake at 6:30am thanks to Haley throwing a temper tantrum because Tim told her to read a book rather than go downstairs and watch TV. I woke up to baby crying, Tim yelling, Haley crying. Niiiice. Anyway, I also got to grab my camera and take some more pictures of the baby. He can't get away, so he is my unwilling victim! As if I didn't take enough pictures of him before! But, some turned out really nice. I am ordering prints this week!

I've discovered that resizing the files seems to make them more blurry, but the original files are way too big to post here, so you get the slightly blurry smaller files. Just trust me that most of these are not this blurry!

Looking out the window






I managed to catch him mid-sneeze hehe











Tim came up behind me and was making faces at Savino and he was cracking up












Calm again



<---- Other pictures

I could use some chocolate. *sighs*

I have another blog (diary) on another site, and I'll probably just be copying and pasting from there mostly. I'm too lazy to write twice...



My Valentine's Day present from Savino was a night of very good sleep (though not uninterrupted). Thank you son. He is my Valentine today.
Some pictures...

Making our "Valentine's tree", which was a clearanced Christmas tree made with pink and white icing and cinnamon hearts



Everyone got in on the action! I was doing the icing, and they were placing candies



All done!



Going to run errands, that is a 12mo hoodie that BARELY fits him. But it is so cute, it even has a little skunk tail on the back!



Aw, how can you resist it?



He was trying so hard to reach that bird!



Still trying to get a good picture of both of us



5 month pictures, he's getting too big!



Sideways baby!



Playing with Jaden on the floor with Daddy, from the other day when we watched Jaden



Who's taking the picture??




Savino seems to be much less crabby today. I think it might have been something I ate. Tim bought and made these extra hot italian sausages the other day, and I ate one not even thinking about it. It wasn't like SUPER hot, but it was pretty spicy and I think something in it was transmitted through my breastmilk and irritated his stomach. He's also had a touch of diaper rash and since obviously he hasn't been eating anything different, my breastmilk is the only variable, so I think that it must have bothered him. To compound the problem I ate the sausages two days in a row (I had a leftover one for lunch the next day) before I realized it might be me. Poor bub, I'm sorry for poisoning your milk! His butt seems better this morning too, copious amounts of Bordreaux's Butt Paste and baby powder seemed to do the trick. He is still not napping right, but whatever, so long as he sleeps at night I really don't care.

I don't think that Tim and I are going to do anything special for Valentine's Day. I am making heart shaped brownies for dessert and maybe a nice dinner, steaks or something. I haven't figured out the dinner part. We didn't get anything for each other, I made him a Valentine by hand, which is getting to be a tradition, and he sent me a Valentine's card by text message.

I made curry for Tim last night, some of it turned out OK, some I was not impressed by. I made dahl from yellow split peas, which turned out super good and I was very happy. It was just a bit too thick though, it needed to be more watery, next time I will add some stock to it. I also made curried chicken which did not turn out so good in my opinion. It was too sweet I think, and not hot enough. I also made the mistake of throwing the ground red pepper into the pan with the oil and onions and it scorched a little and made a toxic cloud of pepper chemicals that had us all coughing, including poor little Savino. That was not cool. I won't use that recipe again. I also made falafel, mmmmm, soo good. We had rice and peas with it, there is a lot leftover. I will probably have the leftover falafel for lunch with some lettuce and pita bread. Wonderful.

Tim has finally agreed that falafel is a wonderful thing, he has come to like it from initially saying that it was weird. Haley likes it too, so I am glad that I am finally diversifying their tastes. I will definitely make the dahl again though in a smaller amount, I don't think that I will try the curried meat again though. I don't think I am so hot on that. I might try making curried lentils next time instead.


I think that I am going to throw Eleni's baby shower for her. She is due June 16th so I am thinking some time in April would be good. She needs so little in the way of actual stuff that it will just primarily be an excuse to have lots of good food and play silly games.

Ok, the baby is fussing to nurse, of course, so I will wrap this up.