I never had any intentions of being a co-sleeping family.Never, ever.Nope, not me.No way, no how. I didn’t eeeeeeven want to go there. Then when Christopher was around 7 or 8 weeks old, he got a horrible head cold, and propping him up on my arm to sleep was just the best way for any of us to get any rest….aaaaaaaaaaand now a year later, he’s still in mama and daddy’s bed.
I’ve been threatening to oust him for months now…and every time I bring it up, David glares at me as though I’m suggesting that we tar and feather the poor boy and leave him on display for all the neighbors.Who knew that in preparing to start sleep-training Christopher, that I would first have to sleep-train his father?!
Yesterday, I decided to try something new at naptime.I *gasp* laid Christopher down in his crib while before he was actually asleep.Yes, it took about an HOUR before he was actually asleep, but I felt so accomplished.He cried, he walked around the crib, he laughed, he talked, he laid down for about 5 second spurts, then he was up again…until finally I just picked him up and rocked him.It took all of 30 seconds for him to close his eyes, and as soon as he did, back down to the crib he went!He protested for a few seconds, then it was lights out!Whew.
I recapped this story for David and his response, through squinted eyes and pursed lips?“HE’S JUST A BA-BY!” haha Oh heavens, this is going to be interesting.Wish us, er ME, luck on reclaiming my bed.Hell, I may just set up a cot for David in Christopher’s room and be done with the whole thing.Easy peasy, right? Either way, my knuckles are cracked, my sweat-bands are on, and I'm bustin out the leg-warmers, Olivia Newton-John style. Let the sleep-training begin!
It occurs to me from time to time that I actually *have* a blog, but obviously, the fleeting thought of "I should really update that" is about as far as this lady gets in the process. Sooooo shame on me. But if this blog is the only way that you keep up with the fam, then shame on YOUUUUU...but I'll fill you in anyhow. So here's what's gone down with my little Boo bear since ahem, last June.
He now has 10 teeth!
He walks...not only forward but backward!
He climbs!
He says mama, da-da, Bubba (this is his binky), doggie, kitty cat (ki-ka), ball...and maybe some others that I'm not thinking of right now?
He knows where his nose and eyes and bee-bite (belly-button) are.
He loves to swing and slide and spin....this little man will be a roller-coaster junkie...I can feel it in my bones!
He's had his first allergic reaction (I believe that a Bounce dryer-bar was the culprit) that landed us in the ER twice within a 12 hour period. Ugh.
He has developed and maintained a fondness for Mickey Mouse...he tries to say Mickey but it sounds like 'di-di' right now. It's cuuuuuuuuuute though!
Aaaaaand he turned ONE!
Here's what's gone down with me:
I finally graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaduated!!!! I got my Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from OU in December. I'm SO glad to be done with it. What do I plan to do with it, you ask? Probably nothing. At least not for now. I've got such a good thing going with work at the college that I can't bring myself to leave. So maybe someday I will sign on with DHS to do some good work, but for now, I'm staying put!
And David?
Not much has been going on with him. He is still working and loving what he does. He's putting away bad guys and getting drugs off the street--so he does good things.
And "US"?
Well, we've taken on the project of remodeling our kitchen this year! We're expanding the kitchen into the existing den (which is a converted garage) formerly known as the Man Cave. We've already made quite a bit of progress on it--we've moved the washer and dryer out further into the den, and put the refrigerator where the w/d once were. The next step is to pour concrete to level out the floor behind the existing kitchen wall...and then DEMOLITION BEGINS!!!! I cannot even tell you how excited I am to have that wall knocked out of the kitchen and to truly feel how big it is going to be. Hoping that will be all finished by the end of the summer....so that we can start working on a baby brother or sister for Christopher. Gasp! Yeah, I said it....TTC plans are in the lineup for some time after August. We'll just have to see how it goes...stay tuned for more on that front.
This past week seems to have chewed us up and spit us out!! At this point I almost forget what all has gone on, but I'll do my best to piece it all together.
Our little picnic outing came back to haunt us with a vengeance! After we got home, I unloaded the ice chest, and David and I split one of the subs that he had got us for lunch...big, big, B-I-G-G-G-G mistake! At this point we are pretty solidly declaring that sandwich the culprit of a bad case of food poisoning. Monday afternoon around 4 both of us started feeling pretty queasy--I had called David to ask if he was going to be coming home on time (in light of my unsettled stomach) and he says 'yep, but I'm not going to be much good, my stomach is really upset', I'm all 'yeah mine is too...feeling nauseated and just overall yuck'...so that night was NO fun. On top of both of us being sick, David got called out to work. I gave him one of my best "oh my God you're the biggest idiot I've ever met for actually taking that call" looks, but it didn't do a thing. He ended up being out for oh, I don't know 3 hours or so and came home and announces that he was staying home the next day. Doy.
Tuesday I have to say is the first and only time we have said Thank God for Daycare! We got up, packed Christopher up, and David and I both slept off the trauma that engulfed Monday night for us--we really needed it. By the time we picked Chris up at 5 we were both feeling much better and, although pretty weak, were able to enjoy the evening and actually take care of Chris and play with the kind of oomph that he needed and deserved.
Wednesday was one of those days where David worked for like 20 hours or whatever--he didn't get home until around 2am so I will admit I wasn't too happy. I didn't have a chance to really do a run-through and make sure I had everything packed up for work on Thursday or set out my clothes or make sure Chris's diaper bag was all stocked or anything--so come 4am on Thursday I was trying to not only get ready for work but do all of that too, so I was a little grouchy on my way to work. :(
The actual day Thursday was good--but then came after work. I ended up staying a little late at the office and missed my window to get on the road with Goo before he was going to want to eat again so I just decided to stay and wait for him to eat at 7 and then get on the road. We ended up leaving at about 7:45 and it took us THREEEEEEEE hours to get home. Goo didn't sleep very well on the ride home and I finally pulled over at a gas station since I had to stop anyhow and pulled him out of his car seat for what turned into over half an hour just to calm him down. Luckily he made the rest of the trip home from that point very well and we got home just in time for him to want to eat and go back to bed. Even walking in the door at almost 11pm we beat David home from work! He had quite a um, eventful evening with an exciting bust and for lack of want to go into a huge elaborate story, let me just say that he wound up at the bottom of a pile of policemen in pursuit of a bad guy and essentially they all mopped a parking lot with him! He came home all scraped and banged up but had a huge smile on his face--he clearly had a good time.
Friday night was quiet--thank goodness! I was able to get some laundry and dishes and a little bit of cleaning done while David and Goo played and hung out on the couch--I think we may have even sat down and watched a movie or two together. :)
Saturday brought more drama. We had a few wet spots in our floor here and there in the hallway, and David had determined late Friday night that it was a leaky water heater. So I called first thing Saturday morning to our home warranty company to figure out what to do...within about 2 hours we had a plumber out here and he says we need a new water heater!!! Normally I would have about lost my shit right there--but thanks to the warranty, we just had to pay our little flat fee for the visit and the new unit was COMPLETELY covered!!! So we were actually pretty excited about that! Not long after the plumber left, Nani, Papaw and Katie came down for a visit. We had a lot of fun with them--Christopher really enjoyed their company and was absolutely enamored with Katie.
Here is a little clip of him trying oh-so-hard to get her attention...although she was more interested in Bolt at the time! They were really really cute together though...
David's hand had caught the brunt of his ordeal on Thursday night, and had continued to swell and just look skanky in general no matter how much he cleaned it and kept Neosporin on it and all that. So we wondered if it wasn't maybe broken or fractured or something more serious. Between his mom and I naggingconspiring encouraging him to go and get his hand checked, he decided it was best to humor us, so he and his dad went up to the ER to have it x-rayed and whatnot. Luckily, nothing was broken or fractured, he just had a really really bad infection. They gave him antibiotics and drew a circle around where the infection was and told him to come back in if the redness moved past that line or the swelling increased at all.
So we pretty much spent the next 24 hours just looking at his hand and doing this number: "do you think it's moving?" "mmmm, hard to tell, I think uh mayyyybe over here, but I definitely don't think so over there" "how's the swelling feeling?" "better, but does it look worse? I think it might look worse" "no, I think it looks better" "hmm..ok" "don't be a hero--if you think it looks or feels worse go back in!!!" "yeah I will" "suuuuuure..." Sunday was almost boring for both of us--we watched a movie or two and just puttered around the house here and there, but for the most part I think we both just tried to recooperate from the week and enjoy the chill. After dancing around like that for however long, I finally decided that I thought it was spreading and sent him to the ER again at about 10pm Sunday. That's how I roll. The ER said basically the same thing--it was spreading a bit, so they gave him a booster shot of some antibiotic and it's just been getting better ever since! YAY!
So now on the upswing--we did get the insurance people to come out to the house and assess the damage that had been done by the water heater and we are getting NEW CARPET through the whole house! (well, except for the office and pantry closet...but we'll just pay for those out of pocket). I went today and priced some carpet samples and stuff so I'm pretty pumped about that.
There's probably more--but at this point I am tired of typing, and I'm sure you're tired of reading. Kudos to any and all that made it this far. Ciao!
Our first weekend home in nearly a month and it was just as wonderful as I imagined it would be.
Saturday morning cartoons with Daddy
Aside from Christopher being sick and snotty (poor guy) he was in great spirits so we took him for a little stroll on the "farm", as I like to call our yard, Saturday evening...
This pic makes me giggle--both of their faces are priceless!
Such a happy boy!
Christopher had himself a leeeeeeeeeeeeaf!
It was a lovely evening and we had lots fun looking at trees and birdies while pondering life and all things cosmically and comically bigger than us.
Sunday morning David got up with Chris for the morning bottle and let me sleep in--he's so awesome! Well I got up around 10:30 to get a bottle ready expecting that he would have left to go fishing while we slept, but he did not. He was waiting for us so that we could go on a little family fishing and picnic trip! It sounded like fun so we gave it a whirl. Unnnnnfortunately, we spent more time driving around the lake trying to find a good spot for him to fish that would give me and Chris a good shady spot to rest our tushies than we actually spent outside the car! Once we finally found a spot and got all settled and I think David did about 3 casts in 2 minutes before I hear this "YYYEeeeeehhghggh!"....my immediate thought: SNAKE! Aaaaaaaaaaaand I was right! There was one in the water swimming toward him and the banks before turning and heading away from us...but we promptly and swiftly packed up camp and hightailed it out of there. Plus, it was almost 90 degrees outside, so the baby wasn't going to last too long anyhow. But we give ourselves an A for effort anyway. In all the commotion though, we only had time to take 1 little snapshot of Christopher's first trip to the lake...
Anyhow, that pretty much sums up the highlights of the weekend.
Okay Okay so blogging is not my forte! I can't believe it's already been a month since I last posted--time really is flying by! So what's new in the Land of Goo since I last bothered to jot anything down? Lots of stuff! So let's do this bullet-style!
* My little Boogie-Bear turned 3 months old on May 19th! * Christopher is standing up on our laps, can pull himself up from lay-down to sit-up by holding our hands and is getting stronger every day. * He can lift up his head with good control when he’s on his tummy, and can roll over if he’s on a soft surface such as a mattress…as long as there’s a big person giving him a little “give” in the mattress to get him started! ;) * He is taking 6oz. bottles already and all but smashes them against his forehead once he is done--takes no prisoners, that one! * He coos oh so sweetly and smiles regularly and has even started to laugh a little big—we are still waiting for a good chuckle, but we get what is clearly a laugh with amusement at times. * He is batting at objects and has started paying attention to the TV and studying things in front of him. * He’s got the sweetest little fat biscuit-dough thighs I’ve ever seen! * I’ve started back to work—which has turned out not to be as bad as I feared. If I had been forced to return at 6-weeks postpartum like I had originally thought, I’m sure that it would have been a completely different story!! But so far so good. * Christopher is officially in day-care. It’s of course not ideal, but I think that I’m OK with it. I’m able to concentrate on my work and can even use my lunch-hours to push laundry through or do dishes or get a head-start on dinner and take some of the burden off of all of us in the evenings. It helps that we got a rave review about the ladies who own the daycare center that we are using from the Chief of Police—so I feel like he is in good hands when he can’t be in my own. ...but I've certainly implemented my Powerball-Retirement-Plan here lately!!! * We have printed out a lot of pictures for frames and this has lead to us finally deciding that the time has come to dispose of the hideous green walls in our living room----so we will be painting sometime in the next few weeks. I am not a huge fan of the actual painting process, but oh goodness do I luh-huh-huh-huuuuv when it is done! So pretty soon it will be "so long green sponge-painted catastrophe…hello beautiful rich Antique Bronze oasis" (or so I think)! * The animals officially drive me batty! Try as we might, we inevitably leave a stray diaper or used burp-cloth laying around for Buddy to get a hold of after we have gone to bed, so we wake up to surprises left and right. Sigh. ... The cats are still bringing carcasses inside in hopes of proving their worth—no more bunnies since our post-Easter drama, but we’ve had a couple of mice and a birdie who, judging by all the feathers, met a rather traumatic demise over the long weekend. They’re all about to be de-teethed. Stay tuned. * Though I’m not an “official” graduate yet, I’m so close I can taste it! Just 2 papers to write and I will have my Bachelor’s Degree!!! It’s very very exciting…now I just need to stay home long enough to actually have a shot at making myself sit down and get them done! ;) * My first Mother's Day was fantastic! Boogie got me a cute little Mommy coffee mug and a Willow Tree figurine called "Our Gift" which has a mom, dad, and baby to add to my collection, and the sweetest little card I had ever read. Just melted my heart. :) * And now, for what you’ve all undoubtedly been waiting for…pictures! Here are a few of my favorite snapshots from April-May: *
