Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, the little man and I donned green and had a jolly good time today.

After my mom was so kind as to pick up cheese and Baylor's vitamins at the grocery store, we stopped by their house to pick them up. We ended up staying longer than I had anticipated, in no small part because they were interested in helping me get some cookies made to keep in our freezer. So, we set forth with our cookie task!

Little B even got to see the action from atop a step stool!

And he got to help shut the container of sugar!

"Hm ... what's in there?"

In this picture he is asking for the mixer to go "fast" ... one of his favorite words!

He decided to spice things up a bit by tearing little bits of paper off the top of the salt container and throwing them in the mixer. Luckily, Mom and Christine were able to fish them all out before they got mixed in.

Then he got to help put in the M&M's, and he didn't even try to eat one!

His little hands are generally moist (borderline sweaty), so the M&M's started sticking to his wee paws. To help solve this problem, he started picking up the candies with his right hand and transferring them to his left. It was an inexact science, to say the least.

Toward the end, he started telling us what color M&M he was putting into the bowl.

He is endlessly fascinated with the mixer ... I really should bake more.

My parents recently got a new oven, and the little man is still getting used to it. So, as usual, he had to inspect it and try to figure out how to make it beep.

Once he got down from the kitchen island, it was time to play.

First stop, under the bar stools to check out the tags.

Next up, a big, shiny, blue ball from Target.

He especially liked it when he'd run into us hard enough to knock himself over and we'd say, "Boing!"

He's also all about climbing; even if it's just atop his little Ikea step stool, he wants to see the world from a new perspective.

Oma opened a blank Microsoft Word document, and let him press on the keyboard. That was a huge hit with him!

On a sadder note, I put one of my fingers through the upper left thigh of my compression hose and now have a wicked run in them. Grrrr. I was so hoping they'd last this last week and a half!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

"Lightening"? Really?!

Whomever came up with the term "lightening" for when a person's baby drops into their pelvis should have their head examined. Or it was a man.

If you couldn't tell from the previous statement, I'm pretty sure the baby has dropped. It's a lovely, pelvic-breaking, back-aching, pee-inducing sensation really. Over the last few days, my body has gotten increasingly more uncomfortable, and as unprepared and overwhelmed as I feel I'm kinda getting ready for Paco to make his/her appearance.

I honestly don't remember this happening with Baylor; I don't remember feeling so much bodily discomfort at the end of my pregnancy with him, other than the intense swelling of my limbs. Maybe that distracted me from this whole "lightening" process, who knows?

It'll be interesting to see what my OB has to say this Thursday at our appointment. Last week she made it seem like the baby was still pretty high up, so hopefully she'll be able to let me know if this is all in my head or not.

If this is the baby dropping, I'm not enjoying it much. Oy!

Here Comes My Sun

I was all prepared to write a ranting, raving blog post about things that were irking me (e.g., how much I hate blow drying my hair, how it pisses me off that every time I turn on or off said blow dryer it smells like garlic for no apparent reason), and then he woke up.

And my internal sun woke up with my son's happy smile, and all was right with the world. Some days, that's all you need. A happy little man who just wants to hug and be hugged.

Messing With Time

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Usually I have no idea why I'm a smidge on the cranky side; it just happens and it fades away as I move through my day. Not today, though. No, no, today I know precisely why I'm pissed off.

I hate daylight savings time.

And no, it's not just a spring thing; I hate it in the fall, too. It's not like you're actually gaining an extra hour of your life; it's just on loan until they want it back in the spring. Jerks.

I personally think the whole daylight savings thing is a co-conspiracy between the watch/clock manufacturers and the people who write owner's manuals. It makes you pay attention to them twice a year. I have no idea how to change half the clocks around my house, so every half year I am forced to find the owner's manual and go through step by step trying to figure out how to change the time. However, I do feel like I have thwarted their plans a little bit; I no longer wear watches, so I don't bother changing them back and forth.

The thing that really gets me is that now they're not just messing with me; they're messing with my kid, too. He has no idea what is going on, so his schedule gets all confused and forcibly adjusted and the poor guy just has to deal with it. Spring or fall, the schedule I have so carefully crafted for him gets all thrown off, and it is so irritating!

Also irritating: I have to do math all day long. I avoid doing math as much as I can; it's not my strong suit, and I just generally don't enjoy it. So, being forced to figure out what time it "really" is all day gets really old really quickly. And really confusing. Here's how it goes in my head:

"So I know I'm supposed to subtract an hour, but doesn't everything just jump ahead? Wouldn't that make Baylor get up an hour earlier, rather than later? Wait, what's my name again?"

See how things just snowball?

Did we learn NOTHING from Back to the Future?! You shouldn't mess with time, McFly! You just shouldn't.

Okay, onto my day. Luckily, one thing that doesn't get messed up is my meal schedule; I'm hungry all the time so it doesn't matter what time it really is. I'm just plain hungry. Speaking of which ...

Climbing, Ohhh All the Climbing!

He finally did it. He got himself onto the green office chair. Oy!


Little did he know, if he just stood up he could have reached his beloved thermostat all by himself!

I'm so thankful he didn't figure that one out ... yet.

Random Act of Terrorism?

Where were you between 1:15 and 1:20 a.m. EST early this morning?! I certainly hope you weren't the jerks egging our house ... then I'd have to not like you anymore.

Apparently, some people - we're assuming kids because, really, who else would do this - drove up to our house, got out, chucked a few eggs at our walls and windows, then hopped in their car and sped away. My husband was the one who heard it and went downstairs to check things out; he tried cleaning some of it up, but it being so early in the morning that was a bit difficult.

Here's some of what we found:

This happens to be Baylor's window, the main brunt of the attack. We think the concentration of egg here may point to the real target of the act of terrorism. No, not my year-and-a-half old son; the former owner's teenage son used to reside in this room. So our only lead is that this may have been directed at him, though he hasn't lived here for four years.


Splat ... ugh. Soooo glad our screens are on the outside.

My husband trying to clean up the mess. He still has yet to get to Little B's window; he didn't want to start it and be working during the little man's nap.

So that sucks. I felt bad that Bryson had to go out and clean up a mess from some random person, but leaving it to cook on our house this summer just didn't seem like a good idea. Hopefully the rest of it will clean up easily, and it won't happen again.

36 Week Doctor Visit

I went to the doctor yesterday for my 36 week visit. Here are the stats:

Starting weight: 128 lbs.
Last week's weight: 172 lbs.
Current weight: 178 lbs. (sigh)
Blood Pressure: 104/? (either 60 or 80 ... the computer screen was far away and I couldn't really read it)
Belly Measure: 38 weeks
Dilation: 0 cm

Oh, and the Braxton Hicks contractions are really amping up. Yesterday morning I had 13 of them in an hour and a half, so I called the doctor's office and they told me to go to the ER. I sat there and debated it, then decided to wait to see what happened. They, of course, stopped and later on I found out that I'm not dilated at all, so it was a good thing I didn't rush off to the hospital. Regardless, my uterus is freaking out, and I can't say it's overly comfortable.

In spite of wearing my lovely, insane compression hose, I have still managed to retain a lot of water in my legs, a fact that irritates me to no end. By the end of the day, walking up the stairs to bed makes my knees feel like they are going to explode from all the water pressure. But, thankfully, my hands haven't puffed up too much yet, so I'm not suffering from the carpel tunnel syndrome I experienced while pregnant with Baylor. I hope that bit of it stays away for the duration.

So that's about it. I'm hungry all the time. I'm gaining weight like it's my job. I'm exhausted, stressed, worried, yet still trying to remain excited. Oh, and I started taking Zoloft (an antidepressant) this week to help combat post-partum depression, since I experienced it pretty intensely after Baylor was born. Hopefully things will be much more happy and joyous this time around.

Hope you have a wonderful morning!

Hair Cut Number Four: That's My Boy!

Lately, we've been noticing Baylor's hair looking a little long. It started hanging over his ears, and the other day during dinner he got it caught in the snap of his bib. It was time for another hair cut.


Because of hair cuts two and three, Oma and Grandma weren't willing to join us for the event this time. It was time, though, as I could see it start to creep towards his eyes even on Monday when we went to pick up my parents and sister from the airport.

So yesterday I bit the bullet, armed myself with distraction tools and bribery, and took him to Snip Its for his fourth hair cut all by myself.

After initially freaking out at the mere sight of the chair, I offered him an animal cracker if he sat in it, and he took the bait. I had my in! From there, we looked at pictures of him and Daddy playing with the Wii from the night before. Eventually, he remembered that they have a video you can watch there, so he asked to have that turned on. And I was able to snap a few pictures of my little man looking content ... since I was sure no one would believe me.

She even used the electric clippers on him, and he didn't freak out! I think it helped that she told him they buzz like a bee, and she tested them on her hand, then mine, then his before jumping in.

His hair cut came out great! So cute! He didn't thrash around, and I think that really helped her get it even. She even said he was the first customer of the day that didn't cry through the whole thing! That's my boy!

Ahhh, so much better!

The little prize he got after his hair cut actually had two stickers in it, so he got to wear one on his sweatshirt as we went to the grocery store! The other I'm saving for later when he actually appreciates stickers and doesn't just try to eat them.

I'm so happy to say, it was a very successful trip to Snip Its! Yay!

Toddler Nightmares

Well, we're pretty sure Little B had a nightmare two nights ago. We had put him down not 45 minutes prior, when he all of a sudden started crying and screaming. I ran upstairs as quickly as I could (which, by the way, isn't very fast) and went into the little man's room as calmly as I could muster. In the dark I searched his crib and found him lying there on his side, sobbing and clutching his blankie. His little body was shaking ever so slightly, and I could tell, even in the pitch blackness of his room, that he was terrified. I wasn't sure, however, if he was awake or not, so I opted not to pick him up. Instead, I put my hand on his back and told him everything was okay, and he instantly calmed down. After a few moments, I tried leaving, but he started sobbing again the minute I left the side of his crib. Hoping that his bear would offer some comfort, I searched the crib for Mr. Bear, found him at the opposite end, and handed him to Baylor, who seemed relieved to have his old friend back.

Feeling he was sufficiently reassured and calmed, I left as quietly as I could and headed back downstairs. Within minutes, however, he was crying and screaming again. My husband thought he was just over-tired, so I sent him up instead of going myself, in hopes that he'd understand what I was talking about. Using his cell phone as a flashlight, Bryson found Baylor in the corner of his crib, sitting up, wide-eyed with terror. After picking him up, calming him down, and putting our bathroom night light in his room, Baylor was okay enough to leave him. He cried a bit more before he fell back asleep, but he had stopped the frantic sobs and heart-breaking screams.

We both felt certain he'd had a nightmare but very uncertain of how we handled it. After googling "toddler nightmares" we found we'd done an okay job, but I'm still wondering ...

To all the moms and dads who have toddlers, how do you handle nightmares?

The Perfect Storm: Day 5

Baylor woke up all sweet and happy yesterday morning, excited at the news that we were going to go see butterflies after breakfast.

We were all out of bananas, so he got to have an orange for breakfast. Eating an orange with a fork is kinda difficult, but he made it work ... that's what that other hand is for, right?

Time to put on the shoes! (Like the total mish-mash outfit? Yeah, he outgrew four pairs of pants yesterday and was a little short on clean laundry, so stripes, camo, and trucks it is!)

We got to the Gardens, and though he freaked out when we first got into the conservatory because of the extreme heat and humidity, he soon fell back in love with it and enjoyed seeing the butterflies.

I know, I know, he's not supposed to touch the plants. But he just touched it ... and this was the only one. I swear!

For some reason he didn't want to get down and walk on his own much ... of course, we required that he hold hands with one of us, so that might have had something to do with it.

After we finished up with the butterflies and visited the turtles, we headed home for play time and some lunch. He decided that his peg board was a little too big, so a good sawing was in order.

After lunch, we put him down for a nap, but he decided he wasn't going to sleep. I have no idea why.

So after an hour and a half of hearing him play in his crib, happy as can be, we scooped him up and took him to the mall. Stride Rite is having a buy one pair get the second pair 50% off sale, so we got him a couple new pairs of shoes. Size 7 wide ... can you believe it?! He wasn't too thrilled about getting his foot measured, but we dangled an animal cracker in front of him and he was golden. I hate to bribe him, but he was just scared and needed to get over that first hurdle. After that he was fine.

Then we walked the mall and ducked into Younkers to see if we could find some new work pants for my husband. While we were cruising the men's section, Baylor kept saying, "X, X, X". I couldn't figure out why. Then I looked a little closer ...

All of the tables had x's on the ends! What a funny little guy!

Bryson went into the dressing room to try on the selection of pants he had found, and Baylor and I hung outside and waited for the fashion show.

After the purchase, we hopped in the car and drove to Red Robin for a little dinner. Baylor got kinda tired by the end of the meal, though.

Those stinkin' eye teeth! If only they'd come in.

And, tired again.

And smiley! I know I am totally biased, but he has the most adorable smile ... it just lights up the room!

He, of course, fell asleep on the way home, and stayed asleep on Bryson's chest for about a half an hour once we got back.

Once he got up, though, he was ready to go! He really wanted to steal some of my Fiber One bar, but I kinda doubt he'd have liked it.

Then he was all over his blocks ... but he eventually helped me clean them up! Yay! Big step for the little man!

We had a good last full day of the Perfect Storm.