Nikki's Nutshell

A Weekend Away From Home

2012-02-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we babysat Blair and Skylar. Alexa was out of town for a funeral and Chris got called out on a last-minute flight (he's a pilot). We went up Saturday afternoon, stayed the night, then spent Sunday there. Thankfully, all the kids went down for bedtime easily Saturday night. Aiden was a little scared sleeping in the guest bedroom by himself, so Travis and I laid with him for about 15 minutes. After that, he basically kicked us out of the bed. He has never been able to sleep in the same bed with us. Once he was comfortable in that dark room, he was done with us. Travis and I left and he must have fallen asleep nicely on his own.

Aiden woke up at 1:30 in the morning thinking it was time to get up. I got him to go back to bed and he didn't get up again until 6. That's still earlier than I would like. He's gotten in the habit of waking up before the sun is up. It's terribly annoying. We let him lay in bed with us until 6:45 when the Ramby's woke up.

We went downstairs and ate breakfast. Afterwards, Blair pointed out that the hamster was missing from her cage. GREAT. Our friends ask us for a favor and we lose their pet. Alexa has told me about the hamster's escapades in the past, so I knew the best way to catch her: set the cage on the ground and let her come home when she's ready. Unfortunately, the hamster wouldn't come out while the kids were running around. We had no idea where she was at.

That morning we walked to the playground near their house. We weren't there for very long before we realized we needed to get back home for Skylar's nap time. The boys went down right before Skylar woke up, so we got a good taste of what life with two kids is like. HA.

We had made previous plans for Aiden to go hang out with Ariel and Robert that afternoon. It was the first time they had offered to take him out somewhere. They babysit him from time to time, but it's always at their house. They didn't decided what they were going to do until they were picking him up. Since they were running late, they decided to take him to Chuck E Cheese where they could play AND get dinner. It was his first time there and I think he had a great time. They said he was really skittish about partaking in the fun at first, but after a while he warmed up to the idea.

They sent tons of photos and videos. Alexa is talking about having Blair's birthday party there this year. If that's the case, it will be so much fun to be the ones to take Aiden next time. We have seen several commercials for Chuck E Cheese since then and Aiden recognizes it. He still plays with the toy frogs and Chuck E Cheese whistle he bought with his winning tickets and he put a bunch of Chuck stickers on his potty. I'm so glad he got to spend the evening with his Auntie Ariel and Uncle Robert.

I cleaned the house while Aiden was away. Travis stayed with the Ramby kids until Chris got home around 10:30 that night. We got lucky and the hamster was found asleep in her bed soon after the kids went down for the night. The full schedule doesn't stop there, but I'll save the rest for later. For now, I'm off to bed (I actually wrote this post last night)... Zzzzzzz....

Ho Lee Crap

2012-01-31T21:14:00.000-06:00

No time, no time!! I really truly have been too busy to write lately. Which is unfortunate since I've had some interesting stuff going on lately. Even when I do have a few minutes of down time, the last thing I want to do is sit down with a computer in my lap. Our laptop sucks. It's four years old and we need an upgrade. The battery is shot, which means it has to be plugged in all the time. It overheats easily, which means we have to have a hard surface and a fan underneath at all times. It's all just not worth using most of the time.

ANYWAY. Biggest news of the moment: Aiden's been using the potty! Not exclusively, but he's finally giving it a little more thought. He used to refuse to sit on it all the time. The only way we could get his butt to touch that seat\ was to bribe him with entertainment, such as stickers or books. But the second he got bored with that, he was off the pot. He never sat on it long enough to accidentally go potty in it.

BUT THEN. Last week I think it was, Travis was giving him a bath. He kept saying he needed to change his diaper, which is his way of saying he needs a diaper on. Travis told him not to poop or pee in the tub and to sit on the potty if he needed to go. He finally panicked enough that he was willing to give it a go. A few minutes later and we had a teeny tiny poo in his potty!!

Sadly, we didn't get to make a big deal of it at the moment. Travis and I were both on the phone. Travis said yay, gave him a high five and told him to come tell me what he did. Aiden came out and told me went potty, but I assumed he'd gone in the tub and Travis was in the middle of refilling it. So I just said, "Oh ya? Get back in that bathroom silly boy." Ugh. It really upsets me when I think about how I didn't make a bigger deal of his moment.

We put Aiden to bed and then went to the bathroom to clean up. Travis dumped the poop in the real toilet and I asked him if he had put the poop in that potty to to show him where it was supposed to go. He said, "No, Aiden pooped in the potty." I was like WHAT?!?!?! I ran in the bedroom right then and made the biggest deal I could out of the moment. He was so proud. I wish I could have shared that with him at the right time, but there's nothing I can do about it now.

That weekend, we made a big attempt at the potty training. We realized that he didn't recognize the sensation of needing to use the bathroom, so I spent an entire afternoon with him outside without a diaper on. He had three accidents (two #1's and one #2) before finally getting it. He said he had to go potty and we ran inside. He sat down for a few minutes before finally peeing. Amazing moment. One I honestly didn't think would come anytime soon. I showed him how proud I was and called Travis into the bathroom to do the same. I gave him some stickers I'd been saving for his first time. It was enough that he was willing to try sitting on the potty several times that evening and the next day.

I've lost count of how many times he's used the potty. I'm sure it wouldn't take more than two hands to count, but I haven't kept track. The sad part is he regressed a lot after spending a day at daycare. They don't really work with the kids on potty training much. It's intensely aggravating, but I can't change that. When he got home that Monday night, he refused to sit on the potty. I finally found that using reverse psychology worked the best:

"Do not sit on that potty, Aiden. That potty is for big boys, so you can't sit on that potty."

"I wanna sit on the pooooottttttyyyyYYY!!"

"Okay fine."

It feels wrong to let him completely defy what I have asked him to do, but at this point I'm willing to try anything. We try to get him on the potty as often as possible. When we get home from daycare, I take off his diaper and make an attempt to keep him off the furniture. He does okay. Nothing serious just yet, but we're making progress.

This past weekend, he woke up and decided he would go sit on the potty all by himself. He took off his own pants and diaper and peed first thing. It was probably the most amazing moment of my life recently. Its funny how things change when you become a parent. I've never been so ecstatic to see excrement in a toilet. That Monday after Aiden first pooped in the potty, I think I told everyone I knew at work - even the graduate students who I'm sure could care less about where my toddler puts his poop.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, but it would be freakin' fantastic if Aiden were potty trained soon after Mila is born. One set of diapers in the house is enough. I have read that regression is common in older siblings of newborns, so I am prepared for that possibility.

I do have to say that potty training is my least favorite task of parenting thus far. I don't think it's an easy thing for any parent, but it doesn't help that I have the Most Stubborn Child in the World. I used to be the Most Stubborn Child in the World. But at some point in my teen years, I realized there was no point. Why fight everything in life? Things have gotten a lot easier since then. Until I gave birth to the new title holder, that is.

24 Weeks with Mila

2012-01-26T19:07:00.004-06:00

Travis and I have picked up a new hobby. Puzzles! I love it! Problem is, it's a little addicting. A couple friends have suggested Puzzlers Anonymous for treatment. HA. The puzzle I'm working on in this photo is only our third one. The first one we did by ourselves (1000 pieces) over the course of several days. The second one we did with Ariel and Robert in one night (1000 pieces). This one is going to take forever. It is basically a bunch of swirling colors. Close to impossible if you ask me. I don't know why we started it. Because of course now that we've started it, we can't stop. With two hours of help from Ariel and Robert we only got the outer edge and a few random pieces together. It's definitely slow moving.

It's amazing to me how two pregnancies can be so different. I am still surprised by my skin. I still have acne, but no more than I had before I was pregnant. With Aiden, it was worse than high school. I don't think I lost a single hair out of my head during the last pregnancy. This time I shed as much as I normally do. Maybe not all of you are maternity experts. Woman routinely get extremely thick hair and nails during pregnancy, partially due to the hormones, partially due to the vitamins. I had that last time. This time, notsomuch.

I do have a similar craving of cereal. I feel like a kid in a candy story going down the cereal aisle at the grocery store. I eat a bowl at bedtime almost every night. Sometimes two bowls, depending on the type of cereal. Funny thing is I am LOVING whole milk. The thickness used to gross me out, but now skim milk just seems like water to me. I've heard people say that before, but never got it. Now I get it.

I had a day of nausea last week. I got really freaked out, thinking it would mean the nausea was back. I think I may have just overworked and underfed myself. I haven't had a problem with it since. I have been tired a lot lately, but that's probably related to my lack of sleep. I get up frequently to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and I've started having a little trouble falling to sleep. I used to be able to pass out the second my head hit the pillow. Now that it's taking me longer than that, I have time to get worked up about it while I'm laying there. It probably only takes me 20-30 minutes to actually fall asleep, mind you. Nothing outrageous.

There isn't much to tell at this point. Mila is VERY active. I know I've mentioned that before. Aiden was active enough that I never worried about him, but this just seems hyperactive. I hope it's not a sign of what's to come.

I have my glucose test in four weeks. That's the one where you have to fast the night and morning before you go in. I'm so not looking forward to that one. I didn't faint last time, but I'm making Travis take me nonetheless. I don't want to risk fainting at the wheel on my ride to the doctor's office.

Succinct

2012-01-25T08:21:00.000-06:00

Again, I have little time, but I have lots to talk about. So just a quickie. Aiden has been getting up before 6 for the past couple of days and it reminds me so much of myself. When I was little if I woke up even a tiny bit, I would get up immediately. I didn't want to miss anything. I don't know if that's what Aiden is thinking, but I can't help but think of myself when I was little. I did sleep in when I was a teenager. Though if family was in town or if it was a holiday, I was up at the break of dawn.

Travis gets so annoyed with him. I do get a little frustrated he's up before my alarm some days, but at the same time, I know this won't last forever. He won't always want to get up and lay in mom and dad's bed for a few minutes before the day gets moving. And the fact that we're so much alike gives me a bit of a soft spot as well.

I sure hope Mila is a daddy's girl so he can get a taste of this.

Too Busy

2012-01-24T11:00:00.002-06:00

In the meantime, check out this interesting article on incubating humans.

Our Selves, Other Cells

Monster Jam 2012

2012-01-17T09:11:00.001-06:00

Doing things without Aiden are becoming increasingly difficult. I'm not exactly sure why it's any different than it was a year ago. Maybe because we used to do more stuff in Galveston and that's where our babysitters are? Not sure. So when I had TWO nights in a row without Aiden this weekend, I started to feel pretty guilty.

Saturday night, Travis and Aiden went to a monster truck show with Chris and Blair. They left before 5 and didn't get home until almost midnight, I believe.

I was ecstatic to learn Aiden chose to wear the ear protection courtesy of the Ramby's. Travis has a pair of adult ear muffs, but they are as big as Aiden's head. No wonder he was willing to wear these, but always refuses ours. We might need to invest in a pair before the next loud activity. It sounds like Aiden had a blast. Travis probably had as much fun as he did. He came home with tons of photos and videos on his phone. When I asked Aiden what he like the best about the show, he said the Spiderman truck (of course) and the popcorn. I don't ever let him have popcorn because I'm irrationally terrified he will choke on it. Meh.

The next day, Aiden spent a good portion of the day driving his monster truck toys all over the place. He has the Gravedigger monster truck, which I didn't realize was an actual truck. Gravedigger was at the show, so that worked out! Travis showed him how to run over his other matchbox cars with the monster trucks. Oh boys.

I, on the other hand, suddenly had a free evening and wasn't sure what to do with myself. I decided I wanted to do something I can't normally do when I have Aiden. I ended up going to see a movie with a bunch of girls from work. We saw the second Sherlock Holmes movie at one of those theaters where they serve you dinner and drinks at the same time as the film. None of them had ever been to a theater like that, so it was a lot of fun. A bunch of us got a Groupon that included one ticket and a large popcorn for $5. GREAT deal. I shared my popcorn with a girl who didn't get a Groupon because a large popcorn is entirely too much for me. It would be perfect for Travis and I. My friend and I barely made a dent. Granted, we also ate other food. I got bruschetta and she got cupcakes.

After the movie, everyone came back to my house and we chatted for an hour before they continued on the road back to the island. I had a really good time. I only went to the bathroom three times while we were there. HA. One of those times, I saw a man walk into the men's room carrying a mug of beer. I decided he must not have wanted to leave his drink unattended. You know, roofies and all that.

At the end of the movie, the servers brought out the bills for everyone. An elderly woman in the row in front of us whipped out a lighter so she could read and pay her bill. I don't know why, but that seemed so absolutely outrageous to me. Did she not have a cell phone to light her way? Perhaps it didn't cross her mind? Or was the first thing she thought of her tinderbox?

Before Travis made plans to go to Monster Jam, I had arranged for him to keep Aiden Sunday night while I went to a friend's house for a birthday dinner. We had Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr Day, so we opted to celebrate on a Sunday night. Our plans were quite dorky, so try not to judge too much. We all brought food and planned to watch Aladdin.

Aladdin was one of my VHS tapes from when I was a kid. My mom brought an entire box of Disney VHS tapes on her road trip this Christmas. I finally convinced Travis to figure out how to plug in the VHS player we've been keeping around for just such an occasion. Travis was always asking if he could throw out that thing. My response? "But what if we need it?!" So glad we kept it.

Sadly, things didn't work out exactly as we had planned. My friend's cassette player ate my Aladdin tape. It didn't tear the tape, so we winded it back up. I haven't had a chance to play it to make sure everything is all right. Hopefully all is well. It was pretty funny though because I couldn't tell you the last time I had to wind up a destroyed cassette. Good times.

Since everyone had Disney on the brain, we opted to watch another Disney movie: Lilo and Stitch. I have watched a good portion of that movie several times recently because that was another movie in the box from my mom. Aiden really likes that one.

Dinner was great, and I wasn't home too late. There's a little more fun left in my weekend to share, but I'll save that for later.

Family Time

2012-01-13T08:26:00.001-06:00

This morning Travis was telling Aiden bye before leaving for work. He was giving him a hug when Aiden says something muffled into his shoulder. Travis pulls back and asks him to repeat himself.

"Thank you for getting me dressed."

I don't know why, but that was just the sweetest thing! I teared up while I was getting ready in the bathroom. Travis said he was VERY welcome and said love you.

Aiden replied, "Love you!"

Melts my heart.

He has also started asking to see Mila a lot lately. I'm not sure if he wants to go back to the doctor for an ultrasound or if he understands that she is going to come out into the real world eventually and he would like to meet her. Either way, I love that he is interested in her.

I am having a little trouble figuring out my hunger these days. It seems like for the past week my stomach has been a bottomless pit in the morning. I eat cereal, then 15 minutes later I'm still hungry. I eat a piece of fruit and 15 minutes later I'm still hungry. I eat trail mix and FINALLY, I'm satiated. I have a snack (usually yogurt) at 10 am, then lunch at noon. Then I start to get hungry again between 3 and 5. So I have some more trail mix or a protein bar.

Yesterday I was starving so I couldn't stop eating trail mix. By the time I got home and reheated some leftovers for dinner, I wasn't hungry. I ended up not eating until 9 pm. I've noticed that Mila gets an energy boost about 30 minutes after I eat, so starting around 9:30 or 9:40 she went nuts. Right around the time I was laying down for the night. Gah.

Some Joe

2012-01-12T08:17:00.000-06:00

It's annoying when things don't go exactly the way I'd like them. Yes, I know that's life. But it doesn't stop me from feeling a little off. Aiden has been waking up really early lately. I don't know why. We haven't changed his nap time or bed time. This morning he came out of his bedroom one second after my alarm went off, which meant he was already awake in his room. I hit snooze and stayed in bed. Aiden silently walked around to my side of the bed. When I didn't react to his presence, he went out to the living room and turned on the light (he climbs up on the couch to reach the switch).

He played for a few minutes but came back when my alarm went off the second time. I asked him what he was doing awake already and he ran away whining, "Nooooo...." I think he thought I was going to make him go back to bed. You see, that's what I do when he wakes up before the sun is up on weekends or before my alarm has gone off during the week. I just let him run off to the living room while I forced myself out of bed.

I've been pretty exhausted this week. We've stayed up late every night for one reason or another - Curt's in town, the puzzle is all too addicting (we finished it by the way), I can't put an e-book down. I've gone to bed between 11 and 12 for four nights in a row now. It's not a habit I should keep. I usually go to bed by 10. But in order to get eight hours of sleep I need to be asleep by 9:45.

To top off this exhaustion is the fact that I'm limited on the amount of caffeine I can have. My doctor said one cup of coffee a day is fine. But I feel guilty whenever I have caffeine. For some reason, I feel like Mila is a lot more active than Aiden ever was. She's always flitting away in there. But when I have caffeine she goes NUTS. Almost to the point where it annoys me. Plus I feel bad that I'm forcing her to take a drug she didn't ask for. I dunno. For all I know, she's loving the energy, doing log rolls all around her live-in swimming pool.

The nice thing about the coffee is it helps keep me regular, if you know what I mean. I haven't had nausea in a while, so I haven't needed the Zofran. That means one less thing causing constipation. I'm still taking stool softeners, probiotics and eating a prune or dried apricot everyday. Plus, doc told me to drink three LITERS of water a day. I don't always get the full three, but that combination has kept me pretty regular and I'm loving it. There are days when I'm BM free. Those days I contemplate a cup of coffee just to keep things moving.

So I guess I'm going to sit here for another hour or so feeling guilty about how badly I want that cup of joe until I actually go get my fill.

On a side note, did you know that coffee is sometimes referred to as Java because back in the day, the sole exporter of coffee was the island of Java? And one theory for the term 'cup of joe' is because the soldiers used to stay warm in the trenches with a metal mug of hot coffee. GI Joe's drinking a cup of joe.

New Hobby

2012-01-10T16:48:00.001-06:00

Sorry I haven't been good about posting lately. I'm a little addicted to my new iPhone (Christmas gift from Travis), which means I've been reading and playing games more than thinking about what I can write on here. Seriously, that thing is taking over my life. I need the awesomeness to wear off a little so I can pay more attention to my life.

Travis' dad Curt came into town last night. He's a trucker and needed to take a break from the road, so he is taking it at our house. He took us up to his truck last night so Aiden could see it up close. Sadly, he was too afraid to go in the cab. I stood in the door with him in my arms, but he was still freaked out by it. So we got out and inspected the exterior of the giant vehicle up close. Aiden loved that part.

Travis, Curt and I were lost in conversation at one point and I could tell Aiden was getting bored because he kept trying to talk to me. To distract him, I handed him a rock and told him to go throw it in a giant puddle near where we were standing. He just thought that was an amazing thing. Kept him busy long past the end of our conversation. Finally, we had to pry him and his muddy hands away from the water to go home for dinner.

Travis grilled out beef for fajitas that night. We had made plans to do this the day before and had no idea there was a 100% chance of thunderstorms for the majority of the day. I think we were lucky the rain stopped for us to make dinner! The flooding was horrible, but thankfully no tornadoes hit our house.

We stayed up late for the second night in a row. The night before we spent 5 hours putting together a 1000-piece puzzle - our newfound common interest! I am so excited about this! Something for us to do together. After discussing it on Facebook, I found that LOTS of people do puzzles. The good thing about this is that means we can trade puzzles! Free of charge. It's like my very own library of puzzles. We still haven't finished this puzzle because Curt was in town last night, but we probably have an hour or two left on it. I look forward to the challenge WITH my husband along for the ride.

Aidenisms

2012-01-09T10:09:00.000-06:00

We pulled into the driveway after grocery shopping to see Travis' truck parked in the driveway.

Aiden yelled, "Daddy!" Then he saw his pirate ship and yelled, "Pirate ship!"

"Go inside and grab Daddy to play on the pirate ship with you."

"Daddy's too big for the pirate ship."

=( Travis has already played on it with him and he loved it. I don't know why he suddenly became a Debby Downer about it.

This morning I was driving Aiden into work when my phone alerted me to a text message.

Aiden asked, "Who'sat?"

"Gpa." (My dad.)

"Gpa? Not Gramma?"

"Nope, it's Gpa." I text both fairly regularly.

"Gpa gave me a pirate monkey."

Last September when we went to Illinois for my cousin's wedding, my dad gave Aiden a toy monkey that is dressed like a pirate. It has a button on it's hand that when pushed, makes monkey sounds. It was a Halloween decoration that he thought Aiden would love. He was right. I am just so impressed that he remembers who gave it to him. I'm hoping this means he got Travis' memory because we know mine sucks it. The only reason I can recall things is because Travis reminds me, or I go back and check this blog.

The other thing I've been really impressed with lately is Aiden's ability to name colors. When I used to ask him what color something was, he would answer 'blue' 75% of the time. Occasionally he got it right, but I was never sure if it was luck or true memory. But I have noticed for the past couple weeks that he has consistently gotten colors correct. He never seems to remember pink and purple, but I am still blown away at his good record as of late. They must be focusing on colors at daycare.

Last Outing of the Break

2012-01-04T08:21:00.002-06:00

This past Sunday we made plans to meet the Yeager's at the park. I really wanted to get Aiden out of the house and I was feeling a little guilty that he hadn't had much of a chance to play with friends over my break. I think he appreciated the afternoon out with Luke, even if it was a bit chilly (for Texas).

Aiden is getting more and more bold these days. I still prefer a spotter for certain feats.

I'm super bummed that I can't get these photos to stay rotated after loading. Sorry for the crick in your neck!

Zach and Luke (Aiden is learning adult's names now)

Static Head

Luke in a tube

Linsey and Kenley - feeding time!

After feeding the non-existent turtles in the pond (I'm pretty sure they were staying warm at the bottom of the water), we decided to go out for dinner. We just happened to be near a Cracker Barrel, which I haven't been to in years. Decades maybe. I know it was while I was still in high school, could have been before that. The only time I've ever been was with my friend's family for breakfast after I stayed the night at her house. I'm pretty sure the last time I stayed the night at her house was Freshman year of high school. I'd never been for dinner. Of course, I had to reminisce with breakfast for dinner. I'm a little ashamed to say I ate half of my plate and half of Aiden's. Those grits really hit the spot! Aiden's favorite meal is breakfast, so we ordered pancakes and bacon for him. He went to town.

Man, that place is awesome. I need to remember that place next time someone asks where I want to go to eat.

The Christmas that never ended

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-06:00

I had all last week off, along with yesterday. I had a lot of time with Aiden since I only brought him to daycare one day last week. It was a nice day. I dropped Aiden off and then headed to Ariel's where Alex had stayed the night. We dropped Ariel off at work and then headed out for lunch. He wanted Vietnamese food since we've got a few good Pho places on the island. We went to one I hadn't been too before, so it was an experience for me as well. He was a gentlemen and bought my lunch! Unexpected, but appreciated.

After lunch we went for a walk on the beach. Alex really wanted to make it to the ocean before he left for Illinois again. When we couldn't bear the wind anymore, we headed up to Ariel's bar. She took a break and walked the Strand. We got coffee, walked over to the harbor for a bit and went in a few stores. We picked out our dad's Christmas gifts together. We got him some Texas gear since he wasn't able to make it here for the holidays this year. I really missed having him around, but hopefully that means it will be easier for him to visit in May when Mila is due.

Aiden got some Christmas cards in the mail that included money (thank you Grandpa Curt, Grandma Brenda and Great Grandparents Richard and Jan!!), so we decided to put it all together to get an outdoor playset for Aiden. It's good up to 6 years old, so we have many years ahead of us with that toy (assuming it holds up). Little Tikes is good about putting a pamphlet inside all their toys to advertise other stuff they make. Sells me everytime. Now I want to get him the water play pirate ship this summer. Perhaps as a birthday present?

We went outside to show Aiden his new gift for the first time New Year's day. Travis attempted to get our Christmas present to ourselves working, but it was too windy. I look forward to a few evenings sitting at that fire with a beer. Of course, that won't happen until this summer, but the time is near!

I think Aiden likes his new very own playground. It's pirate themed - Aiden's favorite!

I got a little nervous a few times because MAN that kid is ballsy.

Aiden just would not go down that slide on his own, so Travis got on to show him how it's done. Aiden thought it was a hoot racing Travis around to the steps over and over. It will be GREAT whenever he has buddies over to play with him.

Christmas Break

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas came and went in a whirlwind! I can't even remember everything we did while my family was here. Here's what I can recall:

Saturday morning (Christmas Eve), Travis, Aiden and I went over to Ariel and Robert's house for lunch. We went a little early so Aiden could nap there and I could cook. We ate a lot and then hung out for a few hours. That evening, Ariel and Robert had to go into work. Bummer, but they gotta make that paycheck.

That night I made roast beef sandwiches for dinner, then let Aiden open up one gift - his first of the season!

He went to bed right after that and we stayed up for a while. It was nice to have time to talk to Alex and my mom spent a lot of time outside bonding with Sagira.

The next morning, Aiden woke up to a couple gifts from Santa and a full stocking. Santa got him a camera and a Dinosaur Train car and dino-shark. He played with that for a while and we helped him go through his stocking gifts. He also got to eat some candy before lunch. Around 10, we let him open some more gifts to play with that day. He opened the Dinosaur Train tracks from Grandma Brenda and a Tag Junior from us. We wanted to wait to open his gifts when everyone was around, so we kept postponing opening up the remaining gifts.

When Uncle Alex woke up, Aiden opened a few more gifts, including those from him.

His Great Grandma Margie sent some gifts that he really enjoyed.

He loves the Dinosaur Train tracks, but I they fall apart too easily. They are recommended for 3 years old and above, so he's not that good at putting the track together himself. I may have to hide the tracks and keep the cars out for a while so I don't lose my sanity. It's frustrating when he needs it put back together every 10 minutes.

That evening, Ariel and Robert came over for dinner. My mom and I made a beef tenderloin. It was my first time to ever make one, so it was interesting. We overcooked it a little bit, but it was a learning experience. Dinner was great, and as you can see, we were not able to get those Spiderman PJ's off Aiden the entire day.

After dinner we let Aiden open his remaining gifts. We put together his new grill right before bed, which in hindsight, was not the best idea. Getting him down for nap that day and for bed that evening was a trying experience. He just wanted to play with all his new toys!

I also tried a new idea for displaying Christmas cards this year. Linsey saw the idea online and I thought it was really cute. My bow was a little sad though. Next year I'll have to look harder for a better ribbon since this one was a bit droopy.

Never Ceases to Amaze

2012-01-01T19:17:00.001-06:00

Tonight we went to dinner at Cracker Barrel with the Yeager's. When the server first came to the table he asked the boys how old they are. They both stared at him blankly. Aiden is usually shy with people at first so I didn't expect him to answer. I gave him a chance but eventually answered for them.

When the server came back with our drinks, Aiden held up two fingers and extended his arm to the server. I couldn't believe he remembered and was interested enough to answer him later. I was so impressed!

Funny thing is Aiden usually holds up two fingers and says, "one". We didn't get the verbal this time, although I waited for it.

20 weeks

2011-12-30T22:21:00.001-06:00

Halfway there! I still can't believe we're going to have another baby. I also don't think I've really come to terms with the fact that we are having a girl. I was thinking about how I will need to get new clothes for stuff like Astros games (if we can ever get up there for one again) and birthdays. After I thought we were having a boy, I looked at those onesies and imagined getting photos of Colin in the same outfits. Things will be a little different now. Although I do plan to reuse the Illini gear. No reason a girl can't wear orange and blue!

Our surprise gift this year: It's a girl!

Travis and I had a mini freak out tonight. We were putting Aiden to bed and Travis was in the closet, "We have to fit two sets of clothes in here." The logistics of fitting a second child into a 1300 sq. ft. house is insane. We want an armoire for the guest bedroom, I'd like to get some corner shelves for the kids' room, and I'd love to get a buffet table for the dining room.

In order to put the crib in Aiden's room, we need to move the futon out of there. I was hoping to move it into the guest bedroom, but then we need a computer desk somewhere else in the house - a place to do bills and store our computer. WHERE ARE WE GOING TO PUT THAT? Travis and I decided we need a bigger house.

Entertainment

2011-12-29T15:35:00.000-06:00

Bored at work? Bored at home? Trying to kill some time on the pot? Check out these sites:

The Oatmeal (comic)

Endless Origami (comic)

Thought Catalog (blog posts and funny lists by various authors)

What I Have Learned About Aiden This Week

2011-12-29T08:59:00.001-06:00

We've spent a lot of time together in the past week. I feel like I've gotten to know my son a little bit better.

• He says tree instead of three.
• He heard me call my mom 'Mom' so now he calls me Mom instead of Mommy.
• He likes clementines.
• He adores his uncle Alex and Gramma. Very sad they're gone.
• He is building a tolerance to Christmas candy.

It's been a good vacation thus far. Only thing that would make it better is if Travis had the whole thing off with me.

Brave Models

2011-12-28T07:00:00.000-06:00

I wonder what I would be...

What Kind of Fish are You?

Perhaps his seat was uncomfortable?

2011-12-27T07:00:00.000-06:00

Vacation Time!

2011-12-26T07:00:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure how much I'll be posting over the next week. My family is in town for the holidays and I plan to keep busy with them. In the meantime, check out this giant waste of aged grapes:

Hope everyone had a grand Christmas!

School Lunch

2011-12-23T07:00:00.001-06:00

I can't remember if I have posted about this before. So if I have, please forgive me. I have been reading through the archives of a blog titled Fed Up With Lunch. It's written by a teacher that ate the school-provided lunch at the elementary school she worked at every day for a year. She chronicles her daily meals, how they made her feel, what students had to say about it, etc. She also mentions that the kids only have 20 minutes to get to the cafeteria, collect their food, cut it, eat, then get back to class. Most of the meals look horrible. That's not what my school lunches looked like. Ours were cooked in an oven in bulk, then scooped out into each tray. These meals just look icky.

I've been getting very interested in school lunches as Aiden is getting closer to attending school. I've seen some of the food they prepare at his daycare, and it's not too bad. Definitely doesn't look like the stuff in this blog. I always enjoyed "hot lunches" when I was in grade school. It would be nice if Aiden was able to enjoy the same thing, but if the food looks anything like this at the school I may have to make his lunch more often than not.

After Mrs. Q (the blogger's pen name) finishes her year (which was published in book form as well), she begins documenting the food she sends to school with her preschool-aged son.

How did you guys feel about your school lunches? Or did you bring your own lunch every day?

Seeing Favour in our Future

2011-12-22T07:00:00.000-06:00

I am 19 weeks today. Almost half way there! I had my second nuchal scan with the doctor yesterday, which is basically an in depth ultrasound. I love that stuff, seeing all the little parts. When the technician was doing the initial screening, the baby would NOT move. It made it easy for measuring a lot of things, but when it was time for her to see certain things (like the heart), the baby was just not in a good position. I had to roll over a couple times so the tech could get a different view.

At the end of the ultrasound, the tech says, "Everything looks good with the baby, but" and I start mentally freaking out - is there something wrong with me? The placenta? WHAT IS THE BUT??? 0.5 seconds later, "but I think this little boy is a little girl."

Excuse me?

"But we don't have any girl names picked out."

Travis says, "I guess we're going to have to change the Christmas cards." (They have Colin's name on them.)

The doctor came in the room at that point to confirm that he is 99.9% confident the baby is a girl. "No external plumbing on that one," he said. Funny guy.

So! I immediately start thinking about names. I couldn't get past the naming. I couldn't see any farther than that. I was so excited for Travis, because I know he really wanted a daddy's little girl. Now, hopefully, he will have that.

When I was driving to work, I talked to Alexa on the phone. She said she doesn't have the little baby girl clothes anymore, but she would save Skylar's current clothes. Yes please! I didn't even think about clothes. I purposely chose neutral colors for Aiden's room so it would be easy to reuse for a boy or girl. So we will be able to reuse most everything, but clothes are a biggie. I'm going to go through Aiden's old stuff and pull out all his neutral things. I can already see our bank account dwindling to nothing.

Aiden went with us to this ultrasound. I got him all excited to go see the baby on the TV, but I think it was too abstract for him to see. He got bored quickly. Thank goodness for toddler apps on the phone! Aiden seems to be grasping the concept of being a big brother a little more lately. He knows there's a baby in Mommy's tummy, but not in Daddy's or his own. I REALLY need to buy him some big brother books. I was reading one of Blair's to him the other weekend and started crying while thinking about Aiden as a big brother. I will be so proud, I know it.

Now that whole I-have-a-feeling-its-a-girl thing makes more sense to me. I really thought the baby was a girl until they told me she was a he. Plus, I have this theory that nausea is worse with girls because there is more estrogen in your body due to the second female on board. With a boy, acne should be worse because there is more testosterone present. I have had more nausea and less acne this pregnancy. Now my feelings are founded!

I already think I have come up with The Name. I need to mull it over a bit, but I'm 99.9% sure we're going with Mila. It's Russian, ranked #364 in the US and means 'favour or grace'. I like it's simplicity.

Learning about Christmas

2011-12-20T22:04:00.001-06:00

We were at Ariel's for dinner. Aiden was looking at her manger when he points at the baby Jesus, "Baby?"

"Yep, that's a baby."

He points at the Virgin Mary, "Mommy?"

"Yep, that's a mommy."

Then he throws his hands up in the air, "Where's Daddy?!"

Uhhhhhh. That's a little tricky.

Nutshell News

2011-12-20T09:26:00.002-06:00

It's raining! Perhaps we'll put a dent in our deficit? Or maybe not. We're about 25 inches under average rainfall for the year. I just read that Lake Conroe (just north of Houston) is 8 feet below normal levels.

I got a parking spot at work! I didn't have one for a while because I figured it was a way to save our family $40 a month and it was the only exercise I got. I had to walk about 5 blocks from my car to my building. I am thoroughly ecstatic to have that 20 minutes back to my daily commute (10 minutes each way). I was starting to feel guilty about never driving when we go out for lunch because my car was too far away. When you have a 60-minute lunch, 20 minutes seems like a lot.

I have had almost an entire week constipation free! Get excited, people. That's a big deal in Nikki's life. I think it's a combination of not needing the Zofran for a while (let's hear another hoorah!) and incorporating dried apricots into my diet. Whoever said prunes are good to keep the bowels moving had nothing on dried apricots. Maybe a combination of both would be good if you're having serious problems.

Travis bought me an iPhone for Christmas and gave it to me a week early! My cell phone is my alarm clock. My last cell phone decided it was going to start draining the battery instead of charging it at night, leaving me without an alarm clock in the morning. Since I don't have a car charger, that meant I only had an hour (tops) to charge my phone in the morning. It would inevitably die before the end of the work day. My other complaint with that phone was the touch screen didn't work well. The iPhone has been SUCH an improvement in that department. TOTALLY worth the cost. Other perks:

Apps like Word Feud, Kindle, Facebook and Pandora.
Voice to text function (can be funny at times)
Facetime (with Grandma Brenda and Travis)
Instant weather and radar
A camera app that is eating up my time, called TiltShift Generator, that takes photos like this:

That Christmas tree used to belong to our Grandma Rose.
Now it sits in Ariel's living room during the holidays.

My mom and brother Alex are here! They got in late Sunday night and went straight to Ariel's house. They are staying with her until Christmas Eve. Travis, Aiden and I are going over there for breakfast and spending a portion of the day there. Then Mom and Alex are coming back with us that afternoon/evening. Ariel and Robert have to work that night, so they won't be coming with us. =( But! They will be over first thing in the morning to see what Santa brought Aiden. I LOVE this holiday.

More talk of poo

2011-12-19T10:02:00.001-06:00

There is nothing more disorienting than waking up at 2 am to find your toddler vomiting all over his pillow. I'm talking whole bean regurgitation on his self, Mr. Lion and the bed. Twice. We ran out of bedding for him to up chuck in. My twisted pregnant stomach, after an hour of wiping sour Mexican food from my son's face, decided it need to be fed. Although, I guess I don't really have a sensitive stomach. It just seemed like I shouldn't be hungry. Sadly, I have to deal with a lot of gross stuff at this job and my previous job, take an hour lunch, then get back to it.

I'm not sure what was wrong with Aiden on Sunday. Saturday we let him take an extra long nap because we made plans to eat dinner in Houston. Shannon was celebrating her birthday in Houston, so we drove up for the child/prego-friendly part of the plans. We don't get to see Shannon very often since she moved out of town, so it was great to see her. I used to work with her at the vet clinic I worked in during college. Good times.

Anyway, Aiden fell asleep in the car around 10:30 and we got home at 11:30. The vomiting commenced not long after that. Travis laid in the room with him so he could direct as much vomit into the trash can as possible. (THANK YOU, TRAVIS!) The next day he seemed much better. I introduced water and food to him slowly to make sure he was fine. No problems there.

But around 10:30 that morning the constipation hit. This was the worst it's ever been. He bent over and cried for 30 minutes. We offered him prune juice, but he wouldn't drink it. After a while, we decided to put him in the tub. I've heard that can help soften things up a bit. He was in the water for an hour without much output. He was crying almost the entire time. We got him out of the bath tub and put him in front of the TV for some distraction. He wouldn't sit down, but he calmed down and kneeled on the couch. He wouldn't sit down for lunch so I put the food and juice on the coffee table for him. I offered him lots of whole grains and fruit, hoping to get something in there to help move things along. Thankfully he ate a prune.

I didn't think we would be able to get him down for nap because he was in pain. But at the same time I wasn't surprised that he passed out the second his head hit the pillow. While Aiden was asleep, Travis ran to the gas station to grab some apple juice. Aiden loves that stuff, so we didn't have any trouble getting him to drink a lot of that after his 2-hour nap.

We had planned on going to see the Polar Express in 4D that afternoon, but there was no way I was going to take him anywhere like that. He would bend over and cry periodically. We try to comfort him, but most of the time he gets angry and pushes us away. It's so horrible being that helpless. Finally around 6 or 7 he pushed out a giant rock. Travis claims it was the size of his fist, but he has big hands. I'm not sure that's physically possible. With as difficult this one was, perhaps he wasn't lying.

I think Aiden is having sympathy pregnancy pains.

Christmas Photos

2011-12-16T21:41:00.000-06:00

I forgot to post the photos from when we went to get the Christmas tree. We also bought Aiden a mini tree to keep in his room. He pulled it out and carried it around as Dad was lugging the full size version.

Helping secure the tree

He was able to turn one screw in all the way!

Setting up the trees

For our Christmas cards, we went to the neighboring town and took photos along the railroad that lines the main road. I think due to the drought, a lot of the trees are changing colors at the same time. Usually they all change at different times, meaning we never have a true fall. It currently feels like fall in Illinois, even though we're one week from the first day of winter.

I used a tripod to take the photos containing all three (four?) of us. It was tricky. I'm pregnant, it was muddy, it was windy, Aiden does NOT smile on cue. Here are those results - see for yourself!

Creating the Christmas cards helped us think long and hard about what we want to name our impending little one. We've had a running list for months, but only a couple names remained on the list. Our final choice?

Colin Curtis

Curtis is after Travis' dad. (Aiden's middle name is Gregory, after my dad.) We chose the name because we like it. But after further inspection we found out the following:

Colin is short for Nicholas in England. My name is a female version of Nicholas. So both our names mean 'victor', as in 'victorious person'. My grandpa's name is Victor.
The name Colin was ranked #111 in America according to a Baby Center in 2010.

I loved the name Aiden and there is no way I would have changed it. Even if I had known in advance that it would be the Top Boys Name for 6 years in a row, beginning in 2005.

Aiden's Dance Moves

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I left work for a couple hours to watch Aiden's dance class perform. It was so cute. I teared up with happiness/pride the entire time. Thank goodness I recorded some of it because otherwise my only memory would be of a bunch of blurry kids moving around.

In the beginning they are just stretching. In a couple videos they actually start dancing. Well, as organized as a bunch of toddlers can be...

There are a lot of other videos if you'd care to watch more than this one. I could watch them all day.

Prepare yourself for poop talk

2011-12-14T08:16:00.000-06:00

I have no idea why I am embarrassed at the time, but I can tell these stories to the world wide web. Either way, here it is.

I'm rocking some serious constipation this pregnancy. I don't have a normal digestive system to start with. Then during pregnancy it gets worse. Add Zofran, a known side-effect of which is constipation, and I'm lucky if I go once a week. And that one time is not an easy moment. I'm using the term "moment" loosely.

I try to keep track of how often I go. I take fiber supplements and stool softener on a daily basis. I do not have doctor permission to take laxatives. Generally you are supposed to avoid those while pregnant because it can bring on labor. When it's been more than three days, I bump up the fiber supplements.

I need to learn to do that on the weekends.

The problem is that after a certain point, being stopped up hurts. Just sitting there hurts. I took some Metamucil (sounds innocent enough) with my dinner last night. I've decided that stuff takes about 12 hours to produce results because when I was walking into work this morning, shit hit the fan. Not literally, I promise. Because of further complications related to constipation (hemorrhoids) the doctor recommended going the moment an urge struck. Waiting would increase the chances of exacerbating that issue. So I ran to the bathroom and then waited. Because that's what you do with constipation. Lots of waiting.

A few minutes into my wait, the automatic lights in the bathroom turned off. I didn't want to risk losing the urge if I got up to turn the light back on, so I just sat there in the dark. Then. Then someone came in. I was just waiting, no action, so I was silent. I suddenly felt ridiculous. I didn't want this unknown (up to this point) person to know I was sitting in the bathroom in the dark. Because then they would know I'd been in there long enough for the lights to go out and then they would KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING.

I wasn't okay with that. So I sat silently. Waiting. Waiting.... waiting... The lady never left! I watched the second hand tick away on my watch. Almost 10 minutes went by. Finally I took matters into my own hands. I noisily pulled some toilet paper off the roll. The sound of that paper ripping obviously said, 'GET OUT.' So she did.

I did my business and off to work I go!

I'll have to see if I can change up my schedule to using the bathroom for longer than 5 minutes on the weekends. It's just so inconvenient to deal with at work.

Holiday Parties, Part II

2011-12-13T08:46:00.000-06:00

On Sunday we went to a Christmas party for Travis' work. This is our first at his new job since he started in May. I was looking forward to finally meeting everyone. He has showed me a photo of them on their website, but I hadn't met any of them in person (except for one). It was nice to get a feel for the people Travis works with on a daily basis.

Kids were not invited, so we left Aiden at Blair's house for the afternoon. Of course he chooses a day with someone else to sleep three and a half hours! He didn't wake up until shortly before we got back from the dinner and that was only because Alexa woke him up. Crazy kid. I'm pretty sure it's because he was sleeping in Chris and Alexa's bedroom, which is PITCH BLACK. I've decided that when we can afford it, one of my purchases for the kids' room will be black-out curtains. They work wonders.

The "dinner" was at a seafood restaurant in a town we don't visit very much. We'd been there once before with the Ramby's, but I didn't realize until we got there. I put dinner and quotes back there because we ate at 2:30 in the afternoon. It worked out well though. They had an open appetizer buffet when we got there. Then we were allowed to order whatever we wanted off the menu. Of course I wasn't feeling that great with the scent of seafood wafting around me. I had the opportunity to get a $30 fish plate, but opted for a chicken salad. Travis had Avocado Mahi. I was thinking about getting it, but was glad I had my fresh greens when they brought out the plates. Travis loved it. I just wasn't up for it.

Speaking of nausea, it's gotten A LOT better. I have found that the only time it hits me hard is after I take my vitamins. I've been playing around with when I take them, trying to find a safe method. I'm still working on it though. It didn't matter if I took them all in the morning, or the evening. Either way I felt horrible. So I've tried splitting them up throughout the day. I don't have it perfected just yet. But I think I've pinpointed it to the DHA supplement. Not sure why it's affecting me so hard this time because it wasn't an issue at all last time.

Anyhoo, the dessert was chosen for us - blueberry bread pudding. I can't stand soggy bread, so I've never liked bread pudding of any kind. I skipped on dessert.

We had free drink coupons for the evening. It was supposed to be 2 per person. Travis was happy to use mine. HA. Plus, his boss bought him a few drinks. He talked the ENTIRE ride back to the Ramby's and he even sang to Christmas music. I didn't realize he knew the words to Christmas songs. Guess it just takes a few Jack and Cokes to bring out his holiday cheer.

Unrelated, but here's a couple photos I never shared...

Aiden helped decorate the Christmas tree.

He hung his 1st Christmas ornament, as our annual tradition.

Aiden likes to rock his Cowboy Woody hat whenever he gets a chance. It goes nicely with his pirate sword.

Here is the only photo I took of Aiden opening his gifts with Santa. I love being a parent.

Holiday Parties, Part I

2011-12-12T08:32:00.000-06:00

Fabulous weekend. The end.

No not really the end, silly! I like to talk! Or type. So here's the rest.

We made plans to go to two Christmas parties this weekend. The one on Saturday was a child-friendly party. They have an entire room dedicated to toys, so of course the kids took over that room. We arrived before most of the group did, so here's a photo of the room before chaos struck:

Left to right: Blair, Matthew, Juliet, Aiden and Skylar

I have started to notice that Aiden does really well with kids of all ages. He seems to adjust his play level to his playmate's needs. If he's looking at a baby, his voice gets soft and higher pitched and he gets down on their level to check them out. But if it's an older boy that he has to run to keep up with, he pumps up the volume and the energy. The one thing he's not good at, all around, is sharing. He has the toddler mentality. The rules: everything is his. Doesn't matter who is taking it from him, he will get upset. I found myself explaining to Aiden several times that night, babies are too little to know better. I showed him how to give the little ones a toy to distract them from what he's playing with. I'm not sure if that's the right way to go about it, but both parties seemed okay with it.

Here is an example of Aiden learning to share a house with Skylar:

Everyone brought some food. It was all awesome. I ate horribly this weekend. I need to reel that in a little bit because my goal this pregnancy is to NOT gain 41 pounds. I don't know if that will be possible, but I'm going to give it a try. Honestly, I didn't have much trouble losing the weight last time. Well, the last 5-10 pounds didn't come off until after I quit breastfeeding, but I will keep that in the back of my head this time. I just want to remain as healthy as possible. I do have to say one of the annoying parts of being gigantic, was my inability to use stairs. It would be nice if I didn't have an asthma attack every time I need to go up a few stairs.

ANYHOO. In addition to the food we all brought, we also brought a gift for the kids' gift exchange. I was so excited about this part. Chrissy (pictured below) numbered the gifts, then each child drew a number that corresponded to the gift they would receive. She obveriously has a magic brain because she knew EVERY child's birth date. She let the kids draw starting with the youngest and going up from there.

Aiden had a rough time understanding that he didn't get to choose which present he got to open. He wanted one that belonged to another child, so we had a minor breakdown at that moment. But as soon as I got him back to our spot on the carpet and he got to open the present, he was better. He got a variety of card games aimed at kids 3 and up. He's almost to three and I've thought about buying him some card games, so I think it worked out wonderfully.

Plaid

Aiden LOVES puzzles. There is a card game in the set called Matching. I haven't read how you are actually supposed to play the game, but I shuffle the deck and hand it to Aiden. Then he finds the three-card sets and puts them together. It's a little like a puzzle, only a little more difficult. He seems to enjoy it. If anything, he just likes shuffling through the cards and looking at them. I taught him how to pick up a bunch of cards at once and straighten them, so he really likes doing that now. He gets a little frustrated when it comes to fitting the cards back in the box, but we're working on that.

After all the kids opened their gifts, they walked around and played with each other's presents. It was so cute. There was a really neat underwater puzzle set that required the use of a magnetic fishing pole to take the pieces out of the board. Might be getting that for our little man...

Happiness Factory

2011-12-09T08:00:00.001-06:00

This isn't even Christmas-themed, but there is just something about Coca-Cola commercials this time of year.

Dancing Toilet Santa

2011-12-07T09:30:00.000-06:00

I can't recall if I've mentioned it before, but several months ago we put Aiden in a dance class that comes to his daycare once a week. He has never liked dancing very much and I was hoping this would help him out in that department. And it did! Sometimes when a song comes on that Aiden enjoys, he'll start wiggling and say, "Dance Mommy!"

I'm about to do some bragging, please forgive me. We got a progress report from his instructor last week. The options were Unsatisfactory, Satisfactory and Superior. Aiden received Superior marks in everything! The instructor also left the following note: "Aiden does really great in class and he knows all the dances. I put him in the front of the class so he can lead the other children." Ahhhhhh! I love it!!! I think that is my first time with serious praise from a teacher. So. Exciting.

This last weekend, Aiden got a wild hair up his butt and decided he wanted to use the big potty. He came running into the kitchen with his pants around his ankles asking me to take off his diaper. I quickly obliged and we ran to the bathroom. Well, I ran. He waddled with his pants around his ankles. He hopped up on the toilet so quickly that I had to catch him from falling in. I stood there, coaching him on. He suddenly stood up on the stool, and turned around to face the toilet. He wanted to stand up to pee. CUTEST THING EVER.

After a moment, he turned around and sat down. By this point, Travis was in there with us. This time when Aiden sat down, he fell all the way in - butt in the water, shirt soaked. I was so worried it would make him afraid of the potty, so we laughed it off. I think we did okay. He only got upset when we made him change his shirt.

Sadly, there was no pee in the toilet.

I did, however, buy a toilet seat insert so he won't fall in anymore. It's covered in super heroes, so I'm hoping that makes him want to spend more time in there.

This weekend we went to a Christmas function for my work. It was at the director's giant house. Santa was there and since we were late getting to the party, we had Santa all to ourselves! Which was great because Aiden was really slow to warm up to the guy. We had to sit in the living room for five minutes trying to get Aiden over there. Travis stayed with him and I went over to sit next to Santa on the couch. Travis finally convinced him to walk over to the couch. Travis sat on the other side of Santa and Aiden got up on his lap. And the only reason he did so is because Santa bribed him with a present.

Of course, after opening his gift, he didn't want to leave the couch. Santa was such a good sport, so patient with him. Aiden never cried, but we didn't get a good photo of him facing the camera. I was still very appreciative of Santa's patience. I suppose he's probably a pro with this sort of thing by now.

After meeting Santa, we went downstairs and decorated some Christmas cookies and Aiden ate the gum drops off the gingerbread house the other kids had built. Probably a germ factory, but what are you going to do?

In the 90's

2011-12-06T08:23:00.001-06:00

One year at Christmas time, we went out hunting for our tree. Found the perfect one, tied it to the top of our van and made our way home. When we got home, my dad trimmed the tree outside, then brought it in the living room to put in the tree stand.

By this point, it was dark. A few moments later, a bat was flying frantically around the house. We all ducked, the cats went nuts trying to chase the flying creature and my parents did some quick thinking. If I remember correctly, they attempted to coax the bat out the door using a broom at first. When that didn't work, they moved on to a blanket. They opened it up and held it vertically to push the bat toward the door. Worked like a charm.

I have to give my mom props for doing that because I really don't think I would have handled it well. I have a severe fear of bugs or any flying creature getting stuck in my hair. Just thinking about it gives me the chills. After my parents divorced, my mom moved into another home. There was a red bud tree at her front door that used to get swarmed by Japanese beetles (they look like black shiny June bugs) every summer. There were so many that they used to land on the front screen door. For a little while, our garage door keypad stopped working so the only option was to enter the front door.

Traumatized me for life.

Looks like someone else had a creature problem this year:

Snake found in a Christmas tree

Watching a lot of TV lately

2011-12-05T07:00:00.000-06:00

I have been watching a lot of TV lately. I know I've mentioned it before, but we no longer have good adult channels in the living room. We downgraded our satellite package to help save money, so now we have a DVR and family channels. When we got our Internet, it was cheaper to get a package deal with cable. We had cable forever that we weren't using because we had DirecTV. But when we got rid of satellite in the bedroom, we started using the cable back there. It's nice because we still get good channels (MTV, E!, VH1, AMC, FX, etc), but it's rough because we don't have a DVR. That means I have to know what time shows are on that I like, then I need to allott time to actually sit down and watch them.

That means on Sundays I watch The Walking Dead and Wednesdays I watch American Horror Story. Lots of gore on my TV lately. Not sure why these shows appeal to me so much. I've always liked supernatural stories, I guess. I also watch Vampire Diaries (guilty pleasure), but that's available on the DVR. In addition to these shows, we've been trying to catch up on Season 1 of Game of Thrones. We don't have HBO (although I'd really love to get it someday), so we missed this series when it was live. I've heard lots of good things about it and wanted to give it a try. I love it. Again, it's gory. My plan is to finish watching this season, then watch it live with friends who have HBO (Michelle and Linsey both watch this show). We'll have to see how well that works out.

Oh, also on my plate: Baseball Wives. I don't think I would watch that show if I didn't have the Linsey connection. But man was it funny knowing that's her cousin. Bwahahaha!!! They say right off the bat (no pun intended) that everyone knows of Anna and her reputation. Ominous start. She didn't fail to keep up her side. Did anybody watch it?

16 Weeks

2011-12-02T07:00:00.000-06:00

I had my monthly visit to the doctor on Wednesday. She said I have a large uterus. Exhibit A:

Doc also explained that the medication I'm taking for nausea (Zofran) can cause serious constipation. That explains a lot of what I've been dealing with lately. I'm sure everyone is better for knowing that tidbit about me. But I feel you need to know that to better understand this next bit of information: I've probably been feeling the baby move. On 4 or 5 occasions I have felt movement down there, but thought it was related to the lack of general movement down there. But every time I felt it, I thought, "Wow. That feels like when Aiden was moving. Oh I can't wait until I can feel this bambino moving around in there!"

Thing is, I thought it was too early. I believe I felt Aiden move for the first time when I was around 17 weeks along. And it was so faint that it just as well could have been gas bubbles. This is not faint. I even get shifting of my tummy, like the uterus is more on one side than the other.

The doctor said that women generally feel the baby moving earlier (14-16 weeks) with the second and subsequent pregnancies. Top that with my "large uterus" and I should be feeling this kiddo moving, according to her. So, yay!

Another side effect of Zofran: headaches. They are KILLER. Tylenol has never helped my headaches and unfortunately that's all I'm allowed to take at the moment. It does dull the pain, but the only way it disappears completely is after a night of sleep.

I'm now taking some OTC meds to counteract the previously mentioned side effect of Zofran. Still waiting for them to go into effect. Any day now...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2011-12-01T08:30:00.000-06:00

Saturday, Aiden was horribly cranky. Travis was only supposed to work until noon, so I kept telling myself, 'Travis will be home soon.' Unfortunately, he had to work late. Meaning I didn't get to have my break. I was planning to get my hair cut and go grocery shopping while Travis stayed home with Aiden. Since we had plans for the Yeager's to come over for dinner I knew I wouldn't have time to do that when Travis said he'd be late. Instead, he stopped at the grocery store for the two items I needed for dinner that night.

Travis got a ham from work as his "Thanksgiving bonus". We cooked it for Thanksgiving and then used the leftovers to make ham and bean soup. It's a recipe my dad usually does with the Christmas ham. Every time he makes it, the giant pot is gone in one day. We all have a bowl or two and then Travis and Alex finish it off. It's amazing what those guys can put back.

It takes a minimum of four hours to make the soup because you use dried beans and you make your own ham stock using the ham bone. Travis picked up a loaf of french bread and I have to say it turned out pretty amazing. For dessert we had leftover pecan pie and the Yeager's brought a peanut butter-chocolate pie. I don't know how I don't weigh 200 pounds right now.

Luke and Aiden ran around the house like mad men. Aiden likes to jump on his bed whenever friends come over and Luke likes to shut doors. Problem is neither of them can open the door to his bedroom. So we spent a lot of time opening doors. Kenley is getting so big. She can sit up well on her own and started crawling the day after their visit. In the past, she was afraid of strangers. The only way I could hold her is if she faced away from me the whole time. At some point she would figure out that a stranger was holding her and she would cry. I am SO ECSTATIC that she has either gotten over the stranger fear, or I am no longer a stranger. She left Travis and I hold her for long periods of time AND we got to interact with her. When she was sitting on Linsey's lap, she kept laughing at Travis. I think he's funny looking too, so it makes sense.

Sunday, Travis pulled the Christmas decorations out of the garage. Aiden and I put everything up around the house. I have a list of a few things I'd like to buy from the store, if I can find it. I know this is cheesy, but my dad bought us a string of multi-color, musical lights. They put me in the Christmas mood every time I go pee. Aiden really likes them too. Sadly, last year half the string went out and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with them. I threw them away assuming I could buy more this year. But now I can't find them anywhere! I need to search harder on the Internet. None of the stores near me carry them. My dad said he got it from a local store. I may have him mail me some!

Now all we need is a Christmas tree! We are planning to get one this weekend. I can't wait to decorate it with Aiden this year. He is really into the Christmas spirit this year. In the past it was fun because we were doing something different. This year, he actually understands and recognizes more. He does seem more smitten by Christmas trees than Santa. Which means putting up the tree this weekend should be a blast.

Last year my dad bought a frame and an ornament for me to place a silhouette portrait of Aiden and a lock of his first hair cut. I never got around to doing it so it's been sitting on our desk for a year. I walked by it the other day and though, "I should really take care of that before this Christmas." Part of the problem was that I didn't have a good profile shot of Aiden from the time he got his first hair cut. Instead, I used a current photo. I plan to put both a current lock and the hair from his first haircut in the photo frame. I still haven't put that all together, as I need to trim his hair first. But here's the ornament:

I know someone who knows someone

2011-11-30T07:00:00.000-06:00

Funny story. My friend Linsey has a cousin, who is married to a retired baseball player. Because of this, she was chosen to star in a reality show called Baseball Wives on VH1. The first episode airs tonight at 8:00 pm Central time. I thinking knowing this woman is Linsey's cousin will make the show a little more interesting for me. Linsey is the most sweet and polite southern belle I have ever met. I don't think she has much in common with her cousin. See for yourself:

Anna Benson on Baseball Wives

The day that puts stores in the black

2011-11-29T11:46:00.000-06:00

The rest of the weekend was great for me. Sadly, Travis had to work all day Friday and most of Saturday. Aiden and I had it off. At the beginning of the week, I noticed that Aiden was acting really cranky and he had a little cough when he first woke up. I was checking his temperature every morning. Monday it was normal, Tuesday it was a degree high, Wednesday it was at 100 degrees. When Travis was getting him dressed, he pointed to his ear and said it was ouchy. How amazing is that? He told us what was bothering him! That has never happened! In the past, we knew something was wrong because he wasn't eating, or he was cranky, or he slept a lot. But we had to go to the doctor to figure out what it was. Sometimes we never really found out exactly what the problem was. He's totally growing up.

I'm sure someone will frown on this. I took him to daycare that morning. I gave him ibuprofen before we left the house, but I had so much to do at work that I had to get in. I was hoping they wouldn't call me before noon to come pick him up. I got my wish. I was able to get him after work and take him to Urgent Care. I called that morning and his regular doctor's office was busy all day. I'm not surprised, being that it was the day before a holiday.

We waited for about two hours I think. It seemed like forever. There was a woman in the waiting room with a little boy, 3 or 4 years old I would guess. He was sleeping on a chair by the fish tank - Aiden's favorite area. So of course every time Aiden went back there and would try to talk to me (talk, not yell or scream), the mom would shush him and say, "He's sleeping. Shhhhh." Gah. I understand that sometimes it can seem so important that your child sleep, but geez lady. He was just saying, "Fish, Mommy?" as he was pointing at the fish tank. I tried to keep him out of that back waiting area from then on, but I didn't try too hard.

Sure enough, Aiden had an ear infection. I'm so happy we were able to get medication for that before the 4-day weekend. Thanksgiving could have been a lot more difficult.

So! Friday morning, I got up BEFORE DAWN and tried out a little Black Friday shopping. It was my first time to go out the day after Thanksgiving. Honestly I was a little nervous. You always here about people getting trampled to death for a $10 toaster. I didn't want that to be me.

I only went to a few stores and only one of them was right at opening. Shoe Carnival opened at 5 am and gave out $10 off gift cards to the first 100 people. My friends and I made it in the first 100! Plus, they were having great shoe sales. I've wanted to buy boots since last winter, but could never get over the guilt of such a large purchase. The cheapest boots I could find were $60 at Target. If you went to a department store or DSW, forget it. You'd be spending $100-200. As much as I want boots, I'd rather have groceries.

Back to Black Friday - I bought a pair of $60 brown boots (up to my knee) for 50% off, plus my $10 off gift card. I got a pair of boots for $20!! Can't beat that. Totally made my morning exhaustion-caused nausea worth it. After we all made our purchases, we went to the Sephora next door. We also stopped at Walmart, but I didn't buy anything else. I had what I wanted and was just along for the ride at that point.

I was home, in bed by 6:45. I had to be home by 7 because that's when Travis leaves for work. I was sure that Aiden would wake up when I got home and I wouldn't be able to get anymore sleep. But I was wrong! I got to sleep in until 8:30. Then Aiden climbed in bed with me and we watched Transformers. The rest of the day was pretty lazy. That evening we went to the Ramby's for dinner. Alexa made a Thanksgiving casserole using leftovers that was absolutely amazing. She heated up some gravy that we poured on top of each serving. If I ever have enough leftovers to make that, I'll totally be doing it in the future. Mmmmm...

More later. I don't want to overwhelm you with my play-by-play's. Cheers!

T-day in Galveston

2011-11-28T09:23:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving was so easy going this year, it was amazing. We went over to Ariel and Robert's house in the morning to help them clean and cook. Since it was nice out, Ariel decided to do the seating outdoors.

Hostess with the mostess

We ate around 4 pm, an hour later than planned. Not too bad, considering how things have gone in the past. We invited our friend Scott to dinner since he doesn't have any family nearby. Ariel's roommate Bettye and their friends Brandon, Blake and Christy came as well.

Dinner was FANTABULOUS. I couldn't believe it, but none of my green bean casserole was left at the end. I don't usually feel like that's a popular item, but apparently everyone liked it the way I made it with fresh green beans. The canned mushy green beans gross me out.

I also made a new sweet potato casserole this year. I don't generally like the sweet potato casserole, so I took control of it it this year. The bottom layer is mashed sweet potatoes, the middle layer is a pecan crumble (basically it's pecan pie) and the top layer is toasted marshmallows. The toasted part was an accident, but it turned out really great.

Ariel and Robert fried a turkey and roasted a turkey. The fried turkey was more firm and really hit the spot. Travis and I heated up the honey baked ham he got from his boss. It turned out really great as well. Thankfully we were able to reheat it right before the meal.

Christy and Blake

Aiden LOVES Brandon. Brandon is so good with kids, so I know that helps. Aiden sat in this hammock with him for a good 20 minutes and held on while Brandon rocked the "pirate ship".

After dinner we ate pie: pecan, pumpkin and apple. I made the pecan pie because I was hell-bent on getting it right. For some reason I am only capable of making pecan soup. The stinking thing never firms up. Of course it was pecan soup again this year. We still ate a quarter of the pie. I took the rest of it home and baked it for another 35 minutes. That did the trick. FINALLY.

As we were eating dessert, the Luck's stopped by to say hi! They were in town to visit family for the holiday. Logan hung out with family while Sara and JR brought Landry over to visit with Aiden. They colored with crayons and played with a magnet set that was Robert's when he was little. Too cute.

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I enjoyed my 4-day weekend and was quite reluctant to come into work this morning. If only every month had a 4-day weekend...

A bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

2011-11-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!! We're spending the day giving thanks with my family today. Thank goodness for this holiday.

I honestly had to stop watching when they started eating. My protein nausea couldn't handle it.

15 Weeks Tomorrow

2011-11-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

There are so many things I forgot about while being pregnant. I've been going through my belly book (week-by-week play book of what was going on with me during the pregnancy) and found several things I forgot. One of the symptoms I didn't remember is the Braxton-Hicks. I had them with Aiden starting at 12 weeks. Braxton-Hicks contractions are minor practice contractions that happen in some pregnancies. They are not debilitating, just annoying. I get them whenever I am active, like when I walk across campus or when I'm moving boxes around at work. I've been having them a lot for the past few days. Just in time for busy Thanksgiving!

I'm already noticing some of the hindering aspects of having a baby bump. It's larger than it was last time at this point, but it's not gigantic by any means. Yet. But I have had trouble getting out of the car in parking lots a few times. I can't just suck this puppy in anymore. I have a feeling things are going to get more difficult when it comes to getting Aiden in his car seat. It's one thing to slip in through the cramped area. But to stand in it, life a child and then buckle him in. I'm going to have to start allotting more time to do things so I can let Aiden do more for himself - like climbing in and out of the car.

I'm finding I have much less patience for pregnancy-related problems this time around. I don't know if it's because I have to take care of another child or if it's the lack of newness. Last time it was the first time I was experiencing any of it, and if I wanted to sit all day and take a nap, I did. Oh the days when I was free!

Someone's always sick for the holidays

2011-11-22T10:59:00.001-06:00

I'm worried Aiden is going to be sick for Thanksgiving. He woke up the past two mornings with a hoarse cough. No fever yesterday. Today his temperature was elevated one degree. That could be due to his full-on temper tantrum he threw ALL MORNING. I gave him ibuprofen both mornings in case his throat hurts. I tried to ask him if it did, but he didn't seem to understand me.

We are going to do what we did last year and go over to Ariel and Robert's for Thanksgiving. I'm going to prepare a few dishes in advance so all I have to do is heat them up when I get over there Thursday. We'll go over before Aiden's nap and let him sleep there. That way I can help with the cooking. They are frying one turkey and roasting the other. Lots o'turkey. We're hoping to eat at 3pm. That almost never happens on time, but I can hope! The best part about eating the meal early is then you have room for dessert and possibly leftovers in the evening. Ugh, love that.

I did the bulk of my grocery shopping last night. I have to run by a different store tonight to pick up a few items I couldn't find at the last store. I NEED this place to have pie crusts, because I really don't want to have to add making a pie crust to my to-do list tonight. As it is, I already need to pick up Aiden, run to the store, drop of the recycling at the center in Galveston, go home to make dinner and then make a pecan pie. All after I get off work at 5 pm.

Definitely stopping for coffee this afternoon.

New World Problems

2011-11-21T09:36:00.001-06:00

We have completed our Christmas shopping for Aiden! Toys R Us is having a ton of sales through Thanksgiving Day, so we wanted to get him done first. The trick is to keep all that stuff hidden for a month. I'm sure that will get more difficult down the road. Now we can focus on gifts for the rest of the family. My dad won't be coming for Christmas. He's going to try to come in January or February, but it depends on his work. I'm not sure if Brenda will be able to make it - she's still up in the air. Travis still has to talk to his dad, but he usually can't make it because he has plans with his girlfriend or he has to work.

My mom is planning to come for a month, so she will be here for Christmas. With her, we always draw names out of a hat for gifts. None of us are particularly well off. That coupled with traveling for my mom and buying food for the celebrations for Ariel and I, makes for a very expensive month. Drawing names out of a hat helps alleviate some of that. Now that we have Aiden, we get to watch him open lots of gifts on Christmas morning. That has quickly become my favorite part of the holiday. I'm sure this year will be even better. Aiden enjoys so many things now. He will love everything he gets.

Travis and I usually don't get each other gifts for Christmas anymore. We generally don't have the funds for it. This year, we thought we'd be buying a dishwasher, but I think we might be able to postpone that until after the holiday season. It's holding on at the moment. Barely. Com'on kitchen appliance! Hold on for just a while longer!!

Travis bought an iPhone a week ago, but it's on backorder. He is supposed to get it by Friday. Only 50% of his current touch screen works. We can't afford to get one for each of us at the same time. I'm hoping to get one soon after Christmas. It seems like my phone senses that I'm ready for a new one because it is going bezerk more often than it used to. The number one reason I want an iPhone now is for a decent touch screen. I CANNOT stand it when my touch screen doesn't work. My current phone is so bad that it won't even recalibrate. It frustrates me to no end. I am thankful I bought a flip phone with an actual keyboard on the inside. I don't even use the main screen of my phone anymore. I go straight to the inside.

Oh the problems in my life. ; )

Mommy's Nights Out

2011-11-18T13:56:00.001-06:00

It's been a busy week. I feel like I'm running around at work trying to keep up half the time. Then the other half of the time there is NOTHING to do. That's typical in a lab though. Your assays need to incubate for a certain amount of time and there's generally only so many things you can clean or tidy up on during the incubations.

I think the reason it's getting on my nerves so bad this week is because I have had some headaches from hell. I talked to my doctor about it. She said it could be pregnancy, it could be the Zofran, or it could just been from my previous neck problems. The difficulty is that I'm limited on what medication I can take to treat the headache. In the past, ibuprofen has always worked will for me. Sadly, I can only take acetaminophen while pregnant. It doesn't help. These headaches just barrel on through my day. It makes the nausea worse. So when I turn my head, I feel sick. Or maybe the nausea is causing the headaches? Gah, I don't know.

I've also been pretty busy after work this week. Monday night I went on an impromptu girl's night out with a friend from work who recently quit to work at another hospital in Houston. She's been having a rough month and I haven't seen her for a while, so I went out even though I had prior plans for a girl's night out Thursday. We went to get pedicures, but I forgot my wallet. So I just sat and chatted while everyone else was pampered. Then they all went out to dinner and thankfully bought my meal. I totally owe them!

Last night I went with a few girls to see Breaking Dawn on opening night. I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. Didn't want to miss out on the fun. One of my friends from work has a movie theater membership card so she was offered tickets to see the 8 pm showing. We got to the theater an hour early, thinking we might not get awesome seats, but I figured we wouldn't get front row. I thought wrong.

Lucky for us, no one was in the front row yet, so we were right in the middle! It was horrible. I got dizzy during several scenes. There was one scene with subtitles - I had to turn my head back and forth in order to read it. I actually didn't finish reading a few of the sentences because I couldn't turn my head quick enough. Ridiculous. I stared at Edward and Bella's pores the whole movie.

I think I liked it. I know most of the movies are cheesy to a certain point. And Bella and Edward can be just plain awkward at times, but that's how the characters are in the books. The difference between the movies and the books is that you get to read about the internal struggle of the characters. During the movies, you just have to watch it on their faces.

Our biggest joke last night was that Jasper is the constipated vampire. He always looks like he needs to take a giant crap. But the books explain that he constantly struggles with the need to drink Bella. He's struggling with hunger, not digestion.

Overall, it was good. I would like to see it again from a better seat. I do plan to buy this movie eventually. I need to buy the rest of the Harry Potter movies and I think I still need the last Twilight movie that came out. I'm a little behind on that. Later, later, later!

14 Weeks

2011-11-17T07:00:00.000-06:00

Good lord would you look at the size of my BELLY???

Seriously, it's gigantic. Unreal. PS - That's my tough face. Feels tougher than it looks.

I was looking at photos from my pregnancy with Aiden and I think the shape of my belly is different. It's more torpedo-like this time. I know it's not a direct comparison because one is shirts and one is skins, but here is my photo at 16 weeks (two weeks further along than I am now) with Aiden:

Whenever people see me wearing a fitted shirt at work they say, "WOW. You are going to be HUGE." Did you see me last time? If that wasn't huge, then what was it? Gah.

I know I've already mentioned it, but the nausea is way worse this time. It is affecting my diet. Nothing ever sounds good. The only things that ever sound remotely edible are fresh things, like fruits, vegetables and salads. Cheese and water crackers usually make the list. Occasionally pasta is on there as well. It sounds a LOT like my cravings last time.

Lately, I've only needed the Zofran (anti-nausea) every third day. It used to be every other day, if not every day. I have hope that it will disappear completely. Please.

We tried to get Aiden to take a photo with me and the torpedo-belly, but he refused. Instead, he hovered in the doorway begging to look at the camera.

Celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving. Ugh, I know.

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-06:00

Saturday we had more big plans. Travis had to work that morning. Aiden and I took it easy at home. We played outside for a while and I folded some laundry. I got him to take a nap on his own. It took almost 45 minutes, but that's better than an hour!

When Aiden woke up, we played for a bit, then got ready to go out. We went to Galveston for the Moody Garden Festival of Lights opening day. I've been in the past and was really disappointed. I thought they would decorate Moody Gardens with lights. Instead, they have various shapes wrapped in lights, including Christmas items, safari animals, underwater animals and more. I'm assuming those non-Christmas decorations are supposed to represent the two pyramids at Moody Gardens: the Rainforest and the Aquarium.

Since it was opening day, there were various additional attractions. There were two small reindeer for the kids to gawk at...

Then Santa sailed in on a parachute with two of his elves...

Interesting life...

We went with lots of friends: The Ramby's (minus Chris, plus Alexa's mom), the Yeager's and the Yeager's friends that we've hung out with a few times. I really like them. They're fun-loving people who like to joke around. My kind of entertainment!

After Santa landed, we couldn't see him very well over all the people. There were SO MANY PEOPLE.

Aiden says, "Where's Santa?"

After an hour of waiting, Santa flipped the power switch and all the lights in the park lit up. We were already in line by this point because there were SO MANY PEOPLE.

As disappointed as I may have been by the lights last time I enjoyed it so much more with Aiden. He is so amazed at everything. I love watching the wonder through his eyes. At the end of the lit path, there was a fenced in area with snow!! Next to the palm trees! Without a coat, hat and mittens!

You had to pay $6 cash to enter the snow area. We only had $5 left, so we told Aiden we couldn't do the snow. He looks up at us with those big blue eyes and says, "But snow, Mommy. Snow!" I was immediately digging in my purse for a dollar's worth of change.

Aiden slipped and fell while walking into the enclosure. He was a little shocked at the cold temperature, so he started crying. I told him it was okay, and when he stopped crying he looked at his hands and said, "Ice?" Smart kid. After I coaxed him back into the enclosure, with a little help this time, he really enjoyed himself. Since adults weren't allowed in, Aiden waddled over to where we were standing near the fence and Travis tossed him a few snow balls. Then Aiden threw them back. He was so excited. It was adorable. We had to keep yelling at him not to eat the snow.

"There won't be any snow left if you eat it all!"

Lunch at Cici's

2011-11-15T14:53:00.001-06:00

Aiden even got a brownie.

Busy Bees

2011-11-15T08:13:00.001-06:00

Aiden and I had a full three-day weekend. Unfortunately, it was Travis' weekend to be on call. So he had to work Friday and Saturday morning. I didn't want to stay home the whole time, so I made plans for Aiden and I to get out of the house. Friday morning, we went to a park we've never been to before. It had lots of structures for Aiden to play on and there were several trails and ponds. First I let Aiden run around with the other kids on the playground.

I am really annoyed that I can't get these photos to load upright. It would probably be fine if I did it from my computer at home, but I won't have time to deal with it later.

The structures seemed to be aimed at various age groups. The one closest to the parking lot was the least scary one for me. It was low to the ground, with lots of virtually risk-free things to play with. The one furthest from the playground (there were 4 structures within walking distance) was the one Aiden liked the best. It had the highest slide that he kept climbing to and going down. I call those types of slides tornado slides because it spirals all the way down. It prevents the kids from shooting off the end when they get to the bottom.

After the playground, we walked over to the nearest pond to see if we could find any wildlife. We saw three turtles and a ton of dragonflies. We walked down one trail for a bit, but then had to turn around because I was getting hungry. I get more panicky that usual these days when I get hungry. I live in constant fear of setting off the nausea.

One of the serious downsides of my fear of hunger and the resulting nausea is that I find myself eating out more often than I'd like. Generally, I only eat out zero to two times a week (including breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner). The fast food grease makes me feel really bad about myself and I find that I don't get enough fiber in my diet when I eat out frequently. But for the past few months, I have been eating out two to four times a week. If I am out of the house and I get hungry, I don't wait until I get home. I immediately pull into the nearest drive thru and proceed to shove face.

So, Friday when we left the park, I realized it was already noon. We usually eat lunch at 11:30 and Aiden naps at 12:30. I wanted to go to the grocery store before we got home, so I opted for eating out. Again. I didn't know the area very well, so I just drove until I saw something easy that sounded good with Aiden along. Cici's Pizza! Ha! Travis hates going there because he said he always ends up spending hours on the toilet after that place. I don't know if he's serious, but if I could have that side effect, I would be GRATEFUL. Pregnancy is not the best on an already iffy digestive system.

Turns out, kids 3 and under eat for free! I only had to pay for myself, and it's not an expensive place to start with (salad, pasta and pizza buffet). That helped with the financial guilt that I usually feel after eating out as well. Aiden was so spoiled this weekend. We went to the park, we had pizza for lunch AND he got to watch cartoons while he ate lunch. That rarely happens at home.

After lunch we went to the grocery store, then headed home for nap time. I'm trying to get Aiden to go down for nap time on his own. He does fine at night when it's dark in his room, but it's always been a struggle during the day when he can easily see all his toys. I have to go in his room every 5 minutes to tell him to stop playing with his toys and get back in bed. It's so time consuming because that takes 30 minutes to an hour. We've been going in and laying on the futon in his room so he would stay in bed. Half the time we fall asleep in there too. But we need to stick with it this so we can have our noon time back!

Friday night I had a couple girls over from work for dinner. I made lasagna for the first time and I think it turned out pretty good. We watched Bad Teacher. It was okay. I had a hard time getting into the love interest at the end because I didn't think they made a good couple. It was a comedy though, so that didn't entirely ruin it for me. Travis put Aiden to sleep, so I got a little break there.

It was a busy day, but it was nausea-free. That made it awesome.

Daddy Blogger

2011-11-10T09:15:00.000-06:00

Some people my find this blog offensive. I find it hilarious. It's a daddy blogger who has a new baby. He writes about the problems he has to deal with as a parent, but he's a bit vulgar at times.

Asshole Baby

Lone Star

2011-11-09T08:32:00.002-06:00

I've been working with Travis to take over more things with Aiden and I can already tell it's making a big difference in Aiden's willingness to approach him. Aiden used to come to me for everything and would throw a fit if Travis did it. Travis' opinion was 'he doesn't want me, he wants you.' Yessss. But I need help! So I forced him. Travis was annoyed at first, but now that he's reaping the benefits, I know he appreciates it.

As an extension of Travis taking on more with Aiden, I'm going to try to save grocery shopping for the weekends when Travis is around so I can go without a child. It's so much easier on me and it gives Travis and Aiden some alone time. We've done this in the past, but not frequently. I went to get an oil change and bought groceries on Saturday without Aiden. When I got home, Aiden was still awake. Travis was having trouble getting him to fall asleep for nap time. Finally, he just went in there and laid next to him on the floor. Then he proceeded to take a nap of his own for an hour.

After nap time, Chris came over and we all headed to the Galveston Lone Star Rally. Aiden loves motorcycles. He points at every single one we see on the road. His daycare is right near where the rally was, so there were lots of motorcycles driving and parked when I picked him up Friday evening. We stood on the street corner and watched for a while. He didn't seem to mind the noise, and really enjoyed just standing there watching, so we figured we'd take him to the rally during the day. I've been at night in the past and it's definitely not for kids. During the day it's a little less crowded, but it's still loud with all the bikes.

We brought Travis' ear muffs, just in case, but Aiden absolutely refused to wear them. He was fine with the noise though, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Chris owns a bike so he wanted to peruse the bike parts tents. I like going over there because they always have the really fancy bikes set up for viewing. Aiden enjoyed it as well. After that, we headed back over to the chaos and watched the continuous bike parade. They set up a path down the Strand where anyone can ride their bike to show off. There were some interesting people, let's just say that. Here's a view down the Strand:

Both sides of the street are lined with parked bikes. I read there were 400,000 bikes on the island this weekend. I believe it.

Towards the end, we met up with Nadya, Alexey and Kate. Kate was really nervous with all the loud bikes, but she said she wasn't scared and she didn't want to go home. It was pretty cute. She and Aiden caught up:

A common sight: Longhorn helmets. Only makes sense as it was the Lone Star Rally.

Trick or Treat!

2011-11-08T14:04:00.003-06:00

I was looking through some Halloween magazines this year and came across some fun ideas for party snacks. I found this particular one online and really liked it. It was cute and easy:

I decided to stop fighting Aiden into his pirate costume and went for something a little easier. We used his regular cowboy outfit. Of course he wouldn't wear the leather vest, wool chaps and gun holster. Typical. On a side note, I am fairly certain Aiden was the only child on the streets with a toy gun. Many parents are anti-toy-gun these days, plus there's the off chance that a police officer will think your child is threatening them with a real gun and therefore shoot the child. I used to play with this very same cap gun when I was little. Not only do I have NO interest in guns these days, but I do not want to be a criminal. Oh and I survived not ever being shot by a police officer and have grown into an adult! Amazing.

Skylar the Birdie and Blair the Dinosaur

Ready to go trick or treating!

Travis gave Aiden a crash course on trick or treating with the Ramby's bowl of candy.

The dads stayed behind to give out candy for the first round of trick or treating. After we got back, we traded jobs.

Aiden went trick or treating for the very first time last year at this door. This year it was the first door we knocked on as well.

Aiden got TONS of candy. We been trying to ration it out here and there to avoid a full-on sugar rush. We've been lucky so far! It probably helps that I've been eating the chocolate. Aiden did really good with Trick or Treating this year. I think he understood the concept fairly well after a couple houses. Occasionally he would give his candy to the person who answered the door. And sometimes he would tell people "You're welcome!" in addition to "Thank you!" Overall I think he did well though. It gets more and more fun every year.

The Joys of Pregnancy

2011-11-07T07:00:00.000-06:00

The main theme this pregnancy has been nausea. It started at about a month and a half and has only gotten worse since then. It started out similar to the nausea I had while pregnant with Aiden: when I got hungry, I felt like I was going to throw up. The difference is last time I actually threw up. This time I just WISH I could vomit. I have the most intense nausea. I can't really say it's the worst I've ever had because I've been seasick and that was, by far, the worst experience of my life. This IS pretty bad though. I get clammy and hot and my hands start to shake. It's a miserable thing.

It's bad enough that I asked my doctor for an anti-nausea medication. She prescribed Zofran and it has been a life altering decision. There are certain things I can do to lessen the nausea without the medication. Sometimes it's just because I'm hungry, and if I eat, it goes away. Sometimes it's just because I need to use the restroom. And if I go, then I feel better. But sometimes, I do ALL of that and it just gets worse. So Zofran it is!

The only problem with Zofran is whoever developed it did not take into consideration that the pill taker would be nauseous. Let me explain. The instructions on the prescription say, "Dissolve tablet on tongue." It takes like bitter, bitter fruit. The process of taking the medication is a task in itself. If I wasn't completely confident that I am unable to vomit at this point, I would be worrying about it more as I wait for that god awful tablet to disappear. Ugh, it's horrible. And then the bitter flavor stays on my tongue for a good 20 minutes after. BUT IT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT. Within 30 minutes of taking the tablet, I feel 90-100% better.

Now I can work, clean the house, do laundry, do the dishes and make dinner! Wait a second. Why did I ask for that medicine again? Oh ya, before, I still had to do all those things, but I was miserable and cranky the entire time. I felt bad for Travis and Aiden because when Mommy's not happy, nobody is happy.

So! A list of a few things that make me feel like crap this time around:

Car wash - I lose of sense of whether we're moving or if my head just thinks we're moving.
Tap water - tastes like dirty coins.
Protein - the majority of the time, the thought of meat or eggs makes me gag.
Zofran - until it kicks in.
Hunger OR fullness
Smells - cologne/perfume, deodorant, most food cooking (meat and onions makes it worse)

My solutions:

Don't use the car wash.
Drink bottled water (I am officially enemy of the planet).
Bring a toothbrush to work so I can get that protein residue off my tongue.
Bring a toothbrush to work so I can get that bitter medicine residue off my tongue.
Control my eating.
I stopped wearing perfume and I'm using fragrance-free deodorant. I may not be able to control what other people wear, but at least I can control myself!

My doctor did give me a tsk, tsk at my appointment last week. I had lost four pounds since my visit a month prior. In my defense, I had been on an eating binge the weekend before my first appointment. I had spent the entire weekend in Illinois doing nothing but eat and sit. So I was two pounds over my normal weight at that first visit. Since then, I have been back to my normal eating habits, PLUS nausea. So I'm sure I'm not eating as much as I should be. So now I'm two pounds under my normal weight.

I have also had a big problem with losing my vision and getting vertigo when I sit up from laying down or when I go from squatting to sitting. I had the squatting to sitting problem before I got pregnant, but now it's worse and I have it when I sit up. I was wondering if it was low blood pressure, but it was within normal ranges at the doctor's office. The doctor thinks I might be dehydrated. She recommended adding one to two 12 oz bottles of water to my current three to four. Like I don't already LIVE in the bathroom. I went to the bathroom THREE times before I even left for work. THREE! The only reason I get out of bed in the morning is because my bladder is threatening to explode. Funny how you forget about this stuff after you have the baby.

Tex RenFest 2011

2011-11-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we went to the Texas Renaissance Festival north of Houston. It is always so entertaining seeing all the costumes. The group I went with this year decided to dress up. A couple of us went as fairies, there was a forest nymph and three Star Trekkers.

This guy's wings opened occasionally. He was very gargoyly...

Aiden stared at these giant boat swings forever. Linsey and Zach took Luke over to go on the swing. We asked Aiden if he wanted to ride the swings and he said yes. Since I'm fighting some serious "morning" sickness this pregnancy, the last thing I wanted to do was rock back and forth in a giant swing. So Daddy and Grandma took him for a ride. He seemed really into it, right up until the point when they climbed on board.

He cried like that the ENTIRE time. They didn't stay on as long as they could have, but it was probably a good five minutes of swinging fun. Travis was giving me the stare down the entire time for putting him through that. HA.

After the swings we saw Hagrid! Apparently Luke watches Harry Potter with Zach and his favorite character is Hagrid. Luke spotted him before any of us did and ran up to give his knees a hug before we even knew what was going on. Luke was quite the hugger that day. I'm pretty sure he hugged every costumed person there.

A few of the girls from work:

Aiden has never been big on dancing. All of our friends' kids love to dance, but Aiden has always refused to dance at all. A couple months ago we put him in a dance class once a week at his daycare. He has recently started dancing all on his own and I think it is adorable. Luke and him started dancing as we passed a Renaissance band. Aiden sticks his elbows out and pivots at the hips. It looks something like this:

Michelle the Forest Nymph

I'm pretty bummed that you can't see how detailed her face paint was. It was impressive!

At one point we stopped to look at the elephants. Every time one stopped to load people, she would sniff us with her trunk. When Luke came over, the trunk startled him and he accidentally dropped his pacifier inside the enclosure. The elephant quickly grabbed it up, tossed it over in her trunk, then ate it. The whole time I was trying to get someone's attention, but none of the keepers would look over at us. When one finally did come over, he was pissed thinking we had fed the elephant the pacifier. Who would do that? Luke kept saying, "Give it back! Give it back!" I have a feeling he might have elephant issues from here on out.

Steampunkers:

The knight and his father

The semi-pirate and his father

Aiden's New T-shirt

2011-11-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

If you are friends with me on Facebook, then you already know the big news. I'm pregnant! 12 weeks today. I am due May 18th, which means I'll probably have him May 25th. Wink, wink. It seems so far away, but then when I think of the financial side of it (hospital bills, daycare costs, etc) it seems way too close. I had an ultrasound yesterday and found with 80% certainty that we are having another boy! Holy cow! Can you imagine? TWO boys. Every night before bed, Aiden gets a second wind and he and Travis rough house. I think it actually helps him work out any remaining energy he might have had. Last night I asked Travis if he could imagine TWO boys coming at him like that. HA! I think I have to write it like that for here on out. TWO boys.

When the doctor saw the baby's gender-parts, he said he is 80% sure it's a tally whacker. Snort. He said he couldn't imagine THAT turning into a clitoris, but he is only allowed to give me 80% assurance at this stage in the pregnancy.

We go back in 7 weeks and he should be able to confirm the gender with 99% certainty. The doc told us not to go out and buy anything just yet, until we can be sure. I told him we don't have to buy anything! We had a baby boy two years ago and we have saved everything. I know it stresses Travis out to see all the stuff we have in boxes in our garage, but he'll probably appreciate it now.

This time around, we'll donate everything after we're done with it. Travis said he doesn't want to have any more kids after this. The idea of having three boys under one roof really freaks him out. I'm not giving up hope just yet. And I'm for sure not going to let Travis snip his goods until we are SURE we don't want another one. If we do try for another, it will be when this peanut's getting ready to start Kindergarten. I want a bigger gap between the next one so we don't have a bunch of little guys running around. Oh and the daycare costs are a good deterrent as well. My point is, there's no reason to store everything for that long. We'll just donate.

We've been trying to explain this whole baby thing to Aiden. I'm not confident he understands. We need to get some big brother books to help us out. We keep asking him if he wants a baby. He says, "Ya. I want Baby Skylar." Skylar is Blair's baby sister. Aiden's other friend Luke has a baby sister as well. I don't think he understands that babies can be boys. Eh. We've got time to explain it.

Tonight at dinner, we asked Aiden what we should name the baby. He voted for TV.

We're not going to keep the name a secret this time. It was really hard last go around and it would be nice to hear some opinions this time. I had the name Aiden picked out since I was in high school, so there was no changing that one. This time, I don't know what we want. We will be giving him Curtis for a middle name, after Travis' dad. Aiden's middle name is Gregory, after my dad. Here's a few names we've come up with. None of them are a MUST HAVE, but they appeal to us for one reason or another:

Everett
Lachlan
Foster
Noah
Chase

What do you think?

Birthday and Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Sunday after the museum was the birthday/Halloween party at Ariel's house.

Ariel and mommy-of-two Allison

Ariel's favorite holiday is Halloween. I think she feels like it's her holiday because it falls so close to her birthday. On top of that, she is the 'night' portion of our day-and-night duo. Halloween goes hand in hand with the night. Every year she spends a good part of her paycheck on adding to her All Hallow's Eve decor. Check out her entryway.

For her birthday lunch, I made a couple dozen cupcakes in her honor.

They were supposed to have a gummy zombie hand coming out of the grave, but I couldn't find the in the store and didn't have time to order them online. Bummer.

Last week while Brenda was here, we carved pumpkins for Halloween. I always carve them too early so they are a rotting nasty mess for the night of trick or treating. I timed it better this year and the pumpkins were good through the weekend. Sadly, I never made it around to buying the electric candles, so the pumpkins were not lit for the spooky evening.

Aiden was not as impressed by the pumpkin guts this year. (Last year he was all for it.) He pulled some of the seeds out of the guts and then decided he would only use a spoon from then on out. He enjoyed watching US pull out the goods though.

Aiden took a moment to flip through the pumpkin carving book while Daddy worked on Spiderman and I worked on the owl.

He kept wanting to stir the guts in our pumpkins, so Grandma cut open the third pumpkin and let him have at it. As you can see in this photo, Aiden went to bed late A LOT while Grandma was here. There was so much to do!

Aiden was super excited about his Spiderman pumpkin. I think Daddy was a little annoyed with me for choosing the one I did. Little does he know, I actually chose the easier of the two I found online. I think he did a fine job.

Festival and a Museum

2011-11-01T20:14:00.000-05:00

Only two weeks behind on photos. That's not too bad for a working mom who had family in town for seven of those days, right?

I'll start with forever ago. So long ago that I can't even remember the date. Somewhere mid-October, Aiden and I went with the Yeager's to Luke's daycare's fall festival. They had plenty of stuff for children big and small. Unfortunately, Aiden wasn't up for participating in the majority of the activities. Luke was right at home at his daycare though.

The first thing Aiden decided to partake in was the pumpkin decorating. They had various sticker faces you could choose from and then apply to a pumpkin. Aiden chose the Frankenstein face. I gave him the piece and told him what it was, then let him put it where he thought it should go. Amazingly, it looked like a face at the end.

After the pumpkins, we went over to ride the pony. Aiden refused the pony ride and opted for the pirate themed playscape that the pony walked a path around. Luke, however, thoroughly enjoyed the pony ride.

After meandering through several other stations, we decided to cool off with snow cones. I let Aiden pick which color he wanted and of course he went with blue. Purple would have been less staining, but what are you gonna do?

Before the festival, when I was getting what I needed from the car, Aiden stared out into the empty field next to the road and said, "Mommy look! A dinosaur!" He proceeded to see two more dinosaurs on our walk to the festival. When we walked back out to the car afterward, he stood at the side of the field asking where the dinosaurs went. I have NO idea what he saw. Sometimes I wish I could see things through his eyes.

Move forward to not as forever ago: a couple weekends ago at the Houston Children's Museum for Landry's birthday party. The birthday girl's favorite spot was the funky magnets!

Big brother Logan went as his new favorite character, Mario! And Aiden was a partial pirate.

I say partial because he only wore part of his costume. I drew a mustache and goatee on him while he was sleeping in the car, and put the parrot on his shoulder far enough back that he couldn't really see it. But he refused to wear his head scarf and rag bracelet.

The biggest hit was the water play. Landry REALLY wanted the blocks that were in a particularly hard-to-reach spot, but she managed to finagle a few out on her own.

Later on fairy Skylar gave it a try. Seeing as she is a head shorter than Landry, she was not as successful. I think she still enjoyed just walking around, as walking is a new experience for her.

After the kids had played for a while, we sat down at the picnic benches to open presents. When I asked Sara what Landry likes to play with, she said she always plays with Logan's toys. She remarked that she could probably use some more girl toys and she always has room in her day for puppies. "But no real puppies." So we got her a baby doll and a walking plush puppy. Aiden was enthralled with the baby doll, which was very promising.

Princess Landry on her Gift Receiving Throne (playing with her Aunt Brittany):

I'll get around to it someday

2011-10-31T15:05:00.000-05:00

I am SO behind on my photos. I promise I will get to them. But not today. Today I plan to add to my to-do list with trick or treating photos. I'm super stoked to see if Aiden appreciates trick or treating more this year. Last year he grasped the concept of going up to the door and holding his bag open for candy. Maybe we'll be able to get him to say "Trick or treat!" this year. Maybe.

Getting Aiden to wear a Halloween costume has been an exasperating experience this year. He absolutely refuses to wear any of his pirate accessories. Instead he looks like a bum in sweatpants and a button-up that he's about to outgrow. Travis calls him a businessbum. We got him to wear some of the accessories at Landry's costume birthday party two weekends ago. But I couldn't get him to wear ANY of it at the Texas Renaissance Festival on Saturday. We're going for Plan B tonight. He has worn his cowboy costume a couple times this year at daycare without too much of a fuss. So we told him if he wants to see Blair and get candy tonight, he has to wear his Woody costume. It's not exactly the same as Woody's outfit, but he calls it his Woody stuff. So that's what we call it as well.

This morning Aiden wore a spider shirt to daycare. I didn't feel like forcing him into a costume ALL DAY today, so I just went with a Halloween-ish outfit. He is having a Halloween party at daycare, so I signed up to bring a fruit tray. Since we are not allowed to bring homemade goodies, I just bought a bag of Smarties to hand out to the kids. Aiden loves those and they're not too messy for the teachers and parents to have to deal with. I'm a little bummed I couldn't make something to bring. I keep meaning to ask them why store-bought-only. Maybe to avoid allergens? Or to prevent undercooked food?

I'm going to attempt to get out of work half an hour early today so I can get up to the Ramby's house at a decent time. Alexa's making chili and trick or treating starts at dusk. Travis is driving up separately since he doesn't get out of work until 6 and his work is between our house and the Ramby's house. I need Aiden to be easy tonight. I know that's asking too much, since he generally fights everything we ask him to do. I can hope though, right?

This Sunday was a super lazy day and I adored it. We slept in, then watched Harry Potter in bed when Aiden got up. We ate a late lunch and played in the yard. It warmed up quite a bit on Sunday, making it perfect for playing outside. I haven't done bulk laundry in a month, so I spent a good portion of the day standing in the garage folding laundry. The kicker is I'm still not done. Aiden loves to play outside, so he didn't mind one bit. I also grabbed the gardening shears and pruned back the oleanders that were threatening to take over the side of our house. Aiden and I collected pecans that had fallen from the tree in our front yard. I'm hoping to find time to make a pecan pie out of them this year. It will take forever to husk all those pecans, but it would be fun to say I did it just once.

We ate lunch outside and then laid Aiden down for his nap. I took advantage of the down time and napped at the same time. I was super unhappy to wake up to my alarm two hours later. We ate a quick snack and hopped in the car to go to Target. We needed a few groceries and to get food for tonight at the Ramby's. We did a walk through the Halloween costumes to see if Aiden would wear any of the $20-$30 outfits they sell. He picked out Buzz Lightyear and a dinosaur costume but refused to try on either. We didn't want to waste our money on something that Aiden most likely would not wear, so we decided on the cowboy costume we already had at home.

We bought food for dinner at Target, rented Megamind and went home to finish off our lazy day. Megamind was super cute. Will Ferrell does the voice of the main character and he killed it. I keep finding myself saying, "Potato, potato, tomato, tomato." Watch the following clip to see what I'm talking about.

Skeletal Love

2011-10-28T08:14:00.000-05:00

Brenda is here until Sunday, so I'll get back into the groove of blogging next week hopefully. Travis' dad is also popping in for dinner tonight. He's on his way to North Carolina from west Texas, so he thought he'd drop in.

We've got a fun weekend planned, including Halloween on Monday.

To kick off Halloween weekend, enjoy this animated short about two book covers that fall in love.

Mourir Auprès De Toi

Before iPhones

2011-10-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

And then there's Sunday

2011-10-26T07:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday morning we ended up getting to sleep in until 7:30. I love it when Aiden doesn't get up before the sun. Aiden and I ate breakfast with Brenda (Travis slept in a little) and then I got food together for Ariel's birthday party. Brenda's birthday was Sunday, so she made plans to go meet a friend for lunch and the afternoon. Ariel's birthday was Saturday. To celebrate, we went over at lunch time and I made lunch for everyone. Chicken, basil and mozzarella sandwiches, pasta salad, Caesar salad, brussel sprouts and mushrooms. All of Ariel's favorites!

Ariel had a party at her house that night, so she was cleaning the house. Robert and Travis drove off in search of a keg tap. Typical guys - abandoning ship when we really need their help. Psh.

Aiden WOULD NOT go down for his nap that afternoon, so of course he was cranky by 4 pm. Since we were planning to stay for a while, I decided to try putting him down for a nap again. He fell asleep at 5 and I fell asleep right with him. I slept for an hour and then rolled out of bed. I could hear guests talking downstairs and figured I should be social. Brenda ended up falling asleep soon after I got up. We're just a tired family!

Aiden got up at 7, an hour before his bedtime. So we stayed at Ariel's until 9pm. On a school night. I know, I know. BAD MOMMY. But Aiden had a great time running around with the other kids.

Travis had fallen asleep around 8 because he drank two Four Loko's. Nasty stuff. Hopefully he won't ever drink it again. It gave him hot flashes and he felt like crap, soon after finishing the second one. Then he had a horrific hangover the next day. It's an energy drink mixed with 14% alcohol. Ridiculous.

So! That was my weekend! I feel like I haven't done a weekend recap in forever. I've got some photos, but first I have to find the time to go through them. It's taken me three separate sit-downs to write this post. When did life get so chaotic?

Wait, what did we do this weekend?

2011-10-25T07:00:00.001-05:00

I sat down to write this post about the weekend and could not, for the life of me, remember what we did. That is ridiculous as it is only Monday. But, I am tired AND busy. Not that great of a combination. After some thought, I remembered what we did. LOTS of stuff.

Saturday we went to Landry's second birthday party at the Children's Museum in Houston. The last time we went was in January, when Aiden was a year and a half old. We stayed in the Tot Spot, which if you couldn't deduce, is a spot separated for babies and toddlers. This time we ventured into the world of big kids on the first floor. It was pretty chaotic, but it was interesting to watch Aiden play next to the big kids. He got knocked over several times, but handled himself well.

His favorite area was the water play. I had no idea there was a water section. He was soaked. Luckily we had a mismatched pair of clothes that were too small for him in the bottom of the diaper bag, so he looked pretty cool after the water play. We sat outside at picnic benches to open presents, then we headed up to the Tot Spot for a little while. After that, we headed outside to eat cupcakes before tying our sugar-rush children in their car seats. Aiden also enjoyed a box of Nerds, so he was pretty wired by the time we made it to dinner.

For dinner, we met Travis' mom Brenda at Freebird's near our house. Her plane got in around noon and she is here for the week. Aiden was SO excited to see her. I think he likes to say "Grandma" because he just says it over and over. I wonder if he knows this is a different grandma from the one he talks to on the phone? LOL!

Aiden was SO good at dinner. He has been miserable the last few times we went out to eat, so honestly I was dreading this meal. I don't know if it's because Grandma was there, or if it's because he was hungry and still riding a sugar high. Either way, I enjoyed it.

After dinner we headed home and chatted in the living room. We let Aiden stay up a little late so Brenda could see him and to increase the chances of sleeping in a little Sunday morning...

How do you judge a book?

2011-10-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

I need to voice my problems more often

2011-10-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday at lunch I was complaining about how I couldn't find a plush parrot anywhere for Aiden's pirate Halloween costume. I honestly didn't think it would be this hard. My dad is astounded that I can't find a stuffed tropical bird when I live at the beach. GOOD POINT.

Anyhoo, I voiced my irritation when a friend says, "Have you checked the pirate store on the Strand?"

WHAT?! No! If I had, then I would probably have a parrot right now! Pirate store? PERFECT.

But, the pirate store is not open yet. Boo. Instead, I went to Michael's and found the world's tiniest parrot!

I think I need a break

2011-10-20T09:16:00.001-05:00

Are most toddlers difficult 90% of the time? Or am I in the minority? I feel like when we go to friends houses, their kids are generally in good working order. Of course no kid is going to do what their parents ask 100% of the time, but they all seem willing to cooperate with their parents most of the time.

I feel like Aiden fights EVERYTHING we want him to do. He's happy when he's playing. But the second we have to do something necessary to daily life (ie, brushing teeth, eating dinner, changing a diaper, getting dressed, bedtime, etc.) he throws a fit. I feel like I'm constantly wrestling a midget.

Aiden has recently developed a shy streak. I hate it. I don't handle shyness very well. SPEAK UP. Speak when spoken to. GAH. COM'ON. Whenever anyone aside from Travis or I ask him a direct question (friends, family, strangers), he looks at the ground and stops speaking. Drives me insane. It doesn't matter how much prompting we give him. He won't answer.

He also doesn't seem to like anyone aside from me. He makes exceptions for Robert and Gpa (you'll note that Travis is not included here), but if he's cranky sometimes even they won't do. Only me. I am not a single parent! Travis is here to help! I have to BEG Aiden to let Daddy get his milk sometimes. Or if he needs help opening a toy. Mommy's making dinner, please let Daddy help.

I suppose the general exception to this is his teachers at daycare. He talks to them no problem. Oh and kids. He'll talk to kids.

The other thing I've noticed recently is he carries Mr. Lion around with him EVERYWHERE when he's at home. Mr. Lion is the first thing he wants when we get home. (After he asks for milk, which he doesn't get until dinner, you can have water, WHY DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS EVERY DAY?) He used to only have Mr. Lion at nap time/bed time. Now he wants him all the time. I don't let him take him out of the house for a couple reasons. I don't want him to get filthy when he will be in bed at the end of the day. And I don't want to lose/forget Mr. Lion. That has happened one time, over the weekend, and it was the most stressful weekend of my life. I don't think it's a big enough deal that we need to limit Lion Time to when he's in bed. I'm hoping he'll get over this phase on his own. What do you think?

Ice Train

2011-10-19T08:51:00.001-05:00

This is pretty neat. Maybe they'll make transportation using this method somewhere down the road?

Outside

2011-10-18T09:01:00.001-05:00

Bad news and good news. Sagira is back. She stayed with my friend for about two months I think. She pooped once in the first day. Then didn't do it again until two weeks later when she was really stressed out. Besides that, she didn't go outside her litter box at all. I thought it was the perfect solution. My friend has a larger house, less people and animals and more litter boxes.

Unfortunately, after two months she regressed and started going all over the place. My friend couldn't handle it any longer (I can't blame her at all), so I took her back. Travis and I immediately made her an indoor/outdoor cat. I was always REALLY nervous about doing this because we had outdoor cats when I was little and two of them were involved in bad accidents.

The first was run over by a car on the highway in front of our house. Oreo survived and ran under the front porch. Sadly, all the skin was torn from his right, rear leg, which meant it could not be saved. Instead, my parents paid to have the leg removed.

Some time later, our other cat, Suki, was missing for several days. He usually came home at least once a day, so we worried about him. We all went outside and called for him periodically, but he never came, until three days later that is. He was not using his back left leg and it was grossly swollen. We took him to the vet to find that his leg was broken almost at his hip. They were unable to set it and put it in a cast because it was so close to the hip joint. Instead, he had that leg removed.

From that point on, all our cats remained indoor cats. The three-legged cats had to remain inside because they could not get around very well in the beginning. But it just seemed safer as a whole to keep them at home.

I did get a lot of flack from my friends growing up. They joked that we were animal torturers. Fortunately that was not the case. I just had a mom that was more than willing to put herself out financially for her pets. Others probably would have just had them put to sleep.

Because of this, and the fact that Sagira is a beautiful Bengal cat (meaning people would be more likely to invite her inside), I never had the guts to put her outside. But at this point, it's either outside, or pay to leave her at the shelter. We decided to give the outdoors thing a try first.

She's been indoor/outdoor since I got back from Illinois. We put her outside during the day while we are gone, but let her inside when we're home. At this point, she has started complaining to be let out periodically while we are home. The weird thing, is that she spends most of her time either under the house, or somewhere in the front yard. I'm not sure where she goes, but she occasionally comes running around the side of the house when I call for her.

The annoying part is that we have to cover Aiden's sandbox now. I've wanted to do it since Travis built it, but never got around to it. I've never found poo in it, but I have seen an occasional stray cat in the neighborhood. At the moment, we only have a tarp over it, but it's doing the job.

Sagira has pooped in the house a couple times, but I think I've got it figured out. Both times she went in the house, it was when I left her inside all day. Hopefully this arrangement works out for us.

Josephine

2011-10-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

I know three people who have had babies in the past month. This is the first one I've actually gotten to see in person!

Meet Josephine, the second daughter to Allison and Jerry:

Aiden and Elise ran back and forth from her bedroom to the play room.

I'd have to say the thing I appreciated the most was receiving meals from friends while I was on maternity leave. I was so tired and it took me forever to heal from the delivery. I didn't have the energy to prepare a proper meal every night, so it was heave to have food delivered to my door, or an invite to the neighbor's for dinner. I've tried to reciprocate to all my friends with fresh babies. Allison and Jerry received a Tortilla Casserole that I hope will feed them for at least a few days. Allison seemed to appreciate the adult company as well. It was nice to catch up on her baby story!

New Concept

2011-10-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Last week we were in Aiden's bedroom getting ready to read books before bedtime. Aiden was being difficult like he can at times. He turned around to throw a book at Travis, or hit him with it, I'm not sure. But it backfired and he hit himself in the face with the book and started crying.

Travis says, "Ya. That was pre-karma."

The other day, we were sitting at the table and Aiden was getting ready to be rowdy again. He was mad because he only wanted to drink his milk and not eat his dinner and we weren't letting him do it. He went to shove his chair away from the table in a fit, but he fell out of it instead.

Pre-karma.

The second story got a little more annoying. After we put Aiden down for bed that night (we ate late), Travis and I went out to the garage to find our Halloween decorations. When we came back inside with the box, we found Aiden standing at the kitchen table finishing off that milk we wouldn't let him have. Little stinker.

Last Illinois Post

2011-10-12T07:00:00.001-05:00

Our last full day in Illinois was on Sunday. The entire family came over to visit before everyone went back to their corners of the US. The newlyweds were out of town on a mini-honeymoon and my cousin Darren had left on tour with a band in Germany. Besides them, the whole family was there.

My Aunt Trish made pancakes and bacon for dinner. I showered and took a nap with Aiden. By the time I got up, the family had started to trickle in. Because it was so nice out that day, we spent the majority of our time in the yard watching the kids run in the yard.

Here is the parental viewing area:

Occasionally the kids would run around to the back of the house and one of us would have to go coral them back to the front. Here's cousin Mikey doing his shepherding...

This was a common sight that day. The kids would form some sort of a game, then take a break, picking at stuff in the grass. Aiden was always hovering close by.

Mia (on the right) is so sweet. She is only three, but her speech is as clear as mine. It amazes me every time I see her. She was so good with her baby cousin Hailey. She played ball with her, but was very gentle.

My cousin Kim and I went through photos from the wedding on my uncle's iPad. I felt like I was the only one in the family without an iPad. It was quite the handy gadget.

Here's Alex being mauled by the little kids again. I don't know what it is about him, but they LOVE him.

Ariel held Hailey for a bit. Such a ham, that one.

We tried to get all the kids together for a photo. Everyone cooperated except for my son. He slowly worked his way towards the driveway. I'm starting to think he might be really shy. He covered his eyes, as if he was imagining he wasn't there.

The kids ended up on the couch playing games on the iPad again. They shared so nicely. Aiden was even able to sink a destroyer on the game Battleship.

The next day, my cousins Chris, Mike and Mike's family left for Arizona around noon. Our flight didn't leave until that evening, so we got on the road a couple hours later. I was sad to say goodbye. I love all these people and wish SO MUCH that we were able to visit more often. Hopefully our next trip will be to Arizona!

We're Funny

2011-10-10T12:34:00.002-05:00

Right as I was planning to leave the reception with my insanely sleepy son, my cousin Michelle suggested we get together for a cousin's photo. We were unsuccessful at corralling the groom, as he was busy doing groom things. And we were missing our cousin Katie in Arizona because she was 9 months pregnant. I say was because she had her baby Friday. Grayson Michael, 10 lbs, 2 oz. YIKES.

Besides those two, this is all of us. Being goofy.

I was trying to get everyone to hold me for the first photo, but they didn't understand. Obviously.

By the time Jason showed up, they were on board with the concept. Except we weren't strong enough to hold him. Instead I think we just overstretched his hamstring.

And here's the best shot. Some people aren't looking at the camera, some people are being goofy. But at least we're somewhat organized.

From left to right: Ariel, Alex, Mike, Michelle, Chris, me, Kim, Matt, Darren and Jason. The little one in front is Mike's daughter Lily. It was an excellent trip.

Saturday in Elgin

2011-10-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Saturday after the wedding was pretty laid back. My cousin Matt came over with his two daughters Mia and Hannah, so Aiden was outnumbered. My Aunt Trish has a nook by the front door (everyone uses the side door) where she keeps a toy box for when her grandkids come to visit. The little kids pulled out almost every single toy.

The kids all LOVE Alex. They were constantly hanging around him. SO CUTE.

We spent a lot of time in their giant front yard. There was lots of room for the kids to run around and throw around a kickball and football. Matt even got out there and showed off his cartwheel abilities. After five minutes of stretching, of course.

Aiden, Mia and Hannah enjoyed walking the "balance beam"...

Rolling around the yard with cousin Chris. He put down his martini for this part.

Best line of the day: "I don't like this horsie." Said by Mia after trying out the Aiden horse.

For dinner we had homemade pizzas on fresh flour tortillas. They were amazing. I definitely need to make these at home!

Aiden adored my cousin Mike's daughters Zoe and Lily. He followed them everywhere. They were so sweet with him and let him play along. They even took turns with him playing games on the iPad.

It was a struggle to tear him away from all these kids at every nap and every bedtime. It was really stressful for me because I was the only to put him down every time. I never got a break from his crying and that ate at me a little. I felt like I couldn't catch up on my sleep. But it was worth it!

Musatto Wedding

2011-10-06T10:31:00.002-05:00

We left for Illinois last Thursday evening. Travis was unable to get off work, so it was Ariel, Robert, Aiden and I. I chose a late flight thinking Travis would be dropping us off, but we ended up driving ourselves and parking the car at the airport. We got to the airport on time, but quickly found out our flight had been delayed. The Ramby's were flying to Ohio that same night and their flight was delayed as well. That worked out really well because the boys were able to run off some energy together.

The flight ended up being two hours late. I brought Aiden's car seat on the plane, so I strapped him in when we got on board. Since it was way past his bed time he fell asleep as soon as we were in the air. The flight was extremely turbulent because there were thunderstorms over our entire flight path. Ariel and I are both terrified of flying and we both get air sick really easily, so we sat in terror together.

My dad picked us up from the airport in Chicago in a rental car and we headed to our hotel. He missed our turn onto another highway. Since we were headed toward the city, he decided to just keep going and give Robert a tour of a city he'd never visited before. It was close to 2 in the morning by this point, so the streets were mostly empty. But Robert got to see a lot of famous stores and restaurants.

The next morning, Gpa, Aiden and I ate the hot breakfast the hotel provided. Ariel and Robert joined us shortly thereafter. Aiden was taking forever to eat, so I headed back to the room to shower and get ready. After everyone else was ready, we drove over to my Aunt Trish and Uncle Chris' house. And it was a FULL house. Already staying there were my cousins Chris, Chris, Darren and Mike, Mike's wife and two daughters, and my mom.

We ate lunch and sat around, catching up with each other. My cousins Chris, Mike, Mike's wife and daughters (Zoe and Lily) are from Arizona, so we really don't get to see each other all that often. It was so awesome to get to spend some time with these people.

Around 3, we all piled into a few cars and headed to the church for the wedding. Aiden had refused to take a nap so of course he fell asleep on the ride over. I had to wake him up and of course he was miserable. He wouldn't stop crying. We sat in the back of the van while he cried it off. He finished just in time for us to sneak in the back of the church. We sat on the side so we could easily make a quick retreat if need be. I was terrified the entire time that he might start screaming or crying at any moment. Thankfully he did well throughout the whole ceremony. It was a beautiful Catholic ceremony in a very elaborate church.

After the ceremony, we stood outside the church for a few minutes while the bridal party took photos.

Aiden and Zoe on the church steps

The reception was a few cities over right on the Fox River. There was a dam right outside the picture windows so we had a great view of the water.

Robert and Ariel at the reception

Chris and Laura, the groom and bride

Laura asked one of her high school students to play the ukulele at the reception. She sang as well and it was very cute. I looked over at Aiden at one point and he was holding his fork like a little ukulele and playing along. After a minute, he held it like a microphone and sang a little tune. That kid constantly entertains me.

My mom and I out on the deck

It was pretty chilly out, maybe 50 degrees? I was cold. And of course the kids wanted to run, so we took them outside. Brrrrr! I am so not used to the cold.

My dad, me, Alex and Ariel

Somewhere around 10 pm, Aiden tripped on his blanket and fell down. My cousins Mike and Chris tried to stand him back up, but Aiden was a limp noodle. They laid him back down and he stayed there and closed his eyes. That was my cue to hit the car. I was pretty tired as well, so I called Alex and asked if he would mind if I took Aiden home. He said they would find a ride home and we went back to Aunt Trish's. Straight To Bed. Soooo tired....

Need to organize photos...

2011-10-05T08:32:00.002-05:00

Aiden and I went to Illinois this weekend for my cousin's wedding, hence the lack of proper posts. I do not have my thoughts or photos organized as of yet. I can say that I came back 3 pounds heavier with a northern head cold. Oh and also lots of excellent memories. Hopefully I can get those memories posted over the next few days.

We got back Monday night, but I took Tuesday off so I could get everything in order before heading back to work. I had a doctor's appointment first thing yesterday morning and I got my flu shot. I spent the rest of the morning running errands for Travis and I. When I got home I was exhausted. So I slept for almost FOUR HOURS. Ha! I didn't want to get up, but I forced myself out of bed to go pick up Aiden from daycare. I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and doing laundry.

I'm in the middle of the nasty, dribbling part of a cold. My sinuses are on fire and I have a box of Kleenex attached to my hip. It's always tough for me to be sick. I generally have a lack of appetite, but that doesn't mean I can just stop eating. My body doesn't work that way. Since I didn't have much of an appetite this morning, I only had a tiny bowl of Cheerios. When I got to work I realized I was going to need more than that so I stopped at the coffee shop and got a protein shake. I wish I had five bucks to blow daily because I would totally get this shake every morning. It has a banana, peanut butter, nonfat milk, protein powder and the barista recommended a shot of chocolate. AMAZING. I'm not allowed to bring food into the lab I work in, so I've spent the majority of the morning standing in the hall with that shake. Can't. Put. It. Down. If I could chop ice as finely as they do, I would make it at home.

Anyhoo, hopefully I'll get to organizing my brain so I can post about the trip. It was GREAT to have an entire weekend to visit with my extended family. We rarely get to do that. I wish we could all afford to do it more than once every 5 to 10 years. What are you gonna do?

Talent

2011-10-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

I don't understand how people can make their bodies do stuff like this...

Amazing

2011-10-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

How cool would it be if you could watch your dreams again after you wake up? Researchers are making strides towards achieving just that. If you 'd like to read more, check out this article from Berkeley.

Totally not what I expected

2011-09-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

Parenting Stories

2011-09-29T09:10:00.001-05:00

When Aiden and I get in the car in the mornings to go to daycare/work, I let him bring a cup of water and a snack cup of dry cereal. He usually has cereal leftover that he eats during the ride home. That way he's not miserably cranky when we get home and I have a minute to make dinner before a meltdown. The water, however, is generally too hot to drink in the evening after a day baking in the car. But the other day, he had Goldfish crackers for some reason and he was asking for a drink of water. I felt bed for him with his dry, cracker mouth so I tested out his water. It was cloudy that day, so the water was only warm. I decided to go ahead and let him have a drink. I handed him the cup and told him he could have a drink of it, but it was hot.

He took a drink of the water, took the cup out of his mouth and stared quizzically at it for a minute. Then he looks at me and says, "Coffee?"

The kid thinks any hot beverage is coffee. Cracks me up every time.

Continuing with Aiden's tendency to generalize everything, he thinks all skulls are pirates. He has a book about pirates and we've watched Pirates of the Caribbean a few times. He's noticed the skull and crossbones on the black pirate flag, so now he associates it with pirates. With Halloween being right around the corner, there is an abundance of skulls around. He is constantly screaming, "Pirates!" I look around for a pirate only to find a skull of some sort. At least I know what he's talking about now.

He also wants to go to the store every day after daycare. Sometimes when I need just a few items, I'll run by Target on my way out of town. Aiden loves it. I'm not sure why. I guess we frequently stop in the toy section for a birthday present and he gets to play with everything. Maybe that has something to do with it.

To go to the store we have to pass a statue. So when he gets in the car, he starts screaming, "'Tore! 'Tatoo!" Most of the time, I have to say, "No, we're going to go past the trains and then go home." Statue and store, or trains and home. Funny what my life has reduced to. ;)

My Little Guy

2011-09-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning we took Aiden to get his second professional haircut. I have trimmed his hair tons of times and he generally does okay for me. But when a stranger touches his head? WATCH OUT. We went to the same place we went last time. He wouldn't even sit in the car chair. So the hair dresser had the brilliant idea to have Aiden sit in Travis' lap while he got his hair cut.

Both Travis and Aiden wore a cover-up to prevent hair from getting all over their clothes. I gave Aiden a suckers and the hairdresser put Spiderman on the mini-TV. Aiden chose Spiderman. Next time, I'm choosing Toy Story. Aiden tends to get uninterested during the parts of Spiderman when the main character is not in costume. That was less than helpful during the hair cut. But it did help little bit. When he was distracted, Aiden didn't mind the hair dresser at all. She cut the majority of his hair with scissors, then cleaned up the edges with clippers. I had to hold Aiden's arms down during the clippers.

Anyhoo, here's the finished product!

He looks so much older to me with his hair cut this short. I think I'm going to grow it out again. At least a little. This was a lot shorter than I was hoping. At least he's all cleaned up for the wedding this weekend!

ABC's

2011-09-27T08:26:00.002-05:00

I have some photos I really want to share. Since I didn't have time to load them last night, I'm going to show you a fun video instead. Hopefully I'll find the time and energy to get them up tonight. Bahhhh...

The ABC's are a big part of my life right now. Aiden sings the alphabet all the time (several sections of letters are mushed together, but he does pretty good). He has toys that sing the alphabet. And there are lots of toys and books around the house that teach him the alphabet. I'm just going to bring you into my world a bit.

The Alphabet 2 from n9ve on Vimeo.

My Worst Enemy

2011-09-26T08:41:00.000-05:00

Another great weekend under the belt! Travis worked Saturday morning, so Aiden and I tried to take it easy. Aiden wanted to play outside, so I figured I would attempt to work in the garden again. I still had those dead tomato plants that need to be pulled up. I put on socks, tennis shoes and wore Travis' Home Depot gloves. I am going to a wedding this weekend and it will just be Aiden and I, so the last thing I need is some fire ant bites slowing me down.

I was in the middle of pulling up the second plant when Aiden starts screaming, "Ouch! Ouch!" And it was fairly frantic. He was looking at his foot so I immediately assumed fire ants. Sure enough. I am KICKING myself, for putting socks and full shoes on myself, but not on my son. SO STUPID. The fire ants were in ever crevice of his sandals. I was trying to simultaneously smash the ants as I pulled that sandal off his foot. After they were all mashed, I ran inside with him to wash his foot. I don't know if that actually gets rid of anything, but I do know the cool water helps soothe the burning.

Aiden never cried through the whole thing. I was freaking out more than I think I ever have with anything related to Aiden, but I was mostly silent. I just kept saying, "Ohnoohnoohno..." After a thorough rinse, I saturated his right foot in Benadryl spray. I blew it dry and counted the welts. TWELVE BITES. UGH. I put socks and tennis shoes on Aiden before we went back outside. While Aiden played in the garage, I went out to murder the culprits. He had full on stepped in a giant fire ant hill. I did a walk through of our yard and found dozens of hills. I killed the hill by the garden and then called Travis to ask him to get something we can sprinkle on the entire yard.

I really wanted to keep Aiden off his feet, to prevent swelling if that was going to happen, so we took a walk to the park with him in the wagon. When we got to the playground, I realized the majority of the playground was covered in fire ant hills. The two playgrounds that we frequent near our house belong to schools that have been vacant since Hurricane Ike. It is very obvious that they are not keeping up with the playgrounds. Aiden was mad we had to leave, but I explained that there were lots of bugs that might bite him there.

Travis was home soon after Aiden went down for a nap. That afternoon we met the Ramby's at Palm Beach. It was the last weekend we could use our season passes, so we wanted to take our last chance. We got lucky and got front row seats at the wave pool. That meant we got to sit under an umbrella with our feet in the sand while Aiden and Blair ran in and out of the wave pool. PERFECT.

It was dinner time when we left the park, so we stopped for dinner. There is a new Chinese buffet that opened on the island that I've been wanting to try out, so we went there. I wasn't impressed. I know most people are not impressed by Chinese buffets in general, but I love them. We used to eat Chinese food ALL THE TIME in Illinois. But we quickly turned to Mexican food as we moved closer to the border.

Aiden got to bed 30 minutes late that night. As we were laying him down, he started scratching at his ant-bite-ridden foot. He has a habit of scratching mosquito bites as he falls asleep, causing them to eventually bleed. I know how painful it is to scratch fire ant bites, so I went ahead and gave him a dose of Benadryl.

He slept in until 7:15 the next morning! That is a HUGE deal seeing as he has been waking up at 5:45 for a month now. That's what time our alarms start going off on weekdays, so I'm sure that's what has started this horrible habit. But I DON'T want to wake up at 5:45 am on weekends too. Too bad we can't take him to the water park every afternoon!

Imbeciles

2011-09-23T07:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday when I was driving home from work with Aiden, I had a moment of road rage. I was in the middle lane, coming up on a PT Cruiser that was following a big rig in the right lane. RIGHT as I was about to pass them, the PT pulls in front of me. No warning. I slam on my brakes and mutter, "Really??" I check for cars over my shoulder in the left lane, see no one coming, so I pull over into the left lane. The PT pulls in front of me AGAIN. "REALLY?! UGH!" I slam on my brakes AGAIN as the PT driver looks at me in his side mirror. I check over my right shoulder for oncoming cars, I flip on my blinker and as I'm turning back forward the PT SLAMS on his brakes. Dude. Are you trying to kill us?

At this point, I have to swerve into the middle lane to avoid an accident. As I'm passing the wacko on the right, he throws the car into the left exit lane. GAH. So glad we made it out of that alive.

A minute later, I'm in the right lane two miles from our exit. There's almost no one in that lane, so I decide to pass on the right. No reason to cross two lanes to pass a guy in the middle lane, just to get back over in that right lane for my exit. But as I'm getting ready to pass the guy in the middle, he speeds up, so I can't pass him. At the same time, a truck pulls onto the entrance ramp. I try to gas it to avoid both vehicles, but there wasn't enough time. So again, I have to slam on my brakes.

From the back seat: "Really?"

Aiden decided to put his two cents in about all these dumb drivers. EXCELLENT.

I swear, I am not usually a brake slammer. I generally drive about 70 mph. I know that is above the normal posted speed on the interstate of 65 mph, but in my defense, at least a third of the other vehicles on the road are staying up there with me. I just had a particularly crazy drive home.

Evolutionary Scientists Have Found...

2011-09-22T09:49:00.000-05:00

I find anything related to evolution very interesting. I'm sure it has something to do with whatever it is that makes me a happy scientist. I came across this article that speculates that having wrinkly fingers from being in water too long has a purpose: The wrinkles provide increased traction. So when you're wet and probably slippery from the water, don't fear! Your wrinkly fingers are here!

The New York Times

See? Interesting.

Fantastic Three

2011-09-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday was just as fantastic. We had originally made plans to go to the beach with my new co-worker, but it started raining. RAINING!! We are months overdue for some rain, so it didn't bother me in the slightest. Instead, we went over to my co-workers house and let the kids run rampant. Travis got called out on a job before we left the house, so he wasn't able to go with us. After a couple hours of play, we headed home. Aiden and I ate sandwiches on the ride home so all he had to do was climb in bed when we arrived.

Travis pulled up immediately after us. I was exhausted. Aiden has been getting up once a night for as long as I can remember. It's probably only been a couple weeks, but it feels like forever. So after Aiden fell asleep, I passed out as well. Travis watched football in the living room all by his lonesome. But I know he enjoyed a few hours to himself.

I woke up to my alarm an hour and a half later and hopped in the shower. I could have slept the rest of the day away. It was dark in my room because of the rain. PERFECT napping weather. Aiden woke up soon after I got out of the shower.

We decided to go to Marble Slab for ice cream. We got Aiden a cup of vanilla mixed with M&M's and assorted sprinkles. He almost ate the whole thing. Thankfully he was full about the time it turned into a bowl of ice cream soup. Travis and I had waffle cone bowls. I tried a combination of mocha ice cream mixed with graham crackers. It was awesome and I'd like to go back right now and have more. RIGHT NOW.

It was still raining when we got home. Still raining? So weird. I let Aiden run around the yard and play in the rain. He loved it. I folded laundry in the garage and then attempted to do a little gardening. Yes, in the rain. We have a bunch of tomato plants that have not survived the drought and I figured it was time to pull them up. I had pulled up the second plant by the roots and was banging the dirt off when I felt a bunch of stings on my hand. I looked down to realize what I thought was dirt was actually fire ants. There was a nest of fire ants in the roots of the plant and I had pissed them off.

I ran inside to wash my hands as quick as I could. I don't know if the venom sits on the outside of the skin at all, but I figured it couldn't hurt. Turns out I only got bit three times on my left hand. Twice on my pinky and once on my ring finger. Thankfully it hasn't swollen out of control like I've done in the past. But it's still bad enough that I can't wear my wedding rings.

For dinner we had BBQ stuffed baked potatoes - one of my favorite Texas meals. It is so much better with real BBQ, not the kind in a tub from the grocery store. Either way, it hit the spot!

See? Fantastic Sunday.

Overbooked Saturday

2011-09-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

We had an excellent weekend. We shook things up a bit and went outside of our normal routine. Travis was on call last week and this past weekend, which meant he had to work Saturday morning. We had a birthday party to attend for my friend Katie's two-year-old son at 2 pm, so I put Aiden down for his nap an hour early. He actually fell asleep. I'm pretty sure it was magic.

When 1 o'clock rolled around, I called Travis to see if he was going to be home soon. He said he was going to be a little late and since he was going to have to drive separately because he was on call, we should just go on without him. Aiden woke up a few minutes later, we got dressed and on the road. The party was really fun. It was at Moody Gardens in Galveston. They had a party room that was filled with many toy stations, all provided by Moody Gardens. There was a Moody rep that stayed in the room and showed the kids how to do the various stations. Katie supplied pizzas for everyone to eat. Moody provided a giant cake and a bowl full of punch. Travis showed up about 30 minutes into the shindig.

We played in that room for two hours and then slathered on the sunscreen. As we walked outside, the rep handed each child a shovel and bucket and we headed over to Palm Beach. Palm Beach is a really great outdoor water park for smaller children. There are lots of sprinkler areas, shallow pools and even a couple water slides. We've been there once before and loved it for Aiden.

Overall, the party was awesome. Katie didn't have to plan anything or clean up afterward and it was WAY cheaper than we've paid for an at-home birthday party. There are other options aside from going to Palm Beach. You can also go to the aquarium or the rainforest. I'll definitely be keeping that place in mind for Aiden's future birthdays! We stayed for an hour at Palm Beach and then had to leave. I sort of overbooked us for Saturday!

We hopped in the car and stopped to change and grab a few things from home. Then we headed over to the Yeager's for a BBQ. They had a few other friends over as well, including Chris and Blair. Blair, Luke and Aiden ran around the house like madmen for the majority of the evening. We ate brisket and deviled eggs. For dessert Linsey made a layered strawberry shortcake mix. It was awesome.

The evening was a hit. I was shocked to look at my phone and see it was 9:20 pm! We were walking out to the car and I noticed Aiden was walking really funny. I though he was goofing around, but when Travis attempted to put him in his car seat he started screaming about being poopy. Sure enough his butt was stinky. Linsey let us come back inside to change his diaper on a flat surface, but I'm sure she was regretting it after a minute. Aiden had diarrhea. I was a bad parent and didn't check his diaper all night. So I have no idea how long he was in this horrible diaper, chafing him as he ran. He cried bloody murder as Travis wiped him clean. It was BAD. I felt HORRIBLE.

Today most of it is gone. He still has scabs on his leg where the diaper must have been rubbing him as he ran. I've just gotten so accustomed to him not peeing as frequently that I've grown lazy about checking his diaper. We were adamant about changing his diaper often over the remainder of the weekend. I didn't want that dang thing to come back! Poor kid.

Word of the Week

2011-09-19T08:53:00.001-05:00

Aiden has recently begun using a very annoying word. "Huh?" And it's not like he uses it just one time.

"Aiden, can you come sit at the table please? It's dinner time."

"Huh?"

"Can you please come sit at the table?"

"Huh?"

"COME HERE."

"Huh?"

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The other night, Travis was getting Aiden dressed in his pajamas so I could hear them through the baby monitor. Aiden said something that I couldn't quite decipher over the radio waves.

Travis' response, "Huh?"

Aiden then replies, "Huh?"

Now I know where he gets it from.

A Cure for Cancer

2011-09-16T08:42:00.000-05:00

Doctors are doing an experiemental therapy using modified HIV to attack cancer cells. Three cancer patients have undergone this therapy. Two are in complete remission and one is in partial remission.

Two out of three's not bad.

An Immune System Trained to Kill Cancer

I Heart Shopping

2011-09-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to weed out the remaining baby stuff from Aiden's room since we're hoping to have a baby soon. I don't want him to feel like we're taking his things away and giving it to the baby. The most imperative item at the moment was his bedding. He only had one set of toddler sheets so we were alternating with his crib sheets. That way I could have one on his bed while the other is in the wash.

Yesterday after work Aiden and I went to the store and picked out a new bed set. Guess who?

Woody and Buzz, of course!!

Aiden was so excited. I threw the set in the wash as soon as we got home so it could go on by bed time. I put it on while Travis was giving him a bath. As soon as he was out of the bathroom that monkey immediately started jumping on the bed.

I also bought him some Toy Story underwear! I'm going to try letting him wear them at night and/or on the weekends. Maybe he'll get upset about getting Buzz or Woody wet and that will give him incentive to use the potty.

I don't know what I'm doing, but it's worth a try!

Our Stubborn Little Man

2011-09-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Aiden has been such a stinker face lately. He is so ridiculously sweet with me. I mean, look at that smile.

But then as soon as Travis comes around he is a complete a-hole. He doesn't want to have anything to do with Travis. When he gets home from work, Aiden tells him to go back to work and refuses to give him a hug and kiss hello. He does the same thing for goodbye in the morning. Aiden gets an attitude with everything Travis says to him. Every once in a while they have a good night when Travis has time to play with him a lot. But it's not often enough. I just don't know what to do about it.

The other thing I don't know how to handle is potty training. Does any body have any recommendations? I've read a couple books about it, and some stuff online, but nothing is cut and dry. I know kids are not cut and dry, but I need more than I can find. Everything recommends letting him sit on the potty frequently, especially during times when he usually pees or poops. I don't know when he pees?! How do you figure that out?? How often should I let him sit on the potty? For how long? I tried letting him go without a diaper for a night and he freaked out every time he peed on the ground. I would rush him to the toilet, but that just freaked him out even more.

He also doesn't poop on a set schedule. Apparently, most kids have a set time they poop. Like Travis. He goes once in the morning and once in the evening. I guess Aiden is like me. You never know when the time will come. Not to mention Aiden's bowels are all sorts of messed up. He had horrible constipation for a year that made him bleed and cry, EVERY TIME. These days he has diarrhea more often than not. So now instead of bleeding, he's got diaper rash. At least I can medicate the rash.

I don't know when to put Aiden on the potty. He will only sit on the potty if I bribe him. So I started letting him put a sticker on his potty chart every time he sat on the toilet. I try to do it every night before bed, but he's never peed during that time (I read a book or two to distract him from getting off). I don't really have time to do the potty in the morning or when we get home from work/daycare. I guess I need to find the time. It's just that it's such a fight getting him on that toilet. If he needs to sit on it for 10 minutes at a time, that is about 20 minutes of our time. The other ten minutes is spent begging him to sit on the damn potty.

I even tried buying Pull-ups with Buzz Lightyear on them. We told him he can wear the big boy pants when he goes pee pee on the potty. He was excited about the Toy Story pants, but apparently not excited enough.

To get him even remotely excited about the potty, we let him decorate it with stickers of Spiderman and Elmo. We spent a week or two just looking at the stickers on his really awesome potty before he would actually sit on it.

I've come up with a new method of bribery: He gets to watch TV if he sits on the potty. We rarely let him watch TV during the week, so that's a HUGE deal. It worked for 30 minutes last night!

Except now I'm worried he's going to get a hemorrhoid.

I can't wait for our grass to grow back

2011-09-13T21:26:00.002-05:00

The wall is coming along! We started painting the wall this weekend. We chose a shade that is between the dark grey of the stucco and the light grey of the mortar that holds the "stones" up on the exterior of our house. If I didn't have the white of the trim to compare it to, I'd say that wall is white.

We used paint rollers, so we still have to go back through with a paint brush to get the cracks, corners and edges. I need to do a closer inspection to determine if we need a second coat. It was really difficult to paint the stucco because of the texture.

After we're done with the grey, we'll be painting the wood trim black to match the house. You can sort of see the black shutters and soffit of the house...

This next photo is the view from the end of the driveway. I'm hoping the black trim will help give the wall some definition. We are also planning to put in a walkway from the driveway to the front door and lining the wall with bushes. That will have to happen next spring since we need to attend to some interior home improvement first. Now that Callaway is not around to scrape up the trim on the doors and Sagira's not around to scratch off the paint of the doorways, I think it's time to repaint!

This gap in the wall is where that gate is going to go after I bring it home from Illinois. Man, I hope it looks okay. Buying a gate in Illinois while I'm in Texas is sort of like planning a wedding in Illinois while I'm in Texas. Only smaller scale.

We're in the home stretch!

I Remember

2011-09-12T10:40:00.000-05:00

10 years ago on September 11th, I had just started my second year at the community college near my home in Illinois. I was getting ready for work when my mom called and told me to turn on the TV. A plane had run into one of the World Trade Center towers. I turned on the TV and watched the footage of the burning building. I couldn't believe that had happened. How could that happen? That's a little low for a plane to be flying around a city. Maybe something was wrong with the pilot?

I called my dad to see if he had seen the news. He hadn't. As I stood there pondering over what could have gone wrong with my dad, the second plane ran into the second tower. Wah?? Did someone manage to get video of the plane running into the tower and they were just playing it over? No that can't be it. I can see the first tower on fire behind the second. The SECOND tower got hit?? I'm so confused. What the hell?

My first class that day was calculus and the teacher was this really angry woman that I didn't feel like testing. I thought about not going into school. I didn't know what was going on. But then I thought about that teacher and her irrational anger at the world. I made the choice to go in. I left the TV on while I got ready and it was so horrible. People were jumping out of the building. I could only imagine the fear these people were facing.

While I was driving into school, I heard that the Pentagon had either been hit by a plane or a bomb. Not sure which. Still confused.

When I got to class, only half the students had shown up. The teacher asked the remaining students if they would be up for a lesson. We all said no, so she let us go early. I went to the lobby area of the school where they had set up a bunch of TV's all set to different news channels so I could watch the events unfold.

I could not believe my eyes when the first tower fell. All I could think about were all the people in that building. My second thought was about all the people on the street that they showed staring up at the burning buildings. The dust in the air was tremendous. The the second tower fell. Insantiy.

Then I heard about the fourth crash into the field in Pennsylvania. By this point, I wasn't sure what was true and was rumor. I walked around in complete disbelief for the majority of that day. I wasn't close with anyone living in New York, but I was still numb about the whole situation. How could something like this happen in the United States? Don't we have excellent safeguards against stuff like this? Come to think of it, how could the US prevent other stuff like this from happening? We can't be everywhere at every time of the day to 100% guard US soil.

Suddenly I was afraid for my family in and around Chicago. What if there was another big attack? Oh the stress that surrounded that whole situation and I didn't even know anyone who was there. It just struck me as so intense that an attack had occured on US soil. Is this what people in 3rd world countries feel like every day? At any moment, their village could be attacked and they wouldn't have any police to run to. Hell, it might be their very own government that's doing the pilaging.

Life is scary. We've got to make the best of it.

I thought this 9/11 timeline at Wikipedia was really interesting if anyone wants to look it over.

Labor

2011-09-09T08:26:00.003-05:00

We had an abnormal Labor Day weekend. I think normally we would be running around visiting lots of friends, but this year we focused on laboring. It only makes sense, right? Travis enjoyed the three-day weekend with us. I love that he gets holidays off with this new company! We spent most of our days working on the Great Wall of Ward. Travis got all the trim up. I primed the stucco and caulked the wood. Travis moved the cyclone fence over to connect the back yard to the newly walled in area in the front. I still need to prime the trim and then we can paint everything!

We also need a gate. Right now we have plywood up to help deter stray animals from our yard and to help corral Aiden. My dad texted me yesterday to say the gate he found at a store in Illinois is on sale. I told him to go ahead and buy it. It's REALLY simple, but you can't beat that price! I'm planning to bring it back with me on the plane when I visit Illinois for my cousin's wedding at the end of this month.

Besides working on the yard, we had the Yeager's over for a BBQ on Saturday. Luke was sitting at the end of the table when he says, "Mommy?" and holds out his hand towards Linsey. She took his hand and he just sat there holding her hand. He just wanted to be close to her! It was so sweet! So Zach scooted Luke around to their side of the table and said, "Now you can be closer to Mommy and as a bonus, you get Daddy!" LOL! That man cracks me up.

After dinner we sat outside and enjoyed one of our first days of "cool" weather. By cool, I'm talking low 90's, high 80's. It was amazing. It started to sprinkle a little, so Linsey threw a blanket over baby Kenley's head. She proceeded to ham it up for photos.

Sunday afternoon Ariel and Michelle came over. We played it easy and ate leftovers for dinner. We also spent some time in the kiddie pool with Aiden. He enjoyed our company, and we enjoyed the cool water. Actually, it was pretty hot. We had to empty half the water and fill it back up with water from the hose so it would cool down. Oh Texas.