Mila Carol: 1 Year Old

In the hospital.

One year ago today, our little girl was born.  It was a totally different birthing experience from when I had Aiden - in a good way.  

Time flies.  I can't believe it's been a year already.  She is such a sweet baby, despite the constant pressure in her ears at the moment.  As long as she gets her sleep, she's super happy.  

Aiden and her get along great.  Of course Aiden gets annoyed with her when she climbs on the toys he's playing with.  Mila gets annoyed when he won't give her what he's playing with.  Typical siblings. 

(He was singing Jingle Bells.)

I love our little family.

The Nutshell is 5 Years Old

Five years ago today times were very different for me.  If Blogger ever shuts down, I will be very sad to have lost all these archives of my life.  Enough so that I might just look into a way to transfer everything.

Strange Weekend

I felt like such a bum Saturday.  I had plans for a girls night out and didn't feel like doing much during the day.  I didn't sleep very well Friday night because Mila woke up a few times.  Travis came home sick Friday.  He was vomiting, so he had trouble getting much done at work.  He slept all afternoon, woke up for a bit in the evening and was back in bed by 8.  I'm not sure if it was a stomach bug or a migraine.  Usually he gets a headache, then starts throwing up.  But he threw up, then got a headache on Friday.  Meh.  I don't know.  

Needless to say, Travis was well rested by Saturday morning.  He proceeded to clean the entire house - vacuumed, swept, mopped, cleaned the bathroom, took out the trash.  It was awesome.  Except I felt guilty because I only had a few moments to rest during the day when I wasn't taking care of the kids or getting myself ready to go out.  It was super nice to see such a clean home though!

Saturday afternoon was a birthday celebration for my friend Inaia.  My girlfriends picked me up and we went to a nail salon.  We had a Groupon for a mani-pedi.  I don't usually get manicures.  One, I am very particular about my fingernails and I don't like it when other people mess it up.  Two, there is no point painting my nails because they WILL chip within 24 hours.  It's pointless.  If I get them painted at a salon, sometimes it will last two days.  But still, it's just a waste of money.  But this Groupon was for gel color.  One of my friends gets this done fairly regularly and her nails always last two weeks.  Most of the time, she takes off the color because her nails are growing out.  I'm up for the challenge!  I am currently on Day 2 without any sign of wear and tear.  Now if only I could afford to get my nails done every two weeks!  Ha.  Oh, another plus?  The gel helps prevent nail breakage.

After we were all primped, we stopped at Starbucks.  We are all old ladies and were falling asleep after the relaxing afternoon at the nail salon.  We chugged our coffee and headed into Thai Seafood for dinner.  We had so much fun.  15 people made it to dinner, including several of Inaia's friends from Houston.  They were hilarious.  Our server was quite the comedian, a little old Thai man who pulled out a few jokes.  Good times.

Everyone was planning to go to the bars on the island.  Since it was already after the kids' bedtime by this point, Travis had no problem with me going down with them.  We went to a pub I used to go to all the time when I was in college.  We played darts and I even saw an old friend at the bar.  We eventually made our way over to my sister's dance club.  I definitely got a work out there.  My calves are a little sore today from all that dancing.  LOL!  

I didn't want to be a party pooper, so I went with everyone over to another person's house for the "after party".  I'm too old for that.  I didn't get home until 5 IN THE MORNING.  Sweet bejeebs that is insane.  I had horrible sleep until 10, then I got up to help with the kids.  

We recently hired someone to mow the lawn every other week.  On the off week, Travis edges the yard so it stays nice.  It's frivolous, but Travis works so much.  The only time he has to do the lawn is on the weekend.  It takes him 3 hours to mow the lawn.  Let's just say I am excited to have him around for that extra time each weekend.  Next frivolous activity: hire someone to deep clean the house once a month.

Anyhoo, Travis took Aiden outside while he edged the yard. That's when Aiden stepped in a fire ant hill.  Travis didn't hear him crying immediately over the weed eater, so Aiden got eaten up pretty badly.  We smashed all the bugs on him then rushed him into the bath tub to soak his feet in cold water.  I know that's what makes me feel better when I get bit.  Afterward I saturated him in Bactine to numb the pain a little.

I was in the middle of getting some food in the crock pot when Mila started to get really cranky.  I felt her forehead - it was hot.  I checked her temperature and of course she had a fever.  I didn't know how much Tylenol to give her, so I called the Nurse's Line at our pediatrician's office.  It took them about an hour to get call me back.  That's when the nurse recommended not giving her any.  She said, if the fever is under 102.0, it's considered a "beneficial fever".  Soooo, Travis just let her sleep on his chest while I finished getting the food in the crock pot.  

The rest of the day was spent alternating our energy on each of the cranky kids.  HORRIBLE day to have a hangover.  Really, as a parent, there is never a good day to have a hangover.  Just a fact of life, I suppose.  

This morning I had to send Aiden to daycare in the sandals he was wearing when he got bit.  He has 10 bites on one foot.  Then there are several more on his other foot and on his hand.  Those sandals are the only pair of shoes that don't rub his bites, so that's what he wore today.  His daycare has a "no sandals" policy, so that means he doesn't get to play outside with the rest of the class today.  I feel so bad.  Not only is he in pain, but he doesn't get to play with his friends for part of the day.  Poor kid.  

Both kids are going to be so cranky tonight.  Mila didn't have a fever this morning, but her cough got worse again and she is not her normal happy self.  Personally, I'm still exhausted.  Mila woke up twice last night, despite the Tylenol I gave her before bed to help her rest.  I'm thinking I might break my "No TV on a school night" rule tonight.  It was pretty much a sign when I received a free Redbox rental code via text a few minutes ago.

Visitors

I don't have a whole lot going on here.  I'm loving my new job.  There is a lot of variety, which makes time fly.  Sometimes I'm at the desk doing paperwork or computer work.  Sometimes I'm out on UTMB campus shadowing someone from the department.  I have lots of training to do before I can take on some things by myself.  I'm getting it done as fast as I can manage. 

Travis' dad came to visit two weekends ago.  It was great to catch up with him.  We did our best to keep things interesting for him.  It's getting harder and harder to entertain guests with two kids in tow. 

This past weekend, Travis' mom came to stay.  She was extremely helpful with the kids.  I feel bad because Travis got sick Saturday night and I was sick Tuesday.  I am grateful she was around to help out though.  It may not have been that much fun for her, but it was good timing for me.  She ran to the store when I realized we were out of a few important items.  She fed Mila and bathed Aiden.  So nice!

Brenda was here for my birthday party. I turned 30 this year, so I decided to have an actual party. I invited everyone I knew and there was a huge turn out. I had a lot of fun, but that's definitely not something I want to do on a regular basis. My partying days are numbered.

For party favors, I tied a mini liquor bottle to a mixer.  So cute! 

Crown and Sprite

 You should have seen me describing this to the cake lady at Walmart:

"Holy Crap She's 30"

I had to do this TWICE.  Once when my party was originally planned, but Mila ended up in the hospital.  Again, this past week.  I was so mortified when I realized I had forgotten to cancel the cookie after Mila was admitted to the hospital.  That poor woman made this cookie and then had to throw it in the trash, I'm sure.  Who else would buy this??

This weekend we don't have much planned.  I signed Aiden up for a day camp at Moody Gardens on Saturday.  I'm hoping Travis will take him and it can be a father-son day.  But if he's not up for it, I would love to go.  This week's theme is "Jaws".  They will do some crafts and activities that are related to sharks and I'm pretty sure they do it in the room that shares a wall with one of the aquariums.  At the end, they get to walk through the Aquarium Pyramid to see all the sharks.

If it's cool enough, I'm going to take the chance to go on a walk with Mila.  I wish I had the opportunity to go on more walks, but it's so miserable here in the summer.  It's so hot and humid, which is hard with a baby.  Add mosquitoes on top of that and it's almost an impossible feat.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed though!

39 Weeks, 6 Days

Not much going on over here.  I had two days with lots of energy at the beginning of the week, but then yesterday I went back to being dog-tired.  It may have had something to do with Aiden waking up at 4:30 am because he was struggling with getting his blankets situated.  Travis took care of it, but his initial scream for Daddy startled me awake so I had trouble getting back to sleep before my 5:45 alarm.  Today I'm in between.

A friend of mine from grade school had a due date very near to mine.  She went into labor in the middle of the night Tuesday and waited it out as long as she could at home.  She went to the hospital yesterday morning and delivered her son last night just after 9 pm.  I am SO jealous.  Ha!  Although, I'm pretty sure she did it without any drugs and I don't think I will be able to do that.  I'm going to try to go as long as I can, but I remember it being a lot harder than I thought it would be last time.  We'll see. 

There was some miscommunication between my dad and I.  I thought he was arriving today, but he is leaving Illinois today.  Since he is not leaving until this afternoon, that means he won't be getting in until tomorrow sometime after I've left for work.  Aiden was a little bummed there will be no Gpa today, but I think he'll survive another day without him. 

I've got a busy morning at work, but the afternoon should be nice.  I'm going out to lunch with the girls from work, then heading to the OB for my regular weekly appointment.  I have my fingers crossed that my doctor will say I'm showing some signs of labor so she will be able to strip the membranes.  But I have this horrible feeling there will be nothing and we will have to go from zero to induction sometime next week.  The only saving grace is that I know there will be no longer than nine days until I have this little girl.

I realized recently that if I have Mila at the end of next week (around when I would be induced), then she will have a three-day weekend near her birthday (Memorial Day).  Travis' birthday is always around Labor Day.  He said he grew up thinking the three-day weekends were for his birthday.  My cousin's birthday is on the 4th of July.  She grew up thinking the fireworks were for her birthday.  Funny how kids work.  Even if the three-day weekend isn't FOR her birthday, it would still make celebrating it more fun. 

One and half days of work left.  One day until my dad gets here.  Two days until I am PANTS-FREE!!!

Overbooked

I most definitely did more than my prego body can handle this weekend.  I think part of the problem is I went into the weekend already tired.  Travis didn't come home Wednesday or Thursday night because he was hanging out with Alex.  Friday night, our friend David came over for dinner.  I called it a night at 11 pm because I was exhausted from taking care of Aiden all by my lonesome for several days.  Plus, my normal bedtime is 10.  I can't handle much past that.  Travis flopped into bed at 4 am.  He may have fallen asleep for a bit on the couch before that, but not for too long. 

I think waking up frequently in the middle of the night (to use the restroom, to figure out where Travis is, when Travis flops into bed, etc) is one reason I'm so exhausted.  Plus, then I have to get up early for work.  I was so grateful when Aiden slept in until 8:15 on Saturday.  That is unheard of, but I'm not complaining!

I made pancakes for everyone Saturday morning.  Stephanie stopped by to pick up David, so we got to catch up for a bit over coffee.  As soon as Aiden woke up from his nap, we drove up to the Ramby's for Blair's birthday party.  Aiden LOVED the Transformers theme and had a great time running around with all the kids.  It was surprisingly hot out, so all the kiddos had rosy cheeks.  There were lots of juice boxes being passed around.  David, Stephanie and the Yeager's were there, plus all of Chris and Alexa's other friends.  We stayed for cake, but had to leave before the presents were opened and the pinata was set up.

Aiden was so upset.  He REALLY did not want to leave.  But we had made prior arrangments to go into Houston for the night, so we needed to get Aiden back to the babysitter.  Our friend Shannon's daughter watched him for the night.  This is the first time we've ever paid a sitter to come to our house.  I was really nervous about how Aiden would react, but he seemed to do fine.  I turned on Spiderman 2 before the sitter arrived and ordered a pizza.  The pizza came right when we were leaving, so there were plenty of distractions for him.  I think the only hiccup of the night was when Aiden refused to brush his teeth.  But if that's the worst of it, then I'll take it!

For our child-free night out, we went to dinner and the Improv (a comedy club) with David, Stephanie and another of their couple-friends.  We ate Japanese food for dinner right next to the club, then walked over for the show.  The main show of the night?  Pauly Shore!  We had seats on the main floor, only two tables away from the stage.  The two comedians up before him were both really funny, one of which was Sandy Danto.  He did a great Chris Farley impression.  I always forget how much I love seeing stand up.  I told Travis a few months back that if we can work it out, I'd like to go see someone for my birthday. 

Anyway, Pauly Shore was pretty awesome.  I was nervous about how funny he would actually be, but it wasn't bad.  Although, afterward I felt really bad for him.  He made fun of himself a lot and we all just laughed at it.  Kind of sad, right?  There was a section of his skit that was all political.  I really wasn't into it.

I was the DD and we rolled in right at 1:30 am.  I was about to PASS OUT.  The sitter gave us a quick recap of the night and then was off.  Of course, I couldn't just go flop into bed like Travis did.  I was starving by this point.  And since I wasn't drunk and able to ignore the hunger pangs, I reheated some of the leftover pizza.  Yummo.

Sunday morning I got up with Aiden at 7.  He was really tired, so he stayed inside and watched TV.  I went outside to alternate laundry and yard work.  Aiden was out of clean underwear and I had some seeds I wanted to plant ASAP.  Travis slept in until 11 and I left at noon for a baby shower in Houston (my friend from college is due three weeks after me).  I left a honey-do list for Travis and couldn't believe it when I got home and he had knocked everything off the list.  On top of that, my friend from work stopped by to pick up our old computer desk, which means we now have room to put together the wardrobe from IKEA. 

I'm hoping to muster up enough energy to help Travis set it up tonight.  I can't wait until that thing is ready to go because then I will be able to set up Mila in the house.  I feel SO under prepared for this child, it's ridiculous.  I have 8 weeks left until she is due and we haven't done a single thing to get ready for her.  It's a complete 180 from last time. 

I'm thinking I might splurge on a cup of coffee around 3 to give me the energy to keep going tonight.  I'm still trying to think of something easy for dinner so I spend less time cooking and more time putting together furniture...

Birthday and Pumpkin Carving

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

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):

And then there's Sunday

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?

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...

Overbooked Saturday

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.

I whistle while I work

It's been a little difficult getting used to being so busy at work.  When I worked for my last boss, money was low, which meant work was low.  Eventually I was just let go.  Working for the new boss is a totally different game.  He has LOTS of money, which means job security for at least 3 years.  He will most likely continue to bring in grant funding, so there is hope for many years after that if I choose to stick around. 

I'm still helping out the old boss when he needs it and he is training me in a higher level lab.  So I feel like I'm balancing three separate parts of my professional life: Old boss work (when he needs it), new boss work (learning new assays and techniques) and training for UTMB to be able to do work for the new boss.  It's tiring.  I feel like I've been falling behind on my blogging abilities because of it, but work must come first!!

I do really dig that we listen to music all day in the new lab.  There are a lot of young people in this group, so nobody minds the music.  I've worked in labs in the past where I got yelled at for having music playing so softly from my computer that I couldn't understand that words.  CALM DOWN SCIENCE NERDS.  Anyhoo, I'm learning about lots of new artists that I'd like to download their music.  My iPod's been acting up a lot lately, so I think it's time to get a new, bigger iPod.  ; )

Here are some randoms I forgot about on my camera:

We pulled out the Bumbo for when Skylar and Kenley come to visit.  Sometimes Aiden likes to hang out in the "baby seat".

For his birthday this year, Luke got him this horsie.  When we went to Luke's house for his birthday party, I tried to get Aiden to wear a cowboy hat because of the cowboy theme.  He refused.  I figured I would leave the hat out for him to put on whenever he wants and it seems to have worked!  He calls it his Cowboy Woody hat.  You can see the fallen Woody in the bottom left hand side of the following picture...

I have a YouTube channel saved with videos that Aiden really likes.  Every once in a while, I turn on the channel and it automatically flips through the videos.  He loves it.

For Travis' birthday, I made Pepper Steak for dinner and an ice cream pie that was AMAZING.  It was insanely sweet, but it rocked.  After dinner Aiden helped Daddy open his presents.  He honestly seemed interested in what Travis received.  Here he is studying Daddy's new razor.

After Travis opened up a gift bag with a new shirt and swimming trunks, Aiden proceeded to put the bag on his head.  I'm not really sure what his obsession with putting things on his head is, but sometimes I worry about him.



The other day he ran around the house with a bucket on his head.  The impressive part is he can run from his bedroom in the back of the house all the way to the back door in the kitchen without running into a single wall.  I like to think that makes him talented.

Well, I'm off to more training!!

Ruby Girl

This past weekend, we went to a birthday party for one of Aiden's friends from the old daycare. Ruby was one of the first kids in the class whose name he learned. After a few months of Aiden being in the 1-year-old room, I ran into an old friend picking up his daughter, who turned out to be Ruby! I said, your daughter is Ruby?! He said, Ya! Your son is Aiden?! Apparently they were best buds.

A month after Aiden switched daycare, we invited Ruby to Aiden's birthday party. Sadly, she got sick and was unable to make it. I was stoked to get in invitation to Ruby's party for Aiden. It's been three months since Aiden left that daycare, so I wasn't completely surprised to find the old pals did not recognize each other. It was still a little sad.

Here's the birthday girl! (I am so bummed that I can't get this photo to show up horizontally.)

It was so funny to watch Aiden in a room full of pink toys, surrounded by girls. Most of our friends have boys Aiden's age. And the one girl (Kate) we see occasionally does not really do the whole girly-pink thing.



He still managed to find a bunch of trains and dinosaurs. And of course, he was glued to the TV when they turned on some dinosaur show (Dinosaur Dan, I think).

Travis found the grill and the beers and made himself comfortable. Here he is roughing the heat with Erik.

I used to work at a vet clinic while I was in college. Erik worked there at the same time as I did. Crazy to think we'd have kids at the same time!

After food and swimming (which Aiden refused to do - I would have gotten in that kiddie pool if I'd had my swim suit - the sun is out of control), we went out front to watch the kids beat up the pinata.

Aiden gave it a few good whacks and didn't even hit anyone else with the stick! They had to have an 11-year old boy come in and do the real damage. After a little prodding, we got Aiden to run up and grab some candy.

He came back with a sucker in each hand.

Tangled

A couple weekends ago, we went over to the Yeager's for dinner. We celebrated Zach's birthday with some yummy chocolate cake. Aiden was so excited about all of Luke's toys that he absolutely refused to eat dinner. Because of the heat, they have brought all Luke's giant backyard toys into the house: a trampoline, a play house, plus all his regular toys (chair, table, etc). Aiden's not one to turn down sweets and because it was a special occasion (he never gets desserts), we let him have a small slice of cake.

After we ate, the baby sitter showed up to watch Kenley while the rest of us, plus Scott, went to watch a movie in the park. This month's showing was the Disney movie Tangled. Luke wasn't very interested in the show and Aiden wanted to be wherever Luke was, so the boys ended up playing on the playground the entire time instead of watching the show. We had a lot of fun, but I still want to see the rest of that movie!

I think the guys were grateful that they weren't forced to sit through an entire Disney film.

I got bit by a fire ant that night, so I took a Benadryl before bed. Travis got up with Aiden in the morning so I could sleep off my Benadryl coma. Sadly, he found Aiden covered in the chocolate cake he must have vomited at some point during the night. Apparently sugar on an empty stomach, topped with running around in the heat equates to an upset toddler tummy.

More from Luke's party

I mentioned it in the last post about Luke's party, but our friend Katie brought her giant new lens and camera to the party and took a bunch of pictures. She finally got through editing them all and passed them along to Linsey and Zach. They in turn, forwarded a few to me and then I forwarded a few along to others. Katie did such a great job. We need to have her take some family photos for us. That would be really interesting with Aiden the Irritable. HA.

Nadya, Kate, Aiden and I

Enjoying the A/C: Kate, Nadya, Alexa and Aiden

Cake time!

That's Zach's mom in the flowered shirt and Linsey's mom in the red top.

Me with my gimp foot (unable to proplery watch the candle blowing)...


Skylar and Daddy

On a side note, I totally have body dysmorphic disorder. I don't obsess over it and I am by no means anorexic (I'm too hungry for that), but I am unhappy with my body. But then I see photos like this and I am ten times thinner than I imagine in my head. Why do I do that?

Yeager Farm

Saturday afternoon, I hobbled over to the Yeager's house, along with my husband and son. Luke turned 2 on Friday, so they had a party to celebrate. Linsey went all out this year and arranged for a petting zoo to be set up in her backyard, along with a pony for rides. Aiden was not interested one bit in riding the horse. He did enjoy going in to see the animals in the petting zoo though. He especially enjoyed harassing the animals as they were carted off in their cages. We had to tell him more than once NOT to bang on those poor animals cages. UGH.

After food and fun, we headed into the AC for presents! The Ramby's were there:


Our friend Katie even came to take photos of the entire event with her new professional lens:

Alexey, Nadya and Kate came to see the fun as well:

All the kids watched on as Luke opened his loot. You can just barely see Luke in the middle of all the gifts. The girl standing to the left is Katie's daughter.

After seeing some of Luke's gifts, I want to head back to the store to get Aiden a couple of items. But then again, I don't want to spoil the kid TOO much. I mean, we barely have room to store the toys he already has!

We stuck around for a few minutes to help pick up some trash, but then we had to get to the dealership. I love getting a new car. I do not love talking with car dealers. I think I would have preferred to stay the rest of the night at the Yeager's!

Last Supper in Texas

Last weekend my dad said he wanted to have a patio party with Ariel and Robert so he could spend some time out there relaxing before he left. So Tuesday night, everyone got together and my dad cooked dinner. I loved having everyone together.

They're good people.

Because it was hot and there are a hundred flies the second you say the word "food", we ate dinner inside. But then we retired to the patio for dessert. I have a bunch of cookies leftover from Aiden's birthday, so I threw them on a plate to take outside.

When I got out there, Ariel had a surprise birthday cake and presents waiting for me! It was so strange to have that for ME. I haven't had a birthday party with gifts in YEARS. And it's been years since I had a party at all.

Even though it was five minutes until bedtime, we let Aiden have cake and cookies with us. He scarfed down that cake. It was impressive really.

Travis was so tired from being overworked lately. He fell asleep in his chair around 9:30.


The gifts were really fun. They wanted to focus on gifts we could use on the new patio. I got a table runner and a decorative placemat to set in the center of the table. They even found a BBQ condiment set that looks like mini Webbers. So cute! They also bought me a Christmas ornament. My dad has always looked for fun marine ornaments for my tree since I sort of have that theme going on. This year, I got a "Cat" fish.

How creepy is that?! LOL! It's totally going up on the tree though.

Happy birthday to me!