Bug and Santa

We finally made it to the mall today to see Santa. The line was only ten people deep so we were in and out in half an hour.

When our turn came we put Bug down. She walked over to Santa and gave him a huge smile. He talked to her for a minute (apparently he's relocated to the South Pole as he had a southern accent) and she kept on smiling at him until ... we put her on his lap. Then she freaked. And I do mean freaked. That kid was scared!! We even gave her daddy's phone as that always calms her down. Didn't work. The first two pictures made it look like we'd handed her over and just walked off. The third was so pouty that it was just pathetic. The photographer started shaking some bells before the fourth picture and that got her attention long enough for a decent picture.

Still pretty pathetic :) See the tears in her eyes? Poor baby!

Afterwards Santa gave her a candy cane and that made everything better :)

The ABCs

I know I haven't written much lately, sorry about that. Things have been a little crazy lately. Here's the highlights (or lowlights depending on which letter you're looking at):

A) Bug had a viral infection this last week, runny nose, diarrhea, fever. The works. Not a happy baby.

B) In addition to being miserable from her cold, Bug has also cut two teeth in the last five days! Eight teeth in that little mouth! Needless to say, I don't stick my finger in there to brush her teeth anymore!!!

C) Josh got a promotion!!! Good news is better title and slightly more pay, bad news is he'll probably be working more.... if that's even possible. It also means we'll be staying in Florida for at least another year, I'm ok with that as long as we find somewhere else to live. Which brings me to D

D) We've been looking at apartments, houses, townhomes, all that good stuff over the last week. I just don't understand why there are no new housing/apartment developments in the good parts of the city(ies). Everything is at least ten years old which means the appliances are at least five years old. Kill me. Dining rooms are carpeted (not good for a one year old who throws food) or the entire house is tile (our current downstairs is all tile, Bug's had a few mishaps, I'm ready for carpet!).

E) Josh and I have been talking about #2 lately. Now calm down grandmas! We're just toying with the idea. Neither one of us can commit to thinking it's a good idea just yet so I guarantee (about as much as birth control is a guarantee) that it won't be happening anytime soon. Just curious as to people's thoughts on the matter. My brother is having his second (plus GF has a three year old from previous) 17 months apart from his first (don't quote me, I suck at math) and I'm curious how life will be for him. I also have a good friend whose children will be just 6 months apart (I think, again, don't quote me on these things, I'm tired) and I'm really curious how that will go. Anyway, anyone with experiences on kids being two years apart, give me the ups and downs! I'm trying to weigh pros and cons. In the end we'll do what we think is best for us but still, it's on my mind.

F) My mom's coming for Christmas!! Woohoo!! So I actually decorated the house, hung christmas lights and even bought a cheapass fake tree from the dollar store! It's cute :) Now if I could just figure out how to keep the hellions (cat and baby) away from the garland....


Ok, that's about it folks. I'd post a couple pictures of the brat (and yes, she is a brat. That first bite of birthday cake seems to have given her the impression that she's entitled to any/everything. She also now knows that my world revolves around her and I think she's figured out how to manipulate that....brat.) but it's been so busy I haven't downloaded any pictures from the camera lately. Sorry.

I leave you all with a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Whichever you'd prefer.

Now where's that eggnog.......

One Year Check Up aka post written in two minutes

I know I haven't posted much lately but we've been pretty crazy around here. When we got back from Indiana Bug decided her bedtime had changed to 10pm. Which means mommy's cleaning time got pushed back and her 'mommy time' got eradicated completely. So no blogs for all you curious people wondering what's been happening over here in Florida. I found a rare few minutes in the day today so I figured I'd at least tell you all how Bug's one year check up went yesterday.

Our little Amazon is 31 inches and 23lbs. Think she eats enough? She'd been spitting up a lot lately and it's the nastiest smell imagineable. Turns out we've been giving her WAY too much whole milk. Oops. Now we know better though :)

I had about thirty questions for the doctor and she was patient enough to wait for me to ask all of them before running off to her next patient. I love her.

We got the OK for the forward facing car seat which is good because we already bought one!

They turned my little angel into a pin cushion with all the shots and she was such a little trouper! She had three shots in her thigh, two in her arms and her finger pricked and she didn't cry once. The nurse commented first on how strong she was and secondly on her high threshold for pain. She gets that last one from mommy :)

Well, my time is up. I'll try to finish a bit later.

1st Birthday!!!!

I have much to write about but my brain is muggled from exhaustion due to trying to wear my kid out tonight. Mission accomplished but the sacrifice is a catch-you-up blog. So instead I shall post birthday pictures!

The Cake

The Birthday Girl in her Elmo Birthday Crown

Bug's Piece

Mmm, this is pretty good

The Face Dive

Mmm, this plate tastes good too!

Now this is how it's done!

Very happy birthday girl!

Diggin' in for a present

Unwrapping another present

She really liked this one. Like old friends :)

She really liked getting presents out of bags!

I don't know, I just think it's cute :)

Pretty easy to tell she likes this one!

Yeehaw! See ya'll later!!

I'd post more but my exhaustion tactics seem to have failed me. It's alive! I do have to mention that she was on a major sugar rush after that cake! She crashed at 7:30pm and went from happy one second to screaming/crying the next. I'm not exaggerating either.

Crap, gotta go.

Indiana

Well, we've been in Indiana for just three short days and yet it feels like our week is up. It's been a busy couple of days. I think I mentioned in my last post that Bug spent Monday night spewing cantaloupe chunks all over our house. Well she's fine. Nothing to worry about.

Tuesday we got up at the butt-crack of dawn and had a very cranky baby. We didn't give her anything to drink until we got on the plane and started taking off because if she didn't suck on something during take off her ears were less likely to pop and then we'd all regret it. I literally had to hide the bottle from both baby AND daddy! He felt so bad letting her cry (and I'm sure he felt a bit like a bad father due to all the stares from the other passengers) but I wouldn't relent and didn't give it to her until we started our takeoff. Trust me, we were all better off that way! A little crying before take off and then quiet for the rest of the flight. Mommy's done this before!! :)

We had a great flight and landed in Evansville at 10:30am. After we got into town the day becomes a bit of a blur for me, I was up for over 17 hours which is a lot for me. On Wednesday Bug's aunt and cousins came over for dinner. Afterwards they went back to their house and brought back some old, no longer used Elmos. Talk about a happy Bug!! She now has Elmo Live (which stays home of course), her big Elmo that Josh won at a claw machine (he has plastic eyes and she smashed him into the brick wall at the Atlanta airport and now he has a huge chip in his eye), an Elmo that does the hokey pokey, a huge plush elmo that's twice her size and best of all....YMCA ELMO. Elmo sings E - L - M - O to the tune of YMCA and dances too! She adores him. Even more than Elmo Live, which kind of makes me want to take him in for a refund since he's got a couple glitches!!!! As soon as they started playing the YMCA Elmo she started dancing. We got a decent video of it last night. But I can't get that one to load...so you get this one instead. Which is still cute...but not as cute.

CRAP! I can't get it to load either. So you're out of luck. Sorry. I'll post it when I get back.

Anyway, all day Wednesday I wasn't feeling very well. Josh convinced me that a bath would make me feel better so around 9pm I took a hot hot bath. Felt pretty good too. I was in bed by 9:45, 10:45 I woke up, headed straight for the bathroom and puked my guts out. When I got back in bed I had chills and hot flashes. Not good sleeping conditions. To make matters worse the Bug woke up at almost exactly 11:45. Josh took care of her (thank God for a wonderful husband) and I thrashed around in bed until he came back in around 3am. Apparently she wouldn't go to sleep unless she was laying on him (something she never does for me) and it took him quite a while to be able to lay her down in her crib.

Well, he was supposed to get up at 6am to go with his mom to his sister's surgery, the whole reason we made the trip up here, but when his mom woke him up he took my temperature and it was above 100 degrees so he stayed home to take care of the baby instead. Again, thank God for a wonderful husband. I slept most of the day, got up for a couple hours around noon, went back to bed, then got up again at 4 but went to bed at 8. I think it was a 36 hour flu because when I woke up yesterday morning I felt fine. Although I did wonder where my husband was. Turns out the precious one woke up at 3am last night and Josh ended up sleeping in the other room with her just so they could both get some sleep. Josh asked if I woke up wondering where he was. My response? "Actually, I woke up and thought 'shit! I could have slept in the middle of the bed had I known!!!'"

awww, adorable right?

So today was a pretty good day. Josh took Bug to see his sister for a couple hours. When they got home it was time for Bug's dinner. She was pretty funny during dinner, very animated. She also took a pretty nasty poop while sitting in the highchair. We got her out and Josh cleaned her up. We planned to give her a bath in Nana's big jet tub so he brought her out naked and set her on the kitchen floor while the bath filled (in case she peed of course). What we weren't expecting was this.

************WARNING: Graphic, disgusting content below****************

Yeah, nasty. Right there on the kitchen floor. I hope none of you were eating while reading this!

Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention. When I had my first birthday party I got a pretty nice boo-boo on my forehead walking into the park. Well, today, two days before Bug's first birthday party, she fell in the living room and smashed her face into the ottoman. The hard part of the ottoman. The bridge of her nose is now bruised and swollen. Apparently the saying 'Like Mother, Like Daughter' is ringing true in our little family! :)

Well I intend to post videos and pictures with this post but the in-laws computer takes forever!! So we'll see if it happens.

Tomorrow we have a pre-birthday-party party at my father-in-laws and Sunday is the big event. I'll keep you all posted when I can!

Love you all!!!!

~Kristen

Tired...so tired

So it's 4:30am and I'm up taking care of the final touches for our trip to Indiana. Plane leaves at 7 and I have my fingers crossed that Bug will sleep on the plane...because I want to sleep on the plane!! I'm currently wishing I had set the coffee maker to make more than six lousy cups this morning. Who's the jackass that booked this early flight anyway?! Oh yeah, I did.....crap.

______________________________

Last night I had another initiation into the mommy club. For me, it was the worst yet. I feel as though I've been hazed. In reality, I was just puked on. Repeatedly. I gave Bug her usual cantaloupe for lunch, but I gave her a lot since it was going to go to waste if she didnt eat it. Well, she ate it. Whole. I guess she got greedy when she saw all that food on her tray and didn't bother to chew. So come dinner time, little miss piggy wouldn't take a bite. Josh and I were pretty confused seeing as how this child has never turned down food. We just figured she was teething and cranky.

Fast forward one hour.

Mommy is covered in chunky cantaloupe vomit. On the floor is half a regurgitated cantaloupe (Can you really call it regurgitated if it wasn't chewed in the first place?).

Twenty minutes later.

Bug is in tub happy as can be until....cantaloupe puke again.

And so went the hazing for about forty more minutes. Finally when we thought she was through, we put her to bed and haven't heard a peep since. I really hope she just ate too much and isn't sick!!!

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Ok, that's all I have for right now. We're going to Indiana and I'm hoping for some sleep soon!!

I'll try to keep you updated while we're there.

(((((oh, and Bug turns 1 on Sunday!!!))))))

Is it a bird? a plane? It's President Superman!

We voted today. Stood in line for two and a half hours. My voting process took less than five minutes while others took as long as 45 minutes. Come on people, haven't you heard about reading the amendments ahead of time?!

The wait in line was extremely boring. There were quite a few babies there as well. Babies babbling, screaming, crying, singing, babies that spit their juice all over people, babies that pulled the hair of the strangers in front of them, babies that threw their Cheerios container at stranger's heads. Oh wait....that was my kid. Yep, she did all that.

Most of the other babies were younger or older than her. And all were in strollers. I wish Bug would appreciate a place to sit and be pushed around as much as I would have. She did pretty good though. Towards the end she started getting fussy but who wasn't? We were fortunate to have a bitter old couple in front of us who entertained me with their complaining and constant nitpicking of the voting process.

Anyway, we voted. Our civic (or civil?) duty is done for another four years. Now all we do is sit and wait. I really hope Superman wins this year.

Achy-Breaky Family

This past week proves that mommy has some accident prone genes and has passed them on to baby. It started with me getting sick within the first three days of our return from California. It came to quite the climax in the last 24 hours.



Last night, Josh and I were horsing around with Bug in our room. We'd run to one side of the bed (on the floor) while she was on the other side and then she'd come looking and we'd jump out at her. She loved it. Well, in our hustle to get to our side of the bed I tripped over Josh's leg, landed on my knee and apparently my big toe. Hurt like a mutha! My sweet empathetic child saw me upset and started to cry too!



Hours later I was going downstairs to get another beer (yes this one is totally due to innebriation) and my foot slipped off the step and down I went on my bum. Still hurts.



The kicker was just twenty minutes ago. Bug was walking around the living room, tripped over a pillow on the floor and smacked her head into the corner of the coffee table. Josh didn't think she was hurt since she wasn't crying so he just stood her up so she could go on her way. From my angle, however, I could see the pain face. You know, where the face is all scrunched up like they're screaming but they're so upset that no sound has come out yet. Seconds later she found her voice, and we lost our ears and our minds. Poor thing had two dents in her head. An inch from her left eye right beneath her hairline. We managed to distract her long enough to stop the crying and by the time we were done the dents had become big, purple bumps. We're lucky enough to have a registered nurse we can call 24 hours a day in association with Josh's insurance. So of course we called her up and as usual they put our mind at ease (yeah, we've called them a few times). She should be fine, we're supposed to check her pupil dilation and mommy/daddy recognition every two hours.



Even at night.


When she should be sleeping.


Which she's finally started doing for twelve straight hours. Still not on the right time schedule but at least she's not having that three am bitchfest anymore. I wouldn't have minded if she was having a crib party, but bitchfests are unacceptable.



Anyway, we're all sitting around waiting for the next accident. I've got ice on my toe and bum and we're trying to lasso up a Bug for some head-icing. Hopefully she doesn't feel too much pain. Poor little baby :(

Determination

{my niece Kaitlyn going in for the grab}

The nonsensical mush from my brain

Ok here's the deal, it's taking me forever to write this because I'm tired and therefore easily distracted. So I'm going to write things as they come to mind and post this in a couple days. It probably won't make much sense, will definitely be scattered and will most likely give you a head ache to read. But at least it's better than the mush in my head :)

_____________________________

We're back! Bug and I had a wonderful time in California and are both truly exhausted as proof! She adapted to CA time perfectly but when we got home her schedule was all over the place. She didn't choose either time zones but instead Bug Zone. Which means staying up till 2am the first two nights and sleeping in as long as possible. I guess she is her mother's child! :)

The third night I got her to sleep at 8pm but she woke up an hour later, luckily I was able to rock her back to sleep in no time. Oh yes, that's the other problem with 'Bug Zone'. She doesn't go to sleep on her own anymore. Her room in CA didn't have four closed off walls and so noise and light would get through. I didn't want to risk her not going to sleep at a decent time so I put her to sleep each night. When we got back Josh suggested letting her go to sleep on her own from the first night but I felt like coddling my child and now here we are. I hate consequences.

____________________________

My child has learned to walk...but not to stop. She was walking around our room Thursday night, at one point she walked over to Josh's side of the bed as if she was going to go see him. I don't know if she forgot to turn or forgot to stop but we saw our little munchkin walk past the bed, head for the door, we expect the turn and then, BAM right into the wall. No joke. She smacked her head into the wall and fell on her butt. One of those things that if we'd been able to get it on video we could win America's Funniest Videos.

_____________________________

Bug has gone from eating cat poop and kitty litter to playing in it. Putting things in it to be more exact. Specifically the movie AirBud. I have to wonder if maybe she's not trying to threaten the cat. (AirBud is a Disney movie about a dog. You get it right? Cat. Dog. Get it?)

____________________________________

Bug is a very good traveler. Well, planes anyway. She's never liked the car but I'm pretty sure it's because she's strapped in a seat and I can't blame her. No one likes their freedom being taken away. But put in her in a regular seat on a plane and give her an Elmo DVD and she's a little angel. I had very bad expectations of how the flights would go and she was wonderful on each one.

On the way to California she fell asleep (I had to rock her but she went out like a light) at her regular bedtime. Slept the rest of the flight. On the way back she was so tired she slept for the first three hours waking up 30 minutes before landing. Needless to say, I was thrilled to get a little nap myself! Our last flight (two flights each way) was the only one that she didn't get her own seat (even though she slept the first flight, two seats is much easier for a sleeping baby than one!) and I was amazed at how well she did. She sat on my lap and watched Elmo (which means pushing play - pause - play - pause - play - pause) the entire time. I am truly blessed to have such a good baby!

{Karlyn and the Captain of the plane}

_____________________________


I was rocking Bug to sleep the other night and a great idea occurred to me. They should invent a machine which you would hook to your head that would take your thoughts and send them to the computer. Then I could blog while rocking my child to sleep. Or while doing dishes, eating, driving, even sleeping! Although my posts would probably look something like this:



--------Bug and I decided to go to the grocery store today. We were in the vegetable aisle picking out broccoli crap I forgot to buy tampons when an older lady came up to us to talk to Bug, as everyone does. ... Man that lady had some funky hair, I hope I don't have hair like that when I'm old. I want my hair to stay the same, long and straight, or maybe I'll dye it pink just to screw with everyone. speaking of, won't be doing much of that when I'm her age. wow, won't be doing much of anything. The supermarket is probably the highlight of her day, unless she has Bingo planned for this evening. wow, that's depressing. wait, the supermarket is the highlight of MY day, and I don't go to Bingo! ahh crap. ...... What was I doing? oh yeah, so she came up to talk to Bug and.... man this kid snores like her father, maybe I should clean out her nose, I wonder if I could do that while she's sleeping. Nah, I'd rather do it in the light. What if I stick it too far up there on accident and suck pieces of her brain out. Man, her father would never forgive me. Course she probably wouldn't snore like him either. hmm, I wonder if I could suck out Josh's nose while he's sleeping. ..... crap what was I talking about. damn I forgot. oh well. hmm, what should I blog about....---------


So you see - not such a good idea after all.



___________________________



Bug loves her grandma and I mean loves her! She was so sweet the way she'd light up when she saw grandma and she gave her hugs from day one. It was adorable. Whenever she sees a picture of her grandma now she smiles all big and makes silly noises.


She bonded well with her cousin too. Cousin Kaitlyn walks everywhere. So naturally, now that we're back guess who else walks everywhere. I guess she figures if Kaitlyn does she should too! I don't know how to describe the expression she gets when she sees Kaitlyn's picture. First she smiles at it, then she puts her hand on it, then she grabs the frame with two hands and brings the picture to her face. I'm thinking she's giving her cuz a kiss. Not quite sure. She definitely likes seeing her picture though!


______________________________



Personally I could have stayed another week or so. Would have missed Josh terribly but I was having a good time! It was so good to see friends and family! Bug was just getting adjusted too! Next trip we'll definitely be going for two weeks. Even if Josh has to fly out on his own and stay for just a week, I'll figure something out!



Well, I'd better post this. It's been four days since we got back and I'm kind of lolly-gagging with this :)

{I adore this picture. They would be best friends in an ideal world}

Email Updates

Vacation post coming soon. Until then, take advantage of the free email update I just put on the blog. Now I can send out an email everytime I post something new. Just to let you know, after you subscribe it will take you the the BraveNet website, just close that window, there's nothing you need to do there.

Procrastination............

I know I'm way behind in posting some new fun stuff and I'd like to be able to say I've been busy teaching my kid all sorts of new stuff and going new fun places and yadidada but I can't. What has really been occupying my time is online Texas Hold 'Em. I can't help it, I'm addicted.

____________________________

In other news, Bug and I will be going to California tomorrow. We'll be flying all by ourselves, no daddy. Mommy's a little nervous after the events at the doctor's office yesterday. My child does not know how to sit still! Hopefully she'll be tired enough (she hasn't been sleeping well the last couple nights due to a very bad diaper rash - another reason I dread the flight tomorrow) that she falls asleep for a little while. One can wish.

____________________________

Remember a couple months ago I posted that we'd pre-ordered Elmo Live for Bug's birthday? Well Wal-Mart.com has this thing where they don't charge your card until they ship your item. By the time they finally charged it, the card had expired. And of course, they were sold out online and said they weren't selling in store yet. I even contacted customer service who sent me a reply email that proved not only that she didn't care about my problem, but that she didn't read my complaint to begin with. She thought I was upset because they were sold out online, not because I lost my order without any notice.

They made the mistake of sending me an online survey to fill out about their customer service and let's just say I wasn't very forgiving. We're talking about my daughter's first birthday present after all.

Anyway, I'm over it now. We were at Target today and guess what was on the shelf? Elmo Live. So Bug now has her birthday present early because once she saw it and Elmo talked to her she screamed everytime she lost sight of it. It really is an amazing toy. Elmo stands, sits, dances, laughs, tells stories & jokes. Quite impressive. Bug is in love with it. And tomorrow we get to leave Elmo and daddy behind for a week. What was I thinking?

So much to share, no energy to type it all.....yet

But for now, go to YouTube and check out Bug's video :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ORazKMQ-C0

It's done!

The latest Bug DVD has finally been finished. Those that would like one let me know. I'm not making as many cause money's tight so if you want one you'll have to tell me so that I can make enough. Let me know soon! :)

Adventure House

The day has finally come. After months of anticipation, dreadful as it was, it has finally happened. Bug has fallen down the stairs. Luckily it was the top set and so it was a carpeted fall. Still, tears were shed, and not just by Bug.

I'm sure you're wondering how a mother could allow her child to fall down the stairs. Well kiss my ass, watching an over-active 10 month old 24 hours a day is not an easy job. Besides, her father was home so blame him. Course he was nowhere near but that is SO not the point. ;>)

Here's what happened. I had just finished changing Bug's diaper in her room. Downstairs, Elmo was on TV. Elmo, coupled with her confidence in her ability to go down the stairs, led her to attempt the climb down on her own. When she crawled away I called after her, when she got within a foot of the stairs I yelled her name. What the hell is with kids these days? Aren't they supposed to listen to their parents? I'm sure I listened every time my name was called (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha - stop laughing mom & dad). As I stood up to race after her, the much-expected moment came and down she went. My first reaction? "SHIT!" Then you heard the ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum of a fragile little baby body hitting each step. Then, finally, the cries. In between the ba-dum and the cries however, there were two additional sounds. Footsteps. A pair of feet on each set of stairs. Mommy running down, Daddy running up. Mommy got there first, swooped in, scooped up her baby and held her quite tightly. Daddy stayed on the floor, head buried, trying to recuperate from what could have been a tragic event. Bug on the other hand, well, she cried for a moment until she realized Elmo was still on TV and then she was fine. Laughing even. After a couple minutes of silence (except for Elmo and the laughing baby) Mommy and Daddy started to laugh a little and then Mommy started to cry a little. After that everything went back to normal.

If you ever come to visit, don't mind the four foot cement wall at the top of the stairway, just be sure to bring your grappling hook.

Bad bad bad day

We've had these small sugar ants in our house for the past few weeks which I've been vacuuming and Windexing on a daily basis. No big deal. But this afternoon I walked into the master bathroom to find hundreds of the little bastards. And by little I mean big. Ok not really that big but big enough. And they have wings. And they are everywhere. According to the Orkin man, they are carpenter ants. Fantastic. So I've been vacuuming the walls of the bathroom and the floor of the bedroom (which openly connects to the bathroom) on a twenty minute basis. The last time I vacuumed I came across an ant that has big long pincers. I'm done going upstairs. SO DONE.

I am also unbelievably pissed because I have called my landlord's daughter (the landlord is out of the country) twice, talked to her only once and still do not have an appointment set up for an exterminator. Orkin will not deal with me directly because I am not the home owner and carpenter ants cause structural damage which is the home owner's responsibility and blah blah blah. I'm afraid to go into my bedroom because I abhor bites from any kind of bug. My poor child can not play with the majority of her toys because they are in my room and I'm afraid they're crawling with the nasty little bastards.

I HATE BUGS. (except my Bug, I love her)

I'm ready to check into a hotel I'm so disgusted. Especially since they have wings and can fly. Plus they were under my bed as well which means its only a matter of time until they're in my bed. uuuugggghhh.

_________________________________

On a totally unrelated note; Bug has started grinding her teeth. You know the sound of nails on a chalkboard? That's the reaction I have. I just want to scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!


__________________________________


I'm having a very bad day.

I think my cat is a dealer

Bug and I were going about our regular routine this morning, she ate breakfast then watched Elmo's World on the living room floor. After the cat poop incident last week I blocked off all baby access to the cat box and a recurrence was the last thing on my mind. So I look over to Bug and what do I see in her hand? Cat poop. Seriously.

Apparently Josie feels she needs to keep her customers happy and did a personal delivery for Bug (that or she's pissed about the new box arrangement). Right there in front of the couch where I wouldn't see it unless I was looking for it.

Luckily she didn't actually eat any this time. She brought it to her lips (and smeared it on her lips, ugh) but I smacked it out of her hand before she could take a bite. She was not happy.

I think if this keeps happening I'm going to put a diaper on the cat.

Da plane! Da plane!

Bug and I will be flying to California in October. We will be there from the 16th through the 22nd. If anyone wants to get together let me know! But let me know soon because it's mostly Grandma time :) Unfortunately Josh can't go :( I'm not too sure how Bug's going to do without her daddy. She has a hard time on the days he goes to work early. I'm hoping with all the new people to meet and new surroundings to explore she'll be distracted enough. Key word: hoping

We have a total of six hours in flight that I'm not really looking forward to. I think this will be the most tiring plane ride I'll ever take!

I'd love to write more on the subject but I have a casserole to tend to. That's right. I cooked. We'll see how it is. More on that later :)

Cat poop, steps and Dada

Things are good on the subject of ingested waste. Bug did throw up around 3pm today and I took her to the doctor but she said all was well, just keep an eye out for fever, diarrhea, bloody stool and/or bloody vomit. Keep her well hydrated and she'll be fine.

On a happier note, I forgot to tell you what my birthday present from Bug was. She took her official first steps! Not even sure she knew what was going on but she did it! Hasn't done it since but that's pretty normal for her. I'm sure she'll be walking in no time.....might have to put the litter box under lock and key! Sorry Josie!!

Another happy note, the best thing to happen to Josh (other than me and Bug of course, ha!) occured at 9:45am. He walked into Bug's room and she turned around in her crib and said "Da! Da!" all happy and excited. No extra syllables or any chance she just happened to be babbling because it was quite obvious (according to Josh) that she was saying Dada.

So congrats to daddy for getting the first word. I'm not upset. It's not like I spend all day with her playing, feeding, changing diapers, giving her the freedom to eat cat poop. No, of course it's Dada she say's first. Whatever.

Seriously though I'm not upset. I figured it would work out that way :) Course since she can say Dada I figured it's high time to teach her Momma. So we were talking today and I said 'mmmm' and she put her lips in the same position and said 'buuuuu'. She doesn't close her lips entirely. Go ahead, try it. Put your lips together to say mmmm but then open them just a little. Get it? Great. So anyway.

I'd say 'mmmm' She'd say 'buuuu' and it went like this:

mmmmm
buuuuuu
mmmmm
buuuuuu
mmmm-ah
buuuuu-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
mmmm
buuuu
mmmm-ah
buuuu-aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh
mmmm-ah
buuuu-aaaaahhh
mmmm-ah
buuuuu-ah
mmmmm-ah mah
buuuuu-ah ah ah da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da

that little shit.

I think my cat is hazing my baby

We bought stair gates so Bug could crawl around downstairs without getting into trouble. Sometimes she likes to crawl over to her walker and play with the attached toys. No big deal. So when she was playing with it today I thought nothing of it. Her walker is in the dining room which stores the following:

• walker
• 2 strollers
• highchair
• cat box
• water dispenser
• couple of boxes yet to be unpacked..still!
• hurricane tote (it's staying there until December!)

So I let her be for a minute while she played with her walker toys, not really thinking too much of it. A minute later (probably less) I look to the walker and.....no baby. 'Interesting.' So I investigate further and see her sitting next to the bathroom door. 'hmmm.' Then I see the cat two feet away watching intently. 'what the hell?' Look back to the baby. 'Holy Shit' No pun intended. Have you figured it out yet? That's right! She was eating cat shit. My reaction?

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting.

So I called the doctor's office.

Me: Hi, my 9 month old just ate cat poop.

Nurse: She ate what?

Me: Cat poop.

Nurse: ?? What??

Me: CAT SHIT!

Nurse: Oh, you need to bring her in tonight.

So she made an appointment for us and told me to call poison control first and then call the nurse back to tell her what PC said.

Here's my conversation with Poison Control.

Me: Hi, my 9 month old just ate cat poop.

PC: She ate what?

Me: Cat shit. Feces. Dirty, nasty, feline ass-sausages.

PC: *calmly* How old is the poop?

Me: At most three days

PC: *disgusted* Litter boxes need to be changed once a day with a baby in the house. blah blah lecture lecture blah blah

Me: yes maam yadi yadi whatever TELL ME ABOUT MY FREAKING CHILD'S HEALTH!

PC: Are you sure she ate poop or could it be just litter?

Me: Well there was litter all over the floor and a shitload (yes I said it not realizing the pun) around her mouth. Plus there was a piece of poop on the floor with teeth marks soooo, yeah, she ate poop.

Basically she said to watch her for a week. If she vomits at all take her in along with a sample of the poop (bagged and sitting in front of me) so the doctor can test baby and poop and prescribe antibiotics. She also said that kitty litter can swell tremendously in the stomach and cause colon blockage which could be fatal. So I have to make sure her poops are normal and she's keeping things down.

Oh yeah, while talking to PC about this I was changing a poopy diaper. Can't escape poop!

So we're waiting and watching.

Meanwhile, the baby and the cat appear to be on much better terms. The cat would usually run when the baby talked to her, now she just sits there and they look at each other. Which brings me back to my point;

I think my cat is hazing my baby.

Hopefully this was a one time deal. I'd hate to see what 'Pledge Week' entails.

Stupid hurricane.

We had Bug's nine month check up today! My little Growth Spurt baby is 29" and 20.14lbs. The nurse said she looked more like a 12month old than a 9month old. Which makes sense to me since she wears 12month or larger clothes! Her Head Circumference is 44cm. If I could remember how big her head was at birth I could tell you how much her brain has grown but I don't remember anything except "I....CAN'T......PUSH.....ANY.....MORE!!!". I suppose I could go look in her baby book but....nah, I have other things to talk about and she could wake up at any minute.

So anyway, she had one shot and didn't even flinch. She's a trouper! The doctor started asking us about all the things she could do and then said "well, I don't have much to talk to you about because it seems she's doing everything already!". She also commented on the fact that everytime she sees Bug she has new teeth coming in. She said poor baby, I said poor mommy ;)

{The nurse wanted her to lay still so she could measure her length and so she let her play with her thermometer (one of the big ones). I told her she was going to have to be the one to take the new toy away because mommy and daddy play enough bad guy roles at home and we're not the ones who gave her the new toy she can't really use. She was prepared though, she gave her a tongue depressor as a trade. Worked like a charm.}

__________________________________________________


Lets move on to the bigger issue. Ike. Hurricane Ike. Category 4 Hurricane Ike. That bastard. Stupid hurricane. My mom was supposed to come visit this week. At first I was worried about Hanna but she's going around us. No problem there. Then Ike (stupid hurricane) rears his ugly head...or eye...tail? Not sure 'bout that one. Anywho, here's the picture I saw at 11:30am on the National Hurricane Center site.

{We're the red X}

And here's the most current one

{Apparently Ike thought my X marked the spot. Stupid hurricane}

I know the pictures are too small to really see anything but hopefully you can click on them and they'll get bigger in a new window. Anyway, point is, I thought we had a chance of missing it and then within a matter of hours that little jerk aimed himself right at us. Stupid hurricane.

So even though my mom was willing to brave the weather and come out anyway I had to tell her no :( For one I don't want to be the reason my mom gets swept away to OZ....yeah so it was a tornado, shut up, this is my story now! Two, I don't think I could focus on having a good time while I'm worried about Ike. Stupid hurricane. Third, we go right back to one, I don't want to put my mom in any danger. And finally four, I'm going to be the biggest pain in the ass this next week that I wouldn't want to be here if I were her! Stupid hurricane. I wanted to see my mom! Stupid stupid stupid hurricane!

So now I have to wait to see my mom and Bug has to wait to see her grandma. All because of Ike. Stupid hurricane.

Oh and how am I dealing with it you ask? Well, I'm not in "flight" mode so that's good. I wouldn't call it "fight" mode either. I like to call it "pack-up-and-get-the-hell-out" mode. Although the furthest I'll be going is Hard Rock Casino. They say they can withstand a category 4 hurricane and now they'll have a chance to prove it! Josh said he'll be sure to get us a room on the tenth floor so we can watch. I told him to go to hell. Doesn't matter either way. I'm going to be under the bed. With the cat.

Keep you all posted!

What's red, furry and ticklish?

We bought Bug's first birthday present today. She LOVES Elmo. So since Elmo Live is coming out about a month prior we decided to preorder it today. Check it out here.

Just wanted to share cause I'm excited! :)

I have to post about this

In California we found this toy at WalMart. It's a caterpillar with letters on his feet. You touch a foot and he say's the letter. Simple enough. Well the one we saw was in Spanish and when you pushed the letter J it said what sounded like a bad word in Spanish. We thought it was hilarious and are drawn to the toy everytime we see it.

So today we were in Target and saw the Caterpillar. Josh turned it to the phonetic selection and started screwing around (which means trying to make it say bad words). Turns out Leap-Frog had enough complaints to put out a new caterpillar that won't let you do this. Instead of saying the last sound that would complete the bad word it say's "hee hee, that tickles." and then makes the sound.

Here's a few of what we tried and what we heard:

Suck - ss uh hee hee that tickles cuh

Ass - aa hee hee that tickles ss

Dick - duh ih hee hee that tickles cuh

well you get the idea. I thought it was quite hilarious and wanted to buy it just so I could find the ONE WORD they missed. I was vetoed though. Da-hee hee that tickles-mn.

Well while I can....

I will!!! Last week Bug was playing on my bed and fell face forward into my nightstand. She split open her top gum and was bleeding everywhere. We got it under control and she was fine. I wondered if it split so easily because there was a tooth there ready to come in and today I was proven right! Her top right (her right) front tooth came in today! We're very proud, as of exactly nine months old our little girl has four teeth! :)

I really want to write more but I'm afraid if I do internet will cut out again and I'll lose it all.

Little spurts people, little spurts.

Broken

Our internet has been broken lately. It works in short spurts. I'll post more when we get it fixed :)

There's always Good and Bad

Good news. All watches/warnings are gone from this area. The bad news is that while Fay looks to travel off land, she'll probably gain strength in the water and may come right back to upper/mid Florida. Let's all send good thoughts and vibes towards those Floridians.

There was one thing in particular that made my day today. Blue sky. That's right, the rain stopped, the wind blew the clouds away and I saw my sun and pretty blue sky. Happy me. Now maybe I can take all that crap back to Target ;)

Final Update before expected storm

I've been told the storm is supposed to hit at 1am and be over by 4am. We'll see if there's any truth to it. The Bug didn't go to sleep until 9:30, I guess she wanted to stay up and watch the storm. Sleep won that battle thankfully. Josh and I are going to {try to} go to sleep now just in case we have to get up with the storm. Hell, if a teeny tiny storm woke me up at 6am this morning, I'm sure I'll wake up with this one.

See you all tomorrow!

Ok, well write to you all tomorrow!

~Kristen

is it too early to say I told you so?

We've been watching the weather channel all day and the weather dude (yes that's a technical term) just said that the storm has slowed down quite a bit and he's very concerned. In fact they've never seen this much of a drop in movement in such a short time before. Greaaaat. He said he'd call his contacts and look into it further. Thanks, that is your job after all no? Anyway, the bad thing about the storm slowing down is that it's gaining force/pressure which means it could do all sorts of crazy things. Fantastic. Maybe it'll do something crazy like go away? Ahh wishful thinking.

and it begins....

Well, it's been raining all day but nothing noteworthy. About twenty minutes ago it got a lot heavier with big gusts of wind. We checked the Weather Channel and found out that we've gone from a Tornado Watch to a Tornado Warning, that's along with the Tropical Storm Warning we were already aware of. Oh and a Flood Watch to boot. Yay us.

Monday Update

So I woke up at 6am this morning and didn't know why. Then I heard a wooshing noise and looked outside. The palm trees in front of our house were leaning to the left with the palm fronds pointing the same direction. Rain was pouring down. I sat there watching for a minute and then began to regress to the 'little kid needing comfort' stage. So I nudged Josh awake.

Josh: What?

Kristen: Look outside

Josh: .......WOW..... (all he could manage at that hour)

So we got up and went outside to put the patio furniture in a safe place. Patio table face down, umbrella and chairs in the shed. I open the front door and....calm. Not even a slight breeze. Barely even a drizzle. Weirdest thing ever. We still put the furniture away and it's been raining all day but no more wind. For now that is.

Josh woke me up at 9:30 this morning and said the storm had turned farther west than they'd expected and all we were supposed to get was 30mph winds and a lot of rain. I'm not believing anything until I see it tomorrow.

1pm today Josh got a call from Joel who said the storm has turned a little more towards us but we're only expected to get 6 inches of rain. Yeah, right. Again, I'll believe it when I see it. Besides, the storm could always turn more towards us at any point.

So anyway, we're all prepared and what not. Plus the cleaners came today so our house is beautifully clean! Perfect time for the wind to pick something up, throw it through our window(s) and destroy my house!! :) Hopefully not. We will see.

As Worry Turns Into Crazy

So I know you're all dying to know whats going on with our hurricane and quite frankly....so am I. We won't really know anything until tomorrow, most likely in the afternoon. They're currently saying that with the projectory of this and wind speeds of that, the hurricane will hit the west coast although they don't really know anything until the Tropical Storm gets to the Florida Straits. At that point it could completely change course and go our away or some other way. Has something to do with temp of water and this that blah de dah. I'm so sick of weather jargon. Just tell me whether or not to make a home in the walk in closet people!

So that's where we're at. I spent a lot of money on supplies today just in case and when I told my husband about it I got nastiness. Let's just say I had a long bitchy blog planned out. And then he called five minutes later and apologized so we're all good. Blog gone. Apparently he's having a terrible day at work. Poor thing. There was no sarcasm there by the way. Seriously. I'm not kidding! Why does no one believe me?!

....................................

Ok, better now. I think I need a beer. Ta-Ta for now!

"Well blow me down"

I know I haven't written in a while, I guess you could say I've had writer's block, in the sense that I'm worn out and exhausted from a long week with the kid. More on that later. Well, I had all these posts in mind because I have a lot to catch you all up on and while I'd intended to get them posted tonight I now find myself unable to think.

I just found out a few hours ago that we are on a Hurricane Watch. Oh goodie. Joy to me.

Seriously, a hurricane, on Tuesday. Thrilling. I'm thinking about relocating for the week. I already talked to the in-laws, they'll take me and Bug! Daddy has to work ... go figure. Damn Indians.

There's a very good advantage to a hurricane over other disasters and that is that you can plan and get prepared for them. Wanna know what the disadvantage is? Huh, do ya? do ya? I'll tell you anyway, the disadvantage is that you have ample time to panic and freak out. Although with me, two hours is time enough. I don't like this feeling. I'm used to earthquakes and blizzards.

Earthquakes are easy. They hit, you deal, they're over, move on. You just have to have a 'shit happens' mentality about it and not spend every day worrying.

I don't really remember being worried about blizzards. The ones that happened (if there were any, which I don't really remember), well they just happened. I think the worst that ever happened was when there was so much snow I couldn't get up the hill to go to school. I don't think I ever thought of that as a problem, more like a damn good excuse for once.

"Hello, Attendance Office? Yes, this is Kristen Gustafson, I'm snowed in and won't be able to make it to school today. What? No, there's no party, I'm snowed in. No seriously, I'm snowed in. Honest, there's NO PARTY. Oh forget it, mark me down as un-excused, not gonna tarnish my record anymore than it already is."

So to have time to worry about something that just recently eradicated New Orleans..... well lets just say I'm on edge. We went to the store tonight for canned goods and extra baby stuff and ended up with some beer for my nerves. I'm on my third. We'll see how it goes from here.

Luckily Josh is off on Monday so I just have to get through tomorrow (which will be spent organizing and trying to get things together, just in case) and then Monday I should be able to relax a bit more.

So I just wanted to let you all know what was going on here in windy, mucky South Florida. Hopefully I'm over-paranoid and it all blows over. HA! Did you see what I did there? I'm punny.

Ok, off to try to relax now. Bu-bye!


* Edit: Ok, so it's not really windy here. Actually quite calm. Very calm. Calm before the storm perhaps? Let's hope not.

Reciprocation is due!

Thank you all for letting me know you do care!! :) And as I read your comments I realized, why should I complain when I don't comment on anyone else's blogs?! Here comes the reciprocation!! :)

_______________________________________

On a side note, Bug's sleeping habits confuse the hell out of me sometimes! This morning she stayed up later than usual and because of this only took a 30 minute nap opposed to the 1 - 2 hour nap she usually takes. Based on this I figured she'd take another nap this afternoon and then might need an earlier bedtime. Boy was I wrong. She stayed up the rest of the day and was even less fussy than usual. I'm so confused! She went to bed at her normal time and we'll just have to wait and see if she wakes up in the night or early morning. Who knows. Wish me good sleep vibes though!

I shall write for myself anyway =P

Adventures in food

When I was pregnant with Bug I didn't really have many cravings. Just corn. I would eat packages of corn at a time, all day long. Couldn't get enough. Now, Bug loves corn. She'll eat a jar at a time even when she refuses other foods. It's quite interesting.

Eggs made me nautious when I was pregnant so I'm curious what she would think of them now. I don't want to try them out because I'm afraid she might be allergic to them. We'll see in a few months.

I've started cutting up fruit for Bug and so far so good. She loves bananas and cantaloupe. We'll soon see about watermelon and grapes!

Is anyone out there?

I don't know why I continue writing on here, it doesn't seem there's anyone reading it. I like feedback people! Or at least a note to say "thanks for keeping us updated".

Anyway, for those three or four people that do read this, here's an update.

Everyone's healthy.

Bug is all better, mommy's all better, daddy's all better. Everyone's good. Yay us!

Bug now has three teeth with another almost here.

We're going to a Cardinals game on Monday and we get to go to batting practice too! Woohoo!

There's more to say but I'm starving and she won't nap forever...gotta go!

Teeth

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned Bug's top teeth were coming in? Well they haven't made an appearance yet but while we were spending all our time paying attention to her top teeth, her bottom teeth made friends! She's already got the two middle teeth and now she's got the one right next to the right tooth peeking through. Little stinker snuck up on us!

We'd been spending so much time focusing on her being sick that I never thought her crankiness might be teething. Poor thing didn't even have her teething rings this time! At least she was on Motrin the whole time. We stopped giving it to her two days ago and she became much more irritable than usual, I wondered what was up and now I know!

Now I have no clue when her top teeth will be coming in! Or any of the rest of them for that matter. At this rate she may have a full set of teeth by 18 months! :) wouldn't it be nice to have it over with

Big Bad Tissue Monster

My kid freaks out when I blow my nose. Seriously, it's the weirdest thing. It's like she thinks the tissue is eating mommy's nose. It's the sound though, I can be in the other room but if she hears it she starts bawling as if she was hurt or something. Absolutely ridiculous. I will be forever stuffed up at this rate! Just felt the urge to share :)

Night off

Josh and I finally got a date night! Catie was in town and offered to babysit and we readily agreed!!! We went out to a nice dinner and then...well, those that know us already know where we went next...gambling!! Of course!! We didn't win anything but didn't expect to either. We had a really good time though and that was the whole point.

Bug had a good time with Catie and the boys. Until she woke up from a nap that should have been bedtime. Wasn't happy after that. I can't blame her though, there's only been two times that she's woken up and it hasn't been mommy or daddy that came to get her. To be honest I was surprised she went to bed at all without her bedtime routine, but Catie can do wonders, of that I have no doubt.

Apparently when Bug woke up she kept pulling on her right ear. Catie thinks she has an ear infection. I'm so used to her pulling on her ears I pass it off as normal but when the woman whose son has had more ear surgeries than a child should say's she suspects an ear infection, then I start to wonder. So I'm going to find an ENT next week and see what they say.

Other than that I think everyone had a good night, I know I did! A thousand thanks again to Catie and the boys for giving me a break.

"I was gonna go to sleep, but then I got high"

I do believe Bug had a scary dream. 10:15pm she woke up with a scream. Literally, an ear-piercing, holy-shit-somethin's-coming-to-get-me scream. One of those long ones that only break when she's taking a breath.

I ran in and she was sitting in the corner of her crib and you could tell she was freaked out. I comforted her and she was ready to fall back asleep but all that trauma and screeching must have knocked loose some snot because her nose was plugged. There was no amount of aspirating that was gonna help. So I decided to give her some Benadryl (hey, doctor's orders!).

Josh came home as I was giving it to her so he got to see the effects. That chick went crazy the first ten minutes! I think they put Speed in Children's Benadryl just to screw with the parents.

Last time I gave it to her she was tired to begin with so she went to sleep right away and was very lethargic when she woke up. I'm hoping she tires out soon. I know I'm tired!

No Jinx-Backs!

I woke up this morning feeling great. Not perfect but good enough. Bug slept through so I was able to get 8 full hours of sleep (except for the four times I woke up cause she made a noise and I was positive she would wake up) and felt so much better for it. I took one look at my filthy, pigsty house and got the insane urge to clean. After an hour I realized I was going to wear myself out and end up back at square one. I took it slow, got the upstairs clean and am saving the downstairs for tomorrow...hopefully. I can't stand a dirty kitchen.

Bug's doing better. The saline solution is doing wonders. She hardly coughs anymore so it's just the nose we have to take care of. It's quite disgusting. Still, no matter how sick she's still in good spirits.

Last night Josh wasn't feeling too well but luckily he felt fine when he woke up today. So maybe we'll all be better soon after all. ahh crap I just jinxed myself again didn't I?

Still sick :(

I was hoping to be able to write a nice "we're all healthy" update today but alas, that's not the case. Our family has had five doctor's visits in two weeks. Sheesh. Bug alone has had three in one week.

Saturday I was running a bit of a high temp so I went down to Urgent Care so they could put me on antiobiotics. They checked me out and gave me a scrip for a Z-Pac. Whatever that is. I'm taking it and we'll see how well it works. I still feel like crap.

Josh took yesterday off so I could try to relax which was nice but Bug didn't have the same thing in mind. She went to bed at 10pm and woke up at 1am. Wouldn't go back to sleep until 4am and was in our bed which means she was on me and I got no sleep. Great. Then she decided to wake up at 6am for the day. Me so tired :(

I had to take Bug back to the doctor today because she's not getting any better. The doctor we saw on Thursday was out so we saw a different doctor that we liked in the past. She said she doesn't think Bug has Bronchiolitis. She thinks it's just a bad respiratory illness. Her orders are saline solution three times a day or take her to the beach and dunk her in the ocean. I think I'll take option #1 :) She also said it was ok to give her cold medicine and recommended Children's Benadryl. Benadryl usually makes people sleepy so I figure I can use that to my advantage, she agreed. Mommy's sneaky :)

So the update is two-thirds of our family is sick. Josh is back at work for another six days so I have to muddle through on my own. At times like this I wish we lived closer to family. Wish us luck!

Nope, wouldn't have made it in the '30s

8 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

Wonder, wonder, wonder...

I feel like crap. Josh came home early last night to put the baby to bed for me. Since he didn't have to work until noon today I took some NyQuil to help me sleep. NyQuil knocks my ass out. To the point where I don't remember much the next day.

Apparently, Bug woke up some time around 1am. I don't really remember what happened I just know the basics from Josh. He spent an hour or two in her room trying to get her back to sleep. After giving up he brought her into our room. Which I'd expressed to him was a big no-no since I wouldn't wake up if I rolled on her or something. Luckily (in my opinion anyway) she wouldn't sleep with us either. So around 4am he took her back into her room and apparently she went to sleep on her own. I don't know. All I remember is waking up around 4:30 and freaking out about the baby, she was sound asleep in her crib so I went back to bed. That's all I know.

I woke up this morning feeling so much worse than yesterday. I was hoping to be able to get some good sleep last night but with Bug being awake for three hours that didn't happen. Oh well. Maybe tonight. For now I need to figure out how to make it through the day. I'm taking DayQuil but I don't think it's working. I'm thinking about going to the doctor so I can get some antibiotics to clear me up quicker. Wonder if they'll prescribe anything for a cold...wonder if there's a doctor's office open on a Saturday....wonder if I'll work up the energy to find one and make a call....wonder if I'll ever end this post....wonder....

Good thing I don't fill prescriptions

I got an email from my mom today that had a bit of information about Bug's meds in it.

Pediatrics: Use only in children whose visual acuity can accurately be determined and monitored (not recommended for use in children under 13 years of age unless the benefit outweighs the risk).

Ummm, nobody told me this. So I went online to see what I could find out for myself. I was confused with what I read so I got the bottle to make sure I was spelling it right and yeaaaaaaa.
I wasn't. It's not Arbutol. It's Albuterol. Nice.

So anyway. I don't know whether it's the medicine, the crib elevation or what the deal is but Bug slept for over 13 hours last night. In fact the only reason she woke up this morning when she did is because Daddy went in to check on her and he had just sprayed that damn body spray on himself and she smelled him. I think this because when she wakes up in the mornings she's always happy, even when sick. This time she was crying. My opinion is "I know daddy was here now where the hell did he go?!!?"

She does seem to be feeling a bit better this morning but we'll see how the day goes. I decided to strap her into her highchair for the Godzilla portion of our morning. I have to give her this stuff three times a day.

Oh, and if this post doesn't make sense it's because I'm sick. Full blown sick. Nose, throat, cough, head, brain. Blech.

Bronchiosaurus

*I started writing this at 2pm but the power went out for over an hour due to the storm so I'm continuing it now at 6pm

**Apparently at 6pm I forgot I had a sick child to tend to so I will be finishing this post now, at 8:30

Bug's cough is so bad today that I decided to call the Pediatrician's Office to see if I could give her some sort of OTC decongestant (based on a suggestion by a friend). Answer was no but after describing her condition they told me I need to bring her back in. If she has an ear infection I worry for them because I'm sure they'll have a nasty visit from that same friend (whose picture I'm never allowed to post online).

Anyway, I told the nurse which doctors I was OK with and, more importantly, which doctors I did not want seeing my child. I also told her I wanted a time that would allow us to be in and out quicker without all the wait (also suggested by the aforementioned, picture-shy friend). She ended up giving us a 4pm appointment with a doctor we'd never seen before. We'll see how it goes. It's a good thing I didn't take the 2pm appointment she'd offered me or I'd have to take Bug out in this:

This was a light moment!

In case you were wondering,

the backwards alphabet in the lower right corner is Sesame Street

______________________________________________________

Ok, so we've been to the doctor, who I love. Bug liked her a lot too, she liked her paper/pen even more.

Even though Bug hasn't been eating even half her regular foods and what she has been eating has been mostly juice for the past three days she still managed to gain weight since Monday. She's 20.3lbs. Of course she hasn't pooped today either. Believe me, those bowel movements account for a lot of weight!

Moving past the feces talk.....

Here's what the doctor told me:

• When she got her finger pricked it was to make sure the infection was viral and not bacterial. (I asked for clarification due to, you guessed it! A suggestion from that wonderful friend who has been through it all!)
• Her ears both look perfectly fine.
• The Amoxicillin is working well for the initial infection but she has developed Bronchiolitis.
• We're lucky that we caught it this early because a couple more days and it may have worsened to the point where she would need to be on a Nebulizer. As it is, if her cough doesn't get better within the next two days or if it gets any worse, we have to bring her back in and she would need to use a Nebulizer

She is now on Amoxicillin, Arbutol and Motrin. Good thing she doesn't mind taking meds!

An interesting thing happened this evening. We were upstairs in Bug's room and I was elevating one side of her crib while she played. All of a sudden she became a terrorizing monster. Crawling at warp speed, pulling books off shelves by the dozen, ripping heads of stuffed animals (ok not really that last one), the whole time panting heavily. The whole scene made me think of a rabbit on speed for some reason. Anyway, as I'm starting to freak out thinking I accidentally gave my kid steroids and she's now on a Roid Rage I hear the doctor's voice in my head, "There is a big side effect that I need to tell you about. Arbutol will make her very hyper for a short bit." Ahhh crap. That kid has more energy than she can use in a day and we just multiplied it.

So after spending twenty minutes going Godzilla on her room all of a sudden she crashed. I think she overloaded. She started freaking out crying over the littlest thing and wanted to be held. So I held her, we went downstairs and watched Sesame Street. Then I think she had withdrawals, kept picking imaginary bugs off her arms..... (I jest, don't worry)

So point is, my poor baby is sick, I can hear her coughing in her sleep through the baby monitor as we speak. And I'm sick...just not as sick....and hopefully it'll stay that way.

BedBug again...

Sometimes I think I jinx myself. Bug went to bed around 8pm last night and at 11:30 I said to Josh "I'm so happy she's sleeping so well, we can finally get some sleep." Then I fell asleep. Thirty minutes later she woke up. Why do I do these things to myself?

Josh went in to try and get her back to sleep. Here's how it went for an hour; rock baby to sleep, lay baby down, walk out of room, get in bed, hear baby cry, repeat. For an hour. Then he got frustrated and it became my turn. She wanted nothing to do with me. So we got her a bottle and she'd take a few drinks, cry, take a few drinks, cry, etc.

Finally we took her into our room because I figured if I wasn't going to get any sleep I may as well be comfortable. She'd lay down in our bed, close her eyes and go "aaaaaa - aaaaaaa - aaaaaa" over and over and eventually it would die down and she'd be just about asleep and then she'd start crying again. Poor baby was trying so hard to get to sleep but was having a terrible time of it. Eventually after one of her fits Josh pulled her to him to cuddle and she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

My diagnosis: sinuses. It makes sense when you think about it.

• Couldn't eat bottle because she couldn't breathe through her nose


• Couldn't fall asleep because she was laying flat


• Finally fell asleep after being elevated on the pillow


• Breathed through mouth while sleeping

So Bug and I are going out today to get a cold water humidifier and maybe some Vick's Vapor Patches or something. Something. Anything!

Aren't they adorable together?

And as a plus, Josh got to see how uncomfortable it is when she sleeps on you :)

This morning around 7:30 she crawled down between our knees with her head facing our feet and fell asleep with her tush in the air, that was pretty cute but I was too sleepy to get a picture so I had her reenact it for you :)

Well, something like that :)

Finally some sleep!!!

I think Bug's well on her way to better. Her fever broke and she's sleeping more (and in her own bed!). She slept 9 hours last night which means mommy slept 9 hours! She still won't eat as much as she used to but she'll eat about half her milk and solids and she drinks a lot of juice during the day so we're ok with it.

I went out late last night and bought Infant Motrin since so many people have recommended it. We don't know if that's what helped her sleep but she wasn't as fussy so I think it helped with the pain, which is, of course, it's purpose.

She's still got a bad cough but I'm hoping the Amoxicillin takes care of that. Now we just have to break her of her bedtime habits. She goes to bed at her normal time but wakes up within an hour and stays up for 2-3 hours before finally going back to sleep. Hopefully it's just a sick thing and will go away when her cold does. We'll see.

So that's where we stand on the Bug front. On her way to health, mommy on the other hand isn't feeling so hot today. I have a bit of a cough too. Ruh-Roh!!!!

Three's Company

We had a full bed again last night. Bug went to sleep on her own at 8:15 but woke up at 9 and wouldn't go back to sleep for three hours. We tried EVERYTHING. I almost lost my mind. She finally fell asleep after a quick bath and me rocking her (I think it was exhaustion that did the trick). I didn't want to risk laying her down just to have her wake up and start all over so I layed down with her and she stayed asleep. Thankfully she slept for 7 hours. Over the course of those 7 hours she woke me up 10 or 15 times with her squirming. Each time I was wide awake because I was afraid she was going to wake up so you can guess how I feel this morning....tired! She even managed to leave me with less bed room than last night. My body aches for a night of uninterrupted sleep in a big bed all to myself!

She seems to be doing a lot better though. Her temps down to 98 and she chugged her morning milk. She even ate a little solids! She's down for a nap now so we'll see how long she sleeps. Hopefully a while because she needs it!

I'll keep the updates coming

The results are in...........

We spent two and a half hours of our lives (and our only day with all three of us) at the doctor's office. What were we doing there? Why we were sitting on our asses. For two and a half hours. Waiting. Sitting. Accomplishing nothing but pissing off the Bug.

Finally the doctor comes in, looks her over for all of a minute and sends us down the hall for blood work where they prick my poor child's finger. Then it's back to the room where the doctor tells us the results. From the minute the doctor walked in to the minute we walked out the door totals 22 minutes. Seriously. Two and a half hours of waiting for 22 minutes. This is the second time this has happened with this doctor. I'm going to pull a Dexter on him.

Anywho, here's what we learned today;

1. Bug weighs 19.14lbs
2. She has a steady temp of 101 - 102
3. She has a cold
4. The infection has spread to her ear but is not an ear infection
5. She will be on Amoxicillin for the next ten days
6. She does not like tongue depressors or things pricking her finger
7. It is possible to stand in the doorway of a hallway, make eye contact and still have every single nurse ignore you
8. No matter how sick or what kind of sick you are, taking a large, nasty poop will make you feel immensely better
9. Laughing at the person who has to clean up the poop tops # 8

Great Baby of Fire!

When Bug took a 2 hour nap yesterday morning I figured she was catching up from the previous week when Nana and Grandpa were here. Then when she was acting tired again not two hours after she'd woken up I wrote it off to teething crankiness. Normally I love learning things from my mistakes, I think it helps you to understand the lesson more. Not this time. When it comes to my kid, the hard way is not the way I want to go and yet most likely is going to be the way it is.

She went to sleep at 7:30 last night, woke up and put herself back to sleep at 8, 8:45 and 9:15. Again I wrote it off to teething. Josh got home around 10 so when she woke up at 10:45 we decided to get her up for a little bit to see daddy and then put her back to bed. When we went in to get her she was burning up, you could feel heat radiating from her head from a couple inches away. She had a fever of 101.1. We gave her some baby Tylenol and comforted her and she fell asleep on daddy's chest.

Josh's work insurance has a 24 hour number you can call to speak to a registered nurse so we figured to play it safe and called. The gist of the conversation was that she was most likely fine, keep up with Tylenol, lots of fluids and checking temps, if she got above 104 take her to ER.

So we got her a bottle of juice and she slept with us. She'd wake up every twenty minutes with the exception of a two hour snooze. We'd give her some juice and her lovey and just comforted her until she fell back asleep. All in all I got about three hours of interrupted sleep, Josh on the other hand was out like a log at 12:45 and didn't wake (even though I practically shoved him off the bed at one point, but we all know how well he can sleep) for four hours. I was jealous but he was kind enough to get up with her at 7am and I was able to sleep for two more hours.



This morning she doesn't feel good but her temp went down to 99.9 and she's happier then the night before. She isn't eating much but I can't blame her, no one really has an appetite when they're hot enough to cook an egg on their forehead.



__________________________________________________________



Through the night Bug would sleep right next to me like a little portable heater. At one point I had less than a foot to sleep on. See how much room she has next to daddy? She just kept squirming closer to mommy.

This is adorable, she drank her juice leaning on daddy and then fell asleep like this. (and yes his hand is in his pants)

There's something extremely cute about a baby in a grown-up bed sleeping like a grown up :)

I finally got more of the bed....but sacrificed my arm!

One of her happy moments this morning. You can still tell she's sick though :(

We need an exorciser to get the demon out of my child

Josh's mom and step-dad are in town this week. Josh was able to take the entire week off for their vacation. It's been a really good week so far. We were all afraid it would take a while for Bug to warm up to them since she's going through stranger anxiety and everything. But apparently she knows her Nana real well. She was eating her bottle Sunday morning when Nana walked up and said hi to her. Bug cracked the biggest smile and does everytime she sees her, it's adorable. Grandpa Ronnie she was a bit unsure of at first. She's a friendly baby though, now she loves crawling on him and trying to steal his hat/sunglasses.

We had a good first couple of days until the inevitable happened. Everytime a grandparent comes to visit that kid starts sprouting teeth. She's got her two uppers coming in now and yesterday afternoon they must have made quite an effort because we could see the outline in her gums where we couldn't a day prior and if we weren't sure her attitude made it quite clear. Hopefully she'll cut those babies before Nana and Grandpa leave so I don't have to deal with Damionetta.

Well we're going to try to make it to the beach today. It's been pouring the past few days, no matter where we live it seems to rain everytime they're in town. I think they bring it with them. Hopefully today we'll be able to make it.

I'll try to post again later on in the week.

P.S. new Bug DVD coming soon!!!

Control Freak Much?!?!?!

Holy Crap what a jackass

http://view.break.com/527579

Much Needed Update

I do believe it's high time for an update.





Bug is now 7 months old! She's learned all sorts of new tricks too!





In addition to crawling, clapping and pulling herself up she can do new things!





She can stand on her own for a few seconds at a time.
{Don't have a good video or picture of this yet}




She can crawl up the stairs.












At bath time she eagerly crawls to the tub.


{I was going to post a video but she doesn't have a diaper on and it shows a bit more than just baby butt!}





She loves taking showers with mommy and/or daddy.
Everytime the shower turns on she races to the bathroom and bangs on the door until we let her in. At least I'm able to get a shower whenever I want!

She's also learned how to blow raspberries on people...

All in all she's a very happy baby. Now if we can just get her to sleep past 6:30am.....

Bug's middle of (her) night thought process

8pm Bedtime

yawn, fall asleep

9:30pm

yawn, stretch, 'hmm, it's still night time, I should be sleeping...ok back to sleep.'

9:35pm

WAIT! I sense something.....mommy.....food.....tv......relax.....Mommy just sat down to watch TV, eat dinner and relax!!!!.......WWWAAAAHHHHHHHH WWWAAAAHHHHHHH


11:30PM

ok, daddy's home, I got to get up for two hours and mommy got stressed instead of getting to eat and relax. My job is done. I'm ready for bed.


My child is evil and wants me to end up in the looney bin.

Josh has crabs :(

This is what Josh's employee found in their VIP lounge last night.

If one were to crawl into my house I can guarantee I would be upstairs in a split second........crabs can't climb stairs right?!?!?!

School nurse went through 150 pregnancy tests!

Who's the idiot that suggested this pact?!?!

Jenny say's it quite nicely in her blog

Jersey Vacay

Apparently I've been taking a vacation in New Jersey. Man, I wish I remembered! I really am curious as to how I racked up $700 at a 7/11. Gas must be pretty expensive there!

Someone stole my Discover Card number. Funny thing is there's nothing on it. Ha Ha to the stupid idiot that tried to make my life hell. Thank God for Fraud Protection.

Josh's first Father's Day ... or Daddy Day as I call it

It was pretty simple. Josh's boss was kind enough to give him the day off so Bug and I woke him up this morning with a cup of coffee, his card (complete with Bug's handprint in fingerpaint), a frame with picture of Bug for his office and the best present in Josh's world........

Peanut Butter Pie!

{It's supposed to be a K at the bottom, as in K squared...you get it right? Anyway, by the time he saw it it looked more like an H so he reffered to it as H2, as in the vehicle. Not my fault Hershey's Syrup is runny!}

Anyway, we also went out to eat at Grumpy Dick's and then came home and hung out all day. It was nice, fun and relaxing, which is good because we won't get to spend another full day with daddy until the end of next week. Sometimes I hate his job.

Happy Daddy Day to all those wonderful dads out there.
(Sorry this post is so late, I couldn't get the picture to upload and we had to have the picture!