Night Shift Nanny

I need one.

Desperately.

I will buy them a twin bed.

They can sleep in Bug's room.

Take care of her night wakings and leave in the morning.

I will pay good money for this.

Not every night, three or four nights a week. Just enough so I can get caught up on sleep each week. I've had less than five hours of sleep the last few nights and tonight, well, since I'm writing this at 1:30am, I believe I'm destined for the same.

When I say good money, I mean very good money. I'll take it out of Bug's college fund. If she's going to take my night sleep away now, she can spend her college nights working as a Night Shift Nanny. Then we'll have come full circle.

Interactions with a boy....

Bug and I went to get the mail today and as we turned the corner we saw our neighbors having a mini block party on the sidewalk. Looked like fun so we joined! One of our neighbors has a little boy just two weeks shy of 1. He and Bug are the same size! Makes sense since he's small for his age and she's pretty chunky for a five month old.

Anyway, he was adorable. Apparently Bug thought so too because she was flirting! He crawled over to us and Bug stuck out both arms, put her hands on his face and leaned in for a kiss!!!! Ok, so she was really just trying to eat his nose, as is her common pasttime lately, but it looked like a kiss to us! So great, wish I'd brought my camera.

When I told Josh about it he grounded her, oh well. I don't think she'll mind :)

Next time I go to get the mail I'll be sure to bring my camera!! :)

Purchase Tracker

I was in Target the other day on ...dun dun dunnnnn... a budget! Anyway, I was trying to keep all my purchases tallied in my head, remember my list that I forgot in the car (big surprise) and keep track of the time, all while entertaining a five month old. Needless to say I lost count. It was then that I thought of what would be the best invention ever. This would work, not only in grocery stores but any store across America.

So you walk into a store, lets use Target as the example, and you go to a desk right by the entrance. There you will check out a scanner, much like the scanners used for registries but hopefully smaller and more compact. You can carry the scanner around, or attach it to the cart for hands free action. Then as you go through the store doing your shopping you simply scan everything that goes in the cart and voila! You know exactly how much money you're spending at any given time and by the time you check out. When all is said and done you give the scanner to the cashier and you're free to go.

The scanners will have a wireless thing, whatever it's called, so that they connect auto'magically' to the stores main computer thereby always updating.

If only I knew how to create, sell and/or market this!!!

Sunday 4-20-08

After working in a concert venue for almost three years, it took the help of my husband and his boss for me to finally see a concert in its entirety! To make it 1,000 times better, it was Reba McEntire! The two best things about this particular concert were 1) Melissa Peterman (from Reba) happened to be in town and graced us all with her hilarious presence on stage and 2) Reba performed her encore, Fancy, of course, in a shiny red dress. I was under the impression she no longer performed costume changes and was quite happy to be wrong.

It was a fantastically great night for me for many other reasons as well. For one thing, fitting into my pre-pregnancy jeans!!! I would love to detail the rest but must tend to the Bug. She's on a nap strike lately and requires much more evening attention than usual.

Size 3!!!!

So for the past five months I've been wearing the same size 10 jeans that I bought right after Bug was born. They were getting a little loose so I decided it was probably time to buy a new pair. I went looking for my pre-pregnancy jeans to see what brand I usually wore (forgetful much?!) and decided...what the hell, let's try a pair on. Well of course the size 1 jeans were a no-go. But guess what? Size 3 fits! Woohoo!!! Unfortunately I only have one pair but I will wear them to their death!

Black Slime

For the past few days Bug has been napping less and less. She's also been much harder to get to sleep. I was not looking forward to today as I expected it to be much worse. I think, however, that today will actually be better.

Originally I had been accusing the renovation next door for robbing my child of her precious sleep. The building consists of four Town Houses, each seperated by a four foot slab of concrete. I was told we would hardly ever hear anything from another unit ... unless there happens to be drilling involved. When they drill the vibrations carry through the steel and it sounds like there is a jackhammer being used in each residence! All day long they made this noise. So naturally you can understand my accusations! I was ready to take serious action when they started up again today, at 9am. However, after this mornings events I now think the construction workers are innocent and have cancelled my plans to cut their power during Bug's naptimes.

My reasoning follows.

When she woke this morning she had a poopy diaper.... a black poopy diaper. Ick. (I took pictures to show Josh but... I don't think anyone really wants to see it on here!) I had read online that black was bad so I called our doctor who said to come in with the offensive diaper (and the baby of course).

She checked out the baby, and then the diaper. We were all in agreement that such a diaper should not have been opened in such small quarters without the use of noseplugs! But alas.

Her first comment, aside from 'pee-U!', was, "when you said black I thought you mean bloody-black." Did I say my daughter has a bloody diaper? No. I said black. One would think I'd mention blood! :) She said it was nothing to worry about, probably just constipation but to watch for any signs of diarrhea or vomiting. In which case we are to give her PediaLyte and bring her back in.

So I'm hoping against all odds that her poor sleeping has been due to intense gas pains. Maybe everything will go back to normal now that she has eradicated her bowels of the black slime that had taken up residence.

As I type this she is asleep in her car seat, no way were we going to risk waking her up after having woke her once already this morning!

So we will see how today goes. If the drilling resumes and her sleep is at risk I will be looking for a pair of wire cutters.

Thank you...

for all the comments, text messages and cards wishing us a Happy Anniversary. They are all very appreciated! Thanks so much for thinking of us today! :)

I'm so proud of my Little Bug!!!

This kid continues to amaze me.

Bug figured out how to roll from her back to tummy about three months ago. A couple days ago she finally figured out how to complete the cycle. Now she's mobile! She just rolls all over the floor. So fun to watch!!

Before I know it she'll be holding her own bottle. This is a feat she desperately wants to accomplish. She's tried for as long as I can remember, and she's starting to figure it out. Lately if we show her a bottle she'll grab for it, usually knocking it on the floor but when she does get two hands around it she'll try to bring it to her mouth. Only problem is she'll have the bottle pressed to her chest and just can't quite get the nipple in there. So we help her out and she'll hold it, but she won't bring it up to the right angle for the milk to flow through the nipple. We let her keep trying until she gets mad and starts screaming. Adorable! Can't seem to get it on video though!

She's been sleeping in her crib in her own room for 2.5 weeks now. I've recently started teaching her to fall asleep on her own for every nap (she's been doing it for bedtime since her third night in the crib) and she's done great. Which I didn't think was possible.

Last night was one of her greatest accomplishments yet. She slept all night long without being swaddled. We've swaddled her with one arm out for almost two weeks now and last night we figured 'go for it'. And, once again, she amazed me. She slept just fine. We haven't swaddled her since and I don't think we'll have to.

I just can't believe how well she adjusts to change. Anything that we throw at her she seems to take in stride. I hope this carries through into her childhood and adulthood. It's a great ability to have. To take what comes and make the best of it.

I can't say it enough; I'm so proud of my little Bug!!!

{Bug eating her Sweet Peas}

{Wasn't too fond of them!}

I'm now a home-renowned Director.....

I've found this program on our computer. It's a movie maker. SO much fun! I spent all day working on a movie, well, when Bug was napping anyway. Not only was it very fun to do, but it turned out great! There's so much you can do with it; audio, video, pictures, transitions, etc. I have to say, this is really taking "home videos" to a whole 'nother level! A fun level!!!

So anyway, we watched it last night and I need to make a few changes but other than that it's pretty much ready to go.

So, anyone who would like a copy, let me know!!! :)

Bug's present

Bug's grandma sent her a present! It's a pretty Bambi snowglobe. So cute! Bambi spins inside the globe and it plays Brahm's Lullaby.

We had to drive about 15 - 20 miles to UPS to pick up the package. On the way back, even with the help of GPS we managed to get lost, all the while Bug screamed bloody murder!!! I'm talking screamed. Top of her lungs, loud as she could get. We were getting stares from people in the cars next to us. They probably thought we were torturing our child! Just too far for her, farther than she's used to going when she's tired. Plus I think she still felt crappy from her shots yesterday. But once we got home and she got a nap she was a lot happier.

{wanted to taste it, as she does everything!}

{then she tried to grab Bambi}

{finally got a decent picture out of her!}

Bug at the doctor....

Bug had her doctor's appointment today. She refused to take her nap this morning so I was afraid she was going to be grumpy but she did really good. We ended up waiting in the room for over an hour! She took that time to destroy the paper on the exam table. I had to tear off the old and pull out new FOUR times!!! She had a good time though.

She did really well for her shots too. Took the first one without any crying. Don't think she even noticed it. The other three she definitely noticed, she cried and screamed and cried some more. Mommy cried a little too :(

She weighs 17lbs and is 25 1/2 inches. At first the nurse tried to tell me she was 22 inches .... hmmm, she was 24 inches two months ago so is my baby shrinking already??!! She's in the 95th percentile of weight and 90th of length.

The shots took all the energy out of her.

Got in the car and she took a nap, about an hour later she was back to her happy, playful self!

You can go here to see her destroy the paper

Clingy mom award goes to me!

I just about had a heart attack this morning. TWICE!!!





First, I wake up of my own accord. Highly unusual since I'm used to Bug waking me up much earlier than I want every morning. So I go in to check on her and this is what I find.

My first thought was "oh my god, she's not supposed to be sleeping on her tummy" so I check her and at first I don't feel anything. Cue panic attack #1. Then I move my hand lower down her back and feel her breathing. Phew. And I think, of course shes fine, babies sleep on their tummy all the time no matter what the doctor says, what was I worried about? And she looks so cute and peaceful so I let her sleep that way. She woke up twenty minutes later, happy as can be.

On to panic attack #2.

Bug was in her crib playing after just having woke up 10 minutes prior. I was downstairs doing some dishes. I noticed a flier in the gate so I went out to get it. The front door shuts behind me and I think 'I wonder if someone locked the doorknob on their way out this morning'. Reach behind me, twist the doorknob and sure enough... locked.



Trying to stay calm I go to each of the sliding doors hoping one was open.... nope. So, as I'm contemplating whether our patio furniture is strong enough to break one of the windows, a possibility comes to me; maybe Jack (neighbor) knows how to break into the house without breaking in.



So I go next door and Jack says he used to have a spare key, so he goes in to check and when I'm seconds away from panic attack #2, he finally comes out..... dangling a key. Thank GOD!!!



I almost broke down in tears! So he let me in my house, I ran upstairs, grabbed Bug and squeezed her tight. Then I called Josh and used death threats to ensure that doorknob never gets locked again!



Today, I am the clingiest mom ever!!! :)