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!!!

_________________________________________

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.