Bumps and Bruises

I am DEFINITELY raising a little boy.

Just in the past few weeks, he has really started become quite a little dare-devil, and it’s resulted in several different bumps and bruises.

A week ago yesterday, while I was bridesmaid dress shopping in Little Rock, Christopher had his first big fall.  He and Stephen were home alone for the day, and he had gone down for a nap.  Stephen had laid down on the couch to take a nap as well – and when he woke up, it was to a big racket coming from Christopher’s room, followed by screams and cries.  Christopher had climbed out of his crib and fallen OVER the side of it and landed on top of a humidifier we have on the floor next to his crib.  Poor, poor baby.  I know it must have hurt SO bad.  He had scratches on both sides of his face and about four different bruises on the left side of his chest and tummy.  He looked like he’d gotten in a fight!

It was actually MY fault that he fell out – Stephen noticed that the side of the crib had been lowered, but he knew that it wasn’t that way when he had put Christopher in there for his nap.  There is NO WAY that Christopher lowered the crib railing, so my guess is that I hadn’t locked it into place the night before when I had gone in to check on him.  I had lowered it so that I could lean over the crib and kiss him, and when I pulled it up it must have stayed up but not have locked into place, so when Christopher put all of his weight on it, it probably fell down – and he went right down with it!

Another thing he has ALWAYS done is CLIMB.  He’s gonna be a mountain climber!  He is always standing on stuff and climbing on furniture.  A few weeks ago I had sat him down in a normal dining room chair while he was having a snack, and when I looked over at him he was climbing the back of it like a ladder!

  
(I had my hand on the chair seat holding it down so that it wouldn’t tip over while I was taking these pictures.)

Yesterday, we all went outside to decorate the yard for Christmas.  C-man and I were putting up a “lawn ornament” while Stephen was putting the lights on the house.  Stephen had pulled the ladder out and walked away for it for just a split second – and before either of us realized it, Christopher had run over to the ladder and was already on the SECOND RUNG heading his way up!  Stephen hollered and ran back across the yard to get him!  Stevo ended up “helping” Christopher to the top of the ladder – and that little boy had SUCH a big smile on his face!  He loved it!

   

AND… not long after this, he fell off the bottom (lowest) step on our front porch and face-planted into the concrete.  Thankfully he just had a little scratch on his forehead right at his hairline, and it’s not even noticeable today.

I have a feeling MANY bumps and bruises (and scratches, and blood, and broken bones, etc) are in my future!

Thanksgiving 2010

It’s hard to believe that my Thanksgiving Break is almost over!  HOWEVER, I can see Christmas on the horizon and December 16th can’t get here fast enough! (That’s less than three weeks away!  Whoohoo!)

We had a great Thanksgiving this year!  Christopher spent Thanksgiving Eve with his Nana (it was his first overnighter at Nana’s house!) and Stephen and I got to sleep in.  I slept till 8, which *IS* sleeping in for me.  I had set my alarm for 8 so that I could go for a morning jog to make up for the many many calories I would consume later in the day. ;)  After I got home from my jog, I drove to my mother-in-law’s house, picked up Christopher, and came back home.  It was 9:30 at that point, so C and I woke Daddy up and we all started to get ready for lunch at my parents house.

It was just our little Speer family at my mom’s house – Mom, Dad, Tyler, Stephen, Christopher, and me!  Britney was at her grandmother’s house, so we missed her! Mom made a huge meal for us and it was SO yummy.

Christopher had gone to for a nap shortly after we got to my parents, so he missed eating lunch with all of us – but he got his own plate of goodies after he woke up.  This was his first Thanksgiving lunch, since last year he hadn’t started solids yet.  He loved it (although he loves anything and everything that he can put in his mouth!)

We spent a few hours there and around 2:30 headed to my mother-in-law’s house to have dinner over there and watch the Cowboys play – that’s the Olmstead tradition.  Their family friend Mike ate with us, because his wife was visiting her family in Canada!

We had a great Thanksgiving day with both of our families and came home stuffed and have pretty much stayed that way all weekend!  We put our Christmas lights on the house today (but I’ve had my trees up for weeks now!) and I think it’s all so pretty – I just LOVE this time of year.  (And I will love it even MORE after I take my last final of the semester!)

 
This was the table at my mom’s house, minus the rolls.  Turkey, dressing, green bean bundles, corn, deviled eggs, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, and sweet potato casserole!

Mom made three desserts – Coconut Pie for dad, Pumpkin Pie for Tyler, and Chocolate Sheet Cake for herself. 

Christopher’s plate – he ate almost everything!

C-monster at Nana’s house.

With his favorite – and the best – cat ever, Spice!

This is Nana’s newest member of the family,Brooke.  She is so sweet and she’s wonderful with Christopher!

Christopher and Nana – LOVE this picture of them!

I also feel like I should mention that his pants look too short in ALL of these pictures of him – but I promise they’re not.  I really don’t dress my son in high-waters.  They’re folded up so that he doesn’t trip on them when he’s not wearing his shoes, and when he’s sitting or when someone is holding him, they get all hiked up and his shins show. 

 
Chillin’ out with about a million toys in a playpen at Nana’s!

And this is just a sweet picture of my BIG boy.  I took this on Friday morning before we headed to Walmart to survey the damage from early morning shoppers.  I didn’t even attempt to go shopping on Black Friday – Stephen and I are pretty much broke nowadays since I’m in school and not working, ya know!  We are going very light with Christmas this year. (Again – last Christmas I was still on maternity leave.)  We’re getting small gifts for each other but mainly we’re just getting Christopher a few gifts for Christmas eve and of course I’m sure Santa will bring him a few things.  Hopefully when Christopher is older (read: Momma and Daddy will be done with school and have good paying jobs!) we will be able to afford to have a little bit nicer Christmas.  But I also want Christopher to know the REAL reason for the season – celebrating the birth of Christ.  I also want him to know the joy of GIVING to others in need during Christmas.  I want us to have a family tradition where we shop for other children – maybe doing an Angel Tree child like we did last year, or participating in Operation Christmas Child, or something like that. 

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and are having a great weekend of shopping and decorating for Christmas!  I’m going to try to enjoy my last day of Thanksgiving Break tomorrow and gear up for the last SIX driving days (THREE MONDAYS!) of school that I have left!

Turkey Day Break!

Hallelujah! I’m finally on Thanksgiving Break!!!

Even though I don’t have school for a week, I have lots to do and catch up on over this “break” so I’m still going to be very busy!

I’ve been taking pictures of Christopher but I haven’t posted them because I’m trying to decide which ones I want to use on our Christmas cards.

I think I’ve decided not to use these on our cards… but of course they’re too cute not to post!

I’m so excited to spend Thursday lunch with my family, then the afternoon with Stephen’s mom!  We’re getting two Thanksgiving meals cooked for us and I know it will be a wonderful, relaxing day!

(Except I will have to run at some point between meals!)

Happy Turkey Day Break!

     

Reality TV thoughts. That's all.

I've been slacking on my blog, I know!  Just trust me when I say, I'm BUSY!  However, I have been updating my Couch to 5K blog, Ready to Run, every day that I work on the C25K program!  I have been doing it for almost 3 weeks now and I'm about to graduate from the 3rd week of the program.  I am still loving it and REALLY looking forward to running in my first 5k.  Not sure when that will be, but looking forward to it!  I also plan on moving on to the 10k program when I graduate from the C25K program. :)

Today's blog is just me talking. It's not about my family or about Christopher or anything -- just recent things that I have been thinking about/bothered about.

**The Biggest Loser**
Normally, this is my favorite show.  Stephen and I just started watching it last year (Danny Cahill's season) and we LOVED it.  We both formed very strong emotional ties with the contestants - mainly Danny and Abby.  Then came the Spring season, which we enjoyed but didn't really feel that same emotional factor.  But we still enjoyed it!  This year, the contestants are horrible.  The few nice, real, genuine people who were on the show at the beginning of the season have all been picked off by Brendon, Frado, and Patrick.  The only contestant left who I like and would want to win the $250,000 is Ada.

I can't stand Brendon.  Period.  I want to reach through my TV and smack him.
Frado seems like a nice guy, but he's too into the game. Also, I didn't like the way he argued with Aaron last week. (The week that Aaron & Jesse were eliminated)
At first I liked Patrick, but he's been pulled into the horrible Brendon/Frado gameplay aspect of it and I've lost all respect for him.

And as far as Elizabeth goes... I understand why the 3-man alliance is keeping her there, but it drives me up the wall.  She's been under the yellow line SEVEN TIMES out of EIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!  It's absolutely ridiculous that she's still there.  I wonder if she's even TRYING?  She knows that it doesn't matter how much she loses, because she's a placeholder for the boys and they're not going to send her home!  I don't believe that the boys want her there for any reason other than a placeholder.  She's not part of their alliance, and they're not taking care of her "just because."

And I can't help but wonder -- what happens if one of the boys falls below the yellow line with her?  Will the other 2 turn on him?  Let's say Patrick falls below and is with Elizabeth next week -- will Frado and Brendon vote Patrick off?  I mean, he IS a threat.  Would they do that to their own alliance member?  I'd be willing to bet money they would.  It's all a game to them -- they're all concerned about the money and not about their health or the other contestants health -- they're just trying to make it to the finale.  It seriously drives me crazy.  The contestants during first two seasons that Stephen and I watched were NOT game players, and I much prefer the show that way.

As far as the at-home prize goes, I would love to see either Rick (green) or Aaron (yellow) win. And like I said, I think Ada (or maybe Mark) are the only two people on campus right now who I would be okay with winning the finale.


***Dancing with the Stars***
Brandy went home last night and Bristol stays to go on to the finale.  Love.it.

I told Stephen (and I tweeted it as well) several weeks ago that Brandy got on my nerves.  Just sayin!  She did!  She thought she was gonna win and was so smug about it.  She thought she had that cat in the bag, especially when Jennifer Grey started going through all those aches and pains. (Which, coincidentally, also got on my nerves.  Either do the show, or don't, and quit whining, Jenn.)

After they announced that Brandy would be leaving the show, Tom Bergeron asked the judges what they thought about the elimination.  Bruno Toniolo stands up and basically says "America you need to be voting!"  ....maybe forgetting the fact that they announced at the beginning of the show that they received a record-setting number of votes the night before.  Uhhhm. Okay.  ??????

Anyway, after Stephen and I watched the finale last night (we always watch it in our bedroom right before going to sleep) I got on Twitter and said something about getting out of bed and clapping when I heard that Brandy and Maks were going home.  (It's true -- I did.  And I laughed.  And maybe cheered.)  I put a #DWTS hash tag at the end of my tweet, and a few minutes later some random person tweeted at me and said  "You should have fell off your bed and hit your head. #brandy" 

Hahahahaha!  REALLY?????  REALLY!?!?!?!?!?!  I tweeted her/him (couldn't tell by the profile pic) back and said "Ha ha! You're funny!"  I mean seriously, people.  No need to wish ill things to happen to me just because I was glad to see Brandy go home.

Also - I just want to point out that I didn't really CARE either way.  I was actually a Kurt Warner fan and that's the only person I've voted for all season!  I didn't even vote Monday night and it didn't matter to me who went home.  And it doesn't really matter to me who wins!

**************

I have something else to blog about, but I feel like it deserves its own post so I'm going to save it.  Also, I'm going to get my husband to help me write it.  He helps to censor me and he has great input when it comes to this subject in particular.  I'll forewarn you that it deals with my PERSONAL OPINION AND FEELINGS about a person who lives in our town who is a fairly well-known religious leader.  I'm not going to name any names.  If you think it might offend you, don't read it.  And I'll be changing my comments to where I have to give approval to have them shown.  I won't have an argument going on in my comment section.

CHRISTMAS CARDS!

I was SO excited when I heard that Shutterfly is giving away 50 holiday cards to bloggers, so I immediately jumped on the bandwagon and signed up to blog about it!

One of my very favorite things about Christmas is, of course, the mail!  I absolutely LOVE getting Christmas cards from all of our friends and family.  I equally love taking our Christmas pictures and picking out our cards to send out to loved ones!  The last 2 years I have had so much fun sending out cards. 

The first year Stephen and I were married, I sent out a picture of our “family” at the time – us and our three dogs, Baxter, Kodi, and Zoe.  You can see the picture that I sent out here.  I know that I have a copy of the card around here somewhere, but I am in no mood to go tearing through the house to look for it.

Last year, we had a 4-month-old little cutie and so we just had a sweet picture of him on it, with my legs and our white tree in the background.  I still have that card on our fridge, so I scanned it in for everybody to see. :)

I have always gotten my picture cards from the same old mega-mart down the road.  When I headed over to Shutterfly’s website, I found a TON more options for the same price OR less!  They have Folded Greeting Cards, Flat Stationary Cards, and Flat Photo Cards. I am so excited about picking out my cards this year.  What will I do?  Fun theme, or serious theme?  One picture, like the last few years, or multiple pictures?  Family pictures, of just pictures of Christopher? Traditional colors, or fun bright colors? Flat picture card, or folding card?  I’m overwhelmed with the possibilities!

I have lots of new blog mom friends this year and I hope that you will all share your addresses with me so that I can send you an Olmstead Family Christmas Card, and so that I can receive a fun card from you!

Here are a few of my favorites (THERE ARE SO MANY! HOW WILL I CHOOSE?!?) from Shutterfly, just from looking through them for a few minutes… I will spend MUCH more time looking through them with the hubby and deciding on the final “perfect” one for our family!

 
Retro Plaid – Love the colors in this one; love having 3 pictures, love that it has the year on it.

Dazzle and Shine (folded card) – Love the pretty, bright colors. Love the inside of it.

 
Elegant Cranberry Damask – Love the red and black, but I’m trying to stay away from just the one picture. But I looove the elegant way this one looks.

 
Peppermint Pink – If I knew Stevo wouldn’t have a cow, I’d order this one right now.  I love it!  But I don’t think he’d approve of the pink.  Maybe if/when we have a little girl?  If you have a little girl – this is perfect!

 
Season Chic Noir – Love. This. One. Love the monogram, love the 3 pictures, love the traditional colors. This may be The One?!?

 
Framed With Love – love the wording, love all the pictures for a cute little C-monster!

There are SO MANY cute ones to choose from, I’m not sure how I’ll ever decide!

I want to let everybody (who hasn’t already heard about it) know that Bloggers get 50 FREE holiday cards from Shutterfly!! Sign up here!

Can I just say...

It really sucks to have your feelings hurt by family.
Of all people - they know you best and should know how you are going to react to certain things.

I would also like to say that it makes me mad to PAY for an app that is supposed to make blogging from my iPhone easier, only to have it work a few times then constantly tell me that my "network is not ready for posting" anytime I try to use it.

But the other thing is what really has me upset tonight.

Please don’t judge me.

I needed to clean the kitchen.  I can’t do that with a little boy under my feet or trying to climb in the dishwasher or getting into the dog’s water bowl or doing who knows what else.

And I knew that this would keep him occupied.

I was able to unload the clean dishes from the dishwasher, then load it back up with dirty dishes.  It also gave me enough time to pick up the living room.

He immediately got a bath, of course.  He needed one anyway, and I figured – why not let him get a little messy beforehand?

And NOW, he is FINALLY taking a nap (his sleeping schedule is a little messed up because of DST) and I have a clean kitchen and living room. :)

Thankfulness

Today, I am thankful for my family.

I am thankful for my best friend and husband, who does SO much for me and loves me despite my many flaws.

I am thankful for the sweetest, cutest little boy in the whole world.  He is my sunshine!

I am thankful for my mom and my dad.  There is SO much I could say about them, but I will just say that I am blessed with a wonderful mom and dad who have helped Stephen and me with SO much through our first few years of marriage.  I am honestly not sure what we would have done without them.  They are also the best “Pawpaw and Granny” Christopher could have ever asked for!

I am thankful for an awesome brother and sister-in-law (SIL as of January 1, 2011) who are mine and Stephen’s closest friends.  They are so much fun to be around and they love their nephew like crazy!

I am thankful for a sweet mother-in-law who is always there for us when we need her and has also helped us a lot through the past few years. She is an all-around good person and friend, and she is a wonderful Nana!

I am thankful for Stephen’s brother and sister-in-law.  Even though we only see them a few times a year, we always have fun catching up with them and they love Christopher to pieces!

Insomnia

WHY have I been having such a hard time sleeping lately?  It’s driving me CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been up, (after laying in bed for an hour) goofing off on the computer, for about an hour now.  I need to try to go back to bed and get some sleep, because I have a feeling that this little cutie will be waking me up whenever he feels like in the morning.  Which will hopefully be past eight o’clock.  Please, please, please be past eight o’clock!

Goodnight! (Hopefully!)

Running

I have decided to start a new blog and dedicate it to all my Couch to 5K/Jogging-related posts.  I will post this entry on the blog and then all of my future jogging blogs will be on that blog only.  I added a link to it on the right column of my blog.  Feel free to follow that blog and follow my journey to a 5k!

Several months ago I wrote about starting the Couch to 5K program.  I am very good at starting things, then not finishing them.  I only did 1 week of the program in September.  :(

I am hoping that is not the case this time around! I started again this week and I am hoping to STAY WITH IT!  I love, love, love it.  I LOVE jogging.  I have NEVER been a runner, but I’ve always wanted to be.  I read several blogs of girls that I both know and don’t know, who have been running half-marathons, and I am super jealous because I want to do that! 

SO, anyway.  Day before yesterday, I started up the C25K again.  I thought about starting out with Week 1, which is probably what I should have done.  Week 1 is a 5 minute warm-up, then you alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes, followed by a 5 minute cool down.  When I did the first week 2 months ago, I loved it, thought it was tough but definitely “do-able,” and finished it without feeling like I was going to die.

Week 2 is a 5 minute warm-up, then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and 2 minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes, and a 5 minute cool-down. It doesn’t sound that hard to me. It’s SIX 1.5-minute jogs and FIVE 2-minute walks.  Let me tell you…. it’s hard.  The first three jogs are not tough.  The fourth one starts getting to me. The fifth one I skip, and the sixth and final jog, I can barely get through.  BUT, I do as much as I can without falling over on the side of the road and dying in the ditch. And at the end of the run, I feel really good.

By the time the 30-minute workout is over, I still have a little ways before I get home, so my cool-down is more like 10 minutes instead of 5, but that’s a good thing.  Right now I am running/walking right at 2 miles, but as I move on each week, I will run more and walk less, which means I will be going further.  I cannot WAIT until I will run my entire first 5K!  And my long-term goal is to run a half-marathon (13.1 miles) next FALL.

I have done 2 days of the 2nd week, but I am going to do it twice, instead of doing the 3rd week next week. I am hoping to post each time I run until I finish the program, then I will start training for a longer distance.  :)

If you want more information about the Couch to 5K program, click here.  There are also apps for the iPod/iPhone (and Droid as well, I believe) that are very handy.

And, last but not least, I’d like to introduce you to my new best (and worst) friend.  I’m not positive yet, but I think I’m going to name her Betty.

I say best, because she will make it so much easier to go for a run while I am by myself with Christopher.  I say worst, because she weighs 30ish pounds… plus 25ish pound-Christopher.  You can do the math.

Happy jogging!

Monkey-ing Around

We had a great Halloween! 

Christopher was a monkey for Halloween this year.  He was the cutest little monkey I have ever seen, if I do say so myself!  Haha!

We only visited a few houses this year – but I am looking forward to years in the future.  I think next year will definitely be a fun one.

We started out at Nana’s house.

Next, we made our way over to Gina and Richard’s house.  Christopher got a (belated) birthday present at their house!

Before we left, we took a few (a LOT) of pictures on Gina’s front porch next to her (fake, thankfully) pumpkins and mums.  Christopher loved to take the pumpkin and throw it off the steps into the yard.

 
Next, we went to Granny and Papaw’s house.
Here’s a side view of Christopher’s padded monkey tummy.  Love it.

See the cute little tail?

We had a really fun time even though we only hit 3 houses!  Christopher got some fun stuff from his grandparents, and Stephen and I got some yummy chocolates from Richie & Gina. :)  The only bad thing was that it was warm.  Poor Christopher was wearing a long-sleeved onesie underneath his costume, and I’m sure he was burning up between the onesie, the costume, and the 75-degree weather! Who would have thought that it was have been so warm on Halloween!?!

I realized on Saturday that I should have been teaching Christopher how to make a monkey sound for Sunday night.  We started working on it Saturday and he kind of did it on Sunday, but when we got him home from all of his trick-or-treating last night and sat him down for dinner, he was doing it really well!  I yanked out the camera and caught a few seconds of it before my battery died.  Also – notice he does a little arm movement the second time!
Enjoy our little monkey!