Ack! (Alternatively titled: I’m Back!/Christopher is 18 months!)

I cannot believe it’s been two whole weeks since I wrote a blog!

I feel like such a slacker.  :-/ (Although I promise – I’m really not!)

Seems like so much has happened in the last two weeks, yet it’s not really been anything all that big or exciting.  :)

I’ll catch up in several individual posts over the next few days (promise!) but first and foremost, (and even though I should have been in bed an hour ago – I have college tomorrow!) I must write about C-Monster turning 18 months old!

Friday, February 18 was the day!  When he woke up that morning I went into his room singing “Happy Half-Birthday to you,” and he just looked at me like I was crazy.

I meant to take a picture of him in a nice outfit sitting in his crib next to his name (like all of his other “monthly” pictures I took) but I never did get around to it that day. I took these right after he woke up.

  

We spent the day together while Stephen worked. (Although I do think we visited with both grandmothers for a little while.)  It was  a pretty low-key day and I’m pretty sure I made it through with minimal tears.

Christopher Tyler,
I cannot BELIEVE that 18 months have passed since the day that you were born.  It’s FLOWN by, my love! They have been the best 18 months of my entire life.  I cherish every single second I get to spend with you and I am so thankful that God picked ME to be your Mommy!  You are such a precious little boy and I am continually amazed by you.  You are the light of my (and your daddy’s) life! I cannot imagine my world without you in it.

What are some things that you’re doing at 18 months?

-- You just started wearing size 5 diapers.  You wore size 4 diapers for over a year.
-- You can still wear some 12-month clothes, but you mostly wear 18-month stuff.  Although, some 18-month things are too small. And then other 18-month stuff is too big. Ha!
-- You love to drink! You have milk in the mornings (usually two glasses) and water the rest of the day.  Most days you have one glass of apple juice (half water, half juice) which you like a lot. You drink out of straws really well.  You love water and I’m so glad you do!
-- Almost every morning (at least on the mornings that I don’t have college) we share a bowl of Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal and snuggle on the couch. It is my very favorite part of the day!
-- You are great about independent play! (At least at our house! At Granny’s house – ha! Not so much!) You love all of your toys… and you also love all of my pots and pans!  Every single day, at least twice a day, I pick up all of the pots and pans that you’ve dragged out from the cabinets. Your daddy says he’s going to put a lock on the cabinet, but I told him I don’t mind because you love it and it really doesn’t make that big of a mess.  Your room, however… goodness, child – you can make it go from clean to disaster-area in about 4.7 seconds flat. Daddy keeps saying “I can’t wait until he can clean up after himself!!!!  although I’m not quite sure why he says that because he doesn’t clean up after you half as much as I do… haha!
-- You can say several different words but you don’t really talk a lot.  You can make a few different animal noises and you say/nod “yes” and “no” but you just don’t have a lot to say right now.  I have a feeling when you do start talking you may never quit!
-- Even though you don’t talk a lot, you listen and understand everything that we say to you. We can ask you questions or ask you to do something and you understand us and do them!
-- You LOVE bath time.
-- You eat very well and still aren’t picky. Occasionally you may shake your head NO at something we offer you, but usually if I offer it 10 minutes later, you’ll eat it. 
-- You love your puppy dogs.  You are always petting and loving on Baxter because he’s inside all the time. You are almost always VERY sweet and gentle with the dogs and that makes me very happy!  I think you will be an animal person (just like your momma and daddy!) 
-- When you’re loving on someone (human or dog, or sometimes stuffed animal) you squeeze them and kind of make an “uuuuhhhhh” noise like you’re squeezing so hard you can hardly stand it!  It’s adorable and melts my heart!
-- When we tell you to give us a kiss or to give us sugar, you turn your cheek to our lips so that we can kiss you on the cheek.  Occasionally, when you are being playful and super-sweet, you will hug my neck and pat my head or hair then lean forward and give me a kiss on the lips.  Oh.My.Goodness. I could just die from the sweetness!
-- You sleep SO well and you always have.  I am SO SO SO thankful for this! Your bedtime is 7 pm (although over the last week or two it has been between 7 and 8) and you usually sleep until at least 8 am.  On the nights when you have stayed up later, you have slept in later – as late as 9 or 10 (or this morning, 10:30!)  Most days you take one nap, usually between 11 and 1, (it varies depending on what time you got up) and nap for about 2 to 3 hours. On the days when I have college class, you have to get up early –- usually around 7, so I think that you take 2 naps at Granny’s house on those days.
-- At your 18-month appointment you were about 33 inches long (66th percentile) and weighed about 26.5 pounds (57th percentile.)
-- You have 12 (I think) teeth. We brush them every night!
-- You have recently been throwing some serious temper tantrums! Usually it is because you are not getting your way or because I’ve taken something away from you that you aren’t supposed to have. Most of the time when you’re super fussy, it’s because you’re tired and you need a nap.  We can ask you, “are you ready to go lay down/take a nap?” and you will nod your head yes. :)

I know that there’s more than I’m forgetting, but hopefully if I remember them I can come back and add them or blog about them separately. I love having a blog to document and record all these important milestones in your life and I hope one day you’ll be able to read them and appreciate them. :) Your momma loves you to the moon and BACK (times infinity!)

cheese and babies.

Stephen and I have decided to join the gym and start eating healthier -- a whole lifestyle change, really.  I'm excited about it and READY for it.  We both really need it.  I have missed running and working out.  I hope to be able to get back into running, especially now that Spring is just around the corner and the really cold weather is (hopefully) a thing of the past.

Today we sat down and made a huge list of healthy food and then went to the store to stock up on veggies, fruits, and lean meats.  I am a picky eater, so I have trouble "dieting" and I've found that the best way for me to lose weight is to use portion control and make smart choices about what I eat.  I was on the lookout for healthy-ish yet flavorful (read: doesn't taste like cardboard) things for me to eat for lunch/snacks.  One of the things I picked up was this...

I've always been curious about them but wasn't sure that I would like them.  I had one with my dinner tonight (tuna) and it was SO yummy! I just spread it on some crackers. Definitely a good buy and something that would go well with a small lunch. Yummy. :)

The weather was in the high 60s today and we went on a family walk this afternoon.  It's the first time Christopher has been in a stroller in a few months, I think! We took ALL three of our dogs, plus it was Jasper's first time out on a leash.  He did pretty good after the first few minutes and we all enjoyed the fresh air. Stephen doesn't really like walking, but it's something that I love to do, especially as a family. It's one of the things I looked forward to most when I was pregnant with Christopher!

Speaking of pregnancy....

no, I'm not.  But recently I've been having a little bit of baby fever!  I think it has to do with the fact that my baby is going to be 18-months-old in 5 short days.  WHAT?!?!?!?  I know!  He is becoming more like a "little boy" every single day.  I know that I definitely want another one -- and honestly, if Stephen and I were at a point in our life where we could have another one, we would probably try -- we just both know that now isn't the time.  We both want another child, but we really want to be finished with school with teaching jobs when we have another.  Hopefully it is something that we can talk about in another few years. :)

I'm off to do busy-work homework.  Good night!

Snow Day

So.

We were predicted to get up to 10 inches of snow yesterday.  I was SO excited about it. I went to the store on Tuesday evening after I got home from school, to get bread and lunchmeat and a few other little things.  And apparently so did every other person in Polk County! Walmart was almost completely out of eggs!  The only packages of eggs left were the huge boxes of 2 or 3 dozen. However, there was still plenty of milk and bread.  So, apparently during a snowstorm, people eat eggs.  I laughed as I told this to Stephen later that night…. then yesterday, we ate our last four eggs when we made omelets for dinner.

Speaking of omelets for dinner, here’s what happens when Stephen makes them:

{He was laying on the couch watching TV when I took this pic. Boy doesn’t know how to clean up after himself to save his own life. But, like I said on Twitter, I AM thankful that he made dinner AND that the mess he made was contained to this small area.}

Anyway, back to the snow. I woke up yesterday morning around 8 and looked outside anxiously, expecting to see several inches already blanketed on the ground… but I only saw an inch or so. Fast forward to an hour later when I checked Facebook, and apparently NWA (which was expected to get 2-4 inches) got ALL OF OUR SNOW plus some!  People measured over TWENTY inches of snow, which is just plain crazy, especially considering they got 14 inches last week.

We ended up getting about 3 or 4 inches, which isn’t bad… but I spent the rest of the day in a bad mood because NWA stole all my snow.

I should have used the day to be productive and do laundry and clean house, but it’s hard for me to get motivated when I stay in my pajamas all.day.long.

Public school systems across the state started announcing cancellations for Thursday by mid-afternoon, and I started worrying about whether or not Henderson was going to cancel class.  It’s about a 1 hour & 40 minute drive to get to Arkadelphia normally, so Stephen and I are usually heading out of town about 2 hours before class, about 7:30am.  The highway between here and there is very shaded and not well-traveled, especially between midnight and 7am. There’s a very good chance that the highway won’t be clear, even when roads in Mena and/or Arkadelphia are drivable.

By 7 or 8, Arkadelphia Public Schools announced they were going to be closed on Thursday, so I started obsessively checking the HSU website to see if they had announced yet. By 9:30 Stephen and I had pretty much decided that there was no way we were going to risk the drive, we just hated to miss because we missed last Tuesday because of weather. Most teachers understand when you can’t make it, but they still count you as an unexcused absence.

My brother and SIL saw somewhere on TV that Henderson would be open… stink!  I just couldn’t believe they would be open when nearly every school in a 60-mile radius was closed.

I was in the process of checking their website again when I got the text.

Hallelujah!

One of the great things about snow days in college is that you don’t have to make up the days at the end of the year.  Which means I’ll be out of school by May 12.  Which is 13 weeks from today.  Can I get a whoop whoop!?

Today will be spent being productive (I’ve already got a load of laundry in the washer!) and, you know, bathing. If it warms up (it was 10 degrees when I got up at 8:00) I may take Christopher outside in what will probably be the last snow of the season!

Here’s another iPhone pic from yesterday:

Does this picture remind you of anything?

Stephen thinks its funny to pull Christopher’s pants up to his eyeballs after he changes a diaper.  Momma doesn’t think so.

Aaaand, one last thing.

While I was writing this blog this morning, Christopher was playing in some cabinets that I thought were harmless. You know, pulling stuff out of them, playing with plastic cups, etc.

Weeeelll.

Apparently I’d forgotten that I’d put a baggie of Baking Soda in the cabinets to get rid of any funny odors.  Obviously, Christopher found it.  I swept it up as best I could, but when I walk through the kitchen I can still feel powdery stuff on my feet.  Ick.

I fixed that by putting on my favorite pair of houses shoes. Ha!

But it also gives me good reason to Swiffer sweep and Swiffer mop the floors.  Which I already planned on doing anyway, but this way I’ll definitely do it.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my Swiffer products?  Cause I do! The Wet Jet I got for a wedding gift and the Sweeper I bought when Christopher started crawling.  The Sweeper is probably the best $40 I’ve ever spent in my whole life.

Okay.  I’ve procrastinated enough.  And I feel as though this post had made up for my pathetic attempts at blogging over the past few weeks.  Happy Snow Day, everybody!

whine. superbowl party. whine.

I know it's been awhile since I had a good blog post.  Recently it's either been Project 365 posts or just me rambling about useless stuff.... which is what this blog is going to be. Sorry.

To be honest, I haven't been in much of a "bloggy" mood.  I think it's school.  I'm having trouble getting back in the "groove" this semester, and I'm not sure why.  My days at school are longer, maybe that's it.  Maybe it's the change with Stephen's job.  Maybe it's having Stephen with me on the drive to and from school.  The cold, dreary weather, the thought of summer being so far away... I'm just not feeling as focused as I was last semester. I want to be focused.  I'm just not.  Anyway, I said all that to say that I'm just not feeling like myself and it's affected my whole mood, including writing on the blog.

Last night Stephen and I hosted our annual SuperBowl Party. It was alot of fun... we had our family over here (minus my mother-in-law, who is on vacation in New Zealand) and two other friends. Stephen cooked his world-famous chicken wings, ranch & bleu cheese dips, and we had pizza rolls, home-made guac, cheese dip, salsa, black bean pinwheels, fruit & fruit dip, and cake balls and cookie surprise cupcakes for sweets. It was a lot of fun!

I didn't take ANY pictures.  In fact, I've not taken any pictures at all since last Thursday, which = Big Fat Fail on the Project 365 for this week. I blame this on my funky mood. After three consecutive days of not taking pictures, I decided to just take the week off and pick back up this coming Thursday.  It's a P365 vacation, if you will.

Speaking of vacation, have I mentioned lately that I can't wait till summer? Cause I can't. If everything works out, I should be able to just take classes one summer session so that I can have the other half of the summer off and just be with my family. I.Cannot.Wait.

I promise my next post will not be all boring and whiny. Promise.

Project 365: January 27 - February 2

1.27.2011 – I had to have a “professional dress” photo for a class project, so before school I threw on a nice top and instructed Hubby to just “take it from the waist up.”  Hahaha!

 
1.28.2011 – Little boy thinks he’s big enough to drive.

1.29.2011 – Christopher has now decided to start taking toys into the dog kennel with him.  {Little basketball, wooden block, toy vacuum, computer mouse, tractor, pillow, and sippy cup of milk. And no, I did not let him drink any more of that milk after it’d been in there. I promise it’s not dirty, though, otherwise I wouldn’t let him play around it.} Crazy child.

1.30.2011 – Mac & Cheese and Chicken Strips. Is there a better combination?  I think not. 

Except for peanut butter and chocolate.

1.31.2011 – The stupid freaking dog kennel that Christopher’s been playing with that I thought was no big deal… well, somehow when he was opening the door to it, he scratched himself really badly on the cheek.  I assume there’s a sharp piece of metal or something.  His daddy told him not to worry if it left a scar, because “chicks dig scars.”  However, mommas don’t dig scars.  He LOVES bath time.  For awhile there he hated it and so we switched to giving him showers with one of us, but now he just loves baths and throws a fit when we got to get him out.  :)

2.01.2011 – My hubby’s yummy toasted sourdough sandwiches are SO freaking awesome.  Mustard/ranch mixture, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, rotisserie chicken, and avocado.  Yum. O.

2.02.2011 – Um, excuse me, do you recognize the boy in the picture above? Because I am QUITE sure that it is NOT my little boy.  No, that child sitting in the booster seat in the hairdresser’s chair holding a dum-dum and eating it by himself is NOT MY BABY. 

Please excuse me while I go cry in the corner.
{By the way, that was the best hair appointment we’ve had so far. He acted like such a big boy!  He didn’t cry and wasn’t scared of the clippers. He just ate him dum-dum (and shared with Mommy!) like an old pro!

"Bewwa," "Bahbah"

Christopher doesn't really talk much yet.  I have a feeling that when he does start talking, it will be non-stop... but for now he is still just babbling, mainly.  He has said several different things a few times, but then he stops saying them.  For example, he said "bye-bye" before he was 12 months old, but he doesn't really say it anymore.  At one point he would go "woof woof" when I asked him how a puppy dog goes... but he doesn't do it anymore.  Right now, almost everything he says sounds like "bewwa" or "buhbuh."  This works out okay if I'm asking him to say the dogs names... (Bella and Baxter) but then I ask him to say "Granny" and he says "Bewwa."  He can also saw "PawPaw" but it doesn't always come out like that.  Ha!

Anyway, I had Stephen take a video of Christopher the other morning saying a few words.  In this video he does say "Mama" pretty clearly and he does a pretty good job of getting a "J" sound out in "Jasper."  I'm sure in a few more months he will be able to say all these words without a problem, so I wanted to capture this in a video just so that I had something to look back on and laugh at in a few years!