Category: Kids & Parenting

18 Months

Published by dee on January 7, 2007

Dear Zachary,

A couple of weeks ago you turned 18 months old. With all of the holiday chaos and the illnesses around our house lately I haven’t had the time to sit down and reflect on your last month. I’m sure you have done some pretty amazing things that I need to record before I forget them.

Probably the biggest thing that happened in the last month was that I went out of town and left you alone with Daddy for four days. I knew that Daddy could handle you while I was gone, but I had a hard time being away from you for that long. One night away is bad enough, but I had to go to bed three nights in a row without any kisses or hugs from my little man. The worst part of it was that I ended up being sick the whole time so I couldn’t even drown my sorrows in a margarita (not that you should ever do that). I did have a great time on my trip but I don’t think I have ever been more happy to be home.

The weekend before I went to Portland, we helped your cousin Ryan celebrate his 2nd Birthday, which only served to remind me of how quickly you’ll be arriving at that milestone. I can’t believe how fast the two of you are growing up. It is so much fun to watch you play together. I realize that you aren’t actually playing together yet but you do manage to keep each other busy. When you aren’t fighting over toys you seem to have a really good time.

Celebrating Christmas was really fun with you this year. We spent Christmas morning at home, but also spent some time at both Grandpa and Grandma’s houses. You must have been a very good little boy this past year because you ended up with tons of new toys. You seemed to enjoy ripping the paper off to find out what was inside, but after a while you got bored and Mommy had to help you a little bit. Everyone must have known how much you love Elmo because he now has a very prominant presence in our home.

Over the last month of so you have developed quite a fascination with kids that are older than you. You’ve always loved playing with your cousin Dylan, but now you get excited any time you are around kids that age. I even bribed you to quit screaming in the car the other day by telling you that we were going to see J at day care.

You continue to amaze me daily by your amazing sense of balance, the many words you can say, and your ability to actually understand what I am saying to you. You seem to be quite an intelligent little boy (I guess you do take after your mom!). You still love to climb and tend to freak people out that aren’t used to watching you climb on things. While I do have to rescue you from time to time when you get too high, I usually leave you alone and let you explore. Your favorite place lately to climb is onto the kitchen table which isn’t really such a good thing.

You are also getting a little bit better at coloring without eating the crayons. I had to take the crayons away for a while because I was tired of fishing little colored pieces out of your clenched teeth. Either I’m getting better at stopping you before you get them to your mouth or you are doing better at using them for their intended purpose because most of your current crayons still have tips on them.

You are starting to get a little more coordinated with using a spoon and fork but still prefer to use your hands for most things. Much of your meal still ends up on your lap, but progress is progress, right? Your favorite food is now cheese. You will go to the refrigerator, hold onto both handles and yell "cheese!" until someone comes in to get you a piece. You will also ask for "wa-wa" (water), juice, drink, and "bob-bob" (SpongeBob fruit snacks) when you want them.

I usually end this with something mushy, to tell you just how much I love you. But all I can think of right now, is that I must be one of the luckiest mom’s in the world to have a son like you. Not a single day goes by that I’m not thankful that you are part of my life.

Love always,
Mama

Comments closed

Lazy Weekend

Published by dee on January 6, 2007

There has been no puke for 24 hours now. Zach seems to be in a much better mood and I am actually getting to relax a bit this weekend. We went out for a little bit this morning to return a purchase and do some shopping. Zach got a brand new stroller for the trip to Hawaii because he has outgrown the cheapie one that we bought when he was a baby. This one should be much more comfortable for him and also will work with our infant seat if/when we have another baby.

While Hubby and I finished watching the last 5 episode’s of Grey’s Anatomy lastnight (because I finally caved and bought them off of iTunes so we could get all caught up) I finished my very first knitting project. I started with a hat because I thought it would be fairly easy but it seemed to take me forever to finish it. I think I started it over Thanksgiving and just now finally got it finished. It turned out pretty good, but is a little too big for Zach’s head. I suppose he’ll grow into it eventually.

A week from today we’ll be leaving to go to Hawaii and I’m finally getting a little bit excited. I’m really dreading the flights there and back because I have no idea how I’m going to entertain Zach that long. But, once we get there I know I’ll really enjoy it. I also have a feeling that the warm weather and sunshine will do wonders for my mood even if I do have to be seen in a swim suit and shorts. At least I can wear my flip-flops without my toes freezing!

Comments closed

Pukefest 2007

Published by dee on January 5, 2007

Yesterday started out as a very normal day. Zach had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon so I picked him up early from day care and took him. It was just a normal check up and everything was fine (35 inches tall, 27 pounds) except that his cold apparently gave him a double ear infection.

The doctor’s visit was quick so afterwards I took him with me back to the office for a little bit. Normally he’ll settle down and watch videos on the extra computer in my office but he wasn’t having any of that. He was abnormally fussy, which I attributed to the fact that his nap got interrupted early, so I decided to just pack it in and go home.

On the way home we stopped at Wal-mart to get his medicine for his ear infection. While we were waiting for it to get filled at the pharmacy we wandered around the store. I stopped in the craft section to get a couple of things and while I was perusing the selection of knitting needles Zach decided to puke all over the floor. Welcome to motherhood!

I’m not sure how I managed to get through his entire 18 months with only one other puking experience, but I did. So this was kind of a new experience for me. The one other time in his life that he has thrown up it was just as I was laying him down in his bed and it was fairly easy to clean up with a change of pj’s, new sheets, and a quick bath.

I informed the lady working in the craft department what had happened and she quickly informed me that she couldn’t clean it up but that she would call someone. While I stood there contemplating what to do with my child who had puke dripping down the front of his clothes she called for maintenance. Other customers needed to go down that aisle and were getting pretty grossed out and no one was showing up to clean up the mess. Finally I said that I would clean it up if someone could just get me something to clean it with. She handed me a roll of paper towels and I cleaned it up the best I could.

We finally got out of there and I pretty much sprinted to the pharmacy to see if his medicine was ready yet. It wasn’t, even though I had waited 5 minutes past the time they told me it would be ready. While we waited another 15-20 minutes for his prescription, Zach fell asleep in my arms, puke and all. I laid him down in the shopping cart, finally got his medicine and checked out.

When we got home, I stripped him down and was just about to put him in the bathtub when I saw the look on his face and knew that it was going to happen again. I snapped into action and his new Elmo potty was officially initiated. I suppose that wasn’t the intended purpose of the potty, but it was the fastest thing I could grab and it kept the puke from landing on me.

We made it through the next couple of hours without any incidents. He refused to eat which was actually a relief because I was afraid anything that went down was sure to come back up. Against my better judgment, I decided to go ahead and give him his medicine before he went to bed. Not such a good idea. He went to bed and I never heard a peep from him so I decided I better check on him before I turned in for the night. When I opened his door the smell hit me. He had indeed thrown up again and it was everywhere.

He got his second bath of the night and then laid down with Daddy for a few minutes while I cleaned up his bed and got it ready for him again. I finally got him back to bed and he slept through the rest of the night okay.

Needless to say, I’m home with him today. So far, there has been no puke today which is a blessing. He’s certainly not feeling up to par, but I’m guessing it is at least better than he was feeling lastnight. He fell asleep around 10:30 and I haven’t heard a peep from him since. Now I’m just praying that he doesn’t pass this nice little bug on to me or Hubby.

Comments closed

It Will Always Be Remembered As A Very Elmo Christmas

Published by dee on December 27, 2006

I’m not even sure where to begin with the telling of the holiday weekend. Everything was really pretty low-key, which is just the way I wanted it to be. Zach, although waking up a little sick on Christmas morning, seemed to enjoy opening his presents. He actually ripped the paper off himself with just a little help getting it started. He got many, many, gifts (probably too many if you ask me) and was the least excited with the ones from Mom & Dad and/or Santa. It seems that his extended family really likes to spoil him. I think his favorite gifts so far are his Sing ‘n’ Boogie Blue, and his Sesame Street tool bench. The TMX Elmo freaks him out a little but after a couple minutes he starts laughing at it. When he can keep the animals out of it long enough to sit in it himself, his Elmo chair also giggles at him and freaks him out just a bit. He seems to be warming up to that one though.

We spent Christmas Eve with my Dad and his wife. I enjoyed the Christmas Eve service at our church, although Zach and my 2-year-old nephew were both really wound up and didn’t want to sit still at all. Afterwards, we returned to my dad’s house where we had a quick dinner and exchanged gifts.

We had a nice and quiet Christmas morning at home, just the three of us. I would have liked a little more time to just hang out with Zach and play with his new toys, but we headed over to my mom’s around noon to hang out with my family.

My sister and her family were already at my mom’s when we arrived. We spent the afternoon lounging around. While the younger boys took naps, we watched a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy (still not done with the second season) and I took the opportunity to do a little knitting. It does seem to get a little easier the more I practice, but the hat I’m making might not hold up for long.

When my brother and his wife arrived we did our gift exchange there. We all got some pretty good loot, but the best gift was my Wacom Tablet that I’ve been wanting for a very long time. I think this was the first year in a very long time that I didn’t already know what my mom had gotten me for Christmas and it was a very nice surprise. I was secretly hoping that she had gotten it for me but I didn’t actually expect to see it when I opened my gift.

After our gift exchange we had dinner together, watched a couple more Grey’s Anatomy episodes (can you tell we’re a bit obsessed?) and then headed home.

Tuesday I got to stay home with Zach, but instead of playing with my new toy, I spent most of the day doing laundry, dishes, and cleaning up Zach’s toys about 10 million times. I would have liked to have just left his toys strung all over the place, but Izzy likes to claim them for herself and chew on them if I do that.

Today I had to go back to work and it just plain sucked. There is so much that I have to do in the next few days and all I want to do is stay home with my baby. He’s still not feeling well and was very clingy when I dropped him off at day care this morning. Fortunately, I was busy enough today that I didn’t think too much about it but I was really happy to pick him up after work.

For more Christmas photos, go on over to Flickr. For some reason I got very few photos at my mom’s house and Elmo was not well represented but I’m hoping my mom and sis will share some of their pics.

2 Comments

Buzz, Buzz

Published by dee on December 14, 2006

After a couple of weeks of trying to tame the bed head hair every morning, I decided to take matters into my own hands and give Zach a haircut. Cutting hair is something I enjoy doing and at one time (many, many, years ago) thought I would do professionally. These days I just keep up with my boys and help friends and family out with an occasional trim.

So, back to Zach. I went out yesterday and bought some kid-friendly clippers for his first home hair cut. I figured I would use the clippers around the bottom and sides but use scissors on top so it didn’t get too short. I sat Zach in his booster chair in front of the tv and turned on The Upside Down Show so he would sit still. It didn’t take long for me to decide just to cut everything off with the clippers. I couldn’t believe how much hair he had up top when I started cutting!

He was very good and didn’t even fuss or wiggle much until the very end. His hair is a little shorter than I originally intended, but I think it looks pretty good. It will definitely be much easier to take care of now. As much as I love his curls and would love to see it grown out a little, it is just too much work and not worth the fighting that ensues when I try to comb it. Besides, I’m guessing it will be grown out in a couple of weeks anyway.

1 Comment

Crunch Time

Published by dee on December 12, 2006

This time of year really gets me going…and not in a good way. The stress of Christmas always gets to me and this year it seems to be worse than ever. A lot of the stress is coming from the fact that I leave Friday for a 4-day weekend out of town. Not only is it the last good shopping weekend before Christmas (you won’t see me out shopping on the 23rd and 24th!) but I’m leaving my precious, sweet, little child for 4 days. I was ok with it until yesterday, when I started getting teary-eyed every time I thought about it. So, in my ordinary avoidance fashion I’m just trying not to think about it. Apparently it isn’t working so well because the tears are welling up again. So, on to other things.

I’ve been running errands like a mad woman during my lunch breaks this week. I have so many Christmas gifts to buy still and I’m running out of time to order them online. So, I’m doing what I can in the short hour I get for lunch and grabbing whatever fast food is nearest the store I need to go to. Yesterday that meant McDonald’s. Today it was Taco Bell. Those are great for the diet which (obviously) isn’t going so well these days. I also caved and picked up a new pair of jeans (a size bigger) so that I won’t be sporting a muffin top when I hang out with my BFF this weekend. That almost brought tears too.

Besides the gifts I have yet to buy and the ones I need to get shipped before I leave, I also decided it would be fun to make some of the gifts this year. I got a new sewing machine a while back and I’ve been having a lot of fun making things out of fleece lately. So, I decided to make two of my nephews fleece blanket and pillow sets for Christmas. I just didn’t realize that I was going to be so crunched for time. I spent the majority of the night lastnight hidden away in the guitar/sewing/spare room working on those. I actually finished both blankets and one pillow before finally making myself go to bed at 11:30. Hopefully tonight I’ll get the second pillow finished and get my Christmas cards ready to mail out.

At some point I suppose I should also get to wrapping some gifts. It might help if I checked to see if I even have any wrapping paper too. I think I have some left over from last year but it might not be enough.

At least one holiday stressor seems to have been lifted. My in-laws told us that they were going to be coming up for Christmas which was really stressing me out. Besides the fact that I have no idea when I would get my house cleaned, I wasn’t really up for rearranging the plans that I had already made for Christmas and Christmas Eve. I enjoy being around family on the holidays, but we already had plans made to be with my family and adding even more people just seemed a little chaotic to me. Lastnight my mother-in-law told me that they didn’t think they would make it because it would be cutting too close to the trip to Hawaii (where we will all be together anyway). I know Hubby was looking forward to them coming, and I’m sure Zach would have enjoyed it too but this will just make things a little more simple on Christmas morning which is how I wanted it to be.

To top it all off, Hubby and I got into a big argument lastnight over something totally stupid. I’m still steaming over it today even though I know I should just let it go. I feel really bad because I know that if I wasn’t already stressed about other things it probably would have just rolled off of me and the whole argument never would have happened. The worst part of it was that we argued in front of Zach and it wasn’t at all constructive. I always said I would never do that and this certainly isn’t the first time it has happened. I feel really bad about the whole thing, but of course I still feel like I was right. Isn’t that just the way it goes?

4 Comments