Saturday, December 30, 2006
Happy New Year!
Julianna has changed a bunch since I last posted. She's learned to crawl and is almost walking. She's taken a few steps and ventures out on her own pretty often now. There's never a dull moment with her these days. She even stands up in her crib and plays for a while before she decides to finally take a nap.
Work has been good, but a little hectic. It's been very nice to have a couple of weeks off for the holidays. I moved classrooms at school so I spent a lot of time the last week at school trying to get organized and adjusted in my new environment. The new room is a lot nicer though so it's been exciting. Anyway, I've had a HUGE project for work that I've been having to work on over Christmas break which is no fun, but at least I've been getting it done while big J babysits. It's good for him to have alone time with the little girl too.
Yesterday, mom and dad actually kept little J so that we could go to the movies and to lunch which was SO NICE. We even got to take a nap on the couch! It was awesome!
Well, I can't write much more without starting to ramble so I'll quit while I'm ahead (or at least while I think I am). More on Monday...
Monday, November 20, 2006
ponderings from the queen of the snot house
well, i'm not feeling too well and the little girl is still congested from whatever started as a result of her flu shot. neither one of us is sleeping very soundly because of it. i think for little J it’s just really hard for to breathe at night (although that’s not stopping her from wanting to walk all over the place during the day with snot dripping along her path…)
she is becoming more and more mobile. she has been working on her army crawl over the past couple of days as well as still trying to learn to regular-crawl. of course, she really prefers to be up walking by holding our hands, but she can go really fast now holding on with just one hand and she is making progress with the crawling. i dread it, but i also encourage her to learn.
anyway, we saw some good friends of ours briefly this past weekend which was nice. they were in town from Florida and i think we’re going to try to plan a beach trip with them sometime in the next couple of months so that the little girls can play together.
oh and i need to tell you Oh Friends of the Internet that i finally set another weight-loss/exercise goal. (if i don’t put it out there, i’ll never do it.) i am going to start running/dieting again whenever my sister-in-law has her baby. she’s due at the end of December, but of course can go into labor any time now and i just needed to pick a date to start so that’s what i came up with. plus maybe if she's trying to lose weight then too, maybe she will provide some inspiration. if it’s not after Christmas well then… oh well then… i’ll at least start exercising and then work on the diet more after the new year.
so anyway, that’s all i’ve got today. sorry to bore you.
Friday, November 17, 2006
time keeps on ticking... ticking...
the picture doesn't do it justice. he had a softball size lump sticking out of the side of his face. it was a busy day Wednesday with a staff meeting that i volunteered to lead half of and a sick cat and baby to tend to; plus i was going on very little sleep since Jules kept us up a lot of the night. by last night i had called the doctor about little J’s fever and since they told me to take her temperature rectally i had to rush home and figure out how to do that. nope, never done it before, but knew i’d have to figure it out sooner or later. i knew that a low grade fever after the shot was normal but i didn’t know what constituted a low grade fever.
anyway, her temperature was 102 degrees and she was getting pretty congested so i called and the after hours nurse told me that we had been giving her the wrong dose of children’s Tylenol. we’d been giving her 0.4 ml and were supposed to be giving 1.2 ml! who knew?! why don’t they print that mess on the bottle instead of just saying “For children under 24 pounds contact a physician”?! so we finally got the right amount of medicine in her and she started to feel a little better you could tell. she slept better last night even though she still cried out every hour or so.
so about the cat - i called the vet this morning and had to take him in as soon as possible. the vet put him on antibiotics and told us to give it 24 hours. if the swelling doesn’t go down by the morning we’ll have to take him in first thing and get him anesthetized and the wound lacerated (wow! that sounds fun) so nothing else gets infected. by the way, the vet said it was obviously from another cat’s bite. so yeah. lots of free time since i turned in my final exam. i'm so glad tomorrow is Friday.
i’ve gotten the suitcases out to start packing for the beach, but nothing has made it in them. only three more days of work.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
the holiday season has begun
on a happier note, we had Thanksgiving with part of the family on Saturday. we got some cute pictures of little J on the tractors at big J's grandmother's house and of course we had good food. we are going to the beach with the other part of the family next week so i'm sure we'll get some more cute Thanksgiving pictures and more good food. it's nice to stretch it out instead of rushing from house to house. plus we get to spread out eating the yummy food instead of cramming it in all in one day like some families do. we don't usually have Thanksgiving together with my family so i am excited about being at the beach longer with them too instead of the usual 3 days. so now the countdown is on. only 6 more days! the holiday season has officically begun! maybe i'll start playing some Christmas music!
Monday, November 13, 2006
i'm back
SO
i promised cute baby pictures and here they are.
Jules has been trying to learn to crawl…
and she's figuring out how to use the computer...
she's also already been having fun playing dress up...
her daddy still puts her to bed every night...
and she's had a lot of fun playing in the leaves!
Thursday, November 2, 2006
i promise i haven't died
and oohhhhhh i've got some cute baby pictures to show you! :)
Monday, October 30, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
on my mind
this weekend is going to be a crazy one. we have a parent conference day all day tomorrow and i am dropping my car off to get brakes worked on before work. we have to go to a surprise birthday party for my uncle on Saturday night. Saturday morning some co-workers and i are taking some time out at Dream Dinners and Sunday my family is going on their first 5th Sunday Hike after church. i also have to fix brunch for the Sunday School class (don’t have a clue what i’m doing there and i haven’t had a chance to go to the store but i’ll figure it out sometime). hope you all have a great weekend!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
month seven
You are already seven months old! You are changing daily so it seems like time is going by so fast. You have three more new teeth now (all on top) and you are making progress with your walking. You are also finally showing a few signs of interest in crawling although last month we would have sworn that you would never want to crawl. We thought you would go straight to walking since you beg to be UP so much. You consistently reach for our hands and lift your arms in the air as if you are begging to be picked up or “walked.” You tug on our sleeves when you are sitting next to us until we hold your hands for you to pull up. You have amused us on the rocking horses this month and you’re all over the house in your walker. You amaze me in how much stronger you get every day. You are learning to communicate more and more and you are making it easier for us to give you what you want. Wow! Time goes by so fast!
You are still sleeping great – almost 11 hours at night and 3 hours during the day. You have cut back to only two naps a day now which makes things a little more difficult for your mommy but it’s OK because I get to see you more and we can go out for longer periods of time now. No more dashes to the grocery store in the blink of an eye. Now we can take a little more time and you have especially learned to love riding in the front of the cart and watching everything that goes on. You lean your head waaayyy back to see everyone that goes by. Just like your mama, you love to watch people.
We actually took you to the fair this month which was pretty uneventful, but a first for you. You got to take in all the sights and smells; mostly you just watched everyone.
You say, “bbbbaaaaaa, baaaaa, baaaa” all the time and “mmmmmmm, mmmmmmm, maaaaa, maaa, maaaaa” too. You *almost* know who mama is (and dada too), but kitty is one word you know for sure! You love to pet Simon and try to eat his feet sometimes. You smile every time you see him.
You also still have quite a bit of fun in the bath each night. You’re learning to drink the water and roll and laugh and play.
You are still gaining weight too! You’re almost up to 22 pounds now and you’re wearing 12+ month clothes now. You still look a lot like your daddy, but I think you have a lot of my personality (both good and bad). There’s no question that you are ours.
You’ll have to get a flu shot soon, but of course I know you’ll take it like a champ. You always do. You only whimper a tiny bit and then are easily distracted.
We did have a few firsts this month. One morning I walked in the kitchen to get a washcloth to wipe your mouth and I left you on the couch. I learned a hard lesson when I heard a thump from the other room and then I heard you crying. I was crying long after your tears were gone, but you were OK – just scared. I felt such an enormous amount of guilt after that, but I know it won’t be the first time either.
We also saw the first signs of “stranger anxiety” in you when you cried at other people holding you recently. Selfishly, it makes me feel so warm and well… loved, but it also makes me wish that you wouldn’t hurt other people’s feeling either. It makes me so sad sometimes when I think about how independent you’ve become and how you don’t want to just sit (how boring!) in my lap anymore. I know it won’t be long before you don’t want much to do with me at all and you’ll be all over the place so I am cherishing this time with you. Julianna, I love you. Love, Mama
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
a is for beautiful
anyway, basically she was reading an alphabet book to my cousin (the first grandchild on that side of the family) where it listed one word on each page for every letter of the alphabet. well, when she was reading she somehow read, “A is for beautiful” instead of what the first page actually said and everyone had a good laugh.
since i wasn’t there at the time i obviously don’t remember this happening, but i have heard the story told many times over by my mom and dad as well as by my aunt and uncle. my grandmother died many years ago, but when i started my official blog (the first blog was published on my own no-longer active site www.courtneytucker.org) it was the most natural name i could think of. i knew that i would be writing mostly about my adventures in parenthood and it seemed a worthy name and a good tribute to my grandma. so that’s my story and i’m sticking to it. what phrases make you think of one of your relatives?
Friday, October 20, 2006
today in numbers
loads of laundry folded: 3
diapers changed: 2
amount of time until my parent conference: 2 hours 10 minutes
pieces of Halloween candy that i've eaten today (it's 9:52 am people!): 8
hours until my weekend begins: 5
this week in pictures
Thursday, October 19, 2006
to have and to hold from that day forward
it takes a lot of pressure off of us for special occasions and then we usually just get to spend time with each other (which to me is the best gift anyway). today is our four year anniversary. last night we got to spend special time together to celebrate the last four blissful years of marriage. it was a nice quiet evening with just the two of us.
anyway, i feel like i’ve learned a lot over the last few years. i’ve obviously learned that marriage isn’t easy and that it takes a lot of work. you need more than just love for each other. when we don’t work really hard at our marriage things can get rough, but we are both committed to it so we always go back to working hard at it and then it is good.
over the last four years i’ve also learned that marriage can be just as rewarding as i always thought it would be. you have someone to go through life with. someone to share the happiness and the sorrow. someone to help carry your burdens and who loves you even when they don't have to.
so Booger, thank you for the last four years. thank you for working with me to make our marriage work. thank you for being my CTO, my best friend, my partner in crime, and my sounding board. thanks for laughing at my stupid jokes and listening endlessly to my stories and complaints. thank you for my little girl, for helping me create a perfect family, for making me happy, and for your committment. i’ll love you always, CCC
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
the end of the grading period
sometimes i think of how easy it would be to just give the students the grades they want (and the grades their parents want them to get) to avoid the hassle of having to meet with them later. i know some teachers who do this. but i've noticed that i especially want to just give “easy A” grades now that i have a baby and have different priorities in life and many more uses for my time. i really don’t want to be meeting with parents arguing over dumb project grades. i want to be home playing peek-a-boo and yes, even chaging smelly diapers.
but the teacher in me – the one who wants to do what is right for the students and the one who wants to actually TEACH – says that i have to give the grade that was earned and not take the easy way out just to avoid a conference.
but UGH! does anyone want to go argue my case for me? the conference is Friday at noon.
Monday, October 16, 2006
three things
this weekend i relearned that you can get an awful lot done when you try. i had to make up for the last two weeks of getting virtually nothing done or i was going to go crazy and poke my own eyes out or something. so i worked a lot (especially on Saturday). i watched zero TV and exercised not at all. i ate a lot, spent time with my husband a lot, and got my haircut. mostly, i just tried to get un-stressed and accomplish a lot of school stuff. with my husband’s help i think i was mostly successful. although i am not completely caught up with my work stuff, it sure feels good to be close.
we kept the three year olds in Sunday School yesterday. there i learned that my daughter will one day be three and therefore she will one day be sticky, icky, ooey, gooey gross. she will have play dough squished permanently underneath her fingernails. she will have snot running down her face. she will learn to pull up her dress and show her fanny to the world. she will love to sit in my lap and not sit in my lap, immediately squirming her way down again. she will love attention more than she does now. she will be able to vanish in the blink of an eye. she will want one! of everything i touch. she will make “pace ships” and she will sing while she pees even if she has to make up the words. she will love, love, love to play in the water while she “washes” her hands. she will be a three year old who makes me want to wash my hands all the time and will not be afraid to tell me when she’s “already had snack!” but she will also need my attention and love.
however, she will be potty trained.
this weekend i also learned that my sister can’t live with us forever. i know it is kinda weird to some people that she lives with us, but i am glad and it works for all of us so i don’t care. (and why should it matter anyway when we have the extra space and she needs a place to live?)
it makes me sad that she is looking for houses. she is so helpful when she is there. she helps bathe the little girl and cook dinners and grocery shop. occasionally she mows the grass and helps me clean. lots of times she watches fun TV and goofs off making cards with me, but mostly she is just there for us. she is going to baby-sit for us Wednesday night so that we can go out for our anniversary. YAY!
she listens to me gripe about J. she makes me laugh with her crazy antics and morning hairstyles. she encourages me to be healthy and counsels me about whatever junk is going on. she even keeps me up-to-date on the latest gossip.
yesterday, she came in after going to an open house and she was all excited about it. it made me realize that she probably will be moving out soon and while i am happy for her getting what she wants and needs i am also heartbroken that my little sis is leaving me. WAH!
i am glad that she is looking for houses somewhat close to home because i’m thinking about moving in with her. at least during Kaizen week.
three relatively ordinary things, but three important-to-me things nonetheless.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Thursday, October 12, 2006
hooray for the nap fairy!
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
tears and such
anyway, i couldn’t help but stop crying and smile at her when she was looking at me. somehow she always makes me happy. so i had to hug her and tell her that everything was OK. i really wasn’t able to get much done yesterday at all. it’s like the sun magically comes up and sets before i even know it. it's harder now to get stuff done than when little J was a baby. i think that's just because my list is longer now than it was when all ihad to do was stay home and take care of her.
well, at least the 7th graders are gone to the zoo today which *might* actually mean that i may get one extra thing done that’s on my list, but it’s still highly unlikely the way things are going. and Monday is a teacher work day but heaven forbid i should count on having any time then to actually do work. on a workday. oh my! we don't do that.
i’m just so tired of people manipulating my time. one of the things on my list of 100 things to do before i die is to learn to say no to people respectfully. i just don’t know that i’ll ever get there. BIG sigh.
I’m sorry I don’t have any energy to put up new pictures today. You’ll just have to wait until this weekend. For now, here’s a message brought to you by jules:
“baaaa, baaa, baaaaaaa!”
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
happenings
on a whim last night we decided to move the Tues./Thurs. morning exercising to evenings because the husband has to get up at least an hour earlier this week and because it's darker outside in the mornings now. and since the little girl goes to bath/bed at 7:45 and our treadmill is right next to her bedroom we know that we have to do it before that. i actually already ran this morning. yay me!
also, the dumb local cbs people decided to change the time of one of my favorite shows without telling me about it. (i'm sure they advertised it, but i didn't see it so that doesn't count.) anyway, i'm ticked 'cause i missed How I Met Your Mother last night.
i'm stressed. and i'm no fun to be around lately and i certainly have nothing worthwhile to write or even the energy to put anything into this blog right now, so until later....
Monday, October 9, 2006
i've been tagged
System – This makes me immediately think of some of my kids who try to buck the system. They are constantly being mischievous and sneaky. When I walked in to work today I heard about an incident that happened in my classroom earlier this morning. The newspaper class was using the computer lab while it was available and while the teacher walked out of the room to use the bathroom for 2 or 3 minutes one of the kids changed all of the Internet Explorer icons to say F--- YOU. I teach at a Christian school mind you. Anyway, the teacher saw it of course, and the child faces expulsion (because this incident was of course, added to a long list of his other discipline infractions).
Coffee – Hmmmmm. Easy one. I’m on a diet in case you didn’t already know. Well, last night we didn’t have anything for dinner and didn’t feel like going anywhere either. I haven’t been to the grocery store in at least two weeks. We had some leftover breadsticks from Olive Garden and so for dinner I had breadsticks and light coffee ice cream. Mmmmmm so good and SO not on my diet. And I conveniently forgot to photograph them.
Cloud – Cloud makes me think of the online computer class that I am taking. It is a beginning graphics design course on Photoshop 7 and we are currently learning about all of the different brushes. One of the brushes we used in the last lesson I did was perfect for drawing clouds. Which is all I knew to do with it.
Harmony – For reasons that I would really not like to go into, harmony reminds me of a person that I’m not really fond of. (You can use your imaginations, but you still probably wouldn’t guess the person.) This person never goes away and can be really annoying. Sometimes I wonder how he/she got to where he/she is now, but I do feel like sometimes there’s more there that I don’t know all about so I’m not going to judge *too* harshly. I just occasionally wish the he/she were not always just there.
Saturday, October 7, 2006
is it Monday yet?
i’m taking an online computer class that i signed up for just for kicks. well, as it turns out it’s kicking my tail. i can’t keep up and the material is harder than i originally thought. i mean, a beginning computer class for a computer teacher, easy right?! nah. it’s not that it’s hard, it’s just a lot to do every week. so I am spending my Saturday sitting here working on school work (and using this blog entry to procrastinate a tad). not to mention the pile of school work i have for the job that actually pays me...
it’s one of the first weekends in a long time where i’m sorta kinda actually looking forward to Monday.
Friday, October 6, 2006
baby babble
punkin' patch
Thursday, October 5, 2006
on my mind
so who to “adopt”? my sister is an elementary school counselor and she has access to plenty of children who would not only love some extra Christmas presents but probably won’t get many. my parents also volunteer at Open Arms Community Center and know several kids who will get little and they could use some extra love.
plus that takes a wee bit of pressure off the shopping requirements because it’s easy to buy for someone who will appreciate anything they get.
by the way…
i am totally participating in this.
maybe it will hold me a little more accountable. i know it’s going to be hard to do and i’m going to whine and stress out that i forgot to take a picture of something before i ate it, but i’m going to try hard not to cheat. that should at least make me think about what i'm eating.
so far this morning i have captured my bowl of Cheerios on camera. i know it’s only 10 am, but i also wanted to snack already (how sad) and all i had to do was think about getting out the camera again to decide i didn’t need anything else. plus how embarrassing would it be to show the world that i ate Baked Lays before noon? thank you, Zoot for the good idea.
also, the little girl has learned to fake cry. it is so hilarious. her verbal/language development has skyrocketed in the last couple of weeks so she's making all kinds of new (and funny) sounds. when she's sitting somewhere and we're not paying attention to her and she wants to get up and "walk" she starts this fake cry sound. it's not her usual fuss. it's more like real cry sounds, but you can look at her and tell that she's putting on. she's learning to manipulate us. my little girl is growing up!
what is the funniest is when we can get her to half smile in the middle of it. i'll try to get a video to post.
and finally, as i mentioned before, my ten year high school reunion is next weekend. they emailed out this picture last night with a message encouraging everyone to buy tickets. too funny! the picture is a little small, but can you find me?
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
major mommy guilt
i’m just so tired and i’m behind in everything. i can’t get up on time. i get home in the evenings and time goes by before i even know it and i haven’t gotten anything done. i didn’t even go exercise this morning because i couldn’t get up. i don’t know what the deal is but i seem to be in a funk. i think a lot of it has to do with the daylight times changing SO FAST and the weather getting cooler. i hate winter. WAH. wah. WAH.
so now you wanna know how i forgot to feed my child. well then. i’ll tell you.
on Monday’s the husband goes to play basketball with some guys from work. yesterday in particular was a crazy day for me with so much going on because i didn’t get anything done from the weekend. it was a Monday where i seemed to forget everything. the little girl is transitioning from three naps a day to two so instead of us getting home and me putting her down for nap # 3 like usual yesterday i brought her in and we played for a while. i was checking my email and doing some other stuff with her next to me on the couch and the sister and i randomly decided to go up to the elementary school where big J was playing ball. we loaded the little girl into the stroller and walked around for a while. J had a lot of fun looking at the playground, cheerleaders, and little league players and she wasn’t fussing at all. we later came home to make dinner and that was when i realized that i had forgotten to give little J her bottle nearly two hours earlier when she would normally wake up.
i knew that i couldn’t just give her the bottle then because she would get her last bottle of the day right before bed which was in an hour. i also knew that i couldn’t give her a portion of a bottle because she would have nothing of that and i sure didn’t want to hear an hour’s worth of screaming. so since she seemed to be OK i gave her a half a jar of sweet potatoes and she was fine. she took her bath, bottle and went to sleep an hour later as usual. thank God for easy babies.
lately she’s been adding more and more solid food so she will drop a bottle in a couple of months but according to the doctor she’s still supposed to be getting all five for now. she did fine after that last night so she must be getting enough to eat, but talk about guilt! man, i was so hard on myself! I. Cannot. Believe. I. Forgot. To. Feed. The. Baby.
(also, let me just say that this would NOT have happened five months ago so i must be calming down with my obsessiveness type A just a wee little bit, right?)
OK let the jokes begin.
Monday, October 2, 2006
recent developments
i had gotten down to within seven pounds of my pre-preg weight and then i fell off the wagon AGAIN. at least i have still been exercising, but i avoided the scale this morning.
and in other random news, apparently we are an “enriched environment” family because Friday when i was in the teacher work room making copies a teacher before me had left one of their study guides, obviously for an anatomy test or something like that, on the copy machine. anyway, at the top it said, “Most infants develop motor abilities in the same order and at approximately the same age. In this sense, most agree that these abilities are genetically programmed within all infants. The environment does play a role in the development, with an enriched environment often reducing the learning time and an impoverished one doing the opposite.” and then it listed a bunch of developmental milestones by month. well, little J has so far met all of the milestones way early except for the rolling one. she is 6 months and can pretty much do all the way up to the 10 months milestones. we are blessed to be able to give her an “enriched environment” for learning and developing!
2 months - able to lift head up on his own
3 months - can roll over
4 months - can sit propped up without falling over
6 months - is able to sit up without support
7 months - begins to stand while holding on to things for support
9 months - can begin to walk, still using support
10 months - is able to momentarily stand on her own without support
11 months - can stand alone with more confidence
12 months - begin walking alone without support
14 months - can walk backward without support
17 months - can walk up steps with little or no support
18 months - able to manipulate objects with feet wile walking, such as kicking a ball
Saturday, September 30, 2006
sniff. sniff.
sniff. sniff. sniff.
oh and by the way. i have been given permission to shop. yes. i know. how incredible it is! and even despite my recent post about cutting back. we were outside last night at this school function thingy and J kept covering jules up with a blanket because, in his defense, it was cold. anyway, the girl grows like a weed so i had her in the warmest cute outfit we could find (that she could fit her chubby thighs into) and he was still very worried about her. he said, "do we need to stop at Babies 'R Us on the way home?"
score!
Friday, September 29, 2006
vent
first let me say that i am obsessive about keeping track of how much money there is left on a gift card that i haven’t fully used. not only do i write the new amount on the back of the card in black Sharpee, but i also usually wrap the receipt around the card itself that tells the remaining balance on the card. then i put the card back in my stack and put a rubber band around them all.
so why is it that it never fails that the computers tell you that you have some random amount left on the card the next time you visit that business? the other night we went to a chain restaurant and i pulled out my gift cards to pay. i had two, one with the original $10 on it and the other with a remaining balance of $15.30 according to my notes. well, the waiter came back and told me that there was only $9 left on the second card which i really don’t understand. i know that $6.30 is not really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it just makes me mad that someone had already paid that restaurant when the gift was originally purchased and now they’ve gotten some way of getting more money out of us by telling me that there’s an incorrect balance remaining on the card. in this case the waiter offered to go get a manager, but i’m not one to make a scene or make such a big deal about something so minor (see: increasing assertiveness). but i’ve been down that road before. the managers always come. they scan the gift card, tell me the same thing, i argue with them and show them my receipt and then they say that the gift card was used since then, blah, blah, blah. WAAAH! i want my “free money” back!
and what's up with this mess of deducting $0.95 every year the gift gift is not redeemed?! what a rip off!
well, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. i feel better now. i’m off to give blood (and hopefully score some free Krispy Kremes). happy Friday!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
penny pinching
well, i obviously need to cut back on my spending. or i need to come up with some other ways to make a little more money. i’m thinking that it will be easier to just try to cut back a little since you know i have all this spare time now that i have a baby and all. do you have any suggestions? it will be nice when little J stops taking so much formula. the darn stuff is SO expensive! (and of course the rice cereal and oatmeal is only like two cents a serving.) anyway, no more clothes shopping for me for a while and i’m contemplating quitting stamp club so i won’t spend any there and instead using that time as a designated scrapbooking/card making time to use the supplies i already have.
oh and by the way, we’ve now eaten one of our dream dinners and it was fabulous in my opinion. not so much in the husband’s but oh well. more to come on that…
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
something’s in the water over here
notes from the crib of little J
Thank you for taking care of me when I didn’t feel good. Thank you for still smiling at me and loving me. I really liked sitting on your laps and laying on your shoulder. You helped me feel better.
I love you!
Julianna
Dear Memmaw,
Thank you for bringing me a walker to play in. I love sliding around the kitchen in it although it's odd that it only goes backwards... I'll have to figure out how it is that Mama and Daddy can make it go forwards. But it is a lot of fun! I really like the bears on top. I hope you can come play with me sometime soon!
I love you!
Julianna
Dear Sefff,
Thanks for coming to visit me yesterday. It made me so happy to see someone besides that crazy Mama lady! I had fun swinging outside with you. Please come visit me again soon. I've heard you have a loud bike and I want to see it!
Love, Julianna
on my mind
that being said, there was an hour or so on Monday where i thought, “if only i sent her to daycare i wouldn’t have to worry about how my concern for my child affects my personal relationships with my family.” it’s unfortunate that i often hurt the feelings of the people who are close to me because i share a suggestion for taking care of the little girl. because of the way it comes out it is sometimes heard as criticism and my comments are taken personally. i wish that they didn’t and weren’t. that’s what stinks about having family take care of your baby. but i’ll take the stinky every day over putting Jules in day care and her not getting to love on her grandparents each day.
Monday, September 25, 2006
shots suck
monday, monday
the little girl seems to be cutting two more teeth. the top front ones this time. she hasn’t been napping well and has been occasionally crying out in her sleep. she seems tired, but not really fussy and constantly chews on anything and everything. even the nipples on her bottles. she puts them to the side like her gums are really tender in the front. i feel so bad for her. plus, she may be on her way to dropping the 3rd nap that she takes every day.
anyway, i have a busier week than normal this week because big J is going to be out of town for work. i dread it, but i know it will be over and back to normal soon. i also have to take little J to the doctor today for her 6 month appointment and Friday i have a blood donation appointment and a school function that i have to attend at night. i guess i'll manage to get it all done. i hope you all have a great week!
6 months
You are six months old! That’s half a year! My little baby is growing up! So much has happened in the last month, I’m not sure where to start.
You are becoming a very independent little booger. You always want to stand up! And although you cannot do it own your own yet, you are always grabbing at our fingers and pulling as if to say, “Up! Up!” You stand up and then sit down, stand, sit, stand, sit, over and over again. You don’t like to be laying down anymore at all.
In all honesty, you have really had a rough month. You cut your first teeth early this month. Two bottom ones at the same time! This has caused you to be sore and cranky and you haven’t slept very well at all because of it. We have tried giving you teething rings and cold washcloths to chew on and you gnaw away! The Tylenol helped you sleep a little better, but I wish there was more we could do for you because you haven’t been yourself. Not fussy, just really solemn and quiet. It’s okay though, because we know that we’ll get through this. Time is flying by!
Now you can hold your bottle all by yourself and you reach for it the minute you see it. You still spit up a lot though. You are drinking less and less milk these days and eating more and more “real” food. We know that you are starting to learn the signs we do too because you get excited when we say the word “milk” or “eat” and do the sign right before we feed you.
Speaking of food, you HATE green beans. You will eat anything else that we’ll let you get your hands on, but green beans….nope! You won’t have one bit of it! You’ve not only spit them out and gagged them down, but you’ve also literally blown them at us to make it clear that you will have no such food. Trust me, we got the message loud and clear, but I’m not promising that we won’t ask you to try them again in a few weeks or so.
I had a lot of fun watching you in the nursery at church for the first time this month. It was so entertaining to see you interact with the other babies. Sometimes I don’t think you had a clue that you were pulling on a toy that another kid was holding, but you didn’t seem to care when one clumsily fell on your feet. It was really hard for both your mama and your daddy to not jerk toys out of your mouth that the other babies had just been drooling on. We hope that being around those other kids at least every Sunday will be good for you.
You have really become a wiggle worm this month! You have certainly gotten the rolling thing down pat. You roll to the left and right from tummy to back and back to tummy and you love to twist and turn on the changing table. When your daddy passes you off to me after your bath I put you on the bed to put lotion on you and you immediately roll and roll. You don’t have a lot of interest in crawling yet although you will get up on your hands and knees when we help you. Most of the time you just flop back down on your tummy when you can’t reach what you want.
At your doctor’s appointment today we’ll see how much you officially weigh. I’m guessing that you’re still in the 95th percentile in weight and height. You’re such a big girl and people always comment on your chubby cheeks. Plus, you grow like a weed!
Jules, I’m so excited about the next 6 months with you! You never cease to amaze me. I love you!
Love,
Mama
Friday, September 22, 2006
whine and dine
it was a really fun experience. the food looked and SMELLED DELICIOUS and the descriptions sounded like they were straight off of a fancy restaurant menu although i don’t know how they taste yet. i’ll have to let you know about that. plus the prices are very reasonable (around $4.30 per serving). i am just thrilled to have dinner already prepped for 6 nights because dangit! it’s hard cooking dinner AND taking care of a baby. (whine, whine, whine, i know)
Thursday, September 21, 2006
how many toys do you have?
anyway, some time ago my father heard a radio show or something where they were discussing the materialism of children these days or something like that and he told us about an idea of letting your child only have something like ten toys at a time. (i may have the details mixed up but you get the idea.) anyway, the concept was that if the child only gets to keep ten toys then they will learn to work for what they get, value what they have, and become less selfish overall by giving their extra toys to those less fortunate.
if the child were to get a gift for their birthday then they could keep that toy for a week and then decide if they wanted to replace one of their old toys with the new toy or keep the old ones and give the new toy away. eventually there would be enough toys boxed and ready for a nice outing to the Goodwill or whatever other charity and (bonus) the child would get to participate in a giving activity.
while this whole idea poses lots of questions, i think we’re ready to give it a try with Julianna. but what constitutes a toy exactly? and at what age do you start? is it ever too early to teach your children to share and give? but when is she old enough to be able to choose which she wants?
this is something i’ve struggled with my entire life. i want to have what i want to have, but i also want to be selfless and certainly not greedy. i want my daughter to grow up with plenty to play with, but not be a spoiled brat either.
thank goodness i don't have to worry about it too much for now.
because like NikkiZ all jules is really interested in are the tags.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
so much to do, but not much to write
there were also lots of those inflatable jumpy things, but unfortunately that requires the ability to stand on your own and well, jump. so needless to say, little j did not get the chance to play in the inflatable jumpy things although we did explore an old castle so that was fun.
besides all that there was gem mining and some relay races and other organized company fun crap that we skipped out on, but the food was yummy and it was a beautiful day so i really had fun.
then Sunday the church that big j grew up in had it's annual homecoming. we got to take little j and show her off (and surprise, surprise miss a nap again). my favorite part was of course, getting to eat yummy food made by those awesome little old ladies.
oh yeah. sunday night we were pretty bored so we went to an elementary school playground. little j is still too young to really enjoy things like that but we all sure had fun goofing off on the monkey bars and we got some cute pictures. we'll try again in a few months.
monday nanna came over to babysit while the husband and i got to go have dinner by ourselves and last night i got to go out for ladies night for the second month in a row!
plus it is season premiere week and i've had something to watch every night. Monday was How I Met Your Mother, the most awesome comedy left on TV these days. i also wanted to catch Studio 60 because i love both Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet, but i missed it. tonight it Biggest Loser (which i am so glad they brought back - i LOVE that show!) and Project Runway. then tomorrow is the second episode of Survivor. YAY!
so it's been busy around here, but fun. i hope you'll forgive me for not writing much and just enjoy looking at my cute baby.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
another self-improvement goal and stuff
anyway, i realized this weekend that it’s no one’s fault but my own. i am not assertive by nature and i am really mad at myself for getting mad at everyone else for something that is totally my fault. if i would make the choice to “make” things go my way (or at least take actions that would encourage them to) then i wouldn’t have this problem. instead, i sit on my lazy butt and sulk and complain when they don’t happen like i’d imagined.
SO.
now i have a goal for myself. [wow. i sure do seem to be the “goal-y” type lately, don’t i?] nevertheless, my goal is that i am going to try to be more assertive when i am in this particular kind of situation that i was faced with this past weekend. OR. just not sulk and complain about it.
i need you people to help me with this. you can ask me every once in a while how it is going or just gently remind me to remember my goal. sounds easy, but i can guarantee that it will be hard. i’ll let you know how it goes.
Friday, September 15, 2006
hiking on the 5th
the next fifth Sunday is in October (along with everything else in the world). we are needing to get some kind of baby carrier that will let us carry little j on our backs instead of the hand-me-down one we have that holds the baby in front and facing backwards (does that make sense?). little j has grown tired of that one because she can’t see out where we’re going and also it would make it really difficult for us to see the path on the trail with her in front. please let me know if you can recommend a baby carrier that puts the baby on your back.
now if only i knew how many extra calories i will burn hiking a few hours carrying an extra 18 or 19 pounds? this should be an adventure…
oh WTH... i subscribed to my first podcast...
how fun! i love learning new things! i love british accents! but more importantly, i love harry potter!