Christmas pictures

Christmas was bittersweet this year. It was the first year for as long as I could remember that we didn't have Christmas with my Grandparents. They are both in the nursing home and the families all did their own thing. So I had my mom and brothers over to my house for Christmas Eve. My 2 youngest brothers are both chefs at a fancy little Italian restaurant so they actual pitched in and helped make dinner. Tim made yummy basil mashed potatoes and a scrumptious chocolate torte! It was so good. I think over the next few days I finished of 3/4 of it! So here are pictures from Christmas eve with my family.


Of course Christmas morning was a visit from Santa. And rushing to go to our two other family gatherings


Then we went to Grandma B's for lunch. Trevor really enjoyed terrorizing Scooter the Siamese cat. Both Jayden and Trevor weren't too sure what to think of Charlie the dog. But they warmed up to him a little bit.









After that we went to Grandpa G's. I ate way to much sweets and got a tummy ache. It was really nice spending a few days with family.


And finally we went home and all took a really long nap!

Visit with Santa

Trevor did much better sitting with Santa than he did last year. Santa thought it was pretty cute that Trevor had a Santa hat. Trevor loves that Santa hat, he wears it pretty much every day. He always wants to wear it everywhere we go and gets mad when I won't let him wear it to daycare.

Again I've backdated some posts

Just letting you all know I've recently put up some other older things all the way back to October. Some things I put up are alot of pictures back through October, halloween pictures, some videos of Jayden "dancing" and a bunch of other stuff.

Most recent "pro" pics

No more snow please

I dislike winter very much. And can't stand pretty much everything that goes along with it. The happenings of the last 3 weeks pretty much sum up why I would love to be a "snow bird" someday.


In the last 30 days I have:
~ been sick for a total of nearly 3 weeks (2 separate times)
~ been puked on and snotted on by sick babies
~ nearly wrecked my car sliding on a ice covered side street. Trevor thought it was all kinds of fun and was squealing with delight in the back while I was shrieking in fear of hitting numerous parked cars before finally coming to a stop
~ have worked three times in Des Moines (2 hour drive one way) the day after a snow storm and the roads were still pretty yucky
~ witnessed Trevor eating nasty snow off the garage floor. Yuck!!!
~ been bombarded at work with sick people coughing and hacking all over. No wonder I keep getting sick

On the bright side, it is a pretty white wonderland outside. If only it weren't so darn cold and slippery!

Qwest for a Christmas picture

I thought about taking the kiddos to Penneys to get holidayish pictures taken. But I thought back to the last time and decided I could do just as good on my own. Maybe so, they didn't turn out like I'd hope. But at least I didn't have to cough up some cash to be disappointed when Trevor made it much more difficult than it needed to be. I good a few "nice" shots. I love the moment I captured in the first with Trevor hugging Jayden. Too bad they weren't really smiling. I got a couple of cute ones with Jayden solo, too bad her fingers are all blurred in the movment.

There were a lot of tears on Trevor's part, and flat refusal to stay on the backdrop. I even got "props" I thought we be good to bait them to stay on the backdrop. Seems all that did was give them something to fight over. Notice in the last picture all of the bulbs were behind Trevor, out of Jayden's reach and she has just a little bit of beads to hold on to. I gave up after 58 pictures.

Not quite the greeting card type pictures I was going for. Oh well, I was kidding myself when I even thought about sending out Christmas cards. Maybe I'll get them out in time for New Year's cards. Or maybe I'll just save the envelopes I've started addressing faor next year. If it wasn't for all these hours I'm working these days, I really could have got them out. I suppose I have an excuse every year. But this year I'm really having a hard time. I work in a couple of really slow stores this week so I could ~maybe~ finish them at work; if I get my other paperwork I tote along with me done first. But then they'd be too late to really consider Christmas cards. So I think New Years cards it is. :o) Is there such a thing?

Sleepy Girl

My Happy place

Who would have ever in a million years would have thought that doing laundry in my dank basement would in my mind be considered an escape. I have quite a set up down there. The entire main room has clothes lines running the length so I can hang clothes as I go. A couple of wire cubbies allow me to sort each members clothes into their own little cubbies. And a 6 foot banquet table that used to be used for scrapbooking has become my folding table. I just brought down my ironing board since I've got a ton of purdy new clothes that might need ironing.

I relish those 15-30 minute snippets of time where I'm folding laundry in the basement with both the washer and dryer humming to drown out the screaming, kiddo video, or annoying constant "noise" of a parade of infant toys all singing their own tune all at the same time. Ahhh, it's paradise! It reminds me I need to go start another load. ~ hmmm maybe I should stash a book or a magazine somewhere and take some extra time "sorting socks."

I got big plans for my dank little basement. Soon I'd like to put some fresh paint up. Maybe set up a sewing cabinet. In the other room one day I hope to have padding on the floors of some kind so the kiddos can play. Ohhh scratch that, it would defeat the purpose. Maybe instead I'll make a little workout room.

Jayden at 8months

~ Has a sense of humor. When she chuckles she sounds like beevis (or butthead? I'm not sure which is which.)
~ Is lightning fast with her army crawl but doesn't yet crawl with her tummy off the ground
~ Gets frantic when she is hungry and knows food is coming
~ Loves to crumple paper
~ Gets ~MAD~ when you take said paper away
~ Loves to play peek-a-boo and covers her face with her blankie
~ Only uses a binkie when it's time for bed
~ Pulls up on things and gets into a somewhat of a standing position
~ Knows the minute I walk in the door after work and starts screaming if I don't come in to greet her that very moment
~ Is getting better at eating for me, although the first taste of anything seems yucky
~ Had her first protein type meal last night, apples and chicken
~ Has very dry skin, I have to rub her down with Aquaphillic every night
~ Is starting to fight with Trevor over toys. She gets mad when he takes them away and he tells her to "STOP!!!" or "Noooo!"
~ Usually wakes up in a really good mood
~ Is ticklish all over. Tickling almost always gets giggles.
~ Still doesn't laugh easily but giggles uncontrollably once you get her going.
~ What she lacks in laughs she makes up for in big happy grins. She's a really smiley baby.
~ Never once has cried at daycare... so they say
~ Nellie at daycare says she's the best baby and always wants to be the one to take care of her

OCD?

I'm noticing some things in Trevor that make me wonder if he might be a touch OCD. I'm a little OCD myself when it comes to a few things. Like organization... right now my house is not very organized because I'm working so dang much. But if things are out of place it makes me crazy and I obsess about it. Same goes with recycling. I'm completely obsessed. Travis laughed at me the other day because I was recycling the foil on hershey kisses. I'm not as crazy about it as these people though. When I was into scrapbooking I was constantly organizing and re-organizing my "stuff." I did way more organizing than I ever did scrapbooking. If everything wasn't organized first I couldn't concentrate on working on a page. Same goes for the kitchen. The kitchen has to be clean before I can start cooking.

So in all honesty I wouldn't be suprised if he was. I've noticed things before like him lining up his blocks in a row. It could just be toddler behavior. We've had him putting away his toys at night for a long time now. Well before Jayden was born. Sometimes he does better than others but lately we've only had to tell him once and it didn't involve any tears which is a first. I was sitting in the living room watching him while I was nursing Jayden. He put all of his cars on the shelf in order of size. He threw a couple of pairs of socks over the gate because they didn't belong in there. He closed the lid to the toy box. When it didn't close all the way he opened it and shuffled things around until he could get it to close.

Lastly, and this was the thing that I thought was interesting. He took my boppy pillow which he lays on picked it up and looked around. Then he took and placed it neatly next to the wall. Then he went and got the blanket and neatly placed it down next to it.

This morning I had left my shoes on the floor and he put them up on the shoe rack for me. Oops... bad mommy! And if cabinet doors are open he will close them as he walks by.

So all of this leaves me wondering... is this normal toddler behavior? Could he be OCD? Or are we just raising him to be tidy?

Jayden will not eat for me unless what I'm feeding her is really yummy. She makes a nasty sour face and spits it out or pushes it out with her tongue. The other night my mom was here and she was not eating for me. Grandma fed her the same thing and she ate it with no problems. Same goes when daddy feeds her. I guess she thinks that I'm just a boob or something!

We have had a really hard time getting Trevor to eat since he was 12months. Mealtimes for the last year have been a disaster! His weight is low. Last week we had a meeting with a nutritionist and life is so much better. I really wish I had talked to this woman a year ago because life could have been so much easier.

We have gotten to a point where we were sometimes even prying his mouth open to eat out of desperation. He would go days at a time and not eat hardly anything at all. He and Jayden are in the same size diapers; so he is really tiny. I was trying to do balanced meals but trying to get him to eat the high calorie/high fat stuff first. "Dessert" usually consisted of yogurt and fruit which he loved. I would tell him he didn't get dessert unless he finished his dinner. 95% of meals were a power struggle and consisted of fits from him and left me feeling pretty drained and often like a bad mommy.

The nutritionist said the rule of feeding children is to always put everything you plan to serve for the well balanced meal in front of them. Even things you know they won't eat. She also said to serve what the family is eating so that you don't get into the habit of "short order cooking." She said not to force them to eat anything and to try and serve at least one thing that you know they will eat.

In the last week things have become so much better. Trevor is eating things before he refused and last night even ate all of his veggies (sweet potatoes) that in the past he would have screamed if I tried to make him eat. We put veggies on his plate every meal so that they become common place. I still sneak veggies into other things in the form of purees with pretty much everything I cook. I also put real butter on everything possible to get some extra calories in him. He's gained 1 pound in the last month.

The hardest thing I'm still trying to get used to is not using dessert as a reward for eating a good meal. She said to even put that on his plate. So I'm putting his fruit on his plate with dinner and he thinks that's pretty cool!

November pictures

Here's some miscellenous November pictures in no particular order.

Jayden loves to crumple paper. It's best though if she steals it rather than it being given to her. It keeps her attention longer that way. She gets really mad though if you try to take it away.

Trevor likes to love on his sister. He's always kissing or hugging her. Or saying, "I U day-den"

She's doing so good sitting up. She enjoys it too. She still can't get to a sitting position on her own yet.

Trevor has this thing lately about taking his pants off and putting them on his head. He thinks he's hilarious.

Strike a pose... Jayden's "signature pose" is similar to this but with her forward leg a little more bent and her hand on her knee. She does this all the time. But for some reason I can never get a picture of her doing it.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Grandpa G's on thanksgiving day. Of course we had lots of great food. Trevor and Jayden both seemed to enjoy chasing Gabby around. She's a yorkie. At first Jayden was terrified when Gabby barked. Trevor now says "oof oof." The hardest part about going to other homes is that Trevor is really bad about getting into stuff he shouldn't be. We are constantly chasing him.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we went to Grandma B's. Trevor was terrified of Charlie. She's a bigger dog. So poor charlie was banished to the porch. Trevor had fun pulling around the cat's house. Scooter, the siamese cat, seemed to enjoy the ride. But Trevor wanted Scooter out of it and got a little annoyed when he kept jumping back in the house. I wish I would have thought to grab the camera sooner. By the time I did the moment was over.

First snow of the season

Trevor was pretty excited today when it snowed. He watched most of the morning out the window. I took him outside for just a few minutes. He was sick and I didn't want to push our luck even though it wasn't that cold. It did stick but didn't accumulate to much. He was thrilled watching the snow fall. He was looking around like he was trying to figure out where the snow was coming from.

First chewy food

She wasn't really sure about the biter biscuit. I think she was just too tired to appreciate it. She fell asleep in her high chair. That is the first time in a long time that she fell asleep somewhere other than in our arms or in bed. Trevor always fell asleep in his high chair, bouncy or walker. No luck with Jayden! Oh wait, she falls asleep in her car seat all the time.

First 2 teeth!

So that's what all the fuss is about. They are tiny little razors. And she's been biting me when I nurse her. I gotta get that lovely little habit licked pronto. Any tips?

You'd think...

I would have cut of his hand or something with the reaction I got when I gave him a temporary tattoo. He f.r.e.a.k.e.d out!!! I started to panic because I wasn't sure what would take it off. I tried for awhile to redirect him to do something else but all he could think of was that tattoo. So I played it up in a big way saying what a big boy he was and how cool it was.

I was about to jump on the net to quickly research an easy way to remove the tattoo from his hand. Out of desperation I showed him my tattoo and we compared the two side by side. He settled down at that point and thought it was pretty cool.

I have a dragon tattoo on my right shoulder blade. It's a benevolent dragon. I like the symbolism of the dragon in Korean Mythology. It's far from the dragon of fire and destruction of Western Mythology. It's not a true Korean Dragon though. It's winged and not quite so "serpenty." It's a piece that I really liked the artwork on and I got it on my 25th birthday.

I got it when I was in Tae Kwon Do. It symbolizes a few things. First, being that I got it during my Martial Arts days, it's a big part of that. But also when I was a kid my older brothers played Dungeon and Dragons a lot and I enjoyed watching them. I must have been around 7 or 8. One of my brothers has been gone for quite a few years so it's kind of a link to that memory of my brothers and a big part of my childhood.

That was kind of a tangent... but gives you all a little bit of insight into my past. Maybe I should do a little more of that. Hmmmm maybe I'll have to do a post about my "past life" as a Tae Kwon Do co-school owner with my Ex.

Cry fest 2007

Day 1 October 26: She cried for about an hour and and a half and I started going in every 5 minutes then spread them out 10 minutes then 15.
Day 2 October 27: Pretty much the same as the night before. Woke at 5am and went back to sleep easily.
Day 3 October 28: Cried for about an hour. Woke at 5am.
Day 4 October 29: Took about an hour of crying to go to sleep. Wake at 4:15am.
Day 5 October 30: Took about a half hour of crying. Wake at 4am.
Day 6 October 31: I think Trick-or-treating at the mall wore her out. She went down after only 15 minutes of crying and slept til 4 am. I think 4am is her new wake up time in the night, it had been 5 am.
Day 7 November 1: Took a LONG nap in her bed and cried for only 5 minutes when I laid her down. Nighttime was a little more difficult for her to go down. She cried off and on for about 30 minutes but it was not the high pitch screaming that she has done in the previous nights. The challenge that she woke up 4 times wanting to nurse. I gave in because she wasn't feeling good. Hopefully I didn't start a new trend.
Day 8 November 2: Jayden was extremely tired because of the flu shots I think. Travis said she slept a good part of the evening. She fell asleep when I nursed her at 10:45 and woke up crying when I laid her in her bed. I gave her a binkie and blanket baby and she stopped crying and rolled over. She cried for only about 3 minutes when I left the room and not a peep since. She did however wake up 3 times through the night but went back to sleep after nursing.
Day 9 November 3: Easiest night of all going down. She fell asleep while nursing and when I laid her down she woke up and cried for a few minutes and then went to sleep.

And now we're good. It took awhile to get here but it's a lot better now. :o) Well worth the fight to get here. I could have done without the headaches and heartbreak though. It's so hard to listen to her cry. :o(

Some days it doesn't pay to get outta bed!

Today was definately one of ~those~ days!
~ Late night with lack of sleep because Jayden was up 4 times in the night wanting to nurse and I gave in because I knew she was feeling icky
~ Doubly late night because I was feeling icky and apprehensive about hopefully a job offer I should be getting anyday
~ Hit snooze too many times so I was up about a half hour late and in a big time rush
~ Trevor would not cooperate AT ALL this morning and threw a fit coming down the stairs, changing him, getting dressed. Refused to eat his breakfast then threw a fit when I went to get him down because apparently he decided he wanted to eat his breakfast 10 minutes before we needed to be walking out the door.
~ Jayden soaked through her diaper head to toe and had to be cleaned up
~ Already about 5 minutes late and I can't find Trevor's shoes anywhere. After about 10 minutes of ripping the house apart I find them in a basket on the bookshelf. Huh? I suppose that might be a good spot for them and it is but it would have helped if I knew that was the new spot to keep his shoes.
~ Stubbed my toe as I'm running crazy around the house
~ Get into the car and realize that the car is pretty much out of gas, praying that there was enough fuel vapors to get me to work because no way did I have time to stop
~ Getting Trevor out at daycare was all kinds of fun because they were chopping down a tree or something and Trevor wanted to look at the "tra-tor" and didn't want to go in. He also threw a fit because I wouldn't let him take a book into day care with him.
~ Get to work 1 minute before I have to open the store when I usually need a full 15 to get everything "ready" for the day.
~ A whole slew of people waiting for me to open the door and 2 of them were extremely cranky/irrate and made a big scene. They were extremely mean to me. Lovely way to start the day.
~ As I'm working on someone's glasses I managed to stick myself with a push pin and it bleed like crazy and wouldn't stop bleeding. I soaked through 3 bandaids
~ About an hour after the push pin incident I slammed my finger in the file cabinet drawer (other hand) and shortly after that I hit my elbow on an open desk drawer. It was pretty dumb of me to leave it open to begin with.
**** All of the above happened before 12:30pm****
~ And then the phone rings and it's daycare. My heart jumps into my through because they never call. I thought something bad happened. Jayden had a 102 temp and needed to go home. Not good but a lot better than what I was afraid of.
~ Love my job... I'm working solo and neither of my other 2 girls was able to come in. So what the h*ll am I supposed to do.
~ Called Travis who was in a middle of a lab in surveying. He was frustrated because they were most of the way through their lab and had to pull up all the stakes or whatever when he would have been done with the lab in 45 minutes. 3 hours wasted. But he can pick up the kiddos
~ I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job
~ The phone rings and it's Travis he says, "Dawn... did tell daycare that the kids had flu shots yesterday?" If they would have known they would have given her tylenol and not sent her home. If it had been any other morning I probably would have remembered but I was rushed in just getting them in the door and telling them about Jayden's thrush treatment it didn't even cross my mind. Plus they were both fine all day yesterday.
~ I explained to him the sequence of events and on top of all of that how crappy I was feeling. I felt bad that he had to leave class for no reason because of my goof up. I was in a fowl mood because how customers had been treating me. And extremely annoyed that through all of this that there was customers stacked up and I hadn't even been able to escape to go to the damn bathroom!
~ I hung up the phone and had tears in my eyes because the day had been so sh*tty. The wonderful customer who I had been helping pick out glasses when I excused myself to answer the phone was so sweet and asked if everthing was ok. I gave her a much briefer (than this) synapsys of day and she sympathized with me and said 'I hope your day gets better"
~ I was supposed to be off by 4 but because the day had been so nuts I hadn't had a chance to get any orders keyed and had a ton of other stuff to do when my other girl came in at 3. So I didn't get off til 5:30.
~ All day I was hoping to get above mentioned phone call as the guy called on tuesday and asked alot of questions about my current wages and benefits. He said he'll work some numbers and call me back. Here it is friday and he hadn't called back so I was getting anxious. One way or another I just want to know and be past this waiting game. My intial interview was in August and finally had a second (phone) interview last week. So now I'm sure I'll have to wait at minimum over the weekend.

On the bright side. Trevor was an angel tonight. He was soooo happy, singing, dancing, and ate a good dinner . He also went to bed without a fight and we snuggled for awhile in his room and "talked" about his day and what a good boy he is. We sang some songs and shared lots of hugs and kisses. He was being super snuggly. I live for those kind of moments. It's what being a mommy is all about. I really really needed that tonight. Jayden was really sleepy tonight and kinda cranky but I can tell she's not feeling good. Hopefully she sleeps though the night!

Still talking jibberish

The doctor at Trevor's 2 year check up was a little concerned about his speech. She said if he wasn't doing better in 2 months that we should consider speech therapy. Trevor has been a parrot these days. I'd say about 70% of the words he repeats back to us are super easy to understand. Most of the rest are understandable for us and we work on saying the word over and over and eventually he'll get it. And he does communicate things that he wants like book, eat, snack, milk, etc. Where he isn't easy to understand is when he's trying to "converse" and then it's all gibberish. It's funny though because even at 18 months or so he would talk to us in different tones. Some times he talked like he was angry. LOL, probably mimicking me while I was on the phone complaining about my boss. Other times he would tell funny stories that only he could understand and laugh at himself.

Lately he's been saying "Awesome" and "How cool" a lot. It's also funny that he'll sit down next to Jayden and say "Hi, Jay-in" He's gotten better with the pronunciation of her name, it used to be day-din. I also love that when I come home from work he'll run up to me and say, "Hi mom!"

So on the language front I know he's behind some but he could be a lot worse. But he's a clever little boy and has quite an imagination. I really think all the gibberish is that he wants to "converse" but doesn't yet have the vocabulary to put it all together. Every day he's saying new words that I haven't heard him say and I'm amazed everyday what he understands.

Like today, his and Jayden's costumes have been laying on the floor in the playroom and I asked him to bring me his costume without even pointing and he went to get it. I don't think we even said the word costume more than 6 times total! I was pretty shocked.

So I think we are going to hold off on speech therapy. My biggest concern right now is getting him to eat so we can get some meat on his bones! Jayden is getting really close to weighing as much as he does. Yesterday she was 19 1/2 pounds and tonight Trevor is up to 25 pounds. Back to about what he weighed at his 2 year. He got pretty sick over a few weeks with a cold and then an ear infection so it was a struggle to get him to eat. I was really happy to see him back at 25 pounds. :o) I'm looking forward to meeting with the nutritionist at the end of the month so she can give us some ideas.

Breastfeeding woes

This for some may be a "too-much-information" kind of post for some. Soooo, please disregard this post if you don't want to hear about such problems. Those of you who breastfeed or have in the past keep reading cuz I need some advice or maybe even some been there done that kind of sympathy.

Jayden and I have thrush. Woe is us! She had an appointment 2 weeks ago for a cold and we had noticed her tongue was a little white. I suspected thrush but the doctor dismissed it saying it was not thrush because the white wiped away. So about 3 days ago my "girls" started itching like crazy. It progressed to mild discomfort and my skin is very irritated. Yesterday it became pretty much unbearable and totally painful to nurse. So much so everytime I nurse I feel like jumping out of my skin.

I talked to the lactation consultant and diagnosed over the phone for me so I wouldn't have to come in to get it checked out. She had me call my OBGYN who thankfully agreed to call in an RX for APNO. It's a compounded RX so only a few places in town do compounding. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to take Jayden back to the Dr and that they would agree to do the same. But nope, I guess they want their $ for the office visit!

Today we took her in and wow big suprise she has thrush too! And she has the whole fungal diaper rash thing going on too. Grrrr! If they would have listened to us 3 weeks ago we wouldn't be going through this crap right now! So I'm a little ticked but still like our Dr. I was hoping to be able to combine this with the flu shot booster that was due *tomorrow* but when I asked the nurse over the phone she said that I couldn't even do it one day early.

I took Trevor with me in hopes that maybe we could still do it and I could save the hassle going back next week. And so I played to the Doctor's sympathy and she did it! I was so happy she said that it was exactly 28 days so she could do it. I really was wanting to avoid going back again next week. Since Trevor's 2 year check in August we all have been to the Dr. way too many times. Damn, I was just sitting her counting and between all of us it's been 10 appointments* so far equalling $235 for the appointments alone, not including rx's!

Trevor of course freaked out when he got his shot. He was pretty ticked at the nurse but it was soon forgotten. With Jayden, it was the craziest thing! She didn't cry or even winced. As soon as they were done she even smiled at the nurse. They couldn't believe it. I was shocked too. On the plus side, I think Trevor is finally starting to get over his fear of elavators. Normally he screams. On the way up he whined a little but on the way down he even seemed like he enjoyed it a little bit. It will be so much easier once he completely conquers that fear.

So if anyone has any advice I'd love to hear on a personal level what worked. For myself I'm using the APNO (all-purpose-nipple-ointment) and using a vinegar/water rinse. And I'm eating massive quantities of activa yogurt. For Jayden we're using nystatin both oral drops and swabbing her cheeks and nystatin ointment for the diaper rash. In addition to that, of course we are practicing good hygiene and will be sterilizing pump parts, bottles and pacifiers. Does anyone know if the dishwasher actually sterilizes so I can avoid that step? I think it does but I'm not sure.

*Trevor 2 year, Jayden 6 months, Jayden suspected Strep, Me emergency room visit for what I thought was a foreign body in my eye and was actually conjunctivitis, Trevor knocked a bookshelf over and I thought he broke his leg, Trevor for an ear infection, Travis for conjunctivitis, Travis for a physical, Travis for a dentist appointment b/c he knocked out a filling, today's visit, plus in 2 weeks Trevor is being seen by a nutritionist for his lack of weight gain. Plus I'm probably forgetting something! Equalling a grand total of $235

Proctective little sister?

Tonight was the first night Jayden had a bath in the big bath tub. We went in to watch Trevor take a bath. All was fine until Travis dumped water of Trevor's head. She panicked. She screamed and was trembling the whole time Travis was washing Trevor's hair. Poor girl was terrified. I was really nervous when the time came to put her in the tub. She loved it though and didn't even mind when I rinsed her hair. Silly girl!

Halloween

We did Trick or Treating at the mall where I work. Trevor enjoyed it more this year. At first when given the candy he didn't want to put it in the bag and would plop down on the floor right there to try and eat it. And throw a fit when we'd try to get him to stand up and put the candy in the bag. He wouldn't say trick or treat and some of the people in costumes scared him. Towards the end he enjoyed putting the candy handed to him in the bag.

Jayden just loved all the attention. Of all of the kids there we were surprised that she was the only clown. I must say that her costume looked so much better on than I thought it would. I thought it was kind of cheap when I bought it but it was on sale! She even kept her hat on the whole time. Trevor wouldn't even keep his bumblebee hood on for a second for me to get a decent picture.

Towards the end he got a little cranky but that was to be expected. There were a few fits thrown on the floor and pretty much blocked all the traffic behind us. But overall I think he enjoyed himself. After Trick or Treating he played in the little playground area in the mall and we shared a cookie.

7 months old!

How is it that...

baby cereal when catapulted via spoon with baby fingers can launch over 6 feet across the room and splatter all over the door, and land in mommies hair but not get on the fingers of the baby? Jayden has this lovely new habit of grabbing the spoon. I think she's trying to feed herself. Either that or I'm not moving quick enough for her. She likes to eat!

Mr personality

Trevor's picking up language right and left and learning to do things more independently these days so here's a few samplings of things he's been doing the last few weeks.


Trevor's new thing is to repeat the last word you say sounding like a question. Such as tonight:
"Trevor, do you want a sandwich or macaroni?"
"Roni?"
"Trevor do you want macaroni or a sandwich?"
"which?"
For dessert I gave him the option of yogurt and fruit, in that order. Of course he said fruit. I gave him fruit and he threw a fit, turned out he wanted yogurt. Gah!! Then later,
"Trevor, do you want to watch elmo or blue?"
"Blue?"
"Trevor, do you want to watch Blue or Elmo?"
"Elmo!?" I guess we have to watch for the exclamation when we ask it both ways.


Last week I hear him saying "sauce" over and over. Occassionally "Yea sauce!!" I'm thinking what the heck is he talking about, he better not have gotten in any kind of sauce. I just checked him and he's putting my socks (ahhh sauce = socks) on and off his feet and saying "yea did it!" He seems to like my socks. As he's trying to put them on his feet, Jayden is trying to eat them. Yucko. At least they weren't too nasty, I only wore them for an hour this morning.


Tonight he wouldn't eat his dinner so Travis was doing the airplane thing to entice him to eat. He was flying the fork all over the kitchen with food on it and telling Trevor, "open wide, coming in for a landing." He thought that was fun for awhile and then wised up to us and it was game over. It didn't stop him from using his fork as an airplane though.


Another funny thing he does is when I'm having a conversation with him when he's been naughty or cranky he'll say all serious, "ok ok, I know" In a tone that says stop the lecture and cut to the chase. And he talks to elmo on the "potty time" video. He'll say, "mmm hmmm mmm hmm, Ok ok I know."

Contests!!!

Here's some more cool stuff I'd love to win:

Support breast cancer awareness... Loving all the pink and companies raisng money for breast cancer research. Here's a camera.

There's also a drawing for bedcovers

Please pry my fingers off the keyboard!!!

I'm blog surfing tonight. The whole dyson contest thing caused me to find all kinds of fun blogs that I had never seen before. Here's a few worth mentioning...

Mrs. Flinger- Hilarious post about bumbo sets recall. Don't click if you are offended by the "f-bomb" She has a really fitting acronym for it!

5minutesformom - She has a link with a bunch of contests. Woo hoo... gotta love contests

This is one of my favorites. I don't crochet anymore but their posts make me fall out of my chair! What would possess someone to make this. And even worse WEAR it!

I didn't realize you could actually make money blogging. I don't think I want to turn my little nook on the net into an advertisement though. I'm leaning towards the anti-consumerism "movement." LOL, at least until hubby has a new job. :o) Even then though I'll still be drawn to thrift stores and consignment stores. If I need new furniture I'm sure I'll be shopping antique stores. Buying used/reusing/recycling is much better for the environment than buying new. Plus... they don't make things like they used to!

Na na na na... I'm gonna win!

Being that I work at *insert-retail-chain-name-here* everyday I wander past the vacs and drool. Our vac is so old it spits out more dirt than it picks up. And this one is so so purdy! I fell in love with the purple one when I used it a few weeks ago at work. But pink is even better! Though, hubby I'm sure would refuse to vacuum with a pink vac. I suppose that's a sacrifice I will have to make when I win this beauty.

Thanks to aniowamom for sharing the link. I ~suppose~ I'll share the link to thedomesticdiva so you can enter too if you wish. Your efforts are futile though, cuz I'm gonna win! Neener neener neeeeener!

First Art Project from Daycare

Though Trevor colors a lot we haven't done any "art projects." He got to do his first at daycare. Bad mommy! He was really proud of his pumpkin he finger painted.

I don't know what to do

Jayden is really having difficulty with sleeping these days. She fights sleep and then when she conks out in our arms she wakes the second we put her down and freaks out. She used to sleep so good in her bassinet but now she is getting to big for it and we're trying to transition her into her crib for fear she's going to fall out of the bassinet.

With Trevor we co-slept until he was about a year. Jayden doesn't do well with co-sleeping. She kicks, squirms and is generally restless in her sleep. So I nurse her in bed and then when she's sleeping I stick her in her bassinet and she'll sleep for the good part of the night. But now I'm waking to her pulling up on the sides of it. So what's a mamma to do? I've tried nursing her to sleep and then taking her to her crib but then she wakes up the minute I lay her in her crib.

So at the moment I'm trying to let her cry it out. It breaks my heart to listen to her cry. Though screaming is more like it. I'm going in about every 5 minutes or so. She's so hysterical she doesn't even stop when I'm trying to consol her by rubbing her head and tummy. I don't know what to do. This is by far the hardest part so far with her. :o(

Ahhh, silence! For the moment she has stopped crying. I really hope she has fallen asleep. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated. We let Trevor CIO but when he was much older.

Poor buddy!

Trevor's been running a fever for the last three days. I took him to the doctor and he's got an ear infection. He's been terribly cranky and pretty much like static cling the last few days. Hopefully the antiboitics kick it soon.

Yea Sauce!

So I hear Trevor saying "sauce" over and over. Occassionally "Yea sauce!!" I'm thinking what the heck is he talking about, he better not have gotten into any kind of sauce. I checked in on him and he's putting my socks (ahhh sauce = socks) on and off his feet and saying "yea did it!" He seems to like my socks. As he's trying to put them on his feet, Jayden is trying to eat them. Yucko. At least they weren't too nasty, I only wore them for an hour this morning.

Can ya feel the love?

This was one of those ahhhh moments. I'm so glad kiddos seem to enjoy each other's company for the most part. Hopefully it stays that way.

Sitting up and a little dancin'

Jayden is sitting up for the first time for longer than a few seconds. We got Trevor a new elmo video about potty training. They both thought the tune was a little catchy I guess because they both started dancing. She had been sitting up for a couple of minutes before I started taking the video. She can't get into sitting position yet, she has to be put there.


Jayden "dancing"

Add to My Profile More Videos