Happy Birthday, E-Man!

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Last year on this day

anxious to meet my baby

started out like this

Lots of work and pain

end result more than worth it

getting to meet him

Twelve months have passed now

each day he grows a little

always learning something new

 

Plenty of diapers

much too little sleep at night

but I wouldn't trade

 

He's had many firsts

many are yet still to come

each a new surprise

 

He's a momma's boy

he's always got some cuddles

and a big wet kiss

 

Happy Birthday, E!

I know time won't slow down any

just please not too fast

 

birth - born at 6:36pm weighing 8 lbs 15.8 oz & 21"

one month 

two months

three months

four months

five months

six months

seven months

eight months

nine months

ten months

eleven months

*one year picture coming soon*

E-Man's birthday party is Sunday and I have pictures scheduled for Monday.  Some pictures here are watermarked from Picture People.  I have been too lazy to scan mine in when I can just copy the ones from their site. 

New Glasses

For Mother's Day my wonderful Husband got me new crocs and new glasses.  I fell in love with them and he said go ahead.  So they came in last week and I just love them.  LOVE THEM!  Of course I wanted to share a picture.  They totally change my look. 

Check out that composter over my shoulder.  Oh yes I MUST get to that in a very near future's post.  ;)

Hanging it out to dry

I'm a bit late to get into this, but better late than never.  I meant a bit ago to post that I have my new clothesline.  I'm very excited about this.  Now I am able to hang primarily my diapers out to dry which to me is just great.  Since The Husband installed my line I have not used the dryer to fully dry a load of laundry yet.  So I figured why not sign up for the challenge. 

You can click on the nifty little button there to visit Gift of Green and read all about the challenge.  Upon signing up you state what level you are going to be.  Novice is 10% (1 piece per 10 pieces of clothing OR 1 out of every 10 loads) is hung to dry, Intermediate is 50% (half the loads, obviously) is hung to air dry, and then Advanced which is 90%.  I would really like to do advanced but I'm not sure if I can pull it off.  So I entered the challenge as Intermediate striving to be Advanced.  I will be placing the button there to the right and keeping a count of my loads and whatnot so you can check in at how I'm doing. 

Right now I have a pulley line system strung from the house to a tree out back.  I like it, but I sort of wish I had a second.  It just fits a full load of wash and I'd rather be doing more than a load at a time.  I pulled out my collapsible dryer (along the lines of this one though I have three heights and mesh that I can put on it so lay sweaters and whatnot) today too though.  So at least that helps a little bit.

If you're up for a challenge join in!  Save some energy, save some money, and enjoy the smell of fresh clothes. 

Lack of sleep...Night-Weaning?

I really think that one the of the hardest things that I have had to deal with is a baby that doesn't sleep.  I'm a person that needs her sleep.  If I don't have a full night everyone suffers.  Other than the few night here and there thrown in just to tease me I have not had good sleep in over a year.  E-Man will be turning one on the 30th of this month - he's still not sleeping through the night.  Everyone knows that after about halfway thru pregnancy sleep sucks due to pee and just general aches.  What I wouldn't give to have my sleep back. 

I believe I'm going to night-wean.  E-Man is still breastfeeding.  In fact he has not any formula nor a bottle at all.  I'm not exactly ready to give it up yet, and he's not at all ready to give it up.  However, I think that the time has come that I'm just not feeling the love for sharing the boobies when I should be sleeping.  When it comes to this topic there is soooo much conflicting information out there and so much that just feeds right into Mommy-guilt.  I'm a bit unsure about how to wean a baby that is not exactly asking to be weaned. 

My pediatrician told me that I could start giving E-Man a few ounces of milk a day about 2 weeks before his birthday.  I have been and he hates it.  He had been spitting out every bit of it that crossed his lips.  Now he'll take a swallow or two, but mostly cups of milk are best for throwing.  I saw that there is actually a "best day to wean" according to The Farmer's Almanac - check it out.  It says that this month we still have the 27th.  That's coming up on Tuesday.  I just wonder for night time would it be the sleep after Monday since in technicality that is the 27th or do I wait until the sleep after Tuesday which would technically be the 28th?  Hmmm... So I think I may try my hand at it. 

I saw this bottle.  I thought that maybe that I could get one of those (they sell them now at Babies R Us) and I could put either cow milk or water in it.  It is supposed to be the most like the breast so the sucking would be similar, but it's not the breast and it's not breast milk.  Maybe if I get one of those and then offer one of those two to drink and refuse to nurse him that maybe since he's not getting what he's waking for he'll stop waking up to nurse.  I know that it's now just comfort nursing.  I really do not believe that he needs the milk.  He has slept through maybe 6 or 7 times this year.  He can do it. 

I don't mind nursing throughout the day.  I have no problem letting him more or less lead our daytime weaning, but I need my sleep.  I'm sick of being tired.  I'm sick of being crabby and having so little patience.  It's been a year and now Momma just needs some sleep.  I just wish I could find one like-minded person to say "this" is how you should do it best.  I'm really not looking forward to doing this...at all.  But if it means that I will be getting sleep sometime soon well then so be it. 

Really?

Yesterday we were eating breakfast much like any other day and in the midst of conversation K-Girl, not missing a beat, says "How does someone get dead?" 

Ummm...

Errr,...

Uh...

"Well, sweetie when you get very, very, very, (include a bunch more very's) old you die and go to live with God in Heaven."

"Am I very old?"

"No sweetie.  You are still very young."

"Daddy's old."

"Daddy's older than you, but Daddy is not very very old."

"Oh."

Resume breakfast and chit chat as normal. 

Oy!  I'm not looking forward to the next hard question out of the blue.  Luckily that answer was good enough for now. 

Arrrrgh!

Just so all you bloggy friends know - I messed up my computer and for some reason I am unable to leave comments on blogger at least (not sure about other hosts yet).  I'm also finding I can't respond to invitations on Evites and I can't change my "mood" on MySpace.  Something with my free McAfee ran out and told me to reinstall or something or other.  I first had to uninstall at least that's what I read?  And it won't let me download it again now and now this.  So anyway I just wanted to let you all know that I'm sorry that's I'm now "lurking" hopefully I can figure this out SOON.  And by any chance if one of you have any ideas on what might be causing this problem I'm all ears...eyes...er well whatever. 

What a deal!

Let me preface this by saying that I have wanted a Dyson for ages.  Two Christmas's ago my inlaws knew I wanted a vacuum and got me one.  It was not the Dyson and it broke after a few months.  I went back to using my old one.  That one was fixed, but it's still a piece of crap.  Seriously it picks nothing up. 

So now over a year later I asked if I could borrow my mom's.  We have been back and forth for a long time as to if they are really that good and worth the tiny fortune that they cost.  We have a dog and three cats so we have a LOT of hair.  After using my mom's we both concluded that yes they are worth the money.  So I decided I had to have one. 

The Husband also decided that he would get me one for my birthday.  In my book the Dyson does not land in the rule of no cleaning products or exercise equipment for gifts rule so this was an excellent idea on his part.  Well The Husband tried to get it prior to my birthday but ran into some issues and ended up taking me to pick it up on my birthday only to find that Best Buy was now sold out.  So we came home which was ok because I wasn't going to actually vacuum on my birthday anyway. 

Then we suffered a bit of pre-buyers remorse and once again contemplated getting something other than a Dyson because it was just a lot of money.  The Husband was searching the internet and found that Lowe's had the Dyson Absolute Animal DC17 for $439 as apposed to everyone else's $549.  We went out to Lowe's yesterday to check it out because we didn't believe it.  Well sure enough all vacuums were on sale thru yesterday for 20% off including the Dysons.  There was one left and we grabbed it.  It was also exciting that we had an addition $10.00 coupon from the flyer in the paper that morning.  So we got the Dyson for $429 a savings of $120!  Good Bye buyers remorse - Hello Dyson Animal!  I am so excited! 

And just a note of how amazing this vacuum is - I had swept the floors not too long before borrowing my mom's Dyson.  I ended up dumping the canister EIGHT TIMES thru the sweeping of my whole house.  EIGHT TIMES!!  I don't need to change my vacuum bags on my current vacuum but every couple weeks.  Then last night I swept with my Dyson - my living room floor (including furniture), the foyer (tiny), steps, and upstairs hallway and the canister was FULL.  It is amazing and definitely cleans more than you know is on your floor.  It makes me feel much better about the kids playing on the floors.  That's for sure.  Yep I'm in love and even more so since we found such an AWESOME deal. 

Drive it like you stole it

The other day my mom and I went to lunch and shopping before picking K-Girl up at preschool.  We got there a bit early and since E-Man was in a mood where once strapped in the carseat he screamed, I got him out and brought him up on my lap.  He was all smiles though immediately.  He had a blast "driving". 

Five Years...

Happy 5th Anniversary to The Husband and I.  

And bleed he did!

We have had some bloody lips in the past few months, but those have all paled in comparison to the latest.  This afternoon Evan was crawling and slipped and went down.  When I picked him up I saw blood.  I was anticipating that much, but the quantity and how fast it was flowing made me go into mommy freak out mode.  I hate blood and I hate it even more when it is coming from from one of my kids.  He soaked two washclothes and just screamed and screamed.  Finally I stopped it by feeding him and that also seemed to stop the blood as well.  And wouldn't you know after that I got smiles too.  But would you look at that lip!  Poor baby!  I am so not looking forward to walking starting, because I know more of this will surly come. 

Haiku Friday - Happy Birthday to Me!

click the banner to visit A Mommy Story and more Haikus 

 

Today's my birthday

Twenty-six?  I'm getting old!

Off to a great start

 

Excellent Hubby

I slept in - He did preschool

Surprises coming

 

Rainy dreary day

but that's not bringing me down

Happy Birthday, Me!

Mother's Day

This past Friday K-Girl's preschool had all the moms in for a sing-along.  We came in and sat in an arch and sang 9 songs together complete with guitar accompaniment and hand motions.  It was a good time.  After the songs were done one of the teachers read us a story.  I have never had a children's book bring me to tears - Disney movies many times - but a book this was a first.   

 

I don't know if it was just the words or the fact that the teacher was an excellent story reader, but I was fighting back the tears come the end and the mom next to me had lost her fight.  This is the review on Amazon.com...

The mother sings to her sleeping baby: "I'll love you forever / I'll love you for always / As long as I'm living / My baby you'll be." She still sings the same song when her baby has turned into a fractious 2-year-old, a slovenly 9-year-old, and then a raucous teen. So far so ordinary--but this is one persistent lady. When her son grows up and leaves home, she takes to driving across town with a ladder on the car roof, climbing through her grown son's window, and rocking the sleeping man in the same way. Then, inevitably, the day comes when she's too old and sick to hold him, and the roles are at last reversed. Each stage is illustrated by one of Sheila McGraw's comic and yet poignant pastels. (Ages 4 to 8) --Richard Farr --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

After the story we were dismissed by classes to go pick up our presents.  We were the first class to leave and when we walked back the hall there was a table set up and these were my gifts...

There are some mysterious plants sprouting in my cup.  K-Girl said something about yellow flowers.  If I don't kill them first we'll see.  ;)  I don't have much luck in this area.  In the little basket were 6 delicious chocolate chip cookies that the kids helped make with the teachers.  On top of the cookies was a butterfly magnet (markers on a coffee filter wings put in a clothes pin).  And then the handprints  with a poem that read

My Handprints

Sometimes I might upset you

Because I am so small

And always leave my fingerprints

On furniture and walls

But everyday I grow a bit

And soon I'll be so tall

That all those little fingerprints

Will be so hard to recall

So here's a special handprint

Just so that you can say

This is how my fingers looked

When I placed them here today. 

After the gifts were handed out it was time for Moms to leave and school to begin.  At this point we had tears as K-Girl did not want me to go.  I ended up with only 5 cookies at this point. ;)  And you know a chocolate chip cookie can solve almost any problem.  She was alright about me going then.  But before I left I got a picture of her with my flower.  She looks like such a big girl. 

And then on Mother's Day after everyone was dressed for church I asked The Husband to take a few pictures of me with my kids.  I have many out takes (one in particular that really sums up how we really are) but instead I'll share my favorites.  I ended up having to take my glasses off (per usual) due to reflection.  I'm crossing my fingers that this will be solved with a coating I've gotten on my new pair.  So here are my beautiful kids and I...

 

American Idol 2024

E-Man is obsessed with his sister's keyboard...well primarily just the microphone. It's funny because he can be quiet as anything but he gets the mic and puts it in his mouth and "sings" away. This video is from one of the first times. Enjoy. :)

Doesn't it just figure?

So I just wrote about my experience at Wal-Mart and noticing that when I buy my diet mountain dew it is cheaper to go with 2 twelve packs than a twenty-four pack.  Well, last night I was again picking up soda at Wal-Mart and get this!  They actually had twelve packs of my soda today and I was excited till I looked at the price!  The price went from $3.00 to $4.48!!  So I checked out the cubes and they had no diet mountain dew in cubes, but the price you ask?  $6.49 - The same?!  Whaaaat??  I went with two 2 Liters instead. 

And a side note - I checked Target on toilet paper last time and it was a couple dollars savings to get the larger package over the smaller.  So it seems this isn't the case with everything everywhere.  It also makes me dislike Wal-Mart that much more.  (as if I really need more reasons)

OOPS!!

Yeah I killed my template and whatnot. This is why I wasn't the one that gave this blog a make over. I try to do one thing and I kill it. Now I just have to sit tight and wait for it not to be so dang early on the west coast. Oy!

THANK YOU, CARI!!!

Ahh look!!

I just got notification that my custom monster set for E-Man's First Birthday is finished and ready to be sent out.  Isn't it adorable?!

 

Check out Amber's work at Monster Fluff Studio.  It's absolutely adorable (and more than just monsters too)!!  Eeek I'm giddy.  Ok must go send her payment so it can come home to us. 

Now that that is done...

Alright I feel better now.  I believe I've fixed everything with the blog now.  I've realized that more than just the names I was a fan of using URLs to post pictures and if you trace them back you go to my personal photobucket site.  Oops.  So I've taken out all the pictures and uploaded from my computer instead.  I think this will fix that.  It's been a lot bigger of a job than I expected so that is why I haven't been posting this week.  I've worked more on my blog this past week than I ever have before - it's a shame that I have no posts or anything like that to show for it.  But ah well.  Like I said I feel better now.  So that should count for something.  Now that it's all done I will be able to talk more and since I've put all that time into it and Cari hooked me up with this spiffy new page I feel like I really need to get back to it here at Gohn Crazy.  I've decided to set goals for myself and hopefully I'll have that figured out this week and I'll be good to go to start anew next week.  I'm thinking theme days which I already do to some extent but keeping to it more and actually keeping up with it as well.  I hope you'll stay tuned. 

I hope all you Mommas out there had a wonderful Mother's Day.  Aside from lack of sleep and lack of a nap I had a pretty good one.  I got a beautiful new pairs of Crocs...but not the kind that you are thinking.  Here check these out...

They are Crocs Celeste Suede in Chocolate/Sienna.  They are super comfy too.  And in addition to those I got a new pair of glasses.  Unfortunately I can't show them off quite yet as they will take a week or two till I get them.  But I think they are totally worth it.  Typically it takes me a good hour to find a new style frames and even then it's usually a chore.  The Husband and I were getting custom clip-ons made at this one kiosk at the mall and I looked down and there they were.  We left and came back within a few moments.  I can't wait  to get them.  I'll share when I do.  Other than that The Husband ordered a small ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery...

It's their Cookie Dough Delirium cake.  And yes it was as delicious as it looks.  YUM! 

I will not have a Menu Plan Monday this week as we didn't squeeze grocery shopping into the weekend and I haven't sat down to make my meal plan or shopping list yet.  So this week should be good.  However, I am planning on getting back to it next week and hitting Weight Watchers hard again.  I MUST get to my goal.  I want that money badly to go get some new clothes.  I just know if I put my mind to it and really focus that I can get to my goal in no time really.  So that's the plan. 

Little Monsters

E-Man's first birthday is coming up.  We've settled on a monster theme for the party.  I've got the cutest custom outfit coming that I'll be sure to share when it is finished.  Check out Monster Fluff Studio for a preview.  She's got adorable little monsters (and other things too)!  But tonight I finished up the invitations and wanted to share...

  Next I need to start working on the food, decorations, and fun.  :)  I cannot believe that it's less than a month away.  Ahhhh! 

I'd appreciate your help...

I have been working at taking names out of this entire blog.  I *think* I got them all now.  If you happen across any names I'd REALLY appreciate if you could give me a heads up - gohncrazy at gmail dot com - Thank you so much! 

Ha! Check it out!

I'm a few days late on this but...

Head on over to Method Lust and see ME!  Nathan loves Method and has a blog about it.  Check it out.  It's definitely worth a daily visit!  So GO!  What are you waiting for?  :)