Our little chatter box

This kid is changing so fast. Every day it's something new. Yesterday we were sitting in his room and I heard Sean pull up so I said "daddy's home," Wesley looked at me and said "da dee da dee." The words are just flowing now. Too cute. Here are pictures from yesterday when he was talking on the phone.

Adventures in Gardening

The rain is back, just when I think it has left and the cracks start forming in the yard it returns and greens everything back up. Usually when August appears the grass crunches under your feet and there is nothing but brown surrounding you. It's a nice change. My plants around the koi pond are flourishing. The watermelon vines are creeping right along and the pumpkin plant is just gorgeous. It's amazing how pretty vegetable plants can be. I went out there this morning just to look around and low and behold I have two watermelons growing. I'm so freakin excited!


So I keep looking around and there is a little tiny pumpkin growing as well. Cool stuff! Of course the tomatoes are growing well, still green but getting bigger by the day. They still don't have cages around them since Wally World won't seem to ever get more cages in stock, oh well they seem to be doing fine without them. Last of all the Honey Dew vine is looking good, still no melons growing on it but it was planted late. One of those last of the season, all dried up, if I don't buy it it's gonna go in the trash, purchases. I think it will produce something since it is covered in blooms. Gardening is quite enjoyable when fruit starts appearing.

The fish in the koi pond have seemed to stop multiplying, thank God. There are about 50-60 little 2 inch goldfish in there along with 5-6 big ones. I'm hoping Mother Nature thins out some of the baby fish before fall is here. My plan is to bring in the extra 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank and put it in the upstairs unused bathroom. Then when the temperature drops, go out and empty the pond and net up as many little fish as I can and let them over winter in the upstairs bathroom. We'll see if this actually happens but that's the plan for now.

Big Daddy

All I was going to post today was this cute picture of Wesley and Sean but I thought I'd announce we have our very first word. Last night he was lying on me on the couch and Chance jumped up, he looked at him and said "oggie". Of course this means doggie, it was clear as day. Fun stuff.

Memories of the 4-H fair

Wesley went to the fair today. Our little county fair was this weekend so Jessica, Alex, Abby, Wesley and I piled into Jessica's minivan and off we went. It's not a very big fair, quite a bit smaller than it was 13 years ago when I used to enter all sorts of things. Back in middle school and maybe the beginning of high school (I can't remember) I was in 4-H. I really enjoyed being in 4-H. I got to show my ducks, pigeons and rabbits, along with arts and crafts, food, rockets, entomology, all sorts of stuff. I was pretty much a geek (am a geek, pardon me). My parents wouldn't let me get any large animals, which in retrospect was a good thing. It was hard enough pawning off my ducks and other assorted poultry on my non-poultry loving mother once I went off to college. I can't imagine trying to leave a goat or horse. Yeah it was a good thing they said no.

Anyways, back to our outing today. Wesley is still not old enough to really absorb trips like todays. He mainly goes from sitting in the car seat to sitting in the stroller then back to the car seat. It was also 97 degrees so he was a little red sweaty cherub who just wanted to go home to the air conditioning....I don't blame him. It was fun to see all the animals and so forth. I look forward to the day when he's in 4-H....I'm a little afraid I won't be able to say no when he wants some animal. Hmmm...that could be a problem.

Of all the pictures I took of the fair today these two are my favorite. Here are the three kids in the van as we took off from my house (you can see Abby in the mirror). You can click on a picture to see a bigger version of it.



And here is the same picture taken 15 minutes later. All three asleep. Funny stuff.

Go little dude...go!

Yesterday evening I was cleaning up the massive amount of toys strewn all over the living room and listening to the evening news when they started talking about the death of Randy Pausch. Now if you haven't heard of him you must live under a rock because he's been all over the news, I happen to catch him on Oprah. He was the man who had pancreatic cancer and wrote "The Last Lecture" about childhood dreams and achieving them. His lecture turned into a best selling book...which I hope gave oodles of money to his wife and three small children. Fascinating man, I was saddened to see his passing. Anyways, I'm standing there in front of the TV with toys in my hands and I hear this strange scrapping noise and look over to see this:



Guess he's walking now (with a toy that is). So in a little over three weeks he's gone from being absolutely stationary to crawling, then to speed crawling, then pulling up just a few days ago to cruising to walking while pushing a toy. That's just amazing. You go little dude!

Gone

I deleted this one, bad karma with my neighbor (who could possibly find this blog).

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday Granny Randi! We hope you are having a great birthday with Jeremy visiting. By the way I didn't mean to find a stock photo of a birthday cake with 900 million candles on it, I just thought it was pretty...didn't mean to imply anything! A lot has happened around here since you left a week and a half ago. The crawling terror that is your grandson has torn this house apart. With his newfound ability to pull up, nothing is safe. He can now reach table tops and lower shelves. He pulls up on the couch and yanks on the dogs tails. He's even trying to get onto the couch, God help us. He's having loads of fun, me....not so much. I walk around after him cleaning up and rescuing the dogs. I can't even fathom how walking is going to be. I can't believe I was so anxious to see him crawling, now I just want him to stop crawling.

Today he didn't wake up until 11 am. He goes to bed at 9:30pm and usually gets up at 9:30 in the morning. This morning I go in there once he's awake and he standing in his crib laughing because he figured out the whole pulling up on the crib. Now of course he can't figure out how to lower himself back down so the giggling quickly turns to crying. It is now 4:30pm and he's yet to take a nap. Every time I lay him down he quickly stands up and just won't go to sleep. This should be a lovely evening.

New pictures

My cute men.



Here is Wesley preforming the yoga pose Downward Facing Dog (with his head up).

Summer daze

I do love summer. I love the fact that it stays light out until 9:30 pm. I love having plants growing and producing veggies. I love grilling out. It's an all around good season. This is until it officially hits 100 degrees, which it did yesterday. That signals the long, boring, indoor summer days have begun. Wesley and I don't go anywhere anymore. If I need something Sean picks it up on his way home from work. This has been a great way to avoid the heat and save fuel, but I have to admit that I need that weekly outing to keep my sanity. I'm actually looking forward to getting out tomorrow and going to the dentist. What's wrong with me?

Is that a tasty dishwasher?

Wesley has been enjoying a fun new game of chase with us. Anytime he see us coming toward him he giggles and takes off crawling at supper speed. So I grabbed my camera/video recorder and filmed this:



I actually got his very first successful attempt at pulling up on tape. And as of that very moment he hasn't stopped pulling up. He pulled himself up on the dishwasher and "helped" me unload it before sucking on the open door and trying to get on it.




Then this morning he "helped" me pull the clothes out of the dryer. He's really excited about this new moving stuff.

Seven Years Today!

Seven years ago today I walked down the aisle and said "I Do". Sean and I were both Seniors in college finishing up our final semester. I met Sean online back in the fall of 1997 as freshmen. We started chatting on AOL and found out we were next door neighbors in a joining dorms. We went on a few dates and decided it wasn't working out and went on our merry way. Then in October of 1999 we met up again and decided to go out. Glad we did! This time it "took" and we were married on July 21, 2001. It's been a wonderful seven years! I am truly blessed to have married my best friend. Happy Anniversary Sean!

We actually celebrated our anniversary yesterday since that is when we had baby sitters. My parents came over and Sean and I escaped to Red Lobster to gorge ourselves on lobster and snow crab. Man that was tasty. We were going to go see the new Batman movie as well but it is almost three hours long and we just couldn't be gone six hours. So we picked what we'd rather do and eating won, go figure. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for babysitting!

He is watching

I am really enjoying this little one year old I have. For one, he's no longer on the dreaded expensive formula. Yea! As of yesterday he had his last bottle of formula. He is officially weaned onto Horizon Organic whole milk. The second great thing is he can now have all the "off limits" food for babies under one like strawberries, egg whites, oranges and orange juice and tomato products. The citrus and tomato products were a no no because of the acid not because of a potential allergy. I guess it burns their little rear ends as it exits. Poor kid. I hope it doesn't bother him. We are trying orange juice tomorrow morning, can't wait.

I found some interesting reading regarding juice. I guess not all juice is created equal. The number one best juice that packs the most nutritional punch is orange juice, even better if it is calcium fortified. A close second is vegetable juice. Third and fourth were apricot and guava juice (something I can't find around here) and in last place is apple and pear juice. The book said limit apple and pear juice as it has very little nutritional value.

Some other new things the kid has learned, he'll now pick up the phone and hold it to his ear. It is truly amazing how much a child learns from just observing an adult. It's a little scary I must admit, makes me think twice about everything I do. Tonight I was crawling around putting the little toys in a basket in his room and I asked Wesley if he'd help Mommy pick up the toys as I showed him how to put a toy in the basket. Sure enough he crawled around picking up the toys and throwing them in the basket. I was blown away. He's such a little man, just soaking it all in.

Here is a picture from Grandma and Grandpa's visit that I adore. The three generations of men.

See ya poopers!

I did something today that I rarely, if ever, do. We found a new home for our geese. I acquired four female geese two years ago to keep in our lagoon and act as lawn mowers. They were, in fact, such good lawn mowers that they over grazed the lagoon and now it is reduced to dirt. Then when it rained it would cause it to erode into little channels into the lagoon. We started worrying about the integrity of the lagoon and decided the geese needed to go trim someone elses grass for a change. So my friend Jessica's mom took them to be company for her lone male goose and to trim the five foot tall weeds in her lagoon. As I left them today the male goose was showing the four females around his bachelor pad....he seemd happy with his new harem. I'm kind of sad to see them go but I don't miss the noise or the mess they made when they escaped the fence (something they did daily). Seriously, geese take a giant crap every 3 minutes. Gross. I hope with them being gone the lagoon will start growing grass on the banks again. I figure I can just let the goats in there periodically to mow it down.

My master plan down the road is to get two ducklings to raise when Wesley is old enough to enjoy it, maybe three years old? I also want to build a kick ass chicken coop at one point and get baby chicks....or if I'm brave enough maybe we can hatch our own eggs. I would love to take Wesley out and collect organic fresh eggs every day. How fun.

Pool progress

As I stated a few days ago the pool demolition has been stalled due to the birthday party, family visiting and now tractor issues. I was just telling my sister in law that this project is not as easy of a project as Sean and I both thought it would be. I mean when you look at an in ground pool it doesn't look like that daunting of a project. But wow has this taken awhile. It doesn't help that it's just Sean doing it. Before Wesley came along we were a team, kicking butt on house projects together. Now it's one at a time while the other babysits. Anyways, Sean is currently tackling the dirt mounded up around the back of the hole. It's strange but in my mind you just put the bucket of the tractor in the dirt and scoop it into the hole....nope, it's not that easy. Our dirt is packed down and solid clay. So with every bucket scoop Sean is only able to scrape off an inch or so of dirt. It's slow going. And it's July. It sucks (and that's my view point while sitting inside in the air conditioning). Here are pictures of the hole. Sean has been pushing dirt in from the back.

Kissy kissy and clapping

He wasn't in that great of a mood this morning but I still got some video of Wesley and his new skills. First one is if you tell him to do "kissy kissy", he will pucker up. It's cute. Second thing is he's learning how to clap. He's getting pretty good at it.

Let's save some energy!

Since I am no longer working, or at least not full time, we are constantly looking for ways to save money. Our number one money hemorrhage every month is the electric bill, so we have been looking all over the house for ways to lower it. Last month we kicked our old air conditioner and furnace to the curb and installed an energy efficient heat pump. We have also been replacing regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs whenever one burns out. And our newest change is to the hot water heater. I've been asking dear hubby to turn down the water heater for months now and he finally got around to it this past weekend. Turns out it was set to almost the highest setting of 145 degrees. After doing a little research on water temperatures it turns out at 145 degrees it takes two seconds to scald. We are talking a go to the hospital type burn. It's a darn good thing we are doing this strictly for Wesley's safety alone. Also interestingly enough, for every 10 degrees reduction in water temperature you can save between 3-5% in energy costs. Bonus! We turned it down to 110 degrees.

I've been looking for even more helpful ideas at lowering the energy bills and these are things I plan to implement ASAP. For one, not using hot water as much as possible will keep our water heater heating elements from being on (which surprisingly enough draws more electric current than the air conditioner when on!). When I run the dish washer I use the air dry setting. Hubby has been sealing up the leaks in the house to keep the crazy hot weather out. And last of all I'm actually thinking of putting up a clothes line, although I'm just not sure about it because we live on a dirt road and it can be dusty around here.

I found an interesting chart online that shows how much energy a typical appliance uses per year and it's corresponding cost based on national averages.



I was shocked to see that pool pump was the second most energy sucking appliance below hot tub. I am so excited to see some energy savings not having that pool pump run all summer. Let's give a big Ya hoo for no more pool (pool demolition progress pictures coming tomorrow). Anyways, that's what we've been up to.

My gem

I was sifting through the mountain of Birthday pictures and found this gem. My baby is a little kid now.

Our redneck life

The pool demo has been stalled due to the birthday party and the visit of family. But in an attempt to keep going on it, Sean has been taking down the wrought iron fence that surrounds the pool. This will enable him to use the tractor to scoop dirt all around the pool....or should I say hole in the ground. Now that half the fence is down there is nothing keeping the grazing animals from getting up close to the house. I was a little worried about having the horses and goats right up next to the windows but so far so good. This is what I saw when I came into the living room yesterday:



How redneck are we? I found it highly entertaining watching the goats run up and down
the slope of the torn up pool hole. They are having tons of fun. Now I'm just waiting for them to "find" the tractor. Goats are notorious for wanting to be on the highest point, so I fully expect to look out there and find them standing on the tractor. The geese are also joining in on the fun. Who needs to go to the zoo when you can just look out your window?!

Bye Bye Grandparents

We were sad to say bye to Sean's parents this morning. They headed out for their 14 hour drive back to New Mexico after a very pleasant four day visit. We had a great time visiting with them. Wesley is sad to see them go. He woke up this morning and looked all around trying to find them. I told him we'll see them in four short months for Thanksgiving, looking forward to that.

The zoo trip yesterday was just a blast. I've decided Sunday's are the days to visit the zoo. All the animals were out and about, many up by the glass so you could really see them. Many of the zoo keepers were out at the exhibits so we could ask all sorts of questions. It was very informative and fun. I think Wesley enjoyed himself.

Wesley has changed a bunch over the past two weeks. He is now into buttons. If a toy has a button and can be turned on and off he has figured it out. He's such a bright little boy. He'll just sit next to a toy and turn it on and wait for the music to stop then hit the button again and again. It's so amazing watching him learn and develop. He's quite the chatter box too. He'll just look at us and "talk" to us in his own little language. He's really growing up fast.

The zoo through pictures

Today Wesley and the entire family went to the zoo.



Wesley got to see the barnyard animals in the petting zoo.



Grandpas camera strap was far more intriguing than the animals.



He then got passed to Grandma in the elephant exhibit.



There were many similarities between the zoo animals and Wesley. Both liked showing off their feet.



Both took long afternoon siestas.



And both liked to pose for the camera.



Wesley got to help me feed the giraffes.



Then he got to see some really big fishies up close and personal.



At the end of the day he pleaded with his Dad to please take him home, he'd seen enough animals.

Happy 1st Birthday!

Well I can't believe this day has finally arrived. My little man is one year old today! We had a little party around noon with the family and friends...both sets of grandparents were there along with Aunt Betsy, Uncle Blake, Jessica and Josh and their two kids Alex and Abby and her parents and brother Rusty, Brenda and Aaron. Wesley made out like a bandit with all the presents! He's got so much new stuff to amuse himself now- he's set.

Last night I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning finishing up his Sesame Street cake. I made a big devils food cake for everyone along with three small cakes that were a low sugar banana cake for the little ones and Grandpa. Wesley didn't quite get the hang of eating the cake, he insisted on feeding it to Aunt Betsy though. But we were able to get the good old frosting face picture.

Right now he's sitting in his room obsessed with his Bob the Builder tool belt. Must be a little boy thing. Thank you to everyone that made this day a memorable and happy first birthday. Happy Birthday my little man! Here are a ton of pictures, enjoy!

Grandma love

Grandpa and Grandma are here!

The in laws have arrived! Sean's parents arrived late last night and it is so nice to see them. They left New Mexico roughly two and a half weeks ago and have been driving all over the country visiting all the children and grandchildren. With the price of gas the way it is they are spending a small fortune to see us and I greatly appreciate it! Wesley hasn't seen them since Christmas and he just didn't know what to think of the new people in his house this morning when he woke up. He just sat on the living room floor staring at Grandpa, no smiles no nothing. It was funny. He warmed up to them quickly and soon he and Grandma were both wearing plastic bowls on their heads. I have a great picture of this and of course my camera and computer have decided they aren't talking this evening so I will try and get the pictures off onto the laptop tomorrow. I hope I can because the pictures are adorable.

Transitions

The almost one year old Wesley had his first taste of cows milk today. I am so excited to get him transitioned off of the incredibly expensive formula he's currently on and on to whole milk. So tonight after dinner he had his first sippy cup of milk, and loved it I might add. I've recently done some research online about transitioning from the bottle to the cup and there are quite a few good ideas out there. One idea is to slowly dilute the formula in the bottle...for three days he'll get a 75% formula 25% water bottle then for three days he'd get a 50% formula 50% water in his bottle until he just doesn't want the bottle any longer. Sounds like it could work. I also read that you should keep formula in a bottle and milk in a sippy cup. Don't put cow's milk in a bottle and visa versa. It's a good way to get them off the bottle that way. We'll see.

More new stuff: new teeth are on the way. He's had his two lower teeth for awhile now but I just turned him upside down yesterday to see two new ones erupting on the top. They are either the canines or the lateral incisors, I can't really tell. He's such a mellow man, I can't seem to tell any change in his temperament with the addition of new teeth which is wonderful. That's about all that's new for now.

Wesley's Birth Story

This time of the year has got me thinking about what things were like around this time last year. I was waddling around 39 weeks pregnant. My ankles were swollen to the size of elephant feet from the constant 100 degree heat. With my due date of July 12th quickly approaching I felt I needed one last date with my husband before we dove into parenthood. Wednesday July 11th Sean took off work so we could go see the opening day of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix (I'm a large Potter fan and was anxiously awaiting the opening day for months). We went to a matinee, sat in the balcony seating where you can order food and relax in heated love seats. We lived it up gorging ourselves on pizza. Then afterward Sean took me to my 40 week appointment.

The nurse took me back to the exam room after weighing me. I believe some whales weighed less than I did full term. The nurse took my blood pressure and made a little "hmmm....that's not good." Basically something you never want to hear in the medical field. The doctor came in an informed me that my blood pressure was high and wasn't a problem as long as it goes down by the end of the appointment. The nurse came back in and rechecked it and this time it was higher. Doc came back in and said she was sending me across the street to the hospital to be induced right then and there. I personally think my blood pressure was high because of the large amount of salty pizza I had consumed right before the appointment.

I was so excited! Actually I was just excited to not be pregnant anymore. I went into the waiting room and told Sean and we made our way over tot he hospital to be admitted. After waiting in that waiting room for two hours we finally had a room. Around seven pm I had my IV in and was starting my first of two rounds of antibiotics for Strep B. They started the pitocin and by 9 pm my contractions were starting. I got an epidural when they became painful. After that Sean and I were able to get a few hours of broken sleep. Around midnight my epidural started wearing off the left side of my body and I was in quite a bit of pain with each contraction. I can't even imagine how women don't get epidurals, that's crazy talk. The doc came in and adjusted the tube in my back and once again I was feeling no pain.

Around 4 in the morning I was told I was ready to push...who knew? Forty six minutes later little Wesley was born. It was such a wonderful experience. I remember laughing and joking with the nurses and doctor through it all.

Almost immediately after the birth I started feeling incredibly nauseous so they gave me some medication through the IV. They failed to mention that it would knock me out for half a day. I swear it was an elephant tranquilizer. I wish I would have declined the meds because I missed out on those precious first hours with my new family.

We stayed in the birthing suite for two days before being released. I wasn't sure if I was going to like staying in the hospital for that long but it was actually very relaxing. The nurses were coming and going at all hours, there to help out and answer any and all questions. They were a great help getting the breast feeding off to a good start. The best part of the whole stay was the food. Whoever said hospital food was gross was nuts! Who knows if it was merely the fact that some one was serving me (for a change) or that I didn't have to cook but I really liked the food. Plus they had a goody tray of desserts that came around throughout the day. It was heaven.


Overall it was an excellent birthing experience and I look forward to doing it again one day in the (not so near) future.