Happy New Years Eve!

I hope everyone is having a great New Years Eve! I didn't even realize today was New Years Eve until the lady at the feed store told me so. Wesley and I then decided we needed to go to the grocery store to pick up yummy treats to ring in the new year. What is new years eve without tasty fattening food. After saying this I have to add that I'm trying out a low carb diet, I plan to shed 5 pounds. I'm doing this along with Pilates every afternoon during Wesley's nap to tone up and feel good about my body again. So I will be watching Sean and Wesley munch away on the said tasty treats while I munch away on salads and nuts. It's all good!

Wesley has been adding to his vocabulary over the past week. He's got about 30 words now that he uses regularly. Yesterday he started stringing words together. He walked up to me with my sneaker and said "Mommy's Shoes" and gave one to me. He'll also say "Hi Daddy" when Sean gets home from work (we worked on that one for a couple of weeks). He also says "Bye Daddy" or Mommy when one of us leaves. It's great.

The other day we were flipping through a photo album and we got to a picture of my father and he pointed to it and said "Papa". So I guess my Dad is going to be known as Papa instead of grandpa for the time being. I called them up to tell them this and my Mom said in her saddest voice "When will I get a name?" Soon grandma.

The kids newest feat is that he discovered how to climb into his highchair all by himself. I will get a video soon as it is quite something to see. He's quickly gaining his monkey skills. That's all for now. I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years!

Vroom vroom vroom

It seems Wesley turned into a little boy overnight. He's starting to do the typical "boy" things now. He'll pick up one of his Hot Wheels and vroom it around the floor, complete with vrooming noises. I had no idea this would start so early! I mean, who knew the little boy genes kicked in at 18 months? I thought I would have at least until he's 3 or 4 before the car infatuation began. I suppose he never had a chance with his genetic background. Here he is "vrooming".

The fun fund

Several months ago I was surfing eBay and ran across someone selling their formula checks. You know, the coupons that the infant formula companies send out on a monthly basis? I still get these Similac coupon/checks every few weeks.....and until recently I would throw them out since I don't need to purchase formula anymore (hallelujah). They aren't much, usually each check is good for $5 off a can of formula and I would get one or two checks at a time. So over the past few months I've been collecting the checks and once I had three or four I would put them up on eBay. The strange thing about all this is that people on eBay bid them up to 50% of their value. Not just occasionally, but always. So every few weeks I post $20 worth of checks and I make $10. It's never much money but I save it up and then yesterday I bought these cute pair of black leather pumps with stuff I normally would just toss in the trash. It's my fun fund. Yea me!

Christmas Rewind

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I was hoping to get a blog about Christmas up sooner but we came home to a dead desktop computer. Poor old Mac wouldn't even power up. So I am now an official laptop user. Rest in peace my old Mac. We spent Christmas with my sister, her husband and my folks in Kansas City. Wesley had a great second Christmas! After about the fourth present he learned how to delicately unwrap the paper, no crazy ripper here. He liked the bows the best, putting them on his head was super cool!



We all made out like bandits. Santa was very generous this year. Wesley decided each new present was more awesome than the last. He got a tricycle, a bulldozer toy, oodles of new Geo Trax (it's going to take over the whole house now), Fridge ABC toy, Turbo Turtle and countless other cool toys. He is very excited to watch his new Elmo DVD, Elmo in Grouchland, although I'm going to prescreen it since I hear it can be a little scary. He made a good haul this year, thank you to all the family and friends for being so generous.

My sister got my father Guitar Hero for Playstation 2 and we all sat around playing it. What a fun game! Sean was a natural at it and kicked all of our butts. Here is my father playing it, what a hoot that was to see.



Here is the whole family.



Here is Wesley cuddling with ol' Mom.



My favorite picture of Sean, looks like he's meditating and making the balloon float....what a silly picture.



So excited to see all the presents!



Thank you Betsy and Blake for hosting a great Christmas. It was very nice of you to let us all crash at your house and eat all of your food. We all had a great time and Wesley already misses your cool coasters (one of which made it home with us...somehow.) Thanks again!

Tornado Wesley

This is what my living room looks like at the end of every. single. day. Usually, though, my kid is not standing on a box.

Just around the corner

Boy am I excited about Christmas! I am really looking forward to it this year because Wesley is becoming more and more aware of everything and I can't wait to tell him about Santa. Looking at this time of the year through a childs eyes is so much fun. With every passing year I can only imagine it getting better. Plus, I'm psyched about getting new toys for the kid! He SO needs something new to do around here on these long winter days...poor bored kid.



On the down side, the weather is already horrid and winter has only just started. Doing my outside chores twice a day has become a lot of work. I resemble the abominable snowman when I go outside....sweater, jeans, jacket, coveralls, hat, mittens, scarf & boots (I REALLY want a ski mask but we don't live in ski mask country so I'll have to order one). Thankfully we put in the stock tank heater for the horses several months ago. It does a great job of keeping the water from being a block of ice but it doesn't keep water in the tank. The hose that goes from the house to the stock tank is frozen stiff so I have to haul 5 gallon buckets of water out there once day. It's a lot of work, but I signed up for this when I got those animals I suppose. I do feel bad about them out there in sub zero degree weather. They have a nice cozy shelter with all they can eat hay and thick fuzzy coats, so I don't worry too much, but still....brrrr.

We are leaving Wednesday to go spend Christmas at my sisters house in KC with my family. It will be nice and I'm looking forward to it.

Tractor Love

Last Christmas my parents bought Wesley a tractor. It's a little John Deere ride on toy. Yes, we live in the Midwest...tractor toys are popular here. He was all of five months old last Christmas so it didn't get much use up until lately. Well ever since he started walking he's decided this little green tractor is the bomb. He's so in love with it and will ride it around for a portion of every day. He's also discovered he can wheel it over to the baby gates and stand on the seat in an attempt to get over the baby gates. Sneaky little boy. Here he is riding his tractor with his "hat" on.

More ramblings....

There seems to be a total lack of interesting stuff to blog about lately. I feel at ease after shipping out my last Christmas sculpture this morning, along with the last of the Christmas presents to family. I'm so happy to have that all out of the way! One less thing on my shoulders. Hubby took today off and I ran into town to finish up the last of my Christmas shopping without my little 17 month old tag along. With the weather bitterly cold and the unknown forecast of freezing drizzle it was nice not having to lug him around.

On the subject of dicey weather, I finally got to try out the four wheel drive on my Jeep yesterday. I've never had a 4 wheel drive vehicle (never really needed or wanted one) but I thought "since I've got it, I'm going to use it!". On a day like yesterday, when I would have normally stayed home because of the thick blanket of snow and ice, I plowed right through it. It was nice, I actually felt very safe driving around with Wesley in the back seat. Not over-confident, but safe. I guess I'll have to hang onto the Jeep for awhile, even though it's proven itself to be somewhat of a lemon.

Wesley is getting over his second cold of the year. Looks like it has almost ran it's course. He starting to do more new things every week. He's starting to be clingy. He'll walk up to me and throw his arms up toward me, once I pick him up he'll just lay his head on my shoulder and hug me for several minutes. It's very sweet, I adore it. Then Sean will walk by and he'll throw his arms out to him and I'll pass him off and he'll give hubby the bear hug. We are hoping this isn't developing into a "won't let Mommy out of my sight" phase with the impending Arizona trip next month. Hubby and I are flying to Phoenix for Sean's brothers wedding in January and leaving Wesley with my parents for two nights. They offered and we couldn't resist the chance to escape for a long weekend by ourselves. It will be nice to travel light, for a change.

That's about all that's new here, hope everyone is having a great Holiday season. Can you believe Christmas is in 8 days?? Yikes, where does the time go?

Elmo's back

I have reinstated Elmo's World back into the house. It was banned from the house after the endless watching that happened on our trip home from New Mexico. Wesley did good during the banning period, only asking for Elmo several times a day.
Here he is this morning with Cookie watching it, you can almost see the drool rolling down his chin. Elmo will only be allowed once a week. His weekly treat. Just call me the "Elmo Nazi".

Victory

We have a snow storm predicted for our area this week. So while I was at the store I decided to get Wesley a hat. He's not a hat lover and yanks them off immediately after they are placed on his head. SO I found one of those hats that velcros under their chins. Wonderful inventions. Here he is trying his hardest to remove the hat:

And here he is giving up. Victory!

The little black escape artist

I am a self proclaimed animal lover. Sometimes I don't necessarily like my animals all the time, for instance when my little mini horse Rocky decides to try and kick the crap out of me but that's another story. Anyways, I do love the animals around me....especially our little terrier Chance. Chance is a 12 pound wiry little fellow we adopted from the pound five years ago when he was just a little 7 pound kind-of-puppy. It was love at first sight. My mother and I went in there and he just stared up at me with the saddest eyes I've ever seen. I put my hand through the bars and he laid his head in my cupped hand. It was precious and he went home with me that day. He got along splendidly with our golden retriever, spending countless hours rough housing and chasing each other.

I'm building all of this up to explain how much I care for that little dog. So when last week he decided to squeeze through the wrought iron bars on the fence and take off I was freaked out (to say the least). I ran outside barefoot with Wesley (thank goodness it was not a freezing cold day) and immediately took off running and screaming his name. Luckily he hadn't gotten far and I scooped him up and ran back inside. Then last night he decided he needed to escape again. My new routine was to let them out and then go to the window and watch him do his business and let him back in. By the time I got to the window he had already shimmied his way through the fence and was gone. Did I mention this was at midnight? Hubby and I took off outside and walked the property with flash lights calling his name. We found him finally. Crappy little dog, doesn't he know how good he has it? Nice warm house, good food, great kid to play with. I feel like I should leave him outside sometime during a snow storm and see how much he likes living here. It might make him not want to escape.

So now he can only go outside with a leash on. Yeah!

Building immunity one kitty turd at a time

The kid is sick...again. This makes number two for this winter so far (and it's officially not even winter yet). He's not real sick just big wads of green snot running down his face and sometimes into his mouth. Yum. He's sleeping just fine which I'm grateful for. He's got his humidifier going all night and it seems to keep the snot nice and thin so it doesn't wake him up.

I try to figure out how he gets sick since it's just him and me all day here in the house. He rarely goes to the store with me anymore (I prefer to do my shopping without him on Saturdays) and it's not like he goes to a play group or daycare. Must be all the ickies floating around our house or maybe that hubby brings home from work? The kid is always doing something that makes me say the phrase "Oh he's just building immunity one _____ at a time". You can put anything into that blank. The other day he walks up to me with a dried up kitty turd in his hands. Kind of like "hey look what wonderful prize the kitty left me!". Nasty kitty. He does this with anything and everything. During late summer I would catch him sucking on my flip flop. Or every so often I'll walk into a room to see him lying on his stomach sucking on the wood floor. My favorite is he'll get a hold of the dog's food dish and will lick it out right after they ate. It doesn't even phase me anymore. You can't say he's not building up that little immune system every time he does something like this.

I shall leave you with video of Chance the dog chasing Wesley around trying to steal his beloved cracker. Wesley loves being chased by the dog....I think I might try hanging a chunk of meat around his waist, endless fun!

Confessions

Ok, I am about to admit something to all you internets. I am addicted to the Twilight series. I had a ton of Christmas orders and on any other given year would still be doing them, but I promised myself that once I finished them this year I could re-read the books. So of course I finished them last weekend. I've been reading ever since. Now I'm not totally over the top here as this is only the second time I'll be reading them, but the addiction doesn't end at the books. Oh no, I've seen the movie twice now and am trying to find a way to sneak in a third viewing. I say "sneak in" because my husband thinks I've lost my marbles. He might be right. It's not helping that the second book is soon to be in production for the big screen and might be out next Christmas. Yeah! Ok, that's all.....first step is admitting the problem.

First snow

We are in the midst of our first snow storm here. I love snow. It really sucks for Sean to drive in but when my family is all home I love being all cozy inside surrounded by animals and hot cider on the stove. Yum.
It's just a few inches and it will probably be gone by tomorrow....nothing like what my brother and sister-in-law live with every day in South Dakota! I don't know how you guys do it! Here is a picture of our mini snow storm.


Wesley and I are just chillin inside today. Here he is showing off his favorite expression. He'll just walk around the house with his mouth hanging open. Strange child.


And here he is dog stomping. Sophie really is a good dog putting up with his toddler antics.

Twinkling lights and football....what a combo.

Christmas has arrived at our house. I set up the tree, wreaths, garland and such today. I'd like to say that it was a family affair but no, I do this myself every year. Sean is not much into decorating (it must offend his manly side) and Wesley would be more interested in smashing the glass ornaments than helping me decorate. But it's ok, I'm not complaining too much...I get to put things exactly where I like them and it really does put me in the Christmas spirit.

Sean and Wesley watched the college football championship games today. When I say that Wesley watches football I used to mean that Sean watched football while Wesley played with his toys. Not anymore, Wesley actually will sit on Sean's lap and watch football with him. It's kind of sad just how early the fascination with the game starts in this house. In fact last week Wesley started saying "football". Sean taught it to him and now he'll randomly ask Wes what he wants to watch on TV and the kid will automatically say football. It's just so wrong, yet cute at the same time. I, on the other hand, am desperately trying to teach the kid "chick flick" but it's not working.

More cute new stuff with the kid: When he's ready to take a nap or go to sleep at night he'll lay his head down and say "nigh nigh??". It's pretty darn cute. It's great that he'll now let us know when he wants to go to bed, rather than the other way around.

With only 19 days until Christmas I am about half way through my shopping. I just ordered some stuff off of Amazon and hope with the free shipping it will be here before Christmas. Now I just have to get everything shipped off to out of state family before long.

This last picture is Hubby and Wesley by the tree. Sean has decided in an attempt to keep his face warm he will try and grow a beard. I think this is more of an excuse for being too lazy to shave, but hey....whatever, we'll see how it looks after a few weeks. Maybe I'll like the mountain man look?

Christmas spirit?

We have gotten back into the swing of things around here since getting back from the trip. Wesley seems to be moping around without all the constant attention he got down in New Mexico. I think the poor kid is bored being home. We can't go hang out with his buddy Alex because poor Alex and Abby are recovering from croup. We can't go outside because it is friggin cold. I think it's going to be a long winter.

One idea for keeping this kid happy and entertained is to release him into the house. We have about half the main floor baby gated off for dogs and Wesley. This keeps everyone safe and happy, Wesley can't get into too much trouble and the dogs are contained to an area that they can't destroy too much. But there is quite a bit of the house that the kid has never been in or only briefly. The basement for one. This weekend I plan on cleaning up the basement and setting up the GeoTrax train set down there so that we can go down there every so often and play. Maybe just getting him into a new situation will make him happier. It's worth a try.

Tomorrow we are going (back) to Sears to get some more pictures taken. When we got home from the trip we had a message on the answering machine saying we won some raffle and received a free photo shoot and some wall portraits. So Wesley is getting all gussied up and getting some Christmas pictures taken tomorrow.

I am planing on getting the Christmas decorations put up this weekend in between getting all my Christmas sculpture orders finished. I'm looking forward to getting them up, I'm hoping seeing the house all decorated gets me in the Christmas spirit!

I wish I had pictures to post but I'm kind of pictured out after taking oodles over the trip last week. That's all that's new here.

The refrigerator coffin

This post drops into the "strange" category. Yesterday morning I go into the kitchen and smell something hot. You know when an electronic somehow overheats it gives off a hot smell. Well there was definitely something overheating in the kitchen. Sean pinpointed it to the bottom of the refrigerator, where the coils are on the back. So we pull the fridge away from the wall and the outer cover looks like there is some dog hair on it (imagine that). Thinking that it's just a layer of dog hair that making it overheat, Sean gets the shop vac out and goes to town vacuuming it all up. He takes the cover off and continues to vacuum the inside of the compartment. He notices the fan that cools the coils is stopped and finds out why. There is a dead mouse stuck in the fan. Yep, this poor little mouse was just walking around near the fan when it decided it needed to come on. So the mouse got stuck in the fan which in turn made the coils overheat and give off that lovely overheated smell. I'm glad we were home to catch it as we aren't sure if it would have started a fire. Luckily, the fan started right back up once it was free of dead mouse (and brains...Mmmm).

And there wasn't just one dead mouse in there, another one was curled up a few inches from the other. Weird stuff I tell you.

The return

We got home from the car trip from hell around 4:30 AM this morning. We had a well tempered little boy on the trip down to NM but a little demon child on the way home. Not real sure why. Oh wait, it could be the 17 hours he spent strapped into his car seat....yep that would do it. He was not a happy camper and we tried everything to make him happy. We read to him, sang songs, played with toys but nothing would keep him from screaming except a little red monster named Elmo.

I so did not want to be one of those parents that set a DVD player in front of their child on long car trips. I used to make fun of those people, and now I'm one of them. *shudder* Yes, my child watched Elmo's World across Texas and part of Oklahoma. I'm not proud of it but in my defense one can only listen to hysterical screaming so long before one drives into a ditch. If I never see that little red monster again it will be too soon. I will not be letting him watch TV for 2 months. This I swear.

The trip (other than the car ride) was wonderful. It was relaxing and we had a great time seeing family. Wesley was his usual happy, silly self. He enjoyed the vast amount of attention from all the different and new people. He had a great time meeting his cousin Sasha and announced that she was indeed a "baby" every chance he got. He also dazzled every one with his not so new word "battery". Since returning home he has figured out that it's just old Mom and Dad again and his newfound friends aren't around to constantly read to him at a drop of the hat. He's is totally bummin about that fact.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from this past week.

Here is Granny Randi and Wesley after playing with oodles of stickers.


My favorite picture of Sean's brother Nathan with his fiance Stacy.


Grandpa Rich reading to Wesley


Sean's brother Jeremy and wife Becca.


Granny with Sasha and Wesley.


Grandpa with the babies.

Eyes for Cookie

Wesley has developed a "thing" for cookie monster. It's, by far, his favorite character on Sesame Street but it hasn't stopped there. He loves to watch clips of cookie monster on YouTube and any board book featuring cookie.

I guess it runs in the family. When Sean was a little boy he had a large stuffed cookie monster that he carried everywhere. It was dragged through everything, beat
up, stomped on and all around thoroughly loved. While down here in New Mexico we mentioned Wesley's love of cookie and Sean's Mom suggested we go out and retrieve the old toy from its place in storage. So out came this well loved, eyeless cookie monster about the size of Wesley. It lost it's eyes long ago because Sean would drag it around by its eyes.

Grandma Randi being the fabulous crocheter she is, made Cookie some new eye balls.



I don't know why but I just love that photo of freshly crocheted eye balls sitting on a chair. They were then sewed on Cookie's head and Wesley has been carrying that stuffed animal around ever since. I think Cookie will be traveling home with us tomorrow so that he can love on it as much as his Dad did when he was a kid.

Thanksgiving......

......through pictures! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did! It's truly a blessing to be surrounded by such wonderful family and friends. The in-laws house was practically over flowing with people today. There were 15 of us. We had a delicious meal and everyone is just lying around stuffed.

Wesley got to meet his cousin Sasha yesterday pretty much for the first time. It's really been cute watching them interact. Sasha is 13 months old and such a cutie! Here is Wesley feeding her (notice they both have big open mouths).



We all watched the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade and Wesley was just in awe to see his favorite Sesame Street characters in the parade. It was cute.



Besides Sasha, Wesley got to play with Tanner who is a six year old. Wesley followed Tanner around whenever possible and giggled up a storm. Tanner is such a well behaved little boy and played with him. Once again, cute.



And of course after filling our bellies with turkey everyone is lying around sleepy.

Road trip

We made it! I wasn't sure I'd have internet access but turns out we do. The trip was uneventful and went quickly. Wesley was a wonderful traveler, taking regular naps and being his happy self. Here is Sean and Wesley posing in Albuquerque yesterday morning at the hotel.

I've always told Sean that I could see living in Albuquerque. It's such a pretty, clean town (from what I've seen). It's really a pretty city.

We stopped along the way at different fast food joints for lunch or dinner and Wesley enjoyed playing in the booth and not being confined to his clip on high chair.


The landscape around here is sure different. Beautiful mountains, very scrubby and dessert like. We are sure happy to be here and are enjoying the time with Sean's folks. Wesley has warmed up to Granny and Grandpa and now plops down in their laps with a book in hand ready to be read to. He's having fun. I'll write more when there is more to write about.

Off to New Mexico

We are leaving Sunday mid morning to go visit Hubby's family in New Mexico for a week. We are somewhat packed at the moment, hoping to finish it up in the morning. We decided to scratch the idea of leaving tomorrow evening in the hopes that we can now make it almost there Sunday, leaving only 4-5 hours on Monday. We're not booking any hotels since we don't know where we will end up tomorrow night....but we are aiming for Albuquerque. Wish us luck, it will be a long 11 hour day in the car!

I am prepared for the journey. I think I have almost packed up every board book we own and will be reading them as we drive across the country. I also purchased a little DVD player off of eBay and have videos ready and waiting. I stocked up on odd toys over the past month and have a small collection to keep him (hopefully) whine free.

Sean and I got back this evening from seeing Twilight. Oh boy was it good. Not entirely true to the book but they did a decent job. Had I not read the book I'm not sure I would have understood the strange (not very well pulled off) chemistry between the leading roles. They also left out some (I think) important scenes, but hey....overall they did a good job with the budget they had to work with. I'm thrilled it is doing so great in the box office and can't wait to see what they do with a New Moon. Exciting!

I probably won't be blogging for a little while so I hope everyone has an awesome Turkey Day!

Crazy hounds go to the vet

I spent the day running around tying up loose ends in preparation for our departure to New Mexico this Sunday. Every year I am amazed at what it takes to actually prepare for a vacation. Of course it's mostly animal related. Lining up people to take care of said animals, making sure there is enough food, installing de-icers in stock tanks, and today there were shots. The kennel that I take the dogs to require them to be up to date on shots so every year around this time I load up the crazy hounds and make my way into the vet clinic to hand over loads of cash. Today was no different.

Our dogs are crazy. The only one that was well trained died this year of bone cancer. Thus I am stuck with crazy untrained Humane Society dog #1 and crazy untrained Humane Society dog #2. You throw them both into a closed compartment such as a car and it generally spells disaster. Sophie, the retarded irish/golden mix has no manners. I mean NONE. And she's dumb as dirt (umm..did I mention irish setter?). She is 69 pounds of red terror and thinks she's a lap dog. The entire trip to the vet she tried to sit on my lap. When she would do this she would stand on my accelerator leg and would cause the car to jet forward until I could correct it. Needless to say there was a stream of profanities escaping my mouth. Chance, the little black terror sat in Wesley's empty car seat the whole trip. Wish I could have gotten a picture, it was actually cute.

We did make it there and back alive and they are now pumped up full of vaccinations and ready for their fun filled trip to the kennel on Sunday. There really is a reason we don't go on many vacations, it's crazy (but worth it!).

Pictures

We went into Sears Portrait Studio today to have some pictures taken. Wesley really did well, he was all smiles...it was wonderful. We got some really cute snapshots due to the photographers skills with a rubber ducky. She would squeak it and he would smile away. She was good.

Here are a few of my favorites. I'm sure some will become Christmas gifts so I won't show them all. I went way over my budget but since we do this every blue moon, I thought it would be ok.





On a different note, I am totally bummed to not be going to the midnight showing of Twilight this Thursday. I got online last night to pre-order a ticket and both showings were already sold out. I had it all planned, Sean would be home (sleeping) as would Wesley so I could go see it with no problem. My normal bedtime is usually around 1-1:30 am so being up that late would be no problem. But alas they sold them out in record time. So Sean and I are going Saturday to a matinée while my Mom babysits. I'm really excited to see it! Thanks Mom!

Orangie Lover

A couple of times a week I break out the orangies (mandarin oranges) for dessert and the kid goes nuts. He loves his orangies. He could seriously care less about cookies or cake....but orangies.....Mmmmm orangies.

Silly faces

He really is a happy little silly kid. He's learning that he can make new faces and make old Mom and Dad crack up.

Random thoughts

I swear the snot is never going to stop oozing from this childs nose. Never. Ever. He's had this cold for 8 days now and I just assumed it would go away after a week but after talking to my friend Jessica it looks like the snot can last up to two weeks. **banging head on desk*** I just wish he could learn to blow his nose, man that would make this a lot easier. I'm apologizing in advance to Becca and Jeremy if he still has the snots by next week when we see you guys. From what I've read, a child with a cold can pass that cold as long as there are symptoms (snot) present. So sorry!

Happy Birthday Jeremy! The big 3-1! You old man you! :) Hope you are having a great birthday!

Oh and since this post is turning into random thoughts....there is only 37 days until Christmas. Crap.

Laugh out loud funny

This is the funniest thing I've seen in awhile. This is so Wesley in a couple of years.

The sicky

Well, my kid gave me whatever he had and now I'm sick as well. Joy. I've had the sore throat from hell for two days now and just now decided to start medicating myself. Tylenol works wonders on a sore throat by the way. I'm still congested and have a sinus headache but at least the throat is feeling better. I feel like I'm on the downhill side of it though, I've felt decent all day.

We felt good enough to dance today. One of our new rituals is to dance in the afternoon to Micheal Buble on YouTube. I love Micheal Buble, he's got as awesome voice and Wesley seems to like it too. He sits on my hip and we twirl around the room. Him with a giant grin on his face. It's cute.

Yesterday I set up a photo shoot at Sears to have some family pictures taken. I found Wesley the cutest little outfit and decided we needed some new pictures. Now I just hope he smiles for the camera. I'll put them up here on the blog when I get them (if they turn out good). Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Sixteen months old!

Happy sixteen months today little man! You are still battling a cold and it sure is making you a fussy kid. You absolutely hate having your nose wiped but, surprisingly enough, love to have your nose sucked out with the bulb syringe. The humidifier in your room last night enabled you to sleep through the night without waking up, let's hope for a repeat tonight.

At sixteen months old you are keeping your old Mom and Dad on their toes. Always getting into everything possible and constantly making us say "where on earth did you find that?!". Luckily you seem to be over the "put everything in your mouth" stage. Although you relapsed slightly this evening with crayons. But they are, after all, tasty morsels of colored wax. Yum!

You have a infinite love of books, which I'm thankful for. At least 19 times a day you come up to me with a book (often the same book all 19 times) and deposit it in my lap and precede to whine until I read it to you. Your newest interest is in the picture board books. The ones with just normal everyday pictures of objects in them. You will sit quietly by yourself and point to random objects on each page reciting what that object is in your own "toddler language". Even though ducky and doggie seem to be the same word I, as your mother and secret language decipher, can figure out the small difference in the tone of your voice.


Oh Mom, you crack me up!


Little man, you crack me up on a daily basis. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't laugh hysterically at something you do. You never fail to entertain. Looking forward to the next sixteen months you crazy kid!

We got ourselves a climber!

The climbing has progressed to chairs. Lord help us all. I came out of the kitchen this afternoon to find Wesley standing on the kitchen chair flinging my half painted sculptures off of the table. I think I had a minor heart attack. Luckily none of them were damaged, I don't know how but I'm sure thankful! For once in my life I wish the house had wall to wall carpet instead of hard wood and tile since a topple off of a chair onto the latter is going to be painful and inevitable.

In addition to his new found climbing skilz he is getting over his second cold. I'm thankful this is only the second time he's gotten sick and I hope it's gone as quickly as the last time. Poor kid woke up several times last night with a blocked nose and finally I brought him into our bed so we all might get some sleep. That theory backfired. Instead of just him being awake all night he made it so we all got no sleep. I just hope he stays healthy after this for our big road trip in less than two weeks, I don't want anyone else getting sick. That's all that's new around here.

Weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend for a change. Last night we went over to a friend of ours house who was having a BBQ. One couple that came brought their 18 month old little girl and Wesley had a blast following her around. It was the first time he's been around another kid close to his own age. It was really cute watching him interact. They kept giving each other hugs all night, just adorable.

Today we haven't done a darn thing and have enjoyed every minute of it. The weather has gotten down to freezing keeping us indoors. I did accomplish something yesterday. Sean has had an old dirt bike frame (body and wheels but no engine) in the shop for years and it somehow got itself parked outside by the horse pen. I've been running into it for a few weeks during feeding and decided enough was enough. So I took a picture of it and posted it on Craigslist in the free section. I did that around 10 in the morning and by 1pm it was picked up and gone. Not 3 hours later. I love Craigslist!

This afternoon I'm in the kitchen making lunch and turn around to find Wesley climbing on the drawers. Oh joy!




Sean went out and rented a Playstation game this morning to fully enjoy his lazy weekend. So here is Wesley sharing his snack with Daddy who's playing his game. Too cute!

Nigh Nigh

We have a pretty good night routine that consists of a nice warm bath at 9:00 pm, followed by Jammie Man (Sean) putting him in his jammies, a few minutes of play while his room is cleaned up and then off to bed. Sean and I take him into his dark room and put him in his crib, turn on his crib aquarium night light, give him his pillow, blanket and cookie monster toy and say "Good Night" and leave the room. For a couple of weeks now as we walk out of the room he says "Nigh Nigh" to us and it just melts our hearts. It is super cute. Well last night we put him in his crib and say "Good Night" and turn around and go to leave expecting to hear the usual "Nigh Nigh" and he instead says "battery" as clear as day. What a strange and funny little man.

Growing like a weed

Wesley must be doing some serious growing lately as he is having a hard time fitting into some of his clothes. So I've been buying "new" clothes for him off of eBay for the past couple of weeks and it's been filtering in the past several days. Some of the clothes are new with tags and others are in used but like new shape. Looks like he's officially in 18-24 month clothing (although the pants are a little long and most have to be rolled).

There is some really cute stuff on eBay and I'm picking it up for a fraction of the cost of new stuff. I picked up nine long sleeved shirts for $3.00, two long sleeved Gap onsies for $.99 (these are ultra cute), a red pull on fleece for $.99, and an adorable brand new outfit with a little puffer vest, shirt and corduroy pants for $5. Super deals. Since these little ones go through clothes so fast I just can't imagine how people can afford to pay full price for brand name clothes or even non brand name clothes.

Since he's become proficient at walking he needed some new shoes, the leather soled Robeez knock offs weren't cutting it anymore. So I found these:

Aren't they just the cutest little shoes? They are made by Jack & Lily. They are still leather soled shoes but they have more padding and some rubber on the soles for beginner walkers. He's not ready for the jump into thick, rubber soled kid shoes. I got these brand new off of eBay for $17 with free shipping (they are $30 brand new in stores). I can't wait for them to arrive. They are 18-24 month size and I hope they fit until the end of Winter or Spring.
Here's hoping!

Have I mentioned how much I love eBay? :)

Election

I try not to push much of my own political opinions into this blog. But I seriously can't help posting this link.

Is McCain president?

I am so proud of this country for getting out and voting on Tuesday and for picking the right man for the job. I'm excited for Wesley to grow up in a country that can choose a candidate based on the ideas that come out of his mouth and not by the color of his skin. Change is coming.

Testing

My little man has definitely been testing me over the past month. He's figuring out that old Mom and Dad can be wrapped around his finger and that he can get away with things. His "Little Tiny Turkey" status is growing by the day.

A new development that came along with walking is the fun ability to stand in the bath tub. He's been doing this for about a month now and it is just the most frustrating thing. He stands up, I take his little arm and tell him "No, we don't stand in the bath tub" and make him sit down. He giggles, looks at me and stands up again. I know it's a matter of time before he falls and breaks something open. As a result we have speedy little 3 minute baths. It's a shame because he really enjoys bath time.

Another turkey moment happens when I give him his cup of milk. He sits down and sucks up a few gulps and then spews it all out down the front of his shirt. If we don't catch him right away he will do this to the entire cup of milk. I'll find him smiling, holding his cup, with his shirt and pants drenched a dog licking up all of the evidence. It's so frustrating.

He also still pinches my fat whenever he has the chance. He knows it bothers me and takes full advantage. It's lovely.

Here are some random pictures from the past few days.
Here is happens when I ask Wesley to give the kitty a hug.


Here is Sean and his "mini me".


Wesley's clean-up crew.