2005

With kids every day drags along and seems like the other, but the year flies by. That’s exactly how it seems. I love spending my time with Max, though. I love watching him learn…seeing him pick up the same toy for the thousandth time and be amazed at what it does. It’s funny and frustrating sometimes at how something he laughs at today can scare him tomorrow.

He loves playing with the pans…but when he bangs them on the floor he starts crying and crawls to me! Silly boy!

The day before yesterday I did like always and after he indicated that he was hungry I started repeating ‘hungry mama’ while I got him ready to eat. He started saying the same syllables in the same tone as me…with ‘nana’ at the end! I think he’s gearing up to talk soon!

He said ‘uh-oh’ yesterday…I’d heard him say it before, but last night he repeated it several times to Tj and Gmom.

Last Saturday night he had a really bad cold…his temp got up to 101.7. I was worried about him even though I knew I shouldn’t be. The only other time he’s had a fever it wasn’t as high so I wasn’t worried, even though he was totally lethargic. He did nothing that day but lay on me and sleep, but because the numbers weren’t high I didn’t worry. This time he was a little fussy but he played and moved around all day and yet I worried about the numbers. I guess it’s because my greatest fear with a little baby is what’s out of my control or what I don’t know how to handle. We gave him some Tylenol and his fever responded…all is well in the end. He only had fever that one night.

Katie and Craig were gonna come over Sat night but Maddy fell and passed out! Those kids never seem to get a break! Craig says he thinks Maddy held her breath so long that she blacked out because she seems fine now. I was surprised that they didn’t even take her to the doctor. We’re hoping to get together this coming weekend…I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Tj has a few more minutes on his nap…and Max has been napping forever! We’re almost done getting ready for the folks…they should be arriving around 4am. I hope they have a quick and good trip.

We were at Maddy’s birthday party (she turned one Tuesday) and Tj helped Max walk from him to me and Max took a step or two! It’s funny because Maddy took her first steps there, and so did the other little girl at the birthday party, Audrey. Since Tuesday he’s done a thing or two more…turned from one hand hold to another without hanging on for a bit, stood and clapped without falling…this boy will be walking soon! At the party we let him use Maddy’s push and walk toy, but it was funny because it kept getting away from him and he’d end up on his knees…he obviously still needs a little practice.

I still haven’t written about our Thanksgiving…we had a great time. We bought tickets to NJ and then realized that this new carseat is too big to fit in Gmom’s car! So then we had to rent a car.

We slept in Gmom’s bed with Max in a pack-n-play next to us; Gmom slept in Ryan’s room. Well, that was the plan, anyway. For some reason this time the bed was even more uncomfortable than the last time so we ended up taking turns on the bed/couch. I think Tj was really annoyed at not being able to sleep together…and I know I was too. Before we got there Gmom sent Shadow to sleep at Sam’s house. I was glad not to have to deal with that big dog in her tiny house all week…not to mention him knocking Max down at every turn. One night that week Gmom had to go sleep at Sam’s house because she was out of town. Tj piped up that it was ok for Gmom to sleep away from us but not us from her??!! (She’s cried whenever we mention getting a hotel room.) I think next time we may end up going to a hotel. I admit that staying in Gmom’s house is easier…if we want to stay in our pj’s all day (which we did more than once this trip) we can…and we don’t have to drive every day to see Gmom. But I think the cons of staying with her outweigh the pros. Cons: that stupid big dog licking me and leaving hair everywhere, Gmom’s extremely uncomfortable bed, the house is so tiny I feel like Tj and I don’t get one chance to really talk the whole time we’re there, I have to dry off with towels that have dog hair on them so that I end up with dog hair all over me just out of the shower. Pros: we’d already be with Gmom and wouldn’t have to drive to her house, we’d save some money (we may have to rent a car to go back and forth). I think that might be it!

Ok, well in spite of that little tangent we had a great time. We had Thanksgiving dinner with Gmom, Ken, Diane, Diane’s brother and mother, the three girls and Ryan. The food was good…that was the first time I’ve eaten stuffing cooked inside the bird. It was good…but I don’t really care for stuffing in the first place.

The only other things we did were go to Maddie’s birthday party, hang out and watch movies/play Scrabble, and eat Philly cheesesteaks. Sam came to visit with her girls, Uncle Bob came to visit and so did Aunt Dolly. That was it! We had a good time.

Now, for our visit to Savannah, Ga. Tj had to go there for work and he asked me to drive out there to stay with him. We’d just started on our diet so I loaded up all of the paraphernalia and drove Max out there. The trip had originally been planned to Columbus which was only a 2 hour drive…Savannah is 5 hours…now Tj, don’t ever say I don’t love you! Another reason I went is because Tj was there from Thursday to Monday. We had a great time there. The hotel room was nice and big; we put Max’s pack-n-play at the far end and covered it with blankets. There were room-darkening shades and I think that’s the reason Max slept till 9/9:30 every morning! I only get 7:30/8am here usually! We took a little trolley tour of the area which was fun. There’s really not much else to say about our trip there.

Guess I’ll wrap up this entry. Tj’s gone for the week (except for a layover here Saturday night) so I have a lot of time doing just what I want. That and taking care of the boy.

Last night Tj helped me make three new recipes for the cookie/ornament exchange at MOPS today. We had a good time, and they turned out great. (We also had a great time picking out our tree yesterday! We’re hoping to get started decorating tomorrow before Tj flies tomorrow night.)

As I was getting ready to go this morning my Sunday School teacher called and offered again to keep Max for the ladies’ dinner tonight! Backstory: when we went out to eat lunch Sunday Kim asked me if I was going to the dinner and I said yes. Then I remembered that Tj had to fly, so I told her I wouldn’t be able to make it. Joe and Scott both offered to keep Max; Joe said several times that he’d be happy to keep Max but I knew that his wife was having surgery the next day and he doesn’t need any more stress before an event that big. Scott (my SS teacher) didn’t say anything more after I told Joe thanks but no, so I thought it was better that I not pursue him as a babysitter. I was so excited when he called this morning. That was so sweet!

As I ran out the door this morning I almost forgot the cookies but fortunately I remembered them before I even started up the car. MOPS was fun; I made an ornament and got a great one too! Sheera was the one who brought the ornament I ended up with…it’s a star picture frame with light blue jewels and a sheer blue ribbon. She says they take a picture of their kids every year and hang them on their tree…this sounds like the start of a great new tradition!

I didn’t eat too many cookies…I didn’t want to ruin my great track record with this diet…I’ve lost another pound and a half since Sunday! Exactly 13 pounds to go (I may have been estimating the other day and rounded off a half or something…).

After MOPS Katie and I went (with our kids, of course) to Chili’s for lunch. This was the first time in years that I haven’t had the chili queso for my meal! I had a grilled chicken breast, broccoli and some black bean soup. Afterwards she came to the house just for. Maddy fell asleep on the way over, and not long after they got here I put Max down for a nap. We talked and had tea and a cookie or two…we just had a great time together. Katie left at 4:45 and Max slept for another 15 minutes or so.

Not long after he woke up I remembered about the dinner at the church tonight. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten, and I had no idea what time it was! I had an hour and a half to get Max to wake up, feed him, change his diaper, get myself dressed, get his bag all ready and put together a little gift for Scott. I managed to leave only three minutes late. Not too bad!

The dinner was a lot of fun. All of the tables were decorated by different women with their best china and Christmas decorations and looked so pretty. The food was ok, but the fellowship was great. I’m so glad Scott and Kim helped me out. We had a lot of fun…cut up and laughed a lot. I sat with Denise C, Dani, Lara, Angel and Kim. All in all a great time.

Scott said Max was an easy baby…and he really is. He woke up at 7:30/45 and played by himself for about an hour this morning. I dressed him and gave him a cereal bottle on the way to MOPS. He was in the nursery for at least 2.5 hours and had only a 6oz formula bottle and never slept. He napped for about 10 minutes on the way to lunch. At Chili’s he had a small jar of veggies, some of my rice, chicken and broccoli, and 3 oz of formula. He went down for a nap at home around 3pm and slept until 5pm. I fed him a large jar of babyfood with cereal mixed in, a yogurt and almost all of a travel-pack applesauce (he should’ve eaten this amount again for one more meal). We got to Scott’s at 6:20 where he ate half of a cereal bottle, and then went to bed at about 8:30. I got there around 9:30 and he woke up as I was putting him in the car. He talked to me on the way home and was wide awake. I put his jammies on, brushed his teeth and put him in the bed…and he went right to sleep! What a great baby!

Of course that wasn’t all I had to update on Max…I just thought it was!

I just remembered what I’ve noticed these last two days, but I’m not sure exactly what’s new. Twice now I’ve sternly (loudly) said something like “oh, Max, no sir!” and he’s gotten afraid/scared. He’s almost jumped and nearly cried. I’m not sure if he’s recognizing his name more, or really understands my tone now or what. Last night he was playing near the wine rack and reached up and knocked the wine glasses together and I called out to him…and this morning he was reaching for a dirty diaper. I want him to know my stern tone, but I don’t want to scare the little rascal!

Awhile back when he first started teething he started eating less and a few times he didn’t want to eat a particular food. Whenever I ran into that situation I’d offer the food several times, but in an effort not to beat my head against a wall I’d end up giving him something “safe”…applesauce with cereal or just a bottle. That really didn’t last that long…less than a week. Now when I sit down and try to list the foods he eats I realize that he eats anything! He’s had avocado by itself and liked it, although he doesn’t like picking it up with his fingers. Ditto with tofu. I guess it’s the wet/soft consistency he doesn’t like. One thing I do need to work on is grits…he doesn’t like them! I tried them on him about a month ago and he spit them out! He never spits out food…sometimes he tries not to eat it, but I think grits may have been the first food he actually spit out of his mouth. I have confidence that he’ll learn to like them, I’ll just have to work on it.

Tj and I started a diet the 11th of November. The 15th MOPS had a Thanksgiving lunch and I ate a very small plate there and went straight back to dieting that night. The 17th through the 21st we were in Savannah with Tj’s job but we brought all of our diet paraphernalia and were good about following our diet. We did splurge on a Greek chicken salad one lunch and had fajitas one supper. We left for NJ early on the 23rd and there the diet ended. All in all in 12 days I lost 5 pounds.

Several times before we went to NJ I talked with Tj and said that we should eat sensibly while there. I thought we could have a salad or two every day in addition to whatever else we ate, and then for Thanksgiving we could do whatever we wanted. Tj never verbally opposed this plan, but when we got there he acted like he never heard it! (And when we got back home he said he thought we’d planned on abandoning the diet while in NJ from the get go…this was not the case! ) Anyway…I wasn’t gonna be the only one eating sensibly, so I ate with wild abandon too…and boy, was it good!

The first two days back I didn’t feel like grocery shopping so we ate with wild abandon here. I went to El Nopal’s for lunch one day, had McDonald’s one time, and we had Burger King Wednesday night after Awana. It took me two days to get back to my dieted weight, and in fact I was ½ a pound less than the day we left for NJ!!! Yea! This kinda dieting I can handle. Maybe dieting in this holiday season isn’t as bad as I thought it would be…there are designated diet breaks built into this time of year where you’re socially obligated to break your diet! I hate dieting…and I’ve never followed a serious diet for more than a day or so before. I’m glad to be seeing such good results from this one. If I lose 15 more pounds I’ll be extremely happy with my weight…and if I lose 10 more I’ll be satisfied. I just did a BMI calculation and today I’m at the heaviest BMI recommended. I have 5 days of diet left before Tj and I go to a B&B for the weekend (where the diet is off, obviously). Then there are 10 or 11 days until Jo/Ma/Papa and the boys get here. In the first 5 days I have a MOPS cookie exchange where I won’t eat a lot…but they’re cookies; and I may go to a women’s dinner at the church. In the next 11 days Maddy has a birthday party…that’s the only time I foresee breaking the diet. We’ll see how it goes!

I’m such a lucky mama…when Max teethes he sleeps so much. Last Thursday he woke up two hours later than usual, and then took two two-hour naps (they usually last about 45 minutes for the first one and an hour or more for the second). When I added up his whole day he’d only been awake 8.5 hours in a 24-hour period! Poor growing baby.

He also slowed down his eating by quite a bit. Just before we ever sighted the first tooth he stopped eating about half of his food. He got back up to normal again a couple of weeks ago…normal is eating two Yo-babies mixed with cereal for breakfast (with a few cheerios on the side), two big jars of baby food and some applesauce, all mixed with cereal (with a few cheerios on the side), and a repeat of lunch for supper. By the time we went up north for Thanksgiving he was back to eating normally so I had Diane buy enough jars of baby food to last us the week. Of course then there was so much excitement at feeding time with Gmom there watching him and playing peek-a-boo and ‘how big are you?’ that he ate only half as much again! I started feeling bad that she paid for all of this food and he wasn’t eating it…but in the end we had to go out and buy another jar or two to last the week! I guess that just goes to show that I shouldn’t worry about my boy getting enough to eat.

Every Wednesday night Max goes to the nursery while Tj and I work in Awana. Joe A is almost always there and calls Max his buddy. One of the early nights when I came back Joe was laughing and said that when he gave Max his bottle he was wondering how Max was gonna be able to suck all that thick cereal out of that little nipple. He didn’t have long to wonder…Max drank that whole bottle in just a few minutes. Joe still laughs and tells people (like he did today at lunch) about watching Max suck that bottle dry so quickly. Hungry baby.

Something I’ve been wanting to mention but think I’ve forgotten so far…90% of the time when Max crawls he uses the palm of his left hand and the fist of his right hand! Crazy kid!

Well, I guess that’s really all I had to update on the boy. He’s napping now so I’m gonna go read for a little. Hopefully I’ll post again before the day’s out.