my little doctor

My sweet boy has been taking care of his mommy the past few days. Whatever sickness I had sucked! But, I am so so so so very happy that Luke or Levi did not get sick. Oh, I was so worried about that. This post will be mostly pictures that I snapped from my death bed.

Since my last post my "baby" turned 11 months old. Not sure why this one was so hard for me..

We tried out some new "big boy" food. He will eat a whole container of Puffs or Waffle Wheels if I'd let him but he WILL NOT pick up and eat anything that is wet or slimy feeling. These are peaches that he is just playing around with.

He's also gotten pretty darn good at eating 3rd foods with the chunks of food in it that he has to chew up. This picture is a little blurry, but I think it's pretty cute.

 FINALLY! After several months of learning to use the sippy cup, he finally finished his whole cup!

 He has made several new discoveries this week. New discovery #1 His love for the refrigerator.

I even caught him giving it kisses....



 New discovery #2      .........the potty............

New discovery #3 Opening and closing doors. He loooooves doing this, however, he has not fully figure it out yet. And what I mean is that he starts to pull the door open (see below) but hasn't figured out yet to move out of the way to open it the rest of the way. He hit his head ohhhh about 6 times before he got to the next picture...

 Success!

In this picture, I caught him spinning around in circles on his belly just a laughing! Silly goof nut.

An update on my arm.. it's feeling much better and I was able to stop taking my pain medicine earlier this week. I'm getting my stitches taken out tomorrow :/ I'm really nervous about that for some reason. Isn't my bruise beautiful?? ha

And then we get to him being my doctor :) Stay at home mommies don't get sick days, so when he was busy playing with his toys I would lay down on the couch and try to rest. I was SO achy and weak. Every now and then he would stop what he was doing, crawl over to the couch, pull himself up, give me a little pat and a smile and go back to playing. You'd be amazed at how much better that made me feel <3

And when he got tired we would sleep.

And then when he woke up we would snuggle and watch some cartoons. He takes such good care of his momma :)

 



Baby's 1st Pumpkin!

 

So I gave Hubs a deadline of today to finish our kitchen renovation. We started this renovation in early August... So he worked hard all day yesterday and is going to finish up the final touches today. He has done such a great job!

Since I am still handicapped due to my surgery, Luke and I played most of the day :) He absolutely loves his new book that his Aunt Joyce gave his last week!

And then we played in a box. He loves playing with boxes, containers, Tupperware, and empty water bottles so much more than any of the toys he has..

And oh course I have to mention another ghetto DIY project I did this weekend. A while back we bought Luke some cute little carseat strap covers so the straps wouldn't rub his neck.

Well, his new high chair has straps similar to his car seat and they also rub his neck and make it red and irritated. So instead of going to Target and getting covers like we have for his car seat (a whopping 5 bucks), I decided to make some! I took one of my fuzzy socks and cut the toe and the heel out and WALA! Strap covers! Don't be jealous of my geniousness... ha (and yes, I think I just created that word)

Enough of that. On to the exciting stuff! We carved Luke's first Halloween pumpkin this weekend! I think I had more fun than Luke did! If anyone decides to do this same pumpkin (hands for the eyes and feet for the mouth) I would highly recommend getting the paint out and doing hand and footprints on a piece of paper, cut those out, and then trace them onto the pumpkin. Your child might sit still long enough to let you trace his/her hands and feet on the pumpkin, but mine wasn't having any of that.. On to the pictures.

Wo Mom this thing is huge! What am I supossed to do exactly??

 ewww gross. but these little seed thingies are pretty cool

 time out. gotta check on the dogs

 how my doing dad!?!?

 all done!! now it's MINKA TIME!!

 Luke and his first Halloween pumpkin!

 He was so proud of his pumpkin

 Luke, Daddy, and the pumpkin!

 Ta-Da!

 And the after dark pumpkin

Today I slaved over a hot stove most of the morning. First, I cooked the pumpkin seeds that I saved from Luke's pumpkin. I've never eaten pumpkin seeds so I was eager to try them. I started by mixing all the ingredients together and then coating the seeds. Looking good, huh?

The recipe I used said to bake them for 15-20 minutes. I set the oven timer for 15 minutes and when there was 4 minutes left on the timer, smoke started coming out of the over.... Needless to say, they got a little crisp.

After throwing those in the trash... I started making a lasagna recipe I came across on Pinterest. They are called Lasagna Rolls Ups. While cooking, Luke and I jammed out to Toddler Radio on Pandora and Dad was replacing light fixtures. I haven't tried the Roll Ups yet because I froze them for an easy pop in the oven meal when I really don't feel like cooking. They took quite a while to make, but boy oh boy did they look and smell good. I can't wait to try them! I wrapped each one individually in foil and then put them in a zip lock bag and wrote what was inside and how to cook them on the bag.

Lasagna anyone?!?! Here is the recipe I used if anyone is interested in making some! http://cookingclassy.blogspot.com/2012/02/lasagna-roll-ups.html
Welp, that about somes up our weekend. Pretty uneventful, but hey, my kitchen looks darn good and baby's got a pumpkin. Success :)

Good Eats and a Ghetto Crib

Happy Friday Everyone! The past week has been pretty uneventful due to my surgery and the fact that I can't do much :( Levi's parents and my Memaw have been a great help with Luke. And Levi has been SUPER DAD! He has been taking care of me and Luke. We are pretty darn lucky. And boy oh boy is he sexy! Sorry ladies, but this super hunky daddy is alllllll mine :D

I have/had (whatever) De Quervain's Disease, which is basically a tendon problem in my wrist. The doctor said afterwards that he's glad I had the surgery because my anatomy was a little different from most and he had to not only open up the sheath around my tendons, but also remove extra sheath that was in my wrist. He said it would have never gotten better on it's own without the surgery. Anyhoo, I'm sporting this Beauty for a little while until I get my stitches out next Friday.

Betty Crocker here actually cooked a little this week. I'm going to end up being a lefty by the time all this arm crap is over with though. Last night I cooked Turkey Lettuce Wrap Tacos. They were super scrumptious and super healthy. All it is is lettuce, ground turkey with taco seasoning, shredded cheese, tomatoes, and salsa. Levi put rice in his and loved it! Beans would have been good too I bet. The recipe also called for tomato sauce mixed in with the turkey meat, but I didn't do that. I wish I had though because the turkey was a little dry. So easy. We had to add a piece of cheesecake for dessert to make up for all the calories this meal didn't offer..

 

A few days ago we had steak, baked potatoes, zucchini boats, and wine. Oh. My. Stars. It was great! Of course I didn't go exactly by the recipe (I never do) but this is how I did it. I sliced the zucchini long ways and scooped out all the seeds. Then I added shredded cheese (you can use whatever kind you like- I used a mixed blend, but I'm going to try mozzarella next time), sliced tomatoes, bread crumbs, more cheese, and then salt, pepper, and basil. Throw them on the grill for a few minutes and WALA! Yumminess! You can also cook them in the oven. But to me, everything is better grilled :) I forgot to take a picture of it, but this is the picture that came with the recipe.

 

They tasted like zucchini pizza. Definitely going to cook these again! And more of them. I scarfed down one "boat" quick! Tonight is Pizza night. Friday is ALWAYS pizza night. I'm loving me some Gusano's Pizza! Their Supreme pizza is the best pizza I have ever had! Oh jeeze, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.. Ok, on to something else..

My latest DIY project if you want to call it that has been "bumpers" for Luke's crib. I did this for 2 reasons: 1) Right when he learned to stand up in his crib he would fall and hit his head. He fell and hit his head 3 times before I came up with this genius idea. When he fell I could get from my bed to him in, I kid you not, 2 seconds flat! Can't be having all that. Poor baby. And 2) because he would gnaw on the crib when he stood up.

Yeah, it's kinda ghetto looking, but it serves the purpose. I rather have a ghetto looking crib for a while and no concussions than a good looking crib and a concussion or hospital visit. I wrapped blankets around the top and secured them with some left over tulle I had from a wreath I made.

Lately we have been sitting outside a lot because the weather has been so nice. Luke LOVES watching the puppy dogs. He is so relaxed when we go outside. Takes after his Momma :) Excuse the no makeup.

We got a little messy right before bath time last night so I let him "run around" without any clothes on for a while. Is that not the cutest little butt?

 

I hear him stirring around in his crib now so I guess nap time in about over with.

Til next time!

Trying this again

I'm baaaaack! I haven't written in my blog in FOREVER! I've been a tad bit busy with my "new baby" (who's almost a toddler now) which made me wish that I had been writing down all the fun things that have happened over the passed 10 months. I'm really going to try to be better about writing. I'll try to recap and make it short and sweet because if not, it could possibly turn into 147 pages..

My sweet baby was born and there are no words to describe how happy I have been since that day. He was such a good baby. Levi and I are extremely lucky. We joke and say baby #2 will probably be the complete opposite. We made it through the holidays and then I had to return to work which was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. So I decided to finish out the school year (I am a teacher) and become a stay at home mommy for a while. While in daycare, he was constantly sick so he was pretty much connected to a nebulizer for the first 6 months of his life. He hasn't been sick at all since we removed him from daycare (knock on wood).

We went to St. George Island in June. Traveling with a baby was quiet an experience :) We had a blast though.

Teething was really a struggle for us. He now has 6 toofies and hasn't had any more trouble since those have come in. Sleeping all night was also something we had to work hard to accomplish. We finally have it down! (fist pump!...and knock on wood again) The picture below was the first time he stood up in his crib. He was so proud. We had to move his mattress down that day...

My Bigdaddy passed away 5 1/2 weeks ago and it still doesn't seem real. My heart has never hurt so bad. I got a white tattoo of an angel wing on my wrist the day of his funeral to remind me everyday that I now have a guardian angel watching over me.

Little man is all over the place these days. Crawling 90 miles an hour, pulling up on everything, and cruising along all the furniture.

It seems like he is learning something new everyday lately. His favorite thing to do is to crawl to the back door and watch the puppy dogs outside.

Well, that's all for now. Don't want to over do it my first day back! ha ;)

The past 6 weeks...

Well, I didn't think I would write anymore blogs, but here I am. Today is the last day of it being just me and Luke at home. I have to go back to work on Monday. Tears are already flowing. SO... today I planned on doing nothing but "hanging out" with him, but he fell asleep on me :) To occupy my time until he wakes up I thought I would write about whats been going on the past ohhhh month and a half.

If you noticed, I haven't posted anything since my 37 week post.

I went in (miserable) to my check up and they did a bunch of tests on me and a sonogram on my legs because I was so swollen and had gained 8 pounds in one week! He also said he felt I would give birth within the next 24-48 hours. BUT the doc called me the next morning and told me I had preeclampsia so it was time to have a baby that day! Called the hubs, he came home, we loaded up, and headed to the hospital.

They started the pitocin at 1 p.m. and my contractions became extremely painful quickly after that. I had to get a full bag of fluid in me before I could have my epidural. The nurse cranked it up so it would go in me faster and that made me shake like crazy! I was shaking so hard it hurt. I finally was able to get my epidural around 4 p.m. (which might I add was the worst part of the whole thing), water broke, and I started pushing at 6 p.m.. Levi was so helpful. He kept telling me he could see him and that he had a head full of hair and that made me push harder because I wanted to see him. I ended up having an episiotomy AND I tore... It was well worth it to get to this end result.

Words can't describe it. I'm sure every mom knows what I mean. I was quickly transferred to a new room and got to EAT! I hadn't eaten since the night before. I was in a lot of pain for a while afterwards. My shaking continued for a few hours and even started up again in the middle of the night, I felt feverish, my whole body was hurting from shaking, my back where my epidural was hurt sooooo bad, and of course, the obvious of what might hurt after pushing out a human.. And boy oh boy was I thirsty!! I drank more water the next 12 hours than I probably had all week! And going to the bathroom was NOT fun.. I don't know how I would have survived had it not been for Levi.
I started learning how to breast feed immediately and it's not as easy as it looks. I hated when the nurses took him to the nursery so I could sleep. I didn't sleep. I wanted my baby.

The next day he was circumcised and I HATED that. I cried when they brought him back, showed me, and told me how to care for it. Ugh....and then they took him away AGAIN to do tests and were gone for like 2 hours! I was just ready to leave and get home!!!!!!!
Thanksgiving day was our first full day at home. It took my body a  little over a week to stop hurting. It took a month for down yonder because my stitches tore. But I had a bundle of joy to keep my mind off of it :)

He didn't have jaundice when we went back a few days later and they said he was perfect at his first check up at the pediatricians.

My milk came in about the time we took him to get checked for jaundice. I was engorged and had plugged ducts which are not pleasant at all! It caused me to have fever which made me achy all over. I was constantly pumping trying to relieve the pain. Sorry if some of this is TMI. I had never even heard about some of the things I went through so maybe I can prepare someone else.

We thought he had colic, but now after several medicines, formula changes, (juices for constipation from the formula changes), changes in his sleeping arrangement, a stomach sonogram, x-ray, and an upper g.i. found out he has acid reflux :( These little boogers need to be able to talk. It's not fun knowing something is wrong and not knowing what it is and what to do to help him. Hopefully now that we have him figured out he will be getting better soon. Love this little boy more than life itself!

He looks like he may be waking up. Gotta go spend every second I can with him. Next week will be the hardest week of my life.