Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of William from his Halloween party at daycare. Hopefully I'll get more tonight of him trick-or-treating. (BTW--I'm still taking crappy pictures. Grrrrrr. These, however, were taken by another mom, fortunately! Tonight I'll have Ed do the picture-taking.)

William is the firefighter, btw.


Edited to add pictures from tonight! I took the pictures, however, so I only have one good shot:



And here he is in action:


He enjoyed trick-or-treating and got good at holding his pumpkin out for candy. When he came home, he helped pass candy out to other kids and got to eat a tootsie roll and suck on a tootsie roll lollipop. Fortunately for us, he went right to sleep, and only about 45 minutes past his regular bedtime. We'll see if I pay for it tonight, though!

Fashionista? How About Fashion Disaster?

Let me start by saying that I truly, deeply, earnestly want to be a stylish person. I want to wear trendy yet classic clothes (is there such a thing?). I want to have a fabulous hairstyle and matching accessories and makeup that is understated, yet flattering. But alas, that is not me. And it never has been me. I'm the type of person who warms up to a new and trendy style just as it's going out of style. I could get the perfect haircut, but I'd never be able to style my hair myself. (And I DO NOT have the kind of hair that you can just wash and let it air dry. Trust me--it doesn't work. I also do not have the kind of hair that I can put in a pony tail or pull back in a hair clip. It sucks, but that's my hair.) I have some jewelry, but forget to wear it about 90% of the time. And when it comes down to it, I never have enough money to spend on fun stuff like funky jewelry or shoes. I hardly ever wear lipstick because even if I put it on in the morning, it's gone an hour later. And I never remember to reapply. And Ed hates lipstick anyway. I do manage to put on powder, blush, eyeliner, and mascara in the morning. But it doesn't really seem to do much good. I never look like I'm wearing makeup. But I hate the way I look when I get "made up," so it's kind of a "lose-lose" situation.

So anyway, what made me think of this today is that I'm wearing 12-year-old pleated pants today that have a pin-size hole in the front, and the lining is basically shredded around the crotch and seat area. Pants are the single-most difficult clothing item for me to find. I have a very odd shape and going shopping for pants seriously depresses me. And so I don't. (Not to mention the fact that I have NO MONEY to shop for anything right now.) The current flat-front and low-ride styles look horrible on me. I have very wide hips and medium-to-larger size thighs and butt, but a flat stomach (although that is quickly changing) and small waist. I am also somewhere in between petite and regular, which makes it even more challenging. Anyway, that's why I'm wearing 12-year-old pleated pants. I don't have anything else that works right now. And of course, now is not the time to be buying new clothes anyway, what with the pregnancy and all.

The most scary part of all of this, though, is that I'm beginning to remind myself of my mom. With five kids, my mom NEVER shopped for herself and she was still wearing her polyester '70s outfits well into the '80s and probably even early '90s. (She thought--and still thinks--that polyester was the greatest invention ever. It could be washed and dried at home and didn't need ironing. What could be better than that? She has a point!) She also stopped getting her hair styled at some point and started wearing scarves on her head when she had to go out and was too lazy to take a shower and wash and dry her hair. (I don't think she ever owned a hair dryer.) And she never wore makeup. I used to wish she would be more stylish, like my friends' parents. (Don't get me wrong--my mom was a fabulous mom in all the ways that count. Her style was just a little, um, embarrassing.) I also bought her Oil of Olay face lotion one year (or maybe a couple of years) in the hopes that it would help her look younger! (Most of my friends' moms were several years younger than mine.) At any rate, I'M BECOMING MY MOM!!!

So I'm pledging right now, this minute, that I will never wear a scarf on my head (unless I get cancer and have to have chemo and go bald), and I will make every effort to not be completely, hopelessly, shamefully out of style. I can't promise trendy and hip, but I think I'll officially retire the pleated pants with the pinhole and shredded lining. That's a good first step, right?

Weekend Report

Monday already? How did that happen? And how on Earth is October almost over? Yikes.

We had a pretty good weekend, although I'll play the broken record again and say that I didn't accomplish all my "goals" for the weekend. But such is life. The best part of the weekend (besides getting to spend lots of time William!) was that Ed fixed my computer! Yay! It just needed a new power supply unit, and Ed replaced it himself. Needless to say, I was thrilled that there wasn't anything wrong with the hard drive. I did not, however, make the time to download pictures yet, or to backup all our pictures like I know I need to. But I will--eventually.

William and I are both still suffering from colds--lots of nasal congestion and still some lingering coughing. William goes for his follow-up doctor's appointment this afternoon, so we'll see what kind of daily regimen they'll put him on to prevent the wheezing. I'm thinking I might have a sinus infection, but I'm waffling about going to the doctor myself. It will probably go away on its own, and I need to save all the sick leave I have because I'm blowing through it at an alarming rate. At any rate, hopefully we are both on the tail end of sickness--at least for now.

William has picked up lots of new words and has started repeating things that I say. It's pretty cute. There are a lot of words that he's been saying for a while, but I forget to write them down. He can say cheese, cracker, keys, cookie, bird, paci, bottle (ba-ba), cup, shoes, truck, clock, Clark, bus, helicopter (which comes out "helicop"), balloon, more, ball, bubble, no, lawn mower (which comes out "da-doo"), and I'm sure lots more that I'm forgetting. He can make sounds for dog, cat, cow, sheep, monkey, fire truck, duck, and pig. He signs "please" now, when I remind him, although his version of the sign is to rub his hand or hands on his stomach. Works for me!

Pregnancy-wise, things are going okay. I'm definitely getting bigger around the waist, and hating this stage when your regular pants are too small but maternity clothes are still way too big. My wardrobe is God-awful, but I just can't care about that at the moment. I'm not as sick, fortunately, and my doctor prescribed heartburn drugs, which makes a big difference. If I could just shake this cold and get my energy back, I'd be in great shape! I've made it to 14 weeks, so that's progress!

So that's it for this installment of the Weekend Report. My goal tonight is to download pictures, so wish me luck (and energy!).

Life is Overwhelming Me at the Moment

Every day that passes and I don't blog just means more and more stuff I want to blog about. Not to mention all of the pictures I still haven't downloaded from my camera because we still haven't even tried to get my computer fixed. But lately, getting William fed, bathed, and in bed, and then feeding myself, is about all that I can handle. And Ed usually takes care of half of those things, so there you have it. Every night, I try to choose one thing that needs to be done that I will do, and about half the time, whatever it is doesn't happen. Nothing has gotten ironed in months, there's stuff growing in the toilet in William's bathroom and the downstairs bathroom, the tumbleweeds of dust and cat hair on the stairs are threatening to eat William, and the load of William's clothes in the dryer (at least they got washed and then dried) has been in the dryer since Sunday, and I keep running downstairs to grab pairs of pajamas and socks out of the dryer.

Before you ask, Ed has been doing more than his fair share. Not only does he maintain the outside of the house entirely on his own, he also takes out the trash, vacuums (at least once a week), cleans up the kitchen (he almost always wipes down the kitchen counters and has this knack for putting everything away), cleans up William's toys, pays all of our bills, maintains our cars, grills, gives William a bath about 3/4ths of the time, and takes care of dinner if I don't. And I'm sure there are lots of things I'm forgetting. He doesn't complain that I haven't ironed in ages, and he'll do the laundry if I ask or if he has nothing clean left to wear.

Anyway, this is not what I wanted to blog about. What I should be blogging about is our weekend, which William spent at his grandparents with his 2 cousins (well, not the whole weekend--just Saturday night and Sunday morning), and about William's new tooth (his upper left molar), and his new words (na-nee, for banana, and ba-ba, for bottle, which he should have said a long time ago, and yes--he still gets a bottle before bed and when he wakes up and I'm not that worried about it or in a hurry to end the habit, although we'll probably start working on it in the not-too-distant future), and the fact that he caught yet another cold and had yet another wheezing episode and had his first ER visit yesterday.

So where should I start--weekend? Words? Teeth? Oh--maybe you're most curious about the ER. Well, Ed stayed home with him and took him to the doctor, where they gave him a nebulizer treatment, but he didn't respond well enough to it, and the doctor wanted to rule out pneumonia, so they sent him to the ER. So poor Ed got to spend most of the day with William in the ER. Ed said he was pretty good throughout the visit, but he got really upset when they connected the little sticker monitor to his toe. Apparently, he didn't like the wire. And then he cried during the nebulizer treatment. He was fine during the chest x-ray, though, and then fell asleep for a while, and then they finally got to leave in the afternoon. Poor guy! He's better now, but it looks like he will have to go on a daily preventative treatment--either Pulmicort or Singulair. We go back to the doctor on Monday for follow-up, so we'll learn more then.

I also haven't been blogging because I've had a really bad head cold (which I passed on to William, which led to his wheezing, unfortunately) and maybe that's why I've been so overwhelmed by life. Add a head cold to a pregnant 35 year old with a toddler, and you're bound to get disaster. Isn't it amazing, though, that even in the depths of sickness, exhaustion, irritability, and inactivity, one little smile, one funny expression, one sweet hug, one new word, can make you forget all about what ails you. Listening to Ed give William his bath, hearing their giggles and William's squeals of delight, watching William hug Ed goodnight--these are the moments that make me so happy, and make me look forward to adding another bundle of craziness to the mix. My ironing may never get done, but we'll be just fine!

Good Excuse?

Some of you already know this (all five of my readers), but part of the reason why I haven't been blogging so much is that I'm sooooo stinkin' tired all the time and have no energy. Why, you may ask? Because we're expecting! (A baby, if you didn't figure that out.) I made it to 12 weeks, so we're officially sharing the news. Did I mention how tired I've been?

Because I'm "advanced maternal age" (at the ripe old age of 35), I opted to have a sonogram at 12 weeks to check for Downs Syndrome and several other chromosomal abnormalities (like trisomy 18 and 13). The sonogram was soooo cool. The baby was moving around so much, stretching its legs and crossing them, and raising its arms up. The technician got a great 3-D picture of the baby with its arms up.


Yes--it looks like a freaky alien, but that's our freaky little alien. The 3-D images were so cool. I didn't have that with William, so it was pretty neat. I will have another sonogram at 20 weeks for anatomy, but I think Ed and I have opted not to find out the sex. So we will have another little surprise!

So that's our news. Due date is April 27. That will make William and the new baby right at 2 years apart. I'm fully prepared for it to suck at first--and to be wonderful--as all of you parents can understand and appreciate. I imagine William will have a rough time at first, but I also think he will adjust pretty quickly. He is such a mama's boy, so sharing me will be hard. But I can't wait to watch them grow together and play together. We have a 3-year-old next door neighbor who William adores. He follows Matt around like a puppy dog and tries to imitate everything Matt does and laughs and laughs. It's so cute, and I imagine the new baby will follow William around in the same way. I guess the best part about this pregnancy (because so far, the physical part of this pregnancy has sucked!) is all the speculation. We have a ways to go, though.

Hopefully, now that I'm coming out of the first trimester, I will get some energy back, and will be up to posting more. In the meantime, stay tuned for the exploits of William!

Weekend Report (Belated)

We had a great weekend and it was over way too quickly. William loved the pumpkin patch--especially the hay. I got some good pictures, but haven't been able to upload them yet. (We still haven't taken my computer to get it fixed.) He loved the hay ride and jumping off of bales of hay into piles of hay. He also loved going down the big slides with Daddy, and seeing all of the animals. And at the end of the day, we got free apples as we left, and William ate an entire apple by himself. He just grabbed it and bit into it and kept on munching! It was pretty cute.

Prior to our pumpkin patch outing, however, William fell on the bed and hit his forehead on the window sill. He got a little cut that was deep enough to warrant missing music class and going to the doctor's office instead. The doctor cleaned it up and put stereostrips on it. It didn't bleed too much, and he didn't even cry too much, so we were lucky.

We spent Sunday at home, doing laundry, cleaning, and playing. It's nice to have a day free of obligations and plans, to just get things done at home. Of course, there's never time to do all the things that need doing, but we did enough.

William's sleeping has not improved, so we have moved forward with CIO. On Sunday night, it was pretty rough. He cried for 10 minutes, I went in and returned his pacifier and blankets (which he throws out of the crib) and left, then he cried for about 13 minutes, and I went in and returned the pacifier and blankets and left again, and then he cried for a few more minutes, threw out the blankets, but then put the pacifier in his mouth and went to sleep. But then he woke up again an hour later. That time, though, I only had to go in once. And last night, he woke up at midnight and cried for 10 minutes and went back to sleep (without his blankets but with his pacifier), and then woke up at 3-something and I went in and returned the blankets and pacifier and left and he started to cry but then went to sleep. So I'm hoping tonight will be even better.

He also did well in the toddler room yesterday--his first full day. He cried when I left him there, but that's par for the course with him. The teachers said he did well throughout the day and napped just fine. He's also been much better in the car this week, both on the way to work and on the way home. It's so hard to remember when you're in the thick of tough phase that it truly is JUST A PHASE.

One . . . Two . . . Three! (Or Just "Two . . . Three!")

Wow--not having my computer has really turned me into a slacker when it comes to blogging. I could have sworn I posted somewhere between Monday and today.

Anyway, we've had an okay week. William spent a lot of time with the toddlers this week, and Monday is his first full day there. He's doing pretty well, but they definitely wear him out. He comes home cranky now, which is definitely not fun. His new favorite activity is to play in the parked car. Yes--I'm THAT MOM who lets her child play in the car. No--I don't give him the keys. Yes--I'm in the car with him. It brings him such pleasure after a long day, and it's all he wants to do. So I indulge him. So sue me.

He's also counting "one . . . two . . . three!" Except he skips the "one" and goes straight to "two . . . three!" It's really cute. And he does it at random times, so it always catches me off guard. He must have gotten it from the playground at school. He loves to go down the slide now by himself, and they must count down or something.

In other William news, his top right molar has completely come in, so now he has 3 molars and all 8 incisors. The top molar didn't seem to bother him too much, fortunately. Hoping the same will go for the top left one. His sleeping habits are not so great again. It's been taking him a lot longer to fall asleep, so for a few days, he cried and cried when we put him down to sleep. He also woke up a lot and cried and cried then, too. Last night he went to sleep with no problems, but he woke up at 3:00 and couldn't seem to get back to sleep. I finally gave in and slept on the guest room bed with him. I'm hoping that a full week in the toddler room will wear him out enough that he'll go back to sleeping all night. Otherwise, we'll have to go back to letting him cry, which is so completely emotionally exhausting to me.

Our weather has finally turned cool and fall-like, and William looks adorable in jeans and fleece and long-sleeve shirts. We're going to a big pumpkin patch/fall festival tomorrow and I'm so excited. I'm hoping that William will really enjoy it. There are slides and a petting zoo with all kinds of animals and hayrides. And of course, pumpkins! I can't post pictures because I can't download them to my computer at home, but instead, I'll include a picture of William at last year's pumpkin patch.


That bald little head just cracks me up! Hopefully we'll get some great pictures at this year's festival. And maybe we'll even get my computer fixed so I can post them!

Weekend Report

William had a good time with his grandparents, and Grandma said he was very good, but when I went to pick him up on Sunday, he had a stuffy nose and was coughing. By Sunday afternoon, he was wheezing. Last night, he threw up several times (which is a common side effect from wheezing--the diaphragm pushes down on the stomach) and was up and down all night, which means I only got a few hours of sleep--and none of it consolidated. Fortunately, we had today off, so we went to the doctor this morning and got a prescription for a steroid. That combined with nebulizer treatments seemed to help a lot. He slept from around 11:00 a.m. until about 2:45, and by this evening, he was hardly wheezing at all. He ate a little bit for dinner (after eating nothing all day) and went down at his usual time. Fingers crossed that he'll sleep all night and we can go to work/daycare tomorrow. The biggest disappointment was that we couldn't get together with our friends who were in town from Utah. Such timing, I tell you.

So, this cold/flu season is not off to a good start at all. His wheezing seems to be coming on super quick--almost as soon as he gets cold symptoms. We go back to the doctor on Wednesday for follow up, so I'll be asking lots of questions about how, if possible, to prevent it from happening all the time. I hope the answer isn't daily nebulizing with pulmacort. I've known several people who've gone through that. What a pain!

So that's it for our weekend. Ed and I had a good time at the wedding. I slept in until 7:30 a.m. on Sunday. Yes--that was the best I could do. But since I went to sleep at 10:30 p.m. the night before, I can't complain. Sorry for the boring post, but it helps to keep a record of how often William is sick. (Which is waaayy too often!)

Driving Me Crazy

William is doing this whiny, pointing thing in the car that is driving me crazy. I have a center console between the driver and front passenger seats where I keep books, toys, a sippy cup with water, and various other odds and ends. William has started pointing to things on the console and then saying, "Uh-uh-uh," as if he wants something from the console. But whatever I pick up to try to give him, he then shakes his head and says "no," and gets all upset. He's just yanking my chain! I've been telling him to use his words, because mommy doesn't understand. I've been trying to hand him everything under the sun. (Well, at least within arms reach in the minivan.) And I've been ignoring him, too. And yet, it continues. What the heck does he want???? (Other than to get out of the carseat.) It seriously makes me mad. I want to turn around and yell, "Cut it out!!!" But I can't really do that with the slugs in the car. The slugs also try desperately to appease him, bless their hearts, by handing him all sorts of objects, which he usually rejects, and by reading to him, which he usually ignores. The whole, "Uh-uh-uh" thing is not going to cut it. He better get some words fast! Lol.

Speaking of William (ha ha), he's having a sleepover at his grandparents on Saturday night. Ed and I have a wedding to go to, so we're taking advantage of the opportunity and will get to sleep in on Sunday morning. Can't wait! Although as usual, I will miss him, and hate having that much less time with him over the weekend. But we have Monday off, too, and it's good for him to spend one-on-one time with his grandparents. So it's a win-win for everyone.

Hopefully, we'll also take the computer in this weekend to get fixed so I can blog from home again!

Uh-oh! Don't Panic.

My home computer will not turn on. At all. And I'm trying not to panic. Because I haven't backed up my digital pictures in months and months. Or my Quicken bank account info. Or anything on my computer, for that matter. And yes--it's on my list of 100 things to do in 100 days that I HAVEN'T BEEN DOING!!!! Is this karma? My brother thinks that it's probably just a power supply issue, and the mother board could possibly be shot, but that the hard drive is probably fine. The worst case scenario might be that we have to get a new computer (if the mother board is shot) but I'd still be able to get the info from my hard drive. Gee-darn. Let's just hope he is right. And yes--when I get it back, the first thing I'll be doing is BACKING UP MY PHOTOS!!!! (Sorry for abusing the capital letters.)

So, because I have no computer at home, no blogging at home. This might be the start of yet another bad habit--blogging at work. Like I don't do enough goofing off at work already. Yikes.

Not much else to report. William is "talking" up a storm these days, babbling incessantly. He's learning new words every day, and is so earnest when he "talks," it's hard not to laugh. He's doing great in the sleep department--although there are still days he wakes at 4:30 a.m., but I can usually get him right back to sleep. More and more often, he's sleeping until 5:30 or 6:00 or even 6:30. He's eating pretty well, too. He's really into throwing things these days, and he loves to throw things over the gate in front of the basement stairs. He laughs hysterically as objects bounce down the stairs and hit the walls. A few days ago, it was all the tupperware. Yesterday it was potatoes. I drew the line of the 5 qt. saucepan, however.

Our third music class went well over the weekend. William warmed up much quicker and seemed to enjoy it. He still wanted me to hold him during the songs when we all got up and danced. But for the most part, he was engaged in what everyone was doing. He also sat in the car at the front of the grocery cart during our weekend shopping trip and enjoyed that until the end, when he started to get antsy.

So that's our update. William will start transitioning to the toddler room at his daycare next week. It will be great for him to be with older kids again, and to have new toys and more outside time. And even better, it's about $150 less a month! Hopefully, he'll transition well.