Another milestone reached!

Well lookie here. At 7 months and 1 day, Joshua is now able to pull himself up into a standing position!



From what I can remember, he's right on track with where Nicky was at this age. I'm expecting him to be full on walking in about 3 months. Holy Crap that's not far away. Liam was my lazy baby, he was totally content to be carried around by all of us women and didn't bother walking until he was 16 or 17 months old. Now you can't stop the kid!

I actually can't wait till he starts walking. I love the independence that he's learning!!

Please let this not become a habit

You know that time of the day, when all your children are in bed? You know, when it's quiet? It feels so nice to know that everyone is taken care of and that another successful day is done. Even if the dishwasher is only half emptied because of grabby-handed toddlers trying to "help" and there's an abadoned broom in the living room because a certain demanding infant needed tending. And the pre-teen went to bed in a snit because you didn't scratch his back long enough.

That's my favorite part of the day.

You know that time of night, when 2/3 of your children are in your bed? In your double-sized bed? It doesn't feel nice knowing that your toddler can now get out of his bed and run to yours when he wakes up at night, when you already have two adults and an infant in the bed. Especially if said toddler is a mover and a shaker in the sack and there's barely enough room as it is.

That's not my favorite time of the night.

He must not have gotten much sleep either because as he was taking his poop this morning he fell asleep draped over his toy aquarium. WISH I had gotten a picture of that!!

I'm giving in to the inevitable.

My baby likes boobies. That's it, that's all, don't even bother with anything else.

Trust me, we've been trying for the past almost 7 months to get this boy to tolerate a bottle and it's SO not happening. Sure, I guess in a couple emergency situations he's reluctantly taken a few sips here and there but for the most part he'd rather scream his head off until the boob shows up. Just ask my husband or sister, they've both experienced the hell that is a screaming hungry infant.

Man, we thought Nicky had inherited a combo of our stubbornness. Then we had Josh who took it to a whole 'nother level.

My response to this frustrating fact depends on the day...heck, even the time of day! A lot of the time I love to nurse him, it gives me a chance to sit down and relax and stare at him. He's cute! I could stare at that kid for hours!

Other times, like while travelling or when I want to get out for a couple hours, I just wish he would allow us to stick a bottle (of breastmilk) in his mouth. It would make things ever so much easier. It would make me feel like I have some sort of life outside of being a milking cow. It would make Jeff feel like he can comfort him and have that special time with him too.

Then there's the whole formula/breastmilk aspect of this. I admit I'm being stubborn about wanting him to have only breastmilk but he's my last baby and...ya, sure, whatever. I'm being stubborn about it. Oh well.

I plan on letting him breastfeed until *gasp* he decides he's done. I think that scares Jeff. I think he has visions of Josh walking around and pulling my shirt down and talking in complete sentences asking for milk. Hell, that kinda scares me too!

The way I see it, I don't have much choice in this matter. The kid has us over a barrel and I, for one, surrender.

Legal driver am I!

I *did* weigh myself on Monday and I'm holding steady at 134 pounds. Time to do something to get this back on track. But...didn't I say that last time? I need some motivation!

ANYway. I've got some momentous news. After...ummm...how old am I? Oh yes, 31 this August. Okay, after almost 17 years I have finally, FINALLY gotten a learners license. Yes, close your jaws folks, it's true. I walked my ass down to the registry and did it. I had to update my ID since it expired last August and still had my maiden name on it along with my moms address, since Ford needed something *legal* as identification for our contract for the Flex. (If that doesn't indicate my level of procrastination, I don't know what will. I've been married almost 3 years). I figured, since I was there, I may as well take the test.

Initially I didn't study at all. I took the practice tests online, aced those, and decided I'd just wing it. Well the time came to go, I took one look at my bitchy kids, and decided a better idea would be to put them down for naps and read the manual. The test was only $17 but I figured it was probably the only time I'd actually do it, procrastinator that I am, so I should make every effort to pass.

And pass I did! I didn't even have to complete the test! I got to question #27 and since I had only gotten 2 questions wrong so far I got to stop there since even if I got the next 3 wrong I would still pass. Sweetness!

Okay, so when I'll get behind a wheel I couldn't begin to tell you. But this is definitely a step in the right direction!

Holy Crap!

It's Monday and we all know what that means! It's weekly weigh in time!

Today: 134 pounds.

I lost 4 pounds in the last week!!! I kid you not, and I have no idea how. I think my metabolism must be speeding up because I'm not putting as much crap into my body as I used to. Don't get me wrong, I'm still eating treats but nowhere near as much as I did before. Now it's time to start the crunches because I've still got the jiggly tummy...but my butt looks FANTASTIC if I do say so myself!!

I got my stroller on Saturday, and I ended up buying used because all the stores in the city were sold out. I'm excited about it, but a little bummed too. It's a tad bit more banged up than I would like, and the previous owner did not take as much care with it as she should have, knowing the resale value on these puppies. I'll be able to clean it up pretty good, get the juice stains out of the fabric and use some tire cleaner on the tires and frame. It also smells like it lived in her trunk for the past 2 years. ICK. So I'm hoping cleaning the fabric takes care of that little issue. She threw in about $80 worth of accessories too so it makes it a little better :) Now I'm wondering if I should shell out the $35 for a car seat adaptor so I can still have Josh in his bucket. It's probably worth it...

When something goes well, it only follows that something else will go wrong. Right? Well for us it would be our van. We bought it used almost 2 years ago and we've shelled out far too much on it than what it's worth for us. We've been looking around and we're likely going to trade it in for a Flex. My brother in law is a manager at Ford so he's been keeping an eye out and found one that should work for us. It's got the captain chairs in the middle row just like the minivan so it's perfect. Our payments will go up a bit but we have wiggle room with Jeff at his new job, and we'll be in a vehicle that is a whole 5 years newer than our van. It's worth it.

I need to start updating more than once a week, then I wouldn't be all over the place with 5 different things I'm talking about!

Bunches and bunches of randomness

-Weigh in: 138 pounds!! Still workin it!

-Liam split his lip goofing off on the ice at school on Friday. 3 stitches later and he's been very VERY careful about how he moves around now. Which is a welcome change from the accident-prone child he's always been. And, it's good to know that they stitch things up at the MediCenter. That's only a 10 minute walk from our house.

-We've started time-out's with Nicholas. Or Shreaky, as I like to call him. He does quite well in time-out, sits there still as a stone and looks down at his hand for the full 2 minutes and then listens attentively while I explain why he had one. Then he gives me a hug. And then he goes back to doing whatever it was that put him in time-out. Usually it's shreaking at the snack cabinet and throwing himself on the floor while I ignore him.

-We had our banking info stolen sometime over the weekend and spent a stressful 24 hours getting it figured out. The bank actually put the money back into account right when Jeff went in to get a new bank card. RELIEF. We were expecting to have to wait at least a few weeks for them to do it and we have a mortgage payment coming out next Thursday. Damn criminals.

-Hm, what else...we're getting a sweet tax return this year so I'm going to be able to get my Phil & Teds stroller that I've been drooling over! Jeff is going to get a laptop and this works to my advantage too. He'll be able to turf the monstrosity that is sitting on the desk downstairs and then I get that space to do my crafting. Love it when things work out in my favor!

-Speaking of crafting, I've been spending far too much time on deal-a-day sites. There's one in particular that has bajillions of deals per day and the ability to put product in your shopping cart that can sit there for up to 2 months while you accumulate more stuff, in order to get free shipping. I haven't actually bought anything yet but I have LOTS of stuff in my cart. We'll see if Jeff will let me spend that much on scrap stuff. Fingers crossed.

-Josh is thisclose to crawling. He's getting up on all fours and the other day he got one knee forward, didn't know what to do with the rest of his body, and then face-planted into the carpet. He'll be a much happier baby once he can get around himself, I just know it.

-We are over the worst of this cold. Nicky only has a lingering bit of cough and Josh has the cough and a runny nose. This kid's nose is like a faucet that just keeps going. His poor little nosie is getting pretty chapped and red from getting wiped and the minute he sees me with the kleenex he starts freaking. I try to let it just sit and then do one big one but it's no better for the poor little dude.

Guess that's it for now!

He's ba-aack. Sorta.

I think Nicky is on his way to feeling better. He's not quite so droopy today and is much more active and, well, Nicky. These are the perfect pictures to illustrate:



I had it sitting next to me on the end table, full, and he grabbed it and tried to shove it under his shirt. GAHH that's liquid gold kid! Once I dumped it into a bottle and rinsed out the horn and bottle I gave it back to him. He knew how to put the tube back in and turn it on himself so I just let him. Poor little gaffer needs a little fun, even if it is pumping his "beebies".