I am still here!

I am still here but have just been a bit busy these days. I didn't realize how busy we have been until I thought back a litlle. Since March we had Tristans 1st birthday party to plan and execute. Then we were looking at houses pretty much every weekend. In April we found our house and went back and forth every 2 days with negotiating for a week. May 1st we got our accepted offer and things have been crazy ever since. We had lots of paper work to sign, boxes to accumulate, packing to be done. It took us the whole month to pack because we have accumulated entirely too much crap and it's not so easy to pack with a baby. Since I didn't get home until 6p during the week, the only thing I had time for was have dinner, spending time with Tristan and Ken, showers for us and bath for Tristan and then bedtime. So the only time we had to pack was on the weekends at night when Tristan was sleeping. So that consumed May for us. June 5th we signed closing papers and have painted, moved and unpacked for the month of July. On top of this we have had parties of some sort every weekend. July, more parties. This last weekend was the first weekend we had absolutely nothing to do (and can not tell you how excited we were about this!) and guess what happened?? I got a stomach bug and Tristan has developed a horrible cough with fever and an ear infection. Fun weekend of sickies! I just wanted to give a quick run down of how busy things have been for us and why I am a slacker at updating these days. I didn't even realize how busy we have been until I sat down and thought about it. I have lots of pictures from summer outings that I will try to post on Friday when I am off though. I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer. If thats what you want to call this season. Can you believe that Saturday is August 1st! It hasn't even been that warm and we are already aproaching August. Which by the way is the day of our first mortgage payment :( Ok, everyone have a wonderful weekend. I will post again on Friday fellow bloggers!

P.S. I have a prayer request. My friend Sylvia's son Jess is back in the hospital. He is the premie baby that I told you about before. He lost a 1/2 oz over the weekend and is coughing really bad. They are running test to find out what is wrong with him. My friend is heart broken as her son is in the hospital once again. Please pray that Jess comes home soon and healthy.

Breastfeeding Toddler causes quite a stir...

Read this article and tell me what you think:
http://www.momlogic.com/2009/05/breastfeeding_toddler_ad.php?adid=breastfeeding_toddler_ad_sphere_momlogic

I don't understand how this is a problem at all. How is that any different than a toddler feeding her baby doll a toy bottle. Tristan has never had a drop of formula and only took between 8-12 Breast milk bottles a week (Until about 14 months when I stopped nursing him and he started whole milk out of a sippie). To him Breastfeeding is normal. So if he were to imitate feeding a doll, how is that offensive if he were to mimic breastfeeding? To him that's is how babies eat. If anything I think it teaches children that there is nothing sexual or wrong with breastfeeding. It is 100% natural and the way things have been done since the beginning of time. I don't understand how this is "sexualizing of children". Since when is breastfeeding sex or sexuality? This child isn't dressed sexually or exposing herself so how is this offensive. Should we be teaching our youth that breastfeeding is a naughty act? Why is there always such an uproar about breastfeeding? Why are people so offended when a woman breastfeeds in public even though she is covered up? These are things I don't understand about peoples opinions on breastfeeding. I always breastfed in the back of a car covered up because I wasn't strong enough to endure the comments and snickers from people walking by. I think there needs to be a change in mindset when it comes to breastfeeding. There is a reason mothers make milk after a child is born. I don't criticize people who choose not to but understand that this is the most natural thing and should not be looked at as sexual. Reading this article upset me and brings forth a lot of other issues regarding breastfeeding and I had to address it.

Quick note...

A couple people have asked me about the song on my page. The song is "County Road" by Jack Johnson and Paula Fuga. It's amazing! If you didn't know, Jack Johnson is a Hawaii native and so is Paula Fuga. The song can be purchased at halaukumana.org or through itunes. The proceeds benefit Native Hawaiian Culturally Based Charter Schools. I am really liking Paula Fuga's music as well. Her C.D can be purchased on Amazon.com or through itunes as well. I think I might be ordering it off of itunes soon!

Happy 4th Anniversary to us!

OK, WARNING: This is probably going to be a long post as I have been busy and slacker blogger lately. A few of my online gals have been hounding me so it's going to be a long update I think...First things first. We are in the new house and totally LOVING it. As of right now we have gotten the living room, dining room, and Tristan's bedroom painted. I want to thank Mary and Chelsea for helping us paint until 1a the night before we moved. You guys are awesome! I also want to thank our movers Mom, Jim, Theresa, Mike, Billy, and Chelsea. We appreciate your help so much! This weekend we have to get the basement painted and the bathroom and we should be done with painting. It has been busy, busy, busy! We still need to unpack the bedrooms and a lot of random stuff in the basement. We just got our bedroom furniture and just painted Tristan's room painted Sunday night so we didn't want to unpack up there just yet. As soon as basement is done we will unpack everything down there and get our super cool music themed room set up. Well, we are hoping it's super cool anyway! After this weekend my goal is to start working on the yard. The previous owners did SO much work and remodeled everything inside and out, but they didn't keep up the yard at all so it needs some major TLC. The grass is dying everywhere and it is weed city in the backyard. Ken says when he sprays the yard with weed killer all the so called grass will be gone too because it's mostly weeds. Then I want to get some flowers planted at least out front. Kens parents were nice enough to give us a lawn mower and a couple of shovels and rakes to get us started. Now I just have to get a hose and a big shed to hold yard stuff and table and chair sets during the winter. The previous owners tore down the garage :( SO that's what is on the agenda for right now. I did notice the weekend that we moved in that there is no sidewalks on either side of the street. I am so sad about this. I can't really take Tristan for a walk or teach him how to ride a bike on our street. So I am working on getting him an outdoor playhouse. I think I might get him this one because there is so much to do on it and he can grow with it. Plus it is on major sale at Meijers through the end of July! Score!


I think it looks fun anyway! He LOVES to be outside and there is not much to do out there right now so we are working on making it a fun place to be.

Speaking of my little man, he is loving the new house. He can walk everywhere downstairs and that keeps him busy all day. That and he chases the cats and dog around with the cat wand. He hasn't really played with his toys much. Running around the house and chasing the animals has kept him very busy. I think he likes the freedom. No more being locked in a small cramped living room. It cracks me up to watch him running back and forth and laughing so hard over god knows what. I think he has also hit a major growth spurt. Finally! He seems so much longer and weighs more. At least it feels like it. He hasn't really had any huge growth spurts so it is about time. He is also getting 2 molars in at the same time. Yes I said 2! The past 2 nights he was crying in his crib off and on until 10:30p. I feel so bad for him. But he hasn't gotten any teeth since December so he is definitely due to get some more. So now he has 8. Lets see, what else??? He is an amazing eater. There is nothing this kid won't eat. Lately he has been on a strawberry kick. Ken was eating a salad with french dressing the other day and gave him a bite and he loved it. I am so proud as I am still as picky as I was when I was a kid. I wish I liked more foods, especially salad. But I will settle for having a child that likes everything. He eats so much too. I seriously think he could out eat many 5 year olds. It's amazing that he is so small. He either just has a fast metabolism, runs off all this food, or it has something to do with us giving him no sweets at all and giving him all fresh veggies and fruits. Oh and no juice. He is so much fun though and I can't wait to see what summer brings. I hear the Zoo has finally re-opened their new and amazing petting zoo so hopefully we can get to that soon. Although, I hope every animal there is prepared to be called "kiiiiy" (kitty) by Tristan!

One of my last things for this post is, today me and Ken have been married for 4 years!!! I can't believe it! Time goes so fast. Each year that passes has been more amazing than the one before it and I thank god all the time that I found Ken. It amazes me that we have been together almost 7 years and I love him more and more every day. I think next year for our 5th anniversary we will have a huge party and have Kens friends band play. They are "The Sanderlings", and they are amazing. They will be at the Cherry Fest this weekend (as will we be to see them on Friday :) and they play at Pizza Papalis downtown all the time. They also played at the Glass City Marathon if you were downtown then. They play mostly cover songs at these venues that were hits from the 70's-90's and sound great. We LOVE their original music the best though. If you want to check them out and hear their own music you can go here: http://www.myspace.com/sanderlings. Gotta get out the word and promote the guys since they are so awesome! Ken's friend is Jon. He went to High School with him and he is the drummer. They just recently got back in contact since high school.


The Band - They have So much fun up there!

Ken's friend Jon

OK, so I think that is about it. We just decided that we are going to have our housewarming party on July 4Th. It's more of a kick off the summer, celebrate me and Kens Birthday, 4Th Anniversary, we just bought a new house, reason to throw a party, party. this was the only weekend that seemed feasible because there is already something going on most weekends this summer and we didn't want to wait until the end of summer. We want to kick off the summer! So I will try and get invites mailed out this Friday. I still have to make them so I need to get my butt in gear! Haven't had no time to sit on the computer though. They will get out though, I promise!



OK, I think I am coming to the end to my extremely long blog post. Haven't posted in a while and had a lot of updates though. I want to say happy begining of the summer to everyone. There is so much stuff going on in the city so I hope everyone gets out and enjoys it. I am excited about the Farmers Markets. Do you guys go to the Farmers Market's? I never really went to one until last year when Tristan started eating solids and I started making my own baby food. They are awesome though and everything is so cheap and so much better. There is one at Elder Beerman every Wednesday at Westgate and I just noticed yesterday while on my lunch that they have started back up for the season. They are right in front of my work so I know where I will be next wednesday at lunch time! Perfect time for me to buy my flowers and get Tristan some yummy fruit from the locals! Ok, I leave you with a few pictures. I will get detailed pics of the house as soon as everything is set up and done being painted. Lots of people have asked but I want everything to be done first. I will show you the outside though. This was taken before we bought it by the sellers. Hopefully I will have some flowers soon!










P.S.
I have a prayer request. I have two friends who could really use some prayers regarding their kids. First, my friend Sylvia had her baby boy Jess about a month or so ago and he was 5 weeks early. She just found out that he needs heart surgery. He has 2 Heart defects: Ventricular Septal Defect & Pulmonary Valve Stenosis(narrowing in pulm. valve). Its a matter of time the doc said, when he needs it. I guess the valve wont fix itself & that's what he needs surgery on. Please pray for them. She is going through a hard time right now and is really feeling the ol' sang "When it rains it poors". My second prayer request is for one of my online friends from a private message board PAFC (Pregnancy after fertility challenges). Her twins were born last Tuesday. Her daughter has already come home but her son is only taking half of the bottles he should be so they are trying to correct the problem in the hospital. They are hoping he comes home next week and I ask that we pray thats what happens so he can be with his sister and big brother. "Lord please keep these babies strong during these dificult times."

Been a busy, busy girl these days...

I have been such a bad blogger these days but I do have real reasons. We have had a couple of things going on lately and one of them I think I am ready to announce. We are buying a house! Our offer got accepted May 1st and we just found out yesterday that our loan was approved and we could be closing with keys in hand at the end of this week or early next week. I can't describe how excited I am. We have actually been house hunting for a year now and have hit a couple bumps in the road so we are very happy we finally found the house for us. Everyone kept telling us this was a buyers market and there is so many houses for sale. Which is true to some extent. What we have learned in this journey is how picky we were in where we lived and what houses are out there. We wanted and NEEDED to get Tristan in a good area and decided that we only wanted to live in Maumee, Perrysburg, or the 43614 area code (good parts of South Toledo). Our new house is in 43614. We learned that there IS a lot of houses for sale, but most of them are short sales and foreclosers. Either they would be totally tore up and in need of some major repair OR the ones we really liked would have 4-5 offers already pending on them. So it wasn't as much as a buyers market as we thought. I also felt a lot of sadness looking for a home. I realized just how many people are losing or have lost there home just in South Toledo alone and it really sadens me. I can't explain the feeling I had walking into houses that somebody lost and hoping that this might be the one for us. Especially when you see that children lived in that house. I pray so hard that this economic crisis will come to an end and that families can stay in there homes. The house we are buying is seller owned though and a contractor owned it. He has done complete remodeling inside and out. They tore down the garage :( but it has new siding, windows, roof, water tank, furnace,carpet,floors, and remodeled bathroom and kitchen. It's perfect for us because we don't have to do much of anything but paint, shouldn't have anything break anytime soon, and it is MUCH more energy efficient for us. It seems as though all the waiting was worth it. So that is what has been going on with us. Things are just going to get busier but when it calms down I will update again. This has been the craziest couple of months ever so I haven't been on the computer much or even taken many pictures.

As far as Tristan goes, he is walking all over the place! He has been taking a couple of steps here and there since his birthday but now he is all over the place and loving it. He is actually already trying to run but not quite ready for that yet. He is changing so much these days. He is getting smarter and talking and babbling so much more. He is really developing quite the personality. He now points and reaches for things and really starting to learn the mechanics to things. This is really such an exciting and fun age. I can't wait to get him outside to play this summer and take him to a baseball game. He is also throwing full blown temper tantrums. When you tell him no he screams and throws himself on the floor and sometimes hits things. We are trying not to pay any attention when he does this in hopes that he will stop. I thought this wasn't supposed to happen until they turn 2! Besides the tantrums though he really is so much fun. I haven't taken any pictures in the past couple of weeks because my batteries have been dead and haven't had much time. But I leave you with these pictures that I haven't yet posted. I will keep everyone updated on the move as soon as we get settled and once that happens we will have a party for everyone to see the house. Have a great week!

Tristans 1st Birthday

My baby is 1 year old! Can you believe it! On his actual birthday (Saturday) We went to TGI Fridays to celebrate and he had a good time. He was people watching like crazy since there was a lot going on. The wait staff came around and sang Happy Birthday and he drank his water from the sippy cup the whole time watching them. Then they brought him Vanilla Bean Ice Cream that was oh so good. His first time having ice cream and he couldn't get enough.

I forgot to say that he took his first steps on his own the day before his birthday. We gave him him his new rocking chair and sat him in it and he decided that he was going to stand up. Ken was in the middle of saying "Look, he stood up all by himself" when he took 4-5 steps to me. It was the coolest thing that he did it with no help from us. He has done it a couple of times since then but doesn't really want our help so I am just letting him go at his own pace. I think he will be running around any day now.

His birthday party went really great. As soon as we brought the cake out he was really happy. He sucked on the cake more than anything but had a blast playing in it. He got a lot of really nice stuff and had so much fun playing with everything as soon as we got home. We have a ridiculous amount of toys in our very small living room right now so I put some of his new toys up and will rotate them out. Our living room literally looks like a play room but it works because that's the only place he can really play for now. It amazes me how much our house has changed in a year. We went from only having neutral colors through out to having bright colors everywhere. I like it though.

I finally put some misc pictures up and ones of his birthday. You will see that he really loved his duck cake! I'm sure I will have lots of new pictures soon since his cousin Brianna is coming up from Florida this Friday for 10 days with her sister and Her mom Crystal who is a good friend of mine. It will be nice that he will have kids to play with. He loves kids but has never really played with any and last time Brianna was here 6 months ago he was a little to young to play. But now he is very active and a rough houser so it should be a lot of fun. Until next time, I hope everyone has a good week.

PS. I have one request. If you could take a quick second of your day to say a prayer for some people who are going through rough times right now. I know a couple of families personally who have lost there jobs and run out of unemployment and are in jeopardy of losing everything they have. It has been near impossible for these families to find jobs with the way our economy is right now and are barely surviving. This is the case across the country. I have told them that I would pray for them but I am asking that you pray for them too. It breaks my heart that families have worked so hard for everything they have and can lose it all so quick. I am truly lucky to not be in the situation but my heart still breaks for them.

Finally some pictures

"A Reflection of my Blessings"

Well, once again it has been a while since my last post. I was doing so good at this until Tristan began to be the "on the go" baby. It's a job keeping up with him and I don't find a lot of time to get on the computer on the weekends when I'm home.

So I will start of by saying that one of the biggest things I have learned lately is how fast a year can go by. In 2 days my not so little baby is going to be 1. I can't believe it. I don't see how it's possible. We have managed to survive colic and breastfeeding and that is a true blessing. I remember in the beginning I felt like the colic would never go away and he would just cry all day for the rest of his life. That's what it feels like when you are sleep deprived anyway. It also seems like just yesterday that I was having my first and only pregnancy break down a few weeks before delivery. I was watching "SCOTT BAIO IS 46...AND PREGNANT" (I know, of all things I could watch, this is what I was watching!). I loved this show for some reason and when his girlfriend was in labor I had to walk to the kitchen to have a meltdown. Ken came out and checked on me and asked what was wrong and I told him that all of the sudden I was scared. I was terrified of labor, scared to bring a baby into this world and be completely responsible for molding him into a good person and teaching him life's lessons, and so emotional at how drastic my life was going to change. I wanted a baby so bad and was deemed infertile so I had to work a lot harder at getting pregnant but I was still scared at the changes ahead. I was going to be taking care of this helpless baby and devote my body to breastfeeding him to give him everything he deserved and this scared me. I was so afraid that I didn't have it in me and that I would fail. But here I am a year later wondering where the time went. I made it through the 1st year and it was amazing. Colic wasn't fun but we survived. Breastfeeding turned out to be the best and most rewarding thing that I have done for Tristan so far and I will be sad when the day comes when I wean him. Tristan has never had any formula or jarred baby food (since I made all his baby food), he has hit all his developmental milestones, and managed to develop quite a personality. All things a year ago that seemed so hard and challenging but I found the strength as all moms do. I have realized that I am a much stronger person than I ever though since becoming a mom. I learned how much love I have to give and that there is NOTHING that I won't do for my son and my family. I also never knew how much I could love Ken before Tristan came along. I have always loved him beyond the earth and sea but I never knew I could love him beyond that. Not only has he been such an amazing father taking care of Tristan and me and the house but he has been an amazing rock and support for me. He does so much for me and been there all the way to say "you can do it" and the love he has for Tristan just melts my heart. When I told him I wanted to breastfeed he supported me. When I told him I wanted to make all of Tristan's baby food he kind of looked at me like " are you really going to do that or say your going to do that", but he supported me and actually helps me make it. When I told him I wasn't ready to wean Tristan at a year he supported me and said that whenever I decide is fine and he will be there as support if I become sad from the transition. I guess my point is, he has SHOWN me how much he loves me. I couldn't be more blessed at what life has given me.

This post was more of a "Reflection of my Blessings" in the past year. I needed to reflect since my life has changed so much this past year. But now I will give you a couple of updates on my little birthday boy if you have made it this far. Lets see, he got his first haircut last week and did pretty good. A couple of sporadic fake tears but otherwise good. His hair was getting quite unruly kinking up every time he took a nap. It turned out really good and the lady puts some gel in it and spiked it afterwards. We called in the "Baby Hawk". So cute! I will have pictures soon. He hasn't been as good of an eater as he used to be. He used to eat anything and now one day he loves something and the next day he hates it. My favorite is when he is eating something and then after a handful of bites he decides he doesn't like it anymore and spits it out. Ahhh, toddler years here we come! He's not walking yet but any day now. He can stand for several seconds but when he realizes he's doing it he sits right down. He has taken a couple of falling steps from the gate to the couch but we don't count those. I know he can do it, he just doesn't want to right now. So we don't force him. We work on it for a short bit until his legs start flailing about. Lets see, what else??? Oh yea, my favorite one!....HE IS FINALLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! (I am knocking on wood right now by the way!) It only took a year! I got so used to being up a few times a night that it's really bizarre to get to stay in my bed all night. He has been quite the little ham these days and become a dare devil. He climbs everything and loves to be hung upside down. I am definitely going to have my hands full! I think that is about it for now. I will update with some pictures today or tomorrow and then I will update with how his birthday went with pictures after Sunday. I'm sure there will be tons of pictures! I will try to get the ones we have now up tonight.

It's been a while...

I have been such a horrible blogger. I haven't blogged in over a month. January was a very boring and exhausting month for us. I know that sounds contradicting so let me explain. It was exhausting because it took us weeks to get Tristan back on a normal sleeping schedule after Christmas. Note to self: DO NOT take him off of his normal schedule under no circumstances! I was up with him every hour or two for a few weeks and on top of it he wasn't taking good naps. I was a walking zombie for a while there. The last thing I wanted to do was come home and get on the computer after being on it all day at work. Now January was boring because It was so cold and snowy that we didn't leave the house unless absolutely necessary. That and so many people were sick we were trying to quarantine ourselves so none of us would get sick. It worked! None of us got sick at all! There was no milestones for Tristan so the month of January was all together boring. I spent most of the month just reading.
Now this month Tristan has started some new stuff. All with in a week Tristan began to clap, wave bye, and just really discover what his hands can do. He is learning how things fit together. Like for instance, he learned that his ball from his Busy Ball Popper can fit into the sub woofer hole. How fun was that! It took Ken a bit to get it out but it did come out. He has learned the exact button that opens the DVD player so now we have a plastic guard on it. He doesn't watch TV at all but he knows what the remote does. He hold the remote and presses the buttons looking at the TV. Lets see, what else??? He loves to take his socks off and pet Milo, Zoe, and Emmitt. He says Kitty but can't get him to say doggie, He thinks that Emmitt is a kitty too. He is cruising super fast these days. He actually can stand all by himself when he doesn't realize it. We have caught him standing playing with a toy without holding on to anything but as soon as he realizes what he's doing he sits down real quick. When we try to help him he flops around like a jelly fish. He is just absorbing so much these days. He grabbed a wipe the other day and started wiping his head like he was in the bath tub. It was too cute! He is on all table foods at this point. I still puree some avocados and fruit sometimes just because he loves it so much but he has been eating what we eat. Even though he is still very tiny, he is a very good eater. He loves to eat! I think we are coming close to changing him to 6-9 months clothes. He has gotten a lot of use from his clothes but I can't wait to put him in all his cute outfits he got for Christmas.
Well, I think that's all I can think of for right now. We are all doing good and have stayed healthy (aside from a runny nose that Tristan had this weekend). We are planing Tristan's 1st Birthday party right now. Can you believe it! I will send the invites out at the begining of March but it will be Sunday March 22nd at Walbridge park Hall (same place as my shower). They were booked on his actual birthday so I had to settle for the day after. Probably around noon or 1p but I'm not too sure yet. I will update more frequently since the "January Blues" is gone and Tristan is learning so much these days.

My baby is 9 months old!

Can you believe it...Tristan turned 9 months this past Sunday! I sure can't. Where did the time go??? We took him for his 9 month apt yesterday and he weighed 16lbs 3oz and 27 1/2 in. I was for sure he had to weigh 8 lbs by now. He's still a little squirt but the doctor isn't worried at all. He said it's typical for a breastfeeder. His head is in the 75Th percentile though. Hmmm, big head on a little body. Maybe this just meens he will be really smart! He is doing really good though and gave the ok to start table foods and said that he can have dairy and pretty much anything except for eggs, and peanut products. I am super narcotic though so we are going to work slow. I am not too crazy about introducing dairy just yet and I really don't want him having sugar yet. I mean he will get his first birthday cake but I
Not a whole lot to update right now. He is all over the place and getting into everything. I think now the parenthood challenges start! I think I am ready for it though. Another exciting new phase in his and our lives. I am so excited for him to experience the excitement of Christmas. I am also a little nervous though because we have so many place to go and I am still figuring out how to get his naps in. He is already a horrible napper so this should be very interesting to say the least. There will be a lot of excitement and I know that will make for a tired baby. We'll see how this goes! Ok, I think that's it for now. I am super busy trying to get lots of stuff done for tomorrow and Christmas day so I leave you with some pictures. Merry Christmas and God Bless you all!am going to hold off on sugar as long as I can. Same thing with juice.

some random pics

Here is Tristans 9 month/Christmas pictures

We have a crib muncher!

Well I wanted to do some updates this past weekend but things have been busy , busy, busy. Let's see, 2 weekends ago we went to my dads work Christmas party. It would of been more fun if Tristan didn't refuse to take a nap the whole day. We went there at 2p and he had no nap at all. Can you say FUN! He was soooo cranky and if you looked at him the wrong way he would start crying. They had Santa there and I already knew in his moody state it would not be a sucess. Surprisingly enough he didn't cry right away. He just looked at him at first and then the tears started flowing. I really think this was only because of his tiredness. He got a nice toy from Santa though and he really likes it. So do the cats too! There is a couple of pictures of him with Santa below. My dad has some more and I put them on my computer but I haven't uploaded them yet so I will do that soon.

This last week has been a SUPER eventful one and a big milestone week for Tristan. Lets see I think I said before that he is sitting up on his own from a laying down position...well now he is full blown crawling all over the place! And he is pulling up on furniture and standing all by himself and starting to cruise! This kid is really mobile now! Now that he can stand on his own (with the assistance from the furniture) he will stand there forever just babling away. And now he is trying to climb anything and everything. He has climbed one step(the gate is coming out!), us, and a couple of toys. It's nice because I can just put him on the floor and let him play for a while with out having to pick him up and put him back into the sitting position. I think he will start to be a lot more independant now that he can do more on his own. He always wanted to be held becasue he couldn't get around and he didn't like stationary toys that well such as a bouncy seat. He loved the Mega Saucer until he learned he can crawl. If I put him in it now he tries to climb out of it. Now that he is standing on his own though it does bring one down fall. He wakes up in the middle of the night and usually cries for a quick second and goes back to sleep. Well now when he wakes up the first thing he does is stand up and cry or stand up and munch on his crib. The other morning I literally listened to him chew on his crib for 10 minutes before I figured out what was going on in there. So he can't put himself back to sleep since he is just standing there and screaming.I now have to go get a crib rail protector and figure out how to get him to self sooth himself back to sleep again. Back to square one again! I really can't believe how much he is changing. I think he has a handful of teeth that are coming in as well. They are still under the gums but I can feel and see the bumps so I know they are coming. Plus the last 2 nights he really hasn't slept at all...which meens I haven't slept either! I'm starting to think he will have all his teeth by a year old! Kidding of course!

This weekend will be another super busy one. We have our family Christmas pictures/Tristan's 9 month pictures this Friday, I am making Christmas cookies with Theresa on Saturday (this will be our 3rd or 4th year doing this), I HAVE to go see my Grandma because she just flew in today and I miss her soooo much, take Tristan to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa (they have free pictures with santa and a 3500 sq ft childrens play land there parents!), make my chocolate covered pretzels, chex mix, ranch Crackers, do my last minute shopping, and take Tristan to his 9 month apt on monday. So much to do between Friday and Christmas Eve! I'm sure Tristan won't let me do it all either but I know Ken will help either watch Tristan or maybe I can con him into helping me do the pretzels instead of just eating them! It's so much to do but all so fun at the same time. I love the holdidays and will be sad when it's all over. Ok, this was my big update. I still have some pictures in my camera that I will try and upload Friday. I shouldn't have a lot to update then but I will have more pictures. Hope everyone is having a wonderful stress free holiday! Me, I don't know how NOT to stress anytime of the year!

Ok, lots to update here. I will start off by saying that Tristan finally got rid of his pink eyes. I don't know if I said it before but Ken also got it the day after Tristan in both eyes so they both had a pretty miserable week. I think the reason I didn't get it was so I could take care of my boys. They had it for a full week pretty bad. I don't think the eye drops did anything for either one of them. Neither one of them missed a dose. I didn't take any pictures of Tristan on his first Thanksgiving because he was so bad. He didn't feel good and he looked horrible to say the least. I didn't have the heart to take any pictures of him when he was feeling like that. I know pink eye isn't any fun but he was being particularly cranky last weekend. I had him laughing pretty good and what do I see???? A 5Th tooth! I couldn't believe it. My poor baby had a cold, double pink eye, and a tooth coming in all at the same time! I wish I would have looked for that because I couldn't have gave him some Tylenol to ease the pain. But he handled it all on his own. These teeth just keep popping through. Here is a picture that I took last weekend at the end of Tristan's pink eye. It still looks pretty bad but not near as bad as it was. He was so happy and curling his tongue and making cute faces so I took the picture. Ok, on to the good stuff!

He is pretty much crawling now. It's more of an army crawl but he gets around really fast now. He likes to scoot a lot too. He may never do a real crawl because he can get around just as good doing that. He also sat up for the first time from a laying position yesterday. Ken was the first one to see this. It's really neat to watch him do this. He makes it look so easy too. I walked in his room about 1:30 last night when he woke up and he is just sitting there. I am used to waking in on him laying on his tummy trying to grab anything to stand up with. It kind of made me laugh. He just looked at me as if to say "Where the heck have you been". I just can't believe all the new things he is learning. I think he might understand kisses too. Not to sure but every time I kiss him I always say "give me kisses", and the last couple times I have done that he has leaned in. He understands his name and the word "no". Anytime I say no he puts whatever he is messing with down really slow.

Let's see, what else???...We got all our Christmas shopping done now. Well I have to buy Ken one more thing and I still have to get Tristan some jeans and Khakis but other than that we are done. Has anyone seen any good deals on jeans or khakis for babies?? If so, let me know. I got one pair at Children's place for $12.50 but I know I can find a better deal than that. Usually I can find some good coupons for Children's Place, Old Navy, The Gap, or Gymboree but I haven't seen any lately. So if anyone see's any online...let me know! But yea, we are excited to have the shopping done so we can enjoy the season as a family and drink our white chocolate shakes. If you haven't tried a white chocolate shake from Steak N' Shake...you have to! They are our very favorite!

We have my dads work Christmas party to go to on Sunday. We are both excited to go to that. I love holiday events and they will have Santa Clause there so I am going to take the camera and maybe the camcorder. Tristan's first time with Santa, yay! It should be a fun day. Plus Dallas plays Pittsburgh at 4:15p so that just adds to the excitement. They need this win bad if they want the wild card. Well I think thats all for now. Here are a couple of pictures we have taken in the last few fays. I will probably have more on Sunday after my dads Christamas party. Have a great weekend!

Small Plastic Toy alert

For those who don't know, I am a huge Web Md junkie. I love the site and belong to the message boards so I learn about all kinds of little tid bits. This was the latest alert on Soft Plastic Toys and I just wanted to pass it along.
http://children.webmd.com/news/20081125/group-soft-plastic-toys-are-health-risk

Anyone know how to tell if a toy has lead paint on it? I am starting to get nervous about this because Tristan is now really starting to get into toys and they keep saying don't buy toys with lead. How do you know??? I mean does the toy have a sign on it that says "attention, I am made with lead paint". Kidding of course! That would really make things so much easier though.