Thanksgiving 2009

Due to Mr. M's work schedule, spending Holiday's with the P side of the family is near impossible... So as typical for most Holiday's, we spent Thanksgiving as a family with the M side of the family.

And, as typical, Grandma M's food was wonderful.

rough housing with Aunt Liz & Uncle Jon earned many giggles & squeals of laughter...

Grandma P's find of a "Gobble Gobble" plate was filled, and devoured expeditiously....

After which, J was rewarded for being such a good eater...

Grandma M presented him with his own - homemade - Elmo cake....















to which, he quickly devoured....



















Leaving Mommy to wonder.... Where does all that food go?

21.5 month stats

Last Friday, I took J in to the Dr., as he had a low grade fever of 100.6. Since this seemed to be rising from his lingering infection that had him home last Thursday, I was worried... A week just seemed to long for this to be a typical virus. Luckily, his Dr.'s office agreed and was not busy.

The diagnosis... A double ear infection. The Dr said J's left ear was pink, as if that might be on the tail-end of what caused his fever to spike last Thursday, but his right ear was a flaming red. As this is his 2nd, basically undiagnosed ear infection (we caught the first at his 1st flu shot appt), we now have new ground rules for bringing him in for a check up. Prior rule of thumb was fever of 101.6 for 24 hours, now it is any low grade fever coupled with him not sleeping through the night.

He is also being watched to refer him to an ENT (ear, nose, throat Dr) as we believe this is genetic, as opposed to viral or contagious bacterial. (I had my tonsils & adenoids removed before I was 4 and tubes twice as a child. His cousin C had her adenoids removed and tubes before she was 3)

Now... For the important stuff...

He measured in at 36 inches ~ above 95th percentile *
He weighed in at 27lbs. ~ between 25th and 50th percentile*

*according to the calculator on Babycenter.com

Liz babysitting J - 1

Aunt Liz generously offered to watch J while I got some me time.

(read: time to disguise my roots & get my brows back to looking like a female)

What Liz did not know was… J had all kinds of plans for her… Nor, that she would be getting 2 or 3 weeks worth of workouts in the 2 hours I was gone.

At first, he was content to sit & ride...















Sporting the new Sox hat Aunt Liz arrived with...

But then, he decided having Aunt Liz chase him, while pulling the wagon, would be more fun...

Then he slowed down, as he found he can do his Grandma M trick outside with a bigger broom...















Aunt Liz enjoyed a moment of catching her breath...

And then, in a total like me style, enjoyed relaxing a few more moments, while J entertained himself safely....
















She said, he took these out of the garage, lined them up, then she'd say "Okay J, let's clean up" and he'd return them to their appropriate location... Only to redo it a few moments later...

not Me - Monday!

Welcome to MckMama's blog train of "Not Me! Monday's"....

Are you feeling guilty about anything? Or did you have any embarrassing event happen that left you hoping no one witnessed it? Or witness your spouse, child, dog... do something that horrifies you in "how did that just happen" sort of way?

If the answer is yes, then listen to Mama - MckMama that is!

"Well don't be! Not Me! Monday was born out of my desire to admit some of my imperfections and reveal a few moments I'd rather forget. You may find it therapeutic to join in and do the same thing!"

Write about what did not happen in your house in your blog, use her MckLinkey to link up your blog entry. What, you don't have a blog - that's okay... We'd still love to read your "not" happenings in her comment section.

Mr M. did not make me a single mom this weekend (okay, just Sunday). Nope! Not My Husband! He'd never do a thing like that... Never... He always ranks me higher than Bruce (Springsteen, that is) in his hierarchy of what is important in his life.

This would not happen in the same weekend that I find out J has not 1, but 2 ear infections. These ear infections would not have been brought to my attention simply by listening to my Mother's Gut phenomenon, as I'm always on top of these types of things... His Dr would not then tell me to start bringing him in when he stops sleeping through the night AND running a low grade fever, as those are his only sign's he's sick.

I did not book a trip for me & J to go visit my parents in FL. Nope! Not Me! I'd never plan a trip without Mr. M. I would not be so excited about this trip that I bought J clothes for it over the weekend, having already washed AND packed said clothes.

While shopping, I did not walk into the Stride Rite store to get J's feet measured, with zero intention of buying shoes. My son's feet did not measure larger than the size 7 shoes he was wearing. Oops! This did not send me into a shoe shopping spree. J does not now have a new pair of Nike's, a pair of loafers, AND a pair of boots all in size 8.

And I did not lament on how all of his too small shoes were brand new in August, being big on him then...

Lastly, I'm not soooo excited to share the Christmas season with my son this year, that I've bought Holiday DVDs, and boat loads of books (from Frosty to Why we celebrate Christmas? The story of Jesus) to read to him in place of his normal nightly books.

Oh... 1 more... I'm not so thankful that I don't have any real confessions this week, that I'm smiling as I type this.... Nope! Not Me! I'd never be grateful for the small things in life...

Bath Time...Play Time...

Enjoy....

....and....

....and the memory shot....

Grandma M's new trick is sticking...

While J - sitting, Grandma M taught J how to sweep.  She made it a game.  Now, it is J's favorite activity...

Oh, what hard work... I need to take a break...

Hmm... I knew I was doing something wrong...  I'd hear from other mom's on how their kiddos help them clean... And in my inexperienced first-time-mom brain, I thought it was J was just too cool young to help clean.

Learn something new every day... As he was even back to work on Sunday....

Yep, that's right J...  Get that dust!

Gee Mom, Payton just keeps creating more work for me shedding...

Yes darling son... Your father has already suggested I get her in to be shaved...

In the meantime, can you keep sweeping?

What a weekend....

With J not feeling well on Wednesday night, we took the whole weekend easy to ensure he was well recovered to return to daycare tomorrow. (He was with Grandma M today, pre-planned to accomodate Daddy's Bruce trip)

Thursday night started out my fun, with J crying non-stop every time I tried to lay him down to sleep. And I'm not talking fussing, I'm talking all out crying.

No fever, not hungry.

Nothing.worked.to.stop.the.escalating.tears. BUT me walking around carrying him... 

Finally, after 3 hours and my being close to tears myself, I tried sitting up in bed with him - he fell asleep. After a couple of hours sleep, I moved him to his crib. At that point, he transitioned to sleep perfectly (so long as I slept on his floor - okay totally doable).

With this kind of start, I should have known what kind of interesting weekend I was in for... And to explain why, I was so totally exhausted, there was no blogging to be had.

I got to experience (note* order not relevant):

• J's new tricks
• read climbing onto our dinner table & going after the light above it
• read also climbing on the couch, then up the back and finally onto the counter top
• J's strong affection for saying
• fun! "eewwweee" and shaking his head
• not so fun! "No!" while shaking his finger at me
• J's downward sprial migration to the terrible 2's
• read his strong desire to hit, pull my hair and earrings
• read also in general - melt down like only 2 year olds in training can manage

We did have some great moments. The moments that you want to capture on film, so I did... Just to remind me, on days like these... He really is a great & wonderful kid...

And this is just a phase....just.a.phase...just.a.phase...

Breakfast with my great friend Miss Kari


Snuggling on the couch...

Didn't he pull that blanket down like a pro?

and pestering petting Payton!

 

Please, don't remind me that it is followed by the horrible 3's... I need to grow into accepting that reality

Other cool news... I heard Santa has started shopping for this little guy... Do you think somone should whisper in his ear about the being naughty or nice?