So today I stayed home with Brody. He woke up a couple of times last night and seemed to be a little fussy this morning. I wasn't sure if he was coming down with something or if he was just teething so I decided to stay home with him just in case. Well...I guess he was teething. He seems to be just fine, but he did sleep a little longer today than he normally does. Of course, I can't really tell if he is or not because everything goes in his mouth, but that isn't different than every other day.

I was going to do some straightening up of the house, but decided to finish my book instead (I did vacuum and do some laundry). I have been reading this book called Yummy Mummy....about a woman who feels like she has lost herself after she has a baby. It was really good and I couldn't put it down. I also caught up on some shows that I tivo'd, which included Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters from last night. I feel asleep around 9:15 or so. I couldn't stay up even as hard as I tried to.

Brody has been "talking" alot more. It sounds like he says da-da-da and ya-ya-ya. It is so cute! I am going to try and get it on video.

Not much else is going on. I am going to go play with Brody for a little bit before we feed him and put him down for the night. Hopefully, he will have a good sleep tonight! :)

I love Fridays! It is my day to work from home and I get so excited when it is here because I don't have to do all the hustle and bustle of getting ready, dropping Brody off and then sitting in traffic on my way to my wonderful job! I normally get up with him, check my e-mails, feed him and then put him down for his morning nap. He normally takes a longer morning nap than in the afternoon so it gives me a couple of hours of getting alot of work done. Then he gets up, I feed him lunch and he plays for a little bit before he goes down for his afternoon nap. This nap isn't as long, but it gives me a chance of getting in the shower and doing more work. Today, I was really busy and he was so good all day. He was in the best mood today, smiling and laughing (except for that 15 minutes when he went down for his afternoon nap).

He is now starting to grab on to the bottle like he wants to hold it. It is also pretty funny because when I am feeding him, if I take the bottle out of his mouth sooner than he wants, he reaches up and either grabs my hand or the bottle and guides it back into his mouth like, "hey....wait a minute...I am not done!" I know it will be soon enough before he starts to hold his bottle and doesn't want mommy to do it anymore! I am not looking forward to that. :(

He is now starting to eat 3 meals a day. I feed him his cereal and some fruit in the morning, and then veggies for lunch and dinner. I am trying to cut the cereal out at night, and I cut it back tonight so I will be interested to see if that affects him. I am also going to start introducing him to the sippy cup. My pediatrician told me that I could start giving him some water and some juice (well really 95% water and 5% juice), but told me to give it to him in a sippy cup and not his bottle. That should be interesting.

Ted comes home tomorrow night. I skyped with him this morning so we could see each other and he could see Brody. The skype thing is so cool...I am glad they have it. He is also able to call the house or my cell from his computer too, so no matter where he is, he can still call. His plane gets in around 7:00 and I know he will be pretty tuckered out when he gets here. I am not really sure how long the flight is, but I know it is a long one. Before I pick him up, Tab, her mom, my mom and I are going to see Nights in Rodanthe. I am so excited. The book was so good and I love Nicholas Sparks. I just hate it when they change the storyline too much when a book is made into a movie. I read a review and they did say one thing that is different. Although it doesn't change the storyline, it is still different. I am sure there will be others. But, I can't wait! I love Diane Lane and Richard Gere together. It is going to be soooo good. I hope it lives up to my expectations!

Well, Brody is in bed and the Red Sox game was in a game delay and I think it is coming back on so I am off to watch that! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

6 months and all is well!

Today, Brody had his 6 month checkup. It is hard to believe that he is already 6 months old. Here are my little man's (or I should say big man) stats:

Weight - are you ready for this? 22.13 lbs. He is still off the weight chart but he is still about the same distance from the chart that he has always been
Height - 27.5 inches - 80th percentile for height
Head - 18 inches - 80th percentile for his head.

So, he has pretty much doubled his birth weight and has grown 7.3 inches since he was born. He is growing like a weed! He also had his next round of shots, but I had her skip one and give him a flu shot. He has to go back in a month to get the second round of the flu shot and he will get the other scheduled shot at his 9 month appointment.

Everytime I go, his doctor is always late, but she is so great with him and me that it makes up for it. She really spends the time to answer all the questions I have and she takes her time with him. I guess that is why she is always late! This time, I had a bunch of questions for her and she is so patient and answers all of my questions no matter how silly they may be. One of the questions I asked her was about the shape of his head. He seems to have a flat spot on one side of his which is the main side he sleeps on. Now that he has started rolling over, he has started to sleep more on his side or his tummy, which he seems to like better than sleeping on his back. I had myself completely freaked out a couple of weeks ago when I looked this up on the internet, but she told me that it is absolutely nothing to worry about at this point. She said that it is pretty common now that parents have been instructed to put babies on their back when they sleep to reduce SIDS. She said that now that he is sitting up more and is not putting so much pressure on the back of his head, it should even out. Whew! That made me feel much better hearing it from her. I was instructed not to go to the internet as it is not my friend and only really tells you the bad things!! I know that all too well, but still find myself searching and already diagnosing my child! Crazy!

So, here are the pictures that I mentioned on my last post. I bought him his Halloween costume this past weekend. He is going to be a turkey and he is so stinkin' cute! He also had his first experience sitting in the cart and high chair like a big boy.

Say it ain't so.....

Say it isn't Sunday and I have to go back to work tomorrow! I know, I know, I keep complaining about work, but that is all I am going to say today. I just wanted to express that I don't want to go to work tomorrow. But I have to, so that is that!

I wanted to give an update on Ethan. We had him last week for 2 nights so we could see him. We haven't really seen him since Ted got back from Italy. So, before Ted left for Japan on Friday, we decided to get him Tuesday through Thursday. Everytime I see him I can't believe how grown up he looks. He is now in 5th grade! Next year he will be going to middle school. Pretty crazy! It seems like just yesterday he was throwing temper tantrums and going to pre-school. Don't get me wrong....I definitely don't miss the temper tantrums! Whew, that was rough. But.....I just can't believe how much time flies! He is still going to GATE this year, which is the gifted and talented education program. Only a select few students from each grade and each school in the city get to go and it is for those who excel academically. That is definitely Ethan! He is also playing the violin this year, which is pretty cool. I can't wait to see him when he has school concerts. He is doing real well this year....hasn't gotten in trouble....yet! Maybe this year will be different. Maybe he has matured a little since 4th grade and he will get in trouble less and less! One can only hope! I will definitely try and get some pictures of him next time we have. I really only saw him a little bit since he had karate on Tuesday night and I got home late on Wednesday. But I did get to spend a little bit of time with him when I took him to school Wednesday and Thursday morning!

Our weather has been so beautiful this past weekend...I am actually sitting out on our back deck as I am posting this. I just put Brody to bed (a little early) and decided to sit out here and enjoy the evening. He was Mr. fussypants tonight. I think he was tired. He slept for about an hour this morning and about an hour this afternoon. We went to Tab's this weekend and maybe that threw him off. Who knows? He did actually do something he has never done before. Last night, he slept for over 11 hours! Whoa! He was falling asleep as I was feeding him the bottle last night and was out around 8:15pm. Then, this morning, when I woke up, I noticed it was pretty light oustide and looked at the clock and it was 7:15 am. I had an initial panic attack wondering where Brody was. When I peeked into the room he was sleeping in, he was still sound asleep, on his belly, in the pack-n-play. Then, I heard him about 7:30 am. I couldn't believe how long he slept. I didn't even hear a peep out of him once I put him down. I think Tab and I wore him out yesterday.

I wanted to get Brody some winter clothes since today is the last day of summer and winter is right around the corner. We went to Old Navy and I got him the cutest clothes....I can't wait to see him in them. We also got Brody's halloween costume yesterday too. He is going to be a turkey and we put it on him last night and he was so cute! I took some pictures and will post them tomorrow. He was a little fussy when I initially put it on him, but he got used to it. Tab's husband, Kevin, works for the National Wild Turkey Federation and he gave Brody a turkey call to hold on Halloween. It is a little thing that hunters use during turkey hunting season to call in a turkey. He laughed when we made the noise. I am planing on just taking him to my neighbors house and not around the neighborhood. He is still too young for all of that. But, the costume is the cutest and I am so glad we found it!

Other than that, not much else is going on. Hope everyone had a good weekend and enjoy your week!

Why do I go to work?

The title of this blog is so negative and I hate being negative, but I am completely frustrated with my job right now! We are soooooo busy and have so much work that we are all ready to completely lose our minds. My job and that of my co-workers is not an independent job...we rely on experts within our organization to do our job. These "experts" are in charge of the functional areas in our organization. I googled the word "expert" online and the definition is as follows:
having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.
Based on this definition, the people we work with should be called something other than experts. They don't take responsibility for the stuff their are assigned and they don't suffer any consequences because of it. UGH! I wish I had a job where I was able to work independently and still get my job done. It would be a much better situation, that's for sure! I hate the fact that I feel this way, because for the most part, I truly enjoy my job. I am just completely frustrated right now with the lack of responsibility these people have and they are supposed to be professionals. But, this too shall pass!

On to something more uplifting! Brody, Brody, Brody! I tell you.......no matter what happens with work and how frustrated I am when I am at work, leaving work, and on my way home, Brody definitely makes my day better! He is such a happy boy and he always puts a smile to my face. Tonight when I got home (at 7:00 pm!), Ted had him in the chair with him and he was laying on Ted's chest. When I walked in and he saw me, he got so excited! That warms my heart and makes me forget about all the things that I have had to deal with during the day! My dad even commented that he can't believe how laid back and happy he is!

Tomorrow, he will be 6 months old! Crazy. He has his 6 month checkup next Tuesday and I will be curious to see how much he weighs. Ted weighed himself and then got on the scale with Brody and the difference was 22 lbs! Goodness! My little man is a big boy! But considering his birth weight, it is all relative. He started out big, but now that he is moving around more and more, he should start slowing down on the gainin weight.

Today, he started carrots. We found out that he is not a big fan of green beans, and I am not sure he was totally crazy about the sweet potatoes. So far, he likes peas and bananas. After the carrots, he will have squash and then I will move on to othe fruits. I still think that no matter what you put in front of him, he will eat it, whether he likes it or not. He is definitely not picky like his mother! I actually was gagging a little bit when I fed him the green beans because I HATE green beans. But...we do what we need to for our kids, right? I am realizing that more and more everyday!

Well....I am working from home tomorrow (YAY!) and I hope everyone has a great Friday and good weekend! :)

King Napper!

Brody really loves his naps! And he even likes them in the crib! I know I have posted about him sleeping in the crib atleast 4 times this past week, but it makes me so happy. I am glad that he has really taken to it because I was worried there for a little bit. I thought I was going to have to google a bigger swing and see if they made it for toddlers! He loves his naps in the crib so much that he slept for 3 hours and 15 minutes this morning and another hour and a half this afternoon. I try and tell my parents not to let him sleep past 4 hours during the day, and he slept for almost 5 today so tonight should be interesting. Hopefully, this won't disturb his routine. I actually had to wake him up this morning at 6:45 am to take him to my parents house. And how did I find him? On his belly! I heard him fuss for about 5 minutes around 1:00 am and I kept saying to myself, "5 more minutes and I will go in there!" Well.....I fell asleep and so did he! Then I heard him again some other time after that (not sure when because it wasn't even long enough for me to look at the clock) and then I didn't hear him for the rest of the night.

Here are a few pictures I took of him tonight while we were getting ready for bed. He is so happy when we are getting his jammies on and playing with him before bed. It is almost like he knows that he is getting ready to go to sleep and he actually likes it!

He absolutely loves to stand and would do that all day if we would let him. So, we have started to help him stand and hold on to the crib and he stays there for a good while. He actually stayed like that long enough for me to run and get the camera. We have talked about how it might be time to lower the mattress. He hasn't started pulling himself up yet, but it is only a matter of time! He catches on to things pretty quick.

I can't believe how much he has changed in 6 short months! He is actually starting to look more like a toddler than a baby! I want to bottle him up at this age right now because he is so much fun! There are many things to look forward to, but as the country song goes, I am going to miss this!

Mom, Missy and Christy - does these pictures look familiar? My mom has a picture of me doing the exact same thing. I would suck on my big toe (have no clue why, but that's beside the point). I would be curious to see what age my picture was taken and compare the two!

Yummy!

So...Brody started sweet potatoes yesterday. I have to say he really liked them. We decided to start him out on veggies before moving to the fruit (I know he likes bananas because he devours the oatmeal and rice cereal with bananas). We did the greens and are now moving on to the sweeter veggies. On Saturday, he finished the green beans, which he is definitely my child because he didn't really like them. He, of course, finished them and opened his mouth for every bite, but he wasn't initially excited about them. But.....different story with the sweet potatoes. Here are a few pictures from his exciting new adventure:

Also, now that he is sleeping in the crib during the day for his naps (YAY! I am so excited I can't stand it), he has decided that he likes to sleep either on his side or on his tummy. So completely weird considering he fusses after about 10 minutes on his tummy while he is awake. Here are a few pictures that my Mom took when they woke him up from his morning nap today and another from his afternoon nap. He took a 3 hour nap this morning and my parents even had to wake him up! Crazy....my child loves his morning nap, that's for sure!

He is really getting used to the crib during the day and it makes me so happy! I guess he decided he was going to do it when he was ready, not when I was ready! I guess this is one thing I can't micro-manage (I admitted it Ted, Sr.!)

Here are some more cute picutres of him for the last couple of days. He was playing with my Mom's cell phone and he actually put it up to his ear. Not sure he knew what he was doing, but it was pretty funny!

This one is cute....he was playing with his pacifier and he is actually getting pretty good with putting it in his mouth. This one....not so much!

End of the Weekend!

I hate that today is Sunday. It means that tomorrow starts another week of work! UGH! I wish we had the same amount of days on the weekend as we did during the week! It wouldn't be so bad then! But...such is life!

So Brody has been taking his naps in the crib all week! Some days have been better than others, but he is doing much better than he has before. His afternoon naps have never really been as good as his morning naps, but atleast he does get a little sleep in the afternoon. I laid him down around 9:00 am this morning and he just fell asleep about 10 minutes ago. He has been playing and rolling all around the crib, and just now fell asleep on his side. We have noticed that during the day, he has been sleeping more on his stomach than his back. Weird considering he doesn't really like to be on his tummy. Also, at night, he never rolls onto his tummy to sleep. But...hey, whatever works! I am just glad he is sleeping in the crib during the day, I don't care how he does it!

So, I went the beach yesterday with my friend Mary and her boyfriend Marty. They live down at the beach so it is just a short walk from their house. It was really hot and humid yesterday an even though I put sunscreen on, I still got burnt. The worst part is I missed a section on my arm so of course, it is redder than the other part of my arm. It looks pretty funny. I hope it blends in over the next couple of days. It was nice and relaxing just to hang out all day long and enjoy the weather. I think the summertime is coming to an end so there aren't many more weekends of beach weather left. I would love to have brought Brody down there, but I think he is still too young to really enjoy it. I think next year will be a fun year for him. He will be walking by then and will probably really enjoy it! Atleast I hope so!

Other than that, don't have much planned for today. I need to seriously clean the house, but of course, can't get motivated. We are supposed to go to my parents house today for a cook out and that just seems much more fun than dusting, vacuuming, and cleaning the toilets! I will get around to it. I think I am going to make a list and do a little each day, that way it doesn't seem like such a daunting task! I think that might be the only way it will get done.

Ted leaves for Japan next Friday, which is also Brody's 6 month birthday! I can't believe he will be 6 months already. I know I have said that about every month birthday he has had so far, but 6 months is crazy! He is growing up too fast! Pretty soon, he will be crawling and then walking and then I know I won't be able to keep him contained.

Well, I am off to take a shower and start the day. Hope everyone has a great Sunday!

Many things.....

This week has been pretty eventful for Brody! Some good and some bad! Let's start with Saturday.

On Saturday, he had his first experience with baby food. I have started to feed him only a little bit at lunch with a bottle just to make sure we don't have any issues with the food. I figured I would start off with the green veggies so we can go ahead and get that out of the way before we move on to sweeter stuff! My baby was like a little birdie....he loved them! He kept opening his mouth like a little bird and seemed to really enjoy them. We have done peas for 4 days now and today he will get green beans! UGH! Thank goodness my parents will be giving him that. I hate green beans. Once we get over these green veggies, we are going to move to sweet potatoes and then some fruit. The cereal I give him has bananas in it so I know he likes that! Here are a few pictures of him eating his peas for the first time:

Then on Sunday, Brody had a pretty traumatic day. His lifeline, the swing, was officially taken down! We took it apart and put it away. We knew this day would come and that we would have to start putting him the crib for his naps. Well...Sunday afternoon, he cried on and off for 2 hours! My little stubborn boy would not give up. I checked on him periodically, just to let him know that everything was okay, but he wasn't giving up. He did fall asleep 2 times for a period of about 20 minutes each, but that was it! Then on Monday, my parents put him in the crib in the morning after his breakfast and he slept for 2 and 1/2 hours! WHAT? I couldn't believe it! Then, yesterday he took both his morning and afternoon nap in the crib too! He did cry yesterday afternoon for about an hour, but he eventually fell asleep and my dad said when he checked on him, he was actually sleeping on his belly! He has never done that before. He normally hates to be on his belly, but I guess he was tired and just gave up. I hate the fact that we have to let him cry it out, but at this point, I am not sure what else to do. He has to get used to the crib now that the swing is gone. My parents are reinforcing that fact that the crib is Brody's friend. He absolutely has no issues with it at night, but for some reason, hated being in there during the day. I take these last couple of days as progress and hopefully this will continue!

Another thing I have noticed....he has a little brown patch in his right eye. I am not sure if this means that his eyes will be changing to brown or not, but it sure looks like that will occur. His eye color has definitely darkened and it is more of a dark gray color right now than blue. I am curious to see what will transpire from this. I would love for him to have big brown eyes, just like his daddy!

I posted the two videos below from yesterday. He has decided that he wants to stand more than anything now and he was grabbing on to Ted's hands and was pulling himself up. He is doing so great with everything, I can't even believe it! After he stands, I started making some noises and he was trying to imiate me. He started giggling too.

And this video is funny. We have noticed that every time we feed him, each time he takes a bite, it sounds like he says "mmmmm!" I got the video camera out last night when we were feeding him his cereal and you can definitely hear it. He does this with all his food, not just the cereal! It cracks us up!

I hope everyone has a had a great week so far! It is halfway over! YAY!

What a Week!

What a crazy week! I know I haven't posted since Sunday but this week has been so crazy! Work, work, work! It is so busy at work and there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. The amount of work we have right now is outrageous and it doesn't look like it is going to be letting up anytime soon! I had to stay late pretty much every day this week and on Wednesday night, I was bummed because I didn't get home until after Brody had gone to bed! It really upset me because I hate the fact that my work gets in the way of spending time with him at night. I already don't have enough hours in the day to spend with him during the week anyway, and then to add more hours and get home after he is asleep is upsetting. The next night, I did make sure I was home in enough time to feed him, bathe him and put him to bed.

So.....Tropical Storm Hanna is here today. Ted went to Illinois yesterday so it is Brody and I! Ted was thinking about not going, but he already had his plane tickets booked and it would have cost him $150 to change it. Also, I don't think the storm will be that bad so he decided to go. Tab came down last night to help her Mom paint and stayed with me last night. She is going to be heading to her mom's today and I am not sure what I am going to do for the rest of the day! Probably nothing, which is exciting for me! :)

As I post this, Brody has been asleep in the pack-n-play (yes, I said pack-n-play, not swing) for about an hour! I can't believe it! I think this is the longest amount of time that he has slept in something other than the swing. We only have about a couple of weeks left of the swing before it is going to be taken down and stored away. He is starting to get too big for it. I am not sure how he will react to all of that, but I can tell you....if he wants to nap during the day, he will have to get used to napping somewhere that is stationary and not in a moving object!

This week, he has really started to sit on his own really well. He has been sitting up for about a month now, but he was definitely wobbly and would lean forward and not know quite how to sit back upright. Well, he has figured it out! He does really well! Of course, he hasn't quite mastered how to sit up from a laying position, but he sure tries! He is constantly grunting like he wants to get up, but just can't! Here are a few pictures of him sitting up on his own. (As you can see, Momma got smart and put a pillow behind him because we had a few instances where he moved too quickly before I could catch him and his head hit the blanket...not fun!)

Today, I am going to feed Brody some veggies for the first time. It should be interesting to see how he does. I definitely think he is ready for some food.....he is constantly looking at everyone else eat like he wants what they are having. It is actually really cute!

Update on my Mom: She went the doctor yesterday and they told her everything seems to be going as well as planned. She is having some pain, but they have told her that is probably from the nerve waking up (she was having numbness in her left leg because the disk was pushing down on the nerve). She has to be out of work for another 2 weeks and they told her she still can't lift anything, including Brody, for atleast another month. She has been walking on the treadmill and around the neighborhood everyday and they told her to keep that up. She has also been eating better and gained 2.4 lbs. last week, which for her is really good! She is going to be starting physical therapy and she will also be going to see a nutritionist to her help get up to atleast 110, which will be a good weight for her. So, all in all, I think she is doing really well.

Here are some pictures of Brody in his stroller. We went last week to get a smaller stroller that I can put in my car instead of the bulky travel one but the one I wanted was not in stock. Hopefully, they will have it this week.

One final note...I officially fit back into ALL my pre-pregnancy pants! I am so excited I can't stand it. I have really been trying to eat much better the last couple of weeks and I have cut out all soda and have just been drinking water! I can't believe the difference it has made! YAY!

Well....I hear Brody starting to wake up! Right this down in the books folks.....it was almost a 2 hour nap in the pack-n-play! Today is a good day! :)