What This Should Be...

This should be Jani's 10 month post. I should be telling you about all the new things she's doing and I should have a picture of her. But I'm a bad mom. I forgot. Between conferences and running around searching for daycare, I forgot. I remembered this morning that it was the 31st and told her happy 10 month birthday but that was as far as it went. I have spent the last two nights up late trying to finish a photo book because I got an email for a free one. Why is it that when something free is involved we feel obligated to take advantage of it? Will it be worth the lost sleep and frantic scrambling to get photos uploaded (375 photos, I might add)?

Tomorrow is going to have to do. Hopefully I can remember :)

Blog Slacker

I joined the 30 Day Blog Challenge a few weeks ago and had been trucking along. Until school started. I've been crazy busy and haven't hardly turned my computer on. I have a lot to blog about....a lot to catch up on! So I'm hoping I can knock a couple out this weekend. Jani is learning new things every day and it's hard to keep up! She is almost 10 months old (so you know a post with our attempt at catching a picture in her sticker is coming this week!) and is turning into such a little lady. She is no longer my little baby. The other night I was putting her to bed and I'm pretty sure I lingered in there longer than I usually do. I rocked her and let her sleep in my arms for just a little while. It makes me so sad that those days of rocking her and having her fall asleep in my arms are over. Now she just wants to get in her bed. She cries a little but the girl is an independent woman.


In other news (news unrelated to Jani) I switched jobs this year. I have moved from reading to 1st grade and I'm loving having my own classroom. I have a great group of kids that I am working with and I'm enjoying school in a whole new way. I wish I could have a tape player running in my room constantly because the things these kids say crack me up on a regular basis. It had been hard to be stressed because they have been good at making me smile. We'll see if this is just a honeymoon period or not :)

This Will Have to Do

Short post. No time. Start work tomorrow. Being in the working world is no fun ;) I leave you with this....

All this girl does is talk :)

Boot Scootin' Boogie

This is how my daughter gets around...hilarious.

Addiction

We all have our addictions. My hubby claims I am seriously addicted to my laptop. I'm sure he's right....but that doesn't mean I'm giving up my laptop. I am also seriously addicted to sweets. Anything chocolate that gets in my path must be eaten...immediately. This addiction has seriously contributed to the fact that I cannot get rid of my post-baby flab. Eh, it will happen eventually. Another addiction I have is words. I love words. I am that person who used to write down a big word and see how many other words I could make with the letters. It filled many lectures in college. It even came in handy when we were waiting for Ava to be born. It's much more difficult to play when one person is intermittently experiencing contractions. It gives you some very interesting words to add to the mix though. But I digress....back to addictions. I am also seriously addicted to board games. So much so that I think my family secretly dreads all holidays and family vacations with me because they know I will come armed with every board game in my collection and I will require them to play ALL of them....especially Cranium. The one they hate the very most :)

My love of words and games had a love affair. What was born was one of the best games in existense right now. Bananagrams. I can't remember how I found this game. Pretty sure it was recommended by someone and it was the game of the year in the last few years. I don't know. But I'm glad I did. Doug and I filled many nights last year with this game. When I was so pregnant I didn't want to go anywhere, we played Bananagrams. When I was sitting up late pumping, trying to get my milk supply up, we played Bananagrams. When we feel like a good old fashioned competition, we play Bananagrams.

I usually win. Actually, I pretty much always win. I guess there are worse things a person can be addicted to.

For all you mamas-to-be...take this into the delivery room. It passes time like you wouldn't believe. I had a 23 hour labor...I would know.

Wordless Wednesday

Peek close...you can see those toofers :)

 

Makeover

Our house has one bathroom. One. Uno. Singular. When we bought our house we were blinded by the fact that we'd have a yard, and bedrooms, and two living spaces. We did not think about the fact that there was only ONE bathroom. The first year of marriage it wasn't a big challenge. We loved getting ready at the same time, talking about our days, etc. Now? We want to rip each and every hair our of the other person's head because we want our space! So, earlier this year we looked to move into a bigger home. We looked at a number of houses...many that we loved but the price tags were a little too hefty for our life style. We decided what we really needed was another bathroom. Get that and we could easily make it in this house for a few more years. We have a nasty laundry room in our basement. Nasty because it was unfinished, had cobwebs, lots of earwigs....you know...just gross. I hated going in there. I always wore shoes because I didn't want to step on a bug! Our grand idea was to turn that nasty laundry room into a bathroom/laundry room combo....on crack. I had a lot of desires....new washer and dryer, an area to fold clothes, a pretty shower, some storage. We found a couple guys to do it. They came out, told us their ideas, and we went with it. What we ended up with makes the bathroom one of my favorite rooms in the house. Here are the befores....stay tuned for the afters :)

Over Protection

Jani is mobile...more mobile than I think Doug and I are ready for. This mobility has sent us into babyproofing mode. Something we have not had to do. Last night while looking around the house at the trillion things I would have to fix all I could picture was the scene in Baby Mama where the lady is peeing in the sink because she can't get the lid off the toilet. I was hit with the thought "Can you over protect a baby? Is there a point at which you go too far with the baby proofing?" Do you HAVE to baby proof your house? Can you just watch your child closely, teach them what they can and can't touch, and not have to change anything?

I am totally on board with baby gates. I get that you should protect them from stairs...I placed my order for two on Amazon. They should be here any day. I am also on board with the plugs for outlets. I don't want my daughter sticking a toy in it and getting the shock of her life...literally. But do we have to lock our toilet? And cupboards? And TV cabinet? And refrigerator? And stove? And dishwasher? And put those crazy door handle things on our doors? Because I don't want to. We no longer have any chemicals in our house (thank you Norwex) and I could care less if she plays with my Tupperware. Am I putting my daughter in harm's way if I don't? Anyone can share an opinion with me...parent or not. Because I know when I didn't have children, I still had an opinion. And I hated when I wasn't validated because I didn't have children...but that's a whole other blog post :)

Sick Sick Sick

Not Jani....me. I went to bed last night feeling a little yucky. I blamed it on the nachos from Mulligan's. I haven't eaten bar food in a while....made sense. Woke up this morning feeling worse, way worse. How are moms supposed to be sick? Especially when their husband isn't home?? Luckily Doug has been home for part of the day. I felt like a slacker mom. I literally laid on the living room floor while Jani crawled all over me and pulled my hair...waiting for him to walk in the door so I could crawl into bed. Shocking realization I came to? Motherhood does not allow time outs, or sick days, or naps. I think I already knew this....just have never had to test the waters. Let's hope this passes quickly :(

Growing Up

Sometimes I think it's crazy to think where Doug and I were 10 years ago. We attended Doug's class reunion and will attend mine this month. So many things have happened in our lives in ten years. We've grown, loved, lost, and changed. Friends have come and gone. Sometimes it feels like 5 minutes and sometimes it feels like an eternity. One of my favorite things we are able to do is get together with old friends....friends who have moved away, gone on to another stage in their lives as we have moved on in ours. Having these friends move away is traumatic when it happens but the time we spend together now is ever more special. It makes me thankful for those moments...sharing secrets, catching up, lingering over lunch....not wanting the conversation and time to end. This weekend we were able to get together with a dear friend of ours. One of the most entertaining things is getting our kids together. I was there when Amber's first daughter was born and they moved away right before her second was born. Now we have Jani and getting the girls together became a definite highlight of my summer! Here are a few pics of their time together...

I can't wait for the class reunion so we can take pictures of all of our kids together. Now that is really going to make me feel old!

Blog Challenge

I've been falling behind on blogging and have so many things I want to post. I want to be able to look back at the posts and remember all the things going in our and Jani's life! So I decided to join the challenge from the blog of an e-friend of mine. I have to blog every day for 6 weeks....we'll see how it goes!!! If you want to join the challenge head on over to Falling for Baby.

All By Myself

Tonight I had the crazy idea to allow Jani to feed herself her applesauce. I knew she was going to go crazy with it but I thought it would be fun for her. Doug was in the shower (I knew his anal clean side would not want me to do this!!!). Jani had the best time. She was smiling and laughing and going crazy. It was totally worth the clean-up. Luckily, tonight was the night I had planned on cleaning the kitchen floors!

Wordless Wednesday

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(I love baby cellulite!)

Where Has the Time Gone?!?

9 Months Old!!!

I can't believe Jani is 9 months. She has been out of my stomach as long as she was in it!! That is just crazy to believe. People have always said that babies change so quickly and you won't realize how fast it goes. I did not know this would mean they literally wake up in the morning and by night are doing new things....and that this happens every day! Doug and I are constantly saying how blessed we are. We rarely hear Jani cry and when she does it's usually a pretty quick fix. She is just so much fun! We had her appt on Friday and here are her stats :)
Weight: 22 on the dot
Height: 28 1/2 inches
We made bets on her weight and I was right on target. She's in the 90th percentiles in everything and our doc said she looked very healthy. The 9 month appt is great...no shots! Unfortunately, I had to get checked out too because I was under the weather. It wasn't strep so I was thankful.

As far as what she's doing, we both think she's going to skip crawling altogether. She scoots all over the house but has no interest in crawling the "normal" way. She's pulling herself up so we think the walking will come first. She's definitely a talker like D and I. She is constantly jabbering. Mama and Dada are her favorite words. She loves to wave, clap, dance, and give kisses and hugs. When we discovered she would give kisses on demand we could not get enough. We just kept asking her for kiss after kiss after kiss :)