TGIF

I am so happy it is Friday. I am so ready for the weekend. I am taking George to the kennel today for some playtime. This entire week she has barked at me non-stop all day long and I am getting so sick of it. We have taken her on a few walks this week and paid a lot of attention to her, but I think she needs to get out. At least I will have a little peace and quiet at home for a little bit.

I had another dream last night about the baby and this time we had a boy. Here is the problem. Dave and I can't decide on a boy's name at all. Last time we could only think of boys names and not a girl's name. This time we have our girl name picked out (but we aren't telling, so don't even ask). The boy name is really hard this time. The names I like, Dave doesn't like and the names he likes I don't really like. We have a few that are contenders, but we don't love them. Any suggestions on boys names? I go back in forth between liking traditional names and unique names.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. I have been really bad at downloading my pictures lately.

Samuel loves black olives. If he won't eat anything, we just have to pull out the black olives and he goes nuts. He likes to put them on his fingers and then eat them one by one.

My friend Andrea and her daughter Taylor and Samuel and I try to get together once a week to do something, anything to entertain the kids. A few weeks ago we thought it would be fun to decorate pumpkins. We forgot to take pictures while they were decorating, but they had a lot of fun. They both thought it was hilarious to put the pom-pom decorations on top of the pumpkin and let them fall off. The things kids find funny. Here are a few pictures of Samuel's finished product:

This week we were to a Dinosaur Exhibit at the Science Center. They are life size dinosaurs, that move and make noises. There is information about all the different eras when the dinosaurs lived and information about all the different kinds of dinosaurs. I found it very educational and super cool. Samuel is a little too young to appreciate the educational aspect of the exhibit, but he did really like looking at the dinosaurs. He is really into dinosaurs lately, so this was a perfect outing. He was really afraid of the tiny dinosaurs that were closer to his eye level. I thought he would be terrified of the T-Rex, but of all the dinosaurs he and Taylor were waving at that one. At one point Samuel just laid down on his belly and started up at the baby T-Rex. It was pretty funny. I tried to take some pictures, but the lighting wasn't the greatest and it was hard for me to get good ones.

Lastly, in the colder months I love wearing pashminas. I like really big ones that I can wrap around me a lot of times. Yesterday it was kind of cold out in the morning and we were about to head to Samuel's music class. I put on my pashminas and my jacket and got ready to go. Samuel went to the closet and started yanking on one of my pashminas. He started wrapping it around his head, so I fixed it for him. He refused to take it off. When we got in the car to go to music class, I tried to take it off and he wouldn't let me. He wore it into his class and then took it off when we got into the classroom. Then I thought he would have forgotten about it when we were leaving, but he insisted on putting it back on before we went outside. Not only did he wear the pashmina, but he had to bring his cell phone with him in the car, put on his sunglasses and he pretended to be talking on the phone the whole way to music class. He is my little boy. He just cracks me up. Here are some pictures of him:

Not another Monday

It feels like a Monday today and I am not liking it at all. Dave was off work yesterday for Veteran's Day and we were pretty busy all day. By 3 pm we were exhausted and bored. We went for a long walk, since it was pretty nice out and then the evening just dragged on. Lately when I workout, my lower back really starts killing me. The sciatic nerve pain is getting worse at night and it is really bad when I exercise. I figured I will do more on the elliptical machine because it is less pressure on my lower back.

So, I am really torn about whether to get the H1N1 vaccination. I know that my cousin Nicki who is pregnant was worried about this too and she just got hers, but I am just not sure. I have an appointment next week and I put it off last time and I just don't know what to do. My OBGYN originally wasn't suggesting that her patients take it, but I guess she changed her mind. She is recommending it, but not requiring it. She did make everyone in her office get the vaccination and no one has had any side-effects. Anyone else gotten theirs and did they have any side-effects?

Also, I haven't given Samuel his either. I am not against vaccinations, I just don't want to be giving him anything unnecessary. Anyone given their children the vaccination and were there any side-effects? His pediatrician also recommends getting it, but is not requiring it. He said he wasn't even sure if he was going to give it to his kids. I just don't know what to do.

Any opinions would be helpful.

Well, I was able to get this post done while Samuel was eating and now he is done and is pushing the table out of the way so I better go.

Happy Monday

I never thought I would be happy for a Monday to come. Yesterday felt like the longest day ever. We had an open house from 1 -3 and then someone wanted to see our house from 3:30 to 4:30. We were out of the house from about 11:30 to 4:30. By the time we got home Dave and I were exhausted. We both agreed we were ready for the day to be over because we both wanted to kill each other. We were just super cranky and sick of being in the car. We drove around and looked at houses during our open house and ate lunch. Samuel took a nap in the car which was nice, but he was cranky too. We are hoping we get interest soon on the house or we are going to take it off the market.

My stomach has been killing me this morning. I think I was nervous about Samuel going back to Mother's Day Out. We was excited to go, so that was a good sign. When I dropped him off, the little girl that he bite ran right up to the door when she saw him. She had no sign of a market on her cheek, it wasn't bruised or anything, thank goodness. I ended up calling the mom on Wednesday afternoon, but she never returned my phone call, I don't blame her, but I felt better calling and checking up on her daughter. Please keep your fingers crossed that I don't get a call today to come and pick him up.

This is the first Monday that I don't have any appointments for anyone else but me. I am about to get on the treadmill and walk a little bit. It is still absolutely beautiful outside, but I have been peeing every 10 minutes this morning. I think the baby moved in the middle of the night and is sitting directly on my bladder. So I figured I would just exercise at home and not have to worry about getting to a restroom. I hope to have a relaxing day today.

We are have vegetarian Indian food tonight for dinner. We have been eating out so much lately and I am so sick of it. I can't wait for a week of homemade food.

Early Morning

It is Sunday morning at 6:30 am and I am already up. I feel great like I slept for a really long time, but I still can't believe I am up. I was having one of those morning where I just couldn't stay in bed.

We have another open house today and I just feel like cleaning up a little bit before everyone in the house starts to wake up. I just heard Samuel, so that isn't a good sign, I hope he decides not to wake up early this morning too.

Dave and I had a wonderful night on Friday. We ate at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We ordered so much food it was disgusting. The food was really good, but I was really looking forward to a wonderful dessert. I have been starting to crave chocolate the last few weeks and I put off having any dessert until our anniversary dinner. I was SO disappointed in their dessert selections. There was NO chocolate cake option or anything similar to that. I don't like cheesecake, I rarely eat carrot cake unless I make it myself, bread pudding would have been too heavy and there was only chocolate moose as the chocolate option. Very disappointing. We ended up getting mixed berries with custard, which was yummy, but not at all what I was craving.

So after dinner we did go out for a little bit and we were home by 10:45. Pretty early night even though it felt super late. We slept in until about 7:45 (which felt very late) and did some things around the house before I picked Samuel up. It was absolutely so wonderful to have an evening off and at home without Samuel around. It felt like a whole weekend. Both Dave and I kept thinking it was Sunday yesterday because we were so relaxed.

Samuel had so much fun at his Aunt and Uncles. They fixed him dinner, played all night, made breakfast and then took him to the park. He was in such a good mood when I picked him up and he continued to be in a great mood all day. We raked leaves outside when we got home and he ran and played so much he was soaking in sweat. By noon he totally passed out in the car on our way home from lunch. Speaking of lunch, since I was craving dessert we went to Cheesecake Factory, so I could get a huge piece of their chocolate cake. We ate salads and then we took my dessert home. It took me all day to finish the entire piece of cake. I think I am done with cake though. It tasted great, but I think my craving was completely satisfied. Therefore no more cake for me.

I have to figure out what we are going to have for breakfast. Have a great Sunday. It is going to be beautiful here. In the high 70s, crazy for November.

Our 5th Anniversary

Today Dave and I are celebrating our 5th Anniversary. I really can't believe that 5 years have gone by already. I still remember my wedding day. Although I was completely stressed out and going nuts before the actual ceremony, once I walked down the aisle everything was bliss. I want another wedding. Maybe at some point we will renew our vows.

I don't normally like to be sappy and mushy but I feel so lucky to have married Dave. He is my best friend, an amazing husband and an even better father.

We are going out tonight for dinner and then we have a free evening. Hip Hip Hooray. Jonathan and Laura are going to watch Samuel and then he is going to spend the night over at their house. That is the best anniversary gift. Because Dave and I are so lame, we think we will probably just go to dinner and then come home. We don't have very many nights where we can relax at home without a crazy boy running around non-stop. We are so excited.

Here are a few pictures of us over the years (I would have added more but Samuel is up now):

Detroit vs. Cardinals World Series:
A wedding in Maine:

On our honeymoon:

Samuel is 20 months today. He has grown so quickly. I can't believe how fast the months have flown by.

So Charisa posted on her blog around Halloween that Vaughn was really into wearing sunglasses lately. Well, I showed Samuel the pictures of Vaughn and ever since he has been crazy about wearing his sunglasses, but only in the car. Today he put them on in the back seat and then started grooving to the music. I got a few videos of him dancing. He either moves his head or tries to shake his hips when he is dancing. It is just hard to do both of those in the car.

Celebration

To the best parents, Happy 33rd Anniversary.