Home and Relaxing

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We started off our holiday in Kansas City. We ate lots of food and then Samuel and I headed to Tulsa last Sunday. We spent the week in Tulsa. Tuesday night Jonathan and Laura came in town and then Dave arrived on Wednesday morning. We hung out all week, ate lots of food and just relaxed. I didn't change 1 poopy diaper the entire week. Dave also didn't have to give Samuel 1 bath. We were so lazy and it was much needed.

Samuel had a great time running around, playing in the leaves and getting all the attention.

We drove back to St. Louis on Saturday and continued our relaxation yesterday. I am now on the hunt for good deals and trying to do lots of holiday shopping. I just bought some stuff off of Amazon and now I am looking for baby sheets and decoration stuff for the new baby.

I have truly popped out, that is my belly. Now everywhere I go people notice that I am pregnant. I am starting to get a little uncomfortable. I only have 9 and a half weeks to go. I can't believe it. The time has really flown by.

I have lots of pictures below so enjoy:

I am delivering sweets to SSM Health because they bought my monthly desserts at the Woman's Place auction. I would love to have a sweets business, so if anyone is interested in getting homemade desserts let me know. Sweets by Sarah, the first dessert that was delivered: Homemade Carrot Cake with Butter Cream Frosting.

Taylor and Samuel had another craft day a few weeks ago and they made turkey hands. Here Samuel is in action:

Still loves sunglasses:

Samuel loves to get on Jonathan's shoulders:

A cute picture of Samuel and Laura, too bad Samuel has a mouth full of food:

The entire family in Kansas City:

Everybody is completely focused on Samuel. He better enjoy it while it lasts:

In Tulsa, eating oatmeal and blueberries, one of his favorite breakfast meals:

Leave playing with Savta:

Loves the shoulders:

Eating Taco Bueno, even Samuel loves the bean burrito:

Playing at the park:

Samuel's favorite part of Thanksgiving meal was the black olives:

Yummy food:

Resting up after the big meal in Savta and Papa's bed:

Laura and Samuel:

We actually didn't get any good pictures of Samuel with Dave and I. I guess we need to try to do that soon.

Holiday Goodness

On Saturday we went to Kansas City for an early Thanksgiving. The entire family in Kansas City, Tulsa and St. Louis were all there. I don't really remember the last time we were all together, so it was really nice. The food tasted so yummy and it started off my continuing food consumption early. I will try to post pictures later.

Samuel and I are now in Tulsa. We drove in yesterday and Samuel was a complete wild man all afternoon. I think he was sick of being stuck in the car for two days. We went on a walk yesterday evening and Samuel would not have anything to do with his stroller. So he ended up walking about a half of a mile. I finally had to wrestle him in his stroller because he wanted to keep walking, but he was so tired he was falling all over the place. The great part of him walking and running around is that was so exhausted by the evening. It is now 9 am and he is still asleep. I think another long walk is in the cards for this afternoon.

The best part about being in Tulsa right now is that George is not with us. I know it is really mean of me to say, but I am completely sick of her lately. For the past two weeks all she does every day is bark at me. She wakes up in the morning and starts barking. When I am eating breakfast, feeding Samuel, playing with Samuel, doing anything around the house and not petting her or paying attention she is barking. Not only is Samuel wearing me out, but so is George. I needed a break from her.

I am really excited about relaxing this week. I plan to eat lot of food, do some serious shopping, finish Dave's stocking and just relax.

The week is finally over

I have been pretty busy this week even though I felt like it took forever for this week to end. I had a doctor appointment on Wednesday. I have gained 23 pounds so far. I think that is pretty good for me. I feel huge and uncomfortable, but I really don't think I will reach the 48 pounds I gained with Samuel. Who knows though because the holidays are now here. The heartbeat for the baby ranged from 140 to 150. I still have no idea about a boy or girl. I can't wait for February to find out.

Speaking of the holidays, I baked all the cookies, pumpkin bread and fudge. It all looks so good. I can't wait to dig in tomorrow.

Only a couple more hours before I see New Moon. I can't wait. I will let you all know how it is, if anyone is interested. Dave and Samuel left about 30 minutes ago to head to Justin and Charisa's to hang out for a little while. Since they left I have cleaned up the kitchen and vacuumed the entire house. It is amazing how fast I can get things done when no one is around. I am going to get dressed and ready for my night out.

I think I have had about 3 nights out by myself since Samuel has been born. That is just super depressing. Dave and I have gone out together, but I haven't gone out really by myself. I could go on and on about the reasons, but I will get into that another day. I am way to excited to be FREE tonight.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Lots to do

I have had a pretty busy week this week. I have had appointments and more appointments. Today I have another doctor's appointment and I am pretty sure I gained at least 10 pounds since my last appointment. Everything has grown. My boobs are HUGE, my belly is getting bigger and my butt and legs have expanded beyond belief. I know I will get some type of lecture about my eating habits if I gained 10 pounds, but I am not worried about it. I have been eating really pretty healthy and exercising a lot, so whatever amount I gain it is because I need to.

I have a continuing legal education phone seminar this afternoon. I am hoping to run to the gym this morning, so I can also shower. Then I have errands to run before my CLE starts at 12.

I love John Mayer and his new cd came out this week, so I need to run and get that. What I am most looking forward to this week is my night out on Friday. I don't remember the last time I had a night out. Dave is going to be taking Samuel and I am going with Laura and my friend Cara to the movie New Moon. I am so excited I can't stand it. I know there will be tons of little teenage girls there and we will probably be the oldest there, that is not chaperoning their child, but I don't care. I am so excited.

Also on Friday I need to bake bake bake. We are going to Kansas City just on Saturday to have a Thanksgiving with my grandparents. I am baking a pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies and some fudge. I love this time of year and all the baking. All of those recipes shouldn't take too long to make. They are all very easy.

Have a great Wednesday.

Sleeping In

Before we had Samuel, we could sleep in until 9 at least, no problem. Then when we had Samuel at first we weren't sleeping at all and sleeping in was 5 am or 6 am. Samuel finally became a wonderful sleeper and normally sleeps until 7 or later. It is now 8:15 and he is still asleep and as you can see I am up. I have actually been up for the last hour and a half, wide awake. Why can't I sleep in? I really wish I could enjoy sleeping and relaxing in my bed, but once I start to stir, I can't stop thinking about things. I start thinking about what I need to do for the day, what we need to do for the house, are we going to sell our house, where are we going to move, what I am I going to buy for the baby room, what do I need to get done for the day, anyway the list goes on and on and I can't stop. It has been back this last week because I have been waking up and needing to go to the bathroom at around 5 and then I can't go back to sleep.

Last night we hung out with Charisa, Justin, Vance and Vaughn. Dave and I desperately needed a night out where we had adult time. The evening went by way too quickly for us. Samuel had a blast and ran and followed everything that Vance did. Samuel and ran after Vance so much that he broke out in a sweat. He fell asleep on the way home from their house and then didn't even move when we transferred him to his bed. So nice!

I spoke too soon. He is up. Dave is going to deal with him though. It is nice to have a weekend.

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.

Advice

Yesterday I made delicious vanilla chocolate chip pancakes, got myself a peppermint mocha from Starbucks and made very yummy homemade chicken and barley soup. It was all an attempt to make me feel better about myself.

Here is the story:

Monday I had a great day. Samuel was in Mother's Day Out and I got a lot of stuff done for myself and around the house. I went to pick Samuel up a little bit early because I had gotten so much stuff done and I was excited to see him. When I walked up to the classroom door to get him, a mom was picking up her daughter. I obviously have seen the mom before. She is very pregnant and I knew she was having her baby pretty soon and her daughter is the cutest in the class. Plus I noticed before that Samuel always goes to this little girl and plays with her and hugs her. Well, when I walked up the mom gave me a really mean look and I was pretty confused. When I asked the teachers how Samuel did that day, they said that there was an incident. They said that Samuel bit that little girl (Olivia). The mom with the little girl were leaving right when they told me, but I immediately turned around and looked at her and he bit her on the left cheek. It was still really red. I apologized to the mom and asked if there was anything I could do. She responded very snippy that I couldn't do anything because she was having a baby on Thursday and she is really concerned about her daughter now since supposedly Samuel bit her around 11:30 in the morning and her face was still pretty red.

The teachers in the classroom said that he didn't break the skin. They said that Samuel is always trying to kiss and hug Olivia and no other kids in the class. They thought that he was trying to kiss her again but he bit her.

I am totally horrified. Samuel used to try to kiss everyone, but I would say in the last few months that completely slowed down and even stopped. We usually hang out with his friend Taylor and I don't even remember the last time he tried to kiss her. The teachers think that he was trying to kiss her and she tried to pull away and he didn't really know what he was doing when he bit her. Regardless of the circumstances, it is terrible that he bit another kid and totally out of his character. He is never aggressive or at least when I am around he isn't aggressive with other kids.

So, they had to write up his behavior and they said they would continue to watch him. He knew he did something wrong because he was really quite when we left. He never lets me hold him when we were walking to the car, but he didn't even attempt for me to put him down. He was really quite on the ride home and I was in an instant depression.

I called the pediatrician as soon as I got home to get advice on what to do. They said that I just need to keep watching him. They told me that I really couldn't discuss him biting or punish him in anyway now that he was home because he would have no idea what I was talking about. Since he has never bitten anyone before and because by the description of circumstances it wasn't because he was angry, they said it might just be an isolated incident.

I just can't believe that he did that. I felt terrible and because of the reaction of the other mother I really feel like a terrible mom. Like I did something wrong. I read all of my parenting books at home and we really have done and continue to do everything that they suggest doing for kids Samuel's age. I know he is testing his limits and we are being very strict about him following our rules. He responds to us telling him no and redirecting him. I just don't know what he is like when I am not around.

Anyway, I am feeling little bit better today. Has anyone had any issues with their kids biting? I need advice. I know he has only done it one time and I wasn't even around to discipline him, but I don't want it to happen again.

Long weekend and Halloween (Long Post)

We had a really long great weekend. So Samuel and I got to Tulsa on Wednesday. I am so happy with left on Wednesday because Thursday both Tulsa and St. Louis got so much rain. I would have been miserable driving by myself with Samuel and George for 6 hours. On our way up to Tulsa, Samuel and I stopped at Subway for lunch. He loves cheddar Sun Chips, but he will no long be getting those until he is much older. We were eating lunch enjoying our sandwiches and a few chips. Samuel took a small chip and started eating it and then he started gaging. His grabbed on to me and his face started turning red and he was grasping for air. I started banging on his back and it wasn't working, so I threw him over my legs and banged really hard on his back and then he started crying and the chip came out. I basically had a heart attack. When I looked up the restaurant (which was full) was all looking at us and I guess we was a nurse or doctor (she had a stethoscope around her neck) was right behind me. She asked if I was okay and I was fine at that point. Thank goodness there was a medical professional around just in case.

So I thought we needed to pack up and leave, but even though Samuel almost chocked to death, he wouldn't let me throw away his food. He proceeded to eat the rest of his sandwich and wanted to eat some of mine too. By the time we got back on the road, I was exhausted.

We finally got to Tulsa and relaxed on Wednesday night. On Thursday we didn't do too much because of the torrential downpour of rain.

On Friday, my dad took off work and he and Samuel carved a pumpkin. Samuel had no idea what was going on at first and was so scared to put his hand in the pumpkin, but once he did, we couldn't get his hands out of it. Once we got all the stuff out of the pumpkin, Samuel put it back in so he could take it out again. Over all he did a great job and loved it. Now he won't stop saying pumpkin.

On Saturday, my Dad and I did the 5K Tulsa Run (my mom did the 15K). I had initially wanted to do the 15K, but I am so happy I didn't. I was tired after the 5K, plus there was a really big hill at the end which wore me out.

After the Tulsa Run we went to Boohaha which is an event on Cherry Street in Tulsa where all the businesses give out candy to kids in the early to late afternoon and then they have a big Halloween parade. We missed the candy part, but we hit up the parade. Once Samuel woke up from his nap he really enjoyed watching all the crazy people during the parade.

Halloween night was a blast. Samuel loved his costume and did not want to take it off. Plus he loved holding his basket. He carried it around the whole neighborhood. After the first house, he knew exactly what to do to get candy. He was doing a pretty good job of saying trick or treat. It was really cute and I can't wait for next year already. It is going to be even more fun.

Yesterday we headed home, which was sad because we had a great time in Tulsa.

Oh one last thing. We are pretty sure Samuel said his first curse word this weekend. Samuel had been eating in the kitchen and my mom gave him his cup. I asked her if it was his juice or milk. She said it was his juice. I said "Well, you should have given him the milk." Samuel looked at her with a look like, yeah what were you thinking. Then he looked at his cup with juice and threw it on the floor and said "Fuck".

Now, we all think we heard him say exactly that. He used it in the proper context and everything. I know that I now need to really start watching my language.

Here are a lot of pictures below:

He preferred to eat the pumpkin at first:
What is inside?

Checking to make sure it is okay for him to put his hand in:

Finished product:

Getting ready for the Tulsa Run:

Running...
Shaving with his Papa:

He feel asleep on the way to the parade:
Up and enjoying and the parade:

Getting ready to go Trick or Treat:

Heading out the door:

Walking to the first house:

Heading home: