12 months of the year

Alright, so I hate this program, after fighting with it to make my font the right size, it deleted my entire text, which was long... so here's a brief synopsis of what I had typed originally:

My kid is amazing, blah blah. I thought I would get 4 outfit changes this weekend while at Adam's coworker's house (she was taking pics of her dad's dog for a calendar) so Adam and I took Ballpark and Ares along. Ares let us get 12, TWELVE TWELVE!! outfit changes in. Pants, shoes, shirts, onesies... etc AMAZING KID! We had a great time, Christine's kids even rocked and sang Ares to sleep, he actually fell asleep in their arms (ages 10 and 6) it was soo cute, and SOO helpful!!!

Adam went to the Browns game tonight with my dad and my dad's best friend. He said they had a great time, (froze their butts off) but had a good time. They knew the end result before the game even started, so they weren't disappointed that they lost. As Adam said, I knew the only thing we'd win would be the coin toss! =)

These pictures are in the opposite order they were taken, so Xmas was last, and February (see the dog's Hugh Hefner outfit) went first. We learned that Ballpark fits into build a bear clothes! haha! I still need to crop some of these pics, but here's the basic idea. Let me know if anyone wants some printed out. Grandma/Papa, if you want to view them larger, just click on each picture. Adam took them with his "new" camera, so they should get MUCH bigger if you click. He took 225 pictures, so if you want a nice one with just Ares, and no ballpark, then we can get you that one too.

Christmas

This has been one heck of a week!

First, Ares is the perfect child. What kid lets you put them to bed late (by 2 hours), and then lets you wake him up after 2 hours to go Black Friday shopping? We took Ares to Toys'R'Us with us. We didnt' get there until midnight, so we only waited in the 1/4 mile long line to get in for about 15 minutes. We found the stuff we wanted fairly quickly (we were only shopping for the inner-city Cleveland kid that we're helping for Christmas) and waited in line for about 1.5 hours. The entire time, Ares had his finger in his mouth and talked to the people around us. SO. Freaking. Cute!

My mom and I went to Target/Walmart @ 4:30am (this is tradition for us to get up early) and I left the baby to sleep in with Adam. I didn't spend anything on us, pretty much just on our sponsor kid except for a few scrapbooking things for me. We took breakfast back, let Adam go to work, and then took the baby out shopping again. I sooo love my kid! His schedule was so messed up this past weekend, yet he still took it in stride.

I'm halfway finished with my "project". Each "thing" takes me about 2 hours to do. So in the end, this whole gift is going to be an entire day's worth of work. (24 hrs). Crazy! I'm pleased with it thus far though.

EYE UPDATE: I went to the eye dr again on Monday, he says things are looking good. We did a regular eye exam, and he says "I bet you could see better without your glasses than you can with them". Boy was he right! I told him that I'd never been able to see with those glasses, and I'd only had them for about 2 months! Well, it turns out, that I don't need glasses. or contacts. at. all. So I've put so much money into these glasses that this other dr. said I needed, and in fact, I don't need them at all! I love the fact that I can see again =) I've got about 12 BOXES of unused contacts (with 6 contacts in each box). I wonder if I can sell them, they were freakin' expensive to buy too!

I can't wait to show you all my project! I hope to finish it this week. I have Friday off, so I should in theory be able to work on it then.

The only thing really on my Christmas list is use of one of the personal trainers here at work. We are fortunate to have a full gym here, and I want to hire a trainer to get my butt back into shape. They're only $16 for 1/2 hour session, which is a really good price ($24 for 45 minutes). Adam wants tons of camera stuff. I have a list, just ask when your ready =)

Happy soon to be long weekend!

I don't think I've been as excited for a long weekend as I am today. There's not a whole lot going on, typical Thanksgiving stuff tomorrow, Schmidt family at Aunt Nancy's, Walter's family for dessert at Grandma's. Friday is crazy black friday shopping, but Adam works all day, so I'm going to have to get Ares in and out of the car seat each store, and probably carry him, perhaps I'll bring the child carrier, he likes that.
My in-laws are coming in to town too, which is very exciting, but they'll only be here for a day, and I guess chocolate making too.
Tonight and tomorrow I have to finish putting up my Holiday things. Outside is nearly complete, and inside, well, I haven't realized how much stuff I have! Our house is so tiny, but I have enough holiday decorations for a mansion! I think we might put up our tree this year. We haven't put one up since we got Ballpark, and we don't really have room for one, nor will we be home for Christmas, but I think the baby would probably like it. (Not to mention, I miss having one up and it might make for some good pictures.)

I've decided that I'm going to try and find some more pairs of ROBEEZ shoes for Ares. I can't believe how expensive they are, but 1) he keeps them on his feet. ALL DAY! and 2) they're shoes that Adam will actually put on him. So if I can't win any on ebay, I'm off to the store to spend twice as much on his shoes as I do mine!

Thanksgiving
Things I am grateful for (Thanks Nicole, I've shamelessly stolen ideas from your blog=)

My son-

I never realized how much my life was missing until we had Ares. He is such a fun little kid, and I love having him around. I think we'll keep him *grin*

Family-

This year would have been so different (not to mention difficult) without our families. My side, for baby sitting often, Adam's side for taking Ares into their room on some difficult teething nights when we were visiting so we could get a full nights sleep for once. Grandparents, aunts, cousins and everyone, we are SO FORTUNATE.

My Husband-

For, without him, I wouldn't have my son. (OK, kidding, there's way too much that I'm thankful for to even type on this blog. ) I guess, I'm also grateful that he is such a great father and a great husband and he washes dishes =)

Facebook

my "fake" home

my eyesight

friends, their advice and the use of their baby things =)

miniature daschunds named "Ballpark"

My great core group of friends. All 18 of ya!

milk shakes

the Browns being so bad, I no longer waste Sundays watching football

Having a good job

the Internet

Walmart

Gimp - (photo editing program)

Target diapers

Sorority sisters

a late winter this year

My warm bed

"Monster" (My SUV)

My dear son's laugh and smile

all of the TV shows I miss because I spend time with the fam.

DVR's, so I can catch up

Sangria

for people reading this, because it took a long time

Sharing

My dear, dear son has learned the art of sharing. Sharing his cold, that is. I have now added sudafed to my plethora of medications I'm taking - for my eyes (which are no better, mind you). I can not read anything on my laptop, which makes it difficult to work. At least when I type, there's spell check, but reading other people's emails and reports deems fairly difficult. I sure hope this goes away. Adam and I have noticed in the past two days that my left eye is starting to get lazy. This is starting to scare me, as that's my really good eye!

Yesterday was my birthday. It was nice. All I wanted was a weekend to scrapbook without having to constantly worry about Ares, so that's what my hubby gave me. Dec 19/20 I'm scrappin' baby! How exciting! I'm sure I need 6 or 7 weekends to get all I need to finish, finished, but I'll take a weekend. Thanks babydoll!
For those of you who aren't on Facebook, I've got new pictures. Some of you have probably already seen them.

Here, my mom had him in his PJ's and ready to go when I picked him up

on Wednesday. I got home right before Adam, and had Ares sitting in the

foyer waiting, because we get the best smiles when he sees daddy for the first time.

Here, it seems he likes Ballpark better though, haha.

An interesting camera angle that Adam came up with.

Bath time is always the best time for Ares. If you want to see him

at his prime, throw him in the tub and let him splash.

Teefers

OK, I'd like to apologize right now if there are hundreds of misspellings today. I am as blind as a bat right now, and glasses don't work. After two months of fighting with my eyes, I went to a different eye doctor (one who's actually ON my plan) and found out that I have some kind of cold virus in my eyes from the last time I was sick (I don't even remember when that was). Anyhow, it caused lesions on my eyes and then something about white blood cells infiltrating and blah blah blah I can't see. It's a bit frustrating, as when I drive, I can't even tell the make or model of the vehicle in front of me, nor can I read a license plate. Hopefully I don't witness any kind of accident where I have to testify (although, chances are VERY good that I wouldn't even be a witness as I can't see anything). So I saw him on Saturday, (2 days ago) and I have to go back today. Hopefully the drops and oral antibiotics he put me on are starting to fix the issue (although, I can't see any better).

Ares is starting to get some teeth up top now. He was a little fussy yesterday, but nothing that was unmanageable. He just wanted to be held... by his daddy of course.

Saturday was so nice. I had my eye dr, and Adam started the running around for our wine party that we held that night. He also got a call from a guy who was selling his super long camera lens (that's my technical description) for his camera for $150, (guess that was a great price). That night, our house was immaculate, and we had 18 people over. The wine party was a great success, and I think everyone had fun. We certainly did. Ares slept through ALL of it. What a great kid I have!

Sunday morning was still around 60 degrees, so I started putting up my Christmas lights outside. I put up the candy cane lights, just so I could get the distance correct on the stakes, and then I kept the stakes in the took the candy canes down so it's not too tacky so early. I must have done 10 strands of lights, plus 4 or 5 "strands" of candy canes. Today, the Hollywood Christmas Movieland museum opened up, so we drove the hour to go view it. Impressive, I must say. Adam and I didn't go last year, so it was incredible to see all of the different movie costumes and sets. Unfortunately, Adam and I hadn't seen most of the movies that were there, although, they are very popular.

My weekends

I have decided to start weight watchers again. I just want to get back to my pre-preg. weight. (Lies, I'd LOVE to lose more!!) I want to be able to wear my old clothes, however, I'm not sure how successful I can be. Our weekends are starting to be CRAZY now.

This weekend starts Friday with a reunion with old coworkers, Saturday is a wine party with friends, Sunday is a trip out to the Hollywood Christmas Movieland museum. Next weekend is (Friday) dinner at the Melting Pot, and Saturday is the Cav's game. The following weekend is Thanksgiving, and my in-laws are coming up to visit (usually go to Melt, and we have to get to the Great Harvest Bread Co), and then comes December, that's always bad. I will try my best, but I sense a difficult time. Somewhere in between then is my birthday, but we'll ignore that this year. 29 seems very old to me. Older than 30 in fact. Perhaps it's t he "9" part. *shrug*.


My mom took him to the mall yesterday to help set up the Christmas Movieland museum, and took some photo ops. I can't wait till he gets more hair. I swear the kid looks like one of those trolls that you rub his head for good luck. his head looks so big! haha.

Yikes!

So Ares is sick. It sucks. Adam had the baby all weekend because I was out of town on our girls' weekend, and he was great on Saturday, but Sunday and today have been terrible. He has cried both days, all day. today, other than 2 short naps and bottle times, he has cried and cried and cried. Loud, I'm-in-pain cries. He couldn't go to day-care because of his fever and while Adam and I have never minded changing diapers before, we find ourselves saying "I got the last one, you get this one" often. EW. They. Are. Bad.

Saturday Ares and Adam brewed beer at the Gallo's house, and then went to a Halloween party for kids where they had a hay ride and games. He was so good on that day. I went with my mom, both grandma's, 3 aunts, a cousin, my great "aunt" all of her daughters, and one of their daughters. We went to Erie PA, to a haunted hotel (which is really a bed and breakfast / dinner theater place). It's always a good time, and at midnight we had a seance to conjure up some spirits. (we only asked for good spirits though, and none came). Some of the girls thought they saw spirits in pictures while we walked down the haunted hallway.

Sunday is when Ares got sick. Poor daddy tried everything in the book, thinking that he was teething again. It wasn't until late afternoon when his diapers turned bad that we realized that he's really sick. He slept almost 13 hours for us last night, going to bed at 6pm. I went in to work as usual this morning, just to be called back home. At least I got to bring my laptop back with me to get some work done.

The REALLY sucky part is that it's almost 70 degrees outside! it's the middle of November. Adam went for a short bike ride, but I've been in the house all day. at least the sliding glass door is open =)

Tons of pictures. We had fun today =)

Happy Halloween-Eve

This pic looks awful, but here's what he went to day-care as. Stewie Griffin from Family Guy.

Two more pics

Grandma (GG) Walters just celebrated her 75th birthday this past weekend. There was an impromptu party for her. Fortunately for our little Ares, my mom's mom and dad's mom grew up together, and even though my mom's parents are separated, they still talk and get along, so (way long story short), all of Ares' Great Grandparents on my side were together at once! This also happened on Father's day, but I forgot to take pictures then.