No Birthday Gifts

All of these Christmas gifts, and he plays with the dog's collar.

(Oh, and this isn't even everything!)

My kid is spoiled... and that is why he will not get any Birthday gifts.

I must admit, I spent less than $30 on him this year, so I blame Grandma, and Grandma, and Great Grandma, and Great Grandma, and Great Grandma and "G.G".

Wouldn't it be great if I got my left handed pitcher and a home-run hitter? Right now, he crawls around the living room with his new baseball bat. Never mind the ball on the tee that he's supposed to it, he prefers to hit the dog's bell... and my ice cube Christmas decorations.... and my toe.

CHEERS! Happy New Year!

"Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring". - St. Catherine of Sienna

I don't think I appreciated my sorority's motto as much back in school as I do now. I now realize, that this motherhood thing is going to get tougher, not easier. I must admit, I stole this from a magazine I read 3 years ago, and I've kept it this whole time, because I know myself and my temperament. Soooo... here is my New Year's Resolution.

"I want to be quiet and listen to my child, to allow him to take his time and not rush him to finish his task, and to not get mad when he does things his way, not my "adult" way. I want to enjoy life with my child and fully experience each moment."

... and to lose some more weight.

....OK, and for OSU to finally win a bowl game!

Sasquach

I'm pretty sure I spelled that title wrong, eh well. You get the point. I forgot to show this earlier, I just got this from my kid's school. They did this before Christmas but forgot to give it to us because we picked him up early on Monday unexpectedly. Are these feet huge or what?!


Grandpa and Ares had a great time sliding down the stairs, over and over and over again. I forgot to mention on the last post that another Christmas surprise (more for mommy and daddy) was that Ares now has his own room at Grandma & Grandpa Miller's house. It's all decked out in Monkey and Frogs, it's VERY cool, and VERY VERY nice to not have to share a room with him =)

Happy HO-HO and a Merry New Year!

So I often type long drawn out posts, and this is no exception, sorry. Sunday night we moved out of our house. OK, so not really, but we did get rid of our big dining room table (that was in our living room). We had already moved our china cabinet to my parents house a couple of months ago so we could have room for the baby's new toys, and now we had to do it again. Soon, there will be no place to sit unless you sit on a toy that squeaks, in a baby thing (high chair, jumparoo, scooter/car) or on a toy box. We had spent the last week in Cincinnati visiting family. Ares celebrated his first Christmas this year.

We celebrated on the 20th with my parents and some grandparents. Ares didn't really get what was going on, so he pretty much just ate paper. Grandma Venus did better than I was expecting. He got lots of toys, but he didn't get spoiled any more than I was when I was young.

Cinci was a different story altogether. He was grasping the whole, rip-the-paper-and-hear-a-cool-noise thing. The opened a good majority of his gifts, but after, say, 15 of them, the novelty was gone. I have to say it's a great thing that we only have 3 people in our family (plus a tiny dog), because we needed every inch of our 8 passenger SUV! He got so many things! His grandparents (and great grandparents... don't think that you guys are going to be left out Grandma and Papa Jim) got him SOOO much stuff! Clothes, toys, balls, ice cream bowls (so he can be just like Grandma Jean), stuffed animals. Our kid had the best week ever! His favorite thing down in Cinci was a simple ball. Probably the size of a dodge ball, this kid just crawls around and pushes it.

We were in Cinci for 6 days, and it was so wonderful. For the first time in a long time, we got to relax. Usually our trips down there are so fast and furious, we're more tired when we get home. This week was so enjoyable, we got to see lots of family, eat some great food (I gained 3 lbs!)

At my mom's house, on Sunday (27th) we celebrated Christmas with the Schmidt family. He got some new shoes, a few toys, and a RadioFlyer wagon that my grandpa fixed up for him. It looks BRAND NEW! Of course, his favorite thing to play with was the giant green exercise ball, he crawled around hitting it, sometimes with his hands, sometimes with his head. When he's using his head, sometimes it looks like he's competing in some goofy obstacle course or Japanese game show. Silly boy.

Copyright infringement?

Uhhhh, yeah, so the "things" I had been working for months on was finally "finished". Adam goes to Walmart to pick them up, and they were not printed due to a copyright infringement. I spent two hours for each freakin' month, putting this calendar together of Ares and Braeden, and it is not getting printed... I will, somehow get this thing together, I'm just not quite sure how yet.... I do know, however, that this whole project has officially beaten me. I will never do it again.

Karma?

I hope I don't offend anyone with this post. There is nothing I hate more than little kids with mohawks. My entire life, it actually makes me mad when I see their hair cut like that - poor kid. Makes me think the parents are white trash. The reason for the rant, is because, I have kid, whom I love very much, that has grown a mohawk.

This hair - about 4" wide, and bare on the sides... both sides... This, in my own definition, makes me white trash. Wonderful. If his hair stays like this, he will forever wear a hat.

So now we are collecting hats. When I was in junior high and high school, I collected baseball caps, all different sports, all different teams. I guess this kid's collection starts young.

Enjoy the video, he's super cute!

Honey... I'm HoOme!

I apologize, this will be long. But as much as this is for others to read, it's also a good way to document our lives in an online diary.

So while a good majority of my coworkers went to Austin or NYC to watch their Sales Reps give their TSP's, I was lucky to go to Scranton. SCRANTON... woo hoo. Here would be a good place to put an Office joke, but I haven't watched the show, sorry. There's not much in Scranton. In fact, most of the bars close at 11. Even the hotel bar. The second night, someone complained though, and they stayed open until 2AM. By 2AM, I wished they closed at 11. My reps, well, they know how to have a good time, and they know how to make everyone around them have a good time. I ate well and drank better, and I am grateful that it was only a 3 day thing. Fortunately, I knew when to stop, so I woke up on time, sober (for the most part), and not sick.


The best thing about leaving town is coming back to town (more about that later). Sunday (before I left for ScrAnton) I went to our girl's Christmas party. The same large group of girls that went to the dinner theater last month. My aunts, and grandma, grandma's best friend (aunt jeanette) and her daughters. The girls. We have fun. I brought Ares because he's never met the whole group. He. Was. Perfect. This is probably the only kid you can mess up his nap schedule, travel all over the place and still be smiling. He was an equal opportunity lover. He gave every single person the attention they wanted, he smiled, laughed, played with people's faces, let them feed him. It made it that much harder to leave Monday morning at 6am.... but I digress.


This weekend I got so sick with the flu, so I didn't spend much time around the baby. I missed him, and by the time I got home from Scranton, all I wanted to do was hold him. Well, for the first time, I got a HUGE hug. He wrapped his arms around me (so he got as much as my arms in) and dug his face into my neck. It was THE BEST! Of course, I had to ruin it by putting him down and running to use the bathroom, and he cried instantly. But then I got him again, and all was good in the world. Maybe my little boy will be a mama's boy after all! I am not sure what is best, hearing that squeal/laugh or getting a huge hug like I did.


OH, and today he started saying "mom". Well, it sounds more like "mum", but he kept saying it! He skipped the "mama" and went straight to "mum".


And finally, I think I might have my left handed pitcher. He now plays fetch with the dog, for up to 10 minutes at a time. =)

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

My kid just made a liar out of me. I was in the kitchen, and he was playing with his toys in the living room. I moved from the stove to the sink and almost stepped on him. How did he do that!?! He crawled 15 feet!

Graduation

My kid isn't crawling... still. He can't pull himself up, he doesn't clap his hands, he likes to play, and he likes to make dinosaur noises. *r0aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh*

Where in this does it sound like he's ready to advance to the next classroom? I'm not quite sure he's *coughmecough* ready to be in the next classroom.

Perhaps the older kids will teach him how to crawl forward?