Crib Solutions

Remember the woes of our poor crib? Its only gotten worse. Now Sam is gnawing pieces of wood out of the crib. At least he is getting some extra fiber in his diet. At this point I am pretty sure it is a deliberate act of defiance because when I go in to his room to get him after his nap, all I have to do is point to the freshly gnawed wood and he instantly starts crying and burrows his head into my shoulder. Anyways, I decided it was time for action. After perusing a lot of fabric, I couldn't quite find what I wanted. It was either too thick, too heavy, too light or not the right shade. My type A side likes it when things are matchy matchy. The other night I had an epiphany! What if I used a few of the receiving blankets that coordinate with Sam's bedding. Receiving blankets are soft and cute, but lets face it, they are useless when it comes to swaddling. I'll follow this up later with a detailed step-by-step instruction guide. Right now, Sam's awake. Gotta run!

Happy Baby.

Sam is so cute sometimes I can hardly stand it. That sweet toothy smile melts my heart every time. I also get flutters when I see his cute baby fat, but thats a whole other issue.

Last night the little cutie was playing with my cell phone and climbing all over Pedro while I practiced some songs on the piano. Apparently, he called my mom. She heard him breathing and talking in the background. Neither Pedro or I realized it until my mom called this morning to tell us. Oops. Good thing we have those weekend minutes.

That furry white thing in my hand is Sam's best friend Mr. Mousey. He loves him! Anytime we need to cheer him up or make him laugh, we get out Mr. Mousey. Sam has been sick with a cold and a little cranky so Mr. Mousey was giving him a tickle attack.

Our yard

Our yard needs work. A LOT of work. When we moved in, we had green grass, but no landscaping to speak of. Now, we don't even have the green grass thanks to the county insisting that we hook in to the public water system. Here is our yard in ALL its glory.

It's depressing and yet exciting. After all, it is a blank canvas.

While I'm at it, here's what I see when I turn to my left.
I can't think of anything nice to say. Honestly! I want to shout out my door "If you can afford to drive a Mercedes SUV you can afford to have someone come get your BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes Sedan(its further up the drive, I couldn't squeeze it into the picture.) Heck, they would probably even pay you for the scrap metal. And while you're at it, maybe you can give away some of the bags of leaves as a free gift with purchase."

Organization

We bought this great CUBEical for Sam's room at Target. It was on sale. I wanted something to keep his toys in besides the giant blue plastic rubbermaid bin we've been using. I was excited when this and the cloth bins went on sale. I think it looks great in his room.

Flashback Friday(on Saturday)

I haven't posted in a while. It's been a busy week and Sam has had a cold. I think I'm starting to get it thanks to all the sneezes and snot that has dripped all over me. Yummy. Anyways, here is one of my fav pictures of Sam at 6 weeks. We had just moved into our house.

Crib Protectors

I wish we had known about these before Sam started destroying his crib earlier this week. I also wish I had known that I wouldn't be able to buy one in ANY of our local stores and would have to resort to either purchasing online or driving 45 minutes to the "big" city. SERIOUSLY? Are you telling me I have the only child that chews on his crib in this area? Because I refuse to believe that! I don't want to wait 7-10 business days for shipping. I need to take care of this now. Before our crib is a pile of sawdust on the floor. I think this calls for a trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics and some sewing.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

See this picture?
I had planned to take several more. Under the bib was a green t-shirt Sam's grandma got him that said "Mom's Official Cookie Tester." Perfect for today. Then Samson threw up all over himself and me. So much for the cute green outfit. I found a second green outfit for Sam. While I was getting myself into a clean shirt and pants, Sam threw up again. (He slept 12 hours again last night and must have been so hungry this morning that he overate.) Ok, on to outfit number three. One last shirt with some green in it. I said a silent prayer that Sam wouldn't throw up again. Then we were out the door, on our way to church for the Mom's Group. I put Sam in the nursery and headed to the conference room for some much needed time with adult women. 40 minutes later I was summoned to the nursery. Sam had peed through his clothing. He was fussing and squirming so much they couldn't get clean clothes on him. I guess its going to be one of those days. I think I'll eat some cheesecake for lunch.....and wash it down with a huge chunk of chocolate. And while I do that, enjoy this cute picture that I took just before the great puke of '09.

He really showed us who's boss.

It seems like we "take two steps forward and two steps back" all the time. (Thanks Paula Abdul for that song.) Last night Sam slept for 12 hours straight without waking up. It was wonderful! I think the last time I slept so well was before I was pregnant. I even woke up at 5:45 and had to go to his room to make sure he was ok before I could fall back asleep. Usually Sam naps pretty well and it doesn't take long for him to fall asleep. He was put down for his morning nap at 9:30am today. He was pretty ticked off (because Daddy was still home) and cried for an hour before he finally fell asleep. During this process, I had to sit in the living room and listen to him throw his teethers out of the crib one by one. He finally fell asleep and slept for almost 2 hours. When he woke up, I walked into his room and saw THIS:

At first, I thought that Sam had puked or gotten snot all over his bed, but then I looked closer and realized that he had GNAWED and CHEWED the finish off his bed. AAAAHHHH!
He has SUCH a beautiful bed:

(Thanks Aunt Jill)
We love it because it will convert to a toddler bed and then a full size bed, but maybe not. Maybe he'll chew through it before his first birthday.

Project Floor Renovation '09

A couple weeks ago we decided to redo the flooring in our home. Tile for the entry, dining room and kitchen and wood laminate for the living room. So last week we bought tile. Yesterday we bought wood laminate. After pricing it at couple of stores, we found a carribean cherry flooring at Lowe's that we LOVED. Now we have ten boxes of it and 3 bags of underlay hanging out with the tile in our basement. The tile was lonely. It needed company.


Here is a close up of the flooring.

We are so excited about the new floor we can hardly stand it. White carpet, your days are numbered! Watch your back.

A Day with G.G.

G.G. came to visit us yesterday afternoon. She stayed the night and left this morning. We had a great time. I even helped G.G. set up a blog. She's a super hip grandma. She was using the internet long before I even knew what it was and even has two cell phones and a GPS.

Now G.G. is known for taking candid photos that usually make the subject look their worst. I'm not mean like that. So here is my favorite picture from G.G.'s visit.

We miss you already G.G. and can't wait till you migrate north again for the summer and fall.

Nine Months

My sweet little man was nine months on Monday. The time has flown by. I can't believe the difference in ALL of us. Check out the post below! Here he is with Pedro this morning:

Aren't my guys so handsome? We tried hard to get Sam to smile, but he was not interested. Oh well, maybe next time. We are off to the doctor this morning for a check-up and then G.G. is coming this afternoon so we'll have plenty of pictures to post over the weekend.

Until then, we love you all. Enjoy your weekend.

Flashback Friday

Last March, I looked like this:

I was 30 weeks pregnant. My face was getting round, my belly was getting round and my thighs were becoming thunderous. But the great thing about pregnancy is that by this point your belly is so big you aren't even aware that you have thighs, let alone feet. I was hot all the time, had to have assistance to put on my shoes, and forget about sleeping comfortably. A lot has happened in one year.

This March, we are the proud parents of THIS ROCKIN' LITTLE BOY:

He makes us laugh and smile constantly with the silly things he does and faces he makes. We love him more every day. He melts my heart every time he snuggles his little head into my shoulder or pats my face with his chubby little hand. He was worth every bloated, hormonal minute.

Out with the old

We have decided to redo all of the flooring in the living room, dining room and entry way of our house. Believe me, it REALLY needs it. REALLY. Its in bad shape and pretty ugly thanks to the fact that its been around since circa 1963. If you still don't believe me, here are the pictures to prove it.

Oh, and this is Sam. He'll be your tour guide today. Starting with the disgusting flagstone flooring in our entry. Its chipped, the grout is dirty and its just plain fug. Behind him you can see the worn out laminate flooring in the kitchen. It used to be white. Now its dingy gray. To his left is our fab new berber carpeting for the bedrooms and hallway.

See? We just love this carpet. So far we haven't even had to vacuum it. It hides everything. Just kidding about the vacuuming. Ignore the beat up trim and doors, that is a whole other project.

These next two pics show the current kitchen and dining room flooring.


Today we happened to find a tile that we loved at Menard's on sale, so we bought it. And now we have 18 boxes of "Castille Mocha" porcelain tile in our basement. I can't wait to redo the floors! Well, let me rephrase that, I can't wait for Pedro to redo our floors.

And in case you couldn't tell. It was made in the USA. We're doing our part to stimulate the economy.

As a bonus, we decided to look for a new light for the dining room. Our old one is HIDEOUS. Here it is laying on our garage floor looking pretty pathetic. Kevin stopped by to help unload tile and he and Pedro decided to swap out the lights. I ran to the hardware store with Sam to get light bulbs and by the time I got home Kevin and Pedro had already dismantled it before I could get a photo.


In case, you didn't notice it in the picture of our dining room earlier, here is our new light. The guys got it in so quickly. I don't know what we would do without Kevin around. With his help, Pedro is becoming an expert handyman.


Anyways, we love our new tile and dining room light. We'll keep you updated with the progress on the house. We have plenty of projects. Trust me.

Baby's First Burger

Samson was very interested in our burgers yesterday night at dinner. He tried to take a bite out of them a couple of times, but as soon as he would get a wiff of the onion, he would pull back with a disgusted look on his face. He also ate his very first french frie, but I didn't get any pictures of that.

Weekend Highlights.

Little man gets cuter every day.

This old horse

I love this "old" rocking horse. My Uncle John made this for me. When I was cleaning it up and getting it ready for Sam's room, I turned it over and saw "X-Mas '82" etched into the wood on the bottom. Its hard to believe my rocking horse is 27 years old and being used by the next generation. Despite the freaked out look and lack of smile, Sam really likes the rocking horse. I couldn't seem to catch any of his smiles or laughs on camera. (And don't worry, Pedro and I were standing there the whole time within arms reach to make sure he wouldn't fall off.) It also looks great with his bedroom furniture.

P.S. His room is a very soft green. It always looks white in pictures.

Daddy Time

What is it about men, recliners and remotes? Sam was happy as a clam sitting in the recliner with Daddy watching TV. And I'm pretty sure they were watching something on PBS or the Discovery Channel. I think it was a documentary about sharks. Both Sam and Pedro were fascinated by it. Sure, the discovery channel is interesting, but men get SO into it.

This picture is from about 2 months ago and Sam is much skinnier now. All the climbing, crawling and "walking" has really thinned him out. He looks more like a little boy and less like a chunky monkey. There is no way that he would ever sit still for this long anymore. He is keeping me on my toes. I'm pretty exhausted by the end of the day, but its all fun. For example, last week, he pulled himself up on the toilet and put his hand in it. Ick! We have to be vigilant about keeping the lid down at ALL times. He is trying hard to figure out how to push down the flush mechanism. Thankfully he hasn't discovered the joys of toilet paper yet. I have a feeling that isn't far off though?

Then on Monday, he pulled himself up on a little tray table we keep by the back door. It is usually home to wallets, purses, keys, mail and Sam's fav--the baby monitor. For some reason he is obssessed with them. He makes a bee line for the baby monitor in our bedroom every chance he gets. He will take off down the hall and go right for it EVERY time. I don't get it. Anyways, back to the table. He pulled himself up on the table to get to the baby monitor. My back was turned--of course. I think I was folding laundry. All of the sudden, I heard a huge crash. He had pulled the entire table and all of its contents onto himself. Luckily, the table isn't heavy and it comes apart, so no one was hurt. But it served as a reminder that I can't turn my back for even a second. Even when I'm in the same room with him and only two feet away. As soon as I picked him up, gave him some hugs and comforted him, he wanted to get back down so that he could crawl right back to the table AGAIN. BOYS! Its never a dull moment.

Another thing, I've taken everything off all of our end tables, but the other day he was trying to pull the lamp off the table. He had it by the cord and was trying to crawl away with it? Am I supposed to get rid of the lamps too? What's next?

Flashback Friday(I know its Tuesday, the weekend got away from me.)

These pictures make me laugh. I think Sam looks like a little rapper. If he could talk I think he would say "Yo, word to my homie" or something like that.