Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

While all of you are probably out and about collecting and/or giving candy, we are holding down the fort doing neither. It has come to pass that apparently my son will have a very similar Halloween story to mine. I already feel sorry for him.

But since today was Halloween, I decided to at least dress him up... 

It has also come to my attention that by saying "Bradley, smile!" You get this. So typical of a boy, huh?

Even though Halloween is out, we did take part in some fun Fall activities. One of which was going to the pumpkin patch.

We gave B some snacks and as you can tell he was way more interested in the snacks than the pumpkins.

And then he noticed he was sitting next to something quite large and fun to hit!

Jeremy was hilarious. I was all about letting B crawl around and explore. Jeremy insisted he keep him close and off the ground. "Hay can really stir up people's allergies." I tell you, poor kid. No Halloween, no hayrides.... I'm going to have to sneak him away so that he can have a real childhood. Geez!

He picked out his own pumpkin and a pumpkin for Parker.

Then, yesterday we all sat down, including Megan, and carved our pumpkins. We started out making it a competition. But after the first little bit, we decided we just weren't cut out for arts and crafts and we better just have category winners.

Soo... for the most festive award:

Mine! And just so you know, here's how the conversation went between Jeremy and I after I showed it to him and asked him if he liked it.

Me: What do you think?

J: I think it's great! Is it a skeleton key?

Me: No...

J: Is it a broccoli? Like from Veggie Tales?

Me: No! It's a tree.

J: OH! Well, it's really great!

Me: How can it be great if you can't even tell what it is???

So needless to say, I awarded myself the prize for most festive. Jeremy sat beside me giggling.

Megan won the cutest award! I really like a classic pumpkin.
 

Jeremy decided to get all detailed and take f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  So naturally we heckled him to try and mess him up.

Good thing Jeremy doesn't think the Ninja Turtles are evil. We will have that for Bradley. Whew!

Oh, and he obviously won the most detailed award.

Now, you might have noticed on his and mine that our tops are actually set on top as if they are hats. Yes, we did not realize that you have to cut your tops off at an angle... so they fall right through. We know. Major FAIL in the pumpkin carving department.

Once B woke up, it was his turn. We don't quite trust him with knives yet so we got him stickers for his pumpkin.

He was really disinterested, but I had fun pretending that he was having a blast!

And so here are all our pumpkins!!

We hope you have a safe and wonderful night!

Why we should embrace flavoring

A couple weeks ago, our house was sick zone central. I had a nasty stomach bug and Bradley couldn't kick an ear infection.

My sweet husband took two days off work to watch B and take him to the doctor for more meds. When he returned from the doctor's appointment, we learned a very valuable lesson.

Me: So what did the doctor say?

J: Well, the ear infection got worse not better so he prescribed a stronger dose of amoxicillin. 

Me: Aw. Bradley loves the bubble gum medicine. 

J: Yeah, have they ever asked you if you wanted your medicine flavored?

Me: I don't think so, but they may have and I just don't remember.

J: They asked me. They said it would cost $3 so I said no.

Me: You said no??

J: Yeah. I couldn't imagine you paying $3 for flavoring.

Me: Have you ever tried to give B medicine that's not flavored? I'm pretty sure I would have said yes.

J: Well, maybe it is naturally flavored.

Me: Umm.. probably like nasty medicine. I don't think I've ever had unflavored medicine. Have you?

J: No... 

Me: You don't really do well in situations where it is just you and B and you get asked a question, do you?    
(Can you tell something similar has happened before?)

J: No. I don't. But I do try.

We, then, give the medicine to B who screams the entire time and spits out most of it. 

Me: So I guess it tastes like crap.

J: Hmm... maybe I should call and see if they can add in flavoring.

Me: I think something has to be done. This is horrid. You do know that one of the times I have to do it alone, right? And you do know that it just took both of us to give him this one dose??

J: Do you think they asked because they knew it tasted bad?

Me: I mean, if it tasted wonderful, why would they ask?

So, we called and found out that once it is mixed, there's nothing they can do. And we had 10 days, twice a day to go. 

At the end of those 10 days, Jeremy looked at me and simply said, "Saving $3 was not worth it."

To which I replied, "You think?"

-------

Notes from Jeremy: We did learn that if you stuck the syringe in the back of the throat and squirt really fast, you could avoid the tongue all together with confidence that B did not taste it and it all stayed inside of him.

Video of the Week: Walking Tall

Over the past month or so, Bradley has been gaining more and more confidence on his feet. He started walking around objects and releasing his hold on the couch or coffee table for about 3 seconds at a time and balancing himself.

Then one day, he decided he was ready to move to the next step. He moved one of his toys off his playmat to the wood floor and started pushing it around the room. At that moment, we decided it was time to get him a walker.

He's had it a week now and he LOVES it. He has figured out how fast he can push it before falling over. He has learned how to catch himself if he does happen to fall. And he is starting to figure out how to move it so he doesn't get stuck against a wall.

I am so proud of him and how quickly he's figuring out his center balance. I am also loving his personality more. Earlier today, he fell while pushing it, but caught himself by his arms and did this whole twisting of the body thing. It was so cute that I started to laugh, but stopped myself in case I hurt his feelings. But just as I stopped, he burst out laughing at himself. I think it says a lot if you can laugh at yourself. :-)

Enjoy!

Finger foods, peppermints, and cookies

Remember the post about how all the light bulbs are against me? Well, in the post I mentioned one of the scariest moments of my life.

I'm not sure how old I was. I'm going to say 12, but I could have been younger. I was sitting at our dining room table with all my siblings. We were doing homework, coloring, eating, and talking. My dad was in his workshop about 300 feet away from our house. 

As a kid, my favorite hobby was talking. I was always getting in trouble for it. And my parents had always told me not to talk with food in my mouth. But I didn't take them seriously. I mean, they were parents - what do they know??

So there I was doing homework, talking to my siblings while eating a peppermint when all of a sudden the peppermint got lodged in the back of my throat.

Now, I know I was little, but I seriously will never forget that sensation of not being able to breathe and knowing that your life is in the hands of your siblings who are younger and having that life flash before your eyes. It was horrible. I remember standing, Megan screaming and I'm sure she was crying, and Ryan saying something then running out our door to get dad.

My dad showed up about 2 minutes later and did the Heimlich. The peppermint went flying across our kitchen and I could once again breathe.

I honestly never thought much about that day until recently. Bradley has officially moved away from pureed foods and is on to finger foods. And I have never been more freaked out.

At B's 9 month appointment, his pediatrician and I talked about finger foods and what all I should be giving him. He mentioned a ton. I then asked him how small I should be cutting them up. I told him about the size I was currently doing which was about half of a pea and he seriously burst out laughing. He then showed me with his fingers which size I should be doing and I gasped. "What if he chokes???" I asked. The doctor assured me all will be fine... I would see. He then said that I should also offer B vanilla wafers because it would probably feel good against his gums.... "and you can give him the whole cookie." I think I might have asked 4 times if he was sure. He was.

That afternoon I gave B a cookie. Jeremy was there for moral support. And what does my son do?? He shoves the whole thing in his mouth. I freaked. Jeremy told me to leave the room until B was done. I did. B lived.

Apparently, my son likes to live on the edge and worry his mom because he still eats the vanilla wafers that way. He likes them melting completely in his mouth rather than gnawing on them like most kids his age. He also prefers to store as much as his food as possible in his cheeks for later. And we can never, ever feed him fast enough.

So needless to say that peppermint incident is always in the back of my mind. I'm just thankful that Jeremy feeds him his dinner. I can handle two meals of his crazy, but I think I'd have a heart attack if I had to do all three.

My day

So how was your day?

My day began at 4:30 a.m. to the sound of Jeremy's alarm followed by the immediate crying of Bradley. This is rare, but sometimes his alarm does wake up our whole house. And trust me - it is not cool.

On top of B being awoken 3 hours prior to when he normally wakes up, he has been super sick with two ear infections and so let's just say this wasn't a "let's just roll him over and he'll go back to sleep" kinda moment. Nope. He was awake, realized he was sick, and cried bloody murder.

On mornings like this, I end up just putting him in the bed with me. Partly because the change of scenery distracts him from whatever is bothering him and mostly because I require a lot of sleep to be able to function. Starting out the day at 4:30 a.m. does not make for a happy household.

After about an hour of talking in our bed and watching Jeremy get ready for work, B was out. I quickly followed and we slept until 8 a.m. Holla!

Once we were up and moving, Bradley got changed and fed and then it was on to playtime. We are working on finishing our living room up (It looks amazing!) and so all the new furniture has B really excited. He started to pull up on one of our side tables, I said no, he stopped, and proceeded to crawl toward our fireplace screen. And that's when I noticed a turd the size of my palm on our floor.

I kid you not- the thing was huge! And my first thought was that Bradley had just crawled in Parker's poo. But upon closer examination the turd had peas and carrots in it which Parker refuses to eat. That's also when I noticed that Bradley was still dropping little pea droplets as he crawled away unaware that he had just dropped the biggest crap of his life on our living room floor.

Now, you have to understand that none of this made sense. Bradley was wearing a diaper that was still secure, a onesie, and pants over that onesie. I have not earthly idea how one any amount of poo got all the way on our floor and two how it could possibly have been that big. And yet there it was.

So now imagine me trying to get Parker away from it, followed by Bradley who all of sudden noticed something on the floor, and more pea droplets. It was a mess of crazy.

Have I mentioned that Megan, my sister, is living with us right now? Well, let's just say I took full advantage and we tagged teamed B, Parker and B's turds.

Then, later on in the day I had to pee. If B is awake, I use our half bath so that I can hear if he gets into anything. He usually follows and sits by the door waiting until I get done. I noticed after I was done that he was at the door. I started to talk to him while I washed my hands. When I turned around, there was Bradley playing in the toilet, water splashing everywhere. I guess curiosity got the best of him.

Then, there was him attempting to lift himself by his arms so that he could get on top of our dining room table, him moving our vacuum cleaning, and him throwing a ball as hard as he could toward the glass on our tv stand. And let me tell you that kid can throw.

So needless to say, today was an adventure... an exhausting, interesting adventure. Now, please excuse me while I get into my pajamas and go to bed... and, yes, I know that is 7:30 p.m. and I just don't care. Like I said. I require a lot of sleep.

Truth of the matter

You know that joke, "How many {fill in blank} does it take to change a light bulb?"

Well, I take offense to that joke and here's why.

A few years ago {as in 4 years ago}, I turned on a light in our in our living room; the light blew out.

I went to the laundry room and grabbed another bulb.

I then proceeded to put the bulb into the lamp {as I had done many times before} and the light bulb exploded and went everywhere. It was the third most scariest moment of my life.

{In case you are super curious, the first most scariest moment was when I choked on a peppermint and saw my 12 year old life flash before my eyes. The second was a horrible car wreck I was in with Jeremy. And the fourth was when I was attacked multiple times in a week by cockroaches.}

Anyways, back to my story.

The light bulb exploded. I freaked and have refused ever since to change a light bulb. Hence, why I take offense to that nonsense joke.

{How many Jessicas does it take to change a light bulb? None. I don't change them. Why, you ask? Because I am smart enough to avoid the possibility of a light bulb exploding in my face and me loosing an eyeball... that's why!}

See.. if I were to actually say that to people, they'd look at me and laugh. And it's really not a laughing matter.

Then, this morning in Sunday School, a woman spoke about being a wife and how sometimes you need to put your big britches on and handle the household rather than putting so much on your husband.

I was convicted. I rely on Jeremy for a lot like taking out the trash, cleaning the bathrooms, and... changing the light bulbs.

So when a light bulb blew out tonight, I decided to change it myself. My first light bulb in 4 years.

Bradley was asleep. Jeremy was out playing music. I was all alone and determined to take care of it.

I grabbed the bulb, undid the lamp shade, took the light bulb out, put the new light bulb in, turned the light on... and nothing.

Dead serious. Nothing happened.

My first thought was that maybe it wasn't the light bulb. Maybe the lamp isn't fully plugged in. I proceeded to then unscrew the light bulb I had just put in in order to put the original one back in {no use wasting a bulb} and it won't come out.

I went lefty loosey, right tighty... and nothing. So I switched it up and went right loosy, lefty tighty. Still stuck.

So now, the stupid light bulb sits, not working, and waiting for Jeremy to come home and handle it, which, by the way, should have probably happened in the first place. I mean, changing light bulbs isn't too much to put on his plate. Heck, I think I'm going to continue to let him handle the trash and bathrooms too. Obviously, there's a reason he gets those tasks.... Who am I to mess with what works??

 **UPDATE**

Jeremy just got home.

He was able to unscrew the light bulb in seconds.

He then looked at me and asked if I had even tried to unscrew it. Really??? It's a conspiracy. The light bulbs are all against me.

Oh, and to add salt to injury, Jeremy told me the lamp was unplugged; it didn't need a new light bulb.  {"Why didn't you check, Jessica??" Um.. maybe because the timer clicked as in it was acting as if it was plugged in. Duh!}

All I can say is, Jeremy, you win this hand.... But I'm onto you and the light bulbs. Your time will come....

It's a bird, it's a plane.... It's

SUPERMAN!

 

On Monday, I took B to the doctor where I discovered that he was suffering from a severe cold and pretty bad ear infection. He'd woken up both Saturday and Sunday night so I knew something was up. 

The rest of the day we took it easy. I knew Tuesday would have to be a low key day too since he had just started his medicine. As I got him dressed Tuesday morning, I had a thought. What would make a little boy feel better than pretending all day??

And that's when Superman appeared. 

Superman was made of steel.

Remote controls were no match for his awesome power.

Doors would open and close on his command.

Even cartoons were terrified.

 

 Yes, Bradley was king of his domain. 

 

"Mommy, this Superman is really cool."

"I think I am a natural. Have you seen my muscles??"

"Yes, they are quite large for a baby, Bradley."

 

"For a baby??? Shoot. They are large for anyone, Mom."

"My bad. Do you feel better? Anything else that you want to do as Superman??"

"Yes, I want to fly."

Ah, to be a kid again...