Christmas pics to come

Daddy bought me a new computer for Christmas and I love it so much that I haven't really been on the laptop much. But, all the Christmas photos are on the laptop because I loaned my photo software to Michael and haven't had a chance to get it back to load on the new computer. So, Christmas pics will have to wait. Sorry.
Christmas rocked though! Lily must have been very good because Santa brought her some really nice things. We opened the gifts from one another on Christmas eve and Lily was so funny because every gift that she opened she screamed "this is just what I always wanted!" and if there were more than one thing in a gift bag together she would scream "this is ALSO just what I always wanted!"
Sweetest thing in the world!
These pics were taken with my phone at the mall a few days before Christmas when we went to go have our pictures taken with Santa. You'll have to wait on the Santa pic because I haven't figured out how to get my scanner to work in windows 7 yet.
Eric was really cute because he didn't scream when we put him on Santa's lap. We really figured he would. He must know that he has to be nice to that guy so he can get some good loot next year.

This bear is mechanical and rocks back and forth. It was sweet because Lily walked up and put her arms up for a hug and waited for him to lean down to her. She usually hugs the characters that have people inside so I'm not sure whether or not she thought this one was one of those. She kept hugging him over and over so I think she may have thought he was real.

Meeting Grandad

Eric first meeting his Grandad

He didn't cry which is suprising because he has begun doing this thing where he cries if anyone other than me holds him.

Christmas..... yay!

I am so happy for Christmas. I've been so over-worked lately with trying to juggle two kids, two jobs and doing craft shows too. The last two weekends in a row I had shows and after they ended and I finished up the last of my custom sewing projects I'm finally able to relax.
Well, sort of, I still have to work but after as busy as I've been the past month, work seems easy!
Plus, Eric has gotten SOOOOOO much easier. He still doesn't enjoy sleeping and is still getting up in the night, sometimes twice. But, during the day he is so fun to be around. He laughs and plays and just watches Lily in awe. Below is his interested face....
I get lots of pictures of the interested face because my phone has a zebra print cover on it so if I hold it up to take a picture of him, that is the face he makes. Funny huh?

David & Sherah are here, another reason I feel so relaxed. Sherah just jumps in and helps with Eric and Lily follows David around like she is his shadow. They are such fantastic house guests.
We went to the park yesterday to make ourselves dizzy on the spinny disks...

and climb trees....

Everyone was pooped afterward.....

Daddy should be arriving any minute now with his girlfriend Janet and Richard flys in tonight just after midnight.

Let the overindulgence of food, sweets and alcohol begin!

Rolling over, Solid food & Santa

Saturday Eric officially rolled over from his back to his tummy and now he is a rolling machine. I lay out a blanket on the floor and lay him down in the center and he loves to just roll around. He can't roll from his belly to back yet, so he just does a 3/4 roll then back then 3/4 roll to the other side, then back. It is entertaining to watch.
I think I'd mentioned before that we had been introducing solids, but that is still going ok. He understands what is happening now and really gets excited when we sit down to eat. Also, I've stopped breastfeeding and I'm loving not being the only one who can feed him!
Lily is so caught up with Christmas right now and writes a letter to Santa every day. Tonight we had a meltdown because I wouldn't let her have another envelope. She would use 20 a day if I let her! It is really sweet though.
Ross and I have been taking her down the toy aisles to try and feel out what would be a good gift for her because right now she just seems content playing with her babies and crayons and we certainly don't need any more of either of those things. We've picked out a toy that is an interactive book reader thingy and so for those of you who have asked what you can get her, you can get a book to go with it. I'm certainly not asking anyone to buy anything! We aren't going to be buying anything for anyone and don't expect anything, but... some of you can't be stopped so if you insist.... here is what I'm talking about, it is called Bugsby and the books are about $12-$14 I put a widget that links to Amazon on this blog over there ------->
and they have them at Target too.

Random pictures and thoughts

Eric loves to try to eat my face. He just started doing this a few days ago. I'm hoping it is just a coincidence that we are also working on switching him from breastfeeding to formula this week. I hope we haven't thoroughly confused this little boy.

This giant hot dog is at a farmers market that hasn't opened yet. We were checking out the space in hopes of me vending there in the future when they open. We just thought that we needed a picture with a giant hot dog.

Brandi reading a story to both babies. Eric isn't interested in the book. He just watches Lily.

Ross has cancer. Well, I guess I should say Ross HAD cancer. He had it cut out and he refused stitches because he didn't want to go back to have them removed! I guess I'll have to get used to looking at him with a hole in his neck. Good thing is, they were able to get it all out and Ross and I both went to the Dermatologist to have full body cancer checks and we both have a clean bill of skin health now. We've hit our deductible for the year and since we have no idea what the job situation (thus the health insurance situation) will be after the first of the year, we are making sure to get all the check up stuff done before the year is over. Teeth cleaning and eye exams next.
This year is going to be so special with Lily at Christmas. She is at the age where she remembers things from last year and understands what is happening (as well as a 3 1/3 year old can understand) and is so excited.I'm excited too.Tonight at Target Lily said we should buy a treat and had her own little wallet with her own money and everything. We bought something for Ross and I reminded her that she isn't supposed to say anything to him about it. As soon as we got home she went running into the sewing room looking for wrapping paper. I was tickled because I never said anything about wrapping it up.She is growing up so fast and is so smart. I am so proud of her.

Makin' Stuff, Doin' Stuff

Lily made a birdfeeder. She is very proud of it. No birds have ever eaten from it, but we keep watching anyway. Notice her green on green outfit? Being the independent spirit that she is, she picks out her own clothes and is very particular about what matches and what does not. I told her that this one didn't match and she said "yes it does! Green, green. See... I'm monochromatic!"

I'm so proud that Ross did some handy dandy work for me and replaced our bathroom sink. I know what you are thinking... "why on earth would anyone want to get rid of a pink sink?"

He did an awesome job but I forgot to take an AFTER pic... it really is complete, I promise.

These are Lily's monsters. She loves drawing monsters and will draw monster after monster all day long. She would go through a pack of paper if I would let her. These 8 were completed before 9AM. Notice how she writes her name on them? I'm so proud of her. 3 and a third and can write her name! (well... we have to work on the Y a little, but I still think it is awesome)
Eric is such a chunky butt that we had to move him from the infant bath to the next stage bathtub. He is really too young for this one because he doesn't really sit up on his own yet but he seems to still like it.
Lily using a stencil and markers. She is no longer allowed to use markers.

She wrote on the couch AND the carpet in her bedroom.

Today we were talking about Christmas and Santa and I asked her if she has been a good girl this year and she said "no. I wrote on the carpet and the couch with markers. We better get that cleaned up before Christmas"

Its Bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

Eric is 4 months old this week! So, in celebration of his 4 month birthday, we gave him Banana. This is his first food other than breastmilk. He is funny because he really doesn't get it. Lily started cereal at 3 months and took to it fine. Eric, his mouth doesn't seem to want to keep it inside. It is pretty funny. He loves it, but I'm not sure if he is loving the attention or the new taste. Because it is more for a novelty than anything else, I started to give him his banana at dinner. We have a sit down meal for dinner every night as part of our routine so I figured that Eric would enjoy being a part of it too..

This picture is Lily playing with Eric during "Tummy Time" which he HATES

Lily decided that she wanted to have lunch in front of the TV. I told her 'no' because I didn't want her to get food on our new rug. So, being the brainiac that she is, she set herself up with a table and chair not on the rug (but really close to the TV)
This is what ROCKS about working from home. Ross hates that I've taken over the pool table, but it is so nice for me to be able to spread out my stuff on the table to work and have my babies "work" with me.
Lily is playing with Eric.... sweeeeet!

Halloween

Things leading up to Halloween were hectic so we didn't get around to carving our pumpkins. Ross has been doing all sorts of promotions at nights and weekends that just add to his regular workload (but unfortunately, not his paycheck! another story, another day) and of course, I bit off more than I can chew with sewing projects so we waited until Sunday Nov. 1st to do our jack-o-lanterns.
I spent hours and hours making Lily a Princess Aurora (sleeping beauty) costume but two days before Halloween realized that she fit into my brothers' Naval Aviator flight suit costume. So, we dressed her in that one to go to the Boo Bash (Child's party downtown) the night before Halloween then wore the Princess costume for Trick-or-treating on Saturday.
Lily woke up Halloween morning feeling very sick so that is why she looks so sad in these pictures. Because she is. A little girl she befriended in line for the bounce house at the boo bash coughed one of those wet nasty coughs right in her face and I'm just sure that is where she got it. She was miserable, but would cry and cry if I suggested that we skip trick-or-treating. It broke my heart. We went to just a handful of neighbors' houses and she started to cry and asked to change clothes. So, we went back and put on the flight suit. We drove to the rich neighborhood and trick-or-treated a little there. We definitely over-did it because when we got home Lily started running a high fever and both kids were a screaming mess. Ross was working so he missed all of it. Thankfully Brandi was here so she could run to the store for Children's Tylenol and juice.

I was Flo, the progressive spokes girl. This picture isn't really good but I'll have to post another one once I download my phone pics or Brandi's camera. Ross and I went to an adult Halloween party on Friday night and he was the Geico Caveman so it was really cute. We won the costume contest! A whopping $27.00! It was more than we spent on our costumes so we still came out ahead. If only Lily had won a contest, I spent close to $60 on the fabric for hers!

Don't worry.... she DID wear shoes. These Aviator pics were from the days BEFORE Halloween when we were just playing dressup.

Pumpkin Patch

Mid October - David & Sherah's visit

Needless to say, I'm behind on my blog. I'm still having trouble balancing everything that I need to do with two kids, two jobs and a household to run. I'm getting better though. I've finally organized myself into a planner that is divided into sections for each segment of my life. It is helping me stay focused even if I can only work for 10 to 20 minutes at a time.
The part on my to-do list for today was to upload Halloween pictures but I realized that I never did pics from David & Sherah's visit mid month. So, here are these first... Halloween next.
The Hollywood Beach Clambake. We left Eric home with Brandi because I really don't feel comfortable having him out in the sun. A cold front had come in that weekend and although we still weren't able to turn off the AC, it was very comfortable on the beach. (notice my long sleeves?)

Eric LOVES this toy that is in his bed.

This wig is a pumpkin wig and she is hiding under the pool table along with all the rest of our junk.

Race for the Cure results

I haven't had time to download the pics yet because we've been so busy with David and Sherah in town but a quick summary of the Race:
We raised $789.00 through our donations and team signups but in the end it really was more than that because we had two additional team members sign up on race day (therefore they weren't on the site) and there were some cash donations turned in race day as well. So, even though I don't have the exact numbers, I'm sure we got over our $1000.00 goal!
Thanks to everyone who helped!
This was the first race ever for some of the moms in my SAHM's group and they are now fired up for more running in the future.
Ross & I hosted a dinner the night before the race for our team members to come over, load up on spaghetti and re-vamp our t-shirts into tanks. So glad we did that too because it was hot as anything race day.
I was able to run the entire thing without stopping (very slowly) and my time was 33:48. Ross completed it in just over 20 minutes and had he been a woman, he would have gotten a medal. They give a medal to the first 50 men and the first 50 women. They were still giving out women's medals when he crossed. David was kind enough to walk it with Sherah so his time was a little longer than he usually would have done.
This was Lily's 3rd race and obviously, Eric's 1st. Brandi hung out with them in the kid area while we ran.

Race for the Cure Miami - this Saturday

Ok readers,
Last time.... please help us reach our fundraising goal. We've met our goal for participants but are still a long way away from our fundraising goal. We'd love it if you can donate anything, just a couple of bucks would help. Thanks

http://race.komenmiaftl.org/site/TR/Race/General/1663100046?pg=team&fr_id=1000&team_id=3000

picture updates

Gameday!
Allison's birhday party

First attempts at a smile

Do we ever dress this child?

Lily helped Ross wash my car then he came to me and told me I owed her $2.00

Don't forget to donate to our team for the Race for the cure! Check my link over there --->

Our baby is 2 months old already

Eric turned 2 months old yesterday!
He is the sweetest thing ever and we absolutely adore him but he has been much harder to handle than Lily was. Or, maybe it is just that when Lily was this age we didn't have an attention demanding kid to take care of also. Either way, these last two months have flown by. Eric is just now starting to have a sleeping pattern emerge (yay!) but we are a very long way away from a full nights sleep. We get up at least 2 times to feed, but several times this week it has only been twice. The feedings are easy though because he eats and goes right back to sleep. Lucky-duck Ross doesn't even have to get up to help anymore.
The hard part is getting him to sleep in the first place. Ross and I have been so programmed to thinking that our child care times end at 8 when Lily goes to bed that it is difficult for us to adjust to the fact that we don't get to clock out that early any more. Eric likes to start wailing at around 8:30 or 9 and usually doesn't get to bed until about 10. This has been really difficult for me because this is the time that I usually do my office work. So, now, I have to somehow find the time to do that. As you can imagine, I have a pile of work to be done that is not getting done. And, unfortunately it is starting to show in my bank account!
Eric is starting to smile and respond to us and that is the best part of parenting. He has such fantastic expressions and I've gotten a couple of good pictures on my cell (to be downloaded soon) He is even holding his head up! and has become a real fatty.
Lily, she is smart as a whip and her favorite thing to do right now is rhyme. She is memorizing nursery rhymes and likes to come up with rhyming words. I've gotten a few on video (again, to be downloaded soon)
ok, now back to work....

Race for the Cure time again

Ok people... it is that time of year again!

The Race for the Cure is Saturday October 17, 2009

Last year I set a goal of having 10 team members and raise a grand. Last year I didn't get 10 people to attend the race with me (sadly, only two!) but somehow managed to raise well over a thousand dollars.

I like to be an over-achiever and try every year to do better than the year before but since we are in the middle of an "economic downturn" or whatever it is the politicians like to call it, I didn't raise my goal. I'm going to again shoot for raising a thousand dollars but work really really hard at actually getting 10 people to participate with me.

So far, there are 7 people signed up on my facebook page saying they are going to participate, but only 3 of those folks have actually registered for the race. We've raised $105 thus far.

Hopefully, I can meet my goals this year.

If you wanna help with a donation or join my team, or just check out our progress CLICK HERE

Routines

I remember at some point soon after having Lily, we decided that having a schedule and a routine was the way to go with a baby. We went from being night owls to early risers and got so used to our daily routine that I don't need to look at a clock to tell you when it is lunchtime and there was never a fight about bedtime.
I still believe in the routine but right now it is making me crazy. Mainly because Eric doesn't have a schedule yet. Lily is like clockwork but I can't predict anything with Eric. Many times Eric is wailing or won't let me put him down at the time that Lily needs something. In turn, she has a meltdown because she is so conditioned for a certain time. Two screaming kids needing attention. Ugh.
I really need work to balance things. I don't know how single moms do it or people with more than two babies! I've got Ross who is a huge help AND Brandi too and still struggle.
The sleeping situation has improved. Eric does sleep for longer intervals but I still haven't gotten more than a 3 hour stretch of sleep time.
I have gotten really savvy with my iphone though. I can get all sorts of things done while walking around with Eric on my shoulder trying to rock him back to sleep (including writing this blog)
I've somehow managed to make time to run on a semi-regular basis and have been trying real hard to get ready for the Race for the Cure. I've put a team together again. Oct 19 if you wanna join me. I'll get the link up as soon as I get to a real computer but I'm sure you could find it by searching the Miami affiliate for Team Betty.

6 weeks

(Sorry, it is the only picture I've got on this computer. It is of the new shirt that Aunt Marie sent to Eric. I don't think he likes MTSU)

The only reason I have time to post right now is because I traded my exercise time for computer time. Ross and I have decided to trade off. He went running then I was supposed to go running but just needed to catch up on computer stuff instead.

Stats:

Eric is 6 weeks now and we took him to the doctor because he was crying non-stop and only sleeping in 20 minute intervals. He has reflux and they have put him on meds that take a week to kick in, so, we are going insane around here.

We've done ok so far because Marje was still here but she left two days ago and it feels like a week.

Lily is driving me up the wall too because she is so used to getting constant attention and has gotten very jealous of Eric.

Other than that, both kids are awesome and putting on weight. Lily gained 3 lbs since her birthday and now weighs 35lbs. Eric weighs 11lbs and me, I've lost quite a bit (yay!) I weigh 134 only four pounds off from my pre-pregnancy weight. I can get into most of my clothes but they just don't look good around the middle. Not bad for 6 weeks. Guess all this walking the floors carrying a baby non-stop and not sleeping is great for weightloss.

Almost one month old

I started this post awhile back but never got around to posting it. I have a difficult time updating this blog because I have such limited computer time. I have an iphone that I do just about everything on simply because I can play with it while I'm feeding Eric. And, since he eats every three hours around the clock... I can do quite a bit on that phone!
But, there are things I can't do on it and blogging here is one of them. The others involve work, and since I'm paid for that and not paid for this... blogging doesn't always make the cut.
Anyhoo... these are from when Eric was almost a month old.

This is MY dinner but Lily has gotten very very attention starved and Eric doesn't let me put him down.

The SAHM group I'm in had a field trip to Krispy Kreme where they let the kids go into the back and dip their own doughnuts into chocolate and put their own sprinkles on them. Lily still won't talk to any of the other kids but she does participate.