Gustav, Gustav....

GO AWAY! I don't want to go to Brenham on Monday. But since I got out of going for Edouard, it will be my turn. So much for my Tuesday off!

toof

I feel one....right in the middle! Its sharp! I think it will be out all the way in the next couple of days! :)

Update

Just a random assortment of updates:
-Z Man's poos improved since the last post. Sunday night he ate 2/3 of bananas and Monday he ate all bananas but no rice cereal and tonight he ate all bananas and rice cereal! Whatever it is, I think it must be ending?!
- We got an offer on the house and we are proceeding! Inspection may be Friday and they want to close on 9/15! The hunt is on for our house! Keep those prayers to St Joseph coming! :)
-The Other Boleyn Girl was good! I enjoyed it and think it did a pretty good job versus the book. There were some things I had forgotten but I love Scarlett and Natalie so that helps too and made it very good.

I think that's it for now. We celebrated tonight with pizza and wine. Its a good night. Oh, and anyone else watching BB?!?!??!?!? What did you think of the veto ceremony???

REAL SIMPLE

I am just now getting on the bandwagon for Real Simple but I love it! My mom has subscribed for awhile now. I perused hers a few times and always enjoyed them so I decided I wanted my own! Great recipes, ideas, tips, what more could you want? I was especially interested in an article in my 1st issue about book clubs! As you know, I started our own book club 5 years ago this August (crap guys, we forgot to celebrate that too this month!!). We have read some great books and some not to great...and sometimes not even read at all. But no matter what, we always have fun! I think its so important for women to have time together. To bounce ideas of each other, share in joys and struggles, and just be together like sisters! I treasure my once a month get togethers with just us girls!

Here is a snippet of the article:
"Whether due to some failing of time management, imagination, or both, my adult life is somewhat lacking when it comes to two activities that I once took for granted: reading and spending time with friends." Which is why my book club meetings are right up there with the first day of school and the season premiere of The Office as unmissable events. In the 11 years since the inception of my book group- cooked up one night by me and two others, all of us still enthusiastic members-I've been on and off community boards, changed jobs and cars, moved houses, fired and hired babysitters, and seen the arrival and inevitable departure of pets (mostly hamsters and fish). But my book group has been constant.
There are nine of us, and we meet ever six weeks or so. The whole operation is loosey-goosey, but we like it that way. We choose books spontaneously, either something wonderful that someone has just read (which feels a bit like cheating) or a title that is well reviewed (which does not predict success with my group-I've chosen some real chunkers that the NY Times has loved.) We do not do author backgrounds or historical references, and under no circumstance do we use those silly book-group discussion guides that you find at the end of certain paperbacks.
The best part of the group, of course, is the individuals in it: our lives as they change over the years; the constant friendship of the women who can, in the same breath, provide you with a dermatologist recommendation, tips for monitoring teenage behaviour on prom night, advice on confronting a friend with emotional issues, and the best local store to buy good cheese. We have watched children grow and lives change; the talk has moved from diapering to college applications in the blink of an eye; from pregnancies to perimenopause in another blink."

While we are just at the diapering stage, I can definitely say our lives have changed a lot since our first meeting 5 years ago...and I can only hope that our book club will continue for the duration too!! I, too, am a book club advocate like this author and encourage any one else to find one. The article also has some great book recommendations, many of which we have read! I think I will bring it to the next meeting or keep it for future choices too!

BLOWOUT CITY

That's right folks, you know what I am talking about, and its not a super sale. The diaper situation around here has not been pretty or very good smelling for the last 2-3 days. I am not sure what is going on. Its not just a situation of "time to go to the next size diapers" cause we just moved up to 2-3 and they fit. I will starting using 3s though for bedtime to contain the situation at least. We have had leakage overnight for the last 2-3 nights, lots of small poo diapers instead of just 1-2/day, very smelly, and a couple of blowouts. I am really stumped on why the sudden increase in these volatile POOS! We woke up this a.m. to one that had gone through the jammies to the sleep sack but had not yet infiltrated the sheets. (WHEW! I ave changed the sheet 3x this week and its not fun). Then later this morning, we were having a great time playing on the floor, I was enjoying my morning coffee and Z started just fussing. I moved closer to inspect him and noticed his jammie leg was wet. Upon unzipping the said leg of the jammies.........there was poo everywhere! Seriously. Up the back, out the diaper, down the leg, to the TOES. I didn't even bother taking them off we just went straight to the bathtub. And although Zach enjoyed his off-schedule bath time, I am perplexed what's going on? At first I thought maybe it was related to the new addition of solids. But then the past 3 nights, he won't even open his mouth to try!! He had been eating with no issues since he first started so why the sudden change? Even bottle eating has changed some, not always finishing them.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Is this related to teething? I have read that teething can cause a decrease in appetite and diarrhea but I am still not feeling any teeth. Maybe its just a precursor of what's to come? I just am not sure!

I guess I will continue to observe him and see what transpires. The good thing is he is not acting like he doesn't feel well at all. Only ailment is a touch of diaper rash but frequent changes and boudreaux's butt paste seem to be managing that aspect okay.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome on the cause of the poops or what to do when your child won't eat! I want to continue on with our solids but when he won't open his mouth, after 20-30minutes of trying I give in.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Zach is cutting some Zzzzzs so I decided to treat myself to watching The Other Boleyn Girl. I loved the book so we will see how the movie does.

Target Trap

How is it every time I go to Target for a small list of things...I always come home with twice as much as I had intended? :) I swear, I love Target. But it is dangerous! I stuck to my list for the most part but did have to pick up a few extra things:
1) Toy for Z- Some cool baby Einstein piano. he loved it!
2) $1 bin goodies! I think he enjoyed these even more than the piano! You should go to your local Target and check it out. I bought some soft blocks, stacking cups, 2 board books, and a shapes box....for $5! They also had stacking rings, lots of puzzles, and some other goodies.
3) The Ped Egg! My feet are nice and smooth now tonight.
And a couple of other odds and ends. Did I already say I love Target?

St Joseph arrived yesterday. It has been raining cats and dogs here in Houston so I will have to wait and bury him tomorrow or Saturday. Get those prayers going! We need to SELL this HOUSE!

And good luck to Ginny on her 2nd Interview tomorrow!!

Six Month Stats!

We had a good check up today! Zach was cheery and flirty and all around a good boy. He did not care for his shots (but who does!) but after a quick kiss on those chubby thighs, he was okay. And as soon as he was strapped into the car seat, it was snooze city. We have just been enjoying our day together playing and he is down for a nap now. I am enjoying my day with munchkin!

So here is the big boy's stats:
Height- 28 1/2" - 95%
Weight - 18 lbs 12 oz - 60%
Head - 17 1/2" - 75%

Zach is sitting up pretty much on his own now. He tumples occasionally but is sitting really well now. He is also grabbing for toys and transferring them between hands. And as I posted earlier too, the feet have found the mouth! Z is doing good with tummy time too and manages to spin around somehow! We have had peas and carrots so far and think we may try squash next!

So all and all, great visit and Z man is right on track!

Weekend

We had a good weekend! Saturday was so chill. It rained all day so we did not do much but hang around the house. My folks came by for a short visit in the evening to see the Z Man. They were excited to see him eating his carrots and cereal :) He lived up to his cuteness as always.

Today we were up and cleaning for the Open House early. Zach had another weird day of odd napping. He actually did not take one take one until like 3 or 4! We had escaped to the Agnew's during the showing. He got a little fussy and then all of a sudden was out like a light for almost 2 hours! He must have felt comfortable at their house! Hank dog and Esther loved romping which also caused the Z man great delight.

Realtor said Open House went well. We had people so I count that as a good sign! ;-) St Joseph has not arrived yet to bury but I have said some prayers to him so we shall see! I will bury him when he arrives.

Not much else going on. It was a pretty quiet and relaxed weekend. I have the day off tomorrow with Zach. He has his 6 mo check up tomorrow morning! I will update tomorrow with his stats! :)

It was an exciting weekend with Olympics. With Phelps winning the Gold by 0.01 seconds and Dara Torres losing it by the same! And speaking of Dara, this Olympics is all about the Girl Power. Dara=40 and 3 silvers in swimming, Constantina Dita Tomescu=38 and winning the Gold in marathon, Oksana Chusovitina=33 and getting silver in Vault (33 is OLD in gymnastics!!),MistyMay and Kerri Walsh=30/31! Seriously, that is impressive for them all! And I am sure there are more that I have not even noted! All I have to say is Go Girls!

I am sad swimming is over. It has been an exciting time to watch!!

Ok, hope you all have a good night and wonderful Monday!

Good night!

Well, we had a little mini experiment with the bottle last night. Zach had cereal and a small jar of carrots around his usual 630 feeding. He had taken a nap from about 5-545 so he was awake for awhile last night. Anyway, decided to make an 8oz bottle for about 830 and call it a night. And he did fine! Sleep until about 7am this morning! I found a food chart on babycenter.com and it says to do 4-5 feedings (24-32oz), one veggie, one fruit, and 4-5 TBSP cereal for 6-8 months old. So I think we will try to work up to that.

My search for St. Joseph yesterday was not too successful. The catholic bookstore I went to only only nice mantel type statues and when I asked the lady about a smaller one I got chastised about it and she told me they didn't sell "superstitious" things like that. So I bought on off the Internet instead ;-) It was actually a nice store and I picked up a little something for a friend. They also had a lot of nice baby/baptism stuff and since all my friends are Catholic except for me and Becky and Ashley, I know where to go for baptism gifts now! :)

Sign class got cancelled this am and while I am bummed to not see Zach's buddies and their mommies, we have had a fun morning. Watched some Little Einsteins and Micky Mouse and I just love watching Z play. So fun to see him sitting up and grabbing for toys and actually be PLAYING and discovering! He also finally got those big feet into his mouth!! They have been close but today he actually was sucking on them. It was too cute!

Anyway, nothing much planned today except getting the house ready for tomorrow. Hope to maybe get some pool time in too if the weather stays clear. Hope you all have a good weekend!

Another Open House this weekend

Open house...take 2 this Sunday! Seriously people, I am getting tired of this! It definitely hurts the ego a bit too when you think your house is pretty nice. I will chalk it up to "the market" and make myself feel better.

I think I am going to go buy a St. Christopher and bury him upside down in the garden on Saturday. To all you catholics out there, isn't he the saint that helps sell houses? Does this actually work? I am Methodist but I am willing to try anything and I think God would be okay with me being a little Catholic in order to help me with our quest for suburbia!

Also, for those that don't know...I am also on a quest for weight loss. I lost .8lbs this week and although its not a lot, I am fairly happy with it since hubs and I TOTALLY indulged and enjoyed ourselves over the weekend in Galveston. I loved every morsel we ate or drank. The weight is coming off slowly which is frustrating. Back in the day, Rachel and I used to talk about how I could gain or lose 10lbs in like a day. Well the gaining part is still true, but the losing is definitely taking a lot longer. But I am also trying to remain focused and remember I am 13lbs lighter than I was 7 weeks ago.

In Zachary news, all is still well. Thank you all for the comments on his pics. I also think he is pretty darn adorable. He is really just enjoying sitting up more and more and laughing more and more and I am loving every minute of it. We are still trying to figure out this whole solids thing. Last night he was so not interested in it. He got the peas down but was not having the rice cereal. So we just quit after the peas. We did 4 nights of peas with no issues so onto carrots tonight! I am also going to try to give him a full jar. It seems like so much though to me! Any words of advice? Also, we are still doing the last bottle. Do not blast for me that...its twofold. 1-I still enjoy it most of the time...and 2-he often wakes up for it. How did you begin to wean off the last bottle?

Ok, I should be working so that will be it for now. I am tired and weary from staying up till 12:30 watching gymnastics! GO USA! I think I need another cup of coffee! :)

6 month photo shoot!

There were too many to pick from, but here are a few of my favs!

Late Night Olympics

We have been sucked into another late night of Olympics...between the swimming and the gymnastics, there has been lots of ooohs and ahhs and eeeehs and yikes! Totally amazed every time by phelps and crew and the gymnasts just keep me on edge! So sad for the US gal who messed up both her beam and floor routine. That pretty much dashed their gold dreams. Youchie. Anyone else up late watching?

Going Green!

So I am very excited about my newest purchase, RuMeBags! They are reusable bags that I purchased for mainly grocery or Target type outings. I just got so tired of having so many plastic bags and wasting them. We use ours for doggy bags but there are still so many that they overflow their holding place under the sink! So, I did some research and decided on my RuMe bags from Delight.com and so far so good! They are cute, compact, and good for the Earth! I had a medium shopping trip yesterday and what would have normally been a 10-12 grocery bag trip, fit nicely into 5 of my new bags. Plus with the long handles I could hang them on my shoulder and carry them all into the house in one trip. The bags fold down so small to that you can just leave them in your car and throw them in your purse before you head into the store! If you are interested, I can get a coupon for you to order some too! :) Leave me a comment!

How cute are my new bags?

To the next 6 months!

Here I am! 6 months today!

I am sitting on my own like a big boy!
Esther was smiling for the camera too! :)
I tried my first food besides cereal today....PEAS. yum??
We are even sitting up in the bath now and splashing with toys! I love my basketball ducky!
And my baseball ducky...
All smiles in the tub! This is fun!

Too long for my hippo!

Night mom and dad!!!

Happy Half Birthday!!

My little Z Man is 6 months old today! I swear, where has the time gone?!?! We sang Happy 1/2 Birthday to him this morning and he smiled and laughed in his usual morning cuteness way. Will take some hippo pics tonight and HOPE to take a day off this week and go get some real portraits done. He is sitting up so well these days and I got him a cute new outfit for the pics.

Matt and I had a great last minute trip to Galveston over the weekend. We dropped Z off at the grandparents just in time to get ready for bed so didn't get to hotel till late. We had some drama at check in (re: they "lost our confirmation...re: "I think they sold our room"). The night manager was a total jerk and didn't even apologize. We got put in the condos for the night which was not what we were planning on when we had booked our nice King Size deluxe/premium room! But, we told ourselves to let it go and not let it spoil the weekend. We ate a late dinner and people watched at the new outside bar until 2am and then had spa treatments in the am so we really did just sleep there. The Dir of guest relations was super and got us personally escorted to our upgraded room on the concierge level by 1130 so we were still able to maximize our pool time and day. Wow, if only I had a waterproof camera. The people watching at the pool was even better than at the bar from the night before!

Anyway, we had a fab time and really enjoyed our alone time even though I did still call my parents several times during the day to check on sweet boy. Mom did good by sending my a pic on my phone of him in his Elmo hooded towel. We had breakfast in our room and enjoyed sitting on the balcony in the morning and then headed home. Wish we could have been there more in the afternoon on Friday but 2 nights away was just enough. And let me tell you, nothing was better than seeing that "Hi mom, I missed you!!" smile when I walked in the door!

Better get back to working but will post some pics of the 1/2 birthday boy tonight! :) Happy Monday!

z update

Thanks for all who asked how the little guy was doing...I am happy to report we were good last night and this morning....he was DEFINITELY back to his happy smiley self! I guess we are through the bug. I am just relieved it never really affected his sleeping through the night or eating and that it was not an ear infection!! :)

Hard Knocks

I was about to grumble when Matt decided to start another show at 9:45....but when I saw it was Hard Knocks, I decided to enjoy the eye candy for the next hour. I mean, when you have got this, this, and THIS, count me in!! GO COWBOYS! :)

Adventure to the Doctor's Office

That's right people...me and my "first-time-momma"ness took the Z Man to the doc today.

Yesterday when I picked up Z from school, he was on the floor being outfit changed and screaming. This is the first time I have EVER seen him upset at school. His teacher told me he had just thrown up all over himself, her, and the bouncy seat he was sitting in. As soon as I scooped him up in his too tiny "extra outfit" (note to self, bring new change of clothes...size 3 doesn't fit any more!!), he stopped crying. So we walked around the class as I was calming him and just asking the teacher how he was all day besides this incident and he seemed fine. And then all of the sudden....BLAAA. All of me, all over him, all over again! It was enough that I could not even go to the grocery store as I had planned because there was just too much. I quickly packed us up and to the bath we headed. For the rest of the night, he was OKAY, but a little cranky and just wanted to be held which I was more than happy to oblige.

This morning he seemed back to himself but the events of the day before we enough to have me saying "uncle" and taking him in. When I arrived at school, he had just fallen asleep for about 5 minutes. I knew this was not going to be good. My child does not like to be woken up and needs his sleep. He went into the car seat without too much fuss but i feared what was to come. Z continued to be okay until it was time to be weighed. He did not like that. Then the temperature taken. He did not like that. And then the resident came in...and he did not like any of that! He was half playing with her stethoscope/half fussing. Everything checked out okay though...ears, nose, throat, chest, diaper area, etc. She called in our doc to do the final once over and this is where it got interesting. It started with the ear checking....fussing turned into crying...crying turned into screaming....and screaming turned into inconsolable sobbing. It was so out of control and out of character that Doc decided to do a quick blood test to rule out whatever they rule out with blood. It took me about 10 minutes to calm him down. I could feel the stares through the walls as other mothers were wondering what in the WORLD is wrong with that child. And then he stopped. Doc came back in. Blood was totally normal. Final conclusion....viral infection...aka, the common bug. She assured me that all was well, watch him for more fever and that most likely it would be all back to normal in a day or two. Whew.

To top it all off, I walked out of our exam room and in the room across was one of my PEO sisters and her son. "Was that your baby crying in there...I was feeling for the mother!". Yeah, that was fun. I think Z scared the whole office.

Anyway, we got home and Z Man was all smiles. We played, had our bottle and went down for a nice long nap. And then the rest of the evening was like normal. He ate his rice cereal, bottle, played, bathed, and down for the count. He cried a bit but all in all, I think we are getting back to normal. Let's hope it continues!

So there you have it. What a week! TGIalmostF!

Rain Day

Well it seems we survived Edouard, aka, the Rain Day. It rained off and on all day but never really hard...not even any cool thunder and lightening. I ended up working from home all day which stinks but is still better than having to have had to go to brenham and work there with Zach or have left him at home.

He was cranky today but no fever....and still no tooth. The morning was not fun, but most of the afternoon he was okay minus a few screeches and cries. He struggled when he was tired to get to sleep and it took some rocking which isn't normal. Hopefully he will be back to himself soon. He also took an army green poo today. It was weird. But after that he really seemed to feel better. Perhaps he was constipated AND teething! ;-)

It was a long day but I am glad I was able to stay at home today with Zach, even if it was a somewhat of a long and tiring day.

Hope you all stayed dry today. Anyone else do anything interesting or fun on their rain day?

Hurricane Edouard

That's right folks...Edouard, not Eduardo.......its french, not Spanish ;-)

Matt and I both have a rain day tomorrow, our offices are closed for the impending storm. Thankfully Zachary got me a "get out of going to Brenham" card because believe me people...there was no way I would have been able to leave my feverish child! :(

So.....does anyone think Edouard will do anything besides dump some rain for a couple of hours? I just saw some R.eliant energy chick talking about how not to call in if your power is out because they have technology that tells them where the outages are. No crap, really?!?! That seems very obvious to me but perhaps its because I am in the energy business? I don't know. She also said we all should be prepared to spend up to 2 weeks without electricity. Holy crap. I cannot imagine that. I would be hot, damn hot. And I would be heading over to the Labbe mansion to live with them and there generator operated house! :) Seriously. Can you imagine 2 weeks without a/c? I don't think I would make a day. How did people do it back in the day?

Anyway, little man went down with a little bit of a fuss. He usually doesn't cry at all when we lay down for bed, but not so tonight. But as soon as I went and scooped him up, he was calm. We started rocking and the head got very heavy very quickly. Sweet boy just needed his momma. Maybe we will wake up in the morning and have a tooth! One can only hope...

Adventues in Teething

So far it has not been a fun adventure! I picked up Zach from school and he was hot. I asked how he had been all day and they said he was on and off cranky and only a little warm. I got home and took his temp with the temporal artery thermometer and got anything from 99.9 to 101. I do not like this thing, maybe it is user error but who knows. I think I will get an ear one instead.

Anyway, the poor child got progressively crankier as I was trying to scan his forehead and talk to the nurse at the same time. It started off just like the random squawking/shrieking he has been doing the last week or so. But then this time it turned to crying. The nurse said to give him some Tylenol and if it doesn't get better tomorrow, to come in. She also said that if the fever breaks fairly quick after administering the Tylenol...it is probably the teeth.

So after the Tylenol and a little oragel, he was fell asleep in my arms for like an hour and a half. He did wake up crying for his bottle but has been pretty good since he's been up. We went for a walk and have been playing some. No fever back yet which is good. I will probably give him some more again when I try to get him down for bed.

Anyone else have difficulty teething time? And how long till the teeth finally broke through and he feels better? luckily my office is closed tomorrow for so i can stay home with my little guy!

I think he is Growing!!

I was going through pics tonight and noticed just how quickly Zachary is growing! Not just in weight, but mainly in height! This first pic is from the beginning of June. Next is beginning of July and the last is from about a week ago. It was the last time Zach sat on the bumbo on the counter. He is too tall and was grabbing the canisters, cabinets and anything he could get his little hands on. Mornings are now spent in the high chair! :)

June

JulyAlmost August!

The Rest of the Weekend

This afternoon we had a baby shower for JackAsh and baby Maggie. Ashley was looking very cute and got a whole bunch of good loot! I didn't have my camera with me so I'll have to get a pic from her. That was my fav part of the showers...going home and putting everything together and in its spot and imagining what this baby in my belly would look like in it all! Maggie has lots of new goodies to add to her room! :)

Z also attended the shower today! He was charming as always, but had some crazy screeching/talking going on! Lots of smiles for the ladies too ;-) No actual crying though, but he was tired. He didn't want to nap this weekend! But he took a snooze with me, Ashley, and Claude during the shower so he did get a little shut eye. I think he is teething too. Tonight after his bath, he was kind of whining/crying and gnawing like crazy on his duckie from the bath. I pulled out the oragel and the cold teething rings and that seemed to help. I think the over tiredness wasn't helping either. After his bottle, he went down to sleep immediately! Poor guy! Wonder when these teeth will show??

And last but not least, a few pics of the birthday boy and his party!

JP LOVED the cake! Opening presents

Uncle Jack practicing for Maggie with the Z ManMommy and her little guy...almost 6 months old!

Also a shout out to Al who is celebrating her 1st anniversary with Justin tomorrow! Happy Anniversary, Al & Justin!

And big hugs to Gin, who is returning to the work force tomorrow. I'll be thinking about you! The 1st day is the hardest but Paige will be in good hands!

Weekends

Although its 9:45am now, I have been up since 7:30....now here I sit on the couch with Zachary, drinking my coffee, watching Little Einsteins. 6months ago I had no clue who the Little Einsteins, Handy Mandy and a host of others even were! pSDFN (zach got hold of the key board!) Last night we had J.P.'s 1st birthday party. We had a great time and I will post some pics later. He LOVED the cake! But anyway, just sitting here this morning and thinking about how different life is from a year or so ago. We would have been still sleeping at this time and probably tired from staying up late! Half our day would be over by the time we were up and fully moving. I love being up early on the weekends now. I feel like I get a lot more done!! Although its only been 6 months, I already forget a little of life B.Z. (before Zachary). Sometimes I grumble about not being able to sleep in anymore but I actually love my weekend mornings with Zach. We get good play time in the morning when I think all babies are the happiest! :) I know I am rambling, but I guess I am just trying to say.......I love my new life as a mom!!