New Kicks

After several weeks of listening to my mom tell me that Zach needed some shoes with real soles and not just the soft ones in his pedipeds...we headed to the shoe store today to get some new kicks!!  Zach was a trooper, standing there to get his little feet measured. Well, I shouldn't say little, he is a 5.5 to 6!  We decided to go for the 6s so he would have some room to go.  

We ended up getting 3 pairs.  A pair of play/everyday sneakers, sandals, and a pair of dressier sneakers that he could wear to school or to church!

The play ones are great because they are machine washable, woohoo!

The crazy thing about these shoes though is they cost about what a pair of my shoes would cost!  Holy smokes!  I guess that's why he looks so cute and I don't!  HA!  

I'll take some pics of Z in his new kicks to show them off!  

Enjoying a day off

Matt is out of town and Ginny is coming into town, so I decided to take the day off to see her and be with the Z Man!  So far so good...Z slept till almost 7:40 which is always a good thing!  He's been playing with his maracas from JackAsh and keeps bringing me one of them to shake too.  So sweet!  Zachary has a check up with the ENT this morning to check on his hearing again.  Hopefully this time all is well and we don't have to go back for 6 months!  Timing is good though because I can go over swimming with the doc again since Zach starts swim lessons next week.

Fingers crossed for some good weather so we can play outside today too!

Thanks for the well wishes on the little one.  I do believe its a miracle and feel very blessed to be on this journey again!  I am nervous about being able to be a good mom to two who are kinda close together but I trust that its all just part of the plan!  Have had to be on progesterone since I found out as my numbers were low so of course I have that in the back of my mind too, but feeling more confident that all will be okay as we get closer to 12 weeks.  I will feel much better when I can find the heartbeat on my own on the doppler!  Right now its more a source of frustration that I can't!  

But anyway,  I have a jumbled mess of thoughts in my head, started a post last night but think I will save it for another day.  

Ha, Zach just found the ziploc bag of Easter cookies I was noshing on last night in the game room....guess I have to give him one  now! It is a Friday after all, what's wrong with a little cookie for breakfast! :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday and have a great weekend!

Big Day in the Office

Yep....that's going to be me in about 6 months! I found this little figurine at a drug store and thought it was just perfect!

Today my bosses informed me that my request to go to a 4 day work week has been approved so I will be off every Monday now starting in April! Obviously there will be a cut in pay and some benefits but I am very excited to have another day to spend with Zachary and Little Peanut!

Matt and I are still a little bit in a surprise over this all but as excited as could be! At my last appointment on Monday, "little peanut" was measuring right on track and a speedy heartbeat of 167! This pregnancy has been so different already than with Zachary. I never had morning sickness with him and have often not been feeling so hot! Of course I wasn't running around after a wild 1 year old either!

So....the news is out! Can't wait to meet the newest addition to the Wittliff clan sometime around mid-October!!

swim trunks and diapers!

Time to go shopping....Zach is going to take swim lessons! There is a swim center right by the house that offers year round classes starting with Parent & Me classes so we are going to try that out! Zach LOVES the bath so I am hoping the pool will go as well too. I am really excited about it. Need to get him some trunks as I am sure his ones from last year will no longer fit ;-) This is a pic of him on his first ever dip in the pool last year!

A little about Z

So Zach is up to some funny antics these days. He is still obsessed with balls and they are all over the house. He is getting pretty decent at throwing them for a 13 month old so Matt and I are impressed at least! ;-) He likes to attempt to throw them for Esther too or will just run up to her and stick the tennis ball in her mouth. And of course is loves saying ball too. After lunch on Sunday we went in to this toy store next to where we ate. I was holding Zach and looking in the opposite direction and hear him saying ball and thinking to myself, ''silly boy, there are no balls in sight!'' and sure enough i turned around to see him pointing him up at the ceiling and they had like 10 balls hanging down on strings!! Way to go Z!

He is also developing some of his own sign language. When he is ready for dinner he either goes up to the fridge or to his high chair and grunts! Hey, so its not American Sign Language, but it works! And on a more sign-ish note...he has developed his own sign for ''I want...'' It kinda looks like if you were pumping your fist before they take blood or a wave with your thumb facing upwards. make sense? clear as mud? well anyway, that's what he does. so he will walk up to say....a toy that is out of reach. Will look up at it and do his little hand sign and babble. As soon as he gets whatever it is, all better. Or if we are eating, he will walk up to me and do it, then he gets a goldfish or whatever and all better! So interesting watching him learn!

The boy is also getting too tall for his own good. He can reach things off the kitchen counter, nightstands, dresser tops, etc!! Yesterday I was in the kitchen making dinner and had left a pair of scissors too close to the edge but by no means hanging off...and was standing right next to them as he got up on his toes and pulled them down! Thankfully I was standing right there so could snatch them back before danger happened!

And lastly, Operation Sippy Cup is going okay. School actually asked on Thursday for me to start bringing them so I was kinda forced into following the doctor's orders. And supposedly he did really well! Over the weekend, we just did bottles for morning and bedtime except for one Sunday afternoon after a minor meltdown. So we are getting there. We are using the Playtex 9oz Sipster and seem to be having the best luck with these. They are hard tops and spill proof and all in all he seems to be transitioning to them pretty well.

One question to put out there for you milk drinkers...he had spit up a few times recently since the switch the milk. Once was almost like throwing up, but the others just a little spit up. But it REEKS! Smells like rotten milk! Any thoughts on this or he just drank too much? This happened one other time when he tried yogurt at school too and I think he drank too much!

OK, I think that's all on Zach for now. Love him to pieces my little wild child! Hope you all have a great Monday....I was missing Spring Break traffic today. Bring on the summer! ;-)

**WOW, if you read all that, I am impressed! Posted it looks much longer than when I typed it! ;-) **

Friday Night Lights

It is SUCH a good show but this last episode was difficult to watch!  Wow....teenagers.  Totally freaks me out to know or think what Zach will be up to in 15 years or so!  Guess all I can do is pray and teach him the best I know how!  If you have never watched the show, you should check it up.  Its definitely NOT just about football is a really good family dynamics show.  Definitely would get some conversations going if you had older kids.  

*Oh, and I am now tied for #1 with Kari in the bracket and one other girl.  Go ladies! :)

Thank goodness for men!

They are good for a lot of things....but especially when it comes to creepy slimy icky crawlers!!  We got back from church and lunch today and I was in the kitchen getting Zach some milk....and look over and what do I see but a like 10 inch SNAKE!!!!!  I don't know why, but snakes freak me out!  So as Zach was racing towards to killer snake I reached over to scoop him up and scream!  Poor Matt was in the middle of changing and came running out half dressed with mighty shoe in hand and crushed the dude.  Sorry for all you reptile loving people, but the thing was rearing up and freaking me out so I was not sad to see its untimely demise.  That's what it gets for coming inside.  I proceeded to take Zach upstairs for a nap after I was sure the snake was no more.  Matt chuckled when I came back down and said, "you know if I wasn't here you would have to take care of it yourself, right?"  To which I replied, "thankfully you are always here!!" ;-)  So to Matt...my hero who saved me and Zach and Esther from the evil snake...we are forever grateful!! :-)

*And bracket update, Matt is still #1 and I am tied for 2nd....go us! 

Bracket Busted?

So the first round of the madness is over.....is your bracket still standing?!?!  I am 25 of 32 and most of those teams I didn't have advancing past the next round anyway.  West Virginia and Wake Forest were my biggest losses, I had them going to the Sweet 16 but losing there.  All and All, not THAT bad!  That last round of games were some good ones, even if they all did not end in my favor.  It was still good watching!

According to the group standings in this bracket, Matt is #1 and Kari and I are both tied for #2!  Woohoo!  Matt will prob drop fast though   because he has WF and WV going pretty far!

Ahhhh, the madness of march, you never know what you are going to get!  Excited to see the Ags play today and see how they  fare against might U Con!!

Deliver Me

Do any of you watch this show on Discovery Health?  I started watching it when I was pregnant with Z and then it was off for awhile but new episodes are on now!  Its a good show, reality type show about an OB/GYN practice.  The episode I watched tonight, one story was about a momma who wanted a natural delivery with no drugs.  Oh my, just watching her made me want to cry with pain!  She finally opted for an epi after 17 hours, but it was still another 23 before she delivered!  If you feel like smiling and crying and love baby stories, check out this show ;-)  I cry almost every time another little one comes into this world!

Makes me think back to my labor which all and all, I look back on pretty happily!  There were of course some tough and scary moments but overall I think I had a great labor and delivery!  So weird to think that was just a little over a year ago?!?  

Head is JUST right

If you remember from my 12 month check up post, the Pediatrician was slightly concerned that Zach's head had grown too much since his last visit and could have brain swelling or something going on! But then after he saw some of his older stats from original pedi wasn't as concerned but sent us home with a head measurer anyway. Well of course every time I tried to measure, it looked like his head had grown to me! Anyway, I got off a little early yesterday and decided to pop into the office and see if they could do another official measuring. Doc had told me to come back in a month or so to check for my own peace of mind. WHEW, still 48cm so all is well in the noggin department. One less thing to keep me up at night with now! ;-)

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

Ah, the day of all things green! I had to laugh this morning to myself as I got onto an elevator full of green wearing adults! Like we are kids again worried about getting pinched ;-) But yet...I wore my green anyway! Zachary looked very cute this morning in his St. Pat's shirt...it said "I'm not lucky, just Cute" Oh so very true! :) I will have to snap some pics of him this afternoon.

Speaking of the munchkin...a little flashback here...this is what my wee little man looked like last year during this fun week of St. Patty's and beginning of March Madness! It truly amazes me how much they change in a year!

He still makes these very serious faces which cracks me up. Just like daddy, gets very focused on things and must stare and check them out!

One last funny...the boy was making me laugh so much last night in the tub. Grandma and Popsie bought him these little bath Disney "Cars" (like from the moving) and he would pick them out of his bath toy basket, push it around on the bottom of the tub, making a "vrrrrr" kinda noise....like a car! Where did he learn this? Genius I say! ;-)

Anyway, Happy St Patty's Day again, don't get pinched and perhaps drink a green beer for me!!

All My Children and GO AGS!

One thing I did get to do on the rainy weekend was catch up on AllMyChildren....All I can say is what the heck? I am so disappointed in the storylines right now. I have watched AMC forever now and they are definitely in a rut. Usually in soaps, there are the typical "bad guys" and some kind of drama or tragedy going on with a few people...but right now it is EVERYONE! No is being nice, no one is happy, everyone is fighting or plotting, And everyone is just being really out of character I think. Very annoying. Hope something good happens soon or I may have to cut back on my DVRing....

And congrats to the Ags who made it into the Big Dance again this year. Matt was very excited, even if we are playing BYU again who we played last year. Hopefully we will make it farther than last year but at least we are dancing! Let the brackets begin!!

spring break traffic rocks

well its spring break down here in H-town this week for most schools...and let me tell you, its great for traffic! after bible study Matt and i stayed up chatting much too late past our bedtime and overslept this morning...We usually leave between 6 and 630 and today it was nearly 645! I was anticipating a terrible drive in being we were leaving so late AND it was very foggy...but despite all that I still made it in to work in 35min! woohoo! if only every day was like this.

We had a very good weekend despite the yucky weather. Did some major cleaning since we were hosting bible study on Sunday. A little bid of weed picking. Some shopping. And of course lots of playing with the Z Man, who treated his momma by sleeping till 8am on Sunday! We have still been visiting between a couple of churches but are definitely leaning towards one now. We really like the pastor and they have lots of activities from babies to high school which is very important too. it will be a big decision to finally switch our membership since we are so attached to FUMC, but we are really enjoying the 5 min drive versus 30min on Sunday and being more involved. So we shall see!

Hope everyone has a great Spring Break week. I am hoping for a nice and quiet one at work!

:(

I got my "Friday" McDonald's breakfast (a #3...I deserve it after a long week!) and when I got to work to eat it....the hashbrown was missing!! :( Guess that's just going to be how the day goes. Although I will even that out with the fact that there was NO traffic this morning and had I not stopped for the aforementioned #3, I would have been sitting at my desk before 7am!!

uninterrupted!

I went to bed last night at 10:15 and actually did not wake up until it was time to get up! Zach did not make a PEEP! MIRACLE! His teacher said he was in a MUCH better mood yesterday at school. They gave him a dose of Motrin and he had one before bed too and it definitely must have helped. He was in a good mood when I picked him up and at home, ate all his dinner, and then conked out after bath! Speaking of all those teeth....Matt and I were discussing last night how funny it is! He looks so OLD now with all those chompers in there now!

Anyway, thanks for all the advice. Matt and I both agree we totally appreciate all the comments because it validates what we are going through and makes you feel better when other people have gone through the same thing too.

I think next week we are going to start sending sippy cups to school and see if we can work on those day time ones first. The whole milk seems to be going better, we are almost to on it 100% and his poos seem to be okay. I have found out that Zach seems to do better with the cups when the valves are out too. He drinks em up that way! Of course then you have the spill issue but I guess it is what it is!

Oh, and I need to get him on video...a few of you have seen though...but his first "real" word besides momma and dada and the occasional bye is "BALL". Its so funny! He is obsessed with balls and they are by far his fav thing to play with. He just goes around picking them up and throwing them and saying "Baw"...or pointing them out and saying it. Grandma is definitely happy with his new word and throwing skills! ;-)

CHOMP

That's right, poor Z Man got bit today at school! :( Guess its better to be the bitten then the biter but it still ain't cool! The kid bit him on the back too, ouch! Didn't break skin or anything, just a little red. Poor baby!! Better not happen again!

We had a long evening last night. When I picked him up at school he was actually happy but I could tell very tired and his teacher said he didn't nap well and was quite grumpy when he woke up. So I started poking around in his mouth and could see/feel at LEAST 3 teeth coming in! OUCHIE! So anyway, we got home and he was good but then was chasing after Max and fell and it was downhill from there. It was like he just couldn't console himself. Of course I scooped him up immediately but he was like, inconsolable crying?! He just wanted to lay on the floor and scream! :( So I got him and was just holding him very close to me and shushing and rocking and he slowly went to the whimper and then to sleep. I was really worried! This has happened a couple times recently and usually when tired. Is this just a 1 year old thing or something else? So he slept for about 45 min in my arms until something woke him up and here we went AGAIN! Just hysterical! By now it was close to 7 so we got some Tylenol, reapplied oragel, made a bottle and went to bed. He woke up once around 11pm and then slept the night through so I guess he was exhausted. I don't like the inconsolable part....like he can't control himself? I don't know if its just a tantrum thing or age or teeth or something else? Any thoughts??

Needless to say...I just didn't sleep well last night worrying.....

Big Enough?

Its been one of those days.  Life sometime can be so overwhelming knowing people's hurts and sadness that it can be easy to be consumed by it.  I am a "fixer" when it comes to my friends and family and more than anything I hate to see them hurting or in pain and sometimes those things are just out of our control.  My heart can literally ache.  Don't get me wrong, I live a blessed life with so many things to be thankful for, especially right now, but at the same time, I wonder does God hear little old me's prayers?  

I have been reading Angie's blog for some time now.  Just over a year ago she lost her daughter and her faith never ceases to amaze me.  She writes in such a way that sometimes just speaks to me, and definitely has such a gift for writing .  Anyway, her post today just hit home.   Go read it if you have time.  It made me think of Ayesha Woods song, Big Enough.  great song too by the way.  

Anyway, I need sleep so I am calling it a night....love to you all! He is Big Enough!

And on an unrelated note, but also a very good post....

***Also....thanks for all the comments on the night time cryin!  Man, Matt and I both feel better knowing its not just the Z Man..and that its ok that we don't go in there every time.  I think it was Mary who said that sometimes it was worse going in cause then it woke him up!  So anyway, thanks so much!  I need to post for advice more often....you guys are good (except for the Nubys!  LOL!)

night time crying

Does anyone else's child do this? I have been reading some about 'night terrors' and it doesn't sound as extreme as this, but I do wonder why this happens? Sometimes between 9-11ish I will hear Zach cry out. Not really CRYing where he is awake and sitting up, but just cries out....I used to always go in, be panicked, etc but he was never even wake. That doesn't happen very often now but now its moved to the mornings. Every day around 4am he cries out. A few times, less than a few minutes worth. Same thing again around 5. Even though I am up at 5am, I don't like to wake him till at least 6am so he gets all the sleep he can. And every time, he goes back to sleep cause when I am in his room at 6am, he is fast asleep with his tush in the air! (which I think is one of the cutest things babies do!!). Anyway, just curious if other people's kiddos have these random outcries too? What kind of dreams or nightmares could little ones be having??