Not a water baby

Cole went swimming for the first time yesterday. Okay, so he was not entirely crazy about the pool. I didn't think he was old enough to be scared. But, after a while he was actually smiling and splashing some. He was acting really sleepy so that could have been part of the problem. He actually almost fell asleep in my arms at one point.

But, seriously, how cute is this face?? He's like, Dad, seriously? This is not a time to smile. Get me the heck outta here.

It will take some getting used to, but I'm sure he will love it before long. Hopefully. :)

200th post!

In honor of my 200th post, I have a story to tell.
This morning was spent on a relatively simple phone call to my cell phone carrier's insurance company requesting a new phone. Why you ask? My phone took a little swim in the toilet last night thanks to...you guessed it! My 10 month old son.
Honestly, I couldn't be mad at him because he wasn't even grabbing for my phone. He was going for a hairbrush. When he picked up said hairbrush he somehow sailed my phone the 2 feet or so towards the toilet and SPLASH! To make matters worse I hadn't flushed yet. Yes, my friends, I had to get my phone out of the toilet (gross!) and the water had pee in it (seriously.) At least it was just pee...and it was my pee. :) Because if either of those two factors were not true, I'm afraid that phone would have been sacrificed to the sewer gods. For reals.
So being as though my phone is was a touchscreen, the water didn't do it any favors. In fact, just leaving the battery in the phone was making it hot to the touch. So I'm rocking the trusty blue razr until they can send me my "reconditioned" phone. I'm not too thrilled about the reconditioned part, especially since I didn't like my phone to begin with.
The moral of the story is: even if you only have the toilet lid up for a few seconds to actually use it, and you aren't worried about the item your son is grabbing because it's "just a hairbrush" remember, babies have an uncanny ability to do things you never thought possible. Like picking up a hairbrush and sailing a phone across the room and perfectly landing it in a toilet, nothing but net water. My kid is a phenom, what can I say?

Memory Lane

I took a little trip down memory lane last night. Neither Justin nor I have a lot of pictures of ourselves from when we were babies, but last night I found a few. I'm still trying to figure out who Cole looks like. The scans of these pictures are not that great either.

Justin is quite a bit older than Cole here, but I just love this picture. That's what I have to look forward to, I'm sure. A little water gun-yielding, leopard print short-wearing**, poo eating grinning, dirty little boy.

(**Justin and I were both scraggly looking kids the majority of the time. But, we were both raised in the country, so I'm kind of proud of that).

You can't really see my face in this picture, but look how huge I was!

sick baby boy

In the midst of running a 103 fever on Tuesday and a 102 fever on Wednesday, Cole had momentary bouts of energy. He definitely took advantage of those bouts by playing his little heart out.

He was actually walking around under his high chair, but of course stopped as soon as I got the camera. In the video he is trying to get back up, but is having a little trouble, hence the crying at the end. By the way, the brakes are locked on the high chair, but Mr. Stubborn won't let that stop him. Where there's a will there's a way!

Eventually he played himself out...

We're still not out of the woods with the fever. In fact, if he's still running even a low grade fever at 12 today, we're changing his antibiotic. I'm so ready for him to be well. I feel so bad for him. :(

5.17.10

Happy 10 months, little man!

Yooo-hoooo!! Lacy!!!

This little booger is calling my name.

Favorite Books/Children's Books

I love to read! I have even found a little time to read since Cole was born, miraculously. I love Dean Koontz books mostly. I'm one of those people who orders the same dish at a restaurant each time I go because I know what works for me. Well Dean Koontz works for me (usually). Sometimes he can get a little out there, even for me. But, if you love suspenseful books with a relatable, sympathetic protagonist, and an evil (and I mean REALLY evil in some cases) antagonist, you would like Koontz. My favorite of his that I've read probably 5 times or so is

Another book I've read several times is...

Gone With the Wind, which just happens to be my favorite book and movie. The book is quite different from the movie. To put it in perspective, if the changes they made from the book were not made, the movie would have probably been 8 hours as opposed to 4. But, the book is so good!
I am also not ashamed to say that...

the Harry Potter series is one I've read several times. It's an easy read. Not necessarily a quick read, because they're pretty long, especially for kids' books. Another kids' series I read as an adult is...

The Chronicles of Narnia. I bought the series in one big book, which kind of made it a little harder to read for me for some reason. But, I am so glad I read it. In fact, I've re-read a few of them. The movies don't do them justice; especially the Prince Caspian movie. The book is much better.

The most recent book I've read is...

The Lost Symbol. I wasn't sure I was going to like it, though. I never saw or read The DaVinci Code, but after reading The Lost Symbol, I'm thinking I might. It ended up being a very interesting book. Lots of historical, secretive stuff. Kinda cool. And a VERY good ending!

As far as strictly kids' books. I have to say, I have distinct memories of books, especially when I looked at the covers to get these pictures, but I really couldn't tell you what they were about. I just remember liking them as a kid, and reading them over and over.

Once I got into school, I remember reading (and loving)

(and anything else by Roald Dahl).

I also remember liking Indian in the Cupboard. I would have added a picture, but it's kind of a pain adding pictures after you already have the blog formatted. Of course I liked all of Judy Blume's books. I never got into the Goosebumps because I was kind of a fraidy cat. In fact, I remember there being a Goosebumps show on Nickelodeon I wouldn't watch. :) I'm also pretty sure that Shiloh made me cry. Oh! And of course Anne of Green Gables.

I have fond memories of getting the flyers for book fairs and painstakingly choosing which books I wanted to buy. I was such a nerd. Although, I guess I'm still a nerd because I could spend hours in a bookstore. One of the main things I miss about College Station is Half Price Books. I love that place!!

So now I guess my secret is out. I'm a huge nerd. Not a very well kept secret. :)

Smart Little Devil

I had my first taste of what most parents eventually go through...figuring out that your child is smarter than you. Monday night, Cole was playing with my phone. I looked down and thought, hmmm, the font looks bigger. But, just kind of blew it off. I looked back over a few minutes later and the font was HUGE. I took the phone from him and for TWO DAYS tried to figure out how to get it back to the normal size. Finally, last night Justin was able to figure it out for me. Of course, he tried the one thing that I didn't try.

Here is the before Cole got ahold of it:

Nice normal sized font.

Here is the after.

I think you could read that from Mars. And yes, that was the confirmation of my vote for Casey on American Idol. Don't judge me. I'm almost 30 years old and I still watch American Idol. I have a good reason. Granted, I would probably be watching anyway...but I digress.

I just had to throw in a pic of the boy. Look at that belly!

Oh! And after Cole jacked up the font on my phone, I heard someone talking on the phone while he was holding it. He had called his daddy's voicemail. I need to start locking my phone!

guilt

I am having a guilty day today. I feel guilty for not staying home with Cole. I feel guilty for leaving him at day care. I feel guilty for not being able to spend enough time with him. I feel guilty for not being the mother that I feel like I should be. I feel guilty for getting aggravated at him sometimes. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
(on a side note...the more times I type the word "guilty" the more it looks like I'm misspelling it).

I went to see Cole at lunch today just to spend a little time with him and get some snuggles in. It made me feel a ton better...until I left. He screamed and cried big ol' fat tears. Dagger, meet my heart. A small part of me feels like, "okay, at least I know he loves me" (as much as a 10 month old can love). But, that little part of me is completely overshadowed by a big dark cloud of guilt.

I know in my brain that it's very difficult to live these days without two salaries. I know that by having two salaries we are going to be able to provide more for Cole that we would otherwise. I am able to set money aside for his college. I can buy him organic baby food if I feel like it and not worry about the extra $.50 it costs per package. I can buy him the brand name formula. If we were on one salary I probably wouldn't be able to do that.

But, oh, the guilt. The look on his face when I leave and he has tears streaming down his face. I turn the corner and look through the window into his room, and he's already stopped crying. I get that. He's fine in like five seconds. But, it doesn't erase the feeling I feel when I see him in another person's arms as I walk out the door. Day after day after day.

Guilt.

My First Mother's Day

Granny (my mom) and Cole

Darcey

Gammy (Justin's mom) & Cole

I just realized I didn't get a picture of me and Cole! UGH!

Justin had to work on Saturday so Cole and I went to visit his grandmothers.

Then on Sunday Justin was supposed to work, but he told them he wasn't coming in so he could be home for my first Mother's Day. We just hung out around the house and took long naps yesterday afternoon. It was really nice.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!!

Baby names

Kelly's Show Us Your Life this week is about baby names. I've never actually done one of these,
but baby names is an interesting subject around my house.

We had our son's name picked out before we were even trying to get pregnant.

COLE JAMES

We picked Cole because it is not trendy, but also not super weird. We didn't want him to be in a classroom with 4 other people with the same name. It's a good solid simple name. It's four letters, easy to spell, easy to pronounce. James is Justin's dad's and Papa's first name. The best part about it is Cole James sounded like a gun slinger's name. When Justin thought about that, he was sold on the name. Should we have any more boys in the future we have tossed around the name Carter, but we haven't picked a middle name yet.

For a girl...well let's just say when we found out Cole was a boy at my 20 week ultrasound, we were relieved. We could not settle on a girl's name to save our lives. In fact, when the doctor held Cole up to me after he was born and I saw that he was, in fact, ALL boy, I actually said aloud, "Oh thank God, he's really a boy." Besides the fact that we already had a TON of boy's clothes and a sports themed bedroom awaiting this babe, if HE had ended up being a SHE, we would have probably left the hospital with a blank birth certificate (do they even allow you to do that anymore.) Perhaps she would have been named Female (sounds like tamale).
I had a ton of ideas that I loved. Buy my dear husband vetoed them all. The only name he could remotely get on board with was

REESE LYN

Reese is becoming more trendy, but it's a cute simple name. It's not super weird, but it's different. Lyn is my middle name. The other idea I had combined my middle name and my mom and sister's middle name:

ANNALYN

But, I couldn't decide on a middle name. And Anna Lyn seemed too simple.

In the past few weeks I came up with a girl's name of

HENLEY

But, I can't come up with a middle name for that either. Justin was actually quasi on board with Henley, which really surprised me. I have never heard of anyone being named Henley, but I think it's cute for a girl. I also thought about naming her after my great-grandmother who was the sweetest lady in the whole world:

MATTIE LEE

But, there are a TON of Madi/Mady/Maddie, etc. in this world because Madeline is super popular.

So, IF we have another child and that child is a girl...

we're in big trouble.

Disclaimer: Don't get your hopes up peeps: I am NOT pregnant. :)

Happy birthday Daddy!

Cole wanted me to post something for him.

Happy birthday Daddy! You're the best daddy in the world!

Cole actually gave his daddy a card that said (basically) you are my hero. He even signed it (ish). I know here in a couple of years Cole will certainly be his daddy's little shadow. I couldn't think of a better person to have for a hero.

Happy birthday babe! I am so lucky to have you as a husband and friend. We love you!!

Thank you!

This is what I was trying to say, but couldn't find the correct words.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/05/05/elisabeth-hasselbeck-apology-erin-andrews/

I'm on a roll today.

I have been watching Dancing With the Stars pretty frequently this season. Erin Andrews is a contestant this year and I have really grown to like her. She seems like a woman I could get along with pretty well. So when this came out today, it upset me. In case you don't feel like reading it, Elisabeth Hasselbeck is saying that Erin's costumes are so revealing that the man who posted nude videos of her that he made from peeping at her hotel room should have just waited until she was on DWTS and he could have bascially seen the same thing and not gone to jail for it.

Elisabeth gets a lot of flack for stuff she says and most of the time I think people are just against her conservative ideals. But, this pissed me off. She has since apologized for it, and I'm sure Erin is woman enough to accept. But, that doesn't change the fact that someone would chide Erin for her "racy" costumes (which, by the way, are not racy. Have you seen what Edyta and Anna wear???!!)

I cannot for the life of me figure out what would make Elisabeth say something like this? It is ALMOST like she is saying Erin deserved it. It's almost like people saying that women who dress provocatively deserve to be sexually harassed. I am just flabbergasted.

So, yes, I'm going to pick on Edyta for a second, but let's compare. The first set is Erin, the second is Edyta. Do you see a glaring difference? In the purple dress that Erin is wearing, at first glance it appears she only has purple flowers covering her boobs, but she has an entire nude bodysuit on. If you click on the picture it will show you the full size pic. (not to mention the half-naked Russian dancing next to her).

So I guess my point is this: don't say that she is dressing provocatively when she is obviously trying hard NOT to (hence the nude body suit on the only remotely skimpy outfit). And don't make light of the fact that her privacy was invaded in the very worst way AND BROADCAST TO ALL OF YOUTUBE.

My other point is: Edyta, I know you have a rockin' bod, but put on some clothes. :) You're making me feel bad for eating...well, anything.

20 Things No One Told You About Motherhood

20 Things No One Told You About Motherhood

It's so funny how I probably would have rolled my eyes about half of these things before Cole was born.

My Son, The Goat

Ever since Cole became able to get around and pick stuff up, everything goes into his mouth, just like any other baby. But, I really wonder about him sometimes. We call him a goat because he will eat anything (except peas). What's funny is that's what we used to say about Sadie (the dog). What's even funnier is the older Cole gets, the more we think he's like Sadie.

He likes rattling packages. He likes to play with water bottles. We find random puddles of puke on the floor. You have to watch him with an open door because he will be gone before you know it. He's very persistent when he wants something. He sits at your foot and begs for food. He will fetch. He eats random non-edible items and then throws them up later (see below.)

This is the corner of a package of something. My son ate this at some point and threw it up yesterday when he got home from daycare. (He didn't eat the bobby pin. I was just using it as a reference for size).

So in summary, my son will eat anything and he reminds me of our old dog. haha :)

This is the shirt he came home from daycare in. I saw him across the room and he was screaming because they were vaccuuming. I thought, hey there's Cole. Wait, no, that's a little girl. No, that's Cole in a little girl's shirt. He has drooled all over himself so much so that they needed to change him, yet I had no spare clothes. Poor baby. The only spare clothes they had was this little girls shirt. He would make a pretty girl though. :)