Thumbs Up For Two!

Nixon is at such a fun age! I just want to bottle up all of the cute things he does and save them for a rainy day!! He is just getting over a cold and for those 10 days it was ROUGH! But he is back to his normal self and I just keep thinking “Were you always this happy? You ARE a nice boy after all!” I feel like such a bad mom because my documenting his growing up had lacked a lot lately! I just want to remember all the funny things he does! So here’s a list, mostly just for me.

-He is quiet. This could be for many reasons, but most people just comment on how quiet he is!
-He isn’t speaking much, but we are leaps and bounds from where we were! He actually was just approved for Physical Therapy (so random) along with Speech Therapy! I couldn’t be more excited about it!
-His first word was Shoe. He’s been saying “dada” for a long time, but he used it for EVERYTHING! I couldn’t say that “dada” was his first word because it wasn’t specific enough. He always look at family pictures and point to everyone in the picture. There’s one picture that he would bring us and go through the family and then point to his feet and say “Shooooooooooooe?” Everything ends in a question, but he’s not actually asking a question if that makes sense.
-His vocabulary lately have really taken off! I’m so proud! We have been working so hard to get him talking more! He says, daddy, doggy (those two sound the same, it’s all in the context) Cheeee (Chief), Cheese (also interchangeable with Chief) ch ch ch cheeee (no no no Chief) uh oh, gagarooooooooooo (kangaroo), uhoooooooon (ballon), poooooop, and shoe. He can say hot, but its more of the sound you would make if you didn’t like something, like EH! I need to get it on video, it’s pretty funny.

-He really knows his animal sounds and it really just kills me! He will randomly start saying “ha ha ha” and I’ll look around and sure enough he’s spotted a monkey. He knows the sounds of a monkey, dog, snake, bear, lion, owl, bunny, guinea pig, and bird. He’s pretty hit or miss when it comes to cat and dog. The easiest ones!

-We got him a scooter for his birthday, and he doesn’t exactly understand it. He mostly likes to push it around instead of riding it.
-If he sees something flying like a plane he will make a woosh sound and fly his hand through the air. It’s pretty cute. How many times have I said that now?
-He is still a good sleeper for the most part. He goes down at 8:30ish but doesn’t usually fall asleep for awhile. I can count on him waking up after 8:00 95% of the time. Sometimes the landscapers come early, or the garage door will wake him up. He also takes a nap from 2-5 everyday. We like sleep in our house!

-He loves his doggy. Loves him. He loves to sit and feed him, and follow him around the house. His extra favorite thing to do is go in and out of the doggy door, and play in his water. It’s probably one of my least favorites.
-He’s a pretty picky eater, no surprise. He goes through phases of what he’s willing to eat, especially with fruit! I can always count on him eating apple sauce and usually mac and cheese. Right now he will not eat strawberries, bananas, apples, and he’s never really liked oranges. Every morning he eats two pieces of toast! So if he’s willing to eat, he will eat a toooon!

-Last week he figured out how to open the fridge. I even caught him climbing in the fridge to get his sippy cup. Ugh.
-He’s completely iPhone savvy *facepalm* We only have ourselves to blame. Not my proudest moment.
-At his two year appointment he weighed in at 29lbs, (50%) and 50% for height. His head however, it’s up there in the 75th still! He’s no longer above average, but everyone comments on how big he is!

-On Tuesdays and Fridays I can always count on an extra happy baby because that’s when the recycle man and trash man come! He loves to run over to the window and watch as the trucks drive past our house!

-He loves to read books, especially if they are a lift the flap book! He loves the book “Where is spot?” and “Where is babies Belly Button”. We read those two every night before bed!

-He loves to cheer for himself after he’s done something. He will finish reading a book and close it and clap. Or he will stand on the bottom stair and “count” to three (he just makes three sounds in a row) and jumps down and he will clap.

-Nixon LOVES his dad. LOVES him. This last weekend I sat back and watched how every time he would get upset or hurt he would run right past me who was doing nothing, and run to his dad. It’s no surprise he will say daddy and hasn’t ever muttered the word “mama”.

-He loves to play outside. He opens the back door and just comes and goes all day bringing all the toys back and forth with him. And yes, he is hitting Chief with a spatula and thought it was the funniest thing ever. And no, I do not use that spatula when I cook anymore, it’s for projects only!
-He loves to get out of the house and go. If I say “we’re gonna go buh bye” and I’m not ready he will run to the garage door and if I’m not there in fast enough he may or may not throw a fit. Last week he opened the door to the garage probably 10 times so Jim took him outside to play and he just kept going to the cars and trying to get in! He really wanted to go for a ride so for a ride we went! He clearly wears the pants in this house.

-He’s a pretty good traveler! I can’t remember how many flights hes been on in his short two years, but He is totally comfortable with the process. He knows we get on the plane and then it’s a free for all with the light button over head. He also knows not to push the stewardess button!
-He is the cutest little arm folder and head bower in the world.
-When we get to wherever we are going like the store he always waves at everyone as we walk in and then after we check out. I know people are waiting for him to actually speak “hi” but we are working on it! He started saying it last week but I really have to work it out of him!
-He is the boy that cried wolf with poop. I think anytime theres action in his diaper he points to it and says “pooooop”. It’s pretty funny but also helpful because when I know he actually did poop he will only say it once hes completely done.

-I can’t believe I’ve made if this far without mentioning his LOVE of Toy Story! All day, everyday! He got Woody and Buzz for Christmas and Its been the best ever. He makes Buzz fly, and loves to watch the movies with them by his side.
We Love this little guy of ours! I feel so lucky to be his mom and that I get to stay at home with him all day and hang out! He really is so funny, and he’s my little buddy! Seriously, Nikkins Monster, you’re my favorite!

This picture was taken in July, when he was about 17 months, but it’s still a favorite

9 Months Old!

I think we can all remember when I was so excited to hit that 9 month mark in pregnancy, but the same can’t be said now. STOP GROWING! Nine months has been really fun!

-Just a few days after Nixon turned 9 months we were lucky enough to have my parents come to town! We had so much fun while they were here! We did everything you can imagine! We went to Schnephf farms (again), got predicures, shopped like crazy, fixed many things around the house, went to the park,  and got some Christmas shopping taken care of. Nixon loved all the attention and we were both in a depression after the left.

-Nixon got to meet one of his cousins for the first time! Kali was in town for a few days so we got together for a delicious breakfast and caught up. It was so fun to get these babies together!

-It was a big month as far as food goes. We moved to stage 3 foods because he would easily eat 2 size 2! It was time to upgrade. We also started him on finger foods, and he LOVES them! Puffs are our lifesaver! I was shocked at how fast he was able to pick them up and get them to his mouth. Such a smarty pants!

-We had our first Halloween with a baby and it was so fun! Mid September I started putting Nixon’s skeleton jammies on him and pretty much never took them off. I mean have you seen anything cuter? Then when Halloween came we made sure he had a late nap, woke up around 6:15 and he was ready to party all night as the cutest baby elephant. Our neighborhood is apparently a HUGE hot spot for trick or treating. We thought we were prepared with our 8 bags of candy… we didn’t stand a chance! We were cleaned out of candy in 45 minutes! It was insane! But we were happy to pack up and head over to our friends house to party with them!

-Nixon was pretty ambitious in the teeth department this last month. On Oct. 27ish he got his top right tooth, and a week later, about the 3rd, the top left popped through! He now has 4 teeth! YIKES!

-Someone decided that a nice three week cold would be a great way to celebrate our new teeth! It’s been really fun *not* but we are on the up and up and I am still alive.

-Chief and Nixon have taken their relationship to the next level. Nixon loves watching and giggling at Chief, and loves when he licks and sniffs his belly/legs/feet. Chief loves Nixon, Nixon loves Chief, and we are a happy family.

-And if all of that weren’t enough, we have a crawler/scooter. It’s entertaining to watch because he hasn’t figured out how to use his limbs in unison. He kind of army crawls, but uses his frog legs when those toes are lucky enough to catch on the ground. Does this make sense? Just know that it’s cute. (and I write all this for me to remember, lets be honest)

-The least favorite trick that he’s picked up, grinding his teeth. I mean what the hell. 

And because you haven’t seen enough baby videos by now, here is Nixon’s personal favorite to watch

Grumpy Gills

You know those moments when you hate someone so much

and you just want to tell them to "go to hell" or "check your facts"

but the only thing you can really do is cry?

I had that moment yesterday.

And the person on the receiving end of my odd silence was someone who I truly do appreciate

and I respect him beyond this world.

Last week when I went in for my 37 week appointment the doctor told me I had lost a pound

(at that moment I nearly hugged him) 

and that I was also measuring 40 weeks.

The week before I was measuring right on at 36 weeks

so I grew 4 cm. in a week.

A WEEK!

That's a lot people.

He told me when I came back for my 38 week appointment we would need

to do an ultrasound to measure the size of this baby,

and he didn't want my first one to be "the record breaker".

and the more reasons he could find to get this baby here sooner he would use to get me induced early.

I. Was. Ecstatic.

to say the least.

When I made my appointment for 38 weeks I had to make it 2 days earlier than normal

due to my work schedule and the ultrasound tech's hours.

This meant I was going in only 5 days after my last appointment.

I was a little worried that he wouldn't tell me what I wanted to hear,

but my baby was measuring 40 cm and I was really counting on that working out for me.

After my ultrasound he told me that this baby was 8lbs.

EIGHT! I'm only 37.5 weeks and my baby is 8lbs.

He said that could be off a little in either direction, 

and I'm assuming, with my luck, this baby is bigger than 8lbs.

and then the student measured my stomach, and I was measuring 38 weeks.

Tell me right now how that adds up. It doesn't, but I just wanted to carry on with the appointment so I didn't ask questions about that.

He pointed out my swollen feet for the millionth time and the student Doctor expressed her concerns about

how swollen they were. 

I honestly don't think she's seen such fat feet before.

He reminded her the swelling was part of pregnancy and then she told him

I have trace amounts of protein in my urine, and I have for a few weeks.

(News to me, and I got excited about that because that means preeclampsia or toxemia, and that means get this baby out asap)

But then he said it's not enough to worry about, and everything looked just fine and I didn't have either.

He then checked me and told me that I'm progressing. 

I'm 3cm and 80%, up from 5 days ago when I was 2cm and 70%.

I know that should get me excited but it doesn't.

People dilate and efface way before they actually go into labor.

I could stay here until I'm 42 weeks along 

(but clearly we all know that I am NOT waiting that long)

This is when I got pissed.

This is when I nearly just started crying.
This may be TMI, but it's my blog so deal with it.
Then he said next week they would strip my membrane if I would like.
I did manage to say, in my most pathetic voice "Can't we do that's today"?
I think I caught him off guard, who really wants their membrane stripped?
This girl.
So he did. Now I am 3cm, 80% effaced, and -2.

He said he would schedule an inducement date for around 39 weeks

but he wouldn't tell me what day it is for until my next appointment.

In a week.

I couldn't even find the words to beg him to tell me. I was literally chocking back the tears, not from the pain, but gosh did that hurt, but because I was so upset.

And that made it even harder to breath.

How was I having an 8lb baby already? and Why am I the only one concerned about the massive size?

The longer he is in there the more weight he is going to gain.

The more weight he gains, the more weight I gain, and it's that much harder for me to do anything.

He handed me my paper to schedule my appointment for next week and said

"See you next week, hopefully sooner!" with his ear to ear smile and ever so cheery, happy, peppy voice.

So I just whispered "thank you" and like that he was out the door.

I just sat there for a few minutes and got my composure,

struggled while I tried to put my pants back on.

I even thought about calling him back in the room to have him watch how hard it is for me to get dressed

because I think that's a good reason to get induced. That and an 8lb baby.

I can't lift my feet past the middle of my opposite calf, and I can't bend down that far to pull up my pants.

Imagine that sight, accompanied by some grunting and cursing.

Needless to say, I'm done. This baby is very much big enough to survive on the outside,

and I've got the necessities prepped and ready for him.

The only thing left that absolutely needs to get done is a real good house cleaning before he gets here.

But have I mentioned I can't bend over? 

Please pray for us.

Pray that this baby comes,

and my husband doesn't kill me.

or himself for that matter. 

Poor guy.

And because no blog post is good without pictures, here's a few really flattering pictures of a whale for you.

Oh wait, those are pictures of me, on the ladder, painting the babies room. That's how much I love you baby,

37.5 weeks pregnant and I painted 95% of your room by myself because I'm impatient.

and I thought it would induce labor.

It didn't.

But at least your room isn't completely white anymore.

You are welcome.

And the last picture is Chief and I on our walk.

He is fat and lazy too and get's to lay down to wait for the lights to change color.

Lucky dog.

But this picture is to show how fat my feet really are.

I finally feel like this picture almost does it justice.

Almost.

You've made it this far?!

I'm shocked.

I've rambled on for a long long long time now.

I hope your week is much more comfortable than mine!

The One That Got Away

I only have a few hours before the sun goes down and I again become mortified to be home alone. We will see how I feel after this post if I’ll actually be able to stay and clean, or if I’m going to have to run away, haha. The sad thing is, it’s true. So here’s what happened….

Last Wednesday, February 15, I had the day off because my parents were coming in town that night. I spent all day cleaning. Literally all day, from 10 am to 4:30 pm. The house looked amazing! Jim came home from work at around 5:30 and started to tell me about what was going on at the end of the street. There were a few cop cars, and a few all black under cover cars at the house two houses down across the street. Jim said there were cops everywhere and a couple guys hand cuffed on the ground. Fast forward to about 6:45 when I went outside to tell Jim I was ready to leave because I really just HAD to go to Bath and Body works to get some “spring soap” before my parents get in town. I know, I know, I’m a soap snob and we only had Christmas soap left!! Anyway, we left about 5 minutes later down the opposite end of the street.

After Bath and Body we had to pick up my parents from the air port. Jim had asked me while we were at the air port if I wanted to take my parents stuff back to the house and then dinner, or just go straight to dinner. I was starving (go figure) so I said dinner and then home. Now it’s about 9:15 and when we pulled in I could hear Chief going CRAZY in the house. Usually when we get home he knows its us and he will bark maybe once or twice, just to say hi and then he comes out through his doggy door or he waits on his bed in the kitchen for us. My mom wasn’t Chief’s biggest fan so I wanted to go in and calm him down so that my mom wouldn’t freak out when she came inside. Everything was fine when I got inside and Chief was just excited to see us. While Jim, my mom, and my dad were getting suitcases inside and getting everything situated I saw a couple things in the family room that I had forgotten to take to my bedroom earlier so I wanted to hurry and  put those away before my mom thought that I was messy.

Chief has a track record of chewing things like TV remotes, base boards, our ataman, shoes… you get the picture. We have a baby gate that keeps him locked in the kitchen, and down the hall to our bedroom. we keep all the doors in the hallway closed because he has eaten a Costco size thing of paper towels out of the pantry before too. So this is what things look like for Chief on a regular day.

And that’s what it looked like when we got home too. How was I suppose to know anything had gone on? When I opened the door to the bedroom I saw a bunch of white stuff on the ground before I even got the chance to turn the light on. My first thought was “Holy crap, Chief!! He ate a bunch of stuff out of the garbage can again!” Then it hit me. I was the one that had opened the door, Chief hadn’t been in there. Then I realized all the drawers were opened and it was my clothes everywhere. I imidiately started to scream for Jim (on the complete opposite end of the house) we met in the kitchen and down the hall Jim and my dad went. The sliding glass door was open just enough to get a body through. It’s really heavy, and it doesn’t slide really easy so you have to put your whole body into opening and closing it.

We had been coming and going all day through all the doors in the back of the house and we had left two doors unlocked. We didn’t put the bar to the sliding glass door down, and the laundry room door was unlocked too. Needless to say, they were in our bedroom and were clearly looking for fast money. They only things stolen were a couple of my watches, and a charm bracelet. On Saturday morning when Jim went to leave for tennis we learned they stole his tennis bag with tennis balls and his tennis racket. We didn’t have any cash hiding anywhere so they really didn’t get much. The things that they took were really weird, I mean I had a bracelet from Tiffany’s sitting with my watches, a diamond necklace in a box that was on the same shelf, but they didn’t take those. I kinda feel weird listing other valuable things we had that they didn’t take because well, this is the web and those creepers could be creeping my blog!!

I think this picture helps with explaining what could have happened. The gate was open just a little bit so we think that they had tried the other two doors first. I honestly can’t remember if the laundry room door to the hall was open or not, but I have been in the habit of leaving it open because I like  Chief to have more room, and I know how much he looooooves looking out windows. Either way, Chief was on the other side of the door and no one would venture in uninvited with Chief. He looks scary, a big black 100lb dog, and even if you don’t see him, his bark is alarming. I think that after they saw/heard chief and then saw that the bedroom door was unlocked and that the door to the hall was closed, it was an easy hit. Chief couldn’t get into the bedroom, unfortunately. As you can see from the picture that there is an irrigation ditch that runs right behind our house and you can get into it from either end of the street. No one knows you are back there, and it’s not very deep. It’s probably 5 feet from the top of our fence to the ground on the other side. Then with the stairs to the slide, easy easy easy.

Once the cops finally arrived they were able to find 2 finger prints, we are just hoping that they aren’t our own. We asked the officer if she thought that the incident at the end of the street had anything to do with our house. She checked the report from earlier and it turns out that the guys in handcuffs use to live in that house and were trying to get in to get the rest of their stuff. Unfortunately, she had run into the prior week and they “weren’t very good guys”. We left around 6:50 and the last officer left them at 7:11. There’s a good chance that it was them because they knew the neighborhood, but she also said it could have been as random as someone walking down the the ditch and seeing that the latch was up. Chief has graduated from being locked in the kitchen to fullllllllll range of the house. He loves it, he even treated himself to 4 boxes of girl scout cookies. I seriously couldn’t be more grateful for my dog. Had he not been here things would have been a lot worse. I’m so happy that no one was harmed and that the things that were taken were only material and can essentially be replaced. I do happen to be the biggest baby now. I’m terrified of everything, jump at the sound of ice falling in the freezer, and I have nightmares nearly every night. But we are doing everything we can to make our house safer, and I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job.

*I did not proof read this because honestly the story freaks me out*