HELLO!!!

Does anyone still have me on their feed reader?

It’s been a long time, yes I know. I am sad to say that it is going to be even longer. I am going to be deleting my blog once I have pulled all the information that I want off it. I have thought long and hard about this and have decided that I just don’t have the time to blog anymore.  I will still be out there lurking on your blogs but if you need to find me or want to stay updated look on Facebook.  If you don’t know how to find me on Facebook send me a message and I will make sure we can find each other.  It was fun while it lasted, thanks to the few of you out there that stayed interested in our lives and what I had to say.

Belated Birthday Wishes

Happy Belated Birthday C-Man.  My nephew turned one yesterday and I forgot to wish him a happy birthday.  We celebrated his birthday this past weekend and once again I have photos but not at my fingertips right this minute.  Look for an updated post soon.

Guess Where I Was Last Night???

I was at my birthday present.  Yes my birthday was almost two months ago but it was well worth the wait.  My wonderful husband got me tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance tour in Baltimore.  I loved this season of SYTYCD, espically Twitch and Gev, and I had mentioned to him towards the end of the show that I would like to see the tour.  He made it happen and it was a blast.  It was a three hour show and of couse they did most of the favorite dances.  I will go into more detail later when I get home and can upload the photos but I just wanted to let you know what I was doing last night.  Thanks babe, I had a great time!!!

Fourteen Months

I bet you guys thought I wasn’t ever going to return.  I really haven’t been motivated to blog about anything lately, including a thirteen month old post (I know I am a horrible Mom), so that is the reason for my long hiatus.  I don’t know if I will become more motivated in the near future but I promise to make sure I at least post about Smidgel.  In this post I will include his milestones from both months (thirteen and fourteen months).

The above photois Smidgel at thirteen months.  I haven’t had a chance to take his fourteen month photo yet but I will add that once I do so.  Smidgel turned fourteen months old yesterday.  I finally don’t feel like time is flying by as the last two months have gone by at a normal pace.  During his thirteenth month he started cutting four more teeth, all on top.  He also starting walking more regularly and was splitting his time between crawling and walking.  His interest in the animals really started to peak during his thirteenth month.  For the most part he is nice to them but he does get overzealous at times and we have to remind him to be nice.  It is a work in progress but with his new found interest in the animals he has finally lost interest in their water!!!  We also found out that he loves the trampoline and swings.

Smidgel’s fourteenth month brought a little boy on the move.  He rarely crawls now (he only crawls when he is outside and is unsure of his footing) and unless he is sleeping he is constantly moving.  Speaking of sleeping, he has really started to fight his afternoon nap.  He probably only takes it once every three to four days.  We had planned on converting him over to one nap a day at the beginning of the year but if this keeps up, we may be doing that earlier than planned.  His vocabulary has really peaked this month as well.  The words that he has are: mama, dada, sit (which sounds like shit, unless he is saying sit down), more, what’s that, I love you and banana (nana).  I think that he has started to say shoe and night night but I haven’t confirmed them as of yet.  On top of all that he can show you where his feet and nose are.  We are working on identifying his ear but that is taking some time.  He can’t say dog or cat yet but he can tell you what they say.  This month he has also become obsessed with books.  I think that he pulls all his books off his bookshelf daily.  I will take that over him taking everything off his changing table.  Most nights you will find him walking around with a book and sitting down every couple of minutes to look at the pictures.  Now that he loves his books I don’t have to be as concerned with our books.  We have however had to push the couch back so that the built in bookshelf in the living room is covered.  Until I can ensure that he will always be nice to the books our photo albums and yearbooks must be protected.  In the last week he hasn’t been eating well but we have found he will continue to eat if you give him a fork.  I guess he is just trying to be independent.  We are trying to give him the opportunity to practice with his fork during most meals.

The last time we were in North Carolina my Mom and I took him to a playground.  They had bucket swings so he had a blast swinging.   

They also had a little people’s playground so we were able to get him acquainted with that.  He was a bit unsure of everything but that is because he isn’t completely stable on his feet quite yet.  I did however get my most favorite picture to date of him while he was playing on the playground.

Riding in the car hasn’t been pleasant the last couple of weeks.  Most of the time when we are going places it is at least an hour one way.  Smidgel starts to get tired but he really fights falling asleep.  We had reverted to giving him a pacifier to settle him down and ensure that he gets some sleep, as we almost always plan a trip around nap time.  The last three times we have been in the car we haven’t given him the pacifier and we pretty much spend the ride with him screaming.  He isn’t crying, he is just squirming in his carseat and trying to escape.  I could handle it for short trips but for an hour it becomes nerve racking and for that reason I am not looking forward to our next car ride to North Carolina, which we have quite a few of in November.  The four teeth he starting cutting in his thirteenth month are finally through so Smidgel officially has twelve teeth.  I think that’s it for the month so I leave you with the adorable face I get to look at all day, every day!

Birthday Presents

Last Monday Smidgel had two packages in the mail.  It had been a rough day for him after suffering his first face plant (this was taken two days after the fact, it healed really well),

and getting home way past his bed time (10 pm).  I was hoping that he would be up for seeing what he got when he got home, but he wanted nothing to do with it.  I waited until the next day to show him what was sent to him. 

Katie sent him Japanese gifts (the soccer ball, training chop sticks and the Karate Kid head band).  He loves, loves, loves the soccer ball and has actually kicked it around the living room.  Julie sent him the Piglet books and the hand made blanket.  The first thing he did when I gave him the blanket was throw it on the floor and flop down on it.  He loves it and you did a wonderful job.  Then later in the week he got another package, this time from Gris with three more books (sorry no pic Gris, I didn’t get around to finding the camera).  Thanks everyone for thinking of Smidgel and going out of your way to send him something, it is much appreciated and I am sure they will all be well loved. 

P.S. Writing this posted prompted me to add a few more photos to the last post…finally.

One Year Old

One year, one week and one day ago, Smidgel turned one.  It has been a busy two weeks but it has been a lot of fun.  The birthday celebration started out the weekend before his birthday with our families.  Saturday we had grandparents, aunts and uncles and Dr. P and her neice (Erika I am just going to steal your pseudonyms…if you don’t mind) join us to celebrate.  After grilling out, eating and catching up with everyone we gave Smidgel his birthday cake.  My sister had made him a train/race car cake (it was initially supposed to be a train cake but after decorating they looked more like race cars, either way they were a huge hit) and we gave him the top of the engine as his own personal cake.

He of course was weary of the flame and Boo-Boo ended up accidentially blowing it out.  We had been practicing all week but when it came time to blow he was too distracted by all the people piled in our kitchen to even try.  It took him a few minutes to get into the cake but once he got a taste of it, he was quick to dig in and make himself a mess.

After he started throwing the remaining cake on the floor, which is still his way of telling us that he is done eating, I ran him upstairs for a quick bath.  Unfortunately I opted to keep his shorts on so they were a mess too.  Luckily we didn’t drop too much chocolate cake on the carpet and the stuff that we did was quickly picked up by one of his aunts.  After his bath, we went outside so that he could open his presents.  Of course he wasn’t all that interested in opening so I did most of it for him.  He got books, a ton of clothes, some money for savings and a few toys. 

On his actual birthday we took him to the pool for an hour.  On our way home we picked him up a shake from McDonald’s.  Once we got home he took his afternoon nap.  After dinner we stuck a candle in his shake and sang him happy birthday.  This time around he tried to blow out the candle and was able to get the flame to waver a little.  We had gotten him a real rocking horse that I found at an antique mall earlier in the week so there were no presents to open that day. 

Last weekend we had friends over to celebrate his birthday.  It was a small gathering but it was a lot of fun to celebrate his first year with all of our close friends.  Erika and her two boys came out and Sherman helped Smidgel open presents. 

He got more clothes, lots of books and a train from Sherman and Juice.  I cannot believe that it has been (over) a year.  Looking at Juice made it reality that Smidgel used to be that small and now look at him.  He is a ball of energy that is constantly learning new things.  He is still workign on consistently walking and the more you want him to do it, the less he does.  He is really starting to take steps and not worry about having to hang onto things.  This month also came with lots of chatter.  Half the time it really does sound like he is saying something, like just recently he has starting saying uh oh when he drops something.  He has a few “words” (sounds that we know have meaning) that he uses consistently.  He is very head strong and I know that I am going to have a fight on my hands the older he gets.  When he wants something he tries desperatly to either hold onto whatever we are trying to pry out of his hands or get onto or into what he wants.  When it is taken away or he can’t get what he wants he screams and cries and if you don’t do it for him it just continues.  We are trying to be good about not giving him everything he wants so that it doesn’t show him that that behavior is acceptable.  This month has also brought us the following: our eighth tooth, finally; a small monkey in human form that climbs on and up on anything he can; a copy cat who will try to mimic anything you say, laughs when you laugh, sneezes or coughs when you do and has even attempted to snap because he saw me doing it; and a small tornado that will destroy a room or remove everything from a drawer in an instant.  Smidgel also got a new carseat this month and is now sitting facing forward, which he loves.  He seems much more content now that he can look out the windows and can see and talk to us during our many outings.  It was a great first year, that I still can’t believe has come and gone, and I can’t wait to see what the next year has to offer us.  I love you little man!!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Smidgel!!!  Where did the year go???

Anniversary Vacation

Hopefully I can remember everything we did and the order in which we did it. We had a great time and it was wonderful to get away from everything for a few days. First off, the flowers.

We left on Thursday after Boo-Boo got off of work. As usual we had not done much packing the day before so I was rushing to get stuff done during the day. We ended up leaving a little later than we had wanted but it ended up only taking us an hour and a half to get to the cabin. We arrived around five, unpacked and settled in and then did a little looking around. The cabin was described as being secluded with a river view and river access.

It was all of those things but not to the degree we expected. We figured by being secluded it meant that there were no other homes in the area, but we had very close neighbors (one of which was described by the owner of our cabin as territorial). It also had a river view and river access but the river was separated from the cabin by a very busy road. The cabin also had a train track that was up a very steep hill behind the cabin. Trains came by quite frequently and Smidgel and I would wave “bye-bye to the choo-choos” whenever we had the chance.

Friday morning we went to the Luray Zoo. It is a small rescue zoo but it is known for it collection of snakes, which I do have to say is quite impressive.

They also have quite a few birds, a tiger, Capuchin monkeys, wallabees, a few other cats and a petting zoo. In the petting zoo are some deer with very funny antlers.

There is a sign explaining why their antlers look bumpy and deformed and that is because they have been neutered. Apparently when you neuter a deer it does something to the hormones that help develop antlers. I think that Smidgel enjoyed the petting zoo portion the best because he was on the level of the animals.

Boo-Boo and I enjoyed watching the Capuchin monkeys and the tiger being fed.

Mother with sleeping baby on her back

We probably stood at both exhibits for at least twenty minutes! After the zoo we went back to the cabin so that Smidgel could nap and we could relax. After nap time we went down to the river and swam for an hour or so. While we were swimming another family came by in kayaks so we enjoying talking with them. We also found out that our territorial neighbor rents out his cabin too but he does not inform his guests about the line division when down at the river. It all ended up working out, mostly because the mother didn’t feel like dealing with the kids and the dog and ended up taking their dog back to their cabin. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and after Smidgel went to bed Boo-Boo and I played some board games.

Sunday morning was a very early morning, I believe that Smidgel woke up right around six. Unfortunately the cabin only has one bedroom (and a pull out sofa) so we were in the same room as Smidgel. He is a very active sleeper and moves around a lot. Usually if he wakes up early or in the middle of the night I give him a little bit of time to settle back down and see if he is actually ready to get up. We didn’t have that luxury because he would stand up in his pack-n-play and there we were. So he would bang on the foot of the bed and laugh and scream, anything to get our attention. This was also the morning that he was running a fever and was cranky. He stayed up for a few hours and then went back down for a nap. The plan for the day was to go to Luray Caverns and then do some shopping in Luray. We weren’t sure we were going to end up doing that because of his fever and decided that we would see how he was when he got up. After his nap he seemed like he was doing a little better so headed to Luray Caverns. I was t the Caverns a few weeks ago with Aminallady but this was Boo-Boo’s first time. I could go back millions of times, they are amazing.

The Shaggy Dog

The Ghost (when the caverns were first discovered they thought a ghost was following then because every where they went they caught a glimpse of this. Eventually they used it as a guide as they made their way around the caverns).

The wishing well

About half way through the Caverns, Smidgel started getting antsy. When we picked him up, he was very warm which was a little alarming because it is pretty cool in the Caverns. We finished our tour, carrying Smidgel the majority of the time, and then went to the Garden Maze. I thought that the Garden Maze would be short and sweet and we would be on our way in no time. The Garden Maze is just what it says, a maze (which I expected but I didn’t expect to spend thirty minutes in it). I also thought there would be pretty flowers to take pictures of but they didn’t have those either. I did end up getting this shot of the horizon and the Luray Singing Tower at the terrace where you can sit and relax.

We did end up driving through downtown Luray but there weren’t any shops we were interested in stopping at. We made a quick stop into CVS to get a thermometer and Tylenol and then went back to the cabin. After a dose of Tylenol and another nap, Smidgel was pretty much back to his normal active self. Boo-Boo grilled out for dinner and we enjoyed dinner on the deck over looking the river. Once again, after Smidgel went to bed, Boo-Boo and I played board games, which included Scrabble (which I beat him seven games to one over the next two days).

Sunday we didn’t have anything planned so we just decided to go to Skyline Drive. We spent about three hours driving towards Front Royal and stopped in at one of the waysides for lunch. I can’t remember where we got off but it was a beautiful day with beautiful scenery and a few deer sightings.

After a few hours of relaxation at the cabin, and probably another Smidgel nap, we went back down to the river. Smidgel wasn’t as tolerant of the river this go around and we probably only spent thirty minutes in the water. Once we got Smidgel to sleep we did a little packing and then enjoyed our last evening together at the cabin.

We spent the majority of Monday morning packing up the car so that we could make out of the cabin by checkout time. We made it just time time. We were able to get the dogs down to the river one last time before we left and I think that Apollo was grateful for that. Georgia could have cared less as she spent most of the time trying to pull me back to the cabin. The morning was kind of hectic as we left the majority of the packing, once again, for the morning. That on top of the bees that were discovered in our car the night before made for a morning that flew by. We had decided the day before that we would take Skyline Drive down to Waynesboro and then head home from there. We didn’t stop as many time this go around but we did stop at the wayside to get some food. Smidgel was pretty much over his carseat by this time so it was a cranky ride home. We had a wonderful time and we plan on making this a yearly vacation. We probably will not go back to this cabin next year because of it only having one bedroom. If we can’t find another one in our price range, that allows dogs and is within walking distance of water we will return. It was a beautiful place to stay and we really enjoyed our time, it is the sleeping arrangements that are the only thing deterring us.

STEPS!!!

That’s right, he has taken his first steps!!  He did it last night and we were able to catch it on video.  Give me until tonight to upload the video (as it takes between two and three hours on my slow as molasses internet to upload a video) and I will add it to this post.  Way to go Smidgel!!!

Updated to add:

It is sideways because apparently if you hold our video camera to where it is parallel to the ground instead of perpendicular it shoots the video that way, even though it does not appear that way on the screen when you are shooting it. I have no clue how to flip the video or if there is even a way to do so. But there you have it, sideways walking.