Fa La La La La.....It's Time to Deck the Halls

We decided that we would put up the Christmas decorations the weekend before Thanksgiving.  This is one of the luxuries of having a fake Christmas tree, you don't have to worry about it drying out.  I usually like to sip on a few adult beverages while I am decorating the house for Christmas, but this year I would have to be getting into the holiday spirit without the help of any Christmas cheer. 

Nick and I did not anticipate that we would have any problems with Jack and the tree......and a short 36 hours after the tree was up and fully decorated, we figured out that we were WRONG!!! As Jack was gently trying to get one of the ornaments off of the tree he yanked the entire tree over.  Somehow he came out of it without a scratch on him and all of the ornaments also survived the big crash.  Shortly after we had the tree back up in the upright position, Nick was wiring the tree to the wall.  But I can say that Jack hasn't touched the tree ever since the incident, so I'm hoping that it might have scared him and hopefully he learned his lesson???? So I am guessing that we will be wiring the tree to our wall for many years to come.  

Such an innocent face, he is plotting his plan to knock over the tree

Hanging out in the chair while Mommy and Daddy pick up the Christmas tree

Halloween

Yes once again I have fallen behind on my blogging.  Between working, keeping Jack occupied, keeping up on the housework and taking an online class there just isn't much time to blog.  Especially when my new bedtime is 8:00 p.m., I'm blaming that on being pregnant.  Now back to Halloween.....

This year Jack was a monkey.  And the poor little monkey was getting over a double earn infection on Halloween, so we really didn't want to venture out too much.  So we made some stops at my parents' house and then to my in-laws.  

And of course our monkey had to get his picture taken with my cousin Claire the banana, they were the perfect pair. 

Our Little Monkey

The Banana and The Monkey

My Cousin Frankie and Jack

Enjoying some BBQ Sandwiches at Grandma Marieda's after Trick or Treating

Catching Up

So once again, I have been slacking on keeping up with my blogging.  So this is what has been going in since my last post. The weekend after Jack was diagnosed with the ear infection, I came down with the flu.  I knew I wasn't feeling too hot on that particular Saturday morning, and of course it was the same Saturday morning that we were getting some family pictures taken.  So I had to suffer through and smile for the camera.  But later on in the day, I could no longer deny the fact that I most definitely had the flu....YUCK!!! I will spare you the details.  So I spent the remainder of my Saturday and most of the day Sunday either in bed or on the couch.  It is rather hard to stay hydrated when you have the flu under normal circumstances, but when you have to stay hydrated because you are pregnant....now that is definitely a challenge.  

So as you can expect, I was rather unproductive that particular weekend and I felt like I was playing catch up for the remainder of the week.  That is until the flu bug made it's way into poor Jack on Thursday morning.  I was getting ready for work in my bathroom when he was laying on my freshly made bed watching cartoons, when it happened.  Every mom knows the apparent signs that you look for when you suspect that your child might be getting close to "getting sick". That cat gagging on a hair ball gesture that they do before they throw up.  Well, it happened to catch my eye as I was doing my hair, so I snagged him off of my bedspread and showed showed his head to the toilet bowl.  So my 3 day weekend (because of Veteran's Day on Friday) suddenly turned into a 4 day weekend.  Thank goodness he did not have a fever and we only had that one little throwing up episode in the morning.  So it really wasn't that bad of a flu bug, but I am hoping that it is the last time the flu will be showing its' face in our house this year.  So that is what we have been up to the past couple of weeks.  I have some other things to share and some pictures from Halloween to post, so hopefully as long as everyone in this house stays healthy, I will blog about those in the next couple of days. 

It's That Time of Year Again

Sad to say that it is that time of year again and Jack has been visited by the sickness fairy. I noticed Friday morning that he had a somewhat croupy cough, but it seemed to get better by the time I dropped him off at Linda's.  When I picked him up at noon (we were done with conferences at 12:00) she said his nose was really runny, but he was in good spirits, so between allergies and possibly teething, I really didn't think that it would end up being anything too bad.  He took a good nap and played with his toys at home and acted like his normal self.  So I thought we would take a quick run to Target for some goodies (toilet paper, laundry detergent, all of that exciting stuff). 

I knew something wasn't quite right when he kept laying his head down in the cart and hugging his puppy.  This is the kid that loves going to Target and HyVee because he loves randomly striking up conversations with random strangers.  So it was a quick shopping trip, which is good because I actually only purchased the necessities for once.  By the time we got home, his eyes were glassy and watery and he was rather clingy.  I was rather surprised when I took his temp and it was 102.0! Poor little guy. So I gave him some motrin and we spent the rest of the night cuddling and drinking water in my bed.  

Saturday morning he was in good spirits, but still had a low grade fever.  So I rescheduled our family pictures that were scheduled for 9:00am and we didn't make it to the Ladd Halloween parade. Even though he had a fever I didn't give him anything because my Dr. says to let it run until it reaches 100.0.  By nap time it was 101.0, so we gave him a little Motrin and a little Benadryl to help dry up his nose and eyes.  He took a marathon nap from 1:00-5:00 and when he woke up his temp was low grade, so I thought maybe he was on the mends.  Then last night it went back up and this morning it was 101.0.  So we took a little family trip to the Wal-Mart Fast Care clinic.  To my surprise Jack has a double ear infection.  I was completely shocked because he never once even tugged on his ears and I was even touching the outside of his ears to see if he would squirm and pull away an he never did.  I can never tell when he is really sick and maybe needs to see the Dr. because he is not one of those kids that screams and cries because he is in pain, he just acts a little sluggish and is a little more clingy than usual.  So I will be that paranoid mom that always has him at the Dr. or the clinic because every time I think he isn't that bad, it turns out to be pretty bad.  

So we started the antibiotics and I am hoping that he is on his way to a speedy recovery. 

IT's A GIRL!!!!

At our 20 week sonogram on Tuesday it was confirmed that Baby #2 is a GIRL. And best of all, everything looked great, we have a healthy little girl on the way. The heartbeat was 158 and she was measuring around 20 weeks, 4 days, so she is right on track.  Since Nick is out of town with work, my mom and Grandma were able to go to the appointment and share in the excitement.  I think this little girl is already taking after me because her arms were constantly moving around, and as I have had many people tell me, I talk with my hands a bit much. Her hands and arms were waving around her face, it almost looked as though she was trying to suck on her hands. It was also pretty cool because when they zoomed in you could see that she was opening and closing her mouth and it also looked like she is going to have some nice lips. It also looked like she is going to have Jack's little round nose.  

The bottom of her two feet

Showing us that she is a girl

I definitely think that it is safe to say that Nick is absolutely TERRIFIED of having a girl. With time he will get used to the idea.  As soon as I left the doctor's office my grandma and I took a ride to Kohl's to spend our Kohl's cash on some adorable pink outfits.  This little girl definitely has a good jump start on her wardrobe.  We shared the news with the rest of our family by baking some confetti cupcakes and topping them off with some pink frosting.  I also took two dozen mini pink cupcakes to work to share the news with my co-workers. It didn't seem that any of my family or co-workers were surprised at the gender because most of them were predicting a girl.  Especially since my symptom were so different than they were with Jack. 

So now it is onto picking out new bedding for Jack and our new little princess.  She will be moving into the room that Jack is currently in and Jack will be moving into one of the bigger bedrooms down the hallway.  I already found some girl bedding at Pottery Barn that I really like, and for some reason Nick is against painting her room pink.  He said we can paint it yellow, purple, or any other color, but not pink.  He thinks it will be too much pink in the house.  Little does he know that I have already made my mind up and it is going to be PINK! Sorry Daddy :-(  So now it is onto choosing a name.  So far some of the names that I have suggested Nick has actually liked, so I don't think it will be too hard. 

I've Been Slacking on My Blogging

I have REALLY been slacking on my blogging the past couple of weeks.  Nick has been out of town working for the past two weeks, so I am literally in survival mode with trying to keep Jack entertained and happy while also trying not to over do it myself. So this morning I thought it would be the perfect time to kick back with a cup of coffee while Jack was playing with his choo choos and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to once again enter the world of blogging. Happy Saturday! 

A Fun Filled Weekend

Two weekends ago,  we had a jam packed agenda.  Nick did not have to work on Friday, and I had teacher institute meetings until 12:00, so we thought we would take a little road trip with Jack.  But I was actually able to sneak out around 10:45 so we left a little earlier than we originally anticipated (ssssshhhhh,don't tell). We spent Friday afternoon at Monkey Joe's in Peoria.  It's a big place that is filled with jumpy houses, slides, etc... for kids to play on.  And best of all, they have a separate area for kids under 3, so you don't have to worry about your little one getting trampled by a bigger kid.  Jack absolutely loved it.  He enjoyed the jumping so much that when he would get out of the jumpy house he would try to jump on the regular hard floor.  

After we had our fill of running and jumping, we went to Olive Garden for a little bite to eat.  Jack was an absolute angel the entire time (thanks to the ipad), and I was a little nervous because he was way past his nap time. 

Since the weather forecast was calling for an absolutely gorgeous Saturday, we thought we better head out to Boggio's bright and early to try and beat the crowds.  It was a rather cheap little outing because Jack was mostly interested in the playground equipment.  He just kept running circles around it and then running up and down the steps to go down the slide.  

He also enjoyed the jumping pillow and the bouncy house.  It seems as though the weekend was filled with a lot of jumping for Jack, that might be why he has been jumping on an off our furniture a bit more lately.  We also picked up some yummy apple cider donuts and some fudge while we were there. 

My attempt at getting my picture taken with Jack, obviously he wasn't too interested in it

After Boggio's we headed to our nephew's flag football game.  So after all of that fresh air from our fun filled morning, Jack and I were both more than ready for a nap when we got home.