Nine Months

Does it get any better than taking an evening swim on your nine month birthday?  From the look on Michael's face, I am going to say no.  I can't believe that nine month's ago he was barely 12 hours old.  He was a squished up, puffy little thing that I loved with all my heart even though I didn't enjoy that feeling yet.  Now, he isn't just my heart, he's my soul.  

He is continuing with his obnoxious, uh I mean challenging, ways.  He spends most of the evenings screaming, fighting sleep and putting forth every possible effort into getting himself killed or at least breaking an arm.  While I love this age because his personality is coming out more and more, I find myself struggling with that personality.  He is amazingly stubborn, though given who his parents are I suppose I should have expected that.  His love affair with out Boston Terrier, Frank, continues and he is starting to show more interest our older dog.  I'm not so sure how she feels about that.

Michael - you are a challenge and make me crazy but you are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.  Thank you for being you.

Love,

Mom

39 Weeks and other random thoughts from the weekend

Today marks the start of M's 39th week of life and he'll be 9 months old on Tuesday.  I could go on for hours about how I can't believe that time has gone by so quickly and that my heart breaks a little every time I see how un-baby he is these days, but whenever I get started I remind myself that I am so very, very lucky.  That I get to watch my son grow up everyday and that I have an opportunity to be a part of his daily growth and discovery of the world around him.  It doesn't get any better than that - not even when I compare it to his little newborn snuggles on my shoulder.

In other news, we are just about done our first weekend home alone in awhile.  It's amazing how much I am able to accomplish with out my husband underfoot, uh I mean helping.  The apartment is cleaned (as well as it can be given the boxes and other assorted aftermath of our failed move), the laundry is nearly done and I am actually sitting down to blog.  I had a crazy thought that maybe I would take M to the mall today to do some shopping for fall clothes, but thanks to my overly generous Mom and older sister M has plenty of new outfits to get him through the next few warm weeks.  So instead of the mall I am going to fill the kiddie pool and let Michael splash his weekend away.

One of the big strategies I've learned for keeping my sanity when doing the single parent thing is to cook as much food as I can in advance.  I'm about to throw some bbq chicken in the crock post (chicken breasts, Bone Suckin Sauce mix it together and let it sit on low for a couple of hours) and some zucchini and squash in the oven (cut them in slices, toss them with olive oil and assorted seasonings at 450 until they are done).  It makes dinner so much easier when I just need to heat something up real quick as opposed to having to actually cook anything from the start.  

And I am going to end this post of thoughts with a random confession - I can't wait to see Brian Boitano's new show on Food Network.  **hangs head in shame**

Tired

I've been wanting to post more but I haven't had the energy.  M has decided to give up on sleeping so that means I am one tired Mommy.  Hopefully I'll be back on again more soon, but until then any sleep recommendations you all have would be much appreciated.

zzzzzzz

An award!

I feel so very special to have received this award from my dear Internet friend kekis at Fertile Ramblings. K and I met on a pregnancy loss board and I have to say that I pretty much adored her from the start and followed her around like a puppy hoping she would notice me and like me. Fortunately for me, she did notice and at the very least does a good job of pretending to like me. She is starting down a new road on her journey to become a Mom and I hope you will join me in hoping and praying that this is the road that leads to a baby she can bring home and take care of for many, many years to come. I know there are many woman who "deserve" to become mothers to babies on this side of heaven, but K holds a very special place in my heart and right now there is no one I want to see become a Mom more. Love you, K!

PS - See, I do read your blog. Booger.

I'm heading out of town again this weekend so I probably won't be blogging. I am going to do my best to post more regularly once I get back and since The Hubs is going to be out of town I'll probably be depending on you all to keep me company. Lucky you!

I need another weekend

As many of you know (I love how I am writing like there are hundreds out of you out there reading), The Hubs, Michael and I were moving in a new apartment this weekend.  While moving is never fun, we were looking forward to getting into our new place and finally getting Michael his own room.  I've ordered a crib, a changing table, swapped around dressers, the whole nine yards...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Friday we got the keys and went to do a walk through of the apartment.  As I was checking the fridge I heard laughter from Michael's room and walked into find M and The Hubs wrestling on the floor with the dogs watching and waiting for the opportunity to jump in get some good kisses in.  It was one of those moments where you heart melts and you realize that all the hopes and dreams you had for this time in your life are nothing compared to the real thing.  

And then we got to Saturday.  My Dad and BIL came down to help us move.  We got 3/4 of our stuff in before M's bedtime, got him settled and in bed and continued to unpack before getting to bed ourselves.  I decided to check on M one last time before bed and noticed something moving on his sheet.  I called DH in and long story short, he realized that there were bed bugs in M's room.  

Let's take a second to let that sink in.  Bed bugs.  In my baby's soon to be On the Night You Were Born themed nursery.  

So back to our original apartment we went (thank God we were moving within the same development) and the three of us spent a restless night on an air mattress with a leak so we woke up at least twice on the floor.  We spent Sunday getting things out of the 2 bedroom apartment, checking them and cleaning them before bringing them into the apartment.  Then today we got a moving company to help DH move the big pieces of furniture back into our original apartment.

There was a moment where I realized that I had two options - pitch a fit complete with crying, screaming and hysterics or I could just keep going forward.  I did indulge in a good old fashioned break down on Sunday afternoon while driving to BRU to get M a new mattress but the I realized all of the reasons why this isn't that big of a deal:

• My biggest stress is ending up with bed bugs in my house.  Not where we are going to sleep tonight, or how I am going to feed my son tomorrow.  
• My husband is here.  I made a move without him last summer while seven months pregnant and having him here helps me stay sane.
• I have at least one more month of having my little boy in the same room as me.  I know I have to let him grow up but I am indulging myself with just a little bit more time with him as my dear sweet baby.

So tonight, we got all the boxes and furniture sorted and we are back on our couch.  Hopefully we'll be moving into our new apartment in about a month or so and then you'll all be subjected to blog post after blog post on M's nursery.  

My apologies in advance :-)