My new hair cut

We got all dressed up and ready for our family Christmas pictures and 20 minutes before we were leaving the portrait studio called to cancel! Their camera broke. So, our new date and time is next Sunday at 7:30 p.m. I'm bummed because I borrowed my little sister's kick ass flatiron to do my hair today, but I won't be able to next weekend because she'll be in Boston. :-( I just might have to ask Mike for an early Christmas gift ;-) Anyway, here I am all dressed up with no where to go. It was a good shot of my new haircut, I recently got 5 inches chopped off. It makes me actually do my hair in the morning rather than twisting it up in a french twist with a clip every morning.

26 Days and counting

Can you believe Christmas is in 26 days? Where has this year gone? Tomorrow will be December and I am still in shock to all that has happened to our family this last year. We have been so blessed with our new addition, Benjamin.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We visited my dad's side of the family and had a delicious turkey dinner there and got to visit with some family. After we left my grandparents we went to my dad's house where we ate another delicious ham & turkey dinner. My step mom even made us all little goody bags to bring home with us. :-) I think we all were in bed asleep by 9:30 Thursday night. Thursday was also the first day of AF for me since I had Ben. I was getting used to not having to deal with her. Oh well. I knew she was coming, I was emotional and crabby for a few days.

Friday Mike worked until 2:00. The boys and I went to my grandma Milligan's house to visit her and to eat some yummy T-day leftovers. The boys had a great time visiting with their MeMe. When we left there we came home to pick up Mike and then visited our friends who were in town visiting their parents. Friday was also my dad's birthday so we went back to my parents house to have cake and icecream with my dad.

Saturday we decided to pack the boys up and head to Parkersburg to start our Christmas shopping. We had some issues with Zachary not listening and not understanding we were shopping to buy gifts for other people and not for him. After a few discussions he finally understood and wasn't being greedy. Benjamin was a happy camper all day long. We didn't find too many gifts, but were able to get some ideas. I am happy that we were able to find Mike, Zachary and I new sweaters for our holiday family picture. We already had one for Benjamin. I wanted to make sure we all were color coordinated to make the picture look better. On our way home we stopped by Wal-Mart in Athens to pick up some baby food and some more formula. The portrait studio was still open so I was able to book our family pictures for their last slot Sunday night, 11/30. Yeah!

Ben has been doing better at eating his cereal. He had 4 days of pears and loved them. This morning I started him on banannas. He gobbled them all up! My cousin Angie & Joe gave us 6 boxes of cereal! Oatmeal and mixed grain cereal. Ben is still on single grain rice for now. When can I introduce the other types to him? I am going to finish off the box of single grain rice so I'm not mixing types, just in case he has a reaction. Mike is taking Ben to a follow up appointment for his ear infection tomorrow, so I think I'll have him ask our ped when we can introduce the other types of cereal into his diet. When we bought baby food yesterday we went ahead and bought 4 jars of every type of stage 1 they had. I think that will give me plenty of time to work with my grandma to make some homemade baby food. I have a nice food processor that I got for Christmas a few years ago and honestly I've never used it.

Zachary finally woke up (9:40!) Ben was up at 6:00 and is already down for his morning nap. I am going to do some housework since we really didn't mess with the house the past few days. My little sister is coming over when she gets off work to straighten my hair for our family pictures. Lots to do today before we return to work tomorrow (yuck!). :-D

Happy Sunday.

Pears and pictures (and Happy Thanksgiving)

Ben had pears for the first time this morning. He seemed to like them. It was his first food other than cereal. I mixed them with a little bit of cereal. He is still getting used to eating cereal, he thinks I'm nuts when I try to feed it to him. Just a little at a time until he starts showing that he wants more.

We're getting ready to visit family and to eat a lot this afternoon.

In closing, here is Zachary's kindergarten picture!



Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoy your family and friends today!

Zachary's first dentist appointment

Zachary and I had dentist appointments today. It was his first and I was nervous to how he would act. To my surprise he was an ANGEL. 100% He enjoyed being at the dentist and was cleared with perfect teeth and no cavities. Mommy on the other hand has some dental work that needs to be done. :-(

Here is a picture of him at his first appointment:

You are my sunshine....

Ben's first time eating cereal

Ben and his favorite toy, his giraffe. Zachary named it Bill.

Mummy Zachary

This is too precious not to share, Zachary singing "You are my sunshine". I love it! Sorry for the quality of the video, my digital camera really needed to be recharged.

Ben's 4 month check up

Ben weighs 16.8 lbs and is 25 inches long. He's growing very well and has many rolls to prove it!

Back up to this past weekend. Ben has another ear infection, it's pretty bad this time. He wouldn't sleep very well on Saturday night, kept screaming and wouldn't let me lay him down. I was finally able to get him to sleep and when he woke up Sunday morning his left ear was packed with hardened wax. I cleaned it out with a warm washcloth and it started oozing green fluid. There was a lot coming out of his ear. I took Zachary to my grandma's and then Ben and I headed to Express Care. Yep, another infection and his ear drum burst. The doctor said the last infection might not have healed 100% thus this one is worse. Poor baby! He's on a different antibiotic for 10 days. I hope it helps.

Now back today. Mike took Ben to his appoitnment and I met them over there. He was so happy and giggly laying on the table playing with this toy. The resident pediatrician checked him out and asked us the well baby questions. She told us to try to start him on cereal 3x per day and in a week or two start fruits and veggies. It seems rather early for me, but since he is taking 7 or more bottles a day he needs it. The last time I did rice cereal his little bottom broke out really bad and he sitll has a slight scar from the open wound/diaper rash. I am worried it will start again so we are going to get him organic rice cereal to start. I am going to wait until this weekend to start him and then we'll go from there.

He is doing everything else he should be doing for being 4 months old, except he is stubborn about rolling over. He's done it a few times and when he starts to now he stops and instead of rolling over he will move himself in a circle to reach what he wants. I try to tell him it's the long route to take but he is stubborn (cough*cough*that doesn't come from me**). We are going to do more belly time and work on it. I think the reason he doesn't like belly time is that he has reflux and it bothers him to be on his belly so much.

He got 2 shots today, but Mommy wasn't there with him, I had to get back to work. :-( Mike said he did okay. Cried of course.

He goes back in 2 weeks to follow up on his ears and then his next well baby check up is at 6 months.

Zachary's morning funny

This morning we got into the car and a song was on the radio so I was singing along to it, all of a sudden Zachary says, "Mommy, what is wrong you keep saying shit, shit, shit, shit, shit?". After I laughed I explained to him I was singing and not saying "shit". He said, "Oh, well it sure sounded like you were saying shit."

LIttle Zachary humor

Last night while I was making dinner Zachary came into the kitchen and said,

"Mommy I have something to tell you, lean over so I can whisper it in your ear."

Me, "um, okay".

Zachary, "Stir faster old woman I'm hungry".

After he said it just looked at me with his deep blue eyes and said "I know I'm pretty funny".

Ornery, ornery!!! I can only imagine what kind of things Benjamin will be saying when he starts talking! He's got an ornery older brother to influence him.

We voted!

After work last night I rushed home to pick up Mike and the boys and then we headed to our polling place. They moved our location this year (for the 3rd year in a row!). We were in and out in less than a 1/2 hr. I was shocked. I remember in 2004 I waited in line for about 2 hours to vote for President then. This year I was also concerned about a few local issues and am happy to say that my former co-worker won his campaign for local commissioner.

As for my rants yesterday...I still feel like crap. I feel like I'm having one heck of an off week. You know that feeling when every step you take you feel like you never touch the ground because you are just floating threw the day, your mind feels like it's been tuned into a fuzzy radio station and you can't make anything work because you have a huge lack of concentration. That weird crazy feeling of something is missing. (Maybe I'm just strange) I didn't even bother doing my hair or make up for work today. I look like hell. Oh well. My boys are the greatest and I love them dearly.

Mike and I talked about a few options for me last night. One would be that I could finish my degree, I should only have 2 years left if I take a few classes at a time. By doing so that would open up a lot of opportunities for me. There are a few other options but since this is public I'd rather not discuss them (hope you understand!).


Back to my wonderful boys.

Ben is rolling over from his back to belly, but not from belly to back. Honestly we haven't had much belly time, he doesn't really like it. I have been trying to do a little bit each evening, at least until he gets angry and starts crying. Monday night I decided it was time to try spoon fed cereal because he eats every 1 1/2 - 2 hours (5-6 oz bottles). I mixed up 2 tablespoons and he ate most of it and didn't give me a problem. Last night he was pretty cranky and fell asleep before I was able to feed him. He slept for 6 hours straight last night! I am going to try cereal again tonight and continue to do 2 tablespoons each night until we talk to his doctor in a few weeks. He is very active and enjoys to blow spit bubbles, chew on his toys and he moves all over the place. When I put him on the floor for playtime he will move in circles around his toys laughing and kicking his chubby legs. It's so cute. He has a new favorite toy (we call it his sunggly), a Ty giraffe that our friends Krissy brought to the hospital when he was born. He loves it and needs it to snuggle with when he sleeps at night.


Zachary is growing like a weed. He is starting to have the mature look to him and is losing his baby / toddler look. It makes me sad. His attitude has changed a lot in the past 2 months, he's a lot more sassy than he used to be. It's taking a lot to get used to. He's at an awkard stage where he's not a toddler but he's not quite a big boy yet either (at least I don't want to think he is). It's been hard for us to determine when we can let him do things on his own and when we need to be around. I still don't like for him to play outside by himself but he wants to go outside and play all the time, even when I can't be there to watch him. He wants to be trusted to ride his bike on the sidewalk alone but I think it's too close to the road, he wants to be able to stay in the toy aisle of the store and look at the toys while we shop, again I think he's too young to be by himself. When do you let go and start letting your child enjoy a little bit of freedom? I thought switching from baths to showers a few months ago was a huge step and I am still proud of him that he prefers a shower over a bath now. I also admit he still uses a booster seat in the car. He's 6 years old 46 inches tall and weighs about 54lbs, so I think he's big enough to switch but I am worried about where the seat belt hits him across the chest / neck. I don't want him to get hurt if we were in an accident. He's our first born and maybe we are holding on to his babiness a little too much, we probably need to start letting it go a bit. Right?

Something good happened today. I left for lunch and when I came back my SAME parking spot was available. For those of you who are not familiar with my hometown, in this college town parking is very hard to find. I work on campus where people will drive around for 20 minutes to find a parking spot. I was shocked to find my original spot was still there, it made me smile. (Pretty sad when something so basic makes your day.) Oh well. I'm off to walk across campus to deliver some materials to our graphics department, going to enjoy the warm weather. It's 75 in November!

Postpartum....I hope not!

Today has been so damn emotional. I have cried most of the day and feel so out of sorts it's not funny. My poor husband, I've sent him a million text messages complaining about just about everything. Finally my last message was "I'm sorry, I don't hate you I love you I just need a hug."

I am really regretting a huge decision I made a few months ago. It's really affected me and has made me feel depressed recently. I hate that I felt like I had to make the decision. It just sucks and now I'm stuck for probably 30 years. I am also upset about not feeling like I can ever get anything accompolished. Recently I have been in contact with a lot of my former HS classmates, they all are doing great. Have great houses, jobs families and got out of our hometown. Here I am still in the same hometown, with a wonderful marriage and family, but the rest is all blah. I never finished my college degree and everyone else I graduated with did, I feel like the loser.

WOW, Misti you are in a GREAT mood today. Want a side of cheese with your WINE?
No thanks I'll pass, I hate cheese.

I had postpartum with Zachary, honestly it got pretty bad and I had to be put on anti-depressents. I wonder if the fact that I am not nursing as much and not pumping (not my choice but my employer really doesn't give me the time to do it anymore.) as much is causing my hormones to be unbalanced and causing me to feel so out of wack. I need to call my doctor, but I'm not allowed to take time off work to go to an appointment so what am I to do?

I guess I just needed to vent and to type my feelings. You never know this post might be deleted or at least not marked for show in a few days. It all depends on my mood.

I don't feel any better, but I guess I needed an outlet and you my blog friends were it. Sorry for using you.

On a side note I still need to vote today. I wasn't able to go before work due to the fear of being a minute late and getting in trouble (my 1st evaulation is this Friday). So Mike the boys and I are going to battle the 5:00 RUSH and pray we don't have to stand in line for 3 hours.