Double Whammy!

Poor JD. Not only has he caught my cold and is a sneezy, snotty, coughing mess..... tooth #15 decided to make an appearance today. No wonder he's been waking up and crying so much lately!

Last night was a little better. He went down at 6:30 PM only to wake crying an hour later. He passed out in our bed sitting up, leaning against my legs/belly around 7:45 and I took him back to his crib around 8:30 PM. He didn't wake again until 5:30 this morning. At least he got a little rest. I guess he just needed to be upright for a little while for his nose to clear up!

I promise I won't post anymore without pictures. Some of the wall decor for Allie's nursery came in the mail today so, as soon as I can talk Dave into putting it up, I'll post some pictures. Dave is quite proud of his paint job (as he should be, it's beautiful) so I'm anxious to show it off....even if I haven't made the curtains yet!

Happy Thanksgiving - a day late!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This year was so much different from last year but we still had a wonderful day with family and lots of great food. Last year my brother Merv and his whole family were in town. We crammed 10 people around the table! This year they couldn't make it and my other brother Kent was out of town. So, it was just Dave, JD, my mom, my dad and me. We missed everybody else but had a nice day (and I think we ate enough to make up for their absences!).

I had high hopes of getting some good pictures to post here. I even put on make-up! But that didn't work out too well. I've been sick all week and yesterday, while we were at my parents house, JD started coming down with the sneezy snotties too. #1 - I didn't have the energy to pull out the camera and chase down a very busy toddler. #2 - even if I had taken lots of pictures, JD's nose was runny and his eyes were all red all day so they wouldn't have been very good.

Despite the germiness, JD had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house, as usual. Grandpa gave him his very first wheelbarrow ride. JD loved it. He sat in the wheelbarrow with a big grin and just kept saying "go go go go". And Grandma got him an Elmo balloon, which he has been dragging with him everywhere he goes. He points up and says "boon"! EDIT: It dawned on me after I hit the "publish post" button that this has been a very Elmo-centric Thanksgiving as Nanny and Poppy sent JD an Elmo book in the mail, which he has also been carrying around the house!

We got home, gave JD a bath and put him to bed around 6:00 PM, which is when Dave and I decided to turn in. Dave has been a little under the weather too but I don't think it's hit him full force..... yet. JD woke about every half hour crying...and crying....and crying. He slept on me in the recliner for about an hour. He slept sprawled across Dave in our bed for about an hour. Mostly, though, he would crash for about 30 minutes, wake up congested and not allow me to put him back down. We watched cartoons in the middle of the night for a while.... finally, around 2:30 this morning I was able to get him settled in his crib and he slept until about 7:00 AM. Here's hoping he takes great naps today (he's already taken one, it was 2 hours) and is able to sleep tonight!

34 weeks

I can't believe we only have 6 weeks to go (more or less) before Allison arrives. The nursery paint is complete and I've started washing tiny clothes. I want to wait until our crib mattress arrives before posting pictures, though, so those will have to wait until next week. I will say, though, that Dave deserves a medal for all the painting he did in there. He was very kind to humor me and paint the stripes that I wanted... even if it did take him 3 days!

Anyway, I went to the doctor yesterday and all is well. I've gained a total of 32 pounds so far, which is not bad at all. The doctor felt around for the baby and determined that she is still head-down and commented that she feels like a big baby (oh joy). So, I'm scheduled to get a growth ultrasound on December 9, 2009. I'll be 36.5 weeks along by then. The last ultrasound I had with JD, I was 37 weeks pregnant and he weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces. I'm anxious to see how Allie compares to that... JD was born a week and a half later at 8 pounds, 8 ounces!

That's my boy!

Last night we had steamed clams for dinner. Clams are a special treat for me as I don't get them very often. My brother got some from a friend and very generously shared with me! When I was a kid, before harvesting shellfish from the Pawleys Creek was illegal, my dad and I would walk around on the sandbar behind my grandparents house (the Log Inn) looking for keyholes. We would dig up a couple of clams, crack them together and eat them right there, fresh out of the creek. I miss those days!

Anyway, since JD is doing great on whole milk, we decided to expand the dairy experiment to butter. Not because I'm anxious to hand my kid a stick of butter or anything, but butter goes into an amazing amount of prepared foods. He enjoys toast with butter and jelly or toast with butter and honey, which is also one of my favorites. I was so excited to let him try steamed clams dipped in butter last night. I cut off the chewy parts and gave him the rest. He actually liked them! He ate about 4 clams, along with his green beans, before he got antsy. I sure hope Allison is as good of an eater as JD is. He is always willing to try new things. If he doesn't like it he'll spit it out but he never refuses when I offer him a bite! And here's a bonus I didn't think about: When he was tired of eating and getting bored, but I wasn't finished eating, I gave him a couple of clam shells to play with and that kept him occupied long enough for me to finish my dinner! He loved putting his green beans in the shell and closing it up.... so funny how their little minds work.
In other news, Dave has been hard at work painting Allie's room. He has a friend from college that lives in the area and he was kind enough to come and help out. Dave has one more coat of paint to do on the top half of the room and then I can post pictures... jut keep in mind that I have a long way to go before the room is completely finished..... I have to make curtains, the wall decal has been ordered but hasn't arrived yet, the shelves have to go back up on the wall, etc, etc, etc!

Lookin' Good!

Just a little bath time fun for you... Dave thought he needed a crazy 'do to make Mommy laugh. And laugh I did! I think it's almost time for another hair cut. This time we're going to attempt to do it ourselves. That will be a post for another day!

My main reason for posting tonight is to update friends and family on Operation Milk. JD is doing great! He's drinking a full 24 ounces of milk each day (for 4 full days now) and has almost finished an entire gallon.... with NO signs of discomfort! The first couple of days had me worried but his diarrhea has straightened itself out, his diaper rash has cleared up and he's been happy, happy, happy! We're going to give it until Thursday (which will be a full week of milk) and then start trying him on other types of dairy like cheese, butter, yogurt, etc. If all of those go well we'll start introducing soy into his diet around the first of December!

Dave's other love

I've pretty much lost my husband these days. Our days usually go a little something like this:

5:30 - 6:30 AM - JD and I get up and do our thing
7:30 or so - Dave gets up, showers and goes to work
4:30 - 5:00 PM - Dave comes home from work to eat dinner and occupy JD for a little while
6:30 - 7:00 PM - Dave goes back to Wild Wing to spend some time with his other love:

Yes, that is Dave in the engine compartment of the Porsche. Where is the engine you ask? It's on the new engine stand he just bought, of course! We've had the Porsche for about 6 years now. Dave has been talking about "dropping the engine" for about 5 of those 6 years. He finally did it. The engine is out of the car and being rebuilt. If you want to know exactly what he's doing with the car at Wild Wing until about 11:00 PM most nights you'll have to ask him... it's all Greek to me! I am glad, though that he's able to do this now because once Allison comes along I don't think it will be so easy for him to escape!

Day 1 of milk

JD sucks his regular milk down just as he did his formula. He hasn't even seemed to notice that there's something different in his cup.... though it is very different. That formula he was on is disgusting!

He slept all night and woke up at 5:30 this morning... which isn't unusual for him. He's an early riser (which does not go over well with me these days). He usually wakes up happy and ready to play but this morning he had a dirty diaper (which is also not unusual) and spent some time crying. He cried all through his diaper change and even a little bit after until Dave got up to check on us (crying in the morning is pretty unusual). He settled down and has been fine, mood-wise, ever since.

The one thing that's different about today, though is that JD has diarrhea. Poor little guy has pooped 5 times today already and it's only 2:30 PM! His little bottom is all red and he screams and kicks when I change his diaper. BUT, he's not acting like his tummy is hurting him. So my interpretation of it right now is that his system may take a few days to get used to the dairy. I will continue to give him milk and closely watch him through the weekend. If the diarrhea hasn't cleared up by Monday I'll call his gastroenterologist in Columbia and see what he thinks of it. I guess in the meantime I'll try to give him "binding" foods like toast, bananas, rice, etc. to try and counteract the effects of the milk. If it gets worse or he starts acting like his tummy is hurting I'll put him back on the formula until I can talk with the doctor.

I'll update again in a couple of days. We're going to the last CCU home game tomorrow. It's finally supposed to be a nice day (70 and sunny) after having a long string of cold rainy days so JD will be ready to run, I'm sure!

As I hate to post without pictures, and to show you that he's being his normal, goofy self today... here are a couple of pics I took during today's lunch. We had leftover steak and sweet potatoes for lunch and JD decided that stacking his food on top of his sippy cup (instead of eating it) would be a lot of fun:

17 Months

Today JD is 17 months old. He still cracks us up every day and just keeps getting smarter and smarter. He knows all kinds of animal sounds and body parts. He absolutely loves the lawn mower and, every time he sees it he points to it and demands that we "mow". He is still in love with all vacuums and has to visit ours every day. He has lately taken an interest in crayons (other than eating them) so we have "color time" every day too. He's started to practice his balancing by standing/walking on Dave's back... which Dave doesn't mind at all.... and I swear he's not happy unless he's climbing on something. Right now his favorite thing to climb on is the closed toilet! Tooth #14 finally popped through yesterday (after bothering him for weeks) and he now has all but the very back molars on the bottom.

Some of the best things that he does now: he reaches up, grabs my hand and leads me to where he wants to play; he can now tell me what he wants in some form or fashion (he says baba when he wants his sippy of milk or booboo when he wants his binky or he'll point and say "that" when he wants something that he can't reach); he tries to repeat any word that I ask him to say,; he blows kisses and it's soooo cute; he runs to his high chair and says "geet" (eat) when he's ready for breakfast, lunch or dinner.... the list just goes on and on and on!

The biggest news, though, is that we got the "go ahead" from JD's gastroenterologist to try him on regular, plain old whole milk a month early. I called and asked because I thought that bringing a new baby home around the time that he turns 18 months old (he'll be 18.5 months old on my due date) would be enough for him to handle without also introducing the possibility of tummy pains at the same time. All I had here in the house, though is 2% and, thanks to Tropical Storm Ida, it's been pouring rain (we've had 4.25 inches in the past two days) so I didn't get to the store to get his whole milk until today. He had his formula this morning and about 6 ounces of whole milk between lunch and dinner. I'm going to ask everybody reading this now to keep your fingers, toes and eyes crossed that his tummy tolerates this. I don't want my little man to be in any kind of pain, of course, but at over $300.00 a month (for the past year), his formula is breaking the bank and taking him off that would be about the equivalent of getting a raise!

Whew!

Isn't it funny how you can go for months with no plans on the calendar and then have a string of weekends that are chock full o' fun? October was such a busy month for us and November has started out that way too! We had a super busy (but wonderful) weekend starting on Thursday.

My mom and I threw my brother Kent and his fiance, Sarah, an engagement party this past Friday night at the Log Inn. Thursday was filled with errands that included driving up to North Myrtle Beach to pick up the cake. While we were there we played at the park for a little while (NMB has an awesome park for little ones) and met Liz for lunch. After coming home for a quick nap JD and I headed out to the grocery store to buy all the ingredients I needed to make pasta salad and tomato/mozzarella skewers with homemade pesto for 40 people! After dinner my wonderful husband took JD with him to Sears, leaving me with a nice, quiet house so I could get started on the food.... I can't remember the last time I was in this house by myself! What's sad is that once Allison arrives, it probably won't happen again until they've both started school! Anyway, JD was an angel all day and was very tolerant that Dave and I drug him all over town.

Friday we loaded up the car and headed down to Pawleys to get the Log Inn set up for the party. Once again, my wonderful husband did an excellent job of keeping JD entertained and out from under my feet while my mom and I got the food and decorations ready. Luckily my mom bought balloons, which were a huge hit. The strings were just long enough that JD could barely reach them when he stood on his tippy toes. That entertained him for a long time. He would reach up, grab a balloon and carry it to another room, then run back to get another. Once again, he was a very good boy, lasting until about 9:00 PM when he started getting cranky so Dave and I made our exit. Sadly, I was so busy running around during the party that I didn't get any pictures. If I happen to come across some that others have taken I'll be sure to post them!

Saturday we were all exhausted so we took a 2 hour nap in the morning and then headed out to the CCU homecoming game (we won... yay!). Dave got an invitation to watch the game from the hospitality suite and let me tell you... that is the way to watch a football game! There was a buffet of yummy food, an open bar and JD found a little girl in a cheerleader outfit to play with (Dave was very proud) so keeping him entertained was a non-issue. He got to meet the Chick-Fil-A cow and the CCU mascot, Chaucey. And, he really enjoyed watching the band. We even ran into Walker and his parents and Noah and his parents (Noah is the little boy I watched for a few months before the summer). We stayed until about half time and it was such a beautiful day that we stopped by Wild Wing for a cart ride on the way home.Oh! I forgot to mention that, as we were about to leave on Friday for the engagement party, Dave looked outside and noticed that my contorted willow tree was gone. He walked outside and an effing BEAVER took it down! I loved that tree. In fact, I was near tears when I saw it lying on the pond bank. When we moved in to this house 6.5 years ago I begged Dave for over a year to let me have a willow tree. He was pretty resistant... he didn't want a tree in the yard. So, for my 27th birthday he did some research and looking around and, instead of a weeping willow, got me a contorted willow. We planted it on the pond bank instead of in the yard and it grew for 5.5 years. It was so beautiful this past summer! Saturday ended with Dave cutting up my beautiful tree (the ONLY tree in our back yard) and burning it in the fire pit so the stupid beaver couldn't use its branches to clog up our drainage pipes. This picture was taken back in June... you can see my tree in the center of the pic.

After all the excitement of the weekend, I was very glad to stay home on Sunday and not do a thing. I think JD was too as he took two very good naps and enjoyed playing in the back yard on another nice, sunny, beautiful day.

Yesterday was back to busy. I had a doctor appointment so my mom came up to watch JD. After the doctor I JD went down for a nap while my mom put the primer on the walls in Allie's room. Luckily Dave came home from work around 4:00-ish and was able to help her.

Speaking of Allie: All went well at the doctor. I met the new OB in the practice and she was very nice. My blood pressure and weight gain were both good and Allison's heart rate sounded terrific. I go again in two weeks. I can't believe we only have 8 weeks to go!