Our (LONG) Weekend

A couple of weeks ago Shawn had to head out of town, leaving me and Q alone. I don't drive, so we were pretty much home the whole time (apart from Saturday when we got out. Thank goodness for best friends to the rescue!) It was tough. But I've decided there's no point in rehashing the hard parts, or how exhausting it was, or how many time outs I had to put Q in (I lost count anyway; And he only got them for running on the couch.)  But instead decided I should focus on the good parts. I mean, after all, I got to spend three days with my favorite little person. Something I complain all the time about not being able to do full time. So- some highlights:

Watching him learn how to do something after showing him once or twice. Like hook together his pop toys (I have no idea what these are actually called). 

Sweet note Shawn left for us to come home to

Seeing him start to play make believe games. For instance I tried to vacuum on Friday, after the dog hair started to make me crazy. And my crazy preggo hormones reached critical heights. Q loves the vacuum, although these days, he'll move out of the way while it's on and only touch it or come close if it's off (which actually enables me to use the dang thing). Later in the day I noticed him using his long string of plastic pop toys (Seriously, what are they called?!)  to mimic vacuuming the floor. He was making a little ... vacuum noise and would even pull a couple of the links off the chain and brush those on the ground, I guess like it was an attachment. So. Fracking. Adorable.

The state of my couch for the weekend, and a naughty boy. (The table is only half baby proofed because it was against a wall before we moved into the house. Guess we should finish or take that stuff off, huh?)

As I was sitting on the floor (among EVERY toy he has, scattered around) he came up behind me and just lay against my back to take a break and watch tv for a moment. I've seen him do this with the dog too. So sweet.

This is partially picked up. It was so much worse most of the time.

On Saturday when he was getting tired, he grabbed my hand and put it on the side of his face, so I would hold his little head/ stroke his cheek like I always do (when he'll tolerate it). He's only done that a few times in the past, but oh my gosh. Melt my heart why don't you. He also fell asleep in the car about a block away from the house and would NOT wake up when we got home.

One tired little guy

I tried sitting with him and gently waking him up. It didn't really work.

He's taken to saying "hmmm" whenever I do. The mimic stage begins. Guess I should cut the swearing down at least a little bit, eh?

He started calling actual babies 'mama'. Actually he started pointing to random things and saying it. But he says it in such a sweet voice every time and I just love hearing it. So I don't mind so much.

It was a challenging weekend but I managed to make it without completely losing my mind. I was so ready for Shawn to get home, and honestly to get back to work on Monday. Stay at home & Single Moms? You guys kick some serious ass. That's all I have to say.

Friday Five

Okay, writing this Friday Five ON Friday for once. I've got my Dr Pepper at hand and a little Pandora Xmas station going. Here we go! 

1. So I'm now 10 days away from my due date. TEN! It's just craziness. For the last few weeks the little guy has been breech/transverse. So on Tuesday off we went to the Hospital so the doctor could try and turn him the right way. It worked! And it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I feared. I think laying on my side for an hour of monitoring afterwords was actually worse. Oh, and hearing another woman in labor was a little scary, ha ha. (I was in Labor & Delivery for the procedure.) Now we just need two things. No more turning. And for me to actually go into labor. No prob, right? 

2. I actually have posts scheduled for the next couple of days! I feel so accomplished. Of course, after that there probably won't be much for awhile. Still, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for documenting as much as I have the last couple of months. 

3. How many times do you think I can reference things I've seen on Pinterest or other blogs before my husband loses his mind?  Also, I love you Pinterest. I really, really truly do. 

4. When Shawn was leaving this morning for work he told Q they'd be coming home to a winter/Christmas wonderland tonight. He sent me a text later saying I can take inspiration from the store scene in Elf. He's clearly out of his mind. But it's true that I am ready to decorate for Xmas. Knowing that we really aren't going to get much done once the baby has arrived, I'm thinking we will do some decorating this weekend. Earlier than I normally would, but I have no choice.  he he

5. Speaking of Xmas decorating, I've decided to do a simple craft while I'm sitting around this week. It's a yarn wreath, which I've done a couple of times. This one is a Poinsettia wreath I saw on the Paper Mama's 50 DIY Days of Christmas. It was actually a guest post from Rocky Mountain Mama, and I just love it. I've got the yarn wrapped and am getting ready to try and cut the felt flowers. This is where it could fall apart, so wish me luck. 

Happy Friday lovelies!

Oh, lookie who I found! Decorating done. Look, I don't make the rules. I'm just showing you how to decorate for xmas. Bam!

Halloweenie!

(Okay, this is quite late, but I had it mostly written sitting as a draft. So damnit, I'm posting it)
Halloween was a little off this year for us. We both love the holiday (Well, Shawn especially) but being in the new house, and with me being pregnant- we really didn't do any decorating. Then Shawn had to be away unexpectedly this last weekend and didn't get back home until Sunday night. Which meant we didn't even get around to carving pumpkins. Sad face.

We hadn't really planned out what we would be doing on Halloween. We both had to work, with Shawn & Q home after 5 and I get home after 6. So that really limits the possibilities. We'd been invited to a party, but Shawn wasn't feeling great and I really wanted to do some kind of trick or treating activity w/ Q. Of course to make this even more complicated there were streets blocked off downtown Monday after work, buses had to be rerouted, madness ensued. The result being that I wasn't home until 6:45ish. Meanwhile we've apparently moved to the land of trick or treaters. While I was on a bus hoping to get home RIGHT NOW, Shawn was trying to feed Q dinner while handing out candy to a ton of kids. They were even coming in droves as Shawn tried to get Q in the car to come pick me up from the park & ride. He actually grabbed the candy bowl and brought it to the car with him, and was handing candy out as he was trying to leave.
Anyway, we decided to head to the mall to just walk around and look at all the other kids dressed up. Q loves kids and has no idea what candy is, so it worked well. Just beware if you're dressed as Spongebob or Elmo. Apparently Q went after a Spongebob earlier in the day.
But we got to get little guy dressed up and take pictures (I don't believe there's a single one where he was looking at me) at least.

Arriving at the mall and seeing all the kids everywhere

Blurry, but just to remember how he likes holding both our hands

 Uh-oh, someone spotted a tiny spongebob

At least Shawn can look at the camera 

He's smiling!

Trying to get him to look

Nope, not gonna look

So a pretty simple Halloween this year. Next year... well I'll have a 2 1/2 & 1 year old next year. That's exciting and scary all at the same time. Whew. Hope you all had a spooky Halloween!

Wordlessl{ish} Wednesday

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. But I'm on Maternity leave now, so I finally have a moment to actually blog and such.  I haven't been taking a lot of pictures either, but here's one from the other day. It cracks me up that I can just hand my kid an apple to eat. And he just walks around eating it. Like a people. Crazy.

Also, he likes to smile when I take pictures now

Linking up with the Paper Mama

Wordless{ish} Wednesday

So at my doctor appointment Monday we found out that little baby is breech. Actually, technically, little baby is transverse. Fancy talk for sideways. Seeing as how I'm 36 weeks pregnant, this wasn't the best news. In any event yesterday I went for an ultrasound to check little bebe's size and the fluid levels. Size? Bigger than normal- already over 7 lbs. "Wahoo" she said sarcastically.  Everything else looks good. Stay tuned to see if we can get this baby to turn.


Linking up with The Paper Mama

Flashback Friday

This is a thing people do, right? The Flashback Friday? I'm sure I've seen it and since all I do are steal other people's post ideas, why not this one too.
I recently logged into my Tumblr account for the first time in ages and was looking through the few little posts I'd put out there. There was my 5 month update on Q, and so I thought I'd share it here.

(This post was originally written on 10/6/10 )

Five Months

I see this a lot on the mommy blogs I love so much, so I’m going to give it a whirl.
Dear Quinn,
My goodness, 5 months already! I can hardly believe it. It’s ridiculous how much growing and learning you’re doing, and I know that will only get to be more and more.
Dad and I discovered you’re starting to sit up a bit on your own now. Just for a few seconds, but it’s very cool. Especially since you can do it a little bit without putting your hands on the floor in front of you to balance.
You’ve got 2 tiny little sharp teeth, bottom middle. You gave me a good chomp the other day. Just see if I let you use my hand as a teething ring anymore. : )
You’ve decided that you love to grab EVERYTHING. You see something and you want it NOW. Sometimes I have to hold you so tight to keep you from leaping out of my arms to acquire a desired object.
We’re moving right along with “solid” food. You’ve had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, sweet peas, apples, pears, carrots and bananas You LOVE bananas and carrots.
You’re so much better about being held now. You’ll sit in our laps, or if we’re standing, on our hips.
You just love your jumper. So glad we got it for you. You’re always moving your little legs like you want to jump, even when we’re holding you.
Sleep has been a challenge lately. I think you got thrown off schedule with teething and have yet to get back to something a little more reasonable. You’re quite fond of waking up around 3 or 4am and wanting to jump and talk and play. Not cool dude. Not cool.
I do believe you love naked time. You’re always smiling and laughing when we take your clothes off to change you or for a bath. Perhaps you’ll be one of those little guys that rips his clothes off and runs around nakey?
You seem to recognize us now, and get all smiley when you see us. Sometimes when I get home from work you’ll be hanging out on the couch with dad. And when you see me I get the biggest smiles! LOVE. IT.  You’re just in love with dad. You watch him all the time, when he’s sitting with us, or walking in an out of the room. Clearly you two will be best buds.
You’ve started to show displeasure when you can’t have what you want. Last night you saw a CD on the side of the couch and tried to grab it, dropping the toy you had for this new shiny treasure. When I moved you away you got a bit angry. It’s hilarious. Well, for now. I’m sure I’ll get sick of it really quick.
You love to stare at lights, the alarm clock, the window- really any difference between light and dark. You get a dazed look on your face like a stoned little hippy. Good one.
You’re such a happy little guy. We’re still working on getting laughs out of you. We can get them sometimes, and they so damn cute. You may hold out on the laughs occasionally, but you’re always smiling. And now with those bottom little teeth? It kills me. I’ll miss those gummy smiles, but I can see toothy smiles will be just as cute.
We’re having so much fun with you little man. I’m sad to see you growing so much all the time, but equally excited for your next stages. We love, love, LOVE you honey bunny.

Friday Five (the I'm so... so scared! edition)

Here we go again my dears!
1) So this is going to be quite a weekend, as I'll be a solo mama until Sunday evening. Shawn had to go out of town. He left yesterday morning after dropping Q off to day care. This the longest we've been apart, and thus the longest I've been left alone with Q. dun dun dun....  Okay, so maybe being alone with my own kid for 3 days shouldn't be so scary. But. I'm 35 weeks pregnant. Which means it's hard to move and I'm cranky & easily irritated. Plus Q is 1 1/2. Enough said, right? Annnnd... Um. I don't drive. Yeah, I know. Weird. Whatev. But that means we're kind of stuck at home for the most part. And of course my whole thing of trying not to let him watch any TV for his first couple of years has backfired on me, because he has only moderate interest in it now. So no throwing on Mickey Mouse for 30 minutes of peace. Hold me. At least I'll have some friends over and helping out. phew

2) Um, is there anything else to say? ALONE WITH MY KID! FOR THREE DAYS!  Oh, you single mama's (including my own) (and sahm's for that matter)  I bow down to you.

3) The baby's room is painted and ready to go! (Well, we have to hang the blinds and closet doors back up. Oh, and we didn't get around to new trim or adding crown molding, but we'll deal with that eventually.)  I'd planned on using my last vacation day (TODAY!) to start washing baby clothes and getting things ready. But well, that isn't gonna happen. Still, I feel like we're a little closer to being ready.

4) You know what occurred to me at 3 in the morning a few days ago? I should probably have a hospital bag ready soon. FIRST time I've thought of it this whole pregnancy. Last time I had a list, and read people's suggestions on what was and wasn't necessary. This time? Oh, right.... I'm having a baby! I almost forgot. And then of course I realized I hadn't though about clothes to bring for the baby. I'm not overly concerned about that whole "outfit to come home in". But I do want to make sure we have something cute for hospital pictures. And, yes, that means I went shopping this week and bought a few cute new things. What? He can't wear hand-me-down's for his special pictures! (which by the way are a total rip off, and we totally couldn't afford them last time, but a family member got the CD of them for us.) If nothing else I'LL be taking a billion pictures.

5) I'd posted something this week to FB or Twitter (or, fine, probably both) about Q seeing pictures of Spongebob at stores and such and saying 'Dada'. Which I found endlessly amusing. Because Shawn is quite fond of watching Spongebob. But really it's not on that often in our house. And like I mentioned earlier, Q doesn't pay much attention to the TV unless there's a song playing. Then we found out that our daycare person (we use an in home daycare) has an older son that watches Spongebob in the morning before he goes to school, so Q sees a bit of it. And she was telling us he's trying to say Spongebob. So we asked him to repeat both 'Dada' and 'Spongebob' and it turns out there is a slight difference between what he says. Still sounds like Dada to me. But I do find it adorable that one of the 10 words he says is Spongebob.

Have a happy weekend, see you on the other side. I hope.