Tuesday, August 30, 2005

The Holy grail of centerpieces....

In a fit of Martha Stewartness I designed the perfect centerpieces for the wedding!
8 inch glass bowls filled with mini apples and an ivory candle. Simple, elegant, and affordable. I began my quest for the apples and was able to find small mesh bags with 6 miniature apples in them at Joann's! YAY!!! Double YAY - they were $2.99 and on clearance for 90% off!!!! The problem? I bought every bag they had in the area and I still need more!!! This is where all of you in blogland come into play.....
If you have a Joann's near you and pan on going there soon could you PLEASE look for these???? They are part of the Garden Gate collection and will be with the store clearance merchandise. I don't have them with me to give you the actual SKU (sorry), but they are plastic mesh bags with small (about an inch or so) plastic apples. I am looking for the red apples. There are also pears - the blush pears would work for this project as well.
If anyone can help me out at all I would so GREATLY appreciate it!!!
If you find them email me and I will give you my address and we can work out payment arrangements!
THANKS!

Monday, August 29, 2005

Not an ear infection....

So $20 later and it turns out that it must be the rather large cut Ryan has inside his mouth (from face planting on the Leap Frog music table) that is causing him such discomfort at night. Who knew?!?! Anyway we are to give him Orajel and motrin before bed and hope that keeps him asleep. I just know all this night waking, while legitimate, is going to mess with the sleep training we have worked so hard on....
In non-sleep related news:
Ryan took his first steps this weekend!!!!
He has been standing unsupported for a few days and Saturday afternoon he just put on foot in from of the other and moved! It was amazing!!! Of course, that is all he wants to do now and he is falling quite a bit - like he needed more falls in his life....
Now I am home, we are in the den/attic and Ryan just toddled over to me with a pacifier in his mouth. A pacifier I haven't seen since March. Very strange. He looks pretty happy to have it (normally he only take one at bed time). I wonder what will happen if I take it away.....
Hmmmm, that was painless! Good to know that my kid is not hooked on the plastic like his mother was so many years ago....
Seriously, I had such a bad pacifier habit that my mom says I would hide them all over the house, car, grandparent's, etc. Rather than gently wean me my parents chose to bribe me with a real bed in exchange for giving it up. Note to self - must not do that or Ryan will be whining about it all over the internet in 30 years....

Home on a Monday...

After 4 straight nights of Ryan waking every 45 minutes SCREAMING - and I mean screaming not just pick me up crying, but "someone is poking me in the eye with a stick" screaming I have had enough. We are going to see the doctor later today. Yup, spending $20 for them to tell me that Ryan needs to be sleep trained. No really, we had been doing so well. No more late night bottles and he only woke once crying (around 3) and put himself back to sleep.
It doesn't look like it is teeth that are bothering him and I hesitate to think it is his ears since he is so pleasant all day long....
OH well, hopefully I will have answers later today.
Staying home also affords me a chance to avoid the Wiggle traffic that will be invading downtown this afternoon. It was so bad last year trying to gt out of the parking garage that I had to re-park my car and haul my 8 month pregnant ass BACK into my office to pee.....

Friday, August 26, 2005

Ring Drama

Rob and I bought our wedding bands many months ago. His they ordered in the right size and mine they gave me the size 7 from the store and told me to bring it back and have it sized as we got closer to the wedding. We took them home and put them in the safe to, well, keep them safe. Since then I have had this nagging feeling that the ring I choose didn't sit right with my engagement ring. My engagement ring is a (almost) 1 carat princess cut solitaire in a plain white gold setting. The wedding band I picked out is this:

Or very similar to it.
ANYWAY, I wasn't sure that they sat well together since the band is 3 sided and it didn't seem to sit flush against the engagement ring. Last night I went back to the store to look again and make sure the band is the one I want to wear for the next 50 years or so. After 45 minutes of trying on every wedding band and feeling the same way about them all the salesman decided it was, in fact, because the ring didn't fit. He offered to order me the right size assuring me I would love it. I am SOOOO glad I mentioned that I had the size 7 in my posession and needed to bring it in to be re-sized. Turns out, this ring can't be re-sized more than a half a size and I need it a size and a half smaller. This would not be a problem BUT if they order it now it is expected back to them on October 21st.
Let's recap for a minute -
MY WEDDING IS THE NEXT DAY!!!
This is NOT a timeline I am comfortable with at all! The idiot who sold me the ring should never have let me leave the store with it - she should have ordered me the right size!
The solution is that they will put a rush on the ring and if it isn't in by 2 weeks before the wedding they will re-size the store ring (but it will still be too big) and let me have that until my ring is available. I guess that is okay, but I really want to bind my marriage vows with the ring I am going to wear for eternity, you know?!?!
I suppose if this is the only drama I have encountered so far in the wedding planning process I really shouldn't complain.....

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

They say it's your birthday.....

So yesterday marked the beginning of my 32 year *sigh*
Funny, 30 didn't seem that old, but 31 - good golly I am over the hill! I swear I woke up more tired last night than the night before (and, you better sit down, Ryan has been sleeping straight through!).
My actually birthday had the potenital to be crappy. Rob and I both had to work and Ryan was at the sitters, but it turned out quite nicely! I went to lunch with some friends - I had a delicious hummus pita, and got a great Law and Order coffee table book from my friend Dana! It features all crime scene photos - yeah, I am that geeky!
For dinner we had chicken fingers and fries - my ultimate favorite foods! Oh and my friend Pamela brought me a delicious HUGE slice of carrot cake! So I gained about 4 pounds yesterday!
The best gift was the phone call I received from one of my best friends. For my birthday she decided to give birth! YUP! A boy, Matthew Nicholas. 8 pounds, 20 inches and my birthday buddy! Everyone is doing well and I can't wait to leave work so that I can go meet him!
Sunday was my birthday dinner with family. I got some great kitchen stuff, clothes from my mom and sister, and the Muppets on DVD from Ryan. Oh, and he said "mommy" - not MA or Mama, MOMMY! I LOVE to hear it which is good since he says it all day now! He also kept saying Bopy yesterday morning and pointing to the stairs. I had no idea what he meant until we went down and he grabbed the balloons from Sunday's festivities and held them out to me and said "bopy". Hmmmm, okay. Oh and he calls the Tinkerbell on my PJs "doggie". I think doggie is a catch all for all living creatures not human in his world. Such is the life of an almost 11 month old boy!
So, to re-cap - food makes me happy, 31 makes me feel old, and my kid is a little weird, but still adorable!

Thursday, August 18, 2005

HOLY AF!

So, the witch arrived yesterday with a torrent of cramps which I haven't seen (felt?) the likes of since I was 15! UGH! Strange, I always had terrible cramps as a teenager, but they tapered off as I got older and then got worse after Ryan was born. BUT they ahve been getting MUCH worse over the last 8 periods I have had since his birth. Should I be concerned? Anyone else out there experienced this and had things go back to normal? I worry because my mom had lots of problems after my sister and I were born.
I am about due for annual - yippee! so I suppose I could ask then.
That reminds me:
I am thinking about switching care providers. I am considering switching to a midwife. Anyone have any experience? Locally it seems that all the midwives practice together in a handful of groups and occasionally one or two will practice with a group of OBs.
I have some questions about using a midwife (that really I should just call one up and ask them):
  • Because I like to see my unborn child, do they do routine ultrasounds?
  • What happens if my pregnancy becomes high risk at any point? Who are their back up OBs and do I ever meet them over the course of a pregnancy
  • What, if anything, can they, or will they, do if I can't conceive this time around?
  • Who would perform an emergency C-section on me?
  • Who would circumcise my child if I were to have another son? This is a decision I let Rob make - I don't care one way or another
  • Do they offer breast feeding support after birth? My idiot OB nurse told me that 3 days after birth was to late to start a breast feeding relationship and THEN my milk came in. Don't want a repeat of that!
  • How long do they spend on pre-natal appointments? I really want to focus on this next pregnancy for what it is and not just the means to an end - I am sure that makes no sense, but it is likely my last pregnancy and I want to enjoy and relish in it!

I think those are my main questions. I figure they don't work much different than an OB, but I do have concerns about the pregnancy becoming high risk and being sent to a strange doctor or being cut open by someone I have never met. Also, I want me those ultrasounds!

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Sleep and other stuff

I have had the best of intentions on posting this past week including post titles running through my head, but every time I sit down to write, I loose the thoughts. Not to mention that I want to post some pictures and I need to do that from home and free time at home is a lost cause!
Since we last spoke Ryan has learned to sleep! YUP! Down at 8:30 (with a bottle) and he only gets up once around 3:00 just to let me know he is still there. Usually he can put himself back to sleep after 10 minutes or so, but some nights I need to go and soothe him. I'd say it is 50/50. He then gets up at 5:00 for his breakfast and then sleeps until 8:30. This I can live with! And we are now thinking that baby #2 can be conceived any time after the wedding again!
Ryan has obsessed with animals. ALL of them, but he can only say DOG (or rather DODDIE) and every animal is a doddie. It is cute, but trips to the zoo are hysterical since Doddie sounds so much like Daddy that people must think my child is blind or else has a bear of a dad! We spend much time each day looking at books with animals and properly identifying all the different types. The babysitter is working on this too.
Can we say 8 teeth? YUP! Tooth number 8 has finally worked itself through the gums - YAY! It is so amazing to me how much happens in the first year of life. I feel like I am constantly waiting for the next big development. It is like one big, fun roller coaster! It is hard to believe that his birthday is in less than 2 months. Plans are under way!
We have booked a lodge at a local park for the big party since we will have close to 40 guests (hey, you're only one once!), and I need to figure out what to do for invitations and paper goods. The food is planned and needs to be ordered, but everything seems to be on schedule.
Mostly I have been consumed with wedding plans! I truly plan on posting about all that soon. Like tomorrow soon!

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Chicks dig scars

Or so Rob told Ryan last night.
Yup - we had another accident (and I swear this one was no ones fault). It happened at Rob's parents hosue. Ryan went to the window and at home he goes underneath our fabric blinds to look out the window. Not ideal and I always lift the blinds up for him. Well, at their house they have a glass shelf OVER the blinds - no idea why, but when Ryan tug at the blinds he loosened the shelf and it HIT HIM IN THE HEAD!!!
I grabbed him quickly, he was screaming, and I was saying "you're okay" until I pulled him away and he was BLEEDING! I began crying - no, SOBBING. I was so scared! I had never seen blood on my baby before. So scary!
As a scalp wound it beld profusely, but stopped quickly. Honestly we got more tears from the ice I tried to put on it than the actual cut. And he was fine in a few minutes.
Once we got home he had a bump and seemed like it was bothering him so I gave him a dose of Tylenol before bed and then proceeded to undo all our sleep training of this week by running to him any time he cried. I was afraid he was hurt, or bleeding again, but no, he is fine.
I debated staying home with him today, but his mood this morning was pefectly normal so I am at work, but secretly worrying about him. My poor baby. He really needs a helmet!!!

There is REALLY going to be a wedding.....

I guess it didn't feel real until now. I just ordered the invitations!!!
They are so pretty and so expensive! EEEEK!
I should have ordered them weeks ago, but I was going back and forth on the time of the ceremony and everyone weighed in with an opinion. We finally decided on 3:00. The reception is at 6 so this should work out perfectly.
I called Rob to ask him how he wanted his name on the invitation and after he gave me a few idiot responses "Supreme Ruler of the Universe" "Coolest guy in town", I told him that this is it - once they are ordered there is no looking back. I am glad to say that he didn't sound to freaked out by that :)
This weekend my mom and I are going to look at stuff for centerpieces and at the possibility of making my veil. Now the fun wedding stuff begins!

Monday, August 08, 2005

Random Ryan again....

Some of my recent favorite pictures.....
Ryan mastering the spoon


Ryan, The Hottest D.J. in babytown


A monkey face and in need of a haircut (which I
Still don't have a picture of since I need new camera batteries!!!)

Bottle Boot Camp II

We are now onto week 2 of bottle boot camp and I am proud to say that Ryan no longer needs to eat in the middle of the night!!! NOW he just wakes up every 2 hours crying.....
What to do? Usually I let him cry for 10 minutes or so (it is a weak whiny cry), but I can' t let him go any longer than that - I just can't do it! I had a friend this weekend tell me that Ryan would grow up too dependant if I kept going into his room every time he cried. Hmmmmm, he is 10 months old (TODAY!) - I think he is intitled to be slightly dependant, isn't he?
Part of his problem is that when he wakes up he wants his pacifier (which he only takes for night time bed now since I forgot to send one when we switched baby sitters 4 months ago). I have left 3 pacifiers scattered around the crib, but does he bother to look for them? NOOOOO! He stands up and begins crying for it.
Oh, lesson learned: Lay him back down before giving him the pacifier as he apparently is still sleeping and will fall back down loosing the pacifier in the process.
Of course, he also teething right now too, so that doesn't help, but that is an entirely different whiny cry.
I am at a loss - I NEED sleep!!! I figure the last full night sleep I got was somewhere around March of 2004..... Rob needs sleep. He doesn't think we should have another baby until this one can sleep. I am inclined to agree :(
Any suggestions? Solutions? Books to read?
In other news:
We had our nephew over last night. He is almost 5. Those of you from Moosejulie have heard talk of him and his (alcoholic) parents before. Basically, his parents don't care. No that isn't accurate. They care, but they can't be bothered. Does that make sense? They always end up giving in and he is a brat because of it. Also, it is no big secret that his mother drank while nursing him. Put all that together, throw in the fact that he is over 4 feet tall already (BIG KID), and you ahve one poorly adjusted child. Seriously, the kid was still in diapers, dragging a pacifier everywhere at his 4th birthday!
Anyway, dinner was not much of a battle last night (like it is when he is with his parents - interesting, no?) but I found it very strange that he has NO mastery of utensils! NONE! I asked him to use his fork and he responded that "Ryan wasn't using one". After explaining that Ryan was too little to know how (although he is getting great with a spoon - I'll show you a picture!!!), he picked up a fork. And could barely use it! And it was a child's fork! I know all kids are different and develop at different paces but I would think that basic utensil skills should be in place by the time a child starts kindergarten, right? Please correct me if I am wrong.
When I mentioned it casually to his parents when they picked him up the response I got was "yea, it's easier to get through a meal if he can do what he wants!". Great!
I woke up this morning with a sore throat that is getting worse as the day wears on. Now I ahve headache. Probably some SLEEP would make it better.....

Friday, August 05, 2005

So much for being in a better mood....

Thanks for all your dinner suggestions! We ended up at Don *Pablo's. I am not much for Mexican food - actually it usually makes me really sick, but I stuck to chicken fajitas and felt okay. Of course, I pick a healthy entree and then kill it by downing at least my weight in chips and salsa! GRRRRR!
Ryan ate 1/3 of a kids chicken quesedilla and a whole side order of black beans! I love that he eats so well, but I looked up the calorie/fat content of his meal and there were 85 grams of fat in the chicken quesedilla!!! Holy fat content!
So I now have a wedding related rant:
My mom and I are on wedding related argument number 2 now......
The first one involved what I am going to wear on my head. I decided a long time ago that I wanted to wear my hair in a bun at the base of my neck. Simple and elegant, right? Oh and I am going to have a string of crytals woven into it. The plan was to wear my veil under the bun and then take it off after all the pictures. Now my mom has me running all over creation trying on tiaras that I don't want or can't afford! AND she is currently obessed with this one particulr bridal boutique and I have no idea why.
Argument number 2 is really driving me crazy! Rob and I decided we don't want to have a wedding cake. They are very expensive, not usually very good, and I have seen lots of cake get served while people are dancing and mingling and then thrown away. We have decided to offer a HUGE sweet table instead. Up until this week, my mother has been on board with this idea, but suddenly, we are being rude for not offering cake, people will be pissed there is no cake, our marriage is doomed with out cake, etc. (okay she never said that last one, but you get the drift).
I don't really see what difference it makes, this is the way we want to do it (oh and we are paying for it) so really she should just shut up!
How I wish today was my half day.... Friday's usually are, but I had to take a half day on Monday so I am stuck here until 4! WHY?????
Oh and guess how much sleep I got last night? Like none! Ryan cut 2 more teeth and wanted make sure everyone shared in his pain!!!!
I promise to post some fun pictures this weekend and hopefully get out of my funk!

Thursday, August 04, 2005

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!! Which turned into a diet rant

I have an hour left to sit here at work today and I am sooooo ready to go home!
I have hated being here more this week than any other week in recent memory and for no reason other than TOTAL BOREDOM! It sucks to be here when I could be at home doing things I enjoy.
I have taken on 2 new projects, but I have no interest in them either - they are just the same shit, different topic. UGH!
Also, it is 94 degrees outside (the upside to being in this hell hole is that it is so freezing that I am wearing a sweater! Rob and I just made an executive decision to NOT eat at home tonight, but we can't decide where we should go. Any suggestions?
We always do this and then stand in the kitchen (which is so hot it may be the gateway to hell) going back and forth with "I don't care, you pick", and me trying to find somewhere remotely healthy, with options for Ryan (although he know LOVES restaurant Mac and Cheese, but not my whole wheat, organic cheese M&C that I make for him!!!).
This will go on for about 45 minutes, and as it gets hotter, we will get angrier and hungrier and it will ultimately culminate in someone getting yelled at - most likely Ryan for eating the dog's food, but really, who can blame him if we have starved him this long, right?
To make it worse I am starving! I always do this - I eat so well all day and then pig out at night, which is bad because I just go to bed afterwards.
Every morning I have coffee with skim milk and cereal with skim milk for breakfast. That tides me over to lunch which is always an apple and either a salad or a frozen meal (so really I am under 400 calories usually) and then I get home from work and we have a healthy, but big, dinner. Adding about 800 to 900 calories to my day - which is not bad, but the timing is awful!
I really should eat a bigger lunch (or even have a snack) and then a smaller dinner, but dinner is our family meal and it makes me sad to think of not having a hearty meal with my boys.... Nor do I ever want to give my children the impression that food is bad. It isn't! Food is great!
So, now I have to go and pick up a prescription and bananas for my grandma (who lives down the street from us). She is 81 and takes care of my 85 year old grandfather who broke his hip lat summer and can't walk at all now. Really it is because he never completed his physical therapy, which is the same reason my mom's knee never healed, but that is another post of another time....
So, where should we eat?

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Bottle Boot Camp

Once upon a time there was a beautiful little boy who woke up in the middle of the night very hungry. His mommy assumed he was having a growth spurt and fed him. The little boy went back to sleep and all was good.
Fast forward 2 months and the little boy is STILL getting up for a bottle twice a night! At 9 months old!!
UGH!
Yesterday Ryan had a doctor's appointment to have his eye checked again. Why, you ask? Well, because he fell trying to climb into the dog bed and scratched his cornea. My kid is a major KLUTZ! Anyway, his eye is fine, but I had a few other questions including the midnight madness...
The verdict was that Ryan, in fact, did initial wake because he was hungry, but he now is waking AND eating out of habit - a very bad one at that! The solution is to begin giving him less and less formula at each waking and eventually he will no longer think he needs to eat. Easy, right?
NOT!
Monday night 2am: Ryan cries and I first try to console him back to sleep. After being hit, punched, and attacked by a pacifier, I make a 2 ounce bottle. Quiet again, UNTIL the bottle is empty and then the screaming begins. It took 5 minutes of rocking and singing to calm him down enough to put him back in his crib (where he puts himself to sleep - see I read the book - the late night feeding must have been the Italian in me wanting to stuff everyone's face at all times!). 4am: repeat BUT no screaming after the bottle was empty hmmmmm.
Tuesday night he only got up once and I gave him an ounce of water and he went back to sleep. I guess it is working!!!
The down side is that we have to cut out his bedtime bottle (or give it to him early). I love that bottle! It is the one he takes upstairs, in the rocker, with soft music and low lights (sounds like the scene for a seduction). It is the only time of the day where my baby seems like a baby and I miss it terribly already...
Oh, the boy got his first big boy haircut yesterday! It was deemed necessary after 2 people stopped me in the grocery store to tell me how beautiful my daughter was! Darn those gender neutral clothes! I guess he should always be wearing sports wear and girl should always have pink on (actually we have friends who's daughter is ALWAYS wearing pink! It is weird).
I cried when I got home from work -- Ryan had his back to me and I called his name and he turned and said "Hiiiiiiiii" and I swear at that moment it was as if someone had taken my baby away and replaced him with a toddler. God help me when he turns one....

Monday, August 01, 2005

Monday, Monday....

I can't believe I have been absent from this blog for so long! So much has happened, most notably my best friend's wedding!!!
Kara tied the knot Saturday evening in a beautiful ceremony!
Everyone looked great! I got a cool updo (actually a little "hipper" than I would normally wear, but fun none the less. Dinner was fantastic as was the cake - she had a Cheesecake wedding cake! How cool is that?!?! Now I can no longer say I have never had a wedding cake I liked!
The whole thing made me realize how much I have left to do for my own wedding! Like order the invitations - I know, I have been saying that for weeks, but I want to triple check with the reception AND the church to make sure we are all set for the date and times before I order 125 invitations that will be invalid (how much would that suck??)
The wedding has pretty much consumed my time for the last several days and it also marked my first night(s) away from Ryan!!!
I suppose I would have found the ordeal overwhelming, but the bride and I got went out after the rehearsal and had a few too many :) I guess we both forgot that the bars in Buffalo stay open until 4am! We got back to her parent's house at 3:00!!! Oh yeah, we were both up by 6!!!
So tired all day.....
Of course, I missed the boy and was so glad to see him yesterday, but he seemed to have a great night at Grandma's (Friday night Rob stayed home in Rochester while I partied in Buffalo).
Heard something interesting....
Turns out it is a small, small world.
My mom's friend was talking to a girl she works with who was in a wedding this weekend. She was saying that she wishes her friend weren't marrying this guy because she could do much better. As the story wore on - the bride to be moved here from California after meeting this guy in a chat room, he had a girlfriend at the time, has already cheated on her a few times, and so on, that my mom's friend quickly realized that this wedding was the wedding of my horrible EX and the girl he met on-line and cheated on me with!!! How crazy is that?????
If it hadn't been for the fact that I had Ryan, I would be pissed that his cheating loser ass was getting married before me!!!! Of course, if it wasn't for Ryan, Rob and I would have been married last October :)
I should get some work done since I need to leave at 1:00 to take Ryan to the doctor (for a few different issues, but I will save that for another post!)