another hodgepodge of thoughts, including teething and puppies!

I've been thinking to myself, if I can keep this blog updated once a week, then I'll be happy with that.  There's at least 52 memories a year that I'll be documenting.  Sure, it's virtual, not like the baby book we can put on our coffee table for everyone to look at, but, we actually retired the coffee table this week anyway so the little man has room to explore, so it looks like everything works out.

Remember my very first blog, when I thought Gobbles was teething?   Well, I suppose being a first time mother I started out in a rush for milestones, because, finally, over 5 months later, we finally have a tooth.  Two, actually.  One in the back right side of his mouth, and another right up front, both on bottom.  They've cut through the gums, but aren't fully up yet, just teeny sharp points poking right through.  Now, as with every physical change that happens with this child, I'm in a mild state of panic - did I get enough pictures of the gummy smile before the teeth?  I'm actually kicking myself for only having had one professional photo session back at 4 months.  A coworker of mine has a 10 week old son, and she's been to Penny's four times.  So by the time her kid is Gobbles' age, she's going to have at least a dozen or more professional shoots under her belt.  Did I make a mistake by cheaping out on this?  We already screwed the pooch by running out of the hospital before the photog there could get any shots - I was scared of the lactation consultant, ok?

I know it's really ok though, considering the thousands of pictures we have on our computer, and that enough will be hard to live up to for number 2.  Now since the little guy is mobile, we've turned more towards video, just watching him crawl around the room, chasing the dogs, and having ADD from toy to toy.  The three hours at night that we spend playing before he crashes are both rewarding and exhausting.  I do not know if I would have such a great appreciation for this if I had to do it all day long.  The balance of adult time at work while yearning for a hug and a sloppy kiss from my son, followed by the fulfillment of getting just that (and usually much more) is enough to make me sleep soundly (on hub's duty nights) and be less stressed. 

So for the time being, things are moving along swimmingly and we are all happy as can be...

Except of course for the curse of the grandma.  For some reason, the first night follwing an overnight visit to Grandma's house is pure hell for everyone.  Every time, consistently since March.  We'll get a great report from Grandma about how well he slept, and how much fun he is, then he'll come home and the Curse of Grandma begins.  Bedtime that night consists of fighting it for about an hour before we can finally soothe Mr. Gobbles to sleep.  Within 45 minutes of falling asleep, he is up screaming again.  More soothing followed by a half hour of sleep.  Usually that night he'll either end up in our bed or in someones arms on the couch for the remainder of the night (as these nights are usually Sundays, and we don't want to set a bad tone for the week by getting NO sleep).  The next day at daycare, he'll sleep a little more than usual, and by the 2nd night home from Grandma's he's just about fine.  We cannot figure out what it is about his visits to Grandma - he LOVES going over there and enjoys himself throughout his entire stay.  He'll eat, sleep, and play just like normal until that first bedtime home. 

For now, our solution is just to switch off who gets duty that first night back, and just assume that we'll have to work a little harder that night (and we give ourselves the ok to go to the couch, or bring him into bed, knowing that it's just for the one night).  It's been working so far, and we have no problems getting him back to normal on the 2nd night home. 

Coming up for the Gobbles man, a trip to the beach followed by a few attempts to get these pearly whites on camera!

In the meantime, since I am blogging from work and don't have any recent photos, a word from Cannoli about being chased by this... thing?

Seriously mommy - you leave for four days all fat and cranky and come home all happy with this thing?  It's a little scary - it won't move, right?  it's not going to chase me or anything, promise?? 

Ok, now it's a little bigger, and it's sitting up, but i'm still the only one who comes when you call, let's keep it that way.  And i'm bigger than this thing, see, look how well i listen to you, i'm so attentive.  i'm the best and you'll never share my toys with it, right?

WAIT!  What is this?  why is it tummy time?  is it going to walk like i do, on all fours? better get familiar with him the way i do other dogs.... just in case.

Mommy, that was only the beginning, and you know it.  when you would hold him up to my face and sit his chair near me you never told me that eventually he'd get to me himself.  you were still working when daddy took the video camera and laughed as this Gobbles thing chased me around the room when i chased my ball.  I think you need to put a leash on him, or at the very least keep him away from my toys.  i know you moved that coffee table just for me, so i have more room to spread out all my toys.  tell him to keep his drums, farmset, and beach ball out of my space!  Even spoons has just run to her bed everytime this guy pulls on her tail!  it's chaos!

So, as you can see, the dogs are still nervous about the baby.  Probably because just when they are comfortable with him and what he does, he does something else.  They'll just have to get used to him, I know in time they are going to be Gobble's best friends.

milestones and sleep training and body parts, oh my!

ahhh. excuse me while a breathe a deep sigh of relief. i survived one of the craziest weeks of my life, and came out virtually unscathed. sure i'm still busy, but i'm grounded. not getting on another plane for 4 months, and when i do it will be of my own decision.

like last week, i'm blogging with a glass of wine in my hand, but this time it's homemade cabernet and i'm settled comfortably on my couch with my husband and son a few feet from me, the little gobbles talking to his paci as he pulls it in and out of his mouth in attempt to fall asleep. he'll make it to his crib eventually, but we're waiting until he's a but more tired. tonight will be the second night of sleep training.

on monday our little boy hit the 8 month mark. after he recovered from being ill last week, he not only began full out crawling, but also stood up in his crib forcing us to lower the mattress, got his big boy carseats installed (still rear facing of course), and developed the ever feared separation anxiety. any time hubs or i leave the room, gobbles will start to whine and, when we happen to leave him in the crib in a dark room, the whine will quickly escalate into a full on wail. clean diaper, check. bottle fed, check. hugs and kisses, check. but as soon as we step away from the crib, the wailing begins.

wow. this kid is smart. for months any sign of a whimper i'd be by his side, what's wrong little boy? don't worry, mommy will make it all right. what have i done? because of this, monday night we decided it was time. though it broke my heart, we realized that 8 months is old enough to cry just a little at bedtime. besides, now that the man is crawling, it's not safe for him to come into our bed when he is restless.

after i gave him his bedtime bottle and got him all snuggly into his crib, the training began. as soon as i stepped away the crying started. i walked quietly out of the room and settled into bed to watch the monitor. the next 9 minutes were pure torture as i watched my son flail his arms and legs and cry to the point of hysterics. i also realized that this is exactly what i do when hubs and i have those rare fights where i know he's right, but i cry so hard i hyperventilate, and subconsciously i know it's all for some attention. gobbles is definitely my son.

when time was up, i went in, rubbed his belly, bent down to give my baby a kiss and tell him i loved him. his crying ceased with the initial touch, and started back up with full force as i exited the room. i think i heard a little laugh escape in the moments i was soothing him, he probably thought to himself, ha, now i've got her. the second 10 minutes were shortened to about 7 because he got to the point where he was so angry he threw his paci out of the crib, and i felt like i had to retrieve it. the next set gobbles decided to crawl all around his crib and stand up and scream, so he lucked out at the end of that one, getting a big hug before being put back down. finally, somewhere around the 40 or 50 minute mark, after 5 visits of reassurance, the wail slowed to a small whine before quickly fading into a rhythmatic snore.

he slept well through the night, which he does a few times a week, but we're hoping this will teach him to not expect to be brought into our bed on the nights he doesn't sleep well. from everything i've read it only takes 3-4 nights of this until you have a happy, self sleeping baby. unfortunately last night and tonight he fell asleep in our arms on the couch before we had a chance to play cry it out.  last night on the few occasions he did wake up, he cried for a few minutes and went back to sleep on his own.  here's to hoping that will continue.

if the sleep training doesn't work out after a few tries, then we'll move on and try other methods. but in the meantime, we're hoping this will translate into his daytime behavior as well so he will learn not to be upset every time we leave the room. he'll soon realize that we would never leave him, every minute of my day is spent in anticipation of coming back to him. i definitely cannot get enough of my baby, who is slowly but surely growing into a little boy with a big personality.

Hey Momma!  You forgot to tell them my greatest milestone -
 I discovered my tongue!!!

Hey Puppy!  Why don't you help me bust outta this joint?

Ew mommy why would you pierce something like this? did that affect your pllffffttt sounds???
It was high school little buddy. Mommy thought she was cool once.  Don't worry, she now embraces her dorkiness and accepts her position as a mommy.  just without the mom jeans or the mom haircut.  Because then daddy would leave her.  just kidding.
ok maybe if i got the haircut he would, but don't worry, this hair hasn't changed since 6th grade.  we're good.

Da da da, i'm not listening!  You talk way too much mommy,
 just look at my tongue, it's AWESOME!

Ok, ok, tongue's away!  Let me out now??

the monthly blogger

i think i have five unfinished drafts started over in my blog log because i keep sitting down to write and end up getting distracted by one thing or another.  but today, my goal is get something down, at least so i have something on the books for august.  it's also a bit easier to blog when sitting in a hotel room away from your loved ones with a cocktail of ceviche and a glass of malbac. 

wtf?  is this a flashback?  why am i travelling?  well, turns out my old job just can't live without me.  just kidding.  but there was some unfinished business in the form of an expert testimony that they begged and pleaded and threatened to hold me as a hostile witness if i didn't come down to houston and give a song and dance for these people.  i really can't complain though, for the 24 hours that i'm here i'm making almost as much as i make in two weeks. 

and i may get to sleep tonight.  it would be worth more than the money if i can actually get 8 straight hours.  the last five days have gone something like this:

- try to avoid shore traffic by cutting through southwest and going over haunted bridges only to get caught in a fire (smokey haze?) on the ac expressway. 
- finally make it to the shore for a party weekend but still wake up the next morning at the crack of dawn (definitely not complaining, it was a gorgeous day to wake up at the shore!). 
- vow to take a nice nap on the beach but somehow get drunk instead (again not complaining, fun as can be). 
- start bachelorette festivities including a limo ride only to discover i forgot my ID back at the house the next town over, randomly finding my uncle to drive me back to get it. 
- make it back to the clubs in time to see one of my favorite bachelorettes in all of her fist pumping glory
- get 4 hours late night / hungover sleep and drive back home to celebrate babies, but my baby is super fussy and i realize he has a fever.
- spend the evening treating the fever but after 3 hours' sleep and a spike to almost 104 we head to the ER for the better part of sunday night/monday morning for tests, xrays, and fever reduction.  i cannot get the image of the nurses trying to find a vein to draw blood on my poor baby.  they got one vile of blood after poking him through both hands and one inner elbow.  it clotted before they could even get all the tests done.  we decided against trying more.
- work a 12 hour day immediately after the ER trip, trying to stay awake and calling hubs every three hours to find out baby's temperature and feeding status.
- spend another restless night with forever crying child trying to keep him comfortable but barely being able to keep my eyes open.
- work a half day while home with still sick child only to have grandma come take him away so i can pack up and leave for houston.

and here we sit. 
the rest of the week will include travelling home, another 12 hour workday, a normal workday, and a wedding alone because it's hubs' turn for a bachelor party weekend. 

at least my son is feeling better tonight.

i can't even think of where the last month's gone.  with the exception of this week i think it's been pretty manageable.  the new job is going well, people still cool, and i've worked myself into a nice little schedule to push through for two long days in order to have off on fridays.  that's been pretty sweet.  i spend the morning running errands and cleaning house then grab gobbles from daycare.  it enables our little family to have a nice relaxing weekend together.  hopefully it will continue.

other than that, i've just been watching my baby grow into a little boy.  over the last month he's learned to crawl - still favoring the backwards method, but once in awhile he'll take one or two steps forwards.  regardless, he gets where he needs to go.  he's begun talking.  da da and bu bu and all kinds of other babbles.  he even does a "hoooHH" when the dogs are in sight, trying to command them to come.  he's been pulling himself up on the furniture and ripping things off the coffee table.  i'm there to watch it all since we still haven't babyproofed so i have to follow his every move.

well, my melbac is gone and that ceviche wasn't so good.  must be oil tainted gulf seafood.  oh well, on to what we're all waiting for - the photo montage!  it was harder than i thought to narrow down a months' worth of pics.  (narrow down?  doesn't look like that.  and this was a light month!)

I tye-dyed my shirt at daycare - for the Alex's lemonade bbq!

and I got to see the fire truck!

Uh, mommy i think these shoes are too small.  And i've got boogers!

and you did something to this picture... you're not even going to fix it?  or the dogs' greeneye?  laaazy

I'm outgrowing this car seat too!  Just a few lbs left.  Get on the ball, momma!

Wait a minute who's that handsome guy?

Phewwwie Miss Spoons.  You stink!

Ohh a beach ball! 

Standing makes my thighs look slimmer!

Good thing Daddy put 37 pillow around me in case i fall.

Hey Cannoli!  I see you!!

Why read when you can eat the book!

Peekaboo!  Mommy didn't wipe the sweet potatoes off my face very well!

But who cares, i still look faaabulous!

the 4th, the friends, the food, and the frenzy.

Did someone say foot?

Oh wait, I have a blog to keep up with too?  This poor thing has been neglected, it's just been a crazy week, and it was only 4 days!  Since I've written last, I've cleaned the house from top to bottom, been to some barbecues, taught the kid how to swim (eh that's stretchin it), started a new job, and gained 2 lbs.  We've gotten into a nice new routine of wake up, let the dogs out, feed dogs, work out, shower, wake up kid, change kid, feed kid, dry hair, get dressed, fill bottles, make cereal, pack baby food, let dogs out again, change kid again, drop at daycare, then go work.  And that's the easy part.  The hard part is running out of work and speeding the whole way back to daycare in time to make it before we have to start paying the late fee of something like 10 bucks a minute.  But, being only week 1, we have a few kinks to work out, and I'm sure as I get more comfortable at work I won't be so worried about leaving on time and I'll just go when I need to.  After all, I took this job for less stress, right?

And somewhere in the midst of all this, Mr. Gobbles has started crawling.  Backwards.  Yup, I have a mooncrawler baby, he only crawls backwards for right now, but he can get around the room.  Last night I sat him on the basement floor (carpeted) while I carried up a few bottles of wine for dinner, and I came down a minute later and he was across the room, pulling the controller out of the playstation.  Yikes.  They really do get into everything.  Time to babyproof!

We don't need to babyproof - we've got a sitter.

Backing up to recap last weekend, it was choc full of friends & family.  We typically throw a huge bbq/party every labor day weekend, but since this year we have wedding #2 of 4 in an 8 week stretch then, we decided to do it earlier this season.  And it worked out well - the weather was beautiful, it was less humid than normal, and Mr. Gobbles got to show off his guns in a festive sleeveless shirt. 

Welcome to the gun show -

I can rip grass up with my bare hands.  ARGH!

We relaxed, ate good food, chatted with good friends, and roasted giant marshmallows in the fire pit.  Toward the end of the evening, with the party still going on outside, I tried putting the little man down to sleep.  While I was doing this, my friend was in the next room feeding her son, Gobbles' lil buddy.  A few of the girls came up to say goodbye to us and we came out of the rooms holding our respective babies.  I think it was Kite who said that we were just like old college roommates again.  We looked at each other and laughed, because for a moment it did feel like that.  I've commented on this before, but when I look back at the last 10-15 years of my life, I cannot be more thankful for the friends that I have (my family of friends) and the experiences that we share. 

The next day, while we cleaned up the backyard, we took Gobbles out to play in his pool.  He's been swimming in the ocean and a lake, so he was a pro by now, just maxin and relaxin.  Later that night, we crashed a friends' family bbq, since it took place at her sister's house just a few houses away.  Another round of summer ales and giant s'mores, some more fireside hanging out, and a nice tired baby.

I loooove swimmin!

and i love to relax by the pool

Round three of the patriotic celebration came the next day when we attended our town's parade, conveniently ending about a half mile from our house.  I didn't realize that some people go all out to watch this, lining up tents and chairs all along the main drag.  The displays were definitely worth sitting in the hot sun - large floats with water hoses, small floats with miley cyrus wannabees, decorated strollers and children's bikes.  Maybe Gobbles will enter next year?  Everyone who marched by through candy of some sort at the spectating kids.   I truly felt the 4th of july spirit after sampling the free hot dogs, pretzels, water ice for everyone.  Sheesh. If my weight watchers people knew how much I ate last weekend, they'd probably applaud me for only gaining two lbs!

Can I eat this?

The weekend ground to a halt later that afternoon, and I was brought back down to the reality of my new job starting the next day.  I laid out my clothes and packed my purse with the first day of school type of feeling.  We raced through the aforementioned routine, for the time being deciding it was most feasible for me to do drop of and pick up at daycare because of the location.  Though this could change depending if my work hours start to get weird.  Work is work, the actual tasks of the day are not much different than I've been doing for years now, but for some reason I was instantly comfortable.  The people on this team are actual people, not the soulless drones I've worked with for the past three years.  Ok that sounds a little harsh, but honestly after one week with this group I know more about a lot of the people than I ever learned about the guy who I technically shared an office with throughout my tenure at my last company.  Granted, I haven't seen him in over a year because of our conflicting travel schedules, but still. 

Besides the relief in knowing I've done the right thing taking this job, my mind has also started to ease about the new daycare.  The activities that Gobbles is doing and the information being shared with me about what happens throughout the day has made me a lot more comfortable.  Friday I came home with a picture of my little boy painting.  Well, the teacher was walking him through some paint and onto a canvas, he's not exactly using a brush or anything.  Yet.

First, we'll concentrate on crawling forwards, then we'll worry about the rest.

When that thing starts moving on it's own, he will not find me!

Camping- Baby Style!

Ok, I've dillydalleyed enough.  It's my last hour with my work laptop (which, yes, I use for personal use such as facebooking and blogging and whatever else I may need it for), so I don't know when the next chance I'll get to blog away.  Gee Gobblesmom, you can't drag yourself up to the bedroom and use the 6 year old desktop computer to play around on the internets?  No, I cannot.  It runs toooo slooow.

Funny I should be without the internet at my fingertips this weekend because last weekend, out of choice, it was the same thing.  As well as no tv.  And it was liberating.  I haven't been that happy in a long time, just spending lazy hours with my husband and son.  Time just moved slower, it was amazing.  So next time I complain about having no time, please smack me in the face, tell me to turn of the tv and computer, and go outside and jump in a lake!

The weekend started off pretty hectic, as we were without power for over 24 hours leading up to our departure.  But I just wrote about that last week, so onward to camping!  With beautiful weather on the forecast for the weekend, the traffic to the mountains was a bit horrendous.  A typical 90 minute ride turned into about 3 hours, but it was worth it because I ended up installing google maps onto my blackberry and had fun watching it triangulize our location on a little map.  It's the little things.  And I'm a dork. 

Anyway, we made it up before dark and pitched our tent among the tent city our friends had made.  This year, we had to upgrade from a three person to a six person tent, just because of one 20 lb addition!  I'm sure I mentioned this a million times too, but damn to babies need a lot of gear.  I should also disclaim that we weren't exactly roughing it.  There was a small cabin with a working bathroom and kitchen.  Friends' parents get this place for a week every year and invite all of their children's friends to stay, in a tent, just outside the cabin overlooking the lake.  It is beautiful, and we are so grateful to be a part of this little family, even if we only see them once a year.

Gobbles was brimming with excitement because he was going to see his girlfriend for just the second time in his life.  After settling in and grabbing some grub, darkness set in and we all sat around the campfire chitchatting or just staring into it, enjoying the warmth.  It did get a bit chilly that first night, probably down into the fifties - we were up in the mountains after all.  Our tent was closest to the fire, so we put Gobbles down to bed in the pack & play and enjoyed our friends and some toasted hot dogs. When we turned in for the night and disrupted the little man, we just brought him onto the air mattress with us to keep him warm. 

The next morning it was warming up quickly, so we wasted no time getting Gobbles into his swimsuit and out into the lake.  His girlfriend was there waiting for him, and hubs found a couple of swim rings in the cabin, perfect for kids this size.  At first he was a little iffy in the water, but it didn't take long for my little man to start loving his swim.  His daddy took such good care of him walking him out into the calm, warm lake and letting him have fun. 

Hmm. This is interesting...

I love the feel of this stuff... whaddya call it?

Help!  I'm floating away!

Ahh ha ha. My feet are wrinkly

Why hey there pretty lady!  Come here often?

While the lake was pretty much the highlight of the trip for me, we also had good food, good beer (homebrewed by a friend, who will have his own brewery soon enough, mark my words), and an overall relaxing time.  We went for a few walks and played in the annual softball game, which I had to miss out on last year since I was knocked up.  My team won and I managed to contribute with a few hits, runs, and a lot of double plays (2nd base holla!). 

And the biggest thing I learned that weekend has nothing to do with camping, though it has a little to do with nature.  You know the myth about crying babies triggering a mothers' milk?  Um yea, it's true.  See, there was another baby there as well.  A three week old (and you think I'm nuts bringing a 6 monther?).  The newborn crying during our second night there, with the distinct pitch of wehhh wehhh wehh, had my 6 days of no production boobs leaking.  All over.  With clogged ducts that were hard and oh so painful.  I couldn't relieve myself by feeding the little guy because I'd been drinking all day, and my pump was back home.  I managed to find some relief by hand expressing (ouch) and using some warm compresses.   Looking back, it's kind of hilarious but that night I didn't know how I'd make it through.   But alas, I have survived.  I look forward to going back next year hopefully with more next generation campers.  As my friend's dad said - with these little ones comes a whole new era.

Thank you everyone, we had so much fun!

We'll miss you.

I am tired and Mommy's beer is empty.  So until next year!