Well, the holidays are nearly over. I've so enjoyed my week off work! I have to go back on the second, but I've been off all week and it's been so great spending so much time with Nicky. We had a great Christmas with him! Lots of pictures have been uploaded to the Nicky's Photos link.
My mom's getting better. She's had some wound complications, and she and Liz are handling it very well. They have a nurse coming in to show them how to take care of the additional wound care that is now required.
Tom's dad is in the hospital now while they try to figure out why he can't breathe. We're not sure if it's related to his surgery or not. They're looking at his lungs and his heart right now to figure out where the problem lies.
Tom's mom is doing really well after her eye surgery. She had it on 12/22 and already it looks so much better. If only everyone had Tom's nursing care! She's been able to be with us since Christmas, maybe being around Nicky has curative effects. ;)I wouldn't doubt it!
My dad came by on Christmas day and actually spent the night! It's the longest, most quality visit we've had for several years and I really enjoyed it. Nicky got to spend a lot of time with his Granddaddy and Grandmother from GA. I have a video of Dad and Gwen with Nicky uploaded, and a few photos too. Gwen took some more photos of all of us, and she'll send them to me. I'll be sure to get some up on here.
I think that's the majority of what's going on here. Oh, and I moved around my bedroom! It's so much nicer this way. I still have to get around to taking a new video tour of the house. Maybe I'll just have to do it before it's all clean and decorated. Otherwise I might never get to it!
Friday, December 29, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
We got the Pathology back!
AND it's good news! Mom's cancer was only Stage 1B! That means that there will probably be no need for any further treatment! I'm so happy! With my Mom healthy and Nicky here I really don't need anything else to have a wonderful Christmas!
Other than that there really isn't much going on here. We have cancelled our cell phones because they're just way too darn expensive. The penalty for cancelling early is $200 per line, but that's still way cheaper than continuing to pay them until the contract runs out next fall. We've ordered Internet phone service through our cable company and it's only $16.77 a month. Over a $150.00 savings each month! Well worth it! That will be hooked up on 1/3/07 so until then we only have email for communication. We'll be checking it several times a day!
I'm home for the holidays now until 1/2/07! YAY more time with Nicky! Being away from him while I was down south for 5 days was hard and I think I still have a Nicky-snuggle deficit to work off. Hope he doesn't get sick of kisses and hugs!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannuka, and Happy New Year everyone! May your holidays be as blessed as mine!
Other than that there really isn't much going on here. We have cancelled our cell phones because they're just way too darn expensive. The penalty for cancelling early is $200 per line, but that's still way cheaper than continuing to pay them until the contract runs out next fall. We've ordered Internet phone service through our cable company and it's only $16.77 a month. Over a $150.00 savings each month! Well worth it! That will be hooked up on 1/3/07 so until then we only have email for communication. We'll be checking it several times a day!
I'm home for the holidays now until 1/2/07! YAY more time with Nicky! Being away from him while I was down south for 5 days was hard and I think I still have a Nicky-snuggle deficit to work off. Hope he doesn't get sick of kisses and hugs!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannuka, and Happy New Year everyone! May your holidays be as blessed as mine!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Finally, last week is OVER
Actually looking back, everything turned out fine. But man, I do NOT want a repeat of last week!
The three parties at work all went great! Two of them were holiday parties and there are photos up online here: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/pio/2006_hol_parties.pdf
That's me in the first picture with my friend Margeaux. (Hint: she's a little bit slimmer than I am. LOL!) You can see the decorations we did and everyone having a good time and lots of food! The Evening party just had a few tables of finger foods and chairs, while the daytime potluck had a lot of food in a buffet and several tables for sitting down to eat.
The party I coordinated but did not attend on Friday went well too. There are a few photos from that also but here's the one of the table pre-party: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/pio/staff/food.jpg
I think it looks great!
AND last, but definitely MOST is that my mom made it through the surgery! We won't know everything until the pathology is back, but the doctors say the surgery went well and they didn't "see" any cancer outside of the female organs they removed. Hopefully they got it all. We should know more soon. She's already at home recuperating, although she is still in a lot of pain. My sister's work is being awesome and letting her take this week off to take care of mom, so I came home on Tuesday. Nicky was so happy to see me! And I was just loving holding him all evening!
Anyway, that's about it. I'll have to get more pics up soon so that my mom has LOTS to look at!
The three parties at work all went great! Two of them were holiday parties and there are photos up online here: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/pio/2006_hol_parties.pdf
That's me in the first picture with my friend Margeaux. (Hint: she's a little bit slimmer than I am. LOL!) You can see the decorations we did and everyone having a good time and lots of food! The Evening party just had a few tables of finger foods and chairs, while the daytime potluck had a lot of food in a buffet and several tables for sitting down to eat.
The party I coordinated but did not attend on Friday went well too. There are a few photos from that also but here's the one of the table pre-party: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/pio/staff/food.jpg
I think it looks great!
AND last, but definitely MOST is that my mom made it through the surgery! We won't know everything until the pathology is back, but the doctors say the surgery went well and they didn't "see" any cancer outside of the female organs they removed. Hopefully they got it all. We should know more soon. She's already at home recuperating, although she is still in a lot of pain. My sister's work is being awesome and letting her take this week off to take care of mom, so I came home on Tuesday. Nicky was so happy to see me! And I was just loving holding him all evening!
Anyway, that's about it. I'll have to get more pics up soon so that my mom has LOTS to look at!
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
One heck of a stressful week
Whew! I don't usually write about anyone other than Nicky, Tom and I on here, and I rarely if ever mention work, but I have to share this with somebody! So heck, why not share with everyone...
So this week I'm helping set up three office parties (one of which went VERY nicely last night) and my mom is going into surgery on Friday morning. Not sure how much extra stress I can pack into this week!
Two of the parties are Holiday parties for the libraries where I work. We have about 350 employees, so there is a committee appointed to put on the parties. We have a pretty small budget, too small to cater anything, so we did a LOT of prep work and decorating ourselves. I think it really went well for the evening party we did last night. We have a daytime potluck tomorrow and hopefully that will go off without a hitch. We had decided last year (I was on the committee then too) to do two parties to try to please everyone. Some had complained in prior years of having a party during work hours, and some complained that they wouldn't want one outside of work hours. LOL! You probably CAN'T please everyone, but we are sure trying! So our compromise last year and this one was to have an evening party with fingerfoods and champagne punch for just staff where they could bring a guest. Then we have a sit down potluck (we supply the main meats) during lunchtime two days later. Any leftovers from the evening party are used then, and it really seemed to go well last year. Hopefully it will go well this time.
Then our department has several folks who were unfortunately missed (darn PeopleSoft!) when the employee recognition ceremony took place last month. This was a ceremony to recognize folks with a certain number of years of service to the University. For some reason 6 people in my department were left out. 4 of them have more than 20 years with the university! I think that is really something to honor! Most people don't stay with one job for more than 5 years nowadays, so I think anything over that is really special! We have a tiny bit of money to do a departmental celebration and I'm in charge of that. That party is Friday. Well luckily my coworkers are really willing to help out, and so I've gotten a menu together and preordered the food, we'll go shopping tomorrow and then my coworkers will actually do the setup and cleanup Friday.
All that should be stress enough (considering that I still have my 'real' job to do too). But on top of that the most concerning thing, and the thing I appreciate everyone's prayers and good thoughts for is that my mom is going in for surgery on Friday morning. So I'll be leaving Friday morning around 4am in hopes that I'll get to be there and see her before her surgery. She's a pretty private person, and I'm sure she won't be too thrilled for me to put all this on here, so I'll try to be circumspect. But heck I just am one of those sharing people. She was diagnosed with endometrial cancer about a month ago and then we found out that even though all paps have come back normal, the cancer has spread to her cervix too. That means it's at least stage 2 cancer. We won't know anything for sure about the stage or what kinds of additional treament is needed until after the surgery. So keep those prayers and good vibes coming!
Whew. I feel better getting some of that out! Now, go over and look at the new photos and movies I put up. ;)
So this week I'm helping set up three office parties (one of which went VERY nicely last night) and my mom is going into surgery on Friday morning. Not sure how much extra stress I can pack into this week!
Two of the parties are Holiday parties for the libraries where I work. We have about 350 employees, so there is a committee appointed to put on the parties. We have a pretty small budget, too small to cater anything, so we did a LOT of prep work and decorating ourselves. I think it really went well for the evening party we did last night. We have a daytime potluck tomorrow and hopefully that will go off without a hitch. We had decided last year (I was on the committee then too) to do two parties to try to please everyone. Some had complained in prior years of having a party during work hours, and some complained that they wouldn't want one outside of work hours. LOL! You probably CAN'T please everyone, but we are sure trying! So our compromise last year and this one was to have an evening party with fingerfoods and champagne punch for just staff where they could bring a guest. Then we have a sit down potluck (we supply the main meats) during lunchtime two days later. Any leftovers from the evening party are used then, and it really seemed to go well last year. Hopefully it will go well this time.
Then our department has several folks who were unfortunately missed (darn PeopleSoft!) when the employee recognition ceremony took place last month. This was a ceremony to recognize folks with a certain number of years of service to the University. For some reason 6 people in my department were left out. 4 of them have more than 20 years with the university! I think that is really something to honor! Most people don't stay with one job for more than 5 years nowadays, so I think anything over that is really special! We have a tiny bit of money to do a departmental celebration and I'm in charge of that. That party is Friday. Well luckily my coworkers are really willing to help out, and so I've gotten a menu together and preordered the food, we'll go shopping tomorrow and then my coworkers will actually do the setup and cleanup Friday.
All that should be stress enough (considering that I still have my 'real' job to do too). But on top of that the most concerning thing, and the thing I appreciate everyone's prayers and good thoughts for is that my mom is going in for surgery on Friday morning. So I'll be leaving Friday morning around 4am in hopes that I'll get to be there and see her before her surgery. She's a pretty private person, and I'm sure she won't be too thrilled for me to put all this on here, so I'll try to be circumspect. But heck I just am one of those sharing people. She was diagnosed with endometrial cancer about a month ago and then we found out that even though all paps have come back normal, the cancer has spread to her cervix too. That means it's at least stage 2 cancer. We won't know anything for sure about the stage or what kinds of additional treament is needed until after the surgery. So keep those prayers and good vibes coming!
Whew. I feel better getting some of that out! Now, go over and look at the new photos and movies I put up. ;)
Saturday, December 02, 2006
A few new photos
My mom sent the camera charger to me in the mail! YAY! Thanks Mom!
So I've already taken a picture of the tree. It's in the new December folder along with a picture of Nicky right before bedtime.
While I was at it, Tom's mom brought her camera for me to see what pictures she had and I found some I hadn't seen before. I added a few to July and November that you'll just have to see.
Next plans are to do a new and improved "tour" of the house and to get some holiday pictures in front of the tree. I'm trying like mad to get some photo cards to send out this year. I just need the photos!
So I've already taken a picture of the tree. It's in the new December folder along with a picture of Nicky right before bedtime.
While I was at it, Tom's mom brought her camera for me to see what pictures she had and I found some I hadn't seen before. I added a few to July and November that you'll just have to see.
Next plans are to do a new and improved "tour" of the house and to get some holiday pictures in front of the tree. I'm trying like mad to get some photo cards to send out this year. I just need the photos!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Old photos
I moved a bunch of old photos from my old geocities website over to the photobucket account. It's just easier to have everything in one place. I put them all into the "other photos" section with no rhyme or reason. Maybe I'll get around to adding captions, but till then it will be a true "other" file of stuff. The one above is of me and my sister Elizabeth with Santa at the North Pole. My it was warm at the North Pole that day!
We're still waiting for Nicky's teeth to start coming in. He's teething like crazy so it seems like they'll be here anytime but still no sign of toothbuds in there. But that's not stopping him from eating fingerfoods when we let him! He's had soft bits of bread, the gerber fruit puffs, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, orange bits and banana. We might try some overcooked pasta soon. I'm afraid to give him anything that really requires more chewing than mashing like beans or peas yet. But I'm sure he'll have those too before the year is out.
Thought I'd put in a plug for JM's website. It's at: www.jmmott.com and if you go to the 'custom artwork' page you'll see a cute painting of Nicky from Thanksgiving. You also might recognize a few of the pet portraits on there. ;)
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
The Christmas tree is UP
And it looks great! Needs more ornaments though. Right now we only have Tom's mom's ornaments on it. Tom hasn't found our Christmas stuff in the storage unit yet. But hopefully they'll turn up before too long. I'm so excited to decorate for Christmas! We used to really decorate the place up years ago, but we haven't done any decorating since 1999. That was our first Christmas with dogs, and it was just too hard with the pups. Cats just knocked over the tree and played with the ornaments till they went under the sofa. Dogs eat the tree and the ornaments and then puke them all over the place. But now the pups are locked away in the kitchen/dining area and we just got another gate to keep Nicky safely in the den (because he's mastered the two steps up to the living room!) and we're safe to decorate! YAY!
I think I posted before that I left the battery charger for the camera at my Mom's place. They'll be mailing it to me soon, but till then I've been using Tom's cellphone to take some pics. I have a few from last night up now. They are of him and the tree and at dinner. He's just starting to wave hi and bye occasionally. It's so cute! I promise to get up photos of the tree and Nicky as soon as I get the charger. AND I'll make a new tour video so you can see what the place looks like now.
Hope Everyone is planning to come to visit on Christmas Day! We're having it here at our house!
I think I posted before that I left the battery charger for the camera at my Mom's place. They'll be mailing it to me soon, but till then I've been using Tom's cellphone to take some pics. I have a few from last night up now. They are of him and the tree and at dinner. He's just starting to wave hi and bye occasionally. It's so cute! I promise to get up photos of the tree and Nicky as soon as I get the charger. AND I'll make a new tour video so you can see what the place looks like now.
Hope Everyone is planning to come to visit on Christmas Day! We're having it here at our house!
Friday, November 24, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving!
Well we've had our first Thanksgiving in our new house with our new baby. :) I never thought I'd see the day!
Nicky had lots of fun playing with everyone. I think Maryellen and Scot both had a nice Nicky-fix while they were here. Hopefully they're now addicted and we'll be seeing them a lot. It might be true- they are coming back in 3 weeks!
I have lots of photos thanks to JM. I was silly and left the battery charger for my camera at Liz's house! Can you believe it? So JM brought her camera and took some fabulous pictures for us. They're already linked up on the November page. Click the "Nicky's Photos" link on the right to see them.
The one above is one of my favorites!
I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I hope to see you all at Christmas & Hannukah!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Thanksgiving
It's tomorrow! Can you believe it's finally here? I'm so excited to have Nicky's first Thanksgiving!
Last weekend I took Friday and Monday off to give me a 4 day weekend. Nicky and I drove to mom, Liz and Jodi's house for a visit. ALL BY OURSELVES! Whew! That's the longest I've ever been anywhere with just me and Nicky. AND I've only driven with him in the car about 2x before this. Usually Tom's driving and I'm in the backseat so I was a little nervous about driving with him back there all alone. We made it though. Each way took us about 5 hours. I had to stop midway to give him a bottle both times too. But we made it safe and sound.
We had a great visit with everyone. Jodi was really great with Nicky! He just loved playing with her. Liz was just so happy to have him around to cuddle with, and she really enjoyed showing him off to everyone at her work. Mom was just in Nicky-heaven and got lots of cuddle time with the boy. I think she really enjoyed watching him play and reading to him, and showing him off to all the people at her church on Sunday.
I tried to take lots of pictures. I put several in the November folder (click Nicky's Photos on the right) for everyone to enjoy. I have lots more, but mostly we were in our PJs so I think those will just have to stay with me. ;)
Yesterday after work Nicky was dressed so cute in his little courderoy outfit. I tried to get Tom to take a picture of Nicky and I in front of the house but Nicky was hungry and distracted and Tom was having camera issues. Aw well. At least you can see the pretty shawl and scarf I crocheted for myself last winter. I made it extra big to cover my pg tummy last year, but it's a great shawl!
So anyway, we're getting all ready for Thanksgiving. Hopefully we'll soon be setting up a Christmas tree too! It's been so long since I've decorated for Christmas! I'll have to try to find all my decorations! And I've got to make Nicky a stocking! Looks like it's going to be a busy few weeks coming up!
Happy Holidays!
Last weekend I took Friday and Monday off to give me a 4 day weekend. Nicky and I drove to mom, Liz and Jodi's house for a visit. ALL BY OURSELVES! Whew! That's the longest I've ever been anywhere with just me and Nicky. AND I've only driven with him in the car about 2x before this. Usually Tom's driving and I'm in the backseat so I was a little nervous about driving with him back there all alone. We made it though. Each way took us about 5 hours. I had to stop midway to give him a bottle both times too. But we made it safe and sound.
We had a great visit with everyone. Jodi was really great with Nicky! He just loved playing with her. Liz was just so happy to have him around to cuddle with, and she really enjoyed showing him off to everyone at her work. Mom was just in Nicky-heaven and got lots of cuddle time with the boy. I think she really enjoyed watching him play and reading to him, and showing him off to all the people at her church on Sunday.
I tried to take lots of pictures. I put several in the November folder (click Nicky's Photos on the right) for everyone to enjoy. I have lots more, but mostly we were in our PJs so I think those will just have to stay with me. ;)
Yesterday after work Nicky was dressed so cute in his little courderoy outfit. I tried to get Tom to take a picture of Nicky and I in front of the house but Nicky was hungry and distracted and Tom was having camera issues. Aw well. At least you can see the pretty shawl and scarf I crocheted for myself last winter. I made it extra big to cover my pg tummy last year, but it's a great shawl!
So anyway, we're getting all ready for Thanksgiving. Hopefully we'll soon be setting up a Christmas tree too! It's been so long since I've decorated for Christmas! I'll have to try to find all my decorations! And I've got to make Nicky a stocking! Looks like it's going to be a busy few weeks coming up!
Happy Holidays!
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Thanksgiving is right around the corner
Thanksgiving is coming up fast! Tom is home with his mom getting ready for the holiday. I'm in Lake Placid visiting with my mom, Liz and Jodi. Nicky is with me, and man is Tom having withdrawls! Well, he hasn't really admitted it yet, but I KNOW he must be! I drove here with Nicky (4 hours in the car!) on Friday and I'm staying until Monday. Nicky is really enjoying himself, but misses his daddy. I have a little movie I'll put up when I get home of him kissing a picture in a book that we think he found to look like his daddy. Then we had daddy talk to him on the phone and you should see his sad little face!
Anyway, we have some modifications to the Thanksgiving menu and guestlist. Looks like my mom, Liz and Jodi won't be able to come. Jessie, my dad and Gwen can't come either. So we're now down to 8 people including Nicky. Tom is going to scale down the menu accordingly.
So anyway, movies and photos will be forthcoming as soon as I get home. I can't get them off the camera until I'm home. Bummer! That also means I can't empty out the memory card and take more movies! It's only Saturday and I've already filled up the big card.
Anyway, we have some modifications to the Thanksgiving menu and guestlist. Looks like my mom, Liz and Jodi won't be able to come. Jessie, my dad and Gwen can't come either. So we're now down to 8 people including Nicky. Tom is going to scale down the menu accordingly.
So anyway, movies and photos will be forthcoming as soon as I get home. I can't get them off the camera until I'm home. Bummer! That also means I can't empty out the memory card and take more movies! It's only Saturday and I've already filled up the big card.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
We have a tub again
Finally. The plumbers fixed the drain and we once again have both hot water and a tub/shower to use it in. Thank goodness!
Update on Thanksgiving: It sounds like my Mom, Liz and Jodi won't be able to make it over here. I'm heading down there this Friday, so maybe we'll just have to be thankful a week early. Hopefully everyone else can make it though! Below is the guestlist along with a menu:
Tom: turkey, beef tenderloin, 2 kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, sweetpotato casserole, brocolli with a cheese sauce, crudites with hot asiago & artichoke dip
Donna: sugar free fruit trifle, chocolate cheesecake, 3 kinds of cranberry sause/relishes, molded jello & fruit salad
Angela: green bean casserole
Nicky: entertainment
Dad & JM: pumpkin pie
Dad & Gwen (Jessie?): bread/rolls
Maryellen & Scot: Spinach dip bread bowl
Whew! Did I forget something or someone? If so, please call me or Tom and we'll adjust the menu & list accordingly! The more the merrier!
Update on Thanksgiving: It sounds like my Mom, Liz and Jodi won't be able to make it over here. I'm heading down there this Friday, so maybe we'll just have to be thankful a week early. Hopefully everyone else can make it though! Below is the guestlist along with a menu:
Tom: turkey, beef tenderloin, 2 kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, sweetpotato casserole, brocolli with a cheese sauce, crudites with hot asiago & artichoke dip
Donna: sugar free fruit trifle, chocolate cheesecake, 3 kinds of cranberry sause/relishes, molded jello & fruit salad
Angela: green bean casserole
Nicky: entertainment
Dad & JM: pumpkin pie
Dad & Gwen (Jessie?): bread/rolls
Maryellen & Scot: Spinach dip bread bowl
Whew! Did I forget something or someone? If so, please call me or Tom and we'll adjust the menu & list accordingly! The more the merrier!
Monday, November 13, 2006
The plumber is coming! The plumber is coming!
Well, the water heater IS working, so at least we have hot water. Unfortunately the bathtub drain is NOT working, and so we can't actually use the tub or shower. It's been a long few days of spit baths and washing my hair in the kitchen sink. You know, I remember that was a big fun thing when I was a kid. It's not really all that fun anymore. And I figure in order for us to be able to lure anyone to come for Thanksgiving I'd better have a shower available for them. So Tom's called the plumber to come fix the drain and hopefully we'll have a working tub this week. Now if everything else can just STAY fixed and working for a while! Sheesh!
Now Abbey's been in some kind of hip/back pain over the long weekend that has her screaming sometimes and fine sometimes. We can't afford to take her to the vet. She's had this before (not quite so acute though) and we took her to the emergency vet (because of COURSE it was a weekend evening) for 250$ to be told it wasn't anything they could find, and then the regular vet the next day to be told they couldn't find anything either. *sigh* She's in obvious pain and it seems to be her hips or her back near her hips. She absolutely screams sometimes when we have to get her up and walking. But then after moving around a bit outside she starts running around like there is nothing wrong. It's very frustrating. We actually took her with us to see Tom's mom this weekend so that we could keep an eye on her. It seems to be worse when she's on slippery floors, like linoleum or parkay and somewhat better on carpet, so we've got her in the carpeted section of the house now, while Benjamin and Sampson are in the kitchen/dining area. We'll just have to see how it goes.
So anyway, if bad things come in threes then we're due for some good luck. Between the water heater, the drain, and Abbey's pain that should be 3 and now everything should go smoothly for a while. Right?
Anyway, for the fun stuff see the photos and movies links. We went to visit Nana and then stopped by for a little visit with Gayle's crew. Nicky and Colin had a cute time together. And Nicky really took to Jerry! You'll just have to see the pics. I also put up two new movies. One of Nicky being quite vocal at Nana's house and one of him having a little fit in his crib. You can tell he's trying to test me and fake crying. He can't help but laugh at the raspberries I blew at him. He did finally take a nap after fussing a bit. But man, that night he had a full blown tantrum when it was bedtime. Tom and I managed to organize the closet in our bedroom during that one. :)
So who's coming for Thanksgiving?? I'm counting on the following folks:
Mom, Liz, Jodi (I hope!)
Dad & Gwen (and maybe Jessie?)
Dad & JM
Maryellen & Scot
Nana
Me, Tom & Nicky
Can anyone else make it?? Tom's got QUITE the menu worked up and Nana is coming on Monday night to help him with all the cooking and stuff. I'm making a green bean thingy and watching the baby. :) I get all the good jobs.
Email us to let us know if you can come!
Now Abbey's been in some kind of hip/back pain over the long weekend that has her screaming sometimes and fine sometimes. We can't afford to take her to the vet. She's had this before (not quite so acute though) and we took her to the emergency vet (because of COURSE it was a weekend evening) for 250$ to be told it wasn't anything they could find, and then the regular vet the next day to be told they couldn't find anything either. *sigh* She's in obvious pain and it seems to be her hips or her back near her hips. She absolutely screams sometimes when we have to get her up and walking. But then after moving around a bit outside she starts running around like there is nothing wrong. It's very frustrating. We actually took her with us to see Tom's mom this weekend so that we could keep an eye on her. It seems to be worse when she's on slippery floors, like linoleum or parkay and somewhat better on carpet, so we've got her in the carpeted section of the house now, while Benjamin and Sampson are in the kitchen/dining area. We'll just have to see how it goes.
So anyway, if bad things come in threes then we're due for some good luck. Between the water heater, the drain, and Abbey's pain that should be 3 and now everything should go smoothly for a while. Right?
Anyway, for the fun stuff see the photos and movies links. We went to visit Nana and then stopped by for a little visit with Gayle's crew. Nicky and Colin had a cute time together. And Nicky really took to Jerry! You'll just have to see the pics. I also put up two new movies. One of Nicky being quite vocal at Nana's house and one of him having a little fit in his crib. You can tell he's trying to test me and fake crying. He can't help but laugh at the raspberries I blew at him. He did finally take a nap after fussing a bit. But man, that night he had a full blown tantrum when it was bedtime. Tom and I managed to organize the closet in our bedroom during that one. :)
So who's coming for Thanksgiving?? I'm counting on the following folks:
Mom, Liz, Jodi (I hope!)
Dad & Gwen (and maybe Jessie?)
Dad & JM
Maryellen & Scot
Nana
Me, Tom & Nicky
Can anyone else make it?? Tom's got QUITE the menu worked up and Nana is coming on Monday night to help him with all the cooking and stuff. I'm making a green bean thingy and watching the baby. :) I get all the good jobs.
Email us to let us know if you can come!
Friday, November 03, 2006
Tom is awesome
Of course you probably already knew that, but this time he's really awesome! Tuesday when I got home I had to take a COLD shower because there was no hot water pressure. Cold was fine though. (Lucky me)
So Tom tried Wednesday to flush out the pipes in case it was blocked or full of sediment. No luck. We ended up going to Lowe's to buy a new waterheater. We went ahead and got the 40 gallon instead of 30 gallon (so it was taller than the old one). Now the waterheater was 209.00. Installation was 199.00 and delivery was another 59.00. AND even though their website says same or next day installation, the guy that "helped" us said there was no way it would be that soon. (I say "helped" because he walked off to get us someone to help us get the heavy thing and never returned. I watched him helping others and talking to other employees for about 30 minutes before Tom came with his own dolly and got it by himself.)
So we decided to take it home ourselves and Tom would try to install it himself. A perfect stranger helped Tom heave it up into the SUV while I held Nicky. And then Tom was able to use his Dad's dolly (which we had borrowed for the move) to get the waterheater into the house. Then he figured out the sizes and types of pipes he'd need and headed back to Lowe's. And guess what...
We have hot water!
He totally installed a new water heater all by himself! AND it fixed the problem too! He just saved us 200 bucks! YAY! AND I took a HOT shower too! I'm pretty excited about the whole thing if you couldn't tell. :) Now if the rest of the house and appliances will just stay working for a while so I can pay off the Lowe's card...
Other fun stuff:
Nicky learned to use a sippy cup Wednesday too! He'd been only chewing on the cup spout and wouldn't suck on it. So his brilliant mommy (that's me!) put some pears on the spout and when he was slurping the pears off he figured out that water came out too! He loved it! I was able to go grab the camera and tape some of it too. Check Nicky's movies link to the right.
The other thing Nicky's learning is that he can pull up to standing on the sofa or on mommy's legs. So while I'm sitting on the sofa with my legs out he walks between my legs up to the sofa, turns around and walks back to my feet, etc. That's all he wants to do lately too- pull up to stand and try to walk. None of this crawling business, although he is pretty much scooting around so much you can pretty much call it crawling. I didn't get movies of the walking thing, but I snapped a few pictures in sequence.
I think that's about it. Nicky's Nana is coming to visit this weekend and hopefully I'll get a LOT of organizing and unpacking done. You can see exactly what a mess the house is on the tour video I took yesterday. I'll have to do another one when the house is clean!
So Tom tried Wednesday to flush out the pipes in case it was blocked or full of sediment. No luck. We ended up going to Lowe's to buy a new waterheater. We went ahead and got the 40 gallon instead of 30 gallon (so it was taller than the old one). Now the waterheater was 209.00. Installation was 199.00 and delivery was another 59.00. AND even though their website says same or next day installation, the guy that "helped" us said there was no way it would be that soon. (I say "helped" because he walked off to get us someone to help us get the heavy thing and never returned. I watched him helping others and talking to other employees for about 30 minutes before Tom came with his own dolly and got it by himself.)
So we decided to take it home ourselves and Tom would try to install it himself. A perfect stranger helped Tom heave it up into the SUV while I held Nicky. And then Tom was able to use his Dad's dolly (which we had borrowed for the move) to get the waterheater into the house. Then he figured out the sizes and types of pipes he'd need and headed back to Lowe's. And guess what...
We have hot water!
He totally installed a new water heater all by himself! AND it fixed the problem too! He just saved us 200 bucks! YAY! AND I took a HOT shower too! I'm pretty excited about the whole thing if you couldn't tell. :) Now if the rest of the house and appliances will just stay working for a while so I can pay off the Lowe's card...
Other fun stuff:
Nicky learned to use a sippy cup Wednesday too! He'd been only chewing on the cup spout and wouldn't suck on it. So his brilliant mommy (that's me!) put some pears on the spout and when he was slurping the pears off he figured out that water came out too! He loved it! I was able to go grab the camera and tape some of it too. Check Nicky's movies link to the right.
The other thing Nicky's learning is that he can pull up to standing on the sofa or on mommy's legs. So while I'm sitting on the sofa with my legs out he walks between my legs up to the sofa, turns around and walks back to my feet, etc. That's all he wants to do lately too- pull up to stand and try to walk. None of this crawling business, although he is pretty much scooting around so much you can pretty much call it crawling. I didn't get movies of the walking thing, but I snapped a few pictures in sequence.
I think that's about it. Nicky's Nana is coming to visit this weekend and hopefully I'll get a LOT of organizing and unpacking done. You can see exactly what a mess the house is on the tour video I took yesterday. I'll have to do another one when the house is clean!
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
All moved in in time for Halloween!
We did it! With a lot of help from Liz, Jodi, Ian and my mom we finally moved into the new house! I have a few pictures up of Nicky that show the house, but I'll have to take some OF the house to really show what it looks like. Maybe later today. :)
The time change went pretty smoothly for Nicky. He's up a little early every day, but that's ok. Being so close to work now is AWESOME! I've been EARLY to work every day this week! YAY! AND that means I get to come home early too! EVEN BIGGER YAY!
We went to a pumpkin carving party on Sunday night after moving. It was fun, but it didn't take long for Nicky to poop out. He had a big weekend. Photos are up in the October section. (click "Nicky's Photos" link on the right)
He also had some fun Sunday afternoon meeting the baby in the mirror. We have my dresser mirror on the floor and we sat down to see what that baby was doing. We had a lot of this going on:
On Halloween itself we went to Boo at the Zoo at SFCC's teaching zoo. It was fairly campy and low budget. A lot of cardboard. But it will be so fun for him when he gets older. We took pics, but you can see that Nicky wasn't that into it this year. We got home around 7-7:30 and I was all ready for Trick or Treaters! I was sooo excited to finally be in a place where we would get them! We ordered pizza too, which was just AWESOME! We haven't lived where we could get delivery for 8 years! But in the end, we only got 2 carloads of kids. About 6 total. AND they weren't even dressed up. I was so disappointed. Maybe we just have to be home earlier in the evening next year. Well I'll have LOTS of candy to share with my co-workers this week!
Happy Halloween! Can you BELIEVE it is NOVEMBER already??
The time change went pretty smoothly for Nicky. He's up a little early every day, but that's ok. Being so close to work now is AWESOME! I've been EARLY to work every day this week! YAY! AND that means I get to come home early too! EVEN BIGGER YAY!
We went to a pumpkin carving party on Sunday night after moving. It was fun, but it didn't take long for Nicky to poop out. He had a big weekend. Photos are up in the October section. (click "Nicky's Photos" link on the right)
He also had some fun Sunday afternoon meeting the baby in the mirror. We have my dresser mirror on the floor and we sat down to see what that baby was doing. We had a lot of this going on:
On Halloween itself we went to Boo at the Zoo at SFCC's teaching zoo. It was fairly campy and low budget. A lot of cardboard. But it will be so fun for him when he gets older. We took pics, but you can see that Nicky wasn't that into it this year. We got home around 7-7:30 and I was all ready for Trick or Treaters! I was sooo excited to finally be in a place where we would get them! We ordered pizza too, which was just AWESOME! We haven't lived where we could get delivery for 8 years! But in the end, we only got 2 carloads of kids. About 6 total. AND they weren't even dressed up. I was so disappointed. Maybe we just have to be home earlier in the evening next year. Well I'll have LOTS of candy to share with my co-workers this week!
Happy Halloween! Can you BELIEVE it is NOVEMBER already??
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
New weight and height!
Tom took Nicky in to the pediatrician this morning. We were concerned about his ear. He'd been pulling at it. And since we wanted to get him weighed anyway...
Well his ears are "perfect" according to the doctor, so I guess it's just teething. But the BIG news is Nicky now weighs 20 pounds even! AND he's 27.5 inches long. Gigantababy indeed. :)
Just in case you didn't know, there are two new movies up on the blog too. I was able to catch him pulling up to stand and playing his game of making indian sounds too. The angles aren't the best, but doggone it- he's cute anyway.
We're planning on moving into the new house this weekend no matter what. This means the den probably won't be done, the cabinets definitely won't be done, and the fence isn't done. BUT it will be so much easier for Tom to finish those things up when he actually lives there. AND I am fed up with commuting for an hour twice a day.
We'll lose touch for a bit while we get new email set up. So in the meantime stop sending any mail to the tamott at alltel dot net address and I'll email you all with the new address. We still have our cell phones, so you can reach us. :)
Well his ears are "perfect" according to the doctor, so I guess it's just teething. But the BIG news is Nicky now weighs 20 pounds even! AND he's 27.5 inches long. Gigantababy indeed. :)
Just in case you didn't know, there are two new movies up on the blog too. I was able to catch him pulling up to stand and playing his game of making indian sounds too. The angles aren't the best, but doggone it- he's cute anyway.
We're planning on moving into the new house this weekend no matter what. This means the den probably won't be done, the cabinets definitely won't be done, and the fence isn't done. BUT it will be so much easier for Tom to finish those things up when he actually lives there. AND I am fed up with commuting for an hour twice a day.
We'll lose touch for a bit while we get new email set up. So in the meantime stop sending any mail to the tamott at alltel dot net address and I'll email you all with the new address. We still have our cell phones, so you can reach us. :)
Monday, October 23, 2006
More milestones!
Nicky is getting better and better at eating his fruit puffs. We'll keep practicing, but he's started staring at me when I'm eating and then starts chewing. And now when he gets a puff in his mouth he'll look at me and start chewing on it with his gums (where his molars will eventually be).
We had a great weekend. He and I played in his room (which actually might end up being Tom's and my room instead) on the floor. He isn't really 'crawling' yet, but he's moving around quite a bit! I put a video of it on the movies page (link to your right).
Then he and I spent Sunday together while Daddy worked on the house. We practiced using the sippy cup, which he thinks is great fun, and practiced our puffs. I clicked some cute pictures of him in his exersaucer (see the October photos for those).
Later we watched the Sesame Street baby movie his Nana picked out for him. He loves it! After that we invented a new game. Mommy bounces her fingers off her mouth while making a noise (think of the sounds you made playing cowboys and indians when you were a kid "woo woo woo woo") then Mommy gently (of course) bounces her fingertips over Nicky's mouth (that he opens up for this purpose) and he makes sounds. Then we giggle. It's great fun! I'll have to catch it on video tonight!
After that we went to see Daddy and have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. We ended up at the Blue Highway in Micanopy because Sonny's was packed! But the Blue Highway was just right and Nicky gets a lot of attention there since we'd been going there all during my pregnancy.
Oh, I just have to tell you about another dinner though! On Friday Nana came to visit and we all went to On the Border (where we had much better service this time by the way) and Nicky was uncharacteristically demanding. (He was hungry.) I started his bottle and his apples, but he was still grabbing for everything else. We decided to give him a lemon wedge to play with. (I had taken out all the seeds.) You know, we were looking forward to seeing quite a funny face, so I put the wedge down on the table in front of him and had Daddy's camera phone ready to go. Well you can see for yourself in the October photos that he didn't make any faces! He just sucked away on that lemon for a good 3 minutes! Do babies even have sour taste buds yet?
One last thing. Last night we stopped by the house to pick up Tom to take him to dinner and Nicky pulled himself to standing on his carseat (which was sitting on the floor with me holding it steady). He did it again several times this morning on the big bed with daddy (who was not wearing a shirt and now is short several chest hairs...ouch!) I'll have to get a video of this too! I have a feeling he might be cruising in the new house before he gets around to crawling!
We had a great weekend. He and I played in his room (which actually might end up being Tom's and my room instead) on the floor. He isn't really 'crawling' yet, but he's moving around quite a bit! I put a video of it on the movies page (link to your right).
Then he and I spent Sunday together while Daddy worked on the house. We practiced using the sippy cup, which he thinks is great fun, and practiced our puffs. I clicked some cute pictures of him in his exersaucer (see the October photos for those).
Later we watched the Sesame Street baby movie his Nana picked out for him. He loves it! After that we invented a new game. Mommy bounces her fingers off her mouth while making a noise (think of the sounds you made playing cowboys and indians when you were a kid "woo woo woo woo") then Mommy gently (of course) bounces her fingertips over Nicky's mouth (that he opens up for this purpose) and he makes sounds. Then we giggle. It's great fun! I'll have to catch it on video tonight!
After that we went to see Daddy and have dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. We ended up at the Blue Highway in Micanopy because Sonny's was packed! But the Blue Highway was just right and Nicky gets a lot of attention there since we'd been going there all during my pregnancy.
Oh, I just have to tell you about another dinner though! On Friday Nana came to visit and we all went to On the Border (where we had much better service this time by the way) and Nicky was uncharacteristically demanding. (He was hungry.) I started his bottle and his apples, but he was still grabbing for everything else. We decided to give him a lemon wedge to play with. (I had taken out all the seeds.) You know, we were looking forward to seeing quite a funny face, so I put the wedge down on the table in front of him and had Daddy's camera phone ready to go. Well you can see for yourself in the October photos that he didn't make any faces! He just sucked away on that lemon for a good 3 minutes! Do babies even have sour taste buds yet?
One last thing. Last night we stopped by the house to pick up Tom to take him to dinner and Nicky pulled himself to standing on his carseat (which was sitting on the floor with me holding it steady). He did it again several times this morning on the big bed with daddy (who was not wearing a shirt and now is short several chest hairs...ouch!) I'll have to get a video of this too! I have a feeling he might be cruising in the new house before he gets around to crawling!
Monday, October 16, 2006
New milestones at every turn!
Nicky's got a new face! It just cracks everyone up!
He's also trying like crazy to crawl and to pull himself up in his crib! We actually had to take him out of his crib Saturday night and move his mattress down. I had come back into his room after filling his vaporizer and his little head was poking up above the rail! Well I called in Daddy and Nana and we all decided it was time to move the mattress down. We went ahead and moved it all the way to the bottom. Now it looks like the poor little fella is in jail!
We worked on the house all weekend. Nana, Liz and Jodi all came to help. Jessie even made it over on Sunday! Liz and I finished texturizing the living room walls (man is my hand SORE!) while Tom and Jodi ripped out the old paneling from one wall in the den and hung sheetrock. I think we're going to just paint over the other 3 walls of paneling in the den. They're covering concrete, and that would be a real pain to deal with. We just want to get moved in already! There's a movie on the movie page that shows the living room walls. I think it's going to look pretty neat!
Nicky's other new thing is talking! He's trying so hard to talk! I swear he says Mama now, I even have a video up on the movie page that proves it! I don't know that he knows what he's saying yet, but he's trying! We're past the growling for the most part and into lots of other sounds. He's just talking up a storm!
He's also trying like crazy to crawl and to pull himself up in his crib! We actually had to take him out of his crib Saturday night and move his mattress down. I had come back into his room after filling his vaporizer and his little head was poking up above the rail! Well I called in Daddy and Nana and we all decided it was time to move the mattress down. We went ahead and moved it all the way to the bottom. Now it looks like the poor little fella is in jail!
We worked on the house all weekend. Nana, Liz and Jodi all came to help. Jessie even made it over on Sunday! Liz and I finished texturizing the living room walls (man is my hand SORE!) while Tom and Jodi ripped out the old paneling from one wall in the den and hung sheetrock. I think we're going to just paint over the other 3 walls of paneling in the den. They're covering concrete, and that would be a real pain to deal with. We just want to get moved in already! There's a movie on the movie page that shows the living room walls. I think it's going to look pretty neat!
Nicky's other new thing is talking! He's trying so hard to talk! I swear he says Mama now, I even have a video up on the movie page that proves it! I don't know that he knows what he's saying yet, but he's trying! We're past the growling for the most part and into lots of other sounds. He's just talking up a storm!
Monday, October 09, 2006
Time is marching on!
Nicky is getting so big so fast! Just last night I was feeding Nicky and he grabbed his bottle and held it all by himself! It was nearly empty so it was light, and he did manage to spray himself in the face a few times, but he was doing it!
And we also picked out Nicky's halloween costume on Saturday. He's going to be a little dinosaur. It was a tough choice between that and a lion, but we went for the dinosaur look. He certainly growls enough to be either one! I did manage to get him to try it on after his bath Sunday morning, but he wasn't too happy about it. I only managed to snap two pictures where he isn't fussing too much. We had to buy it in size 12-18 months! AND it fits!
How cute is my boy?! Tom said he will bring Nicky by work on Halloween in his costume. I can't wait!
Tom's working on the house as much as he can. Donna, Liz and Jodi are all coming next weekend to help. Hopefully they can get the drywall up in the den, finish stripping the kitchen cabinets and paint. I want to move in!
Oh, and by the way, three new movies are on the movies page! Enjoy!
And we also picked out Nicky's halloween costume on Saturday. He's going to be a little dinosaur. It was a tough choice between that and a lion, but we went for the dinosaur look. He certainly growls enough to be either one! I did manage to get him to try it on after his bath Sunday morning, but he wasn't too happy about it. I only managed to snap two pictures where he isn't fussing too much. We had to buy it in size 12-18 months! AND it fits!
How cute is my boy?! Tom said he will bring Nicky by work on Halloween in his costume. I can't wait!
Tom's working on the house as much as he can. Donna, Liz and Jodi are all coming next weekend to help. Hopefully they can get the drywall up in the den, finish stripping the kitchen cabinets and paint. I want to move in!
Oh, and by the way, three new movies are on the movies page! Enjoy!
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Long time- no post
Whew! We've been really busy the last several days!
First and foremost, the closing went just fine on Friday! Everything is done and we own our own home!
Now for all the work! Tom has pulled off all the panelling in the den and living room. He has to sheetrock one wall and then joint compound everything and paint it. He is stripping the kitchen cabinets and sealing them (they're real wood), and then he has to fix the fence up to hold the dogs and have it come around to the side door (so we can just open the door to let them out in the fenced yard). All in all he says he can have it done in 2 weeks. THEN will come the moving! But it's all very worth it! I can't wait to be moved in and not have such a long commute!
Tom's dad was out of town and using the digital camera he has been letting us borrow. That's the reason for the lack of photos lately. I can't wait to start snapping away again! Nicky is just getting so ready to crawl! Starting last Friday he began sitting up on his own. We didn't actually see it happen till Saturday, but JM saw it when babysitting on Friday (and didn't know it was new) and my mom saw it when watching Nicky at the new house on Saturday (and didn't know it was new). I finally saw it Saturday night when he was in his crib and I came in to check on him to find him sitting up! I laid him back down and he just kept sitting back up. Silly boy! He didn't care how tired he was, he wanted to practice this new skill!
Surely crawling can't be far behind! I can't wait till we can be in the new house and Nicky will be able to play right on the floor in the den (it'll be a dog-free zone). He's going to love it!
I suppose that's all the news right now. Hopefully I'll be uploading pics and movies again soon!
First and foremost, the closing went just fine on Friday! Everything is done and we own our own home!
Now for all the work! Tom has pulled off all the panelling in the den and living room. He has to sheetrock one wall and then joint compound everything and paint it. He is stripping the kitchen cabinets and sealing them (they're real wood), and then he has to fix the fence up to hold the dogs and have it come around to the side door (so we can just open the door to let them out in the fenced yard). All in all he says he can have it done in 2 weeks. THEN will come the moving! But it's all very worth it! I can't wait to be moved in and not have such a long commute!
Tom's dad was out of town and using the digital camera he has been letting us borrow. That's the reason for the lack of photos lately. I can't wait to start snapping away again! Nicky is just getting so ready to crawl! Starting last Friday he began sitting up on his own. We didn't actually see it happen till Saturday, but JM saw it when babysitting on Friday (and didn't know it was new) and my mom saw it when watching Nicky at the new house on Saturday (and didn't know it was new). I finally saw it Saturday night when he was in his crib and I came in to check on him to find him sitting up! I laid him back down and he just kept sitting back up. Silly boy! He didn't care how tired he was, he wanted to practice this new skill!
Surely crawling can't be far behind! I can't wait till we can be in the new house and Nicky will be able to play right on the floor in the den (it'll be a dog-free zone). He's going to love it!
I suppose that's all the news right now. Hopefully I'll be uploading pics and movies again soon!
Monday, September 25, 2006
Growl Tiger!
Nicky has a new thing. It started last week. He'll be playing in his exersaucer or his carseat, or just about anywhere, chewing on something, or not, and start growling. Tom's caught him on audiotape a few times. I finally borrowed Tom's dad's camera again so I could try to catch him on video for you. I have it up in Nicky's Movies. I think it's just precious!
------------------------------
Well, things have certainly been hopping here! I've been fairly preoccupied, first Tom was sick, then Nicky was sick, then we're doing the house buying thing, and Jessie got mugged, Tom's mom came for a visit, and now my mom and Liz are coming up. Whew! I'm working up a storm too. Several days I've been at work until well after 6pm, sometimes it's 7pm before I leave! Ick! But hopefully soon we'll be in a new house and things will settle down. (And Gayle, you're first on my list to invite over when we move in!)
------------------------------
We close on the house THIS FRIDAY at 11:30! I'm so excited I could puke! Really. Well, hopefully not actually puke, but I'm pretty darn worked up about it all!
Tom just went by the house today and saw the new carpet and the new vinyl in the kitchen, dining room, laundry room, AND the bathroom! We have a new front door, new paint, and I just can't wait! We're supposed to make an appointment to view the house on Thursday for a walkthrough. I'm ready! I can't believe it's finally so close!
The really funny thing is that Tom's dad is going out of town and needs the camera for a few days. So you'll just have to be patient to see new photos. We might be able to get some crappy ones with Tom's phone, but since it's dark in there I don't think they'd come out.
------------------------------
Speaking of photos, I have few up today. I went out Sunday for the FIRST time ever with Nicky and without Tom! Just me and Nicky! For several hours! We left at 12:30pm and didn't get home until nearly 8! WOW!
------------------------------
At work I'm a member of a yarn group. We do knitting and crocheting every friday together and help each other. Well mostly we amateurs get help from our really knowledgeable members. LOL! Anyway, we've all been knitting (roughly) 6 inch squares for a few months now and we got together a few of us on Sunday to sew them together. We had a basic "green" theme to follow. But the interpretations on "green" were quite interesting. ;) I think we all had our doubts, but when we put it together it looked quite nice! We're having a raffle for it and donating the money to charity. I'm going to buy several tickets though. I'd really like to win it! Here's a photo of it before they crocheted an edge around it in a turquoise green:
------------------------------
I did take a few photos of Nicky at the Sunday gathering, and this one is my favorite. I know it's washed out, but look at those beautiful eyes!
------------------------------
Well, things have certainly been hopping here! I've been fairly preoccupied, first Tom was sick, then Nicky was sick, then we're doing the house buying thing, and Jessie got mugged, Tom's mom came for a visit, and now my mom and Liz are coming up. Whew! I'm working up a storm too. Several days I've been at work until well after 6pm, sometimes it's 7pm before I leave! Ick! But hopefully soon we'll be in a new house and things will settle down. (And Gayle, you're first on my list to invite over when we move in!)
------------------------------
We close on the house THIS FRIDAY at 11:30! I'm so excited I could puke! Really. Well, hopefully not actually puke, but I'm pretty darn worked up about it all!
Tom just went by the house today and saw the new carpet and the new vinyl in the kitchen, dining room, laundry room, AND the bathroom! We have a new front door, new paint, and I just can't wait! We're supposed to make an appointment to view the house on Thursday for a walkthrough. I'm ready! I can't believe it's finally so close!
The really funny thing is that Tom's dad is going out of town and needs the camera for a few days. So you'll just have to be patient to see new photos. We might be able to get some crappy ones with Tom's phone, but since it's dark in there I don't think they'd come out.
------------------------------
Speaking of photos, I have few up today. I went out Sunday for the FIRST time ever with Nicky and without Tom! Just me and Nicky! For several hours! We left at 12:30pm and didn't get home until nearly 8! WOW!
------------------------------
At work I'm a member of a yarn group. We do knitting and crocheting every friday together and help each other. Well mostly we amateurs get help from our really knowledgeable members. LOL! Anyway, we've all been knitting (roughly) 6 inch squares for a few months now and we got together a few of us on Sunday to sew them together. We had a basic "green" theme to follow. But the interpretations on "green" were quite interesting. ;) I think we all had our doubts, but when we put it together it looked quite nice! We're having a raffle for it and donating the money to charity. I'm going to buy several tickets though. I'd really like to win it! Here's a photo of it before they crocheted an edge around it in a turquoise green:
------------------------------
I did take a few photos of Nicky at the Sunday gathering, and this one is my favorite. I know it's washed out, but look at those beautiful eyes!
Thursday, September 14, 2006
House-buying going well so far!
The Front
The Back
We're still doing all the things you do when buying a house. We've secured homeowners insurance now and just have tons of paperwork to sift through. The exterior paint job on the house is nearly done. I have new pictures of it in the photobucket account. Click on the new link to the right. It will take you directly into the new folder I made on the Photobucket site: House Photos.
I also have interior pics that Tom took during the house inspection. Remember the walls and ceiling are being painted and all the carpet will be replaced. We'll have to replace the kitchen and bathroom floors ourselves and take down the paneling and fake brick in the living room though. I can't wait!
We also have a closing date of September 29th. That's the date we're aiming for! Wish us luck!
I also put up some adorable pics I took with Tom's camera phone of Nicky in the cart in the grocery store. He had a good time! Once we put the papertowels next to him he was sitting up really well! I guess we'll just have to buy papertowels every visit.
The Back
We're still doing all the things you do when buying a house. We've secured homeowners insurance now and just have tons of paperwork to sift through. The exterior paint job on the house is nearly done. I have new pictures of it in the photobucket account. Click on the new link to the right. It will take you directly into the new folder I made on the Photobucket site: House Photos.
I also have interior pics that Tom took during the house inspection. Remember the walls and ceiling are being painted and all the carpet will be replaced. We'll have to replace the kitchen and bathroom floors ourselves and take down the paneling and fake brick in the living room though. I can't wait!
We also have a closing date of September 29th. That's the date we're aiming for! Wish us luck!
I also put up some adorable pics I took with Tom's camera phone of Nicky in the cart in the grocery store. He had a good time! Once we put the papertowels next to him he was sitting up really well! I guess we'll just have to buy papertowels every visit.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Our baby is 6 months old!
Well depending on how you calculate it. He'll be officially 6 months on 9/17/06, and he was 25 weeks old at his appointment on Friday. He weighed 18 lbs and 6 oz. He's 27 inches tall. His head was 43 cm in diameter if I'm remembering right. That puts him in the 90th percentile for height and weight and 50th percentile for head circumference. He got 4 shots and screamed LOUD! But quieted right down when his daddy picked him up. He also immediately caught Tom's cold that he's had for a week. And seeing him sniffling, sneezing and coughing this weekend was NO fun! The last 2 nights were very hard on him. I called the doctor yesterday and found out that we can give him dimetapp infant drops now. So Tom ran to the drugstore and picked some up. They helped, but he was still having a hard time sleeping. (Possibly a side-effect of the meds too.) Poor baby!
I have a little movie up of him getting his first taste of prunes. They were prunes with apples, so quite yummy and sweet. He liked them. We just tried the gerber peaches yesterday, but they add acid to those like they did the bananas and they taste and smell icky so I threw them out. We'll just have to make peaches fresh like we do his bananas. So until we get new peaches we'll just have to try something else. Hmm, maybe I'll have to stop by the store today.
The big thing going on aside from Nicky is our house-buying adventure. Right now I'm trying to line up homeowners insurance and it's HARD! There are so many companies that won't even write a policy for anywhere in Florida! Grr! We'll see what I can turn up.
I have a little movie up of him getting his first taste of prunes. They were prunes with apples, so quite yummy and sweet. He liked them. We just tried the gerber peaches yesterday, but they add acid to those like they did the bananas and they taste and smell icky so I threw them out. We'll just have to make peaches fresh like we do his bananas. So until we get new peaches we'll just have to try something else. Hmm, maybe I'll have to stop by the store today.
The big thing going on aside from Nicky is our house-buying adventure. Right now I'm trying to line up homeowners insurance and it's HARD! There are so many companies that won't even write a policy for anywhere in Florida! Grr! We'll see what I can turn up.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
We're Buying a House!
We looked at two houses on Friday at lunch, called the mortgage broker right after that and had her send over a pre-approval, made a bid Saturday morning and by Sunday morning we had our contract accepted! We're so excited! I've faxed all the documents to the mortgage broker today and now have to set up homeowners insurance! We have to pick colors for paint, the seller is painting it inside and out. AND we have to pick flooring, he's also replacing all the carpets! I'm so excited! We should be in the new place for the holidays!
YAY!
More pics of Nicky are online and another movie. ;) He had squash for the first time on Saturday and loved it. Next might be prunes. Yummy!
Thursday, August 31, 2006
E is for Ernesto
Maybe we're just going to have storms that start with vowels hit us this year. Ernesto turned out to be a light rain for us. Thank goodness! The university stayed open, but I was just too nervous to go in to work. Everything was indicating that it was going to stay a tropical storm all the way through Florida, and if UF changed it's mind and sent everyone home at noon, I was going to be driving for an hour south INTO the storm. So I called in and stayed home with Nicky and Tom. Jessica was with us too. It was fairly uneventful though. We didn't even lose power! YAY! Hey, that's a BIG thing for us! Even when there isn't a named storm coming through. ;)
New movies on the blog. Nicky took to peas just fine, but seems to have developed an aversion to carrots. Or maybe they just don't go together as well as Forrest Gump said... I also have a short one on there of Nicky learning the joys of cold applesauce. He wasn't sure to start, but I think he likes how it feels in his mouth now. I also added a few pics to August from Ernesto-day. Nicky is just too darn cute!
He's able to get on his hands and knees and rock now, and I'm betting he'll be crawling within a week! More videos of that to come!
Monday, August 28, 2006
The bathing beefeater
Nicky has gotten really good at grabbing things and bringing them to his mouth for chewing! We spent some quality time this weekend together rolling around and playing with letters and soft blocks on his bed in his room and he's just getting closer and closer to crawling and sitting on his own. I did take some video last night of that, but first I had to upload his first beef-eating experience (I count beef as being the same as veal as far as allergies go, so I'm not waiting 3 days on that one.) and a new bath video from Saturday. I can only do two videos at a time, so you'll just have to wait till later this week for the rolling videos. ;) They'll be worth it.
So galavant over to see the two new movies and the three new photos I put up today. He's growing up so fast!
Friday, August 25, 2006
How do you like them apples?
Well Nicky seems to like apples just fine! We had a face at first, but he soon figured out that apples are pretty darn yummy. And I have a video of it up on the photobucket account of course. ;)
Finally it's the weekend! The first week of classes are always stressful, but sheesh! I'm looking forward to lots of Nicky-love this weekend! AND I'll try to get more pics to you soon!
Finally it's the weekend! The first week of classes are always stressful, but sheesh! I'm looking forward to lots of Nicky-love this weekend! AND I'll try to get more pics to you soon!
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Ok, NOW he likes them
After the first banana fiasco on Monday, we tried them again on Tuesday, but this time Tom used his mixer to really puree the heck out of them. Add this to the fact that the bananas were even riper and sweeter, and Nicky loved them! I still think he likes pears better, but see the new video of Nicky enjoying the bananas by clicking on Nicky's Movies on the right of this page.
I also went ahead and linked the third part of Nicky's first attempt at bananas. He was just too cute making those faces!
Now we just have to figure out what we'll try next! Maybe another vegetable. I'm sure green beans are getting old. Maybe peas next.
I also went ahead and linked the third part of Nicky's first attempt at bananas. He was just too cute making those faces!
Now we just have to figure out what we'll try next! Maybe another vegetable. I'm sure green beans are getting old. Maybe peas next.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Going Bananas!
Or as my mom might say "banana-cakes." :)
Nicky tried bananas for the first time yesterday and I'd say he has strong feelings about bananas...we're just not sure what kind of feelings. You'll just have to watch the videos! I actually have 4 videos of this first banana meal, but I've only been able to upload the first two so far. I added a new link to the right that takes you directly to "Nicky's Movies" in the photobucket album. So you can just click there and watch. I'll try to upload the parts 3 & 4 by the end of the week.
Over the weekend Tom, Nicky and I went on a roadtrip to St. Augustine. We drove about 2 hours to get there and Nicky stayed awake most of the time. Then we drove to the fort there and looked around. I ended up feeding Nicky in the courtyard and Tom walked around the top of the fort. Tom met the canon-man who is actually a military weapons historian and had a great history conversation while I kept Nicky happy. It was so HOT! Luckily there was a nice breeze through the courtyard, so as long as we stayed in the shade it wasn't too bad.
Then we loaded back in the car with the idea of parking and walking through the town, but we ended up deciding on going to the beach first to cool off. So we drove another 30 minutes to St. Augustine Beach, parked, slathered on sunscreen, changed into sandals, changed Nicky, put on his hat, packed a diaper, wipes, water, and two towels and walked to the beach. Nicky got to dangle his feet and legs in the surf and I got my rolled up pants wet. We looked at pretty shells and tried to keep the waves out of Nicky's face. One wave got his diaper all wet and startled him for a second, but a quick cuddle made it all right. He looked so cute in his little white hat, but we forgot the darn camera! Grr! Guess we'll have to just go there again sometime!
We stayed at the beach for about 20 minutes and then walked back to the car. We put a fluffy towel in the back of the SUV and undressed Nicky and watered him down with bottled water to get all the sand and salt off, then changed him into a fresh set of clothes. Tom and I rinsed off too. Nice use of bottled water...
We were going to drive down the beach and eat at a restaurant, but Nicky said he was DONE! He was so pooped and just needed some sleep in one place. So we skipped out of town. I ended up feeding Nicky a bottle and pears in his carseat as we drove home when he woke up hungry. It worked well. I tried giving him ham, but he didn't want any of that. Pears went down well though. ;)
So that was our first real roadtrip. Just for the day, and I think we were only gone for about 6-7 hours tops. It was truly a "ROAD" trip since I think we spent most of the time in the car. Probably spent about 2 hours between the fort and the beach and 4-4.5 hours in the car. But Nicky was reall very good. Just pooped. He slept from about the time we got home until 7 the next morning. About a 12 hour stretch. Poor kid was wiped out. But I think he had fun at the beach.
Nicky tried bananas for the first time yesterday and I'd say he has strong feelings about bananas...we're just not sure what kind of feelings. You'll just have to watch the videos! I actually have 4 videos of this first banana meal, but I've only been able to upload the first two so far. I added a new link to the right that takes you directly to "Nicky's Movies" in the photobucket album. So you can just click there and watch. I'll try to upload the parts 3 & 4 by the end of the week.
Over the weekend Tom, Nicky and I went on a roadtrip to St. Augustine. We drove about 2 hours to get there and Nicky stayed awake most of the time. Then we drove to the fort there and looked around. I ended up feeding Nicky in the courtyard and Tom walked around the top of the fort. Tom met the canon-man who is actually a military weapons historian and had a great history conversation while I kept Nicky happy. It was so HOT! Luckily there was a nice breeze through the courtyard, so as long as we stayed in the shade it wasn't too bad.
Then we loaded back in the car with the idea of parking and walking through the town, but we ended up deciding on going to the beach first to cool off. So we drove another 30 minutes to St. Augustine Beach, parked, slathered on sunscreen, changed into sandals, changed Nicky, put on his hat, packed a diaper, wipes, water, and two towels and walked to the beach. Nicky got to dangle his feet and legs in the surf and I got my rolled up pants wet. We looked at pretty shells and tried to keep the waves out of Nicky's face. One wave got his diaper all wet and startled him for a second, but a quick cuddle made it all right. He looked so cute in his little white hat, but we forgot the darn camera! Grr! Guess we'll have to just go there again sometime!
We stayed at the beach for about 20 minutes and then walked back to the car. We put a fluffy towel in the back of the SUV and undressed Nicky and watered him down with bottled water to get all the sand and salt off, then changed him into a fresh set of clothes. Tom and I rinsed off too. Nice use of bottled water...
We were going to drive down the beach and eat at a restaurant, but Nicky said he was DONE! He was so pooped and just needed some sleep in one place. So we skipped out of town. I ended up feeding Nicky a bottle and pears in his carseat as we drove home when he woke up hungry. It worked well. I tried giving him ham, but he didn't want any of that. Pears went down well though. ;)
So that was our first real roadtrip. Just for the day, and I think we were only gone for about 6-7 hours tops. It was truly a "ROAD" trip since I think we spent most of the time in the car. Probably spent about 2 hours between the fort and the beach and 4-4.5 hours in the car. But Nicky was reall very good. Just pooped. He slept from about the time we got home until 7 the next morning. About a 12 hour stretch. Poor kid was wiped out. But I think he had fun at the beach.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
And NOW we're eating Carrots too!
My little cutie bug is eating CARROTS! He didn't even make a face. We of course have a movie of the first carrot meal on the photobucket account. Click the link to Nicky's Photos on the right to see.
I also added a bunch of pics to a few different months. You'll just have to look around in there. The black and white pic above for example was from June.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
We're eating PEARS now!
Well Nicky now has added pears to our list of foods! I know, we were going to do bananas next, but the Gerber bananas sucked so bad and I hadn't gotten to the store for fresh ones. So now a typical dinner has been Veal pate with green bean casserole and sweet potato souffle, with pear glace for dessert. Or in common vernacular veal, green beans, sweet potatoes and pears all mushy and bland from Gerber. I've added a video of his first meal of pears to the Nicky's Photos link on the right.
Nicky is also getting a lot more tummy time with daddy during the day. Daddy lets the pups outside to play and then puts down a blanket or sheet on the livingroom floor where they can roll around and play. Here's a typical photo of Nicky on the floor. You can probably tell they've been rolling around....
Just today Nicky discovered the joys of rattle socks. Tom took a little video so I'll have to see if it is clear enough for the blog. He was kicking up a storm! He wore his little self out, so now he's napping before dinner. What a sweetheart he is!
Nicky is also getting a lot more tummy time with daddy during the day. Daddy lets the pups outside to play and then puts down a blanket or sheet on the livingroom floor where they can roll around and play. Here's a typical photo of Nicky on the floor. You can probably tell they've been rolling around....
Just today Nicky discovered the joys of rattle socks. Tom took a little video so I'll have to see if it is clear enough for the blog. He was kicking up a storm! He wore his little self out, so now he's napping before dinner. What a sweetheart he is!
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The many faces of Nicky
Well, I just uploaded a whole bunch of August images. JM went crazy with the camera on Sunday and these are AMAZING pictures! I'm pretty sure you'll have to agree with me on this. ;)
I also uploaded some video today showing Nicky's first reactions to green beans last week, and then we started veal this week. He wasn't too into that at first, but mixed with bites of sweet potatoes and green beans, veal seems to be a hit too. We were going to try bananas next, but I gave him one bite and then tried it myself. The gerber brand of bananas SUCKS! I threw it all away. They add citric acid or something to keep the color, but it was way too acidic! Blech! So we did veal instead. We'll do bananas this weekend, but we'll mash them up fresh for him with formula. He'll love em I'm sure!
On the mobility front, Nicky is really into rolling now. On Tuesday morning Tom called me on my way to work because he'd gone in to check on Nicky and Nicky had scooted to the corner where Wendel (his rainbow worm) was and then grabbed him and rolled over. He was so proud! Here's a pic I asked Tom to take!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
I've organized the photo album!
Ok, well I've organized the digital photo album that's online. My computer files are still a mess and I still don't even have an actual photo album, but it's a start.
Now the good news is you can click on Nicky's Photos and choose a month and see all the photos of Nicky (and anyone else I happened to photograph) in that month. I have the movies all in a separate folder so that if you're using a slow connection you won't accidently click on a movie and lock up your computer for a year.
The bad news is that all the photos I have inserted in the blog are now showing broken links until I get around to fixing them all. Fat chance of that anytime soon I'd say. So to see Nicky (and he's definitely worth seeing!) you'll have to click on Nicky's Photos on the link to the right.
Hopefully this will be worth the effort of organizing. It was getting a little crazy with over 10 pages of photos.
Now the good news is you can click on Nicky's Photos and choose a month and see all the photos of Nicky (and anyone else I happened to photograph) in that month. I have the movies all in a separate folder so that if you're using a slow connection you won't accidently click on a movie and lock up your computer for a year.
The bad news is that all the photos I have inserted in the blog are now showing broken links until I get around to fixing them all. Fat chance of that anytime soon I'd say. So to see Nicky (and he's definitely worth seeing!) you'll have to click on Nicky's Photos on the link to the right.
Hopefully this will be worth the effort of organizing. It was getting a little crazy with over 10 pages of photos.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Sweet Potatoes
Well Nicky has been introduced to the wonderful world of FLAVOR! Sunday Tom and I caved in and gave him sweet potatoes. See the 2 part video by clicking on Nicky's Photos to the right.
He was pretty amazed and not sure about it, but he seemed to enjoy the experience. We gave them to him again later Sunday and on Monday and he liked them better each time. Now I just have to go back to the store to get more! After 4 days of sweet potatoes we'll introduce something else. Any suggestions? We have a lot to choose from!
Apples
Bananas
Carrots
Green Beans
Peaches
Pears
Peas
Squash
Sweet Peas
He was pretty amazed and not sure about it, but he seemed to enjoy the experience. We gave them to him again later Sunday and on Monday and he liked them better each time. Now I just have to go back to the store to get more! After 4 days of sweet potatoes we'll introduce something else. Any suggestions? We have a lot to choose from!
Apples
Bananas
Carrots
Green Beans
Peaches
Pears
Peas
Squash
Sweet Peas
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Birthdays
Blech. That's my typical response about my birthday. Yes today is the official day. On this day in 1973 I graced the world with my presence. That makes me 29 years old. I don't care if you did the math, IT'S 29! Of course I've been 29 since 2000, all the better to fuzzy-up the whole thing. I figure the only person I really have to fool is myself. And I have.
Yesterday I went to the grocery store for cream and tea and stopped by the bakery. I picked out a nice cake and had them write Happy Birthday Angela on it for me. I didn't mention that I WAS Angela though. Tom and I had a wonderful dinner (therefore it's obvious he cooked it) and then had cake. I think I'll be eating cake for a few weeks. But then again Jessica is coming over again tonight probably, so I'll be lucky if I get any more at all...
I actually think I wouldn't mind just not having anymore birthdays, but then again, it could be fun again once Nicky is old enough to get excited about birthdays. I guess that actually might be next year! He'll be almost 1 1/2 next July, so he should be getting into stuff like that. Maybe this year will be my last apathetic birthday for a while then.
Tonight Tom and I are going out to dinner. Nicky will be with us because we love going places with him! Everything is more fun with a Nicky. :) This weekend my mom and Liz will be coming to visit. It's been a while since they were here so they are having major Nicky-withdrawls. I anticipate lots of cuddles and giggles going on in my house over the weekend. AND lots of photos to post next week!
Yesterday I went to the grocery store for cream and tea and stopped by the bakery. I picked out a nice cake and had them write Happy Birthday Angela on it for me. I didn't mention that I WAS Angela though. Tom and I had a wonderful dinner (therefore it's obvious he cooked it) and then had cake. I think I'll be eating cake for a few weeks. But then again Jessica is coming over again tonight probably, so I'll be lucky if I get any more at all...
I actually think I wouldn't mind just not having anymore birthdays, but then again, it could be fun again once Nicky is old enough to get excited about birthdays. I guess that actually might be next year! He'll be almost 1 1/2 next July, so he should be getting into stuff like that. Maybe this year will be my last apathetic birthday for a while then.
Tonight Tom and I are going out to dinner. Nicky will be with us because we love going places with him! Everything is more fun with a Nicky. :) This weekend my mom and Liz will be coming to visit. It's been a while since they were here so they are having major Nicky-withdrawls. I anticipate lots of cuddles and giggles going on in my house over the weekend. AND lots of photos to post next week!
Monday, July 24, 2006
Messy Mealtime Fun
Well if you've visited the Nicky's Photos link on the right you know the current big thing is eating cereal. Nicky thinks this is the best game in the world, and I think it's the best photo/video opportunity! I know you might be getting tired of watching 3 minute videos of Nicky's eating attempts (which he's darn good at I might add) but that's just too bad. I think he's adorable, and I'm loving this video thing! I've added two more today.
I actually did add some still photos over the last week too though. I've been fighting with the cold that I caught from Tom and Nicky though, hence the no actual blog-update for a week. I'm much better now though, so here I am with Nicky pics!
Here's my favorite. I think he's either blowing me a kiss or sticking out his tongue.
Now, if you have highspeed internet, get on over to the Nicky's Photos link and watch some cute video!
I actually did add some still photos over the last week too though. I've been fighting with the cold that I caught from Tom and Nicky though, hence the no actual blog-update for a week. I'm much better now though, so here I am with Nicky pics!
Here's my favorite. I think he's either blowing me a kiss or sticking out his tongue.
Now, if you have highspeed internet, get on over to the Nicky's Photos link and watch some cute video!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Happy Birthday Dad!
Happy Birthday Dad! I remembered your birthday and I was just picking out an e-card (because apparently I can either get Father's Day OR your birthday card out on time, not both) and realized that with dial-up it would take you a year to download one of those things!
So instead I've made you a Nicky BlogCard!
Happy Birthday Dad! I love you! Come see us again soon!
So instead I've made you a Nicky BlogCard!
Happy Birthday Dad! I love you! Come see us again soon!
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Ok, it's official. He's huge!
My baby is gigantic. At this rate, I think he will probably be taller than both Tom and I!
At his 4 month appointment he was exactly 16 weeks old. His measurements were:
Weight: 16 pounds 10 ounces
Length: 25.25 inches
Head Circumference 42 cm
Everything places him in the 90th percentile for his age. A lot of babies are 8 months old when they measure this size.
He was very good for the doctor. She checked his hips for dysplasia and he's fine. She said he's perfect, healthy and strong. He didn't even cry on the first 3 shots, but the last one the nurse said it burns when the medicine goes in and he did cry on that one. That one also made a red welt for the next 48 hours or so, but it went away and he didn't run a fever at all. He was so brave!
The doctor said it was fine for us to start giving him rice or oat cereal. We mix it with his formula at a 1:4 ratio of cereal to formula and give it to him with a spoon. We did it for the first time on Sunday afternoon and he had a good time with it. Most of it went on his face and bib of course, but he thought it was a wonderful game to play. Tom snapped some pictures on his cell phone and even made a little video. The quality isn't great, but we didn't have the camera available. Here are a few cute pictures, and I'll just have to see if I can get the video online somehow.
Of course there are a few more in the Photobucket Album...
At his 4 month appointment he was exactly 16 weeks old. His measurements were:
Weight: 16 pounds 10 ounces
Length: 25.25 inches
Head Circumference 42 cm
Everything places him in the 90th percentile for his age. A lot of babies are 8 months old when they measure this size.
He was very good for the doctor. She checked his hips for dysplasia and he's fine. She said he's perfect, healthy and strong. He didn't even cry on the first 3 shots, but the last one the nurse said it burns when the medicine goes in and he did cry on that one. That one also made a red welt for the next 48 hours or so, but it went away and he didn't run a fever at all. He was so brave!
The doctor said it was fine for us to start giving him rice or oat cereal. We mix it with his formula at a 1:4 ratio of cereal to formula and give it to him with a spoon. We did it for the first time on Sunday afternoon and he had a good time with it. Most of it went on his face and bib of course, but he thought it was a wonderful game to play. Tom snapped some pictures on his cell phone and even made a little video. The quality isn't great, but we didn't have the camera available. Here are a few cute pictures, and I'll just have to see if I can get the video online somehow.
Of course there are a few more in the Photobucket Album...
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
July 4th - The Monkey and The Monk
The fourth of July was fun this year. Nicky is just getting to that age where he has a lot of fun visiting. We went over to Dad and JM's house and had hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill. Then we pretty much sat around and watched the Monk marathon on TV and my little monkey in the living room. We took lots of photos, and I tried to narrow them down to the best for the online photoalbum, but heck, they're all so good! I did manage to only upload 14 pictures today though... :)
Here are a few favorites:
Nicky is a cool dude ready to go on a summer roadtrip...
Here's Nicky hiding from JM's camera. This boy knows what a camera is already! I think he's saying, "Hey, take a picture of that guy instead will ya?"
Then we went outside for a photo-op during the sunset.
Our very favorite photo of the day though was this one:
Isn't he just adorable? We have his 4month pediatric appointment this Friday. I'm not looking forward to that. He's old enough now to really be pissed off about the shots. I am happy to get his new measurements though. I don't even have a ballpark figure for his weight now. He could be anywhere between 15 and 20 pounds! His 6 month outfits are barely fitting him now. He's wearing 6-12 month socks! (And actually some brands of those are too small!!) I'll post to let you know the results on Friday. We're also going to ask the doctor if we can start giving him cereal. Wish us luck!
Here are a few favorites:
Nicky is a cool dude ready to go on a summer roadtrip...
Here's Nicky hiding from JM's camera. This boy knows what a camera is already! I think he's saying, "Hey, take a picture of that guy instead will ya?"
Then we went outside for a photo-op during the sunset.
Our very favorite photo of the day though was this one:
Isn't he just adorable? We have his 4month pediatric appointment this Friday. I'm not looking forward to that. He's old enough now to really be pissed off about the shots. I am happy to get his new measurements though. I don't even have a ballpark figure for his weight now. He could be anywhere between 15 and 20 pounds! His 6 month outfits are barely fitting him now. He's wearing 6-12 month socks! (And actually some brands of those are too small!!) I'll post to let you know the results on Friday. We're also going to ask the doctor if we can start giving him cereal. Wish us luck!
Monday, July 03, 2006
Knitting and Superman
Finally I have a picture of the blanket I knitted for Nicky. I started this blanket sometime in January. I finally finished in June. It's all done in a light celery color, but half is with a shiny soft yarn (from before he was born) and half is in an acrylic yarn that has no sheen to it (done after he was born). I had run out of the first skein and had to improvise with a near match. But Nicky will never care! :) Here we are cuddling under the blanket. Here you can see the side that has the sheen to it.
He's about 13 weeks in that picture. Now I have two projects in the works. One is a crocheted bunny rabbit. It's in a nice soft shiny green color. And the other is a knitted hoodie for Nicky. I'm making it in 18 month size so that hopefully he can wear it this winter. It's a nice soft yellow yarn with a shiny thread of white running through it. This is my first crocheted and stuffed thing and my first article of clothing I've knitted! I hope the gauge works out. Otherwise it might fit him when he's 5!
Anyway, I added this and two other pictures to Nicky's Photos. One is a picture of Tom's Dad holding Nicky at Easter. Finally I have a picture of him holding Nicky! Donna actually took that one and I got it over the weekend. :) Tom's Dad and Nicky have a lot of fun making faces at each other when Nicky goes over there for JM to babysit.
Speaking of babysitting, JM and Dad babysat on Friday night and Tom, Donna and I all went to see the new Superman movie. It was pretty good. I think it was just campy enough to satisfy folks like me. ;) Worth seeing in the theater I'd say. (Although the $4.25 diet coke just about killed me! Highway Robbery!!) Afterwards we went to Sonny's bbq and had some dinner. Brunswick stew...YUMMY!
The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent resting and playing with Nicky. I got lots of Nicky-love in over the weekend, which should sustain me over the day today. Monday's are always a little rough.
He's about 13 weeks in that picture. Now I have two projects in the works. One is a crocheted bunny rabbit. It's in a nice soft shiny green color. And the other is a knitted hoodie for Nicky. I'm making it in 18 month size so that hopefully he can wear it this winter. It's a nice soft yellow yarn with a shiny thread of white running through it. This is my first crocheted and stuffed thing and my first article of clothing I've knitted! I hope the gauge works out. Otherwise it might fit him when he's 5!
Anyway, I added this and two other pictures to Nicky's Photos. One is a picture of Tom's Dad holding Nicky at Easter. Finally I have a picture of him holding Nicky! Donna actually took that one and I got it over the weekend. :) Tom's Dad and Nicky have a lot of fun making faces at each other when Nicky goes over there for JM to babysit.
Speaking of babysitting, JM and Dad babysat on Friday night and Tom, Donna and I all went to see the new Superman movie. It was pretty good. I think it was just campy enough to satisfy folks like me. ;) Worth seeing in the theater I'd say. (Although the $4.25 diet coke just about killed me! Highway Robbery!!) Afterwards we went to Sonny's bbq and had some dinner. Brunswick stew...YUMMY!
The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent resting and playing with Nicky. I got lots of Nicky-love in over the weekend, which should sustain me over the day today. Monday's are always a little rough.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
He's growing so fast
Well we have two new cool things going on lately.
First we got that really neat Bumbo chair thing, and Nicky loves it! I put several pictures of him in the new chair under Nicky's Photos, but here's my favorite:
The other cool thing is that we've finally found the replacement toys that fit in the exersaucer that we're borrowing from Gayle (we tried replacing the batteries in the old ones but they're soldered in and can't be fixed). So we clicked in the new ones and tried it out. Nicky loves it! He can only stand it for about 10 minutes at a time right now, because it requires a lot of upper body work to hold himself upright, but his little legs and feet have a great time.
(Question for Gayle: Wasn't there something about how high you were supposed to set this? Are they supposed to be able to be flat-footed or only toe-touch?)
Here he is in his new exersaucer:
Anyway, that's the new cool stuff happening at the Mott house. Tom's been sick yesterday and today, but I stayed home with Nicky yesterday and Donna came up to stay with him today (and tomorrow at least, maybe longer). I just got word from my Dad yesterday that he's now officially retired. That feels kind of weird to say my Dad's retired. I guess I'm grown up now or something. I'm hoping he'll get bored fast and have to come visit us soon.
Let's see, on the home front Tom's dad and JM have the property we're staying on up for sale, so we've got to find a new place soon. I'm hoping Tom will feel up to doing some house hunting this weekend. Maybe Donna and/or JM can go with him during the week while I'm at work too.
Can't think of anything else really going on. Next Friday (one week and one day) we have Nicky's 4 month appointment! He gets more shots, and we'll finally find out how much this boy weighs! I'm also going to ask if we can start him on some cereal for one meal a day. He's so interested in watching us eat I think he might be ready for it. I'll give you the blow by blow after his appointment. I might not be able to post it till Monday though. I usually update here during lunch or after work because my stupid dial-up connection is just soooo slow at home! Have I mentioned that dial-up sucks?
First we got that really neat Bumbo chair thing, and Nicky loves it! I put several pictures of him in the new chair under Nicky's Photos, but here's my favorite:
The other cool thing is that we've finally found the replacement toys that fit in the exersaucer that we're borrowing from Gayle (we tried replacing the batteries in the old ones but they're soldered in and can't be fixed). So we clicked in the new ones and tried it out. Nicky loves it! He can only stand it for about 10 minutes at a time right now, because it requires a lot of upper body work to hold himself upright, but his little legs and feet have a great time.
(Question for Gayle: Wasn't there something about how high you were supposed to set this? Are they supposed to be able to be flat-footed or only toe-touch?)
Here he is in his new exersaucer:
Anyway, that's the new cool stuff happening at the Mott house. Tom's been sick yesterday and today, but I stayed home with Nicky yesterday and Donna came up to stay with him today (and tomorrow at least, maybe longer). I just got word from my Dad yesterday that he's now officially retired. That feels kind of weird to say my Dad's retired. I guess I'm grown up now or something. I'm hoping he'll get bored fast and have to come visit us soon.
Let's see, on the home front Tom's dad and JM have the property we're staying on up for sale, so we've got to find a new place soon. I'm hoping Tom will feel up to doing some house hunting this weekend. Maybe Donna and/or JM can go with him during the week while I'm at work too.
Can't think of anything else really going on. Next Friday (one week and one day) we have Nicky's 4 month appointment! He gets more shots, and we'll finally find out how much this boy weighs! I'm also going to ask if we can start him on some cereal for one meal a day. He's so interested in watching us eat I think he might be ready for it. I'll give you the blow by blow after his appointment. I might not be able to post it till Monday though. I usually update here during lunch or after work because my stupid dial-up connection is just soooo slow at home! Have I mentioned that dial-up sucks?
Monday, June 26, 2006
Traveling for the weekend
We went to Tom's mom's house this weekend. It was very nice! Donna watched Nicky while we went to brunch at Oystercatchers and it was just wonderful to be so spoiled for a few hours! We spent most of Saturday at Gayle and Thad's house visiting. We hadn't seen them since Nicky was only a few weeks old. I think they like him...
Colin was facinated by Nicky and said Nicky was his "best friend," he was "so cute," and he was "precious" and "beautiful" too. I actually only got one picture of them together. Gayle snapped a few, so maybe I'll get some to put up from her. (Hint-hint!)
I did snap a few photos of Nicky in his new "Bumbo" chair. It's a great invention that allows babies to sit upright all by themselves as soon as they can support their heads. Nicky loves sitting up, so I wanted to get one for him. He loves it! I'll put up a photo as soon as we figure out how to get it off the camera card. My computer won't read RAW files, and for some reason those photos were taken in that format. So more photos coming soon! Oh, and I put up a bunch more photos on the Photobucket account. Click "Nicky's Photos" to see them!
Colin was facinated by Nicky and said Nicky was his "best friend," he was "so cute," and he was "precious" and "beautiful" too. I actually only got one picture of them together. Gayle snapped a few, so maybe I'll get some to put up from her. (Hint-hint!)
I did snap a few photos of Nicky in his new "Bumbo" chair. It's a great invention that allows babies to sit upright all by themselves as soon as they can support their heads. Nicky loves sitting up, so I wanted to get one for him. He loves it! I'll put up a photo as soon as we figure out how to get it off the camera card. My computer won't read RAW files, and for some reason those photos were taken in that format. So more photos coming soon! Oh, and I put up a bunch more photos on the Photobucket account. Click "Nicky's Photos" to see them!
Monday, June 19, 2006
Father's Day was fun!
First, I just have to show you how cute Nicky looked on Father's Day Eve.
How cute is my baby?
Anyway, on Sunday we had a lovely brunch over at Tom's Dad's house. JM and Donna cooked up a storm! I mostly just cuddled my little munchkin and then finished his blanket that I've been knitting since before he was born! I'll have to take a picture and show you.
Tom got 5 Father's Day cards! A card from me, one from Nicky, one from Sampson, one from Abbey and one from Benjamin. 5 cards! I finally decided on his gift too. We're going to go to Oyster Catchers next weekend. It's a restaurant in a hotel near Clearwater Beach that has a Sunday Brunch buffet that is just amazing. It's expensive though (28$ each) so I usually won't let him go, but this is a special occasion, and I knew he'd love it. (And he did! He's very excited!)
After brunch we headed home and Tom got to take a special Father's Day nap. Then we took a little walk after the rain. It was fun!
We walked down to the barn and the 'girls' came over to check out the new guy. Nicky was pretty intrigued by these ladies.
All in all a fun day.
New photos on the blog! Nicky just started watching TV this week. Donna was here visiting (and it was sooo nice to have her watching Nicky during the nights! Tom and I actually got to sleep in the SAME bed together for the first time in 3 months!) and she was watching the morning news when I noticed Nicky was WATCHING the TV! So Donna picked up a Baby Bach DVD for him and Nicky and Daddy were watching it this morning. (I took a few pics, and I think you might suspect these guys are related somehow...)
How cute is my baby?
Anyway, on Sunday we had a lovely brunch over at Tom's Dad's house. JM and Donna cooked up a storm! I mostly just cuddled my little munchkin and then finished his blanket that I've been knitting since before he was born! I'll have to take a picture and show you.
Tom got 5 Father's Day cards! A card from me, one from Nicky, one from Sampson, one from Abbey and one from Benjamin. 5 cards! I finally decided on his gift too. We're going to go to Oyster Catchers next weekend. It's a restaurant in a hotel near Clearwater Beach that has a Sunday Brunch buffet that is just amazing. It's expensive though (28$ each) so I usually won't let him go, but this is a special occasion, and I knew he'd love it. (And he did! He's very excited!)
After brunch we headed home and Tom got to take a special Father's Day nap. Then we took a little walk after the rain. It was fun!
We walked down to the barn and the 'girls' came over to check out the new guy. Nicky was pretty intrigued by these ladies.
All in all a fun day.
New photos on the blog! Nicky just started watching TV this week. Donna was here visiting (and it was sooo nice to have her watching Nicky during the nights! Tom and I actually got to sleep in the SAME bed together for the first time in 3 months!) and she was watching the morning news when I noticed Nicky was WATCHING the TV! So Donna picked up a Baby Bach DVD for him and Nicky and Daddy were watching it this morning. (I took a few pics, and I think you might suspect these guys are related somehow...)
Friday, June 16, 2006
Father's Day is coming up!
Well this Sunday is Tom's first Father's Day! How the heck am I going to top what he did for my first Mother's Day?? I don't think there's any way to do that! I have a few ideas for gifts, but I don't know how much I can spend. Maybe we'll go out for brunch since he probably would rather not eat my cooking. (Heck, I would rather not eat my cooking...rubber eggs anyone?)
Here's a pic of Nicky doing his favorite game with Daddy. Stand up - Sit down. It's a blast for him!
That was taken on Wednesday (hurricane day) evening. Those are his Pooh PJs. He looks so big in them! He's already on size 2 diapers and I don't think it will be long before he's in size 3's! I've got to get a new weight on him. He must be well over 15 pounds by now. But what a sweetie he is! He's starting to vocalize a lot more now. He says "Ah-goo" to me a lot. I just love this baby!
Here's a pic of Nicky doing his favorite game with Daddy. Stand up - Sit down. It's a blast for him!
That was taken on Wednesday (hurricane day) evening. Those are his Pooh PJs. He looks so big in them! He's already on size 2 diapers and I don't think it will be long before he's in size 3's! I've got to get a new weight on him. He must be well over 15 pounds by now. But what a sweetie he is! He's starting to vocalize a lot more now. He says "Ah-goo" to me a lot. I just love this baby!
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Alberto has come and gone
And other than losing power for a few hours we did just fine. It rained really hard and the wind blew very impressively as the bands passed over us. We lost power probably around noon-ish and had it restored by 5-ish. The wind and rain helped keep it cool enough and we did get to fill up one of the bathtubs with water so that we could have used that to flush toilets and stuff if needed. We had plenty of water and formula and some non-perishable foods so we were ready for a longer outage. BUT we won't complain! I was awfully glad I had the day off since I would not have wanted to drive in that weather! That would have knocked me off the road for sure! All in all it was a relatively uneventful storm for us, thank goodness! Now let's hope they're all that mild this year!
Here's a photo from NOAA of the storm. Alberto never did make it to hurricane status thankfully!
Here's a photo from NOAA of the storm. Alberto never did make it to hurricane status thankfully!
Monday, June 12, 2006
A is for Alberto
So the first named storm of 2006 is on the way: Tropical Storm Alberto. I made Tom buy a bunch of hurricane supplies on Friday when he told me there was tropical weather in the Gulf. Now we have hurricane pudding, hurricane cookies and canned fruit and tuna fish. Yum! Of course the cookies are more than half gone at this point, but at least we've got plenty of formula stocked up! I've been clearing the shelves at Publix, CVS and Walgreens for a few weeks now. You can see some of it behind Grandmomma in this pic.
This was quite the weekend for little Nicky! His Grandmomma, Aunt Liz and Aunt Jodi came to visit on Saturday and spent the night. Then Sunday his Nana came to stay with him (and sleep in his room AND do binky duty all night- thank you Nana!!) for a week. And on Sunday we all went over to his Grandma and Grandpa's house for barbeque ribs! Lots of visiting going on!
I've put up some new pics in the online photo album. Click the link to the right that says "Nicky's photos" to see them. In the meantime though, you have to see these baby blues! Look at these eyes!
Just beautiful! Oh, and he's growing like mad! He's now wearing his 6-9 month clothes, and he just turned 3 months old on Friday! Gigantababy indeed!
How's this though, we have had rain since Sunday morning and yet we actually haven't lost power yet! WooHoo! A new trend possibly? I hope so!
This was quite the weekend for little Nicky! His Grandmomma, Aunt Liz and Aunt Jodi came to visit on Saturday and spent the night. Then Sunday his Nana came to stay with him (and sleep in his room AND do binky duty all night- thank you Nana!!) for a week. And on Sunday we all went over to his Grandma and Grandpa's house for barbeque ribs! Lots of visiting going on!
I've put up some new pics in the online photo album. Click the link to the right that says "Nicky's photos" to see them. In the meantime though, you have to see these baby blues! Look at these eyes!
Just beautiful! Oh, and he's growing like mad! He's now wearing his 6-9 month clothes, and he just turned 3 months old on Friday! Gigantababy indeed!
How's this though, we have had rain since Sunday morning and yet we actually haven't lost power yet! WooHoo! A new trend possibly? I hope so!
Monday, June 05, 2006
This is starting to become a tradition
Ok, yesterday, Sunday, we lost power. Again. What is this? Does the entire staff of Clay Electric go to church Sunday evening and turn off the power to all the atheists who want to stay home in the a/c and play their Xbox games and surf the net? Sure seems that way.
Anyway, this time we just stuck it out at home for the 2-3 hours it took to get power. It wasn't as bad this time since it had been raining a bit and the sun wasn't coming in the windows so brightly. But Nicky was getting pretty warm. So we gave him a nice bath and he really enjoyed it!
Then the power returned and we were all able to sleep in peace. Well, except for Tom, who is on binky-duty all night on weeknights. I did it Friday and Saturday night so don't feel too bad for him now. ;) On that front, Nicky has now spent every night since last Thursday in his crib all night! He's really good about it as long as someone helps him out when his binky escapes. I can't wait for his hand/eye coordination to improve! I've read that playing video games helps improve hand/eye coordination in kids, so we've started a training program to speed things up:
I'm not sure it's helping yet. But we'll keep trying.
Nicky's Grandmommy and Granddaddy from Georgia came down to visit on Saturday. Nicky was terribly cute the whole time, which was to be expected. ;)
Here he is with Grandmother #4 (Think he has enough?)
And with Grandfather #2 (Much more manageable number I'd say.)
All in all, I think Nicky enjoyed the visit. Hope they come again soon!
Anyway, this time we just stuck it out at home for the 2-3 hours it took to get power. It wasn't as bad this time since it had been raining a bit and the sun wasn't coming in the windows so brightly. But Nicky was getting pretty warm. So we gave him a nice bath and he really enjoyed it!
Then the power returned and we were all able to sleep in peace. Well, except for Tom, who is on binky-duty all night on weeknights. I did it Friday and Saturday night so don't feel too bad for him now. ;) On that front, Nicky has now spent every night since last Thursday in his crib all night! He's really good about it as long as someone helps him out when his binky escapes. I can't wait for his hand/eye coordination to improve! I've read that playing video games helps improve hand/eye coordination in kids, so we've started a training program to speed things up:
I'm not sure it's helping yet. But we'll keep trying.
Nicky's Grandmommy and Granddaddy from Georgia came down to visit on Saturday. Nicky was terribly cute the whole time, which was to be expected. ;)
Here he is with Grandmother #4 (Think he has enough?)
And with Grandfather #2 (Much more manageable number I'd say.)
All in all, I think Nicky enjoyed the visit. Hope they come again soon!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Happy Memorial Day
So for Memorial Day (well actually the day before on Sunday) we had a great meal over at Dad and JM's house. We had barbeque ribs, brats, corn and salad. Yum! Here's what Nicky thought of it all:
Then after dinner we headed home (next door) and found our power was out. We hung out for a few hours until it was really dark and getting hot. But poor Nicky was too warm:
So we headed back to Dad and JM's for air conditioning and to spend the night. Of course then their power went out after we'd gotten all settled down. But then after a short time it actually came back on, and around midnight or so we went home and went to sleep. That's when this picture was taken:
What an evening! We spent most of Memorial Day just relaxing in the air conditioning after that. You just gotta love AC.
Then after dinner we headed home (next door) and found our power was out. We hung out for a few hours until it was really dark and getting hot. But poor Nicky was too warm:
So we headed back to Dad and JM's for air conditioning and to spend the night. Of course then their power went out after we'd gotten all settled down. But then after a short time it actually came back on, and around midnight or so we went home and went to sleep. That's when this picture was taken:
What an evening! We spent most of Memorial Day just relaxing in the air conditioning after that. You just gotta love AC.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
