Best game ever

We played the best game every tonight. Jesse and Joseph sat on my bed and Jesse held Elle. Then I would walk back and forth in the hallway, in and out of her line of vision. Every time she could see me she would scream and laugh. Then we switched and Joseph walked in the hallway. Every time he walked by the door Elle would shriek and then he would laugh. Then it was Jesse's turn and Elle screamed at him too. It was so cute.

Elle's been "hugging" lately too. When she's feeling sweet and loving she grabs the face of whoever is nearest to her with both hands and pulls. She gives kisses too but only to me. She is totally my girl all the way.

What a day

Elle was sitting on my lap today wearing just a diaper and she had the cutest little toot ever. Before I could even think "That was the cutest little toot ever" I felt somethng warm on my legs. I lfted her up and there was poop all over my lap. It was everywhere, running down my legs even. How in the world?!?! I looked at her and she just smiled happily and chewed on her hand.

As I'm cleaning her up Joseph yells from downstairs "Agh! I dropped my juice box and juice sprayed all over!" The joys of children.

For fun

A post from Joseph

Everybody, welcome! Send me money for the Relay for Life on my site. I'm in preschool so give me money. Adios. I want people to think I'm speaking French. That means goodbye. That's all

Rolly Polly Baby

Elle is the rollingest little baby you've ever seen. If I lay her on her tummy she rolls right over and grins at me. She is very, very close to being able to go from her back to tummy too but I don't think she's in any hurry to do that. She prefers to be on her back so there's really no motivation for her to roll over onter her tummy.

It's a good thing she's getting more active because she is also the eatingest little baby you've ever seen. Peaches, bananas and rice cereal are her favorites but she also eats apple sauce, pears and squash. Oatmeal is still not going over so well. If she's eating something she really like she laughs in between bites. It's way cute.

I've been a bit distracted lately with some moral/ethical things I've been pondering. Maybe I'll get into it later but for now if you see me staring off into space with a blank look on my face just assume that I'm buy trying to solve all the problems of the world and not that I'm just wondering where I left my keys.

One more thing: Stephen is a douchebag like none I have ever seen. "If you can't handle the tempurature of the kitchen, perhaps you should remove yourself from the situation." Gah. I'm not a violent person but I seriously want to smack this guy. Watch Top Chef on Bravo to see what I'm talking about.

Lack of news

I'm just updating to say that I really don't have much to say.

Elle's second tooth is still hiding and continuing to bother her once in a while. I'm sure it's going to come in any time now but I've been thinking that for a week now.

Joseph is continuing to sleep in his room at night without climbing into bed with us. He had one little slip up last night but otherwise Jesse and I have had our bed to ourselves.

We went to Monday Night Class this week. The lady who never shuts up continued to never shut up tonight. She's just terrible. I have to restrain myself from banging my head against the table whenever she opens her mouth to talk. It's nearly impossible to get a word in edgewise once she gtes going. We're supposed to be meeting to exchange ideas and discuss problems but she seems to think it's just a platform for her tell one long, rambling, pointless story after another. She's utterly clueless too. She doesn't even seem to notice that when she starts talking that everyone just stares off into space, trying to will themselves to a happier place.

Relay for Life meeting tomorrow. Gah. Why did I say I would be the captain? Ben, I think I have a fun game we could play. Email me if you're interested. It would require a couple of minutes on-line a day if you could swing it.

A good week

Pretty much everything was was going so rough with Joseph last week is going really smoothly this week. He's been sleeping in his ded every night, most nights not even coming into our room even once. He's listening the first time we tell him to do something (most of the time, he is 5 after all). He's been trying really hard in therapy. We didn't get a single bad report from school. My hope is that we're done with whatever little rough spot that was last week.

Elle's second tooth is thisclose to coming in. She's been a little bit crabby because of it but she's so good natured to start out with that it's nothing too bad. She's discovered screaming now. She does it all the time. She'll just lay there making these high pitched little shrieks for no reason at all. If Joseph's near here she screams until he comes over and pays attention to her then screams again if he leaves. She loves her big brother.

I have to get on the ball and start getting the Relay for Life stuff in order. Ugh. I am no good at organization. Oh well, it's all for a good cause so I suppose I can get my rear in gear for once.

Are you all watching Top Chef on Bravo? Do you all hate Steven (Stephen?) as much as I do? The guy is a complete tool. He's so pleased with himself all the time. It's a little unreal to watch because you almost think that he has to be joking. No one can be that self-satisfied and smug. Well, Steven/Stephen can! He can do anything! Just ask him.

Elle Rose, Wonderbaby

Elle did the most amazing thing today. She was sitting in her high chair playing with one of her toys. She was holding it and just kind of waving her arms around. At one point the toy kind of banged down onto the tray and she got a really startled look on her face. I laughed and then that made her laugh. She slammed the toy down again and again we both laughed.

Then all of the sudden her entire face just lit up and I swear I could almost see the lightbulb go on over her head. She slooooowly lifted the toy up as high as she could and then slammed it down really hard. Her eyes never left my face. Of course I made a big deal over the big noise she was making and she just went nuts. Once she figured out that her actions were making me react a certain way she was out of control. She was slamming that toy down with all her might, as fast as she could. Her legs were kicking, her ams were waving and her little face was red with the effort of it all. Her eyes were wild, her hair was mussed and there was drool everywhere. It was the coolest thing.

She's such a blast.

Food

Elle is doing really well with solid food. She really likes rice cereal and bananas. She just lights up when I feed those to her. She does pretty good with apple sauce but that's not her favorite. She still preffers to nurse over anythng else and that's ok with me because that's what I prefer too. It's about 100 times easier to nurse her than it is to spoon feed her 200 tiny little bites that she ends up half spitting out anyway because she's smiling at me so much. She's the cutest little thing but she hasn't learned yet not to mix eating with blowing spit bubbles. Anyway, later this week I'll try another kind of cereal with her and then maybe some pears.

I'm not planning on buying store bought baby food for too long. Once I've gotten her used to the taste of the new foods I plan on making stuff at home. The jar stuff is just nice for now as she's just starting on solids but I can make her a bigger variety of stuff at home.

You know who's not eating right now? Joseph. Most nights he has a couple of bites and then decideds he's full. He's not so keen on having to eat whatever we're eating. I figured that the few bites of real food he eats with us is probably better for him then his preffered diet of chicken nuggets and butter sandwiches though.

Not much to say

"What I Made" has gone the way of the dinosaur. I was feeling guilty for never updating it so now I'm just going to pretend it never exsisted. I have enough stress, I don't need an unupdated food journal hanging over my head. It served it's purpose anyway since I am in the habit of cooking and baking more.

Well, that's all I guess.

Elle stuff

Elle rolled over today! I only had to help her a tiny bit. I helped position her arm so that she could get all the way over onto her back but she did all the rolling part on her own. She looked really suprised but that might have been just from the loud cheering Joseph and I did for her.

She's such a little beast. Since that first tooth came in nursing has been ..... a challenge. She likes to bite down. Hard. Very hard. I've read that if a baby does that you are supposed to pull away and fimrly say "No biting!". Yeah. That doesn't work for me. You know what she does when I do that? She laughs. It's true, my mom has heard it. Plus, sometimes I can't even pull away because she's got such a vise grip on me. Ok, it's not pleasant to say but she's drawn blood. What am I going to do with my little monster baby?

Hot or Not: The Sandy Edition

Some more Hot or Not! This time with a message!

Meet Sandy.


Sandy has a lot of time on her hands.


And some issues.


You see, someone didn't pay enough attention to Sandy when she was a kid so now she spends her time posting multiple pictures of herself on Hot or Not so that strangers can give her love and approval. Fathers be good to your daughters.

In other news, is it just me or has Tim McGraw really let himself go?

Random stuff

There's a new book out saying that Barry Bonds used steroids. It's all over the news. Uh..... Was there anyone around who didn't think he used them? (I guess this is big news to Naivey McEasyfooled from Headinthesand, Nebraska.) The question that I am hearing a lot is: Does this taint the home run record? And the answer is: Yes, it does. Babe Ruth set his record while ingesting massive amounts of tobacco, booze and processed meat products. It's not fair to compare his record to someone who's ingesting massive amounts of steroids and, I have to assume, ego inflator pills and self-entitlment supplements.

The other night after Kirby Puckett died the local news did a story about how at the Metrodome a bunch of people had come out to set up a memorial to him. Nice story right? One little problem. This "huge memorial" consisted of two carboard signs and a candle. They kept showing it from different angles to make it look like it was more but it was just pathetic. Why not wait untill there's a little more stuff there before you do that story? Oh yeah, cause you're a crappy local news show and you just have to get that big story first. It was done by the channel 11 reporter that I just hate too. I call him the Bart's People Guy. ("The old Number 9 doesn't come by here much anymore......")

For your enjoyment:

My little guy

I had a date with my best little guy yesterday. Joseph and I went to see Doogal. It'a really wierd movie. The story is wierd, the characters are weird, the anamation is weird. There is a farting moose though so Joseph was happy anyway. The important thing was to spend some one on one time with Joseph anyway so that was good. He kept saying "I love you!" and "I like you!" and "I'm happy we're seeing a movie". It was cute.

On Saturday some of Jesse's friends from high school were in town and we stopped in to see them at their hotel. When we got there Joseph sat down at this table that had an ashtray sitting on it. He wrinkled up his nose and loudly said "Can someone move these cigarettes away from me?". After it had been moved he still stared at it for a while and finally asked "Who smoked those?" When the smoker fessed up Joseph turned to him and in the most serious voice possible said "Hey man, smoking's not cool." Everyone at the table burst out laughing, it was just too funny not too even though he was being very serious about the whole thing.

Elle's second tooth is just a day or two away from coming in. I can feel it under her gums. She's growing up so fast! Yesterday I gave her a tiny taste of apple sauce. She looked shocked and then offended and then happy ...... because she spit it out. We'll try again later, no reason to rush things. She loves rice cereal though. She gets some every day at lunch and she just gobbles it down. My baby's all about the eating!

Baby's first tooth

Elle has her first tooth! I was nursing her tonight and when I was done I noticed that she was making a lot of funny faces and doing wierd things with her mouth. I felt her gums and what do you know? Her front left bottom tooth broke through. It's the cutest little tooth you've ever seen in your life. What an amazing little baby I have.

Saved!

A little over 6 hours ago I was laying on my bed with what I think was the worst migraine I have ever had. I was sick to my stomach, I couldn't see straight, I felt like I might pass out, my whole body was tensing up in pain and my nose was a little runny. Jesse kept trying to talk to me and ask me questions but everytime I tried to answer all that really came out was "Uhhhhhh ..... owwwww ...... owwwww ..... ohmygooooooodowwwwww".

I woke up with a headache this morning and then at 4:00 I went to the chiropractor to get an andjustment. It seemed to go ok but about halfway home I was in real pain. We went back and the doctor worked on me a little more and sent me home. We got home and I was doing really, really bad. I just laid on the bed and cried. I tried not to because it hurt so much but I felt like I didn't even have control over my body.

Jesse called and talked to my chiropractor (the one I usually see, not the one I saw today who's like my back-up when my regular one is not available). She told Jesse to bring me in and she would do some acupuncture on me. When he told me that I just cried and said I coulnd't go back in the car because I was in too much pain. At this point I was so out of it that I was seriously considering trying to knock my head against the wall to knock myself out. (No, I'm not joking. It hurt that much and I couldn't think straight.) He convinced me to go though and am I ever glad that he did.

I got 6 needles in my back, 2 in my arms and 2 in my neck. It didn't hurt at all, I really couldn't even feel them once they were in. I honestly sat there thinking "This is not going to work. There is no way these little needles are going to take away this migraine". But what do you know? Little by little the pain started to go away. I was able to hold my head up and then open my eyes and then I was even able to smile when I heard Joseph thanking my chiroprator for helping me feel better.

When we left I still had a really bad headache but after a nap and some time with an icepack I am nearly 100% better. I"m amazed. I was really sceptical at first but man, I am so sold on accupunture now. It works so much better than anything I ever got any of those times I went to the emergency room for my migraines.

I know this is really long but I'm so serious about this: If you have a headache or a migraine or back pain or anything plese, please, please do yourself a favor and go see Dr Minser at Minser Chiropractic. She is a miracle worker!

Spooky

Last night after Jesse put Joseph to bed he went back into the office to get some work done. After he had been gone a while Joseph woke up crying. I went up to check on him and he was acting really weird. He wasn't awake but he wasn't sleeping either. It wasn't like a night terror because I could get him to respond to me a little bit. He said his head hurt and that he needed something but he couldn't tell me what. He was just wandering around and crying and trying to go downstairs. Finally I got him to lay back down and I went back downstairs.

A little bit later I heard him crying again and I found him in the hallway crying for Jesse. I explained that Daddy was at work and he would be back soon but he started to get really frantic. Finally I told him he could come downstairs and sit on the couch with Becky (who was visiting) and I for a little bit. I brought him downstairs but then he tried to head for the back door. He kept saying he needed to leave and get Daddy. He was still in this weird half awake state.

I called Jesse so that he could talk to Joseph and Joseph insisted that Jesse come home right away. I told Jesse that Joseph had just been frantic and he said he would come leave in a couple of minutes. I hung up and Joseph continued to cry for a couple of minutes more. Then, all of the sudden he laid down on the couch and fell back asleep. By the time Jesse walked in the door a couple of minutes later Joseph was fast asleep and peaceful as can be.

Becky can vouche for me here, it was really weird. We just decided that for whatever reason, Jesse was not supposed to be out that night and Joseph somehow knew it. He's never acted like that before and this morning he didn't even really remember it. Very stange indeed. What a sensitive little boy I have.

Speaking of sensitive, Joseph has been pushing kids at school when he doesn't get his way. I guess he's only done it a few times but we want to nip that in the bud right away. Today he told me that there is a mean boy in his class who pushes him sometimes and once pushed him off a toy in the gym. Joseph said he fell and hit his head then got up and pushed the boy back. Of course I had to do the responsible thing and tell him that pushing is wrong and that he should have gone and told the teacher. What I really wanted to say was "Good, next time kick him while he's down". That kid better not ever meet me in a dark alley. That's all I have to say about that.

Because I said so

Last night I invoked the rule of "Because I'm the parent and you're the kid" with Joseph for the first time ever. We're trying a little experiment with him for a few days. He's not allowed to watch any TV during the week and then on the weekend he can watch a couple of shows that we have picked out (and approved) in advance. After I got done explaining this to him I went upstairs to watch the Amazing Race. Of course he asked why I got to watch TV and he didn't. As I kid I always swore I would never say this to my kids but now I'll admit it felt a little good to be able to say "Because I'm the parent and you're the kid and that's just the way it is." That's it, no more explination required. Joseph hates it and even Jesse rolled his eyes at me but who cares? Hahahahahah! I'm finally the one who gets to say stuff like that! Ohhhh, the power!