New Year, New Life

Where to begin....last year (so long ago!) we found out we were pregnant, FINALLY! We've only been trying for about 10 months! We're due almost exactly one month after Boo Bear's birthday. He will turn 3 on May 20th and the new baby will come around June 23rd. We're very excited! I'm secretly hoping for another boy, I think the husband is torn between wanting a girl, so we can "be done" having kids, and wanting another boy. If we have another boy, there's a small possibility we may try for a girl with #3! Who knows! Only time will tell! :)

That was the big news for the end of 2012. The big news for the start of 2013 is that we are moving to Jacksonville, FL! The husband has been searching for a new job for quite awhile now. We have been ready to move on to the next stage of our lives; more money, buy a house, and he's been wanting to move to a bigger city. Well, he was finally given a great offer and we're leaving North Carolina.

It all happened so quickly; he interviewed for the position on a Tuesday, he was offered the position on Wednesday, negotiations on Thursday, and he accepted on Friday. Starting that Saturday, we began boxing up and moving all of our possessions to a storage unit. He moved in with his parents in Jax, and Boo Bear and I have moved in with my parents - still in NC.

It's been quite a roller coaster through the holidays!! We spent a week and a half getting the Husband settled in, celebrating the holidays, and then saying goodbye for a bit. Boo Bear and I are finally back in NC and spent our first night last night with Grammy & Papa. It was not a good night for little Boo Bear. He had nightmares and woke up in the middle of the night for awhile. Luckily, we are sharing a bed and it was hopefully less traumatic for him to wake up next to his mommy. I hope night two isn't as bad.

While I'm back in NC, the Husband started his new job and will be house hunting with our realtor. Hopefully he will find us something soon so we can get some normalcy back to our family. The dog is with the Husband and the boy is with me! The cat is in limbo at the moment, as my Mom is allergic. So we're not sure what her fate will be. She can't stay at the condo by herself for too long though, poor thing! Most of our stuff is in storage, and in the mean time  I'm still working my part time job at the gym. Maybe not for much longer, we'll see how things go.

I plan on driving back to FL once a month for baby doctor appointments. So we're making our first trip back in 2 weeks. I'll make another trip in February, about 3 weeks after we get home from the first visit. After that, it's a "play it by ear" sort of thing. How will I feel being 5-6 months pregnant and driving 8 hours each way? That's the big question. If I don't feel like making the trip back and forth, then the option is open to move in with the Husband and his parents until we find a house. I'm hoping that in 2-3 months we will have made an offer on a house and start making a home! Here's hoping things start falling into line quickly and smoothly!! We know for sure that we need to be living SOMEWHERE by June 2013 when the new addition to our family joins us!

Dear Elf Haters

I'm so tired of reading comments, posts, threads, and updates from all of these Elf on the Shelf haters out there! I don't understand it. Why would someone want to hate on something that brings a child joy? I get that some people find the Elf creepy; I find certain types of dolls creepy myself and I know there are a ton of people who find clowns creepy. But I wouldn't go on and on, bitching and whining and hating on a tradition that involves creepy dolls, or clowns at birthday parties, or anything else that brings a child happiness! Have you SEEN Toy Story 3?? CREEPY DOLL ALERT! But I would never ban the movie from being watched in my home, nor would I go on and on about how damn creepy that doll is...and she is SUPER CREEPY!!

Maybe the Elf hating parents feel inadequate somehow? Maybe they don't think they can live up to Elf standards? Let me clue you in, it can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be! The Elf does NOT have to toilet paper the Christmas tree (ours won't be doing that, it would just be ridiculous for me to have to clean up, HELLO!), and he does NOT have to bake treats and cookies (ours will be making some "magic Christmas tree cookies" at some point, from a box by the name of Pillsbury), and he does NOT need to write on walls with toothpaste or crayons or whatever other destructive ideas are out there. Not all elves are destructive and mischievous!

I know there are a TON of ideas floating around the internet from, what I've seen written on other blogs as being called, "overachieving elf moms".  I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to Elf ideas. But they are just IDEAS and SUGGESTIONS! Not something that has to be followed step by step. All the Elf needs to do is move to a new position each night. Which takes less than 10 seconds to accomplish. I bet it took you more time to cut out that felt tree and create felt ornaments for your child to decorate...why? Because it makes them happy!! By the way, I totally plan on doing this!

Dressing up in costumes for Halloween brings a child joy. I don't hear parents going on and on about the "over achieving costume mom" making her children homemade costumes each year (so NOT me!!) But isn't that similar to the Elf Mom doing special things with her Elf each night? So you don't sew? OMG you BUY your child's costume for Halloween each year?! How could you!! Maybe you shouldn't participate in Halloween any more because you can't make a homemade costume for your child each year!!

Another common complaint I see is that we're somehow deceiving our children (well don't most of us do that already by telling them about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc?) by MAKING them behave by telling them a magic Elf is watching them each night and reporting back to Santa. First of all, how can anyone MAKE their child behave? Either they will or they won't. And what do you do if they don't? Do you bribe them or promise them something? "If you behave, we'll go for ice cream afterwards!" Or maybe you threaten them? "If you don't behave, no more television time!" Or maybe you just ignore it, letting your child run around causing chaos while you pretend nothing is wrong. It's not always about how to make our children behave.

My point is, what is the difference between those scenarios and in telling your child that an Elf visits Santa each night to report their behavior. It's another part of the magic of Christmas. I'm sure I heard numerous times growing up that "Santa's elves were watching" during the holiday season. Why should you get angry because someone was smart enough to bring that Elf to life! And I know in other households (my dear husband's family) there are other traditions of someone or something (birds) watching over them during the holidays and all year round, so they should behave in order to make it on to Santa's nice list. Why should someone find fault in this? What is so wrong with having a little magic in our lives, whether it's around the holidays or all year long? And what is wrong with wanting your child to behave, no matter HOW you go about it?!

Just because we, Elf loving parents, aren't following your family traditions does not give you the right to complain about and find fault in our traditions we are growing for our own families. We don't complain about your traditions that bring your children joy. I'm quite certain every family has different traditions and holidays they celebrate; Advent, Saint Nicholas Day (do you think it's creepy to leave shoes out to be filled with goody's?), Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivals and Celebrations of Lights, Saint Lucy's Day, Boxing Day, and Winter Solstice, just to name a few.

Every family has different traditions for Christmas Eve as well; some open a special gift that night, others (probably that damn overachieving mom again) make "minivan express tickets" and hot chocolate and take the children on a car ride to view Christmas lights. You Elf hating Moms probably hate this tradition, too much work for you, right? Again, just because you don't participate in a certain tradition, doesn't make it wrong for another family to enjoy it, especially if it brings their children joy and happiness!

So get over yourselves, Elf hating Moms, and try to embrace a tradition that brings a child a lot of excitement, happiness, and joy for a holiday season....or at least stop f'in bitching about it and let us Elf loving Moms do our thing! Some of us enjoy watching the excitement on our children's faces as they search for the newest hiding spot of their adopted Elf! Sometimes it just about making our children happy!

Aaannd I'm back!

I've said it before, I'll say it again...and again...and again...I SUCK at blogging!! Some days I think, "Oh, that would make a good post", but never seem to get around to it! And my child does SO many funny things that I should be recording for memories! Ugh, I suck!!

Soooo, quick recap on therapy and development of the last 3 months:

Boo Bear is no longer doing physical or speech therapy. We're back to a basic, overall developmental therapy with our original therapist, Sharon! She's awesome and so nice, Boo Bear really likes her. He's pretty much speaking in complete sentences these days, asking questions, and telling stories. Sharon is helping to refine things and help with some gross motor skills.

Although we stopped physical therapy, he still wears his inserts in his shoes, and we still need to work on his core strength and overall balance. He's definitely going to have to work hard if he plans on playing sports in the future!

September:  We vacationed with Grammy & Grandpa to the NC mountains and Lake Lure. It was pretty nice, but the best part for Boo Bear was visiting a small train museum (of course!) and the children's museum. The NICEST children's museum I've ever been to, tucked away in Western North Carolina in a TINY town called Rutherfordton! Go figure!  It was a lot of fun!

October: Boo Bear LOVED Halloween this year! We were able to travel down south to visit his Mimi & Grandaddy for Halloween this year. He really enjoyed trick or treating with his cousin and dressing up! He was his favorite toy train, Thomas! He's all about Thomas the Train these days, he could spend all day playing on his train table at Grammy & Grandpa's house! We even spent a "Day Out with Thomas" a couple of months ago! It was so much fun! It amazes me that he knows all of the different trains names, also. And he WILL correct you if you call it the wrong name!

 


Our pumpkins were carved as his second favorite toy theme, Mickey Mouse and Pluto!

November: Thanksgiving was great! I ate way too much of my favorite foods, I even made the husband a few of his family favorites! Boo Bear enjoyed watching the parade, there were some of his favorite character and show floats! We spent the entire day at Grammy & Grandpa's...well, almost the whole week really! Since everyone was on vacation, we were over there every day that week! 

And now we're heading in to DECEMBER! Yikes! At least I'm 90% done Christmas shopping! Yeah!! Boo Bear is totally in LOVE with the Christmas tree! He gives it a hug and kiss good night, and he says hello and goodbye to it whenever we come and go from the house. He tells it he misses it and he just sits and stares at it during the day! He tells it it's beautiful. Our tree better not die because it's definitely getting a LOT of love!!! He got to hang his special ornaments, which so far, he's only tried to play with a couple of times.  Can't wait for Christmas morning!

No Mom!

I love my talking toddler! He's awesome. And his personality can't be beat. He's very funny and VERY entertaining!

He's finally (well, he's been doing it awhile now, but we had to wait a LONG time to hear it!) calling me Mommy/Momma and calling Daddy, Daddy. But, when he gets in a funny mood, he likes to shorten it to "Mom" and "Dad".

Already?! No!!!!

I tell him "No Mom! It's Mommy or Momma!" But not MOM! That's for when he's older, like 8 or 10!! He's only TWO! It should still be Mommy and Momma! So, I guess he's heard me say it often enough, because now he goes around say "No Mom!" First he says "Mom"...then he says "No Mom".

That's right! No Mom! But then he will say it again, and laugh. Very funny! I don't want to be just "Mom" yet! Let me be Mommy or Momma just a little bit longer, please!

Poor, Sick Boy!

It's been awhile since I've updated on things! I got tired of posting pictures everyday, if I continue that, it will only be on instagram. Poor Boo Bear is sick this weekend! :( It's only the 2nd time in his whole little life that he's been sick enough to need medication! I definitely attribute it to his phenomenal nursing skills! Poor boy! It's just a head/eye cold and congestion, so he's got eye drops and some amoxicillan to help clear him up. He never acts very sick, even when he's got a low grade fever! You wouldn't know he was sick, if it weren't for the snot and red eyes!

Hopefully he'll be 100% in a few days, trying to give a sick toddler medicine is the WORST! The first round of eye drops went very well, after the first drop, he actually let me drop the 2nd eye without a fight. However, eye drops are 3 times a day, and the 2nd round did not go so well! :( Now we have to hold him down with one person, and have another person wrench his eye open to get a drop in, while he's screaming bloody murder! It's definitely times like this that I'm so glad we still nurse, and he's calmed down in moments.

And trying to get the pink stuff in him has always been a challenge. When he was in his first year of life and needed it, he hardly got any in him because he would gag and choke until he threw up. At least he didn't throw it up last night, but he does scream, cry, choke, gag, and spit it up like a pro.

So, this morning we tried a different tactic. I gave him a tiny bit of chocolate milk and mixed the medicine in with it. And he drank the whole thing! So, maybe we won't have to fight the pink stuff anymore! I'm hoping an incentive, like lollipops, will help with the eye drops. We'll see!

I've been meaning to do another update on therapies, but will save that for later this week! Things are going well, and since receiving the new orthotics, we've even stopped the physical therapy!

Day 30: Calm

Day 28: Cup

Day 27: On The Road

Angry skies on the way to work!

Day 26: Sunshine

Day 25: Heart