It's time...

There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to raising a child. We are at another milestone-- he'll be one in two weeks. Supposedly, I heard you are supposed to get rid of formula, get rid of bottles, get rid of baby food, and start transitioning to one nap a day... oh, and they are supposed to be walking, RIGHT!!! This is tough, and this seems like it'd be really tough for Little Joey. He likes his schedule, his naps, his huge 8-10 oz bottles at 7, 11, 3, and 8, his baby food(especially squash), and his warm formula. However, it's time. He weighs in at a whopping 30 lbs and he's starting to wake up earlier and earlier every morning. Monday I was talking to a patient at work. She has 3 kids. You could tell she enjoyed giving advice, but definitely not in a pushy way. She said it was time, so I started listening. We are slowly transitioning. The past three days LJ has only had 3 bottles (sippy cup at 3), he's been taking one nap a day fairly easily (but I have a feeling some days he'll still have two), he's given up baby food, and we're diluting his formula half/half with vitamin D milk... COLD!!!! This may not seem to be too big of a deal to you, however, when you change a baby, excuse me, a big boy's schedule around IT IS A BIG DEAL!!

I think I have slowly earned myself the nickname of "Question Master." Every person I know who has a little kid, I ask them between 10-30 questions about these milestones. I call friends daily. I read book after book. I'm slightly obsessed with trying to figure out what would be best for LJ. After the day is done, I think to myself, "Ya know, it really doesn't matter. He'll still grow up to be a handsome big man (and maybe even thin out a bit-jk)."


Hello Birthday Month!!

(My family has birthday months, not days.)

Who knew having him turn 1 would be so hard?

Make a Smilebox slideshow

20 days left...

until he turns 1!!! Where has the time gone? I have a one year old. Weird.

One of those nights....

that I just recently started to love. Here I am... it's 8:19pm and I'm posted in the recliner with a bottle of Cab, a batch of hot cookies, baby is in bed, Joey is at basketball, I'm watching American Idol then DWTS and I'm LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT!!! Who would have thought I'd like this? I hate being alone... nobody to talk to (or listen to me talk).... that's the worst! The quietness of the house is a beautiful thing. I worked a long day Friday, Saturday, Monday and today and I'm pooped, flat out pooped. I think I'm going to have a glass of Bailey's after this, why not? The only thing that could make this better is if I had one of my girls sitting next to me taking glass after glass with me... now that would be a perfect night!!!! Can't wait for the weekend!!

PS I love Kris from Idol, like a lot!

Who's looking at our blog??

I can see how many hits I get a day (60+), however, I have no clue who they are coming from. I'd love to stay in touch with you guys-- but who are you?!!!!!!!

Why it's all worth it?

When Big J and I get up in the middle of the night, this smile makes it all worth it! What LJ looked like on our daily walks in Ft. Myers. SKIIINNNNNNY!

The most hilarious face, EVA!

LJ ALWAYS performs the "so big" motion. We all say, "We know, we know."

Beautiful.

ENT appt.

You probably remember LJ got tubes in his ears about a month ago. While we were at one of his appointments, our ENT asked how Big Joey and my hearing was. Well, I told the truth. During my pregnancy the hearing in my right ear started to be a "little muffled." It never got better. So today I went and had my hearing tested. The ENT explained my diagnosis that on a scale of 1-10 and 10 being the best, my good ear had 8's,9's, and 10's. Well, my left hear had 2's, 3's, and 4's. Yep, I have hearing loss. Apparently this happens a lot during pregnancy. My nerve is in good shape. It's the stapes that went bad. One of the three bones in my ear has pulled away from it's place and the ENT either needs to go in and use a piece of titanium to connect them or.... well let me get back to this surgery thing. When he goes in to place this piece of titanium, I have a small chance of going completely deaf. Uh, ya. I'm not taking that chance. The other option is a hearing aid. Yes, a hearing aid. I'm 24 years old. My poor ENT must have thought I was crazy when I went baaazerk when he told me this. He asked me to stay to take a look at them, and I refused. I told him I needed to swallow this and I'd come back. Meanwhile, he asked me to go get a CT scan to rule out tumors. I thought I was going to go in today with the diagnosis of a little fluid or maybe even that I was completely overreacting and my hearing was fine. Nope, I'm getting a hearing aid..... well, I'm still thinking about it.

Spring Break Part 4

LJ riding on top of the car! Super baby!!! Pretty cute, huh?

Uncle Jason and Lil' Joey

Enjoying breakfast looking onto the beach

Hmmm... wonder where he got those cheeks???

And more.

Sloanie cracked us up the entire trip. She sings Row, row, row your boat, talks on her phone, signs about anything you teach her, and dances. Her and LJ played really well together. First day on the beach. I think his skin color matched the sand.

We needed SPF 100, but 50 will do.

Perfect pair.

Wouldn't this be the perfect postcard?? Just put "Weather is great, wish you were here." HA!

My parent's condo overlooks the gulf and the bay. It's spectacular. LJ had a blast in the condo, and I think it was because it partly felt like he was outside in it. We would open up on the sliding doors and the wind from the ocean felt great!

More.

LJ and his second cousin once removed, Ella Meek (yes, my family is big into geneology).
Nanny, LJ and I at Doc's Beach House-- same waitresses have worked there since I was 2!!

Don't you just love it when some randoms in the background show up in your pic?

Sloanie and LJ at the airport.

Just getting you ready...

for the mother-load of our Spring Break pictures!!!!

The day has come...

where we will finally be heading home. Don't get me wrong, this vacation has been wonderful. However, it turned out to be a little more exhausting than relaxing. I'll be sure to post pics when we get home, but in the meantime, I'll let you know we started out the week with everyone sleeping all night and waking around 7:30. We finished up the week screaming for an hour every night because LJ has an ear infection and bronchitis. We spent all Saturday morning in the ER at the local hospital after LJ had been crying for a day and half straight. So, we're back on antibiotics and cough drops, and on the road back to health. It'll be nice to be back in our own beds and our normal sleeping routine. Who knew it was going to be this hard?