Bandit and the two pugs

What is it with me and stray dogs? They seem to find me everywhere!!
A couple of weeks ago this georgeous huskey named Bandit wandered into our yard. Darren was out of town and I didnt know what to do. He kept coming on to our back porch and freaking Cora and Chai out. It was really really cold out and I felt bad for him, so I tried to get close to feed him and then try and get the phone number off his tag. After about an hour of this, I was finally able to lure him into our garage and got his collar off to call his mom. She came to get him and all was well. (The story was much longer....but I think I already told this story)
Well, thursday Bandit was back!He came right up to the back porch, I opened the door and said "Bandit, get in the garage" and he walked right into the garage. I called his mom and she came and got him - too funny! I told her to just program my number into her phone so when Bandit runs away to just call me because he seems to come straight to my house!

Yesterday when I was driving home from work I saw in the distance to little things running in the street. As I got closer I saw it was two pugs! I had to completely stop my car because they were in my lane standing there barking at my car. I got out to shoo them away and to see if I could catch one of them and look at their collar to call their owner, but they werent wearing any collars. Boy was it funny, they kept running in front of my car and parking their fat bodies in front of it and barking.....eventually I just decided to drive really slow and they moved. I hope they made their way back home, but it was quite comical!!

Can I wrap him in bubble wrap?

It sounds like a good idea to me! Poor guy has so many bumps and scratches on his noggin. I received two incident reports at daycare in the past two weeks! One time he got hit in the head by a rogue toy...and the other time he bumped his head on something. Sheesh!

The other day I went upstairs quick to grab something and Dane was in the living room playing. I thought he would be fine for - oh, the three seconds it took me to run upstairs and down again - but no, i was wrong! I hear and "boom" and "WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!". I run downstairs and he is sitting in the middle of the living room with a red mark on his forehead. I have no diea what happened, nothing was near him to have hurt him, but something did! He is fine of course. I asked the ladies at daycare if Dane gets more incident reports than other kids, and they said "oh my goodness - no!" Some kids are sent home with them weekly....even daily! I just wanted to make sure Dane isnt a klutz...ha!

He has completely deleted his morning nap from his schedule! Go Monkey! It was hard at first, but thanks to the ladies at daycare for keeping him up for me! He would usually take a 10-15 minute nap at 10:00, but I just felt that wasnt necessary. When he was taking such a short nap in the morning, his afternoon nap would be short too which would cause him to be so incredibly tired by 5:00pm. It was hard to keep him awake till bedtime. And Darren only gets to see Dane during the week after 5:00pm, and when he was tired and cranky (Dane, not Darren) it wasnt any fun for Darren to be around him...SO - it's a success! Dane will nap from 12:45 - 2:30ish...it's great! and it's his only nap during the day (I am knocking on wood this schedule sticks!)

We've picked our dates in which we are coming to PA. We will leave MN on June 9th and come back June 21st (or later, it all depends) We are going to have Dane's First Birthday Party while we are in PA so the family can come and see him! (and meet him for that matter!) I picked Blue's Clues as the theme - that is Dane's favorite morning show! His favorite afternoon show is Yo Gabba Gabba. We've moved on from the Wonder Pets I guess....

I need to get him a rocking horse of some sort. At daycare there is a rocking dog, and Dane just loves to sit on it and rock! He is really good at it too! Maybe he'll get one for his b-day?!?! He loves when I push him around in his car, he can even push himself backwards in it! I guess frontwards is a lot harder.

And in case anyone didn't know, I am from Lebanon, PA. There is a movie coming out called Lebanon, PA and it was filmed in my hometown and in my highschool! How cool is that? The link below is to the website.....

Lebanon, PA Movie Link

Can I have my cake and eat it too??

Why not?!?!
HA!

I am SO happy that monkey is sleeping through the night....10-12 hours straight through each night - yippeeee!! I feel like a new woman....but the only thing that stinks, is we don't get to sleep in on the weekends! His body clock gets him up between 5:30 and 6:00am (which is what time he gets up during the week)...So, I guess I can't complain. At least I am getting at least 8 hours of sleep in a row!! I really do miss our cuddle time in the middle of the night. I know I know, I am the one with separation anxiety - not him! Because he has been sleeping through the night, I am confident again to stay up late (8 or 9) and spend some time with Darren watching TV or whatever. We haven't really done that in 9 months! I would go to bed right when Dane did because I just didn't know how long I had until he would wake up.

We've also had success with getting rid of his morning nap! I asked daycare to help with this. I'd rather he be there at daycare and not sleep (who wants to pay that much money and then your kid sleeps?). Plus, he is old enough now to only have one nap a day (especially since he is sleeping so well at night). SO, he gets up around 6:00 in the morning and makes it till 1:00pm! Sometimes he even makes it till 2:00pm! Then I let him nap until 3:30. Even if he only goes down for a nap at 3:00, I still get him up at 3:30. If I let him sleep longer than that, he will never go to bed at 7:00. This week he has actually been going to bed closer to 6:00pm. I think since he is learning so much (milestone after milestone) and also going through a growth spurt (another one!) it is making him extra sleepy.

Speaking of learning new things, monkey climbed the steps all the way to the top! I stood behind him of course in case he decided to lean backwards, but he did it!! That is good and bad.....good because he learned something new and was so proud of himself for making it to the top, and bad because now we have about 100000 baby gates everywhere. We have two flights of steps that he just loves to play on! Thank goodness they are carpeted and not hardwood.

He is still eating like a good little boy, he loves broccoli, fresh apple slices, bananas (his favorite!), pizza (another favorite!), meatloaf, pasta, rice, well...you get the picture.

He is also still cruising like a champ. He will even let go of whatever he is holding on to and stand by himself. He tries to take a step and wobbles then falls, but is getting better every day!

We are driving to PA in June...it's about an 18 hour trip straight through (we aren't planning on making it straight through, but it would be nice!). Has anyone taken that long of a trip before with a one year old? Any tips? We plan on leaving at bed time so he sleeps the first half of the trip, and when he wakes up we will stop at a rest stop for a while and play. We also plan on borrowing a portable DVD player for him to watch some Blue's Clues and Yo Gabba Gabba, but if anyone has any suggestions I welcome them!

He's more like Cora every day!

Dane sure does love his Cora dog, he loves to play with her tail, play with her toys (blech....) and even growls just like her! He even likes to look out the window to the backyard and yell at birds and squirrels!!

His new favorite thing to do is carry toys around in his mouth while he crawls around - just like Cora!! He will even carry his sippy cup around by biting on the nubby thing and carrying it in his mouth!

I went to pick him up at daycare today and he crawled toward me with a plastic "sunny side up" egg in his mouth, it was so funny and cute! I wish that I would have a video camera on this kid 24/7!




Dane is still going strong with sleeping through the night!! It only took him 9 months to learn! Yippeee!!!

Here's to 9 months!!

Monkey is 9 months old today - can you believe it? My, time sure has flown by....

Today he is 21.14 lbs and 28 3/4". He is in the 75% percentile for both. He is wearing 9-12 months clothing, which are a little snug. He is in size 4 diapers. The doctor gave him a head to toe exam and said I couldn't ask for a more perfect baby! He kept commenting on how bright Dane is and how he just looks around and "soaks everything in". The doc was asking me all types of questions about what Dane can and cannot do - and said that Dane is far exceeding most 9 month olds - woop woop! It's all those Wheaties he is eating...haha!


Speaking of eating, He fell asleep again last night during dinner and this time I got a good video of it! I hope you enjoy...it's hard not to laugh, but it's so gosh darn cute!

We are going to try and skip Dane's morning nap. He is sleeping through the night (YAY!!) now and I don't really fell he needs a morning nap anymore - but we will see. He only takes about a 15-30 minute nap in the morning, and then doesn't want to nap in the afternoon, so he is extreeeeeeemly tired by 5pm, and that's just too early to go to bed....SO - we will start trying this out tomorrow!

The art of sleep-eating

Well, it's official...monkey can climb steps!! I got a few good pics of him, but only when he was on the bottom steps. Once he was able to get up to step three and four I wanted both my hands free to catch him WHEN he falls (notice I didn't say IF he falls?)....Cora would taunt him at the top of the steps and he would work so hard to get up there to her!!

He was so funny today eating dinner....I DID get video, but it's sideways. So I.T. (Darren) is working on getting it right side up...(when I use the video on my cell phone it for some reason saves it sideways....) anyway, He was up from 5:00am till about 1:00pm, then only took a 30 minute nap, so come dinner time he was uber tired. He was falling asleep while eating his dinner! I took a bunch of videos of him (a bunch because my cell phone can only take 1 minute videos)(i know, you are probably wondering "why use your cell phone then?"....well, i will tell you - because if i would have gotten up to get the real camcorder Dane would have woken up from his "eat-sleep"... :o).....) So, once Darren gets those videos corrected for me I will post them!

The car seat pic is really for Aunt Cindy to see how Dane looks in the car seat she gave him! I bought a cover for it (it's pretty cool! Moo Moo!) because Cindy used it for daughter Meghan and it was a little girly. I liked it, but I am sure Dane would be embarrassed to sit in it.....hee hee.

This morning I was getting ready for work and Dane wanted to come into the bathroom and Cora would NOT move her big butt!! So Dane was stuck....and he stayed there for about 5 minutes - or however long it took me to blow dry my hair! She wasn't moving for anything....Meany!

A crazy couple of days!

Sheesh, what a crazy couple of days it has been!!

On Friday:

I got a call from daycare stating that Dane was hurt, his head is bleeding and he is just sitting there dazed. Well, of course I am thinking "OMG he is bleeding to death and has a concussion". They asked me to come right away and decide whether I should take him to the doc or the E.R. I was so incredibly freaked out - and it seamed like everyone in front of me on the drive to daycare was going under the speed limit!!! ACK!! I couldn't get a hold of Darren at work (he was in a meeting) so I was uber upset about that too..if I had to take dane to the ER I didnt want to have to do it alone....I get to daycare and Dane looks FINE. He was laughing and playing just like any other day - except he has a little gash on his eyebrow. I think they over-reacted a bit, but I guess for legal reasons or whatever they had to have me come and look at him - which I understand. I still took him into the doc because it looked like it needed stitches. The doc cleaned it up really well and said that he might get a scar, but she tried hard to glue and steri-strip it so there wouldn't be too big of a scar if it does end up scarring. She also sent me home with a pack of steri-strips because she said "you are gonna need them since you have a boy...ha!". As you can see from the pics, it's not that bad...but it's bad enough.

Apparently Dane was trying to climb on top of the lunch table and fell off and hit his eyebrow on the corner of the table. All of the teachers felt really bad - as they should I think!! Why wasn't anyone stopping him from climbing on the table? One of the ladies said she saw him doing it was about to go get him....um, about to go get him? Why didn't she go get him? I know they have other babies in there, but c'mon....I wasn't upset at first, i was more relieved that he wasn't hurt more than he was, but the more i think about it the more i am mad. I know things happen and they cant stop everything...but its different when its your child that gets hurt. I dunno, I am kinda wishy washy about being upset about it....I see both sides.

When I brought Dane home from the docs I fed him some lunch and while he was eating he decided to poop. Now i don't usually talk about him pooping (like anyone cares about my childs poop), but this one was a doosie! I went upstairs to change him and as i pulled his pants off the poop was filling up one of his pant legs....OMG it was everywhere! I decided to just wrap him up in a towel and throw him in the tub. Ack!!! Nothing like bathing a baby in a tub full of poop water...and him wanted to play with the wash cloth....ewwwwww!!

Anyway, Darren and I had a date planned on Friday - Dave and Busters!! Daycare had a "parents night out" where you could pay them $25 to watch your child from 6:30-9:30pm...so we took advantage of it! We had a few drinks (that night I realized that I cant drink like I used to....the hard way) and played some games. It was a lot of fun!! When you play games you get tickets...and then you can "buy" stuff with the tickets. We had some left over and usually what Darren and I do in this situation is walk around and pick a kid to give the tickets to. Well, Darren left it up to me to pick the kid this time. I walked up to this boy and gave the tickets to him....and wouldn't you know it, the little bugger didn't even thank me or acknowledge me. He took them from me and just continued to sit there....I WISH i would have just taken them back from him, but I didn't want to ruin my night so I just turned around and tried to forget about it. That kid is going to grow up to be a jerk in my opinion.

On Saturday:

My friend Hieu offered to watch Dane for us while we went to the movies (THANK YOU AGAIN!!) and we saw Avatar in 3D! It was amazing! It was a beautiful movie and a wonderful story and if you ever get the chance to see it - DO!

That night during bath time I was about to get Dane out of the tub when I noticed he needed to pee...so I let him sit in the tub a little longer...thank goodness I did because not only did he pee, he pooped too! This was the first time he has ever done that, and I tried not to freak out - but it was so gross....and luckily Darren was right there to help out. Ack!! Two poop situations on one weekend is quite enough!! (I know, I know - another poop story, but I thought this one was funny!)

Today:

Happy Valentines Day! Darren made Dane and I a HUGE breakfast...which we loved! He also has cleaned (and I mean CLEANED) the kitchen for me! THANK YOU!! Dane has been napping since 9 - and it's noon now. I hear him rustling up in his crib so I need to go get him soon.

Oh, I forgot to mention - Dane has been pulling himself up to standing on just about everything! He even stands alone for a couple of seconds!! Stairs are also becoming quite interesting to him, he likes to try and climb up them! I think he might be walking soon....ACK!!

Also, Darren has helped me all week in getting Dane to sleep through the night (no, he still hasnt been sleeping all the way through) so basically what we did this past week was Darren would decide when it was time for me to go in and get Dane. I guess I am too much of a softy because I would have gone into get Dane like almost every time he was crying, and Darren kept saying "he's fine, he's fine" and wouldn't you know it, he was fine...he cried himself back to sleep - and I hope I am not jinxing this by talking about it, but for the past three nights Dane has slept all the way through the night! Yahoo!! I know, I know - usually it's the parents fault when a kid doenst sleep through the night...and honestly speaking, I believe it! Shhh, dont tell anyone....haha!

Vampire Baby

OK, so I know that I read the entire Twilight series and a few other vampire books whilst I was pregnant, but I didn't know that would turn my child into a biting vampire baby!

He really is enjoying having top and bottom teeth. He bites EVERYTHING! It hurts so bad, and he actually drew a little blood on my neck. I am so happy he isn't biting me while nursing, I've nipped that one in the bud when he got his bottom teeth (cross my fingers he doesn't start doing it now) I've read that I am not supposed to make a big deal of it when he does bite me on the neck or wherever because he will keep doing it because he gets a reaction. I am supposed to calmly pull him away and say "no biting, that hurts mommy" in a flat monotone but stern voice.

Well, I've tried that and the kid still laughs hysterically and bites me again! Now I hope you all don't get this visual of Dane coming at me with his mouth wide open trying to bite me, that's not how it is. If we are hugging and he has his face nestled in my neck he will just bite, or if we are playing he just bites....he isn't attacking me or anything, so you can relax!

Does anyone have any advice? I know it's just a stage and he is learning to use his new chompers, but I don't want my kid to be that kid at daycare. :o)

He has also starting crying for me A LOT. If i put him down he cries and cries and cries. If i leave the room, he cries and cries and cries. At first I thought something was wrong with him, like he was hurt or something, so naturally i picked him up and he was miraculously fine. But I caught on that he just wants to be held by me all the time. If we are playing on the floor he will crawl to me and climb on me and he has to be touching me. It's flattering, don't get me wrong....but it's also really annoying. I want him to be able to play by himself sometimes and not be climbing on me, and I'd like to be able to leave the room without him freaking out! Alas, this too shall pass.


I am finally starting to feel better. I woke up on Saturday with two ear aches....That was the last straw. I don't have the patience for ear aches...I had way too many growing up and it's the worst thing ever. I went to the Minute Clinic (LOVE THEM!) and the doc told me I have a really bad sinus infection and two ear infections with a lot of fluid behind the ear drum. She prescribed Amoxicillin - finally! I dont know why the doc didn't put me on antibiotics when i went in two weeks ago?!?! After almost a month of feeling like death warmed over, it's nice to be feeling somewhat normal again.

It's us again!

That's what I say every time I take Dane into the pediatrician now because I feel like we are there all the time!

If you remember, I brought him in on Friday of last week because he was pulling at his ears, not eating, and had a low grade temp. The doc said he had an ear-infection (after I made her clean out the wax to look behind it, which is why I think she missed in a few weeks ago when I took him in) and he was put on amoxicillin.

Well, poor guy got a yeast-rash from it all over his boy parts, his legs and feet :O( I called the nurse on Monday and she said to just put Lotrimin AF on it for a few days and it should clear it up....Nope, actually it's worse! It's now EVERYWHERE! He looks like he has the chicken pox or something. So I took him back in today (I love our pediatricians office, they have this program called "ready care" and I can just bring him in when it's convenient for me - no appt necessary) and I saw a different doctor (thank goodness) and she said not only is his ear infection worse (it is now pusy instead of just red) he has both of his ears infected. So not only is the amoxicillin not doing anything for his ears, it's causing my poor baby to break out in a yeast rash!!

She prescribed Nystatin for the rash and Omni-cef for the ears. It's a different and stronger antibiotic....so we will see how it goes. Poor guy!

+++++

When i picked him up from daycare today one of the ladies said to me "Did you know your son absolutely loves pickles?" How funny?!?! She said that she gave him one just to see this funny face he makes when he touches wet and slimy food and instead of making a face, he gobbled it up - so she gave him another, and another, and another! He kept whining until she gave him more! Guess I have to go get my boy some pickles!!

+++++

I am not feeling any better really. I've had bronchitis and who knows what else for almost 4 weeks now. I am still going to work everyday - who has time to be sick these days anyway?!?! I do think that if I am not any better by next week I am going to go back to the doctor. I wasn't put on anything other than codeine to help me sleep because the coughing keeps me awake, and an inhaler to help with the wheezing...but I figure if i am still sick, there's gotta be something else going on with me. I don't really ever get sick, I actually cant remember the last time i was sick - but when I do, it really grabs a hold of me and doesn't let go! I know sleep is probably the best medicine....yeah, OK - maybe in my next lifetime I will be able to get some of that..... :o)

All Systems Normal

Dane is back to normal!!!

He is back to eating us out of house and home (last night he had taco's....and LOVED the re fried beans!). His tummy is back to normal, and even though I am sure his ear is still hurting, he isn't pulling at it anymore.

Yay!!!!!!

___________


Cora and I both got our hair done yesterday (and NO Cindy, not by the same hairdresser!). I just got a trim and Cora got the works - bath (shampoo and conditioner), furminated (this brush that really works to get rid of hair) for 3 hours, nails trimmed, ears cleaned, and teeth brushed. She looks great!! Oh, and Chai got a bath too....at Le' Hartenstine Salon in the kitchen sink by master salonist Nicki....hee hee.