New Obsession

So, we've got a new obsession around this house! Don't worry, Clay is still obsessed with Sesame Street, but now he's added a new obsession... Monkeys! He's all of a sudden really started liking monkeys (he calls them "moneys"). I can't really blame him for the obsession because I've kind of been pushing it on him ever since I bought him his first Paul Frank monkey shirt. Now he's got 6 or 7 of them... as well as a Curious George shirt and wants to wear only his "money" shirts.

He LOVES to watch Curious George and he's got a couple of Curious George books that he insists we read to him before bed and naps. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he sticks with the monkey obsession up to his 2nd birthday... monkeys are something I can work with as far as planning his 2 year birthday party around!

Sesame Street has actually taken a back seat as far as the TV goes. He still yells for Elmo and Ernie when we get in the car... we've got a cd of songs I downloaded for him and there are a few Elmo and Ernie songs that he listens to over and OVER again. I'm about to throw the cd out the window!

I've been trying to get some pictures of him, but lately all I can get is either him in this pose:


Or him running away:


And this morning while I was getting his daycare bag ready, I came in and found him doing this:

He was lining all his Sesame Street books up all standing up and facing the same way. Poor child! With both parents being OCD, he doesn't have a prayer!

I'm hoping this week goes by fast! We are looking forward to Memorial Day weekend because we've got some friends and their boys coming to visit! We are going to have 5 boys ages 4 and under... I'm sure they are all going to be perfect angels! Have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday - This picture needs no words...

But make sure to scroll to the next post to see our Family Photo Shoot!!!!!

Family Photo Shoot - Finally!

You may remember me mentioning our Family Photo Shoot once or twice...

You know, the one that got rescheduled 3 or 4 times due to sickness, torentual downpours, freezing weather, and there was possibly tornadic activity somewhere in there.

These were supposed to be his one year pictures, and we ended up having them in mid-March, so they turned into his 18 month pictures. These were also our first official family pictures.

The weekend before our final scheduled time there were major storms so I was very worried what Monday would bring. We had decided to do a more rural setting, which turned out to be a BIG mistake. It was done in a field and the field was MUDDY! I was a little disheartened that a different location was not suggested since I was not familiar with the area we were shooting in, but that's all in the past! Even though we were sinking in the mud and had to change Clay out of his VERY muddy clothes when he fell down, they did manage to capture a few images that I love!

Now ya'll know I like to blog about things immediately, so it's been killing me to not be able to show the pictures from this session! I had to wait for them to blog about it before I could download the images from their post! They have been really busy and were finally able to post about our session just a little while ago. Here is their official blog post on our session: http://simplybloomphotography.com/blog/?p=3460

And here are a few of the ones I love!

I LOVE his eyes in this picture!

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The picture on the right is the family picture that will be hanging over the mantle!!

SimplyBloom Photography , LLC http://www.simplybloomphotography.com

This was almost the "family picture" but the one above beat it out due to originality. I did get this one as well, but it will go somewhere else.

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I don't think I got either of these, but they are cute and showing what he loves to do best (besides watch Sesame Street).

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Wow! I'm cheesing it up in this picture! There is a similar version of this where I'm looking at Clay that we ended up getting.

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Happy Tuesday!

Well, life has been a little crazy lately! Last week was especially crazy! Mark was out of town for the first half on business and then as he came home, I left for my annual customer conference. This year, like every year, I had to give a presentation! I do not like to speak in front of people! Actually... let me scratch that... I'm ok with speaking in front of people, it's the anxiety leading up to the presentation that freaks me out! Once I get started, I'm fine! Now the conference is behind me and I can concentrate on working on all the things I had put off to work on my presentation... which is a LOT!

Clay has not been mauled at daycare lately... thank goodness! I've noticed that the director has been spending a lot of time in his class on the floor playing with the kids - well, mainly making sure one little kid is behaving. Clay is just cracking me up lately! He's at a fun age where you don't know what is coming out of his mouth next! This morning he was all about his animal sounds. His whole breakfast he was going "Moo", "Baa", "Meeee" (that's his horse noise), "Woof Woof"... and then he'd throw in "Ah, Ah, Ah" which is what the Count on Sesame Street says. He about threw a fit because I wouldn't let him wear his monkey jacket to school since it was hot! I did give in and let him take it in the car with him. Tonight is Mexican night with Nan! Every time we pull into the restaurant parking lot he starts saying "Nan, Nan". Pretty much every time we go there we're meeting her, so he knows he gets to see her!

This past weekend we didn't do a whole lot... we tried to find me a bathing suit and that was NOT PRETTY! I'm just thankful for the couple of swimsuit cover ups that I have. It looks like they may be getting a lot of good use this summer. My friend did tell me today that she found some really cute ones at Belk's. I may have to venture there this weekend!

While I was trying on bathing suits in Target, Mark and Clay had to find something to do to pass the time...
I wish the quality of the picture was better because it's so cute, but it's a camera phone.

Other than that, our weekend was uneventful! Hope everyone has a great week!

20 Months Old!!

Amidst all the chaos of this past weekend (that will be another blog post) and the 2nd daycare attack, I haven't had the time to do Clay's 20 month post.

So... what has Clay been up to this past month??

Well, the ABSOLUTE BIGGEST THING he has done this month is FINALLY start calling me "MAMA"!!!!!!!!!!!! Before he was calling me "Elma" or "Oma" or sometimes even straight-up "Elmo", but now he is officially calling me Mama and I LOVE IT!!!

He's picking up new words at a crazy fast rate! A couple of weeks ago, I was laying on the floor and he lifted up my shirt and said "Belly". He also says "nose", "Oh no!", "car" and has picked up some other Sesame Street character's names.

We've discovered that he has a freakish photographic memory! We were at my parent's house this past weekend and they had a couple of episodes of Sesame Street recorded for him. He had watched one of them that morning and then we turned it on again later on. While we were sitting there, he kept saying "Ernie, Ernie" and I tried to tell him Ernie was not on there... not 5 seconds later Ernie was on! I just thought that was a fluke until he did again! The next segment had Elmo and he kept saying "Grover, Grover" and a few seconds later, Grover showed up!

And speaking of "freaky", the other day he was playing in my closet and when I came in to check on him, he had taken all of my shoes and lined them up along the bathtub. Now I wouldn't normally think this is freaky since he lines everything up, but this time he lined them up by pairs with the right and left shoe correct AND they were evenly spaced... EXACTLY even! I went to go get the camera but by the time I got back they were in the tub.

He's also been eating much better these days. He is now obsessed with Green Beans and would eat an entire can if I let him. (I'm sure he'll hate them in a few days.) He also loves these Soy Crisp things that my parents let him have... they are like Rice Cakes and he LOVES them! He still eats cheese, avocados, yogurt, any kind of fruit, Nutri-Grain bars, bacon, eggs, and any kind of cookie.

He loves his music cd I made for him a while back and knows which song is coming up next. He has certain parts of the song he likes to sing and will make his Sesame Street Collecta-pals dance to the music. And speaking of those little Sesame Street guys... he is now up to 7 of them! I think we've got every one but one (Snuffalupagus - he doesn't know who that is so we didn't get it for him). He's gotten better about not having to take all of them with him, but he likes to at least have 3 or 4 of them with him at all times.

He's also learned to count to 3... he REALLY likes the number 2 and sometimes just says that number when counting. He's also learning his colors. I can ask him to get me the orange ball and he'll bring one to me. He also knows purple, yellow and blue.

Seriously... I could just eat my child up! He is at such a fun age and just does some of the cutest things! My heart melts every time he says "Mama" and I love it when he plays with my hair. He is such a sweet child and wouldn't hurt a fly. I look at him now and do not see any baby in him... he's a big boy now and it makes me sad! Where is the time going?!?!

Be Careful What You Wish For!

The last couple of weeks I've been wishing for something interesting to happen so I'd have something to blog about. Well, something did happen, but it's not something I'm happy to blog about! In fact, I'm down-right upset to the point that I'm nauseous! I'm trying to be the bigger person and hold it in... especially since I do not want Clay to see me upset, but it's VERY difficult.

You've probably read my post about the child who mauled my child a couple of weeks ago and scratched the crap out of his face. Well... that same child has struck again! I went to daycare today to pick Clay up and when I walked in, I saw something on his face. As I got closer, I could feel my face getting hot... on my child's face was a perfect imprint of a set of teeth. That child has now bit my son! The teachers have let me know that Clay was (again) sitting on the floor reading a book when the other child decided that she wanted it. There was a small struggle that ended with the other child biting my son!

This child has PROBLEMS! When I dropped Clay off this morning she was already sitting in the time-out chair facing the wall... and she hadn't even been there but for half an hour! I'm getting really frustrated with what to do with this situation. The daycare can't really do anything but tell the parents, watch the child and intervene when she tries to do it again. They do have a policy that if a child bites a certain amount of times they get sent home and have to stay home a while... but that doesn't solve the problem. My child would be thrilled if he got sent home to stay with Mama all day! The child is obviously learning the aggression somewhere and now she is teaching my son. My son has never bit anyone... I don't even think he knows how to bite another person, but he's learning it from her!

I'm going to continue to let the daycare handle it, but if it happens again... I will ask to speak to the parents. I just only hope that the parents have seen what their child has done to Clay and I hope that they are making changes at home to help this child learn that agression, scratching and biting are not appropriate behavior!

And of course I had to take a picture...

This picture doesn't do it justice... It straight-up is a perfect imprint of the child's teeth.

It's Wednesday...

And what a boring life I lead! Let's see... I've been working... and working... and more working! I did meet a couple of friends for lunch today and celebrated Cinco De Mayo at one of our local Mexican restaurants.

Hmmm... what else? I'm making Broiled Parmesan Tilapia for dinner tonight. Yum!

I've also discovered a milk that I like (I typically HATE milk!)... it's that Silk Almond Milk. Pretty yummy on Special K Granola. And speaking of Special K, they are buy one get one at Publix starting today! Time to stock up!

Clay is now only eating the following sources of protein: cheese (has to be cubed), fish sticks and bacon. Chicken nuggets and pizza have been removed from the menu. I'm about to implement the "you eat what we're eating or you'll go hungry" policy. Should go over real well!

Clay has not been attacked lately at school - or at least attacked to where marks were left on him. I have been growing his finger nails out so that he can fight back (that's not really true - wink, wink).

Sometimes I find it fun to go through "bad" pictures and see if I can make them interesting by cropping. This one cracks me up:
We were trying to get a decent family pic on Easter and Clay was having no part of it! The look on his face is like "GET ME OUTTA HERE!".

I'm going to visit my work peeps tomorrow and we're eating at a place called OT's. Supposedly they have great shrimp Po Boys... gotta eat that shrimp while you can... before the oil gets them!

And that's about all I got for ya... This may go down as my worst post EVER! (That last sentence was for you, Mark - aka Blog Critic.)

I Got Nothing!

You know it's bad when you are wishing that something interesting would happen to you so that you can have a good blog post.

But... I got nothing!

I do have a great update about my cousin!

Last week it got bad! They had moved him to ICU and then had to intubate him because he was not getting enough oxygen. He had pneumonia and they had to biopsy his lungs to see what kind he had to determine their next course of action. During all of this, he went into renal failure and they ended up having to do dialysis. He has also been on steroids and antibiotics through all of this. I couldn't imagine having to lay there with a tube down my throat helping me breathe... I also can't imagine what his wife was going through when all she could do was sit on the couch in the room with him! She would occasionally grab his hand and he'd squeeze it and he would nod if she asked him if he knew who she was. That was about it for a week!

Then he started improving and they were able to take him off of the vent this past Friday!! And now I've just learned that he has been moved out of ICU and back to a regular room!!!! This turn-around is truly a miracle!!! Please continue to pray for Jay and his family! He's still got a long road ahead of him!!

And in other news... I am now considered "NORMAL" according to the Wii Fit (but not according to my husband)!! Basically what that means is that I'm within a normal range for my BMI. I've now lost a total of 6 pounds over the last 6 weeks!! Week 7 of the Couch to 5K is nothing but running! I've got to run for 25 minutes!!! Last week's runs ended with a 20 minute run and I was very proud (and surprised) that I managed to do it! Only 2 more weeks and then I'm up to running the full 30 minutes! I'll have to find me a 5K to run!

And that's about all I can come up with! Maybe something interesting happened at Clay's daycare today... but I doubt it! Have a great week!

UPDATE: I thought of something!!! I did FABULOUS with my shopping at Publix this past weekend! I think it was my best EVER!! I spent $47 and saved$75... that's a 62% savings!! I got a ton of stuff so now I'm trying to decrease my shopping budget by $200 this month since I'm pretty stocked up! This budget includes everything as far as food, personal items, cleaning items, and baby stuff (diapers - yikes!) so it's going to be tough!