What's Your Name?

Winter Reprieve

We spent most of our Saturday doing necessary chores...errands, hair appointment, laundry, dishes...and tried to do some grocery shopping. Grocery shopping is an event for me. I do a big shopping trip every two weeks and then try to only go once in between to get a few fresh things. This plan saves me time and money. The less I'm in Walmart, the better for our budget. And for those of you that aren't from around here, Walmart is the only place to shop. I also drive to Fulton, KY which is 15 minutes north so I don't have to pay sales tax. As I said, it's an event.

Whenever possible, I con Darrin into going with me. Today, I spent over an hour organizing coupons and typing my grocery list b/c that's what I do. I type it in the order of the store. Don't judge, it's just who I am. We loaded Miles up and drove to Fulton. We got about half way through the list and the power went out. We didn't think much of it and just kept shopping. It's Walmart, of course it won't be out long.

As time passed I started to get a little nervous. Then they started announcing that you only had 10 minutes to check out before the registers would lose power. We were not going to be finished in 10 minutes so we decided to continue and hope for the best. About that time the manager walked by. I asked if he had any idea how long it would be and he said he couldn't get in touch with the electric company. Not a good sign. We decided to try to check out with what we had. We made our way up front and starting checking out. The register quit mid way through. So we piled the bagged groceries back up on the check out and left. I was so frustrated after all the time with the coupons, the list, the driving, the shopping....ugh.

Driving home we decided to go to the park so Miles could see the ducks. It was so pretty outside and he really needed to stretch his legs outside after being couped up all winter.






It was the perfect place to go after a frustrating shopping trip. He loved it, so of course we did too.

Little Helper

Miles has become quite the little helper. He likes to help unload the dishwasher...

He also likes to help put clothes in the dryer...

He even helped my mom snap green beans the other day. We've found that if you give him a job, he is actually quite helpful. If you don't include him, he will include himself and really make a mess of things. Doing chores with a one year will test your patience b/c everything takes 3 times longer. It's worth it to have such a cute assistant.

Sickly

We can't seem to keep Miles healthy. Poor kiddo was sick last week...he got better for a few days...and then woke up with a fever on Friday morning. Luckily my mom was in town so he stayed home with her. Daycare was closed for snow anyway. When he woke up on Saturday morning it seemed that he had gotten worse....definitely time for a doctor's visit.


I took him to the walk-in clinic close to our house. When i walked in, I bet there were 20 people already there (even though they'd only been open for 10 minutes). Shortly after we arrived I realized that there were no diapers in his diaper bag. Darrin & I are terrible at packing a bag. Seriously terrible. I thought to myself...surely I won't need one since he's already had a dirty diaper this morning. Yeah right, of course I needed one. Nice.

We were called back surprisingly fast. I'm not sure how I passed the other 18 people that were already there, but I didn't ask any questions. Maybe they wanted to get Miles & his stinky diaper out of there. His flu test was negative. His lungs & ears were fine. Just a sinus infection. We were sent home with several prescriptions. Hoping they work quickly and that he can go back to daycare on Monday. I don't want to share germs, but mommy & daddy really need to work.

Since it's midnight and I still have a little blogging left in me, here are some random thoughts:
1) My headaches have been terrible lately. I have phone conference with my doctor on Tuesday. I'm going to ask to switch to antibiotics. I originally chose a homeopathic treatment b/c my body doesn't always tolerate antibiotics that well. At this point, that is the lesser of two evils.
2) Miles was 17 months yesterday. That seems unbelievable. We love him more every day.
3) Darrin & I are completely addicted to Monopoly on the xBOX. I beat him 2 out of 3 times which just makes it that much more fun.
4) I am really excited about the football games tomorrow. I worked around the house a lot today so that tomorrow could be devoted to football. Go Packers! If the Packers lose tomorrow, I could care less who wins the Superbowl.
5) I found a blog that offers free fonts. Very cute & very easy to install. I was like a kid in a candy store.
6) I spent a ton of time on my blog design tonight. I wanted a design that doesn't change with the seasons, and that doesn't have a picture in the header. Those two things just create too much work b/c you constantly have to change the background and update the picture. If you blog, you know what I mean. If you don't, trust me, blogging is a serious time commitment. Sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's a chore. I want to do a few other little things to the design and then I'm going to stick to just posting and leaving everything else the same.

Time for me to call it a night. I'm sleepy, and tired of sitting in front of the computer. Good night all.

Ya Ya's Island

We decided to do something fun with Miles on our day off, so we took him to Ya Ya's Island in Paducah. We'd never been. I was a little concerned that he would be too little and that there wouldn't be much for him to do. False. In my opinion, there was actually more for little kids to do than bigger kids.

His face lit up when we walked in. He couldn't see all of the play areas but you could hear the kids and the sounds from the games. He was a little apprehensive for the first five minutes and then he was all over the place. His cousins, Olivia and Ava, came to play too.

Can't beat that smile. As a parent, seeing that is pure joy.

This is the small bouncy for the little kids. There is a big one for the older kids. It was wild in there. I saw lots of ER visits in the making.


This picture shows a little more of the whole place, but it's still hard to capture.

Hmmm, I wonder what I should do next...





No fear...


Being short has it's advantages...


Olivia was a great helper. She was so cute...even helping other little kids that she didn't know.

Ava, on the other hand, was busy. She had things to do, which is totally understandable for a four year old.


Taking a break...maybe getting a little hungry and tired...



Darrin decided to play a game so Miles could roll the balls. Darrin let the little boy on the far left roll one ball per my persuasion. That lead to both of the stranger boys getting a little aggressive & trying to take the balls & play. At one point I heard Darrin say "get out of here" under his breath. Very funny. Consequently, Miles loved the little boys hanging around.




One of his highlights was probably the Sprite at the end. That was a first. He was either really thirsty or really liked it.

I didn't get any pictures but they also had a big aquarium and other animals like birds, iguanas, and a snake...ewww. He really liked the animals. We lasted about an hour and a half. He could have played longer but we had errands to run. We thought he might throw a fit when we left but he didn't. He was such a good boy all day. He loved it. A return trip in definitely in the plans.

Dance Machine

I don't like to post a lot of videos b/c when I print this blog out into a book one day I don't know what the empty space for the videos will look like. However, it's so hard to get a cute picture of Miles these days b/c he is so active. Darrin captured this video while home with him over the last 2.5 days. He loves music and has some impressive dance moves.

When I woke him up on Wednesday his cheeks were flushed. He seemed like he had a slight fever but it was questionable b/c we use the kind of thermometer that scans across his forehead. It never tells you the same thing twice. He wore some super warm pjs to bed so I chalked it up to the pjs...gave him some Tylenol for good measure...and took him to daycare.

Darrin ended up having to go get him around 1pm after he woke up from him nap. He's had pretty much a constant fever since then. We are alternately Tylenol & Motrin. He has a little bit of a cold, and is fussy at times, but for the most part he seems to be ok. He's playing, eating and sleeping pretty well. We did a have a rough night on Thursday. I can count nights like that on one hand (thank goodness). I think the Lord knows that I'm not a nice person without sleep.

He woke up with fever again this morning. Looks like another day at home. We had fun plans to watch the football game with friends tonight. Darrin is going to go while I stay here and take care of Miles. Darrin definitely deserves to get out of the house! Hope everyone has a great, long weekend! And....go Packers!

We Have a Climber

We left the room for a couple minutes and came back to this. He was perfectly content to play while sitting in the middle of all the pieces.

How Do We Look?

I was reading a book to Miles tonight and noticed that we made a fine pair. Let me explain. First, this is pretty typical for me so no explanation needed there. Miles, on the other hand always (ok almost always) matches.

After his bath, we dressed him in his short sleeved dinosaur pjs and his blue slippers to keep his toes warm. Later, I decided that he should probably have long sleeves on to sleep in.

I was changing his diaper and his pjs when chaos ensued. Miles has become quite a handful lately. In my opinion, he's still very good but he is throwing more fits and becoming more defiant. I've mentioned before that Darrin & I agreed to not spank Miles. I wanted to try other methods of discipline first. I'm backing up a little bit on this. The problem is, at this age, I can't figure out how to get his attention....so, I've started yelling. How can that be better? We've always had a calm and peaceful house and now I'm screaming all the time.....and it doesn't even work.

So, I was changing his diaper and he was trying to hit me and climb off the table so I spanked his leg. He instantly became still and his bottom lip pouted out....then came the tears. Instead of trying to change his pants, I was content that he had on long sleeves and long pants. I put him down from the changing table and he stood at my leg and cried. After a sufficient amount of time had passed, we hugged and I carried him to the couch to read a book.

I've been thinking about this for a few days, so this wasn't a spur of the moment decision. I still don't envision us spanking our kids with a belt when they're five, but this might have to be the plan for now.

Good Night, Sleep Tight

Is there anything cuter than a sleeping baby?



Yes, he often sleeps with a pillow of himself. It was a Father's Day present that somehow ended up in his crib. He thinks it's hilarious. I'm not sure what we are teaching him.

Stop #4...Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas morning at my mom's house with my mom, my brother, Jeff, his wife, Jeree, and their two kids, Ben & Anna. The kids slept in until 7:30am, so the adults had a little time to get up and get situated before the madness.

Miles had a few gifts from us...some wrapped, some not....a stocking filled with things like batteries, bubble bath, Tylenol, finger puppets, and socks (I thought I'd buys some necessities while he's still too young to notice)....and a remote control train from Santa. I was proud that we didn't overdo it this year b/c he just doesn't care yet. I did learn a valuable lesson. Next year, I will take the toys out of the boxes and then wrap them. It took me forever to untie all the wire ties and cut the plastic zip ties. I'd prefer not to waste half of Christmas Day on this ever again.

Here is the remote control train that Darrin and I have grown to dislike immensely. The train is possessed. It randomly makes noises and moves on it's own. We thought it might be on the same frequency as the neighbor's garage door opener...not so. It even moves when it's turned off. And, there's no volume control, only loud.



He doesn't really care about the controller, but he does like to push the buttons on the side.

Miles didn't feel good when he woke up. We thought he might be getting sick.

After some Tylenol and some milk, he was fine.

Miles is already enamored by Ben's electronics, and Ben is kind enough to share.


After all the gifts he received, he kept asking for a wooden duck that has been around since I was a kid. Here he is kissing the duck....

My mom has a Thomas the Train table at her house. We thought he would be too young for it for a while. No way...the kid L-O-V-E-D it. It was in her bonus room. The plan was to go up every now and then to play. After going up Christmas morning, we had to move it to her sun room, which is where his play area is. He had a complete melt down at the mere mention of going downstairs without the train table. He played and played and played with it.

It was a white Christmas. We didn't play in the snow but we did go out long enough to get some good pictures.




Hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas!