Baby's 1st Panera

Henry had his first Panera the other night.  Broccoli Cheddar soup.  

We are working on our utensil skills.  I know he's a little early to expect to use utensils still, but it can't hurt to just let him hold onto a spoon every once in a while.  If nothing else, it helps buy us a few extra minutes at dinnertime.  

I think it's clear that he liked it.  Not the peas so much.  My rationale for the sodium filled soup... at least he was eating broccoli.  That counts as a vegetable, right?

My "Mother of the Year" award is in the mail, I'm just sure of it.

Jiggle Free July

By the time Phil and I got engaged (back in 2009), we had both put on what my mom calls "happy weight."  Depending on the day, it was about 15 pounds.  It wasn't cute.  And I didn't want to go wedding dress shopping for a dress that size.  I decided it was time to trim down.

I started by training for a half-marathon  And I completed it.  Not exactly in the best time, but whatever.  13.1 miles is 13.1 miles.  Then we joined a gym and I started taking some classes, did a TON of cardio, tracked my calories in versus calories out, etc.  And I did see results.  I lost about 17 lbs and got down to my lowest post-college weight.

But the results were no where near what my calorie tracking said it should be.  I was burning enough to lose between 1/2 to 1 pound a week and would be lucky if I lost that much in a month.  It was super frustrating, to say the least.

Come my wedding day, my dress (which since I was between sizes, they ordered DOWN a size) was almost too big.  I felt beautiful and LOVE all of my wedding pictures.

Mission accomplished.

But then the newlywed weight came a little.  And then when we started trying to get pregnant, I quit restricting my calories and exercising as strenuously.  And the thyroid cancer made a few pounds pack on.  Pregnancy was obviously a big time for weight gain time for me.

Thankfully, the pregnancy weight is gone and I'm almost back down to my wedding weight.  Since I have an artificial metabolism, I know that controlling my weight isn't going to be all that easy.  And I just don't have the time or energy to track my calories or work out like I did before my wedding.  Plus it didn't work all that well.

Somehow, I stumbled upon a workout schedule for July called "Jiggle Free July".

To be honest, it looked downright impossible.  60 burpees?  Yeah right.  But I thought I would give it a go.

Well, I got sick during the second week of July, so I missed a few days there.  And then I just got sick again, so that was a few more days missed.  While I have been doing the lunges, squats, russian twists, push-ups, and sit-ups, I have completely skipped the burpees.

Have you done a burpee?  They suck.

Anyway...

It's working!!!  I have abs again.  And I can do so many more push-ups than I used to be able to do.  I think I might actually be smaller than I was before my wedding, giving proof to the theory that it isn't the number on the scale that matters.

Since I have kind of cheated my way through this month, I have decided that next month, I am going to start over and try and do the whole month according to the calendar.

Jiggle free August doesn't roll off the tongue kind of like "Jiggle Free July".  I don't care what you call it as long as it firms things up.

Care to join me in "Jiggle Free August"?  We can get a support group going.  :)

Beach and a Boat

Well, my blogger streak has been broken.  And do you know who we can thank for that?

Red Robin.

We went there for dinner yesterday after a very frustrating Henry day.  I mean, the guy is a pretty good baby most of the time so I knew we had it coming.  It didn't make the day any easier though.  So we had dinner at Red Robin where the food wasn't great, the service was awful, Henry was in a terrible mood and Phil and I ended up with food poisoning.

Awesome.

Needless to say we won't be going to Red Robin for a LONG time.

This is the second time we have had food poisoning like a month.  Not cool.

Definitely not the diet plan I had in mind.

But we did have a nice Saturday.  So let's focus on that.

We headed to the beach and then my sister-in-law's family's beach house for the day.  This wasn't the first time Henry had been to the beach.  He went on our family camping trip last August at the ripe age of 3 months old.

But when re-introduced to the sand, it was like he had totally forgotten it.  It took a while, but he finally got used to it.  And then there was no stopping him.  There was sand in his diaper, his hair, his ears.  He had fun.

And the weather was absolutely unreal.  I mean, we never get this kind of weather at the Oregon coast.  To put it in perspective, I waited 20 minutes to put sunscreen on and my neck got totally fried. It made me mad.  I HATE getting sunburns.

Anyway... Henry's reintroduction to the beach also happened the day of Henry's first boat ride.

He loved it.  Every time the boat hit a bump, he got a huge smile on his face.  He's going to be an adventure seeking, I can just tell.  The kid loves to be startled and surprised.

This is not a wonderfully written post.  Forgive me.  I'm still not 100%.  I hate throwing up.  Hopefully I'll be back on my game tomorrow.

Stay away from food poisoning!

5 Things Friday

Blogging for 5 straight days!  Dare we say Stella has her groove back?  I probably shouldn't jinx it.  Here's another mix of randoms for this fine, fine week.


1.  When I dropped Henry off at daycare this morning, he was seated at the table next to his buddy, Blake.  Blake and Henry are just a month apart and have been good friends from the beginning.  Normally, Henry needs his food in the morning right away at daycare or he starts freaking out.  But this morning, he and Blake looked at each other and started pounding their hands on the table in perfect unison.  And it's times like that that help ease my mommy guilt for leaving him with someone else during the day.  He's building relationships (and an immune system) and that makes me feel better.


2.  I was checking over my blog stats the other day and noticed that one of my most read blog posts ever is the one about my Baby Weight.  And really all this proves to me is that everyone loves a train wreck.  Just kidding.  Not really.  But when bloggers do the weekly updates while they are pregnant and they put their weight gain, I look with fascination and then curse them under their breath when they say "I'm half way through and have only gained 6 pounds."  REALLY?!?!  How is that even possible?  There's probably an extra 6 pounds in your bra!  I'll be the first to admit I'm just jealous.  :)


3.  If you don't follow me on instagram, you probably haven't seen this picture:

He was starting to get grumpy and it was almost bath time, so I just took off all his cloths.  Is there anything cuter than a baby in just a diaper?  And the nice thing about him being a small giant is that the cloth diapers aren't super huge on him anymore.

4.  Along those same lines, what am I going to do if Henry stays on his growth pattern?  The kid is not fat.  He is perfectly proportioned in height vs. weight.  But he weighs about 30 lbs and the diapers are only good until 35.  I'm sure walking will slow his weight gain a little, but I may have to upgrade to the training pants WAY before he is ready to potty train.  Does anyone have any experience with this?

5.  I went to a meeting the other morning and as the most important person in the meeting walked in and shook everyone's hand, he said, "I think I am going to go home after this.  I'm not feeling too well."

...

Thanks for shaking my hand.  Where's the antibacterial?  Maybe in the future we can wave or fist bump when we start a meeting?

Stay healthy!!

Gallery Wall Pictures

I debuted the gallery wall in yesterday's post and I have to say, I'm still loving it.  Although all the effort it took to get it done resulted in me doing NOTHING last night.

That's not totally true... I made lasagna.  So I did something.  And I watched Frozen.

Super productive.

Anyway, I realized that the picture of the gallery didn't show off the pictures we chose to put up.  And some of them are just too good to keep to myself.

{From the day we took pictures of Henry in the snow}

{Engagement picture making out in a waterfall by Kelly Miller Photography}

{Helicopter ride in Hawaii during our honeymoon}

{Taken on a hike at Silver Falls}

{Maternity picture by Annie Groves Photography}

{Maternity picture by Annie Groves Photography.  She's so amazing.  

Made me look great when I was huge.  That's talent}

{Taken using Ed's camera during Thanksgiving}

{I love love LOVE this picture and will probably treasure it forever}

{Newborn picture by Annie Groves Photography}

{Annie Groves Photography.  She moved to Hawaii and 

I'm contemplating a trip just so we can get some awesome family pictures done}

{Annie Groves Photography}

{From fishing at the Beach.  I was on the LID diet, waiting to have follow-up scans done and pretty scared.  But everything turned out great and the extra scan actually gave me HUGE peace of mind}

So there you go.  A small collection of some of my favorite pictures.  There are so many more I could have picked, but the good thing is that now that the frames are up it will be pretty easy to switch pictures in the future.

Ok I will stop patting my own back about hanging up pictures.

Gallery Wall

I haven't posted many (if any) pictures of our new house on the blog and we have lived there for over 2 months now.  I have been hesitant to share because we aren't totally settled yet.  There are no pictures on the wall.  We still have some boxes that have been unpacked.  And the landscaping needs some serious TLC.

Phil and I weren't in a huge hurry to buy a house before he finished his PhD because we didn't want anything to distract him from his work.  The next big life goal has been for Phil to finish graduate school and we didn't want to lose sight of that.  So when we bought the house, we agreed that there would be minimal (if any) projects for Phil to do until he was finished.

Do you know how hard that is?  We love our house the way it is, but we also want to make it our own.  A graduate school income and little time make that super challenging.  And I didn't really want to share pictures until it was all done.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist.  Shocking, I know.

But then I realized the before and after concept was a whole lot of blog material.  So it is silly of me to not capitalize on the blog posts, amiright?

So here it is... the first new house before and after post.

We have some nice, high ceilings in our great room and I really wanted to do a gallery wall using different size picture frames.  Plus the previous owners had left some anchors in the wall and rather than fill those in and paint them and run the risk of the paint color not exactly matching, I thought it would be better to just cover the anchors until we decide to paint the room again.

{Please ignore Henry's hat and the Mountain Dew can}

We received A TON of picture frames when we got married.  And then the Christmas after that, my cousin gave me like a dozen more picture frames (they are my absolute favorite, by the way Lindsay!).  So we already had the materials needed to stay on a budget (hooray for the one income family!).

The first step was picking out some pictures.  I knew I wanted a variety of pictures, some of us and some without people, and a mix of black and white.  I picked out several from our wedding, a couple from our honeymoon, some pictures I had taken over the years, a picture from our engagement pictures, a few from our maternity session, a few from Henry's newborn session, and a couple of Henry.  They were all electronic files, so the next step was figuring out what size I would need for each picture.  That meant laying out the frames.

It took several iterations, but I finally got a layout I like.  It felt like a good mix and not too cookie-cutter.  I didn't want it to be symmetric, but I also didn't want it to be cluttered.  Phil and I figured out what picture we wanted where and then ordered the prints.  We ordered them from Wal-Mart and I really liked how they turned out.  Much better than the prints I have gotten from Costco.

The next stage was to actually hang them on the wall.  Do you ever look at a project and go, "Where do I start?"  That's kind of how I felt.  I tried an intermediate step of hanging similar size pieces of paper on the wall.

I started with measuring down from the ceiling at a level that would cover the anchors.  This helped me get the outside parameters of the pictures figured out.  I also chose to use painters tape for the most part instead of pencil on the wall.  It helped me to visualize things a little better.

I started at the top and went down the sides, using painter's tape to get my nail placement just right.  I put a piece of tape along the top of the frame and then tape down to the hanger and punctured a hole where the nail would go.  Then I peeled the tape off the frame, made sure it was level and it the right spot and then put in my nails.  I can't believe I didn't take a picture of this part.  That was dumb.

I worked my way around the edges and then did the middle frames last, making sure I had the spacing correct.

Three and a half hours later, we had a finished product.

I have to say, it isn't perfect but I LOVE IT!!  And all of the anchor holes got covered!

If I were to do this over again, I might go through the process a little differently.  I know there are several different ways to hang a gallery wall, but they require a lot more prep and I really just wanted to get it done.  I ended up only needing to move 1 nail in the entire process, which I think is really good, considering there are like 16 frames on the wall.

The nice thing is that now that the frames are up, it will be VERY easy to change out the pictures.  I want to do something similar to this on our staircase, but I need some time to recover from this process.  And I need a couple more picture frames!  (I can't believe I just said that!)

And he's off!!!

Please ignore my annoying voice in the video.

But we have a walker!!

Walking! from Natalie Janney on Vimeo.

This happened last Sunday (the 13th).  What's funny is that he was more than capable of walking for at least the last month.   Probably longer.  But he just wouldn't do it.  Maybe a couple of steps here and there.  But for the most part, he wanted to crawl.

Frankly, I needed him to be able to walk.  The dude weighs about 30 lbs and my lower back is basically in constant agony from picking him up.  Not to be dramatic or anything.

I know some people have told me that once he starts walking, all we will be doing is chasing him.  But honestly that kind of started when he started crawling.  And I'm ready for his hands to get off the ground.  Plus I could use the extra cardio.  :) 

You win some...

I figured the first post of the week had better be about Cotton's dog show, because I know everyone is waiting with baited breath.

The first show was Friday night.  It was a specialty show, done by the Oregon Brittany Club.  Even though Cotton wasn't the best behaved, he still did really well.  Just not good enough.

He basically got second place.  Or as we like to call it, "First loser".

As Ricky Bobby says:

Just kidding.  Here's how he he took it:

{Pouting like a baby while the Best of Breed was being chosen.  

And I'm not even kidding.  He climbed up in Phil's lap and cuddled like that.}

But in reality, it is his own fault.  It's like he didn't know how to run properly on the show lead.

So Saturday, we arrived nice and early to make sure he had plenty of time to get out his excitement and run around on the lead.  But we had a judge that likes smaller dogs, and a puppy won over Cotton.  We weren't thrilled.

I showed Cotton to that judge when we first started showing Cotton, and he was a jerk to me.

Basically we won't be going to shows judged by him anymore.

Henry had a blast at the show.

He loves the Brittany ladies.  And he loves our breeder's dogs.  Seriously, he doesn't do it to other dogs in crates.  Just Cotton's litter mates.

{Man-pris and TOMS.  He's too cute}

Playing with dogs can be exhausting though.

It was definitely disappointing to not get anymore points for Cotton.  But that's how it goes.  You can't win them all.  And it was still a fun outing and great to see the show dog people.  They are seriously the nicest group of people.

There's a show nearby at the end of September and I think I might try showing Cotton at that one.  We will see.  I have a couple of weeks left to decide.

I find it interesting that my competitive spirit has branched out to dog shows as well.  I see the professional handlers in the ring and think "I can do that."  Apparently I can't.  But maybe that's why they are professionals... they make it look so easy.

Oh well... I guess I will just keep practicing.  Cotton and I will get it down eventually.  :)

5 Things Friday

Oh Friday...  You are my favorite.  Honestly, Friday evenings are my favorite part of the week.  I think it stems back to my childhood.  Every other Friday night, when my siblings were with their other parents, my parents would take me out to dinner and then we would maybe go to a movie or go home and I'd spend the next 2 hours enjoying TGIF without my brothers or sister bugging me.

For some reason, I also remember doing puzzles while watching TGIF.  I don't know.  Specifically, this one:

{Found HERE}

This evening, we will be at a dog show.  It's pretty much the last one we will do until later this year, so we are hoping Cotton gets some points.

In honor of my love for Fridays, here's this week's 5 random things.


1.  I finally started going back to spin class.  I went to my first class two weeks ago and was thrilled that I didn't die.  It was my first time at a spin class since Labor Day 2012.  I knew it would be painful and it did not disappoint.  So when my coworker/friend asked me to go to a class last weekend, I said, "SURE!"  It was her first class in a while too, so I figured we could be in pain together.

About halfway through the class, I can feel that my face is matching my bright pink workout shirt.  Huffing and puffing, I glance over at my friend, thinking she will also reflect the physical agony I was experiencing.

Nope.

She barely looks like she has been exhorting herself, aside from a tiny bit of sweat at her temples.

Oh well... at least I survived again.  And my fingers are crossed that in the next couple of classes or so, my butt will adjust to the bike seat.  Ouch.



2.  I made tilapia for dinner last night because it was something I knew Henry would eat.  Boy loves his fish.  I felt confident he would easily eat an entire filet like he did last week.

Nope.

Wanted nothing to do with it.  He would, however, eat the pasta I made last week that he wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

Keeping me on my toes, that's for sure.



3.  In case you were wondering what Cotton thinks about getting his hair blown dry, I think it is pretty clear:

He was thrilled.  As always.

He really needs to win some points this weekend because I am a little tired of blow drying my dog.



4.  It is really hard to be a baby.  It's also really hard to go bra shopping with your mom.  At least Henry thinks so.

He stayed asleep as I took him out of his carseat, brought him inside, and put him on the floor.  Then he slept for another 15 minutes while I got his dinner ready.  Poor baby.



5.  You know I like to talk about my underwear (see HERE and HERE).  The topic of underwear came up the other day with a friend and she mentioned that she wanted to get a set of panties all black that could be worn during a certain time of the month.  I thought that was brilliant!  Honestly, I wear black pants or jeans almost always anyway, so black panties would really be appropriate.  I stole the idea and bought a set of black underwear while Henry and I were bra shopping.  When I told the sales clerk the black pantie idea, she thought it was brilliant  I'm thinking it will be the next big thing.

Not that I didn't have black underwear already.  It just happens to say, "GIMME YOUR CANDY" across the butt.  No joke.

Obviously I'm a professional barber

Let's talk about the Dude's hair for a second:

It was out of control.

Phil, my dad, and Phil's dad all have full heads of hair (I hope I didn't just jinx that for anyone).  I actually found out after Phil's dad passed away that he was actually really proud of his hair.  I think that's funny because I never would have thought of him being proud of his looks.  I think it's cute.

It looks like Henry inherited the luscious locks of his forefathers.  But the mane needed to be tamed.

I found a children's salon in town, but they have pretty much the worst hours EVER!  They are open from like 10-5 Wednesday through Saturday by appointment only or something like that.  I just couldn't make it work.  And our Saturdays are full for the foreseeable future.

I knew I needed to take matters into my own hands.

I mean, I've cut the dog's hair.  I've cut my own bangs.  When I was little, I cut the hair off my dolls.  How hard could it be cutting a little person who moves constantly and tries to grab the scissors every time they come close to his head?

Piece of cake, I'm sure.

Worst case scenario, I would be frantically calling my sister-in-law so she could buzz off all his hair.

When I mentioned it to Phil, he got a little terrified look on his face.  But at the same time, he knows that when I say I want to do something, that means I have thought about it immensely and it is happening.

So it happened.  I told Phil to take pictures of the process and he proceeded to take 11 of the most unflattering pictures of me imaginable.  NOT good for the self-esteem.

Drum roll for the finished product?

.

.

.

Thanks to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and cheerios (and my excellent barbering skills), it turned out ok.

Phil pointed out that the hair above one ear was higher on one side than the other.  I pointed out that Henry's ear didn't get cut, he never once got a hold of the scissors and he doesn't look like a fool.  Plus I saved like $30.

We'll call it a win.

A Quick Bite

This working mom stuff is tough.  One of the hardest parts... dinner time.

I work until 5, then rush to pick up Henry from daycare.  By the time I get his things gathered up, give him some snuggles, and get him in the car, it is 5:30.  Then it is another 15 minutes until we are home.

5:45

And what time does Henry go to sleep?  Maybe 8.  Lately, it is more like 7:45.  And in that 2 hours, we have to make dinner, eat, feed Henry, do a bath, play, snuggle, and put him to bed.  I feel like the evenings are a race.  It is a test to see if I can get everything done before he melts down.  Ever tried to feed a sleepy baby?  We just end up with food ALL OVER, rubbed into the eyelashes, smeared into his hair, etc.

I completely understand why some people either wait to eat until after the baby goes to sleep OR end up eating out/processed foods.  It is HARD to make things from scratch in a hurry.

But I am getting better at it.  And the main thing I have been trying to do is keep it simple.

-  Ham (already fully cooked, just warmed up), with mashed potatoes and peas

-  Baked skin-less bone-less chicken thigh filets (so easy, juicy, and almost impossible to make up) with ranch potatoes and green beans

-  Grilled pork chops with cheesy rice and any vegetable

Sometimes I will make things ahead of time on the weekend and then just pop them in the oven during the work week.  Tuna Noodle Casserole is perfect for that.  Shepard's Pie is another favorite in our house.

And never discount crock-pot meals.

Unfortunately, Phil is getting tired of the old standbys.  I kind of am too.

Do you have any good, quick recipes?

Blogging is like Exercise

Just like exercise, it is easy to fall out of the habit of blogging regularly.

I tried not that long ago to get back into the groove of blogging regularly, but I couldn't make it stick. And just like exercising, I could come up with a boat-load of reasons excuses.  I don't need to go into those (again) because just like exercising, it all boils down to one thing...

Laziness

Or just a change in priorities.

I can't tell you how many times I have not blogged one night because I was already upstairs and my computer was downstairs.  Or vice versa.  I mean, that's pretty much the height of laziness.

It's all so frustrating.  You work hard.  You get into a groove.  And you get out what you put into it.  Followers.  Relationships.  Comments.  I put in the effort and it showed.

And then I stepped away and people stopped reading (the nerve!) and some followers unfollowed (I hate that!).  The truth is, I really shouldn't care.  But I do.  Because I put in the work to this.  And I'm not done blogging yet.

I'm not the only blogger this happens to.  There were several bloggers who had babies (mostly baby boys) right around the same time that Henry was born.  It was so cool to read how they were getting ready for their babes and how the babies were doing.  But I understand how why it happens.

Like so many things, life changes after a baby is born.  It took me a while to start feeling like myself after Henry was born.  But I can't use that as an excuse anymore.

So I have two choices... I can half-ass blogging until I get disillusioned and give up.  Or I can buck up and stop being lazy about something I want to do.

Henry says, "Blog it, Mom!"

It may be slow and painful, but I am hoping to get back at it.

5 Things Friday

A short list of randoms for this wonderful Friday afternoon!  Let's get started, shall we?


1.  Well Phil may have had food poisoning or a stomach virus, but upon further review I don't think it's the same thing I had.  Because my stomach STILL hurts.  Days later.  Like a super dull ache.  I've had it before.  As it turns out, I inherited from my father his wonderful blue eyes, zest for math, and an awful stomach.  I started having problems with it in grad school and it sneaks up every once in a while.  Right when Phil and I got engaged, it flared up from taking Advil.  I think this time, it is stress.  Irregardless, I forgot my Tums today and am paying for it.  I mean, drinking water hurts.  Ugh...


2.  I'm slightly obsessed with the fact that the Real Housewives of the OC is on Hulu Plus.  I may or may not have ditched my Netflix to get Hulu Plus because of it.  Whatever, don't judge.  Or do.  The trashy reality TV made a perfect back drop to my weekend of culinary domesticity.  I am trying to not subject Phil to it very much because I love him.


3.  Cotton has another show next weekend and let's just say our expectations are low.  He went to class last week and acted like he had never been on a leash in his life.  It was downright embarrassing.  And then this week, we couldn't go to class because of our illnesses.  I think we will be doing a little show dog work over the weekend.


4.  I was going to do a dedicated post to this, but am frankly running out of things to list here (as is obvious from the previous 3 on the list) but the weather in the PNW has warmed up enough that we got Hank the Tank a pool!!

Needless to say, he loved it.  I don't know what it is, but pools totally wear the babe out!  We tried putting him in it Monday night while I made dinner, but it just made him even more exhausted come dinner time, so I will never do that again.  The pool is for weekend use only.


5.  I am a picture hoarder on my phone.  Honestly, I had over 1500 pictures on my phone until I finally cleared them off a few weeks ago.  I mean, what if I want to look at a picture of Henry at 3 weeks old randomly at some point?  Or 3 months?  Or 4 months?  Or from that random Tuesday?  But I finally cleared them off.  As I was going through them though, I found this one:

He was about 6 months old here.  We were in Virginia for Phil's Dad's funeral and Thanksgiving.  I grabbed Ed's camera to see if I could figure out how to use it because it was snowing outside.  And in the midst of the sadness, this little guy was being absolutely adorable.  That one had to stay on the phone.



I hope everyone has a great weekend!!  Stay safe and healthy!

A little domestic

You know your 3-day weekend is going to be a good one when at 4:30 on Thursday, you get a call from daycare (never good) and they said, "Henry just threw-up EVERYWHERE."  (also not good)

I rushed to pick him up, cancelling what little plans we had for the weekend in my head because I just knew I would be pipette-ing teaspoons of Pedialyte into Henry's mouth every 2 minutes for the new couple of days and doing puke laundry.

Thankfully, he only threw up one more time that night and then was fine the next day.

Phew...

By Friday, Henry was acting more and more like himself.  We still kept things pretty low key for the weekend and I guess staying home made me feel SUPER domestic.

All of a sudden, I had the energy from back in my early blog/newlywed days.  Everything had to be made from scratch.  I don't know why.   That included:

-  Cornbread Stuffing

-  Pulled Pork with Coleslaw

-  Peach Cobbler

-  Macaroni and Cheese

-  Turkey Salad

-  Laundry Soap

And I have zero pictures of any of it.  Because we were too busy eating it.  All of it was WAY too good.

We now have 10 gallons of laundry soap bottled and waiting to be used.  The last time I made laundry soap, it lasted like a year and a half.  I'm sure it won't last as long this time (since we have an extra person who produces A LOT of laundry), but I am expecting it to last at least a year.

And of all that wonderful food listed above, Henry would only eat the cobbler.  As in he cried when the bowl was empty.  Broke my little heart.  But part of that might be my own fault.  I have come to the realization that Henry needs to eat dinner much earlier in the evening.

Truthfully, I started writing this post 3 days ago.  Tuesday, Phil and I both got either the stomach flu or food poisoning.  Ironically, I really think it was food poisoning... as in, my cooking poisoned us.  Not from anything that I cooked off of this list.  I blame some chicken sausages purchased from Costco.  They are going in the trash.  A coworker of mine suggested that we give them to the dogs...

Let's see... they made my husband and I sick, but let's give them to the dogs?

I don't think so.

We are feeling better now.  And tonight for dinner, we are having baked fish.  Henry usually eats fish, so wish us luck!

Sickness

I'm a bad blogger.

But in my defense, I have had reasons.  Here come the excuses.

1)  I got sick.  For some reason, my sinus infection took FOREVER to get over.  And once I was finally starting to feel better...

2)  Henry got sick.

{Sick and headed to Grandma's house}

And I'm sorry, but there is nothing worse than a sick baby.

It started last Wednesday with a 103 degree fever.  I think at it's peak, it was 103.8.  Tylenol barely helped.  He'd play for a little bit, but then wanted to be held.  And I would have obliged, but I HAD to be at work.  My boss was out of town and it turns out there kind of needs to be an engineer at the engineering firm.  Whatever.

Perhaps I'm not the greatest at compartmentalizing, but I found it really hard to focus at work with a sick baby at Grandma's.  It's the plight of the working mom.

Henry ended up having Roseola.  The fever was gone Saturday morning, but just in time for the body rash.  I had read that the rash isn't supposed to itch (like they could possibly know that).  And I think Henry would disagree.  He's been using the back of his hand, his blankie, the carpet, pretty much anything he can to itch his head.

{Reading Fox In Socks for the billionth time in an attempt to distract him from the itching}

And the heat wave that has hit the area isn't helping the rash go away.  We are hopeful the rash will subside any day now.  Especially because he has been REALLY fussy lately.

{It's kind of hard to see, but he has a pretty good rash on his forehead}

Like inconsolable.  To the point where you look at him screaming after you've tried everything and feel super helpless.  I wish I could take his rash away.  And that's saying a lot because I HATE rashes.

There is nothing worse than a sick baby.  I don't know how parents of really sick kids do it.  And I hope I never have to find out.

I am thankful that this is just a virus and we hopefully won't have any complications that will end us in the hospital again.  My mom told me she thought my brother and I were sick more between the ages of 1 and 2 than 0 to 1.  Great... More to look forward to.  I have no doubt this illness came from daycare, but I've been told the upside is that he won't get nearly as sick in elementary school.  There has to be a silver lining somewhere.