Cravings

So when I was pregnant with Collin all I wanted was peanut butter. I didn't think I had any really strong cravings with this baby until I realized last week that I'm always craving a chocolate shake. The problem is (I know this is totally lazy.) making a chocolate shake is harder then pulling out a jar of peanut butter and smearing some on a piece of bread. So that meant that I would have to buy a shake, and that would add up fast, plus I would actually have to get in the car and drive somewhere to get a shake, which wasn't about to happen. But I have figured out something from this. The 3 times I have gotten my chocolate shake in the last 4 months I have LOVED them. Collin will want to drink some and I will give him a sip or two and then hid so I can finish it (its not good for him anyway, too much sugar.). So not giving into my craving has led to so very happy moments with my shakes when I get one.

Saturday Chase and I are going to eat at California Pizza Kitchen cause that is where we ate on our first date as a "couple" (ahhhh...) Sadly, I don't think they have any chocolate shakes, so I guess we'll have to find somewhere else for me to get one :)

Heres a picture of Collin and Chase reading on Sunday morning. Collin has gotten to the point where he will pull the books out, get in the rocking chair and just tell me the story (in jibberish). Its really fun.

Talking on the phone

I don't really talk like this when I'm on the phone. We can't find his favorite play phone so he just uses his hand as a phone. Just today has started saying nononononononono when I ask him a question. Its great. I guess who ever he is on the "phone" with keeps asking him questions.

I like the sideways look he gives me and the little dance move with his arm he throws in there about 30 seconds in. I'm not sure where that came from...

Too much pressure!!

So last night Chase and I stayed up talking about baby names. I've decided its too hard. For a while with this baby it seemed pretty easy- we both liked the name Landon except we didn't have a middle name. Once we started talking about middle names, we started talking about different 1st names... augh...
So I've decided we need to decide on a middle name 1st and then go to his first name. I've always felt like the middle name should be a family name, or mean something. I'm not totally attached to using a family name, I just think it would be nice. Its a lot easier to give a family name as a middle name I think. Then if it repeats someone elses name no one cares cause we don't call them by that name. But the middle name has to go with the first name.

When we fell asleep last night the name we decided on was Jackson Catz Brimhall. Its probably a good thing we have another 7 weeks....

Counting 2,3

I took a video today of Collin counting. He gets mad when we try to get him to say the number 1. He'll just keep saying NO! and then say 2 3 2 3 2 3 and jump. Oh well. Someday he'll get it...

2 months

I'm just about to my "2 months left" mark. I was having a hard time on Sunday, just very uncomfortable. Every time I would say something he would kick me. Chase said that he was telling me I needed to stop complaining cause he's more uncomfortable then I am. I said- no, I'm pretty sure he's as sprawled out as possible. He defiantly moves more then Collin did, which is nice for the most part.

I'm getting ready to start freezing meals here in the next few days. Chase is excited cause that means that for a few weeks I'll actually make real food for dinner.

Here's a picture of me. I'm officially 31 weeks today :)

Teeth

So Collin had his 18 month check up on Monday and as Dr. Bailey is looking in his mouth and says "Oh, he hasn't gotten these bottom teeth yet? Do you have any family history of kids not getting these baby teeth?" I said, "No, not that I know of." He says "Oh, he might not get these. They aren't looking like they are coming in any time soon, so he probably won't get them." At all? He'll have these gaps for the next few years until his teeth come in? Huh. Ok. At least I know not to expect them.

ps- I'm pretty much done being pregnant. I wish I was one of those women who love being pregnant or even don't mind it. I'm not. I'd like to wear normal clothes again. And not be uncomfortable. But I better stay used to it cause I still got 11 weeks to go.

Decision

After spending an hour this morning trying to shampoo my mom's carpet I decided a few things-

1-We will have lots of laminate flooring in our house
2- All our carpet will be dark colors- probably brown or red
3- I will shampoo our carpet at least once a week (which is why we will have mostly laminate flooring, so there isn't as much carpet to clean...)

I do love carpet, especially really fuzzy, soft carpet that squishes between your toes and makes you want to lay down on it. But cleaning it is insane. I don't want to be one of those moms who always says- take off your shoes! Don't eat that in here! Your getting everything dirty! And I don't want to put more importance on how our floors look then having good, fun memories with my family. But at the same time, when you spend that much money on something I have a hard time not taking care of it. So if we already have dark carpet and laminate flooring I don't have to be as worried!!

As seen on TV

My sister Kim and I are quite the experts on "As seen on TV" items. For Christmas we decided to give each other gifts that come from the As seen on TV wall at Bed Bath and Beyond. We ended up getting each other the same item- the Touch n Brush. Its pretty awesome. She got Chase Bendaros which we have enjoyed making food items out of. And I got Bryan the Fun Slide Skates, which make it so you can skate on the carpet. We tried to base it on how awesome the commercial is for the item. One of my favorites is the Big Top Cupcake commercial. Recently I saw a new commercial for an item called the EZcracker Egg Cracker. It was so good, I couldn't resist putting it up so you can watch it if you haven't seen it yet.

https://www.ezcracker.com/Default.aspx?MID=537729


Now, I am not making fun of people who have a hard time cracking eggs. There must be a lot of people for this to have been produced. And I know I tend to get egg shells in my food from time to time. But really. Don't smash an egg with a fork when you are trying to break it open. It won't work very well....

Eating

OK, I don't mean to write about this all the time, but I am hoping to get some advice from those who have been through this.

I am having such a hard time getting Collin to eat. Here was his day yesterday:

5:30- 7 oz bottle
8:30- waffle
9:00-11:30- M&M's to keep him quite at Costco
2:00- 6 oz bottle
Rest of the day- Lay's chips, chocolate chip cookies, candy, and one more 7 oz bottle (he usually only has 1-2 bottles a day, but he kept asking for one.)

We try things multiple times- different fruits (pears, apples, oranges, bananas, ect), veggies (carrots are about the only ones he'll even touch), bread (used to eat banana and zucchini bread really good, but in the last 4-5 months hasn't touched it, and won't eat any white or wheat bread), Belly Bars (that's what he survived on for the last 5 months. Now he doesn't want them), popcorn (he asks for it all the time, and then eats about 4 pieces), Chicken nuggets (another food he used to eat once or twice a week), all sorts of dried cereals (Life, Kix, Cheerios, ect), cheese crackers, Sour cream and onion Lay's chips (one of the only things he still eats), Mac and cheese (he spits out any kind of cheese we give him). There are more things we've tried, but you get the idea.

I've read and been told that kids go through phases, and that other kids lived off of fruit snacks and juice. The two hardest things about this is 1- something that Chase and I (and my mom) disagree about all the time. Chase gets so frustrated at Collin for not eating, and then we get frustrated at each other, mostly because I take things too personally and feel like people are attacking me for Collin not eating. Same with my mom. 2- Collin is fussy because he's hungry. There is such a difference when he has a bottle and eaten a waffle. He's happy. By the afternoon he doesn't want anything I offer except cookies or candy, and so then he has all sorts of tantrums because he's hungry. This is the main reason I have not forced him off the bottle. He will not drink milk any other way, and if he doesn't drink any milk he doesn't get any protein. And he'll be even more fussy.

So I feel torn- the doctor tells us we need him off his bottle and he needs to be eating other foods (hey doc, you want to come live with him for a week and get him to eat food?), that we just need to offer him foods over and over again, and not make a big deal about it when he does eat. Others have said don't fight him, there are too many other battles with 1 1/2 year olds and that as long as he's eating he'll be ok, even if its from a bottle.

Any help would be great...

Merry (sick) Christmas!

Collin and Chase Christmas morning. Collin's eye's are almost swollen shut because he had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep and was very sick that morning...

Collin and his cousin Aadyn playing

Collin got sick starting Monday night right after we got to Chase's family's house. He didn't sleep well and woke up with a fever. Tuesday morning I found a little red spot on his face and didn't think much of it until a few more appeared on Wednesday. It seems that he had a mild case of the chicken pox. Ran a fever of 101.5-103 all week.

Christmas day was fun- my favorite present was a wrap that is super soft and can zip up to be a snuggie like wrap or can unzip and be used as a blanket. We got lots and lots of fun things for Christmas though. Collin loves his little play dogs- he can't have a real one for several years so we thought something that yapped and walked around would work for now. And we were right. He just holds them tight and thinks its funny when he puts crayons in their mouths and they "bite" them. I would tell you what Chase's favorite present was, but I'm not sure. He got a very nice tie and a Willow Tree figure- Quest. I guess he's favorite present was an ipod Touch that we got him last week.

We got home last night and by the time we got home Chase was feeling pretty sick. Today he's been running a fever of 103.5, and even with Advil it only drops to 102. I finally got both of them to Instacare and found out that Collin has an ear infection and Chase has strep. So I'm "mommy nurse" right now for my two little boys. Mostly its been me trying to entertain Collin and keep him out of our room so Chase can sleep. We've decided that I am being watched over since I have not gotten very sick- a little stuffy all last week and some headaches (mostly from lack of sleep being up every 2 hours for an hour with Collin all week).

Collin started saying a new phrase this week- Oh no! He says it the same way everytime he says it. Its pretty cute.

Colds

Its amazing how tired I get when you put these 3 things together- pregnancy, having a cold, and Collin having a cold.



We've both been sick with a bad cold for almost a full week, and I'm ready for it to be done. Collin has reached the point where he can't sleep because he just coughs and coughs. We finally moved him into our room (bed) so that he won't wake up the rest of the house when he wakes up crying. I guess he's reached that age where I let him lay on the bed and watch Sesame Street when he gets sick cause he doesn't want to do anything else.

Other then that we are off to Snowflake on Monday afternoon to spend Christmas with Chase's family! Hopefully we will be better by then so we don't get anyone else sick...

Awkward

Really Target? Could your ad's be any more awkward this Christmas? This one is just...weird. It doesn't ever get past the awkward stage (and maybe it hits a little too close to home: These gifts are from Santa!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hatJ_2ZuoEE

Santa

We took Collin to see Santa. He didn't cry, but he wasn't too thrilled until he got a candy cane.

Bonding moment

After a long hard day, Collin and I had a bonding moment late this afternoon.

We had some bubble gum and colored. Just the two of us. Hanging out. It was great.

Late blog

So I go through these phases where I think of stuff to blog about, but I decide to wait a few days between blogs, and then I forget what I was going to blog about, so then I don't update my blog.

We stayed here for Thanksgiving this year. In the morning while everything was cooking Chase took Collin outside to jump on the tramp and swing. He loved it :)

Chase made a wonderful lemon meringue pie, and I got to make the rolls this year. They turned out a little dough-ie, but they were good.

Collin turned 18 months yesterday, and on Saturday I took him off his bottle and pacifier except at nap and bedtime. We're aiming for January 1st for him to be off the pacifier completely.

His big thing right now is singing and dancing. He's always loved it, but he is finding favorite songs that he really likes, such as:

Oh how I love my food- Wiggles

Fruit salad- Wiggles

Gilmore Girls theme song

The Hokey Pokey- Backyardigans
ABC's- Me :)

If he is having a hard time (being fussy or crying) I sing ABC and then ask him to sing and he'll just start singing abababab. Its the only way to get him out of the tub.

This is a video of him at 16 months playing the piano and talking.