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I changed the comment setting so you don't have to have a google account to add a comment...didn't realize that was the case before. I am only mildly computer literate and thus far I haven't delved too deeply into what this blog site can do. But the March of Dimes sent me a link to their media stuff to add their logo to sign up for the March Walk. I can't figure it out, but I did figure out how to let everyone comment if they want. I was wondering if people were still reading since really only my mommy group posts comments, so I got this site meter thing. BUT it only tells you what internet provider and city people are in. ooo super helpful. Who lives in the Schenectady, NY area? And someone in Thousand Oaks, CA just logged on today. Also there's all these WA cities where I don't know people. I am so nosy I want to know. So post a comment next time you visit so I know where you're reading from. This is me and my Poppop, the first Reese

MONEY MONEY MONEY

We filed our taxes today! WOO Hoo! We're all done!! Very exciting! Except apparently congress piddled around and didn't finish making tax legislation until 2008 for the 2007 taxes so the IRS has to change some programming. They estimate they will be ready to process forms on February 11th. It's very annoying because we want our money NOW!!! But 2 of the changes affect us. 1st - that crazy expensive door we got on the basement nets us a $174 tax CREDIT (deducted from the total tax we pay) for energy efficiency. 2nd - some additional rulings on the $1000 child tax credit. I'm not sure if that actually reduces the adjusted gross income or if it's deducted from the taxes we pay. Either way it's more money in our hot little hands. We used turbo tax. It's super duper easy. It's starts by asking what changed this year? We had a baby and sold a home. On and so and it asks you if everything pertains to you. If you say no then you get to skip it. If you say yes it says gather these forms and fill in these blanks. Easy peasy! OH and they have a new thing where you put all your charitable donations in and it searches ebay and the like to find a fair market value for your stuff that you give to goodwill. Then you just click yes to import the data. Love it!
The other day when the interest rates dropped our mortgage gal called us to see if we want to try to refinance for a lesser interest rate. So we did and we signed today. We dropped 1 interest percentage on our mortgage and 3.5 percentage points on our home equity loan and now they are combined into one loan with only 5.3 percent interest. AND we get to skip February and March payments, except we already paid February so that will just decrease our payoff balance and therefore loan total. AND we'll get a reimbursement check from the title company for prepaid stuff that no longer applies AND we'll get some escrow back. Yippee! We did find out that our taxes went up. Apparently our side of the Warren Ave bridge went up significantly and the other side decreased...lucky ducks! It's $80...I forgot to ask is that per 6 months since we pay every 6 months. It can't be every month! So we're just assuming every 6 months otherwise we'd be livid! I think the Health Department guy did at least $80 worth of work on our behalf for the RSV shot fiasco so I'm okay with the tax increase.
Hopefully the economic stimulus package goes through so we get $600 each plus $300 for one baby. We decided if we get the $1500 we will use it as it was intended to stimulant the economy by BUYING STUFF!!! If they give us less we'll put it into our Orange savings and earn interest to spite their stingy butts!

Little Man, Big Man?

Reese turned on the sound systme/dvd player today...see the orangey-red button? Just like his Dad, we don't even have our morning coffee/tea and the tv is already on.

Enjoying the Sunday ads. Hmm....so how is the little man different from a full grown one?

Diapers!!

Reese is almost one year old and way back in May or so I shadow boxed his first diaper and beanie and wrist band. We finally got it on the wall! Since there's really nothing to give you any perspective on the size I took a photo of the first diaper, micro preemie pampers, next to the regular preemie pampers you can buy at Babies R Us and then next to his current size 3 Huggies we get in bulk at Costco. I failed to save a size 1 or 2 as memorabilia.

Reese said GAGAGAGA for the very first time today. So now he says dadadada and gagaga. Hey that's enough to sing "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" with Sting and The Police.

ROCKSTAR

Reese enjoys jammin' with his maracas as in this photo. He also loves his little tykes piano and his english/spanish alphabet drum. We expect a record deal any time now.
As of last week he weighed 16 pounds 11 ounces. He is really crawling a lot now. Yesterday he crawled into the kitchen and spent a good spell smacking the sunlight on the floor. The cats are also a great source of entertainment for him. Tara just has to flick her tail about a bit and he laughs hysterically.

Hog Pluck

This is my hog pluck. It is the trachea, heart and lungs of a hog. We used it to identify all the heart parts. Surprisingly it was not as grotesque as you may imagine. Aside from the retched smell I actually sort of enjoyed it because now I will remember the parts! We have one of those go getter really into types as every class must, I'm sure. She was more than happy to put a tube (that I wasn't confident was clean enough) down the trachea and blow to inflate the lungs. Super cool to see, though I was not about to do it myself. Anyway, first exam is next Thursday--so not ready. I find it way more difficult to focus than I did before Reese was born.

Heath Ledger dies at 28

We're pretty bummed. We really like Heath Ledger and are looking forward to seeing him play the Joker in "The Dark Knight" the sequel to "Batman Begins." Hopefully that movie is done filming and he won't have to be recast. You can read about it on yahoo. Though I'm sure by the time you read my blog you'll already know all the details. His daughter, Matilda, is only 2 years old I think.

Over the River and Through the Woods

off to Great-Grandma and Grandpa's we go....Here's Reese trying out his new big boy carseat for the very first time. He is too tall for the infant carrier, so we've moved up to the regular seat and he likes it so much better. He can look out the window and it's got a much cushier butt cushion.

We hit the road about 11:30 am Sunday to head down to Vancouver, WA...about 160 miles south of our house. Reese met his Daddy's aunt and uncle and cousins for the first time. He was such a good boy! He let everyone hold him without crying. Here he is with Great Grandpa laughing at Daddy.

Kyle, Reese, Great Grandma, Great Grandpa

We headed back home about 6:30pm the next day so we got to the new Cabella's in Lacy about 15 minutes before closing. Just enough time to check out the gigantic catfish in the aquarium. Daddy is over the moon with excitement about the new store and it's only 59 minutes to our house. Grand opening Jan 25- Feb 5...woo hoo!

The last 59 minutes home Reese rocked out ---his favorites were the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Queen and here he's stiking a pose to vintage Madonna.

Once we got home Reese practiced standing by climbing up Daddy. Right after this photo the camera's memory stick was full AND he made it to a standing upright position then laughed hysterically at his new skill! We had a busy last 35 hours!!

Reese is 11 months old!

Reese likes to play with his ball popper, but mostly to eat the balls. To get them he has to pull on the popper which sends the balls all flying , so they only get to pop once and it's over. He may get the hang of it soon. Wednesday he was 11 months old. Thursday Daddy got to stay home with Reese while I went to school. I had an advising appointment with the nursing program as well. We have officially decided I'll do the nursing program this fall. And we bought a big boy car seat for Reese because he's too tall for his baby car seat now. I found one that lasts through 100 pounds and 52 inches, so we won't have to buy a seperate booster seat...woo hoo!!

We watched Rush Hour 3 on DVD and we both thought it was pretty funny. I looked it up on imdb and discovered Chris Tucker made $25 million and Jackie Chan only made $15 million. Seems like an unfair deal, but if you watch the outtakes it seems that Jackie Chan does not really have a command of the English language, so perhaps that's the discrepancy. Anyway, we liked it.

On Friday Reesie went to Candy Gram's and Mimi and I went to see JUNO. I really liked it. It had actors I really like. It was a little quirky and funny. I recommend it. Sunday we're off to visit Kyle's grandparents in Vancouver. We'll try out the new car seat for the first time. Hopefully Reese will tolerate the long drive nicely. He did well last summer going to Lake Chelan, but he was a lot littler then...He's a bit more attidute-y now.

Also I added The Moldy Peaches and Sonic Youth songs to the play list. Both are from the movie Juno. I can't figure out how to make them play randomly instead of always in order so you'll have to click on the song to hear it if you don't want to wait out The White Stripes.

Goddess of Rock

We did not bother to bathe or even get dressed Monday. We did do some organizational chores and I cooked a time consuming meal, but most importantly we BEAT GUITAR HERO 3. My score is not incredibly impressive, but as a non-gamer I find it fabulous!

Also cool is think questionnaire to help match you with a presidential candidate.

Paparazzi

Reese found a new fascinating toy while Mommy put his clothes away. This laundry basket provided a good 15 minutes of entertainment and even held his attention when both cats came by to check things out. Pretty impressive since the cats are his ultimate favorite for giggle producing fun.

He did eventually look up from his laundry basket about 20 photos into this session to allow me a good face shot.

But by then he'd had enough flash and demanded the paparazzi give up the camera.

Big Boy Bath Time

WooHoo! Finally big enough to sit in the sink for a bath. So much better on the back than leaning over the tub and the spray nozzle works pretty nicely for rinsing. School was supposed to start on the 8th for me, but we had a wee bit of snow so my first day of school was a snow day. Of course the traffic seemed to be fine so I didn't go online and check. I found out after I lugged the boy and all his gear to Candy Gram's house. So I started on Thursday. I was thinking this is a part 2 class so I won't know anyone and they will have already paired up for lab, but a girl from my Chemistry classes in 2006 is in this class with me. Yeah! We are not dissecting cats anymore since we have a new building with more room. We get to use the human cadaver....ugh! Friday Kyle went to work early so Reesie and I spent the day running errands with Mimi. Reese had a good time trying out the bongos and drum sets at Guitar Center then when Kyle got home early from work we spent about 4 hours playing guitar hero 3! I beat 15 songs and won the Tom Morrel battle and thought I was pretty hot stuff until Kyle blew me out of the water. However, I still feel I did exceptionally well since I am a non-video game player....my eye balls hurt and my fingers, wrist and bicep ached. Also my brain felt drained and fuzzy. I think it explains a lot about teenagers.
Saturday began with great excitement. We went Starbucks where the guy in front of us paid for us. Very nice. The girl did not ask Kyle if he wished to do the same and Ebenezer did not offer. He is always at work during the evening and nightly news (and we sleep through the morning news) so he actually had not heard about all the paying for the car behind you that was going on...the shipyard keeps them under a rock I think. Then Reese and Kyle watched the playoffs until Kyle had to leave for work, but the Seahawks had a rather disappointing finish. No Superbowl for us. Do you think that means we don't have to watch football anymore?

Books to Read in 2008

My friend, Anya, inspired me to set a goal of what books I'd like to read in 2008. I meet with a monthly book club and the host gets to choose so I will read the chosen books for book club AND:

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

The Wonder of Boys by Michale Gurian

Raising a Son by Don and Jeanne Elium

Baby Laughs by Jenny McCarthy

Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell

T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Alright I should probably stop there. I would like to read more than these and I will if time allows, but these 6 plus the 12 for book club may be all there is time for since I will be in school 3 quarters this year.

He Can See!!

We picked up Reese's glasses Friday. He had periods where he wore them and periods where he ripped them off. He seemed not too sure what to think. I think he can see better, though it's hard to tell for sure. He really likes playing ball.

But a lot of the time he seems a bit grumpy about wearing them.

High Chair

Reese's high chair, that Candy Gram ordered in November, finally arrived today (Thursday). We put it together and tried it out. Reese seemed to like eating at the table. It does not have a tray (optional extra add-on), you just push it up to the table. This is the only chair I could find that was high enough for our counter top height kitchen table. It adjusts for all table heights and also has an adjustable foot rest so his feet can be firmly planted. The chair can hold up to 150 pounds, so once he's big enough for a regular kitchen table chair this will become his desk chair. We had a hard time choosing the color. I think we went with white because our kitchen table is black and our dining room table is a dark brown wood color, so this way it wouldn't look like we tried to match and missed. You can also choose the pad color..we went with bright orange.

After my emailing rant about the RSV shots the health department contacted me. I finally called the doctor there today (I thought it best to cool off a bit) and he is trying a few avenues to get the RSV shots for less than the $1000 they quoted us. Hopefully the manufacturer will donate the drug to the health department and we can just pay for the supplies and injection. His next shot isn't until January 18, so we have some time to work on it.
Also today we got the call from the optical shop--the glasses have arrived. We are going to pick them up tomorrow...UGH!