Thursday, October 30, 2008

Molars Galore

If you look real close you can see his bottom molar. The top one on that side has been in for a little while now, but the bottom was barely peeking through on Monday and now it's a whole tooth. Both the top and the bottom of the other side are very swollen and obviously bothering him, but they have not made an appearance yet.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A "Whale" of a Day

Reese was a cutie patootie in his whale sweater from CandyGram.

We started the day at Little Tykes play group--this is his "specialized training" through our early intervention services---essentially it's structured play.Then we hit quiznos for lunch and got Reese's flu shot. We headed home where Mommy and Reese took a nap and Daddy played his new obsession, WOW. After Daddy went to work Reese and Mom stopped to play with Baby Austin and Matthew. oops I just went to make a link to their blog and realized she changed it to by invite only, so you don't get to see Austin and Matthew. Now that I've caught up on my blogs I am off to empty my Tivo--Jon and Kate, House and Without a Trace are waiting for me.

Strating off a Hectic Week

We started the day off by going to the dentist! Reese found it much less enjoyable than his first visit 6 months ago. he has one molar mostly in and 3 others coming in. I think the tooth brushing part aggravated his swollen gums because one bled a bit. In this shot he's getting fluoride applied and you can see due the wide mouthed scream that his upper left molar is almost completely in.
After the trauma and abuse ended he was perfectly happy to check out their equipment.
Then we went to the park with my friend and her kids. Reese went on the slide.
This looks interesting.


He's not super keen on the swing.


After this he mostly just sat on my lap and flirted with my friend. He sometimes watched what the bigger kids were doing. I don't think he really was terribly excited about the park. But he likes being outside so I don't think he disliked it. Tomorrow is flu shot day...can't wait.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Menu Plan Monday

It started with Dr. OZ, You on a Diet -- the hour long special on Discovery Health Channel. He went through the woman's pantry and fridge and made a healthy pile and a "junk" food pile. Of course she had like 6 healthy things and everything else was basically crap--even the stuff she thought was healthy. Like that breakfast bar you thought was healthy but really is so packed with sugar you may as well have eaten the Reese's peanut butter cups you really wanted. Anyway from there I launched into Skinny Bitch, What to Eat, The Omnivore's Dilemma and Nutrition Action Newsletter. But the NY Times article "A Farm Boy Reflects" is what helped convince my hubby. (It was the part about the goose's life partner trying to rescue it's partner from being dinner.) SO we are making the switch to organic meat AND we are going to start reducing the meat we eat all together. We're going to start with 2 meatless dinners per week. Now this is not say we may not continue eating our AmyLu Organic Chicken and Gouda sausages at breakfast on a meatless dinner day, but none the less we will be reducing our meat consumption. This week's menu:

MONDAY: Chicken Alfredo Ravioli with costco cibo garlic cheese sauce
TUESDAY: eat out (Reese has Holly Ridge at 11am and Flu shot at 1:30, Kyle goes to work at 3)
WEDNESDAY: Chicken Tetrazini, Brussel sprouts
THURSDAY: Veggie Fried Rice and egg rolls from a Southern Living Cookbook
FRIDAY: Red Beans and Quinoa Chili from Feeding the Whole Family Cooking with Whole Foods
SATURDAY: Leftovers
SUNDAY: Veggie Lasagna Florentine

Once I make these I will post photos and the recipes for wed, thurs, fri on my new recipes blog. In the meantime check out other people's menu plans at OrgJunkie to get some new ideas.

Kyle is on his computer upstairs and I just didn't feel like luggin mine up so I am using his old laptop up here so we can do our computer time together. Anyway I had to download the menu plan logo and saved it on his laptop where I found the VERY FIRST photo ever taken of Reese. My anesthesiologist shot the photo once they whisked Reese to the stabilization room---basically a closet attached to my OR. I guess these 2 people in the photo are the NICU folks. I was still strapped to the OR table and I think Kyle is still with me waiting to be allowed in the room with Reese to "cut the cord."

He doesn't seem as small as he really was in this photo to me, but he was 975 grams--a smidge over 2 pounds.

BUBBLES

Reese LOVES the bubble bath. Kyle was anxious to get bubble bath for Reese. I thought he was really big enough to care yet, but Burt's Bees (no phthalates, no parabens, no sodium laureth sulfate) has bubble bath now so we got some and boy was I ever wrong. He stayed in for about 45 minutes and cried when it was time to finally get out.

Here's his bubble "horn"

Bubble "mask"

Swimming on his belly

and bubbles taste good too!!!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

We went to the pumpkin patch today! Our mommies' group went to Pheasant Fields Farm in Silverdale to go to the pumpkin patch and visit a little.


This BIG one looks pretty good.
Look at the Llama! Reese really liked the Llama, luckily they didn't get up to bite his hand.
Corn Maze
Reese really liked this tractor. He was excited to try to beep the horn. Unfortunately it didn't have one. But he was happy to steer and make vroom vroom sounds.
Inspecting the small green variety---I don't remember the name.
Group photo op: L to R Charlie, Matthew bending over to see Abby, Austin in the car seat, Lincoln, Moses, Maci, Reese
Giving baby Austin a kiss.
Lunch break.
Inspecting the decorative squash.....
...and the cool rusty farm tools.

My little sunflower.

Monday, October 20, 2008

My Friend Cindy

I've been trying to decide what I wanted to say about my friend, Cindy. She's so vibrant and fun and genuinely caring. It's so unfair that she's gone from our lives so quickly.

I came back from Cindy's funeral on Sunday night. She, along with the rest of my college friends, still lives on the east coast, so I rarely see her. Actually I think it's been a meager 4 times this decade. My day to day life could go on unchanged. We didn't talk on the phone and we barely emailed. But when we got together it's was as if we'd never gone separate ways. Our little group easily meshed back together even though years pass between meetings.


Since we don't see each other regularly it hardly seems like it's real that she's gone. Mostly I feel the loss when a flash of something she'll never get to do comes to mind. But after seeing the bazillion people at her funeral who were sincerely touched by knowing Cindy, I am somewhat comforted by the fact that she is without a doubt the one person I know who absolutely lived life to the fullest.

If we are to believe everything happens for a reason the only reason I can figure is that this experience of losing her is supposed to be a catalyst for the rest of us to get our heads out of butts and enjoy every minute that we have with the people that we care about doing the things that we care about.

In Cindy's honor I plan to make every effort to be without regrets and not sweat the small stuff and not waste time on meaningless bunk that we seem to let overtake our lives. I know none of my Washington friends who read my blog know Cindy. I'm sorry you missed out on that opportunity. I urge you to think about what changes you need to make. If you were to die next Tuesday would you be happy with how you spent your weekend?

Do you think this new philosophy could include never washing another bathtub?

Meal Plan Monday


MONDAY: Homemade Pizza
TUESDAY: Spaghetti
WEDNESDAY: Zari's Kitchen Chicken, baked acorn squash, green beans
THURSDAY: big fat pork ribs, sweet potato fries, broccoli and cauliflower
FRIDAY: leftovers
SATURDAY: Quesadilla
SUNDAY: leftovers
Head over to Orgjunkie.com for more great menu plans!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

First Haircut

Lunch at taco bell a little before the first haircut--big yawn.
Sipping dad's raspberry tea.
Waiting our turn with Candy Gram.
Getting the spritz down.
Sitting on daddy's lap while Miss Cindy gets started.
Little snippets at a time so mommy doesn't freak out.
Feeling the "tickler" the buzz cutter thingy.






Thanks Miss Cindy it wasn't so bad!
BIG BOY!!

and of course I had to take some video:





Fun in the Basement

Reese came down to the basement in the laundry basket. He was a little disgruntled by this mode of transportation, but he doesn't want to be left alone upstairs when the laundry must be done, so he has to get down there somehow.Once he was out of the basket he was happy to play while we tried to get some basement stuff done.

He's turning to see if I'm watching his break for the stairs.

Here's the "haha look where I am pose."