2011 Summer Flicks

Summer movie season is soon upon us!

Here's my list of films I'd like to see this summer:

Fast Five (April 29)
Yes, the 5th installment in The Fast & The Furious franchise. What can I say, I like Vin Diesel!

Thor (May 6)
We see most superhero movies, so seeing this one is kind of a given.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (May 20)
Since this one isn't part of the original trilogy and only has Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush returning I'm not sure how good it'll be, but hey, Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow again? I'll take it!

The Hangover, part 2 (May 26)
While we saw the 1st one a month after it came out, we thought it was hilarious and is one we've actually watched multiple times since. Hopefully part 2 is just as good, rather than the disappointment that was Due Date.

X-Men: First Class (June 3)
I'm up in the air about this one, but I'm pretty sure the hubby will want to see it. We'll probably catch it on Netflix though like we did with Wolverine.

Super 8 (June 10)
A JJ Abrams, Steven Spielberg young adult sci-fi adventure. It looks like it aims for the same type of audience that Goonies was suited towards, and Goonies is a classic! Plus it looks fun!

Green Lantern (June 17)
Again, superhero movie. 'Nuff said.

Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon (July 1)
I really don't want to see this one as the 2nd one was sooooo bad, although they did film parts of it in Chicago so I guess I would be neat to see familiar places in the movie. I'm pretty sure hubby will drag me to this one though, lol...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2 (July 15)
The final Harry Potter movie, and it opens on my old roomie's birthday too! Unfortunately she lives in Dallas now though so I won't get to see it with her. This is a MUST SEE on my list though, which means we'll definitely have someone watch Jay so we can go see it in theaters.

Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22)
Another superhero movie!

Cowboys & Aliens (July 29)
Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig star in this Western Sci-Fi tale. It definitely looks interesting and has 2 great actors starring in it!

What movies are you excited to see or are planning on seeing this summer?

We're in Elmo's World now!

I mentioned briefly in my Easter update that my mom got Jay an Elmo for Easter but I didn't mention just how much he seems to love the thing!

Jay loves his Elmo - you can tell he's smiling!

Anytime it's within arm reach of him he's holding onto it, hugging it, gripping it... it's too cute! He also grins really big and laughs when you do the Elmo voice and sing the Elmo's World song ("La la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World...") - he LOVES it!

We first saw it in Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago when I was out at the mall, walking and window shopping. I stopped in to see about a few more board books for Jay and I spied him starring at something on the shelf from his stroller. I looked and noticed a bunch of Elmo's on the shelf. To be sure that's what it was he was looking at I picked on up and brought it towards his face and he grinned! It was $16.95 though and I was already spending too much money that day so I figured maybe someday later on I'd go back and get it for him. I also mentioned it to my mom and she said she'd try and see about getting it for him for Easter. When she went back to get it, it was the last one on the shelf!

She brought it out for him at Easter dinner on Sunday and boy did his eyes get wide and his face lit up! It was as if he remembered it from weeks earlier! Too cute!

So right now, we think this stuffed Elmo (which is just bigger than half his size! LOL) might be his "special" toy - you know, the doll or blanket you got attached to as a kid and had to take everywhere!

The Star of Mommy's Blog

I was in Target the other day picking up a few things in the baby department (Diaper Genie refills and Munchkin food bowls) when I came across this gem of a bib:

Obviously I *had* to get it and it was only around $2.50 so why not? This is an item that every mommy blogger needs to get for her baby!

Wee Bit Wednesday

After seeing several of my blog friends post today, I decided to have a little fun and take part in Wee Bit Wednesday this week!

{one} have you ever been stuck in an elevator?

Haha yes! I mentioned this on Twitter when it happened, but for those of you who don't follow me on there or missed it... January 1st my father-in-law was admitted to the hospital and was there for most of the month. Hubby and I visited him a few times and one time we decided to go stop down in the cafeteria for some food. On the way back up we got in an elevator with the repairman in it, as he said it was okay and he'd get us to the floor we needed. 2 RN's got in with us. Well... we reach the floor to get off on... and the doors won't open! And to top it off, I was 9 months pregnant at the time! LOL... this had typical TV show/movie moment written all over it! Fortunately the repair guy got the doors open in just a minute or 2 and no, I didn't go into labor - hubby read my mind though as we were in there and told me not to dare open my mouth and say it! lol...

{two} have you ever ridden on an elephant?

Nope, but I have relatives who have!

{three} have you ever met a well known celebrity?

I think I've met a few has-been celebs in the past at like meet and greet signings but the best and most memorable was the time I met Phoenix from Linkin Park. This was summer 1999 and I went to this huge Christian rock festival (Cornerstone Festival) downstate. Linkin Park's album didn't come out for another 9 months or so and I had no clue who he was at the time. He was doing his last tour or whatever with his former band Tasty Snax. Me and the church group of girls I was with that weekend met him at one of the merch tents and him and his bandmates were flirting with us, trying to get us to come to their show later in the day. It was pretty funny!

Another memorable "celeb" I've met is NFL running back Michael Turner (or "Turner the Burner" as we called him college). He went to NIU and played on the team during the same time I was there and was one of our star players at the time. My roommate and I met him at a party - we went out on the back deck for some air and he was sitting out back, just chilling with a couple guys. As a courtesy we all said a quick hello, although we didn't realize it was him until some drunk guy came stumbling out onto the deck and was all "Whoa! You're Michael Turner!" and congratulated him on all the hardwork he did on the football team!

{four} do you have any food allergies?

No, no food allergies.

{five} do you know how to sew?

No, which is sad and a bit surprising as my mom is a seamstress, doing costuming for various local theatre productions and other alterations for people and her mom was great at sewing too. I totally suck at it - I even fail at sewing a simple button back on as it usually falls off within several wears! lol... I've tried in the past, making stuff like a small stuffed star with my grandma but yeah... never been good at that!

{six} did you get an allowance when you were young?

Yep! I think we started with a $1 when I was little and it increased like a $1 every year. By the time I was in high school I think I got about $20 a week, but $10 of that was for mowing the yard and part of the field behind the house.

{seven} how often do you fill up your gas tank?

I  haven't filled up my tank in ages! I usually put about $20 in when I do go to the gas station and that gets me 1/2-3/4 of a tank depending on the price of gas. I usually go to the gas station about twice a month, maybe less.

{eight} have you ever been stung by a jelly fish?

Nope!

{nine} have you ever been robbed?

Yep, twice! First time was in either Jr. High or High School - I don't remember which, but I had about $100  (all birthday money I had just gotten recently) that I had on me as it was a Friday and my parents and I were going out shopping after school. For gym class we had to change into uniforms and we had lockers. Locks were optional and I never used one at the time. I had it when it changed, and gym was my last class of the day, but when I went to spend it later in the day it was gone! My told the school about it and they did nothing, citing I shouldn't have had that kind of money at school and that I should have used a lock on my gym locker. /facepalm...

The other time was shortly after I got my license and a car when I was 16. My parents put in an aftermarket CD player for me and I kept CDs in a binder stashed under the carseat. Well my parents were having work done on the house and we had a dumpster in our driveway for a week so I had to park on the street at night. One afternoon I went to get in my car to go pick my boyfriend up and sat down in the drivers seat and saw that everything was dumped out of the glovebox and onto the passenger seat! Then I noticed the CD player was gone and just wires hanging from the dash where it should have been! My CDs were all gone too (I had like 100 of them!) as well as my car owner's manual (which was in a leather type case - we think they thought it was more CDs). The busted out the small triangle window in one of the backseat doors and let themselves in that way. The glass place said it would have been less expensive to replace had they busted out one of the bigger windows! The insurance company gave me some money for my losses so I could buy a new CD player, get the window fixed and buy some replacement CDs, but still...

{ten} what is the worst haircut you’ve ever had?

When I was in 3rd grade I got a Bob haircut. I liked it at first, but as the day went on, I *hated* it. By the end of the night I was going around the house with a paperbag over my head! LOL... another terrible haircut was also in grade school during the years I had bangs. My little sister had bangs cut and I wanted them too so mom let me get them cut. Bad idea - my hair is naturally curly/wavy and the bangs NEVER laid flat. I never made that mistake again! lol...

The social network

The other night hubby and I finally got around to watching our current Netflix DVD - The Social Network - as it had arrived before our move but we had been too busy the last few weeks to get around watching it and when we did have time we were more in the mood for a comedy than a drama.

Anyways, I LOVED the music - while Daft Punk's Tron:Legacy soundtrack was one of my favorites of 2010, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross did an awesome job on the soundtrack for this one as well and their Oscar was well deserved!

I also thought the movie was interesting and entertaining and it got me thinking back to the early days of Facebook.

As I've mentioned on here previously in other Facebook-related posts, I started using the site over winter break 2005/2006. Back then it was called The College Facebook (I still have my invite email from a friend!) and like you saw in the movie, it was exclusively for college students as you needed a .edu email and your school had to be on the list in order to sign-up.

I remember at the time NIU got Facebook there were less than 300 schools on there. It was neat to find people I went to high school with, as you could list your High School and graduating year on your profile, however I remember some of my fellow alumni had gone to schools that weren't yet on Facebook or friends that had only gone to community colleges (which none were on Facebook back then). I remember spending part of a late night at my college roommate's townhouse (the semester before we moved in together) working on my Facebook page and finding old classmates from high school. It was like www.classmates.com but better!

Back then the site was simple - you had a photo, you had your basic info like birthdate, hometown, major, relationship status, etc. Sure, The Wall existed but it was rarely used it seemed.

There was also a neat feature where you could add your courses and section number to your page so you could connect with classmates easily - came in handy if you missed a class or had a question about an assignment or even if you were planning on taking a course next semester and wanted to offer to buy the book off someone at the end of the current semester (happened to me once!). There was also the early Event feature which was moreso used to find out what parties were happening that weekend, however once it got popular people stopped using it as several people had gotten fined as their landlords or other students who worked in the apartment's leasing office would rat the party hoster out! Also, before there were "pages" for places or things to "like" there were college specific groups that were localized for that college and anyone could make them. For NIU, we had ones like "How many Cubs (or Sox) fans can we get to join?" or "I've gotten a piercing from Kenny!" "Walmart is the place to be in DeKalb!" Eventually they did away with them just being college specific and you could join groups your friends from different colleges were in.

I remember later that semester my school newspaper reported on it, as it seemed most of the campus had jumped on the bandwagon and it seemed for awhile like there was an article about Facebook every semester!

Eventually they opened it up to high schools and community colleges and before you knew it, anyone who had a valid email address. They also added applications, which no one really understood at first although Mafia Wars was a popular one at the time as well as some vampire one that never really caught on. Then came statuses and the newsfeed... so confusing at first yet they've become a part of our everyday lives!

When did you join Facebook? 

What did you think of The Social Network movie?

Jay's 1st Easter and a brief update

Oh wow... haven't updated in like a week! My bad!

Last Tuesday they brought *most* of our living room furniture as the loveseat was on backorder or something and didn't get shipped out with the rest of it. Anyways, that's coming this Wednesday then all we'll need is the china cabinet and bookshelves so I can unpack and make it kinda homey in there... We finally got the basement pretty much unpacked and since we can now do stuff in our office I started unpacking and organizing in there tonight since Jay was cooperative and is just chillin' in his bouncy seat for a bit.

Last Thursday I went into the suburbs with my mom and sis and sis's boyfriend to do some shopping at Woodfield Mall. We found a nice dress for me that I wore for Easter and can wear for other special occasions where I need to look dressy in warmer weather. We tried to find a cute little suit for Jay to wear for Easter but unfortunately the smallest we could find everywhere was 6months. We did find a cute little sweater vest though so we just got that and I paired with a collared onesie and his khaki cargo shorts I bought him at work. We also took him to Build A Bear and made him Jedi Bear from Star Wars! It's sooo awesome!

He was such a well-behaved baby too - he spent most of the day in his stroller playing with his stroller toys, including this new bar of toys my mom had bought for him to play with when he was with her, but he got kinda attached to it throughout the day so she let us keep it since she had bought another. So proud of him though! He didn't nap much at all either so he crashed when we got home after daddy left for work and slept well into the next morning.

We're making progress with the crib - longest he's gone in there is 5hrs straight, although we got him to go 7 once, having to go in a few times to stick binky back in his mouth. Gotta admit though, it's weird for me not falling asleep with him on or next to me!

Jay celebrated his 1st Easter this past weekend! We got him a basket, but since he's too young to dye eggs or eat candy we just filled it with the grass stuff and put a blue stuffed bunny in there and a "My First Bible" I bought at Barnes and Noble. We took him to church for the first time - he did really well! We missed most of the singing at the beginning and Jay fell asleep soon after we got there, with daddy holding him, waking up at the end of the service. He had plenty of people - friends of the family - cooing over him afterwards! We ended up joining my in-laws for Easter lunch at our usual spot, Texas Roadhouse, coming home for a couple hours so Jay and daddy could nap before going over to my parent's house for Easter dinner. We came home and took some pictures before our outfits got messed up!

 So all in all, things are coming along. It's been really rainy out the last week with a nice break of sunshine on Easter only to get rainy again today and for the rest of the week so we haven't done any work outside yet, nor have we had a chance to go meet our neighbors! (The first week when it was nice out my allergies kept me indoors and it's been rainy ever since!) We find out next week about the results of Jay's kidney tests in Madison, if there is anything more to tell from them that we didn't already know! We also bought him some rice cereal and bowls as we figured we'll start that up in a week or so when he hits 3 months since his regular doctor said we could if we wanted to, just so he can start getting used to eating from a spoon so we when start real solids in the upcoming months he'll be used to a spoon and bowl.

Happy Easter!

 

Last weekend I took Jay to see the Easter Bunny for the first time ever. He reacted just as we expected - a look on his face to say "uh mommy... what IS this pink furry thing and WHY is it holding me?!"

We're having him make his debut at church this morning too.

Game of Thrones

This past Sunday HBO premiered their new original series - Game of Thrones.

I remember seeing previews for this one last summer/fall when we had HBO for True Blood and Entourage and thought it looked interesting but we weren't planning on keeping our HBO outside the summer months as it was at least $10/mo extra. Well when we bought the house we decided to just start fresh with a new Comcast account, signing up in my married name this time as the old account was in my maiden name. The package we got includes 6 months free of HBO, putting us through September so we'll have it this summer for True Blood and Entourage again... and hubby was excited as we got it just in time for this new Game of Thrones series.

I had never read Song of Ice and Fire books that the series is based on but apparently hubby has and a lot of my online friends that are into geeky and sci-fi stuff have been talking about the premiere of this new series on Twitter and in blogs for the past few weeks so of course I was curious.

We watched the premiere this past Sunday and it was interesting to say the least...

It takes place in a Medieval setting with kings and queens, lords and ladies... it's got drama, intrigue, mystery and scandal, romance... I'm sure there'll be action... seems like an interesting series as this one brother/sister family is plotting to retake their royal family's throne from the current king who is trying to join his house with the house of his lord's by marrying their teenage kids to each other...  oh and the queen is getting it on with her twin brother who's in love with her...

Yeah...

Anyone else a bit... surprised by the creepy brothers in this series? I mean you had Daenery's brother undressing her and commenting about how she has a woman's body now before he marries her off... and the queen's twin brother all into his sister...

I guess we'll see how this one unravels - from one of "spoilers" I read on Wiki, things definitely sound like they get interesting!

Should also note that Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage both star in this one!

101 in 1001 progress update #3

I  haven't updated my 101 in 1001 in awhile... here's a bit of an update!


#4 - Watch at least 2 Netflix DVDs and 2 Instant Queue movies a month (8/66, 8/66)
As far as physical Netflix DVDs go, we've watched 2 in March - Easy A, which I wrote about not too long ago and was HILARIOUS, and Dinner for Schmucks which had its funny moments but overall wasn't that great of a movie.

For Instant Watch, I watched quite a bit these past 2 months: The Proposal, Labyrinth, Jesus Camp, Sunshine Cleaning, Arthur and The Other Guys. The Proposal was the stereotypical Sandra Bullock/Ryan Reynolds rom-com I expected it to be, so no surprises there. I've seen Labyrinth before but was in the mood to watch it again and it's such a great classic fantasy film starring a young Jennifer Connolly and David Bowie and his infamous "bulge". Jesus Camp is a documentary taking a look at this Evangelical Christian group and how they teach/train their kids in a church and camp setting - being a Christian from an Evangelical background this documentary showed me nothing new, nor was it shocking... to me it was "normal" as I had grown up going to summer camp with a similar youth church service/program and youth group was pretty similar... I guess if you're not from that background it might seem a bit shocking, but I am so I didn't get what the big deal was people on my Facebook were making over it. Sunshine Cleaning was really good - stars Amy Adams and Emily Blunt with Alan Arkin and Steve Zahn. Basically Amy is a former high school cheerleader turned cleaning maid and a single parent carrying on an affair with her high school sweetheart who's now a detective and married. Desperate to find a way to make more money to send her troubled son to a private school, her lover suggests she get involved in crime-scene clean-up, saying it's easy work but good money and she's more than qualified as she is a cleaning maid. She gets involved, starting her own crime-scene clean-up business with her junkie sister. Through the work though she comes to love it as she feels she helps the family of the victims move on, etc and she begins to take pride in her little cleaning business. Arthur I watched on a whim, as I've been bombarded with the commercials for the Russell Brand remake and was curious so I watched the Dudley Moore original. It was alright... not as funny as expected although I'm sure it probably was back in the early 80s! And The Other Guys... we watched this one the other night. Again, it was funny, but not great. I wouldn't recommend spending money on it but if you're bored and it's free it's not a bad one to waste time watching!

#40 - Buy a House & #43 - Own a dishwasher
It's official! Hubby and I are homeowners! We closed on the 7th and moved in the following weekend. We're still unpacking and have boxes still to take care of, however things are coming along! I LOVE having a dishwasher and it's nice having a washer and dryer that we can throw clothes in whenever without having to pay $3/wash&dry. While a house has noises of its own, it's nice not having loud neighbors up above us banging/stomping around at all hours of the day and night!


#42 - Mario-ize Jay's room
This one is in progress - I got the basic background layers of painting done in his room, I just need to go back and do the detail as I only had about a day before we moved stuff in. And of course we need more Mario decorative stuff too, but it's coming along!

#49 - Create a rec/play room
Our house kinda came with a rec room, but of course it's our stuff that makes it what it is. So far we have a nice entertainment center setup for watching TV and movies and playing video games. We also have a bar down here, a bookcase full of boardgames and an extra table and area that when Jay is bigger he can use to build puzzles, play games, build Legos or color on or use Play-Doh on. There's also a toybox bench down here too and we still have plenty of space for his toys when he's bigger and starts accumulating them!

Ten on Tuesday: Books

I like to stay away from posting too many memes/surveys on here as a lot of them get repetitive but I saw this one on Angie's blog and it's a bit different and thought it'd be fun to share/post on here!

So, without further ado, Ten on Tuesday: Books!

1. When someone asks you for a book recommendation, what is your go-to book?
Depends on who it is - if they're old enough and like vampires I usually recommend the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. If they're younger and into fantasy I would recommend the Harry Potter books

2.  Do you buy your books, or are you a library patron?
Well up until 2 weeks ago we technically lived in the county so we couldn't get a library card without paying $100/year so I didn't bother... that might change in recent years though now that we live in the city! Currently though I buy books or I borrow them from friends and relatives.

3.  E-readers, yay or nay?
I can see the point in them and I do have the Kindle and Aldiko apps on my Droid with a handful of free books, however I much prefer having a physical book to read. Unfortunately, it's harder to read a physical book than it is to read something on my phone while I'm handling a baby... but oh well!

4.  What was your favorite book as a child?
Oh geez, lemme see... Goodnight Moon was a favorite, There's a Monster at the End of This Book, The House that Had Enough... as for chapter books, I LOVED The Babysitter's Club books.

5.  If you could be any character in a book, who would you be?
Um... I guess maybe Sookie Stackhouse as she's an average girl who has such great adventures in a supernatural universe where vampires and weres and other fantasy creatures exist. Plus she gets with some pretty hot guys (<3 Eric Northman and Quinn)

6.  What book would you love to see turned into a movie?
I can't wait to see World War Z on the big screen, it was such an interesting read!

7.  What is your all-time favorite book?
I guess maybe Catcher in the Rye as it's a classic I never get tired of

8.  How many books do you read at once?
Depends if you count self-help books like Chicken Soup or child-rearing books as I tend to keep those as bathroom reading. Other than that, maybe 2 at the most but I like to read one book at a time if I can.

9.  What is your favorite book genre?
Definitely the fantasy/sci-fi section of the books store!

10.  Which Harry Potter book is the best?  Or haven’t you read them at all?
The 3rd one - Prisoner of Azkaban. I liked the book a lot and the movie is probably my favorite one too!

Happy (early) Easter!

This past weekend I took Jay to see the Easter Bunny for the first time ever!

He had the reaction we figured he would - a look on his face that was if he was saying "uh mommy... what IS this furry pink thing and WHY is it holding me???"

He did well though! The photo-op was hosted by The Rockford Kids Club which is a new local organization that hosts events like this one and offers discounts and deals to different places around town. An old friend of mine has a lot of involvement with it. But anyways, it was at Sapora Playworld which is an indoor playground type place inside the same building as one of the local ice rinks.

A friend of mine came with her 2 kids - her 1 year old started pulling on Jay's shoelaces, to which he gave her this dirty look, lol... it was pretty funny! Then he watched the kids running around and playing before dozing off.

Sunday was also a busy day for Jay as he got to meet his cousins for the first time ever! He has 2 - Noah, who will be 4 this summer, and Lucas who is about 4 months older than Jay. He didn't know what to make of Noah, who was a bit excited to see the baby and was playing with the toys on Jay's carrier. He was all wide-eyed meeting Lucas as he's never seen another baby that close in age to him - most the ones he's met before were nearly 1.

In other news, we're somewhat moved in now. Just tonight we got the rest of the boxes in the basement sorted and put away. We just have some boxes in the living room to put away, the office to put together and some stuff in our bedroom. Tomorrow most of our living room furniture is being delivered - for whatever reason Slumberland corporate didn't ship our loveseat with the rest of the set so that's been delivered when it arrives in a few weeks.

We've been working on getting Jay used to his crib. So far the longest he's gone in there is roughly 3hrs, which isn't too bad a start, considering the first time we tried he only made it an hour. We're really working on it this week though as it's important to get him used to sleeping by himself and in his own room.

My baby sis turned 18 today (Monday) and we celebrated with family on Friday by going to local pasta joint Lino's. We let Jay try some pasta sauce - he wasn't so crazy about it but boy did he love the little bit of vanilla ice cream daddy slipped him!

Kidney testing in Madison

Today Jay had his kidney testing up in Madison at the American Family Children's Hospital at University of Wisconsin - Madison and took his first "long" car ride and out of state trip.

I got up just before 6am to get myself ready before feeding him and getting him ready, stopped for gas and picked my mom up since she was coming to keep me company on the drive as hubby had to work. The GPS estimated about an hour and 40 minutes but it really only took us about an hour 15.

We got there just before 9am and found where we were going. They got us settled in a day treatment room and started getting Jay hooked up by giving him an IV (which sucked as they had to stick him twice to get a good vein) and put the catheter on him, which he didn't like one bit! Poor little guy... They let the IV hydrate him for bit, which made him fall asleep too.

The first test was a lasik scan where they scanned his kidneys and stuff for like an hour watching them fill and drain, etc. Fortunately he slept through most of that. We finished about 1130am and had to wait around until just before 1pm when he had his 2nd test which involved barium GI (it was called a VCGU). He did okay with that one. He was naked for it and pooped on the towel but it was alright - they got it cleaned up. The said the good news was that he wasn't showing any signs of reflux in the kidney, so it's not like anything was getting stuck up in there!

As we were finishing up the VCGU there was a statewide tornado drill and so yeah... we had to wait around for someone to come back to the front desk to validate my parking! Oh Wisconsinites and your silly statewide drills!

Jay did a great job though - I've VERY proud of my Little Man for taking everything as well as he did! Of course he cried a bit when they were sticking the IV on him and the catheter as expected but other than that he was momma's good boy! He also LOVED the Pedialite they gave him too! We fed him around 1130am but since he still had the barium test to do at 1pm they only wanted him drinking clear liquids so they gave us a bottle of apple Pedialite and OMG he wolfed that down!

Hopefully this will be the last of any testing he'll have done, as unless he needs surgery to unblock the blockage, they can just monitor it via ultrasound every few months and hope it'll unblock as he grows.

This weekend is a busy one for Jay - tomorrow he gets to go to mommy's deskjob with me as they actually have something for me to do and want to meet Jay so they said to bring him with and my 1 boss will help me watch him while I work as she's dying to see him. Then tomorrow night we're going out to dinner for Aunt B's 18th birthday (which is Monday). Saturday mommy's going to try and take him to see the Easter Bunny first thing in the morning as the local Rockford Kid's Club has get your photo taken with the bunny using your own camera for $1/kid! And Sunday he gets to meet his cousins Noah (who's 4 in July) and Lucas (who is 4 months older than Jay)!

Our big weekend

So this past weekend was moving weekend as we moved everything over from our apartment into the new house.

Late Thursday afternoon we closed on the house, got the keys and went over so my dad and uncle could get in to do some "minor" work - my dad wanted to work on fixing the drywall where there was previous mold damage and my uncle was coming over to fix something on the electrical box as he's an electrician. I got to work painting Jay's room.

I also had appliances coming first thing in the morning so Jay had his first overnight at Grammie's to make things a little easier for me in the morning. Mom said he did okay, as I was in and out over there a few times earlier in the night. She said around 2am he seemed like he was fighting sleep, like he knew his daddy would be coming home soon (as he usually does during the week at 330am) and was trying to stay up to see him, thinking daddy would come get him since he didn't get to go home with mommy earlier. She said he woke up around 8am for food and slept some more in the morning but started to get real fussy as the afternoon went on so she brought him over to the house so he could at least see us and know we didn't abandon him with Grammie.

As for me, the washer and dryer were supposed to be coming between 830-1030am, however at 8am, right as I'm about to get in the shower, I get a call asking if I can meet them in 5min. We tell them to give us 15-20min so I skip the shower and head straight over there. They got there at 830am sharp, hooked both up and left about 10 minutes before the guys showed up with our fridge. The Comcast guy got there right at 1pm and was here for a few hours as he was having issues first with our massive amount of cable hook-ups (apparently some are satellite hook-ups!) and then having issues getting the HD box to work.

Hubby and my sis's friend started bringing stuff over in my dad's jeep and her friend's car a little after 4pm. We were able to get most of the boxes over that way, however it took til about 9pm or so. Saturday we rented a U-Haul for the rest of the furniture to get it over here. Again, that took nearly all day.

Sunday my parents came over again - dad to work on the drywall some more, mom to help with Jay so we could work on unpacking. I got my kitchen all done and by the end of the day I had Jay's room unpacked, our upstairs bathroom complete and the boxes in the living room sorted as that furniture won't start arriving until Tuesday this week.

Saturday and Sunday hubby and I went out shopping for necessities that we needed right away, such as new locks, among other stuff. Needless to say... good thing payday is Friday cuz we're kinda broke! lol...

So we have Jay's crib all setup and have been working on getting him to sleep in it and get used to sleeping in a room by himself. He's gone a few hours so far, which is good... we'll get him used to it!

Jay seems to be adjusting to the new house better than Tiger though - Tiger's been a bit of a scaredy cat, stalking around and keeping close to us. We brought her over Saturday night, as that was our first night staying in the house. We transported her via the cat carrier. She was okay in it til hubby got outside, then she started freaking out a little bit and was meowing her scared meow the whole way in the car. She seems like she's starting to adjust though!

The apartment... it's a mess and looks gross! We didn't clean much the last few weeks because of the move but yeah... there's cat dander in places we didn't know it could get! And paper and crap from packing all over... a small mound of kitty litter where the box stayed... yuck! Not looking forward to cleaning that but we have til the end of the month - hubby and I are probably going to go over some Sunday and get it over with.

I'll be sure to post pics once we're a little more unpacked and we have furniture in the living room upstairs!

2 month check-up

Figured I'd sneak an update in here while Jay's still asleep - he fell asleep in the car on the way home from the doctor and is still asleep in his carseat/carrier! Someone's going to be hungry when he wakes up though!

So we had his 2 month check-up today and everything is great!

He's measuring just over 22inches long and with clothes on his weight is 10lbs, 4oz, so without clothes we're figuring right around 10lbs! Yay!

The doctor said we can just make his formula the "normal" way as it says on the package rather than mix in extra to make 24 calories like we had been. He also said we can try giving him a little bit of rice cereal if we wanted just to get him used to eating from a spoon, but he said most tend to wait til 4 months, so either way it's up to us.

Jay had a few vaccine's today too - one they gave orally which he took just fine as he's used to taking his amoxicillin orally, and the other 2 were combo ones via shot. He didn't like those and she said the 2nd one would sting a little bit too. Poor guy... he wasn't happy about that one at all but was fine soon after she was finished giving them to him.

So we don't have to go back to the doctor until his 4 month check-up in June, which is good, although we still have our appointment up in Madison next week for his kidney testing and then a follow-up appointment with his urologist 2 weeks after that.

ABCs

I found this fun ABC meme/survey over on Angie's blog and decided it'd be fun to do since Little Man is napping still and I haven't posted over here in awhile (feel free to check out my more active baby/family blog!).

We have a busy weekend ahead of us as WE'RE MOVING!!!

Yep, we found a house, they accepted one of our offers and we're closing on it tomorrow and getting everything ready and set this weekend - woot! So excited!

Now, onto the meme!

A - Age: 26, I'll be 27 on August 29th. Seeing that in print makes me feel old =/

B - Bed size: We have a queen. Growing up I always had a full, but got stuck with a twin in the dorms in college before moving my bed out there once I moved into an apartment. Once hubby moved all his stuff in here though he brought over his bed which is a queen! It's the perfect size for us, especially since he tends to take over the majority of the bed!

C - Chore you hate: Cleaning the floors, cleaning the bathtub and doing the dishes, although dishes won't be an issue after this weekend as our house has a dishwasher!! You have no idea how excited I am to finally have a dishwasher! lol...

D - Dogs: Hubby and I want to get one someday - maybe in the next few years now that we have the house and space for a doggie. We never got one before because I just didn't feel right about having a dog in a small apartment and with no yard to run around in. We always had dogs growing up too - I didn't become fond of cats til I was in college and my roommate got one.

E - Essential start to your day: Going to the bathroom then feeding Jay.

F - Favorite Color: Different hues/shades of blue and black

G - Gold or Silver: White gold and silver - I *hate* the look of yellow gold

H - Height: 5'4-5"

I - Instruments you play: Piano and oboe, although it's been years... I really want to get a piano eventually though so I can play more. And I can play a few things on bass guitar, but it's currently MIA (I let my sis's friend borrow it last summer for "a few weeks" and it's been over 6 months... >.>)

J - Job title: Graphic Artist at my design job, Sales Associate at The Children's Place, wifey, mommy

K - Kids: Just Jay, who's now 2 months old (man time flies!) and of course our furbaby Tiger who's 2 and a half years old.

L - Live: Good ol' Rockford, Illinois where I've lived most of my life, save for the 2 years after I was born that we lived in upstate New York and the 6 years or so I lived down in DeKalb when I was going to school down there.

M - My mom's name: Louisa, pronounced Lou-eye-zuh. With my maiden name as her last name too, new people she meets are screwed when it comes to saying and spelling her whole name correctly! lol...

N - Nickname: Hubby calls me "baby" and "mommy" when he's talking to Jay, most call me Rach for short... people that know me from WoW call me by shortened names of my characters like Flour (pronounced Floor) or Yar. There's also my old internet handle of LPchick and the really old nickname of Peaches (but only 1 person still calls me that, if even, lol...)

O - Overnight hospital stay: Well obviously when I was born, when we had Jay, and then the week long stay we had when Jay was in the hospital not too long ago.

P - Pet Peeve: Nails on chalkboard, having to repeat myself, people repeatidly/constantly using the wrong form of words like too/to, etc.

Q - Quote from a movie from a book: off the top of my head - "Asssssss yooooooou wissssssssh!" -from Princess Bride, Wesley to Buttercup as he rolls down a hill

R- Right/Lefty: I'm a righty, as is my mom. My dad and sis are both lefties though.

S - Siblings: Blood-related just 1 sis who's turning 18 in a few weeks and is a senior in high school graduating next month (that makes me feel really old!). By marriage I have 4 brother-in-laws aged 31 (who's married so I guess that means I have another sister-in-law too), 24, 21, and 18 and a 12 year old sister-in-law.

T - Time you wake up: whenever Jay wakes me up, hungry.

U - Underwear: I prefer comfy over anything, usually briefs or boy shorts (which hubby likes best)

V - Veggies you dislike: Cauliflower, Beets, Asparagus... I tend to like most veggies though

W - What makes you run late: lol... me! Seriously, I'm pretty much late to everything that isn't work, lol...

X - Xrays you've had: Don't think I've had any...

Y - Yummy food you make: Hubby likes the recipe I use for Chicken Tetrazine (courtesy of my mom)

Z - Zoo animal: Snow leopards and monkey's are cute too!

"It's Time to Build a Word..." - kid's shows, moving & more!

Just realized it's been about a week since I last posted.

Not too much has really happened. We're officially closing on the house this Thursday at 230pm so by evening we will have the keys to our own house! Yay!

Jay, 2 months old
(8 weeks, 3 days in this photo)

Jay can fit into his 0-3 month clothes now as I've had him running around in the onesies this past week. He's also been able to finally wear his shoes too - they don't look like giant clown shoes on him anymore!

We also started using the size 1 Pampers Swaddlers diapers too and I like them much better than the Parent's Choice Walmart brand we were using. While the Walmart ones fit great, I've noticed the past week or so he's been getting a pretty bad case of diaper rash. The Pampers ones are nice as they're a lot softer on his skin and they're virtually leak proof which is nice as we've been having issues with him leaking lately.

He's become more alert in the past week or so and so we've started watching kid's shows on PBS/WTTW. He usually watches some Sesame Street or WordWorld while he eats his morning bottle and falls asleep during them for a few hours - he usually sleeps about 6 or 7 hours at night and then wakes up to eat  and falls back to sleep for about 3 or 4 more hours. During his afternoon bottle (after he wakes up) we usually watch either Clifford, Curious George or Arthur. I'm not let him get hooked or addicted to TV or anything, but since he is more alert now and we've noticed him watching the TV when it's on I don't see any problem with him watching early learning shows while he's eating throughout the day. PBS seems to have the best younger kid friendly shows too. I really like the WordWorld show - everything in the show, from characters to objects and buildings, is made out of the word of the character/object/building. Like the duck character is made out of the letters "d-u-c-k". It's really cute! And the show uses bright colors too so it gets Jay's attention.

 

Sesame Street's Abby's Flying Fairy School
segment with animated background - most
of the segments in the show now have
animated backgrounds!

Has anyone watched Sesame Street lately? To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed by the current format. Growing up, it took place on the actual Sesame Street with the adults and kids interacting with the puppet cast of characters with various short segments dispersed throughout the show. Well now, we briefly see the actual Sesame Street (at least from what I've seen in the episodes we've watched) and the whole show is in various segments. Many of the puppet characters are now standing in front of CGI animated settings rather than actual real settings (half the time the puppets look CGI animated too!). And between each segment is a red monster who's hanging out in some city park introducing each segment (such as Elmo's World and Abby Cadabby's Flying Fairy School) with a real kid. Maybe it's just me, but I miss the old school Sesame Street from the 70s, 80s, and 90s that I grew up watching myself as well as with my sister. This new "updated" version just isn't as good in my opinion.

I started back at work this past weekend, working a 4.5 hour shift (it was supposed to be 4 hours but we were busy and the store was trashed so they asked if I could stick around for an extra half hour). It wasn't too bad. They changed the keyboard on the registers so that took a bit of getting used to (I hadn't worked a register since the very beginning of January!) and by the end of my shift I was doing returns pretty well too. After maybe the 1st hour or so I was feeling comfortable with everything again, as far as working a register.

After my shift I bought Jay a pair of sunglasses as we had display of them but only a handful left in the 0-2yr size and he's going to need a pair for this summer. They're a little big on him, as his nose isn't big enough to keep em on his face yet, but he'll grow into them! They're $3 each right now (normally $4.50 or 2 for $6) if you want to pick some up for you kid. After my employee discount I got them for $2.41 total - not a bad price considering they're Children's Place and not Walmart! There's a cute pair of sandals I want to get him too but I think I'm going to wait until this weekend to get them for him as they're $9.95 and this weekend we have employee appreciation days where we get to take 40% off instead of 25%.

The next few days are going to be quite busy.

Today (Wednesday) Jay has his 2 month check-up where he's going to get several shots which I'm sure he won't be too happy about! Hopefully the doctor will cut back his calorie count and just let him eat the normal amount so we don't have to mix extra into it and the formula can last a little longer. I'm guessing he weighs close to 10lbs too - guess we'll find out for sure tomorrow! Also, I have work tomorrow night for a few hours in the evening.

Thursday, like I said, we are closing on the house and then that evening my dad's coming over to fix the drywall in the one room while I start painting Jay's room as I need to get the blue layer on first and then the brown and then do the detail. Friday I'm going to be over at the house alllll day as we have our washer, dryer and fridge being delivered and Comcast is being installed - I plan on working more on Jay's room and doing some basic cleaning before we start moving everything in. Also Friday we're borrowing my dad's jeep and transporting all our boxes over from the apartment and then going shopping for other household items we need to get. Saturday is the big moving day as we're renting a U-Haul and moving over all the bigger items. Sunday I'll be back at the apartment for a few hours cleaning up here.