Doing a quickie

Yeah okay, not as dirty as the title may make you think (minds out of gutter people, lol...)

Going through my G-Reader before bed, I came across this fun survey/questionnaire that Angie posted on her blog.

1- Get the closest book, go to page 18 and write the 4th line down.
"Yes, we change and behave out of character, but not as often as we would like..."
-Writer's Guide to Character Traits (one of hubby's new writing books)

2- What’s the last thing you’ve watched on TV?
This "Prince Charming" movie starring Christina Applegate. Last time I saw it was on TV the last 5 minutes got cut off =(
3- Without checking, guess what time it is?
3:58am
4- Check, it is…
3:56 am

5- Outside of the computer noise, what do you hear?
The TV

6- When you got out the last time, what did you do?
Picked photos up at Walgreens, dropped Jay off at my mom's, got gas, saw Cowboys & Aliens with hubby, got dinner at Wendy's, then picked Jay up.

7- What are you wearing?

Black capri's, purple scoop neck shirt

8- Before answering this questionnaire, what were you watching?
The Prince Charming movie

9- Did you dream last night?
Yeah but don't remember what it was of

10- When is the last time you laughed?
Probably this evening, playing with Jay

11- What is on the walls of the room you’re in?
2 picture frames - one's a collage frame with 12 pictures of us and family members, the other is our family portrait we took for the upcoming church pictorial directory
12- Did you see something strange today?
Nope, not today

13- What do you think of this questionnaire?
It's okay

14- What’s the last movie you watched?
In theaters, we just saw Cowboys & Aliens today - I enjoyed it! On TV I just watched that Prince Charming movie

15- Should you be multimillionnaire, what’s the first thing you would buy?
Pay off all our bills/debt and put some aside for Jay's education
16- Tell us something about you we don’t already know:
I'm 25% Bohemian...?

17- If you could change something in the world outside of culpability and politics, what would you change?
Get rid of anyone that would ever harm a child
18- Do you like to dance?
Sure
19- Georges Bush?
I think he was alright - wasn't great and didn't come across as *that* bright, but he got us through 9/11 and there hasn't been anymore major attacks on US soil since. I think with Presidents, there's a lot behind the scenes that we (the average citizen) don't know about. I do know that a lot of people in our military aren't fond of Obama though (at least those that I know)
20- What would be your daughter’s name?

Alexandria Nicole, but we'd call her Alexi for short
21- And your son’s?
Our son's name is Jaydran Alexander, but we call him Jay for short

22- Did you ever think of living abroad?
Maybe Canada, but no, I've never seriously considered living anywhere else.
23- What would you want God to tell you when you’ll go through heaven’s gates?

"C'mon in!"

Life as of late

I realize I haven't actually posted much on this blog in awhile - as it is, I barely update my baby/family blog much either. Not sure why, as Jay falls asleep before midnight, giving me a few hours to myself... guess I just haven't had the motivation!

For those still following (and I noticed I somehow gained a few this month!), here's a brief update on life and what I've been feeling!

Baby Jaydran (Jay) is doing pretty well! He'll be 6 months already next Thursday and has been hitting all his development milestones, some of them even early! He just cut his 1st tooth last week, after several months of teething/gum pain and I think he's got at least 1 more that's pretty close to coming through! He eats baby foods now, getting a big bowl of apple rice cereal in the morning and a jar of fruits or veggies for dinner. He doesn't crawl yet but he can roll from back to tummy and tummy to back with no problems and will roll around all over the place if you let him (which BTW is NOT fun when you're trying to change his clothes or diaper! lol...). Lately he's been working on sitting up by himself and he's starting to get the hang of it. He also enjoys playing in his new baby walker and jumping/swinging around in his Johnny Jump Up.

Not sure if I mentioned it on here but we're seeing a pediatric urology specialist at the children's hospital in Madison for his enlarged kidney issue - turns out, the ureter tube, where it connects to the bladder there, is deformed and basically pinched shut which is why nothing is getting through and why the kidney is enlarged. The specialist said it's basically one of those things that just happens when the organ is formed in the womb and that we'll most likely have to have a minor surgery when he gets closer to 2 years old to remove the ureter tube, snip off the tapered part and reattach it into the bladder. Not looking forward to that, but the specialist assured me he's done it plenty of times and it's always been successful.

My hours at work picked up for awhile but they seem to have slowed down now, although I still have the most hours our of the regular employees (non-management). They picked up because we lost 1 of our assistant managers so that was like 30+ hours that needed to be picked up and most of them went to me and another girl, but the last week or so we've gotten a new assistant manager for that spot and so there goes that whole block of hours. I still seem to be getting at least 2 shifts a day though (down from 4, which I'll admit was bit crazy to adjust to so all of  a sudden like, as it seemed like when I wasn't working I was on call). The paychecks were nice though and Jay's pretty much set on clothes for fall (I swear I come home with a bag every week!).

We lost power for about 2 days straight at the beginning of the month when we had a really nasty storm come through early one morning. By the time I got off work that night it was 86 degrees in our house and just too hot so my mom said we could spend the night at their house in the spare room if we wanted, which we did! It came back on later the next night though.

I recently started going the chiropractor for my back (finally) and he's got me doing some physical therapy for it too. I've been going twice a week and they do this electrical stimulation for 15 minutes, then a 10 minute ultrasound (which feels like a light massage) and then a full massage to loosen up my back muscles and get out any knots as he said my back muscles were just waaaaay too tight which was a big factor in my back pain. He also does a few adjustments which seem to have helped.

I'm sure you've heard, Borders is closing! That really makes me sad as I'd rather not have to shop at Barnes & Noble if I want to get a non-new release or best-seller. B&N's prices are higher, they have no free rewards program and the only thing I like better there is their kid's section - everything else I prefer Borders. We went the 1st night of the liquidation sale and dropped some cash on some finds. I went back the other day too and picked up a few more collectibles for Jay that we either didn't get on Friday or they were out of and just got more in. That really does suck though... I really liked Borders and before we had a Borders in my town I enjoyed Media Play for my books, but they went out of business long ago.

We joined Sam's Club recently and I really like it! We can buy diapers and baby food in bulk for good prices, as well as our kitty litter, hubby's beer (Sam Adams) and a giant tub of ice cream that'll last us awhile among other stuff we can buy in bulk to stock up on (like body wash!). Also their book and movie selections are decent and are often cheaper than Walmart too (by like a dollar at least) so I've picked up a few newer/best-seller books there.

We finally got Tiger spayed too. Ever since we moved, we've been finding furniture and stuff that she had been peeing on! I'm not sure why she suddenly felt the need to mark our brand new furniture in addition to random boxes in our storage closest, other than maybe she was pissed or stressed about Jay and then us moving soon after too or what but we took her to the vet, they said she seemed fine and decided that spaying might solve the problem. Seems to have worked so far as we've noticed she's been peeing in the litter box again. She was confined to the basement for most of the month, 1st to keep her from peeing on all the upstairs furniture and then after she we spayed we had to confine her to the larger downstairs bathroom for a week or so til she healed so she wouldn't be jumping up high and tearing em open. We let her back upstairs the other day and she seems to be doing fine. She's still curious about Jay though and he tries to pet her every chance he gets (he's very fascinated with textures right now too!).

There will be football this year!!! In case you don't pay attention to sports, there was an NFL lock-out going on the last few months involving the player's salaries and the owners and the players coming to an agreement or something... because of this there were no organized team things going on which explains why there's been so many NFL players arrested over stupid stuff the last few months. But anyways, if the lock-out wasn't settled soon there was the possibility there would be no football this season and that would be sad as I look forward to spending Sunday (and sometimes Monday nights) watching football with hubby and we were looking forward to Jay experiencing his first season of football (we're hoping to teach him to say "football" "touchdown" and "Cowboys" at some point!). It reminded me of when I was a kid and there was no baseball that one season in the early/mid-90s. The 1st Sunday Night Football game of the season is the Cowboys vs the Jets so hubby wants to have a football for it too - should be fun!

My college roommate is up visiting this week from Texas so we got together for a bit today so she could see the house and Jay (he's doubled since she last saw him in March) and we figured out her centerpieces for her wedding next year too. She also told me some rather pathetic but amusing news about my ex that only confirms I did the right thing leaving his lazyass - he's 29 now and living with his girlfriend he met online (who moved up here from Texas)... in his bedroom in his parents house! He's also still going to school and since he's living at home I assume his parents are still paying for it... his poor family, they've been paying for his tuition for at least 10 years now and it's all because he's just downright lazy and doesn't apply himself or go to class! The thought of living in his bedroom at his parents house just scares me and makes me soooo thankful I got out of that relationship! I'm sooo thankful I have a husband who WANTS to work and that it's important to him to be the provider for his family and that we have the means to have a home of our own and can support ourselves and way of life, plus we have one of the cutest baby boys ever! I can't imagine being nearly 30 and still living at home because I'm too lazy to support myself. That's just pathetic (*note* it's one thing to have to move back home because of the current economy and say you lost your job and thus lost your home and needed somewhere to stay til you get back on your feet - I get that. But the fact is, my ex is lazy and always has been and is on track to always will be. He's been wasting his parent's money for years and doesn't seem to have any problem with it either).

So anyways, while I haven't been too active on the blog here, feel free to keep in touch with me on Twitter as I'm always tweeting on there throughout the day and I LOVE tweeting with my blogger friends on there too - I've enjoyed getting to know some of you more via Twitter!

Book Survey

Angie posted this book survey not too long ago and I thought it would be fun to do and share!

1. Favorite book - To be honest, I don't reallly think I have just 1 favorite. I have several I really liked and some series I really love/d but as far as one single book that stands out above all the rest... I can't really think of one!

2. Least favorite book - Breaking Dawn, the last book in the Twilight Saga. This is honestly THE WORST book I have ever read. Took me nearly 2 weeks to wade through that piece of crap and it was just horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE! It built up to a climax that never happened, was longer than necessary and it was just a terrible book in general. I want those 2 weeks back, Stephanie Meyer.

3. Book that makes you laugh out loud - This Chicken Soup for the New Mom's Soul book I recently got. Kids really do say the darndest things! lol...

4. Book that makes you cry - I almost cried at the end of book 10 in the Sookie Stackhouse series when a certain character gets killed off at the end. Granted, they already killed off this character in the TV series so I have no clue how they plan on doing some of the Sookie storylines from the later books, but it was a character I really started to like in the books and it was so sad to see them go!

5. Book you wish you could live in - The Sookie Stackhouse books, of course! All the supernatural creatures you read about in fantasy actually co-existing and coming out about it to the world?? How neat!

6. Favorite young adult book - I guess the Harry Potter books, although I don't really read much young adult fiction these days, I'm usually picking books up in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy or Mystery/Thriller sections

7. Book that you can quote/recite -
Probably none, as I don't often reread books

8. Book that scares you - World War Z was a bit scary in the sense that the way it was written made the whole Zombie Apocalypse seem like a real possibility!

9. Book that makes you sick - Not really sure...

10. Book that changed your life - I guess maybe Jesus Freaks: Voice of the Martyrs as reading what some of these people went through all because they refused to turn their back on their faith was pretty inspirational!

11. Book from your favorite author - Currently my favorite author is Charlaine Harris who wrote the Sookie Stackhouse books, so I guess that whole series

12. Book that is most like your life - Chicken Soup for the New Mom's Soul, I can totally identify with that one!

13. Book whose main character is most like you - I've been told I remind people of Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series!

14. Book whose main character you want to marry - Eric Northman from the Sookie Stackhouse series

15. First "chapter book" you remember reading as a child - Not sure if I read it or if my mom read it to me but I remember we read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis together. Otherwise I'd probably say it was Meet Samantha from the American Girl Doll books

16. Longest book you've read - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is 870 pages

17. Shortest book you've read - probably one of Jay's board books that's like 4-6 pages, lol...

18. Book you're most embarrassed to say you like - The Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking. It was littered with typos and gramatical & sentence errors throughout but I liked it enough to keep reading all 3 books. Take the cheesy/corny-ness of Twilight plus the teenage romance and make it about a troll changeling who goes home to her kingdom and you basically have this series. It was dumb, but I liked it.

19. Book that turned you on - there's several parts in the Sookie Stackhouse books that turned me on & I ended up waking up hubby for, lol...

20. Book you've read the most number of times - I don't really reread books... I guess I would say Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn as I read them for class at 2 different times in high school.

21. Favorite picture book from childhood - Goodnight Moon, Monster at the End of the Book, Pokey Little Puppy, I Help My Mommy, The House that Had Enough... I'm sure I could go on!

22. Book you plan to read next - I'd like to read Game of Thrones but that all depends on whether or not hubby ever finishes reading it (I've read like 4 books already since he's started it), if not... either The Stand or Hunger Games.

23. Book you tell people you've read, but haven't (or haven't actually finished) - I started reading Lord of the Rings once but couldn't get past the 2nd chapter, I got too bored.

24. Book that contains your favorite scene - I... don't know.

25. Favorite book you read in school - Catcher in the Rye

26. Favorite nonfiction book - The Chicken Soup books. I love those!

27. Favorite fiction book - the Harry Potter series and the Sookie Stackhouse books

28. Last book you read - Physical book: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson (I want to read book 3 but it doesn't come out in trade paperbook like the rest until March 2012!!!), eBook: Ascend, book 3 in the Trylle Trilogy

29. Book you're currently reading - I just started reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland Into a Ship of Her Own Making which I won in @AmyGeek's blog giveaway a few months back.

30. Favorite coffee table book - The 2 that I have: Mythology - the DC Comics Art of Alex Ross (I LOVE his art and technique!) and the Wicked Grimmerie

It *finally* happened!!

Today my sister and I took Jay to go see the new Winnie the Pooh movie, as my sister has ALWAYS liked Winnie the Pooh and I'll admit, the new movie looked cute (I was always a Tigger fan). Technically, his 1st movie in the theater was when we saw Thor with my in-laws on Mother's Day, however Jay slept that entire trip to the theater.

He did pretty good today though - he was awake when we went into the theater and the trailers were already playing... as I went to unbuckle him from his carrier to sit him in my lap I noticed he was starring at the movie screen all wide-eyed - it was funny! He laughed and grinned a few times and stayed awake during the Disney short at the beginning (it was about Nessie the Loch Ness Monster) but he fell asleep about 10 minutes into Pooh. He let out a cry when he woke up, but was fine as soon as he opened his eyes and realized mommy was there and where he was and watched the last 10 minutes or so of the movie. There were mostly toddlers in the theater and I think I saw 1 other baby, a little older than Jay.

Afterwards we stopped at Sam's Club to pick up kitty litter and a tub of ice cream (because we keep eating the smaller tubs too fast! doh!) and while walking down the book and movie aisles I found some with characters that Jay would recognize like Curious George and Dinosaur Train and got him laughing. While he was laughing I noticed a little white bud/bump on his bottom gum and proceeded to see what it was...

...he finally had a tooth break through!

It hasn't fully come in yet but it's definitely more progress than just his gums hurting as there's finally some visible proof! It's his front, bottom left tooth, which is surprising as his top front right ones seem to be where his gums hurt the most!

Dropping my sis off at my mom's house earlier, mom told us they had the free 8x10's from our church pictorial directory shoot available for pick-up last Sunday and since she didn't know when we would be there next she got ours for us.

 

I'd say it turned out pretty well!

First Haircut & First Walker

Some more firsts for Jay this week!

Last Monday he had his first haircut!

I know some babies that don't get their 1st haircut to closer to their 1st birthdays, however Jay had quite the baby mullet going on (I'm sure it could have rivaled Billy Ray Cyrus' in his "Achy Breaky" days!). Hubby's mom brought her hair cutting stuff with her when she came for her weekly Monday visit and went ahead and cut it. I wasn't there - unfortunately I had to work that night, but hubby took video of it and it was quite amusing! Jay freaked out, like it was the most traumatic thing ever! He *really* did not like the cape she put on him and stopped fussing for a moment when she went to get the buzzer, but royally freaked out again when he realized she was putting it to the back of his head! LOL...

We also finally got him a baby walker after taking forever to find one I liked that didn't have a buttload of toys on the tray (I swear it's impossible to find just a plain simple walker with nothing on the tray like the one I had as a baby!). He seems to enjoy it - at first he didn't realize he could move himself around in it, and now he's figured out how to push himself backwards - still hasn't really figured out going forward yet though! He's only used it in the alley way of the kitchen so far - we need to order a gate for our stairs, which he can't get to from the kitchen and we supervise him the entire time he's using it. It seems to have been a good buy though!

My Top 10 Diaper Bag Must-Haves

I recently got an email update from What to Expect (much like I do everyday) with an article link to "Diaper Bag Must-Haves". I agreed with all their suggestions, but had a few of my own to add.

1. Diapers
This is a no-brainer as it IS called a "diaper bag." I usually try to keep at least 4 or 5 in there so I don't have to constantly be refilling it as the only time he goes through more than 1 at a time is when he's over at my mom's while I'm working or out.

2. Wipes
I always keep a package of wipeys in the diaper bag

3. Diaper rash ointment
I prefer Desitin and always keep a tube in there

4. Sunblock (in the warmer months)
You never know when you might go outside for an extended period of time & you don't want baby to get burned so it's a good idea to keep some of this in the diaper bag. We use Huggies Little Swimmers waterproof spf50 sunblock.

5. A spare bottle
Cuz kiddo might randomly decide to get hungry at the most inopportune times!

6. Some baby food
At Target and Babies R Us you can find small formula containers like the one in the picture by Munchkin where you measure out the formula powder beforehand and then just pour it into the bottle when you need it. I LOVE this product and am soooo glad to have it - it really comes in handy and I don't have to carry an entire tub of formula with me! This particular one has 3 separate spots.

7. Your kid's "lovey"
Jay's is his stuffed Elmo so I make sure to always put him the diaper bag before we go out.

8. Bib/Burpie
Jay drools A LOT right now so for us it's mandatory to have an extra bib in the bag and of course a burpie cloth is needed in case he eats while we're out and about.

9. A blanket
More for the colder months, as you never know how the weather will be - one minute it's in the 70s and your kid is in shorts, the next it's in the 50s and you need something to throw over his legs! Plus, if you're driving in the colder months and something happens where your car breaks down, doesn't hurt to have a blanket on hand, especially for kiddo!

10. A spare set of clothes
In case your child has a blowout in his diaper that goes up his back or some other massive mess that requires a change of clothes while you're out.

Honorable Mention: A bottle of water
More so in case you get stranded somewhere like if your car breaks down - if kiddo gets hungry you can mix a bottle for them (assuming you have #'s 5&6).