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If you need to de-friend me, it's okay... Monday, December 31, 2007 When I run, I can take or leave the iPod. If I use it, I can run to any type of music, and do. The elliptical is a different story. I must have music, and it must be aerobics-class-upbeat. Since there is no running in my life anymore, all exercise happens on the elliptical machine. Andrew gave me a $50 giftcard to iTunes in my stocking, so I attached it to my account, and began clicking through the Top 100 list. My new favorite workout song, which actually sounds quite 80s-ish, which might be why I like it, is by Miley Cyrus; aka Hannah Montana, who is about 12 years old and has a show on the Disney Channel. This is a new low for me. But, it's stayin' on the iPod, because it made the 45 minute elliptical boringness fly by! ~Courtney posted at 10:52:15 AM Our Christmas Vacation Friday, December 28, 2007 We are home (and have been since Wednesday night) from NY, and I finally feel as if I am getting back to normal (whatever that is) here. We had a fantastic time visiting with my family, and Benjamin was in HEAVEN with all of the attention he got over our 5 day trip. I think he's suffering from holiday hangover right now. We arrived in Potsdam on Friday evening. We stopped in Syracuse to pick up my grandmother; it was great to be able to have her ride along with us. Benjamin was great in the car, mostly due to the DVD player that was bungee-corded to the back of the passenger's seat headrest. He was pretty sick of the car by the end of the trip, and not pleased when we threw him back in about 30 minutes later to drive over to Emily and Brian's house. He was hilarious when we were over there. Over-stimulated was taken to an entirely new level, and when he crashed, he crashed hard. On Saturday, we hung out, Benjamin played outside, and then we had dinner over at my dad and Karen's house. After our pizza party, we put Benjamin to bed, and headed out for a WILD night on the town. Okay, it wasn't even remotely wild. We met up with one of my oldest friends and her husband for a couple of drinks at Maxfields.  I think he understands why I clip his own mittens onto him now. When it's cold, your hands get cold, and then the adults put these HUGE gloves on you...cool.  In the country, you ride around in wheeled carts...who knew?  On Sunday, I think we just hung out. Yeah. That's it. We stayed pretty close to home, minus a "need to get out of the house" trip to Hackett's to walk around. On Monday afternoon, Christmas Eve, we headed over to my dad's house for dinner and gifts. We had a fantastic lasagna, and my favorite, carrot cake. There were gifts galore, and Benjamin scored some great books, and a very fancy Radio Flyer wagon. It has cupholders and a cooler! Wow...Andrew's dream come true for a toddler-toting set of wheels! Grandpa (my dad) teaching Benjamin how to "flick" the water from his (my) water glass. Lovely habits!   I can't wait to ride in my new wagon...I'll just sit here until we get this thing together. It arrived today, and Andrew is in the garage putting it together right now! And yes, that's a cooler that holds 12 cans on the front.  We had another early night on Monday; mostly in preparation for Santa's visit. Benjamin woke up very early (which has nothing to do with Santa, and everything to do with his new(ish) habit of waking up at 5-6 am...), and we entertained him our room for awhile...since nobody else would have appreciated getting up at that hour. I think it was about 7 o'clock when we made everyone get up and head downstairs to see what Santa brought. He brought a lot.   Benjamin hugged the moose and trike for a couple of minutes. He couldn't take his hands off of them!    Benjamin was so overwhelmed...he ran between the rocking moose (from my mom and Ron) and the trike that Santa had brought for him. It was SOOOOO much fun to watch his reaction to all of the presents!!   Vroom. Vroom.   Don't thank me. Thank Santa!  "I've never been allowed to play with more than one crayon at a time. Cool."   Benjamin went outside to play for awhile, and started to fall asleep in the swing. Here he is patiently waiting for Andrew to get his outdoor stuff on:  And not so patiently...  We had a nice brunch, which was conveniently timed to Benjamin's nap, so it was quite relaxing. Brent, Emily & Brian came over later in the afternoon. We had our traditional dinner of filet mignon and lobster, Waldorf Salad, baked potatoes, and green beans with almonds. It was fantastic! After clearing the table (Benjamin ate nothing, and instead watched this e-card that someone had sent my mom, over and over and over again) we went straight to the living room to open presents while Benjamin was still awake. He didn't make it through his entire pile, and ended up having to go to sleep around 7:30 or 8. We opened the rest of our presents and chatted for a long time. Right before dessert, I was hit with a stomach bug, and didn't get to partake in anymore holiday fun. It was horrible. Thankfully nobody else got sick. However, between Benjamin's sinus infection, Brent's cold, and then my tummy, we were kind of a rough group, anyhow. Wednesday morning, we packed up the car and headed south, stopping a few times along the way. We were POOPED by the time we rolled in, but managed to unload the car and put some things away before going to bed. Thanks, to everyone in Potsdam (well, to my family, and L&P), for such a great visit. We had such a nice time, and were sad at how quickly the days went by! ~Courtney posted at 3:31:49 PM Merry Christmas! Tuesday, December 25, 2007 May your holiday be filled with good friends & family, great food, and as much Radio Flyer fun as you can handle!    ~Courtney posted at 10:12:51 AM Tree is down... Thursday, December 20, 2007 We took our tree down. Yes, I know it's only December 20, but we're not going to be home for Christmas, and it was losing needles by the second. I have no energy to come home, after a 9 hour drive, to a house with a pile of needles. There are some new townhomes going up across the street, and countless dumpsters, so I sent Andrew off, dragging the tree and abandoning it over there. I felt like we should have had ski masks on!! It was sad for about 20 seconds. Then it took us 20 minutes to vacuum up the remains. This was a very good idea. Now, I just need to remember to get a family picture in front of another tree this week! ~Courtney posted at 10:06:11 PM Grumpy, still. Wednesday, December 19, 2007 So, I've been in a funk for the past five or six weeks. I started to post this, and realized I was especially grumpy at this time last year, too. So, perhaps it's just seasonal... BUT, Benjamin is sick with a cold. My house is a disaster, and despite efforts to tidy up EVERY night, it just never seems to get better. I am sick of my Christmas tree, which is what happens when you put it up the day after Thanksgiving, and wish that it'd un-decorate itself while we're in NY. On a slightly different, but similar note, a year ago today marks when I decided to quit my full time job and stay at home, working only when Benjamin napped. Ironically enough, this morning I woke to an email from the new marketing manager, asking for a list of responsibilities from everyone in the department. Mine are limited these days, but I do enjoy them. I know, however, that I am obsolete and on my way out. Which leads me to another big life-decision...to find a job outside of the home or not? I love staying at home with Benjamin, and feel thankful that we are able to make it work, but a huge part of me loves being able to work, and stay on top of my industry, etc. That is to be continued, because I fully intend to shake this off, and enjoy watching Benjamin experience his Christmas...filled with family & friends, good food, more gifts than any child could ever dream of, and snow! Update: Cold = sinus infection, and 10 days of Amoxil. I have dealt with more boogers today than any human should deal with in their whole life. For real. ~Courtney posted at 9:45:34 AM Our week in pictures Sunday, December 16, 2007 I've been horrible about taking/uploading/editing/re-uploading pictures lately...but here are a few from recent days: Hanging out last Sunday. Things get awfully silly around here!    56 degree days in December rock. As do friends (not pictured) who are able to meet us at the playground at 7:30 am.  Don't worry...not a REAL tornado. Just a toddler-tornado.  When mom opens the fridge, I am going to sneak in and mess things up. Oooh, this drawer comes out. I'll hide stuff there.  Reason # 1 why it's a bad idea to wrap presents with Benjamin around. Where is that last roll of scotch tape? Oh, it's stuck to Benjamin, the couch, the tv stand, and a couple of stuffed animals.  Reason # 2. Benjamin steals the pen I use to write on the gift tags.  My beautiful, organized pantry. It won't look like this by the end of the week, so this is more for me to remember the results from the hour I spent on this yesterday.  Tired mama and VERY tired baby after a busy day.  ~Courtney posted at 8:35:02 PM Things we talk about now Sunday, December 16, 2007 So, the television (teewee, as it's called in our house) was on for awhile this morning, and Andrew says to me: A: "I like Diego better than Dora." C: "Not me." A: "It's Dora the Explorer, right?" C: "Yes" A: "She doesn't explore anything. Her map tells her where to go. That's not exploring." Maybe it's a lot less funny than it seemed to me at the time. In fact, it's really not all that funny now that I've typed it out. But, I found immense amounts of humor in how dumbed-down so many of our conversations tend to be lately. ~Courtney posted at 9:39:36 AM Night night! Thursday, December 13, 2007 We're having a bit of an off day, apparently still in recovery from last weekend's cold (or, we have a new one; yip yip), and not on any type of schedule. Despite a 2 hour nap this morning, tired boy is back down again. However, this is share-worthy, because of how it happened. He brought me "Pat the Bunny," and we read it a couple of times. When we got to the page with "Now you read Judy's book," we started flipping through the mini-book, and got to the place where it says night night bunny. Benjamin looked at me, placed his head down on the bean bag and said "night night." He then got up, walked to the bottom of the stairs and banged on the gate until I took him upstairs. I fell asleep rocking him. Moments like that don't happen very often. It was great! ~Courtney posted at 2:10:05 PM Busy week Wednesday, December 12, 2007 I feel as if we've been running non-stop for the last couple of days. We've kept busy with shopping, PT, story-time, germboree, among other things. Benjamin is starting to get into the one-nap-a-day groove, which is fantastic. It's been a bumpy transition, but I feel like each day is improving. He woke up hours before the sun this morning (5:15ish, to be exact). Luckily for us, he does take a good 15-20 minutes to wake up and prepare himself to rejoin the human race. In attempts to get him to sleep later, I gave him some milk at 5:15, and went back to bed. He wanted nothing to do with more sleep, and I couldn't sleep either, so Andrew got up with him and I went to the gym. I hadn't worked out before 6 AM in years. Seriuosly, years. It was pretty nice. I logged into email to see if Stephanie was up already, because it was in the mid-50s already, and we were planning on going to the park to play. Jonathan got up at 5:30, too...so we met at the playground around 7:45. The boys played hard until nearly 9. It was funny to be out so early with a friend...not funny was realizing it wasn't even 9 am when we were all headed toward home. Poor Jonathan was close to passing out in the swing. He's typically, a much better sleeper than Benjamin, so the 5:30 thing is a real shock to the entire family. Nothing else really exciting. No pics yet...B's little cold from this weekend caused me to put the camera away for awhile. The constant runny nose is gross. Nobody wants to see that. ~Courtney posted at 8:06:22 PM Long weekends, sleep woes, and fish Monday, December 10, 2007 Andrew came home from Colorado late on Thursday night, and decided to not go into the office on Friday. We hung out, went out to lunch, ran some errands to avoid the weekend crowds, and continued to deal with Benjamin's not-so-seamless transition from two to one nap. We were up late, as Benjamin woke up around 10:30 with the highest fever he's ever had. Poor little guy was so agitated and shaky. I felt horrible. I know it doesn't seem like it, since he had all of his ear infections, but he's never really beed sick before, except for a little cold he got when he was 3 months old. We ended up watching Blues Clues on-demand in our bed until well after midnight. He just sat there, holding my hand. It was pitiful. I think it was likely from his shots, although, he had a bit of a cold over the weekend, so it could have been something he picked up at either germboree or the doc's office. Andrew let me sleep in on Saturday morning. Of course, I was awake and downstairs by 7:30, because that IS sleeping in these days. We went to the gym together, and Benjamin had fun in the childcare room. I was worried, because he fell asleep on the four mile drive to the gym. But, as always, he had a blast. The girls all love him in there! The rest of the weekend was basically a blur. We did nothing all that exciting, but rested up a little bit. I let Andrew sleep in on Sunday, but he was downstairs before 8. It's as if our bodies go into some kind of shock if the opportunity to sleep past 8 comes up. Fantastic. Today, Andrew went back to work at the office, and Benjamin and I had our first successful 1-nap day. While he woke up too early, as usual, he stayed up until a nap at 10, slept for 2.5 hours, and was a peach for the remainder of the afternoon. He and I headed up for an afternoon at the Baltimore Aquarium. That place is so cool, and is even cooler when nobody else is there! It was fantastic to buzz through! That's about it from here. ~Courtney posted at 9:18:13 PM Happy (late) 15 months, Benjamin! Friday, December 07, 2007 We had B's 15 month appointment today, so it felt more real to post this today, rather than last week. He's about the same weight as he was at 12 months, and just a bit taller. I constantly worry about his food intake, because it's pretty bad, but the doc said not to worry yet. We're hoping for a bigger jump between 15-18 months. He's 50% for both height and weight; 32 inches, and 24.5 lbs. I really thought he had hit a growth spurt with height, but I guess I just shrunk all of his clothes. Oops. He's been a blast lately. Andrew was out of town all week, and we had so much fun. We're also moving to one nap a day, which is good and terrible. Good, because Elise only takes one nap now, so we'll get to have more frequent visits with them, and terrible, because I really need that recovery time during the day. I guess I'll adjust! Anyhow, we've had a long week, so this is the best I can do! ~Courtney posted at 8:42:36 PM Let it snow (now that we have snow clothes)! Thursday, December 06, 2007 I figured we'd do snow-clothes for part of Christmas, so of course, I hadn't bought them yet. But, Maryland doesn't get snow until January, right? Um, no. Anyhow, Benjamin and I trekked over to REI today to get some toddler snow gear. Luckily, only about 50% of the snow melted while we were out running our errands!     We had to come in sooner than Benjamin would have liked because he refused to wear his mittens. He seemed unaffected by the snow on his hands, but they were changing to a color I am quite sure is not healthy. I hope we get to wear those clothes a lot! He had so much fun! ~Courtney posted at 4:28:05 PM Busy, busy, busy Tuesday, December 04, 2007 So, I guess I really did need a little break from the website. I don't know that I've even looked at it in a couple of days. Anyhow, we've been keeping busy, visiting with friends, physical therapy, doctor's appointments, Christmas shopping, and snapping the perfect Christmas card photo. Benjamin chose to wake up at 4:22 this morning, and since I am on AM duty alone this week, I need to go to bed. It's pushing 8 o'clock. In the meantime, please enjoy this fantastic, but not quite Christmas-card-worthy picture:  ~Courtney posted at 7:40:46 PM |
