Hot Buggs in the Summertime

Wow, A month to the day that I have last blogged... well I will try to hit some highlights before the bigg bugg wakes up and my house falls into chaos once more!

Nothing says summer like the first dip in the kiddy pool! I cleaned out the kids pool toward the end of May and then tossed the kids in. Jax crawled around in it and loved to splash with Freyja, he dunked himself a couple of times but if anything it has just fueled his love for the pool even more! We have made several trips to the in laws to swim and even a couple of trips to the city pool (it has fun slides and water gauntlets) this summer and I see MANY more in both of the kids future! 

June 5th David turned 30! He said he didn't want to do anything for his birthday and we'd just have a quiet family sit down for it. Well, I convinced him to let DJ, John and the kids to come over for the afternoon the day before his birthday "so the kids could play". While he had Freyja at her Saturday gymnastics class I snuck a handful of his close friends in to the house and when they got home he was floored! I baked three cakes for him, one for each decade. Chocolate flan, chocolate pike and a strawberry dream. His parents bought him a grill for his birthday and the next day he and his friend Connor built the grill and we all had grilled chicken kabobs! I have a feeling we'll be grill quite often this summer :)

There's somebody sleeping in MY bed and she's STILL there!!! Big Bugg must be going through another one of those infamous growth spurts, they always seem to leave her a little insecure. We're working with her again on "big girls...big beds"...you know the drill. It was so cute to come in though and find that she had snuck into our room while we were watching tv and fell asleep on my side of the bed (the rail is there to keep Jax from rolling off in the night). I carefully transplanted my sweet girl back to her bed and she hasn't been back since...I miss her in my bed but at least I get cuddle time with her before she goes to bed in her bed. We still snuggle til she falls asleep :)

HELLOOOOOO heartbreaker!! Tell me, do these jean diapers make my butt look cute? He had his 9month check up at the beginning of June, he's 17.11lbs and 28 3/4in tall!! At 9months Freyja was 18.8lbs and 28 1/2in tall. So they are running neck and neck so far! Freyja had a mini check up too and has shot up TWO inches since November!!

My big girl got to meet her idol last week! Strawberry Shortcake was at the pier (and splashpad) meeting all of her fans and Freyja got a chance (several actually) to go up and say hi and get hugs. Our evening ended with her first official trip to Krispy Kreme Donuts for some hot donut holes and an oreo milkshake!

Here's bugg's latest project. We were at Wal Mart this week looking for pots for another project and found this neat little greenhouse on clearance. She's still at a loss as to why the plants didn't just shoot right up the moment we planted them but it did come with a growth chart so that she and I can track them and keep a log. After they get to a certain size we get to transplant them into the yard...I just hope daddys squirrels will leave them alone! They might have to move to Grandmama's garden!

Yeah...I'm in trouble! He's learned to climb the dog stairs and how to boost himself up on the bed! Yes, this is great for when the aliens fail to abduct him too and drop him off the side of the bed and he can just get himself back up but of course it doesn't stop at stairs! In the last three days I've had to shake him off bookcases, dvd shelves, the dog stairs, cabinet and drawer knobs...I keep checking his hands for "spiderman" hairs that let him climb walls and stuff, so far he's clean but that doesn't mean he's not part tree frog or gecko instead!

So thats the last month in a nutshell. We've also had the inlaws dog for the last two months as they've been off visiting our new niece (China) and nephew (Washington). They make it home today and I know Skotty will be VERY pleased to be back in his own home with his own parents!

In other good news, Davids work contract was extended out to October. Though starting as early as Monday, he'll be working from home. This should be interesting! Might have to run an extension cord to the storage shed and make him a little office in there!

Thats all the news for this month! More to come in July as my bigg bugg turns FOUR!!! Love to you all!

Busy lil bee's

Baby Bugg's first trip to the beach! A year ago mothers day I remember sitting on the beach looking out at the water praying that the recent oil spill wouldn't reach us so that my children could grow up enjoying the beach as they rightly should. This year on mothers day I was blessed by being able to take my son to the beach for his first time and actually let him play in the water because our beaches were spared the major blow. We might not have the beautiful white sand anymore but at least we have an almost spotless Gulf to still enjoy. Needless to say, Jax LOVED the water and getting to play in a float. Freyja, of course, is a beach bugg from birth! Plus having her friends out there to play with made the trip perfect for her.

My birthday present this year :) I can't even tell you when the last time was that I actually celebrated my birthday with my father! This was dad's first visit that he was able to stay more than 3-4days. Surprisingly after 10days we were still going strong and hadn't had one of our famous father/daughter brawls and having to call mommy for help. Freyja loved having Papa here! On his last night here, she got to stay up waaaaaay past her bedtime and help him work on his final project in the garage. Every morning since...when's Papa coming back?? As for Jax, he's found his favorite grandparent! The only other person he fawns over that much is me, so apparently the kid liked him "just a little"!

I managed to squeeze in a little "me" time this month as well. My friend LaTatious came home this month for her annual visit and the four of us that have been friends (forever) for almost 20yrs now got together and sealed our friendship with an ever lasting mark. We each got a tattoo of 5 music notes in the shape of a star with a burst of color on four sides, each color representing one of us. L-R, Wendy/wrist/red, Me/shoulder/orange, LaTatious/foot/blue, DJ/hip/green. Now, no matter what happens in life, good or bad, we can just look at our tattoo and remember that besides family, we have three other people that love us unconditionally and will back us no matter what! Mom always told me "you NEED girlfriends", I now understand what she meant by that and yes, I NEED these girls in my life!

My lil tumbler started back to class this past week. Papa was here for her first class of the semester. She is now taking it twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Its nice because now she has two teachers she has to learn to mind. This will help when she starts Pre-K this year and has to listen to her teacher. David attended his first class with her this past Saturday, you could see pride just pouring out of him over the fact HIS little girl was out there doing all these neat tumbles and behaving so well!! I look forward to the day Jax can join her out on the mat!

Is there anything this kid won't eat?!?! I look through the pictures dad took while he was here and most of them are of Jax eating something! Pizza...jerky...beignets...fudge cicles...graham crackers...you name it, the kid has learned he enjoys eating and there's nothing he won't try! Though nothing says love like the look of pure bliss as he's devouring my fudge cicle!

The return trip to New Orleans to take dad back to the airport an adventure! It broke my mama heart to leave my big bugg home with her daddy and take just my baby bugg with me but a good time was had by all!! While we were pounding the pavement of the French Quarter, Freyja and daddy had a blast playing in the yard, going out to Arby's for dinner and building a lego house! It appears Jax has the travel gene in him as well. He took to the road like a pro, napped most of the drive or just played quietly. He dawned his hat, pitched foward in his stroller and took in all the sites of New Orleans. Stretched his legs at the famous Cafe Dumonde and ate his first beignet (French donut). When he got tired he laid back and napped in the cool breeze. He cruised circles around Papa and I that night in the motel room...Jaxon 500!!He slept between his Papa and me in the motel and then sawed logs all the way home the next morning. I've had many mama/big bugg adventures that I treasure, now I have a mama/baby bugg adventure to add to my memories as well :)

So, sorry for the delay in blogging this month. I think you can tell I've had another full month of fun and adventure with my Buggs! Now its time to head off to the airport, collect the in laws and rid myself of my extra dog (for a couple of weeks anyway...)! Love to you all!

THE Easter Egg

A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, in-joke or feature in a work such as a computer program, web page, video game, movie, book or crossword.  It draws a parallel with the custom of the Easter egg hunt observed in many Western nations as well as the last Russian imperial family's tradition of giving elaborately jeweled egg-shaped creations by Carl Fabergé which contained hidden surprises.^[2]

Most of the time we think of Easter baskets in the sense of prize giving. That one time a year we give our child gifts and not have to wrap them. Ones we can hide in the yard, dye funny colors, give permission to bite the heads off of rabbits and people not look at you odd because its obviously the chocolate variety. Well, I can guarentee you I will be watching much more closely the items I pick for my kids baskets in the future! Toy guns...nope, cause violent thoughts/actions, candy...not much, makes the kids go crazy (and mom too!), jump ropes...oops, yeah not to a 3yr old apparently! Ah, but a Disney movie, thats safe right??? WRONG!!! Disney planted an "easter egg" on me! It came in the form of scissors in the wrong characters hands and off came my daughters hair!

Here's the damage done!

Here's damage control.

The look was more over the fact she got blow-dried, which means noise and thats a no-go with this chick! She's happy to have short hair, though when daddy sees it he might cry! The stylist said not much could be done to "fix" it since she butchered it in places to the point of almost bald. So the "fix" of the day was a trim, shape up and a comb over. Looks like lil miss mess will now have a side part.

Otherwise, Jax's first Easter was a great one! The e.b brought Freyja a strawberry shorcake toy, an egg that grew a turtle, a strawberry shirt, rapunzel toy and movie , a minnie mouse doll and few other small candies and cutsie things. Jax received Puffs (baby crack), a onesie, some pacis, a bunny, a sheep and a mickey doll. We had a wonderful lunch with the in laws and all around wonderful family day :)

A Hoppy Weekend

Its not quite Bunny Day yet but this past weekend we spent some family time with the kids going to several bunny events with them. We started off our morning with a city sponsored egg hunt over by the airport, David took Freyja to her side of the field and I kept Jaxon on the crawler/new walker side. Freyja scored about 10eggs all by herself, daddy waited on the sidelines cheering her on as she raced through the mad house of 3/4 year olds to score eggs. Jaxon and I took the more laid back approach, found a couple of eggs close together and once his little hands were full we trekked through the egg crazed parents to the crazy 3/4 year olds to find daddy and sister. When we got home Freyja got the contents of ALL the eggs but Jaxon got the eggs to play with.

After being refueled with a quick lunch we raced off to Silverhill, Alabama (our side of Mobile, Loxley exit for those of you familiar with the area) to Wales West RV Park to check out the "Cottontail Express". They have a VERY nice garden rail system set up that takes the kids on a two mile trek around their grounds. On the other side of their "swimmin hole" is a workshop set up for the Easter Bunny (or Santa or whoever else might be visiting) and they get to make a seasonal craft (bunny ears) and see the surprise guest and get pictures taken. They also had a small egg hunt set up in the back of the workshop, kids could hunt all the eggs they wanted but were only allowed to take home five each. Yay for little brothers because that meant Freyja got ten! At the end of the ride the kids were invited to come up and blow the whistle, of course Freyja grabbed daddy's hand and hauled butt to the front to blow it while Jax and I ran from the front since he really didn't care for the loud noise. And as customary, we did pick up one souvenier, Freyja got a pink conductors cap :)

And then Sunday we headed up to the park with some of our friends (of which Freyja and Jaxon are the youngest) and spent a fun filled cool morning hunting eggs, picnicing, feeding squirrels, chatting and of course playing! It was the kids job to find all the eggs then the parents divied them up evenly as to be fair. Though honestly Freyja holds her own quite nicely! She can race and collect as good as the big kids!

Over all I think the kids had a great pre-bunny day weekend. I'm gonna be hard pressed to find anything quite this fun for next weekend for the big day! I just hope an Easter basket full of prizes will suffice! We wish you all a happy Easter next weekend, may yours be as fun as the weekend we've just had!!

Cuddle Buggs

How I lucked into this picture, I will never know!! To get both of them to sit still, smile and LOOK at me at the same time is miracle! I just had to share this one first because they are just too precious in this one not to revisit it. You can see that sisterly love for her lil brother too. Not once in almost 8months has she ever been jealous. He's HER boy, HER lil man, HER baby....you name it, he's 100% hers! 

Ahhh....the crawling stage has begun! So long to days of not worrying whats on the floor, goodbye to Star's safety of laying in her bed uneaten (he LOVES to chew Star's ears). Yesterday he hoovered a piece of plastic wrap from the den floor and gagged for about 15minutes til I was able to locate it and get it out. I had to make him throw up twice before we found it and got it out. Last night for almost two hours he explored the living room floor while David and I watched tv. He likes getting under the coffee table and pulling up or going and trying to retrieve his toys from under the couches. He put too much weight on one of his toys and landed face first on the table at one point but never even cried, just looked back at me, laughed and cruised on around the table. David and I were commenting on how this lil guy is NOTHING like his sister at this age. Freyja would pull up and cruise around on things but she never did learn to crawl or scoot til after she learned to walk. Its fascinating watching him crawl around and explore things!!

While awesome things come in chocolate packages, I highly advise AGAINST letting little ones devour half a chocolate fudge pop before their first birthday! Talking about tummy issues! Poor lil guy like to have died after having his first taste of pure bliss! Lesson learned...SMALL BITES!!! But man, this picture says it all...."What do you mean its all gone?!?!"

My big bugg is making more strides to becoming Miss Independent! The Easter Bunny delivered an early bunny gift to Miss Bugg on April fools day, we found an awesome deal on a bike just her size! Since she already had the protective gear, as soon as daddy got home from work she dragged him straight outside and on to her bike! With parental supervision she can cruise the cul de sac now with minimal assistance, though we did learn we are slightly up hill from the entrance of the cul de sac so making her way home is a tad more difficult on her own. She's only had one wipe out and thankfully the shin guards did their job!! By end of summer she should be doing laps in the driveway while David and I chase the little man!

In other news on the big bugg, she is still loving her tumbling class! We plan on enrolling her again this summer, I'm hoping to do a twice a week class for her but will see what the coach says when I get to meet with her to discuss Freyja's future in gymnastics. I would like to give her the opportunity to go as far as she can, as long as she enjoys it. 

Another big boy moment for the little man! We went to the grocery store yesterday and I decided to try strapping him into a "car cart" instead of carrying him. He LOVED it!! Sister taught him how to "steer", though he often reached over and wrecked her driving. Then at check out I got her the usual container of M&m's not thinking about the fact that he LOVES the empty containers, I gave Freyja hers and he almost jumped her for it! So had to grab a second one, which he loved even more because it rattled vs his usual empty ones. Another lesson learned, they are now to the age where I have to buy two of all the fun stuff!

In other news, the Easter Bunny brought me an early gift this year too. I just got a new digital camera!!! So I apologize in advance for any blurry or less than perfect pictures I may post in the near future but I am learning a new camera. This one is a HUGE step up from my last, I've gone from a 6mp to a 14.1mp so quality of the pix should be a bit better as well. That's all the news for now, I'm off to take the buggs to a bouncy place and hopefully wear some more energy out of them! So look forward to LOTS of pix this month as I play with my new camera and take my buggs on lots of new adventures! Love to you all!

Creepy Crawlers

I had to start off with this picture since its gotten such rave reviews from everyone! At the beginning of the month I took my freshly revived Buggs (after much sickness) to Target and decided to try out one of their multi-kid buggies. This was as we were packing up the car to head home. Both kids ADORED this cart, Jax loved the freedom of seeing everything and getting to sit instead of being carried everywhere. Honestly...he's probably a smidge small for this luxury but we took it slow and easy for this very short outing. Gotta love that expression on his face though!!

Here is my big Bugg getting ready to head off to her FIRST tumbling class at PSC. Its hard to believe my little girl is old enough to start taking any type of class!! The course is 8wks long, only one day a week for an hour. She's been to two so far and is in LOVE with it! They start out running a couple of laps, then stretch, then tumble through the obstacle course, then play in the "rainbow room" (uneven bars for toddlers, and if you are unfamiliar with this term, they are the bars that one is taller than the other and they "flip" between them), then some structured bouncy time on the trampoline, and then last but not least they get thrown in the sponge pit for some wind down time. There's 5 little girls in her class, of them I'm sorry to say Freyja is the least experienced with this stuff but she is catching on quickly! By the end of the second class she was turning somersaults on her own with the greatest of 3yr old ease (meaning like a lethally drunk adult!). I can't wait to see what she will be capable of at the end of the eight weeks! We definitely plan on signing her up again for the summer either for the same class or for a dance class...just depends on what her "grace" allows her to do.

In other news of the Big Bugg, last Wednesday after tumbling we went down to school where she will be attending VPK and got her all registered. We were able to meet the teachers, see the classroom and while I filled out paperwork Freyja got to go play with the other kids. She starts in August whenever regular school starts and this will prep her for Kindergarten, though from talking to the teacher, some of the learning material will just be a refresher from what she has learned at home already. Its good to know that we at least have her on the right path and she's not behind on learning! She will go 5days a week for 3.5hrs. You cannot even begin to imagine how excited this kid is to get started!!!

Ahhh...the Little Bugg...heaven help us all, he has begun to crawl!! He turned 7months on the 17th and just two days before he began the army crawl to go where ever he wants to. Standing in the kitchen this morning, he was looking longingly at the magazine rack and I couldn't help but think, in a short time I'm gonna walk in the kitchen and find him scaling that thing! Today daddy worked out in the yard for bit and Jax got to sit in front of an open window and watch and talk to him. Again, I can see him this time next year standing of those chubby legs, beating his sippy cup on the window and calling to da-da over and over again! In many ways he reminds me of Freyja as a babe but in other ways I see chaos and destruction just waiting to break free once he gets this crawling/walking task mastered! I knew life would never be the same after having one...but just as I get used to the new norm, here comes my little red headed Tasmanian devil to stir things up again!

In other news...I'm now back home full time with the kids. The 11th was my last day. I miss it...but its GREAT to be back home with my Buggs and getting back to a routine. David is still enjoying his job. He now goes in around 7-8am and gets home between 3-4pm, so he gets lots more daylight hours with the kids. That's all the news for this month...so far! Love to you all!

Saying Good bye

 

You and I will meet again

When we're least expecting it

One day in some far off place

I will recognize your face

I won't say goodbye my friend

For you and I will meet again

~Tom Petty

God took back one of his most precious angels Sunday, February 13, 2011. My aunt Nancy, 52 years young, was called home after a long battle with breast cancer. She was a shining star to many, bringing smiles, laughter and love to all who knew her. She was a miracle child that should never have lived but by the grace of God, the miracle of medical technology and parents that were not willing to give up on their baby girl, she blessed the Earth for many years past what any doctor had anticipated. I am blessed to have known her and though I might not have seen her in years, she was always in my heart and thoughts. 

Saying goodbye to a loved one is always hard but there is always a bright spot to be had if you can look beyond your grief long enough to see it. Though my father had to say goodbye to his baby sister, he was able to finally say hello to his grandson this past weekend. The kids, mom and I made the whirlwind journey to Missouri, starting out on a VERY foggy Wednesday morning and making it to Uncle Jim's (mom's brother) house early that evening without much event. Though the automated idiot (gps) routed us some crazy way through the middle of no where, with no cell phone signal, in the pitch dark, where opossums played in the middle of the road and creatures with wingspans as wide as my car flew out of ditches... Thursday we had a collapse day, and then Friday the kids and I made the winding journey from Dexter, MO to West Plains, MO. The drive brought back a lot of fond memories and it was nice to have a quiet backseat (kids sleeping) and time to just reflect on some of the great times I had with my own parents while making these trips back "home". West Plains is still the same sleepy "little" town that its always been, not much growth in the 12yrs since I've been back. I went by and saw the house that my great grandparents and aunt Nancy had lived in for  30+ years, it was up for sale. I called the realtor but was not able to see the house during the short visit I was there. The funeral was Friday afternoon, it was attended by at least 30 people, mostly distant relatives from the Cresup side of the family tree and a few close friends. Freyja even went up to the casket and said how beautiful she looked sleeping. The best we could explain was that she was tired and had gone to sleep, now she was going on a long trip to see her family again and that when they closed the casket she would leave and we would bury her treasure until she could come back for it. Freyja held tight to her Papa the entire time and tried her 3.5yr old best to comfort him. She met her two great uncles for the first time as well. Her and uncle David were like long lost friends finally reunited. Uncle Tommy...well, at least I can say she met him at some point in her life. We spent the evening and next morning with dad, Stella and uncle David there at our motel. Saturday we hesitantly parted ways and headed back to Dexter to pick up mom and head as far home as we could make it that night. We made it to Jackson, MS before we were DONE that night and then cruised on home Sunday, getting home around 4pm. I'm still groggy, mentally/emotionally exhausted...but I wouldn't have missed this trip for anything!

Like OMGosh!! I think we might be related!!

 So here's both my munch-kins at 6months old....same chin, same chubby cheeks, same eyes...dang their cute!

Not much is new since my blog earlier this month. The "noisy" baby toys have come out of storage again. Freyja helped me clean everything up, put in fresh batteries and then taught Jaxon how to play with everything. Jaxon had his 6month check up on the 15th, he's 27in tall and weighs 15.3lbs. Dr says he's tall and skinny! He has 5teeth so far and theres a 6th that just about to break through. He has the two middle ones on bottom, two middle ones on top, one eye tooth and the other one is about to break through. With help he can sit up and then stay there for long periods of time without falling over. He HATED being trapped in his carseat for the last 4days but he was an angel over all with all the traveling. Freyja did wonderfully travelling as usual. Like me, I think she was born to travel! She's learned how to use a DS (hand held Nintendo gaming system) so she stayed pretty well occupied with her games for the entire trip. 

In other news, Sunday was David's and my 5yr anniversary!! We have not had a chance to celebrate yet but as we both agree we have MANY more left together to make up for it!  We've had a roller coaster of a last 5yrs and look forward to seeing what the rest of life's ride has to offer. He LOVES his new job, I hope it stays good to him and that he can keep his love for it for a long time. I will be returning home to the kids as a full time mom again on March 3rd. I am sad to leave my job but my children are my first priority and life circumstances have proven that I should be home with them at this time instead of working. I am just thankful this job was here when we needed it most and that its been a wonderful experience while its lasted.

Thats it for now! Time to get productive!

Buggs will be Buggs

Apparently in the job description of a 3yr old there is something that says "All objects can be reappropriated as many different things and YOU as a 3yr old are responsible for finding a million and one ways of using everything you can put your hands on". And for the most part Freyja does an awesome job following these directions. As seen above...thats a back rest. Its been a snowboard, a windshield, a surfboard, a crib, a rocking device, a baby sling and several other things that I can't remember right now all since last Saturday when mom and Aunt Nita brought us two of them. What it has not been is back rest! Imagine that! OH! And apparently, since when she doesn't feel well I give her a bubble bath, bubble baths make everything feel better...which is why last night when I went to check on her before turning in for the night, I found her in the bathroom (instead of bed!) cleaning the toilet with the toilet brush and her bubble bath. I had told her earlier in the evening that she would make the toilet sick if she kept feeding it too much toilet paper when she goes potty, so she equated sick toilet with sick Freyja = bubble bath makes everything better... As of this morning EVERYTHING that could possibly become a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of a toddler has been removed from the hall bathroom! (Mind you that was only bubble bath, shampoo and a few diapers...now if only they made tp dispensers that gave 3sheets per "deposit")

FIVE teeth, learning to scoot, can balance when sat up (he weebles and he wobbles and he DOES fall down) and now plays with toys!! Jax turned 24wks this past Tuesday! He's a chunk of a boy...solid, sturdy and determined! In the past two weeks his front right tooth and the incisor next to it have broken through and just in the last couple of days the front left tooth has started to break ground. Of course all of this makes for a snotty, cranky 5 1/2month old that bites me everytime he nurses making me think I'm nursing a milk thirsty baby vampire! Oh if only I could yank those little gems until he's weened...Only 7more months to go! (NOT that I'm rushing my little man growing up!) I think he's getting close to his first one syllable word...he tries his hardest to talk to us and I think he's almost got "hi there" down, though it comes out more "hi-thffffff" with LOTS of spitting accompanying it. Ahhh...the joys of childhood :)

In other news, today is day 4 of David's new job. To say he loves it would be an understatement! I just hope the newness and excitement of it stays fresh for him and it doesn't become such a burden like the last job. We are still working on scheduling...so far, he gets the morning while I work, a sitter gets the "changing of the parent" shift and then I get my beauties for the rest of the day. So far so good and our sitter starts Monday. She is a dear family friend of mine from years past. I could not ask for anyone better to help us transition into being a working family. I won't be able to keep her as long as I would like but I at least have time now to find someone for a more permanent basis. I dread the search but my childrens safety and well being is a top priority and if I can't be with them myself, then I will find the perfect someone that can! In this instance I hope August hurries up and gets here so that Freyja can start VPK and Jax can come to work with me (hopefully).

My job couldn't be better! My boss let me back down to part time, which does not hinder my job performance at all. I get all of my work done by 11am usually anyway and just sit playing on the computer for the rest of the day waiting for work orders to come in. So now I just work part time then come home to the kids :) No new animals have visited lately. Wilson (office cat) got mad at me Wednesday for not being there Tuesday so he laid in the middle of my workorders, proceeded to eat them and swat at me everytime I tried to move them or him. Think Garfield and you will have this cat pegged! The world (University) revolves around him! Even the weekend police come by JUST to visit him or let him ride around in the squad cars!

Well, its been quiet far too long so I better go check on my MacGyver Bugg and find out what she's reappropriating now...heaven help us all!

New Year, New News!

Happy New Year!! Yeah, so I'm 12days late with the wish but its been a BUSY 12days! To start off with some good news, I got a job out at the local University (UWF) in the Housing & Residence Life department as an Office Assistant for the Housing Maintenance office. For the most part I control the flow of work orders for the dorms, make reports for the BIG people and do the regular secretarial stuff. Its not a glorious job but so far so good! I like the staff, my boss is a very family oriented man, I have an office cat named Wilson (they're House fans around here!) and just today I had an armadillo out digging in the bushes in front of my office window! My children and hubby on the other hand really don't care for the job as I am not home caring for them instead. Jax won't eat for David at all, Freyja is feeling neglected and David is going stir crazy learning to be a stay at home dad. He is still searching for work and now swears we will not see another year here in Florida...I'm not holding my breath...all I can do is enjoy the break from the kids (though I miss them terribly) and enjoy the task of working again. 

On to the big Bugg! Here she is decked out with Grandaddy's belt for a sling to hold her canteen and prepped with her machete to venture into the wilderness known as Grans backyard to search for deer tracks, set rabbit traps (so she can see/pet them) and other wild adventures. I think we have finally graduated past the "potty training" phase to officially say she is now potty trained completely. We still have the occasion accidents but we're now able to go up to a week with no problems!! I found her a dance class I would like to enroll her in at the end of the month. We are waiting to see if David gets the contractors job first because if he does then I'll have to "arrange" my schedule accordingly...but if he doesn't then its contingent on if David can drop her off for the class or whether he has to stay (with Jax) while she's there. Keep your fingers crossed it all works out for the best and she can start the class the 27th, she REALLY needs the interaction with others and something new (besides seeing Gran) to look forward to all the time. I've started searching out VPK (voluntary PreSchools) for her since she can start in August after she turns 4. I found 7 in our neighborhood so now I just need to do the paperwork of getting her enrolled in the county then pick the best one for her to attend. Plus we need to get the alphabet down PRONTO so she won't be behind when she starts. 

Little Bugg is a hoot! This expression says it all, "you want me to eat what???" Baby food? No thanks! Bottle? Heck naw you crazy person! He is 100% a mama's boy and all this other stuff, he just ain't having part in it. David is having a doozy of a time being home with him all the time now. He won't eat for his daddy, he won't sit still, he won't stop crying...he just WONT DO ANYTHING!! Good news is, babies won't starve to death, if they are hungry enough they will FINALLY take a bottle. Its just a matter of getting this lil guy to understand daddy is not going to sprout mammories and a bottle of mama milk is the best he's gonna get when mama has to be at work. Today daddy broke down and brought him to work at lunch which thoroughly pleased my little man (and my big girl of course! plus she had Arby's for lunch!) My office just fawned all over him and of course Jax turned on the charm and really had people melting! This past weekend we hopped on the scales with him and he is now 14.8lbs! Yesterday (Tuesday, 1/11/11) he turned 21wks! And since the beginning of the new year he has sprouted another new tooth! It kind of snuck through in the wake of the other tooth not to mention the cold he had at the beginning for the month so I really don't know what "day" it officially popped through. As of right now, it appears quiet in his mouth...nothing else seems to be wanting to push through quite yet. Now we just need to put a guard on those things when he nurses or figure out how to take them out/in during feedings...OUCH!!!

In other news...we were all sick (minus David) for the first week of the new year. It was like a sinus thing that turned into a NASTY cough and then finally went away after a week. There was nothing sadder than listening to my big bugg try and sing and her voice crack every other word. Then my lil bugg could barely cry over a kittens mew because he was so hoarse with his cough. But luckily we all stayed out of the dr's office and whethered the crud within a week. Last night was the first time in over a week that Jaxon slept ALL night without screaming bloody murder at some point because of being woken up or just annoyed at coughing so much.

Other than that, we are just twiddling our thumbs until David hears back about the navy contract job....that'll pretty much set the tone of anything else that we do for a while. Please keep fingers crossed that he gets it!! So, our love to you all! Have a great January!!