Distaction

So while Eddie naps I'm going to take the opportunity to post some pictures with my new Canon Rebel XT. (love!) I should be cleaning, but the camera keeps calling my name..... -maggie

y3w

{so I just realized that I can make a picture "large" in my post settings...yay!}

I am posting Eddie's Easter picture early because we have a crazy weekend ahead with me prepping for Easter at our house Saturday and cousin Michael's first birthday party on Saturday as well, and of course Easter Sunday, which should be interesting...it is the first holiday we (I) have done at our house, so while it is nice not to travel, I have very high goals for the evening and don't want to mess anything up. I am having everyone come at 3, because I fully expect to have a freak out when we get home from church, so the later time slot allows me my freak out with time to pull myself back together! HA! I thought I was pretty clever with that one. I also have to find time tomorrow to get a new camera since mine decided to crap out while I was taking some adorable pictures of Eddie....of course. I have been asking Frank for a"big" camera for a while, so we are taking the plunge and getting one! Yay! Hopefully I can convince the slow moving, research driven husband of mine to get a move on with this purchase....we've got a lot coming up!

Let's also hope I can really channel Martha is the next couple days, I'm going to need her!

-maggie

Attached to Momma....

For the past 3 days, Eddie has been attached to me. Literally.

{eddie, riding piggy back while I clean}

No joke, the second I walk out of the room, even to pee or get a glass of water, he screams bloody murder. Thank God for the ring sling. Now, I have no idea what is going on, but I'm starting to lose my mind. His newest thing is to climb up me while I sit on the floor and bounce up and down while crying until I pick him up...it doesn't matter that he is a half inch off of the floor, all that matters is that I'm holding him. Now, I love my son. I love the cuddles. But I need some space, buddy! We have started to let him CIO (cry it out) when he wakes up at 3:00am. This wake up trend started when he was sick and just never stopped. When he was sick, I took the opportunity to get some solids into him and fed him. When he got better, I just brought him into bed with me. Since we used to co-sleep the whole night, it was nice to have a couple hours of snuggle time, but as Eddie gets older I don't really want to make this a long-term habit. We seem to have hit a snag, though. The start of CIO seems to correspond with the start of the anxiety with me walking out of the room. A coincidence? Sure....but a large part of me is now thinking that CIO has led to Eddie being terrified of me leaving him at any time. I almost feel like he just doesn't trust me - before he knew that I would always come....now, he is scared that I'll leave him crying, and that breaks my heart. To think that something that was supposed to help him has ended up hurting our relationship of trust and comfort...it hurts more than I can say. Tonight we're going back to our normal routine - if he cries anytime past 3:00am, he'll be in bed with me, trying to fix our little trust issue. All I can hope is that it can be fixed.

In other news, I started giving Eddie an all-natural applesauce instead of my fresh purees. To be honest, I was lazy and didn't make his apples this week. The good news is that he loved them! The taste is a bit more tangy than my homemade ones, so I wasn't sure that the would like it, but he scarfed it right down. The pictures should really speak for themselves....

And yes, I even let him lick the cup :)

We also went to see the Easter Bunny today after yoga, and Eddie did so well! I thought he would freak, given the attachment issues but he was great and even gave me a huge smile! I was so pleased. We just got the print out (why have these people not just put them all on a website yet?!?!) so I had to get creative with a picture of a picture...

Obviously, I am posting this at night....and I took the pictures at night....so I played around quite a bit with the coloring, so while it doesn't look natural I think it is kind of fun. You should be able to click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see Eddie in all of his big-smiled cuteness.

Can you believe it is only Tuesday? Wow...I'm really going to try to post as much as I can, since this really seems to be a nice outlet for me - most of the time I type one handed, since Mr. Glue naps on me as well.

Wish us luck on our CIO system re-start!

-maggie

The newest installment....

I'm going to start doing a new regular post topic, always starting with "I'm happy I'm a mom because...." sure, sometimes it will be mushy and lovey-dovey and sometimes it will be funny. This first one is inspired by my friend, who we will call Jessica Biel. Jessica called me recently and left a message that goes something like this:

"So I had to call you about my night. You know that hot guy I am going to the Sox game with? (who knew JT liked the Sox? j/k) so he called me to go out after work (details here)...anyway....we're at this bar and this fight breaks out - like, people throwing beer bottles and chairs and stuff! so I go hide in this corner....when the fight is over, we realize hot guy's friend went to jail, so we go to bail him out of jail but he's not there, he's at the hospital. and now I have his bloody clothes in my car."

and i have never been happier to say that i was doing some boring mom activity like...sleeping. I love you Jessica!

-maggie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA!!

We love you!

Flower (almost) Saturday

Since I have a hard enough time posting during the week, I have decided to move Flower Fridays to Flower Saturdays. I know it doesn't sound as good....maybe I could do 'Seedling Saturdays'? Anyway....I hate to say it, but after last week's spill, I have totally lost interest in the flowers....I have no hope. The one box seems to be doing well, but not as good as the other box (pre-fall). April kind of snuck up on me, and since I'm thinking the flowers will need to be planted late May/early June, they're aren't going to make it. Who knows, maybe I'll regain interest and can continue to keep up with them, but I'm not really sure where I go from here. They're getting bigger, will I need to transplant them into bigger pots? How much of a pain that would be...oy. I don't think I thought this through very well. Either way, here are your pictures for the week....I have also included a picture of the fallen box....which have about 2 still growing. The rest I'm pretty sure are dead. Dammit.

-maggie

y3w

Sorry this is so late....

But today Eddie, Ethan, Nicole and I went to C.oCo. Ke.y in Rockford. (ever wonder why I break up brand names? it's because I don't want someone to google the word and then have my blog pop up...anyway...) No joke, for weeks I have asked Frank if we could go. I was *sure* it would be as wonderful as I pictured. Silly, I know. Don't get me wrong, it isn't all bad. My main complaints were: a) it was much smaller than I imagined. It would be like a kid walking into Disn.ey Wo.rld and having it be the size of....San.ta's Vill.age. b) There was hardly any deck space, so immediately my idea of having the boys play on a towel on deck was ruined, as there was only about 2 feet from the end of the lounge chairs to the pools...unless you sat at a table the whole time, which of course were all taken. The solution? A cabana...

(haha, sorry Nicole!)...so, for $50 ($75 on the weekends) you can get your very own whole in the wall! Now, I'm not going to knock this. We were able to put the boys on a mat on the floor and put the couch cushions around them, so that was nice. The cabana does come with a TV (ours was broken...) and a server call button (which was broken as well...), which all seem like great additions if they were to work. I ended up going to the front desk to ask about the TV and server and the server came quite quickly after that, but no TV fixage. Oh well. I was happy enough just having some space to ourselves for the boys to play....I think I would have gone crazy if I had to sit on that crowded pool deck the whole time. For a half day (10-3) we paid $15, which was worth it in my opinion. Nicole put it best though, "I'm not running back...". I wouldn't run back here in a heart beat, but if the mood strikes next winter, I wouldn't mind a trip. It is only about 45 minutes away, so it would be kind of fun during a long winter....good thing we have Nana and Grandpa's pool this summer!

Not to mention, I couldn't imagine guarding that pool. There were kids of all ages and adults everywhere - but I didn't see one incident, which is surprising because I always have my eyes out. The guards were very attentive and I never thought that they were spacing out. At one point while Eddie and I were in the lazy river (all 10 feet of it) the guard made a point to check in the corners where someone could easily get pushed into. I was quite impressed, which is a lot coming from a tough judge like me. They do get points there. Eddie loved playing in the zero depth area, where he could splash and try to grab at that elusive fountain. They had all sorts of things that would shoot and spray water, so he had tons of fun going around to all of those and sticking his hands into them. He was so amused, he decided not to take a nap the whole time! (yay for crabby babies!) So while Ethan napped Eddie and I took a couple more rounds in the lazy river and played in the fountains some more. Also, they did have a pretty good food selection and a cute bar (woot!). Basically, would I recommend it? Sure, if you're needing a change of pace. Would I run back? Probably not...but if you had a working cabana and a nice tropical drink waiting for me....I'd think *a little* harder. (and I never did get a chance to try out those slides, so those may lure me back...)

-maggie