Go! Go! Go!

We are going to have a walking baby on our hands soon. Once he figures out that tricky balance thing, he will be on his way. This is where we are at right now...

The amusement of walking from the living room to the kitchen and back to the living room seems to be neverending. Walk walk walk walk crash into the cupboards...Walk walk walk walk crash into the coffee table. Squealing and laughing the entire time.

How do you like the smile of pride at the end of the video? I think maybe just maybe he likes walking better than crawling. Speaking of crawling! I cannot get over the speed this kid has! And yes, I will enjoy being able to catch him while I can.

Sad baby

Drop off at daycare today was not fun. Alex was sleepy. And really really didn't want to go to anyone. One of the teachers tried to sit down and rock him. No way Jose. Not an option. I didn't have to leave immediately, and he was hanging on my pant leg, so I scooped him up. Immediate snuggles. Alas, I did have to leave at some point, so I handed him back to the teacher. Scaaaaareeeeeaming. He grabbed my hand and was crying and trying to pull himself to me, or me to him. He was hanging on for dear life. Like I had to use my other hand to free my fingers from his Ninja Baby Death Grip. And there was more screaming...and tears...from him, not me this time! I realized I just needed to go. Staying wasn't going to do any good for either of us.

The door is about 2.7 feet outside the baby room. That is the amount of distance it took for him to completely forget about me and stop crying. Obviously he was traumatized.

Summer's Here!

Saturday was be-a-utiful outside. And we celebrated with our first official trip of the season to the terrace. Good friends, sunshine, Euchre and good beer. Alex liked it for a little bit too.
But only for a little bit. He was a snoozy baby. So the boys went home. And left Kari and I to get our butts kicked in Euchre by Maggi and Mariah. They think they're good. We know they cheat!

Anyway, the point is...The terrace is open, the beer's a-flowin'...Summer is officially here.

Defiance...it comes early

How is it possible that an almost 11 month old baby can already be defiant? Like on purpose defiant. This kid already has it down pat.

Most times I am good about moving the dog dishes out of sight before I let Alex loose to destroy the living room and kitchen. But there is a lot of stuff going on these days and I sometimes forget. When he spots those dishes on the floor, he giggles and shifts the crawling into overdrive to get to them. More than once, Travis and I have seen him going for them and we firmly say, "Alex, no." And that little shit will stop just short of the dishes, sit on his cute little butt, and turn and look at us. At which point we repeat, "Alex, no." And then? Then?!? He will look right at us, smile, and reach his fat little sausage-finger laden hand right into the dog's water dish.

He is not even 11 months old!!! What the hell is he gonna dish out when he is a teenager?

Sneaky little sucker

As has been previously noted, Alex does not hold his bottle when he eats. He lays there, either grabbing everything within reach, or with his arms splayed out to each side. Either way, there has been no attempt at holding his own bottle. He is perfectly happy with his slaves feeding him thank you very much. So I have foolishly assumed this whole time that he wasn't aware that he could hold his bottle and feed himself. I assumed he just hadn't figured it out yet. I also assumed that I had cause this little delay in development because when he was very small I used to hold his arms down in an attempt to actually keep the bottle in his mouth. Oh, dear sweet silly mommy.

Last night, as I was rocking him and feeding him his bedtime bottle, he reached up and pushed the bottle out of his mouth so he could tell me a story. A very long, animated and funny story. Lots of eyebrow action. At the end of this story, he stares straight at his bottle, reaches up with both hands and a devilish grin, and pulls the bottle perfectly in his mouth. And then, just to really show me how much he has tricked me this whole time, he repeatedly took the bottle out of his mouth, giggled, and then put it back in.

But of course, as soon as the novelty of showing me that little trick wore off, he was right back to King of the Rocking Chair. Feed me woman. And make it snappy.

That's news!

Alex can pull himself up.
The kitchen chairs are not very heavy or sturdy.
Ipso facto: Alex can pull himself up using the back of a chair until it topples over on top of him.

What a lovely Wednesday morning learning experience. Please don't call CPS.

Summer hours

Working in the lovely world of HVAC for a company that focuses more on the "H" than the "VAC", my summer work load is a bit light. Lucky for me, my boss really likes to play in the summer. So we get to go on a different work schedule for the summer. Since the boss man still wants his 40 hours of work from us and he kinda likes the customers to be able to contact someone during normal business hours, schedules get a little creative.

We have to work 9 hour days Monday through Thursday, and then Fridays...one week I will work a half day in the morning, the next week a half day but during the afternoon, and then the third week? The glorious third week? I get Friday off. So every third week I have a three day weekend. During the entire summer. When it's sunshiney and warm outside. It is fabulous.

Previous years the creative schedule was not an issue as there was no beast child in the mix. No daycare to worry about, with all their having to schedule teachers to work and possible not being able to bend to my every whim and fancy. The nerve! Basically what all of this means is Alex is going to have longer days at daycare Monday through Thursday and shorter days on Friday..or no daycare at all...on those special Fridays, he is stuck with me. So Monday through Thursday when you add up the 9 hours I am actually working + 1/2 hour lunch + 15 mins from daycare to the office + 15 mins from the office to daycare, it all works out to 10 hours at daycare. That's a lot of hours each day.

I am having some guilty feelings about this. This morning he was only awake for 45 mins before we had to leave to drop him off. And then tonight I won't pick him up until about 5 and he goes to bed by 7. That works out to 2 hours and 45 minutes of awake time each day, 4 days a week.

I have realized I need to get past my guilt for a few reasons.
-He loves it there
-He has other babies to play with there
-They love him
-When you add up the hours, he is there the same, if not less hours per week as he was before

I actually just did the math and realized that last point. That is making me feel a truckload better. Huh. Whaddya know? This blog thing with all the writing down my thoughts is actually productive sometimes. Weird.

Anyway, the way I see it, this is the long and short of it all. Both Travis and I have to work. And the lottery isn't nearly as reliable as I would prefer, so it looks like both of us are going to have to continue working. So... Is he safe and in caring hands while we have to work? Absolutely. Does he love it there? More than at home sometimes I think. Are we going to miss some pretty important milestones the first time they happen? Been there, crawled and rolled over that.

Hahahaha!

Alex has figured out that he's funny. And he thinks it is very funny that we think he is funny. The three of us were like a pack of hyenas at the table last night. He was making this Nom Nom Nom noise while he was eating that was making Travis and I laugh. As soon as he realized we were laughing at something he was doing, it cracked him up. And he immediately started doing it again. Which made us laugh even harder. Which made him laugh even harder. Round and round we went. It was awesome!

Day 3

I did it! I pushed through and made myself workout to that damn video again last night. And I am happy to report, my legs feel much better today. I still am walking a little funny, but that only happens about one out of every four strides. Still weird looking, but not as bad.

I have to hand it to Jillian. She is very motivational and she has put together a great workout. Not only is it quick, but I find myself wanting to do it again each day. And looking forward to moving up a level.

Hopefully this one sticks!

P.S. I am pretty much waddling as much if not more today than when I was 9 million months pregnant. Thank you so much Jillian..you bitch.

91 days and counting

As of today, I have exactly 91 days to get in some sort of not giantly fat state before I have to stand up in front of a big group of people in a pretty dress. And make a toast. Damn you Bahrs for getting married.

So I have decided to finally take action...again. But this time I am really serious....because those words have never been spoken before! Anyway, I have found something that I think just may do the trick. Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred. Good sweet gravy this is not an easy workout. And I am on Level 1...and doing the "modified" (read: easier) version of about 25% of the moves. And it still kicks my ass.

I can currently feel my quads hurting. While I sit here and type. Let's repeat...my quads hurt WHILE I AM SITTING. Don't even get me going on how difficult it is to get to a seated position. Or go down stairs. Yeah...this is after two nights of workouts. During the workout, dear sweet Jillian casually mentions that if this is your 7th or 8th day, you are probably noticing an increase in your endurance. Bitch, this is day 2 and all of me hurts. I am sure I will happily agree on day 7 or 8, but right now I want to kick you in the teeth.

Jumbled Up.

My head is all jumbled up inside. It may be due to the incredible amounts of food and adult beverages consumed while in California. Yeah...Yeah, that's it! It's all because of California and the naughty people that live there!

We had so much fun on our trip! Too much Thai food, followed by too much Shock Top beer. Only to be topped with Muir Woods, winery tastings, and Cuban food. To be followed with the most deliciously disturbing crock pot full of nacho cheese I have ever laid on eyes on. Oh yeah, we saw some stuff in San Francisco too. Fun was had.

This is where the jumbled head comes in. During all the fun and lack of responsibility, I had a little taste of our old life. We had money to spend and nothing holding us back. It was glorious. I had a hard time getting on the plane to come home. To be honest, I cried on the plane. Yes, I missed my beasts. But in no way, shape, or form did I want to be smacked in the face with real life again. I just wanted to stay in La La Land a bit longer. A really big bit longer.

But alas, we came home. And when I got out of the car at my parents' house, Alex's face lit up when our eyes met. And the dog just about slapped herself in the teeth she was wagging so hard when we opened the door. Now for the part where I suck. All that being happy to see each other, and a part of me still wanted to go back. What kind of a mother feels that way?

Anywho, yesterday we spent the day at home. All of us. Trav, me, the boy and the dog. And we had a really good day. The guilt feelings were subsiding and I was feeling much better about all of this when I went to bed.

And then this morning hit. Holy shit. Travis was impossible to wake up...thank you Tuesday night concert. The boy spent the entire morning working on perfecting his "Rabid Chicken on Meth" act. And the dog clearly wanted to rip the face off of every dog that walked past the house. All sorts of Awesome. With a capital freaking A. I was fighting back tears while carrying the flailing chicken I call a child to the car.

So what does all of this add up to? Who the hell knows. All I can say for certain is that being an adult is hard. Being a mom is even harder. But it's all worth it right? Right??? I think so. The feelings that overwhelm me when I see my dog sitting all sweet when the neighbor dogs go by, or watching Alex as he figures out how to use a new toy tell me that it is worth the effort. Even though there are many days I don't feel like the juice is worth the squeeze...I love my beasts.

Californ-i-a!

We are going to California tomorrow to visit some friends. I cannot wait. We are going to be gone for 5 whole days. 5 days of no diapers, no formula, no bottle washing, no annoying talking steering wheel toy. I swear if I have to hear that thing say, "Beep! Beep! Out of the way!" one more time, it is going to be eternally out of my way. Do you think I need a little break?

Anyway, my mom and sister are awesome and are tag-team taking care of the beast. I am feeling like I am asking waaaaay too much for them to take care of him for this long. They shockingly disagree. We shall see who is right at the end of my little trip!

This is also the longest I have been away from Alex in 10 months. I know I will miss him a lot. But I have to admit, I am so ready to be baby-free for a little bit I can almost taste it. Just the thought of not having to get out of bed because someone else is hungry at 4:45 in the morning, is so incredibly delightful I could just pee.

Have I said I am excited? Because I am excited. I get to go on a winery tour. I get to go hiking in the Redwood Forest. I get eat crazy good food. I get to celebrate Melanie's 30 birthday with her! Yayayayayay!

Summer's almost upon us!

Developments are a-happenin' at the Julius house.

First things first, it is officially spring. Aiden's mole hunt has begun. Our backyard gets infested with moles every spring. The dog...she is not sad about this. She was born for this. Now I realize moles are not the most elusive little critters, but this dog's got skillz. This morning Travis let her out. Within 5 minutes she was standing at the door with not one, but TWO moles in her mouth. And then I let her out later and she caught another. Moles...Beware of Dog.

Now, on to the other beast that resides in our house. He has learned how to stand up in his crib. So now when he wakes up, he stands up and pulls on the side of his crib while rocking violently. Which in turn bangs his crib against the wall. Depending on how quickly I can get to him, he is either laughing hysterically or screeching like a feral cat with its hair on fire. Apparently there is a fine line between "This is fun!" and "Come get me and wipe my butt woman!"

He is also a chatty little bugger. And very animated while chatting. He will be going on and on and then pause, take in a big dramatic breath while raising both eyebrows, and then continue on with his story. And it seems these stories often pop into his mind when he has his nuk in his mouth. And that just will not do. So he will start his story...stop...remove his nuk...and then continue on with his nuk in his hand for the rest of the story....like some sort of awkward nipple prop.