Glad I don't have many days like this...

Ok... I just looked in the mirror and yes, I still DO have hair. I've felt like pulling it out all day long!!!

UGH! It's been a crazy day with Alyson today. One of those days when I have NO idea what is going on with her. Usually it's one of 3 things... either she needs a diaper change, she's hungry, or her teeth are hurting her and she needs Ibuprofen. Today she's just been fussy ALL DAY LONG.

Like right now... she's been walking around whining for the past few hours despite my attempts to meet her every need!!! Her diaper's changed, she just ate, I gave her ibuprofen, and I've tried to put her down for a nap with no luck. She just stood up in her crib and cried until I brought her back downstairs.

So we walked around... we played and played and played some more.... and she's still fussing. I just feel helpless because I have NO IDEA what she wants and it makes me want to cry.

*sigh*

Update: Ok, so about 5 minutes after I posted this, I was holding Alyson on my lap and she majorly spit up all down my leg. Now she seems quite content with things and is running around with a pillow, laughing her head off. Guess her stomach wasn't feeling so well.

Now I'm off to do damage control in the kitchen... I hear her trying to stick SOMETHING out the doggy door. *sigh* I just LOVE days like this...

One month... I'm getting WORSE!

I've successfully gone one whole month and only posted ONE time. Not that I meant to!!! Blogging's just been on the back burner for me lately... things have been really busy! And to think, I thought that being a stay-at-home mommy would give me lots of free time... HA! Yeah right.

Anyway, there aren't a whole lot of things for me to update about, surprisingly. At least not many I can think of right now. Oh... the house thing. We're still considering that house I talked about last post... we did end up putting an offer on it, but the couple had just lowered the price by about $25,000 and it turns out that what they lowered it down to is basically exactly what they owe on their mortgage, so they aren't willing to budge AT ALL. Our offer was the highest one they received so far, but they didn't take it. Not even a counteroffer. The guy just told our realtor, "Nope... this is what I owe, this is what I want for the house." So whatever. If it was meant to be, it would have worked out. I mean, it STILL can work out, who knows. It's just a waiting game now. It's not like we HAVE to move, so we're just taking our time. Russ keeps telling me, "Just be patient." I tell him patience is not one of my strong points!!

So once the house thing didn't work out, we looked into building one. We spoke with a couple builders, got some price quotes... but decent home lots are so hard to come by around here right now. Plus Russ goes, "I don't know if I have the time to deal with all that right now!" He's so busy these days, and I highly doubt he would want to meet with the builder to discuss things like lighting and bathroom fixtures. But that might be good... he'd just tell me, "Do what you want." LOL.

Before I end my boring post, I just want to say CONGRATULATIONS to all your blogging ladies out there expecting again!! I have been so bad at keeping updated with blogs, so I was very surprised when I checked in on blogs and found out all the great news! WOW!! Around Alyson's 1st birthday, I mentioned to Russ that I'd like to start trying for another baby around her 2nd birthday, June or so. I said, "It might not happen right away, but if I DID get pregnant quickly, she'd almost be 3 by the time the baby was born... that'd be a great age!" Russ just kind of gave me that "deer in the headlights" look because the conversation took him by surprise, and his response was... "Um, can you bring this up again NEXT year then?" Men. He told me the other day that Alyson is getting so much more fun the older she gets. He goes, "I didn't know what to do with her when she was so little. Boy, if you could pop babies out at a year old, I'd say let's have 5 of them!"

Whhaaaaaaaaaat???!! The boy cracks me up sometimes.

But yeah, I AM ready to have another baby... I'd like to have at least one more before I'm 30. If it's a boy, I think we're gonna be done, but if it's a girl, we'll probably try ONE more time and see if we have a boy. I just definitely want more than one child since I'm an only child. While being an only child has its perks, it sometimes got lonely and I always wished I had a brother or sister. I just don't want Alyson to feel that way. So while ULTIMATELY we're waiting a year to really start trying, if it happens it happens... that's the way I see it. I definitely wouldn't be upset if it happened sooner than later :-)

Alyson's 1st Year in Pictures

I recently made a photo montage of Alyson, from birth to her 1st birthday... here it is if you want to check it out! It's lengthy though, about a half hour long. I ended up putting it all on a DVD and got one for me, my mom and dad, and Russ's mom and husband. It'll be nice to have for years to come! Alyson will enjoy watching it in the future, I'm sure :-)

Let me know what you think!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Have a great weekend!

1 year ALREADY?!

Well, my baby is officially 1 year old as of June 21st. Boy, how time flies!!

We had Alyson's birthday party at our house on Sunday the 22nd... everything went great. It was supposed to rain that day, but thankfully the rain held off. It just sprinkled a little bit later in the evening, but most of the guests had left. We had about 40 people there in all. The biggest hit of the party was the new swingset we got Alyson for her birthday (mostly for the baby swing--she'll have to grow into the rest of it!)... alot of people had kids there, so they all played on it while the parents had time to themselves!

Here are some pics from the party. Like I said last post, the theme of her birthday was the "1st cupcake" theme... cupcakes and party hats, with the colors red, purple, lime green and yellow. :-) I was surprised she didn't get messier while eating her cake... she just took her time and ate it like a little lady...lol.

My cousin Brenda bought Alyson a Dora the Explorer Pop-up tent (Aly LOVES Dora!), and I took some pictures of her with it the day after the party. Cody got a little curious and decided HE wanted to go in the tent... I think he likes it more than she does!









Alyson's 1 year doctor's appointment was yesterday... she weighs 24 pounds 6 ounces (92nd percentile) and is 31 3/4 inches tall, which is taller than 100% of kids her age...lol! Her head size is still off the charts, but is progressing normally... doc said everything looks fine. He goes, "She IS tall... she looks 2!" She still had the stranger anxiety and didn't want much to do with the doctor... she cried most of the time in the exam room. Once she settled down, it was time to get 3 shots...poor girl. She was fine afterwards though, thank goodness!

So those are the updates with Alyson. It's just so hard to believe she's 1 year old already... seems like just yesterday all of us blogging ladies were finding out we were pregnant and sharing all those miserable and not-so-miserable moments with eachother!! :-)

Anyway... the only other thing to talk about is the fact that Russ and I MAY be moving... we went to see a house close to where we live, and we actually BOTH LOVED IT. Usually, one of us loves a house and the other doesn't, but we actually agreed on this one. It's a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house with about 2800 square feet, on an acre lot in a GREAT kid-friendly neighborhood. We're thinking about putting an offer on it within the next few days...hopefully we get it! It's been on the market for about 9-10 months, and the people have already reduced the price twice since the housing market is so slow around here lately. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed things work out! If things are meant to be, they'll find a way of working themselves out!

Well, Alyson is awake, so I better go upstairs and get her! Have a great week :-)

Updates and Birthday pics!

Hello :-) Just a few updates... I'm slacking with my blog as usual,I know.

I had Alyson's 1st birthday pictures taken at Sears last week.. just got them back today. Here is a slideshow of all the proofs! She fussed a little at first when she started getting her picture taken, but eventually that big toothy grin made an appearance :-)

I've been busy planning her first birthday party... I've decided to have it at our house, though Russ is trying to talk me into having it somewhere. I just want to have it at home so everyone can just hang out and we're not pressured to clean up and be out by a certain time, ya know?

Anyway, I'm doing the "1st cupcake" theme. It's cute... not girly, really, but I like it. I was going to do Strawberry Shortcake, but changed my mind at the last minute and decided to do a 1st birthday theme. Here's what the theme looks like...



I have streamers and a banner for the yard, along with lime green, purple, yellow and red balloons, and 1st birthday foil balloons.... also got a highchair decorating kit (bib, party hat, streamer for on highchair, and a mat for underneath the highchair). I bought pretty much every item offered in this theme...lol. I couldn't resist. I'm just so excited for the party! I'm sending all the invites out in the mail tomorrow... I was just waiting for her pics to come back so I could put them in the invites. Now I just have to figure out where I want to get the cake from, and get the food ordered. We're buying the big dinner stuff from a local restaurant Russ does business with (rigatoni, chicken, etc), I'm making a few things, and my mom and mother-in-law have offered to make some things too. So I have all the details down, just finalizing things :-)

When I'm not party planning (lol) I've just been TRYING to relax (is there such a thing with an almost-1-year-old?!). Russ and I were out on the boat most of Memorial Day weekend...it was a good time. Sunday was BEAUTIFUL... we took Alyson on the boat with us... she didn't know what to do at first and just stayed on my lap, then got a little more adventurous later and started crawling around. Monday my parents offered to watch Alyson for a little bit, so we went out on the boat with a few friends, then to my parents' house for a cookout.

That's about it for the excitement lately... just been enjoying the warm weather. I got all my flowers planted and things cleaned up around the house and on the deck. Today was a beautiful day too... mid 70's and a cloudless blue sky. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and around 80! I bought Aly a baby pool when we were out today, so I'm going to see if she'll go in it tomorrow. With as much as she loves splashing around in the bathtub, she should LOVE a baby pool! I'll be sure and have my camera ready :-)

Well, I can hardly keep my eyes open, so I'm gonna end this here and head to bed. It's so hard to believe that I used to stay up so late every night. Now, I feel like the furthest thing from a night owl. I'm now a "go to bed by 11pm because my daughter wakes me up by 8am" mommy. But I wouldn't have it any other way. For some reason, waking up early doesn't bother me when I'm greeted by Alyson with a big huge smile on her face, stretching her arms out for me and saying "ma ma ma ma!" :-)

Nighty night!

Random 'I'm so bored' post.

Well, I hope all you mommies out there had a WONDERFUL Mother's Day! Russ and I went to my Grandma's house on Mother's Day for a little family get-together... it was a good time. He was supposed to take me shopping that day ( I have been telling him about this mother's ring I LOVE), but we didn't have enough time before we left for my Grandma's house. He took me to the mall on Monday... I looked in a few jewelry stores, but didn't find the ring I wanted. I ended up getting some new sandals and some summer clothes. :-)

As for my being sick, I'm feeling ALOT better now. Almost totally back to my normal peppy self. Almost... I'd say I'm about 90%. 3 more days of Penicillin and I'm done with that.

On another note... is anyone else out there a Pittsburgh Penguins fan? They are doing AWESOME! I got away from watching hockey for awhile, but got back into it recently. Only 1 more game to win and they are up for the Stanley Cup! WOO HOOOOOOOO! :-)

Ok...just had to get that out.

Not much else to talk about. I'm just wishing I was back on a beach somewhere. This weather here SUCKS lately. It just doesn't want to warm up!! If it IS warm, it's all cloudy and rainy. Blah. Give me a nice sunny day, please! Preferably about 75 degrees! But maybe we WILL be on a beach again soon... we were supposed to go see Russ's brother and his wife in Alaska later in the summer, but it turns out that they are going to be in Costa Rica in June sometime, so we might just meet up with them there. Not sure what all is in Costa Rica, but heck, we'll try it. I'm up for anything!

Well, my little girl is making a mess of the house (which I DID have all nice and cleaned up) so I'd better get her before it looks like a tornado went through here. I already have to go out later and get us a new phone, because she's dropped it so much it doesn't work that well now. Our friends have informed us that it probably won't be the FIRST time we have to get a new phone...lol.

Alright... better get Aly now. Thank goodness it's almost nap time for her!!

Have a great day.

Punta Cana trip and my sick self

Well, Russ and I are back from our trip to Punta Cana :-) While it was great to get away for awhile, I was never so happy to get home. The first reason being that we didn't take Alyson with us so I COULD NOT wait to see her... the second being that I was SICK AS A DOG the day we came home. My sinuses started acting up during the trip, but I figured it was just the humidity, temperature change, blah blah blah. I was fine for 3/4 of the trip, then Monday morning before coming home, I woke up and just felt weird. My throat was feeling funny, I didn't have an appetite, and my eyes felt like they hurt.

We left the resort at 10am (long ride to airport) and our flight was scheduled to leave Punta Cana at 1:30pm. WELL... by the time we were ready to board the plane, I was feeling MISERABLE. My head was thumping and I felt like I was burning up, yet I was freezing. I had to be running a fever but didn't have a way to check. So THEN we find out that our flight was being delayed because the stupid computers crashed and the people who hadn't checked in yet had to get all their boarding passes and luggage tags done manually. UGH. So we boarded the plane at 1:40, only to wait on the plane another hour before taking off, waiting for all the people who got stuck in line when the computers crashed. I was NOT a happy camper. So there I was, stuck for 4 hours between Russ and some lady I didn't know. I covered up with a blanket the whole time, and Russ thought I was nuts because he was hot as heck. Once we got to our connection at JFK in NY, I was sweating bullets and felt like my head was in a sauna and the rest of me was in an igloo. I ended up finding a store that sold sinus medicine, so I took some, and thankfully it started working before we boarded the plane to come back to Pittsburgh.

So I figured I just had a sinus thing and it'd be better in the morning. WRONG. I woke up and could practically swallow, my nose was stuffed up, my eyes felt swelled shut, etc etc.... I looked in the mirror, opened my mouth...and.... strep throat. I was so TICKED. I haven't had this since I was a kid! Why now?! So I checked my temp and it was 102... and even though I felt crappy at the time, it was nothing like how I felt the day before, so God knows what my temperature was then.

I called the doc to get something called in, and left a message. THe nurse practitioner didn't call back until later in the afternoon, and she said there was nothing she could do until the next day (wednesday). So I suffered Tuesday, swallowing Ibuprofen and gargling salt water til I was about to yack. Wednesday morning I was MISERABLE, with a temp of 103.8...and thank GOD I got my prescription by early afternoon. I was about to suck it up and head to ER, though I was in no shape to sit there and wait all day.

So now I'm on Penicillin, and it seems to be working. My throat is still sore and I sound all nasally when I talk... I still ache.... my ears hurt.....my eyes hurt... my frickin TEETH feel like they hurt...and I still have white tonsils.... but at least I don't have a fever anymore. LOL. It gets a little better everyday. It just sucks because Tuesday morning is when we picked Alyson up from Russ's mom's house, and I couldn't wait to see her, but I felt so crappy because of being sick, and I hated to get HER sick. So Russ's mom came over Wednesday and a little bit of Thursday afternoon to help me out with Alyson... I tried not to get TOO close to her until the Penicillin kicked in. Supposedly things are no longer contagious, so I'm REALLY gonna feel bad if Alyson gets sick.

ANYWAY... that's the bad news of the trip. The trip itself was awesome.... the weather there was on and off rainy, but it was mostly cloudbursts. I guess people were right when they said it rains ALL THE TIME in Punta Cana... showers just come out of nowhere, and the sun will be out the whole time! Speaking of the sun... it is HOT down there. We were only on the beach not even 2 hours the first time, and Russ got burned pretty bad.... Mr. "I don't need sunblock because I'm already tan." LOL. He got fried the first day on the beach. Me, I put sunblock on, but every spot I missed ended up bright red, one being my forehead...lol.

ANother thing... LOTS of boobies and speedos on the beach. JEESH! And wouldn't you know, the first set of tatas that we saw belonged to a dark leathery looking old lady. She didn't give a darn either. I told Russ, "Hey, if she wants them hanging out, more power to her." Russ especially liked when 2 girls who looked to be in their 20's laid out close to us and let it all hang out. He smiled and goes, "See? That's when these sunglasses come in handy." Men. :-P

Dealing with the resort, it was beautiful! We stayed at the Riu Palace Punta Cana,an all-inclusive resort. I'll put a slideshow of pics at the end of this post :-)

Being that I'm feeling pretty crappy, I'd better get some sleep now. Alyson's been waking up earlier now. OH--- by the way-- my baby's WALKING! She's still wobbly and falls down alot, but she's been taking off on her own and will walk all across the living room, down the hall, through the kitchen, wherever she wants. I couldn't believe it! She had been taking a few steps on her own prior to us leaving on the trip, but not until yesterday did she start walking longer distances. :-)

Alright...more soon. Take care!