Not a whole lot going on. Dylan spent the weekend with my dad. Ethan had a cold. He woke up Saturday morning with a snotty nose. So here we go again. I think Dylan has it too. Both boys are acting normal though. So its not slowing them down at all. They spent near the last 30 minutes playing a tug of war with a toy. Neither wanted to give in. One was shrieking and the other one was whining and hollering 'noooooooo.' I finally got through to Dylan and it all ended, and they are playing well together...for now.
Last night I must have been living in LaLa land. I accidentally put the boys to bed over an hour early! Yes, accidentally. Dylan was exhausted and acting out and I looked at the clock thinking it was later than it really was. I swear I read it right. Anyway, I put Dylan to bed. Shortly after that I looked at the clock again, and thought it was Ethan's bedtime. Well, I put him to bed. Came out, found my cell phone to put it on the charger. When I looked on the phone, I then realized what the correct time was! I was an hour ahead of schedule. I felt so guilty for putting them to bed that early, but they both went to sleep! So I guess no harm, but man did I feel awful!
Ethan is getting better at taking steps. He is not a walker yet, but he can do it if he would just trust himself. Anyway, he is getting a little more confident. He is getting better at stacking his blocks as well. He is able to stack 6 blocks at a time. He likes to be praised for his stacking skills too.
I had more I wanted to say, but oh well. Too much going on.

This is post number 200! Woohoo! Too bad I don't have anything exciting to say.

A few weeks ago, I had to take a couple of duplicate gifts back to the store from Christmas for Dylan. So he went with me and we got him another engine for his "Thomas the Train" stuff. In the package the engine came in was a paper that listed all their things for 2010. For some reason Dylan latched on to one of the portable play sets on the paper. He talked about it a lot and carried that paper around with him all the time. Ryan and I decided to let him have money from his stash that people have given him for gifts, so that he could buy it. Well after all the crappy weather, I took him to Toys R Us yesterday so he could buy it. Dylan never, ever asks for anything. He just never has, so this one time was no big deal. We also don't just buy him stuff for the hell of it. If he gets anything its for birthday or Christmas. So he and I went down to Toys R Us. When he got out of the car, he said "this is going to be fun!" I was proud of him. They had 3 isles of Thomas the Train toys, and he never once asked for anything else. I let him play with the train table they had set up, while I looked for the toy we came for. When I found it, he was happy and ready to go. He handed the cashier the money and took the bag. It was a nice experience for him and me.

After Ethan's party it kind of all set in that he is one, and that's it. I still have a hard time seeing him as a one year old. For some reason, I see him as a 9 month old. I have been stuck in that mind set for a while now. I think part of it is denial. Denial that my last kid is speeding right along to his teen years (maybe that's exaggerated a bit). I have talked about this a couple of times now, but I think about it a lot. Saturday night I was a bit emotional about it all. Having the party just sealed the deal, that he is growing up. I'm so confused! I hate that my baby is growing up. But I am so glad my baby isn't a baby anymore! I am excited for him to walk and talk. I hated the sleepless nights, but loved holding such a sweet little thing in my arms. And the baby smell...I miss that. And I (most of the time) enjoy rocking him to sleep. I still do that. I know that it may be a pain for other people when they watch him, and deep down inside, I know that I need to quit doing that, but part of me can't seem to let that go. Same goes for the bottles. I had Dylan off the bottle by a year old. I was thrilled! With Ethan, he still takes bottles, I try with the cup, but its not going well. He just chews on them. But part of me does NOT care that he still takes a bottle. Again, I know that he needs to move on to sippy cups and I am trying, honestly. I do know what needs to be done, and what he should be doing. But I guess I am fine with rocking him and fine with the bottles. I am the one who is with him 95% of the time. I promise he won't be 3 years old, drinking from bottles and needing to be rocked to go to sleep. I am allowed to have this now. When he is done, that's all, no more. I know that we could have more kids, but I cant do it. 2 kids are enough for me. These 2 can be a handful and can stress me out enough. That is partly why I want to hold on to what is left of the baby in Ethan. I have started selling some baby stuff, mainly for my benefit. If that stuff is gone, its helping me to stay smart. Helping me to stick to what I know. 2 kids are perfect. 2 kids are enough. I'm ready to move on, really I am. But a little at a time...

Well we had a small party for Ethan's birthday with some of the family. We have too much family between the 2 of us to have 1 party. Ya know, I guess I wouldn't call it a party, maybe a get together. Either way it went well. We kept it pretty low key. Like we always do. I'm glad everyone made it. Ethan didn't care much about the gifts. He got a couple of bows off of the gifts and was happy to just have those. He did like the tissue paper. Dylan played with the gifts first. Oh well. In time he will enjoy it. When it came to the cake, we don't do the whole "smash" thing. Just not my style. Anyway, Ryan held Ethan close to the cake for pictures and to show Ethan, and he immediately reached and grabbed a handful of icing. Red icing. That was fun. We managed to race and get him clean before he could stain his clothes or anything else. He was given a few bites of cake and ice cream too. The cold of the ice cream caused him to make a face with each bite. But he seemed to like it! It is nice to sit around and talk with everyone. That's what I enjoy most about us all being together.
At Ethan's check up he was 20 pounds, 11 ounces and was 31 inches tall. He was in the 20th or 30th percentile for his weight (I said "or" because I don't remember...sorry) and in the 70th percentile for height. He is staying with his "normal." He has always been like that. He had a good check up though. And as always, I really like his pediatrician. She is so laid back.
Ethan has been eating better lately as well. He is almost eating more than Dylan. Dylan is going through a phase right now where its a struggle to get him to eat. I dread meal times. Anyway, Ethan is enjoyable to watch through the day. He is developing more of his personality. He can also take a few steps by himself. He just doesn't seem to want to. I think right now he could walk, but really he doesn't seem to have that "want" to walk. Again, in time.
Ethan is 1...still doesn't seem like he should be. This time last year he was so small and new. We were all adjusting to life with him.

Happy Birthday Ethan!

This year has flown by. Most of me is happy to be getting into toddler-hood with him, but a little bit of me is so sad to see all baby-ness go. I do think I am ready to be done with all things baby. It will be so interesting to see the toddler that Ethan turns into.
He goes to the doctor tomorrow for his 1 year check.

In the hospital



First day home


Love this face

Here he is all grown up!

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, please scroll down and look at the pics from Kyle's send off.

I'm not going to bore you with most of my weekend details. Sunday we went to the base to see Kyle leave for his deployment. Everyone was supposed to be down there at 5 am. It was mainly just an opportunity to spend time with your soldier right before they left for the airport. We had just over an hour before they left. A couple of Sergeants said a few words and a local Veterans group came for support and offered a few words. It was nice to be able to see them leave, but at the same time I felt awkward. I just didn't know what to say really. We talked a little, mainly small talk. Once it got closer to time to leave their Sergeant had them all stand in formation for pictures and encouragement. I still don't know what to say, even as I type this out. Kyle called mom yesterday evening and told her he made it to their next stop. They are in Wisconsin for a month before leaving the States. For this next month he has his cell phone. Although, I don't know how much access he will have to it. They may or may not be busy. Ok, like I said, I don't know what else to say. I took some pictures though.

A small group of Veterans came for support.

Since there were so few of them, this is how they left for the airport. There were 2 private vehicles taking them. You can see Kyle looking out the back window. See you soon! Come home safe.

Not much going on here. This weekend, we are going to a surprise birthday party for a friend of Ryan. He is turning 30, so his wife wanted to throw a small party. Sunday is when Kyle is leaving. Mom and I are going to the base that morning to see him go. For a year.

On a brighter note, a few pictures from the last week. I'm really not sure what happened though. Before I uploaded them, the color was much better. Now for some reason they are a little washed out. No idea what caused that. But I really don't want to go through uploading them all again!

This look that Dylan is giving is new. Just started it a couple of weeks ago. This time it was directed towards Ethan. Although I don't remember why.

Dylan needs a haircut too. That's Ryan's department...

I managed to catch the dog as she was starting a sneeze!

Both boys are doing better. They aren't over the cold yet, but they are so much better. I am so thankful for that. Hopefully just a few more days and it will all be gone. Nothing too exciting happening this week. We got a few inches of snow, and it has been blowing around so the roads are not the best. I guess that doesn't mean much to me since we usually don't go anywhere. No place to go, haha!
A couple of days ago, while Ethan was playing with his blocks he started to actually stack the blocks himself. He was able to do one on another. Yesterday he managed to get 4! Dylan quickly knocked them down though. I am so proud of him for being able to stack! So since he did that, and since he will be 1 next week I stupidly got online and went looking for the 12 month milestones. You know, the things "they" say kids should be doing at this age. I don't know why I did, because they are all over the place. I looked at 4 different websites and they all were different. I mean they did agree on somethings, but there was always something that one site would mention and another wouldn't. Anyway, I don't know why I looked. Looking at those things always frustrated me with Dylan. And this whole year that Ethan has been here, I haven't looked once. Until now. By no means to I think Ethan is behind. He is fine. Somethings he does and somethings he doesn't. I learned my lesson about reading those things the first time around. Today just backed that up. I just need to listen to my instinct and leave the internet alone! Ha! So anyway, Ethan will be a year old. So sad, but at the same time, its nice to move on from the baby stages.
This Sunday Kyle is leaving for his deployment. I'm going with mom down to the base on Sunday morning to see him go. All we can do is pray he will be safe.

Its been a long day already. Ethan is now sick with the cold that Dylan has. Great. 2 of them. He is miserable. Grumpy, congested, runny nose, did I mention grumpy? We didn't do much this weekend. We ran some errands and that's about it. We all went to Sams Club. There were a few things I needed to get. The carts have 2 seats in them, so the boys sat next to each other. Dylan whined because Ethan was touching him. It was way too busy to let Dylan down and walk. That would have been much worse. We made it through and managed to get everything on my list.
That was about it for the weekend. Took Dylan to school this morning and now we are home. I am anxiously awaiting nap time. No plans for the week. Its almost nap time...did I say that already?

So tired. I just feel worn out. It hasn't been the greatest week. Lots of whining and crying, not so much sleep. The boys are just not playing well together. Dylan gets mad because Ethan won't leave him alone. At the same time, he won't leave Ethan alone. One day this week Ethan refused to take his afternoon nap. That day was awful. He was so tired, but nothing I did would get him to sleep. So he just whined and cried the rest of the day. He hasn't been sleeping too great at night either. He whines off and on. I can tell he isn't really awake, but if he is making noise, then usually I am awake. He has been able to get out of his swaddle earlier and earlier. Which is why he is waking earlier in the mornings. When he isn't swaddled, he just won't sleep. I need to get brave and spend a few nights trying to get him weaned off of the whole swaddling thing. Its just hard, because I know that the next day I will be exhausted and very very pissy. So I need to do it when Ryan is home, so that if I need to lay down for a while during the day, he can be with the boys. I don't function well on limited sleep. My attitude is horrible. I am aware of it, but I can't seem to change it.
Dylan seems to be getting sick. A couple of weeks ago, a cold started around here. Ethan had it, then a week later Ryan and I had it. We got over it, aside from Ryan's cough. Well, now Dylan seems to be getting it. I wondered how he managed to escape it. Guess he didn't. Runny nose, but congested, and a bit of a cough. I hate it when the kids get sick. Its rough for them and me. He doesn't seem bothered by it much. He is annoyed at his runny nose though. I'm sure this will last a week or so and then it will get passed around again. I am doing my best to make sure Dylan keeps his hands washed, but its almost a given that Ethan will get it anyway. Its just hard to keep it from spreading.
Ethan has teeth coming out all over his mouth. He is doing well with it though. He is starting to let go of things and stand on his own. His balance is getting better and better. He knows that he can do this new trick, so he has been trying it more and more. He has also been using the walls to walk around. There is only 1 wall that is bare that he can use to walk. For the last month the Christmas tree was covering that wall. Since its been down though, Ethan has been using it to walk. He wants to be able to walk so bad. He just isn't there yet. And I am totally fine with it! Dylan was barely, and I mean barely able to walk unassisted at his first birthday party. So I wont expect Ethan to walk before his first birthday either. Dylan crawled at 9 months. Ethan crawled at 9.5 months. So I expect the walking to go the same way.
No weekend plans so that's nice. I don't mind.

Its been a while since I have done a look back. So here is a look back at Dylan. All of the pictures are around the same time. Some are November and some are December, but you get the idea.

December 2010


November 2009


November 2008. I know this pic and the one above, he is wearing the same jacket, but it fit 2 years in a row!

December 2007

December 2006

We had a nice weekend. Finished off Christmas time with family. New Years Eve was good, but we didn't make it until midnight. I kind of knew we wouldn't. Oh well. Sunday we finally got the Christmas tree down and out of my way! I am done with Christmas. New Year, time to move on. This month my brother is leaving for Afghanistan. A few days after that, Ethan is turning 1. The bad and the good. I already got a few things out about my brother leaving so we won't go there again.

Went to the grocery this morning. Holy crap batman. My grocery bill just keeps going up and up. The cost of things are slowly rising. When a few things go up in price by only a few cents, it tends to add up over a total grocery bill. Its getting insane. I do use coupons, but normally I buy store brands, so that even with those coupons, store brands are still cheaper. I know that some people make a hobby or a job out of clipping coupons and playing the sales at different stores. I just can't seem to get into that. For one, I don't have a place to store lots of things that I am not going to use within a week, and it all just seems so overwhelming. I don't buy a lot of packaged or prepared foods. I buy things to cook with. I don't know if that is helping me or hurting me. I do know that it costs a lot to buy healthy. I have found that out. I don't know, I am just getting frustrated that things are going up. A couple of years ago, I used to be able to keep a weekly grocery bill under $80! Not even close now. Even if I take off the cost of diapers and formula. When I look at my receipt I always take those off, to keep an idea of what the actual food is costing me. Just ridiculous.
One thing I did over the weekend, was go through a website that brings together all sorts of blogs. I found quite a few blogs that I added to follow. Some cooking and some about photography. I love reading blogs. You can find blogs about all kinds of things. I am glad that these people blog. Some people are so talented and creative. I would love to take this blog further, but I am not creative enough for that.
No plans for the week. Things are slowing down again, thankfully.