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So much news

There have been so many things going on lately that some times I feel like my head is spinning.

Ian has gone green...

from this

to this

2008 Civic Hybrid

It's saving us financially, but he's pretty depressed about losing his truck. We loved that truck! It was really sad to give it up, but it was a financial necessity.

After trading in the truck, I realized 4 days later that I had left Sami's stroller in the back! OMG! I was freaking out! I stopped by the dealership and they sent me to their reconditioning shop and they had my stroller!! I was SOOO relieved.

Then there's this

BRUNO....I can't get that picture to move down here...

He's been missing for over a week now. His battery dies in his electric collar and off he went. I think this maybe it for the Bru. Patches was gone with him for over 24 hours, but she came back. (she always comes back) I've tried getting her to show me where they went and where Bruno could be, but it was no luck.

I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing. I REALLY miss my Bru, and I love that dog. He's my baby. But here's the thing...he's kind of a pain.

He jumps all over everyone. I've tried working with him, training him, but it just doesn't take.

He steals food the minute you turn your head. He will snatch what ever you have on your plate or in your hand.

He will still on occasion, very rare, but it's happened, marks his territory.

He's been having a bit of an attitude problem lately. He was snippy with me once last summer. Got in my face showing his teeth and growling and scared me. He's been snippy with Ian, but only when he's sleeping and we try to wake him up. Then a few weekends ago, he was snippy with Scott. I truly believe that he would never bite any of us...ever! But he has been getting more and more touchy and he gets loud, growling and showing his teeth and tries to get in your face.

So I'm not sure if maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Maybe he's gone for a reason. What if it got worse. Sami is moving around more and more now, what if he went off on her? What if he does bite? Who will be the victim? What if he hurts one of the kids?

All of these things are very troubling to me. I feel heart broken that he is gone, and heartbroken that he may not be back. I just wish that I knew he was ok. I know that he knows his way home, but he has not come back. And for Patches to be gone over night, I know that she must have been with him. I've looked all around our property, the neighboring fields, all our streets, but have not found him.

All I can do is pray that he is ok and safe and being loved where ever he may be.

I also have a video of Sami trying to walk, lol. I'll have to upload it later and try and post it tomorrow.

pics...

Here are a couple pics of her in the Mei Tai, front carry. Ian left for Jersey today, so I couldn't get any pics of her in the back carry. I still have to figure out how to get her in the back carry by myself.

She has been pulling up on EVERYTHING! All she wants to do is walk. I've been looking at walkers for her but haven't decided on one yet. Today I just saw one that is a shopping cart/walker and the handle is expandable for when she is taller. It's really cute! But I think I want to get her a ride on one....ahhh, decisions decisions, lol.

Updated: You can notice from the dark circles under my eyes that Sami has NOT been sleeping the past 3 nights! Not sure what her deal is, but I'm hoping it's over soon.

She's trying already to give up her second nap..or first nap really and combining the two. She used to take 2 two hour naps, now she goes down later in the morning and is sleeping for close to 3 hours. It is much too soon for her to give up one of her naps! I think we have to start from square one again and get a new schedule going.

The latest

Well, Sami is still not sleeping through the night,...sigh...
She's had a few good nights where she slept 6, 7, 8 hours straight, but they weren't uninterrupted hours. She woke one night and finally soothed herself back to sleep. She's had a couple of days where she's been off schedule so then I feel bad and give into her at night. We really have to come to a sleeping agreement, lol. Last night she went down at 9 pm (she had a late nap so she was up a little later) Woke at 10:30...I gave in and nursed her :( then she woke again at 11:45, but soothed herself back to sleep and slept until 5:30. I got up with her, nursed her and put her back down and she slept until 9am. So it is getting a little better, but we're still not quite there yet. Her normal bed time is 8pm. I've tried keeping her up later so that she will sleep later in the morning (she normally wakes up around 5:30-6:00am to nurse) but the later I keep her up the more she wakes during the night. I don't get it. I guess we'll just keep working on it and see how we do...


In other news....I DID IT!!! I made my very own Mei Tai! And I am so incredibly proud of myself, lol.
It's not perfect by any means...it's definitely "homemade" lol. But I did it! Once I started I just couldn't stop. I was so excited to finish it. I stayed up last night till midnight working on it and was the first one up this morning so that I could try and finish it before Sami woke up, lol. Ian made breakfast and took care of Sami so I could finish working, and Voila...here it is!
I can't wait to make another one. I kind of did my own thing, which was kind of funny since I've never owned or used a Mei Tai, but I've been researching them for a few weeks now and I tried to incorporate the ideas I liked from each of the ones I saw. There are a few things I will do different in my next one, but over all I love it!

Here are a few pics. Let me know what you think...

I couldn't do it...

Last night we tried the Ferber method with Sami. I just couldn't do it. I tried. I tried REALLY hard. But in the end, she was crying, I was crying, my head hurt, my stomach hurt and I felt like I was dying inside, lol...but really I did. It felt like I was crushing her spirit, and mine as well. Her screaming and crying and coughing only made me want to hold her more and more and nurse her and keep her close.

I'm so on the fence with this method. I do believe in it...especially at her age, but damn it's hard!
She woke up at 3am, which means she slept for 7 hours straight, which I think is great! She cried for an hour!!! Me going into try and comfort her only made her more upset, and in turn made me more upset. As soon as I stepped out of her room I broke down. I couldn't stand to see her like that, and not help her. I knew what she needed, she knew that I knew, so why wouldn't I just help her? OMG it was breaking my heart!

I know she was fine, there were a few breaks in the screaming where she would drift off for a few minutes but then it would start up again. I felt like my head and heart were going to explode so I gave in.

Not sure what's best at this point. I'm convinced that she truly was just hungry...hell, Ian and I were both laying in bed with our stomachs growling too, lol. So I got up, nursed her, held her tight, changed her and nursed her on the other side. She was still awake when I put her back down, so it's not like I nurse her back to sleep...that's good right? LOL
She always puts herself to sleep, I 98% of the time put her in her crib when she is awake, looking at me and alert. So that has to count for something....right? Help me justify this people, lol.

So now here we are 9am and she's still sleeping!!!!! She was only up the one time (be it for an hour and screaming the whole time, but hey who's counting).

Mei Tai

I SOOOO want one of these!!!

BabyHawk, EllaRoo, Kozy....I can't decide!! Or maybe an Ergo?

I think I'll try and make my own...The only problem is I can't sew! Ian bought me a sewing machine last year, so I guess it's time to break it out and try and use it. Honestly, I think I'll probably break down and just buy one, but I really can't afford it. These things are outrageously priced. $60-$130!!

We've booked our first family vacation to TX in Feb. I'm a bit nervous about flying with the baby girl. Any tips for flying/traveling with an 8 month old? There is so much to bring! Ugh.

I want the new wrap/carrier for the trip, so I have less than a month to figure out how to make my own or pony up the money to buy one.

Drea is my inspiration to try and make my own. She has made a few that she posted on her blog and I LOVE them!

7 Months...a little late...

So here is the princess at 7 months. Proudly showing off her two front teeth.
These days she is just go, go, go. She wants to move! She loves exploring and doing new things. She is learning more and more by the minute. She can crawl on all fours, but is not convinced that it is faster than her military creep that she does. When she really wants to get some where and fast she plops down on her belly and creeps there. It's a pretty funny site. If she's just playing with her toys she will crawl from one to the next. She's been trying more and more to stand up. If she had the balance she'd be doing it already. She pushes her self up and tries to walk with her hands on the ground and up on her toes. I swear one of these days she's going to do a somersault! She's been pulling up on everything she can get her hands on, but doesn't quite have the upper body strength to get herself upright just yet. She goes from sitting to crawling and rolling and back to sitting no problem now.
She loves singing with Daddy...who by the way, she is calling Pa Pa lately. She can't seem to get Da Da down, but we've been trying. She concentrates so hard and watches our mouths as we are saying it, but when she tries, all that comes out is "Pa Pa." It's really cute.
She's doing good eating, and trying new things all the time. Her latest is Zwieback toast. She LOVES that stuff! But my gosh is it messy! She loves anything she can feed herself and is still getting used to new textures. The other day I chopped up some bananas and then ground up some cheeri0s to coat them with. Bananas are so slippery that it was hard for her to handle them. Once they were coated in the cheeri0s she could pick them right up and pop them in.

I think we are in for a few more teeth soon...
This is how she really felt today :(

She was such a good sport though.


This is my little curious one. Always exploring and figuring out the unknown.

Still so behind...

I've been meaning to catch up, but just haven't had a free moment to do so.
Christmas was great. I had a blast watching Sami open all her gifts and was so excited that she was actually into it. I wasn't sure that she would be ready yet this year, but she loved opening and ripping up the paper and crinkling it.

Scott woke up early. He was up at 4am on Christmas eve! Then up at 5 am on Christmas day! I think he was a little excited, lol. He loved all his gifts. Ian and I got him a professional drawing table this year. We were both a little nervous about whether he would really like it or not. He LOVED it! We were SO happy. We tried to make this Christmas more about his interests, other than video games. It was kind of weird having Christmas morning with no new video games, but it was nice, and everyone was satisfied with their gifts....oh, wait, lol. I got new video games!! LMAO. Usually the boys get tons of new games or new systems every year...this year I got a DS!!! I love it! I really wanted one, and I love Scott's, so it was awesome! I love those Brain games.
Ian and I also both got new phones. I ordered his months ago and waited until the last minute to activate it. Something got screwed up and I had to drag both kids out to the Veris*n store on Christmas Eve. We got it all worked out and I was satisfied, but a little nervous that Ian would freak out when he realized his phone wasn't working.
Little did I know....he was doing the same thing for me!
So I get home and I go to use my phone...and.....nothing! It doesn't work! I was pissed! I thought for sure that they messed it up and activated Ian's new phone on my line, and I had already wrapped it up and had it all set to go. So I go online and look at our account and much to my surprise...I had a new phone too! LOL
Ian did the SAME thing! After activating my phone (on his lunch break at work) He went to use his phone and it didn't work. So he got pissed and went back to Veris*on and told them they screwed it up and now his phone wasn't working. The veriz0n lady looks up our account and says, everything looks right...."you have the voyager, right?"
"Um NO!" LMAO I guess the lady felt really bad about giving up the surprise. She thought she ruined our Christmas.
Actually we both thought it was pretty funny, and we both got our presents Christmas eve! LOL.

Ian also got me an external hard drive for all my pics, so I don't clog up my laptop. I so NEEDED this!
Unfortunately I haven't taken any pics since Christmas day :(

I'm totally behind on Sami's 7 month post. She's getting so big so fast!
I have to get a 7 month photo shoot done for her...maybe next week. Things just have not slowed down here yet. Crazy!!
Big events with Sami are...
She is feeding herself Cheeri0s! This was a big moment for us, lol.
She is military crawling all over the place! Can crawl on all fours when she's in just a diaper, but hasn't seemed to figure it out with clothes on, lol.
She is trying to pull up on just about everything she can get her hands on. But she doesn't have the upper body strength yet. She usually gets really frustrated, but she will not give up.
She's been fighting me with her food. She wants what she wants, when she wants it and she refuses to give. It's all a big power struggle, because I refuse to give too. We've come to a compromise with cheeri0s and what ever Mama wants her to eat.

We've both been sick since New years and are just now starting to get better. Scott has his buddy here this weekend and having 2 teenage boys in the house is exhausting.

I'll try to update more...soon. With Sami starting to be mobile, finding time has been rough.

A few more...

Playing in the box...silly girl.

Beautiful Baby Emma!!

More Christmas pics

Santa Baby

Playing with Ryleigh...

Opening presents with Uncle Timmy

Christmas Morning

Opening presents...

Scott was so excited to help her open her gifts...He's such a great big brother, even better than I knew he would be...it just amazes me.

Sami was a little shocked by the Vsm*le Baby that Santa brought her, lol...I LOVE this pic!!

She looks SO interested in it!....guess we better break it out of the box, huh?

Christmas Eve

Sami did great opening her gifts. I was so suprized that she was really into it. Ripping the paper and playing with all her new toys..she loved it!

Funny faces are all I get from this one lately...

Jammies on....ready to go home and wait for Santa!