2...Weeks until his 1st birthday

Holy Crap. Seriously - it cannot be a year. It simply cannot be.

I know that everyone says the first year goes by so quickly - and I honestly didn't believe them, especially at first. The first three months were the longest months of my life. I was off of work, and had this small thing that seemed so foreign to me. Time seemed to stand still - days and nights were the same - and I couldn't wait to go back to work.

When I finally went back to work, I felt disconnected at first, and finally got back in the grind. I was never so excited to go back to work. Pumping sucked....literally and in the way I mean. I dreaded going to the "barn" everyday...I managed to keep doing it for another 3 months. I struggled SO much to make the decision to stop, I won't list all those reasons here, but I was ridden with guilt.

Now, that he's almost one. I would give anything in the world to stay home with him. As much as a cherish the few hours I get with him when I get home, I want so badly to wake up with him, make him lunch, play with him, watch his little body and mind grow. I have a bunch of pictures on my cubical wall of him, and just seeing his little smiling face helps make it through the day.

However, looking back on this year, it has been the craziest year of my life. In 2008, when I got married, got pregnant and bought a house, I thought that was the busiest year of my life, but I was sadly mistaken. 2009 was by far, the most life changing and busiest year of my life. It's AMAZING to see how much he has grown, not only physically but psychologically in a year. I don't feel that I learn much in one year, but he has gone from only knowing how to cry, eat, poop and sleep - - to being able to feed himself, roll, crawl, walk, babble, smile, laugh, and interact.

Do I have baby fever? Yes sir I do. I want to wait to have another until 2011, but we'll see what happens.

1...1 Well-Rested Mama...Ah-ah-ah!

Thank you Count for that lovely into.

For real - Marcus has decided to be an angel again and start STTN. That month of getting up in the middle of the night...two to three times a night, was really killing me. I know that I shouldn't complain at all because I know there are people whose children don't sleep through the night until they are 2 years old. However, when you get used to sleeping all night for 5 months straight, and then have to get up a couple times a night, it's like having a newborn all over again!! I could feel myself getting irritable and crabby toward everyone. I had no focus at all. We're going on night #3 of STTN. Thank goodness.

Have you seen this thing? If your kid likes the bath...it's seriously a must. Marcus was entertained by this thing until his bath water was cold. It goes over the faucet (which Mister liked to stick his fingers up all the time - gross), and the water spits out the tentacles! It's so darn cute. He was sitting there watching water drip out and was chewing on the legs. It was awesome.

I honestly think that kid is part fish. He loves water - anything that has to do with it. He even likes to help "wash dishes". He will stand on a chair and splash in the water while you are washing. It really is the cutest thing you've ever seen.

And today's random piece of history: It was a big day for the Beatles. On December 30, 1967, the song "Hello Goodbye" (as made recently famous again by Target) hit #1 on the singles chart and stayed there for 3 weeks. 3 short years later, on this date, Paul McCartney sues his bandmates to dissolve the Beatles. And 4 years later, again on this date in 1974, the Beatles were legally disbanded.

Hello, Goodbye indeed.

2009 = Ambivalence

I am so ready for 2009 to just be over with. While there were many good things that happened, it was definately the year of death. Not only with all of the celebrities that have passed, but in my life and those around me. It seems like everyone I talk to have had many people in their life that passed away this year.

In my life, we've had my cousin, my husband's great-grandfather, a colleuge, a friend from high school, my husband's "aunt"...that's far too many already.

However, there were two births in the family as well! My son and my niece. We are happy and blessed that both babies are happy and healthy.

I hope that 2010 has more happy times than sad. Let's start a decade off right!

Back from the Dead

Yeah - I know. It's been, like 4 months since I wrote last. Lame.

Here's my excuse - I have an almost 10 month old that has decided to learn how to crawl up stairs and fall back down them. I no more than sit down and he's halfway up the steps. If I would remember to close the gate at the bottom of the stairs, I wouldn't have this problem, but then that would require me to actually think.

We had the "First Christmas" last week. And me being the supermommy that I am, forgot the SIM card to my camera, so I have zero pictures of it. Thankfully my mother took a bunch of pictures, but that sure doesn't help me right now does it? Mister had a bunch of fun...at least as much fun that a 9.5 month old can have. He got a John Deere tractor, which he was so thrilled with that he was pretty much done with opening things right then and there, an activity box from yours truley, a mailbox toy, a piano, a toy cell phone, and some clothes. Oh...and a ball pit. Thanks a lot grandparents.That will be the toy that either stays in the basement play room...or outside.

My brother and sister-in-law and niece came over from Oshkosh on Saturday night. Cecilia is 4 months old, and I forgot how much fun that age is. She was just smiling at everything and couldn't crawl away when you laid her on the floor. Almost puts me in "baby fever", but not quite.

The highlight of my weekend - Packers won. And an ode to my Detroit Lions fans, it was one year ago today, that the Lions completed their perfect 0-16 season, losing to my team...the GB Packers. <3

Toot Toot

So here's the thing. Whenever I take Mister out places, everyone rants and raves about what a great baby he is, and we are so lucky and he's such a happy boy, etc. etc. Now, I am glad he's a content and happy boy, but where is MY credit?

Toot, toot-ing my own horn here - Isn't part of his personality based on how we've raised him? I know that some personality traits are inherited, but I happen to think that part of his happiness is because he has happy parents and that we are laid back. I think that babies can sense a parent's mood and adapts to that. I am not up tight about who holds him or if they do something different than we do, and I think in turn, Mister is pretty accepting. So where is my kudos? Where is, Wow Sarah, you've done a great job rearing him so far and he obviously has a great Mom and Dad.

I am a good Mom, if you don't count the time when he fell off the couch the other day. Ooops.

So, it's cute - to a point.

So Mister has started this new thing. He likes to "kiss" you. He will grab you by the face and lick you right on the face, mouth, hair, whatever comes in close proximity to his mouth. The first time, cute. However, now he is PINCHING my G-D face every time he does it. Who knew such little hands could hurt so much! AUGH!

I'm not sure what to think...

So here I am. I'm in one town, my baby is in another. My day care is closed this week and my Mom just happened to be off of work so she graciously offered to take my boy for today and tomorrow. Problem is, I don't know if I should be excited to have some alone time with the hubby, or if I should cry because I miss my boy!

Today was the first day that I've woken up without my little man. I missed his little smile and him laughing and cooing at me in the morning. I was tempted to turn on the lullaby CD last night so I could sleep! I know he's in good hands, but I just miss smooshing those little cheeks!!

Scratch that.

Yeah so the whole sun hat thing? Didn't work out so well. Mister didn't want to take a nap, so I couldn't make the hat. Oh well. Maybe another time.

Next Martha Stewart Over Here?

I happen to think I'm pretty crafty. And not just in the sly way, but in the way that I like to make things with my own two hands. I like to scrapbook, knit, cross-stitch...and this weekend, I am going to try to make my first little thing for Mister. A sunhat.

I saw a pattern online and thought, "Hey, that doesn't look too hard...I think I'll give it a try". So I bought material last night and I'm going to give it my best shot. I'll post pictures when I'm done with it so you can see how close I remsembled the pattern.

Marcus' Apology Video

So, I guess I'm not so great at keeping up to date on this thing. I promise I'll do better!

However, I did feel that I needed to share the following video. But here is some background:
Hubby, Me and Mister went to the Washington County Fair on Saturday with our friends "Glaze". We spent about 2 hours walking around with Glaze and Mister had a great time. We got Dippin' Dots, I won $5 at BINGO....good times. Anyway, we went to back to Glaze's house to meet up with another friend, B. We had only been there maybe 20 minutes when Mister started crying. And I don't mean just whimper because he's tired, but full on scream-till-you're-red-in-the-face-and-no-sound-is-coming-out kind of scream. I tried rocking him - no dice. Nursing - forget it. Burping - nada. So, we decided we had to go home. B was a little sad that we had to go home because it had been quite some time that we had seen her, so I decided that Mister needed to make an apology video to B. And this is what we came up with.

My favorite part is around :20 - to me, it totally sounds like he's saying "Hi!"