Unintentional Day Off

I wish I worked today! But, having been sick the past two days I decided I HAD to take Saturday off if I was going to recover. And it was good, because I went to bed at 8:30 last night thinking I wasn't tired and slept until 10:30 this morning! I really needed it.
So today I just hung around, didn't do much. Sean took me out to lunch at Chili's and I got yummy portabello mushroom fajitas. Matt somehow managed to sleep.
Anyway, this is just a quick blog just to put up some pictures of Sean feeding Matt his last container of pureed peas. ...yum...
Well, at least Matt likes them! He was screaming, and as soon as Sean put that spoon in his mouth he was all smiles and happiness.

Mom! Trying to eat my hand here!

Please take note of the carefully deposited pea puree in his nose.

Sean is smiling because he knows personally how good those peas are. Seriously. I caught him in the kitchen last night, sitting on the floor making airplane noises as he "flew" the mashed peas into the "airport". He denies the whole thing.

At this point Matt is wondering if there really are only peas in my concoction. I mean, the "pre-made" "pure" baby food.

Our poor starving dog who has been reduced to begging for baby food. What a sad life.

Don't point that camera at me like I made the mess!!!!!!

Yeah. Not me. I swear.

Anyway, time for bed!

Six Flags!!!

Yesterday was my best friend Jana's birthday! So, as her birthday present, we went to six flags!
Here is the birthday girl driving. YAY!

First, we ate at Denny's.

Where the waiter was awesome up until he completely ditched us and disappeared. I think he got fired for giving services too good for Denny's.
Here are some shots of six flags from above.





Cool, huh? We had tons of fun. I groomed my brother-in-law's Golden retriever Sugar on Sunday, as as a tip he gave me this:





Look, Apple may be a big, evil corporation, but damn, those things are cool! It's only one gig, but it holds all my non i-tunes songs that are on my computer. Cool huh?
And almost lastly, here are my six flags souvenirs.


I love Daffy. :-D

Couldn't resist.
And lastly, here is what Matt is doing while I write all this.

Woo hoo!!!

More Peas, Peas!

Ok, Matt is not wanting to go to sleep! No wonder, he has had a wonder-filled day. First, we got this:

(closer)

from Jean (my mother-in-law),
and Matt had lots of fun watching me struggle to put it together.
Then he was hungry.
So, after feeding him most of a bottle, and when he was in a reasonably good mood, I decided it was time for his first food. Sweet potatoes? Nah. Squash? Nah. Banannas? No...hmm...pears? Nope. Oh, duh, EVERY kid's favorite food! PEAS!!!!!

So I fed it to him, and instead of getting a nasty look on his face and spitting it out, he gobbled it down as best as he could (which wasn't that well), and decided,

eventually,

That I wasn't doing it right,

and he would just do it himself!





Then after clean-up, it was sleepy time.

So, goodnight everyone!

cat in lap--posting pictures

Nostromo likes to butt my hand as I am typing.
Anyway, been pretty busy and the times I haven't been busy working, cleaning, doing household stuff and taking care of Matt, I really haven't felt like updating my blog.
But here are some pics from the last few days.

Some evil person likes to take pictures of me sleeping!!!! Must have been after the morning feeding, sometimes I like to cuddle with him and go back to sleep for his morning nap.

tummy time?

happy happy tummy time!!!

looking confused is my specialty.

what?

huh??

My dog is so nice. This picture was taken right before Matt decided to grab a fistful of her beard next to her nose and twist and pull. She just laid her head down and gave me a very sad look.

This picture is forshadowing the devious toddler Matt is soon to become.

He fell asleep like this yesterday. He did have both feet in his hands, but let one slip before we could find the camera.
Anyway, there ya go. Some pictures to keep you going until I can post again! Well, Matt is asleep and I can almost hear the timer in his head! I have about 20 minutes to make/eat breakfast, then it's Matt Central Time until about 3 or 4 pm.
Blog to ya later!!!!
Ok FINE.
HERE.

You guys are never satisfied until you see the real star of the show. Sheesh!

yikes

Lol, I know, no point in keeping a blog if I don't update it! Busy busy!!! Grooming full time and being a mom full time is time consuming. I will be transferring to the Hemet store. (Petsmart). The reason I didn't transfer before was because I didn't think they had the business, but they do! And they need groomers! So, looks like I'll be working 2 minutes from home! And since I need to lose the baby weight, I will be biking to work. And be saving on gas! Yay! So, as usual, I'm busy! So I will post later! Lol...probably in a month :-P

Sean's Dad Visits Matt!

For the first time since his birth. Unfortunately, I haven't got any pictures of him/Sean/the baby yet, but I'm sure I will since today was only his first day here. Sean is really happy--he's been in a good mood all day. Not much to report really--I get to work all weekend. Yay...
Well at least I'll be making buku bucks! Anyway, here are some pictures. I tried to get some of Sean changing Matt, but the stupid camera decided it wasn't dark enough to flash...>:-(

Matt getting ready to throw a right hook at daddy

One day, mom, I WILL get back at you for photo-blogging MY DIAPER CHANGING!!!

Seriously.

Well, it WAS a cute picture when I took it...

Nostromo

Okay, after the extensive angry fan mail demanding to see a picture of this legendary "Nostromo", I decided to oblige for the sake of posterity.
The things I do...

Nostromo, in Sean's chair.

Nostromo, in another chair that looks identical to Sean's chair but is, in fact, it's evil twin.

Visit #3

Just got home from driving my Mom to the airport, feeding Matt and watching the latest episode of Heroes. Interesting...now when Sean gets home from school, we'll watch 24 together. If Matt allows us, that is.
Matt has been very social lately, talking and smiling at everyone. Mom enjoyed her visit, and Brenda enjoyed the last visit before her trip to Connecticut. Hm. That is spelled weird. I guess I'll have to learn how to spell that now instead of relying on spellchecker.
Brenda is entrusting Nostromo to me for a month while she gets settled back east. He and my other male tabby, Nino, are rivals now, but I see the beginnings of a friendship. Mai is eating Nostromo's poop from the cat box...sigh. It seems like my blog address is becoming truer and truer. Ebony, as usual, could really care less about Nostromo and his menacing growls. I do think he senses Ebony doesn't care, so he doesn't really go after her if she comes too close. He hates Mai with a passion. This is probably because she has absolutely no sense of personal space and barks loudly in his face (looking at me), if he growls or hisses at her. Yes, like I didn't hear it. She really thinks I am dumb.
Matt is having tummy time now, spitting up on my bed. He already spit up a big puddle, so I am just letting him drool on a separate area. Hey, I have to change the sheets anyway!
I still love being a mom! Even when Sean was at drill and he was super, super fussy, I didn't mind. Ok, Matt is getting mad. So I will take a picture of him now, post it, and sign off. He is really getting time-restrictive these days! But it's ok, it means he is more interesting. :-)

fun, fun, fun

Matt+drool puddle=wet arm

Nino felt insecure last night after Nostromo's arrival. So did Sean. Luckily, they have each other. And I have a camera with flash and the ability to disturb a precious moment all for the sake of a good blog pic.

Nino wasn't happy.

Sorry!

Okay, so it's been a while since I last posted. I went back to work, and every spare moment I have I want to spend it with Sean and Matt or doing essential errands.
So, quick updates before Matt wakes up. He is smiling a lot now, and smiling in response to things I say and my tone of voice. He likes silly faces and will try to imitate them. If you talk and he is in the right mood, he'll imitate what you say with coos. He is wonderful. He had a doctor appointment last week and the doctor was extremely impressed with his "gross motor skills". He said that Matt was extremely advanced, and in his entire career as a pediatrician he had only seen 2 or 3 other babies who can do what he can do at that age. He has the motor skills of a 4 month old, and he was only 2 months. His social skills (smiling, cooing, looking at you when you speak, imitation) are totally normal and not abnormally advanced. He is in the 50th percentile with weight and height (12.5 pounds, 24 inches). He obviously is already excelling physically. The doctor was so impressed and wondered what Matt would be doing at 4 months. He said that he thinks Matt will be walking by 9 months old. I wouldn't doubt it--heck I walked at 9 months old and I don't believe I was super physically advanced. The things Matt does are totally possible for someone his age, just very rare. When the doctor held him in a standing position, Matt held all his weight on his legs for about 5 seconds. I can't wait until he can walk!
I know, everyone says that it's terrible because they get into everything, but I already have 4 animals and nothing is safe. It's not like I'm not used to it. I know everything and everywhere in my house that a baby would find interesting because my animals have kindly shown me.
He is also sleeping in his crib now. He has outgrown the bassinet. The baby monitors are coming in handy. Speaking of that, I hear Matt fussing! Maybe he'll go back to sleep....
Work has been fun. Lots of dogs, lots of work, lots of money. Not too bad.
I am thinking about starting another blog about my work as a groomer. So many interesting and weird things happen every day that it's worth writing about. We'll see. I hardly keep up with THIS blog, so it'd be stupid to start another one.
Here's some pictures I just took of him in his crib. (Yes, he was waking up, but now he's sleeping in my arms)


Anyway, going to go take a shower and put Mr. Matt back in his crib. He's doing well with that, by the way. He doesn't mind sleeping by himself. What a good kid. :-)

WOOO HOOOO!!!!

MATT ROLLED OVER!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHH!!!! YAY!!!!!!! I put him down for tummy time on my bed behind me (I was on the computer), and I was looking back to make sure he was ok and doing well. He was trying hard to lift his head and he pretty much kept it 90 degrees and chest off the ground the entire time. I was very proud and I looked back to my computer to finish reading something. I heard him fussing and turned around AND HE WAS ON HIS BACK!!! I am SO HAPPY! I was JUST telling him (because I talk to him all the time :-P) that he could roll over if he wanted to and I wished I knew what would motivate him to do it. HOLY CRAP! I mean, I had just said that like a minute before. I am so, so, proud of him!!!
Hey, when you have no leg/arm muscles and your head is 1/4 of the size of your body, rolling onto your back from your tummy is no easy feat! Wow. Okay. Well I just HAD to post about that. I am just so, so happy. It makes up for last night.
So, last night I was at my friend Jana's house, watching a movie and holding Matt. He was hungry so I was feeding him and watching the tv. I looked down and the bottle was pretty much gone. Cool, I thought, he finished that fast. I took it out and that very instant a white flood came out of his mouth and nose, all over his face, all over my shirt, all over the couch cushion and the pillow. EVERYWHERE!!! It was in his eyes, his nose...oh my god! Anyway I freaked out but Jana said not to worry that babies do that, and it was just an air bubble. Wow.
Oh, I took a video of him rolling over! Very cute.
Okay, I have to go to MY 6 week check up, I'll talk at you later!

Nothing, As Usual

Nothing to post about...just posting to post. I was reading American Baby today and it said that by 4-6 weeks a baby should be mimicking your facial expressions. It said to stick your tongue out at him and to watch him stick his out too. I was like, "no way!", turned to him, and stuck my tongue out. And guess what? He stuck his out back!!! Ahh!!! I did it again, and he did it again! Yay! He is also cooing on a regular basis and smiling. I was watching tv and I looked down and he was staring intently at me with a really wide closed-mouth smile. It was a little...creepy to be honest. But cute!
Anyway, just a little update. Sean leaves for drill tomorrow night/Monday morning (3 am) and I'm all alone for 5 days! It'll be tiring doing ALL the work but I will enjoy it because it's my last week with him before I go back to work. Then I'll be gone for 10 hours a day 5 days a week :-(.
Okay, I'm going to go attend to Matt. He is making the most adorable coo noises and I have to go see him because he is sooo cute!
Yeah, no post-partum here! :-P

Matt's New Hatt

Today I got a package in the mail, and when I opened it up, out came this cute hat just the right size for Matt! I have to roll up the sides a little, but that's good because he can wear it for a few months until his head gets too big.



Besides from getting a cute hat, Matt is doing well. He has started to coo and really interact more, and today he lifted his head up 90 degrees AND pushed his chest off the ground! He did it a few times so I know it wasn't a fluke. He really wants to be up and running around. He is a lot like Sean, because Sean will try and try until he gets something right, whereas I'll just give up after a while and move onto something else.

Here's Sean and Matt after a feeding. (Matt's)


And here's Matt doing what he does best: sleep and look cute.

Well, besides the cooing and head-lifting, it's still mostly feeding and sleeping. I can see him already develop into an interesting little boy, and I can't wait to see what he is like in the future! He IS extraordinarily strong and physically advanced for someone his age, but very normal on the other stuff (smiling, cooing, focusing, etc). So, already I can tell his strong point is being physical because he was active in the womb and he is really progressing along that path. Good! All the more fun we can have when he gets older! Anyway, I'll post again with more pics.

same old, same old

Nothing unusual going on...just taking care of Matt and hoping he'll sleep through the night! Mom's coming up again on Friday, Febuary 16th, and we're all stoked! Yay!
Really, nothing is going on. But, I felt guilty for not posting! I go back to work on the 12th, and I'm actually looking forward to it. I am so sick of having no money!
Well, that's all for now. Sean is going to work soon so I was going to spend some quality time with him (playing WoW) :-P.
Okay, I'll post when something interesting happens!

BTW, here's that pic of Matt in the penguin suit:

Don't play with Mattches!

Yeah yeah, long time no post, I know! My mom came down and stayed from January 17th through the 21st and it was awesome! It's the first time in 2 years since I saw her and a lot has changed. I haven't seen her since I was a teenager! It's fascinating to see the little things I do that she does and I didn't know she did, like always leaving the last edge bite of a sandwich or burger. Or our intense dislike for sour cream/mayo (except in deviled eggs and tuna). Or that we both steal covers and sleep with one foot out.
Anyway, she was happy to see me but ecstatic to see Matt! She held him almost constantly, which was fine with me! I think of it this way--she was trying to cram in a month's worth of cuddle time in 5 days. We didn't do anything extraordinary, mostly hung around home or in Walmart. She was able to spoil me this time and she got me more bottles for Matt (he'll only drink out of one kind and we only had 3), more outfits and bibs and hats. She had brought a cute Winnie-the-Pooh diaper bag filled to the brim with cute things she had picked up here and there ever since I got pregnant. One item was a penguin suit that one of her friends gave her (for the life of me I cannot remember who she said it was--but thank you!!!). It was SO CUTE!!! He liked it a lot because it was plushy and warm and he fell asleep for a long time in it.

LAME!!!! Blogger won't let me upload pictures!!!! Well...let it just suffice to say that Matt looks about 80 pounds in the picture and it's very comical. Ha ha.

Stupid Blogger.

Anyway! It was sad seeing her go, but it's not too bad because she is coming down in less than a month for a long weekend. She was able to find cheap enough fare that she could come down almost every month if she wanted. That's really cool because I miss seeing her, and in-laws just don't cut it sometimes when all you want is your mom.
Speaking of moms, I LOVE being one! I honestly didn't think I'd like it this much. Really, having a kid now is pretty much sealing the deal that any sort of "fun" life is over--no partying, no more being irresponsible, no more staying out until the wee hours of night. If getting married didn't stop all fun stuff, having a kid certainly does! If you want to be a responsible parent, that is. But you know what? I freaking LOVE being a mom! I have so much fun with Matt already and I can't wait until he can crawl/walk/talk. He is such a fun kid! I can't wait until I can hang out with him and run around with him and chase him and hike to cool places and bike and roller blade and go to the beach and build sand castles and bury him in the sand! I can't wait to teach him how to read and be confident in his abilities. He has two parents who really love each other and love him more than anything and he is going to have such a happy life! I don't care if I can't stay out late or go to stupid parties. I just want to hang out with Matt and have fun. No post-partum depression here!
Secretly, (not anymore I guess), Sean and I have been talking and we've come to the conclusion that we'd be really happy just having Matt and not any other kids. If something happens and I get pregnant, no problem. However, we're not going to actively try for any more. We feel like we lucked out so much with Matt and we don't want to push our luck. Plus, with two kids, you have to buy two of everything, work alone time with both kids, worry doubly about everything, spend twice as much money, etc. I realize in the end it's also double the happiness, but I think I can find all my gratification in one child. Sean and I are pretty relaxed parents, and having two kids to discipline and worry about will make us into two pretty stressed individuals. Kids spend most of their time and energy plotting how to manipulate their parents to get what they want, and with two kids, they use their time and energy plotting how to work together or against each other to get what they want. Children are devious! I'd rather just worry about one. Plus, I'm quick enough to catch onto one kid's tricks, but I'm not quite sure I'd be able to as quickly catch onto two or more kid's tricks.
I know opinions change, and probably in about a year or two my biological clock will start ringing and encouraging me that I really do want more kids. Who knows? But I'd be 100% happy with just Matt. He's great.
One more thing before I end this posting. I changed my Sprint plan. I looked online at my account and I didn't know I was getting charged $40 extra for stuff I didn't know I had and wasn't using! Lame! They were charging for Vision Pack (where you can send and receive pictures and videos and watch tv on your phone and stuff), voice command, and free minutes after 7. So I called and revamped my plan and got free minutes after 7 (for free instead of paying for it), kept my unlimited texting, and free roaming/long distance, etc, and now my plan went from $142 for two phones after taxes to $105. Plus, they give a 15% discount if you go into a store and show them your military ID and that brings my monthly bill to 89.25 after taxes. We get 700 anytime min, unlimited night and weekend, free mobile to mobile, unlimited texting, no roaming charges and free long distance, free caller ID/call waiting/three way calling. Very, very cool. To revamp my plan I had to do it with their current plan options, which meant I had to take a cut of 100 anytime minutes down from 800 and give up my 5 dollars for every extra 100 minutes I go over. I don't care about the minute cut, but it sucks about losing the $5 for every 100 min deal. However, I was looking at my usage and Sean and I use together an average of 300-400 minutes per billing period because most people we talk to are either on Sprint or we call after 7. So it's okay because we are saving an extraordinary amount of money. Especially since Sean is quitting his job, we'll have all those extra minutes he would normally use to call people he is delivering to. Yay! I'll still have to pay the super high cell phone bill this month, but starting February 12th I can finally start paying what I should have been paying to begin with. Maybe later if finances are looking good I'll pay for free minutes after 6. It's only $5 extra and may be worth it. We'll see.
Okay, I'm going to go watch 24 now which I missed last night thanks to a killer headache. I will post again soon, I PROMISE! Especially since I need to post some pictures.