Orlando Trip Part 1

So this post is probably going to be long and include lots of funtastic pictures so I'm breaking it up into parts.  How many yet, I'm not sure.  I will begin at the beginning.  Mike had to go to a conference for his job in Orlando this past week (Sept. 19-23) and we had considered going with him because it's really close to Disney World and you lovely taxpayers paid for the hotel and Mike's flight and food, so it would just be my flight and entertainment we had to cover ourselves.  Also, my aunt and uncle live in Winter Haven, which is about 45 minutes from Orlando.  But alas, we are seriously broke and had decided we could not afford it.  My mom, though, really wanted us to go so my aunt and uncle could meet Elijah so she bought us an early Christmas present (and that's the only one she's allowed to buy or there will be consequences!!!).  So whoo hoo!  Elijah and I got to go with Mike to Orlando.

However, since the U.S. government that we love very much because they give Mike a paycheck every other week and we love our country, etc. etc., is still at times very STUPID, Mike had to take a more expensive flight with a layover.  (It's a long story that at the end of which, you would just say "that makes no sense" and conclude that the U.S. government is dumb.)  So the short of it is that I had to fly with Elijah by myself.  Now I don't know if you've ever tried to fly with a one year old who likes to move around but is supposed to be restricted to your lap--it's not pleasant.  Elijah was squirming and fighting me the entire flight to Orlando and occasionally threw toys that hit the sweet little seven year old girl sitting next to us. *SIGH*  He finally did fall asleep on my shoulder, but only when we were landing.  Also, I love southwest airlines but they let all the people in the A group go on before they do the family boarding.  Note to southwest: it's not really that helpful to let 60 people board the plane before those with small children since all 60 spread out everywhere and make the plane rather crowded already.

Anyway, after the horrendous flight we picked up the car seat that we'd checked and met up with Daddy/Mike.  My back was pretty much on fire by the time we picked up the rental car (that you lovely taxpayers also paid for, THANKS!!) because I'd been carrying Elijah since I'd entered security in KC because I'm also stupid and didn't realize you can take a stroller through security.  A shampoo bottle, no, but a stroller is okay.  Go figure.

So we got to the hotel and checked in and then went to dinner at TGI Fridays.  Elijah and I hadn't eaten since we left KC so we were very hungry on top of being tired.  But the hotel was very nice.  It was the Royal Plaza.  Here are some pictures from the room (and a few cute ones of Elijah in the room).

Goofing around with Daddy.

The view from our balcony.

Our room.  Yes, they gave us two double beds instead of a king like they were supposed to but we were so tired by the time we got there we didn't bother to ask them to move us.

Looking out the window of the balcony.

Unfortunately, despite our extreme weariness, Elijah dd not do well that first night in the hotel room.  He woke up around 10:30, right after Mike and I fell asleep and REFUSED to go back to sleep for hours.  I think I finally plopped him back down in his crib at like 3 a.m. and was like "THAT IS IT!!!" and was just going to leave him there to wail until he fell asleep.  Of course this time, he just lay down and went to sleep.  ::bangs head against wall::  We had tried this same tactic like four other times already so I have no idea what it was about this time that made it work unless he was just exhausted from fighting us or he just heard in my voice that there was no more sympathy from Mommy.  And, of course, he woke up promptly at 7 the next morning, bright-eyed as if everything was peachy keen.  I was propping my bloodshot eyelids open with toothpicks, but whatever.

On Tuesday we met up with my aunt and uncle and went to the Magic Kingdom.  I brought Elijah's baseball cap and sandals, assuming they would be a lost cause since he usually yanks them both right off when I put them on but my Aunt Patrice used her special aunt/executive powers and got him to at least wear his shoes.

Elijah was big enough to ride most of the rides, fortunately.  To get there, though, we first went to the Grand Floridian (this super fancy hotel) and parked there and took the monorail over.

This is the Grand Floridian.  Nice, eh?

Here's the monorail.

Little Man riding the monorail with my Uncle Ron.

 

This is the $15 stroller you can rent at Magic Kingdom.  NOT worth $15.  But whaddaya gonna do?  At least it kept the sun off him when he was in it.  It is rather annoying, though, that you can't take the strollers in the lines for the rides.  I mean, in theory I get that the lines are too narrow, but then it makes the strollers almost pointless because you move it like three feet from one ride to the next, pick the kiddo up out of the stroller and hold him for 30 minutes waiting to get on a 10 minute ride.  I guess that's kind of amusement park stupidity in general, but still.  I'd like to complain about it for a moment.

However, my complaint there ends because as we were entering the line for the Winnie the Pooh ride a Disney security guy was leading a girl who couldn't have been more than three around and she was crying because she'd gotten separated from her parents.  I was SO sympathetic to her parents at that moment.  I felt bad for her too because she was crying and upset but at least she was safe and didn't get snatched by the nearest freakshow pedophile or something, which is, I'm sure, the kind of things her poor parents were envisioning.  I said a prayer that she would be reunited with them quickly--before they had aneurysms or went into cardiac arrest.

 Here's little man in line for Winnie the Pooh.

I tried to take pictures in the ride itself but it was too dark to get any decent ones.  But these are Elijah riding the Winnie the Pooh ride.

Next we rode the Dumbo ride.  It goes around and the Dumbos go up and down and you're supposed to be able to control how high your Dumbo is by this little lever in the car but ours didn't work so we were stuck up too high most of the time.  Aunt Patrice tried to take pictures but could only get ones of Dumbo's belly.  So no Dumbo pictures, sorry.  Anyway, then we rode the carousel and Aunt Patrice did get some shots of us on the carousel.

By the time we were done on the carousel it was raining pretty hard so we went to this Disney 3D movie thing where you have to wear 3D glasses.  I wasn't sure if Elijah would be able to enjoy it since I didn't think he'd leave his glasses on his head--he hates anything on his head, hence the lack of the baseball cap I brought for him.  But the real thing he hated was the sudden loud music during the movie.  He started crying and shaking and I had to stand up with him in the back.  Also by that time he was getting pretty tired since it was time for his afternoon nap, but I paid $90 to get myself into the park (Elijah was free) so we were going to get the most out of my $90!  Here are him and Uncle Ron outside the 3D thing playing with 3D glasses.

We also got to see a parade with all the characters but we were far enough away that I couldn't really get any decent pictures.  We ate ice cream for his afternoon snack.  (That's right, I am very into good nutrition for my child.)  Then we went to the It's a Small World ride because my Uncle Ron LOVES that ride and was just DYING to go. ;)  Here are some shots from that.

Elijah riding the Small World ride in my lap.  He seemed to enjoy it the most because there was so much to look at.  It was slightly less annoying than I remembered.

After that we decided we had pushed him to his limit and it was time to head back to the hotel.  Aunt Patrice and I rode Space Mountain while Uncle Ron stayed with Elijah (it is one of two rides that he was too small to ride).  I remember when I rode Space Mountain as a kid I thought it was the coolest thing ever.  I wasn't overly impressed this time.  It seemed a lot darker than I remember.  Like it seemed like there were more stars when I rode it the last time.  But I guess that's the difference in perception from child to adult.  Not sure which is better.

So then we headed out.  Mike was almost done with his conference for the day so we needed to get back anyway so we could have dinner with him.  We rode the monorail back and Elijah fell asleep on Uncle Ron's shoulder.

He was tired!!!  He was a big grump at dinner that night but when we got back to the hotel and put him to bed he slept straight through until morning.  So that was Magic Kingdom.  I will blog about the rest of the week in Part 2.

More Blogs and a Recipe

So I've been thinking I really don't keep up with this blog enough.  So I'm going to try to start blogging at least once a week, even if it's just a bunch of junk no one cares about.

"Elijah picked his nose today!"
"My favorite sweater can't be my favorite anymore because it's not long enough to cover my mom pooch belly."
"I like Dunn Brothers Iced Vanilla Nirvanas!"

So yeah, get ready for stuff like that.  I probably won't blog next week because we'll be in Florida, at least not until the end of the week, but then I'll try to have a Florida blog, accompanied by pictures.  So you can look forward to pictures of Elijah in Mickey ears and me sporting the mom pooch belly and tree trunk thighs in my bikini.  Can you just hardly wait?

I also think my blogs are more interesting when pictures are present so I will try to have those but no promises because my camera makes me angry for two reasons:  1) It has a few seconds delay when it takes a picture so if I try to snap a picture of Elijah being cute, by the time it takes the picture, he's looked away, and 2) It makes a lot of noise so I can't take pictures discreetly and if Elijah sees me taking pictures, he no longer wants to keep doing whatever cute thing he was doing, he wants to grab the talking camera.

No pictures today, but I will leave you with a yummy recipe for potato soup I made in the crock pot.  I got a recipe from my mom's ancient crock pot recipe book and then modified it to make it more to my liking.  It's super easy and you can plunk it all in there while your little one(s) is/are down for a nap and then leave it and have dinner already made that evening, or you can do it in the morning before you go to work (depending on your particular situation).  We ate it with BLTs but I think it would be delish with grilled cheese or just by itself also.  Here you go:

8 medium potatoes cut into 1-inch chunks (I used gold potatoes, I think those work best for soup)
1 onion, chopped
4 chicken bouillon cubes (or if you shop at Trader Joe's you can get the chicken bouillon packets)
1 tbs parsley (I use dry because I'm lazy but you could use fresh if you're fancy schmancy)
5 c. water
1 tbs salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 c butter
12 oz can of evaporated milk

Throw all of it in the crock pot except the evaporated milk.  Cover & cook low for 10-12 hrs or high 3-4 hrs.  Stir in evaporated milk during the last hour of cooking.  Scoop out and enjoy!  Yum Yum!

Worries and Haircuts

So Elijah still isn't walking yet.  He can walk with assistance, but still hasn't taken a single unassisted step.  He also doesn't really talk.  He babbles a lot and occasionally says "Mama" or "Mom" like he knows what it means, but that's about it.  You would think he'd be doing one or the other by now.  Or at least I would think so.  And, of course, I don't expect him to be running marathons or speaking full sentences, but no words and no walking?  It makes me nervous.

One thing he is really good at is shapes.  He can put the shapes in the right holes in the shapes box his grandma got him.  This makes me nervous, though.  Why would he be so good at shapes and not be able to walk or talk?  I get crazy thoughts like autism going in my mind.  Do all moms worry like this or am I just crazy?

One reason I know the walking got put on hold is that he had a huge abrasion on his foot recently.  It's almost completely gone and I think it was just a bug bite or bites that went out of control.  I took him to the doctor because it looked like a burn but I knew he hadn't burned it.  Of course it was a Friday and she gave us antibiotics that he couldn't keep down--woke up from a nap covered in vomit.  Lovely.  And then they told me to try and give it to him again and he puked all over himself again.  Poor baby.  And then the next day they tell me to take him to the ER.  So we drive all the way up to Children's Mercy and pay a $350 copay we don't have and waste almost our entire Saturday for them to tell us to go home and watch it. SERIOUSLY?!?!

So now the foot is almost better and I feel like a moron for taking him to the doctor at all.  He's got two more bug bites on his arm that I think happened when we were out walking the other day so I bought a second Off sprayless repeller fan thing and put one on each side of his stroller.  If that doesn't keep the bugs away then I guess we'll just have to keep him inside until there's a good freeze or he's old enough that I can slather him with bug repellent.

Whew!  Enough of that junk.  Time for fun pictures of his first haircut!!  It was getting rather mullet-like so I finally broke down and took him to Shear Madness in Olathe.  (Thanks to the Eubanks for the recommendation.)  They do kiddo haircuts.

Here's the before picture.  See the long baby locks. *sigh*  But I'm getting tired of people thinking he's a girl.

This was his stylist Brandi.  She was great.  He wiggled and turned his head all around while she was cutting and she just kept going and kept it all straight.  See the fun little car he gets to sit in while she's cutting his hair?  The third of the three pictures above cracks me up-- "Um... what is she doing to me?"

Backyardigans keeps the focus for a little while.

We have to keep the lines of communication open for this relationship to work. ;)

It's getting shorter and less mullettey!

And now for the clippers, which I was sure he would not like and lo and behold, he did not.

Is she coming back with those things?

It was kind of downhill after the clippers.  Even though she wasn't using them anymore, she was just styling and cleaning it up, he was still upset.  But eventually he got over it and here is the end result.

Look at my sweet little man looking like a little boy instead of a baby!  Think I'll go cry now.

Confessions of an Isolated Mom

So today I guess I'm throwing myself a little pity party.  I really don't want to but sometimes my isolation starts to overwhelm me.  I've been told that most stay-at-home moms feel isolated, but this really began before I even had my son.  And it's very odd for me because I've always been surrounded by a close group of friends.  In high school, in college, in law school, at my first job out of law school... Then after that it seemed like everyone I knew very well kind of dispersed and I was left with very few friends and no time to see them.

When we first married, Mike and I attended this one church that had a HUGE young marrieds group.  We tried and tried to make our way into this group.  We attended gatherings they had and joined a small group but we were never included in their friend plans or if we were, it was because we were standing right there when they started talking about it.  So finally we concluded that this was apparently not the place for us.  A couple churches later I feel like we're in the same boat.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our church.  I love the teaching.  I love what the church is all about.  I think the people there want to engage in deep fellowship but it's easy for some people and isn't for others and I'm apparently one who it isn't easy for.

I have concluded that it's probably primarily my fault.  Mike and I are rather shy people at first.  That isn't to say that either of us are unfriendly but I'm highly unlikely to walk up to someone I don't know and start talking.  This is because I feel like I'm being phony (it's not natural for me to start talking to someone I don't know and I never know what to say) and I feel like I'm annoying the person.  If I do bother to talk to someone and they don't make a big effort to keep the conversation going then I feel like they probably have better things to do than talk to me and so I try to let them easily slip away so that I'm not irritating them.  Again, this is probably my sinful nature because I am so easily irritated that I assume other people must be as well.

This has resulted in me feeling like I have maybe one close friend at my church.  And I know she is good friends with a lot of other people so it really wouldn't matter much if I wasn't around anymore.  Plus, she's super busy--even moreso than other people--so I always feel like I'm intruding on her schedule if I try to see her.  I have attempted to schedule playdates with other people besides her but these always somehow manage to get screwed up in some way or if they are a success at all, they're never repeated.  I suppose I could do the asking for a second playdate, but again, I always feel like others have enough friends and don't need me, so I'm just adding to their to-do list or annoying them.  I'm even starting to wonder if this blog is a waste of time because I don't think anyone besides my mom and a few select others who don't live anywhere nearby read it.

I have heard that all stay-at-home moms feel isolated but it seems like I always see evidence of other people spending time together, either at playdates or other outings.  And honestly, I don't really know what to make of this.  It can't all be me, can it?  But some of it must be me since it's been going on for years and we've changed churches and this keeps happening.  I thought when I had my son I would develop more friendships with the moms at my church (not that I had him for that purpose, of course) but it just hasn't occurred.  Not that they have been unfriendly, but they already have friends and I do not.  It's more effort to make a new friend than to keep old friendships going, it seems.

I'm not really sure what my purpose is in writing all of this.  Perhaps simply to get it off my chest.  Perhaps to write it out and analyze it and see how I can rectify the problem.  I have prayed about it but God must be doing something because so far I don't feel like my requests have been answered.

Perhaps the best thing I can do is to suggest to those of you who don't have the social hindrances that I do that there are people out there who may seem standoffish or like they have it all together and are fine, that really are lonely and isolated and need someone like you to approach them and make an effort.  Yes, people like me probably should make more of an effort ourselves but remember, it is hard for us.  It doesn't come natural to us like it does to other people.  To those of you who it does come natural, try today to talk to someone who seems like they'd rather be left alone--trust me, they wouldn't.  Talk to someone who seems standoffish--the truth is really that they're just shy and don't want to bother people.  Invite someone you barely know to do something that won't involve your sister or your other best friend or your mom randomly showing up--they won't say that it bothers them and hinders them from really connecting with you, but it does: it's clear you already have friends and support, so what would you need them for?

I don't know if this is going to be helpful to anyone at all because, like I said, I'm not even certain anyone actually reads this.  But if it helps one shy, lonely person to make a real friend--not just a superficial "say-hi-on-Sunday" friend--then I suppose it was worth it.

One Year!!!

So last Saturday my baby turned a year old. *sniff, sniff*  I can't believe he's already a year.  We had a great birthday party complete with family and friends, young and old.  I was exhausted by the time it was over but I think everyone who came had a good time.  Here are some photos to highlight the occasion.

This is the spread of food and drink under the happy birthday banner.  That's pretty much all the decorating I do.  I prefer to decorate when it's going to last longer than a day.  In fact, I didn't even buy that banner, it was my mother in law who did.  I know, shame on me.  However, I did let my creative juices flow when I made the cake.

Actually I copied this from an article on parenting.com.  However, it said to use chocolate twizzlers for the hair on top (which I don't think you can even see in this picture) but apparently those are a commodity like gold because I couldn't find them anywhere.  Not even at Mr. Bulky's, the candy store.  So I had to be creative there.  Instead I used chocolate covered orange peels.  First step to being a fancy-schmancy mother--improvise.

Though we told people not to bring gifts (since a one year old doesn't really know that he's getting gifts), we assumed the grandparents would violate this rule.  However, everyone seemed to violate the rule and still the thing Elijah found the most interesting was this blue bag and the tissue paper.  I warned you, folks!

The best thing was having my mom and stepdad and my brother's wife and their little girl Addisyn for the weekend.  Addi is a total doll.  She is way more talkative than Elijah was when he was 6 months old--or even now for that matter.  And she seems way more outgoing.  She seems to want to get to know people right away.  Elijah is a bit more reserved.  It's weird how they have personalities before they can even really talk or poop outside of their pants.

Last picture for your viewing pleasure is my mom holding Addi.  I guess she's waving at someone.  She is way more animated.  She's only 6 months and seems determined to crawl at all costs.  Elijah didn't do it until he was like 10-11 months old, but I think he was just lazy.  Or maybe lazy isn't the word, but he was just content with where he was.  She wants to get up and go NOW!  So funny.  Also, she looks so freaking much like my brother it makes me want to puke. ;)  She looks like her mommy, too, I just remember what my brother looked like when he was little and I see him in her with many of the faces she makes.  She's so cute in spite of looking like him.  Love you, Miss Addi!

And Happy Birthday to my sweet Bitty Guy!  You're getting way too big for Mommy's liking!  Love you!

Copycat

So lately Elijah has been getting more demanding.  He also hasn't been sleeping well the past few nights and days but I suspect that has to do with the fact that Daddy is out of town for work.  He'll be back Saturday and my mom is coming in tonight to help me since I'm having surgery on Thursday to finally get rid of this silly cyst on my wrist (most likely caused by picking up Mr. Demanding over and over, but I digress).

Anyway, lately when he wants something--like to be taken out of his high chair or to be fed or to be picked up out of his pack and play or just to have attention paid to him--he starts making this whiny, increasingly loud and high-pitched "ehhhh!"  It is really annoying.  But then today when he did it, I thought, "Oh no, did I teach him this?" because it's surprisingly reminiscent of the way I get with Mike when he's annoying me.

"Mike, will you please CUT THAT OUT!!!"  (Imagine the voice getting increasingly loud, intense and shrill.  Poor Mike.)

So nice parenting on my part.  I sound like a toddler, therefore my son thinks, "Hey, this is the way we get stuff!" even before he can really be classified as a toddler. Whew!  I'm so glad the blood of Jesus makes me righteous because I could SO not be good on my own.

Anyway, here's a funny scene from the movie "Big Daddy" to showcase how wonderful of a parent I am (the part at 30 seconds where he throws the fries cracks me up every time): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjO6Tjn8wS0

In other copycat news, I copied an idea from some Real Simple magazine for measuring Elijah's height as he grows.  It's basically a huge ruler you can mount on the wall in his bedroom.  Also, it's real simple to make. (Get it?  Like the magazine?  Man, I'm hilarious.)

Anyway, here's what you need:
6 foot board
Wood stain (whatever color you prefer, I used maple b/c it's more ruler-color & all the other wood in Elijah's room is the same color)
Polyurethane (buy separate stain & polyurethane)
Black paint
Stencils for numbers 1-6 (or if you want to be fancy you can buy house numbers 1-6 and tack those on then you won't have to have the stencils or the black paint)
Black permanent marker
Tape measure

Instructions:
First thing I did was stain both sides.  Then when it was dry, I measured out the inches all the way to the top.  On the foot markers I made the lines 2 inches long, the half-foot markers 1 & 1/2 inches, the quarter-foot markers 1 inch, and the other inch markers I made 1/2 an inch.  I did it in pencil first and then went over it with the permanent black marker.  Also, I started the bottom of the board at 3 inches below the 1 foot mark so that there was room to stencil in the number 1.  (This means you will mount it 9 inches from the floor.  Be sure to measure everything well or it won't accurately measure your child's height.)  Anyway, then I placed the stencils next to the foot markers and painted the numbers on there in black.  Later I am going to put a coat of polyurethane on top but the black paint is drying right now.  Once that's done, though, it will be ready to mount in his room and start measuring his height as he gets older.  I'll probably use a medium-tipped sharpie to mark his height and age each year.  It's better than marking it on the wall, I think, because if you move you can take it with you.  Enjoy!

It's Been Too Long

So it's been awhile since I blogged and I thought I'd just share some info and pictures this time.  First, Elijah was doing that reverse army crawl for like months.  Then one day he figures out how to do the hands and knees crawl and go forward and the next day he's all over my house and I can't keep up with him.

Then the next week after he felt like he had a solid hold on the speed-crawling, he moved to pulling up on the furniture, but only to his knees--testing the waters.

We did this for about a week and now we're doing this:

Don't know if you can tell, but that's all the way up on his feet.  Sorry the picture's a bit fuzzy.  It was taken with my cell phone.

This is what Elijah thinks of your attempts to suppress his crawling prowess.  Also, he has taken to throwing everything on the ground.  Apparently he thinks of Mommy as a golden retriever.

This is him helping Mommy go to the grocery store.  It is like walking around in a friggin oven out there. UGH!  I hate the heat.  I much prefer the cold.  Anywho...  Elijah also wants to inform you all that if you have no toys or are tired of the toys you do have, the trash is a perfectly acceptable alternative.  Observe:

Our recycle bin was overflowing.  Don't judge me! ;)