"Mid" Month Check In

Bahaha... Goals? I am pretty sure I forgot what this word is this month. Nothing has really gone according to plan and pretty sure that I am lacking on every single goal. 


February Goals:

• No Spend Month. For real. Only budgeted items. Yeah... That didn't happen. I normally budget about $80 for our "misc." spending... we are at about $200. Plus the cost of tax prep (about $400). Bahaha..... None of it was on a CC (because we paid that bad boy off!) but still...
• Clean.up.dresser. This is getting ridiculous. Since my hubs is playing XBox and I canceled out Hulu plus subscription... I should probably do this tonight. 
• Make some more items from pintrest {cooking, crafting, organizing, or cleaning!} I did make a few items from a cooking mag my mama got me, so I think this counts. And I am saving up some craft projects for when J is gone..... Still a fail. 
• Blog more {2x per week} comment more {one per day} I feel I am doing better here. Maybe I am not interesting, but I am putting myself out there!
• Freezer meals. J may or may not be leaving soon. And I need to be prepared. And I have a freezer! Finally, something I can feel good about. I went to costco, bought lots of meat, have some easy meals planned! Woo Hoo!

So I am pretty sure that this is a major fail month by my goal standards. However, I have gotten some things accomplished that weren't goals and I feel good about that:

1. Appointment made with a CPA for our taxes (tomorrow)
2. Took H for his first store trip sans infant car seat. And he sat like a CHAMP (who's baby is sitting finally? Mine is!)
3. Relaxed with my hubs and took some time for "us."
4. Had friends over for a fun dinner in
5. Kept up with my checkbook and budget.

It's not a ton, but it works for me. 

Weekend Crazies

Wow... I need a weekend from my weekend. I feel like I have cleaned, laundered, diapered, cooked, and urgent cared.

First the good: J made ribs. Oh man... Tasty. Plus I made hummus. Again, oh man. It was a tasty weekend. Thankfully we had friends over to share because I could have eaten my weight in ribs and hummus and really I might have gotten sick from that much good stuff.

Then the bad {not really that bad}: Sunday we ended up at urgent care. Mostly because of first time mommy jitters. So I am reading Parents Magazine and an article in the current edition is all about poo. And we have had some poo problems so I was interested. Too hard, too soft, weird colors, you name it, it's happened. The colors to worry about are red, white, and black. So when I go to change his diaper his poo is black. And I just read that black is BAD and you should call your doctor. So I do, and off to urgent care we go. And about an hour of waiting for a doctor we have a little chat about how's he's been doing {besides the black poo} and what he's been eating. He's been perfectly happy, playing, and eating like a champ. He has had blueberries for nearly every meal, he loves those things. Well, come to find out too many blueberries can actually have an effect on the color of things. Wouldn't that have been great to know a few hours ago? So we were sent home with a little sample thingy and no more blueberries for a few days. Hopefully that will clear things up.

Mommy freak out. Check.

I am thankful that I care so much about my son to look at his poo and worry {never thought I'd think that sentence}. I am thankful that I have a healthy happy babe. And I am thankful I have a husband who trusts my instincts and lets me run with it.

The rest of the weekend was filled with normal, weekend tasks. Laundry that needs to be finished, leftovers that need to be eaten, games to be played.

And we are off to the next week.

10 Months Old

Well Mister -

You've officially been out longer than you have been in. Scary thought! Feels like just yesterday I found out we were pregnant with you. Boy, time flies.

You are weighing in at just over 18lbs and 28.5 inches long. You are 10-25% for your weight, about 50% for your height and that darn noggin of yours is still in the 90th percentile. Doctor thinks you are growing just perfectly. You are wearing some longer 6 month onesies, but mostly 9 month onesies. You fit into both 6 and 9 month pants. Sleepers are 9 month as well. Jackets are still 6 month old because I am not sure where your 9 month jackets are. You may go straight to 12 month there. I don't have you in shoes, but I think you are wearing 6 month + there. Hats are still toddler sized. Mommy's little bobble head!

We switched you our of your infant seat. You had about an inch and a few pounds to go, but honestly you were just getting too heavy to carry! We made it to my goal of having you sitting by yourself by the time we switched. Thank goodness for that!!

This month you are FINALLY sitting by yourself. You still topple over every now and again, but I am not sure if it's because you are ready to crawl around again or if you are just falling over. You are still army crawling all over the place. I am not sure if you will switch to regular crawling or just stay where you are because it gets you where you want to go. You get up on your knees all the time and do lots of rocking, so I am sure time will tell. You will stand by yourself but we have to hold you because I never know when you are going to start "jump-jumping" because you still love that a lot!

You are oh so chatty my little man! Lots and lots of babbling going on at our house! I always know when you are getting a little bit of "stranger danger" because you aren't talking. Then you warm right up and chat away. You can say: Mama, Dada, Papa, Baba {I swear you also say Bob for Bob the dog}, and then lots of other babbles. You still only call things by name when you want to, but you tend to yell MAMA a lot when you are not happy. This month you have also begun whispering, which is super cute. Especially when I am feeding you a bottle right before bed and you look up at me and whisper Mama... can you say melts my heart?!

You are starting to eat a few more finger foods. By far your favorite thing is toast. You have not yet refused anything we have given you thought. You love your veggies. I make home-made apples and pears with cinnimon and nutmeg, squash, sweet potato, and yams, and peas. You still love puffs, and now I have substituted in cheerios which are also a hit. I cut up bits of what we are having for dinner as well as any fruits or other things that I think you might like. We are still working on getting you to pick up squishy things like avacados, but so far no dice. Though we did figure out that you will eat things if they are hard, like refrigerated bananas. Nothing squishy for you!

Knock on wood you are finally starting to sleep thru the night. And by finally I mean these last 3 nights. We had a talk with daycare about making sure you are going down for two naps while you are there and that combined with you just being ready has resulted in 3 amazing nights of sleep from 8-6:30. Works for us!! Keep it up Bubba! I can tell when you haven't napped well at daycare because you are up a few times during the night. But you are getting better at finding your paci so I am sure our days of getting up to find it for you are almost a thing of the past {famous last words, right?!}

Sometimes I have a hard time writing down all of the new things you are doing. Because some things just come so naturally that I honestly forget if they are new or not. Like clapping. You have always waved your arms and kicked your lets when you were super happy and now have started clapping if you are happy too. But it was such an easy transition between the two that I can't pinpoint when it started {maybe that makes me a bad mom... oh well!} I really need to get a video of you "flying." It's something you have done since about 3 months old and I know it's going to stop here soon. When you are on your belly, you flap you arms and kick your legs and it looks like you are flying. It's the cutest thing!

Oh my little man you are growing up so fast. In two months you will be a year old. I can't believe how fast time has flown. We love you more each and every day!

Scared...

There are so many directions that this post could be going in. I am afraid of the dark, spiders, people who want to wear my skin like a mask, and scary movies {basically I am a giant 'fraidy cat}. But on to the point of this post, I am also scared to have another baby. Not scared in a "how can I love something as much as I love my first," because I know your heart just grows. I don't know how but it just does. But I am scared. And I've always thought that we would have more than one child. I've always wanted 3 and the hubs always wanted two (I have to be controversial in our relationship =) ) And now I have myself re-thinking things are here's why:

H is perfect. Not in a wow, I love him so much he's perfect kind of way but in a Holy crap he never cries unless something is wrong, always laughs at something, plays on the floor by himself amazingness kind of way. And there is no way that we will create another baby that is so easy going. It's just not possible. We are not that lucky. {I'm pretty much guaranteeing that we will have colic and be fussy up the wazoo}

Daycare is expensive. And yeah - you get a 20% discount when you have two and yeah- once he's over 2 years old H's daycare expenses will go down, but STILL that's a whole lotta cash-ola going out for someone to watch my kiddos {money well spent, but still expensive!}

My 1st pregnancy was easy peasy. And I know that they tell you every pregnancy is different but I secretly hope that the only reason they say that is for people who had horrible experiences. Because honestly, if I knew that I was going to be sick the whole time you would have to be pretty convincing to get me to do it again. 

While pregnancy was FAB and I pretty much black out during delivery, I completely remember actually pushing H's giant head out of my lady parts. And no big deal... But I don't want to do it again. 4+ hours of pushing? No thank you. And no, I don't want you to cut him out of me either because I am pretty sure you uterus is supposed to stay in your body at all times, thanks! 

Speaking of pushing a child out of your lady parts... It takes a long time for those things to go back! And none of that was real fun either. I was pretty sure that I was never going to walk again and I'd forever sit on a doughnut. No joke!

Then on top of all of that - H is just starting to consistently sleep thru the night. And even then we are up for the day at about 6:30. And I am pretty sure I am at my limit for functioning with no sleep. Combine that with another baby who doesn't sleep thru the night until they are one {or later... Dear God!} and I may not survive. 

All of that being said... I know that we will have another baby. And maybe by the time I'm 9 months preggo I will not be scared anymore. =)

Comparisons

Life is full of things to comparison yourself against. And nearly every time I compare myself to someone else I always fall short. And I probably always will. But do you want to know a secret? Comparisons suck and they don't tell a clear picture.

 When I look at my {almost} 10 month old, he is perfect in my eyes. He does things in his own time. He lights up my world and has the most precious personality. But comparing his to friends babies he is not advancing as quickly as they are. It took him 9 months to sit. He doesn't wave or give kisses. He army crawls all over the place but has no desire to do it from all fours. He isn't pulling himself up and he is no where near trying to walk. And all of those things that dont seem to measure up only paints a partial picture. My baby is chatty and silly and intentionally does things to get a laugh. He is stubborn and know what he wants or does not want to do. He eats like a champ and is probably one of the easiest babies out there. He laughs all day long and smiles at everyone. There is no stranger danger with our boy, he will make friends with anyone. He is absolutely perfect in his own way.

From the outside looking in, my husband and I may not seem like the happiest of couples. My family lovingly calls us The Bickerson's. And yes - we do bicker. But if I wasn't married to someone who challenged me and pushed me out of my comfort zone I would walk all over him. I attempt to make myself look like I am put together - working mom, loving wife, supportive friend, who always looks put together and no crazy hair. But if we are being honest here? It's a good day if I've shaved my legs, and that doesn't happen so often these days. And my friends? Thank God for good friends who love me, because life is busy. And finding 5 minutes where two of us are free to catch up is few and far between.

Maybe one day I will look like I have it all and feel like I have it all. For now, I am going to be happy that I haven't gone to work with some kind of baby fluid {or food} on me and with semi-decent hair.

And once my husband is gone you will just have to settle for clothes that haven't been spit up on. =)

Reviews - Question for bloggers

Have any of you been contacted to review a product? I have gotten a few emails over the last few months to review products where I get a product for free and one to give out. And I have been sceptical about it because nothing comes for free. And seriously? Someone wants me to talk about their product and give it away?

So my question is: How do you know if it's legit? And do I just go with it?

Freedom

This is sort of three stories in 1. I'll try and keep it short and sweet.


1) Our mortgage used to be with Bank of America. I really hate that bank. I've never had a good experience with them and their customer service stinks. At least every time I've called. And I did a happy dance the day we found out our mortgage was sold. No freakin' joke. 


2) Our family goal is to be credit card debt free in 6 months with budgeted extra payments. Maybe sooner with our tax return.


3 A) Our new mortgage company is AMAZING and 3 B) OUR CREDIT CARD IS PAID OFF!!


Slightly Longer Version:


While we were with BofA J called several times to get our interest rate lowered under the Service Members Civil Relief Act (e-mail me if you have any questions about what this is). And they refused. Time and time again. And it didn't matter how many times J faxed in his active duty orders, a copy of his ID, a letter from his skipper, and countless other items. And every time they would respond with "I'm sorry, you are a reservist." Um... Are you kidding me?! 


Then our mortgage was sold. And I did a happy dance. And about a week ago we got a letter from our new company. A letter saying that upon review of our account they determined that our interest rate was to be lowered and apologized that it had not been lowered sooner. Then they gave us a check for the last two years of interest that we overpaid. 


{Insert singing choirs here - and me jumping up and down}


And with this interest check we paid off our last and only credit card. 


{Insert singing choirs here - and me jumping up and down}


And so there is my story. One goal down. We are FREE!!!

5 Questions + De-Lurk {re-try}

Meredeth from La Buena Vida posts a BQOTD {burning question of the day} and I loved her questions plus she did a de-lurk along with it. And I'm totally copying her {because I loved it!!} So without further adu: 


Today's Burning Question(s) of the Day: 


 1. What was the last thing you read? 
2. What was the last thing you ate?
3. What time did you go to bed last night?  
4. If you had $100 that you had to spend today, not put towards debt or savings, what would you buy? 5.What's one major thing you hope to accomplish in the next year? 


 I'd love to hear from you. I know most people don't stop to comment, but I'd really appreciate it if you do!!



P.S Yes this is try number two for this post... I tried to post from my iPad and as you can see... It didn't work. Thank you for commenting!

February Goals

Oh My... January flew by. And I am pretty sure that my goals did not get accomplished. Oh well... It's a new month. Here we go!

January Goals:

• Clean up closet and dressers. Fail. I set all of my hangers backwards....that's about it. 
• Take old living room items to the thrift store. Done!  
• Stay on budget - especially groceries and Costco! Fail... Lots of extra spending. February is officially a no spend month.
• Make more baby food - I've bought apples and pears that need to be made. I would like to make green beans as well. Plus he needs more sweet potatoes and squash. Completed! Made pears and apples, squash, yams, and sweet potatoes. I also have a Costco bag of peas that need to be done this weekend. 
• Save for a chest freezer. Done! We ended up with a brand new freezer and it is glorious! And on budget. 
• Start getting together our tax forms. All together. Just need one more form printed out {I think} and I have convinced hubs to go on base for FREE. 
• Blog more! (Thinking two days a week for sure.) Comment more on other blogs. I read all of the blogs I follow, but almost never comment. Eh...Fail. More posts {sort of} but not a lot of comments. 

So... Not really where I want to be... and I could give some excuses, but I'm not going to. On to this month.

February Goals:

• No Spend Month. For real. Only budgeted items.
• Clean.up.dresser. This is getting ridiculous. 
• Make some more items from pintrest {cooking, crafting, organizing, or cleaning!}
• Blog more {2x per week} comment more {one per day} 
• Freezer meals. J may or may not be leaving soon. And I need to be prepared. And I have a freezer!

Short and sweet. Februarys a short month, and I know we can make it. What are your goals?