The recital is over!

The 2nd night of the recital is over and I was actually able to stay for the whole thing! Theo and Andy came and watched the show (which means they watched the 1st 1/2 and then Andy helped Theo crawl up and down the stairs for the next hour and a half). It's 9:45 and we're home and ready for bed. Theo went to sleep the moment we buckled him into the car. Hopefully he sleeps well and we can get a good night's rest. Tomorrow will be spent packing, cleaning, and getting ready to be gone for a week. Merry Christmas!

P.S. I am lame and forgot my camera, so I can't post any DFJ recital pictures. Go to http://www.creativethirst.net and you'll be able to see some pictures that our photographer/videographer took within the next week or so.

Sick? What fabulous timing

I got sick at the recital last night and had to come home early. Don't worry, I wasn't on stage or anything. I was just walking kids back and forth from the backstage area to the room they wait in. The other teachers were more than capable to doing it all without me, so I had Andy and Theo come pick me up. I spent the rest of the evening resting and lying down and actually feel almost completely better this morning. I am sore and tired, but I think I'll be fine for the show tonight. Hopefully Theo will take a nap soon and I can get some rest, too.

Recital Time!

*Here are a few Christmas pictures from last year for you to enjoy!!!

Our Dancing for Joy recitals start tonight! We have a show today and another one tomorrow. This is my 1st time (since Theo's birth) that I will not have him with me during the show. He was with my parents for part of the last show, but still came to nurse and see me a few times. This time, he'll be with Daddy tonight and tomorrow they're thinking of coming to the show! I'm sure they'll spend some time backstage if they do come. Little boys aren't always able to sit through a 2 hour long performance. We'll see.

I'll take the camera and make sure I get some pictures tonight. I'll post them tomorrow. I will not be dancing this year myself, but I have several classes performing and I'm really excited to see it all come together. Yesterday's dress rehearsal was shaky (at best) and I'm hoping that the old adage of "horrible rehearsal = great performance" will ring true this time. I'm sure it will...it always does!

This is really the kick-off of Christmas week for me. I always feel ready for the holidays (and the relaxing!) once the dance recital is over. We'll be leaving to head down south soon for Christmas and I can't wait to be with our families and cook, eat, celebrate, talk, laugh, veg out, open presents, sing carols, and enjoy time with everyone!

Merry Christmas!!!

puke: 3rd update!

Theo has not thrown up again. He nursed in the night (hadn't done that in a few weeks), drank a glass of water, and actually slept pretty well. He slept in his own crib from 9:30pm-3:00am and then slept with us the rest of the night until almost 8:00. His now happily sitting in his high chair eating cheerios and drinking some orange pedialyte-type stuff. We're going to take it slow with the eating today. I'm going to wait for him to ask for food and then just offer him simple things. We'll see how these cheerios do and then take it from there. So far, so good! I am so grateful for this entire day to be home with him without too many things to accomplish or reasons to leave the house.

Puke: 2nd update!

Theo puked once more this evening (I gave him orange juice...I know, I know... I'm an idiot!). He cuddled with me for a long, long time after we cleaned him up, then nursed for a while, and then went back to bed around 9:00. He doesn't seem too sad or uncomfortable, but he is always thirsty and we don't want to let him drink too much water at a time. He had about a cup this evening and nursed for a while (I don't know how much he gets anymore). Hopefully he'll get a few hours of sleep before he wakes up again and hopefully we won't have any pukes in the night.

So far, Andy and I are feeling healthy and are taking good care of ourselves. Keep praying for good health!!

1st puke

Theo threw up today for the very 1st time. I guess that's quite the accomplishment figuring he went through almost 16 months of his life without having to do it.

So far, he's only puked once. I am hoping for a short, easy recovery. We were on a walk when it happened (of course), so we ran into the Starbucks and got a few napkins. Yuck! He slept on the way home. I gave him a bath, changed his diaper, and he went right to bed.

I'll keep you posted. Please pray for an easy time for our little guy.

7:30am!!!!! Yeah!

I slept in until 7:30 this morning. Much better than yesterday. Theo was up crying in the night for about a 1/2 hour and I still don't know why. I changed him, rocked him, rubbed his back, and eventually he just leaned his head over on my pillow and went back to sleep. Very frustrating. He is still cutting his canine teeth, so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

We are going to a friend's baby shower today and I'm really excited to see some of my old friends from Peninsula Dance Theater.

4:30am insomniac!

I'm sure I'll head back to bed soon, but I woke up about 10 minutes ago and couldn't go back to sleep. Theo is in the portable baby bed in my old bedroom at my parents' house just snoozing away. I just couldn't get comfortable. I've heard people say before that you shouldn't nurse (or rock, walk, sing, etc.) a baby to sleep because they'll get conditioned to it and only be able to sleep with you doing whatever you normally do. I strongly disagree. Theo can fall asleep easily just about anywhere (most of the time) and prefers nursing to sleep, but will also just fall asleep on Daddy's shoulder, in the car, on our bed, etc. I'm the one who is conditioned. Andy is still up in Bellingham while we're visiting down here in Port Orchard and I've realized I'm not very good at sleeping by myself. The only way I know to go to sleep is snuggled up against his back (with my rapidly growing belly between us). Theo and I are having a great visit, but I'll be excited to be sleeping with my husband again on Saturday. I guess I'm blessed to have someone that I love and appreciate enough to miss!

Here's a picture of Andy, Todd and me from Christmas 2005

Eating with his "moan"

Theo calls his spoon a "moan". It's very cute. He is enjoying a breakfast (or buh-buh as he calls it) of french toast and applesauce. He has actually eaten about 1/2 of the applesauce which surprised me. No matter how hungry he is, the spoon is so fun that he seldom eats more than a few bites.

We're busily getting ready this morning so we can go to our local La Leche League meeting. It's only once a month, so no matter how busy our day is, we always try to make time to go. We have to leave in about a 1/2 hour (so I probably shouldn't be on the computer!). Theo will get to play with his friends and I'll get to pick the brains of other seasoned mamas who have tandem nursed their kids. Theo is still nursing 2-3 times a day, so it looks like I'll get to experience tandem nursing, too!

Tomorrow morning, Theo and I will go to our WIC appt, go visit with Ann (our midwife) and then head on our to Memaw and Papas house for a couple of days. Our friend Lorien is expecting her 1st baby and is having a shower on Saturday, so I changed my work schedule so we could leave in the morning sometime. That means I need to get us all packed up and ready to go! We are very excited, but we will miss Andy so much.

Playmobil.....fun toys for grown-ups, too!

Andy and I found a Playmobil Advent Calendar at Deals Only (a fun, weird store in Bellingham....for those of you who haven't ever been there. They sell discounted items that are either almost past their sell date or have a damaged package). It was really cheap, so we brought it home and put together the winter scene and all of the little packages that we get to open each day. I can't wait until Theo is big enough to help us. He helped us open yesterday's box and put a tiny little coat on a brown wiener dog. It is really cute.

We've done some more Christmas shopping in the last week and Theo is amazingly respectful of our instructions about the gifts. He helps us put them under the tree, but hasn't touched any of them since! I'm really surprised and what a good listener he is being.

A real date!

Andy and I went on a date last night. We went out to a nice seafood place in Fairhaven (yeah for gift certificates!!) and browsed at a bookstore. Nothing earth shattering, but it was nice to eat a slow paced meal together and have a chance to talk as long as we wanted to. Theo played at our friends' house and had a great time complete with lasagna, blowing bubbles, playing with water and cups in the sink, going for a walk to see Christmas lights, and taking a bath! He went to bed on the way home (at 8:30pm) and slept all night until 7:30am! I think we'll take him over to their house every evening. They really know how to wear a kid out!

This morning, Theo is having his 2nd solo experience with a spoon (he had one at Thanksgiving, too). He is really enjoying it. He has actually eaten a lot more of it than I thought he would. He mostly scoops up yogurt with the spoon, puts it in his other hand, and then eats it. I figured it was time that he start having a chance to practice his utensil using skills every day. Here's a video for you to enjoy!

Christmas is coming!

It snowed here on Saturday which meant that our friend Suzanne's baby shower was postponed (she lives out of town on a very, very steep road!) and I was home much earlier than I had expected from the dance recital rehearsal. We couldn't drive anywhere, but we could walk to the tree lot at Youngstock's (the place that is a fruit/vegetable stand in the spring and summer) and get at tree. We all had fun decorating the house together and it looks quite festive. I was sure Theo would be messing with the ornaments all the time, but he has actually been a very good listener and is getting pretty good at looking, but not taking the ornaments off of the tree. We wrapped a few presents and Theo loved taking them to Daddy and saying "thank you" when Andy put them under the tree. This Christmas is going to be really fun for him. Andy wrapped up a block inside a scarf and had Theo open it to look inside. I think he'll enjoy opening his presents. Here are a few pictures from our snow day (it all melted on Sunday). As you can see from the video Andy took while I was at rehearsal, Theo liked the snow, but he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do with it!