Red Sox WIN!

Sean and I had another 'date night' tonight. We watched the Red Sox win and just enjoyed each other's company. I miss him all of the time! I wish every night would be like tonight!

I thought this picture I captured on our TV right after the Red Sox won was hilarious...and kind of scary too! It's the pitcher celebrating.

I love this man!

A month late, but just as sincere!

I got a late birthday gift from my hubby today! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new purse and wallet. I have honestly been looking for a new wallet for 2 years! I am really picky about my wallets and mine was getting ripped and worn and dirty as of about 2 years ago and I could not for the life of me find just the right one to replace it. Well the one I got today is perfect, it has all of the features I want in a wallet AND a really awesome purse to match! I may now have the best purse in town!!!! Thank you Sean, I love you!

GO RED SOX!

Tonight the Red Sox play the Indians to see who will be going to the World Series. We will be watching and cheering tonight. If the game wasn't so late (8:00 pm), I would definitely have Tate sporting his Red Sox jersey, but unfortunately he'll be in bed. When the Red Sox play in the World Series, we'll make sure to get a picture of Tate supporting his team in his jersey! :)

Visit to Daddy's work!

Today Tate and I decided to go visit Daddy at work during his lunch break. It was really fun for Tate to go there because the break room is HUGE and there is lots of open space for Tate to crawl around. Of course it took Tate about 2.8 seconds to spot some balloons in the corner and he immediately got down on the ground to speed crawl over to play with them. He was pretty excited! Sean and Tate were really happy to see each other and got to hang out for about 45 minutes, so that was nice. I love watching my boys together!

This can't be good...

The television in our playroom/basement/office/family room is too low. When I put on a DVD for Tate, he can way too easily put his nose right up to the television...he prefers to watch it that way. Is this going to hurt his eyes?

Tate is in heaven when we're downstairs...his favorite things to do are to push the same buttons on his toys over and over and over and over and over, he also likes to play with his learning kitchen. He likes to push the same buttons over and over and over and over on that too. It's amazing the things you can learn to block out when you become a mother! :)

Here he is pushing a button over and over and over...I swear he does in intentionally to drive me nuts. He looks right at me just like he's looking at me in the picture and pushes the same button a thousand times. Then he stops and moves to another toy that he can do that with.

Here he is playing with his learning kitchen. This is actually a really great toy! He loves it and it is actually quite educational. He'll be cooking dinner and doing dishes in no time! :)

I don't know...

I don't know if I can do this 1 nap thing. Tate is miserable in the mornings from about 9:15 until I put him down at 11:15. He just can't wait until 11:15...he doesn't eat lunch well because he's so tired and whiny. I think I am going to have to keep with the 2 naps for a while. I just hope that his whining before his afternoon nap was just a fluke and he'll go back to taking more than 25 minutes in the afternoons. I really don't think he's ready for only 1 nap. I just don't feel right keeping him up when he's that tired. My doctor said that it was a bit early to switch to 1 nap when I went to his 1 year appointment. He said that most kids still take 2 naps for a few months after their 1st birthday and that Tate would let me know when he was ready to go down to 1 nap. So, I think we're going to go back to 2 naps for a while.

Our night

Tate did pretty well this evening considering it was his first day having only 1 nap. He was in bed and sleeping by 8:00 pm which is only a 1/2 hour earlier than usual. He is not feeling too great though. Like I said in a previous post, he threw up this morning and then he had a couple pretty out of the ordinary bad diapers. I think he must have a little bug. Today he ate probably a quarter of the amount of food that he usually eats in a day and didn't want a lot to do with his milk either. He hasn't been feverish though, but now I am feeling like since he has a bug, I should be letting him sleep as much as possible. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Sean and I decided to wait to eat dinner after Tate was in bed, so it was a late dinner for us. We had yummy chili and watched The Pursuit of Happiness. It was a little 'date night' for us and it was nice to just relax on the couch with my hubby. The movie was so touching and I sobbed. It made me really feel grateful for what I have and also made me realize how good I really have it. Not that I thought I had it bad, but it's nice to be reminded that even when things aren't always how I would like them to be, it could be much worse!

Tomorrow is church and housework for me. Sean works until 9:00 pm tomorrow night and then he is off the next 3 days. He still has class, but will at least be home by noon everyday. I am looking forward to having him around more these next few days and I know he has been having a rough time being away as well. This work/school schedule is really wearing on him (and me too!) and we are looking forward to his Christmas break so that we can have some much needed 'family time' that doesn't have to be interrupted by studying, class, studying, studying and more studying. I know this is all temporary, but it is so hard! Only 3 more semesters to go! Then we'll have a year break or so before Sean starts anesthesia school. Once that starts, it will be another 30 months before he will be done with school forever! I don't even want to think about that. I just want to get through these next 3 semesters! The other day I said to him, "are you sure you want to go to anesthesia school? Why don't you consider just being a nurse and forgetting about the whole anesthesia school idea?" It was kind of a joke, but I think deep down I hoped he would say, "you know, I was kind of thinking I might not want to go to anesthesia school anymore." YA RIGHT! He did NOT say that! Really, I just want him to be happy and I know that he wants so badly to be an Anesthetist, so that is what I want for him. He is doing a great job and I am SO PROUD of him and all of his hard work while still being a dedicated father and husband! I am so blessed!

2 Hours and 20 minutes...

That's how long Tate slept. Pretty good for him actually. Hoping the rest of the day goes well.

We didn't make it

I tried...I tried so hard, but I felt bad for the little guy. He was SO TIRED! His head was bobbing during lunch. He could barely keep his eyes open! He ate lunch at 11 and was down and sleeping by 11:15. He could barely even eat he was so tired. I am baffled. I don't know what to do. I guess I'll just see how he does this afternoon and evening. I have a feeling we'll be making his bedtime a bit earlier tonight. If he does well this afternoon and evening then I will still keep with the 1 nap and just put him down around 11:15 I guess and then eventually try to push it back another hour once he gets used to being up all morning. Maybe he'll sleep for like 3 hours!!! That's unheard of for Tate...I could count on 1 hand the amount of times he's taken a nap for longer than 2 1/2 hours in his life! We'll see.

Sick?

Tate threw up this morning. It was pretty nasty...and stinky. So I immediately stripped him down and plopped him in the bath. He was happy as a lark! He was splashing and giggling and not acting sick AT ALL! I don't know what caused him to throw up, but he definitely doesn't seem sick.

Facing Forward

Tate used to hate getting put in his car seat. Now that he is a "big boy" and gets to face forward, he laughs and jabbers and squeels the whole time he's in it! He loves being able to see the world from a different angel.

It's 9:00 a.m...

Tate is doing ok. He's rubbing his eyes and threw up all over himself and I about 30 minutes ago. I put him in the bath because he had puke all over him and he was splashing and happy. I don't know why he threw up, but he is acting fine otherwise. Aside from the eye rubbing, he is playing and not acting whiny or tired yet. We're going to try to make it until at least 11:30 or 12:00 before I put him down...only 2 1/2 or 3 hours to go! Hoping it goes well.

Nap Issues

So today I decided that Tate may be ready to just take 1 nap a day. I think we may try it tomorrow and Sunday and see how it works. Currently Tate wakes up around 7:00 in the morning and goes back down for a morning nap around 9:00 and sleeps for 2 hours, then he goes down for an afternoon nap around 3:00 and sleeps for about an hour and a half and he's good until bedtime at 8:30. Lately though he has not seemed tired at his morning nap time. He rubs his eyes, but isn't whiny or anything, but he always goes down without any fight and sleeps for 2 hours. The afternoon nap has always been a little bit more of a struggle. He tends to cry or sometimes just talk himself to sleep. He's been known to be awake for a half hour sometimes before he finally goes to sleep for his afternoon nap. Well, these last 2 days have been difficult. Yesterday he was so tired and almost fell asleep in the car right before his nap. He was yawning and rubbing his eyes like crazy, but when I layed him down he cried for about 20 minutes before he went to sleep and then only slept for 25 minutes! So I thought I would leave him in there for a bit to see if he went back to sleep, but that just wasn't happening. I got him up and he did fine until bedtime. Today, was a similar situation. He slept great during his morning nap, then when I put him down (which he seemed obviously tired) for his afternoon nap, he cried and cried and cried and finally went to sleep. He was sawing logs...I could hear through the monitor. He slept for 25 minutes again! Then he was awake and rearing to go. I got him up and again, he was fine until bedtime. Does this mean that I should push back his morning nap and just have him take one nap? I am hesitant to do that because he takes such a great morning nap and always goes right to sleep so I hate to push it back another several hours. I don't know, this parenting stuff isn't as easy as it looks! :) Ha. We'll see how it goes these next couple of days.

I FOUND IT!!! :-)

Today is a happy day...I found my camera! On it was only one picture - a picture from when I met Brandon in Coralville and we let Tate play at the play area in the mall. So I added a couple of random pictures to it from this morning. After breakfast and a morning nap, we got ready and went to Jordan Creek Mall so that I could get a couple of items and Tate could play at the play area there for a bit. The play area there always seems to be extra busy and filled with extra naughty children, but I decided to see how Tate handled it. We did great! He got kicked in the head a few times, knocked over, hugged by strange children, pushed, hit and even bit on the hand by a little girl, but he had a blast. He could have cared less that he was getting beat up. He kept chasing all the kids around and laughing and jabbering. It was pretty fun to watch. One of the parents that was sitting by me even said, "he's a tough little boy!" This is not a word I would ordinarily use to describe Tate, but he was being pretty tough. He even pushed a couple of little kids away when they got too close. Aside from that and being completely infatuated with a little girl's pacifier which he kept crawling over and pulling out of her mouth, he was an angel. After that, we headed to Cathy's and I cut Brent's hair while Cathy entertained Tate. Now we're home and Tate is napping. I think we'll be staying in the rest of the evening...it's rainy and icky out. :( I am getting pretty tired of all of this rain...we need some sun!

Tate at the play area in Coralville

Just being his smiley self at breakfast this morning

Getting his daily dose of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

MIA

My camera that is! This is a big deal! I can't seem to find it anywhere which I am sure you could all tell by the lack of pictures on my posts! This just proves how messy my house is. Really, I think it's time for a deep cleaning! Although, I don't know how it's possible to deep clean a house with a little 12 month old getting into everything and messing it up right behind me! I have one mission today...it's to find my camera. As soon as I do, I promise to take lots of pictures and post them ASAP!

Cozy...

Today Tate and I headed to church (Sean had to work) and then on the way home Nana and Papa P. called to tell us they were in Des Moines and wanted to stop by. Instead we decided to eat lunch at Fazolis and chat. It was a good, but quick lunch as Tate NEEDED to take a nap, he was tired! It had been dreary and rainy all morning and didn't look like it was going to change so when we got home, we BOTH put on our cozy pj's and Tate went down for a 2 hour nap while I covered up on the couch with a cozy blanket, opened the shades by the couch so I could see out the window and just relaxed. It was so nice to sit in the silence and think and do nothing else! I was able to have a couple of uninterrupted phone conversations as well. When Tate got up, we sat on the floor and read a ton of books and then played with toys and laughed and had a great time. We sat and ate dinner and now Tate is crawling around playing with his toys like a wild man! :) It was a cozy day and aside from the fact that my hubby wasn't here, it was great!

Quick Trip

Tate and I made a quick trip to Muscatine on Wednesday and just returned this afternoon. It was a great time. We attended Cassie's baby shower where she received LOTS of pink and then just hung out and relaxed. Today, Tate and I stopped in Coralville on the way home and met with Brandon for lunch and some fun at the play area. Tate had the time of his life crawling from toy to toy and walking around all of the cool things! We had a great lunch at Bennigan's and then Tate slept on the drive home.

Sean had a busy week with mid terms so he is relieved to have that over with. Tonight we plan to do some grocery shopping and relaxing...pretty low key. Tomorrow I am going to do a friend's hair during the day and tomorrow night we will be hanging out at Chris and Brenda's house for dinner and some fun and games. I am looking forward to this weekend. I love that the weather is feeling a lot more like fall these days. Time for soup dinners!!!! MMMMMM!!!

Tate's 1 Year Well Baby Check Up

Tate did great at his check up today. His doctor said that he looks fantastic and is growing and developing just perfectly. He is in the 60th percentile for head and height and the 50th for weight. Apparently the last time he was weighed, it was not correct because they said he weighed 25 lbs. 4 oz. and today he weighed 23 lbs. 4 oz.. So who knows what happened there. He got 3 shots and got his blood taken. He didn't enjoy any of that one bit, but as soon as it was done and we picked him up, he was back to his smiley, giggly self. He is sleeping like a log now and I am sure he will be for a while. He tends to sleep a lot after getting shots.

The rest of the day is going to include me getting our house picked up and Sean studying for his mid terms. Tomorrow Tate and I are heading to Muscatine for a couple of days! We just get settled in and then we seem to have to go somewhere! :) We're looking forward to the trip though because we will be attending an I LOVE AYLA party on Thursday morning and then just hanging out with Nana and Papa S., Cassie, Paul and the kids. It will be fun! We will be coming home on Friday evening. It'll be a quick trip and we don't have any plans to be going on anymore trips in the near future. Not until Ayla is born and we head to Muscatine to greet her!!! :)

BAAAAZZZ

When Tate woke up this morning and I went into his room, the first thing he said with a big smile on his face as he pointed at the door was, "BAAAAAZZZ!" (balloons). Uh oh, he's going to have quite the disappointment one day when the balloons deflate!

Tate's 1st Birthday Party!

Well the party was quite a success, I must say! It was so much fun and Tate is SO BLESSED! He is loved by so many and got way too many fabulous gifts! We gathered with many of our wonderful family and friends to eat, mingle, swim, eat, laugh, eat some more and most importantly...celebrate Tate's 1st birthday! What a year it has been! It has flown by! It was definitely an emotional day for many (me included!) and a very memorable, special day as well! After celebrating and having so much fun, the day was topped off when we found out that we are going to be welcoming a new niece or nephew into our family at the end of April! :) YAY! We were SO EXCITED to get the news that Mike and Sarah are expecting baby number 2!

Tate with his many gifts. Tate was truly excited when he opened his gifts!

I don't think he could believe that the gifts were all for him!

He was especially excited about the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse card from Nana and Papa P.!

Tate's 1st Birthday Party

Check Cassie's blog at cassica.wordpress.com for more great pictures from Tate's birthday!