April Photos: Day 20

I spent most of today trying to get my computer and desk set up and cleaning the house. The computer has been so frustrating because I seriously have SO many cords coming in and out in a maze of equipment. At least it can all be hidden in a cupboard now, but I hate how jumbled it all is! Once again Carson thought he had to help me work on the main computer. We had to have our chairs touching and he kept jumping in to push a button or click the mouse. He is also obsessed with stealing paper out of the printer. Rawr.

Did I mention we didn't put the office gates back up? This is a trial...... we'll see how it ends up. We're hoping he can eventually stop touching everything he's not supposed to, but I don't have high hopes. We kept the two small desks that made up my old desk so we want to set him up his own little work station in here. I have a really really old laptop that I'm going to try to clear off and maybe get some games for him to play. I guess I just need some way to make him feel included when I have to be in here, but still interacting. It would be a good place to keep his crayons and crafts too. He's just so genuinely curious and inquisitive that he can't stand to not check everything out and ask what each and every thing is for.

I also got to put all the toys back in the living room since the carpet was dry this morning. A few of them came into the office for fun, and because we can now. He loves to hide in his Toy Story tent......you'll never find him! :)

 

And don't forget tomorrow is the BIG 3!!!!!!!!!!

April Photos: Day 19

Yesterday was dominated by some deadlines. I had our big proposal extended to yesterday afternoon so of course that equaled a bunch of other work to get done in a crunch. Plus our new desk was coming sometime in the afternoon so I was trying to loosely time it all along with nap time so nothing got screwed up. Somehow everything fell into place even if it was sort of a stressful day. 

Since the office has been cleared out I've had my laptop set up on the kitchen counter. Carson of course "just has to work" over and over and over during the day. He hasn't done any real damage, but enough to annoy me. The real problem is the header he took off of the rolling, spinning office chair on the wood floor. I have warned him so many times to be careful since the chairs are so unstable on the wood, but it is too fun to get "stirred". That's equivalent to being spun in Carson language. The time he really went over the edge head-first I had something in one hand and luckily caught his forehead mid-air with my other hand. He banged his knees, but I at least saved him from a nice bump on the head.

April Photos: Day 18

Today was pretty hectic again. Carson went to daycare because the carpet cleaners were coming this morning. I worked until they were done and then used the last two hours of that time to run to the grocery store (something that is very difficult to do with him in tow right now). I then went to pick him up, came back home to put groceries away and headed right back out. I didn't know where we were going, but knew that I didn't want to try and keep him in the kitchen and off the carpet for the entire rest of the day. I hoped he would take a nap in the car, but he was so excited that we were leaving the house again that he couldn't sleep. We drove around for a while and finally ended up at Little Monkey Bizness. It had been raining off and on so this was a nice compromise to his playground request. We were there for at least two hours and didn't get home for the day until about 4:30. It was then time for me to do some more work and the boys went to the park. It is SO bedtime now. My main computer is still not back together all the way and my camera was up in my bedroom with wet carpet in between. Today we get LMB cell phone pictures. :)

I could barely drag him away from the painting area.

Much of his time was also spent here.

April Photos: Day 16 & 17

This weekend was kind of a bust for photo-taking. Saturday we spent the entire day working on the office. We started taking everything out first thing in the morning, which included my computer. I quickly realized that I wouldn't be able to process any photos anyway so I just didn't take any. It was such a tiring process, but SOOO worth it. We went to our friends' BBQ / housewarming party for most of the day yesterday and painted the ceiling detail last night. The carpets cleaners are here now and the desk comes tomorrow. It will be so much work to get it all put back together, but I can't wait! The paint looks so good and it is such a sense of relief to be getting it all done. Although, my legs hurt in a way that I sure haven't felt in a very long time!

The only photo I took over the weekend was yesterday at the party. It was around Carson's nap time and I just figured a nap wouldn't even be an option for the day. Somehow he spotted Wall-E on their shelf and wanted to watch it. Wall-E has been our go-to nap movie for a few weeks now so I was excited to try. Sure enough, he actually sat down to watch it and suddenly he was out. At home he'll wake up with a door being shut too loud. We were shocked that stayed passed out for about two hours with so many people coming in and out and talking and banging. It was nice to visit and know he wasn't getting into everything! :)

Here was the little monster:

April Photos: Day 15

After the last two days I knew it was time for us to get out of the house today. We have a big home project planned for the weekend (......YAY!) so we took off this morning to go buy paint and supplies. Then we went to the mall, walked around, spent quite a while in the play land and had lunch. We came home for nap time and cleaned up the house some while we waited for Carl. Tomorrow we are finally going to paint the office walls which is one of the very last places not painted in our house, other than the laundry room and guest room. I always thought I'd want it a different color, but finally came to the realization that it should match the rest of the level. I'm just ready to have it painted. We have so much work to do tomorrow and then the carpets are all getting cleaned Monday morning.

Carl came to get us after work and we headed out to the furniture store. Before hand we grabbed some dinner. We were right next to a Sonic so Carl asked Carson if he had any room for ice cream. Carson answered, "I'm really full, but we need ice cream!" Carl asked him if he had an ice cream pocket too and Carson just nodded his head. Ice cream it was. I love being to the point where I don't care if he's messy because I can tell how happy he is in the process. 

This was just the beginning of the cone, as you can see. It got much worse from here.

And this is also what we call "cheese face" because when you tell him to look at the camera he makes the most fake smile and says, "CHEEEEEEESE".

 

Because the office will be shiny and new, I finally decided that it was time to buy the desk I've been wanting. I spend SO much time in this office and it's been the biggest eye-sore of the house. I have had no way to organize the desk, hide computer equipment and cords etc etc etc. The new desk unit will show up on Tuesday and I'll be in business! I'm so excited to get it done the way I want so I actually want to be in here. I have photos to hang and so many ideas that have gotten shelved because the big stuff wasn't done. It feels like Christmas is coming!! :)  We also ordered a dresser for the new changing table. I've shopped high and low for one that matched and was the right size without much luck. Finally we found something that is technically a media cabinet, but is a piece that is part of the dresser set in Carson's room. I hate all the actual "nursery" furniture that's out there, especially since it looks like baby furniture. I'd rather spend the money on a piece we can use in our house for the long run. The bad part is that it was back ordered until the end of May, but that is still enough time.

Okay, now I'm tired from thinking of the next three days..........

April Photos: Day 14

Today was supposed to be fun, but ended up being lots of work instead. We were supposed to go play this morning with Erin and Ava, but not only did my work go nuts, we woke up to it snowing. We are bidding on a government contract for a new study and the paperwork to fill out is absolutely ridiculous. It took two full days just to get it all completed and my head is spinning from staring at nonsense and little check boxes. 

Carson was so good for me though. He played and I took lots of break to play with him. He took a great nap just in time for me to make some phone calls too. Unfortunately by the end of the day he was getting restless. We'll for sure be going somewhere to get the sillies out tomorrow. When I knew Carl was on his way home we went out to sit on the front porch and wait for him. Carson thought it was too cold to play in the backyard today when he was bundled up, but if he's out looking for Daddy he doesn't need a thing. 

 

And I'm 30 weeks pregnant today! 3/4 of the way there...

April Photos: Day 13

Carson has been begging to make cookies for a week now. I finally had to oblige and we got stuff for oatmeal cookies when we were at the store yesterday. When I went to get him out of bed this morning he first words were, "Mommy, are we making cookies today?!" He was fairly excited. I never have high hopes for myself when it comes to baking though. Let's not forget my last cookie incident.

He sure thinks he is such a big helper. Carl lets him sit on the counter while they make breakfast every weekend so he wanted to do it this time too. It just makes me so nervous though! He is so squirmy. And as if baking isn't already messy enough....we were both covered in flour by the end. But the only thing that matters is that I didn't screw up the cookies and they were actually good!

April Photos: Day 12

What a day. I'm pooped. Seriously, just running errands right now is so physically demanding that by the end of the day I am spent. We took off early this morning to go buy new sand and stuff we needed at Target. We got done around 11:00 and it was all I could do to get it home. I lifted way too much heavy stuff over and over again which didn't help at all. Carson crashed in the car, but Carl was close to home so we took him to play at McDonald's for lunch. It was so cute to see him wake up as we pulled in, ask if we were at "BicDonald's" and then see Daddy's work van. Let's just say he was pretty excited. We've been playing in the sandbox and doing chores for the rest of the day. These are the days I am so thankful for the crock pot! 

We took a break to sit down and watch a cartoon. Carson refused to actually look up at me so I worked with what I was given. Poor kid got my short eye lashes.

 

I have waited and waited for his belly button to turn into an innie, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Actually it's sort of a hybrid outie-within-an-innie. I puffy heart it though.

April Photos: Day 11

Carson went to daycare this morning so I could get some work and a teleconference done. He came home and took a really good nap until almost 4:00. But when he woke up he turned into a demon child. He screamed and yelled and nothing could make him happy. I tried and tried, but he eventually threw himself on the kitchen floor and had a good tantrum. I figured that was a good time for photos of our sweet sweet angel.

 

Look at that pouty face!

He still has so much congestion, it's hard not to feel bad for him. He finally at a really good dinner tonight. And then....he was down riding his bike in the basement while Carl worked out and lost it all on the floor. He coughs so hard from the phlegm that he'll eventually start gagging. That was fun to clean up! Not.

April Photos: Day 10

Sooooooooooo............there is no day 10 photo. We had such a rough night on Saturday that I was sort of a zombie on Sunday. With Carson being sick all of last week neither of us got much good sleep. Plus, even when he does sleep I keep waking up for hours in the early morning with my pregnant insomnia. Saturday night he did not want to sleep at all. He cried and rolled on the floor and just yelled for so long. By Sunday I didn't want to do anything. I didn't even get dressed until mid-afternoon. By bedtime I realized it never dawned on me to pick up the camera. Oh well!

April Photos: Day 9

Technically I didn't get to take any photos of Carson today at all. Carl wanted to go take a four-wheeling trip for the day, but I decided to stay home. I have been with him on the trail they were doing so I knew how rough it was. Honestly, I didn't think my bladder could make it at this point in my pregnancy. Sorry if that's too honest. :) Plus I hadn't tackled our taxes yet. This seemed like a perfect day for the boys to play and I got lots of peace and quiet. I actually got quite a bit accomplished even though my back is now paying the price from sitting in my horrible desk chair all day long.

They took off at 7am and didn't get home until almost 7pm. I just don't have it in me to take any photos at this point tonight........ Carl gets to own today's photo. It makes sense though; this is what Carson did today!

April Photos: Day 8

I was a little preoccupied this afternoon just in time for Grandma to come home. Carson went upstairs with her to watch a cartoon in her bed and then they had a little art time. He is loving the watercolors right now. And colored pencils are a little less dangerous than crayons...... He is getting good though! :)

April Photos: Day 7

Carson still wasn't 100% today. We spent most of the day relaxing....which I'm totally not opposed to in my beached whale state. He took a three hour nap and we took our baths in the afternoon. Then we met Carl for Mexican food which was beyond yummy. Holy cow am I full right now though. 

This afternoon Carson helped me clean up. The good thing about the stage he's at with the new baby coming is that he looooves to help us do everything. Any time you give him a task to do he is right on it. Today he vacuumed the living room and then got distracted by the kitties. That gate is the one thing that protects them from "him". You can just tell how much they get annoyed that he is there. But he totally loves them and just stands there beckoning them to come play. Lily does take naps on the couch with us all the time though. She slept on us for a while today and he said, "Mommy, Lily is my kitty, huh?!"

April Photos: Day 6

The bad news is Carson developed a fever last night around dinner time and it lasted all through the night. I only had one dose of Advil left for him so we had to head out for more this morning. I ended up sleeping with him for most of the night because I was awake listening to him cough anyways. He was trying to sleep on the way home from the store in the car and it was early so he was obviously still feeling bad. I got him to eat something and he wanted to lay down to watch Wall-E. It was about three minutes into the movie when he was totally zonked out. Lucky for me it is one of my busiest work days of the month so I got a good quiet period to work! (Not to say that I'm happy his isn't up to par....)

 

The good news is that he woke up feeling much better and doesn't seem to have a fever at all right now. He got some energy back and ate some more food. He wanted to paint so it was spring picture painting time! I am not a very good influence on his artistic skills though. I did think the umbrella turned out impressive. :)

 

He's out back squealing and riding his bike now in the cold so he must be feeling better. It feels like it's going to rain any minute out there.

April Photos: Day 5

Unfortunately, today hasn't been very much fun for Carson. Yesterday morning he started coughing out of nowhere and threw up all over in our bed. It was all mucus because he is still so stubborn about blowing his nose. He seemed to be fine for the rest of the day. Then after his bath last night it seemed like the steam broke some of it up and the cough started back up. We were getting him in his pajamas and he threw up again. He was obviously upset, but slept fine. But as soon as he woke up this morning the cough was right back on. It's one of those ones that you can hear coming from deep in his chest. The poor kid just doesn't feel good today. With all the energy he has on a daily basis it is fairly easy to tell when he isn't himself. He has moped around all day with a blank stare on his face. I took us out to walk around some shops and he slept the whole way there and back in the car, then just sat there in the stroller without much fuss.

After nap time he said he wanted to play in the back yard. I got the camera and he was laying on the edge of the sandbox.

 

Then he went to the garage and said he wanted to ride his bike. (I can't go with him alone out front to ride his bike anymore. He is literally so fast that you have to run with him and that is totally impossible for me at this point!) He rode for a few laps and came right back inside. He didn't even know he was still wearing his helmet. He was standing in the kitchen for a while just staring at the TV. 

 

We've at least had lots of snuggle time today...

April Photos: Day 4

I knew when I saw the following scene that I should grab the camera before investigating further:

Nothing good can be happening when Carson is hiding somewhere without theatrics to go with it. We had some leftover Valentine's suckers that he stole and I eventually found in the seat of his dump truck today. Apparently he got one open and thought he had to go hide to eat it. I loved the "I'm busted" look he gave me when he peeked through the opening.

April Photos: Day 3

On our way home today from running errands Carl stopped to get a Jamba Juice. Logical since yesterday we were grilling with 80 degree weather and today it is snowing! I didn't think I wanted one at the time so I didn't get one. Big mistake! Carson loved it too so I made us a batch when we got home for a snack. I've been craving fruit like crazy lately, especially melons and citrus. Carson sat down with his, but decided that Teddy needed the first taste. I love that he has finally started to play with his stuffed animals and role play with toys.

April Photos: Day 2

Today we had our hospital pre-registration and tour so Carson got to stay home for lunch and a nap with Grandma. We switched insurance since having Carson so I wanted to go check out where we'd be going this time. I came home and decided the photos I wanted for today would be of little man's tiny fingers and long piggies. He's playing outside in this 80 degree weather and we're grilling! Ahhhh, spring.

We left the hospital and were planning on just heading home. Then I spotted a sign that said "desserts". I looked closer and saw it was D-Bar Desserts so we flipped around and decided to stop. The only reason I knew what D-Bar was is that it is owned by Keegan Gerhard from Food Network Challenge. I figured it was worth a trip in. Carl got a brownie sundae and I got a fancy banana split.

April Photos: Day 1

It is a gorgeous afternoon! Yesterday it was so windy that Carson could hardly stand to be out back (and that's saying a lot). Although, he has sternly reminded me that we need new sand for the sandbox. We'll be getting the backyard going again next week. I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time out there very soon!

The view from above:

A little catch up...

So we went on vacation, I posted when we came back and then I fell off the planet. Let's just say the last two weeks for me have been difficult. We came back from Carmel that Sunday night and I casually went through my photos for the next couple days expecting to post them by that Friday. No big deal, right? 

Wednesday night it was about 10:30 and we were already in bed. I realized I was dying of thirst all of a sudden so I came downstairs for some water. I noticed Sophie, my cat, pacing at the back door. I went over and turned the patio light on and there was another cat sitting out there. Sophie's tail was puffed up, but she was meowing with her playful meow so I thought nothing of picking her up. After about 10 seconds I went to pet her head and as my hand got in front of her face she snapped and bit me. For real. Let me tell you, I've had cat bites before, but I knew instantly that this one was different. I ran upstairs to see the damage and was shocked to see two gaping wounds. One tooth went right in the meat of my palm and the other went in my wrist under my thumb. The one under my thumb was so deep it was just purple and didn't even bleed. Being the smart girl I am I consulted with Dr. Google. "Wash the wound and bandage." I did exactly that and figured I'd just see what it looked like in the morning.

By 1:30am I was wide awake and in agony. Oh, did I also mention this was my RIGHT hand?? I tried to go back to sleep, but that wasn't happening so I ended up on the couch with it elevated. When I got up that morning and took the bandages off (and felt the extreme pain and swelling) I knew I should probably call the doctor. They didn't hesitate and wanted me to come in immediately. The doctor started looking at it and pretty much gave me the third degree about not immediately going to the ER when it happened. Apparently it was more serious than I expected. She wanted to clean the two wounds out which didn't sound like a ton of fun. Annnnnd it wasn't. The numbing shots at each spot were so painful. She then dug the wounds out and they had to irrigate them with a TON of solution and a big pointy syringe. There was already a fairly large purple section growing up my arm so within 12 hours it was for sure infected. She made me come back the next morning with a promise that if it felt any worse over night I would go to the ER. The next morning she did think it looked a little better, but wanted to go through the entire cleaning process again. Man, that hurt so bad and keep in mind I can only take one 500mg Tylenol every 4-6 hours right now!

So now it has been 16 days and I'm still only about 90% better. I had to keep my hand elevated 24/7 with a brace on it for 10 days alone. The pain that I felt was as bad if not worse than when I broke both of my wrists. For days I couldn't do anything! I couldn't get Carson strapped in the car seat, couldn't do sippy cups, couldn't even dry my own hair! I couldn't put any pressure at all on any of my fingers so I quickly found out how hard it is to just have one hand. My wrist still feels bruised, the wounds haven't even healed yet and my thumb gets really achy by the end of the day. 

Needless to say, I haven't been on the computer much at all for two weeks! Oh, and I couldn't even look at my poor camera. Thank goodness I had my iPhone so I wasn't totally out of the loop. I'm just now getting back into the swing of things. I'll hopefully have vacation photos ready to post soon. Here are a couple cell pics for the time being:

Sleepy dude

SpaghettiOs!

LOL - See my arm up in the air in the corner? haha

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Okay, the other thing is that today is April 1. Somehow that means this is the month that my little baby is turning 3. I've also had some serious camera withdrawl so I have decided to do a little photo project. I am going to take a photo of him every day in the month of April to post, aside from any other stuff I would shoot or post regularly. (Honestly I want it to force me back on the blog-wagon too!) I'm not making any promises that I won't mess up, but I'm really really going to try.

Today is also the last regular day of Carson going to daycare. He'll still go there when needed, but we've had a good 6 month run and I'm ready for him to be home with me. This is good timing with the weather getting nicer, getting serious about being totally potty trained and not being tied to a schedule right now. I am excited to spend the next three months just with my little man before the inside baby decides to come out and play. Yesterday was 28 weeks so I literally only have three months to go!