The Cord Thingy is found. Hallelujah!

Here is the little prince. He gets cuter every day, I SWEAR!

The first picture is just a gorgeous picture of his little face.

The second, the very first time he sucked his thumb for real. He continues to gag himself with it at this point, but he is sucking his thumb, none the less...

The last is a picture of the little man in his swing. If you pull the yellow handle, the swing makes music. He figured this out today, and has been workin' it like a champ. I think he is very advanced!

The guest room is now unpacked. Come on over, Y'all!

M.

What would you do?

I find myself endless reading the blogs and sites of other mothers. (Parents, really.) How are they doing things? Do they have any tips for me??? Why am I so interested in that?
I think it is helpful in getting you to look at things in a new way. I was reading this blog, The Reign of Ellen, and she had this really interesting thought on Disney movies. (Joanne, we talked about this once- how they always kill off the mothers before the fun can begin?) Check this out:

Ellen Says:
That got me thinking about all the other Disney fairy tales... could it be that what we see as charm and innocence are actually mental illnesses? What would we think if we met these princesses in real life?Cases in point:Beauty and the Beast-- classic case of Stockholm Syndrome. I always loved this movie. So romantic!... then I started thinking about it... and wait, hold your Patty Hearst horses... this girl was essentially kidnapped and held hostage by a brute of a guy, only to fall madly in love with him? He may have started being nicer to her, letting her use his library and whatnot, but it didn't really excuse the fact that she was still kidnapped. The Little Mermaid-- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Ariel compulsively "collects" human things in her grotto cavern, obsesses about living on dry land, only to turn her attention to her Prince, pretty much as soon as she lays eyes on him. She then sells her soul to go stalk him on land. No compulsive hand-washing, but then, she is under water.Sleeping Beauty-- Narcolepsy. Duh.Alice in Wonderland-- had to really stop and think on this one. (Granted, her whole experience is a dream, but we'll just gloss over that fact for the sake of argument.) In my diagnosis, I briefly considered Dependent Personality Disorder (can't seem to make decisions about where to go, what to eat and what to drink) and Avoidant Personality Disorder (creation of fantasy world, social ineptitude). I finally decided that Alice is schizophrenic, primarily for her paranoid belief that everyone is crazy except herself.

Interesting, no?

I am trying to wrap my mind around all of things I need to do to get this house ready. There is so much! Around every turn we have an outlet to replace (no phone jacks in the house work at all- we had to plug in to a cord in the basement...) Windows, screens, bathroom toilet (installed crooked). This house has so many details. Really, we could live in it the way it is now, but it would drive both Dan and I crazy. I don't relax until everything is pretty much perfect. Hence, I plan to relax around the beginning of 2009. I'll look forward to speaking with you then.

I started making my own laundry detergent. It's easy and cheap, and I like it so far. Want the recipe? I use Fels Naptha soap, but you can use pretty much anything. It's a great way to use up those bits of soap, or a bar of soap from the hotel you stayed at last year. (I save those kinds of things...my grandma's vioce is in my head saying "don't be wasteful!")
Anyway, here it is:
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/laundry/ht/drydetergent.htm
Soap, washing soda, and borax. That's all folks. It works great so far, even with our new (old and reconditioned) washing machines.

I am also working on loosing the baby weight (yeah right) and buying more healthy and cheaper food to cook for Dan and I at home. I am looking at some different ways to do this, and am now going to try saving dinner. (www.savingdinner.com) They have some free menus, so I think I'll give that a whirl.

OMG, did I tell you Henry is in the exersaucer now? IT is so cute. He plays in it for about 10 minutes, and then is totally wipd out from all the activity and falls asleep in my arms.
I want to upload some pictures of Henry in his exersaucer so bad I can taste it, but I can't find the cord thingy. WHERE ARE YOU OH CORD THINGY????? I'll try to find it soon.
Much love. Gotta eat before we go to the grocery store.
Love,
M and H Dawg

Boxes, Boxes everywhere

So, we are in the Fox Cities. HORRAY!
Are we unpacked? No.
Is everything in the house functional? Not quite.
We are in the whole vicious circle of, I want to unpack my clothes, but can't until we put in the closet system. The closet system can't be put in until the boxes are moved, AAAARRRGH!
(In actuality, we did put in the closet system last night. Horray!)
Henry is sitting up better, though not unassisted. He is using his exercaucer- SO COOL.
I need to help Dan unpack the living room. More soon...
M.

Henry and me, the calm before the storm

We are in whirling Dirvish of activity before we close on the house. Within the next day and a half, I have to finish packing everything I can, get our stuff ready, and go to our new city for the closing. After that, we will come back, pack up and clean, and move once and for all. Personally, I just can't wait for it to be done. I will miss all of my friends here so much! But, at this point, I just need to get it over with. It's like, once the decision is made, you just want to move on with it. Do you ever feel like that?
Henry has started to use his hands more than ever before. He's putting thigns in his hands, and putting them into his mouth. He's never done this before. I saw it for the first time yesterday. I tried to take a picture for Dan, but by the time I had the camera out, he had moved on to other things. :)
I am not sleeping much. I am trying to get everything done, and end up in bed at about 1 or 2 am. Henry is up between 6 and 7, and as you can see, so is mommy. I need to work, so I can't nap. I am pooped!
It looks like I am going to be closing up all of the business here. My company is being really good to me, and I love them for that! I appreciate everything they have done for me over the last 10 years, and I am sad to leave. I know this is the right thing for our family, though.
I thought of a whole slew of things I wanted to blog about while I was packing, and now I have no idea what they are. Man!
I'll blog again later when my brain turns back on.
M.

Did you know?

Did you know about bookmooch.com? Apparently, you can make a list of books you have and no longer want, and you can trade them for books you want. From complete strangers! How great is that? This is going to save me a lot of money on Amazon, for sure!
The packing is going well. We are stressed out, but that's moving for you.
Tomorrow is the home inspection. Wish us luck!
M.:)

Dry ICE?

I am going to use dry ice to keep my breastmilk cold until we can get our freezer up and running at our new house. How crazy is that? It will be nice to have it taken care of and not worry about it. We are just putting the last things in place to make sure this move will go smoothly.
M.

Thank you for calling. Please Hold...

If you are trying to contact me, thanks for the love. I'm am not ignoring you. I am instead frantically packing my house, just trying to get everything finished before we move.
WOW. WE ARE MOVING.
When I look back over my shoulder and see almost the entire contents of our basement stacked and in boxes, it makes it more real for me. That is sure!
I have been looking into transporting all of my breasmilk. That stuff is liquid gold, baby! I think I am going to have to buy dry ice and transport it in a cooler that way. We'll have to keep it cold until we can get the chest freezer set up at the new house. Crazy!
We have the house inspection this Friday...I hope they don't find anything major. If they do, we will have to find a new place to live within a matter of 5 days. Not fun.
We close in 11 days. I'll be glad when we have all made it safe and sound and are unloaded. The unpacking can happen at our leisure.
I hope you are all very well. I might just have a new address for you the next time we talk. Wish me luck! Come on house, please don't be shady.
M.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

So much is going on!
We found a house (Maybe) in New London. We put in an offer. We are packing. Dan is getting ready for his new job. I am working towards the close of mine.
We are weeding through all of the things here, purging and wrapping and boxing and planning.
Everything rides on us getting this house.
Send good thoughts and prayers our way. We need all of the help we can get.
Easter?! This Sunday we were looking at houses in New London (We had to go early as our realtor had showings and was only available at this time.) This was the first Palm Sunday I have ever missed church in my whole life. I felt really sad about it. We'll make the effort to go on Easter. I will probably have to stay home while Dan works next week. That is, unless we can get the house before then. We have so many "what if's" right now. Our lives are totally in a state of flux.
Henry also had a cold and pink eye. That was worrysome to me. He seems to be doing better, but I am going to keep a close eye on him. He's not eating as much as usual. Since we were in th car all weekend, my milk supply went down. I'm going to have to start taking the recommended herbs to bump up milk supply. (Fenugreek and Blessed thistle to be precise.)
Henry is singing and talking more. I love this boy! He is so CUTE!
I also found some really cool mommy websites. Check these babies out:
www.parenthacks.com
This site is where parents write in with smart or interesting things they do with or for their kids. I found most of the other cool websites from this site. They have areas for all ages of kids! Check it out!
www.rookiemoms.com
This site has all sorts of crafts and ideas. I also like the fact that they don't claim to be experts. They are like me! A rookie! This site brought me to something really exciting:
http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/dipecase.html
This Jan Andrea lady has all sorts of granola-y things to make like flannel maxi pads (not my cup of tea) but she also has really smart instructions for making regular bras into a nursing bra, and my very favorite, a diaper and wipe bag. I was thinking of buying one of the expensive ones on the web, but when I saw this pattern, I knew I could make it myself. COOL.
OK. I had better stop playing around and start getting ready for bed.
More pics soon. They are really cute.
M.