Wordless(ish) Wednesday

All this Christmas shopping is exhausting...

sneak peek

at least they are finally in my possession.  addressing and mailing may be asking a bit much!

fourteen months

You are well overdue for a monthly post {i sorta missed thirteen months... mommy fail} 

This month has brought lots of changes for little man's schedule.  He is now going to school daycare three days a week.  We found a great in home daycare that operates with an actual lesson plan/school day {for way cheaper than the private preschool I had fallen in love with}.  We drop him off around at either 6 am or 7:15 depending on the day, and daddy picks him up after work about 6 pm.  Brody has a great time with Ms. Michelle and Ms. Erin and is learning how to share and play with other kiddos.  

It is official that any sign of baby-ness is long gone.  We have ourselves a full-fledged toddler on our hands.  He is quickly becoming a little boy and his independent personality has emerged.  He is walking everywhere, running a little, and is even able to walk backwards some.  He is climbing onto everything and is becoming a little daredevil.  It is getting pretty hard to get pictures of him, as he doesn't stay still long enough! 

I think he is weighing in around 20 pounds and is getting really tall.  I'm looking forward to his 15 month checkup to see how much he has grown.  He is wearing size 12 month clothes, 18 month pajamas and size 4 shoes.  He is obsessed with brushing his teeth.  He is a really good eater, eating all table food.  He uses his fork pretty well and is working on the spoon.  He signs for "more" food and when he is "all done".  We are working on "please" and "drink".  Daddy is trying to teach him an incorrect sign for dirty diaper.   

'talking' on momma's phone

We have established a pretty decent schedule around here as well.  He sleeps from 7:30pm until around 8 am (except on school days).  He is still sleeping with his Ellie (the elephant) and has his tiger at school for naptime.  He is napping for about 3 hours around noon.    

Overall, I'm loving this age right now.  He stops playing and comes over for kisses.  Lays his head on my shoulder when I am holding him.  Snuggles with us before bed and when we wake him up.  We are having a little issue with separation anxiety and is becoming a little bit of a 'momma's boy', but i know that will pass and I don't mind the extra bit of snuggling that comes with it!

I sure do love this kid.

Stopping in to say hi...

Time is flying by these days. Brody's 14 month update is in the works. Here are a couple photos to tide you over until then.

Santa

brody wasn't too sure what to think about sitting on a strange man's lap.  

about two seconds after this photo he was in tears!

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and here is last year's visit 

week in iphone pics: Vol 2

This week went by really fast!  I would get home for the day and realize I hadn’t taken any pictures of the things we did.  I’m hoping over time I will get better about that, because I think these posts will be great to go back and look at in the future. 

Monday

brody had spaghetti for the first time and made a colossal mess.  we went straight to the tub after dinner.

Tuesday

We started our day out with a playdate with Brooklyn and her mommy Erin, but I neglected to take any pictures.  Fail.  Later we made it to the grocery store to do our Thanksgiving shopping.  Brody was so good until the end when he decided to dump a carton of eggs all over the cart.

Wednesday

B spent the day with daddy while I worked.  My mom came out to spend the rest of the week with us.  I made a fabulous carrot cake for Thanksgiving, and we pretty much devoured the rest of the icing from the bowl. 

[best cake ever, by the way]

recipe here

Thursday

We spent the day in true Thanksgiving style, by cooking and doing dishes.  We watched the Macy’s Parade, ate great food, played cards, and ate tons of dessert.  Brody ran around wearing a paper bag and thought he was hilarious.  He was. 

Friday

We started our day off with a family breakfast, then did a little bit of shopping.  I wasn’t brave enough to tackle early morning shopping!  B had a snack on grandma's lap.  Then, we spent most of the evening lounging around in our pj’s, watching Twilight. 

Saturday

We took Brody to visit Santa (pic to come… none from my iphone) and had lunch at Olga’s with Aunt Betsy.  Again… photo fail.  We ended our evening with more pj time and hanging out in the way too small bouncy seat, and watching New Moon. 

Sunday

Cinnamon rolls & chocolate milk for breakfast.  Brody wasn't so sure about them.  I think he'll just stick with bananas.  {And I am planning to get back to my healthy eating first thing tomorrow morning}.  My mom kept Brody for an hour or so this afternoon, giving me some much needed mommy time {Starbucks and a Manicure}  Sunday ended with an early bedtime for Brody and Eclipse on DVD.  

Brody starts his new school tomorrow.  Wish us luck!

Linking up with Ashley and Amy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving from the Loveless Family!

week in iPhone pics: vol 1

I figure now that I finally have my iphone, it is time to link up to Amy with her Week in Photos. 

(It's a lot harder than I thought to really make sure I am taking photos every day)  

Monday

We had a pretty lazy evening.  I worked all day and Brody stayed home with Daddy.  We spent the evening snuggled up in our pjs reading books, singing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and playing with the camera on my phone.  The last pic is after I took the phone away from him!

Tuesday

Back to the doctor again.  We just can't seem to get those dang ear infections cleared up.  On to Antibiotic #3.  Hopefully we can get this under control because when we go back in 2 weeks if it's not cleared up we start talking about tubes... We spent the rest of the day with Daddy shopping for suits. 

Wednesday 

B was his normal silly self.  Walking around with his pumpkin bag around his neck (inside is his Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes book) and climbing on daddy's mail.   we got our family picture DVD in the mail.  I am so excited to get some of these framed!

Thursday

I worked all day, but my evening involved a random trip to target.  I did some browsing for things that may find their way onto my list for Santa this year.  

Friday

I finally broke down and took Brody to the Hairy Elephant for a haircut.  He did so great in the chair.  Doesn't he look like a little man with that haircut?!

Saturday

I went in to work for about 4 hours, then came home and cleaned the kitchen while Brody napped.  We met grandma at the mall, did some shopping.  

Newsflash **I FINALLY BOUGHT A PAIR OF BROWN BOOTS** 

and Brody rode the fire truck and school bus at the mall.  

Sunday

Sunday morning I went to breakfast with Wendee and then went to see Breaking Dawn.  So Good!

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That is it for my first week!  Lets see if I can figure out how to link up with Amy and Ashley!

  

Opportunities...

For the few of you that don't know yet, a few months back I left my job at Mercy Children's Hospital in order to pursue a fantastic opportunity with a great pediatric orthopedic surgeon that I have worked with through the hospital. Over these last few months I have learned so much and have been able to have a part in streamlining the function of the clinic while still continuing to be involved in the patient care side of things as well. The long term plan here will end with me finally finishing up my masters degree and working as a nurse practitioner in the office.

As part of my training, I had the opportunity to attend a casting & splinting conference over the weekend that was hosted by the National Association of Orthopedic Technologists.

The instructors were fantastic and really made it a great learning experience. We had a lot of opportunity for hands on practice, learned some helpful cast application tips, along with hearing some great lectures regarding fracture types, casting complications, and coding & billing.

Here are my very first casts I put on, and me getting my bilateral short leg casts taken off.

The instructor Kenny used me as his 'model' throughout the class, so I was able to get a close up view of many of the casts we learned to apply!

Of course, spending the weekend in warm sunny Fort Lauderdale wasn't too bad either. Unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to do any exploring while I was there.

I am so thankful for this opportunity and am looking forward to being able to share my new found knowledge with the rest of my team and to be able to put it to use with my patients.

Learning

If you didnt already know, I finally got my iPhone 4s. Hip Hip Hooray! Now my hubby can quit listening to me whine about how much I hated my phone.

I've been playing with it a ton this weekend and have learned so much. The most exciting thing I have found (asided from Pinterest) was a Blogger app that is supposed to let me post blog posts from my phone. Wouldn't that be cool? You all might start seeing a few more posts per week. Just don't hold me to that, Okay!

And here is my first trial pic post, using two more new to me apps, Instagram and DipTic.
(Enjoy a glimpse of todays meals, along with my one little half glass of wine.

under the weather

We have had a trying month in our household.  Here’s why...

We started the month with Brody’s 12 month check up.  We are (hopefully) sending Brody to daycare school in the next few months, so I wanted to make sure his immunizations were up to date… He has always had his immunizations split up, but I went ahead and had him get all the 12 month shots this time.  [Cue ‘fussy baby’ now].  We had a week and a half of fussing and clinginess and a general inability to be put down. then a few days of fevers.  Another trip to the pediatrician was in order.  Our first ear infection.  So, Brody had his first round of antibiotics.  Amoxicillin.  x 10 days.  This led to a terrible rash and major diaper area skin breakdown.  Damn sensitive skin.  

an ear infection + fever + awful diaper rash = one unhappy little man

Brody perked up a bit and we thought things were on there way back to normal.  However, he continued to be fussy, irritable and clingy.  Then we had two more days of low grade fevers.  Back to the doctor we went.  Now, double ear infection.  Ten more days of antibiotics.  This time Omnicef.  [Which is a $35 prescription, by the way]. 

So now we are at 10 days out of 14 on the Omnicef and we have the skin breakdown going on again.  Brody cries hysterically every time it is time to have his diaper changed.  And I think his ears still hurt…we go back to the pediatrician again next friday to re-evaluate the ears again.  We're hoping it has cleared up by then.  

What a way to spend the first month of your second year of life!

sorry about the picture quality.  My EVO takes terrible pictures.  

Happy Halloween

Our little Monster.

We trick or treated at two or three neighbors, but mostly stayed home and handed out candy.  

Brody and his astronaut buddy (Caleb)

Brody and Blue (Colin)  

Mommy, I've had enough Halloween, now put me to bed!

13.1

Last Sunday, Cody and I ran in the Inaugural Rock 'n' Roll St. Louis Half Marathon.

Here we are before the race...

during

don't know why the quality is so bad.  Sorry!

and after:

The Rock n Roll Series always has a big concert after the race.  This year was Sugar Ray.

and yes... that is the same (free) beer I'm working on in both pictures.   I think by this point Cody had already had three or four! 

And our proof: