For Braden and Bree

These are in the mail right now, on their way to my niece and nephew. They don't check my blog, so I figure it's legit to post them. I sure liked the way they turned out :o) They were valentines presents, but horribly horribly late. Hope they like them Jenn!

Thomas the Train and Disney Princesses... what else would be as fun? 

Mom of the Year

Today I deserve the 'mom of the year' award. Now, if you were in my family, you'd understand that only the most deserving mothers get this award... only mothers who do something so completely stupid or outrageous that their action is deserving recognition by mothers everywhere.
It seems like every week I earn this reward, but last night's was incredibly memorable. Each time I remember it, I start to laugh so hard I cry.

Background: I haven't been getting sleep. #1 reason, I have a great book series that I've been reading. #2 the olympics are on and jason is staying up way too late and so i am as well. I dont sleep that well alone in the bed. Last night was a horribly late night... think like 2am is when I might have started to fall asleep...

3am comes around, Darby is crying. I reluctantly get up, after attempting to get Jason to get up instead. I go make a bottle of milk, and I start to walk to him room... I figured, "heck, he can hold the bottle himself". And I gave the bottle to darby in his crib, walked back to my room, and went back to bed. He stopped crying and started eating. Jason woke up and checked on him, he saw the bottle floating around above the crib and me back in bed, already asleep again. He figured, if it was okay with me, it was okay in general.

In the morning, there was an empty bottle and a happy baby in the crib.

I can't believe I did that. But I was so so so tired.

... I still can't believe I did that. Hilarious.

Hey friends!
I'm blogging today to all my friends who have babies and all my friends who know people who have babies :o) I dont know if you all have ever heard of diapers.com, but you need to. Diapers.com does everything from diapers to formula, to toys and snacks, to just about everything. Their prices can be different than babies r us and other stores... in a lot of cases, things like formula are cheaper because you can get a case of 4 cans, and it knocks the price down. The diapers that we like to get are the same price online as they are in the store.
But one of the coolest things is the shipping. When you spend $50, the shipping is free. That is definitely doable when you buy formula (unfortunately), but the best best best part is that delivery is THE NEXT DAY! If you order before 5pm, you get your order the next day.
For example. I bought a case of diapers and a cover for our carseat before we went on a flight... the order was put in at 4:30pm, it was over $50, and I had my diapers and the cover by noon the next day. Pretty much awesome. Especially when its just a hassle to get to the store.
I also did this when we travelled. I didnt want to carry on a whole bunch of jarred baby food on an airplane, so I made an order and had it sent to our destination. It worked out fabulously.

So thats all, I just wanted to share that info with you. If you are curious and want to try it out, enter DANA2198, and you'll get $10 off your first order.

Hope you enjoy!

Darby the Nut

My child is a nut. He really is. I just had to tell you all about the new thing he is doing... Darby is in love with his crib.

Ever since he was born, I always lived by the rule that I'd wait until he is crying or whining until I get him up from his bed. It always worked well. As an infant, he'd coo for a while and then let me know he was ready to get up. As he got older, I was glad to live like this, because he might wake up from a nap, about an hour into it, and he'd play for a minute or two, then he'd fall back asleep and sleep for another hour! Which was great...

Then last week came... and he woke up at 8am, I heard a toy rattle, and closed my eyes again because I was sure he was going to want me in a couple minutes anyways... 9:30am rolls around and I wake up again, and look in the monitor, he's just playing... i shook my head and smiled and closed my eyes because surely he was going to want up any moment and I'd wake up and go get him... 10:45am rolls around and I woke up and jumped out of bed! I was so confused/worried, but I went in to Darby's room and he was just hanging out, having fun. I couldn't believe it.

This happened again the next day, but this time I got up at 9:30am.

This keeps happening... if we didn't 'have' to get up early to do therapy, who knows how long I would sleep while he played! If I didn't have things in his crib that made noise, who knows when I'd wake up!

As I write this, he has just fallen asleep. I put him down at 2pm, for his nap. It is now 3pm and he just fell asleep. He was playing and giggling this last hour... what a nut. I've told his therapists about this and they just say, "thats good independant play!". So I dont feel as bad.

All that being said... here are Darby's stats, as he had his 15 month well baby check this week.

Weight- 20.2 lbs - 3rd-5th percentile :o/
Height- 31.25 inches - 50th percentile
Head Size - 44 cm - smaller than usual, but i can't comment much about it since he has a shunt

Developmentally-
He just started being able to stand at the couch this week, unassisted. It lasts for less than a minute, but its a huge milestone for him. His PT is over the moon about how well his standing is doing. Just this morning he was doing some pulling up to the couch with his OT. He has also been doing some crawling actions with his therapists... they support most of him on his hands and knees and he shows some actions of putting his hands forward and his knees forward. Its great :o) of course he doesn't do any of this for his parents, but he will eventually.

I have more to post soon, but I better be going to do whatever I can do while the baby sleeps!

Giveaway Monday!

It's giveaway monday! And I'm listening to some Black Eyed Peas to get the day going :o)
This blog that I follow, www.thriftyandchicmom.com, does awesome giveaways on mondays. For the first time I'm participating in her LIVE giveaways. Basically you subscribe to her on twitter and rsvp for the party, then start tweeting during the alloted time. She then uses a number generator to pick numbers and then winners!
This is what I'm tweeting for today...

• $25 Buca di Beppo gift card
• School Years: A Family Keepsake of School Memories 
• Andrea’s Beau retro bead green adjustable headband 
• Boon Peep Wall-Mounted Mobile 
• Boon Fli Dragonfly Mobile
• Britax Chaperone Infant Car Seat, Moonstone 

If you click on any of those links, you'll go to amazon and be able to see pictures and descriptions. I'm really hoping for anything! But the Britax carseat would be amazing. Its normally $230!!!! And its not like we are expecting child #2, because we ARE NOT. But I'd love this amazingly safe carseat for when we do!

I'll let you know if I win :o)