Standing Around

Although still visibly sick, Indiana has been more active in the last couple of days. He has been standing on his own, without holding on to anything, as well as taking two or three tentative steps unassisted.

This is such an exciting time for us. He is very much on the verge of real toddler-hood. I had been calling him a mobile baby because he was only crawling and cruising, but I am afraid that euphemism is soon to be lost by the wayside!

(last bit... Notice the sweet Old Navy baby cargos, they have several zippered real pockets and are lined with full length attached long johns, we love them! Warm and toasty, stylish, and less than fifteen bucks! Old Navy has so most excellent baby and toddler clothing and their clearance racks are always something to swear by!)

Steadily Improving

We are improving everyday!

Yesterday he ate a whole chicken nugget (ok chicken star... it was carl's jr. after all) and a handful of french fries, as well as a whole cup of fruit and a toast triangle! It is great that he is getting his appetite back.

We are also fortunate that he loves medicine. He takes it with no fight, usually stopping what he is doing to take it. Perhaps he thinks it is food!

ghirardelli has ruined me

The evilness of Indiana's Aunt Moo!

Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark!

Yummy, but not conducive of the weight loss I plan for next year... yeah, yeah, I am ONE with the new year's resolution.

Making the Grade

I have few extraneous pictures running around, heck, I have thousands. Here are a few fairly recent ones that haven't, for whatever reason, made the grade for other postings. Indiana is almost better and I promise new pictures soon! In the mean time, enjoy this montage oh my two incredibly handsome, devilishly charming, thoroughly spoiled, totally loved sons.

I am not a "religious" person. I thank God, everyday, for the two wonderful souls he gave over to my care.

Harrison Ford

how Jedi are you?:: by lawrie malen

Is it really any wonder? A month or more ago we took a quiz for which action hero we were... You guessed it Indiana Jones. Naming our son as we did, and my preference for Harrison Ford movies, and quiz results... Some time soon my husband might begin to wonder if it is really Val Kilmer I prefer!?!

Sick Boy

Indiana convinced me to post a sick picture. Sure, he looks all happiness, sunshine, and light here, but don't let him fool you! He is having a tough time of it. You can see that his left eye is a little funky, and hopefully I had wiped his nose before the picture... It does look suspiciously shiny under there to me.

On top of being sick, I noticed that he got his second tooth through, too. And of course he is suffering the effects of antibiotics. So, basically he's just a runny, drooly, smelly, ill-tempered monster. Except for the diapers, he could be a teenager!

Christmas Pictures

Since Indy is sick, with a yucky eye, I wont be posting new pictures of him for a few days (I think I mentioned this). Instead, here are a few from our Christmas celebration...

Indy received some excellent gifts, however the "thank you" cards are a bit delayed due to his illness. His quarantine effects me similarly. He can't go out to the store with me. I don't want to expose anyone else to his illness by having them baby-sit. I just DON'T trust Chris to pick out thank you cards that don't suck. Cards aren't really a man thing (although when he buys cards for me they usually are perfect and designed to make me cry.)

A big "THANK YOU!" to all of you who have expressed your concern about Indy's health. He is getting steadily better, I can already see improvement with just the first three doses of his antibiotic. Seventeen more doses to go.

The empire (illness) strikes back

Indiana had a cold a few days ago, I may have mentioned it. He has gotten worse. Bad enough that I did the "freaked out mom" thing and called Chris home from work to go to the ER:

1) Indiana has a cold.
2) Indiana has an ear infection in both ears as a complication from the cold.
3) Indiana is running a fever due to the ear infections.
4) Indiana has caught pink eye from the little boy upstairs.
5) Indiana will be taking antibiotics and tylenol for the next ten days.
6) Indiana is in quarantine for the next 72 hours (from everyone but me).

His eye looks terrible so I wont be putting up any new pictures until it starts to improve (doc said about 3 days for that).

I have to call our apartment managers and tell them that we may have infected their daughter. Chris gets to go back to work and tell his boss's son that we may have infected their baby as well. I get to go upstairs and do serious bodily harm to the upstairs neighbor who shared it with us.

Can You See Me, Now?

One of the nice things about little ones on holidays? They don't mind getting lots of clothes in their packages! This is just one of the many adorable outfits he got. (This picture was taken with his blankets as a background in his crib... Not posed.)

Our Two Christmas Miracles:

There are a few people in my life whom I love more than most.

The two pictured here I love more than any.

Today, being Christmas Day, I want to take this opportunity to express my love to all of our family; the parents, and grandparents, in laws, out laws, steps, halves, children, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, adoptees, everyone! This year I also want to give a special holiday hug to my best friend and her family. Melody, we love you (you and your folks and your daughter and your handsome husband the adoptees, just without the paperwork)! The first holiday without him will be the hardest, but he is here with all of us in spirit.

Tag, I am IT!

ok, here it is, im exhausted and will post normally again, tomorrow.


So, there I was, innocently reading comments and what do I find?? TAG!! (actually I am sort of flattered since it is the first time someone tagged me for anything!) Erin, better know as the diaper dame over at The Diaper Pail thought of me!

This is the plan:
Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot.

1. Queen of Spain
2. Becky
3. Ms. Mama
4. The Diaper Pail
5. the State of Indiana

(ta da, like so!)

Then select five people to tag: (this bit is harder...)
Jessica / Zachary
Hasan
the Leopard
Vicki (IF she ever blogs again)
Faira

(Yeah, that was sort of hard actually)

Now the Questions:

Q)What were you doing 10 years ago?
A)Ten years ago I was 21, so most of that year is fuzzy. I was running around stupid, mostly drinking a lot of alcohol and flirting with guys. I was making a lot of new friends. A few of them I am still friends with now. Still others I recognize in a tavern now and again. Then there are some who, even now, will walk up to me in the local grocery as if I am their best friend, carry on a five minute conversation, and walk away without me ever having a clue as to whom they might be! My number one son was 3 years old, and sadly his dad and I had been divorced for about a year.

Q)What were you going 1 year ago ?
A) One year ago, I was expecting my number 2 son. I was hugely pregnant and trying to figure out how we were going to get thru the holidays. My husband was still working at the newspaper, and he wasn't actually my husband yet.

Five snacks you enjoy:
chocolate covered cherries
nachos
pringles
granny smith apples
French fries

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics :
Faith (George Michael)
Laurie (dickey lee)
Band on the Run (Wings)
When I'm gone (three doors down)
Those were the days (Mary Hopkins)

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire :
buy my mom a BIG new house
college funds for both of my sons
buy myself a house
pay off all of our debt (we don't owe much but be nice to owe nothing)
support a local charity, although I don't know which one.

Five bad habits:
bite my nails
coca-cola
I go barefoot everywhere
I leave my wet towel on the bathroom floor overnight
I brag about my children A LOT

Five things you like doing:
bragging about my children
gossiping with my neighbors
playing with my sons
watching Gilmore girls on the telly
talking on the phone (to anyone!)

Five things you would never wear, buy or get new again:
parachute pants (wear)
beta-max tapes (buy/get new)
gold earrings (buy/wear... I am allergic)
thong underwear (wear/buy... I got TOO fat!)
banana clip (remember those? Implements of hair torture! Never again!!)

Five favorite toys:
computer (obviously)
ps2 (for my husband... It frees up the 'puter for me!)
anything on my bookcase
atv (although I no longer own one)
ski boat (ditto on the not owning from above)

445AM

It is almost 5 in the morning. We have not slept. Indiana slept, but his daddy and I are so excited to be having Christmas this morning (yeah, we know its Christmas eve, but work schedules make us do it early) that neither of us have been able to sleep.

Happy Christmas to those of my readers who celebrate it!

The Night Before Christmas (eve)

Since we are doing Christmas the day before Christmas, this is our Christmas eve:If he looks like this the night before... Imagine what he will look like in the morning when we actually open all those gifts! Lots of wrap, a few bows, some ribbon, and a little cookie smeared on his cheeks. Life is good.

Who's That Knocking at our door!?!

An hour ago there was a quiet knock at the door. One of our neighbors, an elderly woman whom we admire, said "honey, there is someone here to see Indy, he knocked on my door by mistake". Indiana hears the neighbors voice and crawls to the door, making as much noise at our feet as he possibly can. Who do we see sitting in our lawn chair on our porch? SANTA! Come to make a house call!!

Our neighbor works with a lot of other elderly people, as well as mentally challenged folks. This particular Santa is a friend of hers, who is"retarded". Santa was showing off his new costume for our neighbor while on his way to a Christmas party for Mentally and Physically Challenged children. Indiana, although not challenged in that way, was his first "visit-ee". Indiana sat happily on his lap and pulled at his beard, and we are thrilled to have gotten a home visit from a very special Santa Claus.

Indiana's Favorite Person!

Indy has lots of people in his life that he loves, and who love him. He recognizes lots of people on sight, but some special ones he even recognizes by sound! Yesterday, I took Indy over to play with Cheyenne (our apartment manager's little girl). While we were there, Grandma Donkey (who also lives in our apartment building) comes to the managers door on an unrelated matter. She did not know we were visiting. Indiana was in a position so that he could not see the door, but he could hear her voice. He dropped the toys he was chewing, and crawled at warp factor 10 across their living room to get to her. Where he broke into a big grin, grabbed her pant legs, hauled himself to standing and howled to be picked up! His favorite person remains, as with most babies, himself. He can look at, drool on, and talk to himself for HOURS. If it wasn't for mirrors, I would not get any housework done, ever.

Brother's Present is YUMMY!

Christmas is starting to taste pretty good around here! Jessica (my god daughter) came by bearing gifts for Indy. So he got to eat them (err, I mean open them)! Click on her name to visit her blog, see her handsome son, and of course wish them a Merry Christmas!

We will be opening gifts on Christmas eve, so while Indy has only 2 days to wait, the rest of you have to wait:

3 MORE DAYS!

(sorry to tease ya like that, Ducky, that isn't your gift he is eating!)

Cookie

Indiana, now that he has a tooth, is getting a more varied diet. Today he got his first chocolate chip cookie. He gnawed through about 2/3 of the cookie before grinding the rest into the carpet.

I have been tagged by The Diaper Dame to do a meme. I PROMISE I will get to it, but I wont post it for a day or two, as we are doing all the holiday anticipation things for the next few days. That does, however, give me a couple days to come up with 5 people to TAG. Be nice to me... Or it might be you. **

**edit/update: i have finished the meme, and saved it as a draft to post in a few days... let the suspense mount!

Special Gift

This year we will be giving each other many gifts, but none so special as each other.

Last night, as I sat at the computer, I heard this rustling, shuffling, crinkly sound. I raise my head like a prairie dog coming up out of its hole, and listen closely. rustle rustle rustle. I look around for a likely culprit; knowing that my husband is at work, and currently our only pets are a few tank-fuls of fish. rustle rustle rustle. Indy is no where in sight. rustle rustle rustle. I had forgotten to put the little stool back between the couch and wall and SOMEONE had crawled back there and was chomping on a package. He had a bow on the side of his head, and some ribbon wrapped around his leg.

I think Indiana is ready for Christmas.

Got my new hat on!

So, Indiana is learning to (gasp) SHARE. His first attempt at sharing has been quite successful! If only it hadn't been his cold germs that he decided to share with me, I would probably be a little prouder of the achievement! Both of us have the "Christmas Sniffles". I do not think that I have celebrated a single Christmas when I wasn't suffering from some sort of cold or worse. Perhaps I shared it with him. (Sorry 'bout that Indy.)

Today, we went up to Salem (that's the capitol of Oregon, for those of you who don't know... It is also the dwelling place of one of my favorite bloggers: Old Hoss). We got in a little last minute shopping! We got a video game for the "whole family". Indy got some clothing-type gifts. (At this age he is just thrilled about the wrapping paper, so I don't feel bad about loading him up on clothes)

Oh, and we got this hat. It has matching gloves. He wont wear the gloves. I LIKE this hat!

The telly is off; the music is on. The portable, waterless vaporizer is plugged in and turned on to HIGH! We are ready to settle in for a long, quiet evening of playing with toys on the floor until exhaustion overtakes Indy and we can go to bed!

Sleep Disturbances

Indiana was supposed to be asleep when I crept into his room this morning. Instead, I found him gurgling to himself as he fondles this toy and that. He squealed out a cheer when he saw me, and both pudgy little arms shot up into the air, in the universal "pick me up" sign. He has not been sleeping well of late, which means neither have I.

So, I am a little grouchy and in need of a serious snooze. For my friends and family it means I have been rather short with everyone and should probably apologize for my less than pleasant attitude.

What this means for my blog friends is that I wont be visiting tonight.

I am going to bed.