Monday, July 20, 2009

Heartburn & the rest of my life

I'm instituting, effective immediately, a no eating policy after 8PM in efforts of minimizing my heartburn suffering. I'm already taking 2 Pepcid AC per day, sleeping on pillows and the like. The next step, if this doesn't work, will be changing my diet...but I really don't know how effective that will be given that anything and everything seems to make it flare up. I'd love to be able to sleep. 3 hours a night is NOT enough!

On the up side, my belly is getting bigger and cuter by the minute :) I haven't been good about snapping monthly shots like with Liam (hey, I've got a toddler to chase around!) but a friend did take this for me while we were at the Chicago Botanic Gardens this past weekend. I {heart} pretty flowers :)

KO_Photowalk2009-14

:::::::::::: HOUSE UPDATE ::::::::::::

I feel like we are officially home. Liam and I have somewhat of a weekly routine, which feels nice! Most all boxes up here are unpacked, and those that are downstairs are probably going to be down there for good. The garage is nice and tidy, and can fit Liam's toys and both of our cars :) The parade of contractors has finally slowed down, as most major projects have either been completed or are damn near close and no longer interfere with daily life. I feel like we've moved from the unpacking & survival phase of moving on to the organization and optimization phase. After that is completed (hopefully by time Baby #2 makes his / her arrival) we shall move on to the decorating & beautifying phase, which will most likely continue through 2010. It feels good.

We've added bird feeders to the backyard. I've never been so excited for something so small! We've got a couple pairs of adorable goldfinches that visit (they make me happy because they eat upside down...and they are yellow!), and we added another feeder hoping to attract a beautiful cardinal that visits our trees quite regularly....but he hasn't gotten close yet. We have gotten some chickadees and brown finches with red heads, though. They're noisy and cute and I love them!

:::::::::::: LIAM UPDATE ::::::::::::

Liam seems to be settled in and liking his new digs as well. We play in the backyard all the time, and he loves pushing his car and lawnmower around in the driveway (usually while I'm drawing with sidewalk chalk). I think the cutest part is when he we go in for the evening, he pushes and parks his car in the garage and tells it "night night". He's also getting much better at putting his toys away before bedtime...which is very nice :)

Here's a lawnmowing shot :)
Backyard-5

Oh, the new funny expression for him is "DOH!" whenever he drops something. Guess where he got that from (hint: not me). I also taught him to come running to me for a kiss whenever he gets an owie (hey, I needed more excuses to give him smootchies!). He's still loving books and reading, and trains and cars too. We're also taking a gymnastics class (have I mentioned that before? Not sure...). This class has been great not just as an energy expunger, but also at teaching him how to follow directions and wait his turn...two things he's not very good at yet, but is really starting to grasp the concept of simply because of the class. And he looks so cute running around in short shorts and swinging on the bars :)

LiamGymnastics-7
LiamGymnastics-18

I hope we can continue some form of this type of class after this one ends...but it won't be with Chicago Park District (since we're no longer residents....bastards!).

His vocabulary and sentence building skills are EXPLODING too! Tonight even, he said "Nigh nigh mom-meee"(Night Night Mommy) as I left his room (and also nigh nigh da-dee - as Pat just told me). Other new expressions are "Ah no hon-kneee" (I know Honey) and "*insert color here* car" - oh yeah, his colors are rockin' the house. Buu, Wred, yeh-yow, oornge, reen, white, blak, pur-poh, pink. Pat says he's a little Minah Bird....basically repeating everything we say (usually when we don't expect it!).

With the good comes the bad...tantrums are starting as well. We've tried a couple different methods of discipline, but alas, it seems that time-outs are most effective. Why is it that the things you say are dumb and that you're never going to do always end up in your life anyway?? I didn't think we were time out people...but it seems to work.

Aside from the tantrums and general pain in the ass-yness, I'm totally loving this stage of his development!

1 comment:

Magical Me said...

Coming from a semi-professional babysitter, I think time-outs work and they are not cruel. Ours were in a chair in the corner of the kitchen where we had to face the wall and listen to the other kids play. We weren't spanked . . . although Nikki probably should have been! :)