Thinking Chair

Jordan was not even one year old when he started watching Blue's Clues. I use to plant him in his swing in front of the TV, in order to get my housework done. And if Steve, or what I know as the dorky cute guy, and the blue puppy, which I thought was a boy dog until recently, would come on and Jordan would get that look on his face. It was then that Blue became another familiar face around our house. We had about 3 different stuffed dogs, 4 outfits resembling the dorky cute guy in the green stripped shirt, a play set containing all the characters from the show and so many books I lost count. And let me just say that Jordan had quite the 'blue' face after eating his cake on his first birthday.

As much as I even enjoyed Blue's Clues, I figured that one day he would grow out of it. I always thought that most kids did. I was always under the impression that kids went through stages and did their rounds of cartoon characters.

This past Christmas was our most enjoyable so far with Jordan. It was the first year we could really have fun with the whole Santa thing. So, it became apparent that Jordan had not grown out of Blue's Clues, when all he asked Santa for was a 'Thinking Chair.' Which for those who have never seen the show is a red chair that Steve sits in to figure out Blue's Clues. It's also the chair that Steve sits in to get the mail. It's a huge part of the show in other words and Jordan pretty much told Santa that he just had to have one. So 'Santa' began searching for a thinking chair. $100 was the cheapest Santa could find one for, and Santa's budget was a little slim this year, so he held off. As Christmas got closer and still no thinking chair available in our price range Santa started feeling a little worried. How could he let a good little boy down, but unfortunately that had to be the case. He tried to make it up to him by getting him a Handy Dandy Notebook, but the look on Jordan's face told that it just wasn't the same.

Christmas has come and gone, but the search for the right priced thinking chair continued. And...thanks to Darric's new favorite site (eBay) the now very popular thinking chair arrived last Wednesday.

I have never seen Jordan so excited. Wow, what a little red chair can do to a kid. He sits in it in the living room, in his room, and he'd bring it to potty with him if I let him, and I'm surprised he doesn't want to sleep in it.

So, although it was smaller than I had thought it was going to be and I still think we paid a little too much for a foam chair, what we paid for was the joy that our son got out of it and it was well worth it.

Sunday Ramblings

So far throughout this pregnancy I've often wanted to step back in time to what things were like when I was this far along with Jordan. It's funny how soon we forget things, and although I can't exactly remember I do believe that things this time around are a bit different. It may have something to do with the fact that I didn't have a toddler taking up all my time last time. As far as the way my body feels, I don't remember feeling this fat rather than just pregnant, I know I could make it up past 10:00 at night, I never once had that 'Oh my gosh, I think I just...' rush to the bathroom moment, and there's no way I got this upset over the stupidest things like last week I forgot to bring Jordan's sneakers to school, I was still crying about it last night. And mostly just because of the way my moods are I just can't wait for this pregnancy to be over with. Don't get me wrong, I love being pregnant, my body really does handle it well what with no morning sickness, no water retention (so far), and the only time I really feel pregnant is when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and think "was that a cow passing by or....oh wait it's me" or when I out of the blue feel a tiny foot jab me in the side.

It's only been about 2 weeks that I've been really able to feel the kicks, before it was just little flutters. And it's at the point now that only I can feel them, I can't wait for Jordan to be able feel his little sibling getting his first jabs at him. Feeling the baby move have been some of my up moments of my day lately. I always have this sudden urge to yell out 'I just got kicked by the baby in my belly' but think twice when I know I'll get strange looks by others in the grocery store.

Right now we're in the early stages of adding an addition to the house. Right now we have a 3 bedroom ranch and one of those bedrooms is used as, what I like to call, Darric's love me room. It's where his guns, deer heads, shot glasses and yeah all his boy stuff is. It's also considered the junk room because whenever I don't know where to put something, it gets shoved in there. There's even a twin bed in there, but you'd never know it because it's completely covered with junk that I'd like to get rid of in a yard sale some day. So, when we found out that we were expecting we knew we had to make a place for another kid. We at first toyed with the idea of finishing the basement, but Darric was concerned with his precious deer heads getting musty. The only other option was to add on. So, our plan now is to have a combined mud room/family room/office, complete with cathedral ceilings as we also have a giant Moose head on the way. The thing I'm most excited about though is that I now can have my washer and dryer upstairs and I won't have to trudge down to the cellar and freeze my ass off every night. Can I get an Amen on that one. The project is on hold at the moment as things are a little covered in snow right now.

So, I guess you could say we're probably a little more busy/stressed this time around. I just remember though that I did have a private online journal while pregnant with Jordan, I printed it out and I think it's in his baby book, I'll have to take a peek later. Stay tuned for that.

Losing my cool

Growing up there were a lot of times that my father and I butted heads, being a teenager I didn't agree with a lot of his rules. I distinctly remember a time when he made me mad that I threw something precious of his (case of beer) out the back door and into the snowbank, he then turned around and threw my stereo out the back door and into the snowbank. Being the father, he usually won the battles. Anyone who knows my dad knows that he's got a bit of a temper, and although I'm sure he doesn't lose it as much as he use to, I'm sure that vein in the side of his head still makes an appearance now and then.

Recently, now being the parent of a toddler, I've learned that one thing that I've got from my father, besides the vein in the side of my head, is somewhat of a temper. And lately Mr. Jordan has been testing that temper and knowing when to plug his ears as I yell at him. And poor Darric is slowly learning more and more about my temper, especially when he forgets to call me all day and in fact he forgot his cell phone at home and he's way down at then other end of the state and hello did you forget that I'm carrying your child, oops, there goes your phone out in the snowbank.

Now, I would never, ever, ever hurt my child or my husband out of anger. I'm more of a throw things out the back door kind of girl rather then smack my hand against something, but if you were to ask me if there was one thing I could change about myself it would be to have more patience with the men in my life. Every time I yell at one of them, rather it be for not eating their supper, or not calling me all day, or just simply blocking me out(which both of them do wouldn't ya know), and I get that look from them like they're looking at grizzly bear roaring at their pray, I immediately want to hit the Ctrl-Z key and replay the whole situation. But I think what keeps me doing it is because I know I'm bringing them to realization. I bet Darric won't be forgetting to call me for awhile huh. I do worry that I'm making the wrong impression for Jordan though. I don't want him to be that kid that flips out when he doesn't get his way, even though that's a lot of kids rather they have moms like me or not. I also don't want to be that Mom that has her kids walk all over her.

I try to watch other moms and how they handle their kids and I also pay close attention to Jordan's teacher and how she handles 10 kids all at once and I think the key is to raise your voice every once in a great while, just to remind them who's in charge, but if it gets too regular then the flip out doesn't seem so flippy, (if that makes any sense at all.)
And also to remind myself that throwing things out in the snow only gives you broken electronics.

Guess Who's Back? Back Again?

Over the past 2 weeks I've been going over different posts in my head, then by the time I sit down at the computer, or by the time Darric gives up the computer, I can't seem to put the words together or I just plain get too tired. But you'll be happy to know that one of my New Year Resolutions is to post at least once a week. We'll see how that goes.

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Let me start by saying we had a mighty fine Christmas. Although, I will have to admit that it is becoming my not-so-favorite holiday. It just doesn't seem right to have to rush around, stress out, feel guilty, and everything else over one of the most important holidays. This year we decided we were going to cut back, try not to spend as much and not buy for as many as well, in other words we cut out the neighbors. Oh my gosh, but the guilt I felt when those neighbors brought over gifts for us and I had nothing to give them. They must think we're terrible neighbors now, they'll probably egg our house or something, or what if they tee-pee our house?

What we did cut back on on others, Jordan made up for and although Santa struck out on the only think he asked for, a Blues Clues Thinking Chair, he seemed pretty happy at the end of the day with his Handy Dandy Notebook, Buzz Lightyear, Racetrack, VSmile, Movies, and all the other toys that has kept him entertained over the past week. Wow, I never realize how easy it is to spoil a kid.

Next year I plan to be a little more smart and take a couple of days before Christmas off in order to get it all done, especially since next year we'll have two kids to buy for. Although, these days off have been quite relaxing, and my house has stayed clean for a week straight, that's a first. Jordan has also enjoyed sleeping in 'til 8:30 and lounging around in his p.j.'s throughout the afternoon. We also did some shopping, baking and we had 'too much fun' at the Maine Discovery Museum.

And one thing I do have to admit to that I did way to much of on my vacation was....eat food. And no I haven't had any weird cravings yet, unless you call whatever is put in front of me a craving. Especially when it's my mother in law's peanut butter fudge. Mmmmmm!

I do have a question though? Did you ever crave the stuff that you're not suppose to have while pregnant? Like coffee, and I know it would probably be fine for me to have a small cup here or there, but I don't want to get myself in the habit, so instead I just sip Darric's. And can I just say that the cheap price on my all time favorite food, lobster, is not helping me not crave that.

Now I know that usually you start showing sooner with your second pregnancy, but I can't tell if I should be calling this my baby bump or my fudge bump, whattya think?

Oh and before I forget...Happy New Year!