Happy Birthday!

Happy 33rd B-day Buddy!!

This is what happens when I turn my back while letting Curtis stir the cake batter.

Poor Little Monkey

Curtis burned his hand pretty badly the other day on the glass front of a gas fireplace. It blistered pretty quickly and he just cried and cried. However, once we got home I applied some burn gel and gave him some Motrin. Within an hour or so he was pretty much back to normal. Later in the afternoon he accidentally popped his blister, for which I was grateful, and he didn't even cry. In the days since he has been using the hand and it seems to be healing nicely. We've been keeping a glove on his hand in order to keep the neosporin and band-aid on it. In addition to the big blister at the base of his fingers there are also some little ones on his finger tips. :(

The beginning of the big blister. It actually got bigger before Curtis popped it. (Friday morning)

The healing blister (Monday morning)

Mom Moment

I had total mom moment this morning. But let's start with last night. I got hit with a bit of a stomach bug late yesterday afternoon and didn't feel well at all last night. And since it always seems to be that when I have a rough night Curtis wants to get up early the next day he was jabbering at 7 this morning. (I know it's not early, but he usually gets up at 8). Travis went to go rock him back to sleep when I hear him say that I'm not the only one who is sick. Yep, Curtis puked in his bed and then slept in it! The front of his pj's was soaked and the had regurgitated mac and cheese stuck in his ear like a big ear plug. Gross, I know. I also learned that he doesn't chew his raisins b/c they came back up in the form of grapes. Thankfully Curtis loves baths and was happy to get in the tub. Although, he didn't enjoy getting all of the crusty nastiness scrubbed off his face. Lucky for me I felt better this morning and was able to get Curtis cleaned up and washed his bedding. I know it's a bit gross, but I felt that it was worthy of sharing. :)

Wow, It's Been a Month!

So sorry for not updating lately. I just never seem to get around to it. That's the story of my life with journal writing. Maybe if I felt more eloquent with words I'd update more, but maybe not.

Anyhow, we are all alive and well. :) Curtis learns something new everyday! He's about 16.5 months old now and walks 95% of the time. If he's in a hurry he will crawl b/c it's faster than walking. Thankfully he is not running!...yet. He jabbers all of the time. He loves saying the same thing over and over. Most of the time it sounds like puppy or daddy, but yesterday it sounded like mommy! Yeah!! He has said dad for months, but couldn't bother saying mom. Curtis loves his dad! It's bad news if Curtis knows that Travis is leaving and not taking him with him. Curtis cries and cries. He eventually gets over it if you distract him, but he would much rather be with his dad. He is doing great with his signing. I should do more with him, but I don't. Most of his signs come from his cheek, but his sign for help is the best! He does the sign to get a trucker to honk. Yep, and he does it with such vigor. The sign for help has been a LIFE SAVER! It has cut down on 90% of his screaming!! Now he signs for help instead of screaming. :)

His other fun thing lately is to be the center of attention and to be a goof ball. He loves to put on a show for people. He scrunches up his face and makes this cheesy grin and does a fake laugh. It's super funny and so everyone laughs and he laughs back thinking he's something special. It's a crackup.

I just had my 26th birthday and I got to celebrate all week! Cake with family, dinner with friends, dinner with Travis and Curtis, a cake from Travis and a bike!! Travis is so good to me. :) I also went cross country skiing for the first time. It was my first time on skis ever and boy was it an adventure. A friend invited me and a few other friends on a ski weekend. It was good bonding, but let me just say that skiing is a full body workout and you should not learn to ski on hills, even little ones. I have never fallen down so much in my life and have never been so sore. I'm pretty sure that I used/injured every muscle in my body. Despite all of the falling, I would be willing to try it again. It was a good time with friends. :)

Travis is working away. He has a birthday at the end of the month and is just trucking along. School, FFA, scouts, farming and family keep him pretty busy.

Well, that's the latest on us. Hopefully I will update again soon and share some video, or at least pictures of the little monkey.

Mt. Everest

The inevitable has happened. Curtis has conquered Mount Everest. Now what is his Mount Everest? It would be the toy storage bins that came down from his room a few months ago. We bout them at IKEA before he was born and they have been up in his room since. But since he never plays in his room and most of his toys are downstairs I decided to bring the storage bin downstairs to store all of his toys. I knew at the time that eventually our little climber would be big enough to climb on it. I was hoping it wouldn't be so soon.

The other day I was in the kitchen making dinner when I hear Curtis laughing. I look up and this is what I see:

Let me tell you. He was pretty proud of himself. Look at that big cheesy grin! I on the other hand was not so happy. Shortly after taking this picture he knocked the wooden animals off the ledge and broke the wheels off. No amount of disciple would keep him off of his new found mountain.

Since this first incident I have removed everything from the ledge. I have also given up trying to keep him off of it. He just loves it and nothing will keep him off. In fact this morning after he was done eating his breakfast he crawled over and climbed up on the second step. And there he stayed for quite some time. It was nice to not have him underfoot while I cleaned up the kitchen and made muffins.

I do love this boy and love his ambition and drive and hope that it will take him great places in life.

Update

I realized the other day that it has been a while since I posted anything. Mostly it's because life has been the same old, same old. But hey, I'd rather have that then a super crazy life. So here's just a little update.

New years eve was spent having a murder mystery lunch with friends. That was fun. I turned out to be the murder, kind of. It was really my twin sister! Crazy. We then had a quiet evening at home playing games with Travis's aunt and uncle. I love playing games with them! I was a stick in the mud and turned in about 11pm.

Curtis is teething big time! He has one molar and working on a second and has a new tooth on the bottom in front. The poor kid had the first molar come through without any motrin b/c I didn't know he was teething. I felt bad when I saw it. However, the new tooth explained the runny nose, coughing, and having a hard time sleeping the whole week before.

Oh, I guess some other big news is that I have started working as a Jewelry consultant. I know it may seem odd to those of you who know me and know that I'm not much of a jewelry person, but it's pretty fun. I get to have girls night out and talk fashion. I get to give away free jewelry to my hostesses and show their friends how to jazz up their wardrobe. :)

Travis is working hard teaching, advising FFA and working as the scout master.

Well, there is your update of us. Nothing too exciting, but nothing too upsetting either. :)

Christmas

I previously wrote about how I had a hard time getting into Christmas and how I miss my family. I have also been thinking about how I get to enjoy Christmas with a different perspective. It's no longer about me, but about my son. While he is still too young to grasp the concept, it was still fun to see him get exited about getting new things and getting to tear paper. I'm sure as Curtis gets older and our family grows I will learn to love this new way of experiencing Christmas.

Today was a low key day in my book. We got up about 8, showered and then got Curtis up and took him downstairs to see his dump truck that "Santa" had brought him.

We then had our traditional cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then opened the rest of our presents. It was fun to see Travis help Curtis tear the paper and open the presents. It is also interesting to see how I have become less selfish since becoming a parent. I suppose that is the way it should be, but I know that it doesn't always happen. Anyhow, after spending time at home we headed to Travis's parent's for dinner, gift exchanging and quality time with extended family. It was a really nice day. Curtis continued to climb on everything and we got a nice family picture! It was great to spend time together.