the woes of teething

I used to think that when people said their kids were teething that it was just an excuse parents used to justify any behavior they didn't like in their child. Why is your child suddenly waking up 3 times each night? They are teething. Why do they have a runny nose and are so dang grumpy? They are teething.

Bologne. It's just an excuse. Or so I thought. And why did I think this? I had two boys, 18 months apart, who cut teeth and I didn't notice any change in behavior, sleeping, eating, etc.

Granted, I do think that the "teething" card is WAY overused, but now that I have a baby who is teething and making my life miserable (okay, I'm exhagerating a little), I finally get it, and I'm taking back any thoughts I had before!

When we left for the cruise, Jane had two bottom teeth. When we got home, she had cut one tooth and was close to cutting another. I get the term "cut" now. It hurts! She was so sad! She kept our babysitter up all night. When we got home, she had several cranky days and early mornings, up a few times at night, and then sure enough, the other one came through.

I got a break for about a week and a half when she was my normal, happy baby. Then, here we go again. This week has brought to me: a baby who is up at 5:45am crying, won't eat anything but smoothies with a straw, yogart, oranges, blueberries, and some milk. Seriously folks, that is IT. She won't eat. She refuses everything. She napped today for 45 minutes before waking up screaming. She is clingy and just cries in the middle of the day for no reason whether I'm holding her or not.

The result: 2 more bottom teeth in 4 days.

Conclusion: teething stinks! And I'm SO sorry for anyone going through it!

My happiest time of the day? See below:
ps. look at her fingernails. after watching sally get hers painted, she let lizzy paint hers! her first time. ohhhhh, my baby girl!

too smart

Yesterday Jane pulled out the blender base (thug) dragged it around the bar to where our outlet is, got the plug, and tried to plug it in.

She loves to blow her nose. She grabs tissue after tissue and "blows" her nose. She is obsessed with toothpaste and toothbrushes. Tom caught her eating toothpaste yesterday. Nice.

She has TONS of words. I swear, she's talking so much more than my boys ever did at 15 months. She says "mama" "dada" "night-night" "nana" (banana), "nose", "eyes", "teeth", "book", and I know there are at least a dozen others. She just talks all the time! And she cracks me up when she plays with the boys. She LOVES to pay legos! When the boys are in playing, she goes and "builds" things with them. It is so funny!

OK, so as I'm reading this post, I realize I'm pretty silly. Every mom thinks her child is just so smart and above average. I am just her biggest fan right now and although she tears my house apart and makes me nuts at times, she is just so cute and I couldn't live without her!

On another note, the boys are finally getting over being sick and I will say, they are pretty darn fun right now too. They do punch each other sometimes and it makes me totally crazy, but they really are darling and I'm just loving the 7 going on 8 stage especially.

Here is a picture of Jane playing with Cameron this morning. She just tries to copy everything he does!

tv.

I'm obsessed right now with tv. I know, it's horrible! I tape my favorite shows and then Monday through Thursday, 9:00 at night, my date with the television. It's my outlet. I love it. (and Tom joins me a few nights...he's hooked too!)

*The Bachelor...so good this season! Who's he going to choose? And Deanna's coming back! Ahhh!
*The Biggest Loser. ..Oh my gosh, so inspirational, as always! but i get so mad when they have immunity and cheat! like she really gained 2 pounds this week! bob put her up to it, i know it!
*The Office...never disappoints!
*American Idol...I'm totally loving this season! I never really get into it this early but I'm totally hooked. Loved hollywood week!
*Gray's anatomy...can't wait to see what happens this week!
*SURVIVOR...starts tonight!

See, not too much, but enough to say I'm a reality TV Junkie!
I'm not the only one, right?

oh, and i'm feeling totally better. thank goodness...mom's should never get sick!

one more post and i'm done for the day.
28 new patient calls today. TODAY!!!
i know it won't be like this forever, but even though i'm sick, i'm happy today.

Oh how she makes my heart melt. I love this little girl!
If I leave the dishwasher open, she is my little "helper"! Lucky for me, this time it was clean.

Valentines

Braden and I are writing out his valentines for his party this week. As I'm going through his class list I have to laugh. When I named Braden, I had not heard of any others. I found his name on the internet on some list of 1000 boy names and as soon as I read it, it stuck.
In his class there is:
Aiden
Braden B
Braden D
Caden
Jayden (and there is a Jade in the class)
also in his class are Eli, Ella, Ellie, Kellie.
Braden's poor teacher.

Favorite things

I was thinking since I'm not leaving the house lately (due to the fact that I'm coughing, sneezing, can't breath out my nose, and basically feel like cutting off my head) I'd post some of our favorite things lately...

Tom: a ringing phone at the office! non-flouridated water of North Idaho. a day off (with the exception of the cruise, the guy has worked like a dog lately. 4 days at our office, then 2 in Omak where he does hospital cases.)

Kim: The Office-episode after the superbowl. If you didn't see it, go to NBC.COM and watch it. Even if you aren't a follower, you will be after this episode. It is one of the best episodes I've ever seen of any show. I know, I know, that is a big thing to say, but it's true. SO FUNNY! You know it's good when you are watching by yourself, on the computer in your kitchen, and you are busting up laughing!

Jane: Jane is obsessed with our play kitchen food lately. It will entertain her for at least 20-30 minutes (which is a long time for a 1-year-old). When we go to a home with a play kitchen, she is even more in heaven! Why didn't I get her one for Christmas? I'm kicking myself. Costco had the cutest ones and I just thought she'd be more into it next year. Well, she's amazing me. She's so smart.
Tom starts popping the popcorn and she goes into the cupboard, gets the bowl he always uses for it, and hands it to him.
If you are on the toilet, she'll rip off tiny pieces of toilet paper and hand it to you.
Today Braden spilled cereal & milk on the floor and she goes to our cupboard, gets a rag, and comes and starts cleaning it up.
She is just getting her top teeth. Cut one last week and the other is coming soon. 15 months! Tom did 6 crowns on a 16 month old in the hospital on Friday. Crazy.

Braden: vacation days and holidays. It just doesn't go away. The "I don't want to go to school today". Once he is there, he likes it, does well, has friends, etc. But every morning I still have to deal with a grumpy boy who wants to sleep in and stay home and play! This boy looks forward to holidays! Oh, there is one exception... THURSDAYS! Oh blessed thursdays! Thursday is Art. No problems that day.

Cameron: Friends and Computer games. Cameron is getting social. He even rode the bus home with a friend the other day. He wants to play with friends every day of the week. And if he doesn't get friends, he comes home and wants to play computer games. I think this is why I've not gotten a Wii or something like it. I know it'll be all he'll want to do! We're going to give in soon though. Some occasion this year we'll get it, maybe not till Christmas. But they really are so fun. Maybe I'm afraid they'll have a tetris game and I'll be addicted and play more than the kids!

sick.

We got home from our wonderful trip on Sunday night only to wake up Monday morning totally sick. I don't know if it was motion sickness or what but I had the worst splitting headache ever. It got better by Tuesday only to come down with a cold by Thursday. It got progressivly worse each day and this morning I woke up completely misrable. I can't remember the last time I was so sick.

On a better note...

My parents are coming home from their mission in South Africa in March. When we go to Vegas for Spring break we'll get to see them. They are coming home a year early b/c they are turning around and going back to the Republic of the Congo in July where my dad will serve as mission president. We're excited to see them a few times before they leave.

The Cruise, Part II

Here is part 2 of the cruise commentary. So go back down and read the first one and then come read this part!

This is us with Cam and Mandee (whom we spent about every day with!) in Roatan. This is a picture of Costa Maya, Mexico. Our last port. It was actually pretty dumpy besides what you see here. The hurricane hit here about 9 months ago and wiped everything out. It was really sad.This is a view from our dinner table. The sun would set every night at dinner.

A view from the front of the boat. Cruising back home

Our last formal dinner. The dining room was amazing. It reminded me of the Titanic!

Our little "hang out". We'd sit in the booth, eat endless amounts of pizza and treats, and play cards.
This is our dodgeball team. We didn't win the tournament, but we sure had fun!

Here is a picture of the Voyager of the Seas. It was an amazing ship. I've never been on anything so big!

A few other highlights of the trip:

*Water trampoline and blow up rock wall in Cozumel. SO FUN!

*1 hour massages on the beach for a whoppin' $15 each!

*Jet skiing in the ocean with major waves!

*eating our hearts out (I'm up 5 pounds!)

The Cruise

What can I say? We had a fabulous time! From the minute we arrived, until the minute we got on the airplane, it was amazing. I'll post a bunch of pictures and describe all we did that way.

Here we are as the ship is pulling away from Galveston, Texas.Practicing putting our lifejackets on along with the rest of the 3,200 passengers.Playing a little mini-golf on the 14th deck of the ship.

Climbing the rock wall.

Our second night on board was our formal night.Our first port was in Cozumel, Mexico. We did a "beach break" excursion and for the first hour it rained! Luckily, we had a canopy we were under. It cleared up and we had a blast in the clear water. We spent a ton of time here on the water trampoline, water rock wall, and jet skiing. It was a blast!Our next stop was in Roatan, Honduras. This stop was the most amazing ever. It was just green, beautiful beaches, clean, and just awesome.

This is part of our big group. We did some ziplines and it was so fun.
Can you see me? The little orange spot. This was one of our favorite activities! Tom and I on a pier in Roatan.

Mandee doing a backflip into the beautiful blue water!