The Love of My Life

I feel that sometimes we take things for granted in our lives, the people, the circumstances, the money...you get the idea. I want to be able to tell people how much I appreciate them, starting with my husband (If you feel that this may make you want to throw up a little, I would stop reading here).

Herb: I know that someday you will read this, and I want you to know, that I appreciate everything you do for our family. It is partially because we do not hold traditional roles in our family that causes you stress. I know that working those long retail days only to have to come home and cook dinner is not want you want to do, but you do it, without complaints (most of the time :)). I joke around about changing diapers, however, I do not want anyone to get the wrong impression and think that you are not a good father. I know the truth, the way that Quinn looks at you when you are playing with him, he knows you are the best daddy out there, and really that is all that matters. The holiday season is always the hardest for us since it means long hours for you, but as always we will pull through and will be stronger for it. I know you are only working as hard as you do because you love your family and you want to provide the best for us. We do appreciate it even if we don't show it all of the time. When I talk about you to co-workers I am pretty sure they want to bash my head in, since it seems like we have something perfect going here....it's not perfect, but what we have is great, and I feel lucky to have found you. Thank you for being my best friend, my confidant, and husband. I wouldn't want it any other way.

P.S. Don't be mad at me for putting this picture of you on here, I love it!

Day Care Woes

To tell you the truth I am easily irritated by the amount of money it costs to put your child in day care. We have to work to make enough money to have a child, but to go to work you have to pay tons of money to day care. Don't get me wrong, I think the day care that Quinn is at is very good. I like the teachers, he seems to like the teachers, and it seems like they are doing a fantastic job with him. The reason that I even bring this up today is that sadly my day care is closing on December 12th....forcing all parents that go there to look for alternative day care for their children. I feel as if I am almost in a competition to find a spot for my child before someone else takes it. Do you know how often spots are open for infants at day care??? Do you? Let me enlighten you, not very often. The day care closest to my house has a waiting list through 2009...and that was back in October that I checked, so I imagine it is through 2010 already! I thought I was lucky when I called La Petite and they said they had an opening. I gave my deposit that day so as to not loose our spot. Apparently I have a day care curse. It is frustrating, I am frustrated, and tired of dealing with this stuff. I want things to work out the way that I expect them to. Who wouldn't want to keep a baby as cute as my Quinn? I know that it doesn't have anything to do with Quinn per say, but he is so good, a breeze even to take care of, unless he is hungry, then he can become a bear.

Sometimes being a mom is really hard. We have to deal with a lot of things..the guilt of not being able to stay home and take care of our child, the worry that something is going to happen to them while they are in someone elses care, the worry that they are going to think that someone else loves them more than I do, the stress of thinking that who you chose to take care of them will not be there forever, and just plain fear. There are other things that I think about though. Once you do find a place that you like (like the one that we have now) you realize the amount of development they are getting. They get to play with the other kids and socialize, I mean Quinn doesn't really socialize per say, but someday he will and this experience will be worth while. It also shows him that other people are good, and maybe that will prevent him from being too shy. Shyness can be debilitating and stressful on the person that suffers from it. I hope that Quinn doesn't have to worry about things like that, that he will be outgoing and meet as many people as he can...

I guess I didn't think that finding a new day care would be this hard on me emotionally..I know that it has officially ruined my day, but it is more than that. I am sad that Quinn is going to loose the bond that he has with his "ladies", and sad that I will loose the bond that I have with his "ladies", they love him, and that makes me love them. The closing of the day care is just as bad for them (if not worse) than it is for us, they are loosing their jobs, in a time when the economy is in peril, they must be terrified!

I will keep my fingers crossed that we will be able to find a day care that will be as great for Quinn as this one has been, and that all of the ladies that work there will be able to find jobs again.

The search must go on! To all that are looking for affordable, reliable day care, I feel your pain!

The Excitement Never Ends!!

This weekend will definitely be one to remember! My baby boy.....rolled over! He only rolled from his back to belly, but it is a start. I am sure that soon he will be able to roll back to his back. It is the beginning of the end of immobility. I tried many times to get a video of him doing it, but this is as close as I could get:

We also tried starting solid foods, which didn't go over as well as I planned, in fact it didn't go over at all. I put some in his mouth, it came back out, I put some in his mouth, it came back out...etc....Not to mention the face he was making while doing this. I will attempt it again in a couple of weeks, but for now my baby is still a liquid only baby.

Herb and I went out on a "date" Friday afternoon, since I get out early (3pm) on Fridays we were able to have Quinn stay at day care an extra hour or so and go get ice cream at Marble Slab....mmmmm....I would give my left arm for that ice cream! Talk about yummy! It was nice just spending time with Herb, although I felt lost almost since I didn't have Quinn with me when I was outside of work.

Around this time of the year I always get this sense of dread, like I don't have any control over how things change, and they are changing so fast! There are so many things that I want to accomplish even just on the day to day level, and I feel that they will never get done. I appreciate the ability to spend time with Herb and Quinn and I guess that is really all that matters in the end. Laundry, dusting, making the bed, learning a new language, will have to wait for another day (I don't really want to learn a new language) when I am not basking in the moments with my family.

Holidays Make Me Crazy!

Our neighborhood had an event at the pool this weekend since it was Halloween, they had a table full of food, a parking lot full of dressed up kids and parents, and several trailers with hay on them for the hay rides. I thought it had a terrific turn out, we didn't go to the one last year, mostly because we didn't know anyone, and because we didn't have a kid to dress up. I suspect that if we had attended last years function we would have gotten to know people faster, but too late to turn back now.....The good thing this year was that we got to see our neighbors and their kids all dressed up, and we got to meet some new ones. There is a younger couple that has a 4 month old daughter (she is so darn tiny) that lives on the street behind us. I am hoping that we will be able to get together at some point and have a play date with the kiddies...I think that would be fun for all involved. Quinn seemed to enjoy himself, as did I. Herb was in charge of taking pictures, he did an awesome job recording Quinn's first Halloween. All in all it went well, Quinn didn't get mad for being put in a ridiculously cute costume and it was semi-warm. There is one thing that Herb and I have to work on, and that is getting the candy situation under control....last year we bought way too much candy and ended up eating the rest of it, which did nothing but help with gaining the appropriate amount of holiday weight. This year we didn't buy enough apparently (or I give it out way too generously) and we ran out before all of the kids got to stop by, so we ended up being one of the people with the porch lights out, trying to be as quiet as possible to keep the kids from suspecting that we were actually home. The cats ended up being a huge hit with the kids though, we kept our inside door open most of the night and just had the glass storm door open, so the cats watched all of the kids come and go, if you look at the picture to the side you can just make out their eyes.












By the end of the night though I had lost it and I thought I was super woman! Actually though I was trying to make Quinn laugh at me, see I told you I would do anything to hear him laugh. He didn't think I was that funny at the time though, and didn't end up laughing at me.










So we put up our Christmas tree on Saturday and decorated the inside of the house. It turned out pretty well, Herb got a little chilled while looking for decorations though and had to put his hat on to keep warm (what this picture doesn't show though is that he is wearing shorts :)). In fact as soon as he realizes that I have put this picture up on here he will probably stop speaking to me....I guess I could use a little quiet time anyway (just kidding honey!). There is one thing that I always do when we start decorating for Christmas and that is put a "Santa's little helper" shirt on the cats, I know it is a little evil, but let me tell you, I get a kick out of it! This year I chose Bandit, and there was no real reason, except maybe that I don't think "little girl" would actually fit into the shirt. Once I got the shirt on him he took off like something was biting him in the butt!! I tried taking several photos, but this is the only one that wasn't blurry, and it was taken right after I put the shirt on, so he didn't have a chance to get going yet. I have never seen a cat react this way to the shirt (Sprout & Squirt just laid down and refused to get back up until we took it off).....I finally felt really guilty and took it off....the poor cat I think has a complex now. I tried to sooth him with treats and kisses, but truthfully I think he is going to try to smother me in my sleep for the humiliation of wearing the shirt. He did calm back down after I let him attack the shirt :).




To get in the mood for Christmas decorating and wrapping presents we watched "White Christmas" and drank hot chocolate, it was still a little hard to be totally in the mood since it was in the 70's outside.

I still doesn't seem the same (Christmas that is) because we aren't spending it with extended family, but I think this year will be better than last. Last year it was more of going through the motions. I can't wait for Quinn to really start enjoying these holidays, that will make it more fun for us as well.