Dirty houses don't matter...

Todd had to work late last night, so I was single-parenting again. And to be honest, minus the fact that I miss having my husband home and Nick misses his Daddy (and I know Todd misses us, too), I don't mind single-parent nights. I get to focus all my attention on Nick, playing with him on the floor and tossing him in the air. Giggling and clapping as we eat dinner, and snuggling as he has his last bottle before bed.


But after I put Nick to bed, I tiptoed downstairs, looked around the house and decided I had "given up" for the night. There were toys strewn across the living room. Blocks under the couch, stuffed animals under the coffee table. Leftover chicken and mashed potatoes on the high chair tray and a half-full sippy cup of water covered in tiny, sticky hand prints. A sink full of dirty dishes and a dishwasher full of clean ones waiting to be put away. Mail was aimlessly scattered on the kitchen island, and shoes were spread out through the foyer hallway.



For a moment, I tried to give myself a pep-talk and convince myself that I could get it all cleaned up before I too went to bed. But the pep-talk lost to the TV. And I felt terribly guilty for having not focused on the household chores, and instead spending my evening laying on the living room floors running cars into stacks of blocks. I chided myself for not being more of a grown-up and acting like a mommy who has it altogether and keeps her house spic & span, while keeping her near-tantrum-throwing-aged 10.5 month old from melting down from lack of attention or hunger pains.



I went to bed feeling unaccomplished and lazy.



So after I dropped Nick at daycare this morning, I came home and picked up all the toys and straightened up the living room. I emptied the dishwasher, refilled it with the dirty dishes, and scrubbed the pots & pans by hand. I attempted to straighten the mess of mail on the island, and I swept the kitchen floor. Then I commenced with my morning blog reading. And as I hopped around the blogosphere, I came across this quote:



"The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow...But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep! I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep." - Ruth Hulbert Hamilton



And all that guilt faded away. I had not gone to bed unaccomplished or lazy. I had cared for my child. I had spent time with the most precious part of my life. I had made him feel loved, and safe, and cared for. All of those fleeting moments that I get to spend with my sweet baby -- who won't be a baby for long -- are worth every single crumb, dust spec, and misplaced item. For he is the greatest accomplishment of my life.

Oh Dollar Tree, Oh Dollar Tree

This year money is tight through the whole family. Ok, maybe it's just tight for the Kalinosky clan, but it's tight none-the-less, and as such we had a family "discussion" of sorts that ended up with the conclusion that we will not buy each other presents, and instead the focus will be mainly on Nick and his first Christmas.

Turns out this is awesome on so many levels.

As someone who loves to give "the perfect gift" and often misses the boat in doing so, I can typically be found in the last few weeks of December pulling out my hair and racking my brain about what to buy my 86 year old grandfather who has everything (literally, EVERY.THING.), or if my mom is going to like the sweater I bought her, or if I bought enough gifts for each person, and spent enough money, etc. etc. I can't even tell you how many times I've had the same recurring nightmare that it's Christmas eve, we're all gathered at my parents house placing our gifts under the tree, and suddenly I realize I've forgotten to buy a present for some member of my family (the person changes each time), and I frantically rush off to the store in a blizzard (because it always blizzards on Christmas eve in my crazy dream) and I can't find any decent stores, nor can I decide what to buy, and ultimately I end up getting stuck in the blizzard, with no present, and calling Todd or my dad to come rescue me. Then I wake up in a cold sweat wondering if I've checked everyone off my list. It's awful.

With no gift-giving, comes no stress about buying said gifts, or if you've spent enough money. This has been amazing.

Obviously this means not spending much money, which is also amazing because our wallets and bank account will not be feeling the sting of over-spending on gifts that most people will probably never use...like the s'mores kit my brother bought me in 2004...or the slurpee maker I gave him in 2007. (which I'll have you know we both still own, and both have never used).

In our house, Todd and I have decided to buy Nick very few gifts, as we know he'll be receiving a ridiculous bounty from his grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, great aunts & uncles, etc., and we also know he will probably be more enthralled with all of the wrapping paper, bows, tissue paper, and boxes to even care whats inside. But we didn't want to go completely without anything to open on Christmas day, so we've decided to do stocking stuffers for each other from...get this...the Dollar Tree. Yup -- call it a redneck Christmas, call us un-classy, call us cheap if you want...but for us, it's all about the hilarity of seeing what "treasures" we can find at the Dollar Tree and stuff in each other's stockings.

But more so than saving ourselves money and avoiding the stress (and the crowds!) that come with holiday shopping, by not buying each other gifts and solely focusing on Nick, we're all allowing ourselves to experience Christmas again through the eyes of a child. This Christmas, we'll all celebrate our own little St. Nick ;). Instead of gathering in nervous anticipation as we watch each other open presents in hopes that they will be well received, now we can gather in excitement as we watch Nick giggling in delight as he tears the paper off of toy after toy. We'll breathe a sigh of relief that we didn't all give Gramma & Grampa McDonald's gift cards again. And we'll all head back to our own homes, relieved that we don't have piles of new stuff to put away.

Oh crap. WE will have piles of stuff to put away. Where the hell am I gonna put all of Nick's new toys???

Good thing we're not spending money this year...looks like Santa's gonna need a bigger house!

Little Lords and Ladies

This morning Mom stopped by to pick up Nick and take him to my Grandparents house for the day. I am so happy that my grandparents are still healthy and able to enjoy this time with their first great-grandchild on such a regular basis. And that my mom is retired now and able to facilitate these visits. Such a blessing.

When mom showed up at our house, the first thing she said (which in all honesty is always the first thing she says) to Nick was "you look so cute!" And he did.

Naturally he's freaking adorable, so this was no surprise. But in his overalls with the firetruck on the front, and matching red shirt underneath, he looked edible.

And I realized that he always looks so cute in his little outfits because he has a LOT of clothes. Nearly 75% of which are from our favorite consignment shop -- Little Lords & Ladies.

My hairdresser (who has three kids of her own) told me about this store, and at first, admittedly, I was a bit nervous to check it out. Not that I'm above shopping at consignment stores by any means...I just think I was mostly concerned that their selection would be sub-par, or that the clothes would be in bad shape, or over-priced.

But holy, sweet deals, this place is amazing. They only take gently used, CLEAN, clothes. We ended up getting Nick 3 pairs of overalls, a Washington Capitals sweatsuit, a VA Tech sweatsuit, several long-sleeved onesies, a hat, two sweaters, a pair of jeans, and a myriad of other clothes that I can't even remember right now, for all under about $70. And I'm talking CUTE stuff, in practically brand new condition. Pretty much everything we bought him was 12 month size (we made this shopping trip a few months ago...before he was crawling)...and sadly he's already starting to grow out of some of his 12 month stuff.

So I was thrilled when mom said "we need to go back to Little Lords & Ladies soon so I can get Nick some new clothes!" um, yes please, mom!

Anyway -- LL&L only takes gently used clothes, and they rotate out their stock all the time so you get new, cute stuff...and you're not always browsing the same old rows of used clothes. Not to mention every single item goes on sale if it's still in the store after a certain date. It is the most incredible system I've ever seen. SO... if you are looking to get some serious bang for your buck -- and new (to you) duds for your little one -- go to Little Lords & Ladies. Seriously. They don't even know I'm posting this -- I just love their shop THAT much.

I can't wait to go back!

First Christmas Card!

Nick received his first Christmas card in the mail yesterday. It was from Gramma and Boss! He was anxious to read it...
And even started fist pumping in excitement!After about 2 minutes of waving the card around, he tossed it on the ground and moved on to something else. The life of an active, and very mobile, 10 month old. The world is his oyster!


And just showing off some of his latest tricks...he now claps anytime you call him a "good boy". Even when he's tired of eating dinner and has a face covered in mashed potatoes...he'll still clap for a "good boy" comment. :)

Videos

Just a few recent videos of my funny little guy :)

Playing with his sister and a squeaky toy...


Proud to have pulled to standing in his crib (this video is a bit old considering we have since lowered his crib and he now pulls to standing on just about anything within his reach)...


Pulling himself to standing on the ottoman and cracking up about it...


And just some general yelling and silliness with mommy on a Sunday afternoon...

Happy 10 Months, Baby Boy!

I currently know about 12 people that are pregnant or have just given birth in the last couple of weeks. That's a LOT of babies. Yesterday I actually felt a little bit of baby fever coming on...until I realized it was just the desire to wear maternity clothes brought on by the fact that I've been eating whatever I want the past couples weeks, instead of sticking to my diet, and in turn am now seeing the not-so-flattering results, and would appreciate being allowed to wear stretchy waisted pants and over sized tops without getting "is she?" "this soon after the first?" "could it be?!" looks when really it's just a food baby, and good lord that was a serious run on sentence.

Nobody puts baby in a trash can...

That being said, I don't really have baby fever because I want to relish in the time I have left with my baby before he can officially no longer be called a baby, but instead a toddler. Which is practically around the corner because homeboy is 2 months shy of being a 1 year old. A ONE YEAR OLD! Holy Sh!t -- where's the Tylenol?!


Moving on...

Life is amazing through the eyes of a child...

How Old is Nick: As of today, Nick is 10 months and 5 days.


Stats: I'm guessing he's still about the same size as he was at his 9 month check up. He seems to be getting longer though, because all of his 9 month pants are officially high waters. He's mostly wearing all 12 month clothes, including jammies. 12-18 month stuff fits fairly well, so long as we roll up the sleeves or roll down the waist of his pants. Though the babysitter just prefers to hike them up around his chest. He's wearing size 4 diapers still, and we recently purchased a pack of Pampers overnight diapers which was the best purchase to date. I was double diapering him, which helped control his nightly leaks, but these overnight diapers (combined with some great advice we recently received to "point the penis down when diapering" -- how did I not know that before??) have essentially eliminated all night time leaks. This is HUGE. No more daily sheet changes! Woo hoo!

"Mama's not paying attention, is she?"

Sleep: I am so afraid to post anything for fear of messing up a good thing. But I *think* we have finally...after nearly 10 months of unpredictable sleep...mastered Nick's routine, and solved the sleep problem. Nick is now sleeping from approximately 7:30pm - 7:00am, occasionally waking for a quick cry, but not every night. When he does wake up for a quick cry, sometimes I'll let him try to cry it out, but for no more than 20 minutes. At the end of that 20 minutes, I'll go in, lay him back down (because now he stands up and faces the door to cry -- knowing what a sucker I am), rub his back, tell him he's a good boy and he needs to go back ni-night, and then leave while he's still awake. And so far, 99% of the time, he has gone right back to sleep. A couple of times I have watched him on the monitor as he sits up, looks around for a few minutes, and then lays back down. This is amazing to me because I know that he now knows how to put himself back to sleep. This is HUGE progress in our house. Don't get me wrong -- we've gone weeks with Nick sleeping through the night before...but most of those weeks were just sheer luck. Now I feel confident in saying Nick is sleep trained. Plus the 2 tablespoons of rice cereal added to his night time bottle, and the prevention of bed-wetting are good contributing factors to keeping him asleep at night. But regardless of how it happened, I am thrilled by my now good sleeper and greatly appreciate the sleep I'm getting as well!

First Johnny Rockets experience -- a huge success!

Milestones: Aside from crawling all over the place, Nick has now mastered pulling up on anything. And boy does he hate to be on the ground. If there's something nearby to grab hold of and pull himself to standing, he will. Which is uber scary for me, because often he will mistake something not-so-stable for a solid standing point and end up losing his footing and inevitably bonking his head on the floor. You know -- the kid friendly hard wood floors we have throughout our first floor. Awesome. I'm considering making him wear a helmet until his balance is better. He's also become a chatting machine. I still don't think he associates any words with anything -- and pretty much the only word he says is da-da...but he says it ALL the time. Not just around Todd. I've been constantly saying ma-ma to him, but he just doesn't seem interested in saying it. Boo. He loves to giggle and laugh and scream...particularly in public places. And he's mastered clapping, though he doesn't seem to understand appropriate times to clap. He's also just about mastered giving high-fives, which is fun...although it's not so fun when he high fives your face. Which he loves to do.

"mmm...pancakes"

Food/Appetite: He's now eating just about anything, though he still prefers homemade food over pre-made stuff (like any of the Gerber toddler/finger foods -- he'll eat them, but gets tired of them pretty quickly). He loves spaghetti, toast/bread of any kind, chicken, cheese, yogurt, and anything you give him off of your own plate. He prefers eating his meals at a crowded table. If I try to feed him dinner by himself, he gets bored quickly and fusses, cries, and refuses to eat. But plop him down in a high chair around a table full of adults also eating a meal, and little man is happy as a clam. He'll eat whatever is put in front of him, and he won't stop until you literally are prying the food out of his tight little grip. He recently made his first kids menu selection (well mommy made it for him) and had a grilled cheese sandwich at Sweetwater. And he loved it! Although how could you not love buttered toasted bread with melted cheese smushed in the middle? He's also doing pretty well with the sippy cup, and seems to prefer his formula from the sippy during meals, as opposed to the bottle. Though he does still love his nightly bottle. I'm planning to introduce him to juice this weekend by immensely watering some down in his sippy cup. I have a feeling he'll enjoy it.

"This grilled cheese is delicious...but a little tough to chew..."

Oherwise Nick continues to be a complete joy to be around. He is the happiest baby I've ever known and still has yet to meet a stranger. He'll let anyone hold him, and just loves attention. He beams from ear to ear after he sneezes, and cracks up if you sneeze back at him. His feet, armpits and right under his chin are super ticklish and he'll squeal with delight if you take a minute to tickle him. He loves any toys that light up, make noise, and do something interesting, and he could spend hours on end playing with my iPhone or the TV remote. He's taking more of an interest to Whinnie and will hold on to her if he can get close enough to grab her. He loves to give kisses, but they turn into bites which is something we're working on.

Telling Daddy how excited he is to see Santa!

Nick went to see Santa at Merrifield Garden Center (which will be a post all its own), and was in awe of the whole event. He didn't cry once, and in fact spent most of the time on Santa's lap smiling and staring at Santa's beard.

Santa! I know him!

Every day with our little guy amazes us more, and every day I can't believe how long it's been since we brought home a tiny lump of baby that we had no idea what to do with. That lump has since transformed into the most amazing little life, with so much personality and a true pension for making everyone he comes in contact with smile. We are truly blessed to be his parents. This year for Christmas, I don't need a thing, because with Todd and Nick, I truly have everything I could ever want or need.

Life is good.

I love a hefty vet bill

Coming home from work to find your dog has not only peed in the house, but has also had diarrhea, vomited, and spewed blood all up and down your hallway -- which is carpeted -- is not awesome.

Needless to say, I panicked. Freaked out, really.

First I had to control my gag reflex so that I didn't create a further mess by barfing at the smell of her diarrhea.

Then I proceeded to pet her and smother her in kisses (which in hind sight was totally gross considering all the bodily fluids she had just leaked) and tell her I wasn't mad at her and that she was a good girl. Because it's never a pets fault when they vomit blood. Poop and pee on the carpet? Yeah, usually her fault. Usually out of spite. (That or the fact that I was just too damn cold to wait for her to poop when we went out that morning). But vomited blood? Never her fault.

THEN, I scraped up as much of the diarrhea as I could with ten wads of toilet paper -- making sure to not touch any of it. However, I did have the sense to gather a tiny bit in a ziploc baggy (that I left on our front porch in hopes that the neighbors wouldn't notice) to take as a sample to the vet -- which, as it turned out, they just threw away because they shoved their finger up her butt instead.

After that I emptied an entire can of Spot Shot on the blood dribbles and vomit. But ran out, so I had to use the back-up bottle of Resolve. Which the sprayer is clogged on, so it took what seemed like forever to get enough sprayed out to finish cleaning.

In the midst of all of this I called the vet in a panic and they said they could squeeze us in at 6:30pm.

So I panicked some more because Todd was supposed to be working late, and I had no idea how I was going to pick up Nick, feed him dinner, take him and Whinnie to the vet, and make sure she didn't get sick again, and get home in time for Nick's bedtime routine because there was no way in hell I was throwing him off schedule and going back to the old middle of the night crying marathons. Good lord...I am in awe of single parents. I called my mom who volunteered to take Nick so I could focus on Whinnie. So I called Todd to warn him that I was probably going to incur a hefty $150 vet bill (oh so naive) because "Whinnie pooped and barfed blood all over the carpet", to which he told me his evening event was cancelled and he was on the way home anyway.

Sigh of relief. Another set of hands.

So I went and picked up Nick, and we took Whinnie to the vet and $400 later, we now know she is apparently fine.

Don't get me wrong. I would pay whatever it took to make sure Whinnie was ok. She is my first baby. We treat her like a human. She eats whatever we're having for dinner (not much, but she always gets a taste in addition to her dog food). She sleeps in our bed, with her head on our pillows and her farts radiating from under the covers. We call her Nick's sister. We put her Michigan sweater on on game days, and her pumpkin costume on on Halloween. She sits in our laps on road trips, and she is given free reign of the house all day. We give her treats for everything, and sign her name on Christmas, Birthday, and Anniversary cards. She is an integral part of our family.

But an x-ray, several fluid shots, a prescription for diarrhea, a bottle of Pepcid for her acid reflux, a regular exam, plus a fecal exam and lab work, totaling nearly $400 later, we basically are told "put her on a chicken and rice diet for a couple weeks, and let us know if she gets worse." This is not sound advice in my humble opinion. Also, good thing we're not on a strict budget. OH WAIT.

Granted the cleared x-ray did give us a little piece of mind. So there's that. But this has me seriously considering pet insurance. I mean, after all, she's totally worth it. I'm just glad she's ok.