Vacation Succcess and First Haircuts

The vacay was a success (for the most part).  We only had one minor issue over the course of the week, our bay window started leaking profusely.  Being (somewhat) of a moisture management expert when it comes to building envelopes, I was able to diagnose the problem but sadly could not fix it myself.  Called a local roofing contractor to come take a look and they were able offer no solutions (until the weather gets a little warmer).

Aside from that, Ashley came to sit with James on Friday and I was able to escape for a little girls time!  It was evident to me how important that time would be to a woman that is a stay-at-home Mom.  Since I had vacation for the week, we didn't need any childcare.  I got to experience the life of a stay-at-home Mom that is on call at ALL TIMES of the day.  It makes me appreciate all of the work our sitters put in during the course of a day, they definitely earn their paychecks!  I LOVED every minute with James, and we even got to experience the children's museum together.  I just realized how much extra effort and energy it takes to complete daily without having any help.  I think the reason I was so taken aback was the fact that it was a whole week.  I essentially went cold turkey!

James had his first haircut this weekend.  He did very well, since I kept a steady supply of food in front of him!  Here are some pics. of the before and after!

Since my Mom was visiting this weekend, she offered to babysit so Jake and I were able to escape for a Saturday night date!  Jake had just returned from the Midwinter Dental Conference in Chicago, and I had been up several times the night prior with James (teething woes) so we were both very tired.  We decided on dinner at P.F. Chang's and a move, the new Liam Neeson thriller!  We arrived at Chang's shortly after 5 p.m. to find out we would be looking at a 40 minute wait for a table.  I was really craving some good Chinese, so I tried to give Jake my best pleading eyes.  FAIL!  We ended up eating at Panera, which was also very good but I would have enjoyed some lettuce wraps.  After dinner we spent a little time in Barnes & Noble, I wanted to purchase a few books for James and look for his B-Day gift from Jake and I.  I decided a coffee was needed if I was going to keep my eyes open during the movie, not always the best idea at 6 p.m.  The movie was very good, there was  a nice little twist at the end.  My Mom was shocked that we strolled in just past 9 p.m.  Oh how things have changed............but definitely for the better!

This morning we had very good intentions of getting to church.  I HATE being late for church but decided a child is one of the best excuses.  Jake dropped us off, and James and I crept quietly into the back of church only to find the cry room was PACKED.  We really didn't have any options, James sitting in a pew was definitely not one!  Last time we tried that he ended up yanking the little girl's hair that sat in front of us.  We crept back out very quietly and decided to say our prayers in the car on the way to breakfast at the Pancake House.  I know God was happy that we spent some good quality time as a family!

Back to work tomorrow.......now........the Oscars and a glass of Champagne is in order!  I cannot believe last year I went into labor as I was watching Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin host the Oscars!
   

Vacay....

I am so excited for the next four days of vacation that lay ahead of me!  February has been an extremely brutal month....with too many tasks to check off my "To Do" list.  Work, taxes, house hunting in Rochester, hosting a baby shower, and planning James' 1st birthday party!  These items on top of the daily "tasks" that keep the house running have proven to zap every ounce of energy from my body. 

I originally took these days off to do our house hunting in Rochester; however I had some luck in working with a realator earlier in the month so I decided that I might as well use the time off to recharge the old battery.  I am looking forward to a few lazy mornings in my PJs, some swimming at the club with James, working out, napping, reading, and spending an afternoon at the Children's Museum with James (We MUST visit before we leave Milwaukee).  I also intend to cook for the hubbs this week.

James has been cruising all over the house, he definately prefers walking to crawling these days.  He has another tooth coming in on the top which disturbed his sleeping last night (which in turn disturbs my sleeping).  I completed the daunting task of fingernail cutting today, you would think I am torturing the poor child.  I would get one or two fingers done and then we would have to play for 10-15 minutes until he was distracted enough for me to do another finger or two!  Needless to say, it is a loooooong process.  The child cannot simply sit still, I almost have to put him in a headlock just to change his diaper.

Time to get this vacay started.........I am thinking a mindless T.V. show like the Bachelor is the perfect way to kickoff my relaxation!

Oh Sh*t!

This is what I was saying at 6 p.m. this evening when James decided to poop in the bathtub.  I have had my mother tell me stories of it happening, and even girlfriends.  Everytime I heard one of these stories, I just chuckled to myself and thought,"that will never happen to me!"  I immediately scooped James out of the tub and drained the tub, while he proceeded to play nakedly in the bathroom as I cleaned up after him.  Then we did the whole bath thing again!  We managed to make it out without any other bodily functions taking place in the tub!

I finally feel like I have kicked this bug, thank goodness because I desperately miss the gym and having a clean house.  I think one more day of taking it easy should be all I need.  I have worked in the office this week, becuase my lack of voice would not make sales calls or presentations any easier.  I had a lunch scheduled with customers tomorrow afternoon, and that had to be pushed out to next week.  I am certain this comes as a result of being run down, too many things for one lady to handle!  Now that taxes and house hunting are crossed off my list of To Dos, I feel like I am able to breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy a LITTLE free time.

James is 11 months old today, I cannot believe that in ONE short month he will be turning ONE!  I scheduled his 12-month physical today, and ordered his party invitations.  I have to admit, it made me a little sad.  I am happy to witness him grow into a thriving little human being, but I am sad that he will no longer be my "baby" and will become a "toddler."

I think a Skinny Cow and Nyquil will be the perfect segway to bedtime!

Super Bowl Champs and Baby Kisses

Well, I am happy to report that this weekend was not a total bust.  James and I both spent the weekend sleeping, and consuming large quantities of fluid.  We were not going to let head colds get in the way of cheering on the Pack in the Super Bowl!

We were feeling much better by Sunday afternoon (and past our contagious stage), so we ventured over to our friends house for a kid-friendly gathering.  It was such a great game to watch, I don't know that Jake would necessarily agree.  He was in a very bad mood after Woodson left the game with a collarbone injury.  It was entirely too close for comfort, but it made for a great game to watch from beginning to end!  James is so lucky to have witnessed a Packer Super Bowl win in his first year of life (well sort of, he was in bed by the end of the 3rd quarter). 

James had his first baby kiss yesterday, I of course was the ill-prepared mother that did not have a camera on hand.  It was really more like a kiss on the nose, but still too cute for words.  He was digging on little Nina, she just stared at him with her big blue eyes (and I guess that did it).

Go Pack Go!

Sickness....

This snowstorm really threw me off kilter this week.  I had two meetings scheduled in Rochester, MN. on Wednesday.  The first was with a potential new customer, the second was with an existing customer that has recently been acquired by a Florida supply company.  In addition to my scheduled meetings, I had arranged to look at a house for our upcoming move.  The snowstorm delayed my trip one day, and did not enable me the ability to make it a 2-day trip.  Thus, I spent eight hours in the car yesterday and returned home with almost no voice at all (James has passed on his head cold to me).  Luckily the trip was well worth it, I obtained an order from my customers AND found a house for us!

I woke up this morning feeling even worse then when I went to bed, I was hoping a good nights sleep and some fluids would get me back to normal.  Not the case, I took NyQuil (haven't taken the stuff in years.....obviously for a reason) and it made me feel drugged and foggy.  It didn't help matters that I was up with James at 2 a.m. and again at 4:45 a.m.  I didn't have any luck getting him back to sleep at 4:45 a.m. so my day began VERY early.

It is amazing how one sick day can throw you into a state of chaos.  I have plenty of things to do, but don't think I have the stamina to do them.  I am hoping James will have a better night of sleeping tonight, I know that is wishful thinking considering he has already been up once.  I will be happy when Mr. Head Cold decides to end his visit to the Siegert household.  In the meantime, I think we will make our weekly Target run tomorrow but will remain hermits for the remainder of the day.  I want to be comfy in PJ's and work on my projects at a leisurely pace!

Off to bed........sans NyQuil!

Snow Day

Well a greater portion of Southeastern Wiscconsin was shut down for business today.  If I physcially had to drive to an office to work, it would not have panned out.  We had 5-6 foot snow drifts covering our garage!   Marquette was closed today, so Jake was home.  This was lucky for me, because there was no way our sitter was going to be able to get to our house today.  I was able to follow-up on some trade show leads in my office, and work on getting appointments set up for the remainder of the month.

Late afternoon rolled around and I was starting to feel very closed-in.  James has been a crabby bear lately, as he is starting to cut his two top teeth.  He is definitely having a harder time with the top teeth then what he had with the bottom two.  I didn't get to the gym last night, and I knew the chances of the gym even being open today were slim to none.  I spent my evening hours making sloppy Joe's for dinner, and baking banana bread with James.  After we finished eating, James was ready for bed by 6 p.m.  I am a little scared that he is going to bed so early, but I don't think his quality of sleep was very good last night.  I kept hearing him on the monitor while we were watching T.V.  He just kept moaning, and sounded like he was miserable (even after I snuck him a little Tylenol).  Hopefully tonight he will sleep better, and I may try to climb into bed early since there is a very good possibility that he will be up early.

It took Jake a solid hour and a half to two hours to shovel out the driveway, he left the sidewalk in front of the house for me.  I was happy to have something to do after James went to bed, and all of my guilt about not getting to the gym disappeared!  I also finished all of our tax prep tonight, so that is a HUGE item to check off my month's To-Do list!

It was a very productive snow day indeed!

The Walker

The title of my post is referring to James, and not the device that helps the elderly get around.  Even though, at the rate James is growing, I feel as though it could be any day before I need one.  I have come very close to throwing my back out, picking up all 27 lbs. of him!

The walking really started yesterday afternoon; he walked right up to his Music teacher Gwen.  He absolutely loves this woman, he took about 7 steps right up to her and gave her a big hug as she was singing.  The whole group of Moms marveled at that being his first "real walk" and it took all my power not to start jumping up and down in celebration.  He then proceeded to walk around the entire circle and hug all of the other Moms.  I guess he was just loving all the female attention, as he was the only boy in class.

Today we are experiencing the Blizzard of 2011, they are expecting 2 feet of snow between tonight and tomorrow afternoon.  Needless to say, the whole city of Milwaukee is going to be closed tomorrow.  Jake had school cancelled as well.  I am lucky to have the ability to work in the office at home.  I also intend to wrap-up a few little projects that have been sitting on my to-do list for WAY to long.

I am thrilled that it is only 8:30 and the kitchen is cleaned, toys are picked up, and I don't feel as though I am ready to keel over from exhaustion.  I am going to work at getting into my Pat Conroy book, "My Loosing Season."  I only decided to read it because it was one of the free advanced copy books I received in my high school days, when I worked at Barnes & Noble. It has been sitting on my book shelf for years.  Obviously with the blizzard, I don't have the opportunity to head on out to Barnes tonight.  This is where a Nook would come in handy, I just really hate the idea of not having a physical book (even though I am running out of room for them).  I am hoping that one day Jake will build me a nice reading room, with built in bookshelves and over sized reading chairs that sit next to a HUGE wood burning fireplace (a girl can dream, right)?!   I have read a few other Conroy novels, and they were pretty good.  So, I am looking forward to this one as it is his autobiography and I find him to be an interesting character.