A Halloween Contest

Kudos and a shoutout to the first person who can correctly guess what Brian carved out of our pumpkin this year.

Lunch Clean-up Crew

As some of you may know I'm a bit obsessed when it comes keeping things clean. Having a baby has not curbed this. I have rules set up for "outside treats" which consist of cookies, crackers and anything that can melt. And in my house there is no such thing as an "inside treat" just "spoon-fed food" which consists of, well, everything. I will put anything and everything on a spoon and feed it to William even if the item is traditionally a finger-food no matter how old you are.

I've recently become aware that I could be doing more harm than good. The good, of course, being that I'm keeping things tidy for my own sanity. So I've relaxed my rules a bit and have allowed William to eat one meal a day with his fingers. This is usually lunch.

Today I let him have his first peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Those of you who are even more obsessed about following pediatric food guidelines than I am about cleaning are probably gasping because I'm giving him peanut butter before his first birthday. I decided three weeks until his first birthday probably wouldn't make that much difference so I threw caution to the wind and gave it a try. He loved it. But you can only imagine the resulting mess. What followed was this short video. At least William likes my clean-up tactics.

Double the Fun

Last night we went to Monster Mash. William is a little young to participate in the activities but since his cousins were going we decided to give it a try. He did enjoy bouncing to the music and watching the older kids jump around.

As the night progressed William faded fast. When we got home and put him to bed we thought it would be an easy night. But soon we heard the hysterical crying coming through the monitor at 9:00. This type of crying means only one thing. Ear infection.

Luckily this morning we found a clinic that accepts pediatric patients on Saturday mornings. Our suspicions were confirmed -- doubly so, actually. Both ears are infected. That drippy nose I mentioned yesterday gave his ears the extra boost they needed to get infected. So goes the life as William's mom.

We're just glad we caught it early this time and are thankful that last night was relatively calm thanks our friend, Motrin. (Tylenol, thanks for your efforts in reducing fever but you suck when it comes to relieving pain.) Those of you who were faithful readers the last time William had an ear infection remember how our night played out. Now we're just praying for no perforation this time!

Sick or not as you can see from the pictures, William was still in a pretty good mood as he modeled his lion costume.

William's cousin, Addison. We call her William's twin.

William is a big fan of Addison's giraffe costume. Be careful Addison! I think lions hunt giraffes!

Still happy.

Begging to go home.

A Runny Situation

For about the fourth time in a month William has a runny nose. He's not really sick, it's just the constant drip that this time of the year calls for. Up until he was almost 10-months-old he never had a runny nose. But now that the runny nose has popped up, as pretty much all children will inevitably get, I've been obsessed.

I can't stand it when I see the, um, snot running down. Or the dried stuff all over his nose and cheeks when he wakes up in the morning. I have Kleenex boxes and suction balls strategically placed throughout the house so that I can swipe within an arm's reach. William too is obsessed. Obsessed with over-dramatizing how much he hates it when I wipe his nose or suction it out. Why is this?

It can't feel good to have the trail running down to his lips and I know it must feel so much better to get it all out with the suction ball and be able to breathe again. But still, he insists on arching his back and twisting every which way to avoid the dreaded tissue swipe. I'm even cognizant to lube his nose with lotion every so often so that it doesn't get raw. This he enjoys.

I wonder, when I have a plethora of kids running around, will I still be this obsessed with nixing the snot drip off everyone? Or will I become one of those moms who just lets her children go out all crusty-nosed because she's finally waved the white flag and discovered that she just can't win the war on runny noses?

A Better ABC Adventure

Yesterday when Brian got home from work he had some concerning comments about my post, William's ABC Adventure. Basically he told me that there was nothing fun about it and that it was downright scary how the movie distorted his face. Well, William begs to differ. If you, too, did not think the movie was very fun, I promise this will be.

Proof

Proof that a little boy never outgrows his boyish ways even when he moves out of his mama's house and goes to college. (If you can't tell, it's my brother dressed up as his childhood hero, The Red Power Ranger.)

Yesterday William and I spent 45 minutes at a road construction project by our house watching a bulldozer do it's thing. The driver was waving at William and honking his horn. As I write this I can see Joey salivating with envy. A twenty-year age difference means nothing when it comes to the male species.

Thank Goodness for Garbage Day Wednesday

This is my new approach to keeping William entertained while I make and eat breakfast. Ahh...the perks of having a boy. If only every day could be garbage day.

Playing with my Cousin

William's cousin, Patrick, and his mom, Meaghan (Brian's sister), flew in from New York City for a few days this week. The last time William saw Patrick was up at the cabin in July. They had a lot of fun playing together and going to Nana and Papa's house on Sunday. We even took them to church together and they were such good little boys just sitting and reading their books to each other. As you can see from the picture below, William was a little confused as to why someone was sitting in his high chair.

Thanks for visiting, Patrick, and we'll see you again at Thanksgiving!

William's ABC Adventure

Click here to see William's ABC Adventure!

Is it just me or do his eyes and mouth look a little scary in some of those scenes?

All The Rage

Looks like I caught the Jessica Seinfeld bug! If you've been living under a rock and don't know what I'm talking about click here to see what it's all about and click here to buy the book. It's been added to my Christmas wish list. Happy pureeing!

Notice how I don't know how to spell cauliflower and I won't even attempt broccoli. I'm a writer who leans heavily on dictionary.com.

Welcome, Babies!

On Tuesday and Wednesday two babies girls were born into the world. On Tuesday our good friends, Tyler and Allison Mayer gave birth to Lily Grace. (See picture below) Tyler was Brian's freshman roommate in college so Lily and William are destined to grow up knowing every line from "What About Bob?"

On Wednesday my cousin, Christopher, and his wife, Lexzi, gave birth to their third child, Julia Sylvia.

All these girls just reaffirm my suspicions that I'm bound to have all boys. Oh well!

William's Favorite Part of His New Carseat

Will Stop Crying for Food

Last year at this time I could...

...hold a beer can on my belly for Tyler while he gave the camera a thumbs up.

...win a limbo contest by scoring sympathy votes for being eight months pregnant.

Weekend Recap

I realize I have not posted for some time now and I don't really have a good reason. Yes, I've been busy but I'm always busy. Here are a few pictures to recap our weekend.

On Friday night we took William to his first live football game. The weather was a perfect football crisp so Brian and I headed out to watch our home team, Woodbury, play White Bear Lake. We only watched the second half but it was a lot of fun. Brian was a bit disappointed in William. He kept trying to point out great plays and awesome blocks but William only cared about the two little girls with pom-poms in front of us. Oh well. It was still worthwhile to try out his new hat and mittens.

Pre-football game

Post-football game

On Saturday night I had a girl's night in downtown Minneapolis. We took a hiatus this summer so this was our first time back out since the spring. Tons of fun as always.

Forcing Me Time

Yesterday was one of those days. For weeks I had a happy hour planned with my old coworkers. All day I kept thinking that it would be so much easier to cancel. For one, William wasn't feeling well. I also had to drive William out to the train station to meet Brian so that I could hand him off and get on the train myself to make it downtown in time.

Brian's mom was in town and Brian had to help move some furniture over to my sister's place. Two seemingly unrelated items but for me it meant I had to write notes to remind everyone what to do.

"Give Jackie this check."

"Make sure to give William his medicine at 6:30."

"Show your mom how to work the TiVo."

"Vacuum after you move the furniture."

"Don't forget about William's bottle before bed."

It's kind of like calling in sick for work. It always seems like a good idea at the time until the next day when you have twice the workload.

But for those eight or more hours that you're not working when you normally would be, it's so worth it. And that's how it was last night as I sat down with my good friends from my old office and ordered an Oktoberfest. And Brian, reading me so well, sent me a text message a couple hours after I got there:

W is down so take ur time.

Conversing at Target

Woman at Target: Is the baby sleeping in there?

Me: Yes he is.

Woman at Target: How old is he?

Me: Ten months. He usually doesn't sleep this well when we are out and about but he's not feeling very well.

Woman at Target: Stuffy nose?

Me: Yep.

Woman at Target: Oh that's so good that you have him upright in his carseat then. How did he sleep last night?

Me: Okay. He slept in his carseat actually. [Smile]

Woman at Target: Good. Good. Did he sleep all the way through?

Me: No, he didn't.

Woman at Target: I can tell. I see it in your eyes.

Has anyone else with children noticed that as soon as you go to the grocery store or Target with your child, it opens doors to complete strangers coming up and chit-chatting with you? It's not that I mind it, it's just funny how this never happens if you're alone. I mean, I love it when somebody I don't know comes up to me and tells me that my eyes look baggy.

The One Thousand and Seventeenth Way He Takes After His Dad

He loves Donald Duck!

Go Jackie!

My letter to Mother Nature last week may have paid off a little too well. Yesterday Brian and I got up early and headed to St. Paul to watch Jackie race in the Twin Cities 10-Mile. At 8 a.m. it was already 75 degrees with a dew point hovering around 70. It's October, people! Despite her tendency to get quickly overheated, Jackie did fantastic.

If you've never wandered over to St. Paul to watch the 10-mile or the marathon I highly recommend it even if you don't know anyone who is running in it. The energy and positive spirit are completely contagious. Everyone on the sidelines is cheering wildly for complete strangers. I would like to say that it feels like the essence of what it is to be a Minnesotan but I haven't been to other out-of-state marathons so I can't say for sure. All I know is that these types of events tend to bring out the best cheerleaders.

Brian and I parked near Summit Avenue and Dale Street and then walked along Summit Avenue until we reached The Cathedral where we waited for Jackie to run by. All along Summit people were out in full force. Some people brought out their stereo systems and were blaring pump-up songs. Some people had set up tents and were serving bloody marys and bites to eat. As we walked back to our car we even saw a full band setting up; drums, amplifiers, guitars and all.

Jackie passed us at The Cathedral when she had about a half a mile left. You can see her smiling in the first picture below. I put in a red arrow to point her out. In the second picture she is the first person in the turquoise shorts.

We then walked down to the finish line which was right in front of The State Capitol. There were thousands of people and the first marathoner hadn't even finished yet. It was a lot of fun to be around all that excitement. William, of course, wore a special t-shirt just for Aunt Jackie. Below are a few more pictures from the race yesterday. Once again, great job to Jackie and maybe we'll see her AND Brian running next year?

Nostalgia

A great idea for anyone who is starting to think of birthday gifts for William. I'm pretty sure his parents would enjoy it too.

The One That Got Away

Last night we let William stay in his bath for longer than usual which meant he was having a great time splashing about, crawling around and trying his best to stand up without slipping. When we got him out to dry him off and get his jammies on, it was clear he knew he was getting away with more than we normally allow because as soon as I laid him down on the towel he flipped over and took off crawling as fast as he could...naked. And he was laughing the whole time. Brian and I couldn't help but laugh until tears were rolling down our cheeks. We took a bunch of pictures but this is the only one that I can really post on the Internet!

Happy October!

Brian's Movie

Every Tuesday night Brian teaches RCIA at our church from 7-9 p.m. William is sleeping by this time and if you haven't noticed there are not any good shows on on Tuesdays. So I decided to dabble in our Movie Maker program on our computer.

As William's first birthday is quickly approaching I thought it would be cool to pick out a few songs and partner them with our favorite pictures of William's past year. By the time Brian got home I had made two movies but had only gotten though the first two month of his life. It's so hard to narrow down the pictures!

Upon seeing my two movies Brian decided he wanted to give it a try. So he picked out the song he wanted to use and I showed him how the basics of the program worked like how to upload music, photos and how to transition between photos. I told him with that bit of knowledge it should only take him about 15 minutes to put something together. After all, it's only a 3-minute song. TWO HOURS LATER he said he was finished.

Now if you know Brian, you know that he has a creative mind just from his musical talents, his endless supply of spot-on celebrity impersonations and the plethora of cartoon drawings that can be found in his childhood bedroom. But I had no idea he would get so intense with this movie. He has it all down. Even the length the photo is shown changes as the beat of the music becomes faster or slower. Truly not what I expected out of him.

This morning he gave me permission to share it here. Make sure you turn up your sound because the lyrics and pictures are in sync. Enjoy!

A Small Request

Dear Mother Nature,

If you could provide just a few days this fall that are not too windy, rainy and/or cold I would thank you kindly. You see, I have this little boy who likes to get into everything and we live in a part of the world that can sometimes get confused with the Arctic Circle. That means, I don't have very many days in the year when I can bring him outside to let him roam free without worrying about pinched fingers, broken vases or falling down the stairs. And the countdown has begun toward those bitter cold mercury-plunging days so I don't have much time left. Please help save my patience and sanity.

Kind Regards,

Mama Nash

Question of the Day

Is there anything that makes you feel more self-accomplished than looking at your super-sparkly kitchen floors after getting on your hands and knees and scrubbing them yourself?