Thanksgiving 2012

This Thanksgiving was a little different than the past couple for a few reasons. First of all we weren't going to any family festivities so just the three of us having a normal day at home. Secondly, I it was my first night shift which meant I spent most of the day stressed out about how I should be asleep, but couldn't sleep due to reason number three, I'm six months pregnant. I "slept in" until 8am. To be fair this is about two hours past when I normally get up, but not super helpful as far at the staying up all not situation.

We had a normal lounging around morning while Zach prepared for our adventure in deep frying a turkey. He has done this before successfully, without burning any houses down, but I was still pretty nervous about it. The main reason we chose this technique was that it only takes an hour and a half to cook a turkey, making a noon lunch time a doable thing. Zane and I played outside while Zach over saw the fire hazard. Zane said repeatedly that we should call fireman Sam, another random British show that Zane has recently discovered on streaming Netflix. He is a smart kid what can I say, a fireman probably would have been a good idea. Zane tried out his new new shark hat outside, not really because it was freezing cold, so much as he discovered it while picking out socks and thought he needed it. He also found great joy in the air compressor's little air gun that he could blow leaves around with. I ask myself again why I ever buy him actual toys.

I tried to pull together some sides and gravy, not too successfully. The potatoes were randomly red skinned but yellow on the inside, which led to lumpy, strangely colored, potatoes. I miss read the gravy recipe I had found which meant in the end we had a very large quantity of not so great gravy. I didn't mess up the stove top  surprisingly enough though. I then threw some store bought rolls into the oven, as I could feel my Grandmother's begin to spin in their graves. As we were eating our sad little lunch, with two sides, and store bought rolls, I told Zach I felt bad for our Grandkids. My Grandmother's put on a feast, all home made, all amazingly delicious, and for thirty people, not three. I have new found respect for them and my mother. I guess maybe I will get there someday, but probably not, because unlike them I make this type of meal about three times a year and they did this all the time. Maybe I will master buying Thanksgiving meals, why not??

Zane and I then went down for naps. Zane slept for three hours while I slept for two hours then laid in bed for thirty minutes, wide awake, dreading the debacle that was going to be the night ahead. The rest of the afternoon went as all afternoon before a night shift, time going by painfully slowly, trying to "rest"on the couch, but there being no chance of that happening, Zane asking if I was sick, watching TV, amounting to nothing. Then I headed to work while Zach headed into the bedtime routine without me. Of course Zane was confused when I was getting dressed, saying the gut wrenching quote of the day "Daddy go to work, mamma stay home." If only sweet boy. I got big hugs and kisses before I left and actually had time to call and say good night to him before he went to bed.

The night went fine, I didn't die, but barely. I can't sleep in the day for anything and my neighbors randomly reeving up their ATVs all the time doesn't help. I miss seeing my family on holidays. I don't know when there will be a time that I can be off holidays like normal people. I don't want to work everyday, so working weekends and holidays I guess is the trade off for that. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. We missed you!

Time slipping away

As I approach my first night shift tomorrow I am beginning to panic/get sad about the fact that time is slipping quickly away from me. It won't be long until I will get to be loving on two little boys and while I'm over the moon about meeting our new little man, there is the tinge of sadness when I think about how Zane's life will be exploding.

Currently Zane lives in a perfect little utopia, two parent's full attention, all the time. I personally don't think this is a state that is optimal to grow up in, for numerous reasons. First of all it seems lonely, at some point your parents won't be around or will be old, or a combination of those things and siblings are your built in friends, there no matter what. Secondly, and possibly more importantly, he needs to know that the world does not revolve around him. There are other people who mommy and daddy love, that are just as important as you are. You have to learn to share, to take turns, to wait, and to work together as a bigger family.

But how do you explain all of that to a two year old. The answer is you can't. You play dolly, where mommy cuddles the baby when it's "crying," then quickly put the baby "night night" and go about playing uninterrupted with mamma. You talk about baby brother and how mommy isn't always going to be able to be the one to give cuddles when he is sad, mad, frustrated ect. and that daddy loves him just as much and can cuddle with the best of them. But it makes no sense to him and he plays on in his utopia.

Our days currently aren't complicated. They are quite simple really, Zane gets up and toddles his way into our room around 6:00 - 6:30. We head to the couch for uninterrupted cuddles while watching some Disney Junior, if we are lucky Mickey Mouse. We eat breakfast together, get dressed, possibly run some errands, go do something fun such as a park or the zoo. We play upstairs, in his room, in the baby's room, downstairs, or outside. He helps me cook, clean, and pick up. We build choo choo tracks, bebots, play pirates, or fireman. Whatever tickles his fancy.  I could play two year old games all day, but currently am exhausted most of the time, so it is a bit more of a struggle, along with more movies and iPad thrown in so i can rest. I am powering through, soaking up these days that I know are numbered.

I know that heading to nights these days, where we wake up together and cuddle will me few and far between. Usually either I'm at work when he is going to school or I am here, but he has to go to daycare while I try to sleep. I rarely sleep that much, mainly laying around the house annoyed that I can't sleep and so wishing I was playing with my boy. The six weeks usually goes by rather quickly, but in a terrible fog of exhaustion and my body feeling miserable all the time. That is when I'm not 6 months pregnant, so I am sure my body will be less happy with me this time around. Zane gets confused about everything, should he nap at daycare or stay up because mommy is coming soon. He doesn't understand why he can't stay with me when I am laying on the couch in the morning. Why doesn't daddy pick him up, why does mommy leave at night, all sorts of confusing things, throwing everyone's schedule into a tail spin.

When this rotation is over I won't have to go back until after the baby is born, but when it's over there is only 8 weeks until my due date, not much time to get back to a normal schedule while terribly pregnant. I miss our days already and hate that I have to miss so much of these last few months together. I know that things will become more complicated with two kids, not the least of which will be the sadness that comes with seeing my happy baby boy confused by all the changes. I know he will get over it and used to the new situation, growing to love and adore his baby brother. But that won't come for awhile and it is going to be difficult for everyone involved. For now I will try to enjoy all the time I have with him and try to trick myself into thinking that I really don't need sleep. It never really works well, but I will give it another go.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Zane's new favorite activity this week is turning off all, and I do mean all, the lights in the house. He finds different ways to reach them all, usually involving something terribly dangerous, like climbing on/standing on the rolling chair in the office or the rocking chair in the living room. He takes his step stool from his room to reach a lot of them as well. He has spent a decent amount of time in timeout for refusing to the leave the lights on when I was trying to clean, or function as a human being. He is quite eco friendly and his Grandpa Blakley would be so proud of him.

2. We continue to try to wean Zane off Halloween and ease him into Christmas. We read a few Christmas books and I think he has the general idea of who Santa Clause is and what he does. He also knows there is a baby involved somehow, but does also think a ghost might come with Santa, so it's a work in progress. He did love all the Christmas things in Hobby Lobby today, but then said we needed to get ready for Halloween, so not quite there.

3. Confusing things even more is the fact that we are currently celebrating Thanksgiving. We made turkey and pumpkin cookies yesterday, our only Thanksgiving tradition really. He couldn't figure out if they were for a ghost or Santa Clause, none of the above little man. But he did have a great time making a huge mess with flour and eating quite a lot of cookie dough. He insisted we count to ten each time we pressed down the cookie cutter, which drew out the cookie cutting process, fun times! Here is my little chef, hard at work, and so proud of himself.

4. Our Thanksgiving will be spent here, at home, with just our little family. I have to work Thanksgiving night and the night after, so I will be trying to nap/rest Thursday and dreading the evening. Our menu will be classic Americana, thanks to the free turkey Zach gets from work. Zane and I are going to make a pie tomorrow, which is as crazy as I am going to get.

5. Zane's new word of the week is awesome. He uses it some what appropriately,  depending on what you consider awesome. Zane's proclamations of awesome have included the parking lot at my OB's office, an elevator, behind the TV, the canned food isle at the grocery store, and his baby brother. It catches me off guard every time he says it, leading him to get quite annoyed with me asking him what he is saying, "it's awesome mamma," obviously.

6. Christmas prep is coming along nicely. I have ordered my Christmas cards, bought a few presents, updated my Amazon wishlist, made Zane an Amazon wishlist, and got the few additional decorations I need from Hob Lob today. I know what I want to get Zane, but have no ideas for everyone else. I am determined, yet again, to steer clear of all department stores for the next month, it is too crazy and is absolutely not necessary. Bring on the amazon boxes, tis the season!

7. In other exciting news we are swapping cars with my mom next week. By swapping cars I mean we are buying her Enclave and she is taking our money, and my car,  to go get a new one that gets better gas mileage for herself. I'm super excited about having more room, though not as excited about another car payment, such is life. Zane is excited about Grandma coming to sing to him again.

8. I continue to feel like I should possibly do something to get ready for this little boy's arrival but am not motivated to do a thing. I will be 33 weeks pregnant when I come off of nights, which is terrifying, and I just put in my schedule for Jan - mid February, also terrifying. I have my FMLA paperwork done and approved, but that's it. Starting to contemplate buying formula in preparation and continue to be terrified of how life will change soon.

9. While I was busy at work this weekend, Zach and Zane did a Thanksgiving arts and crafts project. A spin on the classic hand turkey, decorated with dyed pasta. Here are the end results that were awaiting for me when I arrived home Sunday evening. I personally enjoyed that the pasta was glued on with carpenters glue, a dad's touch for sure!

10. I wish I could be at the farm for all the Thanksgiving festivities. I also wish that I had some fresh pecans to make a cheese ball with, but the pecan trees at my Grandpa's house have tragically died, so my endless supply of pecans has run out.  I can't stand the taste of store bought pecans, so no cheese ball this year either. Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be Thankful for, hugs and kisses from the STL to all our family that is far away! See you soon!

Ten on Tuesday

1. This really deserves it's own post, but yesterday Zane was quite emotional after we got him from daycare so I couldn't get to a computer. We had our fetal echo yesterday and little peanut has a fully functional heart, or so they say. He looks much bigger and very squirmy. The doctor that talked to us remembered being part of Zane's surgery, which was odd, but said everything looked good. He could have left out the ten things that you can't find on an echo, but I just ignored it.

2. After the good news Zach and I successfully walked around a car lot without being stalked by a salesmen. We seal team sixed it, parking in the far corner of the lot, and being very sneaky. We have no idea what kind of car we are going to get, something with two captain chairs and a bench, which narrows it down to about four SVUs and mini vans. Too much to ponder, but proud of us for not buying the first car that fit that bill that we saw yesterday, which is usually how Zach and I roll.

3. Yesterday was also a big day because Zach and I went to the movies for the first time since we saw Harry Potter, last summer. James Bond did not disappoint, tons of fun, and tons of medical miracle per usual. I think he might secretly be a robot because he can survive drowning, brain injuries, and all sorts of other things with no problem.

4. Zane was ungodly emotional/tired/possibly sick yesterday when we picked him up. Initially he had a blast looking at a few more cars, "I want that one" and "Oohh mamma car looks fun." Then down hill to a crying, emotional mess, when we got home. Today he seems better, but kept him home with me on call this morning and daddy this afternoon after I went to work. He was in great spirits this evening so I think we are in the clear.

5. Zane and I had a great weekend with his Aunt Anna, A.K.A. Nant Nanna. We went to the Zoo on Saturday, which proved to be unbelievably crazy, due to the 70 degree weather in November. Then Sunday we went to the Magic House, which is always a little over whelming. We had a great visit with Anna, ending with Zane telling her she could live in our basement. Wouldn't that be nice. Here they are at the zoo.

6. This trip to the Magic House Zane really only wanted to fix the car and play with the babies in the Children's Hospital area. He loved the babies, changing them, cuddling them, feeding them, and bringing Anna and I different ones when they were crying. When we left he was heartbroken to leave "his babies" and was crying, the saddest cry, worried about his babies. So we Aunt Anna and I braved the rain to get him his very own, $10 baby, to love and care for at home. He has been a great caregiver, putting her to bed, feeding her, and taking her all over the house with him. Why are there no boy baby dolls?

Here is my son being the picture of a well rounded boy, able to fix cars and take care of babies. I love it!

This was his favorite little man, he put the hat on him by himself and was quite proud of himself.

7. I go back to night shift on Thanksgiving night. Super duper sad face. As mentioned before this screws up everyone's life and schedule and I feel miserable for six weeks. That's right, Thanksgiving and Christmas on nights, hooray.

8. In adorable news Zane can sing Five Little Pumpkins pretty much by himself, including the music that is played after the song on our iTunes version. He requests to sing this all the time, sings it on his own, and even put on a mini concert for Grandma B over the phone this evening. It is truly the Zane show. Nothing is more heart warming than a little two year old's voice. I think we might have some problems switching over to Christmas time soon, he is still thoroughly enjoying ghosts and pumpkins.

9. Big thanks to the Catholic Youth group that cleaned up the huge quantity of leaves in my front yard this weekend. They were cleaning up my neighbor's yard so I headed over to see how I could get in on that action, turns out they needed service hours and I was happy to help them out.

10. Lastly a big congratulations to my friend Rachel and her brand new fiance John. They got engaged over the weekend and I couldn't be happier for them.

I love the things you say

When Zane was a baby, like most mothers, I would gaze into his little blue eyes and try to imagine what he was thinking. I wondered what his little voice would sound like and what type of personality he would grow up to have. It seemed to take forever, or right around two years, before I could really hear and understand that precious little voice. Of course as his mother I find everything he says adorable and/or the most hysterical thing ever. I know I won't remember all his little phrases, so I try to take videos often of his precious little boy voice so years from now when he has a big deep manly voice I can remember this time. Here are some of the favorites or most commonly heard around our house.

A lot of the adorable words come from him taking the second letter in a word and using at the beginning as well. Such as with the word Bebot =Robot. I'm not sure where he learned what a robot was, but has a new found interest in them. He builds bebots with his lego blocks, usually complete with a boo boo toe ( a red lego) so he can be like mommy. He never says robot, just bebot. When I try to help him pronounce robot, "Zane say roooo bot" he says "roooo bebot." So he can say his R's, obviously he is a pirate most of the time, but that isn't the word he is wanting, "It's bebot mamma." The other's follow the same sort of pattern. Such as Phephant = Elephant, Pippo = Hippo, and Papad = iPad. He can say the sounds at the beginning of all these words as well, and when I try to get him to say elephant he will say "eeelll  phephant."

The other adorable thing he does, all the time, is when he is being serious and trying to get his point across, he puts his little hand up while telling you something, emphasizing its importance. For example, "No night night night mamma, not yet, not yet," with his little hand out proving that he is serious. Or more often, "daddy fix it mamma, daddy fix." Got it! Also, commonly heard when cooking or making a fire, " It hot mamma, don't touch it, it hot." This can be for things that are actually real, such as "no milk mamma," or "no poop." But it can also be about things completely off the wall, but that are equally as serious in his mind, such as "peter pan night night mamma." No matter what random thing he is saying, often things we don't understand at all, he does a great job getting his point across.

Here are a few other random statements that are quite frequently heard around our house at this point.

* "Come on" - This takes on numerous variations starting with a simple, come on and going to a very convincing/some what ornery and drawn out come on, used when whoever he is talking to really doesn't want to do the thing he is asking. Hard to explain in words, but sometimes it takes a few different versions of this to get his tired mommy off the couch and down the stairs.
* "I be right back, ok." Usually he says this before he tries to go downstairs or upstairs to get something by himself.
* " I get it." As of this week this is used to tell us he can turn on and off the lights, all of which he can't reach except the one in the office or his room with his step stool, but he tries. Of course he does get other things, but the lights are his newest development.
* "It a mess" and "It yucky" - Sadly both are usually used to describe our living room, then he proceeds to "get" me the broom and dust pan, forcing me to sweep the floor. Leading me to sometimes feel like my two year old is judging me.
* "I sweep" and "I clean" - goes hand and hand with the above.
* "Not yet"
* "Ooo, it stinky" - Usually when smelling feet.
*"It a happy ghost" - A Halloween favorite that is still hanging around. He randomly "sees" happy ghosts all the time.
* " I hiding" - Announced before he hides/we hide under a blanket. He is a terrible hider, what with his giggles and shrieks of glee.
* "The snake get me" - Zane also randomly "sees" snakes that are "getting him." This games becomes much more real with the stuffed snake downstairs, but usually is out of no where and obviously with no snakes. Sometimes other imaginary things "get" him, rendering him quite little and emotional.
* "I flying" - He "flies" around the room, singing the Peter Pan I can fly song. Sooo cute!
* "These my Peter Pan shoes." No they don't have Peter Pan on them, they are just his new shows that he has decided are Peter Pan shoes, hence he can "fly" in them.

I could go on all day, but I will spare you.

Ten On Tuesday: Election Day 2012 Edition

1. Happy America Day everyone! I got up bright and early and headed to the polls before work. I got there at 5:45 and was pretty far back in line. I was the youngest person there by probably 35 years. It went well, I voted on paper to avoid the long line for the computers. The old lady working at the paper ballot hand out line asked if I knew how to use one. "Yes mam, I have colored before and taken numerous tests, I got this."
Here's my proof of voting, much more festive than in 2008 when I had to hunt down a boring white sticker after waiting in line for almost two hours.

2. What I did not approve of about my voting experience was the ceiling to floor glass cabinet full of British Royalty paraphernalia including two foot dolls of Kate and Diana. How about a bust of George Washington, maybe an American flag thrown about here or there???? NOTHING!! I am thinking about heading out to the knitting and crocheting club meeting this week. Maybe I will hit up the paranormal reading group that's meeting tomorrow night.

3. In other less patriotic news, Zane is officially Mr. Fix It. When he isn't being a pirate he is fixing things. "I fix it mamma." He has all his tools inside, including three different hammers, often wears his tool belt around, and hits on stuff randomly "fixing things." "I fix it mamma" and "Come on mamma I wanna fix" are two of his most frequent quotes. It is quite adorable and stems from his Daddy being able to fix anything. "Daddy fix it mamma" is his response to all things broken or with dead batteries. He really doesn't believe mommy can fix anything, only daddy. Here he is fixing a few things last night.

4. This weekends fix it project was Zane's hat hooks. He has all sorts of hats, which until Sunday were strewn around our house. Now they have an adorable home on his new hat hooks in his room. I randomly found them on sale at Hob Lob and Funny was the only word that the ones left would spell, perfect. Zane, being a child after my own heart, loves that his hats all have a home now.

5. I would officially like to retire and be a stay at home mom. This isn't breaking news, just throwing it out there after last week when I was off three days, worked one, then got called off my Friday. I was super productive, cooked, cleaned, and had energy to play with my child after actually getting some rest, it was lovely! Probably having my mom in town for extra assistance Mon-Wed also helped.

6. This weekend is Zach's annual hunting weekend with his dad. This year my friend Anna is coming up to keep Zane and I company. I need to think of fun STL activities for us to do, hopefully the weather warms up. I am not ready for it to be cold outside, at all. However, look at this cute little boy in his fall jacket. I think it is suppose to be the blue monster from Monsters Inc. I bought it because it was the only one I could find that didn't have a brand name on it or skull and cross bones.

7. Strange to think about what I was doing four years ago verses what I am doing today. Four years ago we were living in a little apartment, no kids, I was still in school, young, not a care in the world. Today we have a lovely home, a beautiful little boy, another one on the way, and have weathered our fair share of storms. I can't help but think how different life will be four years from now. I couldn't tell you if I tried where we will be living then, not in this house, because little Zaney will be in the first grade (OMG) and can't go to the school district we live in currently.

8. Why does the election coverage start so early? They have no news for hours, they just talk about random things, show maps from the past, as though we forgot, and show off their new useless tools. So far here is what I have taken away, news men need to stick with their original glasses choices. Both Wolfe Blitzer and Tom Brokaw have switched up their glasses prior to the election and both are terrible. Hopefully their is real news sometime soon.

9. I can't handle the local news people here. One looks like she is about twelve years old, another lady has a white shirt with brown poka dots paired with a black skirt with brown poka-dots. That's terrible!!! In breaking MO news Claire McCaskill  kept her seat in the Senate, not surprising with Todd Akin continually saying horribly ignorant things. Pretty sure Romney will win here, but I do enjoy that I live in a state that they don't call as soon as the polls close, they at least give it a chance to count my vote. I'm talking about you Oklahoma, they called you guys like a year ago.

10. I tried to have an America Celebration at work today but we got 12 admissions and it was crazy busy. I was impressed at how they made sure everyone got to vote, though it was quite the challenge. I did sing God Bless America to a patient and tried numerous times to start a USA chant but no one was joining in, no fun. Needless to say I'm exhausted and not sure I can stay up to see this thing called. Happy Election night result watching. Can't wait for it to be over!

Long awaited farm camp video

I am not sure that I ever got around to blogging about farm camp because the week after farm camp was Zane's second birthday week, so I lost focus. Now that it is about five months later I am going to give you a brief run down of farm camp. Farm camp was held in early June and the Blakley Grandkids all went to Grandma's house for a few days of farm fun. We did all sorts of things from the splash pad and Leonardo's in Enid to visiting Mr. Riesen's farm and the horse farm by mom's house. We also took the kids to see Uncle David's cows and taught them the art of "calling cows" Grandpa Blakley style.

Those of you not familiar with my dad's cow calling technique here is a little tutorial. We would go out into the field, usually with a sack of cattle cubes, and then he would call them to come eat by saying "come boss come boss, come calf calf" repeatedly. No one can quite recreate dad's specific way of calling cows, but we tried. At farm camp the kids learned this technique and had it mastered by the second day, calling cows anytime they saw them from the car, or while singing "We're on the way to Grandpa's Farm" during music time. As seen in the much anticipated video, mentioned on my mom's blog in this post, entitled Music Makers.

I couldn't get it to upload directly to the blog, for unknown reasons, but if you click on this link it should take you to my online Picasa Album which has the video that you can watch. It is well worth it. I particularly love how Zane is 'playing the piano' with his recorder. While Brendan, the calmer, rule follwoing child, is dutifully playing his wooden frog the whole time, just as he was instructed. This matches these boys personalities to a T. Miss Maggie, the free spirit is rocking the jingle bells beautifully.