I forgot to mention...

Haley (aka Auntie Haley) came by for a visit tonight. She's leaving tomorrow (err, today) for a trip to England! I'm so excited for her; I know she'll have a great time. Here's a shot of her & her Jonny Boy this evening.

Have fun & be safe, Auntie Haley! Bring me something English! LOL

Thank you, Dr. Ferber

As I mentioned in this post, ever since Jonathan was tiny we've rocked him to sleep. Which, while nice for all of us (Daddy too), it wasn't the best idea. Each night, you'd have to get him to sleep & try laying him down; hoping against hope that he didn't wake up. If he did, really the only option was to start over. We'd been talking for awhile about trying to find a method that would work for us to get him to fall asleep on his own. I picked up a few books, one of which being Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Dr. Richard Ferber, M.D. I'd heard of this method before, but always thought it involved just leaving your child in his/her room to cry until he fell asleep. I didn't really want to do that. After talking with my friend, Lisa, who gave me some more information, I decided to read the book.

Basically it breaks it down into different techniques, based on your child's needs. Jonathan's "problem" is/was "sleep associations"; he needed us to rock him to sleep. In Jonathan's case, the method was to set up a bedtime routine so that it would be come a soothing time & one to look forward to. Then, you put them in bed & leave. Yes, he cried, but I went back into his room in increasing intervals. First night... 3 min, then 5, then 10, etc. and it increased a little each night. The first 3 nights I only had to go in once to comfort him and then he fell asleep on his own. Tonight..... he didn't cry AT ALL! I'm so thankful about this! I'm hoping that it will continue from here on out. Once he's going to bed easily on his own for a while, then we'll work on moving his bedtime down to a reasonable hour. Right now it's around 11pm, which is way too late.

Here is the bedtime routine that we're doing right now:

*Change diaper
*Put on Johnson's Bedtime Lotion and sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
*Put on pajamas
*Read "Pajama Time" by Sandra Boynton
*Read "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown
*Turn out light
*Go to bed

It's working for us right now, though I may add to it in the future. Do you have a bedtime routine for your kid(s)? What do y'all do?

All this talk about bedtime is making me sleepy....

Do you remember this?

As if I don't spend enough time on the computer reading blogs, I have a new one that I love; Slice of Pink. I found this on her blog this morning... MASH. Do you remember this game? Oh I used to play this all the time. My results this morning.... I'll marry Joshua Jackson, live in a shack in Boston, drive a blue mercedes, be a teacher & have one child. Interesting. And yes... I did put Chris' name in the blocks, the first one so you know! So, play the game & post a comment with your results!

In other news.... I lost another 1.6 pounds this week! I reached my 1st 10% goal! I was so excited because my friend Jennifer got her 10% too so we were able to celebrate together. I'm so thankful that I have her there with me; it's definitely helping me to have a friend to go with. As my reward for reaching my first goal I get to have a mani-pedi; but I'm not sure when I'm going yet. Tomorrow I'm scrapping with the girls again. This time we're going to Scrap Chic Boutique in Decatur. Rebecca has been chosen to be on the Design Team there, and we're all so excited for her!

Well, Jonathan should be getting up any minute, so I'd better get going....

"I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself"

Do you know that song? The only reason I know it is from the movie My Best Friend's Wedding.

Anyway, that's where I'm at today. My mom has been asking for a while for Jonathan to come stay with her a couple of days. So yesterday, she & Dad came by for a visit... and took Jonathan home with them.

They left around 4:30 or so, and for the rest of the evening I felt restless; like I should be doing something, or chasing someone. It was really weird being her without that little redheaded boy. But it was also nice being here, just Chris and I. We didn't really do anything for Valentine's Day, so we grilled a steak (yum!) and Chris had mushrooms & onions,, which he loves.

I went through a few "phases" last night: 1) Restless, as I said above. 2) Exhausted. The idea of an entire night's sleep without interruptions made me so tired. And 3) Missing him like crazy. I was trying to get to sleep last night & I was lying there thinking about Jonathan & how much I missed him. I've been re-reading one of my favorite books, "Pretense", and the part I'm at now is very heart wrenching. I won't tell what it is, in case anyone decides to read it, but it affected me like never before & left me feeling very grateful for my family & friends.

Anyway... I have the whole day to myself! I've been at a loss as to what to do, it's been so long since I've had a day with no plans. I did call & make plans to have lunch with a former coworker today. She's about to become a grandmother for the first time so I wanted to take her a little gift. I made her a picture frame Saturday; I need to take a picture & post it. After lunch I'm not entirely sure what I'll do. I may run to Babies-R-Us & pick up a couple of things. I also have a few other errands to run, so that may be what I end up doing. Nothing too exciting.

I'm really looking forward to tonight though. My mom's group is having a Mom's Night Out at Johnny's Pizza. It's trivia night there, so it should be a lot of fun.

Well, I think I'll sign off now. Enjoy your day! I know I will. ;o)

Ha!

Jonathan wanted to play with Chris' dad's glasses today, so he put them on him. It was just too funny; I had to snap a couple of pics.

McDreamy it is then....

Take the Quiz

another blast from the past

I love going back & looking at pictures from a year ago. I'm amazed everytime at how much he's grown.



I lost another 1.6 pounds this week! I'm only one pound away from my first 10% goal!!! My friend who I go to meetings with reached her 10% today but couldn't stay for the meeting; so hopefully we'll get to celebrate together next week.

So, obviously...

the post a day thing didn't work out. I had great intentions, but then we had a couple of nights where the computer was having issues, then Jonathan was having issues going to bed, and so on, and so on.

Last week was pretty uneventful. Tuesday we went to story time with my moms group at The Learning Express; they were reading stories about Curious George, who Jonathan loves. I think he's still a little too young to really enjoy sitting still & listening to books, but we had a good time.

Wednesday was Weight Watchers. I lost another pound; yay me! As I've said before, I really need to add exercising to my routine, but just haven't found the motivation yet. I think it would help kick things up a notch. My friend Jennifer is a member at BodyPlex, and has a free pass, so I may go check it out.

Thursday Chris' grandmother & aunt came by to visit & see Jonathan. While they were here I took advantage of their presence & left Jonathan with them to run a couple of errands. Sometimes it's nice to just get out of the house alone for a bit. I was only gone for about an hour, but it was nice.

Friday was Bible Study at Letitia's house. It was a great study on perserverance and I came away with some new thoughts. Jonathan had a great time too playing with the other kids. That evening we watched Pirate's of the Caribbean: At World's End. It was okay. I was on the laptop playing on the internet for the first part, so for the rest of the movie I was completely confused.

Saturday morning Chris played golf with his dad, so Jonathan and I just piddled around until he got home. That afternoon we went grocery shopping & then to Chris' parents house for a bit. Jonathan was too funny at their house going from toy, to toy, to toy. He'd play with one for a couple of minutes & then move on to the next one. In a little circuit.

Yesterday we went to our usual restaurant for lunch. I love that they know us in there. There are several people that seem to go there every week too, and we see them often. One couple we've sat at the same table with several times. I think they were on vacation this week because we didn't see them. Last week I remember hearing them talk about going somewhere. After lunch, Chris had to go to his parent's house & help his dad fix something; so he took Jonathan with him & I went out for a bit. I went to the library & checked out a few books, to Lane Bryant (where I didn't find anything), and then to Blockbuster. We rented Ocean's Thirteen, which was good.

So, now that you've had a play by play of my entire week (which I'm sure you greatly appreciate! LOL), I'll leave you with a picture. This one was taken exactly one year ago today. He's grown so much, it's amazing! I'll try and get some good pictures over the next couple of days to post.

Super Bowl Sunday

Congrats to the New York Giants for winning Super Bowl XLII! What a great game! I was kind of hoping that the New England Patriots would win, simply because I thought it would be neat for a team to go undefeated all the way through; but it was not to be. We had a little Super Bowl party this evening. Rebecca, the Clavells & Lisa's cousin Stephanie & her kids all came for the festivities. And by festivites I mostly mean snacking & chatting. Chris & Michael stayed in the living room watching the game, but us ladies would venture into the kitchen to chat. It was quite fun. Poor Victoria didn't have a very good time though. Apparently on Friday she was cleaning out her ears & stuck the Qtip in her ear too far. She may have burst the ear drum or something as she's in a lot of pai. I think Lisa is planning to take her to the doctor tomorrow.

I wanted to "fish" for suggestions... Mine & Chris' 10 year anniversary (!) is coming up in May and we'd like to take a vacation; but we can't decide where to go. Any and all suggestions are welcome...

Okay, off to bed... until tomorrow...

First haircut...

I finally bit the bullet & agreed to have Jonathan's hair cut today. At first he was fine, and then it was like he realized what was happening... and just kind of lost it. I felt so bad for him, and I have to admit I cried a little, but he looks super cute. I'm going to post pictures... it was going to take forever to upload all of them, so I'm just going to post the link to the album on Photobucket. Let me know if this doesn't work.

First Haircut Pictures

I think I'll try...

posting every day in February. Why? Why not?

Today was pretty low key; I haven't been feeling very well, so we pretty much did nothing all day. Tomorrow I'm meeting Rebecca & Laurel for breakfast at IHOP then we're headed to the Rubber Stamp Show. Hopefully I'm feeling better in the morning.

Also, depending on what time we get done at the show, Chris and I may take Jonathan to get his first haircut! I've been fighting this for quite some time; it's the last "baby" thing that we haven't done yet. I know he'll look so much more like a little boy, and not so much like a baby. Granted, I'm sure you noticed from the park pictures the other day, he doesn't look much like a baby anymore, haircut or not. But, it's about time for the haircut, it's scraggly in the back & almost long enough to get into his eyes in the front. I'll definitely take some pictures & post them.

Well, off to bed. I need to get up early in the morning. *See* you tomorrow...