"new" blog, same old me.

i can't believe it has been 8 months since i have written an actual blog post.  it sometimes gets hard to sit down at your computer every day (or even once a week) and write about life.  since neither of my "babies" are really babies anymore, i wanted to change the title of the blog.  of course, i'll still be blogging mostly about our life, the life of the kids, my quest to wear matching clothes with my daughter and not look my mom and i wearing floral rompers in the 90s.  that's about it.  so stay tuned and maybe i'll blog again in the next couple of days. 

what ian's been up to

seriously, thank you all for your (gentle) opinions.  honestly, dave would tell me i looked good wearing a burlap sack and it's refreshing to hear some opinions.  i may try that again with everything else in my closet...

it's been 2 months since ian turned 2 and i stopped doing monthly updates, but i started this blog while journeying through his baking process and i do love to drone on talk about him- so i figure that i can update you guys!

 scalp treatments for eczema

"big boy" transitioning is under way- although he's far from being a big boy.  we moved him out of his high chair into a booster seat- mainly b\c i was tired of the high chair taking up half my kitchen.  he really likes being at the table and being able to sit in between us.  he's been a pretty decent eater lately- although he's on a bagel dog kick, and he insists on putting "sketchups" on everything.  eww.  there really is no telling what he'll eat- he still refuses to eat most vegetables too- but he still eats the baby food pouches "couches" which are full of veggies, so whatevs.

new big boy seat.  notice sketchups on the plate.

my child still uses a binky.  if you take issue with that, feel free to accompany us on our next 800 mile trip from illinois to georgia- it's in 2 weeks.  no really, feel free to join us.  i have no time table for getting rid of it.  before 3.  i have 10 months.  i figure that it's only used for "sleepy times" so it hopefully won't be a major issue.  i have so many other things going on right now that i figure that's still ok.

 giving eleanor a hug on valentine's day

ian is still in his crib too.  we have a super cool idea for his big boy bed if we can execute it.  it's going to take some work though- so we'll just leave him in the crib for now.  there have been no jail break attempts either, so we're safe for now.  he'll be out of it before we have the next one.

 wearing his dj lance glasses and totally "shredding" on his guitar

gosh, he's so big- it's scary.  i just want to remember every expression, every nuance.  he just lights up my life.  his giggles, his smile.  i don't want to get all sappy- but i just want to bottle it all up.  sometimes i just look at him and i cry because i just want to remember it all forever.  a lot of times he just laughs at me while i'm crying, or says "you ok?" 

 this is a typical reaction to the words "it's time to get ready for bed"

he loves movies- toy story is the favorite right now- we usually don't watch movies w\ him, so he picked that one up at the gym.  he mostly enjoys tv shows with me- gabba is the all-time favorite, but he's also really into curious george & chuggington.  he's also a big fan of music or "songs" as he likes to call it.  he's gotten to the point where he only wants to listen to certain things and has a complete fit if he doesn't listen.  for us right now that is the "brudders" or the "sons" (avett brothers & mumford & sons).  if we try to listen to something else in dave's car- a temper tantrum follows until we're listening to one of those two cds.  i won't make that mistake again.  he also likes to sing along with the songs and sometimes play the drums.  the other night he sang himself to sleep singing a mumford song.

 so glad this snowsuit was purchased last year on clearance considering this is the ONLY time he got to wear it all winter.  he is singing frosty the snowman to his snowman. 

he's also really into sports.  he got a hockey net for his birthday and was all about hockey, but we went to a friend's house a few times and she had a basketball goal, so he got some late birthday money a couple weeks ago and we bought him a goal set and now it's "bassetball" all the time.  he shoots, he scores!  is a favorite line uttered in this house!  favorite toys- trains & cars.  don't act so surprised...

 playing hockey and watching hockey

i'm so excited that warmer weather is just around the bend b\c he loves playing outside and we have a neighborhood playground just across the street.  ian also got a little balance bike for his birthday and he has a lot of fun riding that. 

ian still has a milk allergy & a mild egg allergy- we will have those checked yearly- i'm really hoping he outgrows it in the next couple of years b\c sometimes i let him have little bites of things and that kid loves cheese (and who wouldn't).

 sometimes we like to lock ourselves in our room and squeeze half a tube of vaseline in our hair.  oh joy!

oh, and i almost forgot- and i won't expand on it a lot b\c i don't want to be one of those moms, but we are potty training.  it's going really well and he's going at least once or twice a day, but we're not quite ready to move out of diapers.  we have a system that's working really well for us, and maybe once he's trained i'll go a little more in depth, but i'm hoping that he'll be fully trained by this summer- but we'll see. 

 who me?

as you can see, there's always a lot going on at our house.  sometimes fun, sometimes crazy.  oh boy.

the hair diaries

it's now been 19 weeks since the hair project began.  it's not going so well...

here's what's been going on...

first a little extensive background info:
i started getting occasional grey hairs about 3-4 years ago (so sad)...  it wasn't anything i couldn't just yank out... and then i got pregnant, and they started going crazy.  midway through my pregnancy (september 2009) it had gotten so bad that i colored my hair for the 3rd time ever- and i've been having to do it regularly since then.  except that since i've had ian, it's gotten worse.  i can color my hair, and new grey hairs (or my preexisting hair) grows so fast that i'm already showing new greys in just 3 weeks (extremely sad).  so i try to go at least 4 weeks between coloring...

so i colored my hair right before thanksgiving- and my hair always seems to look a little better around that time (i think the chemicals zap any oil).  we went to husband's gma's house and while i was there, i felt like i had finally gotten to a turning point while washing (rinsing) my hair it actually felt clean!  it was all downhill from there.  the very next week my hair was already feeling heavy & greasy again- not a good look.  in a fit of desperation, i dragged ian and myself to ulta where i picked up devacare no-poo cleanser (i chose this instead of devacare since my hair is colored). the reason i went with this is because it was mentioned in the article that i had read about ditching shampoo- so i thought it would work.... i am not impressed.  at.  all.  1.  it smells funny (devacurl smells way better), 2.  the "no-poo" part is weird- it's like rubbing conditioner into your hair (which i was doing during my washing w\ baking soda).  it doesn't lather, but i can't figure out how to clean my hair with it.  3.  i spent $20 on it, and i'm supposed to be eliminating an "unnecessary cost" from my life.  4.  my hair as never been greasier.  i don't know what i'm doing wrong, but i washed and dried my hair with devacurl wednesday night and the back and under layer of my hair just hung in greasy strings.  5.  did i mention it was $20?!?!

so while i was in ga for christmas, my mom let me use her "shampoo."  she has been occasionally washing with loreal's everpure, which is sulfate free (anyone know why eva longoria has her hair around her neck like a noose?), so i gave it a try and my hair looked and felt amazing!!  i felt like i was cheating though, so i went back to the devacare, and things have been pretty much the same (see #4 above)...  after that happened, i bit the bullet and bought the everpure, even though i just found this article...  i haven't used it again yet, and i wore my hair up today....  ugh.  what to do?!

what should i do now?  just go back to rinsing w\ plain water or doing the baking soda?  keep trying with the devacare (3/4 a bottle left)?  or just give in and go with the everpure (although it's pretty much a no-poo).  A- i know that you've been using devacurl and really like it- what's the secret to your success?  how much are you using, how are you using it?  what might i be doing wrong?

thoughts?!

updating

a few updates on my recent posts

wedding guest dress - i couldn't decide.  plus, half the dresses went into "out of stock" or "size 2 available mode.  and since most forays into the dressing room for me have a 17% success rate i decided this:  purchase 7 dresses that i liked best ie: were most affordable, try them all on, and send back the 6 losers, hopefully keeping 1 very awesome winner.  my husband frowned upon this idea, wanting me to purchase 2  instead and choose from those.  next time, you can have the baby and jack your body up.


ditch the shampoo - this got worse before it got better.  not only are my grays sticking out and holding up little "look at me" signs; i was wanting to shave my head and vomit every time i saw my hair, which stayed perfectly placed in a ponytail every time i removed my hair band.  gag.  when i was begging for my shampoo, husband suggested i follow the baking soda wash- it made a major improvement to my hair from first wash, and my hair is gradually starting to look cleaner.  i'm hoping that holds up, because it's time to color it... AGAIN. 


shredding - ugh.  epic fail.  i got through 10 days, then hubby's gma died and we were out of town for the long weekend, and it was just so difficult to get back into it.  i may start up again, but for now husband has a big plan for us that i'm keeping to myself for a while.  good news is while i didn't lose any weight, i haven't gained any since then either...

ian and i are flying to the atl tomorrow.  i'm so excited.  i need some south in my life.  we are flying, and did i mention it's just going to be the two of us?  after we get to atlanta, we'll be driving to nashville for the weekend for a family reunion (a little counter-productive) and then it's loads of fun in c-town.  this will be the first time husband has been away from ian- and he's a little bummed (so are we).  thank God for skype.  i'll be sure to include a post on traveling with baby. 

i won't be posting much during my vacay, but i do have some guest posts lined up- so keep checking in!!

Weeks 9-12 aka: i need to update

Since my pukey week 8 things have been a lot better.

Week 9 I journeyed home to Atlanta where we threw a surprise party for my parents 30th anniversary! I'm pleased to report that it went very well and we had no real issues with pulling it off. I even got to pull some sneaky stunts, and that's very exciting. It was good to be home, celebrate my bday with friends and celebrate my parents anniversary with family and friends. Although we really didn't get to spend father's day with my dad, we were still there for that weekend.

Upon returning home, (starting week 10) we carried some items to our storage facility. We had an indoor unit that seemed pretty safe. When we got inside there was water in our unit, but it seemed pretty minor. The facility had closed, so we put our new things up high and left. We came back Wednesday to show the people who run the place. The damage still looked minor, but upon further inspection we realized that the entire unit's floor was covered by water- a space of 15X15. We spent the next 5 hours taking everything (the entire contents of our home in Atlanta) and separating the wet from the dry and reloading everything into a new unit. Luckily, pregnant women don't get to move all of that stuff. Dave's parents helped, and a couple of his friends came by too. By the end of the night my entire body ached, i was covered in bites, hot, cranky, and had cried a lot. Lucky for us, big ticket items like furniture were safe, but smaller electrics, dvds, books, and most of my yearbooks (irreplacable) were destroyed. We are in the process of a claim, currently.

We attended a fun wedding this weekend, and the tail end of week 10/beginning of week 11 had a Dr.'s appointment in store for me. Since I've been pretty nauseated, i got a Rx to zofran. Yay. Thank goodness b\c the vomiting reurned in week 11. Luckily, it has passed for now, and i'm off to week 12. I got a job the same day as my dr.'s appt- and I start work on Tuesday. I've had a couple interviews since, but still waiting to hear back from those. Hopefully i'll be a better updater these days too! I should be feeling better here beginning week 13!

1 Trimester down!