Thursday

Uhh, here are some pictures from today... 

These are all sooc... but I was messing with the white balance (which is why the first set is nice and warm). I also used the b&w setting on the camera which creates a muuuuch nicer black and white than post production manipulation- at least on the crappy photo editing program I have. *Sigh* my free photoshop trial has expired. That was fun while it lasted.

Chew toy

I have posts to create about Christmas and Judah turning 6 months old. But those seem like just too much effort at the moment. Instead, enjoy Judah chewing on one of his toys.

That is all.

Double trouble

My almost 4 year old niece is staying with us for a few days.

There she is, hanging an ornament she made on our tiny plastic tree

And, mannnnn, two kids create far more than double the exhaustion level of just one. I'd say quadruple. At least. And here I've been bitching about my lack of 'me' time lately. Today was just a wee taste of the amount of 'me' time I'll have once there are two kiddos permanently running around our house (I'm not implying that it will be happening any time soon, mind you). The thought is that we will eventually have 3 kids, so I'm guessing I'll get about an hour of 'me' time... per year.

In non-exhaustion related news, Judah tried bread today.

We learned from our mistake yesterday. No more plates for this guy.

Hope you are prepared to be inundated by daily photos of Judah eating food. It is just so novel that I can't help but take pictures of him eating. Like. A. Real. Person.

Avocado: The food of champions

It is also the first food of Judah. Bill has been just dying for Judah to start eating. For the last two months or so he has been continually asking me if "Judah can eat the scone? Orange? Ice cream? Cookie? Pasta?" And I kept saying, "No." And then he would get all sad. But, alas, I had to cave sometime. We were planning on waiting until he hit 6 months (Wednesday), but we will be pretty busy that day so today was the day.

Ralph figured out that there was food that just might make it into his mouth. Gert figured out that shiz from the start.

We are doing baby led weaning. I first heard about it from the omnipotent Modg. I decided to look into it more so I downloaded the book for the kindle (but, have yet to read all of it). So much of the book is dedicated to trying to convince you to do it, and we had already decided this was what we wanted to do... I just need to read the how-to chapters. Baby led weaning is a way of babies feeding themselves. No mush, no purees, no hear-comes-the-airplane shenanigans. Judah will eat what we eat (within reason). He decides how much or how little to eat. He gets to play with it (which is how he learns). He gets all his real nutrition from BFing, the food it just for fun.

He loves sticking everything into his mouth and I'm pretty sure that avocado was a vast improvement over wooden or plastic toys (or paper, or hair, or noses, or knuckles, or dog fur). It was pretty entertaining for us too.

Sadly, the adventure ended with this:

He loves throwing things on the floor, so it should have come as no surprise that he would also love throwing (more of a push actually) a ceramic plate on the floor. Looks like it is time to invest in some plastic plates for the boy-o.

Hipster Baby, Take 2

Today we went for more of the handlebar variety.

Sam Elliot would be proud.

Of course, it can also be worn 19th century evil villain style.

Hipster Baby

I need to work on my mustache execution. This 'stache kind of looks like two sperm about to collide.

2 out of 3 things are better

Better 1. Judah

His nose is definitely running less today. However, he is more boogery. Whatever. He sounds less congested overall. One of my girlfriends suggested that maybe he doesn't even a cold, but that the slime nose is a teething symptom. Maybe. Hell, if I know.
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I started writing this post while Bill was giving Judah his bath and getting him ready for bed. Now, I'm back after unsuccessfully trying to get Judah to go to sleep for the last hour and a half. He is super sleepy, and will sleep when I'm holding him, but put him flat on his back in the crib and he instantly gets all congested sounding and wakes himself up. Sigh. I know a certain little boy who just might be sleeping in bed with me tonight (that way his head can be propped up on my arm and his sinuses can drain).

Notice the nose slime.

Oh well, he is still *somewhat* better than yesterday.

2. The boiler

The dude came back today and got everything squared away. Our radiators are now producing heat. All of them (a first!) and the house is slowly creeping back up to my ideal house temp (67 degrees). Yay, heat! It works for now (which is very important and I am verrrry thankful for) but I'm sure within the next 5 years or so we will need to install a new boiler that is better suited for our needs (and comes from a company that makes reliable products).

Not better 1. Gert

We heard back from the vet today. She is going to need surgery. And, get this, not just in one knee, but TWO! Both of her back knees have the messed up ligaments. Can't believe she already needs knee surgery, she is one a year and a half old. We don't have the surgery scheduled yet, my guess is it will probably happen after Christmas. That way she can take it easy at home and not have to deal with traveling right after getting cut open.

3 broken things

There are three broken things in our house right now.

1. Judah

J's Auntie is visiting for a few days to spend time with the cuddly little snot machine

He is coming down with a cold (I think). His nose just started running today. Poor little guy has been leaking clear slime out the nose for most of the day. His breathing sounds really wet because of it and so far he has had a hard time sleeping (I think his little snores are waking him up). This is the first time Judah has ever gotten sick... At least, I think this qualifies as being sick. Those are his only symptoms though, so I'm not sure if this counts. Hopefully, he will wake up tomorrow feeling better.

2. Gert

Gert has a bum knee. She has been keeping her weight off her back leg since Thanksgiving time. We have been making her take it easy and limiting her walks and refusing to play with her (to which she fiercely objects).  We assumed she had strained a muscle or something from playing (non-stop) with all of her Oregon doggy friends... But, she just hasn't gotten better. I took her into the vet yesterday to see what was what. The vet could feel her knee cap pop out of place, which can sometimes happen with little dogs. The bone that her knee cap is suppose to fit into might not be grooved deeply enough to keep the knee cap snug and in place. The vet also feared that she had injured the ligament between her upper and lower leg bones (right under the knee), so today she had to go back to the vet for X-rays.  She was such a good little girl that they did not need to put her under to get the x-rays. She let them move her and manipulate her legs and hips into place while being awake. The X-rays have now been sent off to the surgeon, but it looks like that ligament is effed up, which means she will need to get knee surgery.

3. The boiler

We finally broke down and called a plumber/heat guy to come take a look at our heating system. The guy was at our place from 8am-6pm dealing with our boiler. Whenever he would get one thing fixed, it became apparent that there was an additional problem with another part. He has to come back tomorrow to keep working at it, but hopefully the end is in sight (at least with the boiler part, it turns out our thermostat is not communicating with the boiler which is yet another problem).

The boiler was put in by some of the previous owners. And, well, they didn't do the best job or put in the highest quality appliance (to put it mildly). The first year we lived here we had the radiators serviced and found out the engine to the boiler was installed UPSIDE DOWN. Oi. Looks like the boiler is not very good and there have been loooots of complaints about this particular model. Part of me wonders if getting it fixed is just throwing good money after bad. Is it just going to keep breaking down bit by bit? New boilers are expensive, but at least that would (hopefully) be a one time shot instead of constantly battling what appears to be quite a lemon of a boiler. Sigh.

I do love owning a house, but it sure was a hell of a lot easier when we were renters and the landlords had to take care of all that shit and they had to do it ASAP.

Pajama Party!

Lately, everyday is a pajama party for Judah. Since our heating is on the fritz, J is sporting his soft and cozy fleece jammies nonstop. Sometimes there are even hidden layers for extra warmth.

We are having a heating/plumbing dude that we found on Angie's List come out on Tuesday and take a look at our system. Here's hoping they are able to identify the problem and remedy is asap. Bill described what is going on over the phone and the peeps said it could be any number of things, they won't know until them come take a look.

Lucky for me, I happen to think Judah looks extra cute and cuddly in his pajamas. So soft and snuggly.

Brrr

Baby, it's cold outside inside.

Our heating system is a bit sub-par. It does great as long as the outside temperature is 50 and higher (which is most of the year), but once it drops to the 40s and lower it gets collllld in our house.

The priority is keeping Judah's room warm. So far, so good on that front. Although, I loath to think what is going to happen when is gets really cold out there (like 20 and teens).

Therefore, J and I spend a lot of time in his room during the day. When we venture downstairs it is with lots of layers on... and if we are settling in one spot then the heat dish is getting plugged in an blasting at us on high.

I fear that it is going to be spendy endeavor to overhaul our system to get it working efficiently. We have radiators and I'm think it will take a lot of plumbing work to get the steam a flowing. Right now our system can not maintain enough pressure in the pipes to get heat to all the radiators. We have to pick and choose which to use. We have been planning on having the exterior of the house painted next spring/summer, but maybe we should get the heat taken care of instead... but it is so hard to make that decision in summer when it is warm out and we are not feeling the effects of a poor heating system.

Annnnnd Judah just woke up, so off I go.

Eff this noise

So you might remember that I was totally on top of holiday cards this year, right?

Well, that turned out to be a bust.

After the initial photo shoot, we decided to go with this as our Holiday Card 2011:

Awww, he's adorable. I know.

We ordered 125 of these bad boys from winkflash.

A week or so goes by and they arrive in the mail. Yay! So exciting! I'm very pumped with my with-it-ness in the card department.

And, then I opened them. And, they suck. The printing was waaaaay too dark and the colors are off. Sad panda. Thanks to their return policy I decide to just scrap card number one and get a refund (still need to do that btw, my 30 day return window is rapidly coming to an end).

Not to be discouraged, I decide to have a second photo shoot with the little dude and see if we can't get an image that I like better (that is also lighter and {hopefully} won't have the same printing issues).

Round dos of photos goes well. We pick a cute smiley pict of the little bugger and make it into our Holiday Card 2011 version 2.0

Yet again, we order from winkflash.

And wait. It is right around Thanksgiving at this point, so I figure the photos are just slow to arrive because of holiday and what not.

So I wait some more.

Then I finally think to check the order tracking and it says...

Are you ready for this?

THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN DELIVERED. BEFORE THANKSGIVING.

Lies, I tell you.

I email winkflash and let them know that although the tracking says the cards were delivered I received no such package.

Their response was for me to bring it up with USPS. Oi.

Winkflash isn't going to do jack about it.  Awesome.

I now have to repurchase the photos to get them sent asap so that I can get them out at least a few days before Christmas. And there went my whole being-on-top-of-at-least-one-thing this holiday season.

My guess is that:

A. The package was delivered to the wrong house (I'm seriously shocked how often I get other people's mail, especially for our corresponding address one block down).
-or-
B. Someone stole the package off our porch. Why the hell someone would want a package that was obviously photos is beyond me. Hope you are enjoying your 125 copies of Judah looking festive mystery criminal!

Either way? Lame.

Here's hoping the 3rd times the charm & the photos arrive promptly and look crisp.

Oh, whaddya know? Another post of a baby and a dog.

I started off taking some photos of Bill holding Judah.

But, then along came Ralph.

True love

I used to think Ralph merely tolerated Gert.

I now know that I was wrong. Clearly what we have here is a case of true love.

I'm too exhausted to think of a title

I'm tired. Like beyond tired. Being a mom is hard bizness, some days it is harder than others. Last night was one of those days. Wait, what?

Judah woke up 2 hours after being put to bed and was up for for pretty much 4 straight hours last night. Just up. Wiiiide awake and wanting to hang out. Would squall if left alone, but perfectly content to just hang and gab and grab stuff. I was not down with that shit. But I had no choice. He wins. He always does. He finally went to sleep. Or so I thought. 45 minutes later he was up again. That time didn't last as long. Buuuuut, then at 5 he was up for another hour. And pretty much just stayed up. He hung out with Bill while Bill got ready for work, so I got a whopping 30 minutes or so more of sleep. I was in tears by the time Bill had to leave for work, because I was so effing tired and there was nothing I could do about it. There have only been a handful of times Judah has made me cry and they ALL relate to sleep deprivation. I like my sleep. Bill came home on his lunch hour so I could nap while he took care of Judah. After he went back to work J & I took his afternoon together. 

I'm really excited that tomorrow is Saturday and I get to SLEEP. Bill will get up with J in the morning and I will sleep. It will be glorious. But of course I can't sleep right now because my sleep schedule is all effed from sleeping in the middle of the day. Sleep cycles, you are one nasty broad.

I don't know what I would have done if I had to go off to work this morning. I could barely function at home, I can't imagine having to go in to work all day. It would be one thing if I could have caffeine, but Judah barfs like a mofo if I have one teensy cup of french press. 

Before, J came along I thought I would be able to get so much done as a stay at home mom house manager. I would be able to:

keep the house clean

not have a dirty dish in sight

cook dinner every night

wash and fold laundry at least once a week

run all the errands

go on nice long walks every day

finish up my Montessori credentials

finally crack out my sewing machine

join the local art co-op

work on home decor projects

do the ten thousands crafts and DIY stuff I have filed away (ahem, pinned nowadays)

oh &, you know, hang out with Judah

Boy, was I sorely mistaken. I don't know how some people do it. I am able to accomplish the hanging out with Judah part, the dinner part, and the laundry (which I was already pretty on top of, that seems to be the one chore I can routinely accomplish). The end. The rest seems to just be a pipe dream. I don't have the time or energy to do any of that other shit. When Judah finally goes to bed at night it is time to make and eat dinner. After that I have maybe an hour or two of me time. Well, it should only be an hour or two, but I often stay up way to late (like right now) because I just want to do some stuff for me, even if it just dicking around on the interwebs or watching tv or a movie with Bill. 

I would really like to get a handle on the whole house thing. I clean it (but not as often as I should). It happens in spurts and stages. Right now the top priority is the upstairs bathroom. I just vacuumed upstairs a day (or two?) ago and cleaned the downstairs back a few days before that and vacuumed and mopped downstairs a bit before that. My goal was to get the whole house cleaned in increments within a week. I'm lucky if it happens in two. But, what I really want (need?) is just to go through everything and get it organized. We just have so much stuff. So much. 

I want to use Morris' quote as my mantra and go through all the things. And get rid of the so many of the things. In general, I'm bad at getting rid of stuff. I feel bad throwing it out or donating it if I spent money on it (even if I don't use it) or if it was a gift (even if I think it's fug) or I never use it (because, one day I might, right?). So I keep it. I keep all the things. And that needs to stop. At the very least I need to get organized and put the things Ijustmightusepossiblysomeday away. For an old house we have quite a bit of (underutilized) storage. The entryway has a bench seat with hidden storage, there is a built in hutch in the dining room, built in cabinets the laundry room, and more built in storage in the upstairs hallway. Plus, two guest bedroom closets and the attic... and the basement... and a damp garage. The closets in the master bedroom and the nursery also could benefit from a massive overhaul. The closets are not huge, but the space could be used so much more efficiently. 

If anyone wants to come over and organize all the things for me, have at it. I'll even cook you dinner and give you beer. I just won't clean up after.

Because I am super lazy tired, here are some inspirations decor photos... that are all just things I pinned. Check out the lack of clutter. That is what I want. Less of all the things. More of a few awesome nice things.

See what I mean? I totally need to pare down all the things.

Pups

Today you only get photos. No words. No time. Too busy. My 'me time' is in serrrrrriously short supply at the moment. Even right now, Bill is upstairs singing and rocking Judah. BECAUSE HE IS AWAKE. And it is almost 11. AND HE IS AWAKE. I really should go up and take over, since Bill needs to get up for work in the morning. Sigh. I miss my precious few evening hours of me time.

Anyway, on with the pictures from this morning of Judah with his two favorite pups.