Soy+Shiloh=Joy

So far so good with the soy regimen going on over here. I actually described Shiloh's behavior yesterday as angelic. That hasn't happened in a while. He must have just been feeling so bad that all he wanted to was cry and be held. Poor guy. So glad that I figured all of this out before the 2 hour car ride and then the 3 hour plane ride tomorrow! Just thought I would update everyone. And seriously, Thank you for all of the concern and well wishes. When nothing else is going your way, it is always nice to know that people care! (This pic has nothing to do with this post other than it was a moment of pure joy on Shiloh's face, and it is one of my favorite pics of him)

Happy Thursday!

I have been reminiscing a lot about childhood lately, mostly because we are going to Utah this weekend and I get to see my family. I have been having all sorts of home sickness and so I started to think back to when we were all at home and all of the craziness that it ensured. Lots of fun and sometimes dramatic craziness. This led me to looking at a few pics of the fam when we were younger... a lot younger. So I decided to to post this little gem of a pic for your viewing pleasure. Happy Thursday all!

(p.s. Sorry sibs for the embarrassing childhood shot, but since only one of you checks my blog I figures I wouldn't receive that much much back lash;))

Pouty Purples=Allergic to Milk? I think....

So, we have to back track quite a long ways to the beginning of this story... i.e. 9 months ago to be exact. Shiloh switches to formula. He, who is already extraordinarily spitty, becomes more so. The doctors keep telling me over and over again that it is acid reflux, which I believed. His spitting up doesn't get much better. Still to this day he still spits up and is almost 1.

Now fast forward to two weeks ago when all of this being a pouty purple nonsense comes into play. I start integrating small amounts of whole milk in with his formula. You know, just to kind of get a feel for if he likes, loves it, hates it. He hated it. He would gag whenever we tried it. We never forced it just kept giving it to him to try. I noticed some extra spittiness (I know it isn't a word) with the milk intro, but talked to a few friends who had already been through the process and said that they noticed the same thing and their kids were fine. Wasn't too worried.

Fast forward again to this past Saturday. Shiloh is almost transitioned completely over to whole milk and he looks to really like it. He would cry for it when he saw me take it out of the refrigerator. He starts puking. All. Day. Long. Nothing solid could pass his lips the whole day. He is screaming from tummy pain. We think it is the flu. By the next day, he was doing better. Still grumpy, but better. While he was sick I gave him watered down formula to conquer hunger pains. He is tolerant of that.

I had a feeling to slowly add the whole milk back in instead of skipping straight to the stage we were already at.

Fast forward to this morning. As of last night and this morning, Shiloh had only had about 2 oz. total of whole milk. He started gagging again and just puked and puked. Then it was like it was over. It was very reminiscent of the episode earlier and so I waited to see if he was going to puke all day. Nope. Kenny and I know that the only thing that changed from yesterday to today is that he had whole milk. I decided to go to the store and get soy formula and soy milk. The kid sucked them down, and then raised his cup and asked for more, which he never does. Then he ate, with no indigestion, and he wanted more, which rarely happens. The pouty purples you ask? Seemingly gone, at least so far for today, which is way longer than any amount of time in the past two weeks.

I just feel bad that I didn't know any sooner. I thought if he was allergic to cow's milk, I would have known somehow or been told, considering formula has cow's milk, and I asked pediatricians about his puking. ( I even asked if the puking could be related to an allergy and they said that it sounded more like acid reflux and ruled out an allergy). I still have to consult my doctor about all of this, but man am I glad to see the kid feeling better. He was trying to tell me all along, "Hey mom, my tummy hurts. Can you please fix it, or at least listen to me?" Well took me long enough, but at least this turtle of a listener finally caught on.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this is the solution. Wish me luck.

Pouty Purple

This is what my mom would call us when we were younger and were whining about things... a pouty purple. Well, I have one on my hands. I guess, if you count me, we have two. My happy Shiloh has decided that he wants to be a pouty purple for about the past two weeks, which makes me a tad bit of a pouty purple myself. I get that we moved, and given he was sick for one day this week, but he just cries and cries unless I pick him up and carry him around. He won't walk around with us or crawl around and play with his toys. I am already carrying around a baby, and for me, since I am a bit of a wimp, I can't seem to carry him all day too. I am not exaggerating at all. I can't even put him down to get him milk or open a can. He lays on the floor and cries or holds onto my leg and pulls or gets dragged across the floor as I walk to grab something else. I might say that it is getting a little comical around here, especially if you are trying to imagine a pregnant lady dragging around a 1 year old all whilst he is screaming, but I am being way too much of a pouty purple to admit that. Any suggestions to reverse this pouty purple problem in me or my child it would be much appreciated.

Ladies and Gentlemen! I have internet again.

So it has been a little over a week since I have posted anything. Along with that week of no posting, there was no internet. I have a few things that I discovered during my internetless week...

1. I missed blogging and catching up with other blogs. A little weird to have actually missed something as abstract as a blog, but I did nonetheless.

2. I am far more productive when I don't even have a computer within 20 miles of my new house. (The laptop was at the apartment in town where there was internet in case Kenny needed to print something off in the time of no internet at the new house) I clean more. I unpack many more boxes. I play with my child more intently(kind of ashamed I have to admit that, but tis true) I read more. I speak on the phone with friends and catch up in the "real" way as opposed to the "virtual" way. There are pros and cons to both ways, but it had been a while for the real way.

3. I am a little more grumpy when I don't have some sort of outlet during naps. I like to tell the world, or the three or four of you that read my blog, what is going on with me, or just to lose myself in something mindless for a few minutes.

4. I had less headaches from staring at the computer screen.

5. I need to learn self control now that the internet is back. I want to be more productive and maybe make some limits of when would be a good time to be on the internet, and when wouldn't. I would like to get more things done, and not just spend nap time ( the entire 3 hours worth) on the computer.

It is interesting what you learn when you have to do without something. You realize things about yourself that you may not have otherwise. Some of the things are not what you would like to admit about yourself, but a little time for introspection is always good, as long as you take what you learn and do something about it.

Two major things happened to Shiloh today...and they are not really related...only kind of.

Today, Shiloh was all over the place climbing and getting into everything. I put him down for a nap.... there is a bit of back story to this. I am getting ahead of myself.

Yesterday morning when we got Shiloh out of bed for the day, we noticed that we should probably move the crib mattress down to its lowest notch. We (i.e. Kenny and I) discussed this and decided that We would do this on Saturday morning, when we move to the new house. We were going to be taking the crib apart anyway. The discussion happened Wednesday morning. What could happen in a couple of days. Well, with Shiloh a lot can happen in a couple of days, as you will see. I put Shiloh down for his afternoon nap on Thursday, just slightly more than 24 hours later.

I heard him wake up with his normal jibbering. The jibber jabber went on for about 10 seconds, then I here a THUD!!!

I start to run to his room and then the delayed crying begins just as I open the door.

That is right folks, this horrible procrastinating mother's 11 month old climbed out of his crib and fell on the ground! I felt horrible. I started checking him for broken bones. He was fine. Once the wind came back to him, he was way less shaken than me. I didn't even know that he was old enough to do such things. It wasn't like he was totally bending over the edges. He was just starting to get taller, that's it. I felt, and feel, like an idiot for procrastinating.

The lucky part of this story? I was packing in his room before he went down to sleep. I left a huge pile of clothing on the ground and decided to take care of it later. Luckily, he fell on to the clothing pile.

Some mothers! And I am one of them! Needless to say, before Shiloh went down for the night, Kenny lowered the crib. No more procrastinating things of that nature....

Now for the second thing, that I am not sure would have happened if we were not lowering the mattress just before bed. Shiloh was playing by the rocking chair. but very intrigued at what daddy was doing with the crib. It was rolling around.

He looked at the crib, and just took 5 or 6 steps to it. No coaxing or tricking or begging. Not having him walk from me to daddy or vise versa, just did it. We of course clapped and showered him with comments of adoration and congratulation, so he just took five more steps Kenny. After that he kind of lost the drive, but he walked today, just a little. It makes me sad that he is growing up, scared at what else he will get into, but also excited that he took his first steps.

Crazy day I tell ya!

Going through the motions and goals.

Get up. Make breakfast. Send the hubby off to work. Play with Shiloh. Nap time. Shower during nap time. Eat lunch. Play with Shiloh. Clean. Nap time. Clean or read scriptures during nap time. Hubby gets home. Eat dinner. Play with Shiloh. Bath time. Put Shiloh to bed. Clean. Go to bed. Repeat.

Sometimes, I look back at my week and I can't even differentiate one day from another, or I can't even remember what day it is. You may ask yourselves, "What does this have to do with goals?" or "What is the point of this post?"

Well here comes the part where I answer those questions. I am making a goal. My second for the year. I am going to write in my journal everyday. Not a long entry by any means, but at least a sentence. What I am going to write isn't very specific, but there are guidelines. These include: the entry has to be positive, the entry needs to be something that happened that day, and, although it doesn't have to, I would like the entry to include something to do with motherhood or finding the joy in everyday life.

I need to get out of this rut where I just go through the motions of being a mom, you know, the "lather, rinse, repeat" kind of mentality that I currently have going on. I wrote it on the blog so that I am accountable for it. Please, feel free to ask me how it's going. I have a great life and I need to start looking for the great things, and this is a solution for how I am going to do that.

Packing....ADHD....Packing

Does anybody else out there find it particularly hard to pack? I am not saying that it is literally hard to throw things in boxes, but, where does one begin. Even then, once one has begun, where do you go from there? I feel like I don't want to pack anything away that we are going to be using in the next couple of days. We are already down to the bare minimum as is.

I also find it very hard to keep focused. I think to myself, whilst packing, "I should really be doing this, or I should really clean that before I pack it." Then I leave the room even though packing is what I REALLY should be doing.

I also can't seem to stay in one room and just pack everything in that room that needs to be all in one shot. Either, I find something in that room that really should be packed with some things in another room and I leave just to put it in that room with the intention of coming right back, but I don't, or I get overwhelmed with that particular room and think it would be better if I just took a small break and then came back to that room in a minute, but then I don't, or I inevitably run out of boxes or packaging tape and, therefore, get distracted on my way to gather said supplies. Do you see a pattern here? So, every room in my house has a few boxes, only half way full and it seems that nothing is actually getting done.

Currently, Shiloh is sleeping, and I should be a whirlwind of organization and a packing fiend, but instead, here I sit. Blogging about how I get distracted, and find it hard to actually get the packing done. Sheesh! I'm pathetic.

If any of you struggle with the same packing issues as I do, and have some solutions, I am all ears. You would think I am a 7 year old trying to pack, but instead I am a 26 year old trying to pack with attention span of a 7 year old, and maybe even the organizations skills of one as well! Nothing against 7 year olds or anything. They are great. I just should have about 20 more years experience at learning to focus and get things done. Well, I really should get off and pack....or maybe I should really do the dishes instead.

The new house...well what we are working on at lest.

We have been working very hard on painting and redoing some of the flooring in the new house. I will post more pics of the house when it is finished, but here are few pics of the progress being made. The pictures really just look like a mess, but I promise there is actual progress being made.

This is a pic of the master bedroom. Originally we were going to change the paint color, but we decided that we liked it.

Here is a preview of the kitchen. I have always wanted green cabinets. So here they are.

I know that I didn't post many pics, but I posted a few to hold you all over until we finally get the place in order and take real pics.

We also have now finished the flooring in the kitchen as of last night. I don't have any pics yet, but soon... very soon. We are excited to get in there this weekend. Can't wait.

My little whirlwind

In the past month, Shiloh has decided that he wants to be into every cupboard and do everything that we are doing. He also has decided to climb. Don't have any climbing pictures because I pretty much freak out and run and grab him instead of taking a picture. I have found him on top of a rocking chair, a step stool, the dishwasher door, a ladder, and a few other chairs. He is quick too. It seems I look away for a moment and all of sudden he is in danger of falling backwards. He also loves pulling things out of cupboards, drawers, and, to my dismay, boxes that I am packing for the move.

Here he is "helping" with dishes

Shiloh's favorite cupboard to hang out in, and lately, try to climb in to.

This is what he does when we take him into the lobby in the middle of sacrament. He even finds adventures to go on there.
When I saw him in the small appliance cupboard, he was actually standing with his back towards me. I didn't get a great pic of that, but this one was pretty good.
Boy! Do I have my hands full with him! I have to keep an eye on him or we are going to end up with some owies at this house ;)

Ryker and Shiloh

My friend Kaci has a a little boy, named Ryker. He is exactly one month older than Shiloh. They get a long splendidly. They are best little buddies. They pull each other's hair, they bang toys together, they wave to each other at church, and they help each other get around. They are so adorable together and they get so excited when they see each other. It is a huge bonus that Ryker's mom, Kaci, and I get along too. It has been fun seeing them try to figure each other out.

18 weeks...

So I am starting to feel pretty good most days. Hallelujah! I pretty much crave horrible for me things like cheeseburgers, mac and cheese, pizza, chocolate, and alfredo. Wow! Just seeing those altogether makes me a little disgusted with myself. I am trying hard to not give in to every craving though. I have only gained four pounds thus far, which isn't bad. I found all of my maternity pants this week and I have been so excited. No more Yoga pants for events that I should be wearing normal clothes to. I haven't really felt much movement from this little bean yet, but hopefully soon.

Our New Truck

I have had a few requests for pics of our new Truck. I don't know many details or specs about it, but it is a Dodge Dakota and it fits the carseat in the back really well, which is all I cared about!

same, same....but different

This is a Thai saying, roughly translated into the English language. When you say it, you mean this thing is exactly the same except for.... That is how I feel about redoing a house again. I am still just as capable, maybe even more so. Kenny is still just as capable of redoing a house as we were before. We have all of the same tools, all of the same knowledge, all of the same drive. This time is exactly the same as the other times, except for Shiloh. Everything is taking WAY longer than I had thought it could with all of our knowledge and experience. Same, same, but different. Good thing he's so darn cute!

Confessions of a goal-a-phobe.. i.e. someone who is afraid of making goals

I have a confession to make.... I am 26 years old and I have never made a New Year's Goal.... NEVER. In fact, I have not made many goals in my life. I always thought it sounded like a grand idea, but I was always afraid of letting myself, and others, down. I know that some of you goal setters and planners out there are completely and utterly shocked that someone could live 26 years on this earth and not have made many goals. I guess as I look back on things, I have always been afraid of failure. I know why I am afraid of it, but that is another whole several posts that I will not get into. It is just sufficient to say that I am afraid of it, VERY AFRAID. It has even been hard for me to admit how afraid of it I am. When you haven't set your mind to be someone or to do something, even if it is good, you don't feel so bad when you mess up. And thus, mediocrity becomes your life.

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, not that any of you really care, but I am making some goals this year. Nothing hard or too drawn out. I think most of the time, people don't complete their year long goals anyway. One of my goals is to set some goals. That way I am accountable for getting, or not getting them done. One of my other goals is to read the Book of Mormon in two months. I am a quick reader, and it only comes out to about 9 pages a day. I feel like a quick read will give a "bigger picture" sort of feeling to the stories and lessons taught there. I had to write it down so that others knew, that way I won't back out last minute.

I have to admit that I am pretty proud of myself for making some New Year's goals for the first time ever. Also, a little nervous. Plus, I can do something for 2 months, right? Here's to hoping that I can learn to grow up a little and start on the many improvements that I need.