I'm here, I just not HERE....

So I started another blog in the hopes of keeping a journal for myself. I am so terrible at keeping a journal, I do great for like a week and then life goes and gets all busy, I get lazy, we have no pens in the house, etc. So I heard about a picture a day blog and thought "I can do this!" Take one picture a day to represent your day, your life, etc. As I started keeping up with that one, it got a little more redundant to keep this one going as well. I am going to keep this one for WFMW at Rocks in my dryer and other reasons, but if you want to see what is happening with us KC Bryans, check out:

www.everydayinoz.blogspot.com

Take care!

I think I see the dust settling...

Hello out there in computer land, it's your long lost friend, dusting myself off and getting back into blogging mode again. I am pretty excited that I have been able to keep up with my photo blog so even during those weeks when thing are hectic, I still have a visual of what is happening in our little world. I'd like to say that I was off doing exciting things like taking a vacation, traveling the world, or potty training Monkey before he turns one, but alas, I have just been busy managing, arranging, and rearranging my life. Quick breakdown of big events missed over the last month or so:

• The Hubs came down with a monster case of pneumonia and was hospitalized for a week. He was running temps of 104 and it took 2 days to bring them down. Our first Saturday night with a baby sitter was spent in the ICU, watching TV and sleeping in a recliner, but he was a trooper. He is finally feeling better and is back to work.
  
• Monkey is now waving, playing peek-a-boo, saying "Dada," is getting teeth #7 and #8, and walking all over the place with his push toy...not quite on his own yet :). We had to lower his bed after he found his way out of the crib and onto the floor. He is also a big fan of toothbrushes ad likes to take them everywhere :).
  
• Monkey had his first overnight trip away from home to stay with his grandparents... and putting him in the car and seeing him leave was one of the hardest things I've ever done! The rational side of my brain knew everything was going to be fine, but that pesky emotional side just keeping butting in...
• As of October, I will be coming off of weekend option at work, which has been a very big, complex, scary decision. Working weekends has been great, giving me 5 days a week at home with Monkey, but it doesn't allow for much family time with the three of us together. Monkey was getting lots of time with me and lots of time with the Hubs, but very little time with the three of us together. So it was with a few reservations and great worry that I started looking for a daycare. Luckily, since I work 12 hour shifts, I would still be home with Monkey 4 days a week and my bosses were willing to work with me about my schedule and so I will be working the same three days every week. Monkey started at his daycare last week and I can honestly say I cried more than he did. He was oblivious when me and the Hubs left, but cried when he saw the other kiddos crying (one burst into tears at the site of the Hubs, the teacher reassured him it was because he missed his dad and not because the Hubs was scary looking!). There is a lot of guilt that comes along with taking Monkey to daycare but I realize he is in a great place that is very well structured and he is with kiddos his own age, which is doing a lot for him as far as socialization. Once again, if I could just get that rational part o my brain to communicate better with the emotional side :).
  
• Monkey's 1st birthday is coming up and to help us celebrate my parents are flying in, my in-laws, Monkey's Great Grandma, and our good friends Erin and Ben are driving in to help us celebrate this weekend!
  

It's good to be back, thank you for your continued support and blog patronage !

It's lovely, I'll take it!

If you are ever having one of those days when you feel your house is a mess, you've found a leak in the basement or a crack in the drywall, then head over to It's Lovely, I'll take it! to feel better about your situation. I promise you will at least smile and probably laugh out loud at least twice, especially if you read "How I Spent my Summer" by the Chair" (click here). Hope you are having a great day and go ahead and give your house/apartment/trailer a little love and appreciation for not being listed here.

Mommy needs a time out

There is no doubt I love being a mother, but every so often, even Mommy needs a time out. Monkey has been sick, teething, and generally not thinking too highly of sleeping, napping, or eating right now. On top of that, poor Hubs is also sick and I sprained my already stress fractured foot, buying myself five more weeks in my lovely orthopedic walking boot. I had a perfect evening of hanging out in the steamy shower with Monkey to clear up his congestion, then the Hubs fed him so I could enjoy a nice long shower (hands down the cheapest form of relaxation in my opinion), and I got to feed and tuck Monkey in. After that I was off on my time out, complete with a an ice cold Pepsi, a quick stop by Walmart, and a little drive with my windows down, singing Joshua Radin's "Sky" and "Lovely Tonight" loud and off key. I think a lot of us feel guilty at times asking for the things we need, but I know that I was probably a much more pleasant person by the time I got home and although I was only gone for about an hour, it was precious time I needed to refuel. So, to me, time out isn't always a bad thing :).

Thanking my lucky stars

Today Monkey had an appointment with a neurologist about the size of noggin. During Monkey's 6 month check up his pediatrician was concerned because his noggin was measuring off the charts (just housing a big brain, right :)?). To be on the safe side, she ordered him to have an ultrasound through his soft spot since it was still open. The ultrasound reading was unclear, which meant on to a CT scan. I kept Monkey up all morning and kept him entertained since he couldn't eat or drink to avoid having to be sedated and he slept through it like a champ. We got a call from our pediatrician that night that the radiologist had read his CT and everything looked fine. Big sigh of relief...until the next morning. The radiologist said that she'd gone home and thought more about his scan, had another radiologist look at it and although they didn't see anything like a tumor or mass, they felt an MRI was needed to be 100% sure. In a way I was grateful that this person took a second look if they were unsure, but our sense of relief was gone. We were told Monkey would have to wait 3 weeks for his MRI. I would look at him often, take a deep breath, and remind myself that he would be fine. He came into this world almost two months early and has been catching up ever since. But the cloud of worry and the "what ifs" wouldn't be gone until we knew for sure. The day of Monkey's MRI, I drove home feeling postitive that we would get the reading and everything would be fine and finally we could put it behind us. However, we received a phone call from our pediatrician (whom we just love) saying that the MRI showed that Monkey either had slight excess fluid around his brain (no big deal) or brain atrophy, or shrinking (a very big deal). I finally gave myself about an hour to cry. I cried out of frustration , fear, and worry...and then I cried for the parents who get life changing results from this instead of unclear ones. So we packed Monkey up early this morning and took him to his appointment. They checked all of his developmental milestones, they asked questions and took notes, and they left to review the MRI again. And finally they came back and told me what I knew in my heart when we started this process months ago: "Your son is fine, he is right on time for his age...he just has a big head." A big noggin, just like his Daddy, that's all. And for the first time in months, I feel like I can breath again. I offered up a little prayer, packed up my sniffling, blue eyed boy, and realized that Monkey truly is my heart walking around outside my body :).

Warning!

Thanks to Bill Engvall's "Warning Signs," I am always on the lookout for interesting warnings on products. Today I noticed that on the back of a container of Clorox wipes it says "Do not use for intimate cleaning or diaper wipes." Umm, ouch??

Greetings from the gimp

I haven't been blogging lately for your safety...really, the ramblings of a sleep deprived woman would tend to be a little hard to understand, might lack humor, and would inevitably contain a paragraphs of nothing but "qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq" from where I dozed off with my fingers on the keyboard. Since I am a little better rested, I thought I would hop in the old blogging saddle again :).

Monkey has decided that sleeping through the night no longer fits his agenda. Poor baby, it's not because he wants to get up and play at 3 .m., but more likely because multiple teeth have decided to peek through at the same time, including the one in between his little gap tooth smile. But he is a good sport during the day, despite his lack of sleep. He is crawling all over the place, pulling himself to stand on everything that looks stable, as well as giving high fives and the occasional wave. I can't believe it but we are starting to plan his first birthday (just a quiet little shin-dig with family at this point I think)!

I currently sporting one of the hottest looks in fashion right now: a knee high orthopedic boot! Yes, I think there is someplace in the market for "Bling my Orthopedic Device" on reality television. Hopefully I won't be wearing my new shoe for too long, but if so, I am thinking of ways to bling it up a little with a little spray paint and some big gaudy jewels. The weird thing is I worked a 12 hours shift Friday and felt fine. I headed to work Saturday for another 12 hour shift and by then end of the night I couldn't hardly bear weight on it all. The ER doc thinks it's a stress fracture. In the mean time, I am trying to come up with a much better story for the cause of my injury. So far I have "So I hear yelling and I broke the door down with my foot..."

I am also loving the new season of Project Runway! I love how Suede talks about himself in the third person, after a day of doing that myself I can see why he likes it :). I also think that Suede's real name is Steve. I started a Facebook group (yes, I am a Facebook junkie) for my small group of friends who also dig it and reaing their thoughts has been hilarious. I am off to bed now, keeping my fingers crossed that the growing teeth take a break tonight and let me and the Monkey get some sleep. Sweet dreams!