Justin is a month old today!!!!

Wow, today my baby is a month old. See the photos attached. It feels like last week I had him. It's unbelievable. I just looked at him today and could not believe it. I had to get the video cam out to video him for just a little while. I managed to get his new 'babble' noise on the cam too which is cool. He's also been smiling but he did not do it for the camera - he did it just after I turned it off!

I decided that as much as I hate the date/time stamp on photos, it's necessary on video cameras. It's not like when you download photos you can see the date and time it was taken. When I take video off the camera it doesn't tell me when this stuff happened, I have to guess or verbally say it. So that is why I now have the date/time stamp on the video and it makes me feel better about it all. I'm pretty fortunate that I have a video camera setup where I can play the camera while it's hooked through my pc and capture the video to my pc. Then I can edit it and burn a dvd. I've done this a few times before and it's very time consuming but the output is nice. I normally NEVER get out the video camera. I'm more of a camera person (because of the scrapbooking I'm sure).

I just spent about 10 minutes looking through old photos of Joey when he was about a month old and I still can not believe how similar both boys look. It's so weird. I thought for sure they would look so different but they look so similar. I still can not get over it!

Today at school Miss Rose said that Joey was the best student today and earned 4 stickers for good behavior. She muttered something about how another boy wasn't so good as he ran for the door (to escape). I said it was funny because two days ago I asked Joey how his day was on the way home from school and he said to me, 'Mom, (boys name) got in trouble today'. He normally just says I played with trucks, or I played with tractors. It must have really made an impression on him that this boy was in trouble. She told me she needed to talk to his mother today because it's gotten so out of hand. I don't know what I would do if my child did something like this! I hope mine never do!

Today when I got home I asked Joey if he wanted to use the potty to get another sticker. He had a major meltdown because he wanted a sticker, but did NOT want to use the potty. This pretty much resulted in me ignoring his whining and crying. I told him the stickers are for potty use only. Finally about 30 minutes later he calmed down after Joe got home. Sorry, mean mommy I am but I was not budging! Funny thing was tonight he used the potty just fine before bath time and got a sticker for his sticker chart. Go figure.

Becky brought homemade meatballs over for dinner tonight as part of my mom's club sanity savers program where moms bring meals after the baby is born. They were super good but Justin always is super needy at dinner time so we inhaled our food yet another night in a row. Anyone want to come over and watch Justin so we can eat a dinner for once without inhaling it? Phew.

We met Joey's favorite friend Paige and her parents at the playground tonight to let the kids run off some energy. We found out Paige's mom was offered a super awesome position at her company as treasurer and it would double her salary, but it's in Atlanta so they may be moving. I'm so so so sad. It's all in the air right now but how could they NOT? They also told Paige's dad that they would employ him for double his salary as Engineering manager so they would double their income. The company would also pay moving expenses, give them signing bonuses and pay for their house. I soooo hope they don't move because this is seriously Joey's best friend. They are two peas in a pod. They play so well together that I can't believe it. I'll keep you updated but I'll be so sad to see them go. We get along so well with their parents too. We were going to try to plan an outing to Huckleberry railroad sometime next month so the kids could go trick or treating and see the trains.

Last night we got Joey's costume. He's going to be Thomas the Train for Halloween. I put it on him when he got home, he liked it for all of 2 seconds and then took it off. We got him a Thomas the Train trick or treat bucket and he absolutely loves it. He asks me to put m&m's in it every day. LOL

Well we have a busy weekend ahead of us. We have a TON of errands to run tomorrow. We have my mom and dad visiting. We are visiting my Aunt and her children tomorrow evening. Should be interesting! I'll try to take my camera to get pictures of my cousins (they are young, like 10 and under) with Justin.

Here's a photo attached of Justin swaddled yet again tonight. We swaddled him last night and he slept almost 5 hours from 3:30 to 8am or so. So refreshing. He went to bed at 9:30 so we'll see how he does. He did take a bottle tonight and has been so I'm not so worried about him starving when he goes to daycare soon!

My baby is a month old already tomorrow!

I love that Joey's daycare sends home those Scholastic book forms. Maybe some moms dread them or ignore them but I buy buy buy from them. My sons favorite books are from what I've ordered from the book club forms and his daycare gets proceeds to buy books that are read to him. How can I go wrong? So I'm pouring over these forms right now getting new books for him! I hope he loves to read as much as I do.

Lately I've been just reading magazines. I used to have a subscription to every scrapbook mag out there and then I had a subscription to Parenting, American Baby and Parents magazine. Yeah, that's a LOT of magazines to read. I had a stack that was 3 feet tall and promised myself that I would NOT buy any more magazine subscriptions until I got through them all. I finally a few months ago read every single magazine I had and recycled all the ones I had to friends.

My next thing on the agenda is to read some parenting books. I went to amazon.com and found some of the best selling parenting books and requested them from my library.

I just got done reading Supernanny: How to Get the Best from Your Children. It's a pretty good book. It's broken up into different problem sections that you can experience with your children and it's an easy read. I like her ways of disciplining children. I don't have to worry about most all of this because thus far Joey is really well behaved but it's interesting to read in case some of those situations do arise - ie. tantrums, etc and had a section on potty training.

That gets me to Joey. He's doing really well using the potty. I tonight started a reward chart with stickers. I used some stickers I got free from some advertisement, come to find out Joey was all excited about putting one on his new chart and they would NOT come off the sheet. I felt soooo awful I ran up to Kroger to get him some real stickers. I bought a bunch of different ones, ones with cars, frogs, dogs, and some from the Cars movie. He was sooo excited when I came home that he sat on the potty again and went potty again just so he could have another to put on his chart. I told him if he pottys on the potty tomorrow morning daddy will give him another sticker to put on his chart. He's so cute!

I have to share with you two funny stories that happened yesterday.

1. Joe, Joey and I were all sitting at the table eating. Joey asked for pop. Joe didn't want to give him pop so he gave him some orange flavored juice and told him it was orange pop. Joey took one sip, got a disgusted look on his face, looked Joe straight in the eye, shook his head and said, 'Daddy, this is NOT pop, this is JUICE!'. So much for us trying to pull a fast one past him! We were dying laughing after he said this!

2. This could be TMI but it's funny. Joe and Joey were sitting on the couch. I was sitting next to the couch in the chair with Justin. Joe 'tooted' and it wasn't the most pleasant smelling thing in the world. Joey moved to the other side of Joe, looked at him and said, "Daddy, did you poop?" OMG that was sooo funny. Joe always asks Joey if he pooped if we smell something, so it was Joey's turn to ask Joe. I'm still laughing thinking about it!

This photo of Justin was from Monday where he was sleeping during a nap during the day.

Joe saved me this morning. Justin woke at 3:30. At 4:30 he still wouldn't go to sleep, he wouldn't calm down, he didn't want to eat anymore, he didn't want to swing. I had it. I barged into the room where Joe was sleeping and pretty much yelled, 'I can't take it anymore. You need to HELP me'. He took Justin, changed his diaper and then swaddled him super super tight. He came out to the living room, rock him back and forth and that was it - he fell asleep and SLEPT 5 HOURS STRAIGHT! I tell you - that is the second time we swaddled him and he slept for 5 hours. I told Joe he has to do that tonight!

My baby will be a month old tomorrow :( I can't believe it's already been a month. Boy has it flown by! It seriously feels like last week that I gave birth to him! I'm happy but I'm sad. Like I said before, this is our last child so I'm trying my best to enjoy every little bit - even the late nights and the crying moments.

Fall is coming...the leaves are falling...

Gosh, I was thinking today that I really am not taking a lot of photos of the baby and stuff and then I blog and I have photos to post for about every day. I guess I am taking a lot of them! I always felt I never took enough photos of Joey during his first month. I really wanted to change that this time. I'm so glad Melissa took those photos of Justin. They are fabulous! I didn't have newborn photos of Joey like that and I regret it. It's funny. Most people take LESS photos of the second born, and I think I'm taking more. Go figure! :) That's the scrapbooker in me I guess!

Sunday when we got home we setup our sleep number mattress. It was super easy (thankfully!). The boxes it came in where quite large - large enough for Joe AND Joey to play fort in. Aren't these darling photos? I love how Joe is such a hands on dad. Always getting down and playing with Joey. Joey just adores his daddy. Here are some photos from Sunday.

Putting the bed together.

Isn't he adorable? He's hiding in his fort.

Joe and Joey hanging out in their fort. They had a blanket over it too to make it more like a real fort.

Can you believe fall is here? In our sub we have had a few trees changing colors and losing leaves since the middle of August. It was hard to believe. Today I had to take a walk to get a few photos of the fall decor and the beautiful fall hues. What a treat nature presents us. I figure it has to at least present us with a beautiful decor before everything kicks the bucket and dies. I hate winter. Heck, the first snow is cool but it's just cold and dreary. I'm so not a cold, snow weather person. Can someone please relocate me somewhere warmer? I'm really living in the wrong state for hating cold weather! LOL. So anyhow on our walk Joey took his tricycle and I pushed Justin who was sleeping. It was a nice cool, crisp air. Perfect for a fall walk! Here are some photos from our walk. I'm sure the fall decor I was shooting, the people were wondering what the heck I was taking photos of their house for! LOL.

Fall tree changing. Joey with his tricycle and Joe.

Mums, a sure sign of fall.

Fallen leaves.

Is this not the most precious photo ever? Doesn't Justin look cozy?


Can someone say spring? I think this tulip is a little confused. Hello, it's fall!!!

Isn't this adorable?

More fall decor, from the same house as the scarecrow above. So nice.

Joey told Joe to roll down our yard (it's on an incline). Joe said no and Joey begged him. Joe said he would only do it if Joey did it first. Now keep in mind our neighbor and her daughter was sitting there talking to us. Joey got up on the hill and rolled down. Joe held up his end of the bargain and went rolling down after. So cute!

As a person you have an idea of how you present yourself and what others think of you (or at least you should!). I have noticed that a lot of my friends come to me for advice. I love listening to other peoples lives/issues/problems (probably why I love reading blogs) and I offer advice if it's asked for. I had a friend specifically call me today to ask me some advice about something. She was married and got divorced. Now she and this guy had a very open talk about everything and their old relationship and she was thinking about dating him again. She wanted my advice because she knew I would not judge her. I knew she went through a messy divorce with this person but I did not judge her. I did not tell her she was stupid or it was a mistake. What I pretty much told her was she probably never got closure after the divorce and now that the feelings are back, if she does date him, if it doesn't work out, she'll remember why and have closure on the relationship. When you go back to a guy you used to date, you go back to him because you remember the wonderful qualities about him, and block out the bad ones. By dating him again, she'll put herself in a position to re-evaluate the relationship. It's been a few years. They have both grown up. Is it the best decision to date him? That's not my decision. It's hers. Even if I told her to not date him, she probably would anyhow because of the curiosity I mentioned above - the what-if factor. So it will be interesting to see how this all ends up. Anyone want to call for advice? :) I don't charge. LOL...

Today was a day all my buddies seemed to call me. One of my really really good pals called to tell me she was preggo! She's been trying and she was so ecstatic about it. She told me when she told her husband he sat down on the stairs and cried for a half hour, he was that happy. I'm sooo excited for her. I know they both really wanted children and all of her friends are having kids. Being that she's in her 30's she was hoping she would not have issues conceiving and she didn't (like I told her over and over!). Congrats! You know who you are!!!! I can't say yet. She has sworn me to secrecy!

Today I did a photo shoot of the baby and Joey. Nothing setup, just day to day photos. Joey is so affectionate now. He told me today he loved me! I think Joe said he loved me and then Joey said, "I love you momma!'" How awesome is that? He's saying full sentences together now. Today at the store he said, 'Daddy, I'm thirsty. I want some water.' It's so cool watching them grow up!

Anyhow, these are the photos that turned out. I love the one of their hands. Joey is just so fascinated on how small Justin's hands are! We played with Justin on the floor for awhile today. He really likes to look in the mirror (Thanks Leilani for this mirror - Justin loves it too just like Joey did!).

I love this photo! I did a soft focus around the edges. So endearing! Joey and Justin's hands.

Joey holding his little brother!

Joey LOVES having his photo taken. Here he is posing for me and yelling CHEESE! :)

Had to get a few photos of him enjoying his reflection.

Yet another.

He's starting to babble a bit now. Every now and then we get a whoopp type of noise from him. It's sooo cute!

Hi mommy!

Justin is getting over his colic or I'm figuring him out! Sure he's fussy in the evenings but I honestly think that colic is not really colic. It's just a way that your baby is trying to tell you it wants something to wind down and you need to be sherlock to find out what it is. The book 'The happiest baby on the block' by Dr. Harvey Karp is awesome. I so love it. It talks about how babies can NOT be spoiled by being held before they are 4 months old and should not be left to cry it out. He mentioned 5 ways to soothe a crying baby. We've tried some of the techniques like swaddles, shhhhing, and swinging and it works well for us. Sometimes we have to try different things. I finally found that Justin loves to be held out to see the world. What I just found out too is if he is fussy he really likes to be nursed a certain way and rocked in the rocking chair quite forcefully. It's worked 3 days in a row. Whoohooo!

Today my mother came over to see me. I was up north last week and she didn't see me. We had a WONDERFUL time shopping, just her and I and Justin. We went to our local fruit market to get a few things. Justin was very good. About half way through the trip he started to cry. I did the outward hold off my hip and he was sooo happy. He just took it all in. The shoppers just oooohhhhed and awwwwed over him. We weren't in there long but it was enough to wipe him out because when I put him in the car seat, he passed out! LOL. I took this as my cue to go to Meijer to get a few things. My mom came with me and I got a LOT of stuff from there that has been on my shopping list (hair trimmer for Joey, wipe-off board for fridge, waterproof mattress cover for our bed (in case anything happens, baby, cats, whatever - that bed was expensive!). My mom and I had a great talk. I love her so much and am so glad I'm close to my parents and Joe's parents! How fortunate we are to have loving family!!!!

We're back!! Recap from last week

Well if you haven’t heard from me last week, it’s because I was at Joe’s grandma’s house with Joey and Justin. Joe went to Chicago for a conference and instead of being home for three days with Joey and Justin by myself, we all crashed Grandma’s house (ok, didn’t crash it, she said we could come!).

Lots happened over the week.

Joey showed his first real jealousy induced tantrum. I was holding Justin and he wanted me to pick him up too. Joey is now 35+ lbs and very very heavy. Picking him up is quite a chore. I told him that I can’t pick him up but got down on my knees to hug him and hold him. He was not happy about this and had a little tantrum. This was his first real show of jealousy that we’ve seen him show.

Joey’s view on ‘baby’ items like swings and bouncers - he thinks they are HIS toys (well they were at one time, when he wasn’t 35 lbs). We have a mini swing for the baby at Grandma’s house and Joey swung in it all week. I finally quit telling him it wasn’t for him. I didn’t tell him it was for the baby, I just told him it was too small for him and he could break it. He enjoyed being in it and I wasn’t about to fight that battle. It wasn’t a big deal for me for me to argue and discipline about it. At our house he still constantly sits in the bouncer and watches TV. He would sit in the swing we have but it’s high off the ground so he can’t get in it.

Justin had bouts of colic. As I said earlier, the only way I can get him to stop crying is to carry him outwards off my hip. Joe tries this and must not do it just right because he still cries. I have to carry him with this hold to calm him down. Last night we tried everything to get him to go to sleep. We got him down and then he’d wake himself up somehow (hiccups or something). Finally after this happened twice, he just could not settle himself down. Joe had enough of this and was up to HERE with all of it. He strapped him in the car seat, put him in the car and drove around the block. Just when we thought it didn’t help, he fell asleep FINALLY. It’s sooo frustrating to hear children cry and cry and cry after all you try to do to stop it.

Today (Sunday) it was much of the same thing, except he woke up almost every time we tried to lay him down. Between 9am and 3pm he maybe slept a combined 1 hour. Babies normally sleep ALL the time and are UP only about an hour and sleep the rest so I was wondering what the heck was going on! I didn’t eat anything or drink anything with caffeine. Then I remembered, he’s almost a month old and I BET he’s going through a growth spurt. He kept eating and eating and eating pretty much the whole time from the time he woke up until we finally left to go home to Grandma’s house at 4pm. I’ve never seen him go through a growth spurt like this. I don’t remember Joey going through this but I didn’t have a blog back then to record these type of things so I may have let it slip my mind (that and he was bottle fed).

Today I pulled out Joey’s baby calendar that has all his milestones and measurements on it. At 4 weeks of age Joey was 9lbs 15oz (born 8lbs 15 oz). Justin was weighed at 3 ½ weeks at 9 lbs 5oz and he was 7lbs 12oz when he was born. He’s really catching up to where Joey was at the same time and he was over a pound smaller when he was born. Also Joey was out of 0-3 month clothing at 2 weeks of age. Justin outgrew the 0-3 months at 3 weeks old. I’ve already put away all the 0-3 month clothing and had to pull out all the 3-6 month! He’s getting so big. He’s not the little tiny baby we brought home almost a month ago!

This weekend also marked the wonderful milestone of hearing your son say stuff he probably shouldn’t be. Joey started to say ‘Jesus Christ’. I have no clue who he heard this one from. Joe and I don’t say it. I especially don’t say it because I know it offends a lot of people. He also started to say ‘shut up’. I’m sure he learned this one from me. I’ll have to watch it from now on. He started to say ‘Damnit’ or ‘God Damnit’ who he learned this one from Joe. We went by a house today on the way home and he said, ‘There’s a lot of junk’. They have a ton of junk in their yard and on their porch and he pointed that out (probably learned this from me because I’m anti-clutter!). BUT he also started to say ‘I love you’ without being prompted and that’s pretty cool. I told him this week when I tell him I love you, you are supposed say I love you back. So next time someone told him they loved him, he said I love you back. It’s the best thing in the WORLD when your baby tells you they love you.

Joey is also using possessive nouns to describe things. He says, ‘That’s Joey’s chair’, ‘That’s daddy’s car’, etc. He’s been saying these for awhile but it’s very consistent now.

When the baby actually DID go to sleep in the evenings, I’ve been trying to scrapbook. I actually managed to get 5 pages done. I did 4 one page layouts and one two page layout. One of my challenges was to use decorative scissors. Do you know how long it has been since I’ve used these? I only own one pair anymore – the deckle scissors but I managed to make it work. I’ll share them at the beginning of October. That reminds me – I never shared the September pages I did. I’ll post them below (look for the following post). I had someone at Scrapjazz post them for me since I was taking care of Justin.

The person who was coming to look at the mattress wrote us and said she found one closer to home and cancelled. We have someone coming on Tuesday to look at it so hopefully we can sell it. I hope to setup our new sleep number mattress today! I can’t wait to sleep on it!!!!!!!!

I hope to catch up on blogs this week. I at least hope to read them while I’m nursing the baby instead of watching tv. I’m getting sooo sick of watching tv. What crap is always on it! I’d rather read blogs – haha. Actually I’ve been learning a LOT about football. I actually understand the game at least partially now. Did you watch the Michigan State/Notre Dame game this weekend? OMG – State was beating the crap out of Notre Dame and then Notre Dame came back and beat them! It was such a blow out in the beginning that Joe changed the station to something else, say the score that it was almost tied and then Notre Dame came back and beat the hell out of State. Unbelievable! I can’t believe I’m actually getting into watching football (while feeding the baby of course!).

Joe was telling me he was watching a baseball game this weekend and Joey yelled ‘Go TIGERS’. That’s Joe’s boy!

Well I’ve been writing this on the way home from up north and it’s an hour and a half drive so that’s why this is so long but I’ve been way overdue for a blog entry so here it is! Enjoy the new photos!

9/17 Sunday

It looks he's finishing off cereal, but it's actually the remainder of melted ice cream!

Yum!!

Good to the last drop!

Mom, look at my dirty hands! I guess I should have used the spoon a bit more!

Joey eating peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I guess Grandma doesn't have to wait until the kids are teenagers to get the YUCK look while getting kissed! LOL.

Grandma helped tremendously this week help take care of the boys.

Love this photo of Joey!!

Justin asleep

9/19 Tuesday

Joe's mom (Grandma Char to Joey) made a swan hotdog for Joey.

Joey

Grandma with Justin, asleep again.

Joey playing with his truck!

9/20 Wednesday

Briana's famous anti-colic hold. Justin LOVES to be held like this. I guess he can see the world. Excuse me wearing Joe's big ole shirt. It looks fine on him but makes me look like a blue whale!

9/21 Thursday

Justin has been doing bubbles for a few days, but I think he really got the hang of it!

9/23 Saturday

Joe and Justin

Me with Justin in the famous anti-cry hold that he loves!! He's just hanging out!

August's Scrapjazz Scrapbook pages

Journaling
7/4/06 – TIGER LILY - Joey got a hold of this Tiger Lily and I tried to snap photos of him smelling it. He didn't get the whole 'smelling' of flowers thing and wanted to blow it instead, like it was a dandelion. I love how this photo catches his childhood curiosity and innocence!



Journaling
Christmas of 2005 we got Joey this big wheels bike. We found out this summer that he was big enough to ride it himself. He would take it to the top of grandma's driveway by the canal and ride squealing down the hill. After he did this multiple times, we let him go down the BIG hill that goes down by the lake. He did well, but he didn't attempt it again. We think it was just a bit TOO much for him this young. 7/30/06


Journaling
Every year the Fisher family has a family reunion in August at Jaycee Park in Troy, Michigan. This year we all went for a few hours but didn't want to stay too long because we wanted Joey to get a nap and I didn't have the energy to stay all day long. The weather was mild, not overly hot. Joey had fun playing in the sand by the volleyball pit. We all took a walk as a family through the woods by this stream. This is where I got these great photos of the family. The woods were peaceful and serene. Here I am 8 months pregnant with baby Justin.



Under the photo of the ultrasound are the rest of the ultrasound photos of Justin.

Update from grandma's house....

Short but sweet.

Joey is doing really well. Behaving really well. Being great.

Justin is doing well, with the exception of colic in the evenings for about 2 hours both yesterday and Saturday evening. Saturday evening the only thing that calmed him down was to swaddle him, put him sideways on my legs and rock him vigorously back and forth. He fell right asleep.

Last night I tried everything. Giving him an infant massage on his legs calmed him down for about 10-20 minutes. After that I tried everything under the sun and finally was able to nurse him back to sleep.

Knock on wood - he did not do that tonight - YET. It's only 9 PM though so it could change.

Joe is in Chicago and thinks it's ok. He misread the sign and threw out his toothpaste and contact solution out of his check in luggage because he thought he couldn't take ANY with him. He didn't know he could have it in his check in luggage, just not his carry on. He thinks his conference is ok so far.

Grandma is helping a TON with watching Joey and taking the baby when I need to tend to Joey. Thank goodness for her.

Other than that, my printer paper came in so I'm finally printing lab quality pictures again. The other paper I bought sucked so I'll be giving it away.

We have someone interested in buying our mattress we have. We'll see if it pans out on Thursday evening. I hope so. The mattress is fine, just a little too firm for what I like. Like I said, Joe likes the mattress but I like SOFT, so it doesn't work well for me. Hopefully someone else can get a good use out of it.

We got a car back seat covering for dogs for Joe's car but we'll be using it for the kiddos so they don't get stuff all over his new car.

Hmmm, what else? I need to get some scrapbooking done. We'll see if I'll be able to with the kids schedules! LOL.

We got a new bed!!!!!

Ok, so today was the day that we were going to go mattress shopping after Joe got home from work. I told him don't even bother going to Art Van, Gardner-White or wherever. Just go back to the mall, to the sleep number store, because that is what I wanted. I KNEW that even if I went to try other mattresses, it wouldn't matter. I would still want the sleep number bed. I've tried it out before and liked it, so why wouldn't I like it now?

So off we went to the store. Joe was not happy. He knew I would get my way but didn't want to spend the money. He thought it was a total rip-off.

When we got to the store the salesman was waiting on another two people, who I could tell clearly were not going to buy a mattress today. They looked like college students - both boys who looked like they were just going through the mall to hang out, not buy a bed. Sorry to discriminate but that's how I felt!

So finally they left but it wasn't before Joey got all antsy. He started to STAND on the bed and we told him three times he needs to SIT on it. No feet. So the last time I pushed him back, which must have scared him so he started to cry and cry and cry. So finally Joe remembered they had a toy corner and took Joey there and he was fine the rest of the time we were there and it was about another 45 minutes. He played happily with blocks. Justin slept the whole time.

I tried out the bed. The last time I tried out the low end model and my sleep number was a 45. The higher you go the firmer the mattress. 45 is middle of the road.

This time I wanted to try it on the middle of the road mattress - the 5000 series. My sleep number now - a 20. He said he's never ever seen anyone that liked it that soft. Let me tell you, it was one cushy bed. Take that my crappy ass mattress! :)

Here's our new bed! Oh and the see video and zoom don't work. I just took the image from their website! YAY my new bed!!! The 5000 sleep number mattress!

So Joe tried it and his sleep number was 20 points lower than it was before too. It may be because this one had a bigger pillowtop on it. Anyhow, Joe said he liked the bed too. His number was between a 30 and 40. It was a 50 the first time we were in there.

So I didn't need the box spring. I didn't need accessories. We walked out the door with a mattress for $1510.00 which isn't bad because if you want a really nice mattress from Art Van or something, you are probably going to spend about that. What really saved us money is the box spring we currently have for the foam mattress is a solid top box spring (it's like plywood on top). That is exactly what the sleep number mattress needs. We spent $100 for ours with our foam mattress. They wanted $500 for theirs. Thank goodness we already had one! So Joe was super relieved. Last time we went he said they quoted us $2300 and we only tested out the lowest model. He thought we were going to spend $2500 on a mattress. This time we got the middle model 5000 (they have a 3000, 4000, 5000, 7000, and 9000 model) and we got it for $1500 out the door. That really made Joe feel better and I got my bed! YAY! I'm soooo happy! Ok, so it's really expensive for a mattress but it has a 20 year warranty and EVERYONE I know who has one LOVES it - including my buddy Caroline! So I'll let you know what I think of it when it gets here and I sleep on it the first night. We are going to get it next week or week after!

Other events that are happening:

Today I was bored again and motivated. I cleaned the entire house top to bottom, vacuumed and even got out the wet vac and did the carpets. Yes, I'm really not supposed to but I feel pretty good and it's not like I'm lifting 50 lbs. It's a wet vac on wheels for goodness sake! The carpets look 100% better. The dishes are done, the laundry is in progress, and I feel great!

Danielle from the mom's club brought dinner tonight. She brought a roaster chicken, macaroni and cheese and fresh green beans. Let me tell you - here chicken was totally awesome. Joey even ate it. Her macaroni and cheese was homemade and it was the best I've ever eaten in my entire life. It was soooo darn good. I need the recipe! Joey even asked for seconds and he doesn't normally always eat mac and cheese! What a great dinner we had!

New topic - my incision is itching like crazy. It could be because when they took the staples out they put tape over the incision and it's coming off and itching, or it could be because it's healing but either way, it's almost driving me crazy!!

Yesterday I won an ebay auction for guess??! A costume for Justin! So guess what he's going to bed? Well Joey was a COW :) Justin will be a GIRAFFE!!! It's the cutest costume! I can't wait to get it! It's a baby gap costume and I got it for $12 shipped. Isn't it the cutest?

Justin had his 2 week appt today and is doing great. His belly button area where the umbilical cord fell off is still infected and she put silver nitrate on it to help it heal faster. He has been gaining weight. In about a week he gained a half lb. He's now 8lbs 6oz. Still 9 oz smaller than Joey was when he was born so he's still tiny to me and sooo cute. I've gotten pretty good at reading his cues of what he wants. If he's tired, if he's hungry, if he needs to be changed, burped, wants to hang out, etc. He's actually a pretty laid back baby and only really cries when he's hungry. Tonight I fed him and he kept pulling away from me and fussing. Joe took him and sat him up on his leg and he fell asleep. Is this not the cutest photo?

Joe and Justin. Justin fell asleep like this. Joe loves how he can hold Justin and he falls asleep in his arms. He said Joey never did that.

Jolene has asked about my nursery and if I had photos. SOOO ironically it's been very clean (his room is only like 10x10 so it's hard to get it cluttered). I took these photos today so you can get an idea of what his room looks like. It's about the same as Joey's was since they have the same room and theme (Joey moved to another room) but we moved things around a bit so it may look a bit different. Anyhow - here it is:

It's the USA Baseball bear theme from Toys R Us and they still sell it. We got this in 04. The crib we picked up in a resale shop for $50. What an awesome find. The changing table was free - our friends Leilani and Joyelle gave it to us. They gave us a crib too but it broke earlier this year.

Ever notice there are always cats in our photos (we have 4). Here's Alex in the window. Another view of the bedroom. There is a mini fridge in the left corner to house water, etc.

Just another shot of the room.

He looks like such a chunkster here. I think because his head is slumped down a little bit but doesn't he look comfy? He was sleeping in his car seat when I took the photos of the nursery and thought to take a photo of him too!