Bathroom Mishap

Stephen came home from work yesterday. I was in the living room playing with Zander while he took off his gear and changed into some more comfortable clothes. Stephen finally comes into the living room with a sad and embarrassed look on his face. I asked him what was wrong. He told me he broke the toilet seat, haha! This is the second time he has broken the toilet seat since we've been married. I couldn't stop laughing. The first time it happened we were newly married and going to school. Stephen got up one morning to get ready to go to class and came back in the room where I was still sleeping. He had the exact same sad face and told me he broke the toilet seat. He was really embarrassed. I died laughing! I got up to look at it and sure enough it was cracked right down the middle, haha, I don't know how he keeps breaking them, but it gave me a good laugh. This time it broke on the side. These aren't the plastic seats, mind you, that's why its so puzzling how he breaks them.

Zander Update

Zander is eight months old! He has four teeth--two on top and two on bottom, and loves to use them when he eats. He'll take a bite of food and then push it to the front of his mouth so he can use his new teeth. He loves to clap his hands, and has learned how to sit himself up from his back or his belly, he is, also, officially crawling! He's still a little slower on his hands and knees, but assumes the position whenever he's on the floor. He'll either be on his knees or up on his two big toes. If he really wants to get somewhere fast he'll do his army crawl. It is now time to baby proof the house!

He also loves to pull mommy's hair whenever I pick him up no matter if I have it down or up in a pony tail. He loves to play peek-a-boo when I go down the stairs and then pop up in the banister. Whenever I lay him in his crib for a nap or for bed he waits for me to put his blanket over him and then grabs it with both fists, pulls it up to his chin, and rolls over to his side to sleep (it, seriously, is the cutest thing). He studies and stares at new people. He is so serious and inquisitive when strangers talk to him, but he always smiles at them. He is starting to like daddy more and more; he reached for Stephen while we were in the hospital instead of wanting me. I think that made Stephen's day. Zander's newest game he likes to play is take a bite of food, then drop it on the floor.

Whenever I hold him when we go somewhere, instead of turning his head to look at and watch things he has to turn his whole body. He has become quite a wiggle worm! We can't get enough of our Zander and look forward to all the new things he will learn in the months to come!

Lately

The past two weeks have kind of been a blur, yet they've been the slowest weeks of my life. My whole life, now, revolves around a little eight month old boy who has been having a difficult time as well. After his teeth came in a few weeks ago, he hasn't been the same, and I don't mean that in a bad way, but last week he came down with the flu. There was throw up and diarrhea everywhere for a week. My washing machine has been going nonstop since last Wednesday. Let me put it this way, I bought a brand new bottle of stain remover two weeks ago, and it'll normally last me four or more months. There is only a quarter of a bottle left after one week's use. This bug has been awful! There has been a lot of crying, snuggles, and changes of clothes, sleepless nights, and long days.

My little sickie

Zander gave me a scare a few days ago because he hadn't had a wet diaper in almost 24 hours, he still has diarrhea after a week, and I couldn't get him to drink any fluids. I called my doctor a few times throughout the week, and yesterday she finally told me to take him to the ER for an evaluation just to be safe. So I picked Stephen up from work and we took Zander in to make sure he wasn't dehydrated or had some sort of a different virus other than the flu. He checked out just fine. I knew he would, but that just took a load off my shoulders so I don't have to worry about him anymore.

At the hospital

He's been so irritable lately to the point that nothing I do will calm him down. It's been tough deciphering if he's somehow uncomfortable or just throwing a fit because I'm not always right by his side. I've been frustrated to tears many nights, and wished I could get away and have some peace and quiet and time to my self, but I haven't been able to yet. I finally just had to get out of the house for awhile after being cooped up for a week even though I had to take Zander with me.

We went toy shopping. Zander doesn't have very many toys, and the ones he does have he gets bored with easily and won't play with them. So I bought him a few new books and two toys. Little did I know they would be the most annoying toys on the planet! Haha, I wasn't able to test them out in the store, but when I brought them home and tried them out they wouldn't shut off! He is really good at finding mommy and daddy's cell phones no matter how hard we hide them, and he loves to play with our car keys, so that's what I bought him--his own cell phone and car key, but the phone seems to work by motion, so anytime you face the phone towards you it talks, chimes, and beeps at you nonstop. I took it apart to see if maybe the button was pushed in and got stuck, but nope, that's just how the toy works. Zander loves them and plays with them all the time, so as long as he's happy I'm fine with it.

Stephen leaves for Georgia again in a week, and will be gone for the rest of the month of August. I'm excited for him, but kind of dreading being a single mom for that long especially since Zander is getting old enough to crawl and throw tantrums. This will be the time I can work on my patience--it hasn't been easy this past month, but at the same time I'm looking forward to all time we get to spend together.

Patience Anyone?

I had my first breakdown as a mom the other day. I don't know what it was, but after being in Twin for a week Zander was being such a stinker. He would fight me on everything from getting him to eat his food and staying in his chair, to wrestling him to change his diapers, and the melt downs whenever I'd leave the room, or even set him down for that matter. I know he's still teething, but MAN give me a break! This had gone on for three days in a row and by the end of Tuesday night I had had it. I just got done with activity days and tried feeding Zander some dinner.

Stephen came home from work late, so as soon as he walked through the door I threw the bowl at him and told him I was done and stormed out of the house and went grocery shopping. (Not what I really wanted to do, but I'd do anything for a break) so I took my time shopping until I needed to go back home. I was so tired and still grumpy as I came in with an arm full of groceries. I told Stephen to help me unload the car and asked where Zander was. He had just fallen asleep in his swing so I took him upstairs and put him in his crib. Then I noticed he didn't have his pjs on (I didn't really care about him not wearing pajamas but I was already in a mood so that just added to the fire) and his diaper was dirty. I couldn't let him sleep in a dirty diaper so I had to change him and put him back to sleep.

Meanwhile, Stephen was upset and annoyed because Zander was fussy the whole time I was gone and he hadn't had a moment to himself to even sit down and rest from his day. I didn't blame him for being a little angry. I would be too. So not only did he try to calm Zander down for two hours while I was gone, but he made dinner and put all the groceries away while I was in with Zander trying to put him back to sleep.

I felt like the worst wife and mother in the world. As I pondered what I had done I just felt worse and worse until I started crying. Here I was at wits end, storming out of he house leaving the baby with with my husband who had, had a long day at work and here he was feeding the baby and getting him to sleep, making dinner, and putting the food away! It was after 9:00 by the way, when I got home.

Stephen and I ate dinner when it was almost 10:00. Then we went to bed shortly afterwards. At 1:00 Zander woke up so I put him back to sleep, but as soon as I'd put him down he'd wake up and cry again. This happened three times. I decided he really didn't need anything so I let him cry it out for a little while, but he was getting louder and louder.  I got up again and gave him a bottle to see if that would help. I couldn't get him to sit on my lap to feed him. He was wriggling and writhing all over and I was starting to get angry again. I finally made him lay down to drink his bottle and he fell asleep. I put him back in his crib and he awoke and cried again. Frustrated, I took him and checked his diaper just in case even though I changed it right before he went to bed. It was dirty! No wonder he was upset and didn't want to lay down! Man, I'm two for two now. So I change him and gave some medicine for his teeth and put him back to sleep. It was now almost 4:00 am. I'm exhausted! Somehow, I have run out of patience and don't know where to get some more. I feel SO bad and sad for my behavior. So here's to hoping I find more patience and happiness next week. I love Zander and especially Stephen. He is my rock and truly my better half. I don't deserve him sometimes, but I'm so grateful he has more patience than I do.

By the end of the week Zander had three teeth break through--his second bottom one and his two top teeth all came in at the same time.

Another Week in Twin

I have been waiting all year for July to arrive so I could spend some time in Twin while Becky was in town. We had lots of fun especially since the cousins were in town from Arizona too. Monday night all the grand kids slept over and had a good time. Quentin ended up with a broken arm that night, but he was tough and didn't complain or cry at all. All the girls slept upstairs and the boys were downstairs.

Mom had a sewing project for Becky and I to do, so we worked on our quilts all week long. We even did a little clothes shopping for next year for the kids. I ended up getting clothes for all three of us in my family, and didn't spend over $5 for anything!

All ready for church!

Heather invited us to her grandma's house in Jerome to go swimming. This was Zander's first time in a swimming pool. I was afraid he wouldn't like it because it was too cold.....he loved it! he swam around like a little frog.

Then it was Cora's turn.

That night while we were swimming Zander threw up several times--once in the water, on Sally, on me, on Joseph, on the ground. He cried the whole way home and was really difficult to get to sleep. He had been teething because he got his first tooth while we were there! Anyway, he finally fell asleep, but was up from 1:00 to 4:00 that night throwing up. I think he just got a few too many gulps of pool water or something.

We love grandma and grandpa!

Cute little babes! Zander was not happy to be taking pictures. Meanwhile Cora is posing and smiling for every one.

Our quilts are finished! Thank you mom; it was so fun making these quilts and spending time with you.

Stockdale Reunion 2014

The reunion was in Franklin this year. It's been many years since I've been there excluding Grandma's funeral, but We were the only ones to go from our family besides mom and dad this year. We had lots of fun!

We got around on the wagon with the tractor pulling us both days, although we had to take our car after the first ride because Zander was getting sunburned.

 First stop was a tour of the dairy.

 Still holding hands after 35 years.

My two favorite boys! Love them!

 Took a hike to the Indian cave to find our arrow head and bear claw necklace for Zander.

Chillin at the park

 This was Zander's first time on a swing; he was less than amused up until the very end and we finally got a smile out of him.

 Uncle Bud demonstrating David's sling on the rock quarry.

Father's Day Before and After

This is a late post, but last month I decided to paint our dining room for Father's Day to surprise Stephen when he came back from Georgia. All I had to do was tear down the wall paper and paint--easy peasy right? I thought it would take me about two days to paint and get everything back on the wall. Well, I ended up going to Twin for a week so I didn't have too much time when I got back. I started tearing off wall paper the day I returned home only to find that it was super hard to tear off.

Well, come to find out, the wall paper had been glued directly to the sheet rock. Grrrrr!! I tried for two hours to pick at it to see if it'd get any easier, but I had only torn off 1x3 feet of wall paper and little bits of sheet rock were coming off with it, so I left it and had to call a contractor to come out and mud and texture over the wall paper so I could paint. He wasn't able to make it until after Stephen got home, so I didn't get to surprise him like I had hoped.

Stephen came home to a huge mess in the dining room instead of a re-done one. He walked in and said, "I don't even want to know." Haha, but we got it all finished and looking nice the next week. We still need to put molding and all the pictures and stuff on the wall, but it sure does look nice! I even made my own curtain for the room.

I chose a a lighter grey color and red for my accent color. These pictures have terrible lighting but you can get the idea.