OMG!

It has been forever since I have posted anything! So many things have happened in the last couple of months, so this may be a long post. First of all- my computer has a virus. I haven't been able to get on my computer since before Christmas. My work has blocked Blogger- for some unknown reason- so I feel like I am completely out of the loop with my friends!

Here is an Abby update: I started school this past week. I have decided that I want/need to do more with my life than filing papers and organizing files. I am hoping to change my career path and go into the nursing program. I have started my pre-reqs- (which I only have 3 to take) and hope to be completed with all of them by next Christmas. I started with Anatomy. I thought this would be intersting- but boy is it turing out to be hard!! Michael is very supportive and says that I love a challenge and am good at school and that I will do fine- but I have never been tested like this: work full time, take care of my house, my job, etc. and go to school. It will be interesting to say the least.

On to Peyton- he turned 18 months old today! OMG! I can't believe it. In just a few short months, he will be 2!! Where in the world have these last 5-6 months gone!?

He is now trying to talk up a storm.. He says: sit, stay, (to me and Michael, mostly), PLEEEEAAAAAASEEEEE, that?, this?, block, brday (birthday), tanku (thank you), bye-bye, hi, bowl, GI-GI (at school), Pey-un (Peyton), bath, bubble, cat. The list goes on and on as each day passes as he is now trying to repeat everything we say.

He has had a cold for about a week. Turns out everyone in his class has some type of ailment. He goes for his 18-month check up on Tuesday- so I will mention to the doctor about his current cough and runny nose. I am sure it will be something along the lines of "its a virus, not much we can do"- which seems to be what I have been hearing lately.

I had a few weeks (3 or so) when Peyton really wasn't eating much. He would take a couple bites of food at each sitting, but not much more than that.. and didn't seem to want anything else either. We had to supplement his calories with Pediasure- but I didn't like the idea of him basically being on a liquid diet. He is back to himself now though, and had 2 pancakes for breakfast.

Michael's dad is in town this week for his annual golf outing, so I will hopefully have some picutres to post of his visit.

I should be getting my computer back on Monday or Tuesday and I will hopefully be able to start checking and keeping up with everyone's blogs!

CRAZY!!

It has been forever since I have posted anything: my work has blocked blogger- go figure- and I just forget to check it at home. Once Thanksgiving came and went, I started to get ready for Christmas and this month has been terribly busy.

Let me begin by telling all the new things Peyton is doing: he says NO to almost everything (cats, people, dog), he can respond to a question you ask ("Peyton do you want cereal"; "did you poop?") and the answer ends up being what he wants! YAY! Communication! He is starting to say more words: "cookoo", "ho, ho, ho" (for Santa), "sit", "catch", "tree", "GG" (teacher at school), "JJ" (kid at school), "Juce" (Joyce, at school), "hi" "Bye, Bye!". He can eat a cookie, graham cracker, etc., without me breaking it into minut pieces and he does just fine!

Christmas is almost here - and next week we head to KY for about a week. Checking out the forecast- it looks like it might snow while we are there! Yay! White Christmas- I will be sure to take lots of pictures of this one!

Michael and I decided to forego the Christmas gifts for eachother this year- and instead bought a Nintendo Wii (for me- the workouts, for him- the games) and now Peyton LOVES watching Daddy play baseball, bowling, golf, and tennis and tries to swing the remote just like daddy does. Very cute!

We went to see Santa this year- and I wasn't sure how Peyton would do, so I made sure Michael and I looked decent in case we had to be in the picture too. He seemed fine with him while we were in line, but when we walked up to him, Peyton wasn't too sure about it. We tried to get Peyton to call him Papaw (grandpa), but Peyton knew better and ended up sitting on my lap with Santa behind us. It was still cute, and I am glad we decided to look nice that day.

Christmas shopping is all wrapped up (pun intended) and we are ready for the most wonderful Christmas so far- I think Peyton will really be excited this year, as he has done SO GREAT with the gifts he has received so far. We are very excited to see Michael's family that we don't get to see too much, and I am very excited to see snow on Christmas. Pictures to follow as soon as I get a chance to get back on here!

Christmas here we come!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow and Christmas is just around the corner! OMG! I went out Christmas shopping this past weekend and got all the nieces and nephews (and Peyton) DONE! What a great feeling that was. All that are left are the grandparents. WooHoo!

Peyton has had a busy last couple of weeks: from getting and fighting the flu, and now he has the croup. Apparently this is a common thing for kids his age to have, but I feel awful for him. It came on pretty quickly- Michael and I thought he was getting a cold: runny nose, goopy eyes, etc., then came this cough that sounded like an adult- heavy-chest cough. Poor thing wasn't sleeping well and so I drug him to the doctor where she told me it was the croup (first of all, I had NO IDEA what this was ... so I was a little freaked out...) She explained it was something that kids his age normally get around this time of the year and that it was just a bad cough caused by a virus. Nothing we could really do except give him a steroid to make sure the cough doesn't get worse. So far, the cough hasn't gotten worse, but Peyton hasn't gotten much better. We will see.

He has hit a growth spurt this month- I don't know how tall he is now, but I know he has gained at least a pound (which is ALOT for him, since he has been under 20 lbs. since his 9 month appt.) We finally hit the 20 lb. mark - so the Pediasure is paying off.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so we are headed to my mom's for dinner. All the family (brothers and their families) will be there so it should be quite a meal. I am hoping to go out Friday after Thanksgiving to finalize my shopping.. I have been under the weather too, though, so I don't know if I will make it or not.. we will see.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Bring on Christmas and Christmas vacation! Wooohooo!!!

Peyton Update!

It has been so long since I have written anything.. I will have so much to post!

First of all- Peyton is teething.. he is getting two molars in (one bottom, one top- same side) and also one in the front bottom. Wonderful. On top of that- he had an ear infection last week (number 7 if anyone is counting!) Monday we went in for a recheck for his ears and he was feeling a little warm to me, so I had the doctor check him out for any other kinds of sicknesses he may have. She said he looked fine. Ears looked good, etc. Well, I get a call from the daycare about 10 minutes after I drop him off and he has a fever of 100- but they will watch it and see how he feels for the rest of the day. 2:00 rolls around and I get another call- his fever is now 103.5! OMG! So I call Michael and he goes to pick him up. Yesterday, I was home with him all day, and he still ran a fever of about 101. He was playing the whole time, except every once and a while, he would want to be held (which is fine with me). We took him to the doctor after dinner, since his fever hadn't really gone down (after all day rotating medication) and the doctor tested him for the flu. This came back negative, but the doctor said that the test basically isn't reliable, so he was going to treat Peyton as if he did have the flu. We started him on Tamiflu last night, and he has to take this for the next 5 days. The doctor said Peyton could go out when he was 24-hours-fever free. Michael is watching him today but when he woke up this morning, he was already much cooler than the past two days.

Now on to some better news. The Word Train is rolling through our house! Peyton is now trying say almost everything we say! Yay! Yesterday as I was getting Peyton's medicine at CVS, Michael was driving around the parking lot, teaching Peyton all kinds of wonderful things.

Examples:

Question: "what does Granny say"

Answer: "huh?"

Question: (and this is for Michael's sister): What does a cricket say?

Answer: "cricket, cricket"

Question: "what does a pig say?"

Answer: "onk, onk"

Question: (and this is new to us) "What does an owl say?"

Answer: "OOOO, OOOO"

Also, his new favorite word is GO! So when the nurse came in and did the swab up his nose for the flu test.. Peyton went into daddy's arms, looked at the nurse and yelled "GO!" (poor nurse!)

This morning Michael fixed pancakes for breakfast, so our new word this morning is pankcake! (more like "an-ake", but you get the idea)

He is trying to climb everything we have in the house: chairs, couch, changing table, so we really have to watch him now.

He is also getting to LOVE the cats.. Shadow has finally let Peyton love on her (I think she figured out this was the only way she was going to get all the attention she wanted), so nightly, he will go up to her, pet her, hug her and lay his head on her. After a while, though, he gets tired of her just laying there- so he pushes her off and says "GO!" (poor kitty).

I think that is all for now... Thanksgiving is coming up- I am getting so excited! I have to start Christmas shopping for Peyton- this year is going to be so much fun!! Woohoo!!

15 month check up

We went yesterday for Peyton’s 15-month check up and boy was it crowded in there. Our appointment was at 3:50, but I don’t think we even got back to the room until 4:30 or so. Lots of kids in the “sick” waiting room. (pass the hand sanitizer please!)

Michael finally got to experience what a “real” doctor’s appointment with Peyton was like- and why- after every appointment I say- “I am not doing that alone again!”. Peyton was fine in the waiting room and fine when we first got into the room. We had to undress him- which he was still fine with, then we had to lay him down to get him measured. I think he thinks every time we lay him down in that room something bad is going to happen, so he has a fit… anyway, he measured at 30” (10-25%).

His head measurement was 18.25 inc. (10-25%)- he didn’t mind this measurement one bit. Then came the most awful measurement ever--- the scale (dun-dun-dun). You would think it hurts him the way he wails about. After Michael put him on the scale (not ready for the all-out-breakdown) he had to step back for a second or two to let the scale finish- at which time Peyton weighed in at a whopping 19.11 lbs. (note the sarcasm). This would put Peyton right on his growth curve of 2%. I was prepared for it.. I came in with the speech already prepared… and so it began.

Doctor: How is his eating?
Me: Good, he eats a lot- lately, though he hasn’t been eating as well- but he is teething.. but otherwise, GREAT.
Doctor: Is he a picky eater?
Me: No- I mean, he likes certain things more- but he isn’t too picky.
Doctor: Well, he is small…. Let’s give him Pediasure every-other day to supplement his calories.
Me: Ok. I do give him lots of bad things: butter, fried foods- he is just SUPER active and he burns it off right away, but I do feed him- he eats ALL-THE-TIME.
Doctor: Ok, well, let’s try this and see if we can put some weight on him.

Ugh. Dang it.

After that he got his shots: MMR and ChickPox. Those are two PAINFUL shots- apparently they burn and/or sting and Peyton was not at all happy to be held down and given this awful prick. As soon as the shots were over, I scooped him up and held him, at which time the crocodile tears went away (ahhh.. makes a mommy feel good!). He waved and blew kisses to the nurse as if to say “I’m not mad at ya” and did the same to the doctor as we left. They all loved that.

We went to the mall after the doctor’s office and Peyton was running around and playing like he didn’t just go through the most excruciating pain he has ever been through. Oh to heal that quickly.

Pumpkin Pickin

We went this weekend to Surfside United Methodist Church and picked out two pumpkins for Halloween. Peyton was so excited when we got to the pumpkin place- they had a big pumpkin you could walk through (well, the kids could walk through) and they had about 4 or 5 rows of pumpkins. Peyton was very entertained by all the "balls". Here are some pictures from our day:

Updates....

I realize it has been a little while since I have posted any updates.. Peyton has kept us pretty busy these last couple of weeks and I know it will be much harder in the upcoming months to update this blog with any frequency.

Let's begin with words: he now says "ball" (quite often, and quite loud), "bubble" (more like "ba-boo"), "roar" (in a whisper), "thank you" (ew-ew), "DAD-DY", "mammmaaa", "turtle", "no-no-no-no", and "choo-chooo".

He still does the same animal sounds: cat, dog, monkey, elephant, lion/tiger, horse; and now we have added zebra (same as horse), giraffe (same as horse), alligator (Michael and I do it as a Florida Gator fan would do and say "chomp, chomp, chomp"), he claps (big claps) regular-style and goes "omp, omp, omp"; snake: stick your tongue in and out repeatedly

He loves to throw the ball around the house and then chase after it. (this will keep him busy for at least 10 minutes, which is forever in baby time). He loves to press the magnet on the fridge that plays songs.. and then "dance" to them.. I say "dance", because it is more like swaying from side to side, or jumping up and down. Much better than I can do, though!

He is also getting the biggest kick out of getting up on mommy and daddy's bed. We have a little ledge on the foot board of our bed and he uses it as a step-stool and will get up on the bed and start giggling (like "hehehe...look what I did!").

He loves to take my hair brush and brush his hair, then mine. And he also takes my hairdryer when I am done with it and walks around the house like my hairdryer is a dog.

He gets the movie Madagascar out of the movie basket all of the time for us to watch.. he loves to watch the lion and zebra and LOVES the part where the lemurs are having their "party" ("I like to move it, move it!")- if you haven't seen this movie.. I highly recommend it... but be warned.... after about 20 times watching it.. you start to recite all the words and begin to detest that movie.

It is starting to get cooler here now, so we had to get him some blue jeans.. and now he is starting to look like a big boy.. it is so crazy! We are going to the pumpkin patch this weekend to pick out a pumpkin for Halloween and I will have some great pictures to post after that.