Weekend musings

It has been such a lovely weekend, with awesome fall weather and huge milestones for my little man. On Friday, Bodster took his first full crawl! I am so happy because 1. I got it on camera and 2. Papa was there to witness it! How fun! He has been exploring a lot this weekend, though not crawling like a crazy man yet.

Friday afternoon we headed to our favorite play place with some friends. Treehouse Discovery is one of Bodster's favorite places with such fun toys!

Nursing fun!

On Saturday we had to deal with the aftermath of the mess our renters left us. Andrew and I own a duplex that we rent out and we had to FINALLY evict some tenants because they were not paying their rent on time or in full every month. Plus they were destroying the property and we finally said enough is enough! Well, when we went in the inspect the place we found it absolutely unlivable- trash and old food everywhere (even on the walls and floor), the kitchen cabinets USED to be white were now a disgusting black, the carpet was filled with cat urine, holes in every door and walls, tiles in the floor were broken, missing windows, missing refrigerator, bathrooms were black with mold, and fly traps all over the house just filled to the brim with bugs. I cannot fathom how someone could live like this. It looked like they never cleaned once the entire 4 years they lived there. Plus they had 2 young kids crawling around in this filth. We ended up calling the police for theft and vandalism. The police officer's jaw dropped when he walked in. He couldn't believe what he saw. After he took a report and left we got a call saying the tenants were trying to flee and they had them pulled over at a gas station. Actually was a coincidence because they were pulled over for having so much JUNK in their trailer.

We rushed over to the gas station and sure enough they were trying to get away. One guy was even arrested for having a warrant out for his arrest, this guy also threatened to beat the living day lights out of my husband just minutes before. Unfortunately I had Bodie with us as well so I tried to stay out of everything but it was hard not to ask them how they could do this to us. There is at least a couple grand in damages that WE have to fix and clean. It's almost a health hazard in there! Plus We found out that there were 9 people living in there, only 2 were authorized to live there. Oh geeze. I don't know what we will do from here. Probably hire someone to take care of the trash and furniture that was just left there. We have new tenants waiting to move in but there is no way I will allow them to live in such conditions. We will definitely be checking in more often to the condition of the place. No more allowing people to destroy our property! I will post pictures of the place once I get them off Andrew's phone. In the meantime, here is B and I just chilling :)

Today, September 29, is Bo's 8 month birthday! He has been kinda cranky today but I did get a few shots in before he conked out for a much needed nap.

Just a typical Thursday

I woke up today excited for Thursday. You see, this mama's social life is pretty non existent, aside from Thursday mornings. I am apart of a group called "Crunchy Parents" (yes, the term crunchy can mean "granola" "hippie" "holistic" or whatever you want to call it) and every Thursday someone holds a play date at their home. Not only is this a great time to get the kids together, but it is a CRUCIAL time for the mamas to gather and chit chat about their daily musings. It really is a sanity lifesaver and we often times meet at parks, coffee shops, and indoor play areas other times of the week. Bodie just LOVES this time as well because lets face it, he is a social butterfly. He is even the youngest of the bunch but that doesn't stop him!

Hmmmm possible Christmas present??

 Bodie thinks this chick is pretty cool...

Poor J. She always gets picked on by Bodie. He really just loves to pat soft hair LOL

Found an apple just laying on the ground. I think I'll eat it!

Beautiful kale and chard from a dear friend's garden. LOVE my greens!

During Bo's nap, I finished making applesauce from the apples I put in the crock pot in the morning. I will never buy applesauce again! Bo is going to devour this!!

After lunch and a lovely THREE hour nap....

we decided to go visit daddy at work. We don't see daddy much during the week so it was a special trip to visit him at the office. Again, everyone just gaggles over him (is that even a word?!) I also secretly like visiting A at work because I am friends with all his co workers so its fun to catch up with everyone :)

Anniversary as a family

September 25, 2010 I said "I DO" to an amazing man of God. I had no idea what was in store for us, but the road has been bumpy. We have bought 2 homes together, struggled with infertility, had a baby, gone on MANY vacations (so blessed!), celebrated successes and failures, and most importantly grown in our love for one another. The most important aspect of our marriage is keeping God in the middle. Without Him, we would not survive our marriage and tribulations.

To celebrate, we wanted to go out to dinner since we don't do that very often anymore (thanks Bodie and my fear of leaving him during our night time routine). So we called up Andrew's sister to watch Bodie and we were going to head to an early dinner so I could be home to put Bodie down. Our routine is sacred you know ;) However, we decided to cancel that idea and bring him with us since he has been such in integral part of our marriage (before he was even conceived) so we wanted him a part of our celebration. Not to mention he is SOOOO good when we are out and about and he never makes a fuss in restaurants so we thought it would be fun. He would soak it up anyway! So off we went to White Chocolate Grill with the whole family in tow. Aside from Bodie spilling my balsamic vinegar for my salad, all went beautifully. I just hate leaving my little man out of our adventures :)

Eating some of mom's salad and fish

Dad is doing something silly with his ring

Fun times in the ER

Last Friday was one of the worst days I have felt in a long in terms of physical pain. MUCH worse than giving labor, which was P A I N F U L! I would give birth naturally all over again than experience what I felt last week. And now I know how incredibly difficult it is to take care of a baby when I feel like a train wreck.

It came out of nowhere. I was up with Bo at 1 am the night before, felt totally fine. I woke up at 5:30 am to go to the restroom and I could barely walk without my entire body hurting- joints, muscles, prickly skin and pounding head. Whoa. Where did this come from? I took my temp and it was 101.9 and I FELT it alright. I couldn't move from bed but hubby was heading to work so I had to get up for Bodie. I literally laid on the floor in our living room while B played next to me. I had to get going though because Mr. Man had a pediatrician appointment for his own dealings of the weak- off and on fever and not so fun diapers. Off we went. As we waited for Dr. R to come in, I just sat there thinking the room must be spinning. I tried my best to listen to what the Doc was saying, but stars were creeping into my eyes. "Dr. I think I am going to pass out!" Nothing like being taken care of by your son's pediatrician! He took Bodie and had me lay in a dark room, on a teeny tiny bed non the less! I finally felt better and they let me drive home.

The day progressed, my head felt like it was caving in, my skin was prickly feeling, every joint ached and if I moved I felt like I was going to throw up. The worst was rocking Bodie to sleep for his nap in his rocking chair. I think the motion aggravated everything because I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could after I put B in his bed. I finally called MY doctor and she had me come in ASAP.

I left B with a friend and very wearily drove to the doctor. I have no idea how I made it. When I got there my blood pressure was 85/45 and I was shaking. It was a waste of time though because she told me to get to the ER because of my high temp and raging head.

I couldn't drive so who do I call? My parents of course. Hubby was working over an hour away so there was no way to get there. I felt like a little girl again with my parents coming to take care of me. They drove me home and we waited for Hubby to get home before heading to the ER. The best part of this wait? Watching B giggle away with his grandma and grandpa. He was putting on quite the show!

Hubs is home, off to the ER. They run tests and all come back negative- flu, pneumonia etc. My body downs 2 bags of fluids and my head starts to clear. They suspected meningitis and suggested I get a spinal tap but that scares the CRAP out me (hence one of the reasons I didn't get an epidural!) so I opted to wait it out a couple hours to see how I felt. My fever went down and I had just a slight head ache, much improved from earlier. They said it was some nasty virus, but if my headache (ha! that is putting it lightly) came back then I was to get a spinal done ASAP. I was then cleared to go home.

On a side note, Bodie was a hit with all the nurses. He was SOO silly, which was strange because it was clearly passed his bed time. One of the nurses even asked to take him and all I could hear down the hall were giggles. Talk about laughter as medicine! Gosh I love that boy! Once the nurse brought him back he was clearly tired...and this is what I was left with.... (yes, I look terrible. It was a rough day and the camera light blinded me)

Teething Adventures

Oh Boy! My sweet baby is growing so fast. He cut his two bottom teeth at 6 months and he is now going through another teething adventure at 7 1/2 months. His top two teeth just starting cutting through 3 nights ago. And let me tell you, it has thrown all of us off kilter!

Poor bug. He has no clue what is going on. All I can do is comfort him as much as possible- which means LOTS of cuddling. Oh darn ;)

If you are not aware of what teething brings, let me just share a bit. He is fussy, Super fussy. His clothes are soaked from all the drooling. His temp has reached 100 degrees several times the past few days (totally normal and nothing to get worried about). And 5-7 MESSY diapers per day. Oh and lets not forget the constant need to touch either daddy or me at night. Here is what the night time typically looks like during teething season-

Chewing on frozen fruit

Ahhhh All is well in mama's arms :)

Good thing his spirits remain high! He is such a trooper and is still just as bubbly, only with intermittent fussing along the way. I will keep loving on him the best I can so he doesn't have to worry that his needs are not being met.

What is BAM and who are we?!

I started this blog when B was first born, but it has taken many different turns along the way and I have finally come to a point where I have decided that I want to focus on. I have been meaning to keep a journal of everything my son does and all the stuff we do together. But it has been hard to sit down and write it out all free hand. So I think blogging about it will be much more fun and a lot easier. I want to be in the moment with my son at all times so I don't miss anything important, and he deserves to have me as a fully present mom. I am hoping blogging will keep me in TODAY and relish the time I have with my ever growing super boy.

The title is team BAM. BAM are my 7.5 month old's initials and we are most definitely a team! We do just about everything together, but I leave a few special things for just his daddy and him, which I will touch on in another post. Daddy and Bo and have created such a great bond and I think it has to do with me letting go of doing everything and allowing my amazing husband to be very involved when his work schedule allows.

I am a first time mom so every day is a new adventure for me. My stand with raising Bodie right now is to provide as much loving comfort as I can for him. Even when it's the most inconvenient for me, I will do what I can do make sure he is loved, comforted and feels secure.

I will also touch on my parenting style at times and the fun mis-adventures we have :)

Here are a couple photos of my little man, my SUPER amazing son: Gosh I love him!

We LOVE play dates!

First trip to Glenwood Springs. I have a little fishy on my hands- loves to swim

Enjoying the views at Garden of the Gods