Slacker

I know, I've been slacking lately. Again...lol. I guess it's just been an uneventful week! Andy has been working a ton of overtime lately, so he's never around. We are on a tight budget for Christmas, so Brayden and I have been staying close to home so we don't go crazy out shopping. I've started my Christmas shopping, but no where close to being done yet. I can't believe it's only a month away!!

This weekend we went up to visit with Megan at their new house. Brayden got to hang out and play with the other kids while I helped her family get some painting done. It's a beautiful house and I know Megan is anxious to get moved in so I wanted to help. Besides that, not a whole lot going on. I got all the stuff for my baking last night, so the rest of this week will be busy. I'm making a Buckeye Cake to take for dessert on Thanksgiving. It's a new recipe that looks sooo yummy. Watch the recipe blog for it to show up soon! Also, I have my big cookie exchange party in a little bit, so I have to get started on that. I'm toying around with the idea of getting up and going out shopping on Friday morning...I know...crazy! Especially in Robinson. But i love it! We'll see how tired I am...

I'll have a better update later in the week. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

No-No Dinosaurs!!

Have you seen this dinosaur toy? They sell it at Target, Toys R Us, pretty much every toy section has it....

How about this one? How cute! A big dinosaur you can ride on! When you pet it, it sorta purrs at you and if you feed it, it chomps on stuff. And you can ride on it too!!

Please don't get any of these for my child...lol. Apparently, we discovered this weekend that Brayden is DEATHLY afraid of dinosaurs! And he doesn't discriminate. Not only doesn't he like these giant ones, but little plastic ones, soft and fuzzy stuffed ones, cute and friendly looking ones...none of them. Let's add to the list BOOKS with dinosaurs. Because the toys r us big toy book that he had been playing with also scared the crap out of him and was thrown across the room last night when he came across the pictures! Ok...I'm laughing...are you?? Here's the background story...

We went out to do a little early Christmas shopping on Friday afternoon. We were wandering around the toy section at Target. Andy was pushing Brayden in the cart and I was a couple aisles over looking around. All of a sudden I hear this scream. Mom's...you know your kid's scream. And you know the difference from the happy, laughing one and the OMG one. This was the bad one. I seriously thought he fell out of the cart and cracked his head or something. I'm running over trying to find them. And they are right there with Brayden crying and Andy laughing hysterically. Apparently, they have the first one I posted in a big clear box thing and you can push a button to make it move. Brayden lost it. He was shaking and just screeching like someone was killing him. So we left it and walked around for a little while. Then decided to go back past only NOT push the button this time to see what would happen. Nope...as soon as we got in the aisle, same reaction.

Then my mom and I are at Wal-mart yesterday and I hand him this little, tiny plastic dinosaur and he's all "noooooo" and spends the rest of the trip thru the store nervously looking back and forth to see if one is gonna show up around the corner.

Well, the bad news is this thing is on the end of an aisle in just about every kid's section right now. I guess there are kids out there that actually LIKE dinosaurs...not ours! Of course, this is driving Andy bonkers. He is talking about buying a bunch of little ones and placing them all over our house. Because that is why you have a kid, right...to torment them?? lol!

Binky Update!

So it's been a full weekend. I started the NO BINKY on Thursday night and here it is Sunday already. So what do you think happened? Do you think we managed to do it? Do you think he cried all weekend long? Do you think we are suckers and totally gave in?

Well....it was VERY successful!! I guess it was just time, because it was WAY easier than I ever expected. Thursday night, whenever he asked about the binky, he was handed the cut ones. Which he would immediately throw. At bedtime, I handed them to him again, he threw them, picked up his blanket and went right to bed. With no fuss at all!!! None! I was completely amazed. You have no idea. I was so worried, I even had the real ones in my pocket to throw in the crib if it got ugly. But there wasn't a peep out of him. AND.....he slept in his crib ALL NIGHT LONG!!! This is an accomplishment in itself, as he has been ending up in our bed around 3am almost every night for the past month.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. We spent some time out shopping on Friday. He even slept in the car without a bink. But the car is the only time he has really been asking for them. He will chant Binky in the backseat for about 2 minutes before giving up and looking out the window. Saturday night Andy and I got to go to a Pens game while Brayden spent the evening with his Grandma Gagle. Apparently, she managed to get him to eat some cooked carrots...lol.

Today I did give him 1 (and only 1) while we were in the car on the way home from the store. I knew he needed a nap and wanted it to happen before we made it back to the house. But overall, he has been binky-free for almost 3 straight days! Can you believe it??

I'm A Mean Mommy

So I've been tossing around the idea of getting rid of the pacifiers. But it's going to be bad...and ugly...and involve lots of crying (probably both of us) and lack of sleep. I keep putting it off. But we're coming up on 1 1/2 years old at the end of this month (REALLY?!? Where did the time go!) and I feel it's time to at least start limiting it. So I've started looking into options. The problem is, I can't find the one that says, "Just pack them away and he'll never ask again!" And my mom and Andy are no help. They say, "Awwww...but he really likes his binky's!" Yes, I realize that. But I don't like searching for them and being bopped in the face with them and hearing BINKY BINKY BINKY over and over for hours. Also, he seems to be getting sick more, especially with cold and flu season here, and I feel like the less he is shoving in his mouth, the less germs. And he has completely given them up at daycare. They don't offer it to him and he doesn't even ask! So if they got it under control there, I figure it's my turn.

So...last night I started with a suggestion from daycare. I took 2 of his really old ones and cut the ends off. Just a little bit off the tip, but it doesn't get any suction anymore. And I waited for him to ask for it. When he did, I handed him one of the cut ones. You should have seen the look on his face. I wish I had my camera ready. He stared at it, he turned it around, he looked pretty worried, he stared at it somemore. Then he stuck his finger in the hole and looked at me and said "Uh oh!" and laughed hysterically. He carried it around repeating "Uh oh!" and then would burst out laughing. I was trying so hard to keep a straight face thru all of this. Then he tried putting it in his mouth. And took it out and stared at it, and put it in. Then he threw it on the floor and went to play!!!!!! For the rest of the evening, I didn't hear "BINKY!" once. Not ONE SINGLE TIME!!! A few times he would pick it up and look at it and just drop it again.

Then came bedtime. I wasn't sure how to handle this one. So I was prepared with both the cut ones and the normal ones. After bath, we headed into his room with him chanting BINKY at the top of his lungs. I layed him down and handed him the cut one. He threw it across the room and was not at all pleased. What was funny downstairs, we apparently not as amusing when it was bedtime. Then we had a little incident. While I was drying his face, he has a little blister on his lip. Well, the towel must have rubbed it wrong, and it started bleeding. Which caused him to majorly freak out. And I broke down and gave him the good binky. Actually, I gave him 4 of them. Go ahead...say it. I'm a sucker. But I had to work in the morning too! So we'll try again tonight. I'll keep you posted!

Look at this face...and tell me how to take away his favorite thing!

Because He's Just So Cute...

And I'm missing my baby boy at work today...

"She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along. " ~Margaret Culkin Banning

October Pictures!

I can't narrow down all the great pictures we have taken this month to share just a few on there, so I'm attaching a Shutterfly link to some of my favorites. We had such a busy month. We went to a Pumpkin Party with Megan's family, Janoski's to pick out a pumpkin, spent some pretty days at the park, 2 nights of trick-or-treat and Leah's first birthday party!

October Pictures!

Trick-Or-Treat!

We went to Andy's parents on Thursday to trick-or-treat with Brayden. He loved it! He caught on very quickly. And would get upset when he tried to go to the houses with no light on and we wouldn't let him. Apparently, he felt every single house should give him some candy!! But he really had a blast walking around. At one point, someone put a lollipop in his bucket and he dumped the whole thing in the street trying to get it out. He spent some time chewing on a snickers with the wrapper on it too.

Grandma & Grandpa Gagle's house was a little scary for him. He didn't care for things that made noises or smoke coming from the yard...lol.

Friday, we had trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. Andy had to work, but we still had a nice time. My brother came over with his little girl and we took them around to a few houses close by. My mom stayed behind to hand out the candy...all 10 kids that came.