My sweetie pie

My little man is growing so fast. Today he turned 9 months old. So, while he is tucked in his bed in dreamy land I wanted to take a minute to do a post about him. This boy has completely
changed my life. I never knew that I could have so much love for a person. He makes me laugh every day, I love watching him learn new things, and I love the way he laughs and smiles at me. I love feeding him "big boy" food, reading to him, and tickling him. He is the happiest kid and as a parent, I could not ask for a more perfect child. I hope that I can be the best mom to him because I know he deserves it.When you were first born, I couldn't believe you were mine.

One month old, I will never forget that soft, fluffy hair!

Two months old. Starting to smile and laugh.

Three months old. Love the fat rolls.Four months.
5 months
six months.
7 months... needs a haircut!
8 months

9 months. My big, handsome baby.

School and Diabetes

It has been so long since I have posted on this blog...oops! We have been crazy busy with life! EVERY weekend we are at birthday parties, weddings, engagement parties, football games, etc, etc, etc. But as Nick aways reminds me, this is a good thing! School has been going great. I have a great group of kids this year and the transition back into first grade hasn't been nearly as rough as I thought it would be. I forgot how funny and brutally honest the 6-year-olds can be. One of my kids asked if I had a baby in my belly because my shirt made me look "fat". Another kid today hollered out "Mrs. Cicero, that lady is MEAN!" as we are walking right by the principle. It was all I could do to not laugh. All in all we are getting along well and they love me. I kind of like them too. ;)

I started on my insulin pump around the beginning of Sept. It has been an adjustment, but a good one none-the-less. I am enjoying the freedom to eat pretty much what I want and not having to take 6 or 7 injections a day. I am not having such good luck with my continuous glucose monitor. It feels like I am stabbing myself when I insert the tubing and it is not very accurate. Long story short I have stopped using it. It pains me to see this $1500 little device just sitting there but for right now I would prefer the finger sticks. I am so thankful for my pump though. It is so convenient. I tried to schedule a follow up with my diabetic nurse this week and I wanted to get some advice on the CGM but I found out Fri. is her last day. I almost wanted to cry. She has been so great to me and such a support. I hate to see her leave. Anyways, I will keep on keepin' on and hopefully I will get better with my carb counting through practice. I have got cheerios and milk DOWN... cheerios 27g and milk 12g. Every morning! :) makes life easy. lol

So much to say about little Grant man, I will save him for another post.

These are a few of my favorite things...

So, the other day I got to go out for a little "me" time. I tried to invite a few people but it simply didn't work out. Nick had spent the morning golfing so I decided to treat myself also. After all, you can only sit around the house ordering baby clothes from EBay for so long until you just go stir crazy. I started out my time with LaMadeline. I ordered one of my pregnancy favorites, a grilled chicken ceasar salad with tomato basil soup... mmmm. Then I went to Starbucks. I bought a few books for Granty poo. He loves them by the way. I bought the Click Clack Moo board book and a pop up touch and feel alphabet book. Then I went to see horrible bosses (by myself). I felt like I was living in St. Aug all over again going to the movies and Barnes and Nobles all by myself. The movie was hilarious. To top off an already great night I decided to give myself a nice dose of insulin and indulge in a chai chiller from CC's. My favorite... WITH whipped cream. Oh, the simple pleasures in life! And on the way home I had my music up as loud as I wanted with all the windows down. Something I do not do with the baby in the car. It is nice every-now-and-then to have some time for just myself and my thoughts.

Last night Jordin volunteered to babysit which was so sweet. Nick and I got to go out to dinner and gelatos(which also reminded me of St. Aug). I had some boring sugar free coffee but I did taste Nick's gelato. It was sooo good. We had a good time. Today I have been cleaning my but off. We have more dust and spider webs in this house than I can handle. It's gross! The house is spotless and not I am waiting for Grant to wake up to go to Baton Rouge before the traffic. :/ Redecorating the dining room thanks to Maddie.

Boys wear blue people!

So, the past couple of weeks have been pretty busy. Last week I went up to Hayley and Thomas' house to bring them their baby gift that had been sitting in my living room for a month. I just knew that by the time I finally got it there she would already have one. And I was right. :( It was fun getting to catch up with her though. That's the nice thing about good friends. It seems like you can always pick up where you left off.

Nick, Grant, and I also got to go to Portofino island with his brothers and their families. I can't say that it was the most relaxing vacation but it was fun nonetheless. By the time we packed up all of the baby stuff and carted it down to the beach and got him set up it was time to go back to the room because he was hot. We had little patot set up though. I blew up his floaty, put a towel over it, and had a misty fan on him. He was living the life. Maybe next year he will enjoy it a little more and we will bring a babysitter. Lesson learned!

Another cool thing that happened... to me it was cool... we ordered a brand new washer and dryer. After much confusion and two deliveries we are very happy with it. I had to get a little loud with the people at Best Buy but they did their best to fix their mistake. :/ For some reason the clothes are SO much softer and they smell sooo good. For any of you in the market, we got the LG front loader 9 cycle and they are awesome!!!

Last weekend Jenn and Michael were in with Eli for July 4th. It was nice that they were here for a long weekend. Jennifer brought her embroidery machine for me to play on and she played with my new camera lens. She was a bit underwhelmed with it but I love it anyway. And I didn't get to play on her machine nearly as much as I wanted to. Too bad. I guess I will when I go up there in a few weeks for the consignment sale... I cant wait! Speaking of clothing. I am now addicted to EBay!!!! Who ever knew it was so amazing? And why didn't they tell me how great it is??? I have already purchased about 10 smocked Jon Jons for my little baby. I have saved so much money and been so happy with everything so far. The other day I had THREE outfits come in at one time. It was then when I admitted my problem and I have been trying to stay away. But who can resist that beautiful smocking? :( AND over the past two days Grant has been called a girl three times!!! twice today and once yesterday. He was wearing all blue... bubbles. I love bubbles and I don't care if they are a bit girly. Look at the colors people! And I love how people play it off. They usually say "well he is jusyt too pretty to be a boy". I am fine with it though. And I don't care what anyone says (Jennifer) I will dress him in these little outfits until he is potty trained! lol

Last night we had the first baby-free night in a while. Mom came over and watched Grant while Nick and I met my friend Trisha and her fiance out for dinner. We were there about three and a half hours. Once again, I love it when you can pick up where you left off. Trisha and i were best friends in high school who lost touch when we graduated and went to college. Still probably one of my biggest regrets. When I got married I was lucky enough to have her come on my bachelorette trip and we have talked on and off ever since. Recently we have become closer again. She asked me to be in her wedding. I am so honored and so excited to share in this time with her. I really hope we become super close like we used to be. True friends are hard to come by and she is one of them. I can't wait to help her celebrate.

Today was Alissa's birthday. The kids had so much fun. Jamie rented a water slide and the cake was delicious!!! Sadly I did have a piece. And I paid for it later. I have had a stomach ache for several hours now. I got to hand out with Tabatha a lot. She is the type of person who you could just talk to for hours. Good people!

Tonight I was doing a lot of research on the American Diabetes Association website. I have been to lots of doctor appts and met with the nurse lately and I am having a much harder time lately controlling my sugar. My honeymoon period ( a period usually after you are first diagnosed where your pancreas produces SOME insulin) is pretty much over. It seems like I can;t sneak anything now without my sugar going through the roof. My doctor told me that I am a good candidate for the insulin pump. Basically its a little catheter I put in my stomach that is connected to a tube that is connected to a pump. I will wear it 24 hours a day only taking it off to shower. The benefits are that I will only take one shot every three days while still checking my sugar as opposed to 4-5 shots a day. Also, she said that they see better control and less insulin wasted while on the pump. The downside is that they are extremely expensive and I would need to be connected to it all the time. I was really sad over the thought of never being able to wear a dress again. Maybe I could cut holes in them or invent some type of holster like for guns on my leg. hmmm... we shall see. :) I still have a lot of homework to do and maybe one day it will happen. I started on a trial saline pump and it didn't work. The catheter basically hooked in my skin instead of going straight in. I am going back Monday to get it put in again. I think I flinched while putting it in because I was scared of the size of the needle. I have become quite a wimp using my little short needles. :)

Well, both of my guys are sleeping so I guess I should be too. Goodnight all.

Summer days driftin' away

So, I have been trying to do as many free activities as possible. Because if I am not entertained, I am spending money at the mall. This is a picture of me, Kali, Sara, and Jordin at a little play that the girls were in written by Mrs. Nancy. They did a great job.
This is a picture from the night we met parain out to eat pizza. It was Grant's first time ever sitting in a big boy high chair. :*)
This is Grant in his big boy outfit. I thought he looked so grown up in this. He's gonna be such a heartbreaker.
I found a ton of activities that the library puts on around town for free. This was one of them. We got to make puppets. The kids had fun and grant laughs and laughs at them!
Here is naked boy after I fed him the other night. He is eating so many veggies and loves them all!


This week has been crazy busy. Wednesday I went to a place called Little Gym with a friend for a little baby class. Grant had so much fun. I learned how to do some little flips with him and we sang and just had a good time. I can't wait until he is a little older to take him more often. I ordered my new camera lens... which I am super pumped about. It should be in soooon! Can't wait to take pictures of my patot! Yesterday mom and I had date night after I spent the entire day washing clothes at her house. We went for manis, pedis, and Joe's Crab shack. YUM! Then the dryer went out. Nick fixed it. A few days later, the washer broke! What are the odds? Then today we woke up to go buy new washer/dryers and the air wasn't working. Luckily, we have a seperate AC unit in the garages. Thank God for that. We ordered our new front loading washer.dryer that I am sooo excited about and the repairman fixed the AC in about 30 minutes. Good day.Tomorrow is Father's Day. I hope Nick has a good one. I baked a Watergate cake (pistachio). I can't wait to have a tiny piece. I hope he likes his gifts too. Speaking of which... I need to wrap before he gets home. Until next time......

Summmmmer

Warning: this is going to be a boring post. I don't really do much of anything besides take care of Grant and play on the computer most of every day. You would think I would blog more but I suck. I haven't blogged in about a month. I am so bad at keeping up. If only I were as addicted to blogging as I am facebook. :) So a few weeks ago we had Grant's little baptism. It was at the same church Nick and I got married in. Father Greg did an amazing job as usual! Grant didn't cry at all! After we all had a little get-together at our house. Everything was so pretty and the weather was perfect. I am so thankful for our family and friends who were able to make it. It was great!

I survived another year of teaching!! I must say this year was so much better than last year. I hope I have another good group of kids next year. I will say that I am going to miss this class so much. Maybe they took it easy on me since they knew I was pregnant. :) I am always nervous about the next year. They have laid off a bunch of people, moved some around and I never know which grade I will end up in. I am sooo hoping that it will be second. I am very comfortable where I am, I love my co-workers, and I love teaching second graders. We will see though, I guess only time will tell.

So far, I have seriously loooved being home with little man. I am enjoying summer more than I enjoyed being home when he was a newborn. He has such a little personality now! He smiles and laughs at me. I even love the little grunt noises he makes when he poops. It's hilarious! Of course I understand that I may be the only person who thinks this is hilarious but, anyway! Every time I speak he looks around the room for me. I can just tell he loves me as much as I love him and I am so thankful for him. He was made for me! :)

I am not good at time lines, and I don't feel like pulling out his baby book. But, here is a list of the things that he is now doing:
1. sitting all by himself.
2. grabbing toys
3. putting everything in his mouth and sucking on everything
4. eating rice, tried oatmeal (baaad experience), and tried sweet potatoes today. He didn't care for them but we will try again tomorrow.
5. He went swimming a few times now and seemed to like it.
6. I SWEAR it sounds like he says "mama" sometimes but usually when he is mad! :)

I can't believe he is getting so big. :( I guess all babies eventually grow in to men, but I just don't want him to grow sooo fast.

That's pretty much my life... Grant, Nick, Grant, Diabetes, Grant, etc... lol
My diabetes as been wreaking havoc on my stomach for the past week. It's pretty terrible but I am making it. I am still not totally comfortable with my carb counting. I have a long way to go but I am trying... most of the time. Except today I had a piece of chocolate cake and then had to take a lot of insulin after. oops. But everyday I think it gets easier. I knew it would but I guess it is like everything in life.... it takes time to adjust. I am currently looking at other doctors. I love the Baton Rouge Clinic but I am not loving my doctor. And if I need to see them as much as I do, I want to LOVE him/her. So I think I figured out who I will be switching to and I hope I like him.

Also, our dryer broke today. I would like to take this time out to brag on my husband. Although it is NOT fixed yet, making only one phone call to my wonderful father, he is well on his way to fixing it! He took it apart and knows whats wrong. Hopefully it will be fixed soon. I started a list of everything that needs fixin' around here:
1. dryer
2. light in the garage needs to be changed
3. stained concrete floors need to be re-sealed
4. flag on the mailbox broke off
5. exterminator needs to come
6. Grant's fan broke
7. we want to put in a new shower


Quite the honey-do list! lol I am sure that as the summer progresses I will be adding to the list.

LIFE LATELY

Grant has been growing by leaps and bounds! Yesterday he began rolling over and last Sunday we started feeding him rice cereal with a spoon!!! WOW. I fall more in love with my sweet boy every day. He gets baptized this weekend and I can't wait.

Last weekend was my first Mother's Day. It was also Kali, ASara, Kamryn and Elise's dance recital. Mother's Day has never meant more to me. Nick brought me breakfast in bed and a card with flowers. He got me a bracelt, new coffee mug, stationary, and bath stuff. All very thoughtful. The best part was getting to spend time with my family. After the recital we went out to lunch and for dinner mom and dad treated us to prime rib and Alaskan king crabs. THEN ALL THE GUYS CLEANED THE KITCHEN! ;) It was awesome!

Also, Jordin graduates COLLEGE this weekend and Jenn will be graduating from Nurse Practitioner school next weekend. I am so proud of my sisters!