Day 323

 

November 19th, 2010

  

November 19th, 2011

We had a really busy (and stressful) day today. I won't go into a lot of specifics, but emotions are running REALLY high around here. :-(

Gus took a very short nap this morning and while he napped, I finished bagging my clothes and went through my shoes. In all, I bagged up 15 bags of clothes and bagged up about 40 pairs of shoes. Granted, a lot of the clothes and shoes that I purged have been in my possession since college. Yes... I have a bit of a hoarder inside me. I keep things because I never know when I'll wish I had kept them (never) and as a result, I end up with a lot of STUFF.

What pisses me off more than anything is that I could have (and should have) taken the time to list my stuff on eBay and maybe made some money. I could have participated in my neighborhood yard sale and tried to sell stuff through that. I guess I know for the future. 

After Gus was up and had lunch, we dropped off our items to the Good Will (GCF). The entire back of the Edge was piled high (to the ceiling) with bags and the entire back seat (next to Gus) was stuffed full as well. They had to come out with three grocery carts to get all the stuff and even that wasn't enough. Steve had to carry in the HUGE bag of shoes.

We went to the mall for Gus's picture with Santa. Last year (on November 19th), my parents and I needed to get out of the house because Suzanne was here cleaning, so we went to Once Upon a Child so I could use my Groupon, then we went and had breakfast, and then we went to the mall. I didn't anticipate going for pictures with Santa, but there wasn't a line (this was a Friday afternoon) and I figured "why not?" 

This year was a much different story. The mall was CRAZY... but before we even got to the mall, we sat in traffic for the stupid NC State/Clemson football game. Grrrr... I already hate NC State... so to sit in traffic for their stupid game was almost too much.

Then we got to the Santa spot and there wasn't a line (thankfully) and there were two families in front of us. No problem-o....

BUT THEN... all these people kept coming over to the side and cutting into the line, which pushed us further and further back. I was so pissed. Apparently, if you go to see Santa and he's not there (on a break), you can come back at any time and cut into the line and they'll let you get to the front. What a freaking joke.

So we waited in line for about an hour... which was TOO LONG for Gus. He was happy for a while and then started to get squirmy, irritable, and he was done. As a result, the visit with Santa SUCKED. He sat on Santa's lap for about a minute and then he started crying and wanted off.

The pictures make me laugh... because if I don't laugh,I'll want to cry. I was so annoyed at the whole process and really pissed that there were SO MANY people allowed to cut in line. Fair is fair and I felt it was highly unfair. 

 

Totally happy while waiting in line

Then it was FINALLY our turn to see Santa... 

 

This is the one we went with

We were given a computer to look at the pictures and then the guy walked off... we decided to whip out our iPhones and take as many pictures of the screen as we could. The pictures were priceless... poor little Gustafer.  :(

We picked out our picture, paid for it and left the mall. Gus was tired, hungry, teething, and had a bit of Santa anxiety. I kinda had a feeling that it'd go this way, simply because he's in the stranger anxiety phase right now. He's only a year and a half... it's pretty common for little ones to be scared of a stranger in a beard.

So we left the mall and came home. I'm exhausted and ready for bed. 

Here are some pictures from a year ago. After we saw Santa, we had lunch in the food court and then went to Apex for some awesome pictures of me and Gus. My dad took them for me because I had been the only one taking pictures of Gus and there weren't any of him and I together (just him and Steve).

 

Snuggles with Gram

 

Snuggles with Pap

 

Ridin' the rails in Apex

See you tomorrow...

Day 322

 

November 18th, 2010

 

November 18th, 2011

Well today was a pretty good day. We didn't do anything special... I was able to go to the post office and to Wal-Mart by myself (what a nice break) while Gus napped. I got home and Steve said Gus had just started to make noise as I walked in the door.

We played for the rest of the afternoon and then went to dinner in Fuquay. We had Mexican and then DQ. I think that's the last time we do our Friday night ritual here in NC.

As we were driving to dinner Steve and I talked about our move. We both feel sad about moving and I'm now progressing into the scared phase. I hate unfamiliar things and while I'm all for adventure and trying new things, it's still scary to know that we have about two and a half weeks left here in NC.

We're still waiting to hear about the appraisal. I guess we'll hear something Monday. Please keep us in your prayers that everything goes well and it comes back with good news. I don't even know what I'll do if it doesn't. It'll be more than I can handle right now.

Anyway... here are pictures from today and tonight of Gus brushing his teeth.

 

Drinking water at dinner

Tomorrow I'm going to finish packing up my clothes for good will and then we're taking the clothes on our way to the mall to see Santa. Be on the look out for pics of Gus with Santa tomorrow!!

Here are a few pics from last year:

 

Gus and my mom  <3

 

Sleeping on Gram

Day 321

 

November 17th, 2010

 

November 17th, 2011

This morning Gus slept in and I was able to take a nice long shower and get out and get ready and he was STILL sleeping! He woke up around 8:15 and we had just enough time to get downstairs, get dressed, eat breakfast and then head out for his 18 month well-baby appointment.

Here are Gus's stats:

Height: 33.25 inches (76th%) (he grew 1.25 inches since 7-29-11)

Weight: 26.3 pounds (54th%) (he gained 3.1 pounds since 7-29-11)

Head: 18.66 inches (38th%) (his head grew .43 inches since 7-29-11)

Today Gus had two shots... he got the PCV (for ear infections) and the MMR. I REALLY didn't want to do the MMR but after talking with the doctor I decided to go ahead and do it. He won't need the other shot until he's about to start kindergarten.

There are several of the vaccines that he's supposed to get that when I asked the doctor what the reason for giving them now was, he didn't give me a good enough reason. I told him that we're not anti-vaccines and we WILL be getting Gus immunized as needed, but there are some that I just don't see any reason for at this point. For example, the HepB... it's for fighting a liver disease and as long as his birth mom doesn't have a history of liver disease, there's not a lot of chance that he'll get it. The HIB (meningitis) we've already passed when he should have been vaccinated and I guess there's no point now that he's past 15 months. Hep A... another one that comes from tattoo needles, sexual activity and other things that don't apply to us now. Maybe in the future he'll get it, but for now... not necessary.

So he got the MMR and I'm not too upset about it. I hope we get through the next 10-14 days without any reactions... I'll be so mad at myself if he gets a rash or other reaction from the shot.

Other than the shots, the doctor was quite impressed with all that Gus can do. He said he's advanced in the gross-motor area (not a surprise) and he was happy to hear that Gus is developing "beautifully." :-)  He said to keep doing what we're doing. He was impressed to hear that Gus is trying to sing the ABC song, and to keep working on colors, shapes, counting, and reading.

 

 We came home and had a snack and then it was time for Gus to take his nap. He slept for about two hours and then we had lunch. I made Gus mac-n-cheese and he ended up feeding himself. He also had some yogurt and I couldn't believe that he was feeding himself with a spoon and didn't make a mess!! I took a video of it! (Go to the YouTube page to see it)

 

Cheese beard

 

Little dare-devil

I decided to take some pictures of Gus wearing various cute tops shirts that I've bought for him recently. I had hoped to get at least one cute one for our Christmas card... I have to say that I'm quite impressed with myself. The pictures are some of my best yet and I am blown away by a few of them. I just can't get over how GORGEOUS Gus is!!!! Check these babies out and tell me that I'm wrong!

Then I put him in his Christmas Spongebob shirt...

 

Gus's birth mom LOVES Spongebob so when I saw this, I had to get it and send her a picture of Gus wearing this!!! She loved it!!  <3

After this one, I put him in his Santa Baby shirt. I'm seriously thinking about putting him in this for his picture with Santa this weekend... what do you think?

 

I adore this child!!!

 

Totally going on the Christmas card!!

I got a tuxedo shirt made for Gus by a mom in my MOMS Club and took some of him in that, and then I recently got him a tie shirt...

 

He couldn't get any cuter if he tried!

 

Sweet, precious boy in a tie shirt!

 

 I put him back in his cowboy shirt and took two more...

They're good right?!?!?!?!  :-)

We had pizza for dinner and then it was time for a bath. Gus was more than ready for bed after his nice warm soak in the tub. He was out by 8:15.

Steve got home shortly after (around 8:30) and I'm so happy to have him back home. He's here until the 28th... then that week is going to SUCK because he'll be gone for the entire week. :-(  I hate it when he's gone. At least there's only one more week of him being away and then we move to Atlanta together.

I'm tired. I had a bit of a rough patch tonight thinking about moving and I cried for a bit. I know there's no point in crying because it's going to happen, but it still makes me sad that we're going to be saying goodbye to some really excellent friends. 

See you tomorrow.

A year ago today, my parents, Gus and I went to ATC (American Tobacco Campus) to meet Steve for lunch at Tyler's Taproom. Then we went to the Hill building and got to show them the inside of the building. Yola got to meet Gus for the first time, and Gus got to meet John R. the CEO at the time. It's funny how drastically things can change in a year. Neither John, Yola, or Steve work for Burt's Bees anymore.