Already?!?!

It's hard to believe that it is already the end of January.  The month has gone unusually fast.  Time seems to be going unusually fast lately.  Time going this fast only happened when on vacation, not during every day life.  That either means that I am getting old - because they say the older you get the faster time flies, or it means that life is good ~ I'll go with the second option.

I have not worked a full five day week since before Christmas.  We have had so many snow days I'm afraid I'll be going to school until July.  On the upside of that is I love, Love, LOVE having the days home with Nugget.  He is so much fun to be with.

Being Nugget's mom is my favorite thing in the entire world.  I have never felt more content and happy in my life.  Yes, there are days that I'm frazzled, tired, and crazy; but at the end of the day when I'm sitting in the chair giving him his bottle and he grabs my nose, pats my chest, or plays with my fingers all the 'crazy' is gone and pure bliss fills my heart.  Life is Good!

Enough sappy stuff.  I know most people stop by for pictures so here are a few from the last couple of weeks.

Nugget LOVES his wagon!

The bucket of the wagon is multi-fuctional!  :o)
Nugget loves to stand at the counter when we're cooking.
We now put a stool there for him to stand on.

T- Basketball anyone?

LOVE that smile!

The next three pictures got me.  I can't believe how much my baby is starting to look like a little boy.  He is losing his baby features.  I'm not ready!!

This weekend we have had some beautiful weather.  This afternoon we took advantage to get out into the warm sunshine and we took our first family walk of 2011.  Nugget has crawled into the walking stroller several times the last couple of months, but there has been too much snow to go out walking.  He was so excited to go this morning!

I didn't notice the measuring cup in the shot.
Nugget used to play with it while we walked last summer. 

The Good and The Bad of the Past Week

The Good

A couple of weeks ago I saw on another blog ~ I'm sorry I was blog surfing and I didn't mark what blog ~ I was so excited by the idea that I jumped right to the site Blog2Print.  It is a site that will turn your blog into a book.  I had heard about the site long ago and completely forgot about it.

If there was ever a year of blogging that I wanted to preserve it would be last year.  Heavens!  What a year!!  It didn't take long for me to decide that I wanted a book.  The first thing I did was move over some of the posts from my old blog.  Then I followed the prompts on the site.  It is so easy!

At first I put in every post for 2010 and every comment.  When I was finished my book was over $100.  I didn't think Bear would go for that.  What is neat about the site is I could go through and delete what I want to right there while making the book.  At first I tried to just cut out some of the 'fluff' posts, but that wasn't enough.  Eventually I, sadly, took out the comments, and the book was down to just over $50.  Done.

I think it came out great!

The cover of our book.

You can even add a dedication page.
Promise ~ it looks much better than this picture.

The book chronicles our entire journey from right before referral, to referral...

...through our trip...

...to Nuggets firsts, all the way to the New Year.

The paper quality is marvelous.  The pictures look wonderful.  I am really happy with how the book turned out.  My hope is to make a book every year for Nugget.  I think that would be a neat gift for him one day.

The Bad

The last few months have been rough for all three of us as far as colds. Poor Nugget has had bronchitis at least three times. Bear has been to the doctor for a nasty virus he had and couldn’t shake. I caught the same virus back in September, and had been on antibiotics twice before Christmas.

For the life of me I have not been able to kick what ever it is I’ve caught. I know I have not been taking care of myself very well lately.  I haven’t been sleeping, I don't walk or swim right now, and I don’t eat healthy like I used to. There are some days I’m so tired I am lucky to eat a bowl of cereal for dinner.

All of this has caught up with me. Last Saturday I began to feel lousy ~ AGAIN. By Sunday I was dragging. Poor Bear even had to finish the cooking projects I started while I crawled back into bed. I thought all I needed was a nap. Monday I woke up feeling tired and achy, but I thought it was because I was up singing “Up On the House Top” longer than normal. By the time I got to work I had a full on sinus head-ache and it was getting increasingly more difficult to breathe. I thought that was because it was really cold outside.

At 10:00AM I called the doctor.   I decided I better get another antibiotic before I end up with bronchitis. I was hoping she would call in something, but nope she wanted to see me. My plan was to run to the doctor’s office, get a prescription, and get back to school all in an hour.  I HATE going to the doctor and I avoid it at all cost.  I have to feel pretty awful before I make that phone call.

Well, not all of my trip to the doctor went as planned. I did get to the doctor’s office and I did get a prescription, but I never went back to school.  I went home.  The doctor gave me a strong (it’s gonna kick your ass) prescription. Why? Because I bypassed the bronchitis stage and moved right on to pneumonia. Yeap! I have the big one. I have been home from school all week trying really hard to not cough up a lung (sorry if that's too much info). One minute I’m doing better, the next I’m down and out again.

It’s been hard for me not being able to take care of Nugget like I usually do. I help when I can, but poor Bear has had to pull most of the load around here this week. I feel guilty, but Nugget has still gone to day care three days this week. I don’t have the energy to keep him home with me all day. Thankfully my parents and Bear’s mom have gone to pick him up early so he doesn’t have to stay at day care until Bear can pick him up at 5:30.

I don’t know if it’s because now I know that I am have a sickness with a name, or if it’s because I am more sick than I’ve been in last few months, but what ever the reason this has knocked me down hard. I have been on the medication (that is supposed to be the same dose as getting an IV) for four days. Aren’t I supposed to be well by now?  I have six more days of meds and one more day home plus the long weekend.

I’m over being sick.

My First Black and White Wednesday

For a while now, actually for a year today, I have enjoyed seeing the black and white photos on several blogs I follow.   The link party started on Lisa's blog The Long Road to China, and has spread through blogland to some of my favorite blogs.

I have LOVED looking at everyone's black and whites, and always thought I would join in once I was home from China with 'my subject'.  Well, we've been home for a while but I haven't joined in the black and white photo fun because I am in no way, shape or form a photographer like many who participate.  I am a bit intimidated to throw my pictures in the mix.  I only take pictures with my little Sony pocket camera.

This morning I saw on Lisa's blog that today is the one year anniversary of the Black and White photo link and I thought it was now or never.  This was a good time to jump into the ring.

A few weeks ago I looked out onto the deck and saw Nugget's little rocker covered in snow.  It looked so sad to me, not the happy little rocker that Nugget loved to sit in every day during the warmer weather.   I had to take a picture.

I can't wait until the warmer weather gets back to town and we can once again go out and play.

If you would like to see many beautiful black and white photos hop over to Lisa's blog.

Party in the Crib

After reading about so many struggles that some have with sleep issues, I really hate to complain about our issue. Really it isn’t terrible, BUT I sure would like to sleep all night long once in a while.

Thankfully we are not woken by screams of terror or bad dreams. Over the monitor each night we hear giggles, coos, chatting, and once in a while his very own baby songs. Nugget wakes up, usually between 1:30-2:30 every night and has a party in the crib! I will lay and listen to him and I can’t help but laugh at times. He is having a blast in there. He lays in there and will chatter through his limited vocabulary. One minute it will be quiet and then you hear: mama, uuupp, Papa, Daaadeee, Ho Ho, and then he starts all over again with his words.

After a few minutes I will go in and he is so happy! Sometimes Nugget jumps into my arms. Other times he will bounce around and throw his blankets up in the air while falling on his mattress. He just giggles and laughs. He plays peek-a-boo. It is so hard to get irritated when he is in such a happy mood.

Eventually he asks to be held and we snuggle. This is my favorite time of the day night when all is quiet and we cuddle. This past Christmas Nugget fell in love with the song Up On the House Top. While I am holding him he will say, “Ho Ho” which means he wants me to sing the song. I try to ignore it, but then he will pat my shoulder, “Mama - Ho Ho”. If I still don’t sing the song he will start to cry until I sing. I have sung that blasted song more times than I care to count. One night I sang it six times, all three verses, before I could put him back to bed.

Right now the song Up On the House Top is a comfort to him. We had issues last night with our fire alarm and it really scared Nugget. Once he stopped crying he asked for “Ho Ho”. When we get in the car after I pick him up from day care he wants to hear the song ~ all of the way home. I am ready for ‘Ho Ho’ to go on vacation!

Tangent over ~ back to the late night parties. The party will last any where from one to three hours. I am so thankful for the nights when Nugget falls to sleep soon after I leave the room. Sometimes he will tease. All will be quiet in the room after I leave, and then all of a sudden the party starts again.

Bear and I have discussed putting him to bed later. Right now we start the bath routine about 7:00 and Nugget is in bed by 8:00pm. When he goes down he is beat! I don’t think Nugget could stay up any later. For now I guess the parties will continue. At least I’ll get in some quiet snuggles during the early morning hours, which are priceless, even if I do have to sing “Ho Ho”.

Comment Spam File???

Did you know there is a comment spam file?  I didn't.  Last night I was fiddling around with Blogger and suddenly a page comes up with all sorts of comments.  There were 175 comments to be exact that were put in a spam file.

I couldn't believe all the messages I missed.  The majority came from March and April of 2010 (our referral time).  It was fun to go back and read comments that I missed.  Some of the comments made me smile, some made me teary ~ that was such an amazing time in our lives.

The majority of the comments were when people guessed the who, when, and where of our referral.  I couldn't believe how many people said Jiangxi, which is correct.  Most guesses though were for a girl, though.  :o)

Here is a screen shot of where I found the spam folder.   Maybe most  people already know about this, and I am slow to the party.  Let me know if you find treasures in your spam folder like I did.

New Cooking Blog

I started a new food blog.  If that sounds interesting you can find it HERE.  My first post is about the Christmas cookies I made this year.

Stop over to A Little Bit of This, A Dash of That when you get a chance.

Top Ten Photos of 2010

For the past few days I have been trying to write an end of the year post.  I have had trouble doing this because it has been such an amazing year I didn't know how to put into words just how special this year has been to me.  It has been so amazing in fact, I didn't want 2010 to come to an end.

This morning I was going through some of my favorite blogs when I came to TonngguMomma's post with her Top 10 Photos of the Year.  What a wonderful idea!!!  I am stealing copying borrowing her idea with my own Top 10 Photos of the Year.

Going through all of the photos from the past year was fun.  I can't believe how much Nugget has grown and changed in just the past seven months.  It was tough to choose just 10 pictures.  I could really do a top 20 list, but I will stay in the guidelines.  Here are my favorites in a countdown to number one:

10.

The moment we first met Nugget.  I will never forget the sadness in his cries.

9.

My mother-in-law has this Santa that Nugget LOVES.
He will spend hours playing the music and dancing with Santa.

8.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture.
It is one of the pictures that came on with our referral package.

7.

Finally!  My niece and nephews with the youngest little cousin!

6.

I love this picture!  Nugget loved to stand on this toy and 'sing'.
He doesn't do it as often anymore, but he was so happy this particular morning ~ it's a good memory.

 
5.

This picture was taken in July.  It made me happy to see Nugget look Bear in the eyes.
 Eye contact is so important in attachment, I knew the work we were doing was helping -one day at at time.
We still work every day on our attachments ~ it is going to be a while until Nugget feels 100% secure but every second is worth the effort.

4.

It is hard to catch a smile of Nugget on camera.  This picture is priceless to me.
 It shows our happy boy!

3.

This picture was taken at Nugget's baptism.
I LOVE this boy!!!

2.

No Words Necessary!
April 6, 2010

1.      

My favorite picture of the year!
My family - my Loves!!

As much as I am sad to see 2010 end, I am just as excited to see what 2011 will bring.  I look forward to   watching Nugget grow and develop.  Every day he changes ~ almost too fast.  I look forward to seeing him experience new things.  I look forward to growing as a family.  I look forward to the year ahead.

Happy New Year to All of you!!!