Christmas really isin't that far away you know....

If you know me at all, you know I'm a planner. I need to know all the "W's" - Who, What, Where, When and Why.... If I don't know all these things before an event happens, I'm completley lost. Some may say it's OCD (Andrew!) I say it's a healthy need to know ;)

But I have to say that tonight, I may have taken it a touch too far (nobody can ever tell Andrew I admitted that!) Tonight, I started making out my christmas lists!! Just what I've bought for whom so that I can keep things even and track my spending. In my own defense, Christmas is really not that far away. Less than 3 months now, as a matter of fact. Andrew, however, found this to be an outlandish and completley un-necessary thing to do in the middle of October. True, I am early, but on the same token, I will probably be done with my shopping before December gets here... then who'll be laughing at who???

All Summer Long...

Another summer long blogging hiatus! With so much going on, I've not really had a lot of time to myself to sit down and actually blog. With Logan in bed early tonight, and the hubby completley absorbed in sports center, here I am! :)

Here's a quick run down of the summer. Rain. And a lot of it. Most of June and July was rain, rain, rain. We still did get a week-long camping trip to Old Orchard Beach, Maine in. We had a few good weather days where we got to enjoy the beach, but of course, there was rain involved too... Still, we made the best of it. Logan wasn't scared of the ocean AT ALL... a little too dare-devilish for Mommy's liking. He really liked jumping directly into the waves. Here's a few pics of the cutest kid on earth, enjoying his first trip to the ocean!

Logan has really started making the transition to a full blown toddler (knock down, drag out tantrums included at no extra charge!) He's talking more and more, and has re-named both sets of Grandparents to boot. Andrew's Mom and Dad are now "Mimi" and "Bampy" and my parents are now "Mema" and "Bepa". It seems as if he comes out with a few new words each day. As of recently, he loves to dance and will show off his moves whenever he can get you to watch. It's pretty much the cutest thing you've ever seen!! (so what if my opinion is biased!?)

In October, we're headed back to Maine to do the Fryeburg Fair with my parents. It's a Thurs-Sun and we camp at the fair. It's a really nice long weekend. One of those places where everything is exactly the same every time you go, and that's the best part :) Between shopping and a LOT of fair food, I'm really looking forward to camping and spending some time as a family!

I took this survey on facebook in my Circle Of Mom's app, and I thought it'd be fun to post it here, too!

1. How old were you when your first child was born?24

2. What month and year was your youngest child born?January, 2008

3. How did you feel when you first found out you were pregnant?EXCITED!!! We were trying to get pregnant for a little while, so when it happened we were very happy

4. Who did you tell first?Andrew, then my sister right after

5. How many pounds did you gain during your first pregnancy?48.... bad, I know!

6. What did you crave while you were pregnant?Salty stuff. Mostly melted cheese and chips!

7. Did you find out the gender of your first child? Why or why not?Yes. Andrew was gung-ho about finding out from the very beginning. I took some convincing. It definitley made it much easier to buy baby stuff. The next time around though, I don't think that I want to know. We already have all the essential stuff. And I think it's one of lifes few really great suprises....

8. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy?nope. Completley textbook until the end when an induction didn't work!

9. How much did your first child weigh?8lbs 11oz

10. Was your first child early, late, or on time?2 weeks late

11. What is the most difficult challenge or health issue that any of your children have faced?He recently had Bronchiolitis (as opposed to Bronchitis) and we had to treat him with a nebulizer, which he absolutley HATED. He screamed the entire time we had to do a treatment. It was terrible!

12. What's your favorite part of being a mom?Watching him learn something new. And also kisses. They're very wet, but they're so sweet :-)

13. Do you think it's easier to be a mom or a dad?Dad. It's hard to explain. As a Mom, you've got 9 months on Dad as far as knowing the baby goes, so the baby always wants Mom. She gets far fewer breaks than the dad does!

14. What is the best piece of advice you could give to someone who is about to have their first child?Sleep! Your democracy is about to become a dictatorship, so enjoy your last few moments of freedom while you have them! :-)

15. Did you always think you'd have kids?Without question.

16. What's been the biggest surprise about motherhood?I was so afraid that I wouldn't know what he wanted when he was crying or how to make him stop... It's weird, because as soon as that baby is born, you just kinda know!!

17. Are there things you miss about life before kids?the ability toleave the house in 10 minutes... now you have to make sure you have snacks and juice and extra clothes and diapers and you have to know how long you're going to be gone so you can pack all of the above accordingly!

18. How many children do you have?1

19. Do you plan to have any more children?probably one more

20. Who's the mom that you admire most?Tie between my Mom and Barb!

The things we carry

I know I haven't written a blog in a while... a long while! I guess I've been in a bit of a rut, and this morning, while I was packing Logan's diaper bag for a small road trip that we're taking tomorrow, an idea struck me, and here I am.

Since it's been a while since I'd actually completely emptied aforementioned bag, I thought, hey, why not... I've actually got time and lord knows what I'll find. So, in no particular order, here's what I found....

1) An empty tupperware... clean. I'm pretty sure I left it at moms and she threw it in before I left... nice and washed of course! Thanks, Mom!

2) A small container of goldfish.

3) A small container of veggies straws.

4) A toy cell phone.

5) 1/2 a Hannaford's Fresh magazine. I think I gave it to him to rip up while we were grocery shopping to keep him entertained... hey, you do what you have to do!

6) A blue plastic dinosaur.

7) 3 pairs of socks.

8) a spare sucky.

9) Baby Tylenol.

10) A lot of crumpled up Kleenex. I'm hoping it's new, and not used.... either way, I threw it out!

11) 2 Onesies. (both too small now)

12) 1 pair of pants. (also too small)

13) swim trunks. (clearly WAY too small... those were left over from last summer!)

14) A bib.

15) 2 spoons and 1 fork.

16) 4 daytime diapers and 1 night diaper.

17) Wipes case, almost empty.

18) Burt's bees cream.

19) A "tool" keyring, that makes various noises.

20) 3 Matchbox cars.

21) 4 Lego Duplo blocks.

22) A lot of snack shrapnel (stray goldfish, teddy grahams etc...)

23) an envelope of grocery coupons.

24) 5 bucks!!!!!!!!!!! yesssss!

25) an envelope with some of his first hair cut in it

26) 2 pens

27) 1 juice cup (also washed, thanks, Mom!)


So after surveying all these contents, it got me to thinking... Do all Mom's carry around this much stuff? Am I just a diaper bag pack rat? It's funny, because there are some aspects of my life where neatness, planning and order reign. My desk at work. Logan's schedule. Planning Jen's bridal shower... And then there are some things, like this diaper bag that looks to be completely out of control! I guess it just makes me normal. Not everyone can be neat and perfect all the time. And you know, I wouldn't have this bag any other way!

I give up!

I think that there is some sort of electronic/ appliance ghost that lives in our house... or maybe anything new and expensive that we acquire knows that it lives in our house now, so it plans an early death.....

We were sitting in the living room on Thursday, watch TV on our BRAND NEW flat screen TV and it died.... the whole screen went completely black... and when you tried to turn it off or on, it made a loud popping noise....

Let me re-count the list of things that have died in the 3 1/2 years that we have lived here: (drum roll, please.........)

1) The first thing that went about 2 months after we moved in was the dryer... keep in mind it came with the house, was extremely old and operated on gas.... so that wasn't a terrible thing. We had some gift cards and coupons for home depot, so not a huge expense for us.

2) Maybe a month later the dishwasher died. My indication on this one was the burnt plastic smell :-)

3) In January of the first year here, the furnace died. That one hurt the wallet a little more... $1700 bucks with installation....

4) Then came our 2nd dishwasher. One of the pipes underneath froze and burst... conveniently when we were not home... we arrived home to a wet dog, an even wetter kitchen and a flooded basement.....

5) Shortly after Logan was born, the TV in our bedroom nearly caught fire. It wasn't even turned on when it started this really high pitched screech, then there was the burning plastic smell and the glow coming out of the back!

6) Just before Christmas 2008, we had a power surge that got both our TV's, all the lights, our circuit box (or whatever that's called!) all the smoke detectors, Logan's monitor and various other electronics

7) our TV this past Sunday.

What the hell?? How do I stop this ghost from ruining all my stuff!? My vote is to move... still working on Andrew on that one..... ;-)

I'm terrible at keeping this thing up!

Let's face it... I am really, really, really bad at keeping up with this blog.... I can admit it. I know, I know. But let me throw this out there... being a Mom of a walking... scratch that, running toddler is EXHAUSTING. Here are some of Logan's new favorite things:

1) Playing in the toilet water.... (you try to get Andrew to shut the lid, or at least the bathroom door... impossible!)

2) Playing in Jake's water dish, and trying to pull it out of the holder (sucessfully, about 45% of the time) and dumping the whole thing all over himself and the floor.

3) Using his sucky as a shovel to rid my plants of all the soil in the pot (now all my plants are off the floor!)

4) While he's walking around with a snack, he'll "show" it to Jake, Jake will lick it, then Logan eats it. GROSS! They say dogs mouths are cleaner than humans mouths, but when's the last time you saw a human lick their own butt!?

5) He LOVES to play with the house phone. No matter where we are, he will find the phone, and then proceed to throw a huge fit when you take it away... ditto for your keys. (My mom is still looking for the keys to her car... sorry Mom!)

6) Durring aformentioned melt-downs, he figured out hitting mommy in the face gets a whole lot of reaction out of her... We're working on "nice touches"... it's getting better. slowly.

7) He's still putting EVERYTHING in his mouth... I thought kids grew out of that by now....

8) He's decided that laying down or me to change his clothes or to change his diaper is not worth his time. Then he throws the fit... refer to item 6 in my list.

9) We're back to a 10 of 5 wake up call. That's WAY earlier than I care to get up!


So yes, every day is an adventure here... but I still wouldn't trade it for the world! I love that little monkey. The smiles and giggles make it SO worth it!

1 year ago today..........

I can't believe that Logan is going to be 1 year old tomorrow. A whole year old! Where has the time gone? Where has my little baby gone?

Exactly 1 year ago today at this time, I was lying in bed WIDE AWAKE. I had been to the hospital for an induction on 1/2/08 that hadn't worked, and I was praying that I would go into labor on my own, and I wouldn't have to do it with pitocin again... no such luck. Even at that point, after 42 (!!) weeks of growing this amazing little baby inside me, I still had a hard time picturing myself as a real, live Mommy... What would it be like, would I know what to do? Would I do the right things at the right times? Little did I know that I'd soon find out that I wouldn't have to "know" what to do, it would all just come naturally.

Since I'm feeling all nostalgic (and maybe a little sad!) I wanted to write out Logan's birth story, since I don't think I've ever done it and I guess the longer I wait, the more I will forget!

We went to the hospital (for the 2nd time!!!) on January 8th, 2008 at 7am. I had the same nurse and the same room as the week before. They hooked me up to the fetal monitors, and then tried quite a few times in both hands, then both arms to get an IV into me... with no luck. They had to call in the anesthesiologist to get one into me! Then, they started me on Pitocin and it was on!

I sat in bed and read a magazine, watched some TV and chatted with Andrew, Mom, Jen, Barb and Cassie who were all there and waiting (again!) All the sudden, it felt like Logan did a back flip inside of me and it felt like I was peeing in bed... and I couldn't stop it!!! My water had broken. (no wonder they make you sit on those little bed pads!) He had passed mecounium inside me, so it was green (gross, I know!) Within about 10 minutes of my water breaking, I was in HARD, HARD labor.

I really had wanted to try to not have any drugs. Andrew and I watched my contractions on the monitor paper... All I could do was breathe (who knew that goofy breathing stuff they taught us in our baby class was something we could use?!) The nurse said that because of the Pitocin and the pitocin that my body was naturally making, my contractions were piggybacking. Andrew and I were watching my contractions on the print out from the fetal monitor, and one wouldn't even go below the 1/2 way point before another one started. They turned off the IV pitocin and still there was no change in the piggybacking. Once I got to 5 1/2 centimeters, I couldn't do it anymore. I was so physically exhausted. I felt like if I'm so tired now, how on earth can I push??? So I asked for the intrathecal. It was definitely a good decision. It gave me 3 hours to rest up for the pushing ahead!

Fast forward to about 5:30 and I am fully dilated and ready to push. I think it finally hit me at that point that this was really about to happen! Andrew was awesome. He stood by my head and counted out contractions for me and encouraged me. I can't imagine what being in his shoes was like... feeling like you can't really do anything to help with the actual birth! So I pushed... and pushed...... and then pushed some more. Logan had rotated so that his face was up (our doctor called him sunny side up!) I was having a hard time getting his head and nose past my pelvic bone. All the sudden monitors started going off and all the nurses were rushing around and Dr. Malcolm was yelling stuff at them and nobody was telling us what was happening... they put an oxygen mask on me and I instantly started crying! I can remember saying what's going on, what's going on and poor Andrew was as white as a ghost! I felt like I couldn't breathe with the oxygen mask on.. finally, when the alarms stopped, Dr. Malcolm explained to us that Logan's heart rate had dropped, that he was probably getting stressed from all the pushing and that we needed to get him out now. He told us he was going to use suction, which is like a vacuum they stick on the baby's head, and he'd pull as I pushed to help Logan past my pubic bone... we tried this for about 20 minutes with no luck. He left the room briefly and Andrew and I looked at each other and again, didn't know what was going on!

When Dr. Malcolm came back in, he told us that he was holding another patient out of the OR and that I needed to get Logan out in the next 10 minutes, or we were going to have to go a c-section.... that was all the encouraging I needed.... I was pushing like there was no tomorrow!!! Then, (finally!) at 7:43 pm, we welcomed our 8 pound 11ounce baby boy, Logan Timothy Thibeault to the world! The feeling of relief and excitement and pure exhaustion hit me as soon as they placed him on my chest. He was crying and covered in gook, but he was the most beautiful, amazing thing I had ever seen. Love at first sight is an understatement! Andrew asked Dr. Malcolm if he could touch him! haha! Dr. Malcolm told him Sure, he's yours! Here are some pictures of the first few hours of Logan's life:

And now, he's grown into an amazing little boy who is going to be a whole year old tomorrow.......

Holiday Happenings

I always feel like I am SO busy before the holidays... trying to figure out which presents to buy people, and what I need to make to bring to get togethers, and how much longer I have left to get it all done in, along with trying to keep my walking (!!!) son out of the dog water bowl, spending 40 hours a week at work and trying to keep the house in some kind of orgainized disaster! It's crazy! As soon as it comes upon us, it's all over... but at least this year, I have some cute pictures to show for it :-)
I present to you... Christmas 2008 - Thibeault style!

Team Thibeault takes a hit!

It is SNOWING out there... currently, we're getting between 6 and 10 inches, then on Sunday night into Monday, we're supposed to get an even bigger storm! Now don't think of me as a Grinch... I love a white christmas... but come on... enough with the snow! I think I was meant to live someplace where snow can't exist....

So to the point and title of this post....

Last Sunday, Jen and I had a cookie baking day. We baked A LOT of stuff... gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, oatmeal rasin cookies, butterscotch cookies, cookie dough brownies and magic bars! (I'm probably forgetting some, but you get the idea!) Andrew must have been feeling left out, because he was pulling a chef boy-are-me on us. While we made cookies, he made stromboli and soup and also alfredo sauce...

So anyway, we're all in the kitchen, then the lights go very dim... then there's a loud pop in the living room... the lights go really bright, then really dim, then the lights in the kitchen went dim and the ones in the living room were REALLY bright. We went into the living room to figure out what the pop was and came around the corner to find smoke rolling out of our entertainment center!!!!! For those that don't know, our entertainment center is HUGE and very heavy... it took 2 guys to get it in here! So andrew gets all he-man on us and rips it away from the wall (at which time 1/2 of the top part fell on to the floor and all the glass things I had on the shelves fell out and smashed all over the floor) as soon as he ripped the cord to the satelite reciever out of the wall, the smoke stopped... but the damage was done.... light bulbs started popping and both of our TV's were toast, also Logan's monitor, 3 clock radio and the electric componet of our furnace! What is it with our luck with appliances????

So that has been our excitement (and headache) for the last week... we're gearing up for Christmas and I feel like I still have a lot to do... hopefully there is time to get it all done!

Something I love!

It's called Works For Me Wednesday... Here's the link: http://http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/it_works_for_me/

I can relate to this woman on so many levels! She's awesome, and I always visit her blog on Wednesdays for this very cool little weekly post. She's got great ideas, and great readers with more ideas!