Robert's life

Robert's life
Well, we're both feeling a little better today so I guess I should blog! I ended up calling in twice last week and finally went to the doctor and got antibiotics for a sinus infection. Robert's still congested but he's teething-his first tooth poked through the 19th (still not visable really but you can feel it through!) and took his first step yesterday at Clif and Hollie's new house (to mommy!). I was so excited. Of course he hasn't done it since but he is standing unassisted more, although he can't get to a standing position on his own yet (has to pull up on something). He loves pushing his 2 wagons and does it non stop (if he can find a willing parent to get him unstuck when he hits something-Wes and I have started alternating when we're both home-we each do 3 laps and then it's the other person's turn.

I'm having 1st b-day denial, I can't believe my baby's turning 1! He was just a newborn, wasn't he? Now he's heck on wheels and turning the TV on and off and getting into everything...

Robert's life

Robert's life
Today I got my first enthusiastic ovation for my cooking. Robert applauded me throughout the whole meal. And it was Kraft mac and cheese! Wes went to Nanny's for Tuesday night supper but since we're still sick I decided we should stay home. So we did and I made my favorite (and Wesley's NOT favorite) mac and cheese. Well evidently Robert sides with me on this one, he'd eat a handfull, aplaud, eat another one, clap again... It was way cute. And very appreciated.

Robert's life

Robert's life

Work's really been picking up so I've worked a bunch this week, hense no postings :(. Wednesday was my first meeting day without Robert and it was bittersweet! I was so happy to be able to spend Thursday home with him and we had a great day. Friday I worked ASC (ambulatory surgery: 6am-2pm) and was able to leave around 1 pm and ran a couple errands and went to the gym while he was at Megans. Then we took him for his first haircut and Charlie's. Robert is the 4th generation of Furr males to go to him (Wes' grandpa used to, he, his dad, and his brother all still go there) and he did Wesley's first haircut too. He did great for it! And he looks so grown up now! Saturday we spent moving Clif and Hollie into their new house and Robert started with the sniffles which culminated into coughing and throwing up (all the milk he had just drunk) in our bed this morning (yuck!). He evidently is sick enough for that but well enough to scatter all of our plastic containers around the house. I don't feel very good either so the 2 of us skipped church. Thankfully now he's napping and I'm trying to get some pictures up on the web and on a CD to print! Still no teeth but very swollen gums. However he seems to think he needs to brush his teeth so maybe they're comming? Maybe by the time he's 2 :) Haircut pictures are up on the website www.megley.com/photos

Robert's life

Robert's life

Wow! Robert slept from 9pm-9:45 am-thank heavens! But then he only napped 45 minutes all day so I am TIRED! He's a busy boy! I ended up working until 3 am and didn't get to bed until 4 am so it was heaven to be able to sleep in! Yesterday was also quite a milestone day-it was the last (regular) day that I took Robert to meetings. I talked with his babysitter and she's going to keep him while I'm in meetings. I think I'm finally ready to let go-and neither of us is enjoying him being in meetings! I think he'll be a lot happier at the baby sitter's. I'm amazed that I've been able to take him this long though-he's almost 10 1/2 months, so he's been to a lot of meetings! Poor guy. We'll, just wanted to write a quick update. I only got not quite 6 hours of sleep last night/this morning so I think I'll hit the hay. Robert's accomplishments for the day include splashing in the dog's water bowl (had to completely change his clothes!), flushing the toilet and figuring out how to click a click pen. Yikes! Good night!

Robert's life

Robert's life
Someone switched our baby for an energizer bunny... how do we get the baby back? It's been a crazy few days in Lake Wobegon. Robert is systematically destroying our house (and Wes' parents, and his grandmothers). Today he unplugged a lamp, got into a cupboard we had latched, ran amuck through the hospital, took toys away from kids at story time, chased a ball, tried to figure out the ball poppers (work better if you can walk), crawled to the person reading at story time... Last night he crawled to Wesley's set up tripod and stood with it for the longest while. It was so cute. He's also really developing a sense of humor. He points to all sorts of things and laughs. He has the dearest chortle/giggle! OK, here's a picture.

Robert's life

Christmas
It's been a crazy week or so! Robert thoroughly enjoyed all the new people and toys and well, everything and is now systimaically destroying the house (in response to the direction from Uncle Rob). He can get the bottle drawer open and the bottles out (new today) and got one of the latches of his daddy's tool box open today too. He's standing for longer and longer periods at the activity center that Clif and Hollie gave him and loves to push his wagon around. He seems to be talking some too, I'm hearing fairly accurage "dada, doggie and light (maybe?). Doggie is the only one I'm fairly sure of. He also loves the dishwasher. His schedule is all weird today-he slept a bunch last evening and stayed up til 11:30 and then slept until 10 this morning, napped from 12:45-2:30 and has been up since. So hopefully he'll be back on schedule tomorrow!

Robert's life

Robert's life

OK, OK, I know. Bad blogging mommy! So since I've found time today to pick up Christmas cards, address Christmas cards and write a Christmas letter I guess I should find time to blogg too. So what's new? Let's see. Robert is still into everything and then some. He got CD's out of the CD changer last night (oops-but not my fault-I was at work!). He's starting to get some seperation anxiety and is crying briefly when I leave him at the babysitters or at the kids club at the gym. When I say briefly I mean "whah, whah, oh, what does that toy do?" so not too bad! He's starting to play with other kids more (like at free play after story time) and to really interact and socialize. I took him with me to a contact lense re-check appointment today (I knew it would just be a few minutes) and he had a ball "playing" with an optometrist while I was in line to pay. He loves peek-a-boo and rough housing and makes very good car noises in addition to his pirate noises. Sigh, I guess boys come hard wired :)

Robert's life

Yikes!

OK, OK, I know, it's been a week and 4 days since I blogged. BUT my portfolio is in (that's where I've been-in portfolio writing land) and Robert is asleep (for now) and even though I should be cleaning I'll blog quick (and if you're good, I'll even leave a picture).

Robert is a wild man. There is no other way to describe it. Wes says that any day we'll find him on top of the coffee table. Already he's trying to open the drawer on the china cupboard, turning the knob on the CD changer, playing with the phone, getting stuff off the coffee table, eating MY FOOD, grabbing glasses/earings off of people's faces, and well, you know, just being crazy! Last night my Bible Study group went out to a local mexican place for supper and I ended up buying him his own meal (cheaper than getting quesadillas off the a la carte menu). He had part of a quesadilla, some cheerios, some rice, some taco meat and a bunch of water and was cute. Then we went to the local Christian book store to pick out our new study. He decided to roll himself across the room (never done that before), then was scooting a plastic kid's chair across the room (yes, walking, holding onto the chair)! He's still sick (juncky nose) and fussy, which is the other reason I'm not getting much done. I was debating taking him to the pediatrician today but he's still eating/drinking OK and doesn't flinch when I take his temp in his ear so I think I'll hold off for now. OK, the picture I'm leaving you is Robert of the sticky-upy hair. I'll try to update the website pics tomorrow.

9 months today!

Into Everything!
How is my baby 9 months old? I swear he was just a newborn!

Wow, what a crazy week! Robert has been pulling up onto everything the last few days and then sometimes he gets stuck (pulls up to the stairs and can't figure out how to get down...). He has also started pulling the wire cart that has plastic containers in it around the room with him. Yesterday he pulled up on the safety gate and talked with us... He can open cupboards and some drawers now (we have the cupboards locked now and he finds them frustrating!), is no longer facinated by the twanging door stoppers (what a shame, now he wants the tubing from the mini shower that's attached to the toilet that I use to rinse diapers off with).

Oh, and our house is in a constant state of disorder. Wes' mom and grandma showed up on a few minutes notice last evening and his grandma said "well, you can sure tell that there's a baby here, there are toys everywhere!". Yep, sure are!

During his brief nap times the last 2 days I have managed to write a curriculum vitae and 2 clinical exemplars for a nursing portfolio that is due Dec 1. I trust I will get it done! RMH is starting a clinical ladder program and if I can get it all done and become a "Clin 1" I will get a lump sum of $1,500 which would be rather nice :)

Anyways, Robert's napping so I'd best get some housework done before it's time to take him for his 9 month appointment! I'm anxious to hear what he weighs and whether we can start him on wheat! Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!

Robert's life

Robert's life
Well, Robert officially pulled up to standing on Friday! I was so proud! He hasn't done it all the way to standing again but does pull up to his knees to play with stuff on the sofa. He's also getting harder and harder to contain during church and I'm probably going to have to start leaving him in the nursery. You would think that since I run the nursery I would leave him in it but I really don't (unless I'm the nursery worker which I am every 3-4 Sundays or so). We took him antique shopping today and he really enjoyed the oldies music they had playing at the huge antique mall we went to (in Verona) and looking at all the colorful stuff. I had him in the ergo and he did fine (used it as a front pack so I could keep an eye on his hands!) The other big munchkin related news is that I'm going to stop pumping every morning (which I was doing to develop a stash). Lets just say that my chest freezer basket is overflowing so I probably don't need to still be creating a stash. I'm still pumping at work of course and if I miss a feeding during the day just not extra. I'm really happy that he's so far not had any formula-and I don't forsee him needing any in the next 3 months, he is just as happy with rice chex and water if he needs something while I'm at the gym etc.

OK, other news. Our good friend Philip was in a head on car accident on Saturday and was airlifted to UVA (tertiary medical center) which caused us great concern until we heard that he was stable-lots of broken bones but nothing life threatening. Wes was able to see him that evening-went with our pastor and his wife while I stayed home with Robert. Please keep him, his wife Sarah and their baby, Logan (5 months) in your prayers! They're going to have a long road ahead of them. Philip was scheduled for surgery today to have rods placed in his ankle and femur and hardwear in his arm.

Well, that's all from here. Wes entertained munchkin this evening long enough for me to finish my book-which was very good- Jennefer Weiner's "Little Earthquakes".

Robert's life

Growing Up
Robert is growing up on me and it makes me proud and sad all at once. If I have time I sit and hold him while he naps (OK, I read!) and just look at him and marvel that he's so big and yet my baby. He's working on cruising and pulling up and thinks he can stand/walk. His newest trick is waving bye, but he waves towards himself instead of away. I was unloading groceries from my trooper today and he was babbling away and I looked at him and realized he was talking to "the munchkin in the mirror" (which is what we call his reflection in the car mirror we have for him) and waving to "him". He was saying baaaaaaaaaheeeeeeeey" which sounded kind of like bye to me, but was probably an accident. It also kind of looks like he was signing milk to me earlier today (we've been working on baby sign language with the videos "signing time" (www.signingtime.com) so I guess anything is possible-but milk isn't one we've done much with, so who knows.). Well, I've got pictures for you today, so I'll stop now and just let you look at them!

Wesley climbing

Margaret climbing

And Robert being cute (as usual)

Chinese Food!

Eating Out!
We decided on the spur of the moment yesterday to go out for lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. I was unusally disorganized for some reason and didn't have the diaper bag packed right and had no food/no bib/no spoon/no snacks/no cup. What was I thinking? So anyways we decided to see what Robert would eat. Well, he likes rice and fried rice (picked out the egg and peas), small peices of chicken/pork that I shredded for him, broccoli (just the flowerets), small peices of stir fried green beans, bananas and peaches from the desert bar and he got into the sugar from my small bowl of Chinese doughnuts. He had a ball but the waiter was not amused. I did clean up the area under the highchair pretty well and we left a nice tip. Thank heavens he drinks out of a cup with a straw and was able to share my cup and drank a bunch of water. By the end of the meal he was quite adept at grabbing a hand full of rice and eating it out of his palm. Of course this was the day when everyone we knew was at the restaurant so everyone got a good look at our rice covered munchkin! At the end of the meal I took him outside and dusted him off and he looked surprisingly good! I was just so impressed at how well he does with table foods and how much he actually gets into his mouth (and how well he likes ethnic foods). I can't wait until he can have wheat/eggs/dairy and he can eat more or less what we do!

Saturday we made apple butter with Wes' extended family. Actually, they made apple butter, his cousin Kim and I watched the babies and had a good time. Oh, and Wes and I climbed a tree, I'll post a picture.

Robert's life

Busy Mommy!

Last week I was too lazy to blog this week I've been too busy! It's been crazy with work and meetings this week. Robert still does really well at meetings (if I take lots of snacks) and so far no one seems to care. I've become a co-chair of a hospital wide policy and procedure commitee and so we'll be doing weekly meetings for a while. Our new nurse director is bent on changing everything this year so lots of changes going on! Which is a good thing.

Anyway, this is supposed to be Robert's life, not mine! He is currently napping (yeah!), which he seems to do less and less of each day. We were out and about both tues and Wed morning before I had to go to work so he really hasn't napped well this week, but has done fine. I resisted the urge to dress him up for Halloween and take him anywhere, well for one thing I was working and for the other thing (to quote Dr Newsome): "they can't walk or eat candy, so what's the point". So he and his daddy went to the weekly supper at Wes' grandma's as Sheriff Taylor and Opey (since they were wifeless/motherless!). I found a pair of (small-they look like mice ears) elephant ears on a headband and wore them with my animal scrubs to work and the kids liked them :) All in all we spent $3.50 on costumes (sheriff badge and headband) so not bad! Robert is trying to pull up, is an expert at taking DVD's off the shelf, loves to pet the puppy, chase the puppy, get the puppy's bone (trying to teach Snoopy to chew and leave her bone on the sofa-never thought I'd ever WANT her to chew it on the sofa!), love to eat and to feed himself fingerfoods. This week I've been giving him little peices of cooked zucchini with olive oil and garlic powder and he loves it! Plus he's eating rice chex like they're going out of style. Oh, and he thinks the elephant ear headband is really funny!
That's all the news from here that I can remember anyways!

Robert's life

Lazy Mommy!
I have totally been lazy this week and haven't bloged! I've actually been off for over a week now (was called off Monday and work today and this weekend) and we've just been hanging out. OK, so he's been crawling and I've been rescuing him/putting stuff away and childproofing! He's still army crawling but now can open the nightstand drawers (both of them), is thinking about how to get back to a sitting position crawling and is doing an occasional creeping crawl/rocking. We went to story time at the library on Wed (which is more singing and playing than reading) and he did really well there and then we went shopping and then back home. It's going to be hard going back to work this evening after a week with him 24/7 except for an hour 3 times this week while I was at the gym. I don't think Wes is looking forward to it either! Other stuff from this week include lots of hugs (oh, they're great!), learing to crawl into my lap and eating yogurt (he really likes it!). He's so precious, I love being a mommy! Well, got to get stuff ready to go to work, we're meeting Kim (Wes' cousin) and her two kids and Nanny's and then I'm going straight from there to work so I guess I'd better get busy!

Robert's life

It's been a nice weekend here, a perfect mixture of fun stuff and getting stuff done. For fun stuff yesterday I went shopping with a friend and got a great pair of shoes and a mocha late :) and then we went on the Shenandoah Valley Railroad fall scenic excursion from Verona to Pleasant Valley and back. It was a lot of fun although 2 hours is a long time to contain a munchkin! Luckily we were able to sit in a dining car and he had a great time crawling back and forth between us, eating rice chex and rice crispies and looking out the window. Then we went to Crutchfield to see what they had on sale and then out to eat at Jess' 2. Today was church and Robert refused to nap and was clapping, singing and talking. He is SO cute when he claps and he's doing it all the time now! After feeding him I took him back to nursery so he could play and he had a great time. This afternoon we installed a new light over our dining room table (got it on sale last weekend-origionally $99 paid $12.50!), I bathed Snoopy, Wes changed oil in the van and closed up vents, I went though all of Robert's old clothes and put them into under bed containers (how has he outgrown so many clothes already?) and now I'm bloging quick while Robert takes a nap. Oh, and my new diaper bag came in time to take it yesterday and it is PERFECT! I love it.

Robert is in to everything, taking DVD's off the rack, dumping toys everywhere, and is just all over the place. Baby gates are a wonderful invention! He's a ton of fun :)

Day off

Robert's life
Yeah! My first real day off in a week (I was off Monday but was crazy busy doing laundry/grocery shopping plus was at work for an hour or so for a meeting). It's been nice to just chill out at home. Grandma R came for a visit-the first time she's seen Robert since the beach and it was great to have her! Robert has changed so much since then! Today he managed to topple over the wire cart that I keep plastic containers in, move the hitch a few inches accross the kitchen floor and of course entertain mommy and great grandma! He's clapping a lot today, and thankfully started clapping along when I sing to him during diaper changes which for today anyways has kept him from rolling over during them!

I worked until 1:30 each morning the past 2 mornings and I am dead tired today! I'm looking forward to a good night sleep tonight! As soon as Bible Study is over I'm hitting the hay. Maybe I'll make it to the gym tomorrow!

Robert's life

In to stuff!

Wow, between working and keeping up with Robert my internet time has been severly limited (and what little I've had I've spent trying to decide on a new diaper bag-mine is too small for lugging around blankets/toys/sweatshirts/food/sippy cup.... and I thought newborns needed a lot of stuff! I finally decided on a skip-hop-dash in uptown stripe (in case anyone is interested!)
http://www.mylittleducks.com/shdashstripe.html
Robert's toy of the day are the little springy things that keep the door from hitting the wall. I never dreamed they were so much fun, but they really are! And socks are a ton of fun too. (BTW, mom the socks you sent are AWESOME!). I weighed him yesterday at work and he is now 18.2 lbs and 29 inches. No wonder he's getting heavy! I don't carry him without a sling for very long at all-to the car or next door is about the max. Thank heavens the ring sling is so easy to get him in and out of! And the ergo is great for longer trips (like Walmart). OK, off the shopping/product reccomendation kick!
Lets see, new stuff that's going on. Robert has started eating rice chex and rice crispies and does well with both (and loves them!). He's also doing well with shredded peices of chicken off my plate. His pincer grasp is comming along slowly and he can move food from hand to hand and to puppy. He was feeding Snoopy rice chex yesterday and when he stopped she sneezed (which is her way of saying "please"-it's a command we taught her), and looked puzzled when he didn't feed her any more. I wonder how soon she'll have him trained. He is a major roller during diaper changes/dressing-undressing which is getting old fast. If you turn around to get diaper ointment he has rolled himself over and is crawling halfway off the (very low) bed to get the puppy. He's crawling better, starting to get his legs and arms in sync instead of just pulling with his arms and slithering and can get pretty much anywhere he want to get. He loves to crawl to the headboard of our bed and play with the metal inserts (leaves/acorns). They rattle well. Oh and shoes are facinating-his and anyone elses. If I want to show off his crawling I take my shoes and put them accross the room and watch him go for them. I think that the great shoe rack I got for the kitchen maybe wasn't such a great idea after all. He thinks of it as an all you can get buffet! Well, I'm hearing munchkin awake noises so I'd better get and get some stuff done before I have to go to work this afternoon.

Home again

Robert's life as a beach bum
We had a great trip to Ocracoke. I was joking with Wes that I'm never traveling to the beach without Wes' dad again. The weather was perfect even when there was an 80% chance of rain all day-it would rain at night, clear up by mid morning and be 80's and sunny all afternoon-he had spent the weeks before basically begging the weather to be nice and evidently it worked! It was wild. I had packed all cold weather stuff so I was a little on the warm side some days! Robert loved crawling off the blanket onto the grass and picking blades of grass (keeping him from eating it was a job!), eating his first mango (I thought I was giving him a taste, didn't realize he would finish it for me!) and generally getting into everything. He managed to pull the curtain rod and bend it and got the door latch open (standing on my lap)... He's doing great with self feeding, eating cooked carrot peices, banana stalks, the occasional green bean, peices of peach... He also loves mashed potatoes.

As much fun as it was to take him camping it was a lot of work! This probably has been the most challenging camping trip of my life and I have never taken so much stuff with me! Next year should be easier since he will be able to eat more table food/take showers/walk some etc. When he was younger it was easier since he didn't eat solids at all. This time it was just ridiculous! Inflatable duck bathtub, booster seat, baby food, spoons, bibs, toys, pump, bottles, sippy cups, straw cups....

Being able to pump on the road made it possible to get to Ocracoke on Tuesday evening. We made the 11 pm ferry (missed the 10 pm by 15 min!) and were in bed by 12:30 or so

Whoops, baby's up, I'll add more later and pics!

addition: The rest of the week was great, we hung out, walked on the beach, read (although even Roger out-read me, this was a not so great reading vacation!), shopped, went to Hatteras for a day and ate at the Captain's Table (which for Hatteras enthusiasts is where the Tides used to be). It's pretty similar to the Tides but I didn't think the food was quite as good-although the hushpuppies were better. However, it might have been because I was so busy feeding Robert. I ordered him mashed potatoes and they brought them out before our meals and he ate and ate... they were really good! We also spent an hour or so in a bead shop where Peggy made some earings. It was really cool and pretty cheap too! Robert for the most part took everything in stride, didn't nap as well most days but enough to keep from being too cranky. It was wild to watch him pull individual blades of long grass and to touch and explore. I've never seen a 7 month old with such great hand eye co-ordination. On the way home we stopped several places, at the outlet malls in Nags Head (had to look at the baby clothes at Gap!), the pottery in Williamsburg (to add to my Pistoulet collection at the Pfaltzgraff store and our cookie stash at the Pepperidge Farm store), for supper and bathroom breaks, anyways we were on the 9:30 am ferry out of Ocracoke and didn't get home until 10:15 that night! Robert fell asleep at 7 pm and slept all the way home, then played for 1/2 an hour or so and slept through the night! Anyways, for pics pertaining to this blog check out http://www.megley.com/photos/babyfurr/September

Robert's life

Beach!

We're in high gear getting ready to leave for Ocracoke this afternoon. We're hoping to leave around 3 pm and make the midnight ferry to Ocrackoke! Wes' parents are going to reserve us a campsite near them (they left Friday so are already there). Robert was fantastic yesterday, playing hapily while I worked and napping well which really helped! He's still not crawling well but I guess in a couple weeks I'll wish he wasn't! He certainly loves to roll over during diaper changes! And he's learned how to push Snoopy away when she's kissing him! Well, we'll be back late on the 9th, probably with lots of pictures!

Jam and Jelly

Robert's life
It's been a fun week, I worked 2 days and then I've been off 3 so I feel like I'm on a mini-vacation (and after working 2 more days I'll be on a real vacation-we're going to the beach!!!!!!!!!!!) I've also been making freezer jam and cooked jelly this week-so far I've done 2 turns of strawberry/bluberry freezer jam and one of grape jelly (with lots of help from Wes' mom!). Yum. Robert is still scooting around and talking a blue streak. Even the nursery workers at the gym commented on it. They said he talked non stop today! They decided to cancel the stroller class but I'm going to a class called deep definition which is an hour of strength training. Yowzers its hard!