Much Better Day!

This was originally written on Friday, July 17, 2009:

Logan helped me clean the house today!!!! I've mentioned before that he likes to organize and put things away - he'll even take a paper towel and wipe the floor or dust furniture. The problem, though (which I wrote about yesterday), is that he immediatately likes to mess up whatever it is again! Today, however, he obeyed when I told him to keep things the way they were and "let's move on to the next thing." So yes, it was SUCH a better day than yesterday!

Even with a handful of short temper tantrums. . .I can't believe I used to describe him as easy-going. I think he's like me - it depends on the situation and who he's around. Overall we're both "in the middle."

Oh, and yes, I was the energizer bunny as a child as well. I remember my maternal grandfather used to shake his head when he was around me and say, "Andrea! Do you ever just sit still?!" He'd tell me he'd get exhuasted just watching me because I never slowed down. I was diagnosed with ADD when I was 11. It wasn't serious, I never took anything for it and it never interfered with my life. And obviously I calmed down around high school, as the whole point of my post yesterday is because I'm NOT hyper anymore, lol. I know some people thrive on chaos, but I am the opposite. Still, I always try to find the good in going out of my comfort zone, so that's what I focused on today and it did help my perspective (Logan making my day easier was a bonus)!

We even had time for our usual hour walk as well as played outside in the backyard, as we do daily. I don't know what we're going to do this winter - going outside really breaks up my days - and Logan has NEVER whined outside. I'm sure he'll love playing in the snow but that's just not going to be the same!

On another topic, I have been waiting not so patiently for something that is saying "day 37" on my calendar which prompted me to take a pregnancy test and give a big sigh that it was negative. Although "cute" to have two babies born in April exactly two years apart, I am definitely not ready for baby #2. Must be stress-related, so hopefully after today going better it will visit tomorrow. . .along with my grandparents who will be here until Monday.
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This was originally written on Thursday, July 23, 2009:

We finally got our new camera! (To read more on my interest in photography, read My New Hobby.) We started thinking maybe we were going to get a Canon 40D instead of the Canon Rebel XS, even though it's double the price, because I have pretty big ideas of what I want to do (I'm trying to tell myself to take it slow and not get impatient/disappointed because I know it's going to take time). The Canon 40D is what people who actually make their living as photographers use.

However, before we went to buy it last night we decided to call Matt & Stacy because when Jaxson was 6 months old they added a professional camera with their regular one (the one like ours that broke). We hadn't heard what kind they had or what their opinion of it was. It was a good thing we talked to them because they have a Canon 40D! Matt said he hasn't been impressed at all and if he had to do it over again he would have gotten the Canon Rebel XS. He just saved us $! Apparently they're the exact same quality (which was my main concern - I want that fresh picture look) - there are just extra features to the Canon 40D but they aren't anything that Matt uses and nor are they features I care about at this point. He said that everything he likes about it is the same for the Canon Rebel XS.

So today Joe and I met while Logan was at his babysitter's and purchased the Canon Rebel XS at Best Buy, along with a 4-year protection plan incase anything happens to it like what happened with our other camera. (They will clean it every year, look it over, and fix anything for free. This is good since none of my digital cameras have made it to four years.) I'm so excited to start using it! :) Now we just need to sign up for a photography and photoshop class. . .

Speaking of Matt & Stacy you might have noticed that we haven't gotten together with them for awhile. They put their house up for sale on June 1st so they have been very busy. They've been living in the same house they bought since they got married so they were ready for a bigger one since they plan to have three more kids! (They would have already started trying except they wanted to wait until they bought a new house.) The good news is that they sold their house last week and bought a new one - but it is brand new and won't be completed until November so they are having to move into an apartment for three months. Their new house is farther from us, but the apartment is just 5 minutes away so we plan to do a playdate with Logan and Jaxson in August (which will have been four months).

In other news, something else to mention that Logan has been doing since 13.5 months old is that he walks over to me and sits down on my lap when he wants me to read him a book or put his socks or shoes on, or sometimes for no reason - it's so cute!

For those who use sippy cups - don't get the Born Free kind. I've mentioned that Logan only has 3 sippy cups because 99% time we use straw cups (except when they're all dirty). (You can read why in my post Straw Cups - The Better Alternative To Sippy Cups and Straw Cups - Not Sippy Cups) Well now he only has 2 (a Gerber and Nuby). My mom bought him his Born Free one last fall and he only used it a few times by a year old when I thought it was possibly leaking. By last month it was obvious it was - the liquid somehow spills out of it. She said it was the most expensive brand at the store - so don't waste your money. (Plus, it was always Logan's least fav of his 3.) I don't know for sippy cups which brand is the best, but for straw cups, definitely the Nuby brand (pictured below).My stepdad's parents visited us Sat, July 11th thru Mon, July 13th morning because they were on their way to South Dakota for a vacation. We had a nice time - went out to eat for chinese at a buffet on Saturday, the park on Sunday, played cards, and had Gambino's pizza for lunch and Red Robin for dinner. I also made blueberry muffins and cranberry bread for our breakfasts.

On Monday afternoon Logan had his 15 month check up. He weighed 24 lbs, 5 oz, was 31.5 inches long, and head was 19 inches. That is 50th percentile for weight, 75th percentile for height, and 90th percentile for head - how in the world he was once a 10th perecentile for head is beyond me, haha.

Our pediatrician was very impressed with him - even the fact that he's not talking on demand as much as he did a few weeks ago; he said kids really aren't consistant until they are two years old, so all he cares about at this point is if they say 4 real words and are communicating somehow. It is clear Logan understands every single thing I say (I can tell him to get his shoes, he does. I tell him it's bath time, he turns around and walks upstairs and goes right to the bath tub on his own, etc.) and he has no trouble communicating things to us. (He even said the word "hot" when touching the playground at the park the other day, even though I had never said that to him before or heard him say it!) Whenever the dogs bark he yells "Dog!" Which always makes me laugh because I always yell "Bella! Cosmo!"

His pattern was the exact same with mimicking - once he learned how to do it, he did everything on demand all of the time, but after a month or two just did a little here & there still only when he's in the mood. Doctor said that's probably just his personality; once he's learned something it's time to move on - so at first he was excited about talking and saying everything but now he's like, I'll just stick to what I like (such as, "oh shoot" which he still says 50 times a day, haha!)

Joe was a late talker and his dad even later (4 yrs old) and both of them are the smartest men I know (Joe tests genius level) so it has nothing to do with intelligence. Logan is completely average since he started at 14 months, everything I read says 13-18 months.

For vaccines, he got his last Hib dose (so now he's done with that, PCV, and Rotavirus) and his 2nd of 4 DTaP (he'll get his 3rd dose at 18 months and his final dose at 2 yrs).

We still haven't given him the polio or Hep B or A because they just seem so low priority (there's been no polio in the US since the 1970s, and since Logan is not having sex the only way he could get Hep B is through a blood transfusion, while Hep A is mainly in third world countries because it's caused by contamination - through poor or nonexistent sewage treatment. Those in the US who do catch it are usually between the ages of 5 and 14 - it is extremely rare for a baby/toddler to get it, pretty much only if they live in extremely unclean/unsanitary environments. It is also not a serious illness - virtually everyone recovers in a few weeks with no ill effects. This shot wasn't even given to children until 2006.) So I don't know when we'll do Hep A or polio, probably sometime before kindergarten.

We'll probably do the Hep B at 18 months since the only other vaccine he'll get that month is the DTaP.

So by the time Logan's 2 he'll be caught up on everything except the Hep A, polio and we're waiting until after age 2 for the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) which is just one dose. The only other two left on the childhood schedule are the flu shot which he probably won't ever get because it is usually a waste (statistics show it either doesn't work or is usually the wrong one or the flu might be "no fun" but it's not deadly, yet the vaccine has nasty ingredients) and chickenpox (which the vaccine has bad ingredients and it isn't a serious virus, so I'm leaning towards not giving that one at all, either, since I had it as a child and didn't care. . .I remember just liking being home from school with my mom)!

Logan did excellent again with the shots, no crying (he just screams when they prick him but stops the second they pull it out) and no side effects.

Unfortunately when he had his cold last week (which was gone by last Friday) his eczema from the fifth's disease came back and looked worse than it ever had. It itched him this time so he had scabs all over his shoulders. :( Our pediatrician gave us a few samples of the prescription cream and the horrible outbreak went away in just two days! He verified what I said in my post titled Everything, though, as far as it will probably come back. But at least this cream works very quickly so if we put it on at the first signs next time maybe we can prevent it from getting bad again next time he catches a virus.

Behavior-wise, Logan has been excellent since my stressed-out post Everything--3. Month 15 is going really well, so far! I asked Babysitter if Logan has thrown any temper tantrums yet and she gave me a shocked expression and said, "No! He is the sweetest child." She went on to say that "It could change, but he is actually my easiest, most well behaved child." I was so happy to hear that, even though she said more than once "that could change" which is so true - that should be the title of my blog: how kids are never predictable, just when you think they're getting easier they get harder, just when you think they're getting harder, they get easier. But at least this week was better than last week, so that's all that matters! And, I had a massage last night for the first time in two months which always helps my side of things! I made another appt. with the best massuse in the world for two weeks. I also returned to my counselor and last Sunday "you know what" came.

Logan did get into a cabinet with a glass pitcher, though (not his fault obviously) and dropped it to the ground, causing it to shatter. We were very thankful that only one tiny piece landed on his foot causing just a tiny prick - but although I made an agreement with myself after last Thurs. when I yelled at Logan for that third time in his life that I'm just NOT going to do that again, I also need NOT to do it with Joe. Because I screamed at Joe since he was the one watching Logan at the time, but this made Logan burst into tears because he was scared of me! So then I had to comfort him and reassure him that everything was okay. . .but UGH, I felt horrible. The last thing I want to do is to cause Logan fear and anxiety. I remember when I used to have time to watch Dr. Phil he said that when you fight in front of your children it changes who they are. It takes away their security - I do not want to mess up the good I've done through attachment parenting. I never yelled in the first five years of our marriage. No, Joe & I didn't always agree but we never raised our voices or lost our temper with each other. About six months after having a baby, however, I noticed we both started losing our cool at times. It seemed to improve around ten months, but lately I've felt like I'm yelling at Joe again, and after seeing Logan's horrified face on the day of the pitcher, I'm vowing to myself not to do it in front of Logan again.

Even today when I picked up Logan at Babysitter's, they were playing a game and she was holding him in her lap and she teasingly yelled at one of the girls who won and Logan burst into tears! He definitely doesn't like yelling!

I had the carpet cleaned on Monday night, and organized our basement. We had always just thrown storage stuff down there in a mess - next step is to actually throw all of our empty boxes away.

I revised Plans For A Year From Now (the post about baby #2) because I've decided I don't want to start trying to get pregnant again until August 2010 rather than June 2010. Even though I'm hoping for the best as far as morning sickness, I have to prepare for the worst and I don't want it ruining my summer. I want to be able to be outside with Logan every day again rather than with my head in a pillow. But instead of stopping in September like I'd originally planned, I've decided I'm fine just continuing until it happens. Yes, that means then I'll probably be pregnant in the summer months (blah) but I'd rather have a baby born in the summer than the winter due to virus' and SDD. I took a facebook quiz and it said I'll get pregnant in September 2010, LOL. That's a June baby and a girl according to the Chinese calendars.

New Hobby

This was originally written on Wednesday, June 24, 2009:

If I ever have time to start a new hobby, I would like it to be photography. I've always loved pictures, and don't know why I've never pursued it. I received my first camera when I was ten years old (it was hot pink!) and fantasized about having my own dark room, but it wasn't until college when I finally took a photography class. It was really disappointing - we didn't learn anything other than how to use a digital camera. There's so much I would need to learn to get to where I want to be, as well as buy a new camera, photo editing software, etc. But I did get the online scrapbooking kit from Joe for our anniversary in April (I mentioned this in my post, Finally) so that might get me started. . .I've finished my hard-copy scrapbooks for now, so I've decided to halt that hobby - so maybe that will allow me to be able to pursue photography. We'll see!

UPDATE ON JULY 4, 2009: Today Joe, Logan, and I were at a 4th of July parade and our camera dropped to the ground - as in, slammed down hard on the cement - and broke. When I said that I wanted to take up photography and that would require getting a new camera I didn't mean that I didn't want my current one anymore!!! :( It is VERY upsetting, that thing is attached to me at the hip. I record Logan's every breath! It was given to me by Joe for a Christmas gift in 2006 so it didn't even last three years :( This camera was special to me, it recorded my pregnancy and Logan's first 14.5 months!

We received our first digital camera in 2003 from Joe's mom but unfortunately it stopped working by November 2006. The previous month the pictures had begun coming out really poor quality and then one day it wouldn't take any at all. So we were on the look-out for a new one in December when we went to Joe's office Christmas party. We sat with Matt & Stacy (the couple who now has Jaxson, Logan's friend who was born six days after him) and they had a Cannon Powershot SD630. It was exactly what we wanted and we've had no complaints with it the past 2.5 years.

I've dropped it before so I was really shocked that this drop was fatal, but it was probably the hardest fall it'd ever had. Joe took it apart and tried to fix it, but he does not think it will be able to be revived.

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

FINAL UPDATE ON FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2009: Well it's official. I'm becoming a photographer :) After my camera broke, combined with already an interest in photography from the time I was ten years old and bought my first camera, combined with a sudden need to make a huge change to my life (more on that in my next post), has led to the perfect timing of making the proper steps to pursue photography.

Photography is the first profession that I had an interest in once I learned at the age of ten that I couldn't just be an author when I grew up. Until then, being an author was my only choice for a career. In 4th grade, though, I added photography or being a police dispatcher. (To this day, the criminal justice field is the only other profession that interests me.) However, the police dispatcher career faded by 5th grade (I think it was just because Rescue 911 had been my favorite show, haha). Photography stayed until 6th grade, though, when I traded it for TV/radio news which is what stuck for the next 14 years (where I worked until I could become a full-time writer at the age of 26). But I never stopped taking pictures or admiring others' work.

At some point in high school I got a new camera, and one or two more film cameras before my first digital in 2003. These (including my last digital in 2006) were all just regular cameras so they never captured the kind of shots that I had in my mind. Like I said before, I took a photography class in college hoping to finally learn how to make this passion my hobby. I'd learned photojournalism when it came to video taping and editing for TV news, but the class for still-shooting didn't teach me anything. It was a "guinea pig" semester as far as they were changing how they'd always done things. . .what ended up happening is we hardly learned anything.

But now seems like the perfect time to try again: to capture my children growing up! It takes 2-3 years to learn the ropes so that will be perfect for when my next baby is born.

From researching all of the mom blogs who are photographers on the side, there seems to be no comparison: The Canon Rebel is the camera to go for home professional photography. I liked this way of researching much better than when I normally research merchandise because I knew I was getting real-life stories and have seen their photos over time! We also did a lot of shopping online and tonight went to Best Buy and talked to Steve who educated us on everything possible in an hour! He was excellent and suggested the Canon Rebel XS. Yes, it's expensive once you figure in the lenses, tripod, camera case, filters, flashes, etc. but I plan to take a class to make it worth it - this is a hobby I plan to have for the rest of my life. There's never been a year when I haven't taken a ton of pictures. I have two huge photo albums for every year of my life (this started when I was born - my mom should have been a photographer). I've never tired of looking at other people's pictures - even of people I don't know. My grandmothers tease me because I do the same thing every single time I visit them: go straight to their photo albums to look at every single picture for the millionth time. I've never been good at art or anything else in the artistic field, except writing and photography. So I'm really excited about finally doing this!!!

Joe said we could take a photo editing class together. We've had photoshop on our comptuer since we got married, but even after 6 years we don't know how to use it the best. We've self-taught ourselves to do little things, but we've never been able to do true professional editing - which is something I will want to do once I start taking pictures with my new camera.

I heard a commercial on the radio today that another Omaha store, Rockbrook Camera, has a sale thru tomorrow on Canon Rebels. I told Joe it was fate - so hopefully we will end up buying everything tomorrow. . .and then I can begin!