It's too hot for this

I've been getting harassed at my absence from the blog. But I am a busy lady. Not having a job keeps me occupied 99% of the time. Really though, I have been a little bit busier as of lately, and I will list to you the reasons why and how it prevents me from blogging:

1. We are moving and I am responsible for ALL of the packing.

This is really fun for me, because if there's anything I hate more than packing/moving, it's nothing. There is nothing more miserable. When we moved into this apartment, there were only two humans that needed to be packed for. Now, there are three. More like two and a half, actually, but that little half-sie has more shit than either one of the full humans. He also refuses to let me pack in peace, and instead considers the activity a game, in which he starts pulling all out of the items I put in the box. Impossible.

Babies just wanna have fun

Luckily, his room is done, and I have our bedroom mostly done. I have approximately two weeks left to finish the rest of the apartment and then it's go time.

I'm really excited about our move because we are transitioning from tiny, run-down, everything-is-broken apartment, to a full, beautiful house. Not our house, we are renting it, but still. I am excited to actually have a yard to play in (with swingset included!), to have our own washer and dryer (hallelujah), to have a working oven/dish disposal/kitchen in general, to have more space, etc etc the list goes on. I'll let you know how I'm faring when I actually have to clean this whole house though.

2. Harrison has been sick for over a week and counting.

He got sick last Monday. It was just a little cold, and I think related to the four teeth he's getting in, but if you can imagine a small child with snot running down his nose at ALL times, then you can probably imagine the scenario where I get sick too. Which is exactly what happened. Luckily, I think I only caught the mild version of whatever he had, so no worries, I was still able to go out Friday night to the Zoo Brew and go drink with all the animals.

Not amused.

3. It is too damn hot.

We don't have AC in our apartment (add that to the list of reasons why I'm excited for the new house), so 99% of my waking hours, it is too hot to sit with a laptop blowing hot air onto my lap in order to blog.

Do you see the horrible things that the humidity is doing to my hair?

4. I'm lazy.

Enough said.

5. Wedding planning takes up all of my free time, which you knew.

Be advised that we have a date and venue finally! It is the greatest relief of my life. I texted all of my friends as soon as I finalized it to have them share in my excitement with me. One of them even responded with this:

To which I delighted in knowing that the biggest day of my life is as important to others as it is to me.

T minus 6 days until wedding dress shopping. Basically, this blog has become a public countdown for me to brag about going to try on beautiful dresses. Yahoo!! Stay tuned in 6-7 days for the reveal of whether or not I found one.

Plans, Plans, and more Plans

I used to be such a social butterfly. Now, when I have plans two out of seven days, I am ecstatic. Tomorrow, I am having my first "playdate" with another mommy and her daughter, of like, nearly equal age to both myself and my child. WHAT? My spawn is 10 months old and I haven't met another like me yet? Yes, sad, I know.

Please find us some friends, please. (sidenote: that HAIR!! FINALLY)

We are going to the beach which should be interesting because neither baby likes the grass, and we recently discovered that if Harrison hates anything more than the grass, it's the sand. Fun times ahead for sure. But really, I am looking forward to discussing mommy things that the rest of my friends don't care about, and watch the two wee ones interact, and possibly taking a few hundred pictures of it. I mean, I have to document it for the blog right?

Tomorrow night, I am returning to my favorite place on earth. Ok, more like one of 3, those being: Geneseo, Disney World, and Selena's Mexican Restaurant. One of my gfs just got engaged, so not only am I happy that this means there is yet another person like me whom I can exchange with, but it obviously called for a girls night, and a girls night obviously calls for margs. Done and done.

Milk laced with Mexican food is the last thing I need. Do you see these boobs?

So for a girl that never has any plans, going from zero in a day to two in one day is amazing. Assuming Harrison behaves like I think he will on our playdate- devilish, then it's actually perfect that I planned to go out and drown my grievances with some tequila. In his defense, he is getting at least three, maybe four teeth in AT ONCE, so there's nothing anyone can do. It takes all my strength to not scream at him for his constant whining, because I know he's just uncomfortable. Babies have it so hard.

I need to play and walk and it's not easy

Walk This Way

I've been very excited to write this post, but I was waiting until the right moment. Aka, waiting until I got a really good video of the action.

Harrison is officially walking. Here is your proof:

This is both exciting and terrifying. Although, maybe not as terrifying as I thought. I'm sure the running full speed ahead into sharp edges and planted objects phase is coming shortly, but as of now, he's extremely good at catching himself before a full-on face plant.

It's cute and endearing because all he wants to do is walk. He will fall 237 times in a row, but still get right back up and take a couple more steps. This fearlessness is a good quality, maybe for now anyway. Sometimes actually I think he is a little too fearless.

Now, we just have to work on the speech. Still have not heard a single "mama" or "dada" or anything remotely resembling a word out of the English dictionary, just a lot of groaning and blabbering. I am being careful what I wish for though, because I have heard from other moms that once they start talking, they never STFU, so I'll stay content in the land of quiet while I can.

Tonight, we were all set up with babysitters to go continue our stint as the Something Else band groupies, but Hurricane Andrea is ruining our shit. They are playing at a local park festival, outside, and I really am NOT a fan of the rain. It is supposed to rain basically all evening, so I'm a little disappointed. However, give me enough cups of beer and maybe I can make that happen.

Tomorrow, we have a couple appointments to go check out wedding venues in the Rochester area. This is partly exciting, and partly anxiety-inducing, since I am scared I will fall in love with one of the venues, then be crushed when I find out how much it is. Oh, isn't that just the life. Fingers crossed!

In the spirit of Harrison's walking, and that I can't get the song "Walk This Way" out of my head, and I like to take polls to help in my wedding planning...

Tell me one song you absolutely have to hear at a wedding. (It's never too early to work on the wedding playlist- I mean, isn't that one of the most important aspects of the night anyway?)

I love lists!!!

I can't believe it's already June. Well, actually I can, because it was 90 degrees over the weekend and I was melting in my un-airconditioned, second floor apartment.

I do have some good news!

1. My crotchety neighbor moved out!!! HALLELUJAH. PRAISE JESUS.

2. Harrison has reached a new record of number of steps taken in a row without falling: 15. Also, he just turned 10 months today!

One-handed walking is almost proof. I just wanted to show the cuteness

3. Wedding dress shopping appointments have been made. Forget that we don't even have a wedding venue yet- as long as I have a dress, right? This girl loves to shop so I don't think I have ever looked forward to anything more in my life.

4. Harrison is currently on his way to a 2 hour nap. You have no idea how happy this makes me. SO HAPPY.

5. Baby shower. I know some women dread these like the plague, but this one happened to be for my bff  and it was the first time really seeing her bump. Sexually harassing her bump was so fun, and only second on the fun scale to holding a newborn child, which I get to do in approximately two months. Horray.

The bad news:

1. Harrison is a little devil/criminal/caveman because all he wants to do is destroy all of the things and eat all of the things. I swear his only concerns in life are: What can I put into my mouth and rip to shreds with these dagger teeth, or What can I put into my mouth that's devourable?

I had the joy of stumbling upon these sights yesterday:

2lb canister of oatmeal everywhere. Just everywhere.

The culprit

So that was fun. I actually wasn't even mad because we have had that oatmeal forever and never eat it, and the look on his face was so hilarious that I couldn't do anything but laugh.

2. Dave took Harrison to the beach without me, and gave him ice cream for the first time, and I was not there to witness it. This had me fuming/depressed/crying. I missed my own son's first taste of the creamy deliciousness that I am so fond of? Like wtf. However, Dave caught the cutest face ever in the aftermath, so I've recovered.

WHY IS THIS SO GOOD?

3. I fear that I am drying up and this fear is consuming my life. I really wanted to make it to a year, which I'm not even sure is realistic since Harrison's two front teeth have become my new arch nemesis. I don't think details are necessary, but just picture blood. Anyways, I have two months left and my only goal for these next months are to squeeze out every last drop and make myself one of those stellar moms who breastfeed until a year.

I am also relishing these last two months as the last 60 days before Operation Wedding Starvation commences. Jokes.. but like, the endless, no-guilt eating spree is about to be over (so I guess endless is not the right word), and I am sad about it, and living it up while I can. Burgers every night, please and thank you.

What is the one food you would eat if no calories were involved?

ER

As you know, planning a wedding is extremely stressful and time consuming. So for anyone that has been guilting me for not blogging enough, know that my wedding is far more important than a blog post and that right there is all I have to tell you.

Jokes aside, there had been a more serious reason for my blog absence this past week.

As a baby, apparently I was pretty healthy. When you factor in that I had two older siblings running around infecting me with their germs, I squeezed by without many major illnesses. I had a horrible proneness to UTIs as a child, so I was always at the doctor for those, but that's because I literally cannot feel my bladder. I don't exaggerate. My sister knows, I only can feel it when it's about to come shooting out of me. Or when a 5 pound mass is sitting right on top of it, but I won't mention any names... Harrison. I also once drank a bottle of liquid cold medicine and my mom had to rush me to the ER only to bribe me with a doll I wanted so that I would take the activated charcoal and vom it up.

As I tend to do, I jinxed myself about two weeks ago when I thought to myself, "Wow, Harrison is an extremely healthy baby! He's only had two tiny little colds and no ear infections!!" Like an idiot.

It started off as a cough on Wednesday. Not even a bad cough. I didn't see any other symptoms popping up so we ventured off to Watertown to go look at wedding venues. Here's a spoiler of that trip: got nothing.

Harrison started getting worse on Thursday but it still wasn't anything I was really worried about- just a runny nose. The runny nose worsened Friday and by then the cough was pretty bad too. I was planning on heading back home Friday anyway, so that Harrison could sleep in his own crib.. because sleeping in your own bed is always a cure.

Saturday morning he woke up and could not breathe. It was hard to watch. Besides the breathing, reasons I knew he was sick:

• He was super cuddly. The kid never cuddles.

I can't figure out how to un-distort this BUT evidence of the cuddling. And the pale-faced baby.

• He would not eat. The kid LOVES to eat.
• He fell asleep on my lap, in my bed with me, and took three naps in his crib before noon. As you all well know, sleeping is his least favorite activity, so the fact that he was asleep for 5 out of the 6 hours that he was awake by the time I called the doctor was pretty indicative. 

Passed out in the middle of the floor

I took him outside a couple times thinking the fresh air would help, and ran the shower super hot so that we could sit in a steamy room, but neither of my little mommy voodoo tricks worked. I finally called the emergency line for my pediatrician's office, and spoke with a doctor who basically was like, yeah this could be treated at the office but its the Saturday of Memorial Weekend so lucky you, you get to go to the ER.

I'd never been to the ER before, like ever, so this had me a little rattled. THANK GOD my mom was off work so she met me and we went together. I also must note that I took the time to document the hospital stay, because I'm such a devoted blogger.

After many drugs, feeling good.

I feel like it's definitely one of those things where the parent needs the child more than the child needs the parent. Or like, even though Harrison was the sick one, I was just as, if not more upset. What I'm trying to say is that it was tough for me to watch him get really sick for the first time, and I'm sure it never gets easier. I mean... the cuddling was nice, SO nice, but obviously I'd take a healthy child that refuses to get anywhere near me, than a sick child who wants to cuddle.

The final diagnosis was an upper respiratory infection + ear infection. Both treatable at the pediatrician's office, normally. Leave it to Harrison to get sick on a Saturday and force us into the hospital. And see, he was fine:

GIVE ME THAT BEAR

This was him today, so you can see that he's fully recovered:

(not so) Fat and Happy

Have you ever been to the ER and if so, for what??

Wedding Woes

I'm too overwhelmed/obsessed with wedding planning to blog. So sorry.

To update you on my progress so far: last night, I went to my bff's sister's house because the two of them are the craftiest, most creative, event-planner people I've ever met. I thought I was in a for a night of amazing ideas and making some serious leeway on the planning front, but oh no. I basically became so overwhelmed with everything, mainly how much this shit is going to cost, that the entire drive home was spent having a nervous breakdown and crying.

My friends and family all knew that I was destined to be a Bride-zilla, but now that I'm learning that essentially, everything I want to have at the wedding is way too freaking expensive, rest assured people- Bride-zilla no longer.

I still know that the night will be perfect and the most fun so I'm not too upset about these realizations, just a bit disappointed. I'm sure the disappointment will pass when I finally start to get things settled, and can look forward to it more. Right now I'm just in limbo so that's what is stressing me out. I have heart palpitations every time I think about the fact that we don't have a venue yet (ok, so maybe a tiny bit of the Bride-zilla lingers).

So, for all of you that are wondering what I'm trying to tell you: don't have a wedding unless you want to have a minimum of 49832 nervous breakdowns about money. Or, don't have a wedding unless you are a millionaire. Or don't have a child before you have a wedding because the child eats all your money leaving you none for anything else.

Harrison had his 9 month well visit last week, and everything is a-ok. He is in the 30% percentile for his weight, as to be expected. Least chubby baby his age I've ever seen :(. Please Harrison, chunk up for me, please. His skinniness is due to the fact that he's in the 70% percentile for his height, so there's that. I also learned that he has a huge head.

I think at this point, with no pictures to show, and content that was pretty much only my little panic attack, I will end for the day, because obviously, I still need to fit in some wedding pinning before Harrison wakes up from his nap!

What was your last panic attack about?

The Condensed Proposal and Wisdom Teeth misery

Well, this happened:

It looks a lot bigger in person, I swear

And then the next day, this happened:

Only Champions ice with breastmilk

So I'll rewind. Remember how I said I was a little bummed that I was spending my first Mother's Day as a guest in Dave's family's house, so I couldn't sleep in my own glorious, comfy bed?

Well, things went a little differently than I had expected. I'm not gonna go through the whole mushy gushy proposal story because no one wants to hear how magical and romantic it was, or at least, I don't care to read that shit on other blogs. We get it... you are in love otherwise you would not be engaged. So I'll give you the condensed version.

Up near where Dave lives in Watertown, is the magical land of Sackets Harbor. Really, it's just a little town right on the lake (for those of you not from Upstate New York, I mean Lake Ontario, body of water of dreams). The North Country is not for me- too cold, too snowy, and too damn hick. However, Sackets Harbor is not like that at all. The best bars, the best restaurants, the best little shops. Ok, so you get that I'm obsessed.

I make it a point to go to Sackets at least once a visit. I would go every night if I could. So, I didn't think anything of it when Dave suggested we head up to Sackets Harbor for a couple drinks. Next thing I know, it's freezing, and Dave wants to go for a walk.... um duh. This girl does NOT do the cold.

Long story short, after the question was popped, and I thought about it for a lengthy period, because it really wasn't obvious that I would say yes, he had gotten us a hotel room for the night in this cute little hotel that overlooked the harbor, complete with it's own fireplace and jacuzzi. He also stocked the room with a bottle of champs. I don't know which part was my favorite: the champs, the jacuzzi, the fireplace, or sleeping in until the wonderful hour of 8:45. Probably that last one.

So all in all, the Mother's Day I was complaining about because I wanted to sleep was actually granted to me, and it was even more amazing than I had expected. Good job, Davey.

The following day, I had the absolute joy of getting my wisdom teeth taken out. I now want to bitch slap every person that told me I would be back to normal, feeling fine, after the second day. I am on my 5th day of still experiencing a lot of pain on the left side of my mouth, still pounding the drugs like an addict, and sleeping miserably. This is all good and fun since I am going out tonight for my bff's birthday, and I'm on both a strict Ibuprofen regimine, as well as the amoxicillin to prevent infection. Not to mention the fact that the painkiller I was prescribed, that starts with a V and ends with an icodin, did jack shit. I thought I would be sailing in the land of prescribed medicine dreams, and instead, I'm feinding for meds every 4 hours of the over-the-counter variety (aka. weak).

For those of you bugging me to write this "Engagement" post, I think surgery is an acceptable excuse as to why it's taken me so long (when really, it's because all of my free time has been 100% devoted to pinning wedding things). I'm also glad all four of my wisdom teeth are out so that I never have to go through this nightmare again.

Was your experience with getting your wisdom teeth removed as bad as mine?