Tantrums and Turkey

Well, I said I was hoping for a recharge in the last post. I can honestly say that I feel much better now. Thanksgiving was nice. It was so nice, albeit chaotic, to have everyone together. Minus my husband and my nephew, Evan, who is in Germany everyone was present, and that is the first time that has happened in a LONG time. All the little people running around was cool. I took some pictures for the family while I was there, but I pretty much stunk in taking regular snapshots of the day. I did manage to get a few. Jake enjoyed a wagon ride with Lorelei until he saw me, and at that point the fun was over and the lip was poked out!



The lip is coming out now!!

 We got to meet little Barrett for the first time, and it was cool to see him and Jake interact. Well, it was cool to see Barrett try to pull Jake and watch Jake ignore him - haha. That is the stage where we are now - the parallel play stage. The next time we get to see them the boys should really have a good time!! Here are a few family pics from the day :) Love you guys!!!!

Jake also enjoyed interacting with my niece's little boy, Landon. Landon is 5, and Jake thought that it was really cool to give high 5s to Landon. Sweet Landon played along.

I will admit that we didn't get a ton of sleep, and I was at the really snippy point when we left. I had a restless night on Wednesday, so only a few hours of sleep on Thanksgiving night just wasn't enough. We did stay at the Fitzpatrick Hotel which is really pretty. HOWEVER, sound travels in the hotel due to the age, so at about 11pm a group of 50 somethings decided to come to their rooms. It sounded like a heard of elephants coming down the hall. They proceeded to speak really loudly, and after they woke up my sleeping  baby, I yanked open the door and not so politely asked them to shut up. I mean, good grief. So, when Jake woke up at 4:30 in the morning and cried for a bit, I didn't exactly hush him up. And it was with a big smile on my face that I listened to toilets flushing up and down the hall as the other guests enjoyed his cries as well. Yep, a little evil I know, but I quite enjoyed it. Anyway, we checked out and hung out at my mom's until lunch then headed home. Poor Jake was as exhausted as I was since he went to bed at 5:45 after crying through dinner and his bath, and he didn't wake up until 8 am the next morning.

 I must also mention that we are at the tantrum stage now. Goodness gracious - the drama. My sweet little boy throws that head back and wails, sometimes flinging his whole body to the ground. What I have found is that if you try to console him, you only prolong the tantrum, so I let him have his moment. Sometimes, it is too much for my frayed nerves to handle and I must put him in his crib to have his moment alone while I exit the room :) It really is crazy how all of a sudden the tears dry up and he is back to playing like nothing ever happened. Here are a few during and after shots. He will kill me for this one day, but for now, it's pretty funny.

Head thrown back mid-wail

Pouty lips and teary eyes

One of the things that was really starting to get to me earlier was the amount of time we spent just hanging out in Jake's room playing. Not that I don't like playing with my child, but there are clothes to wash and dinner to cook. Our house needed some roping off, so to speak. Yesterday, I bit the bullet and bought 2 new baby gates to section off the sunroom, kitchen, and eating area so that the little man can run around while I do some stuff in the kitchen and laundry room. Why I haven't done this before is beyond me. This morning was wonderful!!!!! I managed to clean while he followed me around.

Also, the man or woman who invented the Baby Einstein DVDs is a genius in my book. Up until now, we really haven't watched any extended TV or videos. However, these things hold his attention, so this morning I set up the mini-DVD player at the bar and let him watch away while I did laundry. Don't judge, people...

You do what you gotta do. My cleaner house thanks me for it.