1st Place

Although I was just entering for fun, it ended up that my team, "Hapester & Catanach" actually won 1st place at the 9th Annual Entomology Departmental Chili Cook-off today. Wow! My team partner was pretty funny...she joked that she had chosen the right team to join and that maybe next year she would actually help to cook the chili. *grin* For the most part, she was a team member in name only (although she did wash and clean up the crock pot, as I was supposed to be in two places at the same time today during this cook-off), which didn't bother me at all...I wanted as many students as possible to be a part of this if they wanted to be. I think one of the funniest things about this is that many of the people there today were teasing Matt about him not letting me actually make this chili for us at home...and now it's "award-winning" chili! We hadn't thought that he was going to be able to make it to this event today, but before we were sure about it we had discussed he and I making two different kinds of chili and entering two teams...maybe we'll be able to do that next year. He ended up switching shifts at the last minute with someone at their request and brought Kellen up there with him to join in on the fun - which was a HUGE treat for everyone, but it wasn't enough time for him to make his chili. The students just love it when I bring Kellen around!



In case you're wondering, yes, the prize is actually a stock pot...and it has the first place plaque on the outside and then on the inside is a smaller plaque with the individual year winners, so I'll get it to keep in my office (after they've updated it) for the year. Whoo hoo!

Chili Cook-off

The undergraduates host a chili cook-off every year during the "dead days"...and this year it's being held tomorrow, so my chili is currently brewing in the kitchen and it smells so good!. Maybe next year both Matt and I can enter a "team" since we cook our chili so differently. Mine is "yankee chili" with beans - three different kinds...yummy!!!, which Matt won't allow me to make at any point in time unless I'm taking it to a pot luck or something. His chili is southern chili and doesn't include beans. I do; however, have another member for my once one person team - one of the undergrads was around when I was trying to turn in my entry form and fee and said that she didn't have a team but volunteered to be on mine. Whoo hoo! So we're "Hapester & Catanach" - not a really catchy name, but I wasn't in creative-mode today, I was in productive mode...and did get quite a bit done...not everything on my to-do list, but 5 of the 8 things off of it that I had ear-marked for today (and quite a few that had never made it onto that list). Not too shabby for trying out that new technique learned in that workshop last week (and the technique isn't a to-do list...those of you who know me know quite well that I have those with me virtually ALL of the time). It's more of a to-do time allocation management list, and I haven't fully implemental all aspects of this system at this point in time. Phases Rebecca, phases.

Anyway...I have never actually made it to the Chili Cook-off, so I'm excited to see how the turn-out will be for tomorrow. I hope for their sake that the turn-out will be a good one...When I talked with the president earlier today, he only mentioned 5 teams, including mine, so I'm hoping that there were more teams that had signed up that he didn't know about. I'm not thinking that we'll win or anything like that (my chili isn't a hot chili), but I just think it's nice to support them in what they're trying to do. I'm supposed to be in two places at once tomorrow, so I'll enter the contest and stay for a little while there, then leave to go to the COALS advisor meeting and just make it over to that a little late, which shouldn't be too much of a problem.

As for Kellen...He woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning, but his Daddy got to deal with him and get him dressed for school. We're still counteracting the effects of the grandparents, I think, because he wanted to watch everything on TV, or what he wanted he wanted right then, etc. He was just being a bear! I don't think he actually got a swat, but it was pretty close. He had a rough morning, because Matt had brought him into bed at I don't know what time...and I finally had enough at about 5 and took him back to his room and put him back to bed, and he went back to sleep, amazingly enough. So he just had an overall rough morning, so it was somewhat understandable that he wasn't acting like himself.

After work, I got to daycare to be told that he had successfully poo poo'ed in the potty today...and had a nice little sticker on his shirt as a reward. When asked if he had done so, he replied quite proudly, "Yes. Kellen poo poo potty!" I once again do NOT understand what world warp we go through when we leave daycare that he does so well there and NOT at home. Will I ever understand this?

There are some days when all I want to do is have him sit in my lap and I wish he would just let me snuggle with him...but alas, it seems that those days are over now. He only does that on rare occasions when he feels like it, and usually that's when he doesn't feel well, so although I enjoy snuggling with him, I don't like for him to feel poorly. I just wanted to snuggle with him tonight as I broke rules and let him watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special on TV (which doesn't help the overcoming grandparent rule-bending weekend, but oh well!). He was being so sweet, but no such luck. I managed a hug and a quick sit down on the lap, but that was about the extent of it. He did; however, enjoy the show...and asked for more when it was over. Too cute!

Whoo hoo

Yippee! Except for two address, one of which is sitting on my old planner at work and the other of which I'm waiting on a return phone call and/or an email reply...my Christmas cards are addressed. Yeah! Now I just need to put the return addresses labels on them, stuff them, stamp them....yadda, yadda, yadda. BUT, I'm going to celebrate the small accomplishments here folks! YEAH!

Special Day

I had such a special day today, but I'll get to that in a minute...Gramma and Pap Pa Gerren came down yesterday in preparation for the special day today and were able to spend yesterday afternoon with us, and they just had a ball with Kellen, of course! Gramma is sometimes more of a kiddo than her grandson, and brought some early Christmas presents for him to open, and he LOVED THEM! He got a Winnie the Pooh 3-D puzzle, and I had never even seen those kind of puzzles before! They are so cool! We've determined that Kellen is a puzzle king...he's just a genius at some of these puzzles that he shouldn't be able to put together yet...really! They also brought him some Veggie Tales figures from the Jonah story, which I don't think he's put down since he opened...he even had them watch him eat dinner last night & tonight and took them to daycare with him today. He got a snowman snow-globe and some sort of snowman singing gun thing...not quite sure what to call the latter...and two Christmas books. Unfortunately for the books, they came after the Veggie Tales, so he really didn't care one thing about them since he was too busy playing with Twippo and Junior, but he'll read them later, I'm sure...

As for today, it was a great day! The awards ceremony for the President's Meritorious Service Award was this morning, and it was so nice to have my parents and Matt's folks there for my cheering section...I had lots of other folks there for support as well, so I don't want to leave anyone out, but it was just a really nice day. The awards ceremony went really smoothly (except that I just wanted the video that Matt took with the digital camera and realized that I didn't shake Dr. Gates' hand again at the end of the comments before I went to sit down and it looked like he was trying to shake my hand and congratulate me again...Whoops!) Then Matt, his parents & I went to lunch at Cheddars and had a wonderful lunch...topped off with the Cookie Monster dessert(YEAH!!! - I just LOVE that dessert & it's such a treat!!!). So it was a leisurely day and lunch...I was nice to myself and had scheduled my freshman on Friday for their pre-registration appointments and only had one appointment on my calendar for 3 PM today...



Back to the office after a late lunch to actually work for a few hours and the day was virtually gone...worked a little late and tried to prioritize what needed to get done for tomorrow (I'm trying to implement some of the skills from a workshop I attended last week - Balancing Work & Family - we'll see how that goes). Kellen and I played for a little while with his new puzzle and Veggie Tales after we got home and I tried to counteract the effects of the grandparents schedule (you know...things get a little off-schedule when the grandparents are here - he was up until at least 9 PM last night...but it's ok) by getting him in bed pretty much at 7:30 PM on the dot...he was so tired tonight! Although he fussed while getting ready for bed, I didn't even have to go into his room once to tell him to turn the light off...I think he just crashed once he actually laid down!

My goal for the rest of the evening...work on addressing Christmas cards...wish me luck!

PS

Stands for Percussion Studio...a student organization that had their fall show last night that Matt and I went to watch. One of the grad students in the department is in the group, and they were FABULOUS!!! If you can't imagine what this organization is...think Stomp crossed with Blue Man Group, then add in any ole' thing that you can think of that, when hit, could be used as a percussion instrument. It was great and we had a blast! They did some rock n roll, new and old school (Stairway to Heaven was very cool, by the way) some Christmas music, threw in some videos of the group in a Lounge type setting between acts and then had some comedy skits in there as well. It was just really enjoyable, especially given that it was just Matt and I - date night!!.

During the day yesterday I tried start working on my Christmas cards...worked through the address list for missing or outdated addresses and tryed to figure out what we were going to do. I always seem to have these good ideas about Christmas cards, but the follow through is sometimes lacking - trying to get a family picture made to them order through Shutterfly is a great idea, except that we don't yet have a family picture made...and I don't see a "nice" one getting made in the near future. So, considering the fact that it takes ~ 1 - 1 1/2 weeks for something to come in from Shutterfly when ordered...ummm...don't think that idea is actually going to work. So, scratch that one and we'll go with a different idea. I know what we'll do and have already got the plan working...now I just need to sit down and start addressing the envelopes...or do I just want to be hi-tech and print labels out? Hmmm...now that's an idea...

Today Gramma and PapPa are coming into town so to play with Kellen and for the Holiday Coffee and awards presentation tomorrow morning. They should be here shortly after Kellen gets up from his nap, so he'll be really excited to see them. We haven't told him they're coming, so it will be a nice surprise for him. He's be cracking Matt and I up all day long today. He's just been so adult-like in his conversations lately.

I guess I'll need to start getting used to that...him begin more adult-like...there's a twinge of sadness to that realization.

Schedule

So I'm going it again...getting off-schedule with my daily blogs...and what, you might ask, am I doing blogging at 1 AM? Beats me!?! I sat down to work on some quick emails after putting Kellen to bed tonight when George of the Jungle II was over on the Disney Channel (breakin' rules right & left here!) - and that was ~ 8:30 (another one bites the dust!). Anyway...one email led to another...and here I am...1 AM. But on the bright side...I had a HUGE dent in my emails, which had been overwhelming me lately.

So, to catch up...Last Friday was the game...tu vs TAMU...Unfortunately the outcome wasn't what we had hoped for...but it was a close game and the Ags played well...McGee did a tremendous job! I'm looking forward to watching him for a while! Then we out to eat at Koppe Bridge, then back to the house and played Monopoly. I hadn't played that game in AGES - and we had fun...for a while...it was just taking forever for the game to be over. Officially, it was a tie between Matt and Judy...but at the very end, Judy had totally smoked Matt...and the rest of us, out of the game.

My Christmas decorations had arrived at the house with George and Judy, so my Saturday morning consisted of decorating the house for Christmas. Since they were coming back over in the afternoon, my goal was to get the house decorated so they could take the boxes back with them and store them back in the store room...for those of you who have been to my house, you understand why this was a goal...little to no extra room for storing boxes in the house...And I did it...the house is decorated for Christmas minus a box or two that just didn't make its' way over here for whatever reason. For those of you who aren't there yet, don't feel bad...we aren't putting up a tree this year, so the decorations were really easy!

On Saturday afternoon we ended up going to the George Bush Library and saw the train exhibit, which was on its last weekend there. Kellen had so much fun at that exhibit! He didn't want to stop playing on some of the trains! He was so cute! We stayed there longer than I thought that he would actually last. After that, we headed to Wings so that Brenna could get her Wing fix for this trip...then we went to the basketball game...and had originally intended to buy the tickets online, then decided against it (sorry guys - that was a total - my bad on that one - but Kellen had still been running a low grade fever on Friday...wasn't sure how Saturday was going to go when everyone was talking about getting the tickets for a Saturday night event). The line to purchase the tickets was unbelievably long...we thought that we would be smart and swing by my office and buy them on the internet...nope...they stop selling internet tickets after the game starts...which is a good piece of information to know, which now we do. So back to Reed and back in line we go...Arg...Then confusion ensues with reserved vs general admission tickets, etc...it was just a little crazy there for a while...But, we finally got our tickets and got inside to watch the game, and it was a good game. I thought sure that Kellen would fall asleep, but nope - he was a trooper and made it through the whole thing.

And he liked the dancers - a lot. When they would come on to dance and then leave, he would look at me and ask, "More dancing, Mommy. Please." Well all right then...

Sunday was an attempt at a restful day. Just getting ready for the craziness of the upcoming week - which I knew would be hectic for me with the continuation of registration for students and other things that are happening at this time of the semester. Matt wasn't feeling too hot...which is always a shocker since he has a super-strength immune system, but he's been knocked out almost all week this week not feeling well.

This week itself has been just a blur...I can't believe that Friday is upon us...and now it's actualy December. How crazy is that? Where did this year go? Now it's 1:30...and I know where I need to go...night night all...

Thanksgiving

Despite Kellen's "viral infection" and corresponding come-and-go fever, he's been in a relatively good mood for the past few days. As my last blog detailed, I got the phone call on Tuesday to come and pick him up from daycare, and we've been fighting this thing ever since. Matt took him to the doctor on Wednesday and the diagnosis - "viral infection" - which in my book translates to "we can do nothing for you...your life is turned upside down until his body can fight it on his own...tough it out."

Matt was able to stay home with him on Wednesday, as I still had a half day of work - and a schedule FULL of students needing to see me for registration advising, which would have been really tough to reschedule. Our original plan was to keep Kellen in daycare on Wednesday afternoon and for Matt and I to go and watch Walk the Line...a plan which obviously had been sidelined. Oh well! After work I ended up going out to eat with a professor and one of the students that had just defended their master's internship project, their final thing to complete their degree, as a celebratory lunch, then headed back home to relieve daddy from Kellen-duty so that he could go and run some errands. Kellen's fever came and went all day, apparently, with the highest spike being a little over 102, which ruled out the Rockdale Thanksgiving option for he and I on Thursday - there are too many kids there and I'm not taking chances around other kids with him running a fever.

So, Thursday morning Matt and I are up pretty early because he has to go to work, and lo and behold, Kellen wakes up around 5 AM as well, just as Daddy's walking out of the door for the day. He gets to see Daddy, but he's awake. I try, to no avail I might add, to get him to go back to sleep, so we end up watching the morning sequence on PBS, then Veggie Tales after Sesame Street is over at 8 AM. By 9, he had gathered all of the items from his bed and had carefully arranged them on his SpongeBob couch (which was salvageable, by the way), then he tells me, "Kellen go night, night."

"Ok buddy. You can go night night if you want to."

And within 5 minutes...he was fast asleep. He would have stayed that way for more than the hour that he slept if the dog hadn't started going nuts outside barking a who knows what. Much needed nap cut dreadfully short by Bailey. Big ARG on that one!

So we ended up driving to MawMaw and PawPaw Hapes house for Thanksgiving. It was relatively safe, as there were no small children there, so we hopefully lessened the chance of Kellen sharing his illness with anyone else. His fever had spiked to its highest Thursday morning - 102.4. When it's over 101, we actually give eiter Tylenol or Ibuprofen to bring it down. He slept the entire drive, and was a super cranky monster when we arrived...for about the first 30 minutes or so, at least. I couldn't leave his side...literally. PawPaw brought out the bed for him (a super cute, blow up, Winnie the Pooh, bed with attached covers and pillow-ish headboard) and he laid on it, but I had to be next to him so that he could hold my hand.

Now let me clarify some of my statements here...despite running the fever, Kellen has been acting JUST LIKE HIS NORMAL SELF. He's not telling me that his tummy hurts, his ears hurt, he's not throwing up, having trouble from the other end, nothing....The only things that we can tell that's a physical symptom of something being wrong is that he's running a fever and isn't eating as much. That's it. So I want him to rest, but neither Matt nor I think it's a big deal to take him somewhere since he's acting virtually normal.

Aunt Boo gives him a new Hermie video and stuffed Hermie doll, which to this current point in time I don't think has left his side. They proceed to watch this "New Hermie" for what will be the first of many times over the weekend. After waking up a little bit and getting used to all of the people that aren't normally at his MawMaw and PawPaw's house, Kellen overcame his clinginess and was fine. He didn't eat much, but then again, I didn't expect him to...other than rolls, of course. I think he had half a dozen of those!

I'll have to detail Friday's game day activities and Saturday's George Bush Museum visit and Basketball game later...Kellen wants me to come and watch the "New Hermie" with him...

But first...I have to share this...we were looking for his stuffed Hermie yesterday and he asked me where it was. I said, "I don't know. Kellen where is it?" His reply?

"I don't know either."

Gotta go!

Coupons

Well, a while back at the departmental party, I bid on some kiddo coupons that I thought would come in handy...some GattiTown kids eat free coupons and Bush Library kid free with purchase of adult entry tickets. I had the brilliant idea of using the kid coupons so that my friend Jennifer, who is in from New York for the holidays, and I could go out tonight for dinner, and loe and behold...our kids aren't even old enough to have to pay yet. So it appears that I bid on that item at the auction for nothing...There were two families with kids that came in immediately after us, so I used 5 of the 6 coupons, paid for their kids and treated them for the night. I hope that they enjoyed themselves!

Anyway...she and I had a good time during dinner catching up, but it wasn't really long enough. Kellen is sick, so he ended up falling asleep on my shoulder (really sick, huh...) and James hadn't really had his normal nap or normal sleep routine since being back in Texas on vacation and was tired as well, so we cut the evening a little short.

Speaking of Kellen, we aren't really sure what's going on with him. I got a phone call today a little before 4 PM from daycare and they indicated that he was running a fever (100.3 auxillary, so really 101.3), just wasn't acting like "our Kellen" and that I needed to come and pick him up...Yes sirree...I'm on my way.

I got to daycare and he informs me that, "Kellen no feel good. Kellen temperature." When asked what hurt and what was wrong, the response was, "Tummy hurt." Well all right. I've been hearing those words for a few days, they just haven't been accompanied with a fever.

He really was acting like a relatively normal Kellen, in my opinion anyway. I talked with Matt and, luckily enough, they had had to go to the Med Center and were in town, so we ran by to see daddy after leaving daycare. Kellen was so excited to see him as we drove up to the hospital! We were only able to stay there for a few minutes, and as we drove off I hear from the backseat, "Bye bye truck! Bye bye Daddy. Daddy loves Kellen." Doesn't that just make your heart melt? "Yes Kellen, Daddy loves you very much."

Fast forward to home from dinner...the dog is missing (Houdini dog, by the way...who can open the gate), so I drive around for a little while looking for him, but it's really too dark for me to see anything, so I give up. He's got a full dish of water and dog food outside, I'm leaving the gate open and praying that he makes his way home sometime tonight and that I hear him outside or see him on the swing in the morning.

Take Kellen's temp to compare with daycare's reading earlier today...the "right" way, and it's 101.5...so I gave him some meds and got him ready for bed, one book and he goes down without a fuss, surprisingly enough, considering that he had been asleep (GattiTown), been woken up (getting in the car), fallen back asleep (car), been woken up again (out of the car into the house), then was getting put in his bed. Normally, that wouldn't make Kellen-man a happy camper. Yeah for small miracles! We have an appointment with his pediatrician for tomorrow morning, so we'll see how that goes and how he's feeling then.

Family NIght

Tonight was family night...and it was GREAT! We all got home right around the same time...later than we all had intended, but within about 5 minutes of each other. Matt asked me to run to the store and pick up a few things and in exchange, had virtually the entire dinner prepared by the time that I got back to the house. What a deal! We bent the rules and let Kellen stay up WAY too late, and finally put him to bed in the midst of a meltdown around 9 PM...ohhh...I'm going to pay for that tomorrow. But he and his daddy had a good time watching some TV...yet another rule bent tonight. That's ok. Matt's on a 24 tomorrow & again on Thursday, so we needed some quality family time.

Kellen was so sweet eating his dinner. He commented that he liked the pasta, so I suggested that he thank his daddy for making it for him. So when daddy came back into the room, he did just that.

"Thank you, Daddy"

Matt looked at me with a slightly confused look on his face, so I explained our exchange regarding the pasta and resulting thank you.

It's just so nice to have a night where we're all at the house! We need more of those...I'm submitting a formal request to the scheduling folks...whoever those people might be...more family nights, please!

Training Continues

This must be a two way street...one in which I am not in the right gear or something...Kellen did just spectacular during his potty training at daycare this past week, but at home...well, let's just say it was a different story entirely.

On Monday he had a grand total of three accidents all day long - which I thought was fabulous for his first "official" day of potty training; Tuesday it was two (and that included actually sitting on the potty for a BM - yes boys and girls, my little man who has SUCH a hard time going poo poo in general actually sat on the potty and went); Wednesday, well Wednesday doesn't count for the potty training week - if you have questions about that ask his daddy and MawMaw Hapes *grin* since he didn't go to daycare; Thursday we were still at two accidents; Friday we had gone down to one accident - ONE! - Oh my gosh!

I'm just not sure how to proceed on the home front...Tried the exact same training pants and vinyl covers that he wears at daycare on Saturday, tried to get him to sit on the potty every 30ish minutes or so, but by noon we already had three accidents, one of which required a major clean-up and overhaul of the beloved SpongeBob couch, rendering it unusable for at least the rest of the weekend, and if my clean-up job doesn't meet Matt's inspection standards (who knew he was such a germ-a-phobe?) - forever. I gave up and went to the diaper/pull-ups and just continually sat him on the potty as I remembered (hmmm...have we hit on something that might be the problem here???).

But seriously, his teachers tell me that he gives them no trouble at all about sitting on the potty at school, but when I take him to sit on the potty, he throws a fit about half of the time, saying that he doesn't want to sit on the potty. I know that there is a fine line here between consistency, readiness, and pushing too hard...but when I get him to finally sit down he is fine, normally actually doing some business 3/4 + of the time he sits down. We aren't making a big deal of the accidents, aren't requiring him to do some business before he gets off of the potty, just asking that he sit there...no punishments at all - only praises for when he pees - I can't imagine what we would do if something else came out of his body while he was out our house and sitting on the potty like he's demonstrated he's capable of at daycare. He still makes a spectacle of telling us, "Kellen go poo poo" and walking into a corner or something. When I ask him during those times if he would like to sit on the potty and poo poo, he tells me, "No" and I might ask him if he's sure, then I drop it and let him do his business. I'm trying not to push things here.

Wow. All-out potty training here we come! And I obviously need to get out those potty training books that I bought a while back in my attempt to get prepared when the time came - HAH!

Matt made a comment to me on Saturday about Kellen having the ability to turn him into mush...I snickered, which caused him to ask ask if I already knew that, which just made me giggle even harder. Now, for those of you who know Matt, you know he isn't normally a mushy man...for those of you who don't know him...think Marine, then think Medic...then push those two imagines together & throw a Christian belief system in there (i.e. he's not a wimpy guy). If anyone has ever been around Matt being around Kellen they know that munkin turns him into mush...Which is, I'm sure, one of the ways that God intended a man and a woman to continue to be able to stay in love after having children. When the woman sees the man with their child, acting like a true father should act, it makes her fall in love with that man all over again, which is how I felt on Saturday. Those two were just so cute wrestling, playing and running through the house! I love watching them together! Then today they decided that they needed a nap...well, Kellen fell asleep watching a cartoon and Matt snuggled next to him long enough to do the same...It amazes me how much Kellen is like his father sometimes - It looked like Matt and mini-Matt while they were taking their nap.

Migraine update time...So far this month I've had 3...Arg...If this dosage doesn't help then we'll increase and try another month. However, I have noticed that I've been more functional during the migraines while on the higher dose of medicine, even before the Imitrex really has a chance to kick in, which is a plus - I guess. Unless the migraines are my body's way of telling me to slow down...then if the medicine allows me to continue to work during and through them, I'm just totally ignoring my body's signals. Hmmm...new twist on that...

Jaw update...still clicking and popping...I was supposed to call the doctor a month after my last visit. I can't remember when that was, which means it's probably been at least a month. Nothing new to report on that front.

So I was debating about whether or not to include this, but I guess I will. I found out on Tuesday that I was selected to receive of the 2005 President's Meritorious Service Award. Each year, twenty individuals and one team is selected out of the employees of Texas A&M University to receive this award, and I found out that I am one of those individuals. The award will actually be given by President Gates during the President's Holiday Coffee on the morning of December 5th. I feel so honored to be selected for this! I think that Mom & Dad will be coming in for it - Mom put in to take the day off and they'll drive in the night before, and I feel pretty sure that George & Judy will drive in as well. Dr. Heinz made it pretty clear that virtually the entire administrative staff would be there for support during the award presentation, too. It feels so nice to have such a supportive and appreciative work environment! I just love it!

I think that's all for now...I get the slacker award for the least amount of blogging activity, but will try to get back in my once-normal routine of nightly blogging. The nightly routine that replaced blogging this week was washing soiled clothing from daycare, but I'll see if I can somehow manage both *grin* I miss too many fun and cute details when I cram an entire week into one blog...

Potty training...

Went to a whole new level today. We went to day care in training pants today. Not diapers, not pull-ups. Training pants. The almost regular, I'm a big-boy undie kind with the vinyl undies over them in an attempt to stop leaks and complete messes on everything around him. I talked with his teachers at the end of last week about how he was doing after I saw all the "P" for potty on his chart - he was sitting on the potty virtually every diaper change. So they suggested that I bring him with the training pants this week just to see how he did.

And did he ever! Only three accidents today. And every time they put him on the potty - which based on the chart was almost every thirty to fourty-five minutes, he went for them. Wow!

Then I get him home...try to get him on the potty and I end up with a MONSTER-MAN! What is it about being a home that brings out that side of him? I just don't get it? Power struggle? Hmmm? But he was wet when I got him home and I don't remember on his chart what they had written about the last time that he had gone potty. But I'm still impressed...three accidents on the first "real" day that we've tried anything resembling hard-core potty training. I think that's wonderful!

I"ve just realized that it's been almost two weeks since my last post...horrible!

We had a wonderful weekend this past weekend...My aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary was this weekend, so their kids threw then a party and my two aunts and an uncle drove in from Ohio for what was supposed to be a surprise...unfortunately, the surprise was ruined when my cousin from Ohio called looking for his grandfather, my uncle, the night they were scheduled to make it in...the night prior to the party, but all-in-all the party was still a great success.

Tackle

Matt has taught Kellen how to tackle, and so far this has been a Daddy & Kellen thing. However, today he decided that he wanted to tackle Mommy. Down, set, hut, and he runs to me, arms spread wide with a huge grin on his race, and bowls me over. I was ready for it, because he had asked, "Ready?" before he started, but it was so cute! He backs up as far away from you as he can get and still be in the same room to prepare for the run..it's so funny! Then he wanted to play airplane, and horsie...all fun activities that he realized he would need to play once it sunk in that Mommy really wasn't going to bend on the no TV during the week rule...his options were to play (with his toys or without, didn't matter) or read. Period.

He's also on a yogurt kick right now...ate one in the grocery store yesterday (thank goodness the lady behind the counter at the deli told me where to find some available plastic spoons - since he had opened one without me catching him - he's too quick for me sometimes!), then another one for breakfast this morning, then asked for another one on the way home from school today. I like it when he's on a roll with foods that are really good for him! And hurray for the kind that doesn't come off of the spoon - whoever thought up that one MUST have had kids...

He did his "Bless Daddy work" quite a bit tonight while getting ready for bed...he misses him, but he normally does when Matt's on shift, so we just roll with it and deal...He's getting more and more pack-rat-ish at bedtime and wanting more and more things to sleep with...Clifford, Shrek, Larry the Veggie Tale, various books, blankets, etc. I've put my foot down on the 4 foot alligator...if he wets the bed too bad, that thing can't really go in the washing machine and would be virtually ruined, so I've upset him by telling him, "No" on that one a few times. He's going to get to the point where he can barely fit on the bed with all of the other things in there! Do we need to set a limit? I remember seeing pictures of me when I was little with tons of things in my bed, though...so I know that I did it, too. Hmmm...

The experiment continues

Another follow up with the migraine doctor today and good and bad news...

The good news...I haven't lost any more weight, although he did double my dosage a month ago, which could have had additional weight ramifications...this could be a good sign that my weight has stabilized or a not-so-good sign that I'm eating all the junk food in sight since nothing else seems the least bit appetizing...

The bad news...The number of migraine circles on my calendar haven't decreased. He wants to see one, maybe two circles (migraines) a month, three would be pushing it...There are 5 circles for October and there were 5 circles for September, both months have 1 migraine that required 2 Imitrex to take care of it...And this is with a doubling in dosage between these two months. However, as far as I'm concerned, I'm still thrilled with the results...this is a vast improvement from popping Imitrex or Excedrin Migraine 4 out of 7 days per week, which is what I was doing before this wonder drug came along. Are we the least bit surprised that I have stubborn migraines? Ummm...NO!

But, he wants to take an agressive approach to this and get me some serious relief from all of these migraines. So, he's upping my dosage again...we'll see how this next month goes and if the number of migraines stay the same, we'll probably try one more increase in dosage and then I'll make a decision on the dosage level that I feel comfortable with given the $$ it costs vs the number of migraines per month. If I'm getting the same or relatively the same number of migraines at 50 mg as with 200 mg...I'm sticking with the 50 mg...I'd be crazy not to, given what these meds cost! We chatted about this somewhat today and are completely on the same page with this, because these aren't cheap pills...Until today, I've been fairly fortunate that he's had a supply of samples in his office, so today is only the second time that I can remember that he's actually had to write me a prescription that I'm going to have to fill - and even the first time he gave me samples, so I really didn't have to fill the prescription that he wrote out for me. We'll see how this goes for another month!

Ok...enough about me and my ailments...I'm moderately worried about what I'll be like at an older age when my body is actually supposed to start falling apart...I'm getting a jump start on something that I don't really want to be early on here...Yikes!

Kellen...Boy he was funny tonight! We haven't gone grocery shopping (too full of a weekend - I normally do grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon), so we stopped by Fazoli's after day care to pick up some "pasta" - code for spaghetti - he doesn't seem to eat it if you call is spaghetti, but eats it if you call it pasta. We got home and ate it, and as usual, he made quite a mess and ended up with pasta all over his clothes. We normally let Bailey lick the bowls (nice treat for the doggie) and Kellen was offering him his bowl to lick, so I decided to try something with the dog...I told him to clean off Kellen & his chair...So Bailey licked the pasta off of Kellen's chair and pants while Kellen was stapped to his booster seat. Kellen just laughed hysterically while Bailey was getting the pasta! He thought it was so funny, and it probably tickled him some, too! Then it was off to the bath for him - he needed it!

I'm trying to get him adjusted to this time change (and me too...this time change thing really messes with me). It seems like no matter what time he goes to bed, his internal alarm clock will wake him up at what his body thinks is 6:30 AM...we gotta' work on this...Maybe we can get his body switched over by the end of the week.

May I have another

Day to add to this weekend? I don't really feel like I got rested...I know that we added an hour of sleep onto the night last night, but Kellen didn't get the memo...He never did take a nap yesterday, just too much going on with the tailgate party, the new drop-in, game-day, day care place, then out to eat at Wings-n-More last night. He didn't get to bed until ~ 10 PM...and no real nap to speak of yesterday - the 15 minutes on the way to the day care place don't really count as a nap in my book. Despite this...he was remarkably well behaved...as much as a 2 year old can be with zero sleep - all day long! An he was up at 6:30 AM his body time, which was actually 5:30 AM real time this morning. Luckily, Dad & Aunt Boo worked most of the morning and I was able to sleep in somewhat...as much as I could with the kink in my back that appeared this morning - I just couldn't get comfortable!...oh me and my ailments!

Kellen and I left Daddy to work on the house and went to Fairfield to see Julie, Chris & Caleb at Pam & Gene's today...had a great time visiting with them for a while and then went to the McDonald's afterwards to see Gramma and Pap Pa Gerren before Pap Pa had to go to work. Kellen and Gramma played for a while on the jungle gym outside and Kellen was just absolutely filthy playing in the "rocks"! He was pushing himself so hard to play, and it was really just because if he stopped for a second, he was going to crash! He napped on the trip over there, but it was only for ~ 1 1/2 hours, and that was interrupted, unfortunately, because I stopped in Madisonville at Sonic and got an iced tea, which I didn't think would wake him up...what was Mommy thinking!?!

He did a really cute thing while playing...he looks up at the big McDonald's sign and says,

"Mommy M. Big M!"

"Yes Kellen. That's a big M. What sound does an M make?"

Rubbing his tummy, Kellen replies, "Mmmmmm."

That was a brand new, never seen before, Kellen original. Where does he come up with this stuff?

Pumpkin carving with Daddy

Well...since it was a "with Daddy" thing...I wasn't there, but from the pictures, it seems like they had a lot of fun! Kellen's day care had Pumpkin Carving with Daddy on Friday afternoon (isn't that sweet?) - and bless his heart, Matt was the only dad from Kellen's class that did this last year (I guess 1 year old's are a bit young for it? - we didn't know!). So Matt was bound and determined to try again...he was even originally scheduled to work yesterday and when he realized that his shift coincided with this event...got rid of the shift!

I think that this went much better this year than last year! Kellen understood the concept and, of course, this was "Kellen's Pumpkin!" that he had picked out himself. Last year he was scared of the pumpkin and ran away crying - I don't think he'd ever seen something that color that was that large - Matt had picked out a doosey last year! My boys, my boys...aren't they a pair!

So this weekend we have Aunt Boo in town...should have lots of fun stories and pictures to share after today and the game, etc. More later!

Boo-Boo Week

It's been a week of boo-boo's so far, with a slight break today. Kellen pulled a face-plant by jumping off of a bench at an ice cream social (Mommy's work-related event) after I got off of work on Monday. Result: busted lip and a bloodied-shirt Mommy. Tuesday he tripped and fell before nap time...something no one thought was a big deal until they saw the strawberry rug burn on his forehead after nap. Wednesday he fell on the playground outside and hit his chin on a log...another strawberry scratch-type mark. Poor guy!

But, he had a BIG surprise waiting for him this morning. Matt and I went to a departmental party last night, hosted by my boss. One of the door prizes was a kids package that included this 4 foot alligator - so soft and cuddly, really, and of course, it's green - Kellen's favorite color! I knew that he would just love it, but one of the graduate students ended up winning it. I joked and popped off to her, saying that I had wanted that for Kellen, and loe and behold, she gave it to me to give to him. What a sweetie!

He woke up screaming this morning at about 3 AM, starting both Matt and my day off really early (and no, he never really did go back to sleep), so when we finally got out of bed, I went ahead and sat him down for breakfast (the alligator was in the living room, so his back was to it). Very quickly I heard an animated,

"Mommy! Kellen all through. No eat! All through!"

I'm not sure how he did it, since his back was to the living room, but he had spotted the alligator sitting in the chair and had decided he was done with eating. In addition to telling me he was all through, he was very animatedly using his sign language to say the same thing as well. I didn't want to fight the fight, so I let him just play with it...

He had a great time this morning before school! And the guys at the office got a big kick out of all of the pictures that I took of him playing with this alligator this morning. I made sure to send them as a thank you to the graduate student as well...that was just so sweet of her! He's amazed at the "Big eyes" and made sure to lay down the law right off the bat with the "No bite" rule...My guess was that he would tell the alligator "No bite" within 3 minutes of seeing it...I was dead on with this prediction. It was too cute!

I can't take it!

Ok...I tried, I really did. I hope that Matt is proud of my valiant effort here. It's 12:11 AM...they're going to inning #12 and I just can't do it anymore. I'm pooped! Come on guys! Let's go! I've done the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned up the living room, washed three loads of clothes, all while multi-tasking at the computer and watching the 'Stros...and the game still isn't over. Night-night guys...

Pumpkins

This will be a quick post...as the Astros are on and I'm trying to watch the game...but we took Kellen to the pumpkin patch in Conroe on Saturday and he had a blast... He did a really good job at picking out which pumpkins he wanted for carving, since he and his daddy will be carving pumpkins at school on Friday. We even picked out two, one a little larger than the other to give them some choices and variety in their carving. He was a little bit of a strong man and strutted his stuff, picking up the rather large pumpkins, with perfect squatting form, I might add - and no, I haven't been working with him on this. Maw Maw, Kellen and I were at this pumpkin patch for close to an hour, just walking around and having a blast. They had a reading area with pumpkin and other fall-type books and many photo-opp areas set up and we had never taken him to see so many pumpkins all in one place. He was on pumpkin overload! He even picked out a couple of pumpkins for Maw Maw's house, too, and then had plenty of time to just play around. Notice the small pumpkin in his hand...this was on the not-for-sale reject pile that he immediately gravitated to upon arrival. And he wouldn't put it down the ENTIRE time we were there...needless to say, it came home with us.



He's been up way past bedtime two nights in a row watching the 'Stros, but really, how many times in his lifetime is this actually going to happen, right? But tonight when he threw a major temper tantrum because he had milk (that he had asked for, mind you) in his sippy cup instead of apple juice, well, that was just his way of telling me that 8:45 PM for the 2nd night in a row was just too much for him (and last night he was up later than 8:45 - and no, he doesn't sleep in to make up for it). Of course, he really didn't understand that so I was the bad guy putting him to bed when he wanted to, "Watch baseball Mommy. Watch Astros!"

It just breaks your heart sometimes. I tried to explain to him what a miraculous thing (of course I didn't use those words) that it was that we had let him stay up two nights to watch the Astros and that him throwing a fit because of his drink was really telling me that he was too tired to stay up and watch the game anymore and that he was telling me that his body was ready to go to sleep. I understood that he wanted to watch the Astros and that I was sorry that I needed to put him to bed but I loved him and wanted to do what was best for him. Of course, again...none of this makes sense to a 27 month old kid, but the calm voice in the midst of the screaming and crying did calm him down...Within 5 (and that's being generous) minutes of him being in bed I didn't hear a word...

3 weeks?

A new Lost in 3 weeks? What is that about??? I can't stand it when shows do this?!? Didn't they learn their lesson when they pulled this with Alias? Come ON! Are they trying to say that Walt is one of the "others" now? I know no more now than in any other earlier week. ARG!

Ok..so I haven't updated on the TMJ from the doctor's appointment last Friday...the long and short of it all is:

• the popping and clicking that occurs virtually every time that I open my mouth is actually injuring my disc and will continue to do so until it injures itself to were there is no longer disc rubbing against other tissues in my jaw joint
• in doing this, my jaw is doing to itself what he could do in surgery, only nature will play its course out in 6 to 18 months, or longer, depending...

We chatted about surgery, but if it's just an annoyance rather than painful, which thankfully it now it, surgery isn't an option - whew - that's actually ok with me. I'll just need to be patient and let nature take its course on this one, I guess.

We met her!

We met her...finally! We met Allyssa my niece today! Matt wasn't able to go with Kellen and I to Killeen to meet with Michael, Allyssa, Gramma Gerren, Jonathan & Tammy's gang. When we chatted about doing this yesterday he had forgotten about plans to study today for one of his tests tomorrow...We didn't want him to try and reschedule the study group and then the test, etc., so we decided that Kellen and I would just drive ourselves to Killeen today. Anyway, we made pretty good time there and Kellen actually told me that he was getting tired and within 20 minutes (I'm being generous with that time frame) of being in the car, he was out light a light for his nap. And he slept the entire trip there...~1 1/2 hours...

We had stopped at a store before we left to pick up a few small things as gifts for Allyssa. Kellen and I had discussions throughout the store as we were deciding on items (and he was wanting to hold them) that these were not Kellen's, but were Allyssa's, and that we were buying them for her. I thought that this might be a really hard lesson for a 27 month old child...I was correct, but he actually did very well with this. I did buy them both kites (Donkey from Shrek for Kellen and Dora the Explorer for Allyssa) thinking that if the weather was a bit breezy that flying kites might be a fun thing, plus I didn't want to make Kellen feel completely left out and jealous about not getting anything at the store.

Allyssa was taking her nap when we arrived, so Kellen was able to play with his Gramma (with undivided attention - I noticed later that he did get somewhat jealous about sharing Gramma), get adjusted somewhat to the new (or at least somewhat unfamiliar) people and new surroundings before she woke up. Then we were able to meet her and he gave her the bag 'o goodies that we had brought for her. Surprisingly enough, when he gave her the bag, I only had to remind him once that there were the gifts that we had bought for Allyssa and that they were her things, not his. He did understand, although he really wanted to color in those coloring books that I bought for her with the brand new crayons! So, he asked her to, "Color, please?" and she said that he could. Sharing is a good thing, right?


They had a really good time playing all day today! They played in the ball-tunnel thing that Michael and Tammy have at the house, played with the animals, went outside and swang on the swing with their Gramma. I even managed to get them to pose for some cousin pictures throughout the day...Yeah!!

Allyssa taught Kellen how to ride a horsie (stick horsie, that is), and we took them outside just before we all left and flew kites. They had a blast! I think it was Kellen that made the comment that it was, "Way up there, Mommy!" I think he was a little nervous that something bad was going to happen to the kite because at one point in time he screamed, "NO!" as they were trying to get it up there and flying...Not quite sure what he was thinking on that one. It was a new experience for him at least, not sure if Allyssa had every flown a kite before (not that either of them actually flew the kites, but you know...).

But of all of the pictures that I took of Kellen and Allyssa today, the cutest of them all, I would have to say, is this one!! Aren't they just too adorable?...And both of them know how to work people, too...Whoa buddy. Michael and I are in for some trouble here!!

Now to back up...Yesterday the Aggies played like a brand new team. Were those really our guys out there? They must have had a fire lit under them last week or something, but it was great! 62-23 Ags over the Cowboys...Whoop! My complaint for the week - I'm just ready to wear something to the games other than my shorts and a tank top...can I start wearing my overalls anytime soon? It's October for goodness sake! It isn't supposed to be in the mid-90's and I'm not supposed to be worried about getting lobster-sunburned at every game!

Jeff came over on Saturday and Kellen had a lot of fun with him...well, that's not entirely true. Jeff and Matt left shortly after Jeff got there and then I got in trouble because Jeff left with Matt.

"Jeff open door?" Kellen asked after they had left.

"No Kellen. Jeff isn't going to open the door right now. He and Daddy went to run some errands and they will be back in a little while."

"NO!"

Then he runs to the couch, glares at me, grabs his toy and pouts...lip trailing the ground kind of pout, actually. Um..He got put down for an early nap not too long after that. And slept for between a hour and a half to two hours...a pretty good nap for an early one...

After the game we went to a tailgate and I got him from the sitter and brought him back to campus to join in on the fun and I guess he had his Daddy, PawPaw & Jeff rolling almost the entire time. He is a hoot when he wants to be! And after how many visits by Jeff and even our trip up there in September we finally got a good shot of Jeff and Kellen...YEAH!!

What a fun and full weekend!