The Miami Dolphins and my kid make me smile

First, the Dolphins. HOLYS*&#!!!! WE'RE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!

Yes, I'm excited. We went from 1-15 last year to 11-5 and winners of the AFC East. How does THAT happen?? (Jason Taylor, I bet you're sorry you left now. The Redskins are NOT in the playoffs). And it didn't hurt that they beat the Jets to get there. Well, it hurts DH, but not me. I was good and didn't gloat. Much. And I was sorry seeing Favre so banged up and defeated looking, but I think he behaved badly. He played hurt and I think his actions were selfish and didn't help his team.

We have to play the Ravens first, and they're tough. I am staying positive, but it's a long, hard road to Tampa. We'll see, I guess.

Now, on to my kid.

I mean, how can you look at that face and not?

Clearly, he's in love with his new basketball set, courtesy of Uncle K and Aunt A. He loves to pull the net down, so he obviously has his mother's hoops skills, or lack thereof.



He also loves his dashboard. And his daddy. Daddy says he uses his horn a lot - again, just like his mommy. :)



In other news, the pugs went to the vet today. They needed to have baths and their glands expressed (joy! But we found out the hard way that it's quite critical to get it done on a regular basis) and their shots. Well, I went to pick them up and along with the invoice, I was presented with a chart of Bentley's weight gain, by visit. Apparently, Fatty McFatterson has gained 7lbs in the last year. Um. Yeah. He was extremely malnourished when we got him, so I'm going to say that 3-4 of the pounds were good and healthy. And all I can say is that is metabolism must have slowed some. We're cutting his food back and will be playing more games out back with him to get him into shape.

And finally, I just have to show off these adorable pug salt & pepper shakers from Aunt L. They were supposed to be in my Christmas box, but came a little late. I love them all the same.

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And the Day After

It's 9:45 on a Saturday and I am so ready for bed. We are sitting up, trying to watch the Canes in the Emerald Bowl, but it's halftime and so DH put on hockey. I would be far more interested if it was the Devils game. :(

Anyhoo... We had a sort of surprise visit from Grandma and Pop Pop last night. They were going to swing by for lunch on their way from NC to Tampa, but they ended up running late and spending the night. I'm really glad they were here to see Turtle for Christmas. We had to shuffle some plans, but it was worth it for them to spend some time with their grandson.

To start - Turtle is teething. For real. He woke up Thursday night at 10pm just crying. He was so stuffy, but not raspy in his chest. And he was just drooling and drooling. We got him back to bed, and he woke up early, with an awful #2. He's a once a day kind of kid (and that once a day is generally at 9am) and so this was out of the norm.

We kept an eye on him, thinking it was a cold, but no other symptoms have developed. Just some stuffiness, a little lack of appetite, and the evil poops (yes, at almost 8 months, we had our very first blowout!) and drools.

However, if you see him playing, you would never know!



But this is the face he was giving Grandma this morning after another rough night. I had to sit in his chair with him cuddled up on my chest for about 30 minutes before he went back to sleep. It was so sweet - I could have sat with him like that all night.


Mommy... my gums hurt!

Grandma and Pop Pop brought him this ginormous Christmas bear. Turtle wasn't really sure what to make of it.


Um, you're big.


Gah! He's eating me!!!!

I was able to keep him awake from his morning nap long enough to get these really sweet pictures.






He then proceeded to sleep from 9am-12:15, totally skipping his morning snack. Poor baby. :(

In the meantime, we decided to use some of our Christmas money to work on the master bathroom. For some reason, our house has no linen closets. I'm not really sure how that happened, but it's been annoying me that all our towels get shoved in random places. I've had my eye on this shelving unit from Target for a few months, and today, I got it (the first one was cracked and DH had to go back to Target for a new one). I also got some new towels, a cute apothecary jar, and some branch baskets (on clearance for $8!). I think it's the perfect addition to the bathroom.



I also found this wire wall art at pier 1 on sale. I got it for the empty wall over our tub. Perfect.



And best of all, I had a 50% coupon for Michael's so I got the 56 piece master tip kit from Wilton. I can't wait to try out some of my new toys!

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Twas the Turtle's First Christmas

And it was flipping fantastic!

I can't believe I'm still up, but I just wanted to get everything uploaded and I can't sleep til I do.

But it was a wonderful day. We woke up nice and early at 7am, and OHMYGODSANTACAME!!!!111!!!ONE!!!



Seriously, Mom, seriously. You're going to make me eat breakfast? When I have all those presents to open? Well, ok. If you insist. But only because you asked nicely.



Turtle was patient enough to let us take a few pics of him with his first tree. Dear Dad: while our ceiling is gorgeous, you can actually zoom the camera in just a wee bit to avoid it taking up half the photo. Just a thought.



Enough with the pictures, Dad!



As always, Oscar is the perfect, patient pug. I found him hanging out with the packages.



We had a pre-breakfast raspberry hot cocoa with snowflake shaped marshmallows. It made me feel better about it not snowing outside. That's a lie. I wanted snow, but it was 80 degrees out.



Turtle's first stocking!



While I was on the phone with Nana and Papa Bear, Turtle decided to take a bite of his new baby legs. Yum.



We all got great stockings. Turtle got a Hungry Caterpillar ornament, striped Baby Legs and new spoons with a lollypop; I got a Captain Jack Sparrow ornament, a matchbox replica of a 1958 Black Hornet Shelby and some yummy chocolates; and DH got a chocolate santa, truffles, UM eye black tattoos, and a UM pen.



Nana and Papa Bear sent some great stuff, including a 2008 commemorative Lionel train car. And, of course, a matching conductor hat and bandana. When Turtle is a little older, they will be sending him a starter Lionel train set. It was very sweet of them, and Turtle and DH will both love setting it up.



So, why did you make me eat breakfast if you were just giving me more things to chomp on???



I know you stuck this bow on my head. Don't worry, I'm working on an extra special present in my diaper for you. We'll see who has the last laugh.



Baby Bowling! Cool! Wait. It's not like that pug bowling video on youtube, is it? If I see you get the laser pointer and wood polish, I'm outta here!



Ok, I don't know what this is, but I think it's cool. So cool, in fact, that I am going to open the rest of my presents while sitting on it.



That bow stayed on his head pretty much the whole time.



Yeah, Dad, I'm playing. You go ahead and open the rest of my stuff.



I know you can't tell, but I really am excited. However, it's nap time.



So while Turtle took his nap, DH and I had a sausage breakfast casserole and mimosas and opened our gifts to each other. I gave DH a few movies, a copy of The Last Lecture, some long sleeve Ts, a vintage rock T-shirt, a Yankees hammer, a UM travel coffee mug and Turtle gave him a really cool Sebastian the Ibis statue for his sports room/office.

DH, Turtle and the pugs gave me a gorgeous winter coat (apparently, he got tired of my hoodie), a Sid Dickens memory block, a 2" Chi flat iron (which I have already used and am in love with), gorgeous leather sandals, a wusthoff chef knife, DVDs of Wanted and Sex and the City and several boxes of cookie cutters.

And then I had to decorate some cupcakes and make a green bean casserole to bring next door to S&J's house for lunch. They gave Turtle a really cute dashboard, which he loves, and a wooden truck. We had a lovely time.



When we got home, Turtle took another nap and then it was into the tub to try out his new bath toys. Awesome.



And then it was time for him to play with his Crawl & Cruise Musical Jungle before bed. Bentley helped.



Of course, all good things must come to an end. Bentley got a hold of one of those plastic/wire twisty ties that hold the baby toys in the boxes and bit himself on the tongue when I was trying to pry it out of his mouth. Blood. Everywhere. Fortunately, DH was quick-thinking enough to get him a bowl of ice and we were able to get the bleeding to stop. It's just a nick, but I'm sure it will be sore tomorrow.

And Turtle isn't sleeping well. He may actually have his first cold. He's a little stuffy, but I can't tell if it's from crying when he wakes up or from congestion. He's out right now, so hopefully, it's nothing and he'll be ok tomorrow. PopPop and Grandma are stopping by on their way home from NC and we are supposed to go to Bonefish Grill tomorrow night, so fingers crossed that he's ok.

Hope you all had as great of a Christmas as we did! (except for the bloody dog tongue and stuffy baby nose, of course!)

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Turtle's First Christmas Eve

Twas the night before Christmas... Yay!)

It's Turtle's first and we are going all out. We were crazy today with errands, cooking, baking, cleaning and getting things ready for Santa. We didn't make it to church, because Turtle slept through to 4:30 (mass started at 4), but we're going to try to start going in the New Year.

After Turtle's dinner and bath, we put out cookies & milk for Santa, as well as carrots for the rein-pugs. I mean reindeer. Silly me.



Turtle wants to know who this Santa dude is and why he gets cookies, when Turtle is still getting Cheerios. Something doesn't seem right about this!



Next up, Daddy read Twas the Night Before Christmas to Turtle and the pugs. Turtle thought that since he didn't get any cookies, the book would be tasty.



Then it was off to bed.

Santa visited our house early since the Turtle went to bed so quickly, so we were able to capture the evidence of his devoured cookie plate...



And all the gifts under the tree!



DH and I had a delicious dinner of marinated skirt steak, homemade guacamole, yellow rice and plantains and an Australian shiraz and we're now watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing caroles. It's a lovely evening.

To all our friends and family: Happy Holidays and all our love to you and yours.

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4 Days Til Christmas!!!

Surprise! So much has been going on. We have four days til Christmas and the holiday spirit is well upon us! Yay!

Here's just a really cute pic of Turtle. Not that they all aren't cute, but his daddy was swinging him all around and he was just cracking up.



He is also working on his standing skills. He's not there yet, but he keeps trying to stand up when we are sitting with him, so I guess he's getting the idea that he wants to be on the move. I have mixed feelings on this, obviously.



Another batch of cut-out cookies I did. These are even yummier than the first batch and have all kinds of sparkly embellishments on them. Sparkly = good. We're attending a Sweets Party tomorrow and I'll be bringing these and some mint Christmas tree cupcakes as my contribution. Don't worry - there will be pics.



Friday night, our friends M&K stopped by on the way to their holiday destination. It was great seeing them. We had a delicious dinner at The Chianti Room and then wandered around checking out the lights.



Our little family by the tree.



And Turtle checks out the cannon.



Today, we also tried Turtle on Daddy's Shoulders. At first, Turtle wasn't too sure about it.



But a few seconds and a couple handfuls of Daddy's hair later, he realized how fun riding up high could be! Wheeee!



And now, on a more serious note. I was a little peeved that the Jaguars gave up the game to the Colts on Thursday, making the run for the head of the AFC East even tighter. However, the Dolphins and the Seahawks both managed to come through. The Fins overcame a sloppy game to pull a W over the Chiefs, while Favre threw interception after interception, causing them to fall to a 3-12 team. Now, if the Dolphins beat the Jets on Sunday, they will go to round 1 of the playoffs. For the Jets to get in, they will have to beat the Dolphins AND the Pats will have to lose to the Bills. If the Jets and Pats win, the Pats will go.

So, needless to see, I'm cautiously optimistic, DH is moping and N has offered up her guest room for me and Turtle if we want to watch the game in a more friendly (and reasonable) environment. The four hour drive might just be worth it.

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Play Date & Elfster

Yesterday, the Turtle and I went to A's house for a little playdate/cookie baking session. ::looks around, sees no cookies:: I mean, how can you bake when playing with such cute little men?

We had an AWESOME time. Turtle was a little fussy (Hello, Teeth? Any time you're ready, just pop on through, mkay?) but he settled down to play in N's exersaucer (coincidentally, the same as his), and he was quick to dismantle the exact same parts that he does his own. It was pretty amusing. Sorry, N.

And A said that N was so pooped from his day that he got awesome sleep - so it was a win for everyone!





When I got home, there was a package waiting for me: from my "Siberia" Secret Santa. Yay! D gave me such great stuff: holiday cupcake papers and sugars/sprinkles and both of the new Batman movies on DVD. Funny - DH saw and stormed off in the closet. I hear "Thanks, D. Thanks a LOT!" and a lot of rustling and rumbling. Hmmm. I wonder if he got me the same movie?


However, what I wasn't expecting was two tickets to see Wicked on my birthday, from DH! I had no idea it was coming. I wanted to go while we were in NY, but tix were starting in the $150 range Me, (crappy seats) and he couldn't understand it. Me? I think it's totally worth it, but at least I'll get to see it here. Yay!

In other news, the Jags really screwed up the AFC playoff picture by giving up the game in the 4th quarter last night. Sigh. It's going to be a few tense weeks around here while our two teams battle it out.

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BABY IN A BOX

Nana and Papa Bear sent our Christmas presents today in a big ol' Priority Mail box.

Turtle was being fussy and difficult due to teething. So I did what any normal, completely unable to deal with the pouty face mom would do. I stuck him in the box. ::Shrugs:: Made sense at the time.


Ok, tape me up and send me to see Nana and Papa Bear!


Whoa! There's PAPER in here.


Boxes ROCK, Mom. They ROCK!

Please note: Baby in a Box is not to be confused with Pug in a Box. Shown here.



WTF am I doing in the box???!!!?


Don't worry, Bentley. I'll save you!

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