You Think You Can Dance?

Well Drake KNOWS he can dance! Check it out:

I told you he has some pretty sweet moves! Drake seems to prefer Miley Cyrus and the Black Eyed Peas for his serious dancing music but will bust a move to anything with a beat.

Hope everybody had a great weekend!

Be Right Back

I'm taking a little time off from the blog these next couple of days. I have super busy weekend that consists of being a bridesmaid in a good friends wedding,  a BBQ with my family, a trip to the zoo and lunch with great friends.  I can't wait!! Hope everybody has a great weekend and I will see you Monday night or Tuesday morning!

I just LOVE this picture!! Ben was being creative with the camera and I think it turned out awesome!

                        
P.S.-What do you think of the watermark on my photo? I am pretty happy with how it looks and don't think it takes away too much from the photo. Hate that this is what has come to, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to protect and "claim" my photos.

Munchkin Spill-Proof Cup Giveaway Winner

And the winner is...

 Jenna Wood with comment #17

Jenna Wood said... I'm a Munchkin FB fan

Congratulations Jenna! I sent you an e-mail.

I will be posting my next giveaway on Wednesday so stay tuned!

Parents of the Year

I'm pretty sure Parents of  the Year is a award Ben and I will not be winning anytime soon. You see the Parents of the Year would always buckle their baby into the highchair no matter what. They would not throw him in the highchair and leave him unbuckled while he ate some cut up bananas, even if they were enjoying their dinner right beside him. Nope the Parents of the Year would not do that, but we would. This is a story about our first big parenting fail and the awfulness that followed.

It was like any other Monday night supper, Drake was in his highchair(unbuckled) Ben was sitting right beside him and I was beside Ben. After slaving away for hours minutes making my gourmet meal of Hamburger Helper (admit it, you love it just as much as I do) we just sat down to enjoy our supper when Ben noticed we were out of napkins. He got up and walked the 5 steps to the paper towel holder to grab a makeshift napkin. As he is doing that I'm in my own little world eating my supper when all the sudden I hear Skinner run away and Drake land on the ground with a giant THUMP. All is silent while Ben and I look around to see what the commotion is and I notice Drake is not in his highchair. At the exact moment I jump out of my chair and run to scoop him up he starts screaming. My heart broke into a million tiny pieces as I tried to comfort my poor baby. He screamed for about 4 minutes an awful scream...the kind of scream where he could not catch his breath.

Sidenote: Since neither Ben or I actually saw it happen we are not for sure exactly how he fell out, but from what we can piece together we think that Drake was leaning out of the side of his highchair to try and pet Skinner when he leaned too far and tumbled out. We also think that he actually landed on top of Skinner which scared Skinner and made him take off and Drake landed on the  floor. Poor Skinner unknowingly took one for the team!

 Ben and I wanted to get him calmed down so we decided to give him a bath, his very favorite activity. As soon as we started to undress him he calmed down. We had him crawl to his bath like we do every night so we could see if he was in any pain when he crawled. As I gave Drake a bath, Ben called Dr. Papa(my dad) for advice. He told us the warning signs of concussions and said we should check on him several times during then night to make sure he did not throw up. Most of all Dr. Papa reassured us that this kind of stuff happens all the time and kids are built to withstand it. Drake was his old self as soon as he hit the tub and showed no signs of any injury the rest of the night or the following days.

Ben put Drake to bed that night and I sat on the couch and cried for the horrible guilt I felt for such a careless accident to happen to our son. I'm very conscious of all things safety related when it comes to Drake and felt so awful that we had thought that he would be OK not buckled in his chair since he was right beside us.  I know part of being a parent is making mistakes and even though this was our first major parenting mistake it will not be our last. I also know that we learned an important lesson and we will never make the same mistake again!

Oh yeah, I also know we will not be winning any parenting awards anytime soon, and I'm OK with that because we are learning as we go and that is what parenting is all about, right?

What is the worst parenting mistake you have made?

I Need Your Help

Today I was looking something up on my StatCounter account (a website that keeps track of your blog traffic) when I noticed I had over 400 hits from one IP address in less than 1 day!! I'm guessing it is a spam site.

Have any of you dealt with something similar like this in the past? Advice?!?!?

A lot of the blogs I have been reading have started watermarking their photos due to people stealing photos and claiming them as their own. This was something I never had any interest in doing as I thought nobody would ever steal my photos... now I'm not so sure. I decided I will start watermarking my photos from here on out. I heard the Picnik is a great site to use for watermarking.  The other thing I would be interested in learning how do to is making my photos "unclickable", meaning people can't right click on my pictures and save them. Anybody know how do this?

Thanks for any tips you can provide on the subject!

I may be absent a bit this week as I get this all figured out, but I will be back!!

I Love Summer Weekends

I know it's not officially summer yet, but it sure felt like it here this weekend with highs near 90!

I am in love with summer weekends. There is just something magical about them that makes me want the weekend to last forever. Here is what we did with our first "summer" weekend.

On Friday

Drake and I went to the zoo with Aunt Meg.

Drake enjoyed some music while Ben and I enjoyed a beer

and the amazing weather at a local community event.

On Saturday

On Saturday morning we headed down to the Farmers Market with our little farmer.

We even took a family picture!!! I feel like we take so many pictures of Drake, but we have only a handful as a family since he was born. I'm working on changing that this summer!!

Ben took Drake for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and I was able to get my massage that Drake and Ben got me for Mother's Day. I even had enough time to go shopping (Yay for new shorts and buy-one-get-one shirts at the Gap) and grab some lunch. Doesn't even a few hours alone rejuvenate you and make you feel like a better wife and mother?!? I sure know that is how I felt yesterday!

On Saturday night the first official driveway beer night was held across the street at our neighbors. We are lucky enough to live in a fantastic neighborhood full of young families, and when the weather warms up you can find all of us congregated in one of our driveways with our lawn chairs and beers staying up way past our bedtime talking, laughing and watching the kids play.

On Sunday

We went and got ice cream. Drake had his very own scoop of strawberry.

Drake showed off his guns in his very first sleeveless shirt!

We broke out Drake's pool for his first swim. Isn't that the smallest pool you have ever seen?

I thought it looked way bigger on the box!!

After a quick change into his swimming shirt Drake was ready to splash the afternoon away!

Yep, the signs of summer are everywhere and I'm loving it!

Odd

Last week I told you I hate mayonnaise and was surprised about the number of you that hate ketchup...YUM!! Anyways, that got me thinking how one person's trash(mayonnaise) can be another persons treasure. For some reason I always enjoy hearing about odd things people like or dislike. Here are a few of mine:

• JELLYFISH. I.hate.jellyfish. You want to know why? Because I have been stung by jellyfish 3 separate times in my life. And to make matters even stranger, I live in the Midwest, far away from a beach, so pretty much 1 out of every 3 times I have been to a beach in my life I have been stung. Do jellyfish hate me or do jellyfish hate me?!?
• I have a strange dislike of laundromats. Isn't that weird? I used to have to go there with my mom every year to wash all of our big comforters. It just seems like a lot of weird and shady people hang out at laundromats. I have not been to one in years and would be happy to never go to one again.
• I always eat my cereal without milk. I don't like soggy cereal and the only milk I drink is chocolate milk!

So now it is your turn to share! What are some odd things that you like or dislike?

I always love hearing what you have to say!

Who Wants to Party Like a Rockstar?

So I'm probably the last person to post my official D-List welcome post, but better late than never right?!? If you are visiting from the D-List WELCOME and if you don't know what the D-List is check it out here.

Now that we have the official business taken care of we can get this party started! I'm Katie and in case you could not figure it out from the title of my blog I'm sassy, silly and spunky! My son Drake is 9 months old and  pretty much the most awesome thing to ever happen to me. Did I also mention that Drake is a rockstar? Because he is and these pictures prove it:

He has a best friend, our dog. He sticks his hand in Skinner's mouth, climbs on him, and pretty much spends his days thinking he is a dog.

He has many hobbies including growing his own flowers

He is way too cool for baby food and  prefers the gourmet choice... mac and cheese

Most importantly he dresses the part. What rockstar doesn't wear motorcycle rain boots?

Oh yeah, he also does his own stunts like face dive out of a highchair, but that is a story for another day.

Thanks for stopping by and remember...Always party like a rockstar!

Munchkin Active Animals 9 oz. Insulated Spill-Proof Cup Review/Giveaway

As many of you know, Drake has pretty much given up the bottle and only drinks out of sippy cups. With my wild boy throwing his cup, dragging it across the kitchen floor, and hitting our dog with his cup we go through many sippy cups a day! When I had the opportunity to review the Munchkin cups, I jumped at the chance!

What I love most about these cups is they are super easy for Drake to hold and drink from. I think the  slender design is easy for him to get his little hands around. Aren't they cute with the bright colors and  little skateboarding dog?!?

I also love that they are spill-proof. Believe me, we put these cups to the test with all of Drake's antics and they held up remarkably well! We will definitely be using these cups on a regular basis!

From the Munchkin website: It's a jungle out there, so keep your child hydrated while out and about with our insulated cups that keep drinks cool for longer. The patented, BPA-free cups are top rack dishwasher safe and feature an easy-to-clean, spill-proof valve. 9+ months

Click here to find out where you can purchase the cups.

The GIVEAWAY Details
Enter to win a  set of Active Animals 9 oz. Insulated Spill-Proof Cups!

You can earn up to three entries to the contest by doing any or all of the things below:
1. Become a Munchkin Facebook fan
2. Follow Munchkin on Twitter
3. Vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs just click here

(Make sure and leave a separate comment for each item you complete to earn your eligible entries)

The giveaway begins today Wednesday, May 19th and ends at 7:00 am CST Wednesday, May 26th. One winner will be picked at random, using Random.org. The winner must live in the USA and respond within 48 hours, or a new winner will be picked.

Please Note: I was provided with Active Animals 9 oz. Insulated Spill-Proof Cups to review the product and promote the giveaway. I was not compensated in any other way. These are my own, honest opinions.

August 1, 2009

If you missed it, Part 1 of this story is located here

Shortly after midnight the Anesthesiologist made his way into my room and started the epidural procedure. Everything went smoothly until a few minutes after the epidural was started and my blood pressure plummeted. I was put on oxygen and the epidural was stopped. We had to make sure the medicine was not making my blood pressure drop. I also explained to the nurse and the anesthesiologist that I tend to pass out, especially if my blood sugar gets low (seriously it is odd for a year to go by without me passing out at least once, and usually at the most inconvenient of times) and I had not eaten anything in over 12 hours. So we slowly started to administer the epidural again with no problems.

I was having a hard time telling if the epidural was working as I still was not feeling any contractions when we started it.  The nurse assured me it was working because I was having strong contractions every 1-2 minutes. My nurse checked to see if I had made any progress, and I was now dilated to 5 cm. Since labor seemed to be going at a pretty normal pace Ben and I decided to get some sleep as it was now already 2 am and we did not expect to have a baby before morning.

I tried to get comfortable but was having the labor shakes so bad it was hard for me to get any sleep. At 2:25 my nurse came in to check me and I told her I was feeling a ton of pressure. She checked me and I was at 10 cm. Yep, I went from 5 cm to 10 cm in 25 minutes. I think we fooled everybody, because nobody thought I would deliver that night. After quickly getting the room set up and the OB called, I started pushing. I pushed for about 20 minutes, when I had to stop because the baby was coming too fast and the OB was not there yet. After waiting about 15 minutes, my OB showed up. 15 short minutes later at 3:26 a.m.  Drake was born. He weighed in at 7 lbs 6 0z and was 19 1/2 inches long.

I did  have an episiotomy, and while they were sewing me up, and Drake was over with Ben getting weighed and measured,  my labor nurse told me that when Drake was born he had a true knot in his umbilical cord.This occurs in approximately 1% of pregnancies and can cause various complications throughout the pregnancy  (miscarriage, stillbirth, and complications during delivery) They had no idea how long Drake had the knot in his cord, but he did have a very long  umbilical cord and that can be a factor in developing the knot.

You want to know something crazy? I knew a true knot was bad after they told me that he had it, but I never had the courage to research it until I wrote this post...9 months later.  When I found out all the information above, I was shaken to the core with what could have been. We are so thankful and lucky we had the outcome we did and Drake suffered no complications from the knot. I thank God everyday for this amazing blessing!

We stayed in hospital for 2 more nights, enjoying the company of great friends, the excitement and joy of our family meeting our son for the first time and the helpfulness of the hospital staff. I enjoyed every second of our experience and will truly cherish it forever.

 August 1, 2009 was a day we will never forget.
A day we were forever changed by the little boy who stole our hearts.

July 31, 2009

This is a long time coming and something I have been meaning to do since Drake was born. Finally 9 1/2 months later his birth story is complete.

July 31, 2009 was suppose to be just like any other day. The night before Ben and I enjoyed a spur of the moment date at our favorite Thursday evening farmers market. We walked around, ate some gyros and did some shopping while enjoying the beautiful weather. Little did we know this would be our last night as a family of two.

1 day before Drake was born

I was 38 weeks and 1 day pregnant on July 31, 2009. I had just been to the doctor the morning before and had zero progress. I decided to work from home on the 31st. I started my morning off with a little housework, decided to type out my full maternity leave plan for work, made brownies to drop off to Ben at work, and then around 4:00 pm I decided to take a nap. I slept for about a half hour and woke up feeling better than I had in weeks. I got up out of bed and was getting ready to leave for the grocery store when all of the sudden my water broke. I know everybody can have different experiences with their water breaking, but mine was like in the movies, it broke and EVERYTHING was soaked in a matter of seconds!!!

After having a minor freak out, that the baby was coming now, I called Ben, my OB, and my mom. Ben rushed home from work, we put our last minute essentials in our bags and headed to the hospital. Once arriving they immediately admitted me since there was no doubt I was in labor since my water broke. My labor nurse got us all set up in our room and proceed to check to see if I was dilated. I dealt with a extremely posterior cervix during my pregnancy, meaning that it was super hard for the doctors to reach and sometimes almost impossible to feel. After much discomfort for me and a lot of trying on the nurses part, she was unable to feel my cervix (she said that had never happened to her before) so she called the OB on call so she could come in and try. While we waited for the OB, I had an ultrasound preformed to make sure the baby was head down, the nurse was unable to tell by feeling and wanted to confirm. The ultrasound confirmed that the baby was head down and looking good. Shortly after the ultrasound the OB arrived and also had an extremely difficult time finding my cervix, after a lot of screaming and crying on my part (this was literally the worst part of giving birth for me) she was able to find it and tell us I was 3 cm. dilated.  Thankfully the OB said because of the extreme location of my cervix I was not to be checked again until after I had my epidural.

By now it was around 7:00 pm. I was feeling really great, even though the monitor said I was having regular contractions I was only feeling slight cramping.  My OB wanted me to labor a bit on my own and then start me on Pitocin at 10:00 pm so I would hopefully have a baby by noon the next day. Ben and I spent the next several hours leisurely walking the hallways and talking with my parents. I was able to take a nice long hot shower before they stared my IV at 10:00 pm. My parents said their good-byes and my nurse came in to get my IV line in so we could start the Pitocin. After a bit of a struggle with the the insertion of the IV, the Pitocin was started and an epidural was ordered, as we needed to see how far dilated I was

My contractions were getting closer together, but I still could not feel them. I chatted with Ben and my labor nurse while we waited for the anesthesiologist to come, in the meantime the clock struck midnight.
To be continued...

My First Video Blog

I wanted opinions on Drake's hair and thought that a video blog would be the best way to go so you could actually see his hair a little better.

So here it is....my very first video blog!

Some Random Thoughts

I have lots of  little thoughts running through my head, so you know what that means....random thought post!

• If you have a blog please leave a link in the comments section of this post. I really want to try and do a better job of visiting people who visit me. I have found some of my favorite blogs this way in the past and I can't wait to see what else is out there!
• I'm in love with the create your own Fraps at Starbucks and even more in love with the half price happy hour they are running this week from 3-5!!
• I have a lot of giveaways lined up so for the foreseeable future Wednesday will be giveaway day. I know there are split feeling on giveaways, you either love or hate them. Either way, please know that  do not agree to do reviews or giveaways of everything that come my way. I only do it if I truly believe it is a product that my family would use and you my readers would love.
• Drake's new favorite place to hide is in  Ben's clothes in the closet. Bet you are SUPER jealous of my husband's Hawaiian shirt, aren't you?!?

• I hate mayonnaise, like really hate it. I hate it so much that I don't even like touching the jar. What food do you hate?
• I've been working on a few blog updates and was successful at making some stand alone pages, but can't for the life of me figure out how to "pretty" them up, so it looks like a call to my blog designer is in order! The end result should be a cleaner looking blog that is easier to navigate.

I think I succeeded on making a total random post!

I Can't Turn My Back For One Second...

...or I will find

A baby who uses his rocking chair to try and climb up onto the bed

and a dog cuddling with the baby's shoe

All of this while I was just trying to put away a little laundry!

A Quick Update and Some Questions

We received Drake's biopsy results and everything came back fine! No allergic esophagus and no signs of damage from the reflux. So we basically found out what we knew all along...he has bad reflux when he eats. It is a good sign the biopsy came back clear because that means the reflux is not causing inflammation of the esophagus or other tissues at this point. I'm so glad that we went ahead with the procedure because now we know we are treating the right problem.

Drake is now on 30 mg of Prevacid a day. This kid is maxed out on the highest dosage of Prevacid he can take and guess what?!? IT IS WORKING!!!!!!! He no longer screams at night when he takes his bottle and I no longer feel like my chest is going to explode with anxiety when bedtime comes. I also finally know what it is like to feed a baby that does not scream when he eats a bottle and it is a pretty amazing experience!

Now to the questions...I need some more ideas for finger foods/solids to feed Drake (remember he started solids early because of his reflux, so he is eating closer to what a 1 year old would eat instead of a 9 month old). What are some good standbys? Also how do you get your baby to eat veggies?!? He likes the green bean stage 3 baby food and some canned carrots but that is about all I can get him to eat. Give me your best tips!

The Perfect Day

My 1st Mother's Day was just perfect thanks to my boys! 

It started off with cute cards that told me to plan a whole day to myself sometime soon and head to the spa where a manicure, pedicure and massage would be waiting! How thoughtful is that?!?

At 7:30 I found Mr. Drake awake and ready to celebrate the day with me

After a breakfast of french toast eating and newspaper reading we were ready to start the day

 (I love you all so much that I'm letting you see me in all my bed-head glory, you can thank me later)

We enjoyed an afternoon of fun with my parents

We thought we better get some ice cream to celebrate the day. Drake got his very own-1 scoop of vanilla and ate  the WHOLE thing...he is definitely my son!

I just could not resist stealing some kisses from my ice cream covered boy

Papa played with Drake on his new slide

We ended the night with Ben's homemade pizza and a glass of wine

It really was the perfect day!

Bazzle Baby Big Bib Winner

Congratulations to Kerrie with comment #9!

You won a Big Bib of your choice!

Kerrie said...  Follow Bazzle baby on Twitter @36momma

Thanks to all who entered!

He is Mine

This sweet little boy

with his big grin

and contagious laugh

and sparkling blue eyes

is all mine...and I'm so lucky to be his Momma!

Hope you all had a GREAT Mother's Day!!

I will update you on mine tomorrow.

The Most Important Job in the World

In honor of Mother's Day I'm dedicating this post to my Momma! Love you Mom!!

I don't think you can really understand what being a mom is like until you are one. It is like trying to explain what giving birth is like, you can hear a thousand stories but until you actually do it yourself the reality of it is hard to grasp.

I've been so lucky to have an amazing example of what a mother should be in my own mom. Her full-time time job was being a mom to myself and my two younger sisters. One of my favorite memories growing up is so simple, yet so perfect. Everyday I would come home from school, get a snack, and sit down at the table and tell my mom about my day. She would listen and ask questions and be genuinely interested in what I had  to say. She was always there at all of our activities cheering us on and supporting us. Today I'm lucky enough to call my mom my best friend, we talk almost daily and a week would be incomplete without seeing her at least once. I'm truly blessed.

I can't even put into words what these last nine months have done to me as a person. I'm forever changed by this little life. Drake has taught me patience and the importance of being more laid back. He showed me that playing is so much more fun than housework and the laundry can wait while I sneak in a few extra cuddles. Because of him I have the ability to love like I never knew I could and would sacrifice anything for this one tiny life.

Being a momma to Drake is a honor and a job I take very seriously. Although I do work outside the home 3 days a week, my real job is being a momma to my baby...and that is the most important job in the world!

Happy Mother's Day!

This Boy Knows When He is Done

There is no mistaking when Drake is done eating because....

he

goes

from

this

to

this

in

just

seconds

 No mistaking.