Wednesday

I despise Wednesdays. Half way through the week... yes, good. 10 hours of classes... not good.

This is my first full week back at school. Although it didn't take long to adjust back to classes, I don't think I'll ever adjust to how long my Wednesdays are. Starting at 8AM and ending at 6PM with a 1 hour break makes for quite a long day. This particular Wednesdays my morning (which seems like 5 days ago now) started great, going from class to class. I learned a lot, and each class went fast. At 1:15 everything came to a grinding hault and the clock refused to move. My last class starts at 3 and goes until 6. Our teacher decided to show us a movie regarding consumer health. There I sat for 3 hours (well 2.5 as she was nice enough to let us out early) watching a movie I didn't seem to catch the theme from thinking I just couldn't wait to get home and play with Brode. The hardest part isn't sitting for 3 hours, or paying attention for 3 hours, it's accepting that I can't go get Brode and bring him home to play and feed him dinner. I cannot complain about the entire day or class. The high point, our teacher of this last 3 hour class annouced that it will now be hybrid and half of it will be online, turning in small assignments every few weeks. This was a huge piece of news as I had been thinking I would be there late every Wednesday, and it was now cut down to 1 or 2 Wednesdays a month!

All things aside, Wednesday is over, and I survived. The best part, I only have 1 class on Thursdays so it's an easy day after the hard ones!

The rest of this week and this weekend isn't looking too eventful. I'm finishing up school for the week, then this weekend we have our usual routine of swimming lessons and hopefully some outside time!

Monday we're going back down to Milwaukee for Brode's follow-up. I haven't been thinking about it much, but after talking to my teachers today it really started to sink in that we're doing CT scans to see how everything is healing. Although the plates are still in his head and it hasn't been given much time to heal the news can vary. My biggest concern that I hope to calm is his stitches. Lately he has been getting little white bumps and one large area that looked like he had an incision infection starting on the inside and working out. After calling it was determined there were a few stitches that the body rejected and pushed to the outside. More and more of these spots have been showing up so I am anxious for them to actually see them and reassure me that I am not paranoid.

Have a good rest of the week and weekend!

End of Summer

Summer is ending, but it seems like it is just getting started. We have finally been able to do some fun summer things. Brode has been to the park a lot lately, we're back into swimming, playing outside all night, and swinging. This weeks summer first with the nice weather was a ride on Daddy's longboard. He loved it. All of the pictures show a grumpy face, but he was laughing and screamed when we had to take him off for dinner.

I officially started school for the 2009-2010 school year. My first day was extremely long, but luckily my last 3 hour class got cancelled! It was a good first day. So far I like my classes and my professors so hopefully that will make the semester go smoothly. I have a lot of classes that require a lot of memorization which means a lot of reviewing every day!

We're getting closer to Brode's birthday! This week I've decided I NEED to finish his presents and today I made a good dent on his scrapbooks so everyone can see his first year! Then I'm only left with menu planning! I am very excited for his first birthday party, but not for him to be 1 already!

Labor Day Weekend

What a weekend! A long, beautiful weekend needed nothing but to be enjoyed. I went to LaCrosse and had a very good time. I headed over there on Friday night around dinner time. The weekend days consisted of beach time, rollerblading, ice cream, cookouts, yard games, and girl time. It was so relaxing to enjoy the sun and have nowhere to be. Today, Labor Day, we headed straight from LaCrosse down to the Brewer game in Milwaukee. We hung out for a while, then sat through the very uneventful, almost no hit game. It was a great day to enjoy the game, but we weren't good luck, as they lost. I then continued from Milwaukee back home to Neenah after a tiring weekend.

Brode throughout my time away got to spend time with all of his grandparents and his daddy. He had a very fun trip to the grocery store and slumber party with Gram and Gramps on Friday night. Saturday he spent the afternoon and night with his Grandma Beth, then continued Sunday to spend time with his daddy. The little guy seemed to grow 10 inches when I was gone! I was very excited to get back to see him, and he sure was entertaining. He learned some new noises that Matt said they practiced all weekend., and he still jabbers non-stop.

It was a great weekend away, and a great "Back to School" weekend. My next few days will be organizing and starting classes for the 2009-2010 school year. I'm excited to get back down on campus and have something different to do, but I don't feel the same way about the homework!

Neighborhood Party

This past weekend was fun for all of us! Friday night Brode stayed with Matt while my LaCrosse friends were in town for Kelsey's 21st birthday. It was nice just to get to hang out with the girls. Saturday morning I had to donate plasma, and had my first, no problems what-so-ever donation! Finally! The rest of the day Brode and I hung out.

Sunday was our neighborhood party, and that took up our entire day! Many of the activities were in our yard so we worked on cleaning up, setting up the baseball diamond and helped with tents and games all morning. Many of the neighbors were there, the weather was perfect and there was a lot to do! The ladies had arranged a whiffle ball tournament, a volleyball tournament, a relay, and a belly flop contest. Recently we had many new families move it so it was nice to get to meet everyone as well!

The past two days have been wonderful with warmer weather again. This is my last week of full time work, but we've had time to get outside after dinner and play and go for walks!

Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with Brode, and mostly on the the weekends because I dont get to see him during the week, but I'm going to LaCrosse this weekend, and am very excited! We made some plans to go to a Brewer game on Labor day, and I always want to get there multiple times a year so it worked out that I could go before everyone started school then right down to the game with them!

Have a great labor day weekend! Pictures to come later!

Videos

Here are a couple videos I've caught lately of Brode. He always starts doing something, then stops the second the camera turns on, so most of the funny things are right at the beginning, like dancing, spinning in circles, and babbling.

This one is of his with his new tool box. No matter where he is, that music always gets him dancing.

Brode has started to walk with hi s push toys and along the furniture, so here is a peek at the terror we have that is about to emerge.

Brode learned a new spin move that you catch right at the beginning, he sits in one spot and goes around and around. The last half is of him playing with Gramps through the window.

Also, Brode was 11 months old yesterday! I can't even believe it. We're so close to one, this is going way too fast.

New Car Seats

Brode is officially out of his baby bucket seat. He hasn't reached the weight limit yet, but he exceeded the height long ago. He was ready. Our bank accounts took larger hits than we expected, but we're confident he is safe and glad choosing is over.

He would like you to know that they aren't quite as cool as the box they came in....

Weekend

For what was going to be a quiet lonely weekend, we stayed pretty active.

Friday night we all relaxed after work and day care. Brode and I played for a while, then Andrea came over to see Brode before she left for school. He chatted up a storm and showed her all of his toys. After Brode went to bed we watched a movie and just hung out.

Saturday Brode amazingly slept until 8AM. This cold must really be wearing him out. His maximum is usually 10 and 1/2 hours and he is up and ready to go at 6:30. We got some breakfast and played and then Leah was here! Leah was going to hang out with us for the day from Madison. We took Brode down to Riverside Park and he went on the swings and the slide, then we continued on to the Mom and Pop Place downtown for some smoothies and chit chat while Brode played. We got home just in time for Brode to get some lunch and take a long afternoon nap. While Brode was napping Leah and I finally got to sit down and look at each others scrapbooks. This is something we both LOVE and talk about pretty much every day. Saturday night we went to my Aunts birthday party and saw my moms side of the family. They haven't seen Brode since he is so active after surgery so he was all over the place.

Today Brode slept until 7:30 again. Brode took a 2 and 1/2 morning nap, which is very strange, but it gave me a chance to get a lot of little things done. He ate lunch right away and then we ran some errands. He doesn't seem to mind getting in and out of the car seat which is good, and he sure loves the cart so we can get a few more stops in each time. Brode got some new shoes today too and they make him look so much older! I was able to catch up on Brode's surgery scrapbook during afternoon nap. The rest of the night was just playing and dinner, along with a walk and a bath after!

Brode has been so giggly lately, I just want to freeze those moments. He has been getting into his temper tantrums as well too, those however don't need to stay.

Quiet

Things have been pretty quiet. Except for Brode. We've just been going about our daily routine without much extra thrown in. This past weekend Brode has a lot of gram and gramps time and he seemed to really enjoy it, he wasn't ready to be left at day care on Monday. We've done dinner with some friends, and started planning Brode's first birthday party, and that is about all of our excitement lately.

This weekend isn't looking anymore eventful. Matt will be camping with his family for their annual trip, and gram and gramps have a wedding and a birthday party so Brode and I will be spending the weekend in watching some movies and playing with toys!

Here are a few pictures of Brode and Daddy having some fun this week...

Chaos

We have officially taken one very large step into toddler-hood. Brode has two toys that he can stand behind and push, and later, sit on and ride. Last night Matt held Brode around the waste and helped him push his lion toy around the living room. It wasn't 10 minutes later and along came Brode pushing his toy all by himself right up next to me and smiling, then continued across the living room. After a little rest overnight he was all ready to go this morning and went across the room once again! He was very ready because standing has become nothing to him so I am not surprised. I am not ready to chase all day, I'm not ready for his head to be bumped yet when he loses balance, and our house is definetaly not ready!

Doing great

We have been doing great! We're finally back into our regular schedule. Brode has been doing great! He is sleeping a lot better at night without his staples. Day care has been going very well, it was like he wasn't even gone. We were very nervous that he got a little too spoiled with two weeks off!

Our next couple weeks aren't very eventful. Thankfully. We've been running and running so our daily schedules will be nice.

Brode has been learning a lot more lately and getting a little more daring. He stands with one hand, then tries to do it no hands, he attempts to walk with his push toys and climbs everything small. He has turned into quite the copy cat as well. He will copy any noise, sticking out his tongue, spitting, and clicking his tongue!