One Month in as a Consultant

I feel like we are adjusting (dare I say it) to life with Simon's new role as a consultant. I want him to succeed, and I am trying to be supportive. It helps to know this project will not last forever.

He is kicking butt and taking names at his job...he will never say it because he is very humble, but I am amazed by how well he is doing (since he is a newbie). He has gotten personal recognition from his engagement lead and the owner of the company for pulling a deliverable out of the dump. He also got told by the client in front of his team, during a meeting, that he was doing a fantastic job!

I am so proud of him because the situation is still not ideal; it is a long drive, there are high expectations from the client, and Simon does not even know the technology that they are using on this engagement. He bought a book from Amazon so he could learn it himself. I would have quit already! Good thing I am not the breadwinner for this family.

Sometimes I am kinda dumb

Today I walked into Canon's room to get him after his nap like any other day, but I noticed his crib was flaking off chunks off paint on the bottom. I jumped down to my knees to look at the damage and then realized that I had stuck the humidifier to close to his crib and basically caused water damage. The whole bottom will have to be re painted at some point...if only I had listened to Simon. The humidifier was on the other side of the room, but I INSISTED on moving it as close to Canon as possible because I was sure that extra steam would help his cold go away sooner. OOPS!

To add to my stupidity, we were leaving Kroger this afternoon and I noticed two men acting strangely outside of their truck in the parking lot. I walked passed them and saw that they were pouring a liquid from a glass long neck into a plastic coke bottle. I watched them a little longer and then yelled out to them across the parking lot "I HOPE YOU ARE NOT PLANNING ON DRIVING!" They looked over at me and said "oh no, this is cherry syrup, we just cannot take glass bottles in." I said "it still looks a little odd to me." Then they lifted up the glass bottle and showed me...sure enough, cherry syrup. He said "we are making our own cherry cokes, they just did not have any cherry coke zero inside." "OH, SORRY," I apologize. Then I ran to my car and crawled inside. It was so embarrassing/funny.

A Wee Little One at 15 Months

Today I took Canon to the doctor for his 15 month check up, and to get his ears looked at because I was convinced he had an ear infection. He actually did not have anything wrong with him (besides a cold and a cough), so I have no idea why he has been on a napping strike, screaming in his sleep, and doing other strange things, but the nurse practitioner did say she thought his top two teeth might be coming in soon. So, Before his nap today, I gave him tylenol, teething tablets, and a huge bottle of warm milk...he has napped for over an hour and a half so far - that is the longest this week!
I also got Canon the flu shot and Carsen the flu mist. I am interested to see if there are any negative side effects. Last year, I remember Carsen being super sick for almost a month after I got her the flu mist...maybe it was a coincidence, maybe she had a bad reaction to it. I hope she is okay. I get a little nervous about vaccines.

The nurse practitioner did not like that I still give Canon a bottle/not a sippy cup exclusively...I have stopped stressing about everything that the doctors want me to do though.
Carsen had a paci until 3 and it was totally fine; my pediatrician told me it had to go at 18 months. I am thankful I did what I knew was best for Carsen.

Canon needs LOTS of calories and fat because he hates to eat and he is very active. The bottle is the only way he will drink milk and get the fat he needs, so that is what I have to do right now. I am giving him a combo of goats milk, whole milk, rice milk, and formula. I have pretty much weaned him.
We are trying to see if he can tolerate 8 ounces of whole milk, so I am mixing it in a little at a time with rice milk. Oddly, he has been sleeping horribly this week as I have been doing it. However, he also has a yucky cold, might be teething, and it daylight savings happened. The paranoid mom in me thinks it is the whole milk hurting his tummy (not the other 100 factors that make more sense). I might buy some Goat's milk today and see if he sleeps more soundly while drinking that vs drinking whole milk. I just do not like to buy Goat's milk because it is $16.00 a gallon compared to cow's milk which is only $2.00 a gallon.

My big boy is actually little. He has only gained a little over a pound in three months, and has fallen to the 15% for weight :( He weighs 22 pounds. He also used to be in the 75% for height, but is now in the 55% and is 31.25 inches. The nurse said she is not concerned about his weight yet, but that we are going to watch it. She said I just need to keep trying to feed him new foods and get him to eat.

I think I might try making him smoothies with pediasure in them...or just give him pediasure to drink.

On a fun note - his verbal is off the charts. I am so impressed with all the words he can say

daddy
mommy
sissy
ball
outside
shoes
light
hot
no
uh oh
yea
fishy
dog
cat
car
bye bye
hi
night
baby
boon (ballon)
inside

Matchy Matchy

Canon likes to do ANYTHING Carsen does (especially if it invades her personal space). I love it when they match too.

Looking super cute in blue and green

The Saugier Fam loves to match, so Simon and Evelyn also put on their blue/green

Paging Dr. Q.T. Patootie

Yesterday, the kids put on their Halloween costumes so we could go to our annual Retirement Center trick or treating day. Carsen was scared of all the elderly folks, while Canon tried to feed them half eaten snickers bars and hold their hands (one lady remembered holding him last year when he was only two months old). It is still amazing to me to see how different they are, but both equally precious.

I found the best costume ever for Canon (Dr. Q. T. Patootie) and decided to fork over the $30 for it since he has never had a costume. Carsen got to combine lots of her dress up clothes to form a unique Ballerina cat. It was a great costume for her because they are clothes she loves to wear every day and I knew it would not turn into a battle when I asked her to get her costume on.

Carsen took her job of holding Baby Mary very seriously. She has already told me that she would like a new baby sister soon.

A small candy break and then it was back to running around

Canon was a HIT with all the ladies. They hoped he could be the center's new doctor.

He wanted the walker but settled for some gummy bears

The gang!

Look mommy, more candy!

Dr. Patootie is always on the go.

Showing Canon how it is done "put out bucket, get good stuff"

My ballerina cat

Battlefield

The past week Carsen and I have been battling it out about everything...o, how I hate these times. It is emotionally exhausting to be on my A-game with discipline all day. I am trying to balance what I let her do her way vs. what I insist she follow me on. She is really exercising her will with everything, and I am showing her that I am the ultimate authority. Just now I told her it was nap time (and after much crying, then saying she was hungry) she refused to follow me the way I walked to her room, but went around a different chair instead (just to defy me a little). Mercy! I kept my patience, thank goodness.

Kids need structure and rules; they crave it and test parents all the time to see if they really mean what they say. I am reading all about it in Dr. Dobson's "A Strong Willed Child." I am curious to see if Canon will be the extreme strong willed child they talk about in the book; I pray that he will not be, but I decided I better equip myself now, if he is.

Last week in Bible study we talked about how even in the most perfect place on Earth (the Garden of Eden), God created it with boundaries. He told Adam and Eve they could freely eat from any tree of the garden but the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He had limits on their freedom. It illustrated to me that true freedom is not us getting to do whatever we want because we would surely bring harm upon ourselves.

I want to be a loving and firm parent for Carsen and Canon that shows them how rules and discipline are for their benefit.

Week One of the New Job

This week Simon started his new job with Cogent, a consulting company that deals with Microsoft business solutions, or something like that :) It has been quite a change for us...and I am fighting to keep perspective because I know this week is not a typical scenario at Cogent.

Simon is driving to and from Ft. Worth every day and is gone between 12-13 hours a day. His new schedule combined with his volunteering at Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center, being part of a non profit group, and us leading a brand new foundation group that meets every week = us seeing each other very little right now.

Hopefully the driving to and from Ft. Worth will end in late November!! I am also hopeful that he will do the majority of his consulting with Dallas based clients or at least do all the work from the Dallas office. I have not been very encouraging or supportive this week, and that is just plain wrong on my part. I think it is because I feel like I got totally caught off guard, but I guess that is not an excuse :/