I've been MIA big time!

Apparently I lost that loving feeling for blogging. There has been a lot going on in the Maatman world. So much so I don't know where to start. Philip just turned 18 months and is in fact the cutest thing I have ever laid my eyes on. I won't trade him for the world or any amount of money. I have another blog, which I have neglected as well, but updated with the juicy details of what has happened as of late. You can find it here if you are interested. Email me and I will add you to the blog as it is set as private for a very good reason.

First boo-boo....Ouch!

This is what happened today when I was at work.....he was with Ryan's mom!

His first boo-boo and it happens to be on the day he is going to see the doc for his 1 year visit. She said he was pushing the stroller and slipped, I think he fell down her step on the front porch. She said he didn't cry.....I think he must have SCREAMED bloody murder. He was very clingy today and I don't blame him.

Here are his sats:

25 pounds 2 ounces

32 inches long

The doctor thinks Philip is going to be huge.....I hope he is right and not short like his mommy.

I have started....

another blog where I'm going to blog more private matters. If you would like an invite, leave a comment here and I'll add you to the new blog. Somethings are better when they aren't shared with the world!

I can't believe the weekend has come and gone already. We had a big weekend. Saturday we drove up to Big Rapids to move my sister into a new apartment for the summer. While Ryan, mom and dad were at the old apartment, I stayed at the new one with Philip. The old apartment had lots of stairs and I was afraid Philip would want to do nothing but climb them. Instead I had to entertain him in an apartment that wasn't made for children. Needless to say there were lots of buttons and knobs and cords to pull on. Boy did I get a workout in. Sunday I had to work and then had all my mommy chores to do. It is now 9:30 and I'm the only one still awake in my house. I have laundry going and dishes need to get done and a diaper bag to pack. Makes me tired just thinking about all of it. I have to only work 2 hours tomorrow and then am taking personal time and then back to school for a preview night. Should be interesting, the preview night that is.

Well back to my chores so I can lay down and watch the news while I fall asleep.

Happy Moanday everyone!

Happy 1st Birthday!

We Love You Philip Benjamin!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

1 year ago...

today I was sitting in the lawn, in a chair watching Ryan lay mulch. We had had a busy day with our doctors appointment, packing our hospital bag and then Ryan laying 3 truckloads of mulch. I can't believe that one year ago today was the last time I was pregnant! Wow it doesn't seem like it should have been that long ago. I can say that I honestly miss being pregnant. Am I looking forward to going through everything to get there again, absolutely not. Will I venture down that road, absolutely! As of late, many people have been asking me when the next "baby" will come along. Philip is still a baby to me, even though he is fully walking now and drinking from a sippy cup 2% milk. Wow, a lot has changed in a year's time. I remember the excitement I had when I went with my husband for our last "couple" dinner. Just knowing that we wouldn't be just 2 anymore, but a table for 2 with a highchair. Sometimes I still get weepy when I think back to Philip being born. I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would be a mom. I still pinch myself sometimes when he calls me Momma.

As I sat back and reflected on my last post, I realized a couple of things. First, Ryan isn't cruel to me. He actually loves me, just in a different way now. That is ok. It's also ok that I have to remind him that I need mommy time. He is, afterall a man, and let's face it....they all think alike! Second, he is the best father I could have ever asked for. Little did I know, when we got married 5 years ago, that I could and would fall in love with him more. So many times you hear wives complain about their husbands and you find yourself wondering if and how much they love their husbands. I may complain about him, but I sure do love him and I know that he loves me too. I need to start working on showing him that and stop pointing out the bad things. I have decided that I'm going to take the advice of MckMamma and start helping him to see that I don't and won't always be happy, but together we can make a difference. I go, he goes...then maybe he will be more willing to pay it forward every once in awhile. He isn't always going to make me happy, and vice versa. I have to say that some really dirty thoughts just came into my mind as I re-read those last sentences. Oh, my! Oh la la!

Now here I am, on the eve of my son's first birthday and finding myself weepy and teary eyed. Not for what I miss, and boy do I miss some of his stages, but for what the future holds for my little boy. We couldn't have asked for a better 1st child and I know that he will do great things in his lifetime.

Mommy and Daddy love you buggy! XOXO

Happy Mother's Day!

I can't believe it...my 1st Mother's Day as a mom. Wow, I never in my wildest dreams believed I would ever be here. We had quite the wild weekend. Friday night I spent working. Not something I had planned on, but helped out a friend in need who needed off to go to an event with her children. I wasn't going to work, but then thought to myself that I may need the same help someday too. Saturday my sister graduated from college. OH MY GOSH did she grow up way too fast. The day was a whirlwind of non-stop action. We had lots of fun though and I'm so happy for her in her next chapter of life. The day was filled with much drama and am glad that it is behind us. Let's just sum it up and say these key phrases.....sister's old boyfriend of 6 years and the new guy that likes her in the SAME PLACE. It wasn't pretty for a few moments, let me tell ya! Here are a few pictures of the day.

Here are my boys on Saturday





Here is my sister getting her diploma.

She is a double major in Accounting and Finance. Now she on the hunt for a job. Not the best time to graduate from college, but she is keeping a positive outlook on things. I know she will get a job in her field. She has such a go get'em outlook on things and that will help her to go far.

This morning was fun. We went to breakfast with Ryan's mom this morning and then my family came over this afternoon. We had tacos for dinner....not my choice! I wanted some steak, but I didn't get the final say.

My husband actually got me a card from Philip and a card from him. The card from him wasn't anything I would have picked out, but hey...beggers can't be choosers, huh. I sometimes wonder if he really does love me, or if he feels like he is stuck here now that we have Philip. I feel more like a burden most days then I feel like a wife. I know we are still feeling things out yet now that we are a family of 3, but I just don't feel like he feels the same about me anymore. He is such a good dad and puts Philip and his needs first. I love him for that.

Walking.....

Our little guy is officially walking these days. I can't believe it. He can't stand up from a sitting position, without pulling himself up on something....but we are getting there. I thought for sure he would walk long before now. Here is a crappy video I took, but you can see him marching away. I'll take a better one and post it soon!

I wish I could freeze time and keep him at this stage forever. With a few exceptions of course! He is into screaming, like a girl, at the top of his lungs. This is ok if he is at the house, or in the car.....but not when we are out to eat or at the store. He, though, seems to think it is. Tonight we were out to dinner and he was screaming like a girl. We were at a restaurant that caters more to the older generation and I didn't want them to make comments about him being "unruly." To be honest he was being unruly. From the very first scream I began telling him no. With each scream, my no's became more stern and matter of fact. After me telling him no, he decided he would stare straight at me and begin to dig me with his finger nails. Now Philip is not even 1 yet. Where did this come from? He is only with a 2 year old, and I don't know if that is where he learned it or not. My question now is....How do I stop this behavior? After about the 50th scream, I took him into the bathroom. Now before you chastise me...I didn't spank him. What I wanted to do was remove him from the situation and gain a fresh start. It worked for about 20 minutes and then it was back to the screams.

Just when I thought....

that my little guy was still a baby and needed his mommy still, he goes and gets a molar. Can you believe it? Not only did he get 1 molar (bottom right), the bottom left is starting to come in too. My little boy is quickly becoming a toddler before my eyes. Now that he is 11 months....that's right ELEVEN, he thinks that he can do anything. Notice I said thinks. Sometimes he just forgets that he can't walk (on his own) and trys to run out of your arms while we practing our steps. He walks great in his walker and with a walking toy his Aunt Kim bought him, but on his own he just doesn't have the confidence yet. I'll have to get a video up of him with his walking toy. He can go from a crawl to a walk, so he is getting there. I'm ready for him to just take off on me sometime. I know he can do it, he just doesn't know it yet.

His list of words is ever growing these days. He now can say:

MaMa (my favorite all though the stinker doesn't use it very often)
DaDa (which he chants like he is at a sporting event)
BaBa (which is also chanted)
NiNi (when he is pretending to go to sleep)
Ap ple (which is clear as a bell and his newest word)
Aaa pa pa (This is grandpa)
Mmmmmm ma ma(which is grandma)
Uh oh (which has the cutest long pause in the middle)
Num Num (which was his very first word ever)

I can't believe how much he is changing now. Everyday is something new and I'm so amazed by him. I so behind on my posts. I need to get up some Easter picks of him gathering easter eggs and opening his first easter basket.

I copied Jody....

and entered Philip in the contest too! I voted for you Jody! Here is the link:

https://www.greatamericanphotocontest.com/voter1/index.aspx?referid=EmailFriends&p=1238950&x=.JPG

It was fun looking at the baby pictures. I wish I was more creative when I was taking pictures. Sometimes I'm just at the right place at the right time, like yesterday's picture I posted.

Wordless Wednesday

Been gone a long time.....

Not too much has been happening around here. Philip is finally done being sick (knock on wood) and we have returned to a more normal routine. Well, I'm not sure I would say normal, but more like before. Is anyone normal? I think that Philip is getting his 8th tooth, although nothing is showing yet. He has been crabby, I mean vocal the last few days. I think that he is trying to show his independence and testing the waters. I think that is great, the only bad part is I don't know if I'm giving in and getting him what he wants or if he just only wants to cry a few seconds and then nothing more. Not sure yet. He is using more big boy words as of late. Which is always fun to hear. He can now say Da da, which is what he pretty much calls everyone and tells everyone he meets that he has a da da. Ba ba which he chants like he is cheering on his favorite team at a sporting event. Momma only comes out when he is mad or very tired. If Daddy goes in and picks him up in the middle of the night he gets really mad and cries out my name. Other than that I only hear dada. I asked Ryan the other night if he gets sick of hearing his name and he quickly said "NO!" I didn't figure he did, but just thought I would gently bring up the fact that I would like to hear momma when he isn't screaming for me. He also says Uh-oh and No No which he uses a lot together. Especially when he smacks someone in the face. He is quick to say Uh-oh and then a long NNNNOOOOO NNNNNOOOO. It is really cute and I have a hard time not laughing at him. I can't believe that he is going to be a year old in May. May is not that far off my friends! My little guy is more like a toddler these days and not a baby. I would post pics, but I'm at work and don't have any on my computer here.

On another note, I'm trying to become more frugal these days. It isn't easy at all. I use coupons and only buy on sale, it's just everything else I can't resist and must have. Not to mention the fact that we still owe from trying to have Philip. Ryan and I both agree though that we would go into debt ten times over to have him. He is so wonderful and can't imagine not having him in our lives.

I'll try and get a couple of pictures up this week. Maybe start a wordless wednesday.

I Pledge Widget

Long weekend!

Wow, the weekend was long but seemed to fly by. I had to work this weekend, so on top of that we had some family come to see Philip and we went to see some family. Friday night was my dad's 60th Birthday.... omg! My dad is 60..... wow! When did that happen? We threw a little surprise party for him at the FOP, which is the faternal order of police... basically just a bar where cops can go and common folk, who are members, can go and drink. Philip had so much fun cruising around in his walker. You couldn't stop him from going where he wanted to go and doing what he wanted to do. He was pretty stubborn that night. He had all of the people laughing at him as he made his Philip noises and was just as rowdy as some of the people who had been drinking.

Saturday I went to work in the morning while the boys hung out and played and napped until 2. At 2 they met me at the pool and went swimming with family. I feel bad as this was the first experience Philip had in the pool, and I work there for heaven's sake! Can I say that he just LOVED swimming in the pool. He even found a little girlfriend there. She was half his size and 8 months older! Wow my little guy is quite the bruizer! I'll post pics and a video later. While we were there my mom had her first "OH MY GOD" moment as a grandma! Ryan was in the water with Philip, which was about 6 inches deep, so he was able to sit in the water. I was standing, in the water, taking pictures of him playing with daddy. My mom was on the side of the pool and saying to me that the pool was slippery and that we should watch him. She know more than said those words and Philip started to slip. Here is what my mom said, really loud, as the events unfolded!

Mom: It's really slippery, you need to watch him. He hasn't sat on tile in the pool like this before.

Me: Ok, we are right here. I see he is a little uneasy. Ryan's in the water with him.

Philip goes to move a little bit

Mom: He's gonna....OH MY GOD HE'S UNDER THE WATER!

Ryan and I pick him up as another mom is there, bending over to scoop him up too.

Me: Oh, honey! Are you ok? (Daddy is hugging him and wiping off his face)

Mom: I need to go sit down.

Cracked me up! He was totally fine and went on to playing for a few more hours. Of course, since we are in Michigan, this is an inside pool and the water is 85 degrees. I must say though that the 85 degree water isn't like bath water. It does get cold after awhile and his lips quivered a couple of times. We wrapped towels around him and he was warm and ready to go back in a few minutes later. He had so much fun!

Sunday I went to work again and then met the boys at Ryan's moms for a yummy dinner. She left for Florida today and wanted to see the bug man one last time before she left for a few weeks. Ryan's mom watches Philip on Monday's and she is going to miss 3 Monday's in a row and is sad about that. She is retired though and should be able to go and have a little fun too.

I'll leave you with a picture of my little honey we took at Christmas....



I wouldn't let him play with my camera and needless to say he was pretty upset with me!

Oh, my February was a fun month!

First off, happy 9 month birthday to my little man. Boy has he grown up too fast. I can't believe that he is 9 months old already. I was just looking at videos of him when he was little... I don't even remember him being that little. How sad! We have been fighting off the flu at our house. It started with Philip. Ryan let me sleep in a couple of sunday's ago until 9:30. It was wonderful. I felt refreshed! I had to work that particular day and got in the shower after laying Philip down for his morning nap. Yes my friends, you heard right.... we have a little bit of a nap schedule now. Whew! Anywho, I was in the shower when I heard Ryan about busting the door down. I ran out of the shower, covered in soap and there are both my boys.... covered in oatmeal and pears. Philip is shaking because he doesn't know what just happened, and I'm sure that Ryan's initial reaction scared him. Ryan stripped down while I took Philip apart trying not to smear it all over him. Ryan hopped in the shower while I was tending to Philip, then I re-showered myself too. Can we say "GROSS!" That was the first time we have had actual stomach contents come up. I went to work, leaving my husband and sick little baby behind. Ryan called me about 4 hours into my 4.5 hour shift and said that Philip couldn't keep anything down... period. I called my mom, who went right over to help while I finished working. I finally got ahold of the doctor, whose answering service wasn't working... which equaled one stressed out momma on my part! He told me just to give Philip tiny amounts of liquid and not to worry about food. He didn't want to eat the next 4 days or so and finally was able to start holding down liquids and was drinking again. I felt so bad for the little guy. He had it coming out both ends, and didn't know what to make of it. It's pretty bad when your son is in another room of the house and you can hear him pooping.... and I don't mean the normal grunt. You could literally hear him pooping. Well last week Wednesday my dad, husband, sitter, sitter's daughter, mother-in-law and her friend all came down with the very same flu. I thought we had just fed something to Philip that didn't agree with him, but apparently not. The poor little man was giving everyone the kiss of death. My sitter is 20 weeks pregnant and I felt so bad that she got it. I guess her family all came down with it too though, so who knows where it came from. I'm so glad that March is here! Hope none of you end up with the nasty bug that was going around. Seems like everywhere I go people are talking about the same bug. Wonder where it all started from?

I've been MIA....

sorry about that! My little bug man has been battling an ear infection on top of getting teeth. That equals one crabby little boy. He is doing better now, thank goodness! I don't know how much more I could have handled. He has still been waking up, just not as often and for shorter periods. I stayed home with him yesterday and I'm glad I did. I think he needed to just run around the house for the day. He sure is fun these days. I can't seem to tie him down, and that's all right. It is fun seeing him investigating things. His new thing now is climbing. He climbs on everything. Our sitter has a 2 year old and I think that he is just watching and imitating her. It's funny to see him climbing like a monkey boy. Turns out the little peanut is asthmatic like his mom and dad. We had to use a nebulizer on him. He is still horse from it, but sounds better than he did. He is on Amoxicillin for his ear infection. He hates the stuff....I have to practically shove it down his little throat. Here is a pic from his x-ray he got on Monday. Since he is wheezing they wanted to rule out him swallowing something, like a penny. His x-ray tech was a cute blonde and he noticed her the minute we walked in. Go figure. I think that he is going to be a roller coaster enthusiast. Fine by me, Daddy won't ride them with me.

New mastercard commercial....

Bottle of tylenol = $6
Diet Pepsi with Lime 2L = $2
Ability for Momma bear to not bite off someone's head = priceless

That about says it all today. We were up again most of the night because tooth #6 is on it's way. Upper right side is trying to poke it's ugly head through. Poor little man! Mommy needs a mental health day.......



He has cuteness on his side..... lucky lucky boy! =-]

Late christmas presents.....

The month of January has been a little bit busy for me. I'm happy to see that it's gone, just because I worked too many days and didn't spend enough time with my little guy. Boy is he growing too fast. Yesterday he just wasn't himself and I just chalked it up to not getting enough sleep. All he wanted to do was eat and drink. He was waking constantly from his sleep, crying and wanting to be comforted. Last night was no different. He was a pistol from about 2 am until 7 this morning when our daily routine began. I joked with Ryan's mom this morning when I dropped Philip off, that is was Grandma's job to not let him sleep today because he didn't let me sleep last night. Well, what I didn't know is that my baby was popping another tooth. Yep, that's right! Tooth number 5 has made it's appearance, upper left side. I was holding him upside down while tickling him and noticed something white. I took him by grandma's stove and asked her to look in his mouth and sure enough, she said number 5 had poked completely through the skin. I guess my baby had a right to be mad after all! Now I feel bad for not giving him Tylenol when he didn't feel good last night. It's ok if he takes a nap now grandma!

We finally got to pick up the gifts that Aunt Heidi and Uncle Troy sent back in December. Nothing like taking forever to pick stuff up. Philip got some really cute stuff. Here are a few pics of him opening his stuff.


It was hard trying to get him to sit still for me on the couch!


He didn't know what to do, it's like he forgot how to open up gifts!


The music toy was a hit. The clothes he just shoved out of the way to get to the toy that was playing!


I finally got him to hold still long enough for this pic!

Thanks for the cool gifts Aunt Heidi and Uncle Troy. We'll post pics of the clothes soon....they are in the wash right now!

Why?

I was going to make this a fun post about my darling little boy. After finding this blog, I just can't seem to do that. Instead I'm sitting at my desk full of "why" questions and tears. Why do children get cancer? Why does a parent have to endure such heartache? Why in this day in age do we not have medicine or a better means than chemo to stop cancer from growing? Why can't our love be enough?

I've copied Michelle.....

and added my family on here. How much fun.. thanks for sharing Michelle! I will leave you with my silhouette and a few pictures of Philip with his first banana. Boy oh boy did he love his banana!


My Family from WiddlyTinks.com










At this point I think he wanted to be left alone with his banana! :)

I just found this on another blog that I have been reading for awhile now. Please pray for baby harper.

Bath boy.....

Since I wasn't able to get any pictures up yesterday, I took the time to take a few while he was in his bath. Right now we just put him in our sink and he loves it. Soon he will be too big though and I'll have to start breaking my back with him in the big bathtub. We start running the water and he just gets so excited about what is coming next. Here are a few pictures. He wouldn't look at me though, stinker!




See the intensity in his face......he is looking at Daddy and thinking that Daddy needs a bath too!



Dang! Dropped my toy down there.....



This is a new trick that he has learned. Must be something Daddy has taught him!

Here is a link to the video of him in his bath. I would post it, but some of you have trouble with the videos on blogs.

http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r73/rynamy/?action=view&current=Bathboy.flv

8 months old..... ::sigh::

Can you believe it? My baby is 8 months old....TODAY! Boy time just flies by..... I remember finding out I was pregnant, like it was yesterday. I was trying to upload pictures at work, and my computer wasn't cooperating with me. I'll try to post them when i get home tonight. Right now I'm stuck in a meat locker, and I'm not even talking outside. My room is so cold that running cold water honestly warms them up. It is a balmy 12 degrees outside and it's 58 degrees in my office. How ridiculous is that? I put in a work order to have them get me some heat, but that was over a week ago. I don't think these are good working conditions......by any means.

**update....someone must have heard me because they came in and fixed my heat during lunch. It is now up to 60 degrees..... yeah!

Walker......

Oh my goodness we have a mover on our hands. My mom and dad were watching Philip this weekend, as both Ryan and I had to work, and decided to get his walker out. None of us knew he would catch on so fast. We have a tile floor in our kitchen and in his slippery pj's he was able to make it all the way across the floor before my realized what he was doing. She turned him around and he took off back the other way. What a goof he is. He now knows how to turn his walker when he is about to run into something so he can head back the other way. He just sits and opens the cupboards and closes them. He has a lip on his walker that doesn't allow the doors to open all the way, so he can't reach in them thank goodness. I'm hoping that Ryan will have at least Sunday off this week so we can go and buy our locks for the cupboard doors. We need to get that done now.

Ryan worked 7 days last week......in total he ended up with 66 hours, and sunday was double time. Sunday alone paid for our daycare, which is nice and all, it just would be nicer to have him home. I guess I was spoiled when we were both off during the 2 weeks for the holidays. He falls asleep by 8 most nights, since he gets up at 5, and I'm up until between 10 and 11 by myself. There isn't anything wrong with having my me time, it would just be nice to have a little help preparing for the next day. By the time I get to work, I'm exhausted already because I have spent the whole morning focused on Philip and trying to get me ready for work. Then at 3 it starts all over again. I know, enough whining....sorry!

Philip is getting very good at pulling himself up these days. He is even getting brave enough to walk between the table and Ryan's chair. Now mind you, they touch eachother, but he is still walking on hanging on to the chair. He knows how to move his feet and take steps. My baby is growing up way too fast!

Blueberries......

Who would have known that blueberries of all things would give my little guy a terrible reaction? He was introduced to blueberries on Wednesday night and then again on Thursday morning in the form of ger.ber gradua.tes blueberry puffs. The poor little guy broke out in a rash that covered his head, tummy, back and butt. A few hours after the sitter took them away, the rash began to disappear. The doctors office thought that maybe he had roseola but after she talked with the doctor he thought it was the blueberries. So, needless to say no blueberries for my little guy anymore. Too bad too because we love blueberry muffins. I guess that some kids can outgrow their allergies, so we may be able to try him on blueberries again someday. Ryan has severe food allergies.....he can't have chicken, walnuts, cashews, hazelnuts, coconut and pineapple. If he accidently ingests any of these it is off to the hospital for us. Poor guy. Let's just hope that baby doesn't fall into the same category as daddy!

A little of this and that.....

I'm sitting at my desk today feeling a little emotional. I'm filled with happiness at how good 2008 was to me and how 2009 will be even better as we enter a new year with our little buglet. Our little man has brought so much joy and happiness to us.....I never in my wildest dreams realized how much fun this would be. He is an absolute joy to be around. My bad days aren't so bad and my good days are even better. He is the light of my life and I can't imagine him not being here. Last night I got home from work and watched my husband and my son roll around on the floor laughing and giggling. The sight brought me to tears, and even just typing that makes me teary eyed, because that little boy is mine. He is ours......forever!

I am amazed at how fast he is doing things. He learns something new everyday. He started crawling on December 6, just shy of his 7 month birthday. He worked at it for awhile, and was very good at moving backwards. The forward motion took a little longer for him. To the amusement of my family, he actually started crawling for a cheerio coupon. I'm a big time coupon clipper from way back, so I guess it is only fitting. One week later he began moving around the house with great ease. He began getting into everything. Watching him look at something, studying it is a sight. He takes in everything.

On the 16th he pulled himself up for the first time. I was home with him that day, as he wasn't feeling good and didn't sleep most of the night. We put him on the floor and then barricade him with objects he can't crawl over. We have a long livingroom and he gets half of that plus his room to play in. I put him on the floor and went to make him his favorite breakfast, butter toast, and came back in to him on his knees. I sat down and watched him and was actually able to catch him pulling himself up with the digital camera. I was in shock! He had only been crawling for a little over a week now.....he shouldn't be pulling himself up. So I put him back down on the ground and watched as he did it again. Now, he doesn't sit still. He pulls himself up on everything, and while doing so, says "up!" It is the cutest thing. I just love watching him learn.