If dogs could talk

This is what mine would say,

Dear Xena*,
I haven't seen you in a few days, I wonder where you are. I think something must be wrong, your always at the farm when I go over there to visit you. Everyone seemed really sad the other day, especially your mommy, I heard your name but I didn't know what they were saying. I think I've figured it out though.

I remember when I first met you, you were so intimidating, big, black and scary looking. You could have torn me to shreds if you wanted to, and everyone knows you probably wanted to a time or two, but you were always so kind to me. Even when I would bark in your face and jump at you to get your attention when you weren't interested in me, you were never mean to me. I used to be so jealous that you got to go to the farm everyday with your mom and I had to stay home alone all day. Then every now and then I'd get to come to the farm for the day too, and before long I was coming almost every day just like you. I looked forward to spending my days hanging out with you in the house or on the porch. I loved playing chase with you around the pool table, I'm sorry you broke your knee chasing me a few years ago. I felt really bad about that. After that we weren't allowed to play chase anymore, but every now and then, when the people weren't around you'd give me a few laps around the table for old times sake. Remember the time I wanted to get into the trash and you helped me get it out, and then we both got in trouble and it was my fault. I loved to keep you informed on who was coming and going from the house, I know you didn't care much, but I would get so excited and come and run and get you. You'd get up and come and say hi before going back to your nap.
Things will never be the same around here without you, you were my best friend and I will never forget you. I'll miss you every day.
Love,
Brewster

Xena was my sister in laws Rottweiler dog. She was a true princess warrior, big and strong and yet the kindest most gentle dog I've ever met. I never worried that she would hurt my sometimes annoying yappy little dog or Tony. She just didn't have a mean bone in her body. The other day she got sick and when they took her to the vet, it was determined that she was bleeding internally and despite all the heroic efforts possible her chances of survival were slim, so they put her to sleep. We are all very sad around here, she was loved by all and will be missed very much.

Ben's day at the farm

Yesterday was my nephews Jack and Ben's birthday party and as usual their mom went all out for the celebration. I don't want to go into detail too much, I'm sure she will blog about it soon and you can see pictures of the party over at her blog, but it included a one mile walk through a park with the 15 or so kids and their parents. Despite the well groomed trails I somehow managed to lose my footing and fall down. Unfortunately I was carrying Tony in the baby bjorn when I fell, fortunately I able to fall in a way that avoided a single scratch on him and he was unfazed by my fall. I felt pretty lucky because my foot didn't really hurt that bad, but by evening that changed and I was having quite a bit more pain. Minimal swelling though, so I was pretty sure it was nothing more than a bruise, but it still hurt pretty bad to walk on. I had to go into work at 3am for a short 4 hour shift so I decided I'd just get an X-Ray while I was there (one of the off the record perks of working in an ER) just to be sure everything was okay. Sure enough, my foot is fine, and surprisingly it didn't hurt as bad once I knew it was fine. Funny how that works.

The party was yesterday, but today is Ben's actual birthday, he turned 4 today. He is very fascinated with anything farm or tractor related, so today I picked him up after lunch and brought him back to our house so he could spend the afternoon on the tractor with his Uncle Todd. He hasn't been over to spend the day on the farm since last year, but on the drive over he asked me what that thing was called that Todd pulls behind the tractor when he plows the field. I told him I didn't know, he'd have to ask Todd. He thought about it and then said, I think it's some kind of special discs. Actually after he mentioned that, I think he was right. What a smart little 4 year old. I guess those All about John Deere for kids movies have taught him a thing or two. (BTW Todd has already bought the set for Tony and started watching it with him.) Todd said the 2 and a half hours they were in the tractor Ben talked non stop asking lots of questions. He also said that he was impressed how much Ben already knew.

After Uncle Todd and Ben were done working in the field I took him out there to take a few pictures. He climbed in and out of that big tractor all by himself.

Before I took him home I told him I would take him to Target to pick out a birthday present. Then as we were on our way I had a better idea, so I gave him a choice, go to Target and get a toy or go to the Farm store and get a toy. Obviously he chose the farm store, and he was like a kid in a candy store there. After he browsed the two toy aisles for a good 15 minutes he finally decided on a John Deere Skid Steer Loader.

As we were getting into the car I said "Happy Birthday, I hope you like your birthday present from Uncle Todd and me". He said "No, this is just a toy from the Farm store, now we can go get my birthday present." It took a little explaining before he finally accepted that that was his birthday present. He tried to talk me into wrapping it up for him with paper, but I managed to convince him that wasn't necessary since he already knew what it was.

As I was taking him home I asked him if he had fun on the tractor and he said, "of course I did, What? Do I have to tell you a hundred times?"

So I guess he had fun. If Tony likes tractors half as much as Ben does I think it will be enough.

Happy Birthday Ben. I can't believe your already 4 years old.

Role Reversal

Yesterday I had to work 7a to 7p. It was a long busy day, I had the back hall assignment which is the worst room assignment in the ER, we call it the arm pit of the ER because it sucks so bad. There are 10 rooms on that side of the ER, so 2 nurses get 3 rooms each and 1 nurse gets 4. The nurse with the 4 rooms is usually the busiest. You wouldn't think one extra room would make that much difference, but it really does. We all have to take our turn in the back hall and yesterday was mine. I've had busier days there, but yesterday was pretty steady with patients all 12 hours. While I was at work Todd got to take care of Tony all day. He had his moms help for the first half of the day, and then he was on his own for the rest of the day until I got home.

I stopped by a friends house on the way home from work for a baby shower that was going on. I couldn't stay, but I wanted to say hi and drop off my gift before heading home to help Todd get Tony to bed. I finally got home at 8:30. Mind you Todd was calling me every 15 minutes while I was at the baby shower asking me when I was coming home, and saying things like, your not going to get to see him before he goes to bed if you don't hurry up. (I do the same thing to him, once I suspect he's done working, and I think he's just hanging out in the barn talking about work.)

When I came home I was pleasantly surprised to find the house was straightened up, stuff I had left laying around was all put away. I decided it was in my best interest to pretend not to notice. I guess I just didn't want to hear him say something along the lines of "If I can do it you can do it." I actually suspected he did it while his mom was watching Tony and he was home alone. I started asking him about his day, he said he got to take a nap over at his mom's while Tony was napping and how great it was, he couldn't remember the last time he had a nap. (Blah, blah blah, stop rubbing it in) Then he brought up the house, and asked if I had noticed he cleaned. Yes, I did, so then I said when did you do that? He said when Tony was taking his late afternoon nap. (Okay, time to chance the subject.)

After I put Tony to bed, I decided I was tired and just wanted to go to bed early after being up since 5:30 and working all day. Normally it's Todd who wants to go to bed early and I want to stay up and watch a little TV. Todd didn't seem all that tired. He pointed out that being home with Anthony all day, and getting to take a nap and all left him feeling pretty good, and he didn't feel the need to go to bed early. Wow, I should have never gone to work, he thinks I have it so easy being home all day. Now I'm never going to get any slack.

And then he said, "what's for dinner?"

So much for role reversal.

The weeks happenings

UPDATE: Just to clear up any confusion.
My house is not dirty, just a little messy. There is a difference. It has a lived in appearance, but it does get cleaned really good at least every 2 weeks. I promise we don't live like slobs here.
I don't nap all day.
People are always welcome to stop by. I really don't mind.

(Apparently my husband seems to think I gave a different impression in this post.)

Oh where to start, it's been a whole 5 days since I blogged. This week I decided to not blog and just relax and do other things with my free time. So you'd think the laundry is caught up and the house is clean right? Wrong, but I did manage to clean my closet and sort out all the clothes that Tony has outgrown. I have decided to just accept that my house will always be just a little bit (or even sometimes a lot) messy. So any unexpected guests consider yourself warned, if I don't know your coming and you just pop in (which your welcome to do) don't be shocked if it's a bit messy. So since I haven't used my free time to blog, or to clean house, your probably wondering what I have been doing. What I have mostly been doing is taking naps. I did it one day and I was hooked. Now I can't wait for nap time around here. They are so addicting. Now I have to work a 12 hour day shift tomorrow and there wont be any nap, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it through the day. (That's Jake (Todd's uncle) in the picture with Todd and Tony, he just stopped by the other day to say hello, he just got back from Florida for the winter. He got to see our house in a lived in condition, but I don't think he minded.)

Today I got a pedicure. I have been wanting one for a while, but how do you do it with a baby? Do you get a sitter? While I'm sure Grandma down the street wouldn't mind, she already watches him a lot so I try to manage on my own when I'm not working as much as possible. I figured I'd take him with me and hold him on my lap. Surprisingly it worked just fine. I brought a few toys to entertain him, and the chair had a massager in it that made the whole chair vibrate at times, he seemed to really like that.

Tony is getting cuter and cuter every day, so I have been taking lots of pictures of him. (My favorites are scattered throughout this post.) I got an email fw the other day that was a bunch of pictures of really cute kids, so I have been trying to duplicate the poses with my own baby. It's not working so well for me, Tony doesn't always smile or stay in the positions I put him in. But thanks to digital cameras, I can just keep trying.

I put the farm book on hold this week, not because there isn't much going on on the farm, but I decided at the pace I was going it was going to be too long a book, I have decided to wait a bit before adding more. I've been working on my baby book at http://www.blurb.com/ instead and it's turning out really good so far.

I've started the Angel Dust in Brewster's food, so far I don't see much change, but they say it takes 2 months, so I guess I'll wait and see. He doesn't love it, like the website says he would, but I stir it around in his food and if he wants to eat, he has to eat the Angel Dust too.

And finally I started a post earlier in the week about something good to blog about but then took it off. In case you saw it and are wondering, it was about work, one of the ER's I work at had some pretty interesting things happen and even if I stay vague about it to avoid breaking any HIPPA laws, I decided I better not.

Shake, rattle and ROLL (baby style)

Okay, I stole the title from my sisters post today also called Shake, Rattle, and Roll. But she was talking about the earthquake we had yesterday morning. I am talking about Tony. Yes folks he finally rolled over. I have been expecting him to do it any day now. For the past week he has been enjoying tummy time, and is able to push up on his arms quit a bit. Every time I put him on his tummy lately I think to myself, you better get you video camera or your going to miss it. Well today I decided to put him on his tummy and this time I actually took the video camera with me instead of just thinking about doing it. Unfortunately I was on the phone as all this was happening, so I just sat him down on his blanket on his tummy and he rolled over real fast and I was still on the phone, so I missed the very first roll on video, but I got the second one. And it only took him 4 1/2 months to do it.

On the farm part II

After my last post about the farm my sister recommended this really great website http://www.blurb.com/ for making my farm book. The website is awesome, I have already started the book and it is turning out so cute. It is going to be a rather big book I think by the time it's all done. I may have to edit it down when I'm all done. I also plan on making a baby book for Anthony on it. The books are pretty reasonable priced too, and you can order as many as you like. When you think about how much scrapbooking costs these days, it really is a bargain, and I think I like the look of these books better than a scrapbook. So now I have to divide my spare time (Anthony's nap times) between blogging and working on my farm book. My two hobbies of the moment. Although, once the farming thing gets into full swing, Todd will be working late hours and I will be able to work on it more in the evenings after I put Tony* to bed.

Going back to the beginning. The seeds are planted in the first trays with this machine (which I don't know the name of). The seeds are coated with something to deter bugs and mice from eating them, they are blue to help you see them, otherwise they are the same color as the dirt. Those little green prongs you see pick up the seeds with a vacuum seal and drop them into the dirt. Two cucumber seeds go in each tray and as they grow they form a vine.
After the seeds are planted the tray is topped off with more soil. Here is the big picture of the process. Remember the picture of the empty greenhouse where they were transplanting? It's not anymore. It is now all full with eggplants.Now for a little info on what's going on in the fields. At the end of each farm season, after the fields are all cleaned up, they plant Rye for ground cover. When it gets warm in the spring the Rye starts to grow. The first thing they do in the fields is mark Rye strips with the tractor. In between these 2 lines is a Rye strip, which will later be a driveway for the field. First they do this.Then they to this. That little strip of grass between the two dirt paths is the driveway, not the dirt path, and everything in between will be plowed and planted. Here is a picture of Todd and Tony in the tractor. It was Tony's first tractor ride.
There has been a lot of rain this spring, making the fields wet, so marking the Rye strips is just now getting done. Last year they started much earlier, so Todd is a bit stressed out about being behind. But I'm glad he made time to take Tony and I out on the tractor for some pictures.
I got to go on my first tractor ride of the summer too.

*I am starting to call Anthony Tony now, just so he gets used to both names.

P.S. Did anyone else locally feel the earthquake at 5:40am? I had just put Tony back to bed and was trying to fall asleep myself when I heard the house start to creak and then the bed started shaking. It took me a little bit to figure out what was happening, then I woke up Todd to tell him I thought we were having an earthquake and to verify that I wasn't crazy, that the bed was shaking. We checked to make sure it wasn't just really windy, and no wind outside. Then today on the radio I heard there actually was an earthquake.

P.S.S. I didn't have Todd proof this, so I may be wrong on one or more things, if so I'm sure he will tell me about it and then I can correct it.

The life of a SAHM

Okay so I'm not really a SAHM (stay at home mom) but it sort of feels like it. I only work 2-3 days a week and some of those days are on weekends, so I am home with Anthony for several days out of the week. I have been trying so hard in the past month to get Anthony on a schedule, so that I can have some sort of an idea of how my day will go. Now that he is 4 months old, I think we finally have routine that repeats enough that we can now call it a schedule.

7:30 -8 Wake up, eat and play

9:30 Naptime

11:30 Wake up, eat and play

1:30 Naptime

3:30 Wake up, eat and play

5:00 Naptime

6:30 Wake up, eat, and play

9:00 Eat, and in bed by 9:30

These times are always subject to vary by 30-60 minutes, but for the most part, this is our day.

During the night he eats again usually twice at 2am and 5am. On a good night only once.

So my dilemma now is that I am stuck at home, unless I want to mess up his naptimes. Because as you see, my longest stretch of his awake time is 2 hours, so if I want to do something involving leaving the house, its a big rush to feed him, get him in the car and go where ever it is we're going and get back before he falls asleep in the car. So unless I have something very important or very fast to do, we just stay home.

Staying home all day is not all bad. Often times one or both of us end up staying in our jammies all day. I figure if your not leaving the house, why get all dressed up. So make-up and fixing hair obviously get skipped often as well. But we play all day, and it's surprisingly really fun. I say surprisingly because I never thought playing with a baby all day would be fun, but when it's your own, it actually is. Other babies are fun too, but not all day.

Anthony is at the age where he is alert enough to want to play with things but not really able to do it by himself. So I have to help him. Which means, when he is awake, I am pretty much dedicated to entertaining him. Yes, sometimes I can read a book or get online while he's watching a video, but it's for such short amounts of time, I really can't do anything productive. So if I want to be productive and clean the kitchen or do laundry, or take a shower and actually get dressed in something other than jammies, I have to do it when he's napping. The problem is, when he is napping, I want to nap too. Sometimes I let him lay in my bed with me for one of his afternoon naps and we nap together. I love doing that, I'd do it for all of his naps if I could, but then I'd really never get anything done.

Sometimes I get a little stir crazy being in the house all day. So yesterday just to get out of the house, I decided to go get an estimate on some new tires for my car. I felt kind of bad because it was taking an unusually long time for the guy to find the right tires for my car. I started to notice a pretty long line of people all dressed up in their work clothes waiting to be waited on. I felt kind of guilty because here I was holding up the line, when I was just killing time to get out of the house. Sort of, I really do need new tires, I just wasn't in any hurry, other than the fact that Anthony's 5 o'clock naptime was approaching. Anyway, turned out to be a waste of my time, because the "discount tire" store estimate ended up being $40 more per tire than the dealership wanted.

I feel really lucky to be home with Anthony as much as I am, he is so fun to watch grow. Everyday he seems to be able to do something new. He talks all the time now. His favorite words are eh, gah, and uh. He can play peek-a-boo with his blanket which is adorable. He smiles with his whole face and you can't help but smile when you see it. I think I kiss him and tell him I love him and how cute he is about a hundred times a day. I'm making up for it, because I'm sure when he's older he wont let me do that.

And guess what else?? He is starting to like tummy time, and he is so close to being able to roll over. Here are a few pictures I took of him last night.

Here my little Superman has all arms and legs and head off the ground.