Week 3 BABY!

Week 3 down! I am feeling pretty good about my progress. Two weeks in a row that I have completed! By the way I apologize for the lack of contractions in my writing, that is what school has done to me. Writing five days a week with out contractions has made my vocabulary very precise. Anyway, back to the week. I realize that I went Sunday to Sunday last week so this week you get Monday to Sunday so that we can get back on track. Oh and on another note, although it may appear is if I do not wash my sons' face ever, I promise I do, just not before I take 90% of my pictures.

Monday; was a normal day spent at home. Seamus has discovered the magical world of coloring and so we have done a lot of that this week. We colored and cleaned. (I clean a lot because I hate it when things smell funny and if you do not clean stuff starts to smell.) Back to Monday! Like I said normal day spent at home. That evening we were all wrestling in the living room, Seamus would take off my slippers and hit John with them, John would "tackle" Seamus and I would tickle him. It was fun and I really enjoy it when all three of us play like that.

This is his, "Oh, no! Please don't get me face!"

Tuesday; John has school from 8 -10:30 and then again from 6 - 9:30. So in the morning Seamus and I followed our usual routine and when John came home we took the party outside to the balcony. We drew on the patio with chalk and brought some crayons and paper out there too! I was quickly banished from the patio for coloring on Seamus' paper. He told me, "NO! Mama, go!" and then politely called to his Daddy to come outside and color with him instead. Seamus also stayed the night with John's parents Tuesday night so that John and I could run errands the next morning that required us to be baby free. So, I was free to do as I pleased Tuesday night because John and Seamus were both gone. I painted my toenails.


Learning what exactly chalk does



Once he figured it out, he was coloring all over the place!

Wednesday, we went to the grocery store. Seamus loves the grocery store, he always points out the stuff he recognizes and I do what I can to remember to make it a fun learning experience. I try to name each item I place in the basket so that he can begin to recognize certain items by their label. We also had a visitor that evening, Brother Sackievich came over to fulfill is home teaching duties and Seamus conned him into reading him a book or two. So, to distract him I busted out the dry erase marker and the white board that he got for Christmas. I guess I can say that I am glad that it did not end up on the walls....

His hands are also COVERED in ink!

I also took some really cute ones of Seamus looking out his window. As I have mentioned before he likes to yell at the dogs who live below us. (They have stopped responding to his calls)

Thursday; we had a visit from First Things First. They are conducting a longitudinal external study on children between the ages of 18 months and 5 years in Arizona. They came over and did a brief assessment of Seamus and interviewed John and I. Seamus did very well in his assessment and they stopped the evaluation at the 4 year mark. That means that Seamus is in some ways as developmentally advanced as a 4 year-old! I think that it's crazy to think that my 18 month-old is doing things that some 4 year-olds can't. Anyway, I am very proud of him and it was nice to have the reassurance that nothing is wrong with him developmentally. We also had a doctors visit because he has had a cold for a couple of weeks and on Thursday he sneezed and the amount of snot that came out of his nose freaked me out! The doctor said that he was fine (of course) and gave me a prescription and said to fill it if it was still this bad in a week. That evening was Hosack family dinner night (as is every Thursday) and we went to my Moms for dinner and some family time. Seamus really loves all of the Hosacks' and will give each one of them hugs and kisses and plays very well with his cousins.

Seamus and Grammy Jackie

Friday was another slow day. I picked up the house a bit and then we went outside to play. It was windy so we didn't stay out there long. We came inside and decided to play with some play dough instead. Seamus mostly likes to keep his play dough in a ball and gets upset if we flatten one out to make a shape. Friday was also a date night for John and I. My mom came over and watched Seamus while John and I used the movie tickets she got us for Christmas. We finally got to see Tron! It was neat and I liked the effects. Although I am not sure about how awesome they will be on a small screen.

Saturday; John was up sick all night Friday so Seamus and I just played in the living room so that Daddy could get some rest. We watched some Veggie Tales and ate Cheerios. Then we went over to Bryan and Dawns so that John could help Bryan put up the boys new jungle gym. Seamus played with Carsen and Ethan and I chatted with Aunt Dawn. Later that evening we went to the Strattons' for dinner and a game night. I of course missed out on the games because Seamus is just too dang nosey and wanted to sit in my lap and grab everything off of the board. Instead Carrie and I hung out with the kiddos and talked. It's nice to have a mommy friend who gets me. I had trouble picking just one picture for today so, I have one from the morning and one of the kids jumping of Carin's bed.

Sorry about the blurriness. I am still learning how to take motion shots. I know that there is a setting on my camera. I just don't know where it is. Anyway, YAY! for jumping!

Sunday; these are our quietest days. We wake up, eat breakfast, finalize our Sunday school lesson, watch some wholesome TV or listen to some music and get ready for church. Seamus usually does not get a nap before church and decides that he's ready for one in the middle of Sacrament Meeting. Lovely. By the time nursery rolls around he is over it and ready to play! After church we come home and relax. I start dinner and finish some homework and John plays with Seamus so that I can get all of this done. I am so grateful for my husband and the amount of my crazy that he puts up with. Tonight we had spaghetti for dinner so the picture is of bath time following said dinner.

And that folks is our week. So far, we have nothing planned for next week so, we will see where it takes us! I hope to get to the park at least one day and maybe a toddler time at the library too.

(On a more somber note please keep our little family in your prayers that we may be able to find work soon. This is the fourth week in a row that we have been unable to generate any sort of income. We search daily for job opportunities but they all seem to slip through our fingers. If any of you know of a job that one of us qualifies for please let us know and we will apply. We are confident that as we continue to struggle that the Lord will continue to watch over us a protects us until we are able to do it ourselves.)

Week 2 of the 365 challange! and guess what?.....

I did it! Yay! ME!!!! I am so proud of myself! I almost missed day one. See he's already in his jammies ready for bed.

Sunday was slow, John had strep or some other horrible illness and missed church so, it was Seamus and I against the world! When we got home I made Mac N' Cheese and turkey dogs for dinner then it was bath, reading time and bed. Of course there was a little play time in there too!

Seamus loves to play with the magnets on the fridge. I love magnets so, we have a lot. No really, I have a quart size plastic bag full of ones that won't fit on the fridge. At any rate, he loves them and likes to move them from the fridge to the dishwasher and back.

Monday was busy, we woke up and had to pull together all of our stuff for our dog sitting staycation at Casa de Maxwell. Most of the morning was spent packing and organizing because, three days is a long time for a kid to be somewhere with no toys. Once we got the car loaded up you have thought we were leaving for 2 weeks! Seamus loves Daisy and Lola, they put up with him like professionals! Mondays photo is of Seamus playing with the dogs. He would run around jump on the couch let the dogs lick his legs and then jump off and chase Daisy around with Lola chasing him! It was ridiculously funny to watch.

Tuesday we went home during the day because I was supposed to watch Gwen for Heather but she was running late and didn't have time to drop her off. So we stayed home because John has school all day on Tuesdays and the stroller was in the car. Seamus has developed a fondness for telephones and when he answers the phone he shouts, "HELLO!" and then continues to ramble, passing the phone around to everyone in the room. He also likes to use the really phone and will often ask me to call, "CC."

Wednesday was busy. Seamus went to Johns mom's for the day to play with Grammy Glor and all of her crazy hats. On our way home Seamus decided to rock out to the music on the radio. CC has taught him to head bang with his tongue out so.....

Thursday was the day Seamus participated in a study at the U of A in their Tweety Lab. Basically they studying children to see how much language they really need to develop properly. First we went into a room with two of the students and Seamus played with toys while a recording of a made up language played in the background. He was so funny because he wanted everyone else to play too. He brought everyone a toy and would sit next to us floor a bit and then move on to the next person. The students were also sitting on the floor so, Seamus brought them chairs. They said that they had never seen a child that active during a study. He didn't stop the whole 15 minutes we were in there! Next we moved to a sound proof room. They put Seamus in a high chair and had me sit next to him with headphones on. Again they played the language but this time they had flashing lights and the occasional puppet show. I have no idea how this is supposed to judge language but, I am a fan of psychology and am more than willing to volunteer our time if it means that questions get answered.
Thursday was also the week night Relief Society meeting and John and Seamus went to the Stratton's to play games and play with Carin! Seamus plays well with Carin and is learning to share with her. She is so patient with him. I tried to get a picture of the 2 of them together but it was past his bedtime and wanted nothing to do with my camera.

Because this picture is so bad here is a really good one of Carin. Who, was more than willing to pose for my camera. Maybe that's another thing she could teach Seamus.



Friday was spent deep cleaning. It hadn't gotten done in a couple of weeks and I was horrified that my mom would be coming over to see my house that bad. So, I scrubbed and while I scrubbed John and Seamus played. I have no idea what they played but I heard them laughing and talking and occasionally Seamus would run down the hall and yell my name asking me to play. It sounded like fun and now I can have fun again instead of dwelling on the mildew in my shower, because it's gone. As I mentioned before my mom and sister came over to watch Seamus so John and I could go to the swapmeet and try to sell some phones (no luck there... faith and prayers people that is what gets you through times like these) So Seamus got to play with Grammy and CC for the evening.  When they put him down for bed, he wasn't interested and attempted to climb out of his crib. He got stuck. Mom said that he was crying and when she opened to door to check on him he was straddling the side of the crib! Anyway, Friday's picture is of Seamus' introduction to his potty seat. He is beginning to take interest and we are hoping that by allowing him to practice going potty on the big potty when it comes time he'll be OK with it.

Saturday was free admission to The Tucson Children's Museum! So, we went! I'll post a bunch of those pictures in a bit but it was fun! Most of it was over his head but he enjoyed the music room and the Build It! room. He was a little freaked out by the dinosaur. He fell asleep on the car ride home and the rest of the day was spent playing in his room or out on the balcony. I picked one of my favorites from the museum for Saturdays picture.

Sunday, was a normal day. We woke up had breakfast and played until it was time for church. Church went well, Seamus made it through church with only one outburst and no nap! He fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept for about 45 mins. He woke up too soon and cried for Oh, 30 mins. He finally calmed down and started to play. Here is a picture of him playing on his Harley Davidson Rocker that he got for Christmas!

Week One of the 365 challange

So, I finished week one! Yea ME! But, I failed, just a little, I missed two days. They were uneventful boring days so you're not missing much, but still "Grrr!" at me for forgetting. I've had some serious "Deededee!" moments the last couple of weeks and adding picture taking to my already long list of daily events is going to take some getting used to. On the upside these picture help me to remember what exactly happened that day. I thought about posting daily but, I don't have time for that between school and household chores and job hunting. Posting a blog everyday just isn't going to happen. One a week I can do.

So, day One, 1/1/11
Seamus slept in until noon, so we slept until noon! Whoo Hoo! That's a parenting first for me! Seamus is a nosey little boy who will not go to sleep if something fun is happening, and on NYE we went to a friends and hung out. Seamus stayed awake the entire time! He was awake until 12:15am! So, I am not surprised at all that he slept that long. P.S. The picture is blurry and I forgot to take more. I'll figure it out by March.



I forgot to take pictures on the 2nd and 3rd so, You get these random photos of my friends dogs, because they are cute and we are dog-sitting them for a few days...

Daisy

Lola

OK back to my super cute kid and the fun things we do! (not that I'm biased or anything...)

Jan 4 2011
We followed our usual routine and in the afternoon we went outside for some playtime. Seamus and I walk around the apartment complex and check the mail. Seamus likes to play in the dirt, he digs with sticks and picks up rocks. Well, the dirt is behind a curb and he has to step over that curb to get to it. He did that just fine, it was getting out that he had trouble with. I turned to organize the mail on the hood of our car and as I did he tripped and SMACKED (I put that all in caps because it was hard, really, really hard) his head on the asphalt. I of course brought him inside and comforted him but he didn't settle down until we took him to the bathroom so that he could see that he was OK.

This is his new "Cheese!" face and his giant boo-boo

You can see how big the bump was

I like the new "Cheese!" face

He still has a bruise on his forehead, it's green now so I expect that will fade in a few days.

The 5th was another slow day. I guess when you have a regular routine, taking pictures of the same old stuff is boring. The only decent picture I got all day was while he was in the bath. Seamus loves bath time and has started requesting bubbles or a specific toy to bathe with.

The 6th was also a fun day, we took a little trip to Target and got some of those gel window clings from the dollar area. It says, "I Choo Choo Choose You!" and has a little train to go with it. Seamus has had fun playing with them. They have since moved from the sliding glass door, to the dishwasher, fridge and stove but, are now mostly underneath the couch. This is also the day we broke out the play dough for the first time. I did not get any pictures of that because we were too busy playing to take pictures.

On the 7th we shook thing up a little and played in Seamus' room with him for a looong time. I'm talking like a couple of hours. I recently relocated some of his toys to his room so that my living room no longer looked like a daycare center lobby. Seamus enjoys sitting on the trunk and reading books. He has also started to bring me a blanket and say, "Mama, BB, seep" So, I lay down on the ground with the blanket and pretend to sleep. Sometimes he'll lay down with me but a lot of the time he just walks away and keeps playing. If I get up though, he instructs me to lay back down and "Seep" On this particular day, he pulled all of the blankets out of the bottom drawer of his dresser and then danced around like a crazy man. We have video to prove it.



Saturday, the 8th was Ciara's birthday party and we celebrated with family and a few of her friends. Everyone gave her cash instead of gifts so that she could get what she really wanted, a Nintendo DSi. I am happy that she got what she wanted. I made her cakes. I made a chocolate cake from scratch (with my new KitchenAid stand mixer that I got for Christmas. Love it! By the way!) and a white cake from a box, because I do not have the patience to make a white cake from scratch. Too many eggs and too many steps for me when it's 10pm. Anywho, here is a picture of Seamus enjoying the white cake.

And, that folks is week one! Whew! I almost did it, we shall see what week two brings. I have Seamus scheduled to participate in a study at the U of A on Monday, Wednesday he hangs out with his Grammy Glor, Thursday is my week night Relief Society meeting and Friday and Saturday are dedicated to the Swapmeet. I hope I remember pictures with all that going on!

If any of you have some suggestions of things that we can do that are free and fun that Seamus can enjoy just let me know! There is a park down the street that we go to occasionally but it's been too cold for me (Yes, I am a winter weather wimp, but I grew up in Tucson, AZ what do you expect?) so we haven't gone over there in awhile. Maybe we can add that to the list!

See you next week! 

The Fantastic Mr. Seamus

Seamus is 18 months old as I mentioned in my last post and.... he is growing up too fast for me!
Also mentioned in my previous post, he weighs 30 lbs 5 oz and is 34.5 inches tall. He is wearing 24 month size clothes and size 7.5 shoes!!! He's going to have huge feet like his daddy!
Seamus' favorite things:

• Elmo
• Reading
• Football
• Basketball
• Coloring
• Swords
• Bath-time

Seamus' favorite foods:

• Yogurt
• Hot Dogs
• Pancakes
• Pasta
• Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches (he pulls them part and eats the pieces separately)

My lil Monkey's vocabulary is also huge! He is saying full sentences and when prompted with an instruction will respond either yes or no. Example: "Seamus it's time to go home."    "No, I wan Play mo"
Seamus will let us know what he wants by saying; "I want..."
-my ball
-my book
- my jush (juice)
- my Beebee (blanket)
- Fooooooo (food)
- CC (Auntie CC, my 13 year old sister)

He can also say;

• Hot Dog
• Gurt (yogurt)
• Nack! (snack)
• Shush (Shoes)
• Dog
• Cat
• Bird
• Duck
• Phant (elephant)
• Baf (bath)
• Ckookie (cookie said with major emphasis on "c" so much so that he quacks sometimes)
• Foobaa (football)
• BaBaa (Basketball)
• Sit!
• Goooo!
• Oeoe (Zoe)
• Ber (Bert)
• Pa (for both Pappy and Pa)
• Gammy (Grammy)
• Gramma (Grandma)
• Egan (Teagan)

Seamus is also learning colors and how too count to 3. We work on color recognition everyday be saying what color his shirt is or the color of toys and other various objects. When we count to 3 I say 1 he says 2! and holds up one finger and then I say 3. Seamus then claps with pride.

Seamus is also very good at being reverent during prayer. Anytime we mention Jesus he folds his arms and bows his head ready to say a prayer.

He knows what he wants and if he can't tell you he know how to show you. He loves running outside and plays well with his cousins and friends in nursery at church.

I am looking forward to the next 6 months because I know that he will grow and learn so much in that period.

New Year New Blog, Right?

In an effort to follow in the footsteps of a friend of a friend (http://www.gregariouspeach.com/) I am going to attempt a 365 project with my family. I will take a least one picture of Seamus doing something everyday in 2011. I never stick with anything and this seems fairly do-able. I can take a picture right?

So to start the project off I am going to get everyone up to date and ready to read in 2011!

Me:
I am currently working towards a weight loss goal of epic proportions (I say that because I have never liked to exercise so loosing any weight is going to be a miracle.) I have stopped drinking soda, walk everyday and significantly cut down my portion sizes. As of last night I have lost 25 lbs!
 I am also attending Axia College online which is offered through The University of Phoenix. I am doing well and currently have a 3.6 GPA (me beaming with pride!)


Seamus and I at Winterhaven


John:
Is is also working towards his weight loss goal. He too has stopped drinking soda and is trying to stop eating candy! The holidays have derailed him a bit but he should be able to get back on track once all the holiday snacks are gone!
Since being laid off almost a year ago, John has been searching for work. He has had a few opportunities arise that ended up being too good to be true. We are selling i-Phone clones right now but it certainly does not pay the bills.
John was baptized a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints in September and together we have a calling as the CTR-4 teacher in our ward.
John made the decision to return to school in March of last year and is enjoying learning about technology and how things work.

John and Seamus at Winterhaven

Seamus:
Is now 18 months old! He is growing so fast and has such a large vocabulary that most of the time I am surprised to hear what he has to say.
At his 18 month appointment Seamus weighed 30lbs 5 oz and was 34.5 inches tall! He is definitely going to eat me out of house and home once he hits puberty! He loves balls, mostly football, he will sit and watch an entire football game with his Pa and yells, "GO BAAA GOOOOOOO BAAA!" at the players on the television.
He also loves Elmo and books. Seamus loves to sit and read books, we will sometimes read 6 or 7 in a sitting. I will finish one book and he will go pick up another. I will have to do a separate post of just Seamus and all of the marvelous things he does later.

Seamus and Pa on Christmas morning

Other things that have happened 2010; John and I finally tied the knot, August 21st 2010! Not that most of you didn't all ready know. But we did it and married life isn't much different from living together for the past 4 years already, but we are now one step closer to a temple marriage which will be for time and all eternity, and that IS something.

Recently we also held out annual Mini-golf  Extravaganza in memory of my Papa who passed in August of 2009. We love Papa and will do what we can to always honor and remember you!

And to close a really cute picture of John and Seamus feeding the ducks at the park!