Weekend Update! (And another peek into the past)

Yesterday we took Jeremiah's "one year old" portraits at Sears! I made out like a bandit with freebies and other offers, and paid only $14 after taxes for around 12 sheets. I'm saving most of those pictures to debut on Jeremiah's actual birthday, but here's a sneak peek from his "cake" session. I think he was in a state of shock that I was actually encouraging him to be messy and eat sugar! More of the cake wound up on his hands and legs than in his mouth; I actually stuck that bit of frosting in his mouth. His first real taste of sugar...

So here we are, another week down. Less than a week away from Thanksgiving, where I will make my debut hosting a major family holiday... and my first time cooking a turkey. In my brand-new oven. That will be delivered the day before Thanksgiving. PLEASE PLEASE pray that everything works out okay with this oven; that there are no problems with the installation or it suddenly breaking halfway through Mr. Turkey roasting... The whole reason behind us even GETTING a brand-new stove/oven/microwave combo is kind of a miracle in itself, because this is definitely not the time of year for major appliance purchases. One of Louis's customers sells Sony televisions and appliances for a living, and he needs to clearance out this year's merchandise to make room for next year's newer items. He made a deal with Louis, that for every 3 TV's (big plasma's) he (Louis) sold, he would give us a 64 inch LCD tv for free. I thought... yeah right, with this economy we're not getting one!

As of right now, we qualify for THREE of those huge TV's. 3. T-H-R-E-E televisions that retail for around $4,000 a PIECE. My husband is an excellent salesman with excellent connections. Doing sales and marketing are his passion; he is way more into that than the computer repair aspect of his business. I don't know if we're actually going to get all three televisions or not, (we might trade them for other merchandise, sell them or be very, very generous kids and gift them to our parents for Christmas) but the guy was so impressed that he threw in the stove/oven/micro combo, as well as a refrigerator. The refrigerator will be delivered the following week, and our TV the week of Louis's birthday (Dec. 14). The thing with the fridge, though, is that the space for our refrigerator acommodates an apartment-size fridge. This one is apparently a whopper. We have to knock down one of the cabinets in order for it to fit. Looks like our New Years resolution of remodeling our kitchen is going to come a little bit early... I highly doubt everything we were hoping to do to our kitchen will actually happen this December; but it's going to be in the works.

I think I forgot to mention a few key milestones that Jeremiah has recently hit! First of all, my lil guy has been a SIPPY CUP USER for just about two weeks now! I am so thankful that my boy has nipped the paci on his own, no probing from me, at 6 1/2 months, and the bottle right around 11 months. Two major feats that so many parents struggle to be rid of. He has been growing more and more disinterested with his bottle for the past few weeks, only wanting it at 5 and 7 am, and on the day where he actually flat-out refused it for either of those times, I knew he was ready. We started out with the soft-spout Nuby, but when he punctured the spout with his teeth two days later, I replaced it with the hard spout. He loves his sippy now. I also started slowly weaning him onto whole milk right around then, and as of Monday or Tuesday, no more formula! Thank goodness! That stuff can eat you alive with its cost, especially since he was on the "gentle" version, which generally costs more. He's also getting closer to walking. On Halloween night, he really impressed us, taking two or three steps at a time for around half an hour. He forgot about it the next day until about two days ago. I have a feeling he will be walking by his birthday (11 days!) or shortly after. I'm not ready....

Anyway, so tomorrow night my wonderful soon-to-be-sister Lindsey is coming over for a night of scrapbooking, along with my friend April and her kids, Savannah (age 8) and her twin sons, Andre and Trevor (almost 6). Their daddy has to work until 9, so the twins are going to watch a DVD while us girls scrapbook, snack and gossip. Savannah is way excited about finally getting to scrapbook with me, and I'm rather excited, too! We haven't seen the Taylors since June. Then on Sunday, we're celebrating Thanksgiving up at my Grandpa Harry's house, our first one without my Grandma Arlene. Jeremiah came down with a little cold today, as well as Louis, so I'm praying that the two of them will be okay to come. With my grandpa's cancer, he can't be around anybody that's sick, because of his low immunitiy levels due to chemo. Jeremiah just has a wunny nowse that doesn' t seem to bother him (nor slow him down!) a bit, but Louis woke up with a full fledge cold. My poor boys! I have almost all of my Thanksgiving shopping done for both Sunday and the actual day of; just have a few of the veggies left to get, so they'd be fresh when I use them.

Anyway, in closing, here is my post from one year ago today, the night before my due date! Enjoy and have a great weekend!

"ONE MORE DAY!!" circa November 21, 2007

Well tomorrow's my due date! I have no clue if the little one will make an appearance or not. At this point I'd say no. Louis really wants me to have the baby tomorrow, and so does my father (but for different reasons!) Tomorrow is my dad's day for the baby pool, and by sheer coincidence he has both the boy and girl slot for tomorrow, so no matter what he's a winner. (Only the person with the right gender on the right date wins).

It's been getting harder and harder for me to get around this week. Louis told me that I walk like the trees in Lord of the Rings. Yes, I smacked him! About 20 min. ago I started feeling really queasy; I have no clue what that means.

I had another bout of that stupid false labor yesterday. I'm really getting sick of that....

I'll keep you posted!