Well, it's been a long time since I have posted and I'm sorry. Life has been hectic to say the least. I started selling Gold Canyon Candles on top of still selling Avon. The difference being, GC I have to have house parties :)
David is getting big, adding more words to his vocabulary, getting more teeth (1 to go) and still biting!
We sold the guest bedroom furniture a couple of weeks ago and converted into a playroom for David. I spent all Saturday afternoon and evening painting and Sunday I cleaned the carpet throughout the house and moved toys from the living room in to the playroom. By the time Sunday night came around, I could hardly move a muscle!
On the 13th, we had a play date at our house. David's future bride, Arianah, came over with her mommy (Heather), Sloane brought her mom and dad (Angela and Charles) . Elton, who works with Anthony, came over with his 3 sons and wife and Tammy and Shaye (David's babysitters) came over as well. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed themselves. I'm so glad that the playroom was ready because they TORE IT UP! David really enjoyed all the kids and was trying to keep up with the older ones. By the time everyone left, he was exhausted and fell asleep right away.
I finally finished getting all of David's clothes ready to sell at Duck Duck Goose, the consignment event (for lack of a better word). This was the first time I participated and told myself that if I didn't make any money from it I wasn't going to do it again. It was a lot of work getting the clothes ready, making the tags and hanging them up. DDG has their own bar code system that I had to download, enter each piece of item with description and price I wanted to sell it at. They usually only take name brand items, with a few Target, Wal-Mart brand items. Toys, furniture, maternity clothes etc. Once you enter all the items, then you have to print it out and pin them to the left shoulder of the item. The sale runs from Wednesday - Saturday with Saturday being 1/2 price day (each consignor can decided what they want and don't want to be sold for half price). I took in 74 pieces (max is 75) and sold 63 of them! Maybe around $234, so I think it was a success. I didn't put high prices on too many items, unless it was something I still had a tag on or it was name brand and in great condition. I think I'll participate in the Spring Sale as well.
On Saturday, my friend Heather who sells Homemade Gourmet and I set up a vendor booth at DDG to try and not only sell items but to get contacts for parties. The best thing that came out of the show was getting a booking from a lady who runs an apartment complex on Chanel (RICH part of LR). Near the holidays the complex holds parties for ALL the residents (216 units). Heather and I will set up a party together on Nov 8 at this complex and sell in stock items, take orders and hopefully book more parties!! We are very excited about that!
Over the weekend two of David's teeth popped through, on the bottom. He now has one tooth left to get and then I believe he will have all his teeth! He's still biting at school but not as often and only when he's teething.
I want to enter David in some photo contests but can't seem to get the right size of photo. I need to pull out the instructions on my camera. He is such a ham when I pull the camera out, that sometimes he tries to smile too big and his eyes get all squinty. lol
Well I better go for now, if I think of something I left out - I'll post it and will promise to try and keep up with this better.
Happy Belated Birthday - Connie and AJ!!

Well we made it through the weekend! It was really nice having 3 days off, I really needed it. We didn't do a whole lot but that's fine. I'm selling some of David's old clothes at Duck Duck Goose (big consignment sale in LR) so I getting that all together. Each consignor is only allowed 75 items and I didn't think I would even come close to that, but..........I have 75 and still more that I could do. I'll earn 70% of what sells so then I'll have money to buy more clothes for David! LOL

We sold the spare bedroom set, well kinda, the lady really wants it but since Gustav is now in Arkansas it hasn't stopped raining since Monday night. Looks like the wind has picked up a bit as well. Any way, now that the bedroom set will be gone we can turn that room into a playroom for David and his friends and we can have our living room back. I want to paint the room and put those foam interlocking tiles down in the room (the ones with the ABC's or just the colored ones).

We bought a mat at Wal-mart over the weekend hoping it will help David take longer naps on the weekends. He'll sleep 2 2 1/2 hours at Day Care in fact have to wake him up, but at home on the weekends he will maybe sleep for an hour. We put him on the mat Sunday and he slept for 2 hours!!!!! Guess he likes that better than his crib!

Well better get going and finish getting ready for work, just wanted to post something since it had been a while.

Oh and David hasn't bitten anyone since last Tuesday!!!

Our Week

This week was a little trying, to say the least! It actually started last Friday when we picked David up from Day Care. We walk into his classroom, the first week in his toddler class and the teacher said he bit kid that day, oh no! Didn't break the skin, but still the same he bit a kid (not the first time this has happened). Now, he has been biting us at home and we have been trying to get him to understand it's bad to bite, but he's 15 months old and cannot rationalize or understand.
Monday, when we pick him up from day care, we have another note in his box but this time he bit 2 kids and there was some paperwork in his box about the day cares policy on biting, the consequences of an excessive biter, ways to find triggers of a biting child and the wonderful news that is classroom was going to be monitored by the DIRECTOR the next day! I talked to the teacher and she said that the kids were "in his space". They weren't taking his toy away, they weren't being mean, they were just in his space. Ugh - like mother like son!
After reading the paperwork 1) I didn't think he was going to be kicked out of day care, but I was afraid he was going to be transferred to a different classroom, this after I practically begged to get him to be in this one 2) that all the other parents to were to find out it has been David biting their kids and would say something to us. I was kind of worried you could say, wondering what happened to the sweet child we had before we went on vacation LOL.
Tuesday came and went and we didn't hear from the Director about how the monitoring went and when I asked the teacher about it, she just said it went fine and refused to elaborate (now thinking back, I'm sure it was probably against policy for her to tell us what the Director found during her monitor).
Wednesday, I called Ms Nicole, the Director, and asked her how it went. She started off the call by saying "Bless his little heart" - I wasn't sure how to interpret that, so I didn't say anything. Then she went on to tell me that first, he wasn't the only biter in the classroom (whew!). She said that it was not a behavioral problem, that he's not biting out of anger, aggression or even frustration - he's biting because he is teething really bad. She just kept saying "Bless his little heart, I've never seen a child teeth as hard or as bad as David" She said she was at a loss for words, didn't know how to correct it because he needed consent stimulation on his gums. All day long he was grinding his teeth, chewing on a teething ring or would have Orijel put on his gums and he was still biting. Said she intercepted 3 bites that day and missed one when his bit his girlfriend Savannah on the shoulder during Circle Time.
Long story short, he's not getting kicked out, moved to a different class, but what he is getting is time out for every time he bites or tries to bite for 1 min. He will be told that it's not nice to bite our friends and be put in the time out corner. AND, he has one of the teachers specifically assigned to him as a buddy, meaning where ever David goes, the teacher goes and is there to intercept any attempts to bite. He hasn't biten anyone (except me) for the last 2 days, so it might just be working.
On a different note - I won a $250 Wal-Mart gift card from the radio station I listen to today! I was sitting at my desk when my cell phone rang and I hear "Is this Michelle Cipriano?" I said "yes" "Hi this is Ugly Ed from Alice 107.7, did you hear your name on the radio today?" I said "nooo" then he said "well, you just won a $250 gift card from Wal-mart, courtesy of Kodak" Whoo hoo! He asked if I remembered signing up for the contest and I said I kind of did but I really wasn't sure LOL. He verified by birthday and said "Yep, it's you - You Won $250" I said "Holy Crap~!!!!!" I sure hope it didn't get aired. After I hung up, I started thinking someone was playing some kind of joke on me, so I called Anthony and asked if it was him and he had no idea what I was talking about. I finally just called the radio station back and asked if it was for real or if one of my friends was goofing around; they asked my name and then said "Yep, we have the card here ready for you to pick up! What a way to start a holiday weekend huh! Wal-mart here we come.
I hope everyone has a safe and exciting Labor Day weekend - watch out for drunk drivers!

Well, David is just about to end his first week in toddler class and he did great. The first day was a little rough dropping him off by myself, but I survived and so did David. Once he realized he was in the same class as his friends, he relaxed. He's such a big boy now, taking his naps at noon on a mat on the floor, sits at a little table to eat his snacks and lunch and A LOT more toys. By the 2nd day he walked into his room and forgot all about me.

When we picked David up from school yesterday we found out that, yes indeed, he has a girlfriend LOL. Ms Savannah, she's an older girl, I believe she is about 2 months older than David! Ms Donielle, one of his teachers, told us that at lunch time the two of them were sitting next to each other and David was feeding her her food. They were having chicken rings and apparently he was picking them up off her plate and feeding them to her. They said he was really gentle and she was just soaking it up. I really wish I would have had a video of it! Today we were told by Ms Bianca, his other teacher, that they are assigning each child their own chair at the the table, and that they have decided they need to keep David and Savannah together. They play together, eat together and are inseparable. When we dropped him off this morning, he was the last one to get there (I had to get an allergy shot this morning) so all the seats were taken up at one of the tables. Ms Bianca pulled out another small table that we sat David at and wouldn't you know, Savannah came over and sat with him. I will try to get a picture of them together and will post.

David is getting better at sleeping at night, 3 nights in a row he has slept through the night without a fuss; he even goes down without crying. At the beginning of the week I decided it was time for some kind of ritual so that he knows its bed time and he can start to relax. I started asking him to pick out books for me to read to him and then it would be bedtime. Two nights in a row now he is gotten the book on his own and given it to either me or Anthony. He brings it over and says "book" and climbs up next to us. We read him the book, he'll then look through a different one for a bit and then he's ready for bed. I turn on his music box, we say our Prayers, tell him we love him and he goes right down (holding his Big Bird of course).

Here in Arkansas it been raining again. Two days in a row right now and expected rain every day until Sunday. I know it's nothing compared to what Florida is getting right now, but it's crazy. I can see why people in Seattle get depressed from no sunshine, it's a good thing I like the rain - except for when the dogs bring in mud and grass on their paws!

This Saturday is Michelle P's 40th Birthday, so we got a babysitter and we are going out! Steve rented the downstairs section of a piano bar in downtown Little Rock and is having an open bar. Should be a pretty good time! I'm looking forward to getting out and getting a little break. I feel guilty for saying it out loud because I really don't mind spending every minute I have with David, but it will be nice to be somewhere fun without kids.

We've been back from vacation now for 2 weeks and we still cannot seem to break David of his neediness! He always wants to be held and if you are out of his sight he starts crying! Help! (that's me yelling help) The first week we were back, he didn't fight going to bed but now he is fighting it every night again.

He learned "uh-oh" today and he sat on the floor playing for about 10 mins and he just kept saying it over and over, very cute. And I think he has also picked up "shut up", from when we tell Stanley to stop barking at the door. We have to put the dogs out when David eats because otherwise they hover around his chair and he ends up feeding them and not himself. So, we will have to watch that from now on, I don't want him saying that.

I bought this really cute outfit off of eBay, new with tags, it's Kenneth Cole jeans and a shirt/sweater vest. It's so dang cute on him!! It's a 12 month and it fits him perfectly. Here's a picture of it, is he not the most handsome boy?!

As I was getting his stuff ready for toddler class tomorrow, I found his measurements from the doctors office - I cheated my son out of 1/4" ....he's actually 30 3/4" tall which puts him in the 39th percentile and his weight 22#15oz is in the 27th percentile which actually has him in the 30th percentile when you combine the both (not sure how he losses 3 percent, but ... and if I've confused you - don't worry I don't know what I'm talking about either ha)

Anthony left for NC again, so it's me and David for 3 nights unless his trip gets extended. I'm trying to get myself ready for tomorrow as well, so it doesn't take me 2 hours to get ready in the morning. I put together a "Peer Recognition" program for work in Mesa a while back and now I need to find it because we are going to try it in the call center here at Alltel. I think it will be fun and will get everyone involved; I'll just have to rewrite it a bit so it fits this center more.

Hope everyone had a good weekend~

Happy Saturday!!

Boy, it's harder than I thought to keep up with this blog. Anthony came back in town Monday night and I was happy to get some help with David.

Last Friday, David bit 2 kids in his classroom; didn't break the skin but all the same. He's getting more teeth, almost a full mouth now. He had his 15 month check up on Thursday, he's 30 1/2" tall, 22#15oz - this puts him in the 27 percentile but his head measurement is in the 90th percentile. Doctor said he was advanced as far as his cognitive skills and verbalization skills (I have to agree that he's a pretty smart cookie!)

Last Saturday, I finally got my Hot Stone Massage that Anthony and David bought me for Mother's Day. Steve and Michelle watched David for me since Anthony was still out of town and they took him to Wild River Country and I met there after my massage. Michelle, Samantha and I went down some water slides while Uncle Steve watched David.....this is what we found when we got back! Don't you just love his Budda belly? The picture makes it look like he's red, but he's not - he actually has a great tan going on. I guess I need to download it from my phone, so once I do I'll add it.

David starts "toddler" class on Monday. He goes to a new room with new teachers and we are very excited. We will definitely miss his old teachers as they were so good to him and us as new parents. Ms. Tracy got herself a new job at a Catholic school down the road, running the infant care, so we are excited for her. Ms. Tanis moves to a different room but won't be too far away, so David can go visit her when he wants. His new classroom has a table for them to eat at, lots of room to play and learn. Anthony talked to Ms. Beatrice (I think that's her name) about potty training and she said they don't normally potty train them in this class, but since David already squats when he's going potty she might try it on him and see how he does. Wouldn't that be nice!!!

Anthony found out yesterday that he has to go back to NC for work, he leaves Sunday around 11am and "should" be back on Wednesday night. His boss is even going this time, so hopefully they get all the testing done and won't run into problems again.

It's overcast today and is supposed to rain every day until Tuesday (welcome to Arkansas), so we aren't going to the water park today. There's a new kids place in south Little Rock that is supposed to blow Chuckee Cheese out of the water (which, personally I don't really like) so we might go there today. Has indoor bumper cars and a section just for kids David's age with good food. Then tonight we are going out for a nice dinner.

Well, I know it's been awhile since I posted and for that I'm sorry. We were on vacation for a 7 days and then Anthony had to turn around and go to NC for work. He was only supposed to be there from Sun-Fri but the testing wasn't going well and he is having to stay until tomorrow. We hope his boss doesn't want him to stay longer than that.

About our vacation, it was fun and really hard to come back to the day to day routine. Even though the ocean was freezing, it was really nice just being able to hear the ocean waves and watch David as he played in the sand. He usually loves the water, but not when it's like ice water - I learned that if you stayed in it a while you got used to it, but then your legs would get numb. David just screamed whenever the water touched him.

We went to Ocean City and walked around the boardwalk until we couldn't walk anymore. They have a little amusement park for the kids and some of the ride were small enough that David got to ride them. The first ride was a hot air balloon ride which was kind of like a tea cup ride; however, you have no control over the spinning on this one and because of that David was scared to death. I went on it with him and tried to calm him down, Anthony said I scared him for life! I don't think so, because as soon as we got off he turned around and started pointing at it again and saying something (again, he has his own language right now).

They had little cars he could drive and little boats to ride in that he was tall enough to go on by himself. He did great! I think he loved the cars the best because he had 2 steering wheels he could grab onto. On the boat ride he was having fun ringing the bell and then 2 other kids got on "his" boat in the back. All he did was stare at them and try to ring their bell - the little girl was too happy about that :)

The next day we took him to the Atlantic City Aquarium, this kid loves to watch fish. They had a huge turtle swimming with the big fish. He got to "pet" a horseshoe crab, a star fish and ray fish of some sort. We then walked around the "Walk", it's an outdoor outlet mall and we found some great deals.

We also went to the Cape May Zoo! This zoo was free and is run only by donations. The zoo was huge, we were there almost 4 hours and still didn't see it all. Tons of different animals, birds and wildlife it's hard to imagine it's all run on donations.

It was nice seeing Anthony's family and friends and of course they all spoiled David. Now all he wants is for us to hold him - not gonna happen. Day care is helping us to get him back to how he was before vacation.

Speaking of day care, David promotes to a toddler class on the 18th of this month. Originally he wasn't going to be able to go with his current class to the new class mainly because he was the youngest. They had a computer pick the classes and the cut off was the 12th of May - 1 day!!! At first I was okay with it because he was going into a class that we knew 2 of the kids and because David is so easy going, he would have adjusted just fine. But then Anthony and I talked about it and we felt he should be able to stay with the kids he has already formed a relationship with and would be comfortable with when there was a change of the teachers. I had emailed the school's director about changing him and they said they couldn't because they had someone that fit, age wise, better than David - blah blah blah. They ended up putting us on the list for the class in case anyone dropped or there was some sort of shift in other classrooms that would make it possible. I was just about in tears but when I went to pick him up that night, someone had already dropped and David got into the class.

This week has been a little tough, trying to get myself, David and the dogs ready before I went to work. I had to rearrange my allergy shots so I didn't have David with me (I usually went first thing in the morning on the way into work). I took the bumpers out of the crib and somehow that helped him sleep better at night. I wonder if the bumpers made him a bit claustrophobic and that's why he would wake up screaming? He also has become attached to his blanket and baby Big Bird; once I tell him I Love him and give him a good night kiss, I give him his Big Bird and blanket and he falls right to sleep. I so nice not having to fight with him every night when it's bed time.

His vocabulary is getting bigger, however it's still hard to understand most of the stuff he's saying. He now says "tanley" for Stanley, he gets on the phone with Anthony and says "Hi Dada", and he says Mama! FINALLY, I only carried him for 9 months, gave birth to him and it takes him 14 months to say Mama! I need to start writing down when he says something new because I forget. It seems like he grew a lot while we were on vacation as well - we'll find out for sure on Thursday as he has his 15 month check up. I know I say this a lot, but every day he does something that amazes me. We bought him a booster seat while on vacation and he already figured out how to buckle himself in and he, unfortunately, has figured out how to get his arms loose from the car seat!

Sorry this is so long, I'll do more catch up later - time for bed!