Ten on Tuesday

Okay, so it isn't Tuesday here anymore, but it is somewhere, like...Hawaii! :)

1.  Jan and I watched the second Harry Potter, "The Chamber of Secrets," last night.  We are gearing up because I ordered the new(est) one, the 6th, "The Half-Blooded Prince" and it should be here soon.  I actually was able to watch some of it on the plane, but only in pieces and probably not more than 60%.

2.  Blaise has a cold! :(  It started out slowly a few days ago and then all of a sudden he had a bad cough yesterday.  I took him to the doctor and he prescribed a cough medicine to clear up the phleminess.  I hope this doesn't sound overly dramatic, but I feel responsible, like if I would have done something different he could have avoided being sick. :( We go back on Friday for shots. :( :( 

3.  The other night Jan and I watched "Serendipity" - I love that movie!  The best part was the carmel corn Jan made!  It was heavenly, gooey, warm and sweet.  He had some Garrett's Popcorn at the airport and can't get it out of his head.  He said his wasn't as good, but I don't believe him.

4.  We are in the midst of planning our Thanksgiving.  Normally we had it on Saturday, but this year we picked Sunday so we can have it earlier in the day.  I thought that might be easier on Blaise - we'll see.  We have invited about 26 people, which means taking the couch out of the living room and putting up some extra tables.  It's chaos, but tradition :)

5.  It is so nice to be back home so that we can cook for Blaise.  While we were travelling, we gave him mostly consumer baby food - I think I mentioned this before somewhere?  Anyway, it is so much easier to make sure that he is getting a variety when you can make it yourself, and it tastes MUCH better!  Plus, I feel good knowing what I am putting into his food.  You can't avoid all nastiness all the time, but at least I can reduce it.  He is proving to be a fish lover and today he yummied up his first yogurt (plain yogurt with cut up pear).  Later he is going to try tofu for the first time.  I am not a huge fan of plain tofu, but if he likes it then it will be a nice alternative to other protein sources.

6.  Blaise seems to be back on somewhat of a sleep routine.  We had a tough few weeks at my parent's house, and a tough few days back home, but he has had some great nights and some normal nights since then.  Right now the cold is aggravating his sleep somewhat, but even that doesn't seem to be too bad.

7.  The Christmas Market opens Thursday!!!  I can't wait for the Feuerzangenbowle that I missed out on last year! :)  Which brings me to...

8.  I think it's over.  I think we are done nursing.  Our trip really made it hard to keep up with nursing every few hours during the day.  Blaise was so distracted and overall disinterested, I was lucky if he nursed once during the day.  I still had him in the evenings though, before bed, during the night and in the morning.  Then it became less and less.  Now he won't nurse at night and even when he wakes up and is still sleepy (this was the way I'd trick him into it) he isn't interested.  I think I have to admit that it's over.  I nursed exclusively for 6 months, then without supplementing with formula until about 8 months, then to a few times a day and down to once a day until 10 1/2 months.  It was a good run, not the absolulte best, I was hoping to make a year, but I hit my goal of 6 months exclusive and then some on top.  I feel thankful that we made it as far as we did.  I still feel kind of sad now that it's over, just one more step to becoming more independent.  It's bittersweet.

9.  Speaking of independence.  Blaise is now using a spoon!  He is quite proud of himself, too!  We are still feeding him inbetween his spoonfuls, so that he doesn't put himself on a diet and so that dinner doesn't last 90 minutes!  When we were at my parent's house, he started taking off his bib and over the course of a few weeks he learned that dinner is over when the bib comes off, so he stopped doing it.  UNTIL, he started doing it when he was FINISHED eating.  It is so sweet!  He starts pulling at his bib and then gives you a look, you tell him it's okay to take it off if he's finished and then rip off it comes!

10. I was planning on getting back to working out this week, but then Blaise got his cold, so I hate to "give him up" to someone else.  Maybe I'll go when Jan gets home from work, but in all honesty it is getting dark before 5 already and that really kills my motivation.  (It gets dark earlier here than in the States, because we are farther north).  Somehow I have managed to lose some weight though and I'm even under what I was before our trip.  It's a miracle really, what with all the carmel corn :)  During the day I don't really have much time to eat, I guess maybe that's why, or maybe the secret is in the carmel corn?