Falling off the Wagon

The blogging wagon people! I don't know what else you would have thought from that title.

I have had basically no interest in blogging lately. I really would like to keep this updated if for nothing more than to keep my dad informed on the day to day of my life (hi dad!). I know he enjoys seeing pictures of Remy and hearing about all of the events we have going on and its tough when he is not around much to visit. I will try to do better!

However, I have no pictures of Remy right now because I am not on our home computer. The last few weeks have been pretty rough with Remy. He is getting his eye teeth (?) and has been unbearable. He is pretty much always teething at this point but it has never been this bad. To make it worse I didn't realize until a couple days ago what was going on which meant my patience has been pretty much nonexistent. I was trying to change his diaper and he was screaming and trying to get away so he could go look at the space heater (he is obsessed with it, it automatically turns on and off and it spins from side to side as well) and I saw that one tooth has just barely popped through and the other one you can see its so close, but it has not actually popped through.

Needless to say I have been at my wits end these last few weeks. A big obstacle between Remy and happiness is his lack of communication. He can sign "please" and he made up a sign for "more" or "I want" but other than that he only says "Boppa" and occassionally "Dada" but only when he is in the mood, i.e. wants excessive praise from us. He is extremely bored by all child approved toys and spends most of his time trying to "cook" with me in the kitchen. "Cooking" with me involves him hanging on my leg screaming bloody murder until I either pick him up so he can see what I am doing or get a chair so he can see what I am doing. Yesterday he fell off the chair and that was pretty traumatic. He cried a little but that turned into a tantrum until I set him back on his beloved chair. I think if he could play with mechanical type things like Kinex or Legos he would love it. Unfortunately his hand eye coordination has not caught up with that portion of his brain and probably will not for another 4-5 years.

I am sure a big part of his crankiness is going to daycare. I kind of forgot that daycare was a pretty big disruption to his life until my sister pointed it out. Because he does well there during the day I just didn't think it was that big of a deal. He has become a lot more clingy since going to daycare. If we go somewhere where there are more than a couple of people, he either won't let us set him down or hangs on our legs to make sure we are not leaving. It makes me a little sad that his extreme independence has been tempered a little since it so defined him, but I'm not going to lie; Remy snuggles against me every time I drop him off at daycare and those are pretty much the only snuggles I get, ever, and I love it.

Remy has been much better the last couple of days (except for last evening...) which has made our lives easier. It helps that it has been nice off and on for a few days which means he can spend some time outside.

I had a birthday last weekend which was awesome, I will try to post about that later with all the sweet loot I got. I have been staying busy trying to find new recipes to fill out our standard go-tos because I don't like cooking the same thing all the time and Nic sure does not like eating the same thing all the time. I have been trying to work on the house a little more too, using little bits of extra money to finish up the kitchen and I also purchased a light for the dining room with birthday money and I am anxiously awaiting that! I really need to get some painting done but I find it hard to do it only during Remy's nap and bedtimes. Maybe because I need to paint the stairway and hallway which are outside his room and he will most definitely hear me. I have thought about seeing if he can go an extra day to daycare just once so I can get the painting done but that would cost money.

I also am looking for a full time job or at least another part-time day job, preferably with benefits. I really like my job at the magazine but if I can find a full time job with benefits I will definitely take that. Neither Remy or I have insurance because we are over the income limits for state healthcare although we may be able to get Minnesota Care but we would then have to pay a premium which we cannot afford at this point (now I feel guilty for writing that I bought a new dining room light, but people - birthday money only comes once a year!). We could get on Nic's healthcare but the flat rate for family coverage (regardless of how many family members) is close to $400. HAHAHAHAHAH.

I need some dental work done (I know that most plans don't cover much but they DO cover the cleaning and usually partially the fillings which would make it more feasible) and I need my wisdom tooth pulled. It would also be nice to have some sort of vision insurance as well. But mostly I want insurance so if something happens with Remy I can take him in without worrying that it is going to cause financial ruin. And because we have tenatively talked about maybe, someday having another baby it would be good to have insurance to cover that as well.

Besides the benefits it would be nice to make some extra money. We still have financial obligations from our previous job/life meltdown that need to be addressed. Since I have been working more we have been able to pay all of our current bills and even have 20 or 30 bucks left over which is pretty amazing when you have gone so long without extra. But if I can contribute more those previously mentioned financial obligations can be worked on, which will take a huge amount of stress off of my mind.

Nic is still working super hard to provide for us. He regularly works 10-12 hour days without complaining and still watches Remy 4 nights a week besides and does all my renovation projects that I start and then realize I am not skilled enough to finish. Besides that he has his projects (he is currently working on my parents Arctic Cat) along with hunting at least once or twice most weekends. I am so thankful for everything he does and puts up with. Between Remy and I we have a pretty emotionally volatile household.

This weekend we have Esthers birthday party and next weekend we are going to the cities so Tina and I can meet The Pioneer Woman! So hopefully that will give me some blogging material.