Cody's at Grammy K's house

So this is my 1st offical full day without Cody. The house is so quiet without him. It's refreshing but yet sad to because I so do enjoy being with him. Cody will be at Grammy K's in Pennsylvania for the week. Although Ken and I could have jetted off somewhere we took this opprotunity to get our house in some sort of order. As you know, we just moved in a little over a month ago and although we do have the majority of the boxes unpack there is still a TON of stuff to do. I feel like there's just not enough time in the day to do it all. So with little Cody not home, we don't have to worry about fixing his dinner and getting him settled down at night. We can actually eat at leisure and just focus on the house.

Miss you Cody
LOVE MOMMY!!!

Where does the time go?

So I've been meaning to write on Cody's blog for a while now but with an active 3 1/2 year old, he just doesn't let me get on the computer. He wants all my attention. ALL OF IT! And I don' t mind. I'm on my computer all day at work, there's really no need to get on it at night but there are times I enjoy just checking my e-mail to see what's going on with my friends. It's so hard to keep in touch with my Arizona friends since they are usually 3 hours behind in time. Everyone has a life, I can't expect them to be by their phones on Saturdays awaiting my call but yet when I have the time, they are usually at work. Although I don't mind talking on the phone while being at work, everyone around you can usually hear your conversation. So e-mail is the best way to keep in touch. Anyway, like I said, I don't mind pushing my computer aside to hang out with my little man. He lights up my life with his silliness and the things that come out of his mouth. Sometimes I think he's a genius and others I'm like where did you learn that? It's amazing what he can pick up on by watching us.

So I really need to get caught up on this blog. There are so many things to say and share. So many things have changed in the last few months. Life is crazy and time just goes by. Sometimes I sit down and wonder where life is going. Living in Northern Virginia is crazy at times. You spend so much time commuting to work and actually at work that there leaves little time to get things done let alone spend quality time with family. I don't know how people do it at times. Both husband and wife work. How do they run a household? How do they get anything done? I feel rushed and stressed and I only work 3 days a week. Maybe it's how you prioritize things? Maybe a schedule or a food menu planned out for the week would help? Hard to say. So hopefully I can prioritize my schedule to have time to post a few funny photos or stories about Cody and what's going on in our lives.

And we have a Lizzard

So I found out the hard way today that we have a lizard. Normally I'm not afraid of them since living in Phoenix for 9 years, I got quite use to them. But there's one difference between the Arizona lizards and the Virginia lizards.....the Arizona one's show themselves on a regular basis. The Virginia ones don't. So Cody was playing outside when I decided to take a walk around my yard. Since moving in only a month ago, we haven't really had a chance to cater to the yard. I enjoy gardening so I thought why not take a look around to see how all the trees, plants, flowers, etc are doing and what would I like to do to them next year? Trimming, replanting, watering, etc. So I get to this area in the back of our house that's a in ground storm drain. Unfortunately, it's where all the water goes when it rains. Yea for us....not really. Anyway, the previous owner's had that area landscaped so there are big boulders around it with high ornamental grass. Of course being from Arizona I love my rocks. So as I'm walking toward it looking around I heard a loud nose of something scurring away. Immediately that got my attention because I had no idea what kind of critter it was so of course I ran in the opposite direction to avoid it. I thought, let me go in the house and grab my camera to see if I can capture whatever it was that scared me. Sure enough, a few minutes later I peaked down upon the rocks from my deck undetected and this is what I found. A lizard??? Makes sense. It's a hot day and he was out chillin on the rocks. Now I feel more at ease and he can make himself at home since I'm a lizard friendly kind of gal.
But man, he did scare the crap out of me at first.

My sweetie!

Saying goodbye to the townhouse after taking a ton of photos of the house to post on a rental site, Cody wanted to get in some photo ops. Here's my little sweetie!

Last day of Preschool

So today is my last day of preschool. Mommy and daddy hated to do it but the bought a new house and the new house is no where near my preschool so today is my last day. On Monday I start going to a brand new school. I had a great day today with all my friends. But since we are so little still I don't think they understand that I'm not coming back. I'll miss them all but I'm sure I'll meet some great new friends.

Bye to:
Ms. Linda and Ms. Nieyelle
Chase, Jaden, Jordon, Brandon, Bryson, Zachary, Aiden,
Ella, Julia, Zoe, Hannah, Samona, Kotryna,

Visit to Dr. Wood

Mommy's note: I'm so incredibly happy right now. We took a trip to Baltimore, MD to visit Dr. Wood who is a well known allergist in the area. He is very sought after and is highly recommended. So of course we go to him because we do want Cody to have the best treatment he can have. This visit wasn't a treatment though, it was an annual visit with blood test results. Cody was currently allergic to egg, fish, shellfish, peanut and tree nut. He accidentally ate part of a cupcake at preschool. Of course the preschool freaked but Ken and I saw that Cody didn't have a reaction. So we were somewhat hopeful. We thought lets try it. Even though allergists don't recommend you doing food challenges at home we decided that we would try anyway. Epi Pen always in arms length. We gave him a cupcake with egg. No reaction. Then a few weeks later I tried egg noodles. Again, no reaction. So going into the meeting with Dr. Wood we were hopeful. In the end, we got our wish and Cody did too. We can now give Cody BAKED egg. Which of course means cupcakes, cake, cookies etc. So tomorrow when Cody is at school I'm going to make him some chocolate cupcakes. He's going to be so happy.
After Cody successfully eats plenty of "BAKED" egg on a regular basis, we can try pancakes. After pancakes we can try french toast. If Cody can eat french toast without any reactions, we can then call the doctor and he may agree to a egg challenge which would be a scrambled egg or boiled egg. That will be the real test. But we are months away from that. Right now it's baby steps and I'm ok with that. In fact, I'm extremely happy with this. It always broke my heart when Cody would ask for egg and when I said no, he'd say, "when I get bigger, I can eat egg, right mommy?" How can you say no to that? Well, I don't have to say no anymore.

So, the other good news is Cody can also start eating canned tuna and salmon. That was a complete surprise. I mean I was secretly hoping for shrimp or cod, something a little more kid friendly but I don't know, maybe he'll like canned tuna. I know I do. I LOVE tuna. And I do love salmon. I don't eat canned salmon but I'll just have start. :) Now it will have to be plain. He's not allowed to have mayo yet. Mayo has more of a raw egg in it and we are not at that stage yet so I'm thinking some sort of tuna casserole will work for us. Not sure if I'll mix tuna and egg noodles yet but I'll work on my cooking skills to come up with something yummy for him.

Even though the day was great, I must admit that I am a little disappointed in the blood test results. When Cody went for the blood draw, the nurse didn't get a big enough sample so she had to pull from the other arm. She did get a vile of blood but apparently it was not enough to run all the tests. So unfortunately we did not get the results for cashew, pecan, salmon, sesame seed, shrimp, and tuna. Dr. Wood must have felt that Cody could handle salmon and tuna. It's probably due to the fact that his numbers were low enough last year. Salmon was 8.47 and tuna was 10.3. Kind of wish we could have tried those all last year but getting wheat, barley, oats, corn and soy was good enough. I'm not complaining just wondering how all this works.

Ok, so that's the deal. There is a very happy mommy, daddy, and Cody in our house right now.
Thanks to all who has supported us throughout the year.
XOXO Jen

Last day of soccer

Pool time

Yup, we went again and I'm loving it. First I hung out in the baby pool. Had to get use to the water plus I was kind of the only one in it so I had the entire pool to myself. Then 2 girls wanted to play so I played with them for a bit. Mommy threw the ball and we had to run across the pool (in the pool) to see who could get the ball 1st. That was fun.

Then when we finally went to the big pool, I saw my buddy Santiago. They were jumping off the side of the pool so of course I had to too. Mommy wanted me to jump to her but I had to hold on to her hands then jump. At one point she kind of let go and I went under. I came up and said "I DID IT!!!" Mommy just laughed.

We had such a great time at the pool and because it's Memorial Day Weekend, we're going tomorrow too. I'm going to be swimming under the water before you know it.

FINALLY!!!! THE POOL IS OPEN!!!

YEA! The pool is finally open and I got to go today. Mommy and Aunt Wendy took me and it was so much fun. I went to the baby pool first. That water was cold but I still went in. I was walking around and tripped. That's how my shoulders got wet and you know how it goes. Once your shoulders are in, you're in. After the baby pool, I went to the adult pool. Surprisingly, that was a little warmer. So mommy got in with me. She had fun and tried to get me to go under. Geez mom, it's my 1st day at the pool. Cut me some slack. :)

I had such a great time. I think mommy's going to take me tomorrow and Monday. Maybe we'll go to Aunt Wendy's pool tomorrow and save our pool on Monday with Daddy. He had to work today so he couldn't go with us.

Momma, did you get a new purse?

So momma met Grandma and Grandad at Gettysburg today. She was waiting by the truck when we pulled up next to her. I was bouncing up and down. I just couldn't wait to see my mom. I jumped out of the car, gave her a big hug and said:
Cody: "Mommy, did you get a new purse"?
Mommy: (laughing) No baby, mommy's had this purse for a while.
Cody: Is it new mommy?
Mommy: No, sweetie.

Mommy's note: I'm amazed at how Cody notices small details. I only changed purses today because I didn't feel like carrying around my heavy leather one. I never thought Cody would notice. Ken doesn't so why would Cody? But he did and he asked a ton of questions about it which was so unexpected but yet so sweet. I really do adore my little Cody.

Happy Birthday Daddy

RIO

Mom, Dad and Aunt Wendy took me to see the new movie RIO. I was really excited about going. There was only one problem. The previews took forever! So when the movie finally started I was getting bored already. Finally RIO came on and I liked it for a little while. I think the problem is I was already tired when we got there. So I really couldn't sit still. Even though the movie caught my eye I still needed to stand, kneel, sit, stand, walk, kneel, sit. Thank goodness it was only 1 1/2 hours long. When we left I told mom and dad that it was a really good movie. They just shook their head. Just because I didn't sit still doesn't mean I didn't like it.

When I got home mommy wanted to pull weeds. I wanted to play so I knocked on Santiago's door to see if he wanted to come out. He did and guess what we did? We rode our bikes. Yes, my bike. For the 1st time I actually rode my bike. Grandma bought it for me a year ago and I just wasn't interested in it. But look at me now.

Reston Zoo

Hanging out with Ben and Jake

All the way down

The stairs that is. Yup, I fell down them. Well, I was talking to mom as I was walking up the stairs. I thought daddy was coming too so when I reached the top of the stairs I turned around to talk to dad. Well, when I turned around there wasn't a floor and down I went. Bounce, turn, flip, bounce, mouth open, fear on my face, bounce, flip and land. Mommy was running down the stairs after me to try to grab me but she couldn't catch me. I didn't enjoy falling down the stairs but at least I didn't hurt myself. Sure I cried a little but I felt better after a while. Just scared myself.

Soccer practice

Oh how these jungle gyms distract me so. How can I concentrate on kicking a soccer ball when I can see this from the field.

I hit my head again!

This time at preschool. So I thought it would be funny to show mommy my new stunt. I'll just run into the wall and fall down. So I ran toward the wall, hit it and fell down. All my friends were laughing. Mommy just shook her head. I'm sure she was saying "BOYS". So I thought I would do it again. I ran to the wall, hit it and fell down. Everyone laughed again and so was I. I walked toward mommy. In the process I was laughing so hard that I ended up hitting my face on the table as I walked by. So I clocked my head right in front of everyone. I cried then immediately looked as my friends to make sure this time they weren't laughing. This was not funny. Mommy immediately gave me a hug, kissed my face and comforted me. Both her and Ms. Nieyell saw me do it. It was an accident and after I stopped crying I told everyone bye.

I hit my head

Mommy and I ran to giant real quick to pick up a few items for dinner. I was really good until the very end when I decided to run from her in the store. As I was running, she was yelling out be careful Cody, watch where you're going and don't run in the store. I thought it was funny. I mean what harm was I doing. It wasn't like I was that far ahead of her. I was looking back the entire time as I was running. Finally I turned around and BAM! I ran right into a grocery cart and hit my head. Of course I started crying and mommy was right there to check on me. She knew it was coming but there was nothing she could do. I guess I need to be better in the store and stay with mommy next time.

Running in the grocery store

Off to see our new house

Daddy wanted to get his hair cut tonight. His favorite barber Vicki is 35 miles from our house. He usually goes after work, fighting traffic all the way west. Sometimes Cody and I go, sometimes we don't but today we did. It just so happens that our new house is about 3 miles past Vicki's shop. So we fought the traffic, got his hair cut then drove by the new place. It's so quiet in the new neighborhood. Daddy joked that it was so quiet because everyone is still commuting home from work. Come on, daddy, it's 7pm. Everyone is eating dinner.

Mommy's note: So we drove around the neighborhood to check it out. Cody was so involved in his portable dvd player that he never noticed the kiddie area with swings and slides. We also checked out the shopping center which is walking distance from our house. We are very excited.

Ms. Virginia's Sprinkle

My 1st Soccer lesson

Mommy and Daddy signed me up for soccer. So for 8 weeks, I'll be kicking a ball around with my bud Chase. My 1st class was a 11:30am and whoa was it cold outside. Ya, I said outside. They had us outside for 1 hour. Normally I'm all over it but man it was cold. Like 30-40 degree cold. Mom put a light jacket on me. She thought our first class would be inside. NOT! But you know, after I ran around a bit, it wasn't as cold. The coaches were wearing shorts. I'm sure they were cold. Mom took a bunch of photos and some video. I'm sure her hands were ice cold. Anyway, she'll post some photos of me soon.

Mommy's note: Cody did well at his 1st soccer class. He listened the best he could but the jungle gym in eyes distance was a little distracting. :) Both Ken and I are anxious to see how Cody does in the next 8 weeks.

I'm seriously behind in this blog

Mommy's note: I had a few minutes the other day so I decided to check out Cody's blog and man am I totally behind. I have so many photos to post and more stories to tell. I really enjoy posting to Cody's blog but often wonder if anyone actually reads it. My girlfriend has a blog and I really enjoy reading it. With a toddler, it's so hard to keep in touch with my friends sometimes and reading her blog makes me feel like I just got off the phone with her.

Anyway, I need to get my act together. There is so much to talk about so please be patient. I'll get this blog going.

The new house

So yesterday mom and dad met the realtor to see the house. They wanted to do a quick look and take measurements. Mommy is really getting excited. She's trying to figure out what furniture we currently have will go where in the new house. Daddy knows that most if not all of the rooms are bigger than our current rooms but he wanted to get measurements so we can start buying some things like a new washer and dryer and couches. While they were busy, I of course was hanging out mostly is this super cool play room under the stairs. They have it painted and if you turn off the light, the stars and moon glow. I love it!

Found a house

Today mommy and daddy were pretty slick. They took off work to look at houses but they didn't take me with them. They took me to preschool. Can you believe that? How RUDE! Anyway, mommy and daddy will have to fill you in on all the details.

Mommy's Note: Ken and I went house shopping today. Ken fell in love with this house located on Crane court. So I'll call it the Crane house. Anyway, he's just bonkers over it. So we went back to look at it. I took tons of notes on the house and a few photos. The house has potential but I was concerned about the size and price of it. So by going back to look at it, it should give us an idea if we want to put a bid on it. I can see us living there but I wasn't feeling the "LOVE". Ken on the other hand was head of heels. So after we spent about an hour in the house, we went to see a few more to make sure this was the one. For some reason I was not ready to buy this house. I just felt like it wasn't much bigger than we currently had. Plus I didn't really like the wooded lot and I wasn't to big on the little creek. All I could picture was Cody hanging out in it. Anyway, I wanted to look at a few more houses. I just felt like the 15 that we already saw was just not what I wanted. So today we saw about 10 and let me tell you.....I fell in LOVE! I found the house I want. We actually found a few that were nice and way bigger than the Crane house but this one....I swore to Ken if we got it, I'd work forever!!! All the wall colors were perfect. The layout of the house was perfect, the size of the house was perfect, the only thing that wasn't perfect was the backyard. Oh NO!!!!! It had a .19 lot. So in this case it was all mostly the front yard, not the back. And it's not even a fenced in yard. It's a common area backyard. :( I thought this was a deal breaker but.....maybe not!

My Preschool

I LOVE my preschool.

Leaving PA

Good times with Chase

Going to the cabin and Chase is coming too!

Looking at houses with mommy

So today mommy and I met up with the realtor to go look at some houses. As I said earlier, mommy and daddy are on the hunt for a new house. They are looking for more space and I want a yard to run in. Mommy decided to look out west. No, not Arizona west. She wishes. But Ashburn west. It's about 35 miles west of where we are currently living/looking. Mommy isn't really interested in the commute for her and daddy, daddy's being the worst but you get a bigger house for the money and it's suppose to be really family friendly which is what we are hopping for. I have great buddies where I live now but I'm hoping to find a place where I have tons of kids in the same neighborhood to play with. So we looked at 5 houses today. The smallest being 2900 square feet and the biggest was 6100 sq ft. Of course mommy liked the biggest one but she totally fell in love with the model home and of course it had all the bells and whistles in it. A long time ago, mommy use to model home stalk in Arizona, so she knows what the standard items are and what the upgrades were. It's so hard since each house had something she didn't like. For example, one house had a great interior but no yard. The point of looking out this far west is to get a yard for me. Not common grounds which is so Northern Virginia. The other house she liked had a sloped yard and she wasn't sure daddy would like that as well as it having 6 bedrooms. It's just the 3 of us. Do we really need that much space? But yet the 5000 sq ft house didn't seem big at all. Probably because all the rooms were properly sized and usable. Mommy is all about taking daddy back to check out these houses. She's anxious to see which ones daddy likes and if he has the same opinions as she does. Oh and the other thing, the 6 bedroom house yard backed townhouses which mommy wasn't sure if she liked that or not. She has nothing against townhouses it's just part of moving out of the city was to get a single family home community. Well, we'll see.

The thing mommy did like about all the houses was the space. An actual office, mudroom, washer and dryer on the bedroom level (3rd floor) not in the basement, plenty of closets, storage, etc. Mommy is in heaven.

So we had a good day. We came home and hung out. Daddy came home and made dinner. I was sitting at the table eating and all of the sudden I started swaying back and forth. I think I wore myself out today.

Mommy's note: Cody was so good while we were looking at homes. I asked him which were his favorite houses and he said the ones with the cats. There were 2 houses with cats. When we walked in they had signs posted saying please don't let our cats out. They also said, please take your shoes off. We had no problem with that. Today started of rainy. I certainly wouldn't want people walking thru my house with dirty wet shoes. Anyway, Cody was so excited about the cats that he ran toward me in the kitchen. He slide and fell right on his back clocking his head on the wood floors. He was not a happy camper. But after he saw the cat again, he got past his owie. I'm really glad that he was good today. It made looking so easy.

He was such a doll falling asleep at the dinner table. Ken and I giggled a little. He then woke up enough to tell us not to laugh at him. Ken picked him up and he immediately fell asleep on his shoulder. Nighty-night sweetie!

Looking at houses with mommy and daddy

Today mommy and daddy met with a realtor for the 1st time. They want to buy a house. They got a few e-mails of listings and mommy narrowed it down to 4 houses in our area. The only problem with where we live is the houses cost a lot of money but they don't have yards. The older houses have yards but mommy can't do older than 20 years. She likes the new houses to much. That's what happens when you live in Arizona and everything is so new.

The 1st house was 26 years old. Mommy was trying to be open and give it a chance but it was small inside and it had a small backyard which was a surprise. It also backed a main road so it would be noisy. The 2nd house mommy just loved. It was model home perfect but it had no yard at all. The 3rd house was 19 years old but over our budget. Daddy really liked this house but mommy didn't like that it didn't have a community pool or clubhouse so what does the association fees cover? The 4th house we didn't end up seeing because the homeowner's came back and were in the shower. It's ok. It was way over our budget and had a very small yard and backed a major, major road.

So mom and dad have agreed to look further west. I like looking at houses. There is so much stuff to touch.

Ready for school

So I woke up at 7:45 am this morning feeling much better. I told mommy that it was sunny out and I needed to goto school. Mommy fed me breakfast and got me dressed. On my way to school mommy was asking me out my class, who I was going to play with and what I was going to do today. I told mommy that I was going to play with Jaden, Ella, Chase, Simona, Branden, and Julia. Julia is cute. She has eyes and a nose. Mommy started laughing.

I'm sick today

I'm actually sick today. Mommy kept me home from preschool. I slept the whole day. Mommy took advantage of it as well. She napped on one couch and I napped on the other.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Today was a great day. Mommy took me to school so I could participate in a Valentine's card exchange. Earlier in the week, my teachers gave mommy a list of names of all the kids in my class. Mommy and I sat down and made sure each of my friends got a valentine's day card from me. I made sure I drew on the back of each card to personalize it. So as you can see above, I got some really cool Valentine's cards back.

Also, I made Daddy a card. Daddy really liked it. Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday dear mommy

Happy Birthday to you!

NOW CAN I HAVE A PIECE OF CAKE?

Mommy's note: Cody is such a doll. He was more excited about opening up my birthday presents and having a piece of cake than he was singing the song to me. That's ok. I love just seeing his face light up and smile from ear to ear.

He of course had to help me open my presents. :)

Lunch with Rebecca

Mommy's note: Today I had a wonderful lunch date with my friend Rebecca. We've been trying to get together for a while now and I actually thought I might not be able to meet up with her today. But luckily, I got my project done and was able to meet up with her. We had a good chat and after I left, I asked myself why I go so long between meet ups with her. I guess time just flies by and I get so caught up on the business of day to day life that I forget that she's only 2 miles down the road from me. I've really got to be better about keeping in touch with her and all my other friends.

6 years - where does the time go?

Mommy's note: 6 years ago today I reported to my new job. I can't believe that I've been working at the same place for 6 years now. Where does the time go and why haven't I quit yet. :)

Santiago's Birthday Party

Today I went to my buddy Santiago's 4th birthday party. At first I didn't want to go. I was just having to much fun at my house playing with my toys. Mommy kept saying, we gotta get ready Cody. But I just wasn't listening. In fact I was still in my PJ's. Hee-hee. So mommy finally got me motivated and off we went. I couldn't quite figure out where we were going since Santiago just lives a few houses down from us but it turns out that his birthday party was at his papito's house. So we get to their house and when we went inside they had a bounce house right in the living room. WHOA! I love bounce houses. But do you think I went in??? NOPE! I didn't know who all these people were. There was no way I was going to go in this bounce house by myself. So you know what? Daddy went in with me and it turns out that I was practically in there bouncing around for the rest of the party. Of course I came out to sing Happy Birthday to Santiago and eat cake and ice cream. Mommy brought my special cupcake to substitute for the cake. It was so yummy. I had a great time at Santiago's birthday party.

On our way home mommy and daddy thought I was going to fall asleep but no such luck. Then when we got home I decided that I wanted to play some more. I mean how can you not want to play after going to a party. It was go, go, go till 8pm. I know I wore mom and dad out. Ha-ha!

I just love being a mom

Mommy's note: Today I had a great day with Cody. He's just such a sweet little boy. The weather was so chilly out so it forced us to stay inside. Although I'm sure we could have went out, the thought of playing outside just totally turned me off. So we played inside. Cody is really into racing his cars and playing demolition derby. So we crashed our cars together. Just seeing his face light up, it just makes me smile. Oh, two of his toys are legos McQueen. So we take the entire toy apart and we race to put it back together. Usually he wins (wonder how that happens) but sometimes I have to win just too.

Right before he went down for his afternoon nap he was lying in his bed. He said something about his closet. Cody's new favorite movie right now is Monsters Inc. And if you've ever seen the show, it's mainly about these monsters who come thru a child's bedroom closet just to scare the living crap out them. So when he mentioned his closet, I opened it and said no monsters inside. He then called me kitty. I said goodnight Boo. Kitty is the monster Sully and Boo is the little girl that becomes Sully's friend. It was so cute to hear him call me Kitty then giggle with delight as he acted like Boo. I finally got him to take a nap but man, what a fun day today was.

Like I said, I just LOVE being a MOM!

Happy New Year! 2011!

WOW, so hard to believe that it's 2011. AMAZING! I hope to post tons of fun stories of Cody's adventures.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!