Ok, ok...

So, I have recently been harassed for not updating my blog frequently enough.  My defense was that nothing exciting has happened worth blogging about, but apparently that is not good enough.  So here it is, our non-exciting weekend.  J.R. has been on midnight shift, and will be until Wednesday.  What does this mean to us? It means trying to keep Tommy quiet all morning.  Let just say it doesn't really happen.  I attempted to be out of the house for at least a few hours to give JR some quiet time, but I also don't want to get Tommy to far from his nap schedule.  To make matters worse, we had horrible weather today.  It poured all day.  We did have some opportunities to get out, but I wasn't up for dragging Tom out in the rain.  So here it is, our weekend in a nutshell.
Friday was our most exciting day.  Tommy and I went to visit our friends Sharon and Carson. Sharon and Lewis are the couple we vacation in NC with every Spetember.  Carson is their son, who we had not met until Friday.  He is adorable!! We basically just hung out and caught up on what has occured in our lives since September.  We are looking forward to our vacation in six months.
Saturday we met Aunt Shelly for breakfast at the diner.  Tom charmed the waitress with his smile and eating habits.  After a few errands, we came home and waited for JR to wake up.  After a trip to Costco (a weekly habit for me!) we had a nice dinner and hung out until Tommy went to bed and JR took a nap before work.
Sunday was rainy, so Tommy and I hung out until JR woke up.  The somewhat exciting thing that did happen was that we went to an open house.  As some of you know, we are very casually beginning to look at new houses.  We love our house, but need something bigger.  We don't necessarily need to move right now, but we want to take advantage of the market if we can.  The house was very nice, but we are very picky.  We want to find the right house because we want this to be the house we stay in forever.  J.R. and I have a list of demands and here are some of the "wants":  4 bedrooms, a lot bigger than 1/2 an acre, Central Dauphin or Lower Dauphin school district, not too far from work and shopping, somewhat updated (not needing TOO much work), big kitchen, and STORAGE!!!  Oh, and we don't want to spend a million dollars!  We haven't even gotten a realtor yet, but we are keeping our eyes on all of the new listings.  Of course, we are waiting for JR's dream house to go on the market (it is next to our friends the Leiberher's house).  We shall see how the story unfolds.  Sunday ended with Aunt Shelly coming over for dinner and a visit.  That was our weekend in a nutshell.  Hope it is satisfactory for my critics out there!!

Proud SLP momma

Being an Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), you have certain expectations for your child.  Yes, you worry about gross motor milestones, but you can always pass those off saying that" they will walk when they are ready," or may be "just lazy."  Then there is the thing you want your child to exceed in...TALKING.  Every day that I am working, I evaluate people's ability to talk and communicate, and of course, I want my child to be on the high end of average.  You don't want to be the SLP who has a child that isn't talking.  Now we all know (especially SLPs) that it is not always our fault if they happen to be language delayed, but we do everything in our power to avoid it.  Again, it is probably the overachiever in most SLPs, but it is something we all think about.  This brings me to my point...Tom is talking! I am proud to say that he has at least 10 words and seems to gain some each day.  His list currently includes hi, bye, mom, dad, dog, Jake, kitties, up, uh-oh, ay ay (our cuddle word) and bounce.  I am quite surprised that none of his words have to do with food, considering his favorite activity is eating, but we will work on that. 

Other than that, no exciting updates.  I am still loving work and J.R. is doing well with his job.  We love Tom's daycare provider and are literally spoiled with all of the help we get with Tommy.  He sure is one loved little boy!

We've got a walker!

I have been very bad at blogging lately.  I don't really have excuse, other than I haven't been taking many pictures.  BAD Mommy! Oh well.  As of this weekend, Tom has officially started walking.  He can make it across the living room, but not too much further.  The bad news is that is not a graceful faller.  He tends to take a header everytime he falls.  Good thing he has a hard head like his dad!  He has also started getting into things.  I don't think he knew all of the fun that was right in front of his eyes.  His favorite activities now include taking all of the recycling out of the bin, unloading the snack cabinet, and his most favorite, playing in the dog food.  He takes the lid off of the container, then puts it piece by piece into the cup we use to feed Jake.  He then dumps it and starts again.  Occasionally, he feeds some to Jake, or a piece or two to himself.  YUCK!! He has also begun to show a lot of frustration, such as when I take him away from the dog food.  He gets so mad!! Poor buddy! 
This past Friday we took a trip back to visit my grandmother, Mimi.  Tommy's favorite part was eating pretzels and playing with the remote controls.  We then went to the high school to visit Grammy.  She had a blast showing him off to all of the teachers.  A quick pit stop at the store to see Poppi, and we were off to visit Olivia.  Tom was NOT into Olivia's hugs and affection.  He doesn't quite get the girl thing yet.  J.R. is trying to teach him that when a girl smiles at you, you smile back, and if she hugs you, you definitely don't resist.
On Saturday night, Tommy and I went to "Girls' Night" at Aunt Tina's house.  Good time had by all. Tommy got to spend the night.  Aunt Tina got her baby fix and I got to sleep in! He got to show her all of his new tricks. 
As for me, work is going amazingly.  I love what I am doing and who I am doing it with.  The amount I am learning astounds me.  I am more and more confident each day that I made the right move for me at this time. I miss all of my Harrisburg buddies, but that is what Facebook and socializing are for!  I promise to post new pictures soon!

Sicko!

What started as a short trip to my Mom and Dad's to help friends get a new bed, turned into a disaster for J.R.  J.R. didn't feel well earlier in the day, but didn't think much of it.  After a Mexcian dinner, he felt horrible.  On our way back to Harrisburg, the hell began.  J.R. was literally throwing up out the window and on the side of the road.  He was sick all of that night and the next day.  I wasn't too far behind him.  I was sick only one day.  For the first time ever, J.R. had to call off two days in a row.  Unfortunately, Tommy had a smaller version of it.  We thought we were all in the clear, but literally as I began to write this post, my poor baby boy threw up all over himself and his crib.  So now that I have taken a break to help wash Tommy up, change him and his bed, I can say that the sickness has not yet left the Fisher household..BOOO!!

Work Update

A very common question posed to me in the past several weeks has been "How do you like your new job?"  My response.  " I LOVE IT!!"  The job challenges me every day, and it is so rewarding.  I have been working with patients with amazing stories of strength and recovery and learn something new every day.  I work with wonderful women who give me help and guidance each day.  It has definitely been a learning curve, but I am so much happier overall in this new position.  Today was the busiest day I have ever had as a speech therapist.  There were only 20 minutes of the close to 9 hours I was there that I was not with a patient.  This makes documentation hard, but it makes me feel like I am making a difference.  So, if anyone is wondering, the job is great, the people are wonderful, and I am more than happy in my new position!

Ok, ok, ok...

So I have had several requests to update my blog.  I will admit it, I have been neglecting the blog, but mostly because I have been pretty busy.  On Sunday, we returned from a weekend in Pittsburgh visiting J.R.'s family and friends.  It was a great time.  Thursday we spent the evening with Joan and got in a little Wheel of Fortune on the Wii.  Yes, we are that old.  It is more my obsession that J.R.'s but he goes along with it and plays the game with me.  He does much better sober, haha.  One or two beers and his reaction time is just seconds slower and beat him every time!! Joan enjoyed the game and we had a nice evening.  Friday we did a little shopping for a new Taggie blanket for Tommy.  Tommy's "softy" as we call it, is getting pretty gross.  It was a shower present from Sharon, and he LOVES it.  He sucks on the corners and rubs it on his face.  Needless to say the pale yellow is more a tan color and it is just smelly.  Joan and I called all over the Butler area and found only one.  It has some pink on it, but I am ok with Tom being in touch with his feminine side! Joan soaked the old softy in oxyclean and then washed it, and it looks a tad better.  Tom will hold the new softy, but it is nothing compared to old faithful! Friday evening we went to dinner with Andy and Aimee.  We are so excited that they are expecting their own little bundle of joy in July.  They will be amazing parents.  J.R. and I always have such a nice time with them.  I am confident that if we lived closer, we'd spend a good deal of time together.  For those of you who don't know, J.R. and Andy were roommates at Edinboro, and both love to talk about cars.  Aimee and I talk about the rest of life, and they talk about cars!! Saturday AM we took a trip to see Mark and Mel...They are the couple we went to Hawaii with two year ago.  It was so nice to catch up.  Saturday afternoon Jackie, Hannah and Michael came up to visit at Joan's.  We had a great time talking, or more like listening to Hannah talk.  She is HYSTERICAL these days and does not stop talking.  J.R. asked me if all kids are like this, haha.  Hannah spent the night, so she got some extra time with Baby PJ, as she calls Tommy.  After a long trip home on Sunday, I got to go to Houlihan's with Gayle and the other SLPs from her office.  We celebrated my 5 year anniversary with Goepfert Speech Associates.  Time sure does fly...

Time flies...

We just finished celebrating Tommy's first birthday (a week early).  I can't believe he is almost a year old already. Tommy's birthday is Christmas eve, so we celebrated on the 19th so Tommy could have his own special day.   Last year at this time, I was overdue and feeling ready to pop. Of course, I was still working full time up until the day I went into labor.  I actually started my contractions at work (at the hospital) and went home and came back later with J.R.  Tommy made his grand appearance approximately 24 hours after our arrival at the hospital. Most of you know about my challenging delivery, but now it is all a distant memory (Although I am sure J.R. and I will tease Tommy throughout his life that he practically killed me).


Now onto the fun stuff...the PARTY!! J.R. kept telling me I better UNinvite people because that many people could not fit in our house.  I am not gonna lie, it was tight, but it was great.  So wonderful to see how many people Tommy has touched in his one year of life.  We had to set up tables in the garage and a heater (yes I know it is the middle of December) to handle the overflow.  We had tons of food and lots of fun.  Tommy's favorite part was the cake.  Being a child that loves food, this was a dream come true.  Enjoy the pics!!

   The cake, post Tommy attack!

I can't believe a whole year has passed.  Tommy is no longer just a baby, he is a little boy.  He has so quickly stolen our hearts and made our lives complete.  J.R. and I can't get over how much we love him.  Until you have that child in your arms, there is no way to comprehend the love.