The Big 4-0!

How funny is my face? I think he was blowing a raspberry on my cheek!

Birthday hugs from my best boy!

Tommy opening his St. Patty's Day gift after the parade on Sunday!

Alexis and Tommy just before we "stepped off" for the parade!

Saturday morning...asleep in his high chair!

Yes, it's here, the big FOUR OH! I had a great birthday today - my best gift truly arrived a little over six months ago and keeps on giving every day! I had a great day, though it was busy (in a good way!) at work. When I arrived at work, there were signs all over the place, which I expected, because 2 other girls celebrated the SAME birthday this month. I thought it was great! They had a HUGE breakfast buffet spread for me too - cupcakes, quiche, bagels, fruit, cookies, and some cheese and pepperoni (I know that's not breakfast, but my friend Kathleen brought it in just for me! Thanks Kath!). They had a picture of me taped above the buffet so everyone knew who the "Lordy, Lordy, Look who's 40" signs were referring to...as I was walking in from lunch the guy who drops off the mail to our building wished me a happy birthday, as he saw my photo at the buffet! LOL! My sister Karyn took me to lunch today at Stuff yer Face (my fave!) and then for ice cream at Thomas Sweet's! Thanks Karyn! Karyn now works at Rutgers so it's great that we can meet up for lunch every few weeks on campus! John made dinner for me tonight - salmon with pesto - it was dee-lish!

As I've mentioned before, I am TOTALLY fine with turning 40 - some of my friends have struggled, but I honestly don't feel 40, except, as I keep telling people, when my alarm goes off at 5:30am. It really is turning into a birthday WEEK! Sunday we celebrated with my family in Bayonne since we were there for the St. Patrick's Day parade. Pigged out on way too much food and cake. Actually glad the kids ate all the cookies before we even realized it! Monday I went to lunch with some friends at work, which also included dessert. Mind you, I'm not the biggest dessert person, and I've had it for lunch and dinner the past few days (not tonight, though you never know if I will be tempted by one of my Tastycake Kandykakes - total weakness for them!). Friday my boss and co-workers are taking me out to lunch, and Saturday night I am going out with about 10 friends, all of whom are turning 40 in the next few months or have turned 40 already, so we are doing a one time dinner with all of us to celebrate and reminisce! I will gain FORTY POUNDS by the end of this week at the rate I am eating so far!!! That, not my age, I will have an issue with!

Tommy is doing SO much better this week with his tummy issues! The soy formula definitely helped get him back on track; I'm almost hesitant to switch back, but I'm just finishing out the can so it's not wasted since you have to use it up within a month of opening it. The doctor said to switch for 3-5 days; tomorrow is 5 days and the can will probably be done when I make tomorrow's bottles anyway. He no longer looks like a babboon either, thank goodness!

He had also developed another cough and a little congestion late last week, but we started the nebulizer again which has definitely helped. We also use the humidifier in his room at night for the congestion.

Tommy's eating habits are definitely improving/getting back to normal after his tummy issue last week too - he is finally eating the foods that we give him - he's had pears the last few days and loved them - ate an entire jar at lunch today, and tonight he had about 3/4 of the peas. I will have to try the green beans again to see if he decided he didn't like them or if it was his tummy bothering him last week that he just refused them - but he was more adamant about not eating those than anything else we tried giving him! I also decreased the amount of formula in his bottles at school because he was wasting so much the past few weeks, but I am sending one extra bottle in so that if he does want more his teachers can just take from the extra bottle or give him the extra bottle altogether. Today, they did actually use 2 extra ounces. It can be frustrating because I don't know how much he is going to want or need, and then you have to throw out the formula because it's no good after an hour if he has had some of it.

Today John called me after dropping Tommy off at school, and said he had a hard time leaving him. I thought perhaps Tommy was upset when John started to go, but it was John who did not want to leave because he was watching Tommy interact with his classmates on the floor, watching him turn pages in a book, and babble a bit with his buddies apparently. Now that he is sitting up pretty well (he does still topple over, but he can go for a while if he is alert and not tired!) he can interact in different situations and scenarios. I dropped him off on Monday and I love watching all of the kids in the Baby Buds room - they are at all different stages though I can't tell (or remember!) how old anyone is so they are all amazing to watch in my opinion! I had to bring in diapers yesterday and one of the little boys who just turned one (I looked on the wall to figure out how old he was!), picked up the diaper package and tried to carry it for me! LOL!

I mentioned we had the parade in Bayonne this Sunday, and Tommy and I marched with my mom, sister and niece. Tommy slept the entire parade! He was in a pretty good mood back at the house, but a little not himself as he was congested a little, but no one could really tell he wasn't really himself - the few times he 'complained' was really nothing, but we knew. I felt like we had so many people in the house, but Tommy did pretty good with all the commotion and noise, except we couldn't get him to take his 3rd nap until we put him in the car seat to come home, but it worked out so he woke up when we got home for his bottle, and then went to sleep for the night. Better than Saturday night...I had 2 glasses of wine when we went out to dinner with friends (and Tommy, who watched some NCAA basketball while having his last bottle before falling asleep!), and the little dude ended up waking up SIX times during the night. I'm not sure that even happened that first week we were home from the hospital! I admit, this was one of the only reasons I had not really had anything to drink since Tommy arrived - I was afraid I'd be "hurting" if I had to get up during the night with him. Holy smokes did I hurt! I'm not usually a wine drinker either, so next time I will stick to the beer I think. Since that night, however, he's slept through til the morning. Babies just know...

Since today is my birthday, I have to end tonight's post by thanking my mom for all she did for me when I was born 40 years ago up until today. Until you have a child of your own, you truly don't understand what your mom did for you - I'm learning you just automatically DO for your child because you are his (or her) mom and that is your job - to care for, protect, and most importantly, LOVE your child. (and worry...I know I will worry about my baby long after he isn't a baby anymore. I can see myself sitting at the window, waiting for him to come home at night...) I know I'm the person I am today because of all that my mom did for me, and I hope I can provide Tommy with the same feeling of love that I felt growing up. Not that we didn't have our spats or differences (even though I can't remember them now!), and I certainly don't expect that Tommy and I will be "scar free" either, but my mom is the first person I turn to for advice, especially these days with a baby, and she'll tell me, "he's your child - you need to decide what's best." Thanks Mom, for bringing me into this world 40 years ago today, and for all that you do for all of us on a daily basis STILL - even though we aren't little babies anymore!