Thanksgiving

We went over to my parents house for Thanksgiving. We had TONS of yummy food and I made 3 chocolate pies per my mother's request (she wanted leftovers since she LOVES my chocolate pie). I didn't take many pictures, basically just Declan eating his first Thanksgiving meal. I pureed turkey with sweet potatoes and he loved it. I didn't get pictures of it, but he loved the canned cranberry sauce and he even ate some stuffing.

Corin made a turkey hat at school (gobble, gobble) so I had to get some pictures of him wearing it.

The Teeth

I FINALLY got a good picture of Declan's 2 teeth. The second one FINALLY broke through on Nov. 12th! He loves to play with them either with his tongue or fingers.

Tongue

Declan LOVES to stick his tongue out.

Mornings

Lately, again, Corin has been getting up SUPER early, around the 5-5:30AM time!! I am SO not a morning person and with Declan being restless and whiny through the night this week, it just hasn't been good. So, instead of trying to get Corin to stay in his bedroom I let him just go downstairs in the family room and play with puzzles. He would come into our bedroom and wake me up so I would tell him to go potty, take off his nighttime undies (Pull Ups, he still pees in his sleep) and put on regular undies, but now he just does it on his own, but forgets to change undies til I get up. Sometimes he'll get his stool and get an apple off the counter since as he tells me when he wakes me up, "I just hungry". I think when he is down there by himself it is the quietest his will ever be throughout the day...well sometimes when he is down in the basement reading books he is super quiet, but anyway it is SO nice that he is so quiet so I can get another couple hours of sleep. Well this morning, he woke up SUPER, SUPER early, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was about 4:00am! I usually hear him when he gets up and sometimes he comes into our bedroom, but this morning, and I guess lately come to think of it he hasn't, he just heads downstairs. I was woke up by Declan whinning at 5:30AM and saw that the light in the family room was on, I went down to just check on Corin. He was fine, playing puzzles so I told him I was going to sleep for bit and headed back upstairs. Declan and I slept til 7:30AM and when we came downstairs this is what we saw

11/12: Shane has school on Tues and Thurs. When I woke up just before Shane left at 7AM with Declan, Corin was already up. Shane gave him breakfast and I asked what time Corin got up. Shane said he didn't know, but before he did which was 5:30AM. And Corin isn't napping when he wakes up this early.

FINALLY 80%

I like how on the King Soopers receipts they break down how much you saved and put a percentage. All of my major, successful shopping trips to Kings have been in the mid to high 70%, which is good, but I've wanted to hit higher; making a small, reachable goal of hitting 80% and todoay I was successful in my accomplishing my goal and saving money!! So, just because I want to here is the breakdown of how I made my 80% savings goal!

20 items

paid: $12.34

savings: $45.33

Did the Mega 10 promo (buy 10 participating items, get $5 off) and combined with manufacturer coupons.

Halls cough drops: 4x.49

2-$1/2 MFC

FREE

Evaporated Milk: 4x.49

2-.50/2 MFC

doubled to $1

FREE

Nestle Chocolate Chips: 2x1.49

2-.50/1 MFC

doubled to $1

.49 EACH

Playtex Livings Gloves: .99

$1/1 MFC

FREE

Betty Crocker Roasted Garlic Scalloped Potatoes: 2x.99

2-.40/1 MFC

doubled to .80

.19 EACH

Bumble Bee Tuna Pouch: .49

.55/1 MFC

doubled to $1

OVERAGE .51

Yoplait Kids Yogurt: 2x1.49

2-.35 MFC

doubled to .70

.79 EACH

Welch's Grape Juice: 2x2.49

2-.75 MFC

doubled to $1

1.49 EACH

Duracell Batteries:2x4.49 (we ALWAYS need batteries)

2-.50 MFC

doubled to $1

$1 off from coupon loaded on SooperCard

2.99 EACH

It is true that before couponing I probably wouldn't have bought some of these items (the gloves for example) to begin with, but when I get them for FREE, why not? It actually helped with getting the things that I really needed (batteries and yogurt, evap. milk and choc. chips are helpful to have on hand in food storage,Halls since cold season is upon us) for cheap! I try to make sure I balance between shopping sales and getting good deals with things that I actually need.

Not sure what to say...

He had taken off his jam-jams (pjs) to get dressed, but before doing so he put the flashlight he was caring around;"using" as he calls it, in his undies. Apparently he needed a place to put it for safe keeping since he didn't have pockets

Bust a Tooth

or 2!!

Declan has 2 teeth coming in!! 2days ago his first one, the middle bottom, starting to come in and now his other one right next to it is coming through as well. He is actually been a great baby through it, he's just wanted his pacie more often and will suck on it for long periods of time, which is unlike him, he's not much of a pacie baby. I actually thought he would break an eye tooth first on his left side, because for a LONG time, probably about 3 months, the favors that side when he chews on his fingers, but nope it was the normal bottom front teeth. I had been noticing that he was chewing on his fingers more in the front, but the slobber production has been his normal amount (one of his nicknames is "Slobber Pot" since he slobbers and drools consistently and lots). I can't capture them in a picture yet, since they just came through and aren't all the way up, but when I can I'll post a picture of his 2 teeth! This is one thing he has up on his brother, Corin didn't start cutting teeth til 9+months.

He still refuses to roll over, but he sits up really well and will be sitting up for long stretches of time, but will still fall over occasionally.

UPDATE 11/11: To keep my blog honest and real I have to add an update regarding Declan's teething adventures. I TOTALLY and completely thought when made this post that Declan's second tooth was going to poke through that day, since his first came up so fast; one day I felt the lump under the gums and the next day it was through, so I thought the second one that I could now feel was going to do the same thing and also I was trying to keep up on my blog postings. So much for both of those. His second tooth STILL hasn't poked through and I can feel it, seems to just be staying still now. It seems SO close when I feel it, but nothing is happening and because of this Declan is having a rough time with it, I think he too wants it just to come through and stop bothering him. Sat. night he slept GREAT, but now he is whinny all night long and restless in his sleep, which keeps me awake and constantly up and going into his room to give him is pacie back and wrap him back up. He has been very attached to his pacie, clingy and just over all cranky. I bought some teethers you put in the fridge to cool and some of those mess ones that put fruit in, but he doesn't like either. He seems to not like the cold, so I gave each to him and room temp and nope, wouldn't have that either, he only wants to chew on his fingers.

Prior to Sat. also he was having some BAD bowel movements, SO much that I had to pull out the prescription Nystatin Ointment, but part of that could also be due to eating some solids and so we went on the BRAT diet, well the BA for Declan. Now, we are fine, his EXTREMELY irritated bum is cleared up and now I'm going to mix applesauce with his cereal instead of pears. Corin though had a sensitive bum as well when he was little and so it doesn't suprise me that Declan has it too. Its not just bad diaper rash, its actually a fungal infection and acid bowels, so along with ointment meds I make a special bum cream.