Agree with Trish, I've got one like that right now and my firstborn was the same. Once they can sit up and crawl, they're much happier. But now junior has graduated to pulling up and is getting frustrated when he can't cruise! ROFL! Oh well! It's a phase, he's not spoiled. He's normal. And yes, your house looks like the aftermath of Hiroshima(like mine), it's frustrating at times, but that won't last forever. Take a deep breath and remind yourself how quickly this time passes. Enlist your dd's help in playing with him. Change rooms and toys frequently. Start dragging safe items out of drawers in your kitchen (utensils, Tupperware, etc.) and make a messy pile on the floor and let him have at it while you load the dishwasher. Or do the same with him sitting in the highchair, TALK with him while you do things.. Have him sit IN the laundry basket with the laundry while you fold. Give him a gentle ride every couple of minutes. Learn how to SLOWLY do things with him. You are now facing one of the unknown to working women challenges of this age. How to get something, anything done while they're awake (Btw, I"ve been a WM too...). Some days it will work, and some days it just doesn't and 'baby' is the only thing that you do. These days, I've got far more of the latter than the former. Dont let this get to you. Get a baby sling. You can walk items back and forth putting them away with him in the sling and one arm holding him. Yes, it's much slower, but it will entertain him somewhat and some things will get put away. Slings are also great for your back as opposed to carrying Mr Two Tons of Fun inyour arms. It's less exhausting. If he sits up well, get one of those backpack carriers. You can even vaccum with those puppies... Enlist help. Give a high school student a job by having them come over for an hour or two, twice a week to play with the baby while you bang out chores. Have a friend come over to do the same once a week (trade off if she has a baby too). Do the same thing with DH. I always give him baby duty after dinner (they play and then take a bath) and I run around trying to do all of the things that I couldn't get done during the day. I also send him to the video store sometimes with the four year old AND the baby, another little break. Get some sing a long videos..Sing along! Teletubbies too... Stick him in the sling and dance together to YOUR favorite music. Take him for a walk in the neighborhood. TALK. Talk about everything that you're doing and why. Raspberries on teh belly. Let him roam naked a bit (they love that). This Little Piggy...Play in the bathtub and watch the tornado go down the drain. Splash..Play Kiss the Baby if you have a fulllength mirro. Hold him standing near the mirror and make faces..then say "kiss the baby", while you "kiss the Mommy" (can kill 20 minutes that way, easy!). Hang out in the five year old's room. Different scenery. Let him play with any of her toys that are safe. Get more active baby toys. Fisher Price has a "whirlin twirlin garden" that I got ds for Christmas. It's loud and annoying but they love it if they can sit up well. They lunged for the spinning wheels, the stackable blocks and knowck the blocks over..You stack, he knocks. Repeat. Get some stacking blocks that are soft and colorful. Do the same. Make crashing sounds! :) Make a basket of baby toys or strange household items, sit it next to him and let him pull out a toy at a time. OR let him dump them. Pt them back, let him dump them again. Read very simple books. Good Night Moon...Hello Baby. Talk about the pictures and how anything is like him. Pull out your camera and take pictures. Take videos... Play on YOUR bed. Peekaboo with a cloth diaper. Take a ride in the car and get the heck out of the house. Go mall-walking. This is a very good shopping age (but not a good driving age, stay near home). "Zoom" with the stroller. Put him in the high chair and give him kitchen things to play with...you do dishes. Give him a popsicle without a stick. BATH TIME after! LOL! Give him pots and pans and metal utensils to bang with... It's all about being creative. Kid is bored. You're frustrated. If you feed your need, kid gets frustrated. You're bored...Remind yourself that this time is fleeting. By his first birthday, he won't want you to pick him up at all, he'll be too busy! You're going to be busy then too, keeping him safe! Btw, this isn't about having 'coping skills'. He's too cognitively immature to have coping skills. There is nothing wrong with him. This is about his developmental age and his personality (more of the former than the latter). Dont be quick to label him. He's a smart cookie. He knows what he wants and babies at this age want MOMMA. I know it's hard to be the only answer at this point, but again, this time is fleeting. Even if he turns out to be an intense kid, he won't always need you to entertain him. Enjoy him now while he still wants to hang with you! And don't forget to get help to have small breaks. Even an hour to yourself can be bliss and gas up your tank.

Hey guys, Thanks to all that took the time to answer. I appreciate it. I know my post was long and I'm not very good at communicating this way. Yes, costs are a consideration... but not the main thing. We have had communication "issues" in the past with this vet and her office staff and we are trying to rectify this. Although, I don't think we are getting anywhere. For instance, when we took the new pups in for the second set of shots (the rescue shelter had given the pups the first set of shots, but we missed the time frame by 6 days (it was unavoidable on our part) so the vet insisted that the first shots wouldn't count). After the exam she sent in a vet tech to finish up and we specifically asked what would be needed on the next visit for puppy shots (what we considered the 3rd set but the vet said they were the second set) and we were told that there was no charge for the actual visit because there was no need for an exam, it was considered just a follow up visit, and then given a list of shots needed. I had it figured at 57 dollars... and that is after i told them that it wasn't just the money due that was the problem, it was not knowing ahead of time and we are not willing to face surprise charges (when possible, of course, we are not talking about emergency situations or diagnostics). So... here we are with the pups in the exam room, on time, according to the vets strict shedule for time allowed between sets of puppy shots and just to be doubly sure I mention this to the vet tech who sees us and the pups before the vet does. She tells me there must be some confusion (picture heavy sighs and eye rolls from DH and I.. here we go again) and I explained to her that the confusion must be on their part, not ours, because we specifically asked on the last visit about this. She tells me this is "impossible'. I tell her it is not only possible but, sadly, highly possible and par for the course. Geesh! She then asks me who the vet tech was on that visit. I tell her I don't know her name (it's hard to keep track, there are new and different employee's, including this one, every time we visit and this is, again, after we have told them that we want all communication on record and that we neeed to know what to expect, moneywise, beforehand... surprises are no longer accepted) but it should be on the record, no? Silly me, eh? We tell her we want to speak with the vet.. she scurries off and comes back just as quickly...says things will be straightened out. Starts to leave again, as she does we spot the vet tech from the previous visit. We tell her that is her, she's the one that gave us the info. Much wispering and not so whipering conversations going on in the hall. At this point it is bordering on the absurd. I open the door and ask the vet to talk to us.. she says take it up with the office manager and walks away. My DH was boiling. Anyway, office manager tells us same thing... it is impossible that anyone could have told us this. At this point door is opened and i see the vet again... she tells me that this is not up for discussion and that if I don't agree with the exam fee and a few other puppy shots that we were, also, told previously that were not needed, that we can go to petco! I was furious and told her that even petco has scheduled shot days and if we left now, the pups would, again, be off the allowed puppy shot period, thus forcing us to negate the 2nd set of shots just as we had to negate the first set. Her reply was that a week or so wouldn't matter!! My DH had taken us to the vets office directly from work... he works construction, very hard work... he had not even had a chance to take his boots off. He was tired to begin with. Now he was exhausted and pis*ed, too. We gave up in sheer frustration. What was supposed to cost 57 dollars now costs us 147 dollars! Ugh! We didn't even have 147 dollars. It simply wasn't in the budget for that week. Don't forget, we did try to budget for this. Also, on the Rimadyl thing, I struggled with the issue when Toby needed it. I knew it was a risk but he was in so much pain that if there were no relief I would have had to put him down. He was crying at night and could never find a comfortable position. The Rimadyl was a miracle drug for him. My concern for the pups is because the vets office says that there isn't much risk for young pups. I'm not sure I believe that. And I do know that there are lots of other meds out there. What I need to know is which ones to ask for and which ones will work with less risk. There, surely, must be standard meds for post surgical pain? As to folks who say that the pups won't need pain meds? Maybe not for 5 to 7 days...but I do believe that they will need some pain meds. I don't subscribe to the thought that they (animals) don't need them even for such things as dew claw removal, neutering and tail docking (as newborn pups or older) and such. I remember when hospitals routinely did circumcision (no anestectic) on human babies. I didn't understand THAT thought process then, never mind that it came from doctors. It took a nurse to prove just how excruciating the pain actually was/is. She instinctively knew that the cries from these babies were cries of pain. Nobody listened to her. She taped recorded the different cries of babies. Clearly, you could hear the terror and pain in the cries. It seems so foolish to me that doctors would think otherwise. I know that when I had abdominal surgery I was very, very sore and in pain for more than 24 hours. I won't over medicate them. I'll observe them and see what they need for how long. But I also won't under medicate them. Hey, maybe I will end up taking the pups somewhere else. Still, I'd like to know ahead of time what pain meds are effective and not risky. Thanks again, Silly

I sat in court last week (haha, they issued a bench warrant for BM's arrest because she didn't show up for TWO hearings... the first for DCSS ~requesting an order that she seek work since she has not paid in over 6 months, the second ~ a contempt DH filed for her not paying her half of SD's medical bills) but being so close to Christmas... lots of the cases were about that. It was really pathetic to watch two people fight over how to split up the kids' Christmas day. One mom wants until noon, the dad wants them at 9am. I remember splitting it with my son's father & once, his wife came outside & assaulted me during the exchange... cops were called & of course nothing happened because she told them I hit her... they offered to take both of us to jail or do nothing. It was NOT the way any of the kids should have to spend the holiday... my son or the other five kids in the car that witnessed it. It is just so much better for the kids to spend the day with one parent & celebrate the holiday with the other parent on a different day. After the 'cops on Christmas' incident, that is what I did. and of course we had to get an order for every other year so we no longer split the holiday at all. We had to do the same for Thanksgiving but now that he's in his 20's, I look back and it was more harmful for HIM to split up his days. When the parents get along, I think it can work out fine.. but if they don't, it will ruin a kids holiday so what is the point of even getting them? I see many parents doing it for themselves, because THEY have an expectation of how they want their holiday to be. They are not thinking about what's best for the children. The sad thing is when one parent is going to see relatives for a holiday or vacation, that may be getting together from far away & they only have that one opportunity to see them but the other parent won't let them go.. it's the children that suffer. I see lots of that too. For that, there is no answer except that sometimes we have to sacrifice so the child isn't placed in a situation that makes it worse for them... and know that when they grow up, they will see through it. And there's no guarantee that they ever will see the truth. My son is almost 24 & is trying to plan part of his Christmas weekend with his dad, whom he hasn't spoken to since before he was deployed. We don't even know if he's incarcerated or not (he's been in & out of prison for many years) but my son has the hope that his dad will step up to be a dad to him & a grandpa to DGS. I had to talk to him when I was getting guardianship of DGS... he actually told me that he's fine with it as long as I allow him to see DGS when he wants. I said that's fine, anytime you want to see him just give me a call. That was several months ago.. not one call. (well, first he wanted me to agree to an every other weekend visitation schedule... and I said "you're going to come get him every other weekend?" and then he changed it to "let me see him when I want." I think he just wanted to see if he can engage me in a battle but when I refused to fight over it, he went away.) My stepmom always said, "kill 'em with kindness" because they thrive on conflict.

Seeing this really shows the resemblance more than I saw before! Wow...they look so much alike! How cute....you need to have these framed now....and I see a cool scrapbook page! have you started her scrapbook yet? I am so far behind!!LOL....jumping into Kayla's soon and she's not even here yet!