I'm Still Here!

Yes, I'm still here! So sorry that I have been sooo silent for over a week! Shame on me! *tsk, tsk*

Well, I have to say, I haven't been sitting around twiddling my thumbs. A little over a week ago, hubby, little man and I piled into our car and headed north to visit my parents on the beautiful Monterey Bay. Hubby had a long work trip coming up, do we thought we would visit my family and take little man to see some of the "sights" that I grew up seeing. So, we get to my parents house and settled right in. Little man always sleeps in the pack-n-play in our room...which is always an adjustment for us, because he sleeps in his own room at our home. Well. lets just say, I hear every snore and rolling over motion and whimper and well, every single-little-noise! It doesn't make for the most restful night for me.

Then we take two days to go have some fun around town. Well, I kinda over did it carrying little man around and doing a hiking trip. So, I'm about to get into the shower when I twist or turn or did something squiffy and a sharp pain runs through my shoulder and neck.... uh-oh. I pinched a nerve in my neck! (I think, since I did self-diagnose) Oh boy! Lets just say, getting dressed was no easy task! I had to keep convincing myself that no one has ever died from a pinched nerve or from pain. I then hobbled out to the living room and proceeded to lie on the floor, using little man's boppy pillow for neck support, as I let him crawl and step and walk and play around me. Two advil and an excellent neck massage later, I was semi-mobile. No fun. Then, that night, I saw my mom's amber necklace sitting on the counter and thought to myself, "Hmmm, I wonder how that would work for me?" The next morning, I put it on and seriously, the tension seemed to just slide off of my shoulders! Now, I'm not saying it was 100% better, but it was about a 90% improvement. I looked at my hubby and mom and in disbelief told them! If I wasn't a believer in amber before, I sure am now! I am never going to take little man's off again! I have since pilfered my mom's amber necklace and have worn it every day since...yay for being able to move my neck again!



Love this necklace!

There's a line from My Big Fat Greek Wedding that I kept thinking of while my neck was giving me grief: "The men may be the head of the house but the women are the neck and they can turn the head anyway they want." Ahhh... the neck really does have so much control (and when you have no control of your neck, you realize this).  So, I sat down at my mom's computer to work on my blog while my neck was out of commission. I must have looked ridiculous sitting there, so stiff and only able to scooch the mouse about! Haha! This brings me to my second dilemma. The internet connection. (insert doom-and-gloom music here) It is soooo slow here. I mean, it is like molasses in the winter! Ok, maybe that's being a little dramatic, but, you get the point. So, I was immediately discouraged and decided to postpone blogging until I felt up to fighting the good fight with the internet. I did however, realize that I have a lot to be thankful for - my newer and faster computer and our lightning speed internet at home!

Next item on the list of distractions from blogging: Little Man. I believe that teething is to blame though. So, little man has always had a rough time teething, but this round is being particularly pesky. The other day he was unusually fussy and clingy and he would just burst into tears if I was out of eye-sight. I love being loved-on by my little man, but, I was still trying to also baby my tender neck as I was babying my baby boy. He also seemed to have sprung a leak from his mouth. There was a constant stream of drool that was accumulating on his chin, neck, shirt and whatever happened to make it's way into his mouth. We went through many burp rags that day. So, bed-time came and instead of going to sleep like he normally does, he cried and whimpered and cried and fussed and cried some more. No amount of rocking or holding or feeding or soothing seemed to comfort him. I was at my wits end.

So, I ended up quickly getting ready for bed, I held my little man and sang, "The Wheels On the Bus" to him (his current fave) and patted his back as we danced around the room. Just as he was about to nod off, I layed down in bed with him on my chest, he startled a little, but then relaxed and dozed off to sleep. Ah, sweet, peaceful sleep that was such a battle to accomplish. He soon rolled into the crook of my arm and just looked so perfect as he clutched his little monkey blankee. I couldn't sleep, I felt like a new mommy watching her baby sleep for the first time. It was so sweet and just perfect. He would whimper awake every half hour to an hour and I would rub his back and sing to him again. Then somewhere around the 3am mark, he decided to roll into a horizontal position with his feet in my neck. Not so sweet and perfect. But, I highly value a sleeping baby, so I let the sleeping baby sleep. I did not.

So, after all of that...today I finally feel like I am recovered both mobility-wise and sleep-wise to write something that is at least semi-coherent and that I can deal with the frustration of a slow interenet connection and work on a computer that is not mine and does not have any of "my stuff" on it.

That's my story and I do hope to do better over the coming months! I do not mean to be away from the blogging world for so long. I missed writing...a lot! (as you can probably tell by this lengthy post)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and look for some fun new post coming and some reviews and giveaways too! Fun, fun, fun!