So last week Sweet Pea started getting a little rash on his bottom. No big deal. All babies get diaper rash. So we ran to the drug store and got some butt paste to cure the problem. Each day, instead of getting better, the rash got a little worse. Needless to say we were puzzled. This had never happend. The series of steps is get a rash, put on butt paste, the rash gets better.

Even though we felt silly about it, we took him to the doctor yesterday. We figured if we waited longer we would be out of state for the holidays and have no where to go if it really got bad. Waiting for the doctor I felt really silly. Who goes to the doctor for a little rash?! 

Well I sure am glad we went. It turned out that Sweet Pea has a form of strep. Strep can come in forms other than in the throat. This particular kind comes in the form of a rash. But I am glad we went because it turns out this is very contagious and people can actually get strep throat from it. And if we had waited it would have gotten worse. Yikes! So we are now on daily antibotics, Sweet Pea’s very first one, and a cream. Oh the life revoloving around daily medication.

We were just talking about last Christmas and thinking about how different this one will be. Last year Sweet Pea was just six months old. He was still nursing round the clock and not too interested in solid foods. In fact, after trying rice cereal for what seemed like forever we gave up on it and just mushed up a banana. That got him interested. Who would want rice cereal when we know there is something better out there? And what is Christmas? That kid had no idea something special was going on. He just got passed around to various family members and snuggled.

This year will be different. I am anxious to see what his reaction will be to the Christmas tree and all the decorations. I can’t wait to see him fumble with the wrapping paper and then only want to play with the box and not the toy. This year he won’t quite know why we do it, but he will know that something is different. Something is special. This year both mommy and daddy will have gotten a whole night’s sleep beforehand. I miss the days where it was all snuggle’s, but I am excited about the boy he is turning into.

I came across this article a little while ago and have to say I am a little disturbed. The article feature’s a family who named their child Adolf Hitler Campbell. The family was trying to purchase a birthday cake for their son and was denied because of his name.

Why in the world would you name a child Adolf Hitler, other than to make some sort of political/social statement?! This poor child is going to go through life with a terrible crutch just because his parents are too wrapped up in their egos to see the effects this could have on a kid’s life. I realize that as Americans we have the freedom to name our children what we want,  but we shouldn’t do it just to make a point. We can’t just “forget the past” as this father would have us do. Adolf Hitler was a terrible man and now this poor kid is going to be associated with him his whole life. All because his parents want to make a statement. It’s almost like they are asking for people to be critical of them, just to be able to pitch a fit and say we need to be more tolerant.

The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child’s full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance. Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the Greenwich ShopRite, but with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article over the weekend on their flare-up over frosting.

“I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they’ve been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past,” Heath Campbell said Tuesday in an interview conducted in Easton, on the other side of the Delaware River from where the family lives in Hunterdon County, N.J.

“There’s a new president and he says it’s time for a change; well, then it’s time for a change,” the 35-year-old continued. “They need to accept a name. A name’s a name. The kid isn’t going to grow up and do what (Hitler) did.”

Deborah Campbell, 25, said she phoned in her order last week to the ShopRite. When she told the bakery department she wanted her son’s name spelled out, she was told to talk to a supervisor, who denied the request.

Karen Meleta, a spokeswoman for ShopRite, said the Campbells had similar requests denied at the same store the last two years and said Heath Campbell previously had asked for a swastika to be included in the decoration.

“We reserve the right not to print anything on the cake that we deem to be inappropriate,” Meleta said. “We considered this inappropriate.”

The Campbells ultimately got their cake decorated at a Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania, Deborah Campbell said. About 12 people attended the birthday party on Sunday, including several children who were of mixed race, according to Heath Campbell.

“If we’re so racist, then why would I have them come into my home?” he asked.

The Campbells’ other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.

Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because “no one else in the world would have that name.” He sounded surprised by all the controversy the dispute had generated.

Campbell said his ancestors are German and that he has lived his entire life in Hunterdon County. On Tuesday he wore a pair of black boots he said were worn by a German soldier during World War II.

He said he was raised not to avoid people of other races but not to mix with them socially or romantically. But he said he would try to raise his children differently.

“Say he grows up and hangs out with black people. That’s fine, I don’t really care,” he said. “That’s his choice.”

With my mom in town we have been able to do a few crafts. Yesterday we decorated a boring lampshade and today we made Christmas trees using Sweet Pea’s feet! We originally wanted to make Christmas wreaths using his handprint, but he would not let us paint his hand. So we went for the feet! Here is Nana painting his feet:

Here we are stamping it on the fabric:

Here are the two trees:

We used his little fingerprint to make ornaments and garland on the tree:

Here are the two trees with finished garland:

Here is Nana painting the star stamp to go on top of the tree:

Here is Nana stamping the star:

And here are the finished trees!! They turned out awesome!

My mom is going to take them home and make them into pillows or wall hangings. That way they can be decorations for years to come!

My mom came into town yesterday for a visit. She hadn’t seen the apartment since the family helped us move in. Therefore, the last time she saw it boxes were stacked in every room to the ceiling. It was fun for us to walk room to room (which didn’t take long) and look around. She was impressed. Well mostly. When we ran an errand to the fabric store it was there that she informed me that my lampshade could use a little sprucing up. So we picked up a adhesive lampshade, some fabric, and some trim and made a new one!

We started out by putting the fabric around the lampshade:

Then we folded all the edges down and glued them under:

Then we glued the trim to the top and bottom:

And voila! We made a lampshade! It was really easy and only took about twenty minutes to make. The only sad part is you really do need two people to do it. One to hold things in place the other to glue. But we had fun making it!! And my living room doesn’t look quite as dull.

My hubby told me this joke tonight:

Do you want to hear  a dirty joke?

Mr. Johnson fell in the mud.

Do you want to hear a clean joke?

He took a bath with bubbles.

Want to hear another dirty joke?

Bubbles is the girl next door.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

My parents have a cat named Midnight. I remember when they got this cat. I was in high school at the time and we were all very excited about it. Much to our disappointment this cat was not a loving cat. He doesn’t want to sit in your lap or be petted. He doesn’t want to be loved on at all. All he wants is food in his food bowl and the ability to go outside whenever he wants. He is what you would call a loner. As a matter of fact, the very first time my hubby came to my parents house the cat bit him when he reached out to pet him. This cat is not to be messed with.

Sweet Pea loves animals of all kinds. At this point he has no words in his vocabulary but he can tell you tons of animal sounds. One day a few months ago, Sweet Pea entered the cat’s domain and started petting him. I was shocked. Now every time he sees the cat he wants to pet him and pick him up and the cat lets him! We are all very baffled by this. Of all people, the baby, the one who is the roughest, is allowed to pet him. We don’t let him do this for very long because we know the cat’s temperament just doesn’t like it. But it is still amazing who this skittish cat has picked to let come near.