5/28/11 - Welcome to the Zoo

Ah, Saturday. Wonderful Saturday. The start to a nice, long, three-day weekend with my little family. What more could a girl ask for?!?

After a nice long stretch of great sleep, we had a rough night with Amelia last night. I've taken her off the Benedryl...it's been about 2 weeks, and there hasn't been any change in her snoring, breathing, etc., so I don't want to just keep drugging her up every night. So, we'll see what time tells us, but I'm thinking the Benedryl was playing a larger role in her sleeping than we though. Boo.

We woke up to pretty great weather, and knew right away that we'd be heading to the zoo for the day. I've been wanting to get there so bad, and it looked like we'd finally have good weather for it. YAY!! So, we ate some breakfast, started getting ready, and were out the door around noon. Of course, being the first really decent weekend yet this spring, the zoo was quite a mad house. But, it was fun nonetheless. Amelia was much more into the people watching than the animals, and Olivia still isn't quite into the zoo either. But, I AM!!! LOL.

After some animal watching, we checked out the rides for a little while. There was a ride Olivia was big enough to go one, the "Frog Hopper", but I was a little uncomfortable with it. She kept insisting that she go on it, and Christian decided to let her. It started off OK, but ended with her crying and quite confused. Poor thing. So, she took a ride on the nice calm train to get over that trauma, we all ate some hot dogs and mini donuts, then...the rain started. Of course! Luckily, we were just about done anyway. So, we popped into the Monkey house to do some final animal watching and see if the storm would pass over....but it didn't. So, we had a nice wet walk back to the car, packed it up, and headed home.

The storm passed quickly, and the girls were out cold for a nap when we got home from the zoo, so Christian and I took it easy for while. Once they woke up, we just ate some dinner and hung out around the house for the night. Nothing too exciting. I spent a little time on the computer, and actually caught an episode of Saturday Night Live for a chance, while Christian passed out on the couch! Like usual, we're very exciting!

Here are some pics from our trip to the zoo!

5/27/11 - Another Week Down

Friday again! I swear it was JUST Friday.

Again, I really don't have a ton to write about today. Work has been just as crazy and busy all week. I've been getting a little annoyed lately with people that don't seen to have a whole lot to do...seriously, I have plenty of work I could hand out...seriously. I've been debating having a little chat with my supervisor about it all, but haven't worked up the nerve to do it yet. We'll see. I was talking to a coworker about the fact that I'm going to have to come in on the weekend and get some work done...he mentioned the option of taking an office lap top home and saving the travel time, so I'm thinking that's a better option....send the rest of the house away for a few hours and get some work done. Maybe next weekend.

Christian worked his overtime all week again. Like usual, it annoys me, but then when I see the extra [much needed] money on the check, I'm not so annoyed!

My mom ended up bringing the girls in for a visit this afternoon, so I just took them with me and headed home right when I got off work. Amelia fell asleep on the way home, so Olivia and I hung out for a while. Christian finally got home, we ate some dinner and hung out for the evening. Olivia was out of control tonight. I don't know why she gets like that at night, but she just won't listen and acts so unruly. We need some Nanny 911, that's for sure! As I was putting Amelia to sleep, I could already hear Christian snoring away out on the couch, so it was a pretty quiet night in our house. I curled up in bed with the lap top, while everyone slept. Ahhh, alone time!

Olivia continued doing great, and tonight we're doing away with the pull ups. We'll see how she does overnight in just her underwear...fingers crossed!! Amelia did not do any walking today. She didn't want to who my mom her new talent, and she was way too tired tonight. Oh well, tomorrow is another day....I really want to catch it on video though!!

I received some fun packages this week and unwrapped them today! One is Amelia's outfit for her birthday...it's SUPER cute, way cuter in person, and I can't wait to see her in it. And, I finally broke down and bought some BabyLegs for the girls, and had them model a couple pairs...I love them! I want more...I'm going to become obessed with them. For Olivia, they are really handy with potty training...even though she's doing really good and we haven't had any issues, it's much more convenient. And it's nice for Amelia's crawling legs, and makes diaper changes much easier. YAY

5/26/11 - 10 Months Old!!

Can you believe it?!? Our little nugget is 10 months old today! It honestly feels like just yesterday she joined our family, and here she is...2 short months away from turning 1! Just when you think time is going fast...it goes faster!

Amelia is doing really great! She's beyond consistently sleeping through the night, for the past several weeks in fact. And REALLY sleeping through the night...from about 9:00/9:30 until we get her up to leave in the morning! It's amazing. When it comes to food, she basically eats whatever we eat, other then really spicy food, and obviously, the things she can't have yet (egg whites, true berries, nuts, honey, seafood, etc.)...and, from a milk standpoint, we are still going strong! 100% breastmilk, not a drop of formula, and I'm yet again patting myself on the back for pushing through another month. I'm not going to lie, I cannot wait to hang my pump up and not look at it again for a long, LONG time, but obviously knowing that I'm doing what's best for her, and something so important, keeps me going. Pumping 4 times day is definitely a chore though, and a major PITA, just in case there is anybody out there unaware of that! We continue trying to get her to drink water from her sippy cup, to start learning how to use it, but she just does not get it.

As I mentioned yesterday, she is starting to walk. She's very shy about it right now...today she would not walk for my mother in law, but walked several times for us at home tonight. She love to babble and hear herself "talk", but other than "mom" and "mama", she does not say any actual words. She definitely understands more and more of what we say to her though. And, she is mimicking our sounds more and more.

She is still in 6-9 month clothing (in fact, some items she wears are 3-6 month still!), and she's still in size 2 diapers. It doesn't look like she'll be moving up any time soon either. It works out well though because she just may get the chance to plow through Olivia's old summer clothes yet! You can tell she is filling out though. Slowly but surely, she is growing.

Other than that, just another standard day for us, work wise. We had two cans of formula left from Olivia that were set to expire on the 1st (yes, ick, this formula was purchased in December 2009...and is just now expiring). Christian stopped in to Target to see if he could get them to take them back...and they did! YAY for extra money! He then picked up the girls, we ate some dinner, then our friends Nate and Gini stopped over to catch up for a little while. It's hard not being able to see our friends much, like we used to, so it's always a nice treat when we get the chance to spend some time with them!

After they left, the girls were quickly put to bed, and another day came to an end. Looking forward to getting through Friday and a long weekend with the family. Hoping for some good weather so we can get out and about over the weekend!

Here is Amelia's 10 month photo!! Cutie Patootie!

5/25/11 - Good / Bad

Today was quite a day.

Work is stressful right now. The government shutdown looms closer and closer, and becomes more and more likely with each passing day. The thought of actually being laid off...LAID OFF, makes my stomach turn. The gist of the issue is that the governor will not approve partial budgets (like what's typically been done in the past)...he wants complete budget proposals, for all agencies. So, that's going to take a long time. And, he will not call a special session until there are some proposals ready to present...but the legislature is not even working on it at all right now. So, it's basically a stand still right now. The major sticking points are that the governor wants to raise taxes on the highest earners (a whopping 2%) and the legislature wants to balance the budget on cuts alone. Luckily the governor is a pretty big supporter of state employees, so hopefully he'll be able to stand his ground.

In the end, more and more is coming out about what will happen to us. As I mentioned, we'll be officially laid off. So, I'll be able to apply for unemployment while I'm off. And, that should kick in the week after I get my last paycheck, so I shouldn't miss out. My weekly take home will be about $150-200 less than what I take home now, but we won't be paying daycare while I'm off ($250 a week) and Christian will be driving my car to save gas ($75 savings per week), so we should hopefully be OK financially. However, I will lose our benefits. I had Christian talk to his work about it, and he can get back on his employers insurance plan in the event of my lay off...but I don't know if I and/or the girls can be added or not yet. I'm not going to lie, the idea of a little "vacation" sounds OK to me, but not under these circumstances. Hopefully June will bring some kind of resolution for all of us!

Now for the good...AMELIA IS WALKING. I mean, really walking. Not just two little baby steps and then falling over. She actually walked across the living room...in a very slow, frankenstein style, but it was walking nonetheless, and very exciting. She was laughing and so of proud of herself. We just couldn't believe it. She's been wanting to walk so badly, for weeks now, and she finally did it, out of nowhere. I would not call her a walker yet by any means, but she's certainly getting there! YAY.

So, that's my recap of the day. Good, bad, stress, excitement, anxiety, pride...all wrapped into one exhausted mama! Here is a picture of Amelia...with the fluffiest hair I've seen on her in a while. Love it!

5/24/11 - Vacation, We're Comin' For Ya!

Today was just a regular old day. Work, work, work. I picked up the girls today so that Christian could rush home from work and take care of the lawn. I don't understand it at all, but he loves doing it. Sounds like hell to me, but whatever floats your boat I guess!

I am beyond excited today because we are officially going on vacation this summer!! We are taking the girls up to Duluth for a weekend, and I've never been so anxious for a weekend getaway in my life! We're going the weekend before Amelia's birthday. Not the BEST timing, but it was the best option, and I'm not too worried...we'll have plenty of time to get ready for the party still. We're going to head up to Duluth Friday morning and come back Sunday night. I'm a little nervous about staying in a hotel with the girls...all of us in one room, not sure how that will work out, but it's not like people don't do it all the time. The hotel we're staying at allows pets too, so we may just take Chuy up with us.

Other than that, we didn't do much else today. We ate some dinner and hung out after Christian finished the lawn. And, he finished just in time because our daily rain started up just as we were eating dinner! Seriously, this weather has got to go. As if we were tortured enough by the winter from hell that wouldn't end, now it seems we are never going to have spring, or summer for that matter! We'd already had Olivia out in the pool several times by this point last year...where is spring?!?

Christian's mom managed to get one little pony tail in Amelia's hair today. While it looks pretty goofy, I still thought it was pretty cite, so I snapped a picture.

5/23/11 - Ouch

Well, today was not a great day for me. I woke up in some serious pain this morning....my neck, shoulders and back were just killing me. I could barely stand, sit or lay down. I don't know what was going on...it was as if I'd done some HARD labor all weekend long, but I hadn't done anything. I ended up calling in because I knew I wouldn't be able to sit at my desk all day. So, Christian took the girls to his mom's house and was off to work, while I laid back down for a while (actually, like another 4 hours! LOL).

I finally rolled out of bed around 10:30...still not feeling too great, but thought getting up and at em' might help me. So, I ate some "breakfast", and started on a little, LIGHT, spring cleaning. I tackled the girls' room first, taking out all of the winter sweaters, and going through the summer clothes I've been collecting for Olivia. I still need a few things for her, but I've made a good dent so far. I ended up doing a lot of reorganizing in their closet and filled up a trash bag or two. I successfully emptied the changing table (which we were just using as storage/shelves), so we can sell that. We're going to be selling a few big items on craigslist...the changing table, the swing we have, the bouncer seat, possibly the bassinet. Time to do some clearing out!

After I finished their room, I took to the bathroom...going through expired medicine, cleaning out our medicine cabinets. The usual spring cleaning kind of stuff. I finished up by going through the hallway "closet". And, finally called it a day. Everything took me much longer than I expected thanks to the pain, but I got a decent amount done.

Once Christian arrived home, we had some tacos, played outside with the girls for a little while, then called it a night. Hopefully I'll wake up refreshed and back to new!

5/22/11 - Stormy Sunday

Today was just a pretty relaxed, standard Sunday. Thanks to the late night, the girls slept in until 8:30 this morning! That was a nice treat! Amelia did end up waking up last night around 4:00 to eat though...after a good week or two so of them both sleeping through the night. I can take a night here and there though if that means more nights of sleeping straight through! And, dare I say it, I do believe we can officially call Olivia potty trained. She has not had an accident in the last week. We did resort to using pull-ups for bed time and when we're out (but only after the first week of hard core training), and we're still using them for bed time, but she's woken up dry all but one morning since we started potty training. She is not interested in her stickers or M&M's anymore, so I suppose that's a good thing. She started insisting on using the actual toilet when she goes earlier this week, so we put her potty seat on the toilet, and she has her stool, and she's been doing great with that. And, she LOVES washing her hands, so hopefully that sticks. All in all, things went great, and I'm excited to only have one in diapers now!!! WHOO HOO!

The rain was on and off all day and night today...along with the continuted humdity. I'm not complaining through because on the north side of the cities, they were hit with tornadoes and much worse than us! It's scary because growing up, it was SO RARE for tornadoes to hit the actual cities, they always stuck more to the rural areas, but it's becoming more and more common for them to hit in the cities. They said on the news today the US as a whole has hit 500 deaths by tornado this year, and this is by far the earliest that has ever happened. Very scary, and very sad.

Olivia and I braved the rain and were off to Target this morning for our weekly shopping. I have more and more friends becoming coupon and savings obsessed, and it's really inspiring me to follow in their footsteps. With Amelia nursing less often and being easier for Christian to handle, I think I might try harder to shop the deals and clip coupons. We'll see if I can stick with it though!

While the girls napped, I did a few loads of laundry and we pretty much just hung out. Christian was feeling pretty crappy after his night of drinking last night, so he was not very energetic. Too bad, so sad! He seems to forget we have two very young children at home, and they have a mother that will not let daddy lay around and do nothing all day when he decides to party it up. Poor guy! So, we took it easy most of the night...watched the news coverage for a while, watched a couple kid movies...why, when the kids don't even pay attention to the TV, I have no idea.

Amelia learned how to open her containers of "treats" today...and I found her helping herself to apple wheels! LOL