365 Days of Duran

This is the Duran life. This blog, which started in 2010, as part of the "365 Project", aiming to document a year of life through photo has morphed through the years. First into a "52 Weeks of Duran" format, and now into (pretty much) photographic documentation of our lives now. While life has caught up to me as our family has grown, photography means the world to me, and often speaks volumes beyond word, and I cherish the chance to look back on our memories, so I continue on...

Sunday, December 7, 2014

2014 - Week 49

Another Monday. Not many more left in 2014! We’re officially in the last month of 2014, how crazy is that?! Today, we were all off and running, back to reality, but it was not a smooth transition from the weekend, at all. I overslept, the kids were all dragging, it took FOREVER to get out of the door – and it didn’t help that I couldn’t find my work badge anywhere. It was just one of those mornings…just a complete mess. Luckily, once I got to work, the day settled down a bit and it actually went pretty fast, especially for a Monday. Before picking the girls up, I had to stop home quick…it’s December 1^st, which means Buddy the Elf shows up for another year of fun! Buddy is obviously inspired by Elf on the Shelf – but, we don’t really play by the rules. I refused to spend that much on the elf, so we bought a cute Target knockoff. The girls touch him and play with him…he usually brings us stuff (not toys or anything – activities…like, our annual gingerbread house, or supplies to make ornaments, etc.) or does something funny, rather than just showing up and watching over them. We’re rebels. Per usual, he showed up on Day 1 with some cookies and a note, so I helped him get all set up, picked the girls up and they were so excited when they got home and found him. Christian and Eliza arrived home for dinner…we ate, hung out, the usual. Tonight was the mid-season finale of “The Walking Dead” (well, for us) and wow, it was crazy! We’d been looking forward to it all day, so it was a good way to end a day that started off so bad!

December 1st brought the return of Buddy, our Elf!

Tuesday was a pretty quiet day – other than the fact that Eliza seems to have reverted to her habit of a few weeks ago, waking up early and refusing to go back to sleep. I feed her and lay with her and change her and do everything I can to get her back to sleep, and she just fights it with all of her might. She’ll finally fall back asleep just before my alarm clock goes off, which is just a horrible feeling. However, occasionally, like today, I then just sleep right through my alarm I’m so exhausted. One day…one day we’ll all sleep soundly and we’ll be on time for everything and life will be boring. For now, this appears to be my life. The rest of the day was pretty standard…work, daycare/school, home for dinner, baths, a little family time and bed. Should be a pretty quiet week.

On Day 2, Buddy brought the girls their Christmas Tree to decorate

Wednesday was another pretty boring day…it was my work at home day, so Christian was off to work, the girls were off to daycare/school and I settled in for the day at home. Once I logged off for the day, I did a little cleaning and some dishes before picking the girls up for a quiet night at home. Some days I definitely don’t mind not having much to report!

On Day 3, Buddy brought the girls their 2014 Ornaments.

I love our tree. So pretty.

Thursday was a LONG day. Another hectic, late morning. Work was crazy…I just can’t believe all of the work I have, ALL the time. Obviously it’s nice to be busy…makes the days go faster, and the job security is nice. But is so overwhelming when you feel like you can just never catch up. I picked the girls up, we made our way home, and the chaos continued. The girls were acting up like crazy all night, and were at each others’ throats all night, fighting about EVERYTHING. Eliza was crabby and clingy all evening. And I had a headache that just got increasingly worse throughout the day, until I was hit with a full blown migraine in the evening. As soon as Christian got home, I downed some medicine, grabbed an ice pack and had to lay down for a little bit. Oh man, it was just on one of those days, start to finish. I started feeling slightly better, and was able to help get the girls to bed. I got into my jammies and settled in to relax before getting Eliza to bed, when I realized we were out of diapers. Like, COMPLETELY out of diapers. 3 kids and that has never, ever happened before. Who lets themselves run out of diapers? So, I got myself dressed again and I was off on a late evening trip to Target. What a pain!

Buddy got a headstart doing some puzzles tonight

Friday was a pretty quiet day, thankfully. It’s my mom’s usually day to watch Eliza, but she still isn’t feeling well (she was sick over Thanksgiving last week). Christian ended up taking the morning off, so I dropped the big girls off at daycare and made my way to work to put in a few hours. I got home around lunchtime, Christian was off to work, and I spent the rest of the day with Eliza. We took a quick trip to Target to do a little Christmas shopping; otherwise we had a relaxing afternoon at home. I picked the big girls up pretty late today, milking my alone time as much as I could. We had some dinner and family time when Christian arrived home from work. After we got the girls in bed, Christian went out with a friend for a couple beers while I caught up on some shows and did some wrapping. YES, some wrapping, weeks ahead of schedule! I’ve had packages coming in all week and picked a couple of things up earlier today, so I wrapped the few things I could. I refuse to leave everything for one big wrap session this year, or until the last minute! So, I had a pretty productive evening with the house all to myself.

Poor Chuy - the cat always steals his bed - and it's hard to stand up to somebody bigger than you, LOL

On Day 5, the girls found Buddy playing Candyland with some princesses, complete with drinks and treats!

Saturday was a pretty busy day around the house. We had some breakfast, and did a little leaning up. I got a Netflix e-mail letting me know that season 3 of “American Horror Story” is FINALLY streaming – ugh, I can’t wait to start it!! We got the girls in their Christmas dresses and took our Christmas picture. This is never an easy feat…especially this year. I can’t use the camera flash because Amelia is so sensitive to the light, and Eliza doesn’t stop moving, so not using the flash usually results in a lot of semi-blurry pictures. But, we made it work. I just clicked away like crazy and we got a few that are pretty cute. Christian’s dad stopped over to help him work on the snowblower while the girls and I hung out inside. With the Christmas photos taken, I was able to order our Christmas photos and finish, and order, our 2014 photobooks. YES! I paid some bills and balanced the checkbook, I updated my shopping and to-do lists. Just lots of little tasks that needed to be done. Once Christian was done working in the garage, he came in not feeling too well. He had a chill that he just couldn’t get rid of, his head was feeling heavy. He never really got sick per se, just wasn’t feeling all with it. So, we had a pretty quiet evening. The girls kept each other pretty entertained and Eliza took a few good naps. We got everybody off to bed at a pretty decent time and weren’t far behind.

Christmas Photo Shoot!

On Day 6, we found Buddy having a tea party with the Lalaloopsy dolls. He snuck right in!

Oh Sunday. Sunday was a mess. The good, Eliza turned 7 months old!! I can’t believe it, I still feel like I was JUST pregnant with her, she is just growing way too fast. She weighs 19lbs 14oza and she’s still about 27.5” long. She’s squeezing into her 6-9 month clothes (and I mean squeezing) and she’s in Size 3 diapers. She’s pretty clingy, but overall is happy as can be and she loves to eat! She’s still nursing and gets 1-2 bottles of formula a day, depending on how hungry she is an how distracted she gets when she’s nursing. She’s had quite a few foods now; avocado, banana, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, apples…with pears and green beans coming up next. She sits on her own with no issue, plays with her toys more and LOVES to be around her sisters. She still does not roll from her back to her belly, and she hasn’t made any crawling-like movements yet (I still think it’s just because she doesn’t like being on her belly). Other than when she isn’t feeling well, she’s been sleeping MUCH better and is such a sweet, happy baby. We just love her to pieces. The bad, I woke up today in so much pain, my stomach was just killing me. I got Eliza and drug her out to the couch. I fed her, which was brutal, and then luckily Christian was feeling a little better so he could take her. The girls seemed to be doing OK, they were playing, watching some TV. Outside of feedings, Christian pretty much took care of Eliza. He ran to pick up some breakfast…I forced myself to eat some oatmeal and forced down some water throughout the day in an attempt to maintain my milk supply, but it was painful to do, and I just felt terrible. I eventually threw up and was officially down for the count, writhing in pain on the couch all day. Eliza ended up throwing up all over herself, and the bed, during her nap, so things were starting to look pretty dismal. With everything going on, Christian couldn’t really make dinner for the house, so his friend Lorenzo came over to help him pick up some pizza, Gatorade and some medicine for the house (then left as fast as he could so he didn’t risk catching anything!). The girls ate a little, but Olivia started crying that her stomach hurt. She laid down on the couch and passed out…but when Christian woke up her up to change and go to bed, she threw up all over herself and the blanket. She was off to bed, and we weren’t sure what we had in store. Eliza was throwing up little bits throughout the day…while I didn’t throw up anymore, I was still in pain all day long, not able to eat or do much of anything. We were all off to bed, and it was of course a long night. Amelia ended up throwing up in her bed during the night, then again a short time later in the bathroom. Once we finally got her back in bed, Eliza threw up again, all over me and the bed. I seriously thought I was going to lose it at this point. It was just the worst experience of my entire life. The disgusting blankets, clothing and bedding was piling up, the house I swear just smelled like sickness and death. Everybody was exhausted and miserable. It was just ridiculous, and a terrible end to the week! While trolling facebook I did see that there is A LOT of stuff going around right now, and it does not sound good – but I’m holding out hope that we were just hit with a 24-hour thing. Ick.

8 Month! What?!