Monday was really
just another Monday. Nothing too exciting happened, but nothing horrible
happened, so I guess you really can’t ask for much more. Christian and I were
off to work, Eliza off to my in-laws and the big girls off to school. Everybody
seems to be doing pretty well. Olivia is still really liking going to
school…riding the bus is still the best, and she’s been getting a lot of
“tickets” at school, which are given out for showing above and beyond good
behavior, so that makes me pretty proud. Amelia is doing well in Pre-K as
well…I haven’t received any notes for her since this summer, so I’d say the
structure of an actual curriculum is definitely benefiting her. Thankfully.
Eliza has been pretty adaptable and doing well in all of her environments. So,
no complaints. After work, I picked the big girls up and we were off to
Amelia’s soccer. They had a game tonight, rather than practice, but apparently
not all of the parents (or coaches for that matter) read their schedules very
well because a lot of kids showed up without their uniforms. Our team just
ended up having a fairly informal game and really just had more fun than
anything, which I think they all enjoyed actually. Meanwhile, Christian picked
Eliza up and met us at home. We had some dinner, relaxed, the usual. It always
feels good to get Monday out of the way.
On Tuesday, Eliza
turned 5 months old! Good Lord, I just cannot believe it. She is growing way
too fast, and is already way too big! Watching them grow is so dang
bittersweet. She is weighing in at 16.8lbs, officially over double her birth
weight (up 8lbs 10oz from birth), and she is 27” long (up 7” from birth). She’s
wearing about ½ 3-6 Month clothes, and ½ 6-9 Month clothes (though, we
definitely have some shopping to do), and she’s in Size 2 diapers. She has
definitely mastered the art of tummy to back rolling and there’s little to no
tummy time for her anymore because of it. She’s still a little too hefty to get
from her back to belly though. We’re starting to work on that more, and on sitting
up. She still appears to be teething, drooling, diaper rash, swollen bottom gum
and all, but no teeth have popped through yet. She laughs and smiles, all day
long, and it’s amazing. Her sleep is still hit or miss – she seems to either
sleep all night, or is up twice a night – there’s no in-between. She has not
started on any food yet, but I ordered her some NurturMe Quinoa to start her on
in a few weeks. We don’t do rice cereal/oatmeal, because it’s just filler with
no nutritional value, but Christian really wants to start her on something, so
quinoa was my compromise. She is all cheeks, chins and more rolls every day,
and she’s just so delicious. Today was kind of depressing, because I really
didn’t get much time with her. Christian got her ready this morning, it was too
cold at soccer to take her out of the stroller, and she fell asleep while I finished
cooking/ate/did the dishes. Missing out on sweet baby cuddles is a serious
bummer. Outside of that, today was pretty standard. After work, we girls were
off to Olivia’s soccer game (they were much more prepared than the Pre-K teams,
that’s for sure), and Christian went straight home to start dinner. Then, it
was time for baths and bed – pretty boring!
Wednesday was my work
from home day – YES! I ended up taking a long lunch and going to Olivia’s
school to celebrate her “star of the week” status. I brought her some McDonald’s and surprised
her in the cafeteria for lunch. She was super excited – I cherish these years
when our kids actually enjoy having us around, as I know they are quickly
coming to an end. After lunch, I joined her in her classroom to read the class
a book, and answer questions about Olivia. Well, as you can imagine, with a
bunch of kindergartners, that was pretty entertaining. There were a couple
questions…what’s your cat’s name? what’s your dog’s name? how much did she
weigh when she was born (LOL)? But, most questions were actually just comments.
Some of them made me chuckle, but some were really sweet. She’s so cute! She
has long hair! She has a lot of shirts! She’s really nice! One boy claimed she
was his best friend, and then 5 other kids said she was their best friend too.
It’s so funny; they were definitely cracking me up. After that fun, I headed back
home to finish up the work day. I picked the girls up after my workday was
complete (and after a little cleaning around the house), and we made our way home
for dinner and a quiet night at home.
Thursday, well, I’m
pretty much at a loss for what we did. So, clearly nothing too exciting. I do
know that I got some mail that sent me into an emotional tailspin. We received
a packet from the school district…I opened it up and it started off talking
about having a child that would be ready to enter kindergarten next year. I
thought to myself, “What, Olivia is already in Kindergarten, you dummies”. It
took a minute to click…nope, that would be in reference to my sweet,
still-a-baby-in-my-eyes Amelia. I don’t know why it seems to unreal that she’ll
be in kindergarten next year…she still seems way too small and way too young to
be ready for such a thing. I mean, being a summer baby, she is on the younger
side of things, but still, she’s seriously still just my baby! It was crazy and
hard to send Olivia off to kindergarten, but it oddly felt like it was time to.
Hopefully by next fall, we’ll feel the same way about Amelia. I hope she gains
some patience and some independence before then, that’s for sure! So, that was
my emotional break for the day.
In lieu of the mail, today's throwback was to a photo of Amelia, about this time, 4 years ago. My sweet baby!
On Friday, I was off
to work. I’m convinced, there’s not much worse than having to work on Friday’s
(#firstworldproblems). Olivia didn’t have school today, some kind of teacher
instructional day, so she was off to daycare for the day. They did get to wear
pajamas though, and watch a movie, AND spent the whole day with her closest
friends, so I’m pretty sure she was OK with that. After a long day at work, I
picked the girls up and made my way home to relieve my mom of babysitting
duties. They had another good day together…went on a nice long walk and I think
she got Eliza to take a nice long nap for the first time, so that’s pretty
exciting! My mom left, I fed Eliza, and we were off to MOA for the night. This
past summer, they ran a promotion where if you spent $250 in the mall over a
certain time period, you turn in your receipts for two Nickelodeon Universe
wristbands. It happened to be during the time our friends from Indiana were
here, so I did a little back to school shopping for Olivia, they gave me their
receipts, and we had enough to get the wristbands. Well, it turns out said
wristbands expire today, which we didn’t realize until a few days ago, so we
had to rush out to use them. I took them on a couple rides they could go on
together while we waited for Christian to meet us. We packed in as many rides
as we could, before the girls were worn out, and we were all starving, and we
made our way out of the mall. We decided to stop at Applebee’s for dinner, even
though it was so late. The place was so packed, it was crazy. The girls got
their food pretty quickly, and we got our appetizer, which was cold. It then
took FOREVER to get our food…by that time, Eliza was getting really fussy, and
the girls were done eating and about to pass out. So, we just asked for boxes
right away and took our food home. The guy was lucky they were so busy (even
though, I still don’t think that excuses cold food and poor service), because
in any other circumstance, he probably would not have gotten tip from us. The
girls went right to bed while we ate and watched some TV. We weren’t far behind
though.
Saturday was a
pretty low-key day. Christian had to work, so he was off bright and early.
Meanwhile, the girls had their final soccer games of the season. My mom took
Olivia to hers, while Amelia, Eliza and I were off to Amelia’s game. Amelia’s
team did pretty well, but there was one REALLY aggressive little boy on the
other team that was grading on my last nerve. Luckily, our coach was pretty on
top of it and didn’t have any issue speaking up about his behavior. Amelia
didn’t get any goals this time, but she played so well. I’m so proud of how far
she came this season. Olivia’s team, as usual, didn’t do too well. Their team
was such an anomaly to me…Olivia, along quite a few of her teammates, have some
pretty good basic soccer skills, but for some reason they just could not get it
together in games, and just got demolished week after week. Olivia didn’t end
up scoring any goals this season, which bums me out, but she is getting really
good at dribbling the balls and she can run like a madwoman! Next year her
league will be all girls, so I’m hoping she will gain some confidence from
that. So proud of my girls, they worked so hard this year. They each got a
little trophy and they think they’re pretty much the coolest thing ever. After
their games, my mom took them with her for the day, and overnight. She took
them on a drive down to Lake City to check out the changing leaves and visit my
grandma’s grave. They stopped at an apple orchard down there and hung out by
the lake for a bit before heading back to her place for the night. Eliza and I
spent the day together, relaxing, napping and being lazy. I actually woke up
with a headache that just got worse throughout the day, and was just pounding
by the time Christian got home from work. He did some more yard work, in
preparation for winter, while I rested. My mom ended up giving us some money as
a late anniversary gift so that we could go out to eat for a nice dinner. Since
she had the big girls, we decided to go out tonight (and, luckily, my headache
finally started to go away). We had a coupon for Osaka’s, a hibachi grill, so
we decided to try that out. OMG, so dang good! Definitely a great choice. We
made our way back home, and got Eliza to bed. We watched “Out of the Furnace”
on Netflix, which was not my usual cup of tea, but actually a pretty good
movie. We also, FINALLY finished the last season of “24”…I sure hope they come
out with another special season down the road, it’s just such a good show!
Eliza woke up at 10:00…figuring that was a sign that I was in for a long night,
I was off to bed as soon as I got her back to sleep. What a life!
ROLLER!!!
Our Date Night
Sunday was a much
needed lazy day. After a rough start to the night, and super early feeding, Eliza
and I ended up sleeping in until 8:30. So perfect! At that point, we got
Christian up and he hung out with her for a while so I could get laundry going.
I did a few loads throughout the day and did some general picking up around the
house…but, overall, I just tried to relax. My mom brought the big girls home
around 1:00 so we hung out for a while before I took them to swim class. Per
our tradition as of late, Christian stayed home with Eliza and made dinner. He
also did the dishes, so I knew something was up. Turns out, Mexico had a soccer
game tonight, so we wanted to go over to a friends and watch it. Seriously,
he’s not slick. So, after dinner, he was off. I got the girls to bed, one by
one, and caught up on a little TV before heading to bed. Another week down, and
time is just flying. It’s already mid-October – how the heck did that happen?!
Until Next Week! XOXO
