2016 - Week 2

***Sorry, I don't know why my blog profile is so wacky. I have to take some time to redo it one of these days!***

Off on another week. The first full week of 2016. First week back to work from vacation, and it ended up being quite an emotional, jam packed weekend.

Monday started off rough. I was so exhausted after my late night of being sick, and it was really hard to get going. Plus, of course, getting the girls up and ready, and my two-Monday-drop-offs, I was just plain worn out before the day had really even started. Before work, I had to stop into the clinic for an ultrasound. They offer an 11-week genetic screening now, which includes a blood-draw and an ultrasound. It was so crazy to see how different the baby already looks compared to the 8 week ultrasound a few weeks ago. Like…a real baby! The measurements from the ultrasound came back good, and we found out later that all of the bloodwork came back normal as well, so WHEW! Finally, I was off to work for the rest of the day. The day pretty much flew by, getting all caught up from being off last week. Chaotic, but at least it goes by fast when I’m swamped! After work, I picked Eliza up, picked the big girls up, and grabbed them some dinner. I still wasn’t feeling too well, so I was not hungry at all, and we didn’t have much at home to make. I had to tough it out and help Olivia with a snowman craft we forgot to do over winter break, so we did that as Christian got ready for/left for work. The girls were off to bed shortly after, so I did my evening cleanup and called it a night.

A night with my girls. Doing Olivia's snowman craft, Eliza doing her favorite thing - bringing the singing snowmen into the bathroom and playing them over and over and over again, and Amelia doing some Netflixing. What a life!

Tuesday did not start off as planned. Amelia woke up in tears, in pain, complaining that her ear hurt. She’s been complaining on and off since last Thursday or Friday, and it seems to be getting worse based on her reaction, so I decided to bite the bullet and take her in. I debated just waiting and going to Urgent Care after work, but if it really hurt that bad, I wanted to just get it checked out. I got them all up and ready, dropped Olivia and Eliza off at daycare, and Amelia and I were off to Target to hit up the Minute Clinic. I wanted to get there a little early, to hopefully get her in first and have her not be TOO late for school…then, of course, the hours I found online were incorrect, so we ended up waiting even longer than expected. Oy! We finally got in, started checking in, and then I realized that, of course, I hadn’t grabbed our new insurance cards (for the New Year) yet. Thankfully, I was able to pull them up on my phone. Sure enough, double ear infection got her. They started her on some antibiotics – and, the doctor is thinking the weird “sniffle” Amelia has, that we attribute to either a motor tick, or allergies – might be an infection as well. If it is, the antibiotic should clear that up as well, and that would be a HUUUUUUUGE bonus. (fast forward, and it did NOT help with her “sniffle”. It’s still in full force, weeks later. UGH!) I finally dropped her off at school, and made my way to work. After a busy ½ work day, I stopped into Target to grab some groceries, picked the girls up, and settled in at home. Christian got ready for work, while I made some dinner and got the girls settled in. We ate, he left, and I did my evening check of the girls’ backpacks…which brought on the next “disaster”…there was a note informing me that their lunch accounts were overdrawn! FAIL, FAIL, FAIL. Parenting FAIL!!! I quick hopped on the computer and loaded their accounts up. Thankfully the money gets deposited pretty fast, so they should be fine for tomorrow, but I still felt like a complete failure. Add on the mound of dishes and ridiculous amount of laundry I have to do, and I just felt like I can’t keep up with anything. Like I’m just failing on all fronts. My hormones definitely took over at this point – when I start to feel overwhelmed like this, all I can think about is how the heck am I supposed to take care of ANOTHER kid, when I can barely handle everything on my plate as it is?!? Needless to say, I put myself to bed as soon as the girls went down tonight. This emotional, hormonal pregnant lady had reached her limit!

She binges, then she passes out. My girl.

Wednesday was another hectic (and emotional) day for us. The girls and I were off for their dental visits. Eliza had her first check-up, Amelia had her first x-rays, and the big girls got their cleanings. Eliza’s teeth are coming in really well, and our general home habits are pretty good. But, we did get in trouble for her candy addiction (which, I totally threw Christian under the bus for – he’s a total pushover). She has a little inflammation in the front, from her pacifier, so they recommend she be off of it within the next 6 months. I hope the same thing – but I dread the process right now!! Olivia was next, and she got a great check-up. She’s doing a great job of brushing, her new teeth are all coming in really well and her final molars are all through. She didn’t get x-rays this time, so we’ll find out in the summer how her watch spots are doing. Finally, Amelia…a TOTAL DISASTER!!! She got her first x-rays – she’s so small, she could not handle the machine up until now. Well, she has the same exact issue as Olivia – her teeth are so close together, that unless she regularly flossing, (which, COME ON, nobody does, let alone children!) she’s very susceptible to cavities between her teeth. Well, sure enough, the doctor counted NINE, yes, NIIIIIIINE, cavities that needed to be filled. As if the appointments and cost of it aren’t frustrating enough, she basically looked at me like the worst parent in the world, as if it’s my fault she has all of these cavities. She literally looked at me, shocked and asked me “What the heck does this kid eat” (basically insinuating that she lives off of candy or something). But, like I told her, she does not hardly eat ANYTHING…she doesn’t have a sweet tooth, our kids don’t drink pop or juice, there is no “reason” this should be happening. We left with her treatment estimate, and I seriously felt like I was going to lose it. I stopped to get them some breakfast, and finally dropped them off at daycare/school. On top of everything else, two days in a row of getting to school late, also makes me look like a wonderful parent. THEN, I get a voicemail that I’d missed while at the appointments – the heart center calling to schedule my cardiology appointment, which I was supposed to schedule weeks ago. Seriously, I’m a complete failure right now!!! I was finally off for another quick ½ of work, before picking the girls up and settling in at home. Christian was babysitting for our friends’ two kids for a little while, so they all played for a little while when we arrived home. Our extra kids were picked up, we had leftovers for dinner, Christian was off to work, and we finally settled in for the night. The girls did their reading and we did our bedtime routine (I’m trying my hardest to get into a brushing AND flossing before bed routine, we’ll see how it goes), and I got a couple loads of laundry going. Time to get this place in order!!! Tomorrow is my Friday at work, so I’m really looking forward to a fairly lazy weekend to finally catch up on some of this stuff. Maybe then I can get these hormones under control.

Ready for some dental check-ups!

What could go wrong?!

On Thursday, I woke up feeling much better. Just telling myself I need to pull it together, and get all of this stuff taken care of! The girls and I were up and ready for the day, I dropped them off to daycare and made my way to work. Finally, a full day of work! It was another chaotic, busy one though, getting everything done for the weekend. When I picked the girls up from daycare, Olivia FINALLY pulled out this gross, SUPER loose tooth that’s been hanging on by it’s disgusting last limb for weeks. I could see it was practically laying there, horizontal when I picked them up, and told her to pull that damn thing out – and she did. Then of course it was a big to-do to get it cleaned up, and all of the kids thought it was SOOOOOO awesome. LOL. I myself was completely grossed out. Finally, we loaded up the van and made our way home. We ate, Christian was off to work, and we had a pretty quiet night at home. The girls had their baths, we did their reading, watched a little TV and the girls were off to bed. After having a rough time lately, I felt like today ended pretty successfully…two days in a row of flossing, the tooth fairy remembered to show up, and I FINALLY found a very important Christmas check that I’ve been searing high and low for – I seriously thought it was gone forever, and I could’ve screamed when I finally found it. Small wins, I’m taking all small wins right now!

Today, Eliza also turned 20 months old!! Oh my, so close to 2! She weighs in at 29lbs and she's about 31.5" tall. She had her first dentist appointment yesterday, and other than being yelled at for her massive candy addiction, she's looking great! She's still wearing 24 Month and some 2T clothing, Size 5 shoes and Size 5 diapers. She's drinking from a cup like a pro, and feeding herself well (when she decides to actually eat). And her speech is getting better every day. Hi, Bye, Love You, Mommy, Daddy, Buppa (Grandpa), Milk, Sissy, Amelia, Puppy, "I Want Milk", "I Want Candy", "Come On", No, "Meow" are her most common words/phrases, becoming clearer every day. She likes to watch videos on the tablet with her sisters and follows them around everywhere they go. She loves giving me a heart-attack and climbing on the top bunk...ALL THE TIME. She's still clingy and dramatic and it's clear that she is going to be the boss!

20 months old, vs. her throwback to last year. I swear I still think of her as that little 8 month old baby!

Friday was my day off, and I had a pretty lazy day at home. When Christian arrived home from work, I brought the big girls to daycare…we got a fresh, wet coating of snow overnight, so everything looked so pretty and sparkly. Of course, not having to go to work makes it much prettier. I grabbed some breakfast for the rest of us, and settled in at home. Christian was off to bed, so Eliza and I spent the day together. She was in the BEST mood today too…we spent the day playing and laughing and just having so much fun together. I feel like she’s slowly becoming more happy in general, more independent and having more fun – which is amazing! She also ended up taking a super long nap, so I had plenty of time to watch some shows and relax. While she napped, I also ran out to take our pregnancy announcement photo. I had this perfect image in my head of what I wanted to do, and the snow kind of hindered it a little bit. It didn’t turn out exactly perfect thanks to the wetness and brightness of the snow, but it was good enough – and there was no way I was going back out and setting up all of those dang shoes again! I did a little bit of cleaning and laundry throughout the day, but nothing too strenuous. Once Eliza woke up, I gave her a late lunch and we waited for Christian to wake up. Once he was up, I got his “OK” on the announcement photo, and we officially went public. I was pretty nervous about letting people in on our news. Since I’ve been having a hard time coming to terms with the pregnancy, I was really worried about negative comments from people bring me down even further. Everybody KNEW that we were done after 3 kids, so I didn’t want to deal with any comments about that, and I didn’t want any “Oh man, I sure hope it’s not ANOTHER girl” comments, because I find that to be so rude – as if you’re incomplete without a son. Surprisingly, we actually got a lot of really positive comments and feedback. People seemed genuinely excited for us. A lot of shock and surprise, but overall very uplifting. I can’t even explain how uplifting it was. Shortly after posting, I was off to daycare to pick the big girls up. I’m friends with many of the teachers and the directors on Facebook, and a couple of them had already seen the news by the time I got there, so it was my first face to face interaction with people who had found out. Oy – I don’t know why I find talking about pregnancy with people so uncomfortable. Like it’s such a personal thing. So weird. Once home, I got the girls ready for gymnastics, while Christian and Eliza were off to have dinner with his parents, for his dad’s birthday. They arrived home shortly after us, and we told the girls about the new baby. That was quite entertaining – I included a link to the video in our pregnancy announcement post. Finally, the girls were off to bed, while Christian and I watched some Netflix movies, before passing out. I have to admit, it’s a little relieving to have our news out there, and not have to keep that bottled up anymore.

The announcement went out today - it's official!

Today's fresh snowfall!

Saturday was a pretty busy day around the house. It was time to get some stuff done around the house, get it in order. As the girls woke up, we hung out for a little while, had some breakfast and I got laundry going. Christian cleaned up the entry way and started putting plastic up on the windows. Eliza went down for a nap, and Olivia was off with my mom for her birthday lunch at the mall, so I cleaned up the girls’ room, the living room and got to work on the kitchen and dirty dishes. My mom stopped back at the house to pick Amelia up for their overnight, and I finished up my cleaning duties by collecting up the last of the Christmas decorations…now I just need to actually pack them away. We’re getting there! Christian and his friend, Lorenzo, were off to buy some “warm” stuff for the Vikings game tomorrow. Of course, as the week went on, the forecast for the game has gotten colder, and colder, and colder. And colder. I mean, I’m not sure how we’re going to survive. It’s still going to be amazing though! When they finished up, I ran to Burlington Coat Factory to buy myself a real, actual Winter coat (I’m pretty sure I haven’t owned one since high school). I settled back in at home, had a late dinner with Eliza, and she was off to bed, while Christian and Lorenzo went out to get a couple final things and grab some dinner. I watched a few shows and played on the computer for a while before bed…and went to sleep very anxious about the big game tomorrow!

The first winter coat I've owned in YEARS!

On Sunday, I was up pretty early. And pretty annoyed about it. The big girls had spent the night at my mom’s, Eliza actually slept in (as in, we had to wake her up later in the morning to leave the house), and I was up way too early. I just can’t sleep in these days! So, I got some more laundry going, did a little picking up, packed Eliza’s stuff up for the day, showered and got ready. Christian was up and in the shower as soon as I finished, and we finished getting all of our cold weather gear together. Lorenzo arrived around 10:00, so we got Eliza up, loaded up the van, and we were off. We dropped Eliza off at my mom’s…it was officially the first time we had left all three kids with somebody for any period of time, and I was kind of a bundle of nerves. I’d originally figured Eliza would nap most of the time we were away, but then she slept in so late, I knew that wouldn’t happen (luckily, my mom seemed to survive just fine – whew!). We grabbed some gas and some cash, and were finally off to the game. Traffic was INSANE as we got closer to the stadium. I thought for sure we had left plenty of time, but we were moving at a crawl for miles. Then, it was SO hard to find parking. The Vikings are playing at the University of Minnesota’s stadium right now, while their new stadium is being built, so there aren’t any ramps or massive lots like you’d usually find around professional stadiums. It was seriously so frustrating. We finally found  a meter, about ¾ a mile away from the stadium, and made the walk to the game. We ended up missing the first quarter, which was really annoying, but the Vikings were up 3-0 when we got there, so that was exciting. It didn’t feel as cold as I had expected when we arrived, but it rapidly felt colder and colder the longer we stood outside. We were pretty frozen by the end of the game, that’s for sure. The game was a low scoring one, which was predicted with the weather, but it was still really exciting, and  nerve-racking game. At the end of the day, the Vikings did themselves in. Which is usually the case. At the start of the second half, the Vikings caused this AWESOME fumble right at their goal line, which would have easily turned into a touchdown…but the ref’s called it an incomplete pass. The coach didn’t challenge the call, and the crows was LIVID about it. I really feel like that was the beginning of the end for them. Peterson, our MVP running back, had a terrible fumble, the Vikings started falling apart, and while they could’ve won the game in the final seconds with a really short field goal – our kicker missed. It was SO heartbreaking. Such an unfair end to the game, to the season. But, just another day in the life of a Vikings fan. As we say every year “there’s always next year!”.  After the game, we made the long, cold trek back to the car, and made our way back to my mom’s to pick the kids up, then finally settled in at home. Christian and Lorenzo went out to grab a consoling beer, while the girls and I settled in at home, had dinner and I started folding laundry. It seriously took me ALLLLLLL night to thaw out. Like, I went to bed still feeling cold. Seriously, chilled to the bone is a legit thing. Soon enough, the girls were off to bed, Christian was home and passed out on the couch, and I was off to bed myself. What a day!!! What a chaotic week! Hopefully next week will bring us a little less chaos!

Who's Ready for some Football?! Brrrrr!!!

As you can see, we did not get seats on the ideal side of the field...

All bundled up!

Until Next Week! XOXO