3/22/10 - Shopping Spree

OK, not really a "spree", but close enough in our terms! After work today, we headed to the Mall of America for some shopping. I needed a few maternity clothing essentials, and we needed to get Olivia her Easter Dress. We walked into the mall, and were immediately detoured into a toy store. We picked up a couple cheap toys for her...you can never have enough toys!! Then, we were off to the food court for some quick dinner. Olivia greatly enjoyed her chicken taco bits from me, and a little Chinese from dad :) And, she washed it down with a little of my Orange Julius...mmmm, I love Orange Julius!

After dinner, we were finally off on our mission. First, to Carter's. We found the perfect Easter dress! It's SOOOO cute, I can't wait for her to wear it! And, of course, picked up a few other items. I swear, I'd love to have one of everything in that store. I'm an addict for sure...Finally, we were off to Motherhood Maternity. I found a couple pairs of jeans (in my opinion, their jeans are the only ones worth buying), and they were on sale...Bonus! They also had a few cute shirts on sale, so I had to grab a couple. This is one reason having babies in opposite seasons is NOT cool...all of my late pregnancy maternity clothes are winter clothes...now I need summer clothes! It's never ending. Unfortunately, for him, we didn't get time to go jean shopping for Christian. Oops, maybe next time :)

3/21/10 - Ah, Sunday

It's Sunday...another packed one on top of that! But, it was a really fun day. We were up bright and early, playing and all that normal stuff. Christian got up, broke out the griddle and whipped us up some breakfast...a REAL breakfast. YUM. Then, it was time for me to jump in the shower and get ready. I was invited to join the BFF and a group of people at a Let's Dish party. I'd never done it before, and of course was nervous (new=scary). Basically, every month this place has a menu with tons of dishes to choose from. You pick the dishes you want to make, and go in where they have everything set up. They have stations where you make everything, and each station has all of the ingredients you need. You pack everything up, then take it home and freeze it for future cooking. Each dish serves 6-8 people, and they have a great variety of dishes to choose from. It was actually a lot of fun. The prices seem overwhelming at first, but when you see the food, see what you get, it's totally worth it. I'm thinking we'll need to set up a big party in the future! I didn't have my camera with me, so I'm really hoping the pictures are posted soon so I can steal them and post them!

We were there for about 2 hours, then were on our way home. My dad and stepmom ended up coming down and taking us to dinner, which was a nice surprise. We headed over to Applebee's, and Olivia had a very good time. She played hide and seek with the people in the booth behind us the whole time, so she was plenty entertained :)

After dinner, we went home and finished up some chores. I was on laundry duty the rest of the night, and Christian was responsible for Olivia entertainment. The night went well. Now, let's see if we can get another night of good sleep in!! Fingers crossed!

3/20/10 - YAY Saturday

Today was a fun filled Saturday. We spent the morning at home together...we were supposed to go off shopping for clothes and an Easter dress, but decided hanging out at home was much more fun....so that we did. We spent the morning tearing apart the house, making a mess and just having a good time...some much needed family time. Olivia went down for a nap...a REALLY long nap, which was very nice.

After nap time, we were off to the Madrid's for the afternoon/evening. They did some grilling for all of us, and we played outside for a bit. It was really sunny and nice, but also chilly and windy, so we didn't spend a ton of time out there. After some playing, and some dinner, we dyed some Easter eggs (hopefully they'll hold up for a couple weeks!). The girls still aren't totally into it, but it's fun to have the tradition. Kelly found this good little contraption you lock the eggs inside...no mess, easy cleanup, and the girls can actually help, so we picked one up as well. After egg dying, we just played for a bit longer, then headed home for bed time.

Olivia was pretty exhausted, so we got a really good night of sleep. That's actually 2 nights in a row of decent sleep....I really hope it holds up!! Guess we'll see :)

3/19/10 - The Big Day

Today is the day...the big surprise!!! I was home with Olivia all day. It's my usual day to work, but since my mom is coming over to watch Olivia so we can go out, I didn't want her to have to watch her all day as well...so we switched days. Olivia was tons of fun today...she kept me on my toes from the time she got up, so it was pretty exhausting.

My surprise reveal didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped. I bought Christian tickets to see George Lopez...he's our favorite comedian. We got into George after having Olivia...his sitcom was on Nick at Nite ALL night long...so every time we'd get up for a feeding...we'd watch George. I knew he'd really want to go, but when he found out about the show (after I'd bought the tickets) I told him no way could we spend that much...hoping to throw him off. I put the tickets in an envelope, wrote a little message on the front, and taped it to the door so he'd see it when he got home. I anxiously watched for him to get home, and watched him come in, waiting to see his reaction. I was like a giddy school girl. He waltzed in, like nothing was going on. I was looking to see if he'd opened his present...and nope, it was nowhere in sight. He walked right in the door, not even noticing the envelope with BRIGHT green writing on it, at eye level. I was so mad. I quickly pointed him back to the door, he opened it up and was very excited. He jumped in the shower, my mom showed up, and we were off for the night. We haven't been out together, just us, in SOOOOOOOO long, I was very excited.

We stopped at Chipotle for a quick dinner. We'd never been to this Theatre before, and you never know what traffic will be like getting into Minneapolis, so we wanted plenty of time. We got there, REALLY early, and anxiously waited for the show to start. Another pregnant couple sat right next to us, so we passed the time chatting about our soon to be babies, which was really fun. The show opened with a surprise opening act...Bryan Kellen...and he was HILARIOUS!! Seriously, you have to check some of his stuff out on YouTube or something, he could have his very own show in my opinion. Then out came George...and it was a great show! Well worth it, I'm so glad we got a chance to go!

After the show, and after getting lost trying to get out of Minneapolis (like usual), we met up with our friends, John and Michelle, for a bit. It's nice to actually get a chance to catch up with some friends....it's getting harder and harder to do as time goes on.

All in all, it was a VERY great night, and something we definitely needed!

3/18/10 - The Usual

Well, you know the theme...it was Thursday...just another Thursday! Although, for the second week in a row...it's my "Friday", so that's good. It was just another day of the usual....work and home. Tomorrow I get to reveal my big surprise for Christian's birthday, and I just can't wait!! I kind of cheat with birthday presents for him...I like to get him things that also benefit me! I know, it's kind of rude, but whatever...I think it's smart :)

One thing about Olivia...she's the most persistent child I've ever seen in my life. She does NOT give up, on anything. If she wants to get up on a chair, couch, etc...she will. If she wants to get something open...a can, a childproofed cupboard, etc...she will. If she wants to fit into a small space, a box, etc...she will. Maybe because it's something we've always encouraged. We don't jump to her rescue, or help her all the time...we encourage her problem solving skills and her indepence, letting her figure everything out for herself. Today, her goal was the lays chip canister. I'll admit, in this case, she wasn't breaking into Fort Knox or anything, but she worked at it until she could get in there. So, we rewarded her with a rare snack and let her have a chip or two :)

3/17/10 - PART 2

First of all...our Poll has officially closed, and it seems the majority has agreed with me, 10 to 6, that we will be having a boy!! YAY :) Now, I've put up a new post...PLEASE VOTE!! We have until 3/26 to decide if we're going to find out baby #2's sex, let's see what everyone thinks!

Now, being that I really don't care about St. Patrick's Day, I forgot all about it this morning! Once we all got home for the day, I remembered I'd picked up some headband thing from the dollar spot at Target for Olivia, so we had to snap some pics. That was the extent of our celebration, but I thought I should share them!!

Also, Olivia had officially outgrown her boots, her ONLY pair of shoes, so Grandma walked her over to the shoe store today and surprised us with her first pair of tennis shoes!! And Olivia LOVES them, she things they are very cool and was very excited to show them off :) Had to include a pic of those as well!!

3/17/10 - 21 Weeks!

Here we are, another week down, and just as unbelievable as the last! 21 Weeks...whoa. I was thinking this morning...it is 19 week until my due date...it sounds like a lot, but in 10 weeks, my weeks will be in single digits already. That's just crazy to me. I remember with Olivia I didn't think January would ever come...it seemed like it was just some mysterious month that didn't really exist. This time, I swear July is right around the corner, and it just comes faster and faster.

Still feeling good (other than the extreme lack of sleep). Baby is getting VERY active, way more active than Olivia ever was. Monday morning, as I was trying to sleep in, baby had different plans for us! It's such an amazing feeling though, I will gladly take as many kicks, punches and tumbles as I can in this short amount of time!

We still haven't had a good "name talk" yet or anything like that. We're taking a much more laid back approach this time. I do have a list of names that I like, boy and girl, so I guess first step is seeing what Christian thinks of those! I think we are pretty set on a girl's name though...even though there are others I like, Christian seems pretty stuck on our second choice name for Olivia. For a boy, we do know that the middle name would be Samuel, after Christian's dad. Either way, I'm sure there will be many discussions about it :)

3/16/10 - Sleep is for Losers!

Yes, that is what I say to myself to get through the day...sleep is for losers, for the weak in fact! Seriously, who needs it?? OK, really, *this* lady needs it, badly!

Olivia started sleeping through the night really early on, at 6 weeks old. She was like clockwork, for months. She stopped when she got to the point of needing real food to fill her up, so once we started her on baby food, she again went back to sleeping through the night. But, the last few months have been really touch and go. She'll go a few nights, without a peep, then all of a sudden give up on it. We are in the midst of a REALLY bad stretch right now. I think what's most frustrating about it is that Olivia doesn't cry...she SCREAMS, at the top of her lungs. You just cannot leave her to soothe herself, because it's literally torture, and she won't stop. And, with her "needing" me to put her to sleep, that means I'm the one getting up dealing with it, and I need some serious R&R! I'm at such a loss, I don't even know what to do. The only thing I can do is pray that it's her molars trying to poke through, and hope that it happens soon. I'd like a few weeks, maybe a couple months, of real sleep before baby gets here, that's all I know!

So, sleep gods, if you are listening by chance...please send some sleep dust our way, soon! Until then, Diet Dew will remain my best friend!

Here is a picture from spaghetti dinner tonight...even with the lack of sleep, this lady puts a smile on my face every day!

3/15/10 - Busy Monday!

Today was a busy day all around!! Work was busy, home was busy....busy, busy, busy!

The day got off to a REALLY bad start. Olivia seems to have given up on sleep. In addition to that, Christian is usually the one who puts her to bed, and gets up during the night if she wakes, but for some reason she seems to only want me to put her to sleep these days. So, we had a late night putting her down, and a really long middle-of-the-night wake up call. I was so exhausted, I ended up calling into work for a few hours so I could sleep in a little bit. I REALLY hope this doesn't become a regular thing for her!

I didn't get a chance to do my weekly Target shopping yesterday (plus, it was way too nice out to do it anyway!), so I was off to Target right away after work. Then, we took Olivia out for a nice little walk. It was a little chilly and windy by the time we got home and outside, but it was nice to get her out for a while. There were a couple true Minnesota Geese on the lake by our house...the lake that is half ice/half REALLY cold water. That didn't keep them from going for a swim! And, Olivia was very interested in them :)

3/14/10 - It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Yes indeed, it was officially BEAUTIFUL outside today, and we did get out and enjoy it, for a while anyway. Olivia had a pretty rough night after a long, late evening last night. She was up, VERY upset, a few times, and up early (even with daylight savings time...), so it was a pretty crabby morning for her. She ended up getting VERY upset because she wanted to go outside, but us being her mean parents, weren't prepared to get her bundled up and go out. Oh man, she threw the biggest fit to date. I ended up getting her calmed down and down for a nap...which lasted 3 WONDERFUL hours. We each showered and got ready for the day while she napped of her anger. Once she was up, we were off to Christian's parents' house for the afternoon. They were grilling, and we don't pass up free food :) Also, his sister and her girls were going to be there, and Olivia just loves them to pieces. She spent most of the visit running around outside with Aliana, it was pretty exciting for her. She is definitely going to love spring/summer and being free and wild outdoors!

Of course she was KNOCKED out as soon as we started on our way home, and napped a bit once we got there. As you can see from the picture below...she seems to be growing on Rico, because he couldn't help but snuggle up and nap with her (must have missed her while we were out!). Too cute.