3/17/11 – Sisters

Well, it’s St. Patrick’s Day. Like every year, I couldn’t care less. I suppose if I were even the tiniest bit Irish it would interest me, but I’m not, and it doesn’t. They were interviewing some actually Ireland born folks on the radio today, and they were all adamant that St. Patrick’s Day is much more “celebrated” here than over there. Just another reason I find this day ridiculous…for MOST people, it’s just a reason for people to get drunk, act like idiots in public, and think that it’s OK. Something that has never interested me, so I guess that’s why I don’t get it.

Other than that, today was just a pretty normal day. Work was pretty quiet for some reason, so I was really able to focus. Amelia is becoming more and more mobile, every day. She can now pull up using the couch, but still hasn’t figured out how to move along it. She still gets into her downward dog position over and over again, but now she can actually move around in that position…which is quite funny to see. She starting to actually follow us around now, so there’s NO escaping her! LOL. She gets all over the place…one second she sitting in front of you in the living room, the next she’s back in the kids’ room. Definitely have to keep an eye on her! Olivia has definitely been showing her more attention lately and is becoming more interested in her now (which was my hope). She likes to go down the call and call “sissy” to “come here” (yes, like a dog), she brings her toys and shows her what they do, she tries to get her to follow her through the play house. It’s fun to watch. It makes me even more excited for the next few months, to watch their relationship grow more and more.

Olivia is still a little under the weather. She’s eating MUCH better though, and seems to be more herself that the last few days. Poor thing, I sure hope whatever bug she caught leaves very soon!

Here are the girls of the house, getting into the spirit. As you can see, Amelia cares of St. Paddy’s Day as much as I do! LOL

3/16/11 – Topic #8 – Vaccinations

Today was a pretty low key day. Just the normal…no sleep (back to normal here), work, home, clean, cook, eat, play. We’re just gearing up for another sleepless night! Christian did have his ear surgery today though, and everything went well. They biopsied the tissue they removed and everything came back just fine, thankfully. Now we just wait for it to heal, and pray that it’s finally gone for good. They want him to continue coming back for a while, every other month, to get the injections still.

A local report came out today regarding an “outbreak” of measles in our area. I quote outbreak because it’s a VERY small number cases, but for a disease once basically extinct, it’s very sad to see. Seeing this report made me want to chat about that today.

Vaccinations are a very controversial topic. It all seemed to have started with a (now debunked) report linking vaccinations (particularly the MMR vaccination) to Autism. There are basically three roads people follow when it comes to vaccinations…vaccinate on schedule, vaccinate on delayed schedule or even choose to skip some vaccinations all together. If you plan on putting your children in public school, the only way to skip vaccinations all together (other than proven record of reaction) is to claim religious reasons, and I have heard of many people lying to claim this reason (which upsets me greatly).

We fully vaccinate, on schedule. I can understand parents that vaccinate on a delayed schedule, and I honestly don’t see anything wrong with that. I think if I were a stay at home mom, or at least had more time options as far as trips to the clinic, I would consider it. But, I just cannot understand not vaccinating, or skipping any of them. With the exception of the chicken pox vaccine, which I’m slightly uneasy about.

People who do not vaccinate, and catch flack for it, often argue “why should you worry…your child is vaccinated, so you shouldn’t be worried about other children”. Yes, that’s true…my 2 year old is vaccinated. My 7 month old however, is not old enough to receive several of the vaccinations, leaving her defenseless in the meantime. So, we go out in public, around other children, and have to risk her safety. It makes me sad, and it’s something I constantly worry about. I remember (vividly) an episode of Law & Order: SVU from a few years ago…a young mother’s very young toddler child passed away, and she thought it was a result of spanking her, so she tried to cover it up. They realized she passed away from a bought with Mumps. They ended up finding out that she had contracted it from an older, unvaccinated child, at the park. She was too young to be vaccinated against it herself; leaving her helpless once it took over. They ended up linking this kid to several cases of Mumps, and I believe they ended up trying the mother of the unvaccinated child for manslaughter (extreme in real life, I’ll admit). This broke my heart. I realize it’s only a TV show, but it’s very true, and something that is now happening in reality.

Anyway, my ultimate hope is that they will separate the MMR vaccination so people feel more comfortable getting it for their children, maybe even spread out the schedule of vaccinations, and hopefully every parent will start feeling a little more at east about something so important, not only to their own children, but to the safety and welfare of those around them.

Here is Amelia downward dog…I swear she is in this position ALL day long!

3/15/11 – Spring is Almost Here...Right?!

Well, our poor baby is still not feeling too well. I’ll tell you exactly what we need….warmer, window-opening weather, so we can get all sick germs from the last 5 months OUT OF THE HOUSE. Thankfully, it’s looking like over the next couple weeks we’re in for some good weather changes, so hopefully we can take the plastic down and open the windows, even it just for a short time every day. She is on a very strict BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apples & toast) for now, to hopefully help her system recuperate. She did make it the whole day at my in-laws house though, which is better. I think the distraction of her cousins is good for her, as long as she still gets her nap to rest.

After work I just did the usual around the house, picking up, making bottles, made dinner. Nothing too exciting. Christian still isn’t feeling too well either, so I think it’ll be a pretty low key week. Amelia did sleep all night last night though, which was a great present. I’m sure it’s a onetime thing, like usual when it happens, but I’ll take it!

Here are a couple pictures of Amelia…apparently feeding herself is a ways off yet…

3/14/11 – Sick Toddler

Well, the morning started off very chaotic in our household. Amelia spent about half the night in her bassinet for the first time in weeks, so that was exciting. I woke up, showered and started about my day like normal…as I set myself up out on the couch to pump and do my makeup, Christian woke up and informed me that Olivia had thrown up all over her crib last night. My heart sank…I couldn’t believe it. She has never thrown up before. At this point, all I could do was picture her, alone in her crib, scared, sick with no idea what was happening. I felt so horrible at that point, helpless. I wanted to run in, grab her and hold her. Once I was finished getting ready for work, we got the girls up and ready, like usual. I quickly removed all of her bedding and threw it in the washer to soak all day. We decided to send the girls to his parents’ house like usual, and see how it goes. It’s easy enough for me to leave work if need be.

I guess we know why she wouldn’t eat last night. It’s frustrating because sick or not, she’ll play and run around and act like nothing is bothering her. Other than refusing to eat, we would never have known anything was wrong with her. Our tough little cookie is a little too tough for her own good!!

Well, around lunch time my mother in law decided it would be best for me to come get her, bring her home and rest. So, I quickly finished up some work and was on my way. Stopped at Target to pick up a little care package of children’s tums, sprite, pedialite and graham crackers. We arrived home, and laid in my bed together for a while. She never really ended up taking a nap, but I did get her to eat some crackers, d rink her pedialite and eventually eat some applesauce as well. She started getting more energy as the night went on, but she also got crabbier as the night went on, so I think she was pretty tired at the same time. Christian still wasn’t feeling too well today either, so he didn’t eat any dinner…I was able to pig out all by myself! I managed to get a few loads of laundry done, whipped up some more banacado for Amelia and remade Olivia’s crib (thank god for powerful baby detergent and Oxy Clean!). Christian gave Olivia a bath and they sat on the couch together for a while, I gave Amelia her bath and put her down. Hopefully I’ll get her to stay in her bassinet all night tonight…Christian has exclaimed that he wants his bed back, so I don’t think she’ll have much choice!

Here’s hoping for a happier and healthier tomorrow! Here’s a picture of our little trooper!

3/13/11 – Sick Daddy

Today was kind of a long day! First of all, I am not a fan of daylight savings time. Well, I say that now, but when we get to enjoy daylight later into the day, I’ll change my tune…for now, it just means even less sleep, and I’m not OK with that.

Once the girls were up, I started on laundry duty. Man, I hate laundry. There is definitely a reason I only do it every other weekend! As the girls napped (yes, BOTH of them, for a nice long time too!) we showered and got ready for the day. Once nap time was over, we packed up and were on our way to his parents’ house for dinner. Which, is kind of goofy really….we were going to have a big family dinner with his sister and nieces since they are in town, but they weren’t even there! Of course they made enough food to feed an army too, so we have plenty of leftovers piled up in the fridge now!

Christian didn’t feel well at all today. He thinks it’s the Chinese food we ate last night. So, he was pretty down and out all day. Olivia was quite a handful today, and neither of us had the patience for it. I don’t know what was going on, but she wouldn’t eat, she was acting up and lashing out all day. GRRRRRR. Amelia was crawling around better than ever today. She was ALL over the place and pulling up on everything she could get her grubby little mitts on. I can already tell…she is going to be trouble!

After dinner and a little chatting, we were on our way home. The girls were both pretty crabby and tired, so we skipped their baths and put them to bed. Back to work tomorrow, hopefully Christian is feeling better, because he doesn’t really have any time to take off!

I have a video of Amelia crawling to post today, but the video uploader isn't working for me. I'll be back to post that!

3/12/11 – Family Shopping Day!

Today started off like normal. The girls actually slept a tad later than usual, which was nice. Christian shipped up a yummy, breakfast for us, Amelia scarffed down TWO “jars” of fruit, we hung out playing for a while. It was just a nice, quiet, family morning. Nothing better than that!

During nap time I pulled out Amelia’s “new” wardrobe…she is finally moving up to 6-9 month clothing. Her tops still fit fine, but her pants are become high waters, more and more every day, so it’s time to move up. I was all excited, thinking we’d be pretty set since she has been staying in each sizing longer than necessary…but NOPE. All of our 6-9 month clothing is SUMMER stuff. Seriously, at least 95% of it won’t work, and it’s highly unlikely she’ll ever wear it since we don’t really get true summer weather until the end of June at least. So frustrating. So, we’ll be making a trip to the mall soon. The spending…it never ends!

We managed to get in some showers and get ready for the day while the girls were still napping. Once they were up, we were on our way for a family Target shopping trip. The girls did really well at the store, Amelia even stayed in her car seat the entire time! YAY for progress. We loaded up our groceries, we picked up a few sale 6-9 months clothing items and were on our way home. We decided that even though we had a nice stock of fresh new food, we were not in the mood to cook tonight, so Christian ran to pick up some yummy Chinese food and we settled in for the night. Ate, watched some TV…just the usual Saturday night in our house! We even managed to get baths and bed time routines done in a very timely manner…I thought FOR SURE I was going to catch Saturday Night Live…but nope. Christian passed out, which just makes me want to pass out, so we again, did not make it past the evening news. Losers.

Here is a sweet picture I snapped of Olivia today. I just love this picture!

3/11/11 – Disappointing “News”

Today was my Friday home. I knew it was going to be a long day the moment I woke up. I just felt instantly overwhelmed, right off the bat, and I’m not sure why. Just tired, and needing a break I suppose. I was up before the girls were even up, so I could listen to the radio and hear the results. I anxiously listened; my heart was pounding, and I waited on the edge of my seat. Unfortunately, Amelia did not win. I wasn’t holding my breath or anything, and I knew it was going to be a hard win, but I really did think she had a shot. I knew a lot of our friends, family and co-workers were voting, AND passing it on to their friends and family. I was online getting votes. I was pretty bummed out. But, we gave it our best shot, and I still think she was the cutest baby up there anyway!

I spent the day trying to keep the girls under control. Olivia was acting VERY bad today, and I’m not sure why. She’s normally pretty good when it’s just me, and she’s been doing so well lately. Maybe teeth? Who knows, that’s my excuse for everything! Amelia is getting harder to keep under control the more mobile she becomes. She just wants to go, go, go! I’ll like it better when she can SAFELY go, go, go! Yet again, I couldn’t get them to nap at the same time, but while Olivia was down, I was able to get some bills paid and all that fun stuff.

Christian had to work some OT, then picked up some Papa Murphy’s on his way home….YUMMMM. My dad and step mom ended up stopping over for a surprise visit. They had some stuff to drop off to us, and hung out to visit for a while. Olivia was very excited to show off for them, she thought my dad’s Donald Duck impression was pretty awesome. Amelia showed off her new crawling and standing up skills. We chatted and caught up for a little while, and then the girls were BEYOND tired and passed right out as soon as they left. Here’s hoping Amelia’s hot streak of good sleeping continues through the weekend!

We brought up the play table so Amelia can practice standing and playing. Of course, Olivia immediately claimed it as “MINE” as soon as she saw it. Sharing this is going to take some work….

3/10/11 – Our Mobile Baby

Well, it’s Thursday (my Friday)! Today was the last day to vote in the cutest baby content, so I’m pretty anxious. Fingers crossed!!!!

Today was the end to a VERY busy week at work. Man, I am just exhausted. I get so frustrated feeling like I’m under water all the time, and can’t catch up. I suppose I better get used to it…it doesn’t look like anything is going to change there. My supply seems to have finally leveled off again, and I actually pumped a little extra today for the first time in a LONG time. YAY, I was starting to get worried!

I yet again blew off Target, and went straight home. Just not in the mood to shop, so we’ll continue to make due with what we have around the house. I was pretty upset when I got home and realized today was trash day. Thursday has ALWAYS been trash day, but for some reason I convinced myself that Friday was this week, so I didn’t go through the fridge or get the diaper pail emptied or anything! Seriously, it’s wonder I remember how to get dressed in the morning! I got a letter from my work benefits last weekend that they need the girls’ social security numbers on file, and forgot ALL week to submit them. I got a letter last week that I need to update my parking pass information at work, and forgot to write down my license plate numbers ALL week. We have to submit our garbage disposal rebate by this weekend, and I forgot to send it in ALL week. And, I forgot to make Amelia’s nurse appointment for her shots all week too! So annoying…is pregnancy brain permanent?

After work I ran home to clean up the bedroom and get some random “picking up” done around the house. Christian arrived home and it was just a pretty normal night. We ate some dinner, played. Amelia is officially a PRO crawler now. She can get herself all over the place now. She has also officially outgrown her 3-6 month pants as everything appears to be high waters on her now, so this weekend we’ll be pulling out the 6-9 month bag. YAY. She can even pull herself up to standing pretty well all of a sudden. She doesn’t really understand how to move and position her feet once she’s up, so she’s a bit of a weeble wobble still, but she’s doing well. When she’s crawling, she’ll often hoist herself up into the downward dog position, like she’s going to stand up! I couldn’t believe my eyes…it could all just be a freak thing, but I seriously wouldn’t be surprised to see he standing on her own, even walking, in the next month or so. But, she’s not even cruising the furniture yet, so who knows. She’s kind of short, so that doesn’t help.

We decided to skip baths tonight, as after a little playing, it was off to bed. Amelia is still in bed with me, and Christian is still banned to the couch (he lovingly refers to the living room as “his room” now, LOL). I really want to break her from this, but I don’t know what to do. She’s been sleeping so well, all week, only getting up once to eat. She’s obviously much more comfortable. Maybe we should take apart her crib and move it into our room! Ha.

We tried out the mesh feeder today for the first time. We put some apple slices in it and she loved it. YUM.

3/9/11 – Super Mom for the Night

Today was a pretty good day. Busy at work, spent the day recruiting votes on and off. I finally realized that I can play games on the iPod at work because I don’t need WiFi to play them…so pumping goes by much faster now that I have that distraction! Not very exciting to most people, but I’m super excited!

I (again) planned on heading to Target after work today, and I again opted not to at the last minute. The house is literally a disaster right now, so I headed home to get that all cleaned up instead. And boy, I was BUSY. I fed the dog and took him out, made Amelia’s bottles for tomorrow, washed bottles/pump parts, washed dishes, made Amelia’s carrots and peas (made them chunkier since she’s eating so well now) to replenish the freezer supply, started our dinner and cleaned up the kitchen. I was exhausted and the evening had barely begun! Christian called me as he was about to leave his mom’s house, because Olivia was throwing a fit and did not want to leave. We decided it was OK for her to spend the night there and plan with her cousins some more. Well, he arrived home and I could hear her yelling up to me right away. Apparently as soon as he pulled away she started crying…so he had to go back and get her. LOL, at least she loves being with us!

After dinner we hung out for the night. We watched American Idol and man there are some GOOD singers on there this year! It was a pretty normal night otherwise….playing, baths, bed. Nothing new there!

Here’s my sweet girl, in one of our favorite sweaters! Cutie! Also, Amelia found a new friend in Rico, the hung out for a while today (really, Rico was just attempting to battle for a place on my lap…he lost).

3/8/11 – EXCITING!!!!

Oh, so exciting! Our little peanut has made it into the FINAL round of voting for the cutest baby contest! We can’t even believe it, and are yet again, harassing everybody for votes! So if you've voted before, it should be super easy. If you haven't, you'll have to register. You don't have to put your address, you can use a fake phone number and opt out of the marketing questions. This is the last round, winner take all. The grand prize is $1,000 and we'd LOVE to put that away for her future. Thanks guys - CLICK HERE to vote!

In other news, it was a pretty laid back day today. Work was the usual…Christian found out that his next check will include his annual “bonus” (which they get in lieu of raises”, so that will be exciting! I should also be getting my [very small but very appreciated] cost of living raise at work soon. We haven’t gotten those in YEARS, so I’m pretty excited about that too. I’ll be making a BIG payment on our credit card when we get paid, and man I can’t wait to see that balance drop. The day it hits $0 I think I’ll throw a party! I’ve been working on our budget, and pushed it out another year and I’m starting to get pretty excited about it. I feel like we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I don’t get so stressed out when I think about money. Don’t get me wrong…we still don’t have any, and it’s still going to be some time before we’re looking up, but it’s coming, and I KNOW it’s coming, and that feels good.

This has gotten me to thinking about our future, family wise. Christian doesn’t seem to keen on the idea of having another child. I don’t know if it’s still the stress of the girls and adjusting to having 2 still, or if he really doesn’t want to have anymore. I on the other hand, just don’t feel done. I can’t imagine never being pregnant again, I just don’t feel done. I hope that some day I do get that feeling, but I worry that I’ll never be ready to give up on being pregnant again. Anyway, what prompted the discussion (which was promptly ended) is that unless something happens along the way, we should have all of our unsecured debt paid off next year when we get our taxes back, and then the following February (2013), the truck will be paid off. So we’ll be in the clear, and we’ll be looking good. So, rather than have our next kid be way younger than the girls, I thought we should shoot for having a third in the late Spring/Summer 2013. Christian didn’t want to talk about it, so for now I’ve just taken it upon myself to decide that’s the plan! Ha. There are several factors that play into the plan though…

1. First of all, if something big happens between now and then, which keeps us from getting debt free, that throws a wrench into the plans
2. I need to have enough time saved up at work so I can take 10-12 weeks off when the baby is born (probably 12 since it’s HIGHLY likely that will be our last). Debt free or not, I don’t want to take unpaid leave from work at any point. I don’t have a ton of time right now, and on top of that, there are discussions of a government shutdown this summer, and if that happens, it will likely deplete any time I do have, so I’ll be starting over again.
3. We need to be in a place where I can get a new vehicle. My 1999 baby isn’t going to last much longer anyway, but regardless, she can’t fit 3 car seats, so I’ll be heading down mini-van alley before #3 comes along.

These are the three major hurdles…everything must fall into place in these areas, or my plans will be null and void. We’ll see what happens!

Finally, today I started really seriously thinking about cloth diapering. I know it would save us quite a bit of money, as long as we play it smart. I’m sick of literally throwing money away on disposable diapers. I think we’d skip Olivia as I’d really like to hit potty training soon anyway, so it would just be Amelia. I’ve never overwhelmed by the world of cloth diapers though, and can’t even figure out where to start! Also, Christian is really not into the idea, I’m pretty sure my mom wouldn’t like it too much, and I have no idea what his mom thinks about it. If I don’t have their support, it’s not really going to work. Something I plan on looking into, but I don’t know how far it’s going to go.

Amelia pulled herself up, all on her own, to stand on the toy crate today! YAY. I also snapped this picture of the girls, and I love it.