5/3/11 - Go Fly a Kite

Today was a pretty great day! I woke up feeling MUCH better. Still a little stuffed up, and minor tinges of my headache showed up throughout the day, but nothing like yesterday.

Work flew by, as usual. I know a lot of people would kill to have this "problem", but it's literally time go home before I know it. And, I'm often left "wishing" I had more time because I feel like I just can't get anything done! I have given into the fact that I'm going to have to go in on a weekend one of these weekends and get some work done, or I never will catch up. We'll see when I get some time to do that! Maybe some rainy, dreary weekend!

Christian is working OT all week...starting at 6:00AM. Let me tell you, getting him up and going in the morning, in time to get to work at 6:00AM, is no easy task. But, 2 hours of OT a day will make up for those troubles. After work, he ended up helping his friend fix his car...again. Apparently whatever they did last Friday didn't stick, so they had to try again.

While he was doing that and picking up the girls, I, of course, did some dishes and cleaning up around the house. The usual fun stuff that I do! Then, finally, we were all home. Christian decided it was a good night to break out a kite...Now, there was "wind", if you can really call it that. Apparently he thought it would be enough, and I just enjoyed letting him think that, awaiting the entertainment that would ensue. And, he thought the backyard would be a good place to do it. Never mind the fact that you need room to run with a kite, and the fence would probably block some of the "wind". Again, I awaited the entertainment.

So, we took to the backyard, and he took to teaching Olivia how to fly a kite (even though he really doesn't know how to himself). It was certainly a site to see. The kite never really went higher than she stands, but she thought it was pretty entertaining. Every time the kite hit the ground, she'd say "whoops", as if she'd broke it. Amelia and I just watched from the sidelines, and laughed the night away.

We finally headed inside, ate a quick dinner, and watched a little TV before bedtime. Amelia's fever didn't seem to show up today, so we'll see what's happening there. As we hung out, I whipped out some of Olivia's flashcards and ran through them with her, I was amazed at how many she knew. I mean, she can't read them, but just from the pictures. It's funny how you really don't realize how many words they know.

Finally, it was time for bed. Amelia's biting fascination reared it's ugly head again tonight, and I was not happy about it. I think this is another unfortunate side effect of her teething, so those teeth REALLY need to come through.

Here are some pictures of our kite excitement, including Amelia just enjoying the sight. Too funny.

5/2/11 - Mama Down

Well, I was down for the count today. I woke up, tired and not feeling too well. My nose, well, my head in general, was compeltely stuffed up. And, I had a little headache going on. But, I braved it and was off to work. I had a big meeting today...being held over teleconference, with several other states, so it would be impossible to reschedule. So, off to work I went. After the meeting, I finished up a couple things, and then I couldn't take it anymore. I put in my leave request, and was on my way home, to my bed...my cold, soft bed.

I jumped right into bed, and didn't move until about 5:00PM. Christian worked an hour of overtime tonight, but his mom was fine with keeping the girls...then, he just ended up staying over there with them and eating dinner. So, I had plenty of R&R time. By the time they finally arrived home, I was feeling much better. Not 100%, but better. Unfortunatley, it was obvious little Amelia was not feeling too well. I took her out of her car seat, and she was burning up. She had a 100.8 temp (by ear) and was sleepy and just not herself. Not too fussy, which was good, but obviosuly under the weather. I'm sure teething, but it still makes you worry a little bit. She actually fell asleep as I held her, which never really happens. Poor thing.

It was pretty late, and with her feeling so ill, the girls were pretty much off to bed. I really didn't get any time with them tonight, but, I needed to get myself feeling better, so it was probably for the best.

Amelia still insists on sleeping on her tummy, and I'm guessing that's just going to be her new thing. She is still going in phases of sleeping through the night, so we take what we can get with her. She is CLEARLY saying "mom" and "mama" now, and I cannot get enough of it. And, let me tell you, there would have been BIG trouble if I had not been her first word! LOL.

After spending the weekend periodically moving pictures online, I thought it would be fun to post some of my favorites. I got all the way through our 2005 pictures (the first year I have saved on the computer, and it was only actually half the year). So, here are some of my favorite 2005 pictures. Oh, to be young, carefree and skinny again!

5/1/11 - May Day

It's May...It's MAY! May, 2011. Whoa.

Well, the big news of the day broke tonight, at about 9:00PM Central Time...the death of Osama Bin Laden. I was fiddling around on facebook when a post from a local new station came up, so I turned on the TV and sure enough, it was all over the place. I sat in complete disbelief as the news started coming in, and later as our President took center stage and made the official announcement.

It's truly hard to believe...after nearly 10 years, he's gone. It kind of leaves you with a numb feeling. To think of everything the country as a whole has been through over the last 10 years, and our military men and women in particularly. Over the next few days (since I don'' actually post daily), news of what actually happened trickled down to the public. Apparently, "they" have known here Bin Laden was hiding for quite some time now...in a pretty extravagant mansion in Pakistan. But, of course, in order to actually take him down, they couldn't just act right away. They spend months developing the mission, and tonight, in the middle of the night their time, that mission went down. The Navy seals entered the mansion by helicopter in the dead of the night, and took over the building. No Americans were killed during the 40 minute mission, Bin Laden, one of his sons and 3 other people were taken down. And, that was that. It's crazy...10 years of searching, and after a 40 minute mission, he's gone.

Of course, facebook lit up all night with posts from people. Most, "celebrating" in his death, myself included. Some, were very against the celebration, posting a bogus MLK quote, and stating that we should not celebrate death, even that of our greatest enemy.

This actually makes me sad. If the world as a whole cannot unite against something as evil as Osama Bin Laden, and relish in the closure, the freedom and the utter relief his death brings, not ONLY to Americans, but to the world itself, that is sad to me. Personally, I will sleep that much better knowing somebody like him, somebody that purely evil, is gone.

Outside of that amazing news, today was a great Sunday anyway! We spent the morning together, hanging out and relaxing around the house. I did a couple more loads of laundry, we cleaned the kitchen and that was about it. While the girls napped, we showered and cleaned ourselves up. Once they woke up, we were off for a play date with the Madrid's!

We brought some ribs to their house, and they cooked up some potatoes and zucchini, and we had a lovely feast together, while the 2 year olds wreaked havoc on the house, and the babies clung to their mama's like usual. It was fun to get together, and it's always great when the girls have the chance to hang out.

Amelia was pretty interested in little baby Niko. I didn't have my camera, so I snapped a picture with my phone. Cuties.

4/30/11 - Family Day

Today was a wonderful family day!! I'm LOVING our weekends lately, truly loving them!

The girls were only up once last night, and then actually slept in until around 8:00AM, YAY! Christian actually got up and got them out of bed this morning, so I took advantage and stayed in bed an extra 30 minutes. What a wonderful 30 minutes those were. I heard Olivia keep asking him if I was at work. LOL.

I fed the girls some breakfast while he made some yummy chillequilles for us. YUM. After breakfast, we all got cleaned up and ready to go. Today was a shopping and get out of the house kind of day! It was rainy and gloomy and we needed something to do! Our first stop was the mall. Christian's sister got him some shoes for his birthday, and they were too small, so we went to exchange them. He ended up getting two pairs for the price of the return, so YAY for that! We grabbed some lunch, wandered around a little, then were on our way. Next up, Target. We just needed a few essentials (diapers mainly, of course), and a few groceries. The girls did great during both trips, what a relief!

After shopping, we arrived home and it was actually nice out. Too bad everything was all wet thanks to the rain! It was too late for Olivia's nap, but Amelia went down for a while. We took to our mission...CLEAN THE BASEMENT. Seriously, it was a disaster. It's literally the dumping grounds of the house since we're never down there. And, our cat Rico has some horrible digestive issue which causes him to throw up a lot. Usually, it's just icky watery stuff, but sometimes it's his actual food. So, I was on hands and knees removing stains. Lucky me! But, the basement looks brand new again. YAY for cleaning.

We spent the night just hanging out until bed time. Then, we whipped up some nachos and watched a movie. And YES, I stayed awake for another movie! Two weekends in a row. This weekend we watched Due Date. I'd never really heard of it, but a friend told me it was pretty good. It was VERY good in fact. So, another successful movie night in our house!

Tonight I'm sharing a [horrible quality] picture of Olivia, full of cherries. YUM.

4/29/11 - Friday, Friday!

It's Friday. And, a lead into a weekend of very little plans, which I thoroughly enjoy!

Work was still crazy as ever. What's new. Christian worked his usual Friday hour of OT. I arrived home to find my mom and girls waiting for me. My mom bought the girls little flower headbands, and they couldn't wait to show me. Too cute. My mom was holding Amelia, and I was next to her holding Olivia...Amelia snatched Olivia's headband from her, and Olivia adamantly exclaimed "Give Me That Back!". She was very upset. Then, Amelia dropped hers...Olivia got down, picked it up, handed it to her, and annoyingly told her "Don't Drop It Sissy". Apparently that had been the game they played all day long. Amelia is very good at that game.

Anyway, it was quite the scene to come home to. Too funny. After work, Christian's friend needed some help fixing something on his car, so they came back to the house to work on it in the garage. So, it was pretty much just me and the girls all night. After they finally finished, they picked up some Davanni's for dinner (mmmmm), and then it was bedtime. I was so exhausted, I went down as soon as the girls. I was spoiled with a few nights of sleeping through the night, so the last coupe of NOT doing that have been rough.

Here is a picture of the flower headbands my mom took. And, tonight I made Cherries for Amelia. I used a bag of frozen, pitted Cherries, thawed them and purred them. Super easy. We'll see what she thinks of them tomorrow!

4/28/11 - Blah

I don't have much to report on today. It was just a pretty normal day for us. Work, home, kids. All that jazz. Like most Thursday's. Christian hung out at his mom's for a little while before coming home, so I had some extra time to do my chores. Other than that, it was just a usual night. Both girls have slept through the night for 4 nights in a row! Unbelieveable. I'm sure just by saying this I'm jinxing myself, but I don't care. It's been a great run!

I snapped a couple pictures with my phone while leaving work. Over the course of this extremely snowy winter, the plow pile in our lot grew, and grew, and grew...and I'm convinced it will still be there next winter. It looks like a big dirt pile, but no, it's snow. They actually took catipillar's up the pile to bring the snow up to the top, that's how high it was. I wish I had a photo from when it was built all the way up, but this is how it looks now, still, and it's nearly May!

4/27/11 – Fun & Games

Man, today was a CRAZY busy day at work for me. A long, exhausting meeting, phone call after phone call, e-mail after e-mail, proposals due on a big program I’m working on and the chaos that comes with that. I missed a pumping session today because of my meeting, and that really bums me out. Hopefully I can make up for that over the weekend and get back on track.

Christian had his latest ear check up today, and they are very happy with the healing progress. He no longer needs to cover the scar, or put anything on it, and he doesn’t have to go back for another 2 months. YAY! I’m happy they are going to continue monitoring him, and we’re really hoping this is it for his ear surgeries! He also heard back from his supervisor about the job he interviewed for. They did indeed give it to the night shift guy that already does that job, but they again reassured him that they “have plans” for him. He’s worried they are just sugar coating things, but I know they really appreciate him, and I know what a hard worker he is, so I believe it. He’ll go places there!

He ended up working an hour of OT to make up for his appointment time, so I had some time to get all of the laundry from the weekend put away, and actually went through a few of our drawers to get rid of some old stuff we don’t wear anymore. Then, I started dinner…it’s TACO night for us, YUM. Dinner was just getting done as the rest of the fam arrived home, so we settled around the table to eat. Olivia insisted on making her own taco tonight, which was messy, but fun to watch anyway. Even better..she actually ate it! Amelia had some bananacado and some rice for dinner. And, a tray full of Cheerios, of course.

Olivia’s foot is still hurting her pretty bad. She screams and cries at bath time because it hurts. Poor thing, I sure hope that heals up quickly! After baths, the girls went to bed. They both slept through the night AGAIN last night, YAY, and Amelia again skipped the comfort nursing tonight and went down pretty quickly. I’m loving this new routine, and hoping it keeps up (as long as my supply doesn’t take the hit for it!).

Tonight we brought Olivia’s Mickey Plane upstairs, and the girls loved it. They took turns giving each other pushes on it. I finally got Christian to take Olivia in the other room so I could see what Amelia would do, and she stood behind it, and walked all over the living room. She loved it. She just needs to learn to walk flat footed, and I think we’ll be in business! Here is a picture of her “pushing” Olivia (I know I'm horrible, and Olivia does not have a diaper on...we were airing out some bad diaper rash, poor thing). And, one of her enjoying her tray of Cheerios.

4/26/11 – 9 Months!

Can you believe it?!? Really, can you? Amelia is 9 months old today. In 3 months, she’ll have her big day, and it’s so hard to believe. We’ve actually started loosely planning her birthday party. Hopefully the weather holds up, because of course we’re planning outdoor festivities. We’ll have a good old BBQ, hot dogs, brats, burgers, fruit, salad…the usuals. We’ll have some outdoor games set up for the adults, and the outdoor kid toys out for the kids. We’re either going to put out the pool and water toys for the kids (my choice) or rent a jump house for them (Christian’s choice). I don’t feel the jump house is appropriate for AMELIA’S party because she won’t be old enough to enjoy it, but he wants it pretty bad, so we’ll see. He’ll probably win this one. We’ll be doing her party on Saturday, July 23rd. We have two friends with little ones that have birthday’s the same week as Amelia, so it kind of made it necessary to at least pick a date early to plan around each other, so I’m happy that’s out of the way. So far, this is about as far as we’ve gotten on planning though.

Amelia continues to get more mobile each day. Crawling is no problem whatsoever, she actually half crawls, half walks, so she looks like a creature of the night really. She stands up from sitting no problem now, and she’ll stand there for a really good amount of time, not too wobbly anymore. She’s taken one stop, two different occasions, but not quite there yet. She’s cruising the furniture and pulling up on everything no problem though. So, we’ll see when she starts full on walking. As far as “milk” goes, she is still 100% breastfed, and I continue to pat myself on the back for that! She is still mostly on purred (but lumpy) foods still, but we are feeding her from our plates more and more. She does great too, she chews her food freakishly fast for someone with barely any teeth…1.5 still to be exact. I don’t have her 9 month appointment until May 6th, so I’m not sure on her stats right now. Obviously, she’s still tiny though. She’s getting better and better at actually playing, trying to figure things out, rather than just sitting there and dropping everything you give her. She’s very interested in the world around her, and just basically follows me around the house. She’s still in 6-9 month clothes, with most of them being pretty big on her (her Easter dress was a 3-6 month dress!), and she’s in size 2 diapers still. Her hair is still very goofy…it’s getting longer and longer, but still not heavy enough to lay down. LOVE IT. She’s mumbled “mama” a few times, but nothing consistent, and nothing to show that she actually knows what she’s saying. But, she’s clearly starting to understand what we are saying…she responds to her name (all forms of it), she “comes” when you ask her to, she makes “her face” when you ask her too, she’s very responsive. She’s slept through the night two nights in a row now, and has gotten SO much better with sleep all around, it’s great! She’s still happily in her infant car seat, and I think she will be for quite some time now. She’s still a total mommy’s girl, and thinks everything around her is absolutely hilarious. It’s beginning to get very fun watching her actual personality shine through, that’s for sure!

Other than that, today was a pretty normal day. After work, I rushed home to get the massive pile of dishes cleaned. I did a little cleaning up and reorganizing around the kitchen, then Christian and the girls arrived home. We just had some leftovers from Easter for dinner, so we were able to sit around the table for a while and just hang out. After dinner, we settled in for some TV. I was really excited for the premiere of “The Voice”. I love talent shows, and was excited for a new style of show. It really did live up to my expectations too, I loved it!

The girls slept through the night again, I’m floored! One thing I am not such a fan of is that Amelia’s new thing is sleeping on her stomach. I know, I know, once they can roll over you should just leave them be, and we do, but it still makes me nervous. I’m guessing it’s helping her sleep better though; she must just be more comfortable. It’s going to take me a while to get used to it though. The video monitor is pretty useless now since she rolls out of camera view shortly after going to bed now. Ah, sleep. It’s great!

Here is Amelia’s 9 month photo!

4/25/11 – Monday, It’s Back Again

Well, it’s another typical Monday for us. I spent the day trying to play catch up at work. I ended up taking a little time off at the end of the day so I could stop at Target on my way home to do our weekly shopping. After overflowing the cart, I was on my way home to unload everything and put it away. Amelia took a late nap today, and was still sleeping when Christian arrived to pick her up, so I got the house to myself for a while. I put away all of the groceries, and just did some light cleaning around the house. There was so much to do, but I just wasn’t in the mood for any of it.

We decided to have some mini-cheeseburgers for dinner tonight, so Christian fired up the grill when he finally arrived home, and I did the hard part, threw some fries in the oven. Ha. Olivia hung out outside with him, which gave me some time to hang out with Amelia. Just as a little proof of why I don’t understand how she’s not growing…just in the time she was home, from about 6:15 to bedtime around 8:30, she had a few cucumber slices, three Gerber apple wheels, a “jar” of carrots with some rice mixed into it, half a banana sliced up, 7 or 8 fries (of course), and milk before bed. She’s hungry, nonstop, and she eats, nonstop. I don’t get it.

Finally, it was time for baths and bed. The girls slept all night last night, and it was wonderful. We’ll see what happens tonight! We pulled out the jump-o-lene over the weekend to distract Olivia, and she decided to just hang out in it for a while tonight. Also, we no longer use the baby bath tub, so the girls get to bathe together like big girls now!

4/24/11 – HAPPY EASTER!

It’s Easter! I hope everybody has (had) a wonderful, happy and blessed day!

We had a very busy day, of course! The girls were up BRIGHT and early again at 6:30. As I suspected, staying up late last night came back to bite me in the behind! I’m not kidding; I was literally laying my head down on my pillow, when Olivia started screaming out, in turn waking up Amelia. Olivia would not go back down either, and I’m not sure what was going on there. I fed Amelia and we finally got them both back down around 2:30…so, 4 hours of sleep, WHOO HOO!

We right away delivered the Easter Bunny’s baskets to the girls. Of course, Olivia just wanted everything that was in Amelia’s basket! Ugh, she drives me crazy! Olivia got English and Spanish flashcards, a little activity book, some M&M’s, a SpongeBob candy dispenser and some Dora bubbles. Amelia got a little “book” to hang from her car seat, some Baby Einstein balls, some Yogurt Melts and a stuffed bunny. It wasn’t much, but they liked it!

After going through baskets, we all ate some breakfast while we waited for it to warm up a little. Finally, Christian snuck outside to hide the Eater Eggs. He hid the eggs we colored and a few stuffed eggs (some with treats, some with coins) for each of the girls. Olivia had so much fun hunting down all of the eggs, she loved it. We just kind of scattered Amelia’s eggs around her…she was too distracted with being outside anyway. LOL

We played outside for a while because it ended up being so beautiful out. Then, Christian was off to get my car’s oil changed (only about 2,500 miles late….oops). Then, while Amelia napped, the rest of us got ready to head to Easter dinner. Once she was up, we were immediately out the door and on our way to the in-laws for dinner. Olivia dug right into her candy filled Easter basket over there. Unfortunately, Amelia’s basket was also just full of candy, so she really didn’t get anything to enjoy (nice). Right after we finished eating, my sister in law and her girls showed up, so Olivia was in heaven, and chaos ensued. Of course, not surprisingly, the chaos resulted in an injury. Olivia was climbing and messing around on a chair, and there happened to be an upside down plastic (that glass looking kind of plastic) container on the floor, and of course she jumped right onto it, putting her foot right through the middle, and slicing her toe open. It was traumatic, and she milked it for everything she could the rest of the night. Seriously, she’s a walking disaster half the time!

I finally managed to get Christian and the girls out of the door and into the car around 7:30. I had loads and loads of laundry to fold and put away, and not much time to do it in. I managed to get about half of it done between putting Amelia to bed, and finally passed out around 11:00…hoping it wouldn’t be another long night!

Here are some Easter fun pictures from the day!