5/10/11 - Stair Climber

Today was a pretty good day. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I had some meetings at work today...I've said it before, but I seriously, really hate meetings. One reason I don't see myself ever rising to a managerial position...I hate meetings!

I left work a tad early and headed to Target. I continued my mission of slowing stocking Olivia up with some summer clothes. I check out the clearance racks and sales every time I go, and pick up some sale stuff for her. I've been buying her 3T shirts because she's so tall, but I've been at a loss for shorts. Her 2T pants still hang on her, so I didn't think she as ready for 3T. Well, I finally broke down and bought her some 2T shorts, and sure enough, too small. Her pants must just been a little worn and stretched out. So, I'll have to head back later this week and exchange the shorts I bought. I hate buying clothes...

After Target, I met up with the rest of the family at home. Made some dinner, and we just hung out. The usual. However, Amelia has a new trick...she's now a stair climber! We have a gate at the top of our stairs, and are rarely downstairs, so she hasn't had much practice around them. His parents on the other hand have no gates, and are usually downstairs. All of a sudden today, Amelia decided to follow Olivia up the stairs, and was quite successful. We had her try it out at home, and sure enough, she flew right up them. Such a big girl! She also happens to be wearing one of Olivia's old outfits...so I thought I'd share a comparison. Only, Olivia is just over 6 months here (vs. Amelia's 9.5 months), LOL.

5/9/11 - Most Definitely a Monday

As if Monday's aren't bad enough...

We [I] had a very long, rough night with Amelia. Last night it took forever to get her to bed. She just would not go down, no matter what I did. We finally determined her teeth were bothering her and gave her some motrin. I finally got to bed around 11:00, and she was up again at 2:00, and again, wouldn't go back down. I was basically up for the day at that point...NOT COOL.

So, off to work I went, exhausted and not ready to start another hectic week. Christian was up bright and early (much more refreshed than I), and started work early. I just suffered through the best I could. I was supposed to go to Target after work but that just was not happening. Instead, we all just met up at home, did our usual chores and hung out for the evening. Both girls were a tad crabby tonight, so it was an early bed time for all. I'm just hoping for a nice, long night of SLEEP!

Olivia got a hold of my pump tonight. She's seen me pumping before, and knows that it's for "sissy's milk", so she decided to take the pieces out and give them to Amelia. Amelia seemed confused by the whole thing, but enjoyed the new toy nonetheless. LOL

5/8/11 - Happy Mother's Day!

Today is Mother's Day!!! YAY. I'm not a huge proponent of Mother's Day (along with Valentines Day or Father's Day), but I have to admit, this day fills me with an amazing sense of pride. As hard as it may be, and as frustrated as I may get some days, being a mother is the most amazing gift I've ever been given. Mother's Day is just an amazing reminder of this gift, and of how lucky I am to have the chance to raise these amazing little girls of mine. I feel like I should be celebrating them!

I of course must with my mother a very happy Mother's Day today. We may not have always seen eye to eye over the years, and have had our share of Mother/Daughter battles, but, in the end, she's always been there for me and I know she would do anything for me, and for my girls, and that means the world. So, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, Mom!

We were all up nice and early. Christian and Olivia presented me with a little gift, a picture frame filled with a couple pictures, and a drawing from Olivia. Cute! And, a very nice card of course. We gave the girls a quick bath, and were off to Perkins for breakfast. YUM. After eating, we headed home to just hang out and relax for a while. Once Amelia was down for a nap, Christian took to the yard to mow for the first time! I don't get it, but he was pretty excited about it. Blah. After, we each took a shower and got ready, then were off to the Madrid's for a Mother's Day BBQ and a play date. Olivia and Meeka had tons of fun together. We had some yummy Kabob's and Fries and fruit for dinner. The weather, which started off icky turned out to be pretty great, so we got some play time out in the fresh air. Then, we were finally on our way home. Long, wonderful day!

Olivia started off really well today, woke up dry, didn't go at Perkins, used her potty, all on her own all morning. But, with the playing and excitement, she had two accidents when we were at the BBQ/play date. But, over all, we had a really great weekend, and we're super proud of her! It's going to take some work, especially since it's not really her leading the way on training, but we're going to stick with it, and I know she'll get there with time.

Here are some pictures of our Mother's Day fun. Olivia would not cooperate, so I couldn't get a picture with just her :( Amelia was a wiggle worm, so we just had to do the best we could. LOL

5/7/11 - Saturday?

Well, today ended up being a pretty laid back day.

Potty training continued today. And, Olivia did really well again. No accidents today, she woke up dry this morning, but she did go in her diaper at nap time. But, that's OK. We're so proud of her!

I was supposed to take my mom to lunch today to celebrate Mother's Day, but when I called her to finalize our plans this morning, she "let me off the hook"...knowing that we're super poor, and told me to just save my money. I felt bad not spending time with her, but I was actually really tired for some reason, and not feeling 100%, so I slightly welcomed the chance to just take it easy for the day.

Christian did end up taking his mom to lunch (side note: I'd love to see the day either of his parents have the sense to realize we don't have any money....). He left while Olivia was napping, and for some reason, when she woke up from her nap (shortly after he left) she was just a complete monster, out of control. I mean, worse than usual. The final straw came when Amelia was standing at the deck door, and Olivia came over, purposely pushed her over, and she hit her head on the door track. I was FURIOUS. I ended up texting Christian right then and there, fed up, while I made some dinner for the girls. He pretty quickly came home, thankfully. It was just one of those nights where she was just uncontrollable, SO FRUSTRATING!!

Somehow, even though she was NOT on her best behavior, she wrangled a lollipop we'd been saving for her out of us. She didn't really seem to care about it too much, but she was excited at the though of it! Hopefully her lack of interest in candy and things of that nature continues as she gets older!

5/6/11 - Let the Potty Training Commence!

Well, today was a pretty exciting day around our house. It was my Friday off, so it as just me and the girls for the long haul today.

First up, Amelia had her 9 month check-up, bright and early this morning. She weighed in at 15lbs 6ozs (up 2lbs 6ozs from her 6 month check), putting her in the 2% still. She is now 26.75" long (up 1.25" from her 6 month check), putting her in the 19%...however, I know her length was not the most accurate reading because she was being quite the wiggle worm, and the nurse didn't really wait for her to calm down. So, she's still a teeny tiny little thing. However, for the first time ever, the doctor told me flat out he's not worried any longer. At this point, she's been following the 2-5% curve for quite some time, and she's developing well, so he said he's pretty certain that she's just genetically small. The check up went well overall. I did chat with him about her breathing for a while. She's had very nasally breathing ever since she was born, and it's just not going away. Almost like she's trying to catch her breath half the time. Originally he'd thought it was an environmental thing, and he still thinks it could be, but it is strange that she's not growing out of it. Right now, we're just going to use saline nose drops regularly to see if that helps. If not, we'll start giving her Benedryl before bed to see if that helps. And, if she's still not getting better, we'll have to do an overnight in the hospital so they can monitor her sleep. This could be a big reason she still wakes during the night...her snoring and breathing is waking her up. After the hospital, they'll either say she's fine, and just has these breathing issues, or they'll know if something needs to be removed or anything. So, we'll see what happens over the next few months with that.

After the appointment, we stopped at Target to get a few things. Mainly, we are kicking off potty training with Olivia this weekend, so we needed to get some necessities for that...underwear, M&M's, stickers...all that good stuff. After a trip through Target, we got some Taco Bell for lunch (our usual post-doctor lunch), ran home to eat some lunch, then the girls were down for their nap. We've been pretty good about getting the girls to nap together, but not for a good, long amount of time. One of them always wakes up, waking the other, and then it's all over.

So, after naps, Potty Training began. Olivia was pretty excited about it. I showed her the jar of M&M's, her sticker sheet and we just spent the night on the potty pretty much. She ended up going #1 three times (with one TINY accident, that happened on her way to the potty) and even went #2 on there! I was so excited. I know it's just the beginning, but we're off to a great start, and I'm SUPER excited at the idea of no more two in diapers! We put her to bed with a diaper, as we will for a little while, so we'll start back up in the morning. Fingers crossed!

Here are some potty training photos, including one that's actually from Sunday (sneak peek at how well she did over the weekend)! YAY!!!

5/5/11 - Feliz Cinco de Mayo!!

Today is Cinco de Mayo! One of the benefits of marrying into a Mexican family is being able to celebrate the Mexican holiday's with lots of YUMMY food! And, today was no exception.

The thought of said YUMMY food got me through a long day at work, that's for sure. It's my Thursday/Friday, so of course it was crazier than usual today. Trying to tie up some loose ends and get as much done as I could before the weekend. I actually made really good progress on my piles too, so pat on the back for that. This weekend I won't really be leaving the house, and we have plans next Saturday, but I'm thinking that unless I magically catch up on some stuff next week, I'm going to try to go in next Sunday and make some headway on my inbox. We'll see what happens.

So, after the long day at work, for Christian too with those early starts, we were off to his mom's for dinner. I thought it would be a full house, but it was actually just us, so more food for us!! We had some delicious enchiladas, rice and beans. Super tasty!

After hanging out for a while, we were on our way home, and pretty much off to bed. Too much fiesta for this mom! Here is a picture of Amelia, proudly shaking her maraca! And, learning to be a big girl with a sippy of water (which, she's not very good at...)

5/4/11 - Our Boring Life

I don't really have much to report on today. We had a luncheon at work, and not only did that mean I had the chance to get away from the office, I also won $20.00 at it!! YAY for $20.00!!!

After work, we all met up at home and hung out for the night. The weather was great, so I sent Christian outside on grilling duty! Steaks and potatoes, YUM, YUM! While he did that, I uploaded some more pictures online, and whipped up a salad.

That was really the extent of our day. Nothing too exciting...just one of those days. I did manage to get all of our 2006 photos put online, so like a few days ago, I thought I'd share my favorites from the year. I had a whole year of pictures, but still wasn't REALLY into picture taking, so there aren't a ton of GREAT ones....

Me & Christian celebrating his 22nd birthday; Christian with his Mom & Siblings on a visit to Mexico; Our cat, Rico, doing his trick at our old apartment; just one of the BFF & I that I like; me & some of the girls celebrating my birthday; most of "the gang" after a trip to the fair; Me & Christian at the State Fair; Christian & our niece, Mia; a trip to Trail of Terror; A Girl's Night Out; some of "the gang" on our big extravagant New Years Eve outing; Christian & I ringing in 2007.

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.