6/2/11 - Lady Date Night

I don't have a ton to report on today. Things at work are the same...crazy busy for me, still can't catch up. Christian is still working an hour or two of OT every day, so things are busy on his end as well. We still have no update on the layoffs or budget progress, so everything is still in the dark there. We will be getting our layoff notices next weekend though if nothing is resolved. STRESSFUL much?!

After work, I was off on a much needed date night with the BFF. As usual, we went to Khan's for some deliciousness, and had lots of time to catch up, chat and get lots of laughs in. It was nice to be out, and spend a little quality time with her. While we ate, Christian's mom took him and the girls to dinner so he got in a little time with his mom. Of course, you know, when I'm not home, he CAN'T be home alone with the girls, LOL.

We met up at home around the same time, I did a little cleaning up around the house, and then it was pretty much just time to put the girls down and go about our usual nightly rituals. We are officially calling one of our pots of plants DEAD as can be. Our pot of Pansies did not survive the cold snap we had after potting them, and we just can't get it to come back to life. So, we're just going to report that one with some more inpatients...we seem to be successful with those. And, the bunnies keep eating the Hosta we planted...of course EVERYBODY says it's impossible to kill Hostas, and we would be the ones that could do it. Ha.

The girls pulled out all of the books tonight, and had a big reading session before bed. LOL

6/1/11 - T-Minus 30 Days

Well, the countdown to being laid off officially begins! 30 Days to get the budget in place...while it seems like an impossible task at this point, and I'm 98% sure it's going to happen, I'm trying to stay optimistic about it. Got all my limbs crossed. Or, hopefully if it does happens, it's just for a week or two. I can handle that, but not much more than that. Then, it would really start to hurt us all around. Waiting game continues....

Christian was called into his supervisors office late this morning, and requested to go to their new Eau Claire warehouse. Apparently, nobody out there knows what they are doing, and they need some help. So, he's heading out with a couple other people to help straighten them out. At that warehouse, they work from 2-10, so he was not home until VERY late. And, almost all of his normal work time was was OT, so YAY for that. He seemed pretty excited about the opportunity, and just being asked to do it, out of everyone at the warehouse, says a lot. My man, such a hard worker!

So, after work I was off to pick up the girls, and it was just the three of us tonight. We didn't do a ton...just ate some dinner, did some dishes, and hung out for the evening. Luckily both of them went to bed with little fight, and I was able to crash at a decent time myself. Christian on the other hand, is definitely going to be tired tomorrow after his late night!

Amelia is officially a climber now. She climbs on everything, and anything. Tonight, it was the overturned "toy box"..usually, it's the rocking chairs. She's even (finally) figured out how to PROPERLY get off the couch. Growing so fast! I also painted Olivia's nails for the first time tonight. She thought that was VERY cool. The little things in life....

5/31/11 – Goodbye May

Well, May comes to a close. As we enter June, we are still waiting for an actual spring to show up in these parts. We’ve had a bright day here and there, but overall, we had a pretty crappy spring follow up the super crappy winter. “Good News” is that bad winters are supposed to mean hot summers. I just hope we can get away from the eventful weather we’ve been having…not just here, but EVERYWHERE. It’s definitely been pretty crazy…hoping for a calmer summer!

Today was a decent day. Amelia yet again wouldn’t sleep. I actually ended up keeping her in bed with us because she just wouldn’t go down. So frustrating! I’ve pretty much decided that we will need to get her in for the sleep study one of these days. Her breathing is not getting better…in fact, it seems the more active she gets, the worse her breathing gets. And, her snoring is bad as ever, including waking herself up several times a night, and gasping for air in her sleep. I was reading up on sleep apnea the other day…it sounds a lot like the issues she has, and one of the “side effects” of apnea in babies is failure to thrive, which could be part of the reason she’s not growing. Although I’m more convinced it’s something with her tonsils and/or adenoids, it does have me thinking, and of course, worried. As I think more of the sleep study, I just hate the thought of it. I can’t imagine seeing my little baby, hooked up to all those wires, all night long. Expected to sleep, freaked out and not understanding what is going on. I’m pretty sure I’d get to stay the night right there in the room with her, at least I would assume so, but that doesn’t ease my mind at all. That’s not even thinking about what could come after…when the results come though. I just hate the thought that there could be something seriously wrong with her…and the thought that it could be something requiring some kind of surgery…let’s not even go there! Christian doesn’t really seem to want to talk about it, and tells me to stop reading stuff on the internet…but I can’t help it. We’ve been debating when to deal with it or what to do next, but I’m guessing getting in for the study sooner rather than later would be better for everybody. But, now I have to deal with the shut down stuff…what if I get her in, and then lose my insurance and we can’t even actually treat anything because I lose my insurance? Ugh, too much to think about!

I ended up picking up the girls after work today, so Christian could take care of the lawn. So, once we finally got home, I started picking up the disaster that has become our house [again] and making dinner. After we ate, we just hung out. Olivia was OUT OF CONTROL again tonight. She would not listen to a word we said, she as acting out really bad towards Amelia, hitting, throwing stuff….just, the definition of an out of control two year old. I finally had enough, and put her in her room for time out. After some yelling and crying and tantrum throwing, she came out and was much better (not great, but better) the rest of the night. We are truly reaching our wits end with her. I just wish we could get through to her, but I have no idea what to do. Like always, time outs do nothing, yelling does nothing, taking things away from her does nothing…she just does not give in to discipline whatsoever. People say “oh, she’s just being a two year old”, but I don’t believe that. It does not seem normal to me…and of course, leaves us wondering what we’ve done wrong to make her act like this, which is just that much more frustrating. And the way she is with Amelia, I just don’t get. Every once in a while, she shows a glimmer of that wonderful big sister I know she can be, but 95% of the time, she’s just horrible towards her. I mean, COME ON, it’s been 10 months, and she just refuses to chance her attitude towards Amelia. I just don’t get it.

Anyway, here is a picture of said two year old. Looking sweet, and innocent and perfect as can be. Now, if only per personality matched that!!! (PS, she is wearing the same thing as yesterday [just in case you notice]…her outfit had to be washed after the popsicle mess, and then she insisted on wearing the shirt again. LOL).

5/30/11 - Long Weekend Comes to a Close

Well, it's Monday night. Our long weekend together comes to a close today. It was fun while it lasted, but it's time to head back to reality in the morning. I'm not looking forward to how much work I'll have to do when I get back to work...especially since this week is my Friday off, so that's even more pressure!

We really didn't do a whole lot today. We usually spend Memorial Day with the in-laws, but I was happy to spend it relaxing at home instead. We have a little heat wave moving through right now, which comes with LOTS of humidty...so, it didn't take long to shut down the house this morning and turn the AC on. How quickly that transition from heat to AC happens! It did rain overnight, but slowly but surely the sun started coming out, and it turned into a very warm, sunny, summery day! We filled up the pool and the girls spent a little time in it....Amelia's first pool experiene. She LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. She was actually rolling around, splashing and having the time of her life. Olivia would do little cannon balls into the pool, and Amelia would laugh and laugh. It was so fun watching them play with each other and splash away. Just loved it.

After a little swimming and lunch, the girls went down for a nap. However, Amelia decided she would only nap in mommy's arms today (I even tried having her lay down with Christian, and she wasn't having any of that!). So, I was FORCED to sit down, relax and take a little nap myself. Oh, darnit anyway!!

After naps, we ate some dinner (taco night, YUM YUM), then headed outside to enjoy a little more of the beautiful weather. The girls each ate a little bomb pop, Olivia helped water the flowers and we just took in a little sun. Finally, it was time for bed. It was a long, fun, family filled weekend, couldn't have asked for anything more!

5/29/11 - Not Really "Sunday" Funday

This is the best kind of Sunday...a Sunday that is not really a Sunday!! YES, no work tomorrow!!

Today started off quite gloomy. Little rain showers here and there, lots of clouds. We planned on grilling today, so we spent the morning with our fingers crossed, hoping the weather would change.

In the meantime, we all ate some breakfast, did a little light cleaning around the house. I worked on laundry on an off all day. While the girls napped, I was off to Target to do our weekly shopping. Nothing too exciting this week, pretty much just the basics (that's no fun!). Throughout the morning, the weather got better and better, but never amazing.

The Madrid's came over around dinner time to hang out for the night. Christian grilled some yummy chicken, corn and potatoes, while the rest of us hung out with the kids and tried keeping them under control. Olivia and Meeka really go back and forth...they are all laughs and giggles for a while, then they fight over everything and anything for a while, then they ignore each other for a while, then they are BFF's again. It's exhausting, but makes me laugh at the same time. After dinner, we had a little relaxing movie watching time so the girls could calm down a little bit, then we headed outside for a little bonfire and some s'mores. I seriously drool over the thought of s'mores. Kelly found some GIANT marshmallow's too, which just made them that much better! YUM YUM!

While we were outside, the girls played with some sparklers, Amelia became obsessed with the slide, and the jumed in the jump-o-lene for a while. Finally, the Madrid's headed home the girls were off to bed, and we were not far behind them. Exhausting day, for sure! Glad we have Monday to recover! Amelia did not sleep well again last night, poor thing. She has 3 more top teeth starting to poke through, so add that to her breathing and sleeping issues, it makes for a long night!

Here are some pictures from our playtime. And, my new favorite video, Amelia and the slide. Love it!

5/28/11 - Welcome to the Zoo

Ah, Saturday. Wonderful Saturday. The start to a nice, long, three-day weekend with my little family. What more could a girl ask for?!?

After a nice long stretch of great sleep, we had a rough night with Amelia last night. I've taken her off the Benedryl...it's been about 2 weeks, and there hasn't been any change in her snoring, breathing, etc., so I don't want to just keep drugging her up every night. So, we'll see what time tells us, but I'm thinking the Benedryl was playing a larger role in her sleeping than we though. Boo.

We woke up to pretty great weather, and knew right away that we'd be heading to the zoo for the day. I've been wanting to get there so bad, and it looked like we'd finally have good weather for it. YAY!! So, we ate some breakfast, started getting ready, and were out the door around noon. Of course, being the first really decent weekend yet this spring, the zoo was quite a mad house. But, it was fun nonetheless. Amelia was much more into the people watching than the animals, and Olivia still isn't quite into the zoo either. But, I AM!!! LOL.

After some animal watching, we checked out the rides for a little while. There was a ride Olivia was big enough to go one, the "Frog Hopper", but I was a little uncomfortable with it. She kept insisting that she go on it, and Christian decided to let her. It started off OK, but ended with her crying and quite confused. Poor thing. So, she took a ride on the nice calm train to get over that trauma, we all ate some hot dogs and mini donuts, then...the rain started. Of course! Luckily, we were just about done anyway. So, we popped into the Monkey house to do some final animal watching and see if the storm would pass over....but it didn't. So, we had a nice wet walk back to the car, packed it up, and headed home.

The storm passed quickly, and the girls were out cold for a nap when we got home from the zoo, so Christian and I took it easy for while. Once they woke up, we just ate some dinner and hung out around the house for the night. Nothing too exciting. I spent a little time on the computer, and actually caught an episode of Saturday Night Live for a chance, while Christian passed out on the couch! Like usual, we're very exciting!

Here are some pics from our trip to the zoo!

5/27/11 - Another Week Down

Friday again! I swear it was JUST Friday.

Again, I really don't have a ton to write about today. Work has been just as crazy and busy all week. I've been getting a little annoyed lately with people that don't seen to have a whole lot to do...seriously, I have plenty of work I could hand out...seriously. I've been debating having a little chat with my supervisor about it all, but haven't worked up the nerve to do it yet. We'll see. I was talking to a coworker about the fact that I'm going to have to come in on the weekend and get some work done...he mentioned the option of taking an office lap top home and saving the travel time, so I'm thinking that's a better option....send the rest of the house away for a few hours and get some work done. Maybe next weekend.

Christian worked his overtime all week again. Like usual, it annoys me, but then when I see the extra [much needed] money on the check, I'm not so annoyed!

My mom ended up bringing the girls in for a visit this afternoon, so I just took them with me and headed home right when I got off work. Amelia fell asleep on the way home, so Olivia and I hung out for a while. Christian finally got home, we ate some dinner and hung out for the evening. Olivia was out of control tonight. I don't know why she gets like that at night, but she just won't listen and acts so unruly. We need some Nanny 911, that's for sure! As I was putting Amelia to sleep, I could already hear Christian snoring away out on the couch, so it was a pretty quiet night in our house. I curled up in bed with the lap top, while everyone slept. Ahhh, alone time!

Olivia continued doing great, and tonight we're doing away with the pull ups. We'll see how she does overnight in just her underwear...fingers crossed!! Amelia did not do any walking today. She didn't want to who my mom her new talent, and she was way too tired tonight. Oh well, tomorrow is another day....I really want to catch it on video though!!

I received some fun packages this week and unwrapped them today! One is Amelia's outfit for her birthday...it's SUPER cute, way cuter in person, and I can't wait to see her in it. And, I finally broke down and bought some BabyLegs for the girls, and had them model a couple pairs...I love them! I want more...I'm going to become obessed with them. For Olivia, they are really handy with potty training...even though she's doing really good and we haven't had any issues, it's much more convenient. And it's nice for Amelia's crawling legs, and makes diaper changes much easier. YAY

5/26/11 - 10 Months Old!!

Can you believe it?!? Our little nugget is 10 months old today! It honestly feels like just yesterday she joined our family, and here she is...2 short months away from turning 1! Just when you think time is going fast...it goes faster!

Amelia is doing really great! She's beyond consistently sleeping through the night, for the past several weeks in fact. And REALLY sleeping through the night...from about 9:00/9:30 until we get her up to leave in the morning! It's amazing. When it comes to food, she basically eats whatever we eat, other then really spicy food, and obviously, the things she can't have yet (egg whites, true berries, nuts, honey, seafood, etc.)...and, from a milk standpoint, we are still going strong! 100% breastmilk, not a drop of formula, and I'm yet again patting myself on the back for pushing through another month. I'm not going to lie, I cannot wait to hang my pump up and not look at it again for a long, LONG time, but obviously knowing that I'm doing what's best for her, and something so important, keeps me going. Pumping 4 times day is definitely a chore though, and a major PITA, just in case there is anybody out there unaware of that! We continue trying to get her to drink water from her sippy cup, to start learning how to use it, but she just does not get it.

As I mentioned yesterday, she is starting to walk. She's very shy about it right now...today she would not walk for my mother in law, but walked several times for us at home tonight. She love to babble and hear herself "talk", but other than "mom" and "mama", she does not say any actual words. She definitely understands more and more of what we say to her though. And, she is mimicking our sounds more and more.

She is still in 6-9 month clothing (in fact, some items she wears are 3-6 month still!), and she's still in size 2 diapers. It doesn't look like she'll be moving up any time soon either. It works out well though because she just may get the chance to plow through Olivia's old summer clothes yet! You can tell she is filling out though. Slowly but surely, she is growing.

Other than that, just another standard day for us, work wise. We had two cans of formula left from Olivia that were set to expire on the 1st (yes, ick, this formula was purchased in December 2009...and is just now expiring). Christian stopped in to Target to see if he could get them to take them back...and they did! YAY for extra money! He then picked up the girls, we ate some dinner, then our friends Nate and Gini stopped over to catch up for a little while. It's hard not being able to see our friends much, like we used to, so it's always a nice treat when we get the chance to spend some time with them!

After they left, the girls were quickly put to bed, and another day came to an end. Looking forward to getting through Friday and a long weekend with the family. Hoping for some good weather so we can get out and about over the weekend!

Here is Amelia's 10 month photo!! Cutie Patootie!

5/25/11 - Good / Bad

Today was quite a day.

Work is stressful right now. The government shutdown looms closer and closer, and becomes more and more likely with each passing day. The thought of actually being laid off...LAID OFF, makes my stomach turn. The gist of the issue is that the governor will not approve partial budgets (like what's typically been done in the past)...he wants complete budget proposals, for all agencies. So, that's going to take a long time. And, he will not call a special session until there are some proposals ready to present...but the legislature is not even working on it at all right now. So, it's basically a stand still right now. The major sticking points are that the governor wants to raise taxes on the highest earners (a whopping 2%) and the legislature wants to balance the budget on cuts alone. Luckily the governor is a pretty big supporter of state employees, so hopefully he'll be able to stand his ground.

In the end, more and more is coming out about what will happen to us. As I mentioned, we'll be officially laid off. So, I'll be able to apply for unemployment while I'm off. And, that should kick in the week after I get my last paycheck, so I shouldn't miss out. My weekly take home will be about $150-200 less than what I take home now, but we won't be paying daycare while I'm off ($250 a week) and Christian will be driving my car to save gas ($75 savings per week), so we should hopefully be OK financially. However, I will lose our benefits. I had Christian talk to his work about it, and he can get back on his employers insurance plan in the event of my lay off...but I don't know if I and/or the girls can be added or not yet. I'm not going to lie, the idea of a little "vacation" sounds OK to me, but not under these circumstances. Hopefully June will bring some kind of resolution for all of us!

Now for the good...AMELIA IS WALKING. I mean, really walking. Not just two little baby steps and then falling over. She actually walked across the living room...in a very slow, frankenstein style, but it was walking nonetheless, and very exciting. She was laughing and so of proud of herself. We just couldn't believe it. She's been wanting to walk so badly, for weeks now, and she finally did it, out of nowhere. I would not call her a walker yet by any means, but she's certainly getting there! YAY.

So, that's my recap of the day. Good, bad, stress, excitement, anxiety, pride...all wrapped into one exhausted mama! Here is a picture of Amelia...with the fluffiest hair I've seen on her in a while. Love it!

5/24/11 - Vacation, We're Comin' For Ya!

Today was just a regular old day. Work, work, work. I picked up the girls today so that Christian could rush home from work and take care of the lawn. I don't understand it at all, but he loves doing it. Sounds like hell to me, but whatever floats your boat I guess!

I am beyond excited today because we are officially going on vacation this summer!! We are taking the girls up to Duluth for a weekend, and I've never been so anxious for a weekend getaway in my life! We're going the weekend before Amelia's birthday. Not the BEST timing, but it was the best option, and I'm not too worried...we'll have plenty of time to get ready for the party still. We're going to head up to Duluth Friday morning and come back Sunday night. I'm a little nervous about staying in a hotel with the girls...all of us in one room, not sure how that will work out, but it's not like people don't do it all the time. The hotel we're staying at allows pets too, so we may just take Chuy up with us.

Other than that, we didn't do much else today. We ate some dinner and hung out after Christian finished the lawn. And, he finished just in time because our daily rain started up just as we were eating dinner! Seriously, this weather has got to go. As if we were tortured enough by the winter from hell that wouldn't end, now it seems we are never going to have spring, or summer for that matter! We'd already had Olivia out in the pool several times by this point last year...where is spring?!?

Christian's mom managed to get one little pony tail in Amelia's hair today. While it looks pretty goofy, I still thought it was pretty cite, so I snapped a picture.