7/26/11 – One Year

One Year.

It’s hard to believe, it’s been one year since Amelia Grace entered our lives. That day, filled with so many emotions, so much joy, happiness, anxiety, stress, excitement…and of course, pain! It was a truly amazing day, etched into my mind forever. At 6:12AM, our lives became that much more complete.

A year full of longing cries, sleepless nights, sloppy kisses and real hugs. A year full of amazing firsts….first smile, first laugh, first time rolling across the room, first time sitting up, first time crawling into trouble, first time standing on your own and first time walking across the house as if you’d been doing it forever. A year full of giggles, screams and cries. A year full of adventures you will never remember, but I will never forget.

Amelia Grace, such a beautiful, sweet, cuddly drama queen. One year ago, you were born. Now, at One, you are no longer walking, but running from one corner of the house to the other. You have no problem climbing the stairs, getting in and out of the bathtub, on and off the couch and everything else you can reach those tiny little knees atop. You are STILL wearing 6-9 month clothes (even though I’ve sworn for the last 2-3 months that you were growing out of them…) and Size 2 diapers (which you truly ARE growing out of, and WILL be moving up after our current box is used up). We have your one year check-up on Friday, so I’m not sure where you are at in height and weight yet, but I know you are still a peanut, that’s for sure! You still say mom and mama all day, every day, but your new favorite word seems to be “more”, particularly when eating, and you have let a “dada” slip out a time or two this month. You are still 100% breastfed…that’s right folks, I made it to ONE YEAR, working full time, through struggles and stressful times. I am so proud of myself! You are shy, and loving, and have an infectious smile that I cannot get enough of. You are One, and you are amazing. We love you more than words could ever describe!

Today, unfortunately, was business as usual. Because of the shutdown, I couldn’t take the day off like I had been hoping to. So, off to work we went. Thankfully, she was awake when I dropped her off this morning, so I was able to shower her with happy birthday kisses! The day, again, dragged on forever. I am still very annoyed to be at work, and hoping that feeling ends soon. Christian doesn’t think he’ll be working any more OT for a while, but we’ll see how long that actually lasts.

After work, I had to do some fiddling with our budget now that I’m back to work and can actually do so. I later met up with Christian and the girls for dinner. Finally, the girls had their birthday cupcakes, we sang to Amelia (over and over again), and then it was time for bed. After Amelia finished eating and fell asleep, I just held her staring at her in amazement for a while….probably exactly what I was doing one year ago!

What an emotional day, that’s for sure! Here are a couple snaps of the birthday girl!

7/25/11 – Back to the “Real World”

Well, it’s official. I am back to work. In many, MANY ways, things are as if we’d never let. The drama is still there. The work is twice as much. The mornings are early. The questions are non-stop. I pretty much just hung out in my cubicle, going through e-mails and trying to remember where I’d left everything, eventually just jumping right back into it.

There is honestly no part of me that is happy to be back to work, and I never in a million years thought I would say that. Both times I was out on maternity leave, I couldn’t wait to get back to work by the end. But, being home with a newborn is much different than being home with toddlers. I got to sleep in every day, hang out with my girls all day, go to playgrounds and sprinkler parks and other fun things, get chores around the house done on a daily basis, enjoy long nap times giving me lots of “me” time…it was great, on so many levels. To top it all off, with me on unemployment, we were better off financially than with me working, which makes it even more frustrating. But, alas, we can’t just hang out on unemployment, and the bills don’t pay themselves. It makes a very large part of me regret buying our “forever” home so young…hopefully that decision pays off down the road!

After work, I sped home as quickly as I could. Olivia ended up throwing a fit when Christian was trying to load them up to come home, so he left her at his mom's thinking she'd be crying for him before he left the driveway. Well, much to our surprise, she never did. She ended up spending the night over there, and I was kind of bummed about that. But, it did give me time to finish up Amelia’s One Year video. We pretty much just ate some dinner and hung out for the night. I do know, it’s never felt better to get home from work!

Here is Amelia's finished video, it makes me cry every time I watch it!

7/24/11 – More Partying!

Well, the girls clearly enjoyed themselves yesterday…they both slept until 9:30 this morning! Whoa! We ate some breakfast, and began getting ready for the day pretty much right away. I hurried off to Target to buy a gift because we were off to my BFF’s sons birthday party…he turns 7 tomorrow, and THAT is really hard to believe! So, off we went. They had the party at a place called “Grand Slam”…they have some different games and sporting activities for the kids to play. Olivia couldn’t do much, but we kept her entertained.

After some lunch, cake and presents, we headed home because the girls were very sleepy, and getting crabby. The girls fell asleep on the way home and took a pretty decent nap. While they did that, Christian loaded up the table, chairs and other various items we’d borrowed from his parents for the party, and returned them. I went through Amelia’s birthday presents, did a little cleaning up, and relaxed for a while. I was still pretty exhausted after the last few days, so it was nice to get some time off my feel. And, of course, it was time to prepare the working world again.

Christian grabbed some dinner on his way home, we ate and hung out for a while, and then it was time for bed. Hopefully the girls will sleep nice and sound tonight, because that 5:00AM wakeup call is going to be ROUGH tomorrow!

Here is a picture of the birthday boy today! And, the girls took turns stealing my Icee today, Olivia loved it, and Amelia apparently thought it was hilarious. LOL.

7/23/11 – Birthday Party Day!

It’s hard to believe, and it breaks my heart to say it, but today was Amelia’s birthday party! How can it be true, how can my teeny tiny baby be turning one?! I just don’t know!

Even though the party didn’t start until 3:00, and Olivia was at my mom’s, we were still running around like chickens with our heads cut off all morning. Seriously, we are never quite prepared enough for our parties, that’s for sure. With a lot of help from our moms, we got all of the tables set up outside, set up the pools, made the food, did our decorating, showered and got ready, just as the guests started arriving. Christian manned the grill all afternoon, and I tried to mingle, snap some pictures and keep the party moving along. We had the typical grillin’ kind of food, cupcakes, cake and ice cream. The pools were not as big of a hit as I’d expected, but they got a little use. The bounce house (our gift to Amelia, since they’re cheaper to buy than to rent, and now we’ll have it forever!) was a hit for a while. We did presents and a piñata. It was a very fun and emotional day. The guests slowly started leaving, and by 9:30 most everyone was gone. We gave the girls a quick bath and put them down to bed, then spent a little time with our friends Dan and Michelle. We chatted for a while and watched a movie…it was nice getting some grown up time and having a chance to catch up with some friends.

The day was long, chaotic and tons of fun. Most of all, exhausting! We had a few no-shows, which is always pretty disappointing, but we were surrounded by a lot of wonderful friends and family members, Amelia received some very cute, very great presents, and all in all, everything was a success. Celebrating the life of a child, there is nothing better!

Here are some pictures from the party. I didn’t get as many as I would’ve liked. Amelia was pretty shy and tired most of the day, so I didn’t want to push her into taking pictures and frustrate her. I got a few good ones though!

7/22/11 – Another Busy Day!

Another busy day, and another short post!

Christian was off work again, so we spent the day getting ready for the party tomorrow. We woke up at the usual time, ate some breakfast and hung out for a while. Then, Olivia and I were off to meet my mom. My mom offered to take her overnight tonight so we could finish everything up, and get ready for the party tomorrow, with a little more ease. So, we met up, my mom took her, and I headed back home. I finished up the laundry and did some general picking up, and then we met up with my mother in law for a quick lunch. Then, it was finally home to get to work!

Today’s tasks were cleaning/picking up the bathrooms and the basement and getting all of the decorations ready to go. But, no matter what we do, we’re never quite as prepared as we think, so I’m sure tomorrow will be as chaotic as any other party we have!

Christian got this cute picture of Amelia today. Such a happy girl!

7/21/11 – Busy Day

Well, I am supposed to be returning to work today…but, I’m not! I just couldn’t do it, not yet. I actually already had today and tomorrow requested off before the shutdown, but I don’t think I would’ve gone back today even if I hadn’t. Not.Ready.At.All.

After waking up and some breakfast, the girls and I hung out for a while and Christian took to yard duty. I got Amelia down for her nap and then dropped Olivia off with my mother-in-law for a few hours. Then, it was time to shop! I stopped into Hallmark to pick up Amelia’s “1” figurine, then to Party City to pick up the last of the decorations and order balloons, then finally to Target to pick up all of the groceries for the party and some necessities. By the time I got home, the yard work was done, and Amelia was up, so we ate some lunch, I did some laundry, Christian picked up Olivia and we did the little bit of cleaning that needed to be done upstairs (vacuuming, dishes…general stuff). Then, we called it a night. It didn’t seem like we did much, but we were pretty exhausted by the end of the day!

I snapped this picture of Amelia this morning…she was VERY clingy today, would barely let me put her down. She must know I’m leaving her again…I was happy to cuddle as much as she wanted!

7/20/11 – It’s Over

Well, after a long night last night, the Legislature passed all of the budget bills, and it looked like the shutdown would end today. The Governor signed all of the bills this morning, and with that, everything was over. I received my call back to work (to return tomorrow) around 11:00AM, and I joyfully exclaimed that I would NOT be returning until Monday. Thankfully, I had a planned “vacation” the rest of the week!

Today was HOT, HOT, HOT, the hottest day yet. The heat index reached 120 today, ouch. Luckily, it was quite windy out which I think made it not so miserable. The girls and I braved it, and I took them off to the sprinkler park to enjoy our “last” day together. The wind was really a lifesaver there, because there was a nice mist going on all around. Amelia again loved the water, but Olivia didn’t want much to do with it. So, she played on the playground for a while instead. Finally, they were worn out and hot enough, so we packed it up for the day. I stopped to get some lunch on the way, and Amelia fell asleep pretty much the second I got her in the truck. So, she took a short nap while we ate and I got Olivia down for her nap. That was basically our day. Amelia ended up taking another short nap later in the day, so I had a little alone time with each of them, which was nice.

Once Christian was home, we ate some dinner and hung out for a while. He took the next two days off work, so I’m looking forward to hanging out with him for a few days, and spending some time getting ready for the party this weekend. Here are some pics from the sprinkler park.

7/19/11 – Blah

I don’t really have much to report today. It’s so hot out, it’s really unbearable. The humidity today was off the charts. The girls and I pretty much just hung out inside today trying to escape the heat. So, it was a pretty boring, typical day. Wake up, breakfast, play, break up fights, eat lunch, nice long nap, snacks and wait for daddy. We had some pizza for dinner, Amelia’s favorite, and then Christian decided he wanted to do some of our outdoor chores. So, we attempted it. We emptied the bug infested sandbox, got rid of the sand, washed the box out and planted some grass seed where we had the box. Christian clipped back the tree…it gets pretty out of control! We all sweat through our clothes in record time, only saved by spending a little time in the sprinkler (which was supposed to be watering the new grass…).

Finally, it was time for baths (DEFINITELY time for baths) and bed. The Governor called a special session around 3:00PM today. By bedtime, they had passed 5 of the 12 bills, and were hoping to pass all of them through the night. So, we’ll see what the status is in the morning. It’s looking like this thing will all be coming to an end at some point tomorrow, and we’ll be called back to work this week yet. I have definitely mixed feelings about it, personally and as a citizen. The budgets they are agreeing to are not good for the state, and we’re going to end up right back in this same position in two years, and that is very frustrating. But, what can you do?!

Olivia was being a great helper while Christian was clipping the tree, and I wanted to snap a few pictures. Unfortunately, because of the humidity, I couldn’t keep the camera lens clean enough to even snap one! Gross. This was the result…

7/18/11 - Tropics, Much

Well, according to the news, the Governor and legislative leaders are "getting close" to finalizing the budget bills, and hope to call the special session early this week yet. I'll still believe it when I see it. Regardless, I will not be going back to work this week...as I mentioned yesterday I'll be off Wednesday-Friday no matter what...Christian is off Thursday and Friday too, but it is looking like this will be my last week off. There is still a small chance the bills won't pass during the special session, but at this point, with all of the bad press, I can't see that happening. I'm thinking that the legislature doesn't want to look any worse than they already do at this point.

It's really, REALLY hot here, as it's supposed to be all week. Last night on the news we hit a record dew point in the cities...it was officially hotter here than LA, Dallas and Miami, and more humid than the Amazon rain forest! Seriously, we're talking hot people. Today was not much better. The girls and I had some breakfast, I did my unemployment paperwork and we played for a while, but they were way too antsy to just stay inside ALL day long. So, we lathered up in sunblock, put on swimsuits and played in the back yard for a while. I filled the pool...it was FREEZING cold, but within about 20 minutes it felt like a sauna. The rain through the sprinkler for a while, but weren't huge fans of it. Finally, it was nap time. Thankfully the heat and water meant an even longer than usual nap time, which was great!

After naps, we cleaned up the house, Christian brought home some take out for dinner, and we headed back into the tropics. Tonight's "preparation for the birthday party" task was cleaning out the gross sandbox. The sandbox was infested with bugs this winter...I think a mix of being covered and being under the tree. So, we emptied it, cleaned it out and moved it to the other side of the yard (just have to get new sand now)...we were not out there long, but the girls and

sweat through our clothes in record time, that's for sure.

We got in a little more play time, then it was time for bed and baths. The girls went right to bed again, just like they usually do. I SO miss being up north, but it's nice to have the girls back on a routine though.

Here are a couple of pics from today. Olivia insists on filling the pool (she doesn't believe me when I tell her you can just lay the hose down...). Amelia just wanted to play with the water coming out of the hose, LOL.

7/17/11 - Back to Reality

Well, it's back to reality today. Back home. No more "cation". This really was the best weekend...I could not have asked for more. Time with my handsome hubby and my beautiful girls, time away from the stress and uncertainty of the job situation, new adventures to share with the kids. Christian and I were equally bummed the entire car ride home. As we said goodbye to the lake on our way out of town this morning, we knew we'd be back next year, and the year after, as this will be a new family tradition for us!

We started off the morning just like yesterday, wake up, breakfast in the hotel lobby, showers and getting ready. We packed everything up and loaded up the truck, checked out, then stopped by the lake on our way out. The girls spent some time playing in the flower garden, and we watched a couple boats go by. We thought about hanging around town for a while, but it was way too hot and WAY too humid to spend much time outside anyway, so we started on our way home. Luckily this time Amelia fell asleep shortly after we hit the road, and slept the entire ride home. Olivia fell asleep for the last half of the ride. So, it was a nice, peaceful ride home.

We picked up the dog on the way home, and we immediately unloaded the truck and I unpacked everything. I didn't want to risk having it sit around all week, and wanted to keep my nice clean house, clean! Christian and Olivia were off to his parents house for dinner while Amelia and I hung out at home. I wanted to relax and watch me some Big Brother, and the girls needed some time apart after this weekend glued to each other, so it worked out well.

Finally, it was time for bed! The girls were clearly happy to be back in their own house, in their own beds and back on routine. Bedtime went much smoother than it did at the hotel, that's for sure! You could tell Christian was pretty bummed to be heading back to work in the morning...he took this upcoming Friday off so we can get ready for Amelia's birthday party, and he's already thinking about asking for Thursday off! LOL. I am entering week 3 of being laid off, and it should definitely last the entire week. Though the Governor and some of the legislators are at the capital working on the bills, they are not even close to being done yet, so there is no special session in sight quite yet. We'll see, it works out better for me if the shutdown lasts this entire week anyway since I have to take Wednesday-Friday off anyway...saves me some vacation time I guess (silver lining?).

Here are a couple pictures from this morning, I seriously wish I were still there...