2014 - Week 36

IT'S SEPTEMBER!!! Holy Moly!

Monday was Labor Day, so YAY for a Holiday and a day off!!! It was also our nieces birthday. My sister in law is throwing her a little party later this month, coinciding with her baptism, but so we didn’t really celebrate, but we ended up having her and her kids, along with Christian’s parents over for a BBQ. But, we actually got to sleep in a little bit today, for a change. Olivia and I ran to Target to do some shopping before everybody showed up, and then spent the afternoon relaxing, hanging out, eating, chatting. The kids played with every outdoor toy we own, our girls went swimming for a bit (though, it was a tad chilly for that, but whatever). The weather was good, so it was a great day to spend outside, that’s for sure. Everybody left around dinnertime, we gave the girls their baths, and settled in for a tad earlier bedtime. Olivia was nervous and excited and all kinds of mixed emotions about waking up a kindergartner tomorrow. I was doing everything I could to contain my emotions about it all. I don’t want Olivia to feed off of my emotions about it…I don’t want her to think my nerves, or my “sadness” are any reflection of what she should expect, so I know I need to do my best to contain it all. But, inside, I was so anxious, I could barely sleep!

My angel. She is such an absolute blessing to our family, it's unreal.

All the cousins, so much girliness!

Spent some time getting their "1st Day" Chalkboards ready for tomorrow. Tear!

Tuesday came way too fast. WAY TOO FAST! It was here, Olivia’s 1^st day of school!! We were officially sending our first baby off into the world, out onto so many new adventures. Kindergarten…we have a kindergartner. Seriously people, how can this be?! I feel like it was just yesterday I was preparing to become a mother. I feel like it was just yesterday I was learning all of the ins and outs of babies and motherhood and trying to wrap my head around everything. I feel like I was just yesterday we were celebrating her first word, her first time eating, her first steps, her first wave and smile and laugh. The first time she wrapped those tiny arms around us and gave us the biggest squeezes we’d ever experienced. Now, she’s off on her own. She’s going to school, she’s taking a bus, she’s picking out her own lunch and “paying” for it all by herself, she’s meeting new friends, all on her own – her own actual friends. She’s off on this whole new experience, all on her own, that we don’t really get to experience with her, or guide her through. While I’m so excited for her, and I know she’s going to do amazing and she’s going to LOVE being in school, and I’m so incredibly proud of her and the gift I’ve been given in getting to help her grow as a person, it’s so hard to let go. To REALLY let go. While I, again, had to contain all of my emotions and hold it in, it was tough. We started off the morning pretty normal…I got the girls up and ready. We took some “1^st Day” photos – including some photos of Amelia as it was also her first official day of Pre-K! Ugh, it’s all just TOO MUCH! Christian was off to work and I dropped the girls off at daycare. I switched my work at home day to today, so that I could quick run and watch Olivia get on the bus and see her off to school – they don’t start until 9:25, so I didn’t want to take a ton of time off, or make the long drive back and forth. Christian was able to get a little time off to come home and go with me to see her off. We got to daycare just before 9:00, watched her get on her bus, and then met them at school so we could see her off. With all of the 1^st day chaos, her bus was actually late, so we walked her into the school and down to her classroom so she would know where to go. They showed her where her locker was, she placed her sweater and backpack in it, and she was off. She took a spot in her little classroom circle, and it was official. She was in kindergarten, and there was no turning back. Christian was off to work again, and I was back home, back to work myself. While I did hold it together at school, I had a couple mini breakdowns throughout the day…wondering what Olivia was doing, what they were learning, if she was talking to the other kids or being super shy, if she got through lunch OK. My mind was racing a mile a minute. Luckily, we didn’t have soccer tonight, so we were able to take it easy tonight, and I was able to chat with Olivia about everything. She said she did not make any new friends yet (which doesn’t surprise me, she’s so shy at first), they took her lunch before she finished it (so, we had to explain she only gets a little time for lunch, not all the time in the world like at home or daycare), she LOVES riding the bus (what a relief!), and she really likes her teacher (YAY!). They are mainly working on learning their friends’ names and writing their own names right now (which she already does), so nothing too complicated yet. And, she saw a few friends from KinderCare on the playground at recess, so she was able to play with them. She also recognized a few friends from soccer at school, though none of them are actually in her class. All in all, we survived the first day. Whew!

1st Day Photos

Wednesday was back to reality a bit. I was back to work, and man do I still hate it. It’s been over a month now, and I still just cannot stand it. I don’t know what to do to shake it, but all I want to do is stay home with my sweet baby, cuddle her and do whatever I want whenever I want. This working thing is definitely for the birds right now. Eliza still has that dang cold holding on, so she hasn’t been sleeping great. She’s so stuffed up, and it just builds and builds throughout the night. Poor thing. Being sick sucks, kids being sick sucks, but babies being sick, when there isn’t much you can do for them, is just the worst. After work, I picked the girls up, and we were off to Amelia’s soccer practice. Amelia’s team is still pretty dismal, with only 4/5 kids ever showing up, and it’s a little frustrating. But, what can you do?! While she practiced, Olivia and I chatted about Day 2 of Kindergarten…she said she ate really fast today, which made me laugh, but at least she was able to finish. I had asked her to try really hard to learn a new friends name today, and she said she learned Isaac, because he sits right next to her, LOL. It’s a start! Her overall schedule has not really changed…she still gets up around 5:45, gets dropped off at daycare around 6:30, and gets picked up from daycare round 5:15 – school is from 9:25-3:45 – so the only real difference is that she doesn’t take a nap/quiet time anymore. So far, she seems to be doing OK with it, but I think she’s going to be pretty exhausted by the end of the week! After soccer, we made our way home for dinner and a little family time before bed.

I mean, don't you just want to squeeze her?!

Thursday was another pretty standard day…work, daycare, school. Olivia had soccer tonight, and was definitely dragging a tad. But, she did well. They had another child added to their team, so they have 8 kids now, and all of them were actually there tonight, so hopefully things are at least looking up for her team. They had a little scrimmage at the end of practice tonight though, and didn’t do too hot. They don’t keep score or anything, but the other team was just on fire! After soccer we made our way home for dinner. While eating, Olivia brought up lunch, and said she wants to get a lunchbox and bring her own lunch. I had debated this topic pretty much all summer long…school lunch, or bag lunch. In the end, I decided she was going to have school lunch. The cost is not excessive, probably not much more than we would pay to send her a lunch. I honestly do NOT have the time to do one more thing every morning/evening, which definitely played into it as well. And, really, I want her to have a nice, filling, HOT lunch. I just think it’s so much better for her, and will keep her so much more full and focused then sending some lame sandwich every day. She of course claims that EVERYONE brings their own lunch, and says she does not like having to stand in line and get lunch. I went over the menu with her to show her that everything they have at school she really likes, and talked to her about how much better it will be. And, that it will all get easier with time, too. She wouldn’t really let it go, so I told her we don’t have a lunchbox for her, so there’s nothing we can do about it right now…that maybe next time we go shopping we can find one. Hopefully if we hold her off long enough, she’ll get over it.

My Throwback this week, I can't believe this babe started Kindergarten this week!

Well, Friday actually came pretty fast this week! With Monday’s holiday, Tuesday’s working from home/1^st day of school chaos, and today being my Friday off – this was pretty much a perfect week! I was up and at it early, and dropped the big girls off at daycare before Christian left for work. And, my plan worked perfectly, as Eliza ended up sleeping in until around 9:30. Woot!! She ate, we hung out for a while, she ate again, and ended up taking a nice, long nap, so overall, it was a pretty quiet day. I did a little cleaning around the house, but overall, just took it easy. Olivia finished up her first week of Kindergarten, and is doing really well. She was definitely pretty exhausted tonight though, as expected. She seems to be enjoying it though. She still loves going, and loves riding the bus. She still says she doesn’t have any friends though, which makes me sad. It probably doesn’t help that she rides the bus with kids from KinderCare, and she sees her friends at recess, but I’m hoping she’ll branch out a little bit soon. Christian picked up some dinner on his way home from work, we all hung out for a while before the girls were off to bed, and we watched some shows together before passing out ourselves. So ready for the weekend!

She's getting so strong, and her coordination is getting better every day

Sitting in her chair

Here's a little "Name That Baby" Game - Myself, Olivia & Eliza - they sure do look like their mama!

She's going up a size in clothing, and this was one of my favorites that I kept from Amelia. It's bittersweet - she's growing too fast, but I love the memories the old clothes bring me.

Saturday started off pretty busy, but ended nice and quiet. Christian was off to work…since Monday was a Holiday, they all had to work overtime today to make up for the lost day of production. I don’ hate it, since he hasn’t been getting a ton of weekend OT this year. Meanwhile, Olivia and Amelia had their first soccer games. We were all up bright and early, having breakfast and getting ready. Unfortunately, their games are at the same time, at different locations, so I wasn’t able to watch both of them. And, since Christian had to work, my mom ended up taking Olivia to her game for me, and I took Eliza with to Amelia’s game. Olivia did really well, and tried so hard, but she does have quite a little ball hog on her team, so she never had the ball for too long, and was pretty upset about that. We told her not to worry, and just keep trying as hard as she can. Hopefully they work on passing and teamwork in the coming weeks a little more. Amelia on the other hand, was a complete mess. They play 5 on 5, and there were only 5 kids there…which, sounds like it would be perfect. Except that one of the kid s refused to play at all, and Amelia wouldn’t do anything more than walk around the field, avoiding the kids and the ball the entire time. I tried everything I could to get her to participate…begged, pleaded, tried not saying anything at all. Just getting more and more upset as the game went on. I swear, I’ve never been so frustrated in my life. I kept my cool, as hard as it was, but man do I hope she turns things around. I met my mom and Olivia at home…well, they had to stop at the store after her game because the family on snack duty today for her team did not bring their snacks, so my mom stopped to get her something. My mom talked to Amelia for a while about the game…her plan is to switch off watching them play as well, so we’re hoping she comes around this week and will play knowing that Grandma is coming to watch her. My mom headed home, and we all got ready for our next outing…we were off to my friend Kelly’s son, Finley’s, birthday party. She had the “Ninja Turtle” themed party at her house with lunch, a big bounce house and a piñata, and the girls had a blast. Eliza even did SO well at the party…she just hung out, watched everybody and was super relaxed he entire time (such a relief!). I think it helps that it was outside, she still loves to be outside. After the party, we finally made our way home for some rest. Christian arrived home shortly after us, and took the big girls outside to play for a while. I fed Eliza and we took a little snooze together. We had some dinner, watched a little TV, and had a quiet evening at home, great way to end a Saturday.

First Soccer Game Pics

Finley's Birthday Party

Sunday was a busy day around the house. We started off with a family trip to Perkins for breakfast…YUM! It’s nice to feel like we can actually get out and about with Eliza now, and not panic that she’ll start freaking out right away. When we arrived home, Christian cleaned the pool and the girls went swimming for a while, while he cleaned up the garage and mowed the grass. Meanwhile, I picked up around the house, did some laundry and hung out with the baby for the day, who luckily took a few nice naps giving me some time to get things done. The big girls actually spent pretty much the entire day outside, AND, they actually got along REALLY well most of the day which is an amazing feat. After swimming, they played on the swingset for a while, did some sidewalk chalk coloring, had a big water balloon fight, rode bikes for a while. It was beautiful out, and a perfect way for them to end the weekend. Everybody eventually made their way back inside just in time for dinner and baths, and the girls were pretty much off to bed after. Boy do the weekends go fast!

Here's the 4 Month Old!

Swimmin'

All Smiles

Water Balloon Fights!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2014 - Week 35

Oh Monday, back to the grind. Eliza is definitely not feeling well, and we had a pretty long night as a result. Followed by a very chaotic morning…I slept right through my alarm, for 30 minutes, so it was NOT a good start to the morning. Then, of course, as we’re getting ready to walk out of the door, Eliza goes to the bathroom…we didn’t want to chance it, so I took her out of her car seat and sure enough, it was already too late…blow out. Ugh, it was just NOT good, not good at all. We all finally got to where we were going and everybody’s day calmed down. Christian ended up picking Eliza up from his parents’ house tonight, and going home to start dinner. I picked the girls up from daycare…only to receive another bad report for Olivia. Livid, I was LIVID. She tells me “Mom, I tried hard not to get in trouble”. Really, you tried hard? It’s NOT hard to not get in trouble. Good Lord. Off to soccer we went, and she got to sit right by my side the entire practice. Meanwhile Amelia was barely participating in practice, and then spent the entire night not listening to anything we had to say. Monday, for sure. The girls were off to bed shortly after dinner. Christian cut the grass, I folded laundry, and I’ve never been so exhausted in my life.

Tuesday morning was pretty much a repeat…Eliza had another horrible night of sleep, I overslept again. This chaos is just catching up to me, that’s for sure. The rest of the day went much better though. Olivia and Amelia are both officially transitioning to their new rooms this week, Amelia to Pre-K; Olivia to schoolage, where they’ll be full time starting next week. So crazy!!! And, more good news, daycare FINALLY found the croc…I posted a while back that we realized that Amelia had two left purple crocs, and to my bewilderment, they could not find the corresponding right crocs for anything. I could not understand how after several weeks, the other family had not realized this issue was happening. Well, all is right in the world again, and the shoes have been re-matched up with their partners. HALLELUJAH! After work, the girls and I were off to soccer, then home for dinner, baths and bed. The usual. Surprisingly, Eliza has been pretty happy and content during the day, even with the lack of sleep and the cold going on, so that has been a relief.

Today was National Dog Day - celebrating little Chuy!

It's official, transition time!

Wednesday was my work from home day. Oh work from home day, how I love thee so. Christian was off to work, the girls were off to daycare, and I settled in for a day of work. It’s so quiet and peaceful and refreshing. After I finished my work day, I did some quick cleaning up before picking the girls up and heading to Amelia’s soccer. Tonight they had a scrimmage ahead of their first game next week…and she would NOT participate, AT ALL. Oh My God, I’ve never been so frustrated in my life. I kept my cool…I wasn’t yelling or getting upset, I just kept pleading with her to PLEASE just go play. I finally just stopped talking to her about it, and her coaches tried everything, to no avail. When the game first started, she did take off after the ball, but I think she got really overwhelmed when she realized that EVERYBODY was going after the ball. Since our team is so small, they haven’t really been able to scrimmage or do anything like that, so I think she was just really shocked by all of the action. One of the other kids refused to do anything either, so we were down to 4 kids that would actually participate. Man, I sure hope this won’t be how it is from now on! I don’t think I can take it…just watching her walk around, refusing to do anything. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to get home and be done with it.

LOL, got their soccer jersey's this week - I think Amelia's is a little big...

I'm waiting for the day Rico ends up pushing the screen out of the window and falling out

Thursday was back to a pretty typical day. Work for us, daycare for the girls. Christian was actually selected to participate in a survey panel for Fieldworks…they do random panels and study groups, but they’re very select on who they are looking for to participate. Christian was finally selected, and scored $75 for participating, yay for fair spending money!! So, while he did that this evening, I picked the girls up and we headed to Olivia’s first scrimmage (and our LAST time having soccer 4 days a week, THANK GOD!!!). She of course did much better and participated just fine…she was a little rowdy and aggressive though, so hopefully it was just first game excitement and she calms down. The weather took a drastic turn today though, so it was COOOOOLD, and rainy, which was no fun. We grabbed some dinner on our way home and settled in for the night. I went to bed shortly after Eliza fell asleep…Christian’s study ran late, so he wasn’t home yet. He’s going to be tired tomorrow!

My Throwback this week was to our first visit to Como Zoo with Olivia, next to our most recent visit. So crazy!

I love waking up with this in my face!

Olivia's shirt fits a little better...a little

Friday FINALLY came, and not a moment too soon. Work was pretty standard, the girls finished off their last week in Preschool/Pre-K (even though they were just in the summer curriculum, so nothing too crazy), and Eliza had another pretty rough day with my mom. I’m not sure why she’s still giving her such a hard time…but hopefully that doesn’t last too much longer. I picked the girls up after work, and arrived home to relieve her from baby duty. Shortly after, our friend Sara dropped Olivia’s BFF, Bella, off so I could watch her for a few hours. Unfortunately for her, the girls had talked my mom into taking them overnight, so they weren’t around for her to play with. But, I think she kind of liked having the run of the house and being able to play with whatever she wanted. Her dad ended up getting off work quite a bit earlier than planned, so I wasn’t on duty for too long. The rest of the night was pretty quiet…we all had to rest up for tomorrow, STATE FAIR DAY!

Crazy, first day at KinderCare; Last day of Preschool/Pre-K

My beautiful necklace and my sweet baby's chunky hand, LOVE!

Eliza is making friends

Saturday was the big day, a day we wait anxiously for all year long….State Fair Day. Man do I love the fair. After waking up, having a light breakfast and getting ready, we packed up and hit the road. Traffic around the fair was horrid, as usual, and once we got in the gates, we realized that things were CRAZY, even more so than usual. We later found out that an all-time attendance record was SHATTERED today, and it was absolutely no surprise. I’m not sure about fairs in other states, but our State Fair is HUGE…I mean, over the 12 days it’s open, they get close to 2 million visitors a year. This is not your run of the mill fair. There were areas that we literally could not pass through it was so crazy. The weather was warm, but not horrible. We still ended up staying there for almost 8 hours, so we hung in there. We had our favorite foods, the girls went on a few rides, they did their first “Spin Art” pieces, we hung out in the barns for a while, we watched a little bit of the parade, and we stood in A LOT of lines. A LOT. Thankfully little Eliza was pretty content being along for the ride (man, we are so lucky!). We were all beyond exhausted when we got home though, and one by one passed out for the night. Feet aching, bellies full and very heavy eyes by the time we arrived home, that’s for sure.

Sunday started off rough…I had the WORST, pounding headache. I’m sure very related to the fair chaos and greasy food. I fed Eliza, put her in the living room in her swing, popped some medicine, and made my way back to bed with an icepack for a while. Oh man, rough start indeed. I finally peeled myself out of bed, had some breakfast, and started on my weekly chores…laundry, dishes and cleaning, oh my! Christian cut the grass and did some trimming, then had to make a run out to Mall of America…they were running a special this summer that if you spent $250 throughout the mall, you could get 2 free unlimited ride wristbands….so, when our friends were here a few weeks ago, they gave us all of their receipts, and we combined them with the clothes shopping we did for the girls, and JUST made the $250 mark. Today was the last day to redeem them, so off he went. It was another busy, packed weekend. I think we’ve decided we just need to suck it up and take a day off of work next year so we can go to the fair during the week. It will still be crazy, but not AS crazy.

They Had the Prime Location!

Until Next Week! XOXO