2014 - Week 42

Monday was a bit of a chaotic day, but more in the planning of it than anything. It’s literally the one non-major-holiday day that our daycare is closed all year long. Now, I work for the government, so we get pretty much every holiday off…except today, which is Columbus Day, because we gave it up for the day after Thanksgiving years ago. Of course, that’s the day daycare closes. So, we finally got everything all figured out…I was going to work from home for a bit, drop Olivia off (she can’t enter the school until 9:10AM) and then head to work. My mother in law watches Eliza, so she agreed to take Amelia as well, so Christian was dropping them off. Then, I was going to leave work a little early and pick Olivia up (and, maybe make up a little work time before everybody else got home). Well, all of that worked out pretty well…except I woke up with a major headache. I haven’t been getting much sleep lately, and I’ve been plagued with these dang headaches all day long, I just needed a day of rest. I have little to no leave time, but I’ve learned that I just have to accept that for a while. So, after dropping Olivia off, I made my way back home to rest. It was actually really fun dropping her off – obviously, I never get to do it, so it was a new experience for me. Really getting to see her off to school. Cool! I spent the day on the couch, took a nap, showered and watched a few shows. I did feel a bit better in the afternoon, so I ran for a LONG overdue grocery/Target run. After getting everything put away, I picked Olivia up (also very cool, except waiting in line – lame). I put away some laundry, made dinner and spent most of the evening relaxing. These headaches just drain me! But, bright side of the day…once the girls were in bed, Christian and I were able to start the new season of “The Walking Dead” – YES, its FINNNNNNNALY back! We don’t have cable, and they don’t stream TWD, so we actually buy the season pass on iTunes every year. It’s literally the one show we really watch together, so we splurge.  The only downside is that we don’t get it until Monday, so we’re a day behind everybody else, LOL. Oh man, the premier did NOT disappoint either. This show would never in a million years get old. I’m so excited it’s already been picked up for another season!

On Tuesday, I was back to work, but I still was not feeling too well. In addition to feeling like I’m coming down with something, Eliza was up way early again this morning, and would not go back to sleep. I just feel so drained and rundown, and pretty sick of feeling that way. In addition, she didn’t really nap much at daycare today, so she was exhausted and crabby when I picked the girls up after work (which, I barely survived). She ended up taking a late nap while we made dinner and ate, so, of course, I had to prepare myself for another long night. Times like this, I’m super thankful that soccer is over. I miss watching them play, but at least it’s one less thing to worry about right now.

A moment of peace...

On Wednesday, Eliza was yet again, up WAAAAY before the alarm clock, starting the day off bright and early again. Seriously child, sleep – it’s wonderful, you are missing out! But, silver lining, it was my work from home day, so at least I got to stay in my jammies and relax at home. While I don’t feel horrible, I do have some cold symptoms hitting me…cough some sniffles, and my voice was completely gone today. Eliza and Olivia both have the cough too, so it’s just kind of making its rounds in our house I guess. When I picked the girls up, they said Eliza yet again didn’t really nap much, but she was pretty much in good spirits, so I guess it could be worse. I know the biggest issue is that she doesn’t sleep in a crib at home…she sleeps in my comfy, warm bed – so I think she just hates her crib there. Sorry, my fault. Hopefully she’ll still adjust, at some point, though. After picking the girls up, we had some dinner, and then baked some Halloween cupcakes...not something I'd usually do during the week, but we have a potluck at work tomorrow so I wanted to get them done to bring in. Finally, the girls had quick baths and were off to bed.

Their school pictures are SO DAMN CUTE!

On Thursday I was feeling a bit better, AND, Eliza actually slept (imagine that – I’m guessing the two go pretty hand in hand). Not only that, she actually took a nap today as well. Score, great day!! Olivia does not have school today, or tomorrow, for MEA. So, she got to spend the whole day at daycare with her friends again. She loves school, but I know she doesn’t mind being at the center one bit. Today was Sports Day at daycare (it was supposed to be spirit week all week, but they forgot to hang the sign up, LOL), so Eliza wore an old Vikings onesie we had, Amelia wore the Vikings sweatshirt, and Olivia had to wear her baseball uniform – sorry, they aren’t big sports fans. Amelia initially threw a fit about wearing her sweatshirt, until I showed her that she should match Eliza…then, it was AMAZING, she thought it was the coolest thing ever to match baby (especially because Olivia didn’t match). They’re so funny. Meanwhile, at work, we had a Taco Party potluck, just because – DELISH! After work, I picked up girls and we played outside for a while. Some warm weather has been moving back in and it was just beautiful out, we had to take advantage. We raked some leaves and jumped in the pile for a while, which is always a hit. The girls stayed out and helped Christian until it was dark, while I went in to feed Eliza and relax with her. We had a late dinner, took some baths (an hour in the leaves and they were GROSS!) and the girls were off to bed.

My sporty girls!

Playing outside.

Friday was my Friday off, so Eliza and I spent the day at home together. Olivia didn’t have school today, so again, she got to spend the day with her friends. Today was PJ day at daycare, which is always a bit hit with the kids. And, they got to watch a movie in her room – spoiled! Eliza slept in a bit this morning and took a great nap. I swear, she makes up for sleep and cuddles when we’re home on Friday, which is fine by me! Between naps, we did make a run to Target. Again, we have a birthday party tomorrow, so we picked up a gift.  And, of course, did a little browsing around the store. We picked up the big girls (nice and late!), made our way home for some dinner and had a quiet family night.

On Saturday, after an early feeding and chat session with Eliza, she and I slept in a little. Christian and the big girls hung out and started breakfast in the meantime. Once we were up, and fed, I put him in charge of the kids while I did some cleaning. I cleaned the kitchen, swept and picked up the living room a bit. But, I had to cut my cleaning short so we could get ready for the day. Once everyone was showered, clean and ready to go, we were off to Chuck E. Cheese for our nieces 8^th birthday. The girls had a blast, of course, but man does that place give me a headache (literally). Shortly after we arrived for the party, my sister in law informed us that she was getting married in a few hours…WHAT?!  Apparently after she and her fiancé had gotten engaged a while back, they bought a marriage license, not realizing that they expire. So, rather than have to buy another down the road, they decided to just get married at the courthouse. Luckily we didn’t have anything going on, so after the party, and a little relaxing at my in-laws house, we were off to the courthouse to witness the ceremony. It’s so crazy to think it’s all done and over and they’re married now, so out of nowhere! Oh to be that spontaneous, I just can’t even imagine it. After the ceremony, we joined them, their kids and Christian’s parents at Boca Chica (one of our favorite Mexican Restaurants) for dinner. So, what was supposed to be a pretty low key day turned out to be quite hectic! We left the restaurant around 8:30 and all of the girls passed out on the way home. Of course, we had to get Eliza up to eat before settling in for the night…and, we weren’t far behind them to bed. We were all so exhausted!

Sunday was another busy day. Christian started off out in the yard bright and early…doing some raking, putting away some more of the yard stuff, just getting it all ready for the winter. My father in law stopped over to help him work on the snow thrower so it’s ready for winter. We’re almost there, almost ready to pack it in and “welcome” the cold and snow. For now though, the weather is amazing. The girls played outside for much of the day while I did some laundry and hung out with Eliza. Then, we were all off for our first Halloween event of the year! Since our kids have accounts there, our credit union paid their admission (and ours) to go to the Como Zoo Boo this year, so we decided to take advantage (even though the event is pretty lame, and I would never actually pay to go to it). We arrived there a bit before it opened and the line was OUT OF CONTROL. I guess everybody was taking advantage of the warm weather. Luckily, we managed to find parking and took some pictures of the girls while the line died down. We finally got in, did our “trick or treating” and made our way home. They had Anna & Elsa there, so of course we had to stand in line FOREVER to get a picture with them. And, speaking of which, of course , like any other girl parent in the world, I did consider having the girls be Anna and Elsa this year. In the end, I didn’t want to spend the time searching for a (good) costume, and, quite frankly, I just didn’t want them to have the same costume as a million other little girls. So, while I thought I was going to get an ear full from them as we passed one Elsa after another at the event, surprisingly, they never said anything about it. That was a relief. It was getting dark by the time we finished up, so we made our way straight home for dinner, some baths and bed. Another weekend comes to an end, way too fast!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2014 - Week 41

Monday was really just another Monday. Nothing too exciting happened, but nothing horrible happened, so I guess you really can’t ask for much more. Christian and I were off to work, Eliza off to my in-laws and the big girls off to school. Everybody seems to be doing pretty well. Olivia is still really liking going to school…riding the bus is still the best, and she’s been getting a lot of “tickets” at school, which are given out for showing above and beyond good behavior, so that makes me pretty proud. Amelia is doing well in Pre-K as well…I haven’t received any notes for her since this summer, so I’d say the structure of an actual curriculum is definitely benefiting her. Thankfully. Eliza has been pretty adaptable and doing well in all of her environments. So, no complaints. After work, I picked the big girls up and we were off to Amelia’s soccer. They had a game tonight, rather than practice, but apparently not all of the parents (or coaches for that matter) read their schedules very well because a lot of kids showed up without their uniforms. Our team just ended up having a fairly informal game and really just had more fun than anything, which I think they all enjoyed actually. Meanwhile, Christian picked Eliza up and met us at home. We had some dinner, relaxed, the usual. It always feels good to get Monday out of the way.

On Tuesday, Eliza turned 5 months old! Good Lord, I just cannot believe it. She is growing way too fast, and is already way too big! Watching them grow is so dang bittersweet. She is weighing in at 16.8lbs, officially over double her birth weight (up 8lbs 10oz from birth), and she is 27” long (up 7” from birth). She’s wearing about ½ 3-6 Month clothes, and ½ 6-9 Month clothes (though, we definitely have some shopping to do), and she’s in Size 2 diapers. She has definitely mastered the art of tummy to back rolling and there’s little to no tummy time for her anymore because of it. She’s still a little too hefty to get from her back to belly though. We’re starting to work on that more, and on sitting up. She still appears to be teething, drooling, diaper rash, swollen bottom gum and all, but no teeth have popped through yet. She laughs and smiles, all day long, and it’s amazing. Her sleep is still hit or miss – she seems to either sleep all night, or is up twice a night – there’s no in-between. She has not started on any food yet, but I ordered her some NurturMe Quinoa to start her on in a few weeks. We don’t do rice cereal/oatmeal, because it’s just filler with no nutritional value, but Christian really wants to start her on something, so quinoa was my compromise. She is all cheeks, chins and more rolls every day, and she’s just so delicious. Today was kind of depressing, because I really didn’t get much time with her. Christian got her ready this morning, it was too cold at soccer to take her out of the stroller, and she fell asleep while I finished cooking/ate/did the dishes. Missing out on sweet baby cuddles is a serious bummer. Outside of that, today was pretty standard. After work, we girls were off to Olivia’s soccer game (they were much more prepared than the Pre-K teams, that’s for sure), and Christian went straight home to start dinner. Then, it was time for baths and bed – pretty boring!

Wednesday was my work from home day – YES! I ended up taking a long lunch and going to Olivia’s school to celebrate her “star of the week” status.  I brought her some McDonald’s and surprised her in the cafeteria for lunch. She was super excited – I cherish these years when our kids actually enjoy having us around, as I know they are quickly coming to an end. After lunch, I joined her in her classroom to read the class a book, and answer questions about Olivia. Well, as you can imagine, with a bunch of kindergartners, that was pretty entertaining. There were a couple questions…what’s your cat’s name? what’s your dog’s name? how much did she weigh when she was born (LOL)? But, most questions were actually just comments. Some of them made me chuckle, but some were really sweet. She’s so cute! She has long hair! She has a lot of shirts! She’s really nice! One boy claimed she was his best friend, and then 5 other kids said she was their best friend too. It’s so funny; they were definitely cracking me up. After that fun, I headed back home to finish up the work day. I picked the girls up after my workday was complete (and after a little cleaning around the house), and we made our way home for dinner and a quiet night at home.

Thursday, well, I’m pretty much at a loss for what we did. So, clearly nothing too exciting. I do know that I got some mail that sent me into an emotional tailspin. We received a packet from the school district…I opened it up and it started off talking about having a child that would be ready to enter kindergarten next year. I thought to myself, “What, Olivia is already in Kindergarten, you dummies”. It took a minute to click…nope, that would be in reference to my sweet, still-a-baby-in-my-eyes Amelia. I don’t know why it seems to unreal that she’ll be in kindergarten next year…she still seems way too small and way too young to be ready for such a thing. I mean, being a summer baby, she is on the younger side of things, but still, she’s seriously still just my baby! It was crazy and hard to send Olivia off to kindergarten, but it oddly felt like it was time to. Hopefully by next fall, we’ll feel the same way about Amelia. I hope she gains some patience and some independence before then, that’s for sure! So, that was my emotional break for the day.

In lieu of the mail, today's throwback was to a photo of Amelia, about this time, 4 years ago. My sweet baby!

On Friday, I was off to work. I’m convinced, there’s not much worse than having to work on Friday’s (#firstworldproblems). Olivia didn’t have school today, some kind of teacher instructional day, so she was off to daycare for the day. They did get to wear pajamas though, and watch a movie, AND spent the whole day with her closest friends, so I’m pretty sure she was OK with that. After a long day at work, I picked the girls up and made my way home to relieve my mom of babysitting duties. They had another good day together…went on a nice long walk and I think she got Eliza to take a nice long nap for the first time, so that’s pretty exciting! My mom left, I fed Eliza, and we were off to MOA for the night. This past summer, they ran a promotion where if you spent $250 in the mall over a certain time period, you turn in your receipts for two Nickelodeon Universe wristbands. It happened to be during the time our friends from Indiana were here, so I did a little back to school shopping for Olivia, they gave me their receipts, and we had enough to get the wristbands. Well, it turns out said wristbands expire today, which we didn’t realize until a few days ago, so we had to rush out to use them. I took them on a couple rides they could go on together while we waited for Christian to meet us. We packed in as many rides as we could, before the girls were worn out, and we were all starving, and we made our way out of the mall. We decided to stop at Applebee’s for dinner, even though it was so late. The place was so packed, it was crazy. The girls got their food pretty quickly, and we got our appetizer, which was cold. It then took FOREVER to get our food…by that time, Eliza was getting really fussy, and the girls were done eating and about to pass out. So, we just asked for boxes right away and took our food home. The guy was lucky they were so busy (even though, I still don’t think that excuses cold food and poor service), because in any other circumstance, he probably would not have gotten tip from us. The girls went right to bed while we ate and watched some TV. We weren’t far behind though.

Saturday was a pretty low-key day. Christian had to work, so he was off bright and early. Meanwhile, the girls had their final soccer games of the season. My mom took Olivia to hers, while Amelia, Eliza and I were off to Amelia’s game. Amelia’s team did pretty well, but there was one REALLY aggressive little boy on the other team that was grading on my last nerve. Luckily, our coach was pretty on top of it and didn’t have any issue speaking up about his behavior. Amelia didn’t get any goals this time, but she played so well. I’m so proud of how far she came this season. Olivia’s team, as usual, didn’t do too well. Their team was such an anomaly to me…Olivia, along quite a few of her teammates, have some pretty good basic soccer skills, but for some reason they just could not get it together in games, and just got demolished week after week. Olivia didn’t end up scoring any goals this season, which bums me out, but she is getting really good at dribbling the balls and she can run like a madwoman! Next year her league will be all girls, so I’m hoping she will gain some confidence from that. So proud of my girls, they worked so hard this year. They each got a little trophy and they think they’re pretty much the coolest thing ever. After their games, my mom took them with her for the day, and overnight. She took them on a drive down to Lake City to check out the changing leaves and visit my grandma’s grave. They stopped at an apple orchard down there and hung out by the lake for a bit before heading back to her place for the night. Eliza and I spent the day together, relaxing, napping and being lazy. I actually woke up with a headache that just got worse throughout the day, and was just pounding by the time Christian got home from work. He did some more yard work, in preparation for winter, while I rested. My mom ended up giving us some money as a late anniversary gift so that we could go out to eat for a nice dinner. Since she had the big girls, we decided to go out tonight (and, luckily, my headache finally started to go away). We had a coupon for Osaka’s, a hibachi grill, so we decided to try that out. OMG, so dang good! Definitely a great choice. We made our way back home, and got Eliza to bed. We watched “Out of the Furnace” on Netflix, which was not my usual cup of tea, but actually a pretty good movie. We also, FINALLY finished the last season of “24”…I sure hope they come out with another special season down the road, it’s just such a good show! Eliza woke up at 10:00…figuring that was a sign that I was in for a long night, I was off to bed as soon as I got her back to sleep. What a life!

ROLLER!!!

Our Date Night

Sunday was a much needed lazy day. After a rough start to the night, and super early feeding, Eliza and I ended up sleeping in until 8:30. So perfect! At that point, we got Christian up and he hung out with her for a while so I could get laundry going. I did a few loads throughout the day and did some general picking up around the house…but, overall, I just tried to relax. My mom brought the big girls home around 1:00 so we hung out for a while before I took them to swim class. Per our tradition as of late, Christian stayed home with Eliza and made dinner. He also did the dishes, so I knew something was up. Turns out, Mexico had a soccer game tonight, so we wanted to go over to a friends and watch it. Seriously, he’s not slick. So, after dinner, he was off. I got the girls to bed, one by one, and caught up on a little TV before heading to bed. Another week down, and time is just flying. It’s already mid-October – how the heck did that happen?!

Until Next Week! XOXO