2015 - Week 10

Well, Monday kicked off about how you would expect. I was begrudgingly up, getting ready for work. The girls refused to peel themselves out of bed, and Amelia is rocking a whole new level of attitude these days. She was just out of control this morning, and talking back like crazy. I swear, she’s going to be the death of me. But, we were FINALLY out the door, and on our way. My one saving grace on Monday is that Christian drops Eliza off, so I have one less person to get ready and loaded up (as long as I have her bags packed and bottles ready ahead of time – you know Dad ain’t doing that!). I was off to work, determined to just suck it up, try to turn my attitude around, and just keep to myself. Focus on my work, on what I need to do, and go home. To make a crappy Monday even crappier, my pump was working horrible today. I took it apart mid-pump and noticed milk was backing up into the motor. Great, just what I need?! I got it cleaned up, dried up and put back together, but it just did not sound great the rest of the day. And, I didn’t get nearly as much milk as I usually do. Finger crossed I can bring it back up. After work, I stopped at Target for a few groceries, picked the big girls up, stopped at the show store to get Amelia some new tennis shoes, and finally made our way home for the night. I started dinner and we ate as soon as Christian arrived home with baby. The big girls were acting up and fighting most of the evening, so they were sent to bed early. Eliza followed, and we finally set in for some peace and quiet and “The Walking Dead”. What a day!

Amelia built her a pillow fort

Tuesday was a much more low key day, thankfully. The day started with Eliza sleeping right through to the alarm – for the SECOND day in a row. Good Lord, so awesome! So grateful when that happens! My newfound hate for being at work has had one silver-lining…it has resulted in my being incredibly productive. I don’t even want to see or talk to anybody these days, even my friends, so I just sit in my cube and work away. Whatever. One bonus this week is that ½ the office will be out at a conference for a few days, starting this afternoon, so I’m excited for the quiet. I got out of the conference last year because I was pregnant, and this year because I’m nursing…I’m afraid I’ll be forced to go next year. Gross. After packing it up for the day, we had a pretty quiet evening. I picked the girls up after work, we made our way home to make dinner and settle in for the night.

Taco Tuesday!!

Wednesday was one of my final “work from home” days. One of my final days of less stress on a weekday. So frustrating, it still makes me so mad. But, alas, I dropped the girls off and worked the day away. After I finished working, I folded some laundry before picking the girls up. Amelia was getting into trouble as I was picking them up…I am so beyond over their acting up, I just can’t even take it anymore. So, she was sent to her room when we got home. Eliza was exhausted, and actually fell asleep on the way home, so she napped for a little bit before dinner. We sat down for dinner, watched a little TV, and one by one they were all sent to bed. Eliza was coughing and sounds really stuffed up, so I’m hoping she’s not getting sick! Poor thing.

I swear we have the laziest babies ever. None of them have held their own bottles. As you can see here, complete fail.

Thursday was back to work, but everyone was gone at the conference, so it was sweet peace, all day long. Well, in a way anyway. Of course, as usual, a big issue came up that I had to deal with, so that helped make the day go quickly. I also signed the girls up for “baseball” today, which will start at the end of April. Olivia’s team may be all girls this year, I couldn’t tell for sure. While Amelia will probably end up being the only girl, like Olivia was, but we’ll see. Hopefully they both participate and enjoy it! It does sound like they’ll both be playing on Mondays and Wednesdays though, at different locations, likely at the same time, so that will be a pain. I’ve already warned Christian that he’ll have to make sure he gets off “on time” on those nights during baseball season so he can take one of them. Nothing is ever simple, I swear. After work I picked up the girls, and we made our way home. Eliza was the happiest baby on the block tonight, completely different than she has been. It was so wonderful, makes life a whole lot easier, that’s for sure. I made dinner, did some cleaning up and relaxed for a while. Whew. And, another big YAY, Eliza came home in the same clothes all week, for the SECOND week in a row. Seriously, not having to scrub out clothes every night has been heaven. I’m on a new mission to set little goals for myself/our house every week to try to get some order back in our lives. This week, my goal was to wash dishes/bottles every night, and load /unload the dishwasher to keep things from piling up. So far, this week has been a complete success! Just need to keep on it, and keep adding on more things for us to focus on. Time to bring some organization back into this chaos! Christian had his performance review at work today, which went really well (and, he gets a little pay raise, which is always nice). They talked to him about a couple of things they seem to bring up every year…potentially making him salaried rather than hourly, what his openness to moving to overnights is, etc. He did actually take some initiative and discuss the salaried option more though. See, Christian works a lot of overtime…he works at least 2-3 hours every day, plus all day many Saturday’s. This overtime makes up a lot of our family income, it really makes a big difference. If he was salaried, at what he makes now, they would absolutely still expect him to work the overtime, so now he’d be working his tail off, taking time away from his family, literally for nothing. So, when they brought it up again this year (telling him he’d remain hourly this year, and they’d reevaluate again next year), he asked them what kind of salary they are talking about. They told him they can’t guarantee he’d make what he makes how (with overtime), but it wouldn’t “too much” less. It still makes me really nervous though; we’ll have to see what happens. As far as moving to the overnight shift…I just can’t see him ever agreeing to do that. It would be REALLY hard on our family, and I don’t think he wants to go back to that at all. But, they tend to approach it as a “stepping stone” move – and I just don’t believe him. I’m afraid he’d move to overnights, and be STUCK there, for a loooooong time, and that’s just not a good move. Ugh, life and all of these decisions can be really frustrating, that’s for sure. Never knowing what’s really the best thing to do.

Throwback Thursday resulted in a reenactment tonight. Love!

Well, Friday I was off to work, one last day before a much needed weekend. Everybody was back from the conference, ugh, but it was quite an interesting day. My friend Brad brought me back some goodies from the conference – companies can pay to sponsor the event, and a lot of them give out different merchandise, so that was a fun surprise. There was a big controversy regarding out office fridge yesterday, which came to blows this morning. See, every office/section is responsible for providing their own fridge/microwave, etc…otherwise, you have to use your own cooler/insulated lunch bag and the microwave in the building cafeteria. Well, there are a couple of newer people on our floor who for some reason don’t have the common sense to know/understand that, and constantly use our fridge. Doesn’t sound like a bid deal, but we have 12 people in our section alone, and over time, things start to really building up and the fridge fills up, fast. I start work at 7:00AM, and not long ago, I came in and there literally wasn’t anywhere for me to put my food it was so full. I was livid. Well, a few people in our office got really upset over it yesterday, and decided they wanted to put a sign on the fridge, saying it was for our use only. I told them I didn’t think it was a good idea – that, in fact, I think we had done something like that in the past and it wasn’t well received, but I told them I agreed with the issue, so I would be “on board” with whatever they chose to do. Since our supervisor refuses to deal with the issue, they went ahead with it, and that was that. Well, sure enough, when our supervisor arrived back in the office today, she took it down immediately and all hell broke loose. I swear, it’s always something. Always some drama going on. Annoying. Later in the day, my supervisor came over to me to tell me about all of the wonderful things she heard about me stepping in the last few days. Normally, I’d be all flushed with excitement over it, but I just don’t even care anymore. It doesn’t matter in the long run, so whatever. I don’t need praise that doesn’t really mean anything, you know? I was very excited when the day was over, and the weekend was in full swing. I picked the big girls up and relieved my mom from babysitting duties. When Christian arrived home, we decided to splurge and go out for dinner, to a local Mexican restaurant we hadn’t been to for a long time. Which ended up being a little bit of a nightmare. They sat us right at the very first booth, right by the door. We didn’t want to be those annoying people who ask to sit somewhere else, so we tried to make it work. But, it was just way too cold, and we didn’t want Eliza dealing with it every time the door opened. So, they chaos of moving booths ensued (seriously , we should’ve just asked right away). Then, while we were settling into our new booth, Eliza got a hold of my glass of water and spilled it all over the floor, herself and half the table. While Christian and the (annoyingly very annoyed waitress) cleaned that up, I took her to the bathroom to change her. Finally, we settled in. The big girls are usually very well behaved when we’re out to each, but they were messing around in the booth, bothering each other the entire time and we were getting so frustrated. So, we ate as quickly as we could and booked it home. And, it was pretty much off to bed for everybody. What a day!

Everybody loves a thin mint!

Saturday started off pretty busy. Christian was off to work early, so it was just the girls and me for the day. After breakfast, we were off to swim class…which is always super chaotic when I’m on my own with the girls. Eliza is getting too heavy to carry for long distances (like swim class, where I have to park in the Egypt end of the lot and walk all the way into the locker room), so I decided to try using the stroller today, at least to get in and out of the building. I had to send Olivia into the pool area to go into the locker room and let us in the back door. Then, I left the stroller in there and carried Eliza up stairs. That worked a little better, but it’s still just too much going on, I feel like my brain is on hyper-drive. After class, we quickly showered, dried off and got ready, and we were off to watch Olivia’s BFF, Bella’s, last hockey game. The girls had a lot of fun watching her, it was really cute. Finally, we had grabbed some lunch and made our way home. Amelia took a nice LONG nap, which was great, but Eliza just kind of cat napped all day, which was not so great. Christian arrived home and I ended up taking Eliza into the room and napped with her for a while….while Christian made dinner. We all ate, hung out for a while and watched some TV together, before sending everybody off to bed. I ended up falling asleep with Eliza, so overall, it was a pretty boring, sleepy day. Which isn’t so bad really.

Watching her BFF's Hockey Game.

On Sunday, we were up and at it pretty early (well, for Sunday). Today, we were off to my in-laws for breakfast. It was supposed to be our family and my sister in-law’s family, but our nieces were with their dad this weekend, so it was just her and our family. My mother in law made a TON of food too….chorizo and eggs, plain eggs, bacon, beans. Oh man, I was SO FULL, I couldn’t believe it. The girls started getting overly antsy, so we packed up up shortly after eating. We stopped at Walmart on the way home…we needed to get the girls rain boots, so we picked some up, and did a little just because shopping, and let them pick out a couple of clearance toys while we were there. Olivia got a Monster High doll and play set, while Amelia got a Monster High doll and Frozen body pillow. Spoiled girls! But, I’m a firm believer that sometimes you just have to spoil them and have fun. After shopping away, we made our way home. I hung out inside with Eliza, while Christian stayed outside with the big girls so they could play for a while. Bella and her dad stopped over for a while, so they played with the new Monster High stuff for a while. Her mom picked stopped over to pick her up a short time later, so we had dinner and settled in for the night. Christian went out for a couple of beers while I finished up some laundry and watched my shows. Another week has come to an end. All too soon, as usual.

Baby gate is finally up, they were feeling pretty "locked up"

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 9

Monday was here, and we were all of to our appropriate locations, hoping to kick off a better week for all. I had been fighting one of those nuisance headaches for a couple of days, and REALLY wanted to pack it in early today, but I pushed through and finished out the work day. I stopped at Walmart on my way home to grab some groceries, picked the big girls up from daycare and we made our way home. But, not before receiving some unsettling news. Olivia had been poked in the eye with a pencil this afternoon, and it was really red and bloodshot at the point of impact. Of course, FREAK OUT moment ensued, and I had no idea what to do about it. We decided to just keep an eye on it…it wasn’t swollen or bruising, she wasn’t seeing blurry or double-vision, she wasn’t really complaining about it (she didn’t even tell the teacher until they noticed it about 15 minutes later). Kids, they’re terrifying! Eliza had a good day, and a pretty quiet evening, so that always makes things easier for everybody. We all settled in at home, had some dinner, the girls showered and were off to bed. And, of course, Christian and I settled in for our Walking Dead night before bed. We went to bed praying everything would be OK with Olivia’s eye, and we wouldn’t wake up to anything worse.

Ouch!

Tuesday was a bit of a longer day. We had a decent night of sleep, but we were up pretty early again. Oh Eliza, one day, I’ll be dragging you out of bed in the morning, just like your sisters. That day seems VERY far away right now though. Olivia’s eye looked basically the same…I guess that’s better than looking worse. I’ve continued to be SO busy at work. I swear, for every contract I write, 2 new requests show up in my box. I just feel like I’m drowning and cannot catch up at all. So, needless to say, the day flew by. I picked the girls up, and we made our way home. Eliza had a “sensitive” day today at daycare. She has 2, possibly 4, teeth coming in, and it’s definitely got her feeling CRABBY. She was clingy and upset most of the evening, so dinner had to wait for Christian to get home. The girls and I watched a movie while we waited for him to get home and start dinner, and we got Eliza laughing pretty hard a few times, so we did our best to cheer her up. Poor thing, teething is seriously the pits. Before we knew it, everybody was off to bed.

Love that smile.

Wednesday was my usual work from home day, YES! And, icing on the cake, we slept all the way through the night last night, straight up to the alarm. Hallelujah, I just LOVE when that happens. When I dropped the girls off at daycare this morning, Olivia just warmed my heart, and I have to share. As I was heading to the door, she yelled to me, clear across the Center “Mommy, you are SO cute! I love you!” I mean, I was far from cute. No shower, no make-up, barely out of pajamas, hair haphazardly thrown up. But, in her eyes, none of that mattered. Come On! Kids are amazing…they are hard, and difficult, and trying, but AMAZING. After that little pick me up, I made my way home to work the day away. After I finished up my work, I did some cleaning and started dinner before heading out the pick the girls up. We had dinner, and settled in for the premiers of Survivor and The Amazing Race. A nice, quiet night. I received our van registration tonight, and OUCH, that was painful. Way more painful that I had budgeted. That was not a fun discovery, at all.

Thursday was a rough day. I was pretty much emotional and angry throughout the day. I should start off with a little background. I’ve been at my job for going on 14 years. I started there, in a temp position, about a month after I graduated from high school. I ended up earning my keep and impressing the supervisors, and they ended up taking me on full time. I LOVED my job…it was interesting, I got to dip my hands into different pots. My main job is writing contracts for construction work. Sounds boring, but it’s actually kind of interesting. Every contract is a little different, you deal with a TON of different people, both internal and external, and there are always new challenges coming up. Over the years, I’ve taken on many different “side tasks”….from assisting the accounting section, to managing our website, to developing and delivering training programs, just to name a few. As I’ve had kids, and expended my family life, my work has definitely taken a backseat. I mean, I still do the very best I can at my job, I still wear a few different hats, and I still really care about what I do…but I don’t have that passion I used to have. On top of that, I’ve had a really hard time being back at work since having Eliza, which I’ve written about here and there. I miss her like crazy…I think because she’s our last, and I really know what I’m missing out on being away from her. And just how fast it all goes. I just want to be home, I want to have one full time job, instead of two. I want a break. I want to put my focus on one thing instead of being stretched out so thinly. But, I push through. I keep hoping it will get easier, and I’ll adjust back into reality. As with most offices, there are people in ours that just drive me insane. People who, without going into too much detail, just really do not pull their weight in the office and make me wonder how they even have a job on a daily basis. And, finally, our supervisor has really changed a lot over the years. She has a very rude approach at dealing with us, she’s very cut off, she works the most ridiculous hours I’ve ever heard of in my live (making her very inaccessible to her staff). Add on the overwhelming amount of work I have been dealing with, and I’m just on the verge of losing my mind daily. The main reasons I’ve continued to push through, and stick it out are that you really cannot beat the benefits of working for the state, and without a college degree, I’d NEVER find a job to match it (or the pay), and the flexibility with hours and working options are really great. I work flex hours…9 hours Monday-Thursday, 8 hours every other Friday, and off the other Friday. And, a few months ago, I started telecommuting one day a week, working from home on Wednesdays. It doesn’t seem like much, but that 1 day off a check saves me a TON of sanity and leave time. I schedule appointments for that day (usually), I run errands and do extra chores that day, leaving me a little extra time on the weekends to actually enjoy family time, and it’s just a nice relief from the chaos. My telecommute day has really been a saving grace…saving the travel time to and from work, not having to get myself ready for the day, having some extra time at home when I finish working to get some stuff done, before picking the girls up, and most importantly, uninterrupted time to just focus on my work – no phone calls, no drop-ins, no non-work related chit chat with co-workers. I just crank out the work. Well, today, my supervisor pulled me into her office to let me know that I can no longer do both…I have to choose telecommuting, or my flex schedule. Since I don’t have daycare on Friday’s, obviously I really don’t have a choice. But I was so angry. WHY all of a sudden is it an issue? What’s changed in such a short amount of time? What does me being in-person in the office accomplish, that I can’t handle from home? Nothing, that’s what. So, on top of everything else that’s been making it hard for me to be at work, this just pushed me over the edge. I was so furious, and so frustrated the rest of the day. We are officially looking into options, to see if there is a way I could quit and stay home. I’m not sure if it’s possible right now, but we’ll see. So, yeah, that was my day in a LONG nutshell.

Olivia's latest drawing. Our little artist.

On Friday, I was off. And it was definitely perfect timing. I had a hard time keeping my mouth shut and not quitting on the spot yesterday, so I’m pretty happy to have a long weekend to cool off. My mom was supposed to watch Eliza today, but yesterday was her birthday, and she received a free room at the casino, so she wanted to take advantage of that. So, we switched weeks (that means I’ll have to work the next two Friday’s in a row, GROSS!). Christian was off to work, the big girls were off to school and I hung out with little Eliza for the day. She actually slept in for quite a while, but then was up for a loooooong time. Once I finally got her down for a mid-day nap, she took a nice long one though. She’s officially pulling herself up now, and she actually cruised around the coffee table pretty well today, so that’s pretty exciting! And, unless you are living under a rock the blue/black vs. gold/white dress debate hit the internet by storm today. #teamgoldwhite all the way over there! I picked the big girls up, Christian picked up some dinner, and we all met up at home for a lazy evening.

The great dress debate. Crazy. Seriously crazy.

She's up. She's cruising!

Christian talked to his human resources about their insurance today, and our insurance through his work would be almost triple what I pay for us right now. SO frustrating! I’ve spent time the last few months, and especially yesterday, combing over our budget, seeing if there’s any way we could “survive” on Christian’s income alone. And, it’s just becoming painfully obvious, that it’s not possible. We basically live paycheck to paycheck right now – I do have a portion of my checks put directly into savings, which I’m not counting in this calculation. Yes, we pay an arm and a leg to put 3 kids in daycare, but I still come out making a little more than what we pay. So, while we’d save on daycare, we’d lose in that savings. We’d also pay almost triple for insurance to switch to Christian’s, and we’d lose my retirement, health care and 401K savings that I’ve been collecting for almost 14 years. While I know many people would still throw “caution” to the wind and follow their hearts, I just don’t think I can bring myself to put our family in that kind of position. Sure, we go out to eat here and there, we go on little vacations or buy a little something special we probably don’t need, but for the most part, we’re very conscious about our spending, and we live pretty frugaly – so when I say we live paycheck to paycheck, I know we could make cuts and we could MAKE it work, but at the end of the day, I don’t think I want to force our family to “make it work”. I want our family, our kids, to strive. I want our kids to have a full life…to play sports, to participate in activities, to go on fieldtrips, to have fun birthday parties. I want to eat good food, provide healthy meals for my family, provide a comfortable home for us all. I want to travel with my family, experience new things. I want to have money set aside to help our kids with their futures…with college, with cars when they start driving, with future weddings. Mind you, I say HELP, we will not straight out provide these things for our kids, but I don’t want them to struggle for these things. Christian and I each grew up with little to nothing (he definitely more than I) and I just don’t want that for our kids. That’s why we work, and work so hard. That’s why even though my heart aches to one day be pregnant again, to feel the snuggle of a newborn baby again, we can’t. So, long story short, the ability to quit my job it looking unlikely. And that realization did not help my mood.

Saturday was a fairly busy day, and I was joined by a nagging headache for most of it. No Bueno. Christian was off to work bright and early, and the girls and I kicked off our day. We ate some breakfast, showered and got ready. First up, we were off to swim class. I’ve been setting Eliza up at the top of the balcony on the towels with some toys and snacks, and that’s been working well. Once she starts crawling, I don’t know what the heck I’m going to do though. One of the other schools they swim at has an elevator to get up to the balcony – I sure wish our main school did so I could keep her in her stoller! After getting the girls dried off and dressed, we were off to meet my mom for lunch, for her birthday. The girls gave her some homemade cards and we laughed and ate and snapped a couple pictures. Eliza slept through most of the lunch, so that worked out alright. After a quick bottle, she was back in her carseat, and we were on our way home. All three of them fell asleep on the way home, and went down for quick, short naps once home. Christian arrived home from work shortly after us, and I went on a little shopping trip to Target. My escape…nothing like a solo trip to Target to take a breather! But, alas, it didn’t last long, and I was back home to the chaos. We had dinner, played a little, and the girls were off to bed, one by one. Christian and I watched a couple of stand-up comedy shows on Netflix before passing out for the night. Getting me excited to surprise him with our Kevin Hart tickets!!

Birthday lunch with my mom.

Sunday was a pretty typical chore day. I hopped out of bed and straight downstairs to get started on laundry right away. I got a TON of dishes watched and cleaned up the kitchen. I hate tackling the mess, but it feels good when it’s done! The girls were acting up, and had their tablets taken away. So, they were playing together, running around, acting crazy. While Eliza napped, we tried keeping them a little more under control, so we played a few board games. We definitely need to do that more often, it was so much fun…lots of laughs going on. Once Eliza was up, the big girls were off for their naps, and we played with her, did a little more cleaning up and hung out together. Had a pretty quiet afternoon/evening. Once the girls were in bed, Christian and I settled in to watch “Gravity” while I finished folding laundry. I had forgotten all about that movie, I can’t believe we hadn’t watched it until now. Pretty good…I hadn’t really heard anything about the movie before, so it was fun to actually see what it was all about – much different than I was expecting. Then, it was time to call it a night, and get ready to head back to work tomorrow. Ugh - that's all I can say about that. Ugh.

Family game time.

Until Next Weel! XOXO

2015 - Week 8

Monday kicked off in a pretty great way…I had the house ALL to myself, ALL day long. Oh man. As much as I love my little family, and miss spending time with my girls all week long, I NEED my alone time, for my sanity. I think it’s the only child in me that comes out…I spent my whole life entertaining myself, being OK with being alone and doing my own thing, it’s pretty much been a neverending adjustment since Christian I moved in together years ago. So, days like today, I soak it all in. Eliza was off to my inlaws, the girls were still with my mom from spending the night last night, and Christian was off to work. I finished binge watching “Bates Motel” (seriously, one of the best underrated shows out there, watch it!), caught up on a few other shoes, washed the girls’ clothes, cleaned the kitchen and living room up, and did a little shopping – stopped at PetSmart for Rico’s super expensive food, and Target for a few groceries. My mom brought the girls home around 2:30, and they seemed pretty exhausted. They pretty much just relaxed and watched movies most of the afternoon/evening while I finished cleaning and started prepping dinner. Christian and Eliza arrived home, he fried up some taquitos….YUM! The girls were off to bed shortly after dinner, we watched this week’s Walking Dead episode, and were off to bed ourselves. After yesterday’s incidents with Eliza, she had a pretty good day today. Not sure what was causing her to throw up, but hopefully it’s passed.

Pacifier hoarder now!

On Tuesday, Eliza was up bright and early, and would not go back to sleep for anything. Oh man, by the time I actually had to get up, I was so exhausted from dealing with her. Days like this, I’d sure give anything to just stay home and not have to drag my butt to work! But, alas, off we went for the day. Luckily it’s a super short week, so I have that to look forward to. After work, I picked the girls up, and had a little chat with Amelia’s teacher. She’s been acting up in class a lot again…being sassy, talking back. Sounds like it’s just like at home really. Ugh, I don’t know how to get through to that child! So, we went home, had a chat and she had her tablet taken away for the night. In more bad news, Eliza had gone through ALL of her clothes for the day, plus some borrowed clothes…much like every day. I seriously wish I knew some magic trick to stop her blowouts. I spend every evening scrubbing out multiple outfits and spraying them down to pre-treat them. Thankfully I’ve been able to get pretty much everything clean since she was born, but it’s such a chore. We’ve tried every brand of diaper, I know they change her regularly at daycare…it happens at home, and at my inlaws house too, so I know it’s nothing to do with daycare. She’s already in Size 3 diapers, which should fit her for at least another 5 pounds or so. It’s SO frustrating! She was pretty exhausted today, and fell asleep on the way home, so I washed her clothes out, picked up a little and settled in. I was so frustrated and exhausted; I was not in the mood to cook. So, Christian picked up dinner on his way home (seriously, I would order out every night if it was socially acceptable, and I don’t even care). The girls played and, of course, fought most of the evening. Needless to say, it was a pretty early bedtime for everybody.

Wednesday was a little annoying…no working at home for me this week, a I had a mandatory training to attend today.  Wah, Wah, my favorite day. So, off to work I went. Next to meetings, which I hate, trainings are my next least favorite thing to attend. Overall, the day went pretty fast though. The girls were all in slightly better spirts tonight, and no bad reports from daycare, so we all had a much more peaceful evening. Dinner, baths, playtime. Why can’t every day be so nice?!

Thursday was a LOOOOOONG day. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was asked to sit on an interview panel for a position in another office. Well, today was the day. Between the pre-interview preparation meeting, the 4 interviews, and the follow-up meeting after, it literally took up the entire day. I had to skip one of my pumping sessions and barely got a lunch – I was pretty annoyed by the whole thing. Not to mention it was a very overwhelming process, and I was so nervous that I would be completely off base compared to the other panel members. That part of it ended up going pretty well though. Our interview scores were fairly similar, and we all had the same top candidate, so that made me feel a little better. I am very happy it’s over though. But, not being able to do much actual work today, and tomorrow being my day off, I think next Monday is going to be an extremely busy day, that’s for sure. Again, our evening was pretty low-key. Amelia seems to be doing a little better, so let’s hope that continues.

Olivia celebrated her 100th day of school today. Fun!

Friday was my day off. It was a pretty busy one. I was up with Eliza in the middle of the night…she threw up, again, and this time ALL over the bed. So, I was up cleaning her up, cleaning myself up, ripping apart the bed, and getting her back to sleep. Good grief, I need a vacation! Christian was off to work in the morning, and I let the girls sleep in a little bit. Today was spring picture day for Olivia at school, so I wanted to take my time getting her hair done and all that. So, once they were up and ready to go, we were off…Eliza fell asleep while I was dropping the big girls off, and ended up sleeping for quite a while, so I was able to get some quiet time in. I watched some TV, paid some bills, balanced the checkbook, SHOWERED! How wonderful. As soon as Eliza woke up, she made a HUGE mess. All over herself, and her carseat. So, she went straight into the bath, I had to clean up the carseat – I swear, it’s always something! Finally, I fed her, and we were off. I decided to bring her into work for a visit today…they haven’t seen her since shortly after she was born, and my close work friends were anxious to see her. She was really good while we were there…she let a couple people hold her, and sat around eating treats while everyone oogled over her. She’s so sweet. We were going to surprise my mom, but she had left for a long lunch, and we couldn’t hang around too long, so we missed visiting her. Eliza started getting fussy and tired, so we loaded back into the van and made our way home. She fell asleep again on the way home, and slept for a while again. I watched some shows and relaxed. Christian had his work holiday dinner tonight, so he went straight from work to that….SO, I waited until daycare closing time to pick the big girls up. Luckily, we had a pretty good night. Eliza was pretty happy…she played a little, ate, snuggled and went to bed. The big girls played together for a while, had dinner, and watched “Annie” before bed. I folded some clothes (from last weekend, oy!) and watched my shows before bed. We had a successful day and night on our own, whew! And, some exciting news, I found out Kevin Hart is coming to town and snatched up some tickets for his show. I’m going to surprise Christian with them for his birthday in a few weeks, and I CANNOT wait!! He and George Lopez are our favorite comedians…we say George for Christian’s birthday a few years ago, and I’m so excited to see Kevin now. The show isn’t until mid-May, but I am so excited!! That was a fun way to end the day, for sure.

Getting ready to take off - so close!

Saturday was a quiet day. After some breakfast and play time, the big girls and I were off to swim class, which Christian and Eliza stayed home. Amelia had a rough day in class. Not listening, goofing around, even the lifeguard had to come over and talk to her. I don’t know how to get through to her, AT ALL. She just does not listen. I don’t want to take her out of classes, because I want her to actually learn how to swim, but she’s a danger to herself, and I feel bad that her instructors have to pay so much attention to her, because they can’t trust to leave her and work with the other kids. I just keep holding out hope that one of these weeks, it will finally click, and she’ll knock it off. After class we made our way home for lunch, and naps for all. We proceeded to have a pretty lazy day, playing and watching movies at home. Eliza threw up again at bedtime tonight. I just don’t get it. She doesn’t seem, or act, sick…no fever, no other symptoms, she just keeps randomly throwing up. We’ve been adding in more and more food, which is appropriate at this point, but I don’t know if it’s just too much for her, and it’s bothering her, or what could be causing it. Poor thing. I ended up falling asleep while putting her down to bed tonight, so it was a VERY early night for me. Oops!

Saturday Selfie with my Little Love

Sunday started off bright and early. Luckily I had that early bedtime last night! I got started on laundry right away. The big girls had their tablets taken away from them for the day because they haven’t been listening and have been fighting with each other non-stop. We made plans to go to Perkins, so one by one we showered and started getting ready. I got the girls ready, Christian got ready….then all hell broke loose. The girls were at each others’ throats all morning, and just getting worse as the day went on. After repeated warnings not to, Olivia kept spouting off potty words, yelling at Amelia and calling her names, so I finally did something I was hoping I’d never have to do….washed her mouth out with soap. Yup, I’ve resorted to Grandma’s tactics, and felt like crap for doing it, but we’ve tried everything to get through to them…yelling, spanking, taking things away. Something has to give, and something has to get through to them. Of course this led to a big argument between myself and Christian…he didn’t agree with my doing it, and I got upset because he thinks everything will just magically work itself out. So, I refused to go to Perkins. I was done, exhausted, angry, frustrated, feeling guilty and going out to breakfast with all of them just was not going to happen. Eliza and I stayed home. I got her down for a nap and relaxed, trying to regain my composure before they got home. They came home in slightly better moods…we watched some movies and they relaxed while I cleaned up the kitchen and washed dishes. Christian ran to his friend Lorenzo’s to help him move some stuff around in his house, but wasn’t gone too long. We had dinner and a quiet evening. I really cannot wait for spring/summer to get here, so we can actually get out and do some things. This cold weather makes for some loooooong weekends, cooped up in the house. I’m not usually happy to see the weekend go, but after Eliza’s throwing up and the big girls with their fighting and disrespect, I was ready to call it a night.

Amelia doesn't often pay much attention to baby. Had to capture this rare shot.

I don't like having to give Eliza bottles at home. It's happening more and more often as time goes on though. Sigh.

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 7

Here we are, week 7! Check-ups, conferences, Valentine’s Day – it was a big week!

Monday morning started off pretty normal. The big girls off to daycare, Eliza off to my inlaws’, Christian and I off to work. I got to work and plugged through the morning, then I was off for the afternoon. I picked Eliza up and we were off for her 9-month check-up. The doctor had to cancel her appointment this past Friday…when I was off work, so I had to reschedule. Her appointment went well though. To start, I had to fill out a little questionnaire…about her development. Now, it’s been quite obvious to me that she’s well behind the other two in her development, but I wasn’t sure if that was bad or not, so I was interested to see what her “results” would be. Next up, they took her measurements. She weighed in at 19lbs13ozs, 75%, and was 27.5” long, 45%. She’s short and stocky, just how I like ‘em! Then, the doctor went over her questionnaire results. He said she was right where she should be, she passed everything, but was slightly on the border for her language/communication skills. I was actually kind of surprised….I mean, she doesn’t talk or anything, but I guess I never even thought about it. I don’t remember the other girls talking at this point, but maybe they did. So, that took me back a little. I went on to ask him about her motor skills, specifically the fact that she’s not crawling or cruising or anything yet. Now this is what had me concerned as the other girls were both LONG crawling by 9 months, and both walking by 10. He said it wasn’t a concern at all…that the average for crawling was 9 months, cruising/baby steps by 12 and walking by 13/14. Whew! I knew the other girls were a little ahead in that, but I thought she should at least be crawling by now, so that made me feel a lot better. He said her low communication is likely a case of “third-child-alitis”…by #3, you just don’t have the time to sit down and chit chat with them as much, and work on those skills. And with big sisters talking the day away, it takes away from her need to. So, that made sense. Personally, I’m hoping she’ll just be our quiet flower to counteract the volume and abundance of the other two! Finally, though she didn’t need any vaccinations, she was due for a blood draw, so we stopped into the lab. Of course, in true diva fashion, she was NOT a fan of the blood draw, and it was very dramatic. But, she quickly calmed down and we were on our way to pick up the big girls, and made our way home. She slept most of the evening from there, and was in a “post appointment” funk all night. Later in the evening I received her blood test results, and noticed that some of her tests were coming in below of the normal range…her white blood count and her HCT, and everything else was right on the border of the low normal read. Of course, I spent the rest of the night in a panic, barely getting any sleep, thinking something was wrong. I tried to contain my freak out, knowing the doctor would call if it were anything to be concerned about – but that’s always easier said than done.

Happy Baby!

Tuesday was a pretty standard day. Eliza was in good spirits, and we were all off to our proper locations for the day. In the late afternoon, I received an “official release” notice of Eliza’s test results from her doctor, and he released them with no concern, so I had a big sigh of relief there. I’m guessing he’ll end up running her blood panel again at her 1-year check-up though, since some of her results were abnormal, but we’ll see. As I settled into work, I balanced our checkbooks, as I do most mornings, and oops – up popped a charge from “Edible Arrangements”. So, apparently I’ve ruined my Valentine’s surprise. Oh Christian, he tries so hard. After work, I picked the girls up, we had some dinner, I helped Olivia fill out her Valentine’s for school. She did so well – she’s growing up, that’s for sure! Then, I settled in with my latest obsession...Subway Surfer on my phone. Olivia gets annoyed – she says it’s a kid’s game. It’s not, and I love it. I am one of the few who still play Candy Crush (Level 680, thank you very much), but I think this will now take up all of my free time.

Working Hard

Wednesday was a pretty quiet day. Dropped the girls off, worked from home, picked the girls up. With her teeth coming in, Eliza is turning into a bit of a biter when she’s nursing. I never had this issue with Amelia, she never bit me. Eliza hasn’t done it too hard, but she thinks it’s funny, so I definitely need to break her of that habit right away, somehow. Other than that, the evening went pretty quiet. Until bed time. When all hell broke loose. Shortly after I arrived home, I realized I had left Eliza’s pacifier at daycare. And we couldn’t find her backup in the house anywhere. She’s our first pacifier baby, and clearly we were not aware that a good stockpile of pacifiers is necessary. I thought to myself…OK, this is going to be a little rough, but we’ll survive. Nope – NO WAY did we survive. I did get her to sleep, but she woke up around the time I settled into bed, and would not stop crying, or go to sleep, for anything. I held her, rocked her, tried to nurse her (to her refusal) and NOTHING would work. So, at 11:00, I was off in the FREEZING cold to Walmart to buy some more pacifiers. Good Lord, who knew?!? Needless to say, we will now always have a supply just sitting around in the wings.

Thursday was a pretty busy day. Work was pretty standard – it’s always busy catching up from a day away from the office. Christian got off work a little early (well, technically, he got off on time) and met the girls and I at Olivia’s school. First up, we had to register Amelia for kindergarten in the fall. O.M.G. – my baby, in kindergarten. I CANNOT believe it! I already had this blog up and running by the time Amelia was born – and now we’re getting ready to send her off to school. Unbelievable. Next up, we had Olivia’s winter conferences. She and Amelia settled in with some toys while we chatted with her teacher. She said Olivia is doing great, adjusts well to everything and is doing really well in her young scholars program. She said that she is responsible, sweet and makes good choices in friends, which is so nice to hear. She said her and the two little girls she spends the most time with, Alice and Ri’Kia, are all very kind and sweet, and don’t get involved in any of the “drama”, which makes me very proud. So, all in all, she’s doing a great job. We’ll get her 2^nd trimester report card in a few weeks and see how she’s developed. We all stopped into the book fair after conferences and the girls each picked out a book. Finally, we picked up some dinner and settled in for the night.

Throwback of the week, exactly 1 year ago, at Olivia's kindergarten registration

Tonight, my beauties!

Friday was a pretty standard day. My mom was over bright and early to watch Eliza, and we were all off on our way. Olivia didn't have school today, so she’ll be spending the day at daycare. I’m hoping to get a good bank of leave time saved up before next school year, so that I can start taking the day, or at least ½ the day off when school is out…it is an additional $18 a day to send her to daycare for the full day, which isn’t horrible. But, next year we’ll have two of them, and $36 a day adds up quick. For now, we just let her go, and spend the day with her friends. My “surprise” Edible Arrangement arrived around lunch time and looked DELISH!!! Everybody was totally jealous. After work, I picked the big girls up and relieved my mom from baby duty. The girls ripped right into my Valentine…sharing, it’s for the birds. Christian picked up some Noodles and Company for dinner and we hung out. We watched “American Sniper” once the girls were in bed…I was so exhausted though, I kept dozing off. I’ll have to rewatch it so I can really pay attention, but what I did see was pretty good.

YUM!

Saturday, the big day…Valentine’s Day! Didn’t really mean a whole lot in our house though. We don’t really get the girls Valentines, I don’t typically get anything for Christian and we don’t really bother going out and spending all that money (last year we went out, we had a gift card though, LOL). So, it was a pretty typical day for us. We had breakfast, everybody showered, and we were off to swim class. We stopped at target and let the girls pick out a little gift as their Valentine – Olivia got some new Shopkins, Amelia got a My Little Pony. We girls grabbed Wendy’s for lunch and made our way home for naps and some rest. Meanwhile, Christian was off for a haircut, and went to lunch with his friend, Lorenzo. We had a spaghetti dinner and I did the girls’ nails special for the day – I finally used those Jamberry nail wraps. It’s quite a process to put those things on, that’s for sure. Hopefully they actually work/hold though. Christian and I started watching “The Gambler” and, again, I fell asleep. It was a bit of a snore, so I probably won’t bother trying to finish that one. I just took my tired butt to bed. Very romantic!

My Valentine's!

Sunday was a low key day. We had breakfast and relaxed the morning away. Tomorrow is a holiday…school and daycare is closed, and I’m off work, so my mom asked to take the big girls overnight, so she picked them up around 1:30 and it made for a pretty quiet night. I got to work doing some picking up around the house, but knowing I had the whole day to myself the next day, I didn’t go too crazy. Then, things went south. While I was feeding Eliza dinner, she threw up. Like THREW UP, exorcist style, everything she ate. And it just kept happening. I wanted to die. We got her cleaned up and I gave her a bath while Christian cleaned up her chair and all that. So gross – I’m sorry, I’ll never get used to that as a mother. After her bath, we relaxed…she seemed in OK spirits, no fever or anything, so I’m not sure what happened. We gave her a bottle before bed, and she seemed to take that well. She dosed off in my arms, and then woke a short time later and threw up again, all over me. At this point, I just wanted to die. We got her cleaned up and changed again, I cleaned myself up and changed, and we were off to bed. I was sure I’d be in for a horrible, exhausting night, but after that she was perfectly fine. Never another issue. So strange – something just didn’t sit well with her. Poor baby.

Snuggling with my sick, sweaty baby. Poor thing.

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 6

Another week! Kicked off with some tummy issues. Amelia was still questionable, so we kept her home from daycare, just in case. But, she ended up going over to my in-laws with Eliza, so it worked out. At the last minute, I decided to still take the day off. There was plenty I could get done at home, and that way if Amelia did go downhill, or if Olivia fell ill, I’d be close. I received the last of our tax paperwork today – FINALLY! But, our mortgage statement seems to be incorrect, so I’ll have to connect with the bank. What a pain, I swear it’s always something! I started off the day a little lazy…watching some of my shows, blogging, ate some breakfast. Then, I got to work! I finally finished cleaning up the toy room…I cleaned the carpet, vacuumed, and got everything organized and back in its place. Next up, I hit the laundry room. It was dusty and dingy, there were empty laundry bottles all over, we had a ton of storage stuff in there. So, I got all of the trash out, swept up, cleaned the machines and went through all of the stuff. We had A LOT of trash after that cleaning, that’s for sure. I did come across our box of wedding stuff, including our wedding video, and I can’t wait to show the girls! Sometimes cleaning is worth it. I can’t wait to redo our laundry room one day…I want it to be a nice, inviting room – not just a dingy, dark room. I want real walls, and some kind of flooring, and fun storage. One day! Finally, I tackled our storage closet. Organizing the shelves of games and blankets and random crap. Bags of party stuff….bags of gift bags. I could literally open a gift bag store with all of the gift bags we have. It’s ridiculous. I was exhausted, but I made a HUGE dent in the basement progress. I just have to clean up the spare room and the main living room, one day, but it’s getting there. After my busy day, I picked up Olivia and we stopped at Target for some groceries. She looked pretty out of it when I picked her up, and started complaining she wasn’t feeling well at the store. Eventually, she fell asleep in the cart. Poor thing, she definitely wasn’t doing too well, and school tomorrow was looking unlikely. We met Christian and the other girls at home, had some dinner, and everybody was off to bed. At this point, all I could think was PLEASE don’t let this bug hit the baby!

The Wedding Box...

Uh Oh, Not a Good Sign

On Tuesday I was off to work for ½ a day, while Christian was home with Olivia. She didn’t seem super sick, but definitely had a bug. I didn’t want to risk her spreading anything, or getting worse while at school. So, I rushed into work for a meeting, and to get as much done as I could. Then, made my way home to relieve Christian, so he could head into work for the afternoon. I was actually going to work from home for the afternoon, but my system wasn’t working, so I just took it off. Olivia pretty much napped most of the afternoon, but she kept waking up in tears, just bawling like she was in pain. I’d ask her what was wrong, and she’d say nothing, but continue to cry. I don’t know if she was having bad dreams, or what the deal was, but it was strange. We finally picked up the other girls from daycare at closing, and made our way home for a quiet night. Dinner and rest. Olivia seemed to be doing much better in the evening, so fingers crossed for a successful Wednesday!

Trying to give the big girls a bath, and somebody wanted some attention!

Wednesday was my work from home day, my fave! I got a little bit of an earlier start than usual, which was an added bonus. Because of that, I got a little extra time when I finished work, before I had to pick up the girls. So, I did some dishes and some cleaning up around the house, and started going through our drawer of random “paperwork” in the kitchen. I’m about the opposite of a hoarder…seriously, I love throwing stuff away. EXCEPT for paperwork. I swear, I keep everything, No more! I’m going to take some stuff to work to scan in, and everything else goes. No more paperwork hoarding for us! When I picked the girls up, Eliza was PASSED out in her crib at daycare. She was so dang cute. It sure sucked having to wake her up. She did fall back asleep on the drive home, so I was able to get dinner cooked up while she napped. It was a pretty quiet night around the house

Somebody is finally getting the hang of writing her name!

On Thursday I woke up feeling a little more refreshed than usual…it was a rare sleep through the night night for Eliza. LOVE! And, it’s official folks, a second tooth is finally poking through! So, I think that’s what has been bothering her. She had a great week at daycare, and even came home in the same clothes she went in EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. That is a huge success in our world. Sad, right?! She sure loves being there, which makes me so happy. Our day as a whole was pretty standard today. It was my Friday at work, so it’s always a little busier than usual, trying everything up before the weekend. Christian has been busy at work…he still works is 2ish hours of overtime every day, and continues to work most Saturday’s. They keep him busy, that’s for sure. Olivia continues to do great at school, and seems to be quite the little sponge, with something new to share every day. Her reading is getting better and better every day, I just love it. Amelia slowly seems to be maturing in her Pre-K setting. She seems to be becoming more responsible, more involved, which makes me very happy. I know she won’t be quite as prepared and mature as Olivia was when she starts Kindergarten in the fall, but I sure hope she’s ready. Our evening was pretty standard…dinner, baths, a little TV and bed. Nothing too exciting.

Friday was my Friday off, my fave! And as an added bonus, today Christian dropped the big girls off at daycare! I usually have to rush to get them up, ready and dropped off, and get back home before he leaves for work (so that I don’t have to drag Eliza out with us), so that was a nice treat. Once I settled in back at home, I did the usual checkbook balancing and bill paying, and then I finished filing our taxes. We ended up with a larger return than I expected, so that was exciting. We have a few small “debts” to pay off, otherwise we get to just leave that money sit tight – we’re saving up a down payment for a new vehicle for Christian now. It’s nice that we don’t have to just rush and pay it all out towards something for a change this year! Once Eliza was up and fed, we were off for a quick trip to Walmart for a few groceries and necessities. Then, I was back home for a day of binge TV watching, relaxing and napping. A nice, low key Friday. We picked the big girls up from daycare at closing, which included a little measles discussion. With this crazy measles outbreak going around, they just reminded us that none of the older kids, including Olivia and Amelia, are allowed in the infant room (which, I never bring them in anyway). I did hear them talking to another family…apparently as part of this new initiative to nip the outbreak in the bud, the centers are checking everybody’s vaccination history. I guess this family was not up to date and they were told they either need to provide the documentation, or get their boosters ASAP. I was pretty happy to hear they are taking some action, that’s for sure. After that fun, we were off to meet Christian at Applebee’s for an impromptu dinner out, YUM! Eliza can be a pretty fussy baby a lot of the time, but she is SO amazing when we’re out – she loves to people watch and just take in all of her surroundings, so we’ve gotten pretty lucky there. All of the girls passed out pretty much as soon as we got home. Christian and I settled in to watch “Machine Gun Preacher” and it was actually a really good movie, very moving. Of course, we pretty much passed out after.

Somebody is really starting to get around!

Out to Eat, she loves it!

Saturday was a pretty low key day. Christian didn’t have to work, which is pretty rare, so it was nice to have him home. We had breakfast, I cleaned up a bit, and we all got ready to head off to swim class. The girls love when he’s there to watch them, that’s for sure. After class, we stopped at Target to do a little shopping, grabbed some lunch and made our way home. Christian took a pretty good nap, but woke up CRAAAAAAAABY. Good Lord, that kid, in some ways I’d venture to say she rivals Amelia in the crabby factor. Maybe because we don’t have a young toddler to deal with at the same time, maybe because we’re older, maybe because we’ve just gained more patience I don’t talk about it too much, but she gets into these phases where nothing makes her happy, AT ALL. Hopefully, like Amelia, the more she starts moving and the more independence she gains, the happier she’ll be. Meanwhile, while she was napping and I was dealing with her crabbiness, Christian and the big girls were off to his parents’ house to hang out for a little bit. Today was her birthday, but they didn’t make any actual plans, so they just went for a visit. Christian and I actually got into a little tiff over him not taking Eliza with (well, he really didn’t even invite me to go with, which was annoying on its own, but I REALLY could have used a little time to myself with the way she’s been). But, I got over it. Amidst the playing and comforting I finished catching up on “Hart of Dixie”, and not I get to binge the latest season of “Bates Motel”. Seriously, thank god for Netflix, my source of entertainment. The girls were pretty much off to bed as soon as they arrived home, and we just watched a little TV and had a quiet night.

Also, Eliza turned 9 months old today. She's just growing up WAY too fast, and she seems to take on a whole new personality every day. She's weighing 20lbs2ozs and she's about 28.5" long. She loves exploring, people watching, eating, her sisters, and music. While she's not actually crawling, she can get into the crawling position, but will immediately drop to the ground and throw a fit, waiting to be rescued. She sleeps through the night more often than not now, thankfully. She's wearing 9-12 month clothes, we just swapped her closet out last week. She's eating all of the (appropriate) fruits and veggies, yogurt, "baby snacks" and we're slowing giving her table foods now. She has one tooth completely out, and one that just poked through. She's still nursing like a champ, but is WAY too easily distracted these days, which makes it quite a task. She's waving and clapping , and holding herself up against toys and furniture now (she wants to pull herself up SO bad, but there's a lot of substance there to get up you know), and she even took a couple of TINY baby steps along her music table. She'll be cruising in now time. You just can't help but love this girls...she has rolls, and cheeks and personality for days, she's just so amazing. Next up, I think she'll be moving to her convertible carseat soon, because she's getting HEAVY!

Well, although the crabbiness has been aplenty, Eliza has actually been sleeping pretty well the last few days. Hopefully that keeps up it, it just about makes up for the exhaustion of trying to make her happy all day long! On Sunday, I was up and at it early, getting laundry started. We had some breakfast and hung out with the girls. I got back to work on the basement a little bit while Eliza napped. Today I focused on the spare room…cleaned it up, got some stuff together, ready to sell, went through the girls’ clothes and got them organized. TEAR, I’ll be starting to sell Eliza’s clothes in the next couple of months, and it’s so hard to believe. The spare room is basically our storage – old kid stuff, clothes from all of us, coats. But, it has to be cleared out REALLY soon, as the big girls will be moving down there to reside (scary!). So, hopefully when I start selling stuff off, it moves quickly! After that task was complete, we all spent a pretty low-key evening together. Christian made us some fried taquitos and rice for dine…OMG, so good!!! We watched the Grammy’s and the girls took their very first shower. We’re finally moving them out of baths and into taking showers and they loved it. This should definitely save us some time on “bath night”.

A little funny to end the week. I'm not sure what sparked the conversation, but as we were sitting around this evening Olivia announced that she was going to live in our house forever. I [jokingly] told her, “Oh no, you have 12 more years and then you have to go”. She argued, so I compromised and told her she could wait another year and a half after that and then take her sister with her. She kept telling me all of these reasons why she has to stay in our house and live with is, and it was just cracking me up. And, who am I kidding, I don't know what I’ll do with myself when my babies grow up and leave me. I will say; I do cherish the fact that they WANT to live with us forever. I know that sentiment will be changing....all too soon.

Until Next Week! XOXO 

2015 - Week 5

Here we are, week 5 of 2015…already! This week brought us a new month….already! Wow.

Monday marked Amelia’s ½ birthday, and boy was she excited to be 4½! I can’t believe in 6 short months she’s going to be 5 years old…and just after that, she’s heading off to kindergarten. Tears! As I was putting together her little collage of aging photos, I came to the realization that I never took a 4 year photo of her! Seriously guys, I don’t know how that’s even possible. And, I’m pretty ridiculously upset about it. I don’t even know what the heck happened. I know her birthday party was on her actual birthday, so that’s probably part of it. Then I returned to work from maternity leave, and then I think our friends from Indiana came into town the next weekend, so I guess it just got lost in the shuffle. I feel like such a failure though! Anyway, back into real time, we were all back at it for another week. Daycare, school, work…I used my new hair gadget today and I LOVE IT! It’s so quick and easy, and the waves actually suck all day long. I’m beyond excited about this, I have to tell you. So, the day wasn’t a complete loss. After work I picked up the big girls, we made some dinner, and ate when Christian and Eliza arrived home. Just another standard Monday evening.

My Big 4.5 Year Old!

Showing off my new wavy hair, LOVE!

Tuesday was a pretty quiet day. I was approached at work about sitting on an interview panel, and I REALLY don’t want to do it. One of the offices I work very closely with has this position that they keep trying to fill, and just can’t seem to hire somebody that will work out. It’s actually a position I’ve contemplated applying for myself over the years, and would lead to more advancement opportunities I have currently, but the office isn’t the easiest in the world to work with. There are a lot of very strong personalities in the office, and I don’t think that I could handle the stress of it. It’s really too bad though, because I think it’s a good fit – it would really utilize my contracting knowledge, but also my organization skills way more than they are used now. But, alas, I’m not prepared for that stress. I had a really tough time agreeing to do it though. I just do not have the interest, at all. My supervisor talked to me about it, and stressed that it is a good learning experience to get under my belt…another experience that can help with any potential advancement in the future. But, I just don’t feel like I’m in a place where I can focus on my career. I feel like I barely hold it together right now, where I’m at, I can’t think about advancement and learning new skills right now. At the same time, I can’t risk letting somebody else pass me up by sitting on the sidelines. Ugh – just another stress of being a working mother. The attempt to balance career, while focusing on parenting just never gets easier. In the end, I agreed to sit on the panel. I know it won’t be fun, but I’m sure it won’t be as painful as I envision. Today another harsh reality slapped me in the face again…as I was online signing Olivia up for her winter conferences, I saw a note that Amelia’s kindergarten registration is the same night. Denial…denial, denial, denial.

Olivia, keeping baby company

Haha, she's like - what was that?!

Wednesday was my work from home day. And, it was a SUPER productive day. While I admittedly have my shows on in the background when I’m working from home, I can’t even tell you how much work I get done from the quietness of my home. I just love it. I think it’s become the only way I remotely keep up on my work these days. While that part was great, I back was just killing me all day long. Not my normal lower back pain, but up around my shoulders, just killing me. But, I picked up my girlies, we stopped at Walmart for a few groceries, and made our way to make dinner and settle in for the night.

Now, I haven’t really been writing about it, but Eliza hasn’t been a great sleeper this week. She’s been going to sleep pretty well, pretty quickly after I feed her, just refusing to stay asleep. But, on Thursday, I woke up from a FULL NIGHT OF SLEEP!!!!! Hallelujah, it’s just beyond amazing when that happens. My back was feeling a tad better, but not quite back to 100% yet. I had a busy day at work and the day just flew by. When I picked the girls up from daycare, Olivia kept yammering about filling out a coupon and getting prizes and I had no idea what she was talking about. Until I spotted a little fundraiser sheet in her hands. I was a little annoyed…we did a big fundraiser for her back in the fall, and I was under the impression that it was their schools only one. When we got home, I noticed it’s not really a fundraiser, but their school is participating in the Jump Rope for a Cure program for the American Heart Association. Being that I was born with congenital heart disease, and she and I both have murmurs, I of course jumped on the bandwagon and will be trying to hit up our family and coworkers for donations. I swear, it’s always something! The rest of the evening was pretty standard…dinner, baths, bed. Eliza has a horrible habit of leaking through her diaper when she goes to the bathroom (you know, GOES to the bathroom). I know they are the right size, they should fit her for quite some time now, so we are trying different brands of diapers right now (we typically use Target Brand, because we’re cheap). Tonight I opened up a box of pampers and let me tell you; those damn diapers are like a sweet smell of heaven. I absolutely LOVE the smell of pampers diapers, it’s just amazing. It was a great end to the day.

Throwback photo 1 - 1 year ago, 26 weeks pregnant. Now I have this goofy baby. So blessed.

Eliza sporting one of Amelia's old outfits - only Amelia was quite a bit older than Eliza is, LOL

On Friday, my mom was over to watch Eliza and I was off to work. She’s been fighting a pretty crazy cold all winter long, and still wasn’t feeling too great, so I agreed to work a ½ day and come home to let her go. Once home, I decided to pack up Eliza, and took her on a trip to Toys R Us. I had the urge to surprise the big girls with some new Shopkins (their, well, Olivia’s new obsession). We don’t buy them a lot of “just because” things, so I wanted to do something fun. I grabbed some lunch and we made our way home to relax, watch a little TV, and Eliza napped. We picked the big girls up and met Christian at home, and they were SO excited when they found their surprise. There’s nothing like seeing your kids’ joy, even if it’s for something material. We had a quiet night, pretty much early to bed for everybody.

My newest family photo, hanging up at work

Trying out some new toys we brought up from the basement.

Saturday was a much busier day. Amelia woke up in the middle of the night and threw up, complaining that her stomach hurt. Poor thing. Christian had to work, so I was up early with the girls. Amelia spent all morning complaining that her stomach hurt, but she seemed in pretty good spirits. I got the girls ready and we were off to swim class. Amelia seemed much better, and did really well in class. Afterwards she said she felt better and was running around, playing. But, by the time we got home she wouldn’t eat lunch and said she wasn’t feeling well again. And, she threw up again. At this point, I started to panic a little. We had plans to go out for a few weeks, and I was torn between canceling or not. The girls were going over to my in-laws while we went out, so I knew she’d be perfectly fine in their care (and she knew she was going there, so she was really upset at the thought of not going), but what kind of mom goes out and leaves her poor sick baby behind?! Christian arrived home from work and talked me into keeping our plans though. So, against my heart’s desire, we both got ready, packed up the girls and all of their gear, and made our way over to my in-laws. The big girls were spending the night, and we’d be picking Eliza up on our way home later, but I was having a REALLY hard time leaving. It was the first time anybody has watched all three of the girls, it was my first time going out since Eliza was born. That is seriously so hard; you forget just how hard it is. We said our goodbyes though, and hit the road. We were off to our friends’, John and Michelle, and going out with a group for John’s 40^th birthday (let’s be clear, I myself am nowhere near 40 – I just need to put that out there into the universe). She rented a limo to drive us and pick us up, and we were off with her parents and brother, his sister and our mutual friends Nate and Gini to eat at Fogo da Chao – a Brazilian steakhouse in Minneapolis. We’d heard of the place before, but had never been there. OMG you guys, the food – SOOOOOO much food, and so delicious. Now, this place is WAY out of our current price range and I almost had a heart attack when we got our bill. But, it was really good, really fun, and we really do all deserve to splurge once in a while. After dinner, we walked to a bar down the street, had a few drinks, lots of laughs and chatted the night away. While it was so hard to be away, it was really nice to get out and catch up with friends. The limo picked us up around 10:00 and Christian had a last drink with the group back at John and Michelle’s before we packed it up for the night. We picked Eliza up, made our way home and literally passed out. I was SO exhausted! I’m not used to this going out thing anymore, that’s for sure.

I gave my mini-me a little makeover while I was getting ready

All ready for a night out

Sunday was a bit of a rough day. Eliza paid me hack for going out by waking up a few times. Ouch. Though, she did “slept in”, so I guess it kind of works itself out. I woke up with a slight headache that just got worse and worse as the day went on, but I finally broke down and took some medicine for it…and rested. I did a couple loads of laundry, otherwise it was a pretty lazy day. Eliza took a SUPER long nap, so Christian and I watched “The Interview” and “Jack Ryan” on Netflix to pass the time. Christian showered and left to pick the big girls up from his parents’, while Eliza and I made a run to Walmart to pick up some superbowl goodies. Next up, we were off to the neighbor’s house to watch the big game. Amelia still wasn’t feel well, so she just laid on the couch most of the time we were there. Olivia and her BFF Bella had a blast running around, acting crazy together. We munched on treats, chatted, watched the game/commercials and it was a pretty fun time. After the game, we made our way home and the girls were off to bed right away. Hoping little Amelia feels batter soon!

Until Next Week! XOXO