2014 - Week 33

Monday started off a little tough, saying goodbye to our friends from Indiana. Christian and Eliza were off bright and early, as he had to be to work on time. I slept in a tad, got the girls ready, and went in a little late so that I would have the chance to say goodbye. They weren’t quite ready to hit the road, so they finished getting ready and packed it up while we were off to school and work. Still so bummed our weekend with them is over so quickly. One good point in the day is that my mother in law had a much better day with Eliza this week, so that’s a plus. Hopefully she adjust quickly to all of the new caregivers. After work, our new chaos began….SOCCER! Olivia and Amelia are both playing this year (Pre-K and Kindergarten “leagues”), and for the next 3 weeks we have soccer FOUR days a week. Good Lord, we’re going to be mighty exhausted, that’s for sure. Tonight was Amelia’s first practice. For both of them, their teams are supposed to have 8 kids…the play 5 on 5 games, so they like to have a few extra to substitute in and give them little breaks. Tonight there were only 5 kids there, and two of them pretty much refused to do anything. It’s the first practice, so I’m trying not to get too pessimistic, but I’m hoping it’s not a sign of things to come. Amelia did pretty well with the actual soccer stuff (kicking the ball, running, etc.), but she was not the best listener, and often got off into her own little world, like usual. Again, hopefully that is not a sign of things to come. After soccer, we all rushed home for a quick dinner and to clean up before bed.

On Tuesday, I signed the girls up for the next session of swim classes. Apparently I’m just a glutton for punishment. Their next session will be on Sunday evenings, because they will have soccer games on Saturday mornings, but they only overlap for a couple weeks. It will again be pretty chaotic there for a while though. I left work a little early today because they were having an open house at daycare, so I wanted to make sure the girls could join the festivities for a while. They had some watermelon and juice to snack on, a few little carnival games for the kids to play, and a dunk tank. The kids have been voting for the last couple weeks on which teachers they wanted to put in the dunk tank, and the “top” 3 got the honors. It was pretty funny to watch all of the kids try so hard. Of course, all of the parents had to try too, and the kids just thought it was the best thing ever when the teachers would get dunked (of course, I got to put my softball skills to use and dunked Miss Crystal on the first throw!). After some playtime, we loaded up the van and were off to Olivia’s first night of soccer. Again, only 5 kids were at her practice. I don’t get it…why do people sign up for activities, and then not show up? Or only show up sometimes? Why even sign up? Hopefully it’s all just because it’s the end of the summer and people get busy fitting in last change summer activities, and things will get better by game time in a few weeks. Olivia did well, but she really didn’t have her listening ears on either. She was a little over-rambunctious, so we need to reel that in a little bit. Once home, the big girls were at each other’s throats ALL NIGHT LONG. They weren’t listening, they were fighting non-stop, talking back. Needless to say, it was a busy, stressful evening, and bedtime could NOT have come early enough.

Wednesday was my first official telework day. So, we were all up at our usual time, I showered to wake myself up, got the girls ready and dropped off at daycare, and made my way back home. Back into my PJ’s, fired up my laptop, and got to work. It was SO wonderful. I would seriously work from home every day if I could. I had my shows on in the background, plowed through a TON of work, used my break time to get some dishes done and do a few loads of laundry. I was up SUPER late folding clothes, since I really didn’t have time to do that, but it was worth it. When I finished work for the day, I was able to cook dinner – an ACTUAL meal, so it was ready when we got home. Seriously, PERFECTION! Finally, I was off to pick up the girls, and we made our way to Amelia’s last practice of the week. She was a little more loopy tonight than Monday, but we made it through. There were 6 kids tonight, so that was at least better. Hopefully she calms down pretty soon and starts cooperating more…though, she is only 4, so I guess it’s not super likely. LOL

Amelia wrote me a little note at school today!

Thursday was a pretty standard day. Work, school, daycare. Everything went pretty well, and Eliza had another pretty good week at daycare. Her napping is still pretty hit or miss…she’ll either cat nap all day, or take one nice long nap on the rare occasion. She has been eating well though and really seems to enjoy being there. After work, I picked them all up and we were off to Olivia’s last night of soccer for the week (YES, FINALLY a few days with a little less on our plate). She did much better tonight, listening and cooperating, so I think the initial excitement has worn off and she’ll do better now. She was also up to 6 kids tonight, so also promising. On our way to the field, Eliza went to the bathroom and we had a DISASTER! I mean, complete blow out. I pretty much missed the entire practice trying to get her cleaned up and changed. Ay, always something! Finally, we made our way home. I finally had time to put away all of the laundry from Wednesday…my in-laws sent home dinner for us, so that saved us some time (YAY!).

My Throwback photo this week was in honor of the state fair kicking off in ONE WEEK (I cannot wait!!) - Olivia and Amelia's first trips to the fair. Time for Eliza!

Olivia is a Pharaoh!

Friday was a pretty quiet day. It was my mom’s day to watch Eliza, so I was able to just leave her sleeping while I got ready, got the girls ready, and left for the day. This week Friday could definitely not have come soon enough…I ended my first real, full week of work, and between that and soccer, boy was I exhausted. I was looking forward to a fairly quiet weekend, that’s for sure. Eliza was a little difficult for my mom today…I think she may miss the activity and all of the chaos with all of the kids at daycare, or even just having her sisters around. After work I picked the big girls up, and we made our way home to relieve my mom. Christian had to work late, so we girls hung out and had a pretty quiet evening. I made quick run to Target once Christian was home, and Eliza was sleeping, but that’s about it.

This Face, to die for!

On Saturday, we had a pretty low-key, quiet morning around the house. The girls took a tad-early nap, while Christian and I watched a quick movie, then we all began getting ready for today’s event…my cousin, on my dad’s side of the family, was getting married today! We packed up our bag, got everybody dressed and ready to go, and made our way out to Stillwater for the day. The ceremony was pretty quick to the point, so we were in and out of the church pretty fast (and, we timed it pretty perfect to where Eliza got a bottle pretty much as soon as the ceremony started, so she never made a peep!). The reception wasn’t far from the church, but wasn’t scheduled to begin for an hour or so, so we joined my dad, stepmom and aunt at a bar down the street to pass some time. I wanted to take the girls down by the river and hang out for a while, but it was just too dang hot and humid out. Eventually we made our way to the reception…had some dinner, chatted with family, danced for a bit. The usual. Eliza started to have a little meltdown around 8:30 or so, so we had to call it a night and head home. The girls were EXHAUSTED, passed out pretty much immediately in the van, and went right to bed when we arrived home. Eliza and I weren’t far behind them…what a day!

Sunday was a busy day around the house. We were going to go to a little festival one of the local churches hosts every year, but there was rain in the forecast so we decided against it. Sure enough, DOWNPOUR right about the time the festival was supposed to begin. So, instead, it was chore day. I got the house picked up, washed dishes, got the girls closed ready for the week and washed a load of laundry. Whew! Christian did some work in the yard, and left for a bit to help out a friend. When they returned, they kept the big girls outside for most of the day, and out of my hair, so I was able to get a ton of work done around the house. It was a busy day, but it was nice to just be around the house, getting some things done. We did have a pretty exciting moment tonight, when Eliza rolled, tummy to back, for the first time! She proceeded to do it a few more times, so she proved it was not just a fluke, LOL. So exciting, but boy is is growing too fast!

(mid roll)

Until Next Week XOXO

2014 - Week 32

Monday marked my first real Monday back to work. It’s official, Monday’s still suck, big time. But, we were all up and at ‘em, bright and early. Eliza was off to my Mother in Law’s for the day…it was her first time watching her, at all. She had a bit of a rough day, but according to her, not nearly as bad as Amelia, so that’s good. LOL. I suppose it will just take some time, but I was a little surprised since she did so well at daycare last week. I picked her up after work, picked up the big girls, and we made our way home for a pretty quiet night. We did some picking in the garden and seriously, everything is coming in so amazing. It’s so exciting, especially after our complete failure last year.  I never thought I’d see the day that I would be excited about gardening!

Today's harvest...getting better every day!

Tuesday started off alright. I had my annual performance review at work (I thought I was going to escape it, since they’re done in June, but apparently they received some extra time for mine, ugh!). The review is pretty standard, pretty much the same from year to year. I did work up the courage to ask my supervisor if I could start working from home on a regular basis…once a week or once a paycheck. I wasn’t sure what kind of response I would receive, but she seemed all for it. She told me to go ahead and pick a date and whatever schedule I was most comfortable with and give it a shot. So, starting next week,  I’m going to be working from home on Wednesdays. Even though I’ll still be up early, and bringing the girls to daycare, it will be so nice not having to get myself ready and packed up, get everybody rushed out the door and deal with traffic, if even just for one day. SO EXCITED!! The day took a bit of a turn when I received a phone call from daycare in the afternoon, letting me know that Eliza was just having a really rough day. She wasn’t sleeping and she was just crying and screaming her head off all day long. I could hear her in the background and it just broke my heart. They didn’t need me to come get her, just wanted to let me know what was going on, but I felt too bad leaving her there like that. I finished up a couple of tasks, and used some of my very little leave time to head home and pick her up. They were thinking she may be constipated the way she was acting, but she has been going about every other day, so it shouldn’t be that bad. She seemed to calm down a bit when we got home, and eventually did go to the bathroom. Hopefully it was just a fluke, poor baby. Definitely the time working can break you down, not being there for those rough days (even though they’re the most exhausting as a parent).

Early sissy cuddles!

Wednesday started off horribly. Back to work has been going pretty well, and today, I forgot just about the one thing I cannot live without….my pump! I packed up all my stuff, and all the kids, as usual this morning, loaded up the van, dropped the girls off and made my way to work. As I was getting out of the van, I finally realized I did not have my pump with me. I wanted to cry…right then and there. We’re having a potluck at work today for lunch, so I had an extra bag with my pasta salad fixin’s, and that threw me off. So, ALLLLL the way back home I went. I couldn’t believe it. To make matters worse, I had an 8:00 meeting, which I was facilitating, that I was most definitely going to be late for…so I had to have a coworker get the meeting set up and let everybody know I was on my way. Of course, everybody in the meeting knew I had just returned from maternity leave, so when he told them I had forgotten something at home and was on my way back, one of the people at the meeting immediately assumed it was my pump, and announced to the entire meeting that workplaces should not only provide the space to pump, but should provide a hospital grade pump for use as well. I was mortified! Sometime after I had Amelia, insurance companies started covering breast pumps…when I had Eliza, I debated getting another one (I’d just have to pay 20% of the cost), if only for a backup, but I knew the one I had was still working fine and I didn’t want to spend the money. BOY do I wish I had now! After the meeting I finally had a chance to catch my breath, and got through the rest of the day. We had our annual office potluck, which was delicious (and, it’s nice to get out of the office once in a while), but between that and my morning meeting, my pumping schedule got all out of whack. I suppose as long as it doesn’t happen too often, it should be OK. Luckily, Eliza had a MUCH better day at daycare today, so in the end, we all survived. Hopefully yesterday was just a momentary breakdown. Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted by the time we were home.

My Beautiful Babe, even a rare picture with sissy Mema

Thursday was my Friday, YES! Next week will be rough though, being my first full week…but, at least I’ll be working at home one of the days. I did use some time and took a long lunch to do some shopping. My friend at work told me about a little shop in Woodbury that sells little fancy outfits and headbands and stuff for little girls, so I stopped in to get Eliza a couple headbands (specifically for upcoming family pictures, and a wedding). It was the cutest little store; I’ll definitely be going back. I also stopped into Old Navy to find myself a sweater for our pictures. Finally, I swung by our clinic to finally pick up Olivia’s medical paperwork for kindergarten, and back to work I went. I spent the evening doing some last minute cleaning, and our friends from Indiana, the Steveson’s, arrived for the long weekend. This is the 4^th summer they’ve come up to visit us, 3^rd time they’ve stayed at our house. We weren’t sure if they’ve be able to pull it off this year, as she and her daughter came for a week when Eliza was born, but an annual trip they take with his family was canceled, so it worked in our favor. It will be a weekend of chaos, but so exciting!

Also, Eliza turned 3 months old today. SO crazy! She is up to 13lbs 4 ozs and is about 25” long (for a gain of 5lbs 5ozs and 5” to date). She is still wearing 0-3 month clothing, but it’s fitting pretty snug, especially around those delicious leg rolls. She has been wearing some 3-6 month clothing. While I thought she was reaching the end last month, she is still in Size 1 diapers. She is becoming a very smiley little lady, and she is starting to laugh more and more, especially since starting daycare and becoming more comfortable with other people. She eats like a little piggy and is growing like a weed. While some nights are all over the place, she’s fairly consistently sleeping from 9ish to 4ish, eating, then back to sleep until we leave for daycare. So that’s been pretty wonderful. Her naps are hit or miss…some days nothing more than a few cat naps, some days a great, long nap. Her focus is getting pretty good…she’s following us around the room, and she’s working on her grasp. She’s “talking” more and more every day and starting to mimic sounds we make. She gets more personality with each passing day, and I just love her pieces!

Unfortunately, Christian could not get Friday off of work with the late notice and recent paternity leave, so he was off to work for the day. I decided to send the big girls off to daycare as usual, and the Steveson’s started waking up and getting ready one by one. Once we were all up and ready to go, Eliza and I joined them for a trip to IKEA. I brought a bottle with to keep Eliza at bay for a while, and other than needing to be held a few times, she did really well. I found a few treasures that we just HAD to have (I mean, who doesn’t need stuff from IKEA??), but didn’t go too crazy. After some shopping, and some lunch, we made our way back home. I picked the big girls up on my way, and the kids went swimming for a while and played in the yard. Dawn and I took a trip to Target while the baby napped, and picked up some food for grilling and s’mores. We made some hamburgers and Christian manned the grill when he arrived home. We ate, the kids went crazy, we had a bonfire and some s’mores and even had an adult beverage! Whoa! It was a perfect evening with friends!

Saturday was a LOOOONG, busy day. I started it off by taking the big girls to their last swim class of the session. Technically, Olivia passed Level 3, but the next level up is more expensive, so we decided to keep her in Level 3 one more session. She’ll have more time to “master” the skills, and then she’ll be almost 6 and HAVE to move up at that point anyway. Surprisingly, they also passed Amelia. She is still pretty chaotic in the water and doesn’t pay attention very well, but they believe she’s ready for Level 2 (I’d say they’re just sick of dealing with her, but she has a different instructor every time, LOL). We are signing her up for Level 2, but it makes me nervous. They do some work without life jackets, and she is just so unaware still. Hopefully she starts to catch on quickly, and starts paying attention! After class, we stopped home to get ready, and we were all off to spend the day at Mall of America. We made a quick stop in the food court for lunch, and then spent most of the day at Nickelodeon University. The girls had the time of their lives. Olivia went on her first REAL rollercoaster, and on the “power tower” like ride, and LOVED IT (Amelia was very upset that she’s not big enough yet, poor thing). Those two are definitely little daredevils, they just LOVE going on all of the different rides. Eventually, the Dad’s took all the kids home for dinner and to settle in, while Dawn and I did a little shopping. We grabbed a quick dinner, then got to work. The Mall is running a special right now that if you spend $250 throughout the mall in the next few weeks, you can get 2 free all-day ride wristbands…so, I decided to do some shopping…back to school for Olivia, and 3-6 month clothes for Eliza. I pretty much got Eliza done in one swoop at Carter’s. I got Olivia a few things at Gymboree and Old Navy, but she’ll still need quite a bit. Dawn gave me all of their receipts from the day as well, so we’ll definitely have enough for the wristbands – YAY! By the time we left, we were both DYING. My feet were killing me – flip flops are not going to be my friend for much longer, that’s for sure. The kids started heading to bed one by one after we got home, and we parents weren’t too far behind. What a day!

Our Annual Family Pic...their oldest couldn't make the trip this year though.

Sunday was our last day/night with our friends. This visit definitely went WAY too fast. We had a slow, quiet morning around the house. Slowly waking up, getting ready even slower. Wishing we could just plain slow down time. The men made a quick run to Walmart – they were telling us about some device they bought to clean the sand/dirt from their pool, so they went to check it out, and they picked up some picnic foods. Once they were home, we were all off to Hyland Park for the day. We had a picnic and the kids played the day away. It was pretty hot out, so the girls spent a little time in the misters (still managed to get SOAKED in the misters), and talked the dad’s into hitting up the ice cream man (how convenient for the ice cream man to literally have a location at the park). I gave in and let Eliza have a couple licks of my popsicle and oh boy it didn’t take her long to get the hang of that! It was seriously so cute. Of course, with Olivia, she was lucky to get cake at her 1^st birthday…by #3, all rules are out the door! I took Eliza to the van to cool off and eat while the kids finished playing, and we all made our way back home. We got ready and Dawn snapped a few family pictures for us. She’s taken them for us the last few years, but since she had just done some Newborn photos for us, and they weren’t visiting for long, I just wanted to do a quick “session”, mainly to get a family photo. So, we all got ready, headed out into the HOT, HUMID weather, and took as many as we could (which, wasn’t much)…Eliza was getting crabby and big the girls were way too antsy. But, we got a few, so it’s all good. After pictures, we all had some leftovers for dinner and the kids started heading off to bed, one by one. We hung out for a while, and Dawn edited a couple of pictures while we relaxed, and begrudgingly headed to bed. Back to reality tomorrow, and the visit definitely went to way too fast.

Dawn managed to edit a couple photos...a family shot, and a funny little "collage" that just had to be done...

Until Next Week XOXO