2014 - Week 35

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

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

Today was National Dog Day - celebrating little Chuy!

It's official, transition time!

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

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

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

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

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

I love waking up with this in my face!

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

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

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

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

Eliza is making friends

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

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

They Had the Prime Location!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2014 - Week 34

Here we are, another week! Eliza was off to my mother in-laws for the day and had a wonderful day! She said Eliza seems to be getting better and better every week, and adjusting well, so that’s great news. I picked her up after work and took her with me to the clinic to pick up a prescription, while Christian picked the big girls up from school and met us at home.  Tomorrow is Olivia’s kindergarten assessment, and I didn’t realize we have to bring her supplies with….which I haven’t purchased (really, we give them $10 for supplies, we just have to bring a few things…like tissues, disinfectant wipes, antibacterial soap, etc.). We also needed a few groceries. I ended up making up a list for Christian, and having him go do our shopping, while I took the girls to Amelia’s soccer practice. I even made him use cartwheel, use reusable bags and reminded him to get generic (which he never does, and it makes me so mad!). Ha, I’ll train him in! Amelia’s practice was even worse this week, with only 4 kids there. The coach and his two kids are out of town this week, so it’s going to be pretty dismal. I’m getting a little worried about her team. She did pretty well though. Christian started dinner when he finished shopping, so we ate when we arrived home, took some baths and the girls were off to bed shortly after. Eliza was pretty crabby tonight for some reason. Just an off night I suppose.

Somebody wasn't too excited about soccer tonight

Tuesday was a pretty standard day. Work, school, daycare for the babe. However, when I picked the girls up, it was sheer chaos. I got Eliza from the infant room, and got out to pick up the big girls just as they were coming in from playing outside. Olivia was already in the room, and Amelia was just walking in, and I could tell she was starting to cry. Her teacher was still outside, wrangling up all of the kids, and I saw him run past the window after one of them. When I asked Amelia what was wrong, she said a little boy (the runner), had punched her in the face because she was the line leader and he wanted to be the line leader. This is not the first pretty serious incident we’ve had with this little boy, and I have to admit, I’m getting a little aggravated by it. I know kids fight and throw things and get in trouble, but this little boy is SERIOUSLY violent…just a couple weeks ago he bit her so hard in the back, he FULL bite was visible on her back for a good week or so. And, the teachers even admit, it’s usually not provoked when he does these things. As I was getting the story, her teacher was taking the little boy into the office, and it sounded as if this may have been his last chance (I found later that he had actually punched another little boy as well, and that was what he was actually getting in trouble for…they didn’t even know what had happened to Amelia). I don’t want to be that helicopter parent and get over involved…I do have faith that the center deals with these issues appropriately, but I do want to know at what point, enough is enough. After that chaos, Olivia had to skip her soccer practice tonight, because we were off to meet her Kindergarten teacher. She had to do her assessment (so the teacher can talk to her and get an idea of where she’s at with the basic skills), while Christian and I filled out some paperwork and got her school calendar and all that. We dropped off her supplies and her medical paperwork…her teacher seems super nice and really friendly. Olivia seems to be pretty excited again, so hopefully that sticks with her the next couple of weeks. I still just can’t believe this is happening. I started this blog just as she turned 1, and here we are, 4½ years later. That’s just crazy, time goes way too fast! When we finished her assessment, we made our way home for some dinner and everybody was off to bed.

It's official, the watermelon/pumpkins are actually pumpkins. Whew!

We got this little doozy of a poem at Olivia's assessment tonight. Tears galore.

Apparently we hadn't checked the zucchini for a while. Whoa!

Wednesday was a rough day. Well, it started off OK…the girls were off to school/daycare, Christian was off to work, and it was my telework day, so I was settled in at home, working the day away. We’re pretty well caught up on stuff around the house, so I didn’t have to squeeze in any chores during my breaks. It was nice to just be able to relax a little! Tonight when I picked the girls up, each of them had incident reports because of their overall behavior. They were both acting up, not listening, talking back, spitting at the kids AND the teachers. Just pretty much out of control. These girls can act up, but I’ve never gotten a report strictly for their behavior before. Needless to say, I was pretty upset. To top it off, as we were leaving, Amelia booked I out the door, into the parking lot, before I had even left the classroom. When I got outside, she was just dancing around, not a care in the world, and it pushed me over the edge. I pulled her around to the side of the van and she got a spanking, right there in the parking lot. She was pretty much in shock after that, and was pretty quiet the rest of the night. We went to her soccer practice after, and she did participate (which I was kind of surprised about after getting in trouble), and Olivia was forced to sit on the ground right by me the entire time. When we arrived home they had a nice boring dinner, and were right off to bed. Oh man, it was just one of those nights. My frustrations had reached their limit, that’s for sure.

Eliza's first art project, OMG! (PS, the sandals have her actual footprints in them, it's hard to see)

Thursday started off on a bad note, following yesterday’s issues. I had the most “infuriating” argument with Olivia as I was trying to remind them of how upset we were and about their punishments. I reminded them that today was water day and they would not be allowed to participate, she tells me “Good, the water is cold anyway”. I tell them they’ll be having cereal for dinner again, she tells me “Good, I love cereal”. This went on for about 5 more “punishments” until I had reached my mental capacity for the morning and gave up. We left; I dropped them off, and headed to work, not sure how the day would pan out. I was ecstatic to pick them up and find out that all of the kids had a great day…Olivia and Amelia were listening, were helpful and did a million times better than they had been acting. Eliza was happy and content and loving her people watching. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted. So, even with the arguments and snippy attitude this morning, apparently what I said actually got through to them. The evening was topped off by finally catching Eliza rolling tummy to back on video, so fun!

My Throwback photo was a shot back to Eliza's first picture. I can't believe how fast it's going!

Friday was my day off. Olivia was off to daycare as usual, while Amelia, Eliza and I were off to Amelia’s 4-year check-up. Now, the day, again, started off infuriatingly. I purposefully schedule their appointments as the first appointment of the day…I LOVE our doctor, but he is a chatty Cathy and the later you go in, the more behind he is. So, you figure first appointment of the day, you should be good to go. Nope, I got there a few minutes before the appointment, was called back pretty much right away, and then sat in the room for almost 30 minutes waiting. Thankfully Eliza slept through most of the appointment AND I didn’t work, otherwise I would’ve lost it. Anyway, her appointment went well. She is up to 40% for weight and 45% for height, so she’s catching up and pretty much average now, which is a relief. We found out that they changed their previous “5-Year Kindergarten” shots to be done at 4 years old now, so she had to get 2 shots and was not too happy with me. I discussed her habits with him…actually, I’m not sure that I’ve ever discussed them on here before. Amelia has these series of ticks…she squeezes her ears constantly, she has a hard time dealing with light (sun, camera flash, etc.), she sniffles all day long – even though there’s nothing there, and she has this coughing/throat clearing thing she does all day long, which is by far the most annoying thing I’ve ever dealt with in my life. These things have been going on for months…well, her ear thing even longer. We’ve never been too sure if it’s all just coincidence, if they are nervous ticks, if they are allergy related, or what could be causing it all. So, I talked to her doctor (who was able to witness pretty much everything while we were there in his office). He said to first try to eliminate an allergy issue, so we’re going to start her on a daily dose of allergy medication. If that doesn’t seem to help, they could be ticks, motor or nerve caused. Apparently the difference is that with motor ticks, your body really does THINK there is something wrong (your ears hurt, your nose is running, you have something in your throat), even though you don’t. So, we’ll see what happens, and hopefully we can get it all to stop. After her appointment, we stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast (her reward for being “tricked” into getting shots), I dropped her off at school, and Eliza and I made our way home. She took a nice LOOOOONG nap in the afternoon, I did some dishes and a little cleaning up, but overall had a pretty lazy day. Christian left work a tad early and met his Dad at the house to change the oil and a sensor in the car. I picked the girls up and we hung out at home for the evening. Christian and his friend Lorenzo were nominated to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that is going around, so they completed that tonight. Olivia decided to join in and do it as well, LOL. Crazy kid. I spent the evening making a couple batches of salsa from the garden…YUM!

Brought out the jumperoo tonight. LOL!

I LOVE HER!!! Hanging at the doctor's office with sissy!

My little  BFF, handled her appointment like a little champ.

Salsa time!

Saturday was a pretty long day. We decided to take advantage of the nice weather (not too hot, not too cold) and head to Como Zoo for the day. Our friend Sara and her little guy came along with us. The state fair started this week, and it was kind of sprinkling when we got to the zoo, so we thought for sure it wouldn’t be too busy. Not the case. But, we managed to find parking and had a great time anyway. We checked out the animals for a while, had some lunch, then the girls hit up rides for the rest of the afternoon. Like usual, I was able to snag a buy one wristband get one free deal on a local Steal site…always helps to save a little! We started Amelia on her allergy medication, but we only had benedryl in the house right now, so she was definitely drowsy from it most of the day. We’ll be getting her some Claritin before her next dose, that’s for sure. On top of that, Eliza seems to be coming down with a cold. She was getting so stuffed up, and then it would drain she she’d have a coughing fit. Poor thing, I sure hope it passes quickly! Between the activity and the illnesses, it was definitely a long day. We hung out for a bit, had some dinner, and the girls were all off to bed shortly after. Christian and I were searching Netflix for a movie to watch, when we came across “Sharknado”…I’d heard all about it, so decided we just HAD to watch it. Oh boy, it did not disappoint.

Zoo Fun!

On Sunday, we all actually slept in a little bit, which is always a wonderful treat. We had a quick breakfast, then Olivia and I were off to finish up some school shopping. I mentioned before we don’t actually have to buy supplies, we just give the school $10 and they provide everything. We dropped off the Kleenex and stuff like that a couple weeks ago, so we just needed to finish getting her some clothes and shoes (Amelia needed new tennis shoes too). We found some good deals at Target, and stopped at Payless to finish up the shoe shopping. She’s officially ready for Kindergarten, OMG! Once home, we all got ready, packed up a bag, and headed to Northfield to my Grandparents’ house for lunch. My aunt is in town from Utah, so my Grandma invited everybody over for lunch. My Stepmom was there….none of my sisters could make it, and my Dad had to work, so it was just us from our family. It was fun catching up though, and they finally got to meet baby Eliza, so that was exciting. Funny story…as we were getting ready to leave, Eliza was by the door in her car seat while we said our goodbyes. My uncle came into the house, into the kitchen and asked “Whose baby is that?” to which Christian replied, “Ashley’s” while pointing at me. Telling, right? Very telling. Yes, she’s MY baby, and she’s sweet as can be! My stepmom follows us home to get some goodies from the garden, and the girls jumped in the pool as soon as we got home. Until a storm came in out of nowhere and we rushed into the house. Our friend Sara and Bella stopped over for a bit before it was time to get everybody ready for bed. What a busy weekend, sure makes it go even faster than usual! We did start Amelia on Claritin today and she had a much better day on that. Now, let’s see if it actually helps anything!

Ready for her first school year!

Until Next Week! XOXO