2014 - Week 38

Monday started off rough. In a unique spin of the day I forgot my pump at home…today, I forgot Eliza’s milk at home! On Monday’s, Christian drops Eliza off at his parents’ house, because they live right down the street from his work. But, I still get her bag packed up and everything. Well, I was literally stepping out of my van, in my work parking lot, when he calls me to let me know I forgot to pack her milk (notice that it’s MY fault, because God forbid he actually pack anything, or at least double check that everything is there, because, you know, I don’t have enough to do or remember on a daily basis). I cried. I literally, cried. In the parking lot. As I pulled out of the parking lot. As I drove down the road and got back on the highway. Cursing my horrible memory, cursing the lack of help I get with the morning chaos. I was so frustrated, everything just boiled over. But, the show must go on. I finally got home, picked up the milk, made my way to my in-laws…via some unique backroad driving because as if traffic isn’t bad enough, it was raining this morning so traffic was horrific…dropped off the milk, and made my way to work. 90 minutes late, I was finally settled in, and the day went better from there. After work, I picked the girls up from daycare, and we were off to Amelia’s soccer practice. Now that our team is officially down to 4 kids, I asked my friend Misty if our kids can just practice with their kids from now on. She talked to her head coach, and I talked to our coach, and both were fine with it. I mean, really, the more kids the merrier at this age. Amelia did really well tonight, which was a relief. Maybe she’s finally coming around! We got her soccer pictures back tonight too…her individual picture was pretty much what you would expect from her, but she did awesome for her “team” picture. While we were at soccer, Christian picked Eliza up and met us at home. We had dinner, hung out for a bit, and the girls were off to bed. The new obsession in our house, since it’s been a little cooler, is the girls wearing dresses and leggings. I don’t know what I was thinking when I let them do it one day last week, but now Amelia flips out in the morning if I don’t let her wear that. Which is fine, but she doesn’t have that many to choose from. Girls, I’ve created girls!

They look so big!!

Tuesday started off a pretty typical day. Work was work, the girls were off to daycare/school. Olivia has officially mastered her lunch pin, which is pretty exciting. She’d going pretty well with her fundraiser, which wraps up at the end of the week. She’s really catching onto the ins and outs of kindergarten and how her classroom works every day; I just love talking to her about it. It sounds like she has made her first real, official friend in class, Ri’Kia, which is fun. I asked her about the little girl, and she says that she’s really nice and fun to play with, LOL. What more could you ask for? So proud, she’s growing up and catching on! I picked all of them up after work, and we were off to Olivia’s soccer practice. Tonight we got her pictures back, and, of course, they were perfect, she’s such a little pro. Tonight the mosquitoes were CRAZY, it was so miserable, and trying to keep them away from Amelia and Eliza was nearly impossible. I can’t remember the last time they were that bad, so miserable. Christian ended up going straight home from work to cut the grass quick before we got home. Since he was busy, I ended up stopping at Taco Bell to grab some dinner for the girls and myself. And then, had the most embarrassing experience of my life. I ordered, pulled up to the window, handed over my debit card. Nothing out of the ordinary. Until the guy working the window handed it back to me and asked if I had another form of payment, as my card had been declined. I was absolutely stunned, I didn’t know what to think. Declined? It’s my check card, and there is most definitely money in my checking account – and more than that, plenty in our savings account, which it would pull from in the event I was overdrawn, so it didn’t make any sense. I asked them to try once more, and they did, and it again was Declined. Three times total. The manager said it’s not the card or the machine, because if it actually says “declined”, it means the request is going to the bank and being denied. I wanted to die. I was so mortified…I mean, it’s Taco Bell, who can’t afford Taco Bell?! I didn’t have our emergency Visa with me, and I had $6.00 in my pocket. I wanted to cry, and die. So, I had them start removing items from my order, so I could still get the girls their food. The poor kid at the window must have felt pretty bad for me, because he even gave me a senior discount to bring the total down a little bit. I paid, and sped off, absolutely embarrassed, and raced home. I told Christian about it, almost in tears. I posted about it on my facebook page, of course, and I couldn’t believe the number of people who have had the same experience over the years. It’s ridiculous. I understand it’s all technology based, and things happen, but come on. What if we had been in a real restaurant…had eaten our meals, and then “couldn’t” pay for it because of a mistake like this? What if I had just spent an hour with 3 unruly kids walking the aisles of the grocery store, just to get all checked out, and have it declined? I would LOSE IT, absolutely LOSE IT! At this point, I just couldn’t wait to give the bank a piece of my mind the next day! In the meantime, we ate, and the girls were off to bed. This day, was over, and I was over it.

Wednesday was thankfully my work from home day. So, I got the girls ready, dropped them off at daycare, and headed home to get to work. I worked the day away while I had my shows on in the background. Ahhh, peace and quiet. I did take some time to call the bank in the afternoon, and find out what’s going on with my debit card. And, of course, I had cooled down. My card expires next month, 10/14. Apparently, something happened with every 10/14 expiration date card when the new cards were created and sent out, that caused all of them to become deactivated. They had no idea how long it would take to resolve, and hadn’t quite pinpointed the exact issue, so while I at least knew what the issue was, even though I had no idea when things would be back to normal. In the meantime, it’s either cash, or another alternative form of payment. UGH! In addition to this frustration, Eliza has been having a really hard time nursing lately, and it’s starting to really drive me crazy. I don’t know if it’s teething, if she’s just too easily distracted now, if she’s just getting too used to bottles now that she’s been on them for a while, or a combination of things, but I don’t know what to do. I try and try, but she’ll pull off, get frantic and then freak out. And, being so frantic and getting latched and unlatched constantly is really causing me some pain. Please let this be a phase, PLEASE! One bright spot in the day…I won tickets to Sever’s Corn Maze, again! WOOT! I think the only time we’ve ever had to pay to go to Sever’s is the very first year we went, 5 years ago. This year, I didn’t even have to do anything, Minnesota Corn, who sponsors the festival, has just been giving away tickets to random page likers on facebook, and I was one of today’s picks. So awesome, especially since we’d have to pay for both of the older girls now! Hopefully I can keep our streak alive next year!

Got their soccer pics back this week. LOL

Thursday was my Friday, thank God! I have to admit, I’m still having a really hard time adjusting to being back at work. I hate getting up and going, I hate being there, and I miss Eliza SOOOOO much when I’m away. I just can’t even explain it. It’s not that I didn’t miss Olivia or Amelia when I was working, it’s just different. I think it’s a combination of emotions. Knowing that she’s our last baby; being older this time around and have a little more patience; having Olivia starting kindergarten this year, and Amelia getting so big too, making it so painfully obvious how fast they grow up. I just want to be home with her. I keep waiting for these feelings to start to subside, waiting to adjust and “get over it”, and it’s just not happening. When I pick her up I’m so overwhelmed with emotions, I just want to cry I’m so happy to see her and hug her and cover her in kisses. I’m OK at drop off, and when I’m finally settled in at work, I do pretty well focusing and keeping my mind off of missing her, but I just get flooded when I see her in the afternoon. My baby, I just don’t want to be away from her! But, she did have another great week in daycare. They are so great with her. She loves watching all of her little friends play, and they are working hard on sitting up and tummy time with her. She’s still rolling tummy to back pretty well, but no vice versa quiet yet. The evening was pretty quiet around the house. We had dinner, the girls got their baths, we had a little family time and it was time for bed. The usual.

Girl time, watching a video, before school :)

Sister love!

Ugh, I could just squeeze her up!

My throwback this week, a picture of my BFF and I, about 15/16 years ago. Crazy.

Friday was my day home with Eliza, YAY! I was up and off to drop the girls off at daycare early, before Christian left for work. But my plan didn’t’ work quiet as well as in the past, and Eliza was up shortly after Christian left. But, after a feeding, a change and a little playtime, she was back to sleep. She actually slept quite a bit of the day. She doesn’t seem to nap too well at daycare…I mean, she still seems happy and content and doesn’t get too crabby or anything, so it’s not a huge deal, but I feel like on my Fridays’ home, she is more relaxed and seems to catch up on some sleep. So, I catch up on cuddles, and I certainly don’t hate that!! Overall, it was a pretty lazy day around the house. I did make a run to Target for a few groceries, and to pick up a birthday present for a party tomorrow, otherwise, it was a low key day. I picked the girls up from daycare, and Christian actually arrived home around the same time as us. We had dinner and a little family time, but it was an early to bed night for everybody. We’re all pretty exhausted, and Saturday morning soccer comes WAY too fast!

Best Friends, she just loves him

She catches up on sleep on our Friday, and I catch up on cuddles

Saturday morning we were up bright and early, and off to soccer. This week, Eliza and  I took Amelia to her game, while Christian and my mom went to watch Olivia. Amelia did SOOOOO well today, I couldn’t believe it. Only 3 of our kids were there, as one was on vacation, but it worked out OK because the other team only had 4 kids, and one had to leave early. Maybe because there weren’t so many kids, Amelia was a little more relaxed, I have no idea, but she was all over that ball today. She was scoring goals left and right, dribbling the ball so well, running and having a great time, I just couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen her play like that at all. I was so proud! Meanwhile, Olivia’s game went well. Christian said she came sooooooooooooo close to scoring a goal again, but just missed. Poor thing, she just wants to score so badly. For being such a tough little girl, she’s just not too aggressive. After the games, we met up at home, showered, packed up, and we were on our way. Today we were celebrating our nieces birthday (from Labor Day). My sister in law had the party at the Mexican Restaurant that she works at. The food was really good, the girls had a blast, and it was fun getting together, but it was kind of miserable…it was so hot in the restaurant; we were all sweating to beat the band, just sitting there. And, they had Karaoke going (Spanish Karaoke, of course), and it was so loud, and so terrible. My ears were just ringing the entire time we were there, and for a while after we left!  But, the birthday girl had a blast, and that’s what really matters. After the party, my in-laws took the big girls for the night, so we had a bit of freedom on our hands. While Christian did some work in the garage, I spent some time with Eliza, eventually getting her to bed, and then pulled out all of the Halloween decorations and getting everything set up. It’s early, but I had to take advantage of the “empty” house while I could. I couldn’t wait for the girls to get home and see everything! Once we were done with our task, we settled in to watch “24”, after a long break, and we only have 1 episode to go. We’re too old, and too tired, we passed out!

Sporting her new hat, seriously, she's adorbs!

She scored LOTS of goals today, YES!

Sometimes best friends love, and play, a little to hard.

We rocked some curls today, big time!

Sunday was a pretty standard day. I had my normal chores to take care of…laundry, dishes, picking up around the house. And, I finally started on Eliza’s baby book! It’s hard to believe it’s already been over 4 months since she was born. So crazy looking back already. Christian had started draining the pool last weekend, and that was done after a couple days. So, today, his friend Mariano came over to help him clean it out good and hang it up to drive. My in-laws brought the girls home around 2:00 and they played outside with Bella for most of the day. We all had some pizza for dinner before they headed home, and the girls came in to relax for a bit before bed. They were SO excited to see all of the decorations, they just ran all over the house, checking everything out. It was really cute. Of course, know they’re ready to head out trick or treating. It’s hard to explain the concept of holiday decorating to them. They don’t understand why you would put up all of the Halloween decorations, if it’s not Halloween. I try to explain it’s like Christmas/decorations, but it doesn’t click yet. LOL. Eliza had a pretty good day – well, I should say, she slept quite a bit throughout the day, which was nice, but when she was awake, boy was she crabby!!! She seemed really uncomfortable or something, but I’m not sure what was going on. I was getting pretty stressed out by it though. I’ve been fairly patient this time around with those rough days, but today was definitely the exception to that.

Finally started on Eliza's baby book!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2014 - Week 37

Monday came all too soon, as usual, and we were all off on our day. Christian to work, the big girls to school/daycare. Meanwhile, Eliza and I were off to her 4 month check-up. Similar to my last experience, I was pretty livid. I again scheduled her for the first appointment of the day, 7:30AM, hoping to be in and out quickly so I could get to work. 90 minutes later, I was finally out of the clinic. LIVID. I have come to the conclusion that they double book him for each appointment slot, and then whoever gets there first is apartment the winner, and gets seen first. When he finally came into the room, he alluded to the fact that he had just been with a new patient, who was mistakenly referred to him, so it turned into quite an event. I was so angry and annoyed, it was pretty hard to contain myself. As much as I love our doctor, as soon as Eliza hits toddler stage, we’re out of there. As for the appointment itself, it went alright. She was 65% for her weight and 75% for height, so not quite as big as I thought she was….I totally expected her to be off the charts. During her exam, he determined she had a Labial Adhesion, which basically means the inner lips of her vagina have become stuck together. He said it’s fairly rare, but nothing to be too concerned about…that the only real risk is that when she urinates, it could get “stuck” and flow back into her system, causing urinary issues. He prescribed a hormone cream that we’re supposed to apply daily for 4-6 weeks, which should help it open up (so, to add to the delay I say in the pharmacy for 15 minutes waiting for that). I was a little anxious about the idea of using hormones on her, but was reassured that it’s such a small amount; it shouldn’t cause any long-term issues. BUT, when I checked her later that night to apply the cream, I most definitely saw the hole that was “closed” at her appointment. So weird – we’re just going to hold off and see what happens at her 6 month check-up. She did get 3 vaccinations while we were there as well, so she was pretty dang exhausted! I dropped her off with my mother-in law, and finally got to work…luckily, she had a pretty good day, shots and all. Work was pretty standard, but, I did get some flowers from one of my project managers, which was quite a pleasant surprise. I work in one of those quite underappreciated positions – where everybody things you just snap your fingers and everything magically gets done. It’s rare to work with a project manager that actually gets it, and appreciates what you do for them. I also received word throughout the day that Amelia’s soccer coach, along with his two kids, has officially quit. So, the assistant coach is taking over, and we now have 4 kids on our team. Seriously, such a mess, her team has been SUCH A MESS. When we arrived at practice, we ended up being right next to Olivia’s baseball coach, Misty’s, team…I asked them if it would be OK if we practiced with their team, which ended up working out really well…for both teams I think. I think with more kids, they all had more fun, they were able to have a real scrimmage and it seemed to work out better. What a pain though! Finally, we made our way home for dinner and a little relaxation before bed. Busy day!

My flowers, so pretty

Tuesday wasn’t quite as hectic. Everybody was off to work and school/daycare as usual. I did have to leave work a little early for my annual eye exam though. I never used to be very good about going to the eye doctor regularly, but my eyes have gotten so bad, so quickly, I’m trying to be better about it, especially after a pregnancy. I also have this huge bump on my eye, that’s been there since my eye swelled up back at the end of June, so I was hoping to get some answers about that while I was there. So, off I went. She determined that the bump was basically an extreme sty. That when I had my infection, it probably just swelled from all of the fluids building up, trying to fight off the infection, then it all just got “trapped”. She said my options were to do nothing, and hope it releases and heals on its own over time, do daily warm compresses to loosen it up, or, if nothing works and it really bothers me, they could “flip my lid, cut it open and drain it”. Ummm, no thank you on that last option. At least it’s nothing serious though. My prescription did end up changing a little bit again. Nothing super drastic this time though. She did give me a starter pair of my new contacts, but I still have a pair of my current prescription to use up, so we’ll see how much of a difference it is in a month or so when I try them. After my appointment, I picked the girls up, and we were off to Olivia’s soccer practice. Christian went straight home to start dinner for us, so we ate pretty much as soon as we got home, we all relaxed for a bit and called it a night.

Wednesday was another pretty typical day. It was my work from home day, so I had the house all to myself, and got to work in peace and quiet. Heaven! Christian ended up taking the van today, and picked the girls up from daycare, because I was off to meet my BFF, Kari, for a long overdue date night at Khan’s for dinner. YUM!!! We ate as slow as we could, swapped baby stories and advice, vented about husbands, and caught up as much as we could. Seriously, overdue! The rest of the house was in the middle of dinner when I arrived home, and it was time for baths and bed when they finished up. Nice relaxing night.

Thursday was another low key day. The girls did have picture day at daycare though. They were able to do them early enough to get some sibling photos done before Olivia had to leave for school, so I’m really hoping we get a good one of all three girls together. My friend Dawn took some pictures for us when she was here a month or so ago, but I don’t think we’ll actually get the final versions for a while yet, and I’m just dying for a great picture of them together. The director said Eliza did a really great job too, so I just can’t wait!! Work, daycare and school all went well. Eliza had yet another great week in daycare – getting stronger and more interested in her surroundings every day. When I came into the room today, she was laying on the playmat, right in front of the mirror, and when she spotted me in the mirror she was smiling like crazy…she just couldn’t figure out where I was though. It was pretty funny. We made our way home, met Christian, had some dinner and had a quiet night. Olivia hasn’t had any homework or anything so far, and I’m actually really hoping that continues. I mean, there day is pretty long; I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t be able to do everything they need to do there in the classroom. We’ll see what happens though.

My throwback this week...a year ago we found out we were expecting, and this is how we told Daddy!

Friday was my day to work, so my mom came over to watch Eliza, and the rest of us were off. Eliza had a great day with her today too…she seems to be getting happier and easier with each passing week, particularly for our mom’s, so that is a big relief. When we get home in the evening she is just ALL SMILES though, especially for her big sisters, she just loves watching those two go at it. Work was pretty standard, Olivia is doing great in Kindergarten…she’s thisclose to memorizing her lunch PIN, and she’s working hard to learn the other kids’ names and make new friends. So far she still loves going, and she really likes going to the library. Our evening was pretty quiet…Christian worked late, as he usually does on Friday, but was home in time for dinner. Dinner brought a pretty funny story I’d like to share…having all girls, I’ve found that people really do seem to think they are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. I don’t know about other girls, but that is definitely not the case with ours. They come home from daycare dirtier than any of the boys there, they beat the crap out of each other constantly, and, this is what we get to experience: when I sat down at the dinner table to join Olivia and Amelia, they were in the midst of debating what the funniest word in the world is. I asked them what the options were and was met with...“Butts!”, “Farts!”, “Fart-Face!”, “Poop!”, “Booty!”, “Poppy-Butt” and lots of little girls giggles. Yes, sugar and spice guys, sugar and spice. We did come to a consensus that “Fart-Face” was indeed the funniest word, and, it totally makes me laugh just thinking about it. LOL. The rest of our evening was not quite as exciting as that. A little TV and family time, and early to bed.

I love her. I just love her.

On Saturday I woke up to realize I had left my pumped milk from work yesterday in the pump cooler overnight. UGH, seriously, what is wrong with me?!?! I ended up doing a little internet research and found out that as long as there isn’t an odd smell or look to the milk, it can be left in an insulated cooler for up to 24 hours. It had been about 21…everything smelled and looked fine with it, so I put it in the fridge. I continued to check it over the weekend, up until I packed her bag Monday, and everything was fine, so I’m SUPER relieved I didn’t just give in and toss it. I know it’s so cliché, but it really is liquid gold, and I wanted to cry. After that chaos, we had some breakfast, and we were all off to soccer. Christian brought Amelia, I brought Olivia. Olivia was SO CLOSE to scoring a goal this week, but just missed. Meanwhile, apparently while Amelia wasn’t super enthusiastic about it, she actually played this week AND she scored a goal. SO EXCITING!! Hopefully that will get her more amped about playing and she’ll keep it up. The morning started off pretty cold (it was in the 30’s at soccer time), but it warmed up quite a bit, and ended up being a PERFECT day to be outside, so after soccer we all got ready, and we made our way to check out the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. The girls’ admission is free, and I bought a Groupon for BOGO a while back, so we cashed it in a checked it out. It was so beautiful, and so peaceful…and HUGE. You could really spend a whole day just walking around and checking everything out (well, without the easily bored children of course). They seemed to really like it though…except when we were leaving, Amelia asked us “Is that it?” and when we said “Yes, we’re done and we’re going to head home now” she told us “Well, I didn’t really like that zoo. They didn’t have any giraffes or elephants or anything”. Ha, I guess it really was the worst zoo ever. So funny.  We were all pretty exhausted when we got home and just spent some time hanging out, relaxing. Once the girls were in bed. Christian left to have a couple beers with his friend, and I settled in with my laptop. I’ve been obsessed with watching the last season of “16 & Pregnant”…we don’t have cable, so I haven’t watched it forever. This is seriously one my biggest fears for our girls, I really don’t know what I would do if 10-15 years from now any of them came to me pregnant. Makes me cringe just thinking about it. I typically don’t have my sympathy for the girls on these shows, but there was one story tonight that just broke my heart. These kids…I wish they would all just understand the lifelong impact it has, and really think about what they’re doing. Damn teenagers.

Olivia's Soccer

Arboretum

Sunday was another busy day. My mom joined us, and we met our friends Mariano and Bella, for a day at the Apple Orchard. Again, PERFECT day to be out and about, enjoying the weather and having some fall fun (a little early). One of the local apple orchards was having a big “anniversary party” this weekend, so they had a ton of extra free events and activities for the kids to do, so we made our trip to the orchard a little earlier than we usually do. They played at the park, got their faces painted, fed some animals, watched the dog jumping competition, played in the bounce house obstacle course, went on a little train ride…they had a blast. We all ate some lunch, and then hopped on a hayride out to the apples. We filled our bags and did some taste testing before heading back to the store to check out. Such a fun time, the girls were exhausted though. We all made our way home, the girls took a little nap, and we caught the end of the Vikings game. I finished up some laundry, while Christian started draining the pool and took the girls outside to play for a while. The day just flew by, and it was time for dinner, baths and bed before we knew it. A great weekend, and another week over way too fast!

Apple Orchard fun

Until Next Week! XOXO