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

2015 -Week 4

After a long weekend of dealing with Eliza’s crabby sickness, Monday was a Holiday. President’s day. The big girls were off to daycare for the day….my mother in law had to work, which I was pretty upset about. I had literally been looking forward to this day for soooooooooo long. A day at home, with the house ALL TO MYSELF, all day long. I’ve had it planned for months…it was my day to finally tackle the basement. Luckily, Christian has some leave time he has to use up by the end of the month, so he was able to take the day off. So, after a morning feeding, he was put to work, on daddy duty, and I made my way downstairs. It was beyond a disaster, I can’t even explain. I was overwhelmed at the thought of it. Today, my main focus was going through everything, gathering it up and getting it back in the room it belong. Toys in the toy room, princess stuff in the princes areas, the Holiday stuff packed up and into storage, the “storage” stuff back in storage where it belongs. I didn’t have much to show for all of my work, but it was Step 1. Eliza napped for a while, Christian gave her a bottle at some point in time, but around 3:00 she was up and ready for another feeding, so I called it a day and made my way back upstairs. We watched “Zero Dark Thirty” while I fed her and relaxed, before picking up the big girls. Good movie! I picked the big girls up around closing time, we ate some dinner and we spent the evening listening to music at full blast and dancing around. I love when we have spontaneous dance parties! Before I knew it, it was time for bed, time to call it a night. The long weekend came to an end WAY too fast, but at least it’s a super short week!

Sweetness!

Tuesday…back to work. No Bueno. To top it off, back to another LONG day of interviews. I seriously hate it, HATE IT, and I’m so glad it’s officially over. Now comes the part where I get to deliver bad news to all of the consultants that didn’t get the project….that’s much harder to do when you’ve actually seen the people, in person. Somehow it feels more personal now. Ick. The interviews and meeting afterwards pretty much took up my entire day…between the Holiday yesterday, interviews all day today, working from home tomorrow and my Friday off this week, I don’t see myself really getting a ton of stuff done this week. After work I picked the girls up from daycare and we stopped at Target. We needed a couple of groceries, and I was on a mission to buy a new curling iron. My hair is super, SUPER long. And it’s super fine, so it doesn’t hold anything. Curling it is a complete waste of time. I thought if I buy a large barrel curing iron, it would at least give it some volume. I ended up finding a new fun gadget though that I’m pretty excited about. It’s kind of a cross between a flat-iron, a curling iron and a crimper. It’s a “3 Barrel Waver” and I can’t wait to try it out! When we left the store it had started snowing…thankful I don’t have to drive in it tomorrow! We met Christian at home for some dinner and a quiet evening. Eliza was asleep when I got to daycare tonight, fell asleep on the way home from Target, and went to bed super easy tonight. Fingers crossed, maybe she’s finally feeling better!

There is a lot of hair going on in the Duran household right now. Just about time for cuts all around!

Well, fingers crossed didn’t work. It was another long night for little Eliza. Seriously, I LONG for sleep. Amelia was a horrible, HORRIBLE sleeper. She didn’t sleep through the night even once until she was about 9 months old. But, once she did, she did it pretty consistently. That doesn’t seem to be happening with Eliza. It’s such a rollercoaster with her! But, my one saving grace is that it was my work from home day. So, at least I didn’t have to worry about showering and getting ready and rushing off to an exhausting day in the office! Christian ran to Menard’s for some things for the house (really he’ll look for any reason to go to that dumb store), so we met up at home after I picked up the girls from daycare. We had dinner and a quiet night. Looking forward to my “Friday” tomorrow!

Blocking out the world around them...

Thursday, my last work day for the week. WOOT!! I spent the day pretty much catching up after being “away” all week. Routing things that had been sitting, responding to e-mails, getting my work from home going. It was definitely a busy day! I got a call from daycare around 2:45 that Eliza had been having bathroom issues all day, watery, green stools, and had to be picked up. By the time I got the message, finished up my work, got to daycare and got her ready to go, it was just about time for Olivia to get back from school, so I got Amelia ready and we just waited for Olivia in the van. She was pretty excited to see me…she usually gets mad when I get there early, LOL. We made our nightly store run and stopped at Walmart before making our way home. Eliza napped for a bit while I washed bottles and got dinner started. Christian finished cooking when he arrived home while I fed Eliza and relaxed with her. It was a pretty early night for all of us. Christian and I are both off tomorrow, but after this long week, I don’t know how productive it will be!

My throwback this week...not much has changed in the morning routine, there are just more of them to delay the process.

Friday, FINALLY! We were both off, and thankful for the short week (Christian really never gets those, so he was in Heaven!) After getting Eliza fed and down for her morning nap, I got some cleaning done upstairs and ran to Target to do a big shopping run (you know, rather than my daily runs after work, HA!). When I got back home, I hung out with Eliza while Christian and his dad worked on the snowblower. Ick, the garage just reeked of gasoline for days afterwards. So gross. I did actually do a tiny bit of work while Eliza took her afternoon nap to make up for leaving early yesterday. I picked the big girls up from daycare around closing time, we picked up some pizza and settled in with a few movies on Netflix for the girls. Once they were in bed, Christian started “The Expendables”, but I was way too tired and passed out (I’m thinking I didn’t miss too much though).

There's a smile from my sweet baby!!!

Saturday was a busy day. Everybody seemed happy and healthy, and ready to go. We started off with some breakfast and Christian and I showered and got ready for the day. Then, we were all off to the big girls’ first day of their new swim classes! They were SO excited to finally be back in the water, and picked right back up. Olivia still amazes me, I cannot believe what a good swimmer she is becoming. Amelia seems like she’s really matured since her last session, she was listening way better than she ever has, and really trying, putting in some effort. Very proud! After class, we stopped home to get all of the girls ready, packed up a bag and we were off to my BFF Kari’s house for her little ones 1^st Birthday Party! So crazy, I can’t believe little Addison is already 1, I swear I was just meeting her and snuggling her. Time just goes way too fast. It was so great getting to catch up with Kari and her family for a while, and the girls had a blast playing with the other kids there. And, poor Eliza, she’s much bigger than her little best friend Addie, even though she’s 3 months older than her. That’s OK though, she’ll protect her while they’re growing up, LOL. After the party, we made our way home for some dinner. Christian went out for a couple of beers with his friend Lorenzo, while I got the girls to bed, caught up on some of my shows and watched a little SNL before passing out. Way too much activity for this old, tired mom!

Swimming and Partying

On Sunday we were up way too early. But, I got right to work on my Sunday chores. I got the kitchen cleaned up…counters, washed dishes and bottles. I made a big breakfast for the family, and a couple batches of baby food. I swapped out Eliza’s closet for 9-12 month clothes – so sad, I can’t believe it! And, I did a few loads of laundry throughout the day and relaxed with the family in between. Overall, it was a pretty quiet day. All of the girls took a nice LONG nap…Christian and I found “Wahlburgers” Season 1 on Netflix and binged on that for the day. It was quite a perfect day actually! Even Eliza had a pretty good weekend, so we’re hoping she’s feeling better and is on the mend. I made an evening trip to Walmart for a few things I forgot on Friday and grabbed some Chipotle for dinner on the way home. I ended up getting a monster headache out of nowhere once I was home, and had to call it a night early. I hate when those hit!

She LOVES oranges!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 3

Well, here we are, into the middle of January already. I have to be honest here. I’ve been worse at blogging than ever before, and I’ve fallen so behind that I honestly have no idea what we’ve had going on. Being mid-January, likely not much. School, daycare and work have been going well for all, no big issues or tragedies, just pretty much life as usual. I can say, there is a new obsession in our house….Maleficent. We’ve been watching it pretty much daily. We first watched it over this past weekend and when it started, I got a little worried that it wasn’t appropriate for the girls…it was a little dark, a little scary quite frankly, but the girls loved it. I of course turned to facebook for opinions and everybody that had seen it seemed to agree that their kids loved it as well. So, I don’t feel quite at guilty. Christian hasn’t been feeling too hot this week, kind of sick to his stomach, so we pretty much spent the week hoping it wasn’t going to hit all of us again.

My Throwback Photo this year was of Olivia, 5 years ago. Such a cutie!

Friday is what things really picked up for me at work. Friday I had to facilitate a series of consultant interviews for a project I’m working on. I’ve been at my job for going on 14 years and this is the first time I’ve had to do this. I’m not a people person at all, so I was extremely nervous about this. Everything went pretty well, and honestly I’m pretty good at faking the people-person thing, but I was totally overwhelmed and intimidated by the whole thing. It basically took up my entire day, AND I ended up stuck there late, so I was pretty happy when it was over. I called my mom as I left work to find out Eliza was having a pretty rough day. She watched her at her place today because with Christian’s recent illness, I didn’t want to risk exposing my mom to anything if we didn’t have to, so I swung by on my way home and picked her up. We picked the big girls up at daycare and made our way home. Eliza was a crabby mess all night, and it made for a very long evening. Followed by a VERY long night, where I barely got a wink of sleep. No fun!

Saturday was a pretty quiet day at home. Christian was off to work for the day, and Eliza just plain miserable. Her eyes were watering like faucets, she was sneezing and coughing like crazy. Poor thing, it’s just so heartbreaking when they’re sick! The big girls were pretty good for me…they played in their room for a while, they watched some movies…got along pretty well. I think I would’ve gone nuts if they were their usual crazy selves. It’s just too bad because the weather is actually really beautiful this weekend…it would have been PERFECT for some sledding and playing outside, I was pretty bummed. But, alas, the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday were pretty quiet and low key. A little cleaning, a little laundry and a lot of relaxing and cuddling. Sure hope little Eliza feels better soon!

Pure baby misery.

May be exhausting, but I love snuggling this baby to sleep.

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 2

Well, after a busy weekend of fun and celebrating and unpacking toys and cleaning up, it was back to reality. Monday – back to work, back to school, back to daycare. I don’t think any of us were ready to get up and at ‘em this morning, but Olivia was pretty excited to head back to school after her long winter break. I left work a tad early to do our “Target Shopping”…grabbed some groceries and a few household items. Next up was Amelia's "Winter Gala" at daycare. They usually do it around Christmas, holiday themed, but there have been a lot of staffing changes at the center and with all of the chaos from that, they had to push it back. They did a "Frozen" theme this year so of course the kids were totally into it. Amelia did really well, but she was pretty funny. She kept getting distracted by all of the people and her singing would trail off...so I would signal to her to focus and sing louder and she'd get SUPER loud. So funny. Christian wasn't able to get off work early, so he was pretty bummed that he had to miss it. He met us at home with Eliza afterwards and we had a pretty quiet night.

She's so cute!

Tuesday was FREEEEEZING, and we also got a light snow overnight. Even though it was indeed a LIGHT snow, traffic was horrible and it took me two hours to get to work. Ick. After finally getting to work, I fought off a nuisance headache all day long. Headaches and working on a computer definitely do not mix. But, I toughed it out and worked through the day. I picked the girls up from daycare….Olivia and Amelia started fighting and bickering before we even made it home. I was seriously OVER it before I walked in the door, and Olivia was sent to her room until dinner. Eliza was crying and fussy all evening, it was just pure chaos. She finally fell asleep in my arms and we gave up on the world at that point. Christian made dinner when he arrived home, amidst the crying and chaos and fighting and arguing from the other two. They were both sent straight to bed after dinner, I got Eliza fed and down for the night and we finally got a little peace and quiet before passing out ourselves. It was a rough, rough night.

Sitting in her chair, such a big girl!

Wednesday was Olivia’s very first ever school closure! What?! Seriously guys, I live in Minnesota so you wouldn’t think so, but I VERY rarely had “snow days”. I honestly can only remember 1 in my life, in high school for a MONSTER snow storm. We had quite a few last year, and this is the first this year. The thing is…we can handle snow…snow closures are extremely rare around here. I mean, snow….it’s what we do. It’s the bitter, out of control cold that has been causing closures. Unfortunately for the kids, it will be a loooooong time before they truly know the joy of a “snow day”….daycare doesn’t close! So, she spent the day at KinderCare. I worked from home as usual, and it was nice to skip another crappy drive. After working the day away, I got to work on some cleaning before picking the kids up. I vacuumed and got the furniture moved back in place (post-Christmas). I packed up one tote of Christmas stuff (with plenty more to do). Slowly making progress. I started dinner and picked the girls up from daycare. Christian arrived home about the same time as us…we ate, the girls all got baths and we related together for a while. Eliza was in a MUCH better mood today, and has actually been going to bed much easier than usual so far this week, so YAY to that! Today also marks Eliza turning 8 months old. Come on, can you even believe it?! 8 months. Wow.  She is 19lbs and 28” long. She appears to have lost a pound this month…hopefully just from being sick a few weeks ago and nothing concerning. She’s had a few new foods and started snacking on little baby treats. In addition to sitting up and learning more coordination every day, she’s starting to support herself standing. She twirls and whirls, spins and scoots all over the place now. She’s starting to wave and loves to jump in her exersaucer. She loves to dance and hates to be alone. While we’re still squeezing her into her 6-9 month clothes, we’ll have to start transitioning her soon - all of her pants have turned into leggings and all of her shirts are just a tad short. Our baby, growing WAY too fast!

8 Months!

Floor Time with Daddy!

Thursday…still, horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE traffic!!! God, I hate it. It snowed again overnight, so, again, it was a two hour commute for me vs. my 25-30 minute usual commute). And, to follow that up, I left an hour early to ensure I’d get to daycare on time to pick the girls up. 3 hours of vacation….to sit in the car. Winter joy. Needless to say, the rest of the day was pretty much a wash…we picked up fast food for dinner and had a lazy evening. So glad it was my Friday!

Watching Videos Together, I love when they get along!

As mentioned, this week is my Friday off, YES!!! Christian brought Amelia to daycare today, while I took Olivia in for an early morning 6-year check-up (with baby in tote). Now, this girl was 90% in weight and height for at least the first 2 years. She was tall and chubby and delicious. She’s been slimming out gradually ever since, and the trend continued this year. Today she was 42lbs (33%) and 45” tall (26%). She is a skinny Minnie and doesn’t appear to be growing too fast. She had perfect sight and everything else checked out well. Her murmur was more prominent this visit than the last few years, but her doctor didn’t seem overly concerned about it. They’ll just continue to monitor it as they have been. Like last year, I did check with them about her lack/slow growth and they don’t seem concerned about that either. My baby, growing up! After her appointment, I dropped her off at daycare and Eliza and I spent the day at home. She napped, I had some breakfast and we spent the day hanging out. She wasn’t as crabby today as she has been, but still very clingy. I was pretty excited though…a week or so ago HuffPost Parents posted asking for parents to show off pictures of their littles in their first snow. So I shared one of my favorite pictures EVER of Eliza. Well, today they posted a pieced about baby’s first snows and her photo was included in it!!! She’s totally famous. It’s so dumb, but I was excited. HERE is the link. Other than that excitement, the rest of the afternoon/evening was pretty low key. I picked the big girls up, Christian worked his usual Friday overtime, and we just ate, watched some TV together and had a quiet night.

Off to sissy's appointment!

6 Years!!

Haha, trying to crawl...

She loves her chair!

Saturday was a pretty great day. After a middle of the night wake-up call with Eliza (ugh!), she and I actually slept in a little bit. We all had some breakfast and watched some cartoons to start the day. Christian got ready and was off to his friend Lorenzo’s to help him work on his garage door…my handyman, always up to something. My mom picked up Olivia around noon and took her to the mall as a late birthday celebration...her party last weekend was a “friends only” party, and she chose not to join us on her actual birthday for pizza and presents with the grandparents, so she had her own day with her today. They had lunch and she took her to a couple stores to pick out some gifts. She ended up getting a cute Frozen/Elsa necklace and a stuffed “Svan” from the Disney store. What a spoiled girl! Meanwhile, Amelia and I watched some movies, had some lunch and hung out together with baby. My mom came back to pick her up around 4:00 and they spent the night at her place. Eliza and I ran to Walmart for some movie snacks, and Christian picked up some gooooooooood tortas from a Mexican Deli by Lorenzos’ on his way home. YUM! We watched a couple movies before calling it a night tonight….“Chef” and “Argo” – both were really good.

Well, of course with the big girls away, my big chance at sleeping in, Eliza had a VERY rough night. She did not sleep well at all, I swear we were up just about the entire night. Haven’t had a night like that for quite a while. I was beyond tired the rest of the day. I started laundry as soon as I got up for the day, and headed off for an early trip to Target as soon as I got Eliza down for her morning nap. Once home, I hit the chores hardcore before the girls got home…of course, while watching some football. I quick cleaned up the kitchen, washed dishes, ate some lunch, made the beds and picked up around the house. Busy Busy! They arrived home around 3:00 and besides finishing up laundry, we had a pretty quiet afternoon/evening. I was up late watching the Golden Globes and folding laundry, so I’ll be regretting that tomorrow!

Until Next Week! XOXO