2015 - Week 47

Monday kicked off another week, in kind of a rough way. We had a very long night. I don’t know what was going on, but between my mind going a mile a minute, thinking about a million things, and the girls all having a rough night, there was little sleep going on. I drug myself out of bed to shower and get ready, beyond exhausted, and we got our day started. Olivia seems to be healing really well from her eye issues. Her eye is still kind of droopy, so I’m not exactly sure what’s going on there. I hope she didn’t cut a nerve or something horrible when she got her injury, but it seems weird that it’s still so out of whack. Christian was off to work, I dropped the big girls off at daycare, and then I took Eliza in for her 18 month check-up. She’s still soooooo crabby, just plain miserable, especially in the morning. And, we noticed that she’s been chewing through all of her pacifiers suddenly. I don’t know if it’s because she really doesn’t need them anymore, or if her teeth are bothering her. Maybe a combo, but now I’m terrified she’s going to choke on them. Ugh! She fell asleep on the way to the clinic, and ended up spilling her sippy cup of water all over herself. Of course, I had no extra clothes with me, so she was soaking wet the entire appointment. A+ parenting right there! The doctor was running late, as usual, but the check-up went well. She’s 92% for weight, 83% for height, so pretty much online with where she has been all along. She’s healthy, and perfect as can be developmentally. He was able to verify that she doesn’t have any pink eye going on, just a standard head cold, so that’s a relief. She got her flu shot and another vaccination, which she was NOT happy about, but now she’s done with shots until she’s 4, so that’s pretty awesome! Finally, I dropped her off at my in-laws for the day, and I was off to work. The day went by pretty fast, being late and so busy, it just flew by. I stopped at Walmart after work for a few groceries, picked the big girls up, and got some more laundry going. I never seem to finish it in one day anymore…too many clothes!!! I started dinner, and we ate as soon as Christian and Eliza arrived home. We did receive another e-mail today, from Amelia’s teacher, about ANOTHER incident. Today, she hit another kid in class. Apparently a little boy took her hand sanitizer, wouldn’t give it back and then threw it across the room…so, she got mad and hit him. So, we had to have a little chat about that tonight. I was sure to point out to the teacher “why did he have her property to begin with”, but it obviously doesn’t excuse her actions. Just another day of joy!! We’re getting some crazy rain right now, and of course, our sump pump clogged, so Christian and to go out in the rain and fix that. Always something to work on, that’s for sure. We finally got the girls to bed and relaxed for a little while before passing out. Eliza only woke up once tonight, so fingers crossed that she’ll finally be sleeping better soon!

Waiting for the doctor.

On Tuesday, Christian was off to work early. He’s starting to shift his hours up a little bit, to start transitioning to his overnight hours a little bit over the next couple of weeks. As soon as he left, I got up, got ready, got the girls up and ready, and we were on our way. Eliza was very clingy and upset this morning, poor thing. I’m guessing a shots and teething combo, and it’s NO FUN! Traffic was pretty bad today, a lot of standing water along the highway, and no end to the rain in sight either. So weird, mid-November and these crazy rain storms – definitely not normal. I picked the girls up after work, and we settled in at home. Eliza was still SUPER crabby and wouldn’t let me do ANYTHING. She’s drooling like crazy too – they’ve been keeping her in a bib at daycare, so while I’ve said it a million times, she has GOT to be teething. Poor thing. I whipped up dinner quick when Christian arrived home, we ate, watched some TV, did our reading, the usual. Amelia brought home her first “Book Bag” today, and she did SO WELL reading her book. It brought me back to last year and how exciting it was to see Olivia really reading for the first time, and just starting to learn. Now we get to do it all over again. I seriously think watching your kids learn and start to figure all of those things out (reading, math, sounding words out, spelling, etc.) is one of the greatest gifts of being a parent. It’s so amazing. Overall, the girls were so goofy and loud and crazy, full of energy and having fun, I think they’re definitely feeling better and we might actually be on the road to recovery in our house!

On Wednesday I woke up after a full, quiet, peaceful night of sleep. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!! I swear, I didn’t think it would ever happen again. And, we were actually able to sleep in a little bit today, which is even better. I got up and ready, got the girls up and ready, and we were on our way. I dropped Amelia and Eliza off at daycare, and Olivia and I were off to her eye appointment. While things were healing well, the Urgent Care doctor still wanted her to be seem by an ophthalmologist just to be safe. We ended up with kind of a mixed bag of results from the doctor. Her actual vision is great, perfect, and there are no scratches or lingering issues from her injury or Iritis. So that’s GREAT! But, she felt like the swelling on her lid (likely causing the droopy look) is still pretty significant for how much time has passed, and the muscle reaction time of her eyes was a little off, so she’s concerned about a possible lazy eye. Of course, if that’s the case, she’d need glasses to correct it. We didn’t have time for them to dilate her eyes today, so the doctor asked us to come back in a couple of weeks to re-check the swelling, and do a full eye exam, dilation and everything. Now, pins and needs for a few more weeks. I just can’t wait to get the all clear on all of this eye stuff, or at least a plan of action if that’s not the case. After her appointment, I dropped her off to school for the day, and was finally off to work. Another pretty quick day going in late. After work, I picked the girls up, started dinner while the big girls watched a movie and Eliza cried and pulled at my pant leg the entire time I tried to cook. This kid…I know part of it is that she’s not feeling so great, but she also needs CONSTANT attention and entertainment. I wish we could figure out how to get her to entertain herself…play with her toys, do her own thing. I don’t remember the other two being like that, so clingy and disinterested in all of their stuff. It’s so weird. We finally ate dinner, got into our jammies and settled in for the night. Except for Christian…we discovered that between the chewed through pacifiers we threw away and the one (or two maybe) that were forgotten at daycare, we were out of pacifiers. AND, our main bathroom toilet isn’t flushing well, so Christian was off to get supplies to fix it, and a new set of pacifiers. Those damn pacifiers, they’re going to be the death of me! As soon as he arrived home, the girls were off to bed, he fixed the toilet and we passed out as well. It seems like it’s been a hectic week!

Ready for her 1st real eye doctor appointment!

I caught them taking selfies tonight. Oh boy!

On Thursday, we woke up after another rough night with Eliza. I SERIOUSLY wish I knew what was going on. She just seems way too old to have this hard of a time sleeping, I don’t get it. Teething, maybe still from her shots, a cold…I think it’s just this terrible storm of everything possible hitting her. It’s so hard to watch her so miserable and having such a hard time, and I am BEYOND exhausted! This time, Christian eventually took her out on the couch until she was passed out again. Sometimes he just has to take one for the team; overall he gets off pretty lucky. What seemed like much too early, we were up, getting ready, and out the door. I dropped the girls off at daycare and then I swear that I saw snowflakes as I pulled into work. SO NOT READY FOR THIS!!! I had a really busy day at work today, and we had an office meeting that took up ½ of it, so it was another quick day. I stopped at Target after work to pick up a few things for the house and some donation items for school, picked the girls up from daycare, and we settled in at home. We got homework done, had dinner, and a pretty quiet night. Eliza, of course, still super clingy and just not herself. I sure hope she shakes whatever is going on REALLY soon.

Sometimes we just have to put baby in the fridge, and let her figure out what she wants on her own. Drama!

On Friday, we were up and going. It did snow a little yesterday, so the girls needed their snow stuff for school…I packed all of that up, backed up their backpacks, my purse, Eliza’s diaper bag, and laded everything, and everyone, into the van. It seemed like I was packing up the entire house, goodness. It was a quiet day at work today, so I was able to get a ton done. Sometimes you just need those quiet days to buckle down and focus on your work. After work, I picked Eliza up, and stopped to pick up a “garage sale site” sale…a rollercoaster for Eliza, for Christmas. I CANNOT wait to see her ride this thing, it’s going to be so awesome! We picked the big girls up from daycare, stopped home to change and have a quick dinner, and we were off to gymnastics. Christian had to work really late tonight, she he wasn’t able to go. Luckily Eliza was really well behaved tonight, otherwise I think I would pull my hair out with how chaotic gymnastics is. The girls are doing really well, and I think they’re really going to pick up some skills fast. They are LOVING gymnastics, and I think it’s going to be really great for them. Christian picked up some dinner for us on his way home, and met us right about the same time we got home. The girls were off to bed a short time later, Christian passed out, and I spent a little time with Hulu before passing out myself. Finally the weekend!!!

The girls got some ribbons in the coloring contest at my work! Amelia, Honorable Mention for her age, and Olivia 1st Place for hers! Woot!! What a fun little keepsake for their baby books.

The twins had an ice cream party before bed tonight.

On Saturday, Christian was off to work, so the girls and I hung out around the house. We watched some movies, played some games and had a pretty good day just hanging out. No major incidents, no battles to the death, even Eliza was in a pretty good mood. Hallelujah, a happy day!! I worked on some dishes and did a little picking up around the house, and right after Christian arrived home from work, my in-laws stopped over with some food to grill. We chatted, ate, hung out for a while. Just a pretty low-key get-together. After they left, Christian was on dad duty, while I started Phase 1 of the basement cleanup…which is getting everything from upstairs, that belongs downstairs, downstairs, and then moving everything around back into it’s appropriate area/room (toy room, spare room, living room). While I worked on that, Christian got the girls to bed, and he left to go watch the fight with some friends. I was pretty exhausted by the time I finished moving stuff around, and my back was killing me, so I decided to work on Phase 2 another day. I settled in to watch some shows for a while, and I started on our “2015 Photobook”. I’m getting a late start on it this year, but hopefully I’ll have it done in time to take advantage of some “Cyber Monday” deals!

Leftover Thai today, and apparently baby is a fan.

On Sunday, we had a pretty early morning. The girls were not interested in sleeping in today, so chore day was off to an early start. I got laundry going, did some cleaning up around the house, worked on some dishes. The usual. Christian made a late breakfast, Eliza went down for an early nap, and one by one we all got ready. Today we had a PACKED day. First up, we were off to take our Holiday photo. We usually just visit Santa at the mall, and we usually just take a photo in front of the Christmas tree for our Christmas Cards. A girls I went to school with is a photographer, and every year she does this special Santa shoot…it’s pretty reasonable, and we decided to take advantage of that this year. Well, then it turned into chaos…I’d never been to her studio before, so I went by the address on her e-mail “signature”, which is a good 40 minutes from our house. Well, of course, we got there and it was “abandoned”. I did some internet searching and found out she had moved studios…and there was no way we’d made it there in time (another 20 minute drive). Luckily I got ahold of her, and she said she’d get us in as soon as we got there. So, we booked it there, finally found it, and we were in. Olivia and Amelia of course were ALL OVER it, so excited to see Santa and photo ready. Eliza didn’t cry or throw a fit or anything, but she was totally stone-faced the entire time we were there. She’d look back at Santa, then at the camera, then back. Over and over again. It was actually pretty funny. There was NO getting a smile out of her though. After the photo, we raced home so that I could drop Eliza and Christian off, pack a bag, get the big girls changed, and then race to a birthday party, that we were already late for. It was a swimming party, so they got right to it as soon as we arrived. Luckily they still had plenty of time to swim and play. Chaos!!!! Finally, after the party, we were off to their last swim class of the year. Both of the girls did really well. Olivia will stay in the same class, but I think she will for a while now that she’s in the intermediate classes. Amelia officially passed her Aqua Kids program, and she’ll be moving up to beginners with the big kids. She is SOOOOOO excited, it’s so cute. I’m so proud of how far they have come, they just love to swim, my little fish. We finally settled in back at home, and I was beyond exhausted. I wasn’t feeling very well, so I settled into bed with the iPad, watched The Walking Dead and passed right out. Christian got the girls ready for bed and tucked in for the night, but Eliza had another tough night. She cries and cries, not really an “in pain” cry, just miserable. She wouldn’t stay asleep for anything. I finally brought her into bed with me…after kicking me and punching me and rolling all over for a while, she FINALLY passed out and we got a couple hours of good sleep. I hate this bug that just won’t let go of her, my poor baby. Breaks my heart.

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 46

Week 46 was another hectic one. Filled to the brim with sickness. Oy!!!

On Monday, I dropped the big girls off at daycare and had to fill out Olivia’s medical form for her eye drops. Normally we just work around the school-day, but these new drops have to be put in every 4 hours so we can really see if they’re helping. After dropped them off, I stopped back at home…I had to wait for their school to open, so I could call and find out what I needed to do for her to get her drops there as well. Again, I had to fill out a form – so I stopped into school, and finally was on my way to work. Meanwhile, Christian had a morning meeting with some management, and officially accepted the night manager position. They met his salary requirement, and it sounds like he’ll be starting at 8:00PM, which works out well for our family (so he can be around for dinner, some of their summer sports, etc.). It’s kind of scary, and overwhelming – a big change for the family, but I know it’s what he needs to do to push his career further. He’s not too excited about it, but hopefully it will be an easy transition. We’re not sure when he’ll start, but they’re hoping to get somebody in to train in the next couple of weeks so that he can make the move. Ch-ch-ch-changes! I had a really busy day at work, and ended up leaving a tad early. Tonight, Olivia had to get her stitches taken out, and I wanted to make sure we got to the clinic at a reasonable time. I picked the big girls up, and off we went. Once we checked in and were taken back, it literally took 5 minutes for them to come in, get them out, and send us on our way. And, it already looks AMAZING!!! I seriously hope we can get this thing to heal up well. I think she will lose part of her eyebrow, but it shouldn’t be too terrible. And, again, she did great. Not even a flinch! Such a tough girl. Now, if we can just get her dang pink eye under control, we’ll be good to go! After the appointment, we stopped at Target to get some Vitamin E oil and a sunscreen lip balm at the suggestion of the doctor, to help lessen the scarring, and grabbed a few groceries. We settled in at home and started dinner, eating as soon as Christian and Eliza arrived home. We cleaned up, watched some TV and played with the girls. We started the evening off rough – lots of drama and fighting and acting up, but we turned it around and ended up having a really fun night – listening to some music, dancing around and enjoying some family time before bed.

Stitches out, my brave girl!

On Tuesday, Olivia’s eye was still not looking better. It was SUPER red, beyond bloodshot red, watering a TON, and she’s become really sensitive to light. In the mornings she hasn’t been able to open her eyes for a good 15-20 minutes at all because she says it hurts so bad. The school nurse ended up calling me this afternoon with some concerns, worried that maybe it’s not pink eye after all. I definitely agreed. It’s not getting better whatsoever, but it’s not crusty or goopy or anything like pink eye. So frustrating!! So, after picking the girls up from daycare, we were right off to Urgent Care to get her checked out. Taking all 3 girls to Urgent Care is pretty much a nightmare, but that place can get so backed up, I didn’t want to wait for Christian to get home. Of course, as expected, they drove me INSANE the entire time we were there. Eliza was whining and clingy, the other two were bugging each other, climbing on everything and not listening again. Trying to talk to the doctor was nearly impossible. Again, like conferences last week, I was so embarrassed by their behavior. UGH! After getting the details from me, and thinking through some options, the doctor left the room to do some thinking and a little research (in quiet!). When she returned, thankfully, the girls had gotten themselves under control and we had an actual conversation. She said it was for sure not pink eye, she didn’t see any scratches or anything on her eye, and didn’t think it was an infection…it wasn’t swelling or showing any signs of infection. She ended up diagnosing her with “Uveitis”, or “Iritis”, apparently a pretty uncommon condition, especially in children. OF COURSE, Olivia is the person who gets all of the weird, unusual, rare conditions. She got new drops, AGAIN, and was put in the queue for an emergency ophthalmology appointment if it’s not significantly better in 24 hours. Stress, stress, stress, stress! All I could do was hope this was FINALLY it, and she would finally be on the mend. We started her drops right away, and finally settled in at home for dinner and some relaxation. I had Olivia sleep with me, so that I could get her up during the night and give her the drops…we wanted to keep her on a strict schedule for the first couple of days, and then she’ll be able to do every 6 waking hours after that.

On Wednesday, Olivia woke up already looking MUCH better. HALLELUJAH, I think we finally have it figured out!! It was still a little red, swollen and sensitive, some of which is probably still gash related, but it was NOTHING like the last few days. She even said she felt much better…in fact, she said that we should always see that doctor because that doctor know what she was doing. LOL, poor thing, she’s been through so much. Today was Veteran’s Day, which is a paid Holiday for my work, so after dropping the girls off at daycare, I had the house all to myself, all day long. SOOOO needed! I ate, watched some shows, played on my phone and just enjoyed some personal time. Eventually, I started working on my list of things to do. I cleaned up the living room, did a little rearranging, went through/organized the bathroom, got most of the kitchen cleaned up, and packed up the Halloween decorations, finally! AND, I photographed all of the girls’ art projects that I’ve saved to date. A friend suggested that I photograph their art, and keep those (maybe eventually make a little memory book) rather than saving all of the actual papers and projects. I was ALL over that idea, and finally started the process today. We’ll be spending the next couple of weeks getting the house ready for Thanksgiving. We still have to do the REAL cleaning, and get the basement picked up, but today was a start. Then, everything started to hit the fan….again. I picked the girls up from daycare just before closing time. We got all the way home, when Olivia realized she had forgotten her backpack at school. Of course, her eye drops are in her backpack, so we had to speed back there before they locked up, thankfully making it just in time. She ran in, grabbed it, and we made our way back home. Just ask we pulled into the garage, I heard a strange noise….then some shock out of Olivia…following with her exclaiming that Eliza had thrown up, and that she was STILL throwing up. I ran around to her side of the van, and sure enough, she and her chair were covered in throw up. I cried. I literally, literally stood there outside of the van, and cried. I mean, how much more can we (really, I) deal with?! I was so exhausted and overwhelmed and it was just one hit after another. I finally got her out of the chair, wiped her down, and started cleaning out her chair. We were still cleaning up as Christian arrived home. While I finished, he took her in for a quick bath. I started dinner, finished doing laundry, and she threw up again a little later, while sitting on the couch. She still wanted to eat, so still being hungry, I was hoping it was just a freak incident. Maybe carsick from running around back and forth to daycare, who knows. We ate, cleaned up, and the big girls got their bath. Eliza was in the bathroom with them, and ended up throwing up all over the bathroom floor. Back in the bath she went, and Christian cleaned it up while I finished getting them washed up and ready for bed. Olivia slept with me again, to continue her drops, and thankfully Eliza ended up sleeping all night long, no issues or concerns, no more throwing up. She never had a fever or any other signs of illness, so fingers crossed it was nothing.

I took the photo on the left this morning, to show how crazy fast her gash is healing. Isn't that amazing?! But, you can also see how swollen her eye is, how she can barely open it. It was so sensitive to even the littlest bit of light. So glad I took her back in.

On Thursday, we were up and at em. Everybody seemed fine…Eliza was in good spirits, Olivia was looking great, I felt like we were hitting a new stride. The girls were off to daycare, we were off to work, and the day progressed. Until around 10:00, when daycare called because Eliza had thrown up.  Clearly, not a fluke at this point. I packed up some work, embarrassingly told my boss that I had to leave…again, and picked Eliza up. She seemed to be in a pretty good mood. We settled in at home, played for a little while, hung out, and she eventually fell asleep on my lap. I put her down for a nap, and did some work while she slept. And man did she sleep….I ended up having to wake her up to pick the big girls up from daycare in the evening. After working for a while, I did some dishes, cleaned up around the house, picked the girls up, and met Christian back at home. We had dinner and a pretty relaxing night. No more throwing up from Eliza, or anybody else for that matter, she slept well, and all seems to be going well. Bit, I said that last night too, so who knows!

Friday was my Friday off, THANK THE LORD!!!! Christian was off to work, the big girls were off to school, and it was just Eliza and me for the day. We stopped at Walmart for a few things, and then just hung out around the house for a while. I did some more cleaning, slowly getting the house ready for Thanksgiving, but mostly just relaxed. Eliza was a little crabby, but no more incidents and not too horrible. We picked the big girls up, grabbed some dinner, and got ready for the big girls’ first night of gymnastics. That place was SUCH a madhouse, I couldn’t believe it. They were separated by ages, and went through all of the different stations (trampoline, bars, balance beam, vault, floor). Thankfully Christian was able to meet us there and help me keep Eliza under control. The girls absolutely LOVED it, I think gymnastics will definitely stick. They both actually did really well too…if I don’t say so myself, I think they were the best in their age groups, especially for their first time. The uneven bars were both of their favorites (though, they just do the bottom bar, obviously). After class, we made our way back home for the night. The girls had a snack and watched a little TV before settling into bed…we weren’t far behind. Eliza had a rough night, would not stay asleep for anything, so we were pretty darn exhausted.

A little sister tablet time. They're so cute!

I had to document this. Last year, every book Olivia brought home from the library was about animals. ALWAYS. Now, she's bringing home Zac Efron books. I mean, I don't blame her, but that's hilarious.

First night of gymnastics!

On Saturday, Christian was off to work, and I was up early with the girls. We watched some movies, hung out, and I was not feeling well at all. I just felt SOOOO sick to my stomach…it was turning, and I was having pain and could not eat or drink anything. I fed the girls, and other than that barely left the couch. It was obvious, whatever Eliza had, was hitting me now. Eliza was super crabby and clingy, and the big girls were fighting non-stop. I was SERIOUSLY losing my mind. Amelia started saying that her tummy hurt, but I was sure she was just faking and trying to get out of eating. My mom ended up picking the big girls up for an overnight…she was supposed to take them last weekend, but with Olivia’s injury and the pink eye she didn’t want to risk catching anything. She picked them up, I got Eliza down for a nap, and I settled into bed myself for some rest. Not too long after, my mom ended up calling me from the mall, and sure enough, Amelia had thrown up. UUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH! No faking, she was indeed sick. So, she brought her back home. She threw up a couple more times, luckily my mom was there to help deal with it, and finally settled into bed with me for some rest. My mom made her way back to the mall with Olivia, but we weren’t able to sleep too well, because Eliza kept waking up from her nap, screaming and crying, and then falling back asleep. Christian FINALLY got home from work, and took her outside with him and his friend, Lorenzo, to finish up the last of the yardwork. He was in the midst of doing the last mow for the season, when the belt on the riding mower snapped. What next?!? So, he borrowed our neighbors mower to finish, and took care of Eliza. Amelia woke up after a nice long nap, feeling quite a bit better. Definitely not 100%, still couldn’t eat or do too much, but no more throwing up. We watched some movies and relaxed on the couch…Christian and I had dinner…well, I forced a little bit down, and we had a quiet night. Amelia slept with me tonight, still not feeling too hot, and Eliza had another rough night. Our house is just a disaster!

A little morning nail-painting. So many nails to paint in this house...

Sick cuddles for both of us.

Eliza was happy to see Amelia, she doesn't like when her sisters are away.

On Sunday, our bad luck continued. I was feeling quite a bit better…still some stomach turning, but no more pain or anything. Amelia was WAY better, even ate a little bit. Eliza was still super crabby and needy, and I have no idea what is going on with her. Her eyes were a little crusty when she woke up, so I REALLY hope she’s not getting pink eye now. We had breakfast, watched some movies, and I ran to the store for a few things. While there, my mom called me…sure enough, Olivia was up most of the night, and she’d been throwing up all morning. IT’S NEVERENDING!!!! This sickness is NEVER going to end. So, not feeling 100% myself, I rushed off to pick her up. She threw again after I got to my mom’s…so left quick when she finished, hoping to get home before it hit again. She never did throw up again, though she felt like she was going to a couple of times, but she spent the day laying on the couch, getting pains and cramping all day long. My poor baby – I think she got the worst of it. I had her lay on a heating pad, which seemed to help, and gave her some medicine. She ended up taking a pretty decent nap, but would wake up just writing in pain. I did as much laundry as I could between issues, and Christian’s dad stopped over to help him fix the mower. With that done, he finished swapping out the yard shed cleaned up the garage (yay, we can finally park in there again!) and we were officially winter ready (yard wise). After some dinner, I was off with Amelia to swim class. Olivia had to miss again, poor thing! Amelia did really well, and we were out nice and early again and back home. I finished working on laundry, and folded clothes while I watched The Walking Dead and some Hulu again. Olivia slept with me tonight, and kept “whining” and crying out randomly. When I would ask her what was wrong, she would say nothing, and act almost as if she didn’t know she was doing it. She later woke up, in the middle of the night, acting like it was time to party. She was noticeably feeling much better, and probably sick of laying down, but I did finally get her back to sleep. Eliza had a SUPER rough night, up literally almost all night long, and finally slept for a little while with Christian out on the couch. I seriously don’t know what is going on with that girl. I feel like I’ve been blaming her misery on teething for so long, but I have no idea if that’s actually it or not. She never has a fever, there’s never anything actually wrong with her, so it’s just a mystery. I don’t want to age her, but I can’t wait until she’s old enough to start telling us what is wrong with her. Right now, I’m just DYING for a good nights sleep!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 45

Here we are, Week 45. Full throttle into November, which is still so unbelievable to me. This week turned out to be quite an insane week…

On Monday, it was back to work, back to school, the usual. However, I woke up in a TON of pain this morning. My shoulder and neck were just killing me. I’m guessing I must have slept wrong, but it would not let up at all. It was a really hard day, but I had to tough it out at work. I did take some Tylenol, but it only helps so much. OUCH!!! There are a few people off at Christian’s work, so he had to work a weird shift today to cover the difference. He was supposed to work from 10:00AM-8:00PM, but didn’t end up getting home until after 10:00! Because he was working so late, I had to pick Eliza up after work, from my in-laws, before picking the big girls up from daycare. We ended up grabbing some drive-thru for dinner because I was still in a lot of pain. We settled in at home for a girls nice…dinner, some TV, a little play time. Eliza started getting super crabby and oversensitive, so I ended up putting her to bed early. She was NOT happy about it, but finally passed out. The big girls were off to bed shortly later, and I cuddled into bed with the iPad and a heating pad myself. Early night for all us girls, much needed!

On Tuesday I was a little stiff still, but feeling MUCH better than yesterday. Christian was back on his normal schedule, so we were all off and running early in the morning. Work was going along pretty well, until shortly after lunch when I got an e-mail from Amelia’s teacher, filling me in on the “rough” day Amelia was having. She said that pretty much from the start of the day, Amelia was having a hard time. That she pushes the limits often, but is usually able to turn it around – until today. She was moving the other kids’ lunch choices around, she was playing under the teachers desk, she was refusing to do her “job” in the classroom. She was playing with something on the teachers desk, being told repeatedly not to touch it, but wouldn’t stop. She was told to stay in her spot at the table and work on her listening ears, refused and proceeded to crawl around the classroom. Apparently the teacher finally had to take her to the office so that she could think about what was happening. She wasn’t a fan of it, so we’re all hoping it was a bit of a wake-up call. I know that kids will be kids, and everybody has a hard day…but man, I was BEYOND embarrassed reading that e-mail. Not to mention so frustrated. Nothing in it really came as a huge surprise to me…Amelia is so stubborn and can be SO difficult. She just kind of lives in her own world, and wants to do her own thing, and does not take criticism or being told no well. She has the same teacher Olivia had last year, and I’ve warned her teacher multiple times that they are NOTHING alike. She definitely notices that after these last couple months of school. Olivia was terrified of getting in trouble, really respects authority and has a desire to excel at the things she does. Amelia….Amelia has no fear, and wants to do what she wants to do. She’s the kid where you tell her you’re going to take something away from her, “I don’t care, I don’t want it anyway”, you tell her that she can’t go somewhere if she doesn’t shape up, “I don’t care, I don’t want to go there anyway”. It seriously makes me want to pull my hair out. We had quite a conversation when I picked them up from daycare tonight. She was pretty embarrassed, and SEEMS to understand why she was in the wrong today. I told her that she needs to apologize to her teacher tomorrow, so we’ll see. Meanwhile, I was obvious that Olivia is now coming down with the pink eye Amelia is just getting rid of. I SERIOUSLY thought we were going to get out of this with little damage. She’ll definitely be staying home tomorrow, so I sure hope that we can get it under control quickly. The rest of the night was pretty quiet. Amelia was on restriction from electronics, so after dinner we listened to some music and danced around for a while. My brain needed sleep tonight for sure!

Poor Olivia, sad that she is officially pink eyed

On Wednesday I was home with Olivia for the day. I was hoping she’d go over to my in-laws’ like Amelia did last week, but no such luck. Christian dropped the other two off at daycare, while I settled in and did some work from home. I didn’t put in a full day, but anything is better than taking an entire day of PTO, that’s for sure! Olivia rested, played on the tablet, watched some movies. I started her on Amelia’s drops, figuring there was no use in taking her in for the same thing. I took a break from working…we had lunch and took advantage of the nice weather and played outside for a while. Then, I was back to working while she rested some more. I called it quits for the day a little early, packed up my work, and then got started on picking up all of the Halloween decorations so that I could pack it all up. We had conferences scheduled for both girls tonight, so I knew I wouldn’t get far. Some progress is better than nothing though! While I was cleaning up, Olivia was running around, jumping on the couch…just general messing around. I snapped at her and told her, like we tell them EVERY DAMN DAY to stop jumping on the couch before she gets hurt. Not even 30 seconds later, I was back to cleaning when I heard CRAAAAAASH. I turned around, and she had fallen off the couch and hit the coffee table. I thought she kicked it so I yelled at her and told her to sit down and knock it off. I was so furious…we’re always worried about them hurting themselves, obviously, but it’s also a glass table and I’m terrified that they’re going to break it/crash right through it one day. She started bawling and sat down on the couch, holding her head in her hands…I thought she was just scared because I had yelled at her, but she moved her hands and I caught a glimpse of blood pouring down her face. I knew immediately that this was BAD, picked her up and rushed into the bathroom with her. I got her a towel to hold on it…she had blood all over her shirt, her pants…her hands were coated in blood, it wouldn’t stop. I had her moved the towel for a second and it looked just terrible. I started panicking, no idea what the hell to do. I don’t know why, but I just drew a complete blank on where I should take her. I knew that Urgent Care wouldn’t do stitches or anything, but didn’t know if I really needed to take her to the ER. I called Christian….took like 10 times before he picked up and I was just hysterical. I finally pulled it together and remembered “The Urgency Room”, which is kind of like a middle ground between Urgenct Care and the ER. I told Christian to pick up the girls’ fundraiser stuff from school (which we were going to get at conferences) and pick the other two up from daycare, so he had to leave work right away. Meanwhile, I rushed Olivia into the van and off to The Urgency Room. They got us checked in and got to work right away. No question, definitely getting stitched up. They put some numbing cream on the wound, so that the numbing shots wouldn’t hurt so bad. While we waited for that to work, I e-mailed their teachers to let them know what was going on, and that we wouldn’t make it to conferences – luckily they both have openings tomorrow, so one less stress. And, while we waited, Olivia got to chomp on an icee popsicle. She was so calm and being so brave, I was quite impressed. Finally, it was time for the stiches. They started shooting it up with some numbing shots, which seemed to still hurt her quite a bit. That was REALLY hard to watch, probably the worst part really. She ended up with 1 stich inside because it was so deep, and 7 on the outside. She took everything like such a trooper. They covered it up, and we finally made our way back home. Really, I shouldn’t even say finally, I think we were back home maybe 2 hours after the initial incident, so not bad at all. I was so stressed out and exhausted, it was quite the experience. While we were on our way home, Christian started dinner and we all settled in to eat. We gave all of the girls a bath, and they were off to bed a little early tonight. Stressed, exhausted and so relieved that things weren’t worse…what a night!

Pre-Incident. Happy, Carefree, Doing some Tree Climbing

And, there it is folks. Still makes me cringe...

On Thursday, I was back to work, and all of the girls were back to daycare. There’s no school today or tomorrow, shocker, so the big girls are at daycare all day. Poor Olivia was SO nervous to go to school – she was sure everybody was going to make fun of her. I told her NO WAY!!!! Stiches are so cool, everybody is going to feel bad for you and ask you what happened and think you are so awesome. I think that cheered her up a big. We took her bandage off, at which time Amelia compared her to “Frankie”, the Frankenstein character from Monster High. I’m not sure if that helped, or made things worse, but Olivia seemed in good spirits when I dropped them off. I played a lot of catch-up at work today, routing stuff from being gone yesterday, printing off my work from home, catching up on e-mails and all of that. Meanwhile, Christian’s work has still been vetting him about taking an overnight management position, and the talks have been getting more and more serious as time goes on. He had a meeting today, where they officially offered him his salary, talked about bonus potentials and salary increases, hours, all of the details. We definitely have some thinking to do…there are so many pros and cons on each side; it’s such a hard decision. After work, I stopped home to get Chuy out, picked the girls up from daycare, and we were off to school for the big girls’ conferences. Since Christian left early yesterday, he wasn’t able to get off in time to come with tonight, so it was just the girls and I…and Eliza was out of control the entire night. We had Olivia’s conference first…her teacher said she’s doing really well and that she’s above grade-level on all of her skills at this time. She did say that she has a little trouble sitting still during group time on the carpet and stuff like that, otherwise she’s well-behaved, involved and eager to learn. Next up, we were off to Amelia’s conference. Amelia is still trying to grasp most of the Kindergarten concepts…she recognizes most of the letters and numbers quickly now, but needs to work on the sounds of letters. She’s stubborn (as previously discussed), doesn’t take criticism well, doesn’t do well in a group setting (she likes to do things on her own) and she has a really hard time sitting still. BUT, she insisted that Amelia really WANTS to learn, and she’s really eager to get better at everything, which is encouraging. We talked a little bit about the incident the other night, and her teacher doesn’t want to jump to any kind of behavioral tracking or anything like that. We’re just going to see how things go and keep working with her. She’s one of, if not the, youngest child in her class, so I think that has a lot to do with her actions. Hopefully things keep looking up from here. The girls did lose their tablet privileges for the night though, because they were acting up and such a handful at conferences. I was, again, so embarrassed and overwhelmed. Ugh!!! Christian arrived home just before us, and started dinner. I did the dishes, the girls played and got into their pajamas. We ate diner, played together for a while and the girls were off to bed. I tried to settle in and zone out with some TV for a while, but ended up passing out on the couch. SOOOOO worn out!

Our Little "Frankie". She's still adorbs!

Friday, Friday, Friday. FINALLY Friday!!! I swear, this week was one for the books, and it felt like the week would NEVER end. The big girls were off to daycare, Eliza off to my mom’s, Christian and I to work. It was a really quiet day for me at work, so I got a TON of stuff done. Eliza was napping when I got to my mom’s to pick her up, so I hung out and chatted with my mom for a while. My in-laws asked to take the big girls overnight, so they ended up picking them up from daycare, and taking them home for the night. A quiet night was seriously just what the doctor ordered for this mama. I get really nervous about the kids being away when they’re sick in anyway, but Olivia’s gash is healing really well…her pink eye doesn’t seem to be getting better though. I knew they could handle that though. Eliza and I hung out for a while, enjoying the low key night, and I got her fed and into her jammies. Christian brought home dinner for us, so we ate and watched a little TV together. We all ended up going to bed fairly early…instead of partying it up when we’re down a couple of kids, we like to take advantage of the peace and quiet, and get some extra sleep!!!!

On Saturday, Christian was off to work early. Eliza was up shortly after he left, so no sleeping in for us! We spent the morning playing and hanging out around the house, and she was actually in a pretty good mood all day. With all of her crabbiness lately, that was a welcomed surprise. I took her monthly photo before she went down for a nap – she’s turning into SUCH a ham!!! I just love it. While she slept, I did a little picking up, did some dishes and got in a little down time before the rest of the house arrived home. My in-laws took the girls to breakfast and out to the mall to play for a while – they both came home with treats and a few goodies from the mall – SPOILED!! Eliza woke up shortly after they arrived home, and Christian and his friend Lorenzo were home from work. They worked on cleaning out the gardens for a while, while the girls rode their scooters and bikes, and hit some baseballs. I wish this weather would stay forever!!! Olivia and I were off to target to buy a baby shower gift for tomorrow, and a few things for the house, and settled in at home to relax. The girls were off to bed shortly later, so Christian and I had a little movie night, watching “Paul Blart 2” before bed. Party!!!

Also on Saturday, Eliza turned 18 months. Here's to another half birthday!! She's roughly 28.8lbs, and 31.5" Tall. I feel like she's really, truly a toddler now, and man does that break my heart a little bit. She's funny, brave, spunky and so dang smart. She is growing way too fast, and learning new things every day. She walks, runs, climbs, jumps and does everything she can to keep up with her sisters. Her favorite words are "Thank You", "Mommy" and "No". She loves her sisters, dancing, animals and playing outside. She is wearing 24 Month and 2T clothes, and it seems like she grows out of things week by week. She's a picky eater, throws the BIGGEST tantrums I've ever seen, and she's already got a stubborn streak - but her chunky hugs are the best thing in the world. Love my baby girl to pieces!

Eliza, 18 Months

Our latest family portrait, via Olivia

Sunday was a pretty stressful day. The girls were up around 7:15, pretty much their usual time, and we got going on our day. The girls played and watched a little TV while I started cleaning up around the house and got laundry going. Christian made breakfast, while Olivia and I started on her “Holiday Homework” – WHYYYYY do I always leave it for last minute?! I showered, got ready, got the girls ready, and we were off to my cousin, Colleen’s, baby shower. There were WAAAAAAY too many people at the shower…I think it was the only one she was having, so it was both sides of her family, his family and her friends. I am just not a fan of showers like that…you can’t really talk to anybody, there wasn’t really anywhere for us to sit where we (or at least I) could actually be involved in the festivities and it was SO loud. Just too much. The big girls didn’t want to eat, so while they played Eliza and I ate some food. Our other cousin has a newborn baby, so while she was off walking him and feeding him, I was able to grab her seat to catch up with my aunts for a little while, and play the dice game. While we were gone, Christian and Lorenzo finished the gardens, did some cleaning in the garage and hung the Christmas lights on the house. Time to buckle down and really get ready for winter! Eliza fell asleep on the way home and took a loooooooooong nap. Whew! Amelia watched some videos and helped the boys for a while, and I took Olivia off to the minute clinic. Her eye was just not getting better at all, and now she’s super sensitive to the light. It’s just not going away. The doctor prescribed her some more aggressive drops…and, we snuck in a flu shot while we were there. We dropped the prescription off and did a little shopping…not long after, the pharmacy called to tell me they didn’t have the medication in stock, so we’d have to go to the other Target…where they only had ½ of it right now. Oy! So, we stopped into the other Target quick, grabbed the prescription and made our way home. We have a coloring contest going on at work right now, so while I made dinner, I had the big girls color their pictures. Eliza woke up, we all ate, and then I was off with the big girls to swim class. With her injury, Olivia couldn’t swim this week, so she and I just watched Amelia. She was pretty bummed, but it was nice to get out of class a little earlier than usual. FINALLY, we were settled in at home for the night…we finished up Olivia’s homework, the girls were off to bed, I finished picking up around the house, packing Eliza’s up for my in-laws’ house tomorrow, packed up backpacks and wrote out Olivia’s medical note so that she can get her drops at school all day this week. Oh man, I was so exhausted….but, not quite done yet! I settled into bed with an overflowing basket of laundry to fold, and “The Walking Dead”. I had to watch the late showing because it took too long to “settle in” for the night, so it ended up being a super late night. Tomorrow is going to be a rough day!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2015 - Week 44

Week 44 – the week of Halloween chaos! But, lots and lots of fun.

Monday kicked off the work on a right foot, for a change. We were up, ready and off – I arrived to work on time. Yes, ON TIME!!! Seriously, one less kid to get ready sure makes the world of a difference (Eliza still goes to my in-laws’ on Mondays). I had a super busy day at work, and I started the process of completely redoing our office’s website. I’m not a computer/web developing guru or anything close to that, but I do the basics and keep our site up and running. It’s nice to have something new and different to do once in a while. After work, I stopped at Walmart to pick up a few groceries and some craft supplies to do the girls’ pumpkins. I picked the big girls up, and helped them pain their pumpkins…we’ll finish up the decorating tomorrow after they dry. Every year their school asks the kids to paint/decorate/craft-up some pumpkins, following some kind of literary theme, and bring them in to display. We decided to do The Pigeon and The Duckling, from the Pigeon series, and they should be pretty cute. We helped Eliza do her “Mr. Potato Head Pumpkin” while Christian made dinner, ate, did our reading and settled in for the night. We played some videos on the Apple TV and the girls had a little spontaneous dance party before bed – my most favorite way to end a day!

Tuesday was another busy day. I had quite a few meetings at work, so the day just flew by. Meanwhile, Christian left work a little early for his surgery follow-up appointment. They told him that he’s healing and looking really great, no issues at all, but that they did have some concerns about the scar tissue growing back. I did bring this up to the surgeon after the surgery…he had developed this mysterious mass of scar tissue, out of nowhere (a muscle tear is our best guess), so I asked now that he’s had surgery, and surgery incisions SCAR, what’s to stop it from happening again? I’m curious if that got him thinking, because they had never discussed this previously. His surgeon has apparently been discussing the issue with some researchers at the University of Minnesota to get their opinions, and he wants Christian to set up an appointment with them. This is so frustrating – I mean, he cannot go in and have this pretty serious surgery regularly…like, “oh it’s been 5 years, better go have surgery again”. We just need some answers, and I want this whole thing to be behind us! Vent over. While he finished up his appointment, I picked the girls up and we settled in at home. I helped the big girls finish up their super cute pumpkins, and they’re ready to bring them in tomorrow. Success! Christian brought home dinner….we ate, watched a little TV and actually turned into bed early. Party animals!

On Wednesday, Christian was off to work  pretty early, so it was just the girls and I. We got up, ready, packed up and headed out for the day. I had a pretty productive start, but then I was stuck in a long meeting for a few hours. I usually bring my phone to meetings…kind of rude, but with three kids to worry about, I just feel like I need to be constantly contactable. Well, today, I forgot it. So, of course, today was the day I needed it. I got back to my desk to several missed calls, from Christian and school, voicemails on my cell phone and work phone, texts…and I think even an e-mail. Good Lord! I quick called the school nurse, and it turned out Amelia was in her office. She had been complaining of a headache and had a slight fever…nothing too horrible, but when she was in the office, the nurse was checking her over and noticed that she appeared to have some pink eye symptoms. Redness, discharge, itchy. OY! So, I had to rush out and pick her up. Poor thing. We went straight off to the Target Minute Clinic, and she was able to get right in. Sure enough, pink eye it was. While we were there, she got her flu-mist, we dropped off her prescription and did a little shopping. I actually found their Christmas dresses while wandering around, so at least one bonus came out of the visit. We finally picked up her drops and settle din at home. She rested and watched some videos, I FINALLY ate a super late lunch and watched a little TV, and then got started on the giant pile of dishes taking over our kitchen and cleaning up. I guess another bonus, actually getting some stuff done around the house! I picked the other girls up around closing time, and FINALLY got Amelia’s school pictures – her teacher sent them home with Olivia. I saw the digital version a while back, and have been debating retakes for her ever since. I had all three girls’ outfits set to coordinate, so when they were hanging up they flowed well. Well, little Amelia forgot to take her sweater off for her pictures, so it doesn’t flow as well with the other two anymore. But, I decided to just hang onto them. I don’t want her to think she did a bad job, and I don’t want to risk getting a terrible picture in place of it, so it’s official – the Fall 2015 school pictures are ready to hang up! We finally made our way home for the night, had dinner and had a quiet evening. Eliza and Amelia were off to bed early tonight – tired gals…so, Olivia helped Christian carve his pumpkin, while I had a lazy night on the couch, watching some TV. And it was a blissful, peaceful night.

On Thursday, Christian was off to work early again. My father-in-law offered to watch Amelia today, because she couldn’t go to school, so that I wouldn’t have to take the day off. So, the rest of us got ready, and I dropped the other two off at daycare. Olivia had a complete meltdown when I dropped her off. She was crabby and angry and when I tried to talk to her about what was wrong, she started bawling. We finally talked about it and she was really upset to be at daycare without Amelia (well, I think part of it was jealousy that she couldn’t go to grandpas). It kind of cracks me up. All they do is fight and pick on each other and drive each other crazy, but they have to spend one day apart, and it’s the end of the world. Sisters, I’ll never understand it. I had her settle in with her teacher to calm down, and was off to drop Amelia off at my in-laws’. She had drops, wipes and movies in hand, ready for a relaxing day. FINALLY, I arrived at work. It was a crazy day too. After a week of meetings, a sick kid, and tomorrow’s day off – I had a TON of stuff to do, and not much time to do it. The day went fast, but I don’t feel like I made much of a dent in my workload. Next week is going to be crazy! After work, I picked Amelia up, stopped home to get her into her costume, and we made our way to Daycare for their Harvest Party. I got Olivia and Eliza into their costumes, and fun ensued! Snacks, games, face painting and lots of laughs with their little friends. So fun! FINALLY, we met up with Christian for a quiet evening at home. Man this has been quite a week!

I committed to Amelia's school photo today, and they're all proudly displayed at work!

Friday…FINALLY Friday. The days this week have gone by so fast, but sometimes the stress can take its toll. My Friday off came at the perfect time for my sanity! Christian was off to work, I dropped the big girls off at daycare and it was just Eliza and I for the day. We had breakfast and some play time, watched some TV, and Eliza took a nice long nap after lunch. I did have to wake her up a little early, because she and I were off to school to watch the big girls in their Halloween parade and check out their class parties. I helped Olivia get into her costume before finding a spot outside to watch. Both of of the girls were so excited to see us, it warms my heart how happy they get. After the parade, I helped Amelia with a craft and hung out with her for a little while, before heading to Olivia's room and hanging out with her for a while. Eliza started to get pretty restless, so she and I finally made our way home. I started to feel pretty crappy shortly after we arrived home...my stomach was turning and I just felt run down. So I spent the rest of the afternoon resting and catching up on some shows. I picked the big girls up, met up with Christian back at home and we got the girls into their costumes, again. I wasn't feeling well, but I toughed it out and we made our way to a local church for a Harvest Festival they put on every year. They have lots of games, bounce houses, candy, food, AWESOME face painters and a ton of stuff to do. The girls had a blast, and Eliza had fun running all over. We had so much fun, but it was nice to get home and turn in for the night. One more day of Halloweening and we'll be done for the year. Whew!

On Saturday, Christian was off to work, so it was just the girls and I for the day. Amelia was acting up so bad ALL.DAY.LONG. She was talking back, not listening to a word I said and just being a straight up smartass about everything. I seriously got so fed up that I made her take a nap. UHG!!!!! Eliza went down for her nap shortly after, once Amelia stopped screaming and throwing a fit and finally fell asleep, so I finally got to enjoy some peace and quiet for a while. Olivia watched some videos on her tablet while I watched a little TV, showered and did some cleaning up around the house. Christian, along with his friend Lorenzo, arrived home from work right as the girls were getting up from their naps. We finished getting ready and got the girls into their costumes and ready to go. My in-laws and my mom each stopped over to see the girls and give them little Halloween gift bags, and the girls' BFF Bella, and her dad, came over to go Trick or Treating with us. We loaded up on hot apple cider, our parents left, and we were finally off to collect some candy. The weather was actually not too bad, so we were able to stay out for quite a while and hit up more than enough houses. We came home with three SUPER full pumpkins of candy, and three very tired girls. We were all pretty exhausted really and off to bed pretty early.

Sunday brought us the start of a new month...it's November. NOVEMBER! I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by. On top of that, today marked Daylight Saving...a parents worst nightmare really. The girls were up at 6:30AM and ready to party. Stupid daylight saving. But, it did give me some extra time throughout the day to do some cleaning and laundry. We watched some TV, had breakfast, the girls played in their room for a while, building a big fort between the bunk beds and the crib. Eliza went down for a nap, so the big girls moved their party downstairs to play (AKA tear the playroom apart) for a while. Christian mowed the lawn/mulched the leaves while the big girls and I baked some cupcakes and carved my pumpkin (OK, so one extra day of Halloweening than expected, and we were a little late, but it got done!). Christian ended up taking the big girls over to his parents' house for a while, to visit and have some dinner, so Eliza and I enjoyed a little peace and quiet. Finally, Eliza and I met up with Christian and the big girls at swim class. It was already dark and felt like bedtime - LAME! Amelia was acting up in class tonight - goofing around, leaving the platform when the teachers weren't watching, up to her old shenanigans basically. But, her mid-session progress report already has her at passing this level, so that's pretty exciting! She'll be moving up to beginners next session, with the older kids, and man was she excited! Maybe now I can hold that over her head and tell her that if she doesn't behave, she has to stay in the "baby" classes forever! Class ended, I helped the girls shower and get into their jammies, while Christian and Eliza left for home. We settled in for the night, and I folded a giant pile of laundry while watching The Walking Dead. Another Sunday down. Another weekend down. Another week down. Time just does not slow down, that's for sure.

Until Next Week! XOXO