Unless you live under a rock, you probably are aware of the "polar vortex" that has swept the central and eastern United Stated for the last several days. What this meant for Duluth was temperatures in the -20s and -30s, and windchills of -50s to -60s. Luckily, we are "warmer by the lake" so my little neighborhood was on the lower end of this, and lets not even talk about what other parts of northern Minnesota saw.
So many things just SHUT DOWN for this cold snap. The postal service did not run on Wednesday. School was shutdown Tues-Thurs, along with daycare. Non-emergency medical transportation cancelled. It had me... reminiscing. Yes. my main reaction to the cold snap was to think back to my childhood.
But, this blog is about today, not 1996.
Tuesday - I stayed home with the kids in the morning. We played a rousing game of hide and seek, and we played Ants (one of Ben's favorite "pretend" games that he has not shown interest in for several months, so it was a welcome surprise request). Felicity is really bad at hiding - she wants to be found. I guess its just part of the age. Ben is better at it. On Tuesday afternoon I went to work and the kids spend it with my parents. Ben played board games and Felicity did 100 piece floor puzzle with Grandma. (Amelia just hung out with grandpa as far as I can tell).
Wednesday - I had such big plans for this day! I was going to make blueberry muffins with Felicity! I was going to play games and do art projects and clean and make brownies! Instead - Amelia made it clear from EARLY in the morning (early enough to actually be overnight) that she had a bad ear infection in her right ear. I woke up in the morning exhausted, with a crick in my neck that made it hard to move (probably due to trying to placate two girls for half the night), a migraine, and lots of mucous. NOT FUN. If I had not been home for the cold, I would have been home sick! Luckily Aaron was also home for the cold (his work closed entirely). I took Amelia to the Dr Office, got her antibiotics, and then took a LONG HOT BATH with a pine bath bomb that significantly, though no where near completely, relieved all my symptoms. In the afternoon, the girls and Aaron napped while I played Hogwarts Battle with Ben (this was the most pleasant part of the day).
Thursday - The school was unexpectedly closed again, but Aaron stayed home. I trudged off to work and tried to stay warm! Aaron brought the kids to my work for lunch (we walk to Subway in the skywalk system).
And that is the story of the great 2019 cold snap. The temperature is back up to a balmy 2F and windchill of -12F. Friday feels like Monday and Friday at the same time - everyone is back where they should be, but ready for the weekend somehow.
Friday, February 1, 2019
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Holiday Highlights - 2018
Thanksgiving - For Thanksgiving we traveled to Des Mointes for a week, where we got to spend a lot of good time with Unkin Steve, aunt Sheila, Grandma and Grandpa (my in laws), my SIL, her husband and our adorable Nephew. I did a lot of puzzles with Sheila. Ben and Fliss are ALMOST old enough to just send downstairs to play.. but not quite. It was fun watching the kids unwrap early Christmas presents. We also got to go on a double date with SIL to see Bohemian Rhapsody.
Christmas - Since we had three days off as a family leading up to Christmas we decided to start things early and gradually opened gifts on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Then, Christmas morning (Tuesday) we opened Santa's gifts and went to my parents house for the whole day.
Ben got a lot of books board games, and a kit to design his own board games. He was super pumped about the game "through the ages" - a super long complex strategy game that is technically for ages 14+. As far as I can tell, Ben understands it better than DH due to watching you-tube videos about it .
Felicity got a real, working vacuum, peppa pig toys, puzzles, and board games. She was super excited about a triple bunk bed for her doll house and wants one in real life so that Amelia can share it with her and Ben. We enjoyed coloring Peppa Pig together on Christmas.
Amelia got some duplos, a mini golf set, and lots of little things. She was amazed by the christmas lights this year, and if the tree was turned off she would point at it until you turned it on and then crack a big grin. She also loved unwrapping gifts and if you were not fast enough in telling her which presents were hers, she would start unwrapping any she could get her hands on. Uncle Josh made her a super fancy rocking chair. She loved it. She also figured out how to climb up on Grandma's dining room chairs and was very proud of this fact.
On Christmas day we exchanged adult stockings and spent all day eating. We went on an "adventure" out walking in the woods where I was reminded I am raising city kids. When we got back from that all three kids passed out and I had a chance to do some Christmas puzzling.
It was a fun day and fun Christmas, but oh so tiring!!
Christmas - Since we had three days off as a family leading up to Christmas we decided to start things early and gradually opened gifts on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Then, Christmas morning (Tuesday) we opened Santa's gifts and went to my parents house for the whole day.
Ben got a lot of books board games, and a kit to design his own board games. He was super pumped about the game "through the ages" - a super long complex strategy game that is technically for ages 14+. As far as I can tell, Ben understands it better than DH due to watching you-tube videos about it .
Felicity got a real, working vacuum, peppa pig toys, puzzles, and board games. She was super excited about a triple bunk bed for her doll house and wants one in real life so that Amelia can share it with her and Ben. We enjoyed coloring Peppa Pig together on Christmas.
Amelia got some duplos, a mini golf set, and lots of little things. She was amazed by the christmas lights this year, and if the tree was turned off she would point at it until you turned it on and then crack a big grin. She also loved unwrapping gifts and if you were not fast enough in telling her which presents were hers, she would start unwrapping any she could get her hands on. Uncle Josh made her a super fancy rocking chair. She loved it. She also figured out how to climb up on Grandma's dining room chairs and was very proud of this fact.
On Christmas day we exchanged adult stockings and spent all day eating. We went on an "adventure" out walking in the woods where I was reminded I am raising city kids. When we got back from that all three kids passed out and I had a chance to do some Christmas puzzling.
It was a fun day and fun Christmas, but oh so tiring!!
Felicity on her 4th Birthday
Felicity turned 4 on 9/22. We had a big party, which is exactly what she wanted. Her exact requests for her birthday party this year were
1. A LONG party at home
2. "Chocolate Donut Cake"
3. Attendance of two family friends R&R
We were able to accommodate all of the above, and ended up with about about 13 kids and just as many adults eating donuts - the adults having good conversation, the kids running all over playing. Felicity's gift was a fancy dollhouse. I fretted so long trying to decide what kind to get, worried about the compatibility with her current toys and whether the house would be worth the money and have the accessories she wanted. It turned out my worries were in vain - while the Calico Critters are not technically compatible with Disney "little people", she has mixed them seamlessly and installed the calico critters staircase on the balcony of her beauty and the beast castle.
Felicity at four years old.
On her fourth birthday she thought she would suddenly be able to read (she couldn't, and that little pout of sadness when she discovered this was too adorable).
She is fiercely independent and fiercely snugly at the same time. She wants to do so many things herself- pour milk, clean serve food. Other moments she acts like a total baby (goo goo gah gah and everything) and insists she cannot dress herself or stand up. She always wants more hugs from mom, regardless of how many I already gave her. Her and dad have a whole routine of all the different types of hugs they must do before he can drop her off at school (upside down. backwards, frog, leg, etc).
Felicity is a little monkey. I think if you let her grab your pinky she would find a way to use it to hang off of you. She is always lifting her feet off the ground.
Her vocab is constantly growing, but she still puts Fs infront of most 3-syllables, and also many 2-syllable words. Like Adult is fuh-dalt. Disaster is Fi-Saster. It does not matter whether she can say the correct starting sound, she just adds an F. Pajamas are Fa-jamas. She also has a bad habit (that is more related to inability to make the starting S sound) to say Sucker with an F... 1
(That is where I stopped typing, and I never went back! Want to publish this so it stays part of my records).
1. A LONG party at home
2. "Chocolate Donut Cake"
3. Attendance of two family friends R&R
We were able to accommodate all of the above, and ended up with about about 13 kids and just as many adults eating donuts - the adults having good conversation, the kids running all over playing. Felicity's gift was a fancy dollhouse. I fretted so long trying to decide what kind to get, worried about the compatibility with her current toys and whether the house would be worth the money and have the accessories she wanted. It turned out my worries were in vain - while the Calico Critters are not technically compatible with Disney "little people", she has mixed them seamlessly and installed the calico critters staircase on the balcony of her beauty and the beast castle.
Felicity at four years old.
On her fourth birthday she thought she would suddenly be able to read (she couldn't, and that little pout of sadness when she discovered this was too adorable).
She is fiercely independent and fiercely snugly at the same time. She wants to do so many things herself- pour milk, clean serve food. Other moments she acts like a total baby (goo goo gah gah and everything) and insists she cannot dress herself or stand up. She always wants more hugs from mom, regardless of how many I already gave her. Her and dad have a whole routine of all the different types of hugs they must do before he can drop her off at school (upside down. backwards, frog, leg, etc).
Felicity is a little monkey. I think if you let her grab your pinky she would find a way to use it to hang off of you. She is always lifting her feet off the ground.
Her vocab is constantly growing, but she still puts Fs infront of most 3-syllables, and also many 2-syllable words. Like Adult is fuh-dalt. Disaster is Fi-Saster. It does not matter whether she can say the correct starting sound, she just adds an F. Pajamas are Fa-jamas. She also has a bad habit (that is more related to inability to make the starting S sound) to say Sucker with an F... 1
(That is where I stopped typing, and I never went back! Want to publish this so it stays part of my records).
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Bedtime Conversations
This was all one conversation with Felicity, but I broke it up into little sections on topic
Felicity: what do tigers eat
Me - little animals that live in the forest like deer and wild pigs and rabbits
Felicity - do they eat humans
Me - yes, if they have the chance
Felicity - what do lions eat
Me - animals that live on the savanna, like antelope and other things that live there
Felicity - do they eat humans
me - yes if they have the chance
Felicity - what do bears eat
Me - berries and fish and whatever they find laying about they don't really hunt like the other things
Felicity - do they eat humans
Me- not really, they don't really hunt
Felicity - if a bear was eating my sandwich ( something that I do not understand at all here)
Me - if a bear wanted your sandwich you would let the beer have it and you would get out of there quickly... They won't eat you but they're not exactly safe either
Felicity- if there was a bear in our house trying to eat my sandwich I would run past all the other houses and and get you until I found one that was safe
Me- there won't be a bear in our house, bears do not like houses, the closest a bear would get to our house is to eat our trash because as I said earlier they like to find things and eat them, so if we throw away food they will smell it, and tip the trash over and eat it but then they will be afraid of us and run away. Wild animals don't like houses
Felicity - remember that time at bedtime when there was a bear eating our trash?
Me- yes, and remember when I said something it heard my voice and got scared and ran away you don't need to worry about any wild animals coming into our house
Felicity - remember the time that a dog tried to eat me I think we were at a dog park
Me - no I do not remember that at all, where were we? You have never been to a dog park
Felicity - it was a mean dog and it growls and it was going to eat me I was so scared let's not go to that dog park again,
Me -I do not know what that dog park was, but if we ever go somewhere that you are afraid because of that dog, tell me and we can do something else
Felicity- ok! Sounds good (seems genuinely relieved)
Here's a conversation with Ben the same night
Me - why are you out of bed
Ben- I'm getting the next Captain Underpants book, book 10
Me- don't stay up too late reading
Ben - don't worry, I am just going to read this comic book part and then one more chapter after that you don't have to worry, I will only read about two chapters and each chapter only takes a couple of minutes, and then I will go to bed
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
SNAPSHOT 7/1/2018
Felicity: Her favorite color is "all the colors". Her favorite book, per her own report, is Three Little Pigs (Disney) but when she is actually choosing a book, she chooses "You Choose" or "The Gruffalo" or an older African folk tale about why the panther walks on four legs and dislikes men. Her favorite show is "Peppa Pig" because "it has no tigers or monsters, and the toys are just toys, they don't talk". Her favorite movie is Beauty and the Beast because "the beast seems bad but then he changes and ends up to be good". She keeps changing her favorite character. She wants to swim, but we have not had much opportunity this year- a HOT May followed by a COLD and wet June. She likes to tell stories. When Ben is there, they are about ants that do not get eaten, when Ben is gone they are about Ant's getting eaten. Her story telling is pretty cool, she uses all the little phrases and mannerisms that you would expect in a good story teller. She is so well behaved at daycare and plays very well with others, but at home is very emotional and constantly harassing her little sister. (So, in other words, she is a three year old middle child). She has cut her hair very short, so that she does not have to brush it, and she loves that. She struggles at bedtime, wants lots of attention, and always has "one more question". Eventually you can get her to cuddle her Crocodile and pink baby and role over near the wall to go to sleep.
Amelia: She is walking very well now, and might start to run soon, but still hardly says a word. She always has a pacifier in her mouth unless you forcibly remove it, and I think these things are correlated. The only words she seems to have at all are "more" and "yeah". She says the first if its something she really really really likes , like Chocolate, or clearing the table. She says the second while nodding her head vigorously to a yes/no question. She does not seem to see the point in trying to say any other words. She likes to blow raspberries though. She likes to do whatever her siblings are doing, she likes to color, and to play with baby dolls. She loves to clear the table. She tries to build duplos. She flies toys through the air. She loves both of her parents. She likes to play outside. She will get filthy outside if you leave her to her own advice. He is sleeping OK, but not consistently STTN. But bedtime is pretty easy and she hardly cries unless Felicity is harassing her.
Benjamin: Is reading up a storm. He is into the Captain Underpants books, and will devour one in a couple of hours if given the opportunity. He struggles with large groups, strict rules, and losing. He is getting better at losing though and has taken up a game at Grandma's called "herd your horses" where he often loses. He is learning to bike and he loves to swim at Grandma's house. He still is interested in ants, but not as obsessed as previous months.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Birthday Review
Me: 34. Not a big milestone, just firmly chugging along in the "mid thirties" categories". I admit I preferred 33, because it is a fun number. Work is going well. I am incredibly busy, and try to do my best. Some days my best is amazing. Some days my best still includes a lot of mistakes. I guess that is just life. My most recent self-observation is that, having taken on a couple of new teams, I am becoming one of those people who always mentions how busy I am. I do not want to be that person, and I need to figure out how to manage the larger-than-possible work load without projecting that image. Outside of work, I am enjoying life. I enjoy being a mother - MOST days. Of course there are difficulties. I enjoy the beauty of the city. I drink too much Star Bucks, don't clean enough, and life goes on. I also am on a Jane Austen kick.I am feeling particularly driven at the moment to simplify and downsize, and hoping to bring the kids along for the ride (DH is on board). I have everything in life that I had dreamed about (loving husband, adorable kids, home ownership), and I do no not take that for granted, I am extremely grateful. I don't feel like I need anything else particularly to be happy, and that is a good place to be.
Ben: 6 yrs old, just wrapping up kindergarten. The past week he has been very cooperative and fun, it has been so nice to see. I love playing board games with him, doing math with him, watching him learn and grow. He can read quite well now and I think would be able to read any book within (or only slightly above) his vocabulary level. He still is very interested in Ants, and has an Ant farm that we all enjoy watching from time to time. If I had to guess, I think he will grow up to go into a science. Perhaps he will follow his own professed dream of being an author and write popular science. Or maybe he will research ridiculously specific questions only he cares about, like the social habits of the grey Siberian dust mite.
Felicity: 3 yrs old and pure spunk, she is definitely a three year old. She wants to accomplish great things! Climb mountains, run the household, and have other people cater to her every need. Of course. I would predict her to have an adventurous life - travel, hiking, outdoors. Maybe she will
Ben: 6 yrs old, just wrapping up kindergarten. The past week he has been very cooperative and fun, it has been so nice to see. I love playing board games with him, doing math with him, watching him learn and grow. He can read quite well now and I think would be able to read any book within (or only slightly above) his vocabulary level. He still is very interested in Ants, and has an Ant farm that we all enjoy watching from time to time. If I had to guess, I think he will grow up to go into a science. Perhaps he will follow his own professed dream of being an author and write popular science. Or maybe he will research ridiculously specific questions only he cares about, like the social habits of the grey Siberian dust mite.
Felicity: 3 yrs old and pure spunk, she is definitely a three year old. She wants to accomplish great things! Climb mountains, run the household, and have other people cater to her every need. Of course. I would predict her to have an adventurous life - travel, hiking, outdoors. Maybe she will
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Ben @ 6 years
Ben has turned 6! Crazy talk. Firmly school age, no more possibility of preschool age.
There's a lot of things with Ben I haven't shared much online. I feel like I don't want a search engine turning up his kindergarten struggles in 20 years. That said, I also don't want to pretend our lives are picture perfect. Where does that leave me? Generalities haha. Ben is not a model student. If you want to chat about it, you can pm me.
So with that out of the way, all the great things! Ben is crazy smart, (perhaps too smart for his own good). He loves to learn, but hates being told he has anything to learn. He is quite intuitively good at math. He has a huge vocabulary. He loves board games. He plays many that involve complex strategies. His most recent obsession is various iterations of risk. He finally has gotten over his dread of losing enough to start playing chess with other kids at keyzone and more readily play head to head at home.
He is obsessed with military - history, custom, strategies. He recently met a real veteran (we don't know many) is infatuated. He also loves flags, army symbols, maps, etc
He loves nature shows, whether they be space or animals.
He is a home body. He would much rather stay home and play board games than go anywhere.
His favorite part of school is show and tell. The only problem is he always wants to take board games, which are way too large and easy to ruin. In December he solved this by making a paper copy of Chinese chess to take.
At school he talks about lots of friends. They play a game called "Savage" at recess, which is too imaginary for me to follow despite Ben spending plenty of time explaining it to me.
He still loves starwars, though we have not allowed him to see epi 7/8 and have cut way back on this viewing it in general. But he still loves the ships and characters.
He is a pack rat. Anything is precious to him and he hates things being thrown out, whether it is a broken toy or his sister's stained t-shirt.
He loves his sisters, although F is constantly wrecking his games. He still loves wrestling with her. He loves giving Amelia hugs.
He loves being read to. He loves audio books, the magic treehouse series is our go-to. He was scared of Harry Potter for a bit but is interested in it again, and many of his other recent fears (of going upstairs alone, for example) seem to be dissipating.
For Ben's birthday, we celebrated with a Brinner Party at Willowick farm, he had a ball. We will follow up with a flag-themed party for his friends in a couple of weeks.
We love you Ben!!
Friday, June 30, 2017
Snapshot June 30
Friday (June 30) I had the opportunity to take the day off with my kids. Normally DH stays home with all three on Fridays (and works 10 hr days the other four weekdays to make up for it), but he needed to work so I took it off. I was afraid it would be overwhelming, but it was really fun. I took the kiddos to a coffee shop story time in the morning and sipped a latte while Ben listened intently to the story and Felicity looked for (mostly benign) distractions. (Amelia slept on my chest the whole time in her carrier). Then in the afternoon we went to Play Front to meet an internet friend, a woman from one of my mommy groups who was vacationing in Duluth for the week and has a baby the same age as Amelia (Ok, ten days older). Aaron got off a little early and we had a pleasant evening.
The kids are all doing well. Our very short window of having one preschooler, one toddler, and one infant, which seems somehow perfectly balanced, is coming to a close as Felicity is transitioning to the preschool room. She was supposed to start the preschool room full time today, but she is struggling quite a bit with the change. She likes her toddler teacher and she likes the familiar. She is not one to jump into a new group of people, much more likely to hang back an cling to a familiar leg for awhile until the temptation of a fun activity is too much to bear. Felicity, in general, is quite the handful right now. We do not know if its just her "terrible twos" or if it is related to the new baby and less one on one attention, but one on one attention is exactly what she needs. Any time that we are just at home and we are trying to do more generalized things, that are not focused on entertaining her, she wreaks havoc (mostly on Ben's board games, but will find other things to ruin, or ways to run away, if he does not have one out). This, combined w the fact that she LOVES to be outside (and Ben loves to be inside) has gotten us in the habit of divide and conquer, in which DH takes Felicity outside, often for long walks or to the playground (or just lets her ride her bike in the driveway) while I stay home with Ben and Amelia. Last Thursday DH had a soccer game he wanted to watch at 630pm, so we switched places and I took Felicity out in her stroller while he stayed home. It was so incredibly peaceful to be out with her, I hardly could believe it. She rode contentedly in the stroller. We pointed out things we saw, admired the clouds, the leaves, the smell, the breeze, and each other's company. I might not be giving that privilege quite so often now that I know how fun it is and how much QT it is.
Felicity in a nutshell.. wild haired, water-loving, nature-loving, cautious but excited, goofball. She loves pretend play (She found my old canoe paddle recently from when I was a child and played moana and row row your boat). She loves books. She loves water, and will happily dump it over her head, or wade into it fully clothed. When we recently met with her teachers regarding her transition to Pre-School we heard "I have NEVER Had a toddler who can do the things she can", which I guess runs in the family because this story is nearly identical to the ones my parents tell about my kindergarten screening. Her language development is extremely good for her age. She speaks in complex, multi-clause sentences and uses pronouns. She loves to make things up and do things that she thinks will get a laugh, talks often about a made up creature called a doo doo dah, and put clothes on wrong on purpose. This morning she wanted a sweatshirt and I found her socks first and handed them to her and she said "Thank you mom for finding me a sweatshirt" and attempted to put the sock over her head, didn't crack a smile until I called her out on it. Miss Fliss, we love you. ETA: I forgot to include two of my favorite things about her right now. First, when she says thank you. She says it A LOT too, whenever you agree to do something for her she will say thank you right away before you even do it. For example, this morning, "will you get me more cheese-its?" Me, "yes just a minute." Felicity - "Thank you !!! Thank you for getting me more cheese its". And she is SO EARNEST when she says it, as if she is pouring out her little heart with thanks. Also, she has taken to making the most hilarious facial expressions when she is thinking or trying to get you to agree to something. I need to try to get it on video.
Benjamin is rapidly approaching kindergarten. His academic feats are also a source of much pride for us. He loves his math and is already doing some basic multiplication, some basic fractions, some addition of tens and hundreds. He also loves science, loves star gazing and watching cosmos, understands the basics of evolution, and is so curious and always asking questions. Because of a board game he has lately been obsessed with the battle of waterloo, and flags, and many other things with history. As for the other softer skills, we are still working on them. LOL. He does not like transitions and will scream about having to leave the house, even if it is to go somewhere fun. We recently had to come up with a discipline plan to get him to stop saying "its your fault" "its not my fault" "you are killing me" and "i am dying" when daycare (or us) said it was time for the next activity. (Picture it.. .. "Ben, time to get in the car", "wahhhhh... YOUR KILLING ME... I WONT SURVIVE. ITS YOUR FAULT". Fun times. He has cut down on those specific phrases now and we have moved onto trying to curtail the screaming all together. He is a home body, he loves his board games, legos, and movies. He enjoys being outside but only after you force the issue. The issue can be forced easier if you promise to play something with him, such as pokemon trainer or a "video game". For example this weekend he played he was a spider chasing a treasure hunter all weekend with my high school friend who was in town. When he got near her he would pretend to bite her and then they would discuss how much life she lost, measured in "hearts". hahaha. We may have permanently changed the way his brain works by introducing him to games and strategy at such an early age. He also is our little skeptic, and recently did not want to throw a coin into the fountain because "the wish doesnt come true". A boy after my own heart. Ben, we love you!
Amelia is 4 months old tomorrow. She is having a 4 month sleep regression, but her sleep regression while annoying is still more sleep than I was getting with Ben or Felicity at this age. She is a very easy, smiley baby. She loves to watch what others are doing and was having a blast last night laughing at her dad and brother playing catch/dodgeball. We just got her a wubanub, our first one of these with three kids, and I think she likes it. She loves music, she loves being held. She likes sitting upright or "standing". She hates hates hates tummy time and has no interest in rolling. She likes her siblings, as long as they are being nice to her, which is usually the case. Ben and Felicity like to fight over whether to call her Amelia or Amy. Both are fine with us. She is growing so fast, and I just love holding her, Amelia, we love you!
I am good. Work is good. Kids are good. DH is good. Duluth is beautiful. We are trying to be better at adulting (cleaning, home maintenance, paperwork, etc). I try to pay attention to the little things with the kids and enjoy them, and not let exhaustion or laziness overwhelm the happiness. Life is good.
The kids are all doing well. Our very short window of having one preschooler, one toddler, and one infant, which seems somehow perfectly balanced, is coming to a close as Felicity is transitioning to the preschool room. She was supposed to start the preschool room full time today, but she is struggling quite a bit with the change. She likes her toddler teacher and she likes the familiar. She is not one to jump into a new group of people, much more likely to hang back an cling to a familiar leg for awhile until the temptation of a fun activity is too much to bear. Felicity, in general, is quite the handful right now. We do not know if its just her "terrible twos" or if it is related to the new baby and less one on one attention, but one on one attention is exactly what she needs. Any time that we are just at home and we are trying to do more generalized things, that are not focused on entertaining her, she wreaks havoc (mostly on Ben's board games, but will find other things to ruin, or ways to run away, if he does not have one out). This, combined w the fact that she LOVES to be outside (and Ben loves to be inside) has gotten us in the habit of divide and conquer, in which DH takes Felicity outside, often for long walks or to the playground (or just lets her ride her bike in the driveway) while I stay home with Ben and Amelia. Last Thursday DH had a soccer game he wanted to watch at 630pm, so we switched places and I took Felicity out in her stroller while he stayed home. It was so incredibly peaceful to be out with her, I hardly could believe it. She rode contentedly in the stroller. We pointed out things we saw, admired the clouds, the leaves, the smell, the breeze, and each other's company. I might not be giving that privilege quite so often now that I know how fun it is and how much QT it is.
Felicity in a nutshell.. wild haired, water-loving, nature-loving, cautious but excited, goofball. She loves pretend play (She found my old canoe paddle recently from when I was a child and played moana and row row your boat). She loves books. She loves water, and will happily dump it over her head, or wade into it fully clothed. When we recently met with her teachers regarding her transition to Pre-School we heard "I have NEVER Had a toddler who can do the things she can", which I guess runs in the family because this story is nearly identical to the ones my parents tell about my kindergarten screening. Her language development is extremely good for her age. She speaks in complex, multi-clause sentences and uses pronouns. She loves to make things up and do things that she thinks will get a laugh, talks often about a made up creature called a doo doo dah, and put clothes on wrong on purpose. This morning she wanted a sweatshirt and I found her socks first and handed them to her and she said "Thank you mom for finding me a sweatshirt" and attempted to put the sock over her head, didn't crack a smile until I called her out on it. Miss Fliss, we love you. ETA: I forgot to include two of my favorite things about her right now. First, when she says thank you. She says it A LOT too, whenever you agree to do something for her she will say thank you right away before you even do it. For example, this morning, "will you get me more cheese-its?" Me, "yes just a minute." Felicity - "Thank you !!! Thank you for getting me more cheese its". And she is SO EARNEST when she says it, as if she is pouring out her little heart with thanks. Also, she has taken to making the most hilarious facial expressions when she is thinking or trying to get you to agree to something. I need to try to get it on video.
Benjamin is rapidly approaching kindergarten. His academic feats are also a source of much pride for us. He loves his math and is already doing some basic multiplication, some basic fractions, some addition of tens and hundreds. He also loves science, loves star gazing and watching cosmos, understands the basics of evolution, and is so curious and always asking questions. Because of a board game he has lately been obsessed with the battle of waterloo, and flags, and many other things with history. As for the other softer skills, we are still working on them. LOL. He does not like transitions and will scream about having to leave the house, even if it is to go somewhere fun. We recently had to come up with a discipline plan to get him to stop saying "its your fault" "its not my fault" "you are killing me" and "i am dying" when daycare (or us) said it was time for the next activity. (Picture it.. .. "Ben, time to get in the car", "wahhhhh... YOUR KILLING ME... I WONT SURVIVE. ITS YOUR FAULT". Fun times. He has cut down on those specific phrases now and we have moved onto trying to curtail the screaming all together. He is a home body, he loves his board games, legos, and movies. He enjoys being outside but only after you force the issue. The issue can be forced easier if you promise to play something with him, such as pokemon trainer or a "video game". For example this weekend he played he was a spider chasing a treasure hunter all weekend with my high school friend who was in town. When he got near her he would pretend to bite her and then they would discuss how much life she lost, measured in "hearts". hahaha. We may have permanently changed the way his brain works by introducing him to games and strategy at such an early age. He also is our little skeptic, and recently did not want to throw a coin into the fountain because "the wish doesnt come true". A boy after my own heart. Ben, we love you!
Amelia is 4 months old tomorrow. She is having a 4 month sleep regression, but her sleep regression while annoying is still more sleep than I was getting with Ben or Felicity at this age. She is a very easy, smiley baby. She loves to watch what others are doing and was having a blast last night laughing at her dad and brother playing catch/dodgeball. We just got her a wubanub, our first one of these with three kids, and I think she likes it. She loves music, she loves being held. She likes sitting upright or "standing". She hates hates hates tummy time and has no interest in rolling. She likes her siblings, as long as they are being nice to her, which is usually the case. Ben and Felicity like to fight over whether to call her Amelia or Amy. Both are fine with us. She is growing so fast, and I just love holding her, Amelia, we love you!
I am good. Work is good. Kids are good. DH is good. Duluth is beautiful. We are trying to be better at adulting (cleaning, home maintenance, paperwork, etc). I try to pay attention to the little things with the kids and enjoy them, and not let exhaustion or laziness overwhelm the happiness. Life is good.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Snapshot May 31
Amelia is almost 3 months old (just five days shy!). Everyone comments on what a "good" baby she is. She is an easy baby (knock on wood), a happy baby. She eats well, sleeps decently, and enjoys existing. She does not colic, or cry herself to sleep. She likes to watch what other people are doing. She laughs at her brother shenanigans. She laughs when you tickle her. She always seems to find the tv to look at if one is one. She likes it when you look at her and make faces, she coos and giggles. She is not a big fan of tummy time but she does like to be upright, sitting or "standing" in your arms, holding her head up straight. I am enjoying learning more about her everyday.
Felicity 2yrs and 8 months old. She demands what she wants. Since she is two, this means what she demands changes about every 30 seconds. She enjoys taunting her brother. The most frequent argument is whether to call Amelia by her full name or by Amy. This occurs on virtually every car ride. She also likes to say things JUST to aggravate Ben, and he takes the bait every time "You can't eat, your poopy" is a common allegation made by Felicity. She enjoys pretend play- cooking in the kitchen, taking care of baby dolls, doctors office, etc. One of her cutest current phrases is "Why cuz??" She likes to talk nonsense just so she is talking, and if you interrupt her she say "No! I was talking first." She likes telling the teachers at daycare about whatever was exciting to her over the weekend. She is almost potty trained. Soon, when we declare her potty trained, we will be going on a train ride, because she loves the local train and loves to see it go by, even if it scares her.
Felicity 2yrs and 8 months old. She demands what she wants. Since she is two, this means what she demands changes about every 30 seconds. She enjoys taunting her brother. The most frequent argument is whether to call Amelia by her full name or by Amy. This occurs on virtually every car ride. She also likes to say things JUST to aggravate Ben, and he takes the bait every time "You can't eat, your poopy" is a common allegation made by Felicity. She enjoys pretend play- cooking in the kitchen, taking care of baby dolls, doctors office, etc. One of her cutest current phrases is "Why cuz??" She likes to talk nonsense just so she is talking, and if you interrupt her she say "No! I was talking first." She likes telling the teachers at daycare about whatever was exciting to her over the weekend. She is almost potty trained. Soon, when we declare her potty trained, we will be going on a train ride, because she loves the local train and loves to see it go by, even if it scares her.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Perfect 33
Its my birthday.
33
I am right where I want to be and 33 is a perfect number.
Three kids, a house, husband, job. I am living the dream.
Picture it. Its a weekend morning and the kids pile into our bed. Husband tired from an early morning. The toddler is trying to poke the baby. The cat is being annoying. I did not get enough sleep. The preschooler has already had 2 hrs of screen time and is currently still glued to a phone. And its perfect. Its right where I wanted to be when I was 17 and thought I would be a young mom, or 22 and getting married. We listened to country music - Front Porch Looking In. Husband and I fantasized about having pets and a house and kids. And now we have it and its perfect. We have arrived. This is it. This is life as I always wanted it. And it is reality.
Of course I am tired sometimes. I get frustrated. I want my 5 year old to listen. I worry. I want to sleep. I want a moment to myself or more money or longer vacation. Of course I still look to the future, wonder what comes next. Plot and plan and fantasize. That's just human nature.
But when push comes to shove, I can't think of anything more perfect, more glorious than sitting at Brighton Beach on a nice day, baby blanket spread out on a flat rock for my infant, while my toddler and her Dad fling stones haphazardly into the water and my preschooler runs off into the distance testing his strength, balance and boundaries. I can't think of anything better than the laughter of my two older kids when I pretend to warm up my vocal chords before breaking into their lullaby at bedtime, or the weight of that infant in my arms, old enough to smile but young enough to still fit cradled in one arm. Push pause. Freeze frame. Remember this moment as perfection.
I am incredibly lucky. My biggest pains are not my own. I hurt because the world is a cruel place, because our politicians do not care about the people I serve, because people hate, and most of all because friends or family are suffering. I cry because I cannot do anything to help people I love get to where I am, because biology doesn't care about hopes and heartbreak. But as sad or depressed as any of these makes me, I am crying for other people. There is nothing I can do to balance that out, so I just make sure to be thankful for what I have.
Sometimes, I wonder when my bubble will burst. Am I due for a personal crash? But most the time, I just sit back and try to soak it all up because this is temporary. Even without disaster, this sweet spot where everything is exactly how I always dreamed will change. The kids will grow up. I will be done having babies. No one will pile onto my bed too early on Sunday. I am sure other times will be good as well, but this moment is the culmination of the dreams a younger me dreamed.
33 is perfect, and I am happy to be here.
Friday, April 14, 2017
Busy..
When you get busy, and fall behind, you face the debate of whether to go back and try to catch up, or whether to just skip writing about some precious memories and start over on today.
I wanted to blog about the older kids meeting Amelia, how Felicity was nervous, but the gift exchange, and then her brother's ease, eventually brought her around; how Felicity tried to look down my shirt to see my belly was no longer "full" of baby. Those are about all the details I remember now.
I thought I might have time to write about the first week home, and other random cute moments.
But guess what? Life with three kids is busy. EVEN when I am on leave, even when DH is on part time leave. Its going to get a lot busier when DH is full time again this coming week, and then in two weeks when I go back to the office. Anyways, I have had my hands full of infant.
Amelia has proven to be a fairly easy baby THUS FAR. (Knock on wood, always knock on wood). She only gets up once or twice during the night, and even slept through the night once already (about a week ago.... no repeat performance). She doesn't get fussy very long or very often. She eats well, poops well, and naps well (better every day). She tolerates the vast majority of her siblings poking and prodding, and just is usually pretty chill. She smiles in her sleep, and has given me 2 "real" smiles... but nothing regular or persistent just yet at 6 weeks. She has big beautiful deep blue eyes, brown hair, and the same eye lashes that have gotten constant comments for all of my children.
Felicity is 2.5, and she likes Amelia, is very curious about taking care of her. She is SO verbal and has constant constant questions (that are mostly in the form of statements. "Amelia is hungry? Amelia is eating? Amelia is eating your milk? You are feeding Amelia? Amelia is awake? Amelia is going [makes sucking noises]?" ... I am not exaggerating, that could be two minutes of my life. Then Felicity might try to "boop" Amelia's nose while she is eating and then when I tell her not to do that she will start jumping on the bed (which she knows is not allowed when I am on the bed w Amelia), and then end up in time out (assuming DH is there to administer it). Felicity says "Me-wa" rather than Amelia. We also have tried to get to call Amelia "Amy" but it is unclear if it will take. Today I told my mom, Felicity has always loved books, water, and sleeping. My mom added cottage cheese to the list.
Ben is 5. He loves Amelia. He wants to kiss her head, kiss her cheeks, pet her hair, tickle her, and hug her, hold her.... to such an extreme it becomes a problem and we have to "ban" him from touching the baby for a time. He is learning more and more to be gentle, and what gentle means when baby is so small. He also is learning to be a bit more independent now that I literally have my hands full so often. Today he successfully got himself a bowl of cereal without any physical help from me whatsoever, and minimal advice on how to go about it. He is pretty interested in wildlife shows and dinosaurs right now, still loves board games. He is very interested in military stuff, fighting, machines of war, etc, but we try to keep a cap on it somewhat. He recently also has taken more of an interest in sports and after YEARS of cheering against anyone we said was a "good" team (Minnesota, OSU, etc), he suddenly realized last week how fun it can be to cheer for the same team us, so that is nice.
I am happy. Life is pretty good. I am working a bit from home and there are some important decisions going on at work. I enjoy the infant phase, and all of the freedom maternity leave offers. I am catching up on errands and projects I have been putting off for literal years, spending time with friends and family, eating at some fun restaurants. Amelia is portable and adorable. Sometimes I worry I dont spend enough time starring lovingly into her eyes, but I certainly spend a lot of time feeling her breath as she sleeps on my chest.
I wanted to blog about the older kids meeting Amelia, how Felicity was nervous, but the gift exchange, and then her brother's ease, eventually brought her around; how Felicity tried to look down my shirt to see my belly was no longer "full" of baby. Those are about all the details I remember now.
I thought I might have time to write about the first week home, and other random cute moments.
But guess what? Life with three kids is busy. EVEN when I am on leave, even when DH is on part time leave. Its going to get a lot busier when DH is full time again this coming week, and then in two weeks when I go back to the office. Anyways, I have had my hands full of infant.
Amelia has proven to be a fairly easy baby THUS FAR. (Knock on wood, always knock on wood). She only gets up once or twice during the night, and even slept through the night once already (about a week ago.... no repeat performance). She doesn't get fussy very long or very often. She eats well, poops well, and naps well (better every day). She tolerates the vast majority of her siblings poking and prodding, and just is usually pretty chill. She smiles in her sleep, and has given me 2 "real" smiles... but nothing regular or persistent just yet at 6 weeks. She has big beautiful deep blue eyes, brown hair, and the same eye lashes that have gotten constant comments for all of my children.
Felicity is 2.5, and she likes Amelia, is very curious about taking care of her. She is SO verbal and has constant constant questions (that are mostly in the form of statements. "Amelia is hungry? Amelia is eating? Amelia is eating your milk? You are feeding Amelia? Amelia is awake? Amelia is going [makes sucking noises]?" ... I am not exaggerating, that could be two minutes of my life. Then Felicity might try to "boop" Amelia's nose while she is eating and then when I tell her not to do that she will start jumping on the bed (which she knows is not allowed when I am on the bed w Amelia), and then end up in time out (assuming DH is there to administer it). Felicity says "Me-wa" rather than Amelia. We also have tried to get to call Amelia "Amy" but it is unclear if it will take. Today I told my mom, Felicity has always loved books, water, and sleeping. My mom added cottage cheese to the list.
Ben is 5. He loves Amelia. He wants to kiss her head, kiss her cheeks, pet her hair, tickle her, and hug her, hold her.... to such an extreme it becomes a problem and we have to "ban" him from touching the baby for a time. He is learning more and more to be gentle, and what gentle means when baby is so small. He also is learning to be a bit more independent now that I literally have my hands full so often. Today he successfully got himself a bowl of cereal without any physical help from me whatsoever, and minimal advice on how to go about it. He is pretty interested in wildlife shows and dinosaurs right now, still loves board games. He is very interested in military stuff, fighting, machines of war, etc, but we try to keep a cap on it somewhat. He recently also has taken more of an interest in sports and after YEARS of cheering against anyone we said was a "good" team (Minnesota, OSU, etc), he suddenly realized last week how fun it can be to cheer for the same team us, so that is nice.
I am happy. Life is pretty good. I am working a bit from home and there are some important decisions going on at work. I enjoy the infant phase, and all of the freedom maternity leave offers. I am catching up on errands and projects I have been putting off for literal years, spending time with friends and family, eating at some fun restaurants. Amelia is portable and adorable. Sometimes I worry I dont spend enough time starring lovingly into her eyes, but I certainly spend a lot of time feeling her breath as she sleeps on my chest.
Monday, April 3, 2017
Birth Story
On Thursday, March 2nd, I left work thinking I would be back on Friday. I was so stuck on the idea I would go over due because the other two kids had. I still took some basic work precautions - taking my lap top home every night and leaving my physical desk nice and orderly. That evening, my parents babysat the kids so Aaron and I could have "one last date". We went to the Duluth East hockey game. It was a lot of fun, but ran late due to overtime, so we did not pick up the kids until past 10pm and did not get into bed ourselves until after midnight.
Around 3am on March 3rd, I awoke to use the bathroom. There was a bit of watery blood. I figured either my mucus plug was on its way or my water had broken/was leaking. I was not happy! Because I was NOT ready. I put some towels down on my bed and tried to go back to sleep... but mostly was actually paying attention to if my water was leaking (it didn't seem to be) and worrying. Worrying about... unfinished business at work, and whether I should go in if my water might be leaking, about the fact my hospital bag still needed a few things, about the fact the newborn crib/bassinet was not set up, and other random things. Worry worry worry, defo no sleep. I decided I would wake Aaron up at 6am and tell him I needed to at least go get checked out to see if I was leaking water. Then, at 5:30 AM, it became obvious and my water broke for sure (not just leaking). I jumped up to rush to the bathroom and managed to avoid making a mess. DH woke up at this point and I told him "My water just broke, today is hospital day".
My water was defo broken but there was no contractions. I got out my work computer and took care of the unfinished work business, emailed my director and a few other things that needed done. Then I took a nice hot shower (continually leaking water, still no contractions). Around 630 DH got up and started to get the kids stuff together as I gave him directions from the bathroom. I called my parents and let them know that it was baby time and that Aaron would be on his way shortly. After he left, I got out of the bathroom, finished packing my hospital bag, and put the baby crib together. I also called the hospital to tell them I would be in so that they could get a room ready. DH got back from taking the kids, and we headed towards the hospital, w a stop at Walgreens on the way.
They did indeed have a nice, lakeview sun-filled room ready for us when we arrived. They tested to make sure my water had indeed broken (TRUST ME, it had) and then told me what I already knew - that I needed to try and get labor to start (by walking around and moving), and if things did not start happening they would want to give me drugs to induce labor. We tentatively agreed on noon as a time to consider meds. They put in an IV - which actually totally sucked. It took three people and several attempts before they got one, and then it was poorly placed and kept beeping at me if I did not keep my right wrist straight. We started walking, IV stand in tow. On the nurses advice, we named the IV stand (Bernadette, nn Birdy). Around and around we went. No contractions. Not anything at all really. I was already feeling really discouraged. I was so tired from not getting enough sleep the night before, and my body was not doing anything. At noon I started pitocin and moved to the yoga ball, bounced around and watched a movie. Not much was happening still. I walked more laps an started having some mild contractions, about every 2 minutes, but very weak. The monitors, required due to the pitocin, kept coming lose too. I was so tired and it was only mid afternoon. I opted to get into bed for awhile. They checked me again and I was getting more effaced but not really dilating any at all. I continued to be discouraged. I knew if I went too long without progress (over 24 hrs from my water breaking) they would start talking about more drastic steps, and here was my body not doing anything and I just wanted to sleep. I watched movies, bounced around on the yoga ball and waited. And waited more. Shopped some lularoe, chatted with friends, and waited and felt discouraged. They kept upping the pitocin but nothing strong was happening.
At 8:30, DH wanted to watch the Minnesota United game, and I had no objections so we turned it on. About 2/3 of the way through, I stood up to go to the bathroom and my water broke "again" (another big set of gushes). The nurse came in and we told her and she got super excited, said they had been waiting for that and she hoped things would start happening now, and they were right. The contractions intensified quickly and I started to throw up. I figured once I emptied my stomach the vomiting would stop so I declined nausea meds. I also used some ginger essential oil the nurse offered, which was fantastic. The soccer game ended and DH asked if I wanted anything on tv or any music, I told him to find another sport because I liked the crowd noise. Contractions kept getting stronger and I started throwing up again. I said yes to the nausea meds at that point. The contractions were extremely intense, as intense as they had been during the very end ones with Felicity's birth. I begged to me checked. I wanted to know if I was making any progress because I was so tired and I felt like I couldn't do it forever they were so intense. They checked me, and I was only at 5cm. I asked for the epidural. (For the record, this was a huge departure for me from other births, I hate the idea of a needle in the spine, and I had planned to go pain med free like I did with the other two, but I was so tired and so mentally unprepared, and convinced that I was going to be having these contractions that were already as intense as I was at 9cm with Felicity's birth, all night).
It took about 15 minutes for the epidural guy to show up, and then they kicked Aaron out so they could place it. They told him it would be 15 minutes and that he could keep an eye on the door and they would open it when the epidural was in. I sat up on the bed and tried to hold still while the epidural guy worked. He was not having an easy go of it. It was pretty much as bad as I could have imagined it as he dug around trying to get it in the right spot and failing time after time. I kept having super intense contractions and had to try to sit still through them. He moved up one vertebrae and finally got it in. As he got it in, I had another intense contraction that included that familiar pressure that it would be time to push soon. They put in the "loader" dose to the epidural and I was told I would probably have one more intense contraction before it kicked in. DH came back in and said it had taken 28 minutes (not the promised 15). I told him "I think I made a mistake, this baby is going to come before this epidural kicks in" and the nurse said she agreed. I had one more intense contraction, then the epidural was working. The nurse checked me and said that I was 10cm dilated with "just a lip" and that she was going to go get the drs to set up to push. I joked and ate iced chips through 2-3 more contractions that just felt like pressure, not pain, with the epidural in, and then they were all set up and said it was time to push. I pushed through two pressure (no pain) contractions, and then the epidural began to wear off. I pushed for another 5-6 contractions, and then Amelia Marilynn was born at 2:05 AM. They put her up on my chest right away and she was screaming her head off. Pretty much the first thing she did on my chest was start sucking her thumb. LOL. I breast fed right away, and we enjoyed the "golden hour" time of skin to skin bonding.
Around 3am on March 3rd, I awoke to use the bathroom. There was a bit of watery blood. I figured either my mucus plug was on its way or my water had broken/was leaking. I was not happy! Because I was NOT ready. I put some towels down on my bed and tried to go back to sleep... but mostly was actually paying attention to if my water was leaking (it didn't seem to be) and worrying. Worrying about... unfinished business at work, and whether I should go in if my water might be leaking, about the fact my hospital bag still needed a few things, about the fact the newborn crib/bassinet was not set up, and other random things. Worry worry worry, defo no sleep. I decided I would wake Aaron up at 6am and tell him I needed to at least go get checked out to see if I was leaking water. Then, at 5:30 AM, it became obvious and my water broke for sure (not just leaking). I jumped up to rush to the bathroom and managed to avoid making a mess. DH woke up at this point and I told him "My water just broke, today is hospital day".
My water was defo broken but there was no contractions. I got out my work computer and took care of the unfinished work business, emailed my director and a few other things that needed done. Then I took a nice hot shower (continually leaking water, still no contractions). Around 630 DH got up and started to get the kids stuff together as I gave him directions from the bathroom. I called my parents and let them know that it was baby time and that Aaron would be on his way shortly. After he left, I got out of the bathroom, finished packing my hospital bag, and put the baby crib together. I also called the hospital to tell them I would be in so that they could get a room ready. DH got back from taking the kids, and we headed towards the hospital, w a stop at Walgreens on the way.
They did indeed have a nice, lakeview sun-filled room ready for us when we arrived. They tested to make sure my water had indeed broken (TRUST ME, it had) and then told me what I already knew - that I needed to try and get labor to start (by walking around and moving), and if things did not start happening they would want to give me drugs to induce labor. We tentatively agreed on noon as a time to consider meds. They put in an IV - which actually totally sucked. It took three people and several attempts before they got one, and then it was poorly placed and kept beeping at me if I did not keep my right wrist straight. We started walking, IV stand in tow. On the nurses advice, we named the IV stand (Bernadette, nn Birdy). Around and around we went. No contractions. Not anything at all really. I was already feeling really discouraged. I was so tired from not getting enough sleep the night before, and my body was not doing anything. At noon I started pitocin and moved to the yoga ball, bounced around and watched a movie. Not much was happening still. I walked more laps an started having some mild contractions, about every 2 minutes, but very weak. The monitors, required due to the pitocin, kept coming lose too. I was so tired and it was only mid afternoon. I opted to get into bed for awhile. They checked me again and I was getting more effaced but not really dilating any at all. I continued to be discouraged. I knew if I went too long without progress (over 24 hrs from my water breaking) they would start talking about more drastic steps, and here was my body not doing anything and I just wanted to sleep. I watched movies, bounced around on the yoga ball and waited. And waited more. Shopped some lularoe, chatted with friends, and waited and felt discouraged. They kept upping the pitocin but nothing strong was happening.
At 8:30, DH wanted to watch the Minnesota United game, and I had no objections so we turned it on. About 2/3 of the way through, I stood up to go to the bathroom and my water broke "again" (another big set of gushes). The nurse came in and we told her and she got super excited, said they had been waiting for that and she hoped things would start happening now, and they were right. The contractions intensified quickly and I started to throw up. I figured once I emptied my stomach the vomiting would stop so I declined nausea meds. I also used some ginger essential oil the nurse offered, which was fantastic. The soccer game ended and DH asked if I wanted anything on tv or any music, I told him to find another sport because I liked the crowd noise. Contractions kept getting stronger and I started throwing up again. I said yes to the nausea meds at that point. The contractions were extremely intense, as intense as they had been during the very end ones with Felicity's birth. I begged to me checked. I wanted to know if I was making any progress because I was so tired and I felt like I couldn't do it forever they were so intense. They checked me, and I was only at 5cm. I asked for the epidural. (For the record, this was a huge departure for me from other births, I hate the idea of a needle in the spine, and I had planned to go pain med free like I did with the other two, but I was so tired and so mentally unprepared, and convinced that I was going to be having these contractions that were already as intense as I was at 9cm with Felicity's birth, all night).
It took about 15 minutes for the epidural guy to show up, and then they kicked Aaron out so they could place it. They told him it would be 15 minutes and that he could keep an eye on the door and they would open it when the epidural was in. I sat up on the bed and tried to hold still while the epidural guy worked. He was not having an easy go of it. It was pretty much as bad as I could have imagined it as he dug around trying to get it in the right spot and failing time after time. I kept having super intense contractions and had to try to sit still through them. He moved up one vertebrae and finally got it in. As he got it in, I had another intense contraction that included that familiar pressure that it would be time to push soon. They put in the "loader" dose to the epidural and I was told I would probably have one more intense contraction before it kicked in. DH came back in and said it had taken 28 minutes (not the promised 15). I told him "I think I made a mistake, this baby is going to come before this epidural kicks in" and the nurse said she agreed. I had one more intense contraction, then the epidural was working. The nurse checked me and said that I was 10cm dilated with "just a lip" and that she was going to go get the drs to set up to push. I joked and ate iced chips through 2-3 more contractions that just felt like pressure, not pain, with the epidural in, and then they were all set up and said it was time to push. I pushed through two pressure (no pain) contractions, and then the epidural began to wear off. I pushed for another 5-6 contractions, and then Amelia Marilynn was born at 2:05 AM. They put her up on my chest right away and she was screaming her head off. Pretty much the first thing she did on my chest was start sucking her thumb. LOL. I breast fed right away, and we enjoyed the "golden hour" time of skin to skin bonding.
We called our parents. After plenty of skin time, the nurse measured Amelia and she was 7lbs, 3oz and 21.5 inches long. We told the nurse we needed to sleep, so she put Amelia in the warmer there, right in our room and DH and both went to sleep while the nurse puttered around and did computer paperwork, etc.
About an hour later, I woke up enough to be super nauseous. I drowsily told the nurse this and she reclined my head and took my blood pressure. It was very low, 80/30 or something. She discussed it with another (head?) nurse and they notified the Dr (who was in a c-section) and decided maybe I just needed to pee as it had been hours and I was pumped full of IV fluids. They brought me a bed pan and when I pushed to pee, I passed a ton of big clots. They now were concerned I was hemorrhaging. They got the resident and he did an exam. They hung a new bag of pitocin and pushed it fast, and gave me an inter muscular injection of something else to prevent bleeding. The resident said he thought I may still have a big attached clot in my uterus. I asked to hold baby again because I know this can help the uterus. The Dr came in a bit later after her c-section, and said if I kept bleeding they might need to do a D&C, but she was hopeful the meds would work and wanted to give me more time. She was right, they took my blood pressure about 15 minutes later and it was returning to normal. So ended the crisis.
All in all, I think this was my hardest of the three births. With Ben, I was practically in a trance the whole time. With Felicity, it moved quickly and I was well prepared. This time I was unprepared and exhausted. (Plus the birth happened at 2am, I am convinced this automatically makes things harder). Ultimately though, I regret getting the epidural. It did feel GREAT for the short time it was in effect... but it was only in affect for like a half hour, and a bruised feeling in my back was my worst post partum symptom from about 12 hrs post partum until maybe 72 hrs post partum, plus the memory of the feeling of it going in is not something I will easily forget. If you had told me when they checked and I was 5cm that I would give birth an hour later (or 90 minutes, whatever) I would defo had said "I CAN DO THIS" and gone without. Oh well. Live and learn.
Of course, regardless of difficulty, still totally worth it....
Friday, February 10, 2017
February 10th 2017
ME: 365d Pregnant. I gained 8 lbs in the past two weeks and am at an all time high for my weight. Dr thinks the most recent bout of weight gain is mostly swelling. I knew I had a little swelling, but did not realize just how much until she started poking my legs. We all are fighting a cold, and for me that is harder since I do not want to use PTO and I can't take most meds. For some reason, it seems all of the pregnancy safe cold meds are the drowsy ones, nothing to use during the day. I swore off pants last week and am living in leggings, skirts and dresses. Baby is head down and, I believe, engaged in my pelvis. She had been resting on my right hip bone for awhile, but when I had a chair massage last week the little bit of pressure I put on the top of my belly for 15 minutes (leaning against the chair) was enough to pop her into place. It is always hard to get her heart rate on the monitor, I am told this is partially due to an anterior placenta, but I have to think its also just a bit of her being stubborn haha. I have signed up to do the puzzle derby on 3/4 despite 3/5 being my due date, and I am hopeful I will be able to attend, but you never know! The ammt of faith I am putting in, as DH puts it "two data points" to indicate this pregnancy will go overdue is probably a bad idea, but I really can't help it. I did pull the baby clothes out last night. We have a carseat purchased, but not installed, hope to do that this weekend. I have been approved for some work from home during my maternity leave so that I don't lose TOTAL touch with the office for 8 weeks, which with my current level of responsability would be a disaster. Mostly I am just surviving the days and enjoying feeling the kicks.
BEN: I cannot express what a 180 we have seen from this boy. We went from horrible reports at daycare, aggression, being mean to other kids, etc, to perfect reports, "he was the most helpful" "he was so friendly all day", "he was engaged and smiling all day". It all changed from one week to the next and we have now had 3 weeks in a row of excellent behavior. As mentioned in the last post, what we did was take away ALL violent toys initially, even ones that dont seem really violent like Battleship. We also took away his screen time initially, and then we started encouraging him to have the daily goal of "doing five helpful things" and I would remind him of this every morning at drop off. I am not sure which thing worked. After one week of great reports at daycare, we gave him back screentime. After two weeks of great reports, we gave him back battleship. That one made me nervous because it defo changed the tenure of his play! He went from hardly any violent play to talking about guns and explosions again, BUT as we have seen no relapse in his behavior (only in his imagination), we are allowing it. Now he has had three weeks in a row and we may let him start playing pokemon again, as long as the focus is not on battling. We will see how it goes. This boy wants to be the BEST and has a very competitive nature. He now brags when you pick him up "I WAS THE BEST KID". Haha... well as long as he is trying to behave I will put up with it. We took him to Saturday morning at the races and he didn't push anyone (Like he did at the last summer races in August), so I guess we are making progress. He has also recently started playing a lot with playing cards, both actual games like Solitaire, Pyramid, and even Kings Corner, but also just a made up game where he creates families within suits that need to do certain things to survive.
FELICITY: Oh, she is certainly two. Terrible terrible two. Daycare described her as "sassy" at one pickup. She knows what she wants and tries to get it. With Ben's behavior so improved it really emphasizes how often she melts down or is naughty! (For example, spraying grape juice all over grandma's house). I am sure she will outgrow it. She hate us brushing her hair and putting it up, and claims to want a haircut, but I dont think she really understands what that means so I am putting it off because I like her long hair, even if it is tricky at times. I have been trying to be more consistent at brushing it and putting it back when I can so that it gets less knots and so she is more used to it. She has been playing on the kindle a lot, she likes the game where you clean the house! LOL. She likes to clean stuff in real life too, so that makes sense. She also likes to be helpful, carry things too and from the table, get something you need from the other room. She is now OFFICIALLY TALL ENOUGH TO REACH LIGHT SWITCHES. Holy moly. She is getting big. Her least favorite thing in the world is being told no. Her favorite thing in the world is taking a nap on Grandma's lap, with her pacifier in her mouth and a blanket (she will tell you all of this).
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Snapshot 1/22/2017
Amanda: 34w1d pregnant. Nauseated frequently. Sciatica frequently. Occasional migraines. Can't bend over or do heavy lifting. In high spirits. I drink too much Star Bucks, and shop more than ever before. Both habits that I will need to curtail when baby comes. One U/S has shown this is a girl, and thats what we say it is, but we recently discussed where we are on names if we find out later they were wrong and its a boy. At work, I have been certified in my supervisor position and am working on some big 2017 projects. I am trying to figure out how to best allow these projects to continue while I am on maternity leave. Its a different position to be in than my previous two maternity leaves where I was perfectly fine to just walk away from my daily work duties, knowing I was replaceable. Its a nice change, but also a challenge.
Benjamin: 5 years old (zero months) old. He is experiencing some major difficulties at the moment, both behaviorally (aggression, difficulty expressing his feelings at daycare) and phyisically (GI issues). I generally do not want to be a stay at home mom.. but it would be nice to be able to take a week or two off and just focus on him, unfortunately that is not an option right now, so we try to figure out different things to tweak in the context of our day to day life to help him out (most recently eliminating violence from his play, including things that seem innocuous but are actually about battle like Battleship, and limiting screen time more). He also can be incredibly sweet and he is so intelligent. He loves to play strategy games like Chess, he loves to learn about history and science. This morning in the car he was telling me about how blood cells work. I told him that his Grandpa K studies such things, how your body works when you are running around. Ben said that Grandpa should watch the Magic School Bus if he gets confused. We still need to have his birthday party, but I feel like his behavior needs to improve a bit first.
Felicity: 2y,4m old. She wants to be so independent. She puts on her own shoes, gets dressed, has strong opinions about what to wear, wants to get in the carseat herself, wants to open the baby gate herself, wants to pour her own food when we will let her, butter her own toast (and put it in the toaster to begin with), etc. She also changes her mind ever 10 seconds, which is the typical two year old. "I want apple juice" .."NO I NO WANT APPLE JUICE" cue the tears. She is very emotional. She likes playing with baby dolls, wrapping them up, pushing them around in strollers, pretending to feed them. She still uses a pacifier. Her version of the word pacifier sounds like "water". If you ask her to clarify it, it comes out 'wa-ter-wa-ter". She also likes to do whatever her big brother is doing, or to wreck what he is doing, or to steal his Eevee. She unfortunately likes to get our attention by putting things she know dont go in her mouth, like game pieces, in her mouth. She loves apple juice, blankets, and her bunk bed. She is running, climbing and jumping now and grows more everyday.
Benjamin: 5 years old (zero months) old. He is experiencing some major difficulties at the moment, both behaviorally (aggression, difficulty expressing his feelings at daycare) and phyisically (GI issues). I generally do not want to be a stay at home mom.. but it would be nice to be able to take a week or two off and just focus on him, unfortunately that is not an option right now, so we try to figure out different things to tweak in the context of our day to day life to help him out (most recently eliminating violence from his play, including things that seem innocuous but are actually about battle like Battleship, and limiting screen time more). He also can be incredibly sweet and he is so intelligent. He loves to play strategy games like Chess, he loves to learn about history and science. This morning in the car he was telling me about how blood cells work. I told him that his Grandpa K studies such things, how your body works when you are running around. Ben said that Grandpa should watch the Magic School Bus if he gets confused. We still need to have his birthday party, but I feel like his behavior needs to improve a bit first.
Felicity: 2y,4m old. She wants to be so independent. She puts on her own shoes, gets dressed, has strong opinions about what to wear, wants to get in the carseat herself, wants to open the baby gate herself, wants to pour her own food when we will let her, butter her own toast (and put it in the toaster to begin with), etc. She also changes her mind ever 10 seconds, which is the typical two year old. "I want apple juice" .."NO I NO WANT APPLE JUICE" cue the tears. She is very emotional. She likes playing with baby dolls, wrapping them up, pushing them around in strollers, pretending to feed them. She still uses a pacifier. Her version of the word pacifier sounds like "water". If you ask her to clarify it, it comes out 'wa-ter-wa-ter". She also likes to do whatever her big brother is doing, or to wreck what he is doing, or to steal his Eevee. She unfortunately likes to get our attention by putting things she know dont go in her mouth, like game pieces, in her mouth. She loves apple juice, blankets, and her bunk bed. She is running, climbing and jumping now and grows more everyday.
Monday, January 2, 2017
New Years MEMEs
For some unknown reason I skipped these posts at the end of 2015. I am kind of sad about that now, but I must not have been in a very reflective mood last year. This year I am a day or two late, it has been a rocky start to the new year. Aaron and I both had a rotten cold the past three days. Luckily though our families helped us through and we are both on the up swing.
Exercise #1
1. What did you do in 2014 that you'd never done before? Became a supervisor.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? My goal was to simplify and organize. I made progress.. but its a constant battle.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Ben Ben became a father, and some of my cousins.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Grim dog.
5. What countries did you spend time in this year? Just America.
6. What would you like to have in 2017 that you lacked in 2016? My life is pretty damned good. My biggest wishes are for other people.
7. What dates from 2016 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? June 10th, date of my FET.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Becoming supervisor
9. What was your biggest failure? Not recording it! LOL... bad with pictures, journaling, blogging
10. Did you suffer any serious injury or illness? Nope!
11. What was the best thing you bought? A new van
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and/or depressed? The American Electorate
14. Where did most of your money go? Daycare, mortgage, eating
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? MFIP contracts. Thanksgiving trip to Des Moines.
16. What song will always remind you of 2016? Shut up and Dance
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier
b) thinner or fatter? fatter (mostly due to pregnancy!!)
c) richer or poorer? richer
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? being mindful
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? facebooking?
20. How did you spend Christmas? In Duluth - Santa came to our house, then we went to my parents for the day. ILs came up and spent it with us as well. There was a Christmas Day Blizzard, but everyone made it to the celebration and home safely.
21. Did you fall in love in 2016? I stayed in love.
22. What are the main websites you used? Facebook, What to Expect, Amazon
23. Did you write anything worth reading this year? No, I hardly wrote anything.
24. What was your favorite TV program? Supernatural, various cooking competition shows, Voyaguer
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I try not to hate people in general, but Donald Trump comes to mind.
26. What was the best book you read? I mostly just read book club books. I enjoyed Book 2 of the Raven Cycle, and I enjoyed Etta and Otto and Russel and James
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Piano Puzzlers on MPR
28. What did you want and get? A promotion, a pregnancy
29. What did you want and not get? A living niece/nephew
30. What was your favorite film of this year? I dont even know what movies came out this year or what I saw. Oh! I know! Magical Beasts and Where to Find them!
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 32. I have no idea what I did.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If Trump hadn't won the election. If we had our first female president about to be sworn in.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2016? I discovered Lularoe!!
34. What kept you sane? The help and support of my family and friends.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? David Tenant, Dean Winchester
36. What political issue stirred you the most? The election. Black lives matter.
37. Who did you miss? My graduate school friends
38. Who was the best new person you met?
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2016? We don't live in the idealistic world I had come to feel like we did.
40. What word or phrase sums up this year? Waiting
1 hour ago... I was helping get the kids ready for bed
1 day ago... I was nursing a migraine, trying to make it through parenting.
1 month ago... Working on MFIP Contracts
1 year ago... Preparing for a trip to St Louis for Christmas
1 decade ago... I was in the middle of my first year of grad school.
1 lifetime ago... I think I was in revolutionary in Russia
5 minutes ago... Talking to Aaron, trying to remember what movies we had seen this year
5 hours ago... I was cleaning out under the sink (new years ... motivation)
5 days ago... Hosting a holiday party at work. Pizza Luce!
5 months ago... awaiting anxiously news of if this pregnancy would work out
5 years ago... I was massively pregnant with Benjamin, waiting to go into labor!!
JANUARY: On December 22nd we left Duluth MN and drove the 10 hrs down to St Louis MO to visit my ILs. We arrived back home on Saturday (Jan 2nd). Here are some highlights from the trip
FEBRUARY: Ben... his personality. How do I describe it? The easiest way I think is - he likes the bad guy.
MARCH: On Friday night we took Ben to his first Hockey game, or, at least he first one he has any chance of remembering at all.
APRIL: IFelicity is asserting her independence these last few days. She want's to do everything herself.
MAY: After lingering cold, yesterday a new weather pattern moved in and we suddenly have summer temperatures (too warm for my liking!). I love being able to open the windows though, and seeing all the summer close out there.
JUNE: (NO POSTS)
JULY:Yeah... so it has been two months since I posted. Oops!
In my defense, I have moved to some other versions of keeping track of our lives - mainly a "line a day" journal in which I keep one line as often as possible for myself, Ben, and Felicity. But I did not mean to abandon my blog.
Exercise #1
1. What did you do in 2014 that you'd never done before? Became a supervisor.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? My goal was to simplify and organize. I made progress.. but its a constant battle.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Ben Ben became a father, and some of my cousins.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Grim dog.
5. What countries did you spend time in this year? Just America.
6. What would you like to have in 2017 that you lacked in 2016? My life is pretty damned good. My biggest wishes are for other people.
7. What dates from 2016 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? June 10th, date of my FET.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Becoming supervisor
9. What was your biggest failure? Not recording it! LOL... bad with pictures, journaling, blogging
10. Did you suffer any serious injury or illness? Nope!
11. What was the best thing you bought? A new van
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and/or depressed? The American Electorate
14. Where did most of your money go? Daycare, mortgage, eating
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? MFIP contracts. Thanksgiving trip to Des Moines.
16. What song will always remind you of 2016? Shut up and Dance
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier
b) thinner or fatter? fatter (mostly due to pregnancy!!)
c) richer or poorer? richer
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? being mindful
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? facebooking?
20. How did you spend Christmas? In Duluth - Santa came to our house, then we went to my parents for the day. ILs came up and spent it with us as well. There was a Christmas Day Blizzard, but everyone made it to the celebration and home safely.
21. Did you fall in love in 2016? I stayed in love.
22. What are the main websites you used? Facebook, What to Expect, Amazon
23. Did you write anything worth reading this year? No, I hardly wrote anything.
24. What was your favorite TV program? Supernatural, various cooking competition shows, Voyaguer
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I try not to hate people in general, but Donald Trump comes to mind.
26. What was the best book you read? I mostly just read book club books. I enjoyed Book 2 of the Raven Cycle, and I enjoyed Etta and Otto and Russel and James
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Piano Puzzlers on MPR
28. What did you want and get? A promotion, a pregnancy
29. What did you want and not get? A living niece/nephew
30. What was your favorite film of this year? I dont even know what movies came out this year or what I saw. Oh! I know! Magical Beasts and Where to Find them!
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 32. I have no idea what I did.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If Trump hadn't won the election. If we had our first female president about to be sworn in.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2016? I discovered Lularoe!!
34. What kept you sane? The help and support of my family and friends.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? David Tenant, Dean Winchester
36. What political issue stirred you the most? The election. Black lives matter.
37. Who did you miss? My graduate school friends
38. Who was the best new person you met?
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2016? We don't live in the idealistic world I had come to feel like we did.
40. What word or phrase sums up this year? Waiting
Exercise #2
1 minute ago... I was watching watching The Crown1 hour ago... I was helping get the kids ready for bed
1 day ago... I was nursing a migraine, trying to make it through parenting.
1 month ago... Working on MFIP Contracts
1 year ago... Preparing for a trip to St Louis for Christmas
1 decade ago... I was in the middle of my first year of grad school.
1 lifetime ago... I think I was in revolutionary in Russia
5 minutes ago... Talking to Aaron, trying to remember what movies we had seen this year
5 hours ago... I was cleaning out under the sink (new years ... motivation)
5 days ago... Hosting a holiday party at work. Pizza Luce!
5 months ago... awaiting anxiously news of if this pregnancy would work out
5 years ago... I was massively pregnant with Benjamin, waiting to go into labor!!
Exercise #3
The rule is simply: Post the first line of each month of my blog from the last year.JANUARY: On December 22nd we left Duluth MN and drove the 10 hrs down to St Louis MO to visit my ILs. We arrived back home on Saturday (Jan 2nd). Here are some highlights from the trip
FEBRUARY: Ben... his personality. How do I describe it? The easiest way I think is - he likes the bad guy.
MARCH: On Friday night we took Ben to his first Hockey game, or, at least he first one he has any chance of remembering at all.
APRIL: IFelicity is asserting her independence these last few days. She want's to do everything herself.
MAY: After lingering cold, yesterday a new weather pattern moved in and we suddenly have summer temperatures (too warm for my liking!). I love being able to open the windows though, and seeing all the summer close out there.
JUNE: (NO POSTS)
JULY:Yeah... so it has been two months since I posted. Oops!
In my defense, I have moved to some other versions of keeping track of our lives - mainly a "line a day" journal in which I keep one line as often as possible for myself, Ben, and Felicity. But I did not mean to abandon my blog.
AUGUST - December - NO POSTS
Pregnancy #3
I am 31 weeks pregnant! Its a girl. We are elated. It has been a rocky journey! We had two frozen embryos left from when we struggled to get pregnant with Ben, so we set up to do a Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) starting way back in February. First I had to get my thyroid back under control, then in April I was able to start the 8 weeks of meds required to ramp up for a FET. In early June I traveled to Columbus OH for the transfer (easier to take me to the embryos then vica versa). Only one of the embryos survived thaw, and we transferred that on June 10th. 10 days later, when we started to try to figure out if the transfer worked, my numbers were not what the doctor hoped for or expected, and they did not rise as quickly as "normal", but we wanted to be sure it was not viable before stopping meds so I kept having Aaron jab me with needles (9 shots a week) and we waited. We had our first U/S in early July, and again it was not clear news, not what the doctor hoped to see, and more waiting. Then, the middle of July we were able to have our second U/S and finally, some definitively good news! There was a baby in there, with a strong heartbeat! Such a big change of momentum. I was measuring a FULL WEEK behind with no explanation (given they knew the exact timing of everything), but besides that unaccounted for week, it all looked good, and so it has all kept looking good since then. My due date is March 5th (after they moved it a week).
This has been a rough pregnancy symptom wise as well! I had a lot of nausea and shortness of breath at the beginning and it was hard to know that it might be just the meds and not a viable pregnancy causing it, that was a huge psychological thing for me. The nausea stuck around until very recently and I feel sure it will come back. I assumed that because I was so nauseated, it must be a boy, because I had been nauseated with Ben but not Felicity. Then I also started getting migraines... which was something I had with Felicity and not Ben. In the end, our October anatomy scan showed a healthy, stubborn little girl who would NOT show us her face for anything (we went back in November and got a picture of her face)
Overall, I really enjoy being pregnant even if I am exhausted, short of breath, nauseated, and getting occasional migraines. Just in the past few days she has gotten big enough in there that I am starting to feel every move, one of my favorite phases of pregnancy!
This has been a rough pregnancy symptom wise as well! I had a lot of nausea and shortness of breath at the beginning and it was hard to know that it might be just the meds and not a viable pregnancy causing it, that was a huge psychological thing for me. The nausea stuck around until very recently and I feel sure it will come back. I assumed that because I was so nauseated, it must be a boy, because I had been nauseated with Ben but not Felicity. Then I also started getting migraines... which was something I had with Felicity and not Ben. In the end, our October anatomy scan showed a healthy, stubborn little girl who would NOT show us her face for anything (we went back in November and got a picture of her face)
Overall, I really enjoy being pregnant even if I am exhausted, short of breath, nauseated, and getting occasional migraines. Just in the past few days she has gotten big enough in there that I am starting to feel every move, one of my favorite phases of pregnancy!
Sunday, July 10, 2016
All Grown Up
Yeah... so it has been two months since I posted. Oops!
In my defense, I have moved to some other versions of keeping track of our lives - mainly a "line a day" journal in which I keep one line as often as possible for myself, Ben, and Felicity. But I did not mean to abandon my blog.
It has been a crazy two months. Here is what we have been up to -
- I have been selling Usborne Books, averaging four parties a month.
- For my Birthday we went up the shore and had a glorious picnic and fun time hanging out at the Baptism River and Silver Bay Marina
- I travelled to Columbus in June for a frozen embryo transfer. We STILL are waiting to find out if this was successful, so don't ask.
- Aaron and Ben traveled to Des Moines to help his parent move there!
- We had a good Independence Day! Aaron was sick, but I took Felicity and Ben to the Superior Parade, we had BBQ at my parent's house, and I took Ben to see the fireworks (from Marshall)
Here is what the kids are up to -
Ben is starting to learn manners and act like a human being! Sometimes. He is into Legos, Ninjago (a lego Ninja show). We bought clearance Star Wars playdoh that he is loving. He is still a picky eater, but seems SLIGHTLY more likely to try something new if we say he will like it. At least once daily he asks "what kind of dragon are you?" and we have to invent a new dragon to play as. Aaron just introduced him to Pokemon Go and he likes that. His speech is still not clear, he will continue speech therapy in the fall. He loves playing in water. He is interested in learning to read, and in science.
Felicity is talking more everyday. The last time I posted we were excited she was saying things like Nooooooo. Now she is saying multiple sentences and surprising us with new vocabulary. Today's new sentence was "I'm coming!", which she shouted out down the sidewalk to her dad today who was already at the garage. She loves to be outside. She likes vehicles. We went to the airshow this weekend and she laughed at the noise of the Jets. She likes to point to a vehicle confirm what it is, and then say vroom vroom. She likes to identify possession - who owns what. She is still saying Ommy for drink , and I do not know the link. She is fearless and will climb anything, is doing some serious big kid obstacles at the playground these days. She wants to do anything she sees her brother doing. She jumps (It took Ben forever to jump! So this surprised me!). She wants to do EVERYTHING herself, I would say she has hit the terrible two's early.
Hope that is a good update!
In my defense, I have moved to some other versions of keeping track of our lives - mainly a "line a day" journal in which I keep one line as often as possible for myself, Ben, and Felicity. But I did not mean to abandon my blog.
It has been a crazy two months. Here is what we have been up to -
- I have been selling Usborne Books, averaging four parties a month.
- For my Birthday we went up the shore and had a glorious picnic and fun time hanging out at the Baptism River and Silver Bay Marina
- I travelled to Columbus in June for a frozen embryo transfer. We STILL are waiting to find out if this was successful, so don't ask.
- Aaron and Ben traveled to Des Moines to help his parent move there!
- We had a good Independence Day! Aaron was sick, but I took Felicity and Ben to the Superior Parade, we had BBQ at my parent's house, and I took Ben to see the fireworks (from Marshall)
Here is what the kids are up to -
Ben is starting to learn manners and act like a human being! Sometimes. He is into Legos, Ninjago (a lego Ninja show). We bought clearance Star Wars playdoh that he is loving. He is still a picky eater, but seems SLIGHTLY more likely to try something new if we say he will like it. At least once daily he asks "what kind of dragon are you?" and we have to invent a new dragon to play as. Aaron just introduced him to Pokemon Go and he likes that. His speech is still not clear, he will continue speech therapy in the fall. He loves playing in water. He is interested in learning to read, and in science.
Felicity is talking more everyday. The last time I posted we were excited she was saying things like Nooooooo. Now she is saying multiple sentences and surprising us with new vocabulary. Today's new sentence was "I'm coming!", which she shouted out down the sidewalk to her dad today who was already at the garage. She loves to be outside. She likes vehicles. We went to the airshow this weekend and she laughed at the noise of the Jets. She likes to point to a vehicle confirm what it is, and then say vroom vroom. She likes to identify possession - who owns what. She is still saying Ommy for drink , and I do not know the link. She is fearless and will climb anything, is doing some serious big kid obstacles at the playground these days. She wants to do anything she sees her brother doing. She jumps (It took Ben forever to jump! So this surprised me!). She wants to do EVERYTHING herself, I would say she has hit the terrible two's early.
Hope that is a good update!
Friday, May 6, 2016
Sunny Weather
After lingering cold, yesterday a new weather pattern moved in and we suddenly have summer temperatures (too warm for my liking!). I love being able to open the windows though, and seeing all the summer close out there.
Last night we went to the Lyons Club Pancake Dinner at the DECC. It is a massive affair, and it was our first time going. It was also Ben's first pancake dinner. He was so excited about it going in when we described the concept, and the actual event did not disappoint. He was especially happy about the blueberry syrup they had. Felicity was pretty tired, so its hard to tell if she liked it or not. We also all had our vision screened by my friend Sam with this cool camera that you just have to look at to tell if your eyes have certain issues.
Felicity's new developments this week... she is saying a lot of things specific to her books, like the book that says "oops" and the one that says "noooooooo". She tries to mimic these dramatic sounds. She is also trying to say more other things like "all done", "please", etc. When we have made it to the playground, she has loved the slides. She has also tried some "big kid" obstacles like ladders and the like, she jumps right in and tries!
Ben has been pretending to be an animal or monster or creature basically non-stop. Bloody Devil (a giant black and red sea serpent he made up), or Alligators, or Spiders, or Spinosaurus (apparently from Jurassic Park?) . He plays he is the baby. He asks repetitively if we are still playing we are the parents. He likes when I call him "baby ____" instead of Ben. He has been loving Magic School Bus books recently.
Last night we went to the Lyons Club Pancake Dinner at the DECC. It is a massive affair, and it was our first time going. It was also Ben's first pancake dinner. He was so excited about it going in when we described the concept, and the actual event did not disappoint. He was especially happy about the blueberry syrup they had. Felicity was pretty tired, so its hard to tell if she liked it or not. We also all had our vision screened by my friend Sam with this cool camera that you just have to look at to tell if your eyes have certain issues.
Felicity's new developments this week... she is saying a lot of things specific to her books, like the book that says "oops" and the one that says "noooooooo". She tries to mimic these dramatic sounds. She is also trying to say more other things like "all done", "please", etc. When we have made it to the playground, she has loved the slides. She has also tried some "big kid" obstacles like ladders and the like, she jumps right in and tries!
Ben has been pretending to be an animal or monster or creature basically non-stop. Bloody Devil (a giant black and red sea serpent he made up), or Alligators, or Spiders, or Spinosaurus (apparently from Jurassic Park?) . He plays he is the baby. He asks repetitively if we are still playing we are the parents. He likes when I call him "baby ____" instead of Ben. He has been loving Magic School Bus books recently.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Felicity at 19 Months
Felicity is 19m old!
She has peed on the potty 4 times so far! She is very interested in using it.
Its hard to remember what changes since the last time I posted.
She loves to brush her teeth, wash her own hands, and of course play in any running water. She loves baths.
She is a hungry girl, she eats so much on somedays! But she is already showing the same picky eating that her brother has. I suspect she is actually modelling his behavior. I was trying to get them to try cantelope. She refused. Then Ben refused. Then I dared Ben to lick it. He licked it and immediately took a bite (because its good!!). She immediately wanted some.
She is much more likely to eat something if she can put it on a spoon or fork. She uses utensils more, and better, than her brother. She likes BBQ sauce, oranges, beans, and cottage cheese the most. (and Jelly Beans...)
Her language has started to take off a bit in the past two weeks. She tries to say more and more things. My favorite thing lately is the way she says "oh". A common morning conversation would be:
Felicity: Da da daddy? (Pointing at the bed where he sleeps)
Me: He is at work
Felicity: Oh.
She also likes that rhythm... da da daddy? Ma ma mommy? ow ow owie? She uses it a ton.
She is still using Owie to mean help sometimes, though she does seem to understand help is a word too.
She continues to be pretty awesome.
She has peed on the potty 4 times so far! She is very interested in using it.
Its hard to remember what changes since the last time I posted.
She loves to brush her teeth, wash her own hands, and of course play in any running water. She loves baths.
She is a hungry girl, she eats so much on somedays! But she is already showing the same picky eating that her brother has. I suspect she is actually modelling his behavior. I was trying to get them to try cantelope. She refused. Then Ben refused. Then I dared Ben to lick it. He licked it and immediately took a bite (because its good!!). She immediately wanted some.
She is much more likely to eat something if she can put it on a spoon or fork. She uses utensils more, and better, than her brother. She likes BBQ sauce, oranges, beans, and cottage cheese the most. (and Jelly Beans...)
Her language has started to take off a bit in the past two weeks. She tries to say more and more things. My favorite thing lately is the way she says "oh". A common morning conversation would be:
Felicity: Da da daddy? (Pointing at the bed where he sleeps)
Me: He is at work
Felicity: Oh.
She also likes that rhythm... da da daddy? Ma ma mommy? ow ow owie? She uses it a ton.
She is still using Owie to mean help sometimes, though she does seem to understand help is a word too.
She continues to be pretty awesome.
Friday, April 1, 2016
I*N*D*E*P*E*N*D*E*N*T (Do you know what that means?)
Felicity is asserting her independence these last few days. She want's to do everything herself.
The most comical (and ridiculous) example of this has been the drinking fountain at daycare. Yesterday at pickup she stood on the little stool at daycare and begged for us to push the button for her to make it run (owie! owie!... we need to replace this with HELP lol). When we pushed the button and the water stated, she would try to drink it. But she is not tall enough, so she would whine. But if you tried to pick her up she would cry and kick and squirm. Basically she could not physically do the task, but refused help. Fun times!
She wants to serve herself food, and not sit in a high chair. She wants to use adult plates and bowls. She wants to fill her own "big kid" water cup and drink from it herself (she climbs up on the toilet to reach the downstairs bathroom sink). She tries to put on her own socks and shoes. She loves to put on her own hats. She wants to run with the big kids (and in general, run away from us).
It is a frustrating.. but fun.
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