Ho, Ho, Holy Cow - What a Week!

Let me start by saying that, all in all, it did end up being a very nice holiday. But, it wasn’t without it’s fair share of ups and downs. Just to highlight a few of them….

- Beginning of Christmas week, we keep Alex home because of a cough. Day 3 of the cough, he gets a fever. We go to the doctor – where she tells us that he in fact has pneumonia. Really? Can this kid not catch a break? Here he is with his Opa in the height of his fever (note the red cheeks)

- My parents arrive safely the Tuesday before Christmas, but my mom arrives with a bad cold, which then spreads to my father, me and Avery (although, Alex may have been the root cause of me and Avery…who knows). I just felt badly for her that she doesn’t get a cold all year and then gets one right when she needs to fly.

- Wednesday night (the same day Alex gets diagnosed with pneumonia), our heat goes out in the middle of the night. Avery woke up from a bad dream, so I went into her room only to find out that it was FREEZING in there. So, I look at the thermostat – set at 65, temperature = 57. Not good. Clearly a 6 month old with pneumonia cannot stay in a house with no heat. So, at 2 am, I pack Alex and myself up and head to my in-laws’ house to spend the night. I do this while my father and Josh are up trying to read approx. 5 different manuals to try to figure out what the hell happened. Turns out, the diaphragm in our tank froze. Whatever. The guy was out there at 8 am the following morning to fix it and everyone survived the night (Avery slept through the entire thing and woke up wondering why she had 5 blankets on her. I still can’t believe she slept through all of that).

- Christmas Eve – everything was fine until right after dinner, at which point, the sandwich that I had for lunch decided to revisit. Apparently, the Italian grinder didn’t agree with my stomach and it let me know about it for the next 3-4 hours. Thankfully, it passed in time for Christmas day.

- Christmas morning was great. Avery was more interested in whether Santa ate the cookie that we left out than she was in the presents. In fact, she barely even noticed the presents and we had to point out the easel that he had gotten her. At which point, she looked at it and exclaimed, “It’s a Weasel!!!!!” Too funny. We literally were still opening gifts through Sunday – apparently she could only handle so many on the actual holiday!

- The rest of Christmas day was spent running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get ready to host dinner at our house. Overall, it turned out great, but man! I have a whole new appreciation for all of those “adults” who have hosted Christmas all these years.

- Sunday, my parents and I went to the mansions in Newport. We were supposed to have gone on Wednesday while the kids were in daycare, but given how everyone was feeling at the time, it didn’t happen. Which, in hindsight was fine. Josh stayed home with the kids and we did the mansion tours and didn’t have to worry about changing diapers, nursing, burping, etc. Although, I was stupid and neglected to bring my pump with me, so the day was cut a bit short as I felt as though I was about to explode towards the end. Lesson learned there.

- And…to top it all off, Sunday afternoon, I received an email from the woman who took Chili – he’s coming back. Apparently, he hisses at her 4 year old daughter whenever she walks into the room. Go figure. That cat is such a pain in my butt, but I just can’t let them get rid of him and not know what happens to him. I still haven’t broken the news to my husband, as I’m pretty certain this may be grounds for divorce. So, for those of you who are in touch with him between now and this weekend, don’t you dare mention this to him! If you do, I’m sending this damn cat your way!

Like I said, all in all, it was a nice holiday. Avery enjoyed herself, which is what is important. She is still a good year from understanding Santa entirely, but she had fun regardless.

Alex is feeling much better, which is also good. He’s pooping like a goose because of these meds that he is on. Poor thing – he is either pooping once every 10 days or pooping 10 times a day. We can’t win.

Here’s to 2010 bringing full nights of sleep, and no more serious illnesses for any of the Holland family members and normal and consistent poops….

Scary Clause

So, I thought that maybe Avery was old enough this year to really be excited to see Santa Clause and to sit on his lap. We have been talking about Santa Clause a lot lately and I think that she somewhat understands the concept (the concept being that he brings her presents). But, as it turns out? Not so much. We went to a Santa brunch at Josh’s parents’ club this last weekend. Avery was eating her meal when Santa walked into the room. I swear, you would have thought that it was the devil walking into the room by the look on her face. Avery took one look at him and started crying begging me – “Mommy, I want to walk around!!!” So, we left and took a short break from brunch. I explained to her that Santa is very friendly, but that he wouldn’t even come near her. I finally convinced her to go back to the table (considering, at this point, I hadn’t eaten yet and was STARVING) just in time to see Alex being placed on Santa’s lap. I would have thought that would have gotten her to do it, but nope. She stayed just where she was and kept an eye on Santa all morning to make sure he didn’t come near us. Clearly, Alex was totally comfortable on Santa's lap...

And, clearly, Avery was much more comfortable in Mommy's arms....

The rest of the weekend was spent getting the house ready for Christmas. We got our tree on Saturday, which was quite the experience. We went to a new place this year, which was great (yes, that is Alex in the picture doing his typical "pose" in the stroller). Avery had such a good time that, for the first time ever, she fell asleep in the car (which, mind you, was a 5 min. drive) and then stayed asleep while we took her out of the car.

But, when we got the tree home, the trunk was too big for our stand, which meant we needed a saw to cut it down. Of course, being new home owners, we don’t have things like saws (note to self for anyone looking for Xmas gifts for Josh), so we had to call Josh’s dad. As Josh was on his way to his parents house to get the saw, they both showed up at our house with the saw in hand. However, it didn’t really matter, as the chain saw wouldn’t work. So, we made a call to good ol’ Handy Man Earl. Who is Earl, you ask? Well, Earl is the man who Josh’s father has called to help with various household projects since the beginning of time. For example, Earl is the man who put together Avery’s crib. Yes – you read that right. We called Earl to put together a crib. Don’t even ask. Josh is still getting grief for that to this day.

ANYWAY – we FINALLY get the tree up on Saturday and then spent Sunday afternoon decorating it. Avery had fun helping me but was interested for about 1.2 seconds. She did put a few ornaments on the tree and did a very nice job, I have to say.

Yesterday, Avery and I went to high tea with Josh’s mom. A mansion in Bristol (which is a small town near us) had high tea for Christmas. It was great. A table was reserved for each group and each setting had a little cup and saucer (which, I guess would make sense at high tea). Then a bunch of women came around with trays of scones, then finger sandwiches (which included PBJ for the kids, but of course, Avery ate the ham salad), then dessert. And, they offered both tea and hot chocolate for the kids. Santa also made an appearance during this event. Thankfully, Avery didn’t see him….until she had to go to the bathroom and we had to walk right by him to get there. She actually was ok. I told her that she didn’t even need to look at him if she didn’t want to and that she should just look at me as we were walking by (at which point, she just STARED me dead in the face for like 5 minutes straight, which kind of freaked me out – I sometimes forget how literally kids take things at this age). After tea, they had a man dressed as an elf who read a story to the kids and then told all of us that an elf was hiding somewhere in the mansion. So, we spent the next 30 mins looking for the elf,only to find out that he was sitting in the Christmas tree which was in the room where we were in the first place – go figure. Anyway – it was a great night and Avery had a great time.
On a developmental note – Alex sat up on his own the other day! I put the boppy pillow around him, but he didn’t even use it. Of course, at the time, my camera was out of batteries, so I didn’t get the exact moment that this occurred, but I got one later. He isn’t doing quite as well here as he did the first day, but we’re making progress.
We are also working on his sleeping ( or lack thereof). We have started to let him fuss it out a bit longer than we were and now, instead of me going in there, Josh goes in there to give him a pacifier when he wakes up. In the past, this never worked, as he would only be satisfied if he ate. But, for the last week or so, he has accepted the pacifier and gone back to sleep. He is still waking up at 4 am (nearly on the dot) and I feed him at that point, but then he goes back down until anywhere between 730 and 9 am. So, it isn’t horrible.

Oh!!! And, Chili has found a new home for Christmas. A woman, her boyfriend and her child adopted him. They seem to really like him. Although, I did get an email from her yesterday asking me if he “play bites” at all. She also mentioned that he is rather vocal at night and hasn’t really warmed up yet to her 4 year old daughter. All of these do not sound like a recipe for a permanent new home. I’m just hoping they like him so much that they can look past all of these lovely traits because, quite frankly, I’ve gotten pretty used to a house without chili. We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.

Thanksgiving "Vacation"

You would think that vacation = relaxing. Yeah – not so much with 2 kids. I don’t mean to make it sound like we didn’t have a good week, because we did. It was just a bit more challenging from a logistics perspective and included much less sleep than Thanksgiving pre-kids. It started with a visit from my college girlfriends and their babies on Saturday night. It has kind of become a tradition for us all to get together when I get into Houston. It is great being able to see them and their kids, but I will say, I think that we collectively each said about 5 words to each other all night. Most of the night was spent with Amy walking Olivia around (as she is at that, "I'm learning to walk and want to walk everywhere" stage), Jessica following Owen around (as he is at that, "I'm 18 months and this is a new house, so I want to explore" stage) and me getting Alex down and then avoiding to get Avery down thinking it would be a long process in a new place, which led to her hanging out all night and talking and interrupting our conversation (because she is in that, "I know how to talk and I want people to pay attention to me and only me" phase). I will say that there was about 10 mins while we ate when all kids were occupied, which led to us actually being able to eat and drink some wine sans kids. This moment is captured below.But, overall, it was really nice being able to catch up a bit and to see everyone's kids. Hopefully, in the future, we can try to plan an adult only party after the kids go down. The next morning, Lexi, the kids and I left for Aransas Pass to go to Mom and Dad's. Note, Josh and Will weren't included in this car load. Even with Lexi’s SUV, which has 3 rows, we still couldn’t fit the kids and the luggage in one car, so we were forced to rent an economy going one way from Houston to Aransas Pass. This car literally only carried the luggage and Josh (Will had to work and came down later). Everything was great for the 1st 2 hours. However, just as we started on hour #3 in the car, Alex decided that he needed to eat and he needed to eat right then and there. So, we pulled over at some sort of gas station, which turned out to be the one where a van full of dead people from Mexico were found trying to be smuggled across the border a few years ago (we should have known at that point that this would not turn out well). So, we stop and proceed to wake Avery up by stopping (seen sleeping here with her headphones on). At which point, she decides to let us know just how unhappy she is that she was woken up by screaming loudly – very loudly. So, to appease her, Lexi offers to get her out of the car to walk around. They were out there for no more than 5 mins when Lexi starts screaming, “Fire ants! Fire Ants! Get back in the car!” Poor Lexi ended up getting some bites, but thankfully, Avery escaped and went back into her seat surprisingly easily. So, I’m done feeding Alex on one side and try to change his diaper in my lap. I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working, and then realized (as he was screaming in my lap because his head was inadvertently being pushed against the center console) that I was trying to put a size FIVE diaper on him (which I had with me in order to avoid an accidental potty break by Avery as she was sleeping in Aunt Lexi’s brand new car seat). So, once I get that figured out, I finish feeding him and then Miss Annabel decides that she now needs to eat. So, we feed her. Finally, we’re off. Everything was ok for the next 30 mins. But, then both babies and Avery all decided that it was time to get out of the car, so they literally all screamed and cried for the last 30 mins of the ride. At this point, all we could do was laugh.

Once we got there, everything was fine. Sleeping arrangements were a bit tough for no other reason than Alex not wanting to sleep AT ALL. Why you ask? Because he didn’t poop for TEN days!!! I mean, seriously????? What child just doesn’t poop for TEN days? So, as you can imagine, he was rather uncomfortable and as a result, was pretty fussy during the day and VERY uncomfortable at night. In order to avoid waking Avery up, I slept in a different room so that I could hear Alex (who was in my father’s office surrounded by multiple African animals…come to think of it, maybe the fact that a baboon was staring at him all night and probably scaring the crap out of him had something to do with him not sleeping??) and get him before he woke Avery up. Avery slept in a big girl bed (aka, a blow up mattress on the floor next to our bed) for the first time. Everything was fine and she was very excited to not be surrounded by wooden bars. However, the first night, Josh said he woke up to Avery screaming. Turns out, her upper body had fallen off of the mattress and ended up UNDER the bed. Can you imagine waking up to a bed on top of you??? Josh had to literally lift up the bed to get her out. Poor thing. Good thing she had no recollection of this the next day.

Other than the sleeping issues, things were good. We took Avery to the aquarium, which she loved.
She had her first real Thanksgiving dinner (she was in bed by the time we ate last year) and seemed to really enjoy it. She was introduced to gravy and proceeded to dip everything, including her grapes, into it. She also got to do one of her favorite things - help Grandma bake. Alex spent most of his time with his cousin Annabel laying on the ground, sitting in the bouncy seats and chewing on his favorite toy, Sohpie (or, Sophinator, as I like to call him to make it a bit more manly).
The flight back was relatively good. There was one minor issue at the beginning when we got to the airport at 6:45 am only to be told that our flight at 8 am had been cancelled now for months and that it now leaves at 6:50 AM. Clearly, we missed the memo on that one. It was fine – they re-routed us through Atlanta and we only got home an hour and a half later than we would have. There was one time when both of them decided to have a melt down at the same time on the plane. Again, all we could do was laugh at that point.
All in all, it was a nice holiday, but I’ll be honest – I’m looking forward to next year when Alex is a bit older and a bit less constipated (hopefully!).

Some girl time (plus or minus a few kids and a husband)

My two good friends from college, Tracy and Christine, came into town this weekend. We had such a great time. It’s amazing – we all hadn’t been together for years, yet it felt like just yesterday we were in college. That being said, it is so funny looking back at the things that we would have done on a weekend like this back 5-10 years ago vs. what we did this last weekend with 2 kids. Back 10 years ago? We probably would have gone out both nights for some dinner and drinks and then, during the day, maybe would have driven to Newport or Providence or even (dare I say it???) Boston? To do some sightseeing. Now? With 2 kids?

We stayed in the bubble.

Part of me felt kind of bad, but both of them seemed to be perfectly happy with experiencing the LC and everything it has to offer! Now, I don’t mean to make it sound like we can’t do anything fun anymore now that we have 2 kids. But, what I have found is that, if you want to do anything, you really need to motivate in the morning to at least ATTEMPT to get Avery back for nap time. Otherwise, we will all pay for it later. Side note – we could have gone out without Avery, but that would have resulted in us leaving a screaming child who wanted to hang out with Mommy and her friends for Josh to handle, so I chose to spare him. And, obviously, I was in no mood and neither were Tracy and Christine to motivate in the morning so that we could walk around Newport in the rain. Although, that being said, I did allow Avery to wake both of them up at 8 am on Saturday morning. They were less than thrilled with a 2.5 year old screaming, “Auntie Christine???? Are you awake?” outside their door, but I figured if I had already been up for 2 hours, they were not going to be allowed to sleep in either. So, you are asking yourself – “Self? What does LC have to offer in the middle of November?” Well…

First of all, temperature-wise, it was a great weekend. It was pretty rainy on Saturday, but Sunday wasn’t bad. So, Saturday, we went to lunch and then walked around T4C where we looked at all of the ridiculously overpriced stuff and wondered how anyone stays in business there? And, then there were the ever fascinating moo-moo cows. We were all pretty impressed with the size of these things – so much so that we all insisted on taking quite a few pictures (I'll only make you look at one of Christine and me).

Tracy even went back a second time to get that “perfect cow picture.”
Then, there was the bench where Tracy felt the need to perch like a frog (and, I felt the need to join her - I know, I know. We're crazy like that)…

Then, in order to get Avery out for some exercise, we all went outside and played in the rain after her nap. Where was Alex, you ask? On a stroller ride with Josh in the POURING rain. Now, if that’s not proof that Josh has ADD and has to be on the go at all times, I’m not sure what is. Saturday night, we relaxed and cooked dinner and drank wine (lots of wine, actually – Alex totally hooked me up though and didn’t wake up until 5 am that morning, so all was good). Sunday, we all went to take a walk on the beach. Unfortunately, it was a bit short-lived, as Avery was hungry and I forgot to bring food for her (I know, can you believe and Epting forgot food??? ). But, the girls got to see the beach and the houses, which are pretty unbelievable. I am going to apologize in advance for posting the next picture, as we all decided that somehow it turned out to look like C and T are a cute couple with a cute daughter. I think that it has something to do with the way Christine is holding Tracy's waist in such a loving manner. Either way, it is the only picture that I have of us at the beach from that weekend, so it's being posted. Aren't they a cute looking family? :) Alex chose to make up for his fabulous sleeping on Saturday night by staying up all night on Sunday night. Which, fine, I’m used to it and it isn’t enjoyable, but this particular Sunday night was unfortunate, as we had to get up at 430 AM on Monday to get Tracy to the airport. Ugh. I thought that I was going to die on Monday. But, I have officially caught up on sleep and am feeling much better as we speak. And, it was worth it to stretch the weekend out for another night!

That was our weekend. Avery had a great time hanging with the girls and having some more people (most importantly, more people with new and different imaginations than mommy and daddy) to play with. She was busy showing us how she takes care of her babies and cooking us things in her kitchen all weekend. And, then of course, going to various “parties” located throughout our house with Tracy (As I said– “different” imaginations). Alex kept us all entertained with his constant laughing and smiles.

Oh, and on a totally unrelated (yet, exciting) note - it's official!!!!! Avery has enough hair to put in pigtails! As you all know - this has been a long time coming, so I had to document it as proof that my child has finally grown hair.

This weekend, we’re off to Texas for Thanksgiving! Josh is traveling with us this time, so it should be much less stressful - probably won’t be as good in terms of blog material, but less stress, which is a good thing these days…

Corporate Woman Yet Again

Well, it happened- maternity leave ended. It was depressing the first time around with Avery after 5 months of being with her every day and it was even more depressing this time around – not only because I only had 4 months (I know, I know – a lot more than a lot of people get, I’m not complaining. Actually, I am. Sorry) at home with Alex, but because this could quite possibly be the last time I ever have maternity leave. Kind of sad to know that there will never be another time in my life when I can just schedule vacations or play dates or run errands whenever I want and as frequently as I want. But, enough about me…
The last weekend of maternity leave was a great one – it was Alex’s first Halloween and Avery’s first Halloween where she actually understood what was going on. Well, kind of. She understood that she got to run around outside and go to people’s houses and say, “Trick or Treat!!” And, we told her that she would be getting candy (or CANS OF SODA – which was the case at TWO houses. WHAT??? Who the hell gives cans of coke to kids on Halloween? Apparently 80 year olds who live in our neighborhood), but she honestly didn’t really care about that part. She had the best time just running around outside with all of the kids and yelling, “Come on everybody! Let’s go to another house!!! This is fun!!!” As you can see, she was a butterfly

and Alex was a chili pepper (or, a strawberry according to my mother).

From the looks of this picture, he may have been happier as a strawberry.

The original plan was to make Avery’s costume ( I was feeling pressured because the moms who we went trick or treating with all made their kids’ costumes), but I quickly realized that I in fact am better at going to the internet and clicking as opposed to going to the sewing machine and sewing. So, the wings were purchased (and, of course, I made this decision way too late and ended up spending more than the cost of the wings on shipping to ensure it got there in time. Ugh). However, I DID paint the butterfly on her face. I’m sorry, but I think that I clearly have an undiscovered talent here. You have to admit you are impressed with this.

The following Monday, it was time to go back to work. Day one went well. Of course, the night before I got EVERYTHING ready that I could possibly think of – Alex’s bottles, the breastmilk, my pumping stuff, my computer, my lunch, my outfit, Alex’s outfit and Avery’s outfit. Night before day two? Nadda. Nothing. Zippo. I figured it wouldn’t last forever, but I thought for sure I could handle getting things ready the night before for more than one day! As it turns out, by the time I get home, feed Alex, get him to bed, eat dinner and get Avery to bed, I’m exhausted. And, at that point, I (heaven forbid) want to spend just 1 hour doing what I want to do. So, I do. Which, of course, results in me running around like a chicken with my head cut off the next morning, but whatever. That one hour is worth it. Unfortunately, Alex was sick on Tues, Wed and Thurs (nothing serious – just the runs, but no fever, which I know because I took his temp like every 5 mins) and given the fact that I just got back from 4 months off, we didn’t think that it would be smart for me to take more time off during the first week. So, Josh and Alex had some major bonding time those days (one of the many upsides of having a husband who works for his father). Josh has a whole new appreciation for stay at home moms now. Don’t get me wrong – he does a TON around the house, but he has never spent that much quality time with either one of them as an infant this young. I will say that I have received constant grief ever since because both nights, he managed to have our dinner and Avery’s dinner ready when we got home. I’ll be honest – I think that happened two times in the 4 months that I was home. BUT, come on! I had two of them there AND Alex was WAY more fussy then, which made it impossible to do anything. Josh definitely got the new, happy Alex, which makes things MUCH easier.

Ok, if I don't stop typing this and get back to work, the title of the next post will be “Corporate Woman No Longer," so I’m signing off for now. More to come...

Our little princess....or not

This weekend, Avery was invited to her second Princess birthday party where she was supposed to wear her favorite princess dress. This was a bit tricky, as Avery is totally not into princesses. That being said, I sucked it up and spent $20 on a Snow White dress and then on a Belle dress. It really is unbelievable how into these princesses some of these girls are. One woman said that her daughter wears her princess dress every day for as long as they will let her. Uh…what? It makes me wonder – is it because we just haven’t exposed her to princesses (not really on purpose – I guess it is just because I was never into real girly girl stuff growing up) or is it more that she just isn’t that kind of girl who is into it? Regardless, I first attempted the Snow White dress and she didn’t like how that felt when she had it on. So, I went out and got the Belle dress, which she was all excited about, but just as we were trying to get out the door, she announced that she didn’t want to wear it. I went back and forth at that point as to whether or not I really cared. I knew that all of the other girls would be in a dress, but I couldn’t determine whether it was she or I who really cared that she would be the only one not in one. I realized quickly that I was being that mom, so I stopped trying to push it and put her in a regular (or, as we call them, party dresses) dress instead. Sure enough, every other little girl was wearing a princess dress.
It didn’t phase Avery a bit. They even had Ariel show up and Avery could have cared less.

Oh - I nearly forgot – the weekend started off with 3 friends of mine and their kids coming over on Friday morning. This was interesting, as they all have boys (ranging in ages 5 months to 4 years) and I, as of right now, only have one boy who doesn’t do much at this point. Turns out, boys get into anything they can get their hands on. Don’t get me wrong – they were all well behaved. However, things like play dough and my blackberry are all fair game when left out. Avery really is unique when it comes to this stuff, as she would never play with it without asking first. We’ve never had to baby proof the house at all because she just doesn’t get into things. So, I never even thought to put this stuff away until I turned around and play dough was every where, my blackberry had been pulled off of the window sill where it was charging and was on the floor ( I know, that one was dumb on my part) and there was a puddle of water on the ground where one of the boys decided that perhaps my hard wood floors were thirsty and, to satisfy this, he pushed the button on the water thing on our refrigerator...over and over again. None of this stuff really bugged me – it was just comical because it made me realize that I am SOOO not ready for Alex to get older. We’re screwed. And, so is chili because his litter pans are in the basement and apparently, you can’t leave a basement door open with a baby boy who is crawling and I refuse to have the litter pans anywhere else in the house, so it looks like Chili has to go within the next 5 months. Takers? Anyone?

Alex is awesome. A very happy baby ( I know, I know – I would have NEVER thought this 3 months ago). He is smiling and laughing a ton. He went to daycare this last week for 2 days as a trial run. He did great. Didn’t sleep much and apparently I nearly starved him, as his bottles didn’t have enough breast milk, but other than that, he was great. Turns out, frozen chunks of milk don’t actually cause the level in the bottle to raise, but actually, to go down. My sister nearly fell over and died when I told her this and reminded me that I clearly need to go back to science class, as things expand when they are frozen, but whatever…

I’m entering my last week of maternity leave and it sucks. I’m actually getting used to this stay at home mom thing. Granted, being a stay at home mom is easier when the kids are actually going to daycare, but still...

Me being me, I have procrastinated and have waited until the last 2 weeks of my leave to schedule all of the appointments that I need to, so I’ll be doing that this week as well as running any other last minute errands that I have to do before heading back. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Fall Festivities

It’s funny how, once you have a toddler, you actually start participating in all of the things that seasons have to offer. I mean, I’ve always enjoyed fall in New England (even more than summer sometimes – I know, I know – crazy coming from the sun goddess herself, but…), but I really can’t remember the last time that we have done things like carve pumpkins or pick apples….until this weekend.

It started with Friday when we met Lindsey and Asher at the fruit stand and let them pick out pumpkins then bring them back to our house to carve them. Asher and Avery had a good time and seemed to enjoy touching the insides more than the actual carving. Sunday, we went to an apple festival in town where we picked apples, ate apple dumplings (ok, so Avery really didn’t like it, so Mom ate the entire thing – and I wonder why the baby weight really isn’t coming off this time around???), ate honey and watched the bees in their little glass thingy making the honey, listened to a blue grass band and got Avery’s face painted. It was a great day overall. Here is a picture of Avery eating one of the apples and one of the two of us at the festival (no real relevance, just the only good picture I have of the two of us, so I included it)Just one thing…the face painting???? THREE DOLLARS. WHAT? I mean, the lady bug on Avery’s face was no more than a red dot with a bunch of small black dots on it and we paid three freaking dollars? Mind you – in WI, Avery got her face painted with some heart and some crazy vine-like things coming out of it AND glitter and that was FREE. Granted, that really isn’t the norm for there either, but whatever… it still wouldn’t have been $3! ANYWAY, I digress…

Monday we went on a hayride. It was definitely cheesy, consisting of stuffed animals and stuffed characters like batman and Frankenstein that were obviously made in the 1970’s placed throughout the forest that the tractor drove through, but the kids liked it.
So, needless to say, we had quite the festive fall weekend.

I think that the best (for lack of a better word) part of the weekend was when Chili got out of the house right as we were trying to leave for the hayride. Now, this wasn’t the best part of the weekend for the reasons that you are thinking (although, they are a close second). It was the best given Avery’s reaction. I was sitting on the couch feeding Alex when Josh comes storming into the house exclaiming that Chili had gotten out. Avery had been outside with Josh helping to pack up the car, so I go out there and she is yelling at Chili to come out from under the deck. As I’m there with the cat nip, trying to lure him back in, Avery just looks at Chili under the deck and says, “Fucking cat! Fucking cat!” It became clear to me at that point just exactly what Josh’s reaction was when he got out. Lovely. I did was I was supposed to do and ignored it. I haven’t heard her say it again, but knowing my luck, she went to daycare and announced to the class that her fucking cat got outside this weekend….

Alex is doing really well. He has his first cold, which sucks. And, of course, any little sniffle or cough he has, I’m convinced we are going to end up back in the ICU. But, he’s getting through it. He is really starting to grasp things with his hands and has taken a liking to a bunny that he got as a gift. He also laughs a ton. It’s pretty cute.

Here is a picture of his all bundled up for the weather. I think that babies in hats are adorable, so I'm including it. I’m going to start to bring him to daycare next week for 2 days in preparation of my return to work, which is in 3 weeks. I can’t believe it. The idea of leaving him with someone else is breaking my heart. So, in order to cope, I’ve scheduled a hair appointment as well as a pedicure appointment for the days that both kids are in daycare. I’m certain this will help me get through the days. :) More later…

Life on the Farm

Ah….one of the many upsides to maternity leave – being able to go on vacation for as long as I want. So, to take full advantage, the kids and I went to WI to visit my parents for 2 and a half weeks. The one negative of traveling while on maternity leave is that my husband, as it turns out, can’t just take 2.5 weeks off, which requires me to travel by myself with two kids. However, believe it or not – it wasn’t bad at all. The way there went great. Avery has always been so easy with stuff like this. I didn’t bring her carseat and yet, she never once tried getting out of her seat. The hardest part was to try to figure out the appropriate times to bring out one of the new “presents” that I had gotten her to occupy her until we got to WI. Alex basically just nursed and slept the entire way, which was fine by me.

We had a great time while we were there. Avery got to experience life on a “farm” with the chickens, the dogs, the fire pit and the snake (yes, she touched one and no, I was not there when this happened). She LOVED “getting the eggs from the Roosters” with Opa every day.
I was shocked – she wasn’t scared of the chickens at all. She just walked right in and grabbed the eggs with my dad. She was also not afraid of the snake evidently and had no problem touching it. But, like I said – I wasn’t there for this – I was in Milwaukee visiting the HS girls. Not quite sure that would have happened had I been there. She was however, scared of the puppies. It’s hard to believe that a 2 year old would be more scared of puppies than snakes, but whatever. Oh –and, one other animal I forgot about –the pony! I couldn’t believe it. We went to a fair near my parents’ house and she LOVED the pony ride! Now, mind you – this is the girl who started crying on the Merry Go Round at the mall just a few months ago! I was shocked, but pleased. She also developed a new past time – cooking with the grandparents. She loved helping in the kitchen whenever she was given the opportunity. I was thrilled as this distracted her from her “mommy do this and mommy do that” attitude at times.

Here she is on Opa's tractor and eating dinner outside on the stumps by the campfire...

Alex was great and loved hanging out with his new cousin Annabel (ok – clearly he had no idea that he was hanging out with her, but you have to say things like that about a cousin who is the exact same age).

Annabel is adorable and has a great personality. She taught Alex a thing or two like how to hold a toy and tried teaching him how to hold his head up a bit better, but he hasn’t caught on to that quite yet. She tried really hard to teach him to sleep during the day, but that REALLY hasn’t worked. My lord. This child WILL NOT sleep during the day- I think that I’ve just given up. The last straw was when Josh put him in the stroller and walked him around the house (it was raining out, so he couldn’t go outside) to try to get him to sleep and that didn’t even work. Now, that being said – we did reach a milestone while in WI – he started sleeping through the night!!!!! Well, basically. He now goes down between 7 and 730 (with surprisingly NO effort on my part) and sleeps until 5-6 AM. Every once in a while, he will wake himself up with gas at around 3 AM, but he goes back down. He is also smiling a ton, which you will see here with his Auntie Sara.
I managed to sneak away for a day to see the HS girls. It was great seeing all of them. It couldn’t have been better timing because Sara had just had Lila a few days earlier, so I got to meet her, which was great. She is adorable and they are both doing really well. Here is a picture of Alex and Lila. Isn't it funny how Alex nearly looks like a toddler compared to her?

We also managed to throw my mother a surprise retirement party, which was somewhat of a challenge since it was at her house, but we pulled it off. She literally had NO idea and had a great time.

The way back from WI was good overall. The only “mishap” was when Alex pooped and then Avery decided that she needed to go to the bathroom at the same time. It started with me getting up with Alex and walking down the aisle only to hear Avery screaming. Yeah….I totally forgot that she was buckled in and couldn’t get out, so the poor child was locked in and thought that I was just leaving her there. Well, the flight attendant came to the rescue and gave Avery her baby doll to make her feel better, which helped (you may be thinking that part of the story really wasn't necessary, but see more on baby doll below). So, we get to the bathroom and turns out, Alex doesn’t like the changing table and as a result, screamed the entire time. As he was screaming, Avery hit her head on the sink, so she started screaming. At this point, I’m about to lose it, so I walk out of the bathroom holding Alex and asked for a volunteer to hold him. Some poor man in a business suit was the first to offer, so I put a burp cloth on his shoulder and handed him a screaming child. Of course, the entire time, I was convinced that he probably had the swine flu and that Alex was going to end up back in the hospital, but I couldn’t be concerned with that at that point. We ended up making it through ok. HOWEVER – the baby doll? Yeah – she ended up on the floor of the bathroom during the entire fiasco. So, I’m thinking, ok – this is gross, but at the same time, it isn’t like she puts the baby doll in her mouth or anything, so what is the worst that can happen? Um…have you ever been on Midwest Airlines? If you have then you know that they serve hot, gooey chocolate chip cookies. And, of course, as Avery was eating his hot gooey cookie? Yep – the chocolate dripped on the baby (yes – the baby who fell on the bathroom floor) and what does a two year old do when she sees chocolate? LICKS IT!!!! Oh my god – I nearly died and was totally convinced that I would now have TWO kids in the hospital when I got home. My lord.
I’m happy to report that, so far, neither one of them is sick and they are officially back into their normal routines. Avery was thrilled to see all of her toys again and all of her friends at daycare gave her a big hug when she walked into the room. It’s depressing knowing that our vacation is over and that I’m going back to work soon, but we’ll see them all again in November for Thanksgiving, which will be great.