Giggle

Fever...

I'm home today with little miss E. She has a low grade fever. We went to the doctor's office this morning to see if it is another ear infection. Nope. She has fluid in her ear but it is not infected. The fluid is either left over from her last ear infection or she's at the very beginning stages of a new ear infection. It's hard to tell. Or this is just from teething. She hasn't been sleeping or eating well the last few days so she may just have a bug. Poor baby!

So she is busy sleeping upstairs and I've been trying to work from home. It's actually going pretty well considering. I've accomplished quite a bit today. It's amazing what you can accomplish without all the regular interruptions.

Weekend Rewind

I have to say we had a wonderful weekend! It was both relaxing and FUN!

Today (Sunday) we hung around the house for the most part. Dave got up early with the kiddos and let me sleep in. (Always very much appreciated!) They went for a walk to the park after breakfast and enjoyed the morning sun. When they returned Zach popped upstairs to "check on mommy" I was just enjoying some quiet time in bed - I was awake when he came upstairs but I pretended to be sleeping to see what he would do. Zach tickled my hand then crawled up in bed with me and brushed back my hair and said, "pretty mommy."

Now I know I forgot to wash my face before going to bed so I'm sure I had mascara down my face and my hair was a mess but my sweet son still said, "pretty mommy". I have to say I love that and it makes me feel so loved and special.

I "woke" up and Zach was all smiles! He told me all about his journey to the park on his bike and how daddy walked and pushed Elaina in the stroller. He saw Max (one of our neighbor's dogs) and another dog whose name he forgot. Then he asked me if we could get a dog like Max. I gave him the standard parent response, "we'll see."

The foreclosure house next door had an open house today.  So NATURALLY we walked through the house to check it out. Dave did alert the realtor that we would walk through if they had an open house.  You can view the listing by downloading this file: Download 10852 Birch Lane, Woodbury, MN 55129 _ Listing Information. When we first saw the listing we were a little worried about our own home value going down because we did not pay $308,000 for our house. However, the previous owners took the refrigerator, washer, dryer and other things. Odd things. They took the door pulls for the bathroom cabinetry and the toilet paper holders and almost all the closet shelving. The house also needs a new front screen door and front door. ALL walls will need to be painted as they are pretty banged up, may need new carpet in the living room and office and it needs a very good cleaning. Putting all of that aside the house was in good shape. When I was walking through another couple was as well and they kept commenting that for a foreclosure it was in great shape! So hopefully a nice family will move in next door.  The floor plan is slightly different from ours and smaller. Ours is about 1050 sq feet larger on the two main floors.  The foreclosure house's living room/great room is smaller as is the kitchen. The bedrooms upstairs are also smaller. However they do have a open lofted area which was nice; however it too took away from the size of the bedrooms. Yes, I am biased...I like our house. If you would like to be our neighbor they are taking bids tomorrow. According to the realtor there today there are several people interested. So who knows the house could go for more than $308,000 depending on how people bid and how much they want the house. I'm not sure how foreclosures asking for bids work. If you know - please comment and let us know. 

After Zach's standard lunch of a PBJ on a bun Dave and Zach went grocery shopping while Elaina and I hung around at home. While Elaina played in her exersaucer I did the standard monthly thorough cleaning of the living room. You know, the moving of the furniture to vacuum behind and under, vacuuming the furniture, wiping down the baseboards, dusting the furniture and woodwork - cleaning that everyone does each month.

We made tacos for dinner - then had a relaxing and quiet evening reading books and cleaning up the kitchen. Now I'm blogging and Dave is working on his typical Sunday evening homework for work.

Yesterday (Saturday) I was up early with the kiddos.

(Okay - this is where I have my entry saved with a draft before I f*cked up things and accidentally deleted ALL 1500 some words of my post I had written...*SCREAMS* don't you hate that when that happens!?!?! GGRRRR....I'll post this and rewrite the rest of the Saturday/Friday in a few moments....)

Ahhh...so what was I saying....errr did I say?? 

I was up early with the kiddos and let Dave sleep in (well sort of...) We enjoyed our General Mills breakfast - Lucky Charms for Zach, Cheerios with fresh strawberries for Mommy Megan and oatmeal with bananas for Elaina. (Zach LOVES his Lucky Charms...but he did steal berries out of my bowl. *giggle*) While I was cleaning up breakfast Elaina was sitting playing with her toys and pacifiers in her highchair.  Then Elaina started to scream and cry. She had stuck her ENTIRE FIST into her mouth and now it was STUCK! To make matters worse she was puking sticky oatmeal and bananas through her fingers onto herself, her highchair and the floor.

This mom kept her cool.

I pulled Elaina's hand from her mouth as she continued to puke the sticky oatemeal and bananas on me and even my hair. How I managed not to puke is beyond me. I picked her up, yes covered in sticky oatmeal/banana puke and all and calmed her down. 

Meanwhile...

Zack is yelling from upstairs, "Mommy I need to go poopie! I NEED TO GO POOPIE!! HELP ME ON THE TOILET MOMMY!" Well this mommy was busy ensuring his baby sister wasn't choking and decided in an instant that if I needed to clean up two messes so be it. However, don't they say necessity is the mother of invention? Well it must be with preschoolers as well because Zach hopped up on the potty all by himself and went poopie.

Dave was sleeping until Zach started yelling from upstairs, "Mommy I have to go poopie!" Dave wakes up, realizes what is going on and realizes I am not going upstairs to help Zach (he didn't know about Elaina's puking and hand stuck in her mouth.) however, by the time he reaches the bathroom Zach was already on the potty doing his business. Yeah Zach! Poor Daddy Dave!

As both Elaina and I were a sticky, stinky pukey mess we hopped in the tub and Zach not wanting to be left out hopped in with us too. Scrub-a-dub-dub three in the tub! It's a good thing we have a big tub in our bathroom.

Then after the bubble bath Zach, Elaina and I piled into the car, leaving Daddy Dave at home for some peace and quiet and we headed to the Minnesota zoo. Hey - we needed to get some time in just in case the zoo closes because of the looming government shutdown in Minnesota. We met miss Nancy at the zoo and we enjoyed a late morning/afternoon misty walk with our hoods up on our jackets. Darn pesky misty rain interrupting our zoo visit! But we didn't let the misty rain keep us from seeing all the animals. We had a great afternoon. Zach even found a new lovey at the zoo.

Zach says, "Look at all my shark's teeth!"

Zach's "Shark teethy" smile!

Yes, he really loves his new stuffed shark!

Then we headed home for late nap times and I did a 'quick change' of clothes, brushed my hair and was out the door to meet The Girls^TM (sans Valerie and Wanda) at Wild Bills in southern Canada Blaine for dinner. This place is just down the street from my sister's old house in Blaine. Food was normal bar food however, the chit chat and conversations with friends was fabulous! Then we raced down to Moundsview to watch the movie, Bridesmaids.

The movie was good and I had written a fun review of the movie - but I'll have to fill that in later...

[insert witty movie review of Bridesmaids tomorrow here].

The movie was great and we had a group hug after the movie. I can say that I will NEVER go to a movie at the Moundsview theater again. Why? It literally STINKS! You know how some places have a smell and with time you don't notice it anymore - it goes away. Well I could smell this theater the entire movie. It was like a bad litterbox smell. YUCK! I do not recommend that theater if you have a sensitive olfactory senses as I do.

After the movie Nancy and headed south to pick up my car at Super Target. But we made a pitstop at Perkins. At dinner Karen mentioned all the strawberries she was picking and I couldn't get strawberry pie out of my head. So Nancy and I stopped at Perkins for a piece of pie and decaf coffee. It was good! I probably shouldn't have done it - maybe all the self-loathing in the movie Bridesmaids led me to wanting to eat a piece of strawberry pie...but damn it was good!

 Friday! I left work early as I hit my hours for the week at 2pm - so it was time to leave and get out and enjoy the sun and the weekend!! I made a pitstop on the way home for some make-up then picked up the kiddos. It was a Mommy Megan, Zach and Elaina night only as Daddy Dave went out for the evening with Bob (with two "O's") to celebrate his birthday.  Bob I hope you had a wonderful birthday! Sorry I couldn't make it!  I know Dave had a great evening!

Well that is our weekend in review!

Thanks for reading!

Elaina's First Day of School...

Today is Elaina's first day of school.  Well ok it's daycare when you are almost 3-months old.  I go back to work on Wednesday.  Why the extra couple of days?  To get my tears in check before I go back to work.  Normally, I'm all about just ripping off the band-aid fast; but I am not one to cry while at work. Thus the couple of days at home.

Elaina will be going to Primrose, the same school as Zachary is currently attending.  Elaina and I visited with her teachers and saw her classroom last week. Not only did I get the few questions I had answered (I've done this all before) I was able to see how Elaina would interact with the other kids. She was facinated with the other babies and laughed and giggled so much.  So it does make me feel a little bit better knowing she is going to have a good time while she is there.

I do have to admit I'm not ready to go back to work yet. Twelve weeks just is not enough time. I was home with Zach for four and a half months and that was great. But different job and a different company this time. I was worried enough asking for twelve weeks off only having been with the company for a few months I didn't want to push it and ask for more.  Granted my company's leave policy does not allow that either.

Would I rather stay home with both kids? Right now my answer would yes. But I also know me and that I need to work outside of the house. Besides I'm itching to go on vacation after I start accruing some vacation time again and the only way that will happen is if I am working. Mommy makes the 'fun' money.

So what is on my agenda for this fine day?  Well first things first I need to get my license renewed as it expired on my birthday last week. OOPS! Then I think I'll call Valerie and see if she can walk at the MOA and then walk through Ikea with me.  I found a bookcase there that will look great in our office and I'd like to get that last piece 'installed' so to speak so I can get the final things organized in the office, putting all of our scrapbooks and financial binders away.  Well it's after 8:30 so time to hop in the shower and get going for the day!

Two Months Already?

Wow! How did my sweet little Elaina turn two months already? Time has flown by so quickly and I'm trying my hardest to stay present in every little moment, every smile, every coo and giggle, and to just snuggle with her and inhale her sweet little baby smell.

I love that when she is crying and upset I can call out "Elaina" in a sing-song voice and she will stop crying and look in my direction.  I love that she is just as observant as her older brother Zach and will look to see where a sound is coming frong. I simply LOVE the coos and happy noises she makes (like right now) when she sits with me in our office while I blog and have Yo-Yo Ma playing on iTunes. She seems to especially like the "Playing Love" from "the Legend of 1900" soundtrack and Gabrielle's Oboe from "the Mission".  I love the noises she makes when she nurses - she actually sounds like she is gulping milk. *giggle*

We've learned so much about her, what she likes and what she doesn't. How to stop crying before it starts, to know when she's tired and needs a nap, that she kicks her blanket off so her feet can be uncovered, when to giggle because she's fussing and it makes her stop. We've laughed because she is a loud pooper but have also learned that her diapers are not very good at keeping the mess in...

Elaina's two-month check up is this Thursday so we'll see where she is at for her growth then.  She has really filled out. When she was first born the newborn sized clothing was large for her. Now her 0-3 month outfits fit her perfectly. Some of the smaller outfits are now getting a tad small for her. We are all set with 3-6 month clothes for her when she reaches that point. (Thanks to all the gifts we received, Flory's daughter's hand-me-down's and Carrie's.)

The past few weeks Elaina has become more smiley and has learned how to actually laugh! Tickle her feet or zurbert her tummy and you'll see! All of a sudden she loves having her diaper changed and does not mind being naked; unless the room is cold or she is very tired or hungry. Elaina is a fabulous eater and she nurses quick; unlike her older brother Zach, he nursed very slowly.  She is showing more interest in toys now too.  She loves to watch the giraffe that Karen gave to her.  When you wind the music box portion of the giraffe it causes the giraffe's head to move which just facinates Elaina. She hiccups A LOT at least four to five times a day.  She is a cooer and doesn't like being in a room by herself - she's social. 

We have moved Elaina from her bassinet to her crib and she does great. It is I who prefers her in our room in the bassinet.  She is now sleeping from 11:30 p.m. until 7:30 a.m. as long as she nurses from both sides before going down for the night. If she doesn't then she is up at 5 a.m. to eat but then goes back to sleep pretty easily (and so does mommy).  I'm still not really on a schedule with her but I need to start establishing on as in a few short weeks she will be in daycare. *sigh*

Elaina has change so much since she was born.

Elaina on her birth day ~ 11-4-2010

Elaina at 7 days old ~ one of her professional photos by JM Photography

Another of Elaina's professional photos by JM Photography

Elaina again photographed by JM Photography. Actually if you view the newborn gallery on the website you'll find our little Elaina modeling in a few different shots. The one above but in color and....

this shot as well.

Then on December 4, 2010 Elaina was one-month old and she had just outgrown her newborn clothes...

Elaina 1-month old on December 4, 2010

So you all can see how much she has grown in the past two months. Here is Elaina in photos to celebrate her 2-month birthday. I took all these photos today.

 

 

I took MANY more photos than the above today. (Perhaps more than you'd like to actually view...*giggle*)  If you click on the giggle family photos link under Our Photo Page on the right side of the page this will take you to our Shutterfly photo sharing site. You will need to become a member in order to view the photos.

Elaina my dear, it has been a wonderful two months. We look forward to the years ahead. Love you mommy Megan and Daddy Dave.