Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day I worked my usual 8 hour shift. My day surprised me - it was pretty fun! I spent a lot of time in the electronics and entertainment department trying to put movies away but ended up helping guests all day! I was pleased that the ones who I had interactions with seemed to be in a good mood. I was even thanked by a few for working which I appreciated.

We stopped by a gathering of Jason's family briefly and then spent the night at my parent's house. Kim made stuffed peppers for dinner and we did presents around the tree. Amelia couldn't even get through present opening before she needed something opened so she could play with it:


Joe on his first Christmas Eve:


Family photo by the tree:

Girl's Night

Last Friday night was a little girl's night out at Acapulco! Marie was in town for the holidays and it worked out that several of us could meet for dinner. We were surprised at how empty the restaurant was. They are notorious for slow service (but the cheese dip is awesome and worth it!) so I was a little worried about it being Friday night and the day before Christmas weekend. I figure everyone would be eating out since they'd be cooking all weekend! This was not the case - we walked right in and sat down.

Amelia stayed home with her daddy for the evening. She's not that into mexican food and I also knew Joe would keep me busy enough while trying to visit and eat! He did pretty well though. He slept part of the time even!


I wish we could all get together like this a little more often - it was a good time!

2 Months

Last week Joe was two months old!


We had his check-up and he is looking great. He was 26 inches long (100th percentile) and 14 pounds 5 ounces (90th percentile). We have a fast growing, big baby boy!


We started having some sleeping issues. Joe doesn't like his crib most nights and spends the night in his swing in our room:


It is not an ideal situation or one that we are entirely happy with but it's what we have to do to get any rest. Since I started back at work last week and have been averaging around 3 hours of sleep on work nights (I get up at 3 a.m.) the swing has been a lifesaver. We keep hoping one night he'll realize his crib is comfy but so far it hasn't happened :(

These first two months have flown by - he'll be one before we know it!

Kitty Cat, Night Night

Amelia loves to take people "ny, ny." What that means is she takes you to her room and closes the door and basically holds you hostage. She will even go so far as to "block" the door with whatever she can find. She honestly believes that her sippy cup or step stool will keep you barricaded in her room!

She is always running around the house yelling, "kitty cat, night night! Kitty cat, night night!" Her father has let a kitty cat go "night, night" before. I on the other hand am opposed to it. Here she is seeking out a cat to go "ny, ny."

Searching for Tubing

Do you know what it takes to get these?


A LOT.

This afternoon our cats found the tubes to the breastpump and decided they looked like a fun toy and chewed them up. Sweet. I go back to work in the morning (well, in just a few hours) and definately need that tubing!

We went on with the day knowing that we would be in Woodbury this evening and we would stop in at Babies R Us and get some new tubing. Guess what? You can't buy the tubing there! They have every other replacement part you can think of except the tubing. We stopped in at a few pharmacies thinking they might have some for some reason. Nope.

In a last effort on the way home we stopped at the hospital. They have surgical tubing and that's really all we needed. A few feet of surgical tubing. They must have miles of it in a hospital! The triage nurse sent us to Target. I knew Target didn't carry it because I work there but just in case we went over there. They did not have it.

I called the OB department of the hospital directly and went through it all again and basically said, "I need this tubing ASAP and I know you have it. What do I need to do to get and I am more than willing to pay for it." They ended up putting me on hold and then decided they'd call me back once pricing was figured out. Well, they called back and we went and got it.

We expected just a few feet of surgical tubing. Instead we got a brand new Medela tubing set in the packaging. Apparently there was some confusion on what we needed and the nurses just found the whole thing hilarious because they have cases of what we needed just sitting there. I was not laughing so much but was happy to get what we needed and get home.

I go back to work for the first time since Joe was born in just a few hours and our adventures this evening/night have led to me needing to pull an all-nighter! Sunday is going to be an interesting day for me :)

Christmas Tree 2011

This past Sunday we went to the St. Croix Tree Farm to get a tree for Jason's sister's house! This year it snowed the night before we went - just like last year!

We brought a sled with this year for Amelia to ride around on and she loved it!


She also figured this year that throwing snow is fun!


While the tree was being trimmed our family snuck off to get a picture of the four of us for our Christmas card! All three of them turned out ok but this one was our favorite:


Thanks Auntie Liz for being our photographer!

The group shot this year wasn't as good as last years...


...the spot we chose had the sun right behind us! We'll have to plan better next year :)

This was the second year that I went to cut down a real tree and I am starting to think that once we are living in our own home I might want to give a real tree a try! We never had one growing up because cats got sick from eating the tree and needed medicine etc. For now, we will use our artificial tree which we hope to have up this weekend!

Small Gestures

With two little ones at home life can be really frustrating sometimes. Some evenings, while Jason is at work, all three of us end up in tears because there is just so much going on and so, so much noise (ie- Joe crying and Amelia yelling about something.)

One evening not too long ago we had one of those nights where we were all in tears. I felt like I spent the whole evening yelling at Amelia to stop doing things she shouldn't be doing or telling her "no" she could not have whatever it was she wanted etc. After I put her to bed and put up the baby gate so she had to stay in her room. After putting up the gate and telling her to stop screaming and crying I turned around to see this:


Amelia had wound the vacuum cord up (sort of) for me. All night I was telling her "no" and "stop" and asking why she was not listening. At some point though she saw something that needed to be done and she did it as best she could. She knew I was needing some help so she did it. She was trying to help her mama out. It was such a sweet, small gesture from a sweet, small girl. I need to remember that gesture when we are having a bad night and she is unruly because if I look harder I bet she is helping me out in ways I am not even aware of.

Baby Boys

Joe and his friend, D


These two have lots of good times to look forward to!

Joe's First Month

We've had a busy month! This past Sunday Joe turned one month old. Instead of trying to remember all we've done, here are a few pictures:

First night at home:


Sleeping in the bilibed:


Snoozing:




Halloween:


Siblings:


(I had to sneak this after she fell asleep on the couch! Amelia is not quite ready to be close to him just yet)

Joe met his first friend, D:


Meeting "Auntie M" and "Uncle J":


Lastly, I caught a smile on camera just the other day:


It has been a busy, busy first month full of frustrations and joys. All in all, we are adjusting pretty well to life with two little ones.

We still don't have Internet at our apartment but it is at the top of the "to-do list" finally so hopefully we can get that taken care of next week!

Joseph Leonard

On October 13th we welcomed our new baby, Joseph.



He weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces and was 22 inches long! Quite a relief for me since big sister was over ten pounds! Labor and delivery was just under 12 hours compared to 28 hours with big sister which was also a relief to me :)

I was induced, as I was with big sister, and it was slow going. Around dinner time I was only 4 centimeters dilated so Jason left to get some dinner at a drive-thru and I settled in to rest. I knew I was going to need some energy later in the night but my body had other plans. Before Jason could even get back (he was gone less than a half an hour) I was in a lot of pain and felt like I needed to push. I was completely numb with Amelia and they had to tell me when to push so this was a whole new thing and concerned me since thirty minutes earlier I wasn't even halfway dilated.

Jason got back, got a nurse and they checked and I was ten centimeters. No one could believe it, including me! Here I was, expecting to settle in for a few hour nap and they were telling me it was time to push? My epidural did not take very well so pushing was much different this time around - much more painful. Maybe the pain helped me push harder because he was out in 25 minutes (vs 3 hours with big sister)!

Going home outfit:


Tuxedo...with tails!

39 Weeks "Overdue"

Yesterday I was 39 weeks and was scheduled for induction due to a history of "infant macrosomia" - aka big baby. On Tuesday at my regular OB appointment it was discovered that I am not dilated at all. This didn't surprise me at all since I was 9 days late with Amelia and still at zero centimeters when they induced me. I explained this to my current doctor but she wouldn't budge - so another week we wait. I am almost certain I will still be a zero next week but only time will tell.

My ankles (or lack there of) are quite a sight these days:


Tonight my sister said, "no offense but your feet are gross." She's right so I couldn't be mad.

Since midway through this pregnancy I have had carpal tunnel and since Labor Day weekend it has left me with numb hands - fingers in particular. I am typing this using the only three fingers I have sensation in these days. The rest tingle. You can understand the lack of blogging the past few months I am sure...

We are just taking things a day at a time and hoping baby boy decides to join us sooner rather than later!

First ER Visit

Saturday evening while we were at Jason's sister's house Amelia had a little accident. She was in the next room playing with the dog and we heard a crash and then a cry. All we could determine for sure was that she hit the back of her head on a side table. The result was this:


Coloring while waiting to be looked at a second time. The gauze had a numbing agent in it.


The end result...



5 staples :(

She is recovering well and will get her staples out at the end if this week/early next week. She is one tough cookie ;)

Still Here...Just Moving

We're still alive! We have been keeping beyond busy.

We traveled to Indiana at the end of August unexpectedly to say goodbye to my grandpa. Upon returning home it was MN State Fair time. After that we moved. We are still moving... It has been a slow process with us working nearly every single day, trying to keep a toddler entertained and myself being 8 months pregnant.

Once we have Internet at our new place I am looking forward to posting more often again! It is a great way to document the things our family does and to share with family and friends we don't get to see very often :)

Sunday Afternoon at the Zoo

Yesterday afternoon we were looking for something fun to do. We didn't want to spend any money so we decided to take advantage of our Minnesota Zoo membership!

We packed a picnic lunch and ate it in the parking lot before heading into the zoo since we got there right around lunch time!

Once inside we saw tons of animals but, of course, Amelia gravitated towards anything in water. We spent a lot of time looking at turtles, fish, empty tanks and more fish. She did not give up on the "empty" sea otter tank and it paid off!


He came out of his cave, swam to her, did a somersault and swam away!

To take a break we rode the monorail.


Amelia enjoyed looking out the windows and I think she saw a couple of animals but mostly she just looked around and said, "wow!"

When she saw the leopard napping she thought it sounded like a good idea:

Riding on a wolf with her zebra:


There is a "splash pad" near the monorail where kiddos can run around in their swimsuits and cool off. We avoided it one time but on our way off the trail it is near Amelia noticed it and had to go. We debated, tried telling her not today but in the end we gave her the go-ahead. Once she heard, "ok" she was gone!


She had an absolute blast!


Once we were done at the "splash pad" we got Amelia changed into her spare clothes and a new diaper and looked through one more area of the zoo before heading home! Amelia fell asleep super fast on the ride home:


We had a fun day and can't wait to go back!

Oh!

Amelia says "yes" now...only to her "yes" is "OH!"



We think she associates "yes" with "oh" because it usually takes us a long time to figure out what she is trying to tell us/ask for and when we finally figure it out we say, "oh! You want (blank)." I love how big her eyes get when she says "oh."

Wisconsin Dells

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week Amelia, myself and my parents met some cousins in Wisconsin Dells! Before our cousins arrived we went on an Original Duck tour!



Somehow Amelia managed to fall asleep part way through the tour!


We stayed at a hotel that had a huge indoor and outdoor waterpark included as part of your room cost. Amelia had a blast in the kiddie areas. She was not a fan of anywhere she could not touch but had fun in wading pools and on kid waterslides :)

I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was playing with kiddos and was wet most of the time! I did get at least one picture of each baby though:


One of Amelia coming down a waterslide for the first time:


Unfortunately her Papa fell over on the last turn so I really only got a picture of his leg in the air...

Amelia and her cousin P had a blast together. We aren't around small kids often and when we are it doesn't go great usually but Amelia loved hanging out with her cousin.


Watching them interact with each other was the highlight of the trip for me.

Amelia was wiped out after our overnight trip and so is this mama.