We Made It!

Our trip today took a lot longer than we expected. We aren't really sure why but it took us 7+ hours (vs ~5). We made it though! We stopped in Black River Falls for some Subway and Amelia enjoyed some of my chips, well, the bag at least:


(yes, she is sporting a Bears hat, my Bears hat for those who were wondering)

When we finally got into town we headed straight to my parent's house to unload and stretch our legs. Once we were settled we headed to Pizza Hut to see an old co-worker, Tara for a few minutes. Kevin, the GM, happened to be there too so I got to say hi to him too. After that we went to Jason's mom's house so he could round up his hunting gear for this weekend. When we got there his sister Liz and her boyfriend Kory were there with their new mini dachshund, Cashew. Once I handed off Amelia it was someone elses turn to be worn:


I think Liz and Kory might need a sling to carry this little guy around in! lol Apparently babywearing isn't just for human babies anymore :)

Once we were done at the house we picked up Jason's Grandma Rude and Jason, his mom, his Grandma, Amelia and I had dinner at the Winzer Stube in Hudson. Here we are at dinner:


(Jason really isn't that unhappy. He has been feeling a bit under the weather the past couple of days)

After dinner Jason and I stopped at his Uncle Dave's house on our way home for a few minutes.


At that point in the evening Amelia had had it. We weren't able to stay too long. Just a quick hello, a little chatting and Amelia crying and fighting sleep and we were on our way.

Tomorrow morning I drop Jason off with the rest of the men and they will head to the cabin to prepare for Saturday's opener. After that, who knows what the day will bring. My dad is off, so we will spend the day with him I think.

Milwaukee's Own Superhero

 

What does anyone think of this? Would you feel "safer" if your town had it's own superhero?

Bad Blogger

I have been kind of a "bad" blogger lately. There are many reasons for this but the two main ones are: lack of time and/or a lack of interesting things to talk (blog) about. Ludo has been making computer time difficult too...


He has turned into such a lap cat this past year! It is sweet but kind of annoying at the same time :)

School is winding down, fast. In about one month I will be free. Not just free for winter break but free free. Graduated. Finished. I have one major hurdle to jump before that happens, my thesis. I have been struggling with it for a lot of reasons, mainly, lack of enthusiasm for it (despite it being the "key" to graduation) and lack of information out there on my topic (lacquerware from the Han Dynasty). It's ok. I'll get it done. I have to!

Honeypie won for "best new restaurant" and the Oriental Theatre won "best movie theatre" in the 2009 Shepherd Express "Best of Milwaukee". It's voted on by the people of Milwaukee annually. Jason and I did our part and we cast a ballot along with the rest of the city. You can go here to see other winners if you are interested. There are 6 categories to look through. We are glad to be working at some of the city's most beloved places :)

Amelia is still keeping us on our toes! Our entire apartment is her domain these days:


Her things are everywhere!

We spent this afternoon cleaning up the apartment in preparation for our trip "home" this weekend. We leave tomorrow morning, as early as possible. We will have Thursday night "home" as a family and then Jason heads to the cabin for Wisconsin's deer opener. The rest of the weekend Amelia and I will be visiting with people and I hope to do a little work on my thesis, if possible.

Amelia is ready to go to her Nana's house:


She's thinking, "let's get this show on the road, get me in my seat guys, I can't figure it out myself".

As most of you know, Amelia has a fascination with electrical cords. Here is our most recent attempt to keep her away from my computer cord:


I think it is only a matter of time before she figures out how to get past it. I swear, she is the smartest little girl ever. She figures everything out, eventually.

Over the weekend I dropped my phone in the toilet at work. I used to wonder how anyone ever did that because it just seemed like something that should never happen. Now I know it happens easier than I ever thought. It just fell in :( We went to Target and got a prepaid phone for me (Jason got a new one too) and put my SIM card into it. Quick fix! Amelia thought it was a new toy for her:


It has a partial QWERTY keypad, so that has been interesting to get used to! I've had a full QWERTY phone before but this partial business is very different! Can you see that Amelia's right eye has a red spot? (enlarge the picture by clicking on it if you can't and want to) That would be broken blood vessels in the little lady's eye. Why you may ask? Crying.

Amelia's crying has been getting out of control this past week. She gets so upset very often and in inconsolable. We are praying that it is teething but not convinced. In the past we have atributed some of her behavior changes to teething and no teeth have shown up! Hopefully this time that is it. I'd like to be able to say there is a reason for her fussiness all the time lately.

Don't get me wrong. She has had plenty of happy moments the past week, like this one:


It's just she has been upset a ton which is not like her at all. She is usually a happy little baby all the time!

She is even happy upside down:



She is so silly sometimes!

Last night Jason and I had "date night" (with Amelia in tow). We ate at the Tallgrass Grill which is located in our old neighborhood, right behind our old apartment building almost. They serve "healthy" burgers, aka, grass fed beef burgers. They are really good! After that we went to my work to catch a movie. Our first choice was cancelled (which I should have known as an employee) so we saw the next one to start which was New York, I Love You. Jason didn't seem too thrilled to see it based on my explanation of it but he ended up really liking it! We went to the earlier show because we had hopes Amelia would sleep because she hadn't napped all day. She was awake for the start of it, kicking in her seat but Jason rocked the seat and within 45 minutes she was out like a light.

Well, tonight I have lots to do to get Amelia and I ready for travel. Jason got packed this morning since he is at work now. We went to Target last night to get another duffel bag so Amelia and I don't have to share my old swim bag any longer. It's just not big enough! While we were there we picked up some baby food for the trip. Man, I am so glad that we decided to make her food. It is so expensive! I spent more money last night on a few days worth of food than I spent to make about 50 feedings of sweet potatoes. I could not believe it! I will say, the convenience of pre-made food is great but I will definately be making a few batches of food for Amelia upon our return from "home". We are running low right now. She has been living off of avacado and pumpkin and squash the past few days...

Lastly, here is a picture I just snapped a few minutes ago. I was in the bathroom and when I came back I heard whimpering but could not find Amelia anywhere. Turns out she got herself stuck behind the couch! I got her out promptly but not before I snapped a picture to share with everyone:


Does that make me a bad mom? I hope not!

*For anyone who is curious and doesn't know, that red "thing" on the back of Amelia's neck is a hemangioma and it has ceased growing. It is showing early signs of regression (it is graying in color) and we cannot wait until it is gone! It kind of freaks us out and it feels really funny. They can take kind of a long time to go away completely but we hope it is gone by her first birthday!

Wait, one more. I just snapped another picture and uploaded it quick:


I am thinking we might in fact have a teether among us! Why else would someone chew on a coffee table?

Projects

Today has been full, as they all are. This morning Jason had his work meeting as I mentioned last night. After he got home we all got ready to head to the East Side for Amelia's follow-up flu shot (it is given in 2 parts it seems). She got a cool Star Wars sticker this time with C-3PO and R2-D2 on it!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention, I had Amelia weighed while we were at the doctor because her infant carrier only goes up to 22 pounds and I wanted to know how close we were to that...we are very close! Amelia is just a few ounces shy of 20 pounds. She is getting so big!

We finally went and had Chinese for lunch today! We have been craving it but it is more expensive than other places. Long story short, our weakness is eating out. It is the one thing that we do way too often. The one way we spend our money less than wisely. We are on the move so often that grabbing Wendy's here or Subway there doesn't seem like big deal. It is though. We discussed it last week and I can say proudly that we went 6 days without indulging. That's a big deal for us. When we were in a time crunch Jason brought things home from work for us so we wouldn't have tons of dishes and it wouldn't take long to prepare. An example of that would be our Tuesday meal: chicken fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy from Honeypie.

Anyways, after lunch we stopped at Target to pick up the fer-in-sol I had the pharmacy order for Amelia (for her anemia). We also saw this awesome toy and had to get it for her. We decided it could be for Christmas but then when we got home Jason started opening it. I think he wanted to play with it. Amelia showed some interest in it too:


She is obsessed with being on her feet. Even when she is playing and it is not necessary, as the picture illustrates nicely.

Now, this toy we got. It doesn't look like much but trust me. It is called "textile symphony" or something like that. It is really neat. I'll have to get a video of Amelia playing once she understands it better. She doesn't understand how to push down on things yet. She likes the sounds and music when we push, but once the music stops she crawls away. She'll get it one day :)

You might notice Amelia has on some baby leggings. I got her some so she can crawl around the house in onesies. Since she is an army-crawler her knees turn bright red after an afternoon of cruising around. They are working, usually. The right leg seems to slip down often. Maybe it is something she is doing as she crawls? I don't think Jason is too fond of them. He asked me today if we were in Flashdance... He does, however, recognize that they will help keep her knees in good shape. He sees their function and I think they are cute, as well as functional.

Tonight I have been tackling "projects" around here. Here are a couple of examples:

Project 1) Amelia's toys:

We went from this:


To this:


She is already back there. Making another mess.

Project 2) The kitchen "junk" drawer:

We went from this:


To this:


For just a few dollars I was able to transform the chaos into order. Now lets just see how long it lasts. *sigh*

I still have lots that I'd like to do tonight still, so, I better get to it! I tend to lose motivation very quickly the later it gets. And the fact that the sun is going down at around 5 does not help at all!

Mid-Week Update

Another week is half over!

The only really "big" news of the day is that Amelia's carseat has been upgraded. Well, in my car at least:


Reasons? Well, first, her infant seat/carrier is way too awkward for me to carry these days. I am just not strong enough to lug it around anymore. Amelia is getting heavier every week and I just can't do it anymore. I've tried several positions for carrying it etc and it just doesn't work for me any longer. So, this afternoon we put a "big girl" carseat in my car. Plus, now I can just throw her in a sling when we get to our destination and we will be good to go!

The second reason for the switch is that her infant carrier is only usable up to 22 pounds. She is creeping towards that, so I figure this will be a permanent switch soon anyways. We go in tomorrow for her follow-up flu shot and I think I am going to ask them to check her weight. Just to be sure.

She must be ok with her new seat:


She fell asleep in it right away today!

I feel bad for Poopy tonight:


Jason decided he needed a shower too.

Good thing he has Ludo to help him dry off:


We're off to bed! It's been a late night and we have an early morning! Jason has a work meeting and, of course, we have the doctor appointment I mentioned :) After that it will be another typical, busy day!

Our Tuesday

Well, it was another typical day...which means, nothing too exciting to report. Over the weekend we became more determined to get Amelia to accept her sippy cup. She is starting to get it, but is not quite there yet:


Saturday I held her, screaming, and kept the cup in her mouth until she started to drink from it. So, she will accept it, eventually, from me. When she has it on her own she is more content to chew on it than anything. I gotta get her to understand she needs to tip her head back a little and maybe she'll be an independent drinker!

Amelia has her lamb hat and mitten set already (seen in this post). But I got her a hat and matching mittens from Target's dollar section too:


Now she has a set for days that aren't too terribly cold.

We spent this evening at the laundromat. It was nice to be there without being rushed for once. That doesn't happen too often. Amelia was in fairly good spirits despite it being past her bedtime :)

Pulling Up

I don't have a lot of time before work but I wanted to share with everyone that Amelia can officially pull herself up on her OWN! I no longer have to help her. What a big girl! It started last night when she woke up in the middle of the night, wide awake and Jason and I were watching The Right Stuff. We decided to just let her play on the floor awhile so we could watch the movie. We looked over and she pulled up to her knees and that was it. Today she went all the way!

It started while I was online this morning, looking for thesis sources. I felt a tug on my pants and there she was:


Halfway there:


All the way up on her own:


Things are going to get even more interesting around here now!

Busy Bees

Today we had a jam-packed day! We woke up bright and early (7:30) because I thought it was really late but it wasn't. Daylight savings means the sun is out earlier and it fooled me this morning!

Jason showered, I got Amelia out of bed and then we made a big breakfast! Liz, Jason finally used the griddle to make breakfast:


Amelia had her breakfast with us! I gave her some banana in a food teether for the first time:


She did NOT like it:


So next I cut up some really small pieces of banana to see what she would do with them:


The first one that made it into her mouth sat on her tongue as she gagged. Then she threw up. Hmm. This makes me wonder if I should go ahead with making bananas for her this weekend? I think I will try it. Maybe she'll surprise me.

Once we were done with breakfast and were set to go we headed to Saturn of Milwaukee. My car was ready for pick-up :) There was nothing damaged on the car. The leaks were caused by leaves. Leaves were plugging up all the drainage-ways on the car. Guess that is what I get for parking on a tree-lined street for the past two falls!

On our way home we stopped by Target to get a few essentials and ended up looking around for an hour. For once we were not rushed while out as a family.

While we ate lunch we tried giving Amelia a sippy cup again. We are trying to make sure she is offered it every day but we forget a lot :( Here was her response to the cup this afternoon:


(she is yelling at it, in case you weren't clear)

After she had yelled at her cup long enough she proceeded to try and eat her bib:


Eventually I put her in my lap and offered her the sippy cup. She screamed for a few minutes as I held the cup in her mouth and then once she realized it was there to stay she started sucking. Now I just need to get her to hold it on her own and then drink from it upright! We have made step one at least :)

Once we all eaten had eaten lunch, Amelia went down for a nap so Jason and I laid down too :)

This afternoon has been full of feeding Amelia (that girl has quite the appetite!), daily chores and more. I have not done a ton this evening because my head hurts but after I publish this I am going to "hit the books" until Jason comes home.

New Skill: Amelia tries so hard to stand but she just doesn't understand. Her newest thing is this:


She gets onto her feet and rocks. Sometimes she tries to take a step forward but as you can guess, it doesn't really work out for her:

Shaking and Waving

What a silly girl :)

*The reason she scrunched up her face is because one of her little fingers caught her eye...

Creative Solutions

We are a family of problem solvers some days and yesterday we were at our best. We each had a creative solution to a problem that arose.

Amelia's creative solution the past couple days has been this:



She turns her "pop links" into a bottle. Granted, there is no liquid in there but she tries. Bless her heart.

Last night we went grocery shopping. Finally. It had been too long. We got there, got Amelia out of the car and into the cart and it quickly became clear that she was in no mood to shopping. Jason carried her for a little bit but that didn't help. So, I came up with this:


Which somewhat quickly led to this:


And then she woke up...


...right as we got to the checkout! Great timing because we would have had to wake her up then anyways :)

I don't have a picture of Jason's creative solution but I can explain it and I think you will all get the idea. We usually eat out before we go grocery shopping. In doing so we ensure that we will be full while shopping and, therefore, won't buy anything and everything that looks "good".

We typically eat at Buffalo Wild Wings because there is one across the parking lot from the store. Last night we discussed in the car that we weren't in the mood for spicy and decided to get milder sauces. Well, the waitress came and I ordered (sweet BBQ and parmesan garlic, mild flavors). However, Jason went ahead and ordered Blazin'...what?

Anyways, they were a little too much for him as he and I both knew they would be. He wants to condition himself for the "blazin' challenge" so he can do it with his friend Ben. It's something like 12 wings in under a certain time with no "coolers" (ie- ranch, blue cheese, celery). I used to work there and I can't even remember what it is exactly. That probably tells you how often people did it! Almost never! (at least when I was working)

His creative solution was cramming his boneless blazin' wings into his ranch cup and "marinating" them in the ranch to cool them. Yeah. Didn't really work but I thought it was creative. I did take a picture to share but it didn't turn out and the look he gave me when I took it made me not try for a better one. I think he doesn't get that a blog entry is better with pictures. Even if it is pictures of ridiculous things.

In other news, the Vikings beat the Packers again which meant...


...Jason won another bet with a Packer fan at work.

I also have not cut Amelia's little nails in quite some time. I noticed they were getting long I just never noticed when I was able to cut them. She woke up this morning with a nice cut on her chin:


Needless to say, I cut her nails before bedtime this evening.

We hope everyone's week has been going well! Here's a smile in case anyone needs one: