Just a reflection

Have you ever had something happen that makes you happy, but also sad, at the same time?  That’s kind of what is happening these last few weeks, especially with one of my super secret places of work. Now that wouldn’t be a problem, it might even be welcomed by some, if it were summer.  In my case I’m slightly ok with it, only because it gives me more time with my Aubrie, but also because daycare won’t charge us for the hours that I get cut from work early.  That’s the good thing.  The bad part is that it’s started to happen almost every other shift that I work, and my vacation time is dwindling in epic proportions, so pretty soon I’m not going to have much of a paycheck…NOT a good thing with student loans, new car payment, etc.   Not that I’m wishing for babies to be sick or born very early, but really….I would just like to actually work my hours and get paid to do so!  Thank goodness for homecare in this aspect, because at least that helps me stay on top of the bills!  Hence, the whole happy vs. sad battle continues on…..

Aubrie is learning loads of new words by the day! It’s crazy what she picks up on.  Just the other day I saw her accidentally bump her head on something so I asked “Did you bonk your head?”  To which she grabbed her head with both hands and said “Ow!”  Where in the world????  We are also learning that drinking bathwater is “Ucky”, and while she does repeat it back to me, it certainly doesn’t prevent her from trying to do it over and over again!  Silly silly goose.  She has learned to say Gizzy better—at least people can somewhat understand it now, and can say Zach (sounds like zhash) the neighbor boy that she plays with sometimes.  She can also point to where he lives when she’s asked! 

Did you bonk your head?

Oh how I love warmer weather!  This past week we’ve gone for lots of long walks outside and have gone to Gray’s Lake to play on the playground.  Aubrie loved the swings and the slides--kept trying to climb up them--while her buddy Zach just wasn’t so excited about them!  We’ve enjoyed time playing outside and watching Aubrie throw the ball and play with Gizzy.  Granted her throws are more like flimsy little drops at times, but Gizzy chases it still the same.  This summer is going to be SO much fun!  Aubrie is old enough to enjoy doing things outside and running around, which will get me off my lazy butt and out teaching my little girl the wonderful parts of summer :)  I’m even excited about the thunderstorms…..I love me some good ole rolling thunder in the distance.  However, not so much the tornado warnings that go with it.  I feel like we were tempting fate today—got slammed with two massive tornado-producing storms back to back early this evening, and heard the sirens going off at least 3 times.  Thank goodness we only had a bit of rain and maybe a little hail, but neighboring suburbs and towns were not quite as lucky as we were.  I think those warnings are even scarier when you have your own child to worry about.

enjoying an afternoon at Gray’s Lake

So my little sister is getting married in, oh, 2.5 months.  Wow…..maybe I should start looking into my maid of honor duties a little more seriously?!?  We’ve got the bachelorette party in a month or so—in VEGAS!  Pretty excited about that one.  May have to even do some fist-pumping action :)  It’s bound to be a good time, right?  I mean, Vegas….in April (while Midwesterners are still dealing with the thaw and clumps of mud)…?  ohhhhh yeahhhhhhhh! 

Sculpture Park in DSM

A Little Miss Smarty Pants :)

WARNING: The blog you are about to read is of a proud momma writing about how smart her firstborn child is.  Viewer discretion is advised.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and Happy 17 month birthday Miss Aubrie!  Where or where has my little baby gone? I can’t believe how fast she is growing up…..Every day she amazes me even more and more with how much she knows and remembers.  This is the newest trick: we have a word/picture book that we read to her and point out pictures/objects at least once a day.  So now she’s become pretty darn good at pointing to the pictures that we’ve asked her to point to.  These are the words she knows and can point to, time and time again….ball, chair, puppy, table, flower, frog, cow, fish, truck, apple, cheese, socks, and owl.  Holy cow!!! I promise I’m going to try really hard to get a video of her doing that and post so you all can see it….it’s super adorable, and you should see the proud look on her face when we praise her and tell her how smart she is!

I know this won’t last real long, but she’s also really good at following directions.  If we tell her the clothes are dirty, she grabs them off the floor and throws them in her hamper.  Yesterday while putting her laundry away, I turned around to find her carrying a stack of her shirts to give to me to put away…a few minutes later she came back with her stack of pants!

 

The other thing she does is point to her different body parts when we ask.  You know, the whole “Head, shoulders knees and toes” game??  She’s got the hair, ear, nose, tummy, toes game going on.  And that girl knows her name, and says it while pointing to herself….as well as saying and pointing to mommy and daddy, and Gizzy.  And boy, is she proud of it :)  Need video proof? You’ve got it!

Little Miss Smarty Pants

I think the little munchkin is finally feeling better.  The steroids must really be working, because we’ve hardly had to give her any albuterol nebs lately.  Her appetite is very slowly coming back (thank goodness, the munchkin lost a pound in the last 2 weeks from being sick), and I can see the crazy little happy & impish girl that is my daughter poking through the dark “sick” clouds.  FINALLY!  I missed her giggles!  And now I get to enjoy a whole day off with her tomorrow….hope the weather is in the 70s again so we can all go for a long walk!  The kids are sick of being cooped up….

 

Countdown to Spring….T minus 5 days!

We’re. Almost. There! !!! It’s almost officially Spring, and I cannot WAIT for it!  I remember last year on the first day of Spring we made a snowman and went out to take a picture…hopefully that won’t be the case this year.  Kris is taking the snow tires off the Mustang soon, which can only mean we’ll get a blizzard in the next few weeks, right?!?!  We’ve had it made the last few days—it’s been nice and Spring-like, with sunny blue skies and warm temps, with just the tiniest hint of warmish/coolish breeze.  Today was so gorgeous that Aubrie, Gizzy and I took a much needed trip outside to enjoy the sunshine and mild temps.  This was Aubrie’s first time walking around in our backyard, at least without snow on the ground, and she was having a blast running back and forth, waving at the neighbor’s dogs (and snuggling close when they got a little too loud).   We blew bubbles, kicked and chased a ball around, and watched Gizzy and the neighbor puppy, Presto, run around and wrestle each other.  Aubrie thought that was pretty hilarious—she loves those puppies :)  It was nice to wear just a sweatshirt and be comfortable. I can’t wait until we set up her new jungle gym and picnic table out there once it gets warmer! It’s around 50 degrees (though our outdoor thermometer says 75—its in the sun though, real accurate I bet!). 

I love how the bubble highlighted the tree…super cool effect!!!!

Another reason I can’t wait for Spring…..the crud that’s going around, and for cold and flu season to be over!  Aubrie just can’t kick this crap in the butt!  She started making progress, as in showing that her ear wasn’t hurting as much, but then her cough got a lot worse.  Poor girl was just hacking away almost every few minutes or so and not seeming to get much relief (or only short-lived relief) from her nebulizer Albuterol treatments.  Kris picked her up from daycare yesterday and sent me a message right away at work saying she sounded terrible….and this morning she sounded SO HORRIBLE!  It almost sounded like she was drowning in her own phlegm (I know, nice.)  It just sounded so thick and heavy and nasty and her coughs were not making a difference—she sounded just as nasty after she coughed!  We were lucky enough to get an appointment with the nurse practitioner (my favorite one to see at her Dr office anyways) this morning, so after a little play session with grandma Burclaw we went to get her checked out.  Good news—she heard no evidence of pneumonia or bronchitis in her lungs, and less wheezing than last week, but it sounded thick so she ordered some steroids for her to take for a few weeks.  This is to help her lungs out, and hopefully we won’t have to use the nebulizer as much.  Downside to the steroids—grumpiness and not able to sleep as well—aka baby ‘roid rage.  The bad news for the appointment was that while her ear looked better (not as nasty, red or bulging as much), it is still infected and inflamed.  So she’s going to start her on yet another antibiotic for that.  This makes # 4 or 5 for ear infections, and I hope we can end at that for the season….otherwise I fear they’ll start talking ear tubes with us…….  Ugh, this sick stuff is annoying!!  I’m thinking we’ll have to get an order faxed over to daycare to have them give her treatments throughout the day, as she’ll be there 2 more days this week.  As long as it makes her feel and breathe better, I’m ok with it!

 

Aubrie LOVING the puppies playing!

 

Phew….all of this sunshine and bird singing gets me in the mood for…..you got it….a little Spring cleaning (while the baby is sleeping!)

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Sickie Mcgee

I guess cold and flu season has the last laugh.  It’s been a rough week around the house with the little lady.  She’d been battling a nasty, gunky cough for almost two weeks and was starting to not eat/drink well, as well as running a fever every once in awhile.  Finally, Monday night was the breaking point.  I can’t remember a night as bad as that since the first night we had her home! Poor girl was up from about 1130pm until 4am just sobbing, writhing in pain so hard I thought she was having a seizure (there goes the nurse in me, anticipating the worst that can happen!).  She didn’t want her paci, her blankie, a drink of water, or some food…wasn’t even really comforted by me walking around with her or rocking her!  I think she finally fell asleep from pure exhaustion :( I hate seeing her hurt like that! Needless to say we made a little visit to the pediatrician, and lo and behold, she had a nasty ear infection in her right ear.  I hadn’t even thought of that, because every infection she’s had in the past she’s yanked at her ear.  We were given some pretty powerful Zithromax and sent on our way.  Now her ear must be feeling better cuz she’s sleeping well again, but this darn cough will NOT go away!!!  Her lungs sound like there’s a bunch of thick, nasty crud rolling around in it, and the nebulizer only helps for a few hours. 

Check out baby taking her own temp!

The always entertaining box. Can’t get them both smiling at once though!

All that sickness and she still finds time to play and be happy! Thank GOODNESS the crabbiness only lasted a few days.  It was pretty miserable seeing her not act like herself…moping around and whining to be held, crying to be put down, throwing her food all over the floor, and just throwing mini temper tantrums.  My little mermaid was even hating her bath!  Now Hurricane Aubrie is back to wreak havoc on her toys and the furniture…Gizzy is probably groaning in protest now that she’s back to chasing him around the house. 

How can sleeping be comfortable with your butt this high in the air???

Reading with daddy

 

We’ve got a new favorite word of the week around the house now….she started out calling everything under the face of this earth “puppy”…Gizzy, random animals, her dolls, the neighbors, etc.  Now she runs around chanting “baby” for everything she sees…it’s cute that she’s learning new words, and I can’t wait until she can actually tell me what she wants with words instead of the proverbial point and “ugh ugh ugh” whine!  

On a positive note, my sister Bobbi and her kiddos, Chase and Sienna, got to welcome hubby and daddy Jon back from Afghanistan on Thursday!  YAY!!! He was only gone for about 6 months, but that is still a REAL long time to be away from your family.  He missed all of the important holidays with the family, and my sister was holding down the fort by herself, with two tykes under the age of 3!  I’m so glad that they were finally reunited, and I’m sure Bobbi is more than thrilled to have someone else in the house to help keep her sanity!  The pictures I’ve seen make me tear up.  I’m so proud to have Jon as a brother in law—he’s risking his health, safety, and life to ensure that his children, and their children’s children, and everyone else in America can hopefully grow up with a better life.   I can’t imagine doing what he does, but am so grateful for the brave men and women who serve our country to make our future better.  Glad he’s home safely!  We missed him a lot!  On that note, I watched a new show on Lifetime this past weekend and bawled my eyes out.  It’s called “Coming Home” and it’s about military men and women coming home from their tours, and surprising their loved ones, who don’t know they’re actually back.  This episode was mostly about dads surprising their kids in various places…some at school, one little boy at a Medievel reinactment.  It was so heartwarming and touching to watch all of those reunions, and to think of all the families and loved ones who will never get to experience that because their soldier is a fallen hero.  It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.  If interested, it’s on the Lifetime Channel at 9pm (I think after Army Wives…).

Enjoy baby eluding mommy at bathtime (sorry it’s sideways for half of it!)

Manic Monday @ Monkey Joe’s

Thank goodness that weekend is over! I’m not usually one who looks forward to a Monday, but I certainly was the last few days! I worked the whole weekend and was just exhausted, and on top of that Miss Aubrie is STILL battling her nasty cough/cold and wasn’t eating well, plus she started dabbling in a bit of a fever. “Baby Bear” was coming out to play again—aka Aubrie was really crabby and not eating well for daddy…. I was looking forward to today to snuggle and cuddle her back to her happy little self (not that daddy couldn’t do that, but mommies do it a little bit better!), and also to have a break from work :) And I must say, I miss my little mini-me’s antics when I’m not around, and just plain miss her whole little self!!!

We made plans with Anna and her 17 month old daughter Cami (one of Aubrie’s good buddies) to go play at Monkey Joe’s. It’s a cute little playplace for little kiddos filled with inflatable jumping castles and obstacle courses, an arcade, plus a separate area for the little tikes under 3 yrs. Aubrie seemed to like the bouncing part, we do a lot of bouncing at home, and was definitely more ‘into’ the jumping jungle gyms than Cami was. On a whim we climbed to the top of a very steep, very slippery looking slide…and Aubrie was NOT too excited about that one! She didn’t cry about it, but she was definitely not smiling either! Cami LOVED that one and took a whole bunch of turns with her mommy going down the slide—giggling and grinning the whole way down!! She really started having fun then, as she wasn’t too fond of the inflatables, especially the inflatable monkey :) After about an hour Aubrie started to melt down, so we ended up taking off earlier than we planned (naptime was very desirable for her!!) Anna and I both decided though that maybe they’re a little on the younger side for that place. We’ll try again in 6 months or a year—maybe they’ll be more receptive to it. I thought it was fun though—wish they had one of those places for adults to explore their inner child….when the employees weren’t watching I was sneaking a few little jumps here and there ;)

Oh, before I forget…Aubrie had her pictures last Friday with my coworker, Pam. She was such a little ham, but she doesn’t quite have a knack for sitting still or following directions! She was running everywhere, playing with things on the other side of the room, throwing things to the ground….oh boy….we’ve got a little tomboy! It was fun though, and Pam got some VERY adorable and amazing shots! I can’t wait to get the disc of them all so I can pick my favorites!! If you’re interested in taking a peek, here is the website for her album: http://photographicsbypam.smugmug.com/Children/Aubrey/16079376_HX4sf#1206743143_uZY6b.

MUAH—Aubrie blowing kisses! XOXO!

Mermaid

I am the mommy to a mermaid.  My girl loves her water so much, she just can’t get enough of it!  She found a way this past week to get a bath EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Throwing food behind her head and smearing it into her hair seemed to be the favorite!  I can’t believe how much she loves water!  She obviously loves her baths and is always trying to get into Gizzy’s water dish (she thinks she’s helping him by trying to pick it up and carry it over to him, then splash him in the face with it)!  If she hears me refilling her humidifier tank she makes a beeline for the base, cuz she KNOWS there is an inch or two of water there just waiting to be played with   Maybe I should get this girl into some swimming lessons. 

 

We learned some new words this week.  We have some cute decals on the wall in her bedroom, and all of a sudden she pointed to the owl and said “Ohl”.  She kept pointing and saying it over and over again, so I know she knows what it is:).  She’s also started saying “hi zhi-zhi” in the morning when she sees Gizzy.  How adorable! I love that she’s learning how to talk (although I hear maybe I should NOT be so excited….that once they start they don’t stop).  Of course, half the time I don’t understand her cute little nonsensical gibberish, but it’s adorable nonetheless!  If only I knew what she was saying….maybe Gizzy does.  They seem to be real close buddies lately, when he lets her get near him that is!  Aubrie loves on him so hard, always trying to pet him or hug him!  She has been heading straight for his food dish lately and picking a handful out, chasing after him to throw them at him in hopes he’ll eat them.

Sometime he does, I think just to humor her.  She also chases after him for no reason, or will pull out some of his toys and run up to him to stick it in his face, hoping he’ll play.  Someday I hope she’ll make a good big sister, the way she’s always taking care of her Gizzy and her baby dolls!  Like I said, SOMEDAY.  As in after a ring is on my finger and we’re legally bound :)

On that note, I shall return later—Aubrie is having some pictures taken today by one of my co-workers who is dabbling in professional photography, and I’ve got to get her outfits and everything all packed up!  I’ll post them when I get them!!