It's Been Awhile...

Last week I was reading through my old blog posts and I realized I missed this space.  It’s a great place for me to document the happenings going on with us.  It’s also like my baby / child book for the kids!  So here I am with an update of the last almost 2 years…

 Caitlyn turned 5 last September.  She is a great big sister!  She loves Cole and is great with him.  Most times when he’s in a mood or tantrum throwing, she’s the one that gets through to him and calms him down.  She’s in her third year of preschool / pre-k and is so ready for Kindergarten this August.  She is way more ready than Jared or I are for this big transition.  She’ll ask me periodically if it’s time for Kindergarten yet.  Mostly I think it’s because she hates nap time at daycare.  Thankfully after pre-k graduation in May they will transition her in with the school age kids and nap time will be a thing of the past!  She hasn’t napped since I brought Cole home from the hospital (she had just turned 3).  This girl is a cuddle bug and I love it!  And I think because she requests cuddle time Cole usually follows and loves it too.  His time is just much shorter at the moment.  She is finally dressing herself in the mornings and definitely has a style of her own!  She’s great at matching colors but hasn’t learned to match patterns as well.  I love her spirit, kindness and understanding.  She's turning into such a sweet loving girl! 

 

 

 Cole turned 2 last September.  He’s in the toddler room at daycare and has been doing great.  The transition from Beth’s to daycare was a little rough last summer but he’s doing great now!  We’re starting to get into potty training mode.  He’ll need to be fully potty trained to move to the preschool room and will be able to move once he turns 3.  So we have this summer to get in gear!   He is my strong willed child.  I’m told this will be good in his adult life but right now he tries me on a daily basis.   He loves his big sister and is constantly following her around and wanting to do what she does.  He loves all things trains…especially Thomas the train.  We got him a train table for Christmas…it was the best money spent.  He has his cuddle moments but they are usually short.  He also has little patience for tv so far….unless Thomas is on.  For some reason he can sit and watch that all afternoon.  I don’t get it. 

 

Baby number three will arrive in September.  Yes, all 3 of my babies are going to be September babies.  It’s insane.  This one was a little bit of a surprise but we are excited and getting ready.  We’ll find out the gender in 2 weeks, which I’m super excited about!  Caitlyn is super excited and hoping for a sister because she already has a brother and doesn’t need another one.  Cole has just started coming around to the fact that mommy has a baby in her belly.  He was insistent that there wasn’t up until about a month ago.  It’s going to be a huge transition for him but I know he’ll come around and be a great big brother too! 

Zeus is still battling his allergies.  He’s also going to be having a fatty tumor removed in the next couple of weeks.  He’s starting to show his age a little bit.  He turns 13 this month.  Still as loud and obnoxious as ever though! 

 

 

We finished the kitchen remodel.  I’ll post before/during/after photo’s at some point.   

We are still active at church.  We’ve joined a young marrieds group that meets once a month and really enjoy that!  Plus it really helps us grow in our relationship as well. 

 We took a couple of trips.  Last summer we went to Ponca State Park with Grandma Kendy and Papa Rich.  In September we went to Branson with Grandma Barb and Papa Fred.  Then in February of this year Jared and I went to St Lucia for Tony and Darci’s wedding!  It was amazing…even though I was sick as a dog with morning (all day) sickness. 

This has gotten really long!  Looking forward to keeping this updated! 

Florida Trip Part 3

We took one day and went to Orlando to Disney.  We went to the Magic Kingdom and I will say that I went more for me because I had never been than for Caitlyn or Cole.  And I kind of wished I would have waited a few more years before going.  Caitlyn had a good time for the most part.  The worst part was the automatic flushing toilets (which a girlfriend of mine mentioned putting a sticker or post-it note over the sensor…wish I would have thought of that before the trip!).  Caitlyn was so afraid of them and all of them were automatic except for the bathroom in the castle.  Thankfully she went to the bathroom at lunch without a fuss.  We did lunch with the princesses.  That was a lot of fun!  It took her a little while to warm up to them and be comfortable around them to get her picture taken with them but she did and they turned out great!  

Snow White and Cole flirted - this is one of my favorite pictures of him from the trip!  

Caitlyn loved all the rides!  Even the teacups which she did with uncle Josh because they make Jared and I sick to our stomachs!  

Cole was even great and was so content in his stroller most of the day.  

While waiting for the light parade to start that night we were in a store and Jared and I were discussing which doll to get for Caitlyn.  All of a sudden I hear "mommy I'm peeing".  I look down and there she is with her legs spread and her dress pulled up in a puddle of pee.  I was mortified!  The store employee wasn't phased at all.  They had extra underwear still in the packaging just for this type of thing.  I was expecting to have to pay for a package of underwear but they just gave me a pair.  I was so thankful.  We watched the parade and headed back home.  It's unfortunate that I keep focusing on the negative of this day because now remembering back and writing it out it was actually a really fun day!  Sure she had her terrible 3 moments and the bathroom fiasco's but overall we all had a great time!

Cole: 9 Months

I can't believe we're so close to Cole turning One.  It's craziness!!!  Last week I took him to Dr. W for his 9 month appointment.  I thought we were going to get to skip shots for that appointment but somehow we had missed one of his Hep B shots so he got one anyway.  Poor guy.  He currently weighs 19lbs 6oz.  He's 27 1/4 in long and his head circumference is 17 3/4.  His head didn't grow any since his 6 month appt but she thought the measurements just weren't taken correctly at his last appt.  We'll see how the number goes at his one year appt.  I am still calling him my lazy baby.  He has started to hold his bottle if we put his hands on it but he won't do it unassisted.  He's rolling around to get places.  I talked to Dr. W about my concerns with him not crawling but she said as long as he can get from point A to point B there isn't anything to worry about.  He may not crawl at all and just go straight to walking.  Although even that seems so far away.  He has no desire to even stand on his own or put weight on his legs for more than a minute at a time.  I've said it before but he is so different from Caitlyn.  And it's hard for me to not compare them!  He doesn't have any teeth yet although she said they were close.  He doesn't want to eat actual food yet.  We just got him eating his baby food on a consistent basis.  He does love the yogurt bites though and will pick those up and put them in his mouth and eat them.  Any other solids that we give him he just spits back out.  He doesn't even try to chew and eat it.  I'm going to try to use the mesh feeder with him more to see if that helps to teach him to actually chew his food.  We'll see how that goes.   Caitlyn can make him laugh like no one else can and it's music to my ears!  I could listen to the 2 of them go back and forth all day long!  He also loves to cuddle and I could kiss on him forever and a day!  Seriously love this little boy!!!   

Florida Vacation Part Two

We spent the majority of our days in Florida either at the pool or at the beach.  The best way to show this is by pictures…enjoy!!! 

Florida Vacation 2012 Part One

I'm thinking day one needs a post of its own. It was a long one!

We got up at 3:30 so we could be at the airport by 5:30 as our flight was supposed to leave at 7:00 Saturday morning. Beth and I had checked in online Friday night and paid for our luggage at that time as well. My check in with bags went smoothly but Beth had a problem with seating because Harrison was going to be sitting on her lap. Apparently that didn't transfer through when she checked in online. That took about 40 min to straighten out. We then go through security with no problems and are waiting for our plane to board at our gate. We can see the plane there but it's after 7:00 and they haven't started boarding. They announce that there is a mechanical issue and are waiting on the mechanic. About 10 minutes later they start calling people one by one up to the desk. They have to re-route the entire flight onto other flights because the mechanic isn't even on site yet. So they switch our flight and give us food vouchers only good that day at any airport. We are now going through Atlanta instead of Memphis (no big deal…just a much bigger airport to navigate). We go across the terminal to the gate we are now flying out of and it's packed and pure mayhem! Beth and Josh get upgraded to first class….Jared and I get split up with me sitting in row 10 with Cole and Jared sitting in row 36 with Caitlyn over the engines which are loud and no windows. Really disappointing for Caitlyn's first flight ever. During the flight a woman started having seizures at the front of the plane, someone started yelling for a Dr. and it was a little crazy for awhile. But the kids did really well and we survived the first flight of the day!


The Atlanta airport and our layover was uneventful. We had to eat pretty fast to make our next flight but nothing earth shattering happened.


We land in Tampa at about 12:30 and let the kids play in the play area for a little while. We go get our luggage and head to the car rental area. Only to find that our rental company isn't located at the airport but we have to take a shuttle to get there. We go back over to baggage claim and just miss the first shuttle. We had to wait about 20 min for the next one. We get to the rental place and it's a tiny place in a strip mall with only room inside for people who are signing in. So we wait outside in the heat with the kids while Beth goes inside. Next thing I know she comes out and says they didn't have a mini-van available but were going to upgrade us to an Acadia. Yes, the Acadia has a 3rd row seat but with 4 adults and 3 car seats it was not going to work. There was no way we'd all fit comfortably. We weren't going to fit super comfortably in the minivan as it was. Beth told them that the Acadia may be an upgrade for some, but not for everyone. They were not accommodating at all. Then we find out that they wanted to charge an additional $10 a day for any additional drivers. Well Beth didn't want to drive all week so we changed the primary driver to Jared. While he was in there making that change a minivan came back and was available. So we got what we reserved in the end. The car seats were another debacle. During all this Caitlyn had to go to the bathroom and the rental place didn't have one. So I took her over to the Marriott to use their restroom. When we walked in I asked where the restroom was. They then asked if we were from the rental place and I said yes. Then they informed me that we couldn't use their bathrooms but that the Hilton across the street would allow it. I will never use Marriott again due to that. Are you freaking kidding me? I have a 3 year old with me who needs to go potty and you're going to make us go somewhere else? I was completely in tears at this point. It took about 2 hours at the rental place to get everything set up and car seats in the car and on our way to Christy's.

The rest of the day was glorious! We got to Christy's and got ready to go out for dinner. Jenna was a doll and babysat the kids so we could go out just us adults (and Cole tagged along with us). We went to a restaurant called Banana Cabana and it was wonderful! Christy says they have new owners and it wasn't as good as normal but since I have nothing to compare it to it was wonderful! So good. Then we went across the street to the beach with the sunset. It was beautiful! We even waded out a ways into the water. It was a perfect night to start out the vacation!

Kitchen Remodel

Back in February Jared sends me this picture while I'm at work. 

I freaked a little but he had a guy who came out and gave us a bid and Jared was ready to do the demolition while he was slow with work.  We're taking out a load bearing wall and this guy wouldn't put in the beam that we want.  He wanted to put something in that hung down 24 inches.  And since then it's been a roller coaster ride.  Jared has done a lot of research on this.  Calculating the slope of the roof and what would hold that weight.  Since we live in a snowy climate  in the winter we have to factor in what a foot of snow weighs on the roof as well.  It hasn't been easy.  He found that the steel beams which will only hang down 12 inches is what we want to do.  But apparently 2 places in Omaha sell these beams but we can't find anyone to install them.  It's so frustrating!  We had another guy come in but he wasn't comfortable with the steal beams so his bid was different from the first guy but the beam would still hang down 18 inches.  If we're spending this kind of money we want to do this right.  But I'm getting inpatient.  Cole is going to be crawling within a month and I don't want the studs from the wall still there when that happens.  It would be a disaster trying to keep him away from that once he's mobile!  We had a 3rd contractor out yesterday and Jared was really impressed with him.  Hopeful that his bid is reasonable and we can move forward soon!

We went and looked at cabinets at Home Depot with Darci last weekend.  Jared gave her all the measurements and she went to town.  Jared started getting a little sticker shock but felt much better after going to see her and seeing everything that was included in the price.  We've got most of it picked out including the facing and the color of the cabinets.  It made me even more anxious to get the beam in and the walls down! 

I'm so ready to have my kitchen done with all the bells and whistles! 

Poor Puppy

Two weeks ago Zeus hurt his back leg.  We let it go for a couple of days but it didn't seem to get any better like it usually does when he hurts himself.  So we  made an appt to take him to the vet.  Our vet was out of the office so I made an appt with another vet in his office.  I will never do this again.  I will be telling Dr. J that he's not allowed days off anymore.  Jared ended up taking him in because he was off early that day so I wouldn't have to take time off.  They thought maybe he had torn an ACL after taking an xray and gave him some morphine for the pain and an anti-inflammatory for the knee. 

He got better for a couple of days and then his leg started bothering him again.  And he started throwing up all over the house.  And he started having troubles pooping.  It was diarrhea like mixed with blood.  All. Over. Our. Carpet.  I was pissed because I thought he had ate something he shouldn't have and that was making him sick.    After 2 nights of no sleep because he kept getting up getting sick and wanting to go out I took him back to the vet.  What are the odds that my vet is out again and I have to see the same vet that Jared saw last week?  Pretty good apparently!  So he thinks maybe Zeus is having a liver reaction which can be a side effect of the anti-inflammatory he prescribes.  He was getting ready to take him for a blood panel and I'm not sure why but I asked to make sure that he knew that Zeus was taking Prednisone for his allergies.  He stopped in his tracks and I swear he went white.  He starts thumbing through the file.  He didn't know.  He didn't read the file prior to prescribing new meds.  It was on the first page after his notes from our previous visit.  Are you kidding me?  What Dr doesn't ready the file?  At least glance at it!  So he takes Zeus back and gives him a shot of prevacid and pumps him full of fluids.  He gives us 3 different meds to heal his tummy.  The anti-inflammatory mixed with the Prednisone gives blood stomach ulcers.  Great.  Needless to say I didn't pay for that visit or any of the stomach meds.  I also asked for a refund for the anti inflammatory he prescribed that shouldn't have been. 

Zeus didn't eat for 5 days.  He didn't take his Prednisone for about 4 days and because of that I'm pretty sure he got another staph infection.  He's feeling better now though.  He's not eating full meals like before but he is eating and he's not throwing up or having diarrhea issues any longer.  He's definitely back to his annoying self! 

He's also Cole's sidekick...much more than he ever was with Caitlyn.  He's in about 50% of the pictures I take of Cole at home!