Christmas Likes....

I got this on email and thought I'd post it here (copying after my wonderful cousin, Bink).

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping, except for gifts that are really odd shaped or when I'm "wrapping" at the last minute.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial this year

3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? New Year's-ish.

5. Do you like eggnog? I like Soy Nog.

6. What was your favorite gift received as a child? I don't think I remember any!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes - a very old one.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Dad.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Lacey and Leah.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Can't think of one to mention.

11. Mail or email cards? Mail.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? September or so.....

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies. :-)

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night.......or on a lighter note, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

18. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Stay home.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Commet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A reindeer that Lacey made.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One of Christmas Eve (PJs), the rest on Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? All of the news about shopping.

23. What I love most about Christmas? Just about everything else! I love the wonder that children feel!

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve (a.k.a., Butch's birthday), we were quite busy. I went with Dee, Rick, Kristina, Jess & JD to mom's grave to put up a wreath and new winter mini flag. (We are really bad about getting down there and will make it a resolution for 2008 to do it more....even though we tried that for 2007 and failed.) Then, we went to Dad's (where Butch and the girls were waiting) and gave him his present.........a new leather recliner. His old one was falling apart....literally.

We were able to come home for a short bit before getting ready for 5:00 church. It's the family service and is really cute b/c the kids do a lot of it. And, you don't feel bad when your kids are making noise because it is the family service. :-)

Then, we headed home for dinner (mexican casserole) and ice cream cake for B's birthday. Lacey even sang for him. Our tongues turned blue from the yummy ice cream cake.

Before the ice cream cake, Lacey opened 1 gift for her and 1 for Leah. Of course, it was new PJs. That was always a tradition for us growing up, so I think I'll do the same now. Lacey got a new princess nightgown, with robe and slippers. She was very pleased. Leah got a new Piglet sleeper. Lacey actually slept in her robe.

I was exhausted on Christmas morning b/c Leah slept horribly. Her 2nd tooth is coming in and seems to be really giving her a tough time. She woke up early, too......6:20 or so. She was actually back down for a nap by the time that Lacey woke up for presents.

When Lacey woke up and was calling for me, I went into her room and told her Santa had come and brought presents. When I asked her if she wanted to go see, she said "no". So, I had to make sure she realized that Santa wasn't here anymore.....then she was okay coming downstairs. She does not like to be close to the man in the red suit.

Two of the things that Santa left (unwrapped) were her favs......Barbie, Island Princess and the Belle baby doll. With those and the crayons, markers and new coloring books, she would have been happy. Because she was fine with those things, it took a long time to get her focused enough to open everything. And, I actually had to open a few things for her.

Here's a picture of the tree before the chaos....

Leah woke a little while later and Butch opened up her gifts for her. She enjoyed the paper, but really like the books and things, too. She was cranky some through the day b/c of those darn teeth.

Rick, Kristina, Jess, JD, Dad, Dee, Buck, Kristin & Kyle all came for dinner later in the day. Even though we "hosted", we got off pretty easy because Dad did the stuffed ham and Buck did a fried turkey. We always do pot-luck, so Kristina brought a couple of dishes and we just had a few things to do for dinner. What did we have, you ask? Besides the meat, we had broccoli casserole, grean bean casserole, corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, strawberry spinach salad, gravy & rolls. For dessert, we had carrot cake and pistachio torte (and cookies, of course).

Between dinner & dessert, we opened gifts. More toys for the girls and also some clothes. Lacey was (again) thrilled --- especially since she got more princess things. Here she is showing off the dress that Grandma made for her:

It was a busy day and at the end, you wonder where it went. But, it was fun (even with the few tantrums from Lacey) and we enjoyed the company, the food and the wine. :-)

Each year, we do a pic of all of the cousins....here is the one for 2007.....with the newest "member", Leah:

Some Sad News

I hadn't blogged about this last week, but wanted to do so now so that you can keep my boss & her family in your prayers. Her only child, 25-year old Blythe, was killed while serving in the Peace Corps on 12/6. I can't imagine what Joan and her husband are going through. They received the news while out of town (together, thankfully), at a business dinner. At any time, this is horrible news for a parent to hear, but at this time of year, it must be ever more awful.

http://www.beepcentral.com/story.aspx?story=20567

Santa came for a visit to our neighborhood last night. He was riding on the local fire trucks. :-) They do it every year, but this is the first year we walked Lacey down the street for it just because they come sort of "late" (8:00).....after her old bedtime. She was so excited.

I think I'm nearly done Christmas shopping. Just a handful of things left (thankfully). I need to get the gifts for you out of towners wrapped so I can get those in the mail.

We still haven't gotten Christmas cards done. I haven't been able to get Lacey to cooperate for a picture in her dress. Of course, the last 3 days were shot since she had hives......wait a minute.....that's another story. Re the cards, we may end up sending them late or just doing New Year's cards. We'll see.

Hives......so Sunday morning, Lacey & Butch played downstairs in the basement for quite a bit. It's unfinished and a mess. Open insullation. Cat hair, etc. You get the picture. She was rolling around on the rug down there and I think that may be what caused the hives. They aren't too bad now, but on Sunday....wow. Dr. Jill says they commonly stick around for a couple of days. They go away with Benadryl, then come back (in different spots) when the meds wear off. Hopefully we are at the end of this now.

Both Lacey & I have colds. I think Leah is getting one, too. Blah. Oh well, better now than in 2 weeks.

I had Lisa start Leah on lunch this week. She has been diving for her dinner, so I figure she is hungry. Hopefully she'll go back to being a good sleeper soon......either food will help or maybe those darn teeth will come in. :-) Or, she'll just keep waking every 4-5 hours.

Frisbee 2000 - 12/8/2007

Well, he was doing somewhat better yesterday and we expected to bring him home today. However, he took a turn for the worse overnight. We spoke to the vet around 9:15 this morning and she said that he needed a blood transfusion if we were to continue. She agreed, though, that it was a gamble. He simply wasn't responding well. I asked about bringing him home for the weekend, but she didn't think he would last until Monday. We decided to euthanize him today and to do it there so he wasn't stressed any further.

When we got to the vet around 11:30, he didn't even wag his tail or lift his head. He was so anemic from all of the fluids he was receiving that he was too weak. And, even with all the fluids, his kidney counts didn't ever get very low. We spent several minutes petting him and talking to him.

It was heart-breaking to let him go. I can't believe that my fun-loving 7 year old goofy dog is now gone. I know we did the right thing in letting him go, but I'm just so angry that he got so sick in the first place.....from a freakin' tick.

We will miss him tremendously. It has already felt strange over the last few days with no barking and no one licking up our messes on the floor.

Frisbee

I am so sad. Frisbee was diagnosed this week with kidney disease and Lyme disease. He had been a little weird about his eating habits for the past few weeks -- not interested in his food, but devouring Kramer's food -- and begging at the table (more than normal). Nancy mentioned during their visit that she thought he'd lost weight. We didn't think so....until Sunday when we decided to weigh him. He had gone from 30-32 pounds or so down to 25. That's more than 20%. More than 10% is an issue. So, I bought different food on Monday to see if he would eat canned dog food....he ate it....and then vomited a few hours later. So, I made an appt. at the vet for Wed. Because of his young age (7), she was surprised that he had kidney disease, which is why they decided to test for Lyme disease, too. Apparently Lyme disease can cause kidney problems if left untreated. Looking back through the spring and summer, there are only 2 instances that we now realize were related to Lyme.....2 times that he limped.....for a day....and then appeared to be fine. He seemed fine otherwise.

We have always just used the flea/tick stuff in the spring/summer months. I would suggest that if you live in an area with Lyme disease to use it all year long. And, I've learned that there is a vaccine which is 75% effective. Get it. We had a horrible infestation in our yard this year and had to put pesticides down twice. It was awful.

Kidney disease is fatal. We learned that with Toonces. It's the same *&%^ illness that we lost him to 15 months ago. The vet estimated 6-12 months for Frisbee when we spoke on Wednesday. They kept him in the hospital that night to give IV fluids and flush his system. Thursday, they tested blood again and it was better, but not great, so they kept him overnight again. Today, she called to say that he had vomited a few times last night (not good at all) and they really wanted to keep him until tomorrow morning. Based on all of this, I'm not sure we even have 6 months with him.

Day by day. I visited him yesterday & Butch is going this afternoon. If we get him home tomorrow and the weekend doesn't go well, I imagine we'll be making big decisions. I am hoping that he will at least do better through the holidays, but based on how things have gone so far, I'm not sure how likely that is. I don't want to put him through lots of treatment and antibiotics (for the Lyme disease) if he isn't going to have a good quality of life.

He is truly the best dog ever. He has tolerated a ton from Lacey and barely growled at her. He has been annoying as hell with the loud barking, but wow, what a watch dog. The teeth are shown if someone he doesn't know shows up. I have never worried about being safe.

Give your dog a hug today. And, take issues with ticks very seriously.

"Shake Your Booty"

Last night, Lacey was playing with her Little People (who "live" on the coffee table and end tables.....I guess each table is a new town or something). So, she turns several of the Little People around so their backs are facing her and says (a few times) "Shake Your Booty". Butch was sitting right there and I was in the kitchen, but he didn't even hear her. (He tunes her out when she's playing.) I asked him if she said what I thought she said. She said it again a few minutes later and he did hear her......yes, we heard correctly.

No clue where she got that from. We do let her watch some inappropriate TV, but it's not anything like that. Maybe the older girls at daycare.......too funny.

Thanksgiving and Leah's Baptism

Butch was off the day before Thanksgiving and our office closed at 1:00. So, I worked at home that day and we kept the girls home. We headed out for family pictures that afternoon. Amazingly, both girls cooperated. After pictures, we treated Lacey to Cold Stone Creamery. Okay, you're right....it was an excuse for me to get to go.

Chuck & Nancy came for a visit over Thanksgiving weekend. They arrived on Turkey Day around noon. (They were going to come the day before, but we suggested waiting since traffic is a nightmare around here the day before.) Anyway, we were invited over to Dee's around 1:00ish and dinner was to be around 3:00. But....Leah actually took a *good* nap that day. And, I was not about to wake her up. No way. So, we didn't get over to Dee's until about 3:00. (There were some other's that were late, too, though.) Dinner got moved to about 4:00.

There were about 15-16 people there....including Dee & family, Rick & family, us, Dad, Calvin (Buck's dad), Steve & Amy & kids. (Steve is Buck's bro.) They have 2 little girls, too. Riley is about 5 and Camryn is around Lacey's age. Dee had been wanting to get Lacey together with them for a while....but Lacey is a shy girl and wasn't much up for playing at first. Even later, she wasn't much for playing "with" them by herself. Oh well.

Dinner was YUM-O! Turkey, stuffed ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, salad, mac & cheese, biscuits......I don't think I'm forgetting anything. It was so good. After everyone had time for the food to settle, out came the desserts. And, by then....it was time for us to head home right after because of sleepy little ones.

We didn't do much the rest of the weekend. Relax, visit, eat, etc. Well....until Sunday. Sunday was Leah's baptism. It went smoothly. Leah's dress was beautiful. Nancy made it.

I hate sitting in the front of church. I suppose we didn't have to, but everyone else in the fam would want to since they'd want to take pictures, etc. (And, we'd want them to take pics.) Trying to keep Lacey quiet was a struggle at first. She never comes to church. She always goes to the nursery. Anyway, after acting up a bit in the beginning, she took her binks and rested. Leah seemed to really like the water - kind of funny. The pastor walked Leah around the church after the baptism and she enjoyed that, too. After all of the excitement, Lacey fell asleep on me and Leah fell asleep on Butch.

We headed back to the house after church for Italian Meatball Stew and a little football. Everyone left at half-time.....our TV isn't big enough. :-) I'm not joking here. Hehe.

Not much else is going on. I've started Christmas shopping - most of it online.

I have to head to NY on Tuesday and am not looking forward to it. At least I don't travel a lot anymore.

I'd better get myself organized for tomorrow. Bottles to prepare, ironing, etc.

Leah is 5 month's old!

4 months

5 months

She's getting to be so much fun. Just this last week, she has started to sit a little better, but you still need to catch her when she starts to lose her balance. She loves to play with her toys. I was putting her to bed the other night and she laughed at "nothing". I was just getting her jammies on and she laughed. So cute.

I weighed her last night & she's up to 17 pounds. We started her on cereal a few weeks ago and she's eaten some fruits, too.....bananas, pears, apples. Bananas are her fav.

We started letting her cry at bedtime a little over a week ago to try to get her back to sleeping through. It's been okay. At least she goes down easily now and we don't have to bounce or rock her to sleep anymore. Out of maybe 9 nights, she's slept "through" twice. Hopefully that will come (soon). She slept so great until 3 months old.

I'll do an update on everything else later. They both just woke from naps....

Leah had her 4 month well visit Tuesday. She is now 15 pounds, 15 ounces and 25.25" long. She was given 4 shots again and another oral vaccine. Her little legs are a little red and swollen from the shots, but otherwise, she's been a trooper.

Her sleep hasn't been great since she hit 3 months. She used to sleep 7+ hours, then another 3-4. But, then she settled into 4-5 hour stretches only. I mentioned it to the doc and he thinks she is needing more to eat, so she's on cereal now. She isn't so sure she likes it. :-)

Last time I posted, I mentioned Lacey would be going for her flu shot. It went okay. She did scream, but got over it quickly since I told her we'd go to the store to buy "Belle" (Beauty & the Beast). We got to Borders and they didn't have it, but she didn't care because she found another Barbie DVD. She loves those. The animation isn't very good, but the stories aren't too bad.

We had the carpets cleaned last weekend and they look incredible. It's amazing what a professional can do. And, we had Joyce (our previous cleaning person) come on Monday. Unfortunately, despite my directions on what was important to do, she did her own thing and didn't have enough time to do our master bathroom. Ugh. She's coming back on Sunday to do that. She is really good, but she's also good at ignoring your requests.

I have to go to NY for a daytrip in early December and am not looking forward to it!!! I'm still nursing Leah, so I have to drag the pump with me (through security) and find decent places to pump along the way. No fun. I'm hoping to have only a couple of other trips over the next 7 months so that it isn't such an issue.

What else?

We hid Lacey's Halloween costume since she was so obsessed with it. Now she is obsessed with a dress that I bought her for Easter that she didn't wear b/c the weather was so cold. She is putting it on every evening after getting home from daycare. Oh - and she is a trip when I go to The Children's Place website (or other kids clothing sites) and look at dresses. Cracks me up what a *girl* she is!!! I love it!

November is here already!

Wow! I can't believe that Thanksgiving will be here in just a few short weeks.

Butch has to work tomorrow (SAT administration), so it will be the girls & me for most of tomorrow. It wouldn't be so bad if Leah would settle into a good nap routine! But, she still catnaps for the most part, which makes it hard. We don't really have other plans for the weekend. Just trying to rest up and do a few things here.

Lacey has an appointment on Monday afternoon for her flu shot. Not sure how that will go! She hasn't had to have a shot since she was just over 18 months and she was not as strong then. We'll see.

The following Monday, daycare is closed for Veteran's Day. So, I'm taking a day off. I was hoping to get Leah in that day for her well visit, but there were not appointments available, so I get to take some time off on Tuesday, the 13th, too. 4 more shots coming her way. Poor baby.

We're hoping to get family pictures done in November, but I'm not sure when. Maybe the week of Thanksgiving. We were going to try for the weekend before, but Lacey & I both have hair appointments that Friday and I don't want pictures done so close to getting our haircuts.

Chuck & Nancy are coming to visit for Thanksgiving. And, we have Leah's baptism scheduled for that Sunday.

Oh - I forgot. We've also been making an attempt at going to church --- 2 weeks in a row now. Hopefully Lacey will adjust to the nursery. The first week, Butch stayed with her. The next week, he ducked out (he'd told her all along he was going to, but didn't tell her when he *did*). Anyway, she was fine for a while, but apparently started crying at some point and sat on the teacher's lap for the rest of the time. We'll keep trying. She's got to warm up to it at some point, right?

The girls, Halloween, etc.

Both girls have colds again, but they don't seem to be too bad (so far). They have been taking turns having bad nights sleeping, so Butch & I have been exhausted. Thankfully, Lacey has slept through the last couple of nights and Leah slept solid from 12:30 to 6:15 last night. So, I feel a little more human now.

We've done some fun things the last few weekends. We did make it to the pumpkin farm a couple of weekends ago and Lacey loved it. Last year, she loved these tunnels that you could crawl through, but this year, she said "it's dirty" and didn't want to go in. This is the girl who plays in the dirt frequently. Weird. Anyway, it was a nice day.

Halloween was fun! Lacey was Cinderella and Leah was her pumpkin. I picked them up at daycare, got them dressed, then headed to my dad's. Dee, Rick & Kristina met us there so we didn't have to do house hopping. After that, we came home and planned to just do 1 street in our neighborhood. Lacey was done after 4 houses, so it was a short night. She wouldn't take her costume off that night, so she slept in it. And, she insisted on sleeping in it last night, too.

Leah's 4 month pics

It's amazing that she is 4 months already! Her next doctor's appointment is November 13.

3 month picture

4 month picture

Can't we catch a break???

Last week, I was off Monday for the holiday; Leah was home with me Tuesday (and to the doc); I worked a full day Wednesday; Lacey was home sick Thursday (and to the doc); Lacey came home early (and back to the doc) Friday.

Lacey's 2 doc appointments last week weren't much. On Thurs., Dr. Jill thought it was just the end of her virus (very sore throat, but not strep). But, on Fri., Lacey had a fever and was still feeling really bad, so back we went and I was going to insist on a strep test. However, that doc said the throat didn't even look like strep - not the same spots. She did change her antibiotic and prescribe a decongestant though. Lacey was a new kid the next day. It was amazing.

Last night, Lisa called to say she and her son are sick. She's closed today. Both girls are home again. I really hope that Lacey didn't pass along whatever she had --- although Lisa's symptoms don't sound the same. I need to work!!!!

Our lovely weekend....

Well, it really started last week.

Thursday
Butch got a call from Miss Lisa at 3:00 --- Lacey had a 101* fever. He left to go pick her up & I left work, too. I was thinking we could meet at the doc's office since I was guessing she had an ear infection. However, the pediatrician could not get us in. So, we went home. I took Lacey to the after hours place Thursday evening.

This left Butch with Leah - to get her fed and to bed. She didn't like that idea. I talked to him on the phone twice & both times Leah was screaming. I guess that she is okay with the bottle in the daytime, but wants momma in the evening. Anyway, she took a catnap after eating an ounce or so from a bottle, then woke when I got home for her normal routine.

At the doctor's appointment......yep, an ear infection. We went all last season without antibiotics once for Lacey. This year she has had them 2x already. Crazy.

Friday
Lacey stayed home with me since they aren't supposed to be back at daycare until 24 hours after a fever is gone. I was planning to work as best as I could with her here. However, I realized that in my haste to leave on Thursday, I left my laptop at work!!! My boss was very understanding and supportive and just said to work offline as best as I could. Love her.

Saturday
Everything seemed to be going okay. Until Leah woke at 10:30. After I went back to bed, I thought, "did she feel warm?". So, when she woke an hour or 2 later, we took her temp. Yep, she was warm. Very warm.......102* if I remember correctly. So she got Tylenol, but she woke throughout the night.

Sunday
Leah was fighting the temp in next morning, so back to the after hours place I went. She had no signs of infection, so we went home thinking "just a virus".

After Leah & I got home, I was snuggling with Lacey & realized she was warm. On antibiotics, but had a fever. Ugh. Hers was also pretty high. This went on all day and at 8:15 p.m., she threw up. Then, she was a different kid. Fever was gone and she was feeling good. She actually said "I'm tired of being sick!".

Monday
Leah's fever seemed to be gone. Then it was back in the afternoon. Gone again at bedtime. Back in the wee hours this a.m., so more Tylenol.

Tuesday
I took her to the pediatrician, despite the big happy smile she gave me when she woke this morning. Sure enough.....an ear infection for Leah, too. Poor girl. She actually was hurting so badly that after nursing at 5:30 a.m., she wouldn't again until 12:30 p.m. Poor girl. Hopefully she'll be feeling much better tonight with a couple of doses in her system. She's sleeping now.

Whew.

Butch & I were planning to go to the Sotterly Wine Fest on Sunday with the girls after church. (What a combination for the day, huh?) Anyway, that went out the window.

Assuming everyone is fairly healthy, we are planning to do some fun things this weekend. There is a Farm Festival and Lacey has really been into anything farm related lately. And, Dad will be there since the Optimist Club is doing something there. And, we're planning to go to the pumpkin farm, too. Lacey loved it last year.....I imagine she'll love it even more this year.

Oh - I actually have my laptop, thanks to our administrative assistant who lives nearby. She drove it to my house on Friday evening.

I think that covers the fun stuff we've been up to. ;-)

The Beginning of Cold & Flu Season

BLAH! Lacey had her first cold a few weeks ago. And (of course) gave it to me. Leah even had a little touch of it. Butch escaped. Lacey's experience was rough. She was fine in the evening, went to bed, woke crying at 10:00ish and it took a while for me to figure it out. Her nose was totally stuffed up & she couldn't breathe. All she wanted to do was sleep and she couldn't. I struggled to get a little Benadryl in her sometime in the wee hours (when I'd figured it out), but may have been lucky if I got 1/4 dose in her. The rest was all over her hair and PJs. We all had *maybe* 2-3 hours of sleep that night. I took her to the doc the next day b/c she's never had such difficulty sleeping with "just a cold", and I was worried it was an ear infection or strep. (It was a Friday and I wasn't heading into the weekend like that.) Lacey was a nightmare in the exam room.....screaming and fighting. The doc said she thought she had a sinus infection, so we got an antibiotic. She also prescribed Tylenol 3 (yes, you read correctly). She thought that Lacey's inability to sleep was likely caused by really bad sinus pain and thought Lacey was "beside herself with pain". We gave her the Tylenol 3 for 3 nights and were all able to sleep. The cold left. And, it left me a few days later.

This week, I got a sore throat (Monday) and realized on Tuesday that it was a cold....not just some random thing. Yesterday, Lacey was fine. Went to bed at 8:30, woke crying at 10:30 with a totally stuffed up nose. So, downstairs we went to watch Aladin (her new fav) and forced drugs into her. Decongestant. Benadryl. Motrin. And, Butch put the humidifier in her room. We managed to get her back to bed at midnight and she slept solid until 6:10. I sure hope she recovers quickly.

Now, if I'd been able to sleep for all that time, I'd be good. But, Leah woke at 11:00 (while LJ was still up); again at 3:15; and again at 5:15. And, my alarm had gone off at 4:50. So, I'm tired.

No idea what is up with Leah's sleep these last 4 nights. The first few, I was thinking growth spurt, but I would think she'd be settled back in by now. I hope this isn't a trend that continues.

Leah's Baptism

Leah's Baptism is scheduled for November 25.

We have a new pastor at our church. Her first Sunday was July 1. Leah's birthday. And, we haven't made an attempt at going to church since Leah was born. Not b/c of Leah. But, b/c Lacey hates the nursery so much.

Well, when I called to schedule the baptism, the pastor said she wanted to meet with us. And, she asked if we'd been there recently. I ended up feeling like bad parents and bad church members by the end of the call.

We met with her yesterday at 3:30. I really thought it would be about 30 minutes. Nope. We walked out around 4:45. We both felt like we were being quizzed on our knowledge of the Bible for a good chunk of the time we were there. And, also lectured for not bringing our little ones to church. She is a believer in having the little ones in the service and not in the nursery -- even though it might be difficult at first. So we are going to try that. Again. We have tried that before and Lacey ends up making so much noise that one of us (me) ends up sitting in the van with her. But, we'll try again.

Man, I miss Pastor Phil.

September

So, I'll try my best to do a rather quick recap of our September. It won't be everything, but I'll update you as I remember it. We had a pretty good month.

Leah started daycare a few weeks ago and is doing really well. I'm so happy that we paid Lisa to save the spot for Leah. It was quite nice feeling OK dropping Leah off somewhere. I knew she'd be well taken care of. I was totally unsure of how things would go with her eating, though. Since I'm still breastfeeding, I have no clue how much she takes at a feeding. That was honestly the biggest challenge of sending her. But, we've gotten through it.

Lacey has adjusted well to having her sister with her. She is a bit possessive and didn't initially want anyone talking to "her baby", but other than that, she's good.

A couple of weeks ago, Lacey went potty at daycare! Wow....the first time. That was a Friday. Then, on Sunday, she was running around naked after her bath (common occurance in our house for her) and she said she had to go potty. She says this often. She sits. For 2 seconds. Wipes and flushes. Nothing comes out. However....this time, she meant it. We weren't even in there with her, b/c she always says it and never does. We've had no success since then, but at least a little movement in the right direction.

On the 15th, we went to the Charles County Fair and had a ball. Leah was content in her stroller almost the entire time. Lacey rode a pony and did not hesitate at all about hopping on.

She rode several rides, but then it was all ruined when I (bad mommy) let her ride a kiddie roller coaster and it completely freaked her out. She just about flew out of it b/c she wasn't sitting down. So, after 1 lap on it, they stopped it and she got off....and was over the rides and ready to go home. I took off the following Friday & took her to the St. Mary's Fair. She still wanted nothing to do with the rides, but enjoyed all the farm animals and rode a pony again.

My birthday was the 22nd. As I was opening cards, Lacey kept insisting it was her birthday. Silly goose. Butch got me a charm for my bracelet with Leah's birthstone. That night, we even got to go out. Kristina babysat for us (along with Rick). We went to the Civista Wine Tasting with Dee and Buck and several of their friends. It was a nice night out. But, I had too much wine and felt it the next morning!!! With 2 little ones, that's why we don't go out much!

What else?

Oh - work. I started back a few weeks ago with working 1/2 days from home. The first week, I had Leah with me and just worked during her catnaps. The next week, she started daycare, but I kept my 1/2 days so I could try to run errands. Then, last week, I started the hellish coummute again. I'm leaving 20-30 min. later than I used to so that I can nurse Leah and help Butch get the girls to the car. So, I'm stuck in slightly worse traffic than usual. I hate that drive. Then, I found myself stressing b/c I was so late getting in (8:30-9:00 instead of 7:30-8:00) and really can't stay later b/c I need to get home to nurse Leah. So, I talked to my supervisor (whom I've known for 14 years and consider a friend) and she basically said not to worry. I knew she'd say that. I just needed to have the conversation to feel better.

Work itself is going okay. I'm just trying my best to dig out. Others handled things that were "must do" while I was out, but lots of stuff just sat....waiting for my return. And, my head isn't in the game completely yet.

2 Client Execs (my job) left while I was out on leave. Lovely. They are looking for replacements. When you pile more & more work on people without any real compensation increase, they leave. This is what happens. I hope the powers that be aren't surprised. We're lucky to get something "close" to cost of living each year.

I'll try to do another post in the next few days!

Dad's 70th Birthday

What happened? I haven't posted since Sept. 5 and hadn't even posted about the end of August! I think I'll do a couple of separate posts so it isn't so much at once.

In August, we had a 70th birthday party for Dad. He turned 70 and had made it clear a year ago that he expected a party. We combined it with our annual family party that is held each August/September since so many of the same people would be coming. And, we added about 40 people. Keep in mind this annual party isn't small to start. Dad's family is fairly large and the party includes his siblings, their children, their children, and in some cases, their children. It's awesome, though and everyone has a great time. Here is what Uncle Kennedy had made for Dad this year.....this is the pic of the whole family from last year.

So, to make it special, we used a theme --- Aloha! Almost everyone got into the spirit (Rick failed here) and dressed appropriately. In fact, the pictures all look the same b/c it is just a sea of Hawaiian prints. Quite funny.

We had (thanks mostly to Dee & Buck for catering) pork loin, pulled pork, fried chicken (thank you, Popeye's), Dee's special baked beans, Buck's awesome potato salad, cole slaw, deviled eggs, etc., etc., etc. You get the idea. Oh - and of course, the party wouldn't be complete without Joanie's crab dip. (Which Dee and I usually stand over and eat most of.)

For, us (Butch, me and family), the party was a little strange. We enjoyed ourselves, but it's not like we could have as much fun with an 8 week old. I think I failed to mention that it was 100* outside. Yes, you read that correctly. It was HUMID on top of that, too. So, Leah stayed inside most of the day while we all took turns hanging out with her. Lacey had a good time, though, and I was amazed at how well behaved they both were all day. We had several compliments on that. It's always good to hear. ;-)

Leah is 3 months old!

2 Months Old

3 Months Old