Tag Archives: family

I could get used to this

Posted in Family, Isabella/Munchkin by

I took last Friday off of work so that CJ could work on painting our house. Which means I got to be with the Munchkin full-time for 3 days in a row! And let me tell you, it was awesome.

Friday we had a play date with a friend of mine whose baby is 5 days older than Munch. They had fun walking around and exploring. We took them to the park, which was Munchkin’s first real taste of sand and playground equipment. She was tentative at first but eventually got in to it and after a while, she was walking all over the place and playing running her fingers through the sand, etc. It was really cool to watch her get over a fear right before my eyes and then embrace it.

Playing in the sand

Saturday she and I ran a few errands and otherwise just hung around the house. Sunday was more of that, with a family dinner thrown in. She is really getting in to this whole walking thing now and literally does laps around the house (from the living room, through the dining room, to the kitchen, then down the hall to our bedroom, then Samson’s room, then her room, back down the hall and starts all over. No wonder she’s tired at the end of the day.

Here she is crawling over Samson to get to a volleyball. That's my girl!

I gave her a haircut Friday night (her 2nd one – she has a lot of hair!). I basically just trimmed up the back and her bangs. She has little pixie bangs now. And she looks so darn cute! Yeah so I’m biased but really, she is such a doll.

After her haircut, sucking on the comb.

All this time with her really makes me wish I didn’t have to work full-time. Being with her everyday or even every other day, would be such a gift. And I got so much done around the house too! Granted, not all days would be full of rainbows and sunshine like this weekend was, but it sure gave me a taste of the other side.

Looking out the window while cuddling with her monkey (and wearing her Steelers shirt!)

There are advantages to working too and the grass is always greener. I know that I’m where I need to be for now. But another 3 day weekend sure would be nice!

Cry Me a River

Posted in Family, Isabella/Munchkin by

Oh what a night.

It started out OK when we put Munchkin to bed around 8pm, which is a little later than usual but not by much. She went down easy because she had missed her afternoon nap. I went to bed shortly thereafter and life was good.

I was in the middle of a nice dream about Derek Hough when it happened. The beast awoke.

Around 10:30 I heard her screaming and could hear CJ in there consoling her. She would calm down for a few minutes and then start screaming again. This went on. And on. And on. I finally got up at 11:30 to see if I could help. Hubby desperately handed her off to me. I could see he was frazzled and had that crazed look in his eye that said “if you don’t help me now I may literally go crazy.” He had fed her and given her some Tylenol. Now it was time to work my “mom magic”.

I changed her diaper and then we snuggled in the rocker. Only, she didn’t want to snuggle, she wanted to scream bloody murder. She didn’t have a fever and she wasn’t pulling on her ear or anything. I was baffled.

I finally got her to calm down and snooze. Then she woke up and screamed. Then she’d snooze. Then she’d scream. Again, this went on. And on.

We finally decided we just needed to let her cry it out. So at the next screaming fit, we let her cry. And boy did she cry. After 5 minutes, I went in to tell her it was OK and then left. And she cried. And cried. I finally decided “screw it!” and was going to take her out on the couch with me and try to sleep with her. As soon as I picked her up, she was stopped crying. We went to the living room (by this time it’s after midnight) and cuddled on the couch. She snuggled up to me and then when I tried to put the blanket over her, she freaked out again.

I’m running out of ideas so I grab another bottle and she sucked down 6 more ounces. I thought maybe this was the answer to my prayers and she’d drift off to sleep now so I placed her back in the crib and crept out. She was quiet for 5 blissful minutes and then it started up again.

Out of desperation I called the 24 hour nurse help line. They asked me a checklist of questions, all of which were things I had done, and her answer was to take Munchkin to the ER.  Gak!

I thought I would see how the next few minutes went and then make that determination. She woke up once more and then finally conked out at 1 am.  I got to sleep about 1:30 and slept til 6:45.

I still don’t know what was wrong with her. Maybe she was overly tired and got herself so worked up that she couldn’t calm down. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well. Maybe she was possessed by a demon. Who knows. All I do know is that today I feel like a zombie. Guess I’ll be starting Halloween early!

Good Will Hunting

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On Saturday CJ and I went out for a date only it was in the morning instead of at night. That’s how I know my life has truly changed. We went in the morning to take advantage of the cheap ticket prices at the theatre. And that’s how I know I’m getting old.

Anywho.

We saw “Life as We Know It” (which I would totally recommend to everyone, especially parents). The basic premise of the movie is that a couple states in their will that if they should both die at the same time, custody of their 1-year-old daughter would go to their best friends, who are both single and can’t stand each other. Makes total sense right? It really was a good movie though. We laughed. We cried. We ate lots of popcorn until we busted a gut.

I came away from this movie with 1 very valuable lesson: CJ and I need a will. I’ve been saying this ever since Munchkin was born but we have yet to do anything about it. It’s one of those things that is easy to shove to the side. We did get Life Insurance so I guess we’ve done something. But now we need a will.

That then begs the question of who would we pick to watch Munchkin if we both die in a tragic accident. There are the family options and the friend options. Both have their pros and cons. CJ thinks we should pick 2 single friends that we want to ‘set up’ and name them as guardians. He has a cruel sense of humor that way.

We still haven’t decided but we’ve made it a goal of something to get done this month. Good timing considering this is the month where we celebrate the (un)dead.

1 year later

Posted in Family, Isabella/Munchkin by

Every year our extended family drives about 45 minutes south of Omaha to Nebraska City to pick pumpkins, get some apple cider, visit Arbor Lodge and just enjoy the small town life. Last year when we went, I was 3 weeks in to being a new mom and dealing with a brand new life. I was also desperately trying to lose the baby weight.

Here’s what I looked like then:

 

NE City 2009 - at about 165lbs.

 

I was bigger and Isabella was smaller. Here’s what we look like today:

 

NE City 2010 - 138 lbs

 

I look better, I feel better and am all around more comfortable in my skin. Today’s trip was much more relaxing than last year’s because I am settled in to my life and love every minute of it.

Happy Fall!