Well, my daughter has her own throne...really, she does. She's been in this princess phase lately--and everything has to be princess. Yesterday, I went to put a plain pink shirt on her and had to tell her that princess's wear them when they can't wear a dress. So, I decided to try to use this princess phase and potty train her. I went to target and oaught a pink princess castle potty that plays music when she pees in it, I bought princess panties, and I bought a box of 1000 princess stickers. On a poster board, she got to put a small princess sticker for every time she sat on the potty and a BIG princess sticker every time shes used the potty. It didnt work--she still refused the potty--so I just dropped it for a while. Suddenly, she decided it was time to wear panties and has not worn a diaper during the day since Monday. She even naps in panties. She does wear a diaper for bedtime--but she even wakes up a night to potty--so we may be getting rid of the night time diaper soon! I am very proud of Emma and am loving being down to just one in diapers!!!
Abbi is getting so big :) SHe is gowing through a chunky phase--she has so many rolls on her legs that I just love to pinch and squeeze! She is trying to roll over--but can't get her big ole thighs all the way over quiet yet--but it will be soon! She has the best smiles in the world--her smiles can light up a room--and she shares them so regularly! She is sleeping better--a 4-5 hour stretch is pretty consistent now. She is just coming into her own... I am loving seeing her grow!
Jon defends his dissertation on Tuesday! He is ready to be done with it--and quite frankly, so am I! I am ready to have my husband back!!!
I started my job last week and like it quite a bit--I am really enjoying getting ready for the kids to come! They start Thursday!!! Abbi is crying--so I am off...will update more later!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
HOLY HEAT BATMAN!
I joined a mom's group in preparation for our move to TN and one of the women in the group said I should wait to move until the end of August because July and August were so hot---SHE WAS RIGHT! Yesterday our heat index was 113-the actual temp was supposed to be 101, but my van said it was 104! YIKES! Today, we had a rain storm and in less than an hour, the temp dropped 33 degrees--but the cool down did not last long! Here is what I have learned from this week in the heat:
1. It hurts to drive when I touch the steering wheel and it feels like my flesh is sticking to the wheel.
2. A 2 year old and a 2 month old do not appreciate being stuck at home because its too hot to go anywhere including the pool.
3.The above mentioned children refuse to sleep (in protest of the heat, I'm sure).
4. Going to Kroger to buy milk results in the need for a second shower because i looked like i had run my first marathon.
5. The air is so THICK here it hurts to breathe!
Okay, enough about the heat--lets have some real updates:
Ohio House: OFFER PENDING :) Still waiting on the bank approval but the appraiser will be out tomorrow--this is further than we got with the first offer that ended up falling through.
Jon: Just peeked his head in to see what I was doing and told me he is finished with his dissertation except chapter 3--he is waiting to hear back from his mentor regarding the edits he made on chapter 3. He will be sending his dissertation to his committee members tomorrow and will then be able to work on his public presentation and studying for the closed session with his committee members!
Abbi: turned a corner, so to speak, this past week. She is consistently doing at least one four hour stretch a night and then usually followed by a few three hour stretches.So I am getting about 7 hours of sleep where I am only waking up once...HUGE for me! She has given us a couple five hour stretches--but not consistently. She is no longer crying in 3 to 4 hour stretches. She is down to several 10-15 minute spells and her longest crying spell is usually only about 45 minutes at night now.
She is also maturing in her social abilities. She has the BEST smiles--huge ear to ear grins and cackles--her smiles make all the crying moments well worth it!
Emma: Well, she's two with a new baby, a new house, and a back to work mommy--so this week has been a little rough (to put it kindly). She has now begun to oppose going to bed and is acting like a maniac. I have never heard this type of fit from her before. She is holding her breath and screaming and jumping up and down. It is truly a sight. We thought we had a good night tonight when we put her to bed--we did her routine like normal and she stayed in bed easily at 8:00--we did not hear a peep until 9:15. By 9:30 she was out of control in a fit--we are trying to be firm, consistent, and compassionate all at the same time. Aside from bed time, she is doing well. During the day, she is my well behaved, loving and fun little girl. I hope this bed time thing is just a transition problem--if not--I will be calling on Super Nanny :)
Nannies: I had two interviews set up with two different nannies who did not show! Crazy--they did not even call! Tomorrow, I am meeting with an at home mom who has two little boys. This is her source of income so she has a contract with information and seems very together. I also have a couple of numbers of people from friends/family members and if tomorrow's visit doesn't work out, I will be calling to make some more interviews.
Kati: I love my new job--it is so different from what I am used to. I think I am going to miss teaching English, and without a doubt I am going to miss everyone at FHS, but I really think this job is going to be something new and fun for me. I worked three days this week--I was paid to shop for supplies and make lesson plans for the enrichments. We are working three days next week to plan more--we have the calendar done through September now and will be working on October next week. I have NOTHING that has to be done at home--in fact, I don't even have to think about work at home. The people I am working with are nice--and I think when the kids start coming--we will have a great program set up for them. I am a little sad as I am writing this and thinking about how much I do enjoy teaching English and reading books with kids; however, this is a great opportunity to expand my experience to the elementary level AND I am doing a book club as one of the enrichments so maybe that will help me not miss the English classroom so much :)
All in all, we are happy here. I think we will all be a little happier when Jon is officially done, when I am on a normal work schedule--therefore having the kids on a consistent schedule, and when we have hired someone for child care. I hope everyone is enjoying the last bit of summer and is staying out of the heat!
1. It hurts to drive when I touch the steering wheel and it feels like my flesh is sticking to the wheel.
2. A 2 year old and a 2 month old do not appreciate being stuck at home because its too hot to go anywhere including the pool.
3.The above mentioned children refuse to sleep (in protest of the heat, I'm sure).
4. Going to Kroger to buy milk results in the need for a second shower because i looked like i had run my first marathon.
5. The air is so THICK here it hurts to breathe!
Okay, enough about the heat--lets have some real updates:
Ohio House: OFFER PENDING :) Still waiting on the bank approval but the appraiser will be out tomorrow--this is further than we got with the first offer that ended up falling through.
Jon: Just peeked his head in to see what I was doing and told me he is finished with his dissertation except chapter 3--he is waiting to hear back from his mentor regarding the edits he made on chapter 3. He will be sending his dissertation to his committee members tomorrow and will then be able to work on his public presentation and studying for the closed session with his committee members!
Abbi: turned a corner, so to speak, this past week. She is consistently doing at least one four hour stretch a night and then usually followed by a few three hour stretches.So I am getting about 7 hours of sleep where I am only waking up once...HUGE for me! She has given us a couple five hour stretches--but not consistently. She is no longer crying in 3 to 4 hour stretches. She is down to several 10-15 minute spells and her longest crying spell is usually only about 45 minutes at night now.
She is also maturing in her social abilities. She has the BEST smiles--huge ear to ear grins and cackles--her smiles make all the crying moments well worth it!
Emma: Well, she's two with a new baby, a new house, and a back to work mommy--so this week has been a little rough (to put it kindly). She has now begun to oppose going to bed and is acting like a maniac. I have never heard this type of fit from her before. She is holding her breath and screaming and jumping up and down. It is truly a sight. We thought we had a good night tonight when we put her to bed--we did her routine like normal and she stayed in bed easily at 8:00--we did not hear a peep until 9:15. By 9:30 she was out of control in a fit--we are trying to be firm, consistent, and compassionate all at the same time. Aside from bed time, she is doing well. During the day, she is my well behaved, loving and fun little girl. I hope this bed time thing is just a transition problem--if not--I will be calling on Super Nanny :)
Nannies: I had two interviews set up with two different nannies who did not show! Crazy--they did not even call! Tomorrow, I am meeting with an at home mom who has two little boys. This is her source of income so she has a contract with information and seems very together. I also have a couple of numbers of people from friends/family members and if tomorrow's visit doesn't work out, I will be calling to make some more interviews.
Kati: I love my new job--it is so different from what I am used to. I think I am going to miss teaching English, and without a doubt I am going to miss everyone at FHS, but I really think this job is going to be something new and fun for me. I worked three days this week--I was paid to shop for supplies and make lesson plans for the enrichments. We are working three days next week to plan more--we have the calendar done through September now and will be working on October next week. I have NOTHING that has to be done at home--in fact, I don't even have to think about work at home. The people I am working with are nice--and I think when the kids start coming--we will have a great program set up for them. I am a little sad as I am writing this and thinking about how much I do enjoy teaching English and reading books with kids; however, this is a great opportunity to expand my experience to the elementary level AND I am doing a book club as one of the enrichments so maybe that will help me not miss the English classroom so much :)
All in all, we are happy here. I think we will all be a little happier when Jon is officially done, when I am on a normal work schedule--therefore having the kids on a consistent schedule, and when we have hired someone for child care. I hope everyone is enjoying the last bit of summer and is staying out of the heat!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Goodbye OHIO, Hello TN
Well we have officially moved! The last two weeks have been insane to say the least, but we are finally in TN, the boxes are all cleared, and we are back to establishing some type of normal routine. Here are some individual updates:
Ohio House: Still on the market--we have an offer pending and are hoping and praying that the offer will stick!
Jon: He has four of his five chapters of his disertation done and sent to his mentor for review. He will be finishing chapter 5 within the next two or so days. He needs to be finished and have his 200+ page disertation printed by Friday. We are going back to Ohio to drop off his disertation to his committee members this coimng weekend.
Kati: I have been offered and have accepted a job with a private school in Nashville. I will be the assistant director for an after school enrichment program. I will be working with grades K-6 and I will only be working from 1230-6. I am a little nervous because it is an hourly position--so when school is not in session, I do not get paid. However, it is the perfect opportunity to stay home part time with the girls and to gain elementary experience so that I can be more employable for elementary counseling positions. I am excited to not have the grading/lesson planning that comes along with high school English, but also a little sad that I will not be in the classroom full time. It will be a different year for me, and I am looking forward to the change--but most of all, I am excited to be home more with my girls. My reovery from my c-section is going much better. I had an appointment the day we moved and things were good. I go back in a couple weeks for a follow up and it will be my last appt. with Dr. G!
Emma: She has been going through a princess stage--not sure where it started, but I am going to blame Lucy :) Suddenly, everything is princess...pretty shoes are princess shoes, any dress is a princess dress, and of course, her new room needed to be princess. She is adjusting to the move as well as can be expected of a two year old. SHe had some rough days/nights, but seems okay now. Last night was the first night we had alone in our new home, and Emma did very well--she stayed in bed all night and slept from 8p-7am!
Abbi: She is getting so big! She has big huge social smiles now--much more then Emma ever had! SHe is also very verbal--she coos and makes baby sounds all the time. She is crying less--though last night was rough. I am not sure what upset her tummy but she cried for hours again last night. THe entire week before she did four hour stretches of sleep at night--a huge accomplishment for us. We are moving her in to her crib (vs the basinet in our room) for naps starting today. We hope to have her in a routine and sleeping at night in her own crib within the next couple weeks. I just hope the shared room does not disturb Emma's sleep.
Ohio House: Still on the market--we have an offer pending and are hoping and praying that the offer will stick!
Jon: He has four of his five chapters of his disertation done and sent to his mentor for review. He will be finishing chapter 5 within the next two or so days. He needs to be finished and have his 200+ page disertation printed by Friday. We are going back to Ohio to drop off his disertation to his committee members this coimng weekend.
Kati: I have been offered and have accepted a job with a private school in Nashville. I will be the assistant director for an after school enrichment program. I will be working with grades K-6 and I will only be working from 1230-6. I am a little nervous because it is an hourly position--so when school is not in session, I do not get paid. However, it is the perfect opportunity to stay home part time with the girls and to gain elementary experience so that I can be more employable for elementary counseling positions. I am excited to not have the grading/lesson planning that comes along with high school English, but also a little sad that I will not be in the classroom full time. It will be a different year for me, and I am looking forward to the change--but most of all, I am excited to be home more with my girls. My reovery from my c-section is going much better. I had an appointment the day we moved and things were good. I go back in a couple weeks for a follow up and it will be my last appt. with Dr. G!
Emma: She has been going through a princess stage--not sure where it started, but I am going to blame Lucy :) Suddenly, everything is princess...pretty shoes are princess shoes, any dress is a princess dress, and of course, her new room needed to be princess. She is adjusting to the move as well as can be expected of a two year old. SHe had some rough days/nights, but seems okay now. Last night was the first night we had alone in our new home, and Emma did very well--she stayed in bed all night and slept from 8p-7am!
Abbi: She is getting so big! She has big huge social smiles now--much more then Emma ever had! SHe is also very verbal--she coos and makes baby sounds all the time. She is crying less--though last night was rough. I am not sure what upset her tummy but she cried for hours again last night. THe entire week before she did four hour stretches of sleep at night--a huge accomplishment for us. We are moving her in to her crib (vs the basinet in our room) for naps starting today. We hope to have her in a routine and sleeping at night in her own crib within the next couple weeks. I just hope the shared room does not disturb Emma's sleep.
Nashville home: Here are some pics of the new place! The girls room and our room will be loaded later! The girls room photos are on facebook, but they are on the other computer so I cant load them on this blog!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
A quick update
Hello friends and family :)
Sorry for the delay (again) in updates. This time, it is not my fault!!! For some reason, we keep having internet problems. Sometimes we can conncect and sometimes we can't. And, part of the time we can connect--the connection is super slow so pictures won't update.
One thing I am looking forward to when we move is new cable and new internet!!!
Today, Jon, the girls, and I are going down to Cincy Childrens museum for some play time. We are going to have a very busy few weeks between dr. appointments, jon working, and moving so we are going to try to take advantage of a free day.
Friday, June 18, 2010
"Abbi is CRYYYYYING"
The title of today's blog--Emma's most common phrase at the moment! She is always coming around to tell us when Abbi is crying, and has even started trying to comfort Abbi herself! Emma is quite helpful--even too helpful! Abbi is doing very well during the day--she is as sweet as can be, she loves to be held and rocked, and nurses pretty well. During the night, however, she has been " a little cranky" and has started waking Emma up! Emma requested an overnight stay at Mammaw and Pappaw's house where she was able to get an uninterupted night's rest! Abbi and I are working on this cry all night thing--good friends reassure me that its probably a growth spurt and a way to increase my milk supply... so I am hoping that she grows out of this soon! I certainly don't expect a two week old to sleep all night--but an hour here or there would be nice!
Anyway, here are a couple new pics of the girls! 
And here are the girls with cousin Gabe!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Ahhh...sleepless nights
Well, Abbi is now two weeks old! Its hard to beleive DAYS go by so quickly that I feel like I have lost touch with reality--I can not beleive it is June 15! Nights, on the other hand, go extrememly slowly. Abbi wakes up every other hour to eat--so I am averaging 1 to 1.5 hour stretches from 11 to 8 or so and then getting up with Emma and Jon around 8. I am hoping that Abbi gets her days and nights turned around soon--I am pretty exhausted!
Emma is doing well--she had a pretty serious head bump last week and we ended up taking her to children's hospital for a CT scan and for factor 8. Because of her VonWillabrands, the hematologist was afraid that the bleed between her skin and her skull would not stop bleeding, so they wanted her to have factor 8--they gave her human factor 8 (which I was not thrilled about, but at the time it was the recomendation). She did not have a skull fracture or a brain bleed--thank goodness! The factor 8 did its job and slowed down the bleeding in the hematoma. She was a little drowsy the following day, but is totally back to normal now--aside from an ugly bump and bruise on her forhead.
Today, we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. It was good for Emma to get some one-on-one time with me, and with my mom, and with Beth. Two of us stayed with abbi and Gabe while on adult played with Emma--so we rotated baby time and Emma time.
All in all, things are going well--aside from the no sleep! Sorry it has been a while since my last post--I will work on posting more pics and updating more frequently--trying to get in a schedule!!!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Welcome Home Abbigail :)
Life is...different, more fun, more challenging, wonderful, overwhelming...a blessing. Abbigail completes our family-and I feel so content knowing that my girls here are healthy and that they have their big sister watching over them to make sure they stay that way! We have each had a couple "moments" when we look at Abbi and cry a bit--she looks so much like Hailey. In fact, there is one specific picture of Hailey on our table and several people have asked when i had time to get a picture of Abbi printed and in a frame.
Abbi is a pretty good little baby during the day! She sleeps like a champ and is relatively content as long as she is full--during the night, there is a 'slight" change in her demeanor. She goes from peaceful, wonderful Abbi--to "oh-my-where-is-our-sweet-baby-and-who-is-this-crazy-child" Abbi. Last night was a little better--she was adamantly fussing until about 2:30--but then actually slept after eating until 5:50. So 3:00-5:50 has been my longest stretch of sleep since she was born-and I am pretty happy this morning about my big sleep last night!
Emma is adjusting to life as a big sister well. She is a little overwhelmed and wants me to do things that I just can't right now. With my vertical c-section incision, I have to be very careful. Emma wants to be held just like the baby and I just can't. I have to be a little firmer with her--but i am trying to be compassionate and I want her to understand that she is just as important as the baby. Its a hard line and I am working on the balance--I know there is a learning curve--but for the most part we are doing well. Emma loves helping with the baby, and all things baby. She is just missing her momma--and quite frankly--I am missing her as well!
All in all, I will say that there are times when adding Abbi to our family has been easier than I expected and there are times when I think "what in the world have we done?" However, for the most part, we are doing well and couldn't be happier (well, unless we all slept 8 hours in a row--but that's a little too much to ask right now!)
Abbi is a pretty good little baby during the day! She sleeps like a champ and is relatively content as long as she is full--during the night, there is a 'slight" change in her demeanor. She goes from peaceful, wonderful Abbi--to "oh-my-where-is-our-sweet-baby-and-who-is-this-crazy-child" Abbi. Last night was a little better--she was adamantly fussing until about 2:30--but then actually slept after eating until 5:50. So 3:00-5:50 has been my longest stretch of sleep since she was born-and I am pretty happy this morning about my big sleep last night!
Emma is adjusting to life as a big sister well. She is a little overwhelmed and wants me to do things that I just can't right now. With my vertical c-section incision, I have to be very careful. Emma wants to be held just like the baby and I just can't. I have to be a little firmer with her--but i am trying to be compassionate and I want her to understand that she is just as important as the baby. Its a hard line and I am working on the balance--I know there is a learning curve--but for the most part we are doing well. Emma loves helping with the baby, and all things baby. She is just missing her momma--and quite frankly--I am missing her as well!
All in all, I will say that there are times when adding Abbi to our family has been easier than I expected and there are times when I think "what in the world have we done?" However, for the most part, we are doing well and couldn't be happier (well, unless we all slept 8 hours in a row--but that's a little too much to ask right now!)
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