What a week. What a weekend. I had fully intended to get back on the blogging wagon with my short burst of a few posts a week or so ago. Then life happened. As in, new state mandated standardized testing for kindergarten in which I spent no less than 8 completely dedicated hours assessing my students this past week. And I'm still not done. Then a college friend of mine succumbed to the aggressive cancer she was first told about 6 short months ago. She was 28 when she died- and one of the few truly wonderful women without a fault that I can identify in this world. It's been a tough week.
We drove Friday night after work to our home state to attend the funeral on Saturday. Luckily, my MIL lives 30 minutes from where it was, so we had a babysitter for the day. Unluckily for us, but that looonggggg car ride meant that our still WON'T SLEEP IN THE CAR twosome fell asleep Friday night at 11:30 pm. Slap-happy overtired toddlers can be entertaining, but stressful too. (My favorite part was telling Anna to "hang on" in a gas station bathroom and after grabbing the coat hook and dangling her feet, said "I hanging on!" Also unluckily for us, but Anna forgot she was potty trained and peed in her car seat, with several hours to go to our destination. Luckily for us, my MIL had a washer we could use when we arrived. What's even more awesome than driving with two overtired toddlers for 6 hours and then doing laundry at midnight? That it was all so we could attend the funeral of my 28 year old friend the next day.
We returned home on Saturday night because I was determined that we would a.) go to a pumpkin patch this year and the wet weather had prevented it so far plus my husband will be on a work trip next weekend so it was Sunday or never as a family this year. b.) have some good aspect of the weekend so it wouldn't completely blow and c.) rake our leaves because our leaf pickup for our area starts Monday and again, the wet weather had prevented it so far so it was now or never.
Anna had yet another accident in her car seat with hours to go in our drive on the way back and so I waved my white flag, bought diapers at a gas station and told Sam and Anna that we now wear diapers for long car rides. At least that meant we weren't stopping 5+ times for icky gas station bathroom breaks. Sam and Anna went to sleep at 10:30 pm (so at least a little earlier than the night before) after again, NOT SLEEPING IN THE CAR ONE SECOND and the side effect meant they slept in the next morning until 8:30 am. We salvaged our weekend with a perfectly fun time at the pumpkin patch Sunday morning, decent naps to catch up on their sleep deficit, ample time to get the millions of leaves in our yard to the curb, 8 loads of laundry,washing and changing sheets on three beds (and I thought changing the bedding on cribs was a pain), and pumpkin carving since Daddy's leaving town in a few days until Halloween morning.
Whew!
I have high hopes for a less stressful, less of a downer week.
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Blogger Meet Up!
A little bit ago I discovered that Tammy from the blog Tammy's Journey and her husband Mark travelled to a city about a half an hour from me (but hours from their home) for their social worker visits for their adoption of their sweet and adorable baby girl Hannah. Once we found that out, we instantly started making plans to meet up the next time they were in my area.
Tammy is such a caring and genuine person. She's been following and commenting on my blog long before Sam and Anna existed- since the early days of this little ol' blog when I was in the thick of our infertility struggles and our IVF journey. She and her husband Mark have been through an amazing amount to become parents, and I am overjoyed that their long journey brought them to adopting Hannah. You only have to spend a moment with them in person to know that they are wonderful parents to Hannah and that she is very lucky to have them as her mom and dad!
I am so glad we were able to meet in person!
Tammy is such a caring and genuine person. She's been following and commenting on my blog long before Sam and Anna existed- since the early days of this little ol' blog when I was in the thick of our infertility struggles and our IVF journey. She and her husband Mark have been through an amazing amount to become parents, and I am overjoyed that their long journey brought them to adopting Hannah. You only have to spend a moment with them in person to know that they are wonderful parents to Hannah and that she is very lucky to have them as her mom and dad!
I am so glad we were able to meet in person!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Well, That Stunk
We had an interesting chain of events in the last week at our house. First, I took Tuesday off of work to clean our house for relatives to visit. Let's face it, that's about the only way I have time to make our home presentable to what I feel is an appropriate standard for visitors. Then, Grandpa Dan was delayed a day because of car trouble. Our daycare provider took a sick day on Wednesday and since I already stayed home from work the day before, Daddy fielded that one and took that day off of work.
Then Thursday I shuttled Sam and Anna to daycare (Which is not our usual routine and means that I have about 5 minutes of their awake time before we get in the car. It's rough to get twin toddlers out the door before 7 am!) because Daddy and Grandpa went turkey hunting in the morning. Sam may have seemed extra cranky in the morning, but they usually are when I have to get them up early and drop off at daycare a half hour earlier than usual. He also coughed a nasty little cough which made me hesitate for one second and consider staying home, but since they were knee-deep in colds at the time, I kept getting Sam and Anna dressed as fast as I could anyway. I hadn't even pulled into the school parking lot at work 30 minutes after drop off before I got a call from daycare that she was certain that Sam had croup. I walked to the office before even getting to my classroom and had them call a substitute in before I turned around and left to get him and bring him to the doctor. Sam, of course, would not cough once for the pedi, but we thankfully left armed with a Rx anyway.
Friday Sam seemed much better, so we did bring them to daycare that day. However, when I picked Sam and Anna up after school (pretty soon after they woke up from their nap), we discovered that Anna had a fever that started climbing once she woke up.
Our plan for months was to leave Sam and Anna with their Grandpa Dan (who was visiting to turkey hunt anyway) and Aunt Mary Saturday to Sunday so that Daddy and I could go to a wedding of old college friends a 4+ hour drive away. We were planning of course, to stay overnight. I had been looking forward to this ever since we got the Save the Date because these are the last of our college friends to marry and quite possibly the last wedding to attend with the old group. We rarely get to see these friends and so both of us were and are extremely sad about it.
Sam's croup and Anna's fever, of course, prevented that. Ibuprofen broke Anna's fever but not before I saw her at the most lethargic I've ever seen. Sam's cough got better, but still interrupted all his sleep day and night for days so he was a cranky, mama-clingy mess all weekend.
Now Monday Anna's fever is all gone.. but now she's coughing (not croup-like yet) and Sam's still not himself, but less crabby and clingy. We missed the wedding and our friends a lot, and sick kids makes my heart just hurt for them. Needless to say, we're looking forward to a better week ahead, hopefully filled with better, happier and healthier days!
Then Thursday I shuttled Sam and Anna to daycare (Which is not our usual routine and means that I have about 5 minutes of their awake time before we get in the car. It's rough to get twin toddlers out the door before 7 am!) because Daddy and Grandpa went turkey hunting in the morning. Sam may have seemed extra cranky in the morning, but they usually are when I have to get them up early and drop off at daycare a half hour earlier than usual. He also coughed a nasty little cough which made me hesitate for one second and consider staying home, but since they were knee-deep in colds at the time, I kept getting Sam and Anna dressed as fast as I could anyway. I hadn't even pulled into the school parking lot at work 30 minutes after drop off before I got a call from daycare that she was certain that Sam had croup. I walked to the office before even getting to my classroom and had them call a substitute in before I turned around and left to get him and bring him to the doctor. Sam, of course, would not cough once for the pedi, but we thankfully left armed with a Rx anyway.
Friday Sam seemed much better, so we did bring them to daycare that day. However, when I picked Sam and Anna up after school (pretty soon after they woke up from their nap), we discovered that Anna had a fever that started climbing once she woke up.
Our plan for months was to leave Sam and Anna with their Grandpa Dan (who was visiting to turkey hunt anyway) and Aunt Mary Saturday to Sunday so that Daddy and I could go to a wedding of old college friends a 4+ hour drive away. We were planning of course, to stay overnight. I had been looking forward to this ever since we got the Save the Date because these are the last of our college friends to marry and quite possibly the last wedding to attend with the old group. We rarely get to see these friends and so both of us were and are extremely sad about it.
Sam's croup and Anna's fever, of course, prevented that. Ibuprofen broke Anna's fever but not before I saw her at the most lethargic I've ever seen. Sam's cough got better, but still interrupted all his sleep day and night for days so he was a cranky, mama-clingy mess all weekend.
Now Monday Anna's fever is all gone.. but now she's coughing (not croup-like yet) and Sam's still not himself, but less crabby and clingy. We missed the wedding and our friends a lot, and sick kids makes my heart just hurt for them. Needless to say, we're looking forward to a better week ahead, hopefully filled with better, happier and healthier days!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Whirlwind Weekend
This weekend we took Sam and Anna on their first road trip across state lines- we headed to our home state, Minnesota. It was their second long car ride of their lives, and the longest yet.
Anna continues to be unable to really sleep while driving, while Sam can, but not well. On Saturday Anna had two 30 minute naps, and that was it. The only way I could get her to fall asleep (after being awake for over 3 hours) was to tuck a blanket around her, pinning her arms down to simulate being swaddled, hold in her pacifier, and continuously brushing her eyelids closed. She woke up from her last crap-nap at 2 pm and we were unsuccessful in getting her to take another one. She ended up going to bed for the night at around 6:30 pm- which means she had been awake for just under 5 hours.
Getting them to drink in new environments was a bit of a joke too- geez, you'd think they'd be used to distractions because their sibling is always drinking at the same time and inevitably making noise too. That is not the case, however. We had the hardest time getting each of them to buckle down and focus on drinking every bottle. Let's just say I am maybe a little glad they are going to daycare tomorrow so she be the one to work on getting them back on their typical eating/napping schedule!
We headed to Minnesota for an old college friend's wedding. My MIL babysat while we attended the ceremony and reception. It was the first time someone else fed them solids (which didn't go so well) and the first time someone else did bedtime (which also did not go so well). I didn't expect it to though, especially after the day of naps (or lack of napping!) they had. I had so much fun at the wedding regardless of how "off" they were. It was fun to hang up my mommy hat for a night, have a few drinks and dance the night away. Well, dance for a few hours at least- we left the reception at 10 pm so we could relieve my MIL from baby duty!
We also managed to visit my parents, my husband's grandmother (one of Sam and Anna's great-grandmothers), and my FIL while we were in Minnesota. Seeing 1 great-grandma, 5 grandparents and college friends in just over 24 hours made it a pretty successful trip, I think (even if the naps and eating was less than stellar).
Anna continues to be unable to really sleep while driving, while Sam can, but not well. On Saturday Anna had two 30 minute naps, and that was it. The only way I could get her to fall asleep (after being awake for over 3 hours) was to tuck a blanket around her, pinning her arms down to simulate being swaddled, hold in her pacifier, and continuously brushing her eyelids closed. She woke up from her last crap-nap at 2 pm and we were unsuccessful in getting her to take another one. She ended up going to bed for the night at around 6:30 pm- which means she had been awake for just under 5 hours.
Getting them to drink in new environments was a bit of a joke too- geez, you'd think they'd be used to distractions because their sibling is always drinking at the same time and inevitably making noise too. That is not the case, however. We had the hardest time getting each of them to buckle down and focus on drinking every bottle. Let's just say I am maybe a little glad they are going to daycare tomorrow so she be the one to work on getting them back on their typical eating/napping schedule!
We headed to Minnesota for an old college friend's wedding. My MIL babysat while we attended the ceremony and reception. It was the first time someone else fed them solids (which didn't go so well) and the first time someone else did bedtime (which also did not go so well). I didn't expect it to though, especially after the day of naps (or lack of napping!) they had. I had so much fun at the wedding regardless of how "off" they were. It was fun to hang up my mommy hat for a night, have a few drinks and dance the night away. Well, dance for a few hours at least- we left the reception at 10 pm so we could relieve my MIL from baby duty!
We also managed to visit my parents, my husband's grandmother (one of Sam and Anna's great-grandmothers), and my FIL while we were in Minnesota. Seeing 1 great-grandma, 5 grandparents and college friends in just over 24 hours made it a pretty successful trip, I think (even if the naps and eating was less than stellar).
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
One of the Best Gifts Ever
When I walked to my mailbox a week or so ago, I found an unexpected package from my dear internet friend and fellow IF blogger, Carli. I have been meaning to get to this post because her generosity and the thought she put into this gift seriously made me speechless... and it even made me cry.
We called Baby B (Sam) "Little Bean" and Baby A (Anna) "Sweet Pea" from the moment we knew there were two fetuses. I had a feeling even at 6 weeks that Baby A was a girl and Baby B was a boy. And I was right! I still use these names as nicknames for my little ones.
Can you get any more perfect than that? Once Sam and Anna fit into them, I think I should take a picture of them in their IVF onesies and send the picture to my RE!
We called Baby B (Sam) "Little Bean" and Baby A (Anna) "Sweet Pea" from the moment we knew there were two fetuses. I had a feeling even at 6 weeks that Baby A was a girl and Baby B was a boy. And I was right! I still use these names as nicknames for my little ones.
Here's a close up of the IVF onesie, with accurate prices for our IVF cycle:
Can you get any more perfect than that? Once Sam and Anna fit into them, I think I should take a picture of them in their IVF onesies and send the picture to my RE!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Love From a Blogger Friend
A week or so ago I got a wonderful and so sweet package in the mail from my blogger friend Courtney. It was so unexpected and so incredibly kind of her, that I had to share on here and publicly thank her! Courtney is currently PUPO after IVF #3, and counting away the days until her beta. If you have a chance, visit her blog and give her some support while she waits! Thank you for being such a good blog friend Courtney!
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