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Friday, December 31, 2010

New Years Resolutions?

Do you make New Years Resolutions? 

I normally don't.  I hardly ever follow through on them when I do make them and so it's sorta like making a to do list that is way too long and you really know you won't finish it all in the time you have but you make it anyway and are super bummed with yourself when you don't finish it up.  That's how New Years Resolutions are for me.  I make them sometimes and then I can't follow through and I end up feeling depressed about it.  It's a fun time.

But this year I'm thinking about making some.  Of course making them realistic and something I can follow through on without disappointing myself.  But this will take some time.  Some time to figure out exactly what I can handle right now and how well I know myself in order to keep them.

1. I will put me first sometimes.  I am notoriously terrible about making me a priority, as I think a lot of women/wives/mothers do.  But this year I won't feel bad if I just wanna go shopping alone or take a nice long bubble bath alone, or spend a smidgen extra money on the healthy food I need to fuel my mind and body the right way.

2. I will love my family always and make a major effort to be patient even when I am running low on sleep.

You know what?  I think that's it for me.  I could make a ton more but my chances of keeping them would be small.  So we'll stick with those to and focus my efforts.

Good Luck with yours!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

4 week update.

So Claire is 4 WEEKS old.  How on earth have I managed to survive 4 whole weeks?  Only 2 weeks til I go back to work.  I really can't believe it.

Some updates.

She is getting better about sleeping at night.  She still wakes up every 2-3 hours for food but she goes back down pretty easy at least.

She still is super fussy from about 7-10ish or so at night.  She wants to be held and bounced.  We oblige her but it does get old.

Adam and I are not sleeping in the same room.  I take baby duty at night in the bed and he sleeps on the couch.  When I go back to work, this arrangement will end.

On a brighter note....she occasionally smiles now....I'm sure that she still has no clue what she's doing but I soak it in in hopes that she will genuinely smile at me one of these days.  *heart melt*

She is starting to find her voice.  She occasionally lets out a coo here and there and it seems to surprise her. 

The girl loves to lay on her tummy, something Lily never liked to do.  So this is nice.  Hopefully her head will stay this nice round shape that way.

Lily is still madly in love with her little sister.  She hugs her and kisses her and helps me with her.  And as of now I have yet to see an inkling of jealousy from her....she even shares her "B" with her.

She has Thrush.  Which is weird...I never even knew bottle fed babies could get thrush.  So it goes.  We went to the Dr. on Monday and she got a prescription for it.  She is also finally back up to her birth weight.

I'm definitely starting to like her more and more every day.  Her scream is easier for me to tolerate...since I'm sure I'm getting used to it. 

I think I'll keep her and see what the next 4 weeks brings.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Weight and the New Mom

So I doubt it's a big secret that I have struggled with my weight.  Sounds stupid right?  I am just barely over the healthy range but I just never quite feel good in my skin.  So WeightWatchers is my choice go to program.  As far as cost goes it's actually not too bad.  It's pretty easy to follow if you are feeling motivated to do so.

My highest pregnancy weight was 209.  My pre-pregnancy weight was about 168 or so.  My weight right now is 178.  So I have 10 pounds or so before I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight and I would ideally like to get down to right around 150 and then maybe re-evaluate my goals as far as that goes.  These days my goal is not to be a skinny, but to be healthy.  Not only for myself but to be a good example for my girls.

So I signed up for WWers last week.  Though I have to be honest.  It's not that it's hard to follow the program but I'm struggling already.  I mean I do have two small children to tend too so meal planning isn't as high on my priority list as it should be.  I'm fairly certain that when the new year rolls around Adam and I plan to kick it up into high gear.  He signed up for a program at work where he gets cash incentives to lose weight.  And while I have no cash incentive it's certainly a lot easier to follow the program when you don't have to do it alone.

I'll probably write about it here.  That way people don't get completely sick of hearing about my kids.  Because clearly I don't have much going on other than them right now.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Happy 3 Weeks to Claire!

I honestly can't believe we have survived the last 3 weeks.  She is so different than Lily was...or at least how I remember her.  But we love her anyway and so does Miss Lily.  So Happy 3 weeks Miss Claire.

Lily Loves her Little Sisser.  She gives her LOTS of hugs and kisses and is so patient and kind to her. 


This was Claire's first real bath.  Her Cord fell off pretty early at like 8 days old or so and so Lily was pretty excited to help me give her, her first official bath.


She just loves to be cuddled up tight and nice and warm.  She wasn't too thrilled to be stripped down and put into the water.  Afterwords she was pretty worn out and slept for quite a while.


Four generations of Omtvedt girls.  My grandma, my mom and my two girls.  Unfourtunately this picture was taken at my dads funeral whem Miss Claire was just 2 weeks old.  I will forever be sad that my dad did not get to meet Claire before he died.  I know he would have dug her.


Claire in her ladybug Jammies that my mom got for her.  She loves them and so does Lily!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Just another day.

So today is my birthday.  I'm the big 2-7 now.  I really never thought I'd get the the point where I felt my birthday was just another day.  But here it is.  Just another day.  This year it's a little tougher to do anything special because of our newest addition but even without that, it's winter and it's darn near impossible to find something to do that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  This year I have a two week old baby, a two and a half year old and it's winter.  Blech.  Adam has been off work the last couple weeks to help with the baby and he goes back to work tomorrow.  Claire has a doctors appointment in the morning.  On the plus side, My In laws have miss lily for a few days and so I can use this opportunity to get used to doing things on my own during the day.  Then Lily will be here on Wednesday and then on Thursday she is going to daycare and Friday is Christmas eve.  so I'm guessing that this week is just going to fly by.

Tomorrow or Tuesday I hope to get presents wrapped.  Thank god I don't have to actually go and buy anymore, I'm all done with my shopping.  Next weekend will be busy. So I'm looking forward to the downtime this week.

Happy Birthday to me.  :-)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

2 Week update.

A few days late on the 2 week update.  It's been rough.  I'll say that much.

As most of you know now, my dad passed away a week ago.  Claire was only 8 days old and she never got to meet her grandpa.  That makes me sad.  Very sad as I know he was excited to meet her.    The funeral was yesterday and everything went as well as it can.  I only cried a few times and I guess I wonder what's wrong with me?  I feel like I should be more torn up about the whole thing.  I mean, he was my dad, we were close.  But yet I can't seem to convince myself that it's all real.  In fact really the only time I cry about the whole thing is when I think about my girls and how fortunate I was that I got to know both of my grandpas and how they won't have that opportunity.  It's so important to me that they know their family.  Maybe it's because he had been sick for so long.  I mean on one hand I really never thought the day would come that he would actually die.  He has lived through so much he sorta seemed indestructible and on the other hand I can't believe he made it as long as he had.

Couple that with the horrendous lack of sleep and it hasn't been pretty around here.  I am not nearly as patient as I'd like to be and neither is Adam.  I'm terrified for Monday when Adam goes back to sleep and I', left all on my own.  Not to mention Monday is my birthday.   Happy Birthday to me.  Ha.  He has been such a great help.  Since I've been pretty much attached to the baby since the only thing she seems to like is being held 24/7, I usually take that on as I do have just a smidgen more patience than Adam does and while I do that he washes bottles and gets me things and does the dishes.  How will the dishes get done when he goes back to work?  The thing I feared most has come true....With Lily I just napped when she did as I didn't have another kid to worry about and now I have to think about her and hope to god that they both nap at the same time so I can catch 45 minutes.  It's interesting to say the least.  And SO much harder than I had anticipated.

Claire seems to have horrible gas.  So she cries and cries and nothing can console her sometimes.  And have I mentioned just how blasted loud she is?  I mean I love the girl but holy smokes Momma needs some sleep.  she also seems to be cold All. The. Time.  Which is why I think she likes being held so much.  She breaks out of the swaddle on a regular basis too. 

So for now, we are still adjusting.  Hoping we can figure everything out sooner rather than later.  After all it's supposed to be a happy time of year!  My birthday, new baby, Christmas.  We just need a breather to take it all in and figure out our limits.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

10 Things no one tell you.

Post Baby Edition:

1. There are a lot of hormones.  A LOT.  Like I cry at the drop of a hat.  For no reason mostly.  Something makes me happy, I cry.  Something makes me sad, I cry.  That coupled with the lack of sleep situation makes the first few weeks at home not so pleasant.

2. The second baby is not as exciting as the first.  And this is something I've struggled with a lot, even during my pregnancy.  I know people love the new baby and of course she's just as important, but she certainly has had way less of a greeting than Miss Lily did.  Obviously this is to be expected as I don't need a shower, and we don't need any gifts.  But for some reason it makes me sad none-the-less.

3. Life is NOT the same.  And it won't be.  For a very very long time.  You are tired, and even the most patient, loving person will have a few breakdowns where you want nothing more than to put the baby back where she came from.

4.  Your baby doesn't do much.  Or really anything at all.  I figure most people KNOW this, but just don't quite realize it.  They pretty much sleep, cry, poop and eat.  And it'll actually be a few months before they smile and interact and stay awake longer than a half hour or so at a time.

5. If you decide not to Breastfeed, be prepared for a couple of days of agony when your milk comes in.  You will cry.  Enough said.

6.  All you want to do is sleep.  And I've always been a big "sleep when the baby sleeps" kinda girl.  I did with Lily and it was glorious.  However this time, I have a 2 year old too which makes it difficult to just take a nap.  But still.  Nap when you can.  Ain't no shame in it.

7. You don't have to do it all.  You don't have to feel like YOU have to do everything.  If people offer to help, take it and run!  And of course, ASK for help when you need it.

8. No one will care if your house is messy.  They didn't come to see the house anyway and chances are they will understand that you just had a baby and are tired and you don't really care if the dishes never get done again.

9. It's true, as soon as the baby exits your body, no one will ask about you anymore.  Clearly they were in it purely for the baby.  And that's ok.  After 9 months of people asking you how you feel, you'll most likely welcome the break.

10. You will probably love your baby right away but you may not like her.  I mean, it takes a while to get to know each other and figure each other out.  And remember Number 4?  But they grow on you with time and soon you won't be able to imagine life any other way than it is now.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Our New Life....

We brought Claire home on the 4th.  She was pretty confused about when she should sleep and be awake and be fussy so the first couple of nights were pretty hard.  The second night Adam and I even took shifts so that we could at least get SOME sleep.  The third night she decided to sleep well for us though and we were oh so happy about that.  Of course like every newborn she was up every couple of hours to eat but it was manageable and she quickly fell back asleep after eating so we could at least sleep a little bit.

Lily is doing amazing with her baby.  She is so gentle and sweet and always wants to know where baby "care" is.  Of course she is out of her normal routine of daycare and such so she's had a bit of an attitude with us, though I guess I'm glad she takes it out on us instead of on Claire.

For now, with my lack of sleep I'm having a heck of a time being clever or funny.  So I'll leave you with some photos.  That should make up for the boring post at least.







Why can't I get those pictures to rotate?  *sigh*

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Welcome Claire Elizabeth!

Today was a special day in the Philippi house!  We welcomed our beautiful new daughter to our lives! 

Claire Elizabeth Philippi
Born at 10:57am
12/2/10
8lbs 6oz
20 inches long

Her birth was nothing short of amazing.  I mean really.  I had a great birth with Lily too and this even surpassed that!

We were scheduled for induction today at 7:30 am because I was already dilated to 4cm and having tons of contractions.  Here's how our morning went!

7:15 arrive at hospital and get signed in and head up to our room
7:30 nurse starts IV and we get stupid questions out of the way.
8:30 they start pitocin and Dr. comes in to break my water, I start having contractions immediately
9:30 we get the epidural, we chill for a while.
10:30 I feel pressure.  A lot of pressure, debate calling the nurse and just then she walks in.  She checks me, I am ready to start pushing.  She calls the dr.
10:45 Dr. gets here and I start pushing.
10:57 Claire is born.

I didn't get sick this time, I didn't bleed too much this time.  It just went great.  Of course Claire thought it would be fun to cry for basically 2 hours straight.  After her second bottle and a good bath she slept for a few hours which was nice.




Lily came to visit and she loves her baby sister so much.  She was sad we weren't all going home today though.  But she's in good hands.  And before she knows it, she'll wish we could put baby Claire back where she came from....

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

39 week Update

So it's actually a rare occasion I have a doctor appointment on my actual flip day.  Which is today so I'm happy to report.

Baby looks good.  Blood pressure good, all that junk good.

I'm measuring 4cms which is AWESOME.  And because of that she offered me an induction date!  So Thursday Morning it is!  We are so excited to meet miss Claire.  And this works out great for planning for Lily and everything too, so we couldn't be happier.  I know medically unnecessary inductions are pretty controversial, and even I would rather not do it, but hey 4cm!  Baby is full term and I am ready to be done.  They offered and I quickly accepted!

We get to meet our new baby girl on Thursday!  I can't wait!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Saturday, November 27, 2010

It's been a while....

Miss Lily making a snow angel.  Or a "stowman" as she calls it.  This was a week or so ago.  Mommy doesn't like the cold so I'm avoiding it as much as possible.


She Likes to ham it up for the camera.


Decorating the Christmas Tree.  She was SO excited about it and she did a fantastic job!


Smiling for a picture for Daddy!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

The Predictable Thanksgiving Post

Things I'm thankful for this year:

My family.....My husband and my daughter and the new daughter that is about to arrive any day now.  We truly are blessed and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Even though I may complain about being pregnant or dealing with toddler tantrums or having to nag Adam to unload the dishwasher for the 6th time....I wouldn't change a thing. Those things make us who we are as a family and I think that's pretty neat.  Yes, I said neat.

My extended family.....My parents, I know they couldn't make it for Thanksgiving and they will be missed but better safe that sorry with the roads the way they are.  My brother and his wife who are coming up to visit us on Friday! And of course my In-laws....who go out of there way to be there for us, we are excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with them this year.

My job (and Adam's)....Some people just aren't so lucky right now. 

Lily's Daycare.....Jane really is an extended part of our family and I'm thankful for the wonderful care that she provides for Lily.

Our home.....I know I definitely complain about this one.  I love our house, I really do.  It's just small.  But these days I know we are far more fortunate than some in that respect and in all reality it works for us.  And it's less to clean.  And we all know how much I love cleaning.

The Dog....I really don't give him much credit these days.  But he's a keeper, Lily loves him and he loves her (especially when she's eating)

Bedtime....Seriously.  It's probably my favorite part of the day.  Cuddle in bed with Adam and the girl.  Put her to bed and relax in my bed and watch crap tv.  I love it.

Of course the Obligatory, Our Health....We are very fortunate in that we rarely get sick and if we do it is short lived.  I hope Claire follows suite with that.

I think that's a good list.  I'm SURE I've missed some things and that's ok.  I'm really thankful for most things in my life.  Despite what you may have heard me say, I do consider myself a pretty lucky woman.

Hopefully you can find some things to be thankful for today and everyday!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

38 Weeks....are you sick of these yet?

38 weeks.  Baby was full term as of last week.  But now I can say that I have less than 2 weeks! 

I had a Doctors appointment this morning at 9:15.  Let me preface with I took the day off work today so that I could cook/clean and prepare for Thanksgiving tomorrow since I had a Doctors appointment anyway.  I get there at 9, as of course you all know they tell you to be there 15 minutes early.  Normal drill I wait til 9:15 and they call me back.  I pee in a cup and she leads me to Procedure Room 1.  Procedure Room 1 huh?  I think this is pretty weird as it's like an outpatient surgery room with a LEEP machine and a Colposcopy machine and stuff.  I'm sorta weirded out by this as I've never been in one of these rooms before.  Of course I had a different Doctor than my own.  My doctor was out this week.  Ok fine.  I'll see someone else.  A man.  I'm not thrilled but whatever.  Every woman I know that has a male doctor just loves them so I'll go along with this.  It turns out he was the on call doctor from when I went to the hospital  on Saturday.  So I get undressed  and sit down with my fancy paper gown and I sit there and wait.....and wait....and wait.  The nurse pops her head in and tells me he's running late because of a surgery this morning.  Ok. I understand these things happen.  So I wait....and wait....and wait.  The nurse pops her head in again and says he's back from surgery and shouldn't be too much longer.  So I wait.....and wait.....and wait.  Meanwhile I'm sitting there have nakie with nothing to do, read, or listen too.  I couldn't even find any interesting bottle or anything to read and NO clock.  Finally I catch a glimpse of a clock on the phone....Wait.....that can't be right?  It can't REALLY be 10:30 already can it?  An hour and 15 minutes I've been sitting there.  The tears start welling up and I start wondering how long I'm going to have to sit there bored out of my mind, roasting to what feels like 100 degrees in that room with nothing to do.  I do manage to keep it together at least so I don't start crying.  10 more minutes pass before the Doctor finally shows his face.  Turns out he's nice enough but I didn't even get a "sorry for making you wait so long, things are crazy"  I mean I would have totally understood.  It's the day before a holiday and they are short staffed and he's got a woman in labor as we were talking.  But he's nice and we visit a few minutes and I kinda start to realize why women are always raving about their male doctors.  He didn't know me, I'd never met him before yet he took a few minutes to chat and explain some things to me.  He told me that had I been 39 weeks when I went in on Saturday that they'd have gotten things moving for me so I wouldn't have had to go home.  Whatever.  I don't really care.  He also told me I definitely did the right thing by going in.  He checks the baby's heartbeat, all is good.  He checks me.  Still right around 3.5 cm but he says the baby still feels kinda high.  He doesn't think I'll make it past my due date either.  Even though I know this really does mean nothing and she can come when she pleases, it still puts me at ease a bit thinking how I won't have to be pregnant much longer.  I sure do love babies but I certainly don't love being pregnant.

I got home at about 11.  I wasn't too thrilled as that was 2 hours out of my day that I could have used,  badly.  But I did manage to make some progress today.  I made the following for dinner tomorrow:

Pumpkin Pie with Struesal topping
Lemon Tart
Pecan Pie
Dressing
Green Bean casserole
Fruit Salad
Cranberry sauce

I also got all the dishes done and cleaned up the kitchen.

Tomorrow we just have to pickup and vacuum the downstairs.  I have to do a few things in the bathroom and that's it!  Besides finish making food of course.  Which is fine.  I'm excited to have people over on a holiday!  I've never hosted before and I'm happy to give it a whirl!  Hope it goes well!

I also hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving and Safe travels!

Monday, November 22, 2010

What a Weekend.

Saturday morning I had felt kinda off.  My back was hurting pretty bad and I really just wanted to sleep.  Alas, the 2 year old decided to get up and so we did.  We were going to decorate the tree and she was OH SO EXCITED about that.  I explained to her that I needed to put the lights on the tree first and Adam carried up all the bins.  Of course I plug in the Christmas lights and they do not work.  So Lily is freaking out about how she wants to decorate the tree, and darn it wouldn't you know that that tree had been sitting there for DAYS torturing the girl.  So I had to go to Walmart anyway and decided to just make a quick run then so I could get some lights for the tree.  The cheapest set of lights they had was $12 and I needed at least 2 sets for the tree.  So I made a judgement call and just bought a pre-lit tree since we were planning to do that after Christmas anyway.  But then I didn't have to buy the lights.  So I got home and we put up the tree and decorated it.  I still felt really off and had a hard time standing and doing anything for long periods of time.  But we got the tree decorated and done.  Which I am SO happy about.

Then around 10:45 or so I notice some pretty consistent contractions.  So I start to time them.  They were about 10 minutes apart at that point.  So I watched them for a while and they were gradually getting closer together but they weren't really painful.  Ultimately we decided to get ready just in case.  So we got bags packed and bathed and put the girl down for her nap.  I decided to go and get my groceries since at this point I was still pretty convinced that it was just BH (Braxton Hicks) contractions and we would not be going to the hospital and I would kick myself for not going since my coupons all expired that day.  So I go.  Get my groceries and come home.

Adam carried everything in and helped me put away the stuff that had to be refrigerated and we decide to time my contractions some more.  Four minutes apart.  So I watch them for a while...a good hour or so and decide we should go in.  Adam calls his mom (thanks again Gail!) to come and pickup the girl and I call the hospital and let them know we are coming and it'll be about 45 minutes or so til we get there.  We get to the hospital and they hook me up to the monitors and check me.  3.5 cm's pretty good considering I was 3 the day before.  At this point the contractions are still pretty painless and I begin to feel like an idiot for even coming in since I was certain they were just going to sent me home.  They decided to have me walk for an hour and then go back to my room to be re-checked and monitored again.  So we do that.  The whole time I just knew they were going to send me home.  Now walking for an hour.  That was SO much fun.  NOT.  But we did it.  Got back and re-hooked up.  Still 3-4 minutes apart.  A little more painful but not a ton, and probably more because I just walked for an hour.  They monitor me for another hour and then the nurse from hell comes in and rechecks me.  She was not gentle (I won't go into more detail than that).  And they tell me they are going to send me home.  *sigh*  A good wasted 3 hours of my weekend.

So since my mother in law had the girl, she just kept her over night.  So Adam and I were pretty hungry and decided to go and get a bite to eat at Perkins.  Which was kinda nice.  And of course to be able to sleep past 6:30 was wonderful on Sunday.  When I woke up the contractions had stopped and all was fine.  Of course we had a friend's kid's birthday party at 1:00 so we had to get the girl sooner so she could take a nap.  Alas, she did not nap.  So she was a beast ALL DAY.

Long story short.  Claire is already more difficult than her sister.  Let's hope this trend does not continue.

Oh and Dear Claire:  You can wait til the 29th now to come out so that we don't have to miss out on yummy food and visiting with family.  K. Thanks Bye.

Friday, November 19, 2010

37.5 week update

Well I technically turned 37 weeks on Tuesday.  Which was full-term!  So baby Claire is full term now, and we couldn't be happier!  Not that I was really worried about getting to this point but still, it puts your mind at ease.

I had my appointment today in hopes to reduce the amount of time I miss at work.

Everything looked good.  I don't remember my blood pressure (shame on me, I never do)  but they tell me it was good so that's all that matters.

Surprisingly I have gained A LOT less with this pregnancy than I did with Lily.  I'm not even sure how that happened.  With Lily I started off about 160 or so, lost 10-15 pounds in the beginning (thank you morning all day sickness) And ended at probably 210 or so.  I really stopped paying attention because it depressed me that essentially I gained 60 pounds or so.  Blech.  Dark days.  But this time, Sadly I started out higher, at right around 170 and I JUST broke 200 last week.  I can handle that.  Still more than ideal but whatever.  I feel better about it this time than I did last and have gained about half the weight.    Hopefully I can lose it quickly after.....but I digress as that's not what this post was for.

Last week I was 2.5 cm dilated already and she made sure to reassure me that that really didn't mean a whole lot especially since this is my second pregnancy.  I could sit at that for weeks.  *sigh*  Not always what you want to hear.  Even though secretly I was pretty excited because I did not dilate at all last time until I went into labor.  This week I am at "a good 3cm" her words, not mine.  And her advice to me was to make sure and eat dessert first on Thanksgiving.  Though I'm pretty sure that since we are having people over and I'm making dinner (which I'm actually pretty excited about since I've never hosted a holiday...ever) that I will get everything in the oven and then go into labor and miss it.  Cause that is just the way it is. 

Either way, She'll be here soon!  I doubt they will let me go past 41 weeks as lily was a larger baby, so I have LESS than 3 weeks to go!  Woohoo!  We can't wait to meet you Miss Claire!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Short, Sweet and to the point.

Have you ever tried Shutterfly?  I haven't.  But I've looked at their site longingly for a LONG LONG time.  And now with the birth of our baby coming up soon and Christmas season almost in full swing.  It's a great time to check out their cards!  I’m thinking THIS ONE  is in order for us this year!  I absolutely love it and it’ll work perfectly to combine our Christmas card and our new baby birth announcement all in one and save us some postage!  They have SO many to pick from with a new collection that you can find HERE

Other Bloggers!  You can get in on the action too!  Just go here and enter your information!  Write up a quick blog post about Shutterfly and you too can get 50 free holiday cards!  You can't go wrong!  I've heard nothing but fabulous things about their products and am excited to give them a try myself!

Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

I want to clarify something....

Yesterday in my blog one of my options was to stay at home and still figure out a way to have some source of income.

I've had several people offer me opportunities like selling jewelry, or selling kids toys or selling pampered chef stuff.  And while I love that stuff, and love many aspects of that stuff it's really just not for me.  I sold Avon (several times actually)  And I could never make money on it.  It's true.  I suck at it.  In fact, it usually ended up costing me more money than I could bring in.

Oh I know what you're thinking....."You just don't know how to sell"  Which isn't true.  I KNOW what has to be done.  It's just not in my personality type to do them.  I can't be pushy or naggy or talk people into buying things that I haven't used myself or haven't tried, and if I have tried them I can't lie about whether or not I like them.  (And I LOVE Avon stuff)

I am just not a salesperson.  However, if someone would like to sell stuff FOR me and just give me the money I'd be all over that.  Yeah, I didn't think so. 

So thanks guys for the offers, I know you're doing a great job selling your stuff, it's just not for me.  Plus I don't think Adam would be too thrilled with me taking that up again.  Seriously....you should ask him about that sometime.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The truth is...

I'm terrified.  I have a few options in front of me in the coming months.  Most of them being career related. I'm surprisingly at ease about having another baby, maybe because I've been through that change before and sorta know what to expect.  But when it comes to Jobs and money it's always tough.  Sometimes no matter how well prepared you are for something you just really don't know what to expect.

So for those of you who don't know.  For a long time now I've wanted to figure out a way to be a stay at home mom.  I really think I would rock at it, but as with every option in front of me, there are downsides and I'm just not sure which option is the right one for our family.

Option 1:

Go back to work after 6 weeks home with Lily and Claire.

Pros:
1. I get out of the house and stay in the field I work in with great hours, flexible schedule and  an overall great work environment.
2. We do have the extra income from my job too
3. I can keep contributing to my 401k and we have more security if something should happen to Adam's job.

Cons:
1. Whoever does daycare for us gets to see my kids more hours in the day than I do.
2. My house will continue to perpetually be dirty (until the kids are old enough for us to force them to do chores)
3. Even with the extra income I bring in we STILL will basically live paycheck to paycheck and struggle at times.
4. Our Childcare expenses will be more than our mortgage per month

Option 2:

Me staying home

Pros:
1. I can set our own routine and be with my kids.
2. I will actually have time to keep up with the housework
3. We don't have to pay childcare
4. I think I would be really great at being a stay at home mom.
5. I could take the kids to playgroups and activities I can't do while I'm working.

Cons:
1. Money will be tight. VERY tight.
2. I would actually be sad to leave my job and kinda worried about having to re-enter the job market someday.
3. I like the social aspects of having the kids in daycare and that they can play with other kids.

Option 3

Me staying home with some sort of smaller income:           

Pros:
1. I can set our own routine and be with my kids.
2. I will actually have time to keep up with the housework
3. We don't have to pay childcare
4. I think I would be really great at being a stay at home mom.
5. I could take the kids to playgroups and activities I can't do while I'm working.
6. Depending on the job, we would have the extra income.
7. If I took in other kid/s then mine would get more of the social aspect that I'm looking for.

Cons:
1. Have to FIND another source of income (taking in kids, donating plasma etc.) Which is not as easy as it sounds.
2. Money will probably still be tight.
3. I would be sad to leave my current job and would probably miss the adult time.

So I'm sure there is more pros and cons that I can't think of right now.  But I think that is the overall idea of it.
In the end I may end up getting laid off here at work and then we'd have to re-evaluate some options at that time.  We are having a hard time making the choices because it really just seems there is no clear cut choice for us right now.  Financially, emotionally or whatever.  It just all depends on the circumstances and how things play out.

I hate having things up in the air like this.

                               

Monday, November 15, 2010

Before I was a mom...

Inspired by this post, I thought I'd add my own 2 cents.  By the way, I LOVE that site.  Always good for a laugh so check it out if you get a chance.

Before I was a mom...

Then: I swore I would never let my kids throw a tantrum in a restaurant or other public place and let them get away with it. 

Now:  I don't allow her to get away with it, we deal with it ASAP and if necessary remove her, as even though I AM a mother and understand that children are children and you can't stop these things from happening, I don't have to let it continue and torture all the poor unsuspecting people at the store or whatever.  I will add, that thankfully Lily is EASY, easy to distract, she loves to go out so this is (thankfully) rarely a problem for us.

Then: I swore I would never let my kid drink pop

Now: She doesn't drink pop for 2 reasons, 1. She plain doesn't like it (Adam has tried to give her some) and 2. She is only 2.5, when she's older I'll be ok with it at holidays and such but still not on a regular basis.

Then:  I swore I would never let her run around in just her diaper.

Now: While it still DRIVES ME INSANE, she prefers it and I have learned to pick my battles.  If my kid wants to run around in a t-shirt and a diaper I guess I'd rather her do that then fight with her about why she has to wear pants.  I'm hoping she grows out of this soon though.

Then: I swore she would never sleep in our bed with us

Now:  I still don't allow it.  I won't sleep, Adam won't sleep and Lily wouldn't sleep well.  Sometimes if she's really upset we do let her come in our room and settle down a bit but she goes back to her bed to sleep.  I am anti-co-sleeping and it's one of the few things I don't think I'll ever fully understand the appeal of.  Now, don't think that means I think it's wrong if someone else does it, that's not what I'm trying to say.  Just more of the, I don't get why anyone would WANT to do it.


Overall I'm pretty laid back and try not to say "I will never let my kid do x" Cause really you never know what you'll do when you are in someone else's shoes.

These days I totally bribe her with things ALL the time.  "If we go inside Lily, we can watch some Dora"  Or "Take a few more bites of your dinner and then we'll have some dessert"  Sure a lot of times dessert is just an apple or some oranges or something like that, but it's SO not the point.

So tell me, What do YOU do now as a parent that you thought you never would?

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Saturday Saturday

Where to start?  Hmm Let's see.  First of all and most importantly I had the most fabulous day on Thursday!  Like I really don't know what could have made it better.  I'm not sure if I had mentioned it around these parts but my company is pretty slow and Adam and I were sorta hoping I'd get laid off so that I'd be able to collect some unemployment while I was out with the baby.  We were excited and pushing for that for a couple of reasons.  Of course after talking with my boss and realizing that he wasn't planning to lay anyone off until at least after Thanksgiving, it became clear that I couldn't count on that option.  I mean what if I give birth beforehand?  I wouldn't be eligible for Unemployment then so I was sort of bummed out as I didn'tthink I was going to end up getting any pay while on leave.  Until one of the ladies from our corporate called me.  I had asked a few months ago if there was any paperwork I needed to fill out for my leave.  I didn't have any last time and so when they never got back to me I really didn't think much of it.  But she told me yes, I need to fill out a form because I was eligible for Short Term Disability.  Of course I had to ask because I wasn't eligible for Short Term Disability last time.  This is where it got interesting.  She told me actually yes, I was eligible for it last time and our old HR lady was wrong.  And that I was not the only one that got screwed out of a paid maternity leave.  In fact because I am a salaried employee I should have gotten my full pay instead of the capped amount the production employees get.  Ok.  Interesting right?

So in the end it turns out I get my FULL pay for 6 weeks (or 8 for a c-section)  I would have a waiting week but my boss said he'll pay me for it since I got screwed out of my paid time when I had Lily.  So YAY!  I'm So beyond thankful that I am getting paid for my time, and while I am disappointed that I missed out on it last time (no wonder our old HR lady got fired), I understand their reasons for not giving me the back pay.

So Adam and I decided to go out for steak to celebrate!  And as we were sitting there I was beginning to think I was starting to go into labor.  I had a lot of contractions and they were even starting to get painful.  But I drank of ton of water and then when we got home I laid down to rest and it stopped.  Which I suppose is a good thing.  But we are officially ready for her to make her appearance any time she is ready!

Today my brother and Sister-in-law were supposed to come up and spend the weekend.  But as usual Minnesota had other plans.  Snow, and lots of it.  As of this morning they had already a couple inches on the ground and it was coming down pretty hard here.  I heard later some places got like 10 inches.  I don't know for sure how much we got, it pretty much all melted as it fell around here.  We ran some errands (finally got a new laptop....LONG overdue) and when we were coming back it was starting to stick to the roads and the grass a bit more.  So tomorrow we'll take the girl out as she pestered us all day about going out to play in the "stow".

So things are good.  And I'll take it.  Now just for the waiting game.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Where to start.

Well I hit 36 weeks yesterday!  I am VERY happy about that.  It means less than 4 weeks til my due date and after my appointment yesterday I really don't think I'll make it that far.  As of yesterday I was already dilated to 2.5cm.  I will take it.  Even though my doctor really did make it clear that that didn't mean anything especially with a second baby, it still made my day and made me happier to hear that then I haven't made any progress at all.  So I'll take it.  And hope that she comes soon.

Secondly, it looks like I will for sure be getting laid off here in the next couple weeks.  But don't feel sad for me.  This is a blessing.  Instead of having to take 6 weeks of unpaid time off from work and still having to pay half time for daycare for lily (to keep her spot), I will be able to collect unemployment and at least have some type of income, and depending on how things go, we may drop daycare all together.  Transitioning to lower income might help us make the transition to me being a stay at home mom.  I would have some time to job search something part time, or back again with the option of watching someone else's kid for a little income or whatever.

So things are good right now.  I'll take it.

Monday, November 8, 2010

I couldn't have done it without you.

Yesterday we had another of what I like to call, "Philippi family fun days".  This is meant sarcastically of course in the sense that it's usually a day we take to be productive and get things that are long overdue marked off the to-do list.  They don't happen as often as they should and I had no idea that yesterday was going to turn into one of those days.  But I'm glad it did.

In the morning I did dishes and got some other stuff cleaned up.  Lily was a major help (as she usually is)  She picked up her toys, and I gave her a wash cloth and she cleaned the tables and helped put things away.  It still amazes me how helpful a two year old can actually be.  She saved me a lot of bending and picking up.  She kept asking me for "another really important job".   I'm thankful that she is so willing to help and I hope it lasts for a long time even though I know it won't.  But after I put her down for her nap I seriously debated taking one myself.  But I figured my time would be better served actually staying awake and catching up with laundry.  There was also a big task I've been meaning to tackle for a while now.  Cleaning the entry.

For those of you who don't know or aren't familiar with our house we have an uninsulated entry right off the kitchen.  We put shelves out there when we moved in and used it for extra food storage.  Until we got mice.  Oh the mice.  So I made sure we  no longer keep food out there and instead I keep things like our crock pots, larger Tupperware, serving trays.  Stuff like that.  And it was a mess.  A hot mess actually.  Plus we have mice out there again (why I'm not sure there is no food for them)  So it's annoying and gross.  I finally got up the energy and motivation to clean it out and get rid of some stuff and clean everything and whatnot.  I felt really good getting it done.

Then Adam cut and installed some shelves for me on the inside of our basement so I can put some canned goods and things like that there to free up some cabinet space.  We've been meaning to do it for a while now and just haven't gotten around to it.    Then came Lily's next "really important job"  I unloaded all the stuff I wanted to put on the shelves onto the kitchen floor.  Lily got her shopping cart and loaded everything up and brought it to me and handed it to me so I didn't have to bend down to pick it up.  She was Awesome.  It's amazing to me how helpful she is and how excited she is to help me.

Yesterday I really don't think I could have done it without her.  And thanks Adam for putting in the shelves!  They are everything I hoped for and more!

Now I just need to train the dog to clean up his own fur off the floor.

Friday, November 5, 2010

It's the little things in life....

10 things that make me happy (in no particular order)

1. Listening to my 2 year old sing.  I could listen to it all day it's just so dang cute.  Of course under normal circumstances I'd rather use 3 sets of earplugs and a few headphones to drown out the sound of a little kid singing.  But when it's your own kid, it's different.  So let's face it.  I'll be the mom that just stays to listen to my own kid at concerts and stuff and then leaves.  Sorry world.  I also won't hate on you if you don't feel the same love for my kids singing.  But for now at least. I could listen to the ABC's or Twinkle Twinkle, ALL. DAY. LONG. and never get tired of it.

2. When the dishes are done and caught up.  Now granted I fully admit that this is rarely the case in my house but I love the feeling of not having anything super important I need to do at any one moment.  Plus in general it smells better in here.  Don't judge.

3. Baby clothes/shoes.  Anyone who knows me knows I have a terrible addiction to baby clothes and shoes.  I am not generally the type to leave my babies in sleepers all day.  In fact I don't remember EVERY doing that with Lily and I highly doubt that will be the case with Claire either.  I get dressed every day and I love that my babies look good and put together too.

4. Our family cuddle time in bed before Lily goes to sleep at night.  In fact I think this is what I will miss the most about Lily being an only child.  Oh the cuddles and closeness of that half hour of family time.

5. Coffee.  Sure I've given it up many times since I seem to react not so great to the caffeine and totally become dependant on it.  It's sad when I give it up but I always come back.

6. The Wonder Pets.  Yes.  Again, don't judge.  I like the show and have on occasion watched it even when Lily was in bed. 

7. The fact that Adam likes to cuddle (sorry honey, the 3 people that read my blog now know your secret).  He may not be the most romantic man but he sure does love to cuddle and that makes me smile.

8. Fresh, clean sheets.  I don't think I need to add anything else to that one.

9. When Lily says sweet things to me like "I love you mommy" or "I so proud of you"  Or when she says completely wacky things.  Kids really do say the darndest things.

10. Chocolate.  Do I need it?  Nope but it sure would be a sad world without it.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

I suppose it even seems funny now

Back story:  I'm an idiot.  I thought I could just take Lily anywhere for a flu shot and she could get one and be done.  Reality, that is not the case.  Most places the kid has to be at least 16 or even 19.  I did find one that was 10 and one that was 4.  But the problem is, Lily is not any of those ages.  So I was stuck.  I had to call the clinic.  I had to take her in.  All this while I was trying to avoid having to pay the dang copay for a flu shot.  So I end up calling late.  After all the flu shot clinics are done at her normal Dr. Office.  And the only ones they have available are at another clinic here in town on Thursdays or in the next town over on Wednesdays.  Both days suck for me, as I have to take time off work, pull her out of daycare and pay the dang co-pay for the visit.  Now, normally I would have just probably skipped it as I don't think the flu shot is the be all and end all in medical importance, BUT we will have a newborn, who can't be vaccinated in prime flu season.  So I suck it up since I suppose it was mostly my fault for waiting so long and schedule her an appt at the clinic here in town.  For 9:15 this morning.  So I debated long and hard my options, as I start work at 7 and so 9:15 isn't the most convenient time for me.  I ultimately decided to just stay home and take her and then come to work after.

Fast Forward to this morning.  Miss Lily was super excited to go to the Dr. Yes, I think she is the only kid ever that LIKES going to the Dr.   We left the house at 9 because the clinic is close to the house and I new the general area it was located.  So I didn't think much of it.  Until I drive out there and I can't find a building marked as the clinic ANYWHERE.  After turning around and making several loops I ultimately decided to stop at the Business office (that I drove past several times) and asked them where the clinic was.  She takes me to the back door, points to a building a couple blocks away and says "See that green building over there? that's it."  Now this wouldn't have been a big deal had I planned ahead and actually gave myself some time.  But nope, at this point it was at least 10 after 9 or so and I'm holding Lily, 8 months pregnant and I have to make a choice.  The choice to either walk/run to the clinic to make it there on time, or to walk/run around the building and get back in the car and drive over, get out and hope I can make it in time.  Well I figured it would be quicker to just walk/run over.  So I'm carrying Lily, Running across these parking lots trying to make it there on time.  Then my brain starts swimming with thoughts about how I'm going to miss this appointment and have to reschedule and take MORE time off work and miss MORE daycare (that I have to pay for anyway)  And then the tears come.  Yes, I'm running across parking lots carrying my 28 pound little girl, crying.  Then miss Lily hugged me and told me this: "Calm down mommy, I'll wipe your tears for you"  Which of course made me cry harder because it was so unbelievably sweet.  So we finally make it to the clinic.  Now to find the door.  I put lily down and asked her to be a big girl and run with me so I can catch my breath a bit before we go in so I don't look like a crazed lunatic going into the clinic.

We get there at 9:17.  I was nervous.  I mean you all know how Dr.'s offices are.  They can make you wait for 45 minutes after your appt time but heaven forbid you are a few minutes late.  But thankfully they were understanding and she told me people get lost back there all the time.  Which actually made me feel a lot better.  So we get our form and go wait.  (we ended up waiting 5-10 minutes yet anyway)  Lily was happy though cause she got to watch the fish swim around in the fish tank.  We get called back to the room and she was happy.  Remember my kid loves the Dr. office.  Until we have to take her pants off so they can give her the shot in her leg.  She cried.  A Lot.  Poor thing.  But she was rewarded with a scratch n sniff Strawberry shortcake sticker.  She was happy, wanted to go and look at the fish again.  OK.  Fine, we made it, hopefully things will calm down now right?  WRONG.  She started crying when an elderly man in a wheel chair said hi to her.  I don't know what her deal was, but I figured we wouldn't subject all the poor people in the waiting room to her crying so we left.

I knew we had a walk back to the car but Lily usually wants to walk and the weather wasn't too bad so I assumed this would be a piece of cake.  Boy was I wrong.  She screamed to be carried.  Then screamed when I asked her to walk, So I carried her.  She cried anyway.  THE WHOLE WAY BACK TO THE CAR.  And she was carrying a paper and pen and it was windy so at one point the paper went flying out of her hands and I was left to run after it to make her just be quiet for 2 minutes.  I tried bribing her with Halloween candy I put in my purse as her reward for being good at the Dr.  That did not work, In fact I think it angered her more that I bribed her and she cried harder.  FINALLY we made it to the car and she stopped crying....which is where I started.  I was physically in a lot of pain (remember, 8 months pregnant) and tired and disappointed in myself for not planning ahead better.

So long story short....I've never been so happy to get to work than I was today.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Just Like Dora Does

Oh Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I heard that saying through the course of a day.  I sure would have a lot of nickels.

The other day I asked Lily if Dora jumped off a cliff if she would want to do that too.  Her response was not what I was expecting when she excitedly ran over to get one of her little Dora dolls and asked me if we should throw her off a cliff.  Can I? Can I? Can We?  Sigh.  And of course my kid doesn't forget so she brings this up frequently to me now.

And yesterday I told her when I picked her up from daycare. "We are going to go and vote and then you can have mommy's sticker"  and as we were getting out of the car at the polling place she told me this: "We are going to go and get a yellow boat, just like Dora does."

Where did I go wrong?

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

35 Weeks.

My thoughts on the whole thing?  Get her the hell out.  I really can't believe how similar my pregnancies have started out and yet how different they seem to have turned here towards the end.  With Lily the end was my favorite.  I wasn't terribly uncomfortable. I didn't experience a lot of pain and mostly I just enjoyed feeling her move, after a rough start to the pregnancy I was just enjoying not feeling sick all the time and the fun of decorating her room and getting ready for her arrival.  With this one though, I am SO sore.  Sore in areas I didn't know could be sore.  I can't sleep right.  It is painful and uncomfortable to walk or even really move my legs a whole lot.  I really just want to be done.

2 weeks until I am FULL term.  And I am hoping by sheer willpower that she will be born before her due date.  That would be so wonderful.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

So you're telling me it's actually October?

News:

1. I'm 33 weeks pregnant today.  I will be SO SO SO happy when she decides to get the heck out of my body.  Hopefully only 7 weeks to go.

2. I picked out the girl's Halloween costume.  She is going to be a fairy princess.  For those that know me, also know that I was totally stressed out about the costume thing.  I mean it's probably the last year I get to pick FOR her and I certainly didn't want to screw it up.  Ultimately I decided to use the fairy wings we got her at the Ren Festival and get a dress and crown and wand and call it good.  So she will be somewhat unique.  I wanted her to be something warm and I managed to find a nice long sleeved, long princess dress at Savers and it's big enough I can put stuff on under it, so it doesn't ruin the effect of the costume.

3. We went to pick out pumpkins last weekend.  Had a lot of fun, went to the A Maze'n Farm in Eden Valley,  They had a ton of stuff to do and the girl had fun and so did we.  However, we didn't buy our pumpkins there cause they were too dang expensive, and since we had to pay to get in I couldn't justify it.  So Lily and I stopped yesterday and bought some at the grocery store.  She is so frickin' excited to see what's inside them it's not even funny.  Hopefully I can get her to reach in and grab some goo.  We'll see.

4. My house looks like a bomb went off in it.  I'm kinda sick of it, but apparently not sick of it enough to actually DO anything about it.  One of these days though.

5.  Work is slow, REALLY slow.  They are talking hour cuts and heaven forbid, layoffs again.  I am not thrilled about it but really what can I do?  Hopefully they wait until at least I would be off for maternity leave before they lay off anyone.  We need every last cent we can get right now.

6. Adam had a week off from work and finally got the front sidewalk done.  We've only been planning to re-do it since practically we moved in 3 years ago.  It looks great, him and his friends did a good job.  Sadly there wasn't much else that got done over his "working" vacation.  That's ok, I probably would have done the same.

7. I have some new pictures of the girl, but I am feeling far too lazy to upload and caption them, so I'll try and do it another day.  No promises though.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

4 Quick Takes (cause I'm too lazy to come up with 7)

1. I had a Dr. appointment on Friday for 28 weeks.  I failed the one hour glucose test, and I'm anemic.  I googled the anemia to see what the symptoms were:

Easy fatigue and loss of energy
Unusually rapid heart beat, particularly with exercise
Shortness of breath and headache, particularly with exercise
Difficulty concentrating
Dizziness
Pale skin
Leg cramps
Insomnia

And wouldn't you know it, I have EVERY SINGLE SYMPTOM.  Never mind the fact that I'm pretty much pale all the time though.  But still.  I've been on the Iron supplement (which is very temper mental I might add) Since Friday and I am STILL anxiously waiting for some of those to go away.  Though I'm sure I'm screwed because I AM pregnant after all and some of those symptoms just simply come with being pregnant.  Lucky Lucky.

As far as the Glucose Test.  That's to test for Gestational Diabetes.  Now A LOT of women don't pass the one hour.  It's fairly common and not SUPER accurate.  They use it more for screening to see if you need further testing or not, which is a good thing I suppose.  Either way I spent my Tuesday morning sitting in the clinic for 3 hours while I couldn't eat and had to drink something that tasted pretty much like solid sugar water and try to keep myself from Horking it up.  Either way I passed.  I didn't fail a single one of the 4 blood draws they did.  So I felt irrationally irritated that I had to spend basically 4 hours out of my day sitting there for no reason.  But I guess better safe than sorry.

2. Adam's company is celebrating their 10 year anniversary and for that they are bringing all the employees plus a guest to the Renaissance Festival.  I am SO thrilled about this for a couple of reasons.  Mainly because I WANTED TO GO SO BADLY.  Second.  It's free.  They are providing transportation, food, ticket entry.  How much better could it be?  Of course it would have been cool to go with Lily but really Adam and I could use some adult time outside of our house.  So I'm thrilled, and the weather is supposed to be nice too which is an added bonus!

3. Our new Super Walmart opened up here last week.  I am happy about this as it's the only real competition for grocery in our town so hopefully we can save a little money by shopping there.  Well, this past weekend we decided to go over and check it out, and as everyone knows you CAN'T go to Walmart and not buy something. (I think it's a law actually)  Well the whole shopping experience was fine until the check outs.  Now If I ever had to complain about something with regards to walmart, it's their check outs.  They never have enough open and you literally spend more time waiting to check out than you do shopping their massively huge store.  So we pick a line, they were all long so we just picked one.  I swear we stood in line for at least 15 minutes still being like 3rd in line.  When they CLOSED THE LINE.  Oh we were not the only irritated people in that line, as we had all been waiting forever to check out and we all had to find new lines to stand in and just pray that they didn't do the same thing.  Whatever, I was ready to just abandon our cart and leave but we had gotten Lily a pumpkin to put her Halloween candy and she was pretty excited about it, so we decided to just suck it up and find another line.  We only waited about 10 minutes in that line.  For the self check out.  Blech.  So Walmart, reluctantly I will go back, but I will not be happy if I have the same experience this time.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

28 weeks....

Where on earth does the time go?  I mean, I thought my first pregnancy went fast.  That was NOTHING compared to this one having a 2 year old in the mix too.

There is still a lot I would like to get done before Claire makes her first appearance.

Still so many of her things that need to be cleaned/prepped.
I still need to get her some diapers and formula.
Drag out the baby stuff and wash it all up (toys, etc)

Last time I had pretty unrealistic goals of things I wanted to get done while I was home on maternity leave.  Yeah, they never got done, and I highly doubt anything will this time either.  So I don't know.  I don't think I'll plan anything for that time.  Just take it day by day and see what happens.  If I get stuff done, great.  If not, that's fine too.  Especially since it's over the holidays.  I'm sure it will be a very hectic time.

Adventures in Pottyland.

It's that time.  That time in every kids life when using the potty really becomes a part of your daily habits.  You know when you get candy or a special treat for using the potty.  In my daughters case the reward last night was getting to wash her hands.  She LOVES to wash her hands and there was no need for it, so I told her if she went potty she could wash her hands.  I've never seen a 2 year old whip off their pants and diaper so quickly.  She hopped up and went potty.  She got to wash her hands.  She was happy.  I was happy.

Fast Forward to after dinner.  She gets down and walks over to her potty chair and takes her pull-up off and sat on the potty, all without us asking if she had to go or her telling us she had to go.  And she went!  Such a big girl.  This time her treat was some candy that daddy brought home from work. 

Fast Forward again to after bath time and we are laying in my bed getting her all dressed and ready for her story and bed.  I go to put my foot under the blanket and wouldn't you know it, the girl peed in my bed.  Sigh.  So you see it's all a guessing game in Pottyland.  We aren't actively pushing her to use the potty, just more encouraging her to let us know if she has to go so she can sit on the "big girl potty".  So far she's doing pretty darn good.  I think we'll have this down soon.  But then again, in Pottyland, you just never know.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Why a new Site?

Ok guys so here's the deal.  I needed a new site all together instead of just creating a new blog with the same info for a couple of reasons.

1.  Blogger and google were giving me a hard time and wouldn't let me link my new email to my old blogger site.  After MANY days of trying to get this straightened out I figured it would just be easier to make a new one.

2. It's not JUST the simple life of Lily anymore.  Soon there will be a Claire in the mix and I figured I should include her in the title.  Especially since there are so many more things to talk about with a baby than a 2 year old.  Not that Lily isn't interesting, they are just at different stages and don't grow/develop at the same rate.

3. Just Because.

So I hope you'll join me and follow me!  Leave a comment on my blog here with a link to your blog and I'll follow you too! (since yes I'm too lazy to go back and re-enter all the blogs I was following.)  thesimplelifeoflily.blogspot.com will be deleted in the coming days but all of my posts have been imported here so we don't forget all about miss Lily's Babyhood.

Thanks guys!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

"I not a pirate, I Wiwy"

As said by my Two year old Little girl.  She is no longer my baby, and it's becoming painfully obvious by the things she says to me.

For example.  Yesterday in the car on the way home, the radio station was fuzzy so I changed it to a new one and from the back seat I hear this...."Mommy, I no like this sing, it be over soon?"  Hmm.  Since when does she has opinions on music selection in the car.

*sigh*  My 'baby' is growing up.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Where she's at: 27 Month's Old

Miss Lily has taken a keen interest in Tea Party's lately.  Especially is there is "copcorn" (popcorn) or M&M's involved.  This melts me because I love tea parties.

She also loves her "tater heads".  She has a mommy tater head and a daddy tater head.  And I'm thinking some babies are in their future.  Possibly for Christmas.  Hopefully she's still really into them when the time comes.

She is getting very excited to meet her "Care" and help take care of her, and there has been a lot of practicing going around.  Though it's been decided that while the girl can help change her and feed her, there is NO WAY we are going to let Lily carry the baby.  I don't think the foot carry or the neck carry is appropriate for a newborn.

Miss Lily is a blabber mouth to the max too.  I can't think of a word she won't say (in fact I'm sure she's taught me a few).  Of course we all knew she was doomed to this destiny from before she was born as Adam and myself are not exactly the quiet types.  Hopefully everyone she knows finds this feature about her as endearing as we do.  I sure can get frustrated when she asks me 4 trillion questions a day, or repeats the same thing over and over again hoping for a different answer.  But honestly I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I love listening to her talk.  And in turn I am 90% certain that we have fewer meltdowns than other kids her age because she can communicate with us so well what she needs/wants.  Does she always get what she wants?  HECK NO, and we do get meltdowns for that.  But at least we don't get meltdowns because she is thirsty or whatever and just can't express it.  So long paragraph short: I'll keep my blabbermouth.

She is VERY VERY much a daddy's girl.  I also love this.  Sure most of the time she prefers daddy to me, but that's ok, cause honestly I love watching them wrestle and chase each other.  They are adorable.  I knew Adam was going to be a great dad and he sure has let me (or the girl) down yet.

She's still very very much in the "I want to help" stage and I try really hard to use it so much now that when she's older and won't help I can say that at least when she was little she liked to help me.  It also drives her crazy when something gets spilled or if anything is left open.  When we got home from daycare yesterday she walks into the kitchen, pushes the drawer shut without batting an eyelash and went on her merry way.  She gets that from her daddy too.  He hates it when the cabinet doors are left open and I have to admit even though I know this, it's just not in my wiring to pay attention to whether or not I shut the doors.  Oops.  At least I have people who'll close them up for me.

So there's a Lily update.  She's spunky, bossy, but kind and caring.  Always willing to share (on her terms) and a true comedian.  I couldn't ask for a better 2 year old.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Work is for the Birds

So I'm sure most of you have noticed I don't really post much these days.  One of the main reasons is I simply am not that interesting don't have much to talk about.  The other main reason is...I do most of my blogging while I'm at work, and wouldn't you know it, lately they want me to actually EARN my paycheck.   It's funny though.  The whole time I've worked here I've wished for more work. Sure we've had a few busy times when I have been busier but I don't think I've ever been THIS busy.  It's nice cause the days have been flying by, but at the same time, when you go 5 years with having at least a little bit of downtime each day, it definitely takes some getting used too.

I've been doing a couple jobs here too lately.  Of course my normal Receptionist/data entry activities, but I also do the Purchasing now, and while it doesn't usually take much time it definitely helps fill up my day. 

Anyway, So when I'm at work these days, wouldn't you know it, I've actually been THINKING about work and so that sorta leaves me sucked dry when it comes to the creative/blogging part of my life.  Sure we have things going on.  I mean we have a TWO YEAR OLD.  Life is never boring with one of those in your house.  Plus another baby on the way.  But when it comes to blogging about that I feel less than inspired I guess. 

So I'll leave you with this cute story about my 2 year old.

She was playing with her B (her lovie) and she had two baby bottles in her hand.  Completely unprompted she holds one up and announces "this one-a baby Care, this one-a B"  Yup you guessed it.  This mamma's heart melted.   They really do know/retain more than we give them credit.  And my kid is no exception.  She is amazingly kind and caring (in her own bossy way)  and everyday I can't wait to see her with her little baby sister, Care (That's Claire for those of you who don't speak Lily).

Monday, August 16, 2010

24 Weeks.

Tomorrow.  Seriously?  How on earth did we get to 24 weeks in this pregnancy already?  Nothing new or exciting to report really on that front.  Still just chugging along.  Talking to Lily about the new baby and how she can help and she has a pretty good list of things she can do with the new baby.  It's fun to ask her because you really don't realize how much a 2 year old can retain until you test it out.  Her list of things to do include:

Feed her a bottle
Change her diaper
Cover her up with a blankie
Bring her toys
Rock her to sleep
Give her hugs and kisses


Those are the ones Lily will list off for you.  I think she's pretty excited to have this new little person to help with.  We are really lucky right now in that she LOVES to help with everything and I really don't see having a baby sister any different.  Oh I'm not stupid, I'm sure there will be issues, but for the most part I'm sure we'll do just fine with the help of Miss Lily.  She's got this thing all figured out.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I guess we are a judgy nation....

and I should just get used to it?

I pride myself on my ability to almost always see both sides of anything regardless of my personal feelings on something.  I really LOVE that quality about myself.  It's certainly not something I can say often, but I rock at not being too judgy about things.  My mom calls it diplomatic.  And that I am.  I could think of a trillion examples of what I'm talking about but really all you have to do is turn on the news or read an article and you'll have one group of people completely bashing another for their choices that in the end really have no affect on them whatsoever.  I mean unless something is going to affect you or someone you love first hand why can't we all just get along.

Of course I do realize not everyone is wired this way.  I grew up with pretty much no political views and definitely with the attitude of "Hey, it may not be for me, but whatever works for you."  I dig it.  I think it helps to spend less time worrying about things other people do and just freakin' worry about yourselves for once.  Of course these days I DO have my own political views and views on things.  But in general I think we should all just worry about ourselves and quit being so judgy about stuff.

And yes I realize I'm sorta contradicting myself with this post  since it's all about how we should quit judging others.  I guess it just really irks me that I get judged for things I do (as a parent, wife, daughter etc) and I wouldn't do that to someone else.   People need to filter there thoughts a bit and think about other peoples feelings and try to understand where people are coming from or why they are making the argument they are.

Life is not black and white people.  And what fun would it be if it were?

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

7 Quick Takes....Tuesday Edition

1. I am 22 weeks pregnant today and I STILL managed to throw up this morning.  I'm so over it.

2.  It's too Damn hot.  Thankfully it's suppose to cool down this weekend at least humidity wise.  That should be nice as this weekend is our county fair and I'm hoping we can get over there and have some fun with the girl.  She's at the perfect age for that stuff now and I know she'll love all the animals, food and fun stuff they have there!  Hoping we can hit up the demo derby too but we'll have to see how it's going to work out this year.

3. I've been debating ending this blog for a while now.  Part of me wants to cause I don't feel like I really write much with substance or meaning and part of me wants to keep it since I have so much recorded here of Miss Lily's life and our life with her.  I don't want to forget that stuff.  Hopefully my inspiration will come back and I'll find more things to write about soon.

4. I used to consider myself a worrier.  I thought I worried about everything, and maybe I used to.  But lately I've been thinking about it and I don't think I worry near as much as I should.  I rarely worry.  I don't worry about Lily.  I NEVER worry about what COULD happen to people.  I don't really worry about Money or relationships or anything.  Is that weird.  Maybe I'm worrying about how much I worry.   Whatever.  Now the word Word worry sounds funny doesn't it?

5. Who gives a giant rip about Brett Favre.  I'm sick of him and his drama.

6. They are keeping me busy at work.  It's nice.  The days go by faster and it also means that I will have a job for a while anyway.  Now that I've been laid off I'm uber paranoid about it now. 

7. I bruised my hand and wrist up this weekend.  This is odd for a couple reasons.  I was trying to pound something back together and used my hand (which I've done before, many times and never bruised)  And I NEVER bruise.  I mean sometimes I do things and I think, oh yeah that's going to leave a mark.  But it never does.  Now the palm of my right hand is all bruised and it HURTS BAD and my wrist is all bruised up too though that bruise doesn't hurt.  I didn't learn a lesson though cause I'll likely do it again.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

I would almost call it nesting....

So inspired by this post by Kristan.  I decided to make some of these for not only Lily but for Claire too.  And if you ask me (besides Lily's being a little crooked) they make the perfect addition to their room!




I'd post directions on how to make them but I think Kristan did that quite well so if you are curious head over to her blog to check it out.  I of course didn't do the frames to save some money, so I just skipped that part.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

10 fingers, 10 toes.....

So we had our Ultrasound on Friday!  I'm sure most of you have heard already that we are having another GIRL!  I'm excited, Adam is excited and Lily is pretty indifferent at this point.  I did manage to get her to call the baby by her name, and she knows where Claire lives. So it's pretty adorable.

I was waiting to post until I actually remembered to take some pictures of their room, I made some letters to spell their names inspired by some friends that have done it.  They turned out great and i can't wait to share them with the world.  However I have to remember to actually take the photo first.

Anyway, back to the Ultrasound.  We had to go to a specialist because of Lily's heart condition.  And thankfully all looked great.  Everything measured SPOT ON. and Nothing was off or anything.  The Dr. said the heart looked great but we should still do the Echo (which is scheduled for Thursday) to just make sure all is well.  So of course I'll update after that appointment.

For now we are just enjoying the fact that we are going to have 2 beautiful little girls!  What more could we ask for!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

And the countdown begins....

That would be the countdown until the day we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl.  July 16th is THE day!  I can't wait.  I can honestly say I am not at all sure how we managed to NOT find out with Lily because I am already dying of curiosity.  LOL  I have so many things I want to do. 

If we have a girl:
Go through Lily's clothes and pick out season appropriate clothes (since they will be opposite seasons)
Make room in the girls dresser and closet for new baby's clothes.
Start pulling out baby supplies and checking for things we need.

If we have a boy:
Go through Lily's clothes and pull out neutrals and probably get rid of the rest (except for a few favs)
Start getting boy clothes
Start pulling out baby supplies and checking for things we need.

I also need to make a final decision on if we want to get a bassinet or not.  I'm not sure why I'm so torn.  Part of me thinks a bassinet is the way to go cause it's smaller than our Pack and play and it will fit in our bedroom better, but then part of me doesn't want to spend the money on one since we have a perfectly good pack and play with a newborn section in it that would work.  Of course we have a crib but I think for the first few nights at home at least we will keep baby in our room so that Lily can get used to having a baby around and hearing a baby cry before we shove it into her room with her.  Cause we're thoughtful like that.  I'm not super concerned about it though since Lily is a pretty hard sleeper and I think once she gets used to it it wouldn't be a big deal and she won't even twitch when baby cries. But I guess you never know til the time comes.

Anyways, my point is, I'm antsy.  I wanna do stuff and I can't do much (or at least it's pointless until we know gender) to go through stuff.

Then there's the question of, if it's another girl, do I re-decorate the girls room?  Which could be really fun.  Re-paint and stuff or just leave it?  It's cute the way it is so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

7 Quick Takes.

Things I'm thankful for edition:

1. I'm thankful for family.  Sure we may not see a lot of them a lot of the times, But I know they are there if we ever need them.  Adam and I (and Miss Lily) are so blessed to have a pretty amazing support system.  I hear people complain about there In-Laws all the time too and I'm so thankful that we don't have issues like that.  I think I speak for both Adam and myself when I say we both have great in-laws. 

2. We have a home and a place to raise our babies.  I know a lot of you hear me complain (ok, more than I should) about how tiny my house is.  But really?  I'm very thankful that we even have a home.  A nice home that is filled with love.  We have a great yard and thankfully  PLENTY of storage.  Sure the walls close in on me sometimes but I know there are a lot of people out there who aren't as fortunate as we are and I don't want people to think I don't appreciate what I do have.

3. My job!  Boy oh boy am I glad to be back at my old job.  Sure I've been back for over a month now, but I still can't help but think how much I like it here better than at the temp job I was working at.  Something really has to be said for coworkers (most of them) that you like and get along with.  I really just fit in here.  Of course I think everyone has things they'd love to change about their jobs but I'd take this one over any other any day of the week (except Friday, I don't work Fridays).

4. Zofran.  That's all I need to say on that one.

5.  I'm thankful for Adam.  I'm lucky that I have found a supportive loving husband who stands by me no matter what.  A partner, someone to laugh with and cry with (ok I do most of the crying)  But the point remains the same, I can be myself with him without having to worry about what he may think. 

6. I'm thankful that we live within our means.  Sure it would be awesome to have more money or be able to afford some of those things on my I want list.  But in reality, we do ok with what we have and I'm happy to not have any outrageous debt to have to contend with.

7. My beautiful Daughter.  She's truly the light of my day.  Her smile and hugs make me melt.  I can't imagine life without her.