Silent Sunday: This Kid Kills me with Cuteness

April 18, 2013

Random Stuff, and a Video of my Babies

Today is a better day than yesterday.

When I finish work today, it'll be the start of a 3-day weekend. A 4-day weekend for the kids, who have no daycare on Monday, but Mama still has to work. Luckily boyfriend has the day off so I'm not missing time this time around.

So I'm excited about a long weekend, and potentially taking the girls swimming tomorrow. 

I'm sure you've all heard that Google Reader is kicking the bucket in July or something. So instead, you can follow A Life Of Our Own on Blog Lovin'. I can't say 'Blog Lovin'' without thinking of Superbad and McLovin'. I don't know about you. But follow me there anyway. I switched my subscriptions over, but will still use Google Reader until it's death. It's all organized the way I like it. 

I don't know why, but my post about New Year's Eve has been one of my most viewed posts this week. Also, a search term that brought someone to my blog? "is redneck nessa sick?" That one made me giggle a little.

I don't post videos often, but since this one was uploaded to YouTube, it makes it easy to share. Chloe is now a huge fan of dancing in the car, and Gangnam Style seems to be her favorite song. She's just as into it every time.

* If you're bored with the toddler dancing and want to skip ahead, start at 0:50 *

If you're really observant, you might've noticed that by posting that video, I'm letting you in on a little secret. Not really a secret, because it isn't, but something I haven't revealed on this blog. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I might just reveal it in an upcoming post anyway.

Hope you have a holiday tomorrow too!

Chloe is 18 months old

Every time I open up a blank post to write about Chloe, I feel like so much has changed since the last. I thought time was flying by before, but toddler time just goes by so much faster. She's learning new things faster than I can even keep track of them. So let's go through some stats first, shall we? 

Weight: A little over 20lbs. 

Height: About 30cm

Diapers: Still size 3. And size 4 overnight diapers. If I don't put you in overnight diapers, you're a mess in the morning.

Clothing: Still 12-18 month pants, mostly from Old Navy. You've outgrown all 6 month clothing, and almost all 6-12 month clothing. Some 12-18 month stuff is huge on you, and some fits well. For that reason, it's hard to know what sizes to buy, especially for summer. Right now you're in size 4 shoes. 

Feeding: You still love pasta and tomato sauce. And any vegetable I hide in there you'll eat except green or yellow beans. I need to really much those up or you'll find them and spit them out. You seem to really enjoy toast, oatmeal apple cinnamon baby cereal, yogurt, fresh blueberries, and regular old saltine crackers (minus the salt). You still don't eat great, but you eat more than before. You're on homogenized milk now, have been for a little while. You have a bottle for your nap, and at bedtime. Usually about 5oz for nap and 6oz for bedtime. You'll have more through the night if you wake up. I'm trying to get you to drink more water out of a sippy cup, but you're still not in love with that. 

Teeth: You have a ton of them. You recently popped out a bottom left tooth. I can't wait until teething is done for good. It's not a fun process for anyone. 

Sleep: You're usually in bed from 7:30-8pm until 7am. You sometimes sleep a little later on weekends, but through the week I have to wake you up at 7 about half the time. You wake up through the night a lot more often lately. Usually just once a night, sometimes more. Sometimes you just want to play in the middle of the night. That's hard on me, but you're so happy that it's not so bad. When you go back to bed, you usually sleep until morning. 

Personality: You are little miss personality. You absolutely love waving to people. You do it all the time, even when people aren't paying attention to you. Although you do grab peoples attention pretty quickly by doing it. You're really good at making strangers smile that way. You love to talk, whether its gibberish or actual words. 

Your words these days: hi, bye, mama, cracker, no, go, baba, baby, Pepe. You tried to say 'thank you' once or twice. It was adorable. 

Lately you love climbing up on the chairs, then getting on the kitchen table. I am not a fan. You like to play with dolls (babies) a lot, and especially love sitting in the doll play pen and pushing your baby around in her stroller. Once I even caught you trying to put your baby in your play kitchen's microwave. 

You're really smart. You know how to identify these body parts: nose, mouth, eyes, hair, fingers, ears, toes, belly button. When I tell you to go get something, you seem to always know what I'm talking about and bring it to me. You can put your own hat on most of the time. You try really hard to put your socks and shoes on, but can't yet. You can sometimes put your sunglasses on. You like to dance and wiggle. 

You're absolutely hilarious, and a ton of fun. I wish time would slow down because I love this age.

I can't believe you were 18 months old yesterday. Stop growing up so fast!

Weekend Fun and a Great Recipe

The weekend was a pretty good one. I pretty much finished my Easter/summer shopping for the girls when Toys R Us had an amazing sale - both things I was considering getting were 50% off, so I bought both. I don't think the wagon is the exact same one, but closest I could find online. 

I can't wait until summer to play with the new toys. 

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I also went to visit my mother and her new puppy. My brother and his girlfriend even stopped by. It was like a family reunion. We looked at a discount furniture store and I ended up ordering and paying off more than half of a bedroom set: headboard, footboard, boxspring and mattress, night table, dresser and mirror. I am beyond excited to get it paid off and delivered. 

Chloe and I spent the day alone together Sunday. We played, we shopped, I cooked, I cleaned, she napped. Overall a pretty great day. 

Here are just a few of the (bad quality cell) pictures I took between Friday and Sunday night. 

Photo 1 - Hair styled with potatoes
Photo 2 - This Little Piggy

Monkey-see monkey-do shaving her legs (without  a razor, of course)

I love weekends. 

Ps: I'm skipping meal plan Monday again because I'm lazy and don't feel like planning, but if you want a great supper (and leftover!) idea, taco stuffed shells are super yummy. To save money, I used salsa instead of taco sauce, and didn't use sour cream because boyfriend hates it. It's a pretty customizable recipe. He hates cheese too, but I snuck some into the beef mixture when it was cool, and put a lot less of it on top of his side of the shells. Mine could've used more cheese. I ate the leftovers today at work and they're even better then yesterday. Maybe because I threw more shredded cheese on top when I put it in the storage dish. 

I had a snow day with a couple of toddlers

Yesterday we woke up to a bit of a storm. Still, we got the girls ready and I tried to take them to daycare. We almost immediately went back home as soon as we hit the highway. It wasn't fit to drive. It cleared up around lunch, but by then I'd already let the daycare know the girls wouldn't be in so we just stayed home. 

So it was a snow day, and since I wasn't at work I missed out on doing I'm Wondering Wednesday. But I'm sure no one really cares about that. 

Boyfriend left for work shortly after lunch, and Chloe for a couple of hours, Madi for one hour, so the day wasn't too bad. 

We had some meals, some snacks. I baked some blueberry rice muffins for Madi. We built a fort, read a book and watched some tv. The girls played together really well for the majority of the day. Very few fights and violence. 

I hung out alone with Madi for awhile after her nap, before Chloe woke up from hers. She refused to nap when her father tried to put her to bed, but fell asleep on her couch shortly after he left for work. She barely moved when I carried her upstairs to her bed. 

Overall, I'm sad that I missed out on a day's pay, but it was a pretty decent day. Toddlers can be a lot of fun. 

Zzzzzz ZzzzZZzz

I'm too tired for blogging today. 

We lost a little sleep last night

Sunday afternoon I was putting away laundry. Chloe disappeared and I found her sitting in Madi's bed looking at a book. Then we played some peek-a-boo. So much cuteness. 

I'm exhausted. To the point where I can't think of anything to even say. 

Madi was up from the time we went to bed, 10pm, until about 1:30am, crying, whining and banging her sippy cup against her door. I didn't sleep. Boyfriend didn't sleep. Chloe got woken up twice, and by the time Madi went to sleep for the night, Chloe was wide awake. 

That was apparent when I heard her crying, went to her room and changed her bum. When I was finished, she got up, walked around to the side of her crib, peeked through the rails at me, said "bye", then giggled happily. So we got up to play for a little while. 

I got to bed finally around 3am, and was rudely awakened by my alarm at 7:30am. Which was a luxury, because I'm supposed to be up at 7. 

Oh. So. Tired. 

And since I was late this morning, I didn't stop to get coffee, even though I have a 'free coffee' ticket sitting in my wallet. 

THAT was a mistake, because now I find myself randomly staring at the wall all cross-eyed and such. 

I'm tired. And emotionally drained. 

There is just too much lately that I can't control. Oh so much stress. 

Adventures with Chloe, Lately.

Oh Chloe. 

You have turned into one handful of a child lately. 

It seems you're always sick or teething. Our good days seem few and far between lately. Luckily, Sunday was one of those great days together. We went bargain hunting at the flea market, and you charmed people at Michael's when I let you carry our purchase to the cash. Yep, Sunday was great. 

You sat with me on the couch and let me read the whole book  Love You Forever (part of our flea-market finds) by Robert Munsch.  You played happily with your new (from the flea market) Tonka trucks, complete with sound effects. You even tried to take them to daycare on Monday.

We got into a tickle war, which was when I realized your need your nails cut since you left a scratch or two on my belly.

You learned about wearing sunglasses in the car, and how it keeps the sun out of your eyes.

We had our first conversation that went a little something like this:
- Mommy: Chloe, come put your coat on so we can leave.
- Chloe: No.
- Mommy: Okay then, I'm going to leave without you. Bye.
- Chloe: Bye.

You say 'bye' a lot. Rarely to people in public, but you say it all the time at home.

You've mastered the art of the temper tantrum, complete with kicking and rolling around on the floor. It's not cute anymore.

You love yogurt, flavored apple sauces, crackers, soft flour tortillas, and especially Popcorn Twists. You don't like much else, and sometimes you're really hard to feed, but you're slowly improving. I hate making new food for you, especially food that takes awhile to prepare because (like chicken breasts) you tend to spit them right back out then refuse to eat more.

I really hope our good days continue for awhile. I think we're both more than a little tired of you always being sick and miserable.

We had a bad day

Yesterday was one of those kind of rotten days. It was a holiday, so Chloe and I were home alone for the day. Lucky (not) for us, it was also storming so we knew we weren't going anywhere. 

I don't know if it's sickness or teething, but Chloe was miserable all night, and then all day. 

She wouldn't go to bed, and when she did she woke up a few times through the night. She was up at 6:40am, when normally I have to wake her up sometime after 7am to get ready for daycare. 

She whined all morning. 

Boyfriend watched her for a couple of hours so I could take a nap. He put her in her bed for her first nap, but she didn't sleep much. After more whining, I put her back to bed around noon. This time she slept for an hour and a half. She woke up whiny all over again. 

She had a tantrum or two, one that lasted about a half hour until I finally stuck her in bed until she calmed down. She was better after that, but still whiny until I put her to bed. 

I sure hope it's teething, because we sure need a break from sickness. 

Just after her tantrum, I held her on the couch for a little while. She was serious and quiet, but as soon as she saw her face in the camera (iPhone) she perked up and started making faces. 

It was one of those bad days where I lost patience more than once, and just wanted to hide in the basement listening to loud music while she had her freak outs. I didn't, but I wanted to. One of those days where I was more than happy to put her to bed, and prayed with every fiber of my being that she would stay there. 

Nope, not a good day. But those too shall pass, right? 

My child got smarter

There are not enough words to describe how happy I am to have my baby home. After spending a week at her grandmother's, and the week before that in the hospital, she's like a whole new kid. 

Well, maybe not new, but new to me because it's been so long since she's been herself. 

I just couldn't stop kissing her and hugging her all weekend. But she didn't seem to mind too much - she likes kissing now, too, complete with the 'mmm' sound. 

I didn't mean for this post to be a Chloe update, but what better time to document all the new things she's been doing lately? This is Chloe at 16.5 months.

While sick, she was starting to get mean. Really mean. A lot of slapping people in the face, pinching, and scratching. As she got less sick, she got less cranky and violent, but my mom also unintentionally taught her to be nicer. Anytime she would be rough with Mom's cat, mother would tell her to 'Be nice to the kitty' and show her how to pet him. Now? When she hits me and I tell her no, she rubs my face and says 'nice', which sounds more like 'niiii', but it's still adorable. 

She started waving 'bye' a little while ago. Now? She says bye. 

She knows where her nose is every time. She's also learning eyes, ears, hair, mouth, tongue, belly and fingers, and she sometimes gets them all right without help. She also says nose, eyes and mouth.

She understands so much of what I ask her now. If I ask if she's hungry, she goes to her highchair. If I ask her for her baby, she brings me her doll. 

She says 'baba', and is she ever addicted to the thing. She gets it at night, and for her nap then it needs to be immediately hidden, or she'll just carry it around in her mouth sucking on air. Now that she's better, the first step is switching her to milk, and soon after that it's bye bye baba. 

After being sick, her appetite was basically non-existent, and she would barely eat a bite of solid food. Mom had her eating mashed food and baby cereal all over again. This weekend I managed to get her hooked on blueberries again, and eating pasta, cheese, bread, broccoli and cauliflower. Her newest addiction is regular old saltine crackers. As soon as grocery day comes, her diet will be expanded a lot, if I have any say in it. 

Moving on...

This weekend we had a storm, and got a TON of snow. I believe it was about 30-35cm. It snowed and blowed all day Saturday, and most of Sunday. 

Boyfriend tried to get out to pick up his daughter Saturday with no luck. He got stuck and gave up. Sunday, he finally managed to get out and get to work, after an hour of shoveling. 

This morning, we let Chloe sleep in while we dug my car out. That took another hour of shoveling, car pushing, and flying snow. We checked that Chloe was still asleep every now and then, and lucky for us I still had to wake her up when we were done.

Luckily, she's back to being a great sleeper.

But back to Sunday. For the first time ever, I bundled up my little bundle of joy, and we went outside to play and shovel a bit. I knew boyfriend's car wouldn't make it back in the driveway with the mountain of snow that the plows made at the end.

Chloe watched me shovel and laughed every time I threw the snow. She wasn't interested in playing at all though. She just stood an watched, until she finally got sick of it and we went inside.

Our shovel broke Sunday morning

The snowbank next to our driveway was almost up to my shoulders. 

So that was our weekend in a nutshell. 

To recap? I love having Chloe home. We got a lot of snow. 

I miss my baby

This week has been a different one for me. 

Typically, I work full-time through the week, while Chloe is in daycare. Since Chloe's been so sick (hospitalized for 4 nights with pneumonia and the flu), we didn't want her back in daycare right away so my mother was great enough to watch her for the week. Except my mother lives an hour away. 

Luckily, my mother has an iPad and I have an iPhone so we can video chat all the time. 

While it is absolutely amazing to not be woken through the night or early in the morning, or have to worry about anyone's needs but mine, I miss my girl. I miss her smiles and her kisses. I miss hearing her say her new favorite word - no. 

I miss her even more because it's been more than two weeks since she's been herself. 

I've never had pneumonia, but it sure takes it's toll on a little girl. She's been out of the hospital for a week, and her eating is still messed up, and she just started being a little happy again, where before it was mostly whining and crying. 

Today I pick her up after work, and I can't wait to see her (hopefully) happy smile. 

Have you ever gone days without seeing your child?

We're All Home Again

I hate having a sick child. I miss seeing my baby happy. 

She came home from the hospital yesterday. My mom spent the day with her, and then went home. I wasn't feeling the greatest, which turned into me going to bed at 9:30, waking up feeling sick when boyfriend came to bed an hour later. I was on the couch until about 4am, drifting in and out of sleep, feeling sick but never actually getting sick. Chloe woke up twice through the night, but went back to sleep easily. 

I could tell she wasn't feeling her best this morning before I left for work. She home with boyfriend for the day. It's nice that she's with someone who will send me regular updates. 

After all this, all I can say is thank god it's the weekend. We need a lazy weekend more than anything. 

Here are photos from our last couple of hospital days.

Chloe's Hospital Stay: Day 4

My munchkin is still at the hospital, and I'm at work yet again. 

I don't even really have any updates. They took her IV off yesterday morning. She took her 'just in case' oxygen off last night for her bath and kept it off. They ended up having to put it back on later the same night. 

She was cranky when I got there last night, but after her bath, she perked up and acted happy and silly for awhile. I loved it. I had to leave to get boyfriend at work (I'm using his car so Mom has mine in case Chloe gets discharged) and she was asleep when I got back. 

This morning she was really cranky when I got there again. She's starting to sound more sad. Her cries aren't the same anymore. Her coughs are more frequent and sick sounding. If you asked me personally, it doesn't sound like she's getting better, but what do I know? 

The nurse came to take her blood right before I left. They cut her fingers and squeeze the blood into a tube. It's long, and painful and torture for Chloe. I didn't want to be the one to hold her while they did it, but Mom had left the room for a few minutes. 

Luckily she came back just in time, so I gave Chloe to her and left. If I had to listen to her cry while they took the blood one more time, I was going to lose it. 

I'm still pretty sad over it. 

This morning my 16 month old cried in my arms saying 'no no no' over and over again, knowing they were going to hurt her. It kills me. 

Here are a few pictures from last night and this morning: 

Hospital bath time

Finally, a silly face. It's been too long. 

She loved watching videos of my nephew on Mom's iPad

Gorgeous, silly girl

Picking at breakfast this morning. She didn't eat much of it. 

Some Details on Chloe's Hospital Stay

I'm back at work today. 

Lucky for me, Mom came to town to stay in the hospital with Chloe so I could work. I missed 9 hours last week, and so far 9 this week from Chloe being sick. My boss has been great about it, but I can't afford the loss in income. 

So I'm at work while my Mom is at the hospital with Chloe. She's spent two night there now. 

The longer version of the hospital story goes like this: 

Thursday: She woke up from her nap at daycare with a fever. I picked her up early and her temperature was up and down throughout the evening, but she slept through the night after 9:30. 

Friday: She seemed fine again in the morning, so off to daycare she went. She woke up from her nap with a fever again. The daycare mentioned her picking at her ear a lot, so I took her to the clinic for a 'just in case' checkup, to make sure it wasn't an ear infection. The doctor saw nothing. She had her last high fever Friday close to 11pm, but once it was gone she slept good again. 

Saturday: She was cranky, but acting normal otherwise, so we decided to go visit my mother to kill some time and distract her. No fevers all day. I thought we were finally on the mend. 

Sunday: We were back home, still no fevers, but she went into a coughing fit about 20 minutes into her nap. She threw up in her bed from the coughing, then again after I got her out of bed. She coughing was constant for over an hour before I decide to take her to the Emergency Room just to be checked out. 

The coughing subsided while we were there, but they heard something in one of her lungs. They did blood work and an x-ray on her, so I knew something was up. After being there more than two hours, shortly after 5pm I found out she was being admitted to the hospital overnight, and being hooked up to an IV. I couldn't stay in the room when they hooked up the IV. I would've lost it. 

As luck would have it, boyfriend left work early before he even knew we were at the hospital, so as soon as I found out Chloe was being admitted, he came right to the hospital. Having someone there made it less scary, so I didn't feel as much like I was going to cry. 

Things have been a blur since then. 

Her tests came back positive for the flu, plus Pneumonia. She had an IV in from Sunday until this morning. She had an oxygen tester strapped to her toe the whole time, and just had the oxygen nose piece put on her this morning because her oxygen levels were low. 

Besides being extra cranky, and terrified of all nurses, she doesn't seem too sick. She'll still play a little and say a few words. It's only when the fevers come back she she seems really sick. 

Last night she took another coughing fit that made her throw up a few times. It breaks my heart. 

She seems to be doing okay though, and hopefully she'll be home soon. In the meantime, I'm glad my Mom can stay with her so we won't go broke from having her in the hospital. And so I can sleep at home during the night. I feel really guilty doing it, but if I attempted to sleep at the hospital, I'd barely be functioning by now. 

This still all seems so strange and crazy to me. I go home and my baby isn't there. 

I'm not a fan of that at all. 

Wearing pjs, hospital style.

She was feeling better than she looks. 

All hooked up to the oxygen machine, not looking so good. 

Chloe is sick

So Chloe's been sick. What looked like just a cold turned out to be potentially pneumonia so she spent last night in the hospital hooked up to IV because she wasn't drinking much. She's a little cranky, but doesn't seem too sick so it's not as bad as it could be. We're still waiting for the doctor to check her and we still don't know when she can come home. Thankfully, I'm sure she'll be fine, but it's still no fun. Boyfriend has been with me since I found out she was being admitted, so that's helped a lot.

Ill keep you posted. Here's some fun hospital photos.

How creepy are hospital cribs?

Chloe was sick, and other random stuff

I wanted to write a good, interesting post, but then I remembered that I don't know how to do that anyway. Instead I share with you some random thoughts. 

- Chloe was sick last night with a pretty bad fever. I had to pick her up early from daycare. She was pretty sad looking for awhile. She seemed to snap out of it around 9:30 pm, after taking a few 'naps' in her crib, on the floor, in my arms. She was fine this morning so I shipped her off to daycare. If she survives daycare, we've got the whole weekend alone together to get better. 

- A week from today, Chloe, boyfriend and I are going away for the weekend to visit some of my friends, celebrate our anniversary away from home, maybe shop a little, and eat some Arby's. With Arby's being the most important, of course. 

- An upcoming weekend means cleaning time. My goals for this weekend are to organize the millions of toys we have, get caught up on laundry, and organize the coat closet. 

- We have a few large household items we need to buy, as well as loans to pay off, tires to buy, and things like eye exams and the dentist to pay for. Sometimes trying to figure out which is more important makes my head hurt. 

- This past week has been the coldest in awhile. I've been told today it's a little warmer. It doesn't feel like it. I sure could go for some summer sunshine right about now. 

Hope you have a great weekend!