Picture Update!

I took some pictures of the girls on St. Patrick's Day and St. Joseph's Feast day and they are just too sweet!



Take a look at this next picture

Isn't she adorable? And happy? And goofy?

The past couple days, Elise looks nothing like this photo. Her eyes are red and watery. Her nose is running like a faucet. She moans and whines and rarely smiles. She looks like she hasn't slept in a week and she has been coughing like a smoker. Praying this plague goes away fast and that we can celebrate her birthday on Saturday and Easter on Sunday with her old goofy, smiley self.

Saint Blaise, pray for us.
Saint Quentin, pray for us.

Hospital Woes

I have mentioned that we are a distance from our hospital. Did I mention that it is also a different hospital than the one I delivered Elise at? Our insurance changed and now we have to navigate a whole new hospital again. In the past, we have taken the handy "stork tour" where they show prospective parents where to go at the hospital when "it's time". But, because of the distance, and the fact that we now have two kids to find a babysitter in order to do that, we haven't made the tour happen this time around. That may have been a mistake.

We drove by the hospital a few nights ago when we were down in the general area doing some "house stuff" (still crossing our fingers that we'll be home owners in the pretty near future). Before I tell you about our experience, let me tell you about our last hospital...

It was awesome. They have a whole separate building for labor/delivery. So when you drive up, there is also a whole separate parking lot for labor/delivery patients and it's close to the building. In fact, there is even 30 minute parking (which we utilized last time) that was EVEN CLOSER to the building. Did I mention they have their own separate building and entrance? When we showed up, it literally took like 2 minutes to get in (and it would have taken 30 seconds if I hadn't been in active labor).

Contrast that with our hospital "tour" the other night. We drove up and were immediately confused as to which entrance to go into in the first place. We guessed right, but when we found the main entrance to the hospital, we noticed that there is no parking anywhere near it! Everything is for doctors only or restricted in some other way or blocked off. The parking lot and garage are like a mile hike on the other side of the property.

So that is strike 1 against them. Seriously you are going to make the women in labor hike across your parking lot?? I suppose you could have hubby drop you off....but that's not the only problem. Read on...

Strike 2 is the organization of the hospital building itself. When you enter the main entrance, you have to find a very specific hallway which leads to a very specific elevator where you have to get on and head up to the 3rd floor. Supposedly the labor unit is up there somewhere. What kind of people require pregnant women in labor to go through an obstacle course to have their baby???

Back to my point about having the husband drop you off at the front and park himself....as you can see, by the time he, too, got through the obstacle course and found someone who would tell him what room his wife was in, the baby would be born already.

Now, for most people, these problems are just annoyances more than actual problems. For me, who had my last child in under 2 hours, it is a little traumatizing. I am already a bit worried about making it to the hospital in the first place. Now when I go to reassure myself that everything will be alright, I find that the hospital is a logistical nightmare.

I believe this must be God trying to tell me some things. It could be one or some or all of these things:

1) Trust Him.
2) I can't control everything, deal with it.
3) I worry too much.
4) I should have been more thankful for our last hospital.
5) Calling 911 might up being my best option.

Anyway, God knows what will happen and how it will happen. I am trying very hard to laugh about the absurdity of the entire situation instead of cry about it. :) So far, I'm still laughing...I'll let you know when the baby is born if I'm still laughing about it.

And if I'm not, I will look at this picture of Elise and will soon be laughing again....what a goober!

Exhausted

You probably haven't been missing my blog posts like I have. That is because, for me, blogging is a way to document what goes on in our family on a somewhat daily basis and it is a way for me to sort through my thoughts and reflect on my life. I haven't had the time or energy to do any of those things recently. Let me explain.

I am a mother. I have two wonderful daughters whom you should be well acquainted with by now. Kayla is 2 1/2 and Elise will be 1 year old next month! They are both very active. Elise especially is throwing me for a loop being such a doggone early walker. She's still so short that it's easy to almost run over her if I'm in too much of a hurry around the house. My peripheral vision just doesn't see her sometimes. And she's getting FAST too. I run down the hallway to grab something in the kitchen and she's right behind me two seconds later. She can also open cabinet doors and drawers now and she found a shelf she can reach in the pantry where I had some crackers. She has been caught sneaking a few several times this week (before I finally just got smart myself and moved the box to a higher shelf).

I am also working about 3 part time jobs currently. I am very blessed to have them, especially since two of them are work-from-home jobs that I can do with the girls running around in the background. I correct high school essays online several times throughout the school year. This is the busiest time because February and March are when the majority of the high school students are taking the exit exam for the year. I just finished a scoring session tonight. Reading essays for 4-8 hours a day (depending on my work schedule for the day) is hard enough, but the majority of them are absolutely terrible. I taught third grade for two years, and most of the third graders could write better than a lot of these kids. Plus the information they come up with is both amusing and pathetic. For instance, I read an essay in which the person wrote about Neil Armstrong. He wrote that he walked on the moon and then explained that when he got cancer he rode his bike in races across the country. Apparently he morphed Neil and Lance into one wonderful and amazing Armstrong superhero. I have also read many essays that informed me that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. freed the slaves. That's only a little taste of the sort of stuff I get to read (without the terrible grammar and run on sentences of course). I rejoice when I read an essay that has a logical thought process and uses big words. Or should I say uses commodious words?

I am also working on several projects for Immaculate Heart Radio. Chris is working crazy overtime each week and still not able to get everything done that needs to be done, so I am now his assistant of sorts. I have been working on a project and learning some Pro-Track. I have to admit that I have been enjoying learning something a bit outside of my usual duties and I am quite proud of the accomplishment. It also makes me appreciate what Chris does even more than I already did. It is a lot of work to keep the radio station on the air and running smoothly. I have also been subbing here and there as I am able.

I have miraculously been keeping up with my normal duties of cleaning house and cooking meals (but only just barely). My motivation for cooking is that by the end of each exhausting day, I am starving for something home-cooked and delicious. Tonight I made home-made meatballs to go with our spaghetti dinner and I was reading essays and salivating from the smell of them cooking. My motivation for keeping the house clean is that I have OCD. But I told you that it's really only for certain things, so some of the cleaning still actually needs to be done at the moment... However, Kayla's toys and books are tidy so that a)the place doesn't look like a complete pig-sty and b)I am not a complete wreck obsessing over them being out of place. Not perfect, but staying afloat.

Just to keep you informed on what the girls like to do while I am working...
Elise generally just walks around, waving her arms excitedly. She still takes two naps so she is asleep for a good portion of the day too. She also likes to follow her sister around, open drawers, and come back to where I'm sitting periodically for a hug. Kayla spends long hours reading and organizing her books. She organizes and plays with her shoes, and now she also spends a lot of time in her room pulling every article of both hers and Elise's clothing out of the dresser. She "dresses" her baby and plays some sort of really fun imaginative game which I get the joy of helping her clean up at the end of my work shifts. On a positive note, I am getting a whole lot of extra practice folding and putting away clothes in a very timely fashion. I was pretty good at it, but now I think I pretty much rock it. Kayla also does this ABC floor puzzle. When she finishes, she has me take it apart so she can do it again. I am actually impressed at her ability with this puzzle.

I believe I will take a nap tomorrow to make up for all the long days and late nights this week. Then maybe I will be able to get back to blogging after that...........

Lost baby doll

Well, the terrible mom of the week award goes to me. I lost Kayla's beloved baby doll. We went to the library and the local park the other day and brought her "little purple baby" (as she sometimes refers to her doll) with us. I put the doll in the diaper bag while Kayla played at the playground, and when we got home...Baby was gone.

Kayla with her "little purple baby"

I assured Kayla that I would go look for baby when I went to work and when she woke up from her nap, I would come back and bring her doll with me. But when I checked the park, Baby was no where to be found. When I arrived home, Kayla ran out to meet me and the first words out of her mouth were, "You bring my's baby, Mommy?" (she adds an "s" to the end of my which is sooo cute). It broke my heart, though. I had failed her. I couldn't find the baby.

Luckily, we happened to have a still-packaged baby doll (also with purple clothing!) in the house waiting to be a birthday present for Elise. And fortunately, Kayla LOVED the new baby right away, without hesitation. The baby had two sets of clothing and a pacifier! Love at first sight.

She still talks of her lost (obviously not forgotten) baby at times, but she has been happily taking care of her new baby for the past two days. She spends most of her time doing this and that to make her new baby comfortable and happy in her new home.

"Little purple baby", I am sorry that we seemingly abandoned you at the park. I hope that you have found a new home with some other sweet little girl by now. We miss you and are glad for all the memories Kayla made with her very first baby doll. Kayla is getting over it pretty well, but Mommy is still crying inside. I lost my little girl's first baby doll. Thanks again for putting up with all the roughness of a 2 year old.

Kayla and Catholic Radio

As many of you know, Christopher works for Immaculate Heart Radio. "Immaculate Heart Radio is a lay apostolate dedicated to spreading the knowledge, love, and practice of the Roman Catholic Faith by means of radio". For more information on their mission or to find a station or listen online visit ihradio.com

Immaculate Heart Radio is currently undergoing a mini-pledge drive. The station is run solely on donations which is an amazing testament of faith in action. Yesterday we visited the station (see the above picture with Kayla helping her daddy out in the tech room). We visited Chris' coworkers and the volunteers who were answering the phone lines. While she had the headphones on, she heard them say the number to call to make a pledge (888-887-7120) and she started repeating the numbers out loud. The other guys in the box thought it was so cute. Anyway, when Chris arrived home at dinner, he was telling me that story and was repeating the telephone number once again...888-887-71 but when he got there all of a sudden Kayla interrupted with a loud 20!!! We looked at each other thinking "she really IS a genius!". Haha, anyway Chris got the idea to record her saying the number thinking maybe they'd be able to use it on air. I don't know if they have yet or not, but you have to listen to it. It is SO CUTE!

Translation: Immaculate Heart Radio. Call NOW! 888-887-71-20

There are many expenses that go along with running a radio station. It takes a whole lot of power and electricity to keep 24 stations on the air. And of course there are the people that work so hard (like my amazing husband) to keep authentic Catholic programming available to you 24/7. Anyway, this is totally a plug to get you and everyone you know to listen and make a donation (big or small every little bit helps)...so listen to the clip again, smile to yourself, and make a little donation today. :)

Dates when you have kids...

When you think of dating, you probably think of flower bouquets, fancy dining, maybe a movie, and probably some lively conversation (unless it's a flop that is). As the mother of a two year old and a 4 month old, my thought process when Chris and I were planning a recent series of dates went something like this:
1) Who in the world can we possibly convince to watch our kids on their Friday and Saturday night?
2) Kayla has NEVER stayed the night at someone else's house without me...really who can I possibly convince to take on that possible disaster? Elise should be fine...she's only 4 months, so she'll go to most anybody...though she did refuse to take her bottle from Chris several weeks ago. Hmmmmmmmm.
3) What did you say we were going to do on this date, Chris? Oh, yeah. Go to Doobie Brothers and Peter Frampton concerts back to back nights. Wait, what??? back to back nights??? What were we THINKING when we bought those tickets?
4) But we deserve a few nights out. After all, we've only been on like 4 or 5 "dates" (as in going to dinner and/or movie outside the house) in our married life together. So far, we've never even gone on an official date for any of our anniversaries within a month of the actual date.
5) But wait, who in the world are we going to convince to watch our kids???

We decided to split the girls up and find separate babysitters. That may sound like more work in some ways, but I just couldn't fathom someone watching both of them given their current "issues". Kayla is "selectively shy" and tends to freak out if Mom or Dad isn't within arms length when she's not completely comfortable with people. Elise is on a bottle strike and screams bloody murder if you try to give her one. So we decided to split them up so that someone didn't end up with two screaming, clawing, hysterical children for the night.

Somehow we convinced my grandmother to take Kayla for both nights. Kayla is very comfortable with great-"Dama" so we figured she had the best chance of anybody. Since my grandma lives so close, we decided Kayla would just spend the night both nights so that we didn't need to wake her late at night and transport her to her bed at home.
Some various family friends offered to take Elise. Our friend, Sarah, had her Friday night, and Bill and Loretta took her for Saturday. She still wakes up to eat during the night, so we knew we'd have to pick her up each night before heading home from the concert.

Do you see how I have only had a couple small thoughts about the actual DATES that Christopher and I were going on?? This is because when you are a parent, going on a date takes intense planning; not because of the ornateness of the date, but because you have to plan where your kids are going to go and all the details that go with it.

So after packing up bags, and leaving detailed (though I still somehow left things out) directions, Christopher and I finally got to the part where we got to go on our date. We arrived at Thunder Valley for the Doobie Brothers on Friday night, and my mind was still on our kids. Were they behaving alright? Was Kayla minding Grandma? Was Elise taking her bottle The thoughts swirled around in my head, and I had to force myself to focus on enjoying the concert with Christopher. The kids were in good hands. They would be fine.

And I finally was able to actually treasure and enjoy the time with Chris. The concert was great. The music was great. The people that crowded us during the last several songs and stood in front of us so that I could no longer see...they weren't that great. But I found that I enjoyed the Doobie Brothers more than I thought I would. They were really Chris' choice. I was more excited about Frampton the following night. But they were phenomenal musicians and had fun stage presence.

And that night was great too. Peter Frampton is no spring chicken anymore, but he puts on a heck of a concert. The best kinds of concerts are the ones where you can tell the musicians are actually having a great time themselves. He was witty, extremely talented, and just fun to watch (and listen to, of course).

This was the only picture I got of Frampton performing because he requested no flashes and it didn't stay light long enough outside to get more than this. I completely forgot my camera for the Doobie Brothers night.

Anyway, the dates were great. Christopher is an amazing guitarist himself so he loves to hear great musicians such as the ones we saw. It's fun to watch him enjoy concerts of his favorite musicians. He introduced me to all these bands and musicians back when we first began dating.

Oh, and in case you were wondering...the kids were fine. They were not perfect, but they were close to it. Alright, you could have cried a bit less, Elise, but we'll still consider you pretty close to perfect. :)

THANKYOU babysitters!! You were the best!!!

Baby gender musings....

I thought you all would want to know that my musing pendulum has shifted once again back to GIRL!! In my last post, I mentioned that Chris and I are still deciding between two names for a girl. Let me further mystify you and give you no real information in the process.

We currently have a first and a middle girl name together that we like. We also have another first name and two possible middle names for that first name that we like.

1. Betsy Rae

2. Janet Rosalia
3. Janet Amelia

You get what I'm saying here? And no, those are not the names we are considering. That would ruin part of the surprise. And who doesn't like a good surprise? If history repeats itself, Christopher is going to get another conversation about baby girl names this evening when he gets home from work. After all, the pendulum has swung....

On another fun interesting scary pregnancy note, I am 33 weeks along today. I had an appointment today and my belly is measuring 34 weeks...

It's too bad I didn't think of writing some of this information down when I was pregnant with Kayla, because maybe I wouldn't be having these thoughts right now if I had. Thoughts like: 34 weeks? I'm having a 10 pounder! or: Please, God, two weeks early! or: See?? I KNEW I was HUGE!

This is the first week the doctor has told me the heart rate. 150. Kayla's heart rate was generally lower though I didn't know this until she was born, and the doctor told me that she had been guessing boy as well because of the lower heart rate. So this baby (at least this week) has a higher heart rate. Is this because it IS a girl? or is God tricking us once again? Give it a few weeks, and I'll be able to give you that answer.

And I can't sign off without telling you about Kayla and HER reactions to baby. She accompanied me to my doctor appointment today, and was extremely weirded out when the doctor measured my belly and listened to the heart rate. But at home, she has been hugging and kissing the baby and even occasionally comes over for a snuggle time with the baby and I. As you can imagine, it's quite difficult to snuggle with a basketball, but Kayla seems to thoroughly enjoy it. When she's not snuggling with the baby belly, she's cuddling and caring for her little baby doll (as seen below). I know I've said it before, but she is going to be an AWESOME big sister to one very lucky little baby.

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse......

That is apparently NOT TRUE in our apartment! This morning when I took the laundry out of the dryer I believe I saw a mouse scurry down the hallway and into my kitchen. There is a possibility that I was seeing things, but I'm pretty sure it actually happened (YIKES!). I spent the next 15 minutes poking around my kitchen with the broom. It never showed it's little paws again, so it must be hiding under my refrigerator or stove. With the firm, belief that the mouse is more scared of me than I am of it, I scrubbed my kitchen floor, and counters today. If that mouse thinks he can move in simply because I am making Christmas goodies and got a little lazy about deep-cleaning my kitchen for a few days afterwards, he has another thing coming. Get out of my apartment, MOUSE! You are only welcome in cartoon character form or in a book.
On a lighter note, when I took Kayla to Walmart today, I had the best Walmart experience of my life. Are you rereading that last line?? Yeah, that's what I said. A GOOD experience at Walmart. When I went to grab some diapers for Kayla, they were giving out free eco diapers. The guy gave me some in Kayla's size, and then gave me some smaller ones for baby when he/she arrives. How nice! And then, when we went to look for a line to check-out, there was a lady who had just recently opened up her aisle and no one was in her line yet! That NEVER happens!! Thank you, Jesus. I got your message of love for me!