Some Vacation?

OK, so I took a week off of work this week...some vacation when I feel busier than I do on a normal week. Like seriously, this time is flying by and I haven't really stopped to get any needed R&R.

Saturday, I had a Tastefully Simple Party. It was very small, but a good time. Then Tony and I played poker Saturday night. It was a night full of Christmas Ale for many there, so as the sober one, it was quite a scene!!! Tony did better than I did, but it was funny, we both went out on like the exact same hand....we had Ace/Six and our caller had King/Jack - we both lost by the caller catching a Jack....so annoying!

Sunday, I had some work to get done for my NAWIC Holiday Social (that's tomorrow) and then I had to get showered and dressed and I met a girl out in Stow for an interview for my open position at work. Then I picked up the kids and we had Chinese for dinner.

Monday started off a bit scary. By 9:12 am, the kids were driving me nuts! I was afraid of this being a REALLY LONG week! But since then, so far, it's been really great spending time with them at home! I had some work stuff to do and we played a little and then while they were napping, I made a grocery list. We went to the store after they woke up and then headed to gymnastics. We got home around 8:15 and I had to put groceries away and get the kids ready for bed, but what I hadn't bargained for was the voicemail that Tony left for me that he was taking himself to the ER for chest pains. So after I got the kids in bed, Laura came over to stay and I headed to the hospital. They were running a bunch of tests on Tony, but he was fine. They noticed some kidney stones that weren't loose, but otherwise said he seemed fine and it was either the kidney stones or a muscle spasm that have him his symptoms. I left around 10:30 when they told him they were keeping him for another 4 hours to run one more test. Laura and I chatted a while and then she left. Tony got home a little after 2 am - he seemed fine.

Tuesday, we got quite a bit of snow, so luckily, I didn't have to go anywhere. The kids and I played and Hannah made Christmas lists for her and Nicholas. We're going to see Santa Saturday.

We colored a bit and they took naps and I got a much needed shower!!!

Nicholas has eaten "real" food for lunch this week - bananas, carrots, macaroni & cheese and soup noodles (not all that at once). He does great feeding himself and loves to eat!!! He's quite messy though, but doing great!

I'm hoping to keep transitioning him to normal food and stop buying baby food! He's really got a funny personality! I'm noticing things he does and he's funny (must take after me!!!). He still makes funny faces and loves to play peek-a-boo by hiding behind a chair or table and then looking at you!

He's smart too! He does so big, patty-cake, waves bye-bye, knows where his nose is and is trying so hard to say doggie. He's walking more and more every day and doing much better, although Tony says he looks like an orangutan as he walks!!!! And oh, such a stinker! He's into EVERYTHING, like steps (and the stool) and cupboards.....whatever he can get his hands on. Oh, and I guess he likes dog food since he's eaten it more than once!

So, I've got a few minutes to myself right now while the kids are napping. I've been really busy this morning with Holiday Social crap - I'll be SO glad when this is over! Tonight I have Bible Study Holiday dinner and a little running around to do. Tomorrow, I've got to take the kids to my mom's and finish the running for Holiday Social and will spend most of my day there....wonder what the heck I'm going to wear and also need to write my speech....wonder when?

Friday morning, I've got to take our canned food from the Social to the food pantry and go into the office for a meeting with a prospective new boss. I hope not to stay long so I can try to get the last of my shopping done before going to pick up the kids.

Saturday, we're going to see Santa and Sunday, Hannah has a birthday party.....so yeah, some vacation this week has been! You know I've been busy because I haven't even had that much time to clean the house, which is usually something I'd spend a lot of time doing if I'm not at work! But the great thing about this week is that I'm spending a lot of time with the kids that I don't normally get. Hannah loves staying home and being in her jammies all day! I get to save daycare money and I get a much needed break from (most) of work!

One last picture of my rock star family!!! Hannah wasn't so happy because she ended up getting a blister on her hand from all her drumming! These kids really have music in their bones! Can't wait to see how it develops!

And He's Off!

We have a walker! I knew when he turned 9 months that it wouldn't be long. He actually took his first official steps last Sunday, 3 days after he turned 9 months. He took 3 steps that night in between his push toy and the ottoman. I sort of think it was kind of a mistake - he sort of didn't realize he wasn't holding on to his toy anymore and just walked.

Then during this week, he took more steps every day throughout the day - usually 3-5 steps or so before he fell down. Thanksgiving night, he took probably 10 steps across my mom's family room. I finally got some pictures of him this weekend. He's so wobbly, but he's getting it!!!!

He really goes fast now behind his push toy, but he can't steer at all, so he gets mad when he runs into the wall or the furniture.

Now I'm going to have to get him some shoes. I tried a couple pair on him this weekend, and I forgot how hard it is to put a shoe on a baby - they curl their toes so you really have a hard time getting it on! I decided against buying any just yet, but I'm going to have to within a month I'm sure.

So, we had a nice Thanksgiving break. It was pretty low-key, which was just fine by me. We went to Tony's sister's for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and then over to my moms in the evening. Here are the two most fantastic gifts that we are so very thankful for!

Hannah stayed the night at my mom's Thursday night so they could go see Tangled on Friday. Tony, Nicholas and I did a little shopping Friday. I have to say, I wasn't so into shopping and to my great surprise, Tony was a pretty good partner to hang out with. Nicholas did pretty good too even though it was during his normal nap time - we screwed his schedule all up this weekend! I took Hannah to the square Friday night to watch them light the town. There were a bunch of characters walking around...here she is (with McKenna) with Shrek.

It was super cold out, but we had a nice time hanging out with the Hardins.

We met up with Tony and Nicholas later for dinner and then hung out at the Hardin's for a while.

We were pretty lazy Saturday. I was bored, so I went out and did a little more shopping and then we all went to dinner and the mall. We didn't do much today either, but had a great weekend hanging out with our family. Getting some much needed relaxation time was great too!

Gymnastics Update

Hannah's first session of gymnastics ended last week. They did evaluations and then had a "Show what you know" where the kids took their parents around to all of the apparatus to show them all of the things they've learned how to do! The picture taking in the gym is awful, so please excuse the bad pictures.

Hannah does well on floor exercises and on beam

She seems strong, but actually tested the lowest on bars even though her front supports and casts are really improving!

She loves climbing the rope and is getting higher and higher each time!


She loves trampoline and vault and just needs to gain some power behind her jump.

At the end of the night, they had a ribbon ceremony. As all of the other girls were getting their awards, Hannah hoped and hoped she'd get a trophy. Some girls got medals and others got trophies, all got ribbons, but I didn't really understand the process well enough to explain to her.

So then it was Hannah's turn. She got black ribbons for floor, beam, and vault and a blue one for bars - those are for the levels in which she tested (blue being the lowest then black is next - I think red is after that).

Then she got a blue Trophy!!!! I'm pretty sure it's becuase she's passed the entire blue level! She was SOOOO excited and I was so happy for her and so proud!!!

She's awesome!

9 months!

Crazy, but Nicholas has turned 9 months old. This time has gone so, so fast and at the same time, it seems like I can hardly remember our life without him as part of our family!

He is growing like a weed, although, he is now starting to grow into himself - growing up more than he's growing out!!! He went for his well visit yesterday and is doing great. He now weighs 21 pounds, 6 ounces and is 28-1/2 inches tall. He is now back down to the 75 percentile in both height and weight. His head measured 18-1/2 inches, which is in the 50th percentile. He only gained about 1-1/2 pounds, but grew 2 inches since his 6 month visit. We talked with the doctor about transitioning him to table food because he's so interested and he said that we can start with anything that he'll eat, we just still need to be careful until we completely rule out any food allergies. His eczema is still pretty bad, but we're doing pretty much all we can for him right now with daily lathering of aquaphor. The doctor said that even though it looks bad, it doesn't feel as dry as it can sometimes be, so we must be treating it properly.

So as for some milestones at 9 months:

He's got 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on the bottom and LOTS of drool this week, so he might be cutting some more I just can't see yet.

He's been super healthy except for one cold that lasted about a week. He sounds like he's getting another one the past couple of days - icky nose and coughing.

He says mama, dada and uh-oh (which he grunts). If you ask him to say bye-bye, he makes that sound by strumming his bottom lip and making a sound, but that's totally consistant everytime you ask him to say it.

He signs "more", but does it with open hands (unless they stuffed with puffs or cheerios).

He does "so big" and still does it by grabbing his hands together and sticking his fat little head through the opening over his head.

He has started to give open mouth kisses!!!

He can stand alone in the middle of the floor and I suspect is about a couple of weeks away from taking his first step.

He is sure getting a funny personality - makes funny faces like this one:

making this "o" shaped thing with his lips and then laughs!

He also snickers a lot, scrunching up his nose and making a funny smile face and a snarl sound with his nose....he's funny!

He loves to eat! He has 3 meals of solid baby food and rice cereal and snacks on puffs and cheerios

And this week has started mooching from anything we're eating. Now that we've gotten the OK from the doctor, we'll probably start sharing with him more. I will try yogurt this weekend, but he like little pieces of chicken we had the other night and canned green beans & carrots. He's still getting 4 bottles a day too.

He's got some real rhythm in his bones - dances any time he hears music and likes to clap to the music with a huge smile on his face!

He growls a lot more than he talks with a cute little baby voice and he likes to play rough. He's full of energy and has finally been sleeping a little better at night. He still wakes 2-4 times a night and cries, but since we haven't been going into his room very much, he's crying less loud and not as long. He'll sleep until about 7-7:30 on his own most mornings. He is ready for bed by 8-8:30 most nights. He still takes a short morning nap and about a 2 hour afternoon nap.

He's outgrown his pumpkin car seat and is now in the regular car seat in both cars - we'll be putting a bunch of baby stuff on Craigslist since we're DONE with it!!!

He's really hard to sit and take a picture anymore, but here he is on Thursday when he turned 9 months! We're going tomorrow to take some professional pics - hopefully that goes OK. Here is about as good as I could do the other day.

Hannah and Nicholas love to play together and they do it so well. Of course, Nicholas pushes his way into wherever he wants, but Hannah lets him most of the time - she loves that little guy! They sure are buddies!

And they sure had fun basket riding the other day!

We sure love this life!

Just Checkin' In!

I really don't have much to talk about, but I figured I still owed it to the ole' blog to add a post.

I've had a couple really tiring, busy weeks. Mostly work stuff - just that time of year and some added responsibilty makes for a long week after 5 days! This past week was spent doing my annual performance reviews. I did them differently this year - had just open dialog about all the good things each of my girls have done, the things they need to work on and then some feedback about what I can do to become a better manager and leader. I've got to step up my game a bit this year and I intend on working on a few things that I haven't done well and am generally not that good at - managerial courage stuff. So meetings for the past two weeks have really consumed my time.

On the home front, Hannah and Nicholas finally got over their first colds of the season. I had to finally take them to the doctor a week ago Friday. Hannah's cold just wasn't getting better and Nicholas got a super bad case of eczema that turned into a red rash all over his legs. Nicholas was fine and Aquaphor in mega doses made him better and Hannah needed a 10 day dose of amoxicillin. We're all back to normal now. I thought I was getting a bit of a scratchy throat a couple days this week, but so far, so good!

We had Bible Study at my house last Wednesday. I played poker this past Saturday night. Tony didn't feel like playing. I started off playing well and then made a bad move. I've done some Christmas shopping, need more time (and more money) to do some more! Goals is to be done by the end of the 2nd week of December when I'm planning to take a week of vacation.

Nicholas will be 9 months this week. I'm looking forward to that post where I will update all of the things he's doing now. He's something else!!! Developing quite a personality, although, I'm hoping I can keep instilling some calm as he is a crazy boy with way too much energy!!!

These pics capture some of his personality - yes, we take the good with the bad!

And he is quite the Browns Fan!! He was very sad today!

I'm starting to clean out some baby stuff, getting ready to sell it. There will be another baby resale in the spring, but as we finish with all the big stuff, I've got to start clearing it now. I'll be busy on Craigslist for a while I think.

I've got a Tastefully Simple party scheduled for December 4th. I'm hoping to get that thing back on track next month, I've just been way too busy this month. I've also got a plan to start a new small business next year...more on that later after I get started, but I'm very excited about it!