…on a high!

Eric has been most productive on his vacation which has been good for him.  He may not be ready to go back to work on Monday, but at least he has a whole weekend to enjoy first!

I have also been productive this week.  Yesterday I focused on paring down the baby stuff we weren’t using anymore.  The swings, bouncy seats, and other random pieces are now dismantled and stored in the basement until we sell them or need them again.  And the great room looks fan.tas.tic.  It literally makes me happy to walk through there (which I do a lot!).  Yay!

We tried a new restaurant last night.  It’s a Mediterranean cafe in Hilliard.  And it was yummy!  And SO much closer than our other favorite Greek places!  WooHoo!  (and if you live in/near Hilliard, go eat there…I want this place to stay open!)

Speaking of the word “so” – Eric commented the other day to Alex, “On a scale of 1 to so, you are so cute.”  He makes me laugh.

I woke up tired this morning, though I slept really well.  I guess it’s just residual.  Maybe sometime between now and when the babies leave for college, I’ll feel rested again.  (And if not, don’t burst my bubble yet, okay? )

Okay, that’s it and a baby is fussing a bit (oops…I haven’t showered yet!).  Happy Friday!

Just some random updates from the world in which we live…

• Erin at mealtimes.  
• She ate fantastically all day yesterday, but not so well this morning.
• She loved the eggs and toast I gave them for breakfast yesterday (Alex didn’t like the eggs).  This morning she did not like the Gerber oatmeal with fruit already mixed in, though she did eat the applesauce I gave them separately.  So apparently she just knows what she likes and what she doesn’t.
• Also, started using the full 5-point harness on the high chair instead of just the lap belt.  That kept her from flailing, rolling the chair, and leaning off to the side instead of eating. 
• And thanks for all the ideas and words of encouragement.  I’ve decided not to worry about what she eats (or doesn’t). She nurses just fine and eats most of the time.  And judging by her chubby legs, she’s all right!

• Alex has the very tip of his first tooth through now.  Yippee!

• We’re sleeping like champs this week.  Alex is back around 5 am for his first feeding, and both babies are sleeping in until 7:30 (they had been up at 6:30 or 6:45).  And no one has been awake in the middle of the night for a couple of days…which means that Mommy is sleeping great, too! 

• Alex is starting to really reach for toys that aren’t near him.  So he will probably be moving up to creeping very soon.  Erin is already quite mobile (creeping and rolling), but I’m seeing signs of crawling in her future. 

• Eric has been very productive this week (on vacation, of course ).  He’s been working on little chores and painting the outside of the house (trim and such).  I think he’s enjoying his freedom.  And the regular trips to home improvement stores don’t hurt!

And that’s all I’ve got for this morning.  Okay, really, I just need to go shower before the babies wake up from their naps.  But that’s all the important stuff anyway!  Happy Thursday!

Thankfully, the day did end much better than it began.  We’re still recovering, but the babies took some great naps yesterday and slept well all night.  And being able to turn on the AC was lovely, too!

Eric’s foray into plumbing went well.  My parents came up in the evening, and my dad assured him he was doing it right.  They finished the project together while Mom and I made dinner and played with babies and chatted.  Once the water was turned back on, we bathed the babies and put them to bed.  I think my mom really liked that part!

Erin is causing me great amounts of frustration these days at meal times.  They still nurse 5x a day, so I know that she’s getting what she needs.  But all of a sudden, she is balking about eating.  It might be another tooth coming.  It might be that she’s really not hungry.  But she’s discovered that by rocking forward and backward, she can make her highchair move (even with the wheels locked).  And she’d rather do that than eat.  Actually, she’d rather do anything than eat these days: reach for Alex, play with his high chair, hang sideways out of her chair, look out the window, whatever! 

I’m really trying to let it go and not get frustrated, but I’m struggling.  Feeding two at the same time is hard enough, and the fact that she’s undermining my attempts to make meals go smoothly is difficult.  I swing between laughing at her and wanting to cry in frustration.  I’m glad Eric is home this week to support if necessary (it was necessary at breakfast this morning).  But I’m really going to have to figure out how to deal with this without the frustration. I know she’s not doing it on purpose to annoy me.  But I’m getting annoyed because we go through this 3x every day.  Grrrr!

Anyway, my in-laws are on their way out this morning, and we’ll be heading to the zoo.  It should be fun!  So I will focus on that and not the mealtime issues.  Happy Tuesday!

Today, I am deeply tired.  Really, really tired.  And I’m struggling not to let it affect my attitude toward Eric. (I really want to be cranky and resentful and frustrated at him this morning.)  Hopefully, the day (and my attitude) will get better…

However, it was a good weekend.  Busy, but good.

Eric didn’t get home until 7:15 on Friday night, so I fed the babies dinner, warmed leftovers, and watched a Man v. Food marathon on Travel Channel while I waited for Eric. And he is now officially on vacation for a week. Yay!

On Saturday morning, Eric cut a hole in our garage ceiling to look for the cause of the large water spot that had appeared there a couple of months ago.  It was under the drain from our spare bath tub, as we thought.  But he also discovered, upon further inspection, a much bigger plumbing problem nearby.  Oddly, the second issue had caused only a very small water spot.  I guess the visible indicators of a problem don’t always match the seriousness of the problem!

So anyway, my parents made a quick trip up on Saturday morning so my dad could give a second opinion.  He agreed with Eric’s assessment, and they will be coming back up tonight, after work, so he can assist Eric in fixing it. Yay for great (and handy) parents!

My parents left about 1:00 on Saturday, and we pulled out for the farm about 1:30.  We got to see pretty much all the family over the weekend – very nice!  And we got to roast hot dogs and sausages over an open fire in the driveway (twice!).  And we had homemade ice cream and fresh peaches.  Yummy!  And we got two bags of fresh from the orchard apples.  Nice!

Of course, my in-laws don’t have AC, and it was the hottest weekend of the summer so far.  So the babies were hot and sweaty all weekend (as were we, but they’d never had to deal with it before).  Also, they still don’t sleep well at the farm (the heat probably affected that, but mostly they don’t like the pack n plays).  But overall, they did pretty well until last night, when we started having some brief meltdowns (tired+hot+sweaty=cranky).  But really, they were champs.

As for me, weekends at the farm are exhausting.  I won’t bore you with my list of all the reasons why (mostly because I’m trying to work on my tendency toward negativity), but suffice it to say that this morning, I’m pretty much spent.  And the babies didn’t have a great night last night, either.  So hopefully, we can get back to the routine (which means getting enough sleep) quickly.  And hopefully, I can get some rest today, too.  But we shall see…

Happy Monday!

Today is Eric’s last day of work before vacation.  He’s excited.  Except he probably will have to work a bit late tonight to get everything ready for him to be gone for a week.  Of course.

The babies are doing great.  Alex is definitely approaching the moment of “tooth”, but for now the Tylenol remains Mommy’s best friend!

Erin is her absolute cutest right after she wakes up.  She’s just bright-eyed and smiley.  Love that little face!

Last night, Alex had no intention of going to bed.  He ended up staying up with us until 9:30.  But he just belly-laughed at us and watched the world go by until he was tired enough to be put down.  I think the after dinner nap made bedtime not so workable.  Note to self…

I chatted last night with a friend from college who’s just moved into the area.  We’re going to try to meet next week at a park nearby so she knows where it is and so we can visit.  Should be fun…

The babies and I went outside and sat on a blanket in the yard yesterday afternoon.  It was a lovely day for it.  And I decided I was tired of being “trapped” inside with them.  So I took them out about the time our neighbors start coming home/coming out of their houses so that we could greet them.  And I called my grandparents to chat with them for a few minutes.  And we waited until Eric got home.  He helped me bring the babies back inside.  I think I will try to do that more often!

I think that’s all the “things” I’ve got for now.  Happy Friday…have a great weekend!

It’s fun…to see the babies on their blanket with their heads together as if they were plotting a world takeover.

It’s not so fun…to deal with the small cut on the fingerprint of my right index finger (since I’m right handed).

It’s fun…to watch a funny movie (Kung Fu Panda) with your husband and discover a great line that will likely become part of his repertoire. (“There is no charge for awesomeness…or attractiveness.” Hahaha!)

It’s not so fun…to have done something (don’t know what) to my foot so that it hurts to put weight on my big toe.

It’s fun…to successfully make a weekly shopping trip with two babies (even though it’s exhausting!).

It’s not so fun…to see God pointing out things in my life I need to work on (not fun, but really, really good).

It’s fun…that I have so many friends online and IRL who care about my life.

It’s not so fun…to have my son trying to sneak his early morning feeding time earlier and earlier (we’re not agreed on that course of action).  I’m tired!

It’s fun…to be typing this while my daughter coos to her brother as they play together.

It’s not so fun…to discover foods that the babies (particularly Erin) will not eat.  The most recent was DHA-fortified oatmeal from Gerber.  Apparently the tuna oil makes it inedible…I’ve never seen her gag that violently!

It’s fun…that it’s Wednesday already (where do the days go?)

It’s fun…that I do not have to be sitting in the start-of-year Faculty/Staff meetings at CU today and tomorrow.

It’s fun…that I finally got a frame that fits our most recent family pic (taken, um, 4 months ago) and hung it on the wall!

It’s fun…that I thought of more “fun” things than “not fun” ones.  Woohoo!

So far today…

• The sugar ants have attacked my stove (I’m winning so far).
• Erin has smacked her head twice.
• And I finally finished this…

I hope this works…happy Tuesday!

I had high hopes, all weekend, of having a brilliant post for Xanga this morning. 

But now it’s this morning, and I can’t think of a single brilliant thing to say.  *sigh*  So I guess it’s just a normal weekend recap post. 

The weekend:

• We stayed home for most of the weekend, all 4 of us.  And it was lovely.  It was like a mini-vacation.
• I finally took the recyclables to the dumpsters at a local fire station.  It’s free to do it that way.  But it takes us like 3 months to make a trip to do it.  And we always have TONS of things to toss in.  It took me two trips. In the Jeep.
• I also started to disassemble and pack up baby things we don’t use anymore.  The bouncy seats and exercise mat are gone.  I think the swings will be next.  It’s crazy how big they’re getting!
• On Saturday night, we gave the babies a bath, together, sitting up in the big tub.  It worked great!  Of course, it helped that I’d bought a bath mat so their little bums didn’t slide all around.  But they had a marvelous time.  Alex really likes to splash, but doesn’t like to get water on his face…which is a difficult balance, for sure!
• Sunday was church.  Eric cooked dinner while I fed babies.  Then they went down for naps and we just hung out for the afternoon.  It was pretty nice, actually.  And I talked to my mom for about an hour as well. Good times!

Baby things:

• Alex tipped over backwards on Saturday and gave himself a tiny cut when he hit the corner of a book.  It was our first wound like that.
• Erin is army crawling now…all over the place.  My corral isn’t going to work much longer!  She’s also grunting and making all sorts of new sounds.  It’s really funny to listen to.
• They are totally interacting with each other now.  Alex does whatever he can to make Erin laugh, and he bangs his little hand on any part of her close enough to hit.  She just stares at him (and laughs) and steals his toys.  Sometimes they even seem to be talking to each other. But they are definitely aware of each other…so cool!
• The teething is still in full force.  I’m trying to keep the Tylenol going on a regular basis which does help immensely.  Erin’s little tooth is pretty sharp, though she hasn’t bitten anything but fingers yet (that’ll teach us to stick our finger in her mouth!).  Alex still hasn’t gotten a tooth through, but it’s definitely coming!

Random thoughts:

• Eric’s got vacation scheduled next week, so he only has 5 more days of work before a good break.  Of course, he’s got a big client visit this week to make it miserable, but I think he’ll survive.
• We have a number of things on the vacation to-do list already: a trip to the farm, a trip to the zoo, some outside painting of the house, and an exploration of the potential leak coming from the upstairs guest bathroom (the water marks are showing up in the garage ceiling).  Hopefully, we’ll strike a good blend of getting things done and getting some rest. 
• I think I’m going to do some running around today, maybe to Target, Michaels, and Payless.  They’re all in the same shopping center, and I feel like wandering a bit.  And I do need a couple of things.
• For the rest of my to-do list today: baby laundry, an August meal plan, a grocery list, and cleaning up the kitchen from yesterday.  I think that’s plenty for a Monday!