Irish Friends

I have a good friend that married an Irishman, taking her to Dublin for good.  Wah wah.  I miss her something awful, I so wish we could get our kids together to play and drink coffee and all the stuff we used to do.  But, I know she's got a good thing there and has the sweetest little family ever.  She was in the States visiting the past couple weeks and I finally go to see her!  The last time I laid eyes on her Ingrid was about four months old.  Which means I had never met her daughter, she had never met Otis.  It had been too long! 

 

We met at her family's farm and it was perfect.  The perfect weather, it was both her husband's and my husband's birthdays, the kids had a huge expanse of grass to run on, there was a little river down at the bottom of a hill, they got to see a snake and some strange bugs.  We sat and caught up, the birthday boys (both scientists) talked geek stuff.  Just the best afternoon I could ask for!

We used to hang out, smoking our cheap Old Gold cigarettes and drinking coffee, talking about the day in the future we'd be married with babies.  Now here we are, even though we live in different countries, we're both married to DOCTORS of science that have the same birthday!  We both have little redheaded Irish babies.  It's so funny to me how things have worked out.

FIVE!

Ingrid turned five yesterday.  It seems like she's way older sometimes, and others it seems like she shot up before I could even notice.  I look at pictures from just a couple years ago and she just looks like such a baby then!  She has turned into such a girl now, no longer a toddler or even a little girl. 

We had a party for her Saturday afternoon.  It was exhausting.  Nine 4 and 5 year olds came over and we did something pretty much every single second they were here!  We made glitter wands, which they took outside to have a parade with.  They marched up and down the street singing happy birthday and shouting "Sparkle! Sparkle!"  The neighbors thought it was funny.

Then we did a pinata, which I have to say I will never do again.  It is just NOT fun, the kids can't seem to break it so I ended up breaking it open with my hands so they could grab the candy.  Then they all argued over who got gumdrops and who got suckers.  And it cost a lot. 

 We had cake.  We played outside. 

And then they all went home and my mom and I were absolutely exhausted.  But it was so fun and Ingrid was so happy to have all her friends over.

Yesterday we had some family over and cooked out.  Twice.  We also had neighbor friends over and had more purple cake.  It's like birthdays just keep on going around here! 

Ingrid got a new bike for her birthday, purple of course.  She has been really good at it, although it makes me nervous because she still doesn't quite get the brakes when she's going down a hill. 

She also got this AMAZING vintage electric piano from Grandma and Grandpa!!  I love this thing!  Right now it's down in our basement, but I will be making room for it somewhere up in our living room.  It is just too cool!  And the sound is amazing.  Love this!

 Now the festivities are over and I am left with a five year old.  She starts full day school in a couple months!  It amazes me how fast it's gone.  Happy Birthday, Ingrid!

A Look Back

Totally stealing this from Bron's blog--what a great way to remember all we've been through this year!

JANUARY
Otis was getting to be more mobile and getting into EVERYTHING!

FEBRUARY
Otis learned how to walk!  And we enjoyed being back in Milwaukee, where we belong.

MARCH
We started, and finished, our house hunting.  It was so fast, and almost a year later we could not be more happy with the house we ended up with!!  Our neighborhood is amazing, our house is cozy, and we love to be homeowners!

APRIL
Busy month of going to the cottage for the first time of the year, our first baseball game of the season, and packing up our old house.

MAY
We moved into our new house!  Ingrid turned four! 

JUNE
We took our annual camping trip to Door County. Aunt Corie came to visit.  It was HOT.

JULY
It was still hot.  We spent lots of time outside and enjoyed our air conditioning while inside.  I had a craft fair and we harvested lots of zucchinis.  LOTS.

AUGUST
The kids and I visited my mom in Michigan!

SEPTEMBER
Ingrid started school and we went to see Obama on a dreary rainy day.  (Thank god it's not election season anymore, that got old.)

OCTOBER
Ingrid and Otis were cowboys for Halloween.

NOVEMBER
We had some great family pictures taken and we visited my sister in Michigan.  All of us, even Brendan!

DECEMBER
Otis turned TWO!  Hard to believe he's such a spunky little dude.  He talks as much as his sister and has a personality of his own, for sure. 

We have just had such a great year, I feel really lucky. 

This next year I hope to see Ingrid continuing to love school, I want to work more on our house projects, like painting the rooms colors that don't make me want to barf, and hopefully getting a patioo built in our backyard.  I hope the winter isn't too cold, the summer isn't too hot, and we continue to be happy and somewhat healthy (as I cough and sneeze all over the computer, ha!)  Happy New Year, everyone!

Mustache Party!

Yesterday was Otis' second birthday party.  And since he's such a little man, we had a little man/mustache party for him!  They are so trendy right now, really, so it was easy to find fun things to add to our party.  All I had to do was peruse Etsy and type in "mustache party" and I found a million fun things!

I chose mustache crayons as party favors.  I got them from this etsy shop, she was so kind and shipped very quickly!  And they were a hit!  (Although honestly most kids thought they were candy and tried to eat them...)

 I also got some mustache cupcake toppers for our ridiculously red and green cupcakes, from this etsy shop.  We also got some thank you stickers from them for the favors.  My mom and I found this cute snowman cake with cupcakes around it, so we got them, never really thinking about how messy the frosting would be with a bunch of littles running around!

 Otis was a very lucky little boy and got many fine new toys for his birthday!  We got him a wooden camera from Little Sapling Toys, which ended up being SO CUTE!  I just love it!  I think it might be my new go-to present for kids 2 or 3 years old.

 Since we had a breakfast party, we had tons of yummy breakfasty foods like quiche, cheesy potatoes, coffee cake, apple bread, and, of course, bloody maries!  The kids were in good pre-nap moods, and once everyone left, all of us crashed and took naps.  I say that is the perfect time for a two year old's party!  I can't believe Otis is TWO! 

Our Weekend

It was a birthday party filled weekend here.  Brendan's birthday was yesterday, so we had cake for him.  Then our friend Junie turned two and we went to her party.  And then Brendan's parents came over to celebrate his birthday with another cake.  Sheesh, a little birthday overload!

Fun pictures from this weekend--spaghetti night messy faces:

 Ingrid's amazing vintage dress we got awhile ago.  She is too funny--when I told her she was going to wear a party dress to the birthday bash today, she cried and cried and cried, swearing up and down the dress was too tight and she hated that dress and she wasn't going to wear it.  Then she went up to her room, grabbed the dress I wanted her to wear and said "Please, Mama, can't I wear this one?"  I do not know what goes on in her head but she can be so dramatic sometimes!

After his nap, Otis was also quite dramatic.  I was napping and woke up to hear Otis screaming like crazy.  It was his frustrated-nothing-is-going-right-for-me scream, and it was all because his pasta wouldn't get on his fork right or something like that.  It's tough to be a kid.

And lastly, I caught the kids jumping from coffee table to couch this afternoon, giggling like crazy so I couldn't really be mad.  As soon as I saw it probably wouldn't cause a trip to the ER, I let them at it while I took pictures.  So cute to see them getting along after a day of them being pissy with each other!

 And now it's FINALLY bed time and I can relax and get some more bibs done and watch Downton Abbey on Hulu.  Yay.

Ingrid is Four!

Ingrid turned four on Saturday.  We had a crazy hot day for the middle of May, but we had fun.  One grandma got a kiddie pool, the other got a sandbox, we had an EZ-up for the oldies to sit in the shade, and used a sheet on the clothesline to make a tent for more shade.  It was crazy hot, we even ended up having to come inside to get away from the sun, something that doesn't happen that often in Wisconsin!

Last year we went all themey, with rainbows and gnomes and toadstools, but this year I'm going easy.  I told Ingrid to pick a couple colors and I figured we'd make a bunting for the table and get matching balloons, maybe some matching candles.  I have decided that it was fun to do once, but I am just not a good themed party thrower.  I don't think anyone actually took home my goodie bags and I ended up with a million rainbow crayons and mushroom spinning tops in my house...So, this year was a simple neopolitan theme.  I made a simple brown and pink felt bunting, got some pink and white balloons, and asked our friend Carole to make another amazing cake.  She did not disappoint!!

 We also had neopolitan ice cream.  The kids ran around in the sprinkler, splashed in the pool, and played in the sandbox.  It was super fun, totally summery, and Ingrid had a great time!  So did Otis.  He absolutely loves the sandbox!  He sat in there for an hour, just digging and pouring sand from bucket to bucket.  I see a very laid back summer spent in our backyard!

In non-birthday news, my mom and I planted a garden this weekend, too.  We have raspberries, blueberries, zuchinni, lettuce, carrots, green beans, and strawberries.  So excited to see how things turn out!  It's my first time planting food plants, so we'll see.  And in completely other news, I am still in shock after finding out one of my close friends is having TWINS!!  She never had a dating ultrasound, just heard a heartbeat, went about her first few months preparing for a new baby.  Then today at her ultrasound the tech said "Here's baby number one, and here's baby number two."  Wait, what huh?  If I'm in this much shock, I can't even imagine what she's going through!!!  I am super happy and excited for them, though.  I know it's going to be crazy and hectic and I hope that I can help her out when she needs it.  Jeez louise, twins.  With a two year old ready to help out :)  Crazy.

Mother's Day Weekend

I totally forgot to post about our amazing weekend!  It was seriously the best.  Saturday was the neighborhood rummage, so we went out to look for some bargains.  It was kinda drizzly so it wasn't that great, but I did score some vintage kid's stuff for Toadstool Vintage.  Then it cleared up and we spent loads of time in the yard.  Ingrid is perfecting her baseball swing, that kid can really hit the ball!  No tee for her, she is hitting pitched balls and will not stop begging someone, anyone, to pitch the ball for her! 

After nap time we headed to the zoo.  As a family!  Usually I bow out of outings like this and let Brendan have kid time by himself so I can have mom time for myself, but I went and it was amazing.  The perfect weather, the kids were in good moods. We saw the goats, our favorite.  Ingrid couldn't stop hugging them.  My girl!

 Ingrid was super excited to go on the carousel, so of course we had to do it.  She was giddy waiting in line and she kept trying to decide which animal she'd ride.  She chose the ostrich.

 And to end the trip we took a relaxing ride on the train.  It was a perfect trip to the zoo!

Sunday was great, too.  I got to do a boat load of gardening in the new yard.  The people before us did not care about gardening.  They planted a few things but not with much planning.  For example, there are about five peony bushes by the garage, just sprouting up amidst the grass.  No flower bed, just tall grass and weeds all over the place.  So my goal is to get the grass pulled up and make a flower bed, add a couple more plants there, and attach it to the little garden on the other side of the garage, which so far has strawberries and asparagus and tons of weeds.  So  many ideas!!  But the grass is not coming up easily and it's been about three days of trying to chop away at it.  I am going to be so proud of the end product, I should go take before pictures so I remember how terrible it looked before!

Something that will help me in this endeavor is the fact I hired a babysitter!  Alex comes two mornings a week for a few hours, it's awesome.  She is a local college kid and she just jumped right in and took over as soon as she came.  I quietly went downstairs and did some work and she just played with the kids, took them to the park, changed poopy diapers.  Heaven!!  At first I felt a little decadent for hiring a babysitter being a stay at home mom, but screw it.  I am running two etsy shops, and I have two more craft shows lined up for this summer.  Instead of fighting every weekend with Brendan to watch the kids so I can get shit done, I'm gonna have someone play with the kids while I do it and thus have my weekend free for family.  It is amazing.

Also, gramma is coming today for Ingrid's birthday!  She'll be here a few days, allowing Brendan and I to go out for our six year anniversary.  God bless grammas.  It's gonna be a great weekend!

The Party, and the Hospital.

I posted more pictures of the party here on my Applesauce Crafts blog.  Feel free to check them out.  The party was a hit, I think it looked cute, Otis had fun and got some really cute books for presents :)  We got a music/play table for him and he loves it. 

But, to overshadow a party, Otis ended up in the hospital a couple days ago with pneumonia.  Boo!  I took him to the doctor Tuesday morning because he was having a hard time breathing.  They sent us home with a nebulizer but he didn't get any better and was really laboring to breathe.  So we went to the ER and were admitted right away.

That poor little guy, he has had such a rough start to the world.  To think of how much he's been in the hospital in a year just breaks my heart.  He was put on oxygen, had an iv of fluids and antibiotics, has a monitor to check his pulse ox.  It was all so reminiscent of the NICU and all the wires hanging from him.  He really was conked out and didn't do much but lay on me all through the first night.  He had to get suctioned, which is horrible to watch.  And horrible to hear him scream and watch his little legs flail around as he fights the nurse holding him.  I hate it.

Yesterday he did better.  Brendan was with him all day so I could come home and shower and sleep.  Funny, but being in a hard rocking chair with a wheezy kid laying on you and nurses and doctors coming in every twenty minutes does not make for a restful night of slumber...He was up playing and flirting with all the ladies yesterday, though, so he seems to be on the mend.  He got his oxygen down to almost nothing, and when I left this morning he was on room air, yay!  They'd unhooked his IV but he has to go back on more fluids because he's not eating.  He is getting steroids and nebulizer treatments and an inhaler every three or four hours, so his airways are opening and he's coughing up some lung junk. 

It is so hard to see your child this way.  I absolutely hate thinking of him being sick.  But what really got me was bringing Ingrid to see him yesterday and she was so nonchalant about it, it didn't scare her at all, she was so used to it.  Gah!  She got so used to being in the hospital with me being there and then visiting Otis in the NICU.  I think that's enough hospital time for us, except my upcoming throat surgery.  Then 2012 is going to be hospital free!!

Birthday Party!

This weekend we went to a birthday party for a little one year old named Milo.  His mom and I used to work together and we ended up having our sons (Milo and Otis, ha!) exactly a month apart.  Here's what they looked like together when we first moved here:

Remember, these guys are ONE MONTH apart! 

Here's what they look like now, I think Otis is doing a good job of catching up!

 We had a good time playing with toys, including a little ball pit.  Kids LOVE ball pits, what a great idea to have at a party! 

They had all kinds of fun things, like curvy straws.  Ingrid was in heaven!

Happy First Birthday, Milo!