House stuff, Sewing stuff, Surgery stuff.

Doesn't our house look nice?  We painted the door red, which only looks good from far away, so don't come too close, lol!  And with the new numbers, some daffodils and tulips popping up, it looks so charming.  We planted some more things in the flower beds this week and are looking at getting a new light and perhaps painting the house.  Obviously that is not a high priority but we're looking at it...

 In the backyard we are planning a little deck.  Finally!  Of course, I had gotten a concrete guy to come give us an estimate and was all ready to pay him to get it done in a couple weeks, but then Brendan changed his mind and didn't want a poured concrete patio after all.  How frustrating, I just want it done!  Alas, I do think the deck will look nicer.  So I'll give him that.

 

Last weekend I had a craft show at Ingrid's school.  It was fun!  I sold a fair bit of things, and was able to stock up at the Waxwing afterwards, which means I don't have to do any more sewing for awhile, I'll be good until the end of June.

 Which is a good thing, as I go in for surgery on Monday...again.  Last summer I had a cyst removed on my throat and I was all excited to have it taken care of once and for all.  Then I got sick and guess what got infected again??  My throat.  Again.  BLARGH!  So I've been in and out of the ENT doctor for months trying to figure out what's going on, as this usually doesn't happen.  Cat scans and antibiotics, lots of bills.  And another surgery.  See how happy I am about it?

 Next week will be a blur of drugs and pain, but then hopefully it will really truly be done.  Done I say!

 

In other news, it's really spring here, and we've been enjoying as much time outside as possible.  I even hung laundry on the clothesline!  So excited for warm weather and summer.

Ingrid's birthday party is next weekend.  We are having 8 four and five year olds coming for a purple unicorn party.  We are making glitter fairy wands as a craft.  There is going to be glitter all over our house for the next seventeen years, I can already tell.  But look how happy she is.  I can't say no to that.

 

Life Pictures

Random shots from everyday life. 

Daddy play time:

Fabulous boys:

Mama and her mini-me:

A dog says what?

We took Otis to his year checkup and found that Fat Man is now bigger than Ingrid was at this age.  He's almost 23 lbs and 31" long.  Big kid.

Halloween and a Dr. Checkup

Guess who weighs 21 pounds!!

We went to the doctor yesterday and Fat Man checked out completely fine.  He is right on target for everything he's supposed to be doing and has gained a ton of weight and grown crazy big.  Who was born six weeks early? 

Our Halloween was pretty fun, even though we had it early.  Saturday we got dressed up to go Trick or Treating and we had a blast!!  Ingrid was jumping up and down from excitement for the entire afternoon.  She does not need candy to be over excited! 

Two streets away from our house was insane.  Every house was completely decorated and there were about a million and half people there.  It was a madhouse, and it was so fun!  We came back to our house to find our candy bowl empty and decided to call it a night.  People were still knocking even though we closed our door and turned off our porch light and blew out the candles in our pumpkins.  Hello?  Take a hint!  We're out of candy!  Definitely going to buy two big bags next year!

11lbs of Fun.

Otis had his doctor's appointment yesterday and weighed in at an even 11lbs.  Not too bad, he's gained more than six pounds in the past three and a half months.  The doc said he looks like he's catching up rather nicely.

Other things going on these days:  Ingrid has taught herself how to play the Wii.  Seriously, my mom and I watched her play table tennis and she totally won every time she played.  Now she knows how to do the bike game.  It's funny, but also a little worrisome to me since I think she's too young for video games! 

Today we had a playdate with some other Bay View moms.  So funny that they all pulled up in their Subarus!  As one mom put it, either there's a group of lesbians here or a group of moms :)  We had a buncha babies laying around snotting and drooling everywhere.  It was fun.

Milo was here again, and we were laughing at how much bigger he is.  Again.  That will always be funny.  Otis is 11lbs, Milo is one month older and 19lbs!  I dont think Ingrid was 19lbs until she was a year old!

Our friend brought us a play gym thing for Otis to lay on.  He's really into looking at stuff and is supposed to have more tummy time (am I the only mom that doesn't do this??  My doctor said I should be doing 15 minutes a day.  I ne-ver do it!)  Otis was pretty enthralled with all the things dangling above him, and I'm loving that the fabrics are cool and not so babyish. 

And one more fun thing--side by side pictures of Ingrid and Otis that Tia took.  Keep in mind that Otis is almost four months old and Ingrid was like 3 weeks old in these pictures!  Every time I think he's so big I get a reminder of how wee he really is!  But how much do they look alike here??  So cute.

Seven Minutes Vs. Seven Weeks

We took Otis to the doctor today for another weight checkup.  He is now 8lbs 4oz!!  To me, that is enormous, and then I stopped and looked at him and remembered that at birth Ingrid was that size!  I gave birth to a baby his size, it's amazing anyone lives through that.

So here's a comparison, Ingrid at birth and Otis at 7weeks old:

 

Back to Work

Today is Brendan's first day back to work all day.  It has been awesome!  I am loving that I feel back to normal, I have energy again, Ingrid's been in a great mood, we've gotten lots done.  Ahhh, after a month of craziness we are back to life.

We took down Christmas stuff today and cleaned up toys.  They seem to multiply overnight.  I thought I'd made room for the new toys but I guess not.  Today I did.  The play room is now clean and tidy, the living room has 60% less toys spilling out, and my sewing machine is back upstairs ready to roll. 

I took some pictures of little man sporting his new duds from Grandma and Grandpa.  They got him a frog ensemble, complete with a ridiculous frog hat.  He looks so cute in it!

Otis has been doing amazingly well with nursing.  It makes me so happy that I don't have to worry about bottles and other feeding paraphernalia.  So easy just to lift the shirt and let him have some milk!  We were told  we had to wake him up to feed him every three hours so he'd grow, but that was getting so old...He is so hard to wake up, it would take nearly an hour to get him awake, then he'd feed for three seconds and pass out again.  So yesterday I just let him sleep as long as he wanted and after a five hour stretch he was up and alert and nursed on each side for 20 minutes.  We have a doctor appointment again tomorrow to check his weight, so we'll see how he's doing.  I'm going to follow my mama instinct and say he's getting what he needs. 

Change of Plans

Well, Otis is causing more ruckus...I woke up at 2am leaking.  TMI, sorry, but I was!  I waited to see if it really was my water breaking and sure enough, I soaked myself again.  The midwives told me to come right in, so at 2:30am we dragged Ingrid out of bed and brought her with us to the hospital.  She and Brendan only stayed for a bit, then went home until my mom could make it over to take over wee one duty. 

I'm exactly 31 weeks today, so it's not horrible but they'd like him to stay in for three more weeks.  Three weeks of me being on bedrest in the hospital.  Three weeks of me sitting around a hospital room with a view of a brick wall, no joke.  Three weeks of NOT SEWING!  I don't want Otis to be too early, but I also would not like to spend three weeks here.

I'm hooked up to monitors and he's doing fine, heart rate is good, they gave me meds to calm down the contractions.  It's wait and see.  My whole life is wait and see.  Like once he's born he's going in the NICU and we'll wait and see how he does.  He'll have to stay for awhile, and in the meantime Brendan's going to hear about job offers.  So we'll be planning a move, dealing with a preemie, and a 2 1/2 yr old.  Sounds fun, right?? 

Keep us in your thoughts, we'll be here. 

A Bad Night, A Better Day

Last night I was happily chopping up veggies for our salad when WHAM, the knife came down--hard--on my thumb.  Youch.  It bled profusely and I knew I'd need stitches.  Luckily Brendan was on his way home from work.  Why do these things happen when I'm by myself with Ingrid?

Being the good wife I am, I finished up the salads with a dishcloth wrapped around my thumb, doing things one handedly as I raised my thumb above my heart.  Do you know how hard it is to make hamburgers with only one hand?  But I managed, and was very proud of myself.  Brendan came home and we ate dinner, as I figured I'd be waiting around awhile and would get hungry, so I should eat before I went to the emergency room.

Now, here's a sad thought:  I was happy to go have a couple hours to myself.  At the ER.  Because I was bleeding and would need stitches.  Brendan offered to come with me and I jumped up and ran out the door before he could catch up.  Not really, but I wanted to!  I put a book in my bag, told him to take care of the wee one, and hopped in the car on the way to the ER.  And had two blissful hours of non kid time.  And stitches.  I got three stitches and a comically big bandage, and then I was home.

This morning I woke up to a huge throbbing pain, but so far ibuprofen has done me well.  Ingrid seemed to sense I didn't want to do much today so she happily played with her kitchen and blocks and books.  I finally managed to get out of my pajamas at 11am and we went to splash in the puddles.  Ingrid loves her puddles, she loves rainy days!

After that we did some painting, on paper, the table, Ingrid's arms, legs and upper lip.  Thank god for washable paints. 

We also had our squirrel friend come visit.  He would have come inside if I'd opened the door, he is so curious!  Our cats hate it.

And now it's nap time, and then we have a doctor's appointment for Ingrid.  It's been a nice mellow day, which is exactly what I needed. 

Another sewing project yesterday, another circle neck shirt.  I love these but man are they a test of my patience.  There are so many little tiny things to check before you can sew, so in my haste I always manage to make a mistake.  They're still cute though, so I will make tons more to practice and hopefully learn the tricks to making them easier to sew. 

It's Officially Swine Flu

We took Ingrid to the doctor today. She and Brendan both have swine flu, hooray! The doctor said Ingrid looked fine other than her fever, which is a good thing, her body fighting off the infection. She's hydrated and just needs Tylenol and sleep. Brendan's on the mend, as well, his fever is down and he's a bit more coherent than he was this weekend. Cross your fingers I don't get it, I've been super achy and my head hurts but I have a feeling that's just because I've been wearing myself out taking care of the sick ones and getting up with Ingrid at night.

A Trip to the Doctor

Yesterday was Ingrid's 15 month well-child exam. She was weighed for the first time on the standing scale, like a big kid!! Then she was measured.

Then they gave us this ridiculous little gown to put on her. She wore it long enough for me to take a couple pictures and then it was off...What kid doesn't prefer to be naked when they can??

Ingrid is now 24.5 lbs, 32.5 inches long, and is right on track for her growth. All her vocabulary skills amazed the doctor--she can say WAY more than the four words she should be able to say at this age. Her new fave word is "shoe" which she says every time we get ready to go outside. What a smart little whippersnapper :) She had to get a couple shots and luckily they were ones we approve of. Last time we went we didn't want one of the vaccines and we got a bit of snippiness from one of the doctors demanding to know why we refused it. *sigh* I miss my pediatrician in Milwaukee. She was amazing and never EVER made me feel bad for having my own ideas of what was best for my child.