This is the first time Robert has really traveled for work. It is 3:45 in the afternoon. He wouldn’t even be home yet on a normal work day. However, I am missing him like crazy already. I am crying anytime I think about him being gone. I am not normally like this. I have no problem heading my my parents’ for 4 days with the kids. But not having Robert here at home with us is making it hard for me. I am so looking forward to having him home on Thursday (whenever he may get home).
Today is my 4th Mother’s Day. I count my first as when I was pregnant with Laura. If she would have come then, she would have had a great chance of survival. It never ceases to amaze me how fast time seems to go where the kids are involved. I have a hard time believing that Laura will be 3 in one month (give a few days). I look at Warren and can’t believe how fast he is growing. I often times get caught up in what I wish he was doing (mainly sleeping better) and forget to focus on the current. He is making huge progress today with crawling. He will be cruising by the end of the week for sure. He is also pulling himself up a lot! If you are near him on the floor, he wants to stand. He is tired of sitting/laying on the floor. I am so excited for him as he reaches another milestone. I had a nice bonding moment tonight with Laura. She sat on my lap and we played a game on the computer together. And to punctuate my post, Laura just walked out of the bathroom from taking her bath. She has a towel wrapped around herself and is calling it a bra. I am really not ready for that!
Also with the time flying, I can’t believe that Robert and I have been together for 7 years. At this point, it is hard to remember what life was like without him. Of course we have our problems, but every couple does. I have actually said before that if a couple doesn’t have problems, then that is a huge problem.
Robert is off to Green Bay this week for training for work. He will leave for work tomorrow morning around 7:15 and I won’t see him until sometime Thursday night. :( I am a bit nervous about having both kids on my own for 4 days. I am working 3 of those days, but that may or may not be helpful. I will have to get the kids ready for daycare on my own in the mornings, but on the plus side, I’ll have some “me” time while at work. The downside is that Laura tends to be more demanding for attention in the evenings on the days that I do work. I’m sure we’ll be fine. I know that we’ll make it, but I’ll be very happy when he is back home on Thursday. I know the kids are going to miss Robert a lot too. Warren is very much a daddy’s boy. Laura has a special place for her daddy too. I do have a new laptop now that has a built-in webcam, so they can see each other in the evenings. I think that will help the kids (and myself) to be able to chat and see him while he is gone.
As I just mentioned, I have a new laptop. My other one has finally died. The power plug was coming unsoldered from the motherboard so power was iffy. It didn’t help that the battery had about 10 minute life. The wireless connection was spotty too. Once I had it it worked great, but it didn’t always reconnect after waking up. It wasn’t uncommon to take 6 or more restarts to get a wireless connection back. If I put too much of a load on the computer, it would get very hot on the bottom, and then shut itself down or just not work properly. Keep in mind, the biggest load I would ask it to do would play a few flash games. It was definitely time to get a new computer for me. So now I have a nice 15″ MacBook Pro. :) Robert says it is faster than any computer he has used. :) I know he’ll get a new one for work in a few years and then it will be better than this one, but for the time being, I’m having fun with it.
We took the kids to get pictures done yesterday morning. We decided to try out a new photographer since Michelle most likely won’t be able to do pictures for us easily in a few months. We tried out Sandy Brecht (www.sandybrechtphotography.com) and really liked her. She handled the kids really well. The session itself lasted only about 30 minutes. Warren had had enough by then, and Laura was getting goofy. Plus our number of shots was up. We have the originals on a disc, which I will upload to our photo gallery soon. I need to pick out a few of the shots to get prints made up to give to family/friends.
Time to wrap this up and spend some quality time with my husband and baby boy. Little girl is in bed for the night now.
I am the first one to admit that I don’t always keep up on current events. A lot of the time, I am just confused by what I read. I don’t always understand the terms used. I also find myself a lot of the time asking, “Why does this matter?” I was never big into history, so understanding the history of situations is also difficult for me.
Now, with that all said, I really do not understand the big deal with homosexuals getting married. Does it really matter to you if same sex couples are getting married? If they want to get married, odds are that they are living together already. Yes, they may get benefits through their work. And again I ask, does it matter to you? Not really. I believe they should be able to totally commit to each other in a marriage. People claim that if same sex couple are allowed to marry, it would destroy the sancitity of marriage. Guess what! The sanctity of marriage has been destroyed for a while now. Take a look at Hollywood. Couples are divorcing after just a few years (sometimes months) when it isn’t convenient or doesn’t work for them or they find their newest fling on the set of their new movie. I know that Robert posted in his blog the status update that is going around Facebook. “Larry King is getting his 8th divorce, Liz Taylor is possibly getting married for the 9th time, Jesse James and Tiger Woods are screwing EVERYTHING, yet the idea for same-sex marriage is going to destroy the institution of marriage? REALLY!?” This really sums up my feelings.
The Teaparty is making headlines right now. I can’t even tell you what the Teaparty really is. I have guessed from news articles that they are ultraconservatives. They don’t agree with the healthcare bill that passed (which guess what folks… it passed… not much you can do now). And I may be way off base here. News sources feed you what they want you to think. It is nearly impossible to get an unbiased/non-slanted article when it comes to politics. I know that with our government everyone has a voice. It is just so hard to listen to some of these people. I totally disagree with they way sex education is going. More and more they want to teach abstinance only. Teenagers are going to experiement whether you tell them it’s ok or not. I figure if they are going to experiment, at least give them the knowledge of how to protect themselves. I have no problem with emphasising abstinance, but give more information. The experts claim that this will just confuse the kids and send mixed signals. I remember when I was in high school, I was smart enough to figure something like that out.
I always hesitate to blog about things like this. I guess I’m afraid of what my friends will think. But I think it’s time that I start to explore my opinions and feelings.
I have tried several times in the past week or two to post an update on here. Everytime I’d get to the homepage, something would come up that I wouldn’t post… be it child, husband, or other internet distraction. I will get a post up tonight though!
I have been working for the past few weeks. I made mention of it in my last post. I have made major headway on one of my projects at work. This one was to create a database of all the discontinued books. It seemed easy enough at first… just enter in the books. But then how do we handle the barcodes? It would be really nice to just scan the barcode and have everything enter into the table. And how do we track inventory? Can I figure it out to subtract one from inventory everytime a book scans? What about the books we sell online and not to students? We need to track those, but don’t want them to show up on the weekly report? Speaking of the weekly report, how can I make it easy for the assistant manager to get sale for a certain date range? As you can tell, I had a lot of questions to answer. I was able to do 99% of what I wanted. The only thing I couldn’t get to work was having the inventory count show up on the form when we were selling books. That isn’t a big deal. I even set up a switchboard so whoever is using the database doesn’t have to find the right form to use. I also don’t have to worry about all my queries getting edited (which leads to the inventory and reports getting messed up). I am quite proud of my database and how it turned out. My job this week is to count the books and get the quantities entered in.
My other project at work is coming along. I have the workflows made up for how our processes are currently done. The next step is to make a workflow for how we want the processes to be in the end. That is going to be the more challenging part. I don’t agree with Virgil on how things should be done. This needs to be agreed upon really before some of these steps go further. I am not sure how to best approach this right now. This is the main reason I’ve let this project sit as much as I have. There were days when I could have been doing this when I was stuck with Access.
On the home front, things are going ok so far. Laura is getting into th eswing of daycare. She cries when we leave, and doesn’t want to leave when we pick her up. I have gotten something that I’ve wanted for a long time. When Laura sees us pull up (and they are outside playing), she will run to me with her arms stretched out wide, yelling “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” until she reaches me to give me a big hug. :) This totally melts my heart. Warren is going with the flow rather well. He is most excited to see his daddy at the end of the day. This works well so we each have a child super happy to see us. :) Not that they aren’t happy to see the other parent, but each is showing a definite preference right now.
Yesterday was not a good day for me. I woke up with a headache and cramps. My goal was to just make it through the day until Robert got home. I let Laura watch a lot of tv. I was talking to Mom on the phone, and Laura was wanting my undivided attention. While attempting to crawl up on my lap, she kicked my laptop and it went falling to the floor. Not so good for it. I put her into timeout for it. While she was sitting, I changed Warren’s diaper. When I went to throw it away, I stumbled over my own feet. I was holding Warren in my left arm. I twisted trying catch myself. Instead, I feel so my right shoulder landed on top of the back of a dining room chair. Thankfully Warren didn’t fall or get hurt. He didn’t even seem to get scared by it. I paid dearly for it though because I hurt really badly for the rest of the day. When Laura’s timeout was over, I asked her if she remembered why I put her in timeout. “Because I broke it” (a part of the aircard did pop off on my laptop). I was impressed that she could tell me why I put her there. I let her get up to go back to playing. This is when the fun started. She had her stuffed bunny and put her into timeout! She went over to pretend to start the timer. Then she went back to the bunny asking her if she remembered why she was in timeout (“You member me?” is what she asked). Then she told the bunny she got timeout because the bunny wasn’t listening. I was laughin so hard, but doing my best to keep it in so Laura wouldn’t know it. She kept this up until lunch time. She even put Diego in timout for a while (for the same reason).
Warren’s sleep is still really bad. I am at my wit’s end with it. I think once I get done working for this stretch, we may look into a book called “The No Cry Sleep Solution”. I am just at a total loss for how to get Warren to sleep bettter. I can even deal with one or two feedings. But now he is staying up for an hour or two after one of the feedings. I think my illness on Friday was I had gotten so run down. With Laura it wasn’t too bad to get her to sleep through the night at 13 months. But she also wasn’t doing this trick of being up for so long at this age. She did that at an earlier age and then stopped. Just Warren reminding me once again that he is different from his sister I guess.
I am hoping that we can all go to church tomorrow morning. We haven’t gone since Easter. :( There is always an excuse. Mandy will be coming over in the late afternoon/early evening. We’ll make homemade pizza and mudslides. :) I will work again Tuesday-Thursday next week.
I am finding that I seem to have less patience with the kids when I am working. I know that they miss me and are wanting more attention on the days I am home to make up for me being gone. But it is so hard some days. I think I am more tired so I can’t deal with Laura’s “tricks” as easily. I also don’t handle Warren’s sleep issues as well. Thankfully I have an awesome husband who jumps right in to help out even more. I don’t know what I’d do without him. I’m not just saying that either. I truly would be at a loss if I had to work and take care of 2 kids on my own. I give major props to single mothers.
Our goal is to start going to be sooner, so I should end this and get going. Warren has been up once already (just needed some cuddles). Hopefully I will be able to post a little more frequently once work is over.
I feel like is in fast forward again. Last week Tuesday and Wednesday were used to clean the house. Wednesday night we had our Bon Jovi concert. It was AWESOME! I would love to go again. I worked Thursday and Friday. Those were tough days due to lack of sleep (I think about 4 hours each night). I know that Saturday I napped. I also hung out with Jess Saturday evening. She had gotten word that she was being laid off since they didn’t have enough kids for her to teach 4K again next year at this point. There is also a lot of other drama going on, but that is the main point there. Sunday was a quiet day at home. We decided to skip church. Robert needed to work on the Dance Theatre DVD and the kids needed a day where their schedules weren’t messed up. I took Laura with me Sunday afternoon to get groceries. She was fun to have with. I miss having one-on-one time with her.
Last week had a few more firsts for Laura. She used watercolor paints for the first time ever. She had a blast with that and kept asking for more. Then Thursday at daycare she finger painted for the first time. Apparently she was a bit apprehensive about it at first because it made her fingers messy, but she got over it.
I can’t believe today is Wednesday already for this week. Monday I stayed home (daycare unavailable). I worked yesterday, but daycare is closed today due to Helen being sick. Tomorrow is still up in the air. I’ll get my projects done at work at some point. I think it’ll be nice to take a break from them. I’ve hit a road block and just can’t seem to move forward.
I can’t believe how fast time is going. Warren is now 8 months old. In just 2 months Laura will be 3. Time sure does fly. Laura can now sing the entire ABC song and not miss letters. She knew her letters, but not in order. Now she does. She will sit with a book that came with a CD (has the music and lyrics printed in it) and sing ABCs or Twinkle, Twinkle. She is so cute while doing it. Warren is so close to crawling. He will get up on hands and knees and rock. He will even lurch forward, but not move his hands so he falls. I know it is only a matter of time. Then I will be sitting back and watching as he torments his sister. She will have to get over some things, such as him playing with her toys. If she doesn’t want him to play with them, then she’ll have to put them away so he can’t reach them. I get great laughs when they are both on the floor near each other. He will reach out and grab whatever part of her he can reach. One day it was her legs. The other it was the sleeve of her shirt. She just sits there screaming, “Warren’s got me! He’s touching me!” But she won’t move to get away! Like I said, she will learn.
This morning I need to get out with both kids for a bit. I need to go to the credit union, and get more formula for Warren. I didn’t realize how low we were. I don’t know if he could have made it a full day at daycare with how much is in the can. So it’s a good thing that he isn’t there today. I would have felt awful if he would have run out. I also need to call and see if I left some of my cloth grocery bags at the store on Sunday. I only came home with 5 when I left with 8. Hopefully they didn’t give them away. They weren’t real expensive, but they are mine! It wouldn’t hurt to just clean up the kitchen floor again, run the vacuum over the carpet, and wipe down the bathroom either. It’s only been a week or less, so it shouldn’t take much. It’s when I let it go on and on that it gets bad and takes forever to clean up. I’ve been staying on top of the dishes much better. I also make a point of trying to clean off as much of the island as I can each night so it doesn’t get as cluttered. I’m getting better. As a friend reminded me, things do get easier as they get older. It won’t be long before they are playing together and I can clean easily.
Time to start the day!
Easter this year went really well. We made the decision to go to the sunrise service at church. We had gone a few years ago and really enjoyed it. It also allowed us to make it up to Dallas at a good time to enjoy the morning with the family. After getting up early to get ready, we made it out the door just a little bit late. I think we got to church about 5 minutes late. Laura did well. She did get a little hungry during the service, but it wasn’t anything unbearable. During the children’s sermon, Pastor John was talking about how things that looked dead are indeed alive. His example was a baby chick that hatched from an egg. Laura loved seeing the baby chicks both during the sermon and after church. We bought cinnamon rolls afterward, then headed up to Dallas. Laura stayed awake the entire drive while Warren slept most of it.
Once we got to Dallas, Laura and Warren got their Easter baskets. Both Caitlin and Gwen got the kids Easter baskets as well. Laura was in Heaven with so many new toys with a little bit of candy. Warren was happy with just a new toy or two. I didn’t put much into their baskets. I did find a Dora painting book (watercolors were on the front). She LOVED that! She also got a mini golf set from Caitlin, that Owen picked out. Owen was anxious to start the egg hunt. He started gathering them before the egg hunt really started. Gwen was able to hide them again before the true hunt started. Measures were taken to make Laura and Owen each got equal eggs. The kids played together really well. Owen needed to get home for a nap shortly after lunch. We left not too much longer after. Amazingly, Laura fell asleep on the way home then continued to nap for another couple hours in her bed. She was a very tired girl! Warren was also worn out. He didn’t get a good nap at all on Sunday. That made night sleep very difficult. He was up every hour to two hours all night long. I am really dragging tonight.
Today was a good day for the most part. Laura sat and painted in her Dora book for a full hour. She quickly caught on to dipping the paintbrush in the water, then the paint, then paint the picture. I didn’t even mention the concept of skipping the water if the same color was going to be used. Considering it was her first time, she did extremely well. She has been asking all afternoon/evening to paint some more. However, I have to buy her some new paints first. The ones that came with the book are gone.
Tonight I made the realization that the house needs to be cleaned before Wednesday night. That typically means that it is up to me to get it done. I just became totally overwhelmed by it. I didn’t know where to start or anything. I just mentally shut down. Thankfully I have a great husband that is doing the cleaning as I type. He never complains about it.
Tonight Warren ate a full container of peaches. We tried them with him last night and he flat out refused. I was impressed. He also drank 6 ounces before going to bed. I am really hoping that the extra food will help him sleep longer. His nights are always a hit or miss with how long he will sleep. I have given up for now on cutting out the night feedings. The first night went well, but the second night was horrible. He proved to us that he is truly hungry and wants to eat yet. Sleep will come again. With any luck he will follow his sister’s lead and be sleeping great right around a year old, if not sooner.
I have more I could say, but it isn’t really worth typing out right now. It’d just be about working this week. I’m sure I’ll be posting about it later. Time to either call it a day or give Robert a hand.
There are some days that I truly feel this way. Watch the video and you’ll see.
Today is a big day of the Easter weekend. It is the day that Jesus was hung on the cross. I was driving past a church this morning, and I saw a sign that really struck me. “Our sins put Jesus on the cross. His love kept him there.” It reminds me that no matter what, I have His love. He gave up his life so I could have mine. It’s really powerful to think about. Today could be such a dark day in Christianity. However, we know how things turn out. It is only the beginning of the greatest weekend in Christianity.
This morning I was able to get the kids and myself ready for our usual Friday Morning Beverage Time. I must not have gotten the memo though. We were the only ones there. The coffee shop was still open, but I was the only one of our group. I hope that we’ll meet next week. It is one of my few links to the outside world.
The weather has turned really nice. I was able to have the kids outside yesterday afternoon for a while. Laura got to fly her new ladybug kite. Warren sat in the stroller or on a blanket in the grass. It won’t be long before he is crusing all over on me. I’m glad that we have the big yard so I have time to catch him before he hits the road. We are out in the country, but people speed down the road.
Yesterday I made the decision that it is time for Warren to sleep through the night. He had woken up 3 times the night before. The first 2 times he drank only 3 oz. So last night I decided that if he woke up, I would take him out of the room and cuddle him until he fell back asleep. He woke up at 2:25. I brought him out to the living room. He screamed and kicked and fought sleep for 30 minutes. He would start to calm down and start drifting off to sleep, then realize what was happening and start all over again. He finally gave in once I stood up and swayed back and forth. I am hoping to repeat again tonight and have it take even less time. With Laura it took 2 nights. I am hoping for the same with him.
Today is pretty quiet. Robert came home from work early due to not feeling well. Laura is currently napping, Warren is playing on the floor. I’m sure that Robert will nap. I will probably work on cleaning up the kitchen. At least I can have the windows open before the rain comes. Time to get to work.
This week is going great so far. The kids have been great in the box office. Monday and Tuesday Laura took a nap as soon as we got home. She also didn’t sleep very long, so she was in bed around her normal time. What’s even better is that she is sleeping past 7am! Tonight is a different story. Both kids did great during the day. We got home and Warren fell asleep after he had his bottle. Laura was awake until 4, then finally crashed. I don’t know exactly how long she slept, since I left while she was still sleeping. Dayne (babysitter) said that she woke up and was still tired and not totally happy. She went back to bed after a bit. When I got home, Dayne told me that her mom got called out to play darts (I believe she plays on a league.). So we had to wake the kids for me to take Dayne home. The thought of just leaving them in bed while I ran her home had crossed my mind, but I just couldn’t do it. They are too little. Laura was back in bed at 10:05. Warren was too, but he is still crying at 10:12. Hopefully he will calm down soon. I am really tired (last night wasn’t a good night sleep wise for me) and would like to go to bed.
Dance Theatre tonight seemed to go well. I wasn’t able to stay for much of the show, but things in the box office went really well. Rachel learned the process quickly and we were able to keep the line moving; although there never really was a huge line. I don’t know how the performance went or anything. I do know that we had a full house. We didn’t sell out, but we were over 200 people.
I guess I should go comfort Warren. He has been crying for 10 minutes now. Hopefully I can crash soon.
One of the big things emphasized while I was going to school for my education degree was reflection. I have found myself doing that a lot with my parenting. I keep coming up with things that I would like to try differently with Laura, or do differently with Warren, or things that I feel I am doing well as a parent. With the weather getting nicer this week, I was able to get out last yesterday and today with the kids. Well, yesterday with just Laura. I am finding that I need to either find from last year or buy some more outdoor toys for her. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll have a playset this summer. However, that is still a ways out. Watching Laura play today compared to what she was doing last summer was amusing. She is doing so much more. She has also gotten bigger (as kids tend to do) so she is able to do more. But while all that is changing, she is still the same in other ways. She is cautious about the step out front. She won’t go far from me. She still cries when it is time to come inside. As Mom pointed out while she was here, the gate at the top of the stairs will be more for Laura than Warren this summer. It may be all I can do to keep her from going outside by herself some days. I learned today that I will also need to lock the front door so she won’t go out alone. She can pull the handle on the door quite easily.
In other news, it seems like we will be moving forward with the basement this year. We had a friend who is a general contractor come out to the house yesterday to give us an estimate. While I realize that it isn’t firm and things can change yet (nothing in writing), it is so close to happening. We need to take care of a few bills first, but once those are taken care of we should be able to move forward. The current plan is to have Troy (contractor) do the framing and drywall for us. We’ll do the painting, trim, and flooring on our own. I am so anxious to get going on it. I am ready to have our room to ourselves again. I think Warren will do better in a room of his own too, instead of being in with us.
Speaking of the little boy, he is now rolling both directions very easily. He will roll all around the living room. The gate at the top of the stairs is back up so I don’t have to worry about him rolling down the stairs. Neither one of us would be real thrilled if that happened. He has two teeth in (both on the bottom). I think top teeth are getting close. He is getting bigger each day. I feel like I am losing my baby boy already. :(
I know so many women gripe about their husbands. Robert is far from perfect (as am I). However, I am so blessed to have him in my life. I honestly don’t know what I would do without him. His day started at 4:30 this morning. Just as he finished up stuff for work, Warren was up. Robert stayed up with him so I could sleep. After working a full day and getting the oil in the car changed on his way home, he immediately jumped into the daddy role. He brought Warren into the house while Laura and I stayed outside. He washed up the dishes, unpacked the dishwasher, and reloaded it. He also took out the garbage that was full. I know he is tired, and yet he is still taking the diapers downstairs to get them started in the washer. All of those little things really add up. I know that if it all fell on me, things wouldn’t get done nearly as much as they should. Like I said, he isn’t perfect and neither am I. We have our disagreements, he does things that I feel are “wrong”. But in the end, I’d say we are perfect for each other. That is what truly counts the most.
Tomorrow will be a full day for the kids. We have coffee in the morning, then we are heading to the Mall of America with Mandy. I am not sure what time we’ll be back. I would really like to get a new pair of shoes, or two. I know they aren’t in the budget though. :( Saturday I have another scrapbooking day planned with Mandy. I don’t remember if Jess will be joining us for it or not. I haven’t heard from her yet. I know that it will be nice to get out and recharge before the craziness of Dance Theatre resumes next week.
Speaking of Dance Theatre, I haven’t said anything about how that has been going. My kids never cease to amaze me. We are usually out the door around 9 or shortly after. We get to the box office and are in there until 2. On Friday I was in there a little later since I had to deal with a deposit and the money over spring break. During the long hours/days, the kids have been awesome. Laura plays with some of the toys I bring with. I make sure my iPod is charged and ready to go for the day. She spends a lot of time watching the Dora movies that are on there and the various games. Warren is really good about going with the flow. He just hangs out with whoever grabs him from me (which is more than ok with me) and then sleeps in the snuggli that I have. Laura sometimes will crash in the car on the way home, but she will still nap when we get home. I have learned to just let her sleep until she is done sleeping. If she gets short on sleep, her days start even earlier, as in 5:15am. Yes, she is up until 9 or 9:30 then, but if she will sleep past 5:30, it is worth it for one week. Laura is definitely tired by the end of our week in the box office, but she is always so well behaved while we are there. She gets whiny at home, but at least publicly she acts like an angel.
Time to wrap this up and head to bed. Tomorrow will be a big day for the kids. I will need to be rested to keep up!