Things I want to remember

These are some things I want to be able to remember about this age with Erin...

* How she will cling to your leg and say "uppy" when she wants to be held

* How when she counts she always says "one, two, sick" (six)

* How she is like a vulture when she sees food, she always has to share yours even if she just finished eating

* How she chases and tackles Ally all day everyday

* How she loves to do anything physical (climb, jump, push)

* How she will tell you "kishes" or "huggies" and then give you one

* How when I leave her in her room at nap/bedtime she says "Bye, Mom"

* How, if Mike is the one to get her in the morning, she gets into bed with me and gives me a big hug first thing, then asks to "wash (watch) a show" then says "'mote pees (remote, please)"

Erin's Stats

I forgot to update with Erin's stats from her 18 month appt on Friday. She is 24.6 lbs (55%) and 31 inches (25%). Her head is 47 cm. She is pretty much on target with all of her developmental things and WAY ahead in the area of communication. Her peed did tell us something interesting though. Erin has dysplasia abdominal muscle. Basically the muscle in the center of her stomach running vertically is weak. When she goes from laying on her back to sitting, you can see a vertical football-shaped muscle protrude as her stomach muscles contract. The dr said that she will have it all her life, although it will strengthen and get smaller with time, and it will not affect her in any way. Very strange. I had never really noticed it before. Maybe that's why it took her so long to roll over or go from laying to sitting up.

Also she did have an ear infection again. We are finally on Augmentin and are seeing a big difference this time around. She is sleeping well at night and napping well. So we are all happy over here now.

Chatty Cathy (or Erin)

Not to leave Erin out...

Here is the info on my second born:

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Excited, more surreal than the first time

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? This question is ridiculous for me

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 28

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Peed on a stick during our CDS Progressive Dinner because I wanted a glass of Sangria (I didn't get it)

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? everyone who was there when they saw my face coming down the stairs

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Oh yes!

9. DUE DATE? August 17, 2007

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not really

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? ice cream, especially rocky road

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? going up and down the stairs

13. WHAT WAS YOUR CHILD'S SEX? Girl

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No, I was scared to have a boy.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 50

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? A small CDS one

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? nope

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Presbyterian Hospital-Matthews

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 29 hours

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Mike

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Mike and my mom

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? even better epidural than the first

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 7lbs 11oz

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? August 13, 2007

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Erin Audrey

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 1 1/2

As the world turns

We finally had no drama today. Erin was not sick, she napped 3 hrs. Leah watched Tinkerbell while I napped. She said that she had a headache a lot of the day and a tummyache at times. Don't know what that was about. Hopefully she doesn't get that stomach bug tonight.

We loaded up and went to the mall this afternoon to buy Leah Crocs with the fur lining because she HATES socks. I mean writhing, fit-pitching every time I ask her to put socks on. She claims they feel funny. So I thought maybe with those Crocs she wouldn't have to wear socks as often. And I got a pair too at buy one get one 1/2 off. We played at the playplace, then went to Toys R Us to buy Ian's birthday present. I did not have a stroller the entire trip but Erin did SO well at the mall. She stayed close and listened when I talked.

All in all, much better day. Thanks for listening. :)

Night of the Living Dead

As I am sure you can ascertain from my last post, last night was straight from hell. Leah woke up coughing at like 9pm, but she fell back asleep before I could get back upstairs with her warm juice. Then at 1:30 Erin woke up throwing up (BAD, all over her bed and onto the floor. Her room reeked of vomit all night) and continued to throw up every 1/2 hour until 4:30.

At 4:45 just when I was dosing back off for the first time, Leah comes into our room claiming she has to pee. When she has to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, she usually comes into our room so she doesn't wake Erin up by using their bathroom (so sweet). Anyway, I hear her in the bathroom quietly crying to herself, so I go in to check on her. She says, "I don't ever want to play in the pile of leaves again." What? "Or on Daddy's ramps." I have no idea what she is talking about, so I bend down to comfort her and I see dried blood smeared from her nose all the way to her left ear. Her hands and her jammies have dried blood on them. I started to freak out a little but she said she wasn't hurt. Her nose looked full of blood so I had her blow it. There was quite a bit of blood and some was a little clotted so it came out in big globs (TMI, I know). When I tried to wipe her hands, she started freaking out and talking about splinters. I think she was dreaming of when we took her splinter out and thought that is what I was doing. It makes sense with the not playing on the ramps, because that's how she got the splinter to start with.

Anyway, she was scared, so she climbed into out bed for the rest of the night, which is a SUPER rare occurrence in our house because I usually don't get any sleep with her there. She always crowds against me and somehow wedges her elbow right under my shoulder blade. But I managed to sleep a little before I got up to call and tell Laurie Erin wouldn't be going to school today.

I want a nap!

God's way

I think God may be trying to tell us something. We started thinking about having another child, and BAM Erin gets an ear infection. We say, "OK, we can deal with that," then BAM Leah starts her night coughing again. We say, "Bring it on, what else?" and BAM Erin is throwing up. So maybe we should not be having another? Is this God's way of politely saying get the heck out of Dodge? :) I apologize for the incoherency of this post but it is 2:30AM and I am waiting to see if there is another bout of vomiting before I try to fall asleep.

Ha ha, some joke, God.

Pacifier free household

I wanted to write this on here because I am using this as my journal so I can remember milestones for my kids. The last 3 night have been nuk-free over here. Mike didn't give it to her the other night. Because she was so stuffy, it was actually harder to breathe with it in. And it hasn't come up again since then. It is amazing that both girls were so easy to break of nuks. I wonder what other thing will be tough to deal with because of that. :)

Ahhh, much better

I am much better today. Everything went well yesterday (except I took Erin to the dr instead of going to the gym - more on that later) so I feel accomplished. Leah and I did an art project and we played outside a bit in the afternoon. So the schedule did its job.

Last night Erin finally slept through the night after going to bed at 6:15. BUT Leah woke up crying incomprehensibly at 11:30 (I had just fallen asleep) and then woke up for the day at 6am. Mike was like, "And you want another one? Then we'll have one more reason to wake up in the night." But it goes through cycles, there were like 2 weeks where they both slept all night and woke up at 7:30am everyday. It was awesome. So we just have to get through this cycle to get back to good.

I took Erin to the dr yesterday because she had been waking up in the night SCREAMING and could not be comforted. I was worried that the new prescription wasn't working. But her ears are almost back to normal, so I think we deduced that she may have had a night terror. I was not prepared for that, but it figures that Erin would get them.

Okay, that is it for today. I am not getting on here until bedtime again. I think not having the option to be on the computer makes me happier about the time I spend with my kiddos.

PS Congratulations to Min & Nicole on the birth of their baby girl! We hope to hear more soon. Lots of love!

Gotta stick to the schedule

I was cranky again yesterday, even after that enjoyable Saturday night. But I think today I will force myself not to be by following my schedule. You can't be cranky if you are feeling a sense of accomplishment. So today I will clean up upstairs, vacuum up there, and change all the sheets on the beds AND I will play with Erin while Leah is at school and play with both girls this afternoon and NOT GET ON THE COMPUTER OR READ the whole time. You won't hear from me again until after bedtime.

Reading is really what does it. Once I pick up a book I don't want to put it down and apparently I get cranky if I have to. I have always kinda known that about myself, but it has been getting worse lately. Maybe it's because I hardly ever get to read anymore and I am resenting it. I used to always read a little before bed, but not I am either too tired or I stay up too late reading and am super tired the next day. I guess I will have ti put reading in moderation on my schedule. I think I may have a scheduling problem, is there a meeting I can go to for this?

Erin is still not herself. She is waking up at night and in the morning crying. That is not like her. She has been on a new antibiotic since Saturday morning since she wasn't getting better on the other one. But I don't see her getting better on this one either so I am calling to talk to her doctor today. Hopefully we can get her back to normal soon, the lack of sleep is not helping anyone.

2 random things

1. I remind myself SO much of Kate on Jon & Kate Plus 8. I just watched the episode where they go visit their new house. They go into Jon & Kate's room and they tell the kids that they will never be allowed in there again. The way Kate explained it and the way she made the kids stay in the room and pay attention just reminded me of me. A minute ago I was telling Leah something and I made her stop and pay attention to me. I had a flash of Kate just then.

2. Erin can count to ten! This morning she was pointing to letters or numbers on their little table (I couldn't see which one it was) and she counted all the way to ten! Also her favorite color is "geen-pu-pul" and that is the first color she says when I ask what color something is.

Erin updated

She has another double ear infection. It is either gym daycare or Leah carrying germs because Erin JUST started school. Ugh! She was up last night coughing and crying. I can't wait for the meds to kick in.

Erin these days

Erin started school today. As typical of her, she ran right into the classroom and would not hug me good-bye. She actually told me no when I asked for one. I took Leah to go pick her up and she was playing away. When they handed me an art project (a cotton ball snowman) I got teary. I have never even attempted an art project with her yet I guess I assumed that she wasn't ready. They said she loved it. I am so glad we put her in school, she is such a social creature.

I swear this kid is older than she really is. Tonight after dinner Erin was stripped to her diaper. She grabbed it (it was pretty full) and said "I ge git, dah-pah" (I get it, diaper) and brought one over to me. She was ready to be changed. It was pretty funny.

Erin is also playing with the counting bears a lot lately. She can put all of one color in a cup. She may not know the name of the color but she can sort by color already. What a smartie!

Stuttering

Is it too early to tell if Erin will be a stutterer? Because I am noticing it more and more. Especially on say the word "potty" which she says "pa-yah", she repeats the puh-puh-puh sound several times before saying it. It happens on other words too, but not every word. So I don't know what to think...

On to me, I am SO excited to meet up with Stacy and Mandi tomorrow afternoon in Savannah. Mandi and I were looking up restaurants to go to. (You can tell who the foodies are.) I realized that there are too many restaurants and not enough meals! That can only make me happier. AND Mandi is bringing me cupcakes! I thought I had blogged about these cupcakes before but I can't find the entry so here is Mandi's entry about the famous cupcakes. Seriously, read her entry before you go any further.

I know, right? And we picked some up on the way home from Hive in October and they were worth the detour. Holy deliciousness!

Can't wait!

Hi-in'

Erin does a lot of "hi-in'" (hiding) lately. She goes somewhere like my closet or behind the bathroom door and says, "Mommy, hi-in'." I ask, "Erin, are you hiding?" She says, "Yah." I know it sort of defeats the purpose of announcing you are hiding while you are in your hiding place, but otherwise we would never know to look for her. :)

This morning she hid in my closet. I peeked in at her then I hid in another part of the closet. She thought that was pretty hilarious. She giggled while I said, "Where's Mommy?" and then came to find me with the biggest hug. It was so sweet.

These things are the reason we are talking about trying to have another child again soon. She has gotten so BIG the last month or so. She is no longer a baby. She is talking, playing, running, climbing, and wanting her own way.

At breakfast she said, "Dampin' makey does?" (Jumping Monkey joes?) She remembers a week ago when I took them up there to play. Just now she laughed at something Leah said and told her, "Funny." What a kid!

Triathlon bummer

I logged onto the tri website on January 5th (the day after they opened registration) and the race we wanted to participate in was already full.

And there went my triathlon hopes. Just like that.

Mike and I are still going to do a "triathlon" in our own neck of the woods. We plan to swim at our gym, then bike and run from there to get a time for ourselves. It doesn't matter now when we do it, so there is no particular date. Just a day that it isn't too cold would be good.

Because of this issue, we pondered briefly on the idea of trying to get pregnant in February. We would only have the one shot. That baby would be born in November. That would give us time to attend Brittany's wedding in January. If it didn't work, we would have to wait until at least June in order not to conflict with the wedding. And if we are already waiting until June, it may as well be July so we can enjoy our cruise witha clear conscience. So we are back at July again.

In other news, Mike & I decided to start Erin at Leah's school in February on Tue/Thurs. Chase started there today, so they would be in the same class. Then I would have time to spend one-on-one with each kid. And I know Leah needs it. She rarely gets time alone with me. It will be fun to do errands with just her since she is easier to handle.

I think that is all that is new with us.

Spending our New Year's at the Beech

Beech Mountain, that is. It was quite an... interesting trip, to say the least. The day we left, I had the doctor call in a more potent prescription for Erin because her ear infections symptoms were back. We got just a bit lost on the way to our resort (apparently the mapping websites do that a LOT), but made it in by dinner time. After a dose of the new medicine, Erin went to bed at a decent hour and slept til like 8:30am! It was a miracle!

Tuesday was lovely weather-wise. It was in the 50s and sunny. They were making snow on the slopes so we headed over to let the girls (and Mike) play.

My new hat-a present from my dad

Erin's adorable snow gear

It was warm enough to take jackets off. Isn't she lovely?

PawPaw helps Erin roll up her sleeves

The beginning of a snow ball fight

AND the end of it :)

That afternoon we took the kids swimming in the heated pool and played at the playground and hiked a bit through the local woods where Leah found a "treasure" (a golf ball). Mike went night skiing that night while the rest of us chilled in the condo. Erin decided she was done with sleep that night. I think her ear infection was NOT helped by the swimming, but we did not think of that in advance. I put her to bed at 7:20 and she was crying at 8, 8:40, 10, 10:30, and then about every 1/2 hour thereafter until 4am when Mike took over and of course she fell asleep for him. I was on the couch until about 8:15am.

The second day we woke up and it was freakin' COLD! I have never experienced weather in the teens, and there were winds gusting up to 50 mph too! Mike and I bundled up and headed to the slopes for my first real attempt at skiing. I went down the bunny slope several times no sweat.

Seriously that's how relaxed I looked on that slope. It was so much fun. So I decided I was good enough to hit the smallest slope at Beech. This was how I looked coming down.
A little bit more stressed, no? It was SO icy, I couldn't ski without skidding. The snow-making machines were blasting snow right in your face so you felt like you were in a blizzard. Mike said he had never seen the conditions so bad there. But I did enjoy it when I wasn't sliding out of control and smashing my elbow into the ice.

That afternoon Leah claimed she was interested in skiing so we decided to try her out. The skis were so tiny and adorable. Leah really loved Mike leading her around the bunny slope. Here are a few pics:




That night was more of the same from Erin. At about 4am, we decided that, we bad as we felt for Dad, Myrn, and Leah, Erin was crying it out. I think she got into the habit of us comforting her because we were trying to keep her quiet. Again Mike and I got about 3 hours sleep.

This afternoon, I said to Dad & Myrn jokingly, "So we were wondering what you would say if we told you we were dropping you off at home with the kids and going to a hotel room to sleep tonight."

Myrn said, "That's funny, we were wondering the same thing."

It was that kind of vacation. All Mike and I could think was that next July we would go on vacation without the kids. It will be, not a little, but a LARGE slice of heaven.

I know that Erin was probably hurting from the ear infection, which kept her from sleeping, which in turn made her SUPER cranky and cry about everything ALL the time. But even on a good day, she is getting harder and harder to take in public. She just has tantrums when she doesn't get her way and is not content to sit in strollers or carts unless she is eating, and even then only for a few minutes. My lifestyle may have to drastically change or she and I are going to battle it out EVERY day. Not too excited about that.

So on that note I bid you a Happy New Year. I plan on posting my goals for 2009 (thanks for the idea, Keri!) in the next few days so stay tuned.

Odds & Ends

I took Erin to the doctor yesterday because I did not want to have to bring her to the emergency room on Christmas if something was wrong. I am SO glad I did, because she has a double ear infection, poor thing. Mike kept telling me he thought she had one, but I didn't think so because she has never really had one before. Anyway, she is on amoxicillin now and will be back to her usual self by Christmas.

Last night I went with Mike for the first time to play volleyball at this church where they have pick up games every Tues/Thurs. Now I have not played volleyball in YEARS except to bump back and forth with Mike so I was quite nervous about how I would perform in front a bunch of strangers. But I actually did pretty well. Obviously I am not a hitter (no height, duh) BUT I can put a pass in the right place to set up a hit probably 8 out of 10 times. And all my serves went over. AND someone asked Mike who the college girl was that he brought. COLLEGE GIRL!!! No one would believe we were married. I guess I have not aged a day since I graduated, which is starting to be a good thing in my old (30 in 3 days) age.

Today I am cooking a Christmas eve early afternoon dinner, then the kids are going to open their presents from Grammy and their aunts, THEN we are going to take a ride and look at Christmas lights. What a lovely Christmas eve! I hope all of you have a lovely day too.

Oh my God, PLEASE stop the coughing!

My two girls are currently coughing fiends at night. They are in the middle of a raging cold and the drainage is awful. BOTH of them have coughing fits that last upwards of an hour at night. Thank goodness lately Leah's have been coming AFTER she wakes up in the morning, but Erin's came last night RIGHT after I had finally dropped off to sleep at 12:30. She cried and cried while coughing, so I went in and rocked her during which she promptly fell asleep. This happened 4 more times over a 2 hour period. Then when Leah wandered in at 7am, she laid in our bed and hacked up a lung for like 20 minutes. Over the monitor I could hear Erin start in too and all I could think was, Oh sweet Jesus, please save me from the coughing.

Sickie update

Yesterday, for a combination of reasons I won't get into too much right now, we went house hunting in northwest Charlotte. I picked Mike up at noon and we headed over there. We looked at 7 houses. Leah was great, she loved seeing other people's houses. But my poor, poor Erin. At about the 4th house, she was DONE! She had not napped yet (she only slept 5 minutes in the car) and I think she was starting to get a fever. By the time we got home at 4pm, her fever was 103.5 and she went straight to sleep. She woke up at 12:30 and 2:30 crying but went right back to sleep, thank goodness. This morning, no fever. She seems happy and is eating a little bit.

Ahhh, house hunting. We are still unsure of where to look because Mike is debating on taking a new job. If he takes said job, we don't have to move right now because it is closer to home. We could then wait until we had enough money to actually get a boat before we move. But if he doesn't take that job, he feels really strongly about moving us closer to the city so that he has more time with the girls. We shall see, I guess...