You Look Super Cool, Ben!

Matthew's mom took this picture at lunch today, where she was celebrating Matthew's birthday with him. Sometimes I feel sorry for kids today, with all the social media... hey, Ben says, take a picture of me with an orange in my mouth... and two minutes later it's up on Facebook for Mom to see and then snag for her blog....when he got off the school bus I asked him, "So what did you have for lunch today besides an orange?"

Score!

Ben scored 3 (or was it 4?) baskets for his team during their game on Sunday. Way to go Ben!! Here is one.

Puppy Kisses

More Craziness

We spent the weekend moving furniture around as per the stager's instructions. We got a Pod delivered to our driveway to store the furniture that the stager did not want in the house (kitchen butcher block, 2 arm chairs, guest bed/ night table) and got those removed from the house. (When the Pod came and Ben asked what it was for, I told him we were going to turn it into his bedroom. He might have actually believed me for about a tenth of a second). We also rearranged our bedroom furniture which ended up being rather aggravating because in order to rearrange it the way she wanted we had to disconnect the modem for the broadband phone/ internet access and also disconnect the DirecTV receiver in our bedroom. When we tried to relocate both pieces of equipment, neither one came back online. Not only did the DirecTV stop working in the bedroom, it stopped working throughout the entire house. So we are phone-less, TV-less, and technically internet-less (connected to a neighbor's network at the moment) until tomorrow when both DirecTV and Time Warner are scheduled to make house calls...

Joel and I met at the granite installation shop at lunch time and chose a granite color. Then I had to drive back home, eat lunch, feed the baby, go to the bank, then go back to the granite place with a 50% cash deposit. This ate up a couple hours of my day, but the good news is our granite will probably get installed on Wednesday. Besides getting the granite situation worked out, I packed 2 boxes of random kitchen stuff we never use to go in the Pod, but there is SO MUCH MORE TO DO!

Caroline - 6 weeks old

I wish daddy would wipe my chin after feeding me....

More Kitchen Pictures

A little messy still. But you can see some of our new lighting fixtures. A "before" picture, also.

Before...

After...

Somewhat After

Here is a shot in which you can see most of our new appliances, new paint color (previous was dark red which was not I repeat NOT a color we chose), and new cabinet hardware. The granite guy was just here measuring, and while I picked out a sink and a faucet and made a tentative granite choice, I could not commit without seeing a larger slab, so I think we will be taking a trip to the granite warehouse in the near future... You can not see our nifty new lighting fixtures in this shot, unfortunately. I'll try to get a separate shot of those after the sun goes down and I can get a good picture without too much glare through the kitchen windows...

Still working on the smiling thing

Total Chaos Day 2

Yesterday was beyond exhausting - I had gotten a poor night's sleep thanks to SOMEONE, and then found myself making 2 trips to Home Depot, a trip to Lowes and a trip to Wal-Mart in search of various things needed by the contractors... I had to return the ceiling fan/light I'd gotten for the great room because it wasn't the right type, had to find extra chain and wiring for the diningroom chandelier because there wasn't enough of it (this required trips to both Home Depot and Lowes because Home Depot did not have the right color), had to buy recessed lighting and then return recessed lighting in favor of alternate kitchen light fixtures after the contractor determined that it would be excessively expensive/ annoying to run new wiring in the kitchen to install the recessed lighting.... Caroline fortunately was an obliging errand partner and slept happily for much of the trips.

By the time the day was over yesterday I was exhausted and aching all over. Caroline fortunately had her longest stretch of sleep yet, from midnight to 5 am, which also has been my longest stretch of sleep since she was born :) I am still aching this morning, I guess I am kind of deconditioned from the whole c-section/lengthy recovery, and I have already had to return to Home Depot once this morning in search of screws for the drawer pulls we're putting in the kitchen, because the ones that came with them are too short. Hoping I will not have to make any other trips today.

Right now the kitchen lighting is getting finished up, the exterior of the house is being pressure washed, and there are still a few items left to do including staining our deck. We have our regular Wednesday house-cleaning crew coming this afternoon (I tried to reschedule them but they were booked for the rest of this week) as well as a guy to measure and give an estimate for granite counter tops in the kitchen, as well as our contractor neighbor who is coming over to (probably) finally put to bed the question of whether or not we can add a second story addition to this house (more than likely it would not be cost effective). So, another busy day continues...

Total Chaos

We've started the work on the house to get it ready to go on the market. The kitchen, laundry room and 2 bathrooms are being painted, new light fixtures hung in the kitchen, breakfast area, dining area, and foyer, a new ceiling fan/light in the great room, hardware is being put on all the kitchen cabinets, and new stainless steel appliances (refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and microwave) are being installed. And that's just what's happening TODAY.

Caroline @5 weeks

As If We Weren't Busy Enough

As if there's not enough going on in this household, it looks like we'll be putting our house on the market. We LOVE our house, the location above all, we just need MORE SPACE!! We met with a realtor over the weekend and a contractor earlier this week, and have a professional stager coming over tonight. So far what we're hearing is good -- we got a very low estimate for doing a bunch of necessary repairs/ painting/ pressure washing / deck staining/ recessed lighting installation / etc, etc. Besides those repairs we're looking at installing granite countertops in the kitchen and getting stainless steel appliances and replacing a few light fixtures. The granite installation also is cheaper than we expected, and hopefully we can find a deal on the appliances as well. After doing all of this and staging properly (the main challenges there I think are going to be pretending we have no baby or dog, and turning my office back into the dining room its supposed to be) the realtor thinks we can actually sell the house for more than we bought it for back in '07... that would be pretty awesome. We're aiming to go on the market March 1... we'll see how this all unfolds!

This is Sucky

I don't often post stuff about current events, but this one is awfully close to home.This murder occurred last Friday night at a restaurant that I have eaten at twice in the last couple of weeks, in a shopping center that I am at all the time (in fact I've been there twice since this happened). I have so many questions about how this could have happened - how could the restaurant have hired a guy who'd just gotten out of prison for armed robbery? How could the police not have known what address to go to? It is a very well known restaurant in a very well known shopping center, in this area. On a Friday night it would have been packed with people eating at restaurants, going to the movie theater there, etc - how does one murder someone and then drag her body out of the restaurant and dump it behind Chik-Fil-A with no one noticing? Such a tragedy.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/01/19/2938226/charge-coming-in-fetus-death.html

An MLK Day Lesson From a 4 Year Old

Yesterday Rebecca came home from preschool and told me about the King ("Not God, just a King") who had a dream that black people and white people could play together. "And then he got shot," she added. I redirected her slightly, reminding her that because of Martin Luther King, the dream eventually came true and now black people and white people can play together. She then began listing the names and skin colors of all of her friends -- unfortunately all white, so doing nothing to prove me correct.

Dentists & Doctors

Today was my first day back on Rebecca preschool drop-off duty. Joel is continuing for now to get up with Ben at 6:15 and get him to the bus stop at 7, but I'm now getting Rebecca up and off to preschool, and doing the afternoon pickup again.

I made this first morning particularly difficult for myself by having a dentist appointment scheduled for Rebecca at 8, and Caroline's 1 month checkup scheduled at 9. Caroline made this even more difficult for me by waking up for her 3:30 am feeding and deciding that instead of going back to sleep afterwards, she would fuss for two hours instead.

So in a haze of exhaustion I managed to get Rebecca and the baby out the door a couple minutes before 8 (fortunately the dentist and doctor are both 2 minutes away), though admittedly the only breakfast we had time for was goldfish crackers.

Rebecca does not like the dentist even a little, though she made a show of enthusiastically going back for her cleaning, and returning to the waiting room beaming and exuberant, though in between I could hear her screaming and crying. On very little sleep, listening to your daughter being tortured in the next room is hardly tolerable. Fortunately they managed to get the cleaning finished and she does not have any cavities, so I suppose it was relatively successful.

After the dentist we walked a couple of doors down to the pediatrician, where Rebecca was very very happy that it was Caroline's turn to get tortured and not hers. Caroline seems to be following closely in her brother's footsteps in terms of the growth curve, weighing in at 11 pounds 9 oz, and 23 inches long. This puts her above the 97th percentile for height, and right at about the 95th percentile for weight.

The one concern the pediatrician has is that she is favoring one side of her head, and is starting to get a flat spot. So our job for the next month is to get her to keep her head turned the other way as much as possible so she doesn't end up needing a helmet! So I am now making her turn her head to the left when she eats, and trying to turn her head to the side when she is sleeping, etc. Fun. She got one shot today, her second hepatitis B vaccine, which she did not enjoy.

I finally got Rebecca dropped off at preschool around 10, stopped at the grocery store, then went home and fell asleep for 2 hours, which Caroline obligingly allowed. (It was Clara who finally woke me up).

Caroline, please start sleeping better at night so we can make the morning routine a little easier for Mommy!!

Princess Shoes

Rebecca has been asking for "princess shoes" for weeks now so finally yesterday I took her to the Disney store and let her pick out a pair. She has been wearing them everywhere since - even on the basketball court....

Is This a Smile?

One Month Old Today

Football Obsessed

Not sure how it happened but Ben has become totally obsessed with football! He is turning into a walking encyclopedia of football stats.

Sleep Deprived

Caroline does this thing where she stays awake for way too long and then can't fall asleep. Wednesday was particularly bad, she was awake from about 7pm until after 1 am. By that time, let me tell you, Mommy was very cranky! I was considering driving her around in the car for a while, but I was so tired, I thought I might crash ;) The next day I went to BuyBuy Baby (like this store better than Babies R Us) and got the Boppy pillow pictured below as well as an infant carrier so I can carry her around against my chest, which she enoys/helps her to fall asleep. I also bought some extra pacifiers since whenever our cat sees one, he steals it and bites the nipple off. Weird cat.

Anyway, the last day or so has been a lot better, especially with the Boppy pillow which she enjoys sleeping on since I guess it feels to her like someone is holding her. In fact she's been sleeping on it for about the last 3 hours now. My theory is that if she naps better during the day, she'll sleep better at night also. I hope.

Caroline @ 4 weeks

Forms, Forms, Forms

It's that time of year again - tons of paperwork to fill out and registration deposits to make for summer camp for both kids, preschool next year for Rebecca, and now day care arrangements to think about for Caroline for when I go back to work in March, and even doggy day care for Clara!

Rebecca's situation is slightly aggravating because she misses the cut-off for starting Kindergarten in the fall by 25 days. So we assumed that she'd be able to register for Pre-K for next year, only to find out when the forms were sent home that the policy for Pre-K is that children must have completed a four-year-old preschool program. Although Rebecca turned 4 in September, due to the same cut-off issues, she's in a 3 year old preschool program this year. Joel spoke to our preschool's director and I filled out the application form for pre-K, but we're not optimistic that they will bend the rules to let her into that class. Joel and I would both strongly prefer that she be in the pre-K class next year and not the four year old class, since she'll be turning 5 in September and we wanted the extra year of preschool to have a more academic focus. We're paying 12 grand for it, we have that right don't we? It seems silly that she missed the cut-off to start Kindergarten by 25 days, and yet the preschool director says she is also too young to do pre-K? Grrrr.... anyway, we left it that the director will let her in if there's space available and if her current teachers agree she is ready for it. However she may have just said that so Joel would leave her alone :P We'll find out...

I have also visited a couple of day cares in the immediate vicinity, trying to decide where to put Caroline when I go back to work, since she won't be able to start at CJP until she is a year and a half old. The day care I sent Rebecca to as an infant has openings, but I was sort of lukewarm about them - nothing wrong with the place that I can put my finger on precisely, but a lot of staff turnover and some staff whose English is far less than fluent, etc.... Several people have recommended another day care, Lambs of Grace, to me, which I visited yesterday. It's run by Grace Lutheran Church across the street. It has the advantage of being cheaper than the other place, everyone I met spoke English :) and everyone I met had been there for at least a couple of years. I'm not sure what exactly is involved with the Lutheran connection, though I imagine when she switches to CJP at one and a half she won't have become too Jesus-loving yet by then ;) I have to put her on the wait-list for their infant room, and have not reviewed the application materials with Joel yet, but I think that is the direction we are leaning in.

Not to be left out of the action, Clara has an interview at a doggy day care on Saturday morning. It's a service that comes to the house and picks up your dog and takes them to a farm about an hour from here, then brings them back at the end of the day. Joel is driving her out there Saturday morning for this "interview". We are thinking of sending her maybe once a week, or once every other week. Before accepting her, they need to observe how she interacts with other dogs to make sure she is well-behaved.

In other non-day care related news, we have a realtor coming over tonight who specializes in selling homes in our development. I imagine her news will be that we cannot hope to sell our house for enough money to break even, but we'll see... will update later about that!

And now.... baby's crying.

Weekend Update

I spent the day Friday doing errands and probably overdid it a little because I was really tired and sore by the end of the day. I went to Target for some groceries (diapers, wipes, formula, etc) and also got a new GPS charger/ USB connector while I was there. Then I came home and finally updated the maps on my GPS (bit the bullet and bought the lifetime updates for $90). The whole process of downloading the map updates was not difficult, but time consuming, so I did some laundry while that was going on, and finally 2 hours later everything was finished updating.

Then I headed out to find the one boutique in Charlotte that sells the high-end dog food we've somehow ended up feeding our dog, though I understand there's a home-delivery service that is a little cheaper (and more convenient) so we will switch to using that after the 30 pound / $65 bag of dog food I bought runs out.... She really loves this dog food - duck and sweet potato flavor. I mean heck, I would almost eat that... Unfortunately I am not allowed to lift anything approaching a 30 pound bag of dog food yet, so I had to ask the only person working in the shop to carry it out to the car for me, and unfortunately this turned out to be a 60 year old woman who probably had to file a workman's comp claim after I made her get out a step ladder to haul the bag down from the top shelf and then carry it to the car for me.... but it's not my fault she apparently doesn't have a stock boy....

Yesterday (Saturday) we had super awesome weather, probably approaching 70 degrees though I did not actually check the temperature to confirm that. I took all 3 kids to Manhattan Bagel for breakfast so that Joel could get some work done on a research paper, and then we spent a long time out in the back yard - the baby and I sitting on the deck and Joel and the kids and the dog all had a good time playing catch / fetch. Clara has been so much better with the kids in the last week or two. Much calmer.

Anyway after playing outside for quite a while it was time for Ben's basketball practice, which we all went to together (his first game is today at 2). Like last year, he's a head taller than all his teammates except for one kid who is about his same height or a little shorter. After the basketball practice we came back home to change and then went over to our friends' house where the kids played outside for another hour or so before we all went out for pizza and then Pinkberry together. Like us they have 3 kids now (3 boys age 8, 5 and almost 4 months) so it was our first time with all 10 of us going out to dinner together, and I must say it was not any more chaotic than when we used to go out with them when there were just 8 of us... of course, the babies just sleep right now :)

When we got home Ben and Joel watched some of the Saints/Lions game and Rebecca fell asleep on our bed in her pjs and a bandana tied around her head like a pirate. It was super cute. She was out cold. I had the baby asleep in my lap, or else I would have tried to get a picture!

A good weekend so far.

Caroline @ 3 weeks

Caroline is 3 Weeks Old Today & Other Random Updates

This has been a really long 3 weeks. But I think finally I am starting to feel a little better. I started driving again yesterday -- just went out for about an hour to get some lunch/do an errand, but it was nice to get out. Today I have a lunch date with a friend, and am contemplating attempting an errand as well (taking my phone to the Verizon store, because it has not been receiving text messages in almost a week).

Joel has been doing all the kid-schlepping and dinner cooking, and I am slowly starting to be able to do some chores like dishes, laundry and errands, and helping with bedtimes again. It's just been a much slower recovery from the c-section than I expected, combined with major breastfeeding issues so that I've reluctantly decided to give up breastfeeding, because I cannot deal with sharp stabbing pains 24 hours a day (yes it hurts even when she is not nursing). So I am just pumping a couple times a day now to gradually decrease the milk supply.

Clara (yes we still have a dog, though she has not gotten very much attention lately at least not from me) turns 4 months old today - happy 4 month birthday Clara! Clara went to the vet yesterday for her final round of puppy shots, and as you may recall at her last vet appointment she got out of her seat belt harness and chewed through my GPS charger. Well yesterday Joel took her to the vet himself, and on the way home she got out of her seatbelt harness (definitely we are not doing something correctly with that) and tried to crawl underneath the driver's seat. Joel called me in a panic half way home to report that she was completely stuck underneath his seat and he could not get her out. After confirming that she was still breathing, I told him to drive the rest of the way home. Once he got here, I observed poor Clara with her nose sticking out from under the front of the driver's seat and her butt sticking out the rear, very firmly stuck. I instructed Joel to pull on her hindquarters while I pushed her head back gently through where it had gotten stuck, and we managed to get her out in just a minute. Definitely a two-person job though. She was not any worse for wear, fortunately.

Caroline (as mentioned 3 weeks old today) weighed in at 9 1/2 pounds on Monday, having gained a pound and a half since her discharge from the hospital, so I can only imagine that by her 1 month checkup on the 17th she'll be well over 10 pounds. She also seems to be very long, so I have a feeling we'll be saying goodbye to the 0-3 month clothes pretty soon already!!! She seems to be taking after her brother. She is a very content baby, as long as she is well-fed, well-fed meaning as long as she eats 4 ounces every 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Last night I tried giving her 5 ounces, which she happily ate, no spitting up mind you, and she slept for 4 hours after that. That's been her longest stretch of sleep in quite a while. So we may be going to 5 ounce feeds soon. That sounds like way too much, but oh well....

Those are all my updates. Ben and Becca are doing well and surprisingly seem rather unaffected by all the changes in the house lately. Ben starts basketball practices and games this weekend, so looking forward to that and just getting back into a decent routine now that we are a family of 5!

Thanks for the Fruit

That's a heck of a lot of fruit and nutella. Thanks Dad! (Definitely see a bath in the kids' future tonight).

Caroline Gets a Bath