big news all around

So.. Things in my life have been crazy as of late. Here’s why:

- My Daddy had a heart attack a couple of weeks ago. He is ok and doing better. He is eating better, exercising and taking care of hisself. It was the scariest thing ever. As a kid, you feel as though your parent’s are invincible and then as you get older, you realize how fragile life really is but at the same time, it is hard to let go of that notion that Parents and Grandparents should be immortal!

- My Mama is having some medical trouble as well. I’m confident that everything will be ok as long as she takes care of herself and goes to her doctor appointments. If you pray, could you please say a prayer for her? If you don’t, you could send some happy vibes our way.. Either way, we need some good karma and positive thinking send towards our family!

- I am PREGNANT! Crazy, I know! Hah. I just found out recently and I am due February 25, 2011, which means I am only about 4 weeks along. I wont get to see my OB until July 23rd, which seems soooo far away. It is my first time seeing this guy and I can’t wait to meet him.. I’ve heard amazing things about him! I wish there was some way to fast forward through the first trimester. Between worrying about miscarriage and baby’s health and the nausea and exhaustion.. It really isn’t a pretty time at all!

I’m gonna try to get back into the bloggy swing of things here. I’ve been such a slacker lately. I have a 14 month old little girl to blame THAT on. Describing her as a hand full would be an understatement at times ;)

I need to get back into the swing. We’ve been out of town for the last two weekends. A series of events has made those trips VERY stressful! We are all ready to have a weekend at home, chilled out and having some nice family time. It is supposed to be hot and sunny, so I am seeing some swimming fun in our near future. Here are some quick updates from my absence:

• Zoey is starting to RUN. Well, “baby run” that is. In the last 24 hours, she has become WAY TOO CONFIDENT FOR HER OWN GOOD. It stresses this Mama out beyond belief. She is everywhere!
• Grandma taught Zoey to say “uh oh” over the weekend and she says it in the proper context now. It is adorable when she drops something, falls down or purposely throws something and then says “Uh oh!”.. Melts my heart!
• She mimics you when you sneeze by making a “shhppfffhggfffshhhh” sound from her mouth. It is adorable too. Did I mention that I think every single thing she does is adorable? Even pooping, yes!
• My right foot is acting up bad. It is tingly and achey. I’m guessing a pinched nerve in my leg or spine. Sucks! I need to see a doctor but I keep putting it off.
• Summer is here! It is consistently 90-95 degrees here every day. Yowza. My body is still trying to adjust to sweating every time I step a foot outside.
• Zoey LOVES red grapes. I am scared to DEATH of choking, so I cut each grape into TWELVTHS. No, I am not even kidding! I cut a grape in half and then cut each half into sixths. Yes, I am overly paranoid. So what! Grapes are on the top list of choking hazards for kids/babies. Don’t judge me!

Well, my little peanut should be waking from her nap soon. Better go get her lunch ready. After lunch I think we are gonna throw a suit on and go outside for some pool fun.

I’ve been terribly ill all weekend. It has gotten progressively worse and today I finally went to see the doc. I got a prescription for an anti-biotic to help kick this bad sinus infection to the curb. My husband kindly stayed home and took care of our peanut while I pretty much slept the whole day away. He is the best! After we got around this evening, I was feeling a bit better and we decided to head out for some dinner. We hit up the Souper Salad, which was actually pretty delicious tonight! The little peanut decided to show off her new Walking Skillz while we were there.

Working full time this week has been a major adjustment. It has been nice to take Zoey with me and I have a lot of fun but it is equally physically and mentally exhausting! My house looks TERRIBLE and tonight is only the first night this week that I have made a REAL dinner (Spaghetti! Yum.)! Ack. Looks like someone will be hired by tomorrow and I wont be working Tuesdays & Thursdays anymore. I’ll be subbing though, for whenever they need a day off or some time off. Anyway, that is my big fat excuse for lack of posts and pictures. Now, to catch up a little…

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The Milk Saga
A couple of nights ago I poured myself a glass of milk. I was having one of those REALLY strong cravings for a glass of ice cold milk. I started gulping as fast as I could when it hit me that I was drinking VERY rotten milk. I stopped and drank something else, brushed my teeth and held myself. I could not believe what I had just tasted. The most RANCID milk ever!! And I didn’t just take a sip, I GULPED it down.

Last night I went to the store and bought 2 more 1/2 gallons (we buy them in 1/2 gallons, they seem to last longer for us, SEEM being the key word here, people!) and a container of No Sugar Added Chocolate Nesquik. I was really jonesin’ for some chocolatey milk. Tonight I poured myself a HUGE glass of milk and added an embarassingly large amount of Nesquik powder to my cup and stirred it up nice ‘n good. I’m sure you know where this is going, right??

I took a VERY large, long gulp and I thought.. this is NOT tasting right at all. I think I said “What the hell??” and Gene said “What?” and I said “This No Sugar Added Nesquik is TERRIBLE! I should have just gotten the regular one.” and right then and there, it hit me, this wasn’t an awful taste created by drinking a healthier alternative. No, this was MUCH worse. I got the milk from the fridge and poured a tiny bit in a cup, a test cup if you will. I drank a sip and seriously felt like I was going to vomit!! It was DISGUSTING. It smelled fine though and it was not your normal rancid milk taste. It was something much worse and I still have no idea WHAT, but you’ll just have to trust me on this one. Gene braved it and tasted it (just to make sure I wasn’t crazy) and he spit it out.

I called the store and now I have to take my milk back and exchange it. I’ll be getting a different brand next time. And yes, I check expiration dates. What the heck?!?!?! All I’ve wanted ALL week long is a tall glass of ICE COLD MILK. REGULAR TASTING MILK!! Why is that so much to ask for?? I am almost to the point where I’m scared to ever drink milk again. And that is some real, life altering stuff right there.

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The Not Sleeping In Pack n Play Saga
Ok the title of this little diddy pretty much sums it all up. Apparently my kid is not fond of sleeping in pack n plays or in strange places. Getting her to nap at day care this week has been an EPIC battle with several EPIC FAILS. Monday and Tuesday were pretty much The Days From Hell. I cannot imagine worse days, honestly! I’m talking no napping, lots of whining, lots of crying and unbearable amounts of SCREAMING. My poor kid was so tired from the lack of naps that we were enduring 30-45 minute screamfests that resulted in a very red-faced, hoarse voiced one year old. Can you imagine??? Sure you can, you probably have dealt with this before. But if it’s not fresh in your mind you probably can’t even IMAGINE the magnitude of The Suck right now.

But guess what? Yesterday and Today she took a one hour nap at day care and our lives have GREATLY improved. My kid figured out the whole Napping Elsewhere and Napping In Pack N Plays thing out two days BEFORE OUR LAST DAY DOING THIS GIG. It’s Epic, I tell you.

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The Astro Saga
Ok so, I never wrote about Astro. I haven’t had it in my heart to, yet. I’ve been wanting to and it looms over my head every week or so and then I push it to the back of my mind. Astro, our beloved Great Dane became very depressed when I brought Zoey home from the hospital. He was our baby and when he was no longer our baby, he decided that life pretty much sucked. It took me many months and lots of crying to come to the conclusion that we just needed to find him a new home, where he can get all of the attention he needed and deserved. He was a LOT more high maintenance than our other dog, Emma.

So anyway, I went through a grueling 2 weeks of finding him a new home. He went to several new homes before we found the PERFECT home for him! Yes, I was very dedicated to finding him the RIGHT place to go. I wanted to know he was well cared for. I have raised him since he was 5 weeks old and I wasn’t going to just let my baby boy go. I loved him so much and I STILL love him!

So the couple adopted him in early November. They stayed in touch via e-mail and absolutely LOVED him. Their whole family fell in love with him and they were as happy as can be. Well, the guy e-mailed me a couple of nights ago telling me that they had to put Astro to sleep. He said he had tumors in his intestines. I bawled my eyes out when I read the e-mail. The guy was asking me if I had known about this illness and I guess he thought I purposefully adopted him a dog that was sick?? I understand people do that but I would have NEVER done that. I told him EVERYTHING about Astro when he picked him up and I even had his vet records waiting for the guy to pick up afterwards but he never came by.

I replied, gave the guy my vet’s information and told him I would get his records or he could call himself. I explained that I had NO idea he was sick and never showed any signs that I knew of! He replied saying he was sorry to upset me and that he trusts me but that he just had to ask. He explained to me that he took Astro home and burried him in their back yard, they had a headstone and a cross over his grave. He said they will never be able to replace Astro because Astro had his own personality and seemed so human-like. Their family is devastated. I bawled when I read his e-mail but I felt a sense of relief. A sense of relief in knowing that this family LOVED Astro as much as we did. I’ve been on the brink of tears for the last few days. My heart feels a little broken. I feel sad knowing that Astro is no longer in this world. He e-mailed me a few pictures off of his phone that he had taken of Astro. So sweet and so kind.

Today was the first day this week (since Monday, anyway) that it was just me and my girl, hanging out. I could not get myself motivated this morning so this afternoon I threw some clothes on us and we went to the store to walk around. She was looking So 80’s and I just had to get a snapshot of her outfit.

We were only in the store for less than an hour but when I put Zoey in her car seat to leave, she was acting whiney and fussy. Luckily, I know better than to leave the house without a sippy cup of milk so I handed her the cup and she was a happy camper after that.

On my way to Sonic happy hour I looked in the rear view mirror only to find that her Cool 80’s Headband had fallen down over her eyes. She was turning her head from side to side and when I looked back up after a few seconds, she had given up and fallen asleep! Hah. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that but by time I got to Sonic, she was awake again! I reached back while I was in the drive-thru and lifted the headband up. She started cracking up laughing. She’s got a sense of humor, that girl.

And one of the best things about summer, besides cute headbands, capri tights and sleeveless shirts is…. SONIC HAPPY HOUR!!

There is something SO satisfying about looking at your phone to check the time while you are out running errands, only to find that you still have time to make a mad dash to Sonic for a happy hour drink! I wont lie, sometimes I plan my outings around Sonic happy hour! More times than not though, I just get lucky. On the flip side, there is not many things worse than looking down at your phone to see it is 1:30 or 4:15 (Happy Hour is from 2PM-4PM, 1/2 price drinks and slushes!). The sinking feeling you get in your heart is something you wont ever forget!

I love my little girl and I feel so fortunate to spend days like these with her. She makes me smile on a daily basis and I can’t remember what my life was like before she entered it. She has turned Gene and I’s world upside down, in a good way.

Today, May 6, 2010 marks the day that Zoey threw her first tantrum. It wasn’t over a toy, a remote control, a gigantic glass of diet coke or my cell phone. Nope, it was simply over… nothing. Yes, NOTHING. She awoke from her nap crying, I picked her up out of her crib and brought her into the living room. The smell wafting from her cute little tooshie was not that of fresh cut roses, so I grabbed a diaper and decided to do a quick diaper change.

She throws a fit when you change her diaper so I figured if she was already throwing a fit then it could not get any worse. Did you read that last part correctly??? I assumed that a child throwing a fit could not get any worse. All of you experienced Mamas that have toddlers can stop throwing rotten vegetables at me now!! I realize my mistake! I know it can get worse. It can ALWAYS get worse! I promise not to break the Mother Code ever again. Pinky swear, even!

As you can imagine by now.. It got worse. She started arching her back. Kicking frantically. Thrashing around. Hitting things. I handed her things (a pajama shirt, pair of shorts, drink coaster, toy, ball, sock, clean diaper, sunglasses and then I began to get desperate so I tried a CELL PHONE, REMOTE CONTROL, MY SOUL) to occupy her and she just threw them away. She cried and the crying turned to screams. She choked and coughed on her own saliva. Her voice (or SCREAMING, I should say) started to become hoarse. I tried comforting her and she would not have any of it. Finally, I got fed up and put her back into her crib with her paci and she was out for another 1 1/2 hours.

This daycare thing is throwing her for a loop. Her daily nap and eating schedule has changed quite a bit. She has so much fun at daycare and is such a good girl but she just does not nap there. The most I got out of her today was about 45 minutes, so by time we left she was absolutely exhausted! She threw a fit yesterday evening after we got home from daycare but it was nothing compared to this evening’s show that she put on! Phew. She also threw another fit right before bed. Poor baby!

Tomorrow we are taking naps, eating on schedule and we might run a few errands if we are feeling up to it. Being a kid is HARD work, ya know?

The blogging wagon, that is. Got busy there for a few days and just didn’t have the time or energy to update.

Zoey and I went to Target on Monday and spent a good chunk of our time there. We shopped around and had lunch with Grandma. I think I wore my poor peanut out because this was the scene as we walked out to the car Monday afternoon:

I started a temporary part time job on Tuesday. I forgot to mention that before, didn’t I? Well, I am helping a friend out part time (2 days a week) at her in-home daycare for the month of May. After that I will just sub for her whenever she needs me. The great part is that I can take Zoey with me! I love that she is getting some good socialization out of the deal and I absolutely love hanging out with all of the little kids! Children are amazing human beings and so much fun to take care of and play with.

So uh, needless to say I have been pretty busy. I’ll get back on the wagon as soon as possible, I promise :) Cross my heart!