Really, really tired..

It has been easier bringing Lexi home than it was with Rafe. Mostly bc the big 3 are older. Addy wasn't walking yet when we bright Rafe home. Still, things are far from easy. I'm extremely tired. Lexi caught the kids' cold and slept almost zero last night. It's hard to find the time to do everything and make sure I give each kid the attention they need. Rest, routine, enrichment, and cleaning is a balancing act I do not at all have perfected. I guess lucky for me I get to try again evey day. Today I played checkers w Gabi during nap time, although I really needed a nap myself she needed mommy time more.

Tuesday Laundry?

Doing laundry on a Tuesday for me means only one thing: I'm a day behind. By yesterday morning all 3 big kids were fighting cold, so there was a LOT of screaming and fussing and fighting yesterday. I didn't even get laundry sorted much less started. In fact, Rafe was so upset after one tine out that he picked up a barbie car and threw it on Lexi's head!!! I was very upset. She cried some, but otherwise seemed to be okay. Today, they seem to be feeling better. The fighting isn't nearly as bad, and they are running around in Halloween costumes. Tomorrow Mitch's pay shows up in our account, so for a few fleeting seconds I'll feel euphoria and not overwhelmed with all the overtime. If only I was kidding!!

Pics went well! We pick up the cd on Friday. Rafe was a bit timid with Santa at first, but ended up asking for a soccer ball. Addy hoped up first and immediate started grilling him, asking ginn something about "why didn't you something our stockings." She just asked for a present-easy enough. Gabi was excited but got a little flustered. She asked for a binki, then said she got a doll for her bday, accidentally told him the baby's name was "binki baby," amid the excitement, then corrected herself and told him it's Bitty Baby--it was so cute.

I am a little bummed bc after pics Mitch bought himself a new $450+ ps3 bundle. I feel like he got rid of his old ps3 and tv just to upgrade to newer much more expensive ones. I don't like tv, and I loathe cable and video games. It's just like what is the opportunity cost?!? What other (productive) things could you be doing??? Sigh. Especially since he wants to take 13hrs this semester. We need less distraction not more. All I can do now is surrender. As my mom wisely noted, "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?"

Speaking of happiness, it's been 7 years this dec since I left Carroll. 7 years since I've seen essentially everyone I went to school with excerpt for maybe 10 people. Kinda crazy. I doubt I'll ever see most of them again, which is good and bad, depending on who we r talking about lol. Equally crazy is how many KMC ppl I do still see. Did Mitch have closer friendships than me? Idk. Maybe?

I'm just about done Christmas shopping. Totally stumped on my parents and grandparents... Stockings are coming along nicely.

The shitter's full

It's 10am, I just finished changing my 5th poopy diaper of the day (this only includes the ones after 630am, because I don't recall how many I changed through the night), and I've been COMPLETELY out of wipes since the last middle-of-the-night-poopy. Mitch is at work, and Rafe and Addy woke up sounding congested and sneezing, so there's nooo wayyyy I'm taking them to the store. Btw this is also picture day. To quote Christmas Vacation, "The shitter's full." Thankfully the dresses are steamed and Rafe's shirt is ironed. Everyone needs fed, bathed, and a nap before 4:30. Wish me luck!

FRIDAY!

I shouldn't be that excited bc Mitch works both days this weekend, BUT I'm glad because Aunt Alli came over this morning! All week she's been planning on taking Addy to the Nifty Nuthouse. She's got a ton of Christmas gifts to buy. They left about 15 minutes ago, and Gabi is STILL crying that she didn't get to go. She's known all week only Addy was going. I know she's disappointed, but I don't feel bad. It's good for the wolf pack to be seperated every once in awhile and to be out in the world without their safety net. I laugh, but it's very apparent that they are becoming more of a wolf pack every day. Without meaning to, they intimidate other kids because they do "roll four deep" and have such a rapport among themselves. I'd be intimidated if I was facing them alone as a small child! A friend visited over Thanksgiving and Rafe told my friend he was going to throw HER in the trash, and Addy immediately followed that up with, "and I'm spraying my [spider girl] webs on both of them." Not quite acceptable in society! :-/

Yesterday the big girls and I got our teeth cleaned. It was Addy's first time. I wasn't sure of how she'd do, especially after getting scoped earlier in the week, but Jodi is an AWESOME hygenist, and Addy did fantastic. She did better than Gabi actually, who refused to have bitewing xrays because she thought she might sneeze and bite her cheek... Anyway, when we made our 6mo appts it was just 2 days before Addy's 4th bday! Hard to believe!!

Erin, I DO have lots of baptism pics! I need to find time and figure out how I'm going to post them. The one good thing about FB is that I could put it to where only "friends" could see my pics. I hate to have them all "out there." I saw an alpaca farm article in the Eagle a few days ago and thought of you ;)

Pottery Barn made me very happy on Cyber Monday. I've never bought anything from PB before, but I LOVE their style and could live in a PB magazine and be completely happy. Anyway, there is this duvet cover I've wanted for over a year. I first saw it last fall. It's a wintery duvet cover with snow covered branches, berries, and cardinals. So beautiful, and so something I would love. On Cyber Monday I bought it. Got it on sale AND got free shipping. The shams arrived a few days later, but my cover was supposed to be on backorder until Jan 6th. I got it last week. YAY! I love it--and can't wait for Mitch to give it to me on Christmas hahaha.

Amazon also made me really happy! I always buy diapers from there, and bought some for a potty-training-in-progress Rafe last week. When they arrived only 2/3rds of the diapers were in the box! They sent out another 222 diapers and said to keep the rest. HOLLA. Hopefully those are the last diapers I need for Mr. Rafe!

This is such a random post. I'm missing FB today because The Office last night was sooo funny and I really wish I was quoting it to AMANDA!

Lexi is doing good. Quickly getting chubby cheeks! She was 3wks yesterday! It goes so fast. She holds her neck up really well, and is hitting those 1mo milestones like a champ. I swear she already knowingly smiles at me. That or she just smiles A LOT.

I still have so much to do for Christmas. The biggest things are 1)stockings 2)finish my super duper special heirloom bears!!!!

El Fin.

From phone

ENT was good. Like the dr. He did scope her. She sat on my lap, and I held her head. My mom went with us and held her hands. She did good, but having a camera go down your nose into your throat can't be comfortable. Thankfully anatomically looked fine. The dr didn't see any nodules and vocal cords looked good. At the bottom of the vocal cords there are two things the dr described s joints. They were red. He said her hoarseness is from either a residual cold or reflux. She came home from nicu on two reflux meds. He decided to put her on prevacid for a month to see if that helps. If not he'll do a barium swallow study to c if she is refluxing. Overall good news. I figured it would either be reflux or damage from being intubated for so long. We got frostys on the way home :-)

Dec!

If you're going to judge me based on how my bathroom looks, please do it today! :) We're leaving for Addy's appt in 2 hours. I'm hoping they don't have to scope her because I know she will NOT like that!