House update

We have been out of our house and living in a rental house for about a month now. At this point we have two more months to go and we are a little worried that things have not progressed further in our house.

To start off the project our city wouldn't approve the permit because the neighbor in back of us has flooding issues in his backyard. Before they could approve, the city wanted to see a plan of where our contractor was going to put gutter downspouts in the back of the house, wanted the contractor to scope out the sewer line from the house to the street, and to send letters to all of our neighbors letting them know of the construction. When we finally got that squared away, our contractor still had to wait five days to start work because I guess it takes time to process the paperwork. GRRRRRR.

Demo of the existing rooms was easy. 

Kitchen before and after:

Sunroom before and after:

First floor partial bath before and after:

Basement before and after (we had them take down a dark room which was just taking up space):

And finally, the upstairs bathroom before and after:

Since the demo pictures were taken the sunroom has now been taken down entirely. The "foundation" for the room was not even a slab, simply a perimeter of concrete with sand in the middle. No wonder it was so distinctly different in temperature than the other rooms!

The contractor was hoping to dig the new basement and dig the couple feet behind the kitchen, but unfortunately the rain we have been getting here in Chicago is not helping. It is supposed to rain all weekend long but then dry out next week so fingers crossed that happens so that the digging, concrete pouring, framing, etc. can all happen. We are certainly not planning on staying in our rental past June 30th but things need to speed up so that we are not moving back into a total disaster!!

Work stuff

Last night I got home from a quick work trip to DC and I was happy to be home. I did enjoy getting away from the kids for two nights, but was sad that I got home too late to see them before they went to bed. I only Facetimed with them once while I was gone so I was hard core missing them. I gave out a lot of kisses and hugs this morning after everyone woke up. :-)

While I was gone, CP had a phone call with the HR person at the company that reached out to him. While he doesn't have enough managerial experience on his resume for the job they originally touched base about (mainly because his current company made him a supervisor almost a year ago and has yet to place any employees under him), there is a new job that is opening that may be an even better fit. It would only be 10-15% travel (his current job is supposed to be 25-30% but it is much more) and more money. Also, the person that could be his manager is new to the position so when CP talks to him tomorrow on the phone, he can give suggestions on what the job could look like. (How cool would that be- to be able to craft your job!)

So now my fingers are crossed that this is going to be a good fit for CP. His commute would get shorter, he would get paid more, and he would travel less. Our lives could be more consistent and both the kids and I would be happier if CP was traveling less. CP also wants to be around more so hopefully this is a win-win for everyone!

Wes is 9 months old!

Nine months

Happy Wes!

Height- 2 ft 5.25 in (83%)

Weight- 22 lb 2 oz (86%)

Working on standing

Diapers- Just moving Wes into Size 4 diapers during the day, Size 4 nighttime diaper

Milestones- Wes still likes to army crawl instead of knee crawl, but this month he got faster at it. He also learned how to sit up from a crawl position. Izzy was standing like a boss by 9 months...Wes seems more timid and holds onto our hands very tightly when he is standing like his life depends on it. He does his best to pull up on shorter items such as Izzy's stool but isn't quite comfortable on his knees yet.

Trying to stand using his walker

Language- Wesley responds to the milk, eat, more, and all done signs. I don't see him really doing the signs which is frustrating but hopefully he starts soon.

Enjoying some rice noodles

Sleep- My second rockstar sleeper is generally in bed by 7:30 and can sleep until 7am (but generally gets up by 6:30am). He takes long naps on the weekends but doesn't nap as long at daycare (probably because it is louder there).

Clothes- 12 month clothes

Sitting tall in the shopping cart

Eating- Now that I am no longer nursing, Wes drinks two 4oz bottles (in the morning and night) and then 3 six oz bottles during the day. I had just enough frozen milk to eek past his 9 month birthday. We still have yet to find something that Wes doesn't like to eat. This month we introduced things like pureed green beans, rice, steak, and black beans.

Getting messy with avocado

Teeth- Wes had a tooth explosion this month! In addition to his two bottom teeth he amazing got four top teeth in- seemingly all at the same time!! He had a lot of trouble sleeping one night this month and I ended up sleeping upright on the couch with him on my chest so that both of us could get some sleep. He is now in the habit of grinding his teeth together which is a terrible sound that makes me cringe. Looking forward to the end of the grinding phase.

Tooth explosion

Likes- Grinding his teeth, eating everything in sight, watching and giggling at Izzy, kicking or splashing in the bath, pulling Mommy's hair and Daddy's goatee, flap books or books that have different textures, pulling up on Izzy's stools, hitting two toys together

Scrunchy face means Wes is happy

Illness- Another cold. Hopefully with the warmer weather coming he can be germ free for a while!

Misc- First visit to see the Easter Bunny!

No one seems happy in this picture

Excited about their bunnies made out of their hospital blankets

Relaxation

As we get settled into our routine at the rental house, I have been able to relax a bit. I do feel guilty that we have even less time together as a family because we sit down to dinner later and only have a few minutes to play before starting bed time routines, but we only have 2.5 more months of the longer commute.

You know what is not relaxing though? Having your town hold up approval for the construction on your house! We have wasted two weeks waiting for the approval. Thankfully, it finally came and demo starts tomorrow. We are crossing our fingers that the time can be made up elsewhere because the more time they are behind, the more time we will be without a working kitchen after moving back in.

Last week I decided that with CP away in North Carolina, I would use one of my birthday presents and finally book myself a massage and facial on Saturday. I was all set to relax when I got to the spa and realized that my period was going haywire and that I had bled onto my underwear and the crotch of my pants. Awesome. So while I was able to relax and enjoy myself, in the back of my mind I was worried that I would get blood on the sheets (I didn't thank god). 

On a similar topic, I am soooo done with the mini pill and two to three periods I was getting each month. Now that I am not nursing I am going to switch to a pill where I only get a period every three months to see how that goes. The fact that my periods are super heavy again makes me wonder if my fibroid has grown? If the new pill doesn't work then I will try an IUD to see if that helps. 

Back to relaxation...also last week Jess contacted me because she wanted to send me Jenny Lawson's coloring book "You are Here." During a time when she is supposed to be taking care of herself, she thinks of someone else who is stressed which was so amazing to me. I looked through the amazing drawings and can't wait to start coloring. Maybe the relaxation will help me fall asleep faster at night? 

Finally, this pertains to possibly more relaxation in the future. Yesterday, CP got a message via LinkedIn from another company in the area about a potential opportunity. First of all, I am so jealous that this is the second time he has had someone contact him via LinkedIn about a job prospect. I am clearly in the wrong field! He is open to talking about the opportunity but if it is what he thinks it is? It would mean basically no travel which would make our hectic lives less hectic. So I am crossing my fingers that this is something worth pursuing so that he could be around more. It would also shorten his commute!

Women will save the world

Yesterday on my walk to my train after work I was listening to the latest "Pod Save America" podcast where the hosts were talking about the fighting between Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner. News reports surfaced that President Trump had to sit them down to scold them like the kids they all are to try to stop the bickering. While listening, something struck me. Tommy Vietor (one of the hosts) mentioned the fact that Trump had to hold this meeting was ridiculous because they all have important jobs and how the fighting will eventually lead to a disaster. My immediate thought was that maybe if we had more women in the White House this wouldn't be an issue? There is something with getting a bunch of men together with dicks, testosterone, and power that leads to puffing of chests, power grabbing, and just trying to outdo one another. 

I'm not saying this happens all the time, but I have certainly seen this happen before. In a previous job, I was working for a male manager who felt the need to continually fight with another male manager in the company. The fighting got so bad between them because neither would back down, that we went past a deadline to have contracts in place for a disaster before hurricane season started. So if there happened to be an early season hurricane that year, we would have been sh*t out of luck and wouldn't have been prepared. All of this literally because they wouldn't work together and instead wanted to play 'who has the bigger ego.' Instead of thinking about the big picture and the actual people that their fighting would impact, they fought instead.

Then today, North Korea is saying that they are ready to go to war and that Trump's tweets are not helping matters. Trump is trying to show how powerful he is by dropping the largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan- a bomb that cost $16 MILLION DOLLARS- that only killed 36 ISIS fighters. You can't tell me that dropping that bomb had nothing to do with Trump's ego.

I am terrified that with all of these man-children in power right now, including our own President and in North Korea, that we will soon have World War III simply because of testosterone. I'm heartened by the fact that so many women are running for office these days but we need to hurry and get a lot more into office- and quickly before we no longer have a world. 

What do you think? I ran across this article recently by a former secretary of defense and Harvard professor about how we would have a more peaceful world if women were in charge. What are we waiting for?

Learning about infertility early

Last week our niece (who is only 15) got terrible news. She has been having some health problems and went to get testing done. She has since been diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Failure. She did go through puberty so that is a plus but will likely be on hormone replacement until she hits menopause. She does have some eggs so they are looking into retrieving the eggs that she does have to freeze them, but they are on Tricare (military health insurance) and they have no idea if it is covered. Our niece also has to go through some more testing to see if she has an autoimmune deficiency like Raynaud's or Addison's disease as they can be a cause of POF.

I emailed my SIL to let her know that we are thinking of our niece and to let her know that we are here to answer any questions she may have about the egg retrieval process, the drugs, etc. if they go down that route. CP didn't tell his sister that we went through IVF to have Izzy so I gave her a short rundown of my infertility issues (without going into CP's since it didn't matter) and also mentioned that if our niece has questions down the line about IUIs, IVF, etc. that I'm here to answer them. My SIL wrote back that she put pieces together that we had used IVF for Izzy as she has had plenty of friends go through the process.

The good news is that they caught this early and can possibly freeze her eggs for later in life. But what terrible news for a 15 year old. She should be worried about boys, learning how to drive, getting into the school play, etc. not worrying about her fertility or her ability to one day have a child. I'm not sure how else to help as they are in CO and I don't know what else I can do from afar.

Day in the Life- Spring 2017 edition

Day in the Life- Spring 2017 edition

Want to participate? You have until April 21st to document your day in the life! See details here. Thanks again for hosting Julia! 

CP is 40 years old

NSC is 38 years old

Izzy is almost 3.5 years old

Wes is almost 9 months old

Buster just turned 6 years old

Tuesday, April 11th. CP is away for work so I am solo parenting all week.

Ugh. I had a terrible sleep last night- up at 12:10am, 2am, 3am, and again at 5:26am- only four minutes before my alarm went off. At 2am I couldn't breathe out of my nose because I was so stuffed up so I went to the bathroom and propped my pillow up a bit to see if that would help. When I woke up at 3am I told myself that I wouldn't go into work today despite the meeting that I was chairing this afternoon.

5:30am- Alarm goes off and I'm somewhat awake. I'm also not that stuffy so I decide not to waste a day off and go into the office. I know that I am going to be tired though. I dilly dally until finally getting out of bed at 5:39. I use the bathroom, put my contacts in, shower, and then get dressed. I take some expired (10/16) daytime cold meds in hopes that it makes me feel a bit better at work. I put a pair of black pants on but decide they are a little tight so I change to a different pair.

I head into the kitchen a little after 6 to let Buster out, feed him, label Wes' bottles for daycare, eat a banana, and start to put my lunch into tupperware. At 6:15 I hear Izzy's alarm go off and like a big girl she gets out of bed to turn it off. Somehow instead of opening the door she closes it so she starts crying. I leave what I am doing to go save her. She follows me into the kitchen asking to get picked up but I am in the middle of filling up Buster's water jug. I pick her up when I am done and tell her that she can take her milk and small cup of cheerios into her room while she is getting dressed. Today is tutu day so she is pretty excited. She ends up wanting help getting her clothes on so we put on her sleeveless fruit dress (it's going to be a high of 52 but this is what she wants), leggings, and a tutu. I take a picture to send CP and then she wants me to take a few pictures of her twirling in her tutu.

I grab Wes' milk and head to his room with Izzy. He gets changed then I start to feed him his bottle. In the middle he poops so we get up to change him again while Izzy dances and sings around the room. He is more interested in watching Izzy and not the bottle after the change, so I give up on feeding him. We let Buster out one last time before leaving the house at 7:03 (which means I am going to be late in work today).

During our 15 minute drive from the rental house to daycare, I have NPR in the background talking about Russia, Wes making adorable sounds, and Izzy talking to me. I decide to make it DITL day. I sort of feel like I am going to puke and think that is from the expired cold meds I took this morning. I yawn, which makes Izzy ask "Mommy is you sleepy?" When I reply that I am Izzy says, "You can sleep at nighttime." She gets offended when I tell her that I might sleep on the train this morning. "No you only sleep in your bed!" After that she asks how to pell (spell) Daddy's name. She doesn't want to hear how to spell anyone else's name though. "Please top (stop) that!" It's a phrase we hear often these days. 

We arrive at daycare and Izzy grabs a cracker. I drop her off at her class and give her a hug goodbye. I take Wes to his room where I lift him over my head a few times to make him giggle. I give him a kiss goodbye and grab a toy for him to play with. As I am leaving his teacher is giving him a big hug. Since I missed my usual train, I walk over to the train station and use the bathroom. In the mirror I notice big bags under my eyes- nice.

7:49- train arrives and I don't get an inside seat. The woman next to me has her leg crossed in my space and seems overall mad that I sat with her which is annoying. Since I'm not on the inside I decide not to sleep (although I really, really want to) because she may need to get up at an earlier stop. Instead I browse Facebook which listening to the "Lovett or Leave It" podcast.

The train arrives and I walk to work, making it in by 8:40. I turn on my computer, answer a few fast emails and then decide to make some oatmeal. I add raisins and brown sugar and fill up my water bottle as well. I go to the bathroom and feel totally unmotivated for the day. I do some more work before making some Hot Cinnamon Spice tea for my throat and for the caffeine. I still feel unmotivated. I do some work before commenting on a few blogs. I look at my to-do list and decide that I am going to get one of my employees who doesn't seem very busy right now to do one of the items for me (the perk of being a supervisor!).

During another bathroom visit I joke with a coworker on United's horrible video from yesterday since CP flew on United last night. It's amazing how many people are talking about it.

12:15- I heat up lunch which is CP's homemade pasta carbonara and mashed sweet potatoes. I also can't resist getting a Coke from the soda machine. Such tasty poison. One of these days I will drop this terrible habit. After lunch I print out some documents for a meeting at 1pm and make some copies before people arrive.

1-2:30- Facilitate a very frustrating meeting where it is like pulling teeth to get anyone else to have an opinion. I HATE these calls because I am not the type of person that can stand silences. Email a colleague afterwards complaining about the meeting (she was on the call as well).

2:30- Walk down to a different department to drop mail off and then walk up the stairs back to my office. Spend 30 minutes on the phone with a woman who would barely let me get a word in to figure out how exactly she would like help from us. Call a coworker in a different division to discuss the issue, then call the woman back. I am trying to tell her that we can't provide what she is looking for; she ends up getting off the phone quickly because she says that she needs to throw up because of her acid reflux. Yuck.

3:15- Spend the next hour or so sending emails and preparing for tomorrow.

4:35- Leave work in order to race to train station. Listen to Lovett or Leave it podcast during walk and on train while also playing Suduku.

5:30- Get off train and walk over to daycare to pick up kids. Pick up Wes as he is yawning. Head over to Izzy's room where I find her in different clothes because she had a pee accident today.

5:52- We are in the car and headed home. Izzy keeps telling me "Mommy I like picy (spicy) things now." Mmmm hmmm sure you do kiddo.

6:15- I let buster out and feed him. He is VERY excited to see us. 

I put Wes in the circle of neglect while Izzy dances around.

Chaos before dinner

I quickly change my clothes while Wes fusses on the ground (Wes wasn't having the circle of neglect tonight). I heat up dinner for the kids when CP calls to Facetime. He seriously has the worst timing. I ask him if we can call back after dinner because things are a bit chaotic. While I am trying to get my dinner on the plate, Wes gets a piece of something from his dinner stuck in his throat and throws up a little bit. Izzy starts crying because well, who knows? Overall it is a sh*t show of a dinner despite it being delicious. (Dinner is rice with grilled chicken, black beans, roasted green and red peppers, roasted corn, and homemade salsa. CP made it before he left for us to eat throughout the week because he is awesome.) The kids get everything but the roasted pepper. Izzy asks for the salsa "because I like picy things now Mommy" and puts a tiny speck on her chicken- "Mmmmm." LOL.

Izzy cracks me up at dinner because she asks, "Do you want to talk about your work? Did you look for your tutu? What do you want to talk about mommy?"

After Wes has a few more incidents where he coughs from the food, I end up giving him pureed green beans that I had in the fridge. He is much happier. He responds to the 'all done' sign with only a few bites left of his food.

After everyone is done, I put away the food in fridge. We call CP to Facetime. Izzy isn't really interested in talking too much with Daddy and Wes is more interested in crawling over to Izzy's art table with the intent of putting scraps of paper into his mouth. Poor Daddy. Wes starts to get tired because it is already 7:20 so I head to his room with him to change him into pjs & put on his sleep sack. 

HUNK

I call to Izzy to grab the "Oh My Oh My Dinosaurs" book in the living room and she grabs the right one!  I sit Wes down to have him drink his milk while I call out to Izzy that any toys left out in the living room will be thrown away if not picked up. Wes doesn't completely finish the bottle and responds to 'all done.' I sing "sunshine" and "twinkle twinkle" and try to burp him. He falls asleep. 

Wes wakes up while I start to read "Oh My Oh My Dinosaurs." No peep from him as I lay him in his crib on his belly.

7:40- I grab Izzy from the living room to bring her to her bedroom as she is trying to put marbles into the Hungry Hungry Hippo game. I instead have her put the marbles with the marble run pieces in her room. She has to count out all of the marbles as she puts them away. 

 We then head to the bathroom to have her brush her teeth. She takes her time getting to the bathroom as she walks on her hands and knees, pretending that she is a cat.

She stalls as usual for various reasons while brushing her teeth, but we finally get it done. Back into her room to read a rhyming story about a bee and an ant and one Frog and Toad story. She then makes funny faces at the camera.

After stories Izzy says, "Mommy i have to go potty." A stall tactic for sure, but I can't say no. She checks herself out in the mirror then finally sits on the toilet and of course does nothing. She washes her hands anyway and grabs a hand towel- "I can reach, okay??"

Back into her room where I sing "sunshine" and "twinkle twinkle." "Mommy, mommy I have to tell you something. This summer we are going to go to the concert and go to the truck and I am going to play with (lists three of her friends at daycare). Mommy mommy now you can tuck me in." I finally get to leave at 8:10. Five minutes later I check the monitor and both kids are asleep.

I head into kitchen to do dishes and listen to The Daily podcast. Then I make bottles for Wes tomorrow.

8:40- Clean living room. 

Go through mail. Take out garbage.

8:55- I start Betty Rocker day 2 (abs). Nothing like a second c-section to seriously kill any abs that you might have had previously. Yikes. Buster decides that since I am on the floor he is going to get as close to me as possible while I am working out.

9:18- Done with the workout. Quick petting session with Buster before emptying the dehumifier downstairs and getting ready for bed.


9:42- I'm finally in bed with the lights out. Hoping I don't have to sleep with my head propped up all night but we will see. I finish writing up notes for this post. I stupidly waste time posting pics of kids on instagram.

9:53- I turn on my alarm for tomorrow and my white noise app (heavy rain). I plug my phone in to charge the battery and try to go to sleep! It takes a while to get to sleep tonight but I finally do and feel pretty rested when I wake up on Wednesday at 5:30.

Microblog Mondays: Time to work out

Wes has been outside my body longer than he was inside despite the fact that he isn't quite 9 months old yet (Saturday). For a while now, I have been unhappy with the way my body has been looking. At this point with Izzy I was running consistently and felt more in shape. These days I'm just happy when I hit 10,000 steps on my FitBit and I'm consistently weighing about 5 pounds heavier than just a few months ago. Having to take Buster on shorter walks because of his partially torn ACLs doesn't help.

While things are absolutely insane with my life right now, dropping nursing has added at least a few minutes to my day and hopefully my boobs will get a little smaller in the next month or so (but I'm not holding my breath). So yesterday I decided that with the weather getting nicer, it's time to revamp my eating habits and start to exercise when I can.

The gym is out of the picture since we are 20 minutes away in our rental place, but that's why the internet is so awesome. I have little time so I need something fast but intense. I originally saw a Betty Rocker advertisement on Facebook (I think a friend "liked" her page so I saw it?) and thought it would be something fun to do with my best friend before her wedding. I kept saying that I was going to start, but never did (meanwhile, she finished 20 days of the 30 day challenge).

Well, yesterday on my walk with Buster I decided that I was sick of my weak stomach muscles that were destroyed by two pregnancies. I didn't want to look at bat wings in the mirror this summer. I didn't want to feel weird about wearing a bathing suit to the pool that all of our neighbors also frequent. It was time to get healthy- not just for me but to set a good example for Izzy and Wes. So, after the walk while the kids were still napping I put on my workout clothes and did Day 1 of the Betty Rocker 30 day free challenge. Today I feel sore in all of the right places which is always the sign of a good workout. I can't imagine that I am going to do all 30 days in a row, but hope to finish the 30 days soon!!

Losing weight and toning up is not just about working out though so my eating habits need to get better. I don't necessarily have as much of a plan for that as I should but simply eating smaller portions and focusing on eating more fruits and vegetables should help.

Wish me luck! Anyone want to join me?

Want to read more Microblog Mondays? Go here.