Catching up

I swear that I am not going to start every blog post with something similar to "I've been meaning to blog but..." Then again, it has been a month since I last posted so it's definitely time for a quick catch-up post!

1. Nine days ago on December 10th I turned 40. Basically the entire year leading up to the big 4-0 I was anxious and upset about it. Thankfully a few weeks before my birthday I simply said "F**k it" as it was coming either way! The first week in November CP and I had a great time to Key Largo, FL with some friends and NO KIDS to celebrate my upcoming birthday. 

Our beach view

Yes, that is a dolphin getting some serious air

I also rented a room in a nearby bar for a party on Saturday, December 8th so that I could celebrate with local friends. CP made a delicious dinner beforehand and my parents took the kids to Michigan for the night so that we could sleep off our hangover. :-) Now that I'm 40 I (of course) don't feel any different than when I was 39.

2. A few weeks ago on November 29th Izzy turned 5! She had a fun birthday party with her best friend (who also has a November birthday) at a local pottery painting place. It was a bit of a stressful party to make sure that 23 kids (including Wes) didn't break their pottery, but it all went well. We also had a family party for Izzy the weekend after Thanksgiving in Michigan.

Birthday balloons in MI

3. Thanksgiving went well this year. We had a small group as it was just my parents that joined us, so it was fairly low key. CP sous vide'd the turkey which turned out great.

4. We finally got the call that Wes had a spot to move over to Izzy's daycare so he started December 10th. It is SO NICE to finally do one drop off again and so far, he is doing great. I love that the kids see each other during the day and I think that it is super helpful for Wes that I drop both kids off in the same room in the morning. On his third day the school had a winter concert and he was one of the only kids that sang some words and he didn't freak out despite only knowing the teachers for 3 days!

5. The kids saw Santa last weekend and thankfully Wes didn't cry but he did give an amazing side eye and grab the side of the couch like he was ready to jump away at a moment's notice- lol. Progress!

6. Halloween went well this year. Izzy went as Wonder Woman, Wes went as Lightning McQueen.

7. Per usual, CP and I bought a tree that is too big. This year it is too wide and super duper heavy. It should be fun to try to get out the door in January....

Alright, that's enough for now. Here's hoping I can get another post in before January!

One year later

Facebook's "memory" feature is usually great. Seeing pictures of the kids when they were younger, seeing pictures of various trips, and fun memories with friends is a great trip down memory lane. However, I knew that a tough memory was coming up soon once I started to see pictures of my time in Texas to help Hurricane Harvey survivors last year. I just wasn't totally prepared to see it today.  

One year ago today we had to put Buster down. Re-reading my post made me sob today and I really can't believe that it has already been a year. Yesterday as we shopped for Christmas decorations we saw a puppy Berner in the store and my heart felt so sad as I was petting the dog (his name was Bodie). I "liked" the place where we adopted the cats and every time I see a dog adoption picture on their page I get jealous. I know that a dog is not exactly conducive to our lifestyle right now, but man I miss having a dog. As frustrating as Buster was with his quirks, he was my quirky dog.

😢

My new BFFs- Michelle and Oprah

I'm so behind on updating the blog! I am going to try to put together short posts to get caught up.

Since it is already on my mind, last night I was seriously lucky enough to get tickets to Michelle Obama's first book tour event in Chicago. It was billed an "intimate conversation" which was pretty funny because the United Center holds 23,000+ people. 

Oprah hosted and interviewed the event which was pretty cool. She looks like she has been rocking her Weight Watchers plan.

The event started with a long video of Michelle- her upbringing, her time in the White House, different appearances on shows like Jimmy Fallon or Dave Letterman. Then Oprah came out to talk for a few minutes before introducing Mrs. Obama. Their conversation lasted about two hours and it was really interesting. I haven't really seen any interviews this past week because life has been crazy so she may have talked about some of these things already....

The stage was pretty far away so at times it was easier to watch on the large monitors

One of the more interesting things Michelle talked about was how it felt like she was the "mom" of the country and Barack was the "dad." So while she is happy to be open about IVF, going through marriage counseling, etc. now she didn't really think that it was appropriate to talk about it while she was in the White House. There were so many other things going on at the time, she didn't want to be a distraction.

She also spent a lot of time talking about her experience in being the only woman or the only minority in the room with powerful men. Basically she spoke about how women and minorities' voices are important so we need to make sure to speak up. Also, there were tons of powerful men in these rooms but they weren't necessarily smart. :-) I'm butchering what she was saying, but it was powerful and true.

Anyway, I'm super happy that I was able to snag tickets for this hot event! I NEVER seem to get the hot tickets so the fact that I was able to get three (my mom and sister went with me) is amazing. Now excuse me as I have to call my new BFFs Michelle and Oprah. :-)

Good and the Bad

Let’s start with the GOOD because it is Friday.

GOOD

I ran my second 5k of the year last Sunday and averaged 10:33/mile for a time of 32:41 (this is the race that runs right by my house). According to Nike+ this is the fastest 5k I have ever run since I started tracking in May 2008 (prior to this my fastest 5k was 33:02). Woo hoo! I was up part of the night before with stomach cramps/diarrhea so I was pretty excited about my time. As I ran by my house a second time I asked Izzy if she wanted to finish with me (she was in her pajamas) and she ran with me for the last .25 or so. She loved it!

The other good is that over the month of September I was able to reverse the weight I gained in August (4 lbs) and now I am thisclose to my first goal of being under 200 pounds again. On Wednesday I weighed in at 200.5 so I am crossing my fingers I will see a number that starts with 1 next Wednesday. My goal was to be under 200 by my birthday in December so if I can do it two months in advance (despite almost getting there *ahem* two months ago and the backsliding) then I'm happy. 

BAD

The bad news is that there is something going on with my IUD. I hadn’t checked for the strings recently but did so the other day in the shower. It basically felt like the strings had embedded into cervical tissue as I could feel them but couldn’t move them. Today I had my doctor check them out and the good news is that she can see the end of the strings so they didn’t perforate my uterus but she can’t move them. The next step is to have an ultrasound to see if the IUD has moved. If it has moved and is no longer in place I am looking at a surgery (GRRRR) to get it removed and then I would have to get a different kind of birth control as it wouldn’t be recommended to get an IUD again. If it is in the right place my doctor recommends to remove the current one and replace it with one with longer strings. Obviously I am hoping for the latter because the no period thing with an IUD is super nice and I don't want to have yet ANOTHER surgery.

It’s a rainy, dreary day in Chicago and overall it has been a really hard two weeks with the Ford/Kavanaugh hearings bringing out a lot of emotions in me that I didn’t realize were bottled up. I hope everyone else out there is doing okay.

Friday news dump

Ugh! There is simply no time for blogging these days. I also need to catch up on my Feedly reader. That being said, here is what is going on in our lives these days:

-Izzy did great on her first two weeks at her new school. Her good friend at her old school was scheduled to move to a new daycare that hasn't opened yet but I was able to convince her parents to move her kid into the new school instead. Izzy is super excited for her friend to start on Monday! 

-I was supposed to be on a work trip this week to Missouri but it got cancelled. It has now been rescheduled for the very end of November which is fine except I will miss Izzy's birthday. :-( My MIL came into town to help CP out while I was going to be gone, but instead it has just turned into a regular visit. 

My MIL took Izzy for her first manicure

We also all went to the Brookfield Zoo

90+ degrees + no nap= this face

We also went apple picking and Wes got attacked by mosquitoes.....again.

We offered to have her join us on our trip to Cancun next February and she agreed which means we will get at least one night for a dinner to ourselves AND maybe even get to go scuba diving together!

-CP and I will celebrate 9 years of marriage on October 3rd a little early this weekend since we have a built-in babysitter (MIL). I got tickets to see the musical Avenue Q and then we are going out to dinner. Should be nice to have a kid-free night on Saturday.

-Izzy has started up ice skating lessons and tennis lessons for the fall. Poor Wes is in nothing until we will put both kids in swimming for the winter (likely around November).

-No work changes on the horizon any time soon. I continue to try to speak to people and have an in-person informational interview next Thursday. The area that I want to move into doesn't have a ton of positions so I may not go anywhere any time soon. :-( But I am working on my resume with someone to make sure it is ready.

-I'm super excited that although I was wait listed for the Michelle Obama presale tickets, I was able to get tickets for her Chicago event in November! I also got a ticket for my sister and my mom and figured they could be Xmas presents. :-)

-Friends of ours started a Healthy Kids Running Series group in our town and last weekend was the first event (the series runs for 5 weeks). Izzy easily won her 4-5 year old division (they only ran 75 meters and she was taller than any of the other kids). I volunteered to help on the race course for the older kid races and was so sad to see a mother berating her child during the last race (1 mile). Her daughter was in third to last place and the mother (who may have been athletic at one time but was not now) was upset that she was walking (it was 85+ degrees out and sunny). She told her daughter "alright, if you aren't going to try then we are just going home right now. Let's go." The daughter picked up her pace and finished, but I was heartbroken for the kid. These races are supposed to be FUN. I debated saying something to the mother but in the end decided not to. I'm still questioning whether I should have. Thoughts?

-Speaking of running, Izzy has been wanting to do a real race with me so while we were in MI my mom and I took her out for a run. She kept wanted to actually RUN instead of jog and we did some walking, but she ran a mile in less than 14 minutes. We were planning on dropping her off at the house and continuing to run, but then she wanted to run more with us. She ended up running another .5 of a mile, then tripping and falling and walking back home with my mom. I'm pretty proud of that 1.5 miles for her though!

-I ran my first race of the year last Thursday. I went out too fast and ran a 10:15 first mile which is unheard of for me. I ended up running the whole race with an 11:15 average so I slowed down towards the end but for a race at the end of a workday when I also was battling a cold I was okay with the time. 

My favorite tshirt of the night. Paul Manafort joke anyone?

But then this past Wednesday I got home and had 30 minutes to myself while Izzy, CP, and Wes were at ice skating so I laced up my shoes for a run. I was feeling good, but when it started to pour right after the first .5 mile I decided that I was just going to try to run fast since I should probably get inside due to lighting. Needless to say I only got to run 1.5 miles but it was at a 10:30 pace so maybe I need to start pushing myself to go faster? My next (and maybe final race) of the year is at the end of the month.

-This week I got the fantastic news that a college friend of mine (who turned 40 earlier this year) is pregnant! She just turned 40 and I had some in depth conversations with her about IVF, the drugs, etc. so I'm so happy that it worked (her first retrieval didn't go well)! She is due in February and I'm tempted to give her a onesie that says "I love science." :-)

A big move for Izzy

Today is the last day that Izzy will be at the daycare where she has spent the entire day, Monday through Friday, since she was three months old. She has been through countless teachers (more than she probably should have), but has learned so much from the awesome and amazing teachers that she has had. 

We have been contemplating this move for a few months as more of her friends leave for other centers. We stuck it out, saying that as long as she is learning, happy, and safe that we would stay with her current center. We had also been thinking for a while that we would push her forward into Kindergarten this year because her test scores were very high (cut off for the district is September 1st, her birthday is November 29th) as her current center had full day K (our public school system does not- yet) and would take her early. However, after doing a lot of research on pushing kids early, thinking about how much older some kids would be in her first grade class (especially those that red-shirted), etc. we decided that she should stick with her friends and her class.

Sticking with her class means that we were no longer tied to her current center and last week when the K/Junior K teacher quit because her husband got a new job in WI and the center director said "worse case scenario I will teach K and run the center at the same time" we knew that it was time to leave. Umm no. Some shoe will drop in that scenario. Luckily, a friend had texted me that the center that does before and after school care for K and our district once Izzy is in full day school had an opening (which is also super helpful because it is hard to get in once kids hit K). One of the teachers for her new classroom was someone that came over from Izzy's center so she would already be comfortable with her. In addition, there are a number of kids that had moved their kids from Izzy's center so she would know three other kids in the 4s class.

Izzy is a bit confused that she won't be attending K at the new school (her old school is doing a joint K/Junior K class) but I think that she is going to be okay. I took her over to tour the new school yesterday and she was very shy but happy to see one of her friends. She starts her new school on Monday and fingers crossed things go well.

So for the time being, we will be doing two drop-offs because unfortunately the new school doesn't have room for Wes- yet. He is at the top of the waiting list right now. Worse case scenario he doesn't get in until June and we are doing two drop-offs (one 5-7 minutes away from our house going north, the other 2 minutes away from our house going south) until then. Fingers crossed that won't be the case!!

Day in the Life- Summer 2018

I kept forgetting all summer to do a Day in the Life post but finally remembered on Friday to do it. I put a notification on my phone that popped up right after I boarded the train so there are no pictures in the morning.

Day in the Life- Summer 2018

CP is 42 years old

NSC is 39 years old

Izzy is 4.5 years old

Wes is 2 years old

Marshmallow is 6 (?) years old

Cocoa is 2 years old

3:57- I wake up to pee. Take off my night splint (for plantar fasciitis) to walk to the bathroom and melt back into the sheets after I am done.

5:15- Alarm goes off and CP gets up to shower. 

5:47- CP is done with the bathroom and comes back into our room. He heads downstairs to feed the cats and eat breakfast while I head to the bathroom. Contacts in and clothes off to jump on the scale (woo hoo- down 2 lbs since Weds morning- likely because I was just starting my period on Weds). I was really good yesterday- totally worth it! I then I jump in the shower. My hair feels so soft in the shower- likely because I got my gray roots dyed yesterday and whatever they put in my hair did its job.

6:25- I’m out and getting dressed. I head into Wes’ room while CP goes to wake up Izzy. Wes is pretty easy and although he is sleepy, pops up to be picked up when I ask him if he is excited to go to Michigan this weekend. I change his diaper and put him in clothes before heading downstairs with him. He refuses to say hi to CP, instead turning his head. Poor CP doesn't get any love from him in the morning.  We grab two milk cups and I put a handful of cereal in two bowls. Wes wants me to pick him up but I am trying to pack my food for work.

6:35- Izzy comes down after getting dressed and thankfully washing her stinky feet. I decide to quickly make my eggs for breakfast before we leave to drop the kids off. CP relaxes on the couch while we discuss what to do for dinner and the kids are in pretty good moods until I bring blue sandals over to Izzy for her to wear. She starts crying because she wants to wear her pink ones but I tell her that I threw them out because they were broken. This REALLY gets her crying which I expected (the shoes are hidden in my room just in case). I get the blue shoes on her feet and she is not happy. I move a small container of homemade lentil soup from the freezer to the fridge for CP and me to share for dinner tonight.

6:45- CP announces that he is going to leave and Wes happily runs after him. Izzy runs after him crying and after we all get outside jumps on him for an “up hug” and to cry. It takes about a minute to extract Izzy from his arms and he gets her into her car seat while I put Wes in his.

6:57- We are driving off to daycare while Izzy is still crying and Wes is trying to talk to me. Izzy finally stops crying halfway through the 7 minute ride and announces that she wants rainbow shoes. “Wes do you want rainbow shoes?” she asks. “Yeah!” replied Wes. Izzy reads the speed signs on the side of the road for me and Wes excitedly points out trucks. We only see one convertible today (Izzy is currently obsessed with them and is "saving" her money to buy one). I pull into daycare and take the kids inside.

7:05- The kids grab a pack of crackers and we head to Wes’ room first. We put his Lightning McQueen car in his cubby so that he can sleep with it at naptime and I noticed that he has pooped. I let his teacher know, give him a big hug and a kiss and leave the room with Izzy while he is crying a little. I bring Izzy to her room and it is a series of up hugs and high fives before I leave. I drive back to the house to quickly microwave and eat breakfast (corn tortilla, two over easy eggs, and a tablespoon of corn & black bean salsa- 1 pt). I have a few extra minutes so I also eat a slice of cantaloupe (0 pts) while reading a few Washington Post articles on my phone. 

7:30- I quickly pee and realize that I should grab a belt upstairs otherwise my pants will fall down all day. To my shock I am able to buckle the belt three holes closer than the last time I wore the belt (probably sometime this winter)!!! What a difference 25 pounds makes!

7:34- I grab my backpack and walk to the train. Grab the train and get a reminder to do DITL. Turn off the Pod Save America podcast I was listening to and start writing down my morning. I finish the recap right as the train pulls into the station. As I make my way out of the station, people are handing out free samples of the Forto coffee shot that I have talked about before.Yes, yes I will take that free sample. Sweet!

8:30- I walk into the office and quickly chat with my employee at the front desk. My computer has issues booting up and I’m finally ready to go at 8:45. I check emails and start to prepare for the day when my boss comes into my office. He has been gone for the past two weeks so we catch up on his work travels and I catch him up with what is going on here. He finally leaves around 9:30 and I'm able to make my coffee with my 1 pt creamer (3 tbsp Coffee Mate sugar free French Vanilla liquid coffee creamer). Then I start working on a report before heading to the bathroom, filling up my water bottle, and talking to a work friend for a few minutes about his trip to Mexico. 

10:15- Back at my desk to eat a banana (0 pts) and continue working on the report. I crunch some numbers and then have to wait for my boss to get out of a meeting before getting his information for the report. I get an email from daycare with a picture of the kids at a magic show. I see that Wes and Izzy are sitting next to each other in the picture which is adorable.

11- Conference call. I put a shawl that I keep in my drawer on because although it is 80 degrees outside, it is cold in my office!

12- Another conference call. Thankfully this one is over after only 30 minutes. One of my employees comes to get me after a problem at the front office. He is really upset, so I go out to talk to her. Thankfully the situation is not quite what he thought so I diffuse it before grabbing my homemade lunch of 1 cup of white rice and a beef stir fry that CP made earlier in the week (9 pts). I also eat some sugar snap peas (0 pts)

1:15- After I eat it I head outside to take a quick walk since my afternoon is going to be quite boring and because I am falling behind in a Fitbit workweek challenge (one person has 74,000 steps and it is only halfway through the day!). As I am outside I hear the Air and Water show practice roaring by and it’s amazing how loud and cool it is.

Pretty bush on my walk

See the two planes practicing to the right of the crane?

1:45- I’m back in the office and I fill up my water bottle and an extra cup so that I can get caffeinated (Spark- 0 pts) and hydrated. I grab one of my employees to talk through an event an elected official wants help with. I send out a few emails on various projects as well. I also eat an apple (0 pts) and 11 pretzels (3 pts).

3:30- My boss is back to chat and look out my window when the planes go by (his office is next to mine so he has the same view). After he leaves I go into the conference room to watch the planes for a few minutes. 

Then I’m back in my office watching mandatory training videos until about 4:20. I quickly wash my coffee and Spark cups then hit the bathroom before quickly walking to the train. During the walk I call my mom to discuss this weekend (we are going to my parents’ house in MI). CP calls in the middle of the call but I ignore it. I try to reach him after our call is over but his phone goes straight to vm. Grrrrr. (He ends up calling while I am on the train).

On the train I listen to the end of a Pod Save America podcast and then start the Hysteria podcast that has Phoebe Robinson as a guest. I'm currently reading her book and I loved her HBO 2 Dope Queens specials.

5:30- I’m home and I feed the cats. Apparently today is National Black Cat Day (according to FB friends)- a day just for Cocoa! I run upstairs to change into running clothes while CP and the kids pull into the driveway.

Whenever I get home from work Marshmallow follows me around until I feed them

Happy Black Cat Day Cocoa!

5:40- CP comes inside when the kids refuse to. I head outside to pretend to scare the kids while chasing them around the car. We play for a few minutes and then they announce that they are thirsty so we head inside for some ice water. We head back outside so that Izzy can ride her bike and Wes can ride his motorcycle while CP makes dinner. Izzy wants me to take videos of her speeding by on her bike. 

A plane!

5:55- We head inside so that I can help CP with dinner- essentially to make a salad and set the table. Dinner consists of lentil soup (0 pts), lettuce with tomatoes and cucumbers with Yogurt ranch dressing (2 pts), and a few perogies (7 pts). After dinner we put food away and clean off the table before I head upstairs to give the kids a quick bath and get pajamas on.

Wes refuses to sit down in bath, which he has done for the past few months. He has a very short bath, I get him dressed and bring him downstairs. I head back upstairs to hurry Izzy along by telling her that the movie is going to start without her. She has chosen Frozen for tonight. I head upstairs to pack for the kids for this weekend while CP makes popcorn for movie night.

7:45- I drag wes away from the popcorn and movie night to take him upstairs. I brush his teeth while I tell him all of the food I am brushing out (he adds in what he had for lunch). We read "How to Tuck in your Sleepy Lion" and a Pete the Cat book (it was really nice to get a break from reading a Thomas the Train story). I sing "You are my Sunshine”, and have him turn out the light, but then realize I didn’t put his nighttime diaper on- whoops! Turn the light back on, change diapers (while I put it on he states "I tooted"- LOL), have him turn out the light again while I sign "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". He snuggles into my shoulder while holding onto a car. I put him down in his crib and he immediately lays down, I put a blanket over him and close the door. Man, he is so easy.

8:10- I head downstairs and eat two Tums because my stomach is not happy (damn you lentil soup!). I say goodnight to Izzy who is still watching Frozen with CP, I grab phone from the charger, put it in armband, grab headphones, and pee. I really don’t feel like running but I make myself anyway. It’s super humid and my stomach is super full so the beginning of my run I feel gross and 10 pounds heavier. I also have to burp a few times to feel better. I feel better after the first mile and run a little faster. I end up running 2.76 miles and see no skunks on my run- woo hoo!

I come back in the house and immediately get on my calf stretcher. While I was gone CP put Izzy to bed, but I hear her crying upstairs. I go up to talk to her. 

“Mommy why are you sweating?”

“I was running.”

“Your shirt is so soft. What is it?”

“It’s called dry fit. It moves the sweat away from your skin.”

“Can I get one? Do they have one in my size in yellow?”

“We can look this weekend.”

I turn on her fan, she asks for a hug, I leave the room and head downstairs.

I continue stretching on the floor. CP wants to watch the next episode of Better Call Saul, but I want to shower in a few minutes so I nix the idea. He turns on Black Mirror and I do two sets of pushups. 

At 9:45 I finally gather the energy to go upstairs to shower. Afterwards I brush my teeth then pack up clothes and toiletries for MI.

10:30- I head back downstairs and feel sleepy but stay up perusing FB until finally calling it a night at 10:55. Pee, put on my night splint, and find a pillow to put between my knees. (I recently went to a talk that said that if you are a side sleeper you should put a pillow between your knees so that your spine is in alignment while you sleep.)

Would love to stop wearing this soon

I finally shut down my phone at 11:10pm.

WW: 23 pts (right on target for the day!)

Steps: 16,528

Randoms

• Neck surgery- I am not as self conscious about neck as I thought I would be, partially because I think that the doctor did a great job stitching me up. The swelling seems to be mostly gone, but I'm still having some odd gagging moments on food which I never had before. I am putting Mederma on it at least twice a day and trying to keep it out of the sun as much as possible.

In the car after getting the stitches out 6 days after surgery

My neck today 17 days after surgery (plus a heat wrap because I did something funny to my back/neck/shoulder this morning)

• I went for my first run since November last Wednesday, and then again on Friday and again on Sunday. So far feeling pretty good and taking it fairly easy by only running 2 miles or so. I walk every .5 miles and I'm staying just under 12 minute miles. I'm pleasantly surprised that I have that level of fitness for running since it has been 8 months, but losing 25 pounds and doing Beachbody workouts instead probably play a big part! I am using this calf stretcher every day and still using the night splint because I don't want the plantar fasciitis to come back. So far so good (fingers crossed).

Worth every penny

• This past week we moved Wes to a forward-facing seat that we call the "big boy seat." He LOVES the fact that he is now facing the same way as Izzy, I love that I have more room for my knees in CP's car as it was getting very tight with his backward-facing seat, and it will be easier to people to get to the third row of seats on both sides of the car. I would have loved to have kept him backward facing for longer, but it wasn't really safe for me being scrunched in the front if we were to have an accident.

Happy Wes in his big boy car seat

• Last weekend we took the kids to the butterfly exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Gardens and they loved it. Poor Izzy wanted a butterfly to land on her, but no dice again this year.

Huge South American yellow moth

Wes was amazed that a butterfly landed on CP's hat

•  Last week we have been keeping the cats entertained (or annoyed) by a fidget spinner. Cocoa in particular will hit it with his paws and/or his face to try to stop it. It's pretty funny

• 

  Marshmallow hasn't freaked out since this post so maybe she is feeling more comfortable these days?

  
  
  

• It was in the 90s and super hot this weekend so Saturday night before dinner we had a dance party to burn off some energy. The kids really enjoying bouncing to "Bouncing Around the Room."

• I'm getting frustrated with my job search. I have had three meetings with three different career coaches, the last one telling me that I should start to do a lot of informational interviews to see what I would be interested in doing since it will be a major career change after 10 years in my job. I have so far had three informational interviews with people from three very different industries and am looking to have more to try to expand my network. I have applied to three jobs, all of them were still open as of last week so who knows if I will get called in for an interview for any of them right now. I don't want to move just to move, but I am really ready to change jobs. Hopefully soon.....

Two years old

Wes is TWO!

Height- 36.5" (96%)

Weight- 31 lb 6.5oz (85%)

Diapers- Size 6 nighttime diapers. Size 6 daytime diapers! Wes is transitioning into the “2s” room at school where they sit on the potty after diaper changes. He has sat a few times at school and we recently brought out our small potty which he loves to flush so far. I’m so not ready to go through potty training again!

Milestones- Wes "counting" things. 1, 2, 3, 6,7,8,9. He likes to jump to 6 pretty quickly when counting things and then can easily rattle off 7 through 9. He has a lot of the ABC song down as well.

Wes is still all about me so when he is asking to get picked up, he always runs to me.

Language- Wesley can be quite the talker- especially when Izzy is not around. He loves to narrate exactly what is going on at the time.

Wes thinks that Izzy is hilarious and will often laugh and say "Sissy (his way of saying Izzy) funny." Sometimes it is when Izzy is not trying to be funny and she doesn't take the compliment well.

Favorite Toy- Without a doubt, it is trains these days. We brought up the tracks from the basement and he got a few battery-powered trains for his birthday, so Wes is officially obsessed. He sleeps with a train (Thomas of course) and whenever we are home he asks to “play trains.”

"Playing trains"

Favorite Book- For his birthday Wes got a compilation of 10 different Thomas stories so he asks to read at least one every night.

Sleep- Wes gets to sleep by 7:45-8 every night and has slept in to 8:30am on the weekends (we get him up around 6:40am during the week). When putting him to bed we sing him two songs, he helps turn out the light, and then he lays himself down to sleep (usually with a train in his hand). He sometimes asks for another hug, and then asks to be covered with his blanket. No crying, no stalling. It's amazing.

Clothes- Still in 2t but his new Thomas shirt is a 3t and fits him just fine. He would wear it every day if we let him! Size 8 shoes.

Eating- If the kid is hungry he will eat whatever is in front of him. We honestly have more trouble getting Izzy to eat these days.

Teeth- Still waiting on his two year molars.

Illness- Lots of bug bites this month, but otherwise pretty healthy.

Misc- Wes' big train birthday weekend. Camping for a week in Door County. Wes wants to touch every bug possible and then giggle about it.