Ski trip

On Monday CP and I decided to take the kids skiing for the first time at Wilmot. We put Izzy in a full day ski school class, Wes into a 1.5 day class. We figured that we could go down some runs together and then would have to take turns watching Wes all afternoon long as he would refuse to ski. At first Wes didn't want to put on ski boots but I found some red ones and told him that he would look like Iron Man. (eye roll)

Ready for ski school!

CP and I had a great time for about an hour with not many lines and short runs. The blue (intermediate) and black (difficult) runs were fairly laughable compared to what we are used to in CO, but it was really nice to get out after 9 years (!!) of not skiing. 

Around 11 we went to see how Wes was doing and found out that he was in the ski school building, refusing to participate in the last 30 minutes of the lesson. CP got him out and we asked him to show us what he had learned. He went down the short hill and then as he was trying to shuffle towards us on his skis, he fell and refused to get up without help.

Refusing to get up

Surprisingly, after asking him if he wanted to ride the magic carpet and ski with us, he was excited to do so. So we did a few runs of going up the magic carpet and then each holding a hand down a small hill. After lunch I got to do a few runs and then caught up with the boys. CP had Wes going down the small hill by himself and then catching him at the end because Wes had no idea how to stop. 

Magic carpet ride

We ended up taking Wes on the "lifting chair" (his words) and down two runs. On his second ride on the lift chair, he realized halfway up that he had to go to the bathroom and started yelling. All of the chairs around us started laughing and we kept telling him that there was nothing we could do (he ended up holding it until we got down the hill and into the bathroom). That afternoon he didn't want to leave and ended up falling asleep within a minute of getting into the car.

Sleepy Wes

Meanwhile, Izzy had a fantastic day on the slopes. She started out in a basic level but moved up quickly as she caught on. During one of my runs I saw her in the chair lift in front of me so I guessed at which run she was on and surprised her. She was SO excited to see me and I was able to watch her ski long S curves down the hill. On the way home Izzy let us know that she wants to come back every weekend!!

Overall, the day was a big success!

2020 goals

Goals for 2020

1. Eat one vegetarian dinner a week.

I am mindful of how terrible meat is to our environment. We certainly eat more chicken and turkey than red meat these days, but it still has an effect. I generally don't control what we eat but will push for this change in 2020. I would even be okay if the meal is fish. :-)

2. Lose 25 pounds this year.

I am feeling reinvigorated in my goal to lose weight again. I had a goal before I turned 40, I met that goal, but then have slowly gained 10 pounds after I had to stop running in June. I'm back in the Weight Watchers app, tracking my food and paying attention again. I'm not happy in my clothes or my skin so it's time to get back on track.

3. Finish Morning Meltdown 100 by February 21st.

As of today I have completed 72 out of the 100 workouts- this is the LONGEST I have lasted on any Beachbody program! I love this program. I mean, I hate some of the days, but I push play anyway and then celebrate the days where I feel strong and I love the program. It took me 70 days to complete the first 50 workouts....I have exactly 52 days in 2020 to complete the last 50 workouts. I had two work trips already this month and I stayed dedicated but I really want to finish this workout before we leave for Hawaii on February 21st!

4. Get rid of my plantar fasciitis.

I should have known better than to run the 5k on Thanksgiving after I hadn't run since September. Continuing to do MM100 has not exactly helped but I really scale down my jumping- especially on cardio days. I'm just really sick of heel pain that lasts for months on end. My new Hoka One One shoes help, but I desperately need to do something. There is something called the "strechlab" coming to my town in March, so maybe I need to try that out?

5. Spend at least one day knocking on doors on a get-out-the-vote effort. 

I want to make sure that I have done absolutely everything to get the orange asshole out of office. It's no longer enough to write a postcard or contact elected officials (which I will still do). I need to step up my level of effort in 2020, even if it makes me nervous. 

6. Practice tennis with Izzy. 

We have two tennis courts a few blocks away from our house...I just need to stay patient with her and remember that she will only get better with practice.

7. Try at least one day of Intermittent Fasting.
I've read some articles on the benefits and at a minimum it should keep me from snacking at night. I figure it can't hurt!

I should have more goals, but this seems like a good number since it is already almost the end of January. :-)

2019 Goals- how did I do?

Let's check in on my 2019 goals!

1. Eat at least one vegetarian dinner every week. 

I don't really have control over this as CP is the person that cooks every night, but we did very poorly with this one. I would like to push for this in 2020.

2. Lose 25 pounds this year. 

Well unfortunately this fall I backslid into TERRIBLE habits when I couldn't run anymore and while 
I definitely work out more working from home, my daily step count is terrible. It has

turned into gaining weight....so now I have even more to lose in 2020. :-(

3. Work out for at least 30 minutes at least three times a week. 

This has gone pretty well. I started Morning Meltdown 100 (MM100) through Beachbody this

fall and all of the workouts are less than 30 minutes. Even when I travel I can do the workouts

that don't require weights so I should hit workout #50 TODAY! 

4. Continue monthly dates with CP.

We probably hit this.

5. Get our credit card balance to $0 this year.

Done! We hit this halfway through the year and have continued this even through 

Christmas. Woo hoo!

6. Get a new job. 

Done! I love my new job!

7. Continue to be politically active whether it is writing postcards to voters, contacting my

elected officials about things that are important to me, or participating in marches.

Still doing this. Will likely step up my game in 2020.

8. Run in at least three races this year including the Soldier Field 10 miler.

Done! This spring I did a 10k, Soldier Field 10 miler, and a half marathon. On Thanksgiving

Day I powered through a turkey trot 5k which left me in pain from plantar fasciitis for days (I did

not run at all before the race). I have new shoes (Hoka One One) but still find myself in pain 

because I do some jumping in MM100.

9. Run one race with Izzy this year.

Izzy sprained her ankle right before Thanksgiving so we couldn't do the turkey trot together (I

had signed her up for it). Maybe we can do a race next year?

My 41st birthday

Let me tell you all about my annual pretty princess day this year (aka my birthday) on December 10th. CP was in MA for a work trip and I was working from home. The day was pretty normal and boring until I got a call at 2pm from a local number. Turns out it was the nurse for Izzy's school. She proceeded to tell me that Izzy was in her office and that she was sorry she was going to ruin my day....but that Izzy had lice.

OMG. I felt absolutely TERRIBLE because Izzy had been itching her scalp for the previous two weeks or so but lice didn't even cross my mind. She has eczema issues so I chalked it up to dry scalp and had started to use Head & Shoulders on her for a few baths. It turns out she was in class and PULLED A LICE BUG OUT OF HER HAIR and told her teacher about it. OMG OMG OMG.

I IMed my boss and coworkers about the call to let them know that I wouldn't be working the rest of the afternoon and headed over to the school to go pick Izzy up. I felt like a TERRIBLE mom. How could I not have seen bugs in Izzy's hair? I brush and put a braid in her hair almost every day!! The nurse could not have been nicer and told me that the buggers are actually pretty fast and hide from the light. She gave me a bunch of tips and was even nice enough to check my hair to see if I had lice too. Izzy and I immediately went to the drug store where I bought the hair wash and a comb that zaps the bugs. 

I spent the next two hours working on Izzy's hair. I put A LOT of the treatment into Izzy's hair vowing the seriously kill the f*ckers. After the requisite amount of time, she got in the bath and we got to see the carnage. I counted at least 30 adult and teenage lice bugs and then felt even more terrible that I didn't catch this sooner. Izzy started to get freaked out that there were so many dead bugs in the bath with her so we switched to a shower. Afterwards I then spent a long time combing out her hair to get all of the nits. She has pretty long hair so it took a while. I also gave myself a treatment just in case before we went to pick up Wes. 

We were supposed to go out to dinner that night but I nixed those plans and we had leftovers. I also started loads and loads of laundry. The highlight of the day was listening to Izzy sing the Philadelphia Eagles fight song for me (she just needed help spelling at the end).

For the next week or so I would go through Izzy's hair at night. Thankfully CP was able to come home a day earlier than expected (Thursday instead of Friday)- after the lice issue in addition to an urgent care visit Sunday night (only a few hours after CP left) for Wes after he split open his chin, all I wanted to do was tap out on parenting.

Let's hope my 42nd birthday is much better than my 41st!

Izzy turns 6 (a month ago!)

 IZZY TURNS 6

Morning birthday balloons

Height: 48”. Surprisingly enough she barely grew between July and her birthday.

Weight: 62 lbs

Physical milestones: Izzy is super strong as evidenced by the fact that she can pick up my mother (who weighs 120 lbs). She continues to be fast and won first place in the Healthy Kids Running Series in the spring (50 yard dash) and placed third this fall in the K & 1st grade division (1/4 mile). She is a better swimmer at this point and didn’t use floaties this summer. She had been doing karate this fall but we found that it is simply not enough exercise for her so we have enrolled her into an obstacle-course class which she is LOVING so far. It’s 45 minutes of climbing walls, monkey bars, pushups, situps, etc. Next month she will also start basketball classes through the park district.

Language/Reading: Izzy has a good number of sight words and likes to try to read things. She is very curious about words so if we use a word that she doesn’t know, she will ask us what that word means. Izzy doesn't quite have the "r" sound, so rabbit sounds like "wabbit." I'm told it's normal and she will grow out of it.

Loves: Unicorns, glitter, sparkly things, soft things, puzzles, art, the Eagles and the Cubs (Woo hoo!)

Personality: Izzy is still super competitive. She is also still fairly emotional and gets upset (cries) quickly. She can be smug at times and often wants to parent Wes and tell him what his punishment should be for doing something wrong. LOL.

Favorite Toy: Izzy has been big into games. She is fairly obsessed with Mancala and every time we pick her up from her after-K program she is playing. She also really enjoys Monopoly Jr, Scrabble Jr, and Ticket to Ride.

Favorite Book: She is making her way through an illustrated version of the first Harry Potter book with CP that she got for her birthday.

Enjoying some pizza before the Chicago Red Stars game

Sleeping Habits: These days she goes to bed around 8-8:30 and wakes up around 6:30-7. There is no more nap and we basically have stopped with required "quiet time" upstairs in her room. Our bedtime routine is to get her upstairs to change into pjs and pullup, brush her teeth, and read her 1-2 books or 1-2 chapters of a book. Generally she is in her room with a flashlight looking at books for a bit before falling asleep.

Eating: Izzy can eat A LOT of food if she is hungry. Her favorite is still mac n cheese.

Teeth: Izzy has lost FOUR teeth so far (all on the bottom).

After her most recent tooth loss two days before Christmas

Potty: At 6 Izzy has no issues during the day, however she still needs a pullup at night. I'm pretty sick of buying pullups so I'm hoping that the chemical in her brain switches "on" soon.

Clothes: Size 7/8 or usually a M. Size 1.5 youth shoe. She loves to wear athletic leggings and continues to wear a lot of dresses with leggings underneath.

Sickness: A few months ago Izzy turned her ankle and got a high ankle sprain. Unfortunately her doctor said that she is likely to have it happen again because of the type of sprain...so I taped her ankle like I remember physical therapists used to tape my ankle when I would sprain it.

Mommy's first tape job

Also, she had lice (that's a story for another post).

Treating Izzy's hair

Media: We have relaxed our tv standards a bit as the kids usually get a show or two each weekend day and sometimes we will do Friday night movie night as well. The kids do not get any iPad time, nor do they get to play with our phones. We'll see how much longer that lasts....

Big sister: At a recent wine night one of my friends was complaining about the fact that she has to "pretend play" with her daughter. All I could think was, man I'm so glad that my kids pretend play together. The only thing the kids ask me to do is be the "mommy monster." DONE.

Pulling Wes

Birthday: As usual, Izzy's birthday turns into at least two weeks of celebrating Izzy. It started with her shared birthday party with her best friend (third year in a row). This year they went to a nearby climbing gym. Then it was Izzy's actual birthday the day after Thanksgiving. All four of us had the day off so we went to the Field Museum in downtown Chicago to check out dinosaurs and finished the day by going to dinner at a spy restaurant with the most ridiculous dessert. Finally, the Sunday after Thanksgiving we had a family birthday for four of us that have November/December birthdays (me, Izzy, my BIL, and my dad).

Family birthday party

Birthday party with friends

Ridiculous dessert at the spy restaurant

We love our energetic, smart, athletic little lady and can't wait to see what she does this year!

Kindergarten

Trying to catch up on blog posts....

August 21st was Izzy's first day of Kindergarten. I was so worried about Wes and not that worried about Izzy because she has been excited (but also nervous) to start Kindergarten for a while now. Her "first" day was so silly as it was basically an hour orientation at her enrichment class where the kids drew pictures while the teachers talked to the parents. Izzy ended up knowing a bunch of kids in her class and every time someone came in that she knew, she would stand up, give a huge wave, say their name, and beckon them to come over. It was pretty cute. 

I had thought that we would go get pedicures together and then head out to lunch but her best friend and mom said they were going to paint some pottery and go out to lunch so Izzy decided she would rather do that. We ended up having a nice time with them before we headed over to her district Kindergarten orientation. She didn't really know anyone in the class but had a good time decorating a picture frame.

It was such an odd day that I didn't end up crying or getting weepy at all. However, Izzy has been a bit weepy every night she gets home from Kindergarten. Older kid moms have told me that this is pretty normal and that it will taper off soon. She loves the fact that she gets to get on the school bus every day to travel from one school to the other and thinks that she is a super big kid now. 

I was so worried about how Wes would do at daycare once Izzy left and yet he has done great. The first week his friends happened to be in class already so they would come running up to play with him and make drop off much easier. I'm assuming the crying and clingy-ness I had with trying to drop Wes off during the summer (even when Izzy was still there) was just a phase. Some days it takes a few minutes but generally once I can get him to agree to "push" me out the door he is good to go.

So far so good for this school year.

Off to Kindergarten!

Last day at the same school for a few years! *sniff sniff*

You guys, I can’t believe it but Izzy will be in Kindergarten next Wednesday. I had been all casual about it and it seemed so far away until August 1st hit. Then suddenly THIS was the month that Izzy went to K.

WHAT?!?!? 

Today she has one last day at daycare, we head to NH for a quick family vacation, and then next week I will go to two different orientations with her (half day Kindergarten orientation and then the half day Kindergarten enrichment program orientation). I’m going to do my best not to cry....

I’m curious to see how Wes does at daycare without Izzy. I assume we will drop him off first every morning but next week he moves to an older room with different teachers and I know that Izzy helps Wes immensely when I drop both of them off in the same room together. Once he doesn’t have Izzy by his side is he going to meltdown every morning during dropoff? How is he going to do throughout the day? We often found them playing together outside when we picked them up.

Moving to real school also means not taking your kid out of school for random days and a school calendar chock full of closed days throughout the year. Izzy will also have to take the bus from one program to another. Taking the bus is something she has been dreaming about for two years so she should be excited.

Off we go into a new phase of life!

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!

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!!

Keeping our doctors busy

I thought that over the summer the doctor's visits would slow down but the kids (and me with my physical therapy appointments for the plantar facsiitis) have been keeping our insurance company busy!

Two weeks ago at daycare I got a call in the morning that Wes had done something to his finger while outside. They weren't quite sure what and they weren't requiring us to pick him up, but he was bleeding through band-aids and wouldn't stop crying. I won't post the picture but he somehow managed to shave skin off of the top of his left ring finger and lose part of his fingernail in the nail bed. I picked him up early and decided not to take him to the doctor, instead cleaning the wound myself and putting a band-aid on it, but of course between Wes putting his fingers in his mouth constantly from what is likely teething  and taking the band-aid off constantly, the finger became infected and necessitated a trip to the doctor. No biggie, he is put on antibiotics, we continue to put neosporin and band-aids on, and the finger starts to get better.

A week later, Izzy is acting like a maniac. I mean, she's 4.5 so she is not the best listener right now, but this was BAD. Actively doing the exact opposite of what we were telling her to do, refusing to do certain things, etc. Then also having pee accidents after being trained for two years now. CP finally takes her to the doctor and it turns out that she has strep or similar infection. Last time she got hives, this time it was a swollen lymph node (which we didn't see until it was pointed out to us), pee accidents, and defiance. I'm not sure what it will be next time! Now that she is on antibiotics she is doing much better.

Fast forward to Saturday night when we went over to a friend's house for a BBQ. I put bug spray on Wes, but could see that he was getting bitten so I stayed inside with him for half the night. However, the damage was already done. Poor guy had bites on his neck and face and looks like he has some exotic disease. 

He woke up yesterday from a nap with a slightly swollen eye....

.....then this morning he woke up with an eye that was completely swollen shut! 

Of course CP is in Italy for work so I called the doctor and they wanted to see him to make sure all was okay. For now he has some topical antibiotic to put on the bites because despite giving him a bunch of Benadryl, he is still itching and has opened up the bites. :-(

I'm ready for all of the doctor's visits to stop!



FYI- For anyone that uses Blogger comments are NOT getting emailed to your inbox (if you have turned that setting on). Hopefully the fix happens soon!

Nighttime potty training

Izzy has been potty trained for basically two years now but we are nowhere close to potty training her at night. Every morning she wakes up with a full pullup and has maybe woken up dry two times ever?

This past week I talked to a neighbor who let me know a while back and she used a sensor on her oldest to wake her up when she was urinating. On Friday night we put the sensor on Izzy and were a bit confused when the sensor never went off during the night and Izzy slept in until 8am (not normal). Izzy peed at least once during the night in her bed and woke up wet but apparently slept right through it. The sensor obviously didn't work but apparently getting wet throughout the night also didn't wake Izzy up, so we needed to try something else.

Our neighbor had given us a second sensor that she said she didn't like as much because it wasn't quite as loud, but it had the ability to not only sound a loud alarm, but also vibrate when clipped to the kid's shirt so we tried that Saturday night. Izzy drank less than 8oz of milk at dinner (finishing by 6:45 or so). Izzy tried to go potty before bed but didn't have to pee and was in bed around 8pm (she peed in between dinner and heading upstairs). CP and I settled in to watch a movie in the basement (The Big Sick- which btw was really good) and at 9pm we hear a loud alarm on the monitor. I race up the two flights of stairs and try to wake Izzy up but she is practically dead to the world. I manage to get her into the bathroom but she is so out of it and has already emptied her bladder. I change Izzy and change her sheets, putting on a second set and she goes right back to bed.

CP and I continue watching the movie and watch a little Saturday Night Live before heading up to bed around 10:45. We are just settling into sleep when at 11pm, the sensor goes off again. We rush into Izzy's room and CP has an even harder time getting her up and on the toilet while I strip the bed once again and put on new sheets. She had fully emptied her bladder again before getting to the toilet so back to bed she went.

2:30am rolls around and CP and I are dead asleep ourselves when the sensor goes off again! Damn girl! Once again we have to try to wake her up and essentially carry her to the bathroom where she doesn't do anything on the toilet because she has already emptied her bladder. At this point I have run out of sheets for her so we put her back into bed with a pullup on.

The next morning she wakes up and has NO IDEA that we had to wake her up three times throughout the night. She doesn't remember any of it. But she is pretty excited because her pullup is dry (*shakes head*). I know that I have bragged about Izzy sleeping through a fire alarm going off in our house, but this is somewhat scary.

We decide that we will put another pullup on Sunday night and on Monday I emailed her pediatrician to find out if we should be worried. He replies that for a heavy sleeper, this is normal and that she is simply not ready to use a pullup. If she is still not nighttime trained by age 7 then we need to start talking about what is going on, but otherwise she is just fine. He did add that if she is constipated then she will have a problem nighttime training but I don't think that is a problem for Izzy.

So....we wait and hope that her body figures out the nighttime thing sometime in the next 2.5 years.... Since Wes is a fantastic sleeper and has put himself to sleep while a fire alarm has GONE OFF in his room and throughout the house, I feel like we are going to have the same problem with him. However, I would much rather take a good sleeper that takes longer to nighttime potty train than one that wakes me up all of the time or has trouble sleeping in general. 

BTW, thank goodness for Good Nites bed pads. We put them between the sheets and Izzy's mattress cover and they helped to keep the mattress cover dry!

Staying busy since Christmas

We have certainly stayed busy since Christmas.

Working on the house

I did have to go into work the day after Christmas, but the rest of that week I took off so that CP and I could do some work around the house while the kids were at daycare. The first day was spent organizing the unfinished part of our basement- figuring out what could be taken to Goodwill, what needed a new home somewhere else in the house, what could be organized on the shelves, and what just needed to go into the garbage.

The mess that was the unfinished section of the basement

The pile of stuff to donate or throw out

Organized!

Organized stuff!

The second day we were a bit lazier as we took the kids out to breakfast and spent some time at Home Depot, but we still got a few things done. On the final day we painted parts of the basement (mostly concrete) that were untouched during our house rehab, hung out some wires for the kids to put their artwork on, and hung up two picture compilations of the kids from birth to 11 months old.

The new hallway after the house remodel....the new wall on the left got painted but other parts did not

The part that didn't get redone

New paint! Can't wait to get rid of the stairs, but that's a project to be done after we do a patio outside

Kids artwork on the wall!

Racks to organize Izzy's art supplies in the basement

Buster

One of the places I dropped off some stuff was some of Koda and Buster's stuff to the local animal shelter. CP and I decided that we aren't quite ready for another animal just yet and even then, we would like to start over with new stuff. So the shelter got dog beds, leashes, bowls, a soft cone, etc. As I was dropping the stuff off at the shelter I SO wanted to go into the back to see what kind of dogs and cats were back there to take one home, but thankfully the office was closed off from the adoptable pets so I didn't have a chance to check any out. CP and I agree that we should wait until we at least come back from our trip to CA later this month....afterwards, we'll see. We still have pictures up in a few places in the house of Buster and Koda and every so often, I just start to cry (last time was yesterday when walking upstairs to put Wes to bed....he pointed at a picture of Buster when he was just a puppy and said "arf arf.") :-(

Izzy's speech

Before Christmas and probably only one week after I wrote up Izzy's 4 year old update, she started to say the letter "s" before consonants! Her teachers in Pre-K have been working on it with her but it literally was like a light switch went off in her head one day and she came home and would slow down to say the word or correct herself. Chris and I were pretty excited because it is much easier to understand her, but we were also a little sad because it means that she is growing up so fast!

Mama!

Speaking of words, guess who is now walking around saying "mama" all the time? That's right- Wes! This is doubly exciting because he is NOT saying "dada" so I win! I kid of course but I did have three months of Izzy saying "dada" before she started to say "mama" so this is payback CP! Lol.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve was spent with friends who have an 8 year old daughter. Izzy totally looks up to her and surprisingly, they have a lot of fun together so it was a fun night. CP made Cajun food- duck gumbo, shrimp & grits, corn/tomato side dish, and a collard greens side dish. It was delicious! Our friends left around 10:30 to get their kid to bed; Izzy then went to bed (which means she was cranky the next day). I went to bed before midnight but CP came up at 11:59 to go to bed so technically we were up at midnight? :-)

Stitch Fix

I got my latest Stitch Fix this weekend and decided to cancel the service because the only thing that I kept was a necklace (mostly because it was only going to cost me $5). The clothes just don't fit right and one pair of pants the stylist sent because it is "on trend" right now. I am not an "on trend" kind of girl and could care less about that. I would rather go to Loft and buy clothes there since I seem to really like the patterns/styles and they fit me well. 

Ice skating lessons for Izzy

Izzy took beginning ice skating lessons right after Christmas and by the second night started to get the hang out getting up onto her skates after falling and gliding a little bit. She enjoyed herself so hopefully we can find some time to take her again this winter to practice her new skills.

Izzy is in the black coat

Wes in the ER

Finally, Wes decided on New Years Day, after I didn't get quite enough sleep the night before, to get sick enough to necessitate a trip to the ER. I could tell that he was having trouble breathing and he was constantly coughing so we broke out the nebulizer....which made him better for about an hour, hour and a half before he would start to take a turn for the worse again. His ped was concerned that the treatments weren't helping him for the whole four hours inbetween so off to the ER we went at 8pm where he promptly spiked a 102.3 fever and started wheezing. He tested positive for RSV and they finally got his fever down, but we ended up getting admitted for the night. Wes refused to sleep in the baby cage like last time, so around 1:45am he finally fell asleep on the twin bed with me. I didn't sleep well because throughout the night I would have to give him a breathing treatment, or the nurse would come in and need to check his breathing, etc. Thankfully he were released the next day and he only needed the nebulizer for another day before he started to get better. I most likely caught RSV from Wes and have been battling a terrible cold since then. 

Waiting in the ER with a fever

Feeling better the next day and trying to hide from me

Okay, that's probably enough for now. How has 2018 treated you so far?