Gatlinburg, TN vacation

Before this trip gets too far away I want to make sure I post on our trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We drove down and stayed in Gatlinburg, TN which is right outside of the park.

As I mentioned in Izzy's 10 month post, she had a lot of firsts on this trip. This was her first time going to an aquarium and despite the fact that this aquarium was in TN it was actually a great one for her. There was a moving walkway where fish, sharks, manta rays, etc. could all swim around us and above us. Izzy thought this was fascinating and did a lot of pointing!

There's a shark above me!

Ohhh jellyfish

We did a number of hikes and Izzy saw her first few waterfalls. She was so comfortable in the hiking backpack that she fell asleep on one of the hikes!

Halfway up the Mt Laurel Falls hike

Mt Laurel falls

Behind Grotto Falls

View from Clingman's Dome parking lot

The final few steps up to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the Park. We picked a great day and had fantastic views!

It was a little windy at the top of Clingman's Dome!

Beginning Andrew's Bald hike which led into a meadow with views of the mountains.

This was our first time in a cave. It was a little hard for the toddlers to listen to the guide and Izzy freaked out when the lights were turned out and the cave turned pitch black, but she calmed down quickly.

In the cave

Sleeping bat

Colorful lights in the cave

We took a trip up to Ober Gatlinburg which is essentially the local ski area. All of us having gone to school in CO laughed at the "extreme terrain" shirts they sold at the gift shop because, come on. This trip was mainly for the toddler set as they got to go on a few of the rides but the adults had fun on the alpine slide. Izzy enjoyed the playground and went down a playground slide for the first time (on my lap).

She enjoyed whatever this thing is called.

We made her wear funny hats and pose for silly pictures.

Izzy's first carousel! She held onto me with a death grip.

Otherwise, we did a whole lot of swimming, we took a group (14 people!) Old Tyme photo which is hilarious because one toddler refused to put on a costume and in the picture we selected, Izzy is trying to eat her foot. A keeper for sure. :-)

Microblog Mondays

What would I do without the internet? These days I use it for so much- keeping in touch with friends and family across the world, finding recipes, keeping track of my runs, getting directions, checking the weather. The list is endless. It's so amazing to think back to when I was younger to the pre-AOL CD days.

This past weekend I used Pinterest for an idea to do a little Halloween decoration for our front door.....

.....and I used my blog reader (Navigating the Mothership) to make an inexpensive crib protector as Izzy has suddenly decided to become a beaver and chew on her crib rails. 

Two DIY wins thanks to the Internet!



Want to read more Microblog Mondays? Go here.

Friday!

Why is this such a great day so far?

*It's Friday! That's always a reason to celebrate.

*It's a long weekend for me as I have Monday off.

*CP surprised me and came home one day early last night. I was so surprised and excited to see him. I am not focusing on the fact that he has to leave again on Monday....

*I ran 6 miles at just over an 11 minute pace this morning. I know that is not fast for some of you but it was a good run and I felt strong. I definitely could have gone faster but that is for my shorter runs.

*Buster's paw pads are getting better and I think he will be able to go to doggie daycare on Monday. I have taken him on walks the past three days but the poor guy is going nuts with so much energy.

*Izzy mimicked me and said "uh oh" when she dropped something yesterday morning. It was seriously the cutest thing I have heard. 

*My best friend is coming in for a visit for the weekend.

*I will get my hair colored this afternoon which means that I won't have any grays for at least a few weeks. That's always nice.

How is your Friday going?

Skin creams

After reading an article about the two things that dermatologists suggest you use on a daily basis (sunscreen and a product with retinoid), I decided to get real about my skin care. I'm 35 and I looked in the mirror about a week ago and saw crows feet. Not just one line, but a number of lines. Yikes. And here I thought I had been good about putting eye cream on for the last couple of years.

Earlier this year the Environmental Working Group sent an email out that if you gave $55 to the group you would receive a sample pack of low-chemical sunscreens/moisturizers with sunscreen. I jumped on the chance to try out some new products as I was looking for a moisturizer with sunscreen for daily use anyway. I HATE buying tubes of products- whether they are shampoos, moisturizers, etc. and then not liking the product because it is a waste of money. I have pretty sensitive skin so I have to be careful what I put on it. But the sampler pack was great- I could try out a number of products and it wouldn't be too much of a waste if I didn't like them. Plus, I can give a donation to a group that I look to all the time- whether it is information on the Dirty Dozen (fruits/veggies with the highest pesticide use) or the Skin Deep database (to look up the chemical makeup of products).

The first product I tried was Badger sunscreen for Izzy. It's a little hard to rub on her but I have kept it in the stroller and use it every time we go for a walk so I would say that it's a keeper. Meanwhile I tried out a moisturizer plus sunscreen product which my sensitive skin didn't love (Juice Beauty), so I picked another one out of the box. Maybe I needed to use a pure sunscreen product after my moisturizer? Luckily I already use MyChelle moisturizer so applying the sunscreen right afterwards was simple.

All summer long I used my new sunscreen and was happy that I was protecting my face. But now I figured I should use a retinoid cream as well. I wasn't sure where to start. I googled different creams that I had heard of and every website has a article on how such-and-such cream doesn't work but X cream (which they happen to sell) does work! Waste of time. Instead I went into Walgreens and picked up one of the first tubes that I saw- Neutrogena. Sure I could look up the serum in the Skin Deep database, but frankly, I want something that is going to work and I could imagine that retinoid creams are not highly rated on the EWG website (holding hands over eyes- la la la la la).

I have been using the serum for about a week now and it has been easy to incorporate into my daily routine. I do think that I should start using it at night but I tend to not wash my face at night (I generally don't wear any makeup) so we'll see. Also, it looks like if I get pregnant again, I will have to discontinue use of the product (according to the article). For now, we will see if it works!

Do you use a retinoid cream? If so, which one do you use?

10 months!

(Should have been posted early last week)

Height: Not sure

Weight: 23.5 pounds

Milestones: Another big month for Izzy! She is pointing at things like crazy- half the time we have no idea what she is pointing at but it is adorable! While we were on vacation she started cruising- just a couple of steps on coffee tables. It's a very exciting step! 

She is also clapping like crazy. What else...she has no problem balancing while kneeling (butt off of her feet) and she loves to crinkle/rip paper/magazines. This month she is getting better about sitting while we read books to her. Instead of closing the book she will somewhat help turn pages (sometimes the wrong way). On vacation she had a great time swimming in a float that we got her and she moved to a convertible seat in both cars because she was dangerously close to the height limit in the infant seat! Izzy also learned how to climb stairs/arms of couches/etc. I think that we may have a climber on our hands!

CP thought it would be funny to teach Izzy how to drink like a hamster.

Language: We are still working on the sign language. Instead of actually doing the sign these days she tends to respond to it. For instance when we say and sign "all done" she gets all excited and we know that she is done with the meal. She understands Izzy, milk, Buster, Daddy, and Mommy when we say them. This month she started saying "mommommommom" over and over. I know that it is just her babbling but it is really adorable and I can't help but smile when she does it (especially after a while of hearing "dadadadadadada."

Yay fall weather!

Teeth: She still has 6 teeth- four up top and two below so no change from the previous two months. Makes me think that she will have some more coming in soon.

Favorite Toy: Wooden blocks. Our friends that have 3 year old twins gave them to us and Izzy is obsessed! She hits two blocks together in her hands. Her favorite thing is to knock down any and all towers that we build.

Do all children carry stuff in their mouth to keep their hands free or is Izzy just emulating Buster?
Inquiring parents want to know.

Personality: She continues to be quite the observer. At the beginning of vacation she was quieter than usual and I think that it took her a day or two to get used to 8 adults and 6 kids, but she warmed up to everyone and started "talking" more towards the end of the trip.

These days it is very difficult to change Izzy because she is quite the wiggle worm when you put her on the changing table. Diaper time is not a fun and happy experience right now. In general though, she is a laid back, easy going baby who doesn't cry that often.

Going in for a big kiss with one of her stuffed animals

Sleeping Habits: Still a rockstar sleeper. Going to bed around 7:30 and sleeping through the night. On weekdays we wake her up around 6:30, on the weekends unless we have somewhere to be we let her sleep until she wakes up (usually 7-7:30am). She naps well on the weekends- the morning nap around 11am can be 2-3 hours, the afternoon nap is shorter. Daycare naps are all over the place and they tend to only last an hour. If she is still awake when we put her down this month she has been standing up in her crib or sitting and clapping in the dark to herself. Generally she is very good about not crying and putting herself to sleep within minutes of us leaving the room.

Eating:  Later in the month Izzy moved from 5 bottles a day to four 6oz bottles a day with more solid food. This month she tried a couple different kinds of fish, ribs, and generally enjoyed everything we gave her. We are starting to give her more chunky items so she can work on chewing/gumming them. She has figured out how to get water out of the sippy cup (and loves to throw it on the ground when she has had enough) and figured out how to suck the food out of pouches that we brought on hikes.

Mmmmm TN ribs.

Mmm pouches of food.

Diapers: Sadly we had to ditch the cloth diapers earlier in the month because Izzy was peeing through them both at daycare and at home. She was going through 2-3 outfits every day at daycare and I knew they were getting frustrated. We have now moved to Seventh Generation Size 3 diapers during the day and Pampers Overnight Size 3 before she goes to sleep.

Clothes:  Due to Izzy's belly, she is solidly in 12 month clothing!

Illness: Other than colds, she was pretty healthy.

Other highlights: This month was Izzy's first time on the swings and she loved it! We also played with some bubbles outside. She LOVES being upside down and giggles a lot when we put her upside down in front of Buster and he starts licking her face. 

I still have to post on our vacation but TN was her first Aquarium (she was fascinated and we could have spent many more hours there), her first time seeing a waterfall, her first time in a cave, her first hike in a national park, first time on a carousel (she was terrified), and her first time in a hiking backpack (comfortable enough that she fell asleep during one of the hikes!).

Backpack practice run in our neighborhood before leaving for vacation

Izzy also met four different second cousins this past month.

Microblog Mondays

After reflecting back on the chaotic end to last week, I realized how, as a working mother, I rely on a schedule and others to take care of my family (that includes Buster) while I am at work. When something breaks down, whether it is public transportation to get me home or one of the persons/facilities we pay to help us out, it's hard to react to the change when it is just me. It is also extremely stressful when something goes wrong. 

I think that I need to learn to take offers of help from others when I need it. It's okay to not be able to do everything on your own all the time.

Want to read more Microblog Mondays? Go here.

Last night

I have a number of posts that I want to put up including Izzy's 10 month post and one about our vacation, but first I have to tell you about last night.

You guys know that this has been a hard year what with CP traveling for work all the time. Sometimes it is not so bad and I am definitely getting used to it (although still not liking it). It's days like yesterday when it is seriously the worst.

Two days ago Buster somehow hurt his front leg paw and wouldn't put any weight on it. I happened to be working from home so at lunch I brought him over to the vet to get him checked out. I came out with pain pills for him and instructions not to let him run around for about a week. Not wanting him to have to hold his pee for 10-11 hours while I was at work yesterday, I asked his former dog walker* to just let him out in the backyard to pee in the middle of the day. 

*I'm not sure what happened between the two of them but Buster is a special snowflake and sometimes doesn't like strangers....but she was not a stranger and would come at least once a week. Most days he would be fine with her, some days he would just bark and bark at her. The dog walker's boss got nervous about the barking and decided that they didn't want to walk Buster anymore. I only called because all I needed was for her to let him out, not walk him.

Should be easy, right? Except when I checked my personal phone yesterday during an all-day work event I had 4 messages from the dog walker telling me that she had taken Buster out to the backyard to pee and he just kept barking at her, refusing to pee. There was some loud noise that must have spooked him because he took off full speed into the front yard and into the neighborhood. The dog walker jumped in her car and followed him finally catching him in a neighborhood about two miles away in someone's backyard. He was limping and tired, but the last message had him at least home (the third message pissed me off because she said that she might leave him in the backyard-WHAT?!?). 

So here I am at an important work meeting worried about Buster and what he had been through all day. Then I go to leave the meeting in the company car and fight traffic back to the office, meanwhile hoping that I could make a decent train home to make sure Buster was okay and to pick up Izzy in time. I get to the garage, show my badge and am told that because I don't have a hanging tag, security can't let me into the garage. The car hasn't needed a tag in the two years I have worked there and I take the car out pretty regularly, along with 300 other employees. I started to freak out because I was already running late for the train and wtf was I going to do?

After a stressful day at work, then feeling helpless in the Buster situation, I couldn't hold my tears in. I begged the guy to let me in but he said that he had to wait for his supervisor to come down to let me in. Finally the supervisor came and let me know that my company was given the tag this afternoon (I left that morning) and that he was sorry for the inconvenience. Ugh. If he only knew.

I made it to daycare with 5 minutes to spare but unfortunately Izzy was there for 11.5 hours yesterday. She was fussy and hungry because it was almost an hour after her usual dinner time, but otherwise okay. After making sure Buster was alive (and noticing an even-worse limp on the front right paw), I gave Izzy dinner, fed Buster and tried to figure out what was wrong with him. It was pretty obvious once I checked out his front paws- the pads were RAW. It wasn't 90 degrees out yesterday so he couldn't have burned the pads off and he is used to running 2-3 miles with me two times a week so it couldn't just be from running on pavement. WTF HAPPENED???

I decided to take him to the emergency vet as I needed to be at work today. We are there a total of two hours because there were more urgent cases in front of us. Buster got partially shaved on his legs/paws, bandaged, and prescribed antibiotics (we already had pain meds from our trip to the vet on Weds) while Izzy hung out in the Ergo in the waiting room with me, very patiently (honestly, best kid ever). She loved watching the dogs that were in the waiting list and playing on the chairs. Oddly enough, the dog trainer that we took reactive dog classes with after first moving to Chicago was in the waiting room. I talked to her about the situation and she gave me the email of someone who not only has a reactive dog herself, but has gone through training and is now walking dogs (I ended up emailing the lady last night). Fingers crossed this lady can walk Buster on the days that he is sick/injured/otherwise not able to go to daycare.

Izzy decided not to sleep until the ride home (9:30pm!) so I basically went to sleep after we got home instead of enjoying the nice chilled bottle of white wine I put in the fridge before I left, thinking that I would get to unwind and enjoy it after getting home. I will be enjoying that bottle TONIGHT and most likely cursing CP's job (especially because today is our 5 year anniversary and he is on the other side of the world).