Getting Ellie up from her nap

Normally, when Ellie gets up from her nap, Sammie is wide awake and we go in there together. I stick Sam on the rocking chair and she watches me change Ellie's diaper and grins like a cutie!

Lining up the animals

I have no clue why, but when I peeked in on Ellie when she wasn't going down for a nap, this is what I found.... All her animals pushed between the side and the pole on her crib! She had been in her room for her nap for an hour or so, but hadn't gone to sleep. I had to see what was going on and found this! LOL!

"Thereyago"

I asked Ellie if she needed to "pee potty" and she kept insisting that she didn't. But since it had been 2 hours since she'd gotten up (and who knows how long since she'd gone since she was wearing a diaper), I "forced" her to try.

About two seconds after she got on the potty, she peed. And she immediately stood up.

I asked her to sit back down and try to pee a little more.

*trickle*

"Thereyago" (Like she only did it for my benefit!)

Here is why Sammie sleeping well is a bad thing....

Because I freak out! LOL! Last night she went to bed at 7:45, woke at 8:30 (normal) and then didn't wake again until 5:30! I was so worried that I had to go in there at 4:30 to make sure she was okay.... And she was.

The other thing that's bad is that my boobs are about to EXPLODE! LOL!

But I think I can handle it. Especially when she goes back to sleep and doesn't get up until 9:15! (I just hope she's not getting sick - I think I have a cold. Bleh.)

I'm an auntie again!!!

Matt and Tanja brought Abigail Fern into this world yesterday at about 1:30pm. She was 8lbs 9oz and 21" long. She's just adorable!

The girls and I went to visit Matt and Tanja and meet Abigail. It's amazing how much Sam has grown and changed since she was that age! Honestly, I'm not one who misses that, although I know I enjoyed it. I love this age (almost 7 months) and older MUCH more.... They are just so much more interactive and inquisitive! It's so much fun!

This photo was shamelessly stolen from my mother....

Potty training sucks

Ellie will do well one hour, bad the next. She'll pee and she'll let me know. Or she'll pee all over the couch. I know she knows what to do! She can hold it for hours and then will pee practically on command.... It's so darn frustrating! I'm just trying to figure out if I should just stick her back in diapers or keep going. Ugh. I don't know! We'll go the rest of the week and re-evaluate on Monday.

But after several days/weeks of frustration with Ellie saying "NO", I cracked down hard and she's doing wondeful! She will sometimes ignore, but she knows that when I raise my voice, she's on the verge of getting in trouble and will do what she was asked.

Sammie got a new car seat! (Doc update, too)

Well, damn! I lead a BORING life if that's the excitement for the day. LOL!

Actually, this is pretty huge because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to buy a super safe one without having to pull the passenger seat way too far forward. But when I put the Britax Roundabout (only goes to 60lbs vs Ellie's which goes to 80lbs) next to Sam's old seat, it was about the same size.... And when I put it in, it was actually a little smaller! WOOOHOOO!! That means I won't be as cramped during road trips!

We also went to the doctor 2 nights ago to talk about her puking up her cereal. After chatting, the doctor didn't seem too worried - just that we needed to be getting her more iron. So would bought some supplements and hopefully that'll do that trick! But I do need to be feeding her more solids.

As for sleep, the night before last sucked. She was up every 2-3 hours. But last night rocked! She woke at 11, 5am and then up for the day at 8:15!!! I got to sleep in! YEAH!!

"Mommy!!! I want to STAND!"

This little girl, who has been standing while propped since 2 months, STILL isn't mobile. Sure, I know Sam's only 6.5 months, but still!!!

She drives me nuts. She gets so darn bored or loses a toy or wants to stand and she lets you know! Ellie, on the other hand, was far more content. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure she would tell us when she wasn't happy.... But she wasn't as vocal about it as Sam. Definitely different personalities - and I LOVE it.

We go to the doctor for Sam tonight to talk about her puking up her cereal. Funny thing is... She ate some of my (non-allergenic) cracked pepper crackers. And she had a little of my (preservative free/allergen free) stew! She's such a complete NUT! She's grabbed my steak in the past and sucked on it. Same with some chicken. What a goofball! But she needs to be getting more iron so I'll see what the doctor has to say.

"Animals go night night" "Nemo touch boat"

Ellie is so funny! When I put Sam down for a nap, I'll nurse her in the rocking chair and Ellie will inevitably come in to say hi or play. Or request a song. Right as you walk in the door, there's a small book case that Chris made and on top of it is a piggy bank and several smaller animal banks. (Zebra, lion, tiger, elephant.) Sometimes Ellie will climb onto the big blue bin that has some clothes that Sam has outgrown and she'll play with the animals....

Today, she came in and started putting them all on their sides, telling them "night night" and kissing them! LOL! It took me a little while to figure it out, but I just cracked up when I saw her do this!

The other thing she's doing is getting stuck on things. A typical conversation:

Nemo touch boat.

Nemo touch boat.

Dada say no, Nemo, no touch boat.

Nemo touch boat.

Dada look Nemo.

Nemo touch boat.

And so on and so on....

While it's amusing sometimes, when she expects you to acknowledge her each time, it gets a little old! LOL!

Now that I've cracked down a bit more on her not listening to me, she's doing SO much better. She listens and doesn't "talk back". Whew! Now that Chris is out of town for a little while, that makes things SO much easier!

Stinkhole Manor is less stinky

I think our foul creature is rotting away. Whew! I'm so glad to be posting this.... I hate the thought of it continuing to stink up our house! Yeah!!! (Now I have to deal with the unpleasant thought of a rotted corpse in our walls. Nice thought. Ugh.)

Stinkhole Manor update

Well, the rotting varmint in our walls has let up enough on its stench to allow Chris to open the door and watch the football game. Not really sure if that means that Chris is enough of a nut to deal with the reeking creature or if it's actually receding. Hmmmmm....

(And I'm not about to upload the image of a rotting carcass. I thought this was nicer.)

The calm before the puking

Poor Sam! I'm so upset for her! At her last doctor's visit, we were told to get her on cereal to get her some more iron. So I tried her on cereal that weekend and *puke*.... it all came back up. I wracked my brain to see what I could possibly have eaten (Wendy's? Something else?) and couldn't think of anything but the cereal and Wendy's. So I held off and just got her eating some squash. She finally started eating that.

Then today I tried cereal again and about 2 hours later.... *vomit*. Ugh. So I'll get her into the doctor as soon as I can to figure out what's going on! This sucks!

But on a positive note, we had a GREAT night last night. She slept from 8:30-11:30pm and then woke again at 5:30am! She didn't get up for the day until close to 8am! Chris let me sleep in and took care of the girls so I could try to shake off whatever I seem to be getting. It was great!

Ahh, my poor allergy girl. I hope this isn't anything serious!

One step closer to Crested Butte!

I'm so excited! After a HUGE brouhaha, Chris finally accepted a position with a company called Web Visible. Although he's going to be traveling more than if he had stayed at MNGI, I think this might give him some fun, interesting opportunities.

Next on the list: Selling our house!! WOOOHOOO!!!

Another Sam sleeping update

It's going okay.... Not great, not horrible. We have some days that are wonderful - and nights to match. And others that aren't. Last night wasn't fun.... The longest time in a row she slept was 3 hours. The rest was 1-2 hours. *yawn*

But I've figured out a "concoction" that works well to settle her tummy and help her sleep. (We ran out of some of it yesterday.) Mostly it's Colic Ease - this stuff ROCKS. I love it! And the other stuff is Cocyntal. This stuff is great, too. The Colic Ease will settle her tummy and the Cocyntal helps with her gas. I'm going out today to get more of the Cocyntal before I go crazy! LOL!

She's reaching and sitting and doing awesome! I'm so happy that she's so much happier now that I've cut so much from my diet and gotten her sleep mostly figured out. I'm still frustrated from time to time, but it's nothing compared to the first 6 months.....

Terrible twos

I think Ellie is hitting her terrible twos now! She's saying "No" to everything and not sharing nearly as much as she used to. It's so frustrating.

She's doing okay at potty training. She will pee a *tiny* bit in her pants (she still won't wear big girl panties) and then stop and pee in the toilet. Then she'll want a new pair of pant.... We're going through them way too fast! Ugh!

She's still as cute as ever, though! LOL!

My photoshoot went great!

Not only were Mark, Julie and Matt GREAT subjects, but I learned an immense amount during this shoot! I thought I'd start recording the things I learned here on my blog....

• When searching for the best light, have someone follow you with their face as you walk around them. This was amazing when I had Julie do it - all of a sudden I could SEE the most amazing difference in her face with the light. I was so pleased about it!
• All kids are really different - I thought Matt wouldn't mind getting a little dirty and playing, but that's not what he's like. He likes keeping clean. I still ended up with some great shots even if they didn't turn out the way I envisioned!
• Go with the flow and don't overthink things. Although I think that trying new things and thinking too hard about them for a little while is a good thing - I think it's faster to learn that way - in the long run, it's best to go with instinct. And there are times when I find that surprises come out because of that.
• In this image, for instance, I was thinking I would get a more "formal" shot. But instead, I think I got a well posed (in terms of where people were placed), but more candid image. There is something sweet about this photo that I like very much!
• The "sweet light" of the sun as it is setting doesn't last long, but it doesn't disappear as quickly as I expected! This makes for some gorgeous light and color!

I know there was more, but I can't think of it right now. I'll add more as I think of more!

Ellie potty training update

pee training is going really well. We started on Monday and just said "no more diapers unless sleeping" and she had one small accident Monday, a medium one on Tuesday and another today. (We didn't train on Wed. because of hte pooping issue below.) She's just been GREAT....

The two problems I have:

• She will NOT wear big girl panties! I tried taking her out to buy some with me, but the ONLY kind I could find in 2T were the Gerber ones. Nothing fun like Pooh or whatever... (I found a ton in 4's, but those are HUGE on her.) I'm going to try a few more stores and see what I can find.
• She won't poop while potty training. She holds it. She "tries" and I've tried bribing her with something GOOD, but she doesn't poop. I did NOT want her to get constipated so we put the diaper back on so she would poop. (She did.) I'm putting Karo in her sippy today so hopefully that'll make it more "necessary".

Well, on the positive side - it's not a skunk

But it looks like we're going to have a rotting carcass in our house for a while. Bill, our nanny's husband, was nice enough to come over and check it out.... After smelling *whew* and looking around, it looks like it's probably NOT a skunk and he said that if it were his house, he'd wait to see how long it smelled. If it got worse, he'd come help us get it out. If not, we should just let the thing rot.

Lovely.

Sam's got another tooth!

I'm shocked that her teeth are coming in so quickly - and easily! I think it just might have been uncomfortable for her for a total of 30 minutes! LOL! It's going to be so cute seeing her with teeth... I'll be interested to see how quickly the others come in! (She looks so upset in her picture! Poor thing!)

On a side note, Sam's sleeping is really all over the place. Last night wasn't quite as good as I would have liked.... She went down at 9:15, up at 11:30 for 45 minutes, down until 1:30 then up almost for real at 6am. I took her into bed with me and we slept for another 45-60 minutes, but certainly not good. But the night before she slept for 12 hours with only waking 3 times. But it's still 100% better than it used to be!

Why do I want to move?!? (caution: many expletives)

From a post on 11/9/05:
I HATE THIS FUCKING HOUSE!

Seriously, it sucks. Remember our septic tank issue? Or the two floods we've had? Probably didn't know this, but we HAD to redo the kitchen because the dishwasher broke before we started trying for kids.... I'll list 'em out later for your information and amusement....

What's the problem now? WE HAVE A DEAD FUCKING SKUNK IN THE WALL! And where is my husband? Same place he was when the septic tank broke - in FUCKING LOS ANGELES. And his way of saying goodbye? "I love you honey. Oh, that smell is making it from the basement to the first floor. Can you take care of it? Bye!" That was at 5am. I've been up since!!!!

Here are some of the things we've had to deal with since buying this house less than 5 years ago:

• Replace dryer
• Dishwasher dies. Call out repairman, can't fix it. Can't pull it out without tearing out the counter - they built this fucking 1972 (it was on the dishwasher!) machine into a 1991 built house. Idiots. We had ordered a new dishwasher - it was TOO DEEP for the counters. The counters were for a bathroom, not a kitchen. Whole kitchen needs redoing unless we want to fix a stupid 1972 dishwasher.
• Stuck in our house because of a blizzard for a week at 6 months pregnant
• Seal breaks on 4 windows in livingroom - total to fix? Well over $8000. Not gonna happen.
• Starts to smell in basement. Come to find out that the last people who pumped our septic tank only pumped the overflow, not the whole thing. Well, that filled up - and then it backed up into the crawl space. Chris left town and I had to deal with it, a newborn and no toilets for two days. $300 to fix (not as much as originally quoted) and another $2000 to clean up the raw sewage. Fun.
• Flood in basement. Covered by insurance, but still $10,000 worth of damage
• Mice everywhere. Call exterminator and got it fixed.
• Flood in Sam's room. Not too bad
• More mice - and something large. And my husband tosses poison in the crawlspace (the girls can NOT get in there) and voila! No more large thing crawling around. Now it's a fucking DEAD thing *I* have to deal with.

Okay, I think I actually feel better. Well, at least not as angry. Off too figure this crap out.

Taking portraits today!

Today is the second set of "professional" portraits I'm doing.... This is for a co-worker of Chris' and her hubby and son. I'm pretty excited, but still a little nervous. I've been reading a TON on natural light photography as well as posing people so we'll see how it turns out! Julie and Mark know that they are guinea pigs so hopefully they are patient and the photos turn out like I'd like!

Sam is sleeping better!

Well, we've had a few nights of Sam sleeping well. Hopefully this is a trend that continues! Even though it takes a few times of me going back in there before she stays down, once she does, she's down well lately. Like last night, she was up about 3 times before 10pm (she went down at 8). But then she only woke at 3:30 before she was up for the day at 6:30am! Yeah!

I need to copy all my old posts from my other blog over here - one of these days!!!

My new blog

How many others have started their new blogs with that title?! LOL!

You'll be seeing this blog get a LOT of posts pretty quickly. I'm planning on moving all my blogs from MSN to here. I think that'll make it easier to update and add since I am constantly having to log out and log back in for MSN. Bleh.

So what's this blog about? Well, it's probably boring to most - I'll be talking about my girls (6 & 28 months), my life, my husband and photography.... So great information for me and my family, but probably nothing exciting to anyone else!!!

We have a tooth!!!

I am actually GIDDY about Sam having a tooth! Which may seem odd for someone exclusively breastfeeding.... But Ellie was HELL (and still is) when she's teething.... Sam's tooth was a complete surprise! I LOVE THAT!!!!

Soooo.... Here's the sleeping update. I'm not going to post the actual schedule we had (it's so damn long), but here's a recap of her old one:

• 8-11pm - Put down up to 5 times before sleeping more than 45 minutes
• 11pm-8am - Up to nurse and calm back to sleep every 1-2 hours - generally 8 times a night
• 8am-8pm - Up to 5 naps, none lasting more than 45 minutes, most around 20

Result: Cranky baby most of the time - ESPECIALLY at night

NOW:

• 8pm - 12am - to bed. May get up once or twice before midnight to nurse, but goes RIGHT back to sleep
• 12-8am - Up twice, maybe three times to nurse and go right back to sleep. We might have one session that takes 40 minutes, but generally it's pretty fast.
• Daytime - 2 long (1-2.5 hour) naps with a possibility of a late afternoon 30 minute nap

Result - Happy baby except when she's tired!!!!

I've been following the No-cry Sleep Solution for now. We still have a ways to go as she will nurse to sleep almost every time... We'll work towards breaking that habit soon. We will still have some rough nights from time to time (and I'm sure I'll jinx myself and tonight will suck), but overall.... things are 100% better!

But now that she's sleeping well, Ellie is teething and she is not going to sleep easily at all. Ah, well! That's just the way it goes!